-2 months later-
Jia Yuan and his father had been able to scrape by, but the Zhao family had come by several times to rob them of whatever money they earned. They weren’t the Zhao family’s only victims, either - they were starting to treat the village as their turf. The village’s residents were angered, but there wasn’t much they could do.
Alas, they were too weak. Worse, each time the Zhao family robbed a villager, they increased their own power by purchasing weapons and pills for themselves.
The villagers of Fire Hill Village were truly trapped - they didn’t have the strength to fight against the Zhao family, but if they didn’t they would only fall behind and suffer even more. It wasn’t like they could just uproot themselves and move, either - most of them relied upon their farmland to feed themselves and earn a living.
...
Jia Yuan was practicing his swordplay about fifty meters from the old shack.
Despite having practiced for two months while consuming the soul cultivation pills provided by the ghostly elder, Jia Yuan had been unable to progress to the 2nd level of Absorption. To be fair, it usually took a cultivator of high talent at least a year to reach the 2nd level of Absorption after acquiring a Song, but Jia Yuan had the help of a large supply of soul and body cultivation pills.
Yet, frustratingly, he could feel that he was stuck at the peak of the 1st level of Absorption. By his own calculations, his soul was more than strong enough, and his body should have been comparable to even the peak of the 3rd level!
Jia Yuan felt desperate. He wasn’t strong enough to defend himself and his father from the Zhao family, and they were running out of fire shards.
Sighing in frustration, Jia Yuan returned to the shack. There, his father was sitting at the center table, gazing wistfully at the broken congee pot. He noticed Jia Yuan entering, and called out to him.
“Jia Yuan, I have an errand for you to run. I need you to visit RockFire City and purchase a pot, along with some rice for us to eat… I’d hoped to be able to make do with the pot, but it’s really just too hard to cook anything with the hole leaking all of the heat. At least we’ve been able to save up enough money to buy another one.
“Here’s fifty fire shards to buy the pot and rice with… we won’t have much left after this purchase, so see if you can get a cheaper pot. Rice should be around three fire shards a pound, so don’t get scammed!”
“Mhmm.”
“If you leave now, you should be able to get to the village on the other side of the forest before nightfall. If you wait until morning, it’ll be another night without hot congee. Go, go.”
“...”
Jia Yuan promptly left the shack, grabbed his wooden sword, and ran in the direction of the forest.
What his father had said was true. If he ran quickly he should be able to exit the forest before nighttime. As for if he was caught in the forest during night time… well, Jia Yuan didn’t want to think about it. It would be better if he just focused on running.
After three hours or so of running, the sun was about to set, and Jia Yuan panted as he exited the other side of the forest.
If I remember correctly, I’ll see another village in another few minutes or so…
As Jia Yuan had surmised, after nine minutes of running, he did indeed see another village. However, several of the buildings were on fire, and he could see more than a hundred people fighting, as well as hear the sound of their weapons clashing.
Even as this all came into view, he noticed several women and children running towards him, away from the fighting.
A bandit attack?
Jia Yuan’s blood boiled as he charged forward.
As he neared the village, Jia Yuan’s nostrils filled with the smell of smoke and blood. Clearly, the fighting had resulted in quite some bloodshed already. Even before he reached the edge of the village, however, he noticed about ten bandits chasing a group of children who all looked to be younger than ten years old.
“You bastards!” Jia Yuan screamed as he charged toward the bandits.
When he came within five meters of the bandits, he dug his back foot into the ground, and exploded with force to dash towards the bandits. At the same time, he drew his wooden sword. This was the sword unsheathing method, which Jia Yuan had developed as an efficient way to begin his Dance.
As the dash propelled him toward and through the ten bandits, he agilely contorted his body to weave his way through the bandits without being hit with their weapons, and sliced through all ten of them with a single strike of his sword.
A few in the area noticed that not only had Jia Yuan’s dash propelled him extremely far, nearing the limits of human capability, but when he had propelled himself using his back food, a fiery blaze had exploded out from under said foot, adding to the force of the dash. In addition, his sword strike was not only fast and forceful, but his sword had been surrounded by a subtle fiery aura.
Such was the power of a Song.
Not only could Jia Yuan harness the power of fire, but he wouldn't even be harmed by fire created by his own Song. Furthermore, this protection was even applied to his clothes and weapons.
After slaying the ten bandits, Jia Yuan felt a surge of power course through his body.
The 2nd level of absorption!
Jia Yuan smiled wryly. After trying for so long, it was this sort of external stimulus that he needed, huh.
Despite his handiwork, however, there were still over a hundred bandits scattered around the village, fighting about fifty villagers. Looking around, Jia Yuan couldn’t help but shake his head.
All I wanted was to buy a pot and some rice, so how did happen to walk into this mess?
Jia Yuan finished surveying the surroundings and sprinted toward the villagers. After all, he had to do his best to keep them alive, or he himself would likely be hunted down and killed by the bandits. In this battle, he and the villagers were makeshift allies.
However, how could all of the bandits be so weak as the ones Jia Yuan had killed earlier?
The ones he had killed didn’t even have Songs, but the leader of the bandits was at the 5th level of Absorption - and he was currently using the power of his Song to suppress the villagers. Even the villager’s strongest, despite being at the 5th level of Absorption himself, clearly lacked combat expertise and was struggling mightily.
Unfortunately, Jia Yuan’s inexperience came into play at this juncture.
Jia Yuan had foolishly assumed that the strengths of the bandits were all similar to the ones he’d just dispatched, fairly weak. With this foolish mindset, he charged into the midst of the fighting, trading blows with several bandits at once.
Fortunately, Jia Yuan immediately realized his mistake when the first few bandits he came to blows with easily parried his blows - it was only the surprise of his sudden arrival that saved Jia Yuan from his foolhardy move.
Shit! I made a mistake! I have to get out of here!
Jia Yuan looked around. He had unwittingly ran into an earlier conflict, and now he and three other villagers were surrounded by five bandits.
Instead of panicking, Jia Yuan narrowed his eyes, and calmed his soul, preparing to unleash his Song.
The villagers beside him quickly noticed the change in the strange child’s aura, and their eyes widened with surprise, questions emerging in their minds.
Not the least of which was, how had such a young kid acquired a Song?
Despite the change in Jia Yuan’s aura, however, the five bandits surrounding him and the villagers hadn’t yet noticed, as they weren’t close enough to sense his aura. Furthermore, they didn’t think much of this kid with a wooden sword who had haphazardly joined the fray. Nor did they have time to, as they still had three villagers standing in front of them with steel weapons.
It was in this small village, besieged by bandits, that for the first time in history, the Song of Swords would show its domineering ability.,
In the deepest reaches of Jia Yuan’s soul, the Song started with the beat of a drum. He shut his eyes, and gave his soul to the Song.
Another beat of the drum, then another sounded. Then, suddenly, a full, majestic Song sounded out!
At that instant, Jia Yuan lunged forward, swinging his sword in a wide arc toward the closest bandit. This time, what surrounded the wooden sword was not a thick fiery aura, but instead the sword was engulfed in a raging inferno.
Seeing this, everybody present had the same reaction.
“What???”
“Shit! Run!”
Bandits and villagers alike ran as quickly as they could away from Jia Yuan - they could sense the power that was about to be unleashed.
Absorbed in his Song, Jia Yuan wasn’t fully aware of the actions his body was performing or the state of the battlefield. All he knew was that his Song was still playing, and he felt as if he was falling, drowning in a sea of darkness.
Despite this, Jia Yuan resembled a god of fire as he tore through the ranks of bandits, swinging his sword in a violent, yet almost elegant manner. His Dance in accordance with the Song of Swords wreaked havoc as entire walls of fire burned around him.
Quite frankly, he was starting to do as much damage to the village as the bandits had.
But, few had the wherewithal to care about that at the moment, as Jia Yuan continued in his rampage against the bandits - in mere moments, he’d killed almost half of the attacking bandits. Not only that, but the simple wooden sword in his hand had lit ablaze in the shape of a giant axe!
“Retreat! Retreat!”
“Get out of here, he’s a goddamn demon!”
Panicked shouts scattered through the bandits’ ranks, and they promptly ran away. The bandit leader himself glared across the village at Jia Yuan before running away himself.
As the leader of several hundred bandits, he was a strong warrior at the 5th level of Absorption. If he’d joined the army, he would’ve been given the title of a 400 or 500 man commander, but even he wasn’t strong enough to cause the destruction that he’d just witnessed.
He felt a surge of jealousy and anger in his heart. How could he accept this? How could a child be so strong? He could a child possess so much destructive power? Despite his thoughts, his eyes showed the truth - so many of his followers, his comrades, had fallen to this child.
It was truly hard for him to swallow this fact.
Back in the village, Jia Yuan’s body abruptly stopped pursuing the retreating bandits, and his body shuddered. Then, it stopped moving. Jia Yuan’s aura burst into flames, he remained motionless.
He was achieving yet another breakthrough!
Before he had entered the battle, his body had already been strong enough to support the 3rd level of Absorption. With the help of the pills which he consumed almost daily, his soul was also strong enough to support the 3rd level of Absorption.
Furthermore, he originally had a strong soul as well, so with the help of the pills, his soul was almost strong enough to support the 4th level of Absorption! This rate of improvement could only be normally attributed to the genius of a noble family. After all, while a commoner could rely on their talent, the prized geniuses of a noble family would have their development supplemented by a surplus of pills.
But, how could anyone know that Jia YUan had over a thousand extremely high-quality pills at this disposal?
As for why Jia Yuan broke through to the 3rd level of Absorption so quickly after being gated at the 1st level of Absorption for such a long time, he wasn’t quite sure. Was it a lack of true combat that had gated him for so long?
His improvement had not come without risks, however.
The feeling of drowning that Jia Yuan experienced earlier had been real. Of course, he hadn’t been drowning in reality; it was his soul that had been drowning. This was the risk involved with domineering Songs - how could such a powerful, arrogant existence be content with being controlled by a human? The “dark sea” that he was in was in fact a sea of souls, a sea of the unfortunate souls of those Jia Yuan had slain.
With each soul that the Song of Swords absorbed into its sea of souls, the Song grew stronger - and the stronger Jia Yuan would have to be to contain it.
The Absorption realm.