Chronicles of Daoist Fan

Insects creeped beneath the black and brown soil. Trees lent us their shades. The journey past Chengde was without any trouble. Demon beasts hadn't yet awakened and we were heading at a relaxed pace. We were ahead of the time allotted for this journey.

Five days had passed and Xuahour was just a day away. We just had to make do with the food we had for ourselves for tonight. In the end, we didn't have to kill our beast. This forest had many wild animals which became the unfortunate prey of our mount.

We were walking instead of riding the craoca. Chunu and Feng Yi were to my left and right respectively while Ling'er walked ahead. She had a hand on her sword's hilt, alert as always.

''The technique you gave me, Goldfire Body. I still don't get it,'' Feng Yi said. She was wearing a tight brown robe this afternoon.

''How do I temper my body with fire?'' She continued.

Normal practitioners such as her in this world were not privileged to know about how one should truly temper one's body. They didn't know a thing about foundation building or one's aptitude and blindly practiced whatever they found the most powerful.

I glanced at her and said, ''What's there to get? You are to practice those steps I told you near a pill fire. Alchemy would suit you.''

''Alchemy? Who would do that? I'll just find a rich young master for myself. He'll take care of whatever I might need.'' She flung her hair. Really, she was a narcissistic idiot.

''Keep on dreaming. You are a country bumpkin in the eyes of those young masters you speak of. They won't spare a glance for your pretty face if you're not at Qi gathering at the very least.''

What I said was true. Cultivators would be really picky on power and status. Feng Yi had none of it, how could she even catch the gaze of a 'young master' when she was a Body Tempering nobody.

She wasn't discouraged though and was willing to compromise on not working hard, if it meant that would bring benefits for the future.

''This young miss has better plans.''

I rolled my eyes hearing her. In a way, she was similar to me. I also wanted the easy way. However, this world only rewarded the rich or the hardworking. Still, I would find a way.

Opposite of Feng Yi, Ling'er was a hardworking girl and she actually had a solid plan after reaching Xuahour. She knew she didn't have much talent in other things and chose the Way of Sword.

Of course, she didn't know about this herself but she only practiced sword techniques. She planned to find a good instructor after reaching the capital of Rong Sat. Though, she didn't accept the technique I had given her, questioning my credibility.

It was Jade Sword Body, one of the best techniques that was just one step below my Star Pagoda. Well, she couldn't have practiced it to the full potential without my help. Still, it was her loss.

Chunu knew which technique was the best for her and carefully listened to any advice I gave her. Past rank five, her speed didn't stop and she was fast approaching rank 6 now.

She had also managed to learn a movement technique called Falling Feathers Steps to the initial success stage. Although 108 Droplets technique required no such thing, it nicely complemented the Falling Feathers Steps.

As for myself, I had finally merged the two movement techniques, making Silver Sand Steps. It gave me rapid agility, unpredictability while still not losing the essence of balance Silvery Snake Steps had.

I was quickly reaching the 9th rank of Copper Pagoda Body after having my acupunctures opened. Though, it would still take another fortnight even with all the pills and herbal pastes I had.

We stopped during the evening and camped among the trees at night. We had lost our tent in the forest fire and had to sleep with no roof. It did not rain, thankfully.

Lingling and I rotated on watch duty at night. Even though demon beasts would not be active, who could actually know?

The next day welcomed us with a cloudy sky. We ate what was left of last night's 'dinner' and headed west. Food was finished and only two bottles of water remained. The craoca was hungry since yesterday.

"How much more do we have to walk?" Feng Yi asked.

"We should be just a few miles away from the city now."

"Miles?"

"Uh, nevermind."

We had such bland conversations every half an hour. Chunu went ahead and talked with Ling'er. The beast was lethargic just like us. It was a wonder how much just the day's weather could affect a person.

After a while, the sky started grumbling. We looked up and found that the clouds had considerably darkened. There was not much time left before the pouring to start. The girls hadn't seen anything like that.

Rain was a myth in the desert and Chunu had been living over the clouds before descending. So when the thunder struck after a massive lighting, they were more than surprised.

Ling'er and my sister both covered their ears while Feng Yi clinged to me. Wind sweeped more clouds over and soon it started raining. We all ran under a large tree but it only shielded us from the rain for a little while and we were drenched in no time.

''So it's true, water does fall from the sky.'' Ling'er said while stretching her palms to catch water droplets falling from the tree leaves. Her long dark hairs jumbled together due to the rain water.

''The sky is crying and these are the tears.'' Chunu went a little poetic there.

''Lets go, we are already wet. There is no point in waiting for the rain to stop,'' I said, moving my legs and they followed.

The craoca apparently hated the rain. It uttered a loud roar at the heavens for spilling so much water over its body. As a beast whose habitat was mostly dry forests and deserts, it would of course not like the moisture here.

The bags on its backs were all wet. Our clothes, we would have to dry those in the sunlight later on. Other than the clothes, we had pills, but they were sealed in bottles. The golden tickets were with me in a bamboo case and it didn't matter if the coins got wet.

'What else… oh no, my Spirit and Qi book!' I quickly opened my personal bag and found the book, it's pages all soaked in water. The ink was being washed over and the writing was barely legible now. I had already read all of it, but still felt pain seeing such a good book wasted.

I closed my personal bag. We had no food with us so we didn't have to worry about it getting spoiled by this rain water.

The craoca didn't move at all. The medicine was ineffective now and honestly, I felt it would be an unnecessary baggage in the city.

Sure, I could sell it but I would probably have to show some kind of proof. The Hanai company had a token which allowed free passes to any kind of tamed beast in most cities. I should have searched for it that day but there was no use regretting it now.

''Carry the bags, we are leaving this beast here.'' I said, untying the two bags from the caroca's back. It had served us well, now it was free.

Chunu stroked its furs and said goodbye. The beast grunted in response. It was just another small creature in this vast demon world, trying to survive among the countless other predators out there.

The rain was intense and it did not stop even when great rice fields came to our sight. We had reached some villages. They were located at the outskirts of the city which was our destination.