MIN GROUP
Linghe was thoroughly entertained by the entire exchange between Jia, Shu, and Yi-Wen. As a specter, he could watch the full scene with the luxury of walking about the ‘stage’. Walking close up to the actors and making faces behind the fumbling royal cultivator when he bumbled through trying to be intimidating with his fake name and purpose. It was the most fun he had the entire trip from Scholar’s terrace, aside from watching the siblings play shows. He nearly made Jia crack a smile while making faces as Yi-Wen spoke. It was minuscule, but he was sure he saw the beginning of a smile on her face.
Casually observing specters was a landmark Ling sect skill. When he was still a mortal Linghe had perfected it. For him, the inauspicious and the mundane existed in the same field of vision with almost the same quality, the difference between them indistinguishable, but he knew them to be separate innately. At that moment, as he watched Yi-Wen clear his throat and begin to tell them what they wanted to know, Linghe wondered what Jia and Shu perceived. Was he as tangible to them as Yi-Wen was? He thought upon their previous interactions so intensely for a moment he almost forgot to listen to Yi-Wen’s explanation.
He had already missed a portion of it, so he refocused his efforts.
“...So carrying out the ritual is the best way to solve everything.” Yi-Wen confidently placed his hands on his hips. “I already have the capital’s treasure, which is good because I can’t think of anything to replace it.” As Yi-Wen finished. Linghe narrowed his eyes and looked to Jia who sighed.
“Has anyone ever told you, that you explain things poorly?” She looked directly at Linghe. “I understand you think the prosperity ritual will end the famine-”
“And the recent surge in livestock infertility.” Yi-Wen interjected.
“But that is not a plan.” Shu finished. “A plan has a sequence of steps you can follow.”
“There are steps! Each one is gathering a relic I need and then the last step is going to the proper mountain.” He held each finger on his right hand up as he spoke, outlining the five pieces he needed without any details. Frustrated, the siblings massaged their foreheads. After a moment, Shu looked at Jia and they both looked over to Linghe.
“Can you give us a moment?” Shu asked taking Jia aside for a moment and turning away from Yi-Wen. Linghe walked over to them.
“So, what shall you do?” The teacher was practically beaming with excitement.
“We came over here to ask you that. His quest is definitely going to fail if he can’t even navigate.” Shu started.
“And he floundered every time he got asked a question when he was trying to blend with the troupe.” Jia followed.
“Ha! You practically crafted his cover for him with the troupe.” Linghe finished. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Getting directly involved in their decision making was probably not the best idea. Free will, destiny and such. “If you weren’t transporting the tomes what would you do?”
They all looked over at Yi-Wen, who was confusedly looking back at them.
“We would be advising him to leave the country and join a monastery.” They answered in unison. Linghe blinked a few times, incredulous of his own ears. The two took a deep breath after having made up their minds.
“Fine,” Shu turned around first. “You,”
“Me?” Yi-Wen pointed to himself.
“Are a bumbling fool. There must be nothing up there but morality mantras and cultivation techniques.” Tapping his forehead, Shu mocked him. Yi-Wen raised his hand several times for rebuttal, but found himself dumbfounded.
“We are probably the first batch of cultivators you have even seen since you escaped and we already know everything about what you are trying to do.” Jia added.
“If we were assassins, we would already know too much.” Shu followed.
They continued dressing him down back and forth until they felt he understood how many mistakes he managed to make already. Linghe watched, fascinated by their thought process. The sect leader had picked some rather bright practitioners for him to observe. He had not managed to see much of what they could do yet, but a quest, especially a big one, would probably require a great display of skill. The only drawback at the moment was that they might expose themselves to more than just Yi-Wen.
While he was away, the whole damn sect had fallen underfoot. An openly practicing Ling sect member was a marked man. Up to this point, all he had been able to observe were Shu and Jia taking on random ghosts in the mountains, small ghoul jobs for villages, and one or two house excorcisms. At no point did they reveal their names or sect. It was a frustrating existence watching his former sect operate like moles coming up for food. If he had been paying more attention, none of this would have happened.
Linghe snapped back to attention, again. His brain accustomed to a pattern of serious focus and introspective tangents. The three were staring at each other with an odd intensity. He tapped his chin with the tips of his fingers, as he pondered on whether he spent entirely too much time lost in his own thoughts. He couldn’t even recall why they were staring now.
“Well then,” The royal cultivator gathered his hand behind his back. “What do you suggest?”
“We have our own errand to attend to a bit further south towards Mt. Sheng. You accompany us on that errand and we will teach you how to get around. That should be enough time, and afterwards you can continue on your quest by yourself. Last we heard, the capital was looking for one person not three and then by the time we split they might expect you to have compatriots, but you’ll be alone.” Shu diagrammed the explanation with his hands.
“We travel a lot so we can give you more information about the people you are going to find crossing the countries.” The siblings at each other nodded in agreement. There was a lot to go over.
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“Countries?”
“Definitely, you mentioned the Drunken Orchard somewhere in that jumbled explanation and that is not in Cheng-chun.” Shu responded.
“Ah.” The royal cultivator nodded. His thoughts were maddening as the scope and scale of his undertaking inflated. He was becoming more and more aware of how ill-suited he was to do this alone. It was like he was inept by design. A palace feature ever since he was a young prodigy, the insulated nature of his station was becoming a great hindrance. Shockingly, he found himself divided: part of him thought Jia and Shu were a great boon from the dao and the other part was sure they were going to take advantage of him until he was dead on the side of the road or turned in for a reward.
While he decided, Linghe moved in for a closer look at their new traveling companion. He would guess Yi-Wen couldn’t be much older than nineteen or twenty. He was rather graceful in a way that Shu wasn’t, probably years of palace etiquette even though he spoke very plainly. As usual, his hair was partly pulled back and in top knot. Linghe tsked, jealous that he was wearing his cultivation on his sleeves while Ling sect was operating in darkness. If it weren’t for the bumbling from earlier he would have thought he looked rather intelligent. He could sense a rather high cultivation level though, so Linghe refrained from touching him until the last very last moment. When he was satisfied, Linghe reached out to touch the treasure the boy was hiding on his body. Heat radiated from the treasure and Yi-Wen quickly covered it with his hands. The specter’s eyebrows actually rose and froze on his face.
“He’s carrying around the Ruyi of Sangru like its a letter from a friend.” Linghe remarked and looked at Yi-Wen like he was a mad man. Jia held her composure, but Shu couldn’t.
“Also, why are you toting around something so dangerous?!”
“What are you doing to it to make it react this way?!” Yi-Wen retorted.
Linghe slapped a hand over his mouth, but it was much too late to take it back. Jia half-turned away, but laughed before she could. Watching the specter cover his mouth like a child in trouble was too much for how tense the situation was. Hand still on mouth, Linghe walked away from Shu and Yi-Wen starting up an argument. Taking a breath, Jia stopped laughing and watched Shu and Yi-Wen fight instead.
“Leaving you to your own devices is like leaving a baby bird that’s fallen out of its nest to the wolves!”
“At least that baby bird would be free of a pushy know-it-all like yourself!”
“I have a question before this argument starts in earnest,” Jia interrupted. “Are you coming with us or not?”
“I can’t come with you. Gathering things for the ritual is more important than whatever errand the two of you have. I need to head west toward Po.” Yi-Wen answered.
“The fool doesn’t even know how far south he is. It would be faster just to head to the Drunken Orchard from where we are! And mount Sheng is closer than that!” Shu’s words were quick on the heels of Yi-Wen’s answer.
“Wait...Where are we?” The Royal Cultivator paused.
“Let’s just stop and set-up camp for the night,” Shu waved hands in irritation. “then sort this out in the morning. Pick a tree your grace, any tree!” He mocked while shifting his own pack.
They are much more manageable asleep. Jia thought. Looking over Shu and Yi-Wen sleep on the siblings’ blankets for just a moment, she finally went back to her own nighttime routine. Linghe waited patiently for her to settle into her meditation. He could practically hear screaming in his communication array, but he had to wait until Jia took over night watch. He had been unable to inconspicuously leave with Shu projecting anywhere and everywhere at night. So tonight, he would just walk off while Jia meditated.
“Young Jiaxia, I am going to wander over there.” He pointed off in a northernly direction flippantly.
“Will you be returning to us in the morning?” She opened her eyes to give him her full attention.
“That is my intention. I have no business babysitting two perfectly good cultivators while they sleep. I have things I can do.” He wasn’t sure how easy being back in the morning would be, but he could try. She chuckled as quietly as possible.
“What does the specter of an old teacher do away from the sect?”
“Enlighten himself on what to do when one is away from the sect”
“Teacher does a lot of self-enlightenment. Shu and I will not be disquieted, should you be unable to return by morning.” She closed her eyes and went back to meditating. “I just don’t want to be reprimanded for not staying with teacher.”
“Well the sect leader does not need to know that I left then.”
“That is unfortunate because I will tell him that teacher has picked up a habit of abandoning us to go frolic.”
He opened his mouth for a moment to object, but the trees nearby rustled in an uncharacteristic fashion. “You wound me. I shall tend to myself over there.”
Jia stifled a laugh as he walked off.