Chapter 4- First Steps on the Path

Tian Zihao and Grandpa Jun set out from the garbage dump with a sack of whatever grubs and meat he could scrounge up, a stitched hide waterskin, and mixed feelings. This was the only home Tian knew. He didn’t love it, but he knew how to live here, how to eat, how to hide from scary humans and the clumsy, crushing dumpsters.

Outside the dump was a mystery. Cupping one corner and the back of the dump were steep hills. On the other sides were shorter, rolling little hills with clumps of trees and a well worn road winding through them.

Tian avoided the road. He didn’t have to be reminded.

Remember, all we have done is clear up the more immediately fatal diseases. Your kidneys are working, your cancer is in remission, your MS predisposition is still just at the stage of a predisposition, I took care of the brain damage and lead poisoning years ago… I still don’t know how you got hooked on opium, but that’s fixed too.

And yes, you do have severe hormonal and glandular problems and if necessary I’m going to help prevent puberty from kicking in until we can fix your… downstairs bits, but-

“Grandpa, you are doing that thing again. I don’t understand most of that.” Tian whispered. He had learned a long time ago that Grandpa’s voice didn’t startle the animals, but his voice could. Grandpa said that only Tian could hear him, but that didn’t make sense to Tian. How can only one person hear a voice?

I can’t wait until you have started qi cultivation and can communicate with your mind alone. It’s going to be much more convenient.

The two were creeping between small hills, trying not to disturb the bushes as they went. It was a very different way of moving stealthily, Tian learned. Very different from the sliding heaps of the junkyard. The plants weren’t anything like the ones that grew in the junkyard. These leaves were wide and thick, shiny in the moonlight.

The shadows were deep and comfortable. That, at least, hadn’t changed.

He could hear birds calling softly in the warm, humid night. All the smells were new too.

We are going to have to bathe you, and soon. I didn’t mind in the dump because the gunk was keeping the bugs off, but as you are now, everyone and their cousin will smell you coming a mile away.

The two climbed to the top of a hill and the world opened up in front of them.

Above was a hazy moon, brilliant and huge. A shining ribbon of silver stretched in the distance, and little puddles of silver light were scattered around. Flecks of yellow light were scattered around too, usually in little clusters. Then the clusters clumped into bigger clusters of light, then a huge mass of firefly lights all massed together. And then, at the very edge of his blurry vision, something stretched up into the sky. Something that caught the white light of the moon and carried it back upwards again.

Tian crouched under a broad leafed bush and drank it in. Letting the sight fill parts of him he didn’t know were empty. Letting himself fall into the wonder of it all.

“Grandpa… what am I seeing?”

The river shapes the valley, flowing long and wide, providing water for the rice paddies. See those shimmering places in the stone walls? That’s trapped water, with rice growing in it. You have seen grains of rice in the dump- those little tasteless white things that look like grubs. You are going to learn to love it, believe me.

Next to those paddies are the homes and villages of the farmers. Solid stone walls, a tile roof, a hearth with a chimney. They live comfortably in them, though they probably think themselves very poor.

Then you can see the towns, where even more people live. There will be shops where you can buy things, amazing things. Those are the people who are even better to-do than the farmers. They might own the farms, or own the businesses that buy and sell things.

Behind the towns is a city, filled with the wonders of civilization. I can’t even describe them to you. You have to experience it for yourself. Magic and talismans and enchanted everything. Clothes woven from silkworms that grew in frost caves, or on lava, or that fed on mulberry leaves watered with spiritual spring water. Endless, endless wonders to discover.

It must belong to the sect that rules the spiritual mountain behind it- sects often do this, as it gives them a lot of conveniences when dealing with the mortal world. The spiritual mountain behind the city is the true gem of this place. Probably of this whole region. That mountain is where the true cultivators live. It is a place of immense glory. And terror. A force that can dominate that mountain is one that could exterminate a billion mortal lives without a single regret.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

You have so much to discover. The world has so much beauty in it. So much life and joy.

The two watched silently. The world was… just so huge. So many impossible wonders. And everything was new in Tian’s eyes. He had never seen a river, or a paddy, or a stone wall. He had never seen a house. People were only seen in their ones and twos, never in their hundreds and thousands.

“This is… very dangerous, isn’t it? There isn’t anywhere to hide here.”

Yes it is, but not because there is nowhere to hide. You can’t see it because it’s night and your night vision is almost shot, but there are lots of places to hide. It’s dangerous because you don’t look like them. Your face is a different shape, your hands, the way you are dressed and how you smell- all make you seem different, and probably dangerous. So they will attack you. Even if you try to tell them you aren’t dangerous, they will attack you. It’s cruel. And it’s very human.

“Maybe it would be better not to be a human. They are all rock throwers.”

People are cruel. But a person can be kind. That kindness and warmth… when you feel it, Tian, you won’t be able to live without it. Just the thought of losing it will terrify you. Can you be kind, Grandson?

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

Think of it like when you were hunting. You killed to eat, but you didn’t let them suffer in the traps, right? The pain was a bad thing, but you still had to eat. You can treat the world like that too. Just don’t become someone who enjoys hurting. I’ve seen how that story ends many times. Badly. Every time.