Sky Pride

Chapter 6- Hell Wager

Tian and Liren sat in the warehouse, carefully cataloging the loot. Normally, it was a happy activity. Now they were just sorting for anything that might be used to control gu, or was a medicinal ingredient, or just medicine. There was a lot, but still less than they hoped. Lian was, ultimately, a warehouse guard and part time merchant. He was trusted to collect goods and send them on, not hoard them. Judging from his ring and what they found on the sky junk, he had been very reliable.

“I just had a horrible thought. The Summer Torrent. The giant sky barge that was a mobile crafting hub and our big trading vessel with other countries,” Tian was using the mental communication skill. Han was sitting and staring blankly at the woman wrapped in silk. Tian didn’t want to disturb his thinking. He wanted the young man to remember this moment, for as close to forever as a mortal could get.

“Yes, I was on it too.” Liren sent back.

“What if it fell into the hands of the Long clan?”

Liren considered that for a moment and shook her head. “Too rich a prize. There were others in the Inner Court trapped on this side of the wall, including the Inner Court Elder and some core disciples. Those are some pretty big fists. I could see the Longs having a stake in it, but not controlling it outright.”

Tian nodded.

“Zihao…”

“I won’t allow anyone else to decide. I chose this path. I don’t get to whine that it’s full of pointy rocks.”

“Doesn’t stop anyone else.”

“I’m happy being different.” Tian let the silence settle once more. Liren would occasionally swap items between rings, or lay them out on the table for Tian to identify. Jars of medicines, mercifully labeled but without explanation as to what they actually did. Herbs in jade boxes, incense wrapped in paper then gently stored in ancient bamboo, anything that might possibly count as medicine, or medical. Acupuncture needles by the hundreds. Tian directly snatched the best of them, and then went right back to sorting. The best of them were no better than he was. A less desperate person might say they were wasted in his hands.

“Is it wrong that I have at least some sympathy for the tribes?” Tian asked. “Yes, they aren’t innocent victims in all this, but they are victims. Trapped between two huge powers and exploited by both. Now they want to take back at least some of the steppes for themselves. Maybe all of it. Maybe they think they can conquer the kingdom, I don’t know.”

“They practice slavery.”

“Liren… in every way that matters, so do we. They commit atrocities. Neat. Us too. They are aggressive, invasive. We have so much in common. Burning Flag City wasn’t planted here for no reason. It’s a border fortress, and the hub for all the fortresses across the southlands. Fortresses that exist to suppress the tribes and keep them from rebelling.”

“And stop invasions from the Redstone wastes.”

“And that, but… come on.”

Liren sighed.

“I’m not saying the invasion is justified, or that I’ll ignore them or something. I’m saying that I get it. Hypocritical as it might be for them and for me, I get it. What, exactly, did the Broadsky Kingdom do for me? I know what my brothers did, what the systems created by Starsieve did, but what did specificallythe Broadsky Kingdom do for me? And the best answer I can come up with is ‘They made a pretty nice country that I have enjoyed traveling through with you. Pretty nice if you are an immortal, anyway.’”

Tian looked at the batch of herbs in front of him. Precious medicines, all of them, by the standards of the low country. His sense of value had been completely distorted by eating his way through the weeds in Voidcatcher’s garden. Some of his brothers would have killed to get their hands on these things. Powerful, but not enough to regrow organs and heal the damage to the meridians and dantians done by the gu. It would take complete bodily reconstruction to manage that.

Everyone looked at him like he was crazy when he insisted complete bodily reconstruction was possible. In fairness, that was because people tended to die when you injected them full of snake venom or dissolved them in demonic acid. He quite understood. It’s just, he had done it twice. It was actually possible. It was just that not everyone could manage it.

He drummed his fingers on the table, quietly admiring them. They were very fine fingers.

“What are you thinking?” Liren’s thoughts came soft.

“That killing them is a mercy, and that it would be murder. I know suicide is supposed to be something terrible, a betrayal of your parents, but I’ve never seen it that way. Nothing wrong with seeing if the next life is any better, if this life’s done. But that’s a choice. Me killing unconscious people, even if it’s a mercy, is still murder. I didn’t learn medicine to become a more humane murderer.”

“You could wake them up and ask.”

“Yeah. And I will take that risk, but…”

“But?” Liren was watching him closely, he could feel her eyes on him.

“I want to offer them a chance. A real chance at a real life. It might be a horrible way to commit suicide, and no book of ethics I have read would condone doing things this way, but it’s the only chance I know how to give. Complete bodily destruction and reconstruction. We have more than enough medical materials for medicinal baths. I can use acupuncture to reduce the pain to the highest degree possible. The insects themselves, when dissolved, will provide a huge amount of vital energy and nutrition.”

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“And if they come out of the bath looking like some kind of monster?”

“We kill monsters.” Tian met Liren’s eyes squarely. “It’s only a chance, and I won’t give the gu any opportunities.”

“We could leave the city. Rush them to the Bamboo Medicine Hut, and bang on the ward. We have more than enough spirit stones. They’d treat them. The doctors there might have a better solution. At least you would know that more experienced doctors examined them.”

“You heard what I said to Han. I understand the Boruski’s point. I’m just not going to let them do whatever they want to the city. At the very least, any Heavenly Realm people need to stay the hell out of things, and frankly, cultivators of any rank should fight their own battles away from the mortals.”

Tian looked over at Han. “Come to any answers?”

Han slowly shook his head.

“Angry? Hurt? Frustrated? Feeling cheated of your triumph?”

That got a firm nod.

“Good. Remember that. The battle doesn’t just end. It keeps going on and on, even if you don’t see it. Now,” Tian stood and stretched his back. One day it would give a satisfying crack. Today wasn’t that day, but a doctor contemplating a plan where the patients would die ninety-nine times out of a hundred should have at least that degree of optimism.

“Are you ready to descend with me into a world of true horror? I… no. No. Forget I asked.” Tian shook his head. “Go home and rest. Eat something, do some stretching, meditate, then sleep. You shouldn’t watch this. At the very least for the sake of the patients. They wouldn’t want to be seen like that.”

“Are you going to kill them?” Han held up his slate. His usually neat handwriting dragged on the stone, the lines no longer sharp.

“Most will die in my hands. Maybe all. But I will give them a chance to die fighting.”

Tian made the best preparations he could, then sent Liren out to guard the warehouse. If there was to be any hope at all, he would have to give each patient his full attention.

“Grandpa, any advice?”

They aren’t you. They don’t have your fortune. Be prepared to lose all of them. Other than that… their will. It is the only thing that might tip you over into success. Tell them to visualize their perfect self. Not as they were, but how they want to be. It will help, if only to take their mind off things. Grandson, this is a dreadful gamble, and win or lose, it will cost you in pain.

“It’s going to hurt forever no matter what happens. At least this way the hurt will be that I tried and failed, not that I never tried at all.” Brave words. He tried to believe that it was enough.

Tian decided to start with the woman on the table. He didn’t unwrap her, afraid of any unforeseen circumstances changing things for the worse. Very carefully, he drove in acupuncture needles, paralyzing her below the neck. Hopefully, she would feel nothing at all. Then he removed the sleep talisman on her forehead.

“Don’t speak, miss.” Tian sent his mind into hers. “I need to describe your current situation, who I am, and what I can offer you. There are just two things you should know before I begin. The first is that my name is Tian Zihao, written with the characters that can be read as “Sky” or “Heaven” and “Pride” or “Favored.” The second thing is that, should it come to it, please tell King Yan that I will confess everything when I stand before him. Be sure and write my name right. I have enough sins without setting up a stranger.”

Her name was De Hua, from a sect called the Revealed Mountain Heart, somewhere he hadn’t heard of. She had felt the gu growing inside of her, feeding on her. The heretics had whispered in her ear that she was going to be a wonderful mommy, just before they bound her in silken threads and paralyzed her. Even now, especially now, the thought filled her with terror and revulsion. She didn’t just want the gu dead, she prayed for her own death, desperate to drink Granny Meng’s elixir and rid herself of the memory. Tian killed her and the gu in the same moment. Her death was instant and painless. Theirs, less so.

Of the twenty three victims, fifteen chose death. Each had their body carefully stored by Tian, for incineration at a later time. He recorded the names of their sects, so that their ashes could be returned to their families. He was familiar with the work. He was back in the wastelands, battling the heretics once more. Even in the Heavenly Realm, there was no escaping them.

Eight chose to gamble. They chose to die fighting. Some in fury, some in fear, and one out of sheer indignation. The first was a strong man. Tian carefully destroyed the gu and used their poison, combined with what was in the medicinal bath, to break down the man’s body. During the process, the man’s body dissipated enough that the anesthetic needles fell out. His nerves were not yet destroyed. The strong man tried to convulse. His last few minutes were weak thrashes as pain and darkness swallowed him. They left no bones.

Tian curled up in a ball for a while after that. Holding his knees and staring at the far wall without seeing anything. He didn’t know how long he lay there, or how hard he squeezed. He just knew that he stood up again, and went to the next person, a woman this time. He hadn’t spared the ingredients in the last medicinal bath, but he used even more this time. Precious herbs, starpulse clover, dawnmist petals, revolving fire orchids and proudsoul chrysanthemum all went in. Goods that could start a bloodbath, that could see brother turn on brother, cast in without a care as to the cost, only as to the effect. He used absolutely everything he had learned from the first victim. He gave it his total effort.

She died the same way. As did the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh victims. He memorized all their names, their faces, what they had sounded like, how they faced their final moments. How numb and desperate he felt. A warehouse full of treasures, and they weren’t enough to save even one life. Not even one life.

Last was the indignant man. Tian carefully recorded his name and family, noting with muted sadness that he was an outer deacon of the Bamboo Medicine Hut. Once, his cultivation had been level nine. It had fallen, eaten up by the worms in his stomach and chest. What most upset the man wasn’t the worms, or the loss of cultivation, or the threat to family and friends. It was that he was dying now. He wasn’t ready. Tian didn’t have the heart to tell him he was as ready as anybody.

Tian thought he could see the Black and White Impermanences standing next to the tub, waiting to collect their charge. Their eyes felt very cold on him.

Cool white hands put the unresigned man in the medicinal bath. Tian poured everything he had into it, as he did for all the victims. Every single thing he learned, that he suspected, every scrap of skill and theory went into aiding him. Tian shifted vital energy through the man’s meridians in a perfect flow, he directed the appropriate elemental qi to their respective organs, he balanced all that could be balanced and did everything he could.

Same as he did for all the victims.

The needles fell out. The unresigned man began to thrash. Tian yelled at him to hold on, to fight through it. Same as he did for all the rest.

This time, the man lived.