I was sitting in my driver’s seat with my hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. The blood was pumping in my ears so loudly I didn’t realize I was screaming at the top of my lungs. What else was I supposed to do, though? My body was being shoved from side to side in my driver’s seat as the semi I was driving, the new semi I had just bought, was about to go into the icy river below the bridge I had been trying to cross.

  “Maikeru! Maikeru!”

  My eyes shot open, and I was still yelling at the top of my lungs. Only, I wasn’t in the cab of my truck. I was in a warm comfortable bed surrounded by the people I’ve come to know and trust during my time in this world.

  Hisai had me by the shoulders and had finally stopped shaking me since I had woken up and stopped yelling. Standing in the doorway was Niku, her eyebrows high on her forehead in shock and fright. Behind her was Moritoshi, whom I had seen roll his eyes.

  “He’s fine. I’m going back to bed,” he mumbled and walked off with a sigh.

  Niku walked towards the bed and held out a hand towards me. She rested it on my shoulder and looked me over. “Are you all right?”

  I gave her a sheepish grin and wiped away the sweat from my forehead before I gave her a soft nod. “I’m fine. It was just a bad dream.”

  Hisai nodded his head when he heard me. “This town has a presence looming over it. It wasn’t good what happened to it. It’s having an effect on you.”

  I looked back at him, helpless. I knew he was right. The man was usually right about things, and there was whatever happened here. Whatever disaster it was. We were still trying to figure it out. Me and Hisai had only been here for a couple of days. I had opted to come with him after we realized what was in the crates I was supposed to deliver.

  Though, with everything the way it turned out, apparently I wasn’t even supposed to deliver them. I was set up to get hijacked by the rebels and left for dead. Hisai and his crew foiled that plan, and they also helped me bury the crates in the woods at the base of the mountain next to this village.

  “Of course he’s fine,” Hisai said and looked up at Niku and gave her a reassuring smile.

  I felt her squeeze my shoulder, and I smiled up at her and nodded. “I’m good.”

  She hesitated for a minute, and when I reached and squeezed her hand, she held on to my shoulder. She smiled. “Alright then, I’m going back to sleep.”

  “Good, yes. Go back to sleep. I’m sorry I woke you up,” I said.

  Hisai had let go of me at some point, and I was sitting up with the nightshirt sticking to my sweaty body. She didn’t seem to mind, and she even leaned down and kissed my forehead softly. I closed my eyes and savored the feeling of her lips on my clammy skin.

  “Don’t be silly. You’re fine. This place isn’t good,” she said before she gave a yawn.

  I gave another squeeze to her hand, and she smiled at me before she turned and left my room. I watched her go with a stupid grin and didn’t turn away until she was gone. She had been sharing a bedroom in the next room over, and since she was the only female in the house, she got the room to herself. When I turned back to Hisai, he was just giving me a smug grin.

  “What?!”

  He laughed and shook his head. “Nothing, nothing. Come on, let’s go for a walk. You could use some of the cool night air, I think. We’ll go cultivate and calm your mind. I know the perfect spot.”

  I looked out of the window by my bed and saw the full moon in the sky. I figured the sect elder was joking, so I just gave a small laugh and fixed my bed so I could lay back down.

  He frowned at me. “Come on.”

  “Oh, you’re serious.”

  “Maikeru, I’m always serious,” he put a hand to his chest in mock offense.

  I nodded my head and put up a hand while I smirked. “Alright, alright. Sorry. Sure, let’s go.”

  It only took me a few minutes to get out of bed and throw my robes on. I toweled myself dry after I got out of the sleepwear I was wearing and into the dark robes that were my own. The robes they used in this world always reminded me of something a Jedi would wear, and mine looked more Sith-like.

  The inner robes were black while the outer was a deep gray, and they all hung loosely on my still dad bod like frame. They were immensely comfortable though, and my benefactor from when I first came here spared no expense. These robes didn’t really even need to be cleaned that often, and they were extra strong. Apparently, the cloth that was used to make them had spiritual properties, and I had learned much later how expensive they really were.

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  I stepped softly through the house we were staying in and met Hisai just outside. Apparently it was one of the old village elder’s houses and was quite nice. There was even a small raised-bed garden on the top floor of the building. I guess one of the people who lived here was an alchemist, so Niku and her master had taken a special interest in it and tried to salvage some of the plants that were left.

  We walked quietly through the village and to the opposite side, away from the mountains the elders’ homes were built into. The village was mostly intact. None of the buildings were destroyed or damaged from what I had seen since I had been here. The only thing that was really wrong with Noya Village was that all the people were gone. The only clue left behind was weird puddles of sticky goo that was black as night and had sparkly bits in them.

  Hisai took me up a small hill on the other side of the village, where a lone cherry blossom tree sat. I sat in the lotus position next to Hisai under the tree. The small hill overlooked the ocean, and I looked down at the water and took in the sight, glad the moon was full and bright so I could see everything. I breathed the sweet, salty ocean air in deep and smiled before I closed my eyes.

  “Good lad, now focus on the world around you. The night is peaceful, and while neither of us has particularly strong moon-related elements. It’s nice to cultivate while the world is calm,” Hisai said, and then directed me to cultivate.

  I was instructed to keep my eyes closed and do the breathing that Hisai had taught me before. While I did my breathing, I stretched out my spirit and pulled the world’s aura towards me. I didn’t have an element, so I wasn’t worried about what sort of aura there was.

  “You know…” Hisai said, interrupting my thoughts.

  “Hm…?” I asked with my eyes closed, trying to focus on the world and aura around me.

  “You need an element. It would help you defend yourself from the sort of spiritual attacks the remnants of what happened in this village do,” he said confidently.

  I opened one eye and looked towards the young, confident man who forwent the usual topknot the people here wore. Hisai wore his hair down and loose, and he smiled at me with his clear brown eyes. There was an understanding in his eyes, a spark to him that drew me to the man. I still wasn’t sure exactly how old he was, but he appeared to be in his twenties. According to the rest of his sect, he was a young genius, so it was possible he was as old as he looked.

  I was just about to ask if he was sure and the young sect elder closed his eyes and gave me one solemn nod. “Yes, and I have a plan.”

  That made me open both eyes and even cock an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?”

  Once I was looking at him, I realized the man didn’t have his usual self assured cock sure smile. I frowned and looked him over. “What… what is it?”

  “Those guns? I believe that is what you called them. What did you do with them?” He asked me seriously.

  I sighed and looked towards the ground at my feet. “I buried them. I’m not sure what to do with them. So I just hid them.”

  He nodded his head and looked out towards the stars. “What do you know about them?”

  “Um, they’re bad. The muskets that were in the crates aren’t as bad as they could be, but…” I trailed off and shook my head.

  He nodded along.

  “Imagine you give one to a regular untrained soldier. No, just a farmworker you conscripted into the army and gave him one of those. He can be lethal in no time from a good distance away,” I explained and looked at the stars.

  “Even to cultivators?”

  I still felt his eyes on me, and I shrugged. “Probably? Maybe? With runes and if there’s something cultivators are especially weak to. I’d say yes, probably.”

  “Yes, there are ways to disrupt the spirit and stop us,” Hisai frowned, and I finally felt him stop staring at me to look up at the sky.

  “So, what do you think I should do?” I was hoping Hisai knew. The guy always seemed to know what to do and where to go. The man always had an answer.

  “I’m honestly not sure, my friend. I’d say take them to the emperor, but I’m not sure I trust his advisor Zhao Tseng,” he said and looked back at me.

  “Oh? He’s from uh..” I struggled to think of the name. “Isn’t it kind of silly name?”

  Hisai smirked and nodded his head. “It’s colloquially known as The Glorious Sect of the Empire, but its real name is the Azure Dragon Sect. To answer your question, and this just might be because I’m an elder from a technically rival sect, but I don’t trust him. I’ve heard murmurs of his dealing with those close to him, and in general he gives off a bad…” he thought a moment. “... vibe.”

  It was a serious moment, but to hear an elder of a sect that reminded me a lot of the Buddhists back home explain how he didn’t like someone because of the vibes was just funny. I grinned at him instead.

  “What?”

  “His vibe?”

  Hisai shrugged. “Yes, something about him is off to me, and I don’t know what. Taking at least one to the emperor might be the thing to do. Especially with all of the murmurs of rebellion I’ve been hearing about coming from the south.”

  “Yeah, what’s going on down there? I was in Lijiang, and it’s, well, it’s not nice.”

  Hisai nodded his head and sighed. “Oh, that’s a long story that I know all the finer details of. I do believe it’s just because our young emperor just takes whatever his advisors say at face value and does what they say.”

  I thought it over in my head and remembered the advisor’s name. “Wait, Zhao Tseng? Isn’t that a name from that region?”

  “Very good, yes. Which makes the whole thing even more perplexing. You’d think he’d advise putting as much money into the region as he could,” Hisai said and looked at me expectantly.

  “Which means he might want something to happen. He wants there to be war?”

  Hisai put his finger on his nose and winked at me.

  “Why in the world…”

  Hisai just shrugged. “I couldn’t begin to guess my unofficial pupil. What you do with the guns or muskets or whatever they are is up to you, I think. Whatever you think, you should do. Taking one wouldn’t be a bad idea to show him I don’t think. Whatever happens, The Cove Garden Retreat will endure.”

  I nodded. “Weren’t we supposed to be cultivating?”

  Hisai finally smiled once more. “You don’t have an element to cultivate. Come, let’s go to bed and get some rest. More things to figure out tomorrow.”

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