Calvin always felt odd wearing his official sect robes. They felt strange against his skin, smooth and cool like polished stone yet simultaneously so airy and light it hardly felt like he was wearing anything at all. Rubbing the fabric between his fingers it seemed like it should be as fragile as a spider’s web, as though an errant gesture would tear right through it, but Calvin had seen the richly dyed fabric turn aside mortal blades and the claws of some spiritual beasts with nary a mark, sometimes surviving even when the cultivator garbed in them did not.
The robes felt like a costume, like he was pretending to be someone he wasn’t. It had taken time, but he’d gotten used to his usual disciple’s robes, had grown comfortable being the person who wore them—Calvin, Outer disciple of the Eight Peaks sect—but these robes were different. They were the robes of someone important, a true cultivator who spoke with the authority that only real, tangible power could bring. They were the robes of a cultivator belonging to one of only three Great Sects in all of Vivid Rainbow Cliffs, ancient institutions backed by one or more cultivators who had taken the sixth step on the road to the heavens.
Intellectually, Calvin knew that he was just such a person now. A peak Foundation realm cultivator might not stand out much within the Eight Peaks sect, but outside many mortals went their entire lives without ever encountering someone who could match him. There were entire sects where he would instantly qualify to be a Core disciple just on the merits of his current cultivation, ones where the very idea of progressing past a three node and three channel Foundation was considered a dangerous myth attempted only by the most talented.
And while he might only be an Outer disciple, he did belong to a Great Sect. No one else would dare wear their symbol openly, for to impersonate a disciple of a Great Sect was to court death. It wouldn’t deter anyone with real power, who would look at the color of his robes and know that there were no elders that his death would personally offend or simply not care about the consequences, but to most people just the idea of crossing a Great Sect was foolishness of the highest order.
But knowing all of that didn’t make the robes feel any more appropriate, no matter that they fit him perfectly and were by far the most comfortable thing he’d ever worn. Inside he still felt like the unwanted, orphaned peasant he had been born as, whose mother could only guess and speculate at which of the dozens of possible men might be his father in truth. They weren’t even really his robes, borrowed rather than purchased from the Sect, because it was expected that an Outer disciple could not afford such finery, and yet could not be permitted to shame the Sect by dressing in anything less anywhere they might be seen by outsiders.
Calvin didn’t like thinking about any of that, but there was little else to do right now than think. The three of them had left the sect over an hour ago and now they ran, the darkness no barrier to them as they followed the road that connected the Outer sect’s gate to the nearest major settlement. They moved with all the tireless swiftness of Foundation realm cultivators, miles vanishing beneath their feet faster than a horse could gallop. Wallis led the way, setting the pace for Calvin and Lulu. They could go faster still, but that would drain them of their qi and leave them vulnerable.
Thankfully a distraction soon presented itself, one Calvin had been waiting for since they’d departed. The fuzzy, anticipatory hum in the back of his mind coalesced into words and with a mumbled word he eagerly called up the Scroll.
It took only a breath for the Scroll to unroll to the desired place, and Calvin eagerly watched as new symbols spread across what had previously been empty parchment. Fresh ink seemed to rise up from within the yellowed parchment like water seeping from a cracked stone, pooling for an instant before expanding into symbols that went from meaningless lines and whirls to perfectly understandable script in the space of another heartbeat. Soon, a whole new section had appeared beneath his quest to join the Inner sect, and Calvin eagerly scanned the fresh text.
Calvin grinned, glad for the darkness that hid his glee. Getting paid twice for doing a job once was satisfying at worst and absolutely amazing at best, especially for doing something you were already inclined to do anyway. He was loath to see Lulu and Wallis go on a potentially dangerous mission without a reliable third member, someone whom the pair would listen to when they counseled caution and who they could trust at their backs. The contribution points offered by the sect were good to have, but two—or possibly more—rewards from the Scroll on top of that meant this had all the signs of a very profitable excursion.
Sect missions didn’t always trigger a response from the Scroll, but he’d had a good feeling about this one and it seemed he’d been correct. Without many details about what the mission would require, the Scroll had only produced a very general quest with variable rewards, but it already looked quite promising. Calvin had never truly been disappointed by anything the Scroll had given him, no matter the quality of the token it came from, and variable quality meant he might even end up with a Low or Modest quality token if he got a little lucky. The fact that neither token was a minor reward was promising too—he’d long noticed that more specific tokens tended to produce better results—and while he wasn’t certain what constituted a Tool, same-realm Elixirs were always a good thing to have on hand.
And of course there was always room for the quest to grow! Calvin only had a few previous examples to draw upon, but locked additional goals meant more objectives with their own rewards could be added until the quest was fully resolved. For example, the mission he’d taken outside the Sect when he’d saved Ariadne’s life had had a quest with just such an objective associated with it. When they’d encountered the Hydra it had generated a new objective to fight or escape, which had eventually earned him the Random Spiritual Herb token that had produced his Gemstone Orchid.
Not that Calvin was hoping to encounter any such complications on this mission. That thing had been terrifying.
Calvin spent the next hour of their run contemplating what was the difference between what the Scroll considered a tool and an artifact, keeping half an eye on the road beneath his feet. It was a difficult question to answer as the Scroll often used terminology that diverged from what was used within the sect, or perhaps the meaning of the symbols was simply translated differently when he read them, and while he had now seen both types of tokens offered as rewards, he’d never actually claimed one and seen what was available on the wheel. He was able to glean some minor details from examining the script written on the Scroll, but nothing conclusive.
Within his spirit, a single gate turned slowly but steadily, circulating his qi throughout his channels and nodes. A portion of that qi he directed out into his body, reinforcing his muscles and bones to help maintain his pace, but he regenerated more than he used, slowly refilling the reserves he’d used while he cultivated earlier. He was still far, far from his maximum capacity, but it was enough that he could fight and it was still a long way to Nine-Pine Gulch.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
They made a brief stop not long after sunrise at one of the rest areas the sect maintained for mortal travelers every few miles along the road. They’d passed a few such groups along the way, mortals bedded down for the night with perhaps one or two Gathering realm cultivators scattered amongst their number or keeping watch. There wasn’t much a Gathering realm guard could do to protect a caravan of mortals from the rare threats that lurked this close to the sect, but some people just wanted the illusion of safety.
The rest area was little more than a flat clearing amid the trees kept free of overgrowth and pests by a weak formation, but it was more than enough for their purposes. Lulu cleared a patch of ground with a simple wind technique, the thin layer of petals and dead leaves blowing away in a flurry of colors, and Wallis unfurled the map of the appropriate region they’d been given at the gate, the three of them huddling around it.
It was a fine map, the sort few ever had the chance to look at. The land was rendered in exhaustive detail with exact distances, precise topography, and endless notes marking settlements and other points of interest. The original must have been drawn by a flying elder or Core disciple with a penchant for art and calligraphy, and had probably taken months to compile, but this was only a copy. This map was centered on One-Talon Lake, one of the more densely populated areas within the Eight Peaks sect’s dominion with an estimated population of nearly two million mortals, but it also included their destination. Nine-Pine Gulch was a tiny band of non-rainbow forest near one edge of the map. The region was home to some ten-thousand mortals scattered across several dozen villages and little else of note.
Calvin studied the map closely, circulating qi through and around the node in his head as he committed as much of it as he could to memory. It wasn’t as good as a true memory-enhancing technique like what he suspected Uncle had access to, but it was as good as he could manage, and this map was worth remembering. This was the third such map—or perhaps the third fragment of a greater map—he’d had the opportunity to examine, and never in his life had he regretted knowing the lay of the land too well.
They sat in silence for several minutes before Wallis cleared his throat. “So we’re here,” he began, tapping the ground just off the side of the map not far from where Earth Peak was marked in the top left corner, “And we’re heading…here,” he tapped Nine-Pine Gulch, which was on the very bottom of the map, slightly left of center.
“Not a short run,” Lulu mused, “but not the worst we’ve ever done.”
Calvin nodded in agreement, mentally tracing a route between the two points. “We’ll want to avoid Seven-Drop Cliffs,” he remarked. The region was somewhat notorious in the Outer sect for how utterly impassible it was to anyone without a particularly advanced movement technique or a flying treasure. “It looks like it should be faster to go around east and then down south.”
Wallis traced his finger over the map, nail hovering just above the painted silk. “So we follow the road south only until just before it turns towards Rainbow Caldera City, then head east towards One-Talon Lake.”
Lulu leaned in, indicating a spot on the map. “We can turn off the road here and cut across Three-Grass Plain, then rejoin the road…here and continue south.”
“We’ll overshoot a little, but that’ll still save us a good bit of time,” Wallis agreed. “Especially with the traffic around One-Talon. Then it's a straight shot south to Seven-Petal City, we can rest there for a day if we need to, and then it's what, half a day’s run south-west to the gulch?”
“Call it a full day,” Calvin suggested. “We’ll want to stop at one or two of the nearby towns to see if they know anything. Our information is already a few days out of date, and it will be even older by the time we get to the village.”
Wallis bobbed his head in acceptance. “You’re probably right. So…six days then?”
“Yup,” Lulu agreed with his estimate, and Calvin echoed her a moment later.
It was a little further than he’d thought, but that was for the best, especially since they’d be off the roads for nearly half that time. Plenty of wilderness to justify ‘stumbling across’ treasures from the Scroll…and potentially some actual treasures to stumble across. There were plenty of herbs that could not be cultivated deliberately under ordinary circumstances and had to be harvested in the wilderness, and while the qi in the air was significantly thinner outside the ring of mountains that made up the heartland of the Eight Peaks sect, it was still thick enough in places for natural treasures to form. Sure, anything within a few miles of the roads and major settlements was certainly picked clean regularly, but when was the last time anyone had bothered combing through somewhere as insignificant as Nine-Pine Gulch?
Plus, while Foundation realm cultivators could run for hours and hours without tiring, they would still need to stop to rest from time to time. He was sure Lulu would be happy for him finally taking her up on her frequent requests to spar. Well, as long as he timed his offer correctly for when she and Wallis weren't otherwise occupied.
“Not too bad at all.”
“Ooo!” Lulu exclaimed gleefully. “We can stop in Sapphire Tooth City on the way back! I’ve heard it’s gorgeous, and they’re supposed to have a thriving market. I’ve been hoping to find a better spear for ages.”
Sapphire Tooth City was the largest of the settlements around One-Talon Lake, and Calvin had also heard good things about its markets. The lake was connected by a navigable tributary to the largest river in the province and saw a significant amount of trade. He wouldn’t mind taking a stop there either, though it would lengthen their return trip.
“I would like to be back in the sect by this time next month, but assuming we make good time I’d be amenable.”
Lulu tilted her head to the side and peered up at him like a bird. “Oh?”
“I have a duel scheduled.” Preempting her next question he elaborated. “Cao Yunfei, he said he was number eighty-seven. He was exploiting Gwen. I decided to put a stop to it.”
“Oh that’s so romantic!” Lulu squealed. A moment later, her expression turned hurt. “And you didn’t ask me for help preparing?”
“I was going to,” Calvin quickly reassured her. “He only challenged me earlier to––yesterday, I mean.”
Lulu perked up instantly. “Oh, that’s alright then. Wait, he challenged you?”
Calvin smirked. “Yup.”
Lulu groaned, dramatically collapsing back onto the dirt with a thump. “Oh that’s so unfair,” she told the sky. “You know how long it took me to break the top hundred? Months! And you’re going to do it in a single duel.”
Calvin shrugged. “I just did what Wallis taught me to do.”
Lulu lifted her head to look at him, chin tucked against her chest. “And what’s that?”
“I called him a buffoon, implied he was a shitty alchemist, and then asked if his mother dropped him on his head as a baby. Worked like a charm.”
Lulu’s laughter was so loud it scared a flock of birds from the trees and probably woke anything sleeping within a mile of the clearing. Wallis only smiled softly, but that was just how he was.
“Well, it sounds like we’re on a schedule then. Wouldn’t want you to miss your duel.” He briskly rolled up and stowed away the map. “Let's go. While we're still following the road we can switch off who’s on watch while the other two focus on cycling. I’ll take the first shift, trade every hour?”
Lulu sat up and pecked Wallis on the cheek. “That sounds perfect, thank you dear.”
Wallis glanced at Calvin.
“Works for me. If you’re expecting a kiss though, you’ll have to keep waiting.”
Paradoxically, the segment of the road closest to the sect was more dangerous than the next stretch of road ahead of them, which was why all three of them had kept their guard up. Despite the monthly culling missions, the denser qi attracted all manner of spirit beasts and subtler threats, not all of which were caught quickly. Now that the qi was beginning to thin, they could take turns devoting some of their attention to their cultivation. Just passively cycling wasn’t nearly as effective as cultivating properly, but until the Core realm a Foundation required periodic maintenance that could be done on the go, and it meant you could absorb qi from the air instead of purely relying on natural regeneration.
Wallis rolled his eyes and stood up. “Let’s go then. We’re wasting daylight and I saw a proper way station just after the turn towards One-Talon. I’d like to get a few hours in an actual bed tonight.”
Calvin stood up as well, giving Lulu a sidelong glance. “I’m sure you would,” he agreed a little too casually.
Lulu tried to elbow him, but he danced out of the way and broke into a light jog. “Come on,” he called over his shoulder. “We’re wasting daylight!”
QuestionableQuesting!
Patreon.com/ThatGit!
discord where I post updates and announcements about my writing and answer questions! Other people even sometimes say things in it!
