The expedition was large enough that most minor wasteland hazards simply avoided them. Tian would normally welcome that, but now his skin felt like it was on too tight. The protective suit stifled him. Especially the face covering- the soft fabric hadn’t been a problem before, but today something was wrong with it and it was choking him.

Cultivate. You haven’t in days. I know you aren’t in the mood, but you will feel better. Just breathe. Let your vital energy cycle through you, and focus on the breathing. You can switch to Counter-Jumper and Light Body in a little while. For now, just enjoy the fact that a big squad means fewer ambushes and cultivate.

Tian blew out a long breath. Cultivating did relax him and, he had noticed, made him both more calm and more energized. He inhaled long and slow, then started the cycle. He nearly stopped it again when he felt his body absorb the tainted qi in the air almost effortlessly. All that earth qi and fire qi were pulled apart, purified, and sent into his meridians with an almost disrespectful ease. He didn’t dare ask Grandpa Jun what was happening, but based on the cackling, Grandpa had him figured out.

You have been doing your best to pretend the Hell Suppressing Sutra doesn’t exist, but it does and it’s had about a month to work on you. It’s not at the level where you can just ignore the poisonous qi on your own, but after the filtration by the suit, what’s left is no problem. As for what exactly it is doing? The yin part of the arts is absorbing the earth and fire qi and dissolving it into a more pure, elementally neutral form of qi. The yang part is taking that dissolved qi and hauling it through your meridians. And if you remember, those Lotus Meridians of yours already have a minor filtering effect on chaotic qi.

Grandpa Jun chuckled. You aren’t ignoring the poison qi, you are accepting it, suppressing it and refining it. Told you it was a good sutra.

Tian almost wanted to laugh. It was so damn unreasonable. The Heavenly Person heretic had presumably found the statue with the sutra on it when they were out adventuring, or when they had killed someone else who had discovered it. They knew it was valuable, that it was an opportunity, but they never figured out how to use it. Then the old monster was ninety nine parts killed by a Direct Disciple, finished off and looted by Tian, and only then were the secrets of the statue finally cracked by the unreasonable abilities of Grandpa Jun. And while Grandpa Jun didn’t know everything, he did know far, far more than anyone else Tian had met.

He sometimes wondered what it would be like if Grandpa didn’t have to constantly scrape together every little shred of energy. Tian would probably be at the Above Heavenly Person level, whatever that was. Maybe he would have his own sky barge, or a flying sword.

Tian let his breathing flow in a seamless cycle, feeling the vital energy flowing through his body, strengthening and nourishing him. Just focusing on the breathing, then letting his eyes keep a watch over the wasteland, and letting his body do the moving. The hours passed, and the miles vanished under their feet. He fell into a state of indifference. He moved when the sister ahead of him moved, stopped when she stopped, and let the thought fly across his mind like birds through a blue sky. They would pass, and the sky would remain.

The sister in front of him stopped suddenly. Tian matched her, then looked around to figure out why

she had stopped. A scout had returned. His hands flashed- enemy, ten, southwest, two miles. Tian observed the landscape. No handy fissures to hide in, and after last time, he didn’t really want to risk it. He supposed it would depend on where the seniors decided to set the ambush.

The immediate area was not promising. Flat stretches of ocher rock rising out of the red sands, then sinking back down again. There was the occasional scrub bush, none more than shin high, and all more twig than leaf. A mouse might hide behind one, but nothing bigger. On the other hand, anyone with even half an ounce of sense would be extra alert any place suitable for ambushes, so he didn’t know how to solve that puzzle.

The answer turned out to be a lot simpler, and harder, than Tian had imagined- “Lie down and don’t move.”

Tian had another sudden flashback to the garbage dump and his games with Grandpa. Shape, shine, color and shadow. Ideally you want to conceal your smell too, but that’s a more advanced lesson. The other key is movement. If you are hiding, you must remain very, very still. Still like a mouse. As long as you are still and you get those other things right, whether it’s predator or prey, they can look right at you and not see a thing.

It seemed the senior brothers and sisters got the same lesson. They lay themselves along the little rises of stone and seemed to merge into it. The little shrubs and their twisting shadows broke up the cultivators’ lines and contours. Simplest of all were the protective suits. The treated silk and linen were a rusty brown color. Not an exact match for the nearby rock, but when they lay down next to it, it became remarkably hard to spot the difference.

Tian did what his brothers and sisters did, wiggling himself into the ground a little bit so that the sand covered him slightly. Not enough to bury him, just enough to blur his shape. Tian closed his eyes and switched over to Counter-Jumper. Three Nights Hwang had urged him to focus on vibration sensing because while the range was short, you could sense things in the dark, under water, or coming at you through the earth. You might only get a single second’s warning, but it was better than no warning at all.

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He lay there, taking long, slow breaths. Trying to breathe as the wind moved. Letting his body vanish into the sands. The feeling Counter-Jumper gave him was so odd- like his skin was much larger than it actually was. Usually he was running while it was active, and the skin sensations took a long distant third place to his eyes and ears. The only vibration he could feel running was the wind and the shock of his feet against the sand.

Tian could feel the breeze as it tickled the desert. He could feel the creaking rocks as they warmed. Feel the little insects crawling through the sand, hiding from predators and the sun alike.

Now that he thought about it, the scorpions tended to be black or brown and preferred the shade of big rocks when they weren’t buried in the sand. Were they like him? Waiting for the vibrations of prey? He breathed in, out, in, slowly out again. Trying to forget himself. Trying to forget the black mass of hate bubbling and thickening in his chest. Just breathing and feeling the wasteland.

The vibrations were subtle at first, lost in the wind and shifting sands. A too-regular tap-tap-tap on his senses. Then the taps became thuds. He couldn’t hear them, but he could feel their steps. They must be moving silently through some charm or spell.

He heard the screaming start. He didn’t move. Just an ordinary patch of dirt. There were more screams and shouts, he recognized some of the voices. Probably time to be up and at ‘em. Besides, there were vibrations coming towards him that weren’t making a sound.

Tian waited until they were practically on top of him before he burst upward. It was a man with a long spear. Tian was already close in. He lashed out with his palms- chest, belly, he moved low around the heretic’s back then struck the spine. The heretic didn’t have time to scream before his organs exploded and his spinal cord was shredded into fibers. Tian smacked his head, just to make sure there wouldn’t be any accidents.

He hesitated. Should he say “That's for Brother Meng!” or something? No. That wasn’t nearly enough for Brother Meng. Brother Meng was worth a hundred of these scum. A thousand. There was a sharp scream. One of the sisters was clawing at her chest. Looked like a job for the medic.

If he fought, he could take some revenge for Brother Meng. The boiling mass of hate in him demanded he do just that. He felt Grandpa Jun’s hand settle on his shoulder. Just that. Just that ghostly touch. It was enough to bring him back. If he was killing, he was neglecting his actual job. He would disappoint Brother Fu and Elder Rui terribly as well as disappointing Brother Meng’s spirit. And he couldn’t stand that.

Tian rushed over to the screaming Sister. She had already ripped open her robes, pale white skin spilling out into the toxic air. There was a hole drilled into her, just missing her heart.

“Lie down! DOWN!” He did his best to bark like the doctors. He hadn’t practiced it, so it didn’t work. She kept screaming and clawing at her chest. “I SAID LIE DOWN!” Her eyes reached him, and something connected. She knelt, and let him guide her to the ground. The battle was ending. It lasted barely two minutes.

He had to work quickly. The wound would be fatal if he didn’t, and the intrusion of the poisonous qi would constantly erode her strength. There were no immediate signs of rot or decay around the wound. No fishy odor. No obvious sign of a curse. He slapped a paper talisman on her anyway. If there wasn’t any curse, it wouldn’t activate and he could reuse it. He couldn’t see what had made the injury. The wound channel seemed far too wide for a hidden needle or a thrown gu, but there wasn’t an obvious projectile sticking out of the patient either.

Could it be a charm? It might well have been. Which would make things simpler. “Did you see who did this to you? What made the wound?”

“Yes. Yes! A charm. It was a wind arrow charm. Bastard!”

“Alright. Hold still and remember that the person who hurt you is already dead.”

“Eh?” She blinked at him in confusion. Which worked for Tian, as this tended to hurt. He tipped a little powder into the wound, then slapped a prepared cloth over it and leaned on it. The sister made a muffled shriek and spasmed, her Level Nine strength nearly sending Tian flying.

“See, if you didn’t know they were dead, you would be so mad right now. Keep pressing the cloth to the wound. Don’t move for at least fifteen minutes- give the blood clotting powder time to do its work.” Tian nodded at her, then started looking around for the next person who needed his help. He spotted a brother nailed to the sands with a spear through his gut, still alive. Tian ran over.

It was a nasty case. Infection and sepsis had set in. Everyone in the hospital could recognize the symptoms better than they could their own faces- the heretics did something to their weapons that spread disease. He was able to roughly clean and seal the wound, but real healing would take days and a real doctor.

Tian checked the rest of the squad, and all the other wounds were minor. He applied an ointment to make sure they stayed minor, and then checked to make sure everyone had their protective clothes patched and sealed. A small tear would be easily missed and eventually fatal. A little extra care now would save a lot of work later.

Hong Liren was fine. It looked like she hadn’t even gotten her spear wet and she was a bit pissy about that.

“Is everyone able to move again?” Martial Uncle Ku drifted down from far up in the sky on his sword. He made it look effortless. An immortal treading the sky. The earthly people below could only look at each other, then somehow, they all turned to Tian.

“I guess the duty of a medic is to report. No confidentiality here.” Tian thought.

“We only have two with serious wounds. The Senior Sister should be mobile in a few hours, though she won’t be combat capable without medical treatment or better healing potions than what I was provided with. The Senior Brother cannot be moved except by stretcher. He will certainly die if we don’t take great care with his transportation. He requires urgent medical care, and better healing agents than what I have.”

The senior looked over at the setting sun. “We are still some days from where we will be setting the ambush. We can camp here tonight. If they are healed in the morning, all is well. If they are not, they must be left to make their way back to base on their own.”