[Last Emperor] Chapter 31 - A Father Figure

 “Please! Oh, please! Can’t I come with you? I swear I won’t make you any trouble,” Su Da said as she held her robe with tight fists. “I finished all my physical training for the day too! All of them. Everything I promise! A-and even got half way done with my Qi circulation exercises!”

Tao Zi did not even turn around as he wrapped a long piece of cloth around his waist. “You only did twelve sets of sprints. I counted.”

Her eyes widened comically. She tried to speak but found herself unable to say anything at all. Su Da had been skimping on her workouts lately. Tao Zi didn’t really mind as long as she pushed herself to a point where he was satisfied with her work. There were no rewards for her to push past her limit and risk injury with. Especially as a vulnerable mortal with soft and weak limbs. 

The potential for her to seriously get was too great. He doubted a Spiritual Medicine Pill would work well for her either. It packed far more Qi than any Concentrated Qi Pill he had given her and feared that it would be tainted by his cultivation technique as well. 

A mild heat discomfort from the bits and iotas of Qi were different compared to the scorching flames of dragonic fire that would course through her limbs if his guess was correct. The thought of her screaming in pain stopped him. 

Seeing Su Da hurt was not something he wanted to witness. 

Ruining her chances at ever cultivating would only add insult to injury if he made the mistake of doing it. 

His worry over messing up painted much of what he did lately with her. Tao Zi slowed her cultivation process to a crawl to make sure she didn’t break anything in her core. Progress was excruciatingly glacial, but it was better than the alternative. 

That led to this point as well. 

Not that Tao Zi would have allowed her to leave the cave if he was far more lenient either. She couldn’t beat a single chimp alone. No sword or weapon technique available to her yet. No Qi to circulate and even out the playing field and to top it all off, Su Da was exceptionally weak for a peak Mortal Stage cultivator. It reminded him of the saying the system kept giving him.

Along the lines of not all cultivators being the same. Dragons versus gerbils or another equally small and innocuous little fluff of ball compared to the lizard scales that supposedly were overpowered because of the fire they carried. 

His own only had specks and little touches of dragonic essence and it was already plenty strong. 

Tao Zi moved the boulder and stepped out. Tiger didn’t even make an attempt to bolt out of the door this time around. Busy stalking the oblivious Heron, too busy trying to untie a lump on a rope it thought was a knot, and sneaking around the cave from cover to cover. Slowly making its way closer.

Su Da let out a mournful sigh and let her shoulders sag. “Master?”

Tao Zi stopped as he stepped out. He turned to looking at her for a moment studying her expression. “Yeah?”

“When will I get to play outside? Touch the grass? Feel the sun on my skin? I know that it's important to be in the cave cause it's safe, but I feel like… I don’t know.” She said, trying a few times to vocalize what she felt but was unable to. 

Yet, it had done its purpose. 

Tao Zi understood what she was saying. Su Da was still a child no matter what exercises or cultivation practices she completed. Even in a world as dangerous as the rift was, he needed to understand that being a kid meant that she needed to live and experience things. 

I’m not a father. I don’t know any of this stuff. What the hell do I do and when do I do it?

He hadn’t considered the implications of having a young disciple like this. Not during the moment at least. Tao Zi would need to start making decisions that would impact how she was raised. 

Stuffing her in a cave until she broke into the Foundation Establishment Realm was not conducive to good development of much more basic things. Her personality, moral compass, and everything else he needed to figure out if he had any hopes of not creating another murder-hobo cultivator just like the ones that he had been thrown into the rift by. 

Fuck… Thinking about everything is starting to overwhelm me! I'm too young to be a father!

“Soon…” Tao Zi said as he ran through a hundred possibilities of what he could say. He mind blanked and was unable to figure out what the hell he should tell her. He was only nineteen years old after all. “Be patient… In due time once I’ve seen the very basics from you and how quick you are and maybe if you get taller? Eventually…”

He stopped. 

Tao Zi had started to ramble. 

Su Da nodded sullenly and walked away from the cave entrance. Falling onto her bed face first.

Dammit, she’s pulling out all the heart cards today. 

He sighed quietly to himself, but closed the boulder anyway. The rift was simply too dangerous for her right now, maybe if he saw some advancement once she broke through the bottlecap she was currently facing, but until then, she was stuck in the cave. He doubted he could save her if a group of orcs all at the Journeyman Stage charged through the bushes.

Tao Zi was also one hundred percent positive she was too slow to get into the cave in time. 

He’d seen enough sprints exercises to come to that conclusion. 

Tao Zi shook his head. He needed to focus on his surroundings and the dangers that could be lurking behind every tree. A preoccupied mind would make it easy for him to miss something important. His death would be brutal and quick like that.

Plus the unsettling feeling in his chest hadn’t disappeared either. 

If anything, it got stronger. 

Tao Zi pushed forward anyway. They had run out of meat the day before and had roots for breakfast. He couldn’t allow himself to fall back into eating roots and wild, tasteless, unappetizing, wild vegetables when he had gotten a taste of meat. 

He was giddy at the thought of finding a buck or doe at the Qi Gathering Stages. 

Just imagining it made him salivate. 

It forced his hand and brought him out here where the danger lay. Tao Zi would not have left the cave with the growing feeling of dread making him sweat already while navigating the forest. He tried to distract himself with his Body Tempering Journeyman Stage physical abilities. 

He was quieter in the forest now. Every bound sent him much further than before. So much so, that it took a few attempts to get fully used to it even with all the practice he had trying to get it right. Using it unrestrained out in the open was just different. 

Tao Zi would have enjoyed it if not for the feeling. 

Focus! Focus! Focus! There’s no space for mistakes. The consequences are far too great, more now that Su Da is relying on me. I can’t fuck this up like I did with Zarfu and the HellHounds. My mistakes don’t just affect me now, they affect another, but much more vulnerable, person.