Chapter 32: Training Grounds

With these feelings of sadness and understanding, swiftly came

a desire to help his Master gain revenge.

Jia Yuan spoke with conviction. “Tell me who killed your

sons, and I swear I will avenge your sons as soon as I can.”

With that, a load of regret was taken off of the old master’s

chest, and was replaced by hope towards Jia Yuan.

“His name is Huang Ying. Last I heard, he was one of the top

generals of the Water Kingdom, and should be a True Disciple of Water.”

“I promise I will do everything I can in the future to

avenge your songs.”

Standing next to Jia

Yuan, Guo Huo secretly nodded his head. In fact, Guo Huo had previously fought

against this Huang Ying before. He would be a good test for Jia Yuan in the

future.

“Alright, well if everyone is okay with it, I’d like to

bring Jia Yuan somewhere else to begin his training. Jia Yuan, say your

goodbyes to everyone and we’ll be on our way”

For the next five minutes or so, Jia Yuan said some hurried

goodbyes to the villagers of Fire Hill Village, and followed Guo Huo back

towards the forest.

“So Teacher, where are we going?”

“We’re heading to a location that is perfect for cultivating

a Song of Fire. You’ll train there under my guidance for a while, until you hit

the 5th level of Absorption. As for when that is… will depend on

your talent and efforts.”

And so the two, one elderly man and one young boy, travelled

across the Fire Kingdom over the course of a month.

The two swapped many stories along the way! Jia Yuan recounted wondrous stories

that Dou DI had told him before, while Guo Huo told stories of his military

exploits and of the powerful people he had explored the world with long ago.

Over the time, the bond between the two grew immensely. Guo

Huo came to understand Jia Yuan's simple nature, while Jia Yuan became more and

more in awe of Guo Huo.

One morning, they reached their location. They were currently

at the border between the Fire Kingdom and the Water Kingdom.

In front of Guo Huo and Jia Yuan was quite a wondrous sight.

They were in front of a crater more than 50 meters wide, and was filled with

mist. As such, they couldn’t even see how deep the crater was.

“Grab onto me and we’ll descend. We’ll be staying here for a

while, so I’ve already packed enough food to last us a month. In a bit you’ll

be able to see the place you’ll be training at.”

Jia Yuan jumped onto Guo Huo’s back and gripped tightly.

Although Jia Yuan had been in life or death battles before, the fact that he couldn’t

see the bottom of the crater made him a bit queasy. However, he trusted Guo Huo

and didn’t complain.

When Jia Yuan jumped onto Guo Huo’s back, he began preparing

for the descent.

Guo Huo began taking some very deep breaths, gathering

strength for what he was about to do.

After a few of these deep breaths, he jumped off the edge of

the crater.

Jia Yuan’s stomached lurched, and he couldn’t help but force

his eyes shut in fear.

However, soon they descent slowed greatly. Guo Huo was

actually using the power of his Song to shoot fire underneath his feet in a

practiced manner, which acted as a propelling force working against the gravity

which was pulling them down.

In this manner, he and Jia Yuan made a controlled descent

down in the crater, about 40 meters below the level Guo Huo had jumped from.

Upon reaching the bottom of the crater, the mist continued to swirl around them,

but there wasn’t any directly around them.

The reason for this, was because they had arrived at the

source of the mist.

Directly in front of the two was a rather unique pool,

separated into four sections.

This was not a pool of water, but a sectioned pool of fire. Each section was filled with fire of a different temperature than the others, and with that

also meant that the fires were of different colors, creating a rather beautiful sight. In the center of sectioned pool of

fire, was a 2 meter wide pillar with a hole at the center, which emitted large quantities of

mist.

Guo Huo was fine in this environment, but Jia Yuan promptly

began sweating. How could he not? After all, there the heat from the fire

combined with the heated mist made this crater a gigantic sauna. In fact, after

only a few seconds of standing at the bottom of the crater, Jia Yuan was

already starting to feel very uncomfortable from the heat.

“Here is where you will train until you are at the 5th

level of Absorption.”