The Ming Storm
Page 31
Instead of the jubilation he expected, a searing pain ripped through his wrist. Surprisingly, Shao Jun had attacked him using what remained of her sword, which she had kept hold of even after it was broken by the yujing.
Impossible! Zhang Yong wanted to cry out. Not even the mentor of the Society of the Mind had been able to avoid his attack, yet somehow the young woman had developed her own style. She had combined her mastery of Eastern martial arts with the Western techniques learned from Ezio Auditore, to create a hybrid that was as cutting as ice and fluid as a river. If her sword hadn’t been so shortened, she would have sliced through the Tiger’s forearm. He was dumbfounded: no one had ever managed to injure him. He had no choice but to flee now he could no longer use his dagger properly. Grabbing the Precursor Box with his uninjured hand, he rushed through the trap door that led to the roof.
When the former imperial favorite followed him, she discovered him already out of reach, travelling upwards in a large willow basket attached to the strange leather ball she had seen earlier. She was briefly stunned with awe at the sight. The balloon quickly rose towards the mouth of the volcano, carrying its passenger to safety out of range of the cave’s scheduled auto-destruct. Who would have expected such a thing?
There was no way she could just let this happen. Broken or not, the weapon on her back had been given to her by Wang Yangming, and the memory of her master gave her the strength to carry on, to fight to the end without giving in. She ran to the tower’s edge and jumped into the air, straight towards the cave wall six meters away. Just before she jumped, she threw her rope dart to anchor firmly around a rocky protrusion, allowing her to safely reach the rocky wall. She began to climb as fast as she could to reach Zhang Yong’s balloon, now the only way to leave the island.
The latter knew victory was in his grasp. The loss of the Precursor installations and equipment was regrettable, but he still had the box, and he now knew how to make yujing. While he admired her spirit and talent, he knew the former imperial favorite would never reach the balloon in time. Still, he couldn’t help gripping the handle of his dagger even as he saw his pursuer’s figure growing smaller and more indistinct.
“Shao Jun!” he shouted. “You are incredible, but Dai Yu will be your grave!”
Defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for the last member of the Society of the Mind, and Zhang Yong’s laugh rang cruelly in her ears. Realizing that she wasn’t climbing fast enough, she decided to give up and try climbing down the wall when an enormous cracking noise echoed through the cavern. She couldn’t see it, but the metal basin had finally exploded. The two towers began to sway dangerously, and the entire cave seemed to shake. The young woman was forced to wedge her boot into a gap in the rock to avoid falling. Faced with no alternative, she resumed her ascent towards the mouth of the volcano as a hot, thick black smoke rose towards her. If she must join the Emperor, her master, and her fellow disciples, she would go with a light heart, but she would never simply abandon herself to the abyss. She would fight to the very last breath!
Unfortunately, it was her breath which failed her when she was still a good twenty meters from the top of the volcano, climbing the narrow chimney which led to it. Air became scarce, her vision blurred, the heat began to burn her back, and her hands constantly threatened to lose their grip. Was this how it would all end? The opening above her appeared round as a black moon, seeming more distant than ever. She suddenly noticed some of the smoke around her escaping through the wall only a few meters away! It was a small, rocky tunnel that led to the outside! Finding reserves of strength she didn’t know she still had, she sent her rope dart towards the tunnel and hoisted herself up with a quick, powerful movement. The hole couldn’t be more than a meter in diameter, but it was all she needed. She climbed in, and a few seconds later she was able to breathe freely. She moved to the side of the rocky opening just in time to avoid an eruption of searing ash.
The sun was beginning to peek over the horizon in the east, and the sea stretched around fifty meters below her feet. It was still too dark to see Zhang Yong’s balloon, but she could make out a speck of bright sail on the black expanse of water. It must be Tiexin’s ship moving away from the island. She was sure it hadn’t taken the coward long to abandon her to her fate. She mentally apologized to her master. Not only had she failed to revive the Society of the Mind, but she was also going to die on this cursed isle. She closed her eyes, ready to abandon all hope… and her eyelids were suddenly lit by a bright flash. She immediately recognized the color of the long incandescent tongue: A-Qin’s distress flare! It was still too dark to see the source, but it certainly hadn’t come from the Celestial Kings’ ship.
The memory of a conversation with Ezio Auditore quickly dissipated her concern and hesitation. The Italian master had been reassured to learn that there was a Brotherhood in China and was impressed by the young fighter to whom he revealed everything he knew about their shared goal. In his villa surrounded by vineyards, he had asked her if she knew how to choose the path she should follow.
“It’s not easy,” he had said, “because in this world, all is an illusion. Everything is as superficial it is important.”
“So, what should I do?” Shao Jun had asked.
“Act as your heart directs you,” he had answered simply.
The sun rose on the horizon, slowly flooding the east with blue while the west still slumbered in the darkness of night. The young woman stood on her small stone on the mountainside and opened her arms wide, jumping into the air as she faced the dawn. Hands gripping the edges of her cloak, she floated on the powerful sea breeze as boiling water full of ash was projected out of the volcano’s openings, falling around her in a warm, gray rain.
Light and graceful, Wang Yangming’s pupil turned in the air like the mythical Peng bird, momentarily freed of all her pain, both physical and spiritual.
As her glide brought her closer to the sea, she brought her arms together and dove into the water. The spray glittered like diamonds in the slanting rays of the rising sun.
Epilogue
“Big sister Jun!” A-Qian cried.
She watched with anguish from the prow of her small boat as Shao Jun dove into the waves at high speed. Splash! In the middle of an area peppered with reefs, she could crack her head open like a coconut falling from a tree on the numerous rocks hiding under the water. To her great relief, the young woman soon rose to the surface and swam to the boat, accompanied by A-Qian’s cries of joy and encouragement.
“You didn’t leave?” she asked as she climbed on board.
“My big brother didn’t want me to wait… but I knew you’d make it out!”
Barely escaping the cave with their lives, Tiexin, Ye Zongman, and the last of the Celestial Kings had boarded the ship and immediately prepared to leave. While the pirate leader’s sister had pleaded with them to wait for Shao Jun, he refused to listen. He would have abandoned A-Qian there and then if they hadn’t been siblings. Faced with her unyielding determination, he had agreed to give her one of his ship’s lifeboats and to wait a while just beyond the reefs, but his patience wouldn’t last. The former imperial concubine knew how much the young girl respected her brother and appreciated the determination she had shown to save her all the more. She had felt like she could never trust anyone again after Wang Yangming’s death, but A-Qian had proven herself worthy.
“How can I thank you…” she panted. “Let’s go, quickly!”
They easily spotted the tortoise-shaped reef pointed out by Feng Renxiao and allowed themselves to be carried by the current as Dai Yu island finally exploded. Fearing they would be caught by the rocky debris raining down, they rowed as fast as they could. The sea suddenly became chaotic: a thick, acrid fog rolled over the surface of the water, angry waves began to form, and showers of lava fell and brutally cooled on contact with the saltwater. They didn’t dare stop to rest until the sun had fully risen. Even at this di
stance, they could still feel the burning heat of the disaster at their backs, like the menacing breath of a dragon hot in pursuit.
“Big sister, have we made it?” A-Qian asked.
“I think we have!” Shao Jun answered with a small smile.
They had reached the halfway point between the reefs. Ahead, the hazy shape of a large ship appeared through sea mist filled with volcanic ash: it was Tiexin awaiting their return. Comforted by the sight, they both let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Big sister…” A-Qian asked, “is Master Yangming really no longer with us?”
“Unfortunately not.”
“So, we’ll never hear his teachings ever again…”
When Wang Yangming had come to ask for the pirates’ help, he had gained Tiexin’s respect thanks to his kung-fu, while his pearls of philosophical wisdom had drawn A-Qian’s. Despite her young age, she understood that humanity had just lost one of its wisest men. Shao Jun herself was overcome with emotion at the mention of her master’s name.
“His wisdom lives on through his disciples,” she said reassuringly.
“Yes, you…”
She was cut short by a sudden impact, almost falling overboard: the boat had just hit a reef. The former imperial favorite caught the young girl just before she fell into the sea, but water was already bubbling through the gaping hole in the hull. Rowing at speed to escape the island’s explosion, they had departed from the safe currents recommended by Feng Renxiao and must now face this new danger.
“Quickly, climb onto the reef!” Shao Jun shouted as the front of the boat sank beneath the waves.
The rock was large enough for them to both stand without wetting their feet, though their troubles were far from over.
“Big sister,” A-Qian said anxiously, “what do we do?”
“Do you still have any flares?”
“I only had two…”
She had used the first at Guimen reef, and the second shortly before the island’s explosion. She saw the outline of her brother’s ship in the distance.
“Oh no! He’s leaving!” Overwhelmed with panic, she began to shout in the direction of the ship. “Big brother! We’re here!”
It was a wasted effort. The distance between them was too great for her voice to be heard, and Tiexin believed his sister dead after seeing the scale of the disaster. The young girl burst into tears as she saw the gray sail unfurl. How could they fail so close to their goal? Shao Jun took her in her arms.
“Don’t cry, A-Qian.”
“It’s all my fault, I was distracted! We hit the reef because of me. We were so close to being saved!”
“Master Yangming once told me that there is still hope even in the most desperate situations, if you really want to believe.”
“So… do you think my big brother will turn around?”
She knew her elder brother too well to think him capable of taking such a risk without any real reward. Despite the former imperial favorite’s wise words, she found it difficult to avoid despair. Then something miraculous drew her attention.
“Big sister Jun!” she cried. “He’s coming back! He’s really coming back!”
Unbelievable though it was, a ship with ashen sails was coming towards them. But the closer it came, the more obvious it was that it was not the Celestial Kings. Would its passengers see the two survivors, or pass by without noticing them? A voice called in their direction from the ship before they even had a chance to start shouting for attention.
“Is anyone there?”
“Here! Here!” A-Qian cried, waving her arms.
The ship stopped several meters short of the first reefs, and five or six sailors began to row towards the two castaways in a small lifeboat.
“Miss Jun,” said a reedy voice, “is it really you?”
“Who are you?” she retorted, keeping her guard up.
“Thank the heavens and earth! It’s her! Miss, it’s me, it’s Yanfei!”
The face of the prince of Wei’s young servant was soon visible through the fog. She was no navigator, but she gestured at the sailors and the small boat quickly approached Shao Jun and A-Qian.
“Miss Jun, there you are!” Yanfei exulted. “Quickly, get in! The master would have been furious if we hadn’t found you! Ah, watch out, the boat isn’t very stable!”
The servant was as talkative as the former imperial favorite remembered. It amused her to note that the girl hadn’t got her sea legs yet, because despite her words, the boat was really quite stable.
“Yanfei! How did you get here?! Did Lord Pengju send you?”
“Miss, my master has been worried about you ever since you left Nanjing. He wanted to accompany you, but there was no one who could stand in for him… He eventually decided to follow you anyway, because he thought it was too dangerous for you to travel alone. He took a big risk! Someone might have reported him! You didn’t see that he was following you?”
The young servant hid her mouth behind her hand and rolled her eyes, clearly embarrassed by doing nothing but talk about her master. Nonetheless, this short, confused account helped Shao Jun realize that it was Xu Pengju who saved her from Qiu Ju and Luo Xiang on the road. The prince of Wei had a great heart underneath his carefree airs. He truly was worthy of being Yang Yiqing’s greatest disciple.
“Yanfei,” she said, “take me to your master so I can thank him…”
“Yes, oh… if you want… The master is on board the ship, but he brought that airhead with him, and given the time, she must be singing him his favorite songs right now… I don’t think it’s really worth listening to…”
The mundane gossip brought the former imperial favorite a strangely calming sense of familiarity. She had spent the last few hours fighting for her life, nearly died a hundred times over, and had thought herself lost for sure when A-Qian’s small boat sank, but now everything seemed back to normal. Perhaps it was not just the dawn of a new day, but of a new chapter in her life. She noticed the distressed look on the face of Tiexin’s younger sister.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“It’s nothing…”
Her chagrin was understandable. The child had had enormous respect for her pirate brother, but he had abandoned her to her fate without even a backward glance. She was pleased to be alive, but this betrayal weighed heavily on her.
“Don’t worry about it, A-Qian,” said her adoptive “big sister”, “life is a path we must all follow alone.”
Shao Jun sympathized with the young girl’s confusion. She had once been lost like that, first when she left the safety of the Imperial Palace, then more recently when Wang Yangming bid her farewell. Now her fog of doubted had lifted; she knew the path to take.
“Master, you may longer be here to guide me,” she thought as looked at the remains of Dai Yu island, “but I will continue on my way without doubting my every step.”
Her mind was calm. She had found people she could trust in this cold and hostile world, and she knew she could rely on them to help rebuild the Society of the Mind. It would be a long and difficult road, but she would never again lose sight of her objective.
The rays of the rising sun glinting gold and silver from the waters united sea and sky.
About the Author
YAN LEISHENG has had a special interest in science fiction since an early age, but it wasn’t until his thirties that he was first published. Since then, he has published twenty books, including novels, short story collections, essays, and poetry. His most famous trilogy “Heaven Prevails” has sold over 500,000 copies in Chinese.
Table of Contents
Cover
Advance Reading Copy
Assassin's Creed: The Ming Storm
Copyright
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
About the Author
More Thrilling Ubisoft Fiction