17.2. Travel To The Capital

Faust woke up early. He had a lot of ground to cover and he would fly through the night to reach the provincial capital of Azure Water province by morning, where he planned to take a flying ship to the Imperial Capital.

Selecting some resources he thought he would need for the mid stage Open Palace realm, Faust poured all his coin savings into his spatial pouch. A grand total of 22 thousand imperial gold.

“Haah…” Faust exhaled as he looked over from the cliff face not far from his mansion. He admired the morning scenery, the golden rays of sunlight filtering through the mountains and making some places seem impossibly dark in their shadows.

Breathing in the sharp morning air, Faust stepped on his flying sword and shot up into the air. He had already made a letter for the administration office— which handled the more standard requests in a side building of the administration hall— for where he was going, for how long and why. A privilege of Inner Sect disciples.

It was going to be a long flight.

 

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Long Tao ran.

He ran fast as the wind, taking careful breaths and even strides over the relatively flat terrain of Soft Meadows.

Sweat poured down his face as he squinted his eyes in focus, looking forward.

“KREEEE!!!” A giant green boar. Easily 8 meters tall roared behind him. The ground shook with every step, flattening a path through the golden weeds and pale lavender flowers.

The old ghost floated beside Tao, rubbing his chin as he looked back.

“You know… There was no reason for you to wake it up when the mission was just to collect some spirit herbs nearby.” He commented dryly.

If he could respond, Tao would cry that this was unfair. He hadn’t even done anything. The beast just woke up and charged at him. Unfortunately, he was preoccupied with maintaining his breathing pattern, lest he run out of stamina before the beast.

But suddenly, Tao felt his foot hit something.

“AaaaaHH!” Tao plummeted into a narrow ravine head first, holding his hands in front of him.

“Hold the walls!” The old ghost shouted in his ear.

Tao extended his hands and legs outwards, scraping against the wall as he pushed Qi into them to support his first level of body tempering.

Rock, dirt and roots caught his hands, scraping skin off and fracturing bone until Tao finally came to a stop, holding the walls of the ravine while upside down.

“Haaa. Haaa.. Huuu…” Tao breathed raggedly, before stabilising, exhaling calmly and inhaling slowly.

Readjusting his limbs, Tao slowly rotated himself until he was pressing against one side of the ravine with his legs and resting his back on the other side. He looked around.

Dark grey stone surrounded him, with dark brown soil covering places and roots sticking out. The walls were sloped slightly, so he was a bit closer to lying down than his back being straight.

“Hmmm. There’s a surprising amount of Wood Qi down here. Far more than up there.” The old ghost added, looking around himself.

Tao looked down, then, carefully, he turned and got a grip on the side of the ravine that sloped down steeply. He slowly began climbing down.

Soon, despite the darkness, glowing moss appeared, along with deep green vines. The soil became a more perfect dark brown while the stone went from gray near the surface to almost black.

Eventually, squeezing through a gap, Tao landed on flat ground, where a small cave stretched for tens of meters.

Glowing bluish white rocks were embedded into the wall and a small underground river flower through one side of the cave.

At the center of the cave was a short, wide stone platform, covered in symbols.

A skeleton in ragged clothes, torn and dulled by insects and humidity, sat cross legged, its skull hanging low as it stared at a pristine book sitting in front of it.

“…” Tao looked on, slowly stepping towards the skeleton, as if drawn by an inexplicable force. His boots squelched loudly on the mossy ground, covered in a thin layer of cold water.

“Hmm… It seems like… A Deity Transformation expert’s corpse?” The old ghost examined the skeleton up close, floating away from Tao’s side.

“Died of… Exhausting their natural lifespan? Ten thousand years? Only… A few centuries ago…” The old ghost continued.

Tao stepped right in front of the corpse, half a step from the raised stone platform.

He cupped a fist in his hand and bowed.

The old ghost looked to the entrance where they had come from. “An earthquake must have opened up that crack, revealing this place to the world.”

Tao reached for the book, reading the title.

“Devouring Heaven Art.”

“An ominous title.” The old ghost floated back to Tao’s side, reading the book along with him as he flipped the pages.

Tao narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. “I don’t get it.” The first page, then the second and third. He could read the words, but he didn’t understand at all what they were trying to explain.

“Hmmm… It appears to be unsimplified.” The old ghost explained.

“Do you know what it says?”

“…” The old ghost didn’t respond, then he disappeared into Tao’s necklace.

“…” Tao’s eyes twitched. He looked at the skeleton, then gave one more salute and bow before turning. The old man may not have known how to make his own techniques or decipher unsimplified techniques, but he knew two people in the sect who could.

Tao crawled out of the ravine, poking his head outside.

The green boar was gone. He sighed in relief, before pulling himself out of the narrow trench, so small it became completely invisible in the waist high meadow after just a few feet.

 

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The sun began peeking over the horizon again.

Faust yawned.

He had been flying for nearly 24 hours without stopping— though he had certainly done worse to himself in the past.

Still, it was jarring as always to see the sun rising after having not slept. His body perked up by itself and his eyes regained some vigor, as if responding to the rise of the sun.

Looking out into the horizon though, Faust saw the provincial capital coming into view. The road below him was already packed with hundreds of carriages and countless more people trying to enter the city, with another crowd of people already beginning to stream out.

The forest dropped away in an instant, replaced by miles upon miles of farmland, as far as the eye could see. Slightly submerged rice fields filled the area, water flowing from massive stone channels that could only lead to the enormous Azure Water Lake that gave the province its name.

Faust also saw other people on flying swords, except instead of approaching the lower gate entrance at the wall, they all approached a floating wooden platform high in the sky.

Faust lowered his altitude a bit and slowed down. He kept looking down at the line of wagons and people. For as large as the provincial capital was, it seemed a bit excessive for the line to be spreading more than a few kilometers. He rubbed his chin in thought.

Soon, Faust came to land on the massive wooden platform. A large stone courtyard was laid on top, several desks lined one end, in front of which were a few lines of other cultivators. Some ornate wooden buildings with gold shingled roofs and two rows of stone soldiers surrounded the stone courtyard to the left and right.

Faust tried not to see through anyone since it was rude, but even with the clashing energies and Qi blurring the area, he could still see through people’s realm as if by second nature.

Most of the people here were at the late stage of Qi Refining, where short trips by flying sword became possible, with many more at the peak stage. The rest were all at various stages of Meridian Opening.

Faust picked a line at random and joined it. The Imperial scholars at the front were all at the peak of the Meridian Opening realm and their hands moved like lightning across the pages. He didn’t think it would make much difference.

For a while, the platform was silent. The scratching of quills on paper was still audible over the quiet whispers between some of the people gathered.

“Fellow daoists, does anyone know why the Man Gates are so crowded? I saw the line before I even saw the farms.” Someone whispered to no one in particular.

“The Ruby Demonic sect has been really active the last few months.” Someone responded.

“The Ruby Demonic sect? I thought the Clear Mirror sect dealt with them over a century ago?”

“I don’t know either, they’ve been out in force gathering sacrifices lately.”

“Did anyone else hear they even made an attack at the Clear Mirror Sect Recruitment?” A third person chimed in.

“Seriously!? They even attacked the sect?” A fourth person.

“Hey! There’s a Clear Mirror sect Inner Disciple over there.” One of the first two people pointed out.

Faust felt a few eyes turn to him and mulled it over. Since the sect was ultimately successful in repelling the attack with minimal casualties, it seemed fine to share a bit of news since it would probably travel this far soon anyways.

Faust cleared his throat and spoke. “There was an attack. I know the Inner Disciple who was the chief proctor even. But when he saw the outer sect disciples missing from the gathering he used a pupil technique and discovered the demons.” Faust began. Countless ears turned up at the whispered conversation.

“After that, they made a deal with the imperial Scribe there to handle registrations, then, while everyone was registering, them and the other proctors marked all the demonic cultivators. After sending everyone into the forest, they hunted down all the demonic cultivators and were able to prevent any casualties from them.” Faust finished telling the story, saying it was another Inner Disciple rather than himself.

“I see. Thank you fellow daoist!” A few people thanked Faust for sharing.

“So the attack was unsuccessful? I heard there was even a golden core demon there?”

“The chief proctor was paranoid and called for a core disciple as reinforcements.” Faust answered, participating in the little gossip that was going on while people waited their turn to enter the provincial capital.

Stolen story; please report.

“Don’t you know who I am!” someone suddenly shouted from the front of another line, their voice piercing the rather quiet atmosphere.

Faust, along with every single person on the platform, turned to the source of the commotion.

An old man with long white hair around the sides and a bald top was fuming while standing in front of a sweating Imperial Scribe, who adjusted their glasses. “I’m sorry sir, but according to this list, the Low Tide sect hasn’t paid its fee for city passes this year. You need to pay the entry fee or present a dedicated city pass.”

“I am an elder of the sect! I personally saw the fee being delivered! Yet you dare say our sect hasn’t paid its dues!” The old man smashed his fist against the desk, splintering its surface with a sharp crack.

“Sir… Please. I’m just an imperial scribe… I don’t have any authority over this matter.” The scribe fiddled with his glasses with one hand, while the other reached up with a cloth to wipe off the sweat.

Faust looked the old man over and exhaled in relief. He forgot that the standards of an elder changed from sect to sect. He hadn’t heard of the Low Tide sect, but he wasn’t surprised. If an Open Palace realm old man was an elder, they were probably a Golden Core level sect.

“Fellow Daoist. Please follow the Imperial Scribe’s instructions. Or I will be forced to intervene.” A voice echoed across the courtyard from one of the surrounding buildings.

Faust raised an eyebrow, he had read that Golden Core realm experts were stationed around Imperial City entrances, but this was his first time noticing their presence.

The Low Tide Sect elder shivered, gritting his teeth and slammed some coins on the desk.

Faust saw the few disciples in similar robes behind the elder and shook his head. It would have been less of a loss of face if he had just paid up earlier.

The old man took his disciples and walked past the imperial scribe, passing under a wooden gate and taking off on a flying sword again, into the city. The line continued in silence once more.

Faust reached the front.

“Faust from Fallen Petal Ridge. Inner Disciple of Clear Mirror sect.” Faust introduced himself and presented his sect token. The scribe briefly ran his hand across the token, checking it was real before withdrawing his hand and scribbling on a piece of parchment.

“The sect pays a tax for free entry for all its disciples so no fee will be required. Clear Mirror sect will also provide qi signatures if needed so that’s not required either… May I ask your purpose for entering the city?” The scribe seemed to go through a mental checklist, cross referencing a few other books and scrolls.

“To take a flying ship to the Imperial Capital.” Faust answered.

The scribe nodded. “Welcome to Azure Water city.” He welcomed, waving Faust through.

Faust cupped a fist in thanks before walking past, stepping up a few steps and passing under the simple seeming wooden gate before lightning atop his flying sword once more.

Massive pagodas, each filled with people stretched up into the air, tens of stories. The so-called sky pagodas.

Faust adjusted his flight, flying between them and joining the altitude where people were heading towards the city centre, with those heading out flying a bit higher.