Fishing for Swords

This is something as a follow-up story to Fish Boi. It isn't needed to understand this story, but it can explain things a bit.
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When it comes to the study of ancient or powerful trees, there are many choices for a group of budding arborists to gossip about: 

The Restorsap Tree of the floating islands of Elohi is said to be close to a thousand years old and be able to cure any disease or injury if it gives its sap to you, while cursing those who take its sap by force to age quickly and poorly, and there are stories told of its island passing over hospitals for diseases and injuries that cannot be simply healed, only for everyone in the hospital to awaken the following day as hale and hearty as an ox, and for the island to vanish for years afterwards.

The Frozen Pine Grove of Aergarde’s deep boreal forests is said to be such a concentration of the frozen heart of winter that if a mage with a practitioner or sealed gate makes a simple tea from the pine nettles of one of the leaves of the grove, it will change that gate’s mana to be aligned with that of winter. Verified reports have confirmed this to work with lunar and tempest mana, but rumors abound of children who awaken a mana type they hate wandering deep into the forests, only to emerge as winter mages.

The Redsummer Hibiscus of the Redsummer Isles is said to have been planted on the day the first person came to the island, and that its vast magic has allowed the islands to remain in an eternal summer, with fields that never grow arid, breadfruit growing on every tree branch, and bugs that carry no pestilence or disease, though nobody can agree which of the several ancient Redsummer Hibiscuses that dot the archipelago is the one of myth. 

The Obsidian Forest, to the north of Vinopae, is said to have a tree deep within its forest that is black as night and capable of devouring all light, solar mana, and solar energy that comes within a hundred feet of it. This is particularly frustrating to botanists and arborists, because human bodies contain solar energy, and thus, getting near the tree means death. 

The Singing Swordwillow of the Swordsong Sect is yet another one of these ancient and powerful trees, and differs both greatly and mildly from the common Swordwillow. 

The leaves and branches of the common swordwillow tree can grow up to the middle of third gate, and are enforced with telluric and physical mana – which the sect calls it earth and mundane chi – to allow them to cut the predators that seek their roots, which are rich in minerals and known to strengthen the body. Some enchanters have found that these branches, if grown to sufficient size, infused with the right spells, and treated with the right alchemy, and can make a decent basis for bows, arrows, and the shafts of spears.

The swaying motion of the branches is at times used as a training method for melee combatants, teaching them to be flexible and flow like the breeze as they dance through the shifting, deadly branches. 

In this way, the Singing Swordwillow is not so different. Its leaves and branches cut, and though the Singing Swordwillow is far stronger than the common swordwillow, its branches do not move any faster than a mundane weeping willow tree. 

But the song of the Singing Swordwillow is one of the two crucial features that sets it apart. A harmony that drifts through its branches as they sway through the air, sharp as blades. 

Shueh Bình set their feet as they stared at the Singing Swordwillow. 

If they wanted to gain entry to the core sect, they would need to pass through its branches for the entirety of its song, nearly eight minutes. Dodging for eight minutes was a taxing affair for anyone, and Shueh Bình was considered too weak to partake in the trial. 

“You don’t have to do this,” Chen Liyu said, reaching out and clasping his hand on their shoulder.

Bình turned to look at their friend. The wandering cultivator was descended from a sacred carp, with powerful water chi that had allowed them to ascend to the level of an expert, while Shueh Bình was stuck as a second realm cultivator. 

“No,” they said firmly. “I do need to do this. You know how my father is getting. I’ve languished in the outer sect too long. I’m not… I’m…” 

They weren’t strong, not like Chen Liyu was. He could fight through a battery of spells with one hand, while forging the claws of a dragon on the other, then strike with enough power that he could be mistaken for the firstborn child of one of the leaders of a divine sect. 

Shueh Bình was not like Chen Liyu. They didn’t want to be here. They wanted to be home in the village with their mother, tending to the farm, to the chickens, the cows, the spellscenting hogs. They didn’t want to be fighting for a position in a combat sect to win the approval of a man they’d never met. But they had to, because if they didn’t, then their father would increase the taxes of the entire village. Their father had made it very clear that if his bastard child wanted to keep the village afloat, they’d keep their mouth shut and excel in a sect of his choosing.

And if they died, then the problem would be taken care of.

Shueh Bình squared their shoulders and shook off Chen Liyu’s hand, then reached into their internal world and drew out their chi into a mastered art, allowing the wind to spin around them defensively, then they stepped into the tree. 

A note rang out, and their armor was cut apart in a second. They let out a cry of pain as the willow sliced into their arm and hot blood spattered all over the tree, but they couldn’t stop. More notes were already ringing out, and they had to dodge, because if they didn’t, they’d die. 

They spun, drawing on their wind chi to infuse their body and give them a fleetness of foot, and just barely wove out of the way of the second branch, then the third, but not the fourth. It caught their leg, and they stumbled. 

A branch was coming at their face. They were going to die. 

Then a claw of water slapped into the branch. The tree was the equal, or even the greater, of a patriarch, and it had no trouble slicing the hand in two, but it bought Shueh Bình a moment to regain their balance and scramble out of the way. 

Chen Liyu dove forwards, weaving between the branches with the grace of water, throwing out massive claws of water that intercepted the branches around Shueh Bình. Each claw could only hold the branches off for moments, but those moments let Shueh Bình stumble and dodge. 

Chen Liyu’s eyes were burning as he conjured his water armor for a half a second to shift the course of a branch by the tiniest fraction of an inch, then let the armor vanish to conserve chi. He released a blast of river dragon’s breath from his mouth to knock a branch coming for Shueh Bình off course, cut off their breath the instant it was complete, then forged three claws, all while dodging back from the chiming tone of the music. 

Shueh Bình’s eyes shone as they watched the wandering cultivator step through the trial with the effortless grace that he always seemed to possess, and they couldn’t say if their eyes were shining with tears from the pain or the spark of adoration in the depths of their heart

Probably both.

The best, and worst, part of the entire thing was that Chen Liyu was improving. As he started adapting to the pace of the song, he needed to call his armor less and less often, simply predicting where the branches would strike and using his spiritual sense to keep an eye over everything. 

By the time two minutes had passed, Chen Liyu was weaving through the blades of the Singing Swordwillow as if he had studied it for his entire life, and the only arts he was releasing were the ones that he needed to protect Shueh Bình. 

Shueh Bình felt ashamed at that, and it only got worse when Chen Liyu dodged back and withdrew a bottle of pills from their jacket and tossed it to them. 

But they took the pill anyways, and they could feel the wood chi spin through their body, getting to work on their wounds. The chi was powerful, and the pill had to have been made by an expert refiner, one who was only a realm away from becoming an elder. 

That had to have been expensive… 

Shueh Bình felt a strong hand yank them out of the way, and realized that Chen Liyu had pulled them out of the way of a branch that could have taken their head off.

They needed to focus. They closed their eyes and drew in a breath, then spun out their protective wind again. It hadn’t done anything last time, and they weren’t skilled enough to flicker it on and off perfectly like Chen Liyu did his water, but it could buy him microseconds. That would have to be enough. 

As Chen Liyu released a powerful stream of blue chi from his mouth, and it struck four branches, subtly knocking them all off course, and they fell past the pair as Chen Liyu pulled them closer to avoid the blades. 

“Now you’re just showing off,” Shueh Bình protested. 

“Maybe,” Chen Liyu said, smirking down at them. “Why shouldn’t I? A year and a half ago, I was getting stomped on by members of a sect nobody’s ever heard of, and now I’m dancing under a seventh realm willow tree with a very pretty person.” 

Shueh Bình lowered their eyes as Chen Liyu swept them out of the way of a branch, knocked another off course with a water claw, and inclined his head to dodge another. 

“You shouldn’t have saved me,” Shueh Bình said, and Chen Liyu’s smarmy grin vanished. He looked very seriously at them and shook their head. 

“Don’t talk like that,” he said. “You are a good person.”

“And a failure of a cultivator. My father is an elder.” 

“And my mother was a prostitute,” Chen Liyu said, and Shueh Bình cringed at the crassness. 

“It’s true,” Chen Liyu continued. “Heritage isn’t everything. Neither is cultivation. I’d rather help a good person succeed than watch a talented prick rise.” 

“I…” 

“Travel with me?” Chen Liyu asked. “You’re going to enter the core sect, since you’ll have passed through the tree’s song, and that will give you the freedom to go wherever you want. I can bring you to meet my teacher. He’s a yang cultivator, but he managed to teach me, and he’s shown me… Certain things. Things that helped me change my worldview.” 

“I… don’t know,” Shueh Bình finally said. “It sounds nice, but I won’t have passed the trial. There won’t be two branches. There never are.” 

A moment later, the song came to an end, and the Singing Swordwillow’s branches stopped moving. A moment later, there was a splintering sound, and a thin wooden blade fell from the branches of the tree. 

To their spiritual sense, it felt like the Singing Swordwillow. 

That was the second great difference between the Singing Swordwillow and a normal swordwillow. When one danced beneath the branches of the Singing Swordwillow for an entire song, they were granted a blade, grown from the branches of the tree, with a pommel made of the tree’s roots. A natural treasure not unlike a growth item, the first to touch its hilt is bonded to it, and the blade can cut many materials of its gate, and when power is channeled through the blade, the song begins singing, and the blade begins to cut through magic. It is said that the song of a Singing Swordwillow Blade can even cut apart attacks on the mind. 

And Shueh Bình knew that their friend had won the blade, and would take it. Chen Liyu was a wandering cultivator. Becoming a core disciple of one of the larger sects in the nation would raise his station greatly. 

Chen Liyu’s armor formed around his hand, and he grabbed the sword by its blade, then extended it to Shueh Bình. 

“Take it,” they said. “I don’t want it. And you need it. If you insist, consider it payment for joining me on my travels for a few months.”

Shueh Bình stared at him.