Chapter 18- The Education of Saints

“Congratulations on achieving longevity. May you find the immortality you seek.”

The White Peacock appeared in human guise, emerging from a cloud of rainbow colored smoke. He was a tall man, with long upswept eyebrows, an elaborate hairpiece made of ivory studded with gems, and a robe of white silk that subtly displayed such a bewildering array of textures and gradations that the eye could become lost in its folds.

Tian had the sudden feeling that he had never before seen a true immortal. This is what a true immortal expert looked like. Starsieve looked practically homeless in comparison! He shared a glance with Liren and they cupped their fists and bowed in unison.

Silently. Because they might have just broken through to the Heavenly Realm, but rules were rules. The White Peacock very slightly nodded, and said “For the duration of this conversation, you may speak as you will. Were you instructed to join Little Heaven on her trial?”

“No, Grandmaster, we were not. I wasn’t intending to come at all, until she found me and invited me.” Tian answered. Liren nodded along.

“The same is true for me, Grandmaster. We were both otherwise employed before she found us.”

The expert looked them over, and hummed slightly. “No, I don’t believe in that sort of coincidence. Not with the foundations you two plainly had. Foundations that were deeper than they seemed. Dog Nose, drag your raggedy ass out here for your grandfather!”

“Old bird, are you tired of having feathers?! I’ve never slept on a peacock feather pillow, but I’m game to try!”

A voice echoed faintly in the air, followed by a rainbow arching high above before plunging down into the garden. The new arrival, who Tian firmly did not think of as “Dog Nose,” wore the blue and white of the Ancient Crane Monastery, a spectacular jade dragon hair pin, and carried a waist pendant so enchanted it gave Tian a headache just looking at it. Tian didn’t have to be told who it was. He clasped his hands and bowed deeply.

Keeping his mouth shut. Again. He had bad luck with the “talking” thing, and his mind was still lost in that all consuming, all creating void of his vision. There was a lingering feeling of being the tiniest piece of something so big, the little piece had lost all understanding of what he was. Despite that, two mighty ones, who were also part of the big thing, were mad at each other, about him. Much too difficult, much too complicated for a little bit of nothing like Tian.

“Sending your juniors up the mountain to endure a tribulation is a new one, but fine. I’ve looked out for the birds and beasts hanging around your sect for so long, I can tolerate a few humans. But do you have any idea how much thise… precocious youths just cost me? I’ll tell you right now, my arrangement with the Human Emperor doesn’t extend that far!”

“Not nearly as much as you have earned. Standing as dao protector for the ascension of not one but two sanctified body immortals? Who seem to be making a decent bid for being true saints, I might add. Go try to scam someone else, Old White, I’m not buying.”

“Merit is good, but do you know how many spirit stones I just burned? To say nothing of the cracks on my poor turtle shell! I’d be lucky to get another hundred years out of it. Where am I going to get a replacement for it, eh? From you?”

Tian firmly tuned out the quarreling seniors. He tried to recapture the memory of what he just went through. His mind skittered away from trying to recall the dreadful gates sealing his fingers. Something about them was too wrong, too unnatural to stay fixed in his mind. Instead he thought back to the great void. It should have been terrifying, but it wasn’t desolate. It was comforting. He was finally seeing something true, and real, and wonderful, even if he didn’t understand what it actually was. It felt good to experience that ultimate reality, even if the sudden absence of it pained him.

There was a moment of quiet. Tian glanced up to see the two elders glancing down at him.

“Just so you know, Disciple Tian, while we aren’t reading your mind, your shen is spilling out everywhere, amulet notwithstanding. So while I don’t know exactly what you are thinking, I can feel it. And the word you are very carefully not thinking of is ‘Performative.’ I see you are still struggling with the concepts of deference and reverence.” The man with the jade dragon hair pin said.

More or less confirming that the sect master, or someone working for him, had replaced Elder Rui for at least their last meeting. Which was worrying.

“Maybe it’s just you. He has been extraordinarily obedient and respectful for his teacher here.” The White Peacock smirked, his eyes narrowing and carrying a certain glint in them.

“No doubt.” The Sect Master growled. “That’s why I let Rui turn him loose. Venerable Pursilane is a true expert who supports her juniors mightily, so long as they are properly reverent. And she has ways of motivating reverence.”

“Who?” Tian blinked, doing his best to look abashed. The Peacock wasn’t looking abashed at all. He was smiling like a man watching a treasured flower bloom.

“What? Why are you smiling like that?”

“I’m afraid Daoist Pursilane isn’t taking students right now. She and Daoist Warsong have concluded their long dance, and finally married. They are currently on a tour of one hundred kingdoms to celebrate. The rumor going around the Holy Land is that she’s already pregnant.”

“Pregnant? She’s a plant, how can she be pregnant?” The Sect master looked as bewildered as Tian felt.

“The medicine Dao has never been a strength of mine. You could always ask the boy’s teacher.”

“Why? Who’s teaching him?”

The peacock’s smile grew ever more brilliant.

“Wait. If Warsong is also gone, who is teaching Disciple Hong?”

Stolen novel; please report.

An interesting thing, in a day full of interesting things for Tian, was learning that there was no upper limit to how brilliantly a super-expert like the White Peacock could smile. He was haloed in a nine-colored rainbow, and his smile still beamed more brightly than all of it.

“Disciple Tian, report!”

“Reporting to the Sect Master, I have the honor to study under Venerable Voidcatcher. Sister Hong studies under the honorable Venerable Merciless.”