The sun had barely crested the horizon when the massive gates of Iron-Willow City creaked open. The lockdown was officially lifted. A stream of merchants, travelers and nervous cultivators poured out. They were eager to put distance between themselves and the Obsidian-River Sect’s stifling array.

  Li Yu walked out with a spring in his step and his pack slung over one shoulder. Si Luo and Bai Ruo both looked relieved to be out of the city walls. The two of them have gotten used to walking around with Li Yu on his little adventures. It was so different from the life that they knew so they were enjoying it.

  "Fresh air," Li Yu sighed contentedly. "And no one asking for identification. This is the life."

  "Being free is truly the best. Being confined, in any way, feels unbearable." Bai Ruo noted. She was then adjusting her glasses and looking at the trees lining the path. "Though the humidity suggests rain within twelve hours."

  "Let it rain, we have umbrellas." Li Yu said. "We're walking."

  They set a comfortable pace. Unlike the urgency of war or the rush of missions, this was a leisurely travel. They walked through forests and rolling hills. The silence of nature was a welcome change from the city noise.

  As they walked, Li Yu let his second mind drift inward. He needed to check on something.

  He regulated his breathing, diving past the layers of his physical body and into the Koi Sanctuary. He materialized within.

  The space was vast, quiet and filled with a nice atmosphere. The sky was soft, peaceful and full of life energy. The central ocean was calm. It acted as a mirror reflecting the strange constellations above. Only ripples from an aquatic beast jumping out of the water disturbed this perfectly flat lens.

  Li Yu walked to a small patch of earth on the island he had planted them. He had marked it with three white stones. These were the Bodhi Seeds, gifts from Auntie Bai of the Hidden Village.

  Li Yu knelt down to check on them. The soil here seemed to be humming. The massive lotus seed was circling the island nearby.

  On the ground, pushing up through the dark mystical earth, were two tiny sprouts. They were incredibly small, barely the size of a grain of rice but their presence in this barren sanctuary was like a shout in a library.

  The first sprout was a deep lustrous emerald green. It didn't look like plant matter; it looked like carved stone. It radiated a feeling of vibrant, unstoppable vitality. Li Yu felt they had a stubborn will to exist.

  The second sprout was different. It was a pale, creamy white and almost translucent. It glowed with a soft, rhythmic light that seemed to match Li Yu’s heartbeat. Looking at it made his mind feel instantly clear, as if a cool breeze had blown through his thoughts.

  "Two," Li Yu whispered with a grin spreading across his face. "Two out of three, not bad."

  He looked at the third spot. The soil was undisturbed. The third seed was still dormant or wouldn’t sprout at all. Not all seeds sprouted afterall, it was up to its own fate.

  "Sleeping in, huh?" Li Yu patted the dirt gently. "Take your time if you are alive. No rush."

  "Grow strong," Li Yu murmured to the two sprouts. "I'm going to need the shade one day."

  His second faded out of the sanctuary and went back to exploring the rivers of laws. His progress on the river of laws was slow. Painfully slow. He was pretty much stuck on each of the Rivers of Laws he could access. Li Yu now instead spent time at the furthest point he could and sat there to ponder the laws.

  The only two exceptions were the River of Time and River of Soul. He could walk endlessly on both rivers but didn’t seem to be able to make progress on them, at least not that he could tell. He would use both rivers as a mental break and walk further on both like one would take a walk through a park. To clear his mind and relax.

  This slow down in understanding the laws was to be expected and Li Yu took his time. He didn’t want to rush and hurt himself or worse. It would take time, inspiration and the right circumstances to make progress.

  "Li Yu," Si Luo spoke up. "There is an obstruction."

  The road ahead of them wound through a dense patch of woods and it was blocked. A massive tree had been felled across the path. Behind that massive tree were a few more smaller trees that had been cut and dragged across the road.

  Standing on top of the trunk of the massive tree were five men. They wore mismatched leather armor, held rusty weapons and looked like they hadn't bathed in a month. They were posing dramatically.

  "Halt!" the leader shouted. He was a burly man with a missing tooth and a bandana tied too tight around his forehead. "This is the territory of the... uh... The Red Pine Brotherhood! To pass, you must pay the toll!"

  He pointed his chipped sword at them.

  "Leave the goods! And the... uh..."

  The bandit leader trailed off when he started to put some things together..

  He looked at Li Yu, who looked completely unbothered. He looked at Si Luo, whose violet dress and regal bearing screamed 'Royalty.' He looked at Bai Ruo, who was currently writing in a notebook.

  The bandit leader felt a cold sweat break out on his neck. He had survived this long in the bandit trade by having good instincts. Not by having incredible strength. His instincts were currently screaming at him to run away.

  The bandit leader lowered his sword slowly. He cleared his throat.

  "Actually," the bandit squeaked. "We are... uh... the Road Safety Crew! Yes! Safety!"

  He kicked the man next to him. "Bob! Move the tree! We need to clear the road for the nice travelers! Why is this tree here? Who put this here?"

  "But Boss," Bob whispered loudly. "We just cut it down."

  "Shut up, Bob! Termites! It was termites! Move it!"

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  The five bandits frantically scrambled off the trunk. Straining, grunting and sweating, they managed to push the massive log they had just felled off to the side of the road. Then they got to work on the other smaller trees behind it.

  Li Yu’s group watched them work with a smile on their face. They waited patiently for the work to be done.

  "Path is clear!" the leader announced to the group. He was bowing nervously, wiping sweat from his brow. "Safe travels! Watch out for... uh... termites! Nasty little things."

  Li Yu chuckled at the man. Li Yu could tell that this was a person that while bad, stealing from others, never physically hurt anyone. Circumstances must have made him take on this trade or something else completely. He reached into his storage ring and tossed a bag of dried meat to the leader.

  "Good work on the road maintenance. Your work is greatly appreciated by travelers like me." Li Yu said with a wink. "Keep it up."

  They walked past the bandits who stared at the bag of meat like it was gold.

  "Why did you feed them?" Si Luo asked Li Yu as they walked away. "They were clearly attempting robbery. I could have erased them and saved the next person some trouble."

  "They moved the tree," Li Yu said with a smile. "Labor deserves compensation. Besides, they looked hungry. Hard to be a bandit when you're starving. Whether it's right to kill them or leave them is hard to determine. I decided on the latter and that’s enough for me."

  The journey to the village known for their bamboo wine continued. The landscape shifted from forests to open meadows. The weather remained sunny and warm. Nearly perfect walking weather.

  During a lunch break by a stream, a sound drifted over the hill.

  Strum. Strum.

  A wandering bard who was carrying a battered lute came walking down the path. He was singing loudly and his voice carried in the clear air.

  "Oh, the Southern Sky was dark and grim!" "The spiders crawled on every limb!"

  "But then he came, with eyes of fire!" "The Commander raised his staff up high-er!"

  Li Yu froze as he heard the last lyric. A dumpling was halfway to his mouth.

  "He summoned lightning! He summoned storms!" "He punched the beasts in all their forms!" "Ten feet tall and made of steel!" "He made the Sect Masters all kneel!"

  Si Luo started choking on her tea. She turned away, her shoulders shaking violently with silent laughter.

  Bai Ruo pulled out a separate notebook. "The lyrical content deviates significantly from observed reality. 'Ten feet tall' is a persistent exaggeration." The two had acquired the hobby of finding all of the stories and legends about Li Yu on this continent.

  They couldn’t stop listening to how the stories warped and changed from actual events. They used the information to tease Li Yu whenever they could. The three of them had grown closer from such teasing though.

  The bard spotted the group and waved cheerfully.

  "Greetings, travelers! Spare a coin for a song about one of the heroes of the war? It's the latest hit in Iron-Willow City!"

  Li Yu pulled his hat down low over his face as if the bard would somehow recognize him. It would have been impossible because Li Yu didn’t match the stories or songs at all. "No thanks. We hate music."

  "Suit yourselves!" the bard said cheerfully and not missing a beat. "I'm off to the next town. I hear the Hero ate a dragon whole! I need to work that into the third verse!"

  He wandered off, singing about Li Yu drinking a river dry to save a village from flooding.

  "I hate this," Li Yu groaned into his hands. "This might be worse than the Southern Continent’s stories about Little Crab. Why does everyone think that a hero needs to be a giant?"

  "It is quite catchy," Si Luo teased while she too was humming the tune. "He punched the beasts in all their forms..."

  “That’s how the tune went, Si Luo.” Bai Ruo corrected and started humming the tune herself.

  "Don't," Li Yu warned. "Or no bamboo wine for you."

  By the afternoon of the third day, the landscape changed dramatically. The rolling hills vanished and were replaced by a dense, towering wall of green.

  "Bamboo!" Bai Ruo stated.

  But it wasn't normal bamboo.

  "That is... large," Si Luo admitted.

  The stalks were massive. They were as thick as ancient redwoods, towering hundreds of feet into the air. They were a deep, vibrant emerald color, with segments marked by rings of purple. The leaves at the canopy were so dense they blocked out most of the sun. This created a perpetual and verdant twilight on the forest floor.

  The air here was different. It was heavy with moisture and a distinct sweet scent.

  "Wine," Li Yu sniffed. "The air smells like fermentation."

  "This is the Emerald-Stalk Forest," Li Yu said as he was checking his map. "The village should be inside."

  They entered the forest. The world instantly became hushed. The wind rustling through the giant bamboo leaves sounded like a distant ocean. The light filtering down was green and diffuse.

  As they ventured deeper, walking along a path cushioned by fallen leaves, they began to see signs of habitation. Bridges made of woven vines connected the massive stalks high above the ground. Lanterns carved from giant gourds hung from the branches.

  And then, they saw the village.

  Green-Hollow Village wasn't built on the ground. It was built into and on the bamboo itself.

  Houses were carved directly into the sides of the massive stalks, spiraling up towards the canopy. Platforms connected the "tree-houses," creating a network of walkways in the sky.

  But the most striking feature was the plumbing. Bamboo pipes ran everywhere, connecting the stalks to large central vats on the platforms.

  "They tap the bamboo," Li Yu whispered while being awe-struck. "The bamboo itself produces the sap for the wine or they add their own liquid in there to ferment. The things people come up with for food and for life are truly incredible."

  "Fascinating," Bai Ruo said. "A symbiotic relationship. The villagers tend the grove and the grove provides the alcohol. It is a drunkard's utopia."

  "Heaven for those who love wine." Li Yu smiled. His thoughts drifted to Jian Xuan and Kael who both loved to drink. He had been making a mental note to himself to store extra alcohol wherever he went but he would get even more here than normal. ‘Hope the two of you are doing well wherever you are right now.’

  They walked into the central clearing on the forest floor. A group of local villagers that were wearing clothes made of woven bamboo fibers looked up at their small group. They seemed relaxed and unbothered by the new faces. Their faces flushed with good health and probably good wine.

  An elder with a beard so long it was tucked into his belt approached them. He held a wooden staff that smelled strongly of booze.

  "Welcome, travelers," the elder said to them. His voice was slurring slightly but his eyes were bright. This village must have been a popular destination for people and he was used to seeing new people. "You come for the wine? Or you come for the view?"

  Li Yu smiled brightly and bowed politely.

  "Both," Li Yu said. "I hear the Purple-Mist Vintage is worth crossing a continent for."

  The elder gave a big and wide grin which revealed gaps in his teeth. He stood straighter and taller at those words. Clearly full of pride in his home.

  "You heard right, boy! But the vintage isn't ready until the moon rises tonight. You're just in time for the Tapping Festival."

  Li Yu looked at Si Luo and Bai Ruo.

  "Tapping Festival," Li Yu repeated. "See? I told you this trip would be educational."

  Si Luo looked up at the village in the sky. At the lanterns glowing in the green twilight and the pipes dripping precious liquid.

  "It is... unique," Si Luo admitted. "And it smells better than the city we were just in." Li Yu found during their travels that Si Luo was also an enjoyer of alcoholic drinks. Mainly those that were either fruity in nature or extremely strong. A strange combination of taste but those were the ones that she enjoyed.

  "Let's get a room," Li Yu said to the group. "And let's get a drink. Of course food too, to pair with it all."

  He walked toward the elder, ready to experience the wonders of a village that lived inside its own brewery. He was hoping that the bard's songs and the troubles of the world wouldn't follow him into the bamboo sea.