The Fourth Stage - Chapter 35 preview (Patreon)

Winter passed swiftly and peacefully. Lessons continued apace, with the group of wandering gatherers becoming a common sight leaving or returning to the sect, in teams alone or with their Elder following them. As much as he might wish to review their field work, Wu Ying was also forced to rest as the tempo of the medicinal baths increased as the items procured by Yang Mu began to arrive.

Along with the baths were letters, from the young lady herself, from old friends and acquaintances that Wu Ying had met. Updates on lives that had continued to progress while he had been travelling arrived, from all across the land.

A guard lieutenant, once a companion, now a doting grandfather sent along a long, rambling letter along with a grand-nephew and a sword. The grand nephew was installed in the village below where he was passed Meridian Opening pills, cultivation manuals and tips where he trained his swordsmanship for the coming spring. The sword was taken and stored in Wu Ying’s ring, another Saint-weapon added to his collection.

Funny, how they had once worried about the results of finding the weapon and yet, nothing had come about it. At least for Wu Ying. From the long, rambling letter, Zhong Shei and his family had encountered their own troubles – from thieves at nights to martial challenges and faking lovers seeking the inheritance.

Better then, to trade one troublesome weapon for a nephew in a prestigious sect.

From the Pan clan, a series of letters from the men and women he had met. A hastily dashed letter by an impatient spearwoman. A carefully penned work by an aggrieved elder sister. Most of all, the measured characters that were like sword slashes, so sharp and precise that their inscription almost made Wu Ying’s eyes hurt to read them over.

That one, he treasured. That one, he knew, would one day become an artifact to be studied; along with the manual of further thoughts on Wu Ying’s own burgeoning style that a child had glimpsed. Once. Of course, in the intervening years, the wind cultivator had refined the work, expanded and altered it through the experiences he had undergone.

So had Pan Chen. In his comments, in his explanations and discussions of techniques, Wu Ying could almost hear the tale and challenges the boy had undergone. A looping defense that opened one to being struck, but which was counter-striked at the last moment – a deceptive love and heartbreak. A series of fast and delicate strikes, an answer to a group of dao swordsmen that had arrived to challenge the spearmen. A considered defense, precise with minimal movements – a variation to train students and tire them out before a single, pinpoint strike finished the duel and made the boy’s point.

Letters, telling stories of lives lived without him. Outside of his purview, outside of his sight. Tragedies and victories alike.

A family head, dead. His family of lizard style cultivators wiped out by jealous competitors, all but a pair of children and their elderly aunt the only survivors. Left to live in a hovel and having scraped together hat little money to send on this final message, in hopes that a wandering cultivator who had once favored their grandfather might show them favor.

Another letter, penned in return, with a gift of tael and pills and a map, sending them on to a city whose duke owed Wu Ying a favour, called upon by a simple letter with a seal and a sea pearl located within.

From the west, a wandering hero; a body cultivator who had achieved the Sense of the Sword plied the trade routes, working with other peasant cultivators into a burgeoning biaoju (17), their escort company helping to make the route through the desert wilderness a little safer. Words of thanks, and then, of course a question about body cultivating and next steps.

Wu Ying smirked as he penned his own response, though he was grateful to see the boy – now man – continuing to progress.

From an inn, a query of his own arrived not long after. A chiding letter from an annoyed father who had once expected Wu Ying – unspokenly – to care for his daughter. And a more considering one from a mother, answering his question about dao transitions and rebuilding of daos and the care and feeding of Nascent Spirits.

That final letter arrived late into the winter on the wings of a paper eagle messenger who landed before the paifang, awaiting Wu Ying’s own touch before it crumbled away to reveal the simple golden cylinder and the letters it contained.

Extravagance, though one that even Guardian Pang dared not criticize. After all, one did not casually insult Nascent Soul cultivators. Their reach was long and their temperament uncertain.

Wu Ying hurried that missive once he read it over to Tou He who was about to return to his own closed door cultivation. In turn, the group summoned the remainder of their friends and spent a few long days discussing the philosophies and revelations casually revealed within by both cultivators – Yang Mu’s father writing his own notes in-between and across the top of the missives in hurried, angry contradictions to his own wife’s careful notations.

Eventually, the commotion and the disappearance of the cultivators drew even the Sect Head to the ex-monk’s residence. A glance over the document and the Sect Head began discussing his own views on the matter, turning the entire affair into a much longer lecture that drew in other Core Formation Elders.

Surprisingly, all this resulted in a breakthrough for one Elder whose moment of enlightenment so flooded the residence with heavenly chi that the entire discussion had to be taken outdoors along the garden steps.

For a time, the running of the sect was left to inner sect cultivators and the few Core Formation cultivators whose foundations in their own path were so strongly embedded that such a discussion would have been superfluous.

Eventually, the discussion was wrung dry; the Elders returning to their duties or to contemplation. Joining Tou He, many Elders entered a period of close door cultivation as they assessed this new viewpoints, weighing their own paths.

In many cases, like with the Sect Head or his martial sister, Fa Yuan, no changes were enacted. Yet, the very act of reviewing one’s beliefs could strengthen ones journey along the pathway, resulting in further growth of the soul within and the addition of further layers in a core.

For Wu Ying, the progrenitor of this period, few things changed. Winter turned to spring, and he and his students took to the surrounding countryside. Elder Kim continued to act coldly, having accepted the angry and hurt Rou Gang into his own program. It was an unbalanced exchange, as Gui Ting abandoned his old master to continue to train under Wu Ying, though the discussion with the Sect Head and the negotiations about the transfer of wealth and knowledge due to that loss had been a headache and a half.

Even so, the department was established, the arrival of new trainees who were more prepared for Wu Ying’s antics and the growing knowledge base of his first students ensured that. Each student expanded upon their knowledge base, venturing further and further into the wilderness surrounding the sect but never venturing too far afield.

Till summer arrived and Xia Hui made his own pronouncement.

***

“Are you certain of this, Senior?” Ma Jie could not help but ask Xia Hui, even as the man stood before them with a staff and a pack slung over his shoulders. While he had a storage ring of his own, it was certainly insufficient to contain everything that he intended to gather.

“I am. Sifu Long has confirmed that I should be adequately trained by now, and the herbs that I need to acquire for the pills recommended to help me further my cultivation levels cannot be found in this region,” Xia Hui said. “We have picked the area around us clean. If we – I – am to progress, we must begin to venture out.”

“I told you,” Zhe Lan butted in, arms crossed. “We need to push Sifu to allow us to go farther. Or even to move classes to another sect – briefly.”

“You know he can’t,” Ya Zhu said, frowning. “His medicinal baths…”

“Are slowing down, aren’t they? He needs to only have them every few months now,” Zhe Lan said. “He even has started sparring sometimes.”

“Let’s not get distracted,” Ma Jie said. “We are talking about Senior Khang. He should not be risking himself like this. Surely we can pool our resources to get the equivalent value for the herbs?”

Even as she was speaking, Xia Hui was shaking his head. He raised a hand when Ma Jie moved to object, speaking over her. “It’s not because I want to decline your generosity, Junior Sister. It is because the pills that have been suggested for me by the librarian and concurred by the Double Soul, Double Body sect require rare wild ingredients. Ingredients that cannot be purchased on the open market.”

“So you have to find them yourself,” Zhe Lan said.

“Yes.”

Ma Jie crossed her arms. “What’s the use of having a famed wandering gatherer for a teacher if he can’t even find things like this for us? Or use his World Spirit Ring to grow them for you?”

“Because the herbs that Xia Hui requires are of little value to me or others normally,” their Sifu said, appearing amidst the group on the outskirts to their surprise. All of them, even Ya Zhu jumped, though only a little. Their teacher’s habit of showing up, unannounced and in their private conversations around the department building was well known. “They are meant for Energy Storage cultivators as well and nowhere as potent – or necessary – for Core Formation cultivators.

“And contrary to belief, my World Spirit Ring has limits on what I can place within.”

“Sifu?” Ya Zhu said, perking up and focusing on him like a raptor spotting fleeing prey as he spoke for once about his treasured possession. “Why?”

“World Spirit Rings are rare for a number of reasons. They are difficult to create like all storage rings. But unlike most storage rings, which can be created by those in the Core Formation stage with the right dao, a World Spirit Ring requires an individual in Nascent Soul stage at the least,” Elder Long said. “Mockery’s are possible at lower stages of course, but the difference between a true ring and a copy is the difference between a garden pond and a lake.”

Seeing their confusion, he clarified. “What sets a true World Spirit Ring apart is their ability to allow the exchange of chi and the flow of the greater Dao. A storage ring is often sealed, the flow of the Dao blocked for the most part. It is why we must have special storage boxes to place our herbs within the storage rings, so that the plants are held in abeyance.

“But only abeyance. Stasis and unchanging for the most part, though even the strongest gathering box will see the slow degradation of the items we picked.”

Of course, none of this was new to the gathered smaller group. Lessons on gathering tools and instruments had been completed within a few months, especially since knowledge of the kinds and variety were an important differentiator between wandering and farming gatherers.

Inside the building, within the class, Gui Ting was holding a lecture with many of the newer recruits, going over the herbs that they would know for the upcoming fall session. Their sense of confusion, of being entirely out of their depth was reminiscent of the group gathered around him, though hopefully it would fade. It had certainly faded for his companions.

“A World Spirit Ring not only allows you to store such herbs, but in the right conditions and set-up, grow them further.”

Again, more nods.

“However, the passing of the Dao into the ring, the exchange of chi puts a strain on the foundations and the dao concepts imbued into the ring itself.” Their Sifu touched the metal band around his finger, continuing. “In time, all rings will breakdown. To reduce the speed of degradation, it is best to balance the daos within. Now, what do you think that means?”

A year ago, that question might have caught the group out. Even now, many of them were forced to consider the answer, with Ya Zhu being the only one who had an almost immediate answer. Even Zhe Lan had slowed down to consider her assumptions, though she was still the second one to raise her hand, just beating out Xia Hui.

“Well?” Rather than picking on each of them like children, he left it open to see who would answer.

No surprise that it was Ya Zhu. “You balance the elements within, the kind of plants. Just like we balance fields, rotating crops, you rotate the plants that you keep within.”

“Not just plants,” Elder Long said. “Depending on the size of the World Spirit Ring, entire ecosystems can exist within. Plants of course, but insects and earth worms, bees and tadpoles and fish and more can be contained.”

“Bears and deer and horses?” Zhe Lan asked.

“If a ring was large enough, they would be necessary. Even wolves and hunting cats,” Elder Long said.

“And how large is yours?” she asked again, only to duck her head in apology as Elder Long looked at her. Xia Hui sighed, for that woman never learnt, letting their Sifu’s reprimand sink into the depths of her mind without leaving a ripple in her countenance.

“If I may ask, Sifu,” Xia Hui said, curiosity driving the question on. When the man nodded, he continued. “Elder Kim keeps many of the old products, the old fields in his ring. I cannot believe they are balanced like you just spoke of.” He certainly remembered quite the variety when he worked for Elder Li before her death.

“It’s more balanced than you would assume,” Sifu said. “But I did not say it was not possible to carry unbalanced items within. Just that it wore against the bindings of a ring faster.”

“Ah….”

Silence expanded around the group, before Elder Long nodded to Xia Hui. “You best get going. While saying your farewells are important, you should learn to do so efficiently. There will be many more through your lives.”

Accepting his Sifu’s chastisement, Xia Hui bid the group farewell one last time before turning away to exit the department. As he left, he could not help but hear his Sifu commanding the others back to work. For some reason, beyond a small flicker of sadness at leaving, he found himself excited.

His long stalled ascension had begun again, and for the first time in years, it was within his hands. Xia Hui had a chance, if he would grasp it. And was that not what all cultivators wanted? Control over their own lives rather than being at the whims of an uncaring heaven?

Footnote:

17 - Biaoju (鏢局)- escort companies that worked with merchants to guard their wares during long treks. Pre-17th century or so, it was not very formalized; but by the 19th century, full companies with martial lineages were quite common.