Sky Pride

Chapter 34- Between Sun, Stone and Thought

Tian watched with fascination as something gathered around Liren’s sun. What was gathering, and how, and why, he couldn’t say. His first instinct was that it was the shen saturated stellar energy of this place, but from what he could see, it was acting more like dust blown along the ground in little streamers. Except those streamers were circling the sun, for reasons. They would gather and gather until they reached some unknown point of density and collapsed inward towards the sun. He had a hard time making out what happened after that. It seemed that much of what fell into the sun evaporated, but some was absorbed.

He didn’t know the golden pupils in his eyes were glowing. He didn’t know that they expanded and contracted the same way the black pupils did, though they shifted at different times.

“Circle, circle, build and build, then fall in. But why not fall in from the beginning? Is there a wall or something? But I can’t see anything.” Tian muttered.

You can’t see the wind either. But you can see the leaves get blown around.

“And sometimes the leaves get blown around for ages, before they can finally fall on the ground.”

Yep.

“But the sun doesn’t generate wind.”

Debatably true, if we take your ordinary definition of wind, but, well, think about it. Think about fire.

Tian watched the dust swirl, and thought about fire, the heat of it, pressing against his skin, the rising smoke. Rising, only to fall again, the wood elements converted to earth by the fire. Did the fire throw it up, somehow? It never seemed to fall straight back down on the fire, did it? Even candles and lamps saw the smoke spread.

Eyes up.

It was one of the clouds of chaotic thoughts and energy. It was caught by the array and broken apart without any drama. Tian saw the refined crystal pile powering the array had gotten much lower than he was comfortable with, so he pushed over one of the mine carts and topped it up. As he did, he saw pieces of the broken up cloud slip away from the formation and get pulled over towards Liren. The pieces had a dramatic effect on the cloud surrounding the sun. The dust clumped to the big fragment, and that big fragment went slamming straight into the sun. It, too, was largely evaporated, but what was absorbed was considerably greater.

He glanced up again, and frowned. A rain of worms was coming down, and he could see another chaotic cloud behind it. He quickly cleared the blockages in the array and got ready for the next arrival.

“Liren’s really going to be okay?”

I’d be concerned if it wasn’t for the array, but yes, she is going to be fine. She’s earning twice the profit, as it were, naturally collecting what she safely can. She’s not depriving that Demon either. There are going to be even more shen constructs pulled over than there were before. You just keep that array running, and they will both benefit.

There was something in Grandpa’s voice. A subtle harmonic that only someone very attuned to the old ghost’s “funny little ways” could possibly pick up on.

“Grandpa, am I not supposed to keep the array running?”

You are absolutely supposed to. He told you to, for one thing, and gave you two big mining carts of extra fuel, and tools to maintain it. What could that be other than his clearly expressed desire for you to keep the array up and working at full power for as long as you possibly can? And wouldn’t it make sense to draw in the biggest fragments you could? That last really big one was worth more than the whole previous two weeks for his development.

“Grandpa… what aren’t you telling me?”

Let us say that while I appreciate the benefits that Demon boy is giving you, those who look down on my Grandson and his cute little wife deserve to suffer a bit. Especially if the suffering is good for them. And this is, truly, good for him. Whoops! Get ready, here comes a big one!

Tian’s hands had been moving while he talked with Grandpa. Clearing out the comparatively small amounts of impurities had become routine. The thing shaped like a paper horse fluttering in a windstorm was anything but. He slapped out a quick trio of palms before it even hit the array, trying to weaken it. He had the oddest feeling of trying to stop a charging horse’s momentum with his bare hand. Which he could do, he knew, but the mind rebelled. Horses, it said, are bigger and heavier than you. What exactly do you think your little hand is going to do to all that?

He narrowed his eyes, watching the memory-construct slam into the array. Once again the bands of light rose, forming a lattice over the construct, and once again, the burn rate shot up. The impurities rose quickly along with the burn rate, like a flood rising to match a fire. He could manage it for a little while, but not for long. It would be too much of a shame if Liren’s fortuitous encounter was cut short.

A quick smile darted across his face as he slapped out more palms, trying to break up the memory more quickly, without damaging the array. How funny was it that he just… accepted a sun could pop out of Lilren’s chest? Like it was something totally normal. There was no sun in Tian’s chest, alas. It was quite domineering. There was a little lamp, though. He thought the lamp was pretty good. Maybe one day he would learn how to take it out too.

The gold pupils expanded and contracted. Tian didn’t notice the difference initially, but as the paper horse construct broke down, bits of it caught his attention. Not for anything too special, they just looked jagged. Rough, when everything else was smooth and flowing. He couldn’t pay too much attention. Breaking apart the clumping impurities, smoothing out energy flows, then back to weakening the construct. There wasn’t time for stray thoughts.

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The cycle turned, and he wasn’t keeping up. He thought he could handle it, but he had been wrong. His hands darted, breaking impurities, but he didn’t have Liren’s eye for it. He couldn’t shake four blockages free with one strike. He could smooth the energy flows well, but what was the use if there wasn’t any energy flowing? The breakdown time was taking too long. Should he slap out with heavier strikes? But the last thing he wanted was for the shape to explode. His eyes caught on the rough spots on the paper-horse construct. They had grown more visible, more pronounced, the longer it was crushed in the array.

Hell with it. He smashed out a palm, the white gold of the qi washed out by the blinding white of Liren’s sun. It hit a spot on the construct’s neck, a little above the “shoulder.” Cracks formed at once, the effect cascading outwards as the force of the array kept applying pressure. It was only a heartbeat longer until the whole thing crumbled. Energy flooded into the array, but it was manageable. Interestingly, the amount of impurities were less than he had expected. He was busy for a couple of minutes, but it was all manageable.

“Grandpa, is the array like a body? The longer it’s under stress, the more toxins build up?”

For the sake of analogy, it’s kind of like that. Bigger chunks, below a certain size, are better than things ground fine for the boy, so it’s a balancing act between toxin build up and the rate of refinement in his body.

“Are they what Liren is absorbing? The useless fragments that are also toxic?” Tian looked worriedly over at her.

Kind of? Don’t worry about it, they aren’t harmful for her. Keep your mind on business, Grandson. You have literally cracked it at this point. All down hill from here. Just don’t let them blow up before the array gets a hold of them.

Tian settled into it. There wasn’t any time to cultivate. The work was manageable, so long as he kept on top of everything. Which he could, just barely. The shen constructs stopped coming so far apart. Some arrived immediately after the previous one was broken apart. Then they were hitting a little before the array finished cracking the previous form, putting external pressure on the array. Tian watched the refined spirit stones start evaporating. He had to gamble with his strikes, trying to break down the trapped one as quickly as possible, while throwing a few extra-heavy palms at the construct pressing down from outside.

Heavenly Demon was babbling something. Tian didn’t listen. His eyes were fixed, unblinking at the shen constructs. The instant the one in the array broke apart, he jumped straight up and sent a palm down on the second construct from above. Because of all the “care” it had received from Tian, it fell apart quickly. It had already done enough damage. The array was a mess of blockages, rampaging qi flows and the stockpile had shrunk by a quarter in less than a minute. That rate of loss was simply unsustainable. He’d have to be more aggressive about weakening the constructs, gambling that they wouldn’t break apart.

He touched his heart. His qi reserve was adequate, he hoped. It wasn’t at a level where he was worried about running short any time soon. His eyes kept sweeping over the hole through the mountain, trying to spot any hint of the next form to come- there! He thrust out, sending white gold palms to intercept it far above. If it was going to explode, let it explode far away. One after another, each aimed at the rough spots. The golden pupils kept making their minute shifts. Tian noticed that some rough spots were sticking out more than others. Not for any particular reason, just because at this point they felt more vulnerable, or that it would be more effective to strike there.

He didn’t notice that Liren wasn’t the only one the little particles of qi and shen settled on. Nor did he notice the way they seemed to melt when they touched his skin, before they were absorbed. Nor did he have time to notice the way the sun over Liren’s chest had grown by a finger width. It was brighter, too. Same color, just brighter. Perhaps a touch richer. His eyes tracked the construct all the way to the array, and watched with satisfaction the way it crumbled after just a few tens of seconds.

The process was so quick, he had enough time to clean up a big piece of the impurities still in the array before the next construct appeared. His eye for where to strike the constructs got sharper and sharper. It wasn’t always possible to land a clean hit. Sometimes the spot to strike was above, or behind. He made up for precision with quantity in those cases, burning his own stockpiles of energy rather than letting the array take the hit. The burn rate slowed enormously, but never stopped. Nor did the accumulation of impurities within the array. It was a constant process, a constant cycling of attention, sparing a moment when he could for Liren or Heavenly Demon.

Heavenly Demon had been yelling something for a while now, coming in and out of garbled lucidity, but Tian was firmly ignoring it. The voices had tried to lure him in earlier, urged him to break the array. He wasn’t about to believe a chorus of songbirds screeching “It’s run too long! Stop the Array! Stop the Array!” A few minutes later, they changed to “We miss the first song of spring, cry gently oh chrysanthemum, cry gently oh mother, for your children shall not come home again, peace is too sweet and they are lost to you in the arms of contentment.” Which he felt vindicated the decision.

Tian’s body had deep, deep reserves of vital energy, and deep stores of qi. A yin man could endure. He grit his teeth, rubbed his burning eyes and kept working. It took Liren days to wake up when she lit her last sun. Who knew how long she would be asleep as the sun in her chest absorbed the strange stellar energy of this place? He just had to swing his palms. Clear blockages. Keep everyone healthy and alive. What was hard about that?

His throat burned. When had he last drunk water? He choked down most of a canteen. Was that Burning Heaven watching him from the corner? Yes, it was. She was fine. He dismissed her from his attention. The little wolf curled up in his lap. He appreciated the company, but again, he couldn’t give it any attention. Tian’s hand danced over the array, the bone wand jabbing while his left hand gentled and smoothed the energy flows. Then he dropped them both and smashed out two quick palms, cracking a tree made of chains and fog before it had cleared the mouth of the shaft. At some point- when? He had dumped the last cartload of refined crystals into the formation.

Success or failure, it would come down to this. He could hold. No matter how many shen forms came down the hole in the mountain. No matter that they were practically an unbroken stream now, or that Heavenly Demon had been reduced to a mass of screaming and babbling nonsense, or that the cavern was painfully bright and hot. He struck with his left palm, barely conscious of his right breaking apart the blockages in the array. His eyes had gone blurry, almost blind, but he could still make out the rough spots. He could see where to strike. His meridians ached. His breaths came raspy and raw.

He just had to last. Last until the final stones were consumed. Last until the array had finished its purpose. He was a yin man. He could endure. Even though he was looking up at the head of a dragon.