Hong Liren was even taller than she was before. Tian had grown a few inches in the last year, and felt that he was shooting up. Hong Liren still managed to expand her vertical lead. She was starting to change, growing into a more adult face. Tian scratched his chin. Was he also growing into a more adult face?
Hong Liren bowed. He returned the bow immediately. “I didn’t bow last time. That was wrong of me. I apologize.”
“Thank you. I won’t pretend that I forgot but… it seems a bit stupid to hold that grudge today.” Tian half smiled. She half smiled back.
“True. Though you still are a first rate idiot.”
“Did you ask a sister who knows medicine about my gift? It really would work. Really. You could be better in no time.”
“Oh I know all about your recipe.” She swung her spear around. “Did you wash your feet?”
“When you don’t have webbed toes, they are easy to clean.” He started spinning his rope dart.
Their seniors had carefully padded their weapons, so neither felt like holding back. So neither did.
Tian struck first. With a spin and a twist, the dart struck like a snake. Once again, Tian aimed for Hong’s eye. She flicked the head to one side this time, but didn’t let the rope wrap. She rushed in instead, her own spear aimed at Tian’s forehead. Tian smoothly pulled the rope back as he stepped to the side. The heavy dart silently struck at the back of Hong’s head. At the last instant, she ducked into a low crouch, then exploded forward in a lunge.
The spear closed the distance, drilling at Tian’s heart. He spun to the side, hooking the rope and trying to catch the spear in its coils. Hong didn’t give him the opportunity, recovering from her lunge as quickly as it had exploded out.
It was only the first probing exchange, but it already had their seniors nodding internally. Tian and Hong had both been working hard. Hong moved like a dancing flame and exploded like a jar full of oil under a roof. Tian seemed to always be in two or more places at once, striking fiercely but flexibly. Both clearly determined to prove they had grown further than the other.
Tian caught the returning dart with his front foot. He hopped on his back foot and spun, sending the dart out with a whistle and crack that promised broken bones and blood on the flagstones. Hong refused to let him keep his distance, diving in towards the rope and spinning her spear to knock it out of the way.
Tain smiled. “Got her.” He flexed his will to bind the rope around the spear- but the spear was gone. Once again, she had retracted it before he could bind it. Worse, she had slapped the dart onto the dirt. Tian tried to recover his dart, but Hong neatly stepped on it. Her grin was downright filthy as she steadily advanced up the rope, planting one foot after the other, spear tip pointed at his eyebrows.
Tian rushed in this time, willingly moving into the spear’s range. Hong flicked a quick lunge at his brows, but it was Tian’s turn to duck. His weak hands were enough to hold him up as he whipped a brutal heel at Hong’s ankle. The kick connected, knocking her front foot out of place. Tian smoothly transitioned to a rising palm, but Hong fell back, coming down in a one leg squat, her spear hammering down on Tian. Tian dove to the side and rolled behind Hong, palms flashing towards the back of her head.
Hong didn’t wait around for him- she dove forward and rolled along the rope, keeping it pinned. Tian rushed forward, palms slapping out. Hong got her spear up, whipping the butt and head at him, happy to beat him at close range. Missing that he had hooked his feet into the rope, and that he was now standing on the end closest to the dart.
Hong Liren made the spear dance in her hands. The red tassel below the spear head fluttered like a spirit of fire, blinding Tian, making him lose sight of where the spear was actually pointed. The shaft flexed and twisted, coming at endless angles. Tian countered with furious palm blows, and when the chance came, he hooked his arm around the spear shaft and sent an open palm smash at her nose.
“NAIVE!” Hong roared as she dropped back on her rear leg, ready to lunge, the spear yanked from his grip by her full weight. Tian was wide open to her counter.
“Who is?” The heavy dart thudded against Hong’s chest.
There was silence in the square. Hong recovered her stance.
“The palm strike was a feint, blinding me to the dart you kicked up with your feet.”
“Yes, Sister Hong.”
He could see the fury in her eyes, but he didn’t think she was mad at him. It was something else. He didn’t know what. He bowed.
“Thank you for the spar. Next year, I hope we can spar again.”
Their eyes met. Tian wondered what she saw in his face. She breathed out an explosive breath. “Thank you for the spar. I learned a lot. Next year, I’ll beat you for sure.”
The juniors returned to their respective sides. Nobody said anything, but Tian got a lot of approving glances and hidden smiles. He thought his heart would burst with pride.
“That Hong girl is making excellent progress in the Fiery Spirit Spear Art, and this Tian boy seems born for Snake Head Vine Body. Both cultivated well, both in excellent physical condition, and both have honest hearts. Good, good, good! You two have really repaid my faith in you.” Elder Rui nodded approvingly, and favored Brother Fu and Sister Bai with a faint smile.
“Elder overpraises me. This junior merely did as she should.”
“It is all thanks to Master’s guidance.” Sister Bai and Brother Hong bowed deeply to the smiling Elder Rui. The elder ran his long fingers through his white beard with obvious pleasure.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“It is your own hard work. I am strict with punishments, but equally strict in giving rewards. We will talk after I review your books. As for the Juniors- Hong Liren, Tian Zihao, come before me.”
The two walked over and bowed.
“Rise. I expect that you both know you will be headed to the Southern Border soon? You will. You will be facing bloody combat too. Junior Hong, I know your grandmother will have sent you a storage ring and probably filled it with life saving medicines. But there isn’t a single talisman in there.”
“Senior is wise!” Hong bowed again. Tian could see, even from the corner of her eye, that she was spooked.
“Hahaha! If I didn’t know what Sister Hong was like by now, these last four centuries really would be wasted. Here- Three Gold Sword talismans. Each has the strength of a single full force blow from a Level Two Heavenly Person. Use them well.”
“This little girl obeys and thanks the Elder for the gift!”
“As for you, Junior Tian. I will give you a storage ring and a few healing medicines. You would be issued this anyway, but the merit points would normally be deducted from your battlefield earnings. The balance doesn’t equal three Gold Sword talismans, though, and you did win the bout. I could give you a medicine that would heal your hands. Would you like that?”
Tian felt his body jolt. He clenched his ruined fists, his mouth opening without having to think, ready to bash his head into the dirt in gratitude. But he stopped without speaking. Something tickled at the back of his brain. Some remnant of the junkyard and the jungle. The faint feeling of a fat rat moving just where you couldn’t see it.
“This junior would like that very much. But respectfully, it is not what this Junior needs.”
“Oh no? What do you need?” The Elder’s voice was very flat. Not hostile, but not giving any hint as to his true thoughts.
“Don’t look at the leader, they cultivate reserve and practice hiding their thoughts. Look at the organization.” That’s what Brother Fu had said. Tian believed him utterly. So he gambled on what he saw.
“If it pleases the Elder, a light body art or perception art.”
Elder Rui gave Tian a deep look. “My disciple really looked after you.”
Tian nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
“Do you know how he got that Advent of Spring art you practice?”
“I do not, Elder.”
“He begged me to get it for you. He’s not qualified to borrow it himself. It’s a technique reserved for the Inner Court, to replace their Vital Energy cultivation art with a higher grade technique. Something we do to reward, and encourage, loyalty. My disciple traded twenty years of accumulated merits for it. You are twelve, or perhaps thirteen. So twice your lifetime of constant work, managing this Temple and staking his life on the battlefield.”
Tian could only bow deeper, engraving every word on his bones.
“Here. Don’t disappoint his hopes for you. Or my own.” Elder Rui tossed Tian a thin black ring.
Tian caught the ring. It weighed nothing. The weight of it drove him to his knees. He didn’t know when his eyes turned blurry.
“I won’t. I swear I won’t.”
“Good boy. Go back to your brothers now. It is their turn to take the field. You are both dismissed.”
Tian struggled to watch the bouts. The Brothers came out roaring, fighting like tigers and dragons. The Sisters were initially overwhelmed, but quickly recovered and retaliated, moving like lions and phoenixes. Tian blinked away his tears, trying to appreciate what he was seeing.
The brothers and sisters moved with absolute control over their bodies. They were displaying what he was taught- conditioning the body, training the technique, forging the will, unifying the breath. Each move was an expression of the cultivator, because each move was perfectly aligned with a century or more of dedicated training and experience.
“Do you see Junior Brother Shangun? His East Wandering Sword Technique is on the verge of reaching mastery. You can see the essence of gold peeking through in his movements. Gold, as you know, stands for metal more broadly. Fitting for a swordmaster. Junior Sister Tsu should be an inspiration to you. Her meteor hammer shares a lot of similarities with your rope dart, and her mastery of Crashing Waves, Endless Storms lends the essence of water to every move. Fighting her is like fighting the angry ocean.”
Brother Fu had come up behind him at some point. Tian never noticed.
“Snake Head Vine Body is, of course, a wood aligned art. You don’t have only wood in you, nobody is just one thing, but you do lean towards it. So Advent of Spring and Snake Head Vine Body truly are well paired. As is the Thunderous Palm technique. That’s a yin yang technique rather than belonging to one of the five elements. But-”
“Senior Brother?”
“Yes, Tian?”
Tian looked up at him, eyes burning, but his mouth locked up. Brother Fu sighed.
“What do you want me to say? I was a feral child too, but there was no Senior Brother Fu for me. I slaughtered in eight directions, accumulating debts and grudges, leaving a broad trail of corpses behind me. After sixty years of slaughter, I was no closer to immortality than I was at forty. Nor when I reached one hundred. So I started cultivating my heart and my Temple. Sister Bai and I were always like peas in a pod on the battlefield. We had the same thoughts. And fortunately, it was about that time the Elder took me as an in-name disciple.”
Brother Fu kept his eyes on the spar. His face was still as an ancient well, his demeanor steady as an old dog.
“At my age, what can my merits buy me? I’d rather invest in a promising junior. I saw you were like me, but you kept your human heart. I saw it as soon as you picked up the striker and rang the Dragon Calling Bell. So why not sweep your path to immortality?”
Tian knew that if he tried to hug Brother Fu, the old man would refuse and shove him away. Propriety. Reserve. Dignity. At the moment, Tian supremely didn’t care about any of those things. But he knew Brother Fu did. Tian stood still and carefully watched every moment of the spar, feeling the warmth of Brother Fu behind him.
When the spar was done, Elder Rui nodded approvingly at the Brothers and Sisters. “You really give this old man face. If only all the Temples and Convents trained so diligently and so well, I’d have nothing to worry about. Did you know that the West Town Outer Court has an extra fifty parts of merit points earned per year compared to other towns? I get complaints.”
The Elder grinned. “And every time they complain, I slam my ledgers on the table and make the whiners read them with me. If people are unhappy, they should go out and earn more. Better still, send more disciples to the Inner Court! That’s how the West Town Outer Court earned its prosperity. Diligent training, hard work, and unity. None of those pathetic games of status and profit other Temples and Convents seem to delight in. UNITY!”
He drew a deep breath. “I’ll say it plain for the kids. Black Iron Gorge has finally made its move. Demons, gu, sorcerers, every horror of the wasteland is streaming north. Other sects will be joining our Ancient Crane Mountain, but our battlefront is so wide, you may well never see them. The main body of our force will be the True Disciples of the Inner Court. Forty, fully forty Direct Disciples from the Monastery are descending to oversee various sections, and a Daoist Master has already descended to take charge of the overall situation.
His brothers didn’t look particularly happy to hear that. Tian could hear the creak of their tendons as fists clenched.
“The Outer Sect has the honor of being the vanguard. It will require the full strength, loyalty and discipline of each of you to win the day. We will leave for the Southern Border in a week. Make use of every second. I will be counting on all of you.”