Sky Pride

Chapter 29- The Difference Between Heaven and Earth

The arrow fell with a whistle and landed with a sharp crack! It bit into the raptor’s back, drilling towards its heart. It must have caught on a bone, because the bird screamed and tried to limp into the sky.

“Tch!” A second arrow pierced the bird’s neck. It fell limply on the ground. Tian saw that it was dead before it touched dirt.

A woman flew in on a sword, bow in hand.

Tian had never seen someone from the Inner Court. Outer Court disciples wore robes of light blue silk and white linen trousers with soft black shoes. The robe was tied shut with a white belt, and that was that. The lay brothers wore their hair long and pinned with carved wood, the lay sisters cropped their hair short and neatly shaved patterns into the sides and back. Tian had always thought they were the most splendidly dressed people in the world. Even the soldiers in the town couldn’t compare.

The True Disciple from the Inner Court blew all that away like dandelion fluff in a hurricane. Her hair was different from the lay sisters- she let her hair grow long, but sharply cropped the sides of her head. It gave her a wild, savage look, despite her beautiful robes. The robes were also blue silk, but they shimmered like light hitting a bird wing. Dustless, immaculate, her white silk trousers didn’t have a single crease or blemish. The shoes were unstained by the red dust of the world.

Senior Brother Fu had teased Senior Sister Bai, calling her a fairy. Tian could see it now. Descending from the heavens on her flying sword, long bow in hand and robes fluttering around her, this Heavenly Person from the Inner Court was nothing less than an immortal fairy.

The fairy descended to the grass with a featherlight step. Tian couldn’t make out much anymore, blood was starting to fill his eyes. The last thing he saw was the True Disciple frowning, like there was something she couldn’t quite remember.

“Drink, just a little. Come on. Head back. Do I really have to touch you? Eeh, maybe if I just… nudge your forehead with the bottle a bit… nice.”

Tian felt something trickle into his mouth. He tasted spicy, warming heat, bitter herbs, and the smell of something strange. The warmth built and banked until it was a raging fire in his throat. He coughed, spilling blood over his chest.

“Lucky I’m quick. Okay, now drink a big mouthful. It’s that or die, so letʼs not waste time.”

Tian drank. This time he managed not to cough. He could feel warmth radiating out from his belly, stretching into his body. Tian knew this feeling. It was when his body was being magically healed. It only lasted for a few seconds this time. He pushed Advent of Spring as hard as he could, trying to stretch the healing out. There were an awful lot of things broken in him.

He could hear loud coughing. “That’s it Junior. Drink up. A bit more. Alright. I’m going to check on your junior now. Hey kid, can you talk?”

“Yes, Martial Aunt, I can talk. Thank you.”

“Wipe the blood out of your eyes.” Tian obeyed. They were still sticky, but he was able to open them enough to see his savior.

“Mmm. I don’t recognize you, but you are using Advent of Spring. I recognize the wood qi movement. You don’t resemble any Inner Court Disciples I know. How did you get that art?”

“My Senior Brother Fu gave it to me, Martial Aunt.”

“Fu?” She frowned. “What temple?”

“West Town, Martial Aunt.”

“Old guy? About so tall, always looks like he’s about to fall over and die?”

“Everyone in our Temple is old, Senior, except me. Senior Brother Fu is the oldest. And he is about that tall.”

“I vaguely remember seeing someone like him around.” She looked away and muttered to herself “Where the hell did he get the merit points from? And how did he even borrow it?”

The senior sister shook her head and looked back at Tian. “Alright, I’ll leave the wine jug with you. I broke a healing pill into it, so if you and your senior brother over there take little sips and share it, the medicinal power won’t overwhelm you. You should even have plenty left over after you heal. Consider it my compensation for letting the Dawnlight Hawk nearly kill you.”

The True Disciple walked over to the corpse and waved a hand over it, collecting the hawk into her storage ring. The sword reappeared, and with an effortless hop, she was floating on it. Without another word, she vanished into the sky.

Tian took another small sip of the wine. Lots more to heal, but he thought he could move now. He tried to stand. His legs gave out before he was halfway up. He crawled over to Brother Wong instead.

“Here, Senior Brother. Drink up. I don’t know how much is too much, so you will have to let me know.” Tian let it trickle into his mouth. After just a few seconds, Brother Wong turned his head away. Tian drank another tiny sip. The stuff was powerful. He thought he was more than half way better already.

“Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn.”

Tian didn’t quite know how to respond to that. The hawk had come like a sudden storm, and like a storm, they could only try and run from it. Can’t fight it, so hide from it. And when they couldn’t hide, they could only endure it. They lived. It sucked. Not much else to say. But Brother Wong looked really upset.

“It’s alright, Brother Wong. We lived.” Tian tried to pat the old man’s shoulder. It felt awkward.

“Level One. That hawk was fucking Level One!”

“Err… it could use qi outside the body so…”

“Level One of the Heavenly Person stage! Idiot!”

Tian nodded. That made more sense.

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“I’m at the peak of the Earthly realm. The very, very peak. And I couldn’t last one move. Not one move.”

Tian was really lost now. Of course he couldn’t last one move. It was like asking a toddler to fight an adult.

“For what it’s worth, Senior Brother, you are the very first person to put their body between me and death. So. You know. Thank you.”

Brother Wong laughed, covering his eyes with his arm. Even Tian knew that wasn’t a happy laugh. It was a miserable, broken noise. “You are welcome. You are very welcome. It would have been okay if I died protecting you. It would have been completely fine. A good death. Just leaving a little earlier rather than later. In eighteen years, I’ll be a good man once more. Maybe a man with better fortune.”

Tian knelt next to his senior brother, and had another tiny swig. “Brother Fu said I needed to see more, do more, understand more, in order to cross over the barrier between the Earthly and Heavenly realms. Brother Wong, have you not seen enough yet?”

“Too much. I have seen far too much. Give me another swig of that medicinal wine.” He drank a little and kept talking. “Did you know that I have personally exterminated the bloodlines of no less than thirty families? Mostly on the Southern Border, or when a village fell into heresy and madness. Mostly. Men, women.” There was a long pause. “Children. Didn’t matter. You have to sever the thread of fate completely. That’s what everyone said. It’s what they still say. Compassion for your enemy is cruelty to yourself. Don’t let them become pestilences on the world. Tear them all up by the roots, lest one escape, grow, and take revenge.”

Tian waited, but Brother Wong didn’t continue.

“I guess you feel it wasn’t worth it?”

“Some who were with me on those jobs ascended. Others are dead. I, and many others, haven’t budged an inch in either direction. It’s just ‘fate.’ Where are the heavens? Where is the justice? For me or for them.”

“Maybe high up on the mountain? The heavens are the skies, so something that sticks into the sky would be a good place to look.”

“Drink up. Heal up. You have a lot to learn. You poor bastard.”

Tian drank, and thought about the Mad God Grandpa Jun wanted to kill.

____________________________________________________________________________

They limped back into the temple. Tian left the wine with Brother Wang. Brother Wang didn’t say anything about it, so Tian figured he approved. Tian tried to read. His eyes slid off the page. For some reason he just couldn’t focus.

Shock. You have been living with pain and near death for so long, you don’t recognize it when it comes to visit you again. Right now you feel numb, but Tian, you nearly died today. It’s normal not to be okay afterward.

Tian got permission to skip dinner that night. He hated going to bed hungry, now that he had gotten used to a full belly. He just didn’t feel like eating. Brother Wong had exterminated entire families, only most of which were heretics. Some of the senior brothers had helped the Hong family ‘acquire’ a landed estate. For an orthodox faction, it felt rather… evil.

For the first time in months, he slept under the bed. The next morning, he went looking for Brother Fu.

“Senior Brother?”

“Yes Tian?”

The old man was sitting in his courtyard, enjoying his tea. There was a small parrot hopping around his ornamental tree, and the wind was fresh and sweet. Tian stood by the gate, in the shadow of the gatepost.

“How can an animal be at the Heavenly Person stage if they can’t cultivate?”

“Who says they can’t? They just do it totally differently than humans do.” Brother Fu smiled. “They inherit strong bloodlines or are born in areas of particularly dense qi. Sometimes, oftentimes, they eat some rare magical treasure or herbs. Then they follow their instinct and figure out how to grow. Mostly by eating things with lots of qi and vital energy. Some are born at the Heavenly Person level or higher. That hawk almost certainly was. Dawnlight Hawks are usually three times that size. Must have been a juvenile.”

Brother Fu took a sip of his tea, then set the cup down. “But you didn’t come about the bird. You came about the Inner Court senior, and what that little idiot Wong said. He told me everything as soon as he dropped you off.”

“Yes, Senior Brother. I am… confused. Especially since Senior Brother Su made such a big point about the law and moral education. It sounded important. Something I should care about.”

Brother Fu laughed, but he didn’t look happy. “It’s important. Critical. I wish Wong kept his big mouth shut. You have spent your whole life learning about the cruelty of the world. It was, and is, important you learn the other things too. Decency and ethical behavior must be taught, so that your heart can move with the great dao. The ugliness of human weakness… you don’t need to be reminded of. Not yet.”

Tian stood in the lovely little courtyard and waited. Sooner or later, someone would tell him something, or they would tell him to go away. Which was also telling him something.

“Tian, how old do I look? I know you don’t really know people, but guess.”

“About like one of the younger seniors in the villages. I think someone told me they lived about seventy years, so… sixty? Late fifties?”

“Sixties is probably more right. Maybe a vigorous seventy. Tian you are probably twelve. You look younger, but… twelve. I’m two hundred and seven years old. That senior you met from the Inner Court? I don’t know her honorable name, but she could be anywhere from forty to six hundred years old.”

Tian nodded. And waited.

“There are roughly eighteen thousand cultivators who worship the Ancient Crane and owe their allegiance to the Monastery. I have no idea how many mortals exist in the Broad Sky Kingdom. Several hundred million at least. Probably less than a billion, it’s not a particularly big country. All of them are under the protection of the Monastery. We don’t manage those other mortals the way we do the local villages, of course. They are a proper kingdom, with their own bureaucracies and laws. And you have no idea what I am talking about.”

“I have some idea, Senior Brother. I did read those books you gave me.”

“I know you did. Despite everything, you are a good boy. Tian, in all those books, what did large groups of people, successful people, have? What was the single, inescapable requirement to be a lasting power?”

Tian nodded, getting it now. “Laws.”

“Laws, ethics, traditions, but most of all laws. Laws are what let large groups do great things. They provide organization, direction, and most of all, security. The promise is that as long as you obey the law, the law will protect you. Obey, and everybody prospers. Fair to everyone.” Brother Fu took a breath and pressed on.

“The Monastery is the head of quite a large group of people. It has strict laws, and enforces them strictly. But here’s the thing. As you get older, you start seeing the limitations of the law. Because nothing is perfectly fair, and for that matter, fairness is often a matter of perspective. You see the flaws or you just stop caring about them. You become so emotionally exhausted by life, the thought of keeping a rule for the sake of keeping a rule is absurd.

Brother Fu sighed, thin fingers and boney knuckles trying to draw some warmth from the teacup.

“As you get more powerful, there are fewer people capable of enforcing the law on you. The question “Who’s going to stop me?” starts coming up a lot. And a lot of others don’t see the harm in looking the other way, especially when saying ‘no’ to the powerful makes your life so much harder. And shorter. The law matters, but the law is enforced by people.

Fu looked across the pond. Tian wondered what he was seeing.

“And some people, despite everything, despite definitely knowing better, are rock throwers. And some people, most people, don’t want rocks thrown at them. So they go along with the rock throwers, in the hopes that things will be better for them. It’s not right. It is very human. And no matter what we tell ourselves, or how we separate ourselves from the mortal masses, we are very, very human.”

Tian looked up at the mountain full of ancient cultivators, following its slope until it was lost in the clouds. “Who’s going to stop me?” seemed pretty relevant already. There was the wolf, and the tiger, the rock throwers, Bloody Cleaver Wang, the hawk, his own body. Tian decided the answer would be “Nobody.”