On Wings of Qi: Chapters 1-6 (Patreon)

On Wings of Qi

By Paul C. VanDerHeyden & Michael Head

Chapter 1

Keiko, Ellie, and I were all seated around the table filled with our makeshift war council. Besides the original members, Bortus, Alayna, Naomi, and Taka, we also had Gong Jin and Aria. After they ascended from the first layer of the Inheritance of the Eclipse, we quickly brought them up to speed on our plan to wipe out any remaining trace of the Indus Sect in the Inheritance of the Eclipse. Bortus and Alayna weren’t the most welcoming to Gong Jin and Aria, which I think was due to the fact that Aria and Gong Jin were Sages of the mid-tier. They may actually have been strong enough to give them a run for their money if they challenged them for Sect leadership. Once Aria made it very clear that she and her Gong Jin were not going to be staying in the Inheritance long enough to take over as Sect leaders, Bortus and Alayna calmed down around them.

Sensei’s voice bubbled out from his position of honor in the center of the table, where a plain black alchemical pot sat. You would never know that the plain alchemical pot before us contained the soul of an Emperor cultivator and a Grandmaster alchemist.

“Most of the pieces we need to prepare for taking care of the Indus Sect are already in place. Over the past month Taka has, with Naomi’s help, systematically eliminated every member of the Indus Sect who was using the weekly melee to fulfill their combat requirement for the Inheritance. We also need to thank Tamara and Jonas for going with them so that they could make their sparring requirement each day.

“Based on our estimations, the Indus Sect had fewer than fifteen couples who were still eligible for the daily sparring option, though that group does include their most powerful set of cultivators. They have a pair of Sages who’ve been in this Inheritance for almost ninety years of real-world time, so closer to fifty years in here. They must’ve entered here as Sages, because, from what Bortus told us of their feats of strength, they’re a force to be reckoned with.”

Bortus nodded, “That is indeed the case, they arrived on the scene like a storm. They challenged established pairs left and right to duels until word came out that they weren’t just sparring, we were aiming to kill. It’s only through luck that Alayna and I never sparred with them, though if we had we’re not sure if we would’ve won, or even survived.”

Alayna patted Bortus on the arm, “What Bortus said is correct, Terrence and Heather are an absolutely devastating force. If we can avoid fighting them, that would be best. We just need to make sure we take out the final group of cultivators they could spar with, to force them into the melee, which would eventually force them into the tournament if everything goes properly.”

She turned to Taka, “You did a phenomenal job the past two months, stopping all the Indus Sect members from getting to their melees on time. Because of your actions, this war will eventually end.”

Taka blushed at the repeated praise, “It wasn’t my plan, but I’m happy that I could be a part of it. Tamara and Jonas have been great at keeping Naomi and I company. We’ve been really glad to have them along with us. Long trips around the layer are usually pretty boring, but Tamara’s singing voice is beautiful, especially when paired with Naomi’s.”

Naomi leaned in, “As lovely it is to talk about the beautiful duets that Tamara and I engage in… we need to talk about our next steps. The tournament is in seven months, so we have until then to make sure as many Indus Sect members as possible are a part of it. We also have to make sure that none of us get dragged into it, because with the exception of Aria, Gong Jin, Uncle, and Auntie, none of us stand a chance if we end up in there.”

I scratched my head, “I’ve been wondering something. If someone’s stuck in the tournament at the end of the year, why don’t they just leave the Inheritance? If they never come back, how can the Inheritance punish them for not going through with it and living out their days in the real world?”

Bortus grimaced, “Once you’re set up for the weekly melee and you miss it, your totem earrings seal and won’t allow you to exit the Inheritance until you finish the tournament. I’ve seen hundreds of couples try to exit after reaching that point, but not a single one of them succeeded, though a pair of peak Sages nearly breached the gate, the feedback from the effort killed them. I probably should’ve mentioned that before, but better late than never.”

Keiko let loose a sigh of relief, “That’s good to hear. I’ve been thinking that people were just gonna leave, it’s nice to know that we actually forced him into a fight.”

Sensei laughed, “That’s all well and good, though it is good to know that the Indus Sect members won’t be able to escape our trap, I expected that might be the case. As for next steps, we need to expand our efforts to take control of as many sectors as possible, as soon as possible. There are a few different strategies we could go with, but I’ll let Steven explain them, seeing as he actually came up with all of them.” Sensi sounded impressed, which I appreciated.

I stood up and started pacing around the table, “So… Sensei and I,” I glared at Sensei’s pot, “came up with three different plans that might lead us to become strong enough to assault the Indus Sect’s stronghold near the center of the layer. Plan one is simple. It’s just to take control of as many sectors as we can, primarily focusing near our current location, before spreading out. That plan isn’t bad. By the end of it, the Gentle River Sect will control more territory than either of the other two plans, so you’ll be gathering the largest number of cultivation aids from the Inheritance that way.”

“The second plan is to focus on taking control of strategic locations, sectors with different training facilities and beneficial qi levels, including other cultivation related benefits.”

Seeing the confused looks around the table, I elaborated, “By that, I mean islands with almost pure fire qi on, same with the rest of the elements, minus light qi and dark qi, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a pair of islands for them as well. They may be very close together and are probably quite small. Besides Bortus and Alayna, I wouldn’t recommend anybody going to visit those particular islands anyway, so we can likely ignore their existence.

“The second plan is great if people want to cultivate certain elements, especially for the particular special techniques they might know that need a particular level of ambient qi around them of a certain element, but it will be the most scattered set of sectors, with very little connection to each other.

“Finally, we have a third plan. I like to think of it as Plan Green,” I chuckled and Keiko groaned, “That plan is to take control of any sector containing any kind of valuable alchemical material. I’m talking qi stone mines, alchemical gardens, beast hordes, and all other kinds of places that have things I can make things out of. If I get enough materials, I can dramatically increase the strength of the Gentle River Sect in a matter of three months, let alone seven months. Obviously, this is my favorite plan, but I’m biased. I cede the floor to the rest of you so you can ask questions.”

I continued pacing for a second, before Keiko pulled me back into my chair.

She patted my leg softly before sending me a mental message, “You did a fine job, Steven. Now we just have to convince them that your plan is right. Even if it isn’t the one everyone else picks, we just need to make sure that some of the sectors we take control are the ones containing the materials we need for our next set of Foundation Building Pills. We’re not ready to break through to become Sages yet, we probably won’t even be while we’re in this Inheritance, but it’s important that we have those pills ready for when we are ready to break through.”

Sensei mentally jumped in, “I don’t usually but in, but I wholeheartedly agree with Keiko’s statement. I probably won’t even have you make the pills you two will need until a few days before you’re ready to break through, just in case I need to make changes to the formula on the fly. However, this is the best chance you have to find a few of those rare ingredients. There are so few alchemists in this place that there’s a very high likelihood that there are things people don’t even know are valuable that are just left lying around. Out in the real world, alchemists have whole organizations dedicated to hunting down rare ingredients and reporting them. I know it’s true, because I did it myself. I had a dozen mercenary bands sent out with a few of my would-be disciples, scouring the world for ingredients for me. Most of those ingredients I used in trying to keep my wife and I alive longer, but a lot of them ended up in the Inheritance of the Pot, but most of those were basic stuff. Useful, but not rare or fantastically valuable.”

That conversation took place over the course of three or four seconds, so it wasn’t surprising Alayna stood up and started prowling around the table like I had been doing a few moments before.

“Thank you, Steven. We heard your three plans, but does anyone else have a plan they’d like to propose before we debate those?”

She looked around the room and saw that everyone was shaking their heads. She grimaced, “I have a fourth plan, but it isn’t necessarily the best plan. Though it may become necessary in the end as a fallback plan.” She took a deep breath to center herself and I could almost feel the connection between her and Bortus as he did his best to soothe her with what I had to assume were kind thoughts and affirmations.

“We know for a fact that there are five core sectors that house seventy percent of the Indus Sect’s members. We should make it a point to take control of those five sectors, twenty of the remaining thirty percent live in their core sector, but there’s no way we’re going to be able to take control of that, seeing as they’ve established it as their headquarters and the Inheritance acknowledged their claim. The first of those sectors comes available in three months and then the following four are each one month apart. The final one will be available two weeks before the tournament. If we can take control of those five sectors, the Indus Sect won’t be nearly as efficient should the worst happen.”

My face darkened. She was referring to an announcement from the Inheritance two days ago. It was announced that the contract seals everyone had used upon entering the Inheritance that prevented contact within the Inheritance would be rendered null and void one month before the tournament. The announcement cited numerous abuses of that contract seal to allow weaker cultivators to take control of stronger cultivators’ property. It actually specifically mentioned how a member of the Inheritance staff had been tricked into attacking a newcomer and how, per the contract seal, they had to have their cultivation destroyed. We knew that was Victoria attacking Keiko, but it didn’t change the fact that in six months the protection we’d become used to would be gone.

Bortus put a hand on Alayna’s hip, “I think you’re right. Taking control of those five sectors is probably a very good idea, though it’s probably obvious to everyone else that I was going to agree with you. However, that isn’t a primary plan, that is an addendum to any other plan we happened to go with.”

He turned and smiled at the group, “I, for one, am a fan of the, I believe you called it the ‘Green Plan’, in which we would take control of the alchemical resources of the layer. Anything that makes the Gentle River Sect stronger as a whole has my vote. With our protections disappearing in six months, the layabouts we have among our sect have all started to renew their passion for cultivating, in an effort to save their own skin. I can’t say they’ll be all that effective, but with Steven’s help, at least they’ll have a chance.”

He looked over and saw the worry in Keiko and my eyes, “Anybody who stays in the walls of the Sect Headquarters are probably going to be fine. The compound we call home is covered in more formations than meets the eye, and there are a lot that are visible.” He laughed, “There are only two or three formations that I was even a part of creating at this location, but there are a dozen layers below what I created that are significantly stronger. It would take a King cultivator to punch through all of those formations, or a formation master of significant skill who had decades to study them.”

Keiko sighed in relief, but I stared at him knowingly, “You and I both know that there are two formation masters who had decades to study those formations that are not within these walls right now. What’s to stop the Indus Sect from finding them and forcing them to help them break in?”

Alayna growled and pushed away Bortus’ hand, “I sent a formal apology to those two. They said they’d be rejoining the Gentle River Sect by the end of the week, as long as I promised to show them what I did to break through to become an Expert alchemist. I didn’t tell them it was a spirit in a pot, but I can’t force him to assist them, nor would I ask him to.” She revealed a shark-like grin, obviously not over how angry she was at the pair after all.

Aria and Gong Jin remained quiet, despite having been part of the group for almost two months, they still weren’t incredibly familiar with everything going on. On the other hand, their unique talents had proven very helpful in taking control of sectors. Aria’s ability to climb up and down walls, even sheer ones, very quickly, had already won us two sectors. One of those was right after they joined up with Keiko and I on the Battle layer and another was a few days before that council meeting. Gong Jin, on the other hand, was a phenomenal artist. Before he started practicing paired cultivation with Aria, he actually practiced meditative painting while cultivating. It took him a bit of time to get used to not painting while cultivating, but now he did it just for fun, or to unwind. He had already taken control of three different sectors with his artistic talents, from painting, to sculpting, to his skill with a lyre.

Gong Jin was a regular renaissance man. When we asked him about why he had those skills he explained that his mother had wanted him to be more than just a leader who could fight well. She wanted him to be strong, but understanding of those who weren’t as strong. Aria assured us that she had other talents, but none of the sector contests we’d seen recently had fit her, so-called, additional talents.

Alayna took her seat next to Bortus and looked expectantly around the room, “Is there anyone else who would like to speak on which of these they’d prefer, or are we just going to vote?”

Naomi patted Taka on the thigh before standing up, “Personally I’m a fan of the Green Plan as well. The closer Taka and I get to the peak of Sage, the better we’ll be able to protect everyone when the protections lapse. Also, we’ve kind of already been scouting those sectors, for the last five months or so, while we were running errands for the Inheritance.” She reached out and grasped Taka’s hand while blushing and squeezed it tightly.

Bortus smiled while Alayna just shook her head, “Well, I guess that’s that. We should vote to make it official, but it’s probably a foregone conclusion. All those in favor of the Green Plan say ‘Aye’.”

A chorus of ‘Ayes’ rang out with a single ‘Nay’. Everyone turned to look at who had dissented and saw that it was Aria.

She didn’t stand, but you could tell that she meant business from the tone of her voice, “The Green Plan is good, but it’s not perfect. If the Indus Sect realizes that we’re targeting only alchemically focused sectors, they’ll send more and more people to defend them. What we need to do is focus on alchemical sectors, but strike out at different important targets at the same time. We need a smokescreen of sorts, or there’s no way we get all the sectors we need.” She leaned back from the table and rested with her hands steepled in front of her.

I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

I nodded to her, “You’re entirely correct. My plan was a little bit too focused, but it’s a simple adjustment to make to attack a certain number of non-alchemical sectors to throw the Indus Sect off the scent, as it were. If we did that, would you be willing to agree to the Green Plan?” I quirked an eyebrow.

She nodded softly, “Absolutely, but I really hope there’s a few sectors with combat challenges, because I’m getting tired of just sparring.”

Everyone else in the room laughed, Gong Jin most of all.

That pair had an interesting dynamic, she made most of the decisions, but if he spoke up, she listened. That definitely wouldn’t have worked for Keiko and I, but it did for them so I never questioned it. I saw them sparring as a pair against Alayna and Bortus and their fighting style was absolutely brutal. They went for every dirty hit in the book and it was shocking to see. A pair of scions of their clans and they were fighting like street toughs. The thing is, it worked.

No one expects an upstanding cultivator to fight dirty, so when they did, it was unexpected. Honestly, I took advantage of the same techniques myself, going for the groin and people’s backs when they were turned, it just made sense to me. Then again, I was basically a street rat, my grandfather and I grew up very poor and there were more than a few nights I spent roaming, looking for food, while my grandfather was out with the City Lord.

Before becoming a Saint and having my body reforged, I had scars on my left leg from a pretty brutal knife fight I got into as a teenager. I finished the fight, but my leg had been cut up pretty badly. If it wasn’t for the fact that Old Hai took care of my leg, I wouldn’t have been able to keep fighting the way I did, my leg would have been useless.

When Keiko and I fought Aria and Gong Jin, it was ugly. There were more backhanded shots and dirty blows than any fight you’d expect between sophisticated cultivators. Eventually, we had to come to a truce on it and stop all of that, because it just became a challenge to see who could fight dirtier and I didn’t want to win that challenge.

I was shaken out of my reminiscing by Bortus standing up and clapping his hands loudly, “With that, our agenda is set. We will be enacting the Green Plan, effective immediately. Naomi, Taka, I’ll expect the list of alchemical sectors to be delivered to me by the end of tomorrow. I was going to give you two weeks, but seeing as you’ve already been working on it, a day should be more than enough.”

The young couple blanched, but Bortus continued.

“As for the rest of you, keep up your sparring until it’s time for you to go after a sector. Also, try to figure out a skill you might be good at and work on it. I took up poetry a hundred years ago and it’s won us three or four different sectors each year. It doesn’t matter what the skill is, it just has to be something you can do that other people aren’t as good at. If anyone wants to learn about a specific type of poetry, come stop by. I hear that there may be a challenge in writing haikus coming up, but I was never very good at them. I’ll be happy to teach someone the form for them if they’d like to learn.”

Aria leaned forward and whispered, “Please teach me, I need something to do.” She tried to be subtle, but everybody heard her.

With a laugh the meeting concluded.

Chapter 2

Upon returning to our room, Keiko and I relaxed on our couch for a few minutes, just trying to shake off the stress of the previous meeting. I hadn’t expected Sensei to force me to explain the different plans. That was why I had told him about them, so he could explain them.

Ellie, sensing the stress in my shoulders, laid out across the top of my shoulders and exuded a gentle cold, which was pretty pleasant. She didn't directly inject me with Arctic qi, but even the passive aura of cold she put out was useful for reducing stress and swelling.

I glared at Sensei’s pot on the table before Keiko and I, “I wish you would have told me you were going to force me to be the one to explain the plans, I could’ve prepared better. I barely muddled through back there.”

Keiko laughed, “You did a fine job, Steven. You weren’t cool, but you did fine.”

“Not cool,” Ellie hissed in agreement.

A few moments later, Sensei replied, “There was a fundamental flaw with me listing out the plans. No matter which one I said I wanted to happen, that’s the one everyone else was going to agree with. Despite my best efforts, Alayna practically worships me, not that it does her lick of good. Bortus is afraid to displease me, so he does basically anything I ask nowadays. I’m relatively sure he’s afraid I’ll ask him to do something serious, so he’s pleased to do anything small I ask him to do. Aria and Gong Jin would assume that the plan I recommend was the same plan you two wanted, so they’d just agree with that and Naomi and Taka are the same. It had to be you, not me, if we wanted people’s honest opinions on the plans.”

I frowned, “I hadn’t thought of it like that, but you’re probably right. Everyone assumes that you’re full of wisdom because you were an Emperor cultivator, but they fail to realize that you were just an alchemical maniac, so you didn’t really do a lot of things besides roam around and practice alchemy. Plus making formations with your wife, not to forget that. Either way, your political and interpersonal skills are probably the least developed of all the skills you currently have access to.”

Sensei hissed softly, “That’s a bit harsh, though you are correct. My wife did almost all of the talking in our relationship and I was completely fine with that. Having to think about people’s feelings and how they’re going to react wasn’t my biggest concern. I wanted to make enough money that I could focus on alchemy for the rest of my days and eventually I did just that.”

Keiko laughed, “Steven, I like that you’re not pulling punches anymore. You’re not afraid to go for the throat and I think that’s going to take us far.” She pulled me close and gave me a nice kiss before standing up and starting to stretch.

“Get up, we need to stretch before we do the Dragon Dance.”

The Dragon dance was actually pretty involved, it included tons of different specific steps we had to perform, but the more we did them in sequence while exchanging qi, the easier the steps became. The first time we tried it, Sensei stopped us because we inadvertently generated too much qi between us and it almost looked like we were trying to make a qi beam, like back in the Moonbeam Grotto or the tournament in the Inheritance of the Lovers. The scroll we’d received from the elderly couple who created the Inheritance of the Eclipse had a technique that matched nearly perfectly, but it actually had a name. The technique we called our qi beam was supposed to be called Dragon’s Roar. Keiko and I wouldn’t be calling it that, at least not out loud, but it was nice to know what it was supposed to be called. Calling our ‘qi beam’ was getting to be a bit much.

The basic movements we performed for the Dragon Dance looked more akin to an acrobatic performance, with the pair of us dancing over each other while always maintaining contact through one body part or another. There were other, more intimate, positions and movements listed, but Keiko and I weren’t advanced enough in cultivation to take advantage of them. The scroll was very clear that as Saints we should only be using the most basic parts of the Dragon Dance, or we could hurt ourselves.

After a week of using the basic Dragon Dance steps, after figuring out how to widen the Centering Lotus to be ten feet wide by extending its petals fully, Keiko and I were already feeling a lot stronger. Physically, we were definitely stronger, I kicked Taka in the shoulder and, instead of deflecting like it didn’t matter as usual, I sent him flying.

Keiko did something similar when she slashed her training sword at Naomi, who only reached up her blade to block and Keiko blew right through it and ended up scoring a nice hit on her. Our qi control was even stronger and I had a sneaking suspicion that we would be able to generate the Dragon’s Roar significantly faster now, instead of ten seconds like before it was probably closer to five now. Five seconds in combat was still an eternity, but it was better than ten. If someone were to give us enough time to prepare, we could be a legitimate threat even against much more powerful opponents.

I reminded Keiko that we had to eat before cultivating and she grinned before running over to where we ate dinner when we were alone. I laughed and walked over, where I produced a piping hot bowl of Zephyr Rice with Iron Crab chunks and some woodsy mushrooms for Keiko. She tore into it with gusto while I ate my Empyrean Boar steak at a much more sedated pace. I also had onigiri of Zephyr Rice with some kind of special seaweed that Aria had a bunch of in her spatial ring. It had a large amount of water qi and wood qi in it. Either way, dinner took less than ten minutes and then we began cultivating. After an hour, Keiko and I finished our Dragon Dancing and, after relaxing for a bit, went out to the courtyard where we knew we would find Aria and Gong Jin.

Keiko and I wound our way through the halls of the Gentle River Sect’s headquarters on our way to the secluded courtyard where we knew Aria and Gong Jin would be. For the past two months, Keiko and I had spent at least two hours most evenings with them. They were great to spar against, because they understood the unique combinations of qi that Keiko and I used. They understood her Arctic qi better than they did my Inferno qi, but that was to be expected seeing as Gong Jin could use Arctic qi and Aria used Dawn qi, not Inferno qi. The similarities between the two were close enough that she understood what I was going to be able to do, but she couldn’t directly counter me. Gong Jin had no such problem with Keiko, so she didn’t even use Arctic qi while sparring with them, except in very rare circumstances where Gong Jin was out of position and she had a shot at Aria.

That evening we found Aria and Gong Jin, but they weren’t sparring like usual. Instead, they were seated looking at each other in a position I came to learn was the starting position of the Unending Serpent paired cultivation method. The thing is, they weren’t cultivating. I could tell from the flow of qi in the area that they weren’t drawing any qi in, they were just sitting there facing each other.

When Keiko and I walked in, Aria tilted her head to the side as she turned to look at us.

“You understand that this is a lot, right? Everything you’re asking everyone to do is great and all, but people are going to die in the coming battles and we’re focusing on poetry instead of war strategy! I’m having trouble dealing with that concept.”

Gong Jin reached out his long arms and pulled Keiko toward him until her back pressed against his chest, where he held her tight.

He addressed Keiko and I, “She’s just nervous, the fact that she admitted it is a big step for her. Besides her brother, she’s never really had anybody to rely on for personal issues. I’m lucky enough that she includes you and I now on that list, so that’s a good thing.” He smiled, even as Aria dug an elbow into his belly, he didn’t release her.

Seeing her attack was ineffective, she sighed, “I’m not saying he’s right, but I am going to say that I’ve seen what a war can be like. No one in here is ready for that. Bortus and Alayna think they are because they probably saw some sort of combat before they entered this place, but they’ve never seen what the Indus Tribe did to my people and his people,” she gently elbowed Gong Jin.

“It isn’t just staged combat and the best martial artist winning, it’s dirty, nasty, fighting. More lives are going to be lost in sneak attacks than any kind of pitched combat and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

She tried to shrug off Gong Jin again and this time he reluctantly released her.

She stood up and started pacing back and forth, “The fact that we have to learn parlor tricks to get resources and gain territory is, frankly, ridiculous.” She balled her fists up angrily, but did nothing more than that.

I walked a bit closer with Keiko, before she went to sit down next to Gong Jin while I spoke to Aria.

I stood in front of Aria in a defensive stance, like I was ready to spar with her, “What’s going on in this Inheritance, it isn’t what the progenitors wanted. I know Keiko and I told the story about how everything was supposed to go,” everything except us becoming the new heirs, “but that’s what it is right now. This is supposed to be a place of learning and the Indus Sect has perverted that. It’s up to us to do everything we can to convert this place back into what it was meant to be, a place where paired cultivators could come to and grow stronger in a safe environment so that they could enter the world and be a force for good there. Your ancestors believed in that fact. Have you seen the painting left behind by your ancestors a few courtyards over?”

She shook her head.

“I highly recommend you go check it out, because your ancestors trained here, learned here. They would want their descendants to have the ability to do the same, so we have to make that happen. The fact that we’re also helping the world at large doesn’t have to matter to you, just think about it as if we were helping your people and hopefully it’ll make more sense.”

Aria stood thinking about what I’d said for a few moments before settling into her own sparring stance. Her stance was significantly more aggressive than mine.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, Aria and I sparred and we didn’t use any qi during that session. It was purely physical and, even after reinforcing my body with the Dragon Dancing method of paired cultivation, I was still beaten, bruised and bloody. I got in a few good licks myself and I’m pretty sure I broke her nose, though Gong Jin immediately fixed that during our break between sparring bouts while Keiko did the same for me. We rested for a few minutes without talking and when Keiko and Gong Jin started sparring, Aria and I got back to it.

During our second sparring bout, we used qi and I did a lot better that way. With how explosive my Inferno qi was, it was hard for her to pin me down. I moved around her Dawn qi strikes like they didn’t even exist with quick bursts of Inferno qi from my hands and feet to get out of the way and into better positions.

I could tell she was holding back. She wanted to see what it would’ve been like if we had fought as equals, not with her a whole stage of cultivation higher. After five minutes of me beating her bloody, she poured on her Sage level strength and speed and that was the end of me winning that fight.

Compared to our fight, the sparring match between Keiko and Gong Jin was tame, there was no other way to put it. I don’t think either of them used even twenty percent of their strength, while Aria and I were going at it nearly full force. While our movements tore the grass from the ground in large clumps and our strikes shook the formations on the walls, their movements barely even bent the blades of grass beneath them, definitely never breaking them.

After twenty more minutes of sparring, I lay with my head in Keiko’s lap as she healed my bloodied face with her Arctic qi, “You two really duked it out, do you feel better?”

I looked up at her questioningly, “What do you mean? I was fine, it was Aria who needed that, not me.”

She laughed and I was struck again by how good that made me feel.

She shook her head, “No, you’ve been wound up about this situation for months, even before we went to the Dragon Dancing trial. You’re remembering the war stories your grandfather told you, even if you won’t bring them up to me, I can tell.” She tapped the side of her head, “Mental link, remember? The empathic part of the link isn’t really something we can turn off, so I can tell how anxious you've been, just like you can tell how excited I’ve been.”

She ran her fingers through my short brown hair and started massaging my scalp, “Those two,” she pointed over at where Aria and Gong Jin sat in a very similar position to Keiko and I, though it was Aria with her head in Gong Jin’s lap, “have seen the horrors you’ve heard about firsthand. You can’t think they don’t understand how important this is, because they do. All we have to do is make sure that we stay true to who we are, we only kill when absolutely necessary, we do our best to protect innocents, and above all else… we survive. No matter what happens, as long as we’re alive, we can find a way to fix it. I don’t care what goes wrong, as long as you and I are alive and able to cultivate, we’ll figure everything out in time.”

I smiled as I thought about what Keiko had said. I knew she was right, but it was still hard to take it all in. We were at war, and that wasn’t a state I ever wanted to be in. I wanted to cultivate, travel, and grow stronger with Keiko. I didn’t want to have the lives of thousands of people hanging in the balance, depending on my plans and actions. The thing is, we don’t always get what we want, but if we tried hard enough, we would get what we needed.

Keiko and I were growing rapidly and, as long as I got the resources we needed, we could continue that growth. We had six months to cultivate as efficiently as possible, not just to be ready for the tournament, but to get ready for the layer’s protection to be dropped the month before said tournament. I wasn’t looking forward to the pitched battles that would occur then, but I was more afraid of what Aria talked about, surprise attacks, ambushes.

The thing is, I wasn’t afraid of them happening to me, that I could handle. I was worried about the fact that the Gentle River Sect were probably going to be expecting Keiko and I to be part of groups that did things like that, where my poisons would come in handy and take out a large section of the opponents without losing any of their own cultivators.

I looked over at Aria and Gong Jin and saw that they had pulled out a blanket to stare up at the fake stars while holding each other.

Chapter 3

I quickly messaged Sensei, though I made sure to include Keiko, “Sensei, what is the role of an alchemist in a war like we’re about to enter? Is it preparing the troops, striking with poison to thin the enemy numbers, or something else entirely? I’m guessing it’s a combination of all of those, but I wanted to hear that from you directly.”

Sensei’s voice sounded old, like he was feeling the weight of his years, even more than he usually did. When he spoke, his voice was somber, “I’m sorry to say that you’re correct, my boy. I was involved in three major wars in my lifetime. Each of them occurred at different stages in my cultivation and I played a very different role in each of them.

“The first war took place about ten years after Jeanette and I got married. We had just finished working our way into the good graces of the ruler of a small kingdom, no more than 50,000 people, when that same ruler, Margot, drew us aside. She said that we were two of her most trusted aides and that she was requesting that we produce as many formations for attack and defense, and alchemical aids like healing potions and things like the Bone Strengthening Powder I had you make a while ago.

“She explained that she didn’t want us to fight in the major battles, because we were too valuable to her and to her kingdom. I made a big show about wanting a fight, but Margot was a Sage and I was merely a Brain cultivator, so there was nothing I could do against her to force her to let me do what I wanted. In the end, Jeanette and I worked for two full years on making as many alchemical concoctions and formations that we thought would be helpful for the kingdom’s army. Nearly five years later, the war came to an end and it was brutal. Despite our best efforts, nearly seventy percent of Margot’s military was wiped out. People that we’d known for years died in combat and it took a heavy toll on us. You see, neither of us were really used to losing, we never would be. That was the first time either of us really lost something that mattered, even if we technically won.

“Margot was grievously wounded and I thought I could make something to heal her, to put her back the way she was before, but I couldn’t find the ingredients needed for the pills I was trying to make her, so I substituted in something else and made a very weak approximation of what I was trying to make. In the end, I managed to stabilize what little of her cultivation remained. The thing is, after that, despite the fact that she was actually a Sage, she couldn’t use any more qi or exert any more physical force than a Brain cultivator, like me, could. She told me how grateful she was for what I’d done, but it was another failure and I couldn’t handle it. I spent years trying to undo what I’d done, though in the end Margot ended up dying in a border skirmish against a former ally of hers, so Jeanette and I left.”

He paused, even though I heard a bit of a sniffle in there, though I wasn’t sure.

After what I could only assume was the time for a few metaphorical deep breaths, seeing as he didn’t have a body, Sensei continued, “The second war I was involved in was a hundred fifty years later. My wife and I were both strapping Duke cultivators and we had formed a little fiefdom of our own, we had less than ten million people living there.”

I laughed, “Ten million people living in a small fiefdom? Are you sure? That sounds like a lot to me.”

I looked over to where Aria and Gong Jin had been laying, staring at the stars, and found that they were both snoring in each other’s arms. I was glad I didn’t have to worry about them thinking I was crazy for laughing at nothing.

Sensei did not think it was as funny as I did, “Ten million people is nothing but a drop in the ocean for how large our world is. If you’d had the ability to travel, like you should have, you’d know that. I can’t wait to get out into the real world and discover what it’s like out there. I’m also excited to see what the world has become. I wonder about the river people, who used their mastery of water qi and wood qi to propel their boats up and down the river at speeds unheard of for normal people, even powerful cultivators. I wonder about the mountain tribes who have guarded the lands of the Empire for eons, or at least as long as anyone I knew could remember or had ever heard of.

“Speaking of the mountains at the edge of the empire, that was where Jeanette and I set up our fiefdom, right on the edge of the mountains between the land of the beasts and the Empire. I thought the perfect location, there were plentiful alchemical resources all around our location and the same could have been said for formation materials, though those aren’t nearly as rare as alchemical materials, with a few notable exceptions. Our little fiefdom had been up and running for almost fifty years and we felt that we could go on for hundreds of years more, but we were wrong. My second war wasn’t against people, mostly, it was against a wave of beasts the likes of which hadn’t been seen in ten thousand years.

“In that war, I took a much more active role and so did my wife. In addition to crafting our respective specialties to aid our soldiers, we also fought in hundreds of battles ourselves. I killed more beasts with poison than anyone did with sword or fist, but they kept coming. Barrier formation after barrier formation shattered upon the skull of beasts I’d never seen before. Their heads were shaped like the tip of an arrow and when they touched barrier formations, they sliced through them like they almost didn’t exist. I took to calling them Barrier Breakers and I don’t know if it stuck, but that’s what I called them.

“In the end, our fiefdom didn’t survive more than a year against that beast wave, there was no way it could have. My wife and I actually ended up going to meet the regional head at the time, who was relatively friendly to us. His name was Ironcrag, Ironcrag Thunderfist, which I always thought was a bit pretentious, but when I saw him in a fight… I understood why. He would coat his fists in lightning qi whenever he fought, which was awe-inspiring to see. We told him what was happening to our fiefdom and he explained that there was nothing he could do. Because we had declared our independence, he wasn’t allowed to send the soldiers we would need. Even when we tried to say we’d go to the Emperor and apologize he told us that it was too little, too late, and that we would have to get clearance directly from the Emperor to get soldiers out to our fiefdom to save it. I said some not nice things to Ironcrag that day and I’m still a bit embarrassed about it.

“My wife and I rushed back to our fiefdom and found that there was nothing left besides the fortress we called home. There were maybe a dozen of our servants remaining along with half of our honor guard, what little of it there was. I took out my greatest treasure at the time, an airship that could seat ten and piled it full of far more people than it was supposed to handle. I burned six celestial qi stones and another four celestial beast cores to get us out of there. The overloading of the ship caused it to draw significantly more energy than it would have normally. In the end, those people became like family to us and we took care of them until our deaths. Their descendants even ended up becoming the people of this island.”

Keiko sounded heartbroken when she commented, “That sounds horrible, what happened to you, your wife, and everyone you had living in your country? How did that beast wave form? Was there some kind of qi level fluctuation that drove them crazy, or something else to mark you? Did say it was mostly beasts, because I assume there was something else to it.”

My wife was a crafty one. I was proud of her for asking those questions, because I really wanted to but didn’t want to interrupt the story.

Sensei growled, “The land of beasts isn’t just full of beasts, it’s also filled with a small number of cultivators who form symbiotic connections to those beasts. Every few hundred years, maybe every thousand years, they try to take over the land of the Empire, but they never get much farther than the mountains. The farthest I ever remember them getting, in any of the history books I read, was about three hundred miles from the mountains, but that was when the Emperor at the time, a master of light qi and dark qi named Iris Shadowdawn, went out to destroy them all herself. Her four subordinates, each Emperor cultivators in their own right, stood watch over the battlefield, but they weren’t needed. The stories I heard of that battle were legendary and I couldn’t do them justice. I also don’t want you two to think about how powerful those types of qi are because of how dangerous they are until you’re strong enough. Actually, they’re dangerous even if you’re strong enough if I’m being totally honest.”

I frowned, something was up, “Wait, wouldn’t that mean there were five Emperors at one time? How does that happen? There can only be one Emperor at a time, THE Emperor.”

Sensei laughed, “That simply isn’t true. According to the numbers a friend of mine came up with before I passed, roughly one in five billion people make it Emperor. With how large the lands of the Empire are, it wouldn’t be unusual to have three or four Emperors, so a fifth one wasn’t too crazy.”

Sensei had answered my question, but he didn’t reduce the number of questions I had, rather he increased them. If a place as large as the Empire could support a purported five Emperors at one time, why was there only one now, at least that we knew of.

I decided to ask Sensei, “Why would there only be one now? Is there some reason why that would be the case?”

“I assume that part of it is because light qi and dark qi are missing from everyone’s cultivations. Without them, it’s very difficult to break through to become an Emperor, because your core won’t be truly stable. Also, if you don’t have light qi and dark qi in your cultivation system, it takes significantly longer to advance than it does if you do have access to light qi and dark qi. Even minor touches of them, like you had in the Foundation Building Pills you took, can prove tremendously helpful in speeding up cultivation. It wouldn’t surprise me if you two would be growing rapidly, even without paired cultivation, at least compared to everyone else who doesn’t have access to light qi and dark qi.

“It could also be the fact that sometimes Emperors get jealous and end up killing their subordinates when they get too strong. They do that so that their rule doesn’t get usurped, but that’s only happened a few times in history and each of those men, and yes all of them were men, were petty and small people, not well suited to ruling an Empire. Eventually, someone manages to break through to Emperor far enough away from the standing Emperor that they can hide. Then they stay in seclusion and gain strength before eventually going to take the head of the standing Emperor. After that, they become the new Emperor and do their best to be better than their predecessor.”

I nodded, that was a better answer, “Thank you, Sensei. I’m still full of questions, but I don’t think you can answer them because they’re regarding the current state of the world, not how things should be.”

While Keiko, Sensei, and I laughed about that, Ellie got bored and ended up curling up on my chest to go to sleep, trilling contentedly as she did so.

I smiled, “Sensei, your stories are doing a lot to help me calm down, would you mind telling us about the third war you were a part of?” I ran my finger along the frill on top of Ellie’s head, before running my hand over her wings, marveling at how soft they were.

Sensei’s mirthful tone turned sorrowful, “I… I can do that, but be warned, this one ends better than the last, but it’s rougher in the middle.”

Keiko and I both gave consent in the form of nods, so he got started.

“The third war I was a part of, I was the aggressor. The place I grew up, where I was treated like I was nothing, was on my mind when I was a bit later in years. I wanted to go back and check on it, but fear kept me away. My wife and I were already King cultivators and there were very few people in the entire Empire who could stand up to us, so we went to visit. What we found there was heartbreaking.

“Another King cultivator had taken over the area around where I grew up and he ran it like a despot. He demanded tithe of far more than the people could ever deliver, let alone survive without. He took one young woman per village every week and none of them returned. My wife and I learned all of those things as we traveled through the region, acting like merchants and selling very basic versions of what we could really make. I was selling healing potions that I was marketing as Advanced, while they were really Master-crafted droplets of potion added to bottles of water.

“Honestly, they were more effective than Advanced healing potions, but I couldn’t bring myself to make anything less than Master grade at that point, I was too skilled to let myself make a low-grade potion like that and waste ingredients. Jeanette sold basic barrier charms, things to save a non-cultivator’s life against a cultivator, or at least give them time to try and run away, or scream for help. She told me she was selling them, but I found out not too far in that she was actually giving them away to young women and some young men who weren’t cultivators, at least not beyond what happens naturally. She thought I was going mad, but I told her that I was feeling guilty taking money for the healing potions I was selling.

“After that, I took payment for the potions, but made sure that everything I was paid ended up back in the purchasers’ pockets. It became a bit of a game and I really enjoyed myself doing that, despite the terrible situation the countryside was in. After roaming around the region for a Spring-year and a Summer-year, I couldn’t take it anymore. I packed up the wagon my wife and I had been traveling in into my spatial ring and tore off through the sky toward a nearby mountain. Once there, we hatched a plan.

“My wife and I weren’t poor, but at the time we weren’t fabulously wealthy either. Both of us had purchased strong armaments for ourselves, Master-crafted weapons and armor for each of us as well as a few lifesaving treasures that cost a pretty penny. We were far wealthier than we had been when we controlled the fiefdom, but we are also King cultivators at that point, not Dukes. They may sound like just a level apart, but the level of strength between those two ranks isn’t comparable.

“I knew that we didn’t have enough money to do what I wanted to do, to build an army and take over the place I had once called home. My wife, always the brains of our outfit, came up with an amazing plan. We were going to go to the largest city in the Empire, the capital itself. Once we got there, we were going to start a small store, just enough to get our name out there. After a few months, demand would be so high that we’d need to expand, then we’d expand again, and again. Once we’d grown large enough, we’d take the profits we’d made from alchemy and formations to fund our army and take back the place I used to call home. Getting up enough money didn’t take that long; it only took about two years.

“What did take a long time was finding enough trustworthy mercenaries and cultivators who would want to join us in what would become a small kingdom of the Empire. To be clear, we got clearance from the Emperor to take control of the part of the empire we were aiming for. We didn’t want another situation like we had with our fiefdom, where we wouldn’t be able to get assistance from the Emperor if something went wrong.

“The problem was, the Phoenix Emperor was a terrible person. When he found out that we wanted to take over a portion of his land, he demanded quite a bit from us. It took us an additional two years to build, and concoct, the things he requested so that we would be allowed to do what we wanted to with my old homeland. We didn’t waste that time, we had a few of our trusted servants and allies use those two years to build up the army we needed to take the land, but it was incredibly expensive to make what the Phoenix Emperor wanted.

“He wanted a tri-element qi focus, something almost unheard of, besides when a Grandmaster formation master took years of their life to craft one. He also wanted a potion of Second Life. Now, don’t get excited. A potion of Second Life is just something you drink and, if you die within a day of drinking it, instead of your cores rupturing when you die, instead they’ll solidify and stabilize, while regenerating your body, using the wood qi in your system. The thing is, a potion like that only worked once, so when it came time for my wife and I to join the group that killed him, he had used it years before, and the second potion he had like that didn’t work because of it.

“Anyway, the campaign to take back my homeland lasted twenty-five years. The reason being, the Phoenix Emperor had tipped off the King cultivator in charge of that region and he had purchased an army of mercenaries of his own, along with conscripting nearly all the able-bodied men and women in the region. While the fighting was done, my homeland was a barren wasteland, nothing remained, not even the capital city that the King cultivator had forced his people to build for him. No, I won’t tell you his name and I don’t want you to ask about it, so don’t. He doesn’t deserve to have his name remembered by anyone in the future.

“I was heartbroken, the beautiful place I grew up, where the farmlands were fertile and the people were generally kind, though they hadn’t been that way to me, was devastated. I took a few years moping, without really cultivating at all, besides a few times here and there. Eventually, my wife took me to her favorite spot in the region, the place we ended up calling home for the rest of our lives, besides the short period of time on Sunset Island. She brought me to a palace I didn’t know existed and showed it to me. She told me that it was going to be a place where we could settle down. It was going to be where we would actually become a family, not just a couple. She told me then that she was pregnant and that our son, Elliot was due to be born in five months.

“That lit a fire under me, I took those five months and created hundreds of potions that I watered down and used to fertilize the land around us. I went to desolate villages and offered them a better life, taking their farmers and bringing them back to where our palace was. I established the small village around our palace that grew our food for us, like in the story I told you about Elliott and Chandra. I finished that project with two days to spare and when my little boy was born, I knew I had won the war, but there was a very heavy cost to pay. The town I had called home didn’t exist anymore, it was a smoking crater that the other King cultivator had used as an example, not even knowing who I was or what it meant to me.

“All these stories are here to tell you one thing, war is hard. War is dirty. But also, war can be necessary. If my wife and I hadn’t taken control of the coastal region, the place I grew up, the people there might’ve lived, but they would’ve lived lives full of fear. A life of constant fear of their wife or daughter being stolen away by a trumped-up child with too much power. My wife and I saved everyone we could.

“None of our soldiers ever attacked a civilian, because we bound them with contract seals to prevent them from doing so. Those that wouldn’t sign the seal, we killed. Plain and simple, if they couldn’t commit to not killing children and noncombatants, they didn’t deserve to exist. That may sound harsh, but that’s war. Draw a line in the sand and make sure you don’t cross it, figure out what you won’t do, no matter what, and be prepared to do anything less than that. That’s how you survive a war. That’s how you win a war.”

I couldn’t think of anything to respond to that, Sensei was torn up in the latter half of his story, it obviously broke him to have to hurt the people of his homeland. In the end, I agreed with him. Keiko and I would have to find our line in the sand and be prepared to do everything else. I just hoped that we wouldn’t lose ourselves in the scuffle, in the blood, mud, and everything else that came with war.

I petted Ellie gently as I thought about what Sensei had said some more.

The only thing I truly knew was that Keiko and I would survive and we would do everything we could to protect those we called friends or family.

Chapter 4

The rest of that week went by uneventfully, so I’ll spare you the tedium of our daily lives. Know that we cultivated, crafted, ate, and sparred. Eventually, Keiko got stir crazy and demanded that she and I go with Naomi and Taka on their next errand around the Inheritance, citing that she should get to see the places that she was going to help take control over. Despite the fact that we’d be flying thousands of feet above any islands that we might actually control later, she was adamant that it was important. I knew what it was, she just didn’t want to be cooped up anymore, she wanted to go out and spread her wings and traveling around with Naomi and Taka was the safest way to do that, so I agreed that we should go.

Honestly, flying around with Naomi and Taka, despite the good conversation, was even more boring than the time we spent at the Gentle River Sect’s headquarters. At least there, I was able to practice alchemy without scaring everyone by pulling out the Centering Lotus and closing it up while on the disk. The first time I did that, Naomi threatened to chuck the Centering Lotus off the disk until Keiko explained what it was. I retracted the petals and explained that I was going to do some basic alchemy, but wanted to make sure everyone else was safe.

I had Sensei explain how tough the Centering Lotus actually was and eventually Naomi relented, though she wasn’t happy about it. I decided that the first thing I would make while flying around was a pseudo-alchemical tea that Sensei told me was good for the drinker’s singing voice. When we camped that night, I made the tea for Naomi myself and when I joined in as she was singing, she was startled at how good we sounded together. My mid-tenor was a perfect counterpoint to her five-octave range, so as she flitted up and down the scales, I acted as the beating heart of the duet that she could always return to.

When we finished our duet, she commented on how her voice didn’t hurt, despite her actually trying to strain it. Sensei explained that was what the tea was for, operatic performers had been drinking it forever and it was used to protect their voice from strain when hitting notes that they knew they probably shouldn’t. She didn’t complain about me doing alchemy on the disk when Taka was flying ever again, though I made sure to make her a pretty large supply of the Song Tea, which I thought was a terrible name, but that’s what Sensei told me it was called.

Keiko and Taka talked about different things Ellie needed and different ways she could grow. Her third color came in fully as we were flying around and it was obvious at that point that Sensei was correct, she was a Rainbow Coatl and that was more than okay, it was fantastic.

I think I prepared more basic cultivation aids while flying around with Naomi and Taka for those few weeks then I ever did again in my life. I made thousands of Advanced grade Foundation Building Pills, not all of which I gave to the Gentle River Sect. I stored a lot of them away for later sale at Sensei’s insistence. I made Bone Strengthening Powder, Meridian Cleansing Serum, and Qi Channel Strengthening Liquid… the list goes on. I didn’t make any of them at the Expert level, but a lot of them ended up at the Journeyman level, though I didn’t push as hard with the Foundation Building Pills because of the effect from the previous time, I wanted to make sure I was somewhere safe before I did that again.

A month passed by and Naomi, Taka, Keiko, Ellie and I returned to the Gentle River Sect. I gave Alayna the selection of cultivation aids I had created and she stared at them like they were made of solid qi, which they kind of were. I told her to dish them out to whoever needed them, but to prioritize those who were actively working to capture sectors. She told me then that they’d actually already captured an alchemically important sector and that I should go and check it out.

I hopped right back onto the disk Taka was about to put away and told him that we needed to go. Eventually, I convinced him that I was correct in that we had to go immediately. Three days of flying later and we arrived, it was actually not too far away, but it shouldn’t have taken us that long, but we had to dodge a few Indus Sect heavy regions. They were surprised we had taken control of a sector near them, so they were on high alert.

When we arrived at the newly obtained sector, we found that it was a qi stone mine. I was ecstatic, I’d never actually been to one and was excited to see what kind of qi stones we would find there. After Taka set Keiko and I down, he told us that they were going to go out and scout a bit. They were going to see if there were any smaller islands we’d gained control of in the sector that might be of use. Keiko and I bid them farewell and went down to explore the mine. There were a number of homunculi that were at work harvesting qi stones, but Sensei said that while their quality was high, their efficiency was very low.

He told Keiko that she had a project for the next week or two and eventually we convinced Naomi and Taka that it was a good idea. By the end of that two-week period, Keiko had improved the efficiency of the mine by ninety-three percent. We went from gathering less than a hundred qi stones per week to gathering over two hundred, most of which were a higher grade. When I asked Sensei why it was considered a ninety-three percent increase in productivity, despite the increase in production, he explained that, while the homunculi had been able to pull out the qi stones before, they were too small and weak and would actually end up discharging, which was probably what happened to their qi matrixes, which Keiko had to fix. Once we took the five percent efficient homunculi and turned them into ninety-eight percent efficient homunculi, they were back humming and they were able to do what they were built for. I gathered up eighty percent of the gathered qi stones and put them in the board from the Inheritance of the Pot.

The rest of the ingredients I pulled into my spatial ring and when we went back to the Gentle River Sect headquarters, that’s what I showed them. Naomi and Taka understood, they knew that if we had told Auntie and Uncle about how many resources we had received, they would’ve demanded them. The thing is, Keiko and I weren’t members of the Gentle River Sect, neither were Aria and Gong Jin, so they couldn’t demand access to our spatial storage devices.

Chapter 5

The following day after Keiko and I returned from our escapade with Naomi and Taka, Alayna called us into a meeting with her and Bortus. We were escorted to the same sitting room we’d hatched our grand plan in by their male pair of guards, Tim and Juan, who chatted with us along the way about everyone keying up for war. We gave noncommittal replies about plans we had, but nothing concrete. When we arrived at the sitting room in the central pagoda, we found Bortus and Alayna sitting with two other men. As we arrived those two other men, which I didn’t recognize, stood up, bowed to us, and left without saying a word.

When I looked at Alayna questioningly, she seethed, “Those are ‘they who shan’t be named’, and unless they’re in my presence, I won’t be naming them.” She took a deep breath to center herself, “Please, sit. We have much to discuss.” Her voice was like honey, sickly sweet.

Keiko and I exchanged a glance before sitting down, it wouldn’t do to upset Alayna even more than she already was, especially if we were going to need to ask for favors to pull off another plan that we worked up with Sensei in the not-too-distant future.

After we got settled, Bortus started to talk, but Alayna cut him off with a glare. He sat back, duly chastened, and waved for her to speak.

“Due to your combined efforts, the Gentle River Sect is in a better position than it’s ever been before for the coming war. For that, we have to thank you.”

I didn’t know what it was, but something about the way she said that freaked me out and when I broached the subject quickly with Sensei, he agreed, as did Keiko.

Alayna spoke with an icy tone, “However, we have a problem. Per the new layer rules, there will longer be a blanket nonaggression seal for everyone on the layer, therefore, the Sect’s nonaggression seals will be taking their place. At least here they will.” She looked to Keiko and I meaningfully, “Which leaves us with a problem.”

I shot a glance over at Bortus and saw him shaking his head sadly, he obviously didn’t agree with what his wife was saying, but was powerless to stop her.

The ice in Alayna’s voice turned to venom, “Unless you two agree to become full Sect members of the Gentle River Sect, you will be forced to leave today, and will never be allowed to return. I’ll finally get to see what you’ve been hiding from me in your spatial storage items.”

When she looked at me, I saw a gleam of darkness in her eye.

I wasn’t sure what it was, but Sensei informed me as quickly as he could, “My boy, she’s been using dark qi for something, I know not what. There’s a spark of darkness in her now and, even though her husband is using as much light qi as he can, I can tell that she’s too far gone. Without a very powerful cleansing pill, which I’m not sure you could make even with the flame wheel method, she will only spin deeper into darkness.”

Only a few seconds had passed when Alayna started speaking, “You’ll be given one hour to decide, during which time you will be locked in your quarters.” She threw out her hand imperiously, “Be gone! I hope you make the right decision.”

I was shocked, even given what Sensei had told Keiko and I. Keiko got to her feet more quickly than I did, so she grabbed me by the hand and pulled me up. Ellie hissed at Alayna from her place around my shoulders.

When I looked down at where Bortus and Alayna sat, I saw a very different picture than I had in prior months. Bortus looked chastened, sad, and fearful. In contrast, Alayna oozed power and confidence. She was absolutely exultant at what she’d just done.

Just before we left, I saw Bortus glance over toward the chamber of the previous Sect leaders before quickly looking back down at his tea. Somehow, I understood exactly what he meant. As soon as we closed the door to the sitting room, I walked over to the room Bortus had looked at and noticed the door was slightly ajar. When I opened it, I found a single scroll bound with a silver band. It wasn’t very large, nearly the width of half a dozen incense sticks and thickness. I quickly snatched it into my spatial ring with a flick of my fingers and then made sure that I hadn’t opened the door any more than it already was.

I messaged Keiko, “Bortus left us a message, but we’d better wait to read it until we get back to our room.”

Keiko nodded and led us down the stairs, where we were met by the same guards who’d led us there. We waved as we waited for them to turn around and lead us back to our room. As we walked, they weren’t as chatty as they had been before, they seemed reserved, sad even.

Just before closing us in our room, Tim spoke to me quietly, “Juan is going to make your friends aware of what occurred. We understand why you won’t join the Gentle River Sect, we always have, but our loyalties lie with the Sect.” With that, he closed the door and I watched as a purple formation formed across it before fading to a dull lavender.

When I turned around to look, I found Keiko pacing where we usually did our morning katas. She was acting like a caged animal, and I couldn’t blame her for it. We had gone from trusted advisors and allies to nothing more than a tool to be used in the space of twenty minutes. Frankly, I was very glad that I hadn’t shared all the resources I’d gathered with them, they didn’t deserve them.

Letting Keiko pace, I pulled out the scroll Bortus had left us and sat down at the table with Sensei’s pot to read it. If I hadn’t already tested Bortus’s character, the contents of the scroll would’ve been much more surprising.

To my young friends, Steven and Keiko,

My wife has been working on a project of her own, hiding it from even me, but I can tell from the feeling in our cores that she’s been using a very large amount of dark qi and no light qi to balance it. I think she’s trying to do something truly profane, but there is little I can do to stop her. I’ve been using as much light qi as possible to balance out our cores, but I’ve never been adept at it, so I won’t be able to get her back to the way she was. I am so sorry for what she has done and if there were any other way this could have gone, I would’ve done it, but there wasn’t.

I have instructed Naomi and Taka to join you in your exile, forsaking their bonds to the Gentle River Sect. All I ask is that, when you leave this Inheritance, that you take them with you. They are like frogs at the bottom of a well, unknowing of how vast the world truly is. I would have them gain that knowledge, to find a way to grow as cultivators out in the world at large, rather than in this pit of well-mannered vipers.

I hear Alayna coming, so I’ll need to be brief. Beware all members of the Gentle River Sect with the exception of our four guards and Naomi and Taka. Alayna has bound the rest of them with additional contract seals in exchange for the cultivation aids that you and Keiko created for us. If it were in my power, I would’ve destroyed those aids, but she keeps them stored in a lockbox bound with her qi signature, which even I can’t get into.

I wish you well my young friends,

Bortus All-Haven

P.S. I managed to leave you two a gift, you should check in with the Inheritance to receive it.

Sensei swore out loud, “That thrice-damned fool! Doesn’t she know what channeling that much dark qi will do to her? The only formation I can think of that she could be trying to build would be one that is said to resurrect the dead, but it doesn’t work! All it does is reanimate their bodies and force them to follow the activator’s will. Is she so afraid of battle, of testing her mettle, that she’s willing to go to those lengths? If so, I never should’ve taught her anything of formations, because only the truly depraved would go so far.”

Keiko had stopped her pacing at that point and headed over to stand by the table beside where I sat with Sensei’s pot on the table in front of me, next to the letter. She reached out for the letter and I handed it to her.

After reading it, she was visibly angry, “After everything we did for them… she’s a snake! If it weren’t for the nonaggression seal, I’d take care for now, to prevent her from becoming a problem in the future, but we can’t.”

She started pacing again before stopping quickly and spinning around to look at me, “We have to leave, right now. If my hunch is right, she’ll have the people Taka trained to disrupt Indus Sect members from making it to the melees try and force us off our disks when we leave. If Naomi and Taka don’t join us, we’re going to have a very tough time leaving this place.”

I slowly got to my feet, brushed my legs off, and put Sensei’s pot back in the spatial pouch at my hip.

I cracked my neck, “There’s only one thing we can do, there’s no way we’re giving that snake access to our spatial storage devices. It’s time to go.”

Ellie bobbed her head in agreement, “She gives snakes a bad name!”

Chapter 6

As we left the Gentle River Sect for what we assumed would be the final time, we were quickly joined by Aria and Gong Jin, along with their gaggle of former Indus Tribe members. The four of them were scared, but Aria and Gong Jin were doing their best to keep them calm. It was easy to see how they were the scions of their respective clans given how adept they were at smoothing out the terror I saw in their cohorts’ eyes.

Just as we reached the gate to leave the Gentle River Sect headquarters for sectors uncharted, Naomi and Taka strode out from the gatehouse. They didn’t look happy, rather they looked incredibly sad.

Taka didn’t mince words, “We’re going with you. Don’t try and stop us, Uncle explained what was going on with Auntie and it’s not safe for us here anymore.”

Beside him, Naomi nodded solemnly, “I knew something was wrong with her, but she’s always been grouchy so I figured the stress of the oncoming war must’ve gotten to her. When Uncle explain exactly what was happening, there was no way we could stay.” She started to cry and Taka put his arm around her before pulling her into a tight embrace.

I put my hand on his shoulder, “You don’t have to come with us. You don’t have to leave the only home you’ve ever known. We would never ask that of you.” Seeing the steely gaze of Taka, I knew they weren’t going to bend. “If you’re set in your course, please, come with us. With the ten of us, we can make a real showing of defending ourselves, especially considering we definitely have an escape route should it come to that.”

I felt Naomi recoil through Taka’s shoulder, but the look in his eyes didn’t change, there was something in him that knew they had to leave and Naomi knew it as well.

Aria and Gong Jin walked up beside us.

“Gong Jin and I both left our homes, not knowing if we’d be able to go back,” Aria patted Naomi on the back, “but now that we’re paired cultivators, we understand something important. Each of us are our partner’s home. As long as we have each other, there is nothing we can’t do, nowhere we can’t go, and nothing that can stop us.” She reached out a hand for Gong Jin and he took it tenderly.

He spoke softly, “Leaving home is hard, but it often leads to growth. I hope that’s the case for you, it definitely was for us.” Gong Jin led Aria and his gaggle of misfits out the gates to the clearing outside the gates where all Gentle River Sect members left the compound on their disks.

Naomi and Taka stood there, looking at Keiko and I expectantly. When I went to follow Aria and Gong Jin, Naomi let go of Taka and latched onto my shoulder with a claw-like hand full of the enormous strength of a Sage cultivator.

“We’re leaving with you, now. Don’t try to talk us out of it again.”

She spun on her heel and marched out the gate. Taka glanced back at us with an apologetic shrug before following his wife.

Keiko chuckled, “I guess that’s it. It’s time for us to go.” She tugged me out the gate to join our compatriots where Taka had pulled out a gold coin and expanded to be large enough for everyone to sit on comfortably. When we sat on it, we made sure to keep the four newly ascended Heart cultivators in the center. If any of the rest of us fell, we could use a combination of qi to float ourselves for at least a moment so Taka could catch us, but they weren’t strong enough to do that.

Our takeoff was a little rougher than usual, Taka was obviously upset, despite his appearance of calm. It was to be expected, it was his home too, not just his wife’s.

Sensei spoke out loud, so everyone could hear him, “Based on what Bortus said, we should make for the nearest administrative building. There’s a high likelihood that his gift is something significant, but you have to check in with the Inheritance to receive it. To do that, you’ll either have to be the head of a Sect, or to be at an administrative building.”

“There’s one about a twelve-hour flight from here, it’s where Auntie and Uncle, I mean Alayna and Bortus, have to go when they want to make new Sect elders. There’s something about that status that requires them to have the Inheritance accept it officially, which requires them to travel to an administrative building. I heard Uncle complain,” Taka scratched his neck, “I heard Bortus complain that the previous Sect leader hadn’t had to do that. They were able to make people into elders with some sort of formation, but he never figured it out, despite the fact that the previous Sect leaders were alchemists, not formation masters.”

I nodded, “The previous sect leaders left their alchemy chamber trapped, I don’t think they trusted those they were leaving behind. The trap would even have destroyed the note they left.”

Aria spoke up, though she didn’t exactly sound confident, “I never liked Alayna, though Bortus is a good man. The thing is, I’ve met women like Alayna, some have even said I’m like her myself.” She looked around at our assembled allies sheepishly, “It wasn’t something I heard often, but I have heard it. Anyway, people like her are cold, manipulative, and willing to do anything to win. It doesn’t matter what that winning entails, be it finding a partner, or gaining as much power as possible. I’m ambitious, but I have a very strong moral code and it doesn’t allow for me to take advantage of friends, or even regular allies. Just for the record.” She looked down at her chest shyly, as much as she did anything shyly, which wasn’t much.

“Taka, please take us to the second closest administrative building, I don’t care how far it is,” I tried to sound confident, despite my insecurities in leading a group of cultivators stronger than I was, “I’m willing to bet that Alayna has figured out what Bortus did and will have teams of cultivators out to try and stop our disk on the way to the closest administrative building. If she didn’t set that up when we went into our room to think, she’s doing it now.”

Taka thought about what I said for a moment before nodding, “You’re probably right, Alayna is so much smarter than he is, it’s a miracle he even pulled off what he did for you two. I heard she was going to make you make your decision while sitting in front of her, in the sitting room. She had her guards gather up three sets of formation flags for her to use to force you to comply, but Bortus stopped her. Maybe I can still call him Uncle, he treated us right, all the way to the end of our time together.”

Without another word, Taka changed our direction of travel, heading north instead of east. The flight was quiet, everyone was lost in their own world, thinking about what they might’ve lost or what the could’ve done differently.

Taka broke the silence an hour after the start of our flight, “The next closest administrative building is a two-day flight. I don’t think any of us have gotten our sparring in yet today, so we’ll need to stop at one of the contest islands to take care of that. I’ll pay the qistone toll for its use.”

I quirked an eyebrow, “What do you mean the qistone toll? We’ve landed on islands like that dozens of times in the last few months, what’s different now?”

Naomi snarled, “Another rule change from the Inheritance. You can only use the contest islands for sparring, or resting, if you pay a toll. That toll is waived if the Sect you belong to controls any of the four sectors attached to it.” She spat off the disk into the roiling clouds below.

Sensei harrumphed, “It’s an attempt from the people in charge of the Inheritance to force all of the rogue cultivators into Sects. Those monsters in charge want a war. For some reason, they want as much death as possible, and that’s the easiest way to get it.”

He practically hissed, “The people in charge of this Inheritance are bastardizing its intent to such a state that it’s nearly unrecognizable. Those places were meant to remain as bastions of neutrality, not become a way to tax those without bonds. This is utterly ridiculous.”

As I was thinking about what Naomi and Sensei had said, Keiko brought up a good point.

“Are there any Sectors coming up for a control contest in our near vicinity? We can pay a toll for a few days, maybe a few weeks, but eventually it’ll be cost prohibitive to continue doing so.”

Naomi and Taka exchanged glances, obviously having a quick mental conversation, before she turned back to look at Keiko, “There’s a sector coming up for control directly adjacent to the contest site that contains the administration building. I remember reading the contest listing and it was some kind of poetry, I’m not sure which kind though.”

“It wouldn’t happen to be, haikus, would it?” As Aria spoke, we all turned to stare at her. She was practically vibrating with excitement!

Naomi cocked her head to the side and thought for a moment, “Actually, yes. I think that was it. Why? You never told us you were good at haikus.”

Aria sagged against Gong Jin, obviously overwhelmed by what she’d just heard, “Don’t you remember the conversation I had with Bortus a couple of months ago? He asked if anyone wanted to learn about haikus. He talked about how terrible he was at them and that it might be important to have someone who was good at them. There’s a good chance he knew this was coming. Why else would he trying to teach me some archaic form of poetry? They don’t even make any sense, five syllables, then seven, and finally five again. They don’t even rhyme!”

She shrugged, “However, I like the order of them, so I’ve been practicing for two months on my haikus. I’ve probably written ten thousand of them at this point,” she paused as I looked at her questioningly, “Okay, probably closer to 100, but I’m still pretty good. Bortus talked about how much better I was at them than he was.”

Realization dawned on her face, “He knew, he knew this is what was going to happen. Maybe we didn’t give the old man enough credit.”