“Sunheart?” the old woman asked. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything you can tell me. It’s not something I’ve ever heard of, so I’m quite curious. Are there any in the tribe?”
“I’m afraid not,” the woman said. “The stones are something that comes from the desert. I do not know much about them except that they are said to contain Yang.”
Alex frowned. “They come from the desert? Where in the desert?”
The woman shook her head. “I was just 16 when I got married here. Over time, I have returned maybe four times in total, but not any more than that. So I’m afraid I do not know much about where exactly they come from. What I do know is that they were what my tribe used to ward off evil.”
Alex wondered if he had heard that correctly. “Ward off evil?” he asked.
The old woman nodded. “I couldn’t tell you what that is, though. I only know that it was so important that my tribe would give away a large chunk of their yearly crops to get their hands on a few of these.”
Alex got even more curious now and asked the woman for more information.
According to her, the Sunhearts were teardrop-shaped, yellowish gems that had a dull glow at night and gave off a bit of heat. They were usually kept in the chief’s house in the tribe, and no one in the tribe was allowed to interfere with them.
‘So they’re both similar and different from the Yang stones I found behind my sect?’ Alex thought. If they were rectangular, he would have most certainly believed them to be the same, but the shape just wasn’t correct.
“How far away is the desert exactly from here?” Alex asked, now getting curious to the point of impatience. It seemed there were treasures out there for him to find, even in Hell.
“From here, it will take you a week of straight walking to arrive at the desert,” the woman said. “You can make stops along the way through many tribes, although not all tribes are as hospitable.”
Alex nodded. “What about the language of the other tribes?” he asked.
“We all speak similar languages, but there are obvious differences in all of our languages, especially in ones like us that remain this far away from the others.”
“What about the desert people’s language? The one I speak. How many speak that?” he asked.
“Most folks in the desert should speak your language. Even among the tribes on the way to the desert, you will find a handful of people who know that language. They learn it to communicate with the desert people to buy these Sunhearts.”
Alex nodded. “How did you come to learn it?”
The old woman smiled. “My father wanted his daughters to help with the tribe’s trades, so we were all taught to speak the language. I was married away from there, however, so I never really got to use it much.”
Alex smiled. “Now you do.”
He sat back and began wondering when he should go to the desert. What exactly was there in the desert for him in the first place?
‘But if the desert is the way it is due to the Yang, it might be a good place for me. If nothing else, perhaps I can improve my physique.’
It had been such a long time since Alex had been able to do that. The last time he had improved his physique was when he ate the Nine Yang Divine Tree’s fruit. Its energy was still in his core.
Depending on how potent these Sunhearts were, the possibility was certainly there.
“Thank you,” Alex said. “I guess I’ll go learn more in the desert myself.”
“You’re leaving?” Tara asked suddenly, surprised.
“What? No, not yet. I still have a few things to do here. I can’t just leave right away.”
Alex wanted to get rid of this curse from the entire tribe once and for all by teaching them exactly what they needed to do to improve themselves.
He also really wanted to know how these people got stronger physically when they didn’t body cultivate at all. There had to be something he was missing.
“Oh right, I meant to ask you guys about something. The curse—does it exist in the other tribes as well?” he asked.
“No, it’s only our tribe,” Soko answered. “I have never heard of other tribes having such an issue.”
Alex frowned. If his hypothesis about the abundance of Yang in Hell was true, then every place should have the same issue. That made him wonder if the other tribes had a different way to deal with the lack of Yin.
He paused for a moment. “Do the women in the other tribes go to the ocean often?”
“Y-yes!” Soko quickly said as she seemed to realize what Alex was getting into. “They do.”
Alex looked at her.
“The Stone Climbers harvest seaweed at the bottom of their cliff. So their women have to dive into the ocean to get it and climb back up. As for the Honey Watchers, I believe they have a tradition where each morning before sunrise, they pray to the sea god while remaining underwater. The further in they go, the more devoted they are believed to be.”
“I see. Then it makes sense why their women aren’t cursed like yours are. They are constantly acquiring more Yin every day, so when the days come that are as hot as yesterday, they are more or less fine.”
Soko’s eyes were wide. “That’s it? That’s the only reason why we are cursed?”
Alex shrugged. “Sometimes truths are far simpler than you could imagine.”
Soko teared up. “So… all those people in our tribe that died for hundreds of years—they could all have been saved, had they only just… gone to the sea every few days?”
Alex could hear the pain in her voice and sighed. “That’s correct. So many of those people could have been fine, had they just done that.”