The Tale of Heaven's Pride

Caravan Trip 2

They arrived a few hours later at Weicang, when the sun was still high up. There were many lavish carriages parked outside of brothels for the young masters to get into the brothel. Many seductive and barely clothed woman stood outside the brothels, luring in men.

His little sister had a confused look, seeing all those carriages parked outside. "Big Brother, why are there so many carriages parked outside of those big sister's home?" she asked.

"Ehm...*cough* they are ummm..going to visit the big sisters?! Ok, stop asking irrelevant questions." he replied, a little unsure how to answer his sister's question.

"Ohhh...ok. Woah! Look big brother! So many candies!" she exclaimed excitedly while hopping up and down before tugging him by the sleeves towards the many stalls that dotted the street.

"Ok, ok. Here take these few coppers and go buy yourself some treats while I go look for a caravan but down go too far." he said as he stuff a few coppers into her tiny hands while freeing himself from her grip. He was going to go look around for something that might interest him while looking for a caravan to join.

As she pouted her lips angrily, she grudgingly took the coppers and skipped around the stalls, looking for some sugar syrup candies, dragon beard candies and etc to satisfy her sweet tooth. He sighed helplessly at the sight of her skipping merrily around, he tug his hands into the sleeves of his robes before turning around and strutted off towards a bookstore named Ming Shu, nearby.

He saw the bookstore when they reached Weicang, it was the only thing that truly caught his eye as it was the only bookstore, he saw. As he stepped into the dusty bookstore, pushing aside the old, almost ancient door creakily. Smoke filled the air, as the owner, who was a white-haired old man with a long white beard puffed out smoke from his brown pipe.

He let out loud coughs and puffs, mainly due to the smoke but also trying to let the owner know that he was here. "Oh, a customer, aye." said the old man with the raise of an eyebrow and another puff of smoke.

"Um hello, would you mind not smoking?" he asked careful to not offend the old man.

"Uhmm...alright." the old man grudgingly complied, placing his pipe on the wooden table.

Tian Jiao started glancing around the store for anything that looked particularly interesting but not extremely expensive either, once the old man stopped smoking, of course. He paused at a curious-looking stone on a worn-out shelve that was labeled: 2 coppers. The stone was shaped like an oval with no sharp edges, it had a character carved on it.

On closer inspection, he saw it was a 'Tian'(1) character the same one as the one in his name, this coincidence peeked his interest as he plucked the stone from the shelve. He turned around facing the old man only to find he had sneakily started smoking again, putting aside his annoyance he asked the old man. "Hey, Mr Owner. What is this stone and where did you find it?" he enquired.

"It is a memory stone and it belonged to an ancient clan, the clan's name is the word carved on the stone. And about where I found it? You're better off not knowing." replied the old man nonchalantly, before releasing a puff of smoke.

"Funny, the clan's name has the same character as my surname. Oh yeah, what is a memory stone." he asked as he fiddled with the stone in his palm.

The old man froze, furrowing his eyebrows for the slightest second, before shrugging whatever thought, he had previously off. 'It's impossible, he can't possibly a survivor, the heavens spare none but his surname is the same as the the clan.' thought the old man nervously. "Impossible, it's just impossible." muttered the old man

"Hello?! What is a memory stone, old man?" called Tian Jiao when he saw the old man wasn't answering his question.

"Huh?! Oh yes sorry, a memory stone is a stone that stores memories of all sorts, from martial arts to all sorts of things. You open it by squeezing a droplet of blood onto it. Boy, one more thing, don't ever say your surname is Tian" advised the old man shamelessly, trying to divert his attention from the thoughts before.

"Uhh...why? And how do you store martial arts in a stone?!" asked Tian Jiao in pure, utter disbelief.

"Simple, insert your spiritual qi into the stone and it will record the memory or seal the memory into it." answered the old man, happy to help but ignoring his first question.

"Seal the memory?!" Disbelief was written all over his face. "Who would be so stupid as to seal their memories!?" He was so shocked he forgot about his previous question.

The old man rolled his eyes "It doesn't need to be martial arts, like I said it can be scary nightmares or sorts, but sometimes memories get unwillingly sealed inside the stone by a person stronger than the person who the memories belong to, who seal the stones so it cannot be used and the memories are trapped forever within the stone."

He looked at the old man, stunned. Then he asked "How can the seals be unlocked then?"

"Two ways. The first: the sealer has died and the seal goes undone . Or the sealer had set it so when a person who meets certain requirements can undo the seal." answered the old man.

"Then is the seal for this stone undone?" asked Tian Jiao.

"I don't know!" yelped the old man goofily.

"WHAT?!??!?!" shouted Tian Jiao as though someone just stole his sister away.

"What? I never tried it, after all, a memory stone can only be used once." the old man retorted.

"...." for once Tian Jiao was left truly speechless but he quickly regained his wits "So it's like a gamble, right?"

"Yeap." replied the old man slyly.

"Alright then old man. I'll take this stone for 2 coppers." smirked Tian Jiao.

"Wait, kid, you're really going to buy it?! After everything I just said?!" the old man looked at him, surprised beyond believe.

"Yes, of course, you said it's a gamble right? I love gambles." he smirked.

"You...you! You're purposely doing this! Kid, let me tell you, you're better off not buying it!" exclaimed the old man.

"Well, I want to." he said.

"Fine then kid, you'll end up regretting it!" sneered the old man. "Kid, what's that fishy-looking artifact at your back? I know a lot of things and one of them is artifact appraisal, so if you wouldn't mind paying an extra three coppers, I can help you appraise it?" advertised the old man again, not wasting any extra chances to earn more money.

Tian Jiao rolled his eyes at him. "Sure, old man." he said sarcastically "Wait, old man what else do you know to do?"

"A lot of things, boy. Such as alchemy." boasted the old man. "So boy, are you gonna give me your fishy-looking thing?"

No harm, can be done to father's blade right? He thought. "Umm, be careful with it! It's delicate!" he berated as he passed the blade to the old man.

"Ok, ok." hushed the old man. "Hmm, let's see." he muttered, spinning it around and inspecting it closely. "What a pity, it's a damaged artifact, too rusty." he complained, as he said that he started using the blade to saw on his finger. After several tries, only did a shallow cut emerged on his finger, the blood trickling down the blade, erasing some rust but it was too little for the old man to notice.

"A damaged artifact? What's that?" he asked curiously as he snatched the blade back from the old man, seeing the some of the rust erased, his eyes widened. When he tried, Auntie and Uncle Lan's blood, it didn't work so he assumed that only his blood worked but now?! The old man's blood works too!

The old man never noticed the surprise in the Tian Jiao's eyes, as he announced "It's five coppers in total, boy."

"Huh..oh, ok." He took out five coppers and was about to hand it to the old man when he heard a piercing shriek shout: "Stupid Brat!" Tossing the coins on the wooden table, he hurried to the windows, peering out through them, he saw his little sister sobbing silently. A few shattered pieces of sugar syrup candy was on the ground, he understood what had happened.

Cursing under his breath, he stormed out of the store and rushed towards the scene.