Nobody talked about that year’s spar. At least, not where Tian could hear it. Brother Fu did start assigning him big stacks of books to read, but they were all very silly. Two months after the spar, Tian finally broke down and started asking the real questions.
“Senior Brother Fu, it says here that I should cultivate the sage within and the monarch without.”
“Mmm. Quite a famous verse, yes. An excellent teaching on how to cultivate good moral character and ethical behavior.”
“Without what?”
“Pardon? Ah! It means outside. Be a sage on the inside but act like a monarch on the outside. Referring to personality, not geography.”
Tian nodded, then dove into the pile, pulling out another volume. He quickly flipped through, checked his recollection and nodded, slapping it shut. He stood sharply and walked towards the door. Brother Fu snagged his collar.
“Where are you off to?”
“I was going to burn down the villages, steal their crops and confine their women in my harem. Which, I guess, means my cell? I think it will be pretty crowded. How do you fit them all, Brother Fu? I assume they're in the other room.”
Tian was having his lesson in Brother Fu’s little courtyard. The elder’s house only had two rooms, so it was a reasonable guess. Tian spent a lot of time here, but had never seen the inner room.
“Cultivate the qualities of a just and wise monarch, such as judiciousness, reserve and dignity. Not the kingdom founding First Generation monarch who, yes, regrettably, often allows many deplorable acts in their hunger for the throne.”
“Oh.” Tian nodded. A little bird landed on the ornamental tree and sang, notes tripping cheerfully across the little pond. “So… are they shrunk through cultivator magic, or is the room bigger than it looks or something?”
“There are no women in my house. No women in the Temple except when they visit for the spars.” Brother Fu sighed.
“But that’s not like a monarch at all. All these guys have at least five concubines, whatever they are, and one had three thousand women trapped in his cell.” Tian patted the books firmly.
“You know what? Don’t act like a monarch. Forget the monarch. I don’t know why that line is even in there. Focus on the sage. Calm. Charitable. Humble. Studious.” Brother Fu looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Tian nodded. “I know what those words mean.”
“Good! Good.” Brother Fu coughed.
“Shall I fetch your tea, Senior Brother?”
“What? No no, I’m fine thank you. I used to drink tea recreationally, you know. Still do, on occasion. Even when I am just thirsty.”
“Wow!”
“It’s… it’s not that impressive. Changing topic, how are you progressing towards Level Four?”
Tian rested his hand on his stomach, then on his tailbone. “I’d say… three more months? It’s going really slowly!”
“You are on the quick side of average, actually. The first three levels are nothing. The time spent cultivating each level will only increase, but after level four, it’s more important that you go out and start experiencing more things.”
“Why is that, Senior Brother Fu?”
“Because the entire Earthly Person realm is also nothing. What matters is breaking through to Heavenly Person. Based on my experience raising many juniors to the Heavenly Person realm, doing more, experiencing more and understanding more are all crucial to finding that spark of immortality. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it- everyone understands immortality differently. What one person understands won’t help another cross the threshold. Even if they find what sounds like the same thing, their understanding of it will be different.”
“Have you not experienced enough, Senior Brother?” Tian’s voice was soft. There was sadness in Brother Fu’s eyes, and he didn’t like seeing the old man sad. It hurt something in him that he didn’t have words for.
“I ask myself that question often. Usually as I watch the sun set.” The old man flicked away the emotion with his fingers. “Focus on the books. Learn everything you can, because once you are Level Four, we are going to start sending you on missions.”
“I’m looking forward to it. They sound very interesting. Ah. Very interesting Senior Brother Fu.”
The old man smiled and nodded slightly. “Some are, some are. Some are tedious and depressing. Can’t begin to describe how tedious grain inventory is, but someone’s got to do it.”
This tale has been pilfered from NovelFire. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Do they?”
“Do you like eating rice, Little Brother?”
“I do, Senior Brother.”
“Did you know that rice is a grain?”
“I did, Senior Brother.”
“Are grain inventories boring, but absolutely necessary to making sure we have enough rice?”
“I’m guessing yes, Senior Brother.”
“Good guess. Although generally that kind of inventory is left to mortal servants, like the cooking and laundry. Periodically, someone needs to go check they aren’t skimming. Grab that pile of books over there and scram. Please try to learn the right lessons from history.”
“Yes, Senior Brother. Senior Brother?”
“Yes, Junior Brother? He asked, knowing damn well what the question will be and regretting many of his life choices up to this point.”
“What are the right lessons to learn from history?”
“Good question. Figure it out.”
Tian was usually quite obedient to Brother Fu. This was an exception. “I don’t think there is a right lesson to learn from history. These people are rock throwers and liars. Once you realize the horse guy who killed a million other guys did it with the power of friendship, we just have to agree there is no lesson to learn here.”
Tian was talking to his rope dart. Also Grandpa Jun, but he didn’t look quite so crazy this way. Hopefully.
The power of friendship and a keen understanding of what we would now term total war. He was shockingly adaptable too. Let me tell you a secret- the way to learn “the right lessons from history” is to decide what you want to be true, then find evidence in the historical record to back up your opinion. Doesn't matter what that opinion is, there will be something, somewhere, that justifies it. Step three is ignoring all the counter arguments and evidence that doesn’t support your point. Highly effective.
Tian sighed. “It would be nice if there was some big truth to discover.”
There is. There absolutely is! Huge! Monumental! Grandpa Jun was laughing one of his not very nice laughs.
“He probably means there are loads of them, but it’s up to me to decide what counts as a big truth.” Tian thought. He cast the idle thought away.
Advent of Spring, his cultivation art, was running pretty much all the time. Brother Fu hadn’t lied. It was immensely steady. He could keep it going doing almost anything other than sparring. However, the rate of drawing in qi that had seemed so fast to start with now felt like a mere trickle. The amount coming in hadn’t reduced. It had significantly increased. But the available space for it to fill had grown far, far more quickly.
He hadn’t understood why Senior Brother Fu made such a big point about staying away from pills and natural treasures. He understood now. To have enjoyed explosive growth and then see the growth rate slow to a crawl was beyond frustrating. It was maddening.
I told you all the way back in the forest- Cultivation isn’t about qi or a breathing pattern or beast souls or any of that. It’s about cultivating yourself. Learning real patience when you are just eleven years old? What a blessing. What a lifetime blessing.
Tian didn’t see it that way. Since there wasn’t anything he could do about it, he got out his rope dart and started practicing. He’d be Level Four soon enough, and that meant getting a palm art, going on missions, and generally spreading his wings. He couldn’t wait.
He was feeling trapped in the Temple. It wasn’t as bad as it had been. He was more comfortable moving through the big open spaces and being around so many humans. But more comfortable wasn’t the same as comfortable.
He had to wait, though, three more long months. Five months for a single level. And the gap between Level Four and Five felt even bigger. Once he reported his new level to Senior Brother Fu, he ran off to find the brother in charge of the weapons pavilion. The sloppy fellow was still sprawled in his bamboo chair, sipping from a calabash and reading a scroll.
“Thunderous Palm Technique please, Senior Brother!”
“Don’t you want to see what other palm arts are available?”
“Are they better than the Thunderous Palm Technique?”
“No, but a rope dart is a damn-fool weapon and you made it work at least once so I thought I’d ask.”
“I’ll stick with Thunderous Palm, thank you Senior Brother.”
“Here. Fun little thing. And I’m told it’s quite a good foundation for Heavenly Person level palm arts.
“Senior Brother, you know palm arts too?”
“We all do. Most don’t bother practicing them, but we do know it. Some of the heretics specialize in them, the nasty bastards. You see anyone with a black hand or finger, you watch out! Poison palm technique or poison finger technique, and they don’t actually require using a poison, just vital energy.”
The senior shook a finger at Tian, who didn’t take it personally. The brothers were all like this, reminding him about this danger or that hazard in the field. The heretics came up a lot, but Tian still wasn’t clear about who or what they were.
“You are going to start doing missions in a couple of weeks, and that means the freebies are stopping. Everything is going to seem crazy expensive to start with. But you know what? Soon it’s all going to seem reasonable, and in a few years, downright cheap. By the time you reach your first century, it’ll feel practically free.” The sloppy brother refreshed his voice with a long pull of wine from the calabash.
“Senior Brother?”
“Everyone and everything under the Heavenly Person level is a fart in the wind. Everyone is an ant, and these are the palm arts of ants. I once saw an Inner Court disciple slap the soul out of someone. I mean that literally- he gathered his immortal qi on his palm in some abstruse way, and laid his whole hand across that boy’s face. Spun him six times in the air before his feet touched the floor again.
The senior brother sounded wistful. “When that boy finally managed to open his eyes, he saw that Senior crushing the ghost that had been possessing him. Tore a ghost apart with his bare hands. Then the True Disciple tidied his robe, confirmed the mission was complete, then hit a bar for wine and whores.”
The Senior Brother looked envious. “I couldn’t even afford to smell the wine in that shop, and he was downing it like it was water. Never got a sniff of the whores either. Comparison is torture. Scram. Learn well, or that little girl Hong will chase you around again.”
“I know what wine is, but what’s-”
“And I feel Brother Fu’s death glare again. Scram!”
Thunderous Palm Art
Yin and Yang, eternal and inseparable, all creation and destruction arising from them. There is no birth from pure yin, no growth from pure yang. Palm arts are yin, penetrating force is yang, yet it brings decay and death which are yin. Your palm lands like thunder and is yang, yet the silence of your blow is yin. The Thunderous Palm Art contains yin and yang, and therefore the whole world may be derived from it.
First, follow the diagram for strengthening your hands and wrists. It’s called a soft art, but don’t be fooled- early on, it is easy to break your wrists if you don’t strengthen them first…
Tian devoured the booklet, reading and rereading it. Committing every word, every picture, every smudge and fleck of flydirt to memory. At long last! At long last! He remembered the mad wolf that he strangled. He had to choke it to death with his elbow locked around his throat because that was the only way he could do enough damage. His hands were worthless, and his kicks weren’t working.
Or the tiger he had to run from. One shot to the chest or head with the Thunderous Palm Art and those organs would have exploded. He might have missed out on the Stormborne Truffle, but, on the other hand, he might have also missed out on nearly drowning.
His hands wouldn’t be a liability any more. He had a weapon he could use effortlessly, a palm art that sounded utterly lethal, and a cultivation art that ran virtually every waking second. It was even healing his fingers, although he hadn’t seen evidence of that yet. By any measure, he was becoming strong.
Tian took a deep breath and started practicing the energy patterns shown in the manual. He didn’t even stand, just focused on learning the patterns. It would come.
Two weeks later, Tian walked to the front gate of the Temple. He was, he believed, about twelve years old. He had his rope dart, a few fasting pills, and brand new shoes. Three senior brothers hopped over the wall and joined him.
“You made us wait, Junior Brother.”
“I apologize, Senior Brother.”
“Do better in the future. Now- ready to stake your life for money?”
Tian smiled. Ready? He couldn’t wait!