Sky Pride

“You want to do more missions, but on your own?” Brother Fu put down his brush. He had just written the character for ‘knife’ and Tian found it spooky. Who goes around writing ‘knife?’ Especially when there was a small heap of discarded previous attempts. A whole pile of ‘knives.’

“Yes, Senior Brother. I don’t like owing merit points, and want to pay them back as soon as I can. Also,” Tian had to pause and grope for the words he was looking for “You all scare me.”

Brother Fu went still. “I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything in particular that scares you?”

“Yes. I’m scared that I will be eaten alive. Either when I break through and go to Mountain Gate City, or if I don’t and remain here with the Senior Brothers.”

Brother Fu sagged. “We aren’t actually cannibals, you know.” Tian noticed that Brother Fu wasn’t meeting his eyes.

“I know what happens to small, weak things once they get a little fat, Senior Brother. The little bones go crunch, crunch, crunch.” Tian nodded firmly. “I need to get stronger. That means taking more risks and keeping more of the rewards.”

Brother Fu laughed a little helplessly. “You really are destined for the Inner Court. You are right on track with where you should be on your cultivation, and you can cultivate while you move around, so strictly speaking, doing missions won’t delay your cultivation much.”

The old man stroked his beard. He glanced out into the courtyard and smiled. Tian looked over- small birds had gathered in the parasol tree and were squabbling with each other. They were making a cheerful racket.

“Five missions. You do five more missions with your Senior Brothers, just so they can show you the ropes. Show you the kinds of jobs we do. If they are satisfied you can carry out your duties, I’ll turn you loose… on appropriate missions provided by the Mission Hall. Also, ignore any mission mentioning the Southern Border. That’s for Senior Brothers only.”

“Thank you very much, Senior Brother!” Tian bowed just how Brother Fu had shown him. Brother Fu smiled slightly and waved him out.

“Senior Brother Fu?”

“Yes, Little Tian?”

“If there are any other characters you need to practice, I can show you how to write them. I know the three hundred basic characters pretty well, and there is plenty of dirt on the ground to practice with. You don’t need to spend all your money on paper and ink and brushes.” He pounded his little fist into his palm. “AH! Would you like me to steal some paper for you on my next mission?”

“Tian?”

“Yes, Senior Brother Fu?”

“Scram, before you find the things I’m holding for you flying at your face faster than you can blink.”

“Yes, Brother Fu.”

Tian walked off shaking his head. His Senior Brother was very kind, but much too shy. Being unable to write well wasn’t a shame, so long as you were trying to get better. And the Senior Brother could read just fine. He sighed a big sigh. This must be what the seniors called ‘vanity.’ He would have to carefully watch out for it in the future.

The first job was hunting a dangerous wild dog that had taken over a pack. The second job was harvesting an obscene number of purple bamboo poles. It took weeks. The third job, however, was to kill a heretic. Twelve was, the Brothers all agreed, a little old to join their war on evil cultivators, but not too old. There were always more villains to kill.

“Alright, Junior Brother. I’m going to wait here, cultivate, maybe eat a little something. Try to scream if you die so I know to avenge you.” Brother Su patted Tian on the shoulder. “An insect like Wang shouldn’t require a Level Nine like me to intervene, so if you do die, it’s best you die quickly and reincarnate. Just think- in eighteen years, you could be a good man!”

The warm afternoon sun seemed to add a halo of light to the beaming Brother Su. The senior brother had located a nice flat rock to sit on, and had already laid out some snacks. There was even a broad-leafed tree for shade.

Behind Tian was a steep hill with a narrow cave entrance. Something foul had happened inside the cave, the stench clawing its way out and fouling the forest air. Tian could see stains of blood and feces smearing the entrance.

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“Thank you for your good wishes, Senior Brother.”

“In all seriousness, Bloody Cleaver Wang deserves a brutal end. Your first human killing will be a righteous act. This is your first time killing a human, isn’t it?

“Yes, Senior Brother.”

“Good, good. I had wondered after your spar with the Hong girl. If it helps, think of it as putting down a sick, dangerous animal. He’s not human anymore. He is a heretic. He deserves death. Killing him will save hundreds or thousands of others. You are a good person for killing him.” Brother Su smiled and encouraged Tian, then waved him towards the cave.

Tian had never killed someone before. He had certainly thought about it a lot. The thought didn’t particularly bother him. He had been hunting for as long as he could remember. The brutality went bone deep.

Everyone wound up in the dump in the end. He needed to kill this man in order to get stronger, and Grandpa Jun had been loudly enthusiastic about doing this mission. So that was that.

He crept around the entrance of the cave, crawling in from the side. He had hunted enough to know not to silhouette himself against the light. Wang seemed to be using this part of the cave as a combination latrine and dumping ground. Mostly eaten corpses were scattered around. What remained was too putrid for all but the insects and most determined carrion eaters. Tian didn’t examine them closely. He had seen enough bodies in the dump.

The ground was smoother than he expected. Litter was scattered around, but the stone was worn flat. It trailed downward slightly, extending into the hill. It got cold. A damp chill. Pitch dark too. Tian didn’t bring a torch. He just followed the smell. As nasty as the rotting meat was, there was a worse stench ahead. There were a few bends in the cave, but the path never split. He found Bloody Cleaver Wang quickly.

The lamp light was a warm yellow, burning with a faint bitter stench. It wasn’t terribly bright, but it did the job well enough. You could see the large hook hanging from the ceiling, the skinny man hanging from the hook, his still living eyes watching his blood and spinal fluid filling the deep lines carved into the floor. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The cages holding naked men and women were tidily stacked against one wall, a small bed was pushed against the opposite wall. There was a small chest, a wok and fire pit- the few necessary creature comforts, Tian supposed, for a man like Bloody Cleaver Wang.

His target was sitting in a lotus position directly under the dying man. Tian could see wisps of faint red qi rising from the blood and being drawn in through Wang’s nose. Turbid, almost black, air shot out.

Tian’s first instinct was to attack, but would a wanted man like Wang truly leave his cave so undefended? Tian didn’t believe so. Tian wouldn’t be this careless, and all he ever expected in the junkyard was an attack from vermin or scavengers. There wasn’t even a door on the chamber, or a fence, or anything. It was hard to see clearly lying on the ground, but it looked like the cages were only held shut with a simple peg. But despite what they were seeing, not a single prisoner tried to escape.

He carefully re-examined the end of the cave. The blood groves didn’t cover the whole floor. At most, it was six feet across in a room that was closer to fifty feet wide. The lantern was on top of the chest, the bed was just a cot with nothing hidden under it, the cooking set up, likewise, didn’t have any suspicious points. He examined the prisoners and didn’t see anything there either. If one of them was something nasty in disguise, it was too good for him to see through.

If it wasn’t something he could see in the chamber, that meant it was something outside the chamber or against the wall closest to him. Tian carefully looked over the floor, but there were no suspicious patches of mud or piles of stones. Slowly, gingerly, he tested the floor with his fingertips. All smooth stone. Whatever the defense was, it was in the chamber.

Tian took another careful look at Wang. Tian had read that cultivators could sense when people were looking at them, and were sensitive to murderous intent. He sort of believed it. He could certainly tell when he was being watched by townsfolk or animals, though his Senior Brothers managed to escape detection.

The heretical cultivator had his hands formed into a peculiar shape, his legs were folded up in a surprisingly formal lotus position, his clothes were the cheapest sort of linen cloth, his shoes were ragged, his hair spilled loose and messy over his shoulders. Wang had a little tube sticking out of his mouth, a thin bone barely the length of a finger. Hollow. One notch in it. A whistle?

If there was a whistle, what would he be calling? Where could it be hiding? He could see into most of the chamber, but not directly above the door or on either side of it. So that’s where “it” was, assuming the whistle itself wasn’t some sort of attacking device itself. But Wang was a Earthly cultivator of around the same level as Tian. Tian was pretty confident that he had never seen or heard of someone using sound based attacks before. So it probably wasn’t that.

Above the door or next to the door. Something living? A talisman, or some kind of explosive… something? Acid? Probably not just that, because otherwise someone with a flying sword could stand out in the hallway and kill him without ever putting themselves at risk. Bloody Cleaver Wang would need something that could kill the problem the second he sensed murderous intent.

He crept a little closer, keeping his breath still as possible. Making sure the prisoners didn’t spot him. Near the entrance to the chamber he discovered a pile of dead insects. It was a neat little heap. Gold and black striped shells, vicious ripping mandibles at the head and a inch long stinger coming out of the rear. The whole insect was almost as long as Tian’s palm.

Hornets. Which meant there was a hornet’s nest above the door. Since the people inside weren’t dead or screaming, the hornets must be specially bred and controlled by Wang. Which would explain the whistle. It would only take a single breath to launch a fatal attack- one that couldn’t be escaped in the empty tunnel.

Tian thought it through carefully. The smartest thing to do was go back up the tunnel and ask Brother Su for his help, or at the very least his advice. But that was expensive. Tian was coming to understand just why his senior brothers called him an investment. He didn’t want to be even more obliged to any of them. Besides, admitting he couldn’t solve this problem would be a sort of loss, and losing was habit forming. And losers would be eaten in the end. One way or another.

So. With the few small items he had, plus his rope dart, palm art and cultivation method, how should he solve this problem? How should he kill Bloody Cleaver Wang? Destroy the nest and hope the hornets would go mad? It seemed a bit of a risk, but not an impossible one. He had a long rope. He could swing the dart around inside the door and trust that he would hit something. The hornets should go after the people they saw, not someone they couldn’t.

Might be a bit hard on the mortals in the cages, but they weren’t part of the mission anyhow. He paused a moment, stuck on that thought. Trapped in cages. They were trapped, like the animals he snared. A snare wasn’t usually immediately fatal. It was normal for animals to struggle for a while before strangling to death. He had seen it many times. They were scared. In pain. They knew death was coming, and they were helpless to stop it.

You don’t leave an animal in pain. Especially if it’s your prey. You make it quick. That’s best for them, and best for you. Grandpa Jun had said it over and over. Tian agreed. Killing was necessary. Cruelty wasn’t. But charging into the room and attacking Wang directly was likely suicidal, and then the people in the cages would die anyway. But this was the moment Wang was most vulnerable. A big enough distraction and he would likely go into qi divergence, crippling him.

What should he do?