Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

The morning after his first successful village trip, Chún still felt in good spirits - despite being back in one of his makeshift loin cloths - to avoid ruining any of his new clothes.

He had spent the remainder of his previous afternoon putting away his new acquisitions - especially the shovel and axe.

His locus did not like the metal tools but Chún had pointed out that if he was in a situation where it was not possible to shift earth with Essence or he needed to cut things that did not want to part with Essence - the axe would be useful - using Metal or Earth Essence on items not designed to cut to provide a sharpened edge was Essence expensive and not always appropriate. And it was miles easier than hacking away with a flint.

Chún had planted the dòufu beans in his little growing plot in the clearing. The farmers in the village always planted dòufu on alternate fields each year as it always made crops grow better next year. He had made sure to mention this to the Heaven and Earth Vine - as he thought she might find a way to use the dòufu to her advantage.

He wondered if that would result in the grass in the clearing being replaced by dòufu. He chuckled at the mental image. Having dòufu was almost better than rice or bread sometimes, so it was not an entirely horrible thought.

It was a bit annoying that he had not been able to get salt from the village - so he could not process the beans - but he had not really expected to find or afford the expensive commodity and had not bothered asking.

Frankly, the fact that he had been able to trade for as much as he had was amazing. Chún was pretty sure that it was only because it was the local market village that catered to hunters and gatherers bringing in Essence resources from the wilderness - as well as the produce from the local farming villages.

Next market day was in two weeks according to the blacksmith, which would bring in pedlars able to trade in a much larger range of goods. That gave him nineteen days to organise his next set of projects; the kiln to make bowls and cups and maybe small pots for plants, learning more about the Patterns that his locus had shown him, exploring more of the Mountain, helping his locus with any Essence tasks he was willing to teach - and he thought he might have an idea about the salt as well. If he managed it, that would be an excellent trade item indeed.

He also needed to start having serious 'discussions' with his locus. Based on the events of the last few days, it appeared either Yijing had not explained the Manifestations/Formations concept fully or was himself unaware of how 'natural formations' could be created. Chún was beginning to suspect that Yijing had a bias against Consumers that might have skewed his knowledge base a bit - he was starting to realise his locus was a much better guide.

A pulse of affection came from his Mountain friend and Chún smiled, pausing his exercises on a handy tree limb as he wiped his sweat. One of the last things he had done yesterday before evening fell was to travel back to the monkey troupe and spend a shi observing the way they moved and play fought with each other. He even saw a challenge battle between two of the larger males over a female.

Since he was not in a complete panic, he was able to watch their movements very carefully with his Essence sense and gained a much clearer understanding of their natural movements - he was especially interested in how they fought.

While he was in the village, he had passed the old Storyteller with the usual cl.u.s.ter of village children seated around him, listening to him telling an old story about Wushu fighters he remembered being told when he was younger.

That tale had Wushu names like Tiger Style or Dragon Style and reminded him that most regular martial arts were things people had originally copied from animals.

So he used his Essence to watch the Monkey's Dao of Movement much more closely. He still thought Monkey Movement was a better name for it than 'whatever style' because it was all of a piece - all the movements into one Dao, including fighting.

He was using the monkey movement to build his muscle memory; as an orphan he had learnt the hard way that fights were often decided in miǎo, let alone shùn. His experiences over the last week or so reinforced that - he had been fortunate to have escaped unscathed so far - his instinctive reactions had been just enough to save him, that and the fact that threats had been minor.

He could not afford to keep depending on that survive; the use of Essence was making his body stronger, but he could clearly still be easily hurt or killed if he did not use his new strength properly.

So he had to develop an instinctive way of moving himself out of danger. Thus, jumping between the trees around the clearing to practice moving his muscles and Essence in the Monkey Movement until he did not have to think about it.

In each circuit around the clearing, he slowly decreased the amount of Essence flowing through the movement pattern; he wanted his body to be able to react and grow stronger without depending on the Essence - he kept having nightmares about not being able to channel Essence in a fight.

His body was adapting very rapidly; probably due again to the improvements Essence had been enabling. He also noticed his Essence was flowing smoother and faster through the monkey movement, with less Essence needed to accomplish the same shifts - so it felt like this was the correct way to do things.

At first he had worried slightly that training his Essence to move like a monkey would change his own Dao in someway; but he kept a watch with his Essence sense and saw that using the monkey movements merely caused shifts in the way his Essence flowed, without making changes to his Dao.

This probably meant he could learn more than one set of Movement Dao; possibly even combine them in a way that best suited him. He wondered if he dared ask the Flood Dragon for advice - he might try the Silver Snake first.

Finishing the exercise he had set for himself, Chún jumped from the trees to the edge of the clearing. As he landed there was a sharp cracking sound that echoed off the cliff face.

"What…?" Startled, Chún, leapt to one side and was shocked to hear the same sound again. Looking down, he saw a familiar tuft of grass fading into view.

"Ice-cracking grass? But that was on the other side! Why is it here?" Looking over, Chún could see another tuft becoming transparent again, barely visible in the Crow-light.

Chún dropped into Essence sense and realised that the obnoxiously familiar Dao pattern of his failed experiment ringed the entire perimeter of the clearing, like an invisible wall.

"That is deliberate. Why would…" he looked up at the Heaven and Earth Vine in confusion.

A pulse of annoyance at his slowness pushed an image into his head, showing an Essence Beast attempting to come into the clearing stealthily and stepping on an Ice-Cracking grass, no matter where it came from.

"Oh. I guess it is useful after all. Still annoying though."

Grumbling to himself Chún walked to the centre of the clearing and started mimicking the fighting movements he had seen from monkeys battling on the ground instead of the trees.

---

After bathing and breakfast of vine fruits, Chún decided to tackle his question about Dao Manifestations with the Mountain. Sitting on the boulder that he used to dry his clothes out, he pushed his confusion up through the link.

"Friend, Teacher said the Formations set by Consumers are bad. But what we did yesterday…"

An image of a Consumer popped into his head, ramming odd sticks into the ground, pasting talismans on surfaces and digging around to shift rocks and trees into new positions. Then the Consumer pushed their own Essence into the pattern they had created, branding it like a hot iron over the top of the existing landscape.

"Oww. That is what they do?"

Another image. This time the Consumer took longer, planting trees and bushes and rocks into certain positions and allowing it to fill with naturally Essence over time - which changed the environment inside the pattern. The shape had gaps and mistakes, so it leaked Essence, but it maintained itself and seemed closer to what his locus had asked him to help with.

"Hmm, that looks better. Obviously they did not understand the pattern completely…"

The view shifted as if a bird had taken to the air and looked down. Suddenly the Essence flow of the formation looked very wrong. Large flows of Essence had diverted to feed the new pattern, dimming other parts to almost non-existence. Other areas looked swollen with the Essence leaking from the pattern in the wrong spots.

Seen via Essence Sense, what had looked very beautiful with the eyes, looked like a growing sore superimposed on the landscape rather than part of it, destroying everything about it.

Chún shuddered. "OK. But explain the difference between that and what we did yesterday."

An image of the pattern being created yesterday, again from the bird. A natural Essence ignition, the excess channelled, held and linked to an already existing point with no changes. Another natural ignition, the excess added to the growing pattern - supporting it. Another and another… until the pattern was completely connected - forming a circuit of Essence.

More Essence was generated, supporting the pattern. Excess flowed gently out of each point in the pattern to the surrounding area. It was more than what would normally come each point, but as it was a small, stable increase, it strengthened the areas and plants around it rather than drowning them.

"OK. If I understand," Chún muttered, frowning in thought, "A natural Manifestation already exists in the Essence points - plants, trees, rocks, whatever. Can Essence Beasts be part of a pattern?"

A sense of yes and no both came back.

"Sometimes? OK. So, the pattern is there. It just needs to be connected. It supports itself and controls the Essence generated… and then it does something. You are saying this happens naturally?"

Images flew by in a blur, giving Chún a feeling of millions of years.

Essence points ignited. Occasionally, one or two would connect.

The Essence around them would strengthen, creating new Essence points and sometimes new links…

eventually patterns formed, faster and faster as more Essence was generated with each pattern and ignition.

Pattern over pattern...and the image he had seen last time of the enormous spider web of crisscrossing Essence lines that made up the Mountain appeared again.

"OK - so what we did yesterday, would normally take… a hundred years?"

A distinct sense of lacking filtered back.

"A thousand?"

More.

"Ten Thousand?"

The yes and no feeling returned and Chún swallowed. Maybe ten thousand years to form a single pattern made in a couple of shi…

"If I keep helping, you are going to advance very quickly…"

An image. Consumers coming, removing resources, fighting over resources - battles dumping wild Essence everywhere, breaking patterns and warping the forest. Patterns collapsing, Essence flooding the Mountain and warping it in strange ways, before collapsing. Maddened Essence Beasts spilling over over the land…

Chún choked. "Have to keep the Consumers away. Understood."

Another image. The mountain was undisturbed, but Essence ignitions kept causing other ignitions - spawning faster and faster. Larger and larger Essence Beasts were born, trying to balance out the available resources, but also began to fight each other. Patterns forming randomly, conflicting...shattering into an immense ignition wave that destroyed everything…

"Son of a dog… what was that?"

An image of a gardener pruning away leaves and trimming excess back, harvesting ripe fruit and vegetables, planting new ones.

"Ah… so Teacher does not understand it all - the Consumers are needed too, to keep things from getting out of control. So if those Eradicators had their way…"

A planet ballooning into a star. Nothingness.

"And if the Consumers harvest everything - we get a dead planet. It all comes down to balance - Dao again"

Affirmation.

Chún slid off the boulder and headed towards his staff and sack leaning as usual by the cliff face accompanied by his new knife.. "I understand, I will do my best, my friend. Speaking of which, " he picked up his hunting and foraging equipment, "I feel like exploring. Care to point me in the direction of an Essence Point or two that needs help somewhere I have not been before? I will go looking for dinner at the same time."

Whistling, he trotted off towards the treeline - leaping into the trees before he hit the Cracking Ice Grass barrier - with a cheerful song following behind him:

"Clean air and

Sun fire

Bird song and

Earth's breath;

Better than gold,

More precious than,

Power...

Treasures of

Heaven;

Treasures of Earth"