Where the River goes

Wei Huoran was in his workshop, but unlike times in the past, he was just sitting at his desk mulling over something. There were two major issues that were unrelated, but his mind kept moving back and forth between the both of them.

'Xiao Ran, you been thinking over these matters for a few weeks now', Quanliyuan commented, 'Why do you always do this? You have many people you could discuss your troubles with, yet you stubbornly sit by yourself trying to solve everything alone.'

Huoran shook his head, and slapped his face with both hands, 'Ah, you're right! I'm sorry old friend, it seems I have developed a bad habit for some reason.'

On the other side of the workshop was Quanliyuan in the form of a male tiger beastkin. He was a mountain of muscle, wearing loose fitting robes, and practicing Tai Chi movements very slowly.

'I've notice this as well', the tiger spoke, 'You really should take some time to just relax, and the world isn't ending. Even if trouble appears on our door, we can survive on the island, or so I believe.'

Huoran relented, 'Your words do have merit, so I'll go back to the island once we catch this beastkin. The is no reason to stop our current mission at this moment, and thank you, my friend.'

Quanliyuan was quiet, but Huoran was still aware that the artifact spirit was pleased. He instructed his QFold to call the top Sages of Alchemy, Arrays, Weapon refinement, and Talismans, and soon Sages Hong, Wutang, Vigol, and Neridia were on the screen in front of him.

"I want to thank the four of you for making time for me", Huoran greeted the Sages.

"Daoist Wei, it is a small trifle", Vigol replied, "There is no need for gratitude."

The other three Sages nodded in agreement, but Hong added, "It was worth answering the call just to see Ol' Vigol speak politely."

As everyone, with the exception of Sage Vigol, started laughing, Huoran spoke again to steer the conversation towards his purpose, "I have a question that I'm hesitant to ask, as I believe the knowledge of my inquiry would cause many problems in the future."

"Brat, just ask the question", Neridia remarked, "or don't, it's up to you where your trust in us as at."

Huoran took a deep breath realizing he was being inconsiderate, and asked, "In one of my master's scrolls he gave me to study, it speaks of a fire so hot that it destroys all. If one were to use this fire, the area it was used would be unable to support life for hundreds of years. I believe he gave this to me as a trump card to protect the the island without his help. What I want to ask is, do I build it? The reason I haven't mentioned anything until now is if others hear about this, there will be people with ill intentions who will do everything to gain this fire. Wouldn't it be better to not bring such a thing into existence?"

Huoran was telling a half truth when he asked the sages this question. There was a scroll that had the words he told the four sages, but he also thought about his past life. He remembered how the standoff of nuclear weapons had caused too many issues for the people of the world back then.

"I can understand your plight, Daoist Wei", Wutang said, "I'm not surprised to see you struggle with this dilemma."

"What does that mean, Sage Wutang?", Huoran inquired.

"Brat, you're only a little over twenty years of age", Neridia responded, "Consider this, as a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, you could wipe out a mortal city with a flip of your hand. But what can the mortals of that city do? Nothing, they can only accept their fate."

"Right", Vigol added, "Like water in a river, they are pulled by the current, their outcomes are dependent on the flow of the water."

"Pulled by the current?", Huoran whispered to himself as a look of realization came over his face.

"Also, you said that the land would be barren for a few hundred years?", Hong asked, "That's not long time really, perhaps it's because you're young that this consequence worries you."

"Thank you, Sages", Huoran told the four, "I now know what I must do."

The four Sages looked pleased with themselves when Sage Hong suddenly asked, "How is your current mission going?"

"We are having some difficulties", Huoran explained, "You see, our current target is a bit special."

Huoran once again told the four sages about the twelve zodiac animals, and how the cat got tricked from being included.

"We are following the holder of the cat stone right now", Huoran said, "It seems to have the ability to sense the others, but can also temporarily hide from the others as well. Every time we try to detect it, it hides and runs away to new place. We have been chasing shadows for awhile now, but with today's inspiration, I believe we will solve this problem soon."

Huoran bade farewell to the sages, and ended the call before leaning on his workstation, and beginning to draw a new array.

'I heard everything', Quanliyuan interjected, 'But looking at what you're drawing, I don't understand what you're making now.'

'My last project would have caused an explosion covering a large area', Huoran stated, 'But like I said before, that area wouldn't support life for many years afterwards. But after talking to the Sages, I remembered that fire isn't the only destructive force in the world.'

'And these methods won't render the environment unsuitable for life', Quanliyuan questioned him.

'It won't', Huoran replied, 'Don't get me wrong, this method will still be very destructive, but it will be much easier to recover from such an attack.'

'And how will this be accomplished?', the tiger asked.

Huoran raised his hand, and animal appeared before the artifact spirit. It's body mostly resembled a shrimp or a prawn, but Quanliyuan noticed that its front limbs were bent like a mantis. The spirit was even more confused when the 'mantis' limbs were shaped like clubs, and didn't appear as claws.

'What is this?', Quanliyuan curiously asked Huoran.

'This is a mantis shrimp', Huoran responded, 'And as you have already noticed, it sports a set of badger limbs instead of claws. This is very important to my work, as these shrimp uses their badgers to attack their prey or protect themselves against predators. Now watch this.'

Huoran animate the image in his hand to make the mantis shrimp quickly approach a crab sitting on the bottom of the ocean. It quickly rushed the crab, striking it several times before grabbing the dead crab with its smaller pincers and swimming to an isolated cave.

'I don't understand how this inspired you to abandon your previous project', Quanliyan admitted.

Smiling, Huoran rotated his hand to rewind to the scene of the shrimp attacking the crab and paused just before the shrimp's basher impacted the crab's shell. Then he made a hand sign to cause the image to zoom in on the impact site. He turned his hands again to slowly play the scene again, and Quanliyuan watched with interest as the punch of the mantis shrimp bubbles to form around the target, as well as, a spark of light.

'As shown when the shrimp attacks, the prey is first hit with the impact of the club', Huoran lectured, 'But as you can see, these bubbles form during the attack. These bubbles are important because they cause additional shockwaves that further damage and stun the target. The first portion of my attack talisman will do the same thing, the only difference is that instead of water bubbles, I will creates bubbles in the surrounding Qi.'

Quanliyuan was very impressed, this wasn't the first time Huoran had used techniques from lower level life forms to create amazing new techniques or talismans.

'You said this is only this is only the first part of your new technique?', the spirit asked Huoran.

'Right', Huoran laughed, 'The second half will be much easier, a simple gravity array to trap everything together.'

As the tiger sat back in a chair trying imagine the final version of this new attack, Huoran return to his workstation to start work.

Fang Shi was sitting in the lobby of a healer's clinic, waiting for his name to be called. He belonged to the Obsidian Bull sect, and had volunteered to make this trip from the Wu continent to Sun & Moon island.

Fang Shi had grown up a prodigy, establishing a foundation early before it was damaged while traveling the continent for experience. Afterwards, his cultivation slowed down, and the sect no longer supported him with the same fervor as before. At first, the healers tried to heal the injury, but when their efforts failed, the sect master invited him to become the elder of the outer court. During the trip here, the staff of the Golden Peony company told him about the miraculous doctors that could identify and treat injuries thought impossible to heal. So after making arrangements for the disciples he was responsible for, he made his way to the Tranquil Lotus clinic. He sat down in an unoccupied chair, and watched as other cultivators would be called.

It didn't take too long before it was his turn, "Elder Fang Shi, report to room three", the receptionist called out.

Fang Shi stood up, and walked through the same entrance that he had seen all the other visitors walk through. A hallway appeared before him, and he strolled down to the door with a three on it, and knocked before entering.

An older man wearing very clean white robes that appeared to look in his forties was sitting on a chair as Fang Shi entered. He saw various strange artifacts in the room, but the only one he recognized was the one on the desk called a 'computer'.

"Welcome, Elder Fang", the older man greeted him, "I'm Doctor Ming, and looking at the form you submitted earlier, it would appear you suffered a debilitating injury. With your permission, I would like to run a few test to get a better idea of what the problem is."

"Yes, of course, Doctor Ming", Fang Shi quickly and politely answered.

"Excellent", Dr. Ming exclaimed, "Please partially disrobe, enter your mediation stance, and don't mind the artifacts."

Fang Shi nodded before loosening his robes and exposing his chest. Then he crossed his legs, and started running his cultivation method. He quickly fell into his normal cultivation routine, and stopped paying attention to his surroundings while Dr. Ming moved three tokens close to the three centers for all cultivators: the lower abdomen, center of the chest, and Fang Shi's forehead.

"Elder Fang", Dr. Ming called out him.

Even though he was meditating, Fang Shi could still monitor his environment to a certain extent.

"Yes, Doctor Ming?", Fang Shi replied.

"Since this is your first visit, I need to gain a better understanding of your situation", Dr. Ming informed him, "This will be uncomfortable since you cultivate your body, but I must cycle Qi and aura through your energy and mind to have a complete picture."

"I understand", Fang Shi answered the doctor.

Immediately, Fang Shi felt Qi enter his body, and flow through his meridians, dantian, and the space between his eyebrows. As someone who trained his body, and refine his blood essence, the feeling was very uncomfortable. He found that he had to purposely stop himself from reacting to the intrusion, but after a few minutes, the feeling stopped.

"The test is complete, you can get dressed again", Dr. Ming said to him, and he complied.

After doing a check on himself, he was finally at ease when he realized that no imprints or foreign Qi or essence was inside him.

"Don't worry, Elder Fang", Dr. Ming reassured him, "I am just waiting for the analysis results, then I will compare them with my own observations."

After a few minutes, a short tune played, and several light screens showed up above the computer with an assortment of information displayed. Dr. Ming read the patient reports while agreeing with most the findings, and occasionally deliberating over things he didn't detect himself.

"Elder Fang, it would appear you made someone jealous?", Dr. Ming asked, "According to my observations and the tests, you were poisoned, and later inflicted with a curse that damaged your bones. Also, it would appear that you didn't have access to high level meals or pills. The impurities levels in your body are rather high, and all three of these factors seem to be crippling you. That's a shame, you're spiritual roots show an almost perfect earth root and a excellent metal root. While you do not possess a fire or water roots, you do posses a mid level wood root that failed to open."

Fang Shi's eyes opened wider the more he heard from Dr. Ming.

"My apologies, Doctor", Fang Shi said dejectedly, "I don't have many spirit coins, if you give me a few years, I can pay for treatment then."

"It shouldn't be that serious elder", Dr. Ming told him, "Evaluation, treatment, detoxification, medication, and recovery should cost approximately a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty spirit coins at the most."

"How is that possible, doctor?", Fang Shi was stunned, "Aren't all the materials used of the highest quality? I've heard that the arrays, pills, meals, and service provided here are of the best quality."

"There is nothing to worry about, elder", Dr. Ming assured him, "Alchemy materials that others consider rare and precious are easily grown here. Our array formation specialists are highly trained, and are able to set up arrays while wasting little. Even my own training allowed me to earn experience without harming others or wasting precious resources. In fact, most training here uses very little resources so the cost of producing high quality products is much less than anywhere else."

"Then do I need to pay here", Fang Shi inquired.

"You pay at the register up front", Dr. Ming said, "Do you know which services you'll be requesting?"

"All of them", Fang Shi answered.

"I'm glad to hear it", Dr. Ming replied, "I should tell you a few things: first, the procedures should take two to three days to complete. Let your people know so they don't worry, and go looking for you. Next, I've noticed that you've eaten many foods that promote blood essence, I should warn you once the toxins and the curse have been neutralized, you should see your realm rise very quickly. I would recommend purchasing some items to help stabilize yourself once everything is done. Finally, be prepared when we detoxify, it will be a very messy affair."

Fang Shi was elated, "Then I will take my leave now, doctor, and I'll return tomorrow morning for the procedure."