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Chapter 27: "Basic Cleanliness."
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Shae's trip to the slough was uneventful. As the Dongs had said, she could follow the lay of the land to where the water should collect, and the main feeding stream was quick to find. It wound haphazardly across fields and stood out right away when she looked from a high vantage point.
The smell of the slough was pungent, yet still managed to be a breath of relief compared to the sticky impurities soaked into her clothing. A small shack was the only structure within sight of the slough. She approached it and found an old man in a rocking chair. He sat on a covered porch facing away from the slough.
"Ah-ha ha! Now that's a cultivator if I've ever smelt one!" He laughed.
"Mister, would this slough be on your property?"
"And a young lass. Don't get many of those 'round here." He chuckled with less enthusiasm without looking her way.
She stepped around to his front to see vacant eyes. "Ah," she said, quietly.
"Ah, indeed! Heh heh. Name's Blind Gregor. And the slough is public land. No qi in it, so I've been told."
"I am Miss Shae. Are you alone? And actually blind? Or just enough for the nickname."
"Oh! My pride." He clutched his chest. "Striking right at my shame and without mercy!"
She frowned and waited. I suppose that was a little insensitive.
After a pause he asked, "eh? No apology? Good on you, I guess. You are still here, yes?"
"I am. I'd like to use the slough for a bath, and I'd rather not be seen."
"In that muck? I don't even wash with that." He sniffed, then coughed. "Ah, right. Suppose it's better than cultivator muck."
"Precisely."
"You're safe enough out here, shack's empty, and nowhere else to hide. Mine own eyes can only see the depths of hell, as they say."
"Who says that?"
"Eh? Whoever wants to, I suppose. Probably mostly me. Heh heh heh."
"And you're not some hidden Master with other senses to spy on me with?"
"Hah! If I had even a scrap of cultivation, I wouldn't be Blind Gregor. But you must be some peerless beauty to be so worried about it."
"Hardly."
"Ah, just wait 'till I tell the boys that a Heavenly Fairy graced the old slough with her beauty."
"Please don't. Especially not the Fairy part. And I'm too young for anyone other than teenagers to be lusting after me."
He frowned at that. "That does spoil a bit of the fun, the boys I mentioned are all older than me." He chuckled.
"Good response. If I thought you perverse enough I might have slain you where you sit."
He swallowed his laughter.
"Are there others around here that would embark on such perversions?" She forced her voice flat. In for a penny, in for a pound.
"Ehhh, no Miss cultivator." He coughed. "Well, Jensen, a few li South is a massive dickhead. If you really need to spill some blood, he has a working shower."
"You think I would kill a man for a warm shower."
"Didn't say it was warm. But you haven't used the slough yet, eh?" He forced a laugh.
"And he lives alone?"
"Nah, wife and three sons."
"So, I'm supposed to execute them all, for a cold shower." She tried to let more intent and qi into her words this time.
He didn't seem to notice. "Hah. Ask that after your bath."
"And is your own shower broken?"
He stiffened. "Er, now. Let's not do anything rash." He coughed. "It was a joke, of course. You could pay them to use it, or just ask."
She paused, trying to discern if the man's humor was genuine.
"Ah, right. My shower's got a leak. So doesn't get warm in the sun; just leaks out as fast as I can pump it. It's around back if you want a cold shower. I just stick to sponge baths from the kettle. Too much work otherwise."
"Thank you, Gregor, I'll take a look. Please continue not taking a look at anything."
"Easy as pie, Miss."
"Pie can't be that easy for you."
"It's very difficult, yes. Thanks for reminding me."
She coughed and walked around the building.
The shower was, approximately, a bucket two paces above ground with some holes in it. Some of the holes were intentional, making up the shower head, and some were caused by rust. Shae clicked her tongue at the choice of material. "What idiot used iron for this." She asked out loud.
She had seen copper and brass and other metals at the inns she stayed at. Her own village even had showers of a similar design, but from those metals, so why here?
She considered the almost-city of Flame Well briefly: a large mining and smithing town devoted to the production of metals. Is iron just so cheap there that it can be replaced when rusted, is steel so much harder to produce? Though, it would be used for weapons instead.
As she pondered she washed some of her clothing with the shower. It was functional enough, water could be pumped to the tank with a large hand pump, then washed with as it flowed down out the shower head, and other leaks. She first washed her hands, sleeves, and parts of her backpack with the intention of halting the cross contamination spread of the sticky black impurities.
With clean hands she sorted through her bag, removing most of it to the side so she could clean it properly and picking out sheets of waxed cloth that she wasn't using to store food. The wax could be used for small holes in the iron. The cloth worked to patch over the largest breaks from inside the tank. Both patches needed to be forced through holes and molded slightly to hold in place. She only discovered that when filling it again caused the wax to float, ruining her efforts. On her second attempt she added rocks to the larger cloth patch to hold it in place.
Why hadn't Gregor done this himself, surely he has wax. He could wax the whole tank to stall rusting. That riddle began to reveal itself when she wanted to heat the water. A modification to the structure had been made to allow a brazier to be lit right where the largest rust hole was. The heat of the sun softening her wax cloth was the second clue.
Right, fire melts wax. Too much and bye-bye rust protection. She sighed at her criticism of Gregor. And he's blind, so this task would be far more difficult for him. Maybe even his age makes pumping the water too much. She decided not to worry too much about her fix lasting at all. He may appreciate it, or he may not care as it won't last past the first use. If he's using a kettle now, he must like the heat, he really needs a new shower, in copper.
She considered being a secret benefactor, hiring someone to solve the man's problem. But his real problem is age and blindness, those I can do nothing about. A meager kindness might be more of an insult than nothing at all. I'm not going to fix every shower in the world, even if I could. She chuckled to herself with a grim frown on her face.
She moved the brazier to the opposite side of the tank, and added some small pieces of wood. Then she remembered the fire lighting rune that Elder Ghon had taught her. Hmm, would it work better, now that I have qi?
She looked out at the slough, then at the sky to check the time. I'm getting distracted, but I do have all afternoon.
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She carved with her small pocket knife instead of marking with charcoal. Her first two attempts proved fruitless. Just as when she was on Pilgrim's Rest mountain, the runes did almost nothing. She assumed they would gradually warm and char, but nothing suggested they were more effective. She discarded them by placing them inside the water tank, symbol down. Maybe they will still heat the water.
She huffed, what had the old monster said to do?
Her exact memories were foggy, but she had been reading the journal he gave her. It contained his companion notes for an introductory guide to formations. One she suspected was so out of print it might be considered a lost text as it was likely the guide Ghon had used when he was young. How did he have these notes, but not the book itself? Maybe more evidence it's a valuable collectible. With a thought she acknowledged his journal should also be a collectible, maybe he copies it out for all his students?
She froze at the idea that she just called herself one of his students.
Something caught in her throat and she coughed loudly.
One of the first practical examples in the journal was the fire rune and Ghon had provided more notes for it as he had worked through the simplification process himself. That had reduced the formation by a line to be only one qi symbol and one line. These notes included a summary of how he taught it to Shae. A pang of emotion had caught her when she first found it, but it evaporated when she connected the idea that he taught this to many people, not just her.
> As you inscribe each part, you must be precise, focused on accuracy, and a clear purpose for each stroke must be held in your mind. Each symbol and line has no definitive purpose or meaning. You give it power as you carve or write, forcing your thoughts into it to define its purpose.
>
> The symbol means fire, mental images of any fire or heat will do. You don't even need to know that it will be qi fire, especially if you have no reference for that. The simple idea of fire and a whole will be stronger, anyway.
>
> The more complex form has two line types. A channel and a trap. One draws from the symbol and channels qi along it, the other traps qi within. Any clear idea those invoke will function for this formation, as its simplicity allows more freedom.
So, there's no specific part of being a cultivator that makes this easier. Focusing on ideas seems to be key.
"Huh, it can't be that simple can it?" She frowned at the coincidence. Better try something else first, no sense expecting I'll be right on the first try.
She cycled her qi as she carved, moving more through her head as she concentrated, and down to her right arm that held the knife. Hope it's not a special tool thing. Hmm, no, Ghon would have said that.
She waited after finishing but it looked like the formation wasn't working faster. If it's a matter of small degrees, I need a better test. With faster results. She squinted at the carving. Looks better than the other attempts. Practice or qi helping? Both probably.
The small slats of wood she was using were laying around the shed, and they were all fairly similar. "What are these, anyway?" A few steps around then glancing up had her pale, then blush with embarrassment. She saw the roof of the shack: the same plate sized square wood tiles were the roofing material. Another thought had her more embarrassed, If someone uses the marked tiles, they could easily burn the house down. She recalled how effective the formation had been when she used it on the mountain. Then again, probably not.
She stretched and her sticky clothes reminded her of how uncomfortable she was. Right, a bit more washing first. Even if the shower was working, slough first is probably easier.
A few minutes later she stopped mid-wash as she had an idea. Hmm... needs to be consistent, though. With a stick she carved the symbol for fire in the mud at the edge of the slough, then a circle around it. The sun was her focus for fire, and a ring of campfire rocks for the circle. Keep it simple and easy, just the one idea.
She carved a second one while channeling qi. Then a third without qi, but while trying to throw her mental focus into it. This last proved the hardest, simply because the sudden split second focus of an ax strike was very different from the slower constant focus of writing a large symbol in the mud.
Even before she had made the circle, she noticed the second symbol had started to dry and the same on her third symbol. Though that one was much more erratic in where it was drying. She focused and added the campfire ring circle around it, expecting that to even the drying. It did not.
"Huh, qi and focus, I guess." She mumbled to herself. Then drew a fourth doing both things. It dried as she wrote the symbol. The dryness spread beyond the circle before she could finish it. This had the annoying effect of preventing the circle from being closed, as she couldn't carve into the dry mud with the stick.
She huffed at it. "That solves that, I guess. Seems too easy, though. And I should draw the circle first."
A few splashes of slough water and stomps in the mud destroyed the formations.
A quarter hour later saw her scribing the symbol into the back of the tiles she previously used, then she stuffed them back into the brazier. The first was getting warm to the touch when she finished the third. Even with two being wet from floating in the water tank, she still expected them to char before she finished cleaning herself. Impurities are nasty, so glad I have soap. I should buy more today.
After inscribing the test formations and then the three more, she could feel the effects of draining her mental focus. This time she could still manage moving around. It mostly felt like a mild headache or sleep deprivation. So, she decided not to rely on her divine qi for recovery. It's probably too precious to use for this, right?
The cleaning work was tedious and time consuming, so she decided she was glad to have the mental strain to distract her from it, and she thought her mental haze cut the smell down slightly.
She noticed the smoke from the brazier almost when it started, and made sure to keep half an eye on it. As much to see if her wax-cloth patch held as to make sure it didn't burn the blind man's shack down.
An hour of cleaning passed and her head started to clear. An occasional pulse of her personal qi had helped when she needed her wits about her, but that clarity only lasted as long as she cycled qi through her head.
She had interrupted herself a few times to test new ideas for carving formations. To test her bias, she had also carved a few things that were obviously wrong, but she tried to believe they would work. None had worked significantly better than her control formation.
The lukewarm water in the old shower was an incredible relief compared to the cold and slightly slimy slough water. She used the last of her soap that she had saved for this, then had to rinse with cold water from the well. She had committed to stop burning Gregor's roof tiles during one of her more clear headed moments.
The soap and slough water had worked well enough to clean her clothes, and she was super grateful to Fairy Yun for insisting she buy a change of clothes. Yun hadn't had to argue with the young woman much. Shae's only concern was that she would be limited to sect clothes, so a new set would go unused. Yun assured her there would be times she could wear what she liked.
She thanked Blind Gregor as she left, mentioning that the tank might be fixed for a little while, if he kept the water temperature low. He was overly grateful and Shae had to tell him to stop groveling.
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A mental itch bothered her as she returned to the road, and she decided it was her Manifold Journey practice. She could move on to the next practice now, even though she was back tracking.
She sat near the main road and scanned the next practice. Controlled Descent was the title and it was largely about thinking and looking forwards. She saw that if Yun hadn't pointed out her lack of consideration for her journey, this would have brought her back on track. It provided several interesting questions regarding her journey and what she expected to find at the end of it.
She was a little surprised she hadn't read over these before, I have skimmed ahead several times, weird that I didn't see this.
The qi cycling process was very simple and she started it immediately, without needing to enter meditation. Her run back to Flame Well was slower, as she stopped to pull out the guide and reference the questions several times.
Entry into the city was much easier than leaving in the morning, and she found Fedir quickly by asking around.
He was quite pleased to have Marta back. Shae mentioned what Master Long had said about the impact formation being damaged.
"Aye, I suspected it, but having a master fix it is rather expensive. I'll keep that in mind while using her in the future." Was his reply.
She pointed out that it was mostly a problem for cultivators that can swing it quite hard. He agreed but was clearly still concerned for his favorite tool.
She considered asking Yun to join her at the spa, but a walk past the restaurant showed it was very busy. So she decided to stop by tomorrow morning instead. As much as she wanted to spend time with the woman, she was very drained and wanted more time alone, especially to think about Controlled Descent's questions.
Her interaction at the bathhouse didn't go as smoothly as she expected.
She noted a few qi formations as she approached the front desk. A few lights glowing when she stepped up.
The receptionist glanced at the lights, and forced her smile wider. "How may we help you, Miss Cultivator?"
"Hello, I am Miss Shae. I've been recommended by Mistress Ping Ahna. She said I should ask for her usual."
"Ah, Mistress Ping was just here, it's wonderful to have you, Miss Shae." She flipped through a nearby drawer full of folders and pulled one out. "I see. Hmm, does tomorrow afternoon work well for you?"
"Oh? Is it by appointment? I should have guessed and not delayed my arrival."
"We might be able to get you in tomorrow morning." She looked at the lights on the desk, a hint of nerves showing in how she fidgeted with the paperwork.
Shae shook her head. "I am a member of Mistress Ping's caravan, and would like to be back on the road tomorrow. I'm not sure what her usual is?" She pointed at the page the receptionist held. "Is anything similar available tonight? And better still, I was cleansing earlier today, anything for that? And my clothes need a good wash from that as well."
"Ah, um, yes. We are somewhat understaffed in the evenings, but laundry services are available." She fidgeted again. "I'll see if someone is still around for the more hands-on aspects."
Shae smiled and spotted the woman's name tag. "Please relax, Miss Cho. I came here without expectations." She set a silver crown on the desk. "Mistress Ping suggested this might be appropriate. Let's just get me into a warm bath and you can surprise me with whatever other services are available."
Miss Cho spared only a glance at the silver and signed in relief at her words. A warm smile appeared that also showed in her eyes. "Thank you for your accommodation, Miss Shae. Please let us know if there is anything specific you need. For now, right this way." She swept the silver into a drawer and guided Shae down the hall and into the humid corridors of the building.
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