Tian conferred with some of the senior brothers before he started his return journey to Forward Camp Redknife. It was one thing to know that he was running into the tail end of a heretical raid and fighting the sacrificial food for the demonized bird along the way. It was quite another to assume the route back would be clear. He had a rough route plotted when a Senior Sister called his name, and sent him to the mission office.

  “Junior Tian, we rushed your military merits through last night so that you could buy things here if you wanted. You may not know this, but we have a much broader selection of goods available, and far more crafters. Might want to put in a special order seeing as you will be running back and forth for a while.”

  “Thank you very much, Senior Brother…?”

  “Zhang Jun, Purple Bamboo Town Outer Court. It’s no problem, really. You made quite an impression out there, and seeing as you are acquainted with True Disciple Wu and True Disciple Hong, well! I was only too happy to help.” The older man smiled, and Tian felt a chill creep along his spine.

  Grandpa Jun was right. He really had underestimated the bootlickers of the world. Once word got around that a green Level Five was sitting on a lot of resources, he could imagine how ‘popular’ he would become.

  “Thank you again. I’m afraid I don’t have the merits or the spirit crystals for custom gear, but I do need to replace a lot of gear.”

  “Don’t be so quick to assume Junior Brother. Check your ring.”

  Tian looked and almost fainted. These bastards were after his life!

  “I didn’t know one could earn one hundred and three merits in a single battle, Senior Brother.”

  “All very straightforward, actually. You directly killed eight heretical cultivators in the Earthly Realm who were within two levels of you, so no modifier there. You killed twenty Earthly Realm wild animals at roughly your level, which pay less, and you contributed to the killing of the Demonized Hawk, which was actually a major contribution despite your comparatively minor role.” Tian nodded, pretending he understood a single thing about how military merits were calculated.

  “All very good, but what really took you over the top were the multipliers. You are required to assist fellow sect members in a combat situation, but as you doubtless recall, if the combat arises while you are on an unrelated mission, it does entitle you to a multiplicative bonus to your merits. Not a particularly big one, but it does add up.”

  “Ah. I… forgot.”

  “Haha. It’s your first time on the front lines, Junior Brother. Soon you will have all this perfectly memorized. The other thing that earned big for you was that you contributed to killing a demonized beast an entire realm above you, and lived. That earned you a substantial bonus. Hence the generous total.”

  Tian nodded gratefully, carefully noting how the mission clerk underlined the favors he did Tian without actually saying he did any favors. “I have learned a lot. Thank you, Senior Brother Zhang. You have gone to a lot of trouble on my behalf. Here, it’s not very expensive, but please take this wine. My Senior Brothers all drink it, so I hope you like it too.”

  He pulled out a glazed jar sealed with red waxed paper. His senior brothers had drilled him on scenarios like this heavily, and even made him memorize some phrases. Judging by the pleased way Senior Brother Zhang was politely refusing, they were absolutely right. Tian followed the script and insisted over Brother Zhang’s objections, and the older man ‘reluctantly’ accepted the wine.

  “Junior, I can see great things in your future. You use a basic rope dart as your weapon of choice right? Go see Sister Li Xiuning over in the crafting buildings. If you tell her I sent you, she may give me some face and help you out. Hurry, you are running out of time before you need to return to Camp Redknife!”

  Tian ran his hand through his hair as he left. His hair had grown back even longer and, he suspected, even softer, after his medicinal bath in the belly of the bird. It was a joy to touch. It was a particular joy to touch with his new middle fingers. He couldn't help wiggling them, feeling them move. A few times, he just picked up things for the sheer joy of feeling his grip. The feeling of strength was hard to put into words. He wondered what it would be like when his hands were completely repaired.

  That isn’t all that changed. Start your cultivation, and pay attention to how the energy moves.

  Tian pushed Advent of Spring into motion and nearly tripped over his own feet. The pull of qi was outrageous. It felt like he was taking in more qi than his lungs could hold air. His dantian practically roared as they drew the wild, undifferentiated qi into his body and turned it into vital energy. His muscles looked like they had been carved from marble, and with a poke, felt like it too. Even his once tan skin had turned shockingly white.

  “Grandpa?”

  You rebuilt your body in an intense yin environment. That’s what gave you the meridians, the hair and the skin. It was the total body rebuild and the five elements cycling, to say nothing of the yang conversion, that made your muscles like that. Incidentally, you haven’t noticed yet, but you are about an inch taller, your bone structure has significantly improved, and you are even a little bit handsomer. How my handsome grandson got even more handsome, I don’t know. But you managed it.

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  “Grandpa!”

  Told you that Natal Qi was enough to make you the favored child of any noble house. Might not be enough to make you the sect’s Dao Child, Saint Child or whatever, but give it time. Incidentally, that’s not all you got out of the bird. But that would be telling.

  Tian smiled. The immortal qi. He didn’t know what it was doing inside of him, but his natal qi was brighter, and his meridians faintly shimmered in his awareness.

  The crafters occupied a building only slightly smaller than the supply warehouse, but had two dozen chimneys poking out of it. The smooth brick walls were nicely plastered white, and in a curious variation, the roof tiles were a blinding white color.

  Senior Brother Zhang’s name was not enough to get past the desk clerk, but it was enough to send the desk clerk to see Senior Li and ask if she was willing to accept Tian’s business. Senior Li came back with the clerk. Earthly Realm, and if Tian had to guess, at Level “Ten,” standing at the edge of immortality.

  “Ah, the talk of the hour, the famous Junior Brother Tian. It seems you have overcome your allergy to clothes. Pity. You were a lot more interesting before.”

  Tian smiled awkwardly and decided to ignore the issue. “I noticed when I was fighting the giant centipedes and when I was inside the hawk that my rope dart didn’t have any penetrating power against armor or thick, rubbery flesh. I would also like it if the rope had some form of cutting ability. Is that something you could craft for me, Senior Sister?”

  Senior Sister Li shooed away the desk clerk. “A little privacy helps with these talks. Can I? Yes. Will I? Let me ask you this, Junior Brother. How many military merits do you have, and do you have any spirit crystals to put on top of it?”

  “I have fifty merit points I can spend, but I have only managed to save up six spirit crystals.”

  “Eh? You should have closer to a hundred, plus what you already had saved.”

  Tian felt the hairs on the back of his neck rising.

  “I will also need to replace lost equipment. Also I was admiring flowers and enquiring with the willow last night and spent all my money.”

  Senior sister Li gave him a long, cool look. “Your senior brothers taught you to say that when you wanted to pretend you were broke?”

  “Yes, Senior Sister.”

  “You misremembered the saying.”

  “Ah. Sorry.” Tain rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Close, mind you. It is a bit of a shame that you remembered any of it, as there are neither bars nor whores at this Depot. And I would strongly advise you to reconsider saying such a thing when you have famously spent part of the night drinking with a Martial Aunt of the Inner Court.”

  Tian bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I had no idea.” Tian felt the bony hands of death settle companionably over his shoulders.

  “Don’t blindly say things you don’t understand. Consider this your only warning. I’ll keep my mouth shut. You do the same.”

  “Yes, Senior Sister.”

  “With what you are willing to pay, I can make something considerably better than what the sect sells to rookies, though not what I would consider good. If you want actually-good, double your budget. Since you are so green, I won’t charge you any spirit crystals, and I will tell everyone that I cleaned you out.”

  “Yes, Senior Sister. We will do it exactly as you say.”

  Tian restocked, refilled his water and was running for the black sands six minutes later. The monster-filled wasteland just seemed like a much safer place to be.

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  “Grandpa? Something feels weird. Advent of Spring isn’t struggling to deal with the Fire qi or the Earth qi out here. I could kind of understand it in the Depot, but this is the desert.”

  Yep. You think that’s neat, try Light Body, Heavy Hands. Go on, you are going to love this.

  Tian switched over, and nearly smashed into a rock.

  “What the fresh fancy fuck was that?!” Tian yelped.

  Language! Young man, where did you learn such a thing?!

  “From Brother Qian. Sorry Grandpa Jun.”

  As well you should be. Profanity is an art to be studied. Remember, Tian, Profanity is like pissing- a release, an immense comfort, often simply necessary, but never to be done into the wind. Always know what’s getting wet before you let it fly, Grandson. It will save you endless grief.

  “Are… are we still talking about swearing, Grandpa?”

  I take pride in making my metaphors as literally true as possible, to save your confusion. Now, try to jump and see if you can’t figure out what is happening.

  Tian hopped onto a rock with a bare flex of his toes, then launched himself skyward. He shot up like a startled bird, and drifted down like a leaf. He quickly sat cross legged and switched over to Counter-Jumper. He could hear the shifting sands around him, feel the faint vibrations in the earth as the wind moved across the wastes. His whole body attuned itself to the world around him.

  “The Immortal qi again?”

  In part. The other part is- what did that ‘medicinal bath’ do for you?

  “Rebuilt my body. Pretty completely. So everything is working better.”

  Exactly. Though I really don’t know what the deal is with your fingers. I honestly expected them to be healed after the first medicinal bath you took, and you should be seeing a lot more progress with the Advent of Spring. They feel sealed, somehow. Why and how, I have no idea. Don’t worry about it for now. You have another fun thing to discover. Run, as hard and as fast as you can. Just mark where the sun is first.

  Tian set off at a dead sprint, letting Light Body, Heavy Hands carry him along. It felt like he was drifting over the land. He fell, often, as he couldn’t adjust his gait to how far each step carried him. Fortunately, he could catch himself with a single hand, and simply flip back into running. Not letting his clothes even brush the ground. The running wasn’t just effortless- it was like a dream. Running as fast as he wanted, alone between earth and sky. Unburdened and unafraid of what was to come.