The guards glanced at me, clutching their spears with a wariness, if not any indication of training. I couldn’t help comparing them to the heavily armored and adorned guards from Shadowlight City. Those authority figures had locked me up more times than I could count and beaten me more times than I’d had hot meals.
A little memory wobbled loose in the mess of my mind. Face down in a puddle of thawing slush as a guard placed the butt of his spear between my shoulder blades and leaned.
The heavily armored woman had told me I was lucky she used the blunt end of her weapon, and that she’d get far more creative if I entered the Gossamer District ever again. I never found out how creative she could have gotten. For all my bravado, there had been a very real root of fear growing through my brain — I couldn’t afford for there not to be.
That sour, mud-tasting memory was thankfully disrupted by another guard walking over from the wooden guardhouse. This new guard was the grizzled-looking fellow who helped us in through the gates. Judging from the way he carried himself and the way the younger guards straightened as he went past, he was the man in charge.
“Um,” he said before he bowed. “Greeting, honored cultivator.”
I grimaced and turned around. I was ready to bow and sneak away, but there was nobody there.
My heartbeat rose.
Had the cultivator that the guard spotted moved behind me while I turned? This must be the person Luo Hong kept seeing! They tracked me from the facility. They followed me through the woods! They wanted to return me to my cell!
I was done for!
I needed to draw on my blood and fight my way out of —
“Idiot, the guard is talking to you,” Cabbagy whispered. “Play along. Just like at the farm.”
My eyes widened slightly at Cabbagy’s words. I’d let my old paranoia of guards get the better of me.
To play it cool, I straightened and gave the guard captain my best, most disarming smile. It worked because he stepped back and almost dropped his spear.
“Hello,” I said. “What can I — a cultivator, like you said — do to persuade you to let me out?”
“Oh,” the grizzled guard captain said as he shifted nervously, not looking at my smile. “You’re leaving already?”
“Should I stay?”
“Well, uh… I was wondering if you could help us clear away the spirit beasts?”
I scratched the side of my head.
“The monkeys?”
“Yes.”
I glanced down at Cabbagy. Was I going to do that? I had no plans to do that…
“Right now, I plan to continue to the Great Northern Mountain.”
The guard stiffened at my words.
“Um…”
“Yes, I have to go and collect a rare flower for a young lady by way of apology. Maybe after I do that, I can help with the monkeys? I want to leave and make my way to the East Wind Grasslands, or Shadowlight City, or… well, there’s a long list of places.”
The guard frowned.
“Shadowlight City?”
“Yes.”
He stared at me for a moment before he quickly bowed.
“I’m sorry, honored cultivator. I haven’t heard of Shadowlight City, but I’ve spent my whole life in Falling Hen Village.”
I shrugged.
“That’s alright with me.”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“Alright, I’ll keep going north, then,” I said.
“Um…”
“Yes?”
“Well…”
“You should shake this man until he speaks straight,” Cabbagy suggested. “I’m sure the whole village will thank us!”
It wasn’t a bad suggestion.
“Is something the matter?” I asked. “I’m quite eager to get on with my plan.”
“To reach the Great Northern Mountain, you need to use Sleeping Ruin Pass, but first you must pass through the Howling Spirit Monkey territory. It’s usually not so bad, but since a couple of nights ago, the spirit beasts have been attacking everything in sight. There are even rumors that their leader, Ghost Fang the Demon Ape, is active. Everyone is holed up here while we wait for reinforcements from Violet Hills City.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Oh,” I said. “That complicates things.”
I fought off the weaker monkeys, but that one in the barn had seemed more dangerous. Was that their leader?
“Is Ghost Fang about seven feet tall with a red face and only one yellow eye?”
“Idiot!” Cabbagy said. “The guard doesn’t know you stabbed that monkey in the eye.”
“Right,” I said. “Two eyes.”
The guard blinked at me.
“Ghost Fang has two eyes, last I heard…” he said. “But he stands at 17 feet tall with fangs as long as a child’s arm. It’s rumored he can use qi, but nobody has survived his technique.”
“Oh.”
“I’m terribly sorry,” the guard said with another bow.
“It’s not your fault. I suppose I have to go onto plan B.”
“Plan B?” the guard asked.
“Yes. What’s the other way to get to the mountain from here?”
“There… there is no other way.”
“Oh, come on! There’s always another way.”
“No, there really isn’t.”
“Not with that attitude.”
The guard leaned back from my smile. He seemed to think about it before he slowly ventured an answer.
“Um, I suppose you could travel back out of the Twisted Pine Valley toward the East and circle the mountains and make your way to the Great Northern Mountain that way?”
“Great! I knew we could come up with something together. How long do you think that would take?”
“I wouldn’t dare guess at the speed of the honored cultivator, but for a mortal it would be a journey of at least a month.”
Huh.
“Huh.”
“I’m sorry,” the guard said with another bow as though he personally controlled the distance.
I ignored his bow and scratched my head as I tried to think.
“I guess… Plan C.”
The guard met my eyes wearily.
“Plan C?”
“Yeah, I’ll help you kill all these damned monkeys.”
The guard’s face lit up like it was the new year, and I was his favorite grandparent.
“That’s wonderful news! Come with me, I’ll take you to the others who have agreed to aid our town. With any luck, we’ll have the problem cleared out before the envoy from Violet Hills City even arrives! That’ll show those damned city bastards just what us country folks are capable of!”
“Oh,” I said, for something to say.
The guard’s face paled.
“Not that I’m including you as one of us country folks, honored cultivator.”
“Of course,” I said, not quite sure if I counted or not. Maybe I was one-third country folk? “Lead the way.”
The guard hurried on through the busy street, and I followed behind.
###
The atmosphere of Falling Hen Village was smoky and tense. The streets were packed as though for a festival, but most people looked worried. Some had the shocked expressions and injuries one would expect after a spirit beast attack. I was glad I’d managed to save Luo Heng and her family, but how many others were in the pines?
“What do you think, Cabbagy?” I asked.
“Plan C is a good plan,” he said.
“Yes, but what about the other cultivators?”
“Hmmm… yes.”
“They could be looking for me.”
“Doubtful, kid, there are too many cultivators for them all to be looking for you.”
“That’s a good point. I’m mostly worried about the sect.”
“Right, yes. You should be.”
“Don’t say that! If they catch me, I could end up… somewhere terrible.”
“I see your concern.”
“And?”
“Don’t get caught?”
I stopped walking and lifted the cabbage to eye level. He was looking increasingly disheveled from our travels.
“Cabbagy, are you wise or are you a fool? Because I need to know if I’m going to keep listening to you.”
The townsfolk around me were also very curious about his answer.
“Well…” Cabbagy hedged. “Even a foolish cock crows twice a day.”
I frowned.
“A cock only crows once a day,” I said.
“Yeah, in the morning,” said a villager beside me.
“Dawn, I reckon,” added the villager’s wife. “At least, that’s been my experience.”
“Thank you for your input,” I said sincerely.
They nodded at me and kept walking. The grizzled guard gestured for me to follow, and I did.
“This discussion isn’t over, Cabbagy.”
“Whatever you say, kid.”
Squinting at Cabbagy, but getting no other response, I continued after the guard who eventually led me to a large thatched inn. It was made in a much rougher fashion than the restaurant by the river, but the long tables inside were filled with people drinking themselves into ignorance.
Fear can do that to people, I’m sure.
I almost felt like joining them when I saw the people the grizzled guard captain wanted me to meet. They sat alone despite how the other customers crammed into tables. Their silver and grey uniforms almost glowed brighter than the lanterns. One with long silver hair, and one with long dark hair, like the moon and the night sky come down in human form.
Cultivators of the Shining Mountain Sect.
I turned to leave, but the guard was behind me and already ushering me inside.
Fuck.
###
The grubby inn was a dark and oppressive space that cradled the two female cultivators from the Shining Mountain Sect like a child’s hands cupping fireflies.
Qian Ling sat on a silken pillow conjured from her storage ring. It placed only minimal separation between herself and the rough wooden bench, but it was enough. Her veil hid her face like clouds across the full moon. There was still enough glorious light leaking through that the men in the hovel of an inn kept sneaking glances at her majesty, but so far none dared to fully look at her or — bless the heavens! — attempt to speak with her.
Mu Min sat in a similar position on the other side of the table. They both sipped at a sharp green tea that the region was known for, and ignored the smells of body odor, mud, spilled rice wine, and fear.
Truly, this was a den of mortal iniquity, but such things must be suffered in the pursuit of truth, power, and honor.
Qian Ling held the warm cup in her hand and sipped the tea as the inn’s door opened once more behind her. She didn’t look back over her shoulder. Such an action would be unbecoming. Instead, Qian Ling raised an eyebrow at Mu Min, who faced the door.
When Mu Min gave the tiniest nod, Qian Ling’s breathing hitched the slightest amount.
The exchange was no more than a whisper on a whisper, but it set both their heart rates and cultivation on edge.
The man they hunted was here!
Qian Ling’s spiritual sense bubbled up and washed out over the confines of the inn. She felt Mu Min supporting her like interlocked fingers. Some of the more sensitive mortals — those with the potential, or even the progress of the first stages of Body Tempering — flinched as she brushed over them in her quest for knowledge.
Her spiritual sense hit the pine lumber walls and passed beyond. While her range was good for being in the heights of Qi Condensation, pushing through physical objects always reduced the sensitivity of her perception. Though she felt the mortals with their weak, flickering qi, and the rodents, birds, and insects that lived in the roofs and alleys, and the seedlings growing wherever water collected… she felt no cultivator besides her and Mu Min.
Had Mu Min been mistaken?
Qian Ling raised her eyebrow in an even more elaborate display of curiosity. Her trusted friend set her teacup down on the scarred pine table. Curls of steam flowed up between them as Mu Min leaned forward ever so slightly.
“He is here,” she said.
Qian Ling scoffed — should she just start ignoring her spirit sense? — but decided to indulge her friend. With a smile, she turned around...
And nearly fell out of her seat.
20 chapters ahead on my
