Chapter 10: Cookware (4)

Chapter 10: Cookware (4)

Muchen forced himself through the second half of the practice session. He might not be advancing his cultivation by leaps and bounds, but he was already reaping some benefits of practice. While he was sore, tired, and fuzzy-headed, his body still moved into an appropriate attacking stance, and even his spiritual energy was moving more or less correctly as he lashed out with the knife.

That wasn't to say that he was doing everything perfectly. Far from it. He still got more corrective swats with the willow branch than grudging nods of approval. The ratio did seem to be tilting more in his favor compared to the previous day, at least.

He didn't know whether that improvement would mean anything in a life or death battle. He could fight better than before, of course, but as a capable merchant he'd never planned to fight at all. He had a feeling he was still a ways off from the day when fighting would offer a better chance of survival than just handing over his goods and throwing himself on the mercy of any robbers who confronted him.

He knew better than to mention that line of reasoning to Xinyi. Especially when he was in the middle of what were supposed to be simple, mindless repetition of the same task until it became instinctual.

With twice as many things to practice, Muchen was dog tired when Xinyi finally called an end to the practice and released him to his evening meditation. He jolted awake, though, when he felt a connection, deep in his soul. The missing piece from his cultivation over the last few days had just been filled in. He didn't think twice before giving the connection a mental tug, intent on seeing where it would go.

His inner field of vision shifted. Before, he had been visualizing the flow of spiritual energy through his meridians. Now, he could see himself, sitting in a clearing. A silver thread stretched off along the road he had traveled. He barely had time to finish taking in the scene before his spiritual self shifted in a blur of motion.

When he could see clearly once more, he found himself floating behind a woman hard at work in the kitchen. When she turned around he recognized his second customer of the day. She was standing in front of a cooking fire, holding the brand new iron pot that he had sold to her. A silver line stretched out from the pot back the way that he came, while another line connected to the woman.

A third, more ephemeral line, stretched off in a direction ninety degrees off from reality. Muchen squinted at it, trying to puzzle out what it meant. He got a feeling of utility, the use of an object over time, before his head started to hurt and he was forced to divert his attention away.

He focused back on the original silver line. Another blur of motion saw him floating back in the original clearing once more.

If he could see the connection to his customers that represented the mutual benefit that they had provided to each other, then he ought to be able to see the connection in the other direction as well. It took some doing, and even his disembodied self was starting to feel a headache when there was a sudden shift and another silver line appeared. This one stretched out from Muchen back all the way to Heshan Town. Focusing on it, he had a vague impression of a blacksmith hard at work at the forge.

Out beyond that should be the miners who dug up the ore. Maybe even the merchants where the blacksmith had spent the coin he'd received for the purchase.

Before Muchen could go exploring, he felt an uncomfortable sensation of fullness, like he had gorged himself on a meal and his body was desperate to get rid of the excess one way or another. He shifted his focus and let his spiritual self settle back into his physical body.

He opened his eyes and hissed in shock. That wall blocking him off from the next step of his cultivation was no longer off in the distance. He was flush up against it and part of his spirit was trying to crash through whether he wanted it to or not.

He looked around for his sometimes mentor and found Xinyi was already looking at him with a sense of pride.

"Look at that!" she said. "I told you those exercises would get your spiritual energy growing."

"It hurts," Muchen said, grunting the words through gritted teeth.

"Obviously you can't just build up energy forever," Xinyi said. "Use it to clear out the next meridian and you'll be fine."

Muchen stared at her. Xinyi stared back for a moment, before hitting her forehead with her palm. "Right, right, you had that weird breakthrough before."

She walked across the clearing and sat down in front of him. "Listen to me and do exactly what I say and you'll survive for sure."

At least she was trying to be reassuring. Muchen pushed his doubts aside, did his best to ignore the pain, and focused.

Any lingering good feelings vanished instantly when Xinyi woke him in the middle of the night. Perhaps technically the early morning, judging by the subtle lightening of the horizon.

"Wolves have surrounded the camp," Xinyi said. She sounded more excited than scared.

Muchen blinked, still in the process of waking up. The moonlight shining off of Xinyi's face gave the whole situation a dreamlike feeling. Part of him wanted to close his eyes and just wait for the danger to pass. "Should we..."

"Time to try out your training," Xinyi said. "Grab your knife and get to work!"

Muchen grunted. Well, it had been nice freeloading on Xinyi's protection for so long. After spending so much time swinging his knife around in training he was a little eager to see what he could do in a real fight.

He pulled himself to his feet, hissing as he emerged from the blankets into the cold air. The dreamlike feeling gave way to a sense of nervous anticipation as he took his knife in hand and peered out into the gloom.

Their campfire had long since gone out. The moon was three quarters full and it was a clear night, so there was some light to see by. Not as much as he would have liked. It took a moment before he spotted a furry shape, gray on black, moving in the shadows.

"How many of them are there?" he asked. He swept his gaze back and forth, trying to take in the forest all around him, but still only spotted the one wolf.

"You'll know in a minute," Xinyi replied. She had moved away from their sleeping area and was now perched on the back of the mule cart. She was resting her chin in her hand, one elbow braced comfortably against her leg.

Muchen took a deep breath. He could do this. He'd been training hard for the last three weeks, and before that his body had already been toughened up by a lifetime of physical labor. He was ready for this.

Probably. Maybe.

The clearing that they'd camped out in wasn't large. Perhaps twenty or thirty paces across. The cart rested at one end, with Huichen tied up nearby. Even if Xinyi wasn't going to jump into the fray, Muchen figured he could at least rule out attacks from that direction.

That still left quite a lot of ground to cover.

He took a few steps forward, his eyes scanning the surrounding trees. He saw another flicker of motion. Another wolf? Or maybe the same one. Or maybe a trick of the light. His grip on the hilt of his knife was so tight it was starting to hurt.

An eerie howl rang out from the woods, off to his right. Muchen felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He started to turn in that direction, until he saw a shadow moving off to his left.

He spun back just in time to get a good look at the wolf as it burst out of the woods. It was big, standing about half his height. Quick, too. He barely had time to take in its silver and black fur or to spot the snarl on its face before it bounded to within arm's reach.

He took a step forward, lashing out with his knife. Thousands and thousands of practice swings guided his hand in sync with the movement of his spiritual energy. The air screamed as the blade sliced down. He caught the wolf at an angle near his shoulder, the blade severing half its neck before coming free in a spray of blood.

The wolf's snarl turned to a pained yelp that ended in a wet gurgle. It tumbled to the ground, its front legs going out from under it. Muchen shifted to the side and barely avoided being taken down in a tangle of limbs.

He lifted his knife in front of him in a ready position, a savage grin stretching his lips. For the first time, he'd taken on an opponent in mortal combat. He'd taken risks before, but this was the first time he'd come face to face with a foe that was ready and willing to kill him. Most importantly, he'd one! He hadn't had to rely on anybody else. Just the strength of his own arm had been enough to lay his enemy low.

In front of him, two shadows came gliding out of the woods together.