The pain was what finally woke Shen Jintian.
He gasped awake, the agony of what felt like a hole in his chest nearly blinding as his eyes opened. His breath came in labored, wheezing pants, and he felt so weak and feeble that even raising his arm felt like a colossal effort.
"You're awake again." A calm, aged voice said quietly. Jintian finally was given something to focus on besides the pain, and his eyes fluttered open. His vision was blurred, though cleared after blinking a few times.
He was in a dark room, lying on a soft bed. His vision was spinning, and he was unable to focus on anything in the room.
He slowly turned his head, wincing as a splitting ache tore through his mind with the motion. "Relax, young Jin. You are safe here. You're injured, and you have a fever." The voice said, and finally he recognized it as the person it belonged to walked into view.
"Elder Kang!" He rasped, and the older man nodded, his old, kind eyes twinkling. Jintian attempted to sit, but Kang Shanxi pressed a hand to his forehead, keeping him down.
Jintian groaned, his body hot and soaked with sweat even as cool air trickled along his skin. "What… where am I, Elder?" He asked, and Kang Shanxi smiled as he reached across Jintian to grab a bowl. As he did, Jintian noticed that one of his sleeves was empty.
Kang Shanxi was missing an arm.
All at once, the memories poured into him. The fire, the men, his desperate flight to the forest. His father and brother, murdered.
His mother.
He screamed, and the action caused his lungs to contract quickly inside of his chest, his mouth frothing and his eyes rolling upwards as his damaged heart was unable to provide him the blood he needed. Kang Shanxi sighed sadly, before waving a hand over Jintian's eyes. Instantly he fell asleep once again.
-
This process was repeated a few more times, as it had repeated numerous times previous. Shen Jintian continued to drift in and out of consciousness. Sometimes, he was forced to sleep by Kang Shanxin as the memories returned. Others, he naturally lapsed back into sleep as the fever took its toll on his body before his mind could.
Finally, when he woke fully, it was to the sound of quiet humming. The voice was soft, and deep, and was familiar enough for him to recognize it as Kang Shanxi's again.
Jintian took a deep, careful breath. His memories of his days spent here were fragmented, half deluded by fever and half broken by grief. But he knew that he felt far better now than he had previously.
The memories came again, but they did not sink him into grief-stricken anguish. He allowed their arrival, squeezing his eyes shut for a few moments.
His family was murdered.
His family was dead.
His family was… gone.
With the realization came acceptance. His father, and mother, and brother, were all gone. He felt hollow, at the thought. What was the point. What was even the point of living?
As if in answer, a burbling giggle rang through the air. An infant's giggle.
His sister's giggle.
The thought lit something inside of him, a candle light that had been a whisper away from being extinguished, growing into a steady heat inside of his chest. He slowly raised himself into a sitting position, swinging his feet off of the bed.
The room was still dark, and somewhat small. But he recognized it to be the spare room of Kang Shanxi's house, where he regularly examined the people of the village for their various health concerns. It was simple by design, with only a covered window and a small table next to the single bed..
As his feet touched the wooden floor of the room, he was shocked as he looked down at his legs, and then at his arms. They were so thin that he could wrap the entirety of his hand around his biceps, and his two legs put together now were still smaller than his waist had been.
He had always been a large youth, so to see his body so skinny rattled him.
Jintian closed his eyes, and took another breath. Then, he pushed himself to his feet.
He wobbled with every step he took, and he braced himself with the wall as he slid the door to the room open. The humming grew louder, and as he walked into the house he saw Kang Shanxi feeding his sister bits of rice. She occasionally giggled when he wiggled his fingers in front of her face and snapped his chopsticks in front of her nose.
Jintian stood in the hallway in a daze. His sister had grown far bigger than he remembered. She had only been two months old when their village was attacked, but now had teeth, and hair, and…
Kang Shanxin noticed him standing there blankly, standing straight and smiling toward him. "Would you like to feed her?" He asked softly, and Jintian felt his eyes stinging as he nodded.
He shuffled forward and took the chopsticks, his sister looking up at him curiously. He smiled down at her, at the wispy head of hair she had grown, at her chunky arms and puffy cheeks. He grabbed a few pieces of rice with his chopsticks, and held it out for her to eat.
She stared at him and it for a few moments… and then resolutely turned her head away! Jintian's eyebrow twitched, and he tried to move the chopsticks to her mouth again, and she turned her head away once more.
Smiling awkwardly, he gave the chopsticks back to Kang Shanxi, who gently patted his shoulder. "You're still her big brother. She'll warm up to you in no time." He consoled, and Jintian nodded, sitting down at the table and watching him feed Xiyun the rest of her dinner. He noticed a pot of tea and two cups set at the table, and wondered if his Elder had guessed he'd be waking soon.
After laying her down in another bedroom, Kang Shanxi took a seat across from Jintian, and the silence between them stretched for a few moments. Jintian took time to organize his thoughts, and the elder man allowed him that time to focus himself, to organize his life between what once was and what was now.
Eventually, Jintian sighed. "How long…" He began, then hesitated, as if afraid to hear the answer.
"Six months. Almost seven." Kang Shanxi said gently, and Jintian closed his eyes, a tremor passing through him. Six months of his life, simply gone. He took a deep, calming breath, and opened his eyes again.
"My family? Our farm?" He asked, and Kang Shanxi pushed a cup in front of him, and then poured the pot of tea into it. It steamed into the air, and as Jintian took it into his hands, he realized how cold he was without all of his extra weight. The warmth of the tea seeped into his fingers, and he took a sip, allowing that warmth to settle deeper into his body.
"Your family was buried on your farm, underneath one of the Empress trees your father and mother climbed when they were children." Shanxi said quietly, before taking a sip of his own tea. "As for the matters of your farm, your friend, Li Liuwen, offered to care for it until you recovered."
Jintian nodded slowly, his heart squeezing painfully at the way Kang Shanxi had said 'your' farm. He pressed a hand over his chest, grinding his teeth as the rage flared to life inside of him, his breath coming in wheezing gasps.
Kang Shanxi leaned over the table and laid his hand on his back, and Jintian felt a soothing coolness pass through him, quelling the anger and soothing his labored breathing.
He nodded, and Kang Shanxi took his hand back. "What's wrong with me?" Jintian asked, his voice trembling, and Shanxi shook his head, staring down into his tea.
"You were wounded… no, that's not quite right. You were dead, Jintian. You've died three times now, and yet, you came back every time." He said eventually. Jintian looked at him, disbelief filling him. Kang Shanxi raised his head to stare him straight in the eyes, his eyebrows drawn with sympathy.
"You are missing nearly twenty percent of your heart. When I stumbled upon you, there was a hole in your chest the size of a fist." He said, his tone gentle. "I would not have been able to save you, even if I had medicines three times as potent as what I do currently. And yet, your heart kept beating. Because of that necklace."
He raised a finger to point at Jintian's chest, and Jintian reached into his tunic, pulling it free.
It was an heirloom his mother had given him when he was a child, just as her mother had before her, and her grandfather before that. A piece of clear jade barely the size of a finger, it was quite pretty, and fairly valuable, but it was only that.
He looked at Kang Shanxi, who shook his head. "I do not know either. I sense no special properties to it. It is by all means a piece of mortal jade, and yet, every time your heart stopped beating, it would sink into your chest and beat it for you." He explained, and Jintian's brows furrowed, before he tucked it away.
Taking another breath, Kang Shanxi's words had reminded him of the burning questions in his mind. "Mortal." He began, staring hard at him. "You called this mortal jade, which means there is more than that. My mother said the same things. And those… monsters. They flew! You flew!"
Kang Shanxi nodded, sighing as he looked upwards, thinking for a few moments. He then looked down at Jintian. "You must understand. We just wanted you to live as a mortal." He said quietly, and Jintian stared at him incredulously.
"What?" He sputtered, and Kang Shanxi pushed his cup aside. It was then that Jintian finally remembered, that the man only had a single arm, now. The sleeve of his robe was as empty as the air that it rustled in.
"You must have wondered where you got your strength from." Kang Shanxi said. "You must have heard the stories the village used to tell of your father. A man ten times as strong as any other. A man who could make the trip to Chenghe and back in less than an hour."
Jintian nodded slowly, and Shanxi's gaze slid away from him, to look at something far off into the distance. "I myself am not from this village, though I have lived in it longer than even your parents have been alive. I am what mortals call an Immortal. But I am so far below such power that the term is laughable. I am merely a cultivator." He then refocused on Jintian. "Your father, though, is an Immortal. Just a little over twenty one years ago now, he fell from the sky, with wounds so grievous that your mother was sure he was dead when she found him. And yet, he was alive, though he had lost his memories."
"He lived with us, and ate our food, and learned our ways. Your mother had been the one to find him, and so he lived with her and her family. And just two years after he arrived, he was married to your mother, and they had you. Little Jintian."
Jintian felt his mind going blank, his mouth gaping open in shock. He had been told his entire life that his father was a wandering warrior who had settled among the village, then left and died in the Three States War. Then, his hands curled into fists, his heart searing with pain as it beat faster. "Is he even dead?" He asked bitterly. "Is even that part true?"
Kang Shanxi looked at him sadly, and then shook his head. "I do not know. No one does. He left just a few months after you were born." He said, and Jintian laughed at that. It was an angry, hateful sound, filled with venom.
"So what, he just abandoned me? Abandoned us?" He spat, his breath coming in wheezes as his hatred grew. Shanxi sighed.
"No, young Jin. He left to protect you." He rebutted, and Jintian's eyes narrowed.
"What?" He asked.
Kang Shanxi settled deeper into his seat, looking up at the ceiling. "I remember vividly the day that you were born. It was early in the evening, and the sky was completely cloudless. The sun had bathed the world an almost golden color. It is the reason your mother gave you the name Jintian." He mused, stroking his beard with his hand. "And yet, despite there being no clouds, the moment you left your mother's womb there was a crack of thunder, so loud that all of the windows in the village shattered.
"Without speaking, your father leapt into the air, blowing the roof off from your home. I will never forget the sight. There was a flash of lightning so bright it outshone the sun. Your father drew his sword, the one thing that he had come to the village with, and sliced through the lightning."
Jintian's mind was reeling, unable to comprehend the matters of immortals that his Elder was describing. Shanxi sighed again, and looked back at him. "He regained his memories, after that. He explained that he was an Immortal, and for some reason, your birth had broken one of Heaven's greatest taboos. He said that if he were to stay here, a calamity so great it would put the realm of mortals at large in peril would arrive. But, more importantly, it would put you and your mother in danger. And so he left, leaving with me instructions for you should you ever learn of cultivation. But he warned us, that Heaven would not forget you so easily. A calamity would arrive, in some form or another. And arrive it did, six months ago."
Now finished with his tale, Kang Shanxi let Jintian process the information. The youth in question had his head bowed, coming to terms with it all. Eventually, he took a shaky breath, and shook his head.
In the end, it didn't matter who he, or his father truly were. "So those monsters who came here, seeking my father's sword, were…" Jintian said, and Kang Shanxi nodded.
"They were also cultivators." He confirmed. Jintian closed his eyes, shaking his head.
"Is there any chance they'll come back? They said that they needed to kill who the sword was bonded to." He asked, and Kang Shanxi sighed again.
"No. Like I said, you died, Jintian." He said, his face grim. "Which leads me to something else I must talk to you about. Like I said previously, you are missing twenty percent of your heart. Though you will live, you will never be as strong as you once were. Your heart meridians have nearly been fully severed, while others have withered due to the lack of vitality in your body."
Jintian grimaced. He had felt the sharp bouts of agony in his heart, and knew his withered form was due to more than just wasting away in bed for six months. Still, his Elder seemed to be hesitating, as if there was something more. "What is it?" He asked, and Kang Shanxi laid his hand flat on the table.
"With a heart as wounded as yours… I'm sorry, young Jin. Your lifespan has been shortened. Drastically." He said, his voice soft, and sorrowful. It did nothing to make the words easier, as Jintian paled. "At the earliest, you have three years left. If you live easily, with very little exertion and take medicine every day, then perhaps… you will have ten years. That is all I can promise you. But there is another way."
The youth took a shaky breath. He already knew what the answer was, but the question needed to be asked. "What is the other way?" He whispered, and Kang Shanxi raised his hand, placing it on his shoulder and staring into his eyes.
"To become a cultivator." He said, his voice grave. "To become Immortal."