Grandpa had to use all his persuasive authority to get Tian to sleep. He was pretty sure there was barely six hours until the next chamber opened, and that meant Tian had less than six hours to sleep, freshen up, and be ready to jump into whatever the next challenge was. Despite Tian’s almost unlimited supply of “Yes, but-”’s, Grandpa managed to carry the day with good, old fashioned fear of humiliation.

You don’t want to be the first person to flunk out, right? How embarrassing would that be? People wouldn’t even look straight at you anymore. Hong would say she doesn’t have a little brother as stupid as you.

“Grandpa, I’m trying to sleep.” Tian was snuggling down under his blankets. He had been standing with his arms crossed and an enormous frown on his face a moment ago, but naturally Grandpa was too wise to mention it. He just thought it really, really loudly.

It turned out that Grandpa was off by about half an hour. Tian found himself, and his bedroll, forcibly expelled towards a previously unremarkable wall at high speed. He was able to snag everything just in time to smack, elbow first, into a stalagmite, bounce off, then fall through the wall.

Into the fire.

Tian made a sound somewhere between a laugh and yelp and quickly jumped up and snagged a currently-not-on-fire stalactite. This worked for all of a few seconds as the stone was roasting hot and very slippery. He spotted a stalagmite who’s top was flat-ish and about half the width of his foot a bit below and to one side. With the keen instincts of someone who had been playing Grandpa's jumping games his whole life, he shoved off the stalactite and landed daintily on the stalagmite.

“Aha. Well. I’m dead.”

The whole cavern was on fire. Tian had no trouble seeing, there was light everywhere. Reds and yellows and blues and greens, patches of purples and in a few places, browns and blacks. Fire everywhere. It was fire qi, there was nothing for the fire to burn in here, but it was roasting him regardless. It would kill him. And this half-foot wide bit of stalagmite was one of the bigger places to stand out of the fire.

There was a long screech, and a bird came diving at him. Tian ducked- what else could he do? The bird was three times the size of him, but at least it didn’t have its claws out. It seemed more… “How dare something exist in the space I am flying through?!”

Tian laughed. For some reason, it seemed like the silliest, funniest thing in the world. The bird was a little chubby looking, with long tail feathers and a short beak all perched on top of surprisingly long legs. All made of multicolored flames. It was beautiful, like a bird made from the very concept of fire itself.

He thought of hot, still summer days at the temple, where even the martial fanatics didn’t want to be in the practice courtyards and it was too airless to be indoors. Those were the days when the ponds would suddenly be in need of cleaning, or brothers would take missions down by the rivers. Brother Wong would usually decide to harvest herbs along the riverbanks on days like that, and while Tian never learned how to swim, he loved wading in the cold water.

Looking up at the blazing sun in the wild blue sky, cooled by the water, smelling the green vegetation and the rich brown earth. It was all so beautiful. It was all so wonderful and precious and so, so far from the dump.

He could never go back, could he? That peace and warmth. His kind brothers and green lands and the wonders of a life lived in the wide open- they were all gone now. All gone, eaten up by the wasteland and heretics without compassion and Daoist Masters with little more compassion than the heretics.

His heart burned. He clutched his chest, as though he could squeeze the flames out. He could never go back to those hot summer days. Brother Meng slyly commenting on how hot and humid it was, and Tian not getting the joke but knowing it was smutty. Poetry Saint Zhu drifting from tree branch to tree branch, murmuring about the steel blue heavens or how banners hung limp for the military funeral.

A funeral. Brother Zhu never got a funeral. Not that Tian ever attended. The ashes were sent home. That’s what everyone said. The ashes were sent home and entombed at the Temple or wherever the Brother wished. Some were scattered in rivers or lakes. Tian had asked for his ashes to be mixed into the sand in the martial practice courtyards at the West Town Temple. He might reincarnate, but he wanted some part of him to be with his good brothers forever.

Everyone would die. He would die. He wouldn’t ever reincarnate, and his bones wouldn’t ever listen to the laughing and gossip of his brothers. It was inescapable. A future he couldn’t run from. Couldn’t hide from. Couldn’t fight.

He couldn’t breathe. He crouched down, balancing on one foot, trying to fold himself around the anxiety and pain in his heart.

And then the bird came screeching past again, flapping angrily at him, diving at him, making Tian dodge and twist as he tried not to fall off his literal toehold. It was too, too much. Tian felt the way he was flailing and could just imagine someone seeing him and laughing themselves sick. He couldn’t stop his own grin. It was pretty damn silly to be putting on a clown show in a sea of fire.

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The grin spread into a smile, then a manic rictus as laughter exploded out of him. It was silly. It was so damn silly! He was being dragooned into the politics of his elders and dumped into magic caves and there was a war going on for reasons he couldn’t understand and it was all just so insane! It was kicked in the head! So what was there to do but laugh. Tian laughed and laughed and laughed and hopped around on his toes, spinning in place as he waggled his limbs and laughed like a mad thing.

It was all so wild. But that meant he was alive! That he was joyfully part of the world. That his efforts were seen and valued and rewarded. All his hard work was not in vain. What a joy! What an amazing, wonderful thing! Even this crazy bird made from fire was amazing too! Tian roared with laughter.

He couldn’t stop laughing. It was starting to become painful. He was a little worried about it. That tiny spark of worry soon bloomed into a full-blown anxiety attack. Why was he still laughing? He was freaking out, he shouldn’t be laughing.

Was this cavern affecting his emotions like the water cavern did? Was he supposed to be so manic, he stopped caring and jumped into the fire? Or didn’t care about being on fire? It seemed quite possible.

That’s exactly what it is. Good job figuring it out. Now breathe steadily. Don’t try to cultivate in here, you wouldn’t like the results. Just breathe. Focus on your breathing. Steady yourself. What did Brother Wong teach you about the element of fire?

“Fire- yang, summer. Found in food like red meat, pomegranates, basically anything red. Which didn’t make sense then and doesn’t now either. But that’s what he said. Ah… associated with the heart-small intestine system. Um. Um. People with too much fire in their system should eat bitter greens, grains and beans so long as they aren’t red beans. And since it’s associated with the heart, it’s connected to emotions. Joy. The one unquestionably good emotion. And, and, and… oh! Anxiety! I’m sawing back and forth between joy and anxiety, just way too much of both.”

There you go.

Tian drew a deep breath. Once he knew the emotions were being pressed on him from outside, they were easier to manage. Now he was just standing in a cavern that was on fire, balancing on the ball of one foot. He wasn't going to be able to cultivate his way out of this.

“I wonder if the exit is on the ceiling.”

Because fire rises?

Tian nodded.

It’s not a bad idea, but it might be too early to jump to that conclusion. Look at the bird.

“It’s another qi spirit, right? This one to do with fire.”

Yes, the Vermillion Bird of the South. Not to be confused with phoenixes.

“What’s the difference?”

So many differences. Just… so, so many. Too many to describe in a short period. But at the most simple level, the Vermilion Bird is a kind of saint beast that rules a portion of the night sky, the summer months, a section of the calendar, the southern direction, and is the embodiment of fire. Phoenixes are, and you need to circle this phrase and remember it, phoenixes are auspicious beasts that bring great fortune. Strictly speaking they are another yin-yang breed, but most people categorize them as the embodiment of yin and the feminine counterpart to male dragons.

“Are all phoenixes female?” Tian watched the bird bash around the cavern. It wasn’t the most graceful, but it was very fast.

Nope. Male and female, fifty-fifty split. Dragons do skew male but there are plenty of female dragons too. Another one you can file under “humans putting their own crap on things they don’t understand.”

“Huh. I thought Hong said something about phoenixes being female.”

Representation of the feminine principle in yin and yang. Look, you want proof that this is humans being weird? Phoenixes do have some association with fire. They are actually pretty multi-elementally aligned, but there is fire in there. Fire. A yang element. In the feminine, yin principle bird. Meanwhile the supreme yang dragon, allegedly the highest level of masculine energy, is overwhelmingly associated with rivers, rain and the clouds. You know. Water. Yin. Female.

“There… does seem to be a bit of a gap there.”

Yes. There is a refreshingly straightforward explanation, however.

“Oh? What’s that, Grandpa?”

Dragons and Phoenixes don’t give the faintest damn about the opinions of hairless monkeys, and don’t care enough to correct their nonsense.

Tian figured that made sense. He looked around the chamber, trying to see if there was another rock he could jump to. The answer was… no. Not really. There were a few promising looking stalagmites, but they were too far. He would have to run through the fire, and that looked like a certain prescription for suffering and death.

“How do you think the last person got through it? I think there was a flash of red light when that first brother got kicked in. Do you think he had a fire elemental body or something?”

I kind of doubt it.

“Why?”

Look to your right, near where the Vermillion Bird is.

The bird was flying between stalactites. Tian had been wrong before, it was a lot more agile than he thought. It was the plumpness of the body that was deceiving. The bird itself could flow like smoke when it wanted to.

Tian squinted, peering through the flames. “I don’t see it.”

On the ground, next to the spot with three little stalagmites close together.

The shape was half wrapped around the base of the rocks. It wasn’t until a flickering flame bounced a spark of reflection off a thin ring that Tian figured it out. A skeleton, burned to blackened bones.

“Aren’t the elders supposed to step in and rescue people if they are dying?”

They said they would try. And that might be a totally unrelated corpse with an untouched storage ring. A ring and body whoever was in here last decided not to touch. Cultivators being notoriously respectful of the property of the deceased.

Tian stared at the body, and even with the flames licking his feet, he felt cold.