Chapter 38- Enemies Meet on a Narrow Path

Tian didn’t plan on introducing himself. He could see a lot of Outer Court disciples just ‘hanging around’ Hong Liren and her True Disciple grandmother. He immediately thought of dogs waiting to come forward and wag their tails, hoping to please the human and be fed. The thought was revolting. So he turned sharply for the barracks and left them chatting on the road. He got about two steps.

“Junior Tian, join us.” The words seemed to pierce through the air without resistance, landing directly, and crisply, in his ears. He turned and walked over, fixing his robe as he came. He gave his best polite bow, eyes looking down just as Brother Fu taught him.

“West Town Temple’s Tian Zihao greets the honorable True Disciple.”

That got a snort. “Polite for a feral child, aren’t you?”

“My thanks for Seniors’ kind words. I still have a lot to learn.” He did too, there always seemed to be some new book of etiquette or some collection of anecdotes that ended in a storm of blood over a breach of protocol.

“Look up at me.” Tian did as instructed. He never really understood the not-looking-at-people thing, but it was important to the kicked in the head, and that was what mattered.

“Life wasn’t kind to you, was it?” Grandmother Hong was beautiful. Tian understood what was beautiful and ugly now, and she was unquestionably fair. Her skin was milky white and without blemish, her features perfectly symmetrical, the sweep of her eyebrows framed endlessly deep almond eyes. Tian vaguely thought that Hong Liren had a lot to look forward to, if she was going to grow up like this.

“Not particularly kind, Senior, but others have suffered worse.”

“Have they?”

Tian nodded. “Yes.”

Grandmother Hong kept looking at him, then suppressed a giggle. “You really are just going to leave that there, aren’t you? You have worked through most of the polite phrases that you memorized, and now you are just drifting out over the waters of conversation. You aren’t even worried about your lack of paddles or direction.”

Tian didn’t say anything. He hadn’t really been asked a question, and besides, she was right.

“Little Liren tells me that you are a clod, a first rate idiot, ugly enough to make birds fall out of the sky and fish float belly up in the river, smelly, raised by wolves, and quite possibly brain damaged.”

Tian nodded. That sounded like something she would say.

“What she didn’t say, but was clear from her story, was that you have been looking out for her since you arrived and judging by the back of her robe, you killed at least one ambusher who would have killed her.”

Tian nodded again. It was also true.

“Why?”

“She is my Sister.”

That made Grandma Hong blink in surprise and shoot a hard look at Liren. “Explain.”

Hong Liren, who had been staring at Tian with barely concealed shock, buried her face in her hands. “He means in the sense that we are both members of the West Town Outer Court. And in no other way. We haven’t exchanged cups or anything like that. He doesn’t even know what that is.”

“Good. Good.” The senior breathed out a little. “But really, no other reason than she is your ‘Sister?’”

“I don’t need any other reason, Senior.”

Grandma Hong slowly smiled. Tian couldn’t quite put together what she was feeling based on the expression. Amusement, contempt, maybe even a touch of sadness all seemed to drift over her.

“Did you know that, when you rise to the Heavenly Person Realm, your memory improves a lot? It’s not quite a perfect recall, but it’s rather close for mundane things.”

“I did not, True Disciple Hong.”

“It’s true. I will remember you, Tian Zihao.” There was something in her voice, some little twist of sound that made the hairs on the back of his neck rise. Like a rustle in the grass, or a growl from a dark cave.

Tian bowed. “Thank you, Senior.”

“Dismissed.”

Word got around that Tian had a private conversation with a member of the Inner Court. One who was the Grandmother of Hong Liren, no less. It wasn’t exactly rare for members of the Outer Court to have relatives in the Inner Court. It wasn’t exactly common either.

“You have to do some math on this.” Brother Su explained after his patrol got back to the barracks.

“An Earthly Realm cultivator can live roughly two hundred years if nothing goes wrong. Maybe two hundred and a bit with care and luck. Most don’t live that long, because things do go wrong all the time. A Heavenly Person Realm cultivator can live eight hundred years easily. Of course, those are under optimal conditions. Earthly Person Realm or Heavenly Person Realm, if one is injured or killed, well, that’s that. Except Heavenly Person cultivators heal a lot better, have infinitely better means of preserving their lives, and so on and so on.”

“There are fewer Inner Court disciples, but they live a lot longer.” Tian followed the thinking.

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“Yes, but not exactly my point. The ratio of Outer Court disciples to Inner Court disciples appears to be roughly three or even four to one, but in actual fact, if we looked at the number of recorded names for each Court in a thousand year period, it would probably be closer to forty or fifty to one. Why?”

Tian thought briefly. “Because people die. There is a new outer court disciple in each town roughly every ten years, but people are dying at that rate too. But only a very, very few people ascend.”