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Sky Pride Vol. 5 Chapter 32- Necessary Words
🕑 Added 2026-01-20 15:00:16 +0000 UTC“It’s an underappreciated part of tea service, and it’s why we call it skillful tea, not tea in tiny pots that you have to keep refilling and make everyone wait while you keep brewing more and more cups.” Brother Fu explained.
“I remember the soldiers I met brewed their tea in big iron kettles. Just… lumped it all in there when the water boiled, let it steep far too long, then slopped it out into cups.” Tian didn’t sniff. He was concentrating on the pour.
“Try making tea for twenty people at a time and see if you don’t find short cuts. It’s a good way to make sure the water is safe to drink too. They don’t need fancy, they need fast and strong and safe. Aim for the back wall, yes, just like that. See how it tumbles?”
Tian had offered his sect siblings, and his father, his very best. He dug out Suneater’s Heavenly Realm tea leaves, the ancient clay teapot, the equally ancient copper kettle, set out the magic basalt tea tray, everything. His tea pets were carefully arranged, awaiting their share of the good stuff. Brother Fu had taken it as an opportunity to teach Tian something new in the art of tea making. Namely, where to aim the hot water when you were pouring it into a teapot or lidded cup. Certainly you could just douse the leaves, but there were options.
“It’s an aged white, and will need a longer first steep to open up. If you aim for the back wall, the leaves will tumble, gently helping the compressed leaves open up while ensuring they won’t scald.” Bother Fu smiled as he watched Tian serve. A long way from the somewhat ugly child he sat with in West Town Outer Court, who had to be told that you couldn’t use any old leaves for tea, and that boiling them wasn’t always best.
“Now?”
“You tell me.” Brother Fu raised an eyebrow.
“It’s now.” Tian nodded decisively, and poured the tea over the pets. He was almost ready to swear they were shivering in happiness. Thousand Layer Ice had been melted for the water. It wasn’t quite at the Heavenly Realm, but the difference was paper thin. The basalt blazed into color, as the hidden veins within it glowed from the tea qi. It made the tea pets look quite magical, a lotus floating on a magic pond, a five colored phoenix ready to take flight, a rotund pig radiating an air of righteousness and quiet authority as he suppressed all chaos on the tea tray.
Tian refilled the tea pot with water from the kettle. Brother Fu continued. “Skillful tea. Every element of the service is an opportunity to find refinement. There is no universally perfect way to serve tea, appropriate to every occasion and situation. One must consider every element- environment, tea, guests, water, fire, atmosphere, time, relationships, yourself, and do what is best in context. I’d rather you threw out every part of the ‘right way’ to do things so long as you followed the core principle of a tea service. Which is?”
Tian had to think about it. A lot of words popped into mind, but it was hard to pick a single thought as the core principle.
“The comfort of the guest is the priority."
“That is a good try. I prefer to think of it as ‘Harmony.’ The coming together of myriad elements and people, and finding a moment of comfort and satisfaction together. Happiness and joy are welcome outcomes too, but they aren’t the core. The core is harmony. Welcoming the guest, making them feel wanted and respected, showing that you respect yourself. Coming together over the finest drink known to man or beast. Tea.”
Tian smiled and bowed his head in thanks for his father’s teachings. He poured, putting everything he had learned into the tea, filling the cups. He didn’t use a pitcher, and poured directly from the tea pot. He knew Brother Wang had lighter tastes, while Sister Hong liked her tea to steep a little longer. It was no hardship to give everyone what they preferred.
Everyone raised their cups in silent salute, then drank. The cups went back on the table a little harder than most intended, though Brother Fu set his down gently enough. Everyone else was sighing, experiencing the tea as it rolled through their mouth and down their throat, the aroma filling their nose, the tea qi soothing and revitalizing them.
“Damn. Suneater was right. That was lousy tea I served him.”
“Heavens, it’s almost syrupy. Sweet, spicy, medicinal, and there is some darker flavor in there I can’t put words to but the whole thing just coats the mouth and throat.” Lin murmured.
“Mmm. It really is very good tea leaves, and the water adds some interesting depth.” Brother Fu nodded. “How much ice did you bring out?”
“Just what’s in this kettle. Liren and I didn’t need more than that, and… there is a lot of value to completing the trials as designed.”
Brother Fu looked into his tea cup, admired the color and aroma, then took another sip. His eyes half closed, looking like an old man relaxing with some juniors, the same as could be found anywhere in the Broadsky Kingdom.
“You learned something new. Your fire is different. Still warm, but…” Brother Wang trailed off, groping for the right word.
“Bolder. And the water in you still flows, but now it races.” Su’s mouth twitched, approaching a smile. “And I found the metal. It was hidden, but I think it was there all along.”
Lin nodded. “Yes. Tea served by someone with a sheathed blade, not a hidden one.”
“I have no idea how you get that from my tea. But I’m glad.” Tian nodded.
“Son? Is there something you want to tell me?” Brother Fu raised his eyelids and looked straight at Tian. The table went quiet.
Tian looked over at the crane, who nodded. Tian stood and bowed. “Brother, Sisters, I am sorry for the trouble, but could I ask you to go on ahead? The crane will take you back to the Monastery, if that’s all right?”
Brother Fu subtly nodded. The others finished their tea in a gulp, cupped their hands and made swift farewells. Liren caught his eye, but he subtly urged her to keep her seat. Once the crane had soared up out of sight, Tian sat again.
“Looks like I have good news?” Brother Fu asked with a slight smile.
“No, not really. Or not yet. We… need to have a conversation about that.”
“Brother?!”
“Later.” Tian caught Brother Fu’s eyes. “I have been hiding from this conversation. I want you to know that you are the only person I think of when I think of the word father. And I was hiding, because of all the things I don’t want in the world, hurting you is right at the top of the list.”
Brother Fu went still, but didn’t speak. He watched, and waited. Tian tried to think of how to say what he wanted to say without rambling, and his mind blanked.
“I didn’t figure it out until Liren told me what happened to her family. What… really happened. And I connected it to things from my childhood. I was born six years old in the West Town dump. I did live in the jungle for a while, but for four years I lived in the trash heaps. I still have no recollection of who I was before I was six. I call that person the Dead Boy, and truly, it is a previous life, mercifully forgotten. But I know the name of the family that bore the Dead Boy, now.”
Tian set the memorial tablet on the table. Carved on it was a single word. “XIA.”
“Liren had to tell me which character to use. I… really didn’t know.”
Brother Fu closed his eyes, drawing in a breath with a pained gasp. His eyes squeezed, his knuckled whitened. Tian felt the elements convulse into chaos around his father, a sudden madness, a raging storm of emotions made manifest in the world’s qi.
“I asked the gate guard at the Hong compound- who do I owe a filial duty to? The ones who bore me or the one who raised me? He said both. You can never be too filial. I thought you would approve, and I agreed with him. I don’t really care about the Xia, Father. It’s cold, and ugly to say, but I’m selfish. I care about how I hurt, not who hurt some people I never knew. But I care about you. I want to sincerely struggle with what to get you for your Thousand Year birthday, wondering if it will make you smile. And I know what happens to an undrained cyst.”
Tian smiled, tiny and fragile. “My father arranged for me to study medicine, you see. It changed my whole life for the better.”
Tears rolled down Fu’s old face. He was convulsing, his hand shaking as he wiped his face.
“How.” Choked, thick. “How can you just-” The old man couldn’t find the words.
“Forgive you? Because I don’t want to hurt, and I don’t want you to hurt. So we will both hurt for a while, and then we will heal. Maybe a bit scarred up.”
“I’m used to that.” Brother Fu smiled, uglier than crying.
“A certain sister once told me that merit and sin aren’t weights on a scale, they are burdens you carry, and you carry both all the time, until you resolve them. I thought this was… about like that.”
How could Tian put who Fu was to him on a scale? How could he weigh a blood feud for a clan he didn’t remember, or four years of sickness and starvation and living covered with burns and being eaten by rats while he slept in heaps of rotting trash? What scale could hold it? What could possibly carry that? What could be weighed against it?
Tian forced his hands to be steady, and poured water from the kettle into the tea pot. He did the very best job he could, and refreshed all their cups. “How do I weigh it, against everything you are to me? You know what I decided?”
Tian smiled, and his heart blazed within him. “I decided that a father’s love is heavier than a mountain. No scale can weigh it. I’ll just carry both.”
He gently pushed forward the tea cup. “You once told me that those who walk along the river’s edge must expect to get their shoes wet. You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to figure out what that meant. I had to ask a lot of people. But I learned. Well, your shoes are wet. And right after you told me that, you showed me the heart of tea in a cup raised with bloodstained hands. Now I’m serving you. I’m showing you my heart.”
Brother Fu reached for the cup with shaking hands. “And… Liren?”
“We need to have a good talk. But I know this. There is no immortality for me without her.”
“The Hongs?”
“May have some future troubles with their wine jars, and I have privately pledged to beat the absolute shit out of Granny Hong, but that’s mostly for being a shit grandma.”
“Language! She is your grandmother!”
“The hell she is! My only grandparent is Grandpa Jun and he’s dead! I got one dad, a lot of good brothers and sisters, and I have one Liren, and that’s plenty enough for me. Who the hell does that old savage think she is, that she’s good enough to be in my family?!”
“That’s no excuse for a lack of filial behavior, let alone a disgraceful breakdown in manners and composure!”
“I’m filial as anything. Drink the damn tea.”
“Utterly disgraceful.” Brother Fu slurped the tea, then took a second, slower sip. In a heavy voice, he continued. “By forswearing vengeance and your name, you kill the Xia a second time.”
“Do I? Shame. Guess my shoes will be wet too. But you know what I think? From everything I learned about them, little as it was? I think what they truly wanted, from the bottom of their hearts, was for the dead boy to live well. I think if they had to choose between that and vengeance, they’d pick a happy life every time. I am Tian Zihao, and no one else. Drink up, Dad. It’s just us murderers here. No need to be fussy.”
Liren snorted at that, necked her tea, and put the cup down on the stone tray upside down with a firm click. But she didn’t disagree.
Comments
Felix Giron
Aiya, that was an intense and harmonious tea session. A deep sharing of many skills and some helpful problematizing of filial piety. Hit me right in the dantian.
Edward Sandberg
Quick clarification, is Grandpa Jun actually dead, aka gone from the story.
Marcia McGinley
I worried about this conversation and you handled it so well and so convincingly "So we will both hurt for a while, and then we will heal." Now I get to look forward to the next conversation-that-needs-to-happen with unalloyed anticipation.
Isak Mark
'The chain of forgiveness is made from broken links of vengeance.' Sounds like something a old master interested in caligraphy would write!
Mus
That's fucked up and I'm ok with it. And that's ok
Lady Merlin
Appreciate this very much and crying again. It sure feels like in this world, the chain of forgiveness can often only be made by breaking links on the chains of vengeance. Thanks for sharing your own dao heart with us through your writing, Warby.
Gardor
"My only grandparent is Grandpa Jun and he’s dead!" -> love that this is the most direct time he's referenced Grandpa Jun, perhaps the first time he's said his name out loud, and its such a misdirect. "Grandpa Jun cant be married to that Hong bitch, he's dead!" "Aw whatever jungle hermit took care of Young TZ is dead, poor kid"
ben regnard
Of. Right in the feels.
Baines
damn what would Truth say about this?
Fayhem
god, the CATHARSIS
Steve Wright
Liren finishing her tea like a shot of whiskey cracks me up.
Flameburst97
Grandmother in law.
Angela Landolt
Wait, Granny Hong is Tian's grandmother too? Wouldn't that make him Liren's cousin??
Earl Roberts
I've been waiting for this its so well done omg brother fu must be reeling
Gerald Ransom Jr
I said he’s gonna get there, he got there Accepting his emotions and confronting his father Letting Sister Liren know she is stuck with him… wherever thats gonna lead it is all out in the air now. Only up from here
Matt DiMeo
Since I had to look it up, I will share that “necked her tea” is UK slang for drank quickly.
Robert Mullins
He's been a ghost the whole story. The 'dead' is implied
AlbusScitus
Wait Grandpa is dead? Did I miss him getting killed off? I was wondering why we haven't heard from him in quite a while
Jsblunt549
She is a main character, just not one whose perspective we see
Alexander Dupree
Imma just be sad for a bit and hopeful but sad mostly
MAS
I don't like that Liren holds the same weight in the narrative as Tian. He is supposed to be a massive prodigy because his story is one of suffering, luck, kismet, etc. Her background has not been fleshed out enough to allow for her ability to match him step for step. There is no way she should be as capable or powerful. It's a frustratingly large plothole.
deinowithglasses
Damn onion cutting cultivators, making me cry without seeing them by moving so quickly.
SquiddlyWinks
Yes this IS what I want in my action adventure xanxia novel, please and thank you
SquiddlyWinks
Ok now Liren Back to back deep emotional conversations wooo woooop!
Johan Persson
Amazing chapter, truly loved it.
Tuna457
Thought I shed all my tears when Indiana won the national championship last night. Guess I was wrong.
G&S Gaming
Good tea!
Veridescent
Heh, well lookee here someone who can take the hit? Well dang, no rats around here. In a less jesting manner I like Tians....throughline of compassion, all of your novels protaganist have different effective patterns that meet into different elements of growth harmoniously. And I enjoy this like one may enjoy a well steeped tea, or super refined juice(I am used to rather hot zones).
Ben Nikel
Knew it. He didn't even say it to Liren directly; just belted out "there's no road up without her next to me" as part of the conversation. I honestly missed the fact that she didn't leave with the rest.
Steve Wright
Telling something disruptive to your parent and being willing to deal with the consequences is one of those Grown Up moments. Tian Zihao grew up a lot this book.
Roxanne Moore
Making me well up at work is deeply unfillial behaviour.
Robert Mullins
By all accounts the Xia don't deserve to be remembered. They were heretics that were killed off by assholes. The assholes are still assholes of course and the heretics are now dead heretics. The fact that they may have genuinely wanted Tian to live a good happy life doesn't change any of that.
Andrew Goebel
It's not out of character or unbelievable but, personally, the fact that there's no consequences to the death of the Xia feels wrong. Murdered in their home after they knew they were being schemed and worked against by powers greater than them. Impotent in all ways and now in death they aren't even a murmur? Not for me. PLEASE do not read that I don't like the story or whatever. I do, but I don't like this.
Vainirion
Would you look at that, a mature resolution to a fucking disaster. Chapeau bas
Kevin O'Malley
Ah. Fuck. I am Tian Zihao, and no one else. Drink up, Dad. It’s just us murderers here. No need to be fussy.
Chad L.
Impactful. Well done.
Sam
Loved it. Bother Fu -> Brother Fu
Baconwargod
Ah the relief and pain of a wound properly cleaned and dressed. Agonizing and cleansing in equal measure. Wonderful.
Mistythread
God what a punch in the gut. I’m crying now
William Johnson
That was absolutely lovely.
Salthin
The only word I can find is: glorious.
Kage
Liren caught his eye, but he subtly urged her to keep her seat. Once the crane had soared up out of sight, Tian sat again. “Looks like I have good news?” Brother Fu asked with a slight smile. “No, not really. Or not yet. We… need to have a conversation about that.” “Brother?!” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fu:'Ah are you perhaps about to inform me you are engaged?' Tian: 'no, well yes maybe but i gotta work that part out with her first' Liren: 'What the fuck?'
Robert Mullins
Theres a line where tian gestured for her to stay
Hunter8k
This actually compares to some of the best emotional moments ive read about. Good chapter
JTP
Great summary to the turmoil.
Slapjack
Beautifully written as always. Sky Pride will be looked back on as the Illiad of Xianxia
LordAlton
God damn... I mean GOD DAMN!
Leander
Well. I‘m crying.
Matt DiMeo
I really thought Liren had left, and was surprised to see her at the end.
Chrysos au
Thanks for the chapter
Jsblunt549
Peak
