WEB Volume 4/Release Volume 6 Begins: Chapter 1: Breakout, into the World

A rooster, a rat, and a man stood at the bottom of a pass. They were an odd sight together. Eye catching, and looking almost out of place.

The reds of the rooster’s plumage were captured fire, his blue and green tail shone with a luster that put gemstones to shame. His unsheathed spurs glittered like steel, firm and unyielding. A magnificent fox-fur vest wrapped around his chest accentuating his beautiful plumage, the entire ensemble capped by the flash of a silver necklace, the base metal dull in comparison to the rooster’s glory.

 

The beast’s eyes were fixed on the climb that sat before him, filled with determination for the journey to come.

 

Upon his back sat a little black rat. Fur the colour of midnight, keen eyes sparked with intelligence. She was clad in a tunic of blue and white, with a pack nearly as big as she was on her back. Her nose twitched as she processed the smells of this new place, but she did not fidget; instead, her gaze was calm and measured. Unbothered by the world’s tumult.

 

Finally, there was the man whose shoulder the rooster had decided to use as a perch. The cast of his face was almost vulpine, with his narrow eyes and the slight smile on his face. His dark, silky hair was done up in a ponytail. He had a magnificent scarf of tribal make around his neck, and at his hip was a beautiful sword.

 

They stood at the edge of the Azure Hills, where it bordered the Howling Fang Mountains and Yellow Rock Plateau.

 

From the gentle, rolling green hills, the earth would suddenly rise up like the very world itself was building a wall to prevent people from leaving the province.

 

On one side was the slate grey of towering mountains resembling the teeth of a giant wolf. They speared into the sky, brutal and stark, taking a bite out of the heavens. On the other, a massive slab of yellow-tinted stone rose half a Li before turning at a ninety degree angle, the edges of the plateau forming an unscalable barrier.

 

Between those walls lay a pass.

An enormous set of rapids dominated the pass, the churning river disgorging a thundering cascade that would flow down into the distant Pale Moon Lake. The ground started filled with the lush green grasses of the Azure Hills, before transitioning to a more desolate landscape of pines and craggy boulders bigger than the largest buildings squatting along the pass like silent guardians.

 

It was called the Stone Gate. An impressive, foreboding sight, with the roaring crash of the thundering rapids occasionally defeated by the wind screaming through the Howling Fang Mountains, an interplay that produced a haunting melody.

 

The man eventually let out a whistle as they stared at the Stone Gate. “You know, for a second there, I thought we’d never make it here.” The young man rubbed at his arm, grimacing.

 

“Indeed. The training of our teachers was certainly… intense,” Fa Bi De replied, feeling his own body twinge in sympathy to Yun Ren’s shudders.

 

Hong Ri Zu’s eyes simply glazed over, the little rat looking halfway between terror and wanting to murder something.

 

They had been gone from their home, Fa Ram, for a month already. First, they had traveled north to let Su Nezan’s main body know of the developments with the Shrouded Mountain, and receive the fox’s knowledge. As a native of the Howling Fang Mountains, he had maps and hideouts that they could use.

 

While there, the old Monster that was Shen Yu had decided that the fox’s lair was the perfect place to train Bi De for the journey ahead… and Nezan had taken it upon himself to aid Yun Ren and Ri Zu.

 

Thus, they had climbed the side of the mountains, been hounded ferociously by corporeal illusions, and Bi De was pushed to the limit by an Old Monster.

 

He had certainly grown… and Shen Yu found it endlessly amusing, his Great Master’s grandfather chuckling about “the might of his cock.”

 

Bi De felt Ri Zu shake her head, dispelling whatever she had been thinking of. “Well, we’re here now,” Ri Zu said, in a rather high pitched voice—actual speech, rather than Qi Speech. “Just beyond that rise… and we’ll be out of the Azure Hills for the first time. I wonder what kind of medical herbs they have up there?”

 

“I just hope this whole demon thing isn’t actually a big problem,” Yun Ren replied. “Wouldn’t it be nice if we get up there, and everything is just under control? We take a few recordings, we wander around… like one of those vacation things Jin was talkin’ about.”

 

Ri Zu snorted, and Yun Ren let out a bark of his own laughter at the statement.

 

“There shall be challenges, of that I have no doubt—but I believe we shall each prove the equal to whatever task may await us,” Bi De replied confidently to his companions. “Just beyond that rise… a whole new world awaits us.”

 

Ri Zu nodded, smiling at Bi De, while Yun Ren stood up just a bit straighter, examining the pass like a seasoned warrior.

 

A sudden chiming sound interrupted their conversation.

 

All three of them startled slightly, before turning to their two other companions. One was an old man holding up a small slate of recording crystal. He looked incredibly rough, his beard wild and bushy, and his clothes worn. Beside him was a woman. Her features were sharp and vulpine, a near perfect match for Yun Ren’s. She too wore traveling clothes, and had a wide-brimmed hat that was currently resting on her back.

 

“Ah, younglings taking their first step out of their home province,” the old man declared. “I remember the first time I stepped foot outside Raging Waterfall Gorge with Ge. We must have spent an hour simply gazing at the sights!”

 

“Ah, that picture will be a good one! So cute and determined!” The woman smiled fondly, looking over Shen Yu’s shoulder to get a better view of the recording he’d taken.

 

Yun Ren sighed as his Uncle Nezan acted like a doting grandmother. Though the powerful Spirit Beast had elected to remain in his home, he had bolstered the fragment of himself to contain over half of his Qi, effectively splitting himself fully in two. Where before he was limited to the form of a tiny fox, now he could create a fully corporeal body.

 

What compounded his annoyance was Shen Yu’s new hobby—recording crystals.The old man had overheard Jin talking to Yun Ren about recording their journey for them… and promptly decided to clear Mengde’s Crystal Emporium out of every remaining Recording Pane.

 

And then he had recorded every embarrassing moment from their training with a bright smile on his face. At least this recording wasn’t of Bi De trussed up like a roast after he had failed to notice Nezan slipping alcohol into his food.

 

Or Yun Ren naked and hanging upside down from his leg on a tree.

 

To combat this, the fox-faced man had started critiquing Shen Yu’s recordings. And the implication that Shen Yu wasn’t as good as a boy at recording images had sparked Shen Yu’s spirit.

 

“Did you capture a good image for everybody back home, Master?” Bi De inquired.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

 

“Indeed I have! Even you won’t be able to find flaw with this, fox boy!” The old man paused dramatically, then projected the image for all of them to see.

 

Yun Ren squinted at the picture. “It’s not bad.”

 

“Not bad?” Shen Yu demanded.

 

“Yeah, look at the lighting.” Yun Ren walked over, taking out his own crystal. He looked up at the sky for a second, then walked three paces to the left. “You need like… right here. See, then it will catch the water and the mist, giving it a good backlight.”

 

The crystal chimed and Yun Ren projected his own image.

 

The old man stared at it for a long moment, then sighed. “Go stand back over there and look determined up at the hill,” Shen Yu commanded them.

 

Bi De stifled a laugh as they all trudged back to the spot that they had been standing at. A traveler who was ascending the hill looked at them strangely, before shaking his head and keeping his course.

 

It had been a curious month.

 

The crystal chimed.

 

“Ri Zu! You blinked!” the old man scolded. Ri Zu grumbled, but the image was recorded without issue, and then they began their climb up from the bottom of the hill.

 

A curious month indeed.

 

The wind howled again, dragging down currents of air… and cold Qi, as thick and dense as the Qi around their home. The air quickly wicked the energy away, like water poured into dry soil, but it was enough to make all of them shiver slightly.

 

Bi De looked up at the sky, his eyes focused on the top of the hill.

 

They would explore the Howling Fangs Mountains. Find out the truth of these demons… and then they would return home, their task complete.

 

Because while an adventure was all well and good, it was sharing that adventure with one’s family that truly made the difference.

 

And he was very much looking forward to seeing the Works of His Great Master and Disciple Xiulan.

 

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The Way begins when one finally leaves the nest which nurtured them.

 

For it is only in travel that one can properly harvest resources, battle new enemies, and encounter new techniques. To strive, ever onwards, and ever upwards. To drink deep of rich Qi and ever more powerful reagents.

 

In this, they leave the place of their birth behind. Never to return, for there is nothing to offer from them.

 

Weakness is something to be shed. And a lower realm will never have something to offer a higher one.

 

This is the truth of cultivation.

 

…Or at least that was what the cultivation manuals I remember said. Honestly, if the language wasn’t so blatantly power hungry, I would have agreed with them. A bit of travel did people good. New sights and new experiences were something to be treasured.

 

But to never return home? That… just sounded kind of sad.