Tian and Liren drifted behind the fleeing captives, meditating on Liren’s insight. Both could tell it was half baked, but both could see potential there. Tian got the logic- he could stab someone with a knife a whole lot harder than he could throw a dart without a spell, but with a spell, his qi lost its amorphous, airy quality and was concentrated. All the energy of that energetic air could be put behind a dart to push it faster, or inside of it to make it stronger, or to give it a corrosive effect, and so on. It still took energy to do that, though, so the closer the target, the less energy was needed to cross the space between him and the target, and the more force that could be applied.
The logical conclusion, therefore, was that a maximum of force could be applied when qi coated a weapon and was directly stabbed into someone. Completely logical, just missing some vital context: this wasn’t a math problem, it was violence.
The basics of the basics of both military tactics and martial arts was “Stand where you can hit them effectively, and they can’t hit you at all.” Someone zipping around on a flying sword flinging spells or controlling a sword shaped dart, or controlling gu for that matter, was doing that very effectively. Tian did not have happy memories of rushing the Grand Shaman while the old man shot arrows at him. For that matter, the only reason they killed the idiot swordsman was Liren distracting him while Tian ambushed him with his needles.
Little Han had been teased a lot about how his “little pointy stick” wasn’t long enough to do the job. A spell was a hell of a long pointy stick.
Tian stroked his chin, unconsciously imitating Brother Fu stroking his beard. He should revisit the notes on useful sayings and expressions he learned from his brothers, and see what could be adapted as “sage wisdom” to impress Little Han. He would have to snoop on some of the mortal teachers around Burning Flag City, and see if there weren't some good sayings to steal. He wasn’t any good at coming up with these things himself. Better to copy. He shook his head and refocused.
The only way to overcome the range advantage would be… no there were two ways. An impregnable defense, and mobility. If you could ignore long ranged attacks, you could force a close engagement in theory. Tian quickly discarded the idea. Even for him, it was entirely too passive. Mobility. Speed and elusiveness, controlling the timing and distance of the clash. Moon Crosses the Lake was excellent at evasion, and if he was near water, it was an excellent escape art, but he couldn’t rely on it to run someone down. Especially if they were flying. And Heavenly people fought in the air all the time, because why wouldn’t you when you have long range spells?
So it came down to a simple question- regardless of how hard you could hit, could you hit at all? Was it worth pouring so much effort into close range combat, when the advantages of long range combat were so overwhelming?
“It’s how the Yuu fight. High mobility horse archers, controlling the range and tempo of the engagement, using lances if they need to rush a position and sabers as the back up, close in weapon. Iron helmets and light armor stops enough of the long ranged counter-fire to be effective.” Liren spoke out of the blue, making Tian jolt. Clearly she had been thinking along the exact same lines as him.
“I keep thinking of Elder Rui calling down lightning on top of those giants. You can literally call down a lightning strike on someone from miles away. At a certain point, who cares if close up fighting is more efficient or hits harder? Lightning strike. Miles away.” Tian shook his head, and Liren frowned.
“No, there has to be a way to take advantage of this. You have your hell suppressing body, which makes you the bane of demons, spirits, poisons and curses. And Gu, which is kind of all of the above, I guess.”
Tian was back in the warehouse. He could smell the brick and the biting medicinal fumes of the vat and no human, no human should know what a dissolving human smells like no human should dissolve a human no human could dissolve a human-
“Zhihao. Zihao, look up. Look up and see the sky. Wide and open and clear. Free. You can fly free in the sky, Zihao.” Liren wasn’t shouting. Her voice carried the charm of her vital energy and qi, gently taking him by the hand and leading him back into the light.
“You have gotten better at that. Sorry for giving you so much practice.” He looked away. She reached out and with a soft finger, turned his face to hers.
“Never apologize. Not to me. Not for this. Now. Look up. See where you truly live, and who you are truly with.”
It took him half an hour to gather himself properly, or at least properly enough to think and speak. He felt inexplicably seedy. “Your body refinement is the Ten Sun Godslaying art, which gives you the body of a strayed goddess-”
“It doesn’t.”
“Liren, it damn well does. Don’t fight me on this. You have the body of a nascent goddess. Isn’t it about time for you to light the third sun?”
She rubbed the back of her neck, not willing to meet his eyes. “It is, but I need some kind of serious yang treasure to activate it. My own cultivation won’t be enough. The higher the purity, the better, obviously.”
The green ball he pulled out of the Mantis heretic’s heart suddenly popped into his mind. “Grandpa, that orb…”
Remember what you learned about the Heavenly Realm? You are building a sort of energetic or spiritual body overlaid on the foundation of your physical body. The Darknorth Sea can absorb most things. Liren’s is a bit more picky. She still hasn’t quite figured out what her Godslaying body is forging. It’s the flesh, the qi, and ultimately more. That yang qi art that accompanies it… well, it’s good stuff, but it’s just fuel for the transformation, in my opinion. First rate arts are first rate for a reason. My grading is strict, impartial, elitist, and always correct.
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“The green orb got absorbed into my spiritual body? Something out of a heretic or a gu or a gu that was a heretic or whatever the hell-”
Hybrid is the word you are looking for. It was a human that hybridized itself with a mantis type gu. And you have it the wrong way around. It was almost certainly the remnant of a refined natural treasure, leaving a concentrate of a very specific qi formulation. One that leaned heavily on wood, and had strong elements of poison. Elements that were wholly absorbed by the Darknorth Sea, refined, and then refined again as the qi cycled through you and returned to your lower dantian. That energetic body of yours now has a little speck of highly concentrated wood qi, bobbing around inside of the “sea.”
“Still, though.”
You haven’t really tangled with many Heavenly Realm creatures. Quite a few of them form a sort of marble inside of them that is a bit like a spirit stone, except the qi is strongly influenced by the beast it came out of. These are generally called beast cores. Very potent, and for the right cultivator, very useful. It’s not a universal trait, but always worth checking for.
Tian thought it over, then grimaced. “If beasts can form it, can humans?”
Different cultivation systems produce different results. The human equivalent comes… later… But if you wanted to condense a person into a pill before then, sure! It takes a bit of doing, but you can one hundred percent do that.
Tian felt his stomach churn. That was unquestionably something heretics did. He hadn’t seen or heard of it before, but now that he knew it was possible, he was certain it was done.
“Ignoring all that for a moment,” Tian said, privately determined to make the moment last forever, “How do we take advantage of our bodies in Heavenly combat? Is close up melee really the best answer?”
Oh, Grandson, you know better. There is no “best,” there is only the most suitable for the circumstances. Why limit yourself? You think that kid Rui can’t box? That overgrown chicken Redfeather could breathe pillars of fire, and he still went in with beak and claw when the circumstances called for it. Just learn more spells. Hell, learn that goofy fireball spell. Why not? Won’t take you long to master, and it’s another tool in the tool box.
“I have wood and water qi, and I am learning…” Tian’s thoughts trailed off. “Ah. I’ll just learn that spell, shall I?”
Yep. And it is RIPE for improvement. Your fireball will be a bit more spicy. Same as ever. Learn first, then improvements.
“I think you are on to something, Liren, but it’s going to be more suitable for you than for me. You have that high speed movement ability. That lets you close distance fast. I would have to work my way closer with Moon Crossing the Lake. How about this- I try to pin them down at range, or at least slow them, then you rush in and overwhelm them up close. While they are dealing with you, I close the distance, keep the pressure on, and am available to jump into melee if needed. It lets us contest at every range, and gives us flexibility in battles. I don’t want to be stuck chasing a green horse’s hindquarters while ducking arrows.”
“Mmm. That will do for now, but we need to expand our options. You need a spell for chasing down and closing in, and I need better ranged attacks. I still think we aren’t using our advantages from our physiques properly.”
She’s right, but take it slow. Figure out how your bodies want to move and fight, and that will naturally lead you to the most effective tactics.
“Should I keep trying to develop a staff art and palm arts?”
Absolutely! Don’t forget, your equipment is hot garbage. Well, other than the robes, those are okay material at the very least. Look, you want to know what the third most common improvement on a staff is? First is making it more durable, the second is weight manipulation, and third, the one everyone loves, making it bigger.
“A longer staff would be harder to wield, wouldn’t it?”
Grandson, if you are swinging a staff taller than a pagoda, how much clever stickplay do you really need?
Tian felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to improve his weapons.
As for palm arts, imagine slapping out a palm large enough to flatten a hill or a bandit camp. Not a physical hand, one made of qi and reinforced by your vital energy and shen. Just fly over and SMACK! Gone! Believe it or not, that’s another classic. You wouldn’t believe how big some real cultivators can make their palms. Planetary scale palm arts are no joke. Not common, even at that level, and always respected. The work you put in right now will lay the foundation for such arts in the future. Your effort will be rewarded.
There was just so much to do. The world had so much wonder in it, so much potential, and he felt like he couldn’t possibly grab all the good things in front of him.
One thing at a time. And you have time. It’s the joy of an immortal life, and the curse of it. But for now, you can just enjoy. You got some insight into staff arts in that last battle. Work on that while it’s fresh. Remember, the visualization is a vital component of any spell or art, so the more refined your skills, the better the art will be in the end.
“Zihao?”
“Sorry, thinking. And you are right. Take a look through the manual pile, see if there isn’t a ranged art you like. I’m going to work on my staff spell. I have some ideas I want to try.”
“Oh? Like what?”
“Right now, the spell just makes the stick heavier and more durable. Which is fine, but if I’m not swinging it in useful ways, who cares?”
“Yeah?”
“But I don’t want to spend ages mastering the staff. I have too much to spend my time on now.”
“Fair. So?”
“So it’s a stick. You can do an infinite number of things with a stick, but at its core, it’s a stick. A straight line with a degree of flexibility and rigidity to it. I’m thinking, what if I reduced stick fighting to just a few basic things, the most essential core of staff play, then figured out how to apply qi to them?”
Liren’s lips were pulled apart, slowly, into what Tian could only describe as a malevolent leer.
“Yes. Yes you should absolutely do that. Ignore any alarm bells that you might be hearing, and any sniggering coming from those of us who follow a weapon dao. Please, commit yourself to this highly educational activity.”
“Wait, what am I missing? Don’t run off, tell me what I’m missing. OI! Get back here, you!”
Laughing and yelling, the two young immortals laughed and chased each other through the endless blue sky, as the mortals fled for their lives below. On the steppes was the reek of unwashed humans and horse sweat, of dried excrement and blood, of fear. The mortals had chafed legs, bones that never healed right, eyes fading from poor nutrition and hands too weak to hold the reins tight. Coughs from diseases that never entirely cleared up, tugging scars from the raid that captured them, or burns from when their village was destroyed. Every belly had the gnawing hunger that came from knowing there was food in the pack, but they couldn’t stop. Their murderers were chasing them. The whips were chasing them.
But up in the sky, the immortals laughed and played, happy and free.