A Thousand Li

by Tao Wong

  Of course, it was hard to explain all of that to non-gatherers and have them take the danger seriously. Most would discount the danger. Those who didn’t generally overestimated their ability to discern the differences between plants. And in truth, the plants themselves were often extremely similar in appearance. It was just that when you added the five major elements and the related geography and chi flows of surrounding vegetation into the equation, gathering became an art form.

  It was also why, more than once, Wu Ying did not choose to follow up on potential gains. No matter what his nose indicated, when he was uncertain about the providence of what he was looking at, he chose to walk away.

  Thankfully, with the lack of Gatherers in the sect itself, this area was relatively untouched. He did notice some evidence of human picking—most likely from the nearest village or an adventurous forester—but for the most part, this was virgin territory.

  By the time they reached the foothills, his pack was mostly filled, and even his World Spirit ring had begun to feel the strain. While there was a significant amount of physical space in the ring, Wu Ying had to be careful about balancing the chi flow within. Even short-term storage of items could cause long-term damage, a trade-off Wu Ying was unwilling to take.

  It was under his recommendation then that they set aside any additional gathering as they entered the territory of the cranes. Wu Ying chose to arm himself with his crossbow, while others extracted various ranged weaponry. Their heads turned toward the sky, searching between the gaps of the foliage for signs of their prey as they rode on.

  For all the supposed aggressiveness of their targets, the group spent the first day entirely unmolested. Entirely, including from other beasts. The flock had driven away most other creatures, leaving their ride peaceful if tense. It was probably this very act that had forced the cranes farther and farther afield, resulting in their addition to the assignment board.

  It was early morning the next day, as they rode up the foothills, crisscrossing a small sloping cliff and breaking out from the towering bamboo, that they caught sight of their targets. Or perhaps it could be said that their targets caught sight of them. Almost immediately, the birds turned as a group and targeted them.

  As they winged closer, the cultivators shifted position. Most got off their horses, with the gaunt cultivator clapping his hands and twisting them into arcane shapes before releasing a talisman that grew in size as chi was pushed into it. The paper servant took hold of the reins from the cultivators, pulling away the unridden animals. Only Yu Kun, Wan Yan, and Xiang Wen chose to stay on their steeds, the others not trusting their ability to handle the animals during the fight.

  “Orders?” Tou He called.

  Silence greeted his words before Yu Kun started. He looked around at the group of cultivators staring at him. “Me?”

  “Of course you. You organized this!” Xiang Wen said.

  “Idiot wandering cultivator. Useless piece of spoilt meat.” Wan Yan raised her voice, gesturing with her free hand, “Liu Bu and Liu Yu. You are the front line with the peasant. Use your weapons and skills to hold them off if they land. Tou He, you guard those of us firing on them. The rest of us with our bows will take them down.”

  Given orders and a sense of direction, the group scrambled to follow the instructions of the lordly cultivator. Wu Ying stored his crossbow, instead placing his hand on his spirit ring. He debated between using his new gift from his Elder Sister or a wooden weapon, but upon spotting the flying creatures, he chose the unaspected weapon. Wood did not do well against metal, and those birds had partaken of the enriched iron sand, just like the herd of boars they had met.

  The only real difference being that the birds had done a better job at cultivating the chi-enriched metal.

  “Here they come. Steady!” Wan Yan ordered the group of archers, while Wu Ying and the brothers stood, waiting.

  Rather than use a draw attack, Wu Ying drew his weapon in consideration of how fast the creatures moved. He invested a little of his chi into the Spirit-level jian, feeling his energy move through the weapon. His energy balked a little at the metal, but a little nudging around by Wu Ying, along with his understanding of the blade, had it encompassed fully with only minimal effort. It helped, Wu Ying realized, that he had begun to truly understand both the wind and unaspected aspects of his chi. Wind did not care for metal—it might not be able to bend it without great force, but it could easily encompass it.

  And that was what he was doing. Wrapping his sword with his chi. A part of him rebuked himself for not testing this out earlier. The way the blade reacted to him, the eddies of air that swirled around the blade with each moment, it was perfect.

  Natural.

  The first attacks did not come from the cultivators but the birds themselves. Feathers, fast-moving and picking up speed as they fell, rained down upon the group in curving arcs. Liu Bu and Liu Yu acted simultaneously, the pair of cultivators using their long spears to send blasts of chi into the sky. Both were water cultivators, their attacks flowing with the grace so reminiscent of the liquid they cultivated as phantom spears, tens of feet tall, batted the attack away.

  Feathers clinked and flew away, cast aside. Wu Ying held still, forming his attack in his mind until the cranes were closer. Then he thrust his sword, sending his chi spiraling outward in a mini-cyclone. It was so similar to his usual Dragon’s Breath attack. But different too. It leaned upon his wind chi further, it spiraled rather than cut, and it drew upon his battered body and the energy trapped within it.

  The tornado that danced through the air caught many of the remaining metal feathers, flinging them back at the birds. They let out surprised and outraged shrieks, though the vast majority of the feathers missed. It was not as though Wu Ying was controlling the retaliation, just redirecting the initial attack.

  “Nicely done!” Liu Bu called, retracting his energy to a more stable size as the haft of the spear rested on his ample flesh.

  His brother followed suit a moment later, even as the diving birds neared them. Around Liu Yu’s feet, small paper talismans floated, rising as the monsters neared, to protect him.

  That was when the archers behind the group opened fire. Their horses neighed, shifting a little, but it did nothing to throw off the cultivators’ attacks. Arrow after arrow flew from their bows, the archers nocking, releasing, then nocking arrows held between fingers into the strings with smooth skill.

  In the air, Wu Ying saw the flickers of the moving arrows as they were released. Fire, metal, and wood chi bundled into the attacks, giving the attacks more strength than a normal arrow. The first arrow impacted, exploding into flames and catching the bird it impaled on fire. It winged away, cawing in anger, metal feathers burning. Another arrow punched through a wing, causing another crane to spiral away. Other attacks were dodged, the birds tilting their bodies and wings to avoid the flying implements of doom.

  Then there were upon the team of cultivators. Wu Ying struck with his jian, launching pure sword intent and chi in glistening arcs of energy. He no longer charged his attacks, going for simplicity and speed. Like the brothers, his job was to distract and drive the creatures away.

  Most of the birds ran, fear driving them to alter their angles of attack. A few, too foolhardy, too brave, refused to be swayed from their line of attack. They flew into the trio’s defensive attacks and many of those fell crippled and injured to the ground. Others—the lucky or the brave few behind the original groups—came on unmolested.

  A flurry of feathers and claws, of screeching caws and gasped breath erupted as the flock reached them all. Silk shredded, feathers shed and parted as the cranes struck with their long beaks. Everything was chaos for a few long seconds before the birds pulled away, their attack thwarted.

  The birds left the wounded and dead. Some hopped on injured feet, flapped on broken wings, bled to death on the ground, or struck out with metal feathers, released in a dying flurry. Yet without the impetus of flight, the feathers were less d
eadly.

  A horse kicked, catching a bird in its face, throwing it aside. Another weapon dipped, Tou He caught another. The battle raged for a few desperate seconds as the remainder were slain.

  And then silence from the ground.

  Above them, the surviving birds wheeled, cawing as they regained height, getting ready to repeat their attacks. Wu Ying pressed a hand against his shoulder, a part of him wondering how and when he had been injured. Mostly, he was paying attention to a quartet of birds high above, outside of bow range.

  A quartet that hummed with power, that had chosen not to divebomb them along with the rest of the flock. Maybe, as Wu Ying listened to the constant screeches and caws, they had even directed the attack.

  Behind him, cultivators readied themselves for the next attacks. More arrows were drawn from quivers, placed between fingers on one hand or gripped alongside the bow itself. Liu Bo took out two additional paper talismans, throwing them to grow around the team.

  “You should have used those earlier,” Wan Yan scolded him.

  “They’re expensive!” Liu Bo snapped. “And the big ones aren’t here yet.”

  “I think that’s about to change,” Wu Ying called, removing his hand from his shoulder. The bleeding had stopped, but his headache had returned in full force. It seemed that using his newfound ability with wind chi came at a price. And even as he had cleansed his body a little, the balance between his chi had been thrown off.

  Too bad he didn’t have time to worry about it right now.

  The birds swooped in and Wu Ying raised his sword once more to do battle.

  ***

  Wu Ying impacted against the hard-feathered body again, his hand reflexively gripping tighter against his buried sword. Even with his entire frame and sword dug into the Core stage crane, it winged its way higher into the sky without issue. Wind rushed past his face, the fresh air tugging at his lungs, burning his struggling chest as the earth fled beneath their bodies.

  Memories rushed into Wu Ying’s mind, flashbacks of the last few desperate moments. At first, dealing with the larger, stronger metal-infused cranes had gone well. Both cultivators and birds had acquired additional injuries and more birds had fallen to their weapons.

  Paper talismans had shredded the air, defending the cultivators against metal-tipped feathers that cut through silk robes and skin with equal ease. Chi-filled attacks flew through the air, arrows bursting on metal bodies and littering the ground with blood.

  Then on the last pass, the creatures had thrown a new wrinkle into the fight. The very ground beneath their feet, littered with discarded metal feathers and corpses, had glowed before exploding. The group had only brief seconds to scramble away, a pair of horses being left to their demise. Wu Ying had jumped high into the sky, borrowing the energy that had lashed out, barely surviving the explosion while riding it into the air, only to be buffeted by one of the swooping cranes.

  Then… then he wasn’t sure. He remembered being tossed around, jumping and spinning, using his chi and sword to batter away attackers as he found himself in the midst of the flying flock. Until one of the large cranes had swung itself at him and he had plunged his Spirit-level jian into its body, cutting through metal with ease. He had sought its heart, the blade moving on its own volition it seemed. He had failed.

  And now, he rode an angry, Core stage metal crane, separated from his friends while rising into the sky, attached only by a single blade.

  Somehow, it seemed appropriate.

  Before Wu Ying could contemplate his life choices further, the Core stage metal crane tilted. Its wings tucked in a little as it banked, and Wu Ying began to lose his grip. His hand dug into iron feathers, his fingers slicing open but giving him enough of a grip that he wasn’t entirely thrown off. It helped that the Spirit-level sword he wielded had dug deep enough that the extra pressure on its body made the bird screech in pain.

  Wu Ying’s legs half-hanging off the crane’s body, it tilted to right its flight once more. A few moments of scrambling had Wu Ying lying prostrate on the spirit beast’s back, the massive creature squawking its displeasure. The entire white-and-pink creature was longer than Wu Ying was tall. As for its wingspan, that was easily twice his height.

  Those wings were the simplest way for him to get down. He eyed the creature, the way it beat against the air, lifting him higher and higher. Then he looked at the ground far below, mentally whimpering a little. He was much, much higher than any mortal had a right to be.

  At least so long as you could not ride the current of chi energy like a Core cultivator. And while flying itself was wondrous, the eventual fall would be a killer.

  If the birds that were swooping at him, intent on plucking him off their leader, did not do the job beforehand.

  Wu Ying pressed himself down as hard as he could, his motion shoving the sword deeper into the bird he rode. It, in turn, flinched reflexively, its flow of energy switching and the wind buffeting the pair. It threw off the attack of the first crane, making it miss but for a burning streak of red across one of Wu Ying’s arms before it pulled away.

  The Core level metal crane righted itself, twisting into a gentler turn as it screeched at the flock. Wu Ying could not understand the screeching, though he sensed the anger the creature radiated and read the way the flock turned back to his team. It seemed that whatever they intended to do to him, it would be near his friends.

  Keeping an eye on the hovering birds, Wu Ying searched for a solution to his predicament. It seemed the Core crane had ordered them off. Somehow, that was even less reassuring than constant attacks. The only good news was that his friends seemed to have survived the explosion and even managed to take down a pair of the Energy Storage level Cranes. Even if Xiang Wen was bleeding a little and wielding a pair of jian now.

  As they neared the ground, the creature chose to act. It tucked in its wings, speeding up its descent and turning. Except this time, it was not a gentle rotation but a quick one, that saw his blade shift within the creature’s body. But more importantly, it turned them entirely upside down.

  For four brief seconds, Wu Ying hung, still attached to the creature. Then gravity made its presence known, beckoning him to itself. He could not fight the ground’s call, and even though he gripped his sword hard, the blade tore free from the upside-down crane. The all-too-sharp blade cut through the creature’s flesh and bone with ease, only slowing down as it hit the iron feathers before it came loose.

  Wu Ying fell. Open air greeted him for a brief moment. Hands flapping, Wu Ying sought some purchase, some solution.

  From the corner of his eye, a pink-and-grey streak charged Wu Ying. There was a screech, a scream of anger from the Core crane, but Wu Ying’s assailant did not seem to care. Perhaps it had been holding back too long. Perhaps it was just mindlessly angry, more demon than spirit beast.

  Rather than using its claws to tear at Wu Ying, the creature targeted him with its long beak. Metal glinted, chi forming around it, and Wu Ying found himself swinging his weapon to meet its charge. A resounding clang shot through the mountain range even as Wu Ying learned a new, unwanted fact about midair battles.

  Without bracing, without ground or earth to hold him still, he spun. His parry sent him flying backward, pushing him into a deadly, uncontrolled spiral.

  The impetuous bird screeched and flapped away, uninjured but for a line marring its cracked beak. It did not have long to regret its decision, as a wood arrow sank deep into its breast, enveloping its body and constricting its wings and body. The creature fell, just like Wu Ying.

  A hundred feet, then sixty.

  Wu Ying finally stabilized his fall, his sword pointed at the ground. He channeled wind chi into it, remembering his first attack of the battle. Perhaps if he sent it into the ground hard enough, he could survive this. It was a forlorn hope, but it was all that he had.

  Then he spotted the two brothers running toward him. In one pair of hands, paper talismans were forming in greater and greater number.
They swirled around his hands in a tight formation, growing larger before Liu Bo thrust forward. A paper tornado formed, striking Wu Ying, tearing at his clothing and his skin as the paper cut into his body. It buffeted his body, slowing his fall but not halting it entirely.

  The ground closed in, second by second, Wu Ying’s view blocked by the swirling paper talismans. White and yellow paper flashed by, marred by the dark ink that had been inscribed upon the talismans. Then from the ground, rather than the green of the earth, pale blue water arose.

  Again, the strike hammered into his body, disrupting his attempt at saving himself. His focus technique dispersed even as the geyser threw him about. His fall halted for a second—before the attacks ended.

  Leaving Wu Ying to crash into the soaked and soggy earth. The impact drove all the breath out of his body, his cut body dispersing his blood through the muddy ground. His impact was at an angle on the sloping hill, making him slide down the slope to bounce off a gentle rise before the energy of the fall dispersed against a stand of bamboo trees.

  Breath already robbed from him, Wu Ying could only struggle in pain, stinging cuts and creaking bones protesting their abuse. His ribs were certainly cracked, and he was sure his femur had dislocated from his thigh bone. Never mind the contusions and possible concussion.

  But he was on the ground.

  And alive.

  ***

  By the time Wu Ying recovered enough to send chi through his body to heal, the fight was over. They had managed to down the single remaining Energy Storage level crane and the injured Core level crane, along with half of the remaining flock, before the survivors broke off the attack.