“Ancient Crane Monastery comes forth! Who dares bar our passage?!” Elder Feng’s voice thundered across the rocky plain before the fortress, battered its gates and shook its defenders.

“Burning stones and burning hearts stand eternal! Prove you are worthy of them!” A warrior exploded from the top of the fortress, flying forward to land in a clash of smoking iron armor and plumes of flame.

“A mere iron pot! Come debate the dao with me, if you dare!” Elder Feng drew a long, slim sword, wreathed with azure wisps of cloud.

“Gladly!” The warrior pulled a halberd out and leapt into the air. Elder Feng thrust her blade forward and leapt after him. They vanished from sight in a single breath. A few seconds later, muffled thunder descended on the watching juniors.

Who waited.

And waited.

Tian leaned over to Brother Wang. “So do we just wait, or issue our own challenges, or what?”

“No idea.” The big man shrugged.

“You are doing the fighting this time.”

“Ah, I prefer-”

“Brother Wang? There is being low key and there is fucking with your sectmates. Right now, you are riding that line.” Tian calmly met Wang’s eyes. The big man looked deeply at him, then snorted.

“Fine. OOOI! You lot! I brought my nutcracker! Which one of you thinks his shell is hard enough to stop me?”

Brother Wang pulled out a polearm of a sort Tian had never seen before. A heavy hammer on one side of the shaft, a sharp, curving pick on the other, and a spearhead on top. It wasn’t the longest weapon, but Tian couldn’t imagine the armor that could stop it.

Wang found a sparring partner soon enough. Then Hong called out a warrior, and their spears met in a furious blaze. Sister Su flung a handful of darts straight up, hard enough that they vanished from sight. She then swung a small formation flag at a rocky outcrop. The darts descended, accelerating fast enough to leave a series of rumbling booms behind them. There was only fine gravel and dust left when the barrage stopped.

“I don’t spar.”

Nobody seemed to think less of her for it, for some reason. Tian silently approved. It showed a certain broadmindedness.

He was a bit screwed, though. His palm art could just about struggle through armor, but hitting them hard enough to kill them would just be murder, not sparring. He could bind them with Snake Head Vine Body, but these soldiers fought monsters. He’d bet they had a way to deal with enveloping attacks. He could go in with the head of the rope dart or Heavenly Swallows, but again, it kind of defeated the purpose. And he would only get one chance to use Heavenly Swallows.

Annoying. Everyone else was having a satisfying, manly battle, and here he was, stuck on the sidelines. He was getting set for a good grumping session, when a thought occurred. Soldiers. Armored manly warriors in a slap fight. He had focused on the ugly turtle in the Water Cavern, but… that stalactite hadn’t lost, had it?

“I have had some dumb ideas. This is definitely one of them.”

He pointed at the tallest man on the wall. “Come join me. I have a very annoying fight for you.”

“Boy, you are level six! Come fight me when you are level nine and a grown man!” That got laughs. Tian smiled kindly.

“Are you that scared of me that you need to beg me to pick someone else? The biggest man on the wall has the smallest guts. I’ve already learned something from this visit.”

The big man jumped down in a clatter of armor. “You dare? Report your name, dead boy!”

Tian remembered the script his brothers had given him ages ago. “From sunrise to sunset, my name doesn’t change. I am Ancient Crane Monastery West Town Outer Court Tian Zihao. And if you had any brains, you would be running by now!”

“Hrmph! Burning Stone Manor Ten Man Commander Xiong Ru comes forth!” The soldier drew a saber and a shield. Tian pulled out his rope dart and started it spinning.

“Before we really get stuck into it, let me just apologize in advance. If you talk it over with your brothers, meditate, maybe eat some cooling food, you will get over it with time.” Tian kept his voice soothing.

“Enough talk!” Xiong rushed in. Ho didn’t know what he was doing with a saber. Xiong did. The shield was like the fortress wall, with the saber sallying forth to kill, then retreating behind cover when danger appeared. Tian met the advance with a retreat, and the snaking vine of his rope dart. If the shield was a wall, the rope dart was a sapper company, undermining it, building ladders to cross over it, and generally being a lethal nuisance.

“Footwork’s off. You crossed yourself up there.” Tian helpfully noted. “Breathing’s off. You could have timed your breath and the swing together. Now your wrist is open!” The blunt side of the dart hammered down on the iron gauntlet. It wasn’t enough to make Xiong drop his saber, but he could see the dent in the metal he left behind. It would more than sting.

“Shut up and fight!”

“I am fighting. I just make it look easy. Are you sweating, Daoist Xiong? That armor looks very hot. Hot. Stuffy. Confining. Hard to see out of that iron helmet. Hard to hear. You have no idea what’s coming up behind you. Right now!”

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Xiong jumped to the side and hauled in his shield, head swinging wildly from side to side. Only to see Tian idly swinging the head of his dart around. “Was there something behind you Brother Xiong? I’ll confess, you are so big I couldn’t see it either.”

The soldier roared and rushed in. His saber was fast as fire racing down a mountain, every swing as heavy as a boulder. The soldier was well trained, and had long since unified the movement of vital energy with every blow. A fact Tian used against him ruthlessly. Every blow missed. Often by a hairs’ breadth, but it still missed. Any time Xiong looked like he was about to pause and rethink his approach, Tian goaded him. Sometimes with a stinging blow from the rope dart, often just with more “helpful” advice and observations.

A mortal would have died of exhaustion long, long before Xiong gave up trying to stab Tian. “Why won’t you fight me, damn you!”

“Because I’ve won. Look- you can’t fight a moment longer, and I haven’t broken a sweat.” Tian smiled. “I did warn you that I would be an annoying fight.”

“You are the single most irritating person I have ever met.”

“Oh, Fellow Daoist! I’m only the most irritating person you have met so far.” Tian tried to be encouraging. “Life is long, and you have many new meetings before you.”

“In a real fight, you would be dead!”

“In a real fight, Fellow Daoist?” Tian picked up a rock bigger than his fist up from the ground and rested it on his hand. He made a show of examining it, giving the drilling, vibrating tendrils of Thunderous Palm time to dig into the stone. He then lightly threw it towards Daoist Xiong, who slapped it from the air with his saber. Xiong jumped back when the casual slap turned the stone into quite small shards of rock.

“In a real fight, Fellow Daoist, you would be fighting in a line with your brothers. You would form a wall of your shields. Your long spears and halberds would stab out, and when it came to the press, you would draw your heavy sabers and meet the enemy head on. And in a real fight, Fellow Daoist, I would be the person behind you, hauling your wounded off the line and making sure they didn’t die. I’d be the one keeping them in one piece until I could get them back to a doctor.”

Tian let his voice carry. “Daoist Xiong, haven’t we both seen too much slaughter to yap about a real fight?!”

“You are a doctor?”

“I’m an orderly and a field medic.”

“That explains how you fight.” Xiong snorted. “You’re okay. Irritating as hell, but okay. I can’t let you in until the Manor Lord permits it, though.

Tian nodded and put away his dart. “Understandable. I won’t ask you to drink wine on duty, but could I interest you in a cup of tea? Oh, Sister Su, join us. Let me introduce you to Fellow Daoist Xiong.”

“A pleasure, Daoist Xiong. Brother Tian, please do not produce your rice crackers. I stocked up on snacks at the Bamboo Medicine Hut.”

“That completely slipped my mind. Thank you Sister Su! Daoist Xiong please, join me at the table. Pull up a cushion and rest. Your feet must be tired after all that standing. It looks like Brother Wang is struggling in his match with your brother. What a pity.” Tian was steeping an inexpensive red tea, determined not to use his good stuff too soon. His ability to set up a small table, surround it with cushions, and lay out his tea set had reached a certain level of fluidity. Not yet at the level of an art, but Tian felt that day would come.

Xiong sat with a thud, helmet slowly shaking, clearly not able to catch up to the rhythm of Su and Tian.

“Did Brother Wang do something to irritate you, Brother Tian?” Sister Su asked.

“I’m choosing to blame my feeling like a bully after slapping around that Ho punk on him. It’s not actually Brother Wang’s fault, but I’ve never let that stop me before.”

“I see. Efficient. Surprising, though. I quite enjoy his company.” Sister Su sniffed the tea and made a face. “It’s good, of course, but after the tea at Bamboo Medicine Hut…”

“I know, I know. Here, Daoist Xiong, please give me your opinion on this tea. Let me know if it suits your taste.”

Daoist Xiong looked back and forth, shrugged, and grabbed the teacup in a gauntleted fist. He slurped it all in one go. “Good tea!”

“Daoist Xiong is too kind.”

“I’m really not. That is excellent tea. There is something to it…”

“Let me pour you another cup then.” Tian poured another round. This time, Daoist Xiong sipped it more slowly.

“Is there… did you somehow… no.”

“Please, Daoist, what is your question?”

“Daoist Tian, did you somehow add fire qi to, to tea? Even as I ask that, I know it’s not right, but believe me, there isn’t a brother or sister in Burning Stone Manor that isn’t keenly sensitive to fire qi, and I’d swear this cup was rich in it. Or at least… there is something going on with it I don’t understand.”

Tian tried to think what it could possibly be. These were utterly ordinary leaves, purchased through Brother Long ages ago. Then he smiled softly and fed more wood qi into the lamp in his heart. He let that heart-flame qi heat up the tea in the lidded cup, then poured the tea through the strainer and into the pitcher. He refilled Daoist Xiong’s cup again.

“Try this, and let me know if the taste of fire qi is stronger or weaker.”

Daoist Xiong took a sip. He paused. Tian could see his eyes going wide and he took a second, slower sip. He was clearly savoring it. Soon he was staring into the bottom of the cup, clearly wishing it was the size of a bucket.

“It’s fire qi. It’s clearly fire qi. But not like I have ever experienced it. It’s fire qi that warms but not burns? No, that’s not it either. It’s not even much more rich in qi, it’s something else.”

Sister Su nodded. “I’m not particularly sensitive to fire qi, but now that Daoist Xiong has pointed it out, I see what he means. It’s not that there is more fire qi in it, it’s just easier to feel what fire qi is.”

Tian looked over at Sister Su, his eyes going wide. He knew she was sharp, but that…

“It is the one truth of fire qi I have learned, beyond ‘I NEVER want to be burned again.’ I share it with everyone who joins me at my tea table. I pour my elemental understanding into every service.” Tian said. Nobody had mentioned being able to taste fire qi in his tea, even if people had been showering complements on it recently. He took a sip. He didn’t detect whatever they were detecting. Could it be a remnant of the Six Turns Cavern? Or perhaps… his eyes glanced over the tea pet he got from the Saintess.

Perhaps something was happening below the surface.

Daoist Xiong gave Tian a heavy look. “Would you be willing to share this with some of my brothers and sisters?”

“Assuming our elders end their debate on a happy note? Sure. We are only here for a few hours, though.”

Daoist Xiong stood, clasped his hands and bowed. “On behalf of the garrison of Burning Stone Manor, I thank Daoist Tian for his generosity and immense broad-mindedness.” He turned and faced the wall. “SQUAD! Get over here and bring a kettle with you. Ancient Crane Mountain thinks they can brew Mountain Strong tea, and I need you to come and laugh at ‘em!”