Kind Young Master [Progression Fantasy - Cultivation]

The world was empty.

It was something Xie Gui kept insisting. Stones were made up of dust, and each particle of dust was made up of motes so small they could not be seen with an eagle's eyes. At the center of those motes was...nothing. That's what the trapped nascent soul believed. These statements hadn't come as answers to any of Fushuai's questions. Instead, they were embellishments, or sometimes rants. Once the spirit in the manual had become accustomed to the idea that there was something reading his words, he began producing them at volume.

On several occasions, Fushuai had unrolled the scroll only to find that it was already full. An essay on the nature of the universe waiting for the worthy to absorb it. Much of what he found there, whether it was a direct answer to a question or some musing in response to no one, sounded like madness to him. Very different from Zhang Sha's delusions, which, though misguided, were at least intelligible.

The world was strangely empty, though.

Leaving the ruins of Emerald City far behind them, they found themselves once again in a vast wilderness. Flat, dry land, patched with the brown and gray of shrub and hardy grass. Spindle trees, with spiked limbs and sparse leaves, rooted wherever the soil was strong and water ran deep beneath. Some stretches appeared barren where they were actually coated with yellow moss. It was bitter, with questionable nutritional value, the mainstay of the small crawlers and creepers that surfaced whenever the sun fell.

Humanity, both mortal and cultivator, was absent. A land without road or ruin, ideally suited to their current needs.

"Get out of that," Lin chided Bai Tu. "You know it's no good for you."

The fox had been nosing a mound of moss. He nearly always spit it out after a quick taste, but he hadn't yet seemed able to make up his mind about it.

"It's the Yang," Zhang Sha said. "Not plentiful, but that's basically all that moss is. Toxic fibers with a hint of qi."

Fushuai eyed the beast with amusement. "It hasn't hurt him yet. Bai Tu is simply trying to put something in his belly. We haven't come across anything sizeable in days."

Lin pursed her lips. "Better to eat nothing than fill one's belly with garbage. There's water nearby, at least. We can refill our stores."

It was the middle of the day, and though a scrim of curling clouds painted the sky, it was still hot enough to cook on a dark stone. Fushuai's mouth was dry. Neither heat nor dehydration would kill him, not unless he was roasted over an open flame, but it was still uncomfortable. Water would be welcome. After traveling another li, he watched the other two cultivators work to bring liquid up from the dry soil. It was an excellent exercise for Lin, straining both the extent of her will and the limits of what her technique could command.

For Zhang Sha, it was nothing, and he helped her with half a mind. In the days since dividing up their spoils, he had taken on an unaccustomed quiet. When they stopped to rest, he would draw arrays in the earth, only to brush them away half-finished, frowning and muttering all the while.

"Are you in need of a renewal?" Fushuai asked, refraining from reaching out with his spiritual sense for a detailed assessment. It would have felt invasive, and if he could not trust him to be honest in this, he could not trust him at all.

"Soon." The other man's eyes were even more sunken than usual. He had not been resting well. "As much as I hate the dreams, they are not without utility. And I am not yet seeing ghosts unless I go looking."

"Surely, anything they taught you would be a poison pill."

"Not so." Half his mouth quirked. "Treasure won through treachery does not cease to be treasure. Some of what I did shames me, but the knowledge it brought was real. And some of that knowledge belongs to my ghosts."

Lin glanced up from the soft spot in the soil she was focusing on. Jugs and pouches waited around her to receive the water when it came, loyal servants with empty bellies. She licked her lips, but said nothing, renewing her attention on her task.

"How can that be so?" It sounded like the excuses of a man addicted to a powerful intoxicant. "They are your dreams, twisted memories. They can't know anything you do not."

"The line between illusion and reality is less stark than you believe; it is mostly a difference in power."

"Let me join you in your next meditation." It was the only way he could be certain his friend was not teetering on the edge of a break with reality. Water rose like a translucent vine from the soil, and Lin gasped with relief, then began refilling their stores.

A few hours later, they stopped again to rest in the shade of a gauntlet bush. It was ten feet tall, shaped like a dead spider lying on its back with legs upraised. A predatory plant, there were bones in its center, along with the sweet scent of nectar. Lin meditated within its cage, splitting her focus between a meridian expansion cycling method and using wood aura to dissuade the bush from attempting to ensnare her. It had been her own idea. After listening to Fushuai explain the circumstances under which he had made his way through the qi refinement stage, she'd come to the conclusion that combining meditation with strife must have benefited him greatly.

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She wasn't ready for the formation flag, but cycling under threat from a carnivorous plant was a beginning. Bai Tu sat on his haunches just outside the fence of fibrous limbs, his gaze intent, as if daring it to move.

Extending a few Threads of Still Night, Fushuai bound himself with Zhang Sha to better perceive the work he was doing within. The older cultivator's meridians had not improved since their first encounter on the Spine of the World. Snarls were marked by eddies where qi pooled and fouled with the taint of his root. If he drew and spent energy quickly enough, he could potentially remain untainted indefinitely, if not for those knots. Hope existed, but even if he could untangle his meridians, that would not fix his root.

What Zhang Sha was attempting to do now was bring order to the techniques inscribed in his dantian. Fushuai recognized Ripple Needle Juncture, the skill he used to target and disrupt the cycling of his opponents. Another, Stone Marrow Endurance, was a perfection technique that hardened his body for combat and vastly increased his stamina. That was what had allowed him to withstand the attack that had broken the gu-en.

The others, he did not recognize. There were at least ten techniques, too many even for a foundation expanded dantian, and some of them overlapped or interrupted each other.

"It's cleaner than I remember."

"Hah. My internal alchemy is a disgrace. If I had not been pushed out of Hollow Reed for my experiments, the state of my soul would have warranted my dismissal."

"What is your goal?"

"To keep as much as I can, and settle on the formation best suited for pillar establishment. Mine isn't going to come to me as a revelation mid-battle."

Fushuai nodded. It was becoming clearer and clearer to him that his experiences were not just atypical; they were exceptional. He had known all his life that cultivating immortality was a work of years and decades at low- and mid-stage, and centuries for the most advanced. Talent and opportunity could bring one through body and qi refinement quickly enough, or rushed methods that lead to bottlenecks. Now that he was progressing through foundation formation stage, the only excuse left was exceptional conditions not available to the vast majority of cultivators.

It was why Lin would have to be left behind, and one day, Zhang Sha as well, if the matter of his corruption could be addressed.

"What aura?" With a pure Yin root, it wasn't a choice for Fushuai. His companion's root was naturally suited to earth and water, and with his deviation, dream and hunger as well.

"You think I should abandon dream?"

"Is that not the source of your instability?"

A sigh. "It is and isn't. Part of me still believes that with enough strength, dream can provide me with the best foundation. The Path that found me will not be satisfied with earth and water alone."

"And if your root is ever healed?"

A twitch of intent, and the connection between them nearly severed. Zhang Sha's anger was as clear as the progress of his cycling qi. Healing his root would be as good as losing his Path, and he might never find another. The reaction was soon quelled, and without another word, he began sending energy through the threads to be purified.

It was another month of travel before Lin achieved meridian expansion, the seventh step of qi refinement. Fushuai had brewed a beast core into an elixir, then diluted it into a course of doses for her to imbibe to help increase her available qi as she cycled, along with careful portions of the Cinnabar Vein Powder. It would have gone faster with restorative pills. They did not have the ingredients at hand. That left only two steps, dantian stabilization and qi manifestation, for her to meet his challenge. At her current rate, it would be impossible to meet either of them before they returned to Sand Orchard.

Her frustration was showing, and she had abandoned attempting to master a more dangerous version of Ten Cups Water Blessing in favor of giving her entire focus to advancement. They now had a workable inscription for the technique, but it was too demanding for her to use.

Xie Gui had no end of opinions on the matter.

Nothing is darker than the shadow of a friend who has left you behind.

"She is my sister."

Then she will hate you all the more for abandoning her. It is no less necessary.

"I have already made that decision. That does not lessen my responsibility to help her."

Familial loyalty is commendable. And yet, no amount of honorable intentions can make a mouse into a lion. Loyalty, truth, honor, respect: you dissatisfy none of these by holding her to the agreement you made. The best you can do to protect those you care for is to become stronger yourself.

"I have often felt the pillars of the Jianghu leave much to be desired."

What an arrogant young master you are. Criticize tradition after you have your first century behind you. Until then, the advice of your elders should be treated as law.

Through their conversations, Fushuai had begun to read hints of emotion in the strokes as they appeared on the page. Answers coming swift or slow, slight variations in the characters. Xie Gui's words weren't stamps. It was as if he were composing his messages with a real brush. That statement, firm as it was, seemed to carry an air of teasing. This was a master who had spent lifetimes questioning his masters.

"Will you share a cycling method that is better suited to her needs than what she knows already?"

Xie Gui was not always in the mood to hold to the strictures of their question game, but Fushuai had learned to phrase whatever he asked in a manner that was least likely to be taken advantage of. "Can you" would always be answered with a simple affirmation or denial. "Will you" was more likely to prompt the spirit to follow through.

I won't. You have potential, and that rogue who travels with you presents a challenge complex enough to spark my interest. Your sister is a distraction I refuse to encourage.

Over the course of many conversations, Xie Gui had prompted him to share details about all of his companions. And Fushuai had been eager to discover whether the manual could be of use to them as well.

"Zhang Sha is struggling to choose his first pillar."

Most cultivators do, if they are not blessed with having the decision made for them. Once his dantian is in better condition, you know my opinion.

"Dream and hunger will only worsen his deviation if he pursues them."

Of course they will. There are only two guiding lights for a cultivator like that. One burns long and low before fading into obscurity. The other is bright and brief. Those who would choose the former are not worthy of the gifts of heaven.

Xie Gui had already offered to help Zhang Sha, but not in a way that would save him. For the time being, Fushuai had kept that offer to himself.