The Tale of Heaven's Pride

Fire and Plans

It was burning, the house was burning. Tian Jiao felt nothing but despair, a despair so overwhelming it could crush him. He just stood there dumbly, shocked and stunned by the scene infront of him.

He felt someone tugging his sleeves, then he turned, only to see his little sister tugging on his sleeve, pointing to their burning house. He awoke from his stupor and quickly rushed towards the house, panic seizing his heart. "Mum, mum!" he shouted with a voice filled with panic as he ran towards his now burning house, even though he knew that there was no use calling out but he just wanted to give himself hope.

He was held back by the uncle and aunties of the village, he turned around to look at them, his eyes filled with madness, sadness and betrayal. He screamed and roared at them to let him go, his eyes filled to the very brim with tears but then he stopped because he heard the weak voice of his sister "Stop big brother, you're scaring me.". It softened his heart and so he knelt there limply, watching the fire consume what use to be his house.

He covered his eyes letting the tears fall freely, his mother was there in that blazing flame, burning and burning. He felt the villagers patting his shoulder sympathetically, he didn't need their damn sympathy at all, if only they had let him charge into that flame, letting him burn with his mother but wait, he still had his little sister. He couldn't let her live in this cruel world herself, the despair in his heart started burning out with that dim hope.

Starting from today on, he will live but only for his sister, who was now his very being, the meaning of his existence and his hope. He will protect her even if it meant his life, he will do anything for her. He didn't have any else in this world, only her.

The brother and sister pair stood there and watched the flame die, hand in hand to comfort themselves and persuade each other that it's all just a bad dream. But it was not, reality is a cruel thing, there was nothing left of their house after the fire, only ashes. They scrambled through the ashes, digging and digging but all that was left was the rusty sword that had once belonged to their dead father and a dusty red hairpin with a red spider lily drawn on it that was given to their mother by their father.

They hugged and treasured those two objects as though they were artifacts, Tian Jiao took the rusty sword while Xiao Yue took the red hairpin. After that, they got some incense from Village Chief Meng Bai and then started paying respects to their dead parents in heaven. As Tian Jiao was tracing his sword, he accidentally cutted his finger causing blood to stain the sword, amazingly the blood actually cleared away the rust on the sword.

Completely shocked by this, he quickly showed his discovery to his little sister who immediately tried the same thing on her hairpin, the same thing actually happened, the rust and dust that once couldn't be cleared away was just cleared away like that. But the rust and dust returned a few days later, which was quite annoying before that Tian Jiao made sure to warn his sister not to tell anybody. It was quite a hard task, after all Xiao Yue was still a naive little kid, who couldn't resist the temptation to tell secrets.

They were taken in by Uncle and Auntie Lan who treated them like their own children which made Xiao Yue get over the trauma of their mother's death. Nevertheless, Tian Jiao had long matured and hardened his heart so he was no longer an innocent little kid, he had to act strong infront of his little sister even though he wasn't. Suddenly, a great news came, it was about the immortal sects opening a competition to accept disciples.

This was a great chance for the brother and sister pair to get stronger, of course Tian Jiao would never pass on this great opportunity. So he started making plans and tactics, gathering as much news as he could, after making sure the news was about 50% to 60% accurate. He made his plans, they were separated into three different plans, Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, from the safest to the most radical one.

Three months later, it was time for the immortal sects disciple accepting competition and the time for Tian Jiao to start his plans.