EIGHT YEARS AGO

Aer descended to Paradise, fiercely smiling despite the blood gushing out of her numerous wounds. In her hands, she held a glowing golden amulet — a life-saving treasure that would help her regain some of her former power. This treasure had taken the better part of a year to obtain, full of grueling fights and betrayals. She wanted to pump her hands in the air and scream, but she held off her celebration for the moment. There was something she wanted to check…

The Tang family hadn't bothered to move houses, meaning that she was able to track down the twins to the same home their mother had gone to after their trial. It was a quick flight to get there, made only marginally more difficult by the need to hide herself. She perched herself atop a nearby cloud, looking forward to seeing her apprentices.

However, when she scanned the building with her mana sense, there was only one. The mother was teaching Seira mana exercises, but Kiro was nowhere to be found. She quickly extended her sense to the air in the bedrooms, seeing if perhaps the boy was simply somewhere else. The rooms were clear, without a hint of personality to accompany them. To make sure, though, she searched all the closets.

She sighed. The signs were clear. In societies such as these, when a child had brought as much dishonor as Kiro had, there were often… drastic measures taken to ensure nobody found out.

The old hag was already forcing two clans to go to war with each other, so she supposed it wasn’t terribly out of character for her to allow the slaughter of innocent children.

Aer flew to a nearby forest, locating a particularly large tree. It loomed far above the rest, and she was confident that its bright orange leaves would live for years to come. With precise strikes of lightning, she wrote upon its bark:

Hong Tang Kiro. Killed by his own mother. May his soul rest in peace, and may Hong Ma forever repent the countless deaths she has caused.

The soul part was completely inaccurate, but that was how it was done traditionally. She clutched the amulet, and healing power rushed into her. Once she got her strength back, she would stop this twisted experiment once and for all.

***

THE PRESENT

He was alive. The smallest of grins passed on Aer's face, and she reached out to Tang Kiro. He winced at her action, but she just gently placed it on his shoulder.

"Seira, is this the brother you have told me so much about?"

The young woman looked like she was going to faint, but she nodded.

"Kiro… how did you get here?"

Aer pulled him up, inviting him to sit.

"More important question: I know that you're like Rynn in your lack of cultivation knowledge, but I don't have another week to test your drive. So, in spite of that...”

She looked him in the eyes, speaking intensely.

“Hong Tang Kiro, what makes you special?"

***

Kiro swallowed, trying to work up enough saliva to wet his parched throat. Despite the sheen of sweat of his forehead, none came. The Saint had taken interest in him. That was good, right? That was good. He just needed to sell himself the right way.

"Honored Saint, this humble Sun has a mild talent in alchemy. His greatest achievement is an elixir that can generate unaspected mana."

She leaned forward, curiosity in her eyes.

"Oh? And why did you do such a thing? And please, you don’t need to speak in the third person. Just say what you want.”

He winced. Right. Speak naturally.

"As you know, honored Saint, I am prohibited from learning cultivation exercises, because of the risk that I will absorb the ambient mana the crops need," he grimaced at the words, now knowing they were false.

"However, I reasoned that if I could just elevate my cultivation base without absorbing ambient mana, the clan would have no reason to go against me. Well, I already knew that I couldn't drink a fire elixir without having my insides scorched, so I tried to circumvent the problem."

“Ah, I see. Is there anything else that makes you stand out?”

Kiro tried to meet her gaze, and failed. He wasn’t good enough as it was. Of course he wasn’t. This was a Saint, after all.

“Honored Saint, I’m afraid that that’s it. I beg of you, I will do any —”

Seira stepped between them, a frantic look in her eyes.

“Aer! He can manifest his killing intent! That has to be worth something!”

The Saint turned to her, eyebrows raised.

“Do tell.”

***

“And so, knowing that he was going to be severely injured, he confronted the Supervisor and provoked her into attacking him. Even if I hadn’t interfered, he would have succeeded in making her commit an imprisonable offense, and he had already developed a healing salve that works without needing to cultivate!”

Seira finished her speech, looking to Aer expectantly.

The Saint was smiling from ear to ear now. That was the drive she was looking for! And the brains on him! Sure, he was weak right now, but so was Rynn, and Seira, for that matter. All of them were weak in the grand scheme of things, including herself. What truly mattered was that they had motivation, a desire to learn, and a fire in their belly. Quite literally so, in this case.

"Seira, Rynn, would you have any problems apprenticing with Kiro?"

Rynn looked strangely at the other Sun, but didn't say anything.

Seira looked like she was going to cry again, but this time at least they looked to be happy tears. Aww. She was glad she was able to make her day like that. And Kiro, he was just looking at her, then Seira, then back to her. She understood. His entire life, he had been told that he was less than his sister, and judging from the fond way that Seira talked about him, he had accepted it without complaint. Now, though, it was her praising him. He was probably in shock.

She looked her apprentices over, clapping.

"Alright. No more dilly-dallying! Let's ascend!"