62nd of Season of Earth, 56th year of the 32nd cycle

“I believe I told you to sleep or meditate, not to go for a walk around the city and come back,” Blackfist said instead of a greeting as Newt entered his tea parlor.

“I realized I have failed to introduce myself.” Newt gave a shallow bow. “Newstar Blazing Salamander.”

“Greetings Newstar, I am Dandelion without a surname. People call me Blackfist, but I cannot fathom the reason, it turns a steel-like dark gray.” Blackfist smiled, pointing at the chair with his cup. “Come, have some tea.”

“Why tea?” Newt sat and accepted the cup.

“People find it difficult to fight when someone’s giving them a tasty, high quality beverage. I think tea and wine will help me walk my path.”

“You should consider crescents,” Newt mumbled, and to his surprise, the sect master’s reaction was very energetic.

“I did,” he said, his words a tad too loud. “But I am afraid I will need something of higher quality.”

Newt nodded and wisely changed the subject. “You mentioned you visited the library. Have you read anything about heart demons?”

“Plenty.”

“I,” Newt hesitated, but decided he had nothing to lose, “am interested in ways of resolving them without conflict.”

“A wise choice.” Blackfist steepled his fingers. “But you should make advancement a priority over perfectly resolving your heart demons. Some can be resolved through peaceful means, others cannot, and it all depends on you.

“Do go on,” he added, seeing Newt remain quiet.

“Do you have any advice?”

“Plenty, it would be more efficient if you gave me a detailed description of your heart demons, but I guess that is not happening.” Newt shook his head, and Blackfist nodded, continuing without taking offense.

“The texts I read agree that the most common heart demon is fear. If you still fear the object from which the heart demon was born, overcoming your fear has a slim chance of resolving the heart demon. I see fear is not interesting, I will move on.

“The next most common heart demon is regret,” Newt flinched, and Blackfist delved into details pretending he had not noticed Newt’s tell. “Regret can also be resolved peacefully. For instance, if you regret not having something, acquiring it and seeing it is absolutely irrelevant in your life will dispel the heart demon.”

Blackfist offered a random suggestion, before tactfully moving onto what he guessed was Newt’s true heart demon. “If you have slain someone by accident, you can honor them with a proper burial, trying to make it up to their family, or performing good deeds in their name. Unfortunately, you are not trying to exorcize a ghost, but satisfy your own conscience and resolve the guilt weighing on your heart. It is vital to make peace with yourself, and the deceased has little impact on the process.”

Newt listened, rapt, paying close attention to every word.

“The next common one for young men is jealousy or unrequited love. But that is irrelevant for you now,” Blackfist threw the topic, but changed it immediately when Newt made no reaction.

“Young men often have a problem with the size of their p—” Newt’s eyes went wide, and Blackfist’s lips drew into a slightly wider grin. “But you naturally do not suffer from such base worries.

“Another common heart demon is a rival,” Blackfist paused before expounding further. “Someone we envy or who is better than us, or has something we think they do not deserve can twist our hearts enough to form a heart demon. The best way to resolve this heart demon is to challenge the person in question and beat them at the discipline which caused the heart demon. If you envy someone’s skill at alchemy, bashing their brains out with a hammer will not make the heart demon go away. It will lock it in place because you could not and never will be able to defeat your nemesis in the discipline which really matters to you.”

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Blackfist looked at Newt for a long moment and sighed. “I guess you will participate in the tournament after all. I guess brutally thrashing Hardsteel in the first round will not help either.”

Newt could feel his cheeks turn hot as his face went red with shame as Blackfist rolled his eyes at the youth.

“I will arrange for you two to meet in the finals, where you can win in a heroic duel, make your little lady wet, but by the heavens, please reject her as soon as she tries to leech onto you like the parasite that she is.”

Newt was paralyzed. He was embarrassed, shocked, awed, and terrified all at once. Blackfist read him like an open book, covering the matter in a manner of minutes.

“How—”

“Experience.”

“Hardsteel—”

“Needs a good beating. He has steel in his name, he could use a good tempering.”

“Jasmine—”

“Is a greedy who—prostitute, and your life will be better without her. Any other questions?” Blackfist took a sip of his tea with perfect calmness, but Newt could feel a smug guffaw hidden in the gesture.

“How does the tea stay warm?” He asked, trying to throw Blackfist off balance, but the man did not blink before answering.

“Enchanted.” He pointed at the kettle. “Keeps the water slightly below boiling point, perfect for tea.”

“Is every sect master like you?” Newt asked, and Blackfist really guffawed, slamming his empty cup against the table.

“I dearly hope not. I have only exchanged letters with leaders of some local powers, but their realms were unfortunately low, all of them around my rank, so they might not represent a valid sample.”

Newt frowned and decided to parse Blackfist’s answer as ‘no.’ “Why do you hope not? Wouldn’t it be good if everyone was reasonable and willing to discuss everything?”

Instead of answering, Blackfist poured himself another cup and offered Newt who shook his head.

“You misunderstand amiability. If a mosquito buzzes around your head while you are trying to sleep at night, what do you do?”

Newt was certain there was a trick behind such an obvious question, but decided to play along.

“I swat it, or try to drive it away.”

Blackfist nodded as if that was the logical answer, then asked another question, “And what do you do if a fully evolved tenth realm giganotosaurus runs towards your home? Assuming you have nobody to save and the building is empty.”

Newt considered the question for a few moments while Blackfist calmly sipped his tea.

“I would run away. An empty house is not worth my life.”

Blackfist nodded again. “If a mortal came into my house because of a girl Hardsteel stole, I would first politely ask them to leave, and if they refused, I would swat them dead before having a talk with Hardsteel about why in a world half-filled with women, he had to go looking for someone else’s woman. If a tenth realm grandmaster of an ancient sect came and told me Hardsteel had dishonored his great-granddaughter or worse his wife, I would disembowel and behead Hardsteel even before the monster in question asked me to do it.”

Newt gasped, but Blackfist raised his hand. “In the first scenario, the commoner has vindication, but lacks excuses and survival instincts, thus becoming extinct. In the second scenario, Hardsteel lacks survival instincts, and I treat him fairly. You, however, are neither an impotent mortal, nor a powerhouse who can exterminate me and my whole family with a casual sneeze. I would prefer to find a peaceful solution, which would allow us both to thrive, rather than either of us risking extinction.

“That is amiability,” Blackfist concluded, and Newt observed him in silence.

I don’t think that is amiability.

“So you try to be reasonable with those of equal or lower standing, but offer your son’s head to someone stronger to appease them?”

Blackfist smirked. “I would kill Hardsteel for my own reasons. If he were stupid enough to bring such a calamity upon his entire household over a beauty, he might do it again and again. Better nip that possibility in the bud, and remain safe for years, than to worry about an eventual doom which he would summon one day.”

Finally, Newt remembered that Blackfist was a cultivator of the unorthodox path, and that he was no stranger to murder.

“Do not look at me so appalled,” Blackfist grumbled, still smiling. “Hardsteel’s failure to control himself is my failure as a parent and his failure as a person. If he were a child, I would shoulder most of the blame, but he is fifty years old, an age when most humans would be expected to bear the consequences of their own actions, unless they are influential.”

Blackfist drew a deep breath and ran his fingers through his unusually short hair. “You do not understand what I am talking about, but that is all right. You are a child, and several years on the road will sharpen and temper your mind. Limited amounts of suffering are good for you.”

The frustrated gaze made Newt nervous, so the young man took a sip of his tea and tried to change the subject.

“Thank you for your advice about heart demons, do you by any chance have insight about cultivation? My primary elements are earth and fire.”