A month had passed since Jianyu had left the ruins of the Cloud Runner Sect. He thanked the ancestors for their thus far uneventful trek. His daily routine consisted of feeding the wolf pups with his rapidly dwindling supply of demon cores, consuming his rations, foraging for food to supplement his diet, and walking along the path.

  Although a mortal would have succumbed to boredom, cultivators were accustomed to meditating for months, even years on end. However, without the ability to refine and store the energy of the world, even Jianyu was reaching his threshold.

  Damn, he swore to himself. Barely any progress at all.

  During his journey to Yinjing, the capital of the Hong kingdom, Jianyu had come up with numerous ways to pass time. He’d learned to meditate on his feet, use half the strength of his Organ Tempering body without harm, and even develop his Energy Vision to encompass several li in every direction. Most importantly, he’d observed and recorded any changes in his Energy Body.

  Typically, a mortal had an ethereal Energy Body, with twelve faint but observable meridians leading from the major organs to the extremities. At first, they were clogged with impurities, but as a cultivator progressed, they either cleared and purified their pathways. The pathways all connected to the dantian, located behind the navel. As a practitioner advanced, their meridians grew and solidified, and their dantian contracted and expanded periodically to maintain balance.

  In comparison, Jianyu’s meridians, once pristine and translucent, were now filled with a viscous fluid oozing from his core and poisoning him. It felt like his pathways were filled with fire, and every waking moment was filled with agony. But again, this was nothing new to a cultivator, and though his body was broken, his will was not.

  His only respite was that his dantian still existed. Even though it looked like a plum that had been eaten through by aphids, somehow he was still alive. He could almost hear his brother’s sagacious musings, causing him to chuckle.

  He’d have said something like, “Heaven never sends a man on a dead-end road,” or maybe “When things get bad to the limit, they will get better again.” Despite all that had happened, Jianyu held out hope for the future.

  Lost in his memories as he drifted off to sleep, Jianyu barely noticed one of the wolf pups curling up next to him.

***

  Thankfully, since Jianyu wasn’t drawing on his enhanced body, he was spared from the voracious appetite it typically entailed. As a result, he could survive on one meal a day, most of which he foraged for. Although he traveled on the King’s Road, there were practically no guards or fellow passengers, as the road was relatively new.

  As he traveled, Jianyu examined his.. charges? Companions? He wasn’t sure what they were. As his supply of demon cores dwindled, he questioned his decision to care for them. At this rate they’d die of starvation.

  Upon inspection, it was clear that one of the wolf pups was faring far better than the other; while the former showed clear growth, with blossoming energy pathways and a small but brightly shining core, the other, less fortunate whelp had pathways that were deteriorating. As Jianyu was no expert, let alone a professional, he was unable to identify the cause of their ailment.

  As they continued their monotonous journey, Jianyu let his guard down, convinced that he was its sole traveler. In fact, he grew so relaxed that he nearly ignored his Energy Vision when he detected another human less than four li ahead of him. At this distance, he couldn’t learn anything about them, other than that they were mortal.

  At this point, the demon wolves were adolescents, and could understand basic commands.

  “Follow from a distance, but stay hidden,” he instructed them. Anything more than that would likely confuse them, so it would have to suffice.

  Jianyu quickly caught up to the sole mortal, deactivating his Energy Vision once he was within eyesight of his quarry. His enhanced ears picked up the sound of a wagon and the clopping of hooves.

  Likely a local, traveling to the Yinjing to trade, he thought to himself. Jianyu knew that many mortals sought to maintain good karma, so he hoped he’d be offered passage. Practitioners like himself knew karma was more complicated than that, but he wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

  Once he was within a quarter of a li, he began to hobble, and hunched his back to appear as an unfortunate beggar. His tattered robes, worn from weeks of travel, certainly looked the part. To complete his disguise, he’d hidden his storage ring.

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  He finally caught up with the wagon as it slowed to a halt, its sole occupant securing the contents of the wagon. Upon seeing Jianyu, he jumped. Since he’d turned off his Energy Vision, Jianyu couldn’t see the stranger in front of him, let alone discern anything about them. However, this made it clear that they hadn’t advanced at all in Qi Cultivation or else they wouldn’t have been startled.

  “Gr-greetings traveler! Apologies, but you startled me,” they began.

  Ah, a merchant, Jianyu thought to himself. As part of his act, he turned in several directions, as if trying to locate the source of the voice.

  “Ah, I am over here,” the merchant continued once he realized the traveler could not see.

  Once he’d ‘located’ the voice, Jianyu cupped his hands and raised them above his shoulders, demonstrating deference. “Apologies sir, this one cannot see as you do.”

  The amount of deference he’d shown was perhaps improper, but served its purpose in satisfying whatever ego the merchant may have possessed.

  His assumption was right, as the merchant coughed and interrupted his display. “No need for that, I am no aristocrat. Traveler, what are you called?”

  Keeping his head bowed, Jianyu answered. “This one is called… Hou Guanyu.” Though it was unlikely that his name had been recorded, he figured it couldn’t hurt to forge a new identity. After all, his past had been destroyed. “And how should I refer to honorable senior?”

  Once more, the merchant did a double-take. If this… Hou Guanyu could see him, he’d hardly be calling him honorable senior. His clothes stunk, he was unwashed, and had only a few silvers to his name. “I must insist, I am no honorable senior. I am called Tang Bai, and I am a simple merchant.”

  And hardly one at that, Tang Bai thought to himself. In his village, was known for barely turning a profit, as he’d stop to help every street urchin and beggar that he found.

  “Where do you travel to, friend,” Tang Bai continued cordially.

  “I am hoping to return to Yinjing. My…,” he paused, taking a moment to fabricate a backstory, “parents live there.”

  “Well, friend, perhaps the heavens are showing you fortune! I am also There is space for two on this cart.” Tang Bai generously, but predictably, offered. Jianyu winced internally, the memory of his brother’s death still fresh in his mind.

  “This one thanks senior for such a thoughtful boon, and graciously accepts.” Though outwardly Jianyu exuded deference, the reality was far from it. He was not above using others to his own ends.

  Following the sound of the merchant’s voice, Jianyu walked towards the cart, following Tang Bai’s instructions to enter. The oxen flicked their tails in recognition of his presence, bellowing softly as he passed.

  As he stepped up onto the cart, he thought to himself, This couldn’t have worked out better.

***

  As the days passed, Jianyu learned more about Tang Bai. He was an honest and superstitious, though talkative, merchant(not exactly the hallmarks of the successful). Concealing his identity from the self centered fool had been trivial, even as the demon wolves tracked them. Even the oxen noticed their pursuers, restlessly bucking against their reins, but the merchant had ignored it all. Jianyu had continued to leave beast cores on the road for the pups, though they were growing quickly. The healthier of the two had even begun to hunt on its own, no longer needing Jianyu’s provisions.

  After yet another tale from the merchant, he sighed. Although Tang Bai had originally been a blessing from the heavens for the injured cultivator, his incessant blabbering was pushing him to his limit. For Jianyu, blind as he was, there was little else to focus on.

  Indeed, as Lei Zhaohui’s voice remarked sagaciously in his head, “When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.”

  The voices had only begun after Jianyu had left the ruins of the sect, but when his isolation had drawn to a close, they persisted. Typically, it was his brother, but at times he heard his fellow disciples or Sect Elders. He’d heard of ghosts and spirits remaining after their mortal bodies had perished, but given that he hadn’t seen anything through his Energy Vision, he doubted this was the case.

  The oxen reared without warning, putting an end to his wandering mind. Unlike times past, the twin demon wolves weren’t within the range of his Energy Vision, their unique signatures nowhere to be found. Something else had frightened the animals. Even the aloof merchant couldn’t ignore this, and Tang Bai stood up to see what was amiss. Moments later, a rank odor wafted through Jianyu’s nostrils, warning of peril to come.

  Their immediate surroundings reeked of blood and rotting flesh. Jianyu immediately focused on his Energy Vision, trying to locate any threats, but only found some sickly mortal plants, the occasional weak medicinal herb, and numerous bodies of animals and humans alike, death qi coalescing like a beacon of darkness.

  Acting on instinct, Jianyu began to channel qi through his body, preparing to unleash techniques practiced to perfection. As it circulated, it found the places where poison had eaten away at him, leaking into his flesh and cooking him from the inside out.

  Attempting to hold back a scream, he bit through his tongue, the tip swimming through the sea of blood now in his mouth. For several heartbeats, he could think of nothing but the white hot pain coursing through his body. As the qi returned to his leaking dantian, the pain subsided enough for him to focus. Just because cultivators were no strangers to pain didn’t mean they enjoyed it.

  While his attention had been elsewhere, several mortal bandits had approached Tang Bai’s cart. It appeared that his peaceful journey was at an end.