The fe was hot. The burning embers from the furnace flickered out and nded on his skin, scalding the flesh where it touched. Sparks from hammer strikes on molteal caused a melding of light, shadow, a. The smell of smoke aals was almost unbearable, yet so very familiar.

  Jin Shu coughed on the smog in the air as if it were his first time in a fe. Then, he realized that it was just his imagination; he had grown up in the fes of the Jin family since he could walk—before that even, as his dad would carry him into the fe, stating that he o get used to the heat early.

  His old man would then receive a beating from his mother. His skin, a hardy tan from the fe fires, would be covered in bd blue welts for weeks after. Yet he would still drag the few-month-old Jin Shu into the fe the day, in an endless cycle of fe, beating, fe.

  Jin Shu ughed at the memories of his dad's bd blue skin. No, that wasn't a memory; Jin Shu was staring at a patch of bruised skin on his dad's exposed chest, under all the curly bck hair.

  “Made Mom mad again, huh?” He asked, gesturing to the bruises.

  With a whistle, his dad pointedly ignored him, choosing to turn and walk into the fe's ba.

  Jin Shu followed, still chug. That endless cycle tinued until he was ten when his mother finally got tired of beating the old man, g it hurt her fist, pung his solid muscles.

  His memories from two lifetimes had finally merged, but rather than splitting him into two people, they made him appreciate this current life so much more.

  In his inal world, he'd grown up an orphan. The closest thing he had to a family was his brothers-in-arms, God rest their souls, but no longer. Now, he had a truly loving family, making him feel like the most privileged person in the world.

  His dad's voice cut through his mind. "Enough daydreaming." He shoved a stack of papers into Jin Shu's hands. "You’ve got the knowledge now, but knowledge alone doesn’t fe a on—or inscribe a rune. Sit down and start practig." He said bluntly, pointing to a table and stool in the er.

  Sitting on the worn stool, wing as a sliver poked his ass, Jin Shu picked up a tool lying oable—an inscribing needle. It was a long poiool, looking like a s iron from his previous life. It funed much the same, albeit powered by Qi, instead of electricity. The essential tool of a ruh; without it, they'd be useless.

  Holding the needle felt like aension of his body. He could feel his Qi flow through the needle, as a heat pulsed along its length.

  Pressing the tip against the part, bck lines were etched into the paper following the movement of his hands.

  "Good!" His dad's gruff voice cut through his tration causing his hand to shake. His lines blurred and the drawing was ruined.

  "Damn it! You messed up my flow, old man." Jin Shu said, gng up at his dad with an aggrieved look.

  Smabsp;

  "Ow!" His Dad's palm met the back of his head.

  ***

  Several grueling hours of work ter Jin Shu was sweating, piles of finished and half-finished drawings y scattered across the table.

  He was on his st paper, drawing the st lihud! A bundle of papers was dropped oable by his old man. This time, Jin Shu didn't let his tration slip. Hands kept steady as he drew the st line. "Phew. Done"

  "Now that you've finished practig, it's time to work for real." A cheeky grin split his dad's face as he pushed the ack of paper towards Jin Shu.

  "..." Jin Shu opened his mouth to say something, however a wave of dizziness overtook him. Bam! His head nded hard oable; he retty sure his forehead split judging by the warm feeling of his head. But he couldn't think about that now, his heavy eyelids snapped shut, and everythi bck.

  ***

  "Aah! Wife, please stop hitting, yoing to break my bones! Look he'll be fi was just a prank." Was the first thing Jin Shu heard as his foggy mind regained sciousness.

  He slowly cracked his eyes open to see his mother beating the living daylights out of his dad. Even though his dad was a huge, two-meter-tall, muscle-bound man, there was no way he could match his mother.

  His 1.4-meter-tall mother was nearly half the size of his old man but over twice as strong. She was almost aire realm strohan him, after all.

  "Ugh..." An involuntary groan escaped his lips as a splitting headache beat against his head like a blind monkey banging a drum—what does that even mean? No answer came, the pai most thoughts away.

  His mother heard his groan; practically flying to his side, she reached him in a blink apanied by a swoosh from her cream robes. "My poor baby!" She hugged his head too tightly against her chest, causing difficulty breathing.

  "Mmm!!" He struggled in her embrace, exasperating his headache even further. His arms filed about, pushing at her, but he was too weak to push her off.

  What little air he could siphon was filled with a vender st.

  A wayward thought entered his mind, she's using the perfume I gave her, I'm gd she likes it... that's not what I should be worried about! I o get air!

  His filing only caused her to hug him tighter. I'm going to die a sed time. This time instead of a mohat kills me, it's going to be my mother…

  Luckily she pulled his head away to check him over.

  Gasp! He took in a deep breath, then choked on the smoggy, metallic air of the fe. I'd rather be suffocated by her vender-st than this shitty air... What the hell am I thinking!?

  "Are you okay baby?" She cooed, "Tell Mommy if it hurts anywhere, and I'll give it a kiss to make it feel better, okay?"

  "Cough...! I'm fine..." He stood up from the stool he had been sitting on and looked down at her. Thankfully he'd ied his dad's height and his mother's looks.

  Speaking of his mother's looks: she was a stunning woman. With long flowing brown hair adorned with a beautiful red zan hua to match her vibrant red eyes, and red painted lips. She lived up to her name, Sun Mei'er—‘the beautiful one’.

  Jin Shu reached out, pulling the front of her robes closed in case she decided to hug him. He'd rather not experiehat suffocation again.

  "Oh, my son is so thoughtful." She gushed. g his hand, she dragged him towards the exit. "Let's get you out of this stinky fe. Otherwise, my poor baby's smooth skin will get dry and cracked like that crusty old mahere." She said, pointing to his dad's colpsed body resting in the er.

  "Hiss." He sucked in a sharp breath when he saw his dad's body lying in a crumbled mess. If he didn't know better, he'd assume it was a dead body and not his living breathing father.

  As his mother dragged him away, he gave his dad's twitg body one mnce.

  He chuckled lightly.

  Their family's love was... uo say the least. To the average person, this may look like a case of domestic abuse. However, it was actually the exact opposite. Despite how it looked, his dad wasn't truly hurt... Well, okay, he was hurt, but it was for his own good.

  His dad cultivated a special body tempering teique that o be tempered the same way a bcksmith would temper a bde—through a multitude of hammer strikes. And that was exactly what his mother had done.

  His dad would bee stronger with each beating. Jin Shu suspected that was why his dad seemed to always anger his mother, so she could have an excuse to beat him, and he could try and keep up with her higher cultivation.

  At least, that's what he thought. He had never actually seen his parents atimate in any way.

  Stepping out of the fe into the night air, the cool breeze tickled Jin Shu's skin and broke him from his strahoughts. It was a nice, mueeded trast to the heat of the fe.

  He gazed at his mother's back as she pulled him along. Tears welled up in the ers of his eyes, this was the life he'd always dreamed of. It was such a strange feeling; half his soul longed for a mother's love he had never known, and the other half was bothered by her overly fussy nature.

  He vowed in his heart, that he would protect this family with every fiber of his being. Both parts of his soul agreed on that.

  MadFireGod