“This is not my fire. This is not the kind of yang qi I want.”
The fire poison was a vile thing, viscus, leaving a residue of itself wherever it passed that would grow and spread until it had reduced a human body into a seed bed of poison flames. If fire could be hungry, it was a hungry fire. If fire could be cruel, it was a cruel fire. Sticky, slothful flames that ate and ate until they had consumed everything and left nothing except the memory of inescapable burning.
A fire without joy, or life.
The emotions carried in the fire had a taste to them, the bitter bite of baseless pride, the sparking acidity of irritation and impatience, and something wetter and colder too, a tarry, tongue coating residue of resentment and grievance. The lamp in his heart burned with compassion, and there was none to be found here.
“Petty.”
“Eh?” Liren crouched next to Tian, her hand on his back.
“It’s a petty sort of fire. I can’t explain what I mean very well. It’s just petty. I don’t like it. I don’t want it in me. I will destroy it as thoroughly as I can, before absorbing any part of it.”
Tian reached out and examined the burn site. The wound was blackened and bleeding. Were Lin not a cultivator, it would leave a massive scar. But she was, and Tian had ample medicine. It would be fine. She wouldn’t have to live with burn scars pulling and tearing every time she tried to move.
“Sister Lin, I’m going to remove the worst of the burnt skin, apply a medicinal salve and then bandage you up. If you have any good internal medicine, you should probably take it. Otherwise, I have some that should be adequate, but it’s nothing special.”
“You are doing more than enough as it is. I have some medicine.” Sister Lin’s words came out as a hiss. “Did you say… did you absorb the flame off of me?”
“Demon pulling art. Works on poisons, infections, and infiltrating qi. A bit of a pain to use, but effective.” Tian moved his hands while he moved his mouth. It was easy enough, he had been doing it ever since he was first deployed to the Redstone Wastes.
“Still, absorbing it, that can’t be safe.”
“Safe? Are you new to cultivation? What is this ‘safe’ you speak of?” Tian grinned, but his mind was elsewhere.
Internally, the process was a bit trickier than what was visible externally. He had to guide the poisonous qi through his meridians and down to his lower Dantian, where it could be torn apart by the statue containing the Hell Suppressing Sutra. The qi kept trying to stick to his meridians and start burning again.
“No chance. Not doing that again.”
The fire qi was dragged down and slowly ground apart. The lower dantian did what it was supposed to, converting chaotic qi into vital energy, sending it out to nourish and strengthen the body. Tian focused his vital energy and attention on the process, urging the statue to grind the qi especially fine. The resulting amount of purified fire qi was piddling. A lot of work for a minimal and unsatisfactory result. Tian firmly reminded himself that the only important thing was that Lin was going to be alright, and did he really need more reminders on why he shouldn’t be an ass to his sect siblings?
The fire was petty. Suneater was petty. Tian wasn’t petty. Much.
He frowned a little. There was something buried in that fire poison. Not a bad thing. Not good, but not bad. He dug into it a bit more. There was the fire qi, as he expected, but there was something else in there…
Tian grunted. “The fire poison has water qi in it. Don’t ask me how, because I don’t know. But it does.”
Tian opened his eyes. Lin was still lying on her belly, her bandaged calf clearly still paining her. Liren and Su were glairing at the river and the remains of the fishing net, while Wang set out a little metal grill and a wok, slipping a carved copper plate below it.
Liren stomped over from the riverbank, looking disgruntled. “As best I can tell, the “river” is made up of tiny snakes. Minnow sized, but still snakes. The river stretches as far as I can see in both directions, so I think we can take that to mean it is unnatural and created as a barrier for people trying to cross through the trial ground.”
Brother Wang gently touched the plate, and engravings, shimmering with a blue-white light on the inky black of the round wok bottom, emerged from the etched metal. The big man started setting out a cutting board, a kitchen knife and a head of cabbage.
“The snakes aren’t natural. They appear to be a created creature, closer to gu or a summoned spirit.” Sister Su didn’t look much more gruntled than Liren. Whatever that shimmering miasma was, it extended as high as any of them could see.
Brother Wang quickly had the cabbage chopped into thin strips, followed by some minced ginger and garlic. Oil went into the smoking hot wok, then the aromatics, then the cabbage. He tossed them quickly, left hand rocking the wok back and forth, right hand working an iron spatula. When the moment was right, he added a few sauces from bottles stored in his ring, then some cooked rice, then a heavy pour of beaten eggs. All while vigorously working the pan.
“Done. Come and get it.” Brother Wang waved everyone over. “Sister Lin, you stay where you are. I’ll fix you a bowl.”
Tian shook his head and stretched out his bowl. It wasn’t the most delicious looking meal, but it would be nutritious enough. “Didn’t know you knew how to cook, Brother Wang.” He smiled. “You are full of talents.”
“Talents? Desperation, more like!” The big man shook his head mournfully, while skillfully portioning out the rice.
“Desparation?” Liren asked.
“Yep. Lil’ Sis’ Mei and Sis’ Ming both come from the Five Elements Courtyard. Mei didn’t come from money, but she’s been eating at the Courtyard since she was nine. Or put another way, if she ever learned anything about cooking from her mom, she’s forgotten it. Sis’ Ming comes from serious money, so she never learned anything about cooking. Sis’ Su does know how to cook.”
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Liren looked over at Su, who nodded blandly even as her spoon got to work. “So…”
“She is willing to cook whatever takes the least amount of time to cook that also meets the minimum requirements necessary to maintain life and the expected level of activity, at the lowest possible price-per-serving.” Wang looked mournfully at his bowl, before setting his spoon to work.
“Well. That’s not unreasonable.” Tian slowly tested the words, like he was sliding out over a creaking branch.”
“Quite reasonable, quite reasonable. Tell me, Brother, did you hear the word “seasoning” anywhere in there?” Brother Wang pointed at Tian with his spoon.
“I did not.”
“Mmm.”
Sister Su spooned up her rice and cabbage, unbothered by the conversation.
“Sister, any particular reason you don’t care about how the food tastes?” Liren asked, as she handed Lin a bowl before tucking into her own.
“I enjoy good food, I just don’t care enough about it to make it myself. A maximum economy of both time and resources is optimal.”
“I can’t agree with that.” Tian shook his head. “We are only going to get so many meals in our lifetime. It doesn’t have to be lavish, but every meal should be something to be grateful for. Hot, cooked food is a treasure.”
“Do you cook, Brother Tian?” Wang asked.
“Sometimes, yes, or Liren, or we both cook. I enjoy eating in the mess hall too, but just the two of us is normal.”
“Which of you is the better cook?” The big man grinned, adding a few extra dashes of a glowing red sauce to his rice.
“About the same.” Liren answered. “Neither of us is great, but we can cook a few basic dishes. It’s also just fun trying different ways to cook the food we forage. Is this wild mushroom better boiled, braised, roasted or fried? Does it go with this wild lettuce, or these berries?” She mimed holding up different gifts from the mountain.
Su grunted. “I was sure you were joking about the wild lettuce.”
“Who would joke about lettuce?” Tian looked at Su seriously. “Think about it. What is more economical or nutritious than the wild fruits, vegetables and greens we harvest from the mountain? Grains matter too, but I can live happy and healthy with what the mountain gives freely.”
“Have you, somehow, become even more ascetic?” Lin grumbled. It looked difficult to eat fried rice lying on your belly.
“Not with all the spare storage rings I haul around, no.” Tian denied it.
“He has.” Liren’s betrayal was immediate and swift.
“Sis’ Liren!”
“Brother, do you even know our net worth? I say ‘our’ because it’s been more than two years now that I’ve been handling the money, and our funds are so commingled, I couldn’t separate them if I wanted to.”
Wang and Su winced hearing that, but Tian firmly ignored them.
“This and that are two entirely different things.”
“Sure, sure. Finding out that selling your elemental tea service would violate your dao heart-”
“Shows I am a true tea lover.” Tian would brook no argument there.
“And all the tea house operators and tea service providers… what, hate tea?” Liren rolled her eyes.
“You know, you don’t exactly lead a life of wild indulgence yourself, mmm?” Tian attempted a counter attack.
“Because I live with you! I, at least, want to indulge. I want those fine silks. If the sect sold gold plated spears, I would buy it. Well. Gold inlay, I’m not insane.” Liren counterattacked with refined shamelessness.
Tian was stunned. Liren pressed the advantage. “I had a moment of true revelation when we passed through Bluestone City. I passed a jeweler, and I realized I didn’t want the low-key, restrained pieces. I wanted gaudy. I want the big, chunky bracelet even if it’s cheaper than the good one. I want the big pearls even if they are paste, and bright-polished silver. We are going to live a long, long time. I wanna live loud, and do it in beautiful, comfortable, highly visible, luxury.” Hong smiled like the sun rising in a cloud of pinks, reds and turquoises.
Tian rocked back. He had seen none of this. “But, then…”
“Because I live with you, and you would go insane if I did. And I would go insane too. I know you think I grew up rich, but believe me, I went from actually rich to comparatively poor, and that leaves a mark. Gaudy is my desire, frugality is my need. Unlike a certain someone who thinks some tea snacks are unendurably fancy.”
Tian slumped. Liren went in for the kill.
“You avoid competition and comparison, refuse status and authority, eat simple meals, avoid wine, maintain your chastity, meditate most of the day, spend your free time studying tea and medicine, and contemplate the dao like a farmer keeping an eye on the weather. If you aren’t an ascetic, who is?”
That brought the impromptu lunch to a sudden silence. Tian really didn’t know how to respond to that. It wasn’t something he consciously set out to do, it was more just a collection of habits. He felt he lived a very rich life. All those things he was supposed to want just seemed very tiresome or outright dangerous. So why make a fuss about them? And… had he been ignoring Liren’s needs this whole time? But she hadn’t given him any clues that she was unhappy about their living arrangements. Had she?
“Maintains his chastity?” There were hooks hanging off the end of Wang’s voice. Liren and Tian rolled their eyes in perfect synchronicity.
“We aren’t together like that.”
Wang and Su shared a look, then very visibly decided to drop the subject.
“Any insight into what those snakes are?” Lin asked.
There was a collective shrug and a great shaking of heads.
Tian scraped the bottom of his bowl, making sure he didn’t miss a single grain. Brother Wang wasn’t a spectacular cook, but he was an entirely adequate one, and Tian had never been a fussy eater.
“Maybe we are thinking about this the wrong way. We have fireproof trees and fireproof soil lining a river made of some sort of unnatural fire-qi things. This is a designed system. Presumably there is a way to get past this that ‘mortals’ should be able to achieve.” Tian tapped his spoon against the bowl thoughtfully. He would usually wash his bowl in the river, but that seemed impractical. He could use water from his reserves, but it seemed wasteful. Should he scrub with sand?
“But what could mortals even know that would let them survive this place? It nearly killed us, and we aren’t mortals.” Lin objected.
“Not so. To the Eight Directions Palace, everyone below the Heavenly Realm is a mortal. I think they would assume anyone taking the trial had some degree of cultivation, even if it wasn’t very much.” Su corrected, her voice cool. She started collecting the bowls, then summoned a tub of water and some soap. It seemed the Wang Clan had their own rules about this sort of thing.
Lin grunted. She stretched her calf out slightly, winced, and settled back down again. Tian could feel the elements rushing through her, gathering around the wound. It felt like a body cultivation method, but unless the Lin clan had some godly secret arts, the best it could do for her would be promoting healing and numbing the pain. If there was an art that allowed for regeneration that speedy, he didn’t know about it.
“Let’s change the starting assumptions, then. Let’s assume that the trials are designed by scumbags. They are built to weed out the weak, the untalented and unconnected, while still being survivable by the relatives of the True Disciples of the Eight Directions Palace. Or Inner Court or whatever they were called.” Wang suggested.
“So there would need to be a way that didn’t rely on having a special token to bypass the challenges, because if that existed, why send the relatives into the test at all? It had to be something you could bypass by understanding the trick to it.” Liren looked over towards the river, drumming her fingers on her knee.
“So we just need to figure out what the test is testing, then pass it. Easy. Any ideas?” Tian asked, and was answered with silence.