North

Five years prior, Little Cripple was only five years old. On one particular day five years prior, the village chief was occupied with some sales documents, thus the village chief was unable to keep his eye on Little Cripple. Despite being unable to see and speak, Little Cripple was very active, he usually wandered around his room whenever the village chief was at home, at some point even wandered around the house. The village chief was really a kind soul. Despite being busy with his daily task as a village chief, he would still look around for Little Cripple. He understood that Little Cripple has only one way to familiarize himself with his environment and that is to feel the environment directly, thus he liked to wander around the house. Being only five years old, and unable to see the outside world was truly a pain, not for the Little Cripple, but for the village chief to witness this tragedy directly. 

Since the day The Village Chief adopted the boy he was constantly trying to communicate with the boy using verbal languages, yet the boy was only capable of responding in only two different responses, nodding and shaking his head. Because the boy was blind, he could not learn sign language, because he was mute he could not utter verbal responses. Although he could understand meaning, heard people talking, touch his surroundings, taste the taste of the delicious milk the village chief bought for him, he could not respond how grateful he was for simply existing, even though he did not have perfect senses, he felt it was a blessing enough. For the village Chief, it was darkness, for Little Cripple however, the darkness was his whole world, since the day he was born, he was unable to perceive anything other than absolute darkness.

The only thing in this universe that could be considered as an absolute thing was the darkness of the blind. Little Cripple because of his blindness did not understand the concept of beauty, colors, shapes, or light. In all his life, the true eternal god was darkness. Although he did not know what light meant, he understood that light meant warmth, like the warmth of the sun and the warmth of love, the parental love given by the village chief. He was no son of his, yet his love had yet to be beaten by any other parent. He understood this yet he could not even smile, because he did not understand what smiling looked like or how to do it, no one taught him what smile meant and what it represented for the word or for himself. Like a classic kidnap scenario, he could only nod if he understood and shake if he did not, simple gestures to learn, simple gestures taught by reality. A reality that was too harsh for the Village Chief. And so he hoped, because he remembered the teaching of the yesteryears that is the miracle.

"A miracle, a heaven's pity, yet the pities were cruel, for heaven is just, it has no concept of magnanimity toward the dwellers of samsara. Night and day are defined by the universal laws, governed in meticulously precise heavenly laws. The moon walks around the earth, the earth flies alongside the moon to chase after the Sun. Falling, the creature obediently falls toward the mother Earth, born to see the towering firmament, live to look after their little steps, and die suppressed under the gaze of the unforgiving. Such are mortals, to follow, to silent, to gaze up was to dream, to firmly walk was defying, to die was a blessing. However dreams are not illusions, look up, there lay the possibilities, look down, there spread a road, whatever your dreams were, it is up to you, however you came to your dreams, is also up to you. If you could not walk toward the darkness, how can I show myself? I am the light of heaven, I am miracle."

And so it came, a chance, in the form of an ancient stone in the north most part of the village, poetically decorated by carvings of words, "My thoughts are my palace". No one knew what it was or what it meant, the villager only knew that the now deceased governor, the who bestowed the name of the village and surname to the villager once came to this place, and after he saw the stone, he immediately bestowed the surname "North'' to the villager, no one knew why, no one realized the meaning.

The stone became the only tourist spot in the entire area. Beside the poetic sounding words carving, the stone was apparently indestructible and immoveable. It was said that even a strong warrior of the upper level once came to move the stone yet he was not successful. Many associated the stone with treasure, however over the two centuries since the day it was found, no one made sense of the stone. Many came, many left, no one succeeded, leaving many to believe that it was an ancient powerful warrior way to prank the later generations. However little did anyone know, the secret of it's activation was very simple, blood, not just any blood, blood of the chosen, the Powerful Emperor knew it, the deceased governor knew it. The stone was a relic of the ancient past. A relic left by a powerful cultivator of an unknown origin. Only the peak cultivators can decipher the hidden mental wave it emanated. Therefore they knew they were not fated, therefore they knew that the rightful successor would came, bearing the surname of the deceased senior, North, the name of the villager, the name that was bestowed by the remnant will of the senior, the deceased governor understood it, thus the history wrote the passing name of the North. They might not be related by blood, but they would be related by karma, after all someday in the future, a curious Little Cripple could not hold his curiosity and ran toward the stone, on the day the village was particularly busy, was the day the Little Cripple accidently tripped over his legs and he fell over to the stone he was curious about. He was fine, he was only unconscious because his head was bleeding after he accidentally hit the stone with his head. 

A passing aunty screamed her lungs out after seeing a bloody Little Cripple lying in front of the ancient stone.