Chương 12: Chapter 67: The Return of Crane

Song finished hanging Bongbong's tack up in storage, and squelched his boots a few times, grimacing at the wet mush. Down at the bottom of the hill that Changpo stood upon, the waters had risen a few inches. The horses loved it, but hoof rot ran rampant at times like this. At least he wasn't responsible for cleaning out the foul smelling black guck when it reared its ugly head. That was a problem for the branch family members. He just had to risk his life against grasswolves. It was only slightly preferable.

["What's the plan, man?"] Cyrus asked. He'd been mostly silent today, preoccupied as he was with all the qi weaving he was doing in Song's mindscape. Song had found the quiet ironically disquieting, and he would never ever admit that he was growing used to having a voice in his head. ["Teacher An says that we can't do any hunting when it's this wet,"] Song explained. ["So I'll probably end up helping Wook and Tae do repairs on the yurts. Some of them always leak when the monsoon season hits."] ["Ah. That'll be an interesting watch. How do you fix these things anyways?"] ["Hide mostly. And oils. Some stitching."] As he and Cyrus chatted about the finer points of yurt repair, Song made his way over to his own yurt and shook his grasswolf cloak to dump the majority of the water off before he entered.

"Lovely weather, isn't it?" A creaky voice interrupted.

"If you love wet," Song snorted. He looked around, but he was all alone at his tent flap. Who…? ["Always look up!"] Cyrus shouted at the same time as a voice called in a sing-song tone, "Ack! Ack! Up here, my little Haksaekki!" Song's belly dropped as he looked up through the pounding rain to the top of his yurt. There, standing tall and proud with his wings wide, was Master Crane.

"Did I not say that I would find you when the rains first came?" Crane said, ruffling his feathers and twisting his head sideways to nail Song with a beady eye.

"Should you not have been expecting this great cultivator?"

"I'm – this Lee Song apologizes master, I've had a momentous few days." Song bowed low.

"And – and I wasn't expecting to see you in the village!" He hissed the last, looking around with horror. Master Crane clicked his tongue in a fair approximation of a tsk.

"They can't see me in all this dreary rain. And even if they could, I'm just another crane of the Sichuan waterways. Nobody will care."

"Kkongi will try to eat you!"

"I'd like to see him try! I've a hankering for some fresh chicken! Ack! Ack! Aren't you going to invite your Master in? Or do I need to teach you basic hospitality before any more techniques?" Song opened the door flap and motioned in.

"Quickly! Before they see!" Crane hopped down from the roof and landed with a splash. Song was once again struck by how tall Crane was, and how long and vicious his beak looked from up close. His master shook water off his pure white neck and black back and each sharp taloned foot as he gingerly stepped across the threshold and into the warm confines of the yurt. His shining crest immediately lit up the dim yurt in faint starlight.

The big bird stalked around the room, sweeping his gaze over all of Song's belongings. His attention fell upon the books on the bedside table, and he read over them with an appraising eye. He nodded in satisfaction, before walking over to look at all the tapestries Song had hanging of horses and famous cultivators. Song watched the entire scene with growing trepidation. To busy himself, he tossed his cloak off at the entrance, and then tied the flap closed for good measure.

Then he added some argal to the hearthfire in the center of his yurt. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. What if his master found fault with his feng shui? Or heavens forbid, Mae or Tae burst in like they were wont to do. Okay, maybe Mae wouldn't be too bad, but Tae would be a disaster! Crane gave an angry ruffle of his feathers, "All horses? I would think my apprentice would have better taste."

"Master?" Crane waved his wing, lazily taking in all the works of art.

"Not a single ink of birds and trees. Do you not follow the four arts? I thought that was a human thing." ["Hah! You're getting 'human lessons' from a bird!'] Cyrus crowed with laughter. ["Quiet."] Song sent back, while he only gave an apologetic smile and a low bow in answer to his master's discontent. Crane walked over to the small fire and languidly stretched a long yellow leg over it. He sighed in contentment.

"Ahhh," the Demonic Beast let out a long raspberry.

"If I'd known that getting a human apprentice would mean a warm room and some rice snacks during bad weather, I would've done it ages ago. Unlike you mammals, I don't exactly have anything to keep these long beautiful legs warm." It took Song a second, but he was nothing if not a courteous host. He ran to his bedside table.

"Can I offer you something to eat, Master, or drink? You must've been traveling a long way to reach me. This Song appreciates the honour you show him in gracing him with your time."

"Yes yes, if you have any rice wine. And fish. That would be lovely."

"I'm sorry master, all I have is some dried meat, rice wafers, and tea." Crane clacked his beak with displeasure.

"Meat will have to do." While Song hastily placed a pot over the fire and brewed tea like his life and future happiness depended on it, Crane hummed softly under his breath and watched his apprentice carefully. A prickling sensation ran up and down Song's meridians and dantians as his Master manipulated Void qi to scan every inch of his being.

"Master, that tickles…" Song muttered, placing the tea pot down and holding his arms over his belly.

"You can feel that? Interesting… your qi sensitivity is astonishing. And your dantian is much stronger than before. It looks almost like it's been completely rebuilt. What have you two been doing?" Crane asked, leaning down to snap a piece of meat off a wooden plate.

"We learned of a way to talk to each other!" Song declared proudly.

"Do you remember when you pushed qi up against my dantian to shock Cyrus? We figured out how to turn that into sound, by vibrating qi at certain frequencies against my dantian!"

"Frequencies? An interesting word, if it means what I think. Show me how you do it." Crane moved over until he was standing right next to Song, and reached up to place a clawed talon right above the naval where Song's main dantian was located. Dutifully, Song cycled his qi and said in his mindscape, ["Can you hear me, Cyrus?"] Cyrus reply was amused. ["Yes. Obviously. You should've phrased that as 'Can you hear me, Master'"] Song's lips thinned. He tried once more, tossing a bigger wad of qi at his dantian.

["Can you hear me, Master?"] There was silence, followed by a very strong push of qi against his dantian that sounded faintly like ["Brrzllga"] Song winced, and gripped his belly where his lower dantian was. That'd hurt!

"I see! Interesting. Very interesting. Your qi control was extremely fine there, truly talented! I couldn't hear anything, but I could see your dantian buzzing. And you could hear it? What did it sound like?"

"Brzlga." A long wing swept over and batted Song on the head. Crane crowed, "Well done, my Haksaekki! This is an interesting technique! I've never seen qi used in such a way before. Truly, the child of Crane is as much an expert as his Master!" The crane reached his long beak around and preened his back feathers with an air of joy. Song's eyes glittered.

"Truly?"

"Truly! A low level cultivator wouldn't usually need to have someone listen to the 'sound' of their qi. And any Core level cultivator who could freely exude their qi would be unlikely to waste their time attempting it. This may be a new and novel technique. And it has clearly improved your qi manipulation by hops and glides!" Song saw visions of fame, followed swiftly by pangs of cold reality.

"So… it's not useful to others?"

"Ack! Ack! I didn't say that. Energy cultivators are able to minutely expel qi at others even at refinement level. And anyone can at least use the technique to practice. It could be a revelation in secret communications! Do you have a name for it?" Song considered for a long while, before hazarding, "It uses frequency… and I use it to whisper to Cyrus so perhaps, 'Frequency Whispering Technique?'""Not 'Crane Crows Over Loud Mammals?'" His master tutted.

"You have poor naming sense my little Haksaekki. No matter. Let us drink tea and celebrate the creation of your first personal technique!" Cyrus cut in, ["If you made it, you should claim it! Song's Whispering Technique."] Song reddened at the sheer hubris in naming a technique after himself, and kept his thoughts on his master's 'naming sense' to himself. He could already tell it was going to be a long night.