Chapter 108
The Courtesan Life
Han Jia hugged Tobias at the end of her tea ceremony lesson, enveloping him in openness and warmth, just like she did for the other girls in the class. Tobias didn't understand how the Blossoms had aligned themselves so deeply with the dao of beauty, without becoming cultivators, but he looked forward to the end of their lessons as much as the other girls. Their hugs lasted only a moment, but that moment was free from the homesickness that had plagued him.
It was a moment of peace.
A moment where he felt accepted.
And that was all too rare when you lived around those who didn't understand your existence.
When the hug ended, Hun Jia asked Tobias to stay and perform a tea ceremony for her to observe. She didn't care which ceremony he performed, letting him choose whichever he preferred.
Tobias settled on a gratitude ceremony because it was the most universal and least likely to reveal his roots, and because he was grateful for her lesson. Her ceremony had been surrounded by the dao of beauty, opening his eye to further possibilities.
Tobias set the tea aside and bowed from the waist as he finished his ceremony, showing his gratitude.
Han Jia returned his gratitude with a beautiful smile, causing smile lines to bloom across her features. "Your ceremony holds a deep love for tea and an openness and warmth for sharing this love with others. Whoever taught you was humble and honest with a deeper love for the ceremony than any I have met. If one could be in love with tea, they would be. You will gain little for attending my lessons. You will find them helpful perhaps two or three more times, and then you will need to begin private lessons. In this art, you show great strength."
"Thank you," Tobias replied. "You have opened my eyes to what tea ceremonies can be."
He had learned more from her single lesson than during the past century. The dao of tea and ceremony sang clearly in his ears and danced across his vision. It was as if they were guided by the dao of beauty.
Hun Jia shook her head. "No. You are the one who has opened my eyes. And in this regard, you will surpass me. My ceremonies lack your depth of emotion."
"I am grateful to hear that." Tobias hesitated before speaking the plain truth. "My other teachers were not so impressed with me."
Han Jia covered her mouth as she laughed. "Blossom Genji shared that you were taught wrong, and Blossom Won shared that you have none of your disciple's natural sense of rhythm. You approach everything as if it were a puzzle, but art is not a puzzle. It is an expression of oneself, a revelation of who you are to the world around you. The technical side exists only so you can reveal your true self more clearly. When you performed this ceremony, you were not thinking about where to place the cups or where to put your hands. All you were thinking about was showing how grateful you were for the lesson that I taught you. Through that mindset, you went beyond performing the ceremony and created art. This is the mindset that will allow you to progress in your other lessons."
Tobias stared at her in shock, unable to believe a mortal had expressed something he had not understood himself. "You're suggesting that I must first learn the technical side, ignoring the emotions you and the other Blossoms display, and then attempt to do what you do?"
Han Jia nodded. "Our training starts when we are children, and our lessons do not use words. Children see our pretty actions and try to mimic what we do. Through this, they learn the technical side, not thinking about the emotions. Once they have mastered this aspect, they see the emotions and art we create and begin to mimic this, too. Your problem is you see both and think they are two parts of a whole when they are separate disciplines."
Tobias cupped his hands and bowed, humbling himself before his teacher. "This one thanks you for your guidance."
The longer Tobias lived, the harder it was for him to find others who could teach him. Any opportunity where this happened was rare, so the teacher had to be treated with the utmost respect when it occurred.
"Words do not hold the weight of actions," Hun Jia added. "However, your problem was so clearly to me when you performed your ceremony that it allowed me to intercede. Do not come to me looking for answers. If I have them, I will share them. If I do not, I will remain silent."
The dao whispers Tobias had been hearing grew louder and cleared with her final statement, giving Tobias an insight into the dao of beauty that he had not had before the lesson.
Beauty was honesty and went out of its way not to mislead. When it had nothing to offer, it offered nothing.
The dao insight was small but clear, which was a rarity with such a complex dao.
Han Jia smiled. "I look forward to seeing what Blossom Li Jing does with you. Your bow is by far your greatest weakness."
Tobias frowned. "What's wrong with my bow?"
Han Jia laughed softly. "That is not for me to correct, only to make fun of. And I believe that you are late for my daughter's lesson."
Tobias chuckled. "She's grumbling in your courtyard about you wasting my time."
"I'm not surprised. When she sets her shoulders like that, she's always upset."
"Thank you again for the lesson."
"Private lessons will only begin once you have gone beyond what every Blossom can teach you in their morning classes. I hope this limitation encourages you to grow."
Tobias nodded as he rose to his feet and opened the doors. He exited the classroom and walked across the veranda to the courtyard.
Hun Fen looked over. Her expression said 'finally', but the words didn't leave her mouth. "What are we practicing today, Teacher?"
While Tobias was discussing Patriarch Ming's with her mother the previous evening, Hun Fen had managed to bring out the full potential of a toothpick. She didn't need much oversight for the rest of the items he had given her, so he wanted to explain how he'd almost killed himself when he created the dao slash.
Tobias took a seat on the stool. "Today we're practicing the same thing you were already practicing, but before that, I'm going to explain how creating that dao slash almost killed me and why it's so dangerous to create certain types of daos."
Hun Fen wandered over. "Is it safe to create some daos?"
Tobias nodded. "We'll talk about that once you understand what happened. Do you remember where the dao slash came from?"
Hun Fen grinned. "It came out of the palm of your hand, which has no slashing dao because you held it still and at the wrong angle."
Tobias smiled. "I see you've been paying attention, but that was not where it came from. That was where it came out of me. Where do you think it came from?"
Hun Fen paused, thinking over what she knew. "Projecting a dao slash requires a lot of thinking, so it must come from your mind."
"And where is your mind located?"
She pointed at her forehead. "My teachers say it's somewhere in our brain."
You see enough head injuries and how they affect people, and it isn't hard to conclude that the brain is somehow linked to thoughts. They didn't know how the brain worked, but they knew that it was involved.
"So, when you create something with your thoughts, where do you think that would be created?"
She pointed to her forehead again.
"Exactly. When I created the dao slash, I created it in my mind. However, is a dao slash one dao or many?"
"Many."
"So did I create one dao or many?"
"Many."
"No. I created one dao. It might have been made from many, but it was one creation. However, once I created it, I needed to move that dao slash through my meridian network and out of my body. The safest way for me to do that was to use my palm. However, I missed some of it. There were traces left behind that I couldn't perceive, and because I couldn't perceive them, they tried to slash my brain."
Hun Fen's eyes widened. "Do you always miss some?"
Tobias nodded. "You always do because comprehending the entirety of a dao is impossible for anyone except an immortal, which is why it's never safe for cultivators to try to do it with something like a dao slash. However, other dao can be safe."
"Like what?"
"Healing dao is an example. Its nature prevents it from doing harm."
"What about parrying dao?"
"That would try to parry your brain."
Hun Fen frowned but was clearly thinking. "There can't be many safe daos to create then, Teacher."
"There aren't."
"What about the dao of beauty? You talk about that a lot. Would it be safe?"
"I don't understand it well enough to answer your question."
Hun Fen folded her arms in a huff. "How could beauty harm you?"
"It might make you want to destroy everything that isn't beautiful. I might make you fascinated by beauty, so you sit and stare at something beautiful until the dao fades. There are many ways things can go wrong when they interact with your dao."
Hun Fen frowned again, as if she didn't believe his answer, and changed the subject. "If the slashing dao attacked your brain, why didn't it attack your hand when it came out?"
"That slashing dao was under my control. What was left in my brain was the part of the dao of slashing I haven't gained control over yet, so I can't comprehend it, and because I can't comprehend it, I can't perceive it or control it."
If Tobias hadn't restrained his dao, his sword dao enlightenment would have protected him from the negative side effects of his actions, but he didn't dare admit that. If he did, Hun Fen would chase dao enlightenment and likely find it, which would be extremely dangerous for everyone around her.
She lacked the cultivation to full control the dao she could already manipulate. The last thing she needed was the ability to manipulate more.
Hun Fen stuck out her chin. "How come I can make dao slashes without anyone teaching me how to make them then?"
"You do so instinctively. It's like breathing for you. You don't need anyone to tell you that you have to breath. You know you have to breath. The same is true for dao slashes. You are capable of creating them, so you do."
"But how?"
"Do you know what divinity is?"
"It's why I'm a prodigy. My divinity is higher than can be tested, which is why my body meridians were open when I was born."
"Do you know what talent is?"
"It's how good you are at cultivating, but it's not very accurate."
"It can be if you know how to measure it."
Hun Fen's eyes lit up. "Do you know how to do that?"
"I do."
"Can you test me?"
"Testing takes time. It will be a few years before I can give you a completely accurate answer."
Tobias wasn't exactly lying. He knew Hun Fen was a savant, but he wasn't entirely sure to what degree. He'd met many savants over the years, but none of them had come close to his level of talent. Hun Fen might be the first.
"You told my mother I was a savant."
"You are. However, savants like prodigies are not made equal, but we are getting off topic. What I wanted to say was that those with higher divinity find it easier to perceive dao insights. Those with higher talent find it easier to comprehend dao. Sword Saints find it easier to perceive sword dao insights and comprehend them. Martial Artists find it easier to perceive dao insights that are related to body movements and comprehend them. You have all four, so you can do things instinctively which others require years of study to do."
She dropped her gaze. "So, you don't find me weird?"
"I find your haircut weird."
Hun Fen's bottom lip stuck out, and she looked up, nearly in tears. "Can you fix it for me?"
Tobias happened to know that her mother had refused to fix her hair as punishment for sneaking away. However, he could see how much it was bothering her, and the lesson Hun Jia was trying to teach her daughter wasn't the one she would walk away with.
Removing your child's confidence and damaging their self-esteem were never punishments a parent should hand out.
Tobias held out his hand and summoned the toothpick with his aura. "Hold still."
Hun Fen started giggling as he began giving her a haircut with dao slashes made with a toothpick.
***
Blossom Li Jing's etiquette lessons were magical. She took the most mundane actions and made them beautiful, creating a presence that was unlike anything Tobias had ever seen. She had elevated bowing and everything else she did into an art form. Every action she took sang with the dao of beauty making it hard for Tobias to pay attention as he accumulated insight after insight.
Lung Mei also liked her lessons, practicing in the evenings when they were alone in their painted world, trying to capture her teacher's presence. Tobias smiled as they passed a cup back and forth, trying to capture even a hint of the dao of beauty that Blossom Li Jing had created with the same action. Neither of them was close, but they didn't stop trying. Dao comprehension could come at any time. The insights they had gathered would flow together and give new meaning that would expand their control over the dao.
They could be missing insights they needed, and they likely were, but that did not mean there was any reason to stop. The practice was fun.
"I don't mind it here," Lung Mei said, breaking the silence as she accepted the cup. "The lessons are fun, even the tea ceremonies, and the Blossoms give the best hugs. You can tell they're beautiful people outside and in."
Tobias was happy she was happy and was glad she had broached the subject herself. "Would you like to spend some time with Hun Fen?"
She grinned excitedly and nodded.
"I'll speak to her mother about you two going for a walk around the city during the lunch break tomorrow."
"Not tomorrow."
Tobias frowned. "Why not tomorrow?"
"I need a new dress. One that's as pretty as the ones she wears."
Tobias felt a sense of warm happiness at the request. Lung Mei had never wanted to impress anyone before. "I'll buy you a new dress and then organise an outing."
"A pretty new dress. Not like the ones you normally buy."
Tobias didn't put out that she chose her own clothes. He simply nodded his head and agreed to her childish correction.