The Fourth Stage - Chapter 19 preview (Patreon)

Wu Ying smirked, inside. If it was not considered impolite to the maximum, he would have sent a gift to that impertinent boy. His presence had made making an example easy and quick, well before the rest of the children were in any danger from the rest of the trials.

And danger there was going to be.

As it was, Wu Ying made sure to deposit the boy with only a modicum of roughness, just enough that the boy knew he could have been slammed into the ground or dropped from a much higher level before he had turned back to the group before him and given them their new instructions.

Even without allowing his spiritual sense to play out entirely, he noted a half-dozen individuals who were unable to properly contain their auras at all. Most of them were Body Cleansing cultivators, the curriculum only barely covering auras at that stage. If anything, Wu Ying was impressed that so many of the weakest members were able to do so well.

“Understand that we will be containing our auras for the entirety of this test which will take most of the day. If you feel you are unable to do so, there is no shame in bowing out now. A new test will be undertaken next year,” Wu Ying said, amiably.

He was choosing to be kinder this time, unlike earlier. If one only wielded the cane, the student could only learn to fear. A sweet bun and a cane together was much more effective.

A few questioning looks and most of the Body Cleansing cultivators who struggled chose to offer low bows to him, scurrying off. Surprisingly, a couple of those who had managed to suppress their aura down to mortal level chose to leave to including a single Energy Storage cultivator.

Wu Ying made note of those individuals for the future.

“Very well. To the second portion of this test then…” Wu Ying spoke out loud purposely to let the smart brace themselves. Then, he flicked his aura outwards, bearing down gently on the group. He watched the cultivators flinch, some of them paling, two collapsing to the ground as the aura swept over them. No surprise that Xia Hui or any of the three girls – or the pair of other Energy Storage cultivators – bore up well under the onslaught.

“Those of you who failed to contain your aura, you may go. Practise your aura control.” Amusedly, Wu Ying pointed to one of the fainted Body Cleansers who had somehow managed to keep his aura contained, even as he slipped into unconsciousness. “Wake him up. We have the rest of this test to get to.”

No one moved to do so, the group looking at one another as the failures streamed out. Eventually, it was Ma Jie who bent over the boy and slapped him not too gently awake, pulling him upwards. Wu Ying had retracted his aura again by this time, allowing the boy to recover smoothly.

The problem with having the ability to overhear a lot of conversations was that one could hear all the conversations. Including the one the boy was having with Ma Jie as she dragged him after Wu Ying as he strolled away.

“I fainted? But why am I not dismissed?” the fainter said.

“I don’t know. You ask the Elder,” Ma Jie said.

Ya Zhu spoke up then, the pair of friends having followed Ma Jie over. “You didn’t release your aura. But keeping it inside your skin and tied down… It is tied down, right?”

“How do you know that?” the fainter muttered.

“It’s obvious,” Ya Zhu said, scornfully. “It’s foolish. Your aura protects you. You need it at least at skin level. All the way into your dantian means you’re literally weaker than a mortal.”

“Oooh…” Zhe Lan said. “Does that mean he’ll get eaten first?”

“Yes,” Ya Zhu confirmed.

Ma Jie grinned, throwing an arm around the boy. “Just stick with us. Not too close though, eh?”

Shrugging  her arm off, he growled. “I’m not your bait!”

“Sure, sure…”

“What are we doing anyway?” he said.

“The Elder has not explained.”

Nor was he. Wu Ying just kept walking, one portion of his mind focused on the cultivators behind him as he led them past the entrance of the mountain to a nearby pass. Not towards his village though, but the other way around. That pass would lead to a small valley and then to other mountains in the range, before they broke through.

Of course, getting there would take most of the day if they kept moving at this speed. He had no intention of spending the entire day running the test, but as he assumed, within the first thirty minutes of the casual stroll through the forest he had to dismiss another five cultivators who failed to control their auras properly.

Movement, even casual movement, and aura control was a tricky subject after all.

Once he was sure that the majority had a handle on matters and none were going to be fail any longer, Wu Ying allowed a touch of his chi to pass through him. It lightened his body and broadened his footsteps, allowing him to cross more ground with each step. He increased the speed gradually, knowing that if he went all out, the entire group would be left behind all too soon.

“Hurry up, will you at the front?” Xia Hui growled, prodding the person in front of him within a dozen heartbeats.

“Why, Senior Khang?” the speaker, another Gatherer asked.

Exasperated, Xia Hui stepped around the boy off the path and triggered his own qinggong technique. He sped after Wu Ying whose subtle increase in speed had broadened the distance between him and the other cultivators by half a li already.

Surprised cries echoed among the aspirants and they took off, all of them triggering their own qinggong methods if they had some. The vast majority of those used the Wind Steps, though Xia Hui was using an earth bounding, space twisting dao rather than the sect’s Wind Steps. Unfortunately, for the Body Cleansing cultivators who had neither the ability nor access to those qinggong techniques, they were forced to rely on their physical strength to make up the distance.

“It’s a good thing I am not testing you all on your stealthiness. Yet.” Wu Ying said, idly, allowing his voice to carry to the lumbering herd of cultivators behind him. The stamp of cloth shoes on bare earth, the crack of leaves and branches and the rustle of clothing echoed all around.

The smart had dressed appropriately for a day wandering through the wilds. Many of the younger sect members were in peasant clothing, or at least work clothes with shorter and less voluminous sleeves. A couple of those dressed in such robes were obviously dressing to impress – their robes unstained, entirely clean, the edges newly sewn in.

For the first half hour, no one dropped out. Wu Ying did not even need to dismiss anyone. But as the initial surge of energy faded, as cultivators were forced to split their focus between traversing the landscape around them and containing their aura, their control slipped.

One by one, Wu Ying dismissed those who failed. He did not require perfection, but if they could not handle even the first hour of such extreme training, he had no use for them.

By the time that first hour was over, they had traversed a decent amount of space from the city, passed by the protective and warding formations that kept demonic beasts away from the city and its surroundings and were, finally, ready for the second test.

Hopefully, no one died.

***

“Is he intending to run us to the ground?” Zhe Lan growled, her eyes flicking over to the boy – Rou Gang – they had picked up. His breathing was coming in deep and clear, measured. Whatever else the boy was, he was extremely athletic at least.

“I doubt it,” Ma Jie said, her eyes narrowed in concentration. She struggled the most with aura control among the trio for she had never felt the need to train that.

Then again, Zhe Lan could not say that she had trained her aura control to this degree. Down to Body Cleansing certainly. Even to mortal occasionally. But for so long, whilst moving? Never.

Glancing over to the side, she noticed Ya Zhu scanning the surroundings with interest. Guiltily, Zhe Lan realised she had stopped doing so a while ago, ignoring the world around for her internal grousing. Forcing herself to watch the surroundings, feeling half-blind without her spiritual sense, she tried to pay attention to the woods around.

It was hard to see much, the quartet moving near the middle of the pack. Those behind were a noisy group, some joking, most just loping along in silence; but their footsteps and the rustle of clothing made a ruckus anyway. In the front, Xia Hui led the group, his eyes focused on the Elder who looked no more concerned than he might have been strolling through the sect itself.

“He really is right, we’re noisier than a sounder of boars.” Zhe Lan complained.

“Hush. There’s something-” Ya Zhu never finished her sentence, for the explosion of foliage just ahead and to the left of them interrupted her.

Zhe Lan reacted without thought, forming a fist of energy and thrusting her hand outwards. She was too slow, the dark furred creature that had emerged from the undergrowth already passing through the space she had thrown her attack, its jaw clamped around…

“Ma Jie!” She cried out, only to shudder in relief as she realised her friend had her armoured forearm raised, the black hunting cat’s mouth clamped around the earthen vambrace. “Damn demonic beast. Help us!”

Zhe Lan’s pleas fell on death ears, even as she jumped closer in an attempt to strike the puma. She dared not release another energy strike, for the first one had also resulted in her aura jumping upwards. Not all the way, but it had reached Body Cleansing.

Perhaps she had already failed because of that, but she refused to give up just now. Instead, she clamped back down on her aura and struck at the creature with her fist, leaving the elemental energy to burrow within as she struck. Once pass the barrier of aura and skin, it assailed the monster’s innars, striking at blood and water within flesh itself to cause spasms and tear open blood vessels.

In the meantime, Ma Jie was smashing the tip of  her elbow into the monster’s head, crushing one orb. However, the demonic creature refused to let go, it’s forelegs attempting to claw the cultivator to death and forcing her to reposition each moment.

As for her other friends or the boy… Zhe Lan had no idea. They should be helping.

Risking a glance away as Ma Jie shifted and the beast rotated on the ground, she realised that they were not the only ones assailed by demonic beasts. Ya Zhu and Rou Gang were helping another cultivator pull a berserk golden monkey off his torso, it’s fiery clawed hands dug deep into the back.

Further up, Xia Hui was soloing a demonic boar, striking with wide sweeps of his dao to tear open broad wounds. A pair of birds – twinned creatures of fire and water – swept down on the other front half of the group, forcing the spear and sword wielders there to strike at them whenever they grew close.

The only person untouched was the Elder who stood, hands behind his back, watching the chaos.

Before she could look backwards, the cat shifted again back within range and she dove back into the fight. Whatever was happening, she could deal with it later. Right now, she had to save her friend.

***

Chaos. Glorious chaos.

Another man might be tempted to cackle. Wu Ying allowed himself a small smile.

Guiding the various demonic beasts over to the group had taken careful prodding with his aura. It would not have worked at all with creatures over the Energy Storage level, and certainly not against any that were halfway sentient. It was why the group attacking the cultivators were all demonic spirits, their greater reasoning abilities twisted by the rampant and injurious chi within them.

He had to admit, he felt a little guilty about setting the creatures – in such large numbers – on the cultivators. On the other hand, he had not hidden their presence or their arrival. If the cultivators had not noticed their presence, it was their fault. After all, a few of the more skilled cultivators had noticed the incoming problem like Xia Hui.

That they had not told their fellow cultivators was not his fault.

A good lesson to keep watch always and not to trust anyone.

Of course, he was not entirely psychotic. His aura and winds blanketed the entirety of the battle, allowing him to pay attention to the battle and intervene if necessary. To the sect’s credit however, the cultivators managed to shake off the initial surprise attack and reverse battle fortunes within moments, leaving the Body Cleansing leveled demonic beasts slain.

All with few major injuries.

Wu Ying let his gaze skip over the group, noting the trio of women working in concert to take care of their own wounds. Xia Hui already bending over the corpse, extracting the spirit stone from his victim, other cultivators tasked with watching for additional dangers. In the distance, near the back, one cultivator was nursing a broken leg and another, near the trio was dealing with torn muscles in his back.

“The wilds are a place of great danger, especially for those unable to control their auras.” Wu Ying noticed more than a few of the cultivators stiffen, their lapse of aura control during the battle recalled. “An aura entirely unleashed can draw even further trouble. Those who cannot exhibit even a modicum of control have no place in the training that will be undertaken.”

Releasing his hands from behind, Wu Ying proceeded to point to a number of the cultivators, picking those who had released or spiked their auras too greatly. He then shifted his gaze to the injured, continuing. “I will not require the injured to return, but since so many are being dismissed, this is the time to give up. It will only grow more dangerous from here on.”

Not that he intended to stage another attack. But they were going into the wilds – even if it was a relatively tame series of forests – and the unexpected was not to be dismissed.

At the same time, Wu Ying kept an eye on a three of Energy Storage cultivators, the last few that rounded up the higher stage cultivators in the group. Unlike Xia Hui or the trio of friends, these three had kept their discussions and feelings about his presence to themselves. The only reason he knew to pick them out was because one by one, each of them and Hu An had been summoned into Elder Kim’s residence over the course of the last day.

Not that it had been hard for Wu Ying to ascertain who they were. Private students each of them, trained in the skills needed to become wandering gatherers by the Elder. Not that he had been particularly well versed in it, but certainly  more than Ru Ping. After all, a small sect like Elder Kim’s previous one had to make a lot of concessions to where and how it gained the herbs it needed.

Even if they had access to a World Spirit Ring.

“Thank you, Elder Long for the opportunity. I will endeavour to be worthy next year.” One of the Body Cleansers spoke up, bowing low. He was uninjured but he made sure to move over to the individual with a broken leg, bending down to help the other stand with the aid of his friend who’d already splinted the broken leg.

As though the cultivator’s words were the dam, more cultivators bowed and stepped aside. As suddenly as it began, there were only eight cultivators left. The trio of women, though Ma Jie looked deeply unhappy even as the cuts along her stomach were bandaged, Xia Hui, the three Energy Storage cultivators from before and Rou Gang, the only Body Cleansing cultivator left willing to endure what Wu Ying was putting them through.

A part of him scoffed at how weak they were. This was no more dangerous than what he had been forced to face. A more fair portion of his mind noted they probably expected even greater danger. Nor had his own training been the easiest with Elder Li.

But he had done it as a Body Cleansing cultivator. Started with her relatively early on, gone on an expedition, nearly died. Then left, to fight in a war. Surely these children could do a walk. But then again… they were children. Had been children, literally, during the last war.

So perhaps the fact that they were not rushing to put their lives in danger was a good thing. If a break of a year to train their skills, their abilities increased their chances, it was not a bad thing. And really, he had spent a large portion of the time in the early years trainignw ith Elder Li learning the basics of the gathering profession.

Wu Ying continued to muse about the differences as he led the team on. This was the second test, the one for courage. Next up, was the most boring.

Knowledge.