"Accept the heavens, ignite the flame; The path before you shall unfold".
"Those who cannot take the first step themselves, are not worthy".
The two lines span around in Shu He's mind as he kneeled still in the yard, the heavy stone on his lap causing a tingling pain he was trying to ignore.
'What do these even mean? The subtext… it feels different from the first line, did it come from somewhere else? I should ignore that for now…' He shoved the last line to the corner of his mind.
"Accept the heavens…" He murmured.
'What are the heavens? To me… would it be the afterlife? The sky above my head? Or something else… I've never really thought about it, if I were to 'accept' it, just what would that mean? If I were to talk about my perception of cultivation, it would involve absorbing Qi from the surroundings, and increasing levels doing so, is it the same here, would the 'Heavens' be the world's Qi?'
He tried to put together a meaning in his head, but shortly after he just shook it.
'I'm assuming way too much, for all I know cultivation in this world is different from the fantasy I've read about'
"…ignite the flame; The path before you shall unfold" He whispered to himself in thought once more.
'The latter seems obvious, if I can do what it says I'll be able to cultivate, but a flame? That's the part I'm completely clueless on, does cultivating in this world not involve a 'dantian'?'
'Some type of flame, is that the core concept of cultivation here? Or is it metaphorical, like lighting your will?'
He couldn't figure anything out, no matter how much he thought it over.
'What DO I know then?' He remembered his conversation that he had not long ago.
"They're strong" he said, remembering the face his father made when recalling those events.
'But not invincible, he said they took them out after tiring, so they have stamina, he also said they were fairly young and arrogant, so I can assume you can cultivate from a young age, or maybe cultivating affects your aging a lot? I feel that may be the case sometimes, but not here'.
'Some form of 'spells' allowing them to incinerate people, incredibly fast and precise, but not so powerful that mortals can't beat them'
The image slowly formed in his head, but he wasn't particularly impressed in the end.
'They're just really impressive humans' He shook his head once more.
"Unless…" A thought surfaced in his mind; one he couldn't shake off.
'They were just weak' He felt this may be correct, that the ones that attacked his Father's group were bottom of the barrel.
"Oh, Little He you're still out here? I told him it was a bit harsh to make a child do this but he didn't listen" He heard a gentle voice showing concern follow by a light sigh, he broke his chain of thinking and looked up to see his mother looking at him gently.
"Mother" He smiled, he would find it hard not too, seeing someone care for him this much, every time he looked at his mother he would remember his 'other' mother, their faces would overlap; If he was honest they looked way too similar, the facial shape and expressions were almost a picture perfect match in his mind although his current one had a younger face than he remembered, if someone told him she was reincarnated like him he wouldn't doubt it.
'I wonder if coincidences like that could happen?' He thought to himself.
"Come, that enough you should come inside, you'll catch a cold sitting out here like that for too long" She held her hand out urging him to leave.
"But Father…"
"Ignore what your Father said, 3 hours is way too much for a child like you! He's just harsh because he's worried you'll do it again if he isn't heavy handed…" She moved the slab weighing just under 5 kilos from Shu He's lap, and pulled him up.
"Okay" He smiled, before looking around and asking "Did Father go out again?" He asked, not being sure whether he missed him leaving or not.
"He left again a little while ago, he just isn't fine sitting around when something like that happened" She sighed again looking a bit tired.
"Father told you?"
"Of course! I would throttle him if he tried to keep something like that from me!" She replied, slightly angry; Evidently he had tried to do so before and ended up on his mother's bad side.
"Then Mother, do you know anything about cultivation?" He felt he had to ask, just in case she knew something his Father didn't.
He expression seemed to change slightly but she shook her head.
"No, I don't know much at all just what I've heard from your Father; Why, did he tell you something?" She asked in return.
Shu He explained what he asked his Father and what he was told in return, as he did a slight hint of confusion grew on his Mother's face as he swore he heard her whisper "Mercenary?..." To herself before returning to normal.
"Is something wrong?" He asked.
"Of course! Telling a kid such things… what was he thinking, it's way too early!" She expressed her anger, but Shu He feel she was covering something up by acting out.
She puffed her cheeks slightly before asking "He didn't even tell you how we met?"
"Huh? No…" He realised; how DID they meet?
"I guess it wasn't anything special to him then" she said with a hint of spite.
'Sorry Father, that's on you' he couldn't help but think how it wasn't his turn to be on the chopping table this time.
"I was out foraging in the forest near here, at that time a disease spread through a good portion of the crops so we were short for the winter, us younger girls were made to go looking for berries, fruit, mushrooms and any small critters we could get our hands on, kind of similar to what you do actually" Without being asked Shu An began recounting her story.
"It was really hard, you know? Around that time of year food didn't grow much and what was there was usually eaten by the birds or boars, and if we didn't get enough we'd go without, I remember feeling like I was skin and bones around that time; But one day I ended up with a fat boar chasing me down, it was after my basket that was full of berries I'd found stashed in a trunk, I didn't want to give it up but that thing just wouldn't go away"
'Why am I getting a sense of De ja vu here?' He thought to himself as he sat listening silently.
"After a while I just kept throwing whatever stones I could find at it and hope to knock it in the head or so, even after I left the basket behind it kept following me like it had a grudge; I couldn't help but curse how useless the few hunters in our village were if they let one this big roam around, in the end right as I'd tripped and was about to become boar feed I remember a 'swoosh' then realising an arrow had squared it in the head"
'It really is the same' He couldn't help but want to laugh at how similar he was to his mother, he was also amazed at how expressive she was as she recited the story, usually she was a bit more tame in how she spoke.
"I looked over my shoulder and there stood a ragged man wearing ripped clothes touting a overgrown beard, I thought at first some old sage had luckily decided to rescue me, but after I got up to thank him I realised he was quite young, not much older than myself; The moment he began to walk off without saying anything I knew that was my only chance!"
"C-chance?"
"Yes, Chance! I remember saying-"
---
"Hey you! Are you leaving that boar there?"
"…"
"You're a hunter right? Come to the village with me!"
---
"And then I went up, grabbed his arm and didn't let it go, he wouldn't say much and kept trying to get away but I wouldn't let him!"
" So forceful!" Shu He exclaimed; his mother was like this?
"I had to be, you know your father was all doom and gloom when I first met him, he didn't want to speak to another person let alone go to a village, but I eventually managed to pull him to my house, even told the others about the mountain of meat that was left out there and they gladly let him in"
'She bribed them…' She He continued to be speechless at his mother's methods.
"From then on it was just a tug of war, he kept trying to leave but I kept giving him a reason to stay, eventually I got him to shave that horrid beard and clean himself it, soon he opened up about what happened to him, I was surprised but it didn't bother me, I knew he was good man, in the end I just told him-"
---
"You have nothing? Don't be silly, you have that bow don't you, go catch some meat and we can eat together, then work things out after that!" A younger Shu An with an annoyed expression was stood admonishing Shu Li as he sat depressed in the corner.
---
"And after that, it was pretty straight forward, we kept living together and eventually I had you!" She summarised the last part with a smile as she hugged Shu He.
"So normal!" He said, he was expecting the story to go for longer.
"Of course, it was" She backed off and spoke like it was the most obvious thing.
"In the end, I'm just a village girl who got lucky, I found someone who I love and could support us, live in a nice house and have a child I'm proud of, I don't need any more".
'You say that, but in the end, you pulled Father out of his despair…' He thought In his mind, he remembered what his dad said –
"I told you before, that my bow is the equivalent of my life"
"In that moment… I realised said life was worthless."
-But that wasn't right, after all it wasn't but a day since he said-
"That may be so for other people, but to me, the bow is my life"
-In the end, his 'life' ended, however he gained a new one because of his mother.
After chatting a bit more, his Mother started preparing the food for dinner and Shu He returned to his room.
He laid back on the bed made of a large straw pillow and sheets and thought to himself.
'Whether it be the bow, the medicine I want to make or learning cultivation, I just need to keep going in the end'.