As our heroes hunted through the wilds of the Juren Wuting, Xu Chasun arrived in the court of the great immortal, Ding Hui. As was normal, being an outer disciple he was not granted immediate audience with his lord. Instead, he stood here for the second hour explaining what had happened.

“You are telling me that some strangely dressed merchant who claimed to be a cook, and his friend were capable of taking down the two underlings you had assigned to you? That two base mortals were able to take down a foundation stage member of our sect? Where were you, staring at the sky and wishing you could fly, young Kestrel?”

The inner disciple was only a year older than him, but twice the size and built with muscle. Chasun gave a slight nod. “I had been asleep and they were gone by the time I woke. They chose to levy the toll upon the merchant and found themselves overwhelmed by the two of them and the merchant’s strange beast.”

“Overwhelmed by it? And why did you not swoop in ‌and show those mortals their place?”

“Senior brother, please forgive me, but I knew it would be a failing proposition. My cousins thought it to be a mere merchant when they approached but found that it was actually what I believe to be two cultivators. Tienye would not have been struck down in one strike by a mortal, and yet he was by the bedraggled one.”

“There is no exc-” the senior brother began to reprimand, but both were interrupted by the force of their army’s lord. Ding Hui the Immortal himself stood at the back of the inner disciple and pushed him aside with one jab of the pointer finger to the disciple’s side.

“Tell me about this bedraggled one with no cultivation easily detectable. Describe him, and tell me the whole story, Junior Sister Xu Chasun. You have done well in coming to me with this information. It may be the one I have searched wretched wastes for and built this army to deal with. Did you catch his name?”

“X-Xiang Hou Gen, eldest brother.”

The perpetually pallid skin of the cultivator known as the Great Immortal stretched to show a menacing grin, which promised violence on any in the world who crossed him. Chasun tried not to flinch when Eldest Brother Ding Hui placed a palm upon his shoulder and blessed him with the key to the immortals. Vital energy, chi itself, flowed into him and strengthened his core. Even as Chasun’s body tensed, channels throbbed, and heart raced he could not help but feel like he had done the right thing.

Ding Hui had built an army of cultivators from nothing, taking those with foundational cores and granting them greater heights which they could not otherwise reach within the energy wasteland of the Juren Wuting.

“Tell me more of where you last saw him, his associate, and the village which they deposited members of MY army at as if they were common bandits.”

***

The wilds of the region of Juren Wuting were not what Alfonso expected when he and Xiang Hou Gen had begun their trek through the area around Anhao Luzhou. From the largely foliage free road and region around the village, they now trekked through the foliage that seemed to have grown ten fold as soon as they passed the outskirts of the woodlands near the village.

“I wish I had a machete. Do people use machetes here?” Alfonso blabbered as he trudged through the wilderness with his companion.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Machete?” The way he pronounced each syllable made it clear to Alfonso that whatever was making it so that so much of speech was translated, and had even translated the name order of his name to local dialects – but which hadn't translated his spanish speech before, was not translating for this, either.

“It's... a broad single edged blade, forearm length or longer, normally with one edge.” Alfonso said it without losing his breath, keeping up with the quick steps of the cultivator and finding his footing easily by following the way Hou Gen moved ahead of him. He kept his eyes out for edible food stuffs as they went.

“Like a Dao or other sword?” The cultivator answered without even looking at the Texan, continuing his pace but clearly trying to rack his brain for this foreign word and its meaning. “It is a weapon?”

“Kinda... but it's mostly a tool to cut a path through overgrowth like this.” Alfonso answer came without a pause between it and Hou Gen's question, he really wished he had such a tool.

“Or maybe some sort of martial technique which can cut whole rows of foliage down in one swing?” Yes, it was from Pokemon, but Alfonso wouldn't put it past being a cultivation move either.

“Anything we leave in that manner only gives enemies a way to follow us, Al Fi. So why would we? Especially considering this field has done nothing to us. Not even slow us.”

“It has to have, it feels like it has.”

“It has been exactly six minutes and twenty three seconds since we left the outskirts of the village of Anhao Luzhou.”

“Six minutes? No way. Maybe like sixty, but no way it's been six. I can't even see the village.”

Hou Gen stopped to look at him, crossing his arms. “I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a fool when it comes to time.”

Alfonso shrugged and pulled out his phone from his pocket. He had checked the time before they left, and after fiddling with it to turn it on he suddenly was rewarded with the truth. Hou Gen was a human clock, it had been only six minutes.

“But we traveled at least four miles, and that's an hour's travel on good roads, none the less wilderness paths where you have to gamble on every step.”

“Yes, it has been about twelve li that we have traveled from the village, but that is normal for the likes of us. Enough talk, we hunt.”

The cultivator turned back in the direction he had originally focused and picked up his movement. He was silent to Alfonso from then on. The Texan couldn't even pick up the man's breathing as they moved.

He also could not lose the flood of thoughts that followed he likes of us? What did Hou Gen mean, and how was he keeping up with the man he knew was a cultivator?

Which was why he went from watching his step to stumbling forward. It was no surprise when he ran into a tree, but what did surprise him was the tree swaying from his unplanned headbutt. That made no sense, but neither did the monsoon of seeds that followed.

Alfonso called out to Hou Gen as he stared at those seeds. “Hou Gen! I’ve found something to gather.”

It was not a tree at all, he realized as he looked up at the palm tree-like growth he had stumbled into.

It was a bean vine that had grown into a stalk right out of a fairy tale, and it was covered with bean pods. As he began to gather the beans, he stopped to look again.

‘Why do these feel so sturdy and cool to the touch? They’re just red beans.’ He pondered. It made him question things and as he did he dug into some of the peppers he had gathered when he first arrived in Juren Wuting. Simply touching the skin of the pepper plant’s fruit felt his fingertips warm up like he held his hand over a roaring stove.

There was no fire when he moved his hand. He touched it again, to the same result and found himself wondering. What had happened to make these peppers hot to the touch? What had happened to him?