The Senior Brothers and Sisters moved faster than Tian’s eyes could follow. Swords flew, driven by the vital energy and iron will of the cultivators. Spears stabbed like lightning and smashed like thunder. Maces, brutal and efficient, staff arts capable of healing the world and saber play eager to end it.
“The ability to cultivate runs in families. It does not, however, reach everyone in a family. It’s normal for generations to pass between people who have the gift. The more advanced a cultivator is, the more likely they are to pass on the ability to cultivate but the less likely they are to conceive. Or want to conceive.” Brother Fu was sitting with Tian on stools near the fighting square. Tian didn’t know why the Senior Brother was going on about this, but he still listened attentively.
“So what generally happens is that someone at the Heavenly Person stage of cultivation has a child, but that child is unable to cultivate. Now, that child can live in the Inner Court, known as Mountain Gate City to the mortals, but if they have children and none of those children are cultivators, they have to go out to the towns. Each generation removed from a cultivator is afforded fewer and fewer special privileges by the Monastery. They must rely on their own achievements in the secular world if they wish to prosper.”
“Secular?”
Brother Fu tapped the ground with his foot. “Concerned with mortal things, tied to the mortal world. It is nothing unusual for the seniors up on the mountain to spend a century or two in meditation. Two hundred years, and a mortal dynasty- don’t worry about what a dynasty is.” Brother Fu intercepted the question, and rubbed the spot between his eyebrows.
“Mortals just don’t exist on our timescale, and the more advanced the cultivator is, the bigger the gap becomes. Generally, their parents or grandparents set them up with a Landholding Estate out in the villages so their meals are more or less guaranteed, then lets them fade from memory. Until one of them can make it back to the Inner Court, and the connection is renewed”
“Okay.” Tian nodded.
“So what can you figure out from what I just told you?”
“Hong Liran is from one of those cultivator families, and one that just got kicked out of the Inner Court. But she can cultivate, so once she cultivates to the Heavenly Person Level, they can go back. She thinks she is better than everyone here, because her family is properly a city family, above the townsfolk.” Tian said.
It was like the puzzles Grandpa would make for him- “What animal made this paw print? Which way did it go? How long ago was it? Is it worth chasing?”
“Yes, exactly. It also means that she does have support in the Inner Court, which counts for a very great deal here in the Outer Court. A bunch of our brothers helped arrange the Hong’s Estate basically for free- the weight of that support is that powerful. It’s why she addresses Skull Crushing Devil Bai as “Auntie” instead of “Senior Sister.” She is, and this is complicated but just accept it for now, she is part of the same lineage of teachers that Hong’s grandmother is part of. Devil Bai is technically Hong’s Martial Aunt, even if her cultivation doesn’t entitle her to that honorific.”
Tian watched the Senior Brothers and Sisters go back and forth across the stones, none disturbing the others, though their attention was completely devoted to their partners. It was beautiful. A mad chaos of weapons and martial arts, and beautiful.
The longer Tian watched, the more he became certain he was missing something. The brothers and sisters both used live weapons for their spars, sharp edges gleaming, heavy staffs and maces shattering the ground, each punch and kick making ripping and snapping noises as they tore through the air. That they never touched each other was a testament to their skill, but it seemed like that wasn’t all that was happening.
He just wasn’t sure what was.
There was something in how they moved, each having some unique rhythm or principle to their choices. There was a sister who favored a hatchet in each hand, one blocked, the other attacked. She would strike high then low, pressing to the right before whipping back around to strike at the left, and always trying to find a blind spot.
There was another sister who favored a saber, and she planted herself firmly and struck heavily. There was a charm to that too- a straightforward oppression, forcing her opponent to shift away rather than try and parry. And every time they retreated, she would advance. Step. Step. Step. Chop. Chop. Chop.
Brother Meng was a boxer, and a good one from what Tian could see. He would move from stillness to an explosion of hands and feet then back to stillness without any apparent transition. He gave the sister sparring him fits with his apparent overreaches, only to find him completely recovered by the time she brought her sword into play.
There was something hidden there, some meaning. Tian was getting pretty curious about what it might be.
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“There was another thing I was hoping you would get from my explanation.”
“Oh?”
“The polite way to say that would be ‘What is that, Senior Brother Fu?’”
“Okay, Senior Brother Fu.”
“I swear I will teach you to speak like a human before you get to the Inner Court. What I am trying to tell you, Little Tian, is that it would be strongly in your best interests to turn enmity into friendship and a grudge into friendly rivalry, because if she really, truly, hates you, people I couldn’t last a single move against might kill you. In fact, it wouldn’t even reach such an exalted existence. People trying to curry favor with the servants of such a person would do it for free and on their own initiative.”
He’s telling you the absolute truth. Grandpa Jun’s voice was soft. Tian thought he sounded… eager?
“I should set fire to something, distract the Senior Sisters and kill her when nobody's looking?”
Absolutely not.
“Absolutely not!” Brother Fu covered the boy’s mouth with his hands. “Don’t ever say such a thing. I mean go apologize, or at least say something to patch things up with her.”
“But I don’t think I did anything worth apologizing for.” Tain shook his head.
“You didn’t. So what? Sometimes you have to apologize anyway.”
Tian thought that sounded wrong, but couldn’t explain why. So he just nodded and got to his feet.
“No killing! Or crippling! No violence generally, in fact. Friendship, or at least a friendly rivalry.”
“I remember, Senior Brother Fu.” The old man seemed stressed. Tian guessed that he probably shouldn’t ask what, exactly, ‘friendship’ meant, or for that matter, what a ‘friendly rivalry’ was. The Senior Brother was a long way from his tea set, after all.
Tian walked over to where Hong was sitting with Senior Sister Bai. Bai was about to snarl something at him, but Brother Fu caught her eye. She snorted and left the two juniors to sort things out.
“Old Thing Fu, come over here and let your Grandmother, I, tidy you up. I’ll beat that dust right off you.” A long staff made of some ink-black metal appeared in her hands.
“Ah, Fairy Bai, your delicate voice can enchant the crows and inflame the hearts of slaughtered hogs everywhere. Same as it ever was. Let’s see if I can’t tune you up.” Brother Fu rubbed together two wide knives, grinning happily.
The two juniors watched their teachers go at each other like they wanted each other’s lives.
“I’m Tian Zihao. I’m eleven years old. I never knew my parents and grew up in the forest.” Tian said, then looked over at Hong. “I told Brother Fu that I don’t remember what happened to my fingers, but I’m pretty sure they were chewed off by rats.”
Hong flinched and recoiled.
“And for as long as I can remember, every time I tried to get close to another person, they threw rocks at me.”
The girl’s face twisted, emotions warring across her face.
“I don’t really want to be friends, whatever that is.” Tian shrugged. Hong laughed once at that, an ugly, barking sound. “I don’t know what a friendly rivalry is either. But if you want to fight, that’s fine. I’ll fight you. If you think you should have won, then come and beat me. Just remember, though, it’s only worth anything if you beat me. Otherwise it’s someone else that’s strong, and you are the prey they are fattening up.”
She squawked at that. “Fat Prey? Fat?! ME?”
“Brother Fu said that talents earn merits for their teachers and families, which gets them more food and more advantages. We are being raised so that we can feed our seniors later.” Tian spread his hands. “What would you call it?”
“Being filial? Doing what we should? Were you really raised in the jungle?”
Tian stood up and dusted himself off. “I don’t know what “filial” means. Can you eat it?”
Hong hesitated. “Kind of.”
“Huh. I don’t think we have it over at the Temple.”
“I… believe you do. Do you know why our seniors are choking?”
“No, but I was worried this would happen. Senior Brother Fu is a long way from his tea. Does Senior Sister Bai have a tea pot? Or I can make a cauldron from a leaf and boil some other leaves to make a tea. I wouldn’t want Senior Brother Fu to die.”
“Oh look, you do have it.” Hong slid him a look.
“No, the tea set is under the floor in the Temple.” Tian shook his head firmly. “I only brought my rope dart.”
“The choking is getting worse. Maybe I should get Aunty Bai’s tea set. Hers is under the floor in the Convent.”
“Alright. I’ll set the fires, you steal the goods, and we will meet back here and… why are you choking, Sister Hong? Is it a plague?”
“Oh my God. I nearly got murdered by an idiot.”
“No, you nearly got murdered by me. I had to fight with someone who thinks she is a swan. You are a girl. Probably.”
“Probably? PROBABLY?”
“How would I know? Anyone can cut their hair, right? But you don’t have feathers or a beak or webbed toes so-” Tian was firm, having both facts and logic on his side. Then hesitated, as he realized he overstepped. “I’m sorry, I just assumed. Do you have webbed toes?”
“Surnamed Tian you really are a first rate idiot!”
“No, I’m an upper second talent, Idiot Surnamed Hong. Maybe before you try and fight again, you could fix your brain. I recommend dissolving your body with venom and making Hong Soup, then rebuilding yourself. It works really well.” Tian nodded encouragingly. “Then you can learn how to fight. Won’t that be nice?”
“I’ll kill you!”
“Not with that brain you won’t. Focus on getting well first.” He tried to calm her down by making calming gestures with his hands.
She yanked out her spear. “Come on, let’s fight another hundred rounds. If you win, I’ll write my name backwards!”
The hand gestures were worthless. He would have to escape.
“Can you even write it forwards now? Why would you want to write it backwards? You are a weird probably-girl.” Tian backed away, clutching his rope dart. “Go. Shoo. Back to your cell. I don’t have food. Go.”
“Food? You are the guest here, Surnamed Tian. Let me feed you something!” Hong’s spear stabbed forward, forcing Tian to dodge.
“Senior Brother Fu! She’s gone violent again, Senior Brother Fu! Someone needs to fetch her medicine.” He ran backwards, dodging between his seniors with their strangely red faces. He wasn’t allowed to fight, so he could only run. He set off for the exit at a dead sprint, the spear of Hong Liren close behind him.