Chapter 10: Sea of Souls (2)

Yes, the place where the souls of Songs lived in, was a sea

of souls. It was a sea of two types of souls. The first type of souls were

those that had used this method, and had fallen victim to the waves and had

actually drowned. These souls could be found dispersed throughout the massive

sea. The second type of souls, were the souls of those that had been slain by

the owner of the Song and would be found in the part of the sea his Song

resides. In this case, the souls of the beasts and bandits that had been slain

by Jia Yuan were in his Song’s area of the sea. Over time, they would succumb

to the Song, and would also drown. After the souls drowned, they would become

part of the sea, and over time, the souls of the Songs would consume them.

So how does one escape this sea? The only way is to keep

part of one’s soul connected to the body, and then the appropriate time comes,

whether one simply wants control of their body back, or they are about to

drown, use this part of the soul to guide the rest of their soul back to the

safe recesses of their body. In the process, the soul of the Song would also be

returned to the sea of souls. Of course, this requires not only great control

of one’s soul, but also requires a strong willpower that is able to convince

the Song to leave their body.

By some miracle, without knowing any of this Jia Yuan was

able to pull his soul back into his body.

At this moment, the fire blazing around his body began to

shrink in size, and Jia Yuan opened his eyes and looked around.

Everything around him, the ground, the houses, the grass.

Everything was burnt, and some things were still on fire. Plumes of smoke rose

into the air, and the smoke burned his nostrils.

He looked to the side, and saw that some of the villagers

that he had noticed fighting earlier were staring at him with unusual

expression on their faces.

“Um, why are you staring at me?”

The villagers glanced at each other and collectively heaved

a huge sigh. This kid didn’t even know what he had done!

From their midst, a tall, middle-aged man stepped out.

“Hello young sire, may we know your name? I am the eldest

son of the village elder, and I will speak for him. My apologies that he is not

here right now, but he should be coming back soon, as he evacuated the village

along with the women and children when we first saw the bandits attacking.”

Jia Yuan felt rather content at the words of this man. For

his entire life, the only titles he had possessed were “child” and “slave.”

Being called a young sire was far more respectful and heartwarming.

“Greetings elder, my name is Jia Yuan. I just happened to be

passing through here when I noticed the bandits attacking, so I decided to

help.”

“Thank you for helping Jia Yuan. If it weren’t for your

interruption, the village may have been overrun by the bandits and more people

would’ve died. As nightfall is only about half an hour away, you are welcome to

spend the night at the village. Much of our food was burned by the bandits and

uh… um.. well don’t worry about it we still have enough I think.”

“In the meantime, you can rest. Here, Wan Shi, your house

should be on the unharmed part of the village, right? Could you be so kind to

bring this young hero to rest at your house?”

“Yes sir, I will do so.”

“Come, young one. My wife was cooking some food for dinner

when the bandits attacked. If you like, we can eat some of what she finished

before they come back, or we can wait about an hour for the villagers to get

them back and for her to finish cooking… I don’t know how to cook myself.”

And so, Jia Yuan followed this man to his house. Along the

way, he secretly sent a bit of his soul into his ring, and took out an

Absorption level soul pill and a Fire based body pill. He then glanced at the

man, and when the man looked away, he popped the two pills into his mouth and

swallowed them.

He let out a sigh inside his heart, for he instantly felt

much better. After all, even though he was not conscious during the battle, the

Song had exerted his body to the utmost, and after spending just two minutes in

the darkness, his mentality was also exhausted. The pills helped greatly in the

regard.

While this was happening, they had arrived in front of Wan

Shi’s house, and Jia Yuan took a look at the exterior before he walked in.

It was decidedly nicer than his master’s old shack, and

despite the strong smell of smoke outside, the house was insulated enough that

the smell of smoke wasn’t too much, and it still smelled of the delicious food

had been cooking just twenty minutes prior.

Jia Yuan noticed two smaller mattresses on the ground and

asked, “Do you have kids?” while motioning toward the smaller mattresses.

“Mm. They look to be around your age… speaking of which,

just how old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I’m going to be turning 12 within the year.”

The man didn’t seem to be too surprised, as he was expecting

such an answer, but he still less loose a long sigh.

“Whoo… sorry to ask further, but what kind of status do you

have?”

Jia Yuan was puzzled. There was a sort of waver in the man’s

voice that conveyed some sort of emotion.

Jia Yuan realized! The man was afraid of him! But why? His

mind went back to the scene he saw when he was awoken from the Sea of Souls.