Chapter 13- Wolf Child Eyes The Sheep

“So what do we do now, Grandpa?” Tian had climbed out of the pit, but was still moving very slowly. He tried to keep his eyes open, but anything more than a little sliver of light was overwhelming. The same with the noise- his fingers were practically glued to his ears.

He was naked, but he didn’t pay much attention to that. His clothes had never been much more than rags, and modesty wasn’t a word he was familiar with. The weather was generally hot, rainy, or hot and rainy. “Cold weather” was barely an abstract concept.

Mmm. I’m thinking you should join that sect. Whichever one it is that rules the big spiritual mountain overlooking the dump.

Tian blinked at that. “What’s a sect?”

I’m calling it a sect- it might be a temple or monastery or some other name for the same thing. Basically an organization that is built around a religious principle which they adhere to with varying degrees of seriousness. It ranges from “Be filial and other than that, go nuts” to “Anyone who doesn’t cultivate to Sainthood is a scrub.”

“Grandpa, I didn’t understand any of that.”

It’s a head scratcher for me too. Think of it as a kind of school, business and religious organization all rolled into one.

“But I don’t know what any of those things are either.”

I know. It’s a big part of why I want you to join. It’s time to get a grip on how to live with other humans.

“Rock throwers are bad.”

Yes, but it’s more complicated than that. Everything is. Would it make you feel a little better to know I’m going to use it as a way to get lots more energy and finesse you some opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise? Sects are great for that- opportunities around every corner. Some offered to you, others you need to create. But they are definitely there.

“I guess that sounds good?”

For example, any random cultivation method an orthodox sect offers you is going to be, approximately, two hojillion times better than the crap one I plonked in your memories. Reason enough to go, right there.

“Well. That sounds good I guess?”

You want to get stronger, they provide means to get stronger. Listen, four key elements are required for cultivation: Land, Law, Money, People. If any of them are lacking, you can forget cultivating to immortality.

“What are those things?” Tian was pretty hungry, but he was afraid to eat anything. Given the way his other senses had improved, the smell and taste of roast snake might just kill him with pleasure.

Land- you need a place that is rich in pure qi for cultivation. Mountains attract a lot of it. Special cultivation grounds with special types of qi are excellent resources, but generally you want pure qi. This is the simplest requirement to understand and the hardest to acquire. Good cultivation lands have people or guardians, always. There is a tiny, tiny chance of finding an undefended hidden cultivation spot, but it is always somewhere awful. At the bottom of a deep ocean trench, for example, or a hollow geode floating in magma. Something like that.

Law- another way to talk about cultivation techniques. Cultivation techniques let you gather vital energy and qi and pile it up in your body to make you stronger and live longer. It does other stuff too, but focus on that for now. Think of it like eating magic air. In fact, let’s compare it to hunting.

Right now you have a cultivation technique where after hunting for a night you catch a mosquito. A normal technique would have you hunt for an hour and catch a squirrel. A good method has you hunting for a minute and catching a fat rabbit. Some cultivation laws can give you special abilities too. Things like the ability to transform into an animal, to command flying swords, to run along rooftops and up walls as though you were weightless. To crush mountains with a pat of your hand. To rip open space with a thought. Normal meditation stuff.

“I thought you said there were a lot of ways to cultivate?”

Tons. But qi cultivation through meditation is the most common way around here, and theoretically it provides a direct-ish path to the pinnacle. Set that aside for now, and let’s move on to money.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“It’s the thing you give people to get stuff, right?” Tian was hazy on the concept.

Yes, it’s basically a way to keep track of time and labor, with a bunch of other things built into it. But mainly time and labor. Let’s take Tian Soup as an example. You kludged together a medicinal bath with some stuff you found in the wild. It took you a couple of weeks, all told, to get everything you needed, you had to risk your life repeatedly, you suffered unimaginable pain, and you still needed some good luck in the form of finding everything. The end product wound up working quite well for you, but you couldn’t say you got the full medicinal benefit out of all your ingredients.

“I… okay?”

Or you could find an alchemist, pharmacist, doctor, or even an experienced senior with a medicinal bath recipe and exchange some… I don’t know, spirit stones, celestial gold, sword marks, whatever they call the local currency, and have them put together a recipe for you. Someone else gets paid to gather the ingredients, to process them, to make sure you have a safe place for your bath. Then with the time you saved, you can do something else. Cultivate, forge a new weapon, study a new combat technique, whatever.

“I guess I can understand that.” Tian didn’t really, but he sort of got the idea. That was the problem with Grandpa’s explanations. Once he explained something, you would have a dozen more questions. What was a pharmacist? Or an alchemist?