“I think one of us should be a leader,” Deng Ming stated, completely out of the blue. After Bai Guo had gotten a fire started, and we began to grill the fish to a state of edibility while forsaking taste, the Monk had returned with some groundnuts, fruit and roots, the poor, poor guy.

And now, Deng Ming was sending us teetering into in-fighting.

“Sounds good,” Lin Leng said with a simple shrug.

“Acceptable,” Bai Guo just said. “A captain would make responding to an abnormal situation that much more efficient. It is a good idea.”

“Okay,” I said. “So… who is it gonna be?”

Everyone kept quiet. Eventually, Wei Chow, having finished his fish, shrugged. “You, of course. You took charge in Jixing, delegated roles.”

“Telling people who to fight isn’t being a leader,” I argued. “Besides, we barely even know each other.”

“I know Bai Guo is of a lesser intellectual level,” Lin Leng said flatly.

“What does that mean?” Bai Guo asked.

“You are selectively gifted,” he explained. “I could give less of a damn commanding people. Wei Chow would probably trade us for a bowl of pork broth,” Wei Chow punched Lin Leng on the arm playfully. “The Monk is… is too good for us all. The rest are Deng Ming, you and Han Yu Jie.”

“I’ll opt out,” Han Yu Jie said. “I am more of an advisor, anyway.”

I turned to Deng Ming, searching for greed on his face. I barely saw any. “So… how about you?” I asked Deng Ming. “You want to be a leader?”

In a short moment of tension, Deng Ming considered it, before deciding to look down and shake his head. “No,” he said. “I fear that there is something which I’m lacking which prevents me from being a good leader. Perhaps I’m unable to deal with lack of obedience,” he said. “I don’t think I inspire devotion like you do.”

Dammit. Okay, now I was being saddled with responsibility. “If that’s what you all want?”

There was no dissent. “Then fine,” I said. “I’ll be your leader.”

Han Yu Jie made a show of applauding. I threw her a tired grin and she smiled back. She was… pleasant, for a lack of better words.

000

When Monkey opened his eyes, everything in his chambers had been reduced to piles of ash lying about, the remains of the possessions he had stored inside it. It was nothing important, merely books to keep him entertained, a bed which he could easily requisition once more, and some middling artworks that he had robbed from the Capital Museum. The world probably wept for their loss.

Then again, he had stolen them because they were expensive, not because he had any attachment to the artistic style. None of that really mattered, now, since it had all become ash before his Divine Fire.

He had done it. The Divine Fire had finally become his. It would only have become his after he processed his grief, so in his State of Enlightenment, while fending off certain death from the heat of his little flame core, he arranged the memories of his beloved Mentor and reviewed them one by one before immortalizing his legacy, burning the emotions related to the memories in the Divine Fire.

He still venerated his mentor, but now, that veneration would not inhibit him by turning into grief. A milestone achieved, he was in the mood to celebrate…

…right when one of Tian Mo’s retainers entered his room, completely uninvited. “Lord Tian Mo wishes to speak with you.”

Monkey obeyed quietly. When it came to anyone but his Mentor, treating anything lightly was utterly frowned upon, and that included Tian Mo. Troublesome, but it wasn’t as though he was incapable of ever leaving the mountain if he so desired.

He followed the retainer, going through the winding hallways of the mountain cave network before appearing before the war-room where Tian Mo often frequented.

He turned around to see Monkey in. “Ah, it is good to see you.”

Monkey nodded. It was always strange seeing Tian Mo. He barely looked older than himself, who had just turned twenty, yet he was capable of making his mentor behave obediently, something no one else could possibly do. He gave the man a martial salute, as he was due. “Likewise.”

Tian Mo patted Monkey on his shoulder and smiled comfortingly. “It is a shame what happened to your mentor. He was a great warrior, an excellent addition to the cause. He will be missed.”

Monkey nodded, having already processed his grief. “I saw him as a father.” Tian Mo nodded once.

“Hm. Now… is there something you would like for me to know?”

Monkey nodded. “I have awakened to my element. It was not the Flames of Destruction, but the-“

“Divine Fire,” Tian Mo said, his voice almost sounding solemn, and not the fake emotion he always liked to affect. “Your usefulness has suddenly sky-rocketed.” The callous tone of his proclamation immediately set Monkey on edge. “Very well. Whatever realization you stumbled upon, it was obviously an effective one. The Divine Fire is a remnant of the will of the very Heavens. Though you do not command the same might, you definitely do have the Heavens guiding your cultivation. Saddling you with a mentor at this juncture would be less than helpful to your progress.”

When he hadn’t spoken for five heartbeats, Monkey asked his question. “What do you suggest that I do?”

“See the world,” Tian Mo shrugged. “See all the sights. Take revenge. Your opponent is a strong one; Thunder Mountain’s very own disciple. He is even more talented than you, having awakened the element of Divine Lightning. As you are now, he would easily kill you, but with more training, you could easily turn him into ash and dump his remains in a latrine.”

The mental image did bring a smile to his face.

“And,” Monkey said. “I will get stronger as I roam.”

“That is the way of the Jianghu,” Tian Mo said. “Besides, it’s unhealthy for youth to stay cooped up indoors all day. Go show the world what you’re made of.”

Monkey summoned a tiny ball of fire from the tip of his index finger, and had it fly in figure eights around each finger before circling back. Yes, that would be fun. After he was done with the Thunder Mountain bastard, he would make the woman that blinded his mentor scream.

He could hardly even contain himself.

000

“Check what I can do!” Wei Chow said from behind as his horse whinnied. Suddenly, it shot past my own, which was walking sedately. He was standing on top of his horse, somehow keeping balance despite the unstable footing he had found himself in.

Next to me, Han Yu Jie slowly stood up on her own horse, and barely even corrected her stance as balance came naturally to her. With a slight tap of her feet, the horse shot forward, and she barely even lurched with the change in velocity.

How the fuck were they doing that?

Next to me, Deng Ming rode up, shaking his head in exasperation. “They’re just wasting their Chi. What if something comes up?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Wait, Chi?”

He looked at me, perplexed. “Wait, your Mentor didn’t teach you the different Chi skills?”

I shook my head. “She was still trying to cram the basics down my head, mostly because I guess I’m a little… slow? Either way, I don’t have much of a problem listening, since her methods have born fruit.”

Deng Ming nodded. “At risk of undoing your Mentor’s hard work, I will refrain from explaining.”

“No,” I said. “Tell me. What the hell is it they’re doing?”

He took a few moments to probably weigh the pros and cons before nodding. “Stabilization,” he said. “It’s a Chi skill that helps you lower your center of gravity. If most of your weight is concentrated on your feet, and if you also lighten at the same time, you won’t be thrown off from the horse, and the horse won’t be damaged by the pressure exerted by two feet alone.”

Lightening and Stabilization. The former had to be what the Monk and Mentor used to jump so high. If Lightening worked by, well, reducing one’s weight, and weight was basically downward force, then…

I tried to think about making my Chi push me upwards. It was very wasteful as the Chi lifted me up only slightly before exiting my pores, blowing a hole through my reserves, but it was useful.

If only I had known how to Lighten… who knows how fast I would have been? Maybe I’d take out twice as many combatants? No, that didn’t sound very plausible. After all, even lighter on my feet, I would probably have used valuable Chi meant for hardening my own body. I had tanked a lot of hits with my own body, and compromising on personal defense would no doubt have seen a close-quarters-combatant like myself dead long before I could have fought (or been beaten the shit out of) by the Dragon of the East.

“Okay,” I said to him. “What are the other Chi skills that you know of?”

“There are nine basics,” he said. “Sharpening, Hardening, Lightening, Guiding, Stabilization, Deflection, Amplification, Climbing and Resonance. I would advice for you to wait for your Mentor’s go-ahead before trying to learn any of them. There are a series of more advanced techniques afterwards, but those are the basic nine.”

“How many have you learnt?” I asked.

He sighed. “My Mentor… didn’t teach me anything, actually. It was probably one of his tests, but… everything I know comes from books and manuscripts. They contain flowery language, but the idea is to not be so subjective that only a select few can comprehend. It makes for tedious reading, but so far, I’ve been doing well. I know Sharpening and Lightening. I believe Lin Leng and the Monk knows them all, but Chi techniques do not make up for raw power.”

Of course. Mentor would never lead me astray. If she didn’t deem the Chi techniques too important for me to learn, I would just keep doing what I was already good at. The Martial Path I was traveling down had already given me proven results. It would be best not to try and covet something else.

Then, I heard the unmistakable whistle of arrows flying. Before it could strike the mid-center of my horse, I caught the arrow and snapped it with a clench of my fist, I turned to the direction of the fired arrow. “From the treeline!” I yelled, jumping off the horse, slapping it harshly on its thigh to get it running away.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Bai Guo’s Guan Dao was already in his hand, pulled behind him as he ran towards the treeline. “This is for Old Ma!”

True to his words, the horse that was unmistakably named ‘Ma’ was on the road, bleeding from the arrow wound stuck to its head. The bandits began to jump from the trees, getting past Bai Guo’s barreling form. Han Yu Jie and Wei Chow returned with their own horses, before jumping off to join the fray while more arrows were fired from the inside of the forest.

“Dammit!” I shouted. “Chase the horses away!”

Before they could do so, with the Monk pushing them away gently, refusing to slap them for fear of ‘injuring’ them, three more horses had dropped dead, reducing our number to three.

Then… they came back.

The horses that escaped… they came back. They came back to attack the offending bandits. “Leave!” I scream at them, too frozen on my feet to even know what to do. A bandit, having gotten past Bai Guo and Han Yu Jie, was promptly punched in the face by myself, hard enough that his head exploded.

That did absolutely nothing to stop my frustration. Finally roused into action, I tried to stop the bandits from attacking the horses, but in the end, the last of them died, including mine.

I took deep breaths.

I was still angry.

“FUCK!” I screamed loud enough to completely stop the battle. The bandits fled away as fast as they could while my party just looked at me, disappointment evident on their faces, except for the Monk, who was absolutely crestfallen at the death of the horses.

It took long seconds before my breathing calmed down. When it finally did, I spoke quietly. “Make sure the rations don’t get bloody. We dig a grave and move on.”

Seriously…

…was there actually an animal out there dumber than the horse?

I highly doubted it. Even a fly would know when to fly away.

000

When the last body was buried and the last sutra was chanted, we moved on far enough away to set up camp without having to smell death or rot. It was my idea to burn the bodies, but no. Apparently, that would attract way too many predators according to Bai Guo, which made no sense considering any one of us could easily defeat a mundane predator, but I let it go because it was no skin off my back.

When we ate our supper, I made an announcement. “I’m not going to sugar-coat it. Losing our horses was my fault. For some reason, I thought that animals would be smart enough to run away from danger, not towards it.”

Bai Guo looked reasonably okay for someone who had just mourned the death of an animal, but then again, we had only really owned them since this morning.

I pulled out my bag of holding, and winced slightly at what I was about to do. “So, we don’t have horses and now carrying a bunch of stuff will be a bitch to do, but… I have a solution,” I reached over to my tiny bag and opened it. “I’ll store everything in this.”

Wei Chow tilted his head. “Is that, like, supposed to be a joke?”

“It’s a bag of holding,” I replied patiently. “It’s got a ton of stuff inside. Just,” I got up to the pile of rations and widened the mouth of the bag, swallowing the rations whole inside the bag.

“Shit,” Wei Chow muttered softly. “Okay, that’s convenient.”

“As for not getting tired,” I shrugged. “That’s up to you all, I guess. It will be a longer journey without the horses, but I’m pretty sure you can all pull through reliably.”

Han Yu Jie sighed. “Fuck-ups happen, Yilan. I’m not blaming you for what happened. Our horses were… dumb.”

“Eh-Mi-Tuo-Fuo,” the Monk said , his voice tinged with grief. “They are but animals. You cannot blame them for wanting to defend their riders.”

Chow heaved a sigh. “I’m just wondering why we didn’t at least eat one of the horses. I mean,” he shrugged. “It’s dead.”

I don’t know what it was, but what he said was just the last straw. “I want to spar,” I announced. The Monk happily raised his hand. “Not you,” I said.

Lin Leng shrugged and raised his hand.

000

“Ready? Begin!”

My forward-dash dug a furrow in the ground as I appeared before Lin Leng instantaneously, my elbow prepared for a short-distance strike to his shoulder, which would in a worst-case scenario break it or dislocate it.

He dodged with the barest of margins, throwing his upper body back as he stayed rooted on his feet, no doubt stabilizing.

But it left him with an opening. I stepped in, attempting to sweep his feet off the ground, but suddenly, he flipped onto his hands and lifted his legs, throwing himself further away from me in an acrobatic feat which I would be hard-pressed to repeat. I still pressed my advantage, my fist striking towards his face just as he recovered from the sudden relocation.

I struck him dead-center, and he flew backwards, rolling into the dirty before recovering, a trickle of blood dripping down his nose and an exasperated look on his face. I relaxed and gave him a martial salute. I really needed that one.

Bai Guo stepped forward from the group of spectators. “I would like to spar with you.”

My smile was practically vulpine. “I accept your challenge.

000

Bai Guo had bitten off more than he could chew, it seemed. I never really understood what the deal was until we finally fought.

He was an absolute idiot. A complete tool. It was like his mother dropped him on the head at birth, and stomped on it for good measure. When he made the switch to a combat situation, his utility became more evident going through the motions of combat and learning as he fought.

It was when he said “You’re much too beautiful to fight like that”, I had lost my temper.

The Monk and Ming were busy doing their best to get him to a travelling condition before dawn broke, and I was left to simmer down.

The two boys and Han Yu Jie, I know why they were going to Kunlun, and the Monk was only going because Deng Ming convinced him to, and Mentor told me to go there, but… what was he coming for?

Did I want to know? He was probably looking for a challenge, too.

The rest of the group had fallen asleep. I had the first shift on look-out.

It was peaceful, hearing nothing but the chirping of nocturnal critters as I let my senses loose in the night forest.

“You mind if I join you?” Han Yu Jie asked, sitting next to me.

“Not at all,” I said.

“You know,” she began. “Bai Guo is an idiot. Don’t let him get to you.”

“No, it’s just,” I sighed. “My first time as a leader, and I get all of our horses slaughtered.”

“It’s not your fault,” she said. “Besides, even if it was, things like that happens. You learn to go with it, and make sure to learn from your mistakes. Besides,” she shrugged. “You have to admit that was a ludicrous situation. Nothing could have prepared you for dumb animals and suicidal bandits.”

I hummed. Well, to an extent, that was true. “I still think that a good leader is characterized by how they react to an unfamiliar situation.”

“You chased them away by screaming,” she pointed out. “You solved the problem single-handedly with one word at that. I still think that’s what a leader would do.”

“Thanks,” I smiled. “You’re very kind.” I closed my eyes for a moment and remembered another kindness that I had not repaid. “Wait, I’m fairly sure I was dreaming, but did this handsome guy carry my half-dead body to be healed?”

Han Yu Jie nodded. “Yeah?”

“Oh,” I smiled. “Right. That was weird. I’ll make sure to ask around so I can find him.”

She leaned closer to me, almost sounding upset. “Then what will you do?”

I raised an eyebrow at the insistence of her question. “I will… thank him?”

“Oh,” she leaned back again. “Okay, that’s… that’s fine.”

“What did you think I would do?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Ah,” she leaned closer to me. “It’s… kind of cold, don’t you think?”

I reached for my bag of holding. “I think I’ve got some blankets in-“ She took my hand. I turned to look at her, nervous at the proximity of her face.

“Uh… we could just… stay closer together,” she said. “You know, conserve heat?" I nodded once, and she began to press her body against mine, hugging me with one arm.

She was… really warm.

I could get used to this.

I wrapped her around my arm as well. I still kept watch, but allowed a part of myself to indulge in the warmth of Han Yu Jie.

When my shift ended, we roused Deng Ming, and I hit the bedroll.

000

I was probably going to go to hell for saying this, but our horses dying didn’t actually prove to be such a bad thing. Instead of horses, we had decided to brave the treetops of the nearby forest.

Lightening myself, I found, was a balancing act. I only had so much Chi, so I needed to wisely split between Lightening and Hardening my body so that my jumps had more potency.

Deng Ming was with the map, making sure that we wouldn’t get lost, but with everything that this stupid fucking journey had thrown at me, I doubted nothing would happen to make us regret our little detour. One day travelling without Mentor and I had fucked up spectacularly.

I didn’t know when I would ever let such an embarrassing experience go.

Then, the tree-line ended, giving way to an infinite sea of yellow flowers upon a meadow, dotted only by dozens or so hills interspersed randomly. We were all in front of a downwards slope of only yellow flowers, beautifully untouched.

“Whohoo!” Wei Chow shouted as he jumped off the hill and rolled down like a ball.

“It’s… beautiful,” Han Yu Jie said.

“Alright,” I said. “We take a break here.” Deng Ming turned to me dubiously, and I returned his questioning look blankly. “Relax. We’re the only one who knows where that magic thing is, and it’s not like we can get strong enough to beat the guy in a day.” I jumped over to the flowers and fell on my back softly, lightening myself before the impact. “Stop and smell the flowers.”

Yu Jie fell next to me, sighing in relaxation. Something about her proximity filled me with equal parts nervousness and relaxation, so I decided to simply go with the flow and stop worrying.

The Monk found himself a rock to sit on top of, having assumed that uncomfortable looking double-lotus pose. Quietly, he chanted sutras in a foreign language, his voice much lower than I had ever heard it, possibly a Chi technique.

Deng Ming sat his back against the rock the Monk was sitting on, reading a scroll dispassionately, looking into the sky occasionally, most likely internalizing the facts or considering something else. He had told me that they were Chi technique manuals, so he was most likely trying to figure it all out, his own way of training.

Speaking of training, Bai Guo stripped down to his pants alone, revealing his mildly scarred body for all to see as he slowly assumed different martial stances. It was nothing overly strenuous, just a practice of the mind, but I could see the point of what he was doing. He tried to shorten the motion of each attack, no doubt having learned something from our former spar.

I would be the first to admit that his strength was impressive, with possible years of experience backing him up, but he had probably never met an enemy he couldn’t beat until our spar. It would do him well to learn the distance between heaven and earth.

I heard a soothing melody stemming from Lin Leng’s flute. Somehow, he was standing on top of the flowers, not sinking even an inch beneath them. Was that the extent of his lightening? No, there had to be a trick to it.

Wei Chow lay nearby, smiling dumbly as he watched his companion play. Eventually, in a turn on the melody, he opened his mouth and… sang.

It was in a smooth baritone, much better than I had expected, for it to come out from someone as rough and tumble as him. “What a jaaaasmine brimming with beauty! What a jaaaaasmine brimming with beauty!”

In the next verse, Yu Jie joined in, her own voice harmonizing with his uncannily, high and low dancing together, evoking a certain emotion inside me that I couldn’t quite place. Was it longing, or something else?

“Aromas round dance twig glee, it’s sweet n’ white, all praise highly.” Deng Ming rolled up his scroll, cleared his throat, and joined in on the next line, a tenor to fill in the blank. “Please allow me… to pick thee, as a gift ne’er twee. Jasmine thee, yeah, jasmine thee.”

They began to hum a melody in a bridge, turning a mild autumn noon warm and comforting. Eventually, they circled back to the same verse, singing while the Monk provided a bass-y backdrop of humming for them to riff off of.

Closing my eyes, I let the melody wash over me, lulling me into a peaceful rest.

Yes, the world was in danger, but why hurry? I could never reach the Martial Peak in a month, and how could time be wasted when it was spent in enjoyment?

000

The principle to Lin Leng’s flower-standing maneuver had been to eject a platform of Chi under his feet which he could use to stand on, while lightening himself at the same time so the platform didn’t break. He could use it to walk on air.

It was also the principle behind cloud-stepping, according to both the Monk and Deng Ming, who were both somewhat learned in the subject, but as always, the Martial Path was not the same for any two people, so trying to teach a fish how to fly, or a bird to breathe under water was a fool’s mission at best, and mental illness at worst.

At least, that’s what they were trying to convince me as I tried and failed severely. The main principle behind condensing a platform of Chi, to externalize one’s Chi was, for me, impossible.

Even a single millimeter outside of my skin, my Chi would suddenly stop being mine to control, and I would be forced to replenish more Chi from heavenly energy, while all the rest of my peers were experiencing moderate success.

Then there was Wei Chow.

The guy had an Elemental Blessing.

We were still in the yellow rapeseed meadow of Luoping when he had revealed his gift to us, as if it was not an important detail at all.

Where Lin Leng could externalize pure Chi and solidify it, Wei Chow’s Chi was Earth. Or, that’s how he explained it. The bottom-line was that he was all about externalizing Chi because there was only a few ways he could utilize Earth Chi within his own body.

Deng Ming told me not to worry since there was practically no chance that I had the same Elemental Blessing as him. They were few and far between, and two people with the same type of Blessing in the same sect was nearly unheard of, much less a traveling party of seven.

Still, I only let the failure of my skill bother me a little as we traveled further up North. The yellow and green meadows soon gave way to more triangle-shaped hills, but to Martial Warriors, they were easily scaled.

You know, except for the bits that required extraordinary jumping power. Where I was left panting in exertion after having jumped over the end of a rock shelf, Lin Leng only had to jump from his Chi platforms and was considerably less spent than me. While watching me pant for breath, he held his hands at the back of his head, resting it against them in a relaxed fashion.

If I didn’t know any better, I could have sworn that he was gloating.

We continued the journey through the hills in no particular rush, until sundown was finally upon us. With travel rations to feed us, we rotated on who would keep watch.