Cultivation depended on talent and ability, but also circumstances and luck. Chang Min had both talent and ability, but his fortunes as he grew and aged during the dying years of their former homeland were extremely mixed. In the beginning, for example, his foundation was so poor that once accepted by his Master after his sect fell, he'd only just broken through to secondary stage by some dumb luck as he'd followed them over hills and furrows. He'd been in his early twenties at that time, possibly no older than young Nathan.

To put it in context, if he'd been born around the time of his Master and had begun cultivating at the same tiny age of eight years old, then even as a poor peasant child, his talent and ability would have seen him breakthrough smoothly to tertiary at a similar age, even commence the long path in order to form his core.

Instead, his unstable foundations needed to be settled, the beams that supported him needed to be restructured less his cultivation stuttered to a fault or worse he suffered deviation in the future. But once his Master was satisfied that there was little chance of either failure in his future, his Master taught him a cultivation method that suited him the most and he began to storm his way towards forming his core. He was thirty five years old when he finally achieved this.

Age was but a number to a cultivator who had achieved this end for as he began the more painstaking and weaving path of Body Tempering, any lines that had formed on his skin smoothed, grievances caused by malnutrition in his childhood eased and even the midnight hair upon his head that had stubbornly never grown beyond his shoulders began to slowly pour down his back producing a natural cloak of silk. On reaching quinary stage at the age of nearly eighty, one would no longer see any signs of his harsh beginnings, only seeing a handsome, healthy young man whom did not look out of place at all amongst his peers.

However, reaching senary stage could have been considered a pipe dream at that point for the air was stagnant and the spiritual energy of every part of their world like a bead of moisture in an endless sea of sand. Everyone already considered him blessed to reach this stage, no one could see a future for him or even for themselves, but it hadn't stopped them from continuing to wander in search of it.

Now, in this world, despite the balance being askew and the spiritual energy not as abundant as a middle realm, Chang Min had regained that long forgotten chance. Only, this time his luck was not there. Or perhaps it should be better stated as his heart was not.

"It is not that you cannot," Ren Zexian told him cryptically, "only that you will not unless your heart is clear and your mind focused. Now was not the best time. There will be chances in the future."

"En," Chang Min agreed, though admittedly, he was disappointed. This was directed at himself.

"It doesn't matter," Cole reassured him as he pulled his lover into his arms. "If you'd advanced this time, the chasm between us would have been that much greater. This gives me a chance to catch up with you a little more."

"What chasm?" Chang Min snuggled happily into Cole's hard chest, inhaling the masculine scent that belonged to him alone with a contented sigh. "Don't talk nonsense."

"Hmm, I agree," the speed of Cole's beating heart had already picked up pace, forcing his blood to race through his veins. "Let's not talk..."

Their bedroom door remained shut after this for quite sometime.

*****

Despite some minor setbacks, the harvest had been particularly abundant. What wasn't picked to be eaten was frozen, pickled, dried out or made into sauces. What couldn't be preserved was placed into a cardboard box and stuffed into the van, ready for a trip to the base. Fortunately, they'd a lot of cardboard boxes thanks to the abandoned supermarket van. Of the vegetables packed, they were mostly large squashes such as pumpkins, butternut and spaghetti squash; not that they wouldn't keep a while, but that these would sell well in base and at this time they wanted to use the points to grab charcoal. There were also some cauliflowers, cabbages and brocolli, as with the large squashes, the base didn't grow much of these as they took up too much space. After some discussion, they packed a box of the apple oil as well.

They did think about trading some of the clothes and beauty products they'd obtained from their last raid, but decided not to in the end. There was little to no chance of them being able to obtain new clothing in bulk in the future and would have to rely on second hand things or if they were lucky, some handmade products, but who knew how long that would take? As for the moisturiser, bath products and suncream... well the women (and Tyler and Patrick) did not wish to share.

As for the preserved goods, Autumn with the assistance of anyone she could rope in to help, had lined the basement with jars and tupperware of pickles, jams, chutneys and sauces. There was also an attempt at apple cider bubbling away in a warm space in the kitchen. The grains and root vegetables were kept in sacks made from old, but breathable pillow cases on a raised platform in the basement. It appeared that they would be much more prepared for the arduous winter this year.

Of course, unsatisfied with even this, they had begun work in the third property creating raised beds made of metal in the largest, west and south facing room, which was likely once the living room and shelves for pots in the sunroom also facing south. Also, the 'kitchen' area found that it too would be 'refurbished', gaining a mishmash of cupboards made of recycled materials and reshaped metal, an old Belfast sink from the village and the precious second range cooker they'd found outside the walls. This was due to questions raised about watering and harvesting come midwinter.

"I wonder if the snow will be as heavy as last year," Nan Li Liang was looking at the silver cast of the sky as he shivered, unable to be warmed by the sun.

"Our old home almost turned into an igloo that time," Kairo murmured in remembrance as he helped add more compost to the raised bed. "Despite there being a lot of glass, it was so dark. We had to have anyone with wind abilities blow the snow off of the roof or all of the plants would have died." There was a hint of melancholy to his voice. Those people had been his neighbours and strangers turned family, but they were mostly gone now. It made a person not want to become attached to others just in case, but they were human, changing their nature was not so easy. They could only try to adapt.

"We had to keep carving paths to the sheep or they would have died of starvation," Nan Li Liang was an ordinary person, he'd only emerged from the house after the heavy work had been done to bring out the kitchen scraps. Still, the sheep had seemed a bit thinner by the end of winter, even the pregnant ewes.

Their conversation was overheard and naturally lowered the enthusiasm for this project. How were they going to deal with regularly watering, feeding and later harvesting of the plants if they had to dig out huge amounts of snow? It wasn't the case of a few metres like digging from the front door to the garage! That and they had planned to move the hens in to the property as well. What about all the eggs??

Shaun suggested that they form some long roofed walkways of metal and earth, but time was against them now. Plus they didn't want to create them across the road. Going underground was possible, however tunnels required supports and might take more time. They also didn't want to restructure the external walls of the properties, nor could they block up the doors with the walkways.

"What if someone moved in? To the third property?" Jonah suggested. "Those people could take care of everything in here and others could collect the eggs and that every three to five days..."

Of course that meant still carving out roads every three to five days if the snow was particularly persistent. And who would want the lonely duty of moving from the community (and from Autumn's cooking) over winter? Actually, that wasn't as difficult a choice as they would have assumed.

"I would move in with Nathan," Ren Zexian announced. Nathan had found it particularly difficult to be amongst crowds for prolonged periods of time. In fact, more than half of Ren Zexian's winter was spent clearing snow so that Nathan could retreat to the greenhouse to ease his frayed nerves. This year, there were more people and there had been discussions of those from the second property moving into the first property to reduce the need for fuel for cooking and for warmth. Mentioning clearing snow actually strengthened the case for this as well, but that would cause more difficulties for his beloved. Also, Nathan had broken into secondary stage, which while helped his ability to adapt, had also increased his sensitivity slightly. It was difficult to predict how he would cope in the crowded mansion if forced to move in. Ren Zexian had originally wished to argue for them to stay in the cottage, but this was perhaps an alternative solution that killed two birds with one stone.

Still, Ren Zexian's statement didn't settle the arguments for a short while, but he would still gain his way. Only that so would Shaun as his walkways would later be converted into barns for the increasing population of sheep (the older ewes were pregnant again) and chickens. There would be two, the first would be along the unused drive of the house and part of the existing garage, stretching towards the road and the second would be along part of the drive of the third property. The remainder of the path and road remain exposed to the winter weather and they would have to clear it as before.

Once this had all been decided, Dexter and a few others jumped in the van and headed for the base.