Tian’s heart felt like it was on fire, but not burning. He couldn’t make sense of it, but since it wasn’t uncomfortable, he didn’t try to change it. He just enjoyed feeling his hand in Liren’s, enjoyed the warmth of her, enjoyed his five pale fingers woven between the rich bronze of hers.
That thought lingered a moment, before his head snapped down for another look. Three fingers on his right hand, no problem there, but his left hand had suddenly grown a pinky. When had that happened? How had that happened? And why was it suddenly getting dark? Had the sun set already? How long had they been under the tree?
“Ah. This again.” Liren muttered. “Sorry. I think this one is on me. I lit the second sun, and if that’s not heaven defying-”
“Liren?”
“Mmm?”
“It’s not you.” Tian lifted their hands and gently squeezed. “My fingers are too powerful, you see. The mad god cannot stand to see them back in the world-”
“Tian?”
“Mmm?”
“That is the dumbest thing I have heard in years.”
“Is it? Oh well. Let’s get out on the ice so the tree won’t be implicated.”
“Did you suddenly learn how to swim?” Liren asked.
“I did not.”
“Do you want to be standing on a frozen lake when lightning strikes it?”
“Why do I feel like there is a new contender for “dumbest thing you have heard in years?”
“Well, my brother has always been an over achiever, which is a hell of a thing for a shorty.”
“I think I got taller.” Tian dusted himself off, though his left hand seemed inexplicably stuck to Liren. It was quite a mystery. The clouds were gathering, getting denser and more pressing. Faint bursts of crimson lit up their dark interiors.
“You did, a little. Honestly, I think it’s coming for both of us. I think our body cultivation arts boosted each other.” Liren said. She wasn’t in any hurry to shake his hand loose either. Another mystery. “I should be jittery, bouncing around from all the fire qi in me, but instead I feel condensed. Like the suns burning in me are smaller, but brighter. Closer to white than red. And my strength…”
That wasn’t all that had changed. Tian found it impossible to stop smiling. Liren had always worried that she looked mannish. She certainly wouldn’t have that worry now. She was still slim and strong and tall, but what she had looked damn good on her.
“And then you turned into even more of a pretty boy. When we get back, you will have to start wearing a veil. I cannot protect you from all my sisters.”
“I don’t think a veil would suit me. I’d worry about being courted by some of my brothers. I’ve had offers.”
“No! Who?”
“I decline to answer. I was quite flattered, but I just don’t think that kind of brotherhood is for me.”
The two shifted out from under the Heartsear Tree, finding an open patch of pebbles on the shore of the lake. The effects of the tree and the ice on their mentality had stopped. They knew they were distracting each other from the sky. Whatever those clouds were fermenting, it was going to be uncommonly vicious.
“How dare you withhold such vital information from the gossip circuit? Oh, my sisters are going to be unmanageable trying to guess who it was. Also, why are you glowing?”
“I’m glowing?” Tian looked at his hand. It was still rather pale, but not to the point of glowing.
“Very faintly, but yes.” Liren smiled slightly, and Tian had no choice but to believe her.
“Maybe it’s because my heart is on fire? It’s not painful or anything. It feels really nice, actually. Maybe your art affected me. Did I light a sun too?”
“Definately not, I could tell. But… oh damn. I know what happened.”
“What?” Tian asked, trying not to pay attention to the increasingly loud wailing noises coming from the cloud.
“Your Yang converged and condensed. It’s not like it is a bad thing. Clearly. Clearly not a bad thing.” She was finding the clouds fascinating. Tian didn’t blame her. The last bolt of lighting he saw snaking through the clouds reminded him of a snake made of knives.
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“If it’s anything like my suns, your yang qi has gotten a lot stronger and a lot more pure. It’s just also a lot more converged around your heart now, as opposed to more scattered through your body. There is still some yang qi and vital energy in there, though. Obviously. Or you would die.”
She kept sneaking looks at him.
“We can slowly discover all the changes later.” Tian rolled his shoulders. “I’ll take the first wave-”
“No, you won’t.”
“Liren, I am entirely-”
“WE will stand the tribulation together.” She drew her snake headed spear and glared heavenward.
Tian snorted, but nodded. She was right, after all. Then she coughed.
“Incidentally, it's not that I don’t like it, but I need two hands to use a spear.”
“Yes?”
“When are you going to let go of my hand, Zihao?” She glared at him. But she didn’t try to get her hand loose, so Tian assumed her old brain troubles were bothering her again.
“I can’t.” He shook his head sadly. “I have five fingers now. With this left hand, I fear for the world. Very fragile things, worlds. With a single careless move, who knows what mountains I might flatten or seas I might overturn? I couldn’t afford to pay for any damages. I’m quite broke.”
“A broke saint.”
“When have you ever heard of a saint having money?” Tian shook his head even more sadly this time, privately reminding himself to look up what saints were.
“That’s… oh. Never mind. Here it comes.”
The lighting came down from the clouds, not like the claw of a dragon but like the twisting of a venomous serpent. There was a cruelty to it, like the barb on a hook or starving even as the spring blossoms bloomed. It struck, and the world went white, then crimson. Tian and Liren flew apart, tumbling across the rocky beach.
Tian felt something trickling across him, like little centipedes that scrambled over him some nights when he slept in the junkyard. An old memory, now, forcefully yanked into the present. He could smell something smouldering.
“That hurt.” Tian thought his voice sounded raspy. He blinked hard, and his vision returned. His robes were a bit on fire. Couldn’t have that. Robes were no longer available in unlimited supply. Who was going to farm all the silkworms? He quickly beat the flames out, then stowed his robe inside his storage ring. He hesitated over the inner robes, then left them on. They were also silk, but he didn’t want to cause a scandal by violating sect rules.
He snorted and played with his rosary, as he waited for the next lightning bolt. “Sis?”
“I’m fine.”
“You look rougher than me.”
“Everyone looks rougher than you. At least I kept my robe on.” Liren grumbled. She had been knocked spinning by the lightning, and she seemed to be having a harder time shaking off the after effects.
Merit. Tian remembered that the ancients defended against tribulation lightning with merits. He had always worked in the hospital and comforted the sick and dying in his free time. He had also provided free medical care when he could as they roamed the Agate River. Liren, while by no means a bad person, didn’t really have those kinds of skills. He would bet she had accumulated fewer merits than him.
It seemed that whatever was sending this tainted lightning, it wasn’t the same as whatever was bestowing merits. How interesting. It seems that the hellish heavens were being opposed by more forces than he thought.
“Here comes the next one. Are you going to stab it?” Tian asked.
“Yeah. You?”
“Nah. Dad showed me how this was supposed to go.”
Liren blinked, then “Wait, do you-”
The lightning struck again, harder, the prickly feeling stabbing deeper into him. He tried to turn with it, to let it flow past him, but he wasn’t at Brother Fu’s level at all. The lighting caught him square on, and smashed him down once again. And once again, he was recovered by the time he was on his feet again.
“Ow.” Liren staggered to her feet. Her spear hadn’t shattered, but the red tassel was gone, and the shaft was looking a bit charred. “Stabbing doesn’t work.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I can’t deflect it like Dad.”
“It does not.”
“Ah. Sorry.” Tian shrugged. “Merits.”
“What?” Liren snapped. She tried to shake off the lightning.
“I think it’s weakened, striking at us here. And I think we are protected by our merits.”
“You think this is weaker?”
“Feels weaker. It’s not that dragon-claw looking thing either.”
Liren stopped and looked up at the clouds. They were sinister, and dark, and glowing red, and the lighting looked terrifying and an ominous aura pressed down, but…
“A monster. It’s the pressure of a monster, rather than a dragon.” She murmured. “You can see it wants to be more. Do you think it’s the natural formation over the valley, or if the whole mountain is protected?”
“No idea, but the Eight Directions Palace built an outpost here, and I have to assume it was for more than the view.”
The lightning gathered one more time, drawing together, dying the dark cloud a throbbing crimson. The wailing sounds grew louder, like damned souls finding out exactly what King Yan had in store for them.
“An outpost where they sent their weaker, dumber, disciples. It’s still going to hurt.” Liren sounded thoughtful.
“Yeah. And my underrobe is smouldering too. Why isn’t your robe burnt?”
“Maybe the stabbing helps? Try your rope dart.”
“Like hell I will, I just got that thing.” Tian bristled, then grinned. “I have a way better idea.”
He pulled his arms out of his underrobe, letting it hang around his waist from the belt. His hair was already loose. “Now I look like a proper daoist. Unfettered and natural.”
The lightning coiled, and struck. Tian anticipated the timing. It came a little faster, the tribulation sprouting more jagged edges, more pressure, more screaming and wailing, but Tian was waiting for it, and smiling. He drew his left hand back and as the lighting crashed down into him, he swung it hard. As he went flying back into the gravel he laughed fit to burst.
At long last, he was able to smack the bastard heavens.