A Thousand Li book 11 - Chapter 7 preview (Patreon)

“A half-step Immortal,” Sect Head Yan Shu Ren said, the older man – barely, it seemed, at least by appearance. Early forty’s at best, if he had been a plain mortal. Of course, Wu Ying knew better for the man had been in the Nascent Soul stage for many years, gaining the concurrent extension of lifespan that occurred when the immortal soul began to merge with mortal body.

“I have been told that is not entirely accurate, Honored Sect Head,” Wu Ying said, grimacing. “Because I have an immortal body now, but I lack the immortal soul that has been released.”

Describing a Body Cultivator with Soul Cultivator terms were always fraught with difficulty. For a Soul Cultivator, the emergence of the immortal soul and the permeation of their immortality into the physical body was the final step, with a half-step Immortal one who had fully integrated their immortal soul into their physical form, creating an immortal body.

Not that immortals were truly immortal and undying. Even an immortal could die, it just meant that they could not age. Death arrived, through battles with other immortals, with devils and demons and dragons gone rogue or through tragedy and exhaustion.

Immortality was but a cessation of aging and a vast increase in strength. But it was not, in the end, the end of the road.

In either case, Wu Ying had not that. He had but a fully empowered Wind Body, one that had taken on the shapeless infinity of the wind. Though he had rejected the process of becoming part of the wind, he could still disperse himself within it, traveling within the wind and utilizing it like it was but an extension of his body. At least, within certain bounds.

After all, the winds could be fickle and randomly possessive over their authority.

“After speaking with my martial sister and Elder Lu, I believe I would be best served by spending additional time reinforcing my core and strengthening my immortal soul. Only when it is strengthened further will I attempt the final merging,” Wu Ying said.

“Very well.” Shu Ren picked up the delicate porcelain tea cup and sipped on it, the pair of delicate cranes painted upon it tilting their head as he did so. It was not, as what Wu Ying had first thought, a trick of the life – but a minor dao impartation and technique by the creator that made the birds come partly alive. “And do you have a time frame in mind?”

Wu Ying shook his head. “A decade, perhaps two.”

A slight inclination of his head at his words. Sect Head Yan leaned forward and placed a small talisman on the table, the jade plaque enscribed in minute details with inscriptions that were imbued with dense chi and dao inspirations. A brief sweep of his own senses was enough to force Wu Ying to pull back or be drawn into the inscriptions themselves.

“Sect Head?” Wu Ying asked, uncertain.

“As the equivalent of a Nascent Soul cultivator, there are now some secrets that you are entitled to learn.” A slight smile. “We will speak of these secrets later, but this too is a benefit.” A finger reached out and tapped near the jade talisman. “A key, to a mystic realm for your continued training.”

“A mystic realm?” Surprise echoed in Wu Ying’s voice, though if he thought about it, he should not have been. If the Pang clan could have one, why not the Verdant Green Waters.

“You will, of course, conduct any martial or skill training within there,” the words were said as though Shu Ren was musing out loud, but the unmistakanable hint of command interlaced the words. “At our stage, inappropriate use of techniques can be highly destructive.”

“Of course, Sect Head. And, thank you.” Placing the plaque in his storage ring, Wu Ying winced as the ring itself flexed and creaked. He might have to acquire a ring just for this jade talisman.

“A small matter.” A slight pause. “You will, of course, ensure that there is a replacement available before your attempt.” There was no give in his words, the Sect Head clear on his expectations of his Head of Wandering Gatherers.

“Yes, Sect Head.” Wu Ying smiled a little. “There are a few who might be viable, if they ever return.” He frowned. “The trio would be my preference, for obvious reasons.”

“You’ve spoken of it before. I dislike the idea of a council for your department rather than a single individual. Not only are they all not Core Formation cultivators, it increases the complexity of administration. The traditionalists will be upset too, at the changes.” hu Ren shook his head. “But we’ve spoken of this before.”

“We have. And I’ve noted that there were councils in our history, so the objection of being uncommon to our traditions is hypocritical.”

“Tradition is based upon what one knows from the past when one was youthful and new, not what is truly historic,” Shu Ren said. “You know that.”

“I do not.” Seeing the annoyed look at Shu Ren’s face, Wu Ying clarified. “I grasp that information, but I do not understand it. It makes little sense to me. Like refusing to put a field to fallow, even if you no longer have the water to properly water them all.”

“Hypocrisy is ever prevalent in mortal thought.” The Sect Head smiled at Wu Ying as he continued. “As in with you, my Department Head. Or is your insistence on raising the three not just as much due to stubbornness and a desire to disrupt the norm? Rather than desire for what is truly best for the Sect?”

“I object to that, Sect Head. My decisions are what is best for the Verdant Green Waters.” The wind cultivator plucked the cup from the table, sipping on the tea as he continued. “When they are back from their latest expedition, I expect one of your objections to have been placed aside at least.”

“You expect Cultivator Cao to finally breakthrough?”

“I do. The demonic wood ox that they are to bring the spirit core back from should be sufficient to force the final ascent for Cultivator Cao.” What neither said, but both understood that was that Ya Zhu’s cultivation journey would likely end soon after. She might layer her core a few more times, but she would never be able to achieve Nascent Soul. Her dantian was too weak, the core and the number of layers she would be able to build – and thus the amount of space the immortal soul she contained could grow – would be stunted.

Then again, to have raised three Core Formation elders – four, if Ya Zhu broke through – in a decade was a great feat. That nearly a dozen such breakthroughs had happened during the last decade since the department had truly gained its footing could be laid at the feet of the wind cultivator and, to some lesser extent, the groundwork laid by Elder Kim.

Of course, that degree of rapid growth had not come without cost.

The first of the three current Wandering Gatherers in the Core Formation stage, Elder Xia Hui, was a weakened Elder. Caught in a never-ending cycle of pills, purifying medicinal baths and gathering. His constant expeditions to acquire ever greater numbers and potency of herbs to pay for his treatment was one of growing legend.

At least a half-dozen others in the Verdant Green Waters new Core Formation Elders would never progress farther, their ascension a matter of pills and forced progression rather than true enlightenment. This change was, in fact, a major concern among older Elders; with mutterings about chaff and dilution of quality often permeating the halls of power.

All these factors flitted through the Sect Head’s eyes, Wu Ying could see. The balancing of strength and prestige, ensuring tradition and the ego of traditionalist did not impact the growth and sustenance of the organization.

“I see. And what of that boy, the one from your village?” Shu Ren asked. “And that half-apprentice you trained?”

“Guardsman (???)’s nephew?” Wu Ying shook his head. “He joined the martial cultivators. A good man, strong fighter but has no head for cultivation. He’s too impatient. I fear that he will never progress.” In fact, that was an understatement. With only nine energy meridians broken through and the boy in his late twenties, it would take a greater degree of discipline than had exhibited for that to happen.

Or a miracle.

“And the boy? A student of your father’s, was he not?” Shu Ren asked.

“Elder Liu would know more in detail.” After all, Tou He was a martial cultivator, much like the boy. “And yes, my father had taken him on as a student.” Wu Ying hesitated, before adding. “He was taught the Long family style and could be considered an adopted member of my family. The fevers that took his parents were unfortunate and my parents were glad for the additional aid when he was younger.”

Never mind the fact that their home had felt extremely empty, as they had pointed out to him. Not that he had thought it appropriate for them to still be staying in their hut, or working the fields. At least that fight he had won, a few years ago. Encroaching age and his father’s stiffening leg had ended his time in the field but had sent him into a frenzy of teaching for the sword. If not for the number of refugees and orphans arriving from across the province due to the drought and famine, the increased number of children seeking better paying jobs as guards and cultivators would have become a problem for the village itself.

As it was, the mortal town guards and merchants were grateful for a group of well-trained, strong and trustworthy guards. Last that Wu Ying had heard, his father was in negotiations to create a formal biaoju. Of course, the process of creating an escort company was fraught with paperwork and bureaucracy; but it kept his father busy in his old age and out of further mischief. A fact that his mother was sincerely grateful for.

“And…?”

“And he would not make a good Gatherer.” Wu Ying said, bluntly. “It was why my father took so much interest in him in the first place. While he has no intrinsic skill in the jian, he is hardworking and has a gift for making the right decision in the chaos of a battlefield.” A slight twitch of his lips. “Ah Yen – Cultivator Yen – has a gift for chaos. A useful skill in a martial cultivator, not so much in my line of work.”

“A pity.” Pouring the two of them fresh cups, the Sect Head took a moment to savour the tea before he continued. At Wu Ying’s patient expression, he explained his words. “It would be a pity if your Department fell into disarray after your ascension, after you have spent so much time and effort building it. Yet, given a choice between a trio, none of which are individually strong enough or knowledgeable enough or a foreign clanner…. Some might prefer it to fall.”

“Some being the Guardian of the Gate,” Wu Ying’s lips curled. Even now, Guardian Pang found ways to make the wind cultivator’s job more difficult. While he might no longer be willing to extend his accumulated favors in another attempt at removing Wu Ying, it did not mean he could not have his people harry and harass his people. Minor infractions in dress code, in the bureaucracy of arrival and departure and of seniority all plagued those who might join forces with Wu Ying.

“Oh, not just him. While your efforts are admired by many, your methods have left a lot to desire.”

Another grunt, though Wu Ying chose not to answer that one.

“In any case, you have a decade. Think of the matter. As you might have realized, the wind might blow and leave; but it is never truly gone.”

“Of course, Sect Head.” Wu Ying inclined his head again.

“Now, what have you heard of the matters to the East? Your friends – both airy and temporal – are useful contacts. As is your companion’s parents.”

Of course, Yang Mu’s parents were further north and east than the State of Cao; but with Yang Mu’s own journey’s back and forth across the kingdoms and their own contacts, it was no surprise that they had garnered a wide range of friends. And spies.

The sect and the kingdom had spies enough in the kingdom of Wei - or well, at least had decent coverage. Wu Ying assumed, from his conversations with Fa Yuan that enough was never truly possible - but he knew the Sect Head was asking about locations even further afield.

Not the State of Wei but that of Cao. That massive kingdom that had risen decades before his own birth and had grown only larger since then. Their expansionist nature had seen them do battle with all the states close to their border, driving north, south, east and west until they had, finally, butted up against kingdoms that refused to bend.

Unlike many others, their own ruler was a cultivator; a powerful cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage at the very least. Potentially greater, if the rumors were to be believed. Unfortunately, the distance between their own kingdoms and the Cao ruler's own paranoia had guaranteed that it had stayed rumors.

For many years, they had grown quiescent. Desperate battles and a few resounding defeats had seen them set back, with only border skirmishes and a pair of concurrent civil wars in recently conquered kingdoms bloodying the blades of their army. But now, those old kingdoms had been pacified, the rulers - and the children and families - dealt with.

Now, their eyes wandered once again and their ruler's rumored Dao of Expansion, hungered.

Wu Ying passed on what he had heard, minor rumors, troop movements and consolidation of armies nearby. "Most interestingly, the Green Tiger has been moved to the north."

"The north?" Sect Head Yan said, surprised. "Then who controls the army?"

"No one, or so the rumors say." Wu Ying sipped at the tea again, continuing after he lowered the cup. "They train, of course, under the left and right colonels; they build up stores under the logistics general. But to control the western army... no one."

"This..." Eyes narrowed in though, the Sect Head next spoke carefully. "It is not common. But a few decades ago, Cao Tzin himself controlled his armies."

"That's how he established himself," Wu Ying said. "Rising through the army, gaining ranks and then overthrowing his own lord."

"Disastrous," the Sect Head said. No surprise the man saw little good to be had from an army cultivator committing regicide and setting himself upon the throne. Even the hint of such activity could see entire sects destroyed. If not for Cao Tzin's own distant relationship to the ruling family and their desire for expansion - and thus the need for good soldiers - they would have, should have, acted first. "You will inform me, if you hear anything further."

Wu Ying inclined his head in acknowledgment of the statement and his dismissal. Troubles to the east were a problem for the kingdom, the Sect Head and the State of Wei to deal with.

As for himself, he had issues much closer to his home to handle.