Beware Of Chicken

A memory of an off white room came to me. Of another laying unmoving from back in the Before. The smell of Meimei’s herbs instead of a harsh, antiseptic tang like if she were in a hospital. Her cheeks were still full instead of gaunt and pallid. At least there weren’t any tubes sticking out of her.

Xiulan will be fine, I told myself. Cultivators were tougher than normal people. She’d get through this.

I knelt beside her bed, hesitated, then took her hand. Her grip reflexively tightened on mine for a moment. It was still strong.

I hadn’t even known her for a full year. She had thrown herself at the Shrouded Mountain Sect without hesitation in order to save Tigu’er. She mourned for those that could be considered her lessers. She constantly looked forward and did what she thought was right without hesitation.

I was glad I had met her.

I sighed and put my forehead against the back of her hand.

The argument could be made that if it wasn’t for her, I’d be back at home without any cultivator problems. Nobody would have come to the tournament. Nobody would have been kidnapped.

But it happened.

As I had learned with Lu Ri, I couldn’t hide forever.

Now, all I could do was my best.

I had responsibilities. Right now, I had things to do, no matter how much I didn’t want to do them.

I gently placed her hand back on the bed and patted it twice.

I rose from my position and straightened out some of the covers.

“Wake up soon, okay?” I whispered.

And… I don’t care if it\'s improper, I’m hugging the hell out of her after I get done with this world’s “proper” actions.

Speaking of hugs, while Tigu’er was accounted for, Gou Ren and Yun Ren haven’t received their allotment. It would of course be manly, with lots of back thumping, but they were totally getting it later.

I opened the door, and heard a squeak. I looked down, and smiled at Ri Zu, her bag on her back and ready to knock on the door. She bowed in thanks, and immediately set about ehr business, scampering up to Xiulan and taking her pulse.

I left the door openabit as I exited, so she could get out later.

Everybody else was ready and waiting for me when I came downstairs, lined up by the doors. The members of Xiulan’s sect, my friends and disciples, Rags and Loud Boy, Xianghua, and Handsome Man. He was grinning at Tigu… and then he noticed me and he flinched, shuffling a bit so he wasn’t as close to her. Well, I didn’t know how exactly to deal with that, but I wasn’t the kind of guy to go around giving people the shovel talk.

We’d probably have a sit down to chat later if things like that kept up, but for now it wasn’t anything to worry about.

Obviously he hadn’t tried anything, because Tigu would have told me already if he had…

I shook my head, as nobody made to open the door, or start the walk.

I guess I walk in front, huh?

I pushed open the doors and exited the sect compound into the streets, the heavy doors moving without a sound as I pushed them open.

There were two people waiting outside for us. They froze upon seeing me,.Their eyes flicked from me to the escort behind me. I paused, and nodded in greeting to them.

They needed nothing else.

“Young Master!”

“Sister!”

Two voices shouted out. A beaten up, lanky guy wearing armour and a kid who hobbled towards us with a limp.

Xianghua’s eyes lit up as the kid tackle-hugged her, while the young man skidded to a stop to bow respectfully in front of Handsome Man.

The boy started prodding and looking over his sister, his face flushed with worry.

“Haha! As if they could lay a hand on this Young Mistress! I slapped them across their faces until they begged me to stop!” Xianghua let out a laugh as she posed with her hands on her hips.

She began immediately boasting about how she was “the perfect, untouchable Young Mistress”. Her language fit her stereotype perfectly. She spouted off “they met with the wrath of the Heavens” with a completely straight face, while continuing to raise her nose higher and higher until she was looking directly up at the sky.

The woman was nuttier than a box of acorns.

She had a little smirk as her brother started laughing and Gou Ren was shaking his head with amusement. She caught me watching and froze, but I just smiled and nodded at her.

But hell, she was good people.

I smiled at them as they had their reunion and the kid scrambled onto Gou Ren’s back.

Already at that stage, huh? I thought with a smirk… Though I couldn’t exactly talk.

I was the guy who asked a girl to marry me after only a couple of months of knowing her.

I led the way through the streets towards the local branch of the Azure Jade Trading Company… and the amused atmosphere started to fade.

As we got into the town proper and not the sect mansions, the damage started to show.

The streets had rubble strewn about them. Walls had been caved in. fragments of stone had shattered roof tiles and broken windows.

Gou Ren slowed as he saw the full extent of it. His eyes were wide as he stared around. The buildings destroyed was one thing.

But the other thing was the people.

The non-cultivators were huddled together. They were hesitant and scared even as they started the arduous process of cleaning up. Their movements were slow from lack of sleep and from sadness. A little boy was sobbing over a destroyed street stand. His father stood despondent away from it. A woman chucked splinters of wood out of the hole in her wall.

It was like all those newscasts back in the Before. Like the history textbooks, showing the Battle of Britain. Shelled out houses. Destroyed livelihoods.

They were walking through a warzone.

“Gou, could you guys go and assess the damage while I pick everything up?” I asked. “We’ll meet back up in the square in a bit.

There were several nods from the cultivators behind me as they dispersed. I continued on my way until I got to the local Azure Jade Trading Company. I would need wood and supplies if I wanted to help. There was a bit of superficial damage, but when I knocked on the door it was promptly opened.

However…

There was only one guy. And he seemed a bit shocked to see me, after I pulled out he Azure Jade Trading Comapny token.

“Forgive us, Master Jin, but the esteemed Master of our company evacuated the majority of our staff to the mountain when the fighting broke out. We only have myself and one other. We volunteered to stay.” The frazzled man said. Which was honestly smart. I don\'t know why I assumed this place would still be open. “I’m afraid all of our treasures are gone and all that\'s left is the mortal goods.. And with the mountain closed…”

I frowned. Would I have to pull open a door or something? If it lasted any longer I might have to.

“That\'s perfectly fine. It\'s actually what I wanted anyway. I need tools. Tools and wood.”

The man seemed bewildered, but complied with my order.

Soon enough, I had my building materials and emerged into the streets, heading towards the square.

A square full of cultivators who were sitting around or milling around uncertainly.

The guy with blue tattoos from yesterday was there, idly flipping his rope knife around, and sitting on the edge of a mostly demolished fountain.

There was nobody cleaning up here.

He stood, and the rest of the square went silent.

“Guo Daxian pays his respects to Master Rou.” the tattoo guy said.

The rest of the assembled cultivators did the same, all bowing.

“Master Rou. Forgive this Daxian’s impertinence… but with our Elders still lost to us, trapped in the mountain, I would humbly beg your advice and wisdom.”

I stared at the assembled, uncertain cultivators.

I looked around at the street. The destruction and the people who weren’t helping. The cultivators who were just milling around like headless chickens without their Elders, unsure of what to do and looking to me for advice.

I picked up one of the hammers I had and tossed it to Guo Daxian.

He caught it and stared at it.

“If you break something, fix it,” I stated simply.

==================

Xianghua rose up from putting a rock in the wheelbarrow and stared at the path leading away from the pond and clearing. Three walls entirely destroyed. They would have to rebuild them completely.

They had with them Rags’ mortal friends, Tigu, Yun Ren and Loud Boy. The rabbit Yin was with them as well. Tie Delun, on the other hand, had gone off to hew the raw stone into something that could actually be used, and Xiulan’s petals were the next street over.

It was an odd thing, to be rebuilding mortal houses, and fixing walls. But Gou Ren, at first in a foul mood, seemed to be getting better as he worked. He was even explaining things, his voice full of enthusiasm as he talked about the design of the walls. She committed every word to memory, naturally, just as she did when her brother spoke about the steam furnaces.

It was just as odd to see the cultivators of the Azure Hills laboring like mortals, tools in hand. None had disregarded Master Jin’s calm statement. The powerful expert commanded the town to be healed, and so it would be.

The mortals seemed bewildered and flabbergasted.

So they worked, the sun hot as they toiled.

“Hey, Tigu. You said you escaped… But how did you escape, exactly?” Loud Boy asked, as he tried to lift a large rock… only to have it not budge. He jerked backwards with the motion of attempting to lift it, and turned to stare incredulously at the stone.

Tigu glanced at him. She grimaced, her face twisted.

“I transformed,” she said, picking up another bit of broken masonry.

“Transformed?” Rags asked, jerking his head at one of his mortal friends, who nodded. She looked at the stone the former cultivator was struggling to lift, then walked over a larger stone herself.

“Hey, Loud Boy, can you help me with this?” the woman asked. Loud Boy startled again, but nodded, determined. He marched over and together they heaved the piece up.

“Transformed,” Tigu stated again.

“Is it some kind of technique that turns you into a powerful monster?” Loud Boy asked as he puffed.

The young woman sighed. She looked around the street, flinched, and screwed up her face.

With a pop of displacing air, there was a cat sitting where Tigu once stood.

Or rather… A small tiger.

Everybody paused to look at her.

“Hey, you managed that.” Gou Ren said, sounding impressed.

There was another pop and Tigu reappeared, looking dizzy.

“Don’t like that.” she muttered, shaking her head.

“Oh, the path of the Tiger? A legendary cultivation technique that lets you draw on the power of the Tiger of the West?” Loud Boy enthused.

Tigu shrugged, amused at Loud Boy’s enthusiasm, but Rags seemed more contemplative.

Xianghua glanced at the spirit beasts with them.

She made eye contact with Rags. The man’s face was pensive… before he shrugged.

Well, she supposed it was Tigu’s secret to tell. If she even originally had been a cat. The distaste for the form of the tiger, how quickly she turned back, and her resemblance to Master Jin meant it could just be a transformation technique.

“So… how many spirit beasts does Master Jin have, anyway?” Rags asked instead, looking on as Yin shoved another piece of rubble to the side.

“Hmmm, there’s my junior sister Yin, Miantiao, Ri Zu, that blue monkey, and Bi De here.” Tigu counted off. “Then back home there\'s two pigs, Chun Ke and Pi Pa, an Ox, Bei Be, and a…” Tigu’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “A dragon, Wa Shi.”

“A dragon?! Master Jin tamed a dragon?” Loud Boy asked incredulously. Xianghua too had paused at the mention of the powerful creature. “What does he do? Guard your master’s treasure? Command the Heavens for him?”

Tigu looked at him, confused.

“He washes the dishes.”

Loud Boy’s face fell. “What?”

“He washes the dishes, and waters the crops sometimes.”

“Come off it Tigu, you’re having us on—” Rags started.

There was a crystal chime, as Yun Ren held up his recording crystal. An image formed. A flood dragon appeared, holding a wok, a washcloth, and grinning at a massive boar who had a stack of bowls balanced on his nose.

Rags gave up, raising his arms into the air in confusion.

Xianghua chuckled.

“Indeed. Brother Wa Shi is a valued pupil of the Great Master. Though he may be gluttonous, his role is unique and appreciated.”

A deep, booming voice echoed out. The power of a Profound level cultivator, more powerful than Xiulan, more powerful than Xianghua’s father, filled the alleyway.

She turned, ready to pay her respects, and froze. A proud, resplendent cock was perched above them on a nearby wall.

“Fa Bi De, First Disciple of Fa Ram, greets you all, and thanks you for taking care of his juniors.” The Spirit Beast declared, smiling warmly at them.

The rabbit she could take. The dragon she could take.

A chicken more powerful than most Sect Elders in the Azure Hills?

Xianghua raised both hands in the air in a gesture of defeated confusion, as the rooster hopped down off the wall to stride regally towards Yun Ren.

Gou Ren looked at her, and patted her on the back consolingly.

“You get used to it,” he said.