The Fourth Stage - Chapter 28 preview (Patreon)

Early morning light, morning dew and the sweep of blade through humid air. Long Wu Ying flowed through his forms, slowly and carefully, practicing the forms of the Wandering Dragon. Memorising each motion, each step. Never throwing the full extent of his chi or dao understanding into the motions, but attempting to understand the jian that he held further.

It was foolish to push himself too far, not when he was still injure. Folly to tempt further injury, but restlessness had overtaken the wind cultivator early in the morning, when pain from old and new wounds drew him from slumber.

He cautioned himself each moment to take it easy, listened to his body for additional strain so that he might avoid aggravating his condition. Yet, he was of the blade and the blade was him, and he would not betray it by setting the weapon aside.

Dragon blocks the clouds transformed into the Lazy Tail, a spinning roundhouse kick that generated its power and deadliness from the slight drop step on the front foot. It was a lazy tail, for he did not snap the kick through the motion but used the momentum of his hips and body for speed and power instead.

Complete the half-turn, twisting the body down and striking out with the still raised sword into a perfect arm thrust, angled upwards. Dragon tastes the Food.

Retract, and untwist body into a spinning top attack, sweeping blade all around. Angled downwards like now, it was a block against multiple attackers. Angled forwards, it could cut or strike at extended arms.

The Dragon protects the Egg.

One day, perhaps, Wu Ying would change the names. It was lazy – and embarrassing – to over rely on the dragon motif for his weapon style. Of course, he had been considering that very action for years already, and still he relied on these names. Soon enough – if it was not too late – even the most absurd name would stick.

At least he would not need to shout them out as he enacted the forms. He was no storied physician-hero (13) who was so confident in his abilities that he would inform his opponents of his moves before conducting them.

He reached the end of the first form, the moment when he should have enacted the first cut – A Dragon Rises. He did not, knowing that doing so would strain his meridians and the formations around. Instead, he flowed onto through the second form and avoided the second cut – the Dragon’s Truth – and then the third cut as well. The Dragon Turns.

He had the fourth form being constructed, one that utilized wind chi and the wind itself to progress his attacks. Build upon them, such that even a simple swing of the arm could cause houses to fall and trees to topple. It was an aggressive form, requiring speed and a dao understanding, that strained Wu Ying as he enacted it.

But as he came to the end of the still budding form, Wu Ying stuttered to a stop. Chest heaving, sweat rolling down his skin, formerly closed wounds cracked a little, his movements slowed and stilled. Each breath brought with it hints of the world around, dust from ground paved stone, raised soil blown from plains hundreds of li away, the burst sap of blooming trees and fresh leaves. His own redolent stench, of crusted wounds and newly spilled blood.

The tip of his weapon lowered, the cultivator cursing himself for losing himself I the movement such that he had forgotten his own injuries. For a time, even the pain had faded. A blessing and a curse, as trembling hands struggled to sheath Ren by his side.

Fool.

More fool too, for beginning a form whose final expression and movement had yet to be completed. He had a glimmering of an idea, a dao understanding drawn from his current predicament that would dictate the final expression of the fourth movement.

But he was not there yet. He was not ready. A mental block, a spiritual one held him back. Even completing it halfway would damage him as he stood now, for what it required was opposed to his understanding of his own dao and himself.

There was a solution, he knew it. There was a way to combine the two, to create the synergy required.

He was, for now, unable to find it. And till he did…

Sword sheathed, he swiped at his face, cleared the sweat and withdrew a handkerchief as he hobbled back to his residence. A bath, a change of clothing and most of all…

Rest.

***

“Get up! You lazy sack of shit, you think you can just swan in here and train with us and then lie around like useless pieces of dung?” Jin Rong roared, the early stage Energy Storage cultivator stomping back and forth before the exhausted students.

“Mercy,” moaned Ya Zhu.

A second later, a hand reached down and hauled her to her feet, Jin Rong planting his face in front of hers as he shouted, spittle flying from his lips. “You think a demonic beast will let you rest just because you asked it nicely? Are you a wandering gatherer or a piece of compost?”

Dropping her on her feet, he shoved her to start her on the run again, all the while screaming. “Run!”

Ya Zhu stumbled at the shove, but her feet, tired though they might be moved. She pushed a touch of chi into her legs, propelling her forwards and lengthening her stride. She managed a couple of extra feet, as the Wind Step movement technique triggered, only to stumble and fall to the ground a couple dozen feet later.

Luckily, Jin Rong was busy screaming at Rou Gang in the meantime such that Zhe Lan was able to haul Ya Zhu to her feet.

“Why are you so insistent on training that wood movement method too?” Zhe Lan growled. “It’s so hard to do both!”

“That’s why I have to train them,” Ya Zhu said. “Can you imagine how fast I could be, with both the Hundred Plant Aiding Leaves and my Wind Steps? It’s rare that you can find a qinggong and movement technique that are compatible!”

“And until then, you’re stumbling over your feet, no faster than the Body Cleansing cultivator,” Zhe Lan said.

“Until I work it out.”

“Stubborn.” But Zhe Lan had dropped her hand, as the pair started jogging once more. Zhe Lan moving effortlessly beside her friend – or at least as effortlessly as one could after being forced to circle the mountain four times. Even if they were not at the base, they were near the bottom of the outer sect halls where they were conducting the training under the unimpressed eyesight of the martial cultivator Jin Rong.

“Why do we have to run so much?” Behind, Ya Zhu heard Rou Gang whining to Jin Rong as the man kept pushing him on.

“Ask your teacher,” Jin Rong replied. “He told me to make sure you all were able to run from dawn to dusk if necessary.”

“Dawn to dusk!” Rou Gang yelped.

Ya Zhu scoffed at the mention internally. For one thing, they weren’t training to do so. They only had an afternoon every other day to train with the martial cultivators and in that timeline, only a few hours for physical conditioning.

On the other hand…

“Do you think that’s a hint of what we can expect?” Ya Zhu asked her friend.

Zhe Lan frowned. “What hint?”

Quickly, she related what she had overheard. Her normally quick to act friend grew quiet, obviously considering the notion before she finally grimaced. “I think… maybe?”

“Shit.”

“What?” Zhe Lan asked.

Ya Zhu ignored the question as her spiritual sense noted another bunched group of roots ahead. As her feet landed on the earth, she let the energy of the roots pulse upward when it connected with her own chi, the entire ground flexing just a little even as it threw her forwards.

It was much harder to wield the Hundred Plant Aiding Leaves technique on roots rather than branches and leaves. Utilized properly, it would slingshot the user forward with each pulse, such that they were almost leaping across treetops or the ground. Added to a qinggong method that lightened the user and cast additional energy into the legs, it would be a highly efficient and quick mode of transport.

If she could learn to use it.

Unfortunately, more often than not, the pulse of wood chi she utilized would be returned either too forcefully, too early or too late. That, in turn, would cause her to stumble. It also, when it arrived too late; mean that she lost much of the chi she sent out, wringing her reserves dry.

This time, it worked and she found herself flung forwards, multiple feet ahead. She stumbled on the landing, missing the next root cluster by a few feet and instead had to return to running. Ya Zhu made note to watch ahead next time, to adjust her landing so she could, theoretically, send her chi ahead to explode her forward again.

Of course, first she had to get the timing right. And not forget to wield the Wind Steps at the same time. Which, as Zhe Lan caught up to her easily, she had.

“We should start running more,” Zhe Lan said. It was a statement rather than a question, having come to that very same conclusion herself. “He’s going to do test us, isn’t he?”

“Probably.” Ya Zhu fell silent for a time, her feet pounding on the ground even as they listened to Jin Rong continue to chide Rou Gang. The rest of the group were well ahead, none of the other cultivators as unlucky as the Body Cleansing cultivator. That he even managed to keep up with the rest of the group was testament to his earlier training and stubbornness. “Sifu Long still hasn’t mentioned how he is intending to rank us. And outside of Xia Hui being the first among us…”

“Eh, Gui Ting is better at the herbal knowledge,” Zhe Lan said.

“But worst at martial cultivation. And has fewer meridians open.”

“But he’s stuck.” Zhe Lan shook her head. “Gui Ting might actually become a Core Formation cultivator one day. Gui Ting…”

“Might find inspiration,” Ya Zhu cut her friend off. “It isn’t our choice. But Sifu needs to make a decision soon, or else it’s going to be a problem.”

“So he’s going to test us.” Zhe Lan grunted. “When, do you think?”

Now it was Ya Zhu’s turn to fall silent. That was the question, was it not? When would their erstwhile teacher test them? Formally that is. It was obvious he was always pushing them, testing them now, seeing who learnt what and who managed to gather the scattered gold he laid at their feet. If anything, he deluged them with his wisdom and knowledge and forced them to scurry after, desperately grabbing what they could to understand it all.

“Fall perhaps.” Ya Zhu said, eventually. “After the outer sect tournament.” Once a year, they held that tournament, a way for those in the outer sect to make their way into the inner sect. If they were not, of course, sponsored directly into the inner sect by an Elder.

Somehow, knowing their Sifu’s story, Ya Zhu could not imagine him doing that for Rou Gang.

“Do you think he has a chance?” Zhe Lan muttered. The glance she shot backwards was clear enough of who she was speaking of.

“If he doesn’t, I’d be surprised,” Ya Zhu said. “He’s gotten more martial training in the last while than most outer sect cultivators do. And he barely has to do any assignments.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Seems like our Sifu has paid for him to train with us, so it’s only whatever extra he needs to train for.”

“Like us.” Zhe Lan frowned. “You think Sifu knows that’s unusual for outer sect cultivators?”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

“Next year will be worst.”

“So we better not make a hash of it this year then and make sure we’re properly established,” Ya Zhu replied.

Zhe Lan was about to nod before she had to reach out and grab her friend. She helped steady her, before she let go. “I’m going to tell Ma Jie.”

Ya Zhu would have replied, but they were reaching a particularly woody portion of the pathway. The last time around, she’d stumbled through it because she struggled with the feedback of her returning wood chi. This time around, she intended to do better.

After all, if there were tests than there was always a possibility of failure. And thus far, they had no idea what their Sifu’s idea of punishment for outright failure might be.


Footnote:
13 - Yes, I mean Wong Fei Hong. No, he’s from an entirely different time period and world, which is why I’m not actually naming him. I’m sure there are other physician-heros who have done this in this world.