Part 4 · Chapters
What Is Strength Really For?
True protection gives everyone the chance to stand side by side.
The Earth people's village was built on the back of an enormous stone tortoise.
An Earth patrol had found them outside the ruins.
Xiao Jin remembered only clinging tightly to Shuang Ya's and Feng Ling's hands. When he next woke, all three had been brought to Stone Tortoise Village.
The village physician placed Shuang Ya in an earth-vein healing chamber, using mineral crystals to hold her fractured ice core together. Feng Ling slept for two days. Once their breathing was stable, Xiao Jin left under cover of night.
He walked into the wilderness and extinguished every flame in his palm.
If he stayed away, his companions would no longer be hurt trying to save him. He knew the thought felt like running away, yet kept telling himself it was protection.
On the third day, a pebble struck the back of his head.
Xiao Jin turned and saw Xiao Hui sitting on an Earth transport wagon.
Beside it stood a broad-built young man with stone patterns on his skin and a square shield larger than himself on his back. Xiao Jin noticed markings on the shield's corner matching the repairs on the caravan's old map.
“Yan Pan.” The young man gave only his name.
“How did you find me?”
Xiao Hui jumped down. “Feng Ling woke up once. She said you'd definitely run off somewhere empty to feel sorry for yourself.”
“I'm not—”
“She put it less nicely.”
Xiao Hui took out the black emblem he had brought back from the hanging bridge and pressed it into Xiao Jin's hand. “This is yours.”
“I don't deserve it.”
“Because you lost?”
Xiao Jin gripped its edge. The black cracks bit into his palm. “Because I didn't listen to Shuang Ya. She and Feng Ling nearly died in front of me. I have no right to be a hero.”
Xiao Hui lowered his head and thought for a long time.
“When you used to save me, you never won. Not once.”
Xiao Jin looked up.
“Yan Tuo knocked you down five times. You couldn't even touch his clothes,” Xiao Hui said. “But I already thought you were a hero then.”
“That's different.”
“How? Heroes can't make mistakes? Then they're not heroes. They're statues on a story wall.” Xiao Hui's eyes reddened, but his voice did not falter. “You taught me that being weak doesn't mean you can't do anything. Now it's my turn to tell you: making a mistake doesn't mean all you can do is run.”
Black smoke suddenly rose at the edge of the wilderness.
The black-mist army had tracked the emblem. Dozens of rock-armored beasts were charging at the village. The old Xiao Jin would have met them alone. This time he stood still, his palms cold with sweat.
“I don't know how to protect everyone.”
He looked at Xiao Hui, then at Yan Pan.
Three words caught in his throat, harder than any technique.
“Please help me.”
Yan Pan's voice was low.
“Then don't work it out alone.”
They returned to the village. Instead of charging into the enemy, Xiao Jin spread out a map.
“Yan Pan, where can we stop the pack?”
“The stone bridge to the east. Only three beasts can cross at once.”
“Xiao Hui, can you modify the mining carts?”
“Give me ten people and an hour.”
Xiao Jin nodded. “I'll hold the bridge. No pursuit. Get the wounded into the cellars. Archers, aim only at the black crystals.”
During the battle, he spotted isolated enemies several times, but resisted chasing them. Yan Pan blocked the road. Xiao Hui sent modified carts down the slope, scattering the rear ranks. The villagers' stone crossbows struck the crystals precisely. Xiao Jin held only the central gap, leaving everyone room to do their part.
The final rock-armored beast fell.
No one chanted Xiao Jin's name.
Villagers began carrying the injured and repairing the stone walls. Xiao Hui sat panting beside a wrecked cart. Yan Pan counted the people on the bridge one by one.
Xiao Jin stood in the central gap.
He had not charged the farthest.
But everyone had survived.
Yan Pan pointed beneath the village.
“Below us is an ancient forge left by the first Guardians. It doesn't teach you how to win. It asks why you want strength.”