49: A Mountain of Yin
Huang Tu Zi had the longest face Fushuai had ever seen on a human being. He would have made an excellent horse. Though he was still an outer disciple, his appearance hadn't held him back; other sect members greeted him politely and with genuine affection. Bringing two strangers into the Ash Eater compound was the sort of thing that could have gotten a junior member in trouble, but no one challenged them, and they quickly crossed through the main compound into the tunnels that led to designated meditation chambers.
"I'll let a Senior know that you're here," he said, pointing them to a high, scripted arch carved into the granite. "That room is available for guests, but once the right people know who you are, I'm sure I can get you access to something better."
"A thousand thanks," Fushuai said. "You've been very generous."
He waved off the compliment. "Ah. That's the thing, I do it for myself. Whether or not you actually accept any offers, I'm still the one who brought you around. Do stay in the chamber, though. Until we get you proper passes, you shouldn't be wandering around without an escort."
"Understood." Fushuai put his fists together in a martial salute, which the sect member returned, and Zhang Sha bowed.
The chamber was ringed with three tiers of stone steps and a bare center that might serve equally well as an arena or a stage. Fushuai entered with some hesitancy, unsure of whether he would meet other cultivators there. Huang had said this was a public space after all.
They were, however, alone. Even with the first sweep of the senses, he could tell that earth predominated here, but the aura of Yin was rich and deep beneath it. Fire was present as well, but it was old and dozing. Metal, too, was in abundance, though it felt farther off.
It was an excellent cycling room for almost any young cultivator. Someone with a water affinity might have to find a river or even cross over the mountains to the sea beyond to have a proper place to draw qi. But there was likely a basin somewhere as well, as the sect could not be entirely without the affinity.
"Not bad," Zhang Sha said. "What do you think?"
"I'm not sure if it's enough," Fushuai said, "but it would take me months to find something better."
"I'll take that as a thank you."
"It is much appreciated." Fushuai sighed. "Something happened at home, and my mind is so preoccupied."
"The fight? You acquitted yourself well. You have nothing to be ashamed of. What did your father say?"
"He said I was not his son."
"Hah." Zhang Sha made his way over to one of the step benches and motioned for Bai Tu to join him. The fox gave him a long, judgmental look and sniffed before lying down beside Fushuai's feet. Zhang Sha made a rude gesture at the fox and leaned back against the steps. "That doesn't surprise me," he said.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well, there was some resemblance. But tall, lean, and dark describes half the cultivators on the continent. What are the chances that someone like you appeared out of a bloodline no one's ever heard of? Like I said, I'm not surprised."
"The Gao family is well known," Fushuai said.
"Here maybe, but where is here?"
Fushuai conceded the point, moving to sit in the center of the chamber and begin his meditation.
"So, do you know who it really is?"
Fushuai closed his eyes. "I do not."
"Your mother knows."
"She must." Fushuai tried to convey in his tone that he preferred the conversation end there.
"Ah," Zhang Sha said. "You didn't ask her."
"It doesn't matter who it is."
"I think it does."
"It can't. Whoever it is, they have never shown themselves to me. They could have, at any time. And they chose not to. I will take that decision for what it is."
"You don't know they know. And even if they do, it would have put you in danger for them to come around."
Fushuai ignored him, focusing on the cycle of energy within his body.
"You need to work on your veils," Zhang Sha said.
"I know that."
"Your root feels obvious, like it's shouting at me. Our new friend Huang is too polite to take a closer look at you, but the rest of the sect won't be."
"I appreciate the critique, Senior."
"We might as well do it now before you get too deep." Zhang Sha moved to take a spot in front of him.
Fushuai exhaled. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts, or rather, alone with the absence of thought. But it didn't look like that peace would come soon.
"The most basic veil," Zhang Sha said, "is something I imagine you can do already. All that entails is pulling your aura within you, only letting as much energy as you choose bleed out. But if you're going to hide your root, you need to learn to wrap it in a different kind of qi.
"As strange as your compression method is, I'm not sure exactly how you should go about that. For another cultivator, I'd say you should hide it in a fog. For you, some kind of net, maybe."
Fushuai worked on the problem for the next hour or so under his oversight. He didn't find it too difficult to master. As with anything else, if someone of sufficient advancement decided to pierce his disguise, they could do so without easily.
The first thing he needed to do before attempting foundation formation was to once again expand his meridians. The restorative pills his master left him were for exactly this purpose, but just as he began the process, they were interrupted.
Huang came back with another cultivator, who introduced herself as Chun Li. She was tall, captivating, athletic, and physically more top-heavy than the typical cultivator. Her robes were also cinched tightly at her waist, resulting in an hourglass shape more often associated with a courtesan than a sacred artist.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
"I am only an inner sect disciple," she said, "but I speak with the voices of our elders when I say that you are welcome. If there is anything we can do to aid you in your journey, all you have to do is speak. The Ash Eater Sect has nothing but respect for the venerable Living Blade."
"Thank you," Fushuai said, "but you have already done more than enough."
"He's working on foundation formation," Zhang Sha said. "If you have any extra pills lying around, we'll take two. Also, his master sent him out without a storage ring. Do you think the sect has any they could spare?"
"That's not necessary," Fushuai said. He had no interest in being in debt to the Ash Eater Sect. But Chun-Li nodded happily.
"A pill, certainly," she said. "As for the ring, that would call for approval from one of the elders. But I will see what I can do."
"Two pills," Zhang Sha said. "He has a lot of foundation to form, as you can imagine."
She raised an eyebrow but nodded. "In the meantime," she said, "I can take you to a better chamber. This one is for outsiders, not friends of the sect."
With a scathing look at Zhang Sha, Fushuai accepted.
The inner disciples benefited from a set of arrays in their dedicated chambers, one for each of the five elements, as well as qi-activated lanterns and other small amenities. Chun Li invited them to dine with the disciples in the meal hall in the evening, and otherwise allowed them their freedom.
"This is not at all like my experiences as a wandering cultivator." Zhang Sha said, gazing at the lacquered guest badge in his hand.
"They think they have something to gain by putting me in their debt," Fushuai said. "There is no mystery to it."
"Clever of them. How were they to know you're actually the sort of fool who would acknowledge a debt for gifts freely given?"
Fushuai ignored him. The arrays wouldn't help him draw Yin, but the formations they represented were worth studying. So he spent the rest of the afternoon copying the diagrams and learning from their arrangement. Huang Zu Ti came to fetch them for the meal, along with Chun Li.
The food was plain but bountiful. Fish, rice, and steamed cabbage. He couldn't help but think how his master might have critiqued its execution. Though those thoughts were interrupted by a barrage of questions, comments, and exhortations from the two sect members who had taken him under their wing.
He was less open with them than he had been with his family, but cultivators understood the necessity of secrets. Mostly, they were concerned with gossip regarding his master.
"Is it true he cut a mountain in two to prepare a road for the Emperor's first concubine?"
"Yes." Fushuai had no idea, but he saw no danger in giving them the satisfaction of confirmation.
Huang was prepared to launch into another wide-eyed question when one of the servant disciples bowed to the table.
"Pardon the intrusion, but there is a visitor waiting for our guest."
Gao Lifen was waiting for him in a teahouse near the entrance of the outer compound. He followed a well-manicured garden path to find it, a cozy building with a gabled roof and only a few tables. His mother was alone.
"It is such a change in so short a time," she said, running a finger along the rim of her porcelain cup. "To think, all I had to do was say I was your mother and they gave me a place to myself to wait for you." She shook her head. "As if I were an august visitor from a distant kingdom, instead of a woman who has lived in this city her entire life, hardly worth taking notice of."
Fushuai greeted her with a salute that would more properly go to a superior cultivator than the woman who had given him life. She raised an eyebrow at that, then invited him to sit.
"I'm sure you have questions," she said.
"I don't." He regretted his tone, but he was having difficulty sorting through his feelings. Some cultivator he was. How could he claim to seek enlightenment when something so minor, in the grand scheme, caused him to sulk like a green youth?
"You are exceptional, Fushuai, in more ways than you know. But you will still look me in the eyes when you are speaking."
His shoulders tightened, but he did as she asked and saw the sorrow there. His heart softened.
"You're right, I do want to understand. But this is one thing too many, and a distracted mind is the enemy of fruitful meditation."
"I know you, even if you think I don't. This will eat at you if you don't know everything."
He nodded, sighing. "Would it be better if I didn't know my true father's name? There has to be some reason you kept this from me, since it was no secret to Gao Ligang."
She took a deep breath, her hands falling into her lap. "My clan made a bargain with an immortal. In exchange for treasures that would keep the Long family in place for generations, one of their daughters would carry his child. There were conditions. We could not speak of the bargain to anyone, and the child's parentage was never to be revealed publicly. My sisters and cousins…we all drew lots. And I was the winner, or the loser, depending on how you see it."
"What about your husband?"
"We were already betrothed." She looked away. "The elders deemed this duty to the clan to be more significant than the cost to my honor. To them, it was the perfect solution. If the timing was right, your true identity need never be revealed, which was what the immortal wished."
"An immortal." He shook his head. "How can I believe this? Who was he? Did he descend from the heavens?"
"The elders know, I never met him, and his name was not shared with me."
Fushuai's mouth dropped open. "Mother…I know how children are made. That is not possible."
"It's not what you think." She lifted her tea as if to drink, then set it down again without tasting it. "I was given a pill and an elixir to take after you were conceived. You both are and are not Gao Ligang's son."
For a long moment, he was forced to wonder if he did not, in fact, know how children were made. Then reality reasserted itself. What she was talking about was bloodline transformation. He had been conceived, then altered. It was a far worse crime than infidelity.
"If that is true, it is a violation of the laws of the empire, of the heavens themselves."
"Old laws," his mother did not flinch from the accusation, "and not well remembered. You spent so long in the library, so it seems fresh to you, but that isn't the way of the world. Clans will take whatever steps they need to secure themselves. So will cultivators. If your father were a different man, he could still see you as his son. But he refuses to believe."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "It's unnatural. Only the gods can decide a child's fate."
"Perhaps he was one."
Fushuai stood abruptly. "The Long elders, would they speak with me?"
"I think they would, now that you know."
"Then I will go to them when I am ready. For now, I need to fulfill my master's wish and achieve foundation formation." He needed time to come to terms with the truth before he made any decisions.
She rose as well. "What happened to my scholar of a son, who thought nothing of advancement?" He could not tell if she was disappointed or amused.
"I thought of it. Every day. But I respected the will of the man I thought was my father." He realized that his hands had clenched, and he deliberately banished the tension in his body. "How is Chen?"
The question caught her off guard. "Your brother? He will be fine. His arms will heal in a decan, and they way things are going, this sect may allow him to undergo their trials as a gesture of goodwill for you."
"I shouldn't have hurt him like that. I didn't have to. It was exactly the sort of thing another cultivator would have done, exactly what I hate about our world. Insult added to injury, simply because I am stronger than he is now."
Her hand was cool on his arm. "Don't be too hard on yourself. You and your brother are not the same. You and Gao Ligang are not the same."
"That's what's worse. I think I did it because I wanted him to be proud. To see that I was no longer the boy who wept over someone else's blood. But it was all for nothing. He will never see me as his son. He can't, because I am not his son."
"It's more complicated than that." She hugged him, briefly, warmly, fiercely, and then stepped away.
"You are my son, and we are still your family. Your sisters want to see you. If you aren't careful, Gao Lei may try to fight you just to see if he can come away with one less broken bone than Chen. But he is still your brother. They both are. You also have two siblings out in the world. Ma Que and Lao Ya went to train with my clan soon after you left. You could as well. Even if you never speak the Gao name again, you can still be Long Fushuai."
He bowed to his mother to hide the tears in his eyes. They spoke a little longer after that, until the bell towers signalled for the courtyards and outer buildings to be cleared. After they separated and Fushuai had promised to meet with his sisters before he left the city, he went to find Zhang Sha.
As occupied as his mind was, he didn't notice the boy in the robes of a prospective disciple stepping out from around a hedge until he had nearly bumped into him.
"You!" The boy said. "You're Gao Fushuai, aren't you?"
"I am," he said, a little wary.
"Good good good. I challenge you." He kicked out his legs and spread his arms in a crab-style stance. "Fight me, here and now, or be forever shamed!"
Fushuai sighed.