The Laws of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2

Zu Ri moved rapidly through the grasslands. Qi burned through her pathways, dark shadows swiftly moving around her body as she made her way through the dark of the night. Scouting was near impossible with any form of scrying or anything else all around the area of Taizhou so ultimately she had to rely on going to the location physically.

The grass swayed gently as she moved like a whisper under the starry skies. The light of the moon was dim and the shadows it cast just a little longer in her vicinity. She moved silently, finding the world deathly still around her.

As the landscape changed, Zu Ri found herself slowing down, feeling her senses tricking her.

Was this some kind of mirage? An illusion?

She watched the village, as unremarkable as it always had been. Yet now, she could no longer feel any Qi inside it. It was as if the village was present in a different world entirely. One that she was not a part of.

To her surprise, Zu Ri was feeling nervous. From everything he had remembered of Lu Jie, he should have been an ordinary and unremarkable boy. But somehow he had beaten the twins in the trial, and gained strange abilities she had never seen before.

Zu Ri let her discipline clamp on her thoughts. Yet the closer she moved, the more her uncertainty grew.

There was something terribly wrong with this place, in a way she could not explain. Her shadow arts felt sluggish and slow, like things were moving through a blanket. A sensation tugged at her mind, the closer she moved, but Zu Ri could not place what it was.

Then she slipped across an invisible boundary, and the world around her changed.

A giant tree shimmered in her mind, towering high above this place. Its branches spread through the layers of the world itself, its spiritual energy pristine and divine. The tree rose, an imposing beacon of a new order and Zu Ri found herself stumbling to her knees at the sight.

How… How could this be? Her lips quivered, her mind long forgetting her purpose as she simply regarded the divine tree in her sight. The very Heavens had been carved out of this piece of land.

Zu Ri found herself trembling. Was... was she wrong about Lu Jie? Had she been misguided?

Perhaps the boy was not a demon, but a carrier of something even greater. Divine.

Her Master’s words echoed in her mind, orders she needed to obey. Zu Ri shook herself out of her stupor. No, no, she could not let herself be swayed so easily.

All of this could be an illusion, a trick the boy used to keep his true nature hidden. She would not be deceived this easily.

Using her will, Zu Ri resisted the draw of the Divine Tree, rejecting its influence over her. Clinging on to her strength, she melded back into the shadows, moving towards her target.

The darkness stirred, it was difficult here, her abilities were distant and faded things, and each movement took greater precision. But Zu Ri persisted, making her way through the village.

It did not take her long to find the boy. He slept in his room, unconscious and injured from whatever trial had struck him. Zu Ri took her time, as she moved around the house. There was a strange density of energy here, an energy she could not truly grasp. A spirit garden grew all around and she could spot spirit beasts within that garden, roaming freely.

The boy’s defenses were powerful, the array of beasts difficult to slip by. Letting her shadows swirl, she sent a pulse of Qi rustling within the forest. For a moment, the beasts stirred, looking at the direction she’d sent her pulse in and Zu Ri took her chance to slip past them.

But her challenges had not come to an end. A cultivator stood outside, guarding the chamber. He carried a spear in his arms. Zu Ri tried to move past the boy but his senses were sharp, while her own abilities felt weak here. Cursing to herself, she waited in the shadows for an opportunity when one suddenly presented itself.

Zu Ri's eyes widened briefly as she noted Yan Yun coming closer. Her young mistress wore much simpler clothes here, with no sign of Qi within her. The sight made her heart ache in pain, and she wished she could abandon her task and take Yan Yun back with her instead. But she couldn’t, she had a task, and she needed to see it through. Letting herself blend further in the shadows, Zu Ri waited patiently, overhearing the conversation.

“How is he?” Yan Yan asked.

“Still unconscious,” the boy replied, his expression grim.

“I know you’re worried. All of us are, but Granny Lang has checked him and she says he’s fine, just sleeping. You can’t run yourself sick with worry, Zhang,” Yan Yun said.

The boy- Zhang - didn’t reply. He stood, silently looking down at her, spear still clutched in his hand.

“You need to rest,” Yan Yun insisted.

“I can’t,” Zhang said.

Yan Yun looked up at the boy, putting her hands on her hips. “Don’t be stubborn. I’ll watch over him for a while, so stop whining and go sleep.”

The boy didn’t look convinced, but Yan Yun pushed at him. Even Zu Ri could tell it would be far from enough to physically budge the boy, but he eventually relented under her mistress’ insistence.

She took the chance to slip inside the chamber, melding in the shadows as she waited. Yan Yun walked in seconds later, closing the door behind her quietly as she let out a sigh. Yan Yun stepped closer, towards where Zu Ri was.

For a moment, she felt afraid. Afraid that her mistress knew of her presence. Of what she would think of her actions. But she walked past her without so much as a glance, taking a seat next to Lu Jie on the bed he lay upon.

Zu Ri watched Yan Yun sitting in silence, looking down at the sleeping boy with an expression she’d seen before. It was the same expression she saw on the faces of the servants’ children she played around with during her childhood. One of longing, and envy.

“I don't know how you take everything on in the way you do, Lu Jie. You always seem to know what to do, from the very day I first met you,” Yan Yun said, looking at Lu Jie as if she wanted him to wake up and answer her. She continued without pause.

“With everything that’s happening, I keep on remembering just how useless I am here. The only thing I had in life was my cultivation, and my name as a prodigy. A glorified trophy for my grandfather to show off to the world. And now I don’t even have that. What worth do I still have?”

The words pierced Zu Ri like a hundred knives, and she almost stepped out of the shadows to protest. It was only years of discipline that kept her where she was, as she continued to simply listen.

“The people I thought were my family... I no longer belong with them now. And even though this place has accepted me so easily, I just don’t feel like I belong. I feel like I’m lying to them. Lying to everyone and myself by pretending that I can just forget who I was, and pretend none of it was real. I can’t do that. I can’t- because it is my fault that grandfather is pushing this way. To him- to us, the lives of mortals were never something to account for. Not before now. And now, I see that they too are people, so similar to me. With aspirations and hopes and dreams. That we all live under a lie, where I exist only due to the thin and fickle luck that blessed me to be born to cultivators. And I can’t help but feel guilty,” Yan Yun said, her eyes watching Lu Jie intently. His breath flowed in evenly.

“I didn't have any friends, you know. Not before I met you. I had acquaintances, but they were people I knew because of my status. Not a single one has asked of me since I left,” Yan Yun said, as silence descended within the chamber.

“I guess… I did have one. Just one friend, who was there for me,” Yan Yun muttered a few moments later, as she wiped a tear off her eyes. “I wonder how Zu Ri is doing.”

Zu Ri waited in silence, not trusting herself to move. The minutes passed, and soon Yan Yun stood up, walking outside the chamber. She continued to wait in the shadows, the words of her mistress now swirling within her chest.

The blade in her hands now felt heavier than ever. And yet, she had an order to follow.

She stepped out of the shadows, drawing the blade as her hand ran over its edge. The boy slept peacefully, unaware of anything happening in the world.

She could do it now. Pierce his heart with poison and put an end to everything. Perhaps her mistress would hate her forever because of it, but she would be free of this boy’s grasp. Of this… this demon who had lured her in away from her.

Zu Ri raised her blade, her mind set.

But the weapon never descended.

She tried, she tried over and over, yet her arms refused to budge. Was she truly doing what was best for Yan Yun? Should her mistress really return to the sect?

The thought felt like blasphemy and her Shadow’s oath burned in her mind, telling her how close she was to going against her master’s will.

Slowly, Zu Ri lowered her blade. Her master had asked her to kill the demon, but perhaps, if he was not a demon in truth, then maybe there was a possibility of a truce. An alliance, or settlement.

Zu Ri looked down at the sleeping boy once more, feeling the conflicting emotions cutting through her heart.

Silently, she stepped back into the shadows behind her.

For now, she would just watch.