Chương 59: Woodcutting

No cost was too much. Gold? No. Cores? No. People? Yes. Cities? Yes. Everything? Yes. — He who calls himself Chi You, The Completed Works by He Shulin, foremost scholar of the Outer Realms The faces that greeted Jianyi as he entered the village properly for the first time looked exhausted. People were organized, though, bringing water as refreshments for the disciples and the other defenders of the village, making sure the squirrels were processed, and keeping curious children from getting underfoot.

A kind young man pointed him to a corner where he could settle down to cultivate. He first took a few moments for a traditional seated meditation. Less to work on his will, and more to process all that had happened so far that day. Taking a mental breather felt like a luxury, but very valuable given how fuzzy his head felt. He had thought about whether he should proceed with a new movement for his cultivation session or stick with the Eternal Expanse for now and decided to do the latter.

He was eager to learn all the movements, but now he needed to focus on what was urgent, not the long-term—and that meant gathering qi that would allow him to try to heal Hong. Trying to keep the input from Elder Sun in mind, he flowed through the motions of the equivalent of the Open movement, and after a few iterations, during which he made small corrections to the flow of qi in his pathways, he felt his arm meridians open and gather the qi that surrounded them all.

He was sweating quite profusely from the physical and mental exertion when he stopped after almost an hour. It was another interesting aspect of his chosen cultivation technique—if he were using a breathing art, he would likely be refreshed, at least physically, after a session. Now he was tired. That didn't stop him from searching for Hong, whom he found snoring close to the breached palisade, and activating his technique for the second time that day.

Again, green motes of qi settled into the bandaged leg wound, though he thought he saw a few of them being rejected from his fellow disciple's body. Having done what he could, he settled down on a bedroll and quickly fell asleep.

It felt like just minutes had passed when Jun shook him gently awake. As he opened his eyes, he did not just see the large cultivator nodding to him, indicating it was his turn to take over the watch, but also the wife of the man he had attempted to heal earlier kneeling by his side. The moment he noticed her, she bowed deeply, her brow touching the ground.

"Honored cultivator, thanks to your gift, my husband is on the mend. We owe you a debt that we will never be able to repay." For a moment, still barely awake, Jianyi was at a loss on how to react. He didn't want these people to be in his debt; he was on a mission after all.

"Please rise. Are you not a fellow sister of the spear? Is your husband not a brother-at-arms? How could I do any less than try to save my brother's life? There is no debt between us. Please go and tend to your husband while we carry on with our joint duty." The brilliant smile of the middle-aged woman made her look ten years younger.

"You honor me and my husband. We will not forget." Jianyi got up, nodded to her, and joined Shuhua, who had observed from the sidelines, as they walked over to Miyao and Jun to take over the watch.

"That was very kind of you, what you said to the woman," Shuhua said quietly, apparently even she lowered her energy level in the middle of the night. Jianyi acknowledged her compliment with a shallow bow in her direction while maintaining a searching gaze through the breached palisade.

"This is a Wood technique, right? I didn't know that was your affinity!"

"You don't know many things about me, Shuhua," he answered with a slight grin.

"When will you start calling me Shushu?" she said, slightly exasperated.

"It is as if you don't want to be friends." Her last sentence was part frustrated sigh, part question. Jianyi swallowed. This was one of those situations in which he was not good. But he sensed that his reaction was important to the girl who had gone out of her way to help him and create a group of friends. He looked at her.

"It is not that I don't want to be friends… Or rather, I never had friends. It seemed like a distraction from what I wanted to achieve. I… This is not." He paused.

"I think you have shown me that it could be… acceptable… to have friends." She beamed at him, then snorted.

"'Acceptable' to have friends. I will hold you to that." She continued a bit quieter.

"This is my dream, you know." She waved at everything around her.

"My mother was the first cultivator in our family, and her circle was everything to her. They were the best of friends—and that is what I also want. And maybe it could be 'acceptable' for you to be one of those," she grinned broadly towards the end. Jianyi scrunched his nose. He knew he would mess this up somehow. But the outcome seemed… acceptable. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

About halfway through their watch, Jianyi thought he saw movement in the wooded area across from them, but despite his vigilance, he did not see who or what had been there. As dawn crested the horizon, they were tired but happy that no further disasters had struck the village.

As the morning came, villagers offered to take over the watch so that Jianyi and his companions could have breakfast. The same teenagers who had helped on the previous night brought them tea and congee with pickled onions. Hong thanked Jianyi for the use of his healing technique and showed off his leg with the wound already being fully scabbed over. Jianyi was quite pleased with this outcome. If it worked that well on one of his fellow Qi Gathering cultivators, it should work even better on himself and mortals.

The application of the technique had, however, also proven how little qi he currently had at his disposal. A single use had basically emptied his dantian of free-floating qi. It showed how much time he would need to spend cultivating going forward. It wasn't surprising, but a good reminder, nonetheless. After breakfast, the village elder, a gray-haired but vigorous-looking man, approached them.

"Honored cultivators, thank you so much for your help throughout the night. I am especially grateful that my cousin's son, Feng Zhan, has made it through the night. We were certain of his death, and we thank the Heavens that they have brought you to our small village," he said, bowing. Jun grinned and clapped Jianyi on the back, who nodded his head towards the elder, but didn't comment further.

"Today, we will go and cut wood so that we can close the breach in the palisade by tomorrow. Will you be able to stay with us and protect the village until then?" He looked hopeful at the young cultivators. After a quick glance at the others, Shuhua nodded.

"We will stay until the palisade is whole once more." Jianyi cleared his throat.

"Do you need protection when going out into the forest?" The older man hesitated.

"In normal times, I would say no. This is our home, and it is safe. These days… If it is not too much to ask?" He clearly didn't want to make demands, and Jianyi wondered how interactions between more senior cultivators and mortals usually played out. It was Jianyi's turn to look at the others.

"Should we split up? Maybe me and…" he looked around, and Jun raised his hand.

"… Jun go with the wood cutters, and you stay here and protect the village?" The others quickly agreed, and Jun asked the elder to have his people bring an additional axe, as he thought he could help instead of just standing around, watching for spirit beasts. Six woodcutters, two village youths, two horses with one wagon, and two young cultivators moved out into the clear and cold morning soon after.

They would not travel far, but they needed to get to a place where the trees were old enough to be of use to the palisade. The wooded areas right around the village had been harvested so many times that there were mostly young trees and saplings. The leader of the woodcutters was a grizzled man with a lot of gray in his hair and skin that spoke of decades spent in nature. Jianyi walked ahead of their small track together with the man, his eyes ranging left and right, trying to catch potential danger early.

Meanwhile, Jun was joking around with the men in the back and managed to let them forget some of the awe they had for cultivators—Jianyi briefly thought about how he did that and concluded that he probably just behaved like a regular sixteen-year-old. Fortunately, nothing happened, and just half an hour later, they arrived at a small hill that was densely populated with trees that looked sturdy enough without being so thick and heavy that they would have trouble transporting them.

While the woodcutters got ready, Jianyi circled the area. Despite his utter lack of tracking or similar skills related to surviving in the wilds, he tried to look out for signs of beasts or other dangers. While trying to be attentive to movement in the forest, he was drawn to an area that seemed to emit a higher-than-usual amount of qi. As he stepped around a tree, he saw a patch of flowers that bloomed yellow, despite the cold weather. The qi he had felt originated with the plant.

Flowers were not his strength, but he tried to remember what they had learned so far about natural treasures. Wild Chrysanthemum! Given the amount of qi, he was sure that this was more than a mortal plant—a small smile formed on his lips. This had the potential to make the trip even more profitable—and given Minghao's advice that no cultivator still advancing was ever rich, they could all use it.

He didn't know which parts of the plant would be valuable, so he used a knife to carefully dig around the roots and take the whole plant into his storage ring. Remembering his lectures, he did leave a few plants to allow the natural treasure to recover naturally over time. Heartened by the encounter, he continued his walk around the woodcutters until he rejoined them. Back there, Jianyi found himself at an impasse. It wasn't a lack of things to do that was the problem, but rather one of priorities.

Helping the woodcutters, as Jun was intending to, resonated with him. Not contributing would seem lazy. What would these grown men think of him? At the same time, contributing would take his attention away from the woods around them and impact his role as protector. Lastly, he felt the need to cultivate. Not just to advance himself, but despite his spirit having gathered some qi naturally since he had used his technique on Hong, he didn't think it was enough to activate Bolt of Fire, much less Verdant Mending.

He was paralyzed into inaction for a moment and wondered what Elder Sun would do. He didn't remember a specific lesson or wisdom shared on this specific situation, but the elder did focus on the things that only he could do and left the rest to others, like Minghao or himself. It didn't feel natural, but should any one of them, villager or disciple, get wounded, only he could help them quickly, which required him to cultivate to gather the required qi.

Jianyi approached the two youths who had set up a fireplace and were now sitting there and chatting. They rapidly got up as they saw him coming to address them.

"Would you mind standing watch on those sides of the camp?" The older boy shook his head vigorously.

"No, honored cultivator, we will do so right away." With that, one problem was partially solved. Furthermore, he resolved to cultivate only in short bursts, then circle the area again, and continue. He found a relatively plain area where he wouldn't be in the way of the woodcutters, briefly closed his eyes, and then started with Endless Expanse.

With every attempt, he felt himself fall more easily into the rhythm of the movement, felt the qi circulating more naturally through his pathways, and felt his arm meridians open faster. Jianyi flowed through the movement repeatedly, making minute adjustments along the way, but losing himself in the meditation. Until something changed. He was jolted out of the practice as his subconscious noted a disruption in the environment.

As he focused on his surroundings, he noticed the source of change: The woodcutters had stopped their rhythmic axe work, and the boys who were supposed to watch out had followed their example. All of them were staring at him. Jianyi looked behind himself.

"Is something wrong?" Jun laughed loudly.

"If you are offering a show, you can't blame us for watching." The leader of the woodcutters bowed towards Jianyi.

"Apologies, honored cultivator. We won't bother you anymore." He clapped his hands, and work resumed.