Treasures Of Heaven And Earth

'Quiet Standing is a literal pain,' Chún complained up the link to his locus, standing in the modified horse stance that the Tiger Prince had taught him as the first feathers of the Golden Crow began brushing over the Heaven and Earth Vine's clearing.

"I would not know," replied Tai in good humor, 'since that is literally the definition of what a mountain - does."

"You are a planet now, they are a lot more active - earthquakes and storms and so forth," replied Chún wryly.

"Not to mention all the spinning," mused the former Mountain, "but still, basically, the whole point of Quiet Standing is to - be - regardless of whatever else is going on around or inside you - still a fairly good definition of a Mountain or a planet, I think."

"Where does spinning get involved," asked Chún in slight confusion.

There was a background hum of amus.e.m.e.nt as his locus answered, "If you ever Advance to World level you will understand."

"Ah. OK," Chún shrugged mentally, "When can I get started on my sets?"

"In another Kè or so, your muscles should be sufficiently fatigued that you will have to use care and effort to get them right," answered his friend.

"Bái said most Cultivators and high leveled Essence beasts that practice martial techniques do Quiet Standing - after - they finish their forms, to avoid being too fatigued," Chún pointed out irritably.

"Most do not have perfectly advanced bodies that have been tempered to near-indestructibility with a ridiculous rate of recovery," countered Tai, "your body would keep up with the exertion of the forms for many shi before you felt any effect."

"And yet it does nothing to stop Quiet Standing from being painful," grumbled the young teen True Cultivator.

"Because it pits your own muscles against themselves," explained his locus, "at this point of Advancement, if you are not competing against a similar level being, it is about the only thing which can challenge your body. Now focus," chided Tai, "meditate. It is meant to be - Quiet - Standing, after all."

Chún sighed and let his discomfort slip away into the earth through the soles of his feet.

---

A shi later, Chún was shifting around the clearing, moving through the combined forms from the Monkey movement and Snake movement Daos, combined with elements of the White Tiger style, that the Tiger Prince had helped him to weave together in the beginnings of a rudimentary personal style. Shé Yin had come out of the cavern part way through and was now dr.a.p.ed over one of the large branches of one of the trees that ringed the clearing, following his progress with interest.

As he came to the end of the last form and fell into an abbreviated salute to heaven, the large silver python began shifting around on the branches, his head dropping down to stretch in the young teen's direction. Tai spoke a moment after, "Shé Yin wants to know if you intend to use Tiger style instead of learning Dragon Style to link your martial styles together into one of the four Sacred Styles."

Chún blinked, "If I remember correctly, Tai, you called them the Sacred Movement Dao, not the four Sacred Styles."

The silver python shifted around in mid air, the majority of his body extended off of the branch, Tai's translation was amused, "The four Sacred Styles are more than Movement Dao!"

There was a pause as Tai dropped his own comment in, "In this humble Mountain Planet's opinion, a Martial Style is still a Movement Dao - it merely has been refined for offence and defence."

Shé Yin shifted around agitatedly and Tai laughed, "We can discuss it between us later, Silver One."

The snake relaxed slightly but kept moving, the light from the Golden Crow refracting of his scales in subtle ways and Tai continued, "Still, the Snake Prince wants to know if you no longer intend to develop snake movement Dao into the Dragon Style." Chún's locus paused and instructed, "back into Quiet Standing to cool down, Chún."

Chún g.r.o.a.n.e.d, but settled back on his heels and sank down into his core, closing his eyes as he responded to Shé Yin, "I feel that different styles are appropriate to different situations; while as a sacred style Tiger Style may be able to handle all situations - the same as Dragon style - I would say that Dragon would be better in some situations then Tiger; just like I prefer to use Monkey Movement for pure travelling - it works well with a human body."

Shé Yin wrapped back around the branch, moving his head from side to side, "He agrees, but he says you will need a true master - like the Black Tortoise-Snake - to teach you how to meld all four Sacred Styles into something you can use together," interjected Tai, "do not worry about that, for now, you have a long way to go now before you have come close to mastering what you have already started learning. You still need to develop the skill to react instinctively in the correct manner - your body is strong and powerful, but it has to develop delicacy and finesse."

Chún nodded slightly and let his thoughts slide away into meditation - along with the sounds of the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees, water flowing through the clearing's creek and the hums and songs of the insects and birds around him.

---

After a half shi, Chún came out of meditation and started stretching as he walked around his clearing, picking up fruit and vegetables from the garden and the Heaven and Earth Vine for breakfast; despite no longer feeling hungry, he still enjoyed eating - and it was a good for mental health to have breaks for eating and sleeping in a day where it was possible. He also took the opportunity to check on the various fruit trees, 'spirit' rice and dòufǔ plots that he had planted over the last two months.

While it was evident that the high levels of Essence in the environment was accelerating growth, it did not mean that something that normally would take six months to grow would grow in less than one or two, particularly when it came to the spirit' rice and dòufǔ - the rice particularly was growing slowly, possibly because it related to the amount of the specific types of Essence each group of seedlings needed to absorb.

Munching on a vine fruit as he moved around he poked and prodded at the various plants with interest. Eventually he came around the clearing and arrived back in front of the Heaven and Earth Vine and looked up at the enormous expanse of vines and leaves that covered the clifface.

"Your Highness? I am expecting some livestock to arrive in the next day or so - a rooster, six or so chickens and a pair of goats. I would like to place their pen and coop in your clearing. That way they are less likely to be eaten by Essence Beasts - especially at night. I know they are only normal animals - although, they have been on the mountain for almost a week, so I expect they are beginning to change - anyway," he coughed embarrassedly and bowed slightly, "I am asking for permission to allow them to live in your clearing without being eaten - then I will have eggs and milk and you will get extra fertiliser."

There was a loud swell of excited squeaking and chirping as a large group of Essence Sprites of all different types burst out of the leaves of the vine and swirled around Chún in a brightly glittering rainbow of fire, water, air, wood, metal and other Essence types.

"All of you are very excited," exclaimed Chún as he took a step back in surprise, "what is wrong?"

"They wish to take care of the new animals," explained his locus, Tai's amus.e.m.e.nt clear in the link, "Her Highness agrees not to eat your live food."

"Well then, I should set up places for them to sleep," mused Chún, bowing more deeply towards the Heaven and Earth Vine. "my thanks, your Highness."

With the enthusiastic accompaniment of the small swarm of Essence Sprites, Chún passed over to the other side of the clearing from the garden in an unused area. Visualising what he was thinking, he prodded his link with Tai, "What do you think?"

"Straight forward enough - although if you got a young tree or sapling from the forest and moved it here it would go faster and be easier."

"Her Highness might not approve," Chún pointed out uneasily, "I have not see other plants in her clearing besides herself - even the grass is part of her."

"Ask her for some vines to work with the," suggested his locus, "I will pass it on…"

Chún winced, but a moment later some slim to medium with vines burst out of the immaculate grass and started growing into a basket-like weaving of vines and leaves to create a small fenced-off area to the excited noises of the Essence Sprites who promptly started swirling around the forming goat pen, encouraging it with little bursts of Essence of their own.

"I passed on what you needed," confirmed Tai, "just to make things simpler all around."

Chún blinked, "Thank you, I guess," feeling like he was taking advantage, he pushed out pulses of balanced Essence out into the ground beneath him through his feet and the fence responded by growing faster - almost exploding into shape, even as a small covered stable inside one corner of the goat pen and a small chicken coop started forming out of the same woven vine constructs on the outside of the opposite corner of the pen. Essence sprites darted in all directions and within seconds they zipped back, carrying in small bundles of dried grasses, plants and herbs and began arranging bedding in both the chicken coop and small goat stable.

"Is this a hint that I do not give them enough to do, do you think?" Chún asked bemusedly as he watched what he had expected to take a day's worth of work being completed in less than a fēn.

"Do you think they would be interested in helping me make more Dao pots or medicine?"

"Taking care of plants and animals comes naturally to them," explained Tai, "For things like forging, alchemy and pottery, they would have to learn the long way and it would be hard for the Essence Sprites to make things sized for you."

���Speaking of Dao pots," Chún said, heading towards the workshop in the forest, "it is past time I made some new ones. I am going to the river to extract some clay, Tai, can you get the kilns, the drying pit and a bench area ready?"

"Of course, friend. It might be a good idea to work with the Cauldron to make more powerful healing medicine too - we seem to be using a lot of the wound heal lately."

Chún grumbled, "I still do not have any good recipes - are we letting the Cauldron do all the work again?"

"You should experiment," advised his locus, "I can give you information on what he properties of various materials are and you can work on refining them into various combinations to achieve what you are looking for - remember that Consumer alchemist recipes are not going to be much help to you; the Cauldron has also developed enough that it can… assist, although the more you work with it the better it will become."

"Same with forging, I suppose," replied Chún as he flew across the river to land at his preferred clay gathering spot, "well, it looks like this will be a quiet day - about time I had one of those."

"You should enjoy it," advised the Mountain-planet, "going by the news in the village the mess in Hujian is a lot bigger than we first heard - people have come through with stories saying all mundane buildings - anything not using Essence Techniques in construction or materials - basically got knocked down by whatever happened. A lot of the civilians that can afford to have started fleeing for other cities in case things get worse. Apparently there is a full scale war going on between Grass and some other Consumer sect, or Clan or something."

"I hope Grass is getting their face slapped?" asked Chún hopefully as he started pushing out balanced Essence from his hands to extract the clay from the river bank without touching it.

"Mixed news on that side, apparently," replied Tai after a moment, "as far as I can tell, what ever happened in Hujian did not go according to plan, but as far as I can tell from the communications I am intercepting from the lower level members they have spread out in this area, their heavy troops are all focused on this siege or war or whatever - and that is happening somewhere else - the events in the city were just a sideshow. Sort of similar to whatever they have planned around this area actually - the higher level Consumers I was sensing on the periphery of my range have all moved away - I cannot sense any of them anymore. There are just lower levels patrolling - and I have killed almost all of them."

Chún paused at that, holding the ball of Essence Balanced clay in midair suspended between his hands, "You should be careful that you do not attract one of those higher level consumers - if any of them decides to inspect their troops in person and realises they are no longer there…"

"I have been mimicking their transmissions from this area from the Consumers I have killed - there should be no reason anyone would decide to come to actually check if the people they think they are talking to are still alive or not," soothed the mountain-planet, "if anyone at a high level does come, they will only see Essence Beasts. They would be looking for enemy consumers, not the wilderness itself as a threat."

"You are sure they will not sense you?" asked Chún, resuming his work with the Essence clay, "only, it seems odd that all this time we have been working to remain low key and now you are actively killing Consumers."

"I - we - have a great deal more power and resources than before. It would take a mid rank World level Cultivator to be able to pose any serious threat - or even locate, this separate universe at this point - although a high ranked Sky level Consumer could do significant damage to the original site and the village if they were so minded," assured his locus, "which, while annoying, does not really concern us beyond a minor inconvenience - and since such actions would undoubtedly attract Imperial attention, I am sure the vast majority of Consumers would avoid such behaviour. That is why the battle between the Sects - or whatever it is that is going on - is not resulting in massive destruction, or if it is, it is not happening where it can affect the average citizen."

"That means the Lotus Empire will undoubtedly be investigating what happened in Hujian," mused Chún, "which means there is a time limit to whatever Grass is doing…"

"Very likely," agreed Tai, "That explains why all of the Grass High level…"

His locus suddenly broke off even as Chún felt a peculiar sensation - as if for a moment everything had spun slightly and titled, before returning to normal - causing him to pause the clay extraction and look around warily.

"What was that..."

"One moment," interrupted Tai. Chún blinked as Tai's 'presence' in the link, for want of a better description seemed to recede, almost feeling distant - or focused elsewhere. After a breath, the young teen shrugged and started pulling clay from the riverbank again.

---

A Kè later, Chún was sitting at the workbench in his 'workshop' clearing, slowly going through the tedious but necessary process required for refining the raw clay into material suitable for making new pots - adding old ceramic dusts, balancing the elemental Essence levels in the material and purifying it before setting it aside to dry before working it into shape, when he felt his locus' focus return to the link.

"Ah, I am glad you are back, friend," he 'said' mildly into the link, "did you find out what that was?"

"Yes, I am afraid - or at least what happened, plus some educated guesses on what caused it."

Chún stopped what he was doing and frowned at the non-specific reply, "I am not sure I understand?"

"That sensation was someone collapsing a minor plane - what the Consumers generally call a Secret Land. Something like what I was before the incident with those World Devouring creatures," clarified his locus.

"That does not sound good," responded the young teen, "and the rest?"

"Well from the panic and chaos in the messages I am receiving from the hooks I have into Grass' communication formations, whomever collapsed that plane wiped out their sieging force - so presumably, it was whomever they were attacking. Their upper echelons appear decimated, from all the order, counter-order, disorder running and screaming going on in what is left of the middle and lower ranks."

Tai paused for a few moments and then continued, just as Chún was about to ask another question, "The few high levels they have left, just issued a general recall order to return to their strongholds - I presume some of them were left to hold their headquarters instead of participating, but not many."

Another pause and then, "The majority of the low levels out here have been ordered back - although a bunch of them have been also set specifically to watch the area between here and Hujian. They are still expecting someone that they are hunting to come this way, it appears, but more important matters are taking precedence. I expect they will be dismayed when most of the people that were assigned out here never return - at this rate they might blame it entirely on this mysterious target of theirs."

Chún frowned, "I am starting to think that we should be actively watching for whomever they are trying to catch; I am guessing that the fact Grass lost a lot of people but is ordering a cessation of hostilities, means that Grass won their war - but at a much higher price then they were hoping to pay. Are there any signs of Grass being under attack?"

"No," replied the locus, "they are being recalled, but they are not retreating from battles - I am not intercepting any reports of combat."

The young teen muttered a gutter rat curse, "We should hope whomever is their enemy manages to escape - it would likely be a better thing for us - otherwise, eventually Grass will recover without whomever was opposing them and eventually return stronger than before - and then we might find ourselves in trouble."

"An interesting analysis," remarked Tai, "what prompted it? I did not know you are a strategist."

"Basic gang politics," shrugged Chún as he bent back over his work, "You hit the other guys as hard as you can. If you take them out you consolidate; if you got hit as hard as they did - you lay low until you get your strength back and 'cause you beat them recruitment will be up - people like joining winners so it will not take long."

There was a snort and Tai pushed a wry image through the link, "I am quite sure these high level consumer Sects would be mortally offended by being compared to street gang brats."

"Does not make it any less true," snorted Chún, bending over the workbench as he focused on beginning to smooth the drier clay balls into pot shapes, "Keep an eye out."

"All of them," his locus assured them.