Chún groaned as he woke, shielding his eyes from the reflection of the silver sapling's light off of various cave surfaces.
Despite having a supposedly near indestructible body, he felt like he had been beaten up, lack of actual pain notwithstanding. He was starving - and as a street rat, he definitely recognised the sensation.
Vaguely he remembered devouring a Heaven and Earth vine fruit and stumbling into the cave even as the last of the one-sided battle raged outside, sort of dropping himself into the bathing pool, scrubbing just enough to get the worst of the blood and mess off so as not to foul his bedding and then staggering into his nest.
The smell of roasted food tickled his senses and he rolled out of his sleeping nest in confusion, blindly following his nose as he stumbled out of the cave and through the exit tunnel. Blinking his eyes as he emerged into the clearing, he let them adjust to what felt like late morning crowlight.
The fire-pit was burning merrily, puffs of steam coming from the centre stew pot, slabs of meat roasting over the fire on the rotating skewer; the distinct scent of herbs, spices, as well as baked and roasted vegetables wafted over.
Chún found himself seated in front of the fire pit, most of a roasted vegetable in one hand and a partially eaten slab of meat in the other, without any real recollection of how he had gotten there. Judging from the mess down his chest and over his face, as well as the various scattered bones and tough portions of vegetables, he had been there for a while.
"Ah, you are back," said his locus, via the link.
Realising he was no longer starving, just hungry, Chún reached over and picked up one of his pottery bowls from the small stack near the fire and placed the food still in his hands in it. Then he stood up and trotted across the clearing to the stream and started to rinse himself off.
"What happened?" he asked calmly.
"Your body was starving for nutrients," responded the mountain. "That last stunt you pulled last night severely depleted your reserves and you only managed one Vine fruit before you collapsed. And while Cultivators - can - live purely on Essence, that is assuming their body is not already drained - it still takes time to convert Essence into the nourishment your body needs at this level."
"OK." All the food spread over his body was gone, so he hopped out of the stream and walked back to the fire pit. "Is someone else here?"
"No, I used my practice with moving the pots and kilns around to set up the food," explained his friend, "The stew pot is full too - I recommend you eat some stew as it has a higher concentration of nutrient and Essence rich content."
Chún shrugged and grabbed the bowl with food, frowned and tossed the remains into the fire-pit. While he was at it, he swept his foot across the grass and pushed all the other debris into the fire pit as well. Flames flared up and sizzled in response.
Filling his bowl, he started eating his stew while continuing to ask questions. "Where did all the food come from?"
"The Heaven and Earth Vine butchered the carcasses of all the Essence Beasts from the beast wave that she did not consume - or that were otherwise destroyed," answered his locus. "Not only do we have a lot of edible meat, but also a great amount of trade-able furs, skins, bone and other valuable cultivation resources extracted from the Essence Beasts - as well as Essence stones. Not to put too fine a point on it, you are wealthy now. We will have to be careful how we trade these so as not to raise too many questions."
There was a slight pause and then the mountain continued. "In fact, we have so much meat I had to construct a cold storage for it."
Chún blinked. "A, what?"
There was a sense of lecturing from the link. "Since I have grown larger, my higher peaks have started to permanently have snow and ice on them. I noticed that when animals that die there, as long as it is very cold - the bodies do not rot. I looked into the memories of the planet," there was a sense of shrugging, "rich people in your empire as well as other places often put meat they cannot eat straight away into very cold places so it does not spoil quickly."
The lecturing feel was replaced by a sense of smugness, "So I constructed Manifestations of ice Dao - copied from what has occurred naturally on my peaks - in a small chamber under the ground and put most of the meat there. You will not need to hunt for a long time."
The teen blinked. "I thought constructing Dao Formations was a Consumer thing?"
The Mountain sighed patiently. "Remember the concealment Manifestations we created? As long as you use or create anchor points that do not interfere with existing Dao and make it self sustaining… and my chamber did not have any other Dao in it. That is how creation works - create something new and weave the needed patterns into it."
"Ah, instead of what Consumers do - subvert or damage existing Daos?" Chún said in understanding.
"Including their own, yes." agreed the Mountain.
Chún shivered. "That still seems wrong. But the more we talk about the differences in True Cultivation versus Consumer Cultivation, the more it sounds like - two people arguing over which way to plant crops. Both are doing the same thing, but one wants to tame the land and work it, where the other advocates working with what grows naturally. It almost sounds the same - with different words."
The Mountain hummed in agreement. "The differences are more like - the differences between using force versus coming to an agreement. Consumers use up everything to force the world to change to their will. Cultivators use their own Essence and energy or redirect existing surplus of to add to what is there and create something new that they need, or the world needs."
His locus seemed to sigh. "In the end it is natural that they are similar - at the root, Consumers were created by True Cultivators."
Chún reeled in shock. "What? Why?"
"It was needed. Normal warriors could not fight all the threats. True Cultivators were too few. So some True Cultivators taught trusted family, friends, lovers, sisters or brothers about Dao, and helped them develop simplified Dao Cultivation techniques for them to use that matched their physiques and Dao, so they could fight and defend themselves."
The Mountain sighed again. "The land says it was a very long time ago and not even on this Planet. People learnt how to use Essence that everyone contains naturally - resources were meant to be used appropriately and only as a complement to a Cultivator's own natural Dao."
The feeling in the link became sad. "Over time, techniques were lost, forgotten or twisted by those with evil intent - those that came after did not know differently. They applied fragments of forgotten Cultivation methods or methods that had been developed by people who were not True Cultivators and thus incomplete and incorrect. Or, just as bad, applied Cultivation techniques that were not appropriate to their Dao - they just did it because 'this was the way it had always been done'."
"So of course," lectured the Mountain, "their strength and achievements decreased with each generation. At some point someone discovered that enough energy from consuming resources indiscriminately, could help prop up falling Cultivation techniques."
The voice of the Mountain in the link grew heavy - as if threatening to collapse and bury the listener with its anger. "Their descendants - or people who discovered parts of the concept of Cultivation on their own - experimented with what they knew and learnt ways that seemed 'better' or 'easier' to them. Power through destruction, forcing and burning resources is always easier than building your own power slowly."
Chún nodded, understanding. "This is how it is with power. The StoryTeller always told us stories of righteous Empires falling over time to corruption and laziness - or weak second generations that lost the legacy of their ancestors."
His locus was silent, then with a distinct air of someone changing the subject said, "The Heaven and Earth Vine has requested me to relay that she is extremely pleased by all the fertiliser and cultivation resources that resulted from you bringing the beast wave over, so anything she could not be bothered consuming herself, she cleaned and separated out for you, as per your previous agreements."
"Glad someone got something good out of that mess," grumbled the teen down the mental link. "And I guess that I do not need to go hunting for the next week - for food, or for the Market trip."
He smiled and turned to face the Vine, bowing, "Please extend my gratitude. It would have been an unpleasant task to clean up the mess. I trust she was not hurt or otherwise inconvenienced by expending Essence she needed to Advance."
The Vine rustled happily. "She says actually the unexpected meal has helped her stock up on resources and Essence - her timetable for Cultivating to the next Level has been shortened considerably," answered his locus.
"That… she consumed that Sky Level worm beast… what was that? And why the hells was it on you in the first place?" demanded Chún.
"Everyone has their dark side," the Mountain replied evasively, "it is part of balance. I have been doing my best to keep you from encountering stronger beasts until your own abilities grow."
"Yes, I am pretty useless, am I not?" Chún snorted coldly and threw empty bowl to one side. "All I could do last night was run away."
"From a Beast Wave that could have destroyed a small city, yes," the Mountain pointed out, "You managed to kill, knockout or otherwise incapacitate almost a quarter of them in the process. No one would consider that useless - especially considering that twenty five days ago you were a starving street rat. That is not even taking into account that for almost half that time you have been unconscious or otherwise recovering."
"I do not feel like I am getting stronger. A - Mushroom - managed to hit me!" shouted the teen in frustration. "I have all this power and no idea what to do with it - I just make things explode!"
"And you make beautiful ceramics which most Consumers would mistake for relics," his locus responded calmly, "you are living and thriving alone on a Mountain most Consumers would consider a deadly secret land - one they would send their elites for training in, you have helped me fight off a planar invasion, made friends with a dragon and world class treasure - among other things. That is not, 'just making things explode'."
"We make the ceramic together and it is not much good in a battle," mumbled Chún, then he sat up in alarm, "Gods, did anything I spent all that effort on survive all that craziness?"
"Yes, not a scratch on anything," reassured the Mountain, "We - and your Cloak - do good work."
"Good…" the young man slumped in relief. Then he flung himself back on the grass sourly. "It still does not address the issue of not really knowing how strong I am - I mean, measured like the Consumers Cultivation levels - the Storyteller always spent ages explaining all the ranks and when the hero got a breakthrough in cultivation and he knew he had reached a new rank, he got stronger."
"You are a True Cultivator. Not a Consumer. Those breakthroughs they have are artificial and caused by the improper Dao patterns they twist their inherent Daos into with their cultivation techniques. That is why they risk dying or worse when they breakthrough," the Mountain lectured. "Since you are following your Natural Dao, it will grow naturally into a perfect form - increasing its complexity over time and sufficient Essence without dangerous shatterings like that."
"That still does not tell me how strong I am - or how to keep progressing," groaned Chún, "this whole 'you have to find your own way' is just leaving me without any skills to defend myself besides pouring Essence into things and hoping for the best!"
"Train with the Crystal Lord. Observe how the Essence Beasts fight. Build your own techniques and manifestations," his locus responded patiently.
"I keep getting pounded into the dirt before I have a chance to work anything out. We were supposed to work on 'creating' yesterday. Look what happened. If this keeps up I am going to get killed," he replied soberly, "I need a teacher."
"I am guiding you, even if you do not understand it," his friend replied unruffled, "these things take time. Cultivation is walking with death to steal life - even if I protect you as a teacher and friend, things like last night will happen - it is part of Cultivation. It will not matter how strong you are, if you do not handle a threat well." The Mountain paused. "You handled last night very well - although as you say, you need to use your Essence with more finesse."
Chún sighed. "If I met a Consumer in my 'Consumer' disguise, and they took me to get tested. What would the results be? If I was not hiding anything apart from being a True Cultivator."
There was a pulse of alarm from the link. "You are not considering…"
"No. Yes. I do not know!" exclaimed the teen in frustration, throwing his arms out. "Being able to create and advance Essence Resources from ordinary plants is fine, but besides that - all I seem to be is a walking Essence Generator!"
"You are exaggerating for effect," returned the Mountain. "I accept your point and will examine our options to try and provide some more structure to your studies, but there are limits on how much I can structure things without adversely affecting your Dao. Cultivation itself is your true teacher."
"As for your other question," said his locus after a moment, "in terms of the Consumer way of measuring things: in body tempering - in other words, your strength, speed, agility and toughness - you are a low mid Sky Rank. In your other areas - techniques, combat ability, martial arts, mental arts and so on, you are still in low to mid mortal rank - except for Dao Manifestations or what they call Formations; there you are solidly Earth Rank - but only because of lack of experience - because you can make changes to any manifestation you see. And you can see all of them."
There was another pause. "The rest of your abilities have no equivalent in Consumer terms. Essence generation and channelling they only gain after they cross World level. Being able to see, hear and manipulate Dao Manifestations Essence directly - like you have done from the start - they rarely achieve until they become Immortals, which in practice means almost never. Even most True Cultivators never achieve it to that extent.
"Then how do I improve my weak areas?" asked Chún, "It is useless being strong if you cannot use it wisely."
"Training, experience. Learning new things, seeing new things. In other words, time," responded the locus patiently.
"Which, I have already pointed out, does me no good if I get killed before I get that experience," sighed Chún, then rolled his eyes in acceptance, "Shall we start with learning to 'Create' then?"
"Your Essence channels - meridians - are strained after last night. I would suggest to stay here today and avoid working with Essence. We can try working on Creation and your gliding horse once you are fully recovered. You do not have to hunt until market day after last night, so we will have time. There is the last set of Dao pots to store and the saltpan to gather and refill, as well," the mountain instructed.
There was a pause as if his locus was thinking, "for today, practice your Monkey Movement Dao. Think of ideas to defend yourself, using what you know or have accomplished to this point. Practice the ideas - no Essence manipulation - just in your imagination for now. We can try out some every day and incorporate it into your fighting, so you act instinctively when you are in a difficult situation, rather than always needing to think on the run and improvising."
"Like that exploding tree," answered Chún as he got to his feet and the centre of the clearing and settled into the first ground movements of the Monkey Dao. "why did that happen, anyway?"
"You dumped a very large amount of lightning and Essence into it. Its own Essence became unstable at the same time that the lightning flash-boiled all the water in the tree into steam. All of that sudden pressure and reacting Essence had to go somewhere," explained the Mountain.
"Oh. Hey, Mountain? You know how Consumers always have fancy names for the bodies of the genius types - like Nine Yang body or Frozen Heart or whatever?"
"Yes…?"
"What would they call my body?"
"No clue. Grand Complaining Physique, perhaps?"
"Grand… hey!"