The cold wind was unable to overwhelm the heat transmitted by the voice.
Yang Wu turned his baby head a little and saw a young woman walking towards him. She had black wavy hair and was wearing plain clothes, she was carrying a rosy baby. Her temperament, however, was what caught his attention.
He remembered some unpleasant memories...
"What are you doing here all alone?" she muttered, but not expecting a baby to answer her, "Did your parents abandon you?"
Yang Wu didn't react to her words and calmly looked away to the moon.
'What a mystery...' he sighed in his heart as he was carried away by the unknown woman.
It was indeed a mystery, why would an old man like him repeatedly fail to die in peace?
"Dear, look what I found!" inside her house, she showed Yang Wu to her husband, "He was all alone in the cold."
Her husband was a sturdy man, he had a complicated expression on his face after hearing her explanation.
"Ling'er, we can't feed another baby," he endured the discomfort and expressed his concern.
"I know, but we can at least find him a new home, right?" the woman tilted her head with a smile.
"You mean..." her husband came to a sudden realization.
"That old couple will certainly be happy to gain a new grandson, right?" she laughed and lifted Yang Wu high.
Yang Wu just feigned to be sleeping all the time.
The next day, they brought Yang Wu to a manor close to their house, where they found an old woman taking care of her garden. Her face was a little dirty of earth and mud but the bright light in her eyes attracted most of the attention.
"Aunt Yin!" the couple greeted her and showed Yang Wu with a smile on their faces, "Look at what we found for you."
The old woman, whose name was Yin Rong, twitched the corners of her mouth and asked, "Are you stupid?"
The couple was surprised and didn't know what to say.
Yin Rong sighed and explained, "Did you really take the moron's words seriously? He was just spewing nonsense!"
"You mean, you don want the baby?" the young woman, whose name was Wu Ling, was saddened by it and hugged Yang Wu tightly.
"Who is a moron!?" suddenly, an old man who was even sturdier than Wu Ling's husband appeared. He was Yin Rong's husband, Yin Kong.
"Uncle!" Wu Ling regained a bit of hope after seeing Yin Kong.
"We are taking this baby!" Yin King acted domineeringly and ignored his wife's cold glares. He took Yang Wu and looked at his eyes with a mischievous smile.
"Just so you know," Yin Rong said with a cold voice, "I won't take care of him. It's all your responsibility!"
"Hmph!" Yin Kong snorted and carried Yang Wu away with large steps.
Wu Ling seemed a bit reluctant as she saw Yang Wu being carried away, but she restrained herself and stayed silent.
"I'm sorry for troubling you!" Wu Ling's husband, whose name was Wu Chen, saw the atmosphere was getting awkward and quickly bid farewell to his wife.
"Was it really the best?" Wu Ling asked after they arrived home, "We can take care of the baby for a few days before we find him a better home."
Wu Chen shook his head and steeled his heart, "Yin Kong is old, but not stupid. I trust him."
Wu Ling sighed and didn't mention it again, but kept the worry in her heart.
While the couple chatted, Yang Wu was full of question marks.
'Am I that fated with old couples?' he asked himself while Yin Kong swiftly changed the rags he was wearing to nice baby clothing.
Yang Wu didn't feel much shame being seen naked, he already experienced this situation once after all. Moreover, he was currently a baby.
"There, there, now you are nice looking," Yin Kong laughed foolishly and held Yang Wu in his arms, "Grandpa will take care of you, don't worry!"
Yang Wu was indeed worried, but not about Yin Kong's strange style, but about the fact it was the second time he was reborn.
'What is wrong with me? Why do I keep being reborn?' he wondered, but he knew it was impossible to get an answer in his current state.
'Could it be... do I need to practice again to discover the truth?' he asked himself, full of complicated emotions and unwillingness. He didn't want to practice martial arts unless he had no choice. Even if his life was in danger, he would just accept death instead of practicing martial arts. But if he couldn't die at all...
'Moreover, even if I practice martial arts, my martial heart has long been dead, I won't be able to reach a high Realm even if I tried my best.'
The martial heart was the most important foundation of a martial artist, it was the condensation of a martial artist will power, goals, personality, and choices. Once dead, it's difficult to reform it. Yang Wu's martial heart died long ago, and he didn't feel motivated to fight for it again.
'Forget it... It's no use to think much, I will just be torturing myself. I should first try to figure out if I'm still in the same world.'
Time passed, and three years after he was reborn in this world, Yang Wu finally had some grasp on his situation. He seemed to have been reborn in the same world as his last life since he still didn't hear about humans possessing great strength. Moreover, he heard about the Han State, which borders the state he currently was, Ling State.
This discovery turned more difficult for Yang Wu to try and revive his martial heart. He didn't want to "stain" that world with "cursed" martial arts.
He knew that once that world had martial arts, it would just become a worse place for common people to live in.
As practicing alone and without anyone discovering it, he didn't believe it was possible. He needed resources and it would eventually attract attention. Even if he didn't impart his knowledge, others might go after martial arts by themselves and many years later discover the true power of it. He saw many geniuses in his first life and knew it was possible to discover true martial arts without proper guidance, they just needed to know that the human body had great potential.
"Little Yin, did you do what I told you?" Yang Wu was woken from his trance by Yin Kong and looked over.
Yin Kong was carrying wood on his shoulder, preparing for the winter that was coming.
Yang Wu nodded and showed him his completed housework, he was being educated since young by Yin Kong, who wanted him to become a scholar.
"Hehehe, you are a real genius!" Yin Kong laughed foolishly after seeing the correct answers, "Keep up the good work and you might even become a great minister!"
"Ugh..." Yang Wu subconsciously made a sound out of his annoyance at the thought.
"What?" Yin King looked at him disapprovingly, "Don't you want to be a royal minister?"
Yang Wu sighed and regretted not being able to retain his mouth shut, "I think it's better to be a blacksmith."
"Bah!" Yin Kong sneered, "Who taught you such nonsense? Scholars are way more graceful than blacksmiths!"
Yang Wu's face turned as black as charcoal after hearing it. He never saw an old man as eccentric as Yin Kong.
'Is being graceful that important to you!?' Yang Wu thought to himself but wisely decided to not open his mouth. He was just a kid anyway, he will decide by himself when he grows up.
"What strange things are you teaching the poor kid?" Yin Rong interrupted them and hugged Yang Wu.
She was unable to retain her promise of not taking care of Yang Wu. When she saw how "cute" Yang Wu was, her cold heart melted.
"I'm telling him the way of life," Yin Kong said as he stroked his beard, like a wise old man.
"Bah!" both Yang Wu and Yin Rong sneered at the same time.
"You!" Yin King turned furious and left in high strides.
"Ignore that foolish old man, just become whatever you want to be," Yin Rong lovingly comforted Yang Wu and kissed him on the head.
'Alas, I'm really fated with old couples...' Yang Wu sighed in his heart. Even after living two entire lives, he was unable to refuse the feeling of such loving people and also developed an affection for them.
Yang Wu grew up fast, and every day to him was a day to reminisce about days already past. Memories of his two past lives both tormented and comforted him.
Somedays, he smiled when he remembered about the Gu couple and the orphanage, and somedays he felt nothing but gloom in his heart when memories of his first life flashed.
When Yang Wu turned nine years old, an unexpected event reached his ears. Han State invaded the Ling State!
"Those bastards! They feel superior for having better equipment at their disposal, but our men were stronger!" drunk, Yin Kong muttered to himself while lying down beside a tree, Yang Wu was there with him silently listening.
He knew the reason the Han State had better war equipment but didn't understand one thing.
"Grandpa, why is the emperor not intervening?" he asked, with a rare bit of curiosity.
"Hoh? Are you interested in the war?" Yin Kong eye's shone strangely and he explained, "The emperor can only worry about himself right now, the imperial court is in complete chaos and many kings want to fish in troubled waters...
"Just like the king of the Han State!"
"Oh..." Yang Wu understood and said nothing.
"Little Yin, are you afraid?" Yin Kong asked while sitting with his back on the tree.
"Yes and no," Yang Wu, who was now called Yin Ming by his new family, was confused and didn't know the answer.
"Why do you have so many thoughts?" Yin Kong laughed and patted Yang Wu's head, "There's nothing better than keeping things simpler! A great sage once said that the simpler, the closer to the truth!"
Yang Wu rolled his eyes but didn't reveal his lie, he knew that this "great sage" was no one but Yin Kong himself. The shameless old man liked to put great names behind his own sayings.
"I'm worried about you and grandma, and about the others," Yang Wu explained, "I hope the war ends quickly and didn't spread too far."
"You don't need to worry too much," Yin Kong's heart warmed and he comforted him, "The Han State just wants to expand their territory, they wouldn't dare to try and annex the Ling State, otherwise even the chaotic imperial court won't let them go."
"I hope so..." Yang Wu nodded and rejoiced the city they lived in, Fang City, was far away from the border, even further away than the Ling State's capital.
He didn't care much about his life, but he was never able to shut his heart from warm feelings for other people. He loved his current family as much as the orphanage from his past life.
Luckily for them, the war ended in just one year, after the Han State's disastrous defeats despite their superior armament. The Ling State wasn't to be trifled with.
When Yang Wu turned ten, he finally mended his heart enough to plan for his future, for real. He finally accepted one fact, even if he just wanted to die, there wasn't any guarantee he would be able to succeed.
Time had the power to erode everything, including old deep wounds. Thanks to this and the two loving families he was blessed to grow up with, his shattered heart was able to heal enough for him to not be completely overwhelmed by depression.
Even the Yin couple noticed the obvious change in Yang Wu's temperament as time passed after he turned ten years old.
If before he seemed a bit of an airhead child, he began to express more energy and look like an ordinary youngster. This made them relieved, and their worries about their "airhead child" began to diminish.
Yang Wu's priority, however, was not to practice martial arts and get strong enough to discover the truth. He first needed to repair his own martial heart.
He began to make sessions of deep meditation. As long as he had free time, he would be meditating. Be it below a tree or on any random street. He would simply sit down regardless of his posture and began to clean away his mind.
Many didn't know, but it wasn't obligatory to use medicine or extraordinary means to heal emotional and mental wounds, just meditating and thinking about nothing was a good enough therapy as long the person persevered.
And perseverance was the hard part for anyone with motivational problems, such as Yang Wu. The first year of meditation healing was the "most tormenting time" for him. Never, in all his lives, he felt so tormented as this year.
He constantly had nightmares which encouraged him to give up his routine and just lie down and wait for death again. "Perhaps it's not as you think," was what those nightmares whispered to him.
The Yin couple was scared of his constant mood swings and even hired an exceptional doctor to see what was wrong with Yang Wu.
"He seems to be struggling with some deep memories, all you can do is to stay beside him and never leave him alone," the doctor patiently, but seriously, explained to the couple, "I will prescribe some medicinal teas for him to take daily, it might help with the sudden emotional swings, but only time will be able to cure him."
Just those few words and prescriptions cost the old couple half their savings. When Yang Wu discovered this, he felt so sad his nightmares worsened for a whole month.
But he never said a word to the old couple, he knew old people were vulnerable to deep bad feelings, so he even feigned to get better to stabilize them.
After a year of constant torment and meditation, he began to feel his heart mending little by little. His nightmares reached a stable period and he got used to them. His intrusive thoughts no longer disturbed him, and his eyes no longer trembled when he thought about his first life.
He began to sort his beliefs and managed to gather enough confidence to meditate about the mistakes he committed in his first life, and how he should properly deal with the truths about the human heart, about how dark it is.
He asked Yin King for books of philosophy, he thought he could find new "out of the box" ideas.
Yin Kong was happy to see Yang Wu interested in books and thought that he was finally on the right track to become a great scholar.
When Yang Wu turned twelve, he had a sudden epiphany while dreaming. His dream was about his first life, and about how his views were subverted, about how his whole life struggle was in vain, and how the "common people" showed him the darkness inside a good person.
When Yang Wu expected the nightmare to be just like the others, he felt a sudden inspiration and his dream became a lucid one. He appeared beside his old self, but his old self couldn't see him.
He looked at the city below the mountain, the city he set fire to with his own hands. The cries of children and women echoed along the dusty wind.
His old self had a gloomy expression and blood flowed from the corners of his mouth.
Yang Wu looked at all this and muttered, "So what?" He discovered the deep dark feelings he had weren't as meaningful as he thought they were, didn't they erode over time as well? Just like everything else.
"Vanity..." he muttered again and the dream began to shatter, "Everything is as vain as clouds of thoughts, be it ambition or humanity's self-righteousness. They will pass, and be seen no more as they once were.
"Humanity is vain, how can it see the truth? How can I dare to try and separate myself from it? Am I superior to my peers? If I say yes, isn't it self-righteousness?"
His old self disappeared as smoke, and the mountain and cloudy sky dispersed as if a strong wind washed them away. Everything turned blank.
"I think I can see it, but am I better for believing to see? It is also self-righteousness," Yang Wu smiled, but contrary to his heavy words, his heart felt free.
"Since humanity is vain, shall I also shackle myself with vain tentatives of not being vain?
"Shall a worm turn into a bird? But a worm is born to be in the ground, so let it be," he muttered for the last time and woke up from his sleep, "A worm shall wait for the day it is destined, if it is destined."
He got up from his bed and opened his bedroom windows, the clear blue sky and its clouds greeted him along the birds' melody.
"How funny," Yang Wu muttered. He thought it would take decades to resolve his emotional problems, but an unexpected inspiration and enlightenment made his long-dead heart be born as if from ashes. Although it was still weak, it was full of vitality and no longer had the gloom of curses it once had.
His heart suddenly felt strong inspiration, he went to his desk and picked a pen, he began to write in a blank empty, "True humbleness is higher than humanity's righteousness. And True righteousness is higher than humanity's humbleness."
When he was about to put the pen down, he smiled and added, "I'm human, so how can I dare to say more? Outside of True righteousness, hypocrisy lies."
He didn't try to make his words beautiful and didn't bother to use better ink. He just looked at the simple paper, satisfied. Yes, satisfied.
Tears inadvertently flowed from his eyes as he tirelessly read what he wrote, but he didn't bother. He even tasted them with a hint of playfulness.
"Salty..."
The same day, he gathered all his savings and went to the market. He bought a lot of herbs known to be helpful to the body. He wasn't familiar with most of them, but it didn't matter to him.
He went home, completely broke, but his mouth sang any sound he could think of. When people looked at him, they thought to themselves "What is this prodigal child doing?"
Since his first life, it was the first time he was like a child outside... and inside himself.