Chapter 3: Mother's worries
Wei Sha got into his room.
Going through everything that today had offered him, Wei Sha laid his back against the cushions of his bed. The pain from Wei Dai's strike still hurt bad when his back hit the feather pillows.
"To kill an Ancient Dragon," he spoke to himself as he stared at the key Wei Dai had given him.
"How in the world am I going to. . ." The task given was too much. Wei Sha knew Ancient Dragons belonged to the very top of the food chain while he sat at the bottom of free demons.
Wei Sha's hand went through his jet-black hair time and time again as he pondered what possibilities he might have to slay one.
Before he got an answer, someone had knocked on his door.
'Leave it for later,' he thought and shook his thoughts to the side.
"Mother, please enter." Wei Sha knew the person behind the door could only be his mother.
"Son." Li Li barged in so fast his door's knob pierced into the wall. "Mother is so proud of you." Li Li cared little about breaking Wei Sha's room.
Wei Sha looked at the mess for a glance but didn't comment. Instead, he stood and bowed. "Thank you, mother." Just from looking at Li Li, he too picked up the happiness of his mother. Li Li's energetic attitude and reddened cheeks made it impossible not to.
By now, he had already forgotten about the doorknob embedded into the wall.
"Stand up." Li Li rushed to him. "Stand up. You are soon to be a man." Her hands beckoned him to straighten his back.
Wei Sha couldn't go against Li Li. "Mother, you came for?"
"Today!" She got to the point with a single word. "You did so much. . ." Her hands shot all over the place as she tried her best to explain everything with phrases and motions.
"Mother." Wei Sha grabbed Li Li's hands. "I know what I did," he said, staring into her eyes.
Having stopped her unnecessary movement, she calmed. "Huh," Li Li sighed and took a seat. "Right, I'm just so happy. I guess today was too much."
"For me too, mother. For me too." Instead of taking a seat next to her mother, Wei Sha remained standing.
Li Li's blue eyes peered at him. "Good, but don't let this amount of success go over your head," she warned while her hands played with her fingers decorated with long nails.
Although she played with her fingers, his mother appeared very serious when saying this, so Wei Sha took it into his heart. "I shall not remember this day as the highlight of my life," he promised. 'Like I ever viewed it so, but whatever keeps mother happy.' Many things, scratch that. Many grander things awaited him. Today might have been a special day, but not the end of his story.
"That's the spirit." As she spoke, her eyes wandered on him.
By instinct Wei Sha tried to hide the key by closing his fist; however, a metal string on which the key hanged wasn't hidden to her eyes.
"What's—"
"Nothing." Wei Sha pulled the string into his fist.
"Hand it over!" Her eyes returned to him and stared.
Under her scrutiny, Wei Sha could feel his confidence melt. "I-it's a. I have been a-a." He couldn't even come up with a lie.
The scariest part of it all came in from Li Li, for she didn't change her expression at all during his stuttering.
When she finally moved — she rolled her eyes — Wei Sha gave in. "Here," he said, opening his fist.
"A key?" Li Li inspected the item hanging from her son's hand. "What for?"
"A Heat Tool." Wei Sha didn't put up more walls.
"A Heat Tool?" She cocked her head. "What about your own? How did you get a key to another Heat Tool of all things?"
"Father," Wei Sha began and noticed Li Li's eyes turn cold. "Father played me. In exchange, he wants me to slay Dra'gain for him," he spoke the name of the Ancient Dragon, hoping his mother wouldn't know nor have an interest in knowing it.
Li Li's eyes turned from cold to indifferent. From indifferent to dead. Straight up dead; her eyes showed no sign of life.
'Shit, shit, shit,' Wei Sha repeated in his mind.
"Don't worry, mother. I'll think of something." He tried salvaging the situation. There was next to no change, but he must try before anything worse happened. "I can handle—"
"I see. . ." Li Li crushed her chair's arm with bare hands. "So Wei Dai imagines he can fool us like this." She spoke, yet her facial expression had no change.
"I got something from him, and he got something from me." Wei Sha tried to reason. All in all, it had been about Wei Dai getting the better of him.
Still, Wei Sha only tried. As in, he marked Li Li not welcoming his reason. 'I need to find a different way if I want to get to her.'
Silence washed over them. Neither let out a sound nor moved an inch.
"I." A full minute had passed when Wei Sha spoke. "I'm sorry mother, I made a mistake."
Wei Sha didn't see Li Li's face when she responded, "It's okay. . ." He heard her sob before continuing. "I'm the one whose actions have caused us these misfortunes."
"No!" Wei Sha crouched to look at her face. "Your illness has nothing to do with me getting played!"
Tears flew through her eyes. "But—"
"No buts." Wei Sha wouldn't take Li Li blaming herself for this.
He placed his hand on her scarlet cheek, wiping her tears. "No one saw the trap." Though Wei Sha hadn't been there in person, he had memorised every word of the tale.
"Li Li, the mighty Demoness, stepped first into the chamber. . . Her strength wasn't what one needed to repel the smoke. . . She screeched, but none came to her rescue. . . After three entire days, as the smoke had dispersed, people swarmed to help the mighty Demoness. . . However, what they found was not even a shadow of Li Li. . . Her powers, gone." Wei Sha re-told the quick version.
During the tale, Wei Sha didn't stop for a second to caress her warming mother.
"Thanks." Li Li pushed his hand off her. "I'm so glad I have you. . . Unlike your father."
Wei Sha thought about stopping her from cursing his father. Yet for a strange reason, he never acted on the thought.
He let her continue, "That Demon. No, a beast. He's too much, too much."
"Want me to?" Because of her words just now and so many times before, Wei Sha had the idea of disposing Wei Dai. If the Demon couldn't be rained in, then getting rid of him for good would be the correct way. He had never voiced this opinion until now.
"No!" For an obvious reason too. "Y-you banish such thoughts!"
"Fine." Wei Sha sat on his bed. "Let Wei Dai consume us in his ploys till the day we die in them," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Of course, that's not an option either."
"Then? Got any good plans? Mother?"
"No."
Wei Sha's head spun around the room once.
"For now, let everything stay as it is."
"Maybe the Awakening will give me something?" Countless lives changed when they dived into the Awakening Pool, so why couldn't his?
"There is always hope." Li Li nodded and got off the chair. "See you soon."
Li Li walked to the door, by which she stopped.
"Mother, I'll find a way to cure your disease." She stopped when hearing the words Wei Sha spoke every so often.
"I know."
X
'My Heat Tool can not compare.' Wei Sha became stunned when he stepped into the Heat Tool Wei Dai had given him. Sure it cost him way too much, but he couldn't dismiss the significance of what he had gotten.
"A few more Celsius." He looked to his side where Trainer Sen stood.
"Five more Celsius coming up!" Trainer Sen confirmed. He even told the exact temperature raise.
"And I had been wondering how people train faster than me." Wei Sha wanted to laugh. If he compared his old Heat Tool with this one, the results would be night and day.
"Money buys power," Trainer Sen commented.
"Break!" Wei Sha didn't last long after the temperature increase.
The surrounding flames vanished, allowing Wei Sha to soften his scales. Where his old Heat Tool would have taken hours to start or stop, the one under his feet needed seconds.
"If you keep the speed as it is." Trainer Sen appeared puzzled and didn't continue his line.
"Too busy scratching your head?" Wei Sha would have loved to hear a prognosis. If there were no prediction, what could he overcome?
"Six-hundred Celsius is achievable? However your soul—"
"You make it so I reach seven-hundred." Wei Sha did not care for the effects on his soul. The Awakening had become the focal point of Wei Sha's energy.
"Yes, young master," he said, grinding his teeth and pulling the lever that controlled the Heat Tool. "If you say so, young master."
The training continued with no time for recuperation on the part of Wei Sha.
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