The Fourth Wall - Chapter 9 preview

The next morning, both Ng's were still sleeping. A small formation had been set-up in the backroom of the rest stop, the proprietor looking all kinds of upset and afraid over the addition to his building. The fact that Tou He ad assured him that neither cultivator was actually hurt and would wake up after having the best sleep of their lives had done little to appease the man's nervousness. On the other hand, there was little he could do and the payment he had been given for the room rent and adjustment had calmed him somewhat.

Somewhat.

Wu Ying still found the entire thing surprising and a little confusing, which was why he was riding beside Tou He as they left the rest stop. 

"So explain this to me. You didn't drug them, you just increased the strength of the tea because that's something you can do, by brewing the tea right."

"Yes," Tou He said, patiently.

"Which is why drinking from your teas have been so calming or tasty or good for my cultivation or clearing my mind before." 

"Yes."

"And the kind of effect is entirely dependent on the tea you choose to brew."

"Yes."

"But you offered them three teas." Wu Ying waited for Tou He to confirm before he continued. "So how'd you know they were going to pick the sleepy tea?"

"Sleepy tea," Yang Mu could not help but answer.

"Don't start or distract me, please. This one has been holding back," Wu Ying said.

"Not holding back at all," Tou He replied. "If you mean in most combat. It's not likely they'll give me time to complete a whole tea ceremony or drink the tea voluntarily."

"But what did you do? How!?" Wu Ying said, exasperated.

"Each of the teas had a different effect. One promotes a good night sleep, the second a calmer state of mind and the third promotes relaxation of the body and improves circulation and the healing processes," Tou He said. "You actually drank a lot of the first and third blends, in the last few months."

"I know, I recognised the tea when we tasted it last night. But...?" 

"I can, with my dao and fire and my skills, improve on the strength of the blend. Utilized properly, I can increase the effectiveness and enhance certain properties," Tou He explained. "I mostly improve the taste, adjust maybe a little of the teas properties to increase healing or let someone sleep. But pushed to the extreme..."

"So there was never a good choice for them?" Wu Ying said, eyes wide. "It was all a trap?"

"I'd hoped they would choose the one that calmed the mind so that we could discuss the matter." His friend frowned, leaning over the chair. "What we have done, it is not a solution. It just delays the encounter in the end, I fear." 

"What you've done is not a solution," Yang Mu said, her fingers moving above her saddle. She finished folding the crane and raised her hand, allowing the spirit messenger to take flight. It lifted off, flapping paper wings before transforming into a blaze of light and chi and disappearing.

"What did you do?" there was a slight tone of accusation in Tou He's voice, though he tried to moderate it. Wu Ying understood it, for the man had refused to even consider killing their opponents while they slept when Yang Mu had hinted at it. Not that Wu Ying would have felt good about doing such a dishonorable thing himself, but for the ex-monk that had never even been a possibility. 

"Sent for the authorities," Yang Mu said, sniffing a little. "You might not think much of them, but the brother Ng's are a menace. Powerful cultivators that once worked for the underworld until their activities went out of bounds, even for them. Now, they roam around the country as thugs for hire, extorting smaller sects and cities before leaving."

"And the authorities allowed that?" Wu Ying said, surprised.

"They know their limits. They do not kill, unless they have to, and never anyone important. They might extort local magistrates, but never for more than they can afford; and the sects are always on the smaller side. Again, their actions never rise above a certain, disgusting level." Lips twisted in disgust, she spat to the side. "They are cunning, in their own way. Because they are only nuisances, the few who could capture them never bestir themselves." A sigh. "It's dangerous, to try to capture Nascent Soul cultivators. After all, the amount of damage they could do in fighting back..."

"And our Tou He managed to take them down with tea." Wu Ying said, now amused more than anything else.

Tou He lowered his head a little in embarrassment. "It's not something that I would ever expect to replicate. They obviously have never experienced that before, and were not guarded against it. If I tried it in the future..."

Wu Ying chuckled, clapping his friend on the back. He swayed a little as his horse, unhappy at the shifting of weight, skipped to the side. He adjusted himself, still grinning at his friend's discomfort. Even after all these years, it seemed his friend had secrets and tricks of his own.

It took only a short while more, before Wu Ying's good humor to fade under the constant pressure of pain in his abdomen. It was for the best that he had tricks left, for they had a long road ahead and enemies galore.

***

"The captain says we will depart in an hour," Yang Mu murmured as she came up to the bow of the ship next to Wu Ying. He was leaning against the railing, watching the banks and the boats as they came along to the port, days later. It was a small town, with only a half dozen docks large enough for the bigger trade vessels and there were a few ships parked further out in the wide flowing river, waiting their turn.

Fishermen, utilizing long fishing poles, stood off the end of a wharf, happily casting their lines into the water downstream of the ships. There were only four of them, two rag-wearing children who were fishing for their dinner, a third a bored scholar and the fourth; a fisherman in peasant clothing who stood at the edge of the wharf by himself, dominating the area every time he reared back and threw the line outwards.

"Very well," Wu Ying said.

"Ying? Are you okay?" Yang Mu said, worried. She leaned against him, gently and noted where his gaze was locked upon. She watched for a moment, seeing nothing untoward as the fishermen stood and waited.

"It's funny."

"What is?" Again, she looked around, curious to see what might amuse him and finding nothing.

"The number of hidden dragons and crouching tigers that are around us." Gaze locked on the fisherman, Wu Ying sighed. "It's funny, how often we miss them. I thought I could see properly, smell and sense them before; but now..."

"Are you sure?" Yang Mu said, eyes narrowed as she regarded the old man. There was nothing to show that he was a cultivator, at least not externally. He had a deeply lined face, a normal set of peasant clothing, no disruptions in the ambient chi around him. Not even the disturbance in the environment from a storage ring or enchantments. 

"Yes." He pointed downwards, indicating the water. "There's a fish down there, do you sense it?"

"Core Formation Soul level river carp; yes." Yang Mu's lip twitched. "Amazing that it even ventured so close to a human settlement, or that it hasn't been driven away." She snorted. "Or eaten a boat or two."

"It wouldn't do that, I think," Wu Ying said. "Otherwise, I don't see how they could be friends." 

"Friends?" 

Wu Ying nodded and gestured to the fishing line. "You can't see it, but they're playing. The carp is dodging the fishing line before it enters the water, but when it does, it stops moving to let it drift close. If it does - and that's only a few times I've seen - it bites on the hook. Carefully."

"It bites the hook! On purpose?" 

"Ah, it doesn't impale itself. It catches the blunt sides," Wu Ying assured her. "It puts it in its mouth, tugs on the fisherman's line and then releases it for the old man to pull it back."

"So, they're... playing?"

"Or training." He ran a hand through his bound hair. "I would never have noticed it, if I hadn't been standing here, watching. Unable to train, to cultivate further." He offered a wry grin, for his ability to actively cultivate had to be carefully controlled. It was better, slower, but better if he allowed his body to passively accumulate energy now; using his moving cultivation method to keep himself topped up and slowly expand the energy stores in his body. Because of that, he had more time than ever to watch the world.

"We have pointed out that you're always rushing before, you know," Yang Mu had a small, teasing smile on her lips. On the other hand, she never took her eyes off the fisherman, her aura extended to gently brush against the fish below, to see what was happening. 

"You did. You all did." He sighed. "It felt like I had slowed down, in the last decade. Doing nothing but running the department, gathering and travelling only occassionally." Then he nodded to the old man, the way he moved and the game he was playing. There were signs, indications that all of this was something they had done over and over again. among other things, the way the public paid little attention to him. Not even the beggar children seemed to care. "Obviously, I don't really understand relaxing."

She laughed at that, nudging him with her shoulder. "Well, maybe it's time to learn."

"Can I afford to, though?" He grimaced. "I will die, if I don't find a solution."

"We all die." She cocked her head upwards, to the heavens above. "Even them, if the stories are to be believed."

"You know what I mean."

"I do. But I think, that it's not the amount of time one has left but how you spend it, and with who." She leaned into him then, sharing warmth as the afternoon soon beat upon them and the cries of dock workers rang out. River water and the smell of the dock, a touch of waste and weathere wood. "It's not a competition. There's no prize."

"Except there is. Immortality...." 

"Can always be attempted again, when we are reborn. However, those you meet in this life, in this time - there's no guarantee you'd see them again. Certainly not in the way as they are now," she said. "Immortality is a prize worth grasping, if it's within reach. But if your entire life is nothing but the quest for immortality, then what do you have if you fail?" 

"A broken body."

She turned then, and he turned as well. He followed her gaze, over to Tou He who was standing there near the Captain and the helmsmen at the back, speaking with expansive gestures; a stick of meat in one hand. "Perhaps. Yet, we just saw what a non-direct method, an interesting skill could do not so long ago. Would you have expected as much?" She didn' wait for him to answer, continuing. "There's always options. Always different things to learn, and the road to immortality - it might not be as direct as an arrow's flight."

He turned around, when she was done. Watched the fisherman as he cast another line in Within moments, he was pulling out a fish, not the carp but a large river fish anyway. He reeled it in, lifting the string with one hand and then knocking the fish out with a single strike with his finger. Even before he was done, the pair of children were clustered around him, holding up their pail. He dropped it in, watching as the pair scurried away and he returned to his fishing once again.

There was something in her words, not the exact idea, but something in them that twigged deep within him. Wu Ying frowned, wanting to find it, wanting to grasp it; but the harder he pushed the more that moment of enlightenment faded. Eventually, he let it go, just noting to come back to the idea later when he meditated.

Eventually he would find his answer, however it came about.