49. Guidance

Taimei stretched. It was nice to rise with the sun, instead of … whatever it was that had happened during their long journey to this place. She grinned and dressed, tying her hair in a ponytail and spending a moment to go through a brief kata to wake her body up.

Then she sat and cultivated for a moment, running through the new style that she had begun adapting to. The “ Toh Foram Siel,” or the dreaming peach, or something like that. She wasn’t too certain how the name translated from its northern name, but either way it was more about simply being a holistic method of full body cultivation, without any required philosophy attached.

That it was a step beyond what she’d learned when she was a child was not lost on her. She had been surprised when she had mastered the technique and found, for the first time in years, that she stank after a cultivation session. She had thought that she had left those days behind, but the body purification secrets of Po Guah were profound.

Fortunately she had mostly resolved that issue, and the hidden impurities of her body were all expelled with a vengeance. She smiled again.

She had a lot to be grateful for to Little Bug. The tournament itself, her opportunity to prove that the patriarch’s faith in her, was ultimately his doing, she’d heard. And while this particular opportunity had only fallen on her because the third place victor had selected another prize didn’t matter. She had earned fourth place, unlike that cheat Thaseus, and she would not be ashamed at taking the prize that had landed in her lap.

After an hour of wakefulness, she finished her early morning reflections and followed her nose to the compound’s dining area, where the others were frying up the last of their sausage with vegetable hash. After spending who knows exactly how long bonding with them on the way, she stepped in and began slicing the bread that Yara and Hien Ro had cooked the night before for the others without a word.

Little Bug joined them in silence, and they continued their quiet camaraderie as the morning meal was prepared. She noticed that Little Bug took an extra portion compared to what she’d expected him to, and she wondered if he was going to finish growing into his height soon. He was tall for a … she’d heard that he was twelve, though it was hard to believe. But he still had the face of a child and it was easy to forget sometimes that the wisdom of ages lie behind that face.

“I apologize for not explaining about the journey here in advance,” Little Bug said abruptly, and the conversation cut off. “I will not explain my motives again, but I do apologize. And now I will tell you the next part in our training.”

Taimei’s breathing hitched with excitement.

“Today, we’re going to separate. I’ve negotiated with the Tunrida for nine mountains, and we’re going to each take one of them. Hien Ro, you can have this one. I have one picked out for each of the rest of you, and one by one I’ll take you to where you’ll be spending the next few days. Or weeks. Or months. However long it takes to get you ready to truly step forward onto the bronze path.”

The room waited for him to continue. He took a bite of his bread and chewed. “There’s more to it than that, but I have a plan for each of you to broaden your foundations before stepping onto the Bronze Path. It’s best that we wait until we’re alone because each of your paths are different. But when we gather like this again, I expect that everyone will be on the bronze path.”

He paused. “Including Xol, whom not all of you have met, but he’s been stalking our camp since we arrived. I have to have a conversation with him as well and either sever our link or bring him into the camp fully.”

Taimei had no idea who Xol was, but for some reason Hien Ro shuddered.

“So, yeah. I know you’ll have questions but I’d appreciate if you let it wait until we’re alone,” Little Bug continued. He scraped his plate and then stood to put it in the basin. “That’s all I had to say.”

He left the room, and the others discussed what this would mean with excitement.

Taimei couldn’t wait to learn what this forbidden secret of Little Bug would be.

Once everyone had eaten their fill, they began to pack once more for their journey to the mountains that Little Bug had picked out for them. While she had been ill-prepared for the journey, Little Bug had proven prescient enough to make certain that everyone had a basic camping kit. And she had her changes of clothes, and she knew now how to make shelter for herself, even though she was not an earth or wood cultivator.

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She left the compound to wait outside for Little Bug, confident in the coming days.

Little Bug greeted her with a smile, and he motioned for her to follow him with a wave. So she did.

“Who is Xol?” she asked.

“He is a spirit beast. I bound him in a spirit oath when we first came to this mountain, but left him behind when we returned to the city. I am uncertain what our relationship is now,” Little Bug answered. “But I do not wish to be his enemy.”

“Oh,” she said. “Is he a snake? Is that why Hien Ro doesn’t like him?”

“A jaguar.”

“Oh. So what’s the secret?”

“I am going to show you the true depths of the Peach Blossom Dream,” he informed her. “Once you have mastered that, then you will be ready to step foot onto the bronze path.”

“There’s more to the dreaming peach than what’s in the pamphlets?” she asked.

“Can you fit a dream on a sheet of paper?” Little Bug asked.

She frowned, and spent the rest of the trip to her mountain meditating on that question.

She knew that she was lucky, to have this much time alone with an Awakened Soul like Little Bug, and she was tempted to pepper him with questions. But in the stories, the old souls get annoyed if you do that, so whenever they say something that sounds profound it’s probably best to give it proper consideration.

~~~~~~~

Six weeks passed. But they didn’t, really. The sun moved slowly through the sky, and time on the mountain had slown to a stop as Taimei cultivated. She tore up bits of her foundation, she strengthened parts that had seemed strong but were lacking, and she filled in cracks which she had not known were there.

Little Bug smiled as she opened her eyes, seeking permission.

“You’re as ready as you’ll ever be,” he told her. He had not left her side for a moment, and she was afraid to ask when he would leave to see to the others

“I have your permission to step onto the bronze path?” she clarified.

“You don’t need it. But I see no amount of preparation which will improve the outcome of making that leap,” he informed her.

She nodded, and she flipped the page in her mind, moving into the next stage of the peach blossom dream. She sucked in as much energy from the sun and the nearby campfire as she could, and she ran it through her body in the complex pattern which Little Bug had meticulously prepared her for. She gasped as she felt the rising tide of her own Qi responding to what she had absorbed and rising to the next level.

Together, she forged a link between herself and the world.

She exhaled, sweating, as she felt the energies in her body begin to settle after the crescendo. Little Bug sat nearby, chewing on a jungle fruit and clapping gently once he saw that it would not distract her. “Very good. Let’s go back to camp,” he suggested.

“Yeah, okay,” she said, and she broke down her tent, put out the fire, and picked up the remains of the bird she’d cooked the other day to eat along the path. She was surprisingly hungry; ascending to the next realm was hungry work!

They walked away from her mountain – she’d fallen in love with it during her rest periods, when she had to walk through the wilderness of the mountain to recover mentally, physically, and spiritually from her efforts. But she was eager to see the others.

The trip back to the main camp was swift, and she was surprised to find it empty except for Hien Ro and Little Bug. She blinked, turning back to her companion for the prior weeks who had been constantly at her side.

“Oh. For some reason I forgot you could do that,” she said to the dao avatar. “You’re not real are you?”

“I am as real as you are. And I am as false as you are,” the avatar said. “The last few weeks were real, Taimei. Never doubt them. You are on a good path, and even I cannot see where it leads.”

Then the avatar puffed into mist, and Taimei felt a sense of bittersweet loss.

“He’s not gone,” the other Little Bug said. “I put a large part of me in each of the companions I sent with you and the others. The real me remained at camp, but I was also with you.”

“I understand,” she said. She smiled. “I just thought for a while that I was getting special treatment.”

“Who said you weren’t?”

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