Betray Gods

Chapter 2: In the West

On the day of the Welcoming the Gods Ceremony, the east was lit up with dazzling golden light, but over in the western wilderness of Xiaoming Great Land, the Regu Forest was dead quiet. Not a leaf stirred. The folks of the Chilei tribe just quietly watched the east, not saying a word. Sixteen-year-old Leiyin was perched on a sturdy elm, just like his tribe, staring off into the distance. There were glorious rays of light and rolling golden clouds out there, but all they felt was a chill and even some hostility. That spectacle wasn’t what they believed in, not the deity they were waiting for.

Just a few days ago, Leiyin had his coming-of-age ceremony. He climbed up to the highest branch of the sacred laurel tree right in front of the tribe, a tree so huge it dwarfed normal laurels and soared into the clouds. Getting up there was pretty much impossible unless you were a high-level spirit cultivator with killer endurance and nerves of steel. If you slipped, the branches might catch you, preventing a deadly fall, but you'd still get banged up pretty badly.

Tree Granny, the keeper of the altar, once told him that a thousand years ago, the true goddess Xuhe vanished along with her brother Xuli, leaving the whole of Xiaoming Great Land that used to be under her protection. Everyone says the god Xuli left behind some sacred message, but the goddess Xuhe kept mum. Tree Granny thinks everyone’s been duped by the Wu You clan. Before she disappeared, Xuhe supposedly stood on a branch of this very laurel and whispered, “In a thousand years, gods will be no gods. When this ancient laurel blooms again, I’ll return.” Back then, a young hunter, lost and exhausted under that tree, heard her. Lit by a serene and pure light, he opened his eyes to see the goddess's sacred silhouette up in the branches. Her whisper flowed down the tree’s trunk like spring water into his heart. “In a thousand years, gods will be no gods. When this ancient laurel blooms again, I’ll return.” Why did her voice sound so sad? Why was he crying? Suddenly, the hunter felt a fierce desire to ease that sadness, even if it meant giving up his life, over and over. That hunter became the first shaman of the Chilei tribe, who founded the tribe in the Regu Forest, along with most of the wood spirits retreating to the west. They refuse to believe Wu You’s tale about god reincarnations, lying low and gathering strength, waiting for goddess Xuhe’s return.

The Chilei mainly tapped into wood and fire spirit powers. Average cultivators handled one, but the talented ones could manage both. Leiyin always had a thing for fire, never afraid of it, so the elders had him train in the tribe’s fire-ascending techniques, boosted by wood spirit power.

A few days back at his ceremony, when Leiyin finally made it to the top of the sacred tree, he was nearly spent. His fire-ascending technique kept the biting cold at bay; sweat turned to ice crystals on his bronzed skin, sparkling as they fell. Standing atop the tree, he felt like he was on cloud nine, above the world itself. He let out a triumphant yell, snapping off a unique red laurel branch as proof he’d come of age. When he got back down, Tree Granny took the branch to the altar, placing it in the incense burner, and with a special pigment from the forest’s fiery stones, she marked Leiyin’s forehead with the tribe’s symbol, a blood-red crescent cradling a flame. That mark told everyone this boy was now a man, ready to shoulder blood and duty. Leiyin could hear his own heart pounding with joy as he looked up at the laurel, feeling like goddess Xuhe was watching him from the ether, waking from her slumber with a smile just for him.

After the ceremony, the surrounding crowd cheered. A bunch of kids, his usual playmates, crowded around. The boys slapped his back and messed up his shiny black hair. “Leiyin! You’re the second guy among us to make it through the rites! Guess we have to start calling you Second Bro, right after Leiyan!” one boy, about as tall as Leiyin and looking pretty spry though skinny, piped up cheerfully. His name was Leiqi Yun, two years older than Leiyin but not as sturdy, just a low-tier wood spirit cultivator. His mom hadn’t let him go through the rites. “What gives! You’re older than Leiyin, why should you call him Second Bro? Is fighting all it takes to be cool?” A girl with light wheat skin, phoenix eyes, a high nose, and a raven-black braid that fell to her waist immediately voiced her displeasure. Her name was Feng Shanshan, just stepping into high-tier spirit cultivation, focusing on fire power, with wood as a backup. But she wasn’t a Lei by birth and, being a girl, didn’t get to train in the fire-ascending secret technique. Shanshan was picked up by Tree Granny and Elder Leibaichen’s daughter, Leimang, from under the sacred tree roots seventeen years ago. It’s rare for the Chilei to take in strangers, but Leimang insisted the baby was a gift from the sacred tree, a sign meant to be, so she took great care of the girl. Outsiders can’t carry the Lei surname, and since Leimang adored the phoenixes deep in the Regu Forest, she named the girl Feng Shanshan, raising her alongside her son, Leiqi Yun.

Leiyin just gave Shanshan a cool smile. “Isn’t being good at fighting what makes you remarkable? Look around, all the men leading here got there by being tough, right?” “In my house, my mom calls the shots!” “That’s 'cause your dad’s gone, and your brother dotes on you.” Leiyin was usually respectful to everyone, but he couldn’t help teasing Shanshan from time to time. Hearing Leiyin’s mouthy comeback and starting to feel slighted again, Shanshan was about to blow her top but then remembered Leiyin had no parents. Seeing the sweat glistening on his brow, trickling past his dark brows and into those steady, fearless eyes, her heart softened. She just scowled but dropped the argument. “Enough, you two bicker like an old married couple, giving me a headache,” a tall youth came over and wrapped an arm around Leiyin—it was Leiyan, the “Big Bro” Leiqi Yun had mentioned. Leiyan laughed out loud, “Blessed by the goddess! Good on you, Leiyin! You did us proud, getting through the rites so fast! Must’ve honed that fire technique a notch, eh? Now you can join me on hunting trips!” “Big Bro Leiyan, next time you go hunting, can you sneak me along?” Shanshan asked coquettishly. “No way!” Before Leiyan could answer, Leiyin’s eyebrows shot up. “You stay put, little miss. Stick to drying herbs with your mom at home. I might consider bringing you back a purple fox to cuddle when we return.” “Little miss? I’m a year older than you!” Shanshan leaped up, fuming, jabbing at Leiyin’s head with her slender fingertips. Leiyan, seeing them squabble again, sighed, about to intervene when suddenly, the village drums thundered, their urgent boom reverberating! The nearby Chilei folks looked serious and dropped what they were doing, rushing toward the village. Leiyan frowned and said quickly, “Leiyin, get everyone back home. I’ll head to the Tree Ze Hall and see what’s up!” With that, he too leaped toward the village.