by Jeremy Bai
Chapter 91: It Has Three
From the moment the flood dragons had emerged from the cauldrons to when Kun-Peng flew away over the horizon, only a few short minutes had passed.
After the fighting was over, the Dragon-Phoenix Sect and the other groups on the beach stood there in shock, almost uncertain if what they had witnessed was real or not.
However, the evidence left behind of the fighting was anything but illusory. And yet, that evidence was mostly superficial damage to the soft ground at the base of the mountain. The next heavy rain that came along would likely wash away all traces of the momentous battle.
After unleashing the power of the Phoenix Crown and the Wind Saber, Bao felt drained. There was also a pain deep inside of her that left her quite unsettled. Placing the Phoenix Crown back in its box, she sheathed the Wind Saber and handed it to Ma Ge. Then she sat down cross-legged in front of Sunan to meditate.
Sunan was also in the middle of meditating as he attempted to expel the poison from his body.
As more disciples hurried over to stand guard over them, Mao Yun and Tie Gangwen took charge, sending profound masters out to confirm that the other Bone Slicers had been defeated, as well as to calm the ordinary members of the sect and confirm that no one had been injured.
Soon the profound masters began to regroup near Sunan and Bao, where an atmosphere of tense anxiety began to mount. Murmured whispers could be heard occasionally as the profound masters discussed the events that had just played out.
“Do you think there are more Bone Slicers nearby?”
“Doubtful. That group was likely stationed in the prison itself and slipped out to prepare their little trap. They were trying to crush us with those dragons, not get involved in a real fight.”
“What are the Dragon Sovereign and Phoenix Sovereign doing?”
“I heard that the Dragon Sovereign was poisoned. I’m not sure about the Phoenix Sovereign. Maybe she’s helping him with the poison?”
“Perhaps she’s just recovering from that incredible technique from earlier.”
“What was that white and blue light?”
“She was using the Phoenix Crown and the Wind Saber together. Can you believe that power? I wonder if anybody who uses those two items together could wield power like that?”
Sometime later, Bao opened her eyes and rose to her feet. Upon looking around at the small crowd surrounding her and Sunan, she said, “Are we prepared to leave?”
“Yes, Phoenix Sovereign,” Tie Gangwen replied.
It was then that Sun Mai spoke up. “Phoenix Sovereign, may I have a word?”
***
Sunan recovered roughly an hour after he had first slipped into deep meditation. Almost immediately, Bao and Sunan pulled him to the side for a private discussion.
It wasn’t long after that when Sunan called out, “Dragon Lords and Claws of the Phoenix, we will begin the evacuation as previously planned, within the hour. Prepare to move out. Mao Yun, Tie Gangwen, Wang Tian, Li Runfa, come with us.”
Without any further explanation, Bao, Sunan, and Sun Mai drew upon their qinggong to speed back in the direction of the fortress.
The group of four whom Sunan had called out didn’t hesitate to follow. As for Li Runfa, he was not skilled in qinggong, so Wang Tian grabbed his forearm and pulled him along. Seemingly within the blink of an eye, the group of six was gone.
The leaders of the sect immediately began to break into the various groups that would head in different directions away from Heart’s Ridge.
***
“How did you find out about the magic door?” Sunan asked as they hurried through the dim corridors of the prison. The lamps they carried cast strange shadows in all directions, making the place seem quite eerie.
Sun Mai didn’t respond for a very long moment. “I can’t tell you.”
Sunan glanced over at him in surprise. “Can’t tell me?”
Sun Mai ran his hand across his pate, which was already starting to show a bit of a shadow from his hair growing back. “You’ll have to trust me on this, Sunan. Besides, I have more things to tell you that will make this magical door seem like nothing.”
Unsure of what to make of Sun Mai’s claim, Sunan simply lapsed into silence.
Eventually, they reached an iron door with the numbers 456 carved into the rock above it. It was a sturdy door secured with a heavy padlock that members of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect had attempted unsuccessfully to break open during the evacuation of the prison. There were many such areas within the prison. After all, the sect’s mission had been to rescue their friends and family, not loot the fortress.
Sun Mai pulled an iron key out of the sleeve of his robe, which he used to unlock the padlock. Then he pushed the door open and entered, holding out the lamp in front of him.
The room was empty except for a single item: a long, sturdy wooden chest.
Mao Yun was the one to step forward and open it, revealing a collection of six long metal bars, some of which were straight and some of which were curved. From the grooves and tongues at the ends of each of the bars, it was obvious that they were designed to interlock.
Mao Yun looked over his shoulder at Sun Mai, then Sunan and Bao.
Sun Mai stepped forward and glanced at the bars. “Let’s set it up. It should only take a moment.”
Sure enough, assembling the bars was a simple task, and within moments, a large door frame stood tall in the middle of the stone chamber. It was wide enough for three men to enter on horseback and stood on its own with no need of support.
“It looks a lot less impressive than I imagined,” Li Runfa said. “How do we use it?”
Sun Mai reached out and put his hand on the surface of the door, then closed his eyes. A moment passed, whereupon a smile appeared on his lips.
“She was right,” he murmured in a voice so soft no one could make out clearly what he had said.
“Sun Mai?” Sunan asked.
Sun Mai looked up. “It’s simple. Any profound master can activate the door with little more than a thought. In terms of where it can lead, the possibilities are many. As far as I can tell, I can open the other end of the door in any location that I have visited in the past, and any location where the door has been.”
A few people gasped.
“Why don’t we use it to get the sect back to the palace?” Tie Gangwen asked.
“Based on everything we know,” Wang Tian replied, “the magical doors can only be used once. Wouldn’t it be better to use it… offensively?”
Sun Mai lowered his hand. “My thoughts exactly. Our plan to get the sect to safety is still a good one. With this door in our hands, I think the time has come to discuss something of utmost importance.” He looked at Sunan. “Your dream.” Then at Bao. “And your poem.”
***
The two divisions of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect mostly went separate ways, taking their friends and loved ones with them. A small group consisting mostly of other martial artists such as Blackleaf and Kind Devil Fuling commandeered the boats in the harbor. The Pure Phoenix Division headed south to infiltrate Xuanlu and perhaps Huisheng. The Golden Dragon Division would head up the Southern Fei River toward Zun Shan.
Other scattered groups from both divisions headed in other directions. The current plan was for the sect to temporarily vanish from the world.
Everyone, from the ranking officers to the ordinary non-martial artists from the outer sect, was anxious to get away from Heart’s Ridge. As such, no one needed any persuading to hurry off in whichever directions they had been assigned.
Because of that, few people noticed something strange happening. After emerging again from the prison, Mao Yun and Tie Gangwen began to circulate among the leadership figures of the sect, both the profound masters and others among the most skilled and powerful fighters.
By the time the sun set, the sandy land between the mountains and the bay were empty. The two divisions of the sect were gone, leaving only a lonely wind behind to caress t
he battered and broken evidence of the spectacular battle.
***
Roughly an hour north of the city of Yu Zhing was a cave network that, many years ago, had been an oft-used way station and supply depot for one of the criminal gangs that operated in the city.
It was the very same cave network where Bao and Mao Yun had spent the night when they fled Yu Zhing all those years ago.
For years, the caves had been completely abandoned, but after the Dragon-Phoenix Sect began to carry out operations in the major cities of the empire, they had been refitted and expanded for use in the operations of the local secret societies.
About two years prior, when the entire martial world was burning with passion under the leadership of the Timeless Master, one particularly ambitious local leader had expanded the caves, hoping to build a small army to use to overthrow the government in Yu Zhing. Later, after the death of the Timeless Master, when many martial artists had scattered and gone into hiding, the caves had been abandoned again.
Now it became the gathering place of the most powerful martial artists in the world.
It started with a small group of seven, including Bao, Sunan, Mao Yun, Wang Tian, Tie Gangwen, Sun Mai, and Li Runfa. Although, strictly speaking, Li Runfa couldn’t be considered a powerful martial artist; his skills lay in other areas.
More of the leaders and top fighters in the sect began to show up a few days later. One by one, they were assigned housing within the caves, with a few, mostly Eyes of the Phoenix, being sent into the city disguised as beggars or merchants to gather intelligence.
Over the course of the following two weeks, roughly a thousand of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect’s most famous and powerful figures arrived.
None among the group knew exactly why they were gathering in Yu Zhing, at least, not yet. One night, after all the other members of the sect who had been ordered to come to Yu Zhing had arrived, the small group who had originally discovered the magical door had a meeting in the most secure area of the cave network.
“Now that the elites are gathered,” Sun Mai said, “we can finally begin training.”
“We also need more information about Yao Gong Palace,” Bao said. “We have the magical door, which can get us inside, but we don’t even know the layout of the place, let alone who or what we’ll be facing once we’re on the inside.”
“My Eyes of the Phoenix can be of some help,” Wang Tian said. “Why don’t we send a pair up into the mountains to survey and scout the area?”
“That won’t be necessary,” Li Runfa said quietly. “After all these years, the time has come to reveal a secret that only the Dragon Sovereign and Phoenix Sovereign ever knew.”
As all eyes in the room came to rest on him, he continued. “The Dragon-Phoenix Sect doesn’t have two divisions. It has three.”
Chapter 92: A Bear in a Cave
“What?” Wang Tian blurted.
Tie Gangwen’s eyes went wide, and even Mao Yun seemed completely taken aback.
“In some ways,” Li Runfa said, “it’s a complicated story, and in other ways, very simple. Haven’t you ever wondered why I never devoted myself to studying martial arts? It is because I was focused on other matters. To explain, I have to go all the way back to when we were fleeing north and stopped in Tung-On. When browsing through the back-alley shops there, I found an ancient text, which described a ritual of incredible…” After trailing off for a short moment, he continued. “Perhaps power is not the right word, but usefulness.
“One of the key ingredients to complete the ritual was the blood of a raksha demon. Raksha demons are terrifyingly ferocious things, and as you can imagine, getting the blood of one was no easy task. Mao Yun, do you remember the three Zhou brothers?”
Mao Yun nodded.
“The four of us teamed up, and after many years of plotting and planning, we managed to track down a young raksha demon and kill it. Sadly, First Zhou and Second Zhou were killed in the battle. Later, Third Zhou and I used the blood of the raksha demon to complete the ritual, and we made these.” Reaching into his sleeve, he pulled out what appeared to a mask made of leather or skin.
Without further explanation, he placed the mask on his face, whereupon his facial features blurred. Moments later, they became clear again. As of that moment, Li Runfa didn’t look at all like Li Runfa, but rather the spitting image of Sunan. He even looked physically larger than he had before. Even more shocking was that everyone present, despite being profound masters with incredible senses, and also the ability to detect and analyze auras, couldn’t tell any difference between Li Runfa’s qi fluctuations and Sunan’s.
“Surprisingly,” he continued, his voice now that of Sunan’s, “the changes go down into the muscles, bones, and even blood.”
Then he peeled the mask off his face, whereupon his features returned to normal. “The masks come with other… benefits as well. I realized immediately that with tools like this at my disposal, I could build the ultimate intelligence agency, which is exactly what I did. With the blessing of the Dragon Sovereign and Phoenix Sovereign, the Raksha Division was born. Third Zhou and I began to recruit, picking the best of the best from our sect and also bringing in fresh blood.” He looked over at Wang Tian with an enigmatic smile. “We even have a few former Eyes of the Phoenix. Remember Chang Peng?”
Wang Tian frowned slightly, apparently neither amused nor pleased. “I thought he died trying to infiltrate the chief shaman’s dungeon…”
Li Runfa shook his head. “He didn’t. Unfortunately, we only have a few masks, and we have been unable to track down any more raksha demons in the years since. Therefore, we are few in number. However, over the years we have infiltrated many of the most powerful organizations in the empire and have gained access to some of the most secret locations. That includes Yao Gong Palace.”
At this point, Bao couldn’t help but ask, “You have an agent inside of Yao Gong Palace?”
Even she had not been made aware of this point.
“Yes,” Li Runfa said. “It was a very difficult task, but Third Zhou himself managed to take the place of one of the palace servants, which was how he managed to make this.” Li Runfa pulled a leather tube out of his robe, which he opened. Within it was a patch of animal skin rolled around a weathered piece of paper. As he unrolled the animal skin out in front of the gathered group, it quickly became obvious what it was.
“Is that a map?” Mao Yun asked. “Of Yao Gong Palace?”
“Indeed,” Li Runfa replied. “And this”—he unrolled the paper—“is detailed information about everything from the guard patrols to the meal schedule to the times and places when the Demon Emperor appears in the open for ceremonies and the like.”
Tie Gangwen shook his head. “Master Li, if your Raksha Division can get a map of the Demon Emperor’s palace, and even a schedule of his daily affairs, what other things might you have been able to do throughout the years to help us? How many times did we sent men to infiltrate the enemy, only for them to be discovered and executed? Those masks could have been of incredible use!”
Li Runfa looked back at him with a sharp glint in his eyes. “Do you really think our division didn’t help on missions throughout the years? During the most important operations, there was always a Raksha agent helping from the shadows. How do you think we were able to steal the Zhizhu Coral so easily? Or what about the assassination of the chief shaman? Or the Uprising of Nansun? None of them would have been possible without the Raksha Division.
“Think of all the intelligence I have brought to the table over the years, maps and schedules just like the ones in front of you. Do you really think our ordinary intelligence wing could have access to so much dangerous, secret information? You never asked how I got such information, and I never offered to reveal my sources, an arrangement I don’t think anyone in the sect found fault with.
“The Raksha Division was the most powerful tool at the disposal of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect, a trump card that I was not willing to reveal until
the time came to strike the final blow.”
“And that time is now,” Sunan said. “Master Li, I presume you’ve studied the map and the schedule already and have identified some ideal places and times to consider?”
“Yes. However, now that the secret of the Raksha Division has been revealed, I have another bit of information that I must share. Before I do, please allow me to preface my words by saying that I fully believe in this plan to eliminate the Demon Emperor once and for all. The profound masters of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect are the most powerful warriors in the world, and if steps are not taken to end the Demon Emperor now, I fear the world will be lost for all time.
“However, perhaps better than anyone else here, I understand how powerful the Demon Emperor is. And that is because a Raksha agent was in the Grotto of the Timeless Master when it fell.”
All eyes had already been on Li Runfa before, but now they were even more sharply focused on him.
“According to the stories that have begun to spread since the fall of the Timeless Master, he was killed during a decisive duel with Bone General Geng. However, the truth is much more chilling. The Bone General and the Timeless Master didn’t fight until the very end of the battle, when almost everyone else in the grotto had been slaughtered. The Timeless Master defeated the Bone General easily, but he didn’t manage to kill him. And yet, the Timeless Master was not fated to survive. The Demon Emperor himself came to finish the job.
“My Raksha agent was there, hidden, to witness the entire tragic spectacle. After the dust settled, she escaped and recorded this.” He pulled out a many-folded piece of paper, which he put down in front of him. “Names and descriptions of some of the techniques the Demon Emperor used, as well as a brief account of the final moments of the Timeless Master.”
As Sunan reached out to pick up the piece of paper, Li Runfa shook his head. “The Demon Emperor is terrifyingly powerful, that much is certain. Were it not for some immensely powerful magical weapons the Timeless Master had at his disposal, objects none of us were aware that he possessed, he would never have lasted for even a single round of combat. He also had a powerful protector, someone the Demon Emperor called a Sertori, although I’m not sure what that means.”