Chapter 95

"Yes, this is where you shall sow your seeds, fellow Daoist." Ocean Song clasped his hands behind his back. "This is the perfect location for your journey to begin."

"This is literally the only spot we have cleared out for him." Daedalus pointed out.

"Thus, making it the perfect one." Ocean Song nodded insightfully.

"Right..." Aristaeus spoke as he knelt down and grabbed a handful of soil. "It was recently tilled; it’s going to take awhile for enough wildflowers and the like to grow. And this high up in the mountains, the bees are going to have a bit of trouble." He looked thoughtful. "We could buy some potted flowers and plant them to speed things up, but at this elevation, they may not survive for long."

Daedalus straightened his back. "That’s a good idea. Sunflowers should work fine here; even if they all die, it’ll just be good compost."

"If you want me to also make cheese, I can’t do it without animals, you know. Goats, sheep, and cows. Whatever you want, but I need something to work with." He also pointed out.

Daedalus nodded. "We already planned that. I was looking into special cattle that are adjusted for high elevations so they don’t get sick. Sheep and goats adapt much easier. There are a few farms a bit south of here in the same state; they had some from what I could tell."

"Take Tyson when you go; he’ll like visiting a farm with a bunch of animals." Ocean Song interjected.

Daedalus might have rolled his eyes or scoffed at something annoying in any other situation. But for a request like that, he just nodded and didn’t argue.

Even as grumpy as Daedalus normally was, he was always patient and understanding with Tyson.

"You can take the Sect Sacred Artifact."

"I am not driving the damned Pope Mobile!" Daedalus scowled. "And we’re running low on money."

"Eh?"

"Don’t, eh, me!" Daedalus threw his hands up. "Do you have any idea how much money we’re spending every week? It’s not a small amount. Just in food alone, do you have any idea how much Tyson eats every day!?"

"Then it’s time for Tyson to go on a diet; he can—"

"Finish that sentence, I dare you!" A shout came from a few buildings over, the distinct voice of Mel.

"I have decided that Tyson is a growing boy and should be eating his fill." Ocean Song corrected without missing a beat.

Daedalus snorted as if he expected that to happen.

"There’s only one solution." Ocean Song clapped his hands.

"No."

"We’re going to go loot our enemies!"

"...we have enemies?" The cheese god asked skeptically.

"It’s stupid." Daedalus spoke, but Ocean Song ignored him.

"We have a rival Evil Sect!" The Cyclops declared. "They are the most evil in the world, and we rightfully fight them whenever we are in need of money!"

Daedalus facepalmed. "It’s Amazon."

Aristaeus blinked. "The Warriors or the Company?"

"Both."

"I do remember something about them owning the company now that I think about it. We’re...at odds with them?"

"We rob them whenever we’re low on money." Daedalus said with a straight face.

"It’s not robbing if it’s righteous!" Ocean Song declared. "Anyways, something something, the Righteous Dao, they have committed numerous crimes."

"What crimes?"

"The crimes of having money that I need." Ocean Song said without an ounce of shame.

"..."

"Honestly, they’re kind of shitty," Daedalus reluctantly admitted. "They’ll probably be expecting us again though. No doubt they’ll have more guards waiting."

Aristaeus was scared to ask how many times they’ve done this for there to be an anticipated response from Amazon.

"Don’t worry about that, Fellow Daoist! It’s time to now think about your Dao pursuit."

"My what—"

"And by thinking about it, I mean that I already decided for you!" Ocean Song said happily. "Of course, you will be learning the proper Sword Dao. But as the God of Bees, you shall also become an insect cultivator! Millions of Immortal Bees will swarm your enemies at your command."

"I only know some of the words you just said." Aristaeus replied. "And I’m not a Bee God; I’m the Beekeeping God. And not even a god right now..."

"Fellow Daoist, stop putting yourself down. Focus not on what you are, but on what you can become! Today you’re making cheese; tomorrow, you are the cheese!"

Aristaeus opened his mouth, but Daedalus cut him off. "Don’t bother; he won’t realize what he said or how stupid it is. Just nod your head along and do what he says. Equal chances, whatever he says will actually come true, somehow."

Aristaeus furrowed his brow. "Uh...I actually know how to use a sword?"

Ocean Song’s eyes lit up. "Excellent! That’s already part one. How good are you at creating poetic introductions on the fly?"

"Uh..."

"It’s okay, we can work on that." He grabbed Aristaeus by the arm and pulled him away. "Come along, fellow Daoist. We’re going to pick you out a sword!"

Aristaeus looked back at Daedalus, who just gave him a pitying look.

[Line Break]

"Welcome to Tyson’s forge!"

"Which mongrel dares step into my forge without announcing themselves!?" A loud voice boomed that even Aristaeus shrunk back and felt a tingle down his spine from the fright.

"Well done, Tyson! You’re getting better!" Ocean Song shot a thumbs up.

Aristaeus looked to see the person come out. Tyson stepped out from the next room, looking a little bit shy. "Did I do it good, Senior Brother?"

"Your practice is paying off well." He nodded. "Keep up at it."

Tyson brightened up while Aristaeus just seemed utterly confused at what just happened.

"You’ve met Tyson already. He’s our best blacksmith!" Ocean Song stated as Tyson flushed at the praise. "Hey Tyson, how is the project going?"

"Erm, I’m trying, Senior Brother. But I can’t make the thing you told me yet." Tyson looked like he was thinking about it really hard as he spoke to you. "Your, um, ’Sword that Peels back the layers of reality’ thingy."

"What?" Aristaeus looked at both of them strangely.

"Keep at it; I’m sure you’ll get it eventually. How’s your internship with the God of the Forge going?" Ocean Song patted Tyson on the shoulder.

Tyson’s eyes lit up. "Mr. Hephaestus says I’m doing really good! I’ve been making a lot of swords and weapons! I even asked him about the other thing; he said that making a thing that can hold a lot of things and is gold and swirly is possible! He said he would help me make it!"

Ocean Song nodded with pride.

It was all coming together.

"Make sure you ask Nessie to bake some cookies to bring with you next time as a thank you." He told Tyson it was polite to bring a gift. "Now, it’s time for you to pick out a sword, Fellow Daoist!" He looked at the Cheese God.

"Oh, I prefer something—"

"Tyson, go get some of your good stuff!"

He went to the back as they grabbed a lot of metal clinging to them and stuff falling to the ground before Tyson came back out dragging an overly large sack with him. "Here’s all the best stuff I’ve made so far, Senior Brother. But um...some of it was just stuff I was practicing with." He dropped it, and a plethora of swords spilled out.

"Go ahead, take your pick, fellow Daoist."

Aristaeus furrowed his brow as he looked at them. He wasn’t some kind of warrior nor smith, but a god his age who had been around the block a few times; he could pick out quality when he saw it. Besides knowing that Cyclops were born smiths, he could see that they were in fact rather well made.

He picked up the first one; it was a standard long sword from the neck of the woods, a proper Greek blade. He held it up to get a feel for the weight, only for the blade to fall over like a wet noodle.

"....."

"I made that one to be as soft as possible!" Tyson smiled.

"Excellent craftsmanship!" Ocean Song praised.

Aristaeus picked up another skeptically. "Oh, this one isn’t—" He held up another normal-looking sword only for it to turn ethereal and fall out of his hand and disappear into the floor.

"..."

"Uh oh." Ocean Song looked down. "I’m sure it’ll be fine."

"Senior brother asked me to make a sword that could cut through dimensions. I still haven’t figured out how to do that yet. For some reason, they just keep turning into that...." Tyson scratched his head.

The Cheese god grabbed the next one; it was also normal looking, and he hesitantly touched it a few times before seeing that it wouldn’t turn ghostly in his grasp, and he held it up. "This one seems....normal."

"Oh, that’s a good one!" Tyson perked up. "If you yell ’Flame On,’ it ignites!"

"Oh?" Aristaeus actually looked intrigued.

"But..."

"But?"

Tyson looked away. "I haven’t been able to keep the flames to the sword only..."

Aristaeus carefully put the sword down on the ground and stepped away from it.

"And that one?" He decided just to point to the English longsword.

"Oh, that one glows in the dark!"

"....."

Aristaeus was waiting for the shoe to drop, but it didn’t come. "Okay, let’s put that one to the side for now and come back. What about...this one?" He pointed at a smaller blade, perhaps closer to a dagger.

"Oh, that one’s just heavy!"

He tried to lift it up but realized it wouldn’t budge. "Yeah...heavy."

"And that big one?" He looked at the greatsword that was taller than he was.

"That one’s my favorite!" Tyson beamed. "It’s lighter than air!"

"Really?" The god was curious now and lifted it up. Just as Tyson said, it was like he wasn’t holding anything at all. Except, after a moment, he realized that his feet were off the ground and he was slowly floating upwards.

Ocean Song grabbed his ankle so he wouldn’t fly away.

"Sorry, I haven’t worked it out all the way. For some reason, when you hold it, you become just as weightless...," Tyson said awkwardly.

Aristaeus just picked up the supposed glow-in-the-dark sword. Besides the most obvious addition, there seemed to be nothing else strange about it. It even felt good; it was well balanced, sharp, and wasn’t too heavy for his now-mortal body.

"I guess I’ll pick this one?"

"Excellent!" Ocean Song clapped his hands. "Now that you have a sword selected, I will give a lecture on the Sword Dao. Assemble everyone in the courtyard at once!"

[Line Break]

"Greetings, fellow Daoists!" Ocean Song had his hands clasped behind his back as he watched everyone file in to the courtyard. "Since we have two new members, it’s time for me to give you all pointers on the sword dao."

For most of them, they were used to this sort of thing, but both Aristaeus and Calypso looked at him curiously, unsure of what to make of what he was saying.

"Everyone, grab your swords." He told them.

Medusa, Daedalus, Tyson, Aristaeus, and Calypso all had their swords.

Particularly, Calypso held up her gigantic sword that made Medusa’s look small by comparison. It quite literally cast a shadow over everyone with how large it actually was.

Daedalus did a double take because he saw Aristaeus’s sword faintly glow under the shadow.

"Today, we’ll talk about the two primary schools of swordsmanship. While there are many—many schools of thought—they can primarily be divided in one of two ways. The Soft Sword and the Heavy Sword." He started to walk around as he pulled out his own sheathed sword. "We’ll talk about the Heavy Sword first."

Ocean Song pointed at Medusa. "As the name implies, it focuses on heavy techniques, large swings, and heavy swings. The emphasis is on power and strength. Fellow Daoist, let me borrow your blade."

Medusa shrugged and tossed it to him.

He caught it easily, giving it a wave.

"It should be noted that both Heavy and Soft don’t necessarily align with weapon type. You can perform heavy techniques with a rapier and soft techniques with a broadsword." He looked up at the sky and stabbed his own sword into the ground before gripping Medusa’s sword with both hands.

He planted his feet firmly, and he performed an upward swing. From the view of everyone else, it almost looked like he was trying to swing through a body of water as if the air itself were resisting him.

The sword swung upwards and punched a hole through the cloud like a fist.

Aristaeus, at this moment, stared at the scene a bit slackjawed. He was a god; he wasn’t unused to large displays of godly might. Even if he were a weak god, splitting a few clouds with his divine power wasn’t anything special.

But Ocean Song was not a god...at least he didn’t think so. His godly senses weren’t exactly up to snuff at the moment, and he gave off a strange feeling. But at the very least, he knew that Ocean Song had origins as a Cyclops.

Not to mention that it looked so easy for him to accomplish.

Lastly, he didn’t feel any godly power from him.

In his mind, that meant that what he just did was something that any of them could accomplish.

"A simply heavy swing," Ocean Song stated. "I’ll use the same sword to demonstrate the soft side." He looked around, and his eyes landed on a certain Titan. "Fellow Daoist Calypso, please swing your sword at me."

"Oh, okay!" She didn’t even blink as she grabbed her sword and swung it down at him.

Aristaeus looked at it; the might of that sword would be enough to probably demolish the mountain they were standing on.

He braced himself as he couldn’t even utter a word of fear or cry out in time. But to his surprise, no cataclysmic impact arrived; the mountain didn’t shatter, and there was no earthquake that shook the mountainside.

He saw as Ocean Song met the massive sword with his own, and it was like his sword acted as a soft pillow. It connected, twisted, and guided the momentum away in one swift movement before letting it hit the ground.

There was a thump from the sheer weight of her sword, but nothing that should have equated to the force at which she swung with it.

"That is softness overcoming hardness." Ocean Song declared, leaving the audience speechless. "Softness isn’t better than hardness. Heavy doesn’t overpower Soft. Yin and Yang, Soft and Hard. They both counter and compliment one another. What matters is the one who wields the sword." He tossed the sword back to Medusa.

Aristaeus looked around, still trying to comprehend what he was looking at. His gaze landed on Daedalus, the one he felt was the most ’normal’ out of the bunch. Daedalus looked at him and mouthed a ’You get used to it’ at him.

Aristaeus wasn’t sure he would.

"With two new members, I have decided to formalize and standardize a set of sword techniques for the Sect." Ocean Song slapped his storage bag, producing a few dozen books. "I have written them down and provided illustrations." He started to pass them around to everyone.

Contrary to the atmosphere before, Aristaeus noticed that they were all looking very serious when they opened the books and started studying. At least the older members, and Calypso was doing her best to read it too.

But for him, this was far different than what he anticipated.

He expected the same...weirdness as before. He was going to do his best to muddle along and stay under the radar for the next decade or so and do what he needed to do to survive with this strange Cyclops acting as his backing. If he needed to play along with whatever weird delusions or games he had, then so be it. He was almost certain there was something wrong with him, but he was too scared to point it out.

But now, he realized that something wasn’t quite right. Rather, was he really some strange deluded Cyclops?

He looked up at the sky, and the cloud he punched through still hadn’t disappeared. He also looked at the massive sword that was still left half-way stuck in the ground from the Titan swinging it.

Maybe...there was something to this after all?

Could he get strong even as a mortal? It would alleviate a lot of the concerns he currently had if he had the strength to protect his family without having to rely on his godhood.

"Alright, you all saw the first illustrations. Now, take the stance as shown in the pictures and shout at the top of your lungs—"Nine Clouds Sword Scripture, First Form: Cloud Parting!"

No one shouted.

Aristaeus raised his hand.

"Yes, Fellow Daoist?"

"Do we really have to say that?"

"Absolutely." Ocean Song nodded. "Every time you perform the technique. It’s integral, it’s the most important aspect of the technique."

"...why?

Ocean Song clasped his hands behind his back as his robes billowed heroically. "Because it sounds cool."

[Line Break]

A/N

Wanted to do some actual teaching and/or sect training moments even if Ocean Song is Ocean Song. New members settle in, and Aristaeus gets his first taste of being a proper cultivator! That is, of course, shouting the names of your attacks.

I also have a boosty if you can’t use the above under the same name