The Heavens Shall Fall

A week after Siu had gotten used to living and working in the Red Leaf, he found that the job itself was easier than it initially sounded. One of the reasons was that very few people came in; if he had to be exact, he completed only four sales and did them all by himself over the seven days. Seven, because he asked for extra work, wanting to earn a bit more, remembering how expensive the rooms were at the public meditation tower. Quillian was not opposed to it and was willing to pay him a regular fee, enough to start thinking about cultivation again in addition to taking his normal days as payment for his monthly rent.

As for the work itself, he was pretty much allowed to do it in his own way, and the old servant only grunted whenever Siu completed something properly and spoke up only when there was a mistake he made. Luckily, the latter were only minor ones, simply corrected by a few words from him. Even Quillian was surprised by how well Siu adjusted and by the fact that he didn't need to constantly remind Siu about the rules and how the formation worked.

Strangely, Siu found it comforting whenever they interacted, because he reminded him of his Old Man far too much.

It was already a new day of the week when, at dawn, he came downstairs, opened the shutters, wiped the counter, and inspected the ledger to see if Quillian had left any notes behind. After he was done with all, he activated the formation with a swipe of his hand, unlocking the front door. He smiled to himself, realizing that by simply operating the counter, he was learning to use his essence in a subtle, very much directed, and conservative way. Maybe handling work as if it were training made it much easier.

As for the two furballs, they turned out to be more useful than Quillian expected. Whenever a guest arrived, Marly was up on the top of the shelves, following them around from above, always keeping an eye on them. The perfect anti-theft security. As for Arya, she mostly spent the days on a cushion placed on the counter, distracting disciples when they came up to buy something, forgetting to even haggle. Most of them were more curious about the mismatched eyes looking at them pretty haughtily, and how could Quillian let a beast into his shop?

What Siu had noticed while handling their purchases was that the people who bought from Red Leaf were usually older than him. Not old, like Quillian, or not even older-looking, but he could feel that their aura was much more tangible and noticeable. He quickly realized that after a certain stage in the Blood Resonance, he could instinctually start feeling the weight and density of the natural essence in others' bodies. He wondered how it worked, or how precise his senses were. So, in his free time, being in a pretty much library-like shop, he browsed the tomes, looking for answers.

"Ah," He exhaled one day, finding what he was looking for, "Sensing Essence: An Essential Skill." He read the title, smacking his lips, "They knew what they were naming this book, huh?"

Bringing it to the counter, he flipped through the thin book, which was a manual that described how one can use their own essence to thin it, send it out of their bodies, envelop others without them ever realizing, and gauge the thickness of their blood. It had ample warning that it was a hard skill to master, and if they used it on someone who had the same skill ready, they could not only detect the scan but also counter, reflect, or deceive it. Still, it kept repeating that the skill itself was something that even Second Circle cultivators learn and use throughout their lives.

"Weird..." He muttered to himself after finishing the book, "This... needs to be learned? I thought everyone had it..."

It was apparently not the case. It left him a bit unsure... was it related to his affinity? Or his beasts? If it's a learned skill... No matter. Whichever it was, he decided to start studying it nonetheless, going through the manual over and over in his empty hours, which there were a lot of.

The technique itself required control over the body, especially as he learned the forms of his fighting style. This time, it all depended on his comprehension and mind to take control of what he had and use something that was pretty much invisible. Like training how well you hear, smell, and see.

Most of the time, when he had to pause his reflections, it was when someone came in and bought something. Usually, the books they looked at were about geography, neighboring landscapes, minor clans, mortal towns, and the different customs of mortal kingdoms. At first, Siu found it strange; then, when he sold the second one and caught a glimpse of a note in the disciple's hand, he understood at once. It was unmistakable that these disciples were taking missions outside the sect and had come here to gather information about their destination.

"We should go out too..." Arya muttered, making Siu nod at that time.

"I agree." He said simply, making both beasts' heads turn to him, their ears perking up. "But gather resources first, hm? We can't go out poor and unprepared, or you won't be able to eat all the various foods."

That alone made the two stop complaining for the rest of the week.

After opening for the current morning, Siu settled back to the counter, picking up the manual once again, and by now, he could recite it backward, too. It made him wonder whether this was also normal or not. Was it because he had a good head on his shoulders... or was it linked to his affinity once again? He wished he had someone to ask for advice, but if not even the Grand Elders or the Sect Master could decide what he had... It may very well be up to him to discover everything about his abnormality. While thinking, looking with an empty gaze at the manual, Arya lay on her side with her head hanging over the edge, one paw dangling, chasing imaginary enemies, bored out of her mind. Marly was up on the shelves again, scurrying around, but Siu knew she would not cause trouble. Hopefully.

“This is torture,” Arya muttered suddenly.

“You are lying on a cushion.” Siu answered, "Uncomfortable?"

“Boring. Which is just as bad...” She argued, "I prefer the training we did before... Even if it was tiring. Reading is... boooring! Master, I decided: I hate books. Books are for dorks."

“I don't even know where you learned that word. And!" He raised his voice, seeing her ready to argue, "I can't let you go and wander around here; otherwise, I may very well end up with a lifelong debt.”

"We wouldn't!" She answered, letting out a long sigh again, "Alone it would be super scary. What if someone steals us and makes us their slaves? I don't want to swing my hips for someone else, Master!"

"What books have you been reading?" Siu asked with a flat look, closing his manual, "I didn't think Quillian had anything like that around here."

"I wish!" She rolled onto her back, spreading out like a lazy cat, "That would at least be interesting!"

"Idiot..." He chortled, rubbing her belly that she very much enjoyed, before standing up and returning the already memorized tome to its place.

Looking for something else to browse, his eyes landed on the 'incidents and minor disasters' section. It had caught his interest earlier in the week, but he had not explored it properly yet. The shelf contained copies of accounts of accidents, failed expeditions, border conflicts, minor and major sect clashes, outbreaks, and natural or man-made disasters across the Obsidian Moon Sect's territory. Some books were thin, little more than reports bound together, while others were thicker, filled with commentary written right when it happened and throughout the decades after the events. He ran his eyes over the titles as he cleaned the shelf, scanning the covers of the thicker-looking ones.

"The Red Flood of Lower Senta. Notes on the so-called Broken Bridge Dispute. Seven Failed Searches for the Serpents' Den." With a shrug, he left them all in place, not really interested in any of them, until he noticed a surprisingly familiar name. "The Three Valley Incident?"

Siu stared at it, at first raising a brow, then his fingers reached out to pull it from its place.

"What is it, Master?" Arya asked, appearing suddenly on his head, while Marly landed on the shelf, hanging off it next to him, both of them sensing a sudden fluctuation in his emotions.

"I grew up at a place where there was something called the Three Valleys. Well... My Old Man called it that, telling me it was once a unified land. Is this the same?" He asked, getting back to the counter, both of them following him, curious about their Master's past.

Opening the tome, he recognized it as a copy at once because of Quillian's handiwork, his immaculate, slightly cursive writing filling the pages.

"What does it say, Master?" Arya asked, leaning over to look at the paper, but refused to try and read it herself.

"Let's see..." Siu muttered out quietly, "Huh. It starts strong. It says: To call it an incident is generous. The Land of the Three Valleys was hollowed out, drained, divided, and left standing only because no greater power found it worth finishing the work of its previous owners. In our world, their land became a dead zone, only fit to give false hope and ruin the mortals living there."

"Was it that bad?" Marly asked, gulping loudly, quickly patting Siu's head in sympathy.

"I... Don't know." He answered, being very much unsure. If it was the same place, he didn't realize how bad it was back then, but then again, he was just a kid, not even a cultivator. "In the centuries before its decline, the region was known for three fertile valleys gathered around a shared mountain basin." He continued reading, "The eastern valley was warm, red-stoned, with mineral vents and rich CC mines. The southern valley was green and wealthy with herbs growing on its fertile soils. The western valley was cooler, home to multiple rivers and clear pools fed by underground springs filled with essence."

"That doesn't sound bad at all!" Arya exclaimed, and Siu had to agree. Also... he was now unsure whether it was referring to the same place he had in mind.

"Harmonic Triumvirate..." Siu added, finding the name of the sect that settled there. "Wait... It says the Triumvirate was never a single sect. Let's see... Ah, here. The Blazing Sun Sect. It guarded the passes, forged weapons, and mined resources. The Serene Meadow Sect mostly cultivated medicines, tended for beasts, and focused on alchemy. Lastly, the third one was the Azure Flow Sect, which maintained the flow of the rivers between the valleys and created the last part of their equilibrium."

"Fire, Wood and Water?" Arya asked, catching onto the important part quickly.

"Apparently." Siu nodded, "And for a time, the arrangement worked pretty well. The details in this text say they grew into a medium-sized local power over the centuries. But then they also began overdrawing the veins in the mines, expanding their herb terraces beyond the land's limits, while the waters began to be diverted away, causing more and more conflicts within the three sects."

"Big family dispute?" Arya asked, nodding her head, "I saw some of my dads fight and rip off the other's ears or tails to mate with my mom. Sometimes their frenzy was what my mom found entertaining... I never understood why."

"Your mom had to be beautiful," Marly muttered, but Siu continued reading, not wanting to be distracted.

"Fire burned the groves, while the wilderness overgrown the valley where the rivers were, causing floods that rushed into the mines. All that harmony went out the window, huh? Tsk. Idiots... They had a good system from what I can tell; why throw it away? Why do you need more when you already have plenty?"

"Isn't more always... more?" Marly asked, wiping her mouth before she could start drooling onto the book and get Siu into trouble.

"Are you trying to become a Red-Eyed Squirrel?" He asked, making her shrink back, while his eyes returned to the page, flipping it. "Their reward for being greedy was that in less than a generation, the Harmonic Triumvirate ceased to exist. It wasn't even destroyed by outsiders, hmph!"

"Good thing our sect is only one valley! But we do have multiple peaks..." Arya muttered, thinking to herself, crossing her front paws, sitting like a human.

"I don't think we have to worry about anything like this." Siu chuckled, shaking his head, "It says it here: The Land of the Three Valleys should therefore be treated as a cautionary example. Huh... I wonder..."

"About?" They both asked, looking at him.

"If it's the place where I grew up or not... But I guess there has to be more than one place where there are three valleys or something."

"We could go and check!" Arya perked up at once, making Siu smile at her.

"I do plan to visit home one day. I want to see how my parents are doing, and check on the Old Man. I do miss them... but I swore to reach a certain level first! So," He began, closing the book, when the door opened, and he saw a tanned, tall girl walk in.

When Siu's gaze wandered to her sash, for a moment, his breath got stuck in his throat... A golden sash... She was a Core Disciple...!