Immortal Connections - Chapter 44 preview

Chapter 44 - Wu Ying

“Your aura control is impressive,” Wu Ying said, stopping as he came across his target. He bent low, brushing his hand above the pair of mushrooms growing in a sheltered nook between the roots of the towering tree. His fingers danced across the air, taking in the aura emanations from the fungi before he peered at it further.

"Why, because we're natives, you don't think we practise? Just take everything for granted?" Ze Mu snapped.

"I was thinking that it was much more finely tuned than your former compatriots." Tapping the underside of the mushroom with a blade, he waited for the spores to drop before bringing the spores closer to be inspected. He had also, during this time, managed to get a look via the reflection of the underside of the mushroom and its gills.

 “Oh.” Head lowered, the boy grew quiet. “What are you doing?”

“Checking the kind of mushroom this is.”

“Yellow eared clinging oysters,” the boy rattled immediately.

Wu Ying kept doing his checks, though he made sure to pull a wooden storage box, dark with soft felt padding around it. “How are you so sure?”

“We eat them all the time.” He tapped the tree. “This is a white leaf spruce, they always grow under them.”

“No other similar fungi?”

“Oh, two – but one never grows under the white leaf spruce, and the other is always accompanied by blue velvet flowers nearby.” Ze Mu waved at the ground. “No flowers, so yellow eared clinging oysters.”

“And you eat them?”

“Of course. What were you going to do with them?” 

“The book I read said they were useful additives to apothecarial pills and were well sought after.”

“Maybe three hundred years ago,” the boy rolled his eyes. “Only the old hag down the street still wants them for her pills. Everyone else uses fire-born brown ear spruce.”

Wu Ying frowned. “Isn’t that rare?”

“That’s what the fire pits are for.” At Wu Ying’s blank stare the boy rolled his eyes. “Four hundred or so years ago, we expanded into the valley of three mountains. It’s a large valley contained by three mountain ranges and the entrance is bisected by a river. They turned the whole valley into the fire pits and rotate which field they burn over and over again.”

“Oh…” Wu Ying frowned. “The books I read never mentioned.”

“In the royal palace?” Ze Mu smirked. “I’m not surprised. Even if the realm magistrate charges a high tax on the spruce bark and keeps raising the price, it’s not like he wants to share in his earnings.”

“That corrupt?”

“As above, so below.”

“Dangerous words.” Wu Ying finished storing the pair of mushrooms, closing the box and slipping it into his storage ring before standing, adjusting the slung bolt of cloth as he did so. “Alright then, let’s go for a stroll.”

“What for? To hold hands?”

“For you to show me around the forest and point out what is worth gathering.”

The boy frowned. “I don’t really do that…”

“Well, tell me what you do know. And I’ll tell you what I think I know.” Wu Ying shrugged. “Together, maybe we’ll be a quarter competent gatherer. After we get something to trade, we can look at acquiring some proper documentation.”

“Books, books, book.” Ze Mu rolled his eyes. “Is that all you care about?”

“Not at all. In fact, this is what I prefer,” Wu Ying said. “But there’s no reason to scorn the knowledge of others or those who came before you. You just have to combine it with real world knowledge to make it worthwhile.”

As though on cue, the wind picked up, blowing all around the wind cultivator, lifting his robes and sending his hair dancing. He breathed in deep, tasting the various scents that were brought to him even as he felt something within him lock into place tighter, soul and body resounding with the very words that he had spoken.

An event that Ze Mu had noticed, causing him to frown. “What was that?”

“My dao.”

“Oh.” The boy looked angry then. “Right. That.”

"Now what?" Wu Ying said, curiously. 

"Nothing."

"Obviously not." Then, after a moment, he shrugged and gestured to their left. "There's something I know I want that way, so lead on and talk."

They started walking, the boy turning his head from side-to-side warily, keeping an eye out for monsters. Wu Ying let his own aura unfurl all around them, as a warning to any of the lower level monsters that might try them. He was certain by now that he was, as Vice Minister Yu had insinuated, significantly out leveled at this realm. It meant that the majority of the creatures - perhaps all - would be no contest for him. Keeping them away then, rather than forcing him to slow down and fight them, was the better choice. Nevermind how dangerous a fight could be for the boy too, with his lack of martial skill or proper weapon either.

"What exactly are you looking for? Pretty flowers - those daffodils are nice. So's the sweet autumn clematis over there. Adds a nice taste to the tea, if you mix them in when you make it." Ze Mu drawled as they walked, almost half-mocking Wu Ying. 

"Tell me anything and everything you know, what their uses are for, what is commonly gathered or sold. Let me decide what I need to know later," he said.

The boy shrugged, and in moments began to rattle out information. The majority was useless for Wu Ying's purposes, for the majority of what Ze Mu knew was the culinary uses of the various plants around. It was a little startling to note exactly how much the boy knew about the various plants, his ability to forage their surroundings rather impressive. In fact, after a short time, he began to stop and show Wu Ying what he meant, extracting roots, leaves and even tubers from the ground as they went along, munching on some of them directly and packing the rest in a bundle in the backpack by his side. Every once in a while, he would sip on the water bottle by his side, his throat growing dry as he kept talking.

It was only when Wu Ying raised a hand, hours later, that he came to a stop. Ze Mu looked around, finding the stream that ran into the small pond and made his way over to fill his bottle.

"Are you not going to boil it first?" Wu Ying said, curiously as he casually walked on the water over to the lotuses he intended to harvest. 

"Why?"

"Because you might get sick?"

"You get sick from water?" Ze Mu looked puzzled. "It's water."

"Yes, but there's good and bad water, right?"

"The chi here is pure, there's no corruptive or poisonous chi filtering in. So it's fine."

It dawned on Wu Ying then that Ze Mu had no understanding of the problems mortals had, that as an immortal, that living in a heavenly realm, the rules they lived under were quite different. He would not have thought about chi poisoning - though, he assumed, instinctively he would have avoided any corrupted water - but it was not part of the same survival arithmetic he was used to do. Like not camping under certain trees, not running around clear hilltops when there was lightning or not drinking from stagnant water. Immortal bodies, and immortal lives, just ran differently.

"Huh." Eyeing the fire lotuses that burned, flames licking along the petals and in the stamen, Wu Ying bent low, running a hand along the petals and across the top of the flower. He felt the flames lick at his skin, testing his aura and body, intending to overtake the wholeness of his body before he rejected it.

"What do you want with those? They're not good eating, they don't even last long after you cut them."

"Not cut, store." Pulling on his chi, sending it coursing into the water, he searched for the roots and surrounded it all. He tugged on it all, lifting the entire plant into the air as he opened another storage box, this one much larger than the previous. The plant floated within, and a small guidance of water was lifted and added to the box till it was filled near to the brim.

Twice more, he repeated the action before strolling back to the boy who was staring at him balefully, lips pursed in restrained anger and words.

Soon enough, Wu Ying knew, they would have to speak about what angered Ze Mu. Soon enough, there would be a reckoning.

For now, they had more gathering to do.