Chapter 33: Jia Yuan's Goal

“To start, it may be a little difficult for you to resist

the environment here. As such, I will protect you from the surrounding heat.

However, unless you are sleeping or recovering from your training, I will continually

adjust my protection to best aid your training.”

As Guo Huo said this, Jia Yuan felt a decrease in the

temperature around him. It was still rather uncomfortable, but at least it was

bearable.

“Now, stand on top of the pillar, and begin training in the

stances of your Dance. Use the power of your Song as you wish. In an

environment such as this, you will be able to train your Song of Fire longer

for the same amount of mental exertion.”

With that, Guo Huo sat down at the edge of the pool, drew a bag out of his necklace, and began munching on an apple.

Following the Teacher’s instructions, Jia Yuan hopped on top

of the pillar.

“AHHHHHH!” Jia Yuan screamed with pain as soon as he landed

on the pillar. After all, the pillar was being heated by the pools of fire. How

could it not be burning hot?

However, Guo Huo was unperturbed.

“Use your Song’s aura to protect your feet from the heat!”

Jia Yuan quickly circulated his Song, and the heat burning

his feet quickly decreased. However, he still glanced rather ruefully at Guo

Huo. The old man obviously knew that he was going to burn his feet, why couldn’t

he have given Jia Yuan a warning?

“You can’t always rely on others warnings. To be able to

survive in the world of Martial Cultivation, you must be able to maintain

vigilance at all times. You should have seen the pillar and expected it to be

extremely hot.”

To this, Jia Yuan opened his mouth to retort, but had no

rebuke. He instead followed Guo Huo’s initial instructions and drew HiRyu out

of his ring to begin practicing his stances. Although it was rather hard for

Jia Yuan to move as quickly and smoothly as he did when he was practicing in a

normal environment, he was still able to fluidly complete the stances.

Jia Yuan began to play his Song while performing the

stances, and began to practice in a quicker, more aggressive manner as his body was enveloped in a thin fiery aura. He was

just about to go through the stances for a third time when he decided to practice with the full strength of his Song.

With that, his entire body became engulfed in fire, and

HiRyu was no exception. The sword was again ablaze with flames in the shape of a giant

axe. For a split second after releasing his Song, Jia Yuan felt like he was extremely powerful. After

all, he was in an environment that was extremely favorable to the fire element.

However, as soon as he felt this power, the flames around

his body were quickly sucked away. Jia Yuan was very surprised. What had caused

his flames to disappear so quickly?

Guo Huo had been watching Jia Yuan train all this while,

while munching on his favorite apples.

As he saw the flames around Jia Yuan’s body be sucked away,

a small smirk appeared on his face. Long ago, he had gone through the same

training here.

Meanwhile, on the pillar, Jia Yuan started his Song again,

only to have the fire be sucked away again. This time though, he was able to

see the pool of fire below him sucking his fire away.

“Teacher, how do I keep my flames from being sucked away?”

“You have to exercise control over your flames. To start,

you must focus on keeping the fire from being sucked away from the pool by any

means necessary. Afterwards, you’ll train by keeping your fire in place while

combating the suction force of the pool.”

“But for now, come down. I just wanted you to get used to

the pillar. It’s almost nighttime, so we should eat dinner and sleep.”

Guo Huo used the flames from the pool of fire to cook some

meat, which he distributed between Jia Yuan and himself.

While eating, Guo Huo suddenly spoke up.

“Jia Yuan, why do you train?”

“To become strong, of course.”

“Why do you want to be strong?”

“Because I want to join the Burning Legion with big brother.”

“Then what about after you join the Burning Legion? Will you

continue to train?”

“Of course!”

“Then, why?”

“So that I can avenge the master’s sons!”

“So your path is one of vengeance?”

Jia Yuan was silent for a bit. Of course he wanted to help

his ex-master by killing the Water Kingdom general, but that wasn’t the main

reason he wanted to grow stronger.

But what about the old man that appeared with the Song of

Swords?

Jia Yuan realized that he didn’t care too much about that

either. If he could help the old man, sure, if he couldn’t the old man was long

dead anyway. It didn’t really matter much to him.

“No.”

“Then why do you wish to be strong?”

This continued throughout their dinner, until Jia Yuan’s

head was filled with mush. Sensing this, Guo Huo stopped and prepared a special

tent for the two to sleep in, protected from the blistering heat.

Inside, Guo Huo said one last sentence to Jia Yuan for the

day.

“We’ll sleep for now, but I expect an answer tomorrow. “