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Chapter 2: "Wisdom For The Unenlightened."

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Shae wandered the town in search of a light meal. She had asked about, then found the guard's cousin's Bao stand, but was greeted with a closed sign. The owner, Mister Chen, gave her a slightly pitying look. She had just missed the last of the lunch supply, bought by the two runners she had traveled with, in fact. Surely a testament to their quality, if nothing else.

When the owner recognised she was a cultivator, he offered to make her something fresh. Yet, she could tell it was an imposition, so she refused, stating that her purse was lighter than expected this day. The man looked relieved. She asked for recommendations, or places to avoid, and the man was content to give her advice.

She now snacked upon a variety of offerings from the local food stands, the most distinct of which was a sausage in a bun, the meat of which the proprietor refused to specify, saying only that it was a family recipe, and that he was bleeding himself dry just to offer such low prices. The taste itself was flavorful and memorable, but she could not identify most of the spices, so overpowering was the assault on her senses.

The rest of her meal was bland by comparison. Yet, she felt the need for the large number of palette cleaners was justified. She savored the singular and milder flavors all the more for the contrast.

When the large sundial in the market square had shifted to the next hour mark she made her way to the north gate to meet her traveling companions.

Not finding them, she assumed she had arrived first and settled down to wait. This time deciding she could attempt to draw in qi while she waited.

With a small amount of her personal qi circulating itself through her channels, she drew in the neutral qi that suffused the world around her. She let it circle her channels, pushed along by her own qi, then stored it away in her Dantian after a few trips around her body. A few repeats of this later she was politely interrupted just before she drew in the energy again.

"Excuse my interruption." Was all she heard, a precisely pitched feminine voice cutting through her meditation.

Shae backed out of the meditation quickly and opened her eyes. "Well timed, what do you require, miss guard? Or are you the Captain I've heard so much about?"

The petite woman flushed in surprise. "I am the captain, yes. Guard Captain Hua Julei. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss cultivator."

"The pleasure is shared. I am Zhi Shae, please call me Wise Shae." Shae rose from her lotus position to offer a small bow. As she rose to her full height, she found the captain was only half a head taller than her. Maybe younger than she looks.

"An honor then, Wise Shae." She returned the bow. "Ah! A peace-bonded weapon," she reached a hand towards it. "May I see it? They are rare."

"Sure, I was told it might not be recognized much. Even your guard at the south gate seemed to ignore it."

"Hmm, yes, they would." She looked the weapon over carefully, examining the fine detail work on the hilt and the wrapping wire. "Strictly speaking, we should treat them as any other weapon, but I've instructed the guard to ignore them. They might not know their importance... Especially an example such as this! It is a very fine blade, and the wrapping is exquisite. May I ask...?"

Shae nodded. "I received it recently as a thank-you gift from Staff Sergeant Xiang, who will be training in Minlin City for the winter."

"Training? Ah, yes of course, new recruits! But this. The blade is a cultivator weapon, high quality, though I can't be certain with it covered."

The girl nodded again. "I suppose that makes sense, it was wielded by a cultivator before the Staff Sergeant peace bonded it."

"So that means you..?" A twinkle of curiosity shone in her eye as she gazed questioningly at the girl.

She nodded. "He made a poor choice of how to challenge me: choosing the wrong battlefield. Arrogant bandits will do that, I suppose."

"Bandits? Around Minlin? I hadn't heard of any."

Shae shrugged. "I suppose they were just starting out, they seemed poorly equipped."

"I would not call this sword poor equipment, but you mean the others, mortals then?"

Shae nodded. "Three others."

"Well, though it is far from my own town, I thank you for having dealt with them." She glanced at the blade. "However it was done." She looked Shae over once more, the girl feeling the flicker of qi this time. "Oh?"

"Oh, yourself. You cultivate as well? You must have progressed quickly to reach Captain."

The woman was quite young, appearing to be still in her twenties, likely aided by her cultivation. "Too quickly, I'm afraid. This position is more responsibility than I'd like." She glanced back at the blade and returned it to Shae with a slight bow. Once the girl took it, she felt the scrutiny of the other woman's qi again. "Ah-ha! So I wasn't dreaming."

"I'm sorry? I don't follow." The girl tilted her head.

"Oh? You were not warned about the sword, then? I see... Well, it appears to have a minor enchantment on it, making you appear a stage higher than you are."

Shae looked surprised, then smirked. "Hmm, that might be awkward. So, I appear to be in meridian cleansing then?"

The woman had begun a nod then froze. "Meridian? Uh no, just cleansing, you mean you are in cleansing?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, though I kind of skipped most of qi gathering, which could be affecting your scan, others have had the same issue." She presented her two hands, displaying the different skin color.

The woman leaned in and brought her hand up, hesitating until Shae nodded her onwards, she grabbed the girl's hands to examine them closely.

"This is... quite good cleansing. But why only on one side?"

"Bit of an accident, really. Though mostly resolved, the monks in Minlin were able to aid me in fixing my cleansing method."

"Ah, that is good to hear. The monks and the military? You must have impressed them, or had a lot of taels that you couldn't..." She looked down at Shae's clothing. "Ah but I say too much, old habits of bickering girls, I apologize."

The peasant girl shrugged. "You say what we all see, I feel no shame. Fine looking clothing is expensive. So is good quality clothing, but it doesn't always look it."

"Oh?" The captain grabbed some of the loose cloth. "Hmm, better than it looks. Still, if you don't mind sharing, what did you do for them? More than just bring in a bandit or two?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"It's a long- well no, it's a short enough story, but hard to believe. Although, did you get gossip and rumor from the caravan? Word may have preceded me."

"We call it intel, not gossip." She smirked. "I encourage the guard to mingle with caravan members, and myself with cultivators. People like to talk." She shrugged. "But I suspect I will find it more believable than the tales of the Heavenly child, who brought about three enlightenments on a whim."

"Child? Has the story warped that much already? Shameful that they cannot remember my name."

"Yes I was surprised that no name was included but-" she stopped and stared at the girl in front of her. "Your name?"

"Yes, I am also known as Heavenly Shae. Most recently for multiple enlightenments at once. Though, I only count it as two and a half. One monk and one private in the military, then a second private later when he was caught up on the details. The two privates had a similar broken Dao."

"... And the monk?"

"Not sure, he was keeping quiet about the details."

"Eh, but what did you say? Um, if you don't mind?" The woman was acting nervous suddenly.

"It's no trouble. We were discussing the shared Dao and cultivation of-"

"Wait, wait! You're just going to tell me?" She was looking surprised again. "And why were you discussing Dao with them? Isn't that, like, private, and personal. Like, shouldn't..." She stepped in close to Shae and activated a privacy formation bracelet. Then prompted Shae to continue.

"I think I need to get one of-" Shae gazed at the bracelet.

"Quickly please." Captain Hua grabbed the girl's shoulder.

"Ah alright. The military shares most of the same manuals amongst themselves, so I assumed a similar Dao, as well. But how do you teach a Dao, it should be personal, not directed by another. So I said: 'In order to accept another's point of view, you must first understand your own.'" Shae paused to let the woman soak in the saying.

Captain Hua closed her eyes and breathed deeply, then stopped and deactivated the bracelet. She dropped into a lotus pose and tried to meditate. Mumbling Shae's words under her breath.

After a few breaths and a pitying frown, Shae moved behind the woman and grabbed her shoulders. She dug her thumbs into tense muscles. "Relax. Breathe. Don't try to force it. Just let your mind wander over the words, expand on them." She felt some of the tension leave the woman in a heavy breath. The kind of breath you release when trying to force relaxation.

She continued the shoulder massage until she felt the woman relax properly; a little bit more, at least. There were only so many muscles that Shae could knead without reaching under the woman's clothes and armor. She felt a slight blush at that thought and distracted herself by examining the armor. It had the same general appearance as the guard's armor but was clearly custom made and high quality. The thicker armor pieces had been slimmed down so that it didn't bulk out the woman's small frame. The plates that should have been metal only appeared so at first glance, instead appearing to be polished leather. Delicate scrollwork traced the outline of the finely made pieces and Shae felt a slight shimmer of qi as she ran a hand over it.

She blushed again as she realized she was practically fondling the woman's clothes. She quickly turned and sat with her back against the Captain's. She tried to match her breathing and felt a hiccup in the captain's rhythm.

"Why is it so hard?" Came a quiet plea.

Shae inhaled deeply as she recognised the desperate plea, a bit of understanding sparking her thoughts. "What works for some does not work for all. Even something that works for most may not work, and for the least of reasons. I think that very few can tread the same path."

The woman's breathing was erratic, the staccato of someone on the verge of tears. "But I've... I've never had one."

Shae inhaled again, pure surprise this time. She remembered her own enlightenment, how it felt, how little she noticed it. "Are you sure?" She waited a breath. "When I had mine, I didn't notice."

"You... Of course you did. What was it like?"

She reached for the woman's arm, threading her right through the woman's left elbow, pulling it to the side to grab and squeeze her hand. "I didn't notice at all. I was just thinking and doing, and then everything I was thinking and doing was working. Qi workings became effortless, things I can't even replicate. Everything just clicked together like it was meant to be."

The woman squeezed back, intertwining their fingers. "But then, how did you know it was an... an enlightenment?"

"Someone else was there, they saw it. They told me what it was after, and said most people miss it their first time. Maybe even their second and third if no one mentions it. He said there is a feeling of opportunity. I think there was. Have you ever been meditating or training, and suddenly made a lot of progress? You said you advanced fast."

"I always advanced fast, before anyway. It's been so hard lately. I noticed it more when cultivating, sometimes when training alone."

"Hmm, alone in both cases? So, no one would have seen it if you had enlightenments?"

"I.. I guess not. It just seems so unlikely, though. Like, I should know when it's happening."

"Perhaps. Um... do you know your Dao?"

The woman flinched, almost pulling away.

"No, I don't need to know it." Shae squeezed her hand again as she spoke and turned to put her other hand on the woman's left arm. "But maybe it's personal. I mean they all are, but yours might be more personal. Not about the workings of the world, but about yourself? Or something that only makes sense when you are alone."

Tension really left the woman now, she slumped backwards into Shae. Forcing the girl to push back or be used as a recliner. Captain Hua asked, "It can't be that simple, can it?"

"Some things are very simple, and some things only seem very simple. I've gotten hints from two old monster's about their Dao, and my guesses at what they were are some of the simplest things. Things you could explain to a child with just a piece of paper."

"Ha, just the paper? No brush or charcoal?"

"Heh, for one of them, maybe. Depends how smart the child is."

"Ha-ha." The woman kept giggling. Letting out the occasional louder "Hah!"

Shae worried the manic laugh would break down into tears, but they never came.

When the woman finally calmed down, she was embarrassed. "I've made a bit of a scene, haven't I? Ah, we should get up."

Captain Hua began to move, but Shae pulled her back down. "Nah, we've already broken custom, we might as well enjoy the freedom it brings."

"Ah, but-" She paused then moved again.

Shae pulled her down again, the woman was definitely letting her, she wouldn't have the strength to stop her if she wanted to get up. "What did you come to bug me for, anyway?"

"Oh." The guard captain slouched into the girl again. "Just that, this is not a great place to meditate."

"Really? Is it not allowed or something."

"No, it's fine. But you have a pack, and there are street rats around. Their boldness has been made worse by the recent caravan. I'm not sure of your senses, but some people wouldn't notice a sneak stealing their clothes off their back while they meditate."

"Oh." Shae looked around, seeing one or two scruffy kids hiding between buildings, or begging in the shade. She also spotted the nearest public sundial, it was well past time the runners should have shown up. "Hey, do you know many of the runners? I was waiting for Curly and Lari."

"Hmm.. I haven't seen them today. When are they due back?"

"By now, or a half hour ago."

"Ah, I can send our runners to look for word of them." The captain did get up this time, effortlessly pulling away from a groaning Shae. "Back to work, I'm afraid."

"Hrmm. Don't be afraid," she smirked, "You're the captain, you can't be afraid, Captain Hua."

The captain smiled at her and shook her head. "What a puzzle you are. Words as wise as the mountains one minute, then a childish goof the next."

"Thanks!" Shae smiled wide, still sitting on the ground as Hua walked away.

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