24. Bargain

I had two elements left to attune to reach my goals, and they were ironically widely considered to be the easiest, and then the most difficult to master. The first was fire, the antithesis of the cold that I had mastered atop my mountain.

That would be easy.

Then there was lightning.

That would be difficult.

I knew some ways of generating lightning Qi without generating lightning itself, but I didn’t have a lodestone near powerful enough nor a bunch of copper wire, so that wasn’t going to happen in this life.

Ironically, it would be easier to use my new mastery over the elements to generate lightning through a perpetual storm, which is what I set about doing. I created the key points of the formation on the mountain itself, while the others spread out through the surrounding jungle to the points where I directed to plant flags which would last for a year or two before breaking down.

There were a hundred points of the formation, and it took weeks to come to fruition. But soon, the entire mountaintop was enveloped with an ever-present thundercloud.

That my formation would affect the ley lines and weather for hundreds of miles was an outcome that I could have predicted, but I hadn’t thought of the effects my actions would have on others of the southern provinces.

Instead, I sat atop my mountain and endured lightning strike after lightning strike in a physical tribulation that put my previous one to shame.

~~~~~~~

The thunder pealed, and Hien Ro flinched. He knew what was happening atop the mountain and he didn’t exactly like to think of it. The lengths that Little Bug would go through were astounding, he had already proven that, but each time he heard thunder strike he feared that would be the strike that proved one to many.

Little Bug had promised that he could disrupt the storm at any point, and that he would as soon as he’d reached his goal. Hien Ro somehow doubted that it would be so simple, and while he had seen the younger boy work miracles, he had also seen the lengths to which the Little Sage would push himself.

It had been Yara’s insistence that he had climbed the mountain to check on their master, and he had found Little Bug unconscious and seemingly dead. He had mourned his friend for the hour that it had taken to carry him down the mountain, and only then did the signs of life return to his friend’s body.

He had mourned for Little Bug, and he didn’t want to do that again.

Yet who was he to tell the boy to stop? He wasn’t a prodigy, or an awakened soul, or the destined rock upon which the grand empress of the Divine Fates Empire would choke. He was just … he was just Hien Ro, forever less than Little Bug.

He sensed the battle when it began. For ten minutes, off in the distance, Xol the jaguar fought with something formidable. Hien Ro sighed and took a bite of jerky. The spiritual cat had been getting restless lately, but the oath that Little Bug had extracted continued to hold the spirit beast in place. He didn’t envy whatever it was that had caught Xol’s attention.

But as time passed and the Hien Ro’s awareness of the battle continued, Hien Ro grew concerned. He found the others and sent them to shelter in the depths of the compound that Little Bug had carved out for them, then sat patiently on the roof while he waited for the victor to approach.

A limping Xol appeared in the clearing.

“This one is yours,” the creature said, and it vanished into the cover of the forest further up the mountain.

Three young people chased after it, stopping when they entered the clearing and saw the compound that Little Bug had created. Hien Ro studied the cultivators – if they had survived a fight with Xol then they could be no less – for a moment.

There were two young men and a young woman, each with the tan skin and facial features of the local peoples. He didn’t know enough to be certain, but he thought that they came from different regions. They were dressed differently, with the young woman in a scarlet sarong, while the man to the left wore yellow and green and the other young man wore blue and silver.

They studied Hien Ro for just a moment before flaring their cultivation, revealing that the woman stood at the cusp of the bronze path, while the two young men were just a half step behind her.

Hien Ro scoffed. “The three of you bested Xol?” he asked, amused at the teasing that he’d give the overgrown house cat later.

The woman said something in one of the local languages and took a step forward. Hien Ro responded by flaring his own cultivation, revealing that he was her equal, having recently stepped onto the purification realm himself. While their realm was the same, however, it was clear at a glance that his foundation was broader and sturdier thanks to the insights he’d been receiving from Little Bug.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The others stopped, then took a step back. They bowed, and each spoke a sentence. He shook his head. They each spoke a different language, but he didn’t understand any of them.

Still, if they were willing to talk, the it was worth trying to talk back.

“Adan, come out here,” he called, and the man appeared a moment later. With his daughter in tow. Not because he’d brought her, but because he couldn’t stop her.

“What is it, young master?” Adan inquired.

“Do you speak any of their languages?” Ro asked.

Adan turned, then began speaking. One of the boys responded in turn, and they had a brief conversation.

Once they had finished, Adan turned back to Hien Ro. “They ask if we are also sent to investigate the change in the winds and the flows of Qi which have stretched out from this center. They say that if we are, they wish to exchange notes with us. They promise equal exchange in insights, whatever that means. I honestly don’t know what to tell them.”

Hien Ro groaned. Of course there would be a complication.

~~~~~

I sat beneath the peak of the mountain, sheltering in an alcove as the storm blew all around me. I was exhausted and needed the reprieve. I was perhaps fifty percent of the way towards achieving my goal, yet the toll that it was taking on my body was more than I had anticipated. Perhaps I would need to return to the base to recover for a few days. A week at most.

I shook as I raised my hand and conjured a spray of sparks. I grinned. Fifty percent or not, I was making progress, and soon I would be a storm unto myself .

“Little Bug! Little Bug, where are you?” Came Brother Ro’s call. I cursed. What did he want now?

“Here I am,” I called out, and I flared my Qi so that he could find me. I knew that sometimes his senses weren’t the greatest, so I continued to flare them until he showed up in my little alcove. I was surprised, however, when he was not alone, but in the presence of Yara and three young people I’d never met.

“What brings you to this part of my mountain?” I asked, cocking my head in curiosity at the strangers.

Yara blinked. “Should I translate that?” she asked.

“No, it’ll be faster if I explain. Little Bug, this array of yours is causing problems all through the peninsula. The rain has stopped, and the winds are changing out in the sea, and they say that even the Qi in the dragon veins is flowing differently.”

“I know,” I said.

“You know?”

“Yes. That’s how I’m powering the storm,” I said.

“Oh,” Hien Ro said. “Well, it’s causing problems. And people are wondering what’s causing it, so they’re coming to find out. These three came to investigate for their seniors. I didn’t tell them that we’re causing it, I just said that my master was on the peak and that he might know more.”

“You did well, Brother Ro,” I said. I sighed. I didn’t really want to get involved in politics, but the truth is that the others had a right to be upset at my actions. My array was widespread and the effects were more widespread. Nature would return to its natural course soon enough once I had dispersed the array, but in the mean time it seemed a lot like I was claiming resources that didn’t belong to me.

Because I sort of was.

“Will you translate my words for me Yara?” I asked.

“Of course,” she said.

“Tell them that I apologize for my presumption in commandeering the weather and the dragon veins in this area, but that I do not need them for very much longer. Two months at the longest, and then I shall return the flows to their natural banks. In the mean time, I offer them the Peach Blossom Dream for them to turn a blind eye to my actions.”

“What?” Hien Ro said, his eyes going wide.

Yara began speaking in a language which I couldn’t understand, but I could only take it on faith that she was conveying my words.

“Little Bug, what you offer them is—”

“I know, Brother Ro, but I cannot continue on this path without the consent of my neighbors. Begin making copies, and tell them that each sect which finds this mountain will be presented with one copy of the technique,” I instructed. “But they must agree to the condition; I must be left in isolation for two months to complete my attunement.”

The three strangers listened to Yara’s translation, then spoke with each other for a moment. They turned back and the young man in blue and silver spoke for a moment.

“He says that they need to return to their elder to strike the bargain, but they must see what is being offered to know whether it is worth it.”

“Show them,” I instructed, and Hien Ro reluctantly pulled a scroll from his pack containing part of his insights into the techniques I was imparting into Yara.

“Yara, display your cultivation,” I instructed her.

The young girl flared her cultivation, which had reached the mid stage of the Energy Gathering Realm.

“Tell them how long you have been cultivating,” I instructed, and she spoke once more in the language.

The three spoke together once more, then nodded. The young man in blue and silver spoke to Yara once more, and then the departed, dashing down the mountain at the speeds that young cultivators are capable of.

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