35 Chapter 34

Filled with only the noise of rain drops in the area, the man stood, waiting for the boy's answer patiently. He wore a brown raincoat with a hat atop of his head, and an iron dagger in his right hand. He observed the boy, Zuyuan, quietly and so did Zuyuan.

Looking at the figure in front of him, Zuyuan's pupils trembled as shock and longing filled his heart. He tried to move but pain came and overwhelmed his mind. 

"You are injured. There's a lot of wounds and broken bones." The man's eyes moved elsewhere and he continued, "I saw you tripped into the swamp, thought you would definitely be dead with your condition. Who would have thought you'd manage to get out from there alive." 

Moving his gaze back at Zuyuan, the man stared right into Zuyuan's eyes and asked again, "Do you want to protect yourself?" 

His lips moved by itself as Zuyuan heard his voice in his younger days, asking back while feeling some pain in his throat, "Who… are you?" 

Smiling slightly, the man answered, "Just a humble passerby." 

"How?" 

"Power." Answered the man firmly as if he knew what Zuyuan really wanted to know, "A power to protect yourself from those who wish to harm you." 

His hands moved on their own accord and Zuyuan's gaze fell to them. He was lying upwards, looking at his small left hand. The hand he had when he was still eight years old. 

"I'm.. Weak.." 

Zuyuan's lips mumbled softly by itself as tears flowed down from his face. His eyes look back at the man with the eyes of someone that was in despair. 

"Help me.." 

He sobbed unconsciously as he tried to grasp a single straw in his life full of darkness, a single hope. 

"I want to change.. I… don't want to die.." muttered Zuyuan In his hoarse voice. 

"You won't die." 

The man kneeled down and carried Zuyuan gently in princess carry. His gaze was firm when he looked at Zuyuan's face. 

"Not yet." 

His eyelids started to heavy as they slowly closed down. Just a moment later, Zuyuan found himself in another place and another time. He remembered this scene, it was a few days later when his wounds already bandaged and he woke up from sleeping for two days. 

"Why me?" 

He was sitting on the ground with his back facing the cave wall. They were in a cave and the man was polishing his knife fifteen meters away. The man's eyebrows raised as he asked back, "Why what?" 

"You, power." said Zuyuan as his body moved but itself to knit his eyebrows, "You would give me power, wouldn't you?" 

"It all depends on you. But yes, you could say so." replied the man as he went back to tending to his knife again. 

"Am I gonna be your disciple or something?" 

"Yeah." 

The man chuckled, "Do I look like a grandpa to you?" 

Zuyuan's lips widened slightly and said, "Perhaps." 

His face back again to become grumpy, "You yet answered me. Why me" 

His boyish face became glum and both of his small fists clenched tightly when he remembered the gaze of the man as he saw him for the first time, "Is it pity? Are you doing this because you're pitying me?" 

His eyes closed as they felt like tearing up again. It's painful. To be weak and helpless. When everything just crashed on you and you couldn't do anything about it. Everyone he knew despised him, some pitied him, while the rest were disgusted and had fun with his misery. 

"Because of that." the man pointed at Zuyuan as Zuyuan's head tilted slightly to the side in confusion. Sighing, the man pointed his finger to himself, specifically his chest, "Your will." 

"Not everyone can walk through the path filled with endless thorns on the way and still walk ahead. Your body was battered, broken, and bruised. Yet you persevered until you met me. Impressive." 

"Impressive…?" muttered Zuyuan unconsciously, almost speechless and feeling awkward from the unexpected and the very first complement he had ever received. 

"Kind of." said the man curtly, "Maybe just a fluke and my eyes were wrong. But we will see." 

"Oh, alright." replied Zuyuan without much thought. 

'Master…' 

Trapped inside his younger self, Zuyuan watched everything that happened as if it was a movie. He has no control of his own body as it just moved according to the past scenario. Suddenly, something pulled him and he left his younger body, sucking him into the air as his vision turned completely white.

His ears began ringing and an intense headache assaulted him out of nowhere. Shortly, he was in the middle of a room and tied in a chair. The room filled with leeches on the floor, thousands of them. The room was poorly lighted and a voice from the loudspeaker on the corner of the ceiling suddenly said, "Where's he?" 

"I don't know…" Zuyuan lips moved and answered with a poker face. He looked more mature as he was already 13. He was kidnapped with his master's enemies and tried to search for him and kill him.

"Then you will suffer until you do know." The voice said and the leeches began to pile over Zuyuan's body, biting into him and sucking out his blood in an agonizingly slow manner.

Many entered through his mouth, ears and nose. Diving inside of his body as he laid helpless on the chair, screaming in terror. He had already learned the way to use Qigong from his master. But these leeches were hellspawns. The category for those beasts which could devour another living being's Qigong as their food and nutrients. 

"Do you know now?" The voice asked again, however Zuyuan laughed out loud and said out loud, "Go to hell!" 

"Still defiant? We'll see how long you keep the attitude up, brat." The voice said, before the chair upon which Zuyuan was sitting suddenly erupted in shocks of electricity, zapping the thirteen year old boy with a multitude of volts.

Gritting his teeth, Zuyuan still refused to talk and even shouted again, "F*ck you all. If I die, I will haunt you whenever you had sex with your wives!" 

Not long after, Zuyuan's sight began to fade once more into pure white and he sprung up from his sleeping bag into a dripping sweat as he screamed out loud.

Trembling, Zuyuan held his head with a hand, mumbling softly in a grunting manner. 

"What the hell…?"