The next few days were busy, but fulfilling. Tian alternated between treating patients and teaching a growing number of beggars and children. He had been right about the beggars. They did indeed have a sect. Better, they could see the benefits of the Calisthenics straight away.
Gourmet took a bit longer to start working, but by the morning of the fourth day, he found a pair of filthy feet sticking out from under the rubbish heap behind an inn. The cries of "Delicious! I’ve never eaten something so delicious!” were a bit muffled, but Tian reckoned it was a good sign.
“Grandpa, can Gourmet cure the plague?”
In an individual sense? Yes. Can it cure it across the country? You know plagues need to be confronted systematically, or it burns itself out. Still, spreading Gourmet will help a lot.
“And you are sure it’s okay?”
In the sense that it won’t cost me anything, sure. It’s not me teaching it. As for what the fallout of spreading those two arts might be generally, I don’t know. If enough people use them, it will raise the quality of life for mortals in this kingdom. They will be stronger, healthier, live longer, suffer fewer diseases, and have easier access to effective medicines. Though there will be a limit to that until someone scrapes two neurons together and figures out what causes diseases beyond evil spirits and unbalanced organs.
Tian paused his staff mid-swing. “They aren’t the causes of disease?”
Let us say that the spirits thing is a not-every-time thing, and the unbalanced organs thing tends to be more of a symptom, if you follow me. For the same reason that Liren isn’t finding a single origin point for the disease. And no, I can’t get into it, because that really would be too expensive.
“Even mortal wisdom-”
It’s not just mortal wisdom, it’s the kind of truth that changes whole worlds. Radically changes them. In just a few hundred years.
“Does Teacher know?”
No chance, or he would be crowing it from every rooftop. Everyone who could figure it out doesn’t because they think they already know the answers, and they keep finding ways to prove themselves right. That, or they have become so removed from mortal affairs that doing something like making plagues rarer would strike them as immoral. Now focus on your swing. This staff art, at least, is a problem you can fix.
Five days after they arrived in No Gate City, Tian was still hard at work trying to make staff fighting as instinctive as using his rope dart. It wasn’t coming quickly, but he had expected that. It would just take time. A brisk two hours of practice later, and Tian slipped around the back of their inn to find his contact.
“I have the goods, but are you sure it’s what you really want? It’s a bit… improper for a priest.” The beggar leered, hefting the sack. The four little bags looked odd, hanging from the strap on the beggar’s chest, but Tian supposed he wasn’t in any position to criticise.
“Let’s see it first.” Tian checked over the goods. “That’s the best you could find?”
“Not like there are a lot of options these days. They wear out faster than you might think. This belonged to a certain someone who passed recently, and fell into my hands.” Tian frowned, causing the beggar to flap his hand casually. “Died of the plague, the family was selling everything they could and tossing out the rest. This needed some repair, but fortunately, a few of us brothers know a bit about how to repair such items.”
“Tsk! A useful skill indeed.” Tian covetously eyed the sack. “What do I owe you?”
“Not a single copper coin. I don’t think there is a one of us brothers who would dare take your money. We see you, Priest Tian. We see you very clearly. This is less than nothing. You ever need the help of us brothers, do not hesitate to ask. These scriptures have already been given to my Hall Master, who copied them and sent them off to four cities. It will take some time, but the Ancient’s Comfort Calesthenics and Gourmet shall spread across the country. My oath on it.”
Tian had to change the name of one of the arts to convince people to practice with it, but Grandpa assured him that it was fine. Tian regretted it a bit, but the important thing was getting people to use it. So he smiled, cupped his fist, and bowed, ignoring the scandalized sputtering of the beggar.
“Priest Tian, I know you have said this many times, but… you really aren’t planning to set up a sect, or take an elder role in ours?” The beggar asked.
“No. If there is one thing I know about myself, it’s that I don’t want to organize people. I don’t particularly want to preach the dao either. These arts were given to me to save my life. The person who gave them to me asked for nothing in return, save that I use them, and live well. It is my turn to pass them on. The more people who know it, the more will be helped. So I’m teaching the children here, and I’m teaching you. I expect that you will do the same for others, teaching them that this is a gift to be shared, not hoarded.” Tian laughed a little. “I heard from an expert that I’m not a genius, but I am an excellent daoist. Just think of it as me being true to my path.”
A bit later, Tian returned to the courtyard. Nobody was paying him much attention, and on reflection, they wouldn’t understand anything even if they were watching. That being the case, he slowly practiced each of the moves of the Eighteen Dragon Suppressing Palms. He could push more qi into it. Flood his limbs with it, make each strike explode with yang qi, each block thick with yin, but so what? It wouldn’t be meaningfully more effective. Not against those in the Heavenly Realm. It was a mortal martial art. The fact that it could be used in the Earthly Realm spoke of just how precious it truly was.
The eighteen moves all built on each other. Once mastered, they formed a unified system of fighting that combined frontal attacks, attacks from above and below, defensive maneuvers, distracting maneuvers, positioning techniques, combination attacks, there was even a sneaky back kick, despite what the name of the art would suggest.
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Underpinning the whole thing was a sophisticated, and for a mortal, remarkably powerful, use of “internal force,” or what Tian would call “Vital energy with a bit of qi coming along for the ride mostly by accident.” It had been an effective fighting method clear through the Earthly Realm. That was with Tian’s physique and abundant energy to support it, but… It was just Tian’s opinion, but he’d account any mortal who mastered this art as a master of martial arts, capable of roaming the rivers and lakes without fear.
“Now if I could just figure out how to make it work for me in the Heavenly Realm.”
He swapped over to Thunderous Palms. They were not a fighting system. They weren’t a set of moves either. They were purely a way of applying force, mixed in with a few basic strikes to aid the practitioner in delivering that force to the target. Penetrating threads of vital energy burrowed into the target, then vibrated quickly to destroy what they touched.
It seemed like an obvious combination- the fighting system of the Dragon Suppressing Palms, combined with the penetrating force of the Thunderous palms. Except the core of the Dragon Suppressing Palms wasn’t the external forms, it was the internal use of energy. By changing the flow of energy within himself, he was fundamentally changing the art.
Difficult, and not the sort of problem he was used to solving. He found himself smiling as he swung his hands around, trying to catch the feeling and the flow. He shouldn’t limit himself to just those two arts. His father’s flowing style of fighting was antithetical to the rigid, aggressive, yang forms of the palm arts. Still, he was sure there was something there he could use. A problem very much worth solving.
Liren entered the inn courtyard from the roof, landing in a flutter of robes. “Time for us to go.”
“So soon?”
“Daoist Marshlight, you know, the one with the cats?” Liren asked. She had been responsible for talking to the other Heavenly cultivators in the city, and had described their peculiarities in exhaustive detail.
“What about him?”
“He invited me to stop by his place tonight for a private drink. Just the two of us. To discuss hopes, dreams, and the way of the dao.”
Tian stilled, controlling the sudden rush of blood to his head and the fire igniting his nerves. “Oh. Perhaps it’s time I met the fellow daoist.”
Liren’s smile showed all her teeth. “I don’t think he likes tall women, going by his little concubines and followers. He was lying about his intentions. I have the distinct feeling he is going to try to poison me, while Willowhisk and Verdant Spring get the drop on you. It might just be one of them, of course, but I’d bet it was all three.”
They hadn’t found the source of the nauseous feeling the city had given them when they first saw it. It would be fitting if the source of the disquiet came from three older cultivators preying on juniors, killing them when their guards were down.
“Counter-ambush? Strike first while they are unprepared?” Tian suggested.
“Good thinking. Do you feel confident fighting three on two, against cultivators who might not be anything special, but they have had half a millenia to equip themselves?”
Tian thought it over and summoned the flying sword. “I’ll carry you this time. You look around and keep an eye out for anything worth stopping for.”
They left No Gate City as silently as they had arrived. Tian sensed a stirring of qi behind them, but nobody gave chase. They must have decided that alerted prey, especially visibly broke prey, wasn’t worth risking their life to fight. Not that any of the three feared Tian or Liren could kill them. But what if one of the other two struck at them while they were distracted?
Tian and Liren traveled south without stopping for a week. It was irritating. Tian remembered the Summer Torrent, the giant sky barge the sect used for international trade, getting him to the Redstone Wastes in just a couple of days. Navigation was another challenge. They had to guess which landmark or river they were looking at, and aim in that general direction. None of the maps they had acquired seemed nearly accurate enough.
Adding irritation to frustration, the reason they were so determined not to stop was that there was blatantly nothing worth stopping for. They were traveling through the heartland of the kingdom, the prime farming country, the dense waterways and the lifegiving rivers that carried the world upon their waters. There were Heavenly Realm cultivators down there too, their senses brushing against Tian and Liren’s, before deciding to look away. And it just wasn’t worth their time. None of it was worth stopping for.
Which was fine. It all made sense. Of course the parts of the country with the most cultivators would be the most picked over. Of course nobody would start a fight if being wounded, or even vulnerable, could see you ambushed by a peer. Perfectly sensible. It just grated on them. The sense that there was an ambush waiting for them, or an opportunity, and they just couldn’t spot it.
Tian practiced his perception spell, meditated on the palm art he was devising, and just enjoyed being close to Liren. It was exhausting, being in constant contact for most of the day, but it did mean grinding through the distance that had subtly grown between them. Circumstances did not permit her to pull away, and neither did Tian.
Every now and then, just because he could, he would pull out his flute and play while they flew.
“This is absurd. This is patently ridiculous. I’m carrying you, standing on a sword, while you play a flute.”
“It is absurd. Would you prefer to be absurd in silence? Because I’m bored as hell, and I might as well practice.”
She didn’t have any response to that, even if she grumbled every time. In retaliation, she would make him pose while she sketched in the evening. She was getting better, Tian thought. Her brush was more skillful, and her arrangements seemed more pleasing.
It took almost a week and a half, at their slow pace, to cross the country. A week and a half in the air, and years of growth. But once the trees thinned away and the rolling steppes stretched beneath them, and the dry earth covered the horizon, he was right back to being in his early teens, visiting his first real city.
Tian knew that over the horizon, still out of sight, was the Redstone Wastes. He could smell them, he thought. He could taste the blood in the air and hear the buzzing of gu. There would be heretics waiting in ambush around the city. Not because they were expected, but because that’s what heretics did. They moved in stealth, struck from ambush, and retreated as soon as things looked unfavorable. They weren’t cowards. Not at all. They were just predators, carefully watching for the other predators.
Tian walked through the grass, hearing it crunch underfoot, watching the ticks and insects struggle and fail to bite him. He drew his staff and flicked it through the air. It made a remarkably intense thrumming noise.
His breath came with a little shudder, and swirls of emotions like a thousand colors strung together into a rope that tightened around his muscles and his heart.
“I have the strangest urge, Sister Liren.”
“Does it involve getting naked?”
“Only to take a bath. For once, Teacher was wrong. It seems I’m still a bad daoist. Now that we are back, all I want to do is kill heretics until the gore piles too thick for me to swing my staff any more. I want to swing my palms until my arms can’t move for the weight of blood and organ meat. Then I want to dig a hole, burn the trash, bury the ashes, take a bath, and start all over again.”