Despite reaching the bottleneck many, many years ago, although General Ramas faced the reality of being mortal, it could not be said that he had completely given up; he would still meditate for a couple of hours after the midday meal before moving to the training grounds to temper his body. Admittedly, the mediation had not increased, but the amount of time in physical training had as the years caught up with him.
After Sun returned to school, one of his servants, a sly little man with half an eye on a more senior position than he currently held which was that of second-class, approached one of the General's most trusted men with a gift and some information.
Just to clarify, there was hierarchy amongst servants within and without houses of the wealthy and elite. For example; a servant of a merchant house cannot compare to that of a noble house, while the servant of royalty can look down on most others. Obviously this a very shallow viewpoint. While a first class servant who serves in a merchant house might have to bow down to a second class servant of a royal household, very few respect servants cleaning out latrine pots!
Those bottom of the rung servants, who did the hardest and heaviest duties such as scrubbing clean the unseen areas, transporting water and doing laundry and gardening not requiring skilful hands were generally underpaid and unsung, only mentioned in passing. But the though the work was hard, in the right household, the money was still not bad and did not require skill, looks and etiquette.
Second class servants were more skilled than the third class, might be asked to take care of certain courtyards, cook in the kitchens or sent to fetch things outside. It could not be said their work was light, but it was not generally as physically intense as that of the lowest class. Also, second class servants were at most plain of face, not allowed to be ugly.
The same could be said of first-class servants, but most likely, the maids would be pretty and the servants would look almost as noble as their masters. They were their master's hands, eyes and voice. They served the masters directly and not only were paid better than second class servants, but were more often rewarded. Thus if a second class servant could rise above their station, they certainly would attempt to catch a master's eye. That said, it generally wasn't that easy.
Sun's second class servant knew this as well, he was not trained to be much by the middlemen who sold his contract to this household, nor was he born here and thus did not have the inner connections. Sun's two personal servants were very much trusted by the young master and would likely gain engagements with two household maids in the future either after Sun had wed or if Sun's father arranged such himself. Even while the youth was away, the pair were trusted to assist Sun's father and older brother while keeping a sharp eye over Sun's courtyard and every person within it. So the sky little man had to find another path.
This came through a small pot that Sun had left behind.
As someone who had served Sun for more than half a decade, the servant knew a little about the pills and potions Sun took for cultivation; the clear spiritual pills and the Light Chi elixir for his baths. However, when he was preparing the baths this winter, he was told that the young master did not want to bathe in the Light Chi elixir, but a different bath potion instead. The smell was a little feminine for his taste, but he could only obey orders.
He bowed in greeting as Sun entered with his personal servant before vacating the room. As he was leaving, he happened to hear the young Master exclaim with a slight chuckle as he entered the waters; "Don't wrinkle your nose! I'll have you know that this is much more comfortable than the other elixir!"
The small pot that the young master happened to leave behind was that same flowery bath potion. In fact, Sun himself hadn't realised it was missing until he reached his dorm and had to lament as Leon would be unable to make more until the summer!
The sly servant took the small pot to a first class servant of the General carefully mentioning that the young Master had used such with the heavy statement of it being better than the usual herbal bath salts, yet evading just where he'd picked up the potion, letting the other servant believe he had purchased it as a gift for the General. The first class servant was not unaccustomed to servants attempting to bribe him on behalf of the General, usually he happened to send them away, but the General had shown renewed interest and spoke enthusiastically about that grandson. So the first class servant accepted the gift, thinking the General would be interested.
The old man was indeed interested, though that rapidly waned due to the floral, feminine scent of his evening bath waters. Still, he feigned his approval, wanting to wash now and not willing to wait for clean water and began to bathe, unwittingly slipping into meditation in the hot waters. Although the cold water roused him, sometime later, he felt the urge to continue, so after dressing in bed clothes, began to meditated once more upon a bamboo couch.
The following morning, his first class servant began to panic; he could not rouse the General from his meditation! In the past, the servant would approach after a sichen, and the General would immediately open his eyes, but the General, who never usually meditated overnight, did not awaken this time! The servant was not a Cultivator, did not know what to do, but the General had always told him not to disturb a meditating man, so he could only find the old Madam.
Old Madam Ramas, Sun's paternal Grandmother, decided to send for a physician that happened to understand Cultivation matters and that man had quickly ushered everyone out of General Ramas' room and courtyard after taking his pulse once. He even went so far to encourage Lady Ramas to move out of her neighbouring courtyard. He explained that the General was attempting to breach a crucial bottleneck in his cultivation and that the consequences of such could definitely be detrimental to other Cultivators not to mention mortals!
Lady Ramas moved to a more distant courtyard and just in time for explosive lightning suddenly struck down in the location of her old home causing much damage in the process. The General, however, bared the tribulation despite his advanced age and formed his much longed for core. The man was extremely overjoyed! He had to discover the source of the bath salts his servant used this time.
This was also the time that the second-class servant realised that his idea was full of loopholes and that the General did not like those who misappropriated from his family and claimed credit. That servant was not thanked and he was sold out.
The long and the short of this episode was that the General had a breakthrough and wished to reward the one responsible. Except his stinky grandson hadn't thought to share this miracle potion, which helped draw him into trouble-free meditation and loosen certain stubborn impurities within his body, although the child did admit that this was created by young Leon.
The General already had a good impression of this boy and his investigations had revealed that the young alchemist was filial to his old grandfather, further increasing the soft spot growing for him. So why not recognise him as an adopted grandchild? Adopting clever children was not a new thing and that adoption did not mean necessarily giving up old family ties, just offered new ones. Leon would gain the same connections and opportunities as his blood related grandsons and he would have another child to boast about, another child to bring glory to his name, sharing that which was also old Leonard's.
The more that he thought about it, the more that he liked it, so he decided to come to the Interschool Exchange that Sun had mentioned young Leon would be a part of competitively and support him. Checking out the school and spending time with his actual grandson was just a bonus.
The General led his two grandsons and granddaughter towards the central arena, where large reflective mirrors were elevated to show random five minute scenes involving the sixty teams currently battling to survive and compete within the other Realm. He did not notice the girl wrinkling her nose, unhappily.
When Carmen had heard about the General's idea to come to the Institute from her grandmother as the older woman conversed with her close friend, she knew she had to tag along. At first, her grandmother would not hear of it, so she had begged, pleaded stating that she just wanted to see the school where her 'dear brother' was attending. In the end she resorted to 'being so upset as to have no appetite', softening her grandmother's will, while secretly eating at midnight. It had been quite tough.
The older woman had eventually conceded, her grandfather was hesitant, but allowed it under his wife's cajoling. He was not as blindsided as his wife, however and understood that Carmen had alternative motives. He thought that perhaps the little girl needed to witness several realities before she understood that Jin Li was not for her. Even if he wasn't so indifferent to the girl, General Ramas doubted that the youth would choose to chain himself to one less than equal to himself in potential. Much like Leon's mysterious father, he would share a time with her then leave her behind, alone. General Ramas would not tolerate such a husband either.
Unfortunately, he did not realise the stubborn, single minded determination of his granddaughter.
Within the stadium, the cool, large mirrors, which hung together to create a decahedron floating in the arena's centre, offered images that were not reflections. For five minutes, the audience filling the ascending seats circling the arena, could witness scenes from the other Realm and the team's involved in the challenge. As the sun reached a slightly higher point, this would change; the scenes would mostly focus upon the twenty teams led by the top Martial Artists in the Institute, each favoured with quarter of a shìchèn time before the images altered once more. After the audience had the chance to witness the achievements of all twenty teams, the mirrors would once more shuffle through the other forty, thus those supporting their scattered friends within other teams could see a little of their progress as well.
And so, considering the first mirror facing north was dedicated to Ari's team and as well as the eleventh placing person, Culven's team, then the sixth mirror counting left was for Pike for at least half an hour and Bowyer one more left next to his. This suited Sun, who felt he could support both his seniors this way. And Leon of course.
Currently on that sixth mirror flickered a darkened scene, with brightness appearing in one location. When one focused intently, one could hear sounds emanating from the mirror as part of the spell's magic. Right now, Sun could hear the heavy rush of water.
A small Mage globe appeared as if taken from inside a bag or clothing and a cool light filled the space, reflecting the damp rocks entwined with moss and algae. It also revealed two very weary, very wet bodies and a third less tired but equally as damp person. This person happened to be Troy, the other two were Leon and Roman. As Caelus, Velana and her fox appeared from the larger light source, Leon tried in vain to wring the water from his heavy robes. Pike appeared in the frame a few seconds later.
"Let's rest here for today." Everyone heartily agreed with his words.
*****
Despite the initial flush of success that the team had experienced upon the first day, things had not been progressing so well following the forced abandonment of their first camp. They had hoped to follow the line of the shore, keeping reasonably close to the source of water while within the dubious shelter of the trees. Only, the undergrowth of shrubs, vines and tall grasses had thickened as they walked, forcing them to take a trail more in land.
Walking along the outskirts of the thickening growth had also them accidentally step into the territory of a dense nest of nibblets. These pests were not dangerous individually nor could they be considered much in small groups, but just as Earthlings would be wary of poking a wasp nest, Cultivators and mortals would evade disturbing a nibblet nest. The hairless, winged rodents all quickly grabbed sharp pebbles and thorny twigs to abuse them with, hundreds surrounding each Cultivator.
Pike had surrounded his hand axes in flames to help repel the pests, while Troy relied on his abilities twisting shadows to temporarily blind the nibblets while striking them down with his knives, protecting Caelus, who was chanting a spell beneath his breath. Velana had not caught up, thus there was less of a wall protecting the more powerless Roman and Leon and more gaps through which the persistent nibblets could slip through and attack them. Though the wounds were no more than bruises and scratches, none of them remained completely unscathed as they backed away, releasing abilities and spells upon the nibblets. Many small bodies littered the ground before the main nest decided to retreat.
Velana caught up with them to witness them checking over Roman, whose tall person had definitely been the target of the worst of it. Leon decided to give him a One Heart Pill to consume before they carried onwards. The dead nibblets were not really worth anything as either trophies or materials, so were left behind for scavengers.
This misadventure had given Leon pause for thought. Most pills were intended to support others, but there were also poisons and Trick pills that alchemists could use to protect themselves, such as those that the new Teacher Jian had lectured about. It was just that, apart from attending the one lecture, Leon had yet to give these things much thought, to busy making pills to sell and for this competition. Now he kind of wished that he'd paid more attention to Teacher Jian's lectures, at least long enough to create something perhaps like a smoke bomb he'd witnessed in the movies once or twice.
But hindsight was a wonderful thing, just not a useful one as proven when Leon fell down a natural pit caused by dry clay earth and the rotted roots of a large dead tree. Troy easily rescued him, but otherwise Leon had nothing to show for it but a twisted ankle. As the suns were beginning their long descent, Pike felt it was becoming more urgent to find a place to camp, so Leon was carried on the back of Roman rather than waste time searching his interspatial bag for a Blood Pill at this time. Fortunately for Roman, whose physique was not great, Leon was not heavy.
Their camp was not as secure nor hidden as the night before. Roman set up temporary talismans, Pike created a rota that everyone had to participate in. Sleep was interrupted during the second watch with an attack of a skinny and very hungry Spiked Boar, who fought desperately. It was no match for Pike, who defeated it easily and then claimed its horns. However, there was no meat on its bones and it was also carrying disease from an infected wound, so it was buried some distance away. Sleep came uneasily after that.
The following days were just as filled with minor obstacles, not enough to be dangerously hindering, but enough to cause weariness to seep into muscles and bones. Naturally Roman and Leon were the first to be affected. And just when things could not seem much worse, the silver clouds that had formed over these days had come together and darkened to a steely grey then had shed their contents upon the ground below. It was persistent and unceasing to the point where even their water resistant cloaks could not shelter them from it and Caelus had to stop deflecting it with his spells or suffer from draining his innersea too much.
Just yesterday evening, in this rain, they had managed to find their way back to the lake and had come to realise just how lazy the map maker of this floating island had been. This part of the 'lake' was more like a river, rapid and violent and several ten-chi wide and was fed by a tall and thunderous waterfall. Thanks to the darkening sky, they couldn't explore nor wait to find a decent place to camp, could only miserably make shelter under a tree with wide leaves and huddle together. Leon found it wasn't true that a fat man was warm like a wide heated stove. Thanks to Caelus' preference for ice magic, his body leaned to being quite cool.
Having had little sleep, the team's moral was lacking, Pike knew it wasn't wise to push them too much at the moment, despite their lagging progress, so he waited until the sun rose before discussing plans around a feeble fire. The rains had yet to cease so the heat, while welcome, did not do much to dry their already damp clothes. It was fortunate that Cultivators tended to be slightly hardier than mortals or they likely would have fallen ill by now. Leon was particularly weak against the cold and was currently nestling against the thick fur of the tri-coloured fox, despite the fur smelling similar to that of a wet dog. Velana was on it's other side, brushing the half dry mud from its tails.
Pike still felt it would be best to find a more permanent camp so that they might rest well for at least a day and it was Caelus that happened to jokingly mention the cliché idea that waterfalls often hid caverns behind them. As it happened, this time he was actually correct.
Author’s note; shìchèn is two hours, so a quarter is 30 minutes. Chi (I don’t have the correct symbol for the ‘i’ on my keyboard) is roughly just over a foot, depending on era. So let’s assume 12inches in this realm for simplicity sake.
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GOT IT