Chapter 2: Four Stances

  Jia Yuan could hardly believe his luck. To actually find a

  Song in a random cave, it was as if pies were falling from heaven. He was

  ecstatic as he started dancing around the cave with joy.

  To help put this into perspective, all Martial Cultivation

  past the most fundamental of levels, relied on developing one’s proficiency in

  a Song. The power of the Song one trained in, as well as the depth of

  understanding of the Song, defined a martial cultivator’s strength.

  For a slave like Jia Yuan, the most he could hope for was to

  receive a low level Song from the Army after he was purchased. After all, as a

  child who was half a foot into the Absorption realm, only needing a Song to

  progress into said realm, he was a valuable candidate for the Burning Legion.

  But even for a prized candidate, the Army was hardly rich enough to provide them

  with medium or high level Songs. As such, most of the candidates, such as Dou Di, received low

  level Songs. Only a select few candidates that were particularly promising or

  had special talent would receive those rare medium or high level Songs-when the Army could afford them.

  As the Fire Kingdom, the Kingdom was in possession of a

  large number of Songs of Fire. The attributes associated with these Songs was that

  they possessed explosive melodies and rhythms, which brought out strong bursts

  of power from the practitioner, like the raging flames of a fire. Likewise, the

  other elements of the Songs provided attributes similar to the associated

  element. The other properties of a Song are hard to predict before being

  acquired. As such, usually the only differentiators when it comes to choosing a

  Song are the element and the level.

  This was why Jia Yuan was so happy. Although he did not know

  what level of Song he had just found, at the very least this was a low level

  Song, and could potentially be a much higher level Song, maybe a medium or high

  level Song, or even a Heavenly Song! As for the attribute of the Song, Jia Yuan

  was fairly confident that a Song found in the Fire Kingdom should have the

  attribute of Fire. After all, Fire Hill Village was pretty far from the borders of the Fire

  Kingdom. It was unlikely that this territory had been ever taken over by any of

  the other nations.

  Jia Yuan walked back to the center of the room and prepared

  to receive the blessing of the Song.

  He then paused.

  How the hell do I

  receive the Song? I’ve only heard about them in stories and nobody ever

  actually said how to receive it… I guess I’ll just grab it?

  Jia Yuan reached for the Song, but he couldn’t touch it.

  However, the scroll opened up a bit, and a voice sounded in Jia

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  Yuan’s head.

  “Hello, stranger. To receive this Song, you only need to be

  able to learn the first stage. As long as you are able to

  understand even a smidgen of it, I will allow you to receive the Song. As well,

  I will provide you with some things to help you cultivate.

  Jia Yuan was even happier now! Not only did he have a chance to learn a Song, but he could even receive items that could boost his cultivation speed, which were without fail, extremely expensive. He truly felt as if he

  had won a lottery.

  He carefully pored over the scroll. On it, he could see four

  stances, marked with some symbols overhead. If Jia Yuan had a better upbringing,

  he would have recognized these as musical notes. However, these musical notes

  were inscribed into the scroll with magic. Upon receiving the Song, the notes would

  be imprinted into the receiver’s mind, where it would boost the receiver’s martial cultivation. In fact, for proficient cultivators, the main way to fight would involve using the stances of the Song to performance a Dance.

  Jia Yuan gazed at the symbols on the scroll for a long

  while, but he was still unable to understand anything.

  I guess I’ll just

  ignore them for now and I’ll just follow the stances.

  He carefully settled into the first stance, but then abruptly stood straight again. Wait, the first stance seems to involve an

  axe, but in the second stance the drawn figure is holding a sword, while in the

  third the figure is holding a staff, while the last, a Warhammer.

  Was I supposed to

  bring four weapons to train with?

  I guess I’ll just

  perform all of the stances with my wooden sword for now… If worst comes to

  worst I can ask Master for some money to buy some more wooden weapons.

  Hopefully he is happy enough from selling Dou Di to allow me this.

  Jia Yuan shifted back into the first stance, then checked

  the scroll to make sure that he was doing it right.

  Alright, I think I’ve

  got this one down, let’s move to the next one.

  Jia Yuan continued to practice the four stances until he was

  able to properly perform all four stances.

  I guess now I have to

  connect the stances huh. Maybe that’s where the symbols come in.

  Despite being a slave and never having received an education, Jia Yuan had a rather creative mind (although not necessarily practical). This would greatly help him to receive the song..

  Over the course of the next two hours, Jia Yuan trained to

  receive the Song. Soon, he was able to flow from one stance to the next.

  But, he was still missing the essence of the Song. He had

  learned the “Dance” to a degree, but had not absorbed even a bit of the essence of the Song itself.