PROLOGUE

On the outskirts of Fire Hill Village, two young boys were

sparring with wooden swords. The two almost appeared to be dancing together,

weaving their swords through the air.

This was a rather common sight at Fire Hill Village, as the

two boys sparred every day. At times, some passing villagers or travelers

would pause their daily routines and watch. However, they would always leave

before long, sighing to themselves. For unfortunately, although the two boys

seemed to have a reasonable amount of skill, it was apparent that they were both slaves, and were

unlikely to obtain access to any pills or techniques to properly train in the way

of the Song. In fact, the boys were fortunate to even have wooden swords to

train with. Many young slaves were only able to play with wooden sticks they

found on the ground.

After another ten minutes of sparring, the two boys abruptly

stopped. One boy’s sword was in the middle of a swing, while the sword of the

older looking boy was at the first boy’s neck. This signified that the older

boy had won, as well as the end of the sparring match.

“Jia Yuan, you’re almost getting to the point where you can

beat me!”

“Dou Di big brother, it is only because you do your best to

teach me and push me to improve every day. Or perhaps, you’re just getting

worse. Hahaha.”

“Oh, shut up you idiot. As for teaching you, it is all I can

do. Unfortunately, as slaves, the only chance we have to move up in the world

is to become soldiers. Even without pills or techniques, with enough practice,

we can progress to the first level of Absorption. I think, at that point, our

master would be willing to sell us to the Army for sizable sum of money. Hell,

if we’re lucky, maybe the Army will even provide us with a Song to train with.”

“Dou Di big brother is right! One day we’ll leave this world

behind!”

Currently, Jia Yuan was 8 years old, and Dou Di was 10. When

they were first purchased two years ago, they quickly became allies of a sort.

After a few months, they began sparring together and called each other

brothers. Over time, the bond between the two was not any less than that of blood

brothers.

The two brothers continued practicing into the night.

However, they made sure to not overexert themselves, as they knew that their

master would have work for them in the morning. As Dou Di predicted, the only

reason the master let them practice in the night, was so that he could sell the

two boys to the Army in the future.

As one of the four nations on the Continent of the Five

Elements, the Fire Kingdom desperately needed a constant influx of soldiers defend against invasions and man invasions of their own. After all, every nation wants to be

able to expand its borders, and the Fire Kingdom was no exception.

As such, every year the Army would send some low ranking

officers through the kingdom in search for young martial talent. Many of these

recruits would be former slaves. In fact, some slave owners would purchase slaves

for the sole purpose of training them to sell them to the Army for a large sum of

money. A typical child at the age of 4-6 cost about 50 small fire shards, while

a 12 year old with reasonable martial skill could be sold to the Army for over

500 small fire shards. If the slaves were made to work in a way that did not lose their master money, then

the owner would receive a straight profit of 450 small fire shards. To put this

into perspective, a family could live off of a single small fire shard for a

month. With just 6 to 8 years of effort, a talented slave owner could virtually

set themselves for life.

12 years of age was the requirement for the national army.

Furthermore, the recruit had to have passable talent with a weapon as well as

good body strength. However, the extremely talented who had reached the Absorption

level by the age of 12 could bypass the life of a simple infantryman, and become a

knight or a candidate for the Burning Legion, the prized fighting force of the Fire Kingdom.

For slaves who had reached this level, the Army would be willing to pay 5

thousand small fire shards, or its higher equivalent, 500 medium fire shards.

This shows just how highly the Kingdom valued these talents.

And such was the dream of Jia Yuan and Dou Di, to become one

of these highly respected Burning Legion soldiers.

Jia Yuan and Dou Di both returned to the small shack at the edge

of Fire Hill Village, where they noticed that their master had already gone to

sleep, but had left two bowls of congee on the table in the middle of the room.

Jia Yuan and Dou Di were both rather fortunate. Their master

was rather kind hearted, and treated the two rather well. At the very least, he

was willing to provide them with basic necessities, such as clothes and food.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

(Although the food was only ever congee or vegetable congee)

They quickly ate, and slept on the floor. They would continue

training in this manner until the fateful day in 2 years, when Dou Di would be recruited

by the Army...

Chapter 1: A Song

-2 years after the prologue-

“Big Brother, I will soon follow you. Wait for me!”

Earlier that day, a 100 man commander stopped by Fire

Hill Village, and had purchased Dou Di from the master for the hefty price of 4

thousand small fire shards. After all, despite not being able to enter the

first level of Absorption due to his lack of a Song to train with, Dou Di had

reached the threshold required to do so. All he required was a Song, which the

Army would provide him with. In short, the Army had basically gained themselves

a candidate for the Burning Legion.

For a slave like Dou Di, this was an outcome that he had

dreamed about for many years. Which brings us to the current moment, where Jia

Yuan and Dou Di were exchanging their goodbyes in preparation for Dou Di’s

departure.

“You idiot Jia Yuan, who would wait for you? You better keep

training hard or you might not be able to surpass me! Ha!” Dou Di offered some

brave words of encouragement, but in his heart he was also slightly sad that he

would have to leave this brother of his behind.

After the goodbyes were said and Dou Di left, Jia Yuan

headed back to the location where he and his brother frequently sparred, and gazed at the field with sad eyes. I’ll see you in two years, brother. He

then headed out west, opposite the direction of the main village. He headed into the

nearby forest and started sprinting. He and Dou Di had both reached the peak of

martial training without Songs, at which point the Master knew that he could

sell them for four thousand small fire shards. At this point, the Master was

very happy, and allowed the two of them to explore the surroundings. The place

where Jia Yuan liked to explore the most was the forest.

The day before, he had discovered a cave, but given that it

was nearing nighttime when he found it, he had decided to come back the day

after.

I should be getting

close to the cave by now.

After another 5 minutes, Jia Yuan found the cave, and cautiously

walked in. It was very dark, so Jia Yuan quickly used a fire ember (a commonly

found, cheap item in the Fire Kingdom used for starting fires) on a stick to

create a torch. He then continued on.

It seemed to be a rather deep cave, and Jia Yuan walked for

about a full minute before he stopped. In front of him was a rather large bear,

standing slightly taller than Jia Yuan himself, body rippling with muscle.

Jia Yuan smiled to himself. It seems that this will be good practice. He quickly drew his

wooden sword, placed his torch on the ground, and took a stance. Then he

waited.

The bear quickly lumbered toward Jia Yuan, and tried to tackle

Jia Yuan with a swiping motion.

Jia Yuan saw this, and jumped to the right, dodging the

swipe. At the same time, he swung the wooden sword at the bear’s eyes.

Jia Yuan had sparred for so many years with Dou

Di. As such, the speed of the bear, while frightening to a commoner, was easily

below his own. As such, his sword hit true and slashed through the eyes of the

bear, effectively blinding it.

WIth that, the bear had already lost.

Jia Yuan quickly dashed around the bear while slashing again

and again with his sword. Despite never learning a Song, he was still fairly

adept at performing a Dance with his sword. After performing about 10 slashes over the

course of 4 seconds, he stopped. The bear’s body was crisscrossed with bloody

scars, a testament to Jia Yuan’s skill. Although others may have had trouble

with the bear even with a metal sword, he was able to swiftly take down the

bear with a wooden sword.

Well, I guess it wasn’t

that good of practice. Maybe I’ll meet a stronger creature later…

Jia Yuan picked up his torch and continued further down the

cave. After another minute, there was a hole in the floor of the cave,

leading deeper into the ground. I wonder

what could be down there… guess I’ll take a look.

He jumped down into the hole and started descending. After a short descent, he arrived at a room in the cave.

For some reason, there was a pillar in the middle of the

cave. Strangely enough, the pillar and the area around it was illuminated, even though

there was no light entering this room.

Jia Yuan felt drawn towards the pillar, and walked toward it

with large strides. Can this be? Can this

really be??

Jia Yuan felt rather incredulous, for on the pillar was a

scroll covered in symbols.

It was a Song.