Chapter 6: Welcome to Qibola
Pulling Qi in from my Dragonhide Belt refreshed me greatly. I opened my eyes, coming out of the brief meditation, and the group approaching still had not gotten quite close enough for me to differentiate individuals.
With that not a pressing concern, I let my gaze slide past them to the city in the distance.
It abutted the southern face of one of the strange plateaus I had noticed in my wanderings through the desert. Too neat, too uniform, it did not look like the result of natural weathering processes.
The city as well seemed to grow and flow out from that rock rather than have been built or carved into it. Some kind of Earth Cultivation technique for building, perhaps?
I was distracted by something becoming quite obvious on the edge of my senses. The dissipating Qi of the dead wurm had left behind something. While much of it had dispersed, some of it seems to have collected somewhere on the wurm's body.
I pushed myself up to my feet with a groan and wandered over to the head of the beast. Unlike the chimeric monster in the oasis this one had not dissolved. I had no idea what the difference between the two was, but I'd make inquiries later.
It was a little gross, but the Qi had condensed behind the beast's eye, so I slowly carved the eye out with a Flame Blade, and leaned over the top of the head into the new crevice to see what it was.
It was another one of those orbs of condensed Qi, like the softball sized one from the chimera. Only this one was the size of a bowling ball and the swirling colors were black, green, and purple. All very sickly looking.
It was a bit of a struggle but I managed to get it into my mostly empty Pouch of Holding. There were minor expansion enchantments on the mouth that could let me wrangle something this size in. But unlike a proper Bag of Holding I was only going to be fitting about twelve cubic feet of stuff in here. Compared to a Bag's sixty-four. The weight limit of two-hundred pounds would be pretty relevant as well. Luckily, these orbs were only a few pounds each.
I straightened myself up and looked down to see that the group was almost close enough for conversation. Purposefully not bringing my chains back, just in case things went south. I leapt off the head of the beast and pulled my knees tight to my chest to spin in the air a few times before I landed feet first on the ground in front of the approaching group.
"Merchant Shang! It is good to see you returned so swiftly and the rest of your group made it to the city unharmed!" I declared, intending to come off as jovial as possible in this circumstance. While Shang Kao and Shang-Chien Wu both were indebted twice over and amicable, I had no idea what proper city Cultivators would be like. So far things had seemed to be a less hostile society than some Xianxia stories Isaac had read, but I couldn't tread heavily for fear of testing that impression too solidly.
Besides, they had returned with two heavily armed warriors, both standing a head above me, near seven feet, and carrying brutal looking ji-halberd upon their backs. I could feel the Qi radiating off of their gear, but not their bodies. Which either meant Cultivators here were good at concealing their presence, or that these were pumped up mortals.
And seeing as they had charged out here to face a wurm? I was definitely leaning towards the former.
Kao gave me a small half bow but then turned to the warrior with the fanciest looking embroidered sash upon his waist.
"Master Red! Congratulations on your victory! May I introduce the head of the Qibola garrison, Ng Kai-man, and his son, Ng Kai-gak, Protector of the Desert Gate!"
I gave a bow to the elder man, though he looked no more than forty, that could mean he could be anywhere from forty to eighty.
"Greetings, Sir Ng. I am Red, a wandering Cultivator from lands far from here. I apologize ahead of time for any breaches in etiquette and misunderstandings. I have travelled a long way from home to understand all the Lands Under the Sun." I was hoping my ability would translate 'Sir' into whatever local alternative was appropriate.
Ng Kai-man studied me with sharp and cunning eyes, the kinds that had seen many a foe fall before him.
Then, he gave me a polite nod, having apparently come to some kind of conclusion about me.
"This Sergeant-at-Arms greets the wandering Cultivator," His voice was deep and gravely, as if I was hearing someone speak over the sound of an industrial rock tumbler. It fit him however, every time he moved it felt methodical and purposeful. As if he was slow by choice not nature.
"You did a good job with the Wurm," He commented, "Not many early Foundation Realm Cultivators could kill one in single combat without specializing in something that bypasses the armor plating."
There was a question in that statement. He was trying to feel out how I had managed it.
I pointed at the barb sticking through its skull, "Apparently these things are built to attack each other just as much as to defend from small beings like us."
The other Cultivator held back a snort and Kai-man glanced at him sharply before turning his gaze back to me, "Indeed…to use an enemy's weapons against themselves is quite the effective tactic. You said you are from far away, but humor me, are you from any sect or practice any style I might recognize from reputation?"
I shook my head, "No, I don't think you would. The Phoenix's Rising Wing-style is unique to my people, the Genasi. Some masters have referred to it as the 'art of fighting without fighting'."
I had decided to take the name of Red'neran's tabletop race as that of my 'people' so to speak. It would add another layer of mystery.
"The art of fighting without fighting…" He muttered under his breath and then looked over at the impaled wurm, "I see…"
He then shook his head, banishing some thought or another about my origins.
"Very well, Master Red, in accordance with Qibola civic code, you have done a deed for the betterment of the city and its environs and would be allowed entry, though limited entry only, regardless of other circumstances."
With that he waved Shang Kao over, "However, Merchant Shang Kao has a writ from his Clan Head that he has the authority to offer Probationary Member rights to any talents he comes across in his wanderings. He spoke on your behalf and leveraged this as a way to get aid out to you more quickly than might otherwise have occurred if we had followed standard procedure for a beast of this magnitude approaching the city. Do you intend to accept that offer instead?"
I tilted my head in consideration, the hood of my cloak shifting with that motion and some sand falling out of it and down my back. Oh, ew, ew, no shit. I have to maintain a stoic face. Composure, Red. Maintain composure.
"Merchant Kao!" I managed to not let the sensory Hell I was living through show in my voice, "That is a very gracious offer! And as I plan to study this area, as the environs are decently conducive to my Cultivation, I would be happy to accept, assuming this offer does not tie me down permanently?"
The merchant nodded vigorously, "Not at all, Master Red! It merely marks you as an extended important guest or important contracted employee! I admit we do often use it to tempt new talents or wandering Cultivators into joining the clan." He gestured over at his fellow clan member, "Shang-Chien Wu's own father was once a wandering Cultivator who held such status! Chien Wah-shun now has full member status, two wives, and has broken through the middle of the Foundation Realm into the Core-building Stage thanks to our resources!"
I laughed, it was a good full body laugh, where I threw back my head.
"Ah…oh, well if the most I have to worry about is some salesmanship to get me to choose to stay, how can I possibly turn down such a generous offer? I'll merely have to keep an eye out for any hard bartering you lot throw my way, eh?" I slapped his shoulder in a friendly manner, though the way he rolled his shoulder after told me that I hadn't fully held back enough without my chains.
Speaking of, I pulled the Qi I had siphoned back into my pathways from my Belt and took about half of it to push back into my tattoos. Now that I knew this group wasn't another fight, and the tattoos glowed gold again, though this time instead of chains melting away they bubbled up from my skin and bound me anew.
"That…is quite the artifact," Kai-gak stated in surprise, a bluntness that might not be necessarily polite, "What is that? Heaviness Qi? No…something else."
I grinned, "It was a gift to my father for saving the daughter of a very powerful creature from a Sacrifice Formation Ritual. Now that you mention it, I think it filters the input Qi into Gravity Qi? It's related to Heaviness Qi though."
I had no clue what Heaviness Qi was. Didn't even know that was a thing. I was in full bull shit mode.
It was Kai-man's turn to be surprised, "Gravity is a high concept Qi," He injected into the conversation, "Can you utilize it by itself?"
I opened my mouth to reply, then looked over at Shang-Chien Wu, "I have never tried…but something I saw Shang-Chien Wu do with her sword the other night makes me think that perhaps I should!"
She looked at me with confusion evident, until it dawned on her, and her eyes shot open as wide as possible, "Oh! Oh! Like with Sword Qi! I've never seen an artifact like yours, I never would have even considered it! But…in theory as long as you can understand your artifact's concept you should be able to use it to filter Qi for Cultivation!"
She looked at my chains with a bit of envy, "And the more powerful the artifact the purer and stronger the filtration."
That was…quite interesting. But we were almost at the gates now.
I looked up at them, the Desert Gate was towering above us. The archway was carved into two rearing wind horses, gaseous wings rippling behind them to form the beginnings of the walls. The stone itself seemed to be some kind of Qi-reinforced sandstone with streaks of white marble streaming through like oil through water. It was fascinating to tilt your head and watch the sun reflect and ripple off of the inlays.
Kai-man chuckled, finally relaxing a bit now that we were back at the gates, "They are quite beautiful. The Supreme Progenitor spared no expense in building it. He is quoted as often saying, 'The second half of Conquest is administration'."
I nodded as memories of lessons of Alexander, Attila, Genghis, and Napoleon crossed my mind. Yes, that was quite the truth that this Progenitor had been aware of. Attila and Alexander hadn't been particularly cognizant of it. One not even trying and the other just shoving the tasks off onto delegates. The true greats were the ones that had recognized it.
Chapter 7: Meisterhäue
The Shang Clan compound sat on the other side of the gate to the Inner City, the residential zone for the Clans, Sects, temples, and administrative palace, from the Market District. Which, with them being merchants, made a good deal of sense. With them being a middling clan in power their location so close to the wall also made a good deal of sense. Apparently, while breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm was rare and the kind of thing that made you capable of ruling a large dominion, early stage Golden Core Cultivators were the standard for leading the smaller clans and sects, with the later stages of it being more common the more powerful and renowned the clan or sect.
I picked this all up as Shang Kao enthusiastically began describing his clan's inner workings, or at least the publicly known bits, to me as we matched through the busiest bazaar I had seen in either life.
Even the deranged fictionalized bazaars of Red'neran's tabletop world had not come close to this.
Market stalls with a second stall on the roof of the first where you climbed up a ladder. Pop up walls covered in samples of magical silks. Actual Costco-sized stores and emporiums made of the same infused sandstone as the walls advertising with wooden signs where formations changed the paint to describe more and more of what was inside. Side of building billboards of the same style as the emporium signs but advertising for businesses in other sectors or specific items at different shops. Some of those billboards even pointed towards a red light district down towards the river docks.
And the sounds, tens of thousands of customers and merchants all yammering away. I felt like I was in the medieval equivalent of LA's Chinatown and Koreatown slammed together.
It was only Red'neran's capability for active meditation that allowed me to suppress the sensory overload that I'd inherited from Isaac and continue moving through the throngs of people and noises outwardly unperturbed.
The gates to the Inner City were smaller but no less elaborate than the Desert Gate. Banners fluttered above the parapets and you could visibly see active guard movement across the walls. The Formations were the most interesting pieces. Snuck into elaborate mosaics of what I could only assume were the conquests of this 'Supreme Progenitor' I could tell that there were Formations riddling these walls. Less complex looking, to my admittedly untrained eye, than the broken and shattered ones I had seen on the Great Wall spin-off out in the desert, but impressive nonetheless I was sure.
Hmm…maybe I could leverage this Shang position into getting my hands on some basic instruction in Formations? It seemed like a fascinating field of study and technique. Talismans, rituals, defensive fortifications, all in all a very versatile discipline. Plus both lives had enjoyed working with their hands. Red'neran with his calligraphy and cartography and Isaac with writing and experimental archaeology (the study of techniques used to build things in the past, he knew flint-knapping, spear and arrow making, and how to make bows and atlatls).
There was a guard checkpoint going in through the gate, but Shang Kao had his papers ready and we entered quite swiftly. Traffic out was greater than traffic going in at this point in the day.
My eyes scanned the skyline of the compound, taking in the open air pagodas lining certain pieces of the lawn, the curving slant of the tiled roofs of wide wooden one and two story buildings. That must have cost quite a bit of money, I had noticed that local stone and some kind of variant of adobe was the primary construction material outside the Inner City. And the way they maintained a lawn like this? Just outside of a desert? There was even a koi pond! Well…some kind of water garden and pond combination, whatever fish was in there was very much not a koi fish. Yes, they had shelled out many ivory chits and perhaps even spirit stones for this lavish and green luxury in the midst of the arid plateau. Sure the river started here, but no way was the head of the river giving off this much water. They probably had formations drawing and storing condensation overnight or something.
Some of the imagery though…felt surreal. Like I was walking through a period piece on Isaac's Earth. Red'neran's homeworld had always been just an extra bit tweaked to be more alien. This…felt like walking through a game of telephone but planets. Like someone had read a book of Earth mythology and smashed it all together on a bigger canvas. One of the murals I was almost certain was a bodhisattvas ripped straight from a temple Isaac had seen his mother do a recreation of for an illustration in a textbook she'd been commissioned for. But then as I neared I saw that the skin had a purposeful dark-blue tint of unique body constitution and that the face was less rotund than a traditional bodhisattva. I shook myself from those thoughts though as we continued up the lawn towards the buildings.
All in all I rather liked the way the Shang compound had been designed. It wasn't overly elaborate, but it definitely catered to the style of their new overlords and certainly showed that they were all in on the assimilation of the conquering culture. Outside of practical considerations, like their desert caravans still using their previous nomadic style of dress. If this was anything like Isaac's Earth these desert tribesmen of this desert had already been cousins of the northern conquerors.
As we entered the front courtyard of the cluster of buildings, a serious looking man in formal robes intercepted Kao.
"Merchant Kao, your presence has been requested by the Senechal. The rest of the…survivors have already given their statements, but for you and Shang-Chien Wu. Hers is not needed, but yours is required."
That's when he glanced at me and one of his eyebrows lifted, "Hmm…the Wanderer then? Miss Wu can show you to the guest quarters, I suppose. Left wing, third suite if you would."
He abruptly turned and left towards one of the large central buildings, Kao cast an apologetic look at me and took off after him.
I turned to Wu and shrugged, "So…guest suite to drop things off and then perhaps you could-" I cut myself off, "No, silly me. You should see your family afterwards, you just got back from a long trip. Drop me off and I'll get settled in, then if you or someone else has time later I'd appreciate a tour."
She nodded gratefully, "Thank you for understanding, Master Red. My father is likely worried after the rest of the caravan returned without me. Right this way to your suite."
She led me to one of the medium sized buildings off to the size of that larger main compound. 'Left Wing' apparently meant left if you were facing in the entrance, so we headed in that way and she dropped me off at the third door on the right. The entire left side of that wing was open concept facing outwards towards a garden.
She headed off to find her family, and I headed in to get settled. I had been quite lucky to find such accommodating allies rather immediately upon my genesis into this world. I would not trust them completely, however, that would be the height of folly. Both of my progenitors had been trusting to a bit of a fault, but Isaac had gotten burned enough that he had learned that lesson before his death. To the tune of losing most of his inheritance in a marriage and divorce. And that paternity test. Yeah, I was definitely not going to let myself be pulled in by any of these stereotypical 'Jade Beauties' anytime soon.
I found the rooms well appointed. In all practicality, they were simply a sitting room, a bedroom with a large draped bed, a fancy wardrobe (empty of course) and screened off changing area, and finally a small lavatory that must have used some form of Cultivation magic…formations? For its purpose.
I didn't have much in the way of personal effects either so I just looked around a bit. Inside the bedside table, like a Bible at a hotel, was a small and thin tome titled, 'The Progenitor's Wisdom'.
I took it back out to the sitting room and sat down and began to read. In the style of Sun Tzu and Confucius of Earth it was a lot of pithy sayings and short anecdotal writing. Some of them seemed fairly insightful, others tickled something nagging in the back of my mind.
'Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head.'
'The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.'
'The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.'
Hmm…that last one, was that why Kai-man had reacted with interest when I had quoted Bruce Lee? If this is some pseudo-religious philosophical text for them it would make sense. I wished Isaac had a better memory. I remembered some of the military history he had read, but I only remembered the things that would have been clear to him around the time of his death. So if he hadn't been reminded of something in years the details and exact wording were going to be hazy. Some of these quotes felt familiar and it would be good to compare them to quotes of Earth. Use the similarities and differences as a point of data for some sociological comparisons. There were a solid half dozen I think I remembered clearly enough to make comparisons, but that was all.
After about an hour of reading I heard a knock on the door to the suite and as I headed over a voice called out.
"Master Red? It's Shang-Chien Wu, apologies for taking so long."
I opened the door and saw her there looking much freshened up. Instead of traveling clothes she was in silk cross-collared red robes with a long and elaborately embroidered gold sash wrapped multiple times around her waist moving up to a bit above her navel.
I'd definitely seen some hanfu on women out in the rest of the city so the robes were likely a practical choice she was making as a warrior. Her hair was pulled back into a similarly practical style using…shit what were they called? Some kind of hair pin that wasn't really a pin, just two sticks. The sticks looked fancy as well, with silver inlays on the lacquered wood.
"It is no inconvenience, Miss Wu," I responded amicably, "I was merely catching up on some of the local philosophy." I held up the book for her to see.
Her eyes lit up, "Yes! The Progenitor's insights into combat and warfare have helped many a more martially inclined Cultivator over the centuries! How did you find it?"
I chuckled, "I find myself wishing I had paid more attention to similar philosophical texts on large scale warfare from my home so I could compare it. Unfortunately I merely have the personal combat art ones from there memorized. That said, there is a quote in here that is almost verbatim a saying I remember, so some of these truths must be universal."
"Oh?" She questioned with interest, "Which one? And what's the quote from your home?"
"I believe in this book he says, 'If you know yourself and your enemy, you will see a victory every time', and the one from home is 'Know thyself, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.' Functionally identical!"
She nodded in agreement, "I can certainly see that they preach the same lesson! Why do you not share some more of those pieces of knowledge you remember from your home as we take our tour?"
I shook my head in amusement, she was very eager to learn anything and everything she could expose herself to. Then again, I believe it had been shared that she was only twenty or so, and her father was a talented wanderer who had joined the clan through marriage, so it was no wonder she was ambitious and eager.
"I do remember some quotes about logistics in warfare, of which your Progenitor touches on as well, though my people got a bit more technical. He says 'One will always find considerations of resources affecting the strategic lines of a conquest.' and one of my own people said, 'There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war'. Your Progenitor, this Subau Taiman," Her eyes shot open when I used his full name, I'd have to remember that was not normal, "He had a knack for simplifying concepts my people perhaps were overly verbose about."
As we walked and talked she occasionally interrupted our primary conversation to explain where we were within the compound, what purpose an area served, and the like. She made sure to point out the cafeteria-like area near the kitchens where people not summoned to the main family dining hall ate, the outer clan library, and anything else she felt would be useful to me in the duration of my stay.
And finally as we entered what was very obviously a covered training yard, open air but with a roof, she spun and faced me with a fiery look in her eyes.
"Master Red! You showed quite the combat ability on our journey here! However, I have never seen you wield a weapon, are there any you have skill with?"
I nodded and made my way over to a rack of basic tempered wooden weaponry.
"Hmm…I am decently talented with quarterstaff, a variety of daggers which techniques I use with my Flame Blades, and a-oh hello there, you do have them. Chainsticks! Perfect! My people also use a variation of a longsword that is bulkier than your local jian, for use with two hands."
"Excuse me, Master Red, but would one of the shuangshou jian make do?" She pointed over to another rack where sure enough, I saw the two handed variants of the jian. Wooden practice blades as well, I sensed a low level of Qi from all the equipment, meaning it likely was made from some kind of treated spirit wood to enable channeling and enhance durability. These blades were around thirty-six inches, slightly less than the German longsword Isaac was trained with, and the hilts were about ten inches long, again slightly less than the German longsword. As I looked these over I noted once more how oddly my translation power worked. When I knew the Chinese term for a specific item it did not bother translating it from the local language into English, but rather into Chinese. It was a context heavy power for sure.
I took one of the shuangshou jian and flowed through some combinations. In the end however, they were still definitely meant primarily for thrusting motions. Not weighted well for the slashing combinations Isaac favored to maneuver opponents into master strikes. Still…with a practice blade it would not matter as much.
I turned to face Wu, allowing the wooden blade to rest across my left shoulder, held in my dominant hand.
"I suppose the young mistress would like to trade pointers if she brought me here?"
She grinned back at me and raised her hand, a standard one handed practice jian shot out of the rack with a tiny flare of Wood-Natured Qi and slapped into her hand. She slid casually into a pose that could have been ripped straight from Michelle Yeoh's performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
I smirked at her and fell into what a HEMA fencer would know as Alber, or the Fool's Guard, and an Eastern practitioner might know as gedan-gamae. My stance low, one foot forward the other pivoted back, and my sword pointed at an angle towards the ground, held near my hip.
She struck quickly, lunging forward into a vicious thrust straight at my head. Were I any slower in either perception or reaction time she would have slammed the tip of her wooden blade into my forehead.
Luckily, I was far quicker and more skilled than to allow that to happen. I swiftly pivoted my hands up, twisting them around so that the false-edge of my blade, or what would have been the false-edge on a real blade, knocked her strike upwards in a classic hanging parry.
An immediate poke towards her midsection to follow up caused her to leap backwards through the air to dodge. She cleared six feet of height and twelve of distance so gracefully I almost checked for wires.
"That…" she stated, "Is not anything like our traditional forms."
"Of course not! Far from here, to the West of the West, the great Master Liechtenauer wrote down manuscripts on the Master Hews many centuries ago. I aim to show you today why occasionally, when it comes to swords, bigger can be better."
Like a stereotypical Xianxia maiden she blushed bright red at the double-entendre and that brief breach in her focus was when I struck next. Kicking off from the ground I blitzed forward and she only barely cartwheeled backwards, dodging an Oberhau that slammed into the ground of the training yard, kicking up dust and leaving a fair dent behind.
I pivoted back into Ochs, my sword coming up in line with my skull point forwards, to knock her return strike skyward once more.
This was going to be an exceptionally fun spar.
Chapter 8: Daowabunga
Being a guest at the Shang Compound was odd in-so-far as I actually rarely interacted with the main branch of the family. I had a brief meeting with the chamberlain where I was asked a few questions and vetted, but then I was largely left to my own devices.
Thus I fell into a bit of a pattern, sparring in the training yard, often with Wu but I sparred with somewhat random guards and lower-tier clan warriors just as often.
At times I met with Shang Kao in the public library, he was a bit of an academic and number cruncher himself so he was always enthusiastic about going through books. He even began to tutor me in the written language and in properly learning the local language in order to allow me to move off of relying upon the Tongue of the Sun and Moon and not have to take risks with contexts for the translation power.
The written language I was extra interested in; as a highly formalized and calligraphic variation of the script was the basis of Formation creation. Reminded me of an art called Fuinjutsu from an anime that Isaac had watched in his youth. Though far more intense and complicated than whatever had been explained in that anime.
Sometimes after our spars I would supplement these lessons by practicing with Wu as we ate in the Outer Member cafeteria. Practice was key for language development, after all.
The local cuisine wasn't bad necessarily, I had just inherited some of Isaac's issues with taste and texture and it had turned me rather picky. I relied heavily upon the local fowls, odd peacock-like creatures that had been selectively bred against flight and for meat much like chickens, for my meat for example. There were some odd lizard beasts that they raised as meat livestock and the texture just set off alarm bells in my head for some reason. The cactus fruit was actually rather succulent however, and I enjoyed it immensely. They also had a fermented drink from those, but my constitution and Purity of Body made me immune to alcoholic effects. Even one from Qi growth, infusion, or fermentation processes didn't affect me. Or at least the lower tier ones I had sampled. Perhaps one that had Foundation Realm quality Qi infused or used in its growth cycle might pierce my immunity? I was unsure.
Though I did question Wu on some pills I saw her consuming with her meals. Apparently there were a variety of alchemical concoctions that helped with Cultivation. Everything from purifying recently absorbed Qi, to strengthening Meridians, to improving your foundational genetic make-up. Of course, the strongest and best and with the least side effect pills and brews were extremely rare or expensive or both. Something for me to look into as I adapted to this land.
At nights I meditated and Cultivated in turn. Focusing on trying to build a new half of my name to replace the suffix of Red'neran's. I knew I wanted it to call back to both lives. Perhaps spell something important to one of them while appealing to the heroes and sages of the other. Or perhaps both for both? I was still unclear. I also began to practice the filtration technique I had seen Wu performing in an attempt to attune myself a bit to the gravity Qi that my chains utilized. You didn't need to understand a Dao to filter, attune, or use different types of Qi. It just made it easier, more natural, and allowed one to directly manipulate it outside of techniques with an efficiency that made someone without Dao understanding look like a toddler playing with a gun. I was…unclear if I actually had the level of Dao understanding that Shang Kao had assumed I had when he saw me fight, but after the wurm fight I was leaning towards yes. I'd certainly begun to understand Light, Flame, and Heat much better since then. And my manipulation of them had only grown. I wasn't quite at casual photokinesis levels yet with Light, but I was getting pretty close to the level of firebending with my Flame. Through this practice I was beginning to understand the symbolic nature of gravity in ways that I was slowly attuning to Isaac's scientific understanding of gravity.
This pattern was something I became a bit complacent in, as I acclimated myself to learning about this new world. Thus, I was quite surprised when one day, as I headed down to the training yard for another bout with somebody, I was met by a tall and lean dark-skinned man with a rounded face and a drooping mustache.
"Ah! You must be that Wandering Cultivator," You could literally hear the capitalization in how he said it, "that my lotus flower has told me so much about! Come on, boy, let's get ourselves over to the real yard and I shall put you through your paces! The guards are complaining that they can barely land a blow on the mysterious 'Master Red'! It has been too long since I have had a fresh Foundation Realm Cultivator to test and share pointers with!"
I was considered to be in the Early Foundation Realm, often referred to as the Meridian Stage. Apparently, and I had begun working on this myself to get accustomed to how Qi works here, it was all about getting your Qi circulating through a precise pattern and set of pathways between your different chakras in order to maximize the utilization of Qi Techniques. Preparing them so you could begin creating the shell of your future Golden Core. At the Late Foundation State, or Core Building Stage.
This was how I met Shang-Chien Goh, Wu's father, and former Wandering Cultivator from the Holy Mandala Kingdom of Zhemla, deep within the Grasping Jungle. So basically Cultivation Siam in my opinion. Or…if we were doing Cultivation Kublai Khan and the Yuan then maybe it was the Cultivation Khmer Empire? Regardless, it even had Mandala in the name, making for a strong case for my analysis. Most of these seemed to be early to late Medieval magical versions of Earth kingdoms so far.
He led me through towards the inner complex, which was very interesting to me, I had never been here before. It was opulent in a way my forebears had only seen a few times in person in their lives. Isaac in some odd celebrity encounters during travels and his first marriage and Red'neran when doing contracts for kings, moguls, and the aristocracy.
If this was what a mid-level border clan was fielding I was fully prepared to be utterly disgusted if I ever saw the compound of an influential clan in the capitals and big cities of this mega-continent.
Eventually we turned a corner and walked through a strange red door with a frame carved from what appeared to be obsidian. The frame had manifold formations carved onto it as well and inlaid with silver.
He opened it using some kind of charm or talisman from a pouch on his belt and we entered and suddenly we were…somewhere else.
A blank white void. With…floors? Did…did this clan have a Hyperbolic Time Chamber?
Goh saw the stunned look on my face and went to explain.
"I know it isn't anything dramatic, but it is pretty rare for a clan of our level to have any kind of Hidden Realm at their disposal. It's a pity that it's only the standard environment from our world, and no time dilation to boot. You know, one time I found a Hidden Realm deep within the Grasping Jungle and even though I spent what felt like eight years inside, only five days had passed on the outside?"
"That's…amazing…and well this is certainly good enough for training! I've never even been inside a proper Hidden Realm!" You know, in the entire two weeks I'd been Red…Red…hmm still workshopping that. I was feeling birds though, what with men, myths, and icons like Red Eagle, Red Cloud (not a bird but related to the sky at least), Red Hawk, Suzaku, the heron mark blade sigil that Isaac had as a tattoo, the phoenix, and many more.
"I am not surprised! Resources and opportunities involving Hidden Realms are rare and often only show up as you break into the Core Formation Stage of Foundation and the Golden Core Realm itself. This area is pretty big and pretty blank, so I have a talisman that always has its tassel pointing towards the door," He explained as we walked out further into the void.
Eventually he turned and gestured for me to stop.
"You should go all out with me. Not only am I at the peak of our Realm, but I want to see everything you can do. There might be opportunities for you to earn extra resources if you prove yourself worthy." With that he summoned a strange long angled sword with a circular hilt from some storage space in all likelihood. He brought it down and in front of his body in a strange stance, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"Well, boy? Draw your blade!"
I chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of my head, "I…don't actually have any weapons. The staff I had was lost on the trip over here."
He frowned, causing his mustache to shift, "Hmm…then I hope you can…DODGE!"
With that shout suddenly he was in front of me with an entire fucking afterimage left behind where he started. His blade was coming up in a swooping motion right for my throat.
Our motions would have been a blur to any observers below the Foundation Realm.
I leaned back, bending my spine almost thirty degrees, and the blade snaked past my face.
I pushed my Qi into a Step of the Wind and blasted off from the ground and landing twenty feet back, barely getting my hands up with Flame Blades out to block his follow-up strike.
"Ah ha! So you can make those solid enough to block strikes! Very good!" He complimented me as he continued forward with a blisteringly quick slashing combination. High-low-middle-low-middle-high-diagonal down. I deflected them off of my Flame Blades over and over. Trying to force an over extension or an opening.
He didn't bite. And worst of all, his combinations became faster and faster and then suddenly he was backing off and instead of melee attacks he began slashing so quickly he was releasing vacuum waves through the air towards me.
And of course, in a vacuum fire could not breathe. So I had to dodge. Over the next three point two seconds I had about an eighty-percent success rate at dodging the staggering thirty-four vacuum waves he fired off at me. My cloak was shredded, it would need days of low-grade Qi absorbing to repair itself.
However, his testing of my ranged abilities allowed me to pivot to the offensive myself. I held out my hand and my ring lit up. A purple glow surrounded him and he glanced around suspiciously.
"Was this supposed to do anything?" He questioned.
I…decided to bluff. Faerie Fire, outside of a tabletop context how was lighting someone up supposed to make them 'easier to hit' when it was already brightly lit in your environment?
"Just watch! Radiant Sun Barrage!" And then, as I felt my Qi form into the multitude of volatile orbs of Light I felt it. A…connection to the Qi that had created the Faerie Fire glow. I realized then, that's how that technique would work here in this world.
I allowed my Qi to bond sympathetically to the Qi holding the glow together, and I let loose.
I sent my blasts out in bursts of four at a time, and noticed Goh's eyes widen in surprise as they ignored his afterimage that he left in the last known location and zipped through the air towards his new space.
Five more sets of four flew out from my rapidly moving hands, all guided towards him by the Faerie Fire.
Of course that's when he decided to defend with an attack if he couldn't dodge them.
I think, perhaps, my translation technique was fucking with me. Because when he called out the name of his technique the translation was familiar.
"Waterfowl Dance!" His blade moved so fast it seemed to multiply. He had darted around the room in a way that gathered my homing shots close together. This allowed them all to be within sword range when he let loose.
All twenty-four of my Sun Bolts were sliced in twain and disrupted by myriad mirage blades.
"That isn't all you have is it? Master Red?" I could hear the amusement in his voice and my teeth ground together. I knew he was just testing me, but damnit I wanted to show him up.
So I decided to pull out all the stops.
I converted my Qi into Light, Flame, and Heat at the same time, while releasing my chains. He hadn't even given me a chance to do so until now.
As the chains glowed golden and vanished into tattoos an aura of golden flame burst out from my body. The Sun Shield. Then I resummoned my Flame Blades and enforced my Will upon them to convert them into my thin, almost rapier width, Claimh Solais.
"Praise the Sun!" I called out as I juggled making all these techniques and boosts work together at the same time. Mantras and symbolism helped sharpen focus and control.
Ding-ding…time for round two.
I exploded forward, the force of my movement enough to leave cracks in the strange white floor, and my laser blades hummed as they split the air in front of me.
Now Goh was on the defensive. Left blade high cut, right blade low cut, right stab, left uppercut, scissor attempt at the middle. He blocked them all, but I was seeing a future opening. His sword was chipping. The lasers were leaving nicks in the high quality Qi-steel blade.
There was a secondary effect I was feeling as I fell into my techniques. People used the phrase 'laser-focused' on Earth a lot. I began to synergize with the symbolism of that phrase. As long as I wielded my Claimh Solais blades my perception and reaction speed were sharpened. I was laser-focused. I hadn't used Claimh Solais outside of independent practice, so this secondary effect had gone unnoticed by me. However, in the heat of battle I categorized and put a pin in this observation to play with later. I had a spar to be impressive in.
Eventually, this laser focus allowed me to weave small strikes past his defenses. A cut on his robe here, a slice on his cheek there. I was making progress.
And then one of my scissor combos did it, I snapped the sword in twain.
"Ha! Good lad! Let's take this up a notch!" He threw the hilt at me and I felt his Qi connect with it and all the pieces of his sword.
"Oh shi-" I leapt back as the pieces exploded into hundreds of infused fragments of metal that shot straight at my face.
I managed to dodge and block all of them, those that I blocked turned to slag that seemingly he couldn't control.
Unfortunately this had given him time to jump back and…tear off his robes?
I was a bit unbalanced by that act.
Now I could see that he had a heavily muscled but lean physique. Like a classical baseball player or an Olympic swimmer. All he had left on were his silk slippers and a pair of black and blue layered silk shorts with a yellow and orange tasseled sash wrapped low around the waist and hips.
"New test, boy-o," I had to assume my translation power was pulling in odd phrases due to a lack of context, "Survive."
Wait…what?
"Cloud Forest Vitality Form!" Steam started to evaporate off of his muscles and they bulged, suddenly causing him to immensely bulk up, like Master Roshi's Full Power form. He threw his hand up towards the sky and summoned yet another sword. This one looking far larger and longer than the previous one, but still in that strange angular style.
"Corpse Eating Flock of Carrion Strike!"
Say what no-oh fuck!
He slammed the large blade into the ground in front of him and on top of a fucking fissure shooting forward in the Earth what must have been close to a thousand black blades of wind curved off from the blade and shot through the air bending around to home in on me, each of them screeching like a crow.
Survive indeed, fuck this guy.
Well, no time like when I could die to test out a theoretical defensive technique I had been working on.
"By the Holy Image of the Mother, I Call Upon Thee, PRIDWEN!"
I channeled Light, Fire, Heat, and the tiniest bit of Gravity Qi that I could manage and slammed my hands together, projecting it all in front of myself and willing it to condense and twist into a protective form.
In front of me materialized a shield made primarily of magically hardened white light. Emblazoned on the front was a fiery red outline of Reylina of the All-Seeing Flame, Red'neran's mother and my…grandmother? Perhaps. In life she had been a seer of middling power who sold cheap foretelling tricks to rubes at a traveling circus.
But she was Red'neran's mother. And the symbolism of motherhood was universal.
Her graven image, arms spread wide, imparted a level of fortitude and protection to the shield it would not have had if I had merely formed it from Qi and Will. It imparted the Concept of protection.
The shield also radiated a bright glow, and the Gravity Qi would pull attacks towards the center of the shield. Not particularly strongly at the moment, my mastery with it was sub-par, but the effect was there and would only grow stronger as my skill did.
"Caw! Clang! Caw Clang! Caw Clang! Cawclang! Caclang! C-Clang-clang-clang!" The black wind-blades hammered into my shield over and over, pushing me and the shield back as the assault continued.
After what felt like an eternity but likely at the speed we were fighting had only been a second and change my shield cracked and then before I could react to reinforce it the final two blades broke through and hammered into my body.
I awoke with a groan an indeterminable amount of time later, only to notice I was in some bed, with Goh standing over me with a shit-eating grin on his face.
"You passed! Try not to pass out when I reevaluate you down the line though!"
"Fuck you, dude."
He blinked in confusion, that probably hadn't translated well.
Chapter 9: It's Not Easy Being Orange
"When the path is steep and stony and the night is all around, and the way that you must take is far away. When your heart is lost and lonely and the map cannot be found," I preached towards a group of pre-teens I had been assigned to lecture on my 'non-secret Cultivation wisdom'. They, unlike many of Isaac's students, were listening with rapt attention. Likely a result of not having cell phones and TikTok to turn their attention spans into mush.
"Here's a simple little spell that you can say,"
I paused for effect.
"You've got to face facts, act fast on your own. Preparation, perspiration, explosive determination. Pack snacks, make tracks all alone. Don't be cute. Time to scoot. Head out to your destination. Chase the future, face the great unknown."
Was I viciously ripping off Fraggle Rock? Sure. Was it a good lesson for a bunch of twelve year olds that would be developing goddamn kung fu magic within the next few years to learn? Abso-fucking-lutely. They would be dangerous. But the world was going to be even more dangerous. Even with this appearing to be a slightly more rational type of Cultivation world, so far, I had heard plenty of horror stories since my arrival. Hells, my arrival had prevented two such horror stories!
I was assuming this was a secondary test, while the spar with Goh had been a combat test this was likely one of temperament and wisdom. However, I was getting paid. Quite handsomely in fact, I was raking in a couple hundred 'Clan Contribution' points per lesson. Which was enough that each week I would be able to buy some decent alchemical pills to experiment with. They also had me doing smaller classes for the students talented with Fire Qi, they didn't have any Light-attuned Cultivators. Those lessons got me double the points of these weird seminars.
I was aware of a mission board type of thing that many members could use to take jobs to gain contribution points and exchange them for extra resources. But you need to have a rank within the clan to use it, I am assuming that these little tests being passed on to me were to assess what rank they wanted to give me. Wu and Kao had hinted at such without outright confirming it for me in our meetings.
In fact, with Kao's help I had pawned those two monster cores off for a hefty sum of Spirit Stones and Ivory Chits, I'd asked for mixed currency. The clan had offered points for them, but I wanted some universal currency on me. I knew better than to be entirely beholden to a single entity. Eggs, baskets, etc.
According to Kao he had taken so long to find a buyer because he was waiting for a Reflective Azure Soul Sect merchant to travel through, as they typically would either directly buy the cores for a premium or the cores they did buy would temporarily jack up the price of all cores as they bought out a good deal of the local supply. He said he had gotten half again the normal value for them, selling both directly to that sect, and I trusted he was telling me the truth.
In all honesty, I was using the Shangs just as much as they were trying to woo me into letting them use me to become stronger. I needed a relatively safe and knowledgeable base of operations to figure out this world.
They were definitely trying to leverage whatever camaraderie they thought I had struck up with Wu and Kao. When it didn't look like I was biting at Wu I even "coincidentally" met Kao's younger sister, Yiyun. She was a sweet enough girl, but terribly untalented and uninteresting. I was even less interested in wallflowers than I was in the general concept of getting locked down without having explored this world.
Why in all the possible heavens, hells, and limobos would I stick around in Cultivation Mongolia exclusively when I could also see a fantasy version of Siam, Japan, India, etc? It just wasn't going to happen. I was going to stick around here and help the Shangs out for a bit while I got my balance in this world, then I was going to fuck off and explore. Ancient ruins of past Cultivation civilizations, plumb the world for its mysteries, and advance further and further along this Dao-path I was slowly formulating.
It felt…wrong that in this world the Dao was treated as some secondary path to power. But, some vague impressions from Isaac's life showed that that was not uncommon for Xianxia tales where the setting had rigid social structures. The spiritual path to power instead of the consumptive path to power was seemingly reserved for wise hermits who shut themselves away for decades or centuries of seclusion. And maybe the odd prodigal hero of a tale. Who had completely unexplained easy understanding of concepts.
This is what I meditated on one night as I Cultivated. Moving my Qi through my chains to acclimate myself to the feel and presence of Gravity Qi. While I had made progress with adapting and adding it to techniques I was stalling with applying it in the manner I could my other affinities unfortunately, so I decided to pivot to another technique, one I had been holding back.
I mentally shifted my focus away from Cultivation and towards self-awareness. I hummed a subtle pattern under my breath, as Red'neran had learned to do, and harmonized my soul, mind, and body into sections. I then merged the mind and soul and willed them to leave my body, connected merely by a mystic tether.
Immediately my soul-form froze, my awareness of my metaphysical surroundings now heightened. Spiritual eyes traced the walls and ceilings of my abode in concern as I took in the innumerable lines of mystic energy that swirled within them.
Formations. Formations throughout the entire complex's structure. I had no idea what they would do to my soul-form if I tried to pass through them either. I had been very right to limit my usage of this ability, astral projection. I really did not understand the depth and breadth of what was possible with Cultivation in this world.
Cautiously I let my consciousness fall back into my body, awakening. I'd have to try this again from a different launch point. Likely outside of the city. That would give me the best vantage and area to play around with.
After two weeks of those lessons and some interestingly hidden presences during some of my sparring with the guards I was approached by the chamberlain after leaving one such session.
"We have not been properly introduced, Master Red," His voice was slimy and nasally to match with his oily black mustache, "I am Shang-Dan Jin. Coordinator of Outer Clan Relations."
I gave the polite bow required, but no more than that, "Greetings. How may I be of service?"
"After your evaluations we have decided to place you for Outer Clan C-rank. This lets you get some extra options from the Clan Store and allows you to take and lead missions up to that rank. However," He paused here, the dramatic ponce.
"Your first mission shall be selected for you, a kind of final evaluation. You will, along with Shang-Chien Wu, escort the Clan Head's sixth son on an outing to the market tomorrow. We will give you a list of allowable places to visit, you will hold his currency purse both to keep him in budget and to present a certain amount of face by having an escort dispense funds, and so on and so forth. You will be in charge of both his decorum and his safety. I explain more than I might to others because I have been appraised of your…exceedingly foreign origin. Meet Young Master Shang Yanjing at the inner gates no later than the fifth bell."
He basically just turned and left after that, expecting me to immediately alter my plans. I guess I had to go find Wu again, we needed to make sure we planned. I didn't want to fuck this up. Fifth bell meant four hours after the 'first bell' at six am, so ten in the morning.
Luckily Wu hadn't gotten too far towards her family's suite. Smaller sub-families got their own mini-compounds, similar to kiva living structures and organization in the American Southwest with the Ancestral Puebloans. The tribe as a whole lived around a central area and then there were smaller sets of buildings surrounding hearths for individual families.
"Has…uh…Shang…Dan Jin I think, has he let you know about tomorrow?" I questioned her after I caught her attention.
She nodded, "Yes, the Coordinator has appraised me of our outing tomorrow with the Young Master. Did you have any questions or concerns, M-...Red?" I'd been trying to break her from calling me Master Red for a while now, good to see it was catching.
The Clan was split into three groups. The Outer Clan, which was by default contracted members and families who were more than four generations removed from the main branch. The Inner Clan, which were those once removed in relations from someone that was in the Main Branch. Finally, the Main Branch which were the children and spouses of Patriarchs or Matriarchs and the direct line of succession. The current clan heir for example counted as being in the Main Branch for the purpose of their own children and their spouses. Yes, apparently plural for spouses was a thing here. Based heavily upon status and power. Powerful Matriarchs could have a harem, multiple marriages, or concubines just as easily as a Patriarch.
"I have had exactly no contact with the Main Branch so far," I explained to Wu, "So I am going to need a run down of procedure and etiquette for this outing."
"I…of course I can help but why do we need to be sprinting while we talk? Is that some kind of focus training?"
I blinked, what was she-oh. Run down.
"Turn of a phrase that didn't translate well, it just means I need the main points."
She immediately brightened, "Absolutely, I can help with that! I am starved from sparring though, so let's head to the canteen."
Most of what she ended up explaining wasn't anything new to me, but there had been some extra context and edge cases she had explained that could be useful for publicly facing etiquette as that was different from how you were supposed to act inside the compound without any outsiders around.
It was a solid twenty minutes after the fifth bell, so about ten-twenty in the morning, by the time Shang Yanjing showed up at the gate. He looked the two of us over then quirked an eyebrow. At first I wasn't sure if he was appraising our clothing, nothing compared to his fine silks spun from the silk of Qi-fed worms and spiders, all in bright colors from fine dyes.
And then he spoke.
"You really are…orange? That's…odd. Is everyone from your homeland like that?"
Oh…huh he was just curious. That was refreshing. It was a snooty kind of curious, but I'd indulge the lanky teen. If those silks hadn't been tailored perfectly I imagined he'd look like a string bean.
I gestured for us to start moving, I'd already been given his pouch.
"Not all of us, no, but I come from a 'race' that's usually a deep red. Called Fire Genasi. Now, we're still human of course. That just is a reference to our ancestor's Body Tempering method fundamentally changing us to be born attuned to Fire or Heat. It was based on observations or lessons from an Ifrit supposedly. A kind of wish-granting fire spirit of the far off western deserts. I'm half Fire Genasi and half baseline human, that's why I'm more orange."
I had the kid's attention in a chokehold as we continued off out of the Inner City and into the Mercantile Ward. Or whatever it was called. I wasn't paying super close attention and didn't care to wrack my brain for the specifics.
I knew a nerd when I met one, and this lanky string bean of a seventeen year old was definitely a big ol' nerd. Which made a lot of sense of this itinerary now. 'No more than three book or scroll emporiums', 'No more than four hundred full chits worth of books and scrolls', 'No more than ten spirit stones worth of recipes, formation diagrams, or bestiaries'. Honestly the list of limitations was longer than the list of approved vendors.
I had picked up enough of the written language here that I read the sign of our first stop and figured it was something about Wang, Travel, Shop, and Books. So probably Wang's Shop of Travel Books or Travelogues.
He picked up a few books about interesting far off places and we moved on. So far this kid was alright with me.
We hit lunch shortly after finishing at the first shop and stopped over at one of the fancier looking bodega places that had some outside seating for eating. We got…some kind of dumpling based meal. I honestly didn't catch and had Wu order for me. She knew what the dishes were and I trusted her palette so far.
Just after we got seated an obnoxious voice sounded out behind us.
"Well…well…well…if it isn't the weak egghead of the Shame Clan."
I sighed before we turned around, of course something like this was going to happen.
Chapter 10: The Art of Fighting Without Fighting
Red'neran had been proficient in Perception. Which at level twenty with the boosts to Wisdom from some special books and whatnot calculated to something like +12. Perception was an interesting stat. It translated to not just how much and how detailed you could see, but also to how quickly you could process what you saw. Dexterity then dictated how quickly you could move your body in response to what you were sensing and processing. Someone that had high Perception but low Dexterity would be able to watch slowly as the arrow pierced their heart. The person with both, and Monk training, could catch the arrow and throw it back.
Which is to say, I perceived everything around us before I even turned around. I heard the crunch of his footsteps on the gravel, this unknown antagonist, but also of three other sets of feet that stood close enough that they must be with him as a group. One weighed less than the others and had a light and graceful gait, making me assume based on the sociocultural averages of this nation that it was a woman, possibly a non-combatant or a caster, as there was a specific way people moved when wearing a sword or other weapon. At the early stage of Qi Gathering she likely did not have any kind of hammerspace weapon.
The other two weighed more, one likely even having some kind of armor on him from the way I heard a whisper of metal against cloth, and both openly wore weapons on their waists from how their feet were positioned. Likely a bruiser and a skirmisher. The weapon on the thinner man was also lighter than that the other carried. Probably a club or hammer for the armored guy and a jian or dao for the string bean man.
I glanced over at Wu to see her response, she had turned around and her eyes had widened and her darker than average for the region skin had paled closer to the standard pseudo-Chinese standard.
So that meant that this guy in the middle who had spoken was from some kind of important family. With the power levels behind me neither me nor Wu should be afraid of an altercation. Sure the two thugs were towards the peak of Qi Gathering, Qi Consolidation I think that sub-stage was called? But so was Wu and I was in the Foundation Realm. I could eat them for breakfast and ask for seconds. The pretentious young master they served was only in the middle of Qi Gathering, below even Wu. But he was still stronger than our charge, Shang Yanjing was merely freshly broken through to the Qi Gathering Realm from the Body Tempering Realm. The fact that it had taken him until seventeen to temper his body enough to begin active generation and circulation of Qi was pretty bad and did make him kind of weak. Usually, from my understanding, scions of decent families would hit that stage by fifteen at latest.
And if this brat was within a year or two of Yanjing, then he was comparatively a prodigy. Only comparatively however, I'd be willing to bet there were a few real prodigies in his own clan and that was why he was lashing out at Yanjing. Low hanging fruit, easy pickings, etc.
That's okay, time for a little application of the art of fighting without fighting.
I spun around on my stool so that just like my other two companions I was facing the group. I'd been dead on, one hulking brute with a club, one scrawny rat-looking motherfucker with a cheap looking jian, and then a woman hovering just behind the oily fellow that had made the comments. This dude looked like women should protect their drinks around him, disgusting looking and feeling man. But, I channeled Isaac's theatre minor and leaned into a character.
"Ah, so nice to see even in foreign lands that the art of youthful ribbing between friends is strong!" I squinted my eyes in a way that combined with a friendly smile and me pulling my aura in should keep me seeming unassuming and amiable.
"Young Master, care for introductions? Shang-Chien Wu seems to recognize them, but unfortunately I am so new to the region I am not familiar."
The entire group stared at me in befuddlement.
"T-this is Yang Hàoyú, of the Yang Clan. And um…his betrothed, Li Ting, and I suppose his retainers?"
"Who's this orange moron?"
Damn this kid was rude.
I brought my hand up under my chin and pointed the first two upwards in a conciliatory gesture.
"Ma, ma, Other Young Master, friendly ribbing is only polite between friends. We just met, I am not sure we could become friends that quickly!"
I channeled a certain scarecrow-esque ninja in mannerisms here, thinking that his quirks would be the most disarming in this situation.
"Where did your family find this stupid fuck?" Yang Hàoyú continued, "I knew you were already scraping gutters, but he's so dumb he thinks we are friends?" He proceeded to laugh quite obnoxiously.
I widened my eyes in feigned surprise, "Are you saying you are not friends? That instead you," I paused for effect here and then switched my eyes to glaring aggressively at the interlopers, "Walked up to my charge and I and began hurling impolite insults at him and our clan?"
With that last sentence I released the full power of my Qi and Foundation Realm Aura out to a tightened range of about eight feet. Just enough to hit the entire group. I forced the little bit of Gravity Qi I had managed to Cultivate the night prior into it as well. Lending it extra…weight.
I had apparently radically underestimated the effects of that. My goal had been something akin to a Hold Person spell or to make the air thick like syrup for movement. I had accidentally done something closer to the Earthbind or Gravity spells.
Hàoyú and his betrothed immediately face planted into the ground, so abruptly in fact that I was reminded of an anime trope from Isaac's life. The two peak Qi Gathering mooks fell to their knees, shaking.
Glancing to the side I saw Yanjing shakily holding onto the stool to stop himself from collapsing and even Wu's knees were wobbly, and I wasn't even focusing on them. Shit, I'd fucked up, this was not what I had intended. I had gotten cocky and played around with a power I had not mastered and this was the result. But I had to roll with it, try and salvage the situation. Even if this was slightly past what could be considered defending my charge as they hadn't physically attacked.
"Now, I don't think we meant we were enemies did we? We weren't directly attempting to besmirch and attack the reputation of someone I was honorbound to protect, were we?"
Yep, yep, shift the blame. 'Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss' as they would say. Nope, that's a weird panicked thought, squash that down, lean into the mask and carry on.
The opposing Young Master tried to speak but instead just gagged and shakily nodded in response.
"Ah, those were not the intentions then?" I smirked and released my aura.
They scrambled up to their feet.
"H-how dare you! The Yang Clan will want you to answer for this!"
This time it was that reedy henchman that spoke up, I guess that made him the dumb one. Wild. Usually it's the big guy.
"Hàoyú's elder brother, Jun, is the heir! He's already in the Foundation Realm! He'll surely challenge you to single combat for this affront!"
I rolled my eyes, "Truly? Out here Foundation Realm Cultivators lower themselves to dueling over the honor of younglings who sling mud at each other?" I turned to Wu, "Is that normal? I thought better of your society, as one of warriors who fight for their own honor and do not hide behind others. Was I wrong?"
She grimaced, "This would be a pretty low-grade affront to involve higher realm Cultivators in. The Shang Clan would be able to quite rightly laugh off the request, even with the Yang's being the older and more established family. You were a bit…blunt in defending Master Yanjing, but we could write it off as the overeagerness of a new courtier."
I nodded, "See? Any resolutions shall have to come from fighting your own battles, Young Master."
I perked up, as if just coming up with a brilliant idea. A brilliant idea that was in my mind, perfectly drawing upon the tropes and expectations of this kind of world.
"Ah, there we go! How about a duel in a month's time? Between the two young masters, but they can only train and prepare themselves with those who the initial threatened duel was from! I shall train Shang Yanjing for the month, and Yang Hàoyú's brother can train him for the month! Then at the end they have a little friendly spar trading pointers. First to…three solid contact points wins, no killing or maiming sounds quite fair to me!"
Wu looked at me bewildered, Yanjing looked at me aghast, the Yang contingent looked at me like I had grown approximately four extra heads. Maybe I had misread things.
Hàoyú's expression eventually morphed into one of greed and sadism, "I accept! One month from now in the public arena! I train with my brother Jun and Yanjing only has your aide in preparing!"
He leered maliciously at Yanjing, "I'll squash the bug! There's no way such a pathetic, girly, sorry excuse of a Cultivator could defeat me!" And then he went off cackling with his crew following after like kicked dogs.
"Ho-how could you do that? Volunteer me to the slaughter like that?! I-I-I'll tell my f-father! This is…why?"
I put a hand on his still shaking shoulder to still him, "Young Master, this is an opportunity. If you work with me I will make sure that you are strong enough to win this competition."
"How could I possibly? He's in the middle of the Qi Gathering Realm and I broke through only a few months ago!"
That was actually worse than what I expected, but still not terrible. I could fix that.
"I shall take you as a direct disciple, a proof of concept. I shall teach you the Rising Phoenix Form, and you shall like the phoenix itself, rise from the ashes of your youth into a glorious adult self that shall soar the skies on jets of flame just as I do!"
He looked at me skeptically, "You…volunteered me for this because you believe I can do it?"
I nodded somberly, "You are bright and curious. If we can channel those into hard work I believe you can overcome any such obstacle. Besides, I remember you from some of my Flame Qi classes, you didn't attend directly, but I sensed your presence in the edges, watching, observing. You already have the base. I shall teach you how to take it further. To fly higher!"
I pumped my fist into the air dramatically. And shockingly enough, he followed along.
"Yes! You are right! I am tired of being weak! I shall dedicate the next month to your training Master Red! Let's head back and begin now!"
Wu stood to the side, mouth agape at our antics and the swift swing in attitude from Yanjing. She could have caught a lot of flies at that moment.
I placed my hand upon Yanjing's head. "Very well, my apprentice! We shall begin now! And thus our first lesson…tag, you're it!" I disappeared in a burst of speed that made some nearby shopkeepers squawk angrily as the wind rattled their stalls.
My perception was honed enough that even as I created a distance between us I heard Wu's reaction.
"Progenitor save us all, that man is insane."