Right after the two of them made a pinky promise, Qing Chun sprung up from the ground, stretching her back. She walked over to the wall, activating the array that was responsible for gathering sunlight and spreading it through the house. Once the house was flooded with light, she looked at the bloody wooden pole and floor, clapping her hands.
"Alright, now we have to clean up all this blood. If we don't, Uncle Xiang will certainly scold you. And after that, you have to go and get some proper sleep, otherwise, how will you accompany me tomorrow?"
Qing Chun left the room after speaking, heading towards the kitchen. The house only had three rooms, a kitchen, this living-room, as well as one bedroom, making every room quickly accessible. Liang Chen also stood up, slowly stretching his aching body. While he was stretching his body, the voice of Qing Chun rang out from the kitchen again.
"Little Chen, don't you have a bucket I can borrow? I don't want to just splash the water on the floor."
Liang Chen rolled his eyes for a short moment as he thought, trying to remember where the bucket was placed. He swiftly remembered the last place he had seen the bucket, calling out to Qing Chun as he started walking towards the door.
"I think I saw the bucket out by the restroom, I will go and fetch it."
Liang Chen left the house, entering the courtyard and walking to the back of the house. There was a small two-room cabin hidden behind the house, the trees surrounding it preventing others from seeing it. Liang Chen pushed open the door to the cabin, entering a small room that contained a large open tub as well as some soap. This cabin was something his father and mother had built themselves, as they did not want to use the shared baths and toilets.
Liang Chen found a small wooden bucket located behind the tub, picking it up and slowly walking back to the house. He was slightly absent-minded as he walked, everything he saw causing familiar memories to flood his mind. He felt his eyes sting slightly, so he quickly shook his head and forced the oncoming tears back down, after all, one of the last things his mother had told him was that he mustn't cry, he must be strong. He could not allow himself to cry like he had done right after the execution.
Once he returned to the house, Qing Chun was waiting for him in the living-room, humming a slight tune. Once Liang Chen handed her the small bucket, she placed it on the floor next to the blood, crouching down in front of it. She raised both her hands, pointing her palms towards the bucket. After a short moment, thin streams of water flew out from her palms, entering the bucket and slowly filling it up. This was the element that Qing Chun specialized in, the water element. Once the bucket was filled, Qing Chun tore some cloth in half, tossing half of it to Liang Chen as she spoke with a slight smile.
"Did you think you could get away without cleaning? Come on, you can clean the pole."
Liang Chen caught the piece of cloth, dipping it into the bucket that was now filled with cold water. The two of them started to silently wash away the blood that Liang Chen had spilled, switching out the water in the bucket three times before they managed to clean up the last of the blood. Once all the blood was gone, Qing Chun grabbed Liang Chen's wrist and pulled him towards the last room in the house, the bedroom.
The bedroom was very simple, containing three small closets, a single table, three chairs, and a bed large enough for three people to sleep in. Liang Chen's parents had considered building a second bed, one for Liang Chen, but as they were uncertain where to place it, they had never gone through with it. Upon entering the room, Liang Chen closed his eyes for a slight second, taking a deep breath.
It had only been four days, so the faint scent of his parents was still lingering in the air. While he was feeling slightly melancholic, he felt a slight squeeze on his wrist. He opened his eyes again, turning towards Qing Chun, who was looking at him with a soft smile.
"Don't worry. Aunty and Uncle are no longer here, but I will stay with you until you manage to fall asleep."
Qing Chun led Liang Chen over to the bed and covered him with the blanket, she then brought one of the chairs over to the side of the bed, sitting down on it and holding onto Liang Chen's hand. Once she sat down, she turned towards Liang Chen and pointed at their connected hands, speaking with a smile.
"There, I will hold onto you until you manage to sleep peacefully, so don't you worry about anything and focus on getting some sleep. But don't forget that you have to meet me tomorrow at noon, we can meet by the eastern fountain and take a walk through the market."
The market by the eastern fountain consisted mostly of various stands that sold food, so Liang Chen and Qing Chun had often walked through the market and tasted the diverse types of food. Liang Chen found that the empty bed felt chillingly cold, but the heat from his hand kept the cold from digging into his bones. His mind slowly grew hazy, but he still managed to let out a slight mutter.
"Okay, I promise."
Qing Chun let out a bright smile upon hearing Liang Chen promise and then proceeded to silently sit at the side of the bed and hold his hands. She continued to sit beside him even after she noticed that he had fallen asleep, a peaceful silence covering the entire house.
As he slept, Liang Chen once again bore witness to the final moments of his parents. Their last words, their bright smiles, even their scent, everything was perfectly transmitted to him. He wanted to wake up, but no matter what he did, his mind would not wake up. When his parents kneeled down on the scaffolding, he was already screaming at himself to wake up. But it was to no avail, he still had to bear witness to his parents losing their heads. Only once their heads stopped rolling around on the scaffolding did he jolt awake.
The first thing Liang Chen noticed upon waking up was that Qing Chun was no longer sitting at the side of the bed and that there was no light shining in through the windows. His entire body was covered in sweat, his breathing ragged. He clenched his hands, tightly grasping the blanket as he curled up and forced his tears back.
"Train. I need to train."
Liang Chen's voice sounded out through his grit teeth. He uncurled his body and flung the blanket away, jumping out of the bed. He did not even bother changing his clothing, he simply walked over to the wooden pole and started hitting it. Once again he continued to punch and kick the pole until his arms and legs gave out on him, forcing him down to the ground.
Once he was on the ground, he let out several ragged breaths, doing his best to forcefully calm down his mind. He forced his aching body into a sitting position, closing his eyes and once again attempting to sense the surrounding Qi. His breathing slowly calmed down, turning into deep and quiet breaths that caused his chest to bulge.
But after two hours, despite his seemingly calm mind, he still found himself unable to sense the surrounding Qi. Just as he was about to grit his teeth and continue hitting the pole, he was reminded of the sensation he briefly felt yesterday, when he was leaning against Qing Chun.
As he remembered that sensation, he was also reminded of that moment in silence they shared, where they both simply leaned against each other. The memory pushed aside the dream he had seen while sleeping, calming down his mind and causing his lips to curl into a faint smile. It was while he was calm like this, that he once again felt the sensation.
It felt like he was floating in water, surrounded on all sides by an unseen force. Liang Chen latched onto the sensation, immersing in it as he experienced that all-encompassing force. After a short moment of silence, he tried to connect his mind with the force, the surrounding Qi, and drag it into his body. At first, there was no response, but as Liang Chen continued to try, a tiny amount of Qi started to move towards him, sinking into his flesh. As the Qi sank into his flesh, Liang Chen felt a prickling sensation, as if countless tiny needles were pricking him. It was slightly painful, but it was nothing compared to the pain he felt when he hit the wooden pole.
Liang Chen continued to drag in the surrounding Qi, slowly but surely having it sink into his flesh and strengthening it. But he found the process to be far too slow. If he continued at this speed, how long would it take him to overtake Qing Lan Yong? Was it even possible at such a slow speed? Qing Lan Yong was blessed with great talent and was given endless amounts of resources, by the time Liang Chen managed to reach the level of the current Qing Lan Yong, he would surely have already greatly surpassed that level.
But despite how anxious he was to speed up his training, Liang Chen still forced himself to stop training after a few hours. He had made a promise to Qing Chun, a promise to accompany her and wander around the market. Liang Chen had been taught to never break a promise, so he would certainly not allow himself to break one now that his parents were no longer around.
He stood up from the floor, returning to the empty bedroom. He walked over to his closet, picking out a clean green robe that was made from coarse cloth. He grabbed the robe and then left the house, heading to the cabin that stood behind the house. His parents were normally the ones in charge of filling the tub by using an array, but to do so required Qi, so Liang Chen could only use the water from the nearby well to fill up the tub. The water was cold, but it did the trick, allowing him to wash himself.
Once he had finished washing and put on the clean robe, the sun had almost reached its highest point, meaning that noon was close. Liang Chen made sure that his knife was strapped tightly to his waist, and then started heading towards the eastern fountain, the place where he had promised to meet up with Qing Chun.
As he walked through the city, he quickly noticed that most of the people he walked past would glance at him, whispering to each other in low voices. Some had pity in their eyes, others had hostility, while some had cold indifference in their eyes, merely glancing at him for a short moment before no longer bothering with him. Liang Chen did not let their gazes or their whispers bother him, these people meant nothing to him, some of them had even celebrated when his parents got executed.
The eastern fountain was not located too far from his house, so Liang Chen managed to quickly reach it. The eastern fountain was located in a large open plaza, the ground paved with light yellow stones. There were small portable stands located around the plaza, selling various types of warm food or flowers. There were several smaller groups of people, often couples, walking around the plaza, checking out the shops or resting by the fountain.
The fountain itself was round in shape and made out of a type of blue crystal, a large statue in the shape of a burly man holding a long spear decorating the center of the fountain. The statue was in the shape of the founder of the Qing clan, Qing Long. Thanks to an array, there was a constant stream of green water coiling around the statue of the man, falling back into the fountain and then rising back up to coil around him.
There were more gazes landing on Liang Chen as he walked towards the fountain, but he continued to ignore them as he sat down on a bench located next to the fountain. Liang Chen sat on the bench, his gaze sweeping over the people who were walking around the plaza.
He had come a bit too early, so even after waiting several minutes, Qing Chun had still not arrived. But as his eyes continued to sweep the surroundings, he spotted someone else familiar. A group of children from the Qing clan had just entered the plaza, chatting and laughing amongst each other. Liang Chen had spoken with several of the children before, there was even one among them who he had considered a friend, Qing Huo Ling. But after he saw Qing Huo Ling at the execution, cheering on as his parents were killed, every kind thought he had towards him had died.
Liang Chen moved his eye away from the children, no longer bothering with them. But it seemed like the children had spotted him, as they glanced at him and started whispering amongst each other. They all turned towards Qing Huo Ling, who looked like he was a little younger than Liang Chen, had short brown hair and clear green eyes. Qing Huo Ling looked uncomfortable as everyone looked at him, but after sneaking a slight glance at Liang Chen, he gave a strong nod of his head.
That nod of his head seemed to please the rest of the group, as they started smiling, walking towards Liang Chen. Liang Chen turned towards the approaching group, a sense of unease filling his chest. Despite most of these kids being as old as him, or even a bit younger, they were all stronger than him, with the strongest among them already having entered the early stage of the Mortal Tower realm. The group of seven children stopped in front of Liang Chen, the oldest among them speaking out.
"You are Liang Chen, the son of the traitors, correct?"
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