Chapter 30- Selling the Dao

“I’m sure I said something about the elders coming to an agreement. I remember my lips moving and everything.”

You are offering the opportunity for fire and earth cultivators to deepen their understanding of fire and earth, for free. His commanding officer would kick his ass up over his ears if he didn’t latch on to the opportunity with all four limbs. He’s being a good corporal by hauling in his squad before tipping off the rest of the garrison too.

“Corporal?”

“Ten man commander, whatever.”

Brother Wang and his opponent had fought each other to a manly draw, bumped fists and staggered over to the tea session. Tian was privately sure Brother Wang threw the fight. It seemed that the Dao of Low Key was powerful, and not so easily changed. Sister Hong beat the hell out of her opponent, and unless Tian very much missed his guess, the art she was using wasn’t one she learned from Ancient Crane Monastery. At the very least, it wasn’t an art that was available to the Outer Court.

She still dragged her sparring partner over to the tea session, determined not to be left out. Lin hadn’t left the Manor. Maybe there was just nothing here for her.

Tian was experimenting with the soldiers. So far, he had his own tea and lidded cup, and their tea and tea kettle. He didn’t have enough of the red tea to make a batch of his tea in their kettle.

“It’s definitely stronger with your tea and lidded cup, but I still get some of it in the big pot.” Daoist Xiong smacked his lips and thoughtfully drained his cup.

“I’m not surprised. My understanding of fire is tied to compassion, which is related to hospitality. When I have people around for a tea session, I can express that through my service. With a big pot and more people, it’s harder to convey that emotion. A tea service should be full of a generous spirit and warmth that comes from the heart. It is a connection between the server and the drinker. This feels too impersonal. The emotional content is lacking.”

“Emotion? How is that related to fire qi?” A soldier asked.

“Actually, I had the same question.” Daoist Xiong nodded.

Tian stared blankly at them. Surely this was common knowledge? No, it definitely was. He had been told about the emotions tied to various elements by his brothers, and emotional disorders brought on by excessive nutrition or deficiencies in the various organs was a standard part of practically every medical textbook.

Were they just stupid?

No, probably not. Maybe nobody thought that information was important for soldiers to know. Which seemed a little weird to Tian, but so did a lot of things.

So he explained it, as best he could. How the five elements were connected to their organs which were connected to their emotions and it was all part of one vast thing humans called the Dao. That, in a very real sense, they were nothing but a collection of elements walking around and poking at other elements. The inside of you and the outside of you, the tangible and the intangible, they were all really one thing. Since that was so, understanding the feelings behind “fire” was as valid an approach as understanding how things burned in comprehending the dao of fire.

“Though I can understand why soldiers would find the burning part more useful.” Tian concluded. That got some stunned nods. It seemed that this wasn’t the basic information Tian thought it was. He was really starting to wonder just what they were taught.

“That is the weirdest take on the elements I have ever heard in my life. Who taught you something so bat- so crazy?”

“Sister Hong, you too?!”

“No, I agree with her. You aren’t wrong, I just don’t recall seeing it synthesized that way before.” Sister Su looked calculative. Brother Wang looked like he had discovered a treasure.

“I know you bums can read!” Tian exploded. Everyone was giving him strange looks, and none of this stuff was anything unusual. “Look. Look right here!” He started slapping his books on the table, opening diagrams labeling organ systems and hammering the lines that indicated what emotions they were tied to. The same charts indicated the elemental alignment too, naturally. He then flipped to pages on nutrition, hammering his points home again. Then another explaining how environmental energy imbalances could contribute to disease.

Inside and outside in constant communication. The elements and their emotional effects. The organ systems and their elemental alignments. It was all one big chain, from the heavens to the earth, from mortal to immortal. All of creation came from primordial chaos, then yin and yang, and finally, the five elements. And if you didn’t understand all that, were you really a daoist?

“Huh. I knew all that, or most of that, but I really hadn’t put it together that fire outside the body was fundamentally the same qi as the fire inside a body and it was all a piece with your emotions. Incidentally, that’s the bit that’s throwing everyone, Brother Tian.” Brother Wang scratched his chin. “The implications are… interesting.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m pretty sure that’s how Heavenly People use qi. That… connection between interior and exterior qi. And if they can use it to cut stone like mud, can they use it to shape emotion?” Brother Wang’s voice came out slowly, as though he was tasting each word.

“And you will drop that line of speculation this instant.” A lightly scuffed looking Elder Feng and Manor Lord suddenly appeared in their midst. Tian was sure they had flown through the air, but he hadn’t actually caught them doing it.

“I really must give Brother Rui my… fond appreciation… for sending such talented, insightful children for me to chaperone. Very fond appreciation.” Elder Feng’s voice was wintery. “I repeat. Drop that line of inquiry at once. I’d order you not to even think about it, but I don’t like giving orders that won’t be obeyed. I will only tell you there is a damn good reason we don’t teach you about the realms above your own, and one of them is that it impacts your chances to reach those realms. I am clear and you do understand me.”

“Yes Elder!” Tian chorused with the others.

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The Manor Lord was more direct with his subordinates. “You didn’t hear anything about anything, aren’t going to repeat anything you didn’t hear, and if anyone asks, Elder Feng is outraged at a particularly foul joke. Punishment starts with a long time in solitary, and progresses from there.”

The soldiers bowed in unison, cupping their fists.

The Manor Lord scooped up a tea cup. “Serve.”