Chương 127: Days of Madness - Sanctuary?
"We have to rest here for a few days," Dàilán told her impromptu council the next morning as they moved slowly around the giant clearing, taking stock of the situation as the refugees awoke from their temporary sleeping arrangements and started putting up a proper camp.
There were sighs of relief from all around her as the others nodded their head in agreement. The Healer replied frankly, "I was going to insist on stopping if you had ordered us to continue - after yesterday…"
"As much as I initially was concerned with us moving away from observation or any groups wishing to capitalise on our vulnerability, I now believe that is no longer an issue," confessed Dàilán, "I - was - told this location was only intended as a temporary respite location; but it has formations to match all but the most powerful Clans and Sects."
"Given that the Formations are literally natural parts of the landscape, I wager they might be as much as several times more effective than our own traditional Formations of equivalent strength," added Monitor Leng, looking much improved after a night's sleep, "if it was not for the odd atmosphere, I would be happy to stay here for years just to study them."
The young Cultivator looked around himself, his expression of faint unease underscoring his words. The others all made noises of agreement and understanding and Dàilán found herself grimacing in her own agreement as her attention was once again redirected to her surroundings.
"I - was - trying to focus on our discussion rather than how uncomfortable this place feels," she remarked dryly, "thank you so much for fixing that."
The group broke into laughter, but it was strained and choppy, quickly swallowed up by the stillness and hush that seemed to pervade the clearing. The other members of the group moved around the area setting up the camp, but talking and laughter were kept to low tones with Cultivators frequently looking upward and around themselves uneasily as if afraid to disturb something slumbering around them, despite the cheerful twittering and singing of various birds and energetic calls of other wildlife.
"This is… foolish," the Guan Clan Leader, Dàilán's Father pointed out firmly, "while this forest is old and wild, we were invited to rest here and it has been clearly been adjusted for our benefit," he gestured at the abundant Essence fruit and the pools of water scattered among the great root systems at the base of each mammoth trunk that made up the five yǐn circumference of the clearing, "unless you can say with a straight face that all this water, food and these Cultivation resources all happen to be present here by happenstance."
The BloodWitch who had been looking around darkly, one hand on the hilt on the oversized slab of metal she called a sword snorted inelegantly, "The things we lack least are Cultivation Resources. In the past two days we have harvested enough Essence stones, Essence Beast components and Essence herbs and Plants to match your old Clan's resources at its peak, brat," she turned around and walked backwards, talking to the Guan Clan Leader as if he was the only one present, "some of the stuff we have had to harvest just to make sure we would not have Essence Wraiths coming after us, would have had Sect Elders battling over them."
"So odd to think that all that wealth is useless now," commented another of the older Cultivators - older being relative, since other than Dàilán's Father and a few of the Sect members like the BloodWitch, everyone else was in their first half century or younger.
"Well, not exactly useless," disagreed another woman, "the reason those items are prized in the first places is that with the right skills, they can be used to craft Essence Artifacts, Pills, Weapons, Armour, Formations… and since the majority of us who were bade to escape on orders from the Matriarch carried out the Clan's manuals with them in addition to being at least Apprentice Masters, we can start crafting items from the raw materials if we have a week or so."
"We should be able to spare a week, I think," Dàilán agreed quietly, "although we should make sure we are able to leave within a breath of time," She looked around at the clearing that was only dimly lit by the crowlight that managed to reach down this far, despite the morning being well advanced, "I worry about what is ahead of us if this is only the second of six sanctuaries."
"Agreed," declared her Father, "on that note, since we are planning to stay a while, Daughter, you are a day overdue for your weekly Heir training."
Dàilán was not sure of the expression on her face, but given the number of outright laughs that came out of the others around her, it must have been amusing. Within a breath almost all of the other Cultivators had dispersed towards the rest of the camp going in different directions, leaving her standing near the treeline with her Father, the BloodWitch, Monitor Leng and Chénli.
"Under the circumstances, I will be joining you," the BloodWitch announced crisply, "there is much to discuss."
"I will also join your discussion," Chénli added her voice, holding up a hand as both of the older Cultivators turned to her, disagreement clear on their faces, "in this I am acting as Head Guard, not friend or bodyguard. There are a number of duties that I have been unable to carry out to this point due to our situation - now that we have space to breathe, it is best they are carried out."
The BloodWitch reared back as if physically struck, but Dàilán saw shock and relief in her expression rather than anger or disagreement, "agreed, Head Guard," she answered a moment later, her voice almost soft with something that Dàilán would have almost labeled relief if it was not so uncharacteristic of the normally seemingly brutal woman.
"Thank you, Senior," replied Chénli, turning to regard the Guan Clan Head firmly, "as part of my duties I need to be able to protect and advise the Sect Leader - I cannot do that if I am not aware of the information involved."
She paused and turned to the only other individual that had not left with the others, "Monitor Leng, I would ask you to meet with the Sect Leader and myself separately after this meeting is completed."
The Monitor bowed smoothly, "as you command, Head Guard." The other Cultivator turned and moved off in another direction.
"Ah - I take it your discussion will involve Sect secrets, then," Dàilán's Father rumbled out, nodding in understanding.
"Wait," Dàilán held up a hand, "continuing to separate our group between the Knife Sect and Guan Clan makes no sense at this point. We must accept the reality that at this point we are the start of a new Sect."
Both the BloodWitch and Chénli frowned. Dàilán looked over at her father and saw that he was regarding her with a thoughtful expression on his face, "In theory," he replied slowly after a breath, "that makes sense. In practice," he ran his fingers through the scruffy beard that had begun to show after so long away from easy access to Essence grooming tools, "that means you would have to take leadership of the Clan officially."
Dàilán flinched, "that is not my meaning, Clan Leader. For one thing - I have too many things on my plate to concern myself with yet another responsibility. For another, I am too inexperienced - even if our new group is a fraction of the size we are now. I depend on all of you to keep things going - especially the experienced leaders such as yourself and Senior here. I was merely saying that we need to work as a single group rather than maintaining artificial divisions - like Knife Secrets versus Guan Secrets - that are a liability now rather than an asset. Keeping things secret in this situation is liable to make all of us dead."
"True," agreed her father after a moment, "a foolish reflex response I suppose, but the fact remains - if we are going to be a single group someone has to make the final decisions. You have been doing remarkably well with that, all things considered."
"Only with you and the other Seniors working like demons to keep everyone moving in the same direction behind me," Dàilán pointed out wryly, "something which is deeply appreciated."
"As Head Guard, I approve of this course," interjected Chénli suddenly, "everyone in this group is more like a Knife than the old Guan Clan anyway - and if we are to successfully return down the Yellow River to drag our enemies down with us, then we have to be more than both groups anyway. If it is the Sect Leader's order, I will discuss those secrets that may assist that return."
"Does that make us shuǐ guǐ, then?" The BloodWitch gave one of her trademark eerie cackles and rubbed her hands together gleefully, "I like the sound of that."
Dàilán's Father looked taken aback, "if we want all the Orthodox Sects to come after us once we announce ourselves, we can call ourselves that." He flicked a small grin at the BloodWitch, "nice to see you laugh again Senior, I was starting to worry."
Chénli laughed, "We - are - almost entirely women - perhaps nǚ guǐ would be more appropriate?"
The BloodWitch and Dàilán both made faces, "I am not planning to marry anyone, thank you," grumbled the BloodWitch, even as Dàilán frowned and spoke slowly, "Chén'er has a point... unfortunately. Most Sects have some form of recruitment system in place to maintain and grow their forces - we cannot afford to do that without being - very - careful who we bring in. Our members will have to choose people who prove themselves trustworthy in the future, if we want our group to survive past the current generation."
"You are thinking of the Sage?" questioned her friend, "a lot of Cultivators do not bother with Dao Partners - betrayals can cause worse issues than the dangers of regular recruitment."
"It is something we will need to address at some point in the future," agreed the young leader, "well - if we are going to work on bringing the group's leadership together then the Healer and the Monitor need to be here - cannot properly plan without our intelligence and health involved," interrupted the BloodWitch briskly, "find yourselves a little more comfortable to sit and meet, while I go and get them," she vanished with a blur of movement as the last word was uttered.
"I think you made Senior uncomfortable," Dàilán's Father joked after a moment, "I am most surprised to hear you speaking of such things after your opposition to the previous plans for your own marriage."
"As long as it is up to the people in question I do not see a problem - it is stupid to force Cultivators with power over the world itself to do stuff they do not want anyway - in the end it always backfires," answered Dàilán, "eventually, some of our group will meet will meet Cultivators they wish to partner with. We try to control that, we will regret that eventually."
Her father grunted assent, looking uncomfortable and Chénli snickered quietly, "Let us find a place we can have a quiet discussion while still keeping an eye on the camp - perhaps up in one of the Sentinel trees?"
Dàilán blinked in confusion, "What is a Sentinel tree?"
Chénli waved her hands at the massive trees ringing the clearing, their trunks wrapped in glowing moss, fines and other plant life that had visibly glittering Essence water trickling down their length to pool in the hollows made of their roots below.
"Just one of those would take ten of us to stand around it to reach around its trunk - and they are all around this place at evenly spaced intervals - like guards. So, Sentinel tree," explained the other young woman.
"That one has an extra wide branch that stretches out into the clearing," Dàilán's Father pointed out the one he was referring to, "we could sit or stand the entire advisory council there comfortably with room to spare."
Dàilán looked up as Chénli made an odd sound, "is that what we are calling it?"
"Well… it has not actually been discussed, but we have to refer to ourselves somehow," the Clan Leader replied.
"Why?" asked Chénli idly as they started jumping into the tree, jumping up the branches to reach the one he had indicated, "I mean all that Elders Council stuff got both the Sect and the Clan in trouble did it not?"
"Easy for you to say 'Head Guard'," pointed out Dàilán with mischief glinting in her eyes, "but it is definitely something we can leave for another time." she surveyed the people moving around the makeshift camp below them as they walked out onto the broad wooden platform that was the upper surface of the large branch, "we definitely have more pressing issues to concern ourselves with."
---
There was an odd thickness to the air that made Dàilán look around with concern; but other than odd flecks of color and swirls of steam hanging in the air and sparks of Essence slowly escaping the raw materials being harvested and refined to hang in the air of the clearing, there did not seem to be enough Essence in the clearing to account for the feeling of weight against her shoulders.
Perhaps it was just the awareness of the amount of responsibility she now held, she thought to herself, the worry that she was not good enough to lead these people to safety.
Dàilán walked slowly around the clearing, exchanging greetings and having brief conversations with the other women as she checked each small cluster of Cultivators. Everyone was very busy sorting through the massive amount of Cultivation resources they had gathered over the past few days.
Some of the women were rendering out hides, bone, meat, Essence Stones, tendons, teeth and other materials for Essence Beasts that had been previously harvested in haste - just enough to avoid the possibility of Essence Waiths forming. With the chance to stop and properly extract all the various resources, they were doing it thoroughly now.
Dàilán shook her head at the strange sight of a group of Cultivators who would have mostly considered themselves too high ranked to do such work, diving into the task with pleased and cheerful enthusiasm. Many of them were learning as they went - with the Knife Cultivators circulating to show those with little or no experience how to harvest the corpses most efficiently.
She grinned as she observed some sort of competition occurring between the teams over the amount of resources being extracted per corpse, the most efficient, the cleanest extraction - even the number of Essence Stones found by each team - which made her frown. That was dangerous - if the corpses had reanimated in storage, they would have had a problem.
She timed her next movement between groups to coincidently put her in the path of one of the 'instructors' - openly and clearly congratulating him on how well his students were doing which brought a round of smiles and laughter from everyone in the clearing as he agreed cheerfully - as the young leader matched steps with him, "is there a reason the Essence Stones were left in the bodies?" she softly inquired.
"It is the only way to keep the Essence Corpses fresh for more than a shi if they have not been harvested properly," the man returned equally quietly, "if we were not able to do a full harvest at the time, we had to leave the Essence Stones in the beast so we could complete the processing later instead of winding up with useless, rotting flesh."
"I thought that was how you wound up with…" she trailed off, working to keep the alarm out of her voice. Trying to not draw attention or damage morale was difficult in an area filled with Cultivators and sounding alarmed or obviously using a privacy formation would do both.
The other Cultivator nodded imperceptibly, "keeping the corpses in spatial tools slows the reawakening, but it - is - a concern. It is good we have the time to process the animals properly. Fortunately, since we made sure the animals were killed with serious wounds and immediately placed in spatial storage, it would take several weeks before any were reanimated."
"Ah - not as serious as I was led to believe, then," Dàilán relaxed as the other Cultivator grinned, "It is a little dangerous - but almost all the harvesters use this technique and take the risk they may have misjudged the strength of the Essence Stone - otherwise the resources deteriorate before they can be sold."
His expression went serious, "everything below Peak Earth would take weeks to reanimate in a spatial tool to be an issue, unless the killing wound somehow caused only minor damage to the body," his expression grew speculative, "death by suffocation, strangulation or a simple broken neck might be a concern, for instance."
Dàilán blinked as his matter of fact explanation, listening with interest as he continued, "but major wounds that usually occur in combat, slow the process further as the Essence Stone must expend its stored energies on restoring the damage first - at the lower ranks the stone will be consumed before it can reanimate the body."
Dàilán nodded her understanding as he finished confidently, "as for the Sky Level corpses, we only recently killed those and they were heavy battles. No danger from those in a spatial tool, less than a day after the battle."
"Thank you for the explanation, Enforcer," she smiled as she spoke in a normal voice, "I admit that puts my mind at ease."
"My honour Sect Leader," he replied cheerfully, "please excuse me - I best get back to it."
"Of course," she agreed, inclining her head in thanks as he saluted her Knife Sect style and peeled off to another group, calling out corrections in skinning technique to a particular Cultivator that appeared to be struggling slightly.
Moving past the teams of Cultivators that were dealing with the various Essence Beasts they had been forced to kill so far on their journey, Dàilán moved over to the section of the clearing that was covered with various women peeling, shredding, drying or taking advantage of access to Essence rich water to boil, soak or otherwise refine the various Essence herbs and plants they had likewise picked up, sending fragrant medicinal vapours out over the rest of the clearing, partially obscuring the bloody scent of the beast rendering.
There were not quite as many groups working on dealing with plants and medicinal compounds as there were working on the various spoils of battle - there had not been groups of Essence herbs throwing themselves at the refugees for one thing - and for another they had very few people with any alchemist knowledge.
Many of the various components the beast teams were extracting were being swiftly brought over to the women manipulating smoking and steaming cauldrons with Essence flames - and in a few cases bent over simple bubbling pots sitting on small fires - under the watchful eye of the Head Healer to try and refine some of the raw materials into restorative medicines or travel rations.
Dàilán was suddenly glad for all the various storage tools and pouches that her Grandmother's escape plans - including the foresight to load all the refugees with as many of the Clan's treasures and storage tools they could carry. Once the majority of the records and manuals the Guan refugees had escaped with had been shared out among the group - with the lion's share going to her Cousins right at the start as Dàilán's group had not expected to survive their attempt to come to the aid of the Knife Sect - they had just barely enough space in all the spatial tools for everything they had been gathering on the way.
It had helped that much of their consumables - food, drink, medicine, clothing and by this point even a significant portion of the equipment they had started with - had been used up or destroyed. During the meeting, one of the women who had taken the responsibility of managing the group's resources mentioned that they were now almost entirely living off whatever the group was gathering during their travel. Their initial supplies that they had purchased or carried from Hujian were nearly gone, which made this pause to restock from the raw materials vital - despite the dangers involved in gathering them.
Dàilán had to admit the overall increase in Essence levels and encounters with increasingly higher leveled beasts and other events as the group travelled deeper into the Fusou were also a concern - another thing that had come up in the meeting. The Head Healer had been especially adamant that the group needed time to adjust their bodies and Cultivations to cope with the increase in ambient Essence - especially the younger and lower leveled members who had seen almost dangerous growth in their Cultivation over the past few days.
The BloodWitch had pointed out it was more than likely that the Essence levels would increase the further they travelled, which stunned most of the others - the Essence levels here were already beyond any most had experienced.
The Knife Sect Cultivators said it reminded them of the grounds of the destroyed Sect. One of them had observed it was a Cultivation paradise, but Dàilán's Father had pointed out with heavy irony that while - he - was not unfamiliar with this sort of Essence pressure, most of the Guan were and a paradise was more of a hell if it made you explode from forcing too much nourishment down your throat.
The BloodWitch volunteered to take a patrol out to investigate the route ahead a short way, enough to give the group some idea of what they would be facing next; she was out there now with Dàilán's Father while the rest of the camp stayed inside the natural Formations that kept the clearing safe - something that the Monitor had not stopped trying to talk about all meeting. He was undoubtedly poking the boundaries in a fevered rush of academic curiosity as he had vanished the moment the meeting had started to end.
Ironically, Chénli never had a chance to bring up her secret Sect business - with everything else that was discussed, everyone simply had too many immediate tasks to attend to - Dàilán suspected that was deliberate. Chénli was not averse to leaving whatever it was she wished to discuss unsaid until she could bring it up with a smaller, more trusted group and had likely simply let everyone else's concerns push her out from having to speak; it was the sort of thing she would do to express her silent disapproval of Dàilán discussing Knife secrets in an open forum.
On second thought, perhaps she had been too hasty, Dàilán considered. It might be wise to find out what Chénli wanted to discuss before bringing in others. If it was something that could cause issues within the group or truly needed to be kept closely held, it would be too late to wish she had been more careful who learnt about what.
Nodding to the Head Healer as she passed by the pungent medicinal - and cooking, she supposed, with a small chuckle - area reminded Dàilán of another task she had set herself; the Head Healer had insisted that those people with lower ranked Cultivations be excused from harvesting and other chores as they had to focus on stabilizing their Cultivation. This was especially urgent for the young girls about to break through from Peak Mortal to Earth level.
Ignoring the pressure that seemed to press subtly on her shoulders, she redirected her steps toward the small area that had been isolated from the rest of a clearing with a simple formation; she could see the lower ranked girls Cultivating there with a few chi of space in all directions around each girl - at low levels that was enough to ensure no one's cultivation affected anyone else's while allowing it to be obvious immediately if anyone was experiencing a deviation.
If they stayed here more than a day or so, they should really set up individual areas so that people could Cultivate without interruption - the current situation was all they could organise at short notice and was really inadequate for anything more than basic Cultivation.
Perhaps they could set up small areas on the larger branches, Dàilán thought, looking up at the branches that formed a green dome over the massive clearing. In the meantime, she thought there might be something she could do to help.
Chénli had told her what Chún had told that young Guan woman about 'her' Cultivation technique and how he had suggested that it might be beneficial if the others started learning from her - as if she was some Senior Cultivator. The idea was ridiculous to her - she barely understood her current Cultivation method as it was.
The conversation with Chénli had reminded her of something that had happened weeks ago however, when she had played her bāwū instinctively while meditating on the flows of her Essence as described in that old book, back in the Guan compound. Both of her maids and herself had breakthroughs in her Cultivation - and that was on her old instrument in a relatively low Essence environment.
Sitting on the ground in her favoured meditation position in front of the other girls who were Cultivating, Dàilán retrieved the bāwū from her storage pouch and marveled how it almost appeared to glow in the filtered crowlight that made it through the dense foliage that surrounded the clearing.
After a moment, Dàilán took a few slow, easy, circular breaths, allowing her racing thoughts to slow and be expelled outward as she drew the Essence rich air in and allowed it to drift outward; closed her eyes and let her inner sense of herself shake free of her concerns, floating down below the pressure that sought to hold her, following the flow of her Essence as it moved in a glittering loop like a river through and down a mountain, to the sea, becoming mist again to drift against the mountain to join the river once more and…
...down the mountain...
...to the sea...
...becoming mist...
There was a shift in the regard as it withdrew from her that sent her flying upward into the sky and falling back into her body.
Opening her eyes Dàilán became aware she was lowering the bāwū from her mouth and that rather than being seated on the forest floor, she was floating just above the surface of one of the immense branches that arched over the clearing.
From below her she heard a number of wistful cries and other noises of disappointment, amazement and amazement which made her realise that almost the entire camp was seated in various Cultivation postures where they had been working. Many of them had clear signs of Cultivation breakthroughs in evidence - odd manifestations of Dao, impurities coming off their skin, or looks of enlightenment on their faces.
Blinking she realised that the entire clearing was bathed in a gentle light that did not seem to have a direct source, although - she realised her instrument was glowing so brightly he fingers had turned transparent.
"So," grated a harsh voice she did not recognize, even as she suddenly felt a much more direct form of the earlier pressure - that she had dismissed as her insecurities - pushing down on her, "not your average Consumer. Who are you little girl? And what are you doing in My Forest?"
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
WheeledWriter
WheeledWriter shuǐ guǐ - spirits of people who drowned. They lurk in the place where they died, drag unsuspecting victims underwater, and drown them to take possession of their bodies. The BloodWitch refers to their group as such, because Dailan talks about dragging their enemies down with themto be drowned in the Yellow River (to death)
---
This was a difficult one to write. Not sure why. I suspect because the characters here are in flux as they try to work out who and what they are now.
There's a lot of that going on in this chapter with people saying one thing and doing another or visa versa.
Hopefully it makes sense - rather than coming across as filler or just a mess of unfisished ideas.
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