The sun became the first terror of the Mid-Summer cave.

  The people of the Blue Moons Mountain had no need for shelter; their cloaks, worn proudly, served them well. However, the sky was still just as bright. The ones with the best eyes and the least control over them had to stare at the ground.

  Not everyone was as resourceful as Hao, making shelter when none was to be found. A handful of people were fine in the bright heat, the strength prevailing over the harsh noon. Anyone at the peak of Reclamation would have thought the sky kind, and heat mild, but it compounded on the ground, creating an intense heat that was grinding against itself.

  Those fine in the heat but blinded by the sun were still easy targets for ambush. The beasts ate well during the first noon. Others coated themselves in the water they could find, or what little they had in their waterskins. People have killed for less than water before, not thinking of the rainy hours to come. Some forgetting the weather would change entirely in the brief noon.

  The more adventurous who found comfort, tried to cultivate the World Energy that arose during noon, scorching and aggressive.

  Hao was sitting in his little cave, not much for one, just enough to shelter his head, hands, and feet from the sun’s direct beating. First, he looked at the things inside his bag, grabbing whatever he passed while running didn’t warrant checking everything over. Tree fruits, nuts, and other plants, a few recognizable, common ones that grew under the shade he used during his run. Many of them were unimportant in the look and feel; No alchemist would pay them any mind. There were a few animal bones he took too, large and small, gnawed on, teeth marked sharp and blunt, clear as day.

  Nothing worth considering a treasure, especially the branches and wild brown mushrooms he grabbed by accident. He had little time to harvest roots for replanting. And no interest in anything but what he came into the Secret Realm for. Not that he wouldn’t take what he could get. Branches were firewood and mushroom food. But there was little chance of any valuable herbs he could recognize surviving in this place.

  Hao watched the plants outside, still as lone undisturbed puddles in what little shadow remained. Even the grasses were unique. In shape, all of it was two-pronged from the root up, twisted like braids in hair.

  To his left, back towards the forest where he first arrived, the grass remained green, the green he always knew as long as he knew it. As that green grew darker, it folded back up on itself, its two leaves tightening their folds and laying down flat against the ground. It stood again, untangling itself, the rest again, and repeated this.

  To his right, stretching into a field of haze created by the warmth, the grass was turning orange and in spots blue. But more orange the further he looked and tried to see. It acted the same but slower, spending more time on the ground than untwisting.

  Hao had to turn his head away, he would stare at them until the next day came, or noon dried them. He had to be done with his curiosities and cultivate.

  The sun’s energy is Yang. Hao raised his hand, rolling the air between his fingers, he could feel the abnormality in the World Energy. Outside, in the forest on the mountains, taking in the World Energy was like trying to breathe underwater. The World Energy from the Drinking-Stone was pure, like drinking water from the well after a day of work in the mine. But here the World Energy was somewhere in-between. If the World Energy during noon was the steam above the pot, Hao was currently sitting in boiling water. Scorching Yang…

  Hao took a deep breath. He flinched at the first sip, like it was the first cup of hot tea in the morning, only worse, as it singed the entirety of his skin, and he continued. Like the hot tea finding its way down his throat, it ran through the channels through which Qi flowed. The fresh channels, new and most recently opened, felt it the most; more energy forcing its way through than any other.

  “GGow!” he screamed, too shy to truly scream, so he growled out his pain; it was nothing like a burn, just pure heat. If the concept of hot could be put into a jar and drunk. A searing, without a single mark left behind.

  He could feel the benefits the moment the pain passed, the countless tiny streams beneath where World Energy flowed became fast, felt whole like they were turning into a loop, blockages being burnt away. But the pain was not gone for long. He kept his tongue on the roof of his mouth with the intention of keeping it; he knew if the pulse of pain came at the wrong time, he would bite it off, a clean severing.

  Hao did not like it, but enjoyed the results all the same. The pain was something to get used to, and the heat being inside made him forget there was any sun outside at all. Strangely, it also helped him clear his mind, a first for the day and the previous day; It was hard not to focus, with what seemed like strands of molten gold traveling through his veins.

  When he was finished and the noon sun resting, he was able to think clearer, the thoughts of Grandpa He seemed far away, but he did not let it go too far. His thoughts of revenge rested in his pocket.

  On the other hand, he had no real plan of action, the information on the realm was limited, and so was his strength. The competition was fierce, and the bones in his bag told him it was not only humans he would trade blows with. And not just the people and animals of the realm, but the realm itself was the greatest obstacle. How he would overcome the first great obstacle was a question that made his heart and head tingle.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Hao tasted another one of the tree fruits he just plucked. This one was sweet and crisp, nothing unpleasant, but it’s not Meiqi’s cooking. It was too early for lonely thoughts, the day just started, but his first meal was alone, and stole water from his tongue like a sponge.

  The thoughts of a meal with the two of them invaded his mind. Meiqi, trying to manipulate him in every which way, but cooking and caring all the same. Zhengqi, turning her slender neck away from his eyes. Scared of looking at anyone other than a patient or her mother for more than a few seconds. Still, she tried to teach what she knew, and both did. They had no blemishes, physically, other than the wrinkles from laughter. There was no laughter to be found in this place, not that Hao could imagine. He could feel it already, blood pooling in his fingernails.

  It must be the Yang energy, Hao shook his head, clearing his mind of the thoughts. His metaphorical plate was full, but he started eating before checking everything on it. A few bones and fruit were far from enough to make his strength grow, for status to make others hesitate. Things he needed to protect, those still alive, and get his revenge, to appease those he failed, and appease himself.

  He stood, leaping from a crouch out of the child-size hole he dug in his haste. The grass reacted to his steps before his foot landed, pulling away from the thing casting a shadow.

  He remembered his tracks going forward, if he found no better shelter, he would have to return to the hole in the hill and rely on the stones. Thoughts of blood and lust were his only company as he explored the area ahead of him.

  Where the forest ended was a near-straight line. At the tree line’s edge, a slope started at the last tree, down the slope and beyond were more fields of strange living grass.

  The silence of the fields still vibrating with heat was eerie. The winds did not exist below the trees, not for now, not reaching Hao. The only proof of them was the winds striking the leaves in the treetops. An unpleasant calm, a spring day for a moment gracing summer, a taunt of what was coming.

  Higher up in the air, the winds whirled, gathering the clouds in the sky now that the sun was not so direct to boil them away. They were easy to spot, thick like stacked blankets swirling. In one spot, they gathered and spun directly under the sun. As the sun moved, the clouds moved with it, always taking up a little corner of the light.

  Hao found nothing on the land he did not find before. There was not a soul in sight. No sounds from the forest, nothing walking the grassy fields. Do the animals that dominated the realm sleep through summer, or have they died out between the last exploration of the realm and now?

  People had entered, living ones, not a small number either. He couldn’t catch a sign of them.

  He kept his senses open and high as he climbed a tree for the first time, picking more fruit. The height gave him a good view. Hao knew the place was large. Any place seemed large on land compared to the Islands. Some of the trees he had seen were as tall as his island was wide.

  But from the name alone, he thought this place would be no larger than a large cave at most. Instead, the realm was the whole world itself.

  What is the point of naming something ‘cave’ if it has mountains and valleys, more trees, and I can count? He shook his head, dropping down from the tree with fruit in his bag.

  “Ah, that’s right, the only thing the Sect cares about here are the Day-Night Amethysts, they must come from a cave. If they dug up from a cave, I guess they did care for the rest of the world around it, just the caves…” Hao mumbled to himself, biting into another fruit, he gagged almost spitting it, this one was orange with a thick leather skin, and tasted of ocean-water.

  The Amethysts were one of his primary targets for his journey here. Collect as many of the Amethysts as possible. If the energy of noon is that intense, I can already imagine the night’s energy. These Amethysts will be far better than I thought.

  Yet right, tree fruits were his primary harvest, that and a few herbs that were easy to grab, hard to recognize. Not all were entirely new to him, a few were herbs he could find outside as well, mainly roots, they could easily be found during collection missions, or on scrolls and books he had read.

  Identifying plants was one thing, harvesting them was another. A skill Hao had practiced, planting and caring for them in the bag, however, he was still far from mastering it. The Golden Vital Crystals made up for his lack of a green thumb.

  For anything he didn’t know how to harvest properly for the best result, it was easier and quicker to dig around it, and bring the plant whole with the dirt inside the Spirit-Holding bag. If they struggled without the environment of the mid-summer cave, the Vital Crystals made up for it, he had plenty, he just had to sprinkle it on the dirt, then watch the leaves turn green and inflate with life.

  There was still a struggle of weight when dealing with the bag. Hao needed it full and heavy to water the plants, adding plants contributed to the weight of the bag, but it was nothing compared to the World Energy’s weight when he fed the Drinking-Stone blood. Now that he was collecting more plants, he was even more concerned with mastering the bag; Blue-string grass, snaketail flowers, petals, red tongue root. Hao recalled the herbs as he collected them.

  Hao was drinking under the tree’s shade, counting his bounty when the first drop of rain fell. It started with a chill wind despite the sun being awake as Hao himself. The wind burst in one direction, lifted stone and stick, then swirled like the clouds above.

  He was not able to see the sky above, but the world darkened, and he saw the first drop of rain, it passed his eyes, thumb-sized, striking the ground with a thump! The following varied in size, but were never smaller.

  What of the coming cold, what of night? Hao got up, eager now to run to his hole in the stone as rain struck him like fists. Already, he was feeling pity for those who built tents or relied on wood and leaf for their dwellings.