Listen While Reading: Birds Fly Over the Mountain

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Hope.

By the very definition of the word, it is a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.

Or other times, grounds for believing that something good may happen.

This is hope to me, or well, it could also be used to talk about something that could be the only hope of someone, such as, for example, surgery, that could be the last hope of someone…

Things like that.

But the {Heart of Hope} might be fundamentally different; the Heavenly Empress is obviously asking me something very serious here.

Something important that I must need to answer correctly.

“Hope, to me, are the dreams everyone carries, to accomplish their goals, and to carry on with the miserable lives we are given.” I went straight to the point with her. “When someone gives up hope, they give up on life, and everything becomes pointless. They no longer try and no longer move forward. They stagnate… and lose everything. Or perhaps they already lost it all.”

Her sharp golden eyes looked at me straight into my own, and then she nodded, her white feathers shining brightly beneath the sunlight.

“Good answer, but you could have added something more poetic to it, but I approve of it. Very dry interpretation, but it works,” she nodded. “For you, that’s what Hope is—just a feeling. But just as you’ve learned from the Heavenly Demon to transform Negative Emotions into solid, tangible power through Ki and Cultivation, the same applies to Positive Emotions or Feelings. And midst all of them, the strongest is, of course, Hope.”

FLUOSH!

Suddenly, her white-feathered hands flared with a golden flame, shining brightly, sometimes becoming almost silver, but most of the time remaining with the pure color of gold.

“This is the power of Hope; it is both a refined form of Ki and also its own type of energy,” she explained. “I don’t produce it myself.”

“Wait, you don’t?” I wondered.

“The power of Hope will always be dependent on those that you protect. You might have great hope in yourself, but will that be it?” she asked. “Of course not. You must rally the masses; you must become their guide, their beacon of hope. Do you understand? The stronger your allies are, the more people rely on you, and the more people HOPE on you, the more of this power will bless you.”

“But that’s… Wouldn’t that be…?”

“Unreliable? Not at all; that’s where the {Heart of Hope} enters, a specialized organ made to endlessly accumulate the Essence of Hope and refine it,” she explained. “Even after so many people have died, the power of Hope remains within me, fueling part of my power. And everyone else is still alive; their Hope for a greater future and their trust in me are overwhelming. The fewer people there are, the greater the hope is for those that remain. It is sad, yes, but at the same time, it creates a balance where I have not grown weaker because of it yet, but because… of well, another circumstance you are already knowledgeable about.”

“But how does this work exactly? You just make it happen, and you get it?” I wondered.

“Of course not, dear,” she giggled. “It is a hard and very complicated process. You must first harness the Hope you possess and share it with those you love. The people you’ve brought. Aside from my goodwill, why do you think I’ve decided to take them? I was glad you brought so many people for the very reason I am explaining right now. They will become your Flames of Hope, and you must rekindle them to gain the Essence of Hope.”

“E-Eh? I had no idea…” I muttered. “Wait, can you…?”

“Naturally, your master will become the first to feed you with the power of Hope,” she nodded. “But before we start the ritual of initiation and before we forge a Heart of Hope, you first understand to a deep level what Hope entails and what it can be used for. Even more, what I use it for. And the reason behind it all. Why hope? Why me? How is this possible? I bet you are wondering many questions.”

“Well yes, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about you, master… Like, why did you make this your power? I learned a lot from that crow, but mostly through a lot of violence… I like fighting and growing stronger, but sometimes just sitting down and talking is not so bad,” I smiled.

To be honest, I need it. Training with that demon was too stressful for me; I need a big break.

“I won’t always let you laze around, but this conversation was needed at the end of the day,” she nodded. “So let us sit down and talk, Anna. I will tell you about the origin of the Essence of Hope and how it helped me ascend into a Venerable and carry everyone’s wishes with me. How and why I decided to carry the weight of people’s Hopes and turn this weight into my power.”

“I’m all ears,” I nodded impatiently.

“First, let’s drink some tea,” she smiled. “I’ll prepare it myself. I will add the Essence of Hope to it, so you can better visualize what I will show you.”

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“Huh? Okay…”

What is she planning now?

I saw her make green tea and then serve two cups of it.

Then, from her fingers, a tiny droplet of liquid gold fell on mine, and she served it to me nonchalantly.

“Drink this, my dear,” she smiled. “It is safe; don’t worry.”

“I trust you.” I nodded, drinking the tea; it was very sweet and bitter at the same time. “Hmm, it’s good, like- Woah…”

Suddenly, something went wrong.

Like, severely wrong!

Or was this the effect of the tea?

My field of vision was twisting somehow.

Everything around me, like the background? Everything was gone, or twisting until only colors could be seen on straight lines.

In front of me, the empress remained unblemished by my hallucinations, whatsoever.

“W-What is this? Ugh…”

“Drink all the tea.”

“Okay…”

I just obeyed her because I imagined it would be something about it.

I drank it; damn, it was good.

However, the hallucinations only became… even more prevalent.

The surroundings became… some sort of golden garden.

The sky turned yellow, the sun… blue.

The colors were reversed somehow.

It was weird and trippy, but there was an air of coldness that brought me to some sort of inner peace.

It felt nice; was this a drug?

“Did you drug me…?” I wondered.

“Of course not, Anna,” she laughed. “This is but the effect of the Essence of Hope; it twists your perception of the world and of reality. It makes you see your dreams straight; the world around you twists. If you’re closer to someone with great hope, the world around them will also show what their hope is. You’re seeing a visualization of my Domain of Hope.”

“Domain of… what?” I muttered, suddenly realizing that she was right.

This Domain… It was all around her, surrounding her entirety; it resembled a beautiful garden of golden flowers, blossoming endlessly.

Surrounding her body there was a forest of colorful trees.

And then right between us, a small fountain with colorful birds drinking water.

What does this mean? It’s so peaceful… and beautiful.

Then I heard something.

The laughter of children in the distance, cheerful and innocent.

I saw children playing in the garden, chasing one another.

The sky above was so soothing; everything was so beautiful and calming.

At the distance, I could see a village prospering, brimming with life and energy.

The people lived in honest homes but seemed content with their lives as they were.

“What am I seeing?” I wondered.

“My Domain, my Hope,” she said. “This is the true nature of my Hear of Hope. What do you think I always strive for?”

“For a world like this? Of peace and… happiness?” I wondered.

Some heartless people might call it unrealistic, corny, stupid even.

Why would you want a peaceful world? They would say.

But I like it; I also want a world where people can live happily.

If only they didn’t resort to violence, I wouldn’t either…

I used to be a normal girl, living a normal life.

But then everything went to shit, and the true nature of the universe was revealed to everyone as the First Awakening started.

A universe of bloodshed and destruction.

“Yes, a world of peace and quiet, of happiness. I strive for a world like this! A world where children can play freely. Where people do not starve, where they smile… out of the purest happiness of their hearts,” she smiled, looking around. “I dream of this world every day; I work hard for this world… even now. I want this to be the future, Anna. This is my everything…”

“Master…” I smiled, feeling slightly moved by the cute honesty she had.

She was such a good person…

A pure-hearted person, someone who truly desired the best for everyone.

She didn’t want something like this for other ulterior motives, nor even her own self-interest of not being bothered.

This was something she wanted for everyone, not just for her.

“You’re probably wondering why I want a world like this after experiencing two weeks with that man, right?” she sighed. “Naturally, he probably showed you how cruel the world can be. He showed you the dark side of our world, the negative and evil nature of all living beings. And I respect that too. The world cannot sustain itself with just my own dreams; after all, this world, as much as I hope it would exist…”

“It’s unrealistic, isn’t it?” I sighed.

“Indeed… Where there are people happy and peaceful, there will always be someone else suffering and starving,” she nodded. “It is the truth of the world, and not even as a venerable was I able to stop this from happening. I once had a great dream: to change this world riddled with bloodshed and destruction and make it for the better. They called me an idealistic, stupid whore, a woman that didn’t know her place. Someone who only thought about herself, or sometimes they called me unexperienced. They implied that if I had the same amount of experience in life as them, I would become as bitter as they are. And that it was a thing of time, that eventually everyone would become like they are.”

“That’s…”

“I might have gotten bitter sometimes; life is hard; it’s always hard…” She smiled back at me, caressing my head. “My dear disciple, do you know how I strived forward?”

“You had a good family?” I wondered.

“No, my family died when I was one year old,” she smiled.

“E-Eh…? I-I thought that…”

“You thought that because I was different than him, I was raised in gold and luxury instead? That’s not true,” she giggled. “However, I did have a mother and a father, humble farmers that picked me up when my biological mother left me inside a cradle, falling through a mountain’s river. They were a couple of gray doves. Lived by the land, farming, taking the seeds of the world, and eating them. They feed me; they taught me how to do farming like them. They loved me even if I was a frail little white crane, afraid of the world.”

“I see… That’s so nice.”

“That was roughly… three hundred thousand years ago. I don’t remember their names anymore, nor their faces,” she sighed.

“Oh…”

“But their spirit lives inside of me. They were… a couple that couldn’t have children. It was something; my mother was infertile since birth,” she explained. “She was mocked by her village, but her husband still loved her. Bonded for life, they remained together even if they couldn’t have children. They had one another… Yet this hope to have a child never faded away. And this hope eventually materialized in me. I became their child. Their hope reached me.”

“Hope…”

“That’s right, hope,” she smiled, and suddenly, a golden halo appeared above her head. “Hope is a power that flows through all of living beings, especially the intelligent ones. In a world of wild beasts, hope doesn’t exist. But in a world of people, it will always be an endless power. Hope Essence is not a power I invented; it is a power I discovered. It guided my path since I was a child; I was guided and shaped by the Hope of many people. While the Heavenly Demon walked a path alone, I walked a path guided by many, taught by many, and loved by many. And in return, I loved them all so much… I did everything I could to help them.”

“H-How did your journey begin? What made you decide to cultivate?” I wondered.

“It was when my parents were getting older and became sick,” she explained. “Back then… I was perhaps fifteen years old. I needed to find medicine for them; we were poor and had almost no money… I got whatever I had, and they told me to go to the village and find anything for them. It was my first time interacting with the outside world; I lived only with them. It was then that I discovered… how ugly the world actually was, for everyone.”

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