Sky Pride

"This is a deathtrap!"

"It's a pond, Brother Tian. A shallow one. Look, the crane is only up to her knees."

"You wouldn't believe the danger that lurks under the surface of ponds…" Tian muttered.

"In this case, I can see the bottom. So. You know. Get in the damn water." Hong said, with sisterly warmth and encouragement.

Tian grumbled and started stripping off his robe.

"It suddenly occurs to me that I should mention you need to leave your loincloth on. With most people, I wouldn't feel the need to mention that." Hong added.

"That's dumb. Then my clothes will be wet."

"Change afterward. I'm not having you run around naked. Look, just treat it as the uniform for swimming, okay? No underwear equals breach of discipline by not fulfilling the dress code."

Tian blinked "Oh. That makes sense. Alright."

He quickly stripped off the rest of his robes and neatly packed everything into his storage ring with no further discussion. He was so intent on it, he missed the look of divine revelation crossing Hong's face, before she refocused and stripped down to her under-robe. Then she took another look at Tian.

"You are going to keep the bun up?"

"If I take the pin out, the hair will float around and get in my face. At least that's what happens in the bath."

"Huh. Makes sense now that you say it." She shrugged.

Tian stretched out an arm, examined it critically, and sighed. "Still so damn thin."

"I'd call it athletic."

"You haven't seen my brothers in the bath. Trust me. I'm thin. One of these days, I'm going to be carried away by a high breeze." Tian slapped his hands against his face to drive out the negative thoughts.

"Well, being lighter will help you float, so there is that. Now all you are going to do is lie back. Just bend over backwards, and let yourself land on the surface of the water. I'm going to kneel here with my hands under you, so you physically can't go under the water." Hong kneeled down in the pond, not minding the mucky bottom. Nothing in there could possibly poke her hard enough to really hurt.

Tian trusted his sister. He leaned back and-

"Just how damned flexible are you?!"

"What? I'm leaning back."

"Most people can't lean back at ninety degrees from their waist. Do spines even bend that way?"

Tian sighed and, rather than argue, he lifted both feet up and went flat in the air. A second later he slapped into the surface of the water, and Hong's waiting hands.

"Good, good. Spread out your arms and legs. Wider. Good. Now. I'm going to lower my hands just a little, just a couple of inches, and you are going to float. Remember, you cannot possibly go under the water, so you have nothing to worry about."

"Mmm. I'm not worried with you here."

He closed his eyes and focused on just floating, not seeing Liren's suddenly poleaxed look. She shook that off too, and gently lowered her hands.

Tian sank down into the pond with her hands.

She raised them and tried again. And again.

"Sis' Liren?"

"You aren't floating."

"I'm trying!"

"No, I know, but you really should be floating. At least a little bit. I'm not looking for perfection here, just… some amount of floating. And you aren't. At all. How much do you weigh?"

"I don't know. Where am I going to find a scale big enough to stand on?"

"Hang on, I'm going to lift you out of the water. I want to see something." She stood, carrying Tian in her arms. She held him for a moment, then gently set him on the side of the pond.

"This is going to take some thinking. Brother Zihao, you weigh more than two hundred pounds. Which is a neat trick for someone who will never bang their head on a doorframe and has no visible fat on him."

It was his body cultivation. Tian couldn't imagine what else it could be. The Supreme Virtue Hell Suppressing Body Refining Sutra used yin qi to refine the fleshy body, and yang qi to refine his meridians, dantian and vital energy. It didn't make his cultivation increase, it was just… dense. He could fight for longer and push harder than most. He was far stronger than he looked. And he was heavier too, it seemed.

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Swimming lessons were put on hold for a while. Using Light Body Heavy Hands while he was swimming seemed like the obvious answer, but it was an unsatisfying one. Little Treasure could swim a little. So could Censor Henshen. Worst of all, Liren could swim like a fish, though she hated getting her head under the water. It shouldn't require a light body art.

It was another four days up the river to Golden Fields Town. Censor Henshen explained that it was named after the fields of medical goldenrod that were cultivated in the area. There were rice farms too, of course, but the goldenrod was what made the town prosperous.

The docks at Golden Fields Town were less busy than at Bluestone City, but you could still feel the energy of the merchants moving up and down the river. They rushed ashore, running to meet buyers or sellers as their laborers unloaded heavy burlap sacks filled with who knows what. The smell of river water lay under the smell of tarred rope and sweaty men.

The sun showered its fiery qi on the world, as the yin river cooled it. The townsfolk caught in the middle could only wipe the back of their neck with bright linen handkerchiefs, fan themselves with bamboo fans and complain about the humidity.

The crane had long since flapped away. Locals with nets and arrows couldn't hurt her, but they could annoy the hell out of her, and Tian had some very close calls keeping her from killing fishermen looking for a little side income. Crane feathers brought in a tidy sum, and the meat was considered both medicinal and a minor delicacy.

He had to remind himself it would be hypocritical to burn down the feather merchant's shops just because he was friends with one particular crane. He did think about it, though.

"Where is the inn?" Hong asked a passing laborer. Who clearly didn't recognize an immortal traveling incognito because he responded with a quite complicated gesture and a quite simple expletive.

Hong let it slide. Tian nodded slightly, and then directed her attention to the actually important thing.

"Look, Sis', a tea house. Let's go get some tea and snacks. Look at Little Treasure and Censor Henshen. They look miserable. Definitely in need of tea and snacks."

"Haah. Alright. Why this one? You aren't usually this excited about tea houses."

"Don't you smell that?" The aroma was faint, but Counterjumper picked it out of the air.

"Nope."

"Good tea. And there is a Level Five of the earthly realm in there. We can get some local news."

The whole party paused when they walked in and heard the sound of an erhu. Fortunately, the musician was a stout woman who believed the music sounded better if you stared at the audience like they owed you money. Not a hint of immortal qi on her.

The qi was coming from a man sitting in a corner, enjoying an eight sided table all by himself. Hong raised her hand in greeting, and the man stood, bowed, and invited them to his table.

"Three Falls Temple Li Qiang greets the two fellow daoists. Please, join me. I had just ordered a pot of tea and some snacks."

Tian and Hong exchanged a look and a microscopic shrug. Tian stretched out his hand and displayed his storage ring. With a small flex of energy, a tiny picture of a crane silhouetted against a vast mountain emerged from the dull metal. "Ancient Crane Monastery, Tian Zihao. This is my Sister, Hong Liren. Thank you for your hospitality."

He didn't introduce Little Treasure or Censor Henshen, and Li Qiang was sensible enough not to ask.

"It is my pleasure. Fellow Daoists are in luck. Drifting Fragrance Teahouse is the best there is in forty miles in either direction up and down the Agate. Better still, they just got in a fresh delivery of Cloudy Dawn Tea. A small regional specialty of ours."

Tian and Li quickly fell into easy conversation over a shared love of tea. Hong kept up with the conversation, gently steering it to unimportant matters like bandits or heretics or journey-interrupting landslides.

"The only major threat around here is the Five Poisons Cult. Which isn't much of a cult, if I am honest. More of a gang with a theme. Their strength is real, though. At the very least, I'm not about to pick a fight with them. Heretics? Not… in the sense you mean, I think. But I guess that's debatable. I certainly wouldn't call their practice orthodox."

Tian mentally translated that as "I'm afraid they are hearing this, somehow, and will murder me if I mark them as heretics to cultivators from the Monastery, who have a well known 'Kill On Sight' policy for heretics." Tian could understand that.

Li Qiang was the sort of middling cultivator that you got in places like this. His cultivation art and natural talents were good enough to get him to level five, but reaching level nine wasn't even a dream by now. He would live to be a hundred and fifty or so, with luck and care. For now, he would live in the world as best he could.

The conversation kept coming back to tea. Taste, aroma, how it grew on different mountains, and the different ways one could brew it. The skillful tea service that Tian practiced was only one of innumerable ways, each with their strengths and weaknesses. For example, the number of people that could be served from a lidded cup would always be very few, and it was intended to require the full effort and attention of the maker. There must be more efficient ways- and there were.

"Waiter, bring a kettle of hot water! Daoist Tian, I want you to try something. Tea resin."

"What is that"

Daoist Li pulled out little black cubes. He dissolved a pair of them directly in the kettle, then poured out steaming hot cups of tea a bare minute later. Fragrant, juicy, a hint of astringency, it wasn't the best red tea he had ever drunk, but it was miles better than he would have believed possible for two little black chunks of resin.

He decided that he would call on Daoist Li later today, and invite him for a proper tea service. Finding people who enjoyed tea was common. Finding a real tea friend was rare. It would be nice to make a new tea friend.

"Daoist Li could I trouble you to show me-"

Hong coughed and looked towards the door. Tian used his perception art.

"Sorry, Daoist Li. About how many members does the Five Poison Cult have?"

"They are secretive, but I believe in excess of six cultivators and a hundred or more lay members."

"Your numbers are a bit short. I count ten outside." Hong was deceptively calm. Killing the enemy wasn't going to be a problem. Stopping them from taking Henshen and Little Treasure was.

"I'm sorry, Daoist Li. I will have to trouble you to keep an eye on my mortal friends. Censor Henshen, mind Little Treasure. Little Treasure, don't run around. Big Sis and I are going to have a word with the people outside. It's likely to be quite a firm word. Don't leave from the front door until I say. I'd hate for you to ruin your shoes."

The street emptied fast. Ten men dressed in black, with black hoods covering their heads. Each practically bristling with poorly concealed hidden weapons. Tian sniffed lightly. They did have a faint medicinal smell, but you wouldn't really suspect poison. Better than they looked, then.

One of the men spoke, cold voiced and high handed. Level eight.

"The Burning Heaven Cranes, Hong Liren, Tian Zihao and the Snow Empress. The crane is already in our grasp, and soon will be in our wok. You two will get similar treatment. In Hell."