A Thousand Li:
The First Stop
A Cultivation Novel
Book 2 of A Thousand Li Series
By
Tao Wong
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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A Thousand Li: The First Stop
Copyright © 2019 Tao Wong. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2019 Sarah Anderson Cover Designer
Copyright © 2019 Felipe deBarros Cover Artist
ISBN: 9781989458105
Contents
Copyright
What Happened Before
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
THE END
Glossary
Author’s Note
What Happened Before
Long Wu Ying, a former rice farmer in the state of Shen, found himself conscripted into the army at the age of sixteen. Through a series of unfortunate encounters, Wu Ying gained the attention of an Elder of the Verdant Green Waters Sect and was admitted as an outer sect member.
Naïve and new to the world of cultivators, the ex-commoner made mistakes in protocol and angered the Elders and nobles of the sect. Forced to run an assignment for the Elder as recompense, Wu Ying encountered demon beasts, bandits, and recalcitrant guards, making friends along the way before he finally returned to the sect.
Assignment completed; Wu Ying returned to train for the annual outer sect competition. Forced to fight to keep his place as an outer sect member, Wu Ying angered Yin Xue, the noble son of the lord who holds dominion over Wu Ying’s village. In the final rounds of the competition, Wu Ying faced Yin Xue in single combat to win one of eight spots available in the inner sect that year. Wu Ying was joined by Tou He, his ex-monk friend.
As one of the weakest inner sect members, Wu Ying’s journey as a cultivator has just begun.
Chapter 1
The peace of the lush, green slopes was broken by the chorus of bells, rousing Wu Ying from his cultivation. The bells were a reminder for the cultivators of the Verdant Green Waters Sect of the time of day. Each bell was beautiful, harmoniously tinkling along to the sounds of the never-ending rush of water from the glacier-fed waterfalls.
Wu Ying stood, dusting off his robes as he walked out of the courtyard of his building. While there was a quarter hour left before the start of classes, Wu Ying resided in the smallest, meanest, and most remote house for inner sect members. It would take him the quarter hour to arrive at the classroom—if he did not wish to arrive looking as though he had been run over.
“Breakfast, lord?” Ah Yee said, holding up a tray.
“No, thank you. Not today. And please, stop calling me lord,” Wu Ying said, his stomach a little knot of tension. Even if he was an inner sect member now, he was still a peasant and being called a lord did not feel right to him.
“Of course, Lord Long.” Ah Yee bowed again before moving out of Wu Ying’s way.
The cultivator sighed and left his house, striding off up the mountain. As much as he tried to correct his servant, the woman was as stubborn as he was. Even outlining the ways he was not a lord—Wu Ying was no nobleman, no Core Cultivator, no magistrate—had done nothing. But if Ah Yee thought he would give up, she would be surprised. Wu Ying was a farmer, and the one thing all farmers had was stubbornness. You had to be if you did not want to starve.
Wu Ying looked around the quiet, dusty trail that led to his house and smiled. The building which housed him was more luxury than Wu Ying had ever experienced in his life. How quickly he was adapting to the new level of luxury did surprise him, and Wu Ying felt somewhat guilty as he reflected upon his dingy, three-bay family home. Still, the money he was now sending back would improve the lives of his parents. If he could, Wu Ying hoped to find some medicine to aid in the healing of his father’s leg, giving him back full mobility. But it was a faint hope for now. Any medicine that could fix decades-old injuries on a Body Cleanser would be ruinously expensive, even for an inner sect member like him.
As Wu Ying hurried along the pathway, the cultivator turned his thoughts away from his family to more immediate concerns. Among them, the most pressing—arriving on time. The Verdant Green Waters Sect covered the full expanse of an enmormous mountain, and the numerous buildings, including the lecture halls, spread across a wide area. The outer sect members lived on the lower levels of the mountain with their lodging, dining halls, and services located below. But for inner sect members, their requirements lay higher on the mountain where the important buildings were located.
Each building Wu Ying passed was constructed of expensive hardwood and adorned with detailed carvings along their multi-inclined, partitioned roofs. This gave the buildings a graceful, sweeping stature and ensured that the buildings stayed cool during the humid summer months. Everywhere Wu Ying looked, he spotted members of the outer sect toiling, caring for the beautiful architecture and grounds. The outer sect members undertook the menial jobs, from sweeping the roads to patching worn paintjobs to carrying supplies, that kept the sect functioning and beautiful.
Soon enough, the cultivator came to a fork in the road and took the right fork. The left led farther up, but for today, the mid-levels of the inner sect portion were where he needed to be. At the turn-off, Wu Ying met a familiar face.
“Tou He!” Wu Ying greeted his bald, ex-monk friend.
The smiling man, clad in his orange monk robes, bowed to Wu Ying. That the youngster still managed to wear his old affiliate robes in the middle of the sect spoke to both the influence of his sponsoring elder and the general respect proffered onto the religious organization.
“Wu Ying. You’re here too,” Tou He said with a smile.
“Isn’t that my line? You have been gone for weeks now,” Wu Ying said. “What happened?”
“Nothing major,” Tou He replied, scratching the top of his shorn head. “My sponsor felt I needed more training.”
“More training?” Wu Ying’s eyebrows rose in surprise.
Tou He was one of the most natural martial prodigies Wu Ying had ever seen—if not the most. Without even trying, Tou He managed to achieve levels of understanding of martial styles others clawed and struggled their way toward. Tou He had managed to enter the inner sect in his first year, all the while doing the least amount of work possible.
“Yes. We had to face a number of demon beasts on the expedition,” Tou He explained as the pair headed toward the lecture halls. “A culling on the Huang Roh Forest. The local lord paid for our involvement, and the Elder was interested in a particular demon stone. We had to trek inward for nearly a week before we found traces of the beast.”