Chapter 100: Laws
‘Sun?’ Hui Yue asked curiously, as he heard Lan Feng’s comments and the phoenix finally started speaking. ‘When our forefathers created this plane they created a sun and a moon. Those two split the year in half, taking responsibility of half a year each. This was how the seasons were born.’
‘Sun would enter meditation, where she would meditate for half a year. The meditation allows for her to become one with the world, and through her care flowers bloom and spring arrives. Her cultivation will soar during the half year and the world feels her presence more and more as the days goes by. This is why spring is less warm than summer.’
Lan Feng paused slightly to see if Hui Yue understood, and with a nod from the white-haired boy the phoenix continued: “When Sun manages to fully merge with the world, her powers will be the strongest and the sun will shine the most, sending warm rays of sunshine to the surface.’
‘As soon as she reaches her peak, then Moon will come and take over he will enter isolated meditation, and when he reaches his peak winter will be upon us. It is autumn now so Moon should be meditating, but that means Sun should be here to look after their children, the seasons.’
‘If she has four children then who is Xingye?’ Hui Yue asked curiously. He was not a season but instead a night sky.
‘Xingye was created by our forefathers along with Sun and Moon. As long as he lives, the stars will shine forever.’
Pausing slightly, Lan Feng’s brows were furrowed, as he pondered how to explain something as profound as the subject they were currently speaking about.
‘Could she not just be somewhere else?’ Hui Yue asked quizzical, yet upon seeing the phoenix shake his head, a frown appeared on his forehead as he observed the five children who were all playing on Deng Wu, happiness evident within their eyes as they remembered a time long past.
“Xingye,” Hui Yue called out and the child instantly turned around. His face beaming with happiness as the many stars were shining brightly within the eyes. “Where is Sun?” Hui Yue asked curiously, yet as soon as he asked a tense atmosphere appeared within the clearing.
Looking at Hui Yue a hope seemed to flourish within the eyes of the small child. “Mother was taken away,” The small boy said with a depressed voice as he shook his head in despair, yet moments later the boy no longer seemed sad. It was as though he could not stay depressed for a long period of time.
‘I had not planned for you to deal with something this serious just yet,’ Lan Feng complained, but Hui Yue could feel the excitement bubbling within Lan Feng, and he instantly understood that this had turned into a training session for him and his friends.
Hui Yue was slightly daunted by the thought of having to save Sun. Sun was the one who granted summer and spring to the world, alongside allowing humans to survive. Sun had to be incredibly strong yet even she was caught. How could Hui Yue possibly help out?
Yet no matter how worried and unsure Hui Yue was, he felt more and more excitement and determination within Lan Feng’s soul, causing Hui Yue to sigh. Although he felt it was something he was not ready for just yet, he had promised the phoenix that he would follow any orders given when it came to training. Making Hui Yue strong would definitely benefit Lan Feng on his road for revenge.
Hui Yue said nothing as he stood to the side and started finding tents within his storage stones, which he then patiently set up in the clearing. After setting up the tents he started a bonfire where he began cooking food for the children and his friends.
Sha Yun quickly understood that they were planning on staying for a bit, yet Hui Yue had given her no information so far, causing the snake-woman to be slightly confused. She looked at Hui Yue with tender eyes, before she slithered into the forest where she picked up branches to use for the bonfire. Although she would have preferred cooking, she knew that Hui Yue would decline her offer.
Soon the smell of stew was wafting out from within the pan, and the season’s stomachs were growling as drool dripped from the corners of their mouths.
Seeing how the children finally released Deng Wu the friends laughed, but within a short while everyone was eating their stew while chatting with each other. Hui Yue had intentionally placed himself next to Xingye.
“Can you tell me about when your mother was taken?” Hui Yue asked gently, as he ensured to fill the boy’s plate with plenty of meat. The boy’s face only showed a trace of depression before it became excited from seeing the glistening tender meat on his plate. Coercing a child was something Hui Yue felt capable of doing. Even if that child was thousands of years old.
“She had just come out from meditation,” Xingye said while stuffing his face with stew, expertly avoiding the vegetables and only eating the meat. “Mother says that we are not allowed to fight with the close villages unless they do something very bad. Mother had absorbed the energy from heavens and earth then they took her away.”
“Why would they take her?” Hui Yue asked quietly, while trying to get as much information as possible from this small friend next to him.
He had already learned that Sun had been taken away as soon as she exited her isolated cultivation and that she had followed without putting up too much of a fight.
“They want mum for the sake of increasing their harvest,” Xingye said with a sad expression on his face, but as soon as the eyes fell onto the pot which had been used to cook stew his smile resurfaced.
‘Don’t be so shocked,’ Lan Feng commented when he felt how Hui Yue was truly astonished. Their mother has disappeared yet the children did nothing about it for all this time.
‘They are not children,’ Lan Feng continued. ‘They are the laws which this world is built upon. They are the laws which the four divine beasts created at the same time they created the continent itself. We will meet many of these laws on our travel. They are laws created by the gods and to be created by a god makes it impossible to go against. To go against a law is the same as going against this world. Imagine what would happen, should the sun die and fall from the sky. Should the moon never again raise the waters, should the seasons never change.’
‘These laws are far older than us. They are as old as the first rock in this world. The laws are all around us. It is the law that binds the world together, allowing for it to exist. When you become an upper dantian user I will tell you far more about them as you will begin to sense them.’
Hui Yue nodded his head. Right now he did not need to know more about the laws, what he did need to know about was what the ones who had kidnapped Sun were like.
‘They should be from the closest village so we are going there after a few days of rest. Make sure that you train properly during these next few days, as we cannot waste too much time on this. Getting her back here is of utmost importance before the four of them can move on to the next dungeon.
Looking at the surroundings, Hui Yue could not help but wonder why these were called dungeons. It was obviously an entire world which was spreading itself throughout the entire continent but it did not look dead, it was filled with living beings, trees and plants. Even a sun and a moon were present within the underworld kingdom they now travelled through.
Having made all the kids go to bed, Hui Yue was seated with his friends in front of the bonfire where they warmed themselves. Being beneath the earth, inside a cave, the stone walls which surrounded them sucked in all the warmth which the sun had produced during the day.
The moment the sun had vanished and the warmth slowly got absorbed by the cave walls the previous comfortable temperature was changed, and a chilled humid air filled the cave, much like the weather felt on an autumn night on the surface.
“We need to rescue her, or if she is really not captured then at least bring her back here,” Hui Yue said, as he finished passing on Lan Feng’s words from earlier.
Seated at the back, Hui Yue was contemplating about the laws which had been mentioned earlier. Truthfully, Hui Yue understood that it was something which he would not encounter before he reached the upper dantian. He felt as though it was impossible to comprehend before the upper dantian was opened, yet at the same time there was these thoughts just out of reach, Making Hui Yue feel as though he would understand some of it at least, if he was to think just a little more.
But no matter how much time Hui Yue spent thinking, that feeling remained and he never caught hold of what exactly the laws were. With a sigh he stood up and decided to think about it when he had more time.
“Let’s go,” Hui Yue said with a low voice before he turned around and gestured for the friends to follow him. Silent as a shadow, the four young cultivators made their way through the forest and moved towards the village which had taken Sun.
Following the path set down by Lan Feng, Hui Yue quickly passed on information which he was being given on the way.
The village was not a big one, approximately a hundred people lived in it. They all earned their living through agriculture, and Lan Feng assumed that Sun had been caught for the sake of increasing their harvest by a noticeable margin.
Having gained every bit of information Hui Yue and the others nodded their heads, as they felt like they were much more prepared now than they had been before. Rushing towards the village, they hoped to get into contact with Sun without anyone noticing them and then convince her to return to the cabin to once more look after the seasons.
The forest had been dense, allowing one to only see a few metres in front of them, yet suddenly all the trees vanished, clearly removed for the sake of agriculture.
As soon as Hui Yue saw this he raised his hand and gestured to the others so that they stopped, slowly sneaking closer and closer, as they expected, a small village appeared outside the forest.
However as soon as the four of them broke through to the open clearing, they expected to see a village, but what they saw caused them all to stop in their tracks. They stood there, staring agape at fields which went on as far as the eye could see, and far off in the distance a city rose with pagodas reaching towards the dungeon’s ceiling.
“Well,” Hui Yue looked at the city in the distance and he sighed deeply, “It seems that even things within this closed off area have managed to evolve quite a bit in four thousand years.”
Hearing this the three others solemnly nodded their heads, a blank look in their eyes as all the plans they had prepared before had become completely useless.
“We won’t get anything done by standing here,” Hui Yue said after a short while, and he started walking towards the city. “Let us change our plans slightly. Our first goal is to be able to locate where Sun is.” Having said that, Hui Yue walked with steady steps towards the city in the distance, his friends quickly catching up to him as they walked on in silence.