Stormy Mountain Sect Chapter 8

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Sorry this is later than I wanted to. Wasn't feeling great the last two days. Anyway, here ya go!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Nothing else interrupted our walk. We exited the Trading District, and the warehouses and shops turned into manor houses and dormitories. Soon enough, we left the walls, and stood before the mountains. The road split, with everyone but us going to the right and climbing a massive staircase or a series of switchbacks next to it. A much smaller staircase led upwards on the left, still nearly a mile away.

Elder Li Mei stopped and turned. “Those of you who wish may skip the trial ahead. If you were selected to be a worker you will be met on the first level, while Outer Sect selectees will be met on the second. You will see a disciple holding a silver sign.” She waited for a second.

“Uh, Elder Li Mei, ma’am.” I took a deep breath. “What do we get for completing the trial?”

“Good,” she smiled at me. “You did not lose your spirit with my display earlier.” She grinned wickedly at the noble boy, who turned even paler and kept his gaze looking at the dirt. “The stairway ahead of us is the Path of Trials. It is only available to climb once a year. If you are hoping to join the sect as a worker and you take the trial, you will have to climb fifty steps. If you fail, you will be told to return to your homes and return next year. Outer Sect hopefuls, you must climb one hundred and fifty steps. If you fail, you will become a worker.”

I gulped at that, suddenly worried about my position. “However, if you succeed, you will be granted ten points for every step you had to climb, and you may seek to go higher still. Workers who manage to climb two hundred steps will be promoted to the Outer Sect, as you will have shown your mettle and determination is sufficient to overcome your lower talent. Outer Sect disciples who climb three hundred steps will be inducted into the Inner Sect without having to place highly in the yearly tournament.”

She smiled sweetly at us, “You will not be hurt should you fall, and your final position will determine how many points you earn, so give it your all.” Her face grew stern. “You will all do well, or I will be irate.”

“Yes Elder!” I shouted, along with my friends and frenemies. The noble, who still hadn’t given anyone his name, just his fathers, glowered at the ground. Weeds and locusts, he’s going to hate us for witnessing his embarrassment. Great, not only do I have Anthony as an annoyance, now I got to deal with stupid noble problems too. I just want to be a good disciple and make money for my family! Hail and drought!

Four of the worker hopefuls left, joining the crowd heading up the stairs. The rest of us followed Elder Li Mei to the base of the steps. Two other Elders were there with their own followers, with a total of nearly forty people hoping to take the test. “You may not assist anyone in stepping up. You may not cause someone to fall down. If you assist someone in walking up the stairs, you will have to walk ten additional steps without it being counted. If you push someone down, your result and theirs will be swapped,” Elder Li Mei said.

Her voice sounded in my ear, “The farther you climb, the stronger you will get. Each step past the first fifty is worth the same as cultivating for an hour in the carriage. Reach two hundred and I believe you will advance from Muscle Refinement to Tendon Refinement. Do not disappoint me.”

I nodded sharply, and saw every other Outer Disciple Hopeful but noble idiot nod as well. We can’t help them up or make them fall, but nothing was said about preventing a fall. Well, nothing about preventing them from stepping up either, but I wouldn’t risk that. Let’s just make sure Nuan and Huanyo do well.

I hung back, letting Nuan go ahead of me. She took the first step, her foot splashing in the water that ran down the staircase. I looked up, and at each step the amount of water increased. It wasn’t immediately noticeable, but just before the first landing at fifty steps, I thought the water would be at my knees. She stumbled for a second, before recovering. Her back straightened, and she marched up. That’s my girl, I thought, then followed after her.

The first step was like stepping into the worst storm of my childhood. Rain pounded on me, completely unexpected and invisible from only a step behind me. I trudged upward, the water rushing down the stairs attempting to disrupt my footing. In only a few steps I’d caught up to Nuan, and I reduced my forward motion to make sure I was two steps behind her.

We marched upward, the rain getting harder with each step. By the twentieth, I was shivering from the cold. The rain wasn’t turning to snow or sleet, but it was just barely warm enough that it wouldn’t freeze. Thirty steps up, and I had to be careful of my steps. No, I won’t give up. This is nothing. What about the hailstorm five years ago? I had to run into it, covering all of our vegetables with blankets. My arms and back were bruised for weeks. This is nothing. I repeated to myself, keeping my eye on Nuan’s back.

I have to be ready to help her, I thought. Her family was much more well off than mine, and I don’t know if she can walk through the rain like this. I marched after her, unwilling to look away and risk missing her moment of weakness. Step after step, until we reached the worker platform.

Suddenly, the rain stopped and there was no more water pushing at our shins. The sun was shining brightly, not quite noon yet. The sudden juxtaposition of storm and clear confused me for a bit. “Welcome to the worker pavilion,” a beautiful young woman said. “Feel free to stop here, and enjoy the fruits of your labor.” A long table was set with dozens of fruits and pastries, the smell of which reminded me we hadn’t eaten for several hours now.

“Thank you for the offer,” I said. “But I will continue to advance.”

“Good luck!” She called out, then turned and repeated her offer of rest to the next person in line.

“You’re prettier anyway,” I told Nuan.

“And you are a silly boy,” she said, but I could hear her happiness in her voice.

The first step above the worker pavilion nearly ended my climb. The sudden, massive increase in wind and rain blowing into my face just about sent me tumbling, but I managed to catch myself. An instinctive surge of my qi, the tiny amount that had infiltrated my body already, strengthened my back and legs. The surge of strength faded quickly, but it was enough for me to catch my balance.

Nuan followed after me. She braced quicker than I did, having noticed my flailing. “Ready?” I asked.

“Let’s go,” she grinned.

“Wait for me!” Haoyu shouted.

“Catch up!” I shouted back, then stepped up. The temperature dropped, and in between the raindrops occasional pieces of hail pelted me. Nuan was rubbing her arms, trying to get some semblance of warmth from the friction.

“Let’s hurry,” she said, her teeth chattering.

I nodded, and we ran for a few dozen steps. Haoyu grumbled, but when I looked back he was right behind us. My muscles were quivering, qi flowing into me from the rain. Plants need water and dirt to grow, I thought. I’ll need to cultivate someplace with extra Earth Qi to balance this out, I think. Maybe. Or maybe I’m just making up stuff to distract myself from the cold!

The hundred steps to the Outer Sect pavilion passed both in an instant and in what felt like weeks. The monotonous climb stressed me in ways I hadn’t ever been stressed before, but I was used to pushing myself beyond what I thought I could do. Two thirds of the way to the pavilion, Haoyu stumbled, then he washed down the steps in a surge of Water and Storm Qi. I could hear his shouts, first alarmed and then excited as he whooped in glee.

“Typical Haoyu,” Nuan laughed. “Too excitable for his own good.”

“Almost there,” I said. “Ready to be a disciple of the Stormy Mountain Sect?”

“I still think I’m in a dream,” she said. “But who said I’m going to stop on the next pavilion?”

“Well, then, let’s go,” I grinned, then sped up again. She yelped, then ran past me, only to stagger forward when we hit the pavilion. The lack of resistance almost caused her to fall, but she was able to recover well enough.

“Congratulations on making it this far,” a young man said. “Feel free to stop and enjoy your winnings.” He gestured to a table loaded with even more sumptuous foods and drinks. Beyond the table was a pool, where a dozen young men and women played. “Of course, this is only available today!”

“We’re good, going to keep going!” Nuan yelled, then stomped past the table.

“Good luck!” He said with a smile.

I hurried after her, laughing out loud when the attendant winked at me. Nuan glanced back at me, then made a face. “Catch up!” She told me.

“Brace for the first step!” I yelled back.

The first step past the Outer Sect had the rain transition to sleet with occasional hail. The temperature plummeted, and we pushed forward. Each step took significant strength, the wind pushing against us as strong as any storm I’d ever been in. Each movement forward required me to break the wind, and after a few steps I tried to get in front of Nuan to help her out.

“It’s not helping,” she said after my third attempt. “The wind doesn’t care that you are in front of me, it still hits me just the same.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“Don’t be. The wind is stirring my inner fire, and I can feel myself getting closer to advancing with each second we’re up here,” she grinned. “Come on, two hundred twenty steps is what Elder Li Mei said for me to advance, and I won’t accept a step less!”

“Then let’s go,” I said. Each step brought more qi into my body, and I quickly learned to push it to my skin. The cold and hail stopped being as difficult, but each step was harder than the last, and my legs were already shaking from the strain.

“I will not give up!” Nuan growled, leaning into the wind and struggling for her next step. I glanced behind me to see that Johnny had managed to make it to the hundred and seventieth step, but he then immediately collapsed at the next one. Another five people he didn’t recognize filled the steps between where Johnny fell and where I stood, all of them wearing the robes we’d been given to signify that we were of the Outer Sect. I didn’t recognize one of them, but farther down I saw Xiulan and Alexander moving in lockstep like Nuan and I were.

“Come on,” I said. “We can make it to the Inner Sect now.”

“Sure thing,” she panted.

We booked the two hundredth step, and I could feel the Qi flowing through me reach a barrier. I stopped, standing still and focusing on how the Qi was moving through my body. I mentally redirected a few bits, and felt when every bit of my musculature was enfolded with the Qi. A surge of Qi shot through me, and I advanced from Muscle Refinement to Tendon Refinement.

My muscles were stronger, but also became significantly more tired than they had been. I will not give up! I growled to myself, then moved after Nuan, who had already gone up four steps in the time I’d been working on advancing.

“You did it! Now watch me advance too,” Nuan said, having felt the wave of Qi from me.

“I can’t wait,” I said, then stepped forward. The Qi flowing into me from the storm focused on the tendons connecting my bones together. I was amazed at how I could feel what was going on in my body, almost like I could see everything inside me from a position just beyond my form.

Five more steps had my muscles quivering in agony, but I’d worked myself beyond what I thought I could do many times in the last few years. When dad died and mom was crippled, a lot of the work on the farm had fallen to Samara and I, and I’d had to work beyond what I thought I could many, many times since then. So continuing on, even when my body wanted to do nothing else but lay down and sleep was doable. It wasn’t easy, but nothing in my life had been since dad died.

The surge of Qi on the two-hundred and fifteenth step surprised me, but Nuan grinned. “I did it,” she said, then she fell down. Water encapsulated her and pulled her down. “Don’t stop!” She screamed back at me as she was pulled past.

“I won’t!” I yelled back, but I knew I was near my peak. Still better than anyone else, except maybe noble idiot, I thought. With a glance, I saw the noble was walking up the stairs, twenty five steps behind me but marching at what he probably thought was a noble cadence. I shook my head, then continued up.

The exhaustion of advancing gripped me tight, and without Nuan’s presence to bolster my flagging endurance, I only made it to the two hundred and forty second step before collapsing. The wave of Storm Qi that picked me up was warmer than I expected, and I was wrapped in a cocoon of warm water. A minute later, I was washed onto a small platform beside the young man who was manning the Outer Sect pavilion.

He looked at a stone tablet, then at me, “Congratulaitons! That is the highest I have seen an Outer Sect disciple make in the last two years. Two thousand, four hundred, and twenty points is a significant starting bonus. Do not worry, I am oathbound not to speak of what you have achieved here. Come, enjoy the bounty the sect had prepared to welcome you to its ranks.”

“I think I’ll lay here for a minute,” I said, laughing.

He laughed. “I am Rowan, and I do believe you are someone to watch.”

“I am Marc,” I said. “It is good to meet you.”

“Would you like a drink that will revilatize you?”

“Sure.”

Rowan poured a small amount of a bright blue liquid into a small cup, then approached my prone body. I struggled to a sitting position, and then he handed it to me. “Careful, it has quite a kick,” he said.

I nodded, then threw it down. I started to cough immediately, as it was as bad as teh one time I’d tried straight vodka as a kid. After a few seconds, though, my limbs stopped feeling like noodles, and I was able to stand. “Thank you,” I said, bowing after standing up.

“I am just doing my job,” he said. “As a fellow Outer Sect disciple, just remember to do your best, and watch out for the Yellow Flower and Stone Shark gangs.” His face grew distant for a second. “Be careful.”

Nuan wrapped her arms around my neck, leaping onto me from behind. “We made it! We’re part of the Stormy Mountain Sect now!” She exclaimed in my ear.

“Yes we did,” I said, swinging her around in a circle.

Rowan grinned, pouring another cup of the drink he’d given me before, and then a second one for Nuan. “Today you celebrate, and we celebrate with you. Tomorrow, the real work begins.”

I grinned and took the proffered cup, and then Nuan and I tapped our glasses together before drinking it down.