As I felt the technique take hold, a massive amount of qi left my reserves within my dantian. Strangely, the qi within my body was left alone. I tried to pull on it instead, but I was unsuccessful in using any of it for the technique.
I felt a ‘pop’ sensation from within myself and the pull on my mana ceased. At the same time, I felt a weight appear in my lap and I looked down to see the cutest thing I had ever seen in my life.
Sitting in my lap was a tiny fox, as white as snow, with large, intelligent, iridescent eyes. Despite the name of the technique, the animal had no tails. Instead its body ended at its rear.
Well aren’t you just the cutest little thing ever!” I cooed to the tiny fox.
This must have broken Jia and Ji from their cultivation technique studying because they both looked down at the fox in my lap with big eyes.
“What did you do, Astra?” they both asked.
I explained to them about my new technique, leaving out any explanation of Text since Ji was present, and said this was my qi spirit.
Jia looked like she deeply wanted to pet the little fox so I looked down to the fox and asked.
“Is it okay if my friend pets you?” I asked her. she seemed to ponder the question for a short time but relented and nodded her head. Jia wasted no time resting her hands on the white fur of the creature. Jia practically melted where she sat on the ground at the feel of petting the small fox. Ji stayed a respectful distance away from the animal as he brought up a good point.
“If it’s supposed to be a nine-tailed fox, then where are its tails?” he asked.
“I was wondering the same thing.” Jia said in a cutesy voice you’d use to talk to an animal.
“I’m not sure, maybe my cultivation level is too low? But I’m in the middle of the foundation establishment realm, so I figured she'd have at least one tail.” I said.
“Text, any ideas?” I mumble asked the mysterious text in my brain.
“ANSWER: The immortal who created this inheritance knew very little about the mythological creature known as the nine-tailed fox. From historical records stored within the inheritance I can attempt to glean information about this subject if the user wishes.”
“Yes” I said under my breathe to Text. A loading bar appeared in my vision and I played with the tiny fox with Jia while we waited. Once the loading was done, Text again appeared in my vision.
“ANSWER: The nine-tailed fox is believed to be the controller of destiny in the world. The wide tapestry of fate is its plaything. Being so intrinsically linked to destiny and fate the nine-tailed fox has a deep connection to the following Daos.
The Dao of fire, the Dao of water, the Dao of wind, the Dao of earth, the Dao or metal, the Dao of earth, the Dao of the body, the Dao of the soul, the Dao of the spirit.
When the cultivator who has contracted with the nine-tailed fox gains understanding and mastery over one of the listed Daos, a new tail will be grown on the fox, representing its own usable power.” Text answered.
I explained the explanation to Ji and Jia, Ji was a little confused about how I knew this information, but I waved him off and I asked the pair a question.
“How far did you two get in learning your cultivation techniques?” I asked.
They both perked up at my question.
“I did great.” Ji said.
“I think I understand what I need to do, and I’ll begin cultivating while we’re on the road.” he continued.
“Same with me,” Jia said.
“More importantly, what are you going to name this cute little fox??” She asked.
I thought about it for a while and asked the pair for name suggestions.
“Stone mountain.” Ji said with confidence. Jia and I both stared at him.
“Naming privileges revoked.” I said and looked to Jia hoping she had a batter naming sense.
“Snowy! Icy! Snowflake! Tundra!” She rattled off. She was clearly biased.
I looked deep into the fox’s iridescent eyes and marveled at how they seemed to shimmer in the sunlight.
“That’s it!” I proclaimed.
“I’ll call you Shimmer!”
Eventually the caravan started to move, and we followed along with it. We couldn’t all stay together as we had a duty to protect all parts of the caravan. I was situated near the rear-most part of the train of wagons. Ji took his place in the middle of the caravan, and Jia was situated near the front of it. Should any of us encounter more trouble than we could handle we were to shoot up a qi blast into the air to call for backup.
It was boring just walking with the caravan, but it gave me the opportunity to cultivate. Out in the forests surrounding the cities of Dou Can the predominant types of qi were of course earth, wind, and wood. When it rained the amount of water qi in the air would spike, and when the sun was out the amount of fire qi would increase. The hardest element to cultivate when traveling was always metal. Unless the caravan passed by a mountain rich in ores it would be troublesome to restore my metal qi, but as I didn’t use it too often, I felt it was okay to lose out on the balance within my dantian. My spirals were secure enough that accruing a lot of wood element qi wouldn’t hamper my cultivation.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
One problem was that it was impossible to cultivate your body without being able to meditate in the elements and I couldn’t do my job of protecting the caravan if I was engrossed in cultivating my body, so I was stuck using the myriad elements halcyonic scripture to cultivate my spirit instead.
During the first few days of travel, we encountered a few demon beasts along the road that were brave enough to attack the caravan. I killed or scared off the worst of them, shimmer hanging around close by me and growling when she sensed nearby beasts.
After a week of traveling, the caravan made it to Fuschia village, but the sight that met us at the village was not a happy one. We saw the billowing trails of smoke in the sky before we saw the village proper. The village was ransacked when we arrived. The villagers were digging a mass grave outside the village to one side of the road as we slowly entered the village’s interior. Luckily for the villagers the caravan arrived with ample food supplies, and it only took a little cajoling on the side of the mercenaries and us cultivators to convince the merchants to part with some of their supplies for the villagers.
I joined up with Jia and Ji once the caravan was situated and settled in the village for the night, the entire group of travelers happy to have a safe night of sleep within the walls of a village for once. Jia, Ji, and I asked some of the nearby townsfolk about the village elder, but we were upset to hear that he hadn’t survived the raid from the bandits. We asked who the next in charge would be and they lead us over to one of the few buildings not destroyed by fire. Inside was a group of rough and gruff village men headed by one man in the center with a very large set of facial hair. He walked over to us and thanked us for our help with the merchants.
“You’re welcome!” I told him.
“Is there anything else we can help with while we’re here?” I asked him.
“No, we couldn’t ask you to help us rebuild our village. I heard you were looking for the elder, I’m sorry to say he didn’t make it, I’m Cang Lu, the eldest member of the village council. I suppose with the elder gone, I’m the new elder now.” He said.
We handed him the ornate box the Violet Abyss association and told him about our mission.
“Ah I see. So you’re outer sect disciples of the Blooming Violet sect. I wish we were able to receive you in better cheer. It’s usually a much bigger affair when disciples come here with a package from the Violet Abyss association.” he said.
“Why’s that?” Jia asked him.
He looked to the other council members and shrugged. Without ceremony he opened the box and showed us its contents. Empty. The box was empty.
“We swear we didn’t open it, they must have forgotten to put the item inside the box!” I tried to explain.
He and the other people in the room laughed heartily at my anxious answer before Lu spoke up again.
“Don’t worry, young lady. The box was supposed to be empty.” He said. At our group’s confused look, he laughed again.
“You see, the Violet Abyss association has a special relationship with the Blooming Violet sect. They exist as an association that performs multiple different functions in various cities like holding auctions, buying and selling treasures, and more philanthropic activities. One of these activities is giving out the outer disciple first sect mission. You all happened to choose this mission. It’s designed to be a test of sorts to see if disciples have what it takes to be proper members of the sect. You would take a prospective package from a VIP to the elder of a nearby village and return with a signed letter stating the quest was handled properly.
Normally, the elder would write the letter, but I suppose the Violet Abyss association will need to know we need some assistance. I hate to ask this of you three since you’re so new to the sect, but waiting until the association sends someone to assist us will take too long. Can I ask you to take a letter to the Violet Abyss Association when you return to Cheng Lian city?” He asked.
“We’re escorting this caravan to Liusha city and back, is that alright if it takes us about half a month to deliver the letter?” I asked. Lu nodded.
“Yes, that should be fine. It will be a good mission for the three of you.” He said.
He wrote out two letters, one for our initial mission and one requesting aid for the village. He handed the letters to us and I tasked Ji with keeping them both safe in his pack. We said goodbye to the council and walked out of the building. I still felt weird, like I should be doing something but wasn’t and decided It would be good to blow off some steam. Not having fought in a few days I felt like I needed to hit something. Seeing as most of the village was made of wood I decided I would cut down some trees for them to use to rebuild. Jia and Ji followed me out of the village and as a team we began cutting down trees and dragging them into the village.
Before long, some of the mercenaries and villagers who could still move joined us, and though they weren’t as quick at cutting down the trees as we were, any cultivators among them helped us as they could. We made a grand party out of the whole thing, cracking jokes, singing songs and making merry as we deforested a whole area of the nearby woods. After a few hours of chopping trees, we had enough trees for the village to begin rebuilding. The villagers thanked us and combined with the remaining caravan members we went out to the woods to hunt some animals and demon beasts.
We came back with a large haul of fresh kills to cook, and the villagers and merchants tasked those of their number who were cooking inclined to making a feast for the lot of us.
We spent the night making merry with the villagers and I could tell they were already feeling better about the ordeal they had gone through. I felt much better after the day of work and I sat and laughed, telling stories from my childhood with my friends and the nearby mercenaries and villagers. When it was time to go to bed, I volunteered to take first watch for our group and sat by the fire in silence, cultivating. After some time, I felt a presence behind me and turned around. Jia was still sleeping, Shimmer cuddled in her arms, but Ji was now walking up to the fire next to me.
“Hello, Astra.” He said.
“Hi Ji! Couldn’t sleep?” I asked him. He nodded. He sat down next to me on the log and we sat in silence for a few moments before he spoke up.
“You are a confusing girl, Astra.” he told me. I frowned.,
“Thanks?” I said more as a question than a statement.
“You cultivate both your spirit and your body, which was taught to you by your previous master, but according to your story, strong people on Setria 9 were not allowed to live unfettered from The Collective. Furthermore, I catch you talking to yourself sometimes. Then there’s your rapid body cultivation speed and I assume your fast spirit cultivation speed. You’re an enigma, and I understand if you wish to keep parts of you secret, but I would also like it if you trusted me more.” He said.
His words cut into me. I had been lying to him and it didn’t feel good. I felt he was trustworthy, and he had never done anything to betray my trust. I decided to take a leap of faith.
“Get comfortable Ji, I’ll tell you some secrets, but you’ll have to understand I don’t want just anyone knowing this stuff.” I told him. He fidgeted for a moment and then settled, and I began my story again from the beginning. Like Jia, he stayed silent during the story and once the story was done, I stayed silent, gauging his reaction.
“Thank you for telling me, Astra. I understand why you would have kept this from me, but I also appreciate you telling me and trusting me. I will not betray your trust, and I will keep your secret safe with me.” He said. I smiled warmly at him.
“Thanks.” I said to him. We sat there in silence for a few minutes until he got up and went back to bed.
“Goodnight Astra.” he said.
“Goodnight Ji.” I said.
He went to lay down and I sat in silence contemplating the recent events in my life. I had made new friends, broken through to the body training stage, helped a caravan travel through forests, and helped a village rebuild somewhat. I was feeling optimistic about the future and hopeful that my journey forward would continue to be just as exciting as it had so far.