Unseen Cultivator

Upon his return to Mother's Gift, Qing Liao was snatched up by Grand Elder Artemay and hauled bodily over to an otherwise barren portion of the Starwall next to the hooded immortal's tower to face interrogation. Though it was the blue-eyed immortal's home ground, and she held the exquisite fenghuang sculpture in her hands – it had been confiscated instantly – it was her green-eyed elder sister who took the lead in the conversation.

The disciple knew the immortals well enough by now that he had expected this. Reflecting on this knowledge left him even more terrified than he knew he ought to be. The resulting conversation promised to be brutal upon his well-being and his nerves.

"Reckless," Neay's emerald eyes managed to infuse a truly immense amount of disappointment into that one word. "Continuation of the initial mission after discovering a priceless artifact. Remaining in one place for a prolonged period of time. Engaging a giant." Her summary of his own explanation of events was read back accompanied by a series of verbal lashings. "Any of those actions might have resulted in your death. And what would your mother have thought? Would you condemn her to face her final days mourning her only son?"

Twinned condemnations, they struck hard, a hammer against his heart, unleashed by a bare-faced uncompromising voice that did not shy away from clarity, no matter how brutal. Some spoke of Neay's willingness to state the obvious as a weakness, but now Liao stood before that method unleashed and understood the deadly weapon of rebuke it could become.

He wanted to sink into the stones rather than face the perfectly level luminous expression, and the myriad alternatives its mere gaze silently suggested he should have taken. In his own defense, he offered nothing. He had known, from the moment he left the bird behind the first time, that there would be a price. It was one he was resolved to pay, the fair supplication his personal indulgence demanded.

That it had instead almost been his mother, and his friends, and in truth all of Mother's Gift that paid instead, that was the true injury, the formidable regret lodged deep within. One he knew would not soon be forgotten.

"You bet the future against the present," Neay was far from finished. "And while risk is essential to achieve progress, this was an absolutely unreasonable outlay. I had thought your judgment superior to such short-sighted errors. That I was mistaken in this way reflects poorly on me. I shall need to take care to correct that mistake, going forward. You, also, will need a prolonged period of reflection. Or do you, Disciple Qing Liao, disagree with that assessment?"

"Cunning of her," Sayaana's whisper, hesitant and chastened but vibrant still, echoed along the edges of Liao's skull. "That setup. The teacher demands the student tell her that he must be punished."

Silently, Liao acknowledged that. He also recognized the efficacy of such verbal maneuvering. "No," he told Neay, quietly. He was unable to meet the searing, multi-concentric eyes. "I do not disagree." He had been foolish. He'd allowed fear and grief to control his judgment. It had been an unnecessary gamble, and winning did not justify choices made in error.

That was merely luck.

"I made an improper decision." He would admit that, for it was true, at least as a matter of prioritization. He refused to say anything further. Prioritizing his mother might have been the wrong choice, certainly from the high-above viewpoint where the grand elders perched, but he refused to regret it. He would, however, second-guess any future reckless gambles.

"Understanding that an error was made is the first step towards correction and prevention," Neay replied. She radiated a mixture of calmness and sternness. In that moment she was not motherly, not at all. The taskmaster and teacher instead, firm and, when necessary, merciless. And at that moment she clearly considered it necessary.

"Disciple Qing Liao, you are hereby confined to Mother's Gift until your mother passes and the mourning period is finished. Until that time, you will serve twelve hours every day as part of the First Repair Detail. Elder Kuai Zhang will supervise you. You may choose which hours of the day are used to complete this penance in order to spend such time as remains with your mother."

This was, in many ways, a kindness. Liao knew his mother spent much of the day sleeping now, waking only in the afternoon and retiring in the evening. He'd been told that her waking hours would decrease further and further as the end approached. Needing little sleep as he did, the punishment detail would not compromise his ability to spend time at her side. He would simply have to lay down stones at night and in the early morning.

Not a fate he expected to enjoy. The repetition, exertion, and tedium that combined to encompass wall maintenance of the Starwall had a miserable reputation throughout the sect. It was used as a punishment for a reason, and twelve hours each day was a mild constraint.

"They impose it now, not later," Sayaana's voice tickled with curiosity. "I wonder, are they worried you'll run? You could, you know. I wouldn't mind much."

Liao did not answer this aloud. His hesitancy to produce a response told Sayaana all she needed to know. He might prefer the wilderness, but he still desired a home to return to. His mother was his last remaining link to the village of his birth, but not to Mother's Gift. He had comrades in the sect, and thought they might be few in number, that did not change the principle. The wild offered wonder, but not companionship.

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Besides, there were practical concerns. To beat the odds and reach the heights needed to restore the remnant soul, something he'd long promised and owed many times over, he needed the sect's resources. Forsaking this place would be to abandon hope, and that Liao would not do.

Whether or not the grand elders believed that he could not say. The thoughts held behind the alien eyes of immortals remained unknowable. One day, perhaps, he would share their perspective, but not this day.

"Your detail service will begin tomorrow," Neay filled the silence with this command. "You may have the remainder of this day." The sun lay low in the sky. Liao had returned late, slowed by his battle-depleted qi, over two days behind schedule. "To restore your condition." He was also a mess of torn clothing, ragged hair, and endless mud stains. Rushing through the wilderness trying to hide the wooden bird had not allowed for proper hygiene.

"I understand," Liao bowed his head. He had known he would be punished from the moment he kept going after finding the artifact. At the time, he considered it worth the risk. The giant had opened his eyes to the foolishness of that choice. Had he encountered that demon on land, he would not have survived.

"Very well," sternness faded from the glowing green face. "I appreciate your acceptance of this." She placed her hands together before her, dark soil-shaded fingers clasped together. "It gives me confidence that this disciplinary course will serve its purpose. The sect does appreciate your service, perhaps even more than you realize, but that does not mean rules can be relaxed. As I hope you understand, it only makes their enforcement all the more necessary."

"Must not let the other disciples think being special makes you special," Sayaana smirked quietly.

It was somewhat illogical, but Liao found that his sympathy lay with the farming immortal instead of the remnant soul. He could see how he offered both problems and possibilities to the sect, and how he would not enjoy being in Neay's position. Having moved beyond the confines of their bounded little world, he had gained a unique perspective to discern the immense hidden effort necessary to hold this confined place together and keep it from bursting into flames.

Elders were obligated to help manage the sect, to provide leadership and instruction. Su Yi had spoken of such tasks, of leading formation classes and group array construction projects. Liao, thinking of this, recoiled viscerally from such a future. To be granted the right to roam was an absolute privilege.

He would not imperil it again.

Having said her piece, Neay stepped back, allowing Artemay to focus empty blue eyes upon him. The wooden bird in her palm seemed to visibly vibrate with power, its full potency trembling atop the edge of her nails. "This," she tapped a sharply pointed fingernail against the exquisitely crafted beak. "Is valuable, a true unknown treasure. A true step toward the ultimate goal. The demons must die," she smiled darkly. "You are getting closer. A giant, whatever the circumstances, is progress. Two paths. Do not think of them as separate. Find a way to blend them together. Keep it in mind, while on the wall."

She did not offer a chance to answer this proclamation but simply waved him away in a startlingly informal dismissal. Liao was left to walk home to his residence by himself. He carried only a few treasures of his own. The cones of the pine needed to mark his mother's grave, a handful of small shark teeth, and similar unimportant back scales taken from the armored predators Artemay had helpfully told him were known as crocodiles. Everything else had been given into the hands of the sect, there were only a handful of baubles left for the one who gathered them.

There was something unsettling about that, an uneasy imbalance that Liao did not know how to give an answer to. This time he'd been punished, and he accepted that, but in another case, would he have been rewarded? What could he even ask for? "I don't want wealth, or women," he muttered, knowing Sayaana would hear. "The sect offers weapons and gear." His bow was as fine as could be crafted without imbued qi, and he could borrow even more potent implements for practice if he wished. "That world that I want, the sect does not have the power to give, and I cannot fault them for it."

"Your blood gives you a taste of it," Sayaana appeared at his side with one hand placed on his left shoulder. "That is the temptation, one I never faced." She spun around to stand before him; wide face bent into a wild grin. "But the solution is simple. If you want the world, then take it. Take it back from the ones who stole it, in blood and death. Cultivation is not for the timid, and immortality does not come to those who dream small."

As these words struck deep, Liao found that this seemed something Itinay would also proclaim, though the cold blue immortal would use very different wording. Artemay, he realized, had already revealed the road. A few dozen deaths, arrows to the back of the remaining demonic cultivators, and it would be done. The enemy would be defeated and the world would lie open before him in its immense entirety.

And yet, he realized that easy dream was false. The glimpse of the wilderness gave the lie to that simple story of a quick assassination as the end. The plague reached further than the demonic cultivators, down even into ocean depths. It would not be purged by a quiver's worth of arrows.

He had been given time to think, to reflect, and to plan. Months at least, perhaps a few, perhaps many, while his body was tasked to haul stone and lay mortar. A distraction from a far greater loss to come that he was almost thankful remained still to be faced. So long as his mother lived, the wall between himself and immortality remained intact.

Yet that wall was also a mirror. "If there was no plague," he murmured, fury kindled softly within his breast. "I could have brought my mother to the ocean. I could have carried her out onto the peaks of the southern island to watch the sun rise over the waves." He could see it in his mind's eye. All the places that he'd visited, the ones no mortal would ever see, that even other cultivators could never glimpse while the enemy reigned.

For now, he would describe them all to his mother, sharing the story before the end. And then, when he was free to leave once more, he would tear and rip the plague apart until those barriers ceased to be. Punishment would merely temper this resolve, grind it slowly and steadily to reveal the dao.