Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

Early afternoon of the next day, saw Chún working in a small brush and scrub cleared area a li or so away from the Heaven and Earth Vine clearing, about fifty arm spans or so away from the creek that eventually turned into the small stream that went into his Immortals Cave.

He had spent the morning working on chores he had put off over the last few days - the usual hunting and gathering; catching a medium sized buck which was now portioned out between the Vine, the never ending stew pot, on the drying racks for making dried meat snacks and turning on his now permanent roasting area over the fire pit which he had also set up that morning.

Part of the set of cooking utensils he had purchased from the village included a basic roasting spit and stands along with an old wok and good ivory chopsticks.

The venison was roasting slowly now, basted in oil, chilli and what spaces he had. Inspired by his old staff he had put a small amount of Earth Essence into the iron spit to keep it rotating by itself.

Besides the deer, he had gathered the usual collection of wild vegetables, herbs, ginger, ginseng, turmeric and root vegetables during the hunt, which he had supplemented with excess from the vegetable patch - minus any new baby plants he had gathered, that were replanted - that also went into the pot or the fire to roast. He had added water (and fish) to the stew pot, replenished his bedding, buried his latrine, dug a new one and woven himself a new loincloth as he did not want to dirty his limited clothing working on his new project.

As he had suspected, there were no plates, cups, bowls or other pottery available in the village unless he wanted to buy from the potter, who charged outrageous prices for basic products - especially to outsiders.

Since he had near the clearing all the raw materials required to make his own pottery and ceramics, he was sure he could create a better product, especially since the clay, water, mud - and if he could manage it, the fire - here would be Essence imbued.

As for doing this outside the clearing? If he had known when he built the fire pit that the clearing was part of the Vine, he would not have placed it there. It had likely caused pain to her Highness and she might have formed resentment because of it. He could only hope his actions since then had bought him leniency.

Of course, food stores were always better in a protected place, so objectively speaking, if it was not for the danger of angering a high level Essence being, having the fire pit and stone pot in the clearing was better.

But his mud kiln project to fire ceramics would be fine outside the clearing. It did not matter if it got damaged - he would likely break down and build several mud kilns through this process himself.

First he cleared the area of deadwood and small bushes and trees. He piled them up in a corner as they would come in handy later.

With a little Essence manipulation he dug out a small grove in the soil of the clearing in the shape of an arched doorway. The arch was about an arm span across; with the sides of the 'door' about two arm spans in length, forming a large U shape, on the ground.

Next Chún dug out a small, shallow hole with his shovel. Normally at this point the potter in the village would have broken up some old clay pots, failed firings or the bits of the last kiln into the hole, but as Chún was starting from scratch, he just pulled water from the creek into the shallow hole using his Teacher's old trick. Grabbing a large piece of deadwood from the pile he broke down the sides of the whole until he had an area of thick mud mixed together.

"Friend, can you keep an eye on this for me?" he asked his locus, "I do not know if I could do this with Essence without doing it by hand first - but if you keep track, then maybe you can do the same but better for the next attempt?"

Feeling the wordless pulse of agreement he grabbed handfuls of the almost solid of mud and placed into the groove forming a solid base raised slightly above the forest floor. Then he pushed Essence into the ground at the open front of the U and asked the Mountain to drop it into a half arm span square.

He had to wait until the first layer of mud set a little, so he dropped a nudge into the link with the mountain, "Friend, while we wait for the base to dry, are there any treasures that need help advancing?"

The Essence illusion map appeared over his vision indicating a couple of small spots within a few of li and he nodded, trotting off back to the cave to pick up his staff and cloak, "Just in case," he muttered to himself.

A half kè later, Chún was bouncing off the trees in the Monkey Movement as he headed for the first Essence Spring.

The first one turned out to be a small patch of herbs that he would have never noticed growing out of an old tree stump. "What do these do?" he asked curiously up the link to his locus.

"Minor wound heal. Blood mint after advancement - mix with water, five-colour honey and blood ginseng to make soup good for internal injuries," responded the Mountain matter-of-factly.

"That sounds useful," responded Chún, "Would it grow in the clearing plot?"

"Better help this one grow, it prefers dead wood and shade to clear soil - it is close enough you can gather it when you need it," advised the Mountain.

Chún shrugged and pulsed his Essence in what was rapidly becoming an automatic process to him. Moments later the mint burst into thick red growth in a shower of carmine Essence motes, the small Essence waves rippling off the other plants around as normal; a few of the nearby plants perked up at the slightly increased local Essence levels.

"Ok. Next?" Swinging off towards the next Essence Spring, he inquired with some curiosity, "Where would I find five-colour honey?"

A memory of the Essence Bee hive he had nearly encountered on his first day after waking swam into his mind and he grimace. "Ah. I will think on it. Maybe if I can build a pattern to close off pain - invulnerability is nice but enhanced senses are not great."

"It did not bother you during the battle. Your Essence protected you," pointed out the Mountain.

"But I still feel everything the rest of the time - I do not wish to fight the bees." He peered down at the ordinary looking grass the Mountain had pinpointed, "Another Thousand Year Grass?"

The plant that matched his first ever experience with an Essence Ignition, was ignited in a miǎo.

Chún scratched his head thoughtfully. "Hmm, I barely felt that. Was it smaller than that first time?"

A sensation of disagreement floated down his link and he blew out a breath of realisation, "I really have advanced."

"Well, back to the kiln. Should be ready for another layer now..." The sound of a faint w.h.i.n.e interrupted his turn back towards the clearing and he dropped into a defensive crouch, scanning with his Essence Sense.

The image of a small female wolf pup with an injured forelimb floated into his mind and he blinked.

"Can I help it?" The responding image of him pulsing Essence to match the wolf's Dao with a focus on the damage was a clear answer.

He huffed his breath out in concern. "Ok, I will try - any way to let her know I mean no harm?"

A small excited yip sound made him smile and he slowly moved a few arm spans into the forest, where the pup was hiding behind a small bush in a hollow made by some tree roots.

"Greetings, young lady. May I help?" A few blinks and a trembling stretching out of the injured leg gave him an answer so he sat down a hand span away and reached out a hand, just barely touching the pup's flank. It flinched but did not move.

As he would with a plant, he sank into Essence sense, looking at the pattern of the pup. It was of course much more complex than plants, but he did not need to change anything - just repair the damaged parts of the pattern and feed it Essence to let the changes set solidly.

A tiny bark brought him out of his focus and he opened his eyes just in time to receive a quick lick of his hand before the pup bounded off, presumably back to wherever her family lived.

Chún smiled and rose to his feet - heading back to the clearing. "Would that work on humans?"

"Most likely. Humans are more complex again - many more Dao involved. More practice required."

By the time he got back to the kiln after putting away the staff and cloak, the base was set enough for a second layer. This time he used Essence manipulation to place the mud that he re-wet - since the Mountain had seen him do it once, it was able to copy him.

Again he had to wait for the mud to set a little so he spent half a shi surveying the creek bank for likely clay deposits; for he first attempt he want to avoid the very heavy Essence i.m.p.r.e.g.n.a.t.ed deposits as it would be a waste - he was likely going to mess up his first few attempts.

A third layer of mud went on. Each time the walls of the U were raised by a third of a hand's width. So the walls were a hand high now. Again, waiting - this time he had a leisurely lunch, dreaming of the day he could stop using tattered old gourds as drinking and serving tools.

This went on for a couple of shi until he had piled the mud five times - the walls of the U were calf high now. After the last bit of waiting he placed the next layer of mud, this one higher at the opening of the U shape, giving the walls a curve at the top, dropping towards the arch.

After that, instead of waiting, he broke up smaller green branches from the small saplings he had cleared and laid them across the top of the walls, covering the curved, higher part. Then he covered the sticks in the mud, forming a roof over the lower part of the kiln, leaving the top part with the arch open to form a chimney base.

Next he started to build the open arch up into a chimney by adding layers of mud again another hand span or so. Once that was done he opened a hole in the side of the kiln by cutting an arch out of the mud wall and carefully pulling the mud plug out. Then he added another layer to the chimney.

While Chún waited for the new chimney layer to dry he dug out some of the clay he found and using water from the stream and his hands pressed the clay into thick flat bars. While they were drying he went and added some mud to the inside of either side of the front of the kiln, where the shallow hole he had created with Essence was and created small ledges to rest the clay bars on.

Next he placed the dried clay bars - he cheated a bit and used fire Essence to dry them out solidly quickly - and placed them on the ledges inside the kiln.

Nightfall was fast approaching so he quickly placed the side plug loosely back in the hole, piled a bunch of small kindling and deadwood in the small pit in front of the open kiln and lit it with fire Essence.

The heat from the flames was caught by the kiln opening and quickly began to form a suction which drew the fire, heat and smoke back through the kiln and hot air up the chimney. Chún took this opportunity to add another layer of mud to the chimney - which was drying out much faster thanks to the hot air coming up - until it was almost head high on him as he knelt next to it, forming the layers with his Essence.

It was falling into dusk now, so he decided to let the small fire in front of the kiln die out. Bath, dinner and bed awaited - he was still tired from the last few days and manipulating all this Earth and Water with Essence was not easy, with his locus largely not involved.

By tomorrow the kiln would be ready to fire a pot. Which he had to make first… Chún sighed, tomorrow would be another physical day - but he really wanted proper pots and bowls - and if his idea for Essence infused ceramics was doable he could make small post to store Essence herbs, healthy and alive until market day - he just needed to get the pots to hold the patterns for life, water and earth - like his locus had done with fire for the stew pot.

Humming to himself, he walked away with a spring in his step, jumping the ice-crack glass tuft barrier around the clearing as he headed for the cave and his bath.

It was nice to have a day full of constructive work for a change, instead of life or death situations.