Beware of Chicken, page 23
She let out a breath after examining the formation again. “The Demonic Qi is damaging her spirit and body. See how it’s leaking some pus right here, and how the veins are going black?”
I nodded.
“So, we need to get it out, and I’ll need your help. I know how to guide the energy, but … I don’t have Qi to start it. The Spirit Herbs should be taking care of it, but this Qi is thick. Almost like tar.”
She put her hands on either side of the wound.
My hand rested over top of hers. I smiled. “Whatever you need.”
Rizzo eagerly added her hands.
Meimei smiled. “All right, on three. Just a little into my hands. One, two, three!”
I let my Qi flow.
Meimei gasped, her pupils dilated and contracted, her violet eyes focusing on the formation. Something small and weak brushed up against the Qi I put into Meimei. It felt like a bird guiding a bear to honey.
I could still feel my Qi. It latched on to something absolutely vile. A gibbering, ravenous thing that felt like rotting pus and diseased blood.
There was an odd thrumming down the wire, and black, infected-looking Qi spilled into the bucket. There was strength being siphoned off, and it writhed in the Spirit Herb liquid, twitching like it was dying.
“This is very easy to work with,” she muttered. “The last time I did this, the Qi fought me, and it tried to find its own path. It was like trying to hold fog. But yours is so responsive and solid. Like working with a needle.”
“It knows to keep its wife happy,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood.
She rolled her eyes and continued her work, carefully siphoning off the Demonic Qi.
The grassy field got stronger, and the Demonic Qi got weaker.
Sweat beaded on her brow as she carefully extracted the impurities.
One of my hands was on hers, while the other was on her back. I became a glorified battery.
↔
She was losing the battle for her soul. The verdant grass that was her cultivation was wilting, turning brown from the corrosive Qi. It smelled of rot and death, the lush valley being corrupted into a charnel house.
The Demonic Qi was tricky. It had hidden itself well, pushing and prodding at her soul, tugging at her mind, and waiting until she was weak enough to pounce.
It was bad enough that her body was weakened, but her spirit was also under assault—the last vestiges of the Sun brothers striking and biting at her.
She thought it was her end. Yet she kept fighting regardless, trying to resist the foul and blighted energy for just a moment longer.
She threw her all into the attacks, and to her surprise, she started pushing the Demonic corruption back. She was elated she had accomplished such a feat—when she saw it. Little tendrils of green energy, defeating the Demonic Qi with as much stealth as it tried to take her.
She was blessed by the heavens. Either another cultivator had helped her … or the mortals knew healing arts. Both possibilities were luck beyond measure.
She redoubled her efforts, blades made of grass striking, stabbing, and pinning the Demonic Qi, and allowing her healers further help her.
The Demonic Qi screamed and cursed, but it was all for naught. The last vestiges of corruption were lifted from her soul, and comforting darkness embraced her.
□
Meiling was panting by the end. Her face was flushed, her brow was slick with sweat, and she had a triumphant grin on her face.
Gods, she is so beautiful.
Her face flushed, and she looked away. Ah, I had said that out loud.
“Gods, you’re beautiful,” I told her again.
I kissed her on the forehead, and she buried her head onto my neck, sighing with exhaustion and contentment.
The container of water was sludgy looking. I had no idea what to do with it, since it seemed pretty nasty. I’d have to dilute it again, and hopefully that would be enough. Maybe throw some Qi into it to make it … less toxic?
I carried the cultivator to my bed. She’d been put into one of my shirts, to preserve her modesty.
There was no disguising that one of her wounds was packed with Lowly Spiritual Herbs, something that normally couldn’t grow here, and obvious cultivation resources, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.
It was something that may cause me problems in the future, but I would deal with them when they came.
The cultivator girl spent the rest of the day asleep.
My friends didn’t end up going back home that day, but none of us minded.
CHAPTER 32
CHOICES
I had been procrastinating all day.
The cultivator had provided a distraction, as had the Xong brothers when they started making crude jokes about me undressing her.
I’ll be honest, they were in pretty bad taste. Seriously, the cultivator had just got the shit kicked out of her. She might have been attractive under the black eye and split lips, but there was no point in gawping.
This was partially why I hadn’t been bothered when Meimei asked me to get her undressed. There’s nothing sexy about blood, bruises, and wounds starting to leak pus. Quite honestly, I’m glad Meimei was there, so I had something to focus on. I’m not particularly squeamish, but that was pretty hard to look at.
But now, as the sun started to set, I would need to address my … animals? Students? Unwitting children? I could put it off until tomorrow, but I needed to do this, and no time like the present.
“Big D, could you get the rest of the … Disciples. Gather them at the old house?” I asked him.
My—well, were any of them really mine anymore? Animals were possessions. But they were people.
The rooster snapped to attention and hastened to follow my orders.
This wasn’t a conversation I could say I was looking forward to.
But it was one that needed to happen. It was a story I had avoided thinking about. Avoided telling.
I wondered how they would react?
↔
Bi De sat with the other disciples at the Great Master’s old coop. The Master had bid them to gather here, away from his new coop, so that he could speak with them in private.
He was concerned about the interloper who had acted like Chow Ji, feigning weakness. But the Great Master was the Great Master. His insight was beyond Bi De’s comprehension. This person would surely be worthy of the benevolence the Great Master graced her with!
Once she awoke, that is. She was being tended to by the Great Sage of Healing, so her recovery was assured.
Perhaps she was also to become his female? The Great Master would need many females, if only to make sure his offspring inherited his spark. Bi De was growing worried about his females and his own abilities. Those he had fathered displayed none of his own ability. He would think it restricted to the male half, but the young cock he had sired also displayed nothing. Nothing but annoyance at Bi De’s mastery of the flock.
At least it had some intelligence: He knew it was folly to challenge Bi De.
Still, it was not all a waste. Their Qi would be returned to the Great Master, who would continue to grow and nurture them all.
He had guided them all greatly, and yet the Great Master considered himself lax in their training.
Truly, his Lord’s depths were incomprehensible. And now they sat in front of their Lord, awaiting his instruction. He observed them with an impenetrable gaze, his eyes roving over their forms. He sat down with them, lowering himself to their level.
The disciples gasped as he bowed his head to them.
“Firstly, I wish to thank you. I would like to thank you for all you have done. You have taken up tasks of your own accord. You have defended this Fa Ram from predators. You have taken up arms in its defence against vile men.”
The Disciples were struck dumb. Thanks from the Master? He gave them great respect by thanking them for merely doing their duties! How benevolent was he? They bowed their own heads, kowtowing before their Great Master.
All they had done was attempt to repay his benevolence. The Heavenly Herbs, medicine, protecting them until they could protect themselves, forgiving their mistakes—especially Bi De’s mistakes—he need not thank them. He was their Lord and Master. Their loyalty was only right.
“No. I must thank you. To give thanks for deeds others have done for you, is only right. If you don’t give acknowledgement to somebody, then you show you do not value them.” He paused, making eye contact with each disciple sitting before him.
“And I have not been valuing you as I should have.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. He seemed to be contemplating what to say. “What do you want out of life?” he asked them.
The disciples replied as one: ‘ To defend Great Fa Ram, and see it grow.’
The Great Master looked to Ri Zu, the only one who could properly give him their declaration. He nodded his head and smiled at them.
“That is a good goal. A noble goal, to defend your home and see it prosper. I’m glad that you think that our Fa Ram is worth protecting. I want to see it grow too.” He paused again, considering another question. “Why do you want to cultivate strength?”
‘To defend Fa Ram,’ was once more the reply.
“Oh? Most human cultivators say that it is to defy the will of heaven— to ascend past your limits, and become immortal, a ruler of the world. It is what I once desired, after all.”
The disciples listened raptly. They knew nothing of their Great Master before his life in Fa Ram. Bi De knew they were about to receive some profound wisdom.
“Let’s talk about choices. Everything begins with a choice. Every individual must choose what it is they want to do in their lives. What they desire, and what they wish to do to obtain those desires. These aren’t things I can dictate to you.”
“They are for you to decide freely. Sometimes we may feel like we have no choice, that only one option is available to us. But it is always there. If you wish to walk away from this place, I will not stop you. If you wish to stay, you will always have a place here.” Again, the Great Master gazed upon each disciple, ensuring the weight of his words were understood.
Leave Great Fa Ram?! It was unthinkable to Bi De.
“While we are free to choose, remember the choices you make will always have consequences. Saving somebody may backfire, or it may not. Killing somebody may bring you great power, but it may also spell your doom. Our choices guide us. They forge us. We may make our choices, but in the end … our choices make us.”
Bi De was silent, drinking in his master’s profound words.
“Let me tell you the story of Jin. And the choice he made.”
“Let me tell you why this Fa Ram exists.”
→
Bi De needed to meditate. They all did. They needed time to digest their Great Master’s story. The tale of cultivators, and their power. Of the many ways to cultivate. And most shocking of all—
That their Great Master was one of the least of them.
It was a night of revelations.
The race to the heavens. It sounded both absurd and right at the same time. To walk the path of the warrior, never flinching and driving one’s enemies before them. Something in it appealed to him greatly. To venture forth and claim the world.
But his Great Master had seemed so sad when talking about it. So … disappointed.
Bi De remembered Chow Ji. He remembered the feeling of lusting for power. Of how he’d considered slaying his own children for Chow Ji’s cursed power, too young to have the spark. Of consuming the hens and leaving nothing left. His mind conjured an image of total desolation, of rampant slaughter. Of taking from the earth without giving.
He remembered the days spent with his Great Master. Tending to the fields, playing in the river, helping him keep watch at night. Of learning from his Great Master, as his Lord helped and nurtured them all, even though they were not human.
His Master cared not for their flesh or their cores.
He wanted them to live. He wanted to guide them.
He wanted them to have good lives.
Bi De was once more humbled by his Great Master’s benevolence. The rooster knew that he had jumped at power when it was offered to him. He’d seized that power and faced the consequences. The consequences that lasted to this day.
His Lord had said it was better to be kind and be hurt than to live your life as a monster. That it was better than living a life of cruelty and wrath, taking and taking without caring for others.
Indeed, if he had been cruel to Chow Ji, he never would have been hurt. His spurs would have never been marred. He would not have grown. He would still be as he was, arrogant and prideful.
But if he had been cruel, Bi De would never have earned the friendship of Sister Ri Zu. He never would have gained an appreciation for Chun Ke and Pi Pa.
Compassion and kindness had hurt him.
But they had also been his salvation. It was the reason why he could stand tall and proclaim himself a great First Disciple.
He gazed upon the moon, that wonderful celestial object. There were some that wanted to tear it from the sky. There were some who could not see its glory.
There were men who were so focused on achieving power for their future ambition that they could not see the present.
His Great Master was correct, Bi De decided.
To covet power was not the path forwards. To race for the heavens to claim them was folly.
Like his Great Master said: Why claim the heavens when you could make your own?
He offered his supplication to the earth. The dormant energy took what he offered without hesitation and seemed to sigh in contentment.
Something broke inside him, like the ice on the river being broken. His eyes saw more clearly. His breath was more perfect—his plumage, radiant. He had grown greatly in power from this revelation, and yet—
He disregarded his breakthrough.
He had a moon to observe, and its soft and soothing light was much more important.
CHAPTER 33
A BLADE OF GRASS
Cai Xiulan awoke to the sound of voices.
“When do you think she’ll wake up?” a male voice asked.
“Dunno. Could be days, could be weeks. She’s pretty messed up,” another returned.
She was warm and comfortable. Her body ached, but it did not hurt.
This was a lovely bed. It was warm and soothing and comfortable, unlike the cots or the dirt she had slept on, when she slept at all. She nearly fell back asleep, but she knew she shouldn’t, so she persevered, shaking off the last clinging grasps of sleep.
“I’ll stay here if she’s still asleep for a few days. Or we could transport her back home?” a female voice said.
She kept her eyes closed and took stock of her body, focusing first on the wound in her side. The Demonic Qi had been driven out, and there was nothing left of the taint. Defeated completely and utterly by whatever had helped her last night. With the most pressing concern dealt with, she continued, focusing further. Her Qi flowed through her body, rather more than she had expected to have. It felt full of vitality and verdant. As the name of her Sect, it was energetic and wanted to grow. The wounds she had were scabbed over, and she was well on her way to healing.
She examined the poultices that had been applied to her wounds, touching them with her senses—
The poultices had Qi in them. They had used Spiritual Herbs on her. She knew not what kind, but they were incredibly potent, more potent than she had ever felt before. These would command a prince’s ransom if they were sold to her Sect elders. To think they had been used on her, even if she was the Young Mistress of the Verdant Blade—
No, the only thing she could be was thankful. They had spent their pearls upon her. All she had to do was prove worthy of such gifts.
She extended her senses, but she detected no more Qi. So then, it was a farmer who had found her. Mortals, who could have been rich in selling these herbs … had spent them on her without truly knowing who she was.
It was a humbling thought. The mortal soldiers of the Sect always seemed to have so little— she winced, then she cut the thought off. Memories of the horrific battle in the valley circled. The roars of men drugged with some potent elixir, fighting like demons. Falling rocks and a valley full of screams of her allies. Her heart started to beat faster as the screams got louder and louder in her head. The sounds of death and monsters—
Her eyes snapped open as she remembered the Spirit Beast—the one that had made Sun Ken disappear. Her heart seized in her chest before she calmed. It had not come to claim their lives yet, so it would do her no good to panic them.
She took a deep breath, circulating her Qi and concentrating on her recovery. She would need her full strength to even think of protecting these people from the beast that had slain Sun Ken.
They would be defended until her last breath for the kindness they had shown her.
The Qi in the Spiritual Herbs responded. The energy flowed into her body, swirling around her wounds.
Qi surged, flooding her wounds. Cuts sealed shut and bruises stopped aching. Her broken bones melded together, and her battered organs were refreshed instantly.
She gasped, and her eyes flew open in shock.
She pulled down the rough shirt she was clad in and stared down at her chest. All that was left was smooth and unblemished skin. She tugged at the shirt but didn’t see her normal garb. Her face flushed. Had the man undressed her? Or had his wife done that? She hoped dearly it was his wife who had seen her shameful state, but it was a forlorn hope. Her wounds were all over her body, and the bandages and poultices covered all of them.
Her modesty, though, was secondary to gratitude. Should he have seen her body, it was in the process of saving her life.
She sat up and looked around, taking in the room. The bed was cordoned off with a wooden divider, giving her some amount of privacy.
“I’ll go check on her,” the female voice said again. “Make sure nothing has changed and see if I can get some water into her. Or … clean her up, if she needs it. If she’s unconscious for much longer … Well! The body still produces waste.”
