Chapter 127
A Lesson Learned
Three years into their stay in the Forgotten Valley, Peace Master So pulled Tobias and Hun Jia aside to discuss something in private. Peace Master So had been making astounding progress in his studies and had long since reached the point where he could actively assist them in growing their understanding of the dao of hidden beauty, so they knew whatever he wanted to discuss wasn't a minor issue. Tobias could understand cultivation better than anyone. Hun Jia could enhance Tobias's understanding, giving it clarity in its relation to dao. And Peace Master So could use what they had discovered to uncover the limits of what you could do with this knowledge.
Each of them only had pieces of a complete understanding, but together they made more than the sum of their parts. And they worked surprisingly well as a team.
Peace Master So put down his teacup and sighed. "I know you were both hoping for a different outcome, but I've come to the conclusion that the Blossoms cannot return to the world. Their dao is too powerful. Too abstract. And their cultivation is too limited to discover what they hid from themselves and others. They also lack the cultivation and innate talent to grasp the dao of peace which would rectify their situation."
Tobias wasn't surprised by the comment about innate talent. None of Peace Master So's disciples had grasped the dao of peace, despite their extreme talent. They all needed pills and other cultivation resources to reach where they had. Tobias could theoretically adjust the Blossoms' cultivation method to incorporate the dao of peace, but this would further alter their personalities. And he wasn't sure they would ever be able to make their way back to who they were if he did so.
Hun Jia placed down her cup. "You're certain of this?"
Peace Master So nodded. "I've studied everything the two of you have discovered, reconsidered everything I know about cultivation and dao, and I've watched the Blossoms progress over these past few years. They will not achieve enlightenment, and the moment they leave here, they will return to being unnoticed by the world around them."
Tobias sighed, sharing his friend's disappointment. "Do you have a solution?"
"None you haven't already considered."
Hun Jia smiled and shrugged. "I hoped for more, but our original path is still one we will happily walk."
Tobias had promised the Blossoms that he would have his clan study the dao of hidden beauty. That he would make sure, at the very least, there were thousands of people they could interact with.
Peace Master So smiled. "I'm sure it won't take too long for the two of you to achieve this."
Hun Jia raised an eyebrow. "You aren't coming with us?"
Peace Master So shook his head. "I wish I could, but my dao will muddy yours even if I try to prevent it, making it harder for others to grasp the insights that will reveal your sect and the secrets you've uncovered."
Tobias and Hun Jia had spoken at length about Peace Master So's disciples. They struggled to gain even the smallest insights into the dao of hidden beauty. It had nothing to do with lack of talent or poor teaching methods, but the fact that dao of peace clouded the dao of hidden beauty from their sight. What should have been clear was opaque. They were having a much harder time learning than Tobias had, even though the teaching methods the Blossoms now used were far more effective than the ones they used in the past.
Hun Jia smiled. "If you're not coming with us and we can't take advantage of your dao, I suppose we should turn our efforts to assisting you."
Peace Master So sat up straighter, clearly excited at the prospect of turning their focus wherever he desired. "Do you really mean that?"
Hun Jia nodded. "We want to thank you for all the help you've given us."
Peace Master So grinned, clearly knowing what he was going to ask for. "Can you help me find a way to gather insights for the dao of peace. Ever since The Republic executed the khans and the more violent members of the old generation, I haven't been able to make any progress."
Tobias turned and looked across the valley to where Hun Fen was sparring with First Disciple Chi. "I think we can arrange that."
***
Tobias had never been able to give Hun Fen a challenge that she could not master in a day. He had never been able to make her struggle. Everything came effortlessly to her, except overcoming the dao of peace.
Tobias watched as Hun Fen sparred with Peace Master So, leaving bruises and small welts across his skin. They were not lethal injuries or particularly harmful, but they were injuries. And Peace Master So had not been injured in over one thousand years.
Tobias watched as Hun Fen delivered three quick strikes. Peace Master So blocked each strike with his sword, but three new welts appeared across his body. Hun Fen was not cutting him. She was not hitting him. She was gaining insights and forming comprehensions for the daos of bruises and welts. Projecting the injuries he would have sustained onto him. To do this, she had to overcome the dao of peace he projected. This required her intentions to be pure.
She was not breaking his peace.
She was maintaining it.
The fact that she was injuring him while maintaining his peace was the tricky part.
First Disciple Chi studied the back-and-forth between them and frowned.
Cultivators like First Disciple Chi did not display emotion unnecessarily, so Tobias knew he had a question, a question he was not willing to ask, and was signalling Tobias to bring up the matter.
First Disciple Chi was a student of the old world. Openly asking Tobias for assistance would make him indebted to him.
"What's on your mind?" Tobias asked.
"Your disciple appears to be gaining more from sparring with my master than she did with me."
Tobias nodded. "You find this strange."
"More like unexpected."
"Your peaceful aura is a byproduct of the cultivation resources you've consumed, not dao enlightenment. You consciously manipulate those parts of the dao of peace which you have comprehended and unconsciously express that which you have not."
"Are you saying I do not know myself?"
"In a way. However, it is more accurate to say that you do not represent yourself truly. When Hun Fen sparred with you, she sparred with a cultivator who both knew himself and didn't. She had to unravel the parts of your sword technique and dao that you had not comprehended while fighting off the influences of your dao. Peace Master So walks the conscious path. There is nothing for Hun Fen to unravel when she spars with him. She merely needs to understand the warrior before her as well as he understands himself."
"I see."
"You must also be wondering why your master's progress is so slow."
First Disciple Chi did not reply because Tobias's words were very close to causing his master to lose face, but also irrefutable.
"Your master is not trying to learn Hun Fen's path like you did, but is trying to create his own. You're looking at the birth of the Peaceful Sword Art."
***
The Blossoms were in no hurry to leave the Forgotten Valley. They were enamoured by the dao of peace, seeing it as a part of the dao of beauty. The insights they gathered from it, and the understanding they formed from them, made it easier for them to understand and wield their own dao, giving them greater control over their environment.
Peace Master So also opened their eyes to the possibility of complimentary dao. The concept of peace through strength was easily explained, but hard for cultivators to understand without living examples. It was the same for the dao of the sword and the dao of the beautiful sword. How could a beautiful sword compare with one designed purely for combat? And yet Hun Fen could wield a sword beautifully without sacrificing any of her lethality.
Eight years after they arrived in the Forgotten Valley, Tobias sat in a clearing before Hun Fen. He was closer to developing Hun Fen's cultivation method, but he had not yet reached the point where it was clear to him.
He hoped that would change today.
Tobias smiled at Hun Fen, and she smiled back.
Across the valley, Peace Master So, First Disciple Chi, and Senator Lee raised a barrier and hardened their auras, shielding the Blossoms and other disciples from what was about to occur. Tobias had not asked Hun Fen to dance with her dao since they arrived for one simple reason. She had not gained enlightenment into the dao of peace until now.
In the past, she could only dance with part of her dao because dancing with any more would cause him to pass out. Tobias hoped that, with the addition of the dao of peace, she would be able to dance with your dao peacefully, thereby limiting the harm she caused when she did not restrict herself.
It had taken eight years, but Hun Fen could now overcome the restrictions of the dao of peace. Unless they yielded, she could strike down her opponents, even kill them. The effort to do so had pushed her beyond her limits, helping her gain her ninth blade, making her more formidable than any living sword or sword saint in history. But also, more peaceful.
Hun Fen no longer wielded her sword as a weapon, but as an extension of her will. She did not seek out new ideas to grow in power, but in understanding. She had given up the path of the swordswoman and replaced it with the path of one who used the sword to know themselves. She had found herself in the Forgotten Valley, and now it was time for Tobias to find her, too.
"You may dance with your dao," Tobias announced.
Hun Fen nodded, raised her blade, paused, frowned, and lowered it again. She looked at the blade in her hand questioningly and then smiled and tossed it aside. She walked over to where Tobias sat, knelt on one knee with her hands held out, and conjured a dao blade that warped reality, offering it to him.
Inside the dao blade, Hun Fen danced with her dao, expressing herself in every way. And yet, she did not move. She did not act. The blade existed to express her dao, but on the most peaceful terms.
Hun Fen smiled. "Master, I learned a new trick."
She spoke with the same excitement she had shown as a child, her tone conveying a single thought: 'Oh, I didn't know I could do that'.
Tobias smiled back as he accepted the sword forged from her dao. As his fingers wrapped around the hilt, he knew he was holding it wrong. He was holding the hilt how he would hold it, not how Hun Fen would hold it.
Tobias adjusted his grip as sweat beaded across his forehead. Merely holding the dao blade the way his disciple would offered him dozens of insights and formed multiple comprehensions which had alluded him for decades.
Tobias's smile grew as he rose to his feet, preparing himself to dance with Hun Fen's dao. "It's a good trick."
***
After a decade of a quiet life in the Forgotten Valley, Tobias was ready for change. Without increasing his cultivation, there was nothing more he could discover from dancing with Hun Fen's dao. And his disciple had long since learned the value of peace and the dangers of it. Life in the Forgotten Valley was wonderful, but that did not make it simulating. It did not make it place where one could grow endlessly. Peace Master So and his disciples had floundered in their peace. Making slow, steady steps, instead of racing ahead.
However, Tobias did not bring up his wishes for change. The Blossoms loved the Forgotten Valley. Hun Jia loved the Forgotten Valley. His disciples loved the Forgotten Valley.
So, Tobias did not leave.
He did not search for new insights.
He adopted a life of peace and beauty, enjoying his time with those around him, rather than worrying about cultivation.
Fifteen years after their arrival, Peace Master So sat with Tobias on his rock, looking at the stars. "I think I'm going to go explore the world, Senior."
Tobias looked over at his friend. "What brought this on?"
Peace Master So absently rubbed his shoulder where Tobias had cut him while sparring earlier that day. "I've come to realise my dao is incomplete. Your disciple has not only overcome my peace but taught others how to do the same. Hun Fen overcoming my dao is to be expected. You and the others are not. I'm missing something. And I don't believe I'll find it here."
Tobias smiled. "Do you want some advice?"
Peace Master So nodded.
"Live as a mortal. Mortality comes with many lessons, most of which we do not learn the first time around. It's only through hindsight and living through it again that we see what we missed. This is also not something you can rush. And it is not something you can force. All you can do is settle down and watch the world go by, seeing the struggles of others and how they overcome them."
"I didn't enjoy mortality the first time, Senior. What makes you think I will enjoy it now?"
"It's not about enjoying yourself but understanding. You see others live out the mistakes you made, or avoid the mistakes you made and realise where events could have been different. You also experience a much wider scope of life."
"To what end?"
Tobias held out his hand and transformed it into soil. "I gained the enlightenment for the dao of soil by watching three generations of the same family tend their fields. The dao of dirt came to me easily, but the dao of soil took time, not because it was complex, but because soil is a living ecosystem. And a living ecosystem is not static. It interacts with the world around it, so it cannot be comprehended in a moment or day, but over time."
Tobias could see Peace Master So did not fully understand, so he transformed his hand back to flesh and summoned a seed from a nearby stalk of spirit grass. He held out the seed for Peace Master So to see, channelled his chi into it, and then manipulated its dao, causing it to sprout roots that absorbed nutrients and water from his skin. The roots fed the seed, causing a stalk to sprout. The stalk soaked in his chi, expanding in size and forming leaves. The leaves drew in more chi, cycling it through its body, quickly breaking through to the initiate realm.
What Tobias had done was only supposed to be possible for sage realm cultivators. Peace Master So knew this and watched the process with intense fascination.
Tobias created a small hole in the ground with his chi and floated the spirit grass down to take root. "There is little difference between mortal grass and the spirit grass I just grew and planted, but the dao of one is much easier to comprehend than the other. Understanding the mortal world has always been the path to comprehending dao and this has not changed for us, despite our best attempts. We thought that we could replace observations of life with science. However, science only opens us to the most basic understanding of dao, while life opens us to the more complex."
"I know this already, Senior. What are you trying to teach me?"
Tobias reached over and ruffled Peace Master So's hair. "I'm not trying to teach you anything, old friend. I'm saying I understand if you need to disappear for a few centuries. And we'll still be friends when you get back."