Chapter 230: Cave (1/2)

Jangar took the torch and started lighting a fire near it, but his hands were trembling with the cold, and he could hit the stones properly.

”Let me help you, Uncle,” Famir said and closed his eyes. Suddenly, fire burst on top of the torch and it was lit up. The people around him were surprised that he could do that, but for now, they didn't say anything.

Jangar walked up to his father's corpse and covered the face again. Then, he lit the pyre on fire.

The fire in the snow helped relieve some of the coldness the crowd was feeling. They stayed there for another half an hour as the fire crackled to a stop.

Jangar walked forward with an empty pot and gathered the ashes. Then, he stood up and started walking.

The other 10 people who were also carrying pots of ashes followed him. Ning soon realized that they were going to go around the mountain.

So, he followed the people and walked.

As he walked he started to realize the familiar environment once again. 'I fell on this site, didn't I?' he thought.

The group walked and stopped at the clutter of wooden planks stuck on the ground. 'The headstones,' Ning thought. Some of the men brought out other planks of wood and started carving on it.

Ning didn't even need to read it to know what it read.

Famir walked up to a headstone and got on his knees before it. ”Hello father, how are you doing?” he started speaking.

Ning watched as the other people also got on their knees and started speaking with the headstones there. 'Everyone here has lost someone,' he thought.

As Jangar had mentioned, every month or two, somebody in the village died. So, by now every single person had to attend the funeral of their family.

Ning still remembered the first funeral he had attended, his parent's. It was a rainy day and he was mostly unsure about what had happened.

Unlike him from that time, these people were very used to this stuff. Seeing this, Ning got angry.

'Nobody should be used to the death of their friends and family. They shouldn't have to say goodbye to their loved ones on a regular basis,' he thought.

The group got up and walked away from one by one. Ning saw a new headstone next to the one that said 'Here lies Feroy'. The new one was the headstone of the Old Grand Uncle. He was now reunited with his son.

Ning gave a deep bow and walked behind the rest of the group.

As he was walking away, he saw something strange. There were still two people behind that were talking to the headstones, but Ning didn't remember seeing them amongst the villagers that were at the funeral back in the village.

'Did they join after we left the funeral pyre?' he wondered. He was currently looking behind him with his omnidirectional vision, so to a normal person, it would look like he is turning forward.

As Ning and the rest walked further away, the two people finally brought up their heads and looked at each other. Once they made sure nobody was looking, they started running below.

'What the hell are they doing?' Ning wondered. However, this wasn't the time to feed his curiosity. Jangar and the other 10 people circled back to where they began.

Then, they started walking up to the peak where the burst of Qi and Aether still flew to the sky. Once they reached there, they gently tossed the pot into the crater.