Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 25 preview (Patreon)

*Author note - there are some blank spaces in this chapter, they are reminders to go back and research the appropriate terms. - Tao

Chapter 25 - Tou He

It said something about the local magistrate that he was kind enough to see Tou He on his way and even make arrangements for their quick passage, gifting them a whole line of horses so that the cultivator and his companions would leave immediately.

That it was now ‘and companions’ was a little frustrating for Tou He, since he had no desire to lead anyone else to their deaths. It made Tou He wander if Fa Yuan or Wu Ying had ever felt that way, when he had joined them on their various expeditions or just, involved himself in their hijinks. It was possible, and it gave him a different, if somewhat concerning viewpoint of their past activities.

Still, like the past Tou He, he comforted himself in the fact that their decisions were theirs alone. It was, perhaps, for the best – they would have a chance to advance their own karma while they journeyed into the heart of the Twisted Lotus Eaters territory.

Assuming, of course, they could decide exactly how they were getting there.

“No, no. Going through the ____ pass is foolish. It might be the fastest method of accessing the inner heartlands, but it is watched as well. After the defeat of General Jura, there is no doubt that they will have increased the number of watchers. If we go that way, they will know of us immediately!” Baiman said, heatedly to Misnci, his other companion. Jian had gone back, partly because he had less of a connection to Tou He but also, because someone had to bring all their goods back and explain the disappearance of the pair. Tou He did not envy him his job.

“If we go north and around the Heartrender mountains, it will add months to our travel time. There’s no guarantee that news will not have reached those outposts by then and we will face even more danger. It is not as though we can move quietly, not with that one there.” Misnci frowned, reached up and stroked his chin with his human hand. “Unless we disguise him.”

“Disguise? How? That pink flesh of his and the bald head is all too recognizably human. Maybe if you build him another pair of hands and covered him…” Her eyes narrowed as the way Minsci was nodding.

“Exactly. If we cover him in cloth from head to toe – or perhaps, armour – and then give him another pair of arms, it will be easy enough to hide his presence.” Minsci frowned, turning around in his saddle to stare at the saddlebags and the horse he was leading on the line and its own packs. “I only worry that I might not have enough material, to make it and still have trade goods.”

“I will not be camouflaging myself,” Tou He said, mildly.

“Of course you will,” Biamin growled. “Do you want us to be caught and strung up?”

“Of course not. However, I fear you are overestimating my ability to lie,” Tou He said, touching his chest. “My friends have constantly reminded me that speaking falsehoods is not one of my many gifts.” Then, he added. “Also, they forget that divination itself will find us soon enough, nevermind the havoc my very presence causes on the environment.”

“Your presence?” Biamin asked, tilting her head to the side.

“His aura,” Minsci added. “When he forgets.”

“That, true.” Tou He turned his head sideways, watching the edges of where his spiritual aura – restrained till now – interacted with the world. Everything within his spiritual aura, the area that it covered in the world was something he could sense like he was touching it. The area an aura encompassed could be considered a cultivator’s home base, giving them an advantage over others in battles over dao or elemental projection.

In terms of combat, an attack passing through a cultivator’s aura would diminish in strength over time. An aura that pressed upon, or pierced another’s, could even overwhelm and damage a cultivator. It was how powerful, Nascent Soul cultivators like Tou He could overcome entire sect’s at a time, just by expanding their aura and crushing those at the beginning stages of cultivation with it.

For Tou He, however, his own aura was interlaced with his element – the purifying flame of the Heavens. He had once started as a basic fire cultivator, only to find that the Heavenly tribulation pressed upon him had gifted some small portion of the heavenly flames to his own cultivation base.

Now, it was interwoven to an extent that, if he paid attention, he could sense how it was cleansing and purifying the plants, the earth and air all around him. Not to the same extent as before, where lines of ash and smoke had been left behind as he traversed the demonic realms, but more subtly.

“However, even now, I leave a mark upon your world. One that an individual of my cultivation level – or a lower one, specialized in sensing such things – might track me.”

“It’s never easy with you, is it?” Biamin grumbled. “I still say we shouldn’t be inviting trouble.”

“We aren’t. We’re not flying over the mountains after all,” Minsci said, wryly.

“As though all of us can fly.”

“You weren’t invited,” Tou He said, mildly. “And it would have been faster.”

“Until a _____ came along and ate you,” Minsci said. “Or a _____ pecked you to death. Or the local regiments started utilizing the rockets they have stored to shoot you down. Or they alerted others, of your strength, further up.”

“Yes, well. If we are going to be found out, we might as well get it over with,” Tou He said, placidly.

“Or we can find a way around this.” She gestured around. “Can you not control your flames?”

“It’s not just my flames. It’s my dao,” Tou He said, softly. “It seeks to purify the world, to bring the world to better order and standing. I can bank the flames and focus my dao, but I cannot stop it entirely, or else I would break from my own path.”

“You cultivators are so complicated,” Minsci complained. “Dao this, dao that. As though it is everything.”

“It literally is, though,” Biamin said, mildly. “Just like the making of goods is important to you, and the bond between and the ____ is for my people, it is what makes us stronger. You expand upon your understanding of the world through your tools and equipment, while our bond deepens our knowledge of the world. Together with our bonds to the clan, we grow in strength.

“Cultivator’s just do it via a more selfish, inward looking path. Or, most do, at least.”

“I would object to that, since few of my peers are that selfish. Certainly, there are some among the heretics and the dark sect, but many of the orthodox believe – in their daos – or their actions, that serving the community, serving one another is important to the development of the soul.”

“None of which solves our question. Which way are we going?” Minsci said, ever ready to abandon a losing position to focus on what mattered.

“Faster is better,” Tou He said. When the pair moved to object, he added. “However, the fastest way is not through the pass. It is over the mountains, via the smaller pathways that are not always charted or watched.”

“And how are we to find those?” Biamin said, reasonably. “None of us here are local to the region.”

“Which is why, when we near, we should speak with the locals. If we can arrange a guide, or a smuggler, that would be most helpful. And if not, I can expand my spiritual sense to encompass the range. It might alert others, but if we move fast, by the time they can act upon the information, we will have gone.”

“That assumes there is more than one way through,” Minsci grumbled.

“There always is,” Tou He said, placidly. “That’s the way of mountains.” A slight pause, before he added. “It just might not be necessarily accessible to those without our strengths.”

That led the pair to silence. After al, while they were not Tou He’s equal, the pair had grown in strength during the  battle with General Juram the donated eergy of their people having left a trace behind. They were, in Tou He’s cultivator terms, high or peak Core Formation cultivators, but a level beneath his. Far ahead of the average person, such that your average demon might not even be truly grasp the difference in strength.

Certainly, Tou He had not, when he was but a mere Body Cleansing cultivator.

How much farther, then, the difference between Nascent Soul cultivator and immortal?