Volume 2 Chapter 4

  Tan awoke with the rooster’s crow. If he slept through it, his father would wake him anyway, but he was up and his father would be coming in momentarily anyway, so he just rolled out of bed.

  He landed on the fat, draconic form of Key, his Qi Guardian. The beast gave a little squeak, but it wasn’t so little anymore, being the size of a large hound discounting its wings, which were twice again the size of its body when fully extended.

  “Sorry Key,” he muttered, rolling off of his companion and getting to his feet. He dressed and did the other things that one does in the morning, which for him included sending a portion of his Qi to the pet demon beast which had been with him for almost two years now.

  The lazy thing just gobbled up his offering and rolled back over to go back to sleep, while Tan went to do his chores. After taking care of the chickens, he returned to breakfast. The others had all finished their own chores ahead of him, and were presently helping to cook breakfast.

  Tan joined in the melee, cracking eggs over a frying pan while his sister set the table. Safron was seven years old now, and very proud of that fact, and she had reached the fourth stage of the initiates realm. Her cultivation had been proceeding apace ever since they had cured the ‘itchiness’ that had been her Qi block, a malady that she had been born with.

  It wouldn’t have been a problem if she were born into a mortal family, but in the Shen household, it was almost like she was born without her left arm. They would have loved her whether she could have cultivated or not, but the feelings of disappointment and sorrow at her lack of ability would have been there, bubbling beneath the surface. The parents could have lived with them, but could Safron?

  And so they had engaged the Four Gates of Heaven Fate Defying Formation alongside a healing method which was deemed most likely to work according to a team of doctors hand selected by the emperor himself.

  That this act had given the former emperor, Haoatonian Shenlong, access once more to the living world through the conduits of the dreams of his descendants complicated matters, and the Shen family remained uncertain what to do about it.

  Hao Shen had presented himself to Tan in his dreams as a caring mentor and guide, but when Tan had refused his initial offer of guidance, the ancestral spirit had shown a darker side, leading to a battle in his dreams.

  The imperial scribes were still looking for a way to track down the errant spirit, but so far there was no promising lead except for the words of Tan’s spirit, Zephyr.

  “You have ink on your face,” Safron announced to the room.

  “I know,” Tan said.

  “Didn’t you wash your face yesterday?”

  “I did but it didn’t come out. I need the special solvent that Master Swension keeps to get rid of it, I think. He used a different ink this time, I think he was pretty annoyed when he caught me napping,” Tan admitted.

  Safron giggled. “Butt face,” she said.

  “What?”

  “That’s what the characters say, I think,” Safron said. Then she giggled and went to set the table.

  Tan turned to his friends. “Do I really have the words Butt Face on my face?”

  “Yes, and you also have a butt face,” Ko answered promptly.

  “Shut up,” Tan said, then went back to frying the eggs.

  After everyone had eaten, they worked until noon in the fields. Everyone, including Safron, was assigned a section to weed and check for general health. They were joined by two spirit animals, Tremble, whose true form was that of a boar, and Dewdrop, whose animal form was a doe.

  Tremble in particular was skilled at finding any signs of disease or rot with his nose, although there was precious little of that on the Shen farm. Dewdrop, like Lady Wensho and the other water cultivator of the household, Ko, was responsible for checking the moisture in the fields to ensure everything was optimal for growth.

  The kids worked hard, and when lunch was called they quickly returned to prepare and eat a meal. While there was always more work to be done on the Shen farm, they were done with the fieldwork for the day.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  For the children at least. The adults would continue to work, while the children had either lessons or cultivation to see to.

  Unfortunately as far as Tan was concerned, there was rather too many lessons and not enough Cultivation for his tastes. He had taken to cultivating in the evenings, after eating and after his lessons with Swenshion. If the weather was fair, he would cultivate straight until he fell asleep, usually right alongside the other members of his quartet, Pao, Won and Ko.

  Pao was four years older than Tan, which made him a man at seventeen now. Since the truth of Tan’s heritage had come out, they couldn’t pretend that they were brothers anymore, as they’d used to when they were younger. Tan had been with the Shens since before Safron was born, but he wasn’t truly blood. He was an earth cultivator, a strong one who followed the same dao as Tan’s father.

  Likewise, the twins Won and Ko were sometimes weird about Tan being an imperial prince. Tan thought it was idiotic because he was the same kid he’d always been . But at the same time, he understood. He hadn’t known, and now he knew .

  Sure, he’d always known that his parents were powerful. But he hadn’t realized that their power had extended beyond being moderately powerful cultivators. The fact that he’d grown up with them and their magics being his everyday routine meant that his expectations for regular cultivators were way out of wack.

  The fact that cultivation came naturally to him only further complicated matters.

  In the last two years, he had reached the sixth stage of the foundation realm. There were sects that were governed by elders weaker than him, he knew. Not prominent sects, but there were sects out there that he could legitimately challenge for leadership.

  Pao was the second most advanced cultivator among his quartet, having reached the second stage of the foundation realm. Won and Ko were both catching up with him at the first stage of the foundation realm, neck and neck as always.

  Tan sighed and cleared his head as he went to his lessons. Lokari was lecturing on mathematics today. Tan sighed and learned how to read the graphs that she put up on the chalkboard, answering the questions when he was called upon and answering the extra questions on his individual assignment given to him by Swenshion.

  He glanced over at his little sister and was uncertain whether or not he was jealous of her. On the one hand, his formal education hadn’t started until he was already eleven years old. His parents had taught him basic math and the common characters on their own. He was still learning the courtly characters, and the fact that sometimes he read things out of order only made things more complicated.

  He sighed.

  When the class was over, he stepped outside. He was relieving himself against a fence post when he heard the sound of hoof beats. He finished what he was doing, then flew up into the air to spot the intruder, recognizing the figure of Lord Hara coming up the road.

  He flew out to greet the man, who acknowledged him from horseback and made to get down to bow properly, but Tan waved him off.

  “You’ve got mail for us?” Tan asked.

  “Indeed. It arrived in my hands last night. It was not marked as especially urgent, so I pray that your father will not be upset with me for not making great haste to deliver it,” Lord Hara answered.

  “I’ll take it the rest of the way if you don’t feel like seeing him yourself,” Tan said.

  “There’s a letter here with an imperial seal,” he said. “But I see no reason not to give you the letters addressed to you and your friends.”

  With that, he handed over a large envelope that Tan recognized immediately. He grinned. Kora Zang had written to them, as she did once every month or two ever since her first visit.

  “Thank you, Lord Hara. I’m sorry that my family has you playing postman.”

  “It’s quite alright, Young Master. I have gained significantly from the arrangement, I assure you.”

  “Alright then, as long as you’re happy with it.”

  Lord Hara watched the boy fly off and he relaxed slightly. Indeed, his relationship with the Shen family was most lucrative, as he was one of the few people who both knew who they were and where they lived . Most of the delay in delivering the letter had been due to Hara’s own paranoia of being followed.

  But he was rather confident that nobody had.

  This time.

  ?