Chapter 154: Tsunade.
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Arriving at the Enlightenment Pond inside her master's and Rita's abode, Tsunade once again sees her master fall into a vegetative state. Acting swiftly, she uses her Lightness Technique to catch him before he even touches the ground. Sighing, she can't imagine the pain that must be afflicting his core false soul. Especially since she is currently the highest in Medical Dao among all creations, she becomes even more unable to perceive the kinds of suffering he is going through now.
Taking the Golden Branch that Zatanna had picked up from the ground after her master dropped it because he couldn't hold it, Tsunade places the branch back in his hand and gently caresses his forehead in silence. Although she feels a deep urge to cry and tell him to stop torturing himself, she knows he would likely reprimand her for her fragile Dao Heart, as she breaks down instantly from witnessing even this small amount of suffering.
Tsunade understands that, for her master, this repeated vegetative state is simply another tool for self-improvement in soul, mind, and body. If she prevented him from entering this state of enlightenment, he would likely hold her responsible for any halt in his comprehension and advancement of Tian Ming Dao, making it less effective in all creations. Because for her master, enduring all kinds of earthly pain and suffering is essential for understanding what true heaven looks like.
This is also why her master chose Tian Xing as his existence: to demonstrate to himself and all her sisters that heaven is not a place above, but a state of contentment received without suffering, much like what she has experienced throughout her life.
As a result, if she understands this concept, she will gain a clearer understanding of heaven and, subsequently, a more sophisticated grasp of the parameters of fate calculation. This is because they have returned to their origin, where they can observe different perspectives, since those who have returned to their origin are on earth, looking up at that true heaven itself.
Recalling her master's usual storytelling about how, as Tian Xing, his mind wandered about what it would be like to be a normal person, an insect, or even an inanimate object from the suffering that longed for others' fate, Tsunade shivers. Despite all that suffering, her master held no resentment towards the world and simply accepted it as a lesson for self-improvement.
Thus, if Tsunade wishes to deepen her Dao, she must allow these emotions to refine her spirit and improve herself in the process, making her mind more dexterous. After waiting for her master's vegetative state to pass, Tsunade offers him buttermilk to help restore his bodily functions quickly. After polishing her Dao Heart, she tries once more to enhance her Medical Dao by imagining the pain her master endures.
"I am proud of you, my vanilla."
Sweating profusely from the terror and trepidation of experiencing her master's pain in small amounts, Tsunade almost chokes up but quickly takes a deep breath, using this sadness as motivation to improve her Medical Dao. Now, in the realm of conviction, she realizes that psychological emotions are also needed for healing.
Smiling back at her master, she nods and replies, "It's alright. It's really nothing at all, master. I've just realized that ten thousand things must return to one. Creating a cycle of improvement from one into different fields and from different fields into one. Is this why you bring us all together? To create a cycle of comprehension where everyone benefits from each other?"
Sitting at the edge of the pool, Tian Xing turns toward the five servants he brought, assigning them their tasks. He takes Pamela Isley's hand, making her responsible for cleaning his sword, and then looks back at Tsunade, answering, "Yes, that's one of the reasons I gathered all of you. To help my Tian Ming Dao become even better."
Shaking her head and sitting beside her master at the edge of the pool, Tsunade sighs at his words, which carry an undertone of selfish desire. In reality, all her sisters have benefited immensely from his generosity, to the point that it is hard to describe just how generous he is with his comprehension and treasures.
Even the cultivation levels that are typically used by sects to control their members are granted to her sisters at a realm just below her master, allowing them to break through to the next realm whenever they wish. This makes the levels serve only as symbols of status, with no other motivation than the desire for respect as the sect master and sect master's wife, as they are allowed to have cultivation or comprehension that exceeds their master's.
Sighing once more over her master's generosity, Tsunade watches as the five servants carry out their tasks: Talia al Ghul floats on the pond, pleasing herself so her master can see; Zatanna Zatara walks on water, performing magic tricks for their enjoyment; Big Barda brings food and drinks for everyone to indulge in contentment; Mercy Graves bathes her master with resources from all Three Heavens to wash his body; and Poison Ivy, whom her master treats as a toy, is only being gently guided to clean his sword, with nothing extreme or dark happening at all.
Observing Poison Ivy's mild rough use of her body, Tsunade reflects on how only Lanfear and Yelena truly experience and understand her master's dark side. It's not because they specifically enjoy torture, as many others do, but because they treat this extreme things as another action like breathing. If they find it exciting, they see it as such; if not, they simply experience it as pain.
Sighing, Tsunade wonders why she wasn't chosen to share her master's burden of human emotions. However, after thinking it over for a moment, she considers it might be because Lanfear and Yelena share a mindset similar to her master's when facing misfortune—accepting it as a lesson to improve their Dao. But recalling the Serene Lotus Pavilion Dao Power ranking list, Tsunade can't help but envy them, as these two sisters consistently rank third and fourth, suggesting significant improvement due to their secretive bloodlust experiences.
Realizing that her attachment to these burdens of human emotions might be the reason, and acknowledging that her mindset may not yet be attuned enough to see physical pain and emotional suffering as mere parameters for improvement, Tsunade resigns herself to the fact that she may not be worthy to become like them.
As she watches the five servants enjoying wine and chatting comfortably with each other while serving her master, she feels a surge of lust that she needs to release, along with a hint of bloodlust as her thoughts turn to Yelena and Lanfear, who are adorned with piercings in their ice cream, buttermilk, nose, and navel, which her master himself has put on them.
Taking Big Barda's hand, she guides it into her ice cream, causing it to produce its own dessert. Expressing her bloodlust, Tsunade then bites Big Barda's nipple until it dislodges. However, upon seeing only her dark emotions resurface and her desire for dominion over others increase to the point of wanting to corrupt her, she decides to stop after her intuition sounds a dangerous alarm. Sighing and realizing that she is truly not worthy like Yelena and Lanfear, she heals the slave completely, while feeling slightly upset that she is not yet able to enter the secretive relationship of releasing her master's burden of human emotions.
After taking a deep breath and regaining composure, Tsunade sees Big Barda as a servant once more and repeatedly asks for forgiveness, which Big Barda accepts as a usual occurrence in their debauched False Dao World. Sighing, Tsunade reflects that if not for her master's passive Tian Ming Dao, which keeps these dark emotions in check, she and the other members might disgrace the 'serene' in the sect's name due to their scheming dark nature.
Remembering her master's belief that all things have their places and uses, similar to evil in the world and righteousness within the Dao, she yearns for the same Dao Heart as her master. Tsunade strokes Big Barda's large back as she eats her ice cream and gazes at the love of her life with visible yearning, hoping to achieve the perfect state her master possesses—a state that does not fall into temptation simply because it is readily available, which her master considers full of flaws.
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Weekly Power Status
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