I'll have to be careful with the girl. She still doesn't know how to control chi and can be subdued by her inner demons, the man thought as he entered a vault in the right-hand corner of his tiny room.
It had been a while since his hands were lost among that collection of worldly objects and relics from another era; chi-imbued knives, scrolls containing demonic beasts’ invocations, and even a blue pearl—the core of one of them. After all, deep down, the man had a tender appreciation for artifacts capable of changing the course of a battle.
He picked up a silver ring with little black spots around the outside of the band and a purple diamond on top. He blew until he could see his face reflected in the surface. The purple spot glowed in his hand and he caressed it like an old friend.
"It's good to see you. We'll walk together once again if you wish," he said, his voice echoing throughout his little room.
He lay down on the double bed, the red satin sheets and the hard bedspread molding to his body. Beams of light streamed in through the red-and-yellow tapestry that covered the triangular window in the right corner. The water from the creek continued to fall.
Once he placed the little silver ring on his ring finger, sweeping energy flooded his body. He gargled and traces of saliva dripped down his thick lips. Within, a light purple, almost violet, blew the dusty corners of his body. Due to not using much of his chi for years, some of the most isolated corners had gained a certain kind of mold, a green goo that hindered the perfect circulation of chi across all the meridians. Even the energies could rot like the human body. Without extensive care of them, the natural balance of the body, his Yin-Yang, would lose its ideal essence.
It was for the same reason that the members of a school were obliged to meditate and train daily. The lack of use and training had rusted the man, his gears now slowly moving.
A few minutes passed before the ring's brightness faded. The man's eyes, small and sharp, conveyed a peaceful sensation. The power to which he now had access at a snap of his fingers competed with some of the greatest fighters on the continent.
Ex-friends and enemies, he knew everyone would try to stop him. And yet, he was convinced it was the best solution. Promises had been made and only blood could break them. It was how pacts in the kingdom of Luau worked—by giving one his blood, the other would have to carry out the mission until he could no longer walk on Earth or his soul would burn forever, unable to reincarnate. Not even the kindness he had in life would save him. If he died without achieving success, he would be reincarnated as a lowlife, someone who could never reach high heights no matter how hard he tried.
His body levitated, lifting him up, his shoes hovering over the ground. His shadow was chopped off by the threads of light that shone against him. He stretched out and a burst of energy jolted the lamp above him.
"Easy, old friend," the man said, looking at the ring. "I'm not used to taming such power. A bit will do for now," he said, oblivious to the dangers that were already drawing closer.
Fear had accelerated Kaji’s soldiers’ plan. After all, there was nothing like the possibility of downfall to cause even the most feared leaders or even peasants to shiver. Black Chi was forbidden. Raising the dead was desecrating the laws of nature and the user should be punished with death. It had always been that way and it always would be while the heavens watched.
Opposite forces watched the house; isolated, hidden, by a curtain of dense trees. They had followed the smell of death, the mana clinging to the trunks and plants, trying to survive without a host on which to feed. The man knew the traces he had left behind; the dead, gray leaves crumbling to dust, the green of the trees losing their color, the smell of petrol driving the animals away. It was a map for the most curious and daring, and his house was the treasure. Until the boy learned to control and disguise the mana's absorption, they would likely leave a trail behind; dozens of crumbs that would lead cultivators from the other four schools to them.
The man headed for the kitchen. The door was half-open. A cloud of smoke flew over the place, slowly going out of the window on the opposite side. The windows were fogged up and the white of the walls had lost their color, already stained with black and brown in the corners and where the roof of the same color began. He had their lunch cooking on the stove: the head of a boar that he had beheaded in the forest.
The shadows were closing in.
Chapter 7
"Who are you talking to?" Aurora asked. She already had her dark brown boots and was now looking for a robe she liked in the closet. There were two whites, a black one, a green one whose sleeves had orange stripes, and even a light blue one. As one would expect, she chose the black one; the color that now flowed throughout her meridians.
"You'll understand soon," Liu replied and smiled. He had a maternal smile, Aurora noted. He had promised to take care of the girl and the time had finally come. It didn't matter if he had not fought in over a dozen years. If, at some point in his life, there was ever a situation where he needed to do it, it was now. "Follow me."
They walked down a long corridor until they entered the living room, an ample space featuring a table in the center, a jar full of dead flowers atop it, and a shoji on the other side, a sliding wooden door wrapped in translucent green paper through which clarity entered. The ceiling of the living room, unlike that of the bedroom and the kitchen, was oval. Aurora had never seen anything like it before. Liu walked to the shoji and drove it to the right side, unveiling a green garden bordered by a wall of gray bricks.
The high noon sun shed light on the dozens of plants that photosynthesized there; lilacs, daisies, roses, camellias, and even others that Aurora had never seen before—besides shadowing a man-made earthen path. Liu not only had a privileged and direct view of the stream, but also round pebbles led to a larger rock where the waterfall poured, the jug of water diminishing the color on the top, shaping it until it was flat and whitish. A table by the river, the water splattering it, was surrounded by two chairs, and it was used as a base for a book whose pages were bound together and had black vaults. Liu-Ken signaled Aurora to sit there.
Even with his back turned, Liu-Ken could sense the shadows walking silently along the ceiling, their gentle steps, their panting breath, and their hearts pumping blood into their almost untouched veins. They were shallow soldiers. The most they could do was put the little chi they had access to into their weapons. The mana flowed amidst gusts of wind that fondled their faces and exposed them. They didn't know how to hide their presence, let alone conceal their chi. They weren't even a match for Liu-Ken, no matter how rusty he was in the art of fighting.
"This is it. Pay attention. You're about to meet an old companion of your father's," Liu-Ken told Aurora, turning around, his eyes now on the three bodies that jumped off the roof and landed a few meters from him, crushing the flowers beneath their boot heels.
"We're from Kaji School and we're here to find out what happened in the village of Lapulis!" one of them said. He had a black mustache that covered his upper lip and some triangular sideburns that expanded up to his cheeks.
"Yes! Let's avenge our colleagues! For Kaji School!" one of his colleagues yelled. He was thick-lipped, with red robe sleeves and white stripes around his earth-covered wrist. A rookie, surely, or he would have been careful not to dirty his sacred cloak.
"You shouldn't have come here. I am Liu-Ken, lord of this house and this forest. Your presence is not welcome here," he said as he stepped forward.
The three soldiers backed down. A wave of grumbling erupted at the recognition of the name Liu-Ken. A forbidden name to say. One rejected by schools, banned from entering the four of them, his head worth a hundred gold coins. The bald soldier tried to look behind him. Aurora was seated, her dead gaze on all three of them, nonchalant. Even though she was only a young girl, she conveyed a dreadful sensation. The chis wriggled in her presence, the mana lost its equilibrium, deconstructing and spreading in fragments throughout nature. The water was agitated and the
animals, even those who had returned to the forest, were unsettled.
"What do we do?" the other soldier asked. He wore a robe that didn't even fit him, his sleeves folded both on his arms and legs. He had a quadrangular face, a well-defined jaw, but still young features. The pink cheeks, the protruding Adam's apple, and the thin fingers that trembled as if he were playing an invisible piano reassured Liu-Ken of their fear. "He's a dishonest cultivator! He supported the necromancer revolt against our school," the soldier added, pointing at Liu-Ken.
The battle would be easy. A professional fighter training for the trials that awaited him. It was time to introduce the old companion's deity to the world. He pulled a kitchen knife out of his pocket and cut off the surface of one of his fingers. Droplets of blood dripped onto a green plant. Aurora's eyes gained color. She had no idea what was happening, but something within her told her to be attentive, that she was about to witness something quite special.
Liu lifted his finger and placed it over the ring. The blood slowly dropped, staining it. The purple glowed, drawing in the blood, the color shifting to an onyx gem, black with only a few smudges of red.
"Honor us with your presence, oh Deity of Fire, Kagu!" Liu roared to the heavens, red wine chains coming out of the ring and encircling his body.
"What's happening?" the little soldier asked the one with the mustache, wide-eyed with fear.
"I have no idea! I've never seen anything like it. We have to attack him before he's ready."
"But the rules of combat say we must never attack anyone who is defenseless," the boy replied. Beads of sweat glided down from his forehead.
"Does he seem defenseless to you? It's either us or him and right now we're at a disadvantage. Hurry!"
The three soldiers stretched their spears, their ends imbued with poison. Even Aurora could feel the tremendous power that was being released from the ring. The once blue sky now bore red lights, scarlet flashes blinking from one side to the other. The ground trembled, and the water swirled around itself. Liu-Ken closed his eyes. The chains melted all over his body. Lava gradually spread, covering his white robe but never burning his skin. The brittle autumn aroma and the gentle breeze made way for a strong smell of sulfur and wind blasts that plucked petal after petal. The energy around the man was similar to that which Aurora had felt just before she lost control of her body, powerful and not human.
The soldiers stepped forward. The closer they got the harder it was for them to continue. The chi that Liu emitted shoved them back. Mana burned their skin. The air became too thick to breathe. They retreated all the way back. They were already drenched in sweat, their clothes sticking to their bodies, their hands trembling with fear.
Chapter 8
The bald boy was about to talk when he was interrupted by a light beam that broke the sky in two. The red, thick, circular light rolled down to the earth, enveloping Liu and spinning around him. The world changed before them. They were no longer in a place where the sunny heat embraced them, but rather their future grave.
"What are you doing here?" Liu asked them, this time with a thicker voice, puffing flames as soon as he finished.
"We... we just wanted..." the older boy tried to explain himself, but his voice failed him and his whole body shut down in the face of such overwhelming energy. The pressure was so strong that even their legs couldn't move.
"You are in the presence of the God of Fire. Speak before your time runs out," Liu commanded.
"We were waiting for our captain, but he never returned. We went to the village and saw what happened. It was gruesome! We followed the trail of who killed our colleagues and captain! We wanted to take you by surprise. We would earn a good reward and we could feed our family!" the youngest boy said, his hand clutched to his chest. "We are from the Kaji School. We bring destruction, and fear nothing and no one.”
The other two repeated the same sentence. A prayer made in despair. They fed on it. They wouldn't give up without a fight. As had they been taught - fight until the very end. They put the spears back in a horizontal position, grasping the base with both hands, their fingers turning purple with the force they made. The sparks in the air clung to their faces. The thin layer of smoke went up their noses and moistened their eyes.
"Thank you for giving your lives to me," the thick voice spoke once again.
The light that connected the earth to the heavens slimmed down until it dissipated. Liu-Ken snapped his fingers. The red chi that coated him exploded in all directions. Aurora and the three soldiers covered their eyes.
When they finally opened them, Liu-Kin's feet hovered over the ground, his eyes laden with blood, and his fists shrouded in flames. A fine scarlet armor emerged from his body, flames working as a shield. He stepped forward and snapped every finger in his hand.
"What's this? What are you?" the bald boy asked him, tears flowing down his burnt cheeks.
Liu-Ken didn't answer immediately. First, he stretched his feet and arms, and then he breathed deeply. His eyes returned to the usual blue, "I called upon the divinity of fire, Kagu, and let him possess me. We're one. He provides me his power and I give him bodies to feed on. This is the punishment of anyone who dares to disturb the natural events of the world. Evil and good go hand in hand. One can't live without the other. Go ahead. Fight for your lives. Be proud of your school and I will give you a hasty and honorable death on the battlefield."
Aurora, for the first time, stood up. Death couldn't be the solution to everything. She didn't want to be part of that. Bardolph had taught her that all lives were equal. No matter what they carried within them, whether it was a life built on others’ bodies or the childish joy of a lifetime of long-lasting passions, people deserved to die of natural causes. Death should embrace the weakened bones and reach out to them. To murderers, death would thrust them away from the gates of heaven, kicking them out if it had to be. Karma rewarded everyone equally when they were reborn.
She still had not taken more than three steps when Liu-Ken stretched out his hand.
"I know you'd prefer if it was different, but I can't let them leave this place," Liu told her. "I can't let the leader of the Kaji School know that we're here, let alone of my presence."
The bald boy laughed. "One of us is already on his way to the main school! In ten days, a legion will devastate this whole place and all the surrounding villages. You won't stand a chance," he said, a macabre smile on his lips.
"I'll have to be quick then. We still have a lot to do before we get out of here. The blood moon will not await for us mere mortals," Liu told them, and set one foot in front of the other, sliding over the stone, lowering himself until he was about Aurora's height. One hand was at chest level and the other above the head, the palm facing down.
"Blood moon?" Aurora asked, never having heard of anything like it.
Truth be told, Bardolph avoided talking to her about anything to do with the world of cultivators. "That world only has pain and deceit," he used to say whenever Aurora asked him to tell a story about one of the wandering Xia, heroes who traveled from village to village, protecting the citizens from the thieves and psychopaths who tortured them. Many of them were men who had practiced martial arts until they reached a wall they could not overcome, while others, those whom Aurora admired, were cultivators who did not agree with the way the schools were ruled. They had their own moral conduct.
"We'll talk about it later. The deity is hungry," Liu-Ken replied.
Despite how frightened the soldiers were, they didn't back down. They thought about their families and how they had to survive to see their women and parents smile once more. It was not only that but also the desire to fulfill their school’s motto, which now kept them there. The first one to move forward was the youngest. He pulled his sleeves up before rushing off, the screams drowning the sound of his snotty nose, the tip of the spear pointed at his opponent. Liu moved gracefully, spinning, almost dancing, dodging the attack. He grabbed the boy by the back of his head and tossed hi
m at the other two. The three of them fell, their weapons clattering out of reach. Liu-Ken walked up to the boys, still on the ground, and wished them good luck in their next life. Then he laid back his head, opened his mouth, gargled, and, as he moved his head forward, unleashed a fiery torrent of flames all over the boys. Their bodies burned, their agonizing screams muffled by the sound of their blistering skin, peeling off, charring. From afar, it looked like a bonfire shedding light on the dark blanket that soared over the house.
Chapter 9
"That's enough!" Aurora screamed.
Liu-Ken looked at her and snapped his fingers. The flames dispersed and only the scorched bones remained, the skeletal faces incapable of being recognized were it not for one or other tooth that had lasted.
"You must learn that the world won't have mercy on you. You should not fear death but embrace it," Liu told her, reddish dots in the white iris of his eyes.
"Who's saying that? Liu or the divinity?"
"Does it make a difference, girl? It's still true. The world will not wait for you to be ready. Kaji School's definitely not going to wait. Your father knew what was at stake. That's why he hid you. Don't let his sacrifice be in vain," Liu said, but this time his voice deepened. The fire divinity, once the companion of Aurora's father, bespoke his words with a longing tone, "Your father was different from other humans. He realized the world needed his dose of black chi. I agreed to walk alongside him for a variety of reasons you would not understand. These same reasons led me to agree to stay hidden in this ring for years, waiting for the exact moment when you would need my protection. And I will. I'll give my life for you if it's necessary, just as your father gave his life for all of you."
Awakening: (The Necromancer's Legacy Book 1) Page 3