Chapter 125
Echoes (I)
The forest is rather beautiful, I must say.
But also rather daunting.
Without Wan Lan to guide us, I was beyond certain I'd have gotten us lost. Whenever she pointed out a 'landmark', it'd just make go '...huh? Really?' because, to , it just looked like another damn tree--as thousands upon thousands of them.
The white-brownish bark and the long, thin branches webbing out rather violently into a thick and tall canopy, with an occasional round and red fruit that I wouldn't bite into even if I was starving. There was no variety--even the flowers, at so point, just started looking completely the sa to .
And yet, she navigated the entire place kind of like a pro.
"Mada taught ," she explained as we settled camp for the night. "She used to co here often, searching for special flowers or herbs to sell in one of her shops or to use in one of her concoctions. And she started bringing with her as far back as when I was six. Taught everything. For instance, see this patch of flowers?" she pointed at the rather round bundle of rose-like red flowers with long, thorned stems.
"Hm." we all nodded.
"They're called bloodied petunias," she said. "And they grow all over the forest. Quality of soil or access to sunlight doesn't matter much, but night temperatures do. That's why they are in a bundle here--temperatures drop, so they grow in a patch, but down south, where the nights are warr, they grow apart from each other. The warr the nights, the further apart they grow as to have as much soil to themselves as possible."
"Wow!" Dai Xiu exclaid. "It's amazing that you know that!"
"Ha ha, it's not that amazing," she chuckled. "Mada always used to say it's just common knowledge, but I think she was just trying to make not have a big head."
"What about the trees?" Dai Xiu asked. "How can you see a difference in them?"
"Moisture in the bark," she said. "Causes its shade to change slightly. There are about a hundred or so extrely old trees here; Dawnoaks, we call them. They're each at least a thousand years old, which ans they've retained more moisture than the younger ones, which makes for the darkest shade of any tree. Mada made morize their locations when I was eight. To test , she dropped us off at a random one and then had find a way ho orienting by them."
"Sounds like she taught you a lot of things," I comnted.
"Hm," she nodded, dropping her head slightly. "Not a lot... everything I know. She taught everything."
Silence fell as we started gnawing at so dried at and herbs in silence. They were... well, they were dry and pretty much tasteless, but it's protein and calories.
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At least, that's what I've been telling myself.
Otherwise, our journey has been rather... uneventful. It's been three days since we ran from town, and we have managed to not run into anyone--beast or bandit--so far. An occasional critter that one of the kids would hunt down so we could roast it for dinner, yes, but nothing more than that.
It also provided a lot of ti to moan to the system--despite the fact that I killed a dozen people, a number of whom were stronger than , the system gave ... nothing.
Big zilch.
Nada.
Not even a 'Good Job', let alone a freakin' reward.
Luckily, Dai Xiu was relatively close to breaking through into the Foundation Establishnt--she was already at the 11th stage, while Xi Zhao was at the 10th.
Long Tao?
Yeah.
He was at the peak of Foundation Establishnt.
Peak.
... a freakin' peak.
It's hard for to compute that guy, to be honest. I an, it makes sense; rather, if he had infinite resources at his disposal, I imagine he'd be about a hundred tis faster, but still, to see soone so outrageously beyond this realm is both depressing and amazing... and I sohow just happened upon him the literal mont I woke up in this world?
Fishy, system. Fishy, fishy, fishy.
Anyway, Wan Lan and Light were yet to cultivate together, but naly because the forr was focused on learning the face-shifting art that I gave her. She'll join our ranks as a newly born soon enough, and there won't be any risk of sobody recognizing her.
Sothing finally happened on the fifth day--we found a body.
At so point, it was probably buried in a shallow grave, but the animals must have dug it up, as there it was, rotting and decaying.
Suffice to say, a couple of us did spill our guts, but as to not embarrass 'them', I won't say who.
I've seen dead bodies before, sure, but this wasn't so much a dead body as it was a corpse--it was clear whoever it was had been dead for a while, and the stench... oh my God, the stench, it was like soone made an olet of rotten eggs and sprinkled so rotten fish on top of it.
"I recognize that insignia," Wan Lan suddenly said, pinching her nose. We all were, really, besides Long Tao. "I've seen it once in a book Mada showed of the most powerful sects on the continent. Heavenly Star Sect, I think."
The sigil was indeed of a star bursting into a quasar--or, perhaps that's just how I saw it. It was likely that the intended aning was different since they weren't likely to know what quasars even are.
"He was killed," Long Tao said, using a thin strand of Qi to move the robe that had practically lded into the decaying flesh. "Right here, sobody stabbed him. It went straight through his heart. It's strange, though."
"What is?"
"That's the only wound," he said, glancing up at .
"... aning he wasn't fighting soone?"
"Yes. Either he was ambushed or..."
"Sobody stabbed him in the back. Figuratively and literally." Hey, look at the two of us. In another lifeti, we'd be playing the roles of cop buddies in so over-the-top Hollywood thriller about an alcoholic and a rookie pairing up for a job that will threaten the entire world.
... yeah.
My brain is sotis rather weird, it seems.
"It isn't entirely impossible that there's infighting," Long Tao pointed out with a shrug. "Any ti a treasure is up for grabs, brotherhoods and sisterhoods tend to... loosen their bonds."
"Has nothing to do with us," I said. "Let's dig out a deeper hole and bury the body properly."
"There isn't ti," Long Tao said.
Ah man, co on! I just said that the days were uneventful, not that I wanted them to be exciting!
"Stop right there, murderers!" It seed like they crawled out from nowhere, all eight of them. "How dare you kill a disciple of the Heavenly Star Sect?!"
"Hey, are you blind?!" I didn't even care who it was; I was just annoyed. "You think he died just now? At least look at the damn body once before you start spewing garbage from your shithole, goddammit."
... oops.
I think loosening my tongue at that old guy may have done sothing to that can't be undone...
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