Sorry for the delay. I arrived at the writing retreat two days ago, and everyone wanted to spend yesterday hanging out rather than working. Today, we're all working, so hopefully I can get this week sorted before everyone stops.Athens was interesting. I stayed in a place called Plaka, which was the first time I've ever been in what felt like a walking city. It made me realise how those are actually designed and will help inform my narrative in the future. Anyway, I hope you all have a good week.
Chapter 109
The Sword and Dagger
While Lung Mei and Hun Fen were out on their playdate, Tobias was enjoying his afternoon off by showing Hun Jia how to prepare different varieties of tea to bring out their full flavour. Adult conversations were rare these days, and the ones he had usually revolved around cultivation, so it was refreshing to talk about something as mundane as tea. Hun Jia had initially rejected his offer to teach her because only Blossoms were supposed to teach within the walls, but had quickly changed her mind after he prepared a cup of Three Towns Tea for her. When prepared correctly, even mortals could taste the difference.
Tobias was sharing a story about his grandfather when he noticed Lung Mei rush through the Silver Blossom Pavilion's entrance under a shrouding spell. Hun Fen was bound to her back as Lung Mei raced towards their hut, trying and failing to see if he was there through her panic.
Tobias silently replaced himself with an illusion, carrying on his conversation with Hun Jia without her noticing anything, and then shifted his body to their hut, wondering what had gone wrong on their playdate.
Lung Mei rarely panicked.
But she was panicking now.
Tobias spread his aura beyond the Silver Blossom Pavilion but couldn't sense anyone chasing her, ruling out the possibility that she had offended another hidden master. It had happened more often than he liked, but the only times Tobias needed to be concerned were if the hidden master was in the nascent soul realm. Those arrogant old monsters all wanted to trade pointers, and Tobias would have to oblige. Win or lose, they always had to relocate.
Tobias didn't want to leave, though.
The Blossoms were helping Lung Mei come out of her shell, Hun Fen seemed as eager to be her friend as Lung Mei was to be hers, and he felt like the world had been turned on its head by everything he was seeing here. Hun Fen constantly surprised him, and Tobias was now reevaluating everything he thought he knew about the dao and cultivation.
Tobias took a seat on the rock that served as the entrance step to their hut as Lung Mei jumped over the family compound wall and landed on a rooftop before leaping to the next. Tobias noticed she was only moving at a fraction of her normal speed and was using every trick he'd taught her to reinforce her clothing. Whatever had gone wrong wasn't as important as keeping her new dress intact.
Tobias let himself relax as Lung Mei raced across the rooftops without disturbing or damaging the tiles, before dropping down and landing in the alleyway before him.
"Master!" Lung Mei Shouted. "She's crazy!"
Tobias hardened his aura to stop the accusation from travelling and studied her passenger. Hun Fen looked like she was ready to vomit from the violent piggyback ride, but still managed to lean forward and bite Lung Mei's shoulder. She was trying to move her arms and legs to get free, but could not overpower her captor.
"What happened?" Tobias asked.
Lung Mei ignored the biting and growling going on behind her. "She tried to kill a guard with a toothpick. He was just eating a bowl of noodles."
Tobias turned his attention to Hun Fen. "Did he make your skin crawl?"
"He's a monster," Hun Fen shouted without removing her teeth from Lung Mei's shoulder. "I have to kill him."
"Lung Mei, put Hun Fen down, and change your clothing to your battle attire. Then go and get the guard and bring him here. He's likely a terrible person."
Lung Mei put Hun Fen down and stripped in a flash, changing her dress for her combat robes. Tobias retrieved her daggers from his storage ring and tossed them to her, as she leapt onto the roof of the nearest building to go find the guard.
Hun Fen had made a dash for the gate but had only made it five steps by the time Lung Mei had changed and left the compound.
Tobias used his aura to carry his voice to Hun Fen's ears. "Lung Mei will find him before you do and bring him here while you're gone. It's wiser to wait."
Hun Fen slowed her steps and then turned back, trudging towards Tobias. She stopped before him and scowled. "What are you going to do to the monster?"
"I'm going to question him and most likely execute him."
Hun Fen frowned. "Why?"
"Prodigies know if they will like or dislike someone. The fact that he makes your skin crawl tells me that he is likely a terrible person with a terrible past. Would you like to take his head?"
Hun Fen's eyes widened with shock, and she looked a little ill. "I don't care who kills that monster," she said in a much smaller voice. "It just needs to die."
Tobias relaxed, because Hun Fen wasn't some blood thirsty manic. He didn't think she was, but he had to give her the chance to prove it. The dao of the sword held many violent daos, and her comprehension of them might have changed her.
Tobias leapt to his feet as he sensed a dark wave of chi wash through Ming City. It was stained with the dao of pain and suffering, and near the peak of the core realm. A moment later, it was gone, and the city's chi saturation rose.
Han Fen looked where Tobias was looking, apparently sensing what he had, then turned to look at his face. "Is Lung Mei alright?"
Tobias was already expanding his aura to find out.
A second later, Lung Mei appeared at the edge of his senses, flying towards him and clutching her side. The wound was turning necrotic.
In an alleyway, a quarter of a mile behind her, lay the headless body of a core realm cultivator. Tobias examined the body through his expanding aura, searching for threats. As Tobias's aura reached Patriarch Ming, he instructed his servant to guard the alleyway and not disturb the body. Tobias had encountered his share of tyrants over the centuries, but none had chi so heavily influenced by pain or suffering, which made him cautious.
The body secured, Tobias turned his attention to his surroundings and ended his conversation with Hun Jia, causing his illusion to vanish.
He waved his hand, and the contents of his storage ring appeared beside him. He began drawing water from the air as he opened chests and retrieved his medical equipment, pills, and spirit herb powders.
Within the few seconds it took Lung Mei to arrive, Tobias was ready to treat her wound. Lung Mei landed in the alleyway and staggered forward, holding a bloody dagger.
Tobias took the dagger and sniffed the blood as he ran his aura and chi through the weapon searching for answers. The dagger was a nascent soul realm treasure and tens of thousands of years old, but Tobias couldn't tell that until he was holding it. There was a soul trapped within it. However, that soul could not influence him. It needed time to establish control.
Tobias tossed it in the middle of the alleyway, driving the blade into the cobblestones. "Don't touch the dagger."
He turned to his disciple.
Sweat beaded down her little forehead, already soaking her white hair, though, so it was plastered against her face. Her breath was sharp and uneven, and her pupils were dilated with pain and panic. She'd upset hidden master before, but this was the first time any of them had ever gone straight for the kill. She was a seasoned warrior, but she had always been the predator, and her opponent the prey.
Today, she'd fought another predator.
And she'd barely survived.
Blood pooled around Lung Mei's hand as Tobias summoned a surgical knife from his things. "I need to cut out the dead flesh. It's a dao wound, and it will continue to spread. Lie down."
Lung Mei complied, leaning backwards.
Tobias caught her with his aura and floated her to his side so he could work on her injury. He cut away her robe, assessing the damage visually and spiritually. He was going to have to cut out three minor body meridians and two minor energy meridians. It would make it harder for her to reach the nascent soul realm.
Tobias assumed she'd sacrificed them to save her greater kidney meridian, because the wound was very close to costing her it anyway. It was exactly what he'd taught her to do, and he was grateful that she had integrated the lesson.
In one smooth motion, Tobias plunged the knife into her little side and cut around the wound, severing half her kidney in the process. He removed the dao corrupted flesh with his aura, dropping it on the ground and incinerating it with fire, while moving a bottle of pills to her mouth for her to swallow. Her shock would only last seconds before the pain kicked in. She'd never gained the control over her body that she needed to suppress it entirely. Her cultivation method didn't allow for it.
Lung Mei swallowed the pills and cycled her chi as Tobias began preparing a spirit herb poultice from the powdered spirit herbs he had in storage. They would draw out the corrupting dao. Tobias was a passable healer, but this was a dao wound; he didn't have the skills to fix it without external aid.
While he worked, Hun Fen glared at the danger with mounting anger. Her hand suddenly twitched open, and the training sword made from his immortal ancestor flew towards her. Tobias tried to intercept the sword through his aura, but Hun Fen used the dao from his training sword to cut through his aura, somehow using it as a focus without being in contact with it.
Tobias was too shocked to make a second attempt to stop her, unable to understand what he'd seen.
As the hilt of the sword came to rest between Hun Fen's fingers, her eyes went wide, and the world around her warped. Tobias watched as she tapped into the higher dao held within the training sword, merging it into her own. She was like a duckling that had found water. It came so naturally to her that it was inevitable.
Hun Fen became a living dao storm.
As reality flickered around her and a clear voice expressed the dao of the sword she held, Hun Fen pivoted on the spot and swung the sword at the dagger, creating the most powerful dao slash Tobias had ever witnessed. The dao slash struck the dagger, and the dagger ceased to exist. It wasn't cut to pieces. There were no pieces left. She had slashed apart the dao that held it together and the soul's connection to the mortal world with it.
Hun Fen died with an enraged look on her face, and the world returned to normal as the heavens stopped sharing its secrets.
Lung Mei's eyes went wide, head turning towards Hun Fen. "Master."
"I see it," Tobias replied, taking hold of Hun Fen's body as she fell and forcing her heart and lungs to work through his aura. "You worry about your recovery. I'll worry about hers."
Tobias injected his chi into Hun Fen's stomach meridian, forcing it to circulate around her body. He did the same to her energy meridians, but with less success. She had absorbed and projected too much dao, expending all her body's energy in the process.
Death was the natural result.
The training sword in her hand lent her its strength, helping revitalise her cells and restore their ability to produce energy. It was the nature of the spirit willow to do so, but this was more effective than normal, which was another oddity.
Tobias mashed together a handful of spirit herb powders, adding water and applying them to Hun Fen's skin with his aura. Then he directed their medicinal properties into her body while he applied another poultice to Lung Mei's open wound.
Lung Mei hissed in pain as the poultice began drawing out the corrupting dao within her.
Tobias gave a silent word of thanks to Elder Ting of Cloud Sect. The cultivator had spent centuries perfecting the art of turning spirit herbs into stable compounds, and his efforts had saved his disciple's life. Without sage realm spirit herb powders from his clan's spirit gardens, there would be no way to draw out the corrupt dao without her becoming permanently crippled.
It was worth all the spirit herbs the man had lost to perfect the process just for this moment.
Tobias placed his hand on his disciple's shoulder. "It's going to be a painful recovery, but you'll be fine."
Lung Mei held back tears "Will I still join you in immortality, Master?"
Tobias nodded and stroked her damp head. "You'll have more trouble with your nascent soul realm tribulation, but you'll succeed."
Tobias turned to Hun Fen. "That one will probably get herself killed first."
The world around Hun Fen began to warp as her mind began getting the energy it needed to process thoughts, so Tobias pulled his training sword from her hand with his aura and waited, slowly releasing her heart and lungs when they could function without his help.
It was nearly ten minutes before Hun Fen woke and another five before she could put two thoughts together. The moment she did, she collapsed, experiencing dao enlightenment. If insights were a piece of the puzzle and comprehensions a small section, dao enlightenment was a large chunk.
That chunk gave a clear image, and with that clear image, the dao became a part of you, not just something you understood.
Tobias watched Hun Fen's dao transform before his eyes; most of who and what she was had been shrouded from his awareness, but he could see a familiar dao taking form within her. Tobias looked down at the wooden training sword his cousin had made him from a branch of their immortal ancestor. He'd been carrying it for centuries and was intimately familiar with its dao.
Its dao was becoming a part of Hun Fen.
Hun Fen wasn't undergoing a sword dao enlightenment, but a dao enlightenment which encompassed the existence of Tobias's training sword. Her body was becoming more resilient, taking on the durability of the sage realm willow, which shouldn't have been possible. The dao was too complex for a mortal mind to grasp, too interconnected with other aspects of the dao.
Tobias sighed as he continued working on Lung Mei. "This is going to be a problem."