Chương 57: Heading Out

Jianyi stepped beyond the boundaries of the sect, leaving the paifang that represented its entrance behind him. His four companions were walking with him, and they all shared a certain degree of giddiness, mixed with anxiety, about going on their first merit mission. They needed to follow the path down the mountain for a few leagues before it would split, and they had to turn east. If all went well, they should be able to make it in about six hours, hopefully arriving before darkness fell.

The mountainous road was framed by dark green trees, with layered branches that slowly moved in the wind. He walked on the side of the road to see them in more detail. Shuhua stepped up to him.

"Is there something in the forest?" she asked. Jianyi shrugged.

"Trees!" After a moment, he broke down laughing, seeing her look at him as if he had lost his mind.

"Sorry. I just don't know the different types of trees…"

"Ah, those are pine trees. Once we get a bit lower, there should be birch as well—those are the ones with the white, flaky bark." He nodded, trying to take it all in; this was, after all, his very first adventure. Without the Celestial Confrontation, this would be the life of a cultivator. Exploring the land, helping the people, and getting stronger along the way. His shoulders dropped for a moment, thinking about all that was lost due to the demons.

Yet another reason to defeat them; his mother would probably say that it was yet another reason to enjoy the moments of peace that he had. She was probably not wrong. Jun was the most vocal about his excitement and spun tales about the beasts they would slay and the powerful cards they would collect. Meanwhile, Shuhua produced the jade slip with the mission briefing and made sure that all of them touched it with their sect medallion; that way, they would receive the merit points in case of a successful mission.

Jianyi was curious and fed a tiny bit of qi into the jade slip, but there wasn't anything interesting to learn about the mission beyond what the attendant in the mission hall had already said. The only additional piece of information being the name of the village elder, who had asked for sect support and would be their contact person. One of the things that Minghao had reminded him of was to bring a coat. Outside of the formation-fueled spring-like temperatures in the sect, it was cold.

The coat helped; however, Jianyi had the feeling that he was slightly less sensitive to the low temperatures than he had been in the past. Maybe this was a sign of the first changes that his body underwent with the increased influx of qi. Growing speed, strength, and dexterity were more important to him, but this was certainly convenient. For now, however, he was glad to have the garment that kept him warm and was cut in a way that it didn't limit his range of motion too much.

If he had the choice, he would probably still take it off before a fight, but in case of an ambush, he felt that he could still operate near his peak.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Miyao asked quietly, pointing towards the view over the region surrounding the sect mountain range.

"It is. Maybe a bit gloomy, though."

"Maybe, but I like the winter—and once we are out of the evergreens, you will see that there is much more light in winter than in the summer when the canopy is impenetrable," Miyao said, with a surprising amount of passion. Jianyi nodded.

"Before I came to the sect, I had never left the city. I hope that fighting demons will let me see more of the region and the Empire as a whole." Miyao looked at him, surprised.

"I never asked, what does your family do?"

"My father died a long time ago on the frontlines. My mother is a tailor; she now has a shop right at the central square in the merchant district," he smiled proudly and reminded himself to write her soon. Maybe there was even a chance to visit her if Elder Sun had more business in the city.

"On the frontlines… does that mean your father was a cultivator?" Jianyi nodded and produced his spear from his storage ring.

"He was. This is one of the few things I have left from him." Up until his mother had revealed the uncommon card she had saved for him, the spear had actually been the only thing he had left.

"My parents were both mortals and died to bandits when travelling with merchants. I think it is one of the reasons why my grandmother is so protective of me. She wants me to be powerful but not expose me to too much risk," she sighed.

"It strikes me as not the most common mindset of cultivators. Most seem to rather embrace risk as a way to gain insight into their path."

"Yes. She never made it past the Qi Condensation Realm."

"Maybe one more reason for you to find your own path."

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. They had left the mountain behind them and were now traveling on a road through a relatively flat, slightly wooded area with the birch trees that he had been promised. He was walking at the front of the group with Shuhua, trying to pay attention to their surroundings while being slightly distracted by Hong and Jun quietly arguing behind him.

"You know she is not there to find the love of her life."

"You just don't know her. I think she truly loves me," Jun pushed back.

"If you think that, why do you keep making up things about how powerful you are?"

"I never…" Shuhua pointed down the road where something moved in the distance. Whatever or whoever it was, it was far away but closing in at an unnatural speed. Jianyi pulled his spear out of his ring. Shuhua looked surprised but followed suit. She and Miyao had storage rings like Jianyi; the cousins did not. They had been grateful that Jianyi and the women had taken most of the contents of their backpacks into their rings, so that they mostly just carried their spears with them.

The others caught the changes in posture by their vanguard and hurried to close the ranks. It occurred to Jianyi that they had not discussed any signals and that they had not learned any group fighting tactics either. Something to discuss later—but now he focused on the small dust cloud rapidly closing in with them. The phenomenon turned out to be disciples.

But not common outer disciples like them; no, this was a full circle of five core disciples, their status indicated by the white sash they wore over their robes. The group, which had been moving with a qi-powered technique similar to the one Elder Sun used, came to a stop ahead of them. A woman with long, thin eyebrows over large hazel eyes stepped forward.

"What do we have here? A group of outer disciples, barely out of the cradle, alone outside the sect? Are you absconding?" She seemed more amused than outraged, but Jianyi sensed a core of steel behind those beautiful eyes. If she didn't like their answer, she would not hesitate to find the most appropriate remedies. Jianyi knew that he was quite awkward socially with people of his own age, but he knew how to talk with people more senior than him, so he stepped forward and bowed before the woman.

"Greetings, senior sister. Thank you for your interest in our lowly group." One of the men in the group snorted at the opening.

"We are on a merit mission, and it is true, we are young, but we are hopeful that this mission will help us gain experience so that one day we can hope to follow on the trail you blaze." One of those thin eyebrows rose up on the disciple's forehead. She turned to her circle.

"Have you heard that they will follow on the trail I blaze? You should all take a leaf out of that boy's book." They all chuckled, and the woman turned back to Jianyi.

"There shouldn't be merit missions outside of sect territory for disciples as junior as you, so out with it, what are you doing?" Shuhua stepped forward with a bow of her own.

"It is true, senior sister." She produced the jade slip with the mission.

"Over the last day, many missions were downgraded to be available to outer sect disciples. Rumor has it that most core and inner sect disciples have been tasked with an urgent mission for the patriarch." The smiles and laughter of the five disciples, likely at least in the Foundation Establishment Realm, stopped. With a movement too fast to fully follow, their spokesperson grasped the jade slip, held it to her brow, and threw it back at Shuhua.

"It seems we have been out of touch for too long. Good luck with your mission. We will be on our way," with a brief nod to them, and an urgent wave to her circle, she vanished in the distance, followed by the others. Jun loudly breathed out.

"That lady was intense." Miyao nodded.

"She is a core disciple for a reason…"

"I must admit I don't really know what it means or takes to be a core disciple," Hong said.

"Or for that matter, an inner disciple," Jun added. Shuhua waved at them to continue walking.

"An inner disciple is someone who has been chosen by an elder to work with them… apprentice with them. A core disciple has been confirmed by the group of elders to be the future of the sect, with the potential to become an elder. Both receive more resources. There might be a requirement about how fast you make it to the Qi Condensation Realm—but I am not sure."

"And how is one chosen?" Hong asked. She shrugged.

"It is probably a question of the talent and commitment one shows." Jun turned to Jianyi.

"Why aren't you an inner disciple, then?" He just chuckled.

"I am just a servant. Elder Sun helps me with his guidance, but primarily, I cook and do chores. I suspect that is very different from an inner disciple." The others nodded. The explanation made sense to them. Of course, Jianyi thought it would also be bad for him to garner the attention that would come with being made an inner disciple. Everybody's curiosity being satisfied, Jianyi cleared his throat.

"Should we have to fight, we probably should agree on some sort of formation…" Shuhua slapped her hand over her mouth, making a sound that made Jianyi twitch.

"I am so sorry, I should have brought this up before we even left the sect!" She grasped his arm.

"Can you forgive me?" she looked at him, eyes wide. Even though he knew her much better by now, Jianyi still struggled sometimes to deal with her outbursts. He shook off her hand.

"There is nothing to forgive. None of us thought of it until now, and nothing has happened." She seemed relieved and smiled.

"Has your teacher explained anything about formations?" Hong asked, looking at Jianyi, who had to shake his head. Until that moment, he had never even thought about it, as in his imagination he had largely fought on his own.

"From what my mother told me, the simplest approach is often the best, especially in the beginning. She said that an arrow, anchored around the strongest fighter, works well," Shuhua said. There was a moment of awkwardness before she continued.

"Clearly Miyao is our strongest fighter, right?" Jianyi had no illusions. He had closed the gap to the others rapidly; his last duel with Lu Shan had proven that in his mind, but closing the gap was different from overtaking the sons and daughters of nobles and cultivators. From the spars he had seen between the girls, Miyao did have the edge over Shuhua. He nodded. The girl blushed slightly, but nodded decisively, willing to shoulder the responsibility.

It was in line with his observations on her changing quite a bit between being inside and outside a sparring ring.

"I guess that means then it is Shuhua and Jianyi, and then us?" Jun asked, seemingly not bothered by categorizing himself and his cousin as the weakest in the group. Shuhua nodded and smiled broadly.

"This is going to be great!" Jianyi was surprised to find that he agreed. He did not regret his life of discipline and hard work for a second, but stepping out of the routine, even if just for a few days, made his neck muscles loosen up just a tiny bit.