by Tao Wong
“How about through the water? If the walls are too sturdy, can we go by the water?” Bao Cong asked. He had been watching the water, scratching his cheek while waiting.
“The water?” Li Yao shook her head, pointing farther up to where the city hid behind the curve of the river and low-lying hills. Only the edges of the wall could be seen from their current position. “They check every ship that comes in. Every single person. If they don’t know you, they leave a bunch of cultivators to watch you unload. The same thing we do. Only trusted ships are even allowed to get close before they are searched.”
“Oh.” Bao Cong shrugged, obviously unconcerned with the process. After all, he was being paid no matter what happened.
Silence enveloped the group as they considered the reality of the situation. Until further notice, all they could do was wait.
***
It was later that evening, when the team was done, that Li Yao guided her horse over to Wu Ying with a deft touch of her knees. Her brows were drawn, her lips pursed, making him realize that the talk that had been brewing for the last few days could no longer be avoided. Wu Ying dreaded it, but he had known he could only avoid it for so long.
“We need to talk.” Li Yao gestured for the rest of the team to go ahead without Wu Ying and her.
As they rode away, Wu Ying could not help but notice the smirk on Yin Xue’s face, though Wu Ying wasn’t entirely certain it was unjustified. He and Li Yao rode for some time in uncomfortable silence. Twice, Wu Ying tried to speak, but she had raised her hand each time, stalling him from doing so. It was only when they were a distance away from the group, when even the straggling soldiers who were busy running their errands were gone, that she spoke. Even so, she refused to look at him.
“I was given the role of the leader in this group.” When Wu Ying moved to agree with her, she sped up what she was saying, overriding his words. “I’m supposed to lead. I’m supposed to be in charge, dictating everyone’s moves, their depositions, their places. If you don’t listen, then it creates problems for all of us. No one will listen to me if you don’t.”
Silence stretched between the pair before Wu Ying realized she was waiting for him to say something. “I know. I’m sorry. I just—”
“You just what? You just chose to stick your sword in, even after I told you not to,” Li Yao’s said, her voice rising a little. “You could have chosen to listen. You could have chosen to stop. You didn’t. You chose to follow your friend. To defy me. To put the rest of us in an awkward position.”
“I’m sorry. When I see something like that, I… I can’t help but get involved. I can’t look away.” Wu Ying tried to explain his position, tried to explain why he’d done what he had. “I just… I didn’t want to not listen to you. I couldn’t help myself.”
“It doesn’t matter what you wanted to do. It’s what you did. You chose to ignore me. You chose to ignore what I asked of you. You went right ahead.” Li Yao finally turned, only now looking at Wu Ying. She saw the look of pain, the look of doubt on his face. He had not really meant to put her in a position like that. She knew it but… “Would you do that again?”
“Charge in and save others?” Wu Ying searched his conscience, trying to determine why he’d gone. He had stopped after all, when she asked him to. Then Tou Hei had gone. “I don’t know. I did stop. But Tou Hei kept going…”
“I’ve talked to him,” Li Yao said sternly, shaking her head. “I expected it from the monk. And I’ve worked out what to do with him. So has the vice-general. But you? You’re no monk.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t have a conscience.”
“You didn’t go because of your conscience. You went because your friend went. And you thought you could get away with it.”
Wu Ying’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not fair.”
“You said it yourself. You went because Tou Hei went. You didn’t have the courage, you didn’t have the conscience to do it because it was right.”
Wu Ying felt a flash of anger, his back straightening on the horse, tightening around his body. The signal sent the horse cantering forward, forcing Wu Ying to yank on the reins. The conflicting orders made the horse slow down and toss its head, hot-stepping a little, forcing the somewhat inexperienced rider to battle it before the creature settled. None of that helped to settle Wu Ying’s temper. By the time the horse was settled, Li Yao had caught up to him again.
“That—”
“Was not fair. It was not true,” Wu Ying snapped before he shook his head. “Don’t worry. I will listen to your orders next time.”
Li Yao opened her mouth to try apologizing and snapped it shut. She wasn’t wrong. Blunt maybe, but not wrong.
“Is that all?” Wu Ying asked.
When Li Yao nodded, he kicked his heels again, sending the horse cantering and leaving the young lady behind. How dare she say that to him. That he lacked courage! Lacked morality! Everyone did compared to those monks. At least he’d acted. Tried. Rather than just follow orders.
He found himself snarling and, in a fit of pique, kicked the horse into a gallop.
***
For all his anger, Wu Ying made sure to verify that Li Yao had made her way back safely later that evening. Once he spotted her horse and her, he made sure to avoid her. He still smarted from her words and chose to spend the night manning a secondary watch for additional contribution points. Even with some of the cultivators on watch, the military never had enough of them for their peace of mind. Rather than create additional problems by enforcing extra watches, they chose instead to incentivise cultivators to take additional watches.
It was only mildly successful. Few cultivators wanted to do something as boring as standing watch, so the army had to compromise between having as many as they wished and keeping their most powerful members happy.
As Wu Ying stalked the periphery of the camp, searching for trouble, he chewed over Li Yao’s words again and again. In time, his temper cooled. He had to admit, she had a point. He had decided to not go because she’d asked him to. He did see the point of military orders. He understood them and even valued them to some extent. The military, like a farming village, was not comprised of a single person. Taking care of the drainage, fixing up the riverbanks, dealing with water flow and planting, those were tasks no single person could do. No single person should do. Refusing to work with the village, doing things themselves, or choosing to do things out of order only disrupted the work of others. Sometimes it forced the villages to redo the same work again and again, wasting time and effort. Releasing water to flood one’s fields when the rest of the fields were planted not only angered the rest of the farmers but also wasted time.
He could understand that. He could see how his actions had affected her standing with his friends. With the army around.
But when others died, when he could help, he wanted to help. And even if he had stopped, Tou Hei had gone. So maybe Wu Ying had taken the opportunity to go to. He wasn’t going to allow his friend to rush out alone and without protection. Maybe that was the reason why Wu Ying had gone. Not because his conscience had said he should protect others, but because it had said he should protect Tou Hei.
His friend.
Or maybe he was a coward. He valued one life over others, valued the life of one he knew over those he didn’t. He did not have the expanse of mercy, the heart to sympathize with strangers.
And if that was not cowardice of the heart, what was it? To choose to not hurt, to choose to safeguard one’s heart, one’s body, from the pain and death of others.
Wu Ying kicked a stone, sending it spiraling off into the darkness, soon lost to sight beyond the light of the camps. He continued his patrol, turning as he heard the shuffle of feet behind them. To his surprise, Tou Hei was there, walking up to him with his staff over his shoulder.
“Did you choose to take the night assignment too?” asked Wu Ying.
“No.”
Tou Hei continued the patrol without waiting for Wu
Ying to follow. Wu Ying cocked his head before hurrying to catch up with his friend. Unfortunately for his curiosity, Tou Hei chose not to say anything further.
Eventually, Wu Ying threw his hands in the air and said, “What are you doing here?”
“Joining you.”
Rather than continue this charade of question-and-answer, Wu Ying punched his friend in the shoulder. Tou Hei danced aside, though he took a glancing blow from the sudden attack.
“Okay, okay. I want to say thank you.”
“For what?” Of course, Wu Ying knew for what. But he kind of wanted Tou Hei to say it.
“Having my back.”
Wu Ying smiled at his friend. It was what it was. But it was nice to be thanked anyway.
They continued walking together for a time before Tou Hei added, “I’m sorry about you and Li Yao.”
“It’s fine. Couples are supposed to have fights,” Wu Ying said. Right? He really didn’t know.
He still resented the things Li Yao had said to him. He resented that she felt she could see into him, see what he had done. That she thought to judge his intentions as much as his actions. And he wasn’t sure he would choose differently if things changed. This fight between them, it was one of clashing positions. They both thought they were right. It was not like their first one, where he had insulted her with what he had said.
Did it mean they were done? How did you move on when neither party thought they were wrong? At least, not entirely.
Under that glum thought, the pair continued their patrol through the night, along the outer portion of the army that faced the walls, down to the river, and back. Walking, enjoying the humid and cool night air as thoughts churned and the world turned.
Chapter 18
Days passed with nary a change of circumstances. The walls around the city continued to be destroyed, the siege weapons continuing their assault through day and night. After all, it was not as if the walls were going anywhere. The biggest issue facing the trebuchets was keeping sufficient projectiles in stock. A constant stream of wagons and haulers traveled between the army and the nearby hills, picking up and dropping off rocks. The rocks came in a variety of shapes and sizes. A few cultivators gifted in earth and metal shaping worked the rocks, hardening and combining them to useable shapes. After all, quarrying the right shape and size was a difficult process. Much simpler to have cultivators rework them.
Even so, not all cultivators with an Earth aspect could do the work. It required both an understanding of their own chi as well as the external, environmental chi and an appropriate cultivation exercise. Thankfully, these types of exercises were common and easily purchased from the army—for obvious reasons. In fact, some cultivators even volunteered to work these shifts as it improved their control.
None of that mattered to Wu Ying. The constant, daily attacks on the walls of the city, the occasional raids against supply lines, and the battle against the soldiers from the city. Even the army supply teams that went and acquired additional supplies. None of those had anything to do with Wu Ying and his team. Instead, they continued to watch the water, the least likely location for an attack. In time, Yin Xue and Bao Cong managed to trade favors and end up working more comfortable jobs within the army encampment itself. In turn, other cultivators joined Wu Ying’s group, people like Lady Pan, Yan Qing, and Bai Hu.
At the top of a hill, astride their horses, the cultivators surveyed the empty ground before them. From there, they could see the launch of another futile attack against the city, hear the crack of stone as it struck, and smell the sweet fragrance of the field of flowers before them. The midday sun beat upon them, and Wu Ying took a swig from his water bottle. The enchanted one. Because he might as well use it.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” said Wu Ying to Bai Hu, who sat astride his own spotted mare.
“Did you expect me to run? Do you think me that much of a coward to run over the loss of my friends? You think we did not know what would happen?” Bai Hu glared at Wu Ying, his arms crossing beneath his swarthy chest.
“The opposite actually.” Wu Ying gestured to where the edges of the city met the water. Because of their angle on top of the hill, they could look into the docks, watch the ships being loaded and unloaded. A boring job, but one that allowed them to keep an eye for potential new problems that might be dropped off—or taken away. “I thought you’d be at the walls again.”
“Oh!” Bai Hu seemed mollified by Wu Ying’s words. “Brave doesn’t mean stupid. The death benefits from my brothers are enough for me to purchase what I want. Safe now is good. I have to survive long enough to pick out the style, after all.”
“Death benefits?”
“Yes.” Bai Hu smirked at Wu Ying. “Don’t worry, you’re not missing out on anything. Your Sect takes it all for those of you who die. They make sure they aren’t missing anything.”
Wu Ying blinked. That did make sense. The Sect would want the resources it had expended on the slain returned to it. He wondered if that was what the Emperor’s envoy had been negotiating, then shook his head at his own naivete. As much the Sect valued them, they were also still just bodies—until they became Core cultivators. The Sect had hundreds of members in the same stage, and all too many geniuses who never managed to make it further than Energy Storage.
Still, Wu Ying felt less treasured now.
“I’m glad to hear that you’ve gotten something out of this,” said Wu Ying. The moment he said it, he realized how callous it sounded.
But this time around, Bai Hu didn’t seem to mind. “Yes. The martial style I will purchase will help. There are a number of demon beasts that were impossible for us to hunt. Now, I will be able to do it. I will honor my brothers and progress further. I will become a Core cultivator.”
Wu Ying turned to Lady Pan and her companion, the pair watching over the river and busy with their own activities. To Wu Ying’s amusement, Lady Pan was embroidering a silk scarf while Yan Qing was playing his erhu while balancing perfectly on his equine companion. The two-stringed bowed instrument cried and moaned under his skilled hands, the tune a sad accompaniment to the thrum of war in the background.
“Us?” Lady Pan shared a glance with Yan Qing before she shrugged. “We never intended to take part in the main assaults. Unfortunately, circumstances dictated otherwise.”
“Circumstances? That vice-general just didn’t know how to take no like a gentleman,” Yan Qing said, his hands stopping. Even though his words were aggressive, and his tone was neutral.
“The vice-general?” Wu Ying’s voice sounded troubled, the implications somewhat staggering to him. He did have to admit, Lady Pan had a certain way to her. The way she teased people, the way she acted and drew the attention of everyone who saw her. The few times he’d glimpsed her in the encampment, she had been surrounded by admirers. Mostly male, many wanting to spend time with her. But still, the vice-general…
“You get used to it,” she confided to Wu Ying. “It’s one of the disadvantages of my cultivation method.”
Wu Ying slowly nodded. That would explain a lot, including his attraction to the Lady. Not that she wasn’t beautiful in her own right, but he was with Li Yao. Sort of. Maybe. Maybe not anymore. He shook his head, discarding the thoughts that threatened to make him spiral into self-doubt again. Instead, he fixed his gaze upon the city’s docks as the enemy cultivators left another ship, along with the customs guards, to row on their own boat over to the next ship.
“Why do they stop some and not others?” Wu Ying said.
“Stop what?” Bai Hu asked.
“It depends on the boat. Those with higher status, those with captains and crew who can be trusted will be allowed through,” Lady Pan clarified. “The rest of them will be tested more thoroughly.”
Wu Ying noted, letting his gaze roam over a couple of individuals, tiny dots that walked along in the river. Jade Gates cultivators. Probably sensing for auras, checking to make sure there weren’t hidden dangers.
> “Hmmm.” Wu Ying rubbed his chin, trying to work out how he’d break in through the water.
Unfortunately, every idea he had come up with in the last few days had failed on further review and discussion. Swim underwater? Tried and failed. The cultivators who worked the docks were specially picked for their aura sensitivity. Also, Bao Cong had pointed out one evening, there were at least a couple of Core cultivators in the city who were close enough to the docks that they would pick out anyone trying to sneak in even if the guards missed them. So long as they were present, sneaking into the city was impossible.
Not to mention anyone who managed to make their way in had to leave again—or open the gates. Which, considering how reinforced the gates were, would require a significant force.
“I don’t understand,” Wu Ying said. “How are we supposed to get in?”
“We probably aren’t,” Yan Qing said. Having said his piece, he was playing his instrument again, hands slowly moving the bow across the strings.
“What do you mean?” Wu Ying said.
“We were probably never meant to take the city,” Bai Hu said.
“Definitely not. How would the kingdom care for it? We are too far from the border. No, I think we’ve done all that we were meant to,” Lady Pan said.
Wu Ying frowned, and the lady looked him over, considering. After some thought, she conjured a jian from her ring, replacing her needles and embroidery with the weapon, which she used to draw on the ground. She never actually touched the ground, instead instilling a small amount of metal chi into the blade and using the weapon to form the map. Wu Ying quickly understood the simple lines for the river and the city they were watching. Quick stabs added nearby cities, and he assumed the Xs were the armies. When he questioned Lady Pan, she acknowledged his guesses.
“Now here we are.” Lady Pan gestured. “And here is the reserve of the army of Wei. They are moving toward us now, making sure that we do not take and hold the city.”
