Sky Pride

Epilogue I- Filial Piety, Reconsidered

A second mountain rose from the Monastery. It was an illusion, a sensation brought on by a manifestation of the dao. But for a few seconds, one had a feeling that an unshakable mountain had risen. A holy land, one strong enough to support itself and others. A breakthrough to the Heavenly Realm, and a strong one. The heavens didn’t stir, there wasn’t a hint of tribulation clouds.

“But then, that’s normal. They were always supposed to be legendary.” Brother Fu sat barefoot and cross legged in his cave, the waterfall flowing over the entrance. He couldn’t see much through it, but he had far better senses than just his eyes, these days.

His senior apprentice brother flew down from his residence higher up the mountain, presumably to welcome the newcomer to the Inner Court. With a breakthrough like that, whoever it was would be promoted to Direct Disciple on the spot.

A few minutes later, his senior apprentice brother had flown into the sky, not too far from Fu’s cave. Fu could feel the turbulence in his brother’s shen. With a sigh, Fu walked out through the waterfall and into the sun. He could have stepped through the water without it touching him. He chose not to, letting the flow batter him as he crossed from yin to yang.

His Senior Brother stood in the air, a nimbus of rainbow colored light around him. No need for a sword or flying tool, his mastery of the Skytreading Art had long since reached the pinnacle. With a gentle stir of his hand, the winds gathered. Clouds were drawn in from eight directions, cotton white. With a flip of his hand and a firm press, the clouds condensed, turning inky black and plunging the monastery into darkness. A clench of the hand, and torrential rain fell, monsoon hard, hammering on the black tiles of the roofs and flooding the courtyards.

Fu’s senior brother made a sword with his index and middle finger, and sliced through the clouds. A brilliant line of sun blazed through a gap forty miles long. The storm boiled and raged on either side of the line, but in that gap, there was only a sunny day.

It seemed his senior brother was troubled about something. Fu sighed again, and raised a big umbrella. He set out a little wooden table, a fine kettle, a tea pot, and little clay cups.

“Junior Brother, did you know your son takes after you?” The Sect Master flew down and landed on the other side of the table.

“He has a long way to go, but I am proud of how far he has come.” The moment seemed to call for the sweetness and richness of an aged white tea. Fu dug out a rather good tea cake, and pried away a generous chunk. The teapot was gently warmed, and all was in readiness.

“The little bastard turned me down!”

“I did say he had a long way to go.” Fu dropped the tea in the pot and added the near boiling water to it.

“Not that brat Tian, that… that grinning devil Wang!”

“Which Wang? There are a lot of them.”

“Wang Shizhong, your son’s good brother. It seems your boy gathers talented people around him.”

“More like Master arranged it, I think.” Fu murmured. The wash was poured over a rather clumpy looking shape that, charitably, looked a bit like a daoist priest. From the right angle. In the right light. If you knew what it was supposed to be in the first place.

Fu had been in the cave for a while, and had tried his hand at sculpting. It hadn’t gone very well. Another good reminder of the virtue of humility.

“Oh yes, our thoughtful Master, assembling the most ungovernable juniors in the sect in one place, and showing them exactly how we bungled the world!”

His senior brother sat at the tea table with a thump. He didn’t dispel the rain or the clouds.

“And this Wang rejected you? How could he reject you? What did you offer him? Is it even possible to reject the Sect Master?”

“You know, I would have said it was impossible, but it’s happened three times in a row now. I mean, I think the Skytreading Art is pretty great. It let me roam the world unhindered for these last few thousand years. I can’t say I’m unrivaled in my realm, but there are very few! No one in the Wasteland of Song would dare to take me lightly. AND YET.”

Lightning tore across the sky, the thunder beating like hammers on the mountainside.

“AND YET, not one, not two, but three of my so-called disciples politely refused to learn. No, worse, they want to learn it, just not from any of the elders, or me!”

“Junior Wang turned you down to your face? He always seemed slicker than that.” Fu poured the tea, serving his senior brother first.

“He said ‘I am honored and flattered beyond words to receive the kind attention of the Sect Master! A master for a day, a father for life- compatibility is the most important thing, I think, rather than station or power. Therefore, I beg the Sect Master to grant me a little time to find the most suitable master from amongst the elders.’”

Fu didn’t smile. He sipped the tea. Sweet, with the musty flavor that came with deep age. It was a bit of an acquired taste, but since he had acquired it, he enjoyed it immensely. He set the cup down on the table. “Reasonable. Very reasonable.”

“It is. It is completely reasonable.” Fu’s senior brother gulped down half the cup and set it down considerably harder on the table. “However, what he was thinking was ‘Let one of those treacherous ratfuckers stand behind me as I called them Daddy? Get fucked. Get fucked forever. Die in a fucking fire, I won’t even piss on you as you burn.’”

Fu’s composure cracked, and he had to pound his chest to stop the coughing.

“I suddenly feel the storm is a lot more appropriate. I’m amazed you didn’t strike him dead on the spot!”

“I nearly did. Except I could feel the fear. He was cursing me because he was terrified. He had a genuine horror in him at the thought of taking a sect elder, anyone really, as a master.”

“Ah.” Fu frowned, then sighed. “Master Rui visited me, a bit over a year ago. He suggested that there was more to the backgrounds of the kids Master Starsieve gathered than it seemed. He didn’t say anything concrete about Junior Wang, but he hinted it was extraordinarily ugly.”

The sect master’s eyes went distant. Fu refreshed their cups as his Senior Brother communicated with Rui. A moment later, his brother sagged in on himself. Collapsing inwards, his heroic posture dissipating with the fleeing storm.

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“Oh. We really did wrong that child.” The words came out flat, almost uninflicted. “As we did your boy.”

“Yes. And the Hong girl. And the Su Girl. And even the Lin girl. But those are just the talented juniors. What about all the rest?”

The sect master slowly sipped his cup.

“I don’t suppose there is room in that cave for two?”

“Plenty of room, plenty of room. But I would recommend the cave about two hundred yards up and to the east. It’s hard to really wallow in self recrimination when you have company.”

There was a longer bout of silence. Brother Fu refilled the tea pot, and served again. This time, he accompanied it with some rice crackers. They were simple fare, but quite sturdy and held up to the humidity of the cave when fancier varieties would have spoiled.

“These are terrible.” His senior brother munched on one as he sipped his tea. Brother Fu ignored the comment. One should indulge one’s hurting Brothers at least that far, even if they are terribly misguided.

“I just got so mad. I am Zhen Wujian, the Heaven Cleaving Immortal, Sect Master of the Ancient Crane Monastery. I can hold my back straight and look any of my peers dead in the eye, unafraid to come to blows. The sect prospered under me. Our numbers grew to unprecedented levels, our wealth grew, and while our critics said we weren’t good at anything in particular, we weren’t bad at anything in particular either!”

Fu nodded, giving his brother room to talk.

“Who under heaven in the Wasteland of Song hasn’t heard my name? How many have groveled at my feet, begging for instruction, for even a single word of guidance? But not one, not two, but three of the most promising juniors seen in generations rejected me. Two to my face, one silently.”

“Who?”

“Hong. She never made the slightest effort to reach out. Believe me, I’d have been there in seconds, dragging along whoever she wanted to teach her. I’d take her as a disciple myself! Gladly!” The sect master snarled.

“But she didn’t.”

“Merciless wouldn’t teach her a cultivation art. Not for free, and she doesn’t have anything he wants. She would rather muddle along with nothing, or some random thing she picked up somewhere, rather than learn the art that let our sect dominate a kingdom.” The fire drained out of him.

“Tian and Hong grew up together. Inseparable since they were ten, practically, and dao companions now. It shouldn’t have been a surprise that if you refuse one, you lose both.”

“And yet, somehow, it was. You know, most centuries would be considered blessed with three Direct Disciples being discovered. Three in a year? I’ve never heard of such a thing. A legendary golden era, and Disciple Su looks close on Wang’s heels, while Disciple Lin is trailing a little behind. Potentially the greatest generation of disciples our sect has ever seen. Miles ahead of people a century their senior. And three of them already rejected me! I’m Zhen Wujian. My legend has shaken the Wasteland of Song for thousands of years, and I have some little fame even in the Northern Expanse. Not many in the Wasteland could say as much. And yet. And yet.”

Brother Fu munched on the cracker. “I had no idea.”

“She was discreet-”

“No, about your legend and all that. Actually, this is the first I’m hearing about it. I knew your name, of course, because Master Rui mentioned it once, but that was it. I think I was a hundred and fifty or so, maybe a hundred and sixty when I first heard of you. Other than that, I was vaguely aware that there was a sect master, somewhere in a place called the Monastery, high up on a mountain I would never climb. For all intents and purposes, you didn’t exist.”

Brother Fu smiled a little, as his senior brother stared at him with blank incomprehension.

“How long is a year to you, Senior Brother? A decade? A century?” Fu asked.

“Time passes no more quickly for me than it does for anyone else.”

Fu shook his head. “I’m old enough to know the days flow past like water and wind, seemingly blending into a single whole. When I was young, they seemed so long! Now? Now, I don’t know how long I have sat in this cave for, other than to say it hasn’t been long enough. And I am not even a tenth your age. Your juniors are born, live, and die, between the blinks of your eyes.”

Fu poured out two more cups. “Senior Brother, do you like being the sect leader?”

That got a snort. “Aside from Master, I was the strongest and most senior. Now I am the strongest and most senior, period. It’s not a question of ‘like,’ there is literally no one else who can hold things down.”

Fu smiled, looking up at the sun through the gap in the clouds. “Filial. Master truly was filial.”

“Eh?”

“He is giving you a chance to be happy. Senior Brother, with love and respect, you have been a terrible sect leader. Terrible. Because you don’t want to be the sect leader. You want to be Zhen Wujian, the Heaven Cleaving Immortal, roaming the Wasteland of Song, and even the Northern Expanse, adventuring and cultivating your dao. Managing people has always bored and irritated you, so you left it to those who enjoy that work. And they… have not always lived up to your trust, nor the trust their juniors put in them.”

Fu pointed up. “We are behind a ward. Sealed away from the world. You don’t have anyone to fend off. No one to overawe. You barely have anyone to manage. Everything has come tumbling down. Time to let it fall away, and rebuild stronger. Time to let go, and be happy.”

“You think I should step down?”

“Yes. Become the Grand Elder, and go on an adventure. Take a concubine, explore a hidden realm, kill some evil monsters, cultivate under a waterfall for a few centuries. Do whatever makes you happy, and calms your heart. Do whatever lets you be who you really are.”

“Thousands of years of tradition-”

Brother Fu emptied his tea cup, and set it down gently again. “A moment. A blink of your eyes. What kind of tradition lasts only the blink of an eye? Do you honor your teachers and seniors by making yourself and others miserable? Let it go, Senior Brother. Let it go.”

“So much for filial piety.”

“I am extremely filial.” Fu gave his senior brother a hard look. “And I have failed at being filial! We all failed! That’s why I’m in this damned cave. I failed, and because I failed, I tortured, tortured my boy. I murdered his parents because of a sect tradition, damn near murdered him, left him living on rotting garbage a few miles from my own front step, and then he was so, so, so damn filial, so full of love for me, that he forgave me. He forgave me! And you talk about what you are owed, what we are owed as their seniors? What the hell do we owe him? Eh? Tell me, Senior Brother, how exactly do I make this right?”

He jabbed his finger straight at the nose of the most powerful human in the kingdom. “Iʼll tell you how. The same exact way we’d expect a junior to make things right after they screwed up so badly. We change. We show we understand where we went wrong, and we fix it so it doesn’t happen again. THAT is how we show proper filial behavior. By being people worthy of respect and obedience.”

The sect master stared at Fu, then shook his head, his jade dragon pin catching the sunlight. “He really is your son.”

“He believed what we taught him. To be a cultivator is to cultivate oneself. To strive for improvement, correcting errors. Growing stronger through accumulation, yes, but more importantly, by understanding. Senior Brother, do you want to be the bandit king of the mountain, or the Grand Elder of a sect of immortality cultivating daoists?” Brother Fu met his gaze without fear.

The two fixed eyes for a minute longer, then Zhen Wujian looked away. “I have the horrible feeling that your son and his wife think my name actually is Dog Nose. The next sect master damn well better prioritize spreading my legend amongst the juniors.”

“Senior Brother?”

“My master told me, my disciples told me, my apprentice brother told me, hegemonʼs entire realms ahead told me, and you know what? I’m tired of hearing it. Fine. You are all right. I quit. The second the wards are down, I’m running off to the Northern Expanse. To hell with being a grand elder, I’m going to run wild like my senior brothers and sisters. If you are still around in ten or twenty thousand years, we can share a jar of wine and reminisce. JUNIOR RUI! Drag your hide up to Fu’s cave. I have a horrible job for you!”