Rising to greet the sun the next morning Fan Zhong immediately went to check his snares. After looking over all of them he found that only a single snare had been successful over the night. Still, he was overjoyed at this as the simple construction had saved him so much time and energy even a single passive success over the night was worth it.
With the light of dawn barely peeking through the canopy he set about searching for more vegetables to bait the snares. Over two hours he finally foraged enough to do the job and decided to set the snares in a new area lest his prey becomes wise to him. Deciding this he thought that maybe going northeast up the steep incline that descended from the other wall of the shallow ravine would be suitable.
By setting the snares there he could scout a new area while spreading his traps. Tucking the snares and bait bundles under his arm Fan Zhong began the descent down the hanging rope to the ravine floor. Once here he took in the sight of the bubbling pond and the greenery that grew on the water’s edge.
He knew from his lessons that Flow Grass grew upon the banks of the Flowing Grass River and decided to check the foliage for similar natural treasures. After all this stream was one of the mountain sources that eventually fed into the river, perhaps it was also rich in natural Qi. If he could find even a few natural treasures it would be precious as this was a wild environment that was rarely touched by civilized hands.
In places like this natural treasures were allowed to grow undisturbed for hundreds and even sometimes thousands of years. A single thousand-year-old piece of Flow Grass would be an invaluable treasure that he could give to the clan and possibly receive some rewards and honor. Spurred on by the thought he spent longer than originally intended searching through the foliage.
He had seen Flow Grass a few times throughout his life and knew that it usually took the form of tall grass with subtle streaks of almost transparent blue that could be seen in the sun. During his training Fan Cheng had told him that once he reached the master level and could generate Qi of his own he would be able to send it out to resonate with Qi in the environment which could allow him to locate natural treasures.
The Clan observers could do better than this. With mental energy alone observers could use special mental energy techniques to detect Qi and even determine its density and its strength. However, this took many years of specialized training and attuning yourself to mental energy natural treasures, not something Fan Zhong had time to do at the present.
This left him with only the most tedious method of looking for his query, testing durability. Natural treasures were imbued with the Qi of heaven and earth, as such they were far more durable than normal plants. Knowing this one could attempt to tear a few of the plants at the edge, if the plant was damaged like normal it was not a treasure.
However, if the grass proved unnaturally durable then it was most likely to be some sort of natural treasure. Disgruntled at his lack of success, a slightly more muddy and dirty Fan Zhong rose from the banks of the pond. Unfortunately, he only found a few more herbs for his tea in the process. Convinced that he had already used up enough of the daylight on this search he mentally placed the idea of finding Flow Grass to the back of his mind and started heading north.
At first, the slope to his right was far too steep to walk up comfortably. Knowing this side of the ravine was leveling off in the horizon anyways Fan Zhong followed the edge of the slope northward in hopes that it would become shallow enough to walk up at some point. Around 10 minutes later the slope had leveled off to a steep but manageable hill that he felt was reasonably scalable.
Walking up the slope he began to see more and more bamboo as the forest resumed itself atop the incline as it leveled off. The slope itself was mostly clear aside from low grasses and bushes however Fan Zhong had almost slipped a few times as the foliage covering the ground obscured uneven footing. Once up the hill, it was time to search for snare locations.
The First snare he placed was located in the narrow entrance to a clearing between a set of five bamboos that seemed to part in the middle. Although he could force his way in between them the space between the bamboo was not easy to navigate and there were other larger entrances to the clearing for larger animals and people like himself. Reasoning this he figured smaller game, such as the rabbits he was hunting, would stick to these small openings to avoid larger predators.
Snares themselves weren’t smart so he wanted to avoid a deer or something similarly large triggering the trap. With this done Fan Zhong entered the clearing to look around. It seemed the clearing had formed around a small hill that rose from the earth and extended only a few meters around the edges of the hill.
Atop the small slope sat a few taller bushes that had dark red flowers blooming on their tops. Coming closer to the bushes he could see that the bushes had sharp thorns under the long leaves that rested under the flowers and using a stick to push some of the branches aside he could see underneath. At the edges of the ground under these bushes sat small bones and the smell of blood and death rose faintly in the air, seeming to play out an echo of the struggling life that had ended inside those thorns.
Small red vines arose around the inner branches of the bushes seeming to pulse with some sort of liquid. Once Fan Zhong let the bush return to its natural state however he could only smell the pleasant smell of the flowers. The scent filled his mind and made his thoughts feel light and pleasant as if he had eaten the sweetest most delicious fruit that had ever existed. one that had after taste other than a lingering longing begging him to eat more rising from his stomach.
On his tongue, an echo of that taste lingered beckoning on him to follow it home, to give himself in to the siren song of deliciousness and forget worldly concerns. By the time he realized what was going on Fan Zhong had already taken two steps towards the bush and one of his hands was reaching into the branches, a sharp thorn piercing his skin just enough to draw blood. In haste he instantly took 5 steps, channeling the momentum of each into the next as he bounded out of the clearing.
Upon looking back, the clearing remained tranquil, as if untouched by his passage. Inwardly he was panicking, deeply concerned about the thorns containing some sort of poison. With this concern filling his thoughts Fan Zhong hurriedly found a sturdy cluster of bamboo shoots and sat at their base, leaning his back against the tall plants.
As he sat his vision seemed to swim and adrenaline raced through his veins. The world seemed to be moving in slow motion as the wind whispered on his skin while each minute movement of an insect or leaf touching him felt like a thunderclap. In his ears the sound of his heart beating was like the march of a heavenly army, hammering home a constant booming sound that seemed to impend his doom.
Slowly, and with much effort, Fan Zhong calmed himself, slipping into the meditative emptiness of the void gate stance. Soon he realized that the world had stopped spinning and his senses were returning to normal. As the adrenaline that ran through his body calmed to normal levels he was able to hear and feel normally no longer overwhelmed by the sensations of the world.
Finally after meditating for what felt like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes, he understood what had happened. The initial effect of the plant was merely to draw in prey and make them ignore the pain and the world around him, however, it had no poison. In his haste in thinking about possible poisons he had driven himself into a frenzy and started to overreact to the situation.
Combine this with the natural adrenaline his body produced from being injured and it had thrown his senses all out of sorts. Now that he was confident that no poison was on the thorns Fan Zhong once again cautiously crept into the clearing. Knowing better from the previous experience he covered his nose this time.
Staring at the crimson red flowers once more he truly marveled at their beauty. Although the plant seemed deadly it was a natural work of art. In training Fan Cheng had described to him many varieties of plants to be wary of but this bush did not fit the description of any of those. This too brought a sense of wonder from deep inside him, truly the vastness of heaven and earth was unfathomable.
Even here within the Flowing Grass Valley where his clan had lived for centuries, there were still mysteries to discover and secrets to learn. If such a small place could still have more secrets after so long was it even possible to truly understand something fully. With the variations that heaven wrought upon the world countless paths existed bringing about strange, wonderful, and of course dangerous existences.
Perhaps this is what it meant to be a true scholar, to understand that fundamentally one was always a student in the face of the Grand Dao. From the loftiest immortals to the lowest peasant, in the face of the entirety of existence were they even different? Counting raindrops in a storm one drop was the same as a thousand to the storm as a whole, were mortals and immortals the same in the grand scheme of things?
This gave Fan Zhong much to contemplate, in his view of the world important people like his father and Duchess Lu Yi ruled the entire world. The valley itself is around 150 kilometers wide and 700km long, although those estimates varied based on how much of the mountains that bordered it were counted, to Fan Zhong this was already an inconceivable amount of land. However, he had recently found out that the Twisted territories, the collective name for all of the surrounding land, was a ‘lesser region’ covering a staggering 153,692,352 km2.
Even conceiving this was beyond his mind and as such Fan, Zhong had mentally sorted such thoughts into things that were too far away and unknowable. Now thinking about it however he was considering that even immortals, who surely controlled empires dwarfing the twisted territories, were still as small as grains of sand compared to the whole of the Grand Dao. In the face of all of existence both him and those vaunted immortals were both so small that the differences of them relative to each other were inconsequential, to the totality of all things they each did not even qualify as a speck.
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At once this thought threatened to swallow him like a yawning abyss of nothingness. Nothing, no matter what he did, mattered. Heavenly wars and immortal thrones meant nothing to that unending unfeeling infinity, the Grand Dao itself was beyond all concepts of anything his small existence could do to affect it. If this was true, then who was truly an important person? What did it take for an existence to matter in the grand scheme of eternity? Suddenly Fan Zhong’s world seemed so small that it would disappear with the merest thought.
With a jolt, he pulled himself from these thoughts. If the duchess and lesser regions were something that was too far away then truly this line of reasoning was so far removed from his level that it bore no more thinking. That was surely the case, it had nothing to do with the roiling ball of dread that swam in his stomach at the thought, truly nothing to do with that.
Firmly trying to take his mind away from such things Fan Zhong busied himself to set the rest of his snares. One he set next to another small hill that showed signs of small animal dwellings close by. The next one went next to a low-meter-long crevice in the ground that sloped towards the pond he had come from, the crevice was narrow and short but this was a boon as only small animals could move through it.
In all, it took Fan Zhong a few hours to finish laying down the remaining snares which ended up in scattered places with little thought put into placement other than making sure they were not too close together. Satisfied that he had done as much as he could for the snares' success, Fan Zhong turned and started the trek back to camp. Along the way, he forage for replacements for snare bait and tried to keep an eye out for possible predators.
Back at camp, he found Little White had been waiting for him. Seeming eager for something the small cub walked up to him and nudged his leg before setting off southward. With nothing better to do Fan Zhong followed along wanting to see what his little brother was so eager about. The wind rushed through his hair and the refreshing scent of the stream was left behind as they ran southeast.
Along the way, they started going up an incline and Fan Zhong found that the terrain was becoming far more vertical and uneven as they went. Soon they were running along a slanting ramp that ran parallel to a high cliff wall that he could see the forest on top of. As they went up the ramp Fan Zhong had to use his Momentum of Shifting earth technique to keep up with Little White.
At this point, he was already struggling to control his speed and couldn’t shift more momentum into his steps lest he lose control when suddenly he realized there was a dark shape approaching him ahead. Inwardly he cursed as he slammed face-first into a cluster of three tall and sturdy bamboo shoots. Previously it had been all he could do to keep up with Little White as the young cub constantly shifted between activating and deactivating its water Qi cloak blending into the surroundings for seconds at a time.
When he had run into the bamboo his attention had been pulled to the right side as he had lost sight of his companion in a carpet of knee-high bushes and before he knew it the momentum of his movement technique had slammed him full force into the looming obstacle. To his left he heard a soft bark and looked just in time to find Little White looking at him with an expression of complete innocence, quickly the cub walked up to him and nudged his shoulder with its head. After this didn’t seem to work Fan Zhong’s small companion took on a worried look and climbed onto his chest to lick at his face, clearly worried he was hurt severely.
Laughing Fan Zhong pushed himself up to sit with his arms splayed out behind him as support.
“Perhaps a bit slower little brother, forgive my slowness” Fan Zhong beamed cheerily as he spoke to the small wolf while petting its head.
Thinking back on the exercise it had been exhilarating to push his movement technique so far and at the end there he felt his speed had reached farther than it ever had before. Perhaps playing with Little White in this way could serve as good training, in any case, it could at least give him something to do. Once he had rested and felt able to move again Fan Zhong started to rise to his feet while observing the area around him.
They had come to the top of the sloping ramp-like terrain and the edge that ran along to his right eventually formed the cliff face as the terrain sloped down back the way he and Little White had come. In the distance Fan Zhong could just make out the misty form of an enormous mountain rising into the heavens. Upon seeing this he sharply inhaled in awe.
Growing up he had heard stories about how large the mountains bordering the valley were; however, seeing it in person was another matter altogether. What he could see looked to be the sturdy middle slopes of the mountain while the rest of the higher slopes, as well as the peak, rose into the cloud obscuring them from vision. Many in the valley considered the Green Mists Mountain, as well as the Yellow Dragon mountain that made up the northern border of the valley, to be incredibly strange.
For one thing, they were incredibly large singular mountains. One had to know that usually, mountains came in ranges, with many lesser and greater peaks. However, these two defied that logic being incredibly large singular existences that seemed to connect heaven and earth by themselves. Their size was another contention as only the base of each mountain where they faced inward towards the river were considered parts of the valley proper.
This left enormous parts of the mountain, as well as anyone who lived above the base on the slopes above, and the outward-facing parts to still be considered as separate areas. In his youth Fan Zhong had always fantasized that some type of immortal musician had risen the mountains from the ground in honor of some sort of enlightenment he received. His childish mind had dreamed of such a powerful figure descending from the heavens to take him as an apprentice and give him techniques that wildly outclassed anything that existed in the valley, just like the stories of legend.
Thinking back on this made Fan Zhong smile, he may not have been apprenticed to some super powerful immortal but he felt that his path was forming. All he had to do was continue walking that path and see where it took him. With his thoughts returning to him, Fans Zhong noticed that their surroundings were all too silent.
Surveying the surroundings he saw that there was another gentle upward incline that stretched into the distance before meeting another rising cliff face. At the bottom of that cliff face, a cave opening loomed with pitch darkness like the maw of a demon from the void threatening to swallow the world whole. In front of the cave was a bare clearing, even the normally grassy underbrush stripped clean as only barren earth stretched for a good 20m in a circle around the opening to the cave.
All around the path leading up to this opening Fan Zhong could feel the air writhe as if struggling victims’ souls still writhed in death creating an atmosphere that threatened to suffocate him even at this distance. Closer to the entrance he saw white shards gleaming, half-buried in the ground. If Fan Zhong had to guess he was thinking that these were bones of previous victims and not all of them looked small.
Whatever lived there was some sort of local predator and he wanted nothing to do with it. When Little White glanced in the same direction he growled, seeming to have agreed and they both sprinted back the way they had come. As he and Little White made their way back to camp Fan Zhong kept glancing over his shoulder expecting any moment for a horrific beast to come charging at them.
On the way back he made sure to temper the pace they were taking and made great pains to move stealthily through the underbrush. In this regard Little White was much more successful than him, turning into a ghost that glided in and out of sight with only the barest movement of foliage to herald the cub’s larger movements. Finally reaching camp Fan Zhong felt a huge relief wash across him as they had suffered no attacks.
Reflecting, he realized the sun had moved a considerable margin since they had set out and he realized the cave was fairly far away from his camp, perhaps an hour or more with a light jog. As long as they stayed clear of moving southward he felt the current campsite should be more than safe from incursions by that particular predator. That decided he led Little White on a trek eastward to continue their running and play. After this they checked the snares he had left in the north, the traps resulted in four catches bringing them a feast.
That night Fan Zhong made more herb tea and finished eating his roasted catches in much the same way he had the previous, a content smile spread across his face. In this way, they continued existing just him and Little White. During the rest of the week, Fan Zhong took his little companion on more and more adventures exploring northward and east while practicing movement techniques.
After this, they settled into a routine of hunting and playing to while away the days. During the first month, Fan Zhong mainly focused on getting Little White more familiar with him and mentally mapping out the area. Once the cub was used to him so much that they spent nearly all their time together he started practicing hunting with him. It took many attempts but by watching how his little companion moved Fan Zhong was able to get much better at stalking and moving through the forest unseen.
Once the second month had passed he finally managed to sneak close enough to a deer that he could strike it with his staff. He had been awed at being so close to the animal in its natural environment and botched the strike, hitting its leg instead and the deer scampered off. A week later he got another chance and that night Fan Zhong and Little White feasted like kings.
By the end of the third month, Fan Zhong had fashioned his lean-to into a more permanent and sturdy structure with a square bamboo frame that had his waterproof cloth stretched to make the roof, functional sheets of thin bamboo made into makeshift doors. With the same technique, he used to make the doors; he had also managed to make bamboo sheets to cover the floor of the tiny structure. He put these on top of beds of dried tall grass to make sure they had some give and as a spacer to protect the sheets from water that soaked into the ground when it rained.
Going into the fourth month of his trial Fan Zhong was feeling comfortable with his living routine. Although not the life of luxury he normally lived there was a charm to what he was doing. At this point, his largest obstacle was finding things to fill the time and he decided on simply resuming his normal training routine.
Running in the morning, followed by stance and technique drills. Then using the afternoons for quiet reflection and meditation. After living the last year with the routine nonstop returning to it was quite comfortable for him. Everything was going great and by the weekend of his last week of trial Fan Zhong felt that his actions had truly lived up to his training.
He was returning from the snares that afternoon, unfortunately without any catches, and suddenly could not find little white. That morning the small wolf had stayed in the camp as it seemed he wasn’t feeling well. Fan Zhong had figured this was on account of not having eaten much in the past few days as their snares had been drying up. At the time he figured this was not an issue as his trial was coming to an end in two days and had set out under the rolling gray forecast of the sky to check the snares.
Now a feeling of dread arose in his heart as he searched, unable to find his small companion. Finally, he was able to locate a trail that headed southward. The dread boiling in his stomach hit Fan Zhong as hard as any blow as it felt like his insides dropped out from under him.
Quickly he sprinted south following the trail as best he could while looking for any sign of Little White. It was as he approached the bottom of the wide ramp that headed for that dread cave when he found the trail again. Strewn along it was a tiny trail of blood leading up the ramp.
In that instant, the world blurred as Fan Zhong ran up the incline faster than his body had ever moved. As he sprinted under the looming gray skies Fan Zhong heard thunder rumble heralding a storm, he could only hope that he wasn’t too late.