The wind swirled around Qian Ling as she dispersed the technique she’d woven around the restaurant: Spider Dancing with Flies. It was a dizzyingly complex array that was in no way combat-applicable, but it served her well in situations like this.
Dozens of qi strands led from her fingers down to the limbs and ears of the mortals in the courtyard below. Her dantian reabsorbed some of the strings, but most dissipated in the rising wind. No matter, it was a small price to pay. As a 7th-stage Qi Condensing cultivator, she would quickly be able to replace the liquid qi she needed for her techniques.
Some would call it puppetry, and they would be reductive fools. A puppet was a dead thing of wood. What she did was more akin to the moon’s seduction of the tides.
It had taken her years to reach the point where she could manipulate someone in a way that didn’t draw attention to her, and even longer to do it to more than one person at a time.
She wasn’t a demonic cultivator. Her technique took nothing from the humans. No, the two mortals kept their minds and tongues while she merely guided.
Her qi threads were attached to the ears, so she could whisper instructions; attached to the limbs, so she could restrict movement; and attached to the neck, so she could ensure obedience.
All Qian Ling had to do was whisper the correct words down the vibrating qi strand, and the young woman repeated them because she knew her place in the world.
The last of the strands faded, and the two mortals sagged to the ground as they regained control over their bodies.
Qian Ling reached out with her spirit sense to confirm there was no lasting damage before she put the mortals out of her mind.
She glanced back at the two inner sect disciples who attended her on this errand.
One was the dark-haired beauty Mu Min, who followed her in everything and was her sworn battle sister.
The other was the short goon who failed to defend Ren Feilong. At least he helped carry her junior’s battered body to the sect’s Medical Pavilion.
“You’re sure that was the man?” she asked Ren Feilong's goon, not bothering to remember his name.
“Yes, Young Mistress,” said the man with his gaze appropriately averted from her radiant beauty. “He paraded around naked, and when Ren Feilong politely asked him to wear some clothes, he attacked like a rabid dog!”
Qian Ling grimaced with distaste. To think such cultivators were out in the world!
“And now look at him,” she said. “He wears the robes of a peasant as though that could help him blend in. Truly disgusting behavior.”
“He clearly knows nothing of the Great Northern Mountain,” said Mu Min. “Nor the dangerous spirit beasts that lie in that direction. Even if he does learn, he has made such earnest promises that honor shall compel him to continue.”
To reach the flower, the wandering cultivator would need to pass through Twisting Pine Valley, reach the Sleeping Ruin Pass, and make his way to Mountain Root City. If he accomplished all that, he would still need to contend with the spirit beast that guarded the flowers in Howling Blossom Valley.
“Truly, he is ignorant,” agreed Ren Feilong’s goon. “He didn’t even notice our presence.”
“He will not last long,” Mu Min said. “Your revenge is sure to be easily accomplished.”
Qian Ling smiled.
Only last night, her adorable junior was out on his first raid against the empire’s true enemy -- those heinous demonic cultivators -- and instead of celebrating together, he was raving in pain while being medically treated.
All because he ran into a lunatic wandering cultivator.
The Shining Mountain Sect’s Medicinal Pavilion had regrown limbs, returned cultivators from the very brink of death, and even salvaged shattered dantians. However, in all his centuries as a healer, the Chief Medicinal Grandmaster said he'd never seen an injury so grievously shameful.
They’d quietly discussed ending Ren Feilong’s life then and there, if only to spare him the tremendous social recovery that lay ahead. Such injustice could not go unanswered, and so while Ren Feilong was indisposed, Qian Ling would act on her junior’s behalf.
Not in a manner as crude as a direct challenge, no, she would send the man to his death, and she would watch at a distance, as was her speciality. He wouldn’t know she was there, not until he was at death’s door, and then she would announce herself and watch the knowledge bloom in his eyes right as his life faded — truly, that was the most beautiful flower.
"Moonlight's Graceful Step," she murmured as she activated a movement technique.
A single leap cleared the roof with enough force to destroy the tiles, but with enough control to leave them untouched. Landing some distance away beside the river, she leaped once more into the trees.
Mu Min activated her own movement technique and followed. The two women leaped from branch to branch as light as snowfall and as fast as the wind.
Ren Feilong’s goon made his way back to the sect. His lower cultivation meant he couldn't sustain a movement technique long enough to be useful on such an endeavour.
Qian Ling’s smile was wide as they quickly caught up to the wandering cultivator. The brute was running along the dirt road with the cabbage tucked under his arm and his eyes fixed ahead.
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What an idiot.
Though she’d sat no more than twenty feet away from him, he hadn’t even noticed her radiant presence!
If he had, Qian Ling would have challenged him then and there. Of course, she would destroy him utterly, but that would have been too honorable for the likes of him.
His lack of awareness revealed his lack of skill. For someone as low as that to strike out at the Shining Mountain Sect… he deserved the slow, painful death of the Howling Blossom Valley.
And she would be there, every step of the way, watching as he suffered.
She grinned as she landed on a thin branch and sprang forward. Her confidence in her plan was absolute.
Though…
There’d been one moment, when he bent down to pick up a cabbage, and he glanced up at the roof. She was sure he hadn’t seen her, but what if he had…?
No.
She had yet to meet anyone — man or woman — who could look at her beauty without reacting. Even the moon wept when it shone down upon her. Yes, she was sure he was an idiot worthy of death, and so she raced on, while her sworn sister kept perfect pace in her shadow.
###
I felt great as I ran down the road to the north. The road forked, and so I went around the village since they didn’t want me back. Mountains lay ahead, and though I wasn’t sure which one was the Great Northern Mountain, I was confident I could get all this sorted in just a couple of days.
It felt great to be doing something again, instead of just waiting and surviving.
“Did you see those people on the rooftop?” Cabbagy asked me.
“No, I was too busy trying to apologise.”
“Dumb ass kid,” Cabbagy said. “I don’t got no eyes, and even I noticed those hotties. One of them reminded me of my wife…”
“You’re in a mood.”
“I’m drunk. You dropped me into a puddle of rice wine.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I said. “So, what about those people?”
“Bah, forget about it,” he said, slightly slurring his words. “Let’s just get up to that mountain. Once you’re done with fetching this damn flower, we can start on something truly important.”
“Revisiting the places I remember from my past lives?”
“Bah! Training, kid! Training!”
###
Maybe I’d spent too long pacing a ten-foot by ten-foot cell, but the road to the mountain was longer than I expected. This was largely due to the perspective I gained as I ran. The hills outside the village — River Bend Village, a helpful sign told me — were not mountains, but nor were the mountains I’d seen beyond, not really. Those surly ridges were simply the foothills for the true rocky behemoth that was the Great Northern Mountain.
That distant peak sat as a pale blue wedge on the horizon. Forest coated the sides, and clouds concealed the top, but it was mostly eclipsed by the smaller ranges lying between us.
I’d hoped that since I didn’t need to sleep, I could make it to the mountain in a single day, but I knew there was no way that was happening now. Even a few days seemed optimistic, even though I could maintain a run faster than most. My stamina seemed to work differently now. I didn’t get tired as I ran, and I suppose it made sense that a moving skeleton would have a different type of energy than a flesh-and-blood person.
And I was both now.
While I was still trying to figure out how exactly everything with my new body worked, I was happy enough to find that I was making good time, even if I needed to readjust my expectations.
It was an uneventful trip as I left the village behind and followed the road to the forest. At one point, I tripped and dropped the pot Tan Lu gave me.
The cry of pottery dragged at my heart, and I took a moment to bury the shards. I know a funeral pyre would have been more appropriate, but all three of my memories told me that pottery didn’t burn very well.
I also lacked fuel, tinder, and matches.
It would be harder to harvest the flower without the pot, but at least I didn’t have to carry it all that way. Of course, I didn’t say that aloud lest the pot’s spirit hear me.
With a final bow to the small mound I left beside the road, I continued north.
As I ran through the day, pine trees filled in the land, sweeping in taller and darker than the lowland forest. Night fell, and the needle-filled branches blotted out the stars.
I stopped my jogging at a crossroads.
The barest moonlight filtered down through the branches to light the splitting paths.
None of the roads pointed north.
While I could leave the road and continue in the direction I hoped was north, there was a good chance that even a genius like me might end up lost in the pathless wilds. My three sets of memories didn’t cover much applicable woodcraft.
Not to mention, a place like this forest was a prime hunting ground for spirit beasts.
The thought hadn’t occurred to me when I accepted my task, but as I looked around, I wondered what lurked in these dark and desolate pines.
I wasn’t from the region — the northern point of Black Tiger Kingdom — and so I had no idea what spirit beasts might live here, but I was certain something did.
“Which way do you think, Cabbagy?”
“...”
“Cabbagy?” I asked again as I held the offending vegetable up to the moonlight. “Are you alright, bud?”
“I’m hungover, horny, and widowed — what do you think?”
“I didn’t know your wife was dead. I’m sorry.”
“Things you don’t know could fill a library.”
“I’m sure that’s true, but…”
“Snore.”
I blinked.
“I know you’re not asleep, Cabbagy.”
“Snore! Honk. Shoo. Honk. Fucking. Shoo!”
“Alright, alright, I get it.”
He was certainly cranky when he was hungover. Even after all he hyped me up about training and establishing my place in the hierarchy of the world — at the top, naturally, according to him — I wasn’t sure how much I liked Cabbagy. I got the distinct impression he was more invested in me than I was in him, and I knew I wouldn’t have defeated Ren Feilong if it hadn’t been for his encouragement.
Still, he wasn’t exactly the kind of friend I would ask for if given a choice.
Oh well.
There was a drunk cultivator I used to deliver messages for — Cabbagy reminded me of him, actually — and he would often give me life tips whether I asked for them or not. One of his favorites was…
“If you’re stuck in a mess,” I said, smiling at the memory. “You might as well guess.”
Huh. Why not?
I spun around in place with my eyes closed and my finger outstretched.
“Which way, this way, that way, and I’ll go in… this direction!”
I stopped spinning and opened my eyes to look in the direction I pointed. Even in the dim moonlight, I could clearly see my footprints leading up the road that I faced.
I’d spun around back the way I came.
How embarrassing.
“Now, do I go this way anyway because I pointed? Or do I acknowledge I made a mistake and pick a different way?” I said as I scratched my chin in thought. “Decisions, decisions, decisions…”
