Heaven's Laws - Lifestone - Chapter 48

Now that Huifen was aware of what was happening to her, she was able to sense her connection to the music even though she’d been thrown into another vision. A girl with thick eyebrows in an ice phoenix gown stomped toward her. She was the most vicious bully of her youth. One time already she had injured Huifen enough to send her to the infirmary. It seemed this time she intended the same if not more.

If she so desired, Huifen believed she could put a stop to the vision at any time, but Chao’s song had inflamed her heart to the very limit. She didn’t want it to stop. Perhaps stopping the vision would be more difficult than she thought.

Her bully was a few years older than she was and a full head taller. Huifen was only twelve. She saw the girl ball her fist. Even at this young age, she waited for the girl’s punch to connect. She wanted it as an excuse for what she did next.

She never thought she could kill the girl. She just wanted to hurt her enough so that she’d leave her alone.

Jumping back, Huifen removed her short sword from her spatial ring. It was a warning. One her bully didn’t heed. The girl removed her own sword as she continued to stalk forward.

Huifen threw up Ice Shroud between them. It was another chance for the girl to turn back. Instead her bully attacked the small pillar with Springtime’s Frost, shattering it. It was the last mistake she’d ever make.

Her bully had continued her forward movement as she attacked the pillar. A nine petaled Ice Lotus was waiting behind it. The girl was too close. It exploded in her face. Sage Pangfua had later said the girl’s death had been quick. There had been no suffering. With Heart of Ice circulating, she’d mostly just felt relief the bullying was over, but deep down, she felt disgusted with herself. Even if the girl deserved what she got, Huifen believed she should feel more—pity, sorrow… Then she saw how the other young fairies began to look at her and she felt powerful for the first time in her life.

She hated it at first, but Master Quinyuan taught her how important strength was. How this incident would help protect her in the future. Now her peers knew she could only be pushed so far. She also taught her to mourn for the girl. It was one of the few times she been commanded to stop circulating Heart of Ice.

How long had she been entranced by her husband’s spell when the music changed? Had he sensed she’d reached the conclusion of her vision, or had she relived it multiple times? When the song took a melancholic turn, it matched the direction her emotions where heading. Or was it just the opposite? Was it turning her emotions wherever it willed?

As her vision started to change, she noticed the music lost some of its power over her. As much as she wanted to memorialize Sister Daiyu, she didn’t want to mourn. Maybe she wasn’t ready. Knowing the girl as well as she did, Huifen believed it was something different. Her friend wouldn’t want their memories of her to be tragic. She’d want them to remember her fondly. To laugh and smile.

The realization struck Huifen like an Ice Lotus to the back of the head. Sister Daiyu had only been without Heart of Ice for a year, and yet this ice fairy had had such an impact? No, it was even before that. Had Daiyu always been such a cheerful presence? It was only after Heart of Ice that she had noticed. How could an ice fairy have such a warm disposition?

That was the real tragedy. She was only now appreciating her friend’s gift to the world after she was gone. She determined in herself not to mourn. She wouldn’t remember Daiyu’s end. She’d remember life.

It took her a few minutes to be able to escape the inner world of her mind to return to the room in which she sat with her husband. She saw him still playing. He remained lost in his song.

Was Huifen’s rejection of the sound’s power speak to the power of her will, or was his music was losing its power because his anger burned much hotter than his sorrow stewed?

She immediately began to consider what this new ability of his meant. The martial application could be immense, but then she thought better of it. Anyone approaching them while he played if they had any hostile intentions would be using techniques like Heart of Ice by default. She had to admit that one of the reasons his wrathful song had affected her so was because of her own inner demons. It had revealed just how far she still had to go to reign them in.

Was that its true power? To reveal the depths of the heart? Or did it enliven the demons already there? Either could be useful to any cultivator.

She then recalled one of Chao’s theories about sound’s ability to place a person in the right frame of mind for cultivation. After what Huifen had just experienced, she could no longer deny it. The question was, which emotions were the most beneficial for cultivation? Which were the most similar to enlightenment? She’d always been in awe of the things that he could do, but this… To be able to cultivate the laws so easily, and even teach others was one thing—an incredible thing—but if his music could place someone in a state of enlightenment, or a fraction closer to it, anyone within range of listening could advance at a much faster rate. Perhaps further than they’d ever possibly reach without him.

The value of such a person to a sect was priceless. The divine realm sects would want him if they knew as much as they’d want her. On one hand, it could help preserve his life, and on the other it could doom him to a sheltered existence as little more than a pampered slave. She couldn’t let that happen. Any limits to freedom were equal to limits in cultivation. Limiting cultivation meant limiting the years of life they’d have together.

As he continued to play, she didn’t dare to use Heart of Ice. Her husband had advanced further down a path that no one else had traveled. To not experience it—appreciate it—seemed like the greatest transgression. She would not leave him to wander it alone.

Looking up passed the ceiling to some far-off distance, she envisioned the peak of the martial arts she’d so often dreamed of in her youth. It had brought her to this point in her life. It had given her guidance and power. Her physique was the compass that she had followed to reach it, but before her was another instrument that shone even brighter. It might’ve even been pointing in the same direction. She wasn’t entirely sure.

The path of her Peerless Spiritual Body was a straightforward one. Cultivate, absorb energy, make it yours, advance. Understanding of laws was necessary, but she’d never struggled as her peers had. As the legends foretold, those with her physique were never slow of mind. Their bodies breathed in qi from their very first breath. It enriched their minds as well as their bodies.

There was one obvious way that her husband’s path differed. He advanced with the laws whether his cultivation advanced or not. She could only imagine where he’d be today if she was never attacked by that snow fox. Would he be at the same level? Perhaps not, for Elder Kang had given him the Space Law jade, but could she rightfully claim that his elements would be any less potent? It was likely the challenges he faced when coming to the Ice Phoenix Sect had pushed him even further. However, she couldn’t say for sure he wouldn’t have advanced as far just in different laws. And now he was touching on something she didn’t know how to evaluate.

There were no high-ranking sects currently on Lifestone that practiced the sound laws, but she’d read enough to know he followed none of the typical paths. Did he even have a martial skill to speak of with sound? Was that the distinction? The sound he practiced wasn’t on the martial path at all. Was that why she felt the path he was taking and her own were so different? But to say he wasn’t a martial artist was absurd. If she wasn’t so familiar with how he thought and his every technique, she wasn’t sure she could beat him. She even owed much of her martial prowess to him. But was that really his foundation?

She knew the story of his childhood. His mother hadn’t been shy about showing him the laws from the moment he could hold open his eyes, but long before he’d begun his own tinkering, he dreamed in the presence of his mother’s song. His fire laws were amongst his most advanced, but they weren’t his foundation in the same way it was for a fire cultivator. If anything was, it was this. The song and emotion surrounding her at that very moment.

Huifen looked around the room as if trying to see the sound moving through the air. It didn’t move dangerously as advance elements would, but it was as advanced as anything she’d ever experienced. This was her Chao’s foundation. Instead of defying the heaven’s, he communed with them.

It was late morning of the next day when finally stopped playing. He gave her a curious look when he saw she was watching him intently.

“Is anything wrong?” He asked.

“No. How do you feel?”

He thought for a moment before nodding. “Like my mind is my own.”

“Good. There’s much we need to discuss…”