4/26/26 A/N: The Writeathon really helped me get the creative juices flowing. I didn't publish this chapter today because of a word count (I'm almost assured of reaching my goal of 75k this month even if I hadn't posted this chapter tonight). I was just so excited to write it that I did.
Writeathon Status: 34 Chapters, 72,553 Words.
Lei Lanfen didn’t know what to think. She should have simple walked from one side of the arch, passed under it, and arrived at the other side, still in the square of her very own village. Instead, she’d emerged in a weird enclosed corridor and eventually at an entirely different place where the temperature was at least ten degrees warmer.
“Is this…” she couldn’t even say it.
“Go ahead,” Zou Ai said. “Ask someone.”
Lei Lanfen was almost positive what the answer would be, but horror struck her at the fact that she’d yelled at cultivators and outright called them scammers. If being obedient from that point on earned her any clemency, she was determined to do just that.
She spotted an older woman who looked nice and approached her. “Excuse me, Honored Elder, but what town is this lowly one in?”
“Got lost in the network, did you? Don’t worry. It happens sometimes.” The woman chuckled. “You’re in Eighth Resonant Heavens Town.”
“Gratitude, Honored Elder.”
Lei Lanfen hunched her shoulders as she walked back to the arch.
“Satisfied?” Zou Ai said.
“Yes, Esteemed Cultivator. This lowly one does not know how to adequately express remorse for—”
“It’s okay, really. Actually, it’s probably my fault. Your orientation was not properly conducted, and my guess is that failure was due to my interference. They had to think that I was doing it, and I thought they were. Bottom line, we screwed up, not you.”
The day was not turning out at all how Lei Lanfen expected. First, there were the miraculous fasting pills that nearly filled her stomach for the first time in weeks. Then came the job offer—five taels a week! Then she somehow crossed the entire continent in a manner of minutes. Finally, a cultivator apologized to her, not only a mere mortal but a dirt poor one at that.
If anything else strange happened, she didn’t know if she could stand it.
“Do you think you can figure out how to get back?” Zou Ai said.
“Yes, Esteemed Cultivator.”
“Great,” Zou Ai waved a hand toward the arch. “Let’s go quickly. I don’t want Yun’er to get worried.”
Lei Lanfen wasn’t quite as confident in herself as she’d made herself sound, but the process had seemed quite simple. “System, two to travel to Azure Dusty Hills Village, please.”
“Acknowledged,” the strange voice said. “Transport prepared for two to Azure Dusty Hills Village.”
With only the slightest hesitation, she stepped through the arch and chose the green highlighted one each time until she found herself back in her own village.
When Zou Ai emerged, Lei Lanfen cupped her hands. “Gratitude for instructing this silly mortal, Esteemed Cultivator.”
“It’s no problem, dear. That’s why we’re here.”
Unless Zou Ai was going out of her to be duplicitous and had very ill intent, she certainly seemed nice and not angry about what happened. Lei Lanfen decided to risk it.
“May this lowly one ask how much the transit will cost, Esteemed Cultivator?”
Even if it cost as much as three or four taels to get back and forth for the week, she’d still come out a tael to a tael and a half ahead. That was so much more than she could make in the her village, if she could even find a job. It was enough to provide at least a full meal each day for her and both her family members.
“You’ll find this hard to believe, but I really wouldn’t lie to you. It’s free.”
Lei Lanfen had not lived an easy life, and if there was one lesson she’d learned very early on, it was that nothing worth having was free. Her skepticism must have shown on her face.
“I swear on my cultivation that you will not be charged a single bit for using the portal network,” Zou Ai said, her voice quite firm.
As soon as the last word faded, a small bolt of purple lightning flashed across the sky.
Zou Ai took a step back. “Wow! I’ve seen that happen with Master, of course, but never for me.”
“What … What was that, Esteemed Cultivator?”
“The heavens witnessed my vow to you, meaning that, if I lied to you, my entire cultivation would be removed.”
The woman seemed shook up over the lightning, so Lei Lanfen had a difficult time believing she was lying. On the other hand, the portals being free seemed so utterly absurd that it couldn’t possibly be true. Could it?
“Truthfully, if we had to pay someone to construct the network, there is no way anyone on the continent—or even everyone working together—could afford it, but Master doesn’t charge anyone for building it.” Zou Ai shrugged. “He has access to a lot a qi, more than I can even dream of having. Even so, it takes him several multiples of what he can hold at once to build even one of the hubs.”
Despite her skepticism, Lei Lanfen found herself captivated to the unexpected window into cultivators. “How does he do that, Esteemed Cultivator?”
Zou Ai made a coin appear in her hand. “This is a greater spirit coin, Fire aspected to match one of my elements. If I run low on qi, I simply put this in my mouth, it dissolved, and my pool refills by the amount in the coin. To make a hub, Master has to consume huge stacks of these that are aspected to a very rare qi element—Dimensional.”
“And he just does that for free?”
“He does.”
Lei Lanfen didn’t realize that she’d forgotten the honorific until it was too late. She hunched her shoulders.
“You’d have to do a lot more than that to make me punish you. At worst, I’d yell at you. Forgetting to be polite isn’t the same as deliberately being impolite.”
She cupped her hands. “Gratitude, Esteemed Cultivator.”
“Anyway, creating the hubs is ruinously expensive, but once everything is up and running, it’s quite efficient and requires a relatively small amount of qi to keep going. Since the Rising Tide Sect bore the price of constructing it, the Poison Claw Sect and the Emperor’s faction split the upkeep costs.” Zou Ai paused. “Believe me, the network has benefited everyone more than enough to make maintenance worth it. The economic boon alone produces several orders of magnitude in taxes more than it costs to allow everyone on the continent to move about as they please.”
Lei Lanfen still wanted to disbelieve the story simply because she wasn’t accustomed to anything in life panning out so well for her. Life was a struggle. Nothing was achieved without much hard work.
The biggest counter to that argument was the question—why would a cultivator go through so much trouble just to fool a worthless mortal?
She cupped her hands. “Gratitude, Esteemed Cultivator.”
Zou Ai beamed. “It was my pleasure. Are you all set, now?”
“Yes, Esteemed Cultivator. Gratitude.” Lei Lanfen turned to walk away.
“Wait!”
She turned back, scared at what Zou Ai wanted, suspecting that whatever hidden price they wanted would finally come into play.
“Did you want to say goodbye to Yun’er? I don’t know if he’d be upset or not if you left without seeing him. He’s not exactly attached to you, but he did give you a hug, which is rare for him with a stranger.”
Lei Lanfen had to admit that there was nothing better in life than a toddler’s hug, and she would hate to disappoint the little guy. “Of course, Esteemed Cultivator.”
As they walked back to the outpost, she said, “Gratitude for the pills, Esteemed Cultivator. I don’t know what I would have done without it.”
“Crap. I forgot to give you the other two bowls of rice and pork that I promised. Thanks for the reminder.”
She hadn’t truly believed that the offer was real. No one just gave away three large bowls of perfectly good food. But, maybe, just maybe, the woman walking with her did just that. “Gratitude again. Ever since this lowly one’s mother got sick—”
“Your mother is sick! Have you seen the healers? They’re helping you, right?”
“This lowly one can’t afford—”
Zou Ai rounded on her, looking truly angry for the first time that day. “There is no afford. How many times do I have to tell you that all this is free? If you need help, all you have to do is let us know. There’s no hidden cost. No ulterior motive. We. Are. Here. To. Help. Understand?”
“Yes, Ma’am!”
Even though that wasn’t the correct form of address and felt stupid to say to someone not that much older than her, Zou Ai felt so much like a mother that it was impossible to say anything else.
“Come with me.”
Zou Ai’s tone brooked no chance of refusal. Lei Lanfen could no more resisted than if she’d been physically drug by that huge guard, Li Bo, from earlier. Soon, they were at a room marked “Clinic,” and she was being asked questions about her mother’s symptoms from a seemingly nice woman who wore robes similar to Zou Ai and the other cultivators.
After the woman’s questions finally wound down, she turned to Zou Ai, not Lei Lanfen. “It sounds like a sinus infection that turned into pneumonia, Senior Sister. A healing pill will most likely clear it up, but it would be better if I administered it myself in case of complications or significant unreported issues. It also appears that the patient is not ambulatory.”
“How many patients have you had today?” Zou Ai said.
“None, Senior Sister.”
“You’ll be fine to close the clinic long enough for a house call, correct?”
“O-of course, Senior Sister.”
“Great. Let me grab Yun’er, and we’ll all go together.”
As the quartet reached the foyer, however, the muscular guard, Li Bo, stopped them. “I’m really supposed to be the one to escort personnel into the village, Senior Sister.”
Lei Lanfen glared at the man. First, he bullied Zou Ai and now he wasn’t letting her leave.
Zou Ai noticed. “Why did you look at him like that?”
Lei Lanfen was, of course, nervous about answering, but Zou Ai eventually drug it out of her.
“You think he’s bullying me, so you’re mad at him?”
Lei Lanfen didn’t like how Zou Ai was grinning. “Well, he is being a bully!”
“Be-because I’m so weak?” She was trying so hard not to laugh that she could barely speak.
Lei Lanfen didn’t understand the reaction, but clearly some part of her reasoning must have been wrong. “Well, yes?”
“I do appreciate you looking about for me,” Zou Ai said. “Shame on you, Li Bo, for bullying this poor, young cultivator.”
The man looked like he had no idea what to do. “Yes, Senior Sister. Apologies, Senior Sister.”
Zou Ai finally lost her battle and started laughing so hard. Yun’er joined in, and soon, all of them, including Lei Lanfen cracked up.
“Who do you think is more capable of protecting Xiao Yanmei—you or me?” Zou Ai said to Li Bo once they’d all caught their breath. “Please explain your answer to Lei Lanfen.”
“Yes, Senior Sister.” Li Bo turned to Lei Lanfen. “As a cultivator advances in realm, their power increases greatly, especially when moving up in major realms. For example, I am in the eighth minor realm of Qi Gathering, the lowest major realm. Despite how I might appear, I am among the weakest of the Rising Tide Sect members stationed here. Most people here have reached the second major realm, Foundation Establishment. Even though I focus on weapons and martial arts, any of them could beat me in a spar simply due to the realm disparity. Does that make sense?”
Lei Lanfen had vaguely known about realms, but she hadn’t thought that a big man like Li Bo might actually be weaker than someone who was so much smaller than him. A frightening suspicion was starting to take hold, however. “And … And Senior Sister? How does she rank?”
“Senior Sister isn’t someone who would typically be here. She’s one of the sect leaders, a member of the council of elders. She’s advanced to Golden Core, two major realms higher than me, and could destroy this entire village with very little effort.”
“You didn’t have to put it that way!” Zou Ai said.
Li Bo winced. “Apologies, Senior Sister.”
Lei Lanfen backed slowly away, wondering if she could reach the door and run before the scary woman caught her. Probably not. Definitely not if what Li Bo said was true.
If the stories Lei Lanfen had read had taught her anything, it was that any mortal who insulted a powerful cultivator wasn’t long from the grave.
The woman wasn’t just powerful. She was a leader of her sect, a true monster in disguise.
And Lie Lanfen hadn’t been unfailingly polite as she’d been taught. No. That would have been smart and safe. Instead, she’d yelled at the woman and accused her of being a scammer. Forgotten to use honorifics.
Lei Lanfen was doomed.