It hadn’t taken the sect long to load up my wagon, and the three of us were making our way down the mountain. It was a lot easier to get down since there was an actual path, but we were fully loaded and going downhill. Betsy didn’t want to risk it and do damage or something. Niku wasn’t as far on her path as I was, which was a weird thing to think, but we had to take it into consideration. We didn’t need her to be thrown off the wagon.

  So instead of rushing down the mountains to catch up, I was relaxing on my bench with my feet up and holding the reins lightly while Niku was inspecting the cargo. She was making gasps of astonishment and surprise as she was shifting stuff around back there.

  “What is it?” I turned around to look at her. She had removed her outer robes so she’d be able to move around back there, and I grinned. Not that she was lewd or anything, just. Look, man, anyway.

  “Apparently this sect really is named more for more than its being on the Jade Mountains, or well the mountains aren’t named just for the lush forests on them,” Niku breathed in deep.

  She turned and looked at me. I just had a curious expression on my face, the usual sort of ‘I’m an idiot and what are you talking about’ sort of expression.

  “They have to be sitting on a vein or something. They loaded hunks of pure jade on your wagon,” Niku said.

  Betsy bellowed loudly, angrily. Mentally she had told me that the wagons were heavy, even for her, which was another reason why she wasn’t trying to haul ass.

  “I’ve heard rumors about the sect’s wealth, but wow. These are huge chunks. You could probably make a shield with some of these. Then there are the crates,” Niku said, and I heard her look around for a way to open them.

  “Yeah, uh, that’s probably why they didn’t want us rooting around back there,” I told her and then I frowned. “I should have tried to get more money from this job.”

  Niku snorted. “Well, our emperor is known to be very kind to people who do him favors. He’ll probably make the trip worth it for you.”

  She started to grunt, and then I heard splintering wood, and when I looked back again to see what she was doing, I found her using her own dagger to pry open the crate. Another deep inhalation.

  “Now what?”

  She lifted the red paper from the crate and unwrapped it. “There’s stuff wrapped in silk paper. Runes on it.”

  “You, uh, probably shouldn’t touch it.”

  Niku ignored me. “There’s also sorts of things made from jade in here. Talisman, and jewelry. A bunch of stuff you could use for cultivation. That sect is rich.”

  I whistled through my teeth. “Well, whatever. We really shouldn’t look in there. Try to close everything back up and get back up here, would you?”

  “What, some sort of wagoneer’s code?” she chuckled a little as she said it and worked on closing the crate back up.

  “Yeah, you’re funny,” I said as I listened to her hammer the crate shut and then make her back up to the front as we bumped along. The girl may not have been powerful enough to stop herself from getting thrown off the wagon in one of Betsy’s single ox stampede’s but she was good enough to not lose her balance making her way through the short wagon train back up to sit next to me.

  Once she sat, she looked over at me expectantly.

  I sighed and shrugged. “I dunno, just people who ship stuff expect their drivers not to root around in their shit, you know? It’s not like a code or anything, but I dunno. I’m not anyone other than someone transporting their stuff. What do I care what it is unless it’s going to kill me?”

  She nodded. “This stuff might get you killed, though.”

  I slowly, dramatically turned my head towards her, with my eyebrows raised into my straw hat.

  She laughed softly. “It’s a lot of money back there. We’re gonna be a target. The cults are probably going to feel that amount of jade.”

  She furrowed her brow. “Actually, maybe not. That must be what the runes were doing on the paper. Hiding its spiritual presence. I didn’t feel anything.”

  “There you go, see. It’ll all be alright.” I nodded confidently.

  Niku was unsure, but eventually she shrugged. “If you think so, you’re the big bad powerful cultivator.”

  I cocked my brow and looked over at her as we rode through. “You think so? I don’t even have an element. You've gotta help me do that.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I will. We need to wait for the wind to pick up. We’ll probably end up doing it while we’re in the Desolation. Also, I never said you weren’t an oddball.”

  I nodded and laughed, and Betsy gave a gruff bellow. It took her several long moments before she let out. “You have no idea.” In that deep gruff voice of hers.

  I rolled my eyes but nodded confidently. “Maybe I’m weird, but that’s why you like me.”

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  I didn’t even realize she moved, but the next thing I knew, I felt her lips pressed against my cheek. “True.”

  A bellow from the front.

  I turned my head and stared at her with wide eyes and mouth open. She just leaned back on the driver’s bench and then into me. Her head rested on my shoulder, and I grinned and looked back forward over the moon.

  “This is nice,” she mumbled and closed her eyes.

  “It is, but I actually want to try something.” I furrowed my brow, thinking about something I had done on my way to Lijiang.

  “Mm? What? Does it mean I have to get up?”

  “Maybe? I did something before. There were guys messing with this innkeeper on my job that took me down to Lijiang.”

  “Yeah?” She lifted her head, which made me frown, but I was thinking it over.

  “Yeah. I had him by the collar and told him to move. Next thing I knew, we were both out in the street,” I explained to her.

  Niku’s eyebrows rose, and she whistled through her teeth. “Oh really? Wait, how strong?”

  She trailed off and frowned. “I can’t scan your spirit. You have to be in the spiritual rank to do that but, do you know your level?”

  I mulled it over and then shrugged. “No one has actually told me. I just know that Hisai told me I was powerful.”

  She nodded. “If you’re able to do that, yes, I’d say so. That’s more of a power that someone has who is definitely in tune with their path in the universe.”

  Their dao, I thought, but didn’t say it. It seemed like that was this world’s version of the dao; their path. I nodded .

  “It would explain why someone like Hisai has taken such an interest in you,” she said in thought.

  “What’s his deal?”

  “Um, I’m not too sure of the specifics, but Master Moritoshi told me a little. Apparently he was quite destructive when he was older and switched his path and his element,” she explained to me and then patted my knee.

  “Come on, let’s see what you can do, Mr Bigshot,” she said and hopped off the wagon while we were still rolling.

  Betsy was slowing before I could even say anything, and she grunted a little as she dug in to stop the heavy wagon.

  “Sorry, girl, but maybe I can make this easier for us to catch up to them?”

  She bellowed, and I could feel her shrug. Once the wagon was fully stopped, I felt Niku grab my arm and pull me down from the wagon.

  “Come on, let’s try this out. I want to see what you can do,” she said and sounded pretty excited about it.

  I nodded. “Alright then, what do I do?”

  She shrugged. “You’ve already done it. Just do whatever you did with the bandit guy.”

  “True,” I agreed and stepped towards the wagon. I grabbed hold of the wheel and concentrated on wanting the wagon somewhere else.

  “Move,” I commanded. I did it just as I did with the bandit. Honestly, it was pretty nonchalant. He had to move out of the inn because I didn’t want to hurt anything inside, so I told him to move, and then we were both out on the street.

  Now though? Nothing happened. Nothing happened except the pain in my head. I grunted and grabbed at my temples with my thumb and forefinger with the hand that wasn’t holding the wheel. The hand that was holding the wheel was now supporting me standing because my knees were feeling weak.

  Niku moved quickly and put a hand on my shoulder. “What? What is it?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know, my head. I thought of the whole wagon and Betsy and just thought about it moving now I can’t…” I trailed off and closed my eyes before I gave another soft grunt.

  Her hand moved from my shoulder, and I felt her rub my back. “It’s probably too much. You expended your mana, maybe? Can you feel the mana in your body? Feel how much you have?”

  It took a few minutes before I opened my eyes and looked at her.

  “Close your eyes again and just feel inside your core,” she explained.

  I did as she instructed.

  “If it’s that I can give you a pill, and it isn’t a problem,” she continued.

  I nodded and felt inside myself like Hisai had taught me what felt like ages ago now. My mind ran through my channels, tracing them back to the core behind my belly button. “I still have mana, not much, but it’s there. This feels like it might be something more than just low on mana, though. It feels, I don’t know, deeper?”

  She made a noise as if she were thinking it over. “I don’t know. This is above me, but I can help you with the mana. Come on, let’s get you back in the wagon. It’s just something else we can try out and practice on the way. The whole wagon and Betsy were probably just too much.”

  I nodded, and she helped me climb onto the bench. “Yeah, maybe.”

  I slumped down and felt exhausted. Once I was sitting and Niku was sitting next to me, Betsy rolled and she gave a worried bellow back at me. I didn’t have the energy to talk, but I told her I was alright through our link. She nodded at me, or well, I felt like she did, but I could feel her keeping close to me, watching over me. Betsy was a good girl.

  “Here, take this. It’s one of the better ones I know how to make,” Niku said and handed something over to me.

  I never even saw what it looked like. My eyes were closed, and I was slumped down with my mouth hanging open.

  “Maikeru?!” she yelled.

  Betsy bellowed, and I could feel her trying to speak once more.

  “Maikeru!” Niku shook me.

  I could feel all of this going on. I knew what was happening. I just, I just didn’t have the energy to do anything about it. I felt like I was wide awake, but I was just drained.

  “He’s…”

  The gruff queen’s voice came out slowly as she thought about what she wanted to say and how to move her mouth to speak.

  “He’s okay, tired. Drained,” Betsy said. The ox never stopped pulling the wagon and just kept trotting along.

  Next thing I knew, she was jamming a pill in my mouth. I remembered the last one she gave me when I first got here after my accident. That pill tasted like Mountain Dew. This one could have tasted the same if you had added some water or thinned it out somehow. The liquid inside the pill was thick, like syrup. Thick like molasses, no, maybe thick. I felt it dissolve in my mouth, and the energy flowed into my body.

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