Chapter 264: The Guardian Of Hope Braves Against All Odds
Listen While Reading: The Three Kingdoms and Fire Horses-----
The Young Hue Xian walked back to the town after three years of training, intending to end the abuse of someone who had been residing in that small village for years now, a cultivator who had not only mercilessly slaughtered mortals once but many times throughout the years.
News about people living in the streets getting turned into mincemeat constantly reached her, and when she heard from one of the children she took care of that he had once more killed another child that ended tripping in front of him by accident, she knew she had to take care of this.
The village only had mortals, protected by a small sect whose headquarters were quite far away. The cultivator, the panda man I had seen before, was a wandering warrior that decided to stay in that village for a couple of years for no other reason than because he wanted to.
He saw the lives of mortals as nothing but mere pebbles he could kick in the road. The people were helpless, and the cultivators of the sect that supposedly protected that village did not respond nor came to the mortal’s help.
After all, he only abused poor people they didn’t cared about; as long as he didn’t hurt the high society mortals that made the most money and that owned the farms, they were happy he was cleaning “the trash” for them.
Any iteration of the world of Murim is always an incredibly harsh world; sociopathic tendencies are ingrained within their very societies due to the ruthlessness of cultivation and the tremendous difference in power between mortals and cultivators, and even amongst cultivators of different ranks.
I don’t know if this is something intended by the Heavenly Golden Dragon or simply something that happens in every Murim no matter what, but even in this world of beast people, it was rampant murder everywhere, for the littlest of things.
A society born in violence and bloodshed, in abuse and exploitation, even worse than Earth itself, perhaps even worse than many other worlds out there…
“Are you sure you’re going, Hue Xian?! He’ll kill you!”
“Please reconsider it! We can live peacefully here… We don’t need to get involved with a cultivator!”
“Hue Xian!”
The children were trying to convince Hue Xian that what she was doing was foolish, courting death was something people like them, mortals, couldn’t do!
If a cultivator told them to strip and dance naked over the mud, they would do it.
If a cultivator told them to offer their bodies to them, they would have to spread their legs.
Even if a cultivator told them to eat their own hands…
They would have to do it.
If they wanted to live, that’s it…
And life was a precious gift that even the most miserable insect didn’t want to let go of…
Yet Hue Xian’s resolve was already resolute.
The power of Hope driving her; she simply couldn’t stop now.
“This is something I have to do with the power you’ve all given to me… If I don’t use it for good, then what purpose does it have?” she wondered. “This is the power of Hope, and I will use it to bring even more Hope to the masses.”
“Y-You’re insane!” The black cat boy, Ku Zi, cried. “If you go… You’re going to get killed; he’s invincible! Cultivators are invincible! Mortals… mortals can’t do anything… We can only escape and hide! We can’t cultivate without being born into a big family; we would only risk dying if we tried opening our meridians forcefully… like every other person that tries to defy their fate…”
“You might have the power of Hope or whatever… But you’re still not a complete cultivator, Hue Xian! At least… wait a bit longer?” Ku Zi wondered.
“I can’t…” Hue Xian sighed, looking at the boy’s eyes with her golden pearl-shaped eyes. “I cannot let this continue anymore. If I train more, even more people will die. And knowing I can stop him with this power, that they died… It would all be my fault. I have the power; I could have stopped him even before… But I was afraid, and I’m still afraid. But… this power, it comes with a responsibility. And I cannot keep running away from it.”
“Hue Xian…”
“Hue Xian! Please, wait!”
“Don’t do it!”
“No!”
The children chased her as she walked towards the village, step after step, until they stayed near the entrance and didn’t give her a single step further.
Hue Xian looked back at them with a gentle smile.
“Your hope is what gives me strength… So please, don’t lose hope,” she smiled. “I’ll come back, and we will celebrate afterwards. Let’s have a feast with lots of fish and rice, okay?”
“Hue Xian…”
Despite her words, the children didn’t have any hopes; they had been traumatized by this horrible, harsh society since they were born.
A mortal that defied a cultivator… No such tale ever existed.
“...”
She walked into the town, wearing her most regal clothes, a beautiful white dress, empathizing with her own beautiful white feathers, and a rice farmer hat made out of dried wheat, covering her head from the sunlight.
She had no weapons other than a bamboo pole and her staff; this was the Heavenly Empress preferred weapon and something she used even nowadays.
“I seek Sheng Hyan!”
She suddenly screamed in the middle of the village; the citizens gasped looking at her and immediately began to gossip.
“Is that the white crane girl that lives outside?”
“I know her; her name is Hue Xian!”
“Has she gone insane?!”
“Why is she screaming the cultivator’s name out of nowhere?”
“Does she have a death wish?!”
Hue Xian ignored their comments as she awaited the cultivator’s response. And he arrived, slowly walking from one street to the left, carrying the half-dead body of a poor beggar, an old marmot man with a long beard, already half beaten to death.
The giant panda man glared down at her, wearing a black, circular hat above his head that shielded him from the sunlight similarly to Hue Xian.
“Surely, girl,” he said. “Have you prepared yourself for the price of calling my name?”
“Sheng Hyan, I’ve come to punish you!” said Hue Xian with a righteous roar.
“Oh?”
The panda man dropped the half-dead beggar on the mud, kicking him away.
BAAM!
The man impacted a nearby house, destroying the wall.
Hue Xian wanted to run for his help, but the pressure of the panda kept her still.
“What sort of nonsense could this missy be talking about, everyone?” Sheng Hyan asked the rest of the population.
“S-She has gone insane, surely! Hahaha!”
“Y-Yeah…”
“A girl like her should just sell herself instead of going around courting death!”
“T-That’s right!”
Most of the people were just pretending to agree with him, forced to speak because he was strong and they didn’t want to die.
“You heard the masses, child…” Sheng Hyan continued walking towards her, his figure of over three meters of height easily looming over the little crane girl.
His body was muscular and fat, enormous and heavy, and the girl in front of him was delicate, with arms and legs that could break like twigs.
Nobody would ever think she could win at all.
It was all just… a very bad joke.
“I do not care what the cowards have to say,” Hue Xian answered. “I have come to punish you for the crimes you’ve committed…”
She pointed her bamboo pole at him.
“Hah… HAHAHAHAH!”
Sheng Hyan only laughed at her.
“Crimes? What crimes have I committed, exactly?!”
“T-The crimes of killing so many innocents! Don’t you have any conscience of your own barbaric actions?!”
“Barbaric… actions? Hah! Why should I care about the bugs I end up crushing beneath my foot? Are they even intelligent to begin with?”
“Y-you're a monster!”
“Monster? No, I am an honored cultivator. And you mortals… all of you, yeah, all of you,” he pointed at the rest of the people. “Should prostrate yourselves in front of my greatness and offer me every single thing you have; even your lives are not worth a dime in front of my might! If I told you to kill yourselves, you would do it! If I told you to dance for me, you would do it! If I told you to feed me the flesh of your children, YOU WOULD DO IT!”
“NO!” Hue Xian roared. “They are worth… Every single life is worth it! You’re not a cultivator; you’re not an honored person; you’re a monster, a bandit, a barbarian, and a beast!”
“Beast…?” laughed Sheng Hyan. “Maybe I have not made enough of an example around here… Perfect opportunity. I was already craving a woman, and you’re perfect. I’ll use your body in front of everyone here and show them that they cannot even fathom to think of ever fighting back, hah! Now come here!”
His giant paws reached Hue Xian, yet the girl's golden aura surged from her hands.
And her bamboo pole moved quickly.
BAAM!
“Hm?”
The strike pushed his hand away.
The people seeing this scene gasped.
“It… hurts?”
The panda couldn’t believe it, glancing at his own hand, which had begun to…
Bleed!
“Every life matter, every mortal is important, and you… An honored cultivator must strive to do your responsibility; protect them! not terrorize them! I am tired… tired of this society, tired of everything! I am Hue Xian, and I will defy the cultivators!”
The people, for the first time ever, were being filled with a sensation.
Something everyone had given up long ago.
Can they really fight?
Can there be a truly honored cultivator?
Can they finally pay for their crimes?
Yes, this very sensation, this very emotion…
Hope!
“FOOL!”
Sheng Hyan rushed towards Hue Xian, swinging his giant claws against her, releasing waves of Ki with each slashing attack.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
CLASH!
Hue Xian defended with her bamboo pole, reinforcing it with a golden aura and making it incredibly tougher; she was being pushed back, but she wasn’t being massacred instantly either.
“What…?!” and the panda realized this. “How is it possible?! How is this little girl managing to block my blows?!”
“You fight terribly! Your stance has no grace; chins up!”
The girl smashed the man’s chin with the tip of her staff.
CLASH!
“Ugh?!”
The panda grew furious as he once more felt pain!
“YOU BITCH!”
He leaped towards her with his enormous body and weight.
Hue Xian quickly evaded, imbuing Ki into her legs and leaping away, flying gracefully in the air.
BAAAM!
“You charge dumbly like a boar! Honored cultivator? You’re nothing but a barbarian!”
Sheng Hyan couldn’t believe his eyes.
The mortals looking at him were all feeling shocked, just like him!
He was being…
Humiliated by a girl!
“Y-YOUUUU!”
He quickly lost all his composure, quickly standing back up again, his Ki Aura erupting, making his surroundings tremble.
Several runic tattoos appeared over his fur, glowing with bright white light.
“I’ll show you the true might of a cultivator, you lowly insect.”
FLASH!
With a single lightning speed step, Sheng Hyan appeared in front of Hue Xian, swinging both paws against her; an explosion of white light was unleashed.
BOOOM!
“Ugh…!”
Hue Xian gripped her beak tightly, being pushed back as her bamboo pole broke by another consecutive blow, the panda’s sharp claws tearing through it with ease.
“RAAAH!”
The panda man gave a single roar; a shockwave of energy sent the girl flying away like a ragdoll, landing over the mud and rolling over it.
Her pristine white dress and her feathers were all covered in brown mud, and people looked at her disgraceful appearance in disbelief.
And one of her arms was also broken.
“Ahhh… Ugh…!”
As Hue Xian cried in pain, the civilians quickly lowered their Hope for her.
“I knew it… There’s no chance…”
“It was all fake?”
“I guess… It's natural; a cultivator will always win.”
Their flames of hope slowly went down. Hue Xian looked at the people in disbelief.
Yet, at the same time, just because they gave up on hope, it didn’t mean she would.
“Do you understand now, you damn bitch? This is the difference—a wall you will never overcome as the piece of garbage you are. I got bored of seeing your stupid face; I’ll tear apart that beak of yours from your cute face!”
As the panda’s claws reached Hue Xian in her weakened state, suddenly…!
BAM!
A rock hit his head.
“Ugh… Who dares?!”
The panda looked in the distance; there he was.
The black cat boy, Ku Zi…
“Hahh… Hahhh… Leave Hue Xian alone!”
“K-Ku Zi?!”
“Another damned brat thinks they can go against a mighty cultivator? Surely, this day is full of fools!”
“No… Ku Zi, run away!”
Hue Xian saw as the panda rushed towards the boy, faster than he could ever react.
“I’ll tear your head to shreds!”
“No…! Stop…! NOOO!”
RUMBLE!
And then, from within her very soul, from within her very heart.
Something awakened her heart, fully finishing its refinement.
CLAAASH!
The claws of the panda man reached Ku Zi, but they ended up hitting two small bamboo poles instead, which didn’t tear down and pushed him back instead.
BAAM!
“Guh?! W-What is this?!”
Sheng Hyan then glanced in disbelief.
There were two golden flames in her hands.
Her broken arm healed…
And her bamboo poles, having turned as tough as black steel.
“The true power of Hope…” Hue Xian said. “I understand it now…”
“What? What do you understand, you fool?!” The panda roared.
“It only shines brightly when I use it to protect someone!” Hue Xian roared. “And I will use it to protect not only my friends, but this entire village… from ruffians like you!”
“HAH! TRY AS YOU MAY, YOU’RE NOTHING BUT TRASH!”
“Haaaah!”
The white crane and the Panda clashed.
CLAAASH!
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