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Heaven’s Flame—Prologue: The Birth of Heaven’s Flame
Boom!
A bolt of lightning thundered through the pitch-black night before vanishing in the sky.
Dogs howling and babies crying could be heard throughout the village.
Nobody knew when this ferocious storm would end.
However, within the village stood a brightly lit house.
Unable to withstand the wind and rain, all the greenery in the yard was buffeted by the storm.
Still, a woman in red was standing inside the yard.
Rain poured down on her mercilessly, but the raindrops bounced off the glow of red light around her.
She held her head up high and pointed to the sky with her right index finger. “Evil heavens!”
Boom!
More thunder boomed out after the woman’s scolding. It was near deafening, shuddering the earth and the heavens, but it was still insufficient to muffle the woman’s voice.
“You want to mess around with me, huh? I’ll entertain you, then!”
The woman roared while caressing her huge, bulging belly. A warm and gentle look could be seen in the depths of her eyes. She was already ten months pregnant.
In the house behind her stood a man watching her worriedly. Even though he was her husband and the child’s father, he could do nothing to help her, as he knew that this was the heaven’s test for her and the baby.
“C’mon! Are you a coward?!” The woman shouted once more. Despite her rough actions, she appeared to be a gorgeous woman. Her bright red gown perfectly contrasted her snowy white skin, and the mole at the side of her eye was the final touch that brought out her striking beauty.
“Not making your move? Then I’ll come for you instead!” She glared at the sky fiercely. Instantly, her onyx orbs turned red; not because of anger, but it’s just something that happened when she fought.
With a slight wave of her right arm, her long sleeve shot up towards the sky like a bolt of red lightning.
Boom!!!
A streak of lightning descended from the clouds and met her sleeve.
In an instant, the lightning bolt vanished without a trace, and her sleeve retracted back to her. It was as if nothing had happened.
The contest seemed like a draw, but her observant husband noticed her slightly pale face and tightly clenched fist.
“Hmph! Stop being so fussy and make this quick! I’m rushing to go into labour!”
And she meant it.
She could feel an unbearable pain in her tummy as the hem of her dress was slowly dampened by her amniotic fluid. Her water had broken, and her child was due.
All of a sudden, ominous black clouds billowed across the sky, forming a vortex that looks just like an opening to hell.
Whoosh!
A red thread slit the pitch-black sky open, putting a stop to the storm.
Wait, it wasn’t a thread but a red lightning bolt instead. Within no time, the red lightning appeared in front of the woman.
“Ahh!” The woman in red cried out in pain.
“Dear!” Finally, her husband stepped up. He drew patterns in the air so quickly that only the afterimages of his hands could be seen. A complex pattern appeared behind the woman and caught her before she fell to the ground.
The woman looked up at him in agony. “Hurry… I’m about to give birth….”
Hearing this, the man’s face fell as he quickly got up to help her give birth.
Yes, he was going to help his wife give birth. There was no need for a midwife, as he was the best doctor on the continent.
“Ahhh!”
The woman screamed in agony. She might have been a warrior who participated in countless fights across the lands, but she was still a woman after all. Like any other woman, the intense pain during labour was still too much for her to bear.
“Wah!” The newborn wailed as if celebrating his arrival in this world. It made the woman’s mind go blank.
She could no longer hear the rumble and growls of the storm, as if the only thing left were the cries of her child.
The man reached out to his child, but to his surprise, the baby felt like burning charcoal. Despite that, he remained calm and plastered a smile on his face, holding the baby close. There was blood all over his clothes.“It’s a boy,” he said.
“A boy? That’s great! I’ve always wanted to be a boy!” Even though she had just been through labour, her movements weren’t affected; she wasn’t an ordinary person after all. “Hurry up… Let me hug him…”
However, the man hesitated.
Colour drained from the woman’s face immediately.
She knew her husband like the back of her hand.
“What’s wrong… What happened?” The woman in red shouted anxiously. “Tell me!”
Her eyes turned red again as she demanded an answer.
“He’s… born with deficiency.” The man sighed.
“What… deficiency?” The woman looked up in shock. “Is there anything you can do about it?”
The man shook his head. “It’s his heart that’s injured, so he might experience numerous long-term sequela in the future. There’s no way he can cultivate since the heart and wind chambers are the core to cultivation. These chambers are too important to a cultivator…”
“What do we do…” She pleaded to her husband with tears in her eyes. “Is there a way to cure it?”
The man looked at her silently.
“Yes,” he finally answered after a long pause, “there’s a type of plant known as the ice heart flower, and it’s said that a ten-thousand-year-old ice heart flower can heal heart injuries. Let’s go to the north together after you recover.”
Hearing that, the woman in red stopped crying. As an unyielding woman, she believed that there was still hope as long as there was a cure. She had absolute confidence in her husband’s medical skills.
“How are you? Are you alright?”
“I’ve passed the heaven’s test.” The woman nodded, making the man look up in surprise, as he knew that this meant that the world had gained another five-chambered elite.
“So what?” The woman sneered. “What’s the point of this when I end up harming my own child?”
The man shook his head. Instead of blaming his wife, he lowered his voice and spoke to her gently, “To us, cultivation is a necessary part of our lives. Just like breathing, it will continue even if we don’t move. Don’t think I don’t know that you intentionally stopped cultivating after you got pregnant with our child.
“What happened today is the heaven’s will and maybe, our child’s fate.”
“Fate?” The woman spoke agitatedly. “What on earth is fate! I never believed in it. If this is heaven’s will, then I’ll change my child’s fate for him!”
“Shhh… Lower your volume. Don’t wake him up.” The man walked to his wife and passed the baby to her. The woman cradled the baby carefully.
“Look at that. Our baby is so obedient. He doesn’t cry.” The man chuckled.
The woman looked down at her arms. Her baby was looking around curiously with his shiny doe eyes. This put a smile on her face. “He’s indeed my son!” The woman gushed. Hey, he’s my son too! The man thought to himself. But instead of voicing out his thoughts, all he did was watch the mother and son pair silently.
The storm had finally ended.
After nightfall, the woman sat up silently.
She might have just been through her labour, but her body was currently in its best condition due to her breakthrough. She stood up silently, not waking up her husband and walked over to the baby’s cot. The baby stared at her silently with his wide eyes.
A tear rolled down her cheek.
My poor son… Your mum is to be blamed for all this.
She walked over to the table and picked up a brush to write a letter before walking out of the house without hesitation.
But just as she left, her baby burst into tears, as if he knew her intentions.
The woman stopped in her tracks upon hearing her child cry.
The next second, however, she turned into a red shadow and vanished from the yard.
As soon as she left, the man could be seen standing by the side of the door. He sighed and turned to read the letter she left behind.
Scarlet Lady swears not to return until the ice heart flower has been found.
It’s going to be a long journey. Please don’t miss me, my husband.
Take care of our son for me.
The man shook his head and mumbled to himself, “The ice heart flower is an extremely cold-attributed herb. It will shatter into fragments and disappear in its thousandth year. How could there be any ten-thousand-year ice heart flower in this world?” Like how his wife knew him, he also knew her like the back of his hand. She would have committed suicide out of guilt if I said that there was no cure for our son’s deficiency.
That’s why he chose to lie to her. He had even expected her departure.
Well, it’s better to spend your life searching for something than to be dead…
“Wah…”
Ever since his mother left, the baby didn’t stop crying. The man went to the cot and coaxed his son, “Sleep, my son…”
Like magic, the baby stopped crying and fell asleep, leaving the man to sit in the yard alone and stare blankly into space.
“Are you Flame, the best metalsmith on the Sallow Continent ?”
“Haha, this is good wine!”
“Big brother Flame!”
“Forbidden spell, Death’s Curse!”
“Big brother!!!!!!!”
“Siu Ching, can you save him?”
“I can’t! That curse has destroyed all of his vitality!”
“I, Flame, have spent my life forging countless weapons. As a metalsmith that has crafted two divine weapons, I have no regrets. However, the best thing in my life is meeting you guys. I’m so glad to be friends with all of you. I can die now in peace.
“I’m really craving wine now! Wine!
“Cough… Haha! Such great wine!
“Brothers, my time is up.”
“Ahhh!!!”
“Since my master has left this world, I must accompany him. Promise me that you’ll take revenge for my master. Goodbye.”
Darkness surrounded him, but he could clearly feel himself moving.
What’s this?
He could feel something spinning around him. It feels so familiar that it’s almost like a part of my body. Instantly, Flame got an idea.
Big silly, Is that you?
Crackle… crackle!
Boom!
It was as if something was broken.
Flame opened his eyes wide to realise that he was in a man’s arms.
What’s going on?
What just happened?
He opened his mouth and breathed in the fresh air greedily.
The man was speaking in a foreign language. What is he saying?
In confusion, he turned to the side to see a young lady in red looking at him fearfully before turning back to the man. This was when Flame regained his composure, just enough to lift up his hands to take a look… Why are my hands so tiny…
He tried to let out a shout, but all he was able to do was cry.
What’s wrong with me…
Where am I?
During the night, Flame laid in his cot silently. He felt extremely awkward.
It’s the weirdest experience of my life to be spoken to like a baby. Well, if any other grown ups experience this, they’ll feel the same way too.
He could see the lady in red walking towards him.
She’s my mother, right?
The lady stared at him silently, but he could see tears trickling down her face.
Subconsciously, Flame broke down in tears on the spot, as though he knew that an important person to him was about to leave.
The man who hugged Flame previously came to him. He spoke softly to Flame, who fell asleep in no time due to fatigue.
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