Clear Sky

by Patrick G. Laplante

  Enraged, the leaders of the pack howled and pushed their way forward, hoping to eliminate their prey as quickly as possible and minimize the pack’s losses.

  Cha Ming was encouraged by their frantic behavior. “Second Manifestation: Frost Nova!”

  A white-and-blue light spread out from Cha Ming, guided by the thirty-six pearls on his wrist. Unfortunately for the hounds, he was positioned right beside the group. Instantly, each hound’s speed was reduced by fifty percent. They could no longer dodge the many staff and sword strikes, and hound after hound fell to the terrifying onslaught. The pack leader’s rage intensified as it rushed even faster, causing several small hounds to accidentally get knocked off the bridge. But Cha Ming wasn’t done.

  “Second Manifestation: Epicenter!” A cluster of thirty-six pearls jumped up all at once, forming a small character, “earth,” and suddenly slammed down a dozen feet ahead of him. A concussive blast rang out, rattling the group of hounds and shaking their internal organs. The group continued to move their slaughter forward. Finally, a large growl sounded out as the largest hound pounced over the others directly at Cha Ming.

  It’s time, he thought.

  “Second Manifestation: Sword!” He quickly emptied his remaining metal qi, filling all thirty-six white pearls to the brim. They came together in the shape of a sword, and a sharp sensation erupted from him as he launched his strongest attack against the pack leader. Cha Ming collapsed as the sword struck the large black hound backward. It did a full backflip before landing; the only evidence that it had been hit was a small trickle of blood dripping down from its large maw.

  The strike had been ineffective. The beast was too strong! The reality of the situation finally sank in, and their group of five finally collapsed under the pressure and exhaustion. None of them could lift a finger. The large hound triumphantly started advancing once more, ready to deliver the final blow.

  “Yip, yip!” Suddenly, a black figure darted out from behind the group and started growling at the hound. It was the little baby fox! It might only be a second-level spirit beast, but it couldn’t just do nothing. The fox quickly started glowing with a gray light.

  Poof! The baby fox split into two—one white fox and one black fox. These foxes quickly ran together and simultaneously rammed the large hound.

  Unfortunately, despite its good intentions, the tiny foxes bounced back after causing absolutely no damage. The leader of the hounds let out a mocking howl and continued its advance. The air between the two foxes shuddered as the baby fox merged back into its original black-and-white form.

  “Yip yip!” It darted out again. This time a glowing red light shone out of its forehead. A dreadful pressure weighed down on both the group and the hounds. The lead hound whined and crouched down in submission. It was too late, however. Fire burst out from the small fox like an exploding sun.

  Reflexively, Cha Ming quickly took out his last three talismans and threw them on the ground. Three earthen walls sprung up to shield their group from the raging ball of flame. As the ball expanded, the first wall crumbled, followed by the second. Finally, the ball stopped expanding and burst outward. The last earthen barrier was barely breached and crumbled into dust. If they had been just a few feet closer to the front, the ball of flame would have immediately penetrated all three barriers and reduced the five companions to ashes.

  Only the pack leader remained, collapsed in a burning heap of blood and fur. The small baby fox, the source of the giant explosion, was unconscious on the shattered remnants of the bridge. Cha Ming struggled to his feet and slowly walked over to the baby fox that had saved their lives. The remnants of a red character were quickly fading from its slightly charred forehead.

  Suddenly, a loud creaking noise sounded out, forcing everyone to cover their ears. As Cha Ming looked around for the source of the sound, he saw that the ground around him had started breaking into pieces. The unbreakable Greatwood Bridge had been damaged by the massive attack. Ignoring the danger, Cha Ming quickly bent down to pick up the fox. As he took his last step forward, a large, twenty-foot-long piece of bridge suddenly gave way and started a freefall.

  With his last remaining energy, Cha Ming grabbed the small fox and pushed himself off a large piece of bridge. They only way they stood a chance of surviving was if they fell directly in the water. He continued his fall, and the last sounds he remembered hearing were the screams of his friends who had barely escaped this disaster.

  Would he ever meet them again? Who knew. He quickly fell through the white mist covering the river at the bottom of the cliff. The white faded to a deep blue, and as his body hit the raging waters, everything finally faded to black.

  Chapter 24: The Silver Lining

  Cha Ming was walking down to the woods for his usual walk. Instead of choosing to take his morning bath, Cha Ming noticed a fork in the road. The new path was beaten down and seemed to lead uphill. He followed this forest trail for the full morning until he came to the edge of a cliff. Both sides of the cliff were made of red rock, and a river raged loudly beyond the edge. He couldn’t see the bottom of the river, as it was obscured in a thick white mist. Surprisingly, there was a large vine strung out across the deep river chasm. The vine had been fashioned into a simple bridge, and it spanned for what seemed like two to four thousand feet before making it to the other side.

  Looking to the center of the bridge, he saw a familiar figure. An alluring lady in red was standing there looking out into the mists. Her lips formed a hint of a smile as Cha Ming walked toward her.

  They stood together for about an hour, not saying anything. Finally, the lady in red let out a deep sigh. “I couldn’t let my son be taken away by a bad person. If he were to be taken away by a selfish human, I might as well have killed him myself. The world has never been kind to us demon beasts.” She continued to gaze out at the mists while Cha Ming looked at her pensively.

  “Likewise, I would rather let my son die than have him be ungrateful and cowardly. I’m glad he rushed back to save you when he saw you were in danger. He was never meant to be mediocre. It’s in his blood…” She bit her lip as she hesitated. After making up her mind, she rushed up to Cha Ming and held his head in her hands.

  “His name is Ba Huxian. He is not an ordinary fox; he is something called a yin-yang bagua fox. I’m sure he will make the best of companions.”

  A complicated expression flashed across her face as she ran her finger to his lips, pressing him into silence. She didn’t want to hear his answer, as a no would only break her heart. This was her gamble. She had bet everything on Cha Ming, and who knew if that gamble would pay off. She walked off toward the other side of the cliff and disappeared in the mist.

  Cha Ming awoke to sounds akin to a high-pitched snore. It was the only sound he could hear aside from his breathing. Each breath he took came with a sharp pain, the tell-tale sign of a broken rib. As he opened his eyes, all he could see was a pure and endless darkness. He shivered as he became aware of his wet clothes, as well as various cuts and bruises that peppered his body. He felt sharp pains at various key points in his body.

  I must have broken several bones after falling into the river, he thought.

  Despite the cold, a little bundle of warmth radiated from his chest. It was Huxian, cuddled up to his abdomen, trying frantically to warm him up. Huxian suddenly stopped shivering and let out a yip of joy as he heard Cha Ming groan in pain. He started dutifully licking his face, bringing Cha Ming back to full alert.

  A light glow quickly surrounded the baby fox, enveloping a thirty-foot radius around them. They were currently in a large cave. There was a small pool in the ground not far from where he was. He guessed that they had somehow tumbled through an underground river as they were washed toward the bottom of the main river. They had somehow surfaced in this underground cave, and it was clear that Huxian had dragged him away from the pool of water so that he didn’t drown or freeze to death.

  What a strong little bugger, he thought.


  The small cave led to a ten-foot-wide passageway. A faint blue glow originated from deep in the tunnel; regrettably, he didn’t have the strength to investigate. Gritting his teeth, Cha Ming sat himself up painfully. One of his legs was fractured in two places, and so were three of his ribs. Fortunately, he had avoided permanent damage to his organs.

  The most important thing now was to recover his energy so that he could start healing. Everything else was out of the question until he could heal his wounds. He sat himself up against the cave wall, and Huxian cuddled up beside him, exhausted. Entering a meditative state was quite difficult, as Cha Ming was in extreme pain. Despite the pain, he persevered and managed to recover a bit of his qi. As soon as sufficient qi had formed, a dozen pearls from the rosary on his wrist floated up to his torso, forming a light green palm imprint, which regenerated any damaged tissues. His first priority was to heal any internal injuries before taking care of other things like his broken bones. He had fortunately avoided fracturing his femur.

  After a half day, the pain from his ribs finally receded. He petted the sleeping fox lightly. “Good boy, Huxian. You really saved us back there.”

  Hearing his name, Huxian quickly woke up and started licking Cha Ming’s face. He laughed softly, realizing that healing his broken ribs had indeed been the correct decision.

  The healing process continued for three days. Over these three days, both Cha Ming and Huxian ate dry rations. Eventually Cha Ming had to cope with the fact that his leg would heal improperly if he left it alone. To solve this problem, he first manifested the second form of the healing pearl manifestation, Healing Bandage.

  Thirty-six beads spread out in a long rectangle, which he quickly wrapped along the injured leg. Then, mustering most of his strength, he used his fist to forcibly break his leg. The pain was so great that he passed out. He awoke a few hours later, very weak from the blood loss. He then made himself a makeshift splint out of beast bones and sinew he extracted from hound corpses in his bag of holding. Huxian ate up the freshly cut meat greedily, as he’d not had a decent meal in days. Cha Ming stuck to his dry fruit and nut rations. He wasn’t desperate yet.

  The healing process dragged out for another week. Such large bones were very difficult to heal at Cha Ming’s current skill level. After quite a bit of effort, Cha Ming was finally able to move about freely. He would be able to fight at about eighty-percent strength if he had to, though this would worsen his injuries. Huxian scampered along playfully. He’d wanted to explore the cave for a long time, but he was very worried about Cha Ming and hadn’t gone ahead to explore.

  As they wandered through the caves, Cha Ming realized that the glow came from many different caves. One cave became two, two became three, and three became too many to count. He soon found that they were lost. He frowned for a bit, but then he realized that Huxian was sniffing the air and heading in a specific direction.

  Oh? Does he have a special sense for these kinds of situations? Having nothing better to do, he followed Huxian’s lead down the network of tunnels.

  After several hours, Cha Ming noticed that the blue glow became stronger, and the caves grew brighter. Finally, they entered a very large cave. In the middle of the cave there was a small silver-blue pool. The pool had clearly been formed by a large dripping stalactite. Huxian excitedly walked up to the pool, sniffed it, and greedily started lapping up the contents. Cha Ming cursed inwardly because he hadn’t warned Huxian to be careful. He was just a baby, after all. To his surprise, Huxian finished quickly and darted up the sleeve of his robe, falling asleep on his shoulders. At least the liquid wasn’t poisonous; spirit beasts and demon beasts had strong survival instincts.

  As he approached the small pool, he noticed a humming sound coming out from his personal bag of holding. Frowning, he looked through his bag to find the source of the humming—the white brush! He took out the brush cautiously to examine it. To his surprise, the brush darted out of his hands and dove down deep inside the pool. After a minute, the pool had drained a whole foot. After fifteen minutes, the pool was completely drained and dry, after which the brush darted back to his hands as if satisfied.

  Cha Ming was quite puzzled. He knew this was a talisman brush, but he’d never realized that it might need to be fed these types natural treasures to function, like how it needed to “drink” ink before writing out talismans.

  Are all magic treasures this way? He didn’t even know what the liquid was, and it was already gone. He held the brush in his hands and observed it in detail. The dark lines showing all five elements were no longer black; green, red, yellow, silver, and blue lights now danced about the brush. As he stared at the brush, a golden light flashed, and he could make out a line of words on it.

  Why not paint the heavens with this Clear Sky Brush?

  Suddenly, a white mist shot out from the brush and darted into his forehead. Cha Ming sat down quickly as he struggled against the mist to no avail, eventually losing consciousness.

  Cha Ming took a few steps forward, the sound of dull footsteps echoing through the vast emptiness. He was surprised, because below his feet he could not see anything. Or rather, his surroundings were pure and white. The air around him was indistinguishable from the floor. Was there a difference between walking on the floor or the ceiling? As soon as the thought ran through his head, he became aware that he was now walking upside-down. His point of view changed, and upside-down became right-side-up. Regardless of his orientation, his footsteps kept echoing throughout the vast emptiness.

  True to his nature, he decided to experiment. He thought of stairs, and soon he was “climbing” stairs and “descending.” He thought of skating, and soon he was gliding down a slippery white “rink,” with no end in sight. Unfortunately, he eventually thought of running face-first into a white “wall,” and his light frame came to a screeching halt, nearly breaking his nose in the process.

  Okay, time to stop experimenting before things get out of hand. Cha Ming had a very vivid imagination, and sometimes it got the better of him, much like when a friend tells you not to think of an awful thing only to put a picture of said awful thing stuck in your head.

  “Are you done having fun?” asked a calm voice behind him.

  Cha Ming immediately regained his senses and turned around and saw an impish man with reddish brown hair. The man had a very plentiful red beard with prominent sideburns. He also held a gray staff in one hand, which he didn’t seem to need for support.

  “Confused? I would be.” The man continued to stare at him with an impish smile, with one hand stroking his beard and the other twirling his staff. At some point, he threw the staff up into the air, only to have it balance on his finger. After a while, the staff started to shrink, and it continued to shrink until it was the size of a toothpick. He then put the toothpick in his mouth, using it to pick his sharp, pointy teeth. The man stared at Cha Ming, and the look in his eyes indicated that he was taking pleasure in the young man’s confusion.

  “Sit down, son. Let’s have a chat. I haven’t been on the outside in a thousand cosmic cycles. Don’t even try to think about what that means; it’s much too long for a youngster like yourself to imagine.”

  Just as Cha Ming was thinking about where to sit down, the man waved his hand, and a set of stone benches appeared. The man’s bench was significantly taller, and he smirked while waiting for Cha Ming to take a seat.

  Is he a man or is he a teenager? Cha Ming thought. There was no point in overthinking it, really. He didn’t know where he was, and perhaps by giving this man a modicum of satisfaction, he could gain information on where he was. He sat down obediently and waited for the man to sit down, much like a child would wait for an elder. Satisfied, the man put his hands inside his gray robe’s sleeves and sat down after him, as if enjoying the feeling of belittling everyone around him.

  “Look around you. What do you see, son? Don’t think about it too hard.” The man waved around him, and an invisible wind seemed to pick up and travel out i
nto the white expanse. Cha Ming frowned at the open-ended question but threw out a guess nonetheless.

  “I don’t see anything. It’s a blank slate with no form. It’s just pure and white nothingness.”

  The man gave him a surprised look and scratched his messy red hair.

  “That’s right, it’s nothing! Likewise, it’s also everything. Most people would give me a random bullshit guess to try to impress me. I’m glad you didn’t do that—that kind of person disgusts me the most. I don’t need sweet talk, and I don’t need anyone to give me any fake surprise.

  “Anyhow, like I said. It’s nothing, and it’s everything! It’s basically the start of all things, including myself. That’s saying something for someone as great as me, the Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, the Mightiest of the Strong, the Undying Holy One. Oh, I know! You can call me Almighty Heavenly Teacher. Say it! Say it!” As the man’s excited voice sounded out, black lines started appearing on Cha Ming’s brow. This guy is a little too full of himself, he thought.

  Biting back his embarrassment, he thickened his skin and clasped his hands while bowing to the man. “I was blind and failed to see Mount Tai1. A beautiful lark sang a song to me this morning, and I was sure an important figure would appear soon. Surprisingly, it’s the Almighty Heavenly Teacher! I’m pleased to finally be blessed enough to have to opportunity to greet you.”

  A pleased smile appeared on the man’s face as he shut his eyes and nodded his head. “What a proper member of the younger generation. Honest, and full of sincerity, not embellishing anything in the slightest. I’m not surprised you’ve heard of me.” As he was nodding, a thought seemed to pop into his head. “Oh, I know! As a prestigious figure, it’s only right that I give you a gift on first meeting. Come, come, I’ll show you something.”