The Magistrate: Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Know Thyself

Peace Master So wasn't willing to trade Tobias's reward for a divine beauty pill, because Xu Ling wasn't ugly. In order for divine dao to bind with a cultivator properly, it had to create a divine transformation. Xu Ling was already almost a divine beauty, so becoming one would require virtually no divine dao. This was also why Tobias had gone through so many divine transformations when he consumed his cultivation pills. He'd been lacking in so many areas that the divine dao found it very easy to bind to him.

It had transformed his beauty, grace, mind, body and energy meridians, along with his vitality. In total, that was six transformations. After Tobias had consumed the divine spirit root cleansing pill, it became eight.

The excess divine dao from the pill had flowed into his dantian, transforming them and correcting another weakness he hadn't realised he had. Peace Master So had informed him that the next time he tested his divinity, the fifth crystal would glow brightly.

Tobias was now considered an actual cultivator, not someone a sect would accept just to fill empty space.

Tobias sat on Peace Master So's rock, sipping tea as Xu Ling walked over. Her steps were shaky, and he could see she was in pain. Far above them, First Disciple Chi confronted his tribulation. Unlike his master, the tribulation lightning did not completely fizzle out. Instead, the power was significantly reduced before it struck him. This reduction caused the same effect as Peace Master So's tribulation, nourishing the valley with another tsunami of chi.

Xu Ling gently lowered herself to the ground, gritting her teeth. "Are pills always this painful for you?"

"It's usually much worse. Your body is stronger than mine. It can accept the changes with less injury. I would estimate that you feel how I used to after I'd had three days to recover."

"This is torture."

"It's why I was never enthusiastic to cultivate before I gained my vitality transformation."

"That hasn't done anything for the pain."

"But it has allowed me to function and recover more quickly. Peace Master So has asked us to cultivate a drop of spiritual energy so he can make us spiritual dao comprehension pills."

Xu Ling frowned. "He's an alchemist?"

"Alchemist, formations expert, array master, talisman artist, and gatherer. I don't believe there is a profession he hasn't conquered."

Peace Master So appeared on the boulder beside Tobias. "I'm a terrible blacksmith, now get off my rock."

Tobias slid off the boulder and took a seat beside Xu Ling.

Peace Master So stared at her for several seconds before tossing her a pill bottle. "Consume that."

Xu Ling caught the bottle. "What is it?"

"Divine beauty pill. You didn't absorb enough divine dao."

Xu Ling swallowed the pill as fast as she could. There were several seconds during which nothing happened, and then her skin improved ever so slightly, and her bones shifted by a fraction of a millimetre. Then her chest and hips swelled.

Peace Master So stared at her chest for several seconds with a clinical eye. "You must have had a deep feeling of inadequacy to have caused such a transformation."

Xu Ling blushed.

"I say that not to make you feel uncomfortable, but to warn you of its danger. To reach the nascent soul realm, one must be at peace with oneself. The tribulation is both a physical and emotional experience. And doubts and fears are intensified. These feelings eat away at your resolve and your control, weakening your ability to resist. You should meditate on these insecurities."

Xu Ling cupped her hands and bowed. "This one thanks Peace Master So for his wisdom."

Tobias folded his arms. "Is it really that much of a problem?"

Peace Master So nodded. "Divine dao transformations for beauty can be unique to the individual. Your transformation was not. You are merely the divine version of the man you were before. You do not care about your looks, so there was no insecurity to influence this change. Part of your disciple's transformation was influenced by her insecurities. These insecurities cause changes that the heavens consider unnecessary for beauty, but necessary to remove those insecurities. This has changed her dao. This has changed who she is."

"Is that not why we needed to incorporate divine dao?"

"No. Divine dao is necessary for curbing the worst traits in us. This may be anger, cruelty, violence, or hate. Removing insecurities is not its purpose. Insecurities are internal struggles that we must learn to overcome. To remove them with divine dao is to remove our chance to grow or make peace with ourselves."

Xu Ling cupped her hands and bowed again. "I will meditate on this matter."

"Please do. However, this transformation has not been negative. Your spirit roots were too healthy, and you did not bind enough divine dao to proceed with walking your dao path. This transformation has given you more divine dao than I expected, and you are ready to proceed." Two pill bottles appeared in his hand. "These are divine healing pills. They will restore your health so you can cultivate."

He tossed a bottle to each of them.

Tobias caught the bottle, opened it, and consumed the pill, beginning to cycle the pill's spiritual energy. He felt the spiritual energy flow through his energy meridian network and leak into his body meridian network. He tracked the transformation within him, watching his body repair itself in seconds, harnessing the chi like a core realm cultivator's body would instead of a foundation realm cultivator's body would.

In fifteen seconds, he was fully recovered. Tobias released the excess spiritual energy into the world around him and opened his eyes.

Tobias cupped his hands and bowed. "The pill seemed excessive."

"It was, but then my valley is overrun with nascent soul spirit herbs that haven't mutated to hold my dao. I've made hundreds of nascent soul realm pills for my disciples, and it's barely had any effect. I need to continue my work before the problem grows worse. Call my name when you or your disciple has formed a droplet of spiritual energy, and I will make the dao comprehension pill, so you can proceed."

Peace Master So tossed Tobias another bottle of pills.

"What are these?"

"Divine spiritual energy droplet compression pills. Take them as you need them."

Peace Master So vanished.

***

Peace Master So had warned Tobias that he would confront his dao when he consumed the dao comprehension pill. He had not known what form his dao would take, so he could not guide him on what to expect.

Tobias found himself sitting in his favourite armchair in the study of his summer home from his previous life. The thousands of books he'd once read lined the walls, and his old open fireplace was burning softly. A crystal decanter filled with his favourite scotch sat on the side table with two glasses. And his old self, the man he had once been, sat in the armchair on the other side.

Tobias had been eighty-seven when he passed away in his sleep. He could remember going to bed his last night, kissing his wife goodnight, and waking up to the experience of being born. The man sitting beside him was almost a stranger to him now. He had not seen him in decades.

Tobias barely recognised his face.

"Quite an interesting life we're living, don't you think?" The old Tobias said.

Tobias nodded. "It is certainly not where I expected I would be. May I ask what you're doing here?"

"I'm you. I'm your dao. I'm here to help you comprehend who you are. Scotch?"

Tobias reached for the bottle and poured them both a glass.

The older Tobias held up the glass, staring at the amber liquid with silent judgment. "You see what you did there?"

Tobias shook his head.

"This is my house, and I offered you a drink, yet you helped yourself to it, so you could pour it for me, because I'm your senior. This is not how we did things. And yet this is how we do things now."

"Is there supposed to be some profound insight attached to this?"

The older Tobias shook his head. "We've changed how we navigate through life. We've changed more than we realise. But we have not changed who we are at our core. We've always known who we were. And we've always worked on improving ourselves. We've worked hard when that's what life requires of us. We've had fun when we could. We've known love. We've known the joys and struggles of raising children. We've been everything we wanted to be, because we saw opportunities and went after them. We always get what we want if it's within our power. And we accept that which is outside of it."

"I know this."

"Yes, we know ourselves. We have known ourselves for a very long time, and we like who we are. This pill was never necessary for us. It is for those who are lost or confused. We are who we are, and we like that, so raise your glass, share a toast between who we were and we have become and return to the waking world and do what we need to do, live the life we want to."

***

Peace Master So was scowling on his boulder when Tobias opened his eyes. "Senior barely began, and he's already finished."

First Disciple Chi was still going through his tribulation far above, battling against lightning strikes. Xu Ling was meditating beside Tobias, deep in a trance.

"Is that a problem?" Tobias asked.

"I spent days trying to comprehend my dao."

"I know who I am."

"Obviously. It's infuriating. This must be what master feels like when he's around me. I don't like it. I hate feeling inadequate. Go and cultivate somewhere else. I'll collect you when your first disciple wakes."

***

Peace Master So's pill furnace was a treasure that had survived the Great Plague. Tobias had never seen anything like it. The one Elder Xi worked with was fairly straightforward. This one contained hundreds of dao comprehensions, allowing it to defy the laws of nature and remain small enough to be carried by hand.

First Disciple Chi's tribulation had ended three days earlier in success. Tobias had watched the cultivator's body explode, leaving his core floating in place. The core had then cracked as his new body grew from it. Peace Master So had caught his disciples falling body and taken him away so he could recover and begin rebuilding his cultivation.

He was already in the initiate realm, from what Peace Master So had said.

Xu Ling cleared her throat as she stared at the pill furnace. "How does one go about comprehending the dao of a pill?"

She had spent five days meditating on her dao, which was a day longer than Peace Master So, but well above average. She had come away from the experience much more peaceful than when she began, and Tobias could sense something between them had changed. The eagerness was gone. The relentless chase had stopped. When she called him master, the word was no longer hollow, like it was part of some amusing joke.

There was also a quiet sorrow to her now, a sorrow that she did not seem ready to share.

Peace Master So looked up from his pill furnace. "It's not that difficult. You go about it the same way you comprehend any other dao. You surround yourself with it and interact with it enough to meditate on it. This can be achieved by filling a room with these pills and mediating on their dao or making the pill thousands upon thousands of times and meditating on the experience."

"How does a pill have dao?"

"Dao is universal law. Universal laws exist in everything. Some universal laws are greater than others. These are considered the foundational laws. The laws which govern all."

Tobias politely interrupted. "You speak of universal laws as though they are not dao, yet you said dao is universal law."

"Take a pot of red paint and place it in a pot of blue paint and mix. The results of such actions leave you with paint which is neither red nor blue but something else. Dao is like this. When it is red paint, it is universal law. When it is blue pain, it is universal law. When those universal laws are mixed together, you have dao."

To Tobias, this also sounded like physics. He needed to confirm this. "I assume heat would be a foundational law, while fire would be dao?"

"It is a weaker foundational law, but you are correct."

Tobias tilted his head to the side. "Cultivators can only cultivate dao correct, not foundational laws?"

"Yes."

Something clicked in Tobias's head. "They're too pure to cultivate, aren't they?"

"Yes. The foundational laws that the heavens laid down are not meant for us. We cannot bear the weight of their existence."

"By that, you mean they do not have enough complementary laws to offset their effect."

Peace Master So frowned. "Would you give me any example of what you mean, Senior?"

"The cultivation method I created was flawed because I had not accounted for the dao of wood being immobile. Foundational laws have a similar issue, because they are absolutes and inflexible. The inflexibility and absoluteness of these foundational laws cannot coexist with dao, because dao is changing, whereas they are static. They are not like mixing paint, but like placing the sun in a bowl of water. The sun destroys the water, because that is its nature."

"A poor analogy, but you are correct, Senior."

Xu Ling stared at Tobias.

Tobias smiled. "To answer your question, a cultivation pill has dao because everything has dao. When clay became a brick for the first time, the dao of brick was born. The dao of brick is an amalgamation of higher dao, and higher dao are an amalgamation of universal laws. The dao of a pill is merely the perfect balance of dao which produces the effects of the cultivation pill."

Xu Ling paused to digest his explanation. "How do you then bring that dao into existence?"

Peace Master So raised his hand and conjured a ball of fire. "These flames are not flames. They are chi instilled with the dao of fire so that chi behaves like fire. Yet, I can use these flames to light a piece of wood, because they hold the dao of fire and follow the laws which govern fire." The flames turned a cold white colour. "These flames have been instilled with the dao of ice. They will not light wood on fire, but they will burn across water, freezing it. These laws do not have a natural interaction, so bringing them into existence is beyond what you can do with your limited chi or understanding of dao. I'm making their dao behave against its nature." The flames vanished, and a pill appeared above his hand. "This is a general meridian strengthening pill. If I gave it to a mortal, they could use it like the real thing to strengthen a body meridian. However, a day after they had used it, every trace of this pill would vanish from their body. Its existence is entirely dependent on the chi I give it to remain in this form, so once it fades, it will leave behind a gap. A gap that might damage their meridian."

Tobias conjured a ball of flames. "Are you saying there is no difference between conjuring a ball of flames and creating a pill?"

"Conceptually, there is no difference, but from a practical approach, one requires vastly more chi and a deeper understanding of dao."

Xu Ling frowned. "But you said it was simple to understand the dao of a pill. You just need to meditate in their presence or make enough."

"It's a shortcut," Tobias said, beginning to understand. "The dao of a pill is too complex to comprehend. You're not understanding the dao. You're memorising it. Then you can replicate it with chi."

Peace Master So nodded and motioned to the spirit willow looming over him. "I can comprehend the dao of wood, but comprehending the dao of my companion is beyond my ability even in the nascent soul realm. The dao of the living is in flux. The dao of the inanimate is not."

Xu Ling folded her arms to think. "The cold fire you created only exists because you can comprehend the dao of fire and the dao of ice, so you can change them to work together. However, you do not comprehend the meridian strengthening pill you've conjured in the same way, so all you can do is replicate it, not change it into something better."

Peace Master So paused. "You are correct and incorrect. I comprehend the dao of the pill well enough to replace the materials that would be in the pill with your spiritual energy. This spiritual energy will bind with your body like traditional materials would, but because it is spiritual energy and matches your dao, it will not break down and leave your body."

Tobias didn't follow that part, but he knew very little about the actual process of alchemy.

Xu Ling was more educated in this area. "In alchemy, the materials in pills exist to hold chi in specific forms or to transform it into specific forms within the body or spirit. How can spiritual energy do that without transforming its dao?"

Peace Master So turned to Tobias and smiled. "You're no longer following, are you, Senior?"

"I am not."

"Then you are lucky, because you do not need to understand alchemy to understand my explanation." He turned to Xu Ling. "To answer your question, your spiritual energy will not transform chi or strengthen your body. The physical, spiritual, and cultivation changes that occur will occur because your dao has become stronger."

Tobias nodded. "I understand."

Xu Ling scowled. "How did you understand that explanation?"

Tobias conjured a ball of flames. "The dao of fire says this ball of fire will burn me. My dao says I am Tobias. When the two meet, I will be burned because the strength of our dao is the same as the dao of fire, so the dao interacts correctly. However, if I strengthen my dao, it will be louder than the dao of the flames."

"More real than the dao of fire," Peace Master So corrected.

"My mistake. My dao will be more real. This will make it harder for the dao of fire to influence my dao, so my burns will be less severe."

Peace Master So nodded. "There are no flames, only dao interactions."

Tobias was beginning to believe that.

***

Xu Ling had come away from comprehending her dao different. Tobias had asked her if she needed to talk, and she had asked him to give her space, so he had begun cultivating the spiritual energy he needed to lay his foundation.

A month later, Tobias finished compressing another chi droplet under a waterfall and opened his eyes to see Xu Ling sitting beside him.

Repeatedly compressing spiritual energy into droplets had drastically reduced the amount of contamination his body released, so the waterfall was enough to keep him clean. Tobias directed his chi above him, causing the waterfall to part and remove the water from his robes and skin.

Xu Ling sighed. "Comprehending my dao has shown me sides of myself that I could not see before."

Tobias smiled, hoping to put her at ease. "I know what you are going to say."

"You know?"

"I know."

"Do you understand why?"

"You are on the path to immortality, and my cultivation path ends in the core realm. You do not wish to offer your heart to someone who cannot walk beside you. The pain of their loss will be too heavy a burden for you to carry. For this reason, you also do not want children."

Xu Ling nodded. "And."

"You will soon be a core realm cultivator, and the Great Clans will not be able to force you into a marriage you do not want. You have been caught up in past, living in an old reality, without realising you had created a new one. One that does not have the former constraints." 

"Comprehending my dao has shown me who I am, Master. Marrying you would come with lifetimes of happiness, but you will eventually die, and I will go on living for thousands or tens of thousands of years. Perhaps forever. That happiness will leave me bitter."

Tobias smiled at his heartbroken friend. "We are not dao partners, Xu Ling. We are not each other's other half. When I pass, you could find someone else who makes you just as happy, or even happier, than I can. You will have the time. But I understand if that burden is too much for you bear and you no longer wish to pursue me. Finding that person is not assured, but the misery of my absence will be."

Xu Ling smiled. "You truly are an old soul in a young man's body. Are you going to be alright?"

"My happiness was never dependent on being with you. All I hope is that you can still be my friend."

Xu Ling nodded. "That I can promise."