Discipline

Later that afternoon, Jason who had been training with Grandpa Yin made his way to the bedroom. Still reeling from the strict and scary treatment he received, Jason shuddered unconsciously.

'What have I gotten myself into' he cried in his heart.

Click

Jason turned the door handle and entered the room. He walked through casually, expecting to see Michael hard-at-work cultivating. The first thing he saw was his brother laying unconscious on the bed.

"Michael!!" he yelled and sprinted toward the bed. He quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to shake him awake, tears began to well up in his eyes. His newly dubbed sworn brother was taken away from him merely hours after completing the brotherhood ceremony.

What struck him next was the noxious smell that was made even more apparent by the continuous shaking Jason was delivering to Michael.

"Poison??" Jason panicked again as he quickly stepped back from his deceased brother. The smell caused his nose to feel on fire while tears were quickly forming to block out the intrusion. What else could it be but poison?

"Grandpa Yin!!" Jason screamed at the top of his lungs, terrified by the sudden situation.

Grandpa Yin came flying in as soon as he heard the panicked yells of Jason. A frown formed on his face the moment he looked at Michael splayed on the bed unmoving. He quickly moved forward and placed his fingers on Michael's wrist and checked for a pulse, instantly his frown receded as he felt that the pulse was still strong.

He sent a portion of Qi into Michael's meridians to see if there was anything wrong with him. Starting from the heart, the Qi made its way into the right arm and saw the red pulsating meridians which were once damaged before taking the medicine. He then moved to the left arm before his frown returned.

"That idiot" he said harshly.

"Grandpa Yin, I…is Michael okay?" Fearing the worst, Jason asked in a hopeful tone.

Grandpa Yin nodded softly and continued to explore Michael's body to check for any other damages. He passed through the heart once more and made his way to the Dantian, which looked as dry as a desert. Shaking his head in disappointment, the old man retracted his hand and barked out an order to Jason.

2 minutes later Jason returned with a bucket filled with water from the well outside and handed it to Grandpa Yin.

"Good, good, very good" Grandpa Yin had a scary look on his face as he dipped his hand into the bucket of water. Jason felt the surrounding Qi being drawn to the bucket that Grandpa Yin was holding and began to shiver, he could feel an icy cold starting to emanate from the bucket.

"Seems like you need a little more discipline young man" Grandpa Yin muttered under his breath, startling Jason immensely. Instantly he began to feel cold sweat pour down his back

During his cultivation training with the old man earlier, he had already experienced his methods of passing on discipline. Jason gulped loudly before backing his way into the corner of the room in fear of being caught in the crossfire.

The bucket of water, which was once room temperature, had now fallen to the point of freezing due to Grandpa Yin. A sly smile could be seen on the corner of his wrinkled old mouth before he pulled his hand out of the bucket and proceeded to pour the icy cold water on the unconscious Michael.

AWOOOOO

Michael howled at the top of his lungs and quickly sprung out of bed completely disorientated. He scanned around the room in stupefaction. He saw Grandpa Yin holding an empty bucket that looked to be encased in ice and Jason who was crouched into a ball with his hands over his ears.

Suddenly he felt his body going into hypothermia as his heart rate increased twofold and lips turned blue, still shocked and confused as to what was going on he looked to Grandpa Yin questioningly.

"Mornin' Sunshine" Grandpa Yin smiled so tightly that the wrinkles on his face became giant creases and his eyes disappeared.

Michael felt an almighty fear as he looked at the terrible smile of the old man. Suddenly Grandpa Yin made a flourish of his sleeves in his direction.

'Not good!' he screamed in his heart.

Whether it was by instinct or fear, Michael suddenly dived onto the bed to try and avoid whatever the old man was attacking him with. A small tongue of fire seemed to materialise from within the sleeve and made its way to Michaels legs, like a floating feather it delicately glided down and touched his trousers.

The delay between the flourish of the sleeves and the tongue of fire making contact was almost 5 seconds. Michael had already lifted his head from the bed after diving out of the way in fear of his life. He looked at the slow-moving fire in puzzlement before looking at Grandpa Yin who was still showing his best impression of a skinny smiling buddha.

WHOOOOOOSH

The moment the tongue of fire touched his trousers, he was instantly engulfed in flame. Michael suddenly saw red and was so shocked his soul almost left his body, covered in flames he began to run around the room in panic.

"F***!!!" He dropped down to the ground and began rolling around at lightning speed trying to put it out.

Jason who had witnessed the whole thing began despair. Images of what he was currently witnessing overlapped with the scene of his mother also engulfed in flames writhing on the floor, he began to rock back and forth as he watched on in horror.

Grandpa Yin caught Jason's reaction out of the corner of his eye and his expression dropped 'Damnit, I got too carried away'. He suddenly remembered that not even 2 days had passed since these two had lost their families to fire.

He was about to cancel his technique when he saw Jason suddenly leap up and grab the blankets off his bed and dive on top Michael who was wreathed in flames.

"Hold still brother! I'll put it out" he yelled desperately.

Jason had a firm and decisive look on his face as he braved the flames that had engulfed his sworn brother, the look of horror and defeat no longer present. He struggled with the rolling Michael for a few moments before realising something was wrong.

'Huh? I don't feel like I'm burning' he commented in his heart. Jason who had already suffered terrible burns on his leg from that fateful night and could remember the sensation with perfect certainty; was not being burnt from this fire.

He looked down at Michael who was still covered in flames, he was no longer panicking and laid down still on the floor. Aside from the deep breaths he was taking, and the bright red flames, he could see nothing wrong with him.

"W…What's going on?" He asked before setting his eyes on Grandpa Yin who seemed to have turned into a nice old man again.

"Ahem" He coughed once and waved his sleeve once again. The fire instantly subsided and a naked, but healthy-looking Michael appeared in everyone's view. Apart from his skin being a shade red, there were no obvious signs on burns.