Chapter 112
New Tricks
Tobias spent six months studying Hun Fen’s dao and transmitting Hun Jia’s voice, so her daughter didn’t feel so lonely. As Hun Fen’s control improved under his guidance, the number of wayward dao strikes she released drastically decreased. However, the few that did appear were significantly stronger, warping the world with their passage, rejecting the natural laws which tried to prevent them from coming into being.
Hun Fen was a mortal.
Natural laws governed her existence as much as any other mortal.
Yet, she constantly denied the natural order, imposing dao far more powerful than she should have been able to upon the world around her. Yes, she was a living sword, but she was a living sword wielded by unskilled mortal hands. She should not have been able to cut a core realm cultivator in half, and yet she could. This went against what Tobias understood of dao and the natural laws, which was why reality warped so frequently.
The occasional crack of thunder as the heavens protested her actions concerned Tobias, but there was nothing he could do about that. Hun Fen needed to move forward. She couldn’t stop. And he wouldn’t walk away and let her starve.
Not just because he wouldn’t do that to a child, but her ability to warp reality exposed the dao of the sword, offering him insights even the Sword Garden hadn’t. Tobias meditated frequently during these months, gathering insights and forming comprehensions, doing his best to keep up, but the girl he wanted to teach was an enigma. A mortal goddess. An existence that defied the laws of nature.
Tobias knew Han Fen was special the moment he laid eyes on her, but he didn’t understand how special she was when they met. His friend Xu Ling had once said that no matter how hard she tried to catch up to him, he was always three steps ahead. Tobias knew that in a few decades, Hun Fen would be racing ahead of him, not three steps, but twenty. Tobias didn’t want to stop her. He didn’t want to hold her back. All he wanted to do was leave a good impression and hope she would let him follow her path to immortality, so he could learn a few of her tricks for those he would guide after her.
Seven months after Hun Fen woke on the mountain, she could speak and eat without assistance. She talked with her mother for days on end, saying everything she had been wanting to say for months. Eight months after she woke, she didn’t produce dao strikes unless she wanted to, and at nine months, she was able to give her mother a hug.
Tobias leaned against a boulder, watching as Hun Jia held her daughter in her arms, cradling her like a baby, cuddling with no intention of letting go. This was the reunion they had been waiting for. The chance to be together, not just in words, but in actions.
Lung Mei was in one of her moods and felt left out, so she had climbed onto Tobias’s lap, holding his arms around her middle. Holding her reminded him of his children. Worlds and centuries separated them, but the familiar act of having her in his arms brought them back together. Lung Mei was not a replacement. She was not a reminder. She was the child of his negligence, a happy accident, and he loved her simply because he wanted to.
Lung Mei played with her danger while she snuggled into his chest. Her sword dao had grown, strengthening her dagger dao, giving her a glimpse of the dao of claws which had eluded her for more than a century. She walked the dao path of the hunter, the predator which stalked its prey, and how could a predator do that without claws?
Tobias didn’t care half as much as she did.
What mattered to him was that Lung Mei Hun Fen were now friends. They had both grown bored of the constant training and invented wordless games they could play from a distance. They never let him play with them, and whenever he mentioned the rules they played by, they would immediately change them, giggling together like they had got one over on him.
They were being children.
And that was more important than cultivation.
Lung Mei returned her claw-shaped dagger to its sheath and sighed, leaning back against his chest, brushing his chin with her white hair. She hardened her small aura so the others could not hear them, finally ready to share what was bothering her.
“Why haven’t you told them that this is just the first step, Master?”
Tobias leaned his chin on Lung Mei’s head. “Because we don’t need to borrow trouble. And the control she has gained does not indicate her future progress.”
Hun Fen had a deep understanding of sword dao, but no understanding of the sword. The two were intrinsically linked, and her current capabilities were a fraction of what they would be once she had a little more understanding.
She understood how to swing a sword, block, parry, and lunge, but it was only surface-level. That understanding shaped how she implemented her dao. As her knowledge of the sword grew, so would her capabilities with her dao, and she would once again lose control.
Tobias hadn’t told her or Hun Jia, because neither of them was in a headspace to accept it. He didn’t like withholding knowledge from his friends, but in this case, it was necessary.
Lung Mei frowned, clearly thinking. “Have you figured out a way for her to master her dao more quickly, Master?”
“I’m not taking the quickest path.”
“Why not?”
“Because it will mean months of her being alone on a mountain. This was hard enough on her and her mother. I do not want to make them go through it again.”
“Building her foundation piece by piece with a very narrow focus will take much longer, though.”
“Yes, but when she loses control of her dao again, it should only take her a few days to regain it.”
***
Tobias gave Hun Jia and Hun Fen two weeks together before he shared the bad news. He made sure they were on separate mountains when he broached the topic, and the emotional backlash made Hun Fen lose control of her dao like he expected. It took her several hours to calm down and regain control. Up until she did, no one could get close to her.
Tobias landed on the shattered mountain peak that was several hundred feet lower than it had been when they’d arrived in the mountains. He didn’t look in Hun Fen’s direction as he tossed her a new dress. Clothing might not have provided any barrier to his gaze, but mortals still preferred that he pretend it did.
Hun Fen quickly dressed.
Tobias turned to face her, noting her elevated heart rate and anxious state. “Do you understand why you need more training now?”
Hun Fun gritted her teeth and nodded. “I can hurt people with my emotions.”
Tobias cupped his hands behind his back to begin an important lesson. “Emotions influence thoughts, and thoughts influence dao. When you become upset, the influence you have over your dao will make your dao react as if you are being attacked. The term living sword is not just a name. It is a description of what you are. You are a sword capable of thought, a sword capable of feeling emotions, and until you can control your dao completely, you will react like a sword striking down anything that you don’t like. Do you understand why I brought you back here now?”
Hun Fen nodded. “I would have killed Mama if she were near me when you told me.”
“Not intentionally, but that would have been the outcome.”
“How do I control my new tricks?”
Tobias smiled at her use of the word tricks. She initially used his terms, referring to dao in the proper way, but over time, she transitioned back to her own term, tricks. The more she understood. The more she believed there was nothing special about what they did. That they were merely parlour tricks.
“With practice,” Tobias replied. “That will be the next part of your training. Now make a dao slash with your hand and send it against the sky.”
Hun Fen lifted her arm.
Tobias tickled her armpit with his aura.
Hun Fen erupted in giggles and clamped her hand over her armpit, failing to project the dao slash. “Stop it.”
The words came out in a giggle, and she turned to him with a grin on her face.
Tobias smiled back. “You can’t learn to control your dao when it’s influenced by your emotions, unless your dao is influenced by your emotions. Tickling you is the safest and gentlest way to do so.”
Hun Fen lost her grin. “But I might hurt you?”
“Only if I tickle you too much, so long as it’s fun, you shouldn’t lash out and kill me. Now you still owe me a dao slash.”
Hun Fen giggled as she raised her arm and then clutched her armpit as he tickled her again. This time, she managed to get off a weak dao slash.
Tobias had spent months considering how he would train her. Outside of getting his actual body, this was the safest way to do so. Their training sessions would be fun and short because anything more would cause a negative reaction, leaving him with no other choice but to go home.
After a few minutes of practice, Tobias saw she wasn’t enjoying it as much and changed it up.
“No more tickling for now. Instead, I want you to create every type of dao attack you can. Show me how good you are.”
Hun Fen grinned as she showed off her skills. Tobias praised her each time, commenting on how much she had improved. When she was done, they went back to the tickle training for a few minutes before switching to her performing her attacks at different strengths.
He made the lesson fun and entertaining, asking her to parry his dao slashes while she launched others at the sky. When everything slowed down, he would switch it up, keeping her on her toes. It wasn’t training, it was play, and children learned much faster that way.
Within a few hours, Tobias stood while she formed her most powerful dao slash while he tickled her. The distraction and happiness she felt hadn’t caused her any loss of control.
She turned to him, giggling. “I did it.”
Tobias was honestly shocked by her statement. She had spent months slowly making progress, but now she was leaping ahead like she had when they first met. Something had changed, and the only thing he could put it down to was their proximity. He’d never been this close to her while she was out of control. Tobias didn’t understand why that would make a difference. But he would investigate the matter going forward.
Tobias originally planned to end their lessons if she mastered the skill, but decided to see if she was interested in continuing. “Do you want to end your training for the day and go back, or try to do the same with a dao cut?”
“I want to keep going.”
Tobias had her practice her cuts to calm down before continuing with her training. She mastered the dao cut within half an hour and moved on to the next, giggling the entire time.
A few hours after sunset, Tobias landed his flying sword on the other mountain, and Hun Fen jumped off and dashed towards her mother. “I had the best lesson ever.”
Hun Jia engulfed her daughter in a hug, surrounding her in the dao of beauty. “I was watching. It looked like fun.”
Hun Fen nodded while clinging to her shoulders. “I can do all of my tricks while being tickled, and I don’t lose control, but Teacher said it’s not enough. Tomorrow he’s going to splash me with cold water, but whenever I succeed, I can pour a bucket of water on him instead. Do you know what the best part is?”
Hun Jai shook her head.
“I don’t have to do it right away. I can save them, and then I can splash him whenever I want and not get in trouble.”
Hun Jia laughed. “You are going to torment your poor teacher.”
Hun Fen giggled and nodded excitedly.
Tobias made his way over to where Lung Mei was sulking and preparing venison skewers on a small grill and took a seat. “If tomorrow is anything like today, we’ll only be here for a few more months.”
Lung Mei continued to sulk.
Tobias picked her up, placed her on his lap and began tickling her mercilessly. Her giggles filled the mountain as she joined in on the fun. Lung Mei had been abandoned by her mother, abandoned by her clan, so she hated being left out. Tobias didn’t want to give her the impression that he was abandoning her for another disciple, so he spent the rest of his evening smothering her with attention until she finally had enough and ran off to play with Hun Fen.
Hun Jia looked over as their girls ran off together and smiled, one parent recognising the struggles of another.
Tobias returned the smile, glad to be seen.