I returned to the campfire as the sun had begun to set, I rushed myself, because more dangerous beasts are more likely to be out at night time.
I saw Luo Soso, the academy beauty, and the black-haired Mu Qianying. I was also glad to see Yuo Kun alive and well.
"I for sure thought you would've died," Mu Qianying said, crossing her arms, "What kind of tricks did you use to kill that spider?"
"Tricks or not, what matters is I am alive and the spider is defeated, is it not? That is the way of the wild after all, the strong live, the weak perish."
"I didn't know you were the philosophical kind."
"There's lots more you don't know about me," I smiled and hoped the conversation would end there, I was so tired and empty of Qi, all I wanted to do now was rest.
Luo Soso, however, who was lying on the ground bloodied, slowly forced herself up and looked at me and Yuo Kun, before looking the other way, "We're going to keep heading out."
"Ah?-" Yuo Kun seemed to wake up at the ridiculous statement, lifting his head up slightly, "You can't head out in the dark, there might be beasts far stronger than that spider out there!"
Luo Soso didn't reply, and neither did Mu Qianying, they simply walked off without a further word.
"Ah!" Brother Kun fell back down in exasperation, "I can never understand women, brother, I'm afraid I might just never marry in my entire life."
"You shouldn't be thinking about marriage either way, you're going to join Zhongnian and make your family a renowned house aren't you?" I said a few words to try and inspire him, he was a hard worker and although he wasn't exceptionally talented, I've never met anyone else who worked half as hard as he did.
"Ha…I just wished to be a subsidiary family, but if I can join the Five Noble Houses…maybe," Yao Kun stared off into the skies, raising his arm as if reaching out towards the heavens, "I have something I want to get off my mind."
"What is it, brother Kun? We've gone through life and death together, don't be afraid to tell me anything."
"Yesterday, after I had passed out, I experienced a strange dream."
Oh? What are the chances both me and him had an unusual dream the exact same night?
"I was in a completely white room, with nothing there except myself, where I was chained up against the walls, and my many ancestors, who were all yelling at me,"
Yao Kun sat up, leaning himself against a tree,
"They were berating me for not having lived up to the Yao name, because, I don't know if you know this, brother, but over a thousand years ago, the imperial family was the greatest power in the realm, and my family was one of three that made up the Imperial Palace. All my ancestors were generals and commanders who had all gotten achievements only reserved to the most prestigious warriors before they had even reached 20 years of age."
"They were berating me for being talentless, useless, and not deserving of the name Yao. I kept having to reenact battles, no matter whether I won or lost, I was beaten severely because I was still chained. Loss after loss."
He closed his eyes and took a moment before continuing on.
"Until I finally refused to fight, and I exiled all my ancestors from the dream realm, and finally I was free. The chains broke loose and I was given a way forward. Where none of my ancestors were present, but a bright future instead."
I had to think for several moments before responding, "It sounds like a trial to me, brother, the Tao had sent a tribulation towards you in the dream real to let you see what your path will look like, and how it should end."
"Indeed, but it feels weird…"
I can't help but feel weird too, both me and Yao Kun received a strange dream that hadn't lost any details despite being in the back of our heads for an entire day, and yet his dream seemed so much more 'simpler'
It almost felt like a straightforward test, it felt as though the Tao was mocking me for even thinking I'm of anything crucial to this world. My dream made me a lowly warrior who had died in a single hit against a powerful warrior. Is the Tao trying to say that's the most I could hope to achieve in my life?!
I was so infuriated I nearly broke my own bed moss I was laying on, causing Yao Kun to give me weird stares, but let it go silently after not received a response.
I managed to successfully copy an attack of my opponents before and even managed to create a movement technique in the middle of battle?! Am I not meant to be a genius? Somebody to bring fame and glory to my own house and be known as one of the greatest masters to live?
Sigh, at the very least I'm glad I managed to obtain the heavenly art of my own ancestor, who became known as the greatest in history, atleast as far as I know.
That should be all that matters, maybe the Tao is just trying to discourage me for going against it instead of flowing with it
I should just get a good night's sleep
.
.
.
I was in darkness, but it wasn't complete darkness like the cave I had visited today, it more like a swirling mist of...of something, it felt like reality blending between what is and what could be.
I found myself suspended in a place that didn't follow the rules of the world. Sword techniques and stances, seemingly ripped out of their books, floated all around as if they were alive.
These techniques weren't just memorizing movements or expelling Qi, they were living breaths of energy. Some of them felt familiar, the stances from my Five Flames Art, their warmth and color lighting the darkness around itself slightly.
Others, however, were completely foreign, martial arts so alien they moved entirely differently from the ones I was used to.
Each one, however, was like a language, an oral guide, telling stories of cultivators who came before me. Their hopes and struggles, their revelations and enlightenments. Then a voice emerged, not from the outside, but from inside me, it sounded familiar but it wasn't human,
"You seek to control," It whispered, I had realized it was the Tao itself, each word carried the weight of thousands of years, "But control is an illusion. The Tao does not bend to your will. You are the Tao."
And all of a sudden, my perceptions were changed. I could see webs, intricate, complicated webs that connected and bound everything in my vision together. How a reckless swing of a sword in a single moment caused a leaf to fall in a distant forest decades fro mnow.
How my breath could ripple through generations and generations of people who's very own parents haven't even been born yet.
The Five Flames Art, which I thought was my key, my hidden weapon, and my 'short-cut' to success, felt just like a single droplet in an infinite future. My ancestor's legacy, it wasn't his power or this martial art, it was his understanding.
And that understanding didn't come with domination, but about becoming. A normal cultivator separates themselves from the Tao and flows along it like a river. But this understanding of my ancestor was to be so perfectly aligned that the distinction was gone, that he became the universal flow itself.
I saw my family's rise and fall, not through continuous events, but just a small piece in a large puzzle. The tournament, my dreams, my own existence - they were all threads of a web way more complex than I could comprehend.
"You are not separate from the path," The voice continued on, "You are the path"
I could feel and hear the techniques around me, some were gentle like the waves, some were so simple they had become unique, and other still were violent, thrashing around in anger.
The Five Flames Art is not about forcing my will upon the universe, but finding my own resonance, but it's also not trying to flow along the Tao like the others, it was finding my own resonance, a vibrato, that let me become like a fluid to move through any obstacle.
A fateless path isn't about defying fate, but realizing that 'fate' isn't rigid and set in stone, but dynamic, like a complex web, where a single leaf falling could cause the fate of millions to change.
I was never supposed to go against the current, but becoming so in tune to where I can guide my own movements from within it.
.
.
.
I woke up, this second dream...it felt a lot more like the Tao teaching me instead of, I don't know, ridiculing me in the first dream? If that's what it even was trying to do.
I still haven't completely comprehended all my realizations in my dream, but I feel like it's been a good teacher, especially in combat, this new thought process could help me out greatly.
I looked over and saw Yao Kun awake too, slowly sitting up, "Do you think you'll be able to go out and explore?"
"I won't be able to fight, and I don't want to be dead weight to you, but it's better you protect me while exploring rather than protecting me while being cooped up here," He had a strained look on his face, trying to talk through the pain.
I nodded, he was a compassionate man, I used to overlook him and placed a common stereotype over him, but I failed to realize he's a real, living, breathing human with goals, dreams, and a future.
I rose first, extending a hand to Yao Kun and helping him up, then finding a sturdy branch nearby for him to use as a walking stick. With the makeshift cane, we started walking.
I wondered, would removing that stick from where it was cause, in some way, a blessing or destruction to somebody eons later?
We headed towards the same mountain I went to earlier to defeat the spider, "I felt as though there might be something hiding in the higher layers of the mountain, you should be fine to hike up it, right?"
He only gave me a slight nod, keeping his head down to see where he was stepping along. I understood him, the pain of being unable to train and most likely compete later was weighing on him now, especially from just a simple mistake that was partly my own fault. I wanted to make it up to him, somehow.
We made it to the base of the mountain before midday, halfway through our travels, Yuo Kun became weary, so I carried him on my back with a slight rush towards here. Then I let him down and we started hiking up again.
Our travels today seemed peaceful, and part of that was because we were trying to avoid unnecessary trouble. Like when we were hiding in brush and saw a giant Qi beast resembling a bear, we decided to go around a different day.
The rest of the day went like this and we got halfway up the mountain before the sun set and we had to find a place for rest, Yuo Kun managed to spot a cave in a nice, hidden spot with a semi-difficult entrance to keep out any unwanted beasts.
The cave went deep, and while Yuo Kun tried to make us makeshift beds any way he could, I decided to go exploring just a bit more before ending the day, and how fortunate I was to do so.
Taking thirty paces into the cave, I encountered a few measly wolves hiding out, all of which I slayed easily, but then I saw the treasure they were hiding.
It was a jade, a beautiful green and one that could surely sell for a small fortune! But there was another quality about it that made me take a liking to it too. I put it inside my robes and went back to my brother, who at the very least made us pillows from our spare robes.
"I've found something miraculous I think you'd quite enjoy, brother Kun," I smiled eagerly and hid the jade behind my back.
Yao Kun eyed me, not out of caution but out of the weirdness I was emitting, "I don't want your sympathy or pity, I'll heal and rise again, don't worry about me."
"Ah, haha...you have exceptional perception," I tried to laugh it off, but still I came closer and revealed what was behind my back, "But still, I wish for you to atleast see this treasure I've found! A jade!"
"I didn't know you were one for material possessions," Yao Kun seemed majorly unimpressed. Has he secretly always been like this or did he have another revelational dream?
"I am not usually, but this jade has something special about it!"
I threw the jade up into the air, unsheathed my sword, and hit it all in one fluid motion.
SHIIIING