The Magistrate: Chapter 61

Chapter 61

How to Walk Your Dao Path

Tobias sat with Peace Master So under his spirit willow, enjoying Three Town's Tea while First Disciple Chi prepared for his ascension to the nascent soul realm in the sky above. It had been eight days since he'd seen the nascent soul realm cultivator. Peace Master So had initially been checking on his disciples and the valley, and then he had been guarding First Disciple Chi's enlightenment and discussing what he saw, guiding him on his path.

Eight days was a lot of time for Tobias to study a cultivation method, and he'd meticulously picked apart the Peace Ambassador Cultivation Method. Peace Master So had made a few suboptimal choices, but the cultivation method and techniques were all together very solid. However, it had the drawback of requiring someone to have a cultivation divinity of seven and a talent of six to practice it. It was rare to find cultivators that exceptional, which was why he only had nine disciples.

Peace Master So put down the notes on his manuals. "What do you have against cultivation script?"

Tobias turned over his hand and summoned a scroll from his storage ring containing his thoughts on cultivation script, passing it to the nascent soul realm cultivator, before going back to his drink.

Peace Master So finished the scroll before Tobias was ready to pour another cup. "You really don't think much of prodigies, do you?"

"I think you have heaven's favour, and through that favour, you do not understand the limitations of those who aren't favoured. The development of cultivation script is a result of this miscommunication."

"That is where you're wrong. Cultivation script is the language of the heavens. It is the accurate expression of dao."

This was the first time Tobias had spoken to a sage, so it was his first time hearing that cultivation script may, in fact, be necessary from someone who knew what they were talking about.

"Does comprehending it open the mind to understanding dao, increasing the rate of progression through realms?"

Peace Master So chewed his bottom lip before answering. "There is a slight improvement, but you have to understand the dao first and then cultivation script helps deepen that understanding."

His statement proved Tobias was right. "Then it's almost entirely unnecessary for studying cultivation."

"It has a benefit."

"That benefit is weighed against how much it slows down your comprehension and progress. A poem may be more beautiful in its original tongue, but that is worthless if no one understands it. A sub-optimal translation is still better than incomprehension in this circumstance."

Peace Master So pouted. "Yes, Senior."

Tobias tried not to sigh. "It might please you to know that your Peace Ambassador Cultivation Method is the best cultivation method I've read."

"Master said you've only read trash methods."

"That doesn't change my statement from being true."

"It does give it less weight."

Tobias nodded. "More tea?"

Peace Master So nodded. "I like what your grandfather has done with the flavour. He's refining it back to what it originally was."

Tobias blinked. "You can taste the lineage of the tea."

Peace Master So nodded again. "Only because I know the dao of the original tea. This was twenty-three generations removed before your grandfather began experimenting with it. It's only eighteen generations removed now."

"Do you know how he's doing it?"

"The dao of love, perfection, and tea. They guide his hand. I imagine he has very little interest in anything else."

"He's a man possessed."

Peace Master So put his cultivation manuals aside and sighed. "I was hoping our discussion on my method would be more stimulating."

"Your method is a highly effective cultivation method with only minor flaws. My current comprehension of dao does not allow me to improve upon it."

"So, studying my core realm manuals wouldn't help you?"

"Cultivation is only half of the equation when it comes to the core realm. I could take your collection, study it, and undoubtedly gain insights, but these insights would not be complete without understanding dao."

"Then let me set you on the path to enlightenment. The reason you struggle to understand dao is that you can't comprehend dao."

Tobias frowned. "Me specifically, or are you referring to everyone?"

"I'm referring to you specifically, Senior. Your divinity is too low. From what I have seen and been taught by other sages, only those with a divinity above seven can gather dao insights and form them into comprehensions."

Tobias motioned to the spirit willow. "I'm certain that I successfully managed to comprehend dao insights from your spirit willow."

"You did so while it was undergoing a tribulation that doesn't count."

"Why not?"

"It's significantly easier to gather dao insights under those circumstances."

"If it's significantly easier to gather dao insights under those circumstances, then those are probably the circumstances in which you should gather them."

Peace Master So groaned. "Do you know how hard it is to create those circumstances?"

"No. However, this ignorance is something I'm trying to correct."

Peace Master So smirked. "That was a very smooth way of asking me to explain dao to you, Senior."

"I can't help you if you don't."

Peace Master So held out his hand, and a small ball of flames appeared above it. "How did I create this fireball?"

Tobias held out his hand, and an identical ball of flame appeared. "You willed it into existence."

Peace Master So's eyes bulged, and he tossed his cup aside. Tobias caught the cup with his chi and lowered it to the ground.

Peace Master So leaned forward, glaring at the flames. "How did you gather the dao insights you needed to do that?"

Tobias stared at the flames for a moment before returning his attention to the other sage. "I'm not certain I understand your question?"

"You're exerting your influence over the dao of fire."

Tobias frowned. "No. This is what happens when you manipulate ambient chi with your will."

Peace Master So held out his other hand and quickly conjured a second ball of flames. "No, this is what happens when you manipulate ambient chi with your will. You skipped the step where you gathered the ambient chi and transformed it."

Tobias wasn't sure why Peace Master So was so excited. "They were unnecessary steps, so I removed them."

"Unnecessary step! You can't just will fire into existence."

Tobias held out his other hand, and an identical ball of flames appeared. "I just did."

"No. What I mean is you can't will fire into existence without gathering dao insights related to fire and then weaving them into a dao comprehension."

Tobias extinguished the balls of fire and then recreated them. "Then how am I doing this?"

Peace Master So watched for several seconds and then relaxed. "Do you understand the natural laws of fire?"

"What are natural laws?"

"They are laws that govern this world, which operate independently of heaven's laws. You can learn these laws by observing the world around you. It is this understanding that allows initiate realm cultivators to mimic what they see in nature with their chi."

Peace Master So's answer was completely different to everything Tobias had studied, but they hinted at answers to the many questions about chi that Tobias had. The natural laws also sounded like physics.

"Are the natural laws dao?"

"They are."

"If they are dao, then why do you call them natural laws?"

"Because you do not need to gather dao insights to comprehend them or gain influence over them."

Peace Master So dismissed his balls of flames and conjured a transparent ball of chi while using all the necessary steps to create another ball of flames. "Do you see what I did?"

Tobias nodded. "You performed all the necessary steps to create a ball of flames, but willed the chi to remain in its neutral form."

"No. I performed all the necessary steps to create a fireball, but did not apply my influence over the dao of fire or natural laws of fire to transform the chi into a fireball."

Tobias frowned. "Are you suggesting that understanding dao is necessary for transforming chi?"

Nothing Tobias had read suggested this was necessary.

Peace Master So shook his head. "No. A cultivator only needs to understand natural laws to transform chi."

Tobias frowned, not understanding Peace Master So's explanation. Patriarch Lee had warned him that Peace Master So was a poor teacher. Tobias had been hoping that this wouldn't be the case if he'd read his work.

Tobias tried to rephrase his question. "If a cultivator only needs to understand natural laws to transform chi, then why is it necessary to gather dao insights to form comprehensions to reach dao enlightenment?"

"The natural laws are called natural laws because they behave by the laws of nature. Dao is not restricted. If you comprehend the dao of fire and ice, you can create a ball of flames which will burn across water, freezing it."

Tobias thought about that for a moment. A ball of flames which would freeze everything it came into contact with certainly wasn't something that would appear naturally, but neither were the ball of flames he had conjured. To Tobias, it sounded like natural laws, and dao had more in common than not.

Tobias clicked his tongue. "To me, it sounds like natural laws are dao, but a lower realm of understanding."

Peace Master So scoffed. "Dao does not have realms, Senior."

Tobias wasn't going to start an argument over something he barely understood, so he let the comment pass. "Why did you find my ability to replicate what you can do so exciting?"

"You didn't replicate what I did. I just thought you did."

Tobias extinguished the ball of flames and then conjured another. "How is this different from what you were doing?"

Peace Master So replicated his actions. "You created your fireball with a deep understanding of the natural laws of fire. I created mine with the dao insights I've gathered and comprehended that are related to fire. The results are almost identical, but the method we used to create our fireballs is different."

"Is that a problem?"

"No. It actually makes it much easier to explain what I wanted to explain. Right now, you are using your comprehension of the natural law of fire to will the ambient chi into creating that fireball."

"And how am I doing that?"

Peace Master So held up his empty hands. "The dao of air exists above my hands. However, potential for the dao of fire exists wherever the dao of air exists. The reason the dao of air remains the dao of air and not fire is because the heavens will it to remain the dao of air. However, I understand the dao of fire, so I understand that the dao of fire exists wherever the dao of air exists, so I can throw my will against the heavens' will, which is keeping the space above my hand as the dao of air. This allows me to transform it into the dao of fire, like so."

A small ball of flames appeared above each of his hands.

Tobias dismissed his flames and stared at his empty hands, visualising the process that he'd used to create them. His imagination had to work on the molecular level for a ball of flames appeared, which would make sense if he was using his understanding of the natural laws of fire, which he would call physics, to influence the oxygen particles in the air.

Peace Master So's explanation made some sense, but Tobias didn't understand the part about overriding the heavens' will. However, now was not the time to go looking for answers to that. He already had enough questions.

Tobias cupped his hands and bowed at the waist. "I believe that the manuscripts I've read have led me astray. Is faith an aspect of cultivation?"

Peace Master So frowned back. "What do you mean by faith?"

Tobias summoned another ball of flames with faith. It was harder on his body, tiring him much quicker, but he didn't have to imagine anything more complex than a ball of flames floating above his hand. "I conjured this ball of flames with nothing but the faith that I should be able to do so."

Peace Master So laughed. "You did the same thing you did before, but relied more heavily on your understanding of natural laws, Senior. Please stop showing off."

Tobias was even more confused. "How so?"

"The other fireballs you created were created with a precise understanding of the natural laws. This was created by you using your entire understanding of the natural laws of fire, instead of just focusing on the parts you needed."

"So, faith and belief aren't aspects of cultivation?"

"No. They're how uneducated cultivators describe dao projections."

This was a new term that Tobias had never heard of. "What's a dao projection?"

"Do you have something I can burn?"

Tobias pulled a blank manuscript from his storage ring. Peace Master So rolled it up, held it away from him, and then lit one end on fire.

Peace Master So held the burning manuscript between them. "This is natural fire. It is filled with the dao of fire. This makes it the embodiment of the dao of fire or a dao focus. If I want to, I can project the aspects of the dao of fire that I understand from this focus onto the world around me, like so."

Tobias was struck by a scorching wave of heat. There was no chi, no technique or spell, but it felt like every inch of his body was standing mere milometers from the burning manuscript.

Peace Master So smiled. "Right now, I imagine you feel like you are standing as close as you possibly could to these flames without being injured. You feel no manipulation of chi, no technique or spell, just heat. This is a dao projection."

"How are you doing this?"

"I'm using my will and my understanding of the dao of fire to project the dao that governs this burning manuscript upon you."

His answer didn't answer any of Tobias's questions.

"Where is the heat coming from?"

"The heat exists because I will it to exist. The moment I release my will, the heat will disappear. However, any natural changes that occur while the world was exposed to the heat I created will persist."

The heat around Tobias vanished, leaving his robe cold to the touch. Tobias quickly examined himself, found nothing out of place, and then looked at Peace Master So. "Was that an illusion?"

Peace Master So shook his head. "It was a temporary change to the dao around you."

"Why did the heat disappear?"

Peace Master So smiled. "It was part of my dao projection, so once I stopped willing it into existence, it disappeared."

"That doesn't happen when I created my fireballs."

Tobias's always left heat behind. That often made his dojo uncomfortably warm for his servants.

"You don't understand the dao of fire, only the natural laws of fire. What you do is the equivalent of projecting fire onto a piece of paper to light it and then leaving it to burn." Peace Master So held out his hand, and a ball of flames appeared. "There is no fireball, only my will and understanding of the dao of fire. Now you do it."

Tobias held out his hand and conjured a ball of flames.

"You hold a fireball created by your will and understanding of the natural laws of fire."

Tobias was beginning to understand, not because his explanations were improving, but because he had enough hints to point him in the right direction. Peace Master So's ball of flames was pure dao, while Tobias's was created by vibrating the oxygen molecules in the air until they combusted.

They looked the same but were entirely different.  

Tobias stared at the flames for a few seconds and dismissed them. "Then I've not been influencing my techniques and spells with will and faith, but with dao projections."

"If you've been influencing your techniques and spells with anything other than how you cycle your chi and manipulate it within your meridians and body, then yes, you've been creating dao projections."

Tobias had questions that needed answers. "Is chi intuitive?"

"No. However, your dao will help chi to respond to your needs."

"Is chi elemental?"

"No. However, when heavily influenced by an elemental dao, it can appear so."

These questions had been nagging at Tobias for years.

"We're getting off topic," Peace Master So said.

"I believe I need to understand these things to understand dao?"

Peace Master So shook his head. "You think you do, but you don't. I've got the perfect way to explain it to you, too."

Tobias bit his tongue, so he didn't say something he shouldn't. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask that it took physical pain to stop himself.

Peace Master So grinned, seeing what Tobias was doing to hold himself back. Despite his childish attitude, Peace Master So clearly loved discussing cultivation.

Peace Master So waited for Tobias to relax. "Dao are the laws the heavens laid down to bring everything we see in it into existence. From your perspective, these laws can be thought of as equations. Dao insights are the smallest piece of a dao law that can be comprehended and still make sense. They can be thought of as numbers in an equation. By themselves, they are almost useless compared to the benefits that chi can offer. Dao comprehension is a broader understanding that ties multiple insights together. These can be considered a nested equation. They give you part of the answer you need, but they are not the entire equation. However, the fact that dao comprehensions are nested equations still allows you to have some influence over the dao you are trying to understand and allows you to do things like how I projected the heat on you."

Tobias frowned. "Then, dao enlightenment would be considered a complete equation."

Peace Master So nodded.

"So, the more dao you comprehend, the more you are able wield."

Peace Master So nodded again.

"How does comprehending dao or gaining dao enlightenment allow you to use it to influence the world around you?"

"The same way understanding an equation does."

"Understanding an equation just allows you to calculate something. It doesn't allow you to create flames that burn across water and turn it into ice."

"You're thinking too literally, Senior."

"Then how am I supposed to think?"

Peace Master So paused. "I don't know. I'll need to think about it."

Tobias sighed.

Peace Master So raised his hand, and his cup flew into it. "You said you were here to learn how you and your disciple could learn to walk your dao paths."

Tobias nodded, giving up on his curiosity about dao, for a chance to help Xu Ling. "First Disciple Chi informed me it was possible when we met, but did not explain how this was done. At the time, learning how was unnecessary, so I never asked. However, I do understand it involves getting to know yourself and trimming or strengthening those parts of you that you find necessary."

"My first disciple is both wrong and right in this regard. I have not taught him much on this topic, so he likely thinks it's harder than it is. Walking your own dao path is actually very easy. It's just much more time-consuming."

"Because you must strengthen your dao."

"That's a cultivator script description. You would describe it as consuming your spiritual energy."

Tobias stared at the nascent soul realm cultivator, dumbfounded. "What!"  

Peace Master So laughed. "Once you reach the foundation realm, you take a droplet of your spiritual energy and combine it with the dao of a specific meridian expanding or strengthening pill and forge a spiritual energy pill. Then you consume the pill like a regular cultivation pill and treat it the same way."

"It can't be that simple."

Peace Master So nodded. "It is. However, it does require a few things, which make it tedious. First, you need an alchemist who understands the dao of the pills you wish to consume. Otherwise, they can't bring that dao into reality with chi. Second, you need to generate the spiritual energy for the pills, and you need multiple pills for each greater body and energy meridian. The first pill only requires a single droplet of spiritual energy to expand or strengthen your body or energy meridian. The next pill requires two. And the one after that requires three. Each additional pill will strengthen your dao, so the last pill will require as many droplets as your lower, middle, and upper dantian can hold. Between your body and energy meridians, you need to repeat this process twenty times for expansion and twenty times for strengthening, and that's if you don't make mistakes."

Tobias tried to calculate how long that would take him and gave up when he realised it would be measured in decades. "Where does dao comprehension come into this?"

"It doesn't. Spiritual energy is your dao. And you are your dao. You don't need to comprehend yourself to strengthen your dao. You just need more spiritual energy, which can be acquired by expanding and strengthening your meridians with it."

"What about trimming your negative traits?"

"You can skip that step."

"Why?"

"Your cultivation comes from divine pills, which means your dao has been affected by divine dao. Divine dao naturally strips undesirable traits from those under its influence. As you follow your path, that divine dao will become reinforced, because when you gather spiritual energy, you will naturally create more. However, you could consume a spiritual dao comprehension pill to be sure."

"How would my first disciple go about doing this?"

"With great difficulty, unless you have another set of divine pills to give them."

"I can't do that."

"Why not?"

"She's a prodigy. It would cripple her divinity."

Peace Master So leaned in excitedly. "That might simplify things. What realm is she in?"

"Foundation realm?"

"Age?"

"Thirty."

"Is her yin chi intact?"

Tobias would have considered the question intrusive at one point, but that was before he could sense if someone's yin or yang chi was intact. "Yes."

"Is she ugly?"

"She's considered to be one of The Three Kingdoms' fairies."

"That rules out the divine beauty pill, then. How's her talent?"

"Seven."

"That rules out the divine talent pill."

"There's a pill that increases talent."

"Yes, but only to four. What about music or dancing?"

"Her father is the owner of The House of Sound. She's more skilled than her teachers."

"That is quite the disciple you have there. I'd be willing to ascend your entire family into the core realm if you would give her to me."

Tobias met the sage's gaze, expression turning cold, as he held in his anger. "Peace Master So, are you trying to do the very thing Patriarch Lee protected you from?"

Peace Master So pouted. "But I've always wanted to disciple who can keep up with me."

Tobias continued to stare. "You cannot have my disciple."

Peace Master So suddenly grinned. "Good. That's the proper response a master should give when someone tries to touch their disciples. I was beginning to fear that you didn't have what it takes."

Tobias wasn't sure whether this was truly a test or the sage's way of playing it off as a joke while using his physical appearance to his advantage. "I will be informing Patriarch Lee of this exchange."

"No need." The Three Pigeon treasure appeared in his hand, and he opened the silver cap. "Master, tell Senior that I was just testing him when I asked if he would give me his first disciple."

"Are you still doing that test?" Patriarch Lee growled back. "It's absolutely useless now. You're a peak nascent soul realm cultivator. No one will deny you."

"Senior Finch denied me."

"He did?"

"Yes. He's glaring at me right now."

"Tobias, that idiot in front of you didn't try to steal your disciple. He likes to test people because of his history." 

"And he's the first one to pass since I entered the nascent soul realm."

Tobias continued to glare. "When you test a junior in such an intense way, you usually reward them proportionally for their accomplishment."

"He's right," Patriarch Lee replied.

Peace Master So groaned. "Do I have to?"

"I'll be disappointed if you don't."

"Is two divine spirit root cleansing pills enough of a reward?"

"Where did you get the resources for a divine spirit root cleansing pill, let alone two?"

"My spirit herb garden is completely out of balance after the tribulation. Everything is overgrown or has broken through, and I only have enough space in my storage treasure to store the ones that want to break through to the sage realm. My disciples are doing their best to stop the chi from turning toxic and killing my garden, but they're losing the battle. My first disciple is also about to ascend to the nascent soul realm, so that's going to make it worse."

"A divine spirit root cleansing pill is too much for a reward."

"Really? I've got enough spirit herbs to produce eight more than my disciples need."

Tobias wasn't sure whether Peace Master So did in fact have those spirit herbs, or if he was just saying he did to upset Patriarch Lee. But the valley was filled with thousands of spirit herbs that were supposedly extinct, so Tobias was almost certain he was telling the truth.

"I'm going to stop talking now," Patriarch Lee replied. "If I don't, I'm going to feel the need to escalate this war just to release my frustration."

"How many pills does Master want?"

"I'm not your master."

"Five," Tobias said. "One for each clan to show your support."

"Five it is then. Bye, Master." Peace Master So slapped the cap back on the treasure and made it disappear before Patriarch Lee could reply. He grinned at Tobias. "You're a very good negotiator."

"What are these pills you're giving me?"

"They cleanse your elemental spirit roots."

"I thought that wasn't necessary."

"It isn't, but for those who practice an elemental form of cultivation, it can slightly improve their attunement to their element. For those who have damaged their spirit root, it can be repaired to some degree. For everyone else, the divine dao incorporated into the pill is what makes it so valuable. There's more divine dao in one of those pills than every pill you've ever consumed combined."

"I assume that my first disciple will have no more difficulty following her dao path than I will if she takes this pill?"

"That was my intent when I tested you, and you passed."

"You could have just given me the pills."

Peace Master So shook his head. "One is not given heaven's favour. One must earn it. Otherwise, the heavens extract their price."

"Will the heavens extract their price from my disciple?"

"No. As her master, you can pay the price for her, and she can return the cost in service. Now, where can I find her? If you're going to walk your dao path, she's going to need to be here."

Tobias frowned. "Why would she need to be here?"

"Walking your dao path requires monstrous amounts of chi, and my home is currently over-saturated and turning toxic. This is the perfect place for both of you, and the heavens won't judge me for giving assistance because I need you both to help stabilise it."

"She's in Cloud City."

"Where specifically. I don't want to get the wrong person when I go over to get her."

"You're not concerned about the war?"

"Only a sage realm cultivator can harm me, and you killed the last one. I'll be perfectly safe."

"She'll either be in the House of Sound or one of the spirit gardens. You'll know it's her because she has the other Three Pigeon treasure."

"Oh, is that who has it?" The Three Pigeon treasure appeared in his hand.

A fraction of a second later, Xu Ling was standing between them. She was in a bent-over position, holding a pair of gardening scissors, like she was in the middle of tending to spirit herbs. The scissors vanished into her storage ring, and she cupped her hands before her, changing her posture into a bow.

"First Disciple Xu greets Peace Master So."

"Master, did you just fold reality while I'm about to ascend!" First Disciple Chi screamed from above.

Peace Master So winced. "I'll fix the instability!"

"If I die, I'm going to haunt you!"

"I said I'll fix it!" Peace Master So raised his hands before him. "This will only take a moment. Talk among yourselves. You may raise your head, First Disciple Xu." He turned to Tobias. "You should introduce your disciples when they appear."

Xu Ling stood up.

Tobias nodded, fighting the urge to sigh. "This is my first disciple, Xu Ling, Peace Master So."

"Later, I'm busy repairing a fold in reality someone put here."

Tobias motioned for Xu Ling to join him. "I apologise for the nature of your arrival, but I didn't know he could do that."

Xu Ling took a seat beside him. "He can't. It's a function of the Three Pigeon treasure. My father said Patriarch Lee would use it to get me out of Cloud City if it were ever under siege. Do you know what I am doing here?"

"We were discussing how one goes about walking their dao path. He brought you here to assist you in doing so and to help prevent his spirit garden from creating so much toxic chi that it kills itself."

"I'm not sure I follow."

Tobias outlined his previous conversation with Peace Master So, explaining what was involved with walking your dao path and the pill he would prepare for her to help.

"You turned down a divine beauty pill," Xu Ling growled when she found out.

"You're the most beautiful woman in The Three Kingdoms. And he specifically asked if you were ugly, not if you would want it."

"It's a divine beauty pill. It's only spoken of in legends. I didn't even know it was real. Do you think he would trade it for the other pill if you asked him nicely?"

"I thought you considered my beauty a burden."

"That was before you became a divine beauty. Now I'm competing for your attention with actual divine beauties. I need the advantage."

"I've never met a divine beauty."

"Then I will be the first."

"You like him, don't you?"

"Why do you say that?"

"You're only this casual around people you like."

"There are aspects about him that I like."

Xu Ling's wording and actions were very telling. She had bowed and greeted Peace Master So with proper etiquette. When she had met Patriarch Lee, she treated him like her favourite uncle. There were no walls between them. She was comfortable around Peace Master So, but she did not respect him.

It wasn't hard to tell why.

Peace Master So was a coward. Everything about him, from his cultivation to the defences around his home, screamed of a boy who was terrified of the world around him. Peace was his weapon, because it was a weapon that didn't allow others to hurt him. In every other way, he was similar to Patriarch Lee, but that difference was enough to prevent Xu Ling from immediately considering him a friend.

Tobias changed the subject. "I believe you'll have to release the spiritual energy you've accumulated for this to work."

Xu Ling considered his statement for a second. "My lack of divine dao has corrupted it. If I try to create pills with it, I'll destabilise my foundation. This is the perfect place recover it, though, so it's not a loss."

"Correct. It's a nascent soul realm, almost a sage realm."

Xu Ling shook her head. "It's a nascent soul realm, with pockets of sage realm. It's what's causing the instability."

Xu Ling rose to her feet and walked over to the spirit willow, placing her hand against it. Tobias watched her close her eyes and then channel her spiritual energy into the spirit tree. It hadn't been doing well after ascending to the core realm. It needed to recover its chi, but the chi surrounding it was unsuitable to the point of nearly poisoning it.

Before his eyes, Tobias watched the health of the spirit tree improve. Tobias rose to his feet and walked over to the tree, placing his hand against it. If he was going to increase the divine dao within him, then his spiritual energy was also unsuitable for cultivation.

It took him several minutes to replicate Xu Ling's actions, but when he was done, the tree looked a little healthier. Xu Ling had returned to where they had been sitting. Tobias went to join her.

As he sat, he summoned the cultivation method he'd designed for his grandfather. Peace Master So was still channelling chi into the spot where Xu Ling had appeared, so Tobias handed her the manuals. "I'd like to know your thoughts on this cultivation method I've developed for my grandpa."