Chapter 25: HiRyu

“Oh? Why doesn’t the village head deal with that?”

“Well, you see, the Zhao family is simply too big and strong

for even the village head to deal with. You see, the village head is at the 6th

level of Absorption, while the head of the Zhao family is at the 7th

level of Absorption. Furthermore, the Zhao family owns a very large amount of

slaves who are all fairly strong.”

“I see, I see…”

A grin started to form on Guo Huo’s face.

“Alright, Jia Yuan. I’ll make a deal with you. If you can

pave the way for me to the Zhao head, I’ll take care of him. However, you’ll

have to deal with the rest of them. If you fail to do so, then I won’t help.”

Jia Yuan’s ex-master started panicking. “Sir, you can’t! Jia

Yuan is much weaker than the Zhao family even if their family head isn’t

involved!”

“Hmm? But he’s at the 3rd level of Absorption

with an extremely powerful Song. He should be able to fight evenly with those at the 6th

level of Absorption.

The ex-master’s face really turned green this time. He

thought that he had gotten a good deal selling Jia Yuan for 10 thousand small

fire shards earlier, but it turned out that Jia Yuan would actually have been

worth far more than he had asked for. If only he had known earlier just how

valuable Jia Yuan was…

Unfortunately, the deal had already gone through, and Guo

Huo was clearly not a man to be be annoyed.

As such, Jia Yuan’s ex-master could only grind his teeth in

regret.

As for Guo Huo’s proposal to Jia Yuan, Jia Yuan readily

agreed.

After all, this was simply too great an opportunity! Ever

since the Zhao family had robbed his ex-master of the fire shards gained from

selling Dou Di to the Army, he had wanted to exact revenge.

But his strength had been too low! Before leaving the

village, he had only been at the 1st level of Absorption! If he

tried to go against the Zhao family before, he would easily have been

overwhelmed and probably beaten to the brink of death.

However, now he was at the 3rd level of Absorption,

and according to Guo Huo he could fight others at the 6th level of Absorption!

Furthermore, he had a powerful figure in Guo Huo backing him up!

If I were to get overwhelmed,

he’d surely intervene right? After all, he seems rather interested in me.

This will also be a worthy

test in my path of cultivation. How ‘bout we call it “The Fiery Hero Jia Yuan

saves Fire Hill Village from the ugly Zhao overlords!”

Jia Yuan readily agreed to the deal proposed by Guo Huo. “Sure,

but when will we do it?”

“That depends… if you were to suddenly attack the Zhao

family, would the rest of the village side with you or against you?”

Jia Yuan immediately replied, “The Zhao family has been

bullying all of the villagers who are not able to easily defend themselves. I

believe that the village would be glad if the Zhao family were to be removed.”

“In that case, we’ll rest for the night. In the morning, you’ll

go to the village center and provoke the Zhao family. From there, it’ll depend

on your performance. In the meantime, I’ll treat the two of you to a meal.”

With that, Guo Huo tapped his necklace and drew out a small

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bag. He plopped the bag onto the table, and opened it. Jia Yuan and his

ex-master could both smell the meat within, and began salivating.

Guo Huo turned to the stove, and then paused.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a pot, would you?’

Jia Yuan awkwardly glanced at his ex-master, then with a

thought, withdrew a pot from his ring and threw it over to Guo Huo.

“Ah, excellent.”

Guo Huo quickly lit a fire by waving his hand at the bottom

of the pot. Interestingly enough, even though there wasn’t any wood there to

burn, the fire did not go out. Jia Yuan noticed this phenomenon, but did not

ask, as he didn’t want to distract Guo Huo from cooking this…*ahem* deliciously

smelling meat.

After a few minutes, Guo Huo finished cooking, and the three

of them ate the wonderfully tasty meet, and then went to sleep in preparation

for the battle tomorrow.

-8 hours later-

Jia Yuan and Guo Huo had both woken up about half an hour

ago. Jia Yuan was stretching and calming himself before the battle, and Guo Huo

was watching him do this and making his judgements.

At this time, Guo Huo spoke up. “If you can defeat everyone

but the Zhao family head, I will fulfill my promise, but I will give you an

additional challenge. You must learn to control the destructive capability of

your Song. I noticed during your fight with the bandits that the flames

exhibited from your sword while performing your Dance were very wild and

unbridled. This shows that you have a complete lack of control your Song.”

“It is the same concept that applies to actual singers. The

same song, sung by two different people, can sound very different and give off

a different feeling, depending on how they sing it. It is the same way with our

Songs. Unfortunately, right now you do not have any control over the Song and

are like a fledgling. Of course, you are at the lower of Absorption, so you

haven’t had too much experience with your Song, but it will be good to begin

practicing control over your Song.”

“As such, I give you a challenge. You will be fighting

around the village. As such, your challenge will be to not let a single scorch

mark be left on any of the villager’s houses. If you don’t succeed, you’ll be

punished.”

Jia Yuan understood the reasoning behind Guo Huo’s

challenge. If he defeated the Zhao family but destroyed the village in the

process, the villagers wouldn’t exactly be happy about it. In fact, they might

even view Jia Yuan in a worse light than they did the Zhao family.

Furthermore, it was true what Guo Huo had said about

control. Jia Yuan hadn’t even thought about controlling the Song at all, and

had only been working to increase his destructive power. Even when he had used

the flames under his feet to propel himself farther, the flames had been very

wild and unbridled.

“I accept your challenge.” With that, Jia Yuan headed out

the door of the shack toward the center of the village.

Upon arriving, Jia Yuan drew his new sword out of the ring,

and drew the sword out of the scabbard.

“A good sword should always be named. As of now, I will call

you HiRyu!

(Writer’s note: That means fire dragon.)