Jia Yuan dashed toward the bandits, activating his Song along the way. In all honesty, he’d been itching for a chance to try out his new sword, and had lost himself in his enthusiasm. He forgot to take into account how many bandits surrounded him - all he thought was that it would be a fun way for him to get used to his new sword.
Another thing he didn’t realize, was that the bandits were well prepared to face him. They had brought every single bandit in their brotherhood out, including the leader, who was at the 7th level of Absorption.
So when Jia Yuan collided with the bandits at the front end of the formation, he came into direct contact with the leader. Although the leader was at the 7th level of Absorption, his low quality Song meant that he held only a slight edge over Jia Yuan. However, that was him alone.
The bandits at his side began to surround Jia Yuan, who felt the circle closing in around him. Not only did this quickly force him into a vulnerable position, but it effectively strung the noose around Jia Yuan’s neck, sealing his death.
Guo Huo saw the situation, and sighed deeply. “It looks like I will have many things to teach this child...brainless as he is.”
Guo Huo disappeared in a fiery blaze and suddenly appeared next to Jia Yuan, in the center of the five hundred bandits.
He looked at Jia Yuan and said, “Jia Yuan, it’s good you’re young. You still have time to learn.”
“Watch.”
Guo Huo tapped his wrist and the giant axe appeared in the air. Guo Huo grabbed it in his right hand, and with the same motion, grabbed Jia Yuan with his left.
With his left hand, he threw Jia Yuan high into the air, and with his right hand, he swung the giant axe in a circle. From this axe, exploded a giant circular wave of fire, followed by a powerful wave of heat.
Instantly, all five hundred or so bandits were burnt to a crisp. From when Guo Huo arrived next to Jia Yuan, to the incineration of the bandits, only four seconds had passed.
Still in the air, Jia Yuan’s face was quite interesting.
First off, he’d been thrown about twenty feet into the fair, but the way Guo Huo had thrown him let Jia Yuan see everything that had transpired on the ground. As such, he saw the destructive power exhibited by Guo Huo from a birds eye view.
Quite simply, Guo Huo’s strength was...awesome.
After killing all of the bandits, Guo Huo jumped into the air after Jia Yuan. He used his Song of Fire to create a blaze beneath his feet, propelling himself higher.
In this manner, he flew toward Jia Yuan, caught Jia Yuan, and slowly descended to the ground safely.
He looked at Jia Yuan. “Hey kid, where do you live?”
Jia Yuan pointed in the direction of Fire Hill Village and said, “In the village beyond the forest.”
“Perfect.”
Guo Huo grabbed Jia Yuan’s wrist, and began sprinting. With each step, he sent a wave of fire from beneath the sole of his foot, propelling himself forward. In this manner, the two, young and old, quickly made their way past the village Jia Yuan had saved, and into the forest toward Fire Hill Village.
After a mere twenty minute, they had arrived at the edge of the forest close to Fire Hill Village.
Guo Huo wanted to change back into his usual attire. As such, he told Jia Yuan to wait, then quickly jumped through the trees to a clearing about fifty meters away to change his attire.
After he took off his “beggar” clothes, he put them back into the necklace, then took a pill out of his ring and popped it in his mouth.
This was a rather ordinary but useful pill, called the Cleansing pill. After eating the pill, one’s common illnesses and poisons would be removed. Basically, anything that was bad for that body that was in or on the body, would be expunged. However, when it came to illnesses and poisons, it could only treat simple ones.
In this case, Guo Huo simply used the Cleansing Pill to clean himself of the dirt and sweat that he had accumulated on his body throughout the day.
After consuming the pill, he quickly drew the same outfit he had worn while exiting the Black Wing Merchant Guild Hall out of the necklace and dressed himself. Finally, he unwove the necklace that was around his wrist, and wore it around his neck again. Finally, he drew the axe out of the necklace and strapped it to his back.
Yet again, he looked like a fiery war god.
Having finished his business, Guo Huo traveled back to where he had left Jia Yuan.
The latter, upon seeing the magnificently dressed Guo Huo, couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of reverence and admiration toward the old man.
“Come, child. Let’s finish this journey.”
After a few more minutes, the two made it back to the old shack that Jia Yuan had lived in for the majority of his life.
However, it was very apparent even from the outside, that this shack had been attacked.
Jia Yuan’s face went pale as he ran into the shack, while Guo Huo quickly followed.
Jia Yuan’s father was lying on the ground, his skin black and blue. Fortunately, it seemed that he had not received any unhealable injuries. However, he was still rather badly beaten up. Seeing the injuries, Jia Yuan instantly knew who had attacked his father. After all, only the Zhao family would have the audacity to freely attack others in the village.
Guo Huo, upon walking in, saw the man on the ground, with Jia Yuan kneeling by the man’s side.
He tapped his necklace and drew out yet another pill, a Heart Pill. This was a medium tier healing pill that was able to quickly heal a person’s injuries.
He gave Jia Yuan the pill and motioned him to give the old man the pill. Jia Yuan hesitated slightly, but he trusted Guo Huo, who had saved him from the bandits earlier.
Upon ingesting the pill, the father’s face became less pale, and the black and blue bruises on his skin began to fade.
After a bit, he looked strong enough to stand on his feet, which he did.
He bowed and cupped his hands toward Guo Huo and said, “Thank you, sir. You’ve saved me from a great deal of pain. How may I thank you?”
Guo Huo didn’t mince his words and cut to the chase. “What is your relation to Jia Yuan? I would like to bring him with me, to teach him to cultivate.”
Jia Yuan looked at Guo Huo and pouted. “No! I want to stay here until the end of the year when the Army recruits come around. I want to join the Burning Legion! That way, I can meet my brother again, and that way my dad can make some money!”
Guo Huo gave Jia Yuan a very dry look. After all, he knew that behind Jia Yuan’s earnest gaze, he was holding onto a small fortune. If he really wanted his father to be rich, he could just give him part of said fortune.
However, he quickly realized the most important aspect of what was happening. Jia Yuan, a child who had a Song of at least high quality, was a destitute peasant! How had he come across the opportunity to acquire such a Song?
Guo Huo turned back to Jia Yuan’s father and said, “How much will it cost for me to bring Jia Yuan away?”
Jia Yuan’s father was shrewd. Even though he cared for Jia Yuan, at the end of the day, Jia Yuan wasn’t his flesh and blood - orphans that he could adopt were a dime a dozen. “Ten thousand small fire shards.”
“Deal.”
Guo Huo readily agreed. After all, to someone of his status, what was ten thousand small fire shards? He didn’t even really care for the hundreds of large fire shards that Jia Yuan had.
He tapped his necklace and withdrew a hundred large fire shards from within and had the shards fall onto the table in the middle of the shack.
“Here’s a hundred large fire shards.”
With that, Guo Huo turned and faced Jia Yuan. “Now, kid, are you willing to be my disciple? I am one of the strongest people in the Fire Kingdom, and I have years of experience behind me that I am willing to impart to you.”
Jia Yuan had a simple response.
“Nope.”
Guo Huo had quite the reaction to this simple answer. His eyes shot open, and his entire body retreated back from Jia Yuan, as if he was looking at a monstrosity.
“B-b-ut. What??? Why not?”
“Because I want to join the Burning Legion so that I can be with my brother again.”
Guo Huo’s face turned incredulous. After a long while, he finally seemed to calm down and dropped to a sitting position on the floor, looking worn out.
“Kid, how old are you?”
“11.”
“So you still have two years until you Burning Legion Tournament begins. Listen, kid. The only reason the Army recruits commoners who have strong talent for martial cultivation at age 12 is because it gives them a year to get used to the song the Army gives them.”
“For someone like you who already has a Song, you can simply join the annual tournament to join the Burning Legion when you are 13.”
At this point, Jia Yuan’s ex-father interjected. “Wait what? Jia Yuan has a Song?”
Jia Yuan looked rather uncomfortable and said, “Well, a few months ago I was exploring in the forest and um… sort of found one.”
His ex-father began to fume in silence. If he had known, he would have sold Jia Yuan off to Guo Huo for a much higher price.
At this point, Guo Huo motioned that he wished to lead Jia Yuan to another location, at which Jia Yuan raised a point.
“Guo Huo, uh, sir. There is a family here called the Zhao family who bullies everyone else in the village. If we leave my uh… old dad here, he’ll just be robbed and beaten again.”
“Oh? Why doesn’t the village head deal with that?”
“Well, you see, the Zhao family is simply too big and strong for even the village head to deal with. The village head is at the 6th level of Absorption, while the head of the Zhao family is at the 7th level of Absorption. Furthermore, the Zhao family owns a large number of loyal slaves and servants, many of whom are fairly strong fighters, even if they’re not cultivators.
“I see, I see…”
A grin started to form on Guo Huo’s face.
“Alright, Jia Yuan. I’ll make a deal with you. If you can pave the way for me to the Zhao head, I’ll take care of him. However, you’ll have to deal with the rest of them. If you fail to do so, then I won’t help.”
Jia Yuan’s father started panicking. “Sir, you can’t! Jia Yuan is much weaker than the Zhao family, even if their family head isn’t involved!”
“Hmm? But he’s at the 3rd level of Absorption with an extremely powerful Song. He should be able to fight evenly with those at the 6th level of Absorption.”
The father’s face really turned green this time. He thought that he had gotten a good deal letting go of Jia Yuan for 10 thousand small fire shards earlier, but it turned out that Jia Yuan would actually have been worth far more than he had asked for. If only he had known earlier just how valuable Jia Yuan was…
Unfortunately, the deal had already gone through, and Guo Huo was clearly not a man to be be annoyed.
As such, he could only grind his teeth in regret.
As for Guo Huo’s proposal to Jia Yuan, Jia Yuan readily agreed.
After all, this was simply too great an opportunity! Ever since the Zhao family had robbed his father of the fire shards gained from selling Dou Di to the Army, he had wanted to exact revenge.
But his strength had been too low! Before leaving the village, he had only been at the 1st level of Absorption! If he’d tried to go against the Zhao family before, he would easily have been
overwhelmed and probably beaten to the brink of death.
However, now he was at the 3rd level of Absorption, and according to Guo Huo, he could fight others at the 6th level of Absorption!
Furthermore, he had a powerful figure in Guo Huo backing him up!
If I were overwhelmed, he’d surely intervene right? After all, he said he wants me as his disciple. This will also be a worthy test in my path of cultivation. How ‘bout we call it “The Fiery Hero Jia Yuan saves Fire Hill Village from the ugly Zhao overlords!”
Jia Yuan readily agreed to the deal proposed by Guo Huo. “Sure, but when will we do it?”
“That depends… if you were to suddenly attack the Zhao family, would the rest of the village side with you or against you?”
Jia Yuan immediately replied, “The Zhao family has been bullying all of the villagers who are not able to easily defend themselves. I believe that the village would be glad if the Zhao family were to be removed.”
“In that case, we’ll rest for the night. In the morning, you’ll go to the village center and provoke the Zhao family. From there, it’ll depend on your performance. In the meantime, I’ll treat the two of you to a meal.”
With that, Guo Huo tapped his necklace and drew out a small bag. He plopped the bag onto the table, and opened it. Jia Yuan and his ex-father could see the glistening meat within, and even uncooked, it was enough of a sight for the two to salivate.
Guo Huo turned to the stove, and then paused. “You wouldn’t happen to have a pot, would you?’ Jia Yuan awkwardly glanced at his ex-father, then with a thought, withdrew a pot from his ring and threw it over to Guo Huo.
“Ah, excellent.”
Guo Huo quickly lit a fire by waving his hand at the bottom of the pot. Interestingly enough, even though there wasn’t any wood there to burn, the fire did not go out. Jia Yuan noticed this phenomenon, but did not ask, as he didn’t want to distract Guo Huo from cooking this…*ahem* deliciously smelling meat.
After a few minutes, Guo Huo finished cooking, and the three of them ate the wonderfully tasty meat, and then went to sleep in preparation for the battle tomorrow.
-8 hours later-
Jia Yuan and Guo Huo had both woken up about half an hour ago. Jia Yuan was stretching and calming himself before the battle, and Guo Huo was watching him do this and making his judgements.
At this time, Guo Huo spoke up. “If you can defeat everyone but the Zhao family head, I will fulfill my promise, but I will give you an additional challenge. You must learn to control the destructive capability of your Song.
“I noticed during your fight with the bandits that the flames surrounding your sword while you were performing your Dance were very wild and unbridled. This shows that you have a complete lack of control your Song.
“It is the same concept that applies to singers. The same song, sung by two different people, can sound very different and give off a different feeling, depending on how they sing it. It is the same way with our Songs.
Right now, it’s as if you’re just shouting the words to the song at the top of your lungs. Of course, you are at the lower of Absorption, so you haven’t had too much experience with your Song, but it will be good for you to begin practicing exerting control over your Song.
“As such, I give you a challenge. You will be fighting around the village. As such, your challenge will be to not let a single scorch mark be left on any of the villager’s houses. If you don’t succeed, you’ll be punished.”
Jia Yuan understood the reasoning behind Guo Huo’s challenge. If he defeated the Zhao family but destroyed the village in the process, the villagers wouldn’t exactly be happy about it. In fact, they might even view Jia Yuan in a worse light than they did the Zhao family.
Furthermore, it was true what Guo Huo had said about control. Jia Yuan hadn’t even thought about controlling the Song at all, and had only been working to increase his destructive power.
Even when he had used the flames under his feet to propel himself farther, the flames had been very wild and unbridled.
“I accept your challenge.” With that, Jia Yuan headed out the door of the shack toward the center of the village.
Upon arriving, Jia Yuan drew his new sword out of the ring, and drew the blade out of the scabbard.
“A good sword should always be named. As of now, I will call you HiRyu!