Chapter 91: One Sword To Free The Heart.

Yao Jun didn't immediately respond to Heng Jiang, continuing to gaze at that blue pearl placed safely within the palm of his hand. The more he continued to gaze at it, the more enchanted by it he became.

The feeling of having everything he wanted to protect placed safely within his palm could only be described as intoxicating. Yao Jun could not help but long for the day he could make this reality, to hold them safely through everything.

“If you want to hold it safely within your palm like that, it requires you to work hard, otherwise it will always stay as naught but a dream.”

Heng Jiang's hand landed on Yao Jun's right shoulder, his voice sounding out from right next to him. Yao Jun shook his head and retracted his arm. He turned towards Heng Jiang with a burning gaze and gave him a deep bow.

“Thank you for showing me this, senior, I will make sure that it becomes reality.”

Yao Jun felt truly grateful to Heng Jiang. Not only had he given him a supreme technique like Crumbling The Nine Heavens, he had also showed him what it felt like to be able to protect everything he wanted to protect, further cementing Yao Jun's desire to become strong.

“As long as you have the heart to fight for the things you want to protect, I will be pleased. I wish I could be there when the whole world learns of the name, Yao Jun.”

Heng Jiang could not help but let out a sigh as he spoke. He truly wished that he could continue to stick around and see Yao Jun's future, but his time was already over. Even this remnant thought would only be able to remain for a short time.

Heng Jiang shook his head and put on his usual tranquil smile. He waved his hand and the world around the two of them changed once more. This time Yao Jun found that they had arrived in a small village located in a deep valley. Surrounded by mountains and a large forest, the village was almost completely isolated.

Heng Jiang did not say anything, just looking around at the village with a yearning gaze. They continued to stand there for a short moment, until a young boy, seemingly no older than ten, suddenly ran out from one of the small wooden houses that the village was made from. The boy was clad in a simple white robe, had clear green eyes and short brown eyes. A simple sword hung at his waist.

The boy opened his mouth, seemingly shouting something, but there was no sound that came out. After the boy shouted something, a young girl walked out from another one of the houses. The girl had clean white skin, long blonde hair and brown eyes.

The girl had a guilty look on her face as she walked over to the young boy. She stopped a short distance away from him and lowered her head, seemingly too afraid to face him. She opened her mouth and spoke a few words, and the young boy's face turned ashen.

She did not speak more after that, she simply turned around and ran back into the house she came out from, leaving behind the boy who simply stood there, pale as snow. The boy stretched out a trembling arm, as if he was trying to grasp something that was no longer there.

After standing still for several minutes, the boy turned and ran. He did not run into the house he had come from, he ran away from the village. Yao Jun and Heng Jiang automatically followed the young boy as he ran deeper into the forest, until he was so deep in the forest that he could not even see a trace of the village.

After running deep into the forest, the young boy stopped and turned his head towards the sky. He let loose what seemed to be a long scream, tears streaming down his face. After he stopped screaming, he pulled out the sword hanging at his waist and started swinging it around in various patterns.

“Her name was Jin Hanying. Even though we were but children, we were still in love with each other. We even planned on getting married one day. But because that years winter had been especially bad, her parents fell ill.”

While the young boy was swinging his sword, Heng Jiang spoke up, his voice still sounded tranquil, but Yao Jun could detect a faint pain hidden deep within.

“Our two houses were poor, so we could not afford the medicine to heal them. She had no other options, she could only give herself to the son of the village leader, becoming his concubine. She told me that she could not marry me because she no longer loved me, that the son of the village leader was very good to her.”

Heng Jiang let out a self deprecating chuckle as he shook his head. It was clear that this day had affected him tremendously.

“Even back then she had always been a terrible liar, but I still chose to believe her. To drown out the truth by repeating the lie to myself. The truth was that I was simply too weak to marry her. Had I been stronger, I would have had a higher standing in the village, I would have been able to afford the medicine. But I was weak, so I could do nothing but run. Run until I became strong enough to grasp everything in the palm of my hand.”

While Heng Jiang was talking, Yao Jun was almost completely immersed in the moves that the young boy was performing. As the young boy kept swinging his sword, it slowly started going from a slash to a stab.

“This moment helped me realize that without strength, you were not even free to love, even your heart was shackled by weakness. It was here I developed the first sword strike of Crumbling The Nine Heavens. One Sword To Free The Heart. The pain I felt that day was like a sword stabbing through my heart, so the technique became a stab that pierces all in it's path.”

When Heng Jiang finished his words, the young boy stabbed out with his sword once more. The sword slightly twisted as he stabbed forth, a burst of Qi shooting out from the sword and creating a small hole in a branch not far away from the boy.

Yao Jun could not only see the moves of the boy, he could even see how the young boy moved his Qi as he was practicing. He slowly came to understand how this technique worked. The technique gathered up his Qi and made it rotate rapidly, before it released all that rotating Qi through the tip of the sword, resulting in a stab with immense power.

“That was One Sword To Free The Heart, practice it well little one. I have shown you everything I can for now, so it is time for you to leave. The next time you open a new channel and come to learn the sword strike within, this remnant thought of mine will no longer exist, you will only be able to see my experience up until I made the technique. The rest you will have to figure out on your own.”

As Heng Jiang spoke, the forest in front of their eyes started vanishing. After the forest vanished, Yao Jun found that his mind had left the channel, returning to his body. After his mind left the channel, Heng Jiang's voice rang out inside his head one last time.

“Also, I can only do this up until the fifth channel. This is because I was never able to create techniques for the fifth, sixth, seventh, eight, and ninth channel. You will have to create your own techniques, sword strikes that belong to only you.”