As each of his students told their personal story, more and more questions piled up in Lu’s head. No, no, some of these details don’t add up at all.
But, as was only gentlemanly, he waited until the end to interject. As Hom How’s tale of forming his spiritual stomach petered out, his halting voice turning something that should have been triumphant into a muddled mess, Lu prepared his most authoritative tone.
“I notice that you all claim to have been core disciples, and yet when senior Giro introduced you he named three as inner disciples. Is there an explanation for that?” You aren’t trying to slip a few white lies into your teacher’s ears, are you?
Jiendao’s face was slightly sour, but there were no ill feelings in her words. “I felt it would be best to step down. I can’t keep up with my former peers, so the core sect has little to offer me.” Her eyes glanced away. “I also felt it would be best to stay near Sir Lan. A man’s heart can be fickle, yes?”
Lu nodded sagely. “Of course, of course.” As can a woman’s heart, obviously. But yes – that’s another thing! Lan’s in a relationship? And he didn’t tell me, his close friend? “Though I’m surprised you were willing to give up the increased resources the core sect provides. Your love must be strong.”
Jiendao made a dismissive noise, and Kai Hiien stepped forward. “What use are spirit stones on their own?” There was something haughty in his tone that threatened to turn Lu’s impassive face into a frown, but he resisted it. “It is not a lack of qi that stifles growth, but a lack of spirit. I believe that I will progress more swiftly engaging with peers of my own level, than sitting alone on a pile of stones.”
Spoken like a man that has never been hungry. And I note that the three of you didn’t elect to go down to the outer sect, which matches your current realm. Isn’t that interesting, hm?
You speak loftily, but I can feel you looking down on the outer sect in your hearts! My instincts as a teacher allow me to peer into your innermost thoughts!
Lu turned to Ban Do, but he had no comments. Hom How merely looked away, bashfulness overpowering nervousness. At least one of you is honest. If I made it to the core sect, I would hold onto that privilege until my fingers came off!
“Well, I suppose that clears that up. Thank you. Moving on…” The forest was silent but for the buzzing of insects as he thought, none of his students fidgeting or muttering to each other. They really are core disciples, not cute juniors at all. Even Hom How, who’s actually younger than me, acts mature.
But as for the rest of their stories… Let’s put any romantic intrigue or weird soul stuff to the side. Their consumption, I’m here to help them with their consumption. Lightning, swords (swordsmanship? Not physical swords, surely), and beauty. That was understandable. In fact…
“I believe I have some methods to aid each of you.” At his words, even the more stoic among them had their faces light up. “But for now, the four of you should rest. I trust you can handle shelters for yourselves?”
Nods all around. Even the mortal Hom How seemed unconcerned. “As long as Sir Giro is patrolling, we should have nothing to fear,” his young voice spoke with uncharacteristic conviction.
“Very good, very good. I’ll leave you to it, then.” They split off to find space to set up between the thick trees and prickly undergrowth, and Lu waited for them to be out of earshot before opening his mouth again. “If I might have a moment of your time, senior?”
Giro stepped out of thin air behind his back. Though his hair and clothing were untouched, a speckling of blood on the man’s boots sent a chill down Lu’s spine. Hom How wasn’t wrong: Giro is the only thing keeping us safe out here. He was confident in fighting off the wildlife for himself, and he was sure Jiendao could do the same, but doing so while protecting the other three? A much riskier bet.
“You called, junior brother?”
“I’d like to fetch some things from the sect. I should be back within a few hours at most – is that fine?”
The man’s flat expression did not change. “I see no reason why not. If I may say so, that treasure you possess is quite good; it should keep you safe.”
Lu nodded. Thank you, mysterious Elder. I’ll find out your name, one day. “And, ah, exactly what level of secrecy is this trip operating under? Can I bring in an assistant?”
This time, Lu detected a slight narrowing of his eyes. “As long as it isn’t anyone outside the sect, you should be fine. But do try to remain discrete, we don’t want any keen-eyed scouts coming here and snooping around the breach.”
“Of course, senior. I’ll be the very picture of stealth.”
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Five hours later, Lu landed near the cage of snake-thick roots a second time. A loud thump sounded out, then a smaller one, then his own nearly-silent footsteps. He blew out a sigh of relief as he fingered the holes in his robes. “You could have told me you were afraid of heights.”
“I’m not, though,” Stingy answered. “It’s not my fault your Junk doesn’t have any handles to hold onto! Where else was I supposed to grab?”
Lu’s lips pursed. “Still, you don’t need to grab so hard.” He turned to his other passenger. “You’ll surely be needing new clothes as well, won’t you Cobo?”
The man only grunted, paying no attention to Lu’s joke as he approached the breach. As expected, the native hones in on it immediately.
From his purse came a tube of tightly-rolled canvas, then another, then a coil of rope and a number of thin metal stakes. “It will still be there in the morning. Come over here and help me with the tents.”
Cobo turned, likely just to grouse, but suddenly his body stilled. His hand went to his holster, and with his Comprehension Lu felt a bitter sharpness spring out from Stingy’s body. He turned, watching Giro step out from behind a tree.
“Good instincts. Though I do wish you had mentioned you were bringing Saltworlders.” Ah, just senior. I was afraid for a moment that a wolf or something was behind me. It was interesting that the two warriors had sensed him; neither of them had been able to see through his illusions during his first trip through Salt. Did Giro tone down his stealth purposefully, to test them?
“I hope that isn’t a problem?”
A tense moment. “No, of course not. But we did try having those four train with the swamp men; it yielded nothing. I hope you have more to your curriculum than just foisting the work off on some assistants.”
He said it with a raised brow, but his tone was so even Lu was unable to tell how far that amusement stretched. A crawling sensation spread across his skin. Ah, don’t tell me… Sir Giro, were you perhaps a clerk in a past life? A secretary, maybe?
“Not at all, senior. I assure you, I’m only foisting a little bit of work off – and isn’t that what disciples are for, in the first place?”
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He hadn’t planned on bringing Cobo with him before he returned, but the moment he saw him everything just seemed to come together in his head. After all, why shouldn’t all my students be together in one place? It only makes sense.
So when his students lined up at the crack of dawn, he decided to make it a proper introduction. “Cobo, these are your juniors. Students, this is my personal disciple, Cobo. Please state your names and consumptions for his benefit.”
As was becoming standard, Jiendao was the first to step forward. “Jiendao, inner disciple.” She hesitated a moment, grappling with unfamiliar wording. “Consumption of lightning.”
The next two spoke at the same time, and now that Lu knew they shared the bulk of a soul it was even more uncanny.
“Kai Hiien, inner disciple, consumption of the sword.”
“Ban Do, inner disciple, consumption of the sword.”
Lastly, the young master. “Hom How. Core disciple.” For the length of a sentence, his anxiety and hesitation disappeared. “Consumption of beauty.”
They bowed their heads, and Lu felt relief. Ah, I’m blessed with reasonable juniors. I can imagine any number of haughty core disciples who would refuse to bow their heads to anyone in this situation, let alone an alien youth.
Cobo’s reaction was much less composed. His lip curled upward, a thousand and one flavours coiling in his veins. “You’re not a Sun cultist, are ya?”
Hom How blinked. “…No?”
The warrior continued to eye the boyish human, but eventually he grunted and turned away. “Alright. Don’t bother me.”
Lu bit his tongue. Well… I suppose that could have gone worse. He probably won’t like where I take things, though, so better I keep Hom How’s lesson between him and me. With a soft clap of his hands, he drew the quartet’s attention. “Alright, I’m glad to see you getting along. Let’s move on to today’s lessons – which are personalised! Jiendao, please come here.”
As she stepped forward through the underbrush – we should really take a few hours to pretty up the place while we’re here, maybe tonight or tomorrow – he drew a mechanism from his purse. It was heavy, but as he passed it to her her arms didn’t so much as strain.
“This is a generator of my own design,” he declared with pride. “When you turn the handle there,” he pointed, “it moves a wheel of magnets around this bundle of wire. I’ve had great success generating small amounts of lightning with more modest versions of this machine; this is a much larger model, so you should be able to really feel the current!”
Jiendao’s expression was mixed. “I’m… meant to shock myself with this?”
“That’s how you formed your stomach, yes? Give it a try.” I’m pleasantly surprised to have had the perfect solution for each of my disciple’s woes. The Heavens have smiled upon me!
“Sir, I don’t mean to criticise, but I’ve tried this before. Striking myself with Heavenly Punishment didn’t seem to do anything other than damage me.”
She already..? No, casting a spell takes a lot more mental effort than turning a crank, and that it came from a spell might muck things up anyway; qi and ki don’t play nice. “Please, at least try it. If it doesn’t work at all, I’ll come up with something else.”
She nodded, though with a more dubious expression than Lu would have preferred, and joined Cobo near the breach. Then Lu turned to the twins – clones? No, that feels too sinister and unorthodox. I’ll keep calling them twins in my head.
“I assume you two have practiced the sword plenty since returning to reality?”
Kai Hiien answered. “We have, sir. Mostly with each other.”
Would that help or hinder, I wonder? Fighting against one’s self, like a heart demon… “Well, let’s see if the environment helps. Sadly, I myself am only mildly proficient with a sword, so,” he turned and waved, “Stingy, come introduce yourself!”
Lu had to admit, the twins had battle-hardened instincts. The moment Stingy’s huge stretched-out body came bounding out from the trees, their swords were drawn with a speed that Lu almost couldn’t perceive despite their low cultivations.
Unlike Hom How, who has valiantly fallen on his backside in shock.
“Hi! I’m Stingy! I haven’t fought any good swordsmen in like, sooo long!” Even with the necklace transforming her voice, she still spoke at an uncomfortable volume. The twin’s guards dropped slightly as they eyed both him and the humanoid crocodile he had called over, slight confusion mirrored across their faces.
“This is Lady Beware-Her-Stinger-Tail, or Stingy as she prefers. She is quite skilled with the sword; I’m certain you’ll learn a lot. Off you go!”
Like Jiendao, they had dubious looks as they stepped lightly nearer the breach. They didn’t go nearly as close as the others, keeping to the closest thing to a clearing available, the space Lu had set the tents up last night.
And finally, Hom How. As the sword-on-sword violence began, Lu took the younger man under his arm. “Let’s go a bit away, Sir How. Your lesson is a bit of a secret method, so it’s best the others don’t see.” Specifically Cobo and Stingy.
“Sir?”
“In a moment, in a moment.”
They drew further from the breach, until the sound of clashing steel became only barely audible. That should be enough. But as an additional protection… From his purse, Lu drew out one of the many gifts he had received from the Elders: a four-flag isolation array, disguised to look like common copper coins. They were even bent and stained with false age, and would completely blend in to almost any environment.
Hom How was silent as Lu threw the coins in a wide square around them, obviously recognising the array even before the sound of the forest snapped off suddenly. Not quite a closed space, but very nearly as good! And, much less dangerous to be inside!
Finally, hidden inside the array, Lu drew forth a small vial. It gave off a slight glow, even through the layers of formations drawn onto the glass.
There was no cork; the top was melted shut. Hom How continued his silence as Lu handed him the vial, turning it over in his hands with a strange look on his face.
“Do you know what that is?”
“…I think I do, sir. They let you bring this all the way out here?”
“Actually, I’m a bit surprised as well.” I assumed I would have to take him back to the sect to train in a sealed area, but it seems that having the favour of dozens of Elders really does mean something. “I don’t think I need to tell you to never put your sense inside the glass.”
The small bit of sky pus, part of what was scraped from Suu Li’s armour, did not look menacing in the soft ambience of the forest morning. But even trapped under layers and layers of bindings, his Comprehension could feel the writhing blend of glory and rot.
Where the other students had shown reluctance at his perfectly reasonable suggestions, Hom How gave a determined look at the crazy one. “Teacher, I am uncertain.” You don’t look uncertain. You look like you’re holding the key to Heaven’s bounty. “This power is…”
“It is just power, Hom How. The source is evil, yes. And we can never allow that pus to ever touch our reality. But the ki is just ki; separate the beauty from the hate, and throw the hate away.”
Lu had never seen a boy with so young an appearance make so complex an expression. Hom How was weary, and excited, and hungry. He was like an old fisherman watching the catch of his life swimming towards a whirlpool, debating whether to follow it in and risk everything for a taste of legend.
Calmly, without his hands or voice shaking, Hom How handed him back the vial. “Thank you, Sir Lu. But my heart tells me this is unwise.”
Lu took the vial back. “I… understand.” He put it back in his purse, feeling awkward. “I’ll find something else.”
The isolation array joined the vial in closed space, and Lu couldn’t keep an air of embarrassment from leaking into his body language. Okay, in hindsight I might have gotten caught up in finding the perfect solution for each of them, but it was so obvious, right?
He cleared his throat, and dispelled the awkwardness. “I suppose for now you should go meditate. I’ll take this back to the sect; no sense having it out here if it isn’t going to be used.”
His student bowed. “Sir.”
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Flying through the air, some amount of frustration came back to Lu’s features. Ah, so that was a failure.
A real shame too; Salt’s divinities will be showing up sooner or later, and knowing if they can be resisted ahead of time would be really useful. We escaped from Sir Bones easily enough, but it seems reasonable to assume he's the least active one, being dead and/or asleep. We're in a coal mine without a canary.
…Ah, not that I'd have been sacrificing Sir How, or anything! I have complete assurance he could have interacted safely with a little bit of sky pus; they make lamps and fertilizer out of the stuff, after all. Not even slightly reckless, not at all!