Chapter 94 - Like a Mortal (2/2)
The supper consisted of forest mushroom soup, a dried piece of meat and a large bowl of rice. Despite not containing an ounce of Shinsoo, the food felt good in her stomach, a consistency she hadn't experienced for a while.
After dinner, Shin Sumi helped the son, Wuike, clean the room and the wooden dishes while Wuije prepared the small hut for the night.
Gentle red embers crackled in the fireplace, casting long shadows on the two small beds. After a long day of woodworking, Wuije and Wuike fell asleep soundlessly in the man's bed while Shin Sumi laid flat on Wuike's bed.
She didn't sleep, meditating instead in a position that looked like she was sleeping. She wanted to spend some time as a mortal but she still needed to be alert in case people from the sect went to look for Bai Fulong near here.
”Wuije mentioned a lot of young people appearing in these woods. If all the rejected applicants for the sect end up here, surely the sect knows about it.”
***
Spending a night in a stranger's hut was a new experience for Shin Sumi. Had she never entered the Immortal world, she would have never accepted Wuije's offer, instead preferring to spend the night walking in the forest, be there wolves or not. Besides, the man was a wood cutter used to carry logs and axes around. His strength was impressive for a mortal, leaving absolutely no chance to a seventeen years old girl, should his morals be low.
However for an unexplainable reason, she trusted the man. Maybe it was because his eight or nine years old boy was there too, or maybe because the man's eyes were serene. He was a simple lumberjack, happy with his simple life.
The three of them shared hot green leaves tea in the morning before Wuije prepared the cart. Wuike helped his father set the logs onto the cart behind the small horse.
”If no trouble arises, we will be near the Hoyan River by mid-day. Wuike my boy, hold the castle for me, okay? I will be back before the sun sets.”
With a proud air, the young boy puffed his c.h.e.s.t and stood straight in front of the door of their hut. Wuije laughed and Shin Sumi smiled. Wuike laughed as well.
”He is a good boy. He wants to be like his father when he grows up. I would rather he learned to read and became a scholar but it is up to him to decide.”
Shin Sumi asked why he wanted him to become a scholar.
”A man like me with arms but no wits will never go out into the world. I might be strong enough to chop down trees, I might even be called the strongest around here but I know there are always stronger people out there.”
The man hesitated before continuing in a low voice, ”believe me or not but I have seen people in these woods not much older than Wuike who could-... Nevermind, it is not my place to say,” Wuije finally decided against telling his story, instead changing the subject slightly.
”Strength can only carry you so far, but the brains are different. Scholars can experience the entire world from a book, can talk with kings and emperors. Real power and tranquility doesn't come from the muscles. The dukes and city regents are not strong and yet they are the more powerful. Only then can they live without bother, without spending a single day wondering if they are going to eat the next day, without hoping they won't need to use their arms.”
The man's voice slowly trailed off into silence. Shin Sumi respected that silence, the man had said enough. She decided not to bring up the subject again.
Her next few words she kept to herself, ”The Immortal world is very similar and very different from the mortal realm at the same time. Power and strength is everything, but cleverness and intelligence is most useful. The two opposite aspects have to progress together or else one will only have a grim future in cultivation.”
She thought about the people she knew who were both clever and strong at the same time. Xiao Yue, Chu Erlong, Sui Lin, they were all on top of their level and had shown time and time again how strategy and brains mattered when the muscles were engaged.
However her best examples were definitely Patriarch Sen and Fen Wudao. The first had lived more than a few mortal lifespans and his eyes radiated wisdom. With his position in the Dark Sky Starry Sect, it was also impossible to deny his strength as a cultivator.
On the other hand, Fen Wudao was barely two year older than Shin Sumi but his cultivation level was unheard of for his age. A nineteen years old man at the eighth step of the Liquid Realm was a genius in the ways of cultivation but Fen Wudao was also cunning enough to hide it from everyone except maybe the Ghosts.
The cart pulled by the small horse shook on the bumby forest path, bringing Shin Sumi and Wuije out of their reveries. The bright morning sun peered through the leaves above their head.
As the sun rose higher and higher, the forest seemed to become sparser and sparser, until the cart joined a larger road and they left the forest behind.
Turning her head to look at the scenery, Shin Sumi spotted the high peaks of Blue Fire mountain range in the distance. From their position, most of the peaks were enshrouded in heavy clouds. Shin Sumi was uncertain whether these clouds were due to high altitude or if they were a trace of Patriarch Mui's curse, the heavy darkness that perpetually covered the sect she came from.
Because of the Copper Bell in her bag of holding, Shin Sumi had not suffered from the darkness as much as most other disciples. One of the first tricks the small bell had shown to possess was its ability to make its master's surrounding clear and sharp in any situation. Even in the dark chasm Shin Sumi could see clear as day around here, the curse seemingly having no effect on her person.
Because of that, she wasn't as ecstatic as others would be when she felt the warm rays of the sun on her delicate skin. The same sun that seemed to never hang above the valleys of the sect was now high up in the sky. Shin Sumi calculated that it would probably be at its peak in two hours.
”Stay in the cart, little lady. It won't take more than a few minutes and we'll be on our way to Hoyan River” Wuije pulled on the reins, bringing his cart to a stop in front of an old but big house on the outskirts of a little town.
Wuije entered the house and spoke to an old man, the one surnamed Ren he told her about the previous night. Reappearing outside shortly after, Wuije unloaded the logs from the cart, refusing any help from Shin Sumi with a smile.
Wuije started counting his copper coins as soon as the empty cart pulled away from old Ren's house and onto the road.
The less than a dozen small copper coins seemed ridiculous in the man's large palm, but his smile was that of contentment. Shin Sumi could almost read his mind, ”With that I can bring back at least five bits of meat, a few weeks' worth of rice and fresh eggs to Wuike! Maybe I will even find a toy or somethin' for him to play with.”
Close to an hour later, Shin Sumi could hear the noise of a bustling city in the distance before Wuije could even spot it.
As they approached the city gates on the main road, Shin Sumi realized that many other carts in front of them waited in a line, almost at a standstill.
From the trips she had taken with her father from East Seaside village to the Big City, she knew that waiting for the guards was an unavoidable formality in cities as large as that one.
Patiently waiting, the better half of another hour went by before Wuije sighed with relief, the small horse finally at the gate.
A guard that didn't bother to hide his boredom eyed the empty cart briefly, leaning on his dull iron spear. He spoke in a mechanical voice, betraying how monotonous his job was.
”What business do you have in Hoyan River and what are your names?”
The guard looked above his spear-head at Wuije briefly then Shin Sumi, for a bit longer.
Wuije responded calmly, ”We delivered wood at the last village, earning us enough to visit Hoyan market, my niece and me. I'm Wuije and that is Wumei.”
”Be on your way by dusk, the streets are busy these days. That'll be a copper per head.”
Wuije obeyed, parting with two of the precious coins he held. The whole time, a simple smile never left his face.
After passing the gates, when the guards were far behind them, Wuike turned to Shin Sumi, still smiling.
”I'm glad this is a big city and the guards never remember me. If they knew how many 'nieces and nephews' I have had over the last few years... Eh-eh-eh!”
Shin Sumi laughed as well at the man's clear sense of humor, thanking him for everything he had done for her. She then fumbled a bit with a hand in her bag of holding.
It was strange to use the bag of holding by opening it and physically putting her hand inside, but she didn't want to startle Wuije by having something simply appear in her hand at her will.
When she took her hand out, Shin Sumi exclaimed, ”Ah! There it is,” and promptly shoved whatever she held inside Wuije's large hand.