Chapter 25- Glorious Pillage

“Third Generation-”

“Never mind that, do you know who Elder Starsieve is today?” Tian asked. Hong hesitated, then shook her head. “The Grand Elder. And my father’s master.”

Hong staggered a second. “Ah. Alright. So we are… very unlikely to catch hell for being here, then. So long as we are respectful.”

“I’m not going to touch the roots of anything, let alone a “dragon vein,” whatever that is. You?”

She shook her head slowly. “I’m too yang already. Phoenix vein? I might be tempted. Dragon Vein does nothing for me.”

Tian nodded. “Just going to… leave the words “other side of the Heavenly Realm” right there. I’m sure that doesn’t mean what I think it means.”

“I mean, it might be talking about death.”

“That is a possibility.” Tian nodded.

“Sweep up before we leave?” Hong asked, her voice bright.

“Lets make sure we tidy away any dropped leaves and the like, leave it better than we found it, that kind of thing.” Tian agreed. “Let’s check out the pond.”

“Shame the oranges and berries aren’t in season. I can’t help but feel like we are missing out.” Hong sighed.

“I’m not so sure.” The pond was almost glassy, still and clear and dreadfully deep. Tian couldn’t see the bottom of it. The phrase “Dragon Pool” did leapt to mind. He tried to banish it as quickly as it came.

“I don’t see anything, do you?” He asked. Hong shook her head, then frowned.

“The demon came out of there, though. It wouldn’t be down there for no reason.” Hong said.

“It also said we would go in the hole. I’m… not seeing any holes other than this pond.” Tian squatted down and stared into the depths. Liren joined him and delicately touched the water. She jolted, then gasped.

“Sister?!”

“It feels so nice!”

It was Tian’s turn to stagger. “Nice? It feels nice?”

“You have to feel this. It’s so, so soothing. Talk about moderating yang with yin, this is it right here.”

Tian put his hand gingerly in the pool and nearly collapsed. It was like his hand was being taken care of. Like his hand was now filled with cooling, healing water. Like every little problem was going to be alright. He just needed to relax. It just needed time. There was no rush. There was never any rush.

He yanked his hand out. “That does feel nice. And dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

“How long do you think you can hold your breath for?”

“I dunno, five minutes?” Hong shrugged. “Longer, actually, now that I think about it. Maybe more like thirty or forty minutes?” She slowly dragged her hand through the water, luxuriating in the feeling of it running between her fingers.

Tian waited a moment.

“You know what? I really don’t know, but I’m game to find out. I’m going to just dive in-”

“I’m going to stop you there.” Tian looked grim. “You would drown. You would be so comfortable and so relaxed, you couldn’t be bothered to do anything. Just like the water cavern, except more so.”

Hong blinked in confusion, then frowned. “You are right. Damn. That’s sneaky. I guess we just use buckets to fill up a barrel or something?” She reluctantly pulled her hand from the pond.

“Nope, I’m going in.” Tian shook his head. “The demon was in there for some reason, and I’m pretty confident in handling a high yin environment.”

“Oh please! I’m overwhelmingly yang. Too damn yang. Why do you think you would be better?” Hong argued. Tian just looked at her. She looked back. Tian sighed and looked over at the crane, who appeared to have zero interest in getting in the pond but was pretty interested in the unripe oranges.

It took Hong another minute. Then, “Right. You were eaten by a demonic hawk and came out fine. You took a bath in yin acid, allegedly. Still seems dumb sending the person who can’t swim to work underwater.”

“Beats the person who won’t swim. I’ll tie a rope around my waist. Stop lowering me if I tug twice on the rope. You haul me up if I tug three times fast on the rope, or when… ten minutes… have passed.” Tian pulled out a length of rope. His brothers had stressed the need to always carry rope, and that there were only times when there was too little rope and not too much. The ‘length’ turned out to be a hundred feet of half inch thick sisal. “This will do for a start. We can always tie a second rope to the first if we need to.”

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“Brother Zihao…”

Tian looked up from untying his robes. Liren tended to just call him “Brother.” She never called him “Bro” though she occasionally slipped up and called him “Brother Tian.” “Brother Zihao” usually signified something important.