The ravine was worse in daylight.
He could see now what he'd crawled through last night, edgy rocks, pools of stagnant muddy water, bones... mostly animal bones but some do look disturbingly human.
The walls were about thirty meters up on either side with no clear path.
And water flowed, thin stream trickled along the floor heading... somewhere. Streams led to rivers and rivers led to settlements.
Longwei followed the water.
His progress was measured in steps not distance, with each one requiring concentration and his body wanted non of that but only spite kept it moving.
Zhou Chen Thinks I'm Dead.
STEP.
Yating Is Probably In His Bed Right Now.
STEP.
The Elders Are Probably Updating Records. "SHEN LONGWEI — DECEASED DURING TRAINING MISSION."
STEP.
They'll Forget My Name By Next Month.
STEP.
But I Won't Let Them.
As he walked, the stream grew wider. Hours passed or maybe it was minutes, time had lost meaning. The sun climbed overhead then began to descend and Longwei kept walking.
He fell twice... the first time, he lay in the mud for what felt like an eternity before dragging himself up. The second time, he landed in the stream and the cold water shocked him back to his feet.
DON'T DIE. DON'T DIE. DON'T...
And the ravine opened.
Longwei stumbled to a halt, blinking at the sudden expansion of space. The narrow canyon gave way to a small valley with trees, grass and definitely a more proper river fed by multiple streams and there, in the distance was smoke.
Smoke means fire and fire means people.
He turned himself at the smoke and kept moving.
The Town - Village was called WILLOWREST
(柳树休息 Liǔshù xiūxí)
Longwei learned this from the sign at its entrance because no one stopped to tell him. The villagers took one look at the blood covered stranger in torn robes and hurried in other directions.
He couldn't blame them, he probably looked like a corpse that hadn't gotten the message.
The village was small maybe a thousand people, mostly mortals serving as a waypoint for travelers and low-level cultivators. A few shops, an inn and a medicine hall with a fading sign.
Longwei had no money even his spatial ring had been taken, Zhou Chen's final theft. He had nothing but the clothes on his back and the scripture against his chest.
But he was a cultivator... or had been, he knew how these villages worked.
He found the labor hall.
Every settlement near cultivation territories had one. A place where sects posted menial tasks too insignificant for real disciples, like clearing brush, carrying supplies, cleaning beast carcasses. Mortal work. Paying spirit stones or more commonly basic necessities.
The clerk looked at Longwei with Undisguised Disgust.
"You a cultivator?"
"Was." No point in lying. "Core damaged. Can still work."
The clerk's expression changed to something between pity and contempt. A cripple, worse than a mortal... a fallen mortal, someone who'd tasted power and lost it.
"Got a job clearing stones from a field, farmer paying in meals and a place to sleep. Interested?"
A meal and sleep? It was more than he'd expected.
"Yes."
The clerk wrote something on a slip of paper and handed it over. "Wang family farm, north edge of town. Tell them Clerk Liu sent you."
Longwei took the paper with his functional hand. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me." The clerk was already looking away. "Just don't die in my town, paperwork's a nightmare."
The Wang farm was a modest few acres of rocky soil that a family of mortals was trying to coax into productivity. The stones Longwei was meant to clear were everywhere.
The farmer, Wang Dafu was a kind man in his fifties. He looked at Longwei's wounds, his useless arm his obvious weakness.
"You sure you can work?"
"I can work."
"Hmm." Wang Dafu scratched his chin. "My wife's got some salve for those cuts. Get yourself cleaned up first, you'll work better if you're not bleeding everywhere."
It was the first kindness anyone had shown him in days.
Longwei bowed as deep as his injuries allowed. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet, those stones aren't going to move themselves."
The work was brutal.
Even with Qi, it would have been hard-ish. Without it and relying only on mortal strength in a body that was half-broken, it was torture.
Longwei worked anyway.
He lifted stones with his good arm, rolled larger ones with his body, dug out the deepest ones with bloody fingers. The sun beat down, sweat mixed with old wounds. His muscles were screaming, unaccustomed to labor without Qi reinforcement.
This is what mortals feel every day, he thought. This exhaustion, this weakness. This... limitation.
He'd never thought about it before. Mortals were background noise in his world, merely servants, shopkeepers or irrelevant masses. He'd walked past them without seeing them, secure in his cultivator superiority.
Now he was one of them.
Worse than one of them, atleast they'd been born to this but he'd fallen to it.
Humility, whispered a memory of the scripture. The path requires humility.
Fine, he would be humble, he would clear stones and sleep in a barn and eat whatever scraps the Wang family offered.
And when the opportunity came when he found a partner, he'll rebuilt his core and reclaimed his power.
Then he would show them all what humility was worth.
THREE DAYS PASSED...
Longwei's wounds began to heal but slowly like a mortal without Qi acceleration, but healing nonetheless. The farmer's wife, a kind woman named Hua often massages his shoulder (dislocated not broken, thank the heavens) and forced foul smelling poultices on his cuts.
He cleared stones and ate simple food. Slept in the barn on a pile of straw that felt like heaven compared to the ravine floor.
And every night, by the light of a stolen candle he read the scripture.
The techniques were much clearer now. He understood the theory, how Yin and Yang energies could merge, how the merger created cultivation opportunities and even how partners could uplift each other in ways isolation never allowed.
He understood the requirements of trust, vulnerability, surrender. Emotional nakedness as important as physical.
He understood the variations of different positions for different energy flows, different techniques for different cultivation goals, different approaches for partners of varying compatibility.
But He Has No Partner.
I could hire someone, he thought grimly. A pleasure house whore or someone who sells pleasure for money.
But the scripture was clear: transactional intimacy didn't work, the technique required genuine vulnerability and hired partners had defenses built from necessity. At best, he'd get minimal energy exchange. At worst, he'd damage both himself and his partner.
He needed someone who would be open to him completely, trust him absolutely and surrender as fully as he surrendered.
Where do you find someone like that when you have nothing to offer?
He didn't have an answer.
But on the fourth night, the universe provided a possibility.
POSSIBILITY...
Longwei was returning from the fields, soaked in sweat and exhausted when he saw her.
She stood at the edge of town, partially hidden in the shadow of an old willow tree. Her robes were worn but still high quality of inner sect level, at least. Her figure was hidden beneath cuts but the way she moved suggested trained grace... A cultivator's poise.
What struck him most was her hair silver white flowing past her shoulders, catching the fading sunlight like glitter. It was an unusual color, distinctive and possibly a bloodline trait.
She was scanning the town with the carefully, like someone being chased.
Running from something? Longwei realized. HIDING.
Their eyes met.
Hers were pale blue, almost colorless and the moment their gazes locked, Longwei felt something strange. A resonance, a vibration in the shattered remains of his core like a tuning fork responding to a matching frequency.
"Yin, the scripture memory. High-purity Yin energy. Ice affinity... Compatible.*
The woman's eyes widened slightly, She felt it too, whatever "it" was. Her hand drifted toward a concealed weapon.
Longwei raised his good hand with his palm out, the universal gesture of non-threat.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said quietly. "I couldn't if I wanted to, I'm just a crippled laborer."
Her eyes narrowed, whatever she saw must have confirmed his words maybe his rough state or his broken posture or his complete absence of Qi circulation, you name it. A cultivator would sense another cultivator's power and she probably sensed nothing from him because there was nothing to sense.
"You're not mortal," she said. Her voice was cool, sharp somehow matching her.
"I was a cultivator...." He shrugged with his good shoulder. "Now I clear stones for farmers."
Something flickered in her expression, not pity, she didn't seem the type. Something more like... Understanding.
"The town," she said after a moment. "Is it safe?"
"Safe enough, no sect presence and the people mind their own business."
She nodded once swiftly and stepped out of the willow's shadow, moving toward the inn and away from him.
Longwei watched her go.
High purity Yin. Ice Affinity. Compatible.
He thought about calling out and introducing himself possibly starting a conversation that might lead somewhere.
But he was a covered in mud, half crippled with nothing to offer. What would he say?
"Excuse me, beautiful stranger but would you be interested in a forbidden dual cultivation partnership with a disgraced former disciple who has literally no resources, reputation or power?"
She'd probably stab him on the spot, which will be deserving.
He Let Her Go.
But that night while reading the scripture by the candlelight, he thought about her pale blue eyes and silver white hair, about the strange resonance in his damaged core.
About the word COMPATIBLE echoing through his mind.
Maybe the universe wasn't entirely cruel.
Maybe this was the opportunity he'd been waiting for.
She's Hiding Too, he thought. Running from something or someone. What if she needs help as much as I do?
What if we'll need each other?
It was a foolish hope, a desperate fantasy but it might have been the first hope he'd felt since the ravine.