The start of a journey of a thousand miles began with a bus ride. Also it wasn’t a journey of a thousand miles, but Lily thought it sounded a whole lot more profound like that, so that’s what she was going with.

The eastbound bus to east East Saffron, unconfusingly named, departed from just in front of the school every hour, on the hour. It kinda made sense, actually— there wasn’t really anywhere else in the 32nd Precinct of any appreciable importance. The library, maybe? That was usually a pretty important spot in each precinct, but that was more because of the cultivation resources the librarian controlled. Something that the 32nd… to put it kindly, did not have much of. To put it less kindly, from what Mingtian had told her, they had a single shelf of subpar techniques and formations knowledge that she already outstriped almost entirely, and she wasn’t even a cultivator yet.

They didn’t have to wait all that long for the bus, luckily— the big thing rumbled up a few minutes before the hour. She could get on easily enough, but the bus driver gave Avyr a doubtful look before realizing he wasn’t paid enough to insist the massive, deadly predator couldn’t board the bus, and just let them on anyway. It took a bit of doing to find a comfortable spot— the seats were narrow and definitely not built for his kind, but they made do. More or less. It was an awkward fit, that was for sure.

The bus wasn’t empty, but they were given a wide berth. One could only wonder why…

So it went.

Her excitement only built as they approached the Phoenix Gate Station— the bus getting progressively more and more packed as they approached the end of their trip, until their bubble of personal space evaporated like so many dreams. Avyr shifted uncomfortably every time someone bumped into him, clearly not used to the crushing press of bodies around him—

Then they were there

.

The bus stopped next to an open plaza and disgorged them, a small crowd of people to join one far larger— a seething sea of humanity above which rose the wall. She’d seen it when she was younger, the enormous thing, red-tinted stone bricks five hundred feet tall and thicker across than the entire orphanage slammed into the ground, one by one in a row spread out from horizon to horizon in every direction. And that wasn’t even mentioning the gate.

Beside her, drawn up short by the sight, Avyr padded to a stop, staring at the monumental edifice. “I had convinced myself it was smaller. I didn’t expect it to be even bigger than I’d imagined…”

“How did you enter the city?”

“By ship,” he spoke softly as they pressed into the crowd— once more given a bit of comfortable space, but not quite the same scared reverence that they’d been given back in the less cosmopolitan parts of the city. In the distance, they could even spot a few of his kind moving through the crowd, doing… something. They were too far away for Lily to see much of anything. “We arrived at night through the Dragon Gate; I was only awake by chance and a desire to see what some of the sailors had described as one of the world’s greatest cultivation treasures.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“They weren't wrong. The city wall was built back during the imperial age— the old imperial age.” Avyr blinked, slightly taken aback— as he should be, the old imperial age was eons ago! Long enough that even in the minds of the oldest cultivators, it had faded to so much myth and legend… “it’s a defensive treasure almost without peer on the entire planet. There’s a stronger one around Zhongshi, sure, but nothing quite like this, enough to shelter an entire city.” It was one of their great prides. In the shadow of it, striding through the trampled snow and churned gravel, grass peeking out from beneath frost paths of the park as they made their way towards the train station, she wondered what it must have been like to build

that. How many thousands of cultivators had dedicated themselves to raising such a marvel?

Or, perhaps more terrifyingly, it was entirely possible that it’d been made by a single person. Shivering softly as they passed beneath the outstretched boughs of an emerald pine, she wondered if she’d be able to do that, one day… it felt impossible, but what was cultivation but seeking the impossible? She imagined it, for a moment— the power to raise mountains and sunder the seas, and blow up moons—

Then she focused on where she was walking before she tripped over Avyr’s tail. That would’ve been embarrassing… “Anyways, look! There’s the gate!” She pointed just excitedly enough to grab Avyr’s attention— and then the Phoenix Gate did the rest of the work. Crisis avoided… but, as they passed around the last hill of the park, and finally caught glimpse of it, her moment of clumsiness was forgotten all but entirely.

The gate was immense, in a way that defied description. It was less a gate, really, and more of an entire massive slice cut into the wall. And unlike the rest of the wall, which had been left as little more than blank stone, the gate was ornate. The massive pillars had been painted red and then adorned with so many intricate statues and reliefs that from a distance the riotous color all blended together and made the Phoenix gate run silver and gold, aglimmer beneath the winter sunlight.

That was the most eye-catching feature of the gate at a glance, but a second look showed how packed the gate was. Not with people, though it certainly was— but with paths. Roads and rails and paths and tunnels, all built on top of each other and funneled together through the enormous open space. As one of the only three ways to get anything into or out of the city— the massive city— they’d been forced to be… efficient.

Avyr pulled up beside her staring at the jumble of ways all thrown together with a strange, mad reason. “It’s not what I expected.” He chuckled. “I never even looked them up on the networks— I suppose that’s on me for failing to do my research. But…” Lily understood the feeling. The first time she’d seen it— at the Krilin gate, which was closer to home— she’d been amazed at how much stuff they managed to fit through the massive yet still so small entrance. A whole city commuted through that one chokepoint. “Regardless,” Avyr shook his head, all but visibly placing his awe off to the side for a better time— “we need to catch our train, don’t we? If we’re going to become supreme ultimate cultivators or whatever you fancy calling it.”

“Immortals!”

Avyr smiled softly— his version of a smile, but a smile nonetheless. “Of course. Immortality first. Then we’ll figure out what heights we’ll reach.” Lily giggled, leaning against Avyr and imagining it, the wonder of it all…

Then, they set off once more, heading towards the train station.

To touch, destiny awaiting.