Chapter 22- A Fortune Gathering Toad. All Kinds of Fortune.

“Grandpa?”

Are you still set on not becoming someone’s disciple? Because he would be a fantastic master in a lot of regards. A terrible one in others, of course, but that’s just people for you.

“I’m not treating someone who has, based on what he has let drop, forty three children he has never met become my second dad. No chance. None. As far as I can tell, the only person other than himself he ever really cared about was his disciple. Who was a… challenging person.”

Fair. But you are going to rip him off for everything you can, right?

“Not my strong suit, but yes.”

Go for some kind of medicine teaching or manual, plus a cultivation manual. Nothing he’s going to give out is going to be worse than third rate. No idea if it’s better or worse than the Skytreading Art, mind you.

Tian looked around Voidcatcher’s cultivation ground. It was a garden, yes, but only superficially. Or, perhaps it would be better to say it was structured like a garden, in the same sense that the Dawnlight Lark’s five layered pagoda was “structured like a house.” Tian had become familiar with it, one eaten herb at a time.

The whole garden, every leaf and twig, every droplet of dew, every breeze that tousled the soft blossoms, was integrated into a single creation. The only word Tian had to describe it was an “array,” one built on principles of the Art of Wind and Water so profound, they were impossible to recognize on first glance. At least for a complete novice like him. It felt like the wrong word. Too dismissive and diminishing. It was a place perfected. Every aspect of it was designed to enhance the healthy flow of qi, and particularly to nurture wood and water.

Every breath was heavy with wood and water qi. Advent of Spring roared along joyfully, and even the Hell Suppressing Body Sutra was keeping very cheerful with all the free-floating yin qi. It would be impossible to completely recreate back in his cave home, but he had picked up a little bit here and there. Enough to make improvements, at least.

Voidcatcher had been pretty heavy with the hint to drink some of the pond water. And that it would make him quite sick. Tian laughed silently. When he first arrived, that might have alarmed him. Now, it was just another day. He squatted down by the side of the pond, and slid his hands into the water. The cold drilled into his flesh yet again. He was less protected from the pond, now, though he could still feel it was being subtly suppressed. Perhaps that was what made it safe to drink.

Tian scooped up a mouthful, and drank it down. His eyes shot open, staring into the wild blue sky. Had he ever truly tasted water before? He thought he had, but this! This was full of life and stillness. Gathering and nurturing and storing up all in readiness for wood to grow.

The flush of energy was incredible, then agonizing, then incredible, then agonizing… His stomach cramped so hard he thought it must be folding up. He fought down the instinct to vomit. You could take what you liked from the Myriad Colors Heaven, if you could take it. He had been hurt many, many times before. This was manageable.

Then his cultivation arts really kicked into life.

When Voidcatcher returned, he found Tian kneeling with his palms turned up on his knees, looking into the sky with religious ecstasy.

“Hits you that way the first time. You are finally full of energy. For the very first time in your life, you are properly full. My clone is looking over-” He cut himself off, then shifted to “my old disciple. It’s definitely him, by the way, but… not your problem.” He shook his head, still wearing the human disguise.

“I got to be rather fond of Old Toad, even if he sneered at my tea. If there is something I can do to help-” Tian felt like he was speaking over a great distance, his voice whispery in his ears.

“Oh, he is fine. It seems I found why I was so certain I owed you. The next person who sneers at my so-called superstition is feeling the flat of my tongue! But this is too much, the scales aren’t balanced. You even activated his physique and fortune gathering power, though from what I can see, no fortune has yet reached you.”

“Respectfully, Senior, I must disagree. It let me study under you. Your methods are highly effective. I wasn’t speaking nonsense before. I learned a very great deal from you.”

“You only think you did because you are ordinary.” That yanked Tian out of his ecstatic state. He was quite sure he had never been ordinary, for both good and bad reasons. Voidcatcher held up a calming hand before Tian could speak.

“Ordinary isn’t bad. My standards are quite high. One day, you will be the sort of competent doctor any hospital would be pleased to employ. You will not be the genius diagnostician, or the pioneering surgeon, or the godly alchemist. Not unless you are around people far below your level. You will just be quietly competent. Which, again, is not a bad thing.”

Voidcatcher snorted and shook his head lightly. “I’m saying this for a few reasons. The first reason is that you are a really good daoist, which is not the same as being a genius. Don’t get the two confused. That leads me to my second point- some cultivation arts are going to be inherently more suitable for you than others. You will find some things utterly trivial that might stump the geniuses. The reverse is also true.”

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Tian had to nod along with that. It seemed right, even though he wasn’t quite over the “Not a genius” comment.

“Third point- while you can, and should, practice several qi and shen cultivation methods, there will always be a core one you focus on the most in the… the so-called Heavenly Realm and if we don’t find better names for these things I’m going to riot. Heavenly my damp ass! Anyway. You are currently without a cultivation method, and based on what you said to old Dog Nose, you aren’t getting a decent one any time soon.”

“Teacher heard about that?”

“Oh, the whole mountain knows by now. It couldn’t stay bottled up in the Myriad Colors Holy Land for long. I’d say the story leaked to the other Holy Lands and experts no more than three minutes after it happened.”

“But, but, the Grandmaster was there. Surely no one would eavesdrop-”

“Eavesdrop? He transmitted the whole thing to all his students and guests! He was howling with laughter. Kiddo, there are forces at play it’s best for you not to know about, and while the Grandmaster is willing to tolerate your Monastery, that doesn’t mean he has any particular affection for you. Your breakthrough, and your Dao Companion’s, cost him. Then your sect master denied the debt. Tsk. Bold choice.”

Voidcatcher wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. “Watching you tell your own sect master that you would sooner risk death studying a random cultivation art than have any closer ties to him personally or any of the elders he trained, well, you have brought more laughter to more people than you could even imagine.”