Under Heaven - Chapter 1 Preview (Patreon)

Right. Here's the first chapter. I'm kinda having fun with this. No idea if anyone likes it, and I'm almost 100% sure I need to change the title. But, it'll do for a working title. 

------

“Cultivation at its core is a rebellious action!”

The thin, mustached older teacher stared at the students seated cross-legged on the ground before him, waiting for their reaction. Not seeing the reaction he wanted, the teacher flung the long, trailing sleeves of the robes he wore with a harrumph and continued his lecture. Keeping his outward face entirely neutral, Long Wuying could not help but smirk within. Such a statement, no matter how contentious, lost its impact after daily repetition over the course of a decade.

“Cultivation demands one to defy the very heavens itself! Each step on the path to cultivation sets you on the road to rebellion, to def the heavens, to defy our King! It is only by his good graces and his belief in the betterment of the kingdom that you are allowed to cultivate!” 

Wuying struggled to keep his face neutral at the refrain continued. Usually, he could tune the teacher out till it came time to cultivate, but today he struggled to do so. Today, he could not help but rebut the teacher in his mind. Teaching the villagers how to cultivate was a purely practical decision on the king’s part. Most children would achieve at least the first level of Body Cleansing by the time of their twelth birthday. This would allow them to grow stronger and healthier, even on the little food that they had left after the state and the sects had taken their portion.

“It is under the beneficent auspices of the King that allows you to cultivate, study the martial arts and defend yourself. It is only because of his belief in that each village must be a strong member of the kingdom that we have grown to the heights that we have!”

It had nothing to do with the desire to begin training the villagers to be useful soldiers in the never-ending wars that raged through the country. Or to ensure that the village was not robbed of the grain they farmed each year. Or the fact that less than two hundred li[1] from here, the Verdant Green Waters Sect watched over them all.

“Now, begin!”

Exhaling a grateful breath that the Master Su had finally finished, Wuying tried to refocus his mind on cultivating. That he respected his teacher was without question, but Master Su was a stickler for the rules which required him to give this same lecture every single time. Even a Saint would find it hard to listen to after a while. And Wuying was many things, but a Saint he most definitely was not.

It did not help that the state was obviously in two minds about cultivation itself. The three pillars of a kingdom were the government, the populace and the cultivating sects. A weakness in any of the three would make a kingdom vulnerable. But for a kingdom to be stable, each pillar needed to be as strong, as upright and firm as all the others. If any single pillar grew too high, it would eventually lead to the collapse of the kingdom.

Because of this, a wise ruler would support the development of their populace through cultivation, the surest and best form of developing an individual. But a single cultivator who had achieved true power could – and had, historically – overturned governments. And so, the state would always view cultivators and cultivation with some degree of distrust.

“Wuying. Focus!” Master Su snapped.

Wuying grimaced slightly before he made his face placid again. Master Su was right. He could think about all these thoughts another time. This time was the time for cultivation. And, as always, the first step was to clear his mind. The second was to control his breathing, for breath was the source of all things. At least in the Yellow Emperor’s Cultivation Method that had been passed down and used by all peasants.

The first step on the road to cultivation was all the same in theory – that of Body Purification. To ascend, to gain greater strength and develop one’s chi, a cultivator would need to purify their body of the wastes that accumulated in a body. Starting the process young helped to reduce the amount of such waste that was built up in a body and speeded up the progress of the individual which was why every villager began cultivating as soon as possible. Those children who began – and were successful at – cultivating the youngest were often hailed as prodigies.

Wuying himself was not considered one. For all that he had started at the age of six like every other child, he had through the dint of hard work and discipline managed to achieved not just the first level of Body Cleansing but the second. Each of the twelve stages of Body Purification saw the conscious introduction of another major chi pathway through the cleansing process. When an individual had consciously introduced and controlled the flow of chi through all twelve major pathways, all the sages of Body Purification were considered complete.

So. Breathe in, breathe out. Focus on the breath, the flow of air into your lungs, the way it entered your body as your stomach expanded and your chest filled out. Then, exhale, feeling your stomach contract, the diapghram move upwards as air circulated away. In time, Wuying moved his focus away from breathing towards his dantian. Located below his belly button, in the space just slightly below his hip line and a few inches beneath the surface of his body, the lower dantian was the core of the Yellow Emperor’s Cultivation Method. It was from here, through the flow and consolidation of one’s internal chi that one would progress.

Once again, Wuying felt the mass of energy that was his dantian. As always, it was large in size but low in density, uncompacted and diffuse. His job was to gently nudge the flow of energy through his body’s meridians, to send it through a major circulation through his body. In the process, his body began sweating as the normally docile chi began to move through his meridians. In time, Wuying began to sweat as the process pushed out the impurities in his body. The rancid, bitter odour mixed with that pushed out by the rest of the class, a stench that even the open windows of the building could do little to disperse.

Inhale. Exhale.

Deep in the process of cultivating, none of the students noticed the rancid smell, leaving only Master Su to suffer as he watched over the teenagers. It was a smell that Master Su had long gotten used to, an offensive odour that he would be forced to endure for the next few hours as each of the classes progressed. It was a fair trade though, for Master Su received both ten tael[2] of silver and, most importantly, a Marrow Cleansing pill each month for his work.

Deep in their culvitation, none of the students moved even when a young man’s body nearby began to shake and convulse. It was Master Su who moved, flashing over to the boy with a tap of his foot. Paired fingers raised as Master Su studied the thrashing before they darted forwards, striking in rapid succession acunpuncture points along the boy’s body. After the third strike, the convulsing slowed down and then stopped before the boy tipped over, coughing out blood.

“Foolish. Pushing to open the second meridian channel when you have not finished cleansing the first!” Master Su berated the boy, shaking his head. “Get up. Begin cultivating properly. You will stay here an extra hour.”

“But…” The boy protested weakly but quietened at Master Su’s glare. 

“Foolish child!” Master Su growled as he stomped back to his station in front of the class. If he had not been there, the boy would likely have damaged himself permanently. Master Su watched as the boy wiped his mouth clear of the blood before he snorted. Luckily, he had been able to quell the chi flow but the boy would likely have to spend the next few weeks on light duty at his farm. A bad time for that, considering the summer planting was just around the corner. “Stupid.”

As the hour set aside for the teenagers to cultivate began to come to an end and the morning sun cast long shadows on the small village, the village bell began to ring. Master Su frowned slightly and then smoothed his face as the students began to break free from their cultivation one by one. It would never do for the students to see the concern on his face. 

“The sessions is over. Line up when you are done,” Master Su commanded before he walked out of the small, single room building that made up his school. He walked forwards slightly, turning his head from side to side before he spotted the growing dust cloud.

“Master Su,” Tan Cheng the village head came up to Master Su and greeted him. As one of two individuals who were in the sixth level of the Body Refining stage, the pair shared the burden of guarding the village from external threats. It also helped that Chief Tan was a lover of tea like Master Su.

“Chief Tan,” Master Su greeted. “What is it?”

“The army conscriptors,” Chief Tan said, his eyes grave. Master Su could not help but wince. This was the third time in as many years that the army had arrived at their village. Even now, the conscripts from the first year the army had arrived had yet to return. The war between their state of Han and the state of Wei had dragged on, bringing misery to everyone.

“Higher taxes then,” Master Su said absently, trying to keep his tone light. He wondered how many they would take this time and did not envy his friend. The first time the army came, they had filled the requirements of the village with volunteers. The second time they came, each household that had more than one son and had yet to send a volunteer had sent their sons. This time, there would be no easy choices.

“Most likely,” Chief Tan said, chewing on his lip slightly. As the rest of the villagers slowly streamed in from the surrounding fields, he looked around and then looked down, avoiding the expectant gazes of the parents. Whatever came next, few would be happy.

“What is it?” Qiu Ru asked. The raven haired beauty of the class prodded Wuying in the back as she tried to peer past the crowd of students who had gathered around the windows as the newcomers arrived. Giving up, she prodded Wuying once more in the back to get him to answer.

“The army,” Wuying finally answered Qiu Ru. He watched as her eyes widened, admiring the way it made them shine before he squashed his burgeoning feelings again. Qiu Ru had made it quite clear last summer festival that she had no interest in him. Now, Wuying had his sights set on Gao Yan. Even if Gao Yan was shorter, plumper and had a bad tendency to forget to brush her teeth.

“Are they bringing back the volunteers?” Qiu Ru said.

“No. They’re too early for that,” Cheng Hui said. Wuying glanced over at his friend who had hung back with the rest of them. Not that Cheng Hui needed to be up ahead to see what was happening as he towered over the entire group by a head. All but Wuying who only lost to him by a handsbreadth. “If the army was returning our people, it would be before the winter. That way the Lord would not need to feed them.”

Wuying grimaced and shot a look around the room, relaxing slightly when he saw that Wen Long had not come to class today. As the son of the Lord, Wen Xue did not need to come to their mundane classes, but the boy seemed to take pleasure in showcasing his ability over the peasants. As the son of the local Lord, he had access to a private cultivation tutor, spiritual herbs and good food – all of which had allowed him to progress to Body Purifying four already.

If Wen Xue had heard Cheng Hui, Wuying shuddered at the thought mentally. Still, it was not as if Cheng Hui was wrong. It just made sense to make the villagers feed the returned sons rather than pay for their use over winter if the war was over.

“Are they here for us then?” Wuying mused out loud. It would make sense if it was. After breathing the words out loud, he noticed how the rest of the classroom had stiffened. Before he could say anything to comfort them, Master Su raised his voice, calling them out of the building.

Once they had lined up, Wuying could easily see the army personnel that had arrived. They could be broken into three distinct groups, one were the conscripts from the other villages. As it was still early in the morning, the army had only managed to visit one other village thus far and thus, there were only twenty such conscripts standing there. The second group were the army personnel, two which were speaking with Chief Tan and the other watched over the conscripts. Lastly, Wen Xue sat astride a horse, beside the conscripts but not part of them.

Wuying had to admit, the members of the army looked very dashing in their padded undercoats, lamellar armor and open-faced helms. But having watched two other groups leave and not return, with only rumors of the losses trickling back via the very same recruiters and the itinerant merchant, much of the prestige and glory of oining the army had faded.

“Men, Lord Wen has sent him men to see us once again. We are required to send twenty strong conscripts to join the King’s army this year,” Chief Tan announced. Before the crowd could grasp the significant of the number, Chief Tan announced. “All sons from families who have not sent a child to the front, step forward.”

Wuying immediately stepped forward. As the only surviving son of his family, he had been safe from the conscripts beforehand. Along with Wuying, another six men stepped forward.

“All sons from families with more than one son in the village, step forward,” Chief Tan next announced. This time, there was some confusion, but it was soon sorted out with some students pushed forwards and others, drawn back. By now, Wuying counted, there were seventeen ‘volunteers’. “All sons…”

“Why not daughters?” Qiu Ru called out. Wuying could not help but grimace at her impertinent words. As the local beauty, Qiu Ru had managed to get away with a lot more impertinent comments than others. Though, interrupting the Chief while he was speaking was a new high.

“The army is looking for men!” Chief Tan hissed at her. “Qiu Jan! See to your daughter!”

“This is foolish…!” Qiu Ru began. When Chief Tan began tos peak he was silenced by a raised hand of the Lieutenant whose gaze raked over Qiu Ru.

“You are quite the beauty. But our men do not need wives,” the hiss from the crowd was loud even as Qiu Ru flushed bright red at the insult. “We are here to find soldiers. And you are, what? Body Refining 1? Women are no use to us as soldiers until at least Body Refining 4!”

Still flushed, Qiu Ru moved to speak but her mother had managed to make her way over to the impertinent girl and gripped her arm. With a yank of her hand, the mother pulled Qiu Ru back, removing the obstacle. For a time, the Lieutenant looked over the group, seeing that no one else was liable to interrupt before he looked at Chief Tan.

“Tan Fu, Qiu Lee, Long Mao. Join the others,” Chief Tan said softly, his rote commands disrupted. Everyone knew why he had chosen the three of course, their families had been gifted with multiple sons. Even now, their parents would have a single son left, help to work the farm, turn the earth. A good thing. Better than the families that were left without any. If you didn’t consider the fact that now, three of their sons were fighting a war that none of them ever wanted.

“Good,” the Lieutenant said as he let his gaze slide over the new conscripts. Wuying looked to the side as well, offering Cheng Hao a tight smile as he saw his big friend look sallow and scared. “Conscripts, return to your home and collect your belongings. You will not be back for many months. Bring what you need. We will march in fifteen minutes. Gather at first bell.”

The students stared at one another, looking at the few members of the class that were left and then at the other children. Wuying sighed and clapped Cheng Hao on the shoulder, giving the giant a slight shove to send him towards his family before he started walking. As if the motion was a signal, the group broke apart, the teenagers face fixed as they moved to say their final goodbyes.

[1] Half a kilometer or roughly a third of a mile

[2] A weight type. Roughly 37.5 grams