The Jade empire ( Main city;- The grand market area)
" The only heir of the Late celestial mixing with a lowly pest, truly a despicable sight."
" Why didn't I lose my eyes before seeing such a thing"
" A true disgrace to royalty"
" He's no royalty"
" More like the epitome of misfortune" some laughed while saying so. There were murmurs all around the market.
Feng Xin walked unbothered by the gossip , next to him Scar seemed to be a bit annoyed but soon forgetting the voices around, he made himself busy with examining the wide variety of food and other sparkly items that were being sold at the stalls in the grand market and whenever he saw something interesting he'd stop to rave about it making a full on display of enthusiasm and excitement to Feng Xin.
"Obsidian...OBSIDIAN! just look at those mystic fruits, they are so big, they definitely would be delicious as well , don't you think?".
These mystic fruits were actually rare and exotic fruits which were used by the cooks of the royals to make fancy desserts for them. They were beautiful to look at for their delicate baby blue outer skin with light gold specks covering it's entirely perfect round shape, apart from their beauty they were also delicious to eat. Scar noticing that Feng Xin was not looking at all, nudged at him, again,
'Obsidian! Will it hurt just to spare a single glance?".
Scar had a bad habit of giving nick names to those who he really liked and that is how he came about to refer to Feng Xin as 'Obsidian' actually their first encounter was a bit complex.
A few years ago Scar had the sudden urge to visit the town fair. He was often bullied as a child as he belonged to the pest section of the evil group and was a thin and short little boy but still that would never stop him from having fun and thus he had thought to himself on one fine evening that going to the town fair which was held at the end of every week would be the most fun thing to do and with that in mind he had reached the venue of the town fair with high hopes of a good time but unfortunately his idea of having fun was soon trampled upon by a group of kids belonging to the divine celestial section.
The kids were truly ruthless, they had first thrown stones at him then had dragged the little Scar to a corner and there they were almost about to beat the boy to his death when Feng Xin suddenly came out of the blue and made a mince meat out of those kids, usually Feng Xin would be the least one bothered to help anyone at all but maybe due to his bad mood on that very day and his undying urge to vent had made him change his usual ignorant ways which in turn had shifted the plans of fortune by a lot and Scar had completely lucked out on it, enough to even escape death but still Feng Xin's personality was still very much the same thereby he had left as quickly as he had arrived not waiting for his benefactor's words of appreciation but this didn't hinder Scar to find his saviour the very next day.
He followed Feng Xin everywhere since then and slowly came about to notice that Feng Xin didn't have many friends ,similar to himself and in his spare time he would often sit and talk to a sword that he used to always carry with himself.
This sword actually was his father's spiritual manifestation weapon and held a deep meaning to Feng Xin. He had even given a name to this sword and called it 'Obsidian' ,Scar had found that out when he had come across Feng Xin one day while the other was busy speaking to this sword all alone in front of some deserted broken down building and that is how Scar came up with this very 'thoughtful' nickname for his best friend.
At first the friendship was like that of an unrequited love in which one person would follow the other day and night and show their affection to the fullest and the other would just ignore or tolerate but slowly Scar had been somehow able to break down the invisible walls of the other and from then their friendship had slowly changed over the years and blossomed into a mutual understanding of undying loyalty so much so that if anyone dared to bully one of them then the other would come forth immediately and brawl and bite their enemy to the ground, if needed.
Feng Xin in some corner of his heart was really grateful to Scar for taking the initiative of building and strengthening their friendship this was mainly because he truly had no one to rely on or to call someone a friend but after Scar had come around this notion of loneliness had somewhat changed a little bit. He had been lonely ever since the day of his father's death, his mother though affectionate would still get angry at him often and then she would go on to blame her only son for the misfortunes in her life.
Feng Xin's mother was actually from a very respectful family, a true beauty as well as a talented individual and even before she had married the Late royal celestial,she had a very good and comfortable life but after her husband's death and her family's royalty being taken away,she was very rudely sent back to her parents house by her in-laws who didn't wish to keep any connection with the one who had brought about the death of their son thus being frustrated with her own fate she would often lament and beat her son and then cry and scream at her own self for being a bad mother and a bad wife .
"I've gone mad Feng Xin, please forgive your mother, she has gone mad , won't you forgive her?" She'd ask, almost a bit too pitifully and Feng Xin would always forgive her only for her to repeat the same thing again and again , this continued till Feng Xin's 16th birthday then as if understanding that her son had matured and was no longer the child that he used to be, his mother had finally stopped her madness.
She would now only sit quietly in a corner of the only room that was granted for her by her father who didn't want to see her face anymore and sob or if not that then she'd stare out of the only window of the room but her eyes would not focus on anything in particular. It was as if she were already dead and only waited by the window to see when death would come to pick her soul. This strange new behaviour of his mother was truly too painful to watch and experience but Feng Xin never complained, the only thing he thought he could do was to distract his mind and Scar was very good at that and just like that Feng Xin had spent the past two years with Scar quite literally by being or rather letting Scar be with him all the time.
Scar was a bizarre one as well. One unfortunate night in the cold months of December a little baby was left by the side of the eternal fountain with nothing but a locket with a name Scar embedded on it. This baby had a hard life yet he survived to grow up to be put down by others at every turn of his life people fortunately or unfortunately called him Scar due to the name on the locket which he always wore .
He was very talkative with the people he liked and extremely cold with people he didn't. He was sometimes frosty, sometimes warm, sometimes stupid and sometimes the most cunning of individuals couldn't fathom to hold a debate against him. It was truly as if two different entities were living in the same body. Some even said that maybe he was an offspring of some royal who didn't want to take responsibility and that was from where he had gained such a moody temperament.
The so called 'pests' section actually only consisted of orphans. Orphans who were abandoned right after birth. Some said that these pests were the results of promiscuous relationships between the pure ones and evil ones. Though regarding the Grand battle for ascertaining royalty there was no such opposition or rule that the two sections were unequal or anything as such but still there was a great sense of hostility between the two groups hence the love between the two divisions though not forbidden was still, often taken advantage of to bring about chaos or was looked down upon by many but all this said from what the celestial beings could remember even the old ones had said that they didn't quite remember noticing any pest to have ever risen to the very top and achieve royalty, either they were killed for fun by the other sections while they were young or if they had a chance to grow up then also they would remain restricted in there section only, never even trying for once to reach the top, it was a bit suspicious but at the same time no one payed any heed to it for they believed in their own superiority and the 'pests' inferiority.
"Hey you, pest move away from here before I chop your head off" , one of the stall owners shouted unable to hold on his searing hatred and superiority complex.
Scar didn't move a single inch from the front of the stall, he kept talking to Feng Xin, never letting go of his smile and enthusiasm then when he had appreciated the delicacies of that particular stall enough he slowly started moving but it wasn't so easy to live a peaceful life as someone who belonged to the lowest section and hence trouble would follow him almost everywhere and thus very naturally the stall owner whose threats had gone unheard by the two young boys was now stopping them ,a big sword in his hand, glaring at the two of them as he said with a sense of warning in his tone "Feng Xin I'm telling you now,you move out of the way or else I'll cut down your head together with this little pest's as well" but Scar still didn't react, his reactions were too calm for such a situation which would usually make the other pests run for their lives for this stall owner had quite a powerful spiritual core as was evident by his previous performances in the past grand battles.
Feng Xin who was standing just beside Scar a few moments ago had already moved out of the way with an unamused expression on his face ,he said as he moved in a rather matter of fact way "Well you can try" now this small comment had done nothing but enrage the other party and just after that the stall owner came rushing in with the sword in his hand his face red with anger.
Scar on the other hand had started laughing hysterically at this sight while he managed to say between his laughs "He looks like a bull, Obsidian, a bull!, So funny.... hahaha.... Stupid uncle" then with just a light push of his hand embedded with what seemed like the slightest amount of spiritual power , Scar sent the raging man stumbling,a good few metres away then as if nothing had happened he turned around and both of them continued their leisurely stroll while the bustling market around them fell into silence. The quiet murmurs had only dipped to silence for a fraction of a second before picking up it's pace louder then before.
"Did you see that? A pest is using spiritual power"
"What spiritual power, more like dark magic of sorts "
" Yeah who knows what disastrous magic he has learned"
"He's from the evil division, what do you expect?"
"Quick let's move, this pest will infect us too"
The gossip went on and on and so did the two teens. After a while Feng Xin spared a meaningful glance at his friend then asked without making a single emotion apparent, "Are you okay?". Scar stood stunned and stared at him for a good few minutes before coming back to himself then he broke into his usual bout of soft laughter as he said "it's a great honour to be worthy of your concern, my friend but I'm fine, nothing can be wrong with me ever after all I am used to being nothing but a mere insect" ,he said, his laughter stopping abruptly with that last line. His face grew deathly pale and a boundless cold sharp glare overcame his otherwise bright and shiny peach blossom eyes but it all soon returned to his normal cheerful exuberance.
As they were walking and slowly reaching the end of the grand market area they heard a group of 10 beings conversing among themselves. One asked:-
"When do you plan on eliminating those two worthless slaves?"
"Which one's? Those dirty assassin offsprings you mean?"
"Yes,who else"
"What's the rush, I'll crush those ants soon, let's just let them enjoy their last few days peacefully, I'll soon finish them off" Then all of them laughed at the same time as if someone had cracked a very funny joke.
Feng Xin and Scar had both heard this conversation yet seemingly unbothered they kept on walking without glancing back.