The Fourth Fall - Chapter 25 preview (Patreon)

A week to set-up the building that would host their negotiations, The massive building, the awnings and outdoor seating, the manufactured gardens that would allow the speakers to sit, speak with one another quietly as points of contention were discussed in non-official settings.

For Wu Ying, that week was a quiet, if tense one. He could not cultivate deeply, forced to allow the Dragon's Breath cultivation method to pull wind chi from all around him as he stood around, watching the surroundings. He was, unfortunately, not excused from the various dinners and teas that went along as the various governments continued to discuss negotiating strategies and became familiar with one another and their stances.

In that sense, the tension grew as the Shen kingdom's greatest need were assurances - reinforced via cultivation promises and contracts and hostages - to ensure the peace of the future. On the other hand, the Wei were more concerned about border incursions, minor on-going conflict and the actual armies. They wanted the handover of land and certain forts, the dispersal of armies to other locations and gold and alchemical reparations.

Finding a common ground, so that the Cai could not exploit the difference between the groups, was important. In that sense, having the extra week of time was a boon to the states, but the necessity of negotiations were a bore. In truth, he would have preferred to skip out on them all together, but due to his exemplary performance in saving the Fourth Prince, he was forced to present himself.

All of which, of course, meant that he was present and often guarding the Fourth Prince.

"Tell me, Cultivator Long, what did you think of the Third Ambassador?" Ru Yuan asked, after a particularly long tea session on the seventh day. The rest of the group had been dismissed or had been moved away across the wide dining room, such that the two could speak.

"He seems competent," Wu Ying said. He idly noted the lack of honorifics, dropped somewhere in the last week or so on the regular. Not that the Fourth Prince of the kingdom he lived within and ostensibly served needed to call him Elder. He did, technically, outrank him.

"Daming with faint praise, you are," the Fourth Prince replied. "But you have more to say, do you not?"

"His aura control is impeccable. But he has spent too long on that, and forgets his physical control." Wu Ying touched his chest over his heart. "His breathing hitches a little, every time you catch him by surprise. His heart rate speeds up, and if you pressure him further, he actually begins sweating."

"And you sensed all this? Even though he was seated all the way over there?"

"A small thing." Wu Ying replied. It really was. Between his control of the wind and his ability to sense the physical shifts in another figure's body, he could read such minor things. Of course, cultivators at the higher level were able to still their physical tells and control themselves such that

But for someone at the Energy Storage stage like the Third Negotiator, he who spent more time waxing his mustache than focusing on the way he breathed? An easy read.

It was strange, exactly how much stepping from what was Core Formation to Nascent Soul - even if Body Cultivation didn't scale in that way, exactly - had deepened his connection to his element and himself. He was more the wind than ever, thus his innate perception of the space around him, thus his ability to disperse and merge and travel. Even with his other winds, he had never felt this connection. Or the other aspects of the world, the Heaven and Hell winds and the information they offered him.

Not that he would tell the Fourth Prince that. Some secrets were for others to keep. What did it matter, if the Third Negotiator enjoyed dressing in women's clothing? Even if Heavenly winds might object, and the Hells cared little; only wishing to know if another had been hurt.

"So, we'll move to have him dismissed. Or his role diminished." Ru Yuan drummed fingers on the arm of his chair as he thought, a bad habit that Wu Ying knew was as much studied to throw off perception as it was a true habit. "Have you managed to learn more about their patrols?"

"Nothing of import. Experienced soldiers, all from the main army. The Cai do not keep a standing royal guard, unlike us. They rotate their armies on the regular, ensuring that their men are experienced and blooded. Of course, recent times..."

"Not as many opportunities, yes. So, less blooded than normal?"

"Some. They have a larger percentage of veterans here than normal though." Wu Ying corrected. "They are also like locusts. Anything they can, they kill and collect. It must be truly dire, for them to stock up as much as they can now."

"The drought." The Fourth Prince did not seem surprised by Wu Ying's comment.

The cultivator assumed that was because the Wei had much better sources of knowledge of the Cai than himself. Or the Verdant Green Waters. It did raise uncomfortable questions though, about what they might choose to do. "Would they attack, or raid, even? To replace their food stock?"

"They already are." Ru Yuan turned his head to the side, to where the Wei's spirit instrument lay. "They want reparations, the return of their people from being slaves. As though they have a good accounting of who was taken." He rolled his eyes a little, at the idea of the Wei knowing which members of their mortal peasantry were enslaved. "At least we made them stop asking for the return of the stolen food."

"Can't return what's already eaten."

"Exactly." Ru Yuan smiled in agreement. "Doesn't stop the fools from asking."

"Are we ready then?" Wu Ying asked, curiously. He knew his own role was minor. He would not even be tasked to watch the Fourth Prince through the negotiations in all, at least not beyond the formal ceremonies and first few days. While the governments might have their own negotiations to conduct, the cultivators would speak too.

Or it would be that way, normally. Like his own showing against the Three Swords of Iron Pass, the flexing of cultivator strength was considered a ritualistic part of such negotiations. Just like parades of armies. Except, he did wonder, how that would work with the Cai. After all, they had not separated sect and government.

Perhaps... "Do you know, who we - I - will be tasked with managing?"

"Beyond myself?" Now Ru Yuan was amused, teasing. "And how did you envision managing your own opponent? A trading of pointers?"

"That is the traditional way."

"So violent. You'd think there was a better way for you cultivators, who are supposedly so much more advanced, have of dealing with your differences."

"We do." A slight smile then. "I believe Fairy Yang will be hosting a soiree. The Patriach of Six Flags will be reciting his poetry there. The Sect Head has indicated he will arrange a day, when the forecast is appropriate for us to paint." Now he rubbed his chin. "If my friend was here, he could offer tea."

"And you? Will you let them trawl through your compost piles?"

"Gifts of rare spirit herbs and pills."

"Oh, of course. You wouldn't want to show them something else, would you." The Prince's gaze turned to Wu Ying's hands, the ring that sat upon it. He smiled a little as Wu Ying closed his hand, posessively. "Quite the item. One worthy of a... prince."

"It is, isn't it," Wu Ying replied, inflecting not at all. "My counterparts?" Not opponents. That would imply a degree of animosity he would prefer not be true.

"Unknown. Our best guess would be some members of the bureaucracy or the army." He rubbed his chin, eyeing Wu Ying. "Since you'll likely be viewed more martially, probably a General or Colonel in their army."

For the first time, Wu Ying regretted not expanding his interest further. To become someone a little more cultured, as his martial sister had asked of him, encouraged him. He felt like he never had time, between cultivating, training his sword arts, gathering. Rushing from one to another, each discipline with the ability to consume entire lives. Always feeling a fraud, because he was not as good, as dedicated others.

And now, here, pigeon-holed as just another martial cultivator. As a fighter, a weapon whose equal was not a scholar or a minister, but another fighter, a soldier.

Was that all he was to others? Not a farmer, not someone who grew or built; but a weapon?

A moment, and Wu Ying's view of himself and the world wavered. His belief system twisted and the winds picked up all around the palace, through the room itself, agitated by his twisting of his own perceptions. Perception led to self, self to ego, ego to dao. For a moment, he teetered on the edge of collapse, then, he pulled back.

Remembered that the viewpoints of others did not change who he was. Regret, certainly, the past. But if he was going to break because of past regrets, he had so many more that were more worthy to break him. Parents, left behind for a decade as they aged. A Master that he had led to injury and death. Friends who had sacrificed more than him, fingers, eye, arm and life. Oh yes, the lives of those who had fallen, their cultivation broken.

The world breathed, the wind flexed in time with the rise and fall of his chest. Centered again, Wu Ying looked down at the Fourth Prince who stared up at Wu Ying, wary and puzzled and calculating.

"Your Highness." A bend of the head, and the cultivator stepped back. Disappeared, retreating as he sought to understand what happened. Wonder what vulnerability he had exposed. What vulnerability that he had.

***

"Elder Long." The Sect Head took a seat across from Wu Ying, nodding a little to Yang Mu who had shown them in. Fa Yuan joined the group, crossing her legs demurely on the floor at the other side of the table, all four sides now filled. She nodded as Wu Ying floated over the tea set, the snacks that were necessary.

Even if this was not a social call.

"Sect Head," Wu Ying greeted as well. He could guess his reason for coming, though he chose not to lead the conversation. Not yet.

"The disruption earlier today. That was you, yes?" Sect Head Yan Shu Ren was brusque, not feeling the need to bandy words around. Uncomfortably serious.

"Yes."

"Oh, Ah Ying..." Fa Yuan said, both sad and unsurprised at the same time. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" he said, defensively. "I just... a moment of indecision. A reflection on my path."

"Dangerous," Shu Ren muttered. Then, eyes narrowing in thought, the Sect Head turned to the tea that Yang Mu was brewing. She knew better than to let Wu Ying at the teapot. He said nothing, though his oppresive silence stilled any further conversation till he had a teacup in hand. "You have no Master."

"I..."

"Master Cheng..."

Shu Ren held a hand up, forestalling both. "He is not here. Dead, probably. Injured till death, at best." He turned to Fa Yuan, peered at her in a way that would cause another to blush in embarrassment, if his assessment was not so cold, so clinical. Then again, what he saw was even deeper than skin deep. "What I say now, he should have spoken of. Though, perhaps, he knew not himself. His path was always narrower."

"What are trying to say? That what happened to me was... expected?" Wu Ying asked.

"In a way. It is a danger of one like you. Your martial sister, she is more stable. She has taken a more orthodox approach, a slower approach to improvement. She has ascended, by building a fortress of certainty beneath her, checking each step of the way as she climbed." He turned and regarded Wu Ying, turning that same gaze upon him. "Yours is a different path, a flightier path. You chose an element that has no firm backing, that is all wind and air, clouds and whim alike."

"Like yourself, Sect Head." Stung, Wu Ying replied.

"In a way."  Shu Ren pointed his pinky at Wu Ying, the same one still holding his teacup before him as he inhaled the scent of tea and flower petals. "We speak of you, and secrets about the greater levels of cultivation." He turned to Yang Mu then. "Please, feel free to add anything you might know."

"Me, Sect Head Yan?" Yang Mu said, surprised.

"Yes, you, Elder Yang. Few have your access, after all." Another smile, then he turned to Wu Ying fully. "Understand, by climbing so far, by ascending via Body Cultivation; your soul is wavering. At this juncture, so close to integration, you are vulnerable. Some, more than others, of course. I feel that those who do cultivate the body instead of the soul are even more so."

"Vulnerable to what?" Fa Yuan asked. She too had a cup before her, though hers lay untouched as she plucked a delicate tea cake from the plate and bit into it after speaking.

"Cultivation deviation. Dao disruption. Soul break." Shu Ren said the words so easily that caused the trio who listened to him to shiver in existential dread. "Numerous terms for the same thing. When one's cultivation is broken, because what we know - what we built our dao upon - comes into conflict with the reality of existence."

"Why am I more vulnerable, now?" Wu Ying said, frowning. "And why not after?"

"The first is easy. You have not integrated soul and body together." Placing the teacup down, Shu Ren held his hands up, fingers splayed. He drew them in together, so that they were bare cun apart, so close that a piece of paper might have slipped between the fingers, but not two. "The closer you come, to integrating them, the more dangerous, for even a minor deviation in one or the other," now he allowed his right hand to tremble, to back away and then come again, "is a disruption. For once you touch," and now the fingers did touch, but not clasp, "you must finish." Hands closed, into a tight grip. "Or break." He twisted his hands in opposite direction, straining his own fingers before he released both.

"Gripped tight, enclosed, you cannot break apart. Now, though, you are vulnerable. Seperated, but still changing, vibrating. Your body is solid, firm. Your soul, not so." A tilting of his head to Fa Yuan. "Your martial sister is the opposite, of course."

"Why have I never heard of this before?" Fa Yuan asked, curiously.

"As I said, your Master should have spoken to you. If not him, then myself. Though I had thought Elder Long was firmer in his convictions of self." He shrugged. "A mistake on my part. It is not unusual, for those who have risen fastest to be most unstable."

"I..." Wu Ying frowned, sat back and chose not to speak. Instead, he considered what had been said, the feeling of his own dao twisting underneath him, his sense of self breaking. Silence fell over the group, as the two cultivators of the Verdant Green Waters considered what had been related to them.

Surprisingly, it was Yang Mu who broke the silence after a time. "It was not how my parents related the matter to me. Then again, they are dual cultivators." She shrugged. "They lean upon one another, to progress themselves. So, I fear, they are more stable in that regard."

"And what did they say?" now the Sect Head was curious. No surprise, for the words of another pair of Nascent Soul cultivators were like water to parched lips in a desert of information at this stage. So few managed to reach this stage, so few spoke to one another, feeling their own experiences unique. Truth, too, of course, but a lie too. As all facts inevitably were.

"A soul at the Nascent Soul stage has refined its viewpoint, encompassed a portion of the dao and the understanding of it to a deep extent. It has become that portion of the dao, and in so doing, gained the strength of that understanding," Yang Mu said. "There is a danger to that, though, for the Dao is not our understanding. It cannot be. When we come into conflict with that understanding, we are in danger. Our worldview attempts to take into account the Dao, and in this expansion, we put our cultivation and all that we worked for at risk."

Wu Ying turned, looking back and forth between the two. At first glance, the pair of explanations were in conflict with one another. Certainly, his own soul cultivation had been fed upon the amorphorous beliefs, the experiences of the Dao and his own travels and experiences as strained through his cultivation and the Formless Body. He should have no spiritual dao to twist.

The Sect Head's own explanation made more sense to him, instinctually. If his own soul was in flux, the Formless Body and his dao amorphorous, he could at times experience this twisting, this period where he felt unmoored as it attempted to find some form of stability.

Yet, that was wrong too. For what he had experienced was closer to what Yang Mu had described. Perhaps, in the end, the truth was somewhere in-between. A reflection of his own circumstance and the disparate viewpoints and circumstances of his advisor. It was not, something that could be managed at this moment.

"Thank you. To both of you," Wu Ying eventually replied. He bowed from his waist. "I will meditate on this matter and consider how best to guard myself against such occurences."

"Blind yourself boy. And reinforce that soul. The faster you can achieve stability, the better," Shu Ren said, firmly.

"Remember who you are. Accepting we are mortal is the first step of understanding the Dao, in any form." Yang Mu added.

Again, he bowed. Fa Yuan, who had listened through all this silently, held a hand up. "You are not balanced. Even I can see that, though I neither have the Sect Head's experience or the insight of elders. If you find that balance within, you will be safer." She considered, then nodded to herself. "I shall look into what might be done to aid that."

"And me," Yang Mu piped up.

He offered a smile to the two women, even as the Sect Head stood. "Tomorrow will be the first day. Rest well, for now."

"Yes, Sect Head." Wu Ying stood too, leading the man and Fa Yuan to the door.

"One other thing." The man turned just before he stepped out of the room.

"Yes, Sect Head?"

"They likely already know your cultivation level. We no longer have that advantage."

"My apologies, Sect Head." Wu Ying bowed his hand, only for the man to shrug dismissively.

"It is what it is. We shall endure."

"Of course."

Another nod, a turning of the head and the Sect Head was gone, returned to his rooms. Leaving Fa Yuan who reached out, gripping Wu Ying's arm.

"Worry not. You are not the first to experience this, it is clear. I have faith you will find your way through, even if the current path is littered with even more traps than we had expected."

"Thank you, martial sister." Now he laughed, softly. "Perhaps I should have taken your advice and slowed down."

"Perhaps. Not even the Heavens know the future though."

One more inclination of the head, and Wu Ying watched as she too left, more sedately. Leaving him behind with Yang Mu, whose silent support was as loud as the words spoken. He would find his way forwards.

Somehow.