Chapter 16: Cave of Wonders
Eight dead out of Goh's twelve person squad left us with an expedition group of forty-three. There could have been worse losses, Goh himself would have been a major loss if the arimaspu numbers had been enough to truly overwhelm him.
We had planned an extra two days of camping in the desert to make sure we caught any tails we had gathered, but with that ambush it was decided to move to the Mystic Realm tonight, we could not risk more ambushes from roaming corrupted races or monsters.
Thus I found myself moving with the group under the cover of night as we chased a flying gold and jade beetle-construct through the dunes. Like something straight out of One-Thousand and One Nights. Ah…perhaps Shahrazed's tales would be some of the next that I shared?
It turned out that the marker they had believed to be an entrance was merely a waypoint where the beetle could recharge its internal energies to then continue on deeper into the desert. Two, three, four more waypoints were uncovered as we moved, eventually only the quickest and highest endurance members were following directly, with scouts to head back to fetch the rest when it finally stopped.
Zhang Tianxiufu truly had been a cunning man of quite the means if he set this elaborate hunt up for his Mystic Realm should he pass without passing the knowledge on directly.
Eventually the beetle landed on an unassuming and shriveled skeleton of a tree…which then had its form shimmer in the night air and fade away to reveal a stone pedestal. Green light shone out, and when it faded the sands around us were rumbling.
All on high alert we took readied stances, preparing for some final test or guardian.
Instead, an entire temple complex rose from the sand around us. Torrents of sand shooting off of raising roofs like waterfalls. And where we stood in the center? The pedestal had raised and underneath was a green, glowing portal into the unknown. Above it hung an inscription.
"Enter only; friends and scholars. For foes who enter shall receive their just desserts."
"Well, that's not ominous or anything, do you reckon we count as foes? I mean I'm obviously a scholar, but your clan has definitely worked with this guy's foes for a long time." I quipped, meaning it only for Goh but unfortunately the expedition lead, Shang Khulan, caught wind as well and sent me a withering glare.
"It matters not, we shall just undo any stringent protections and make sure we keep on alert for traps." She glanced around, "Hmm…perhaps only the high Qi-Gathering and above should enter though, they will at least survive to be healed if something goes wrong. The rest can stay here and guard the complex. This is much more circumspect a location than we predicted."
The other Foundation realm cultivators nodded along with her analysis, and I generally agreed with her, too, so I didn't interject anything else with my big mouth.
She tapped her lip thoughtfully, "However…Master Red, your point, however poorly stated, stands. You may not be considered a foe as merely an honorary member of the clan and no true citizen of this empire. Perhaps we shall call upon you to test that on some of the defense after entry."
I sighed, defeated by my own semantic joke, "I should be able to tell if I am truly in danger or not, so probing the defenses will be less of a problem even if I cannot breach them."
Most traps were typically AOE which Evasion would cover or mental which Stillness of Mind would cover. I was fairly confident in my ability to not immediately die, regardless of the fact that a Golden Core Cultivator would have been the equivalent of a multiply rewarded and enhanced max level player character. With who knew how many legendary and artifact tier pieces of equipment. Probably some crazy magical experiment lab as well.
Shit, I was getting nervous and excited simultaneously with those thoughts.
I grinned, channeling the nerves into the excitement and then centering myself and pushing that excitement into feeding the Flame.
I turned and smiled at the group, my back to the portal, "How about we test that out right now? As a wise man once said, 'Allons-y'!" I took a step back and, to their perspective, disappeared into the portal.
This was…not like the space-time room doorway that I had walked through. It was truly some kind of full on magic portal to a sub-dimension of this one.
It felt like I was a boiled noodle being contorted into random shapes by a petulant nine year old that didn't want to have this kind of soup today.
Finally, after moments and eternities, wild colors spinning past my eyes, I landed with a thud on the other side. Inside…what seemed to be a Chinese themed MC Escher painting.
Voids of black and purple anti-energy stretched between strangely contorting walkways of floating stones that looked like they had come straight from a zen garden. Odd, razor finned fish with four perpendicular fins flew through these voids, seemingly not minding my presence for now. At random steps would shoot out of the pathways and up into the air where once more they bent back in on themselves and twisted around in strange shapes. Sometimes flipping upside down. These led up to pagoda-shrines high in the sky sitting upon golden clouds of…dust?
"That was extremely reckless of…you…" Goh trailed off as he appeared beside me and also took in the sight in front of us.
"Whoa."
"Ditto."
"What?"
"Uh…same might work better as a translation?"
"Ah! Yes, you said amorphous pink shapeshifter for some reason."
"Homonyms are a bitch."
"Yes, many of our words and phrases have very similar characters when written, I understand that much at least."
"I need both of you to stop gossiping about like old women and focus on this mission," Shang Khulan, who definitely had not been there a second ago, whispered venomously from between the two of us.
We both jumped in surprise.
"Ah! Yes of course honored senior!" Goh yelped out as he settled, Khulan must have some stealth ability, as I could not for the life of me parse out how I had missed her presence for long enough that she eavesdropped.
"Now, move away, the rest are coming through."
It took about two hours to get everyone they were allowing into the actual Mystic Realm to get to the site, get into the realm, and set up a small base camp on the wide and polished floating rock that made up the entrance. From this almost hundred yard radius stone the many walkways spread out into the distance, seemingly endlessly, but I wondered, as that did not seem possible, even for a Golden Core Cultivator. Unless…I worried that perhaps this was not a creation of Zhang, but instead merely something lost he had discovered. That could bode ill for our trip.
If we were instead dealing with some kind of ancient lost heritage realm or something insane like that I was not sure we were prepared. Only one Golden Core Cultivator and a smattering of Foundation Stage Cultivators? If the protections were strong enough we would be in quite some trouble.
We spent the next few hours carefully scouting the nearby stairwells, temples, and pagodas in small groups. When we returned we let Khulan's aide de camp know what our results and findings were and within a few hours of my group's debrief we were having another whole expedition meeting.
"This is…an interesting Realm," Khulan began, her eyes narrowed severely as she spoke, "The temples all appear to be gates with riddles and challenges attached to them. We have found inscriptions asking esoteric questions and demanding feats of Qi control that focus more on skill than power. We are going to continue scouting and take stock of what the riddles and challenges are. We will then create a disbursement desk where those with skills that are compatible with a challenge or believe they know an answer to a riddle may take on the associated gate. We believe that eventually all paths will lead to that."
With that she pointed up into the sky, where a huge jade shrine floated upon the only unconnected cloud.
"We believe that new stairs, paths, and shrine-gates will open up moving towards that goal as we succeed. Possibly with smaller prizes and treasures along the way. We shall be treating this less like a normal Mystic Realm and more as a possible Grand Inheritance."
That generated some buzz from the gathered cultivators. An Inheritance was a big deal. Even I knew that with only a few fortnights under my belt in this world. I'd heard a few tales from Wu about legendary Inheritances (capital I) of ancient cultivators that allowed warlords to rise and kingdoms to fall.
Our team: Yanjing, Jung, Wu, and I quickly grabbed one of the more interesting Qi-control related puzzles that I believed would be a good fit for Yanjing and I's combined talents in alchemy and fire.
Thus near the evening, or what based on time passage I reckoned was the evening, of the first full day in the Mystic Realm, our team stood in one of the shrine-gates in front of an elaborate china tea set sitting above a strange Qi-device.
Above it stood an inscription on a hovering plaque.
"The immortal Danqiu abandoned eating jade elixirs,
Picking tea instead, he drank, and grew feathered wings.
The world is unaware of the Mansion of Eminent and Hidden Immortals,
People do not know of the Palace of Transmuting Bone into Clouds.
The Lad of Cloudy Mountain blended it in a gold cauldron;
How hollow the fame of the Man of Chu and his Book of Tea!
Late on a frosty night, breaking cakes of fragrant tea.
Brewed to overflowing, the pale yellow froth; I sip and am reborn.
Perfect the brew, touch no pot, burn not the leaves, and rise up to meet me."
I had a feeling some of it was getting lost in translation and turned to Yanjing, "It's asking us to brew the perfect cup of tea without touching any of the china, yes? So it wants us to use only Qi?"
He nodded in response, I supposed it had translated correctly, "That appears to be the case, teacher! I have some alchemical brewing skills to manipulate containers and tools without touch, purely Qi telekinesis. Not strong enough for combat use, but nice and gentle for tool manipulation. If you can modulate the Fire Qi, I can complete the brewing. This seems quite simple, even if it is skill intensive!"
There were enough tea leaves for three attempts, which felt like a ridiculous handicap. Swiftly Yanjing and I got the water boiling, I manipulated the Fire Qi through the strange magical equivalent of a hot plate and Yanjing kept track of the fluctuations of the water itself to gauge when to pour.
And then, after pouring a certain amount of Fire Qi into the plate, grooves opened up on it and it began to rotate in separate rings. Scrambling mentally, I attempted to keep my connection up and split the strands of Qi to continue heating the plate evenly, but as the rings began to spin faster I lost control and the heat sputtered out.
Yanjing turned to look at me aghast, "Master, what happened?"
I sighed, "Just a Qi Control puzzle, my student. One I did not anticipate. Luckily we didn't panic and pour the water, wasting the leaves. So we just lost time, not resources. I think this is a test of patience as much as of control."
I sat down and meditated, reflecting on the speed of the rotations and how they increased with the amount of Qi I had input. However, the amount I needed to maintain what Yanjing had pegged as the ideal temperature. Holding my palm up I ran Qi through the air above it in a bunch of practice patterns, speeds, and intensities.
"Whoa…the Master Red really has some Qi Control, huh?"
"Jung…you're just a bit of a brute, most Cultivators can control their Qi affinities fairly precisely by the time they are well into their journey through the Foundation Realm," Wu commented.
Twenty minutes I sat there while my teammates chattered, though Yanjing was very nervous about it and only chattered intermittently. Eventually, he sat down next to me and began to practice for himself. Attempting to follow and replicate my Qi patterns with his own alchemical fire specialty. His results were inconsistent, but a few were good enough that I was impressed.
After almost an hour of meditation I felt prepared for my second attempt. I pushed up onto my feet swiftly and crossed the small distance from the edge of the shrine to the altar with the tea set.
"Pour when the fourth ring hits the end of its third spin, that's when it will reach the temperature you calculate, Yanjing."
He nodded, scrambling over to join me.
We began, and I realized, which in retrospect I should have realized when I was practicing the Qi control just a few moments before, around the third spin of the third ring that the pattern I was forming with my Qi was a yantra of some sort. A yantra was a smaller style of mandala meant to aid personal meditation. I was creating some kind of eight petaled lotus out of Fire Qi and then transitioning into an inner circle with a triangle connecting three of the petals.
At the exact moment that the final ring spun the final time and connected my Qi in a loop within the yantra, Yanjing followed my instructions to a T, pun intended, and poured the water using his alchemy tool telekinetic manipulation.
It was perfect. A sweet aroma, full of Qi, erupted from the leaves and all the colors around us in the Mystic Realm swirled.
Chapter 17: The Elixir of Life
"The first cup moistens the lips and throat."
The mantra rocked through my mind as I found myself in a strangely tranquil and domestic scene. I knew, being familiar with corporation of the body, that I was no longer in my own.
I was in a small hovel of a home. Hands and shoulders shaking from a long day of work in the fields. I managed to barely keep the saucer from spilling its precious contents, as my tea, my one luxury in my life, it helped soothe my aches and pains. Allowed me to sleep easily.
After taking the sip I put the saucer down and stared inside. Colors swirled again.
"The second shatters loneliness and melancholy."
A hazy thought crossed my mind that some of these visions might be using subconscious memories to construct something with an intended goal, as this vision definitely reminded me of…something…maybe a tv show? A play? A movie? A song? From Isaac's life. But…tweaked to fit this world.
We, a friend and I, sat in our old familiar place. A table by the street outside of a restaurant in a bustling city. Rickshaws and pedestrians sped past.
Some meetings we would have green tea, some meetings black, and some meetings oolong or herbal. Today our appetite was a fresh herbal blend with rose hops.
"Have you heard the news?" My friend began and I cocked my head to the side in curiosity.
"Oh ho? There is news? What about?" I inquired.
"Mei and Hàorán are finally splitting up."
I nodded, we'd seen this coming for a while.
"Everyone said they were crazy, we all knew that Mei was much too lazy, and with Hàorán's family they could never afford to live that kind of life."
"I hear they are parting on amicable terms, however," My friend continued.
I sighed, "Ah young love…you can never go back to the beginning. Merely the best you can do is pick up the pieces and find a way to get by. Anything else?"
"No, that's all I heard about Mei and Hàorán, I cannot tell you more than I told you already."
"Ah, so I suppose," I muttered while lifting my saucer, "This is good-bye to Mei and Hàorán."
"Indeed, friend. Good-bye to them!" The conversation continued until we finished our tea and then we parted.
"Whatever kind of mood you're in tonight, I'll meet you anytime you want, in our favorite restaurant."
The colors swirled once more.
"The third explores the dry rivulets of my soul, searching for legends of five thousand scrolls." The next stanza echoed dramatically through my mind as the colors coalesced and stilled once more.
A dusty room. Tall stacks of shelves. Thousands of scrolls lined them.
And yet I hunted for something specific as I dug through scroll after scrolls. A clue.
I picked up my cup of tea and sucked down the caffeinated bliss to fuel my search for longer. Cleansing the dust from my dry and parched throat.
The Island. I would find it. I had come all the way to this foreign empire to search for answers. Answers to where the ancestors go when they ascended.
Where was Bồng Lai?
Paper flared and fluttered, clouding vision, and colors swirled once more.
"With the fourth, the pain of past injustice vanishes through my pores."
The negotiations were tense. Two monarchs sitting across from each other trying to find terms that could assuage the high emotions on both sides of the conflict.
The war had been brutal and long, started by my father and his uncle a hundred and fifty years past. Both royal families had been whittled down by battle, rebellion, and assassins in the meantime.
Neither side could come away with nothing, but also neither wished this to continue. Both of us were tired of our reigns being marked only by conflict. We wished to retreat back to our capitals and begin rebuilding.
I took a sip of my tea, an exquisite and calming blend, in a lovely gold inlaid saucer. Perhaps, I thought, as my emotions calmed, we could let the past be the past and move on. He had a sister, I had a cousin, we were both unmarried, perhaps we could take our shared tragedy and move on together?
Erode the curse of hatred the past generation had laid upon us?
"The fifth cleanses my flesh and bone."
Ginger grown in a high Qi environment was crushed into a fine powder in a mortar of the purest spirit jade.
Goji berries from a shrub grown upon a stream that cascades down from a secret mystic realm, full of healthy Qi, were juiced for inclusion as well.
Water from that same stream was boiled to the perfect temperature.
Finely crushed mint leaves were steeped.
Then the ginseng was added to the blend.
Six drops of goji juice carefully mixed in.
And finally the concoction was sweetened with honey from a great Spirit Bee hive, with a queen over a thousand years old.
I took a sip, and I felt the painful curse that had settled into my bones after the last fight with a demonic spirit slowly flush from my system.
"With the sixth I commune with the Immortals."
Sitting in front of me was a…person of indeterminate gender. With their back facing me it was even harder to tell. They were steadily clacking a clapping instrument, similar to castanets but longer and narrower, and working on a pot of tea.
Slowly they poured two cups and turned to place them on a low table between us.
"You have done much in little time, Gestalt Child," They said, now even facing me I could not tell if they were an effeminate man or a slight woman.
"You have one question, use it carefully."
I blinked, as suddenly it was me, truly me, in my own body in the vision. It was disorienting, but I took a moment to gather my wits, before I spoke.
"Who…who am I now?"
"Why, child. Take a sip and you will answer that question yourself."
And so I took a sip. And my mind exploded. With a fiery vision of a large red bird spreading its wings and opening its long slender peak to swallow the sun.
"The seventh conveys such pleasure, that I am overcome. The fresh wind blows through my wings, as I make my way to the Immortal Island."
And from the sun on I soared. Because they'd been wrong, so wrong. The Immortal Island wasn't an island on this planet. It was an island in space, the aether. Our ancestors were ascending truly upward. I saw the red planet with the high mountain briefly before my vision blurred and suddenly pain.
I pushed myself off the ground with a moan, in front of the tea shrine, I coughed up some blood onto the tiles.
That…had been a trip.
I looked around and my companions were also woozy, delirious, or holding their heads.
"R-red…how…how many cups did you get to? I could sense there were more than the five I saw, but my will couldn't push through," Wu questioned me as we all slowly sat back and rested from our split visions.
"S-seven…" I gasped, as my solidified name beat through my mind, Red Heron was how it translated into Isaac's home English. Or rather…Red Large Bird as they probably didn't have herons here.
A low whistle came from the side, "That's impressive, I only saw two." Well we expected that from Jung. He was a bruiser, not an idiot savant.
"I got to the sixth one…" Yanjing stated, "But the person I saw there…they…kicked me out? Said I wasn't ready? Wasn't enlightened enough?"
That surprised me, the visions had seemed so smooth and uncontrolled to me. Were there truly different variations? Tests?
Our discussion was shelved as the back of the shrine lit up and faded away. Then, slowly, from the dissolved back of the shrine a line of spiraling swirling stairs seemingly made out of iridescent glass climbed higher up to one of the next levels of shrines.
"If that was the first test," Jung began, "I don't want to see what the next ones are."
He voiced all of our thoughts.
As tempting as it was to continue straight on, the procedure here was supposed to be that we report back our findings and let a scout team take down the nature of the next test to post it to the expedition board.
I was so wiped out, head still throbbing, from the visions that I didn't even try to fight Wu's suggestion that we follow procedure and head back.
The debrief was going to be rough with this headache though.
And what the Hell had all that been? Immortals? Bồng Lai? The Immortal Island? My new name? Gestalt Child? Who had that person been? Visions were supposed to give answers damnit! Not more questions! I wanted a refund!
And for some odd reason, none of us had noticed the single pewter ring that now adorned each of our wrists, except for Jung's.