Sorry for the delays. I arrived in Ireland yesterday and was absolutely exhausted. Brian Nordon is busy finishing book 6 of Quest Academy, so I'm here to write and recover from my travels, which should make for a very productive week. This is Friday's chapter. I'll get today's chapter to you all in the next few hours. Chapter 123
Emotional Attachment
Tobias lay on his back, staring at his bedroom ceiling, with one arm resting behind his head and the other resting behind Hun Jia's. Her legs were intertwined with his, and her right hand made circles across his chest, while she traced his features with her gaze. Tobias could see her hidden heart, and she could see his, but until now, he hadn't realised she could hide her heart from his.
There was a lesson here. One that was centuries in the making. One which Tobias had not realised he'd been learning. No matter how great your cultivation grew. No matter how deep your understanding of dao became. No matter how sure you were of your own ability. Actions spoke louder than any insight they could offer.
Tobias turned his head, meeting Hun Jia's gaze, searching for answers to a question he should have considered when she came to him with her theory for a new type of dual dao cultivation method. The research she'd presented was sound. Her methodology reasonable. Everything had pointed to this simply being another way for her to pursue her dao studies, a way to see with more clarity. Yet, today Tobias had caught a glimpse of her hidden heart. The true feelings behind her actions.
Hun Jia's eyes widened as she met his gaze, understanding that he knew without needing to be told. They had spent so much time together over the years that they now thought as one. "How?" It was only a word, but she didn't need to say more.
Tobias turned away and looked at the ceiling. "We've both been distracted before, having sex rather than cultivating, but you weren't distracted today. You chose sex over cultivation, revealing your intentions, and losing the hidden aspect that you have crafted to hide your heart from me."
Hun Jia sighed, but her fingers never stopped tracing circles across his chest. "Are you angry with me? Is that why you are hiding your emotions?"
Tobias wasn't sure yet.
"Why?" Like her, he didn't need to say more for her to understand.
The two of them had been in lockstep for years, finishing each other's thoughts and expanding their understanding of cultivation and dao together. She was no longer his greatest student, but his most talented peer, and before today, she had never lied to him.
Why had she lied about this?
Tobias couldn't understand, and he no longer trusted his assumptions.
Hun Jia leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Do you know what the hardest part of loving someone destined for immortality is?" She didn't give Tobias a chance to answer. "It's their lack of urgency. I have known you for more than twenty years. I have been attracted to you for more than twenty years. And I have loved you since the day you chose my daughter's happiness over your secrets. For more than twenty years, I have known you find me attractive. For more than twenty years, I have known you find me interesting. For just as long, I have known you care for me. And for ten years, I have watched you make up your mind about whether you wish to love me back. I grew tired of waiting, so I decided to move things along."
Tobias decided he wasn't angry. He was rather amused by the lengths she had gone to for his attention. Those lengths reminded him very much of some of the things he'd done in his own youth to escape poverty. They were cut from the same cloth.
"Are you suggesting that you created an entirely new form of dual cultivation, which is shockingly effective, just so you could get me into bed to see what I was missing?"
Hun Jia softly laughed, still tracing circles with her fingers. "Anything less and you would be angry with me for trying to manipulate you."
Tobias released the amused chuckle that he was holding back, letting her into his heart once again. "You're right."
Hun Jia leaned forward and kissed his cheek again. "That is because I know you, my love."
Tobias was far too old for games, far too attached to his freedom to be swayed by false promises. He turned and met her gaze again. "What is this?"
Hun Jia smiled. "This is us getting to know one another better, my love."
Tobias was afraid of that. He kissed her forehead, not wanting to cause her heartache, but knowing he had to say this before they went any further. "I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you, but I had my reasons for holding off, for making up my mind. You need to know, you are not my dao partner."
Tobias had met three couples across his entire lifetime who were, in fact, dao partners. The heavens had recognised their relationships and sung their praises. They were the most beautiful relationships Tobias had ever seen, and despite his love and affection for the woman he was holding, he knew the heavens did not see them as one.
Hun Jia slid her hand to his face, tilted his head down and kissed his lips. Her touch was soft and beautiful without hesitation or fever. She leaned back and looked him in the eyes. "And you are not mine, but I still love you and want you more than I've wanted anything in this life."
Tobias' hesitation waned, but he still needed clarity. "So then, what is this?"
"This is whatever we wish it to be. For however long we wish it."
Tobias realised he was asking the wrong question and she was being intentional vague with her answers. "And what do you want this to be?"
Hun Jia smiled, happy he had finally caught on to her game. "Cultivation partners, love, and lifetimes of happiness."
Tobias looked into her eyes, searching for the meaning behind her words, and found she was speaking plainly. "You don't want more?"
Hun Jia smiled. "More comes with responsibility I'm not certain I wish to carry."
She was speaking of his clan and the responsibilities she would have to carry as his wife. She loved him, not Patriarch Finch or the Finch Clan. She was not willing to carry that burden until she knew if she wanted to.
"And if I want more?"
"Then you will wait until I'm certain, because you have proven beyond a doubt that you are both patient and cautious."
Tobias chuckled. "You're going to be teasing me about taking my time for the next century, aren't you?"
Hun Jia leaned in and kissed him again. "I would never let you off that easily."
Tobias continued to chuckle as she pulled away from the kiss.
"Do I take that chuckle to mean you're interested?"
Tobias reached out and summoned his storage ring to his hand, removed a document, and handed it to Hun Jia.
She frowned. "What's this?"
"The plan I came up with to win you over when you came to me for help with your new dual dao cultivation method?"
Hun Jia's eyebrows rose as Tobias pulled back the curtains shrouding his heart, which was hiding his deep love for the woman in his arms.
***
The following day, Tobias stood before his disciples in his pavilion with his hands clasped behind his back. They were giggling like schoolgirls despite the youngest among them being in her thirties.
Hun Fen sat at the peak of the foundation realm, still waiting for Tobias to create a cultivation method for her. She had become a radiant beauty, which surprised no one, having as many dao enlightenments for beauty and hidden beauty and her mother and he did. She had even managed to gain her eighth blade, becoming equal to the greatest sword saint in history.
Ming Dia Lu radiated the beauty of a core realm cultivator and one who had gained enlightenment for the dao of hidden beauty. Now that she could fund her own trips to his pavilion with the money she made from core realm arrays, she expected lessons three times a week.
She had played the long game by refusing to stop seeing him as a suitor, seeing more potential in the relationship he had forced upon her than Tobias expected her to see. He had known it was there, but he hadn't expected her to see it. Because she had, she received far more guidance than his other disciples did, which Tobias accepted, as it showed she had learned the lesson he'd been trying to teach her. It didn't matter what cards you were dealt, so long as you played them right.
Looking at Lung Mei still brought him his greatest sense of joy and accomplishment. She now looked and behaved like a twenty-two-year-old. The rapid ageing that had followed her change of heart had been replaced by natural ageing once again, causing her to gain another year with each passing decade. Sometime in the next half century, she would be ready to continue cultivating, but until then, Tobias was enjoying getting to know his little girl as the woman she had become. After spending so long caring for her as a child, her teenage years had felt like they had gone by too quickly.
His disciples continued to grin.
Tobias rolled his eyes. "You each get three questions about our relationship?"
"What is the nature of your relationship with my mother?" Hun Fen immediately asked, cutting right to the heart of the issue.
"We are cultivation partners," Tobias replied. "Your mother doesn't want to deal with the responsibility of marrying me."
Ming Dia Lu's eyes widened. "Does she know who you really are?"
"Yes."
"How did she-"
Lung Mei slapped her hand over Ming Dia Lu's mouth, cutting off the question. "She overheard me using one of Master's titles before we could see the sect."
Ming Dia Lu flashed Lung Mei a grin as she removed her hand. "I got too excited."
Lung Mei rolled her eyes. "Clearly. Now don't waste any more questions."
"Who made the first move?" Hun Fen asked.
"She did, but we were both working towards the same goal, hiding our feelings from each other."
Ming Dia Lu's eyes went wide. "You can do that?"
"Yes."
"Did that count as a question?"
"Yes."
"But it wasn't about your relationship! I demand a second opinion."
Lung Mei sighed, now that she had matured, her advanced age had come into play, and she was once again the older sister of the Hun Fen and her sister. "It was about how they hid their interest from one another, so it technically counts."
"I can't believe I wasted a question."
"You didn't. You just learned we can hide our hidden heart from those who can see it, which is something Master would never have taught us."
"Oh."
Hun Fen folded her arms and glared at Tobias. "When did you realise you were in love with my mother?"
Tobias smiled. "Eleven years ago, I went to visit her to discuss an interesting idea I had, but she had gone into the city to purchase items for a new girl who had arrived. The disappointment and longing I felt from her absence made me realise I didn't want to be parted from her, even for an afternoon, and that I didn't just love her but was in love with her."
All three disciples squealed with delight.
Lung Mei calmed down first, frowned, opened her mouth, and closed it again.
Tobias realised what she was going to ask and shook his head. "No. We cannot have children."
Hun Fen scowled. "That doesn't count. She didn't ask."
Tobias nodded. "I know. I was just clarifying that nothing about your mother's condition has changed."
Giving birth to a prodigy was often fatal, and for those who survived it, they were left barren. Hun Jia was no different. Tobias had examined her, purely for research purposes, and discovered it was a form of lingering dao wound. The wound had completely removed the part of her dao related to fertility.
Ming Dia Lu looked at the other two before asking her final question. "Are you still going to be a Blossom?"
Tobias nodded. "You're my only suitor, so there is no need for me to stop, and Hun Jia stopped seeing suitors when she began studying cultivation."
Lung Mei nodded before asking her second question. "Are you going to live together, because if you are, I'm moving out?"
Hun Fen frowned. "Why?"
Lung Mei rolled her eyes. "Do you want to live under the same roof as cultivation partners? The Blossoms' homes aren't exactly large enough for cultivators to have privacy, and the walls are literally made of paper."
"Oh, good point. I'll be moving out too if you're living together."
Tobias rolled his eyes. "I can build an array that will suppress your auras and spiritual senses while you are inside the building."
"We'll need noise-cancelling arrays too."
"I can add those in."
"And smell."
"Not an issue."
The three of them burst out laughing, clearly having fun at his expense.
"Are there any serious questions?" Tobias asked.
Lung Mei grinned. "Are you both happy?"
Tobias smiled. "Very happy?"
"Then that's all we need to know."