《Cultivator in a Zombie World》


 First: Li Yin, the Orphan.

    "A First Step Elder..."


    Lu Yin gazed intensely at the old, white robed man riding his horse. A faint, just aura emanated from him; the first traces of Immortality. From Lu Yin''s location inside the tumultuous crowd, the might emanated from his figure completely covered his inner world, inciting his imagination.


    "A cultivator." thought. His thoughts were simple, but sharp; sharpened by the everlasting feeling of hunger he felt, by the hardness of his bed, the coldness of the almost open mansard he slept in, and sharpened even more by his desire of becoming an Immortal, a figure of might in this world of mortals.


    With his discerning eyes, in a glance he discovered a shine in the Elder''s robe. A tremor ran through him and a mischievous smile formed in his lips. He had seen a luscius, plump once-bitten fruit in his pocket. It obviously emanated pure spiritual energy.


    Soon, the Elder had past the street and dissapeared in his way to the palace. The crowd dispersed and the ordinary tumult of daily life returned. Lu Yin darted his way to the outskirts of the city, where he would find his family.


    When he arrived, the familiar smell of the open river and the muddy water inundated his nostrils. The little shacks and old stone and mud buildings rose around him.


    "Yu Yun! Bai Yang! Come here!" But no one answered. He could see in some windows the old aunties looking at him with gossipy eyes, scanning his every action.


    "Yun''er, Yang''er! Come, fast, I have news!"


    Then, after ten seconds or so, first appeared a little girl dressed in a mud-colored simple dress from coarse cloth. She smiled at him and one could see she didn''t have three teeth, and her little tongue danced while licking the gap the missing teeth formed.


    "Jin. What is it?" She asked curiously, looking at him attentively.


    "Wait, wait. Let Bai come first."


    After a few seconds, from an old building, a ruckus could be heard.


    "No! Old Uncle! I washed the dishes everyday this week, it''s Wang''er''s turn!"


    And the door of the building opened abruptly as a chubby boy ran outside, while a sandal flew behind him and expertly hit him in the head with a soft thud.


    "Damned brat! Don''t return too late home!"Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    "Okey, old man! Now, I''m off!" Then, still a few meters from Jin and Yun, he brushed the dirt off his clothes and his hair, picked up the old sandal, and swiftly slipped it inside the home while closing the door.


    "Well well. What did you find?"


    Lu Yin gestured with his hands for him to come closer.


    "Come, come, this is private."


    Then, when the three kids were squeezed into a tight counsil, he recounted what had happened, and proposed his plan:


    "...That fruit! That fruit will let us become Immortals!..."


    And then, while whispering:


    "...And that''s how we will infiltrate the palace."


    And he stood up proudly, looking at his friends he called family look at him strangely. Yu Yin still licked the gap in her teeth, and Bai Yang folded his sleeves and released them anxiously.


    "Are you serious, Yin?"


    Li Yin nodded energetically.


    "Can we... uh... do it tomorrow?" said Bai Yang. Neither did Yu Yun nor he dare to refuse Li Yin, as he, months ago, had found by himself an old spirit root and had shared it with them two. Although it was the lowest denominator of spiritual herbs, it still had a nice effect on the three of their young bodies; their eyes grew calmer and their gaze deeper, and a minuscule glow permeated their flesh now.


    "No! By tomorrow that Elder will be gone, and more importantly, he will have eaten the fruit!"


    Against their best judgements, and a bit coerced by the piercing, sharp gaze of their friend, Yu Yun and Bai Yang followed him by the slums by the river to the center of town, from where they would reach the palace.


    * * *


    Seated with his legs crossed in meditation posture, an old white robed man drank some tea. Across him a young woman looked at him with strict mistrust.


    "Welcome, Elder Hou, to the Town Palace of Cloudbreak. Soon the City Lord will be available to see you."


    Making a gesture with her hands male and female servants appeared carrying fruit, more tea, and incenses.


    "Should you need anything just give the word to one of my servants. I''ll be leaving."


    When she left, in a contiguous room, she talked with the leader of the guards.


    "Why do we need one of these cultivators here? I don''t like them."


    The leader, a man well in his forties, frowned and answered, while keeping his attention on any strange phenomena:


    "Soon the Riverlight Sect will invite the Emperor to their decennial disciple gathering. Every major city is recieving one of these Elders. Alas, as far I know, this Hou is a low level one."


    The woman sneered.


    "Well, Qigang, I''ll return to the barracks if you need me." Then left. The man, Qigang, stood there, hearing carefully, but not detecting nothing more that the slow, gentle slurp of the tea, and the hushed breath of the servants.


    The Elder seated emptied of thoughts, meditating in a light trance. By ettiquete, he did not extend his divine sense, as he knew most of the most powerful soldiers and the City Lord were the most cultivator-like mortals, and their senses were incredibly fine. But his senses were even finer, and he had no problem in hearing the secret conversation between the woman and this Qigang.


    "The decennial disciple gathering..." he thought, finally returning to earthly matters. His standing in the sect was higher than most disciples, but feeble and weak when put against the elders or higher ranked disciples. His talent, a once in a century body and soul in his little native town, had been nothing more than a mediocre one in the great scheme of things, but his afable disposition and his profound insights had let him become one of the lowest Elders of the Riverlight Sect.


    "I wonder what I will find this time in this Cloudbreak City."

 Second: The trail of the moon.

    Three youngsters made their way through the riverside, hopping around the rocks and the debris the inhabitants of the slums recycled from the palace-dweller''s trash. Broken bamboo, fetid half-eaten fishes, old woman''s clothes, all washed down and carried by the inexorable passing of the river.


    "The Guangzhou" called it the slumpeople. The orphans, like Jin, called it Mother, and Home. Most people just called it the Cloudbreak River, as it was the only one, extending itself up to the mountain range it was born, to feed finally a distant lake that would surely itself feed some sea.


    To distract himself from thinking about the crazyness they would soon do, Bai Yang spoke:


    "Brother Jin. Remember when we met here?"


    Yun at his side alternated to look both Jin and Yang. She was slurping a long reed she had found near. It was a sweet little type of reed popular with the orphans and the slumpeople''s kids near the river.


    Jin was hopping from stone to stone with his arms open wide, training. His focused eyes looked at the surface of the rocks as if they were the slender faces of flying swords.


    He didn''t talk, but he hazily remembered. Yu Yun and Bai Yang, on the other side, remembered that day clearly. The day of the red moon and the red river.


    * * *


    The moon, moreso than the sun, was the most beautiful heavenly body in the valley of Tang. The Milky Way was the river it traversed in the infinite skies. It''s yellowish, silvery fulgor like white gold illuminated the nights; blessed the scribes with clarity, the poets with inspiration, and the peons with tranquility, as it blessed the nobles with wisdom.


    But sometimes it tinted itself red, and a profound tremor shook the lands.


    The young Masters, cowardly and coddled, just stayed inside their manors to wait. The soldiers in their camps. Even most of the slumpeople''s kids entered inside their shacks or their dilapidated buildings.


    It were just the orphans or the most adventurous of the slumpeople''s kids, and maybe the hunters in the plains and the mountains, or the everchanging tribes that roamed the region, that left their houses, their tents, and walked in the open.


    Yu Yun and Bai Yang were two of them. The first because she loved the red tint that made the plains seem otherwordly, and painted the river a lively pink that remembered her of the color of sweet flowers. The second begrudgingly, because his stepfather, that old man, had kicked him out of the house "to know world", to have himself fun in his home.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    "Hello Yun" had grunted Yang, still fuming, but after seeing the sad looking eyes of her friend, asked. "Did your... family let you go outside?"


    Yun nodded, looking at the valley with some nostalgia. She herself was an orphan, adopted many years ago by a family of seamstresses. Like many orphans, she had been found by the riverside, crying.


    As they went along, the moon reddened, and the tremor started. The lands shook and the water in the river grew fiercer. The moon, usually gentle and luminous, drew closer and bigger, looking like a savage goddess.


    In awe, both Yun and Yang opened their eyes, feeling like the Heavens themselves were looming and about to crash over the earth. Soon, they both lowered their gazes, and Yang spoke:


    "Some say it was a night like this the Immortal trascended the Heavens, and the Heavens, in remembrance, shake in fury. Funny, eh?"


    Yun just looked at him and nodded. They dared not to draw closer to the river, now tumultuous and enraged.


    Suddenly, they saw a boy advancing, confused, with his clothes torn, by the riverside. He probably was no older than six years old, a bit younger than them. Looking around him as if looking for the road, weary of an infinite travel, he walked with the rest of unformed tears in the corner of his eyes. He looked like those old men of the roads, weathered by countless storms.


    After a few steps, he collapsed, tumbling on his knees. Unyielding, he tried to stand up again, but his body failed him, and only his extended arms kept him from kissing the ground in defeat. Alarmed, Yun and Yang hurriedly ran to help him.


    "I follow the trail of the moon..." the boy had said to them when they got besides him. When they helped him on his feet and carried him with his arms on their shoulders, he fainted.


    They took him to the mansard that would become his home ever after, atop an old, demolished building, and laid him on the bloated wooden floor. They didn''t dare take him into any of their houses, as things happening in the nights of the red moon and the red river were ill fated omens. Only them, orphans, were natural to these nights, linked to them by fate, by origin, by guilt.


    The kid, unconscious, was cold, and was becoming colder. As they couldn''t go back inside their houses, there was no way to give him some warmness. Yu, biting her nail, decided.


    She laid herself on his side, and hugged him. Then, she gazed sadly at her friend, that worriedly and unwillingly looked at them both. Alas, their young hearts were pure, and couldn''t resist. Yang too laid at the other side of the kid, and awkwardly extended his hands, covering him.


    In that position, they were confronted with the infinite Heavens, that were clearly visible across the broken ceiling. And both Yang and Yu looked at the other in the eyes, the Heavens reflected in them. The lands shook and had always been shaking, but now laid against the floor they could feel it in their whole body and their insides.


    "I follow the trail of the moon..." repeated each one to oneself. In some way, a profound sentiment answered the meaning of those words. They felt, without knowing why, as travelers, travelers of an infinite road. Of the vast worlds that populate the skies. They would need many years for them to understand why they felt that way, but that moment they shivered with fear and marvel. And with fear and marvel, as the tremor receded, they fell asleep.