Stormy Mountain Sect Chapter 4

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

Enjoy!

*** AUTHOR'S NOTE ***

I already miss you, sis, I thought. Focus, pay attention to body and breathing like it said. I turned my attention back to the trance I’d fallen into. A few more minutes passed, then I was distracted by Nuan hitching her breath. I opened my left eye and looked at her, but she didn’t react beyond that single different breath. Fifteen more minutes of meditation, I wonder where we are now. Anything interesting out the windows? Have we passed the Tomlinson place yet? They were the farthest farm down the road to Shangye City. I took a peek out the window, but saw only trees as the carriage moved along the road. We weren’t moving quickly, since the majority of the people in the caravan were walking.

A dozen merchants were pulling wagons along behind the contingent of guards and sect members, paying for the privilege of traveling in relative safety. Young kids pestered the marching hopefuls. Haoyu was laughing while throwing a young boy into the sky, the five year old giggling and shouting, “Higher!”

I can do this, I thought, focusing inward again. Gotta pay for the right to ride the carriage and not walk. Come on, don’t disappoint mom. I counted out my breathe again, this time falling deeper into the trance. I suddenly gained a minute sense of my whole body, and of sparkling green lights flowing around me. Each breath seemed to attract more of the lights, focusing almost entirely on shimmering green orbs. They came closer, until the first merged into the skin on my right hand.

It burned for a second, making my hand cramp in pain, but there was no mark. No damage that I could see, and the pain proved just as fleeting. Huh, is that supposed to happen? I looked up at Elder Li Mei, who was conversing with Inspector Crane, though I could not hear a word they said. That is neat. Nuan was reading her scroll some more.

“Did you sense Qi?” I asked her.

“Yes, though there isn’t much Fire Qi around here,” she grinned at me. “But it’s enough for now. Now that I can sense it, this is telling me how to absorb it into my skin. We get to advance!”

“Yes you do,” Elder Li Mei laughed, her sound barrier apparently only one way. “But I doubt you will complete the first stage of Body Refinement today. We will be stopping in a few hours, and I will work with you both to assist you. Now, back to cultivating. It will take us nearly a month to reach the capital, and I want you both to have advanced at least to the Bone stage.”

“Good luck, kids,” Inspector Crane laughed.

“Thank you,” I said, bowing my head. Nuan copied me, the grin on her face infectious.

I spent the next twenty minutes sounding out words, reading the next stage of the technique. This is going to take a while, I thought, reading the description of how to use the Qi motes to purge toxins and strengthen my skin. The scroll used big words like impurities and heavenly blessings, but I’m pretty certain it was talking about the glowing balls of Qi I saw in my mind’s eye.

After reading the section in the scroll, I focused on cultivating. Slowly, I got better at dropping into the mental state where I could see the Qi around me, and followed the technique to carefully attract the Qi motes to places where I hadn’t been impacted by them yet. According to the scroll, it would take dozens of motes per square inch of my skin to fully refine that area, and only once I’d refined every bit of me would I actually advance. This is going to take ages! I thought. Another quick glance showed everyone else was engrossed in something. Oh well. Nothing for it but to continue.

Three hours passed slowly, so very slowly, but I was used to tedium. What I wasn’t used to was concentrating through tedium without making up silly stories in my head. Silly stories and cultivation don’t work together, at least at my level. Who knows? I asked myself after the fifth self-interruption I’d caused, when I fell into a daydream about Inspector Crane solving crimes. Maybe at the highest levels, telling silly stories will let me ascend. I grinned to myself before controlling my breathing yet again.

Finally, finally!, the carriage pulled off the road into a semicircular cutout that was a hundred yards wide. The area was unnaturally smooth, with a short, thick carpet of bright green grass. Dotting the clearing were yard-wide circles of stone. Some had stacks of wood inside or beside them, while other circles bore evidence of fires from previous nights. None of the fires, though, would have been lit anytime in the last few days.

“We will be spending the night here,” Inspector Crane announced to us, then he left the carriage quickly. Outside, he started yelling at the recruits to start setting up camp. The sergeants, men wearing slightly more ornate helmets at least, began cajoling and threatening the people who were hoping to join the army, which was the majority of people in our caravan.

The merchant wagons pulled in behind the carriage, and the slightly plump men and women leapt off the seats and started to unhook their horses or other beasts of burden.

“Follow me,” Elder Li Mei commanded. Nuan and I clambered out of the carriage. The smaller group of sect hopefuls were pulled into a rough circle by the sect assistants. I stopped at the edge of the circle when Elder Li Mei walked into the center. “After setting up camp,” she called out, “your sect superiors and I will be available to assist you in getting your cultivation journey started. You will focus on cultivating for at least two hours tonight before going to sleep. If you wish to stand a chance of surviving the sect, you must put your all into cultivation.”

“Two hopefuls per tent,” the oldest assistant said, then dropped a pile of tents on the ground. I stepped forward and grabbed one. Huanyo rushed over to help, and we quickly set up the simple tent in the location we were directed to.

“So, how was the carriage ride?” Huanyo asked.

“Long and tedious,” I said with a grin. “I’m sure the walk was much better.”

“Humph,” my friend glared at me. He only held it for a second before grinning. “Eh, the walk wasn’t that bad. Senior Lei did say that we would be picking up the pace in a few days, though. So, let’s get dinner and then I’ll ask his advice on the cultivation manual we got given.”

“How is it?” I asked.

“No idea,” he laughed. “I got too busy talking to try and read it while marching. So come on.” He left the tent quickly.

I followed after, and found a small bed roll laid in front of the tent. I threw it inside, then followed Huanyo and my nose to a large campfire. Senior Lei, I think, was cooking a stew in a massive pot that was suspended off the ground with a tripod. The flame forming underneath it, though, wasn’t coming from wood. The base of the tripod was projecting a flame into the pot. I stared wide eyed at the artifact, before Haoyu poked me.

A small line of people had formed to the side, and we quickly joined it. Nuan was near the front with another young woman, who was tall and willowy with platinum blonde hair and a kind face. They were talking quietly, and Nuan waved at me when I walked past. “Johnny!” Huanyo said, clasping wrists with a short, wiry guy with a pinched face, short black hair, and a squinty grin.

“Haoyu,” he responded. “And you must be Marc.”

“That I am,” I laughed, repeating Haoyu’s greeting.

“This guy hasn’t stopped talking about how his best friend is going to be a shooting star at the sect,” Johnny said. “I’m glad I got to meet ya.”

“Thanks,” I said, flustered by the attention. “I just got lucky, I guess.”

“Sure you did,” Haoyu said, “but that means we did too! See, we heard that the workers at the sect often are assigned to assist outer sect members. So you can request our help on things, and we can all earn more credits or points or whatever they call it.”

“I mean, sure,” I said with a grin. “As long as we can help each other, uh, that should be fine.” The other guys nodded at that with big smiles, then started to talk about some of the animals they’d seen on the trip so far.

Another young man got into line behind us, glaring at me with a sour look on his face. He was enormous, at least six and a half feet tall and covered in muscles. His beady eyes peeked out from beneath a strong brow, giving him a brutish look. “Hi,” I said, holding out my hand. “I’m Marc.”

“Don’t care,” he ground out.

“Be nice,” a young woman said behind him. “He’s Anthony, and I’m Xiulin. He’s just sour that you got to ride in the carriage rather than us.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t realize we took someone’s seat.”

“No, no,” she shook her head. “We spent too much time chatting and not enough time cultivating, so we were kicked out to give Elder Li Mei a better environment.”

“You still owe me, boy,” Anthony growled. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll decide to walk tomorrow.”

“Uh,” I frowned at him. “That will depend on Elder Li Mei’s desires. I doubt I could change her mind even if I asked.” I stepped forward and got a bowl of stew. I turned back to Haoyu, “I’m going to eat quickly then go cultivate some more.”

Haoyu gave me a nod, along with a fearful glance back at Anthony, “That makes sense. Come on.” He went to follow Johnny to a free spot to sit, and I followed after him.

“I’m not done talking to you,” the brute behind me said. Xiulin was tugging on his arm, looking embarrassed, but Anthony had his hand out and pointed at me.

I stopped and waited for a second, “Well, what else did you want to say? You made your threat, I ignored it, and now I’m going to eat.”

Anthony rushed at me with a growl, only to bow over his gut with a grunt as Senior Lei slammed the ladle into him. “There will be no physical altercations outside of training,” Senior Lei said formally. “Any attempt to do so will be punished.”

I nodded to him, not interested in following up on his statement. Everyone around us was stunned into silence as well, so I quickly took my leave. I rushed over to sit by Haoyu and then let out a long sigh. “Well, looks like I got an enemy now too.”

“At least he’s an idiot,” Haoyu said.“I can only hope,” I laughed, then tucked into the food.

We ate and chatted for twenty minutes or so, then I excused myself. The socialization was nice, but it quickly overwhelmed me. I was used to being mostly alone, only mom, Summer, and Samara around for the majority of the last few years.

The army hopefuls were sitting in several clusters, and a dozen young men were following some instructors around the edges of the clearing. When I got close to them, I heard the instructor talking about what to look for when on watch. “Don’t leave the clearing,” he said, looking over at me.

“Yes, sir,” I said.

He nodded at me, then turned back to his students. I changed direction and headed back to the tent I was sharing with Haoyu. He wasn’t there, so I spread out my bedroll then sat atop it. It took another ten minutes for me to get back into a good headspace and fall into the meditation I’d worked on all day.

The Qi balls were less dense in the air but still fairly thick, giving me little stings all over as I followed the technique’s guidance on moving my breath and energy. Gradually, though, I got better at moving the Qi around me, and started to pull it from farther away. No large breakthroughs occurred, but I was sure that one would be soon.

Finally, my meditation was broken by a giant yawn. I opened my eyes to see Haoyu had already gone to sleep. Okay, sleep time, I thought, then quietly got ready for bed.