In the end, I found my way home eventually. It was the sounds that beckoned me there in the end. Much of the mountain was dead. Hundreds of mansions, in states ranging from utter decrepitude, to seemingly untouched by nature, and yet empty and silent. It was perhaps one in ten that showed signs of life. Those, and the pristine yet empty ones, I studiously avoided. I’d fucked up enough social interactions for the day, the last thing I needed to do was wander into someone’s unoccupied house.
The decayed shells though, eventually my curiosity got the better of me. There was little to find, any esoteric treasures had long since been taken. But some of the mundane bits and bobs hadn’t. In one blasted out wreck of a three room house, I found a nice stoneware stove, sort of a ceramic bowl with a chamber for fire beneath, and a mortar and pestle. I wondered what had happened here, to leave it missing a full wall and a half. Were the sect’s disciples powerful enough that a dispute between them could leave buildings wrecked? Had it been a more mundane fire? After a little thinking, I stuffed both the stove and mortar into my storage ring. After a few seconds of visualization, both pieces vanished with very satisfying gentle pops, though doing the stove took a lot out of me. Apparently the qi expenditure scaled with volume or mass, it was the first time I truly noticed a dip in my inner well of power. It wasn’t the most pleasant sensation, there was no pain or discomfort, but my limbs felt physically weaker than they’d been, as if my blood pressure had suddenly dropped. Thankfully, my channels began refilling themselves almost immediately, without any effort on my part, confirming that I was at least in core formation. I was still a little leery of trying to actively manipulate a cultivation base I didn’t understand, lest I give myself a qi deviation or something. I didn’t even know what sort of cultivator this body had belonged to, beyond the fact that he carried a sword, and knew at least one technique that manipulated the wind.
I found myself musing that perhaps heaven had smiled upon me, for indulging my inner Xianxia protagonist and looting everything that wasn’t nailed down, because almost immediately afterwards I finally found my way home.
The sounds of chatter were the first sign. Some of the other mansions, I’d seen signs of life like robes hanging out to dry, people going about chores, or even just a nebulous sense of presence. But never more than two or three people. This was a crowd in the distance on the edge of my hearing, and after half a day of wandering I was desperate enough to risk accidentally crashing another lecture.
On my way in, I found the signs I’d missed during my frantic flight, naming the plaza as the ‘First Court Under Night’. There was also an honest to goodness sign post, with actual arrows pointing at various paths, including destinations such as the library I’d visited earlier, and the ‘Night Market’. Apparently we took the night related branding seriously around here.
The First Court appeared to be a combination of meeting ground and housing district. The tall wooden pillars I’d noticed before seemed to be some sort of notice board, which seemed a little odd to me. They were half a dozen feet wide at the base, leaving plenty of room for things to be tacked to them. But they also extended thirty feet in the air, and I could see papers all the way up at the top, though the density definitely reduced the higher you went up the pillar. The only thing I could think of was that the top of the pillar contained notices for people who could fly? Anything else would be silly.
Hell, the whole thing was silly. Those pillars had to weigh thousands of pounds, they were the size of giant redwoods. Shit, if the plaza itself wasn’t so colossal, hundreds of meters from one side to the other, they’d be in danger of taking a house down with them if they ever fell over.
A few dozen disciples were crowded around them, the source of the chattering I’d heard. I gave them a wide berth.
My home was easy enough to find, I hadn’t exactly memorized my address, but I did remember it was one of the smaller ones. Getting a better look at the totality of the plaza, it was in fact the smallest one, and one of only a few without an enclosed courtyard.
It was also the only one with a girl kowtowing on the doorstep.
The girl who’d begged me for swordsmanship lessons.
The reason I’d accidentally almost blown half a dozen houses down.
With a colossal sigh, I kept moving towards her. She wouldn’t follow me into the house, I just had to step over her, and avoid getting asked any more questions I didn’t know the answer to.
A few other disciples stood around her prostrate form, talking amongst themselves. One of them caught sight of my approach, and grabbed the other two disciples by their sleeves and all but dragged them away. I didn’t mind, but it left me curious what they’d been discussing. Had they been… bullying her? Was that why the girl was so desperate? As the other three disciples ran off, the prostrate girl from earlier turned around shimmying on her knees, still maintaining her kowtow, but now facing towards me rather than my doorway.
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“Please Elder Hu, accept me as your disciple! Your teachings yesterday opened this unworthy Su Li’s eyes to how little manuals can teach of the sword.”
Yesterday? That couldn’t be right. Inadvertently, I paused as I tried to figure out just how long I’d spent in that library.
Su Li pounced on my hesitation.
“I know you don’t accept many disciples, but this Su Li will work harder than any before her! If you but give me a chance, I swear I will bring honor to your teachings!” Like a dam breaking, words flooded forth from the girl, as she launched into a clearly rehearsed speech. “I swear to honor and respect you as my father, to strive with my utmost…”
I tuned her stream of platitudes out, as a thought struck me. Could I get away with not accepting a disciple long enough to actually learn how to cultivate? Maybe, but I didn’t think so. Apparently I’d already not taken one for a while, and from my small house and the attitude that the Elder teaching the class had towards me, I imagined I wasn’t the most esteemed figure around here. Which meant I was probably first for the chopping block if I didn’t perform. And what happened when I finally took a student? A genius would see through me immediately, an average student wouldn’t get any benefit from my guidance. But someone already struggling, that no elder had accepted like her?
If she didn’t learn that much, would anyone truly be surprised? Or would they just chalk it up to a poor teacher and a dearth of talent and get on with their lives? It was cold… But I was as desperate as her in a way, I didn’t like my odds of survival if the truth of my incompetence got out.
“All the inner disciples talk about how your swordsmanship is peerless, that you vanquished the Sage of Summer’s Heart by cutting through…”
Oh god, she was still talking.
“Enough.” I said, cutting her off. She fell silent immediately, dropping her head back into a full kowtow. “Follow me.” This was not a conversation I wanted to have on the porch. I stepped around her, pushing aside my unlocked door as I stepped into my one room house. Everything was as I’d left it, including the wine cup I’d broken by accident. I stored that in my ring before Su Li could see it, and sat down on the cushion I’d woken up on. Quietly, Su Li followed me in.
“Thank you Elder Hu, I swear you will not regret this.” She said, again taking up her prostrate position opposite me.
“That was not a yes. Sit up and face me. Why do you want to learn from me?”
“Because you are the greatest swordsman in the Pathless Night Sect, and I must master the blade beyond all others of my generation if I am to achieve my goals.” Su Li said, staring into my eyes.
Was that true? Or was she just trying to butter me up?
“I don’t need to be told of my own skills.” I lied through my teeth, I really did, just from a more reliable source. “Why do you wish to learn the sword?”
Su Li looked down again, but at least this time she didn’t kowtow.
“There is a man I must kill. A general. He killed my father, and I must avenge him.”
I frowned. I didn’t know why, but I’d expected something more frivolous.
“In a distant land, there is a proverb. Before one embarks on a journey of revenge, first dig two graves. If your vengeance would cost your life, would you still seek it?”
“Yes. The man who raised me deserves nothing less.”
Su Li raised her head again, to look straight at me, and I could see tears in the corner of her eyes.
“Please Elder Hu, teach me. I have no karma with the arts of Elder Li or Elder Xin. I am no great scholar. My talent at cultivation is lacking. My only gift has ever been the sword. The other Elders… They have refused to teach me, or asked things of me that I cannot give. I will not dishonor what my father taught me. But I have spent three years as an initiate, and my own talents, and the small secrets I have managed to beg and barter will see me no farther.”
It took all I had not to look away from her, from the sheer pain and resolve on her face. I couldn’t let my mask break. It was all that protected me. But all the same, I let as much honestly as I could afford slip into my answer. I did not want to give her false hope, she deserved more than that.
“I cannot give you power. It is not an accident that I do not teach. I do not know how to make another into the sort of man that I am. I am not sure that I would mold another in my image, even if I could.”
“I do not care. I believe in you. I must. I will learn anything you can teach me. I give all that I have to any task that you set before me. I will not live beneath the same sky as the man who killed my father.
“Please.” She finished, hiding her face in another kowtow.
I sighed.
“Raise your head. I will teach you what I can. But first, I could use some firewood.”