Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 46

Leaving the building, Chao still felt disconnected from what was going on around him, but Elder Gen’s demeanor as much as his words had jolt him out of himself. Was what he said really the difference between facing this murderer and when he’d killed Prince Jin?

He remembered appearing behind Jin and his own disbelief at what happened next. As an early Earth Realm cultivator, he removed the Fire Phoenix Sect’s Lead Disciple’s head with a single swing of his sword. There was no doubt this time when he faced off with Daiyu’s murderer. It wasn’t about whether he could beat the man, but which method he wanted to use. That’s really all it had taken. There was so little holding him back.

When he saw Huifen standing not far away, he marched over to her and stopped abnormally close. “Thank you, my Fen’er, for bearing with me. I think you deserve a reward.”

“Tao—”

“I promised you we’d talk. So let’s go.”

They were silent as the ascended the spire, but once they reached the fourth floor, he began to fill her in with what Elder Gen said. He didn’t go into great detail but relayed to her the principles he’d gleaned. The one thing he left out was what Gen said about a man’s need to sacrifice his own emotions. It was something he was still working out and wasn’t sure it applied to women in the same way it might men, or perhaps neither of them at all. Advice was advice. That didn’t make it law.

He had a feeling that if he decided to become a restrained tyrant as the man had described, it was up to him to decide much of how he handled things. He agreed with the advice, at least in part, for he’d ignored his own issue with the smell of meat after he’d killed Prince Jin for the sake of his wife. Maybe Gen only meant it to that extent.

Once they’d made it to their little abode on the sixth floor, he had every intention of giving her his full attention, but there was something he had to ask. He directed her to sit in front of him with her back facing him. As he ran his fingers through her hair, he spoke, “Do you think Elder Gen is right? Should a cultivator become a tyrant, then learn to control it? If so, how does one train such a thing?”

She leaned forward and away from him—no longer responding to his petting. “Chao don’t take this the wrong way, but you’ve been a tyrant since we left the golden palace. Not often toward me, except in a few extreme circumstances, but I’m also your wife. There’s very little you’ve done I haven’t agreed with wholeheartedly. Do you not remember your handling of Sage Ping? Not only did you force your will upon me, but Fang, Mother and Father, and the entire joint sect.

“And what do you think we were doing to at the Golden Palace, or to Yu-yan’s village? What is tyranny if not forcing one’s will? Elder Gen is right, but he doesn’t know the whole story.”

He subconsciously continued to run his fingers through her hair. “Should I be apologizing right now?”

There was a bit of hesitation before she shook her head. “As much as I’d like to say that I let you take the lead in these matters to honor you as my husband, the truth is I’ve been conflicted and too indecisive to act. Your insistent mercy and generosity have been just as tyrannical as the cruelty of what people would generally consider a tyrant. I admit it has made following your lead strenuous at times, but it’s mostly good.”

Leaning back, she gave him a sidelong look. “I have tranquility of mind.” A quaint smile appeared on her face. “You’ve already been training the tyrannical part of you. You’re usually better at controlling it than I am. And as for directing it, that’s where you’re most gifted. You’re incredible, Chao.”

He felt the color rush to his face. Not liking how uncomfortable it made him feel, he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her back into an embrace.

She giggled as he tried to kiss her. “This might sound funny coming from me, but you’re terrible at taking a compliment, husband.”

His fingers found her ribs and he dug in, but for the briefest moment. “That’s what you get for being right.”

She laid against him like that for a few minutes before he asked. “Can you tell me about Fairy Daiyu?” When she looked like she was going to object, he insisted. “I promised you we were going to talk.”

Eventually she nodded, then began to say, “After she burnt my hair when we were young, she purchased what was supposed to be a restorative hair-balm in Phoenix City. It ended up being a fake product sold by a fraud. Instead of restoring my hair, it made it smell something awful. I first thought she’d meant her apology as another cruel joke, but in her insistence she put some in her hair as well…”

And so they began telling stories to remember Huifen’s late friend. Chao didn’t have many to add, so he mostly listened, but he made sure to mention the fairy’s kindness to him.

***

After many hours, and even more tears, they turned their attention to what they should do next. Sage Pangfua would be leaving to confront the murderers’ sect in a day or two. A message had been sent and they’d give this sect a little time to prepare. It was a grace that wouldn’t have been given if they thought the sect was guilty of some crime.

Sitting facing each other, Chao had his pipa in his lap while Huifen had a water lily in one hand and a brilliant orange tiger lily in the other. She was keeping a close eye on him even now. He’d decided to put all normal cultivation off for a few days and follow Lord Longwei’s example. But even though they’d been sitting there for half an hour, he’d yet to play a single note.

“Is something wrong?” She asked.

“I—” He looked like he was going to say something more than once but kept thinking better of it. He ultimately said, “I don’t know what to play. None of the songs I know seem to fit with the way I feel. I should probably learn some more, but… There are hundreds of them. Thousands. I fear if I spend the time looking through them to find the perfect one, it will just delay what I need to be doing right now.”

“You don’t have to be in a hurry.”

The overly generous smile he gave her meant he didn’t agree but wasn’t about to argue with her. She’d seen it far as far back as when he was still her disciple. It’s just now she recognized it for what it was. Forcing the issue would solve nothing. It wasn’t the main problem anyway. Things had been simpler when he’d only known a handful of songs.

She could look through the songs with him, but she wasn’t exactly familiar with how to read music. She remembered back to how drastically her own emotions had changed, sometimes from moment to moment, during those early days in the Frigid Moon Mystic Realm. Finding the right song might be an impossible pursuit.

The song wasn’t the important thing anyway. He needed to find way to face his internal demons without causing harm to himself or anyone else. Perhaps… “Chao, why don’t you try writing your own music?”

His face lit up, but quickly faded. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“Then just tinker with it. Like you might a new law.”

That caught his attention. He stared off for a while as he tried to figure it out. A while later, he removed an empty card jade and sat it before him. Then he strummed a few notes, stopped, thought for a minute, then did it again.

Huifen spent much of her time on her own cultivation, but she was too curious not to watch Chao as he did seemingly random things. He’d play parts of songs she already knew then another that gave her a similar feeling. Then he’d play something she didn’t know followed by something she did but was completely different. There were numerous abrupt starts and stops.

When he finally played something unique, she knew it had been exactly what he’d needed. His intro started cheerful but hit a dramatic wall before free falling into something dangerous. It was sounding like his favorite battle hymn before the tempo screeched to a halt. There was the beginnings of something tragic when he got stuck on a note. He stayed there for a long while, strumming the same note over and over until adding a few to it. He'd returned to his tinkering.

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Short but sweet. The transition is coming.

Cleaner version out later today.

Cheers!