Chapter 5: Voice of the Guardian
Tian kept his massive, golden body safely at the very bottom of the dark, cold lake. He rested his heavy chin on the smooth, grey stones. He closed his glowing eyes completely tight. He needed absolute focus.
He took a very deep, slow breath of the dark water. He pushed his invisible spirit mind straight up.
His spirit moved incredibly fast. It shot directly out of the cold water exactly like a speeding arrow. It flew high up into the clear blue sky above the bamboo maze.
From high up in the empty air, Tian looked straight down at the tiny wooden village. The small village was completely trapped in absolute chaos. Bright orange fires were burning happily on the wooden roofs. Thick black smoke floated high into the clean air, blocking the warm yellow sun.
The normal human villagers were running wildly in completely different directions. They were crying loudly. They were waving their arms in total panic. Every single time they moved in fear, small bursts of dangerous magic accidentally shot out of their completely unprotected bodies.
The glowing blue System screen floated perfectly in his spirit vision. It flashed angrily with bright red warning letters.
[Critical Alert: Village panic level is currently at 99%.]
[Warning: Mortal heart rates are reaching critical danger zones.]
[Action Required: Immediate emotional suppression is highly recommended.]
Tian knew the clever System was completely right. He could not just start talking to them while they were completely terrified. If a giant, booming voice suddenly spoke inside their heads right now, their fragile human hearts might actually stop beating from the extreme shock.
He had to calm them down first. He had to force them to stop moving completely.
Tian gathered a huge amount of his massive cosmic power. He did not use human words yet. Instead, he pushed a massive, heavy feeling completely out of his mind. He pushed a feeling of absolute peace, total safety, and strict, unbreakable order directly down onto the burning village.
It felt exactly like throwing a giant, heavy, warm blanket completely over a small cage full of completely terrified birds.
Down in the dirt square, the magic suddenly happened.
Elder Bao completely stopped yelling. His mouth was wide open, but no sound came out. Jian stopped running toward the burning house. His heavy boots froze completely perfectly in the brown dirt. Lin stopped crying in the dirty mud. Shen stopped screaming behind the giant rock pillar.
Every single villager completely froze in place. They did not fall over. They just stood completely still like quiet wooden statues. Their arms stopped waving. Their legs stopped running.
Because they completely stopped moving, the accidental magic instantly stopped exploding. The random fireballs vanished. The random wind stopped blowing.
Tian watched the blue System screen carefully.
[Target Area: The Bamboo Village.]
[Status: Physical movement completely suppressed.]
[Mortal heart rates are slowly returning to normal safe zones.]
[Panic levels dropping: 80%... 50%... 20%... Stable.]
Tian let out a slow, happy sigh. His heavy mental blanket worked perfectly. The fragile humans were finally calm enough to listen to him safely.
He focused his mind directly on the older man with the long white beard. Elder Bao was the smartest and oldest leader in the small village. If Tian could easily make Elder Bao understand, the rest of the frightened villagers would follow him.
Tian spoke. He did not use a mouth. He used his ancient spirit to push the clear human words directly into the minds of every single person in the quiet village.
His mental voice was incredibly deep. It was extremely loud, but it was not painful. It sounded exactly like the low, happy rumble of a giant mountain. It sounded like the deep, steady crashing of large ocean waves. It was a voice that demanded absolute respect, but also offered total safety.
"Be totally still, my brave children," Tian said slowly. "Do not be afraid. You are completely safe now. No terrible demons are attacking your homes. You are not cursed by angry gods. I am here."
Down in the square, Elder Bao's eyes grew incredibly wide. A single tear rolled slowly down his wrinkled, old cheek. He could not move his body, but his mind was completely awake.
"I am the Great Protector," Tian continued softly. "I am the Guardian Dragon of Ta Lo. I sleep in the deep, cold water of the great lake. I watch over the green bamboo forest. I have watched all of you grow and live peacefully for many, many years."
The villagers listened quietly. The heavy blanket of peace kept their completely racing hearts very calm. They felt the absolute truth in Tian's deep voice. They knew he was not a liar. They knew he was their ancient friend.
"But our peaceful, quiet world is currently in terrible danger," Tian explained carefully. He spoke very simply so even the young boy, Shen, could easily understand the big problem.
"Far to the north, past the green trees, there is a dead, black mountain. Inside that ugly mountain, a giant, terrible monster of pure darkness is currently trying to break through a magical door. The giant monster wants to eat our beautiful world. It wants to eat all of you."
Tian paused for a short moment. He let the terrible news sink deeply into their quiet minds. He watched the blue System screen. Their heart rates jumped slightly, but the heavy blanket kept them completely safe from blind panic.
"For many years, the old, gentle magic of our world kept the dark door safely closed," Tian said. "The old silver chi was very soft. It was very wild and free. It made your daily martial arts feel smooth and easy."
He looked directly at Jian, who was still frozen perfectly with a bucket of dirty mud in his strong hands.
"But the soft, silver magic is no longer strong enough to hold the giant monster back," Tian explained firmly. "The dark monster is too strong. Soft magic cannot easily stop a hard attack. To save your homes, and to save your tiny lives, I had to completely change the basic rules of our entire world."
Tian focused his mind strongly. He decided to show them what he meant. He did not just want to tell them; he wanted to safely show them the new rules.
He looked at the burning wooden house near the edge of the square. The bright orange fire was still eating the dry wood.
"I took the wild, soft magic," Tian said loudly. "And I broke it completely apart into four perfectly solid pieces. I created strict, hard rules. These new rules are perfectly strong enough to completely destroy the dark monster. But they are completely different from what you know."
Tian reached out with his invisible spirit hands. He grabbed the clear water resting deeply inside the old wooden well.
"The first rule is Water," Tian said smoothly.
He pulled the water completely up. A giant, beautiful wave of clean, blue water flew perfectly out of the dark well. It did not splash wildly. It moved in a perfect, smooth circle. Tian directed the large wave directly over the burning wooden house.
He dropped the heavy water. It crashed heavily onto the hot roof. The bright orange fire hissed loudly and instantly died completely. Thick white steam floated safely away. The house was completely saved.
The frozen villagers watched in absolute amazement. They had never seen water move perfectly through the empty air like a flying bird.
Tian then looked directly at the giant, sharp rock pillar that young Shen had accidentally created in the middle of the dirt square.
"The second rule is Earth," Tian said heavily.
He grabbed the giant brown rock with his strong spirit mind. He pushed completely down. The incredibly heavy rock instantly sank perfectly straight back down into the brown dirt. It did not break. It did not shatter. It simply melted back into the flat ground like a hot knife cutting through soft butter. The dirt square was completely flat and totally safe again.
"The third rule is Fire," Tian said warmly.
He looked at the small pile of black ash where Jian had accidentally burned the wooden training dummy. Tian pulled the leftover heat directly out of the ash. He formed the hot heat into a tiny, perfect, bright red fireball. He made the tiny fireball float beautifully and harmlessly exactly above the center of the quiet square. It gave off a gentle, warm light like a small sun.
"And the fourth rule is Air," Tian whispered quickly.
He commanded the wind. A fast, gentle, completely clear breeze blew perfectly through the village square. It blew completely around the frozen villagers. It carefully picked up the thick black smoke from the burned house and completely blew it far away into the high white clouds. The air in the village smelled perfectly clean and sweet again.
Tian let the four elements settle completely perfectly. The village was completely quiet. The dangerous fires were totally gone. The scary magic was completely under his perfect control.
"These four elements are the exact weapons we will absolutely use to fight the dark monster," Tian spoke into their minds again. "Water. Earth. Fire. Air. They are hard. They are sharp. They are perfectly strong."
He slowly lifted the heavy, warm mental blanket of peace completely off the villagers.
He did it very carefully. He gave them total control of their fragile bodies back.
Elder Bao instantly dropped completely to his knees in the soft dirt. He pressed his old forehead completely flat against the ground. He was showing the absolute highest respect possible.
The other fifty villagers quickly did the exact same thing. Jian dropped his heavy bucket of mud. He fell heavily to his knees. Lin bowed flat. Shen bowed perfectly next to his mother. The entire village was bowing totally completely to the empty blue sky.
"Thank you, Great Protector!" Elder Bao shouted loudly with his real human voice. His voice shook with extreme emotion. "Thank you for saving our simple homes! Thank you for warning us of the terrible danger!"
"You do not need to thank me yet," Tian replied softly in their minds. "The great danger is absolutely not over. The dark monster is still hitting the magical door. We still have a terrible war to win."
Elder Bao stayed perfectly flat on the ground. "But we are completely weak, Great Guardian! We are just simple, ordinary humans! Today, we completely lost control of our own simple bodies. When we tried to do our morning training, we accidentally destroyed our own village. The new magic is far too wild for our small minds to hold. How can we possibly fight a giant monster if we cannot even stand in a square safely?"
Tian smiled warmly in his mind. Elder Bao was asking the exactly right question.
"The magic is completely safe now," Tian explained patiently. "But your human bodies are currently empty. They are exactly like hollow bamboo pipes. The heavy magic is rushing completely through you, but you have absolutely no safe valves to strictly control the heavy flow. You are accidentally causing explosions because you do not know the strict rules."
Tian focused his attention strongly on his glowing blue System screen.
[System Status: Elemental Frequencies stable.]
[Mortal subjects are completely receptive to new information.]
[Ready to deploy Avatar System Fragment.]
"I cannot fight the dark army completely alone," Tian told the bowing villagers. "I am far too big to fit inside the dark mountain caves. I absolutely need a strong army of brave human warriors to walk through the broken door. I need you."
The villagers stayed completely quiet. They were very brave, but they were also very small. Fighting a giant, evil mountain monster sounded completely impossible.
"I will not send you completely naked into the dark fire," Tian promised deeply. "I will give you a perfect tool. I have completely created a new magic System. It is a set of perfect, unbreakable mental rules. If you accept these strict rules, the wild magic will never accidentally burn you again. You will completely control the Water, the Earth, the Fire, and the Air perfectly."
Elder Bao finally lifted his old head slightly. He looked up at the empty sky. "How do we safely learn these amazing rules, Great Dragon? We will study incredibly hard. We will practice completely every single day and night."
"You cannot simply read these rules in an old paper book," Tian said firmly. "The strict rules must be directly completely placed inside your human souls. It is a very heavy burden. It is a very dangerous change."
Tian looked completely directly at Jian.
Jian was kneeling perfectly straight. His dirty hands were resting strongly on his knees. His dark eyes were looking bravely straight forward. He was completely covered in black ash, but he did not look terrified anymore. He looked completely ready to fight.
"Because the human mind is very fragile," Tian continued softly, "I cannot safely give the perfect System to all of you at the exact same time. The extreme shock of the pure magic might completely break your minds. I must completely test it on one single person first. I absolutely need a strong champion. I need a brave proxy to safely carry my heavy power."
The village was completely silent. They totally understood the heavy weight of the Guardian's words. One person had to be completely brave enough to step totally forward. One person had to risk their own life to safely test the completely unknown magic.
Tian did not wait for them to talk. He had already completely made his final decision.
"Jian," Tian's deep voice completely echoed right inside Jian's personal mind. It was much louder for him than for the others.
Jian jumped slightly in surprise. He quickly looked up completely at the sky. "Yes, Great Protector. I am completely here."
"You are a very seasoned warrior," Tian said respectfully. "You completely showed extreme bravery today. When the others ran totally away in blind fear, you bravely grabbed the heavy mud. You actively tried to completely save your neighbor's burning house. You did not let your deep fear stop your duty."
Jian bowed his head slightly lower. He felt completely honored, but also very nervous.
"I absolutely choose you," Tian announced loudly to the entire listening village. "Jian will be the very First Champion. He will completely be the first human to officially receive the Dragon Avatar System. He will completely test the hard rules. When he safely masters the strict magic, he will bravely teach the rest of you how to perfectly survive."
Elder Bao quickly turned his old head to look completely at Jian. He completely smiled with total pride. The other villagers murmured happily. They completely trusted Jian. They totally knew he was their best, strongest fighter.
Jian took a very deep, slow breath. He pushed his heavy boots firmly into the soft brown dirt. He stood completely up. He was the only person standing completely in the entire village square.
He looked directly up at the empty blue sky. He crossed his strong arms totally over his wide chest.
"I accept this heavy burden, Great Guardian," Jian said loudly with a strong, completely clear voice. "I completely offer my entire life to safely protect this beautiful village. I will completely learn your strict rules. Tell me exactly what I absolutely must do."
Tian smiled completely warmly. His giant dragon heart felt incredibly proud. The very first piece of his great plan was finally snapping perfectly into place.
"Go quietly into your small house, Jian," Tian instructed softly. "Sit perfectly down on your soft bed. Drink a completely full cup of clean water. Close your dark eyes. Completely empty your human mind of all terrible fear. Do not let anyone perfectly disturb you."
Jian bowed completely sharply. He turned completely around and walked straight toward his small wooden house. The other villagers completely stayed totally flat on the ground. They absolutely did not move to stop him.
"When the sun perfectly reaches the exact top of the blue sky," Tian's voice echoed one completely final time in the village, "I will completely begin the integration. The old, soft world is completely dead today. The new, perfect age of the Four Temples absolutely begins right now."
Tian slowly pulled his invisible spirit mind completely away from the village. He pulled it completely out of the high blue sky. He traveled completely back down deeply into the cold, dark water of the great lake.
He slammed safely back into his giant, physical golden dragon body.
He opened his glowing eyes at the completely dark bottom of the lake. He felt incredibly tired again. Talking loudly to fifty human minds completely at the exact same time was highly exhausting work.
But the terrible danger of the morning was completely over. The fragile village was completely saved from destroying itself.
Tian looked at the bright blue System screen perfectly floating in front of his massive nose.
[System Integration Target: Jian.]
[Time remaining until strict deployment: 2 Hours.]
[Status: Preparing pure soul fragment...]
Tian closed his heavy eyes. He needed to rest completely for exactly two hours. He needed to perfectly gather a tiny, shining piece of his own giant soul. He was about to physically cut a small piece of his cosmic power completely off and shove it completely into a mortal man.
It was going to be completely painful for both of them. But it was the only perfect way to build his unbreakable army. The true System was finally completely ready to awaken.