The Soul as an Anchor

Hoa Can did not reply.

But he did not object either.

Hao Nhien looked at both sides.

Then nodded.

“Enough to begin.”

The four of them sat around the stone altar in the center of the valley.

Hoa Can and Loi Trach faced one another.

Hao Nhien and Lang Tuyet sat on either side.

Lanh Hoa stood behind Hao Nhien.

The tribespeople from both clans gathered separately, maintaining a clear distance.

Their weapons remained in hand.

No one truly believed a single conversation could change everything.

But at least the killing intent that had filled the valley earlier had diminished.

Hao Nhien looked at the two clan chiefs.

“You have fought for generations.”

“What exactly are you fighting over?”

Hoa Can answered first.

“We protect the place where the Fire Qilin God is worshiped.”

Loi Trach immediately said,

“This was originally land where the ancestors of the Thunder Spirit Clan lived.”

“They occupied it and raised the Fire Qilin statue afterward.”

Hoa Can’s expression darkened.

“Nonsense!”

“The Fire Qilin statue was here before my grandfather was born.”

“And our ancestors spoke of this land for generations before that!”

The atmosphere began tightening again.

Hao Nhien did not interrupt immediately.

He let the two continue.

But once their arguments began repeating themselves, Lang Tuyet placed a small jade piece on the stone between them.

The quiet sound made both men look toward her.

“If all you have are stories passed down by your ancestors, then today will end exactly like every other confrontation before it.”

Loi Trach frowned.

“Then what do you want to ask?”

Lang Tuyet looked at him.

“Does either clan still possess records from when this war began?”

“Anything proving this land belonged to your ancestors?”

Hoa Can fell silent.

So did Loi Trach.

After a while, Hoa Can finally said,

“We have sacrificial chants passed down from earlier generations.”

“So do we,” Loi Trach answered.

“But do those chants say why your clans began fighting?” Lang Tuyet asked.

This time, neither answered.

Hao Nhien observed their reactions.

Gradually, he understood.

The war had probably lasted so long that even the current leaders no longer knew the full original cause.

That did not make the losses of the present unreal.

Hoa Can had tribesmen wounded only yesterday.

Loi Trach had undoubtedly lost people in previous clashes as well.

No simple explanation could erase that.

Hao Nhien slowly spoke.

“I do not know what your ancestors fought over.”

“I also lack enough evidence to decide who this land truly belongs to.”

He looked at Hoa Can.

Then Loi Trach.

“But how many generations have you fought?”

“How many people have died?”

“How many have lost arms, legs, or family?”

“How many children have grown up only to take up the same weapons their fathers once carried?”

No one answered.

“I also do not know what the gods you worship once commanded.”

“But do either of you truly believe what is happening now is what they wanted to see?”

Hoa Can lowered his eyes.

Loi Trach’s hand tightened slightly.

The stubbornness in his gaze remained.

“You do not live here.”

“You don’t understand what we’ve lost.”

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“Correct.”

Hao Nhien answered immediately.

“I do not understand all of it.”

“That is why I am listening.”

Loi Trach looked at him.

He clearly had not expected that answer.

Hao Nhien continued,

“But if you continue fighting, those who have not lost family yet eventually will.”

“That much I can see right now.”

Hoa Can considered for a while.

Then said,

“If we stop, who guarantees the Thunder Spirit Clan will not seize the altar?”

Loi Trach immediately replied,

“And if we withdraw, who guarantees your clan will not continue blocking the path to our ancestral land?”

The two stared at one another.

Lang Tuyet nodded faintly, as if she had finally heard what she was waiting for.

“Then at least now we know why neither side dares to stop.”

Hao Nhien looked at her.

Lang Tuyet continued,

“One side fears losing its place of worship.”

“The other fears surrendering the right to return to ancestral land.”

“If you only tell both clans to lay down their weapons without addressing those fears, the war will eventually resume.”

Hoa Can and Loi Trach both remained silent.

Hao Nhien thought for a while.

Then slowly stood.

He extended his right hand.

A small flame appeared in his palm.

The Fire force was not strong.

It was only a red-gold light.

But the moment a faint Fire Qilin aura spread from it, several Fire Spirit elders behind Hoa Can recognized it immediately.

A few bowed their heads without thinking.

Hao Nhien looked at the flame.

“I have carried this Fire within me for a very long time.”

“I have used it to fight.”

“To save people.”

“And to survive.”

He turned toward Hoa Can.

“But I have never felt anything within it commanding me to kill everyone who does not worship the Fire Qilin.”

He slowly lowered his hand.

The flame settled onto the stone altar.

It continued burning steadily.

It did not spread.

It did not damage the stone.

Hoa Can’s expression shifted.

But he said nothing.

Hao Nhien turned toward Loi Trach.

“I want to show you something.”

“Two different forces do not necessarily have to destroy each other in order to exist together.”

He looked upward over the valley.

Then slowly raised the Fire Spirit Sword.

Flame patterns along the blade lit faintly.

This time, however, Hao Nhien did not look toward Loi Trach’s spear.

His intention spread quietly outward.

Among the flows of spiritual energy throughout the surrounding world, Hao Nhien sensed extremely faint fluctuations of Lightning force.

They were scattered everywhere.

So weak that ordinary spiritual sense would almost never notice them.

He did not forcibly drag them toward himself.

Instead, he guided them gradually along the rhythm of the surrounding forces.

Before long, a blue-violet arc flashed in midair.

Under Hao Nhien’s guidance, it followed the movement of spiritual energy into his body.

Then immediately passed through his arm and into the Fire Spirit Sword.

Crack!

Lightning lit across the blade.

It curled around the dark-red flame markings.

More tiny arcs followed.

Each was guided from the surrounding world.

Each passed through Hao Nhien without remaining in his meridians.

Each gathered upon the sword.

Loi Trach, who had been sitting, abruptly stood.

He immediately understood what was different.

Those electrical arcs had not come from his spear.

Nor from any Thunder Spirit tribesman.

They had come from the surrounding world itself.

“Heaven-and-earth Lightning…”

Loi Trach’s voice deepened.

The shock within it was impossible to hide.

An elder behind him unconsciously stepped forward.

He stared at the lightning gathering on the Fire Spirit Sword.

“Without a thunder seed…”

“He can still guide Lightning force from heaven and earth?”

The other Thunder Spirit tribespeople fell silent.

To them, the ability to use Lightning was a defining sign of their bloodline and ancestral arts.

Yet this outsider was causing the Lightning force scattered throughout the environment to gather toward his sword without relying on Loi Trach’s spear or any Lightning artifact.

At that moment, Lang Tuyet suddenly stepped forward.

Hao Nhien turned toward her.

She looked at the flame on the altar.

Then at the Lightning around the Fire Spirit Sword.

“I have a way to keep them here longer.”

Her voice was quiet enough that only Hao Nhien heard.

She took out four thin pieces of jade.

With a movement of her fingers, the jade flew toward four positions around the altar and embedded themselves into the ground.

Small formation lines began connecting them.

A ring of spiritual force formed around the flame.

Lang Tuyet crouched to examine it.

She adjusted two formation lines.

Then looked up.

“This formation can keep spiritual force within a controlled area.”

“If it is adjusted correctly, perhaps it can maintain both Fire and Lightning without allowing them to interfere with each other.”

Hao Nhien looked at the formation.

Surprise appeared briefly in his eyes.

Then he slowly lowered the Fire Spirit Sword.

Under his guidance, the Lightning force on the blade moved into the formation.

It gathered into a small cluster of light not far from the Fire.

Lang Tuyet immediately adjusted the spiritual energy flowing through the four jade pieces.

The formation lines brightened faintly.

Two separate regions of fluctuation appeared.

The Fire continued burning on one side.

The Lightning remained on the other.

Hao Nhien withdrew his sword.

The electrical arcs fluctuated.

But they did not immediately disperse.

They circulated slowly within the formation, occasionally releasing tiny crackling sounds.

“There.”

Lang Tuyet smiled.

But only a moment later, her brows drew together.

The formation remained active.

Yet Fire and Lightning did not share the same rhythm.

Whenever one changed, the connecting lines between the four jade pieces had to adjust.

Tiny tremors repeatedly appeared throughout the formation.

“If this continues, the formation will still consume a considerable amount of spiritual energy.”

“It probably cannot remain like this for very long.”

Hao Nhien looked at the two forces on the altar.

He had only intended to show the two clans that Fire and Lightning could coexist.

He had not expected Lang Tuyet to create a way for that image to remain before them.

At that moment, a familiar voice suddenly sounded within his soul.

“Not enough.”

Hao Nhien’s intention shifted.

“Little Spirit?”

“Mm.”

“What isn’t enough?”

“Missing anchor.”

Hao Nhien looked at the fluctuating sources of Fire and Lightning.

“What kind of anchor?”

“Soul.”

He paused.

“My soul?”

“Mm.”

“For what?”

Little Spirit was silent for a moment, apparently searching for words.

“Keep rhythm.”

Hao Nhien studied the fluctuations between Fire and Lightning.

Then quietly examined the formation’s movement.

Both forces remained inside Lang Tuyet’s control.

Neither showed signs of instability.

He separated an extremely thin strand of soul force and held it outside his normal circulation for a moment.

There was no unusual reaction.

Only after confirming he could withdraw it at any time did he slowly guide the thread into the center of the formation.

The instant the soul force touched it, the flame trembled.

The cluster of Lightning beside it responded.

But instead of dispersing, the electrical arcs gradually stabilized.

The flame did not grow larger.

The Lightning did not become stronger.

Their rhythms simply became more even.

As though both had found a point toward which they could return.

Lang Tuyet noticed immediately.

She adjusted the formation and reduced the amount of spiritual power being used to maintain the Lightning cluster.

To her surprise, the electrical arcs still did not scatter.

“It’s more stable.”

Hao Nhien felt it as well.

That tiny strand of soul force was not supplying energy to either Fire or Lightning.

Instead, it had become a point of connection.

A place that helped both forces maintain their movement within the formation.

Hao Nhien gradually reduced the amount of active intention he was applying.

The flame continued burning.

The Lightning continued to move.

Nothing became unstable.

The surrounding tribespeople watched in silence.

No one spoke for a long time.

An elderly Fire Spirit clansman stared at the two lights upon the altar.

His aged eyes slowly reddened.

“It’s possible…”

No one knew exactly what he meant.

Perhaps he was asking how Fire and Lightning could exist together upon the altar of his ancestors.

Or perhaps he was asking a question he had carried for many years.

Hoa Can looked at the flame.

Then slowly turned toward the Lightning.

Loi Trach did not look away either.

Neither man had abandoned his position.

A hatred passed down through generations would not disappear because of a single scene.

But for the first time, both of them were looking at the same thing without arguing over which clan it belonged to.

Hao Nhien looked at the two sources of power.

His thoughts suddenly returned to the altar at Heavenly Eye.

The eye symbol.

And the things that had once happened with Hoang Sam.

There was something faintly similar in these fluctuations.

But for the moment, he could not determine exactly what.

His gaze returned to the center of the formation.

A tiny thread of soul force remained there in silence.

It maintained the rhythm of Fire and Lightning without forcing either one to merge with the other.

His soul truly could serve as an anchor.