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Sky Pride Vol. 2 Chapter 19- Burning Wild
🕑 Added 2025-04-24 14:00:09 +0000 UTCThe Thunderous Palm flowed out, striking for the face, then sweeping for the ribs. Iron Breaking fists smashed the palms away and continued towards Tian’s face. Slaps turned to deflections, wrapping around the incoming fists and diverting their strength. Then both sides withdrew and reset.
As the hands moved, so did the feet. Hong stomped forward, seemingly ready to plant herself and trade blows- before exploding forward with the brilliant footwork of a born boxer. Tian let himself slide around, retreating as she advanced, pressing to the side when she thrust, but never letting her get a clean angle.
His fingertips thrust for her eyes, a sharp spear extending from his sleeve. Hong shifted her head, slipping the thrust and answering with a heinous kick to Tian’s thigh. Tian got his shin up to block it, and felt like he broke his leg. The impact was brutal, like kicking an iron pole. He tried to ride the momentum backwards and counter with a return palm thrust, but Hong danced backward, staying just out of his range.
Tian felt his leg stiffening. He could heal it easily enough, but this was a battle of skill. No vital energy. He frowned. Iron Breaking art. It wasn’t just a boxing technique.
“You have refined your body.” She said, not even slightly out of breath.
Tian jolted, then half smiled. “Funny. I was going to say the same to you.”
“I’ll stop going easy then.”
Hong Liren advanced, moving with tiny steps left and right but always closing. Her upper body swayed, but each step was firm. She led with a jabbing left, a second left, then the right came in with a brutal hook.
Tian blocked the jabs, but the hook caught him on the button and dropped him. As he fell, he lashed out with a foot and caught the side of Hong’s knee. He wasn’t sure if his foot or her knee took more damage.
His hands slapped the ground, breaking his fall. He caught his foot around Hong’s ankle and yanked forward. Her stance broke for a second, but it was long enough for Tian to roll back to his feet. Hong’s foot scraped his cheek as he straightened up. She was on him now, fists flying, elbows smashing in, knees striking up and over. It was like trying to fight someone with eight arms. Every part of her was an iron club.
Tian retaliated, hands flashing, his own elbows and knees trying to capitalize on gaps. It was a losing trade. His skill with Thunderous Palm simply wasn’t as polished as Hong’s grasp of Iron Breaking Art. He grunted. Losing was habit forming. He didn’t intend to lose. He fell back towards the cubbies on the wall.
Hong advanced with steady ferocity. Her face was a mask of focus, cold, screening the blaze in her eyes. Every step was an attack- if not directly, then in positioning. Constantly moving to strike without permitting retaliation. Tian recognized the style, if not the technique. It was the hard external arts his brothers favored.
Brother Bo told him when he first got it- not many on the Southern Border practice palm arts, though it was popular amongst those who mingled in murky waters. He had always wondered about that. Surely being able to liquify someone’s internal organs with a single slap more than made up for its short range and high skill requirements.
His brothers were a lot of things, but ‘bad at boxing’ wasn’t one of them. Hong was demonstrating exactly why hard arts were favored. Fierce, direct, powerful. No need for any complicated methods. Just directly kill.
Well. He had always relied on complicated methods. It was all a weak boy could do. So let it be complicated.
Tian jumped backward, leaping up to land crouched on a high cubby, then immediately pushing off to deliver a crushing shin to Hong’s head. She blocked, staggering, but immediately shifted to grab his leg. Tian borrowed the force of her block to spin in place, driving his other heel into Hong’s temple.
She slipped it. The kick came out of her blind spot, lightning fast, and she still managed to lean her head back and dodge. Then her hand came up and wrapped around his ankle like an iron hoop. Tian knew what she was going to try next- the ground slam. He started contracting his body, ready to grapple with her, but the slam didn’t come.
Since he was already near to the wall, Hong just lunged straight forward. A perfect spear thrust, with a terribly imperfect spear. Tian cracked his back and skull against the stone wall of the cave, blacking out for a moment.
“I yield.”
Tian didn’t try to get up. The ceiling was spinning. He closed his eyes and quickly circulated The Advent of Spring. Something twisted in him. He rolled to his side and threw up.
Concussion, damn it all to hell. Keep cycling Advent of Spring. It will fix you up soon enough, but you can forget going anywhere today.
Grandpa Jun sounded grim. Tian didn’t say anything else. He just lay still and cycled his art. He could hear Hong stomp off, and what might have been a muffled scream of frustration. He wasn’t really paying attention. Tian grabbed the cursed dagger and breathed, letting his arts heal him.
Some time later, he felt a cool cloth wiping his face, and something removed the smell of sick from near him. Hong must be cleaning up. A few moments later, a cool cloth was gently pressed to his forehead.
She didn’t say anything. He didn’t either. He wasn’t sure how he felt. Not good physically, but there was something painful in him emotionally, and he couldn’t quite get his hands around what it was. Among other things, he definitely didn’t like losing. But it was something more than that.
“Fists and feet have no eyes. It’s normal to be hurt while sparring.” Hong Liren’s voice was soft. “Because accidents are in the hands of fate, but negligence and fuck ups are in the hands of humans. And since we are human, we can’t be negligent and we really can’t be fuck-ups. That’s what Sister Sia told me. Then Sister Bai dragged her off by her ear, scolding the whole way, but she didn’t disagree.”
“Sounds like something Brother Meng would say.”
“He was the brother you lost recently, right?”
“Among… too many others.”
“Sister Sia died a month ago.”
“I am sorry. She sounds like a good sister.”
“She was. She really, really was.”
Tian didn’t say anything else. What was there to say?”
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was quiet.
Tian felt something loosen within him. A knot he hadn’t even realized was tightening.
“I was stupid, and frustrated, and I’d already lost to you twice, once in front of an elder, and, and, I’m on the Disciplinary Squad.”
Tian wasn’t sure what that had to do with anything.
“You know you have an incredibly readable face, right?” Hong asked.
“I do?”
“Yes. I’m guessing you never bothered to learn how to hide your emotions.”
“I can.” Tian denied it.
“Uhuh. Sure. I believe you, Brother. Nobody else would, but I do.”
“I sense lies in your voice, Sister.”
“Me?”
“Mmm.”
Silence settled down around them again.
“How bad are you hurt?”
“We won’t be traveling today.”
The room went quiet again.
“Sorry. I’m… really sorry.”
He could hear the truth in her voice. The knot unraveled further, but didn’t completely untie. He couldn’t understand it. What he could understand, he didn’t like. So he asked- “What’s wrong with the Disciplinary Squad? Rumor has it that it was an arrangement of your grandmother.”
“It was. A wonderful opportunity to meet future sect elders, powerful cultivators, make incredible connections, and oh yes, earn a little tea money on the side. Ninety percent of the time you are sorting out other people’s fights over money, and the other ten percent is dealing with stuff I wish I didn’t know brothers and sisters could do to each other. The Disciplinary Squad requires strength, will, and an utterly clean background. Naturally, that kind of ‘responsibility’ is reserved for the Hereditary Disciples.”
Her voice sounded muffled towards the end. Tian imagined her sitting with her knees pulled up, her face buried in her arms.
“Hereditary disciples?”
“The descendants of Inner Court or Core Disciples who are able to cultivate. With how long they live, there can be quite a few running around at any time. And since their loyalty is ‘guaranteed,’ and we are all related to some degree…” Her voice trailed off.
“You are all related?”
“Yeah. Distantly, mostly, but Mountain Gate City isn’t that big. Families don't fall more than one generation away from a True Disciple because we all intermarry constantly. It’s quite normal for someone to have multiple wives or husbands. A lot of them are just on paper- business deals disguised as marriages for tax reasons.”
“That feels like cheating.”
“Mmm. On the other hand, it’s how things have worked forever, so nobody cares. It’s a way to make a lot of money. The dowries, bride prices, and businesses that change hands with a marriage are enough to buy entire villages below the mountain. Entire towns out in the rest of the kingdom.”
“Is it that good to live in the city?”
“Mortals almost never get sick and are strong into their nineties. It’s the safest place in the whole country, with opportunities to make huge money and even cultivate immortality. Kids born near the mountain are way more likely to become cultivators. The ones born on the mountain have an even better chance. You tell me if it’s a good place to live.”
“So what happened?”
She snorted. “Yes, that’s the delicacy I have come to expect from Brother Tian.”
Tian nodded. It was good that he was developing a reputation for courtesy and tact.
“We lost a war. Pretty literally. Our businesses were wiped out, our marriage alliances were broken, and our businesses and clansmen outside Mountain Gate City all ran into bandits. One hundred and seventeen times, across eight provinces, over six weeks. That’s what Mom told me. I don’t really remember much of it.”
“Ah.”
“Mom and Father Xiu… had to make a choice. There are rules about this sort of thing. Everyone understands that the wheel turns. We are all kin, to some degree. And Grandma was still alive. Not willing to interfere in mortal affairs, but alive. We sold everything we could, cashed in every favor, and found the absolute worst bastards amongst the manor families near West Town. The worst ones without a living patron, anyway.”
“And then you hired my brothers.”
“Mom and Father Xiu did. I was six.” Her voice was muffled again. “I don’t really remember my other dads very well. I remember their voices, sometimes. Or a smell. I can remember Father Wang holding me as we watched a lion dance.”
They didn’t make it out. There are rules, but rules are made and enforced by people.
“The worst bastards without patrons?”
“Yeah. I don’t understand it, but you can’t just kill a family. Not without paying a price. And the more awful the people you kill are, the smaller that price is. So Mom and Father Xiu found… monsters. They were monsters. And we killed them all. Mom, Father Xiu, our surviving guards, and some of your brothers. I don’t know who. They all wore masks and dark robes, we never knew their names. That’s the rules too.”
“Hiding from the price.”
“Maybe. But even with as bad as they were, it…”
“You still paid a price.”
“We are still paying. They killed everyone. That… family. They didn’t kill our guards or clanfolk, they killed the village. They burned down their own manor, and it was a signal to their bandits in the village to slaughter all the villagers, dump poison in the wells and scatter even more poison over the fields. We had to hire serfs from other villages. We had to import food to the village. Import food. To a farming village! And anything leafy, cabbages, anything, rots in hours. Even root vegetables and rice rots, or gets vermin infesting it. So much food got wasted. So much damn money got wasted! We still haven’t repaired all the fields, and there are way more kids born sick and weak in the village than there should be so close to the mountain.”
Tian wondered if he had been one of those kids, then shook his head. The dates didn’t line up.
Hong started laughing. It was a miserable sound. “But it was all okay! It was all worth it! Because I’m a cultivator, and that means I can lead the family back to Mountain Gate City and avenge my dads and restore our fortune and all of a sudden Grandma remembers we exist and now I’m on the DAMNED Disciplinary Squad and my sisters keep dying!”
Comments
Felipe Bleichvel
Ah... Honestly people cultivating inner energy into mystical powers seems way, way, did I said way? Way more logical than this many marriages ordeal working on such a large scale. I mean, there's not even room to fantasy, unless you want ignore all the building around the characters being human-like. Specially when taking into account the personality of most of those people. Prideful. The "husbands" wouldn't even know if they ever sired children of their own. Eternal mistery. It's like a father gift box that is never open. Therefore, the father never picked. And OK, maybe when one side, either the man or the woman, has multiple partners seems a bit feasible, even tough messy, and in my personal lens, shallow and ugly. I say this because in the real world, the way this worked and works, is through family cores. Every wife/husby having a 'core family'. And as I said, messy as hell, and working on a stretcher, when one side is almost always, 99,80%, of times in history, either on a power inbalance or exploited like a product. That's our world. So what you described there... It's like saying horses have beaks and 8 insect-like legs. Those things may exist and live in the sea. But they're not horses.
Akkido
I think it works in the same way multiple wives works, but with multiple husbands instead.
Bookworm bibliophile
How does multiple husbands work? Historically speaking there was little to non of it that existed.
Bookworm bibliophile
And themselves. The mom poisend her son and I think even managed to kill some of the brothers.
Tom C
Yep, I have no idea what she was talking about. But I’m sure tian is in the same boat so it’s all good! 🤣 TFTC
Tom C
Aah ok. I am still mostly confused by what was written in this chapter with the moving villages and stuff. But this is interesting!
N . A Salim
So what I think happened was the Hong Family was driven out the city and was on the brink of ruin despite having a cultivator of the inner sect in the family. Thus, the Hongs decided to move outside the city and claim lands outside where competition should be less competitive and where they can gather strength. The Hong Family decided to destroy Tian’s family and claim their lands. Tian’s family as a family with no patron should have no actual involvement with the Hongs downfall. What happened was one family displaced another family, took their lands outside and killed them off. Better to take than build anew.
sebsebs
Sorry, I don't think I understand. Hong's family was targeted (we don't know by whom) and they ended up on the brink of ruin, so they staked everything on... anihilating a "manor family" in West Town ? It does makes sense they would target those with least backing, whether it's patrons, resources or a moral highground but why did they even have to destroy another family ? I assume they weren't the (sole) culprits for the Hong family's precarious situation or she would have said so clearly. So how would that help them and how is it related to Hong now being a cultivator ? Also, is the "price" simply Tian's family's death throes (burning down the manor, destroying their own village so that the Hongs only get ashes), instead of a Sect law or even a karmic price ? It sounds more like self-defense and spite than some "price" : if they were better prepared they could have completely avoided having to suffer that price, no ? I hope someone (or future chapters) can help me understand but anywayyys thanks for the chapter, it's nice to have that character development for our duo, and especially some more depth to our arrogant Young Mistress. She already appeared quite soft (with Tian, with her empathy and love for her Sisters) to fit the stereotype, but now we have the added background of desperation, immense expectations from her whole family (dead and living), grief, perhaps guilt and definitely some resentment towards the inner workings of the Sect (like our best boy). I'm loving Sky Pride :))
BaguaBrady
I don't know, she was obviously treating it as more than a spar for a few reasons, and he wasn't. His art would have also been injuring her with every strike and block if fully deployed, and hers is much better at displaying it's might in this restricted setting. In short, this was her acting out emotionally and Tian being an unwitting punching bag. But yeah, we're meant to feel it as unpleasant.
NameGame
That was more than a little surprising. Hong had a day and a half of recovery, and she was anticipated to need up to 3 days. Two days of dragging her in a stretcher, with one night's sleep, and she's still able to beat him in a fight even when he was giving his 100% effort? Uh. Why was he dragging her in the stretcher the second day, seems like she was at 100% by the end of it and able to beat him soundly, but she wasn't able to walk on her own for any distance less than an hour before? This feels pretty bad, like the conversation was intended but to get there she needed to win the spar, and when it didn't fit with her being unable to walk on her own...it was crammed in anyway. Very jarring and unpleasant.
Zaeron
I think she's just a kid. A kid raised in an insanely competitive environment under an insane amount of pressure. And she knows she fucked up, which counts for a lot I think.
BaguaBrady
Hong is a bully, but at least a repentant one
Jordan
I wonder if Tian's family were as aweful as Hong was told or if it was a case of Hong's family lying to justifying their actions to her. Granted they killed and poisoned their own people, it seemed more like one last strike at a foe they knew they had no chance at winning against.
Tessellae
That theory is 100% how it went. Source: have read a book before. And it sounds like Tian's family were definitely absolute scum.
valor
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Pinpenny the great lithian
Tian's mom did seem pretty ruthless, so I guess it lines up. I don't know if it has been fully officially confirmed yet, but that's more fuel to the "Hongs + Temple bros and sis killed Tian's family" theory
Griffin Hancock
Oh, shit, Tian is from the family that the Hongs killed - from chapter one: > “There is no battle.” The Madam’s eyes were red, her pupils barely pinpricks. “The Hongs managed to hire some Lay Brothers, which means someone in the Inner Court gave their approval. Our family is dead.”
C
The backstory got more intriguing
