WarbyPicus
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Sky Pride Vol. 3 Chapter 39- Moonlight Lessons
🕑 Added 2025-08-14 14:31:52 +0000 UTC[Author Note- Apologies for this going up late. I was sure I had it scheduled. I was wrong. Sorry!]
Tian stood in the garden facing Daoist Steelshimmer. Her beauty remained a puzzle that he picked at. It wasn’t an illusion, therefore what she was doing was in her presentation. The answer felt unsatisfying. There had to be more to it than her hair.
“I see why Daoist Feng called you her problem child.” Her voice was sweet, every word and tone carrying its own ripple of meaning. You wanted to listen carefully, to make sure you didn’t miss the slightest bit of that sweetness.
Tian didn’t know Daoist Feng thought he was a problem child. Was he still a child? Probably. Fifteen didn’t feel childish, but to someone who measured their age in centuries, perhaps he was.
The night breeze ruffled the leaves, making the tree tops dance in the sky. A little cooler than he was used to, but very comfortable. A lovely night.
“Did you know I can feel your thoughts? I’m not reading your mind, but I can feel the weight of your attention.” She smiled, and he could hear the dimples in her voice even if he couldn’t see them on her cheeks. “A useful skill to cultivate for a variety of reasons, not least of which is your relationship with that Snow Grace Crane you are fostering.”
Tian did not know someone could do that. It sounded very useful.
“This is the point at which you start asking me questions, Junior Tian.”
Was it? But she hadn’t asked him any questions, and she was a strange elder. He would prefer not to be killed for accidentally saying the wrong thing. Silence was the best policy. Probably.
“You… aren’t going to participate in this conversation unless I give you explicit permission to and a clear set of directions to follow regarding the flow of the conversation. That’s a bit exhausting. Junior, don’t you think you could loosen up some? It is a lovely night. Enjoy it.”
It was a lovely night. Tian entirely agreed with that. And it was a bit of a relief to talk with someone who understood how to talk with him. Although she did seem reluctant to follow her own instructions. Which was weird.
“Haaah. Alright.” Daoist Steelshimmer collected herself. “Any sect will be concerned about the strength of its younger generation. Daoist Feng tells me you have latched onto the term “servant disciple,” and there is some truth to that, but only some. I’d only tag someone with such a label if they no longer had the potential to rise. While you are still young, while any of you are still young, you remain a mass of potential. The better the potential, the higher your future rise, the better the sect’s future rise. Theoretically.”
Tian nodded along.
“Your job at the Five Elements Courtyard will be to ruthlessly crush their younger generation. Your job, and you know that your elder is listening in as I say this, your job is only and exclusively to move the proud sons and daughters of the Courtyard from the status of future heirs of the sect, to servant disciples.”
Tian immediately thought of the Saintess, but kept his mouth shut. The Six Turns Cavern were sect secrets, after all. Still. It was an ugly thing. Steelshimmer read it on his face and explained.
“The weaker they perceive their future generations to be, and the stronger they perceive the Ancient Crane Mountains to be, the more amenable they will be to cutting a deal. They will want to maximize the benefits they can get now, while they are still strong, rather than wanting to wait for an even better advantage. So it is vital for your sect that you not just meet every challenge, you dominate them. Now is not the time to worry about preserving their face, or maintaining any kind of good relations. That’s for your Elder and I to worry about. You just crush them.”
Tian reluctantly nodded. She was certainly clear enough. It looked like she was waiting for a question or comment, but he had been burned on the conversation thing before. Silence. Silence was golden. Her face twitched, but she continued on smoothly.
“You can understand this as an attack on their mind and will. You should also, therefore, know how to defend your mind and will. You will learn how to deal with illusions.” She smiled.
Daoist Steelshimmer had a lovely smile, Tian thought. The dark luster of her long hair made the porcelain white of her skin and the blush of her cheeks incredibly vivid. The red on her lips was nearly hypnotic. He really had to focus to hear what she was saying. But he had always been good about listening to his seniors.
“To that end, Junior Tian, I am going to teach you a very, very little bit about a part of your qi that you can’t directly control just yet. Don’t worry about what it’s called. Tonight we will call it ‘brainpower.’ Not its actual name, but since you shouldn’t be learning anything at all about it until the Heavenly Person Level, the less you know the better.”
Tian nodded to show he was paying attention.
“The Five Element Courtyard loves working with illusions. Illusion magic works in two main ways. The first is making something that acts on the senses- a spell that produces light, sound or smell for example. You would generally do this with qi. It is also why you don’t see Earthly Realm people using illusion arts. These can be ignored once identified, and aren’t worth spending too much time on.”
Tian nodded again. That made sense.
“The second way, and what we are going to be focusing on, are spells that attack your mind directly. Sometimes the effect isn’t obvious, sometimes it is. For example, you completely failed to notice the tiger I set loose in the garden.”
“WAO!” The tiger screamed and pounced from directly behind him. Tian was in motion the second he heard the sound, his rope dart slashing out and drilling towards the tiger’s eye. Then his brian caught up with his hands and he recalled the dart to his sleeve.
“Quick reaction time. Quicker to calm back down, or so you would like me to believe. I can hear that heart of yours hammering.”
A giant tiger had appeared behind him. Tian felt some surprise was completely justified. The illusion yawned and lay down on the flagstones. Big beast, heavy muscles, thick fur and stinking breath. He would swear it was real. He wondered if he would feel it if he pet it. Tian stretched out his hand to try. His fingers buried themselves in the coarse fur. The tiger was very warm.
“Good thinking, but remember, this isn’t some creation of light. I’m affecting your mind directly.” Her voice sounded like a whisper in his ear, even though she was still standing a few feet away.
Tian nodded. The tiger didn’t have the elements circulating in it. Any natural creature would. It could fool the rest of his senses, but his qi sense was not so easily deceived.
“Of course, this is the most basic sort of mind effecting illusion. This is one step up.”
The illusory tiger came to life. Tian didn’t have any other word for it. He could feel the elements churning as its vital energy fed its muscles with brutal power. It was gathering itself to pounce!
Tian started moving again, his body acting without thought. Then he forced himself to stop. It was an illusion. He knew it was an illusion. He just needed to overrule every sense that he had which was telling him a very real tiger was about to kill him. Simple.
He could feel the vital energy churning. He could smell the tiger. The sheer weight of its presence pushed down on him.
Something about that…
He frowned. The elder said she could feel the weight of his attention. Could this be the same thing? Could the sensation of the tiger be the weight of the senior’s attention? Cultivated and refined through various arts, skillfully deployed to make his mind believe that what he was seeing was in front of him?
Brainpower. Her brain, overpowering parts of his. Not enough to snap his intellect, but enough to fatally trick him. If she could make him believe a fake tiger was real, she could make him ignore a real tiger. Which was scary. But this was the first he was hearing of it. He hadn’t seen it used in the wasteland, and he had been around quite a few Heavenly People killing each other. So it either was much harder to do than it seemed, or there was a fatal flaw to it.
He didn’t know how to block brainpower, so that was out. He didn’t know how to change his own brain so that was out too. A way to detect… he circled back to a previous thought. He did kind of know one way to change his brain. Not very much, but a bit. He had felt the edges of it in Burning Flag City, but discarded it with his ruined disguise.
Confront mind power with no mind, meet the press of inexplicable qi with a chaos of the elements. Barely thought out as an idea. Best to test it in a safe environment, or safe-ish.
Tian pulled the rosary from his belt and let his fingers find the red tassel. He started slowly working the rosary around as he chanted. “On, Ran, Cho, Sa, Ni, Re, Hu, Vo, Ti, Lu, Xha…” He slowly breathed in and out, letting the sounds fill with the elemental meaning he found in them. Letting all other thoughts fly away. There was only the ‘holy’ sounds, and the worlds they contained.
For some reason, the sounds seemed deeper and truer now than they had in Burning Flag City. As his sense of self slipped away with the sounds, he thought he could feel his whole body vibrating in time with them, becoming suffused with elemental meaning, resonating with a holiness that he thought he had made up.
At some point, the tiger twisted in his sight. He didn’t feel one way or another about it. Then it vanished. He didn’t feel much about that either. He wasn’t quite in a state of no mind meditation, but it was closer than most people got. There was a gentle bell sound, pulling his attention back.
Daoist Steelshimmer was looking at him like she had discovered a treasure. “Junior… what are you?”
That didn’t seem like it had a good answer. But this time, she was waiting for him to say something.
“Ancient Crane Monastery’s West Town Outer Court, Tian Zihao.” He bowed.
“That’s who you are. But what are you? Do you understand what you did?”
Tian cupped his hands and bowed again. “This little daoist must apologize to the senior. He doesn’t know how to answer her better than he already has. I slipped into a state of near mindlessness and let my concept of the elements infuse the noises I was making. I thought that it might disrupt whatever mechanism ‘brainpower’ was using to overwrite my senses.”
Her beautiful face twitched. “You say that so casually.”
Tian felt a little hurt by that. He didn’t say it casually. He was being as formal and proper as he could be.
“Problem child. I see what she means. Go on back in and send out… hmm. The tan girl. Hong Liren.” Tian bowed and turned to leave. “Really, no questions? No comments? Nothing? Tell you what- one question. I will take no offense. I am instructing you to ask me one question about something that is sincerely troubling you. Something!”
Why was this bugging her? Her eyes were narrowed, and he could see the tendons rising on the back of her hands. Maybe it was an act. She was a diplomat after all. He sighed silently.
“Why are you beautiful?”
It was quite interesting to watch a strange beauty suddenly lurch and go blank. He didn’t know why she did it, but it was interesting.
“Why am I beautiful? Not… how to use illusions, or how to combat them, or questions about working with bird companions, or questions about my school or the Five Elements Courtyard, or the morality of crushing an entire generation of cultivators beneath you, or my relationship with your elder, or investment advice, or advice on how to get a lover but why am I beautiful.”
It was good that she understood the question. Those other things sounded really interesting too, but he had his doubts about how much useful information he could really get from this senior. Elder level figures were unreliable. At least this question had a provable answer.
She stared at him wonderingly, then motioned for him to turn around. He did. He felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned back, and she was standing where she had been before, some five feet away.
Daoist Steelshimmer had cut her hair short, and her curves were muted under a looser robe. Her face was no less symmetrical, her lips no less red, but some charm had been lost. Lovely, but ordinary. Tian lost his consuming interest in her appearance.
Then she released the illusion, and the wild black hair flowed down her back. And with the tumbling hair and tightening robes, she had his complete attention once more.
“Everyone has a set understanding of what ‘normal’ is, and its twin bookends 'desirable’ and ‘undesirable.’ I have cultivated a body that many people find ‘desirable,’ and carefully present myself with certain traits that, in most contexts, would be considered ‘undesirable.’ Most have to do with a theme of shamelessness, spontaneity and a disdain for convention. This makes me extremely appealing to some people, and those same undesirable traits are excused by most others because of the desirable ones. I reinforce that appeal through techniques like tone modulation, word choice, body language, and a number of other signals that most people do not realize they are receiving and absorbing into themselves.”
The ‘rare animal’ look she was giving to Tian intensified. “You find me aesthetically pleasing, but don’t understand why. It’s the gap between what you thought you understood as desirable and what a wordless part of your mind is now telling you is desirable. The gap is mysterious, inviting. ‘Pretty’ you understand. ‘Pretty’ is just that. But beauty is a mystery you want to explore, and a mystery is fascinating in the literal sense of the word. A mind affecting illusion cast from within you, not imposed from outside. A powerful thing for anyone to command, let alone an envoy. Worth studying.”
She flicked her fingers back towards the manor. “Dismissed.”
Tian felt like he was floating as he made his way back to his room. He told Sister Liren she was wanted, of course, but he barely noticed her. He was lost in a swirling, confusing world of seeming.
“Grandpa, am I understanding the Senior correctly? It’s not what my fingers touch or my eyes see, but what my brain understands? And that understanding can be affected by external things, but also one part of my brain pushing on another part because it’s been tricked somehow?”
What is a book but a heap of messy paper? The eyes can see, but without the brain to interpret, it means nothing. How the brain interprets what the eyes send it is down to its prior training. Mechanically, there is more to it than that, but you have the right idea.
“And what she was saying about beauty-”
She was talking about a great deal more than beauty. She was talking about communication as a skill. An immensely deep field of study. Remember that Long kid and what he was saying about shared references and common interests being used to add meaning to a conversation? You can consider this an even more sophisticated take on that principle.
“It will also be crucial to communicating with the Snow Grace Crane. The weight of attention, presentation, the use of body language. I will need to explore all the things she mentioned.”
Yes indeed. It’s going to be hard for you, but you will be better for it.
Elder Rui had instructed the disciples to take every possible advantage during the trip, but carefully. Tian felt like he was doing exactly that. He sat in his cell, smiling as he flexed his fingers. He suddenly couldn’t wait to reach the Five Elements Courtyard. He had a feeling it was going to be a lot of fun.
Comments
Joe Brennan
I’m at a bit of a loss as to how I’ve found a story is so good, deep and complex. I’ve read thousands of hours of xantia and litrpg and struggle to think of anything this complex. It’s really something else.
frank difulco
38 was locked but 39 not locked
Nùmenor
What a great chapter.
Scarlet Aurora
Tian: "Ahh, so it's like that, huh. I understand everything now." Grandpa: "He does not get it at all." Such is the Dao.
Tadas
Yeah I don't know.. Every other time he thought being violent would feel cathartic he was wrong. He was like - oh this sucks. I can't imagine him doing similar as the ghost did to Lin will feel any better.
Noroh
I like how the nail painting emoji has the right number of fingers for that hand 🤣
Marcia McGinley
I was trying to work out why Tian decided at the end that the Five Elements Courtyard was going to be fun when his initial reaction to his job there was reluctant. I suspect that in all his pondering he has reframed the courtyard from "battleground" to "laboratory".
ioajfidsnmfomds77
It’s partly having your dao heart crushed sure but it’s more about not being selected for a leadership track. Why should the elders waste their valuable time, scarce opportunities and rare resources on juniors who aren’t as good as their peers in other sects? So the elders pass the cream of the crop off to other prospects and the losers never reach the pinnacle
Fayhem
Thanks for the chapter! In this line: “Of course, this is the most basic sort of mind effecting illusion. This is one step up.” - it should be "affecting" in this context.
fujaks
Daoist Steelshimmer is gonna tell Liren all about how Tian called her beautiful 😂
Noroh
I always pictured a military style bun, like the terracotta soldiers
Abhi
Tian going to start sporting the classic xianxia topknot plus long flowing hair look? Actually is that his current look or does he have all his hair in a bun?
Baconwargod
I know we probably won’t be able to but I’d love an interlude of Hongs lesson with the elder. It would be cool
Notcreepycreeper
Its interesting that thee eelders feel that a few serious losses to tian can so thoroughly crush the potential of the 5 elements courts disiples. I wonder what that says about cultivating as a whole that such a loss can distroy insteead of just being a set back
Duck_Giblets
I don't think it should be something he harnesses.
Andrew Simpson
Is tian going to become... 💅🌟FABULOUS👄🤩
Tom C
Welp. If he learns how to harness sexuality…. No one will be safe. He’s got the looks. Now to learn intentional rizz (he already has some charm in a naïve way. But it’s not something conscious imo). TFTC!
LUXRUS
Those poor souls
Scarhand
Scarhand think Warby smart. Him writing make Scar brain happy
Tim Gonsalves
I think the thing I enjoy most about your writing and this story, aside from the skill with which you tell it and the emotions you're able to evoke, is that there's always something *happening*. Even when it's just two people in a garden talking, there are actions taking place, ideas being explored in a way that isn't just navel-gazing or "advancement," but actual change and growth.
Steve Wright
[I'm staring at the kitchen counter, waiting for my lunch to finish reheating, and had a story crossover event.] Steelshimmer: Really no worries about the mission here? Tian: This sect has given me everything, ma'am. I will fall on our enemies like the wrath of god.
Book Worm
I love how genuine Tian is. It’s such a refreshing experience to read about his thought process. First time I’ve ever been able to relate to a fiction character and his mind/personality
El Caso Es
Thanks for the refreshing writing Warby. I was reading a Japanese LN which was fairly enjoyable but could feel myself slowly losing brain cells. Then I read this and it's like a soothing healing for my mind. Much needed for a lot of us I imagine.
zero
masterfully explaining why I'm into other alt girls. much to think about
Tyler Smith
Great chappy
DrSubterfuge
Isn't gap moe a contrast between inner and outer self? This is more like a contrast between two simultaneous presentations--conventionally attractive (eg her figure and the way her clothing accentuates it) and conventionally undesirable (eg her "untamed" hair)--making her seem fascinatingly exotic to him
Ben Nikel
I mean, it sounds a lot like the conversation with the fisherman. "And you're SURE he's not actually some kind of sacred lotus Spirit Beast."
Ben Nikel
I knew it. An illusionist knows all the ways to misdirect. But I never expected gap moe in a xianxia novel.
Noroh
It kinda ties all the way back to his first experiences in the dump as well. He saw people, and sought help, but they did not see another person they saw a diseased animal and stoned him.
Steve Wright
The Dao of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Kevin Flynn
I love how that for Tian, the most fascinating thing he can possibly learn is not Kung Fu, not magic, not alchemy, not daoist secrets... but advanced methods of communicating with people. That is hilariously on-brand.
Jeryd Greer
Awh snap.
Ryan Naquin
I want a pov of Steelshimmer ranting at Feng about Tian.
David McGillicuddy
Typo: Then his brian caught up with his hands and he recalled the dart to his sleeve.
Joshua Flowers
Tian learning the way of bees and birds
David McGillicuddy
Tian really going to leave a trail of broken hearts across the kingdom!
Vainirion
He should’ve asked the Elder about the possible ways of treating worms in Liren’s brain
P.R. Bakker
Tian let loose on unsuspecting victims, ouch.
True_Jolly_Roger
He actually asked the question that provided him most benefits! Rise a cup of tea for Tian!
Veridescent
Mm and this relates to Wang getting castigated for thinking of inducibg emotions. Given cultivators senses, attention as a modular mechanisn to give others stimuli is interesting in scoped potential. Useful for all kinds of things, even ones not alive, for all things have qi. The implications for all kinds of possible policy and studying is vast. Could one transform and affect ones own attention to get closer in alignment to the elements? Would a formation not be a external framework to help induce such alignment? Much to be learned indeed. I am happy Steelshimmers framing noted cultural labelling but also specifically her persona giving off novelty to induce fascination. Just works really holistically with how illusions are defined to make it truly a skillful subset of her as a cultivator
William Johnson
Right?! Like he needs help using contrast to ruin poor innocent maidens. Tian is going to be an absolute menace when he weaponizes his beautiful wounded soul.
William Johnson
Oh no he's going to learn the gap! Thanks for the chapter!
Noroh
The trash talk alone that he and Liren will engage in is likely to cause ki deviations lmao
Logrus
Amazing chapter. Your ability to make Tian both fundamentally strange but also totally understandable at the same time is a rare thing.
Xeophyn
Not casually, formally!
Noroh
Steelshimmer: Are you sure that boy is human? Feng: You are not even the first person to ask about that this week.
Quivo
Man, I can just feel this beauty elder raging inside at the thought that she can't just snatch up Tian and smuggle him back to her own sect, and then thinking for a second about how much effort it takes to talk to him, and then calming all the way back down 🤣
Codered999
The tall Daoist
João Vene
Oh god she's explaining Gap Moe to Tian oh no
Muhammad A
Thanks for the chapter!
Xeophyn
Foot to head also needs more testing.
Diarmuid McGinnity
Woah, interesting stuff. I wonder what image Tian will choose to project. The monk? The Sasuke?
Codered999
Tian is about to have a lot of test subjects for his mind healing technique of fist to head.
Steve Wright
Also, we’ve seen more and more examples of Tian noticing his elders knowing what he’s thinking lately, nice to see behind that curtain a little bit!
Msakr
For certain definitions of fun ... TYFTC
JTP
Tian is going to manhandle some poor bastards.
Steve Wright
Just casually defeating illusions by entering a state of no mind. What, doesn’t everyone do this? Then he casually asks the question at the heart of the exercise. Hilarious! Looking forward to the next arc a lot!
