It had been ten years since Yan Hui first greeted Ling Xiao as her shifu.
For a person, ten years is a long time. Yan Hui had forgotten many things that occurred in those ten years. However, Yan Hui didn't dare forget the day she met Ling Xiao.
She remembered it was the beginning of summer. Yan Hui had no mother, and her drunkard of a father spent every day dead drunk in the house. He didn't care a whit what Yan Hui did or where she went.
Back then, Yan Hui thought that life was just muddled through. When the time came, she would be like the older sisters in the village and find someone to marry. Then she'd have a couple kids and raise them. And then she would watch the kids muddle their way through life too.
The Yan Hui back then didn't once think that she would meet someone called Ling Xiao.
He was like a godly presence landing in the middle of her mediocre life.
Ling Xiao had brought Zi Chen with him down the mountain to gain experience. They had chased an evil demon to the village entrance. Yan Hui just happened to be playing with some of the village children at the base of the great tree.
The demon seemed to have been chased to the end of its rope. It immediately snatched up one of the children and on the spot ripped open the child's chest. The demon plucked out the heart and gulped it down. All the other children were stupefied by the sight.
Although the young Yan Hui would frequently see ghosts, she had never experienced such a bloody scene before. She immediately began to wail. One heart wasn't near enough for the demon. It immediately reached out again and snatched up Yan Hui, who was closest to it.
Without hesitation, it cut Yan Hui's chest with its finger. Her blood spilled out and dripped onto the tree's roots.
Yan Hui felt herself dying. That was the first time she had come face to face with death. She saw a black aura start to rise from her own body. Yan Hui was so scared that her face was deathly white. It seemed like her heart had already stopped beating. But right at that moment, frost descended from the sky. Light from the Hoarfrost Technique spilled forth.
Yan Hui watched an icy blade sever the demon's hand, and she fell into a cold embrace.
Cold frost froze the wound on her chest. Then she was passed over into Zi Chen's arms. However Liang Xiao's image had already been cut into her heart like a knife. From then on, no other person's image could enter her heart.
Ling Xiao and that demon started to fight, but the demon didn't fear getting wounded. Within a short period of time, the hand that Ling Xiao cut off regrew.
"Zi Chen, save the children."
"Yes, shifu."
Zi Chen loudly responded and placed Yan Hui off to the side. He warned her: "Run as far as you can. Don't return here." Then he turned and ran to the other children.
Seeing this, the demon moved to stop Zi Chen. Ling Xiao's gaze sharpened, and the sword in his hand started to freeze over, starting from the tip. The blade frosted over in a heavy layer like a severe winter had blown in. With a flourish of the blade, a chilly barrier was erected, and the evil demon was stopped. The demon could only helplessly watch Zi Chen carry one child in his arm and carry another on his back. Zi Chen was taking them far away.
The demon was furious and charged straight at Ling Xiao.
Ling Xiao drew a seal with one hand and waved his arm. The demon was hit with a heavy blow; the force sent the demon flying into the enormous tree. The tree shook with the force of the blow, and leaves floated down. The demon slumped onto the ground. It dizzily shook its head.
At this moment, the sound of a child's weeping wail was heard off to the side.
Unexpectedly, there was still one more child hiding by the tree. The place where the demon fell was very close to the child. Children can't contain their fear, and so that child immediately started to cry. The child's cries attracted the demon's attention, and it started to crawl toward the wails. From the look in the demon's eyes, it was clear the demon planned to rip open the child's chest and eat its heart, just like what the demon did to the first child.
Ling Xiao's eyebrows furrowed, and his figure flickered. In a blink of an eye, he appeared right in front of the demon. However, he didn't immediately face off against the demon. Instead, Ling Xiao's back was toward the demon. He was reaching out to pick up the crying child. With just a glance, it was clear the demon was about to slash open Ling Xiao's back with its razor sharp claws.
Zi Chen couldn't hold in his shout: "Shifu!"
Ling Xiao's gaze became icy. He gathered frosty air in his hands, but before he could release it, suddenly a fire ball appeared from a far distance. It struck the demon directly in the head.
The demon had a fear of fire. Once the blaze lit his head alight, the demon fell down in pain. His flaming head, mixed with blood, fell against the enormous tree.
Ling Xiao turned his head in astonishment. He saw Yan Hui standing over there, covered in blood. In her hand was the lingering trace of magic. Yan Hui blankly looked at him and then the demon.
At that time, Yan Hui didn't know that Ling Xiao was using magic utilizing the Five Phases in the body. The type of magic used depended on the power of what Phase was in the body: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Everyone had the Five Phases in their body, and they all had a dominant Phase. However, not everyone could use the power of their Five Phases to do magic. Some people cultivated for a lifetime but couldn't even raise a wind or form frost.
But Yan Hui saw Ling Xiao cast magic one time and was able to use her Five Phases to cast fire magic.
Zi Chen gawped at the sight: "This.....this is..."
But there wasn't time for them to stay shocked.
The demon's head was still on fire. He seemed to be in his death throes; he crawled up and recklessly attacked Ling Xiao. Ling Xiao sensed it and dodged. However, there was still a child in his arms, so he couldn't retaliate. Ling Xiao could only retreat away from the tree.
The moment Ling Xiao left the tree's vicinity, Yan Hui cast magic a second time. She was already much more skillful than the first time. A fiery dragon screamed out of her fingers and immediately wound itself around the demon's body. His entire body was now aflame. The demon was in so much pain that it wished itself was dead.
It frantically crawled in pain-crazed panic near the tree. The fire on its body set the tree ablaze. Then like the tree, the demon was burned to ash.
Bringing up her past, Yan Hui still felt rueful about the situation: "Ten years have already passed. The villagers believed the tree contained a spirit, and burning the tree would bring down retribution. After seeing the villager's attitude toward me, Ling Xiao said I had a great innate gift for cultivation. He asked if I wanted to return to him to Chen Xing Mountain to join a cultivation sect and learn magic." Yan Hui smiled. "I still remember Head Senior Disciple was repeated nodding his head off to the side. He was scared I would refuse."
She patted the rough tree bark: "I give thanks to this tree. If it wasn't for the tree, with the tiny amount of magic I was able cast back then out of fear, I probably wouldn't be able to roast the demon to death."She turned her head to look at Tian Yao. "And I also need to thank you. Back then, I was scared of dying and also scared my rescuer would die. I didn't think all that concentrated panic would actually force out some magic. I used to think that was because I had an innate talent, but now I know. It's due to your Heart Protection Scale."
Tian Yao had been silently listening to Yan Hui's story. When she just finished, he suddenly spoke: "No." His gaze captured Yan Hui. "I should be thanking you."
Those words didn't seem related at all to what Yan Hui had been saying. She was immediately pulled out of her memories and bewilderingly looked at Tian Yao: "You're thanking me?" She didn't understand. "Why are you thanking me?"
Tian Yao stepped forward. He placed his hand by Yan Hui's hand against the tree bark. His hand was slightly bigger and also a little darker compared to hers. After touching the scorched bark, Tian Yao involuntarily clenched his hand into a fist and lightly punched it.
"Using water to trap bones, dirt to bury horns, fire to burn tendons, metal to bind heart, wood to encase soul." Tian Yao finished. His mouth suddenly quirked into a smile. "Using wood to encase the soul. Yan Hui, it was you who released my soul from its wood prison."
Tian Yao spoke those words with measured slowness, but Yan Hui was so shocked she wasn't able to reply for a long time: "You're saying that Su Ying sealed your soul in soul-encasing wood?"
Tian Yao thumped his fist against the burned tree: "This wood encased my soul."
Yan Hui stupidly stared at Tian Yao.
So it turns out long before she met Tian Yao, their fates had already been intertwined.
Yan Hui touched her chest. Her heart was beating as normal as ever. If she never mentioned it, no one would know her heart contained the Heart Protection Scale of the person in front of her. No one would know their relationship was unexpectedly so deep.
"It really is fate," said Yan Hui. "Your Heart Protection Scale replenishes my life, and I released your soul from here."
"Yes."
There's no way it wasn't fate. If it wasn't for his dragon soul escaping from that prison ten years ago, there was no way he'd be able to find the aura of his dragon bones, there was no way he could find the body of that foolish youngster in Tong Luo Mountain, no way he could extend the life of this body up to now, no way he could retrieve his dragon horns. Now he had hope he could find back every single part of his body.
It turns out Yan Hui is someone he can meet by chance but not beg for. She was the beginning of the turning point of his fate.
How could Tian Yao not thank her?
Tian Yao looked at Yan Hui. There was a deep look in his dark eyes.
Four eyes met. Long moments passed. Yan Hui somewhat uncomfortably looked away.
She couldn't describe what was going on in her heart. It was similar to what she felt under the Fox Charm Fragrance. But after savoring the feeling, it was also different. At the same time, Yan Hui couldn't name what was different.
Yan Hui lightly coughed: "Um, it looked like the debt fate has between us two is impossible to sort out, so let's not try to figure it out. I say, after you become independent, you still have to return the money though."
Tian Yao quietly laughed at what he just heard. This time, Yan Hui could hear it.
"Yan Hui," he said. "If there is a day in my life that is secure and I am rich, then everything of mine is yours."
Of everything he had wished for in his life, wealth was not one of them.
But when Yan Hui heard his words, her eyes lit up, and she looked at Tian Yao in astonishment. She could see herself in Tian Yao's eyes. But not even a brief moment passed before she looked away again. This time, Yan Hui walked away two steps: "A woman who takes your entire wealth as her own could only be your wife. I'm not someone who sells my own people for the sake of money. Don't think about taking advantage of me. I only want the money you owe me."
Done making her point, Yan Hui dusted the ash from the dead tree off her hands. Like her usual self, Yan Hui walked in front with her careless and sloppy self. It seemed like she knew what happened today didn't affect the relationship between her and Tian Yao.
Tian Yao watched her receding back for awhile, but before she got too far, he followed after her...
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So many of you guys guessed correctly! Tian Yao's soul was sealed in the tree! :D