Be A Lion

I awoke to the sight of a familiar ceiling bathed in warm light. I lay entombed in silk sheets. Such tranquility, only the ache in my body, kept me from questioning the pain and fear that came before.

A hand squeezed my own. "Congratulations, my son." An alluring voice spoke to me. I looked at my mother, who held my hand.

She was as I remember with long raven-black hair. A face full of soft features and full lips. But the most striking thing were her amethyst-colored eyes. There was a depth to them that threatened to pull you in.

Those ethereal eyes, unchanged from my first memories, without the blemishes that had littered her corpse.

I tightened my free hand into a fist. "How long was I out?" I asked.

"About a month."

I nodded. A month to regain consciousness after receiving your first heavenly tribulations was quick. My speed was most likely due to my cultivation path which prioritized the purity of my Dark Qi.

The pain I'm experiencing is proof that being conscious didn't mean I had fully recovered. The damage caused by heaven's lightning isn't so easily healed. The fact that I would heal at all was due to the blessings of an immortal body.

Breakthrough or die, I have passed the event that many of my kin have failed. I've burned the entirety of my mortal flame for this.

Success tasted like ash.

"I received visions during my heavenly tribulations." I told my mother. Her eyes widened with a hint of joy, but it was quickly replaced by sympathy. "You've received Astaroth's grace?" She asked to confirm.

"Yes."

My mother released my hand and assumed a more regal posture as all emotion left her face. Knowing that the tone of our chat had changed, I sat up in bed.

"You must not speak of this." Mother commanded me.

"I know"

The shifting tapestry of destiny is the battlefield of the gods. Occasionally, a god will pluck at a string of fate, forever altering its path.

We refer to those whose strings have been pulled as the Chosen. Sometimes, the reason for the Chosen is obvious, like with Xi Xan or Adonis. Their names live on in our history books as heroes, but most Chosen aren't like this. The gods purpose for choosing them is never fully understood. Their names and deeds are only remembered by a few or none at all. The only thing common between the Chosen like Xi Xan and the forgotten is that their mantle couldn't be passed to another.

"As a High Priestess of Astaroth, I can offer you some guidance." Mother suggested to me. I nodded my head.

"What you saw was struggle, fate, and the memories of who you're set to be.

"Destiny is the battleground of the gods because the struggle of life is far too complex for even them to control. What you've seen of it will be changed in a myriad of ways, both big and small. These changes could've come at the hands of the gods, or your hands, or the hands of another chosen, or even at the hands of a mortal peasant.

"But some parts of that struggle are already fated to end. Its destiny cannot be changed by you or me.

"Therefore, it's the memories of who you're set to be that are at the core of the gift you've been given. Memories help us evaluate who we are and what's important.

"So, I suggest you start by evaluating the man in your memories. What did he value? What did he want? Did he live by Astaroth's teachings?"

Taking her words in, I looked up at the ceiling.

Who was the man of my memory?

What did he value?

All that he valued was crushed under the armies of monsters and men. He died broken by his own inability to protect it.

What did he want?

Far too little, he was a man who never truly lived before his life was tossed into the fire, for he had spent far too long playing it safe.

Did he live by the Astaroth's teachings?

Astaroth's teachings were given to us during The Age of Demons, Soot, and Ice. Many in the clan called me a traditionalist because I cultivated the technique of Adonis, but I didn't truly follow the teachings that went with the technique.

Be my lion.

The message that had saved us then. Could it save us now?

The cogs in my mind began to turn.

I looked at my mother.

"I give thanks for your advice, High Priestess. I shall heed your words."

Mother nodded and got up.

"Then I shall leave you to your thoughts."

I smiled, pleased that mother picked up on my desire to be left alone.

"I'll come to a morning meal this week." I told her.

"Then I'll inform Maya to expect you. May your jaws shut on what you seek, my son."

"May your jaws shut on what you seek." I said returning my mother's farewell.

Mother left the room, and I got out of bed. I made the painful journey to my desk.

I pulled out a leather-bound journal from a pile of them on the floor next to my desk. It was a blank journal that I had bought in bulk. I opened it up to the first page and started to grind some ink as I put my thoughts together.

Mother advised me not to focus on what will be, but I refused to once again suffer the fate of watching all that I love cease to be.

I knew I wasn't a Chosen like Xi Xan or Adonis. Both had received new knowledge to use as cultivators. Astaroth's plan for me didn't seem to be as grandiose as their stories had been. But did it need to be to accomplish my desires?

The fall of Xi's Grand Barrier and the war against the demons were probably fated, but our clan was uniquely suited to fighting demons, and the fall of Xi's Grand Barrier was still decades away. Given my knowledge and position, we could become stronger.

The thing that had doomed us was the invasion of the human army made up of orthodox cultivators from the Upper Realm. More specially, Yuxuan, the rogue cultivator turned Xan Sentinel.

Could this be turned aside? Was it still part of the struggle?

Yuxuan had all the signs of being a Chosen with his quick ascent through the realms of cultivation and his ability to find allies and legacies. He might even be a Chosen on par with Xi Xan or Adonis, who are the true champions of their gods. It would be ideal if conflict with him could be avoided, but his god might not allow that to happen.

In my memories, there were two areas of conflict between our clan and Yuxuan.

One was Alina Randi.

She was the woman who cut off my arm and the one my cousin relentlessly pursued much to the ire of Yuxuan. Who also desired for her to be his. She and Yuxuan both came from the Yuanlai Lower Realm.

Killing my cousin was the obvious solution. My father feels sympathy for the boy, but that child and his sister are poison. They'll always be a threat to our family. I'll need to find an opportunity to deal with them both.

The second point of conflict was a pair of sisters in our clan.

The older of the two was the one who would become a lesser demon. Their flight from our clan would attract the attention of the Xan Sentinels. Our clan would try to hide the matter by killing the pair, but we would arrive at the same time as the Sentinels, and due to Yuxuan's distrust of our clan, they would turn their swords against us.

Again, killing was the simplest solution. If the sister could be culled before the older one turned into a Lesser Demon, then the battle with the Xan Sentinels would never take place.

But it was now my sympathy that got in the way. The memory of the younger sister sobbing uncontrollably while stooping over the deformed corpse of her kin was still fresh.

I've also seen the oldest sister before her fall. She frequents the clan archives. Ironically, she's there researching a way to help her sister, who suffers from chronic pain due to the instability of her Qi.

Those two have already lost their mother and have been abandoned by their father, yet they've stuck together through all the adversities.

The sisters' suffering stems from their bloodline as they're the product of an ill-conceived union. Their father purchased their Tibicena Wolf mother at an auction. He believed that because both their bloodlines used Dark Qi their mother would be able to produce a strong heir for him.

His knowledge is incomplete.

The bloodlines are incompatible. Both bloodlines have shifted to using Dark Qi during The Age of Demons, Soot, and Ice, but the methods are vastly different. Our clan's Qi consumes Demon Qi while the Tibicena Wolf Qi is a union of their original Qi and Demon Qi.

The older sister's Qi leans towards their mother's heritage, and our clan's bloodline only serves to destabilize the mix while the younger sister's Qi gravitates towards our clan's bloodline which is the source of her agony as it's trying to consume her mother's heritage.

I picked up my Quill and tapped it on a journal page.

I remember finding a banned dual cultivation technique in the clan archives. The technique used Demon Qi. If it was altered...

The Tibicena Wolf is a strong bloodline if I could mitigate the sisters' weakness by tempering them into cauldrons.

It was risky. The old me would never attempt it, but if it works the benefits could be massive. A pair of talented cultivators would be added to my house, and the means to hasten my cultivation.