The group quickly made what few defensive moves they could. Tian’s first instinct was to pull out some barricades he had in a ring, but quickly decided against it. The Monkeys would be attacking from the trees, either coming straight down on top of them, or attacking from a high angle. Nothing he could cobble together would give them an edge there.
The Wang Clan prepared differently. Brother Wang quickly hung a talisman around his neck, while Sister Su slipped a carved bit of gl...
Tian didn’t watch the others cross. He sat on the ground, casually crossing his legs under him and cradling the pinecone. He felt an immense quiet, and like the null chamber in the Six Turns Cavern, it forced him to confront himself.
“I have spent so long worrying about excess yin, without asking myself why I should care. Yes, balance is needed for health, and right now, I have a medically insufficient flow of yang, but… so what? Once it is healed, once I am back to norm...
“We can start with the obvious- we must cross the river to progress. The river is covered with an explosive haze that condenses approximately six feet above the surface, while the ‘water’ is tiny snakes that explode with clinging, poisonous fire if removed from the river. Or possibly if they are disturbed at all.” Su began dissecting the problem.
“But we don’t know if just disturbing the snakes is enough to make them explode. Also, it is important to note that the explosion ...
“This is not my fire. This is not the kind of yang qi I want.”
The fire poison was a vile thing, viscus, leaving a residue of itself wherever it passed that would grow and spread until it had reduced a human body into a seed bed of poison flames. If fire could be hungry, it was a hungry fire. If fire could be cruel, it was a cruel fire. Sticky, slothful flames that ate and ate until they had consumed everything and left nothing except the memory of inescapable burning. ...
Prior to writing Sky Pride, I wasn't a tea guy. I now have a whole tea brewing setup next to my desk. Currently got some white tea in the jar, but I have a regional sampler selection of raw Pu'Erh teas on order because that is a very normal thing to do. Pu'Erh is what I've been calling Harmony Village Tea in the books because Pu'Erh is the name of the (now) city the tea comes from, and I couldn't...
Tian’s first move was the product of years of careful, expert training, built on top of a couple of months running through the jungle. It might, to the uneducated eye, have looked like wild flailing. Nevertheless, he was prepared to argue that it was really very tactical and sophisticated, especially since flaming monkeys jumping at your face with their enormous teeth and jagged claws and flames leaping off their white-gold fur merited the highest level of combat.
Brother Fu’s bamboo raft looked exactly like the ones Tian remembered from the Agate River- a single layer of thick bamboo poles, bound with cross sections of bamboo at the front and rear. The tips of the raft were tilted up slightly, and that was about that. He could imagine a cormorant fisherman with bare feet and short linen trousers polling it along, a straw rain cloak over his shoulders and a rough straw hat shading his head. There would be a basket for the catch, and stinking dropping...
“Physically, you are in decent condition. Your mentality seems strong, and your meridians are as they should be. The lower and upper dantian are working properly, and while your organs are out of balance, you aren’t at risk of sudden collapse. So long as you remain reasonably calm, nourish your yang with external means and strenuously avoid dissipating your yang qi, you can resume your normal activities.” Brother Fu patted Tian on the shoulder.
“Check the elemental flow going through your legs and your feet. It’s a powerful light body skill, so your weight is really nothing much. The hard thing is balance. Which explains why the manual puts so much emphasis on muscular control, I guess. You really don’t want to make any thoughtless moves, or you would definitely take a spill.”
Tian shifted his weight around. It was odd but logical that the strange drifting motions of Moon Crossing the L...
Tian let the dart slide from his sleeve. It still felt utterly amazing to use, but there were people around so he controlled his reaction. He let it hang just off the ground, then gave it a light kick. The heavy head swung forward and up, and Tian flowed with it. The moves weren’t explosive, and lacked the spearlike, thrusting quality of his usual moves. Instead, each swing moved like a reaching hand, or a waving branch. Not trying to pierce, but wrap. The moves looked slow, because on Tian...
Tian looked at Sister Su, trying to figure out if he had heard what he thought he heard. She sipped her tea, and made a minute nod of approval. It seemed he had met her expectations. Tian glanced at Liren, who nodded casually.
“Not like it’s a secret or anything,” She said.
“Wasn’t it? Sealed trial ground, ancient and precious treasures waiting for the first brave enough to come and take them…?”
Liren, Brother Wang and Sister Su all shook their heads as he spok...
Tian looked enlightened. He slowly nodded, stroked his chin with a small smile, then went back to his breakfast of chicken and chillies paired with glutenous rice. He drank his particularly fiery red tea with a quiet satisfaction, though the tea didn’t suit the food at all. He couldn’t complain about the pairing. He needed a heavy-yang diet.
“What?” Liren asked. Her breakfast was tofu and young cabbage washed down with a bowl of soy milk, and in Tian’s opinion, it was co...
It wasn’t too hard to sort everything out. Tian’s heart dantian was damaged, which meant the fire qi and yang qi in his body was dangerously low. Tian was relying on his wood aspected vital energy to keep himself alive. It was the most yang energy he had in any real quantity, even if it was considered minor yang compared to fire’s major yang. If he had to spend more than the bare minimum of his yang vital energy on an art, it meant it wasn’t available for things like warming his blood...
Three months into his convalescence, he was visited by Brother Fu and a stressed looking senior who practically screamed “Overworked Scholar” with every move. He was introduced as Librarian Yan, one of their few remaining experts on archaic script. Liren was in the room with him, painting quietly as he read his medical books.
“The manuals you brought back have been given a preliminary translation. The language is fundamentally the same as what we speak today, but you already know ...
The hospital stay was originally supposed to be for a week, but was extended another week, then extended again for a month, minimum, and he was told not to fixate on his release date. He should just focus on getting well. His body eventually stabilized, but he was still terribly prone to catching cold phase diseases. Tian thought there was a cruel irony to an immortal sneezing, though he didn’t feel very strongly about it.
He had a hard time feeling strongly about much of anythi...
“Quite a special find. Well done, both of you. A spirit nurturing mountain, a wood-fire qi dragon and a metal-earth qi tiger, both properly raised and kept well balanced by the mountain. And each other, obviously.” Elder Duan stroked his long black mustache. Tian wasn’t particularly familiar with him, but he was apparently the one to ask about ancient qi spirits. There had been more experts on the subject in the Monastery before, but now, they just had to make do with whoever was left.<...
Tian and Hong spent a couple of days not-quite-bedridden. It was very easy to take things very easy, and they had plenty of medicine. Their body cultivation sped up the healing process, but broken bones were broken bones- not quickly mended. They had plenty to keep occupied with.
“I think this symbol means ‘argument.’” Tian guessed.
“Why? ‘Argument’ doesn’t even make sense in this context.”
“Yeah, but if this is the symbol for house, and this is the symbo...
The tea did, in fact, survive. For most of the brief battle, Suneater had confined himself to brainpower attacks. Tian’s tea set had survived too, except for the murdered cup. His tea pets… Tian had to admit, they did look more lively after they had been fed the ancient’s tea. The phoenix looked glossy, almost ready to start preening. He was tempted to dump a few more servings on them, but… a tea session was a ritual. These things had their own meaning. Patience. There wasn’t any ru...
TL:DR- What the title says. Also this cold is persistant as hell and screwing with my sleep. But mostly the title. And it's no longer the five directions palace but the eight directions palace.
Slightly longer version- I had my vacation, I have a stockpile of chapters, and even though this damned cold is screwing with my writing speed/schedule, I'm holding it down. So there won't be any change in the posting schedule through the holilday season.
Liren didn’t wait, lashing out with the blunt end of her spear to smash Suneater’s skull. An invisible hand flicked it away.
“Not even a trace of qi. Pure vital energy. This is pathetic.” Suneater laughed. “Let’s see-”
Tian didn’t wait either, the rope dart came snaking in from the side, going for Suneater’s spine. It, too, was slapped away. A moment later, so was Tian. An invisible force sent him spinning through the air and smashing into a rock. He fel...
Tian and Hong made their way down the rough stone path into the hill. The grey stone was rimmed with green. Moss, growing thick from the damp, made little forests next to lakes of lichen and the occasional rising mountain of stone. Tiny landscapes, scattered like a thousand fractured worlds across the cave. The only light came from the hole leading outside, but that was alright. Perception arts were things every young immortal was expected to master.
Tian, Hong and the crane set off from the Monastery proper, loaded with every sort of useful thing their limited budget could buy. It wasn’t all that much. The Monastery had never bothered stockpiling mortal or earthly goods. When Tian asked about who did the laundry, he got a rather pointed look and the Martial Aunt he asked snapped her fingers. Her already immaculate robes were suddenly crisp looking, and with a faint smell of camilla blossom.
Tian and Hong jumped down the mountainside. Navigating Ancient Crane Mountain had become an interesting challenge for the forcibly sequestered daoists. The Monastery had never been designed for use by anyone below the Heavenly Realm. One of the signature abilities of the Heavenly Realm was flight. It led to certain efficiencies and design choices that, while utterly logical to their creators, would strike most mortals as profoundly insane.
Roads, for example. Difficult to make, difficul...
Tian and Liren weren’t the only two who had been growing. The Sky Grace Crane had been slowly transforming since they came to the mountain.
“Assuming transformation is the right word for becoming more of yourself, but better.”
Tian sat on the back of the crane with Liren. The crane used to need a week between transforming between her giant form and her more normal size. Now, it was just a few days. Less if she was only transforming for short bursts, like ferry...
Tian groaned. “I didn’t think everyone knew about that.”
Sister Sia laughed, covering her mouth with her fair hand. “It’s a small monastery these days. The “secret prize” for winning the Earth Realm Tournament wasn’t much of a secret for very long.”
“Still though.” Tian grumbled. He had never liked being watched, and liked even less the notion of people knowing when he came into money. His commitment to appearing perpetually broke might drive Liren to the ver...
A week passed since the tournament ended, but the martial square was being used for boxing once again. One cultivator was tall, muscular, manly and valorous, the other short, athletic, and leaning more towards pretty than rugged. Fast steps stirred the sand as slim white palms struck out; the right hand fluttering upwards towards his opponent’s face like a drifting wing, while the right stayed low and relatively close in. There was a seeming slip, a bare half step off balance, but when the ...
A slim white hand gently guided a heavy fist off to one side, fouling the axe blow chasing behind it. The axe wielder’s situation was made even worse when a heavy, if petite, foot smacked into their calf. The sudden loss of support saw the axe man falling forward, bringing the point of his chin into a rising palm, twisting his head hard to the left and rattling his brain. The axe man collapsed onto the dirt, eyes spinning and trying to find where he was between earth and sky.
TL:DR, oof. Necessary break, very necessary, but I am bad at this kind of rest. Vol. 5 starts on Monday, 10 am Eastern US time.
Longer answer:
I... have a cold. Not a very severe one, but it's here. Fortunately, I have started really investigating tea as part of writing Sky Pride, and it seems to be helping.
In addition to tea, I have been dipping in and out of a few b...
So after four days away from my usual schedule, I feel the anxiety of not writing creeping up on me. Still, the enforced stillness is good, because it makes me reflect on what I have written so far. I already see some major changes that need to be made to Vol. 5, moments that I knew felt wrong when I wrote them, but I can now see why they were wrong. On a related note, here is the first book I read on my vacation:
Those of you who have been around for a while might remember that poll I ran about what kind of book I should write next. Sky Pride is what eventually came out of that, so, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. But 'Classic Xianxia' was the second place finisher. First place was a parody werewolf romance novel, which admitted was added to the poll as a joke. Most of you probably know the story from there- I tried to read some of the books and they were pornagraphic to the point where I'd be...
