The water escape art was the strangest thing Tian had yet experienced since entering the Heavenly Person Realm. He was sure it had seemed quite impenetrable when he was in the Earthly Realm, but now that he was comfortable using his qi externally, it all made complete sense.
“It’s just continuing the idea of the moon crossing water. In this case, the moon glides over and through the lake, the body becoming fluid and illusory.” Tian was zipping about next to the river bank as Liren watched with her arms folded from the shore.
“Except not really.”
“Except not really. It’s more like your qi is constantly moving around you in a loop, pulling from the water ahead of you, carrying it down your body and flinging it behind you. Or in the opposite direction of whichever way you want to move. Then the qi returns, partially. I seem to always lose some, but that makes sense to me.”
“How long can you keep it going?”
“It’s pretty efficient for me, but I’ve got the right physique and cultivation art for it.” Tian ducked under the water, then shot to the surface. He stood, with casual ease, on the surface of the water, gleaming in the sunlight. “It’s probably going to be harder for you, but we can just use it for bursts, then meditate or cruise along in the boat for a while.”
“Is it worth it? How fast can you go?”
“Let me find out.” Tian dove forward into the water, parting it without a ripple.
“You realize how incredibly messed up it is for a person who can neither float nor swim to be leading the water escape technique investigation, right?” Liren spoke justly, but Tian was already moving quickly away, and still picking up speed.
It was intoxicating. That was the only word he could think of- intoxicating. The water pressed around him, but it wasn’t scary anymore. It lifted him. Slid over his skin softly. Spoke to him through strange and muffled sounds. His senses were on fire, feeling the qi of the water and the living things in it, finding the flow of the river and moving with it. Feeling his body becoming just another piece of the whole that was the river. Moving effortlessly through it.
It wasn’t until he felt a dull ache in his dantian that he realized he had completely lost track of time. Fortunately, he had been traveling with the current. All he had to do was move upstream. It was harder and less satisfying, but he still managed. For a while. Then he used the last of his qi to bolt for the shore, collapsing on the ground and taking in big gasps of air as the ache in his chest told him he was a damn fool for pushing things so far for no good reason.
He started practicing Advent of Spring by force of habit, but soon stopped with a snort. His vital energy was just fine. It was his qi that was in short supply.
Now’s as good a time as any to try the upgraded Darknorth Sea art.
“Liren is going to be mad if I leave her waiting on the river bank and cultivate for a couple of hours. I’d be mad.”
Reach out with your qi. Try to feel her breath.
Tian did, and found her racing down the river towards him. A long, long way down the river “How long was I swimming for?”
Close to an hour.
“How far did I swim?”
Put it this way, she’s going to be mad when she gets here. She started running a long while back.
“Ah.”
Grandpa guided Tian through the improved Vast Darknorth Sea art. The individual differences were subtle- qi flowed a little faster in one place, a little slower in another, one accupoint was avoided while three more were included, even the way the lungs filtered water was a little different, the metal qi condensing in his lungs to an uncomfortable degree.
He drew in a breath, sucking in a serpent of cool air. Almost a swirling funnel of qi. His lungs filled and filled, far past what he could have managed just a few minutes before. He could feel the qi piling in too, water qi rushing into him and perfusing his meridians. Purer, now, and more dense. Subtle changes, but they added up to a powerful transformation. If the Darknorth Sea Art drew in ten parts of qi with each breath before, now it was more like twelve parts, almost thirteen.
“In the Vast Northern Darkness there lives a great fish, and its name is Kun.” Tian murmured. “And such a huge animal must need a lot of energy just to live. I see it now.”
He closed his eyes and resumed cultivating. He could understand why Grandpa didn’t want him using it around Voidcatcher. It wasn’t like the art had completely transformed, but the improvements were so impressive, they were impossible for a junior like him to create. Especially if you weren’t a genius.
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He managed a few cycles of cultivation, exhausting himself by the time Liren turned up in a cloud of dust and fury.
“You jerk!”
Tian held up his hands. “I’m the idiot, there is no excuse.”
“You just ran off! You know I hate it when you run off!”
Tian controlled the urge to say he didn’t mean to. It might be true, but it sounded too whiny even to him.
“I am sorry. I am very sorry. I got lost in the sensation of traveling underwater. Drunk on it, is the closest I can call it.”
“Fantastic. My dao companion doesn’t touch liquor, but is still a wine ghost. Do. Not. Run. Off!”
Her eyes had narrowed into slits as her hands slowly clenched.
“I won’t.”
Liren forced herself to breathe. “Good. Good. I’m going to… sit over here for a minute and steady my breathing.”
Tian nodded silently, and sat back down. He closed his eyes and began cultivating Advent of Spring. For some reason, he couldn’t calm himself. There was always a thread of attention fixed on Liren.
Liren didn’t look at Tian for hours. At first, he could see that she was furious, and controlling herself. Then she was ashamed. Then angry, then ashamed. The cycle repeated many times, before coming to a rough equilibrium. Yang could overcome yin, for a time, but it couldn’t last. She settled in shame.
“I don’t like it when you run off,” She muttered, looking down at her hands. “Sometimes, I’m afraid you will be hurt, somewhere I can’t find you. Other times, I’m worried you will be stolen away from me. In every possible way you can imagine that sentence to mean. Fall into a hidden grotto. Snatched up by a goddess or a passing dragon, or kidnapped by pirates and taken to another kingdom. Recruited by a charismatic elder of unspeakable power and taken as his inheriting disciple. Meeting some jade beauty and deciding she is the love of your life. Someone who isn’t afraid of… getting naked. Emotionally and otherwise.”
Tian let the silence be filled with the sound of the riverside, the lapping water on the shore, the wind in the grass. Liren shook her head and looked up, meeting his gaze. “I hate Daoist Shu, you know. Not a lot. Hate might be too strong a word. But a bit. Because she is everything I’m not, and even though you chose me, there is that little voice in my head that whispers you didn’t break things off cleanly with her. You kept a backup. Just in case.”
“I would never-”
“I know. I know! It’s another damned illusion. That whispering voice is my heart demon. It’s my fear, and anger, and guilt. And shame. I shouldn’t get angry with you. Angry with the whole world, but not you. But-”
“But you are human. Getting angry is a human trait. How you act on that anger is another thing.” Tian kept his voice steady. “We are trained in regulating our emotions. You more than most.”
“Yeah. I’m working on it. It’s just… always there. That fear, and the guilt that…” She buried her face in her hands. “Zihao, I’m so messed up, I’m more scared of good things happening to you than bad. I’m scared that you are going to go off and have a happy, brilliant life and leave me behind even more than I’m scared about you being attacked or hurt. Because if you are hurt, I can rescue you, and if you are killed, I can avenge you, but what the hell am I supposed to do if you are happy without me?”
Tian didn’t have any answers for her.
They ran down the road in silence, keeping parallel to the river. They were fast enough that the peasants in the fields never caught more than their shadow. Quite different from a casual stroll, they wanted to move hard and fast. Trying to outrun their emotions.
They ran until the sun started setting, turning the sky a brilliant orange and gold. Tian sensed the breath of other cultivators. Almost all in the Earthly Realm, but there was one in the Heavenly Realm. Stronger than them too, at least judging by the strength of the qi, though not stronger than both of them together.
“Did we reach the Pavilion of Winds?” Tian asked.
“Shouldn’t have. My understanding is that it’s further from the river. Do you think it’s water bandits? We should be coming up on the junction of the Longneck and the Green, and the Green is notorious for bandits.”
Going unsaid was the silent hope that it was bandits.
“Mmm?” Tian felt a rapidly approaching qi coming from the west. A Heavenly Person’s qi, not the one he had sensed before and quite different than what he was used to. It felt sharper, more metallic and aggressively yang. “See anything?” Tian asked.
“No… yes. Cultivator on a flying sword. He sees us and has turned this way.”
The cultivator flew down out of the sun, coming to a stop ten feet above their heads. He was wearing a white robe, decorated with a single golden sword on its back surrounded by the rays of a rising sun. He had a white headband too, and clear, bright eyes under strong brows. On his waist was a single sword in a black scabbard, the hilt decorated with silver and wrapped with worn red leather.
“An excessively tall woman reeking of yang qi and the spear dao, and a short, womanish man reeking of perfume. Clearly you both are products of some unnatural cultivation methods, your vile dual cultivation practices merely deepening the disgusting foundations. Both disguised as peasants, both with their faces covered, clearly lying in ambush for passing experts despite the blatant poverty of their condition.”
The swordsman snorted. “I can guess the formation. The so-called woman rushes forward with her spear, while the so-called man hides in back, flinging out poison and hidden weapons. Revolting. The dao is blind to have permitted you to ascend to the Heavenly Realm, though it retains enough mercy to send you to die beneath my treasured sword before you could harm more innocents and gather more strength.”
Tian nodded thoughtfully, then pounded his fist into his hand. “I get it now. That saying has been bothering me for years, but the young hero has cleared my doubts. Regardless of how the next few minutes go, please do accept my thanks for the teaching.”
The swordsman looked puzzled. “What saying? I’m quite sure the only thing I intend to teach you is how to die a dog’s death.”
“A very silly one, yet it’s so popular, everyone seems to use it. Why, you probably used it yourself recently. Maybe even today.”
Tian flexed his fingers, a happy smile under his face wrap. “The Sword Idiot is courting death, and lucky him, he’s going to get his heart’s desire.”