Prayers and Believers

For a moment, Xie's Mother thought the figure standing before her was a breathtakingly beautiful, aloof young girl.

She looked first at the child, then at her son's tear-streaked face. Her mouth opened, but she could only stare.

Xie Xie had no attention to spare for that. He seized his mother's pale hand and burst into sobs.

Just then, a faint, delicate scent of pine fragrance drifted to his nose.

He raised his head slightly and turned, staring blankly at Li Qingyue with eyes already red from crying.

Xie Xie gazed at the beautiful boy before him. His mouth opened, then closed.

He fell silent, with no idea what to say.

At six, he already had an instinctive sense of pride. He did not want to cry in front of someone his own age.

But his mother was about to die. Xie Xie could not care about pride now.

He froze for an instant when he saw Li Qingyue, then broke into sobs again.

He buried his head deep in his mother's palm, as though he could hold on to his last source of comfort that way.

Xie's Mother, meanwhile, had barely managed to calm herself.

She did not want her son to lose face in front of a friend, so she forced a smile and looked warmly at the boy.

"What's your name, little one?"

"Have you come over to play?"

"It's lovely to meet you. I'm Xie Xie's mother."

"But I'm sorry you had to see me so weak."

Her voice was a little hoarse, and she watched Li Qingyue with gentle eyes.

Li Qingyue's mouth twitched. "Hello, Auntie. I'm Li Qingyue. I'm a boy. Uh, male. Not a girl."

"I'm a good friend of Xie Xie's. I heard you were seriously ill, so I came over."

As Li Qingyue said this, embarrassment crossed his face.

When she heard him confirm that he was a boy, a faint trace of disappointment flickered in Xie's Mother's eyes. She soon composed herself.

"I see. Would you like to stay for dinner?"

"I can't cook for you myself, but what the chefs made today seems quite good."

"There are even cola chicken wings, Xie Xie's favorite."

She managed a faint smile as she spoke.

At the words "cola chicken wings," Na'er's eyes lit up at once.

Her bright eyes fixed on Xie's Mother, then turned toward Li Qingyue.

Li Qingyue's expression, however, remained as calm as ever.

He had been polite while introducing himself, but now his face held both detachment and gentleness.

They were utterly different emotions: the detachment of a god toward mortals, and the gentleness of the God of Abundance toward them.

Seeing both on him at once was a little strange.

Li Qingyue did not look at Xie's Mother. He reached out and hauled Xie Xie to his feet.

He was strong, and Xie Xie could not break free.

Dragging Xie Xie aside, he pulled him down onto the floor.

Xie Xie was bewildered. He glared furiously at Li Qingyue.

But Li Qingyue's gaze was extraordinarily calm.

"Do you want to save your mother? Do you want her to recover completely?"

"If you do, kneel before me now."

Li Qingyue spoke softly, but to Xie Xie and his mother, his words were absurd.

Xie's Mother opened her mouth. For a moment, she had no idea what to say to this six-year-old child.

Xie Xie froze for only an instant before dropping to his knees at Li Qingyue's feet.

His eyes, once so bright, were now dim with despair.

He pressed his forehead against the floor, his whole body sprawled at Li Qingyue's feet.

"Please, Li Qingyue. Please save my mother."

"I'll do anything you ask. I'll even die if that's what you want."

"I mean it. Please, please save her. I don't want her to die. I really don't want her to die."

Xie Xie spoke through quiet sobs.

Li Qingyue watched him calmly, then parted his lips.

An inaudible voice slowly entered Xie Xie's mind.

Xie Xie's thoughts grew hazy.

The boy before him no longer seemed to be the Li Qingyue he knew, nor that somewhat aloof boy.

Something divine seemed to have appeared in him. It was as though the figure before Xie Xie was no longer a boy at all, but a true god.

The strange feeling made Xie Xie tremble uncontrollably, yet he instinctively seized upon a sliver of hope.

Under the boy's still, waterlike gaze, he knelt in silence.

Then he raised his hands slightly, palms upward, in a gesture of worship.

"The Disciples of Sanctus Medicus bear compassion; the Ambrosial Arbor brings forth life. With one heart, its gardeners ascend together to bliss!"

"I offer everything... to the Compassionate Medicine King!"

"May the Medicine King free his believer from suffering, heal destruction, bestow divine grace, and lift us from the sea of bitterness!!!"

Xie Xie enunciated every word with painful clarity.

With each sentence, he lowered his head a little further.

Watching her son's desperate plea, Xie's Mother opened her mouth again and again.

She did not believe those words, but as she looked at the boy before her, she found she could not utter a single one of her own.

When Xie Xie finished, Li Qingyue said nothing more. He merely gave a soft hum.

As the sound faded, a seemingly invisible figure slowly emerged above his head.

It was a breathtakingly beautiful man—or perhaps gender was no way to describe a god.

The deity was simply the deity.

The deity's left leg hovered gently in the air, while the right hung slightly lower.

Countless green branches rose and circled serenely above the deity's head.

The deity's six arms each assumed a different pose.

Cracks appeared along those arms, and black-and-red eyes snapped open within them.

The eyes were savage and uncanny, yet the figure before them seemed to be a god made real.

The strange apparition startled even Xie's Mother.

Then she saw an emerald-green Soul Ring light up around her son's friend.

As light flashed across his Soul Ring, the insubstantial figure in midair seemed to lower its gaze and slowly descend toward her.

The next instant, specks of green light spread outward, and countless green stars poured into her body.

Xie's Mother spat out a mouthful of dark, clotted blood.

At the same time, filthy blood began seeping from every part of her skin.

The terminal illness inside her—or rather, the necrotic cells—was completely expelled in an instant.

A foul stench rose from her body.

Xie Xie stared at the scene.

He did not suspect Li Qingyue of harming his mother.

Before his eyes, the pallor was slowly leaving her face, replaced by a healthy flush.

Her already smooth skin grew finer still.

It looked like the skin of a young woman in her twenties, supple and full of life.

Then, to Xie Xie's astonishment, his mother, who had been too weak to move, slowly sat up.

She stared at her hands in a daze. Feeling strength fill her body, she looked both shocked and amazed.