Beware Of Chicken Chapter 292 v7c39: Westward Leading

We departed Pale Moon Lake City, traveling westward. As the gates faded behind us and the carriage rumbled along the path, a clear relaxation settled over the Lord Magistrate and Lady Wu.

"I'm glad that's all behind us," Teacher announced, leaning back to pillow his head on Lady Wu's lap. He grasped Xue Ji's tail, coiled snugly around Lady Wu's waist, and pressed his face into its softness. The fox-woman let out a soft, amused hum while seated nearby, perusing a scroll. "To think, I once wanted that to be my life. I would have gone as bald as Bao from the stress!"

We all laughed at his stifled words, and Lady Wu gently stroked his hair.

"Court politics were certainly… interesting," I concurred. "But as an outside observer…somebody else can deal with all that shit."

"The cities produce the greatest of wonders, and the most difficult of challenges," Lady Wu concurred. "And what about you, Meiling? What did you think of the city?"

Meimei halted to ponder the query, collecting her ideas.

At last, she replied. "It was interesting. There were so many artisans in one place; so much fascinating food, wonderful architecture, and just people. All those scrolls in the Archive… it was vibrant. Alive. Even at night, I could feel the energy flowing through the city. It was amazing… and yet at the same time I don't think I would ever want to live there. It's too much."

I nodded, completely getting it. I shared the same sentiment, after all. Even the Rou side of me had warmed to rural living.

"That, and well, it's probably childish of me, but I kept waiting for… what happened when I went there last to happen again," she continued, alluding to the cultivator who slew a beggar child during her childhood visit to the city. "I kept running it through in my mind, what I would do to stop a cultivator that was inconvenienced by mortals and how to hurt them. How I could intervene. But in the end… well, nothing like that happened. The closest thing were those cultivators who came that one night, but Xue Ji took care of them. I was tense the whole time."

That feeling, I grasped well. Meimei had scanned the throngs sharply every time we ventured into the city, her gaze flitting about. It hadn't been a big deal, and she had clearly relished the experience… but that past event surely lingered in her thoughts.

Yet… one detail had escaped her notice.

"But Mei, you did see a cultivator who was inconvenienced by mortals," I pointed out.

Meiling blinked in surprise. "We did? When?"

"When we were walking to pick up Babe and Washy from the gallery Chyou took them to, you remember that kid who tripped over your foot when he darted out from that alley? You caught him and told them to be more careful. When you took off your shoes at our accommodations, you didn't even notice the scuff."

Meimei stared at my statement. Her lips parted briefly, then shut once more.

"Huh," she uttered at length.

"It is not what a person is that determines their reaction; but rather who they are," the Lord Magistrate intoned, his tone brimming with wise insight… and still muffled by a plush tail.

Meimei shook her head at the scene. "I suppose I was too focused on the fact that they were a cultivator," she whispered eventually.

"Well, cultivators do seem more likely to be assholes sometimes," I confessed. "But I don't know if that's because more are assholes, or if we just hear about the bad things about them more often. There's no story to tell when a cultivator dodges the person who bumps into them, or just doesn't care about the interaction."

I had arrived in this realm anticipating most cultivators to be pill-swallowing maniacs… and that proved entirely untrue. The majority of cultivators I encountered turned out to be quite sensible folks—and though some were outright scoundrels, others like Big D, Xiulan, Tigu, and that Shao Heng fellow stood as truly valiant figures.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

It formed a key reason I felt at ease with this whole journey; rather than fleeing to hide on my farm.

I had misjudged. Not every cultivator, but sufficient numbers of them. I yearned to comprehend them beyond mere archetypes yelling "You dare!" over the tiniest imagined insult in shoddily machine-translated tales.

I resided here now. I dwelt in a realm teeming with individuals, not some xianxia backdrop driven purely by clichés.

Hells, I possessed tales to prove it. Tigu had sulked deeply when no noodle shop brawls erupted on her initial jaunt to the Dueling Peaks, and later to Grass Sea City. Though, regarding Grass Sea City…

"You got a reply from your messenger, right?" I inquired, recalling the fellow they dispatched to their son months prior.

"Yes. He sent a message back to one of our contacts in Pale Moon Lake City when he could not reach us, saying he delivered his letter; and later, when we were travelling south, he said he would be returning to Verdant Hill with his reply. Perhaps we shall meet him on the road? But I would not bet on it at this point. He might even be going up north directly, instead of going back to Pale Moon Lake; we did tell him to test out the various routes…"

"Sometimes children need their parents to surprise them," Meimei remarked, a faint, playful smile curving her lips.

Lady Wu laughed lightly, mirroring the smile on her features. "Yes, indeed. Sometimes they need a good scare, for making their parents worry so."

Washy and I shared a look, then both shifted away in unison from the vengeful vibe radiating from the two women.

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Thus, we ventured into the Grass Sea and reclaimed our perches atop the carriage. Neither the Lord Magistrate nor Lady Wu had journeyed this way before, eager to behold the true face of the Grass Sea.

"Wow..." was all Meimei managed upon emerging from a cluster of trees, the skyline unfolding ahead. The verdant expanse appeared endless, reaching to the distant edge. We gazed out for likely hundreds of miles across the immense grassland.

This segment of our travels would stretch the longest. The Grass Sea began near Pale Moon Lake and extended to the sea—a span matching the combined breadths of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. It stretched south to Yellow Rock Plateau, and north deep into the province's heart, merging into Ash Forest. It loomed as a colossal landscape, rivaling the Great Plains of old.

Beforehand, it had hosted a hundred thousand waterways; tiny landmasses sliced by flowing currents. Remarkably, the wildlife required little change; most streams proved shallow enough to ford, and the grasses with water reeds abounded.

The waterways had dwindled sharply; yet many persisted, and ample rainfall kept all verdant and thriving.

It offered an ideal home for humankind. Rain fell generously, but not excessively. Game roamed in vast herds of bison and deer, with scattered woods to aid survival. The rivers swelled predictably, without fury, enriching the earth.

Against the chaos of earth morphing to metal, and metal to water, conditions had actually improved for ordinary folk here. Vastly so.

And in this gentle haven, spared frequent Spirit Beast assaults and demonic assaults… humanity thrived.

A million souls claimed Pale Moon Lake City as their home. Grass Sea City matched or surpassed it in size.

The Grass Sea sustained them both.

Meimei and Washy emitted sounds of wonder as our swift pace pressed on, captivated by the boundless vista. Xue Ji and Suyan widened their usually narrowed eyes, scanning about in astonishment; the shift from rugged peaks to this flatness surely stunned them. Bane of the Black Lances and her companions soared aloft, droning joyfully and flitting to the myriad wildflowers gleaming amid the grass.

Babe began to hum; it echoed one of the tunes he'd caught me singing earlier. And truly, we were on a road adventure, weren't we?

I fetched my pipa and joined in the melody.

"So darling, darling stand by me, oh, stand by me…"

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The initial day held no fixed agenda, merely roaming and absorbing the sights. We skipped an inn that evening, despite one nearby—the night sky shone too brilliantly to waste indoors.

Instead, we built a roaring bonfire and unpacked some supplies. I clasped Zhuye's hand as he toddled around, yanking up grass clumps… and nibbling on a few he uprooted.

I snatched some away to inspect for dangers… but found none. Just plain grass.

So I allowed him a few chews. I was taken aback when he tolerated it fine, so I sampled a bit myself.

It tasted decent, really.

"The grass here is almost as good as the grass back home," Babe noted, munching contentedly.

Washy, on the other hand, sported… a gob of soil. He mulled it over with care. I gawked at him, and he scowled deeply.

"I think Tigu was pranking me. She said you could eat the soil of the Grass Sea, and while it has some merits… I would not recommend it," he proclaimed with stately poise. "Naturally, I shall avenge this."

I chuckled and rolled my eyes, then pulled out my map to plot the morrow.

"There are a couple of places we can angle to," I stated after a pause. "We can head up to Crystal Hill and see Master Gen, that's on the way. Or we can go to the Dueling Peaks first, and use that as a base to visit other parts of the Grass Sea before heading to Grass Sea City."

"We should probably go to the Dueling Peaks first, shouldn't we? That's where everyone is," Meimei suggested, tending the flames.

"Probably the best idea. Though, there is one stop if we go to the Dueling Peaks first. There's a sect on the way—the Framed Sun Sect. It would be rude of us to just walk right past them."

"Then that's where we go," Meiling decided. "I'll get everything ready!"

And so our plan was set. Next stop, the Framed Sun Sect.