AIR Chapter 145-147

Chapter 145

Cai Xuin was having a relaxing day. He was having many of those lately. Relaxing here, relaxing there, occasionally getting a visit from his sister and having an interesting talk about the ever shifting politics of the Five Sects. 

Apparently, the Raging River, who had been the most powerful of all the five sects, was having a minor upheaval due to the recent developments in the area. The first one being Mister Bill, and the second one being Gai Jin. The Raging River always had the political power in most talks. They were the strongest sect within the region, they were the ones that hosted immortal merchants and visitors of the region. 

They had political power and weight and suddenly, that had been taken from them.

It was all chatter to him, nothing useful. 

Cai Xuin wouldn’t say he felt trapped in Oasis Town, there were a lot more mysteries here than most could imagine. The new sewers were about to be constructed and Cai had never really seen something like them. The new Immortal, Gai Jin came by at least once a day just to talk to his sister and consult Mister Bill. 

There were also the maidens, an entourage of women whom Cai had assumed to be Mister Bill’s wives, they were entirely different. First, they weren’t his wives, more like disciples, and one of them even courted a mortal man. And second, they were all strong, far stronger than even the many Sect Elders he had witnessed over his years. 

And then there was the strange baby as well. 

There were mysteries abound in this place and they were bound to grow, but all that didn’t change one simple truth. 

Cai Xuin couldn’t leave. 

He looked out and over into the valley, he looked back and into the strange and silent forest and he felt trapped. He had walked through the forest before, and aside from the mystical path that led directly from the village and into the center of the forest where Mister Bill resided, everything had been boring. 

The path to Mister Bill’s house would only require a few minutes of walking to reach his house. Which was strange because his house was a hundred or so miles in the forest. 

But even that, given time, lost its charm. 

Cultivating, for all the pain it had brought him, gave him purpose. It was something to do, something to reach for while the days went and came. And now Cai found himself staring up into the sky, wondering about what he was to do with himself. 

The world was as wide as it was going to get for Cai. 

Unless something changed, he wouldn’t risk leaving this beautiful prison. 

“Hey Cai, you want to be my disciple?”

The words came from his left and made him jump to his right in surprise. 

There was Mister Bill, standing sternly with a small cup of tea in his hand. 

“What?” Cai asked, mind refusing to process the words. 

“Do you want to become my disciple?” The man asked again. 

And this time, Cai’s mind panicked. 

“Feel free to say no,” the Immortal added. 

“You want me to be your disciple?” Cai asked. 

No, that was too much. Surely the man meant in a more formal way, as to allow him to be free to roam the region under the banner of the Oasis Sect. Yes, that must be it.

“Yeah,” the Immortal nodded. “But you will have to cultivate, and you will have to grow, and you can’t sit around doing nothing all day, because apparently, that’s a sin.”

Why did the immortal say those things as if they were consequences? A part of him was eager, and all of him was at least intrigued. But another part, a small part, the part that was accepting weakness and insignificance refused to be tempted so lightly. 

“May I ask why?” Cai whispered. “Surely there are more talented people, no?”

“There are,” the Immortal replied. 

“Then why me?”

The Immortal looked at him with something akin to pity, as if he knew exactly what Cai was feeling. 

“Well,” the man sighed. “No reason in particular. I just think you’re a good kid. You're not special and you aren’t talented beyond reason, but you’re humble and decent. And you remind me of myself in some ways, so I thought I’d ask.”

Cai looked at the man and found no traces of falsehood, though he doubted he would be able to find any if the immortal didn’t want him to. But still, he had one more question. 

“But why take a disciple now? You’ve been here for hundreds of years and done nothing, Mister Bill. Surely there were others you could have chosen?”

“I didn’t care,” the immortal shrugged. “I was just…living and watching the world pass by as I slept.”

“And now?” Cai asked. 

“Well, now I have a goal, and a bit of a plan.”

“What plan?” Cai dared to ask. It was foolish to be so brazen, but he had to know. He had to know what it was that moved this man to give him an opportunity. 

“Well, I like this place. I like the peace here and I have to get stronger to keep it that way.”

Cai looked out to the village again, to all the small people running around doing their small little things. 

This was what moved him? This bundle of tiny people living tiny lives? Cai looked again, searching for what the immortal could have meant and strangely enough, he saw it. 

“The crabs,” he suddenly murmured. 

“The desert crabs? What about them?”

“I’ve been thinking about them. They die and produce enough water for their children to live off and grow, and I remembered that. And… I think they’re very noble for that. They die for their children, and that is a beautiful thing. And I want to be more like that, I want to fight for the things I care for. I don’t think I care for this place as much as I should. I don’t know if I care about anything as much as I should, even this place,” Cai sighed. 

There were tears in his eyes but he fought them back. 

“But I would very much like to try,” he said with a deep bow. 

His left hand cupped his stumped wrist. 

“Thank you Master, I put myself into your care.”

Chapter 146

Cai stared at the cup and the cup stared back. 

He had thought the man was drinking tea, but that turned out to not be the case. The man had offered him a cup of water. It had a strange dark green tint to it, as if it had been gathered from a lake or a river of some sort. 

“Master?” Cai asked while holding the cup. 

“I’ve diluted it by a lot, but you can’t dilute it infinitely past a certain point,” Bill mumbled. 

“Should I drink it?” Cai asked. 

“Yes, but first a question Cai, do you want your arm back?”

The question took Cai by surprise, but the answer surprised him even more. 

“No,” he answered. 

“Why?” Mister Bill asked. 

“I- I do not know.”

“Would you mind having it back?” Mister Bill asked. 

“I- I would not mind but I do not want it back.”

Mister Bill nodded, as if he already knew the answer. 

“Well, when you're ready then, drink the water.”

Cai nodded, still thinking about the question. But he didn’t want to keep the man waiting, at least not for too long. So he raised the cup, put it to his lips, gulped down the nervous saliva and then washed it down with the water. 

It was nothing special. Cai thought it would be some magical water of some sort or maybe some cultivation potion. But it was instead, just water. 

But it was refreshing, and flowing and quenching. 

He gulped it down some more, eager to quench his thirst, and the water kept on flowing. 

After a moment, he realized something. 

He put the cup down and looked at it. It was half full, as it had been when he first started. 

“Remember when we first met and you asked me about daos?”

Cai Xuin nodded. That felt like a long time ago. It felt like it had been centuries since then. 

“Remember when I said that the cup could be more than a sword?” He asked. 

Cai nodded.

“Well, there’s that cup. And the water in it is precious as well.”

Before Cai could express his confusion Bill took the cup from him and turned it upside down, and for a moment, Cai drowned. Water overtook him like an ocean and he was swept away in a wave of eternity.

Then it all went away. 

Cai was dry and so was the place around him, and the honored master stood there, the cup half full and right side up. 

“Daos, much like laws, are concepts. They are an expression of ourselves and as much as they shape us, we shape them. Where they start and we begin is hard to tell. What is a traveler without a path? And what is a path untraveled?”

Cai listened intuitively, trying to derive meaning from the immortal’s words. But then out of nowhere, the honored master frowned.

“There I go, being vague again. I hate vague explanations, don’t you Cai?”

Cai nodded, passively agreeing to whatever Mister Bill would say. 

“Well, its hard to explain so I’ll use analogies and such to get the concept through much easier. But plainly speaking, you losing your arm is a part of your dao. Its an experience that is tied to your world view and ties in with the moment you discarded something. In your mind, you threw away your opportunity to become a cultivator because the cost of cultivating would be too much for you, yes?”

Cai nodded. 

“Well, scars in some ways are as important as what was cut off. They symbolize a loss, an attack of some sorts, and your missing arm means something to you. If you were just a mortal it would be a symbol, nothing more. But you are a cultivator, Cai, and as I have recently learned, you can not stop cultivating no matter how hard you try.

“So, I thought that you probably wouldn’t like a sword considering what swords have done to you and made you this cup. Its a cup in the truest sense. It’s a cup that can hold an incomprehensible amount of water.”

“Is it a weapon?” Cai asked. 

“It can be,” the man replied. “But it’ll always be a cup. And the water is the most important part, Cai. It can teach you about water laws to a higher degree than any water in this world or most others.”

“Is it special?” Cai asked. 

“It was a gift and I’ve only given you a drop. But it isn’t special per say, just useful. Some things can be of a higher rank than you but are incapable of being changed. Its like a dead seventh rank spirit stone. Its something beyond you but its also somewhat useless as well.”

Cai nodded and held the cup tighter. 

Then was this seventh rank water? Was there such a thing? What would water of the seventh rank even do?

Had drinking it been the right thing to do? Well, Mister Bill had been the one to tell him to drink it so it must have been the right thing to do. 

“But most importantly, it is what you make it. It can be a weapon, it can be something to be studied or it can be just a cup with a whole lot of water in it. The choice is yours, Cai. It will guarantee your growth if you want it too, but you’ll have to want it too, otherwise its a cool party trick, power without purpose is what that cup is. Once you give it a purpose, you can use that power.”

Cai’s mouth clung shut as he studied the cup in anticipation. 

“Oh and Chin is technically your senior disciple now, so be sure to address him as such. Publicly if you can, in front of a whole bunch of people.”

“Yes Master,” Cai said with a quick bow.

“Alright, oh and some homework as well. Capture a few desert crabs from somewhere nearby and set up a pond for them.”

“Homework?” Cai asked.

“Yeah, its work you take home. Oh and tomorrow we’ll have the first official gathering of the Oasis Sect, that’s what they call us right? Or is it the Immortal Oasis Sect? Nah, I like the Oasis Sect more, Immortal is a little bit of a…stiff word. Alright, I’ll see you at my place around noon tomorrow, see you then!”

Then the immortal disappeared into thin air. 

Cai sat down, the cup still in his left hand. 

Disciple, cup, sect, homework. 

A host of strange words wobbled around in his head.

It took a minute, but eventually he did notice that the cup was tilted over in his hand. Not too much, but enough to cause a small flowing stream that traveled through the ground, down the hill and into the valley below. 

It hadn’t gotten far but when he raised his cup and stopped the flow, he noticed that the ground below looked greener and more lively. Plants bloomed along the path of the water and small insects made their way to pollinate them. 

The earth had been enriched and changed. It had been quenched. 

Why was that? 

The Honored Master hasn't mentioned anything about thirst or fulfillment, only Cai had experienced that when he drank the water. And when the Honored Master had flipped it and turned it over, it had drowned him completely. It overwhelmed him like an ocean. 

Cai took a second and turned the cup over, and water flowed like a pump. He didn’t feel depleted or drained of qi as the water flowed, but he didn’t drown either. 

It took a few minutes but eventually, the ground around him was entirely drenched. Then Cai flipped over the cup and saw it was still just half full. 

He looked down and saw flowers blooming at his feet. The grass reached for the skies and all manners of insects came into the blossoming field. 

In the hands of an immortal, the cup overwhelmed. In his own hands, the cup quenched and fed. 

But most importantly, it is what you make it. It can be a weapon, it can be something to be studied or it can be just a cup with a whole lot of water in it. The choice is yours, Cai.

He took the cup and stared at the water within. It was clear now, akin to the water of a clean stream. 

He saw the cup and in the rippling reflection he saw himself, and though the reflection wasn’t clear he saw himself in it. It rippled and danced and refused to hold still in his ever still hand, but even a rippling image was an outline. 

“I see,” he said to himself.

He didn’t see clearly, but he saw something and that itself was enough.

Chapter 147

I tried my best. I was straight forward, I gave him the cup, and then I left. 

But the more I avoided being vague, the more I understood its necessity. You could teach facts and numbers. You could quantify the very basis of the universe and filter it through a machine making it comprehensible, but you couldn’t teach experiences. It was like trying to describe colors to a rock or music to a germ. 

Some things had to be figured out. Some experiences had to be puzzled over and only then would you get the answer. To tell someone a truth or an idea was in a way to tell them to ignore other truths and ideas. And while that worked greatly for facts, it was horrible for experiences. 

Because the way I saw things wasn’t the only way to see them, and there certainly wasn’t a right way to see most things. So in the end, I had been vague, if only just a little. 

The cup would reflect its user and since Cai had drunk from it first, he was its user now. I had used a bit of that river water Forn had given me, and even though I had diluted it, it was still a lot of water law. 

I looked at my cup of water. I had only given Cai a drop and even that might be a bit much, but he would grow into it sooner or later. 

Most of the water had immediately lost some of its quality as soon as it had left the river. It was of the fourteenth rank now, much lesser in nature. In the same way you couldn’t take the ocean in a bucket, you couldn’t take a river in a cup. But it was still condensed law of the higher form. 

I swirled it in the cup and it sounded like an ocean. That was how laws worked in the higher realms. A punch from a God-Imperium would feel like the collective concepts of force, damage, breaking, strength, movement, and many other concepts rolled up into one. 

It would be a punch in the truest form. An absolute attack. 

Every punch outside of it would be just a cheap imitation. And this water, was in the same way, qualitatively more water than anything else in this realm. 

I wondered what arrays I could make out of it. 

I grabbed the cup and went out behind my house. It was a large house built into a hill facing the village. I was too far for them to reach me through the forest but the path would allow a mortal to get here in ten minutes. 

But I stopped that now. 

I was alone here. No mortals, no Chin, and no Nai. Not even the girls were here. 

I removed a chunk of dirt out of the ground and stuck a small sapling in it. A tree.

The great thing about being an array master was that you understood what needed to happen when laws collided. Most people knew that light and darkness were opposites but what about a shadow. That was defined by both light and darkness. The light was blocked but was still present and the darkness gave substance, but was still encased. 

In my mind, I could see how things worked. I could see all the parts of a universe ticking in synchrony and see how the gears pushed and pulled against each other. 

But that had always been with lesser things. Smaller laws of lesser quality. I knew water as it dripped and drained and quenched and fed. 

I didn’t know water like this. I couldn’t understand it. I couldn’t predict it. 

It did the same thing, fundamentally, but it was more. 

I held my breath.

The interactions shouldn’t be anything different. After all, whether a spark or house fire, water would quench both.

I raised the cup above the plant, and I poured. 

The earth wasn’t nearly suitable enough for the plant and the air was practically empty for it to try to breathe from it. But the water, the water I hoped would help it.

And it did. The stick drank and grew leaves of green, one after another. It grew taller and taller and taller, past my height and above me. 

Then it woke up, but just for a moment. 

We talked a quick chat, and it nodded, understanding the situation before going back to sleep. 

To plants, consciousness was an annoying thing. They used it sometimes, if only to communicate when they needed to. But most of the time, they would rather not think and only grow. 

And this tree was no different. 

Forn had given it to me as a reference point. It would be a tree that was closer in connection to the Cosmic Forest and would allow me an easier time traversing to that part of the Cosmic Forest near her grove. And she was right, the tree was alive and growing, and of the tenth rank. 

I didn’t name it, it wouldn’t care for a name. Unlike the myths, dryads were half human and half plant. A true tree found consciousness to be a burden. 

Of course we had set out some ground rules and it was willing to obey them and it existed in a small area separate from the rest of the forest, living all its own. 

I left the small space relieved.

Well that was one part done.

Now that I had easy access to the Cosmic Forest, I could go train. 

That thought still filled me with fear, but whatever that old man had left in me felt somewhat excited by it. I could practice now. I could also die and end up a corpse on the forest floor. 

But now, I could cultivate. 

But first some things needed to be done. One was the sect. 

I was no longer hiding because I was already hidden from Tai Jey. And if I hid even further, then the end of existence would get me before he does. 

So if I was no longer hiding, then what was the point in servitude. 

I’d expose myself slowly. Bit by bit, both in Ah-Marin and outside of it. 

I was dead, technically Dane was dead. They should have chosen a new Array King by now and the process for that was extremely challenging. 

I couldn’t apply, but I did want to visit my fellow workers, if only to see them. 

I also wanted to work again, be an Array Master again. Ofcourse, with my dao there would be certain things I couldn’t build, but I would like to try making something. 

I’d have to get stronger before then. I’d have to gather materials and I’d have to do that carefully, unlike my last trip to the Divine Beast Emporium. 

I didn’t know if I trusted myself for any of that though, so for now I would fix my soul and cultivate.