A body had washed up on the shore of the First Son, a bare few minutes away from the village known as Foot.

  This was a common occurrence for Foot, but never a welcome one. The Heavens preached about the possibilities that waited in their Sect above, but it was the villagefolk of Foot that saw the reality of those who failed; those strivers, those hopeful and determined, who stared up at the sky with empty eyes as they came to rest upon the riverbank, their grey robes stained with their own blood.

  But even failures deserve a final resting place, and that task fell to Old Man Jin, whose wrinkles and crooked posture belied the wiry strength he still possessed. Every morning, the elder would walk along the riverbank, hoping as always for the sand to be clear, and grimly prepared for the inevitable. He would take the unfortunate souls he found in his cart along to a clearing away from the river, and would chop wood to build a pyre within the old fire pit he’d dug years and years ago. He would burn their bodies, and take a handful of ash to return to the First Son, so that their souls could be carried onwards to their next life.

  Old Man Jin would carry out this task every morning, to save the others of Foot the pain of doing it themselves. Sometimes his somber work wasn’t necessary, and on those good days Old Man Jin could be found whistling an old tune, returning to Foot before the sun had even risen. On those days, the village of Foot would laugh and cheer. But on the very bad days, when Jin seemed to curl into himself, Foot grieved; while Old Man Jin could never bring himself to be so cruel as to say it out loud, the people of Foot knew that they’d lost one of their precious own.

  Today wasn’t one of those dark days, Old Man Jin reflected as he pulled his loaded cart. The body was not one he recognised, an Exodite of a darker complexion than most who called Foot home, and it bore few of the usual signs of a failed disciple of the Seven Falls, wearing roughspun clothes more in common with a hopeful applicant rather than the scratchy grey robes of an aspiring cultivator.

  Old Man Jin had the feeling this was no normal farmer’s son, however. The body was in remarkable condition for one that had fallen from the Burial Fault, that mile high cliff that towered over the horizon. His skin was remarkably rosy and lacking in damage, and were it not for the lack of pulse and empty eyes that graced all the unfortunates, the elder would have almost believed him alive.

  An impossibility, of course. Even someone who had been thrown well clear of the rock-face and avoided every outcropping and crag of stone would have crashed into the Great Churn below, thrown by the currents against the razorsharp basin walls carved out of the bedrock by the unfathomable volume of water. Not even a Four Winged Salmon would dare try their luck ascending the Seven Falls when such a death trap awaited them.

  It was a good thing that most of these bodies were already slain by superior cultivators, Old Man Jin thought. Being alive through such a maelstrom would no doubt be excruciatingly painful.

  The sun had only just escaped the horizon as Old Man Jin brought the cart to the stop in the clearing, swinging the entire thing around and lifting the handles of the cart up. With the help of a few sharp shakes, the body rolled off the back and onto the ground with a muted thump, splayed out like a puppet without its strings. Next to it, the fire pit began to fill with split logs, sending up plumes of old ashes with every new piece of firewood tossed in.

  By the time the pyre was ready, the sun was now well into the sky, and Old Man Jin saw to the last of his preparations. The clothing could be burnt with the body, but disciples often carried various phials and pills on them that could react vigorously to a pyre. So Old Man Jin said a prayer to the heavens, and slowly picked through the pockets of the body.

  In this case, there was little to find. A sodden bundle of papers pressed up against the body’s chest may have once been some important cultivation manuscript, but now was little more than grey mush that fell apart in Old Man Jin’s hands. The only other item of note was the necklace, which glimmered dully in the morning sun. The coins themselves were a jumble of different sizes and denominations that perhaps added to over a thousand yuan; far from a princely sum, and in fact barely enough to even afford a trip up the Lifts, if one weren’t being escorted by a cultivator from the Seven Falls.

  A hopeful, then, someone who’d been either missed by the recruiters or more likely a reject who nonetheless had set out from downstream with their life savings wrapped around their neck, to reach for the Heavens or die trying. A shame it had to be the latter, but at the least this soul could still help those still here on earth. Old Man Zhi whispered a small prayer under his breath as he went to lift the necklace off.

  Fingers wrapped around his wrist.

  Old Man Zhi blinked, and looked at the hand now grabbing his own, and then at the body, whose head was now tilted up in his direction, eyes open and awake.

  It screamed.

  —

  I blinked at the blurry world above me, and looked at the hand reaching for my own neck, the crooked old man it belonged to staring down at me from above.

  I may have yelped a bit.

  The old man lurched back as he ripped his own hand free, gibbering in fear as he tripped and fell to the ground. “Spirits! Please, please please-”

  I leapt up from the ground and dashed towards the edge of the clearing as fast as I could, even as every muscle and my very soul screamed in pain from overexertion. I went right past the cart, past the trees, over the thick undergrowth and through a few low branches I didn’t have the time to duck. I didn’t stop even as the panicked screaming from behind began to fade beyond the foliage, instead running for a full extra minute before I finally let myself tumble to the ground, allowing the agony of existence to reassert itself.

  Which it did with great enthusiasm. Flashes of pain echoed across my entire body, my muscles and bones whimpering in remembrance of slamming into the frothing waters with a bone-wrenching halt, of being thrown about like a toy in the hands of an unruly child, only tossed away when the raging currents had had their fun. My own conscious memories were like leaves in the wind of that storm of pain, fading in and out from the moment I felt my body shatter at the bottom of the Seven Falls.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  My only companion through all of it had been the Ruby Tears of the Phoenix. That soft warmth which had glowed within me had grown furious under the waters, coursing through my veins and arteries and filling in each new wound that had been torn open in my frame. It was the purpose of a Sovereign Remedy to save a life from fatal wounds, and I had ingested nearly a dozen of them.

  But there were so many wounds.

  What remained in my veins now was more like the shadow of the glorious light that had filled my body, the barest embers of a bonfire that had burned so brightly. And with that light gone, so too was that sense of suicidal confidence, that arrogance that had lurked at the back of my mind even after my attitude readjustment by-

  My head snapped up from the fetal position. Isabella!

  “Ryan!” And with those words I felt my entire body get dragged along as my head was pulled into a hug. “You- you gods-damned idiot! I can’t just bring you back if you’re ripped apart! I’m not a damn miracle worker, I just- and trusting that those cultivator pills were going to save you, what the fuck were you thinking, what if- what if…”

  The hug tightened, pulling me closer against coarse fabric and warm skin. Compared to the memory of razor-sharp rock still so fresh in my mind, it felt like heaven. I just let myself sink into it, feeling my very soul relax for the first time in what felt like a week, even as my body slowly, slowly let go of the pain that had sunk into my very bones. My mind, still fumbling its way back to full consciousness, almost immediately slipped into a semi-delirious state at the sensation. Gods, why couldn’t I have been crushed to death with hugs and soft-

  The pain quickly returned as I was thrown away, crashing against a tree as a raised tree root making itself at home against my spine. The last pitiful whimper of the Ruby Tears exhausted itself, leaving me very awake and very aware of the partially healed bruise across my back. Now facing up, I could see Isabella, along with the mix of rage and relief in her expression, and that faint shine in her eyes. “You-” she furiously scrubbed her face before doing her best attempt to glare at me. “Seriously!?”

  I slowly inhaled, holding it just for a moment as I savoured the sweet taste of the forest air. I let it out slowly, the breath trickling out in a chuckle, which only grew louder, echoing between the trees as I let all the pain and stress out, feeling it burn its way out of me.

  I was alive. I was out of the Sect. And I, Ryan of no noble name and no particular importance, was now of even less importance, my robes lost in the frothing waters of the Seven Falls and my title as Outer Disciple discarded. And I couldn’t be happier for it. Days of slaving away for every yuan, trying my best to survive the attentions of Doctor Lei, of bowing my head and bending my neck to the powerful with that faintest hope that I would one day be in their position, and be free.

  And here I was, as free as any of them, with one thousand four hundred and twenty yuan around my neck and a priceless happiness in my heart.

  “How do the elders put it? ‘Death delivers us from suffering’?” I laughed and laughed, even as I stumbled to my feet. It felt like my face was splitting apart from the smile that had carved itself into it. I looked at Isabella, and offered her the deepest bow I could. “From the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

  Isabella stared at me, before groaning deeply into her hands. “-unfair- Sure, whatever, you’re wel-ahh!” she squeaked as I picked her up, my restraint well and truly gone as I swung her about, my laughs filling the air.

  “I’m free!” I shouted to the heavens. “Spit blood, Inner Disciples! Slap your own faces, Elders! This worthless Ryan can find his own worth!”

  “P-put me down!”

  “Of course!” I cheerfully replied, gently setting Isabella back on her feet before quickly spinning away into a harvest celebration jig, the embarrassing back-and-forth tap-dance easily flowing forth from my memories. “Anything you please! Anything I please! A bowl of rice? But of course! And the cost? Certainly not sixty-five fucking yuan, that’s what! And-” I toppled to the ground as my body betrayed me, the bruise along my back aching painfully and my spine persistently reminding me that the Ruby Tears were well and truly gone. “Ha. Ow.”

  “Gods.” A sigh, and Isabella re-entered my field of view, crouching down next to me. “Got it out of your system?”

  “Mostly.” I smiled.

  “Well, see if you can save it for the moment, we need to get moving. That old guy almost had a heart attack when you started moving again-”

  “What?” I slowly uncurled myself and began the arduous process of getting up again. “Is he okay? Shit, I must’ve scared the hell out of him. Should I-”

  “No.” Isabella stopped me with a hand on my chest. “I don’t think seeing the walking corpse is going to reassure him. He’ll be fine, his soul’s not going anywhere anytime soon. He’s just catching his breath before he goes back to the village. Which-” she tapped my chest repeatedly, “-will also not be reassured by a walking corpse. So we need to leave before anyone gets curious, and before anyone starts calling for the cultivators.”

  It felt like I’d just been plunged in ice-cold water. An unfortunately familiar feeling, at this point. “You’re right. We need to get a move on before anyone catches up to us.” I glanced up at the trees that towered around us. “Forest, so close to the Fault? Which Son are we near?”

  Isabella raised an eyebrow. “How am I supposed to know?”

  I returned the eyebrow raise as best I could. “Weren’t you, y’know, following my body?”

  “That’s not how it works,” she denied. “And I’m Death, not a fish. How am I meant to know which river is which?”

  “Okay, quick trip to the river to confirm, and then we head downstream.” I gently pushed Isabella’s hand off my chest and slowly climbed back to my feet. “Easy. No problem. We have a head start, once we know where we are we can create some real distance! Anyone trying to hunt us down won’t get a chance to see anything but the dust!”

  “...”

  “Isabella? What’s with the look?”

  —

  Old Man Jin hurried down the road as fast as his legs would let him. Foot would need to know as soon as possible; the young men and boys of the village were prepared to handle the strange beasts and monsters that inhabited the forest, and wary of the myriad dangers a cultivator could cause, but a walking corpse from the Sect? They needed forewarning. This was promising to be a bad day indeed.

  Somewhere far away, echoing over the treetops, something like a scream could be heard. Perhaps if Old Man Jin still had all his hearing, he could’ve picked out the words.

  “TWO DAYS!?”

  Old Man Jin hustled faster.