by Tao Wong
“It’s okay, I would kill you first,” his father told his wife.
That received a much harder blow.
“Putting aside your father’s black humor, you are doing too much for us. Filial piety can only go so far,” Fa Rong, Wu Ying’s mother, said.
Wu Ying set his jaw. “It will go as far as I need it to go. I will not abandon you.”
His parents shared a sad look before they clasped Wu Ying’s hands.
“Your path is different from ours now. You might not see it yet, but we do. Do not let the past hold you back from your future,” Fa Rong said.
“My future will have no meaning without my past,” Wu Ying said firmly.
To those confident words, his parents only shared a smile. Turning away from more serious topics, the family spoke about the other, more important portions of their lives, the everyday occurrences that wove together a person’s existence.
***
The group left late the next morning, saying goodbye to a much smaller crowd. Unlike the villagers, the higher cultivation levels among the Sect members meant they recovered faster after drinking. Of course, faster did not mean entirely untouched; but the group had watched their intake. Even so, the group was subdued as they rode their horses away, intent on making up the distance between them and the army.
“They are a nice group,” said Bao Cong.
“Thank you,” Wu Ying replied with a smile. He turned around, regarding his friends. “They liked you all too.”
“I know.” Tou Hei shook his head. “Some of the younger girls were…”
“Aggressive,” finished Bao Cong.
“As were their mothers,” Li Yao said with a laugh. “Both ways.”
“That’d be Auntie Qiu,” Wu Ying said with a half-smile. “I thought Bao Cong almost fell for Qiu Er.”
“She is quite lovely…” Bao Cong’s voice grew remote, his eyes dreamy. Tou Hei smacked Bao Cong’s leg with his hand. “What? She was.”
“I noticed her shooting glares at Li Yao,” Tou Hei said. “Did you insult her somehow?”
“I did nothing!”
“She had a crush on Wu Ying,” Yin Xue said, speaking up from behind. “Though he was always oblivious to it.”
“I was not!” Wu Ying scratched his head. “I just didn’t want to get involved with her. And you. And Fa Hui.”
“Fa Hui?” Li Yao said.
“My friend. My best friend from the village.” Wu Ying quieted as he recalled his friend. His friend who had not answered a single letter. Who had not written to him. Not a single letter in two years.
“Har. Yes, we did fight over her back then, did we not?” Yin Xue’s voice was amused.
“I noticed she avoided you,” Wu Ying said.
“We talked.”
“And?” Wu Ying probed.
Rather than answer, Yin Xue kicked his heels into his horse and sped up, leaving the group behind. Wu Ying exchanged a glance with Li Yao, who shook her head, dissuading her boyfriend from bothering Yin Xue further.
The group rode together for a time, stopping at a village when it was time for lunch. Seated together, Wu Ying extracted a map to allow everyone to see it. He traced the route they would have to take, first down the roads and across before they stopped at the town of Xin Ming. He tapped the town.
“We have a decision to make here.” Wu Ying traced his fingers down the map along the river, stopping and tracing it further east as it met a canal. He then returned his finger back to the starting point and did the same with the southeasterly road. “These are two routes we can choose. The first might be faster. If there are no obstructions and we can find a boat to take us, sailing will be faster. Of course, that requires us to pay for the boat, or potentially buy one.
“The other option is technically shorter, but slower as we will be going over land. It is a direct route though, and we won’t be at the mercy of blockages. In either case, I expect it will take us about two weeks to get close to the army.”
“And how do you expect us to sneak by the border guards?” Bao Cong asked.
“Simple. We buy some new clothing and disguise ourselves as scholars,” Wu Ying said.
“Scholars in a war zone?” Yin Xue said. “Flimsy disguise.”
“What would you suggest then?” Wu Ying said.
“Li Yao or I could play nobles,” Yin Xue said. “The rest of you could play guards. Maybe even Li Yao and I could be husband and wife on our first journey around, perhaps visiting the ancestral shrine. It would give us a good reason for being there. And for having so many guards.”
Bao Cong nodded. “That will allow us to keep our weapons. And it’s better than playing a merchant. We don’t have the money to buy the goods.”
“Why are you and Li Yao husband and wife?” Wu Ying said huffily. “Bao Cong is a noble too.”
“He doesn’t look like much of one. No offense meant,” Yin Xue said.
“None taken. Working the forge has given me a strong tan.”
“Aren’t we forgetting someone?” Li Yao said, interrupting the burgeoning argument between Wu Ying and Yin Xue. She fixed her gaze on the quiet Tou Hei, tracking her eyes upward to rest on his bald pate. “Even if we all disguised ourselves, our monk here can’t disguise his hair style.”
“I can go alone.” Tou Hei shrugged. “No one ever looks twice at a monk on a pilgrimage.”
“That means you can’t have any meat on you,” Wu Ying teased.
Tou Hei made a face but nodded.
“I don’t think we should have anyone travel alone,” said Bao Cong.
“Then what do you suggest?” said Yin Xue.
The group fell silent as they contemplated their options. Wu Ying grinned and leaned forward, inspiration striking him like a thunderstorm on clay roofing tiles.
***
In the end, the group chose to wait to decide on the route until they arrived at the town. There, they would be able to learn how things fared on the river and canal. The merchants would certainly know better than they did. They did, however, choose to adopt Wu Ying’s disguise plan when they left the tavern.
The group split, with Wu Ying and Tou Hei in one group, acting as fellow wanderers. Wu Ying would be what he was—a herb gatherer for mundane herbs, supplying apothecarists and other medical professionals. His knowledge of herbs and plants would be the perfect disguise and would explain his presence. After all, a wandering gatherer without his own herb garden needed to travel to ply his trade. Tou Hei would be a monk on a pilgrimage to the temple in the capital of Wei. Together, the pair had banded together for mutual protection in these turbulent times. They would be the ones at the forefront. In this way, the group behind would have a scout for potential issues, especially as the nobles were the “juicier” targets.
Li Yao and the other two nobles would act as a noblewoman and her guards. She would be a dutiful and tragic widow sent to a convent after the death of her husband as her new family had little use for her. That the convent in the State of Wei was well-known for accepting the widows of nobles and peasants and for safeguarding them all bolstered Li Yao’s cover story.
For all their precautions, they were still far behind the front lines of the war. Even bandits, like the ones they had met before, were rare. Chaos would arrive soon enough, but it was still a dark rain cloud on the horizon, threatening a deluge but only sending threats so far. It was at the gates of the town of Lipu, after a long period of traveling, that Wu Ying realized his first mistake with their disguise.
“Passes?” the guard said to Wu Ying and Tou Hei, his tone bored from the hours spent asking the same question.
Tou Hei reached into his robes and pulled out a simple token. The guard scanned it, glancing at the name of the temple then at Tou Hei, before he returned the token without further questions. He turned to Wu Ying, who hid his surprise at his friend’s resourcefulness and started his own excuse.
“I’m sorry, honored sir. I was waylaid by bandits. My pack and most of my b
elongings, including my pass, were taken.” Wu Ying bowed his head low. “I was hoping to speak to the magistrate to reacquire my travel pass and my merchant license.”
“With what money?” The guard sneered at Wu Ying. “If you have no pass, you will not be allowed entry into the city. In fact, we should take you into custody to ensure that you are not a runaway.”
Wu Ying lowered his voice and leaned forward, passing his hands over his storage ring and extracting a palm-sized root of ginseng. In addition, he extracted a small number of coins. “They took most of what I had, but not all. I keep some things hidden on me.” Wu Ying extended his hands and the guard automatically palmed the ginseng and coins. “I understand that there is an entrance fee. I am not attempting to avoid that. But I’m sure there are better things we can do with our time than waste it on more paperwork for both of us. Don’t you think so?”
The guard glanced at the ginseng and frowned in consternation.
“It’s only fifty years old,” said Wu Ying, acting as if the ginseng’s age was something to be ashamed of.
“Fifty years old…” The guard looked Wu Ying over once again, taking in his dusty clothing and worn fingers, his cracked fingernails still caked with dirt. He glanced at his fellow guard, who was still busy with his own line, before he waved Wu Ying through. “Make sure you get your permit dealt with immediately. Speak to Junior Magistrate Khoo. He is my cousin. Tell him I sent you.”
“Thank you, benefactor,” Wu Ying said, bowing slightly before hurrying off after Tou Hei.
The ex–monk had continued to walk on, not wanting to mess with Wu Ying’s deception. They turned the street and walked a couple of blocks farther before they felt comfortable enough to break the silence.
“I didn’t realize you still had your old temple seal.” We Ying shot a glance at his friend, amusement in his eyes. It seemed that Tou Hei was more of a rebel than he looked.
“And I didn’t realize you were so knowledgeable about bribing,” said Tou Hei.
“It’s a fact of life. Even in the towns we sold our goods at, we occasionally had to bribe the guards. So long as we are circumspect about our actions and are not asking for too much, they will look the other way.” Wu Ying sighed then rubbed his storage ring. “But the next bribe will be expensive.”
Tou Hei shrugged. He had no experience in this matter. Bribing the magistrate was something Wu Ying would have to handle directly.
“I do hope that Li Yao and the others will manage…”
***
They met later that night at an inn Yin Xue knew of, in a private room at the top of the building. Wu Ying and Tou Hei sneaked into the room after the servants had delivered the evening’s meal for them all. Wu Ying carried his usual travel bag filled with purchased herbs and other materials he had scavenged along the way and kept within his storage ring, as well as the newly written permits. All that, of course, meant Wu Ying had used even more coins, leaving him significantly bare of purse.
“How did you get in?” asked Wu Ying.
“I showed them my family seal,” Li Yao said matter-of-factly. She looked somewhat surprised at Wu Ying’s question. “Why? Did you have trouble?”
Wu Ying sighed and shook his head. Of course they’d had no issues. No one questioned nobles about where they went or why. The restrictions on travel were only for those who weren’t nobles or cultivators. Already, Wu Ying missed being able to enter cities without having to pay or show documentation.
“Did you learn anything?” said Yin Xue.
“No.” Wu Ying winced. The time he’d needed to fortify his disguise meant that he was unable to do the necessary research on their potential routes.
“Then why—”
Tou Hei interrupted Yin Xue. “The river route is still open. There is no indication that there are any blockades on the river itself. But the canals might be troublesome.”
“Troublesome?” said Bao Cong.
“The canals are narrow and easy to guard. The captains were speaking of a lot of bandits working them during the last war. Many refused to go on them any longer. I don’t know if we could find passage when we needed it.”
Wu Ying imagined the map, thinking of the route they would need. The nearest canal took them farther south than they wanted to go. They’d have to cross the ground on horseback if there was no transportation, adding at least a few days to their trip. Any time they saved by taking a ship south would be eaten up by the additional distance. And then they would still have to head slightly north to catch up to the army from there. If they could find another ship, they could save up to a week. If.
“It looks like we will be going over land then,” Yin Xue said, stating what they all thought.
“Yes! I get to ride more,” Li Yao exclaimed. “I’ve really come to like Qiufeng. He’s big and strong and lets me ride him without complaint, all day long.”
“Qiufeng?” said Wu Ying.
“My horse.”
“Of course.” Wu Ying shook his head, hiding his mouth behind a raised teacup. “Then we are agreed. We go by land.”
***
Travel by land had one advantage, at least for Wu Ying. Even on the horse he rode, he could cultivate. His training on learning to cultivate while running allowed him to optimize his time. Cultivating in this way was not as efficient, especially for his cultivation exercises, but considering they were traveling for hours at a time, he could still progress.
In terms of his actual cultivation—his progress with the Yellow Emperor’s style—he was stymied by the same blocks. To break through, he needed to collect a large amount of chi and force the breakthrough—unless he managed to achieve a moment of enlightenment—and that was too dangerous to do out here. Better for him to wear away at the edges of the blocks, decreasing their effectiveness. If he did it right, his next attempt at a breakthrough would be easier.
But mostly, all that was a by-product of his other training. While they traveled, he focused on his aura cultivation exercises, working on suppressing his aura while at the same time making it semi-permeable. Working on the new cultivation technique to increase the speed of his cultivation, of his recharge rates.
At first, he failed. Continuously. It was one thing to learn to use it while sitting still, another thing to do so when he was walking—then it was a matter of control of his own movement. But it was another thing entirely to work on the cultivation exercise while trying—badly—to ride a horse, keep a lookout for potential dangers, and talk to one’s friend.
Again and again Wu Ying failed, his aura growing fully permissive without him realizing it. But eventually, Wu Ying managed to increase the amount of time between his failures. He increased the flow of chi in his dantian, the whirlpool of the cultivation technique, while hardening his aura at the same time. He managed to pick out unaspected chi, draw it into his body and in the areas where he failed; he stripped the aspected chi of its properties and made it his own.
In the process, he learned something new.
Unaspected chi was significantly faster to “own” than aspected chi. After discussion with Tou Hei and having his friend compare his own process of cultivation and his own intake of fire chi, Wu Ying realized one advantage of the Yellow Emperor’s cultivation method. Unaspected chi was not as prevalent as aspected chi, but it was easier and faster to subsume. Even though Wu Ying had less chi to draw upon, the little that he did could be controlled and made his own faster than the fire chi Tou Hei used. After all, unaspected chi was just that—without seal, without ownership. But fire chi—or any other aspected chi—was drawn from the elements of the world, given form, and so Tou Hei would need to forcibly remove it and add his own flame to it.
After their talk, Tou Hei grew contemplative, focusing within. He soon pointed out an even worse issue for one like him, who was aspected to flame and heat. Water chi was incredibly difficult and slow for Tou Hei to strip and utilize. It took Tou Hei almost thrice as long as any other chi and five times for his own aspect.
When he revealed that, he had Wu Ying explain what he had been doing in the cultivation exercise, enough that Tou Hei could grasp the plan. And then the ex-monk grew silent, experimenting with his own aura.
It was days later, when Tou Hei’s aura shifted and grew hotter, that Wu Ying understood what his friend had done. Instead of hardening his aura and blocking out chi he did not use, Tou Hei actually projected a small amount of fire chi into his. In this way, he “burnt” and repelled water chi, leaving him with fire chi that was drawn to his aura and other, less inimical energy forms. It was a different type of utilization than Wu Ying’s technique, though Tou Hei had derived some aspects from it. It was also grossly inefficient in the beginning, but Tou Hei was focused on increasing its efficiency.
In the meantime, Wu Ying kept at his own cultivation exercises during the day, refining and making them more intuitive.
In the evenings, he and Tou Hei sparred, training their martial styles. Wu Ying tried to combine his cultivation exercises with the duels, intent on keeping his energy regeneration ongoing. It allowed him to last longer, to keep going even when he should be tired out. If Wu Ying could not beat his friend with skill or talent, then he would have to be stubborner and endure longer.
Chapter 12
“Hold it right there!”
The voice commanded the pair of cultivators to stop, leaving them standing in the middle of the road in surprise. Wu Ying carefully moved his hands away from his sword as he looked around. Now that the strangers had revealed themselves, Wu Ying could sense their auras. It seemed at least one of the strangers had the ability to suppress his friends’ and his own aura signature.
The strange cultivators exited the sides of the roads, exposing themselves from the foliage they had hidden in, wearing the yellow-and-brown robes of the Six Jade Gates sect. There were five members of the intercepting party. One who wielded a crossbow stood the farthest away at fifty yards down the path, at the top of the slight rise they had been traversing. The other four clustered around Wu Ying and Tou Hei, weapons already drawn. Two wielded daos, while the third carried a long trident and the last a simple spear. Wu Ying absently noted that the trident-wielder was a female who stood even taller than him. The men, on the other hand, looked very similar, their long hair tied up into buns, with the narrow features of the people of Wei.
