The First Stop (A Thousand Li #2)

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 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 enormous 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.

Release Date: August 1, 2019

Pages: 318

Genre: Cultivation Fantasy

eBook ISBN: 9781989458105

Language: English

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