Whereas Cheng Lian city was a sprawling metropolis situated in the middle of a large plain surrounded by forest, Liusha city was like a city hidden within the forest. It sprawled, but much more of the city sprawled upwards into the treetops rather than outward into the countryside. We walked under myriad bridges floating in the sky, held up by ropes attached to the treetop canopy shading the entire city from the harsh midday sunlight. The amount of wood qi in the city far outstripped the amounts of other elements present. It almost felt like there was more wood qi present than in the body training building on nourishing petal peak. If we didn’t have missions to complete, I would have considered staying in the city for a time to cultivate my body with wood qi.
Whereas I was reveling in the refreshing wood qi surrounding us, Ji looked distinctly uncomfortable. Being part metal cultivator, the abundance of wood qi probably made him feel out of place. I patted him on the back.
“Don’t worry Ji, we shouldn’t need to stay in this city for more than a few days while the caravan does its dealings.” I told him. He nodded wanly and I felt a pang of sympathy bubble up.
“Come on, let’s see if we can’t find a nice blacksmith’s shop for you to hang out in, have you tried learning a trade? I think you’d make an excellent blacksmith!” I told him. He seemed to think about this for a moment but eventually relented. We checked with the caravan leader and let them know where we’d be going. They were appreciatory of our efforts during the first half of the trip and told us they’d be heading back to Cheng Lian city in a week’s time.
This gave us plenty of time to see the sights of the city, much to Ji’s chagrin. We asked a local about the whereabouts of the industrial district of the city and they pointed us to the southern edge of the city, the part closest to the nearby Liusha mountain range.
As opposed to the treetop populated sections of the city, the industrial section looked much more akin to a traditional city. There were still some buildings housed within the canopies of the trees but most of the squat wooden buildings made their homes on the cold hard earth. One such building was denoted as “Huang’s Smithy” and we entered the building to inquire about a place for Ji to stay while we were in the city.
As we entered, we were assaulted by a powerful heat coming from within the shop. The wood qi was being pushed out and instead fire and metal qi were in abundance inside. Ji regained some of the color in his face as we entered and looked more comfortable than he had been the entire time we were in the city.
A bell chiming marked our entrance, and a thin young girl came out from the back covered in soot in some places. Her overalls were flopped down over the lower half of her body and the form fitting top she wore, covered by the blacksmith's apron denoted her as one of the workers of the forge. She took the goggles off her eyes as she looked at us, her vibrant green pupils staring at each of us. Her eyes landed on Ji, and she smiled.
“Much better in here than in that stuffy city, right sir?” She asked Ji.
“Uh-Um yes, this forge feels wonderful.” he said, stumbling on his words.
I introduced us to the young lady, and she introduced herself as Huang Yu, the daughter of the master of the forge.
“We were curious if our large friend can help out in the smithy and maybe learn the trade from your smiths while we’re in the city.” I told Yu. She looked Ji up and down and then went into the back of the building. We heard some indistinct yelling and before long a squat muscled man came out from the back with Yu in tow. He was clearly someone who had been a blacksmith for many years. His soot covered clothes and tanned skin spoke of someone who interacted with fire qi often and his rippling muscles spoke to his years of forging experience.
He looked Ji up and down and then looked at Jia and me.
“We’ll take the boy, he’ll do.” He said gruffly before walking back into the forge. Before long the sounds of hammer striking metal resounded through the building once again.
“That was my dad, master Huang. He is a little prickly on the outside, but he has a good heart. We’ll take you in as a temporary apprentice, but anything you make while you’re working here belongs to us, and we won’t be able to pay you anything for your work.” Yu said. Ji nodded and agreed to the terms and Jia and I left him to his new hobby for the week.
“What do you think we should do while we’re here?” Jia asked, holding Shimmer tenderly in her arms.
“I want a bath.” I said. Jia’s eyes lit up and she nodded her head.
“I agree, let’s find a bathhouse, and fast!” Jia agreed.
We walked around the city enjoying the sights and traveled for a time up in the canopies before we found a bathhouse named “Petals on the lake”. We walked inside and paid the fee, we had to pay an additional fee to bring Shimmer in with us, but we didn’t mind. We went to the changing room, disrobed, and entered the bath proper. We washed ourselves off at the showers and then joined back together in the baths.
We laid together, basking in the feel of the water soothing our travel weary bones and just enjoyed the time spent together. Shimmer’s soft yips and mewing drew some attention to us, but whenever someone would come up to pet shimmer she obliged and allowed them to touch her.
“Want to cultivate while we’re here?” I asked Jia. She shook her head.
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“No, I just want to take my time and relax a bit.” She said. I thought that sounded nice too, so I relented and stopped worrying about cultivating. After some time soaking in the baths, we both exited and got dressed back in the changing room. Was it just me or was Jia looking a little more flushed than normal? She probably stayed in the bath for too long.
We went shopping around the city and bought some trinkets and pills that we found for a good price in one of the shops. I saw a cute snowflake shaped hairpin that would look perfect in jia’s hair, so I bought it for her. I gave it to her, and she blushed and thanked me for the gift. I was happy she was happy and hugged her.
We walked around for the rest of the day, just enjoying the sights of the city before meeting back up with Ji at our inn we agreed we’d stay at.
He told us about the work he did in the forge and spoke quite often about miss Yu during his retelling. She was quite the well-seasoned master of the forge herself apparently.
We all went to bed, Jia and I with plans to cultivate starting the following day.
We woke up early in the morning and Ji was already gone, off to work in the forge. We did our morning stretches, Shimmer joining us again, and then headed out. We asked some of the city’s residents for a location nearby to cultivate water qi, but no one knew of any other than the bath house. We decided against going to the bathhouse again but continued exploring the city and asking various cultivators we found about it. Eventually we found a cultivator who knew of a place located outside the city that was a popular tourist destination. We followed his directions through the forest and just as I was starting to suspect he had given us false information we came upon a beautiful clearing.
Situated in the center of the clearing was a staggering waterfall crashing down from the cliff above. The water rushed down onto the lake below in a cacophony of noise. The edges of the lake populated by myriad flowers and trees. Animals drank at the water in the lake on all sides. On a whim I used my qi sensing glasses to look around and see if there were any useful medical herbs in the plants surrounding the lake.
To my surprise, A deep glow showed up from both behind the waterfall and the bottom of the lake when I looked upon them. I led Jia to the waterfall first and we both pushed through, getting thoroughly drenched in the process. We dried off as best we could using some fire qi from my dantian, but it wasn’t a perfect solution.
We walked through the cave at the back of the waterfall but after a minute of walking we reached a dead end. I frowned, sure I didn’t see wrong and used my qi sensing glasses again. On the wall, in an inverted star shape, were five glowing points with lines lighting up between them. On a whim I used my qi to trace the symbol in the wall and when I finished drawing it, the entire cave seemed to shake as the rock shifted and a door opened in the rock formation.
As the door opened an icy wind flooded out from its entrance. I covered my chest with my arms to ward off the worst of the chill, but Jia looked like she was completely unaffected by the frigid breeze. I used my fire qi within my dantian to keep myself warm as we walked into the cavern. We walked into a large room; its entirety covered in ice. In the middle of the room, on top of what looked like a frozen lake, a sword the color of freshly fallen snow with light blue accents was thrust into the ground at an angle.
We approached the sword but the closer we got to the sword the colder I felt. I stopped before approaching too closely to the sword, my fire qi no longer protecting me from its frigid aura. Shimmer stopped with me, not liking the cold aura either. Jia however was enthralled by the sword, she approached it quickly at first, then she slowed the closer she got to the sword. Before she could touch the sword; however, I heard a set of voices coming from back within the cavern. I rushed forward, barely grabbing Jia and getting out of the cold aura before it could freeze me to death. I rushed her behind a stalagmite on the ground that was able to hide us both.
“Hey, the door is already open.” One of the voices, a man, shouted out to his compatriots. After a few seconds a group of three men and two women in robes walked into the room.
“Crap!” I said to Jia.
“It’s some other cultivators, and judging from their auras, they’re in the foundation establishment stage.” I told her. She peeked around the corner of the stalagmite and Shimmer did as well from the bottom.
“I don’t see anyone inside.” One of the women said from their position just inside the room.
“Let’s just get the sword and get out of here. I’m already freezing my butt off.” Another of the men said, shivering.
The group all took out a pill and swallowed it. I could feel an abundance of fire qi flood off their bodies after they ingested the pills. They all began approaching the sword, but the pills were only helpful up to a point. The one in the lead reached the sword first, moving at a snail's pace towards the mysterious artifact.
The first man to touch the sword was turned into a frozen statue. His remaining allies all backed up at the sight of the man now frozen in place. They continued backing up, their panic growing in intensity as seconds elapsed.
“Let’s get out of here, we’ll need to tell elder Yang about this and request an ice cultivator from the home world to come grab this sword.” One of the men said before the group left the cave with haste, closing the door as they left. Once they were gone, we walked back to the edge of the sword’s frigid aura.
“Jia, are you sure you should be trying to grab that sword? We saw what happened to that one guy when he tried to touch the sword.” I said, worried about her.
“I’m sure.” Jia said.
She walked with purpose into the sword’s aura and slowly approached it. Just like the others who had approached before she went quickly at first but slowed down the closer she got to the sword. She finally reached the same location as the frozen statue that used to be a cultivator. She reached out, and I held my breath, holding my hands within each other and praying that she wouldn’t end up just like the man. Her fingers touched the pommel of the sword, and she wrapped her hand around it. Her hand froze solid, and I yelped in surprise. She wasn’t fazed; however, and pulled on the sword. It took some effort, but she slid the sword out of the ground. The sword’s aura dissipated, and her hand returned to normal. Unfortunately for us, so did the man that was frozen.
“Wh-what?” He managed to get out before Jia knocked him out with the butt of the sword now in her hand. I ran over to Jia and hugged her, she hugged me back and chuckled.
“Astra, I’m fine, really.” she said.
She pushed me off her, tears still welling in the corners of my eyes. She bent down and rummaged through the man’s clothes before pulling out a few treasures and a small wooden token. She looked the token over and handed it to me. The rough wood felt good in my hands but when I turned the token over my blood froze. Etched into the token was a familiar double helix symbol.