Chapter 10- The Use of a Sect

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 you cover one half of the charicter with your thumb and squint, it kind of looks like the symbol for ‘woman.’ And when you lift your thumb it looks like there are two symbols for ‘woman’ smooshed together, and if you imagine an extra line coming out here, and this bit going more swoosh-”

“Now it does kind of look like the modern character for argument. If that’s the origin of that symbol I am going to riot.”

Tian nodded understandingly.

“You are thinking that I’m proving the ancestors right, aren’t you?”

“Never!” Tian lied.

Hong eyeballed him, then rolled her eyes and snorted. “Still doesn’t make sense in the context. Liar.”

Tian decided to display the magnanimity of a big brother and not quibble. “It kind of does if you read the previous passage as “Solar-Lunar air in ‘unknown’ to form the vast ‘unknown’ true qi, nine nails overcome all argument.”

“You just spent twenty minutes arguing that ‘overcome’ should be read as ‘fix,’ in the sense of fixing something in place.” The degree of stink eye from Liren intensified.

“I did, yes.” Tian nodded. “On the other hand, I’m just looking at pictures and thinking what other pictures they kinda-sorta look like and guessing, so I’m not too fixed on any particular reading.”

Liren groaned and covered her eyes with her hand. “I do not understand how scholars live like this. I don’t understand how they think like this. We are basically translating one type of character into another, and then trying to guess what those characters meant to their authors and translate that into what makes sense to us. If we don’t guess right, we could cripple or kill ourselves trying to use it.”

“Speaking of knowledge that could cripple us, Suneater mentioned something that I only heard Starsieve mention before- shen. You ever hear of ‘shen?’”

“Not before Starsieve, no. I’m pretty sure it’s what Daoist Steelshimmer called “Brainpower.” Liren closed the book firmly. “It would make sense. Vital energy for the body, qi for the, well, qi. The…” She groped for the words

“‘Animating breath’ is what Brother Fu called it.” Tian offered.

“Right, yeah, but that doesn’t really help me. I just tend to go with it and not ask questions.” Hong sighed. “It’s like the dao- in everything, nothing would exist without it, but unlike the dao, you can store some of it in a purified and condensed form inside of you and do stuff with it at the Heavenly Realm. Or something. I think.”

“That matches what I’ve picked up. So shen, or brain power, is, what, the mental equivalent of qi? That feels too… Qi is a big part of how the world works. Vital energy is the basis of our bodies, our physiques and from the sound of it, you could also say it’s the basis of our future potential. What gives shen the right to be put on that kind of level?” Tian shook his head.

They lapsed into silence for a bit ruminating. The sound of the stream running through the cavern had long since become ignorable background noise, but that didn’t mean it was silent. The rocks would groan or knock sometimes. They had no idea why. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with them.

“This is why our seniors kept telling us not to try and learn about the realms above us, isn’t it? We are focusing on what’s too far ahead, and not figuring out what immortality is to us now. Not building our foundations.” Hong’s voice jolted Tian out of his reverie.

“You might be right.”

“We need actual experts on this to translate the text into modern characters. And to provide commentary on what the authors meant by it.”

“Yeah.”

“Good thing we have a sect right here, with experts.” Hong’s voice went soft.

“Yeah.”

A different sort of silence settled on the cave, gathering and pooling around them, pressing on them until it forced the word in Liren to overflow.

“You still want to leave. Even after Starsieve got rid of most of the worst parts of the sect.”

“Yeah.” Tian stared up at the stalactites. “There are so many good things here. So many good people. And I look at them and think ‘You were okay with killing families because they became weak. Because there was no one who could speak up for them. That’s the system you grew up in and supported. You decided that was the best way to look out for untalented descendants, or at least you decided it wasn’t worth taking a risk to try and stop.’”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He tracked a spreading blue sea of lichen across a little patch of rock. He had read about oceans. He had been on some pretty big lakes. Maybe it was about the same? He still couldn’t swim though.

“It’s not that I hate them. I just… don’t want to carry that weight. I don’t want to hide the dead boy, or explain that I was born six years old. I don’t want to grieve for you, and I do. I don’t want to wonder how the brother I’m sparring with, who earned enough merit to get dragged onto the mountain, had somehow managed to balance out the sin of family extermination. And I know some of them must have, because Brother Fu is here, and so is Martial Aunt Bai, and Elder Rui, and other seniors who were certainly involved.”

“You are thinking of it like a swing arm scale- sin pushing down one side, merit the other. But I don’t think it’s like that. I think it’s like sacks full of rocks. You are carrying both, and you keep carrying them until you can set them both down. In this life or another.” Liren’s voice came out muffled. “It’s the Hell called ‘And.’ Balanced one way, they are saints. Balanced the other, they are villains. But nobody is all one thing, so I have to think about how my parents… out of love and self preservation…”