As evening on a very long day started to fall, Chún stepped lightly out of the forest line and swung a medium sized boar off his shoulders onto the grass of the clearing he called home.
Unlike his previous meals, the pig was only unconscious, not dead as it had occurred to him that he might be neglecting his landlord by killing and cleaning his kills in the forest - or at least wasting a source of goodwill.
So he decided to conduct something of an experiment - and hopefully improve his standing with the Heaven and Earth Vine.
"I only ask you leave me some of the meat for my own meal - perhaps the tusks and pelt for trade, if you wish," he spoke clearly and stepped back into the trees, for safety's sake.
The grass rustled; there was a frightened squeal and some thrashing for a moment. Then silence.
Chún cautiously stepped back into the clearing. There was a spotlessly cleaned and skinned boar pelt, with several choice cuts of pork left on it and a pair of gleaming tusks next to the pelt where there was once a live animal. Not a spot of blood, guts or other unpleasantness to be seen or smelt. It looked better than anything the butcher down in the village prepared.
Chún also noted a pile of wild herbs and a couple of his planted wild onions arranged on the pelt next to the meat and he smiled; "My thanks for the suggestion, your graciousness. I will bring what I hunt back from now on - alive if I can."
He had seen clearly via Essence sense the majority of the boar's essence had been drained away by roots and grasses that had came out of the clearing, feeding the Vine, he guessed. Thus live food would be welcomed, especially since he doubted most beasts would come near the clearing any more.
He reached down and picked up the pelt in a bundle, taking care not to drop the meat, leaving the tusks - they would be fine there until he needed them.
Walking over to the fire pit, he asked the Mountain to raise a couple of roasting stands to one side of the firepit, then looked at the staff in his left hand with some regret. It helpfully changed shape to a slim metal rod sharpened at both ends, long enough to comfortably lay across both stands.
Shaking his head, he noticed that the staff still looked as if it had been cast into the likeness of a tree even as he used it as a roasting spit. Sighing, he made quick work of skewering the cuts of meat then lay the staff on the roasting stands.
"Sorry to use you like this, but I don't have any other fire proof tools," he muttered as he lit the deadwood he'd gathered in the fire pit with a Rune of fire he drew with his Essence.
While he waited for the fire to drop to a suitable height for cooking, he did the usual chores of adding water (and fish) from the stream to the stew pot and the few larger vegetables he'd found on his hunt that he was not planning to roast along with the pork.
The smaller, vegetables and seeds went into the growing plot as per usual - he harvested a few large vegetables from the plot, taking care to leave any new seedlings or shoots behind, then pulsed a little Essence into the little balls of energy that were those old apples he'd planted, using the Flood Dragon technique.
Now that he had time to think about it Yijing had said something similar to the Flood Dragon the one time he had asked him to Ignite the Thousand Year grass - but he had not really understood what 'Show it more', or 'add to the music,' meant.
Though, he really thought the explanation the dragon had given him was clearer - it explained the correct way to add more, rather than just, 'add more oil,' as the saying went.
He considered for a miǎo and then gathered his final pickings up and carried them to the fire. Maybe, he thought, Teacher was concerned about affecting his Dao by telling him what to do. But since the way was was actually 'follow the Dao when providing Essence too' he could not see the issue.
Chún shrugged to himself. This method felt harmonious. So he would use it.
The initial rush of flames had died down into coals now, so he asked his Locus to shift the roasting stands holding the meat over the heat and set his staff to rotating slowly, then went back to the stream to scrub his hands with some soapgrass.
The fat was just starting to soften when he got back, so he was able to rub the herbs into it until they stuck to the meat. "Wish I had salt, oil, chilli… more things to get in the village tomorrow."
Using a stick coated in Metal Essence as a sharp knife, he cut up onions and leeks and tucked them into folds and crevices of the meat. One of the best things about Cultivating was that the heat of the fire felt like the light of the Golden Crow on his skin, so he could do things like this without getting burnt.
Like the first night he put tubers in the coals to roast, then he went back to the cave for a long soak, keeping a touch of Essence on the meat to know when it was ready.
He was happy to note that the light from the Silver Sapling had dimmed to match the growing darkness outside. It looked like the light from the Silver Tree would match the flight of the Crow, so he would be able to sleep. He supposed it would be unwise for a very valuable essence herb or plant to shine so brightly at night and attract everyone to come and snatch you up.
When he could feel the meat was done popped out and put on a new loin cloth. He had woven several new ones this afternoon before going foraging; the one he had been wearing had not survived hunting the boar.
Heading out he passed by the Panther fur he had tied into a roll leaning against the cave wall and he was sure he saw it twitch. Frowning he reached over and snatched it up, making sure to keep out of reach of any teeth or claws, just in case.
Jogging down the tunnel he popped out of the cliff-side opening and turned to bow to the Vine.
"My Lady, I think this one," he raised the fur, "is planning to cause me trouble. It still has its stone, which I can not use, so… it might come in use to you? If you will, please leave me the fur to trade with?"
Before he could say anything else, the bundle suddenly twisted in his arms. He threw it towards the Heaven and Earth Vine as the rough ties holding the fur into a roll snapped.
A snarl like ripping cloth filled the air and for a shùn, Chún saw a panther of purple fire lunging for him.
He threw himself back as Essence filled the air from the Vine, flashes of light and darkness revealing vines and flowers thrashing like snakes and whips as they held the fur bound and literally drained away the energy of the Essence Ghost, streamers of purple Essence curling away to vanish into the mass of the Vine.
As the vines dropped to the fur to the ground, he sighed and bowed. "Thank you. I owe you my life as well."
He bent over and picked up the black fur. His Essence sense showed the Essence Stone gone and the fur dead of Essence. He did notice the damage from his original fight - the damage to the fur incurred when the Panther had been killed - was gone, leaving a perfectly intact fur with teeth and claws.
"Essence Beast fur in perfect condition - with no stone to raise it. Just this, will be enough to trade most of what I need down in the village. Thank you again Lady." He bowed again, then rolled the fur back up and set it just inside the tunnel entrance, then went to the fire pit.
The boar had roasted beautifully - golden and crispy on the outside, sending out the mouthwatering smell of fragrant herb scented fat mixed with fried wild onion and leek - sizzling on the coals.
Chún thought through the trials of the day: weird Essence practice failures that nearly turned him into nothingness, that son-of-a dog Bear, monkeys, overloading from channelling too much Essence, snakes, the Dragon and even the Vine - nearly dying six times in a single day - seven if he counted the Panther just now.
Then he tallied up the successes: Learning the Monkey Movement skill, going through tempering twice, succeeding in his efforts to learn Concealment Dao, surviving bargaining with two of the most powerful beings he had met yet on the mountain, gaining a source of Metal Essence - and his new staff.
He frowned, wondering to himself if the positives outweighed the negatives.
Then he looked at the roasted boar and smiled. "Worth it."
---
The stars were very bright tonight. Chún lay back on the soft grass and looked at the velvet black sky with a full stomach.
The boar was finished. The Silver Snake had turned up at the fire pit, to his surprise, and ate about a pound. It seemed quite pleased with it, which surprised Chún even more - he thought snakes preferred live prey over dead, let alone roasted. After that it had vanished, presumably to go and digest.
Chún had courteously offered some to the Vine, but it did not seem interested. So he had eaten until he felt full, which was a great deal more than he could have managed before all this started. What had not been eaten - about half of the meat - had either been cut into strips that were currently drying over the coals to make dry meat snacks for other days, or gone into the continually simmering stew pot.
He figured roasted herb boar would improve the flavour of the stew quite a bit even if it was not as Essence rich as the Panther meat. Also, he had no way to store so much meat without it going off and he needed to be able to skip hunting for food tomorrow.
"Mountain, can you show me a map of all the useful Essence plants or Essence springs ready to ignite between here and the village?"
A moment later and Chún's vision was overlaid with a transparent Essence image. Following Chún's idea of a map, the Mountain showed itself as if being viewed by a bird. Landmarks were visible and as Chún focused on the ones he recognised, appropriate names - like Monkey Forest, Silver Willow clearing, Dragonhome, Vinehome and so on appeared over them.
All the areas Chún recognised were clustered in an area about fifty li across, according to the measure stick the Mountain put on the image - other than a very narrow trail leading off the Mountain - the rest of the Mountain was unmarked.
He recognised a tiny spot named Geese Pasture near the end of the trail almost at the foot of the Mountain and smiled. He put one hand in the air and 'covered' all of the labelled area with the ball of his thumb.
"I have a lot to explore. Impressive. But I only need to see useful plants I can reach during my trip back to the village tomorrow, I will help them grow and harvest a portion of each as trade goods in return"
The 'bird' dropped from the sky and the map was suddenly only the area within a 10 li radius of the most direct path back to the village.
"Ok. Mark the herbs. Focus on the ones I can help Ignite or grow best… drop out anything that is guarded by Essence Beasts - I do not want to have to stop the trip because of a hard fight.
Half the dots on the map flickered out. Chún looked at the remainder and rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Nèige… OK, best route given these plants, time to travel?"
A line started linking the dots up until it curved around the base of the Mountain to end near the Geese Pasture at a spot marked - Thousand Year Grass.
"Really? This seems like it wanders around a lot...why?"
A few of the linked dots had other dots flicker back in around them a pulsing red.
"Oh, to avoid Essence Beasts...hmmm, ok - that makes sense there and there," he said pointing to a line that linked dots between groups of angry ones, "but why…"
"Friend. Drop out everything except the line between the linked points."
Reluctantly all the other details faded away - leaving the familiar shape of the Concealment Dao Rune.
"Huh. That is what I thought. That will work?"
A memory of Yijing's voice floated down the link "...encourage the Mountain to grow large Manifestations to protect itself and everything on it…"
"Ignitions in the right place create natural Manifestations of Dao. Makes sense. You should have just asked - I think this sort of thing is my job now."
A slight sense of shame trickled down the link. Chún frowned and scratched his head. "What about other ignitions or already strong Essence points not in the Character - would it not break the shape?"
The map filled in thousands of Essence points of all different colours, sizes, shapes and movement - like the stars above. Then another Dao shape joined up some of the points - some of them using the same dots that the first used, but joined up with others - then another and another and another, countless Dao shapes overlapping one another - all intertwined and separate at the same time - but coming to form a single great mass of pulsing power, that beat in time with a very familiar beat.
Chún sat up. "That is you?"
Affirmation.
"Cool. Guess I better get some sleep. I have the feeling that tomorrow is going to be tiring".