Li Fang awakened with a start, sharp pain radiating from his lower back, his head felt heavy. Rubbing his temple, he pried open his eyes. His face slackened with shock as he looked at his surroundings, he was in what appeared to be a cave, water slowly dripping from the cold walls.
He shivered as he stood from the damp hard ground, stumbling from dizziness. Last Li Fang remembered he fell asleep on the floor of the inn, a deep dreamless sleep. But now he was in a dark cave, he took a measured step towards the mouth of the cave. A light flickering in the darkness, as he stepped out, a warm heat radiated towards him, near a burning flame, sat Jian with his back towards Li Fang.
"Ah, you're finally awake" Jian glanced towards the boy, sparring him a simple look, while continuing to poke the flames, making them crackle.
" It's been two days since you've been asleep, I was starting to wonder if you would ever wake up." Jian stated nonchalantly. Li Fang, who was walking towards the fire, stopped and looked towards Jian in shock.
"I've been asleep for two days?" Li Fang sat heavily on the ground staring blankly at the dancing fire, wondering how it was possible for him to sleep that long.
Jian continued to poke at the flames, with no emotions in his eyes, he began to tell the boy all that had transpired in the last two days. Li Fang continued to stare at the flames, understanding in his young mind that Jian was the cause of him sleeping for so long, but he was not angry he knew that this man did not owe him anything, and the world was filled with people that only cared about their own interest, he was just happy that he hadn't ended up in an eternal sleep.
Living on the streets for the last year had taught Li Fang, who had been a young master and did not know about hardship, that in life you only had yourself to depend on. He was at least glad that Jian had waited for him to wake up and hadn't left him, while taking the book.
" What should we do, now the ship is sailing at dawn which is only a few hours away." Li Fang glanced at Jian, who had stopped poking the flames and was now resting on a blanket with his eyes closed.
"The plan is still the same, we will just have to leave with no prior information." Jian said while keeping his eyes closed.
"Once we get on the ship, then we can find people to fill us in, it is not like I have just been waiting around for you to wake up." Jian opened his eye with a mischievous grin on his face as he bounced a bag, which seemed to contain a large amount of coins from how fat it looked.
Li Fang nodded his head, in the three months traveling with Jian, he found that this Big brother had sticky fingers and was able to swipe bags of coins from unsuspecting targets.
At dawn they made their way towards the pier, moving along the just awakening village, as vendors set up shop. As they walked the scent of fish and musk penetrated the air, Jian wrinkled his nose and moved faster towards the ship that would carry them for a full two months before they were able to get back on land.
He made sure to fill his bag with bread and other snacks to eat through the journey, even though he found that his body did not need the nourishment of food, he still enjoyed the taste.
They were able to find the ship quickly as it was the only form of transportation across the vast body of water a line of people was already forming.
Chatter grew louder, the closer they got to the people waiting in line. Some were laughing loudly, disturbing the peace of the early morning, while standing silently glaring at the conversing people, waiting for the boarding process to start.
A short stocky man silences the laughing people with a clap of his hand.
" Ya' we shall strat' letting yow lot in, when ah' sun reaches the surface of the lake." The man's accent was thick and hard to understand, he carried on.
" 30 silver coins per ah' persone." The man said as he turned back to the ship not paying attention to the disgruntled grumbles of the crowd.
" The price went up again by another 5 coins, things must've gotten worse as the war continues." An older man stated, he had the highest number of people, his merchant group were carrying valuables to aid in the current battle.
Jian, who was sitting on a rock, listened intently, to the information, he already knew the price had gone up. While Li Fang slept he spent his time gathering basic information and supplies for the trip. Not many had current news on the situation in the north country, but old news was still better than no news.
" When we get in, you will ask around and see if you can find any current information on your family and the state of Yin Country" Jian spoke to Li Fang who was standing quietly by his side.
Li Fang nodded and began to gather their belongings as the ship had begun letting passengers in.
The ship was large and sturdy, but the accommodations were simple and bare. They got lucky enough that they did not need to share the space with anyone else. Li Fang placed their belongings in an empty barrel, in case of anyone coming in unannounced during their sleep.
Jian glanced around the small space and single straw mat hanging from the wall. He turned towards Li Fang.
" Make sure to gather information, I will not be sleeping. I can feel the next level is near, I will be cultivating for at least five days, when you leave make sure the door is closed and locked." Jian told the boy as he sat cross legged on the ground, he already put a barrier around the door, if anyone tried coming in he would be alerted.
Li Fang nodded his head, during their travels Jian has spent time cultivating. Li Fang found the experiences fascinating. When Jian would begin gathering soul force tiny silver particles would gather around him and be sucked into his exposed skin.
Li Fang had tried reading the book once and found he couldn't understand the information in the pages. But, he had basic knowledge on what the purpose of cultivating was, his father had taught him, as he had wanted him to begin cultivating in the future as well.
The purpose of cultivating is to strengthen your soul force, the stronger your core was the more amazing your abilities became. The small particles that were taken into the skin would travel to the dan in the center of the stomach and be turned into mana.
Li Fang did not understand where the silver particles came from, since the only person he had witnessed cultivating was Jian. But something he had noticed as he watched Jian cultivate during their time together. There were times when the silver particles were not the only ones drawn towards the older boy, but also small black specks would gather around him in circles and would be drawn towards the center of Jian's forehead.
Li Fang had been shocked when he noticed this, and had mentioned it to Jian, who had shown deep interest in this change, but was even more excited to continue cultivating.
Li Fang also wanted to become stronger, he felt powerless and weak to have to rely on someone else. But he knew he had no other choice, which is why he didn't put up a fight with Jian utilizing the sacred family book.
Jian was in deep concentration as he felt energy slowly start to fill his soul core, he could feel the next level of ascension near. If he had to guess, he felt that he had barely reached the highest level, from his sub conscious knowledge it seemed he only had 3 drops of water in his core and the next drop was in reach.
The book had helped him reach each level faster, but the speed of his progression had reduced, he knew he needed the next volume if he wanted to continue getting stronger. Ever since the night he had awoken from the restless sleep, he felt a sense of anxiety deep inside telling him to hurry and get stronger, but he did not understand where this feeling stemmed from and it was beginning to annoy him, not knowing was becoming an issue .
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Soft almost eerie lights flickered in the darkness of the forest, as a lone figure slowly made its way into an open field. The figure paused, and looked up towards the full glowing orb of the moon, a slight sweet scent moving through their form as they reached their white almost translucent hands toward the moon, wanting to hold it between their fingers. The figure slowly brought their hand back down, shimmering orbs swirling around the tall lean shape as it continued towards the darkness of the forest, until the shape was swallowed, leaving behind a faint sweet scent.