The Fourth Stage - Chapter 26 preview (Patreon)

“Progress.”

Wu Ying winced at the pronouncement like it was a death sentence. It wasn’t. It was even worst – it was a declaration of progress that would force him into that stone bath with the caustic herbs and liquids once again. It was a statement of on-going self-inflicted torture.

“Progress not perfection, Cultivator Long.” Physician Guo said, mistaking the wince and its intent. “The degree was within my expected parameters.”

“You had expectations? I thought this was an experiment,” Wu Ying said.

“Of course. One does not conduct such experiments without some idea of what might the results are,” Physician Guo said, incensed. “Did you expect me to conduct it with barely any idea? I am no hack.”

“Cultivator Long meant no such insult,” Liu Tsong spoke smoothly, breaking Physician Guo’s tirade before it started too far down the road. “He is still recovering and does not have his full senses.”

“Yes, exactly. What she said,” Wu Ying said. “But… how many more times?”

The physician fell silent, stroking his beard. He opened his mouth and then closed it, humming a little before he eventually answered. “That truly depends. While you have progressed quite fast, the expectation is that eventually such improvement will slow down. Compared to other injuries of the kind, it is possible that the final portion of healing might take years…”

“Years,” Wu Ying said, a thread of fear running through his voice.

“Yes, it’s as much to allow your body to recover and complete the healing process itself as it is a matter of clearing any corruption or broken portions.” A slight hesitation, then he added. “Like removing a bunion with a pumice stone, or waiting for scars to heal over before scouring it clean again. One cannot force the body to heal faster, and as you grow wiser and more intune with your element, I expect that further improvements will occur naturally during your regular baths.”

“So, not one of those baths every…” Wu Ying hesitated, realizing he had no idea how often they expected to utilize it. “How often are we doing this?”

“Mmmm… I’m uncertain,” Physician Gu said.

“It will depend on how fast you heal and improve, Wu Ying,” Liu Tsong explained. “Elder Guo has informed me what I need to watch for, and when you are finally healed to the appropriate level, we shall begin the process again.”

“But surely you have some idea,” Wu Ying said, eyeing the physician. He had just said himself that he did not conduct experiments without at least some idea.

“Mmm… every two months is suitable I believe. It might extend to three, if you heal slower than expected. Perhaps a little faster,” the physician shrugged. “It depends upon how fast you accumulate chi too, for use.” He poked a finger towards Wu Ying’s core. “Though your on-going cultivation method provides you a steady stream of chi, it is slow and your reserves are only adequate. Improve your soul cultivation and the core layers and it will improve both the effectiveness of the medicinal baths and the time between soakings.”

“Every two months for years, until I improve to a point where we have to slow down more?” Wu Ying said, slowly as he attempted to clarify the matter.

“Yes.”

Wu Ying winced. He – obviously – knew the cost of the herbs that had been used for the bath itself, but a brief conversation with Liu Tsong before this one had informed him of the cost of the pills she had used. Just in the creation of the Clear Mind and Soul Moon Pill had required the core of a Moon aspected Core Formation beast and two more, Yin-aspected creatures of the peak or Core Formation stage. Nevermind the spirit herbs that were required or the divine spring water that she had used to cool and form the pill.

And he would need a pill for at least the next few years, if he did not learn a method to control the pain.

Perhaps there was a cultivation technique for that?

He doubted it, but it was certainly worth looking into.

“Now, boy, I feel I need to emphasise to you – your body has suffered grievous injury. Your Core and chi levels are severely depleted. Your dao understanding might even be shaken, after the trauma that you have experienced.” Wu Ying found himself nodding along to each word. “As such, I expect you will not take part in any strenuous activity or usage of your body, until we inform you otherwise.

“Yes?”

Caught out, Wu ying was halfway nodding till the last, forceful, question.

“Wu Ying…” Liu Tsong muttered, softly and disappointedly.

“I am not planning anything!” he said, defensively. “I just… events happen, you know.”

“Well, try to make sure such events do not. Or step aside, hero of the masses and let another fool take action. While you are not actively hidden or withdrawn, you may consider yourself as being in closed door cultivation and recuperation.” Physician Gu waved a finger in front of Wu Ying’s face. “If you refuse to accept my very reasonable request, I shall stop aiding you in this matter entirely.”

“Why?” Wu Ying said, plaintively.

“Because I’m a physician, not a murderer. Working with you on this while you throw yourself into ever more desperate situations while injured is not something I will countenance.” The physician hesitated, then added. “Once you heal, if you choose to stop the treatments, I’m sure I – we – could work out another treatment option for you.”

Wu Ying blinked, surprised. That was definitely not what the man had said earlier.

“If so, you could continue your existence as you are. You might, with enlightenment and perhaps a reforging of your cultivation base, even improve your body outside the methods we conduct. At the worst, you could live the rest of your life with only minor inconvenience,” Physician Gu said. “There is no shame in stopping.”

The wind cultivator was shaking his head before the man finished. “No. I will continue.”

“Foolish.” Then the physician grinned. “I like fools, for they are the ones who might successfully challenge the heavens after all.”

“Thank you…?”

“Now, I will send further information along shortly. But for the next few days, rest. Send word to your students that you will not be conducting classes till a week later. Understood?”

When the old man had stomped out, Wu Ying turned to Liu Tsong who was regarding Wu Ying with a look of bemusement and frustration. She wiped away the frustration the moment she saw him looking, gesturing for him to offer his wrist to her once again. Both the physician and Liu Tsong had checked his pulse once before, but she did so once more, humming to herself as her earth chi swept through him to verify what she read from his pulse. While not a specialist like Elder Guo, Liu Tsong had obviously picked up the basics of physicking over the years.

“You’re doing as well as can be expected. Your heartbeat is still a little irregular, your kidney and liver chi blocked and struggling. Medicinal soups will be provided – drink them.” Wu Ying nodded. “And rest. If you are intent on this, you will need that rest more than you expect.”

A slight hesitation, then she added. “These will be trying years, Wu Ying. For one who travels so often, who goes where the wind blows, you must pin your feet to the ground. Or fail.”

“I get it,” Wu Ying said. “I’ll persevere.” He grinned then. “I always have.”

In answer, Liu Tsong snorted, dropping his hand and leaving. Even so, he noted that she did leave with a smile – sad and wry thought it might be.

Feeling exhaustion pulling at him, Wu Ying lay himself back down on the bed and closed his eyes to rest. Within moments, he was asleep once more, though the chi within his dantian continued to churn, drawing in energy to replenish him with each moment.

***

Xia Hui frowned as he arrived at the department field’s. Just because they had no classes today did not mean they had no work. If nothing else, the fields that they were tending required care and tending. The seeds and seedlings they had planted not so long ago required regular watering at the very least, never mind weeding of the newly tilled ground. In addition, there were some plants that they had just begun to sprout that needed to be transplanted now, along with additional ground that had to be cleared. And the formations – those were pitiful and makeshift and needed proper tending.

No wonder then that even if their teacher was currently resting, they were all here. However, for Xia Hui, the lack of his teacher’s presence was a blessing. Working under constant questioning, their aura’s retracted and his pressing upon them was a torture in of themselves. No wonder the fields themselves were badly cared for, simple mistakes like the wrong kinds of compost being used in the wrong locations being made by the experienced gardeners.

Still, it did little to explain why his classmates were standing in a group on the road blocking the entrance rather than working. Pushing his way through, Xia Hui came to a stop, frowning as he stared at an entirely unexpected sight.

“Hu An, what are you doing here?” Xia Hui said, walking forwards. The boy was not the only in their fields, another four who worked directly with Elder Kim along with him and two hanger-on’s. Xia Hui’s gaze skipped over the group, cataloging their presence before he eyed the fields.

“Do not worry, Ah Khang(12), we would not touch your work.” Hu An smirked. “From the looks of it, of course, you might not be able to tell. So you have my cultivator’s promise, that we damaged nothing.”

“You should not speak of what you do not know,” Gui Ting snapped, coming up beside Xia Hui. His hands were down by his side, clenched.

“Oooh, have you joined the peasants entirely then, Gui Ting?” Hu An said, then sniffed. “I had thought better of you. Our Master had thought better of you.”

Gui Ting growled, stepping forward only Xia Hui to drop a hand on his arm. A moment later, he had to stick his other hand in the way of Zhe Lan as she tried to get in front of him. The impetuous water aspected cultivator had materialized a scythe in her hand and was glaring at the group.

“Don’t. They are trying to antagonize you,” Xia Hui.

“Not trying. Succeeded.” Ma Jie from behind muttered, but she had dropped a hand on her friend and hauled her back.

“Antagonise? No, no. We’re here to offer some advice. Look, over there…” Hu An’s finger raised and pointed down a curving row. “You have two water aspected herbs, but also a fire. Why grow them so close? Are you trying to make steam?”

The group laughed, louder and more raucously than the lousy joke deserved, even as another of the interlopers wandered to the side, poking at a discarded hoe that had been left behind the day before. Rou Gang blanched, and Xia Hu recalled he’d dropped it there the last time they were here when he’d fainted – again – from a pulse from their Master’s aura.

“Leaving your equipment all around, how sloppy. And this one is even mildly enchanted…” A hand bent down, brushing the dirt away. “Eh, it’s just a low-grade enchanter’s work though. I can see why it was thrown away. Here, I’ll help you.” The smirking girl looked around and then tossed it directly at the compost pile, leaving it to sink within with a hard crunch. “There. Now it’s with the rest of the thrash.”

“That, you…” Rou Gang growled, only for Ya Zhu to grip his arm. The diminutive scholar shook her head, jerking her head to the man that Xia Hui had noticed hanging right at the back.

Hu An was, of course, dangerous. He had been tried to be a wandering gatherer and that had meant martial training. The boy behind though neither had the air of a Gatherer or the – often acquired – tan of one; though he did sport a badge. What he did have was a deadly stillness to him, a martial air – and a massive polearm hammer that lay across his back.

“What? Was that thank you? I didn’t hear you say that, and I’m sure you were going to thank me, weren’t you, my dear junior?” the girl taunted.

“Who are you?” Xia Hui asked. He knew her, of course, but making her state her own name was the least of insults he could offer.

She glared, but when Xia Hui raised an eyebrow, and none of her friends jumping in to help, she finally answered. “Xun Li Min.” Then, staring at Rou Gang, she added. “So now, you know what to call your Senior when you thank her.”

Rou Gang bit his lip, but Ya Zhu leaned over, whispering to him. Eventually, he answered her, his face pale with anger. “Junior Rou thanks Senior Xun. Her actions will be remembered.”

“Hu An. The rest of you, it is time for us to begin our class.” Xia Hui waved a hand at the field, continuing. “As you have – kindly – pointed out, there is much work to be done.”

“Slipshod, poor quality work. But that’s what you get, when you ask a wandering gatherer to do real horticulture.” Hu An waved his group to him, and they gathered behind him as he strode forward. He crossed the distance with easy strides, a sneer on his lips the entire way. He paused as he neared the group, eyed Gui Ting and added. “Some advice, for old’s time sake. There’s no future in following a peasant.”

Gui Ting eyes narrowed. “Really? Because I remember you being one of the most enthusiastic fans of Long Sifu. You collected any piece of information you could, proferring it to Fairy Yang. And now, you tell me this?”

“It was easy contribution points,” Hu An replied, the cultured voice of his filled with derision. “It is only fools like you who would think that a peasant could ever live up to the tales that we heard. At the end of the day, a farmer is a farmer.”

Then, pushing ahead before he could be questioned, going so far as to use his shoulder to part the group, Hu An stomped off. Xia Hui waved the group to stillness, keeping them in check as the interlopers left while shaking his head a little.

Of course, it was Ma Jie who broke the silence first. “Was he really a fan of Long Sifu?”

“And what’s this all about peasant this, peasant that?” Ma Jie added, incensed.

“Oh yes. He was one of the biggest fans of the Verdant Gatherer. Studied the jian even if he should have stayed with the bow and became a Gatherer just so he could copy him.” Gui Ting smiled grimly. “Though, I half-believe he patterned himself after our Sifu because of his well known success with beauties across the kingdoms.”

“The Northern Princess.” This time, it was Ya Zhu who spoke, longing in her voice. “The Dutchess of the Eastern Sea. The Spear Fairy.”

“Yes, them.” Gui Ting waved a hand, dismissively. “I think being discarded by Sifu hurt him.”

“And the peasant bit?” Ma Jie demanded.

It was Xia Hui who answered Ma Jie, clapping her on the shoulder. “Some still hold our upbringing against us. It’s not common, but…” he shrugged. “Well, when one is as short of arrows as our friend Hu An, one takes whatever is on hand.”

His words left the group looking extremely puzzled for a time, until Xia Hui waved them to the fields. “Come on, Hu An was right about one thing. This field is a disgrace. Now that Sifu isn’t here to punish us, we should try to get it into appropriate shape.”

The group nodded, scattering, leaving Xia Hui and Gui Ting to bring up the rear. The two older and more experienced cultivators shared a long glance, for neither believed that this incident was the last of it. The harassment would continue, till a new order of status was established.

“Oh! Senior Hui was calling Hu An dumb!” Rhou Ping shouted.

Shaking his head, Xia Hui went to help the boy dig out his favorite hoe. Whatever was coming, they would face it together.


Footnote:

12 - Reminder that most of the time, I’m deliberate in how people are addressed. The use of Ah Khang – using both an informal address while also using his family name is insulting, indicating a level of informality and callousness to forget his actual name at the same time.