The Urban Dao Child

Yang Dao sat in the living room, admiring Atsuji Kurogame’s home decor. The place was akin to an antique shop. Old pine wood furniture, paintings, porcelain vases. The old man patiently told him the history behind the objects. A servant served Yang Dao with a glass of water.

Atsuji Kurogame said, “You came to me to learn about water. You remember that you learned wind from Feng Yun, earth from Ryu Jinshi, and I taught you about fire. I will give you the basic knowledge of water, however, it is better you learn water from Laohu Bai.  How do you think about this?”

Yang Dao thought and nodded. It was not that he minded who taught him what, he just wanted to learn. Atsuji Kurogame pointed at the water in the cup and asked, “Our mind is akin to water. Our thoughts are like water, flexible. Do you understand?”

Yang Dao nodded and the old man continued, “The water element inside our body is more than just the blood circulating inside. Reaching the most narrow capillaries with force but still not damaging the veins. Water contains terrifying energy. However, it can also hide it and be humble.”

Atsuji Kurogae preached to the young man for a few minutes before he stopped. Yang Dao was sitting in the same place but his eyes were closed. He was focusing on the basic interaction with water. The old man saw this and made a gesture to cast a barrier around Yang Dao.

As Yang Dao sat in meditation, a little girl around ten years old walked inside the house holding the hand of a servant of the house. She looked at the person sitting on the couch with great curiosity in her eyes.

She had black hair and big doe eyes with a glass resting on her nose. Two cute pigtails tying her curly brown hair, her eyes were filled with the playfulness. Her face was very pretty, some baby fat. She cautiously walked over to Atsuji Kurogame. The old man carressed her head gently and asked, “Aurora, how was the day? What did you learn today?”

The little girl replied, “It was good, Grandpa Atsuji. We learned about water.”

Atsuji Kurogame smiled and asked, “Oh can you recite to grandpa?”

With a nod the girls started to speak, “Yes, Miss Knight said, Water has no taste, it has no shape. It becomes what you want it to. She told us that the water in the rivers must not be polluted as it brings us life…”

The girl kept on speaking as she sat next to Atsuji Kurogame. Finally when finishing she asked, “Grandpa, who is this big sister. Also, her hair are so pretty.”

The old man smiled and said, “This big brother is Yang Dao. He is meditating, will wake up in a bit then you can ask him to be your friend.”

The girl smiled brightly and sat down in her place. She was born with a disease, her eyes were terribly weak. A servant bought food over, and Atsuji Kuurogame fed it to the little girl with a gentle smile on his face. Yang Dao woke up half an hour after the people finished eating.

He looked at the girl and was shocked. He could sense that Aurora had problems with her sight. He asked Atsuji Kurogame, “Elder, this is Aurora?”

Atsuji Kurogame nodded to him. The old man said, “Aurora, what did I teach you about meeting elders?”

The little girl stood up from the couch and said, “Hello, big brother Dao. My name is Aurora.” ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​

Yang Dao smiled at her innocent voice, he asked, “Aurora, come here.”

The girl hesitated but she was a child after all. Yang Dao’s call seemed to have hooked her heart. She got off the couch and slowly found her way to the young man after sensing the table in front of her. After a couple of minutes she moved around with her hands stretched. Yang Dao leaned forward and caught her hand.

Aurora sensed a wave of warmth washing over her her as soon as her hand was taken by him. He asked, “Can I take a look at your eyes?”

The girl flinched, even if she was eager to befriend him for some unknown reason, she was aware of her weakness and did not want anyone to look down on her. The girl had obviously been bullied by other kids in the school. She thought Yang Dao will also do the same and her eagerness to befriend him diminished.

Yang Dao understood her heart, he said in a soft voice, “Trust me.”

The girl hesitated and fell into thought, she did not even know when Yang Dao had reached for her glasses and took them off. She was about to complain when she found that her vision, that has always been hazy began to clear up.

The girl had a spot on her retina. This made her vision blurred. What Yang Dao did just now was to use the drop of phoenix tear. He had smartly used the Dao Resonance to call Aurora close, and then bending the tear into micro particles made them fly to her eyes. The little girl stood their in surprise gazing at the young handsome man in front of him.

She could not believe herself, Yang Dao pinched her tiny nose gently and said, “It is real.”

The girl let out a yell in her high pitched voice, the servants in the house all came out from the places, they found that the master of the house was present and nothing was wrong so they let out a sigh of relief.

Yang Dao smiled at the girl and said, “Hello Aurora, my name is Yang Dao.”

Aurora woke up from her excitement and hugged him tight as she said, “Thank you big brother. Now Auro will not be bullied.” she had tears in her eyes.

Yang Dao said, “Aww, who dares to bully the princess of my house. Tell me their names. We will handle them together.”

After teasing her for a bit Aurora went inside to complete her homework. Old man Atsuji said, “Master, thank you for blessing the child.”

Yang Dao replied as he stood up, “It is not a big deal. Do not worry. Also, I have stepped in the first level of water element cultivation. It was thanks to her voice that gave me the much needed inspiration. So, this counts as my pay off. The cause and effect was settled like this.”

Atsuji Kurogame nodded.. Turns out that when Yang Dao was stuck, Aurora gave him the push to get through.