Sky Pride

“Is it time yet?”

Soon. Any minute now.

There was a brief shuffling sound

“Now?”

Are you flying through a wall? Then it’s not now.

There was a little more shuffling, then a few seconds of foot tapping.

“How about-”

Tian, I swear to Dog I will humm the most annoying and inescapable melody you ever heard if you ask me if it’s time yet. You will be ripped from this room by arcane forces and flung into the next cavern. It’s not subtle. You really can’t miss it. So would. You. Kindly. Settle down!

“It's just… I’m SO BORED. That bamboo shoot just sat there the whole time. It had to be the dumbest, stupidest thing I have ever seen. I was expecting a dragon. Something impressive. Something more interesting than a topping for rice.”

You are in a magical cave with a qi density and purity like few places an Earthly Person could survive, peering into the fundamental forces of the universe and understanding how they interact with you on every level- physically, mentally, spiritually, with your cultivation, with how you fight, with your personality. And you are bored. You live in a temple and work for a monastery. Cultivate patience.

“Yes but the Wood Element is so boring! Fire and water really made me feel like I was achieving big things. After the first day, wood was just ‘Oh, yeah, that is how that works. Yep. Watch those muscles lengthen and grow. Come on bone formation, you can do it!’”

Infinite mysteries of the universe and you’re yawning.

“I think I’m a pretty patient person, but four days of staring at my belly button followed by two days of feeling Snake Head Vine Body move in a literal void is more than anyone could stand.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Are you, or are you not, considerably more coordinated in moving between your combat arts now? Verging on seamless, in fact?

Tian opened his mouth to answer when he was smashed sideways through a wall and into Needle Hell. Which, when he tried to take a step and steady himself, he quickly learned was also Caltrop Hell and Razorblade Hell. It wasn’t like there was some magically safe place to step. There were only easier and harder places to endure.

“Never thought the metal cavern would be blerbbb” Blood started to pour out of Tian’s mouth. He felt his lungs filling with fluid, struggling to expand at all.

Your survival suit! Put on the face mask immediately! Start running Advent of Spring and the Hell Suppressing Sutra too. Quickly, quickly!”

Tian did exactly that, but the Advent of Spring struggled. When he cycled it in the Fire Cavern, it was consumed by the fire qi, fueling the flames. In the Metal Cavern, the wood vital energy was destroyed. This did not enhance his calm. Tian was currently balancing on literal razor’s edges, and even a casual move would see his feet sliced open. Sliced feet meant falling and instant mutilation with a more lingering death to follow. He had to stay upright and balanced while trying not to drown as his blood filled his shredded lungs.

Metal dust in the air. Like breathing in tiny razors. Your suit will keep it out, but it’s going to be trash in no time. Treat it like a quiz in the hospital. Orderly Tian- What does metal overcome, and what overcomes metal?

Tian thought fast. “It overcomes wood, as the axe cuts down trees, and it’s overcome by fire as fire smelts metal.” Tian tried coaxing the metal qi towards the lamp in his heart, and was relieved to see the qi breaking down into more neutral qi. It couldn’t get rid of the strong metal alignment entirely, but it was manageable. Slow, hugely inefficient, but manageable. With the silk headcover blocking most of the dust from infiltrating, he was able to slowly get the damage under control.

He focused intently on the flow of vital energy through his body. The rate of new cuts had dramatically dropped, but the healing was fighting the metal fragments as well as high purity metal qi. Dragging the metal fragments into his heart was obviously a recipe for a messy death, and trying to drag all the tiny bits of high purity metal qi was brutally slow. Too slow. He’d die if he didn’t get ahead of it.

What couldn’t be managed with skill must be managed with brute force. Lacking any better ideas, Tian mobbed each little clump of metal qi with more and more vital energy. The metal overcame the wood, but when the quantity of wood reached a certain threshold the metal was overwhelmed. Once the metal was broken down, the vital energy could rush in and heal the wound.

Then it was on to the next little cut. One at a time. Dozens of times. It required an extraordinary amount of focus. Get distracted and not only would his progress be lost, so might his feet. Tian quickly lost track of time. It really didn’t matter how long it took, so long as it got done safely. It did give him a lot of time to study metal qi. Sharp, yes, but rigid and unyielding as well. It seemed to refuse to be blended with anything. A craving for purity, perhaps? “Purity” didn’t feel quite right. More to explore.

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

He was catching up on the healing. The blood that had to be spat out was carefully expelled to avoid soaking the fabric of the face cover. The tissues were mending, and the metals were being slowly, painfully, broken down into tiny fragments his body could process. The first full breath after entering the Metal chamber was so sweet, it almost made him lightheaded.

This, of course, triggered a wave of paranoia. Tian carefully checked his lungs over once more. The gross damage was mostly healed. The minute damage was fully healed. He hesitated for a moment about that, then focused even more intently, letting his vital energy work as tiny, feather light fingers probing the wounds. They weren’t just healed. They seemed subtly stronger.

The elemental alignment of the lungs was metal. As was the autumn season and the White Tiger. It was written with the character for gold, but everyone read it as saying “metal.” He desperately wanted to open his herbology manuals, but didn’t dare risk them in the metal-dust filled cavern.

“Grandpa, in the herbology manual, there was an entry for Iron Vein Briar and how it usually grows near water that comes from mountains with high iron deposits. But there was something else there too.”

Yes. There was. Related to how difficult it was to clear the briar and why it was so useful as an improvised camp defense.

“Right, the iron from the water was…” Tian racked his brains and forcibly dredged up the answer. “It incorporates the metal into itself, reinforcing it, making it more rigid and its thorns sharper. Something it does a great deal more than other plants, who also absorb metal to strengthen themselves.”

Very good! But how could that be, if metal is always trying to overcome wood?

“Because nothing is only one thing. Wood is yang, and metal is minor yin. So it might be overcoming wood, but in small doses, it reinforces it. Strengthens and hardens it. Probably helps fight off insects and things like that too. Nothing is only one thing. Nothing is only good or only bad.”

In nature, yes. Now, apply all that to your current situation.

“Too much metal is harmful for me, but I can balance and moderate the yang wood qi with some of the yin metal qi, offsetting the flexibility of wood with some needed rigidity and hardness of metal, which will also help create water qi and form a virtuous cycle!”

Grandpa Jun was silent for a moment.

That is… a very Daoist way to look at it, and under the circumstances, not incorrect.

“It sounds like it’s not the answer you were hoping for, though.”

Yes, I don’t really know why I expected anything different, though. Everything you have learned leads you to the answer you gave.

“Well. What were you hoping I would figure out?”

Grandpa Jun sighed. Don’t worry about it for now. Just an old ghost’s whim. Try practicing Imperial Heavenly Swallows. Don’t throw the dart just yet. Hold it and cycle the art. The key thing to keep your eye on is the movement of metal vital energy through your body and into the dart.

Tian did and immediately started frowning. “Oh, I see. Yeah, that’s all wrong.”

Not all wrong…

Tian carefully shook his head. He was still spending an awful lot of focus on not ripping his feet in half. “No, it’s all wrong. It’s like with the Hell Suppressing Sutra. If I only send it Yang vital energy, it only half runs. Same here. The tiny bit of metal mixed in with my wood vital energy isn’t nearly enough to properly use the art. Used properly, it should be going through just about anything I throw it at. It lacks sharpness.”

Among other things. But… ah… I’d look over to your left before you start experimenting.

The qi spirit for the Metal Cavern was licking its paw as it lay curled up on a patch of knives. Its paw, Tian noticed, was larger than his chest.

“The White Tiger?”

A form inspired by it, certainly.

Tian looked around the chamber. He had been pretty stuck in the fire cavern as well, but there was a sort of naked hostility to this space that the fire had lacked. Every inch of it seemed to contain some variation on the concept of slicing or stabbing. He carefully crouched down and flicked a metal spike. It made a sharp ringing sound. Hard enough for sure, but was it brittle? Tian didn’t really want to find out. Given his luck, it would just make even more pointy, sharp shards for him to deal with.

One of those boxing tips he remembered from Brother Meng was that it was completely possible to grab a sharp steel blade safely with your bare hand. Really. Just so long as your hand didn’t slide even a tiny bit once you had grabbed on. Once that happened… but so long as you kept the blade from moving around, the worst that would happen is a bit of a red spot from holding a narrow bit of metal hard.

So in theory, he should be able to step from knife edge to knife edge, so long as he didn’t slip even a tiny bit. He certainly couldn’t stay perched here forever. Tian spotted a likely looking saber and thought it might make a decent first step.

“Would it be too much to ask for the blades to present the flat of the blade?” Tian grumbled.

Yes. Look out!

The White Tiger had waited until Tian had lifted his foot and shifted his weight before making his move. With a flick of his claw, the tiger sent out a sharp cut of metal qi at Tian’s still planted back leg.

Tian yelped and quickly completed his step to the saber. It took an unholy degree of concentration and balance, but he was able to stay up. He glared over at the tiger. It was hard to tell, but he thought the big cat was grinning. It raised its claw again and Tian swore internally. It was grinning. The cat had found a new thing to play with. He quickly looked around- a cluster of arrowheads. He could, very carefully, stand on them.

The claw slashed down. Tian moved fast. Once again, the tiger had aimed at his legs. This time, his balance wasn’t as precise, and he swayed on the arrow-points. This displeased the tiger, and Tian was forced to dodge a qi thread that would have removed a decent chunk of his head. It was immediately followed up by another claw towards the legs, forcing him to hop over to what appeared to be giant silvery moss, but were actually long spikes covered in hundreds of fine barbs.

Tian quickly learned that the tiger had certain rules. If he stepped quickly and directly, with perfect balance and control, he got a few seconds to orient himself on the next step. If he hesitated, moved in an unbalanced way or otherwise was less than graceful, he was punished with a second claw and forced to move again immediately. It was manageable for now, but not for long. The big cat showed no signs of getting bored, and there was no obvious place in the room to hide.

“On second thought, I miss the bamboo.”