Cai stared out at the village from the hillsides. He did that a lot now.

  Less in wonder and more in contemplation, looking out into the world to try and see more within himself.

  And again, he found nothing.

  The village itself was only a few miles wide. But still, it stood shining a ways away. It would be hard for a mortal to make out anything but he could make things out as if he were right there. At least if he was channeling qi into his eyes he could.

  He could see the Ivin Wood homes. The material was a weed in the cultivator world. He knew Hidden Viper's outer disciples would walk around their forest and cut down the tree as one of their chores.

  But here it was a revolutionary building material. It grew at a faster pace than other trees and it grew everywhere. Over the course of a year, a single sapling could root ten feet into the earth and grow ten feet in every direction. For cultivators, that was too fast and too much.

  The Hidden Viper’s territory was vast and small forgotten pockets would fill up with this plant within a century.

  But to these mortals, that was almost too slow. They shaped it over the years, growing it around their mud and stone houses and then tearing down the mud and stone and having wood there instead. Their roofs were covered with foliage.

  It seemed silly to him like children making hats with leaves. But that was the way of the mortal world. Whatever trash cultivators threw out mortals would use as treasures. Broken drained spirit stones became their currency and their weeds became their houses.

  Scrolls written by trainee cultivator scribes became things kept in mortal houses as decorations. They were like ants scrounging for the crumbs of the men above. And sometimes those men stumbled and those men stepped on these ants. Then they’d scowl at the dead insects on their feet, wipe their shoe against a stone, and walk forward unchanged.

  This was the cultivator.

  The man above the ants.

  But this was also the cultivator, the ants below the feet.

  That was what he was. Something above the mortals yet below the fifth rank. For a moment he had shined, but then he had been dulled.

  He should have been stepped on. He should have been squashed by that uncaring thing of a man, but another man had tripped him up and here he sat, gazing down at the mortals beneath.

  An ant among ants, that's what he was now. An insect.

  “Augh,” a baby said next to him.

  Cai jumped and stared at the child. She stared back, offended at his offense.

  “Ao Ao bou,” she said with an offended front.

  Cai didn’t know babies could look offended, but he picked up her intent through her aura.

  This is my spot. You are the intruder.

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  “Apologies young miss,” he said giving the baby a slight bow.

  The baby nodded and was quickly appeased.

  Cai sat back down. What a strange child.

  He was about to go back to relaxing when he felt a hard smack against his missing limb.

  He looked over and the baby had somehow snuck up to his arm without him knowing it.

  She smacked his arm a couple of times and looked around and into the distance.

  Where is your arm, Cai understood.

  “I… lost it, young miss.”

  The baby gave him an inquisitive look.

  “Gao,” she mumbled.

  Who loses an arm?

  Cai didn’t know how to answer that and the child gave him the most disappointed look possible. The type of look that said ‘I didn’t know people could be stupid enough to lose an arm. You have individually lowered my standard for humanity.’

  “It- it was taken, young miss. It was taken by a cultivator.”

  The baby gasped.

  Arm thieves?

  “I- I supposed. It was an assurance,” Cai spoke. “I lose the arm to ensure my life.”

  She pointed to his other arm.

  “Ah, well this arm isn’t as strong. Most of my techniques and meridian pathways were located in this arm. I reinforced it with qi. While this other arm is far less capable.”

  She nodded in a sage-like manner and stoked her chin in thought. Then she yelled, with qi. It was so loud that it made Cai’s ears ring for a moment.

  A single alert raccoon came out of the woodwork and walked over to her. She whispered to it as if to exclude Cai…but still spoke with her aura.

  Watch out for arm thieves. Keep all hands accounted for.

  The raccoon looked confused, then nodded and walked away.

  The child gave him a nod.

  Cai smiled and nodded back.

  Then a dog came by and the baby, who couldn’t have been more than half a year old, grabbed onto his fur and climbed onto his back.

  She gave him a single wave and ran off towards the village.

  He watched them weave through the farmlands, passing by many villagers who occasionally waved at her. And then she entered the village.

  “Who’s baby is that?” Cai wondered.

  This place was so strange. First the immortal, then the Bloody Fist Sect, and now… this… cultivator baby?

  Well, he had heard of young prodigies before. Maybe she was just really talented.

  That didn’t seem likely, but it was a curious idea. A curious idea, a curious baby, a curious immortal, and a curious place.

  Cai watched the rest of the village operate. People took small things and put them back. Farmers carried wagons full of crops to the village and some went past the village, the small outpost a good mile or two away from them. That was next to the cultivator camp, and it was also the place where food was cooked for said camp.

  Cai could see a great number of merchants and traders congregating at the spot, thousands it seemed. The village prepared for this season and farmed all year with this specific time in mind, but even this seemed like a larger amount than accounted for.

  Indeed there were warriors, and cultivators just passing through. Rogue clanless men and women sightseeing the home of a new immortal.

  Some had even set up shop, having come up with some kind of compromise with the village chief, a few permanent buildings had been erected on one side of the camp. A whorehouse was the first thing that had been built, which was an attraction all its own for most people.

  They were common in big cities, but whorehouses capable of catering to cultivators were rare. And whorehouses who had ties to immortals were even rarer. The rumor was new but widespread. It was said that the owner of the whorehouse, a lady by the name of Madem Rose was not only close to Gai Jin, the first immortal of the region in ten thousand years, but also associated with the immortal who lived here.

  Cai knew the truth, of course, he had talked to the Honored Immortal, or as he was now calling him, Mister Bill.

  But word had gotten around rather quickly and that had caused an influx of spies and information gatherers quickly flooding the place.

  Overall this village was booming with potential.

  It had appeal and growth, and more than that, it had peace.

  Here was a land of ants and giants, a place where power meant little and survival wouldn’t be tested.

  That was why Cai was here after all.

  He smiled.

  It wasn’t home, but there was something about it that he just couldn’t describe. Seeing a fifth-rank cultivator negotiate with a mortal and be forced to give the man respect was something Cai could never have dreamed of.

  But it happened here.

  Here the ants would yell at the giants and the giants would listen and bow.

  Here, it was safe.

  And that was something all its own.

  is 15 chapters ahead at the five-dollar tier(up to chapter 122) and 29 chapters ahead at the ten-dollar tier(up to chapter 137) Patrons will be getting a double chapter on Monday.

  Volume One is finished on and Volume Two chapter 3 is up.

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  Also, check out my new Superhero fiction. That's right, I can say superhero because the term Superhero is no longer trademarked by Marvel and DC.

  It's heavily inspired by almost all superhero media but is also a little ode to one Super Minion here on Royal Road. Its only six chapters right now, but it's a good read I think and I sure enjoyed writing it. Thanks for reading!