Chapter 5: Tao Part I

Merchant Hua had talked for nearly an hour, and Tao didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t care about the price of silk in the capital; he didn’t care about the fat man’s daughter’s wedding, which was supposed to take place next month; he didn’t care about any of it.

Tao stared at the trees on either side of the road.

The forest was thick here – a good place for spirit beasts to lurk. He’d kept his spiritual sense spread throughout the surrounding area, sensing any anomalies in the qi flow.

So far, nothing.

However, the mission scroll stated that spirit beasts were known to haunt this route. That was why Village Elder Wan had taken the job posting from the town board. The payment was twenty silver taels to ensure that Merchant Hua arrived safely at the next town. Twenty silver taels could provide rice for the entire village for two months.

Tao was the only person in Falling Leaf Village who could accomplish jobs such as this. He was only nine years old, but six months ago he had reached the third level of Qi Condensation, which meant that as a result, he was the most powerful cultivator in the village.

Village Elder Wen used to be an eighth layer Qi Condensation cultivator but now, after a life-threatening injury, was only a first-layer cultivator.

Aunt Ming, who owned the local medicine hall, was a second-layer cultivator.

All the others were mortals.

Three years prior to this, Tao had developed his spiritual roots when he was six years old while working in the rice paddies with the other children. He had pulled weeds in the hot sun, when suddenly something had shifted in the air around him. Tao could feel something flowing through the air, like water, but it wasn’t water. That same evening the village elder tested him, confirming that Tao had spiritual roots, and that he could sense qi.

That was supposed to be a good thing. According to the stories, children with strong spiritual roots were discovered by great sects and became powerful cultivators, capable of flying on swords and living forever.

However, that was not what happened to Tao.

The sect recruiters passed through Falling Leaf Village once every three years. Tao was too young during the last recruitment. The next recruiter visit wouldn’t occur for a few months. Also, even when they visited, Tao knew that they probably wouldn’t recruit him. Sect recruiters typically only recruited children with good spiritual roots. Tao had tested his spiritual roots with Elder Wan. They were average. Average wasn’t good enough to attract the attention of the big sects.

So, Tao would stay in the village. Since he could cultivate and since he was now stronger than everybody else, it was his duty to protect them, to earn money for them, to perform the difficult tasks.

Tao didn’t mind. The villagers had cared for him after his parents died of fever when he was four. The village had provided him food when he needed it. Aunt Ming gave him food. Uncle Zhao allowed him to sleep in the storage room behind the general store. The other children had given him their clothing when he grew too large for his own.

Now, Tao could repay the village for caring for him. That was only fair.

“And the bride’s gown,” Merchant Hua continued, “oh you should see it! Imported silk from the south province, finest quality! The embroidery alone cost thirty taels!”

Tao produced a small noise so that the merchant thought he was paying attention. He was not paying attention. He was monitoring the qi around them. There was a disruption in the qi flow ahead. Something had affected the natural flow. Maybe spirit beasts.

Tao had learned how to fight from Old Man Gao. Before Old Man Gao’s legs had become too crippled to support his weight, he had worked as a militia guard. He knew practical fighting skills. He was familiar with basic combat techniques and how to balance himself. He also understood how to conserve his energy, avoid excessive motion.

“Hit hard, hit first, keep punching until the attacker can no longer move,” Old Man Gao had instructed him. “All those sect cultivators forget the basics. They believe that qi techniques will solve all problems. But a punch to the throat will knock out anybody, whether they are a cultivator or a mortal.”

For two years, Tao trained with Old Man Gao each evening. His hands and fingers were now hardened. His shins were bruised from training (conditioning), hitting the wooden post located behind Uncle Zhao’s store repeatedly, until his bones became as hard as steel.

The disturbance in the qi flow was growing in intensity. Tao’s spiritual sense indicated the presence of two sources of qi. Each of these sources were at the Qi Condensation realm. Tao estimated they were probably at the third or fourth level, similar to his current level, possibly slightly stronger.

“Merchant,” Tao said. His voice was flat. “Go faster.”

“What? But the road is bumpy here,” the fat man protested, “if we go too fast—”

“Speed up now.”

There was something in Tao’s voice that made the fat man realize that it would be unwise to argue further. The man blanched. He snapped the reins and the draft horses accelerated.

It did not matter. The spirit beasts were already moving.

They emerged from both sides of the road. The spirit beasts were tigers, but wrong. Wrong because they were too large. Dark red energy of qi crackling through their fur enhanced their muscles. Their eyes radiated with spiritual power. These spirit beasts were at the Qi Condensation realm. Exactly what Tao had anticipated.

The horses panicked immediately and fled, pulling the wagon forward at unsafe speeds.

Merchant Hua yelled and tried to control the horses, but it was pointless.

One wheel hit a deep rut and the wooden axle splintered with a crunching sound.

The wagon toppled to one side as Tao leaped clear of the crash.

The fat merchant was less successful. He tumbled to the earth onto the dirt road in a heap.

The spirit beasts began to approach. The horses had broken free and were fleeing. Smart animals.

Tao positioned himself between the merchant and the two spirit beasts. He circulated his qi. He drew the qi from his lower Dantian up through his Meridian system, reinforcing his muscles and bones. Basic body reinforcement. The first technique most cultivators learn. Without the help of qi reinforcement, his nine-year-old body would shatter in an instant after only one exchange with the beasts.

One of the tigers attacked first.

Fast. Faster than a mortal could possibly react.

However, Tao was able to track the beast’s movement clearly using his spiritual sense. He calculated where the tiger would strike and took a step to enter its attack range and delivered a single punch into its skull.

The shockwave of the blow traveled up his arm.

The tiger’s skull snapped sideways and its body followed, falling to the earth approximately five paces away.

Tao had applied virtually all his available qi in that single punch.

The bone of the tiger’s skull had fractured. Tao could feel it through his fists.

Old Man Gao had instructed Tao on how to throw punches. Qi Condensation reinforced the strength of his punches, making the punch hit like a sledgehammer.

The second tiger was wiser. It attempted to circle around to the rear of Tao, attempting to attack him from his blind spot.

Tao’s spiritual sense easily monitored it.

He could sense qi everywhere. He waited until the beast fully committed to its attack, then he pivoted to face it, catching its front leg.

Tao’s qi-reinforced strength was superior to that of the ten times larger tiger. He redirected the beast’s momentum and slammed it into the ground face-first.

The tiger yowled.

Tao brought his heel down upon the nape of the tiger’s neck.

The vertebrae of the tiger’s neck cracked and the beast stopped moving.

The first tiger had regained its footing. It charged again, having learned from its previous experience. This time, however, it chose not to attempt to bite. Instead, it used its qi, unleashing a burst of spiritual energy that materialized into visible claws of force.

The tiger was employing a genuine qi technique, not merely relying on body reinforcement.

Tao crossed his arms in front of his chest.

The qi claws clawed across his defense. Although Tao’s qi reinforcement protected him from significant damage, the impact was still painful.

The force pushed him back, causing his heels to dig into the earth, but Tao held his ground.

Sect cultivators would have used some fancy technique to counterattack. Perhaps fire blasts or sword projections or some other costly technique they learned in their sect. Tao did not know any of that. Elder Wan had only instructed him in basic body reinforcement and spiritual sense. Tao had learned everything else on his own via trial and error.

However, Tao was aware of one fact that many sect cultivators often overlooked. Techniques that used qi require time to execute. Hand seals or concentration or verbal commands are typically required to manipulate qi. A punch was faster.

Tao propelled himself off the ground and closed the distance to the tiger before it could prepare another qi-based technique.

Tao’s first punch struck the tiger’s jaw.

His second punched the tiger’s throat.

His third punched the tiger’s chest, precisely where he felt the tiger’s core of qi energy.

The blow interrupted the flow of spiritual energy within the tiger and the beast’s qi enhancement faltered.

Without its qi enhancement, the tiger was merely a large tiger.

Tao’s fourth punch crushed the tiger’s rib cage. It fell and did not get back up again.

Tao stood over the two unconscious (or dead) spirit beasts, panting. His arms ached. His chest hurt from where the qi claws had scratched him. He had expended a considerable amount of qi in this battle. Probably more than half his total qi reserves. That was not good. He would need some time to meditate and recover.

Merchant Hua was still laying on the ground, staring at Tao with wide eyes.

The fat man’s mouth was agape. He seemed to want to say something, but the words weren’t coming out.

Tao ignored him. He approached the overturned wagon to determine if any of the merchant’s merchandise could be salvaged. The mission payment included compensation for damaged merchandise. Tao wished to limit the cost of damage to the merchandise so the village would receive the full twenty taels.

That was when Tao’s spiritual sense detected something behind him.

Fire appeared from the forest.

Tao turned around. Not ordinary fire. Fire unlike anything he had ever seen. The fire was too intense, too focused. The fire streaked across the empty space between the forest and the road in a column of white-hot plasma.

The fire encountered something Tao hadn’t even perceived – a giant spirit beast.

It was another tiger; it was emerging from the forest on the opposite side of the road.

However, this tiger was gigantic. Approximately ten times the size of the first two. The tiger’s fur was black as night and waves of energy crackled around it.

Tao’s heart sank. He hadn’t sensed it. The tiger had silently advanced on Tao, positioning itself for an attack. Tao’s back had been turned. He would have been killed before even realizing it was there.

The fire struck the massive tiger in the shoulder, scorching its fur and then penetrating to its flesh, but the tiger barely reacted. It rotated its colossal head toward the source of the attack.

Tao also looked.

A man stepped out from the trees. Tall, slender, dressed in unusual blue and silver robes that Tao had never seen before. The robes were shredded and stained with blood. The man’s complexion was pale, exhausted. There was dried blood beneath his nose and bloodstains on his garments.

However, his eyes were alert. And the qi around him was flowing in ways that Tao couldn’t comprehend.

The Foundation Establishment tiger charged.

The man raised his hand, creating a water barrier in front of him, spinning rapidly.

No. Tao realized now.

The man was drawing moisture from the air and gathering it through some technique Tao didn’t understand. The water spun in a disc. The man was controlling the water through some invisible force.

The massive tiger smashed through the spinning water barrier without losing speed, its claws ripped toward the man’s chest.

The man’s skin hardened, turning grey like stone.

The claws tore the man’s robe but only caused superficial gashes in the stone-hard flesh.

The man had used some sort of body reinforcement technique, but it was different from any Tao had seen before. The qi was not flowing through the man’s body, the man’s body itself was changing its properties.

Tao watched, awestruck, as the man absorbed the tiger’s attack.

The man took a step back as a result of the collision and dragged his feet in the ground, creating small trenches in the dirt. Tao knew he was hurt; he was stiff, his movements painful, but he continued to fight, to stand against a peak foundation establishment beast.

Who was this person?

The beast circled the man, much as the first tiger had circled Tao a moment before.

The man was panting heavily.

Then Tao sensed a massive influx of spiritual energy. Not qi, something similar to it, but not quite qi. The frequency was wrong, off-pitch.

The air around the man’s hand began to burn with light. There were two different energies involved here: heat and wind combined into a third energy source. The man controlled the combination of these two energies carefully, compressing it into a hot glowing ball of energy, which he launched at the beast.

The energy projectile streaked across the distance between the man and the beast, leaving a trail of distorted air behind.

It struck the beast in the center of its chest with a deafening crash.

The force of the energy propelled the tiger sideways and caused blood to begin pouring from the wound immediately.

But the beast did not fall. The wound was rapidly closing itself.

The man swayed on his feet and Tao could feel his energy signature beginning to destabilize. He was exerting himself too hard, using too much energy. But he was not finished.

The ground beneath the massive tiger suddenly erupted. Water and earth flowed like liquid to surround the tiger’s body. In less than three heart beats, the tiger was buried in solid rock, trapped in a prison of stone.

Tao stared. That was a fantastic technique. Controlling earth to this degree required mastery that he had never seen before.

The strange man doubled over, gasping for air. Blood ran from his nose onto the dirt road. His energy signature was screaming with exhaustion. He had definitely pushed himself far beyond what was safe.

Then the stone broke apart.

Cracks radiated from the stone coffin and spider webbed all across the surface of the stone. The beast within the cage was still struggling to get free. Its immense strength was pushing against the technique that was supposed to hold it captive.

Rock fragments exploded outward as the stone coffin shattered.

The beast burst forth, shaking debris from its dark fur. The wound in the center of its chest was almost entirely healed.

Tao felt fear now. True fear.

This beast was too powerful.

The strange man was exhausted, wounded.

All of his strongest techniques had failed.

The tiger was going to kill him.

But, the man did not give up. Tao felt another shift in the spiritual energy around them. This one was very different. Very dark. Completely empty. An area of absolute nothingness formed right around the charging tiger.

The qi feeding the tiger’s body ceased to function. The enhancement that gave it so much power faltered and began to die. The crackling spiritual energy along its fur disappeared. Inside that zone of emptiness, the beast could not draw upon its own qi.

The tiger stumbled, its movement slow and confused. Its power was being suppressed somehow.

The strange man let go of the technique only seconds later. He could not sustain it any further. Tao watched the man stumble badly, more blood dripping from his nose, but it had been enough.

The beast was now vulnerable.

Compressed air began to move around the man’s hand. Not ordinary compressed air. The air was moving quickly enough to be seen, sharply enough to cut.

The wind blade shot forward and pierced the throat of the Foundation Establishment beast.

The tiger’s thick fur and qi enhanced hide were not enough to protect the beast from the attack, not when its qi was disrupted. The compressed wind blade sliced deeply into the tiger’s neck, cutting the main arteries and causing blood to pour down the road.

The massive tiger crashed to the ground. Its qi signature vanished. It was dead.

Tao stared.

The strange man had just killed a peak Foundation Establishment spirit beast. And the man was wounded. Exhausted. Using techniques Tao had never seen before. Techniques that used multiple different forms of spiritual energy. Rapidly changing techniques.

The man fell to his knees, gasping for air. He may have passed out. Tao’s spiritual senses studied the man closely. The man’s internal energy was in disarray. Damaged. Wounded at a base level that Tao didn’t really understand. However, even though wounded, even though exhausted, this man had killed a beast that was beyond his capabilities.

What realm did this man belong to?

The stranger’s energy signature did not correspond to any of the known realms of cultivation that Tao had ever heard of. But his abilities were real. If he could kill a peak Foundation Establishment beast while wounded, then at full health he would be at least Core Formation. Possibly Nascent Soul.

Tao had heard of Nascent Soul cultivators. They were extremely rare. Extremely powerful. They could destroy cities with a single technique. They lived for centuries. Many say there were even stronger immortal beings beyond nascent soul, but those are simply myths. Tao had never met anyone who claimed to have seen an immortal.

Maybe this man was an immortal. Maybe the myths were real.