Chapter 44- One’s Own Time

There was one more round of fights before it was agreed that it was all quite enough for the night. The agreement largely seemed to be on the part of the Five Elements sect, and Brother Wang was able to persuade his martial siblings that it would no longer be sparring if they chased down their retreating hosts. Sister Su had been watching the whole thing while crunching sunflower seeds. She wasn’t quite up to sparring yet, but she had a look in her eye that suggested she wanted in on the action.

“I was expecting more variety in their tactics.” Tian didn’t keep his voice down. There wasn’t a literal black cloud hovering over him, but the metaphorical one was heavy with lightning.

“Right. Even though they had magic weapons or shields, what they were really relying on was their talismans. Once they realized that they weren’t going to have the time to build up an array, they collapsed. Mentally, anyway.” Hong agreed. She sounded more puzzled than irritated.

“We are cheating,” Tian laughed. It was nasty enough to make the party from Ancient Crane Mountain look over at him with a bit of worry. “I figured out why Mao-whatshisname looked so wrong. He was off-beat. Literally. We were constantly pushing him off the rhythm he was trying to build. We weren’t playing along with the things he was saying, we didn’t fight the way he wanted us to fight, and we weren’t taking him seriously.”

“Oh for-” Hong started rubbing her forehead.

“And because of that, he was irritated and flustered. He was rushed. He didn’t have time to properly think through what happened to my opponent, he didn’t notice the timing of when the array exploded, he didn’t try to make any deductions- he just kept trying to force things back onto his schedule.”

“Not very daoist of him. Nor very strategic.” Brother Wang smiled like a benevolent saint upon a suffering world. His purse was now more of a satchel, or possibly a sack. There had been a lot of takers at the odds he offered, and he was able to rip off an additional chunk for the final round of matches.

“It’s the overspecialization trap, similar to Bamboo Medicine Hut but not so bad. Five Elements Courtyard has some grasp of tactics, positioning, making best use of their equipment, and by the end were at least trying to use light body arts.” Sister Su’s voice slid from cool to acidic. The change came when she saw how Daoist Mei was glued to Brother Wang’s side, firmly wrapping his arm in hers.

The big man was half again taller than Mei, and four times her weight at least. She seemed to have no problem with any of that. Judging by the happy little humming noises she was making, she downright approved.

“But their boxing was non-existent, their swordplay wasn’t much better, and the flying shields just kind of hovered there. If you know the enemy will try to rush you as soon as they realize they are dealing with an array master, light body arts and close-in fighting should be priorities for practice.” Tian shook his head.

“How about it, Lil’ Mei? You any good at close up work?” Wang looked down with a grin.

“Nope!” Mei giggled and smiled up impishly. “Little Daoist Tian has it all backwards. The better you are at making arrays, the less you want to learn how to box. It takes suuuuper-duuuuper long to learn everything about arrays, and if you are good with them, the bad guys die or get trapped before they even know you are there. KaaBOOM! And even if they did know, they can’t beat your array. So if you are spending time learning how to swing a sword around…”

This time it was Mei whose grin was suggestive.

“It’s just a hobby you practice for fun. I can sympathise. I swing a long and heavy hammer, though.” Wang concluded. “Ah, I can practically hear the losers biting their pillows and kicking their feet in frustration. The patter of other people’s bitter tears is wonderfully soothing when accompanied by the chime of a full purse.”

Sister Su cocked her head to one side. “And yet, they are a kingdom dominating sect. Clearly there is something we have yet to understand.”

“Hmm. Daoist Mei?”

She shook her head quickly. “I don’t know how we came to run Three Rivers Kingdom. I just know that most of the work I did in the Redstone Wastes was setting up other people’s arrays. Other sects, I mean.” She giggled. It wasn’t a laugh. You couldn’t possibly mistake it for a laugh. There was too much jiggle for it to be anything other than a giggle.

That got a grunt from Sister Su, who was looking increasingly darkly at the way the cheerful Mei was hugging onto the even more cheerful Brother Wang. Tian had transcended the merely fed up and was ready to vomit with irritation.

“Feast still going on?” Tian asked.

“Ah… no. Since most of the guests had left, they wrapped it up.” Brother Wang looked regretful.

“Perfect. What a delightful end to the evening. I’m going back to my quarters and making a meal out of what I managed to grab on the way out. What a fine welcome.”

Tian gloomed his way back to the guest house. It was hard to see the beauty of the Five Element Sect through his mood. Everything seemed lively around him. The trees swayed and shimmered with a glow of stored sunlight, or were lined in pale blue moonlight. The grass crunched under his feet with sudden bursts of orange and cedar or the smell of grass on a hot day after a heavy rain. The little windchime tinkle of the pale blue flowers fell on deaf ears, as did the harmonizing nightingales.

What little shards of wonder that managed to fight through the dark clouds were met with a sneering, disdainful, “Illusions.” Never mind that he didn’t have the faintest idea how one could do any of this. He likewise ignored the fact that all this exceeded what he believed was possible with vital energy. He did immediately acknowledge that there were enormous gaps in his education as a cultivator. Another failing by the Monastery.

His mind was jerked back to the first study session after he came to Windblown Manor. Sister Su had argued in favor of a job specific education, rather than a general one. He knew her actual opinion was more nuanced, but she was generally of the opinion that any education not put to a productive purpose was life wasted.

But how could you know what would be useful or important to know later in life? A year ago, Tian would have said he didn’t need to know anything about arrays, or the kingdom’s economy, or their neighboring sects. And yet, here they were. No closer to a solution. His dao heart was stronger than it was when he left Depot Four, no question there. But he was still pissed off, miserable, frustrated, and completely without faith in the Monastery.

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He found a rock in the courtyard to sit on and pulled out his bowl. He had eaten half of it before he realized he wasn’t alone.

“Oh. Didn’t see you. Sorry.” Even he didn’t believe he sounded sincere.

“You looked straight at me, and didn’t see me. I’m not asking, I am telling you that you looked straight at me and didn’t see me. If I thought I would succeed, I really do think I would try to kill you right now.” Lin said. Her tone was conversational, but Tian believed her.

“Fair.”

“Fair? How is it fair?”

“At the moment, I think stabbing people who frustrate you is fair.” Tian kept eating. At the very least, he could be fed. “You weren’t at the sparring grounds.”