Upon reflection, Ji Kang was almost certain he was being foolish as a result of his inexperience. The only problem was he didn’t know which of his warring internal voices was offering good advice and which was being ridiculous, though most recently he had begun to suspect them both.

The course of action being debated? Attempting to manipulate Lu Wu into asking Senior Lu to explain the different paths of cultivation, with the purpose of gaining more comprehensive information about the relative pros and cons of each path before he committed to any by beginning his cultivation journey.

On the one hand, not asking and making a blind choice to just follow the current and do what his future master suggested could lead him to limit his future potential or stunt his growth if he should pick a path that was unsuited to him.

On the other hand, casually manipulating Lu Wu might backfire, Senior Lu might decline to elaborate, or Ji Kang’s new master might only allow him one option. Any combination of those events might happen, and could have long lasting negative repercussions on his relationships with Lu Wu and his future master, both of whom held a tremendous amount of power over Ji Kang’s wellbeing.

Ji Kang was tempted to think of these positive and negative outcomes as a dichotomy, but he was realizing that it was more like a branching web of possibilities with good and bad outcomes along almost every route, regardless of which choice he made here.

In the end, he decided that a bird in the hand beat two in the bush. He was already about to step onto the path of cultivation, something he had never thought possible. As long as he stayed in the mainstream he was almost guaranteed to have access to worlds previously beyond the scope of his ability to imagine from the bottom rung of society. The countless generations of seniors wouldn’t have carved out a path of cultivation that would have immediately disastrous effects, and being limited to only the peak of a cultivation path seemed a paradise compared to his previous prospects. And lastly, Lu Wu had said all of the cultivation paths worked towards the same goal, who was to say they didn’t all converge in the later stages?

Or were all those reassurances just ways for him to rationalize the choice which would be safest?

While Ji Kang pondered this, hours slipped by and night marking the end of the third day on the river was fast approaching. Yu Shuren would no doubt have noticed Ji Kang’s preoccupation in his lackluster gameplay, but he was also deep in thought. Lu Wu won almost every hand and thought nothing could be more natural.

Ji Kang was sitting on the deck, out of the way of the crew, watching the sunrise when he suddenly heard a voice.

“We can see the sect from here, though you wouldn’t realize unless you already knew.” Senior Lu was standing right beside Ji Kang’s shoulder, having approached entirely undetected by Ji Kang.

“Ji Kang greets Senior Lu!” He hurriedly scrambled to his feet before cupping his fists and bowing.

Now that Ji Kang had spent some time around him, Senior Lu’s remarkably unremarkable features that had defied easy description upon their first meeting were starting to leave their impression on Ji Kang. All of the Lu’s had high cheekbones, but the feature that on Lu Wu added an appearance of pride to his handsomeness, was overshadowed on Senior Lu’s face by his dark eyes that seemed to peer out from two caves. His hair was waist-length, bound behind his head in a traditional Daoist style, and pitch black except for two streaks of white that swept back over his ears from his temples. He was wearing a midnight blue robe with black trim and black embroidery at the ends of the sleeves and the hem.

Senior Lu glanced over without turning, “You may call me Elder Lu, since you’ll be a disciple of the sect before nightfall.”

“Yes, Elder Lu!”

“We’ll be arriving in an hour or so and I wish to depart immediately, make sure Lu Wu knows.”

“Of course, right away!” Ji Kang was glad Elder Lu had approached him merely to serve as a wakeup call for Lu Wu, otherwise he would have had no idea why the taciturn senior would suddenly speak to him.

The immediate dread that his intentions had somehow been found out had tinged his greeting with very real panic, but luckily Elder Lu seemed to have dismissed it as nothing unusual. If Elder Lu suspected him it would be as easy to kill Ji Kang as snapping his fingers, with the same amount of consequence for Elder Lu.

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“Young Master Lu? Elder Lu has said we will arrive at the sect soon and he wishes no delay in disembarking.” Ji Kang called out while banging loudly on Lu Wu’s door.

“I understand… how much time?” A bleary reply came through the door.

“Elder Lu says we will arrive within the hour.”

Just as Ji Kang had suspected, Lu Wu was used to sleeping in and had intended to do so today.

Ji Kang entered his own cabin to make sure his bag of belongings was ready to go and found Yu Shuren hurriedly stuffing his own meager possessions into a similar bag to the one Ji Kang owned.

“We will arrive within the hour?” Yu Shuren had overheard.

“It might be a little longer, I just wanted to instill the appropriate amount of urgency in case we get there on the earlier side.”

They both quickly finished gathering their belongings and went out on deck. Elder Lu was nowhere to be found, but a mountain was looming beside the river upstream and getting closer every second, already they were passing by foothills.

There seemed to be a thriving town between the true base of the mountain and the river, and Ji Kang assumed this was where they would disembark.

Every now and then they would catch glimpses of pagodas atop the mountain through the thick bamboo forest that blanketed the mountain.

Soon, Lu Wu emerged and took in the view, before suddenly turning towards Yu Shuren and Ji Kang.

“What are you waiting for? My bags won’t carry themselves.”

“My mistake Young Master Lu, we’ll get them right away.” Ji Kang was starting to wonder at how quickly he was able to come up with appropriately obsequious responses. Surely that bore examination at some point after he had disposed of Lu Wu and the contract.

When the boat docked, Elder Lu appeared on deck once again and stepped off without a word to any of the three boys, who all scrambled to follow him while the crew vied for use of the ramp to unload the boat’s cargo.

The town was bustling with activity, as they walked through it. The smell of baking and street food lingered in the air, making Lu Wu’s stomach growl, but Elder Lu clearly had no intention of stopping. He seemed determined to finish this as quickly as possible, making a beeline for the sect.

Leaving the outskirts of town, they started making their way up the mountain. Soon Ji Kang and Yu Shuren started to have trouble matching Elder Lu’s pace, as they were both weighed down with multiple large bags. All they could do was keep up though, as neither of them thought Elder Lu would slow his pace for them.

Eventually they came to a modest paifang, which was engraved with the words Azure Grove Sect. Standing underneath the arch was a young woman in a light blue robe with blue trim. Elder Lu pulled a jade token seemingly from thin air and showed it to her, before continuing on with barely a pause to say the words “These three are with me.”

“Yes, Elder Lu.” The young woman bowed and gestured for them to pass.

Stepping through the paifang gave Ji Kang the feeling of having stepped into a more humid area, if the extra humidity was made of something other than water. It was as if Ji Kang had been breathing dry air all of his life before suddenly stepping into a swamp. He assumed this must be the qi Lu Wu had talked about, but regardless of what it was the effect of the sudden transition was very impressive for the young man. So far all of the experience he had with cultivators or mysticism had been limited to Elder Lu and the contract talisman. While the talisman caused a brief light show, it was over before he could appreciate it, and Elder Lu seemed no different from any intimidating middle aged man most of the time. But this feeling of stepping from one climate to another in a single step was sufficiently mystical for Ji Kang.

While walking, they saw many people of all ages, wearing the same light blue robes of the woman at the gate, walking the paths. Occasionally they would spot people with darker blue robes that were a shade between the more common light blue and Elder Lu’s almost midnight blue, but there weren’t many of these people wandering the paths. Clearly the robes signified rank within the sect,

Ji Kang was still struggling to keep up with the elder and younger Lu’s, so he didn’t have much time to look around while they walked through the sect for the first time, but everything he did see was picturesque. The mix of pagodas and humble houses scattered across the slopes, linked together by paths of flagstones through groves of bamboo fulfilled all of Ji Kang’s expectations for what a cultivation sect should look like. Although he couldn’t help but notice that the bamboo wasn’t azure, it was just the regular palette of bamboo greens.

That oddity was a mystery for another time though, as Elder Lu was leading them off the main path towards an isolated courtyard. Clearly whoever built this courtyard didn’t care for the aesthetic of otherworldly daoists living in seclusion on a mountain top, because it would have been right at home in any of the wealthier neighborhoods of Jidong.

As they approached the door to the courtyard swung open on its own, and a raspy voice called out from within.

“Ah, Brother Lu, you have finally arrived. I was beginning to think you would keep this old lady waiting another month, you know that this pill refinement must start on the first night of the full moon.”