As a captain of the City Guard, Valley Tiger had a mansion in the Cloudgold District. It was near the richest part of the city, full of sculpted green trees and ornamental ponds, the streets underfoot paved with square flagstones of white granite. Even in the dead of night guards made regular patrol under lantern streetlights, and Booker had no chance of setting foot inside without first identifying himself at the gated walls of the district.

In truth, even a ‘mansion’ within Mantis City was crowded in on all sides by its neighbors. Valley Tiger’s house was taller than it was wide, with a brick fence surrounding a small yard. Unlike the neighboring houses with their dainty gardens, the crass Valley Tiger had an entirely different view of beauty: he allowed his yard to run wild, the trees choked and dying underneath the weight of the furred green vines wrapped around them, hand-shaped leaves and vivid purple flowers hanging down.

It could have been mistaken for mere neglect, but Booker knew better. These were the species of the lower valleys, the flowers and plants of the untamed forests.

It was the dead of night, but the guard standing at the door was still alert.

“Greetings.” Booker held up a hand. “I’m sorry to come so late, but I think my uncle will want to know I’m alive.”

“Ah, but this is good news. You’re the nephew, Valley Rain, no? We’ve been waiting for news.” The guard bowed his head. “I’ll go and wake him up. Come inside.”

— — —

The maids and servants of the house were up before Valley Tiger was, and Booker was brought an orange-and-ginger infused tea to stave off the cold, along with herb-crusted chicken served with a spicy curried sauce. He ate hungrily, cleaning off two bowls by the time Valley Tiger slouched downstairs in a plain linen robe. Sitting down, Valley Tiger gestured to the servant, “Get us some wine and go back to bed.”

When she left, his eyes turned to Booker, waiting to hear why his nephew had suddenly appeared in the middle of the night.

“Assassins came for me at the hospital.” Booker saw no point in chatting idly. Their relationship had always been strained. Valley Tiger had been passed over for the Valley clan’s inheritance, an inheritance he’d been forced to watch his nephew squander and lose.

But his actions have always been consistent with protecting a future for our family. Now that I’ve struck down Zheng Bai and proved I have a future, we might find some middle ground.

Valley Tiger snorted, and clear anger flashed across his face. “I’m surprised they found the nerve. I thought they might try something when they barred me from visiting, and I made myself clear on the consequences it would bring.”

The servant reentered, bringing a pitcher of wine and filling two bowls. When she was gone, Booker asked, “You said back then that Zheng Bai had connections to the Sect. Who?”

“Instructor Frostwind was her backer.” Valley Tiger said. “But I know him too well to see his hand behind this. His style would be to raise up a replacement for Zheng Bai, then arrange for them to kill you in the open, so that your death will serve as a warning to others.”

“Hmm.” Booker nodded. “Thunderhymn is the one who took the weapon I used. He seems to be afraid of the idea spreading…”

“He’s more the type. When he believes there’s a threat, he rushes to act out of panic. Making someone vanish quietly, that’s his style.” Valley Tiger nodded. “But it hardly matters who. You don’t have the strength for retribution, not against the Sect’s Instructors. If one wants you dead badly enough, you have no choice but to shelter in another’s shadow.”

I’m not so sure about that. I managed to break into Graysky’s chambers, and he didn’t have the alchemical skill to notice I’d slipped him a poison pill. Cultivators can still die.

But that won’t do much on its own. You can tear up the weeds in the garden all day, if nothing else grows, they’ll soon return. Even if these Instructors are mortal, the Sect is in it’s own way immortal. I can’t fight the Sect.

“I’ll take that under advisement. For now? I’ll be finding a quiet place beyond the Sect’s eyes and laying low. Whatever comes next, I can’t face it like this.” Booker explained. The conversation so far had been civil, and he was glad for that. His choice to trust Valley Tiger despite their differences had at least started to close the gap between them.

“But once I’ve recovered…” Booker continued. “I think I have a way of breaking through my barriers and making another try at becoming a cultivator. Once I have the strength to defend myself, I’ll return, pretending that I've been hidden away in the forests of the upper Sect the whole time, and try to settle this matter with the Instructors using my new status as a disciple as a bargaining chip. Greenmoon doesn’t technically own my soul until Master Ping signs it over. I’d prefer not to betray him, but if he won’t offer me shelter and the full status of a disciple, I will seek other patrons.”

Mantis City is still the best chance I have to learn cultivation. The unsettled wildlands beyond this valley are perilous to anyone below the third stage of cultivation, so…

I should try not to be driven out into that wilderness until I’m ready.

Valley Tiger nodded, pausing to slug down a heavy gulp of wine. “Good. If you can, win your moment of glory and use it as an opportunity to bury this whole matter. There’s no peace to be found in striving against those above you. The heavens don’t change lightly. In this matter… I can offer some assistance. Especially since you’ll need to provide some explanation for where you’ve been until then. Last I checked, you were still under restriction to the Sect’s halls.”

Booker was surprised, but nodded his head gratefully.

Valley Tiger’s opinion of me really has changed.

“I am… but I can’t obey that restriction without dying, so I’ll have to break one more rule and hope to repair the damage later. In the end, I think there’s not much future for me with so many Instructors seeing me as a troublemaker. Perhaps I can repair that reputation, but if not… I should find other options.”

Valley Tiger nodded, letting him continue.

“Well, there’s no reason for my future to be bound in with the Sect. I heard that the City Lord sometimes pays to take away promising students and add them to his retinue.” It was a long shot, but it was his best way of cleanly severing from the Sect’s manipulation. If he simply vanished, they’d likely hunt him down unless he was willing to leave these mountains behind entirely.

And it meant relying on Valley Tiger.

“It’s not impossible. But it’s close, especially for you.” Valley Tiger grunted, neither offering to help nor rejecting the idea outright. “The City Lord’s first requirement is that you break through to the first stage of cultivation within two years of joining the Sect, and reach the third in another two.”

Deadlines I’ve long since failed. Booker acknowledged. But he lifted his gaze, meeting Valley Tiger’s eyes. Still, I have something nobody else does – the book, and the family secrets you’ve been protecting all these years.

“It occurs to me, most people seeking his favor don’t have any other way to prove their value. I have family in his service and alchemical talents that exceed my cultivation.” He said, before baiting the hook.”And I have my grandfather’s teachings. The amulet has finally reacted to me.”

At that Valley Tiger was brought short, instantly asking, “The amulet responded? What did it…” But he cut himself off before he could ask what was within.

If you hadn’t offered to help already… I would have kept this a secret. But trust deserves trust.

Booker answered anyway. “Valley Rain’s talisman-craft is within. Not all of it. I still don’t know how he struck down the Red-Eyed Plague with my father, and many of his personal techniques are likely not within. I only have a starting point to follow where he led. But given time, I should be able to learn.”

The art of talisman-making had been the basis of many prominent families within the valley, not just his own. When the Lao-Hain had first conquered these lands, they had intermarried with the blood of the valley to learn these secrets, trading a voice in the new kingdom for the ancient roots of the natives.

But when the power of the Lao-Hain had been broken by the encroaching Hutan Empire, and the Mantis Sect had begun to grow from its humble origins, they had taken extreme measures to suppress what was now the source of the Lao-Hain Tribe’s strength.

The art of talismans wasn’t strictly prohibited as it had been fifty years ago. But almost all of its foundations had been annihilated during that time, and cultivation arts took a great deal of time to be reborn.

This was like finding a flower growing after a forest fire. A persistent memory, refusing to die.

Valley Tiger nodded, his face knitted with concentration. “Our family still holds some remnant of its deep roots in the valley and the Lao-Hain. The Snow Tribe in particular, they owe us. Keep your identity hidden, rely on your name as little as possible, but draw on your roots if you have to. In fact, the Snow Tribe keeps a shrine you should visit. I’ll give you a letter to deliver to them.”

"Just remember... being a member of the Valley Tribe carries duties as well as benefits."

“Ink!” He called. The conversation took an uncomfortable pause as a maid came in to grind ink, and the silence held as he wrote carefully on a piece of crisp-pressed expensive paper. Folding it into an envelope, he sealed the wax in place and passed it to Booker.

After a pause, Valley Tiger simply changed the subject. “You said you’d break through your barriers soon. When you do… Do you remember when I first tried to teach you?”

Booker almost snorted, Rain’s memories of the time surging up and filling his mouth with a sour taste.

Those memories had been seared into him by the weight of Valley Tiger’s fury at his useless disciple.

This all happened soon after they’d arrived in Mantis City, but Rain’s mother had already begun to sicken and vanish away under a low, constant fever. Rain and his family knew they could only hope to win acceptance from the Sect before she died, or they’d eventually exhaust their money and fade into Mantis City’s backdrop of poverty: another family of refugees forced to sell off their inheritance and forget their roots.

Even the most powerful families of the valley were one talentless generation away from poverty. Even looking at the Valley family, their own grandfather had ascended and become a patriarch of his own small tribe despite being a bastard, because no legitimate heir could present any cultivation talent to equal his own.

Rain and his sister had practiced desperately for the entrance exam. And the only one who could teach them was, naturally, Valley Tiger.

“I wasn’t ready then.” Booker admitted.

Valley Tiger looked unamused at that description. No doubt his memories were more slanted towards his own struggles to break into the City Lord’s employment, and the frustrating footnote of his nephew, the family’s chosen inheritor, refusing to display the least talent for cultivation.

“The family’s techniques are your birthright. If… If you can truly break through your barriers and reach cultivation…” He slowly agreed. “Then I can make a second attempt to pass on our family’s legacy. As for helping you find the City Lord’s eye, he’s not the kind to fill his retinue with sons and nephews at a word, but you may have another path to follow. The Young Lord Xi paid me a visit not long ago to ask about your condition.”

“Ah, the Young Lord who spoke up at the auction?”

“The same.” Valley Tiger confirmed. “He’s an… eccentric. But his word carries more weight with his father than any of his brothers.”

“Eccentric is good. The usual way of doing things doesn’t suit me.” Booker said, before bowing his head and rising from his seat. “Thank you for the advice and counsel. I’ll return when I’ve found my cultivation.”

Valley Tiger rose as well. For a moment he looked at Booker, as if deciding what to say… Then he nodded, grunted once in acknowledgement, and left.

Well… That went better than expected, actually.

The most important thing now is that I lie low, and don’t start any more conflicts with the Sect’s higher-ups…

I need to just vanish and let this blow over.

— — —

Booker made his way back to his apartment in the city, wearing a mask and taking pains to avoid the main roads. The busy markets were full of excitement – the Sect’s examinations had concluded and the Instructors had accepted a new batch of students, and even now, these newly-minted disciples were celebrating in the drinking houses with the friends and family who had helped them travel to Mantis City. There was an air of celebration, raucous laughter from friends who were soon fated to part, and hope for the futures they were headed for.

Of course, fights broke out like wildfires as the new disciples brawled to see who was strongest, but these were childish and free-spirited tumbles which were as likely to end a new friendship as a rivalry. The ambitions and pressures of the Sect had yet to infect these innocent brawls between the young.

Booker smiled softly to himself.

This is how martial arts should be.

When he reached his humble apartment, he went around the back, cautiously opening the door on its creaking hinge and sending Snips inside. When the mantis returned and hopped about his hand, Booker pushed the door fully open and stepped inside.

I can’t be too cautious these days…

He lifted his bedroll and slapped the dust off of it, then laid it back down, settling himself in the lotus position. The exhaustion from being overhealed was still with him, a fog cloud of weight and numbness that drifted over his thoughts, but he pushed it aside.

What next…

I need to get in contact with Fen, then the Lao-Hain… Maybe stay with them for a while, if I can, or find some village that will host me in exchange for medicine. Either way, it’ll be best to be somewhere nobody from the Sect can recognize me… As long as I’m not caught outside the Sect’s walls, I can retain my freedom.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

The seal the cultivator from the Upper Sect gave me is still burning a hole in my pocket. I should keep ahold of it for now, until this crisis is over, because I might need it to bail me out… After all, they may not have proof I ever left the Sect, but the Instructors could still choose to punish me for abandoning my duties.

On the other hand there’s no sense in holding onto it forever.

So after I resolve this matter with the Instructors, I should bring it out and ask for the components I need to improve my Dialyze…

Sacred Technique: Kirin-Tear Dialyze

One must have a reversed soul to use this technique, with a fiery Yin and watery Yang. This technique expresses the Yang of water, which dissolves, disperses, and purifies all it touches.

The phoenix kirin-tear dialyze is an alchemist sourcewater technique, a rare counterpart to heartflame technique. It is used to prepare ingredients to the highest quality, cutting them apart with more delicacy than any knife could hope to match, while scouring away any impurities.

Sourcewater techniques are less common and less researched than heartflame techniques, and Yang sourcewater almost unheard of, but appear to gather strength from exposure to pure water and ice substances, absorbing their natures. Sourcewater, no matter how strong, will never directly harm living matter, but can be used to purify it. Purifying living beings can damage their meridians, and once a Yang sourcewater has absorbed other Yang waters, it becomes possible to cripple an enemy’s cultivation with this technique.

One of two sacred techniques contained within this book.

The ability to break someone’s cultivation without harming them…

If I have that power, I never need to worry about killing someone accidentally. I can take away their power to harm others and throw them back into the mortal world…

Even then I should be cautious about using such a power, but it’s better than just… hoping my enemies reform themselves because I beat their faces bloody. There’s no way that would have worked on Zheng Bai, but… breaking her cultivation would have left her alive to face justice, and her sponsors in the Sect would have immediately abandoned her. An ideal resolution.

He paused, considering for a moment…

I should also work on finding some high-tier medicines. There’s no way around it. Bribery is a better strategy than innocence around here. If I can make a present to Greenmoon and maybe to Instructor Eastlight as well, I’ll solidify my alliance. Nothing so exotic they question where I get it – something that can be explained when I show my ‘connection’ to the Upper Sect.

Crossing the room, he went to the box of medicines he’d stored here long ago. Although the heavenly aromas had gone slightly stale as he lifted the lid, the ingredients within were still in good condition. He had only used a few things from this particular box before he found it difficult to return – there was plenty of good stuff left.

And I have two more materials boxes waiting to be cracked open if this one doesn’t contain what I need.

Quest: Repairing Your Life

Goal: Create a Seven-Times Purified Charcoal Pill and use it to repair your poisoned body.

Reward: Materials Box

Quest: Break the Thread

Goal: End Zheng Bai’s Influence Over You

Reward: Materials Box.

Quest: A Birthright Recovered

Goal: Reclaim Rain’s heritage amulet at the auction in 0 days.

Reward: Materials Box.

Quest: Right the Wrong

Goal: Hunt the Murderer Behind the Boy in the Wall.

Reward: Materials Box.

Quest: Pillar of the Community

Goal: Earn the respect of 3 (0/3) elders among the Lao-Hain tribe.

Reward: Spirit Refining Pill.

Quest: Local Flavor

Goal: Create 5 (0/5) different medicines from plants and ingredients local to the Lower Mantis Valley.

Reward: Apprentice Page.

Quest: The First Breath

Goal: Reach the Stage of Refined Muscle, Fat, and Skin

Reward: Body Refining Pill

Quest: Purification of the Body.

Goal: Eat nothing but spiritual food for 7 (7/7) days.

Reward: 10-Hour Practice Token.

Quest: Conquer the Stone

Goal: Break 1 (0/1) of the practice stones used by the cultivators to test their strength.

Reward: Karmic Pill

Booker smiled. Like always, the book took his current route and littered it with quests, finding what he already planned to do and giving ‘advice’ on the course he should take to get there. In this case he was headed for the Lao-Hain, and the book seemed to think it was a good idea to develop allies there.

The Sect…

Maybe my future isn’t here. Fleeing now would end with my bones being picked clean by wild beasts but… If I can cultivate for at least a year, I should be able to survive out there long enough to reach another mecca of cultivation.

Reaching into the medicine chest, Booker took out the dried stems, leaves, and flowers from within, sorting them onto the floor in a constellation of rich-scented medicines.

Fragrant Plum Branch

Intact (Dried) / Dull Quality

A branch that bore a fruit of spiritual quality, and is faintly imbued with spiritual properties as a result. Preserved by monks to concentrate the power into the thin veins of living pith that remain within.

Alluring Fragrance 15% (-)

Soul Strengthening 5% (+)

Toxicity and Potency 10% (-)

Qi Recovery 5% (+)

A really valuable find. Soul Strengthening is super rare. And it adds potency, with no negative effects to worry about. The most foolish thing you could do is use it for Qi Recovery…

Mud-Realm Ferroflowers

Rare grasses made of living metal, which blossom only in vast chemical bogs where the very water will corrode mere flesh. They drink from this poison sea, absorbing the qi of dying life, and ultimately produce these flowers.

Intact / Earth Quality

Qi Recovery 15% (-)

Demon Hallucinations 5% (Metal)

Corrosive Poison 10% (-)

Cultivation Boost 25% (Earth)

Additional Effect: Balance: Add 20% Potency. (If you have at least one complete elemental wheel for each ingredient with the Balance tag, you gain the Balance effect.)

The actual flower was a pretty decent prize, with its high cultivation boost effect, but the Balance condition was even more mouth-watering. Still. What's useful to me in the future isn't necessarily what's useful to me now. The truth is, this medicine only helps with cultivation. It will be a prize in the near future -- but for now, humbler herbs are more useful to me directly.

Burning Moth Chrysalis

Intact // Dull-Quality

Chrysalis left behind by a burning moth's development from a larval stage. Traditionally ground and inhaled as a battle stimulant.

Cultivation Boost 5% (+)

Element Nullification 10% (-)

Cold-Proofing 25% (+)

Agonizing Stimulant 5% (-)

Things like this... it can be used to make you fireproof, even letting you be enveloped by flames without burning. That's something I can work with.

Shadowbell Pistil

Intact // Dull-Quality

The delicate inner organ of the shadowbell, which drips a poison that conceals, drawing shadows to hide the drinker.

Shadow Concealment 10% (-)

Toxicity and Potency 5% (-)

Necrotizing Poison 10% (-)

Necrotizing Poison 20% (+)

And this one is the second best thing to an invisibility pill. Shadows will surround me and hide me from sight. If I wanted to go another route I could even transform it into a pretty deadly poison, but that's pretty cold-hearted. Letting someone rot from the inside out...

It's an awful way to die, even accepting that most ways to die are awful.

He set aside the chrysalis and the shadowbell pistil, beginning to chop and prepare them. The chrysalis he cleaned carefully, removing the trace organic matter that would cause the agonizing stimulant effect, a toxic dust that clung to the actual fibres of silk. Those fibres had to be carefully unwound under hot water, and gathered around a twig like spinning pasta around a fork, careful not to break or harm the translucent silks.

The shadowbell pistil had to be cut, and processed by weighing it under small stones until the juices leaked from the toxic flower. Then they would need to be refined several times, soaking them through sand and gravel in a porous cloth to make a simple filter that would remove any lingering poison.

As he worked the ingredients, Booker found himself hampered by his lack of a right thumb. With his good right hand essentially unable to hold a knife or do many tasks, he had to rely on his less trained left hand, and while the book still provided crystal clear understanding of what he needed to do, his actual ability to follow through was a struggle this time as never before. He was trying to slice up the shadowbell's stalk to squeeze the sap out of the split halves, but the knife was too loose and too clumsy in his left hand, slipping and making uneven cuts. Booker clicked his tongue in irritation. What would his old master think, looking at this butchered root?

I can't afford to get sloppy. Booker squeezed out the last of the juices, dripping them into a small glass vial and going to wash the burning residue from his gloves. Even through the fabric, he was beginning to feel an irritated itch.

The chrysalis, he set up to dry under the sun. That done, he stepped back from the counter in satisfaction. The brief stint of alchemy was a balm to his worried soul: it gave him a chance to center and focus himself. As the hours passed and the ingredients became ready, he simply sat and meditated, considering his options with his eyes closed and his breathing held to a steady, slow rhythm.

I can do this. I’ve already found many allies within the Sect. Now, I have to look ouside.t for myself for a little while, unlock my cultivation, and return. I should be out of the city before dawn – they might tell the guards to watch for me if I wait any longer. And I’m definitely playing a dangerous game, leaving the Sect when there’s a prohibition against me and the people in charge of enforcing the rules want me gone…

But…

Maybe I could rest for a few hours. In the early morning there will be more people moving in and out the gates, and my mask will attract less attention.

More than that, I’m just exhausted. Being fed so many healing medicines and spending so long in bed has left me weakened, and I don’t know when I’ll recover…

But at that moment, there was a knock at the door.

Booker jolted out of his meditations, standing up and immediately glancing towards the opposite door. He could vanish out the back but…

Knocking instead of bursting through suggested there was still some salvaging the situation. He didn’t want to put on his mask here… If they knew who rented this apartment, he’d be revealing his other identity. Instead, he carefully went to the door and called out, “Who’s there?”

“Rain, open up. It’s Xan.” The familiar heavy growl of Rain’s near-giant friend was a welcome sound. “And Fen’s with me.”

Booker didn’t need any more convincing. As he unbolted the door, he bit back a last concern – were they being forced into this? Were there enforcers waiting behind them, knives to their backs? No, you’re just being paranoid. And paranoia won’t help you now. This kind of situation isn’t as simple as distrusting everyone – it’s about who you do trust.

And indeed, as Xan and Fen entered – Xan bearing a huge bruise beneath his eye – there was no sign of the phantom enforcers he was worried about. Instead, Xan grabbed him and dragged him into a bear-hug that made his bones pop and creak. When he was released, Fen was hiding a smile behind a paper fan.

“It’s good to see you awake. I snuck into the hospital once or twice, but you were in a deep sleep.” Fen said simply.

“Ah, yeah. I really…” Booker grimaced.

“You really stuck your foot in it good.” Fen agreed with the unspoken statement. “I mean, some could call fighting a cultivator heroic. But I think a bit of caution would have done you well.”

“You fucking idiot.” Xan agreed. “You nearly died. Still – killing a cultivator? Rain, they’re scared of you. They destroyed all the black powder they could find.”

“So I’ve heard.” Booker agreed. “But I think only some of them, otherwise, I probably wouldn’t be alive.”

“Precisely.” Fen agreed again. “I think most of the Sect is willing to dismiss it as a fluke. The danger is that we know it was no such thing. The next time you do something extraordinary… more of them will come around to seeing you as a threat.”

Booker nodded. Fen guessed I have some secret luck of my own, and suggested he himself had a similar lucky encounter in his past. He knows exactly the dance I have to follow here, excelling without bringing down the greed and jealousy of the elders.

“The question is, what can I do? My plan is to lie low outside the city and come back as a cultivator. Then, I’ll be something they recognize and understand, not a threat at all, but a student.”

Xan patted his shoulder. “That’s our plan as well. Rain, we’re here to get you out of the city. I don’t know about cultivation… have your old problems cleared away?”

Booker went to the medicine shelf and took down the jars of herbs, flowers, and other alchemicals, setting them down. “I need seven medicines. I have five. Fen, you said…”

Fen smiled slightly, his fan sweeping open again with a click to conceal the emotion. “I am a man of my word. I’ll help you acquire a sixth.”

“And I know where I can lay hands on a seventh outside the city. Once I have those, I’ll be ready.”

“Good.” Xan nodded. “Then I believe you’ll achieve your goals. Without a doubt! You’ll be a cultivator by this time next month, Rain. I know how long you’ve wanted that. You just got lost, and shadows covered your eyes from the path. But this time? I know you. You’re different now.”

You don’t know how true that is… But I’ll take your kind words in the spirit they were meant. Booker thought, smiling a distant smile. As they both stood in his apartment, offering words of planning and encouragement…

He bowed to them, lowering his head.

“I’m grateful for your support, Elder Brothers. I can’t tell you how grateful, except to say, someday I’ll be as good an ally to you two as you’ve been to me.”

“Ah, get up.” Xan lips twitched with amusement. “You’re embarrassing me.”