“We can start with the obvious- we must cross the river to progress. The river is covered with an explosive haze that condenses approximately six feet above the surface, while the ‘water’ is tiny snakes that explode with clinging, poisonous fire if removed from the river. Or possibly if they are disturbed at all.” Su began dissecting the problem.
“But we don’t know if just disturbing the snakes is enough to make them explode. Also, it is important to note that the explosion of the snakes that left the river didn’t trigger an explosion from the snakes still in the river.” Liren looked thoughtfully in the direction of the river, then picked up a small stone. “I propose an experiment.”
“Hang on.” Brother Wang put away his cooking setup and pulled out a mattock. With a few quick hacks he had a berm rising. “Soft as hell. Weird.”
“Not really. Everything here is bone dry. No rain, ever, so no compaction.” Tian shook his head.
“Huh. Think there are different biomes? There must be. Fire and Water Path, it would make sense, and those monkeys have to be drinking something.” Brother Wang raised and thickened the berm, creating a little trench behind it. “Right. Everyone, get behind cover. Sister Hong, I’ll leave the rock throwing to you.”
Liren controlled a flinch. It was small, but Tian spotted it. He gave her an encouraging smile, while concealing a sigh. But there was nothing he could say that he hadn’t already said.
Everyone got set and Liren gently lofted the small stone into the river. It sank without a splash. She grunted and through a larger stone, a bit harder. There was a woomph, then a second later, a sharp CRACK, followed by an unpleasant sizzling sound.
“Looks like the little snakes are fragile. If they are jostled a little, they will flow around, but anything more than ‘a little’ and they blow up. Followed by a bigger blast when the fumes from the first explosion reach the haze over the river. Then you get the fire. Which… goes out almost immediately once it hits the snakes.” Liren reported.
Tian shrugged. “So it’s easy. We just walk across. Moon Crossing the Lake is practically made for this, and I know everyone else practices a light body art too.”
“Well. About that.” Wang grinned sheepishly. “While I do practice something called a light body art, it’s more like a body reinforcement spell that also lets me grip things better with my feet. That’s why I can run up trees and things- muscle, body reinforcement and my vital energy grabbing things through my feet.”
“Similarly, while my light body art is suitable for short range evasion, it is merely adequate for long distance travel and provides very little ‘lightening.’” Su’s expression twitched.
Tian groaned. “Sister Lin?”
“In terms of arts, I’m fine. Horseman’s Leg is quite good at weight adjustment. What isn’t so good is my actual leg.” She flexed her foot and gingerly moved her lower leg. “The numbing ointment is working, but using the art would be hard. And I don’t think walking with a cane on the explosive snakes is going to do me any favors.”
Tian suppressed a sigh. “I don’t suppose you can talk to the snakes and get them to make a gap?”
“No, on account of they aren’t real snakes. Also, I don’t speak snake. When you get right down to it, who does speak snake?”
“I dunno. Someone must.” Tian muttered. “It seems like it could be useful.”
“Not so much. Learning mammalian languages is much easier and more productive. You meet someone who can talk snake, they are guaranteed to be a pretentious villain.”
“Is that so?” Tian nodded, already trying to think of alternatives.
“Let’s go back to those fundamentals. Scumbag test administrators. Some need to get their kin a job, but they also want to recruit exploitable talents from the masses. If completing the test requires mastering a specific type of light body art, they would screen out too many people. And that’s assuming that everyone who takes the test has some degree of cultivation in the first place.” Brother Wang rubbed his hands together.
“So what does this river test? Courage, I suppose. It would take some guts to cross it, whatever way you came up with.” Liren drummed her fingers on the ground. “Brains, because you have to figure out the puzzle, and… I dunno, compatibility or something. Demonstrating an ability to make use of the teachings of the Eight Directions Palace.”
“Makes sense.” Tian nodded. “So?”
“So there is some kind of trick to it, and it’s one you can figure out by looking at the river or the surroundings.”
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“It is the Fire and Water Path, and the river seems to contain elements of both. Presumably the trick is therefore related to both fire and water.” Su rubbed her thumb and index finger together. Tian didn’t think she knew she was doing it.
Quiet settled in around them, as they puzzled over the problem. “Do you think there is a more explicit clue hidden somewhere along the riverbank?” Lin asked.
“Maybe, but we followed the path here. Unless they were trying to reward thoroughness?” Wang spread his hands.
It wasn’t a crazy idea. Maybe there was something hidden in the stone forest that would help you bypass the river. Something to do with the flaming monkeys? Some secret hidden in the trees? It would be pretty damn subtle or sneaky if there was.
Tian tried to think of everything he knew about the Eight Directions Palace, and it wasn’t a lot. Ancient Crane Mountain was one of their outposts, and not a terribly important one. Minor to the point a small-time figure like Suneater could spend his life and die here. Suneater was a petty, petty man. He would despise the mortals coming to take the test, definitely viewing them as less than human. Suneater, however, was near the bottom of the Eight Directions Palace. The Saintess was right at the top of it.
The Saintess, Tian increasingly believed, was a true demon. She had reforged herself into something that could eat fortune, maintaining the Six Turns Caverns to keep herself alive. The more he learned about the elements, about daoism and the world, the more bewildered he was by the caverns. The staggering subtlety of them, and the raw power. He couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would take to create something like that.
Demon or not, the Saintess wasn’t petty. Not like Suneater was. She honored the rules to the cruel game she played. Those who survived her paid a certain price, but they came away much, much stronger than they were before. More than that, she was spreading her dao. And preaching the true dao was universally considered a virtuous act.
Then there was War King Cho. Tian only knew him through his ruined temple and the statues that surrounded him. He, too, was not a petty man. Petty men might demand a big, heroic statue, but they wouldn’t permit the smaller, more human statue hidden in a servant’s shed. That made him look too small, too mortal. Not the heroic warrior from the main hall, surrounded by his valiant soldiers. War King Cho probably wasn’t a nice person, because nice people don’t become generals. But he wasn’t small minded, and he plainly valued logistics, administration, doctors and other non-combat occupations.
The temple was a challenge too, as well as a way of transmitting the dao. Tian started stroking his chin and watched the river go by. There was a flow to it, the snakes moving quickly along, like a rushing river. The river itself was thirty feet wide, or thereabouts. Tian wondered how deep it was. There were no rocks in the river either. There were bends in it, but nothing that forcefully broke the flow.
Tian knew about going with the flow. Those days on the Agate were some of the happiest of his life. He dreamed about being there once again, just him and Liren and the crane, drifting along and seeing what wonders the world had in store. Liren steering with just a few casual pokes, or even by trailing her pole in the water behind the boat. She said it was like she was dragging the water, and that pulled the boat around. He never really understood how that worked, but it clearly did work and that was good enough.
He watched the river a little longer, then spoke. “Courage, wisdom, and understanding that not one thing is just one thing. The most dangerous place is often the safest, and since we are all good daoists here, something can both be a lie and true at the same time. Or a metaphor, whatever you want to call it.”
Liren looked over at him, but didn’t say anything, waiting for him to finish his thought.
“There isn’t anything hidden in the woods. Or, if there is, leave it for later explorers. It will be a minor treasure at best, assuming it survived all these years.” Tian shook his head.
“You figured it out?” Brother Wang asked.
“I think so. Stand by with lots of burn medication if I’m wrong, of course.” He walked up to the river’s edge. “Speed and decisiveness are qualities of Fire, as is courage. Water yields and accepts, following the course of the land. Yielding and acceptance are not the same as cowardice, though an excess of Water could lead to that just as too much Fire leads to rage and arrogance.”
He looked over and caught Lin’s eyes. “You have to keep everything in balance and in tension. Not all mixed any which way. There is always a gap in the middle.”
Tian didn’t hesitate any longer. He gently stepped into the river. This was the single most dangerous moment. How would the snakes react? They were magic, not stupid. The snakes slid out of the way of his foot, not letting themselves become trapped underneath him. He could walk through the water, if he was slow, and careful.
There were some shouts coming from behind him, but he ignored them. Walking took his full focus. Each step had to be smooth, and moving with the quick current of the river. The snakes slid over and around him. Not biting him, though he wouldn’t have minded if they did. He just focused on not jostling them.
The river got deeper, quickly passing his hips, then reaching the middle of his chest. Another step, and they were to his neck, the little snakes swirling across his throat as he angled his way across the water. Another step, and he would be completely submerged. “Courage. Courage and no hesitation. Don’t fight. You can’t win by fighting. You can only win by accepting, and moving with the current.”
The river was quite deep. He didn’t know how far below the surface he was when the riverbed finally flattened out. It was wide, too. But it wasn’t endless, and soon enough he felt the ground rising. He broke the river’s surface as gently as he could, until he finally stood on the far shore.
He felt an immense stillness settle on him. A great quietude, in all the roaring of the world. Something rustled above him- a heavy pinecone. It fell neatly into his outstretched hand. He could feel fire and water elemental energy swirling within it, so strong it was equal parts poison and medicine. A genuine ancient natural treasure.
“Perhaps it’s not a bad thing, being a Yin man.” Tian murmured. “It seems we have a Yang path all our own.”