Chapter 20- Each Unique Suffering Life

The two were quiet for the rest of the day. They were used to monastic life, and while the brothers and sisters had certainly never taken a vow of silence, they did spend an awful lot of time meditating. The two juniors had picked up on the habit. Tian was grateful for the quiet. His head was throbbing. Spending the day meditating was boring, but it wasn’t the worst.

Though eventually, Tian felt the need to ask something. “So, just to be clear, you aren’t rich? Because I was sure you were rich.”

“I’m not rich. I’m richer than you, but you are the poorest person in the wasteland. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible. Frankly, nobody believed you could do it. But by heavens you managed to out-broke the heretics.”

“People keep telling me that, and I don’t understand it. I don’t feel poor. Sometimes I don’t have enough money or merits for things, but it’s not that big a deal. Things work out.”

Hong laughed softly. “Your meals are paid for by the sect, your weapon is paid for by the sect out of what you were paid by the sect, for work you did serving the sect, to someone working for the sect, made out of materials gathered by other people in the sect. You live in a temple built by the sect, on land owned by the sect, study scriptures written and collected by the sect, wear a uniform provided by the sect… are you seeing a pattern here?”

“Yes? I am a lay brother of the sect.”

“And how does the sect have all these things to give you?”

“No idea.” Tian shrugged. He had never really wondered. It’s just how things were.

“Do you know what rent and taxes are?”

“Yes, they turn up a lot in the books Brother Fu makes me read.”

“And the giant flying barge whose main function is international commerce, at least according to my sisters?”

“What’s international commerce mean?”

“Trade between countries. But in this case it’s really trading between sects. One of my sisters had a junior that’s now in the Inner Court and works as a clerk. Apparently, the Summer Torrent goes on these crazy long trading loops, like, ten or twenty years or more, picking up absolute oceans of stuff in each place and carrying it around until it finds a place to unload them for a profit. There is a whole factory’s worth of crafters up there, as well as a decent sized herb farm and a whole bunch of other stuff. Like a giant convent that flies around and tries to earn as much as it can for the sect.”

Tian laughed softly. “Hard to imagine. I was on it, and it is hard to imagine.”

“Yeah. It takes a whole lot of money to let you live like a bum.”

Tian got treated the whole thing like a puzzle to pick apart. On the one hand, the sect didn’t treat him as anyone special. Brother Fu did, and Elder Rui did, and Auntie Wu and the brothers, but not the sect as a whole. What he got was the same as what everyone else got, more or less. A bit better because he was in the West Town Outer Court, but that wasn’t about him.

On the other hand, Hong was right. There were mortal servants in the temple. They had to do grain inventories to make sure the mortals were providing everything they were supposed to. That grain came from somewhere.

He silently wrestled with it for a few hours, then shrugged. Hong had settled in to read a book and yelped when Tian spoke out of nowhere. “Too big. I don’t understand it. But I know what the brothers hope for me and expect from me, and that’s going to be enough for now. Everything else, I’ll figure out later.”

“Whatever makes the brothers happy, huh?”

“Yes.”

Hong sighed. “Lucky you.”

They set out the next morning just before dawn. The growing daylight was blinding after so much time in the dark. The compass rings pointed the way back to the depot. Nothing else to do but set off. They traveled an hour away from the rocky ridge they had camped in when they spotted another caravan.

“Do you know what those animals are?”

“No clue. They have four legs like a horse, but other than that…” Hong shrugged. “Looks like they have both cargo and passengers on them though. One person per… whatever that is. And they are moving very slowly too.”

Tian counted about two hundred people in the caravan. They were wrapped up like he was, but their clothes were much looser. Tian narrowed his eyes. “My perception art is still rough- is that woman carrying a baby?”

“She is. And she isn’t the only one. Look, that… whatever it is… has two kids riding on it.” Hong pointed, ignoring the fact that she and Tian were both just thirteen.

“Mortals. There are mortals crossing the waste. There must be cultivators mixed in with the caravan, but it feels different from the merchant caravan.”

“It’s moving a whole lot slower, for one thing.” Hong agreed. “What could they be doing out here?”

This narrative has been purloined without the author’s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“No idea. But I bet you they are headed for the hidden cavern. At the pace they are going, it will probably take them a few hours to get there, if not most of the day.”

“Makes sense. It would explain all those cubbies for one thing. How are they not getting eaten by everything?” She asked.

“No idea.”

They watched the caravan trudge along. “I don’t think there are cultivators in there. I think it’s all mortals.” Hong said.

“Why?”

“Just a feeling. Look how slow they are moving. A merchant convoy hiring Gu Masters as they leave Black Rock Gorge kind of makes sense. This is a tribe migrating. There is nothing in it for a cultivator, and it would have taken a lot of work to make that space in the hill. You wouldn’t do it for nothing.”

They watched the caravan for a few more minutes, marveling at the dromedaries and the loose fluttering robes of the mortals. A couple of them had even built simple sun awnings and attached them to their saddles, so they could ride in at least some shade. Tian thought that was pretty clever. It would be annoying to carry an umbrella all day, but he saw the appeal. The sun had a way of drilling into you.

“Giant scorpions. Demonized birds. Those little burrowing bugs that pop out of the sand and there are thousands of them and they all have stingers longer than my thumb is wide. Every. Damn. Day. How are they alive?” Tian wasn’t willing to let it go.

“No idea. Maybe it’s because they are mortal? If it worked for cultivators, we would be doing it.”

“That can’t be how it works.”

“Want to go ask them?”

Tian sighed. “No. That is something the brothers taught me. Nothing good comes from mortals mixing with cultivators.”