Heaven`s Beloved (RI Fanfic)

As the sun rose, its golden light filling through the shaded clouds and giving a vibrant brilliance to the medium sized ship. Tian Zheng had already woken up as had all the crewmates. They were busy with making sure the ship worked well and to see if any of the gu worms that made up the ship were tired or destroyed, which they would repair. Tian Zheng had been silent for the time he had been in the ship, this caused a ginger boy with doll like features to grow curious.

When they were putting away the mops and buckets they used to clean the ship, he approached Tian Zheng. "Hello, I would like to officially welcome to the Hidden Serpent." He stretched his arm forward which was greeted by a slightly limp hand. The handshake that followed was short but awkward but the ginger didn't seem to mind. "My name is Yi Chen, I'm so happy to finally have someone my age in this ship. These old people don't do anything else other than cultivate." He spoke as if he didn't have a care in the world. As if the act of cultivation wouldn't extend their lives in these dangerous waters. Yi Chen smiled a big toothy smile when he saw the closed eyes of the mysterious youngster open. They were filled with confusion. "They keep saying that it is the only way to live, but me; I think that life should be enjoyed."

Yi Chen was happy to explain his philosophy to someone who actually listened without any of the pity and disgust most people had. He had always thought that cultivation wasn't the main point of life but a path. If you wanted something but needed strength to reach it then you cultivate, if you didn't need the strength then why search for it, why devote your whole life to something you will probably die before you are satisfied with. It was simple but he had lived by it and to this point in time he had enjoyed the life he had led.

"I can see that you agree." His voice pulled the new member from his thoughts and his eyes became clear once more. "How about I take you to someplace you will enjoy more than the mind numbing motions of cultivation" even before Tian Zheng could answer he felt his hand be yanked to a certain direction and he was forced to stand up. With quick steps the small ginger boy carried him under the ship to where the elemental canons were positioned. He felt his hand be abruptly released and this caused him to lose his balance. Small hands held him from falling. "How are you so fast?" the boy`s speed was unnatural. Without the activation of any gu worm, he had covered a distance that could take a hundred breaths in ten breaths. He hadn't even seen the lights around the boy`s body light up thus he was sure no gu was activated. That was just due to his natural speed and nothing added to it. The boy let put a small laugh as he reached towards the floor, which would have led to the ocean but when he activated a gu it opened to show a door. "I`m just fast, in everything." His face still had that small smile he always had. Like his body was frozen in that position.

With those button like eyes screaming innocence and that perpetual smile giving all who saw it think Yi Chen had a plot he was plotting. He was a paradox in itself, like his body was fighting itself, if he couldn't decide if he should appear innocent or he should appear like a wise elder who always had a plan for everything. The more Tian Zheng observed him the more he started to notice some inconsistences with the child like figure. His body was that of a child but the way he carried himself wasn't like a young child. He walked and talked like his father, like they are hiding something. Even their eyes were the same, Yi Chen`s looked innocent but every now and then they changed and grew hard. He seemed to be struggling to maintain that innocence.

'It isn't my problem.' Tian Zheng knew that secrets filled every corner of this world and he wasn't keen on uncovering every little mystery that came to him. He followed the child down the ship when he was met with a set of chairs. In the middle of the chairs was a table and at a corner a table filled with bottles stood. "Welcome to my retreat. It originally belonged to the captain and it still does but she doesn`t mind if I come down here. Don't tell the others." Just from the statement his suspicion of the small ginger child increased. He went over to one of the chairs and sat. "What makes you so sure she won`t mind if I come down here?" his voice caused the child to freeze before he continued with whatever he was doing. A few breaths later he walked to another chair that sat opposite of Tian Zheng and pushed a cup filled with crimson liquid forward. "You don't have to worry about Miss Eryue. She won`t mind you." He seemed to see the suspicion in Tian Zheng`s eyes since he continued. He cleared his throat after swallowing the liquid before he explained. "She won`t mind since I asked her and even before that I saw you standing close to the Asura." His voice was flat but once he reached the end it took on a tone filled with reverence.

Tian Zheng was confused at first before his thoughts went back to his father. 'He did seem to be friends with Anan Bing and Miss Eryue and they don't seem to be very righteous people.' As much as he knew that his father had a past, and a dark one at that. He didn't think that his father was a demon, a lone cultivator at best but not a demon. Yi Chen seemed to have seen his turmoil since he gasped. "Don't tell me you don't know who he is." His voice was filled with shock and disbelief and even a tinge of disappointment. He didn't even wait for confirmation before he completed whatever was left in his cup and reached for a bottle. "Sit and get comfortable as I tell you the tale of the greatest demon to ever sail the Eastern sea." He filled his cup and filled Tian Zheng`s, which was halfway done. "He appeared a hundred or so years ago. When a small pirate group raided a small island they found the island empty and the only thing alive was a single man. They say he appeared when he was rank 4 nearly rank 5 but no one knows. He killed every pirate there and hijacked their ship before wreaking havoc around the surrounding islands." He stopped for a moment to reach for another bottle of wine while the already open bottle was in Tian Zheng`s hands and half finished. "When the Hao super clan heard of him they sent a group of twenty rank 5 gu masters to capture him. Now this could have been too much for anyone but the next day they found the bodies of the Hao clan gu masters tied to a stone with their faces torn off. To this day those bodies are still there; no one knows what he did but they don't rot and keep bleeding. The Hao clan tried to hunt the man but failed to find. Now five years later, rumors of Hao clan gu masters being found without their faces started to spread. Obviously they denied them but that same night the clan head, a peak rank 5 gu master was found dead and without his face." He threw the empty bottle of wine away and was about to reach for another one when Tian Zheng handed him a brown gourd. "Continue."

"Good wine. Anyway, the clan now went to their immortals, those who had reached rank 6 for help. One immortal, the clan head`s brother was sent to hunt him down. A few weeks later he was found and they fought. I tell you, the entire Eastern sea was eating up the drama. After a few days of fighting and running the immortal returned with the faceless body. he said that he saw it fit to punish him the same way he tortured the people of his clan." A belch escaped the boy`s mouth as his voice grew sluggish. "Now you have to understand that the Hao clan was the ruler of the entire Eastern sea and they were even rumored to have ties to a venerable, but due to the six-year scare caused by the Asura, they had deteriorated to some point but a can of that size has a deep foundation. After the Eastern sea had calmed down rumors started of some bodies being found without a face. They didn't come from any part of the Eastern sea that the Hao clan controlled, they didn't even come from the Eastern sea. The rumors came from the Southern Border. This caused confusion in the Eastern sea but before they could even rest, others news from the Northern Plains came out that in a night a mountain of faceless corpses had appeared. News like this appeared in every corner of the world and it was rumored that some of these faces came from Gu Immortals, although none could prove it, I like to think that he did kill some immortals. When the Hao clan questioned the immortal who killed the Asura, they found that he was missing." Tian Zheng couldn't contain his curiosity anymore. He had to ask the one question that was eating him alive. "Are you sure that it is my father who did all this?" when the question filled the silent and dark room, Tian Zheng realized the mistake he had made.

The drunken eyes of the ginger child seemed to become sober in a flash before he turned to him. "Did you just say the Thousand-Faced Asura is your father?" he seemed eager and the silence only was the only answer he seemed to need. "My father is only at rank 4 at best. There is no way he could kill someone at rank 6 or do all those things you just said." Now that Yi Chen knew he didn't have to act as if he wasn't confused.

This caused Yi Chen to turn towards the ignorant boy before him. "What I say is true. However, you are correct, the Thousand-Faced Asura as he is now couldn't do a fraction of the things he had done in the past. Now Listen. When they found the immortal missing they suspected him and this caused the whole Eastern sea to grow cautious against that immortal. However, the search didn't last long since the body of the immortal was found dead and without a face. A few years later, when everyone was slowly thinking that the Thousand-Faced Asura was a myth or he had retired, something extraordinary happened. A young Gu immortal, Feng Mi found him. He had retreated to a mortal village. Then begun the greatest period of turmoil in the Eastern sea since the days of Spectral soul. The two started working together. While your father would rip the faces off of his victims, the woman I assume grew to become your mother would harvest their organs. When both of them attacked only faceless husks would remain. Even the great immortals were left with nothing to do. No one could catch them. However, all stories always have an end. At the height of their days, when the Eastern sea saw an increase in the number of demons a rank 8 immortal visited. He deduced that the two, who had now come to be called the; Thousand-Faced Asura and Heaven`s Bane have been using their acts to refine a gu worm. I only got to know what Heaven`s Bane was refining but the Thousand-Faced Asura disappeared before anyone could even know what he had been doing."

Tian Zheng sat in his chair, his mind a bit drunk but working to try and piece the story with what he knew of his mother. After a few minutes of silence, he turned to the ginger child. "What happened to them?" YI Chen seemed to be thinking, or remembering and after a few moments he answered. "After a chase that spanned the whole world, they fought in White Heaven. Whatever happened there has eluded everyone but three points are very clear. When the battle was about to end, a bright light filled the heavens and some filtered into the world causing all touched by it to disappear into motes of lights, a loud roar appeared in White Heave after that and the observers that were alive and strong enough to see what happened made a projection that was of a tall many armed monster. Finally, when the battle was over, only the Grotto-Heaven of the immortal remained. If you want to know the truth then you should ask your father, since he was the only one that escaped although he was as weak as a mortal at the end."

The boy had stars in his eyes when he narrated the story but they dimmed when he said the final part of the tale. When he was done he sat down on the chair and looked at the wooden celling. "How do you even know all this?" Tian Zheng asked the ginger after he had processed the new information that he had to first make sure was true and even after that he wouldn't ask his father and make him relieve his mother`s death due to his curiosity. He turned his attention towards the boy who had a shy smile on his face. "My father was one who told me."

'Then how did you know how he looked if you were just told the story?' While Tian Zheng didn't ask that last part since he just realized something. If that story was true and his father had fought a rank 8 immortal and survived, then those who were observing had to be truly powerful. As he was going over the details of the story he reached something he didn't understand, so he asked. "What is a Grotto-Heaven?"

Yi Chen looked at him strangely, "I thought your father would have taught you everything, interesting." The first part was more of a thought said out loud but it caused a shiver to rise along Tian Zheng`s spine. "When someone ascends to become an immortal, they get a blessed land that grown into a Grotto-Heaven when you advance to rank 8. Now when an immortal dies they leave either their blessed land or Grotto-Heaven in the position of their death." As he finished he seemed to have thought of something new but didn't say it. This didn't change anything for Tian Zheng since he knew that whatever he was being told was precious and he was being told for free. This thought caused his mind to halt as he looked towards Yi Chen. "What is the price for all this knowledge?" his voice was filled with caution.

When the ginger heard this, his small smile grew into a Cheshire like smile. He let out a small laugh and his eyes started to glow. "I walk the information path, for me knowledge is power but I know that it can't help me for long. Honestly the path I walk is weak for the moment but I have a plan." A gu worm appeared in his hand and after it was fed a small amount of primeval essence its eyes started to glow before showing a map of a raised island. "This is a map of the Great Palisade." He pointed at the tallest point of the map. "This is where the immortal inheritance is at, I dint have any chance of getting it if those three are joining hands to acquire it." His hand started to mark other places around the map. With each mark, it appeared in the projected map. "However, around the Great Palisade there are many more inheritances. While the three idiots are going to go for the other inheritances, I want something else. What I want isn't in the Great Palisade but in the water around it." He pointed to a point in the surrounding water.

Tian Zheng looked at him with suspicion. "What then do you need me for? I don't think you made this plan, got on this specific ship and you didn't have a plan to get it." He had memorized the markings on the map, of where the rest of the inheritances were. Yi Chen seemed to have noticed but didn't mind. "While it is true that I have a plan to get it, it will take time and effort that I honestly don't want to dedicate. For you I will give you all the knowledge I have before we reach the Great Palisade since I know you will need it when all this is done." He saw the look of suspicion Tian Zheng gave him and he laughed. An innocent and smooth childlike laugh. "You really didn't think that you would follow him all your life. He has a life and goals he wants to achieve. I give you knowledge of the world and all the things you will need to survive alone in the wide cruel world and you will help me get the inheritance I want. I can see that you aren't convinced so how about this."

His hand stretched forward and opened to show a gu worm. It looked like a small albino legless ant without legs. It had no eyes but on its back was a small mark that looked like an opening for non-existent wings. "It`s beautiful isn`t it. This is a rank 5 rule path gu worm." He waited for the awe but found only confusion in the black eyes of the boy in front of him that were trained on the gu worm. This caused a smile to form on his lips. "This is why you need me. the rule path is one if the mysterious and rare paths that a Gu master can follow. It allows the Gu master to control the working of nature. You can make mountains grow or create rivers from nothing. This one is the False Seal gu. It allows a Gu master to create a temporary create a seal for anything. It is very useful." He watched as stars appeared in Tian Zheng`s childlike eyes. "You should smile more, stop forcing yourself to be grim all the time." Yi Chen gave the boy advise and saw as embarrassment snuck into his cheeks causing them to glow red. This surprised him but then remembered that he was a normal sixteen-year-old boy. He felt bad about using a child so that he could get his inheritance but that was washed away in an instant when he remembered what hinged on the success of his plot. 'I will use and do whatever I need for success.'

His mind was made up and he watched as the boy reached for the False Seal gu. A few moments he felt his will become pushed away from the gu worm. 'That was too fast, is he hiding something or is it a higher rank gu worm. An immortal gu?' Questions started to form in his mind but they grounded to a halt when he saw a nod of confirmation from Tian Zheng. 'Doesn't matter what his secret is, as long as he doesn't get too greedy.'

"Isn`t the captain going to be mad that we have stayed so long without doing our duties?" Tian Zheng asked once he realized they had been here for hours. He looked at the still drinking ginger. He had taken back his gourd when the story ended and now an identical gourd was in the hand of Yi Chen.

Yi Chen looked at him before he smiled. "No one cares what we do. All the people in this ship are just here until we get to the Great Palisade and then we shall all take our gu worms back. They only work to keep ourselves busy and make sure we don't sink due to one of the gu worms that hold this thing had dies or is exhausted. You and I only clean because we haven't contributed to the gu that hold this ship together. As long as we clean in the morning and at night we can do anything we want." When the ginger was done, he pulled a bookworm gu from his blue robes and handed it to Tian Zheng. "That contains everything I know and this means that my end of the agreement is done. Fun fact, Information path Gu masters are able to make sure both parties follow their agreements." With that said they stayed in the small room for a few hours, one reviewing the information while the other was holding a gourd which he filled with all the wine that could fit inside.