Story 8 - Tribulation Trepidations (12 ?)
“Where do you want to drop you off?”
“Just towards the middle of the—“ I was going to say outskirts, but Shadow Gopher grabbed us with his spiritual energy and ran so quickly that cracking sounds ca from my body-cultivation-enhanced skeleton and the light dimd.
Since even my vision darkened, it didn’t co as a surprise when Clear Eyes passed right out.
Little Spring blinked rapidly, obviously trying to fight the impossible. Since he only had one form of body cultivation, I guessed he wasn’t fairing as well as myself.
Then we suddenly stopped and Shadow Gopher vanished from sight, leaving us surrounded by tall trees and grasses.
Goddamn it. Where were we?
I spread out my divine sense and imdiately realized that he dropped us off close to the middle of the forest. We were thankfully still on the outskirts.
Fuck, couldn’t Shadow Gopher have waited for to finish my goddamn sentence? At least we weren’t in any danger yet.
I also sensed two of the spiritual plants to the east that I needed to pick up.
And there! Further east from those and a little to the north was a beautiful, ancient Golden Thunder Walnut tree. Its canopy stretched so high and wide that I should be able to chop off a few of its branches to make flag sticks.
But before we left, I had to fix a problem.
The kid gently rocked Clear Eyes. He did not wake up. Not giving up, he shook the sword cultivator so hard that he made the grass flatten.
“Move,” I said, getting my junior brother to withdraw.
I pulled out my acupuncture needles, dipped them in spiritual spring water and placed them on top of his head, on the back of his neck and between the thumb and forefinger.
Then I removed them and counted backwards from ten.
Right after I said one, the teen sucked in a huge breath and sat up.
“Ah!”
I flicked his glabella. He scowled at .
“Relax. You’re not dead.”
He rubbed his forehead. “Where are we?”
“Far enough that we made everyone eat our dust.” I ignored the confused looks they gave . “But we can’t wait around here. We’re too close to the middle of the forest.”
I jumped onto a massive nearby stump, put my hands behind my back like the cultivation master I was, and addressed the Little Spring and Clear Eyes. “The location of the two spiritual plants we need is on the path to the Golden Thunder Walnut tree. They are hot items for Foundation Establishnt level alchemists so, if we want this trip to pay for itself and more, then we’ll have to grab them as we go. That said, speed is more important. If we can’t get them quickly, then leave. The tree is our primary goal.”
“What if we get separated?” Little Spring asked.
“Use this map. We’ll rendezvous at the big tree.”
Using the sa telepathic transmission technique I used for speech, I sent both of them a detailed map of the area. It appeared similar to the navigation programs from my past-past life, only this one showed trees and plants instead of buildings. I’d added a line showing the fastest route and a separate circle around the largest tree nearby.
Little Spring closed his eyes to review the information internally. Mad Tongue, on the other hand, had his wide open along with a gaping mouth.
What an awkward teen. It wasn’t like I didn’t send... wait... this was the first ti I’d sent him a map. It was Fairy Swift Dove who received it during the Demonic Vine and we hadn’t needed one for the Crab Mission.
I coughed delicately and gave him more ti.
“If you’re done reviewing, let’s move. We can’t let our headstart go to waste.”
Then I used Consistent Step, Impossible Leap to follow the line I’d mapped out. The others quickly joined .
***
The first plant we were collecting was a Sapphire Fire Orchid. It only grew in shadowy forests like this one. Ironically, it required a lot of sun to grow, so not only did it need to be surrounded by large trees, it also had to be in a place where the light regularly broke through the canopy. In this instance, that was near the root of a thick pine tree.
Clear eyes stopped and looked around, likely making sure no enemies were nearby.
I pulled out my weapon and delivered a few slashes of sword Qi to the ground around the roots. When that was done, I sent it into the space.
Mad Tongue coughed. The disbelief on his face was priceless. “Ah, Senior Lin, shouldn’t we use a jade box?”
Actually, seeing my Black Market Dealer’s bag that could carry spiritual plants had given an idea. Before the mission, I’d ssed with a storage bag to make it feel identical. It didn’t actually have those properties, but it would feel identical. “I created a bag that can transport spiritual plants without encasing them in jade. It's like a Beast Tar’s transportation box.”
The teen looked curious. I knew that look. That was not a good expression for this too-observant guy to have, so I quickly pointed toward the next flower and started to run.
He caught up. “Can you make one?”
I eyed him. “Can you afford it?”
He opened his mouth, then probably realized he couldn’t afford it and stayed quiet. Thank fuck!
I swear, if we one day got caught with Little Spring’s space, it would be by this sword cultivator.
Reviews
All reviews (0)