65. True Purpose

Sealed up in my cave alone, I reflected on my life. Not the ones that had come before, for I did not have that much time, and they were not relevant to my current advancement. In order to achieve my current goal of reaching the Golden Path, I needed to step onto that path with a purpose.

Not just any purpose, but something which I had been working towards my entire life. Something which I could continue to dedicate myself to for the rest of my life. However long that might be.

My purpose in entering samsara and being born as Little Bug might have been to slay Nadia and bring about peace in the face of her madness. But my soul and my current life were surprisingly not in harmony on this matter.

It was frustrating when I reached that conclusion, but I never shied away from unpleasant truths.

I needed to kill Empress Nadia in order to stay her wrath, but what I wanted out of life was something entirely different.

And I had no idea what it might be.

So I delved into my memories of this life and began analyzing them one by one.

When I was about four years old, I picked up a grasshopper…

~~~~~~

Di Ram studied the maps. The scouting reports were dated, but it was clear that something was happening in the region northwest of the city of Mer’cah. Three of the scouts in that region were late in checking in.

Late probably meant dead.

Po Sana passed him a cup of tea, and he drank it without looking at her. She looked at what he was looking at but didn’t see what he saw.

She saw nothing but paper with a map and writing on it that she couldn’t read.

What he saw was ambush.

That was fine. He kept her close for her protection, not for her tactical mind. The entire Po family had been moved into the estate where he now lived, with the younger children playing in the halls and falling silent as he passed. The father was one of his guards, safe in his anonymity, and the eldest daughter was …

He sighed.

The eldest daughter was a problem. But not one that was easily solved. She was getting into the sort of trouble that teenage girls often do, and it wasn’t her place to solve the problem. Nor did he have the time or energy to do so when he was in charge of preparing for the oncoming undead horde.

“Thank you, My Lord,” Po Sana said.

He glanced up in surprise. “What for?”

“You sent word of my son,” she explained. “You didn’t have to do that. But knowing that he’s alive, that he has friends, and that they were together not too long ago, it brought me a moment of happiness.”

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

He nodded. “You’re welcome, I suppose,” and he turned his attention back to the maps. He didn’t have time to waste on sentimentality and she knew that, but she’d needed to say the thank you all the same.

After a few moments, a knock on the door and her husband appeared. “My lord. The Peach Petals are here.”

“The peach what?” he asked.

“It is the name that they are giving the disciples of Po Guah,” he explained. He still did not believe that the near mythic figure was his son. What he believed, Di Ram did not have time or an inclination of finding out.

“Show them in. Sana, thank you, but you may retire until I ring the bell again,” Di Ram said.

She bowed and vanished into one of the servant’s entrance to the room. Moments later, the door opened, and six young men and three young women and one great cat entered the room.

“Thank you for coming,” he said. “I’ll get right to the point. Having ten silver path cultivators join our force would be welcome enough, but you also carry the weight of Little Bug, who for various reasons has become a folk hero. Having you execute a successful mission at this point to strengthen our position and weaken the enemy would greatly increase morale. Since you have agreed to flock to the banner of the Many Peaks Alliance in this hour of need, I see no point in splitting you apart, but I will be sending with you experienced guides so that you are not overwhelmed. Does this suit you?”

Hien Ro spoke for the group when he said “Just tell us where to go and what to do.”

Di Ram nodded. “I suspect that something is happening in this region,” he explained, and he began to go into details about missing peasants and late scouts.

The disciples studied the map for a while, then agreed to investigate and report their findings back to him. They left his command room, and he relaxed.

He might be on the golden path, but he felt tense around those kids. Like the way he’d felt around his father, when he’d been young and hadn’t understood the depth of the power that Di Phon had possessed.

Hopefully they’d live long enough to put it to use. He shifted his reports to the team he’d assigned them to and relaxed. Even though these disciples were young and untested, as long as they listened to the veterans he’d assigned them, they should return unharmed.

Even if there was a reason for the missing peasants and late scouts.

~~~~~~

At some point, without really thinking about it, and without saying one word to the rest of the group, each of the disciples reached out to the others and began to weave together the North Star Guiding Formation.

It was a response to the tension. Of knowing that they might be going up against overwhelming odds, for they’d sat through briefs of what reports had come down from the north. Of endless armies of undead in the bronze and silver ranks as far as the eyes could see.

The sergeant who had been placed in charge of their integration into the Many Peaks Alliance had done his best to scare them.

But it wasn’t fear that they were feeling.

It was relief.

Because while they reached out to each other due to the tension they were feeling in this mission, one thing was definitely true which brought them peace.

The enemy was not their master.

Bring on the hordes of the undead.

Compared to the hell that they had already been through, a few thousand ghouls did not frighten them.

When the silver ranked scout took command, he was unnerved by their presence.

But they followed his instructions without complaint or the arrogance that newly risen silver path cultivators usually possessed. They dashed out over the city and into the region where the lack of scouting reports were causing concern.

Hopefully, there would be nothing there, he reflected to himself as he struggled to keep up with the younger cultivators.

He didn’t hold out hope that that was the case.

‎