Dao Eternal

Chapter 9 – A Father's Last Lesson

Smoke rolled through the narrow streets of Green Willow Village, turning the morning sky into a suffocating haze. The flames spread from one house to another with terrifying speed, devouring years of hard work in the span of a few breaths. The cries of frightened children mingled with the desperate shouts of their parents, while frightened livestock broke free from their pens and ran wildly through the village.

Ye Chen stumbled as his mother pulled him toward the southern path.

His feet refused to obey.

Every instinct urged him to turn back.

Behind him, he could still hear the unmistakable sound of wood striking steel.

His father was still fighting.

"Mother..." he said, struggling against her grip. "Father is alone."

Lin Yue did not answer immediately.

She knew exactly what he was thinking because she was thinking the same thing.

Her heart was tearing itself apart with every step away from the man who had shared half her life.

Yet she tightened her hold on Ye Chen's wrist.

"We have to trust him."

The words left her lips, but even she could hear the pain hidden within them.

Before they had taken more than a dozen steps, a thunderous crash echoed behind them.

Ye Chen instinctively looked back.

The world seemed to slow.

Ye Shan stood in the middle of the dirt road, breathing heavily as two armed bandits circled him from opposite sides. The broken shaft of his hunting spear lay at his feet, snapped cleanly in half. Blood trickled down his left arm, staining his sleeve a deep crimson.

Even so, he did not retreat.

He bent down, picked up the broken half of the spear, and raised it once more.

The bandits exchanged amused glances.

To them, this weathered farmer posed little threat.

One of them laughed.

"Old man, kneel now and I'll make it quick."

Ye Shan answered only with silence.

His breathing had become uneven, and his hands trembled from exhaustion, but his eyes remained steady.

He was not protecting a village anymore.

He was protecting the road his wife and son had just taken.

The bandit clicked his tongue.

"Suit yourself."

He urged his horse forward.

Ye Shan waited until the last possible moment before stepping aside and driving the jagged end of the broken spear upward with every ounce of strength remaining in his body.

The sharpened wood pierced the horse's neck.

The animal collapsed instantly, throwing its rider violently onto the ground.

Before the stunned bandit could recover, Ye Shan struck again.

The wooden spearhead shattered.

The man fell motionless.

For a heartbeat, even the remaining bandit stared in disbelief.

A farmer...

Had killed one of them.

His expression twisted into fury.

"You'll pay for that."

With a roar, he leaped from his horse, his curved blade flashing toward Ye Shan's chest.

Ye Shan raised the broken spear instinctively.

Steel met wood.

The splintered shaft exploded into fragments.

The impact forced him to his knees.

The bandit kicked him across the chest with enough force to send him crashing against the stone wall of a nearby house.

The sound of breaking ribs echoed faintly.

Ye Chen felt as though someone had reached into his chest and crushed his heart.

"No!"

Without thinking, he broke free from his mother's grasp and sprinted back toward the burning street.

"Chen'er!"

Lin Yue's terrified voice followed behind him.

He did not stop.

He could not.

Every lesson his father had taught him, every meal they had shared, every quiet morning spent working side by side in the fields flashed through his mind.

He would not leave him.

Not while he still breathed.

The wounded bandit noticed the child rushing forward and laughed coldly.

"So there's another one."

He slowly raised his blade.

Ye Chen's legs felt impossibly heavy, yet he continued running.

He knew he could not win.

He knew he was only a child.

None of it mattered.

Before the bandit could strike, Ye Shan suddenly surged forward with a strength that should no longer have existed.

He wrapped both arms around the man's waist and drove him to the ground.

"Run!"

It was not a plea.

It was a command.

The bandit struggled violently, punching and elbowing Ye Shan again and again, but the farmer refused to loosen his grip.

For the first time, genuine fear appeared in the bandit's eyes.

This was no longer a fight.

It was a man sacrificing everything to buy a few more moments.

Ye Shan turned his head toward Ye Chen.

Their eyes met through the smoke and flames.

The fear that had filled Ye Chen's heart vanished.

In its place remained only the image of his father smiling gently, just as he always had after a long day in the fields.

"Live."

Only a single word.

Yet it carried the weight of an entire lifetime.

The next instant, a third rider burst from the smoke.

His sword descended without hesitation.

Ye Chen screamed.

The world around him dissolved into fire, ash, and unbearable grief.

Somewhere beyond the burning village, perched upon a lonely hill overlooking the valley, the old fisherman silently closed his eyes.

His weathered hand tightened around the fishing rod.

"The first thread..."

he murmured.

"...has been severed."

Far above the heavens, hidden beyond mortal sight, an ancient bronze bell gave a single solemn chime.

Its sound spread across the endless sky.

No cultivator heard it.

No immortal noticed it.

Only fate listened.

And fate did not weep.