Sky Pride

Tian rubbed his hands. It seemed like it was time for the Great Schemer to plan a crime! His hands came to a stop, and he frowned. “Why do you think Daoist Lian might actually be a heretic? He’s almost certainly not a good person, but even I wouldn’t go so far as to say that working for the Long Clan makes you a heretic.”

“I might.” Liren growled. “The sect’s definition of heresy is broad enough to cover almost anything. It definitely covers selling people into slavery.”

Tian’s eyebrows raised. “I thought the salt trade was shut down?”

“It kind of was. Nothing is air tight, and the salt from Black Iron Gorge got more expensive. It still exists, there is just less of it. But what there is that is a lot more important is slaves. Slaves that can be traded for all kinds of other goods, not to mention gold.”

“Yes…?”

“Zihao, we aren’t importing slaves. We, meaning the kingdom, aren’t running the usual scam of brokering sales of nomads into slavery. We, meaning the merchants of the kingdom and the Merchant King of the Ancient Crane Monastery, the damned Long Clan, are selling people from the Broadsky Kingdom into slavery. They are getting shipped to Black Iron Gorge and then resold across eight nations.”

Tian looked away. All the prettyness of the sunset seemed to fly away, and turned the world morbid. Now it was all emblems of dying. The sun, waning yang, waxing yin.

“Civil war, pestilence, famine, invasion on the borders. Lots of peasants suddenly without homes. Lots of bandits and rebels. Can’t be that hard to round up a few hundred people at a time.” Tian muttered.

“I heard soldiers talking about it- they flattened the old slave forts out on the steppes. Killed everyone, freed the slaves, ambushed the people coming to trade there, huge success. Then they went away. Not one week later, not one week later, and the forts were being rebuilt. Two months, and they were operating again.” Liren rubbed her temples. “Why not? Who could stop them? It wasn’t just a kingdom run operation anymore. The steppe tribes had gotten in on it, some of them.”

“The Boruski. Getting their well deserved revenge.”

“Among others, including heretics, but yes.”

“I don’t know why I’m surprised, after the way they murdered your clan. The other thing that really shouldn’t surprise me, but still does, is Daoist Lian. Working as a mercenary for a decade or two probably doesn’t seem like anything worth mentioning for older Heavenly Realm Experts, and who cares where the spirit crystals come from so long as they arrive on time.”

Liren nodded along, watching Tian’s fingers flick through the reds and oranges of the sunset. His pale skin seemed flush in the light.

“Compassion, frugality, humility. This behavior is none of those things.” Tian’s voice went soft. He remembered Brother Wong explaining everything to him in the hospital in the wasteland. The virtues every orthodox daoist tried to embody, each knowing they did it imperfectly. It was the Heretics who denied the virtues entirely. They didn’t see any point to them at all, or perhaps they saw it as hypocrisy. The virtue of those who already had everything.

Sometimes, Tian thought the heretics had a point. Not a very good point, since their response to Orthodox hypocrisy was to commit unspeakable horrors, but they did have it.

“Doing good deeds and getting paid for it, huh?” Tian smiled a little at Liren.

“Good deeds might be a stretch. More like… there are good outcomes to our villainous actions.”

“Oh, well, that makes it all better.” Tian shook his head and turned back to the sunset. They would do it. But first, he had important matters to attend to.

“Want to help me educate a junior? I’m enjoying it a lot, and he’d benefit from your teachings. Though if he makes eyes at you, he will be feeling the flat of my hand, no matter who his terminal grandpa is.”

Han looked inexplicably reluctant as he made his way into the courtyard. Perhaps he ate something bad for dinner. Tian couldn’t imagine what, his digestion should be roaring for food. The youngster was in for a period of explosive muscle development, though he wouldn’t add much bulk. There was more to muscle strength than volume, as he would soon learn.

Maybe it was because Tian and Liren were sitting at his little table, two cups between them. He could see Han being a little leery of immortal wine.

“The moon is up. Just the right time for a man of the rivers and lakes to learn evasion. I don’t believe you have been introduced to my dao companion, Hong Liren. Like me, she is in the Heavenly Realm. Unlike me, she is a student of your ancestor. And like you, she can sense lies.”

Han’s eyes opened wide at that. Tian grinned and continued.

“First, I will demonstrate a proper immortal evasion art, just so you have some sense of what those words actually mean. Then we will learn the cut down version I have modified for you. It’s loosely based on the cruel joke… the doubtlessly useful method you have been using thus far, but many, many, many times more effective.”

Han looked a bit wounded, but adopted an expression of one determined to soldier on. He cupped his hands and bowed with gratitude. Tian nodded lightly, then raised his hand and water sprayed out. More and more and more poured into the courtyard. He had gone down to the river outside the city, thin and unnavigable as it was, and loaded up a storage ring with a cartload of water.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

The young aspiring swordsman looked like he was watching a miracle. The world looked very different, depending on where you were standing and what you had already seen. Tian kept the water flowing until the courtyard was a sodden mess, with big puddles of water everywhere.

“See the moon on the water, Student Han?” The youth nodded. “See how it ripples with the waves, and when you shift where you stand, it changes which puddle it is in? Draw your sword, Student Han. See if you can cut me down.”

Tian let his yin qi softly fill the courtyard, mixing with the moonlight and the shimmering waters. Han gulped and did as he was told. He drew his fine steel sword, offered a martial salute, then lunged at his teacher. Tian didn’t turn a hair as the sword came closer and closer to his chest. Han stopped after a few seconds. His sword got closer and closer, but never seemed to reach Tian. there was always a gap. Even when it seemed in your hands, the moon was always just out of reach.

“Continue.”

Han cut and thrust, his feet stamping and spraying water upwards, glistening in the brilliant moonlight. His sword was soon covered in dazzling gems of water, even as his shoes soaked through, and his trousers were spattered. Water stained his robes, the sprays recorded in patterns of dark dots that looked black under the pale heavenly light.

“Cut and thrust, stab and slash, it’s always right in front of you, always in reach, yet you can never reach it. It’s always faster than you, even though it doesn’t seem to move. I’m not moving quickly. I’m no faster than a mortal. But you can’t reach me. I could let you cut and thrust until the sun rose, and you wouldn’t reach me. And yet-”

Tian stretched out a slender hand, and tapped Han on the chest. “Even without a sword, I can reach you. You don’t control the distance to the moon. The moonlight reaches you, not the other way around.”

Tian smiled and waved Han away. “Sit. You can consider that a demonstration in the mortal realm. Liren and I will go slow, so you can see a little of what an immortal battle looks like. Maybe you will gain inspiration from it. On the spear, for example. Your little stick just wasn’t long enough to get the job done.”

Liren snorted and jumped from the table and into action. She kept her wide hat on, the veil making her mysterious. A being of shadows, attacking like fire, trying to pierce the moon as it drifted over the water. She wasn’t shy about displaying her Fairy Maiden spear arts, though they wouldn’t be usable by Han. It was about inspiration, and imparting a feeling.

Tian frowned slightly. The feeling wasn’t quite right. Moonlight on the water was free and unfettered. Both water and the moon were symbols of exactly that, as they were also symbols of purity. Or so he had read, and he had no reason to disagree. He ascended to the Heavenly Realm with a lotus crown over his head. Lotuses were rooted in muck, but they overcame their origins, not allowing even the water to stain them as they reached upward.

Liren’s spearmanship was all wrong too. It was fierce, yes, but too sinister. The fairy maiden descended from a fiery star, every move bold and open and proud. This was yang, cloaked in an unseemly shadow. It wouldn’t do at all. He would have to set an example.

Tian raised a hand to stop the sparring. He smiled at Liren, his eyes glinting with mischief. Without a word of explanation, he pulled out his dragon hairpin and let his long white hair spill down his back. He pulled off his robes and shoes, leaving only his trousers. He gleamed in the moonlight, his skin as fair as muttonfat jade. He looked like a spirit descended from the moon, his feet unstained by the water they stood upon.

“Throw away your hat and gloves, and attack. Do it properly. Let the fairy maiden descend from the fiery star, and trail her war banner across the steppes.” He sent the message mentally.

Liren frowned. He didn’t have to hear her arguments. He knew them all already.

“Just let it go. Just let the sun blaze in the night sky. You are Hong Liren, unafraid to battle the heavens and the earth, and everything in between.” He let his smile widen, and stretched his hands out, inviting her. “Come, Liren. Show me your heart blazes for me, as mine does for you.”

“Now that’s just not fair.” She didn’t bother to send the message mentally. “Watch carefully, Student Han. Let us two mountain daoists show you the difference between performing the forms and embodying the concepts.”

She pulled her gauntlets off, letting them drop in the puddle at her feet with a careless splash. She untied the chin strap of her hat, and flung it high in the air, the veil fluttering like a living thing, drifting through the night sky. The moonlight caught her, making her seem unworldly, ancient and powerful as she drew out her long horn spear.

A fairy maiden descended from a fiery star, and struck. She didn’t use her full qi, nor did she go as quickly as she could. It made no difference. Liren was the fairy maiden. You could see it in every move, a goddess descended from the heavens, outraged by the sins of the world, and furiously battling against them. Her swift steps landed like hammerblows on the earth, yet she carried herself as light as the summer wind. Each thrust of her spear was direct and explosive, rigid and piercing. Yang, yang, yang, yet utterly female. Utterly herself.

There was no fraud here, no putting-on of a costume. Liren moved true to her nature, and as such, her every move seemed to embody a natural law. A brilliant line of fire, piercing the darkness. Yet, she struck nothing.

If Liren was a sunbeam, then Tian was the night sky. Where she blazed, he cooled. Where she moved directly, he waited calmly. A sidestep, a twist, never combatting Liren directly, he simply let her explosive yang dissipate in a void of yin. The moonlight drifted over the water, illuminating it, yet never touching, nor being touched, by anything it illuminated. It was like trying to split the night with a spear.

Han’s eyes shot wide open when she seemed to stumble, almost falling to the ground. She straightened up and pointed a finger at Tian’s nose.

“You, you, you! You can’t just go around saying things like that!” 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

“Like what?” Tian blinked, tilting his head to one side. Han did almost the same. He was quite sure neither of them had spoken.

“I know you know what you just said!”

“Of course I do. I said it. Tsk. It looks like your old troubles are acting up again. Not to worry, I’ve had years to develop my famed “Kick to the Head” treatment. You will be cured in no time. Watch closely, Student Han. We will demonstrate the Eighteen Dragon Suppressing Palms, as well as a certain medicinal art usable in the mortal realm.”

Tian sent Han home in a wheelbarrow at dawn. The young man looked drunk again. Intoxicated by two stray immortals demonstrating the truth of martial arts under the stars while they played and flirted like lovestruck fools. Lying in the wheelbarrow, he silently laughed as he watched the sun rise over the rooftops. Even if he could speak, he couldn’t possibly explain all that he had learned in the moonlight.