“Introductions first. You are Junior Brother Tian. We are your senior brothers Fan, Tang and Su.”
“Nice to et you, Senior Brothers. This is my first mission, so please look out for .” Tian bowed with his hands clasped. His seniors nodded back, laughing.
“Naturally, naturally. Now, did you go to the mission hall to get a copy of the mission?”
“Yes, Senior Brother Fan.” San was the eldest, Tian judged, as he had done almost all the talking. A lean man with high cheekbones who carried a saber on his hip. Tian knew he had a storage ring- all the senior brothers did. Yet he still chose to carry his saber.
Brother Tang had a cold face and sharply upswept eyebrows. He carried a sword on his back. It was surely a flying sword, so he was unlikely to draw it by hand, but… again, another senior brother who chose to wear their weapon.
As for Senior Brother Su, he just smiled. He seed to always smile. Tian had the distinct impression that almost nothing could persuade Brother Su not to smile. But he didn’t have his weapon displayed, which made Tian take a particular note of him. Based on the other two seniors, that ant the weapon was hidden, not missing.
Tian handed Senior Brother Fan the slip with both hands. Fan took it casually, glanced at it, and then it flickered out of existence. Tian assud it had been absorbed by the ring.
“Go to Shallow River Village and slay the demon. Except it’s not a demon, just so overgrown animal. Maybe a demonized animal if a Heretic has been ssing around near there, but there would be way more casualties if that was the case. Pay- three spirit stones, five rit points. Your seniors will be taking the spirit stones, but you can have all five rit points. Since you are just starting out, you need all the points you can get.”
“Yes, I still owe ten points for my rope dart.” Tian frowned. This really was his senior brothers looking out for him, and it still would take two or more missions just to break even.
“God, rember those weapons we got starting out?” Fan looked over at Tang and shuddered theatrically. Tang shook his head and looked away. Apparently the mory was unbearable.
“There is nothing left in the Outer Court that we can buy with rit points that we want, need, or are bored enough to be curious about. On the other hand, we can go to Mountain Gate City, and there are lots of good things there. But they all cost spirit stones. You see?” Brother Su explained. His voice was a touch deep, and very smooth.
Tian nodded rapidly.
“Good. This mission is just nice for your level. Let’s not waste the Mission Hall’s good intentions and go get this critter. Here, put this on. You will have to tie it up a bit, I’m afraid. Nothing even close to your size in the store room.”
Brother Fan tossed him an enormous dusty black robe and a big straw hat. The hat was shaped a bit like a stool- just a solid cylinder over his head, with a few holes for his eyes. To his imnse surprise, it was light, breathable and didn’t impede his vision or hearing at all.
“Specially prepared hats. Don’t ask how they do it because I don’t know. The robes, however, are heavy cotton and if you don’t hate it already, you soon will. Here, I’ll help you tie up your sleeves. Just wear it over your normal uniform.” Brother Sui was already moving his hands, clearly expecting this problem.
“We are disguising ourselves as ascetic monks. There are thousands of these bastards running around, and a sizable fraction of them are Earthly tier cultivators in disguise. Stops the mortals from freaking out seeing immortals, or worse, forgetting their proper piety. It also keeps the monks safe, because every now and then so freak decides to kill a monk and just explodes for no reason.” Sui’s smile seed to beco extra gentle.
The party set off. Shallow River Village was only sixty miles away- not far even for Tian, let alone his seniors. Tian hadn’t learned a body lightening art, but he still ate up the miles with ease.
The countryside looked different to Tian, but he struggled to understand why. The paddies seed unchanged- their stone walls and sluice gates controlling the life giving water. The rice stalks were green and tender, rising up to dance in the faint breeze. Peasants did so kind of peasant thing in the fields. Weeding, maybe. Tian knew nothing about farming, and wasn’t much interested in learning.
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They didn’t look at him. He was hiding from them still, but he was hiding right out in the open. And the reason he was hiding had changed. This ti, he was hiding so that he didn’t hurt them.
Which led back to their disguises, and the Seniors flat out refusal to spend even one extra minute on this apparently routine job. The Seniors wanted to move faster. Much, much faster. But doing so would make their disguises pointless. A monk running down the road faster than the best racehorses was a dead giveaway. So they ca up with a little trick. It was called “Strolling,” and it was sheer torture.
There was really nothing more to it than walking quickly, then returning seamlessly to a slow pace. The trick was that you could only walk quickly when no one was looking. A “simple” art, one that a mortal could master. Theoretically. Tian challenged any mortal in the world to notice when a peasant two hundred yards away and behind the rushing immortal in question turned to look at them.
“It’s too soon for you to manage that, of course, so you just focus on Brother Fan’s back. Match his speed. How easy is that?”
Tian was starting to believe that Brother Su couldn’t be trusted. Senior Brother Tang never said anything at all. It made him much more reliable.
The sensation of trying to stop and start seamlessly, going from twenty miles an hour down to four, then back up again, with no hint as to how long they walked at what speed… torture. Sheer physical and ntal torture, slowly breaking down his joy as strolling along the wide dirt road and admiring the green paddies, tasting the humid, sweet air and watching the broad winged herons heave themselves up into the sky.
It was a painful journey, but it only took a day. They got to Shallow River Village after sunset. The Senior Brothers looking fresh and relaxed, Tian looking like he had been beaten with hamrs.
Sotis, Brother Fan slowed down faster than Tian could respond, so he slamd into his senior brother’s rock hard back. Tian wondered if his brother was doing it on purpose, but all the other brothers stopped at the sa ti, so… probably not?
Shallow River Village was a collection of shacks, with a courtyard overseeing them up on a small hill. The Courtyard belonged to a prominent family- it was the so-called Landholding Estate that Senior Brother Fu had ntioned before. The village, the fields, and even the peasants, were all the ‘property’ of the estate. Strictly speaking, everything belonged to the Monastery. Even more strictly speaking, the Emperor is far away and high above, disinterested in the injustices suffered by ants.
“Alright, we are hunting a low grade river ‘demon.’ It hides in shady parts of the river bank and hauls people into the water and drowns them. Then eats them. Pretty standard behavior for a few spirits, but given the lack of spirituality in the area and the fact it is targeting mortals, it is most likely a mutated frog or gecko or sothing.” Senior Brother Fan kept his voice down. The Mortals had petitioned for the Temple to resolve their problem, but it was best to remain unnoticed until the job was complete.
“Junior Brother, correct if I’m wrong, but you haven’t learned any sensory arts, right?”
“Sensory arts? What are they, Senior Brother?”
“Seems I’m right. Go to the Technique Pavilion after the mission. You can't afford to borrow any right now, but you can at least see what they have. Basically, it’s arts that improve your awareness of the world around you, helping you find hidden threats and treasures. Very useful stuff, and if you practice diligently, it will lay a foundation for developing your divine sense at the Heavenly Person stage.”
Tian nodded and thought things through for a bit. “I’m going to be bait, aren’t I, Senior Brother Fan?”
“You are, Junior Brother. You are.”
Tian walked along the river bank, looking down. Partially hoping to see the demon, but mostly hoping to see a fat fish or so edible herbs. He didn’t have any confidence in spotting an ambush predator on its own ground, even with his improved night vision. After all, it was only ‘improved’ to the level of an ordinary person.
He stopped suddenly, and stooped, carefully picking three leaves off a small plant, leaving two to let it keep growing. He smiled and carefully put them in a pocket inside his robe. The local villagers would have combed this riverbank a dozen tis a day, but the use of this plant was a bit obscure, and needed a few other ingredients. He still rembered Grandpa Jun’s lessons from the jungle.
Tian kept patrolling and kept hunting. He stooped to harvest so wild watercress, when he felt a sudden thrill of danger coming from behind him. He leapt forward, tumbling out of the way. Sothing long and sharp jabbed through the air where he had just been.
Tian ca up with the rope dart out. With a sharp twist, he sent the dart smacking into the water. It hit sothing! Tian frowned. It hit, but the feeling on the dart wasn’t right. It seed to have bounced off sothing, not sunk in.
“Ah. Maybe that’s why people coat it in poison.” Tian thought. Then so hideous thing twice his size exploded from the water, and he didn’t have the ti to think of anything much anymore.
The creature jumped onto the shore, almost on top of Tian. A blunt head lunged forward, long tongue stabbing forward like a spear. Tian whipped his dart forward, letting it tangle with the tongue. The tongue recoiled, fast, so fast he could hardly react. But the training on the road wasn’t for nothing. As soon as he felt the pull on his rope, Tian jumped up. It was only a small jump, but the power of the pull was extraordinary.
Tian flew up towards the great beast’s face, focusing all his attention. He had managed to adjust the angle enough to avoid the mouth, slamming into the slippery forehead of the creature. It slled of river water and sothing else, sothing he had never slled before. Spicy, and a little unpleasant but not terribly so. He didn’t have ti to think. He dug his foot into the slippery skin as best he could, took a hopping step upward, and slapped his hand down between the animal’s eyes.
Tiny threads of qi extended from his hand, piercing through the thick, rubbery mbrane of the animal’s skin. They drilled through the bones of the skull, vibrating as they went. Finally, they pierced the brain. The vibrations sped up dreadfully, the ultrasonic ripples spreading through the dium of brain fluid and soft tissue. The interior of the skull was turned to chaotic pulp in an instant. As though a thunderclap had exploded between the demon’s ears.
There was barely a soft, wet pap sound as a little palm struck. The sound hardly made it across the stream, lost in the rushing, shallow waters.
The animal collapsed. Tian landed next to it. He looked at his ruined hands. The gnawed upon fingers had always been a proof of weakness to him. Even after he rebuilt his body, he couldn’t escape the label of ‘weak.’
This was the first ti he had to make a move in a life or death fight since he began cultivating. With one move, he could kill a demon twice his size. Cultivation gave him this. This was the strength that ca from constantly practicing. Constantly moving forward. Constantly cultivating himself. Tian clenched his hands and looked up at the moon. It seed very bright tonight.
Which made it quite embarrassing that he didn’t see the second demon co out of the water.
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