Chapter 44- The Heart of Tea

Tian tossed another pair of heads onto the pile. One of the seniors was going around incinerating the bodies. Tian just wanted to save him an extra stop. That senior was busy enough.

These heretics, even the Earthly Realm ones, had all sorts of vile tricks. Poison was the least of it- some cultivated gu inside their bodies, or plagues. Burning was the best way to deal with their corpses. Anything that survived the fire was worth further investigation. Anything that didn’t survive wouldn’t have been worth picking up in the first place.

“It has been a hard few days.” Tian muttered. He glanced at the ring he was supposed to deliver. The arrow was pointing at an exhausted looking woman leaning against the warehouse wall. Tian walked over and bowed. “West Town Outer Court Disciple Tian Zihao greets the senior. Just to confirm- you are Quartermaster Wu?”

“Eh? Yes? Young man, you are naked!”

“No, I am Tian Zihao, Senior. Delivery for you.” He held out his hand. The ring lit up with a gentle golden light.

Quartermaster Wu blinked, then started laughing. Tian thought she had a nice laugh. “Alright, you are Tian Zihao. I have received your delivery.” She removed the ring and put it in her pocket, then replaced it with a new one.

“You have twenty-four hours to rest here at the base before making the return trip. Use the time to take a shower and find some pants. Being covered in blood and organ meat is not considered an official uniform, even if it does seem to be the tradition of our West Town Outer Court.”

“Senior?”

“I’m one of Senior Sister Bai’s. Even if she is technically my junior now. You must be one of Mad Dog Fu’s brats. You have his style. You really never noticed you were naked?”

“I wore that on my trip in.” Tian pointed at the rotting carcass of the giant hawk. Then added, in a fit of honesty “I also just don’t care. I mean, I’m naked, so what? If there is one place propriety doesn’t matter, surely it’s the middle of battle.”

“Don’t let Senior Sister Bai hear you say that, she’d tan your hide! You really are one of Mad Dog’s. Go quickly. You stink. The showers are in that building there.” She waved him away. “Oh and Junior Brother? Don’t worry about your battle merits. Your ring will have recorded some of them, and you have plenty of witnesses. You won’t be short.”

“I didn’t think of that, Senior. Thank you for your care.” He bowed and turned towards the showers. The blood was starting to dry, and it was pretty uncomfortable. He was a little surprised to find the showers were full. It seemed a lot of people needed to wash off.

Dressed, clean and with his wounds tended to, Tian sat on a step, watching the cleanup. It had been a major raid, and came frighteningly close to succeeding. Had it not been for the sudden weakness of the demonized hawk, casualties would have been much worse. They might even have lost the base entirely. Some of the heretics had run, but didn’t get far. Their suits were ruined in the fighting. The wasteland soon claimed them.

Tian checked himself over. He had inhaled some of the rock particles. He would have to slowly clean them out. His hands were shaking. He looked down. Why were his hands shaking? His eyes were going blurry too. Was this poison? Had he been cursed?

You survived things that should have killed you. Endured terrible pain. Killed people. Watched people die. You also have what people persist in calling a mild concussion, but let me tell you there is nothing ‘mild’ about concussions. The physical wounds will heal as you cultivate. The mental wounds… will also heal. But it will take longer. Grandpa Jun’s voice was gentle.

“Did I make you proud, Grandpa?” Tian’s voice cracked.

You always do, Tian. You always do. Tian felt grandpa’s hug, and he was right back to the junkyard, starving, sick, weak, but surviving. Grandpa’s hugs were the best thing in the whole world then. Sitting on the step, Tian wrapped his arms around his chest. Tried to imagine hugging Grandpa back. Tried not to shake.

“Would Brother Fu be proud of me?”

He is. He is.

Tian was only thirteen years old.

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There was no escaping an interrogation. Two Inner Court members had seen him come crawling out of the demonized bird, and more had seen him charging through the battlefield stark naked, waving his rope dart around.

The situation frustrated his interrogator enormously. Had Tian been a demonic cultivator, everything would have been quite straightforward. Simply behead him, and then go for a well deserved sleep. But the young man plainly wasn’t. There wasn’t the vaguest hint of demonic qi about him. They checked, repeatedly. In detail. Excruciating detail. In fact, Tian smelled faintly of lotus and something earthy.

Lotuses are known for their purity. This young man wasn’t an evil cultivator. But his story was also plainly nonsense.

“You survived being dissolved in the hawk’s stomach.”

“Yes, Martial Uncle.”

“Dissolved in yin acid.”

“Yes, Martial Uncle.”

“By transforming it into a medicinal bath.”

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“Yes, Martial Uncle.”

“You understand that’s horseshit, right? Complete horseshit.”

Tian shook his head. “I don’t know much about horses, Martial Uncle.”

“You can’t just dissolve and call it a medicinal bath because you cultivated in it!”

“Oh. Sorry. Oh, Martial Uncle.”

“Oh, OH? What do you mean, ‘Oh?’”

“I didn’t know I couldn’t do that. So I did it. The alternative was dying. So I just did it. Martial Uncle.”

An Inner Court disciple knocked on the door and passed his interrogator a note. The senior read it, and burned it to drifting ash with a glare.

“You are free to go. Expect a reward. And I may beat the shit out of you one dark night for violating every sane law of existence I know. I’m putting it down as “Had a fortuitous encounter,” which is our catchall for this kind of thing. But the beating is still very much on the table. For now, you get to walk away on two working legs.”

“Thank you Martial Uncle. Is there a bed I can sleep on?” Tian sleepily noted the phrase “this kind of thing, but was too tired to pursue it.