Chapter 174 -

  Hao thought his first day on the Second Elder’s peak was going to end with him red-faced and grinding his teeth.

  He heard more laughter than encouragement. Most of the weapons that were laid out on the ground in front of him were disastrous in his hands. Even some of the tools that had no point or edge got him a slice of mockery.

  The Second Elder’s laugh was like a flock of passing birds singing, a delicate, sweet sound. One that quickly became grating to his ears.

  By the time he got to a sword, she was out of laughter.

  Hao was fair with anything he had seen others use. Meiqi developed an itch in him to over-observe everything everyone did. There was a stem of it from his own paranoia. A part of him still believed that at the flip of a hat, the Second Elder, as lilting her voice was, would put him in a cauldron, and swallow his life force like it was a candy off a merchant ship.

  With those thoughts, he was still happy he wasn’t fully embarrassed by the end of it.

  “It is a good sign you can lift all of them,” The Second Elder rose from his seat in the grass. “Not all of them are mortal material, if I am honest, I thought you would struggle. You would do well with a spear in an army of mortals.”

  Hao fought the urge to raise an eyebrow. No matter how soft her voice was when she said it, it was not a compliment of any sort.

  “For most of it… Not bad is all I can say.” She muttered, striding around him to lift the axe, its silver-blue steel shone even in the shadow of the palace. “An axe like this is not for chopping wood. Anyone can see a heavy blade like this from overhead. The way you moved could work with a sword and spear, but with this.”

  She thrust out towards his wrists.

  Hao tried to jump back, but he was too slow. No, she was too fast, and the axe, he never would have expected.

  “What…” he started, but the blade didn’t touch him; he could have sworn…

  “A sword is a swift stroke, a spear a sudden strike. You seemed to understand that, but anything else, you seem oblivious. An axe is heavy, short, and easy to track even by weaker, slower eyes. If you lack raw strength, height, or limb length, use surprise. You are not cutting down on timber to make firewood.” She lifted the axe overhead. “You are hacking branches off a living tree.”

  “Try again. And try to prove you know the difference between a brush and ink.” She said, handing the axe to him and disappearing behind him and sitting in the grass again, light dancing on her porcelain skin.

  Hao thought he put on a decent show the second time. Especially with the saber and knife, he felt his swordwork improved too, as he took advantage of the advice he was given. But when he got to the end of the tools again and lifted the empty ink well, the Second Elder stood again.

  “I’ve seen all I need. Let's move on from weapons and tools. They are just weapons and tools at the end of the day.” She walked around him again, sounding almost disappointed. First, the inkwell in his hand vanished, then she was behind him.

  Hao pinched his brow. The woman seemed to have a talent for getting under his skin. Her unintentional jabs were as brutal as one of Senior Brother Guan’s strikes. He quickly dismissed the feeling, swallowed it, turned to look at her, but the peak was empty. The Elder was nowhere to be seen, not her shadow, blue eyes, or shimmering red robe. It was silent, but for a whistle.

  He flinched, his hand going up out of instinct. There was a small pinch in his palm, which he closed his fingers around.

  It was a pebble, freshly pulled from amongst the dirt.

  “Faster, don’t disappoint me too much today, or I might just scour your body for secrets instead of training you.” The voice was just the wind again. He tried to follow it, but only saw a haze.

  Once his hands were full, he remembered he didn’t have to hide the Spirit-Holding bag from her. It was her gift to him after all. So, all the stones vanished as soon as they touched his hand. At least for a minute. Two hit him in the chest, one in the neck, that lasted before the Second Elder came to a stop, broken into dust, before it hit his face.

  “This one too.” She said, throwing a cragged, busted stone in a light underhand.

  It came slowly. Hao caught it and awkwardly stumbled forward. It was heavy, and not a stone at all, a clump of powdery dirt with flecks of silver-white mix in.

  “Hand it back,” she said, walking with her hand out. There was a smile on her face again, and he thought her too pretty to be real, not even Senior Sister Zu, who left a bruise on his back…

  She swiped it from his palm. “Did the stone take your wit? Or was it something long before today? You were clever-mouthed before. What happened?”

  “I learned the slap of a beautiful woman stings more than the bite of a dog, or a stab wound from a mutt,” Hao said it all in a breath, and wished he’d covered his mouth.

  “Poetic,” She whispered, rolling her eyes, yet the corner of her mouth was upturned. She spun on her heel, leaning towards him. “I’m guessing it wasn’t a normal mutt that left that stab on you.”

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  Hao turned away. He hated the smirk people had when they knew something that they shouldn’t have. Meiqi wore it all the time. Before he could get far, her fingers jabbed into the wound. At night, he tossed and turned and wondered if it ever really healed. At his wince, she pulled away, only to put her hand on his shoulder.

  “I thought it was a waste of time to let Little Guan keep you, but with all the resources he poured into you, it was worth it. How long did he keep you for?”

  “Just yesterday, Elder,” he said.

  “Only yesterday? Really?”

  He looked up, and her eyes seemed wide, only for a moment. Then he was the wide-eyed one, Little Guan? He repeated it in his head.

  Her cold, speculative eyes took the question out of him before he could conjure the ‘a’ of ‘age’ in his own head. She knew what he was thinking before he did.

  “Stop calling me Elder. It makes me sound like I should be gray.” Her lips stayed parted like a serpent's mouth before a bite, “How about big sister, like Little Guan and his Junior Disciple call me.”

  Hao held back the gulp, keeping his eyes steady. If there was a bad time to look away, it was now. “That,” he nodded, any words were a bad choice.

  “Good. If you forget, we can test your durability.”

  Born with a razor for a tongue, Hao thought.

  “You need to recover fully before we do anything useful. Show me your normal cultivation routine, start to finish.”

  “Normal cultivation?” he asked, getting a nod from her.

  It had been a while since he'd done anything normal, light stuff here and there, moving World Energy, but never a full routine. The last time he went through the whole thing, the one he enjoyed most, was back before he entered the Secret Realm, before Grandpa He was murdered, and he indulged in the sap of a rare herb and the core of a demon beast.

  Most everything since had been strange or desperate. Smokes, physique training, and whatever else came his way or he found in the library books. When he tried, something would always come to shake his mind. A Heart Devil, he wondered, despite all the warnings he ignored.

  But with the icy energy of the Second Elder flowing into his shoulder, he felt it would be different this time.

  He did as he was bidden, not because he was told or asked, but because he wanted to, and he thought if anything could impress her, it would be his spiritual energy. It had already caught her attention.

  As soon as he closed his eyes, the mountain air took him. He was on top of the world, and the energy here was more like that of the Drinking-Stone rather than the lower peaks.

  In the lotus position, his palms facing the heavens. He drank up on the world’s essence and felt it mix with the cold energy coming from the Second Elder’s fingers. It stole away his fatigue.

  The first breath was from Water Breaking Fist, the first technique he learned. A dream came to him, and he was born again. Each element came and went with a stage of life being shed. Wood, fire, earth, and metal. It ended with water again, his wrinkled form floating out into the ocean.

  He repeated the cycle, chasing the energy inside him. It ran the slender finger that traced his spine and sought out his bruises.

  The second elder drew on him. And he followed the diagram made without ink, at first on purpose, then unconsciously. Space inside his vessels opened. The Meridians that had yet to be formed or properly expanded lit up. With more space, he took in more World Energy. Vein-like burrows were made inside him he somewhere he couldn’t see. It all moved too naturally.

  An endless cycle formed, flowing throughout his body.

  An exhausted voice nearly broke his focus, “We will stop there for the night.”

  Hao opened his eyes to see the Second Elder sitting close in front of him, her forehead pressed into her palms. There was sweat dripping off her chin, onto her crossed legs.

  She looked up at him from half-hooded eyes, “I don’t know how you’ve cultivated until now. Whoever showed you how to cultivate has failed you.”

  Hao rose, nearly falling back down in his rush. He cupped his hands before he shook out the stiffness from his shoulders, neck, and legs. “Thank you, El—Big… Sister. But I taught myself,” he admitted.

  She sighed, “Then the sect has failed you. Your aptitude was poor, and you joined the sect strangely, but you should have gotten instruction.” She shook her head, rising to her feet, sweat vanishing like it was never there. “Your control and breath are impressive. Your World Energy makes some people's True Qi seem pathetic. If only…”

  Hao looked to the side as she stared down at him. He could still feel the cold diagram she had traced on his body. Unlike this morning, the energy was kind and guiding. He felt his face flush.

  Her blue eyes and chilling smirk made it obvious the red was showing.

  “If you wish, you can rest.”

  Hao snapped his head back, “Is that all?”

  “For the night,” she said, “We will start again in the morning, we are still just chiseling away useless edges. You can explore the mountain if you don’t want to rest, just don’t go below the clouds or into the palace.”

  The Second Elder waved him away as she walked towards the bamboo hut. It was the first time he had seen her walk on solid ground. He found himself staring until the shaky door of the hut was slammed behind her.

  That was the first day on the peak. Gone like a petal in the wind. It was strange, he felt he had been there for only a few minutes, and at the same time, for weeks. But it had been hours. Most of them, in embarrassment, he remembered, as the soothed state of meditation waned.

  Have I really been cultivating so badly for so long? It's not a wonder… He stopped the thought. There were a dozen reasons he wasn’t at the Peak of Reclamation, and pointing out just one of his faults wasn’t going to fix all the others.

  But now, he stopped at the bamboo grove. He was going down the way of the monkeys and cats. He was curious about them. But more curious about the cultivation. He turned and walked into the grove and found a clearing against one of the many cliffs. He rolled a loose flat stone to the middle of the grove at sat. He watched three moons speed by in between moments of Cultivation.

  He had a lot to do between breaths, thoughts to ponder, and physical cultivation stretches to try. But one thought dominated them all: he was glad he survived the day and more glad he wasn’t sent back down the mountain.

  I am finally here, an Elder giving me instruction, I can’t throw any of it away. Hao thought, closing his eyes, chasing tigers and dragons of Yin and Yang in his mind.