Chapter 4: Heart Fire
'Stop!'
Suddenly, as Qing Shan was plunging the knife towards his neck, he felt an ancient aura wash over him. This aura seemed to contain a gentle warmth, yet also hid the power to demolish countries. This aura caused Qing Shan to halt his knife.
'What if you had the power?'
An ancient voice resounded within Qing Shan's mind.
'Am I hallucinating?'
Qing Shan was confused by this voice. One second he was filled with despair and depression and about to kill himself, and the next he was holding the knife above him while confused.
The voice sounded once again in his skull.
'No, I can assure you that you are not. I ask you, if you truly had the power to take revenge, would you hesitate to sacrifice your life in order to do so?'
Qing Shan breathed in slowly. He was absolutely sure that he was not imagining things! There was truly an ancient presence asking him questions!
Qing Shan answered unwaveringly, not caring what the presence in his mind was.
'I would not hesitate to walk through an ocean of blood in order to gain my revenge. Naturally, this includes my own blood.'
'Haha. Good! Well, I have the power to grant you strength. Are you willing to recognize me as your master in order to gain this power?'
Again, Qing Shan's heart shook. 'I am willing to do anything!', he screamed within his mind.
The ancient voice paused, seemingly stunned by Qing Shan's non-human determination. After aa few deep breaths, the voice spoke.
'Good… walk directly east until you come to the edge of the Silent Plains. You will know when you find me.'
Qing Shan waited to see if the voice would keep talking and quickly found out that it would not. He found himself wondering how he would gain enough power to gain his revenge, and unknowingly, all thoughts of suicide were replaced with raging curiosity and a heart-felt desire for revenge.
Qing Shan sat up, quietly paying respects to his Father once more.
'It seems that the heavens will not allow me to die until I bathe the Huo Dynasty in blood, Father.'
Qing Shan stood and started walking directly east, a grim smile present on his face. As he was walking, Qing Shan came across the village east of his own, and found out that it, like his own village, had turned to ash. This sight caused the boundless hatred within Qing Shan to continue to grow stronger.
Qing Shan kept walking east for five days and nights before he could see the end of the Silent Plains on the horizon. However, something was off.
'Where did the land go?'
In Qing Shan's view, it looked as though the grass stopped, and was immediately met by the sky.
'Could this be the edge of the world?'
Qing Shan walked until he was standing on this so-called edge of the world, when he saw a sight that caused his heart to almost stop.
It was beautiful. Qing Shan saw a landscape that looked as though it had come from a dream over a kilometer below him. There were mountains, valleys, hills, and even human civilizations below him. Upon seeing this scene, Qing Shan felt as though he was a ruler standing on top of the world. However, this feeling was soon eclipsed by a feeling of inferiority, as though he was smaller than even a speck of dust.
'Ah, so you have arrived.'
The ancient voice appeared in Qing Shan's mind once more, and just as he was about to 'ask' where exactly he was, the sight in front of him disappeared, replaced by an underground environment.
Directly in front of Qing Shan stood a statue of a noble-looking figure with a large conical hat, with a large staff in hand. This statue gave off the ancient fiery aura that he had felt before. In this large room, which seemed as though it was an entire one hundred meters across, Qing Shan noticed that the area around the statue seemed as though it was within an ancient temple, and gold adorned that far wall. Qing Shan also noticed that there seemed to be a natural light filtering into this area, even though Qing Shan could not smell any wind that symbolized any natural openings in the rock. However, upon turning around Qing Shan found out where this light was coming from. Behind him, he could clearly see the sight that he had seen just moments ago, although he could not feel any wind in his face like he did before.
Qing Shan walked over to what seemed like a ledge, and tried to stick his hand out through the opening that spanned the whole wall. Qing Shan's hand met rock. Confused, he tried again.
"Haha, for one to be so enraptured by transparent rock, truly a humorous thing."
The ancient voice rang out once more, except this time it was not coming from inside Qing Shan's head. No, the voice was coming from directly behind him.
Qing Shan whirled around, his eyes meeting the figure's in front of him. This figure looked exactly like the statue on the far side of the room, except that the figure was an azure color that was distinctly ethereal.
'Who is this man?'
"Oh, well I guess I have not formally introduced myself. This Divine is Liu Tiansheng, the Wandering God."
Qing Shan was so stunned that the words went right passed his ears.
'You can hear me?'
Naturally, Qing Shan was stunned that the man was able to hear and respond to his thoughts.
The Liu Tiansheng nodded.
As amazed as he was, Qing Shan had not yet processed the words of this man. When he did, his face scrunched up in disbelief.
'You are a god? Then why have I never heard of you?'
Liu Tiansheng put his head into one of his hands and spoke despondently. "No one ever believes me. Is it really so hard to believe that I am a god?"
His question answered, Qing Shan quickly processed this information. If this man really was a god and not some middle-aged prankster, then he may actually have a chance at getting revenge.
"A middle-aged prankster…"
Liu Tiansheng put his head in his hands again, saddened that this little twelve-year-old had such a terrible impression of him.
"Okay, I will prove to you that I am a god as long as you let me take you as my disciple."
Qing Shan nodded, a question in his mind.
'Why would a god want a useless trash like me as a disciple?'
At this thought, Liu Tiansheng decided not to respond.
"Okay, so this divine will prove that he is a god now. Come over here."
Qing Shan walked forward slowly, cautious of this man.
Liu Tiansheng placed an ethereal hand on both Qing Shan's third eye and his sternum. Suddenly, his eyes which had been closed up until now flew open, revealing golden pupils that stood out against his glowing blue body. He spoke softly, a trace of astonishment in his voice.
"H-heart…fire…"
'Huh?'
Qing Shan was confused as Liu Tiansheng looked at him with an gleeful look in his eye. This was the look a poor man makes when stumbling upon an abandoned stack of gold!
Suddenly, the aura of heavenly nobility that had been radiating off of Liu Tiansheng vanished completely. The man that had been referring to himself as divine suddenly clasped his hands in front of his chest.
"Young one, this Uncle is sorry."
'What.'
Seeing this apparition take a complete turn from the attitude arrogant god to that of a kind uncle, Qing Shan was immediately confused.
'Why are you apologizing?'
Liu Tiansheng looked to the side, a shameful look on his face.
"well…um. This Uncle had originally been looking for a bane child to experiment on when I sensed you. This Uncle had always been trying to obtain a method to heal bane children for personal reasons, and would not hesitate to kill countless innocents in my path to find this cure. This one was going to fill your body to maximum capacity with his wind Qi and try to overpower the fire Qi in your body, alas, this method has a chance of less than a one millionth of a success rate. You most likely would have died.
"Fortunately for you, you are like me."
'Like you?'
Liu Tiansheng smiled sorrowfully.
"Like this Uncle, someone close to you gave their lives to protect your life. However, what they did was more than just sacrificing their life, they sacrificed their afterlife and any chance of reincarnation in order to save your life. That person's existence will be forever erased upon using this sacrifice. The person that this technique was used on gains a marking on their soul. This marking can be considered a second life, as it would allow you to reincarnate with all your memories and abilities upon death. Although it sounds like a simple technique, I can assure you that it is not at all common. This technique has no learning method, and cannot even be used by most people. The only people that can use this technique are those of fire Qi that possess love that transcends their life. To this one's knowledge, this technique has been activated less than one thousand times in the history of the human race. This technique is called Lover's sacrifice, and the marking it leaves is called the Heart Fire."
Upon hearing this, Qing Shan immediately recalled the story in his Father's journal that explained how his mother died. Apparently, although he was unconscious, Qing Yan had felt a warm presence that caused all of his pain to fade away and when he woke up, his wounds were healed. Remembering this, Qing Shan was saddened and filled with warmth at the same time. Someone in this world was actually willing to give up their existence for a newborn baby, one without any thoughts or name at the time, a blank slate that could have been created again with time. Unknowingly, Qing Shan's eyes welled with tears and a small smile grew on his face.
Liu Tiansheng spoke.
"Like you, this Uncle once had a heart flame. However, this one has already died once and that flame is gone. Because this flame was of great used to me and is the only real connection this one has to his past life, this one has vowed to protect any with this mark and treat them like his own offspring."
Qing Shan was stunned by this confession. While he believed Liu Tiansheng's words about the Heart Fire, he found it quite hard to believe that the ethereal figure in front of him had already died once. Moreover, this person claimed to have the power of a god but was willing to treat a useless trash as his own?
"Actually, I have died twice. What you see in front of you is a mere fragment of my soul that I left behind after my final death. This fragment's primary goal was to find a cure for bane children. However, as the first soul fragment that the true Wandering God left behind, I retained a large portion of his cultivation and intelligence."
Hearing this, Qing Shan was stunned, but this astonishment quickly turned into an ugly look.
'Would you stop reading my thoughts!'
"Then how would we communicate?"
Qing Shan's mind went blank for a moment, but he quickly recovered.
'Okay Senior Tiansheng-'
"Call me Uncle."
'- If I were to believe you, then how are you going to help me get my revenge?'
Qing Shan asked this question tentatively, somewhat scared of the answer that he would get.
A serious look grew on Liu Tiansheng's face, and seemed to be pondering over something. He opened his mouth, as though he was going to start speaking, before falling silent once more. After being silent for a few tense minutes, The ethereal man spoke.
"About this, I think I have an idea, but you may not like it."
'And…?'
"I believe that there is a method for you to at least unlock your Qi, and definitely heal your voice. While I can heal your voice as right now, the method for unlocking your Qi is one that you are not yet ready for."
Qing Shan opened his mouth in shock, not knowing if what he was hearing was real. The figure in front of him seemed absolutely sincere, but there seemed to be a reluctance within Liu Tiansheng's eyes. His eyes suddenly filled with determination fathomless depth, Qing Shan inquired how to prepare himself.
"Sigh… are you sure you want to go through with this? It will be thousands of times more painful than anything you have ever felt."
'Thousands of times…'
Qing Shan calmed his mind, before answering without an ounce of hesitation in his mind.
'Yes!'
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