"Honored Hierarch, you must address this travesty!"
I score my knife across the cow carcass and start the skinning, I suppose I should also address this travesty too.
"Honored Hierarch allegations have been leveled against us, not only in all the city but in our midst as well!"
"There are are always allegations against us, we have also muttered this and that about others, and others have hemmed and hawed against everyone in this city and every city, town and village below the heavens since time immemorial."
"What did your brat do this time?"
That threw her off for a moment, but before some measure of sensibility snuck up on her she continued-
"Not my own but little sister's! That truant embarrassed him in the training courtyard, spoke the lies of others from his mouth!"
"What did he do about it?"
"His guard dragged him away before he could be punished for such transgressions, therefore something must be done about it!"
Cai'er never was the best that tumbled between my legs, but her blood was Tang enough to be wed with another of my hubby's mare's get, and that was enough to satisfy the rest of them.
Then patience and Heaven's favor brought by the Guardian of the East tumbled out Long from betwixt hers.
Thus, the clan had finally been truly brought under my command with the advent of a Young Master of Tang to us, and our ascent was inevitable.
Oh Heaven, is my Dao that despicable enough to wrought upon this travesty?
Half of the cow has been skinned, I flip the other side over to finish it.
Oh Heaven why were you gazing where the sausage is made, have I not remained in the kitchen out of sight where I belong?
Have I not performed well and discreetly enough? What has gone amiss?
The cow is fully skinned, flensing the remaining fat that clings to it will make leather and glue of quality to repair another war drum.
Have I not begged supplications from you properly?
Have I been shortchanged on the incense and bells and that's why the crying and smell of killing floor has not escaped thy notice?
Even though many others have surely been shortchanged as I am and yet they wade through bloody battlefields of their own making with no tribulation for them?
"Honored Hierarch, actions against this house must be met with retribution, especially when it is easily grasped!"
"Yes, yes indeed."
"So you will-"
"No."
For the sake of this family, Feng and Yingyue have tided us over the fall of the Dai family and the changing of the guard by the new Sect Leader with their direct discipleship to one of the Inscryption Elders, the triplets maintain our hold in the inner sect, and Caixi and her furnace are there to reassure and show the rest of the families of what once was the surrounding sects battlefield that is this city that nothing is to be amiss.
There is no fall of the Tang clan only the unification of two middling families to gather strength to weather this unruly weather we say.
We have a prodigy in our bloodline, we shall be ascendant so move out of our way or in step with us lest ye be our stepping stones.
That is the bare minimum of what I had asked for and yet I am left shortchanged.
Oh Heaven what was I thinking!
Why have they been peacocking like the chickens they were sent to be snakes for?!
Why is our supposed prodigy still in the outer sect when the rest of his generation in the inner?!
Where are my alliances and marriage proposals Cai'er!
"Nui'er asked for his birthday the right to speak his mind, within reason and within these halls where outsiders cannot be of course, and so far it has been refreshing to do so."
"Mother-!"
"That son your furnace sired, how is he doing?"
"Wha- why should you care about him?!"
"He is in the inner sect. Where has your brat been in three years since he entered?"
"Moth-"
"A concubine's son like him should be spending a year or two in the outer sect, these days a Qi-Gathering commoner may be permitted into the inner sect to serve in five, our prodigy should be in the inner sect once the half year inner sect tournament is held."
"... Ho-honored-"
"A concubine's son entered after a year after using our prodigy as a stepping stone."
"He cheated! They all saw that! Our Long'er has yet to find a worthy techni-"
"He deviated from one of the so called "Solo-Dual Cultivation" techniques, a so called worthy technique."
"If only you had not forced that brutish torture you called a training regiment he would remain a genius!"
Slipping my long held grudgeful killing intent into words to teach my unruly child I once thought long passed the need for such lessons I calmly uttered-
"If only he had finished it, no thanks to you, he would beyond one. Three years Caixi! Two more and he will be scrubbing the floors and fetching the sandals of that concubine boy. Don't play smart with me, you failed him, you failed the clan and you failed me."
My poor daughter, struck by a sliver of my intent, warped into an unseemly form, no.
My poor daughter, long since then fallen from grace, fattened like a pig content with her heights to squander what potential held clucking about like there was a notion of having better blood than a commoner, despite the fact I have shown her unless one reaches Core Formation all bleed red.
Oh poor Caixi flinching away like she was some sluggish housewife, instead of a cultivator, have you not practiced the clan, sect and many other breathes suffixing you with the will of Heaven and Earth?
Has the poison of polite society has rendered you into this state?
Very well I acknowledge it, those vipers can now sink their fangs well since they realized their wanton ways of reckless blood shedding would not work in the presence of true strength unyielding.
What do you make of that unruly weather now ye carrion birds?
Ah... on the other hand that felt good, not using it could really make you lose it, sweet hubby insisted on it often I never believed him, silly me.
In flashes of knife work I separate the cow in into beef parts.
Just like this carcass I must resolve myself to salvage whatever remains of my dutiful spawn, I dare not hope some of semblance of herself returns just to spite me.
"How well has your womb been? Don't bother, I know it hasn't seen much use since then."
"Ho-honored He-hierarch please... I am sorry to disturb you please forgive this one's trespass-"
"The five year Heavenly Configuration of the Guardian of the North will be upon us soon, when it comes you two will time your dual cultivating right so I can have five more grandchildren, not enough to make up for the travesty you wrought upon us but it is a start."
"Mama please my cultiva-"
"Core Formation? At your age breaking unto Foundation Establishment? Don't make me laugh with your insinuation that your furnace could make it."
"Cripple yourself if need be, five measly grandchildren should be no trouble to who birthed the clan's genius."
"Li-like you said he doesn't pay much mind to me these days..."
"Make him or I will, you shouldn't have to struggle since its only a lesser Configuration, three births will be far easier than that waste of qi."
"Mama please don't make me-"
"Utterly pathetic, just like your brat, you want to stop me? Stop me! You are a cultivator!"
"Your son claims to defy the heavens and can't shut up a child! You defied the heavens and yet you cant make an old woman move!"
Oh dear now she kowtowing before me, pleading for her brat and furnace, and to think I allowed this travesty ever since that fool was used as a stepping stone.
No, I was gambling with the heavens, out of some remaining humanity left in my pitch black heart that I hoped that mayhap when that fool was hit with reality he would become the genius our family needs as some tales often tell.
I suppose I lost, there is no use crying when you lose.
"Now, now."
I drag her up and put on my motherly mask to begin my salvaging of my Cai'er.
A visit to the kitchen should straighten her up.
"Cease this pathetic sight and help me carry all of this to the kitchen."
She stiffens up, following me carrying the rest of the ingredients for tonight's dinner.
With all the dragons and phoenixes dead at the new Sect Leader's hands leaving only vipers I would not put it past them to tamper with the meals, besides as long as I still hold breath or find a successor to my Dao I will not leave the my kitchen to anyone.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Further more, me and my hubby should have a chat about Cai'er's, her furnace's, and her brat's situation.
It will be for the good of the family, besides she hasn't seen both her father and my kitchen ever since the night the Tang were subdued after all.
===========================================================================================
"Ta-dah, here is mama's workplace in the clan manor!"
Scrolls were hung closed up about the walls of an anachronistic 8 mat tatami room, two anachronistic European medieval scribe's desks fitted for sitting on the floor were set with the four treasures of the study and were paired side to side in the middle of the room.
"This is your uncle's set but since he doesn't come here too often anymore and since it was it your birthday he also permitted your use of it."
"Despite that always treat your work station well, especially when you are borrowing from some else.
"As inscrybers and further more as craftsmen it only proper that we treat our tools well so they treat us well in turn."
"Yes mama."
"Good, good, good!"
We had a nice dinner of my favorite beef soup and grandma Hierarch's jabs, she stayed for a while so we talked more shit about Long and just about everyone with no favoritism and filter, save for mother in which I took the side of.
The thing with old monsters like grandma Hierarch is they get quite lonely and bored.
In the case of our Honorable Hierarch is that she ascended quite late into Core Formation giving her slight wrinkles in an aging gracefully for her forties face not unlike most old grandma's in Chinese cinema and the ever-present elderly woes that come with it.
She has almost no peers to talk to because Auntie Caixi couldn't make alliances to save anything and because nearly everyone she knows is dead or surpassed her.
So when one must talk to her, one should be respectful, but never brownnose and show some spine.
Simple as.
"Now that we can begin for starters reiterate all you know about cultivation."
Mother was called into the sect for months at a time before she is permitted to take leave to start my tutoring, and in those absences substitute tutor for all a noble scion's need for education were hired.
Mathematics had me learn an abacus to develop an Abacus Based Mental Calculating mind necessary for planning array formations.
Calligraphy taught me how to utilize said four treasures of the study until it is now muscle memory, I also practice finger painting in water on the pavement as a meditation practice and in preparation for my build.
Languages and Geography informed me that yes, the Caucasoids are present in this world too in the western part of the Pangea-like super continent stretching many hundred kilometers further than Earth.
Still learning what is essentially English again was a breeze, Austrian and Gaelic was not.
Yet it anything related into qi and cultivation was off limits.
Early qi deviation among children is an issue still too high for the bourgeoise, and being asked questions that are not in the exam is part and parcel of an Asian upbringing.
"Cultivation is the way one strives to be an Immortal via the means of using qi to refine one's body and soul into a higher realm of being."
"Qi is the great aid to the mortals in pursuit of immortality and the great barrier of Heaven and Earth enforcing the natural order, all beings are sustained by its embrace."
"Spirit Roots are intangible organs that beings use to control or guide qi to perform many phenomena including cultivation."
"Its quality and number determine how solid one's and how fast one may perform cultivation."
It wasn't that hard to pick up when you sneak about the training hall, so easy it must be purposeful to budding would be geniuses like myself, and I would not be a good enough xianxia protagonist if I do what I was told to.
"Qi Deviation occurs when the body and soul cannot maintain the techniques that keep the qi flowing throughout, many such ailments can occur when qi deviates but worse of all is the crippling of the spirits root, a miracle is needed to repair a thoroughly ruptured spirit root."
"The Basic Techniques to cultivate are as follows."
"The Breathing Technique is used to circulate and refine the qi about the body to begin the process of cultivation itself."
"It consists of a breathing pattern and a mantra, which is a set of images and words that reinforce and connect Heaven and Earth to the cultivator's will."
I made my own first by imagining my PC starting up, that put me in bed with a fever close to deviating until my aphantasiatic mind changed to something simpler like the startup of a V8 engine and its cycling cylinders and once I got the breathing down and the words-
Fuck you I have a Ferrari!
-Came to mind I jumped from my natal stage of Body Tempering 5 to Body Tempering 5.7, in about a whole year.
Well I am a middling Talent after all. On the topside my starting 29 spirit roots were starting to be prepared for the breakthrough to Qi Gathering much earlier.
"The Movement Technique is used to utilize the qi to achieve movement primarily for travelling, and the two combined with a kata makes up a Combat Technique"
"All techniques are graded based on how far would they remain useful to the cultivator throughout the cultivation. Starting from Mortal, Earth, Sky, Imperial and Heavenly."
... I admit I may have not thought most of it out, yes my Movement Technique has the potential to be utterly Mortal and Earth level but for Combat... well I might run out of my metaphorical gas that is qi sooner, remembering the tight turns in a race and precision of the F1s drivers helps a little but not as much as I hoped for.
"The refinement process of cultivation takes various steps which follows."
"Body Tempering, is to practice kata and breathing techniques in preparation for the next steps into immortality."
"Qi Sensing, is to apply the techniques in full capacity and start the process of saturating the body with refined qi from the unrefined qi all about."
"Qi Gathering, is to form the spirit roots into a dantian to gather qi for the foundation."
"Qi Condensation, is to condense the qi into a foundation from where refined qi is made and not filtered from the environment, the step which makes a cultivator a cultivator, they can now live beyond a mortal's lifespan into roughly 500 years."
"Foundation Establishment, is to expand and solidify the foundation further to support the next steps to immortality, what the previous steps are leading up to, for when one reaches this step they can attain a Dao Concept to further their abilities and extend their lives to roughly 1000 years."
"Core Formation, is to utilize all 'material' from all previous stages to form a core around the Dao Concept or concepts, aging further is now an after thought."
"Nascent Soul, a complete rebirth, one does not die when killed at this stage."
"Immortality, Apotheosis, Everlasting Life, our endpoint."
"Haaaaaaaaahh, well done my son you didn't even give me the chance to use my old notes for you. "
"Oh to see a child leave their parents behind."
"It might just give me another Heart Demon."
"But mama is at the 1st step into Foundation Establishment and I am still at the 5th step in Body Foundation."
"And I was five when I learned about breathing techniques! Congratulations on impressing your tutors far enough for allowing this advancement, but be warned!"
"Technique manuals are dangerous, a mortal taking one peak could scour his mind into pudding, only a strong mind can withstand such power."
"Lucky you for having me as your mama to guide you into comprehending this."
"I know this and I love you mama, please teach me the breathing techniques."
"All right, all right, no take backsies?"
"None."
We have been sitting in dozega for a good while and now from sitting face to face she turns to one of the scrolls hanging bout the walls and I follow, ready to see a breathing technique made by someone who knows what they are doing.
With a snap of her fingers a scroll unfurls.
"Alright, as the two houses of Wu and Tang are joined so does this technique, The Breath of the Boiling Cauldron!"