Chapter 52: The Road Upward IV

The more interesting example came from Francis.

Mira mentioned him while Joe was helping at Edwin's medicine shop.

"Father complained about Francis for months after the last Decennial."

Edwin looked up from an invoice.

"I did not."

"You did."

Simon immediately became interested.

"The one who reached the kingdom capital?"

Mira nodded.

Joe turned toward Edwin.

"You wanted Black to produce someone like him."

"Every family wants exceptional talent associated with its name."

The young Francis practitioner had been identified much earlier than the guard discoveries and cultivated properly from a young age.

He had a confirmed Spiritual Root.

He also progressed through martial cultivation unusually quickly.

His foundation was considered excellent.

His Blood Energy control was refined.

And, unlike some talented cultivators, he knew how to fight.

That combination carried him through Blackwood's selections and then through the state capital.

Eventually he reached the kingdom-capital competition.

Then he lost.

The details depended on who told the story.

Daren believed the defeat had been respectable.

Simon had heard that the opponent belonged to one of the kingdom's great families.

Mira had heard two incompatible versions and believed neither.

The ending was consistent.

The young man did not permanently return to Blackwood.

Someone connected to the state capital had taken an interest in him, and he remained there with access to opportunities Francis could not easily provide locally.

Joe looked at Edwin.

"So, he lost."

"Yes."

"And still moved upward."

"Winning and proving that you are worth further investment are not the same thing."

That principle interested Joe considerably.

Losing at the right level could be worth more than winning at the wrong one.

The Francis youth had reached somewhere powerful people could actually see him.

Whatever they had seen had been enough.

"The Decennial isn't really about finding the best fighter," Joe said.

"Not ultimately."

This content has been misappropriated from NovelPhoenix; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"What is it trying to find?"

Edwin put the invoice down.

"Rooted people worth carrying farther."

That phrasing caught Joe's attention.

"Farther through martial cultivation?"

"Through it."

Edwin emphasized the word.

"For a rooted person, martial cultivation can be preparation rather than the final destination."

Joe became still.

Edwin continued.

"A Root by itself is not enough. Moving someone through martial realms requires time, medicine, instruction, and increasingly expensive resources. Then whatever lies beyond requires more again."

"So, if all you want is combat strength..."

"It is often cheaper to cultivate a talented martial practitioner."

That completed the economic logic.

A family did not support an ordinary Root holder because he was the cheapest way to produce another strong fighter.

Often he was the opposite.

They were paying for access to a future road an ordinary martial artist could never enter.

"Then most Root holders don't reach immortal cultivation."

"Most do not."

"Do they even receive the methods?"

Edwin's expression became slightly amused.

"Now you are asking the right question much too early."

Joe understood the refusal.

The answer was probably complicated, expensive, political, or all three.

"What does the Decennial evaluate, then?"

"Age. Root. Martial realm. Foundation. Speed of progress. Blood Energy control. Combat ability. Discipline. Probably several things the higher organizations don't bother explaining to us."

Joe noticed one distinction.

"Martial realm and combat ability separately."

"Obviously."

Edwin looked mildly surprised.

"A realm tells me what your body and Blood Energy can do. It doesn't tell me whether you make good decisions while someone is trying to break your face."

Simon nodded solemnly.

"That's why Joe remains questionable."

Joe ignored him.

Edwin continued, "A rooted youth who is already moving quickly through the martial road is cheaper to carry farther than someone of the same age who has barely begun. That matters."

Now the two guard discoveries made even more sense.

Same rare qualification.

Different demonstrated cost.

The Francis youth had offered something more valuable still: a Root attached to exceptional martial progress from a young age.

No wonder higher people had continued investing after he lost.

The loss had answered only one question.

They were judging his entire future.

Joe's own interest remained fixed on what came after.

"What happens when someone is carried far enough?"

Edwin smiled slightly.

"Back to immortality?"

"Living forever seems worth asking about."

Mira laughed.

Edwin could hardly disagree.

"The Decennial does not award immortality," he said. "Most participants eventually return home. Some receive better instruction or resources. Some become attached to larger organizations. A much smaller number may eventually reach the point where cultivation beyond ordinary martial arts becomes available to them."

"Qi cultivation?"

Edwin glanced at him.

"You've heard that term too."

"Once or twice."

"It is one of the names people use."

"Is that where immortality begins?"

"That depends on what you mean by immortality."

Joe smiled slightly.

"Long enough that ordinary people start using the word."

"Then perhaps."

That was enough.

Joe did not need the entire system immediately.

He needed to know whether there was a road.

Apparently there was.

His private objective made the discovery difficult to dismiss.

Survive.

Reach the next doubling age.

Then survive again.

If higher cultivation could extend lifespan significantly, it might someday matter more to Joe than any amount of ordinary martial strength.

Unfortunately, that did not make it relevant today.

Joe had no confirmed Spiritual Root.

Simon remembered no birth vision.

Lily, Mike, Joseph, and especially Pam had never mentioned one.

Nothing memorable had happened around Joe during Starlight either.

Perhaps something subtle had been missed.

Possible.

The more probable answer remained simple.

He did not have one.

That realization carried a little more disappointment now that immortality had become something more concrete than a folktale.

Joe accepted it.

His life already contained advantages nobody else could imagine. Mourning every road he might not possess would accomplish nothing.

The next Decennial cycle would arrive in eight years.

Joe would be around twenty-three.

Still young enough.

If circumstances ever proved his assumption wrong, the timing might matter.

Until then, it was simply information worth remembering.

On the walk home, Simon glanced at him.

"Still thinking about your birth vision?"

"No."

"Maybe it was very subtle."

Joe kept walking.

"One candle flickered."

"Simon."

"A chicken looked east."

"Stop."

"Grandmother saw it but thought the chicken was sick."

Joe shoved him lightly toward the edge of the road.

Simon laughed and recovered without difficulty.

Within minutes they were arguing about whether Simon actually needed new winter boots or merely wanted better ones.

Somewhere above Blackwood, rooted youths were gathered from families, villages, towns, and guard forces. A few would be carried toward the state capital. Fewer would reach the kingdom capital. Beyond them stood a cultivation road Joe could barely see and people whose lives might be long enough for ordinary townsfolk to call them immortal.

Joe found all of it fascinating.

As far as he currently knew, almost none of it had anything to do with him.

So, he remembered it.

Then he returned to the road he could actually walk.