I moved this chapter from later in this book, and it needs more work, but it's good enough for today.
Chapter 117
Disciple Hun
Tobias originally wanted to accept Hun Fen as his disciple when she turned sixteen, believing that he could perform his role as her master. There was no problem in the cultivation world that he could not solve, no mystery he could not unravel, so he expected his understanding of who she was and what she was capable of would grow with time. However, as she grew older and gained a deeper comprehension of the living sword, Tobias learned many things about her and himself. He realised he was not the master she needed.
To put it bluntly, he was not skilled enough to become her master. However, she was determined to become his disciple and would not take no for an answer.
After many heated arguments, mostly on Hun Fen's side, Tobias decided to take her into the mountains and show her the true difference in their skill. He would spar with her while limiting his cultivation to the mortal realm, evening out the playing field.
There was no doubt in Tobias's mind that after sparring on the same level, Hun Fen would see that he couldn't teach her. That the gap between their skill was an illusion which only existed because of their difference in cultivation.
It took two realms of difference just for him to trade pointers with her in a way that helped; fighting her on even footing would break any illusions she had about him being worthy of becoming her master. And show her that with even a little progress in her cultivation would make it so he wasn't capable of being her teacher.
But Hun Fen was stubborn.
And fourteen years old.
And Tobias had forgotten, you couldn't tell a fourteen-year-old anything.
Tobias fought like his life depended on it, wielding dao in all its forms on the mountain where Hun Fen had woken as a living sword. The air was cool and crisp despite the summer heat, and the wildlife was fleeing in every direction, sensing the dao that was being unleashed far above them.
Tobias was giving everything he had to their fight, trying to keep ahead of Hun Fen's blade, but it made little difference. She cut through his guard, parried his strikes, dao blocked his retreat, and overwhelmed him at every turn. There was nothing he could offer her to help her gain further insights. With their cultivation in the same realm, she was beyond his ability to teach. A mountain with no peak.
Hun Fen offered no mercy, and Tobias asked for none, fighting desperately to hold his ground. This was not a friendly fight, but one where he had accepted that he might die. It would not stop until one of them was defeated.
Hun Fen saw through Tobias's assault and flicked her wrist and elbow, blocking his strike, while cutting through the flesh and tendons in his forearmed with a dao cut. She knocked his sword away with her next strike and then delivered a kick to his head with the weight of her dao behind it. It felt like being hit with the pommel of a nascent soul realm cultivator's sword.
Tobias collapsed, falling to his knees, fighting off her dao, as his head swam. Keeping her dao from collapsing his skull took everything he had. He could not move or do anything else. He was utterly defeated, and she hadn't broken a sweat.
Tobias vomited a moment later, expelling the rampant dao rushing through him.
Lung Mei rushed to his side and wiped his mouth with a silk handkerchief. She helped him to his feet and led him to a boulder where he could sit and gather his thoughts. She fed him a pill to repair the damage to his forearm and clear his mind while scowling at him. "You didn't have to take it this far, Master."
Tobias's head began to clear as the pill took effect. "I needed to prove to her that I cannot be her master."
"All you have done is prove to her the lengths you will go to for your disciples."
The world came into focus, and Tobias looked up to see Hun Fen nodding at her best friend's statement. He could see that nothing had changed. Hun Fen still wanted to be his disciple despite his inability to teach her.
Tobias sighed. "I cannot teach you the way of the sword."
Hun Fen glared back. "You are a third rank living sword. How many of those exist?"
"Less than twenty."
"What rank am I?"
"Seventh."
"The greatest sword saint in history was only rank eight, and that was after twenty thousand years of dedicated training. No one is fit to teach me the way of the sword, but you're the only one who can make me a cultivation method that is worthy of my dao and skills."
They had had this argument dozens of times.
"I can't make something I don't understand."
Hun Fen glared at him. "Then I will make you understand."
She took two steps back and began a sword dance unlike any he had ever seen. The world warped around her as she released her dao enlightenment, displaying it for all to see. She appeared in dozens of places with dozens of swords, dancing with all of them and herself creating a storm of sword dao that made his ears ring. Her dance was filled with the beauty of the sword in all its forms, not favouring one action over another as she pulled back the curtains of her heart.
Lung Mei passed out in the first three steps. Tobias made it to nine before collapsing next to her. Hun Fen danced on, oblivious to the world around her.
***
Hours later, Tobias woke with a deeper understanding of Hun Fen than when he had passed out. In those nine steps, he had seen the shadow she cast. It was a great mountain in the distance that he could not see, but he knew it was there. It was over the horizon and beyond his understanding, but if he kept going, he might see it and, one day, understand who and what she was.
Tobias heard the soft pitter-patter of tears falling to the ground and looked to the side to see Hun Fen holding Lung Mei's hand, crying silently over her. The young woman was filled with fear and regret. She was headstrong and impulsive. She followed her instincts more than was wise, and she had done something that she should not have done.
Her sword dance transcended sword dao. She had woven in her full understanding of dao and everything else she had comprehended, along with what she instinctively knew. She had not shared her sword dao, but her dao path in its entirety. She had used her sword dao to convey that message, cutting through the miscommunication and forcing those who saw it to understand.
It was not something Tobias could do or would do.
Lung Mei's condition was the obvious reason. She was having a seizure from having such a powerful dao forced upon her consciousness. She had likely been having it since she passed out. She hadn't grasped the dao of the sword, so she had no way to block the intrusion of Hun Fen's dao. Her soul had been overwhelmed by what she had seen.
Every bone in Tobias's body ached as he rolled over and stared at Hun Fen. He was not angry about what she had done. Her abilities were in many ways beyond her own comprehension. She knew she could do things, but did not understand the results of doing them.
Tobias offered Hun Fen a weak smile. "She isn't going to die."
Hun Fen looked up, snot running down her chin, looking more miserable than he had ever seen her.
"Lung Mei's spirit is breaking her body, forcing it to forget what she has seen, so it isn't completely corrupt by a dao it cannot comprehend. She'll be unconscious for a day, maybe two, and will wake up missing the memories of most of this day. You have injured her spirit, forced dao insights upon it that it cannot comprehend. These insights will harm her cultivation until she can comprehend enough of the dao of the sword to bring them under control."
Hun Fen wiped her runny nose on her sleeve. "I didn't mean for that to happen." Her words came out pitifully, filled with all the regrets of a young person who had acted before they thought.
"I know. But you danced with your dao, not your sword, expressing the full depth of who you are."
"I was just trying to help you understand me."
"I know, and Lung Mei's condition is my fault, not yours. I never considered that you might be able to express your dao through a sword dance, so I never warned you of the risks."
"Why did it hurt her?"
"Our dao is much more complex than the dao of the sword. We require tens of thousands of dao enlightenments to understand a hint of another person's dao, because if we could understand someone's dao completely, we would be able to bring that person into existence. It is something I imagine only the gods can do."
"Why did you only pass out?"
"I collect dao enlightenment in all forms. I've been doing so for centuries. It protected me from your dance to some degree. It lets me see what I can comprehend and forget the rest. I'm also a living sword, so I was able to block and parry some of what you were forcing upon me. Lung Mei could not."
Hun Fen wiped away her tears, losing her fear for her best friend. She trusted him. If he said she would recover, there was no reason or need to fear that she would not.
Tobias gave her a moment to collect herself before pressing her for answers. "Do you understand how you did what you did?"
Hun Fen nodded.
"Could you do it again, but not express yourself so clearly or force it upon me so violently?"
Hun Fen nodded again. "That sword dance was the hardest thing I've ever done. Performing one like you said would be easier, but it won't give me what I want."
Tobias managed to push himself to a sitting position but immediately regretted it. His body was not in good shape. There were limits to the dao it could contain, and she was pushing those limits with what she had forced upon him. Tobias needed to expel more of what he had seen, but he could hold out a little longer.
His head spun as he stared at Hun Fen. "What you want is to help me understand how to build a cultivation method for you."
She shook her head. "What I want is to become your disciple, but you will only let me do that if you can guide me to a place no one else can. I don't care about that. I care about being your disciple."
"You succeeded to some degree. I caught a glimpse of your path from your dance, but it was at the end, not the beginning. The dao insights and comprehensions you were expressing were too far beyond my ability to understand, but if you could dance less clearly, I might see the beginning of your path."
"How does that help me become your disciple?"
"If I know where your path begins, I know what I need to study to see the next step. If I can see the next step, I will know what to study after that. Eventually, I might see enough to build you a cultivation method that is worthy of your talent."
"Does that mean you will become my master?"
"No. I'll decide once I've created the cultivation method."
Hun Fen glared at him. "Why can't you just say yes?"
"I have seen the beauty that is a master disciple relationship and can no longer live any other way."
It was a comprehension Tobias had formed for the dao of beauty while working with Lung Mei. Tobias had always taken his responsibilities as a master seriously, but until he had gained this comprehension, he had not realised that the heavens might view it the same way.
"Well, I haven't, and I don't understand why you don't want me."
Tobias softened his expression. "It is not about wanting, Hun Fen. It is about being worthy. As a seventh rank living sword, you have every right to be my master."
"I wouldn't be teaching you. You would be studying me and teaching yourself like you always do. I'm not even good at trading pointers."
Tobias had to admit that she had a point. Hun Fen was so skilled at everything she did that she didn't truly understand how she did what she did. This meant she couldn't pass on her skills to others, which had been one of his biggest shocks from training her.
Tobias nodded. "You make a good point."
"See. That's why you should be my master."
"You don't need a master."
"Yes, I do. It's part of my dao."
She had never said this before, and Tobias took it seriously. He wiped away the blood trickling from his nose and offered her a more serious expression. "Why would you say that?"
Hun Fen paused to think. "It might have been the dance. I learned a lot about myself from it."
"It's a form of dao comprehension, so that isn't surprising, but what makes you say having a master is part of your dao?"
"It just is. For the longest time, I've wanted you to be my master. It's a feeling that I have, like the feeling I had when I went to the tournament, so my mother would let me learn to wield a sword. I feel like I won't reach my full potential without a master, and you're the only one that feels right."
"What about me feels right?"
"When I was younger, I thought it was because you could teach me to wield a sword, but that feeling quickly faded. It came back when you started teaching me about cultivation, and it hasn't gone away since. I don't see the world the way you do, like you don't understand the sword the way I do. You can't help me there, but I can't do what you can when it comes to cultivation. I might be able to understand dao like you do, I'm not sure, but not cultivation. Your mind works differently from mine, and it's something that I need to reach my full potential."
She wasn't doing a good job of explaining, so Tobias kept pushing. "I watched you practice my exercises, so I know you understand what I teach you about cultivation better than almost anyone."
"Yes, but I can't take it further, only follow what you teach me. And I know that if I want to reach my full potential, I will need a cultivation method more difficult and complex than anything you have shown me. I might not be able to understand it without your help."
"I simplified cultivation to improve everyone's chances of reaching immortality."
"Yes, because most people can't handle anything more complex, but I saw the method you made for my sister, and it's much more complex than the ones you've shown me, because you knew she could handle it. You did the same for Lung Mei."
"You want me to make you a cultivation method that will challenge you?"
"Yes. I want you to create something that only you can create and help me master it, so I don't make mistakes when I walk this path. You're the only one who can. It's why I need you to be my master."
Tobias was willing to admit that it was true.
He offered a gentle smile. "You gained a lot of clarity from your dance, didn't you?"
Hun Fen nodded.
"If that is what you want, then I will accept you as my disciple."
Hun Fen smiled and then glanced down at her seizing friend. "Couldn't you have agreed before I hurt her?"
"No. If I hadn't seen the shadow of your path, I wouldn't believe it might be possible to fulfil your request and become the master you need me to be."
"When will you let me perform the ceremony?"
Tobias waved his hand, and a tea set appeared on the ground before him. "I'm not sure how much of my memory I will lose when I expel your dao, so it is better to do so now, before I forget why I'm agreeing to this."