Chương 87: Book 2, Chapter 9: The Heavenly Body

They left the Sima compound and set up their travel yurt a small distance away so Dami and her father could treat Yong. Song used the time to practice his martial arts with Jinu and his brothers. Meanwhile, Eunji went for a ride to, in her words, 'be free of children for one bedamned minute'. Song went through the first form of the Stellar Crane, his hands stretching out like wings before he twisted, flashed with light, and reappeared to swing his staff at an imaginary enemy.

As he did, he infused the strike with his Void qi while trying to envision the 'multi-faceted splitting aspects of light' that Master Crane had told him the second technique was based on. It didn't help. Tae and Wook were ignoring him, caught up in their own sparring, so Song sighed and found a small dry-ish outcropping to drop into lotus position. He slowly cycled his qi, feeling for any bottlenecks or blockages.

Qi that was both dark and light at the same time flowed slowly through his upper and lower Shao Yang and Shao Yin meridians. It was smooth and tinged with the feeling of the moon - a likely side-effect from the Moonscale Carp he'd ingested. ["You're pretty… okay with all this."] Cyrus said while they sat there. ["A burning pile of bodies not an hour ago and you're just back to practicing, eh?"] ["Bandits aren't that uncommon, Cyrus. When Changpo moves we sometimes run into them; though I was always too young to take part. And demonic beasts are everywhere in Murim. Death is something we're used to. Did people not die in your world?"] Song asked curiously. ["I mean, yeah."] Cyrus was clearly uncomfortable with the question. ["We didn't have bandits in my country, though, and wars always happened somewhere far away. The worst death I ever saw was when grandma died of bone cancer."] Song shook his head in disbelief. ["You were truly blessed."] What he didn't say is that it explained a lot about his Spirit Guide that'd been a mystery to him. A place with no death, no monsters, and no bandits could only lead to soft thinking. But – wasn't that the goal? To live in a place where such a thing was possible? Song shook his head to clear it and resumed meditating on the mysteries of light. As an afterthought he asked Cyrus, ["Do you have any more thoughts on the second technique?"] ["Nah. Sorry bro. I'm guessing it has something to do with quantum physics and all I really know there is the story of whatisface's cat."] ["Shroud-dinger?"] Song tasted the strange name in his head once more. ["I still don't understand how the cat can be both alive and dead at the same time. Is it a mystical treasure box?"] Master Crane had declared the tale 'profound' and then ruined it by saying that the cat was dead either way because as soon as the box was open he'd eat it.

His master had also made him spend several hours putting his fingers into water to watch how his hand broke at the waterline and appeared somewhere else below the surface. That had made a bit more sense, but Cyrus hadn't been able to explain it, and Song still didn't comprehend it. Idly, Song wondered where his master had gone. The big demonic crane had flown off a few days ago, and said they'd meet in Chengdu. He sighed and stared at the rays of sunlight that speared through the mists.

He'd truly chosen such a complicated dao. Stolen novel; please report. Roughly an hour or so later, the tent flap opened up and Dami and Jii emerged, looking tired and strained. Song jumped to his feet and ran up to them along with the rest of the party.

"Is he dead?" Wook asked excitedly, getting straight to the heart of the matter. Jii shook his head.

"No, he's made it through."

"And more," Dami laughed.

"What does that mean?" Jinu asked, scowling suddenly.

"He has the Heavenly Body constitution," Ji said simply, as though that explained everything. Because it did, of course. There was some shocked murmuring. ["Heavenly Body?"] Cyrus asked. ["All of his meridians are already clear,"] Song explained. ["And his body accepts the Great Ones' qi even without a ritual, and can contain it without qi poisoning. People with the Heavenly Body are born ten steps ahead of their peers and must work half as much for ten times the results. They're destined for greatness, like Cheonsang the Great Mountain, or the Heavenly Demon."] ["Huh. Neat. So martial arts God type shh."] Song asked aloud, "Does he have any martial arts? Is that how he defeated the bandits?" Jii wiped his hands with a damp cloth and tossed it to Dami, who caught it in her tentacle with a pained expression.

"No. He doesn't have the body of a martial artist, just the muscles of one who's worked the hard life of a farmer. But it granted him strength, and his meridians were full of golden Earth qi. I broke a needle stitching him up."

"Does that mean that we're his chance encounter in the Gangho?" Tae asked excitedly.

"We've picked up a future legend of Murim and will guide him to greatness??" Jii let out a dark chuckle.

"More like the bandits were his chance encounter, and we've picked up the pieces. But that's one way of looking at it, I suppose."

"Poor thing," Dami sighed, holding the damp, dirty towel to her chest.

"I hope he's able to overcome losing his family. I know I could hardly bear it."

"Neither could I," Jii agreed.

"Since I'd be the dead one in that scenario." Dami scowled and elbowed her father in the ribs. He parried with a tentacle. Song thought about nearly losing Mae and mutely agreed.

"When will he wake up?" Wook asked, his lips curling into a wide grin.

"I want to fight him!"

"Why?" Tae scoffed.

"He's still just a peasant."

"A peasant who fought a dozen bandits! I bet he's strong!"

"Most of those born with the Heavenly Body were peasants, just as a matter of numbers," Jii said.

"He'll wake in a day or two I suppose, and I'll have to ask you to hold back on that, Lee Wook. He won't be capable of fighting for a few weeks."

"Are we really going to bring him with us to Chengdu?" Jinu asked.

"That's what Eunji is proposing," Jii said, looking off to the distance in the direction Eunji had ridden off in.

"We can teach him our martial arts!" Jinu crowed.

"Who would want to learn your martial arts?" Song gave his friend a punch in the shoulder.

"I'll have you know that the lovely fairies find my scent alluring," Jinu sniffed.

"And our martial arts eventually allow us to drive man and beast alike to quake and shatter."

"There hasn't been a Foundation level cultivator in your clan for generations," Song scoffed.

"Who'd teach him?"

"Nobody is teaching him anything," Jii chastised, smacking both young men on the forehead with a flat palm.

"Fools. Your family secrets are not toys to be handed out just because the child in question is particularly competent."

"But he has the Heavenly Body…" Jinu whined quietly, rubbing his reddening forehead.

"And it will be his choice," Jii said with finality. Then he grinned.

"And besides, wouldn't he look marvelous with a bunch of tentacles, instead?"

"Pa-pa!" Dami swatted at her father again. He deftly blocked it and laughed merrily. Song envisioned the tall figure that he'd seen at the fire, his dark hair streaming in a cosmic wind and the black pits of his eyes filling with starlight. He had one martial brother in Cyrus now, so what harm was another…?