Chapter 5- Home, Safe and Sound. For Now.

The four strayed Cranes chattered in a noisy flock by the side of Voidcatcher’s pond. It was all a chaos of words, but so what? They were together, and happy. Brightheart shifted around, holding himself in reserve and making occasional excuses to leave the group, but settled down when he was pierced by a trio of stares.
“Brother Brightheart, where would you even go? Can you even fly out of this garden?” Tian asked.
“Ah… no.”
“This is our first time visiting here, most of the guests are pretty solitary. A cultivation session can last a year if it’s short, with no upper limit. Or so Master said, anyway.” Burning Heaven was pecking her way through the food they brought back from Burning Flag City. It was all bad stuff, far worse than anything available on the mountain, but it was new, and that was good enough. “For some long-term guests, they have been in closed door cultivation for thousands of years.”
Tian shook his head. “I actually want to go close up at home for a while, and I can’t even imagine staying utterly housebound the whole time. A week, sure. A month seems manageable. But a year? Impossible.”
“Things change as you get older. The days slip past faster and faster. I’m not even a tenth the age of some of the guests and students here, and I can close up for six months without really noticing.” Brightheart shrugged. “When you really get deep into it, the meditation takes on an all consuming quality. The visualization process becomes your complete awareness and you stop noticing your thoughts. They still zoom past, but they have no relevance, if that makes sense. Like being aware there are clouds in the sky. An individual cloud makes no impression upon your mind”
Tian tapped his leg, thinking things over. It made sense. Actually, he was looking forward to it. He felt a bit bloated. So much had happened, he had learned so much, grown so much, gathered so many resources, that he needed time to digest it all. Just sitting in his quiet cave, the comfort of having Liren nearby, with Burning Heaven flying in and out through the hole in the roof, sounded perfect. They hadn’t even really sorted through everything they looted from the last battle, and while they had been through the loot from the fortress and warehouse several times, they just didn’t know what some of the things they liberated were. Grandpa was a help there, but he only really cared about things that immediately helped Tian. Everything else was just “Junk, sell it,” with an occasional “Oh, that’s kind of okay. It should get a good price.”
There was also the ticklish question about how to handle the immense stockpile of heretical goods. Tian’s usual instinct was incineration, but Grandpa strongly advised against it. Without a specialized furnace capable of capturing the fumes, burning a lot of the hellish goods would simply be spreading poison and blight. He’d have to visit the Mission Hall, or maybe the crafters, to see about proper disposal. Maybe even the hospital.
“Oh. Happy thought.” Tian suddenly smiled. “Sis, don’t you think the Wang Clan is suffering right now? There was already a resource shortage before we left, how much worse must it have gotten after two years?”
Liren’s expression turned angelic. “I’m sure they are doing their best. But we would be false friends if we didn’t exploit their hour of need.”
“Err… Help them? Were you trying to say help them?” Brightheart asked.
“I’m going to help them. I’ll help them a lot! Just… compensated helping. Instead of selling it to the sect for merit points or whatever, we can make an investment in the Wang Clan. Sooner or later the ward is coming down, and all that built up entrepreneurial drive is going to burst. Supplying them with inventory and resources now is the perfect time.” Liren’s smile seemed to come with a growing halo of joy. Tian had a sneaking suspicion she had never really gotten over the whole “Getting ripped off by mortals” debacle.
“Yeah, there isn’t much we actually need from the sect, other than its existence I suppose.” Tian smiled softly. “It’s existence is enough. It was lonely, out in the secular world.”
Both Brightheart and Burning Heaven gave Tian an odd look, and then gave Liren one too when she started nodding along with him.
“For some reason, I think all the elders in the sect just felt a sudden stabbing pain in their livers.” Brightheart muttered.
“Nonsense. They will be very proud that Brother and Sister are so self reliant. Don’t they always go on and on about how busy they are? Now they have two excellent disciples that won’t take up their time. Once again, they have proven their superiority.” Burning Heaven disagreed.
They chatted happily for most of the day, until Voidcatcher returned. Heavenly Demon and Jin weren’t with him.
“You two have done very well. Very well. You could have been a bit quicker, mind you, and don’t think I didn’t notice you prioritized Merciless’ brat and half forgot about my poor disciple, but it wasn’t too long, and no harm was done.” His dewlap throbbed with dignified, modest, reserved satisfaction, suitable for an elder. The hairs on the back of Tian’s neck popped up like a formation of enfeebled pikemen, trying to stop the rush of a monstrous toad.
“I have decided to grant you both an extra reward. An extraordinary opportunity, quite simply unique in the entirety of the Wasteland.”
“Teacher’s immense generosity and consideration is an inspiration to this little daoist. Nothing else is required, truly.”
“Yes, that’s right. That I am doing such a thing is proof of that immense generosity and consideration. Who else would provide such an unspeakably precious chance for immeasurable benefits to someone he already paid? Only someone with the true benevolence befitting a teacher.”
Tian had the benefit of a year of Voidcatcher’s education, and a lifetime of Grandpa’s diligent teachings on the importance of both critical reading and critical listening. The words “Immeasurable,” “Unique” and “Extraordinary” were swiftly matched to their literal meanings, while the words “Unspeakable” and “Chance” were directly placed in a medical grade furnace for incineration.
“No, it’s too much. I really must refuse. Thank you, but it would be simply too shameless of me to accept.” Tian shook his head, hands clasped before him.
“Don’t be so hasty, you don’t even know what it is. Don’t belittle yourself either. I have told you this before. Only I am permitted to speak poorly of my students.”
“Teacher’s methods are endless and peerless, how could it be anything less than heaven shaking? It is far too good for this little daoist, who won’t belittle himself but is properly modest. Us sect siblings will just close up for a while, meditate on our failings and strive to improve. We will come out again in a decade or two, when we have made some improvements.” Humble and soft, yet unyielding, were the words of Tian.
“You are far too young to speak about closed door cultivation. A mere two-digit baby, wanting to close up? Absurd. Where is that youthful fire, that drive for the pinnacle? As your teacher, I must scold your faint heart.”
“Your student was wrong! To apologize, I will go close up for thirty years and reflect on my lack of ambition. Perhaps I shall take a heavenly oath-”
“None of that, none of that!” Voidcatcher raised a calming hand. “I can see that your time in the secular world has been hard on you. Since you want to close up, how about I provide you with a secluded cultivation environment? I know of a particularly special one, utterly private and quite secure against interruption from the outside world.”
Tian shook his head vigorously. “I have not seen my father’s face in almost three years, nor visited my brothers, nor my teachers in the sect. To leave without spending at least forty years visiting them would be far too unfilial. I already have a mountain of merits waiting to be spent on Heavenly Realm techniques, and likely to have more soon too. Those will need to be studied and mastered before I could even consider heading out. All of which is to say nothing of my own weakness. In the face of absolute power, all tricks are worthless, or so I am told. A giant horse spirit kicked me over the horizon. How could I show my face in the world without enough strength to bridle and saddle the beast?”
He sighed, shoulders slumping. “I say forty years, but my Teacher told me I’m no genius, and I do believe my teachers. It will probably be fifty years. Or sixty. Hopefully, I don’t disgrace you and I am ready to adventure again within a century.”
“Well, that’s where a unique, deeply secluded cultivation ground would come in handy, of course. Easy to hide your shame and inadequacies. Why fuss over your sect’s mediocre techniques? I have already given you a cultivation art…” Voitcatcher trailed off, before glancing over to Liren. She took a sharp step over and planted herself at Tian’s side.
“Fine. What if I gave you a year to get ready?”
“For what, teacher?” Tian blinked, innocence radiating off of him.
“A secret realm. Very secret. So damn secret, I only found out about it a few years ago when young Starsieve made his move and shook the wasteland, in fact, which is definitely not a coincidence.”
“Sounds too dangerous for this little daoist. Thank you for-”
“You think I don’t know you by now? You might not be greedy, but you are stubborn as one of those stupid spirit oxen. Let’s find out what kind of carrot you hunger for, before I start finding stout enough sticks.”
“Should I start slandering spirit oxen too? I believe Daoist Earth’s Blessings ears will soon be ringing with all the unkind words said about him.”
“Good. The old fraud is going deaf, he needs people to speak up about what a loser he is. And no, the Divine Ox Clan has a strict policy of “Don’t start anything, but finish everything.” You don’t need that kind of enemy when you are serving… when you are taking advantage of the immense opportunities provided by your caring teacher.”
“And… why would I be going to this secret realm?”
“You, singular, would not. You collectively would. It’s the place that the young prince of the Stellar Descent Cult is trying to get into, and the whole reason he is suffering in the Wasteland of Song in the first place. It’s my gift to him. And since your… remarkable… dao companion appears to be fused with what I suspect is the entry token to the hidden realm, your presence isn’t dispensable.”
“Ahah.” The word “fused” was quickly linked to the strange stone token Liren had refined. It seemed whatever she did to it hadn’t obliterated it as totally as he believed. Which meant that, one way or another, Liren would be going, and Tian should quickly take advantage of any soft methods Voidcatcher was offering.
Ask for enough spirit beast core pills to take you to the limit of your spirit body, ensuring that no animal is represented more than ten times, his true teachings on herbalism in the Heavenly and Human realm, and a high enough quality yang natural treasure for Liren to ignite her next sun. He won’t agree to any of those things, but it gives you a strong, but not insane, opening position to negotiate from.
Tian did exactly that, and was interested to learn a giant toad can both swoon and bellow at the same time. “BOY, DO YOU THINK I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE CULTIVATING?! SCRAM FROM THIS MOUNTAIN FOR GRANDDADY!”
“Well, I could just go lower down on the mountain…”
“Not without legs you couldn’t.”
Tian quickly took a step back and let Liren take over the negotiations. They went a few dozen rounds, Liren making it quite clear that, yang physique or not, she was absolutely willing to remain hiding out in a cave with Tian indefinitely. Voidcatcher, displaying the insight one might expect from someone with paramours across numerous continents and species, offered a method to craft reliable, side-effect-free, contraceptives using herbs commonly found on the mountain and in other spiritually rich places. The negotiations quickly picked up after that.
They eventually settled on a year’s downtime, the contraceptive recipe, and a herbalism manual that Voidcatcher guaranteed was “The product of mediocre minds relying on plodding methods to produce something that wasn’t the pinnacle of right, but was at least not egregiously wrong.” Which Tian understood to mean was probably exceedingly excellent, if not up to his teacher’s standards. Liren was also able to bargain for an energy concentrating array suitable for their realm, as well as a portable dwelling imported from the Northern Expanse. Tian gave Liren a grateful look. He knew why she asked for it.
As for the energy cores and pure yang natural treasure, the highest Voidcatcher was willing to go was a technique to minimally process the cores Tian acquired in the wild. It would enhance them, though not to the extent of a pill refined by a competent alchemist. “Of course I’m not carrying any. Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve even seen such a low-level pill? Do you carry around gravel? No, that was… put it away, put it away, I don’t have any and don’t have a convenient way to get you that many, even if I was insane enough to agree to such a thing, which I’m not.”
Strongly yang natural treasures were simply too rare and valuable to be acquired easily. When Voidcatcher heard that Liren ate a yang sunflower with absolutely no alchemical processing, Tian really thought the old monster might faint.
“Begone, begone! Here’s your books and techniques and fripperies. Burning Heaven, kindly take your humans and scram down to the monastery for me. I can’t order you around, but it’s either that or I just throw ‘em off a cliff and hope they land on some of the soft heads down there! But be back here in a year, or I will drag you over by your ears!”