The three of them sat in their cots in silence for a long time. Aki could feel the other two cultivating as they sat. The three of them still looked off in the direction where the flashes of power came from before something suddenly erased it from existence.
"It was the Kami," Aki said. He hadn't cultivated before bed, not yet. He was still in awe of the power he had felt. There were so many presences at that power as well, all of them unleashed. Then the light in the sky and one overpowering spirit dwarfing the others.
Chen just smiled and gave a small shrug, not interrupting his cultivation. Aki could feel the wood aura flowing around him as he brought it in. Mei, however, opened her eyes and looked at Aki with a sharp look.
"There is no such thing as Kami," Mei sniffed. "Gods, angels, whatever. The gods are dead, and there's no one in the Heavens. Why do you think no one has become a Celestial yet? The Heavens can't open up and grant us immortality if there's no one there. Surely if someone was going to reach it, it would have been that Zhao man. The advisor to the Emperor, from the Akutamori."
Aki looked at her and frowned. "The Kami are real. I've spoken to them. More than once," he said as he pointed off to the east. "Where do you think all that power came from?"
Mei matched his expression as she looked at him, relenting, and shrugged. "How am I supposed to know what it is? Could have been dragons for all I know."
Chen opened his eyes and looked between the pair of them. "It is interesting how no one has achieved immortality, Aki."
"Do we know no one has? Maybe it isn't a huge deal like people make it out to be. For all we know, the Zhao patriarch might be. No one ever sees him, and if they do, they're too scared to sense his spirit," Aki countered.
Chen nodded his head and gave another light shrug, conceding the point. "Perhaps," was all he said.
Mei grumbled a little more, but then closed her eyes and went back to her cultivation. Aki just stared at the couple for another few minutes with a blank expression. How could people think the Heavens were empty? There was evidence every day of the existence of divine presence. It's how they could cultivate to begin with.
Aki sighed and shook his head, closing his eyes. He had his own cultivation to do. Calming himself, he reached out with his spirit and inspected his channels and core. Thanks to his ability to cultivate while moving, he wasn't in as bad of shape as he might have been. He had been wandering around in the desert for days looking for, well, looking for anything or anyone.
The wind picked up gently around Aki as he brought the aura inside of his body and converted it to the mana he used for his power. The light blue, almost white liquid rushed through his channels as he breathed. Cultivating while sitting still was always more beneficial to the spirit than doing it while moving around. He could gather more aura at a time, which meant he could refill his core faster and then expand his power.
After a time, Aki heard the other two lay down and go to sleep, their cots next to each other. Aki suspected the duo were holding hands as they slept. He laid down on his own cot and looked up at the canopy over his head. She was water, and he was wood aspected. He could tell what they cultivated. It made sense. The two were a couple, and Aki could sense the love there.
Mei was definitely the more powerful of the two. She veiled herself well enough, but behind that veil, Aki could still sense a crashing ocean. He wondered exactly how powerful she was, where she ranked. Chen was still in body cultivation, almost ready to push into spirit, and he wondered if the man would try to push his body or spirit more. Before he fell asleep listening to the rhythmic breathing of the couple. He gave one last sense of his spirit, trying to figure out how far he was until he could advance himself.
He was regretting the way he looked once his spirit washed over him when he advanced to the spiritual realm of cultivation. Each person had some small say in how they would appear in the outside world with their new powers. Most people, like Mei, looked younger than they really were. Aki, though, to look more like his Beggar role, made himself more haggard. His skin was weathered and wrinkled. It didn't matter. If he reached immortality, his body would be rewashed in his spirit once more, and he could once more choose.
Morning came, and Aki felt the sun peeking in from the corner of the canopy, beating on his face. He opened his eyes and breathed in deeply. Then the smells hit him. He smelled salted pork, much like what Endra had made for him the morning he went with the hunting party. This was deeper than that, though, onions and garlic. He even got a whiff of some sweet peppers frying.
He sat up in his cot and looked back towards where the cart was parked. One side now had a panel opened up, and he could see Chen leaning over in the carriage. He was working what Aki supposed was a wok, and his arm was hastening as he tossed the ingredients in the wok, so nothing burned. He looked up through the opening in the carriage and saw Aki moving.
"Ah, good morning! Good timing, breakfast is almost ready!" He called, and Aki saw some vegetables flip up in the air as Chen worked the wok.
Aki smiled and stood and headed over to the cart in amazement, able to take the thing in and fully respect it. The cart was massive, and as Aki looked closer, he could tell there were a lot of panels the couple could remove and reposition as they needed them.
Mei stepped out from it just as he walked up, holding a kettle and some cups. She made her way to the table and set everything down. "Good, you're up. Let's get you to the camp so we can get these people free from the savages you spoke up. Then me and Chen can finally make our way back to the Empire, and get out of this unbearable heat."
Aki looked around and they had already put away, saw that the cots they had slept on. Aki went over to him and packed up the clothes on top of it. He could only do it for a moment before she came over and told him not to worry about it. She stood over it, and Aki could feel the pulse of spirit, and then the cot and blankets were gone inside of a spirit ring. He shook his head and smirked. How many spirit rings did this woman have? He couldn't even get one!
Mei looked over at him with a cocked brow and a cocked smile. She reached up and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, they're not all that great. I only have them for our business."
Aki nodded and reached down to the ground where he had left his sword and new dagger by the cot that was now gone. He slung the sword back over his back, and the sheath of the dagger could attach to his belt behind Aki's back. He looked over at Mei and nodded his head.
"Yeah. I have little anyway, just this dagger and some of my acupressure needles are worth anything. Anyway, we should be going. We need to find the tribe and rescue these townspeople. I don't think it's going to be very easy. The tribe is..." Aki paused for a moment and thought it over. "Large," was the only word he could really come up with to describe it.
Mei nodded her head and looked into the carriage at Chen before back at Aki. "He's putting the meat and vegetables on skewers so we can eat while we ride. You'll be able to sit on the roof of the carriage while we move."
The pair then went about putting everything else away. It didn't take long, most of it just went into spirit rings. The tables and chairs, though, were stowed away in the back of the carriage. The canopy and other small things had to be tied up and secured before Mei sent them into another ring she wore. Mei had two rings on each of her fingers. Most of them were plain silver or black bands, only a couple had any sort of jewelry on them.
By the time they were finished, Chen had set a large platter on the roof of the carriage behind the driver's bench. They had about a dozen skewers of sticky meat and fried vegetables. He took a couple of them and went to the oxen. He kneeled down in front of the largest one, the one Aki thought was a spirit beast, and Chen started talking to the animal while feeding it.
"We're going to need to move fast today, Ping. I know you can get your brothers to get us where we need to go," Chen was explaining to the lead ox while feeding it some vegetables. The ox just looked at Chen and nodded its head. The animal hadn't quite reached the ability to speak, but it clearly understood Chen.
Mei went about feeding the rest of the oxen some feed which she had pulled from nowhere. She paid close attention to each of them, rubbing the tops of their heads and giving them little kisses when they looked at her. She'd laugh and smile and talk to them.
Aki watched all of this from on top of the carriage. He had to climb up the side, and while there was nothing there for him to sit on besides the wood roof itself, Aki figured he'd be alright. The oxen didn't move fast enough to really give him much trouble being able to stay on top of a carriage. He was a cultivator, after all. The pair below him finished up with the oxen and had them in a position in their yoke. They then climbed up to the driver's bench and looked back at Aki and made sure he'd be alright.
Once everything was settled, Chen called down to the oxen, and they were off. The ox in the lead, Ping, kept mooing and grunting to the others. Aki could tell he was really trying to push the others to keep pace with him, and he was a little ahead of the other animals. Aki sat there behind the couple and looked down, watching the oxen pulling the over-large carriage. There were enough of them, so they didn't struggle too badly, but they also weren't moving quickly.
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The three passed the time by making small talk and speaking of their individual cultivation paths. Aki learned how the couple met. Chen had a regular restaurant that was known for its dumplings and noodles. The restaurant was right inside the capital city of the region of Sinpo that was somewhere in the southern part of the Empire.
He was having a regular day when Mei had barged in on the run from someone, and Chen hid her. He had entertained the man she stole some relic from with noodles and stories. Aki was interested to learn that until that point, Chen hadn't bothered practicing cultivation at all. He was a cook, and a fine one, and that was good enough for him.
Mei, however, made a business in buying and selling imbued magical items and weapons. She had been cultivating since she was young and when they met was about to break through to the Jade realm of cultivation, a stage higher than Aki was. He looked her over and reached out with his spirit, trying to get a sense of the woman again. She had herself well veiled, and he couldn't tell very much. If he had tried to pierce the veil, it would have been rude.
Chen only started cultivating because he had instantly fallen in love with the woman and wanted to be with her as long as he could. Naturally, this meant he had to reach immortality with her. This was what helped fuel him to get so far along his path in such a short time. He was already near the end of the physical realm and almost ready to break through. It was also why he cultivated wood. Water helps wood grow. Aki lowered his head and smiled, nodding his head.
The couple were sweet and caring, and while Mei may specialize in an illegal trade, Aki figured they were good enough people. She also dealt little with stolen goods anymore. Most of the items she had she came by honestly, thanks to Chen selling his restaurant and using the money to buy this carriage. She could call in some favors to get it some magical properties. Then they hit the road, able to do what they both loved doing and stay together.
During the ride, Aki could stand and balance himself with the wind, the oxen moving over the large plains of the desert. He unveiled himself and called the wind to him. Closing his eyes, he felt the wind move all around his body, blowing up his robes. He was looking for a sign of where the horde was. He was sure they had to be getting close. Aki remembered the mountains in the distance and even saw the little area where he fought that spirit. That demon spirit they called a wendigo and lost the other members of the hunting party.
"We're getting close," he told the pair as he opened his eyes. He pointed to the east. "I somehow got turned around, but there is where I lost the party I was hunting with."
"I don't doubt it. This desert is treacherous. It's a good thing we had a map from that old man of yours, otherwise we probably wouldn't have been able to find you." Mei looked up at him, nodding her head, frowning.
Aki closed his eyes once more, listening and smelling and feeling out. "There's a spring to the east. They're camped next to it."
Chen nodded his head and called down to Ping, telling the ox to move and where to go. Ping gave a loud grunt in response and moo’d before giving a grunt and getting his team to move in the direction Chen told them.
Aki looked up at the sky. The sun was past its zenith, and they must be well into the afternoon by now. He sat back behind the pair and leaned up so he was in between them.
"I think it'll be best if we do something at nighttime. We'll have to find somewhere for you guys to park this roving restaurant and hide out. I'll go in and explain what happened. Once you see the sign in the sky, come in." Aki paused for a moment and then looked apprehensively at them both.
"The elders of this tribe, or horde, whatever you want to call them…" Aki paused and then sighed. He then went and explained that they weren't quite cultivators, as the three of them knew them. They were more animalistic, more brutal. He told them how he watched the chief of this horde call upon a bear spirit to eat one kin of one elder. An elder Aki had defeated in a fight.
Chen cocked his brow and looked back at Aki for a moment, not sure what to say or do with this information. He processed it as best as he could and nodded his head. Mei, however didn't even look back at him. She was stone-faced and kept looking forward towards a small mountain by itself in the middle of the plains. Lifting her hand and pointing at it.
"We'll park there. I can sense them now. It's a large group. I can't believe we didn't feel them before. They're just past that mountain," she instructed her husband.
Chen just nodded his head and called down to Ping once more, who just grunted and mooed in response. Aki looked in the direction Mei was pointing and nodded his head. "Do you have any paper?"
It took her a moment, but she pulled a notebook from behind the bench and ripped out a single sheet of paper for him. She also handed him a worn-down nub of a charcoal pencil. Aki took it and scribbled his note.
“I’m almost back on track. I’ve been visited by the Kami,
I think I know what this man in red is after. Need to rescue some people.
then I’ll be going after them.”
The elder wouldn't like this news, but Aki had to update him. He took the pencil back to the paper and thanked the elder for the dagger. Aki then folded the paper up, creating thin precise lines until the paper resembled a small origami crane. The sheet wasn't large enough for a lantern, and while taking more spirit, this would fly through the air faster. Aki imparted the breeze with the paper crane and held it up to his mouth, blowing on it softly. The wings of the crane flapped gently, and it took flight.
"Nice trick," was all Mei said as he handed back the charcoal pencil. "If we were near a lake, I could do a paper boat. Not as useful all the time."
Aki shrugged and said that each aspect had its pros and cons. She just grumbled and nodded her head.
It took them about another hour to reach the base of the small mountain Mei had shown. They spent the time just staring at it. Apprehension and tension were thick in the air between the three of them. Aki's mind was racing about what was going to happen and if he'd be welcomed back. Maybe they'd just kill him since he was the only one to return from the hunting party and with no prizes from the hunt.
When they were stopped behind the mountain, Aki jumped down from the roof of the carriage. He landed on his feet next to Chen, who climbed down from the driver's bench. Mei was already walking around to meet them on the side they had got off from.
"Alright, we'll wait here. How do we know what your signal will be?" Mei asked him, looking up at him.
Aki looked down at her and smirked behind his beard. He even gave it a tug and then a soft shrug. "I don't know. I'm kind of making this up as I go, but I'll make sure you know what it is."
Mei rolled her eyes and huffed before walking away from him. She went back around to the other side of the carriage and was setting up a table for her Chen to sit at to wait. Aki smirked and watched her leave before looking at Chen and putting his hands on the man's shoulders.
"Thank you. I'll see you later. Remember, these guys are dangerous, and there's a lot of them. Only the Elders have any power, though, from what I saw before," Aki told him.
Chen gave him a smile and nodded his head. "Don't worry, friend. We can hold our own. Go now."
"Yeah, go! Let's get this over with! Me and Chen need to get back to the Empire; we have a business to run!" Mei called from the other side.
Aki gave Chen an assuring nod, more for himself than anything else. He then let go of the larger man's shoulders and turned and walked away. Aki took a deep breath and started his breathing pattern, where he could cultivate while he moved. He then set off running around the mountain and towards where he knew the camp was. The sword bounced on his back gently as he ran, and he sometimes had to adjust the rope around his body to keep it centered.
As soon as he was around the small mountain, he saw the horde. Spread out around the end of a large lake that led off into the distance. They were set up a little differently than before. Instead of the circular formation the horde had before with the Elders inside, this looked like the Elders were set up closer to the water. Families and the large tents a little way from the water.
It didn't take long for some sentries to ride towards Aki, their spears pointing out towards him. To their credit, they didn't get hostile just seeing a lone traveler running through the desert. When they got close, Aki raised his hands to the air and smiled.
There were two of them, each riding brown horses, and they had the familiar sun-tanned skin and long brown hair of the horde. They carried long spears and watched Aki with their brown eyes as they rode towards him.
"It's me, Elder Saito Aki. I was part of the hunting party with Kaga and the others that were sent out…" Aki trailed off. How long ago was it? He lost track of time wandering around in the desert.
The two looked back and forth from each other to Aki. They furrowed their brows as they thought about this bit of information. They looked like they weren't sure what to do. They exchanged words in their native tongue, which Aki couldn't even grasp, but he spoke up.
"Take me to the chief," he commanded them. He now wondered if they even knew what he was saying.
When Aki spoke once more, they both glared down at him, narrowing their eyes. One of them raised the spear towards Aki's neck. Aki stood and smiled, looking up at him. His hands were behind his back, one hand holding the other arm's wrist.
"Come," one guard said, and then, without looking back, they both turned on their horses and rode slowly away. He spoke rough and hard, like the word was unfamiliar to him. He knew the word just enough to say it.
Aki nodded his head and smiled, reaching for his beard and gave it a gentle tug before following the men on their horses. As he walked, he held the rope holding his sword on his back. The new dagger was on his belt behind him so he could grab it quickly and easily in a fight. He was sure he wasn't able to trigger the spirit stone the blade was made from, but a sharp blade was always a valuable thing.
The sentries led Aki through the encampment. Some people stopped to stare at him, while others ignored him. They were leading him to a large tent located right next to the water. He could hear laughter and merriment coming from inside the tent. The laughter was from the chief, unmistakably harsh and crass.
The men dismounted their horses and stood on either side of Aki. Each of them grabbed one of his shoulders roughly. They led him to the door of the tent, and they used their spears to open the flaps. Upon entering the tent, the atmosphere of merriment instantly came to a halt.
The chief was reclining on large pillows on the floor. He had been laughing and conversing with a young girl who was seated on pillows beside him. When Aki entered the room, escorted by the guards holding him, the chief spun his head and glared. Inside the tent, two more guards, seeing their chief's reaction, lowered their spears toward Aki's throat and Aki wished desperately he had known a way to save the heads of his fallen comrades.