The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 30

Li Jian at 13 years old

Waking up, he could smell the ocean once again. It would be another hard day of cleaning fish. If he was able to clean and gut enough of them, then perhaps he will have enough coins to find himself some dinner. Sighing as he got up, he looked around the sparse tiny room that he lived in. In truth, he had nothing but the bamboo mattress underneath his undernourished body. When his parents had died years ago, he could only rely on himself to keep living. The place he stayed in was a tiny hut that had belonged perhaps to someone who used to live in the village. Looking around him, he saw that he still had some time and quickly got into the meditation position and began breathing slowly, focusing on the small particles of energy that floated around inside his body. He focused and concentrated on gathering them, but it never seemed to do much. Bit by bit they would gather together slowly but even when he concentrated for an hour, they would never move much.

Opening his eyes and sighing, he got up and got dressed quickly. The only other possession he owned was a small knife that he used to gut fish at the dock. Hurrying to the dock, he was painfully aware of the emptiness of his stomach. Yesterday he was only able to buy a single bowl of rice and for a young boy growing up, it was woefully insufficient. Today however he knew that he had to do better. Once he arrived at the dock, the fishing boats had already left for the second time. Their first load was set by the peer and he quickly lined up. In the work queue. Standing there in front of a bucket of fish guts, he quickly took each fish one by one and sliced them open neatly. If he damaged any of the fish, it would be docked from his pay. One after the other, it became quickly the usual monotonous routine. He would pick up a fish by the tail and sliced through its belly with his knife. Then the fish guts would get ripped out and dumped into the bucket before the fish was placed into a large container.

The day could not end soon enough. Just after lunch time, the fishing boats came back and brought in the last load. He had to save some time to try and practice. After cutting apart the last fish, he placed it into the bucket and quickly moved to the side of the pier where he was able to wash his hands in the briny sea water. The sun was high up in the air and he only felt a sense of exhaustion. When he went to collect his pay, the fish monger eyed his pile and hmphed before reluctantly handing him the 10 pieces of copper. 10 whole pieces of copper, he would be able to stock pile a little bit of food today then. Leaving quickly before the fish monger changed his mind and decided to dock him, he went home and added together the coppers that he had saved up from yesterday, having a total of 12 pieces of copper.

After going through the market, he now had a full sack of rice and he was able to afford a new whetstone. This meant he could keep working. The damn fish monger didn’t even provide his own knives. There wasn’t a lot of people willing to work in such a fashion but a lot of young kids who did dirty work like cutting out fish guts to make some kind of a small living.

Each day was like the last. He was able to stockpile a bit of rice each time he was paid, and keep his own knife sharpened. He would sleep on the bamboo mattress, shivering on it each night when the sea breeze blew through the uncovered windows of his small hut. “There must be more to life than simply living like this.” He thought to himself as he drifted off to an exhausted sleep.

The next day he got up the same way but sighed to himself. There would be no work today, the seas were too stormy. The fishing boats all docked at the pier itself. He decided to go out for a walk anyways and felt the rain start after a few moments of him wandering around the relatively empty market. At least he had rice stored up. An adult figure waved at him and came up to him, the man smiling at him earnestly. “Little Li, what are you doing around today?” Li Jian waved at the adult and smiled. “Uncle! There is no work for me today so I am at a loss of what to do. I might go and see if I can catch some small fish today on the other side of the cove.” The man was known as Uncle Ji. Uncle Ji was a kind hearted fisherman who was never married and so he spent some time when he could to always try and take care of the orphans like Li Jian. “Little Li, I was just coming to your house with a present.”

He handed over a few grilled fish wrapped in banana leaves and smiled. “I couldn’t sell these to the fish monger, they were too small so I cooked them but I cooked too many. Blame my bad luck for catching too many small ones.” Li Jian happily took the wrapped bundle of grilled fish from the Uncle and waved at him as he ran off, happy to have something to go with his rice for a change. Uncle Ji waved back as he smiled at the child. At the fish mongers section of the pier where fish was gutted, Li Jian was the youngest one working there. Some how he managed to show up day in and day out just to make a few coins.

After having a very satisfied breakfast of rice and fish with a few splashes of soy sauce that he had bought with some of his hard-earned coins, he took out his fishing rod and decided that while he had enough fish for dinner, he had to catch some more so that he would have fish to eat. Salt was too expensive for him to preserve anything. He got his bucket and his fishing rod, a simple bamboo stick with a string and a lure attached and decided to go off towards the north shore. Not many people went to the north shore. The fishing there was not great for a fisherman who depended on the sea for his living but for Li Jian, it was a perfect secluded spot where he would not be disturbed. Considering the weather, he may have some good luck digging out some clams as well and other shellfish.

After a good half an hour of walking, he arrived at the spot and carefully set down his bucket to avoid alerting any fish near by in the cove before finding himself a nice spot where he would cast his lure out. He knew it would be a little bit before he had a bite but his patience soon paid off. After a few hours, he was able to catch three sizable fish. He was just thinking about leaving when he heard the sound of a hollow thunk. He looked around and found that the sound came from a bit further up. Leaving his bucket and his fishing rod behind, he took out his knife and began walking towards the sound. Perhaps there would be something valuable that he could sell for a few pretty coins. He heard the sound again and tracked it further, this time finding a small cave that seemed to lead into the water. He wasn’t sure why he would be able to hear something like that when the cave seemed to be drowned but he would dive down into the cave opening, into the icy cold water.

In the murky dark water for what felt like ages, he surfaced in what looked like a massive air pocket. Gasping for air as he surfaced, he looked around to see that the opening was dimly lit by various glowing crystals. He wasn’t sure what they were, but they made him feel better. He rested up against a large formation of them growing up from the ground and found that his energy levels had recovered. In fact, he had felt better than before. He felt a soft warmth from his dantian, the energy gathering in his dantian like they never had before. This only made him curious about what this cave was and he walked in deeper. The deeper he went into the cave, the more of those glowing crystals he found but he also realized the temperature was steadily becoming warmer and warmer. He finally got to what seemed like an end to the cave but there was a set of doors. As he climbed up a set of stairs, his hand was scraped against a rock. Wincing, he rested his hand up against the set of doors that felt hot to the touch. Strangely, the droplets of his blood leaking from the wound on his hand began to react to the door.

The door opened slowly but steadily to reveal an inner chamber. Inside the chamber were four statues each facing each other in a circle. In the middle was a platform that looked as if it was meant for someone to sit. He wandered around unsteadily, his blood dripping down from his hand in tiny crimson droplets. The four statues were familiar to him. There was the Azure Dragon, the Black Tortoise, the White Tiger and the Vermillion Bird. The four divine beasts of the four directions. He had never seen a cavern like this and truly wondered if this was really something near his tiny fishing village. As he walked into the center and onto the platform, the four statues began glowing. After a few moments, four spiritual energies stepped out of each of their respective statues. Li Jian simply froze in fear, the youthful mind of his paralyzed with both the spiritual pressure and powerful energy coming from the four floating creatures.

“Boy, how did you find your way in here?” The Tortoise asked, his black ironed covered head twitching slightly as if just waking up from a long slumber. Li Jian found himself unable to answer, his mouth only gaping like a fish on land. “Tortoise, he is a mortal boy. He cannot just comprehend you.” The Azure Dragon said disapprovingly. Li Jian waved his hands finally. “I’m sorry I understand you, I just don’t know what to say.” The four divine beasts looked at him. He wondered if he had said something wrong. “That would explain how he was able to come in here.” The Vermillion Bird said, giving his feathers a shake. “Boy, what is your blood line?” The White Tiger asked, the only one of them that seemed to be sitting still. Li Jian shook his head. “I’m.. human? From the small fishing village of Yu Dao.” The Tortoise shook slightly with laughter.

“No boy, he is asking about your blood line.” The Vermillion Bird said as he stalked forward on his massive claws and peered down at him. “He is of a blood line that was able to awake us. Pardon the intrusion little boy.” The Azure Dragon moved up to him and gently placed one of his claws upon his forehead. Li Jian could not have been prepared for what was next. His body began to glow, and as he looked at his hands and fingers it seemed as if he could see each vein in his body glowing bright enough to be seen through his skin. The four divine beasts seemed to stare at him intently. “What a treasure.” The White Tiger said, swishing his tail back and forth. The Azure Dragon stepped back and peered at Li Jian curiously. “Do you truly not know of your origins?” Li Jian shook his head sadly. “I’m an orphan. I don’t remember my parents at all.” The Vermillion Bird walked around him, looking at him curiously as well.

“I offer you a choice then boy. I can wipe your memories of this place and send you back to where you came from. Or you can attempt the trial.” The Dragon sat back and peered at him, waiting for his answer. “What is the trial?” He asked. Tortoise let out a soft deep breath. “The trial is to see if you are worthy of activating your bloodline. The truth is boy, you have a gift. I don’t know from where you got it. But if you ever wish to be more than an orphaned boy and become something in this world, the trial will let you do that. Fail the trial, and you will die.” Li Jian thought about it carefully before nodding. “If I have the chance to be able to do more with my life than gut fish, I will risk it. Even if I die, the only thing I will lose is another few decades of gutting fish.”

“Good. Prepare yourself boy. This will hurt.” The four divine beasts all looked at him, their eyes glowing a deep colour. White, black, azure and vermillion light engulfed him and Li Jian collapsed to the ground instantly. He felt his body being frozen, being burned alive, being electrified and being crushed all at the same time. His soul seemed to scream out in protest at this, his jaws locking into position. He was unable to let out a single sound as much as he tried to scream. Every single nerve in his body fired and twitched before he felt himself being ripped apart. “I must succeed, I cannot go back to live that life. There must be more to life than that.” Every ounce of his being was being torched. The only thing that kept him going was that the last 14 years of his life had been meaningless. If he could not pass this trial, then his whole life will be meaningless. Nothing could hurt as much as the thought of a few decades of meaninglessness.

Slowly but surely, the pain began to stop but a different pain began. His bones felt as if they were being crushed to piece. His flesh felt as if they were burning off. An electrical conduit raced through his acupuncture points while pure white light burned open every single one of his meridians. His body began to react more and more, until every single one of his limbs felt brand new. “Brother Dragon, do you see that?” The Vermillion Bird murmured. The Azure Dragon nodded. “His body has been rebuilt to match his bloodline.” The Tortoise breathed out slowly as he watched the boy’s body be rebuilt from scratch, only his veins and brain remaining at one point. “What bloodline is it to have such a reaction?” The Azure Dragon only smiled. “He is of the Immortal Bloodline. But look at how his body is being rebuilt.”

The four divine beasts watched as the dantian that was reformed was not the same previous one as before but rather had a bright white glow in the shape of a sword. “A sword dantian. The bloodline of an Immortal with a dantian of sword. This boy, is he a descendant of the War God?” The Azure Dragon shook his head at the White Tigers question. “No, but he may surpass the War God.” Li Jian at this point had passed out, his body unable to take the pressure and trauma that had come from his body rebuilt. The four Divine Beasts looked at the boy. This was someone who will shake the universe one day.