The Fourth Stage - Chapter 32 preview (Patreon)

Contrary to the beliefs of his students, Wu Ying was not cultivating. Instead, he wielded the full strength of his wind dao, calling upon the seven winds to inform him of movements within their spheres. The central wind co-ordinated the scents, parsing the details to the wind cultivator while the Heavenly wind whispered of broken demonic spirits and the winds of Hell laughed at Wu Ying’s commands.

Through the night, only stopping long enough to sup on the meals offered to him, Wu Ying listened to the winds. He charted out the problems all around, noticing the monsters that prowled the night and the spirit beasts that slumbered late into the evening. Birds fell asleep as the sun went abed and the moon rose, while other nocturnal animals came out to prowl, insects and beetles and bats droning on and on.

He noticed as Xia Hui, intending on getting ahead of the competition slipped out of the encampment late at night. Bare minutes later, Gui Ting opened his eyes, staring at the spot that Xia Hui had exited the formation before snorting and rolling over, going back to bed.

Wu Ying meditated all night long, picking apart the dangers that his students might encounter and finding few enough that concerned him. There, in the lee of a waterfall, a river snake in the Core Formation stages slumbered. It rolled over a little, as Wu Ying’s spiritual sense brushed against it but refused to leave its den, still digesting the large meal it contained.

Here, a massive demon boar rutted with its sounder in the north. Wu Ying made note of the group, but left them alone to grow. Alone, the demonic boar was only at the Energy Storage stage. The danger was from being caught unaware or being assaulted by the entire sounder.

If any of his students fell prey to that group, he would fail them for being too foolish and unsuspecting to be trusted in the wild.

And there…

There was a danger. A small golden silk spider hung in the branches, its web stretching a dozen feet across the grounds. It was tiny, unlike many other spirit beasts who grew bigger when they grew stronger. This golden silk spider was powerful in its understanding of who and what it was. None of that included a massive form, but a quiet and silent deadliness.

Wu Ying had nearly missed it, so well concealed it had been that only the shudderings of the wind as it passed through the fine spider silk of its residence had alerted him. He had been forced to pursue the enquiry further, wielding his spiritual sense like a brush and combing through the surroundings till he found it.

Now, he was forced to consider his actions.

The golden silk spider was an ambush predator. It would not harm his students, if they did not disturb it. Its webs stretched high in the trees, intent on taking out flying creatures and insects rather than those on the ground.

Yet, it was a creature of opportunity. It would not matter what it preferred to eat, if his students presented themselves to it for dinner, they would be webbed, wrapped up and injected with the creature’s venom. And that venom…

Dangerous in the extreme. He could sense the dark dao that throbbed within the fangs of the creature, the way Hells winds laughed as it came across and wrapped around the small creature before leaving. Anyone below Core Formation would succumb to the venom within minutes of application. Without a proper antidote, they would perish in an extremely painful manner, their flesh necrosizing and dissolving within minutes.

It was this extreme danger that made Wu Ying consider whether to deal with the spider now, or leave it be. It was located to the west where the trio meant to go. If he was to guess, they would pass by within a li or two of the creature. Perhaps less, depending on their exact pathing.

The golden silk spider waited, having sensed his attention. It lurked in its web, patient. It did not move, though it must have known on some instinctual level that its fate was in balance. The attention of a more dangerous predator had arrived. It could not escape, even though it had tried to hide. It would fight, if the time came.

For now, it waited.

Wu Ying weighed the balance of its life in his mind and then, with the gentlest of exhalations, he released his grip on the winds. He stood up and stretched, though he murmured a request to the winds to watch the spider if it chose to move. And another request, to follow along his wayward student who trekked through the night.

Then, content, he took to bed.

Let the spider live. Let it wait and watch. And he would watch too, like the spider; though his web traversed multiple li and was made of the air itself.

***

Four days, he let them harvest that spot. Then, they moved, shifting to a new clearing deeper into the woods. On the last night before they left, he allowed them to pick the spot for their next encampment. The argument had raged for an hour, as each party attempted to convince the other of their greater need. Sides were taken, as the three women faced off against the three men, the men forced by necessity to work together. Deadlocked, neither party refused to give way.

In the end, the group chose to take turns equally. One after the other, they would decide upon where to go, with Xia Hui; being the most senior, allowed to choose first. Of course, he had been suspicious – rightly so – at the sudden declaration and deference for his seniority when none had been shown before.

But a choice had to be made, and he made it.

Once more, the group repeated their routine. Wu Ying cultivated, calling upon the wind to inform him of danger, the students chose their routes and sought out their herbs. Slowly, their bags – in Rou Gang’s case – and storage rings filled. More than once, they fought their way clear of bad encounters, the students gaining injuries at an alarming rate.

Four days later, they picked up and moved to the next location, and so the routine continued.

It was two days after their second move that Wu Ying floated down, standing on a swaying branch as he regarded his student. He was only now extracting himself out of the man-eating plant that had consumed him, forcing the cultivator to fight his way free.

It had been a near thing, with Wu Ying nearly intervening. If Rou Gang’s life force and spiritual sense had grown any weaker, he would have cut the boy free. As it stood, he lay on the ground, thick, meaty yellow-and-pink petals strewn around him, slimy sap and digestive acids from the flower all around him, too exhausted to clean himself or notice his Master above him.

Long minutes later, the boy finished wiping his face clean, crawling over to his backpack to continue to wash himself down. The digestive acids used by the plant were low-grade acids, strong enough to leave a redness and burn on the skin in the time that he had been trapped; not powerful enough to dissolve flesh and bone till weeks later.

Which suited the Sunset Corpse Flower fine, for it sucked the life force of the trapped in the meantime, supping on the creature in the meantime.

“You will not be able to prove anything to me – or yourself – if you die,” Wu Ying said, when the boy had finished changing and cleaning himself. His words made Rou Gang jump, then he crouched low and grabbed at his tonfas only for awareness of who had spoken to him filtering in at last.

“Sifu!” Rou Gang bowed. “I apologise for not seeing you.”

“Apology accepted. But do better. You are in the deep wilds,” Wu Ying said.

“Yes, sifu!” Rou Gang said firmly, his eyes burning with suppressed ambition and embarrassment. “I apologise again.”

“Once is enough, boy.” Wu Ying sighed. “And you did not hear my other admonishment, did you?”

“I cannot wait around to prove myself, Sifu. I have to push myself, if I’m to succeed,” Rou Gang said, glowering. “All the others, they know the other plants better. But I can work harder and get more of the basic herbs. If I do enough of them…”

“You’ll pass. I know,” Wu Ying smiled grimly. “I did create the test.”

“But I don’t want to just pass, Sifu!” Rou Gang said. “I want to excel. Which is why I must work harder, do better.”

“And ignore the dangers that you put yourself into. Why?”

“If I do well enough, you could sponsor me.”

“Into the inner sect,” Wu Ying said, shaking his head. “That is rare. The outer and inner sect master’s do not like exceptions.”

“But it is done! For prodigies and the nobles,” Rou Gang said.

“Again, rarely.”

“I cannot stay another year!”

“Why?”

Silence greeted his question, and Wu Ying shook his head. If the boy had some real reason for his reluctance, he might have been more sympathetic. But his winds had told him enough, that beyond a minor degree of hazing and bullying, the greatest danger Rou Gang faced was loneliness.

It was not reason enough. Obviously, he understood that too.

“You’re young. You have barely broken through your fourth meridian. You need to consolidate that further before pressing for a fifth, or else you’ll damage yourself. Patience is required, or else you’ll never progress,” Wu Ying said.

“I could progress faster in the inner sect!” Rou Gang said. “I’m forced to work and clean and all the other students…”

“All the other students are older than you. And yes, I progressed faster. And faced more danger, and saw myself on an expedition soon after I joined the sect. And none of that was necessarily good for my cultivation base,” Wu Ying said. “The outer sect might not be ideal, but you are already relieved of much of your duties.

“Haste will be your downfall.”

“So you want me to stall and wait?”

“No, but patience is importance too.” Wu Ying inclined his head towards the flower, before he added. “I will not always be ready to save you, if you fail.”

“So be it!” Rou Gang said.

For a long moment, Wu Ying met the boy’s gaze. Young, overconfident and stubborn. Wu Ying recognized parts of himself in the other, the need to prove himself, to push away others who might try to help. He just hoped that he was not that arrogant at that age.

Or perhaps, he was worst? After all, once he had thought all nobles were worthless creatures. Ignoring the fact that his Master, his martial sister and so many others were nobles. So perhaps, just perhaps, the boy would find wisdom too with age.

If not, he probably would not reach his twenties.

A slight tap of his feet and Wu Ying threw himself into the sky once more, moving on to the next cultivator that might need his help. After all, you never knew what you might find in the wild.

***

.

Three weeks into the expedition, one bright morning, Wu Ying held a hand up as the group readied themselves to leave. Nocturnal expeditions still occurred, but more rarely and only to acquire specific night bloom herbs and flowers. Otherwise, the toll of day after day of travel through the wilderness reduced even a cultivator’s impressive stamina.

“Sifu?” Zhe Lan, always the first to speak, said.

“There is a decision to be made,” Wu Ying said. “One that will affect the remainder of your trial.”

“What is it, Sifu?” Xia Hui asked.

“In the distance, I have sensed the movements of the xing tian. They are journeying, a nomadic group coming here.” Wu Ying hesitated, before he added. “They will soon reach us within the day if we chose not to leave.”

“The xing tian?” Zhe Lan snorted. “A minor problem, are they not? We have destroyed their villages and killed their Elders.”

“It’s true that we have killed the strongest of their group, such that those that live do so on the fringes. But they have grown hardy and cunning, tricky in their weakness,” Gui Ting said. “The martial cultivators speak of traps and ambushes, of growing losses.”

“Still, Sifu said there are…” Xia Hui paused, frowning at Wu Ying. “How many are there?”

Wu Ying shook his head, declining to answer.

“Are you making this part of the test too?” Ma Jie said, a touch of disgust in her voice before she realised what had happened and she corrected it.

“Everything is a test, but yes. If I was here but you learnt about a potential threat, what would you do?” Wu Ying gestured in the direction of the creatures. “How much of a risk will you accept, to succeed? To meet your needs?” He lowered his voice, speaking softly. “That is the question you all will face in your cultivation journey. You can ascend taking risks, you can perish taking those same risks. You can climb slowly or not at all, but you will have to decide your path.”

Ma Jie just shook her head, declining to answer Wu Ying and his commentary. It was possible she had heard the same from her titular Master before, since he was certain she was one of those who had come through a direct invitation. While each Elder was allowed to invite a single student a year, it was not uncommon for certain Elders to make invitations every year. They had other apprentices and cultivators searching for them, creating a backlist of individuals to extend their invitation to.

Outside of that method, the Sect itself held trials for individuals to enter the Verdant Green Waters in major cities throughout the kingdom. Certain martial schools and families also had standing invitations, whether because they had prosperous families who contributed to the Sect’s coffers or provided much sought after martial cultivators.

It was a aried method of entry, though most methods – not surprisingly – were barred from simple farmers and peasants. It was only the scholarly and noble class who could manage such invitations, with the occasional too prosperous merchant managing to inveigle his way in.

It was why certain Elders often focused on the farmers and peasants for their invitations, seeking a degree of balance that their current admission process lacked. Of course, such individuals were often also greatly prejudiced upon entry; lacking the scholarly understanding, the martial ability or the noble funds that made ascension simpler.

Gui Ting was the first to answer the actual question. “We should leave. We only had one more week left anyway. Risking a run-in with the xing tian and falling would be a foolish endeavor. We are gatherers not martial cultivators.”

“Do we get points for cores?” Ya Zhu asked, wanting more information.

“No,” Wu Ying shook. “Sect contribution points, of course. But you will not get any from me.”

Ya Zhu nodded, then turned to her friends. “Then I think we should leave.”

“No!” Zhe Lan said. “Our next visit would be my choice and there’s a lake at the next clearing I wanted us to go to.”

“You just don’t like running,” Ma Jie said.

“I also don’t like running,” Zhe Lan added readily.

“Nor do I,” Xia Hui said, surprisingly. “The creatures are not that dangerous and we can scout out their numbers beforehand. I assume we are not locked into our decision? If necessary, we can leave?”

Wu Ying nodded.

“Then, I see no reason to make a decision on such little information,” Xia Hui said. “If it is not too dangerous, we should deal with them. Splitting the cores will offer a significant increase in our sect contributions as there is an on-going sect quest for dealing with them.”

“I don’t like the risk, but you’re not wrong,” Ma Jie said, reluctantly.

“Very well.” Wu Ying inclined his head. “Inform me when you have chosen the remainder of the course of action for yourself.” He took a seat at his usual spot outside his tent after that, returning to cultivating. He was properly meditating, letting the Dragon’s Breath pull in cultivation energy while he waited for his students to make their decisions. There was much to contemplate, from their decisions and his own expectations and his own reactions to their decisions as well as the winds that had picked up during the conversation.

For the winds of the heavens and the hells had picked up, swirling between each student as they discussed their options. Zhe Lan was the favored child of the hells as was Xia Hui, surprisingly; while the Heavens often blew around both Ma Jie and Gui Hing. Yet, it was their lack of presence around the quiet Rou Gang and Ya Zhu that was of greater interest to Wu Ying today, as he contemplated what the absence of signs might mean.

Anarchists? Individuals who lacked interest to the Heavens or Hells due to personality conflicts? Or was the scholar so tuned internally to the pursuit of knowledge that she registered for neither. After all, knowledge could hamper the understanding of the Dao; but it could also provide enlightenment.

It was hard to tell at times.

Enlightenment could occur from ignorance just as clearly as knowledge, understanding of the world and taking the blinders of labels allowing an individual to see a forest scene in all its glory and unfiltered wonder. Or it could provide detailed knowledge, allowing a Gatherer to see deeper into the myriad seen and unseen web of connections and dependencies that existed within an ecosystem.

In such matters, Wu Ying could only meditate on the knowledge he gained, the worlds he had seen and attempt to find understanding. And perhaps, within that shred of understanding, scaffold himself to true enlightenment.