Chapter 173: A Night Encounter
Jessica had picked up a student, just like that. As they prepared to leave, the baroness gave Jenny the magic gemstone — though not the box itself. The stone had already been cut and forged into a necklace, its mithril chain etched with countless tiny sigils, drawing power directly from the gem.
Jessica helped fasten it around Jenny's neck and began teaching her basic meditation techniques in the carriage. She glanced at Evan, and he understood at once, pulling a Meteor Fire Rain scroll from his ring and handing it over.
Jenny looked to Jessica, uncertain. "Take it — it's a gift from Professor Wang," Jessica said. "A Meteor Fire Rain scroll. Just tear it open when you need it."
Jenny tucked the scroll into her bag. Jessica smacked her forehead. "And here I haven't even gotten you a storage ring. Though you can't really use one yet anyway. You're missing a wand too. Let me check — is there anywhere nearby that sells these things?"
"No need to buy a ring — I have one already, picked up in the Shrimp Peninsula jungle. Let me clear it out and I'll give it to her shortly," Evan said. Jessica smiled and didn't argue.
A sheet of parchment appeared in her hand — a magical map. She tapped it, and light bloomed across the surface, quickly resolving into a map that expanded outward, the surrounding regions fading as it zoomed in to reveal the terrain within fifty miles.
Jessica tapped a spot on the glowing map, and a location came into sharp focus. She instructed the driver, "Deep Pit Ridge, in the Stant Mountains."
"The carriage can't reach Deep Pit Ridge directly. I can only take you to the edge of it."
"That'll do," Jessica agreed.
Over an hour later, the carriage stopped. "Honored lady and sir, we've arrived."
They disembarked, and Evan paid the driver. Looking up at Deep Pit Ridge, he found only a winding path leading up the mountain, the vegetation thick and lush, the July heat giving way to a distinct coolness the closer they came.
They climbed the mountain path, and before long, a bend in the trail revealed exactly why the place was named Deep Pit Ridge.
Rounding the ridge, an enormous pit opened up before them, the path curving downward into it. Along the pit's inner walls ran tiered rows of cave openings, and outside them stretched a wide road where countless mages conducted business.
Jenny had never seen anything like it before. Her feet already ached from the climb, but seeing Evan and Jessica show no sign of fatigue at all, she gritted her teeth and pushed through — until the sight before her lifted her spirits entirely.
Jessica and Evan studied the path as they descended, clearly carved directly into the rock, the road itself embedded into the cliff face, giving the sense of walking through the mountain's own body.
Shops lined the way selling all manner of things — bat's eyes, scorpion stingers, viper fangs — clearly one shop specialized in cursework materials. Further along sat herbalists. They browsed from stall to stall until they found a shop dealing exclusively in wands, and went inside.
"Good day, ladies and gentleman. How can I help you?" the shopkeeper said, a mage in his thirties.
"I'm looking for a wand suited to wind and fire dual affinity," Jessica said.
The shopkeeper glanced over the group, his eyes settling on Jenny. "A wand for the young lady? Wind and fire, understood." He lifted off the ground, retrieving several long boxes from a high shelf and laying them out across the counter. Jessica deliberated at length before settling on a walnut wand.
Once paid for, she handed it to Jenny — ten gold coins for that walnut wand, a price that left Jenny visibly startled, fumbling as she accepted it. "It's not a particularly fine piece," Jessica said flatly. "Make do with it for now. Wands sold openly like this are never top quality — this one probably doesn't even match what our school hands out free to students."
Evan gave Jenny the storage ring he'd found in the Shrimp Peninsula jungle, tucking the scroll and wand inside — though she couldn't actually use it herself yet; control still rested with Jessica, even though the ring sat on Jenny's own finger.
Since they'd come this far, the three of them wandered the market a while longer, Jessica pointing out various wares to Jenny. The goods on offer ran the gamut — mages and alchemists browsing alongside plenty of other ability-users. At a pet shop, Evan spotted two thieves buying a blue-eyed bird.
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He bought nothing himself, though what he was actually hunting for was a specific set of materials capable of triggering mental resonance. A full circuit of the market turned up nothing at all, and he let out a quiet sigh — confirmation, it seemed, of just how scarce such materials really were.
Jenny watched it all with real curiosity. By the time Evan finished browsing, afternoon had already slipped by, and despite the sheer number of mages here, there wasn't a single carriage to be found — most goods arrived via storage devices, and not even one proper restaurant stood among the stalls. "Let's go," he told the other two. "Getting late. Looks like we'll be camping out in the wild tonight."
The three of them left Deep Pit Ridge and walked for over an hour. By the time darkness fell, they hadn't quite cleared the mountains, though they'd moved beyond Deep Pit Ridge itself. Jessica consulted her map again, confirming they'd reached a different ridge entirely — Seed Peak.
Evan found a level clearing and lit a campfire. Though it was July, the mountain air stayed cool enough that they didn't bother with a cooling array.
Around the fire, they ate their rations, Evan and Jessica quietly discussing tomorrow's route while Jenny, having already eaten, settled into meditation.
The distant chime of camel bells carried across the night air. Evan and Jessica looked up toward the sound, and before long a white camel came into view. Night or not, Evan's faint sight picked out every detail clearly — a middle-aged man riding it, his features unlike those of the pale-skinned peoples, softer in line, wearing a long robe that closed left over right, hair pinned up with a single hairpin, eyes bright and sharp. A single-stringed instrument hung across his back, and like Evan, he carried a cane of his own, his grip perfectly steady — some particular discipline behind that steadiness, Evan guessed.
The white camel moved with real grace, its eyes carrying an almost human intelligence — a double-humped white camel with a pale forehead, a gentle sort of magical beast. That anyone rode one at all marked the rider as no ordinary traveler.
The man drew close and dismounted, cupping his hands together in greeting, his accent carrying a foreign lilt as he spoke the local tongue. "Traveler from the East, Pu Weizi, greets the three of you. To meet is fate itself — might I share your fire a while?"
His phrasing was a little strange, though not enough to stop Evan and the others from understanding him clearly. Evan bowed. "Honored guest from the East, welcome. As you say, to meet is fate. I'm Evan Wang. This is Jessica. The one seated there is Jenny. Please, sit, and have some hot tea."
He settled by the fire, cane never leaving his hand — different in style from Evan's own, though equally slender. He accepted the tea Evan offered and took a sip. "A distinctive flavor. I've traveled tens of thousands of miles alone, crossed the strait to reach here. From your bearing, I'd guess you're Tyrenese mages?"
Evan nodded. "That's right, we're mages. How did you tell?"
"We have mages of our own in the East — Kunlun Academy and Nine Heavens Academy carry considerable renown. The moment I saw you draw that cup from empty air, I knew you for mages," Pu Weizi said.
Evan's interest sharpened. He knew of Kunlun Academy. "Are you a mage yourself, then?"
"I'm no mage. I'm a martial artist — something close to what you'd call a knight," Pu Weizi said.
"Does the East have sword-force too, then?"
"You call it sword-force. Ours resembles it somewhat, though sword-force, to us, refers specifically to force emanating from a blade. We have a better term — internal power, or internal energy. Once it advances further, some call it true qi. Not everything gets lumped under 'sword-force' the way it does for you. I've traveled a fair distance and picked up something of your ways — your sword-force seems to be triggered through some strange method, unlike ours, which is cultivated within the body's meridians and then released outward," Pu Weizi said.
"Your internal power travels through meridians?" Evan thought at once of Earth's own tradition of meridian theory, and couldn't help wondering whether this world echoed his old one by coincidence, or by some deeper necessity.
"That's right. I'm a martial artist myself, with some real accomplishment in internal power — once it reaches a certain level, even a mage would do well to step aside."
"Does your homeland have any concept of gods — not the kind we speak of here, but ones who live on wind and dew, untouched by worldly affairs?" Evan had meant to say immortals, but realized at once that no such concept existed in any Tyrenese tongue, and struggled through an awkward explanation instead.
"Nothing quite like that. We hold to the Houtu pantheon, rather than your Creator system — ours is composed of many gods together," Pu Weizi said.
Jessica found the whole exchange baffling — Evan's questions struck her as strange enough that she couldn't follow half of it. She asked instead, "What's the state of magic where you're from?"
"That I couldn't tell you. I'm no mage, after all," Pu Weizi said.
He sipped his tea, ate some of their rations, and recounted tales from his long journey, opening Evan's eyes to things he'd never imagined — no wonder the old saying held, that reading ten thousand books was worth less than traveling ten thousand miles.
Jenny had finished her meditation by then, and Pu Weizi took the exotic single-stringed instrument from his back and began to play, the melody carrying a distant, foreign beauty, his voice rising alongside it — rough-edged, resonant, powerful.
Evan glanced ahead without meaning to and sensed someone approaching. The music and singing cut off at once. Pu Weizi sensed it too, and it seemed he recognized whoever was coming. He rose to his feet. "Still haunting me, are you? I have no interest in joining the Gonuo Society. Leave me be."
At the words Gonuo Society, Evan and Jessica exchanged a glance.
"Easterner, don't be a fool. Our lord sees your talent and wishes to recruit you. Refuse again, and this ground becomes your grave!"