“How are you able to keep up?” Yin Xue said with a frown, looking down at Wu Ying, who continued to run alongside them even after they had crossed a number of li.
“Good eating,” Wu Ying said with a flash of a smile.
He then ignored Yin Xue, trying to focus on his breathing as he ran. Running, in truth, was not something he had much experience with, beyond races around the village among his friends. All of which Fa Hui had won. Long distance running like this was a different game altogether, and his initial surge of enthusiasm waned as the li went by, replaced only by the stubbornness that lay in his core. He refused to fall back, not now that he had chosen to go down this path.
Hours passed, Wu Ying’s only break the times when the horses were slowed down to allow them to rest. Even then, the slower plodding of the horse required the cultivator to jog or be left behind, but the break was gratefully taken. When the sun was high overhead, Fa Yuan finally called a break for lunch. Thankfully, Wu Ying was not designated as cook, allowing him to slump next to a tree and rest. Exhaustion swept through him, almost taking him to sleep as his body ached with the recollection of his recent sickness and his long run. Stubborn or not, one night’s rest or new cultivation level, the run ahead of him would have challenged him even at his peak. Which he was not at.
When Wu Ying sensed a presence near him, he let out an inquisitive grunt without opening his eyes or raising his head. The silence took a sudden chilling effect, one that made Wu Ying’s eyes shoot open.
“Fairy Yang!” Wu Ying scrambled to his feet and bowed, flushing red in embarrassment. “My apologies!”
“Resting?” Fa Yuan said coldly.
“Yes.”
“You are at Body Cleansing 5. That should have been a simple run for you,” Fa Yuan said.
“I… I was just sick. And I’m new to it,” Wu Ying said, desperate to explain his position.
“Excuses. Are you circulating your chi at all?”
“My chi? But…” Wu Ying shook his head. “Is that not dangerous while moving?”
“Only for the inexperienced and the addle-brained,” Fa Yuan said with a sniff. “Learning to cultivate while moving is just another method of cultivation. You breathe while you cultivate, your heart beats. Why should you not be able to cultivate and run?”
Wu Ying wanted to protest that those were things he did unconsciously. But that wasn’t exactly true either—breathing through his nose and via his stomach was something he’d had to learn to do for cultivation. It seemed easy at first, but ensuring that he breathed in and exhaled fully with each breath in a constant rhythm, no matter the distraction, was a learned skill.
“How do you start?”
“With your breathing of course,” Fa Yuan said, gesturing for Wu Ying to stand.
After that, she gave an impromptu lesson, detailing the breathing rhythm, the flow of his chi through his meridians, and most importantly, which areas to be wary of. By the time food was ready, Wu Ying had grasped the basics—now he would need to practice it before he could come up with new questions.
Barely twenty minutes later, the group was back on the road. For the last five minutes of their rest, Wu Ying had been cultivating, allowing the chi within his body to flow through his meridians, reinforcing his body and energizing it. Now, he restrained the greater portion of the chi flowing through him, allowing only a trickle out of his dantian before he slowly stood.
Each movement threatened to derail the delicate balance he had established between his body, his chi, and his concentration. Carefully, so carefully, he took a step. The first step sent a shudder through him as he nearly stumbled, but an instinctive shove of his own chi brought him upright. Still, he felt the searing flow of his chi through his body, the slight tearing in muscles that were suddenly triggered. Gritting his teeth, Wu Ying forced himself to take another step, trusting that he would find his balance. And then another.
In a short while, he found himself on the paved road, grouped with the rest. A portion of his attention noted that Yin Xue and the others were looking at him strangely as he drunkenly stumbled around. Fa Yuan only offered Wu Ying a single glance before she kicked her horse, starting their journey once more.
In silence, Wu Ying joined them, his initial stumbling run sending pulses of agony through his body as his meridians stretched and twisted with his chi flooding through them. His dantian, under assault from the contained chi and the erratic movements as he attempted to manipulate and cultivate at the same time, burned, making Wu Ying feel as though a dozen needles were piercing his body.
But still, Wu Ying refused to stop. It was obvious, at least to his mind, that he would not last the rest of the run. Not in his previous state. And so he cultivated, sending energy through his meridians, feeling the chi rush back in with each step. In time, he found a rhythm to his breathing, the pulses of energy, and his steps as Fa Yuan had mentioned. In that rhythm, running itself was effortless. Even cultivation, drawing in chi from the surroundings and collecting it in his dantian to be sent through his body, seemed easier. Perhaps it was that he was moving through new regions of energy, tapping into new environments with each step. For the first time, Wu Ying found that cultivating was less like drawing air through a ten-foot straw and as simple as breathing.
When the group finally halted for the evening, Wu Ying found a new challenge. Having been caught up in the act of cultivation, he found himself almost reluctant to let the feeling go. But with the group having arrived at the city’s south gate, continuing cultivating would have been bad form. A glassy-eyed stare to questions would just engender bad feelings. And Wu Ying had to admit, he was a filthy, sticky mess. If not for the presence of Fairy Yang, Wu Ying had a feeling that the gate guards would not have allowed him through the tall, roofed city walls.
Inside, the town of Er-cheng was a revelation to Wu Ying. Due to the immense amount of work planting, caring for, and harvesting rice three times a year involved, he had never had time to travel farther than the next village. If not for Lord Wen’s men coming by every few months to pick up the tax rice, what little free time they had would have been taken up delivering it too. As such, Er-cheng, the major township of their little county, was the largest settlement he had ever seen.
“So large,” Wu Ying said, turning his head from side to side.
In the short time since they had walked in the city, he had seen more people than in the entirety of their village. The buildings that made up the town were also, generally, better made, with a mixture of wood and earthen walls used with the predominant, dark clay tiles on the inclined roofs. In the town, Wu Ying noted that the slate-covered flagstone ground was even better repaired, with space enough for four carriages to move side by side.
“Peasant,” Yin Xue said with a sniff. He glared at Wu Ying, looking ashamed at how the village yokel turned and stared at every single thing, from the roadside merchants hawking their wares to the open shops. If not for Fa Yuan’s presence, the various hucksters, beggars, and pickpockets would have taken advantage of Wu Ying already. Obviously, as the lord’s son, Yin Xue had been to Er-cheng numerous times. His father even had a residence in the city.
“We rest on the boat,” Fa Yuan said impatiently, clicking her tongue and speeding up her horse.
Forced to follow, Wu Ying’s attention was brought back to the task of ensuring he did not step on anything untoward. In time, the group managed to make their way around the central courtyard where Yin Xue’s father lived and worked to the port. Leading the group unerringly, Fa Yuan brought them to a sleek craft at the edge of the docks.