2. Recognition

The other villagers began treating me differently after that. My differences had finally become too much to ignore, and they kept their distance. The children did not play with me, the adults did not speak with me. I was a pariah.

My father was not so fortunate. He was harassed by his creditors, and he was forced to labor from dawn until after dusk to repay the loans he had taken out for me. I tried to help him, but nobody would give me work. My sister resumed tormenting me after having relented for a few years, saying that my family’s destitution was my fault.

She was not wrong.

Despite the harvest being a success, my family was forced to give away much of our share of the bounty, and we had yet another lean winter. I could feel the resentment from my father and my sister and my younger brother. Even my mother would not look directly at me.

Had I done wrong?

In the spring, three robed men came to the village. I met them on the road, having sensed them coming from miles away, for they carried a strong aura of spirituality. These men were cultivators.

“Hello, boy,” one of them said amiably. “What is your name?”

“I am called Little Bug,” I answered. “Are you here to take me a way?”

“A merchant passed through this way, six or eight months ago,” the cultivator said. “Do you know anything about that?”

“I know that he is a liar and a cheat,” I answered. “Don’t believe anything that he told you, for I’m certain that he’d sell his mother for a silver coin covered in tarnish.”

The cultivators looked at each other, then the one who had spoken to me looked down at me again. “Little Bug, please take us to your village elders. We have questions. Important questions which need answers.”

I shrugged, and I brought them to the aldorman’s house. I knocked on the door furiously, knowing that he would still be sleeping. After several minutes, he answered the door without a shirt.

“Aldorman, these cultivators are here to talk with you,” I informed him. He went pale at my words and shut the door.

“Just a minute, just a minute!” he called. “I will be with you honorable masters in just a moment!”

“Run along boy,” one of the cultivators said. He tossed me a silver coin. “Thank you for your guidance.”

I paused for a moment. “The sect takes too much,” I said. “The lands would produce more Qi if they were allowed to blossom, but they are strangled by the gathering arrays. You should turn the arrays off for five years and then slowly turn them back on again, taking only one fifth.”

“Run along boy,” the cultivator said sternly. “You should not speak of things you do not understand.”

I shrugged, and I ran off into the fields to give my father the silver coin. I knew that he needed it far more than I did. Of course that action ensured that I was promptly put to work, and so I could not get back to the alderman’s house to eavesdrop.

I tried several times to go and speak with the strangers again, but they were content to stay in the alderman’s house, and my father would not let me leave his sight after hearing that I had bothered them.

“What if they demand the coin back, Bug?” he asked. “No, no, it is a good thing that you helped them, but please do not bother them again!”

I sighed in frustration, but I accepted his judgment. I knew that it was only a matter of time before they came to me, after all. And I was soon proven correct.

Once again the alderman knocked on our rickety little door at night, and he looked more nervous than I had ever seen him before. “Sana,” he said, speaking to my mother, “The strangers, they say that they need to speak with Bug. They’re here to test him, and, if he passes, they want to take him to join the sect.”

“Little Bug? What nonsense is this?” she exclaimed.

“I know, Sana, I know. It’s about the merchant. He came to them to get his stone recharged, and from him they somehow got it into their heads that Bug could be a cultivator, so they’re here to test him,” the alderman said. “I tried to tell them that they, I mean, I didn’t want to say that they’re clearly mixed up and have wasted their time. But they insist on meeting the boy again to test him. And if the boy passes, they say that they’ll wave our tax for the next five years.”

“I knew they were here for me,” I said, startling the adults who had not seen me, though I stood right beside them. “Mother, thank you for your love. I will try to do my duties as a son even after they take me away.”

I walked past the stunned alderman and my mother, to where the strangers were standing in our front yard. And I began the test.

The cultivator on the left raised a hand, and he formed a symbol in the air made of Qi. “Do you see this?” he asked.

I knelt down and drew the symbol in the loose dirt. “I do not know what it says because I have not been taught to read,” I admitted. “But that is what it looks like.”

The cultivators exchanged a glance. “It is the symbol for air,” the man said, and he allowed the Qi to dissipate. “But I suppose you are right, a peasant would not know that. Most children would have simply said that they saw a glowing light above my hand, it is remarkable that you could actually make out the writing.”

“Did I pass the test?” I asked.

“You would have passed if you had simply seen a blob of Qi,” the man admitted. “You have certainly passed the first test.”

The second man stepped forward, and he held out a handful of seeds. “Which of these should be planted, and which should be eaten?”

I examined the seeds for a moment and picked out one grain. “The others will not grow. This is the only one that has a spark of life. You could eat this one as well, but it is the only seed in your hand that is worth planting.”

“Remarkable,” the cultivator said, and he took a step back, dumping the dead seeds onto the ground.

Finally the last man stepped forward. He held out a stone that glowed faintly, like a candle. It was smaller than the spiritual quartz the merchant had carried, but it contained nearly the same density of Qi. “Draw from this as you did the merchant’s stone.”

“I was punished the last time I did that,” I pointed out. “I do not wish to be flogged again.”

“You will not be punished if you pass this test,” the third cultivator promised. “Take the stone and draw out the light from it, if you can.”

I held out my hand, and the faintly shining stone was placed in my palm. With a sliver of intent, I drained the Qi from it in one go, quick as breathing in. It felt good to have the Qi flowing in my channels again, and I began to cycle it through my body as I had before, eager to resume my path of cultivation until--

“Stop! Release it immediately!” the cultivator said.

I looked up in confusion. “You said--”

A wave of Qi, a technique of some kind, slammed into me, and I was rendered unconscious. My iron grip of the Qi that I had taken slackened, and it slipped out of my body in my sleep.

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~~~~~~~~

I awoke in the bed of the village alderman. I sat up, recalling the events from the night before, and inwardly I seethed. They had tricked me, telling me that I would not be punished and then punishing me when I did as they asked. It was a petty and cruel thing to do to a child, and I was angry.

“I am sorry, Little Bug,” one of the cultivators said, and I realized that I was not alone. “You drew far more than we were expecting. I feared that you would harm yourself with such a volatile amount of Qi, and so I was forced to act. You are not injured, that is a simple technique to force a mind to sleep.”

“I lost it,” I complained.

“That was the idea, yes. You didn’t need to take nearly so much to have impressed us, you already accomplished that with your marvelous spiritual senses. The merchant told us that you held the stone for ten minutes or so. Draining a spiritual stone in ten minutes is already an impressive feat. To do it in a single breath, however, is truly dangerous. Until you have learned to control Qi, and what to do with it inside your body, you put yourself in danger of forever crippling yourself by holding so much at one time.”

I frowned at him. That little bit of Qi? It was nothing much, I was quite certain of that. Barely enough to sate my voracious appetite. I sighed. It seems that the cultivators did not accept that I simply knew what I was doing, and they would insist upon teaching me their hereditary methods. “Did I pass the test?”

“Oh yes. Yes, you certainly have. We have given your family a sack of coins to help your father pay his debts, your village will be free from taxation for ten years, and your family will receive twenty silver coins per year so long as you are a disciple in our sect,” he informed me. “I would be lying if I did not admit that it has been ten decades since the last time we encountered such a promising student. You must have been born under a very fortunate star. We tested your sister and brother as well, but they show no signs of genius.”

“They think I’m slow,” I said. “They’ve always thought I was touched in the head. They simply don’t see how little any of it really matters. This village, this world, all of it. It is just an illusion, no more real than reflection of the moon on still waters.”

The cultivator’s posture changed, suddenly going stiff. “Little Bug, be very careful. You are much too young to begin pondering the Dao. That you have already had some insights is amazing, but it is also very dangerous. Thoughts shape reality, Little Bug. They shape your path and change the world. If you believe that the veil of this world is thin, then it is. But should you venture beyond the veil, by accident or exploration, you will find that the harsh currents of the cosmos will sweep your soul away from you.”

I nodded my understanding of his words, and he helped me out of bed, checking me for any lingering effects of the method that had been used to render me unconscious. I made my way back to the village green, where I met my family and said goodbye. I was given a pack with all of my worldly possessions – it was not a very large pack, just a few clothes and some baubles that were important for reasons only children would understand – and I said my goodbyes to my family.

My father said he was proud of me, and he promised that he would spend the coin the Sect gave him wisely. My sister chewed her lip and stared off into space, filled with anger and worry that I would somehow retaliate for her years of mistreatment. My little brother did not seem to understand what was happening, and he said “I’ll see you when you come home, Little Bug,” when we parted. But I knew that he would soon forget me as anything other than a distant benefactor who continued to send home coin to ensure the family’s prosperity.

And my mother … my mother was the hardest tie to sever. She loved her children as a mother should, and she was the only adult who was unhappy that I was leaving the village behind.

“I always knew,” she told me. “I didn’t want to believe it, but I always knew you would be taken from us eventually. Mothers know these things, you know. Do not forget us, Bug. No matter how high you climb or how long you live, do not forget where you come from.”

I sighed, knowing somehow that to make such a promise would inhibit my path. “I shall never forget you mother. I promise this.”

She embraced me for what seemed like an eternity, but was only a moment, and then I left my family and my village behind. They were better for having had me born unto them, for the waived taxes and the stipend my family would receive would ensure their prosperity even through the next famine. Without it … our overlord was a just man, but to protect us he required power. Many people in the worlds under his authority would starve the next time he took his tithe, and many villages would collapse under the strain.

I felt responsible, and yet I knew that I was not. Ultimately the responsibility lay with the Empress of the Divine Fates Empire, who attacked our people without warning or provocation. Why then did I feel that it was somehow my fault? And why did I know for certain that as long as I lived the danger to my people would not pass? The Empress may have been defeated, but I knew, somehow, that she would return stronger and more determined than before. If the overlord did not recover his strength and find yet more power for the next clash, then the people of my birth world would fall.

Our world was but a subsidiary world of our overlord, but he had weakened himself to defend us. His honor demanded no less, for we had been loyal to him for six hundred years, but he could have sacrificed us at any time to end the invasion. The empress had made known her intentions from the start, and yet he had refused to give in to her demands. For that, we owed him a debt, and I would see it repaid.

The journey to the sect took three phases. In the first phase, the cultivators and I walked the dirt road that led to our village. For three days we walked, pausing only when the cultivators insisted that I rest. I would have kept going until my body collapsed, for indeed I was not like a normal child and could push my body beyond the point of exhaustion, but it seems that the cultivators had been told that I would not complain and that they would need to force me to rest.

The second phase came after we passed through a more prosperous town than the village of my birth, and the cultivators requisitioned for me a donkey to ride. The donkey was foul tempered and stubborn, and it resented its passenger deeply. But after a bit of cajoling, it kept pace with the cultivators, who increased their pace significantly. It did not appear that we were traveling any faster than before, but we had almost doubled our speed.

The third phase passed when we crossed an invisible line, and I immediately sensed the difference. The spirituality of the land had tripled.

“The arrays take less from these lands,” I commented.

“You can tell the difference?” One of the cultivators asked, surprised. “Yes. These are the lands where the food for the sect is grown. The surplus food your village grows is used to feed the peasants of these lands, while the food that they grow here is used to feed the sect itself.”

I had not known this, I had thought that our surplus food went to the sect directly. Even in these lands I could sense that the spirituality was strangled by vast gathering arrays that spread the entire continent.

Once we had crossed this invisible threshold, two of the cultivators simply flew off over the horizon, while the third enchanted the donkey to return to its village, then removed from a small sack a very large carpet, which he spread over the ground. When I sat on it as he instructed, the carpet began to float.

“You may wish to close your eyes. Do not panic. We will be flying the rest of the way, and it can be a frightening experience for those who have not experienced it before. If you do fall off the carpet, I will catch you. But if you simply sit next to me, you will be safe, and we will arrive at your new home before nightfall.”

I acknowledged his words, but did not look away as we flew through the air at great speed.

We passed over forests and villages in the time it takes to blink. No wind disturbed my clothes despite the speed at which we traveled, and I could sense that the cultivator I was riding with was shielding me with his qi. Or perhaps that was part of the formation inside the carpet that allowed it to fly; I could sense with certainty that the flight was a property of the item and not a technique of the cultivator himself.

“Can you fly like the others too?” I asked him.

“I cultivate Earth Qi,” he answered. “That is why I own this carpet. While I am powering it, it is purifying the Earth aspect that I am feeding it out while we fly. Eventually it will fill this stone with concentrated Earth Qi, which is quite valuable. Here, you can examine the crystal, but do not try to absorb the Qi as you did with the Quartz last night.”

He passed over a stone, which was a small white sphere the size of my hand. I could sense the link between the stone and the carpet, with the stone slowly feeding on Qi of a certain flavor which the carpet seemed to be generating.

“So the other two do not cultivate Earth Qi, which allows them to fly?” I asked for clarification.

“Win Lun has not selected an aspect to align his Qi to yet,” the cultivator answered, “And Shi Jin cultivates the wind. Both unaspected Qi and Wind Qi are far speedier than I, but although I require a tool to take to the sky, I am able to carry more than either of them. Which is a good thing, because this journey would take three months instead of two weeks by foot. It is fortunate that you lived so close to the desolate lands, or else we might not have been sent to investigate the merchant’ claims.”

“My village would not be in the desolate lands if it were not for the gathering wards which steal the land’s energy,” I challenged.

“It is the Lord of this Realm, and not the Sect, which placed those wards. While the sect benefits them, they are ultimately a part of the method by which the energy of our planet is taxed,” he explained. “Although many had forgotten that fact until the war in the heavens, which I am certain you remember from when you were younger. Some of the older cultivators are still reeling from the displays of strength. They had once considered themselves peers with the Lord, only to realize they were a cock before an eagle.”

I nodded. “Only one man in a realm can stand at the apex. It is good that this land was protected by an honorable and just Lord.”

The cultivator laughed. “Yes, we are lucky, Little Bug.”

In an hour, we traveled further than we had by foot or on the donkey over far worse terrain. We reached the mountains, six peaks near each other. Two were taller than the other, possessing ice caps, while the other four were their foothills.

“Welcome to the Six Mountain Sect, Little Bug,” the cultivator told me. His name was Pi Phon. “You must display your spiritual senses again for the elder, after which we will plan out your education. I hope you learn fast, because you will be far behind your peers.”

I smiled. “I am not so fearful of that, Elder Brother,” I assured him. “I am certain I will catch up to them soon.

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