Dao 3 Chapter 21

Once in the bedroom, Dar turned to Neko. “You don’t have to be jealous.”

“Can I stay?” She asked, turning her head to the side in question.

“Sure.” Dar patted the bed as he settled down and Blair stepped into the room, carefully closing the door behind her.

“I’m confused.” She blurted. “You held off for so long and suddenly, it’s come into the bedroom?”

He shook his head. “Not like that. I still want to have that date with you before we take those steps. I brought you here because I want to take you into my inner world.”

She cocked an eyebrow and came over, sitting next to him on the bed. Obviously, she’d heard about it being around his family, but she hadn’t seen it yet.

Thankfully, Neko relaxed.

“You could have just said that.”

“Not with Tami out there. She’s under a number of oaths to her father, and that’s a secret I still want to keep.”

“Ah.” Blair settled as she understood. “You wanted her to think it was dao companionship type activities. Not cool. Don’t tease me like that.” Blair tried to touch Dar, but Neko’s hand flashed out and knocked it away as she possessively clung to him.

Dar pulled Neko off of him. “Don’t do that.”

“But…” Neko started to complain, but one stern look from Dar was all it took to make her bite back whatever dispute she was going to have. “Fine.”

“Good.” He turned back to Blair. “If you want to relax, I can bring you in now. I think showing is better than trying to explain in this instance.”

“Bring me inside you; isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?” She joked while batting her eyes.

Dar let out a sigh; he had set himself up for that one with the lusty spirit. “Come on, relax.” He started to draw her into his inner world and felt a moment of resistance before she relaxed and was swept inside.

Now he needed to deal with Neko.

Neko looked properly chastised as she kept her head down, not looking at Dar. All the same, she felt his attention. “Neko is next.”

“Yes, you are.” He ruffled her hair between her cat ears. “Will you behave yourself if I let you in there with Blair?”

She bobbed her head excitedly. “Yes. As long as Neko is next. I can’t lose to the salty bitch.”

Feeling that she needed some encouragement, he pulled her close and kissed her again. Her soft lips were a contrast to her rough, but not unpleasant, tongue as they kissed.

Soon Neko grew more aggressive, her hands questing over his body.

Dar replied in kind, feeling her soft curves and letting his hands squeeze her thighs and cup her hips as he pulled her closer. “Neko.” He paused before regaining his thoughts. “We need to get back to work.”

She nodded with a cute grunt as she head-butted his chest. “Stupid Dar.”

“Soon.” He promised her, opening up his inner world and swallowing her.

Flopping back on the bed, he stared at the ceiling, wondering how his life became like this. He was a damn lucky man, but he also needed to make sure he took care of all the women in his life.

It took him a moment to clear his head, but eventually fell into meditation and his inner world.

When he appeared, both girls were slowly meandering around, looking at his inner world. Neko was the first to notice him and jumped into his arms. “It’s so pretty.”

“This is really something.” Blair was doing a slow circle. “Why don’t you just live here?”

“Because while you all physically can enter, my body remains outside.” Dar said. “I would still have to maintain myself and stay safe.”

“Shame.” Blair walked over to one of the waist-high orange trees. “It seems like you are planning to grow food here.”

He nodded, carrying Neko over with him. “Back up plans. Or at least, something that we can subsidize the village’s food stores with.”

“You are taking great care of Hearthway. I can’t believe you’ve been thinking of all these plans and implementing them to keep everyone safe, sheltered, and fed. Most would help their people with the bare minimum and then tax them for their own gains.” Blair let her fingers trail through the small tree.

“Dar is the best.” Neko smiled.

“Wasn’t I just ‘stupid Dar’?” He countered.

The cat girl's smile went flat. “You can be both.” She said with full seriousness.

Dar didn’t know what to say in reply to Blair. He was just doing what he felt was right. “I take care of my own and those around me. That’s just who I am and it won’t stop.”

“So what is it that you wanted to show me?” She changed the topic, looking around his inner world.

“The little dao tree.” He pointed to the strange tree that dominated the space.

“Little?” Blair looked at the tree and then back at Dar, confused. “I’d hate to see the big dao tree.”

He rolled his eyes. “It used to be little. With each of the two Mo I’ve absorbed, it has grown significantly. But that’s also what I wanted to show you.” He stepped over to the tree and pointed at the part that looked more like polished stone. “The Mo I just absorbed had a dao related to earth. The maids tested that shadow part of the tree. Cultivating near it significantly improved their comprehension of that type of dao.”

“You do know there is another way to help me with the comprehension of dao?” Blair ran a finger along his arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps.

He cleared his throat. “Yes, but I don’t have dao greater than your own. This tree can push you past your current blockade, or at least, that’s the hope.”

Blair stepped away from him and put her hand on the tree. “Oh.” She moaned. “I can feel it.”

“Good. I hope it works for you.”

She pressed herself to the tree before she threw off her shirt.

Dar averted his eyes, but she just turned and pressed her back to it, sliding down to the dirt with a sigh.

“This will do.” She didn’t waste any time settling down to work on her dao path.

He was glad to see that she could be serious when she needed to be. Blair was a sexually charged person, but she clearly saw the value in pursuing her dao under this tree.

“I will try too.” Neko declared, jumping out of his arms and running over to the dark part of the tree. She followed Blair’s example, freeing herself of her top and pressing her back to the tree.

Dar wasn’t sure if the shirtless part was necessary, but maybe it helped. He made sure to look away before Cherry popped in and tease him.

Instead, he flipped open the family dao book and sat down cross-legged to start his own pursuit of his dao path.

Flame.

He knew it was a dangerous dao to try to force, but it was the best dao for him at that moment with what they faced.

Meditating, Dar began the process. Bright, combustion, and heat circled each other in his mind. Each of them spun and circled each other as Dar tried to find the right combination that would make flame.

Granite had taken him so long to finally piece together, but Dar hoped that his third greater dao would be easier. He knew he didn’t have the dao tree to help him on this one, but he pushed those stray worries away.

Everything else faded out until those three dao were the only remaining thoughts in his mind.

Round and round they spun. Dar watched and waited for the three of them to make something greater. To his surprise, it didn’t take long until the three clicked and uncontrollable heat burst through Dar’s mind as he stared at the greater dao.

The greater dao was made up of his three lesser dao. Even though he knew them individually it still functioned as a dao character he didn’t understand when they combined to form the dao of flame. It was hard to focus and the pathway through his channels was then three times longer than a single lesser dao.

It made inscribing it into his body three times harder to do while maintaining his focus on the dao character for that increased length, making the difficulty increased by an exponential degree.

Sudden dread of what it would be like to inscribe a grand dao into his body flooded him and threatened to break his focus.

Dar closed those thoughts off like he’d just closed a fire door in his mind, containing the burning blaze and making it his sole focus.

He chastised himself for the distraction.

The flame dao was rampant by that point. It wanted to consume fuel to keep itself active, and at the moment, his mind was the only source it had access to. Dar slowly started channeling mana into its form, trying to control it through comprehension.

When he completed the first pass, it was like the dao wanted to leap out of his mind and set his body aflame. It didn’t seem to care that it could destroy him. Using his dao of heat, Dar did his best to disperse it before he truly caught on fire.

Cycling his mana again, the dao of flame fought to overcome his dao of heat. Dar fell into a rhythm of tug of war with the dao as he worked to feed it within his body, yet keep it from harming him.

It was a delicate balance, like walking a tightrope wire. Dar was only part way done, but he knew what he needed to do at that point.

He kept at it, not caring how much time it took to master the skill he knew they needed until, finally, the dao of flame solidified in his mind.

As he finished, mana rushed back into him, and he felt himself grow stronger, the weakness fading from him.

“Phew.” He breathed out a breath, half expecting it to be fire. But it wasn’t. Dar reminded himself that he wasn’t a dragon.

Flexing his hands, Dar thought of something crazy. Why stop there? He could go straight for the grand dao. It’s not like he had time to waste with the insects already attacking Bellhaven.

Focusing inward once, Dar took the dao of shadow, the dao of flame, and the dao of granite. The three were made of three lesser dao, so in the end, it was like trying to match up nine lesser dao. The complexity and permutations had increased an entire fold.

But that just made him want to get started sooner, not knowing when he’d find the right way to combine them. He wanted that grand dao.

When Dar put the dao of granite next to the dao of flame, nothing happened. Noting that, he tried something else. When the dao of flame touched the dao of shadows, the lesser dao of dim and bright pulsed, both racing towards each other.

When those pulses touched, it was like someone set off a bomb in Dar’s chest.

Dar was flung out of his meditation and out of his inner world, physically jolting off the bed before puking blood.

“Dar!” Cherry was there in an instant. She must have returned to his inner world while he was cultivating. “Dar, speak to me.”

“Hurts.” He croaked.

It felt like his chest cavity was burnt so badly that all that was left was cooked charcoal.

“Hold on, I know Sasha bought a few healing potions from the Merchant.”

Dar was suddenly ever grateful for his wife’s forethought.

Cherry came running back with a vial and unceremoniously pushed Dar’s head back, sticking the neck of the vial into his mouth. It clanked against his teeth, but cool liquid flowed through his throat and eased his pain.

“Thank you, and remind me to thank Sasha for buying these.” His eyelids felt heavy.

“Shh.” Cherry shushed him, stroking his cheek. “You’ll be alright. What happened?”

“Grand dao.” Dar grumbled. “I tried to see what it would be like to cultivate a grand dao.”

He could almost hear Cherry roll her eyes with the way she responded. “That was reckless; there’s no way a grand dao would be that easy.”

“I tried to combine Shadow and Flame. The dao of bright and dim reacted. They collided and exploded inside of me.”

Cherry cursed under her breath. “Dar, there are just some dao that don’t go together.”

“Could have told me that sooner.” He grumbled.

“Normally it just doesn’t work.” She huffed. “You’re experimenting with this new way to form dao. It hasn’t been done before. How was I supposed to know that the resulting issue would be so severe?”

Dar closed his eyes, chiding himself. If things were really so easy, he would have soared to the celestial dao in weeks or months, not years. But he’d had to try. “You’re right. I’m just hurt and angry.”

“I understand.” She kissed his forehead. It was one pleasant sensation among a world of agony. “Sasha is going to be livid. Do you want her to find out now, or later?”

“Later?” Dar hesitated. “Where are Neko and Blair?”

“Neko broke through to a greater demon while you were cultivating and has been out for a day. Blair is still holed up next to the tree. I think she might really do it this time.” Cherry realized he was missing a piece of information. “You’ve been out for almost a day.”

A day. Without the tree to help him, it had indeed been longer yet again.

“If I can’t combine flame and shadow, then I have to learn a different greater dao.” Dar sighed, feeling like letting the cold stone floor consume him. “Fuck.”

“Don’t beat yourself up too hard. Let’s find a dao related to earth. What greater dao were you even trying for?”

Dar paused, not having an answer for her.

She must have read his face. “See, that’s why you need to slow down. Look through the dao book and see if there aren’t some earth related dao that the tree can help you with. Lean into your advantages rather than trying to take the hard road.”

Cherry patted his face with that sage advice and stood. “I’m going to go get Sasha so we can get this over with.”

“Ugh.” He groaned. Now he really wanted the floor to swallow him up.

It was some of the worst dread of his life as he waited there on the cold stone floor and Sasha’s footsteps came closer. He heard her enter the room. He laid there in silence for a long while before he opened his eyes to Sasha’s silent crying as she leaned against the bed.

He cursed. Her scolding him wouldn’t be fun, but seeing her cry was absolutely heartbreaking.

“I’m sorry Sasha.” He whispered.

“Why?” That was all she said before she walked over and put a hand on his chest. “Why do you do this to yourself? First it was the ettercaps, then going to Bellhaven and returning torn up, and now this?”

His heart sank.

He hadn’t been thinking about what coming home injured would do to her or any of the other women in his life.

Her eyes were filled with worry, not for herself, but for him. He reminded himself she never cared for battle. She was softer. While she could run a tight ship in his household, she wasn’t used to so many life or death moments.

“I’m so sorry Sasha, but I have to push myself.”

“For what? A stupid city that scorned us?” She slapped the side of the bed.

“No Sasha, for you, for everyone here. When Bellhaven is gone, we’ll be next. To wallow in inaction would be to doom our future.” Dar opened his arms for her, and she knocked the wind out of him as she collapsed on him.

“I hate it.”

Dar shushed her, petting the back of her head. “I know. But I can’t stop. It’s who I am. Every day, I’m going to push myself. That’s the only way that I can ensure you and everyone here is still alive.”

Tears flowed down Sasha’s face, wetting his chest.

He squeezed her tightly. He knew the path they were on would hurt not only himself but those around him, but it was the right choice. Because it could also save them all. Nothing is easy, at least nothing worth doing.

AN - I think I'm going to finish Dao tomorrow @ 31 or 32 chapters. Just finished the big battle and chapter 30 today.