At another place, deep within the Southern Mountains...

A strong rain fell over Yaum Surrat, the massive capital of the mountain clans. Since the wind often moved north-to-south, rains most often came at twilight. The ornately carved monstrous beasts and foul faces along the outermost walls gushed water out of their mouths, and the numerous stone-statue memorials stood sentry despite the downpour. The only sign of life in the village proper was the windows, all glowing with the orange lights of candles and oil lamps.

In one of the innermost chambers of the Cloud Palace at the top of the village, a woman with black hair kneeled on a bed of fine white sand. Raked into the sand by attendants were numerous concentric circles and patterns, and the outermost ring of the circular chamber was open to the rain. The water from the sky fell, hitting numerous small metal bells, pans, and other objects. The strange, almost melodic sound that resulted was being listened to, and through this method the nature of this storm’s water, wind, and even lightning Ki could be determined by someone capable of listening to The Way.

The mountain clans distrusted most methods of cultivation, but this, to them, was different, a necessary act despite the profane method. The woman’s dress was weighed down by ornate silver manacles around her legs and arms, and chains, each one carefully positioned to only allow for the most necessary forms of movement. For the mountain clans, a cultivator was a carefully controlled burden rather than a celebrated figure, those who give their specialized service and skills for the benefit of the Cloud Palace, but sacrifice their freedom for the protection of everyone else.

The door to the chamber slowly opened, and a tall man in bronze armor walked in, his hair in a topknot, the symbol of an elite. He removed the painted wooden mask from the lower half of his face.

“That will do. What did you determine about the northern forests, oracle?” The man spoke, his voice a commanding boom in the dark room. The woman opened her eyes, gray pupils glimmering in the dark.

“Death Ki hangs over the forest of Ao. The storm picked up strength as it left the region. The waters of the forest’s lake are also growing disturbed by something strong. And… still that glimmer, like new life…”

The oracle continued for a while, mentioning things like rocks collapsing at a nearby coastline, and good, dark, soil being the result of this heavy rain. The man in armor listened, and one of the attendants noted the oracle’s visions on a scroll.

As was tradition, the figure in armor went upon his knees, and kowtowed in front of the oracle.

“Survivor, grant her your strength,” he said, solemnly. “Let her bindings be, when her service is done, like the wings of the great bird which soars through the celestial realms. Let her service be for the honor of her captivity, the sacredness of her chains. We bind, yet she protects us.”

The armored lord tapped his forehead against the sand, three times, and soon after the oracle was led to her private chambers.

A short while later, the lord walked into one of the larger feasthalls, where a bonfire was roaring in the center of a massive open balcony. He rested his arms against the stone wall marking the edge of the space, and stared into the rainy night. A woman in similarly ornate armor soon joined him, taking off her helmet to reveal short dark brown hair, and a scar next to one of her eyes.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Lord Ko.” she said, glancing over. “Do you trust in what the oracle speaks? Are my men dead?”

Ko paused, then turned to face her. “I trust in what the oracle hears. If they haven’t returned yet, I doubt they survived. The expedition into the Ao forest must have been a failure.”

Yui’s lip quivered slightly, but she managed to stay in perfectly professional form otherwise. Lords of Yaum Surrat were expected to be just like the stone guardians that protected their lands.

"I'm very sorry, Lord Yui. I'll send a request for the monks to burn incense in honor of them, if you wish. Just send me a missive with their names."

With that, Lord Ko walked away, leaving Yui alone. She slipped off her glove, letting her bare hand touch the cold metal of a prayer wheel built into the balcony. For a long while, she refused to move, simply turning the metal cylinder back and forth.

Meanwhile, back in the Ao Forest...

Tong's new body was extremely useful, but the Ki beast had discovered one major drawback.

With a larger and stronger body, came a nasty and merciless need for constant food. Called "hunger", it was a sensation quite new to Tong. The insect sat at the edge of a pond, catching carp that strayed too close. While the fish struggled in Tong's forelimbs, it drained some of their KI, like sipping silver strands of energy from them, with Tong tossing them back in the water before they grew too weak. Tong had taken a liking to the aquatic creatures, and thus didn't want to kill them outright. While this was perhaps not the most efficient method, being rather lazy, it did give Tong time to think about its current circumstances.

When Tong had taken the orange Ki from that fearsome giant plant-creature, it had done so out of a mixture of pure hunger and a strange, natural desire to fight it. Tong found that the orange Ki felt sickening to consume, and any non-silver Ki it absorbed had to immediately convert into silver Ki inside Tong's core. This meant that anytime Tong absorbed Ki other than Silver, or "Life" Ki, the insect got less than it drained after the conversion took place. Tong had tested this earlier, absorbing the Ki of the water the fish swam in, rather than taking from the fish itself. For inert substances like water or wood, Tong received about half of what it absorbed. The orange Ki of that beast had been better, with Tong receiving about three-fourths of the Ki, but it also tasted terrible and made Tong's core feel rattled afterwards.

Tong grasped another fish, absorbing some more Ki. It realized that unless it was able to find a better source, it wouldn't be able to amass enough to pull the stunt it had earlier. To change form again would require a lot more Ki reserves, and its second body didn't receive nearly as much ambient Ki from the environment than the previous form did. The more complex a Ki-Beast was, the more Ki was needed to sustain that complexity.

Tong tossed the fish back into the water, and took off. It had created a good mental map of the surrounding forest since appearing there, and by now many of the bats had learned getting near Tong was a quick way to end up sliced by mantis blades. Tong still had to be wary of larger threats, but most insects and birds were no longer an issue.

As Tong zipped down a path it hadn't before, it stumbled upon a large, ruined set of walls made by humans, left to fade into the forest's grasp. There were old- carved reliefs on the walls, and symbols Tong couldn't understand. The carvings showed humans, those two-legged creatures. First was humans fighting each other. Then, a larger figure wreathed in light, bringing the humans together. The third relief, however, showed that same large human depicted with a crescent moon instead of a head, and numerous humans bound in chains that sprouted from the moon-headed figure's fingertips.

Tong shivered, unsure at what it was looking at. A small ways away from the walls was a large hole in the ground, the remains of the basement of whatever this place had previously been. Tong felt... a tug, of sorts. A desire to know what was inside. So with some trepidation, Tong began to sneak down the stone steps, and into the darkness.

Next Time: Yui encounters a mysterious benefactor, Tong makes a strange discovery, and Xu researches the formation of sudden life...