Immortal Connections - Chapter 49 preview

Chapter 49 - Wu Ying

Once again, the heavenly realm was throwing Wu Ying off his iron horse. So much of this world was achingly familiar - the way houses were built, from single family huts with easily added to rooms to courtyard mansions - to the food ingredients and meals that were presented to him.

At the same time, the differences were in the details, in the occasionally glimpsed moments of mundane life that were so vastly different than his own. Such as the child, playing with a spinning top by utilizing their innate chi, manipulating and making it fight with one another boy as they pair of tops bounced against one another. Flickers of flame or water, explosions of steam as the pair did battle and learnt control of their gifts.

The orchard fields where multiple immortals worked vast fields, moving at a murderous pace for a normal mortal but acting as though it was but a stroll in the park. The occasional use of earth or wood or water chi or even most esoteric energies to pluck plums or gauge their wellness.

In the middle of a distant orchard, a battle between two immortals and the immortal maggot that had feasted on the plums, grown large and dangerous. Hoes and long sickles slicing through the air, lopping off bits of regenerating body parts till the creature fell to the ground, dead, an immortal core taken for use.

And then in the houses, baking and washing and mending, all routine work but done with chi and bodies that were stronger and more agile than any mortal one. In fact, if anything, two things stood out to Wu Ying.

The first, the number of villagers who did naught but lounge around, reading or resting or playing games of chess. The second, rather more concerning.

"Very few children..." Wu Ying muttered to Ze Mu, when they were left alone to stare at the village through a window in the inn, cups of tea placed before them and a meal promised 'soon'. 

"Few?" Ze Mu paused, then smirked. "Oh, right. You mortals breed like rats, don't you? Have to, because you die from drinking water or sneezing too much."

"In a sense. You don't lose children to illnesses or starvation or... well, war?"

"Of course not." A slight hesitation. "Well, the occasional spirit beast. But no wars, though we have bandit attacks and the occasional fight. But no one sensible would harm a child, not willingly." He frowned then. "Those that do are hunted down by the army and ministry of justice."

"Those that you thought I was."

"Exactly." the boy shuddered. "We have stories about them you know."

"Not the good kind?"  Wu Ying understood the visceral horror of overbearing government agents. No farmer, no mortal, desired to gain the attention of those around, for corruption, mismanagement and poor training could so easily wreck lives. Yet, this was the heavens, surely things were better?

"A few." A head cocked to the side. “Do you not have any?”

“We do. But they’re rare.”

“Not so different then from us.” Ze Mu sighed. “But truth be told, the agents of the Ministry of Justice are mostly a vision of the Jade Palace. Never truly to be touched by those of us here. I cannot think of the last time that one could, reputably, be said to have visited us.”

“Huh.” Wu Ying tilted his head to the side as their meal arrived. Whatever his thoughts on how the heavens truly were – in contrast to his own beliefs of what it should have been – for now, he had only a few tasks to manage.

Chief among them, eating and washing up.

***

The next morning, Wu Ying and Ze Mu gathered at the inn for a light breakfast. They had a long walk – or a short flight – before they made it to the nearest city. Their presence at the city, and the capital, was a definite necessity after last night’s paltry trading.

Even now, Wu Ying could not help but touch the meager pouch at his side. It had not even been a case of them lacking the appropriate herbs – though that had been an issue to some degree. One that he had spent late that evening helping to mollify by speaking with the local herb witch and physician, bolstering his meager book knowledge with local understanding.

The greatest issue, after he had traded all that was possible, was the simple lack of coin in the village. The couple of spirit jade tael pieces and double handful of strings of coins were already a generous amount of the villager’s liquid funds.

It was, unfortunately, a double aspected fault here. On one end, the village was poor in many ways. The plums were traded for, but in many cases, the villagers spent most of the funds almost immediately for daily necessities and the occasional luxury.

The other side of the coin was the village's sheer luxury, the contentment that they exhibited in their daily lives. They had no need for vast quantities of coin, for luxury goods that might make life a little easier. They were content in their lifestyle and existence for the most part, seeking not to strive further for ever more. 

After all, while immortals might require sustenance, it was significantly less than that of a mortal. The grains they grew, the plums they farmed, it was more than sufficient to sustain them. Each household had sufficient stores for a bad winter, though with so many immortals with daos of the weather; that too was unlikely - or, as Ze Mu pointed out - never unexpected.

Put another way, while most villagers would take the various spirit herbs that Wu Ying brought over, they were as likely to utilize them in a local delicacy rather than a spirit pill to aid their cultivation.

All of which meant that for Wu Ying, if he desired to progress himself and his objectives in this realm, he would have to journey to the city. There, he might find those who were more ambitious, the apothecarists and gatherers and maps that he required.

Most of all, he might be able to begin asking that most important of question of his.

How could he aid a mortal ascend?