16. Patriarch
My duels with Brother Ro were more productive than one would think, considering the martial difference between us. While in an earnest fight I would have won within moments, being at a higher realm of cultivation and having a miriad of techniques from my past lives to call upon, we instead fought using only martial arts.
Well, I gave Ro permission to use whatever techniques he was working on a try, unconcerned that they would actually work or hurt me if they did. But while we were fighting, I was in fact only engaging a single technique, and the purpose of that technique was to cause Qi blockages in my meridians which would restrict my power down to that of the energy gathering realm.
This had the double effect of making our fights ‘fair’ and also as productive for my own cultivation as it was for Brother Ro. He saw it as me taking it ‘easy on him,’ and no amount of my explanation that I was truly trying my hardest, albeit with a self-imposed handicap, would change his opinion on the matter.
He was a skilled martial artist, limited only by his level of cultivation, and our bouts were doing wonders to advance that quickly as I tought him various methods of recovering both his spiritual and physical strength once we had exhausted ourselves. He seemed frustrated, but was in truth progressing rapidly as we traveled south and entered the mountain range.
I was seeking a mountain to claim as my own, which required several things. Primarily it required a snow-cap. It also had to be isolated from the local powers enough that I could do as I pleased there without interferance. Which necessitated learning of the local powers enough to find a suitable location.
Fortunately, the road we were following brought us to a bustling city where we were able to get the lay of the land. Ro found a map which showed the claimed territories of every major and minor sect of the Ker’tath region. While the majority of the southern continent was claimed, there was a conveniently located region in the largest mountain range which was not beholden to anyone. According to the map, at least.
We hired a local guide, a mortal who was happy to show us the way into this no-man’s land in exchange for ‘master cultivators’ teaching his daughter how to cultivate herself. So we picked up two more to our party, the father and daughter duo. The man was a widower named Adan, and his daughter was a fourteen year old named Yara.
To begin with, I of course administered the same test to Yara which had been administered to me years before. She incorrectly stated that all of the seeds in my hand were duds, which is actually a very astute observation given that but a single kernal bore the spark of life. She saw ‘a green light’ above my finger when I held it up, but when pressed she admitted that it was fuzzy and couldn’t make out the figure. And when given a spiritual stone, she was able to draw a small amount within herself.
She was, in summary, a richly promising student whom the local sects would regret missing in their screenings of the local mortals.
I don’t think Adan truly believed that he was getting a worthy deal out of the trade, but rather I believe that he was fleeing the city due to gambling debts. Mostly because we were accosted on our way out of the city by a gang of thugs who seemed to know him, although I didn’t understand their banter due to the language barrier. They were only mortals, however, and I was able to put them down without significant trouble, leaving them without injury to anything but their pride.
Adan was in high spirits when he realized that Hien Ro was not exaggerating when he had described my prowess, and he actively encouraged Yara to learn both our techniques and our language. Adan himself only spoke our language in broken bits, and his daughter not at all, but with the diagrams that Hien Ro carried of the Peach Blossom Dream technique, she was able to ignite her dantian and begin the journey of opening her meridians, beginning the path of cultivation at its earliest stages.
Some would say that she was eight years too late, but I would argue that it was never too late to take the first step towards one’s true path.
We left the city with three donkeys loaded down with supplies and traveled for two months through the twisting paths of the jungle and the mountains. We resupplied regularly in the little villages. Adan traded cheerfully with them using the spiritual herbs and animals that I found along the way with no more effort than simply looking for them now and then. The village chiefs and merchants would be skeptical of our goods until their healers and shamans saw our merchandise, at which point they were more than happy to make a deal.
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This was barely noticed by me, however, as I focused on attaining my attunement to the air. It continued to elude me, my attunement to the earth standing in stubborn opposition. I could only struggle to overcome it, but still I struggled rather than simply advancing to the bronze path, as would be so simple to do.
The temptation was there. It would be so easy, I simply needed to gather the energy from the world, which was bountiful this far south. The earth Qi and wood Qi were bountiful in the jungles we passed through, tantalizing. It was far more tempting to drink in that energy than any other temptation I’d experienced during my life as Little Bug, requiring a constant effort of will to keep myself from advancing.
That effort of willpower was itself rewarding, however. It would pay dividends later in this life. Eventually, I would reach the point in cultivation where I would become a world unto myself, with a core to match that of the planet upon which I was born. While I was now an active part of the spiritual ecosystem, taking and giving to the world in an everpresent part of its equilibrium, eventually I would have the power to break that equilibrium and cause irreperable damage.
So I held myself back. For many reasons, and ultimately for one.
I needed to become strong tomorrow, and so I must establish a base strong enough to support my future groath. Even if it meant remaining weak today.
~~~~~~~
Di Ram knelt before the patriarch of the Six Mountains Sect, giving him all the fillial peity that he would give an honored ancestor. The patriarch was, after all, Di Ram’s own father.
The old man, truly old having reached his sixth century of life, was of the golden path, but had never progressed beyond that. If he wished to continue the journey of cultivation, he would have to journey to the stars. But Di Phon had too many worldly attachments to do so, and so he had stalled out, playing elder for several centuries as the sixth patriarch of his sect, fathering many children with many mortals, of whom Di Ram was honored to have been recognized as one.
“My son. Soon, I shall die,” Di Phon said.
Di Ram’s head shot up. “What? But you have several centuries of life left. You will outlive us all. Surely—”
“I grow weary of watching my children and my lovers die of old age. I have seen mine end and will embrace it as it comes. Already mine enemy is gathering his strength and shall confront me with all the might that he can bring to bear, which is considerable. He undermines the foundations of the six mountains, and there is little to be done against this corruption but stand and face it. But I have seen the black hound. I know that it shall be in vane. So I ask you, my son, to take the children and the uncorrupted to safety. All those who practice the Peach Blossom Dream are pure. Trust nobody else, especially not those who lend their ear to Ko Ren, for it his his venomous words which will be my downfall. Bear them to the south, and as you flee, take with you the villagers of the birthplace of the Little Sage, for he shall be the pillar upon which the Seven Mountains Sect is reborn.”
Di Ram’s mouth gaped at the pronouncement. “I would stand and face this enemy beside you.”
“No. I will see my children to safety, even as I guard their escape. It is too late to stop this travesty, but while today’s dusk has set, tomorrow’s dawn shall be brighter than any this world has ever seen. My only lament is that the green of this spring is one that I shall never see.”
Di Ram’s emotions warred within him. Then he bowed his head. “How long do I have to act?”
“You must away immediately. Ko Ren has reached the golden path, and the others who lust for power will soon fall in behind him. Take with you this ring, which possesses the secrets of the six peaks. And bear it to the Little Sage with all haste, that he might rise us up from the ashes.”
“As you wish. Father.”
Di Ram kowtowed to his patriarch one last time, then took the ring from the proffered hand and left his father to his death.
He acted secretly and in haste, gathering his most trusted followers, who in turn woke the sleepy disciples, who were confused but trusting as they were told that they would be going on an experiential journey to develop their skills.
One hundred-thirty eight fled the Six Mountain Sect in the night.
They alone escaped the corruption that followed.