Sky Pride

Chapter 40- Looking Ahead to the Northern Expanse

Tian sat in lotus, letting his vital energy rebuild. His belly was full, his qi flowed smoothly, it was only his mind that was disordered. It was somewhat infuriating. His condition was improving by the second, yet he was feeling more and more tired.

He had always been pragmatic. Anyone coming for his life had forfeited any right to keep theirs, and that was that. He didn’t take any particular pleasure in relieving them of their burdens, other than heretics, but that didn’t mean it bothered him either. He had seen, and done, far too much for there to be any lingering squeamishness. No, this was something entirely different, and perhaps worse. He was following Palace Lord Song’s arrangement.

Palace Lord Song wanted him to fight and kill. Tian wanted to do anything that ran counter to the old monster’s wishes. He just couldn’t see a way through. He was lousy at concealment. His little concealment art was only good at hiding his qi breath from other’s casual awareness. It wasn’t nearly capable of evading the serious attention of skilled hunters, and that’s exactly who would be waiting outside the hidden realm. Heretics and orthodox sects were united in wanting to know what was in the secret realm.

So they could monopolize it. But that was a problem for later. His ‘now’ problem was not winding up a prisoner or worse.

It was the brutal logic of the Heavenly Realm. Resources were horribly limited, and the stage was all about accumulation. Tian had been fortunate so far- his few slaughters had netted him a great deal of spirit crystals, elemental beast cores, and other useful cultivation aids. Others weren’t as daring, or as fortunate.

He kept thinking of rats- smarter than you would think, vicious and daring, capable of almost any dreadful thing, so long as there was enough food at the end of it. The hungrier they got, the more ruthless they became. A Heavenly Realm cultivator, feeling the sting of stagnant cultivation, was hungrier than most any rat. There would be no running from them, and certainly no talking to them. Even if he threw them some meat, they would come looking for him.

“What’s on your mind?” Liren asked.

“While you were unconscious, I had a meeting. Actually, everyone should hear this. Gather round a moment.” Tian laid out what happened when everyone had passed out.

“Dragon.” Liren gave Tian a hard look.

“The memory of a dragon.”

“You fought a dragon.”

“You can fight the next one, I promise.” Tian said. Liren’s cheek twitched. He pressed on. The next one to interrupt was Heavenly Demon.

“Oh, he’s one of that sort.” He shook his head lightly. “This Demon can respect the determination, even if it contravenes the teachings of the Cult.”

“You seem unsurprised.”

“On the contrary, this Demon is very surprised. He was quite sure the scale of the catastrophe would have annihilated any remnant soul, spirit casket, sealed simulacra or other means of surviving a seeming death. Past a certain level of development, the body is… important, but not essential. Or rather, bodies can be found or made if your current one is no longer suitable. Cultivation without a body, at Elder Song’s stage of cultivation, is difficult but not impossible.”

Heavenly Demon smiled sunnily. “This Seat’s Cult has entire libraries on the subject. This Demon’s Cathedral, that is, the temple where his throne is located, came with a few score volumes on the subject. Mostly religious treatises on why it was immoral and properly forbidden by the Cult, but they did take the time to properly describe the process.”

“They denounced it so they described it accurately?” Tian had to blink at that. It made no sense to him.

“Yes, they felt that the practice was so self-evidently wrong that the best way to communicate how wrong it was, was simply to say how it worked. The method was effective on this Seat. I have long since resolved to die on my path, or ascend to the stars.”

“So how does it work?” Liren asked.

Heavenly Demon’s indifferent expression cracked, and what poured out was the yolk of gleeful malice. “This Demon cannot tell you.”

“It can’t be a Cult secret, if you have entire libraries on the subject. You just said your cult doesn’t follow the practice.” Tian objected.

The malicious smile spread wider, as though the yolk of it was from a hateful ostrich rather than the ordinary life-despising barnyard chicken.

“All true. And yet, This Seat cannot tell you. It is well known that Daoists struggle to progress if they know too much about the next realm of cultivation. Indeed, your seniors take scrupulous care to measure out what you need to progress, ensuring that you have the fewest things to concern yourself with. Truly promoting that famous daoist empty brain. Admirable. Filial! Ah, if only this Demon’s seniors were half so caring. No, as your patron in the Northern Expanse, This Seat couldn’t possibly harm your development by staining you with too much advanced information. You will already suffer dreadfully with what you have learned here, but such was the price of earning this Seat’s favor.”

Tian and Liren gave Heavenly Demon a look. It said many things, all of which seemed to bring the demon joy. “But no matter. You two strive to be empty vessels, uncarved blocks, the gnarled driftwood flowing on the river of fate. Why burden yourself with something as dreadful as knowledge, let alone its pernicious sibling, understanding? Let it go, and wallow, sow-like, in the cooling mud of ignorance.”

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He clapped his hands together. “This Demon finally understands you. You strive for material poverty, to match the mental poverty granted by your teachers. Such an act of devotion is truly admirable before the heavens. It is no wonder you two progress so well, given your vile conditions. You have unified mind and body, both harmonizing with the empty pockets of your souls. Oh, this day is happiness upon happiness!”

Tian pulled out a notebook and made a spiteful note to find a shrinking spell as soon as practicable. He would see if Heavenly Demon could be as smug at three and a half feet as he was at seven and a half feet. He paused and tapped his lip. Three and a half was an untidy number. Better to round it to three.

Satisfied, he closed his notebook and looked back over at Heavenly Demon. The tall man’s visible aura of gloating smugness scoured away the brief good feelings.

“Anyhow, he wants me to slaughter my way out of the trap, then-”

Heavenly Demon waved his hand. “He wants you to draw everyone you can over here.”

“Yes.”

Heavenly Demon nodded. “The Stellar Descent Cult won’t be participating. Some lay members might, but no one who matters.”

“He did say you had better training grounds.”

“We do, but more to the point, we know what he’s up to and despise doing unpaid labor.”

Tian had to look at the demon in a new light. To think his cult had such an admirable doctrine. He never would have guessed. The train of thought momentarily stalled, striking a boulder shaped like the word “doing.” The implication being they had no objection to other people doing unpaid labor. That, he should have guessed.

“If you have better cultivation grounds, why aren’t you using them?” Burning Heaven asked.

“Because ‘better’ is not the same as ‘most suitable.’ The last two hundred years have been this Seat’s true trial, and the wasteland His true trial ground. This Demon has earned for himself a physique that others spend thousands of years trying to obtain, and failing, not because of the trial ground, but because of everything leading to it. Though, naturally, the quality of the environment which fuels the furnace has a substantial effect.” He smiled, and Tian felt a sudden chill race up his spine. “There were also political reasons This Demon didn’t have access to those trial grounds.”

“Those same people you are going to go back and deal with in your peculiar?” Tian grinned, then raised an eyebrow when Heavenly Demon shook his head.

“No, it’s unrelated. The power structure of the Northern Expanse is immensely complex. There are about twenty separate powers that generally have the right to speak on matters affecting the whole region, and more than a hundred that can speak authoritatively in a given field or region. For example, the Steel Heart Merchant Company has no direct say in managing any cities, but they control more than a third of the air junks crossing the region. Similarly, you have trans-regional powers that have some voice but aren’t based in the Northern Expanse. Behemoths like the Divine Shapers Sect, or the Jade Imperium. The Human Emperor, who you have heard mentioned, rules there, and notionally the Northern Expanse is under his rule. However, his ‘rule’ is exercised through two ducal households with hereditary fiefdoms in the region, which even combined don’t cover the whole of the region, and each is headed by a transcendent powerhouse. Neither of whom is easy to deal with, even if there is no chance of them rebelling. In practice, no one is in charge of everything, vendetta is more common than reconciliation, and consensus building starts with heavy fists and heavy purses.”

That took a couple of minutes to digest. Eventually it was Heavenly Demon who broke the silence. “You do not understand what a truly rich land, rich in what you would call qi, looks like. Each power is defined by the land they can cultivate and defend. Cultivating beasts have spiritual wisdom, so they can defend vast reaches of their own territory. Defended areas are ‘civilized’ like your kingdom, but the space between them is utterly wild. Roads are paved with blood and stone in equal measure. Likewise, an area larger than the kingdom could be developed to a level you could scarcely imagine, then be reduced to making things from mud and woven grass in the aftermath of a cultivator war. Layered on top of this is the sheer depth of time. A tomb might date from last year, or a hundred thousand years ago. Nor are the older things always more powerful, as they may date from an era where development was, effectively, reset by war, famine, plague, or simply the decree of the ruling power.”

They had to digest that one for a minute too. “I understand why nobody comes home when they make the Human Realm.” Liren murmured. “God, everything must be a life and death adventure. Fortuitous encounters must be the rule rather than the exception, anyone could be a hidden expert, the rock you are sitting on could have an unexploded talisman on it, or be sealing a plague pit, or corpse puppets, or… anything. But it wouldn’t be boring.”

“You are also underestimating the cities. This Seat guarantees entertainment you cannot even imagine. Crafters create ordinary things that would be as wonders for you. The reverse of the wars and plagues is that in good times, fertility amongst the mortals is incredibly high, and they are remarkably healthy compared to places like the Kingdom. You can have billions of mortals in just ten or twenty thousand years, given the right conditions, and thatʼs no time at all for immortals. With population and resources comes invention. Do what you must here, then come out and see why the rest of the world calls this place a Wasteland.”

Tian, Liren and Burning Heaven all gave Heavenly Demon a long look, then nodded. “It’s a plan, then. We’ll see how far we can get in the Heavenly Realm with what we can gather here, and then we head out for the wider world to break through to the human realm if it’s taking too long.” Tian smiled. “Though what counts as too long, I don’t know. A few decades? A few centuries?”

Heavenly Demon snorted at that. “How many centuries can you two possibly have left? This Seat is familiar with the so-called age regression arts practiced by lesser cultivators, and there is always a price to pay in terms of longevity. If you don’t hurry and break through to the Human realm, then This Seat’s token will really have gone to waste. Lucky for you that we have so many coming to donate their cultivation supplies, and contribute to your storage ring collection.”

There was another pause, this one considerably more fragrant. Heavenly Demon glared back at the looks he was getting in triplicate. “What, don’t think you can? What are your years for, if you can’t even manage something so basic? This is why this Seat doesn’t care for daoists. There’s no hope of living forever if you aren’t willing to die for it.”

Heavenly Demon was still swearing when they left the hidden realm the next day. Mostly at them, then at Voidcatcher for failing to mention such “obviously important information.” Slamming into an array on the other side of the entrance didn’t bother him one bit. If the people operating the array had better sense, they’d have seen the look on his face, and run.