Kang Dong-Woo left the roof, leaving Xu Lingxun alone with Heero.
"Follow me, there's something I want to talk to you about!" Heero walked over to the apple tree and sat down. He motioned for Xu Lingxun to sit next to him.
With an uncertain look on his face, Xu Lingxun sat down. Deep down, he was a bit nervous.
"You are going to use your power to take revenge for your family! That was what you told me when you asked me to take you as my disciple, right?" Heero asked Xu Lingxun.
"Yes!" Xu Lingxun replied straightforwardly and his tone was firm, showing his strong determination to get his revenge.
"Then let me ask you, what are you going to do when you have the power to exact your revenge? I mean, how will you take your revenge?" Heero continued his question.
"Of course, I will kill them all with my own hands. I will wipe out their family just like they did my family!" Xu Lingxun replied in a loud voice. Her eyes reddened with excitement as he clenched his palm into a fist.
As soon as he heard the reply, Heero rubbed his forehead. Xu Lingxun's motive to become stronger worried him. Even though he was no longer a hero, he did not want any of his disciples to use their powers to kill the innocent.
The rankers who wiped out the Xu family deserved to die, but what about their family? They were innocent, and if Xu Lingxun really did this, then he was no different from those rankers.
Besides, if the boy drowned in revenge and killed all the rankers involved, including their families, what would the boy do after that? He might sink even deeper, and there was a high probability that he would become a brutal killer.
After all, the Hero League and the central government would never approve of the act of killing, even if those rankers were at fault. The boy's deep resentment would only lead him to a deeper pit, and Heero did not want that to happen.
He played a large part in this game of revenge. He gave the boy power, there was no way he would not feel guilty if what he had done really happened. But of course, Heero did not want to prevent the boy from taking revenge for his family.
It was just that Xu Lingxun's way was wrong. At least in his eyes, it was not right.
"Then what makes you different from those rankers? You are the same! You even kill the innocent who have nothing to do with your family's incident!" Heero voiced his opinion, startling Xu Lingxun.
However, the boy gritted his teeth and insisted that he was not the same as those rankers who had killed his family, "But I am doing this for my revenge, they started it and I will end it by exterminating them!"
Xu Lingxun was excited as he raised his voice. But then he realized something, Heero must have a motive for talking to him about this.
The way Master talked to me, he was trying to convince me not to take revenge...
If I don't listen to him, maybe he won't teach me anything... But I can't give up... for my family..." Revenge was the only thing that kept him going. Without it, he might have committed suicide and followed his father and mother into the afterlife.
"Master! Do you want me to give up on my revenge?" Xu Lingxun continued his question. Before Heero could answer, he added in a helpless tone, "And if I don't give up on my revenge, you won't teach me, will you?"
Heero was his hope, the hope he had waited four years for. After four years, he finally saw hope, but that hope was fading. He was desperate, but he did not collapse.
"Hahhh... I am not asking you to give up your revenge! But your revenge is wrong. Suppose you are done with your revenge, you killed those rankers and their families who slaughtered your family. You will be a criminal, hunted by the heroes and the other rankers!
"When your mother or father or even your family sees this, will revenge make them happy? I can tell you on behalf of your family that they won't be happy! You are the last line of the Xu family, you are the last and only hope of the Xu family! If you die, the Xu Family will be gone forever!"
Heero lectured his youngest disciple, hoping that the boy would understand what he was trying to convey. He had experienced the same thing once, his village was destroyed, and his family was killed by the Specter Force.
But in the last moment of his grandfather's life, the grandfather who wanted Heero to be a hero asked him not to take revenge for them.
His father, mother and grandfather only told him to live a happy life. Of course, the young Heero was the same as Xu Lingxun. He did not listen to them and continued his revenge, killing Specter in front of him.
But blinded by revenge, he lost the woman he loved. He lost many of his friends. He did not want Xu Lingxun to experience what he had.
"NO! They will be happy! They must want me to take revenge for them!" Xu Lingxun said excitedly.
Smack! Ouch!
"Stupid!" Heero flicked Xu Lingxun's head, "Yes, they want you to take revenge for them, but they will not be happy if you sacrifice yourself for revenge. I believe your family will be happier if you rebuild the Xu family and bring back your family's glory!"
Upon hearing this, Xu Lingxun's eyes opened wide. The thought of rebuilding his family had never crossed his mind. His mind was all about revenge, nothing else.
"As for revenge, it's not that you can't take revenge after rebuilding your family! You can also take revenge openly and honestly. If those rankers are really treacherous and unlawful, you can use the Hero League to take revenge.
"You just need to gather the evidence of their misdeeds and send it to the Hero League, and they will take care of the rest. I think the Hero League would be happy to take them down one by one, as long as you have strong evidence against them!
"What if the Hero League does not take action despite the strong evidence? That's easy, you can kill the Ranker with your hands. However, before you kill the ranker, you should release the evidence to the public. If the public finds out later that it was you who killed the Ranker, they'll see you as a hero instead of a criminal!"
"Ranker Alliance? There's nothing to fear from them. You've got me, there's no way I'm going to let that bunch of Rankers bully you. I will stand behind you, Xing District will always be your home! Besides, do you think your elder brother would just stand by and let you be bullied?"
Heero finished his lecture in one breath, and it seemed that the boy had understood the meaning behind his words.
Xu Lingxun lowered his head, no longer refuting his master's words. He was not stupid enough to not realise his master's concern. His mind was filled with vengeance, while his master had only opened his mind to the fact that he had more important things to do, like rebuilding the Xu family.
Besides, his master's suggestion was not that bad. Although he was still unwilling to spare the families of the rankers, he also understood why his master had told him to avenge only the rankers involved.
The most important thing of all was a house called Xing District. Xu Lingxun remembered the care he received from his fellow students, especially Sun Zhou Yi, who always encouraged him.
His master's wives, who took care of his food because of his thin build. The residences of Xing District that were kind to him, the warmth of family that he had almost forgotten, he could feel it again now.
Xu Lingxun did not want to lose his home again. He knew that if he continued to insist on his mad revenge, he would lose his new home. In the end, he had to make a choice and his choice was obvious, he did not want to lose his new home.
Heero watched his youngest apprentice and noticed that the boy's expression had returned to normal and even a new life had returned to his eyes. He nodded with a satisfied smile.
Then he threw the Ki Comprehension he had copied into a book. The book fell into the lap of the boy. Obviously, the boy still had no idea what this book was.
"This is a book about internal energy, you have to understand it yourself. Memorise the contents and the basic chant! Since you are someone from the core region, I don't need to explain what internal energy is, right?"
Upon hearing this, the boy's eyes opened wide. He had heard about internal energy, and there were a handful of techniques or even secret arts that generated internal energy. But he had never heard that internal energy could be controlled.
His family had three secret arts, and each time they performed the secret art, they were imbued with the inner energy. His family was destroyed because of these three secret arts, while upholding justice for the Rankers was just an excuse for his big brother.
"I call this internal energy Ki, and all my techniques rely heavily on Ki. The more you understand about Ki, the stronger you will become. This is just your foundation and the first step of your journey, but also the most important step in your training!"
"Also, to perform my technique, you need a strong body! Not this weak and skinny body!" Heero held Xu Lingxun's small arms, making him blush.
"So what you need to do is train hard and make a list!" He added.
Xu Lingxun understood the part about training hard, but what about making a list, "... a list for training?"
"A list of the rankers involved in your family's downfall, of course. Before you take revenge, you should know your enemies! If you don't know your enemy, how can you avenge your family?"
Hearing this, the boy opened his eyes in surprise. He knew that it was Ranker who had destroyed his family, but he did not know who they were or which family was involved.
Looking at his student, Heero was speechless. He asked him to make a list so that the boy could start his revenge from the weakest, punishing those corrupt Rankers and bringing a little peace to the city.
Yes, Heero's intention was to change the path his pupil would take. Instead of being a random mad killer, it was much better to become a mysterious hero who punished the corrupt.
If he sank deeper into what he was doing, at least his youngest disciple would not go astray, not a brutal killer.
But it seemed the boy did not even know who his enemies were. This left Heero speechless, but he had no solution for that.
"Then you'll have to start investigating, and I hope you won't neglect your training while investigating. Don't worry, you can learn about the investigation from your elder brother Hirata. He was an assassin, so he is experienced in this!"
With that, Heero rose from his seat. He looked at the boy and rubbed his black hair.
"Alright, that's all for now!" After that, he received a call. He looked at the caller ID, "Oh shit, my wife will scold me if I don't get back now!"
After that, Heero rushed to the door and gave the boy a last shout, "Don't become like that Bearded Wang, you have to train hard!!!"