CULTivation

It was loud. The wind roared in my ears and rattled my teeth. The bone-chillingly cold air caused shivers down my spine as I swayed back and forth in the wind. I continued forward, knowing the sooner I’d make it across the valley, the sooner I could leave this godforsaken place.

Dawn was approaching, as I had left under the cover of night to avoid any prying eyes. The sun was just peaking over the horizon as I continued down the mountain. It seems my journey is over. 6 months of painstaking and cautious travel as I slowly made my way to this small corner of the world. Finally coming down in elevation, the path I was on was dipping back down, towards the valley floor. “This should be it,” I thought as I stopped, seemingly randomly, as I gazed at a section of the mountain to the right of the path.

The rough black stone almost seemed to absorb all the light from around me, giving it an eerie feeling. Studying the rockface, I found what I was looking for—a small red mark. An X written in red with a red circle surrounding it and a black skull in the center. Pounding my fist against the mark, I heard what sounded like hollow space hidden in the stone. Stepping back, I pulled out a map and looked it over. “The map was actually real,” I thought with surprise as I put it away in a satchel hanging on my belt and, at the same time, grabbed a small stylized brass club sitting at the bottom of my bag.

Holding it in my hands, I closed my eyes and focused on the small but dense amount of spirit circulating my body. Slowly cycling my energy into the cudgel, I opened my eyes and shifted my body into a striking position. Abruptly, I reared my arms back and stopped the flow of essence into the artifact. It shone with a yellow light, and as my arms came down, enlarged into a giant club, I hit it against the black stone and broke through the hollow spot. Shrinking back down, I quickly put the artifact away, rushing forward and brushing away the dark stone.

With a serious expression, I pulled a bright green candle out, ignited it, and blew the thick, pungent smoke it released against the walls and floor of the small cavity. I put out the candle and waited patiently, and after noticing no symbols appeared, I pulled a small green bottle from my pocket. After pinching some silver dust from the bottle into the hole, I put the bottle away and pulled a small blank yellow talisman out. Channeling essence into the slip, dark smoke emanated out of it. The dark essence it produced coiled in the air like a snake and quickly darted towards the hole.

The smoke and the powder fused, forming a gold dust that flared out off the bottom of the hole and covered everything before disintegrating into nothing. Tense, I stared as I waited for a reaction, until after a few minutes, a baleful black glow started emanating from the walls. I smiled darkly, happy that my preparations had paid off. I sat down in front of the hole, cupping my hands together, and raised them in front of me. Reciting a string of unintelligible words, I started to glow with a faint white light and focused the energy being produced by the mantra into my hands.

Brows furrowed, I concentrated the energy in my hands into a small coin-sized ball in my palms and pushed it out of me into the cavity. As the different energies collided, a large flash of light appeared, and a loud boom happened. The energies then devoured each other before fading into nothing. Feeling optimistic, I smiled as I pulled my final preparations from my bag. A beautiful decorated black wand with a small jade stone fastened on one end appeared in my hand. I waved it over the pocket of stone to no reaction before putting it back in my bag.

Feeling confident I had dealt with all of the traps, I stepped towards the depression in the wall until I was standing in front of it. Taking a minute to feel around in the dark hole, I pulled out a small black slip and a small medicinal pill bottle. Looking through the dark brown glass of the bottle, I studied the pills, noticing that there was a shiny black pill, a dull white pill, and a blood red pill sitting together. After putting away the items, I studied my surroundings with a sharp gaze. I did not travel all this way and brave danger for nothing.

I stood there for ten minutes surveying the land and, after noticing no movement, felt it was time. Bursting into movement, I cycled some essence into my feet and quickly ran off towards the mouth of the valley. Leaving the valley in a flash, I ran into the dense forest bordering the long mountain range. After three hours of running with no interruption, I stopped in a small clearing, finally feeling comfortable that I probably wasn’t being followed. I took a moment to sit down against a tree and eat some food while pretending my guard was down.

I sat like that for 20 minutes before pulling a small black tent out of my pack. I set it up, all the while on guard for any intruders, and then pulled a small white stone from my pocket. Pulling a small flap on the tent, I pushed the stone into it. The tent flashed, and a small white circle appeared on its side.

Reaching my hand out to the center of the circle, I pushed some essence into the tent. The white circle swiftly flashed three times and then disappeared. With agile movements, I looked around before opening the tent and rushing inside. Once inside, I sat down on a matt placed on the floor.

As my ass hit the floor, the black walls of the tent started moving, until a few seconds later seemed entirely transparent. If one were to observe the tent from the outside during this process, they would be astonished to see the tent vanish into the air the moment its owner sat inside. Feeling safer now I could see any threats coming my way, I relaxed and reached into my bag. Pulling out the black stone slip, I stared at it before pushing a small amount of essence into it. As the words Evil Ghost Refinement appeared in my head, I couldn't help but happily chuckle, knowing I might be able to get a good price for this at the Night Market.