Beware Of Chicken

Chapter v8c2: Arrival at the Ravine

I would say our journey was uneventful, but it certainly wasn’t. There was a certain kind of chaos only a family can bring; doubly so on a road trip. One second, we were about to murder each other; the next, back to being best friends.

And each step we took brought us ever closer to the Grand Ravine.

Originally, we had planned for the Grand Ravine to be one of our last stops… but due to the events of Ash Forest, the timetable got reshuffled a little. Fixing the northwestern Dragon Vein blowouts that turned into “Oh god, murder hornets are trying to eat the province” tends to throw a spanner in the works. We hadn’t known how long we were going to be then, so we just told the Lord Magistrate and Lady Wu to continue on to Grass Sea City without us.

After that mess had been dealt with, instead of zig-zagging southeast as we originally planned, we went there directly, skipping a bunch of stops to try and catch up to the original itinerary.. I made the executive decision to pull a kind of loop, heading to the Grand Ravine now—as it was closer—and then hitting the Verdant Blade Sect, the Misty Lake Sect, the Rumbling Earth Sect, and a couple other places before turning back and ending our trip at the sea.

While the landscape didn’t change too much as we approached, the rolling hills of the Grass Sea seemed to continue on forever, what did change were the people.

Or rather, the lack of change.

I had figured, with how big and powerful the Grand Ravine Sect was, that as we approached the Ravine itself the demographics would change. And they did, a little. At first individuals and pairs, then small groups of people who were wearing clothes more reminiscent of the Nezin tribe, but the numbers seemed rather small. As we chatted with them, we discovered that those outside the Ravine were mostly merchants, traders, or travelling workers, occasionally with their families.

But there seemed to be very few truly permanent residents. They seemed a little apart from the other people living here.

“They say the Ravine is their only real home,” one of the people we talked to said, an older gentleman whose face was so weatherbeaten it looked like old leather. He was wearing mostly Imperial clothes, but he also had a tattoo with a geometric design to it. “Which is true. But the real reason is if the bad times come again… they don’t lose too much when they retreat to the Ravine.”

“The ‘bad times’?” I asked.

“Sometimes, some fools get it into their heads that the barbarians don’t deserve this land and start causing trouble. Sometimes, itʼs a lot of fools. And sometimes itʼs a lot of fools with some sect or another footing the bill to get revenge on the Grand Ravine. It always ends the same way, lots of people hurt or dead for nothing,” he said before spitting to the side.

“How often does something like that happen?” I asked. The old man turned to look at me again. He looked from Yun and Gou to Biyu and Xianghua, then to our clothes.

“Ain’t been a real bad time since my grandfather was young. But thereʼs been a few incidents… and old habits die hard,” he replied. “It’s been quiet enough recently, though. Can’t tell if it’s a good thing… or the calm before the storm. I hope it’s the first.”

Which… was certainly informative about the politics of the area around the Grand Ravine.

‘Itʼs been so long, and itʼs back to how it was in the beginning,’ Tianlan whispered in the back of my head. She sounded resigned.

I sent a mental nudge. ‘Xiulan’ll get everyone back on the straight and narrow, don’t you worry.’

The Earth Spirit let out a snort of amusement at the mental image I sent her. “We just gotta let her work, hm?”

‘Yeah. If thereʼs anyone who can bring people together… itʼs our Azure Heroes.’

I felt warmth flood our bond.

And so we kept going.

There was an incline now. Not very steep, but noticeable. We stopped ribbing each other so much as we got closer to the Ravine.

But then Tianlan put in a request.

‘Just a little further this way,’ she directed me, her voice thick with emotion. We were, from her memories, very close to the Grand Ravine… and she had a certain spot she wanted to see. A spot she remembered looking out over for the first time and truly seeing the Ravine with Xiaoshi, her first contractor.

I could feel the hesitation and apprehension in her voice.

‘You okay?’ I asked back.

Tianlan paused for a second before answering. ‘Even back then, the Ravine… it was so big. It felt like it would last forever. It was a part of me that I thought I would always have. But I thought the same about my mountains, my rivers, my geysers, and forests… and all of them were undone. I wonder if this is gone, too?’

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We were quiet, as we continued up the incline… until we reached the top.

And the Grand Ravine opened up before us.

It was every inch as dramatic as the giant wall that was Yellow Rock Plateau at the southern edge of the province.

I had seen pictures of the Grand Canyon in the Before, the yawning chasm in the desert of Earth had been as grand as the name promised, but this put every single one of those images to shame. This titanic rent in the earth was nearly twenty kilometers across at this point—and I knew it was wider in other locations.

It wasn’t just a massive groove. The occasional spire of rock jutted up from the center, ancient worn stone nearly as high as our current elevation. A river that looked tiny from up here, but was actually at least a kilometer across itself, lazily snaked its way across the bottom of the Ravine, branching around the spires of rock, fed by more waterfalls that fell into the Ravine from rivers that emptied into it, creating a thousand rainbows.

But more than the rock and the water was the green.

The Ravine was verdant, the Grass Sea seeming to tumble down the sides of the Ravine and into its depths, grass and ferns and shrubs and water plants covering every surface. Great trees grew horizontally from the sides of the Ravine, their crowns curving upwards as they competed for light.

I immediately caught sight of a sloth lazily scratching its behind, before returning to its mission of eating leaves.

What at first I thought were odd, dark, fast-moving clouds turned out to be flocks of swallows, a thousand strong each, darting through the horizontal trees and rock spires without ceasing.

Condors the size of small airplanes glided on thermals, the scavengers calmly scanning the ground for their next meal.

Mountain goats plied the Ravine walls, hopping from tree to tree or simply doing that gravity-defying thing they did and running up bare stone.

Herds of deer and even bison travelled along the canyon floor, never wanting for any food.

It was an utterly majestic sight. All of us were struck dumb for a moment.

‘Ah,’ Tianlan murmured. ‘Even after everything… at least one thing managed to escape the worst of it.’

An image overlaid itself over my eyes. There was more erosion on the rock pillars. One of them had even fallen over.

And yet, out of everything… the Grand Ravine had changed little, this part of Tianlan managing to weather the storm, against all odds.

“What a beautiful view,” I whispered.

===

Naturally, we stopped and had a picnic, looking out over the grand vista before us. The wind blew through the valley; you could hear the distant roar of waterfalls, and the sounds of animals going about their lives. Bane and her girls dove into the Ravine, eagerly exploring and tasting the flowers that bloomed here.

It was lovely, under the warm summer sun, and provoked some rousing conversation.

“I’m pretty sure every canyon like this is made by water. Just the river flowing for thousands of years, and it does this,” I said, waving before us.

‘I have seen Brother Wa Shi’s water blades, so I know well the might of water—but even I could not comprehend the scale at which it could cut,’ Bei Be mused. ‘It is admirable. With time and persistence, even the least blade may cut such a grand sight.’

Sunny the plow rattled.

‘Yes, it could stand to be a bit cleaner, but it is water. You expect too much from something without any intent,’ the ox scolded, his voice amused. ‘And no, defacing the landscape just to prove we can make a cut this deep is impolite. Even if the cut is technically clean, the act itself would make it ragged.’

The plow ceased its rattling, and it seemed to be pouting.

“I’m also pretty sure the Grand Ravine Sect would be very unimpressed,” Yun Ren said, chuckling while he shook his head.

Summer’s Sky rattled as well with a questioning jangle, and Yun Ren laughed. “Yeah, they would probably refuse to serve us tea if they did that.”

I had a fairly good idea where Summer’s Sky stood on making new side passages in the Ravine. That sword was as obsessed with tea getting poured on it as Sunny was with cutting things.

“Though Brother Bei Be is correct. Seeing the power of a river like this is truly humbling,” Big D said, looking off into the distance. “Mortal, mundane water, making this—even in Xiaoshi’s time it was this vast and awe inspiring.”

“Arenʼt the canyons in the Howling Fang Mountains just as large?” Xianghua asked.

“They are, but the beauty is starker,” Rizzo said. “It’s a cold kind of beauty, where life clings at the fringes. This is… blooming.”

I let the various conversations wash over me, helping Meimei cook us lunch. Both of us would occasionally glance over at Zhuye… who was being very closely followed by Suyan as he toddled about because he kept glancing over at the Ravine, curiosity burning in his eyes.

He wanted to see off the edge.

I glanced at Mei, and then nodded at Zhuye. She smiled.

“I’ll finish up,” was all she said as I rose, scooping Zhuye up. I winked at Suyan… and then like a super responsible parent, I walked right to the edge of the several kilometers-deep Ravine.

Without being a cultivator, this would be sketchy as hell… but I would never fall unless I wanted to.

Zhuye gasped and started giggling, his eyes darting everywhere… until he saw a sloth.

He eagerly pointed at it.

“Dah!” he exclaimed, clearly wanting to meet the little beast… and well, I obliged him. I hopped down onto one of the trees.

I jumped down to the little fellow, who stared at us with eyes completely empty of all thought. The cute little guy even had what looked like a small, gormless smile on his face.

Zhuye giggled and immediately reached out a hand. I gently caught it. Zhuye looked up at me with shock and confusion.

“Don’t just touch, okay? We have to make sure heʼs a friend.”

I reached out my arm, and instead of touching, just held it in front of the sloth.

The sloth considered my arm at great length… then slowly reached over, clambering aboard.

“Gently, okay, little man? Gently,” I said to Zhuye. My son paused, the gears turning. He reached out again, gently, and stopped just before touching.

The sloth blinked at him. It sniffed at his hand... and then looked away, unconcerned. Zhuye carefully closed the distance, patting the sloth twice.

The sloth didn’t seem bothered. It was also a lot cleaner than the sloths I remembered from Before. There was barely any algae growing on him, and he didn’t smell bad at all.

I took him up with us, seeing as he was so unbothered, and we had lunch with him. Big D still had some fresh greens from home, from which he gave some to Zhuye so they could take turns feeding our new little friend.

I named him Sid.

The sloth was at first only mildly interested… at least until the first bite.

Then he couldn’t get enough of the stuff. The little traitor instantly abandoned me for Big D’s human form, and Zhuye followed instantly, the two of them sitting in his lap, Big D going full big brother mode.

It was very cute. Rizzo certainly thought so, watching with sparkles in her eyes.

Eventually, our lunch ended, and we prepared to set off. I set Sid back in his tree, and Zhuye waved goodbye to his new friend. Then we started back to one of the main roads so we could meet up with the Grand Ravine Sect and descend into the Ravine.

I snorted.

Meimei turned to me, curious about what I had found funny.

“We’re going to descend into Tianlan’s Grand Ravine,” I replied.

Meimei snorted. Tianlan groaned in the back of my head.

“It should be a very pleasurable journey for all of us, with how wet things are,” Meimei instantly replied, nodding at the waterfalls, and then we both started giggling like twelve year olds.

God damn I love this woman.

‘You two are idiots,’ Tianlan informed us, though I could hear her chuckling, too.