Critical: Ages Below Critical - Chapter 4.1

Chapter 4: Birth of the Soul (Part 1)


 

The tall and dark mountains rising on the sides,

Squeezing the blue sky into a tiny crevice,

The mouth of the valley,

The air impregnated with thick ivory-coloured fog.

The depths of the valley is hidden by the thick fog,

Nothing can be seen.

Occasionally an eerie howl can be heard,

Echoing faintly in the air.

[West of Aslan Empire – Forest outside town of Fauser]

The silent colour of the night in the forest is gradually washed away by the light of dawn; the rising sun paints a layer of shinning red halo on the crown of the trees. Straight lines of light pierce into the depths of the forest through the crown of the trees, illuminating the thick blanket of moss on the ground.

Qi Ling wakes up in the warmth of the sunshine, pulling himself off the ground, he looks into the distance, Yin Chen is standing beside a stream washing his hands, beside his feet are a few fresh and washed fruits, looking ripe and tasty.

Yin Chen turns at the sound, he looks at Qi Ling before tossing him a fruit.

Qi Ling takes it and bites into it, the sweet liquid soothing his throat immediately. A strong pang of hunger reminds him that he has not eaten in over a day. After he finishes eating, he uses the sleeve of his top to wipe his both, he looks up at Yin Chen, discovering that he has just finished eating as well, but he is currently using a snow-white silk handkerchief to wipe his hand. Qi Ling looks at himself in comparison before looking at Yin Chen who has not a single speckle of dust on his body, he says angrily: “Our boss lady said that, a manly man should be dirty and grimy, the Liu Shuanghua beside us loved using silk handkerchiefs the most, I didn’t think that you too……” Halfway through his sentence, he bends down and gurgles out ice shards.

Yin Chen is still cleaning his hands slowly and peacefully, ignoring him completely. The reflection of the water rings in the stream is reflected onto his face. He breathes in the tinges of morning in the forest, the expression on his face is that of joy, unaffected by Qi Ling at all.

“Yin Chen, I have you tell you this, you’re being very unethical!” Qi Ling says this angrily after spiting out the last of the ice shards, his lips shivering numbly, “If you dare then teach me this as well, let me shove it into your mouth when I don’t want to listen to you talk, do you think you talk very little? Once you start nagging, you’re even better than the boss lady I had before. You talk a load of garbage without even thinking if the other person understands.”

“There’s no use teaching you.” Yin Chen puts away the white silk handkerchief, “You can’t use this kind of soul bending techniques against me.”

“Why?” Qi Ling squints at him in challenge.

Yin Chen looks at Qi Ling, his deep-set eyes narrows, trying to control his emotions, he allows his voice to remain peaceful and tender, “Because the body of the soul master is filled with the soul’s return circuit, which means it’s the biggest shield of nature, unless your soul powers are many times that of your opponent, if not, you won’t be able to break through the surface of your opponent’s body to use soul techniques inside him. For example, us soul masters in the Aslan Empire, we were both with great control of water. And a human body is made up of over seventy percent of water, if we can break through the opponent’s shield that easily, then we can freeze the water content in our opponent’s body casually, or make a few ice swords pierce out from their stomach casually, won’t that be too simple?”

Qi Ling stays silent.

“Did you not understand me again?” Yin Chen suppresses his anger and asks softly.

Qi Ling nods, “Yes, master.”

Yin Chen turns his back against him and faces the beautiful stream, he inhales and exhales many times with his fists clenched, doing his best to not be bothered by this person before him who obviously has problems with his intelligence, he is going to enjoy this beautiful morning.

When Qi Ling realizes that Yin Chen is no longer paying attention to him, he himself feels bored and so he settles into the shade and takes his top off, rubbing his hands against the mud on the cloth, the mixture of blood and mud has dried completely, the reddish flakes falling onto the ground from Qi Ling’s rubbing.

Looking at the kinds of blood stains on his shirt, Qi Ling feels as if the past two days have been dreams, from an ordinary bell boy in an inn, he suddenly became an invincible disciple. His hands rub at the top mechanically, but his fixed eyes makes it obvious that he has sunken deep into thought, until his vision suddenly darkens did he realize that Yin Chen has been standing in front of him.

“Take off your clothes.” Yin Chen says expressionlessly, as if reading off from a book.

“What?!” Qi Ling can hardly believe his ears.

“Take off your clothes, you won’t get them clean like this, haven’t you been constantly asking me why my clothes are always so clean as if they were new? Take them off, I’ll teach you.” This time, Yin Chen seems unusually patient, not an ounce of impatience in his eyes, paired with the bright sunshine of the morning, his face looks almost joyous.

Qi Ling hands his outer shirt to Yin Chen awkwardly, and then takes off his inner robe, the sun shines on his tanned skin, filled to the brim with the strong flow of a seventeen-year-old boy. As he’d been carrying wine barrows, chairs, chopping wood daily, Qi Ling has pretty muscles.

“And your pants.” Yin Chen says with a small smile on his face.

“……” Qi Ling clenches his teeth and tugs off his belt.

Although Fauser does not belong to the north, yet, in the early winter weather, there is still heavy coldness, especially when dawn has broken not long ago, the sunlight hasn’t had time to warm up the forest that had been engulfed with eerie darkness for an entire night.

Qi Ling wraps a while piece of cloth Yin Chen passed to him around his waist before standing beside the stream watching Yin Chen wash his clothes in interest……um, “washing his clothes”……something like that.

Then again, compared to him when he was still working at the inn and having to wash a large amount of clothes from the patrons, Yin Chen had it much too easy. The way he does it is completely different from himself, he doesn’t require a few pails of water to be poured into the washing basket, he also doesn’t need to use any harsh liquids to get rid of the oil stains on clothes, he also doesn’t require stomping on the thick clothes with his feet like a horse.

Yin Chen looks as if he’s standing leisurely in a garden, his arms folded as if admiring flowers. A large huddle of water suspends in front of him, as if a large ball of water rolling in thin are, in it are Qi Ling’s clothes, countless thick and thin streams of water crisscrossing at high speed like a school of fish, the splashing of water can be sound. When Qi Ling stares dumbfounded, Yin Chen walks wordlessly into the forest, returning a short while later, in his hands are a bunch of yellow grass that resemble reeds. With a flick of his hand, the grass is folded into that large ball of water, turning together with the clothes.

“Why did you throw grass in there?” Qi Ling scratches his head in confusion.

“This is Chinese Cypress, a specialty of you south-westerners. The Fauser spices being sold at the port include a spice like this, don’t you know?” Yin Chen folds his arms and watches Qi Ling’s clothes being tossed around in the ball of water.

“No……why did you throw spices in? It’s not like you’re cooking.”

“Because you stink.”

“……Do you have any humanity left in you! I’ve been beaten up to pulp by a monster, and then I rolled around in ice and water and mud, how clean can I be?” Qi Ling snorts, yet he still lifts his arm to take a whiff of himself, “The girls in the neighborhood all think I smell amazing, they say that even my sweat is fragrant when I’m chopping wood!”

“Totally, look at this, the water……it turned into the colour of soya sauce.” Yin Chen smiles happily.

Qi Ling turns to look at the moving ball of water; it has turned to a ball of mud, contrasting the clarity in the beginning. He sighs, his expression pained, before collapsing.

The sun rises even higher now, the angle of the light is more perpendicular to the ground, the brightness is also a lot more harsh than at dawn, under the ample sunshine, the forest finally takes off the cold jacket that had been dampened by the dew in the night and becomes warm.

An early winter morning that makes people feel joyous.

At this moment, Yin Chen’s face and the tips of Qi Ling’s nose are only separated by a mere few inches. The hood on his robes were down, framing his face, his frosty handsome looks hidden under the shade of the leaves, the steams of light reflecting in his jewel-like irises from the stream, as if a dust of stars shining in dark shadows.

He looks at Qi Ling who is standing before him, putting on his clean robes. The top and bottom had been dripping with water a few moments ago, but with a shake of his hands, all the liquid solidified into ice, with another shake, all the chunks of ice disintegrated and fell off, leaving behind warm and pleasant smelling clothes.

Qi Ling ties his sash around his waist as he stares at Yin Chen who looks extremely serious; he is currently helping him tidy up his collar, pulling the hair from the back of his neck. If Qi Ling had a mirror in front of him at this moment, he’d be able to see how red his face looks right now. In his mind, the remnants of yesterday’s scenes flash through his mind. His last memory was of Yin Chen reaching his hand into his pants, and then he fainted…… isn’t this the most classic way a drama plays out? Qi Ling’s face flushes red, shame and anger fills his heart, yet he dares not ask Yin Chen about it, what if it had been a dream……then that would be embarrassing……

Yin Chen looks at Qi Ling’s expression and manages to guess what is going on in his mind. Although it’s only been a mere two days since they became connected as a lord and disciple, but Qi Ling’s thoughts and emotions can still be detected. It’s as if the tactic understanding between each other is gradually forming. Then again, at the same time Yin Chen also accidentally felt some other things in the mind of this hot-blooded young man, he can’t help but blush, but it’s not something he can call him out on, so he can only pretend to be calm as he tidies Qi Ling’s clothes.

Two people, each with their own sneaky thoughts, looking at each other in silence while pretending to be busy……
 

Of course Qi Ling does not know that, they barely scraped death last evening. Naturally, Yin Chen does not wish to tell him about Ragnarok. Because even Yin Chen himself finds it hard to believe that it will appear in a place like this, as to whether it had been Ragnarok or not, even Yin Chen himself cannot be totally sure.

If he didn’t remove all of his soul powers from his body last night, he’d have been discovered by Ragnarok. Even three of him will just be an entrée to it. Then again, his body without soul powers is one without any defense, under its soul power-filled howls; to still be living is a miracle in itself.
 

After getting dressed, Qi Ling jumps slightly, maybe it’s because he slept well and ate fresh fruits, but he feels as if his body is filled with limitless energy. Of course he doesn’t forget to lean down and smell his clothes, “It really does smell nice……really want to let those girls in the village smell it……” He mutters, his expression as if saying ‘what a pity’.

“Alright, if you have nothing to do now, then let out Cang Xue Zhi Ya.” Yin Chen finds a horizontal tree drunk and sits down, seeming very carefree, as if watching a show.

“Cang Xue Zhi Ya? No no no no no no……no! No! No! Definitely not!” Qi Ling shudders and waves his hands, “Its foot is thicker than the tree trunk you’re fiting on and its claws are like large pure iron knives!”

Yin Chen rolls his eyes, a dismissive look on his face. (His eye roll had been very minute, hence he still looks cool, Qi Ling thinks, always watching your image, aren’t you tired!) When he sees that Yin Chen is ignoring him, Qi Ling cocks his head to the side, thinking of how to avoid this topic, so he says: “Yin Chen, what is your soul beast? I heard them say that the soul beasts of lords are all really powerful, why don’t you let it out and let me see?”

“Are you talking about ‘Xue Ci’?” Yin Chen asks.

“Your soul beast is called Xue Ci? What does it look like?”

Yin Chen turns and watches him, his eyes narrowing, eyes becoming a thin strip instantly.

“Eh?” Qi Ling looks up at the sky, the surroundings has darkened instantly, are there storm clouds? Even if there are, it can’t be so dark that you can’t even see your fingers when you stretch them out. Qi Ling looks around, realizing that only Yin Chen is left standing before him, his robes radiating some light while darkness surrounds them. When he moves, his left hand comes into contact with something cold and solid covered with slime, when he moves his hand over again, it becomes obvious that it is a large and sharp stinger. Qi Ling carefully touches his surroundings, at this moment, below his feet and above his head are all clack crystal-like sharp thorns.

“Where is this?”

“Didn’t you ask to see my soul beast?” Yin Chen says expressionlessly, “We are now in its mouth.”

The colour drains from Qi Ling’s face as he shuts his eyes tightly, “……Do you have any humanity at all! Put it away now!”

Qi Ling screeches and yells for a while. When he opens his eyes, the trees, sunshine and stream is surrounding him again.

Qi Ling lets out a sigh of relief as he raises his hand to dab at the sweat on his head.

“You’ve already seen mine, it’s time to see yours.” Yin Chen says, uncaring, looking perfectly calm and collected.

“My what?” Qi Ling pretends to be dumb, unwilling to face it.

“Your soul beast!” Yin Chen clenches his teeth, a blood vessel twitches at his temple, despite that, he still maintains his noble and indifferent stance fitting of a frost lord.

“It’s very scary……” Qi Ling’s large eyes scans the surroundings wildly.

“Cut it with the crap, let Cang Xue Zhi Ya out, if not I’m going to sleep and I’m going to make you play with my Xue Ci all alone.” Yin Chen side-eyes him, his expression as if saying ‘I will really do that’.

“How do I let it out……” Qi Ling looks as if he’s about to cry.

“Try pounding your soul powers against your lord’s seal.”