Heavenly Shae

Chapter 21: "Road Work Ahead."

Her first thought was to help out those struggling, and found herself walking towards them. She saw more travelers far down the road in either direction, the travel route looked quite busy. I can't help them, I'll be stuck doing that and not get anything cleared.

She walked past them, alternating examining their slow progress and the toppled trees. They were using the western ditch, and making slow hard-earned progress. It was too muddy from the rain, and filled with ruts from carts forcing their way through.

The trees had mostly piled up on the east side and center, leaving only a handful to block the west side. Shae immediately saw that her first task would be clearing those and scraping the road down to its usual gravel. She circled around to the east side again, and saw that the mud fill had maybe made a wider route over the east ditch possible. A problem for later. She shook her head at the thought and returned to the west side.

The tree she started on was the smallest, but her powerful swings quickly drew attention and wide eyed stares from people nearby.

She cast the pieces of the first tree into the ditch. They landed right over the ruts, and she noted to herself they would be in the way of the carts. But if the road is cleared, they shouldn't care.

She registered a few upset shouts from the carts and ignored them. After the second tree someone finally approached to look through the logs. They grabbed one and dragged it off, trying to use it to fill a rut so their cart could pass easier.

Her chopping technique hadn't changed much from when she first learned it. The narrowest of the thigh-thick trees broke in two or three swings. Though the recently alive & rain soaked wood was noticeably slower than Fedir's example logs.

After one particularly frustrating piece, she swung the hammer side of Marta into the log and was very satisfied to see it spin off into the woods. She was less satisfied to lose her balance and fall in the mud, the sideways impact affecting her when the handle jumped away like the log had.

She took the opportunity to rest and cycle her practice. She moved qi up to her hands as well, her left was already getting numb from the impacts.

A stranger took that as a chance to interrupt her. It seemed he had spotted her embarrassing moment in the mud as his face showed he was trying to hide a cringe. "Sorry to interrupt. You uh, alright there, Miss cultivator?"

"Been better, but no harm done. Miss Shae is fine for me, and yourself?"

"Most call me Shuwen. Say, could you split these into planks with that?" He paused then continued in a panic when she didn't respond and just breathed deeply. "I mean for the carts to fill the ruts, much easier than round logs."

She shook her head. "No can do, Shuwen. If you'd all just wait, this side of the road will be clear soon enough."

"Right, but there's already a back up, and thanks for your help Miss, but-" he swallowed. "You're kind of making it harder to use the ditch."

"I'll not stop you from using the ditch, but it might get dangerous if I find doing that is faster." She gestured at how the last log flew off. "I've not been hired to build a new road in the ditch, Mister Shuwen. I'm here to clear this one, and it'll be passable by those smaller carts in an hour, the wagons soon after."

He looked like he wanted to object again.

She raised a hand, palm towards him. "If you want to speed this up, gather more strong legs, and help clear the logs. Then I'll cut bigger pieces so you lot can drag them away. At least spread the word that everyone should wait and not bother with the ditch. It will be full of these trees soon enough, or your strong legs can drag them past the ditch and people can do both."

She stood to begin again and positioned the ax to cut a piece twice the size of the last. If I have help this will go much faster.

Her second swing nearly cut through the tree so she switched to the hammer side for the third. She set her stance differently and made an adjustment to her hand placement. Hope this works better. Slamming the hammer into the loose end of the trunk almost did what she wanted. It jumped forwards, hingeing on the cut she had made, the thump of the hammer was echoed by snapping wood fibers.

"Bloody hell." She shook out her hands and surveyed her disappointment. The live tree was too flexible and did not snap off cleanly. She stepped in for a half hearted chop to finish the job and swore under her breath when it needed a second. "Alright, no half measures, do things properly," she said out loud, just to hear it.

Kicking the log away, she stopped to rest again. Remember to think, she thought. The peasants aren't coming to help any time soon. Shuwen's words had just caused a few of them to scurry faster trying to get past the blockage.

The young woman shook her head. Focus, leave them be. Then, after a shocked pause, she grinned, focus! This could be training, too.

For her next attempt she decided to worry less about her Cresting Hill guidelines. Instead, fully reinforcing her core and left side. The ax went up and she forced herself to focus through the whole swing. Then exhaled and relaxed her qi after the impact.

Opening her eyes again, she grinned wide. The ax was buried more than halfway through the tree. The next swing went the same, aim for consistency, and it cleaved the tree apart.

Her grin stayed as she moved to the next cut, foregoing moving the log away. Focus. She repeated the process. This time she restricted her qi flow slightly. Her left leg didn't need so much. Her second swing was the same and she was through the tree again.

Her grin now showed her teeth as she moved to the next position. More adjustments to her qi, more tweaks to when she used her focus and she was suddenly done with the third tree of day. She moved swiftly to the fourth, keeping up her new rhythm. The first cut went smoothly, but she found herself slowing during the second. During the third she staggered, leaning on Marta and dropping her qi cycling to lighten the tool.

A wave of exhaustion crashed over her: blurred vision, thoughts blanked, and she would have lost her balance if not for the ax acting as an additional support. "Ugh," she groaned, finding her mouth dry, she looked for her bag. I set it down...

A thwump drew her attention to the side. A few blurry individuals were moving logs a few paces away.

Why can't I think straight? Focus, no, resting first... Recover. She swirled her qi, just, anything. Whatever qi she could pull at first began to move through her body. A few breaths later she grabbed some cloudy divine qi and cycled it through her head. Relaxation and relief came slowly, aaaaahhh! Better!

With more brain power, she switched to using Cresting the Hill for recovery. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't as effective without the boost of divine qi. She let it continue working to recover her legs and core, then her arms and shoulders as well when she felt those were tense. Keeping the divine qi cycling through her head, she looked around for her pack and got some water.

Finally out of emergency recovery mode, she got a look at the road around her. A few of the travelers had organized and were moving the cut logs and smaller branches off the road. It was more than nothing, so she let herself have a tense smile. I'll have to be careful going forward, don't want that to happen again, whatever it was.

She took a few dozen breaths to recover, then finished off the tree she had been working on. The next tree, her fifth, went quickly. While chopping it up she spent some time refining her swing and how much qi she was using.

Stopping herself from jumping to the sixth downed tree, she paused and dropped her qi cycling. Again, the wave of fatigue hit, but it was lessened slightly as she was ready for it, and had some calming divine qi ready to clear her mind.

Okay... So that's consistent, she thought to herself once she recovered. What am I doing that's causing that? Probably not just using qi. So the Cresting practice, or... Something else?

Slightly stumped, she looked over the working travelers again. More had gathered and one used their pack animal to drag the larger pieces, but most were able to be carried by the small group.

With the satisfaction of seeing a community work together she approached the final tree. It was a bit larger, but if they have an oxen to drag it away. She paced along it, trimming branches and planning out her cuts with lighter ax strikes. Since they had the oxen, she decided to make these pieces longer, and to save herself a cut or two.

Starting her qi cycling, she increased the weight of Marta, then looked at the tool with consideration. Hmm... No, probably not you, Fedir would have told me if there were side effects. She made her first swing without the Cresting the Hill practice. It was actually a little easier without as much to manage.

She sped through the cuts, aware that it had already been longer than what she had promised Shuwen. She didn't owe him anything, but if he had spread words to all the waiting travelers... She shook her head. Not really a problem to worry about, focus on the task.

Once finished, the narrow side path along the road was essentially cleared. She checked the sun and guessed it had been almost two hours since she arrived. "Tsk, should have set up a sundial." She muttered to herself.

She sighed in relief as it looked like the travelers had done most of the work of clearing the road of mud and debris. A cart could pass now. All she'd need to do was widen it a bit so the caravan's wagon could pass.

As she relaxed she stopped cycling her qi and returned it to her Dantian. Her vision blurred and she staggered, leaning on Marta for support. "Bah. Knew it... Not that... Simple." She stammered out as she tried to regain her balance and draw out qi. Slumping to her knees, she closed her eyes and tried to meditate.

It wasn't easy, but without having to keep her balance it was much easier to access her qi and begin her recovery. The use of the calming divine qi quickly let her slip into meditation.

Ah, that's better. She took a few breaths to float freely on the clouds of qi. Then started the Cresting the Hill practice again, cycling it quickly as the practice suggested during recovery. She elected to use her personal qi this time, and found it working very quickly. Her physical exhaustion passed far faster than before, though her mental fatigue was slower to pass.

Hmm, well, that was less work, I wouldn't be as spent as the other times. So, it's not the practice. Though the mental effects may have hit harder... Because I was rushing maybe? Less time to recover naturally between swings...? Wait, so it is something I'm doing while swinging Marta?

She let her mind wander a bit, seeing if any new ideas popped up, but none did. With a final deep breath she exited meditation. "Tsk." She clicked her tongue and grimaced as she rose from the kneeling position; a rock had dug into her left knee. Looking down, her right probably should have felt the same, but the divinely cleansed flesh was much more resilient to such simple injuries.

Checking the sun again, she didn't think much time had passed. Yet, it was enough time for the previously gathered workers to break up as their carts were now able to pass by the blockage. A few wagons were even braving the narrow pass. Though, the road edge wasn't sharp or steep so the risk looked minimal, maybe an overloaded cart might tip, or break a wheel? She shrugged, the drivers probably know the risks, better than I do, at least.

She stretched and looked around to see a new group of peasants. A couple at the front were looking directly at her.