Heavenly Shae

Shae smiled when she reached the last pair of branches down. The formation had done a beautiful job lighting up the ground for her to drop onto. She hesitated only because the qi seemed to have flowed strangely into the terrain around it. Like a low fog it had settled between the roots and drifted away from the formation symbol.

She frowned and tilted her head. Then leaned sideways to get another perspective. No, that's not right, and it should float up if anything, hot air and all.

The few extra breaths of focus let her eyes adjust to the scene. She gasped, then writhed in discomfort, but not from the cold. Rather at what could have happened if she had dropped near the glowing qi. Insects. Probably ants, based on how they're moving.

Stilling her movement, she focused more on the forest floor and tried to catch the many faint shadows cast by the glowing fire qi. Because it wasn't a single light source it didn't make harsh shadows, and inside the qi cloud there were hardly any shadows at all. Ants are stealing the fire qi. Fire ants. She squinted at the ground, fire ants. That'd be funny if they weren't in my way.

She exhaled slowly and drummed her fingers across the tree branch. What to do about it? She guessed she could jump beyond the qi, land about where her staff was then just leave. Yet, she didn't know where the ants were coming from or going. They flowed away in a general direction, but that didn't mean it was a straight path to their nest. It could circle around to the direction she would leave from and she guessed that she wouldn't be left alone if she crossed their path.

A bunch of ants protecting a fresh meal of fire qi? That's not going to end well. She shuddered again. Okay, what else can I do? Wait it out?

The idea had some merit, better if she could dislodge the rock and knock the paper away. Maybe they'll take the page if it's loose? Without disturbing it, she would have to wait for most of the fire qi in the area to be gathered and taken away. That was not something she expected to happen quickly, especially with the increased density on the sect's mountain.

She looked up at her other formation symbol floating in the tree above her. And if that gathers some, it might also draw the ants. So waiting is a hard no. She drummed her fingers again and nodded. Gotta destroy or move the formation. She adjusted her sword, it would work to knock the rock and page away, though it was short enough that she would still need to climb down to reach.

She remembered National geographic footage of ants lined up against termites to defend themselves while gathering. Are they doing that here? Without an obvious predator? If they were, she couldn't see the line of ants in the soft fuchsia glow. Best to assume they are, so I might get attacked a little. With her tribulation cleansed limbs having increased durability she considered that just a few bites might not be so bad. Yet, they might be stronger than regular ants. They are collecting fire qi right now.

Her earlier fun with throwing fireballs sparked an idea. Would that be enough? Would it disperse the qi? Or at least catch the other page on fire, that should be good enough.

Hmm, so I need something a little stronger, a hotter flash to char the page. And I'd have to throw it accurately, which means I need more time to aim.

She considered how best to approach the problem. Definitely needs a sealing circle, maybe invert it? Restrict the qi flow into the circle. Once it lands in the glow, there should be more than enough qi there for it to work. She nodded at that thought and smiled deviously. She took a deep breath and focused her mind. Drawing the circle first, she imagined it more like a fragile glass wall, protecting the center until it was broken. For the fire symbol, she went with an idea hotter than she would normally dare and flinched away from it when the symbol finished. A wisp of smoke drifted up from the page as the tiny fraction of fire qi inside the small circle tried to burn with the intensity of solar plasma.

She couldn't tell exactly from the low light, but she guessed the formation symbol had just burned itself into the page. Whether it still worked or not, she would soon find out.

With a calm breath she aimed her shot, then stopped and climbed a branch higher into the tree. She had considered folding the page or tying a weight to it to drop it straight down, but her card-flick felt accurate enough for the task. Again she took a calm breath and aimed the shot. Her flick released smoothly and the page shot down into the glow. A faint crack of glass was the only warning before the surrounding fuchsia flashed towards orange and yellow. Shae had only enough time to slam her eyes shut, any other reflexive movements were too slow to protect her.

Through her eyelids, the world became blinding daylight. Though incredibly brief, the intensity burned a central spot into her vision like a triangular sun. A dimmer offshoot traced up and away, following the path the ants were traveling. An aftershock of heat hit her next and she scrambled to hold onto the tree as her mind was overwhelmed by the flood of sensation from her forehead. It was hot enough on the rest of her body, like leaning towards an open oven, but her forehead also screamed about the dangerous intensity of the violet tinted sun.

She gasped for air a few times and slowly recovered. What brought her fully out was the sudden crack of wood as the branch she had gripped with her right arm broke loose and she had to quickly catch her balance. A few tense breaths later she recognised the sensations as the same intent she had used to create the formation symbols. Okay, that kind of makes sense. Now if only it wasn't so bloody loud.

She carefully repositioned to set her back to the tree and let her eyes adjust. Her night vision had been thoroughly ruined by the flash and the triangle sunspot still obscured most of her vision. She blinked, clenched her eyes closed and stretched them wide while staring at the dark forest, nothing really helped and she guessed it would just take time.

That was when she noticed the flurry of activity coming from the forest. The flutter of wings, chirps, screams, and squeaks from birds and bats, and then the chittering clicks of insectile legs on bark and stone. She shuddered again as her imagination went wild. A rolling, clicking, purring kind of noise came from one creature high up in the trees. It tickled a visceral memory in the back of her mind, and it was hard not to notice the rest of the forest quiet down at the sound. "Clever girl?" she reflexively whispered the reference into the night.

It responded by repeating the sound, louder and closer.

Even after the surprise flashbomb her heart rate and adrenaline still had room to spike in response to the terrifying sound of what she could only assume was a velociraptor. Even without having ever seen anything like a dinosaur in this new world, the fictional memories from her past life ate up the sound and brought themselves to life. And now I need to get out of here fast.

She took a deep breath and dug divine qi out of her Dantian and cycled it up to her eyes. It moved in a mumbled mess, some of her own qi travelling with it. Not a problem because she needed more to explore her channels thoroughly. Aside from cycling the divine qi to ease her mental focus strain, she hadn't really moved much qi through her head and she was regretting that now as she needed to find the channels to her eyes.

Bright, blurry light tickled her vision as qi simulated her eyes and she grimaced at the loud visuals. Quickly, she pulled her personal qi back in favor of divine qi which soothed her strained eyes and immediately eased the burnt-in image. A few more breaths and the sunspot was gone. No idea how a cultivator would get by without a healing option.

She relaxed against the tree and cracked her eyes open, then immediately flinched and tensed up again. "Shit!" A large black bird sat on the ground and was eyeing up the crispy ants. A whiff of charred carapace made it up to her and she wrinkled her nose at it.

The bird could have just been an ordinary crow or raven, even given its large size. It tilted its head and hopped amongst the smouldering ants, chirruping occasionally in a way that Shae took as a direct question like, 'What happened here?'

The forest around them had returned to silence and Shae began to hear a sizzling sound like water boiling on a hot pan. She looked around herself for fire, but found none. She only spotted the wisps of smoke rising from the ants, and guessed that some of those could even be steam.

The first sharp pop made her and the raven jump. One of the ants had burst into a white puff and flown into the air. The raven lunged forwards and snatched it out of the air. Shae was still stunned when the next one popped, followed by another half dozen shortly after. "Popcorn? Popcorn ants, really?" She mumbled in disbelief.

The raven tilted its head to look at her, then chomped down on the ant. A puff of white dust crunched out of the crispy treat, which the raven didn't enjoy. It shook its head vigorously and made that especially distinct rolling, clicking, purr noise.

Shae tensed up again and opened her eyes even wider as she stared at the source of the raptor-like purr. "You!"

It sneezed and shook its head one last time then hopped away from the central pile of crispy ants as more began to pop and turn into powdery snacks. Trapped somewhere between shock and horror, she watched the raven follow the burnt line of ants away from her. It stopped every pace or so to try another ant and test its edibility. Finally, it found something it liked and let out a chirruping purr of satisfaction, hopping and fluffing its feathers out in satisfaction.

That was enough to shake Shae out of her stupor. She gasped for breath like she had been holding it in and looked down at herself. She licked her lips and found them to be dry. Her hands felt the same, and her clothes, especially the outer robes below her waist felt almost crunchy.

Carefully letting herself down, she found that even the tree had suffered, the outer bark feeling far dryer than during her climb up. "Shit, sorry Mrs tree." She grimaced and wished she had more than just the single waterskin on her. Removing it she drank a few large mouthfuls then poured most of the rest onto the base of the tree, aiming for the roots just before they entered the scorched area.

As much as she disliked living insects, cooked ones had made their way into her diet several times while growing up here. Her initial revulsion was overcome by necessity and vastly different cultural norms. She didn't immediately consider them food like fresh fruit or berries would be, yet she was aware they were likely just as edible for her as the raven.

That and sheer curiosity about the popcorn ants pushed her to at least take a few. She considered folding one of the small notepad sheets into a paper envelope, but guessed they were too small for that. After a brief search of her robes, she found one of her waxed-cloth wraps, ideal food-storage in a world without tupperware. It smelt slightly of cheese and sausage, her lunch from days ago, but the slight smell wouldn't affect her ability to gather a sample of puffed ants.

She didn't expect anything to come from it, she was mainly curious about the qi gathering insects and hoped someone could identify them. Tasting them wasn't a high priority at the moment.

Her immediate goals reasserted themselves when the raven squawked and flapped its wings at something near it. She looked up to find shadows from the forest crawling towards her. Not actual shadows, she quickly realized, just more little beasties and insects coming out for the barbeque.

She tried not to panic completely, but did rush and stumble over to her walking staff before she fled east along the cliff's edge. The whole while she clenched her teeth and tried to restrain her shudders and cries of "Ick ick ick too-many-creepy-crawlies!"

Now that she knew what horrors the forest held, Shae kept her pace up. Whenever she stopped to check the stars or slowed down to manage her footing her nerves and imagination reared up to spook her back into motion.

This drained her stamina faster and she quickly found herself following the easier paths forward instead of the direct path.

This easier path led her to a small stream, which she didn't notice until she had stepped into it. "Uaaahh!" She shouted in disbelief, "Wha- What is this?" The mossy stream was more sponge than puddle and it took her a full breath to determine she was just standing in mucky water. "Gross!" She hissed. The water was warmer than she expected for the season. That had been at least half the reason she was so surprised by the soaked ground.

She trudged through until it reached her knees. Which was when she discovered that the suction of the unstable ground was more restrictive than mud. "Uuugh!" She shouted in contempt and stabbed the heavy staff into the waterway ahead of her. It pierced more than halfway up its length. "Ffffuuck," the swear hissed out of her as the danger became soberingly apparent.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself. Then wiggled her toes to try to get a feel for the riverbed. Through her shoes she felt the ground was soft and unstable, rebounding as she released pressure. A bog? Keeping her weight half on the staff, she bent over to investigate the place it pierced the bog's surface. As she feared, water was steadily flowing up through the hole, aaand I'm sinking, great.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

She looked back the way she came to ensure she had her bearings, and then loosened the staff from the muddy grasp. "Drink your fill, Mr Stick, but we still need to keep moving."

She took one final breath and cycled her qi, reinforcing her left leg and arm to make her escape. She stepped back quickly, trying to avoid her previous footholes, but did aim to place the staff into them. She punched through the bottom of the bog layer to let the staff hit the real riverbed. Two steps back and the impromptu depth measurement showed her that she was climbing out towards the closer bank.

She was reluctant to attempt the pivot to turn around, worried her shifting feet would cut through the bog layer. It was the same reason that she avoided her previous footsteps. Yet, after her struggles caused her to unbalance and nearly sit down in the water she decided it was worthwhile. Breathing calmly, she tried to pivot without twisting her planted feet, relying on a series of awkward steps to slowly shift her facing.

Finally, she was facing the nearer dry land and the bog had stopped sinking enough that she could pick up her pace. When the staff made an audible thunk against wet stone she rushed to get out of the water and stopped to breathe deep, relaxed breaths instead of tense, forcefully controlled ones.

A dozen or two breaths later she had calmed down enough to realize she needed to check herself for leeches "Uuugghaaaa-uughh!" She shuddered and shook her arms while squirming with discomfort.

By following the mostly dry bank on the boggy river Shae found the next ridge that overlooked the trees. It was much lower than those previous and she didn't feel it necessary to take the effort of leaving a marker.

She was just able to make out the fuchsia light that she had left hanging from the tree. Immediately, it became obvious the other markers would be hidden as her current ridge was too low. Additionally, she couldn't easily see up the mountain. Only the narrow break above the boggy stream let her see the mountain at all.

From the position of the fuchsia light, the stars, and the small bit of the mountain, she guessed she had wandered much further east than she had intended. I probably crossed into the area the other recruits used. Hmm, the bog might even be one of the traps they had to navigate, she considered. Though, Long would know that. Sooo, if it's a major hazard, why place me so far from it? She hummed to herself. Maybe it marks the eastern edge of the testing grounds?

She assumed her questions would go unanswered. The idea that they would do a full review and breakdown of her journey up the mountain made her snicker. She briefly imagined an MXC style presentation with qi based video replays of all the recruits' journeys. She had to stop and vent her laughter before it caused her to trip on something.

She jumped and moved quickly again when something brushed her bare right foot.

Since extracting herself from the bog she had discovered that her right shoe had disintegrated. Hundreds of li of running abuse and then the recent flash of heat had caused it significant damage. Finally, half the thick leather sole had broken off in the bog, and trying to wash that mud off had caused the rest to fully disintegrate. Hmm, I guess standing on the flare-heated ground probably hadn't done it any favors either. All that remained were the laces, as a strong string was always worth having.

Her left shoe wasn't faring much better, but it held on. She found the front edges were cracked where the heat had flash dried the leather. Even the bottom edge of her travel robes had suffered near to the point of ignition. She expected to see some char once she had enough light.

She weighed her coin purse and quietly mumbled, "I bet the sect has wonderful footwear."

While walking barefoot was unsettling, She was surprised to find it reasonably comfortable. The toughness of her cleansed skin protected her from sharp rocks and lacked any particularly tender spots that would slow down her travel. She did slow, compared to her earlier rushing, deciding that she should pay more attention to her surroundings to prevent another bog incident. And to keep an eye out for other recruits.

The last few li passed quickly. Through the treetops she spotted the cliff rising above. Then heard rushing water ahead. It energised her movement and drove her forwards.

She had hoped for a spectacular waterfall and wasn't disappointed by the water feature she did find. The cliff above her was lower than she expected, a quick glance to either side confirmed this was a low point. At the center of which was a breathtaking display of nature, and the power of cultivators.

The wide stream cut through the cliff face in several places, it poured down through scattered cracks and large fissures in the rock face. Shae wondered if the larger cracks had been carved by a cultivator's weapon. Was the whole thing carved during a battle, or simply as an art piece?. The comparison to a cluttered river delta sprung to her mind, yet it was vertical, the sky acting as the delta's ocean.

A part of her spirit stirred, the now-familiar feeling of opportunity, like there was something more to be understood here. Yet, she couldn't quite reach for it. The heaven's hadn't opened up for her, yet.

She approached the edge of the small pond that the water filtered down into. Trying to get another perspective on the extreme piece of environmental art. She saw the moon glimmer off wet surfaces all across the cliffside. Revealing how wet the whole wall was. That would be tricky to climb, then. She frowned at herself as the moment of appreciation passed in that instant. Her focus had returned to her current dilemma.

She sighed, closed her eyes, and took a few deep breaths. The moist air was fresh and free of the bog-rot she had just been surrounded by. She let her mind feel out the strange sensations from her forehead, and felt the light touch of water qi in the air. If she had to guess, she might have said the qi reflected the scene before her, a large pool of still water and a complex series of falls. Yet, she was unsure if that was simple confirmation bias, her mind filling in the details that were never there.

She shifted her weight to set the base of the staff into the water, then took two more breaths.

A sense of comfort passed over her, and she considered stopping here for the evening. I have been traveling all day. She cracked an eye and saw the cliff again. But I'm already so close, surely a bed is within reach? They probably have great beds.

She turned to leave and came up short; the staff was firmly wedged into the shore. "Huh?" She pulled again to no avail. She jarred it roughly with added strength from her right arm. The staff felt like it hadn't even twitched, like it was anchored into steel at both ends.

"Well, I did say I was going to plant you somewhere up here, didn't I?" She chuckled and rolled her fingertips across the staff. "I was expecting to go up the cliff, but then again. If I have to climb, carrying you for that won't be easy."

She paused for another breath. Not really expecting anything, but tried to keep an open mind. The memory that the stick had come loose when she talked to it briefly seemed like it could be more than just a coincidence.

She applied a little pressure to it again, to see if it had suddenly become unstuck, then sighed when it didn't move. "Alright. Enjoy the view, Mr Stick. Don't drink the whole lake all at once." She smirked and walked away.

The sliver of moon was high in the sky now, and it lit up the small lake beautifully. Shae wandered the edge, aiming to reach the cliff wall and double check how climbable it was or wasn't. She slowed a few times as patches of unknown vegetation had grown along it and blocked her way.

She paused each time to unsuccessfully identify the plants then told herself, better not risk it, and circled wide around them. Even if the plants were harmless, they could be valuable spirit plants and she didn't want to trample them.

She reached the wall of rock a quarter hour later and already had a good idea what she would find. Being closer, she confirmed that the mist and spray from the many small waterfalls had soaked the entire lower cliff face, making it treacherous to climb. Up close she identified moss and lichen that had been dark spots further away. The spots would have been easier to pick out in full daylight, but she could still see that they continued at least halfway up the cliff face, suggesting the moisture did as well. Much further than she was willing to risk for such a dangerous climb.

Hmm, well, maybe it's not that dangerous with a qi reinforced body and fast healing, she shrugged to herself. But for a new recruit, cleansing or qi gatherer, this would be foolish to attempt. That was enough for her to disregard the low spot in the wide stretch of cliffs as a reasonable place to climb up.

She turned away and followed it west, towards where she expected an entrance to the administration building to be. They would have to put some stairs into the cliff, right?

The path along the cliff was well trodden. If this had been a fully wild forest it should have pressed up against the cliff. Vines and creepers would be reaching up the rocks to clear the shadows of the tree canopy.

Shae guessed that having yearly trials with dozens of new cultivators would cause some natural trails and paths to be formed, plus runs from wild animals. Growing up in a small village surrounded by forest had taught her that much, but this path was much wider than expected.

Forests near villages had to be tended and cleaned by the villagers. They would clear deadfall that blocked easy travel, and to use it for firewood or carpentry. Wild growths were cleared because they might affect tree growth or attract pests by providing food and shelter. Larger trees, or any that struggled or were sticky, were felled for lumber and firewood. The cleaned forest made the job much easier.

This resulted in much cleaner and more organized forests than Shae's Earth sensibilities expected. Out here, in the sect's forest, she saw some of those same signs. It wasn't as clean or well tended, but the path she currently walked was clearly created through active management. A few dozen teenagers walking this path once a year might leave a trail, but they couldn't swath a half dozen paces worth of trees along the cliff base.

What had been left behind were the boulders and piles of loose rubble that had fallen from the cliff. Most were old enough to be weather aged and covered with moss, but few were fully grown over. Shae quickly recognized that they had been clustered into groups which blocked the whole path, forcing her to climb over them or cut wide into the forest to go around. There were signs of human traffic here: moss cleared from the tops of boulders, and sometimes the sides where a foot had slipped and scraped the side.

Shae grimaced at one spot in particular where a dark red-brown streak was splattered over a rock. The blueish light from the moon painted it an unnatural purple.

As she traversed the obstacles she quickly found them to be spaced at regular intervals of about 100 paces. Probably 144, she mused to herself then gasped, Ah! Is this an obstacle course?

Standing atop one of the larger boulders, she leaned on the cliffside and drank the last sip from Hon's waterskin. It must be an obstacle course, she nodded to herself. But where does it start or end? She wondered. There wasn't a clear destination at the lake, nor an obvious spot to climb the cliff, either of which she would have expected to find if it was used regularly. Maybe they just turn around at the lake? She shrugged and let the mystery pass, though now she fully intended to find the other end of the path, and guessed that it would be a larger climbing wall, possibly all the way up the cliff, or some kind of thousands-step staircase, gotta hit the classics.

Before setting off again she looked up at the moon to enjoy the peculiar sight of a different celestial object. It wasn't absurdly breathtaking, she had hardly noticed the change when she first saw it, but it was considerably more interesting than Earth's chalky white disc. This moon clearly had more going on under its surface. Hints of dark blue reflected up through its translucent white and light blue surface. It must be an ice moon, Shae told herself again.

The peasants and merchants had called it a crystal moon, hinting that it could be one large qi crystal. The idea was supported by its subtle sparkling and shimmering appearance. A silver hue lined its curved outer edge and made it look slightly out of place in the sky, like a badly made visual effect in a movie. Shae couldn't imagine a cause for the strange silver halo, but the blue tint and deeper blue color told her that it must be ice. Unfortunately, no one really believed her. 'How could it shine so brightly, or stay frozen in the same sky as the sun,' were the common counter-arguments.

Both of which Shae could answer, but never prove. How do you convince someone that space is both empty and very cold? It was obvious to her modern sensibilities, yet extremely difficult to prove to someone who only saw you as an imaginative child.

The few traveling merchants that she had discussed it with were more obliging, smirking gently and not directly contradicting her. She assumed they were treating her as a customer. If nobles and cultivators knew the truth, she hadn't yet talked to them about it because she had given up on the argument many years ago. Why it mattered either way, she hadn't ever decided.

The legends and stories certainly pointed to the qi crystal explanation. Though they never stated it directly, they did regularly point to the moon's ties to Yin qi, and some claimed that Yin cultivators could only cultivate under the moon. Yet, Shae had also seen hints in these stories that connected back to ice. Yin qi was often represented with ice, just as its opposite was represented with fire and the sun. Thus, she thought that its use as a qi focus didn't preclude the celestial orb from being made of ice.

She scanned the sliver of ice for The Flaw. It was the only real defect in the icy orb: a reddish smudge near the equator that passed across it once a week. It revealed the moon was rotating, unlike the tidally locked moon of Earth. It was cited as the explanation for the cultural definition of a week: six days. Technically, Shae knew the moon's rotation was six and a half days, which meant it was an awful way to determine anything. She guessed that the once-a-week explanation was just a ham-fisted way to neatly fit a week into their base twelve system. Shae couldn't really complain, it led to much nicer math than a seven day week.

Unable to find The Flaw, she broke her focus away, stored her waterskin, then breathed deeply and stretched her limbs. She found her exhaustion still strong enough that her body wanted to sleep. She fought against it with her qi keeping her mind fresh. It could energize her body, yet she resisted the urge to solve her problems so simply.

She worried there would be side effects from forcing herself to keep pushing so hard. Like with her mental focus, she expected her body to just fail at some point if she forced it to run off qi for so long.

Suppressing a yawn, she climbed down from the boulder and went directly into a jog. The cool mountain air was beginning to bite, so she let her muscles work to keep herself warm.