Chapter 2- First Under The Heavens

Brother Fu stood rooted on the ground, his voice a rolling chant. Each word landed like a graven tablet, like a bronze stele carrying the supreme law.

“The things of the world burst out everywhere, and each returns to its own root. Returning to the root is called stillness; this is called returning to destiny; returning to destiny is called constant; knowing the constant is called enlightenment.”

The sky convulsed. The dragon palm ripped apart the clouds and fell into self destruction in a tangle with the stores of lightning that remained above. Fu’s voice throbbed and dug into the ears of everyone still in earshot. Tian recognized what was happening. It was dao charm, the same as what he and Hong left the Six Turns Cavern with. Brother Fu was just carrying a lot more than they had.

“Not knowing the constant one acts blindly and ill-omened. Knowing the constant one can accommodate; accommodation leads to impartiality; impartiality leads to kingliness; kingliness leads to the heavens; the heavens lead to the Dao.”

The air shook. Tian could hear trilling songbirds and the bone shuddering ring of ancient temple bells.

“With the Dao one may endure, and to the end of life one will not be in danger.”

The sky ripped apart. The clouds fled, the lighting faded as though it was ashamed. The starlight gathered and descended on Brother Fu, anointing him and lifting him up. He was lost in them, seeing… something. Seeing that revelation that had eluded him for two hundred years. His own personal understanding of immortality.

The starlight drifted over the base and condensed in a small area around Brother Fu. Tian felt the motes of light enter him and heal the damage done by the lighting. Then they healed the damage done by the battle. The Hell Suppressing Sutra found something it recognized, and started running, incorporating the blessings into him. He looked over at Hong. She was lost in shock. Not that he could blame her. But as the big brother, it was his duty to remind her.

“Cultivate. This is an opportunity.”

He followed his words with action, The Advent of Spring uncoiling within him and reaching up for the light. There were so many things to think about and remember, but one thing he would never, ever forget.

When everyone else ran and his father faced the wrath of a mad god alone, Hong stood with him. She didn’t run. Heavenly People did. The Elder did. The Direct Disciple ran too. Hong didn’t. He etched that into his bones, right beside his father’s love and his brothers’ endless care.

People rushed into the empty space around Brother Fu. Tian recognized the doctors from the hospital- no amount of heavenly healing was going to stop Doctor Pei and Brother Wong looking like death warmed over. Others quickly joined. Martial Aunts and Uncles gathered around Brother Fu. Tian saw the gathered cultivators looking longingly at him… and then they turned around.

Tian seared the scene into his mind. It was a moment where the heavens descended and the dao blessed an ancient mortal and the accepted truth of the world was overturned and they turned around. They put their back to Brother Fu and drew their weapons. Doctors and quartermasters and administrators and monsters of the battlefield, they drew arms and stared into the darkness. Ready to die to protect Brother Fu in his moment of transcendence.

It was too big. Too much. Tian had seen so much cruelty, so much disregard, so much callous calculation by the Monastery. They had said the base was safe, that the battlefield was elsewhere. How many died because they were so wrong? How many were deemed acceptable losses, their deaths not in vain so long as Eunuch Hei died? But for Brother Fu, they turned their back on the chance for their own enlightenment and stood guard.

What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to feel? Right now, how was he supposed to feel?!

Two hundred years of accumulation for a single moment of brilliance. The light dimmed, and the stars dispersed back to their heavenly courses. Brother Fu descended to the earth, still white bearded and soft eyed but no longer frail. He stood like an ancient pine, straight and tall after endless winters. His eyes flashed as he looked around the shattered Depot. What he was seeing, what he was looking for, who could guess?

“TIAN ZIHAO drag your carcass over here at once! Unfilial beast! No son of mine is going to use that kind of language in public, and NEVER to a senior. Not once in all my years have I seen something so disgraceful! Let’s just see if these old bones can’t teach you about dignity and propriety!”

The next few days were utter chaos. Many people gave Tian iron-clad orders. He was told to stay put in the base and not move an inch. To leave the barracks at once, and camp out at the Hospital. To go back to the barracks. To depart at once for the Inner Sect, or certain remote temples. He was to never leave Hong’s side, and coldly informed that he would not see her again for decades at least. He politely nodded at everything, agreed to anything, and did nothing.

Nobody knew a single damn thing about what was going on, elders included, and none of these people were, so far as Tian knew, in any position to order him to do anything. So he stayed put in the base, and did his best to hide out next to Elder Rui. He no longer considered the Elder reliable, but as his patron, Rui had an interest in keeping Tian alive.

What was more alarming was the number of people who wanted Tian and Hong anywhere but near Elder Rui and the newly elevated Martial Uncle Fu. Especially since Martial Uncle Fu was going to become Direct Disciple Fu as soon as one of the Daoist Masters could be shifted over from the Monastery to collect him.

Tian knew it was all about politics and he could make some guesses as to what the problem was, but since this outcome was apparently the optimal outcome the Monastery was hoping for… why was everyone acting like fools?

Tian went around, checking up on who made it through the battle and who didn’t. Brother Su had been out of the base, as had Senior Sister Bai. Brother Three Nights Hwang, who had taught him so much about his perception arts, hadn’t made it through the battle. His body was pulled out from under a mound of demon corpses. Even in death, his hatchets never left his hands.

Brother Wong had been in the Hospital and lived, but had overdrawn his vital energy and would need at least nine months to recover. The damage to his meridians might never completely heal. Tian was sure they would. That heavenly light seemed able to fix anything. He kept his mouth firmly shut. The wounds were deemed so serious, Brother Wong was being sent back to West Town to recuperate. Auntie Wu was flying back with him. Tian couldn’t get a straight answer about what happened, and he wasn’t allowed to see her. She would live, he was told, and that was better than some.