Chapter 120
Raising Children
Blossoms charged more for an afternoon of their time than Flowers made in a month. This meant that only two of Tobias's suitors could now afford to spend time with him. As was tradition, Tobias hosted each of his other suitors one last time for free and gave them his most beautiful goodbye. Many asked him to run away with them, as they had many times before, but he turned them down in such a way that made them happy and fulfilled to return to their life without him.
They left feeling like they had experienced something beautiful, something they could treasure for all their days, something that would make them feel like they had a life well lived. The dao of hidden beauty was an immortal realm dao. Tobias had checked by binding the dao to a piece of immortal jade and sending it through the barrier to the immortal realm above. The dao was not meant for the mortal mind or even the minds of weak cultivators, so Tobias could not prevent it from influencing his suitors, only steer it towards making their last time with him the most beautiful experience of their lives.
Without his suitors, Tobias had more free time, so he began trading private lessons with the Blossoms. They were all eager to learn how to cultivate, and he was just as eager to learn how they applied their dao to their individual interest. Without their dao hiding their actions from him, everything they did took on deeper meaning, revealing the true depth of their skill and how much more there was for him to learn.
However, his most valuable lessons were always with Hun Jia. It didn't matter whether he was the teacher or the student. Every lesson was valuable.
If Tobias had a natural talent for understanding cultivation, Hun Jia had a natural talent for understanding dao. She was like a fish in water. All Tobias needed to do was place her downstream, and she naturally found her way up.
Three months after becoming a Blossom, Tobias opened his eyes, ending his enlightenment and cementing his understanding of the dao of beauty. The dao of beauty had been his to claim since the day he achieved enlightenment for the dao of hidden beauty, but Tobias had held off on achieving enlightenment to form one that was more complete. Hun Jia's tribulation and ascension to the core realm had been the last piece of the puzzle he was missing, and had shown him that she was on the edge of achieving enlightenment and finding her path in life.
Hun Jia lifted a scarred hand and splashed him with the medicinal bath water she was recovering in, hiding her actions with her dao, so he wouldn't notice or block it.
Tobias splutters as a wave of water drenched his head, causing Hun Jia to laugh.
Tobias turned and raised an eyebrow, questioning.
Hun Jia smirked. "You're supposed to be overseeing my recovery, not gaining your second petal."
Tobias frowned. "What second petal?"
"You're as beautiful as I am. Don't try to hide it."
Tobias raised his other eyebrow, still not understanding.
Hun Jia rolled her eyes. "Obviously not right now. I'm covered in burns and injuries. I mean, as beautiful as I usually am."
Tobias realised he wasn't communicating clearly. "I achieved enlightenment for the dao of beauty, not the dao of hidden beauty."
Hun Jia paused and then frowned. "You don't consider them a part of the same dao?"
Tobias shook his head. "They're related, but not the same. There are obvious differences."
Hun Jia sank deeper into the tub, blushing with embarrassment. "I may have overestimated how many petals I have achieved."
Tobias paused to think carefully. "Or I simply did not form the enlightenment correctly and am missing something vital that turns them into one."
Hun Jia brightened up and rose a little. "Your manuals and manuscripts never mentioned this possibility."
"Because-"
"You haven't bothered updating them since you went into hiding," Hun Jia finished for him. "I know."
"I could-"
"No. We went over this. Your manuals are already too complex for others to follow when I work on them. If you improve them, you will only make it harder on yourself and others. We need to go through multiple iterations and figure out how my changes affect the material, so you can figure out how to simplify it for others."
"You mean you."
Hun Jia raised a scorched eyebrow. "Do I need to dignify that with an answer?"
"If you wouldn't mind."
Hun Jia smirked. "I mean me."
Tobias chuckled beautifully, causing Hun Jia to try to raise her missing eyebrow. Tobias noticed her surprise and motioned for her to explain what she had noticed.
She gave him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. "I can hear your enlightenment. The dao whispers are clearer than they've ever been."
"What are the heavens saying to you?"
"They are saying you ignored our path and chose your own. You intentionally didn't incorporate the hidden aspects our dao offers."
Tobias relaxed. "Ah, I see what caused the confusion now."
"You make it sound like this makes perfect sense."
Tobias nodded. "You will understand one day."
Hun Jia rolled her eyes. "Stop giving me the hidden master routine you use on your student and tell me how you will understand our dao path without walking it?"
Tobias chuckled and decided to do the opposite, drawing heavily upon the dao of hidden beauty, the way Hun Jia had taught him. The dao changed his words, making him sound like the cultivators of his youth, but there was clarity in his obscurity rather than more confusion "One must walk the path to understand that one does not need the path."
Hun Jia's eyes widened and then rolled back as she underwent enlightenment, her body giving off light like the cultivators of his youth. Her body sank into the enormous tub, and her head began to submerge, before Tobias gently lifted her with his aura.
Tobias leaned back with a contented smile and placed his hands behind his head. He had recognised Hun Jia was on the precipice of enlightenment and knew all she needed was the last shove to push her over the edge. The dao of beauty was supposed to guide him to the answer, but instead, it had guided her.
Hopefully, this would give her what she needed to find her way. If it didn't, Tobias would simply have to try something else. There was no rush. Hun Jia now had centuries ahead of her, where before her life had been measured in decades. Tobias was looking forward to a long and beautiful friendship.
***
Three months after her ascension to the core realm, Hun Jia took Tobias to visit the Hidden Blossom Sect's ancestral shrine. They had never spoken about what she had seen in her vision, but she did not seem bothered by what she saw, so Tobias did not feel the need to pry. However, her lessons on the dao of hidden beauty grew more persistent, and Tobias achieved two more petals in those short months.
Tobias understood why she was so persistent as they exited the hidden shrine left by the sect's original ancestors. The Hidden Blossom Sect was a male-and-female sect, one that practised dual cultivation. Tobias had read through the manuals and manuscripts left behind in the shrine, which were held in place by powerful arrays, comparing their practices with other methods and techniques studied at the Cultivation and Science Academy.
These manuals and manuscripts were better than the initial methods the academy had to work with, but research into this subject had gone far over the centuries, so they were no longer close to being the best Tobias had seen. Hun Jia was clearly interested in the subject, reading over his shoulder with her aura. She had ignored his chi manipulation and technique lessons, focusing on improving her understanding of dao, so she could pull him into her world faster.
Tobias could see why.
The cultivation manuals and manuscripts were significantly better than the ones Hun Jia had given him. She seemed to hope there might be something he could use. Some way he could return the Hidden Blossom Sect to its original path.
Tobias cupped his hands behind his back and began to walk through the family compound, nodding to the flowers and children as he walked by. "What would you like to know?"
Hun Jia didn't hesitate. "Were the benefits to spiritual energy truly as great as the manuscripts suggested?"
Tobias nodded. "Dual cultivation is a shortcut for producing spiritual energy. However, this only applies to short cultivation sessions. When going into seclusion for a period long than twelve days, dual cultivation is significantly slower than traditional methods."
Hun Jia perked up at his answer. "So the Blossoms won't have to practice dual cultivation to maintain the Hidden Blossom Sect's legacy."
Tobias shook his head. "Your ancestors left enough of their legacy behind for me to create a cultivation method that is more effective than the one they practised while embodying the same dao and philosophy. I'm more than a little shocked to discover that our sect is the origin of the divine beauty pill."
Hun Jia smiled. "If you had read the archives, you would have learned that Blossom Lo created it on a whim, using the dao of hidden beauty to guide her hands. It was a gift for a local child whose face was covered in burns."
Tobias frowned. "How did it get into the outside world?"
"The child's transformation was noticed by others. Questions were asked, and Blossom Lo answered. The cultivators who listened did not hear her words, but they could read the recipe and instructions. They believed she got the pill and recipe from a passing suitor and left. Our sect is the source of all pills, creams, and tonics that contain the dao of beauty as far as I'm aware. Each has been made for a child who has been disfigured in some way. Only a few recipes have not been able to make it outside our walls."
"Do you have the recipes?"
"Yes. Will they help?"
"They might. There must be a reason some recipes can get out while others cannot. If I can understand the reason, it might make it easier for the Blossoms to interact with the outside world."
Tobias turned his head, looking towards his home, seeing Lung Mei and Hun Fen shouting at one another again. The two of them had left the mountains as friends, but over the past year had been rapidly growing apart.
Hun Fen was now seventeen, and she was quickly growing up.
Lung Mei was not. She was still her immature, childish self, pretending to be older by enlarging herself to be taller than her friend. With each passing day, they had less in common. It looked like their differences had finally boiled over. This was the fight that Tobias had been dreading and waiting for.
Tobias turned Hun Jia. "I need to deal with this."
Hun Jia gave him a sad smile and reached out and patted his back. "They're saying goodbye."
Tobias nodded and left Hun Jia to make his way home.
As he arrived, Hun Fen opened the gate and stormed out, not looking at him as she ran down the street with tears streaming down her cheeks. She had said a lot of hurtful things to Lung Mei, all of which were true and needed to be said, but that did not change the pain they caused Lung Mei or her.
Tobias entered their courtyard to see Lung Mei sitting on their veranda, hugging the pole, and crying her heart out. She had never been so close to someone for so long. Tobias was the only stable figure in her life. Her aura had shrunk with her misery, and she didn't notice his presence until he sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her.
She immediately crawled onto his lap, shrinking her size and hugging his chest as a child would. She never stopped crying. Lung Mei had lived for more than a century, but her features were still those of a child, and so were her thoughts and interests. Tobias wrapped his arms around his little girl. She had rejected him at every turn, but he loved her as much as his own children in his past life.
Her body shook as she sobbed in his arms.
Tobias had been waiting for and dreading this day. He had tried everything to make her grow up, but she didn't want to. He wanted to protect her from the world, but he had to twist the knife. He had to make her want to grow up.
Tobias stroked her hair and rocked her gently. He could see in her hidden heart how much she was hurting and how close she was to being willing to change.
Tobias continued to rock her as he let the dao of hidden beauty guide his actions and words, drawing on powers that could reshape reality to soothe a troubled heart. "Do you remember when you were little and I took you to the village with the rock that looked like a sleeping pig. I remember you played with the girls on that rock all day, every day, for our entire visit. The next time we went there, you played with their daughters and had just as much fun. The time after that, you played with their granddaughters. And then their great-granddaughters. The next time we went there, all the girls you originally played with had passed away, and we went and put flowers on their graves with the old women who were their daughters."
Lung Mei sniffled into his chest. "I like playing."
"I know you do. And Hun Fen liked playing with you when she was younger, but she's growing up now. And like those girls you played with, she wants to do other things instead of play. One day she might even want to find a husband and have children."
Lung Mei sobbed into his chest. "Those are stupid things."
"Not to her. Not to everyone else."
"She called me a baby. I'm not a baby. I'm older than her grandmother."
She wasn't, but Tobias didn't point that out. "She didn't call you a baby. She called you a child."
"It's the same thing."
"No. If she called you a baby, I wouldn't agree with her."
"I'm not a baby."
Tobias chose to ignore her comment. "You don't like sleeping alone. You don't like being out after dark without me there. You love to play, and you don't like doing anything women her age do. You may be older than her, but you are a child, Lung Mei. She didn't say those words to hurt you. She said them so you would understand why she couldn't be the sort of friend you want anymore."
Lung Mei sobbed in his arms. "Why does she have to grow up? I don't want her to grow up."
"She wants to experience life in different ways. She wants to grow, change and be different from who she is. You have no right to stop her from doing that."
Lung Mei beat her fists against his chest, delivering powerful blows capable of destroying buildings. Tobias blocked them with his dao, making himself an iron mountain, instead of a man.
Lung Mei sobbed, unaware of the violence she was causing, only knowing that her heart was breaking. "But then we can't be friends."
Tobias stroked her hair. "You can if you grow up with her. You just have to want to grow up."
"But I don't want to grow up."
Tobias could see she was finally ready to admit the truth, that the pain she felt was enough to let her see her own desires with clarity. "Why not?"
Lung Mei hid her face inside his robes. "Growing up is scary, and I'm all alone."
"You have me."
"I want my family," she mumbled, terrified of showing her weakness. She was Tiger Clan, and the Tiger Clan did not show weakness. It was one of the lessons that had been beaten into her whenever she complained.
Tobias kissed the top of her head. "Do you know what family is?"
"Family protects you. They keep you safe. They look after you when you're hurt and hug you when you're scared."
"I do all those things."
"You have to, because you're my Master."
"You're a core realm cultivator, Lung Mei. Do you know of any Master who would do everything I do for you for a core realm disciple?"
Lung Mei shook her head.
"I don't do those things because I'm your Master. I do them because you are my family and I love you." Tobias felt the influence of the dao of hidden beauty. He let it guide his words in another direction, finding the hidden reason behind why Lung Mei didn't want to grow up without her needing to tell him. "Are you scared your mother won't recognise you if you grow up? That she won't be able to find you if she wants you back. That she won't accept you as her child unless you remain one."
"I've changed so much." The words came out as a fearful whine, breaking Tobias's heart.
Before she could finish what she was going to say, Tobias cut in. "But your aura hasn't. It's still the same as it always was, and it will never change. You could be old and wrinkly, and I will always be able to find you. Your mother can do the same, so there is no reason you cannot grow up with Hun Fen. You can keep your friend, and your mother will still be able to find you."
The dao of hidden beauty surrounding Tobias took on new forms as he opened his Lung Mei's eyes to the beauty of growing up. To the beauty of change. To the beauty of life without fear. It was a truth that had been hidden away in her heart, even for herself, so corrupted, so wrong, and so strong because of her mother's lies that it had twisted her dao.
Lung Mei's scent changed as Tobias held her. Her hormones triggering, beginning physical and mental changes that were long overdue. Several months of changes took place in seconds as her cultivation and untwisted dao altered her body. Then it came to a stop, ready to let nature take its course and allow her to develop as she was always meant to.
It would be months before anything significant happened; children did not grow up overnight. Lung Mei sensed the change within her and hugged him tighter because she didn't understand what it meant.
But then she froze.
Tobias could detect the influence of the dao of hidden beauty within her and gently pulled at it to prevent it from taking root and corrupting her, as it had with the other girls. He was grateful he could use it to help his little girl, but he did not want her trapped in a beautiful dream, even if that dream might save her. He still didn't know if he could wake the others, and he wasn't willing to take that risk.
Her grip tightened once again, and she looked up at him, her face covered in snot and tears. "Do you want to replace my family?"
Tobias shook his head.
"You just want to be in it."
Tobias nodded.
"Can you do that?"
Tobias smiled and nodded again. "We define who our family is. If you want me in it, then I am your family."
The trauma of her youth and her cultivation had twisted her up so badly that she would not see the truth that lay before her. Tobias had known that she would have to want something enough to change, and she wanted to be Hun Fen's friend more than she had ever wanted anything else, even her mother. Wanting to grow up caused her to change, undoing some of what had been done to her, and allowing her to begin to heal.
Lung Mei dropped her gaze. "What if I grow up and Hun Fen doesn't like me?"
Tobias let the dao of hidden beauty guide him. "She's heartbroken that you won't grow up with her. I can see her crying with her mother because of how much she wants to be your friend. No one who cries that much about losing you won't be happy to see you grow up with them."
As Tobias held her, Lung Mei sent out her spiritual sense and saw Hun Fen crying in her mother's arms, sharing her problems. Lung Mei was out of Tobias's arms and racing across the sect the moment she realised he was right.
Tobias watched her appear by her friend and wrap her arms around her, promising she would do everything she could to grow up. Han Jia glanced in her directions noticed the same change in Lung Mei that he had noticed.
Tobias shared a smile with her, their auras making the distance between them non-existent.
***
A few weeks later, Tobias was drinking tea with Han Jia, hiding from Lung Mei and Hun Fen's argument in the courtyard. Lung Mei had made small steps, but she was still years behind Hun Fen. Hun Fen could see that she was changing and trying to change, so despite the arguments, she did not storm off or say anything hurtful.
Tobias and Hun Jia loved the girls with all their hearts, but they were far too old to put up with their bickering.
Tobias put down his empty cup and hardened his aura to drown out the shouting. "I never asked, but why are you the only member of the sect with a child?"
Hun Jia sighed. "The Blossoms have found raising children to be a heartbreaking experience. The few that were born in the early days couldn't walk our dao path and were lost to the dao of hidden beauty. Those who tried to raise them outside the sect saw them live freely, but still had to watch them grow old without them. Enough sad stories have made the Blossoms hesitant to have children of their own."
"Why did you decide to have Hun Fen then?"
Hun Jia winced. "Hun Fen wasn't part of my plan. Her father's dao and cultivation method negated the technique we use to prevent pregnancy."
"There are other options for cultivators."
Hun Jia nodded, indicating she understood what he was implying, but then shook her head. "I considered it, but then I thought about my legacy. I'd lived for centuries and was nearing the end of my days. I didn't want the Hidden Blossom Sect to be my only mark on this world, so I decided that I would live and die beside the child growing within me, having one more beautiful experience before passing from this world. I would experience being a mother and grandmother, and before I needed to experience losing my child, I would pass from this world."
Tobias glanced at the closed door, seeing the argument cooling down. "Then she was born a prodigy, and your plans changed."
Hun Jia shook her head. "It wasn't until I walked outside one morning and I saw her playing with my fan, sending dao slashes into the sky, that I understood she could not live a mortal life. Until that moment, I was hoping she would not be able to walk our path, but the truth was irrefutable."
"Why didn't you want her to learn the sword?"
Hun Jia looked at the closed doors, seeing the girls hugging and smiled. "Childhood lasts but a moment. You can get distracted and miss it. Hun Fen was in such a rush to grow up that I wanted to slow her down, so she could enjoy the present."
Tobias smirked and refilled their teacups. "How did that work out for you?"
Hun Jia smirked back. "I am a core realm cultivator now, thanks to her persistence, capable of sharing centuries more with her instead of decades, so I must say it worked out quite well."
"We haven't talked about how far you wish to go?"
Hun Jia's smirk grew. "Tired of me already?"
"Not yet, but the road to immortality is long."
"I'm sure you'll keep me company when my daughter races off to see what an immortal master can teach her."
Tobias smiled, happy to hear the words he had been hoping for. "It might be a long wait."
Hun Jia raised an eyebrow. "You're making progress on her cultivation method?"
"Not yet. However, I have created exercises for more effective cultivation methods, methods which are far too complex for anyone to practice, but also far more effective than anything anyone practices."
"You think she will be able to use these methods?"
Tobias nodded. "I don't know how, but I believe so."
"And if she does?"
"She'll become an immortal in the next few centuries."
Hun Jia turned to the door with a sad smile, seeing the girls beginning to argue again. "I knew she wasn't meant for this world, but I thought I would have her a little longer."
Tobias waved his hand, and the manual for his cloning technique appeared before Hun Jia.
Hun Jia dropped her gaze. "What's this?"
"It's how you can shorten your time apart."