Chapter 10
Tan rolled over in his bed, unable to go to sleep. He was … anxious? He wasn’t sure how to classify the feeling, but he was feeling something unpleasant. And he was certain that Kora was to blame.
He was close to breaking through to the next stage, he was certain. Very close. He’d probably manage in a day or two, even with Zephyr hoarding one third of all of the energy he was gathering for the purpose. He wasn’t certain why she was hoarding energy from him; he wasn’t at the stage where he could help her grow yet, and the last time she had done this he’d been at the edge of a breakthrough in the Dao. He didn’t feel that was the case now.
He trusted his companion spirit implicitly. Even with the way she was poisoning him against Kora, an action that she wasn’t even pretending to deny, he was certain that she had his best interests at heart. They were bound together, after all, and her best interests were his best interests. She would make him stronger, and eventually, he would make her stronger as well.
That was how spirit cultivation worked.
Unless you were a Zang, a small voice whispered in his ear. Not Zephyr, his own conscience. He recalled the twisting formation he’d seen in Kora and her parent’s dantian. The way that it had been designed to take and take and take from the spirit and give nothing in return.
It had been simple enough to break. It was fragile, like the strands of a spider’s web. And he did not regret it. But he thought that he would regret it if he married someone who thought that it was okay to use such a technique.
But did Kora think that? She had seemed happier now that she could talk with her spirit, going so far as to thank Tan for freeing it.
He chewed his lip.
Cultivating with her had been good. It was always best to cultivate with someone of another element, Tan had learned. That was why he and his friends made such a good team, and why the cultivation hill where they had first started cultivating was so important to them. And why he’d brought Kora to the orchard instead of the top of the hill.
She didn’t belong there. She wasn’t one of them. She was an outsider, and that hill represented something to Tan that he wasn’t willing to share with anyone except Pao, Won, Ko, and maybe Safron. As the years had gone by, the formation that focused Qi to the top of the hill had been increased, reinforced, and built upon by Tan’s parents, and it was now the hub of a many-mile wide formation.
And yet his session cultivating with Kora had been nearly as helpful. Her fire Qi stirred up the air, and his air Qi had stirred up the fire Qi in the orchard. But it was different from cultivating with Won or Safron. Kora’s insights, her flavor of the Dao was different than theirs. It wasn’t better than Won’s path.
Won focused on the becoming aspect of fire. Kora was … Tan wasn’t exactly certain after cultivating with her only one time, but he thought she was like sunlight.
He sighed. He knew he wasn’t going to get to sleep anytime soon, so he decided to go for a walk. Or a flight, at least. He got out of bed, pulled on some pants and a jacket and went outside. He flew to the top of the cultivation hill and sat in his spot, looking up at the night sky. The stars were beautiful that night, without a cloud in the sky.
The moon was … the moon. Tan didn’t feel poetic right now. He sighed and began cultivating, lying on his back and stargazing.
He broke through into the second stage of the Foundation Realm almost without realizing it. Shortly after, he fell asleep, outside, beneath the stars.
He awoke to his mother splashing him with water hours later. He sputtered, and she pulled the water back, drying him with magic just as fast as she’d doused him.
“What was that for?” he demanded.
“Punishment for making the rest of us look for you first thing in the morning. What are you doing out here?” she demanded, the ‘mom’ tone in her voice.
He shrunk back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I couldn’t sleep, so I came out here to—”
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“You broke through,” Wensho said, her senses picking up on the subtle change in her son’s aura now that he was awake. “Well, fine then. But next time you decide to cultivate starlight then you should leave a note on your door so we know where to find you if you fall asleep.”
Tan’s eyes opened. “Wait, is that a thing? You can cultivate starlight?”
“Can you? I wouldn’t now,” Wensho said, smiling as she went back to call off the search.
Tan frowned. He had sensed something from the heavens last night. Not the strong fire Qi of the sun, but perhaps it was an energy that they could use? He shook his head and rushed to tend the chickens and his other morning chores.
It was Kora’s third day at the Shen farm, her second full day with them. She was scheduled to remain a week, and Tan wasn’t looking forward to the remaining time. Especially when, at the breakfast table, they were assigned to tend to the same field together, with Tan showing Kora the ropes.
Kora seemed excited, at least.
“I thought you didn’t care if I liked her or not,” Tan said to his father as they were pulling tools out of the shed.
“I don’t. However, we need to at least put you together a few times to satisfy the Zangs so that when you refuse the marriage proposal we can at least say that we didn’t reject it out of hand,” his father explained. “And honestly it will be good for you to be around a girl other than Safron and Ko for a while. She seems interested in you too, although it might not be for the best of reasons.”
“Why are we even playing along with the stupid Zang’s in the first place?” Tan asked. “I never understood why you didn’t tell them to just go plow themselves.”
“Don’t speak like that, Tan. As for why we didn’t reject their offer out of hand … they know where we live, Tan, and they think it’s someplace special. It’s really not, except for the work that your mother and I have put into it over the last thirty years. Centuries ago there was a … well, a great cultivator emerged from this land, but he took much of the power that was native to the land for himself, leaving nothing behind. We’ve been slowly helping the wounds that he caused to heal. If people realized that these wounds were healing before the dragon veins are fully untwisted, then they’ll come to either help or hinder our work,” Tren explained. “Either way they’ll get in my way, so it’s easier for everyone if they just don’t know about it yet.”
“What does that have to do with getting married to Kora?” Tan asked.
“You know that I don’t like to leave a job half finished. And that’s where the work was two years ago, half finished. Things have reached a point now where the spirits of the land have begun to heal themselves, and soon the formations and the magic that we’ve set into motion will be self-sustaining. But if a thousand cultivators descend upon our home ago to investigate, then I would take you and Wensho and Safron and the other children and fled to another part of the empire,” Tren explained.
“What would have happened to the land?” Tan asked.
“I don’t know. But it wouldn’t have had me and your mother to help it heal anymore,” Tren explained. “Another five years, I think, and the dragon veins should be able to repair themselves from the damage that the ascension ritual of that old cultivator caused. In the meantime, it’s best to simply lie low and not make too many waves. I’m sorry that we put you in this position, Tan.”
“I guess I don’t mind so much if it’s to help the land heal,” Tan admitted. “Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?”
“You’re not helping the land, Tan. Well, you are sort of. You and your friends are helping to prime the pumps with your cultivation atop the hill. I chose this farm for a reason, three dragon veins intersect nearby, and when you and the others cultivate on that hill, it’s pulling in power that has long been stagnant. Once it starts flowing regularly, the heart of the land will start pumping again,” Tren said.
“You didn’t answer my question. Why didn’t you tell me about the land before?” Tan asked insistently.
Tren scratched his nose. “Because you were nine years old, Tan, and it wasn’t your responsibility to fix. Entertaining the Zang’s marriage proposal is an inconvenience, but we’re only entertaining it to buy time. We don’t need anything from the Zang’s except for them not to blab to the rest of the cultivation world about the work we’re doing to the dragon veins. That’s not worth marrying you into their family for, but it is worth stringing them along to think that we might. And if you do end up liking Kora, then, well, she started out on a dead end path, but between you fixing her connection to her spirit and Renton’s guidance, she’s on a good one now, I think. So if you decide you like her it’s not the end of the world.”
Tan considered his fathers words. “So what you’re saying is that I just need to string her along so that you and mom can finish your work healing the land?”
“Well, no, that’s not what I’m saying,” Tren said. “But if that’s what you got out of it, then I’m not going to put too much effort into fixing it. It’s okay to like Kora, Tan, and it’s okay not to like Kora. Just be true to yourself and your parents will love you regardless. Okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” Tan said, and he grabbed a pair of hoes and flew off to the field where Kora was waiting for him to instruct her on how to weed the crops properly.