The Dao of Magic: Book 3: A Western Cultivation Series

by Andries Louws

  “It’s the only thing I could find in Database! The connection is terribly slow, so this is the only thing I could come up with before they all started dying all over the place.”

  “Tess, calm down.” Ket looks at the formation on the floor and drags his shoes across a single line. Every single line fizzles and blackens. Waving away the smoke, Ket puts the girl on the floor and walks over to the nearest kid. He kneels and looks the boy in the eyes. “Ronal, I’m starting a gang. Want to join up?”

  The boy looks at the girl first. “San?”

  The girl nods. “He’s super strong all of a sudden. The Forcers all got their asses kicked by Ketty.”

  “Okay, then Ketty! I’ll join up.”

  “Great. Rule number one of my gang is to call me Ket. Rule number two is that Tess is second in command. Rule number three is that San is third in command. Agree?”

  Ronal nods firmly. Ket hands him a ring. Ronal stares at the thing with bugged out eyes. “Ketty not only stole clothes but also a ring? You said I couldn't steal and that only dirty scheming sneaks did that!”

  Tess - having calmed down immensely - looks at Ket with a sharp gaze. Ket ignores her and walks to another kid. “Flor, wanna join up?”

  The girl nods and puts on the ring he gives her.

  “Will?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “Edsco?”

  “Hmm!”

  “Kosie?”

  “Sure!”

  “Corl?”

  “Yeah!”

  “I’ll join up too!”

  “Why did you ask me last, Ketty?”

  “Good. Does everyone have a ring? Now, I want you all to promise me that you will listen to me and Tess and that you will not tell anyone else about what we will be doing in this building.”

  The kids all promise, some at the same time, while others need some prodding. Only the biggest girl - San - notices that their rings glow slightly when they do so.

  “Why is there a small tree?” says a girl that’s studying the thin black ring on her finger.

  “Because my teacher loves trees. Not sure why. Here San, eat some of this food.”

  “Oh, wow. This is super tasty! Not only did you beat up twenty guys, stole clothes, and a girl, you also stole food?”

  “No San, I didn’t steal food. Now you all need to make a decision. Do you want to do a lot of thinking, a lot of moving, or some of both?”

  ⁂

  Selis stands above a beaten Angeta, gloating for all she is worth. The duo is surrounded by a large amount of wet, frozen, and pulverized greenery. “Try harder next time, you angry furball. Go and play in the snow some more.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. I’d be absolutely screwed if I would have to fight an ice specialized monster or cultivator. Thanks for the spar.”

  Selis falters. “Huh? Who are you and what did you do to Angeta?”

  Angeta looks off into the sky. “A lot happened, okay? I’ll be angry at you later. Bye.”

  “Alright, no… problem.” Selis watches the timid beastkin walk off while she scratches her head. A small transparent fish emerges from in between her blue locks and nudges her cheek. “I don’t know either. She has issues.”

  The ground shakes as Bord smashes against the forest floor not two meters away from Selis. Fish go flying everywhere and the large heartcore cultivator is covered in the long green strips of a slimy plant. “Um, making stuff light is so haaaard! Hey Selis, can you freeze the fish? Lola turned the last bunch I brought to Teach into powder.”

  The fat boy slaps at the small fish that is ineffectively spraying streams of water at him. Selis does a little dance and causes all the fish to float in front of her in neat rows. A dramatic wave of her arm later, and she drops the frozen animals in front of Bord.

  Glowing a deep red, Bord sucks in a large breath. The fish tremble on the ground and start rolling over to him, clinging to his form as if magnetic. “Thanks, Sel. Cya!”

  “Yeah, sure Bord. Bye.”

  Selis starts cleaning up the destroyed landscape a bit, pulling the scattered puddles of water to herself and shoving many splintered bushes and trees to the side. Not a minute of diligent cleaning later, she is interrupted again.

  “Hey, Selis.”

  “Hey, Vox. How’s life?”

  “Actually, you went to the capital recently, right? I asked the guys that went with Re-Haan but they didn't have any news.”

  “News?” Selis asks with a tilted head.

  “About my parents and family. Did you hear anything about the Brighntin family?”

  Selis jumps up a bit and starts furiously pointing at Vox. “You… you're a Brighntin? What in the flipping fuck?”

  “And that’s why I didn't tell any of you before. Did you hear any news?”

  “You… you’re their heir that died! That was big news a couple years ago. And then their daughter got picked up by the light mages. No, that was totally expected, to be honest. So that’s Ares, I get it now! They must have dumped you in the forest because of your beast traits, small as they are. It was a big scandal when they lost both their heirs, you know. But no, I haven’t got any recent news for you. Isn’t there any on Database?” Selis stops talking to herself and addresses Vox again.

  “There’s lots of information on Database, but none about news in the kingdom. Who would have submitted that?”

  “Ah yeah, it’s just us, Teach, Rhea, and a bunch of slaves here. The old mages are still on the moon. You should go and visit them. I did, and it was wonderful to see them. Really satisfying!” Selis smiles with the radiance of a sun. Vox somehow feels shivers running up his spine when he sees her so happy.

  Some of that malignant joy seems infectious as Vox suddenly has a few really good ideas. “You are right. I might just do that. Thanks for the advice!”

  “No prob!” Selis waves him off and goes back to messing around with the water in the plants. She nearly lost to Angeta’s greenery creations and only her decision to switch to ice-based water saved her ass. The switching between vapour, liquid, and solid water is still taking too much qi for Selis’s liking.

  She is still mastering all water-related information on Database, even now running a few processes to summarize the data for her conscious mind. She tries observing the six-sided pattern ice is supposed to form in, but hasn't had much success yet. The theory that ice crystals forming inside cells tends to rupture cell-walls and destroy living tissue was very beneficial in the fight just now.

  Then an idea strikes her. Snow is six-sided, she remembers reading. A manic smile on her face, Selis goes into an ice-shuriken creating frenzy.

  chapter twenty-two

  Dominance

  “Dricky, let’s leave already. It feels so stuffy here. I hate this qi-less air.” Rodrick ignores the woman clinging to his arm and continues staring at a small grey beastkin female. The glow in his eyes is barely perceptible as he studies the innocently smiling woman from afar.

  The moon has seen a lot of development lately, but one thing stayed the same. The large rectangular apartment complex surrounded by a strip of grass is still unchanged. Every single person who initially woke up there after being kidnapped is now a cultivator travelling back and forth between Tree and the moon - except for the old mages.

  All new arrivals are placed in one of the rooms where they read the information on the piece of jade they received for themselves. There is one group that didn't go through this procedure, and it shows. The inhabitants left in the ruined beastkin village Treefields were dumped on the moon without much ceremony by Teach. He told everyone to go and show them the ropes, but one single grandmother - a woman by the name of Menrah - put a stop to that.

  Rodrick had kept an eye on her since that moment. He even paid Database a rather large amount of points to get constant updates on what the woman was doing. He even glued a piece of jade to his forehead to keep up to date. Honestly, it all painted a rather sad picture.

  Rodrick might have been banish
ed to the border years ago, but he still had a lot of contacts back in the capital and some other influential towns. He had managed to acquire information about the woman, none of it pleasant.

  The red-furred, pointy eared caste she and Ferah belong to used to run a thriving leatherworking empire until the matriarch made a power grab that she couldn't handle in the wake of the previous Tooth’s disastrous demise. The newly appointed Tooth swept through what was left of the upper echelons of beastkin society and installed his own people everywhere. Their caste was beneath his notice until she brought doom upon their entire tribe by grabbing more than she could hold on to.

  Rodrick has to conclude that the old crone learned very little from her abject failure. He looks over the information once again, sending his mind into the link with the moon under his feet. A list of conversations pops up, all extremely innocent but filled with hidden meaning. The old woman has been going around and talking to everyone on the moon willing to listen.

  There are two main factions of the moon. The biggest one is the working cultivators, happily cultivating on Tree and travelling to the moon when they want to do endurance training or experiment without the influence of qi. Crafters have been using the moon to test the durability and functionality of their creations in the power-draining environment.

  The other faction is made up of the naysayers. They preach doom and gloom to all who will listen, unwilling to adapt to a world filled with qi and mental fuckery. All the cultivators have been laughing in the face of Menrah since she tried to get them on her side. Everyone remembers the speech Teach gave and the absolute carnage the guy and his rabbit inflict on a regular basis.

  “Stop staring at that old woman. You already have me at your side!” Rodrick shoves the clinging waste of space away from himself and walks over to where a lanky beastkin is warily watching the environment.

  “May your teeth never grow dull.”

  The beastkin jumps a bit but relaxes as he sees Rodrick. “And your claws ever clean.”

  “You really answered me with that one? Wouldn't something like ‘And the trees ever falling’ be more appropriate?” Rodrick waves at the axe on his hip.

  “Drick, I know you refrain from politics as much as possible, but I can't stay out of this one.”

  The green woman looks between the two chatting men in utter confusion. Rodrick sighs and rubs his eyes. “Look, Nyf, I have no idea what she has been telling you, and I don't care. All I ask is that you do the test that Database prescribes and see for yourself. I’m unwilling to meddle, but it pains me to see you fall under her nonsensical spell.”

  “My mind shall remain my own. This mental magic is the domain of the Flight, and I am not willing to meddle.” Nyf looks extremely assured in the correctness of his statement.

  “Teach has a dragon for a mate,” the green woman interjects.

  “What?”

  “Don’t tell him. He needs to figure this out for himself.”

  “What proof do you have?” The beastkin snarls at the woman as he lowers into a combat stance.

  “She transformed into a dragon a while ago. I’m not sure how many days ago, as that is hard to tell in this place. Here, look at this.” The green-skinned woman pulls a stone from her cleavage, puts it to her forehead, and flicks it towards Nyf.

  The struck beastkin freezes at the sudden projectile and is unable to dodge it. His skin grows pale as the mental images are thrown into his focus. “That’s the human guardian. And she was fighting with a rabbit? What in all the scales...”

  “Hahaha, I like him Dricky. He looks just as confused as I felt the first few days.”

  Rodrick shoves the laughing woman away and pulls the stone from his friend's forehead. “Please, I know my talent with words is absolute mutant shit compared to the old hag, but please believe me on this. Do the fucking test and see for yourself. Please.”

  Nyf shakes his head, obviously conflicted. A sudden shrill voice breaks the tense mood. “Rodrick, another Capital dog begging at the heels of a human. Nyf, did they take over your mind yet? Or are you still with us?”

  “You stupid bitch! It’s your fault Dricky is staying on the moon. I should beat you down, you manipulative b-” Rodrick grabs the furious woman by the scruff of her neck and holds her back.

  “You know what? I challenge you in a duel.” Rodrick looks at his friend.

  The old woman’s eyes flash with uncertainty for a second before cold calculation takes over. “Accept it, Nyf. He never could beat you. All of this… qi business is just trickery. Nothing can be above the Flight.”

  “Okay, Rodrick, I accept. Let’s see if you finally managed to learn something.” The slender beastkin hunter lowers into a combat stance again. He had sparred enumerable times with the large lumberjack, his swiftness and better coordination always winning over the brute force of Rodrick's large frame.

  “Okay, let’s go.” Rodrick’s bones glow with an intense light for a second before Nyf finds himself suspended from his ankles. “There, done. You owe me a favour now, and I’m cashing in.”

  Baffled as to how he suddenly lost, Nyf is silent as he is carried towards the moon’s busiest spot. He is silent as Rodrick carries him inside a small room and drops him on the bed.

  “Teach should have put everyone here instead of leaving you all on the moon.” Then the big guy leaves him alone. The last thing Nyf sees is the green woman waving at him.

  “Will that work?”

  “I hope so. I don't really care about the rest of that village, but Nyf was a bit of a friend. Also, I’ll be calling you Green from now on.”

  “What? No, you can’t do that; that’s seriously demeaning! I have a name, you know!”

  “Which you still haven't told me...”

  “Mister Rodrick? Hello?”

  Rodrick turns to the new voice and sees a redheaded human youth looking at him while blushing. “Uhm… Vox was it?”

  “Yeah… I was wondering if you and miss Green over there would like to go on a mission with me?”

  “A mission? Outside? Can we go to the wilds?” asks Green with shining eyes.

  “No Green, I’ll be visiting the Capital.”

  “Which one?” asks Rodrick.

  Vox looks confused at Rodrick's question, until understanding dawns. “The human Capital. The one with a capital ‘C’. Anyway, you two need better clothes. Green, do you want a fancy dress or a maid uniform?”

  “What do you think, boy?” deadpans the woman.

  “Oh, and Rodrick? I wouldn’t worry about what that grandmother of Ferah is doing. I think Teach knows, and he doesn't seem worried, does he?”

  The trio stares at Tree with six glowing eyes and spot Teach still cooking up a storm. “I know someone who's great with sewing. You should know her, Rodrick. Her name is Ragni.”

  The large beastkin casts one last glance towards the apartment building before looking towards the isolated group of beastkin people. Finally, Rodrick lets his eyes rove over the young man for a good few moments. He firmly nods.

  ⁂

  “Alright, Rhea, I’m done. Wanna go on a holiday?” I look at Re-Haan who is… gone? I’ve spent the last few minutes scrubbing all the pots, pans, and cutlery I’ve used, putting them back into my ring all clean. She was hanging around just now, but I can’t see her at the moment.

  She has been doing something, though, as the pile of rubble around me is shrinking at a visible rate. There are a lot of heart, gut and, to my amazement, a few braincores hauling stone. The rewards must be pretty high for braincores to be willing to do such mind-numbing work.

  I also spot some heartcores tossing wood, metal, and other materials towards the moon. Bord is tossing entire tree trunks upwards, covering them in an auburn glow before launching them. He still has a few frozen fish stuck to his back.

  Then I receive a notice from Database. A weird notice. It feels like a mental process letting me know that some task has been completed, but the process is running on another mind. I t
race the feeling and notice Database trying to make a direct connection with me. Curious, I accept.

  “Hey, get over to the moon!” Rhea's voice sounds in my ear. Uhm, that feels… I ordered Database to whitewash every single scrap of data it processes, so her voice sounds like a flat and tinny audio recording from a crappy speaker.

  Keeping the connection going, I put together a text package. I place an acknowledgement first, then a first-person singular pronoun combined with a possessive contraction, followed by an expression of approach.

  I pat myself on the back for crafting the most complex description of the sentence “okay, I’m coming” ever. I send the package through the connection while jumping upwards.

  Halfway to the moon, I receive another message. I open it and a sentence appears in my mind. “Good idea. Much better than using audio. I’m stealing this.”

  I grin at her response and scan the moon with my eyes. All seems the same but for one new area, a large rectangular building. I can make out smooth walls, a slanted roof, and a large opening in the front. I shoot towards it, dodging a flying tree on the way, and slow down before landing gently.

  I spot the tree that nearly smashed into me being carried inside the large building as a whole crowd of students mills about a large, painted circle. A burly human - his skin a normal light brown for once - stands in the middle, licking his lips and wringing his hands as he looks up. Then a tree smashes into his face, light traces of dark red qi sinking into the moon as it wafts from the large trunk. The man is cheered on as he hauls the tree inside while holding his bloody nose. A new contestant steps up and the scene repeats itself.

  “Hey, come look at this.” Rhea darts over and grabs my arm. She leads me inside where I see a skeletal rib cage made from wood. Sawdust is flying everywhere, and I spot a large selection of students working on wood and cloth.

  “You should read up on the subject of dust explosions,” I quip while approaching the wooden frame. A ship around fifteen metres in length is being assembled before my very eyes. I spot some suspicious stuff - like a massive king-sized bed, a massage table, and a large shower - but decide to just look at Rhea with curiosity on my face.