A Peasant’s Guide To Sorcerery: 17 (Patreon)

A Peasant’s Guide To Sorcerery: 17

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Commissioned by Ichypa

Wordcount: 2500

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Interlude: Su

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All my life, I have craved power.

From the moment that I was cast out of the brothel where I was born, because my mother perished…

From the moment that I first felt hunger so deep that even mud looked appetizing...

From the moment that men began to stare at me…

I wanted the power of immortals, and their disciples, so that I could live without hunger and terror.

Yet, now, I had that power, and it frightened me too.

Every day, I awakened in the presence of true power.

“Good morning, Su!” His name is Zhao Zhang. Though he wore the clothes of a peasant farmer, his skin was unblemished, his teeth straight, and hair fine. Amongst those of the wealthy and powerful, he would be considered normal, but from where I came he would’ve been considered handsome indeed. He smiled at me and gestured at a bowl of porridge laden with ingredients at the top. “Eat up! It’s almost time for you to train!”

He offered me food with the same hand with which he used to kill people with a gesture.

I still saw that moment sometimes. When I closed my eyes, I saw those I allied with to rob others ripped apart. Their blood and insides splattered against me, and after I heard their bodies being turned into mulch. Then, after that, with a touch he changed my body and granted me all the power that I’d ever wanted.

And, I could do nothing to him.

“Thank you, Lord Zhang.” I gave a deep bow and accepted my food. The lessons ingrained into me at the Fei’yen household allowed me to react to him with some semblance of control. I wanted to run away and hide, but I knew that I could not. Not because of him, but because of the person whom I owed my life to. “Is Lady Ying already training?”

“Yep! She’s training already. She told me to tell you to meet her at the new training ground.” The new training ground was beneath the land. A vast world beneath the world itself where bloomed a massive tree from which divine monsters were born. Like something out of myth and legend, but made by the young man my age who called himself a farmer. “Go ahead and eat, so that you can train well!”

All that power and strength, yet without an ounce of hatred and spite in his eyes.

I accepted the meal gingerly and ate it.

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I ran.

I climbed.

I held position after position with ever-increasing weight.

All the while, Lady Ying instructed me.

“The path of immortality requires a strong vessel with all impurities purged. Normally, that would take a lifetime, but we have both been granted perfect bodies by Lord Zhang.” While I climbed the side of a mountain, weights hanging from my waist, she hopped from one rock to another and stood straight with even the slightest of footholds. Her black hair was straight and fell to her waist, her visage was bereft of cosmetics, yet her skin was almost as pale as porcelain and her features were both womanly and sharp. A lethal beauty. “However, while I have the mind and spirit necessary to harness it, you do not.”

I climbed upward, further scaling the mountain crafted by Zhang, while my teacher followed.

“To pursue immortality is to invite disturbance into your body. The stronger the vessel, the greater the chance of disunity between mind, body, and spirit, especially with strong energies taken in from the outside.” Effortlessly, without her breath being shaken, she leapt upward “You are blessed with food created by a great sorcerer, so you have no reason to fear from intaking impurities, but it is your mind and spirit that may be lacking.”

She was correct.

Though I climbed with a boulder at my back, it was not my strength that was failing me, nor tiredness creeping into my bones.

It was fear and exhilaration both.

The fear of failure, despite it being impossible, was wracking my mind. I should not be here. My senses screamed at me that what I was doing was impossible. My hands should not be able to find purchase in stone. I shouldn’t be able to climb so effortlessly with a great weight tied at my waist. My mind screamed that I was going to die.

And, if I believed it, then would break, falter, and fall to my death.

Then, there was my soul, which was filled with bravery and excitement. It told me to surge forward, to leap forward and bury my hands into the surface of the stone, and let nothing stop me. I should go with all my strength and power, unleash everything that I have, and show the world entire that I am peerless and skilled.

If I do that, then I will rip apart my body, or even simply stumble and fall.

The lives of immortals was one of constant balance, of handling energy and power as vessels meant to contain immortality. A crack in the vessel will mean death. The intermingling of wrong energies means death. A lack of balance between the mind, the spirit, and the body meant one form of madness or another, until death.

The path of immortality is a way of life that demanded constant, eternal discipline.

The moment I that understood that, I understood why the immortals took over so many lands, held themselves above so many people, and went to war over anything that would help them progress in their studies.

It was all for the sake of making their grave and terrible task easier.

However, that itself led me to another terrible understanding of the immortals.

All our lives would be bereft of so much suffering, if they did not choose to undertake the path of immortality.

I reached the summit of the immense wall, turned, and began to carefully lift up the boulder that had been tied to my waist. Every move had to be careful. The rope in my hands could break under my grip. The muscles in my arms could exert too much and break me apart. The extremes of effort that immortals could do, where they sacrificed their bodies for a brief moment to achieve victory, were frighteningly easy to achieve, and Lady Ying was adamant that I learn how to not use it, to not drink from that well of strength, unless I absolutely needed to.

When I finished dragging up the boulder and laid it by my side, Lady Ying nodded.

“Now, it will be time to rest and then you will bathe and then mediate before the midday meal.” After training the body, it was time to train the mind and the spirit. That required silence, concentration, and rest, but with purpose. The days have long passed since I could simply lie my head on the ground and close my eyes. Now, even rest had a purpose, making another mark against the path of immortality. “Begin.”

Nothing could be simple anymore.

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Yuen came from a lineage of dragon-blooded warriors and held the position of archivist within the city.

The latter alone should’ve meant that our paths would never cross.

Yet, now, I often found her peering at me, while I trained with a spear.

“Ying not letting you use a sword yet?” Her comments were simple, but time and time again they somehow struck me with indignation. At first, I didn’t know why. Such words should be easy to ignore. Then, I realized the truth of the matter. My emotions were sharper and reached higher highs and lower lows. Now, I was much like many of those sect students who walked through districts who could be insulted with far too much ease. Yuen goaded me with the intent of increasing my threshold, so I would not be like those people. “Still stuck with a peasant’s weapon?”

For the first few times that this happened, I simply ignored her, but found that to be ineffective.

My hearing is sharper and my memory far better.

I would hear her words and my blood would boil with indignity, until I forced myself to let it go and only to limited success until I meditated.

Sometimes, even that would not work.

So, I answered her now.

“Once I can use this weapon, I will be learning another. Lady Ying will decide when I begin using the sword.” Discipline and understanding was being inscribed into my mind, as well as an understanding of the weapons I would face. Spears were the most common weapon, as they were easy to make even with a sharpened stone and a length of wood. Not only that, but two amateurs, one armed with a spear and the other a sword, would see the one armed with a spear be the typical winner. I needed to know how to use it and counter it. “And, there are many Sect leaders who use this weapon.”

“Well, not that one in particular. Their spears are made of meteoric iron, conduct their energies, and pretty much act like swords when you’re struck by the shaft.” Yuen regaled me with her knowledge. This was easier to withstand than her little, sharp words. This was information. Things that I should know as a student of a Sect, which I had to feign being. No one would believe that I achieved all my strength and power in a single day. “You best be wary… the weaknesses you’re looking for in a spear might not exist with the people you might fight.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I readied my weapon. With the spear, striking was a matter of angles, which changed with how it was held. Then, there was also the matter of how much was committed with a strike. Would it be a short jab, a small swing, a feint, or something else? Lady Ying instructed me to focus on attacking first, and to analyze how to defend against it from the other side. Use the pointy end and think about how to avoid it. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome!”

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I froze in place as a presence threatened to overwhelm completely and utterly.

“Ah, there you are. The former thief.” Bai was such a simple name, yet it was engraved into my mind. The first and most eminent of the creatures being born from the immense tree that Zhang had crafted was at my back. Hers was an ethereal beauty filled with strength and power. More an empress, rather than mere nobility. Though she smiled and that smile reached her eyes, I could feel a ferocity from her. Every instinct I had told me to supplicate and bow… and I did. My forehead connected with the dirt of the road where I had been simply walking. “Ah. You understand. Good. Now, continue to listen and heed my words.”

I was not allowed to speak, so I did my best to nod, even while maintaining my position.

That seemed to satisfy the immensely powerful creature.

“My creator and master spared you at the behest of the sword-user that owes her life to him. I see that you are working hard to make use of the gift you have been given, and that Lady Ying intends to take responsibility for your life.” I already knew what the creature’s intentions were. This was an ultimatum. “If you misuse that gift that you have given, know that I shall personally deal with you. Not your master.”

I once again tried to nod, then felt the pressure lift off me.

The pressure itself was akin to the pointed stares a received from men as I grew up. However, while those stares made my stomach turn over, the pressure display by Bai was all my heightened senses screaming that I was about to die. While the stares of those lecherous gazes were like sickly prods by stick, Bai’s glare was like a hammer crushing me from above. It was like she could kill me simply by overriding my senses with intent, and convincing my body that I was already dead.

“You may stand now.” I did as I was bid by the creature and she gazed upon me, while I stood straight and at attention. I only hoped that I was being subservient enough in her presence. A moment later, she threw something at me, and I caught it. “I have observed you, and I have seen only the desire to improve and understand the strength that you have been given. Unless you do wrong, you have nothing to fear from me. You do not have ill intent and do not reach beyond your station. You know where you stand.”

Bai conflicted against Lady Ying and Yuen both because of their intentions towards Zhang.

I, meanwhile, wanted to prove myself worthy of what I was given, harness it, and be away from this place to live as earnestly as I could.

All that surrounded that man was beyond my ability.

Thus, I looked at what I was given by the divine creature, and found a simple jewel in my hand.

“My master bid me to protect him and his people. You are amongst them, until you decide otherwise. Crush that in your hand when you are in danger, and you will be saved.” No hint of hesitation. No hint of fear. If I crushed the marble I was given, she would save me, no matter the foe I came up against. Looking at her, I felt that what she said was true. I couldn’t think of a single threat that this woman could not save me from. “I bid you good day. Fulfill your obligations and do no wrong, and you will never have to speak to me again.”

And, with those words, she left my presence and I fell to my knees, slickened all over with sweat from terror.

I need to run away.

This place was a madhouse. No. It was a nexus of change that the whole world will twist and turn around upon. Even with all I had no, I had no place here. The places that they went, the stories that they were forging from their lives, were not places I could reach nor go. My life would end simply and quickly at the slightest sign of trouble amongst these people, and I did not wish to perish as an afterthought… or become a risk in their number.

Without a semblance of a doubt, I will leave this place as soon as I am able.