Volume 2 Chapter 16

  Fiora seethed as she returned from hunting empty-handed. She was running low on contribution points, having spent everything she could following the entire debacle two years ago.

  At least her eyebrows had grown back, she reflected. That had been humiliating, for a fire cultivator to be without eyebrows implied a lack of control over their own flames. That it was actually the result of experimenting with a cultivation device she didn’t understand made it little better, so she had simply ignored the snickers and the rumors.

  She felt complicated emotions when she recalled that short series of events. It had been so frustrating at the time, but she had to admit now that she had acted erratically. The kids who had retrieved Hoten had cost her an opportunity at obtaining a valuable Qi guardian, but unlike the rest of the sect, they hadn’t known that she’d had her eyes on it. It had been frustrating to lose to outsiders, but better outsiders than someone she had to deal with every day.

  And then there was the matter of the pills. That was ultimately Master Argoth’s responsibility. His attempts at ingratiating himself with the children’s masters was perhaps understandable, but the kids were obviously not interested based on the way they had simply dumped the boxes containing over a hundred contribution points worth of pills in Fiora’s lap.

  After she had tried to kill them, she reflected to her shame.

  She sighed. No, they weren’t her enemies and never had been. She had made a fool of herself, but fortunately the word of her foolishness had been eclipsed at the time by the mountain spirit waking up, and now she was mostly past it. She liked to think that she had grown since then, and wouldn’t make the same mistakes.

  Which was when a kid bumped into her as she was walking towards the women’s bathhouse, and she overreacted by flaring her Qi and intent. He cringed away.

  “This one apologizes, senior, for inconveniencing her,” the boy said humbly.

  The old Fiora would have burned him to teach him a lesson.

  The new Fiora kicked him in the groin instead.

  Yin gasped and fell to the ground, holding his precious bits as he recovered from the injury.

  “Watch where you’re going you little brat,” she said, and she walked away, leaving him there. “You bump into me again and I’ll burn you to cinders.”

  “Yes, senior sister,” Yin said, and he stayed down until she had left.

  He sighed once she was out of sight. Well, it was bound to happen eventually that he would run into someone who didn’t immediately like him, he reflected. Then he got up and resumed running, although at a slightly sorer pace as his aching bits slowly recovered from the insult they had taken.

  ~~~~~

  Yin returned after a week of exercise to Elder Uto and was told that he wasn’t nearly tough enough to learn to fight, and to come back in another week after maintaining the fitness course that had already been assigned to him.

  Yin wasn’t particularly enthused by this, but Elder Yotu and everyone else he had spoken to had insisted that he was lucky that Uto was giving him time and consideration at all, so he obeyed. And he was starting to like his run up the mountain and back.

  On his second week at the sect, he worked up his nerves to approach who Olin had presented as the most approachable of the three seniors who would help him on his path to cultivation. She wasn’t a true elder, but an inner sect disciple, but she was authorized to take junior students and charge contribution points for genuine pointers. With the oversight of her own elder, of course.

  Olin had mentioned that she loved the candied cherries that were provided in the village outside the sect, so he traveled there first to pick up a bag of them, then asked the mortals on the mountain if they knew where she was that day. Which is how he found himself walking along the stream that flowed from the pool caused by the waterfall, idly enjoying the walk while he looked for his senior sister to make his introduction.

  And it was also how he saw his first cultivator battle.

  The senior sister, whose name was Reba, was fighting against the young girl who had kicked Yin so painfully the other day. He hid in a bush nearby and watched the battle unfold.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The water cultivator was at least ten years older than either Yin or the girl, but yet she was constantly being pushed back by the ill-tempered fire cultivator. Fiora, Yin had learned her name after asking the mortals, was fighting furiously as she was engulfed in flame and moving at super-human speeds with her sword.

  The water cultivator, despite the pressure she was under, met the sword with her bo staff. The fire burned her clothes, but did not burn her flesh, and despite appearances the fight was not as one sided as Yin had thought at first.

  It continued for ten minutes, until abruptly a rope holding a rock snapped and fell to the ground nearby. There had been a candle lit underneath it, and it had served as a crude timing mechanism for the duel.

  Frustrated, Fiora sheathed her sword and bowed to her senior. “Thank you for the instruction,” she said.

  “You’re progressing well, Fiora,” Reba said, a smile on her face. “I am simply more advanced than you.”

  “You say that, but I’m only two stages behind.”

  “In terms of cultivation strength, yes. You are a genius and I will not pretend otherwise. But I have more experience in these duels, which is why you cannot penetrate my defense.”

  “I hit you often enough with my flames,” the hot-headed girl declared.

  “But never with your sword. And you will note that I bring a spare set of clothes to our matches, just so that I might have something to change into after sacrificing my training outfit. My flesh itself is unburnt from your attacks.”

  Fiora made a frustrated noise, but nodded. “I value you as a training partner, Reba. The fact that you are able to stand up to me helps me grow stronger. Next week?”

  “Five contribution points.”

  “Yes,” Fiora agreed. “I’ll see you then.”

  The two disciples of the Whispering Guides Sect bowed politely to each other and Fiora stormed off, still frustrated over her perceived lack of progress.

  Reba began to change, and Yin looked away. Unfortunately, he also brushed up against a branch, catching the attention of the advanced cultivator just as she was about to put on her new top.

  “Who is there?”

  “Forgive me, senior sister, I wasn’t watching!” Yin said, standing with his back turned. “I mean, I watched the duel but turned away once you started changing. I swear it! I brought candied cherries!”

  “Oh, it’s you,” Reba said. “Continue to stand as you are, and I’ll decide what to do with you when I finish.”

  “Yes senior sister!” Yin said, flushing.

  “It was wise of you to stand up rather than trying to sneak away or hide. I would have found you and been most upset otherwise,” Reba said as she finished redressing. “As it is, I am willing to believe your story. Even if you were sneaking a peak, I suppose you’re at that age where such curiosity is natural, and here I am out in the open so I can’t be too upset.”

  “Thank you for your understanding senior sister.”

  “Enough of that. Call me Reba. You’re the new boy, but I don’t remember your name.”

  “This one is Yin Wei,” the boy announced.

  “You can turn around now, Yin.”

  Yin turned around and presented his bag of candied cherries to her. “This Yin Wei heard that senior sister enjoys these sweets. He was hoping to trade them for cultivation pointers! Unless he has made a fool of himself and she wishes nothing to do with him, in which case he will never bother her again!”

  “Calm down, I don’t bite. Not unless the man likes it, and you’re a few years too young for that,” Reba said teasingly. “Ooh, you got the good ones. Very well. I accept your blatant bribery. Let’s walk a while and talk about cultivation. You are not very advanced, correct?”

  “I have recently ascended to the third stage of the initiate’s realm,” he said.

  “Ah, practically a baby. Very well. Let’s see, let’s see, I think the first thing we should discuss are the best places for you to cultivate on the mountain. I think that I will show you a few. We will walk together until I run out of cherries.”

  “Thank you, senior sister!” Yin exclaimed, and he followed her around the rest of the day as she showed him the best places for water cultivators to absorb spiritual energy on the mountain.

  It was very valuable advice, and the very next day Yin was at the place she had recommended for him, sitting on his prayer mat and focusing hard on drawing in the ambient energy.

  After running to the top of the mountain and back, then thirty minutes of calisthenics, of course.

  ?