Eleven
Ash floated along the road. Levitating off the road so his boots didn’t touch.
Rather than travel by flying mount, or Qi construct, Ash had traveled with the Assembly by himself by virtue of flying directly. The whole way and only touching the ground to sleep when the group paused for the evening.
Mostly for the servants who were attending those Ash was moving with, who were low ranked and much closer to normal citizens. Needing much more rest, sleep, and food than the others.
Ash was traveling alone with the Great Healer Hall leader, the Golden Thought Sects leader, and the family head of the Hwabe family, his role wasn’t as a combatant. Ash had been invited to come along as support and being brand new.
In front of him moved all the Qi constructs that’d been flying not too long ago. This city, where the Assembly of Assemblies would be, had a no flying regulation.
I wonder if levitating counts as flying.
“Probably,”answered Locke immediately. “No one else is levitating.”
Ash looked around and noted that Locke was indeed correct.
Thinking on how to handle this, as walking on foot would most certainly spoil the image of “Lord Sheng”, he came up with a rather stupid, but likely effective, idea.
Ash lifted his hand out to begin channeling Qi, then hesitated.
He wanted to try something else.
Because realistically speaking, if he wanted to expand his understanding, of who he was, he needed to challenge his own limits. Limits that he put upon himself mentally or physically.
Grasping hold of his meridians across the whole of his body Ash pushed with Qi. Attempting to move them out at points that felt more conducive to flowing.
Perhaps they weren’t at the ‘correct’ points, but they were where the momentum of the Qi could be diverted easily.
Ash felt it when Qi exited from the tops of his shoulders, the bottom of his spine, and his hips.
Mentally holding to those points, Ash quickly extended eight tendrils of Qi. Six from his shoulders and for from his hips. The one that came out of his spine he split into two.
In several seconds, he’d thickened them into spider like legs, had them touch the ground, and cut his flying off. Letting the spider legs carry him along the road, high above everyone else.
Ash was a good ten feet off the ground as his long Qi legs began moving him forward.
And almost immediately got tangled in one another.
Pushing at his mind, Ash dug into the ‘momentum’ of his movements. Opening himself partially to his Dao to get a feel for the motion and how it should flow.
After several heartbeats, untangling his own Qi legs, and then attempting to move them in a co-ordinated manner, Ash got a basic handle on the locomotion.
It reminded him of gears in the end. The rear most leg lifts up and then sets down. Then the next moves forward sets down, then the next, and the last. At the same time, on the opposite side, they moved asynchronously, yet in the same way.
After two cycles, Ash got a handle on it.
Six more cycles and it felt natural to him.
Eight legs were propelling him, four extra legs simply hung on either side of him. Two above and two below. They were sharpened and flattened into blades.
“That’s not horrific at all,” Locke said in a flat voice.
I like it.
Ash released his hold on his Dao but kept his mind on the movement. Letting himself memorize the feel of it, how it worked, and what to do with it.
Experimentally, Ash began to move around the four blade like appendages. Testing them out and how they moved. He was already thinking about how to utilize this in combat.
Fighting with two weapons had been part of how he had lived and fought as Ashley Sheng. As a Cultivator might do so.
Perhaps Lord Sheng needed to be more.
Thinking as if the four blade-like appendages were arms and legs, Ash immediately found they responded to his thoughts in a similar way. Given their length, and the way he could segment and modify them with joints, he could make them like a whip, a sword, or a spear.
“You’re passing by the Assembly-goers,” Locke warned.
Ash hesitated, looked down, and saw he was indeed moving past the Qi construct vehicles.
Slowing down Ash lingered above the Qi construct that held the Great Healer Hall’s people. He’d liked them and they’d been rather upfront and warm to him.
He suspected it was because he’d rebuilt Shuang’s Dantian directly. The one in charge for them had been the one everyone else had looked to for information about Shuang, and she’d been eager to do so.
That meant it wasn’t just mastery, but interest.
Ash folded his left hand behind his back, his right dangling at his side, his long Qi legs moving him easily through the streets. Though he was now making quite the spectacle. A great many people were watching him.
In that moment, Ash was reminded of the fact that they were all Cultivators. None of these people were Citizens, unless they were part of a major family or sect that didn’t want a family member to be sent away.
How’s everyone?
Ash had left the next morning with the Assembly. Barely having enough time to mentally prepare himself before he was separated from everyone.
Only Locke was with him and that was because she was in his mind.
“Well. Na, Mei, and Jia are working to ingratiate the Sheng sect with the City Lord and Realm Lord’s Envoy.
“Hui, Siu, and Chu are going over all information to figure out what we’re looking at conflict wise. Especially in regards to the Unorthodox Path.
“Tala, Moira, and Rou are mostly working in the lower realm to stabilize everything. There’s been a lot of changes and all. We’re slowly letting modern tech seep in some way. Medicine, books, education, things that’ll better the populace first.
“Ren, Si’Sha, Liu, and Eira are working toward furthering your goals and your divine self. We’re trying to get someone to take leadership over the Palace Guard Fire users. They’re trying but there’s a good bit of infighting.”
Ash followed along with the procession as he mentally listened to Locke. Everything seemed like it was moving in the right direction. It wasn’t going to be quick, nor were things going to be easy.
This was what came with moving up to another realm, though.
I’m not looking forward to going to the Upper Realm. The amount of support the Brides and Knights can provide at that point will be much lower.
“Yes… I’m… yes. I’m worried, honey,” admitted Locke, sounding genuinely bothered.
The Assembly took another turn and were now heading toward a rather large open area at the center of the city. There were buildings spread throughout it, with large green spaces in between. It was easily a mile square in every direction.
Only then did Ash realize just how large this city was. It was massive and seemed to stretch out in every direction. The distant city walls were impossible to see against the endless sea of roofs.
The no flying rule was likely because they needed their security forces to be able to identify and move quickly. Anyone flying would quickly become a suspect.
Other lines of people and Qi constructs, expensive flying artifacts, and eve flying boats, turned toward the main boulevard Ash’s group was on. Getting in front of and some behind and merging into the whole thing.
As a whole, everyone was moving toward a rather large and ornate gate. At that gate was a great many people who Ash felt like gave off a great deal of power.
Inherently as well as overtly.
Even from where he was moving along on his Qi-legs, Ash could feel surging Qi being pushed out by them due to their strength alone. He of course was gladly siphoning it all way and straight into the Hall.
Resources were resources, after all.
The procession moved along.
It took two hours before Ash got his turn at the gate and found a young woman with a pale green eye, and a pale blue eye, waiting for him. She was dressed in a dark-red, bordering on wine colored, robe. Her brown hair was pulled back in a braid and she turned to look at him, her eyes tracking up to where Ash was in his strange Qi-contraption.
She made a small head dipping motion, then her eyes flicked to the space in front of her.
He got the hint.
Lowering himself down to a normal height, but not removing the Qi-legs, Ash produced his new Sheng salute to the woman. He didn’t know who she was, but she was clearly waiting for him.
The five people who were manning the gate had been looking to him until he saluted her.
“Lord Sheng, of the Sheng Sect,” Ash said formally.
“I am Qiao Tan, grandaughter of Ding Tan, head of the Great Healer Hall,” said the young woman. “I was asked by grandmother to be your escort and your vouch-safe during this Assembly of Assemblies.”
“Ah, I am ever further in debt to the Great Healer Hall,” Ash said with a grin for the woman. “My thanks, Qiao. Your name fits you well. How should I proceed?”
Qiao blinked in an odd way, frowned slightly, then gestured to the very strong and powerful men at the gates. While they were clearly stuck in the Mortal realm, they most certainly went beyond the peak. Those who would fight a Sovereign Immortal with a chance to win.
“Merely present yourself to them, and they will begin the interview,” Qiao murmured, then kept pace with Ash when he turned and moved toward them, a great majority of his Qi-Legs had to be shortened so that they didn’t tower over them. He also had shortened the sword limbs and blunted their edges.
“Please stand upon the plate,” stated a very large guard who pointed at a spot in front of themselves. A ringed saber stuck up from his back.
The point they directed Ash to stand upon was a three-foot by three-foot stone slab.
Ash did so and retracted his Qi-Legs all the way down to nothing more than small discs pressed to his skin. Completely retracting them into his clothes.
“Were those artifacts, weapons, or an ability?” demanded a second guard.
“Qi. It was Qi,” Ash said meeting the man’s eyes. He had no reason to lie.
Ash held up his hand and created Qi directly from his palm. He fashioned it in the shape of a Qi-leg and had it move around a bit.
The guard who had asked, reached out and touched it. Then tapped at it. Ash had solidified it one moment, then made it much softer between taps.
“Anything else?” Ash asked, glancing down at the slab. He was certain it was some type of measuring device. He just didn’t know what it was measuring or how it worked.
“No,” stated the original guard. He stepped to the side and made way for Ash. “Enter. The Assembly begins tomorrow morning. Until then, merely make yourself at home.”
Ash nodded at that, looked to Qiao, waited for her, then entered through the gates when she moved to join him.
No sooner than they’d passed through the gate than Ash had felt something strange. A tingling sensation that ran down his spine and across his shoulders. It didn’t feel like anything aggressive or ill-intentioned.
More akin to when he’d walked through the shielding Jia had made once to identify people.
Frowning, Ash looked backward, then down at himself while stepping off to the side.
Touching himself, he felt something odd.
Something had attached itself to him. It had blended in with his natural Qi levels along his skin. If he wasn’t accountable to his own momentum he wouldn’t have even noticed it.
It simply didn’t flow in alignment with his own wishes and stood out like a neon-light.
Grasping at it with his Dao, Ash wrenched it free.
No sooner than it fell away from him than it disintegrated into nothing at all. A simple and momentary fluttering of bits of light that vanished as soon as Ash could see them in the air.
“What… what was that?” asked Qiao, looking at him in confusion. Now that Ash was directly next to her and just about staring at her, he realized she was quite pretty.
“Not sure,” Ash lied then shook his head. He didn’t want to speak about whatever the gate had tried to stick on him.
It’d only alert people.
Perhaps to the fact that he could feel it and remove it.
Perhaps that everyone had some type of Qi weave wrapped around them and no one knew.
In either case, it felt like telling anyone about it would be revealing too much.
“Now… no one told me what to expect once we were here,” Ash continued. “I assume your grandmother sent you to help me with that part of it since I’m the new guy?”
“Yes! That’s right,” Qiao said with a quick nod of her head. She still looked bothered by what she’d seen and likely wasn’t going to let it go, though she seemed like she’d allow the conversation to change. “Though… there’s so many people moving about with full entourages. I know where we must go, but the crowd is quite intense.”
Ash looked toward the large group of people that were literally in front of them.
At some point, the convoy Ash had left with, had entered that crowd, and were now somewhere amongst it. Some Cultivators were using abilities to move about quickly, yet no one seemed to be daring to fly. Nor to bump or nudge anyone.
To be fair, everyone here has a great deal of face. Even the slightest offense could cause a duel.
So… let’s just… get above it.
Ash quickly grew out his Qi-legs from the discs he’d kept pressed to his back.
Without asking, he used all four of the weapon-appendages to fashion a seat, scoop up Qiao, and lifted himself and her off the ground. He kept going till they were easily thirty feet up in the air.
They weren’t flying and they were merely using his ability to move around. He assumed this was within the rules since the guards hadn’t mentioned anything.
“Which way?” Ash asked Qiao who had made a squeak when he’d picked her up, but now had settled herself quite quickly. She was now sat sideways, her knees pressed together with her legs pushed out to the side, and seemed quite content.
To be fair, Ash had more or less fashioned a one person carriage for her out of Qi with her inside of it.
“That way, please, Lord Sheng,” Qiao murmured while pointing with her left hand. She casually looked down at everyone milling about below them.
Ash started to move forward, elongating the Qi-legs here and there so he could place them in spots no-one was. He covered a large distance in no time at all.
“Oh, there’s grandmother,” Qiao added as they passed a very large group of people. “I think we’ll beat them there.”
She laughed as she finished talking, then looked over at Ash from her private palanquin and raised an eyebrow. Then leaned back, continued to point, and looked rather pleased.
***
Ash leaned back against the softened Qi seat and looked to the stage. The very large amphitheater was far bigger than he’d expected and had been put together on the spot for this moment.
The previous night he’d spent in the Hall, in his own bed, with Mei. Which made today much easier to deal with than he’d originally thought.
Unfortunately, his Assembly hadn’t been given the best of seats. They were ‘middle prestige’ at best, Qiao had explained. Their Assembly was newer, but powerful. It didn’t have the same connections, respect, or face, older more established Assemblies did.
Though he’d given himself a better seat without making it obvious. He could shift and adjust the Qi beneath his clothes rather freely. Even giving himself a high backed seat that let him lean back in it.
“—much better than two years ago,” Qiao rambled on, looking to Ash, smiling, then waving a hand at him. “But you likely neither know, nor care about such things.”
“I mean, I don’t know anything, so I appreciate every word you gift me,” Ash said, looking at Qiao and smiling. “If anything, I’d ask you to keep talking. Telling me all about everything. Though I understand if you’re feeling uncomfortable.”
Her grandmother was beside her, and then the rest of the Assembly beyond that. Ash had been put on the far end with Qiao. He wasn’t sure if it was just accidental, or how they wanted it to be.
That or their seating arrangements had been this way for many years and they meant no offense, just that this was how they’d always done it.
“No! Not uncomfortable at all. I’m just-it’s nice to have someone to talk to. I always have to attend as the next head of the sect, but there’s never anyone near my age,” Qiao answered quickly.
With a frown, Ash re-evaluated the audience.
They were indeed all much older. All of them were in their middle ages at the earliest, though most were much older. To say that he was likely the youngest one here with Qiao could be true, but he wasn’t sure. He did see younger people here and there, likely those who were already identified as the next generation of sect or clan leaders.
People who would need to make connections and relationships now so that they could be leveraged at a later date and time.
“It’s just really nice,” Qiao began, paused, then turned and looked toward the center of the wide auditorium. Ash hadn’t noticed anything but Qiao apparently had. Focusing on his awareness of the area, he only then realized that someone powerful was moving toward the stage.
Ash wasn’t used to so many people being around him that had such high power levels. To him, it was just one more explosion of power amongst many others. His sensitivity was low, it seemed.
Something for him to work on.
“Thank you,” stated a man walking out onto the platform. “Thank you everyone for coming to silence so quickly. You have my thanks.”
The man performed a martial salute.
A second after that and a boiling morass of fiery Qi lashed across the man. It wrapped him up in a coil and he began to shriek and scream as he caught fire.
Purple flames shot upward in a roaring inferno and licked at the sky. An insane racket of crackling fire and screaming, the man jittering about even as he burned inside the coil of Qi.
Only to go still, then collapse into a pile of blackened bones, ash, and a partially burnt leg as the coil vanished.