Sky Pride

Chapter 4- Nine-Tenths to Home

The hazy ward rippled and parted. A green leaf big enough to hold a squad of troopers and their horses waited for them. Tian happily stepped onto it, only to find Liren already standing there.

“I need that good air, and I’m not waiting even a single extra… Heavens! This is paradise!” Liren stretched her arms out wide, tilting her head upwards like she was trying to catch every ray of lifegiving sun.

“Shameful. Absolutely disgraceful lack of the Heavens are kind! Oh, sweet, sweet mountain, I’m never leaving you again!” Tian went from shaking his head as he stepped through the barrier to collapsing forward onto the leaf, as though he could reach the mountain through it.

“This Heavenly Demon has truly fallen so far, that he has to slum about with such I LIVE AGAIN! AHAHAAHA! THE PRIMORDIAL DEMONS BLESS THEIR CHOSEN PEOPLE! I LIVE AGAAAAAINNN!” Heavenly Demon’s hair spread out wide, floating away from his body as he started to levitate in a cloud of crimson light. His already peerless appearance took on an additional level of infernal luster, becoming slightly painful to look at directly. Tian was reminded of the first time he met Direct Disciple Song. She had been so beautiful and had such charisma, he felt deformed. She had said it was sequelae from her battle with Eunuch Hei. Once again, it seemed the world was more complicated than he had been told.

“Oh, finally. Demons above and below, dealing with the lack of stellar energy in the wasteland is such a pain.” Jin floated in on his jade tray, giving a little shiver of contentment. “Ah, with this kind of stellar energy density, I should be able to display almost sixty percent of my true power.”

Tian glanced away from the literally radiant Heavenly Demon and turned his head almost completely backwards. The novelty of such a flexible neck had yet to wear off, and he saw no reason not to make full use of it. Besides, he didn’t want to let go of the leaf. It was a good leaf. It was attached, spiritually, to the mountain. The mountain he would never leave again, because this was paradise. Every breath was sweet and full of qi. More than that, it was full of life itself. Full of the restful strength of the earth and the soaring majesty of the heavens. Paradise. He smiled.

“Don’t be so hasty, Daoist Jin. This is only the foot of the mountain. Your master is about… two thirds of the way up? A bit higher? High enough that he sent a leaf down rather than coming in person, as even this is uncomfortably thin air for him. Never mind sixty percent, you will surely achieve new heights of power.”

“That’s eerie. You know that’s eerie, right? I grew up in a cult full of people who idolized inhuman beings pursuing goals beyond the comprehension of meatlings, and you still manage to be eerie.” Jin’s voice was conversational, his large eyes rolling to look down on Tian.

“Noted.”

The leaf rose up, zooming over the vastness of the mountainside. It never became ordinary. The sheer enormity of it, the changes in vegetation as the leaf rose higher and higher, from soft, wide-leaved, tropical trees at the base, giving way to conifers, then shrubs, and finally nothing at all. Snow, wide and consuming, then through another invisible barrier and the world burst into impossible color once more.

The Myriad Colors Holy Land was truly named, and no less overwhelming than when they first arrived. More overwhelming, perhaps, as their expanded senses saw the infinite variations of qi, a myriad of colors beyond their unpolished perception when they left. The leaf soared along its carefully proscribed path, skirting the territories of the various disciples and guests of the White Peacock. The haze that gave the guests their privacy was still in place, impenetrable to their senses. It was therefore a joyful surprise when they descended into Voidcatcher’s garden, and saw who was waiting for them below.

Vodcatcher crouched in all his toady glory, managing to be, quite mysteriously, the exact same size as the monstrous xiezhi, Merciless. Merciless, combining the more upsetting features of a lion and a goat, along with too human teeth, seemed as cheerful as Tian could remember seeing him.

Perhaps cheerful was the wrong word, but there wasn’t a good word for “Less nakedly murderous and openly savoring the coming bloodshed.” Both were taller than Heavenly Demon at the shoulder. It had to be deliberate. Once again, Voidcatcher demonstrated that he was an endless well of techniques Tian was desperate to learn. That was not who he was happiest to see, though. Waiting next to the giant seniors was none other than Burning Heaven, radiant, her snow white feathers shimmering in more colors than a rainbow.

The urge to rush over and hug her was almost overwhelming. He only controlled himself when he noticed the crow next to her keeping her firmly in place with an outstretched wing. He still had a final bit of protocol to observe.

“Teacher, your student has had some success. I bring you the other half of your disciple, known in this life as Jin, and his companion, Heavenly Demon.”

Voidcatcher sent over a slim ring, a beautiful blend of wood and something that shone like silver but was heavy as lead. “We will talk more later. But for now, you two, welcome home.” He cast a spell so advanced, Tian couldn’t even perceive it, and the three of them vanished. Merciless rumbled an approving noise, nodding at Liren.

“Did you figure it out?”

“Your infinitely removed grandson was a happy excuse. I was your spear to purge significant corruption, both Threadcutter and the Longs.”

“You missed the essential element. Once you reached the southern border, your clash with the shamans was inevitable. I have no duty to the kingdom, nor any fondness for it, but this land is not given over to the various great spirits to dominate. The wolf and the horse need frequent reminders of that fact. If the Yuu do conquer the kingdom, the presence of the spirits will remain… limited.”

This tale has been pilfered from NovelPhoenix. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Xiezhi were, as far as Tian was aware, herbivores. However, as Tian was also aware, just because an animal primarily ate plants didn’t mean it never ate meat. The fangs on Merciless suggested that he was quite willing to eat some horse, or some wolf for that matter. Eager to, even. The two juniors bowed deeply in response to his words.

“You have made good use of my spear. I watched some of your battles through various means, as did Voidcatcher and a few others. It is worth remembering that once the gap in power reaches a certain extent, methods to conceal oneself from divination are useless. Though, what is being divined and how will radically alter that calculation. Relatedly, you have exceeded my demands of you. My dao will propagate through the mortal world thanks to the training you gave to my descendant. I will not permit the scales to remain unbalanced.”

A jade slip flew towards Liren. “I can guess where you learned that defective spear art of yours. I won’t speak on it, save for this- in life she was ruthless to a degree you both would find intolerable, and in death she has become worse. She transmitted less than one fifth of her spear art to you. Your dao path didn’t need to be so narrow. She guided you in that direction for her own selfish ends. While you are still young, you would be wise, very wise, to widen it some. There is no birth without Yang, no growth without Yin, nothing is just one thing, nothing is static. Yin and Yang are a cycle, you know all this. Basics so basic, even the mortals can recite them. Yet you do not live it in your cultivation or your spearplay. I created this spear art for you. It will last you through your novitiate, and give you something to work with should you manage to transcend.”

Liren dropped to one knee, holding the jade slip in both hands. “Your student is grateful!”

“Mmm.” The huge, blocky head swung around and the enormous eyes fixed Tian. He realized that the pupil was less rectangular than he would have expected of a goat. It was perfectly square. There was something about the arrangement of the circle and the square - he threw away the thought. It wasn’t the time.

“Why have I not rewarded you with anything, despite the fact that you did most of the teaching, provided the techniques, and provided all the medical treatments?”

It seemed a silly question to Tian. Presumably it was rhetorical. “The venerable has already rewarded me far more generously than I would ever have dreamed.”

The xiezhi rumbled with what could have been laughter, approval, or possibly hunger. “Rare, to see someone who truly treats their dao companion as a true dao companion. Rarer than you think. I will grant you two pieces of advice. First, your body has changed, and you have not yet found the change. Do so. The benefits are significant, as is the process of discovery. The second thing is…”

The xiezhi narrowed his eyes slightly. “Beware of gathering merit. It is a good thing, and useful to you at this stage, but you may not always find it so. I am considered an ‘auspicious’ beast by humans, and Voidcatcher is anything but. Yet I carry very few merits upon me, and Voidcatcher carries negligible sin. Our methods are beyond you and not worth considering. Our motives are. That is all. I will leave you to your reunion now.”

The ancient venerable vanished as soundlessly as Voidcatcher had, leaving Tian and Hong alone with Burning Heaven and… the name came to him with a jolt. The crow was named Brightheart, and Grandpa had rated him surprisingly highly. Worthy of respect, beyond that which he owed his brother in the sect.

“Now can I hug them?”

“A bird wanting to hug someone. I’ve truly seen it all. Yes, yes, go already!” Tian could hear the exasperation in Brightheart’s voice, though no malice. Then Burning Heaven was on him, and he couldn’t think of anything else.

“I missed you both! I missed you both so much!”

She was so warm. It was awkward to hug a crane who was trying to hug you back, but they did their best to make it work. They really had missed each other terribly. It was all a jumble of words, fractured sentences, reminiscences, food appearing and disappearing, treasures waved madly, boasts shouted over other boasts, and everyone doing their best not to get weepy. They had spent years together, fought together, and then were forced to spend almost two years apart. So much had happened. Tian was alarmed to learn just how many things could happen on the mountain.

“Hidden realms all over the place! At least once you get high enough on the mountain, they need a certain amount of qi density, apparently.”

“It’s not all over.” Brother Brightheart said, with the air of one who knows his kind reminder will be ignored. Again. “And calling them realms is extremely exaggerated.”

“They are amazing! All sorts of strange things live in there, and strange treasures, and metals and crystals and things. Some special herbs and trees and things too, but we got told over and over not to touch them.” Burning Heaven continued, absolutely shivering with happiness.

“That makes sense. They can be quite tricky to harvest.” Tian smiled.

“Yeah, I got Master’s permission to take you to one of them. He said you guys would get a lot out of it, and you could harvest stuff for the others. At least, we can go when our cultivation advances some more.”

“Master? Burning Heaven, did you take a master?” Liren asked. The crane didn’t have their fraught relationship with the concept, but there hadn’t been even the slightest hint she was interested in one either.

The red face nodded, the long red beak practically a blur in the air. “You bet! I did so good as a student, I got promoted to disciple. Brother Brightheart got to stick around as a student too, which is awesome.”

Tian’s mouth opened in shock. “The Grandmaster, the White Peacock, quite possibly the single most powerful person on this mountain and by extension, this kingdom, is your master?”

“Yeah! He said that I’m…” She looked over at Brightheart, who supplied-

“She embarked on a similar dao to his through passion rather than reason. A first amongst his disciples. I got kept on to be the - ”

Brother Brightheart searched for a euphemism, but Tian and Liren just waved him down. They got it.

“Sometimes, you just need to show people. It’s not enough to say “I’m strong.” It’s not enough to be strong. I mean, who even knows what strong means, right? It can mean all kinds of things, depending on the situation.” Burning Heaven hopped around. “But you can show up, and if you know how, you can just end everyone’s nonsense. You can show people, and they get it. Heck, you can show animals, insects, the weather, you can show ‘em all, and put them in their place!”

Tian and Liren shared a hangdog look. For all their advances in cultivation, for all their progress in their respective daos, there was simply no way they were going to top a bird mastering the art of showing off.