v4c16: Across the Grass Sea

From the Misty Lake Sect, Tigu and her company headed due east; away from the land of bogs and rivers, following Xiulan into the heart of the Grass Sea.

Tigu had seen the edge of this place, when they had gone to the Dueling Peaks… and the change was even more dramatic.

The land turned into an alternating series of farms and villages, interspersed by beautiful rolling meadows and grazing farm animals.

“They say the land here is so fertile that your fence posts take root and start to grow,” Loud Boy said as they passed yet another village. “I’ve never seen any growing fence posts… but the land here is good.”

Tigu ripped up a section of dirt to check his claim. The soil was black as pitch as well as soft and loamy. It smelled wonderful, and had a little taste of wood-aligned Qi.

“Hmph. You can eat the dirt back home,” Tigu said, planting the grass patch back down. Her Master would have approved of this soil, Tigu was sure… but it still was not up to the standards of the dirt back home.

“…have you tried eating the dirt?” The Torrent Rider asked, curious, and Tigu froze. She would have to back up her claim, because obviously Fa Ram had the best—

“We all have,” Yin replied. Everybody turned to look at the silver-haired woman. “Have none of you read Wa Shi’s notebook? The fat-ass was trying to incorporate it into dough, and we all ate those crackers.”

“…they did have quite the earthy taste,” Rags muttered after a moment. “But they weren’t bad.”

“See! You can totally eat the dirt of Fa Ram!” Tigu boasted.

“And the pond scum. And the muck at the bottom of the river…” Yin continued.

“…I think I may start declining some of what Wa Shi tries to feed us,” Xiulan muttered.

Tigu felt obligated to come to her fellow disciple’s defense. “He wouldn’t feed it to us unless it was safe and at least tasted somewhat good. He has too much pride for that.”

“I suppose that’s fair,” Handsome Man said after a moment.

Xiulan smiled and shook her head, then turned her eyes to the sky.

“What do you think, Rags?” she asked.

The other man considered the sky, then licked his finger and stuck it in the air. “Yeah, there’s a storm a brewin’,” the rough man said after a moment. “We’d best leg it into town unless we wanna get caught up in it.”

“You said that the weather here was mild,” Tigu replied, sniffing, and sure enough she smelled the rain.

“It is… most of the time. It doesn’t get too cold, but thunderstorms blow in off Pale Moon Lake… and they can get quite bad.”

True enough to the Blade of Grass’ words, as soon as they made it to the next village one of the largest thunderstorms Tigu had ever witnessed rolled across the land. The wind howled like a banshee and the thunder crashed all around them. Drops of water the size of plump berries were unleashed onto the meadows.

They watched it unfold from an inn as they had lunch.

Yet for all its fierceness, it was over in an hour. The sun came back out and the land was dyed in rainbow hues.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Tigu climbed up onto Handsome Man’s shoulders to get a better view and committed the scene to memory.

The grass squelched pleasantly under their feet as they started out again.

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They moved at a steady pace, yet it seemed like they were barely making any headway at all. With its wide open sky and vast sightlines from the top of hills, the Grass Sea seemed endless. An ocean of green grass and blue skies. Even the sun seemed bigger when it set, filling the horizon with its golden glow. And that was to say nothing of moon and stars when night came.

Though, there were some new sights. Even this densely populated land was not wholly tamed by men. It was home to fleet-footed, leaping deer that blitzed across the land in bounding herds, and entire armies of enormous woolley bison that trudged endlessly across the meadows and hills, leaving shorn stalks in their wake. Ripperbeaks and tigers prowled the longer grass, ever present dangers for the unwary. One even had to be wary of ground squirrel holes off the roads, the thousands-strong colonies of little beasts covering areas the size of cities.

It was beautiful. Already she had received so much inspiration, and whenever they stopped to rest for the night Tigu practised in collaboration with Handsome Man, carving what they had seen that day together into stone.

Each day they travelled, and each night they trained. Xiulan normally took charge of Rags, Loud Boy, and the Torrent Rider, with Tigu and Xianghua aiding her demonstrations. The boys grew in leaps and bounds, as did they. Tigu had never felt more solid in her life as she bounded through the grass like a real tiger, chasing down whoever was her ‘prey’ for the day.

This… this was truly the meaning of life, to Tigu. Traveling with one’s companions. Seeing wondrous new things, and training.

They even had a small celebration. The Torrent Rider ascended to the Second Stage of the Initiate’s Realm through diligent work.

“To the Torrent Rider!” Yin declared as she hefted an entire roasted bison leg into the air. They had hunted the great beast together, and Yin had provided the flames.