This morning when I woke up the air smelled of adventure. The river beside me was roaring noisily, and I had a trusty, albeit unconventional, companion to join me on my travels. My body was brimming with energy this morning. Even the now two-day-old dried fish had a certain daring flavor to it. I hope it wasn’t molded. I followed up breakfast by drawing out two long oars that I could use to navigate back to shore while I was on the water. I was amped up to find a village. Meet new people, and learn a little bit about what this world had to offer. Maybe things here were peaceful and all I had to do was find a way to help the people survive through an upcoming potato famine. I stretched out and looked around.
“Kitsu?” I called out to the white fox. I figured that she would probably already be out training the tree cutting technique that I’d haphazardly given her pointers on. Even animal cultivators worked hard it seemed. I walked into the forest and followed some whooshing sounds to the area where I’d left Kitsu the day before. “Still training? Will you be coming with me on the boat? I hope this isn’t goodbye.”
The fox startled, the tree she’d been practicing on was noticeably more mangled than it had been. There were many deep grooves in the tree that penetrated well past the bark. Poor thing, it was being beaten up like a test dummy.
“You’re leaving already? I see. I’d like to continue my training here, but I also wish to know more about what you can teach me.” The fox fell into deep thought for several moments, before I interjected.
“It may not be the same, but you could test your technique on the river itself. It’s not as tough as the tree bark, but the water is many times deeper than the tree is thick. If you could make a slice down to the bottom of the river then you should be able to chop down a tree. It may be even more difficult to cut through the surging current.” I did my best to sound like I was giving her a new training regime. The truth was that I didn’t really want to go on the river alone. I was fine with it before, but now I had the option not to spend my days alone. Besides, having someone look up to you as a teacher was nice. Stressful, but nice.
The fox’s eyes seemed to light up in realization. The new “training” that I’d suggested seemed to have caught her attention. She circled around the damaged tree as if to check her progress then nodded to herself before walking past me toward the river.
“I accept your new training regiment, Master Lei. I’d only considered the trees because I saw you cut them so brilliantly, but to be able to part the river itself? That would be wonderful! Then I could easily cross without getting my beautiful coat wet.” She seemed incredibly satisfied and turned her head to look at me expectantly. I grinned and jogged up to catch up with her so we could walk side by side back to the river. She talked excitedly about the progress she’d made the previous day and this morning and how she could use what she’d learned to part the river. I listened enthusiastically and even learned a little about Qi myself. Like how it felt when it was circulated through your body, and how she’d manifested it. I wondered if I’d be able to mobilize my Qi without help from the pen one day.
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I pushed the heavy log raft into the water and held tightly onto the rope to stop it from being rapidly swept up into the current. I’d packed all my things into a brown sack that’d I’d made and lugged it over my shoulder. With the lead-like heavy pots in there it weighed quite a bit, but I felt like I could lift a lot more since I’d come to this place. It probably had something to do with the Qi. In all the Xianxia stories I’d read the cultivators could lift mountains and leap over continents, so being able to lift a heavy sack with ease probably fit into its capabilities.
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Kitsu hopped onto the raft daintily. She looked at the water in disdain and I saw pure white Qi begin to push into it. It would usually only get a few inches then vanish, but she was already hard at work. I pulled the boat close to shore and hopped on. I pulled my large oars on board and pushed against the shore, the boat lurched uneasily to the side. It made a grating noise as it scraped against the riverbed and before I knew it we were sucked downriver with the current.
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Master Lei’s technique was frustrating, to say the least. She’d gained a fair few insights about the use of her Qi while pursuing it though. Her control was getting much better, it had to be good for her to try surrounding things with her Qi. She could already push through things, but she could only push them out of the way like this. Her Qi couldn’t absorb the things she surrounded. With the water, she could surround a slice of the water and use it to push the other water out of the way. She could move it quickly, and the slices were rather clean but it required a lot of energy and focus to keep pushing. She imagined how flawless her technique would be if she could just absorb the water as Master Lei had said. That master in question had been very lazy during this trip on the mighty river.
Once they’d gotten onto the boat he’d laid back on it and snoozed without a care in the world. What if the boat were to capsize? They’d both be quickly pushed under the current and eaten by the mighty beasts that lurked beneath them. Her father, who was a much dimmer fox than her had warned her that the river was a dangerous place. Under the choppy waters lurked beasts as big as logs that could swallow a human, let alone her, in a single gulp. Yet Master Lei seemed confident enough in his ability to rest while those dangers lurked beneath. She once more admired his strength and redoubled her efforts to cut through the river.
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She and Master Lei has been on the river for a few days now. He’d spent most of his time making what he called ‘Fire bricks’ and storing them in a bag. They were solid black rectangles that he insisted could burn for a very long time. He wanted to give them to other humans in exchange for food. She was taken aback. He wished to give something so dense in Qi away for mere grains of rice?! The humans would likely take him for a fool, but Ki Zu wouldn’t let them swindle Master Lei.
She could now cut many feet deep into the water with her Qi. She still couldn’t wrap her head around how to absorb it though, perhaps that was one of Master’s hidden techniques that she would have to earn before he’d part with it. Like the technique for making items of Qi. She could also feel his Qi growing every day. He would always nearly deplete it making the fire bricks and then the next day it would come back more plentiful than it had been. It was astonishing the rate at which he grew. Would she grow in such a way if she continued to follow him? She thought looking down into the rushing water. Her Qi gathered up and a beautiful white blade cut across the water. Deeper and deeper the gash grew until a hole the size of a man was made. That was the deepest yet. Ki Zu had confidence she could cut the tree soon. Perhaps she already could. She looked at the forest while it slid past them. Perhaps when they reached town she’d find a tree to challenge. Ki Zu let out a satisfied sigh and decided to relax alongside Master Lei. He lay on a brown pillow he made. It was comfortable. Ki Zu joined him and laid down watching the endless expanse of the river float by.
She comfortably slept on the boat now too. Neither of them had stopped even once to take a rest. Master Lei had made a pit to boil water in and used a long net to pull fish from the river when they were hungry. These were quiet times, but soon they would be amongst the humans. She knew Master Lei hadn’t noticed it yet, but her nose was much better than his. She could smell the smoke from one of their settlements. The fires they burned had a stench that Master Lei’s didn’t have. Just another day or two and their peaceful river journey would end. She was glad, Master Lei seemed to be getting impatient. The stars shone in the night sky. Master Lei stared up at them and reached out his hand as if to catch that colorful band that wrapped up the sky within his grasp. She was sure he would one day grab them, and she hoped he’d bring her along to bask in their soft light.