NOVEL NEXT 58: Hungry Yang
The power of Fushuai's techniques was balanced by their dependence on environmental conditions. Defeating Zhang Sha in their first real encounter should have been impossible even with the other man's hindrances. The same could be said of his duel with Gao Chen. And fighting off three foundation stage cultivators, however briefly, even more so. It wasn't just that he was talented, though he could admit that he was, or that Goshung's training had given him an advantage against the cultivators of Ashen City. It had. It was the Legacy of the Void.
Another thought rose. The strange matter of his conception. An altered bloodline, marked by an unnamed immortal. But the consequences of that interference were not something he could measure.
Xie Gui, whoever he had truly been, had developed the beginning of a Path marked by techniques of extraordinary power. As they were the first techniques he had learned, Fushuai hadn't realized how unique they were until using them to challenge opponents of a higher stage. Zhang Sha, with his twisted root and admitted lack of martial focus, could have been an exception. The sect members were different.
Moon Step had made him as fast as they were, when surely they had been utilizing perfection techniques of their own. Circle of Still Mist had affected them, and allowed him to resist their oppressive aura, when another domain skill at that level would have surely shattered. He had been able to break the fire cultivator's technique with his will, but that was the staff's doing; it was a treasure far greater than he deserved.
"Staring at it won't get you very far." Zhang Sha had produced his cauldron, thankfully emptied of the vile admixture it had once contained, and they stood over it together.
"I'm only gathering clouds," Fushuai said. "My intent is to develop a new technique, but I am only half-sure of how to go about it."
"How unorthodox." The older cultivator's expression was stern, but that was a false face. Madness had exaggerated the man's negative traits and twisted his wilder opinions, not made new ones. The approval could be found in his eyes, even as sunken as they were.
"My master would have supported the decision. With or without a manual, he wanted me to forge my own Path."
"And how is a cauldron going to do that?"
"I want to use the crab's core for an elixir." Fushuai poured water into its mouth, then used qi to light a fire beneath it. "To help me rewrite one of the inscriptions in my dantian."
"Fine, but I will claim the next core we find."
"You're going to do what?" Lin demanded, rolling out of her blanket so quickly that Bai Tu barked at her.
"Claim the next---"
"Not you. I don't care what you do." She rounded on her brother, fists going to her hips. "Did you say you want to alter a technique you've already inscribed?"
Fushua blinked, unsure of what the problem was. "Yes?"
"You can't do that!"
"What do you know of it, little physician?" Zhang Sha's expression had darkened at being cut off. "Go back to your rest and let the adults speak."
Her frown was sharper than the dagger sheathed against her leg. "You don't care if my brother lives or dies," she said. "Why should we care what you think about anything?"
Lin had been suspicious of him since their first meeting, but open hostility was something new. Fushuai raised his hand.
"Peace, please. Both of you. We are companions, and we must trust each other if we are to remain together. Lin, why do you think so poorly of Zhang Sha?"
She glared at him. "You told Mother and Mei Li that there were chimeras in the mountains crafted by another cultivator. This is him, isn't it? What he said about harvesting human roots, he's done it, hasn't he? That is demonic cultivation! How could you ever trust anyone like that? How could you ask me to?"
"A thousand apologies that I did not tell you. But what he has done in the past is a matter that will be settled between him and the karmic wheel. He is my sworn brother, for good or ill, and he has given me his word that he will save as many lives as he has taken while we travel together. I do trust him, and even if you cannot, you should still trust me."
During her brief tirade, Zhang Sha's face had flashed through anger into something closer to pain. Seeing she would get no response from him, Lin stuffed her hands into her sleeves and looked down at her feet.
"It is still too dangerous. The techniques you inscribe, the steps are of your Path, they can't be undone. That is what father always taught us."
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Fushuai sighed. "There is much they taught in Ashen City that should be questioned. My master told me that a Path should not be chosen until one has reached foundation stage. If mine had not come to me as it did, I would have waited. And early techniques do shape our development, but they do not need to define it."
She looked up again, her head tilting to one side in curiosity. "Why would you wait so long to choose a Path? I already have mine, the Water Lily Sequence. Mother thought it suited me, and Father provided a sutra for me to learn the techniques."
"My master never stated it plainly, but I do not believe Paths and techniques are one and the same. They complement each other, no more than that." He looked at Zhang Sha for confirmation, who shrugged.
"You could say that. In my sect, disciples always learned the skills associated with their chosen Path. But I learned several before finding mine. And there is no manual for the Path of Dreaming Hunger. True cultivators make their own way; they don't follow the roads others have laid before them."
Lin's confusion only grew. "But how do you know you are on a Path if not by the techniques it teaches?"
Fushuai placed a hand on her shoulder. "That you have asked such a question tells me you have not experienced a revelation, a moment of insight that settled your mind and spirit both with certainty. When you find your way, you will know that you have found it, whether it is the Water Lily Sequence or a road that has not yet been named. Such things are unmistakable when they occur."
Was this why both Xiao Sheng and Goshung had warned against choosing too early? If someone claimed to follow a Path without having gained any real understanding of it, did it blind them to future insights? Techniques could be learned by rote, inscribed into the spirit by will, but wisdom could not be squeezed out of a stone.
Lin shifted her weight from foot to foot, a narrowed gaze taking in them both. "Even if you are correct, it is still a danger, isn't it?"
"Hah. There is no advancement without risk."
She nodded. Gao Ligang had often said the same. "Then I will observe. If this is a worthy risk, then I can learn something from it."
Fushuai had little experience processing full cores on his own, having worked primarily with dao seeds. He'd seen his master use spirit water to dissolve what went into making his gu-en, but had little enough mundane water at hand, let alone the qi imbued liquid that accrued in some far-off and embattled cavern. What he did have was a hunger elixir.
"Here," Zhang Sha handed him a pouchful of pinkish-brown mush. "Redveil algae is used as a catalyst."
The algae went into the simmering water along with the core, followed by the elixir. Not wanting to use their cooking utensils for something as important as this, Fushuai instead stirred with the gu-en, which won an alarmed look from Lin and amusement from the former rogue.
No, not former. They were all rogue cultivators now.
With that thought at the forefront of his mind, he bent his will to control the reaction within the cauldron as best he could. The bloodiron crab had been strong, and its core, full of Yang, fought to retain its power. Hunger aura gnawed at its resolve. The elixir wanted that power for itself, though it could not use it. The echoes of its instinct were desire without end or purpose. Soon, the mixture bubbled, and the swiftly dissolving algae gave it the consistency of coagulating blood.
Strangely, it smelled like the sea. Salt and spray and sand.
Zhang Sha nodded his approval. "This new technique, will it go to form one of your pillars?"
"Pillars?" The task at hand required constant attention. Though his hands stirred slowly, his qi was in constant motion, guiding the reactive process. Lin tried to shush the other cultivator for distracting him, but he spoke over her.
"The steps of foundation formation. Did your master tell you nothing?"
"About foundation formation? He didn't." During their time together, the training followed what Fushuai knew as the orthodox advancement method, with nine steps defined for each stage. Gao Ligang's ban on his continued education had limited his knowledge in that regard. There were no manuals above qi refinement in the family library, only the patriarch's private collection held those.
"I barely met the man, but I respect him more every day."
That statement was unexpected enough to nearly break his concentration.
"Why?"
Zhang Sha's smile was not kind. "Because the orthodox stage structure is a cage meant to keep the strong bound to the weak."
Lin's eyes widened. "It's the emperor's will."
"And look what happened to him."
She responded with a glare and a quotation. "The Golden Emperor gave cultivators strict rules to protect them from deviation while still ensuring their spirits could flourish within the bounds of law."
Fushuai remembered that decree from the days when he had still been a favored son. The orthodoxy was in place for the benefit of all cultivators. Some creative applications could be tolerated, and there were sects that added interpretations and flavors to the method, but all respected the will of the emperor. To do otherwise was to invite being branded as a rogue, with no safe shore to find in the traditions of the jianghu.
"Hah. What he gave them was chains."
"Pardon," Fushuai said, trembling with the mental strain as the core finally burst. "If you are going to observe, please do so without conversation."
They had intended to travel again before sunfall, but the moon had already risen by the time he was finished brewing the elixir. This sort of thing would have been more manageable as a pill. They took longer to digest, delaying the full force of whatever essence was being imbibed. When asked for guidance, Zhang Sha admitted that elixirs could be processed into pills, but it was both time-consuming and difficult to do so. And if he wanted to learn the skill, this would not be the moment to attempt it, as failure led to loss of potency, if any remained at all.
So he drank what he had made and accepted the consequences.
"Let's walk."
"Are you sure?" Lin asked him. "We could stay here until you work through it."
"My feet don't need to be told how to carry me." His answer was sharper than he'd intended. The potion both tasted and behaved like salt made liquid, and his stomach longed to reject it. Mei Li stirred, unwrapping the scarf that had bound her hair during the afternoon. She blinked at them blearily, having been the only one to use the time to rest.
"Elder brother," she said. "Should you be glowing?"