“In all-under-Heaven there are three truths: Even wise people will find certain tasks unattainable; even strong people will find certain objects unmovable; and even brave people will find certain opponents unbeatable.” Han Fei 279-233 BC

Jin Long found himself standing on the surface of a lake. All around him was darkness, yet despite the lack of light, Jin Long was somehow able to see perfectly. He looked down. The clear water possessed an almost ethereal quality, casting his reflection better than any mirror in the world.

He was startled by his appearance. The reflection in the water possessed a chilling pair of crimson eyes. “That’s weird. I’m pretty sure my eyes are blue,” Jin Long thought curiously.

Then, as if it was sentient itself, the reflection began smiling, its mouth stretching wider and wider until it looked inhuman. Jin Long held his breath, a cold shiver ran down his spine. Fear, an emotion the boy seldom experienced, gripped him in full force.

Jin Long didn’t know why he was paralyzed all of a sudden. Perhaps it was the lack of qi in the lake world that made him feel vulnerable, or perhaps it was the unadulterated malice leaking out from the entity in the water. Nevertheless, a sense of damnation weighed on him, and there was nothing Jin Long could do to alleviate the feeling of despair.

The figure in the reflection stretched out its arms like it was going to embrace him. “This might be dangerous. I need to run,” was the first thought that crossed Jin Long’s mind, however, his feet wouldn’t budge, much to his dismay. The entity only widened its smile, mocking the boy. Jin Long felt himself beginning to sink and redoubled his efforts to escape.

When the water reached his waist, the lake world mysteriously shattered, banishing him from the dreamscape. Jin Long woke up gasping. With each passing moment, the residual effects from the dream abated. Glimmering morning rays greeted Jin Long, and he could hear birds cheerfully chirping outside, a stark contrast to what he had just experienced. The boy wiped the sweat off his forehead and exhaled several deep breaths to calm down.

“I’ve never felt this level of oppression and malevolence before. Whoever it is, he must have also mastered the Dao of Insight. Unless, it was the same person during my escape, but that wouldn’t make much sense,” Jin Long deliberated. He organized his thoughts and committed the dream to memory, planning to revisit the details later.

The door to the hut creaked open, catching the boy’s attention. A woman whom Jin Long remembered from last night stood at the doorway with a tray of buns. The sight of food cheered him up.

“Hello there,” said the woman timidly as she walked over and placed the tray beside him. “Food. Eat,” she urged, which he was more than happy to comply.

“Phanks,” muffled Jin Long. The pork buns tasted heavenly in his mouth. Jin Long reckoned anything would have satisfied his ravenous hunger.

“Very welcome. You friend, punai,” the woman replied merrily. “Me, Milani. Me, punai of Hatukni.”

“Hatukni? Who’s Hatukni?” Jin Long asked.

“Hatukni? Ah, Hatukni. He old man, last night,” she explained.

Despite the woman’s broken speech, Jin Long understood the gist of her intent. She introduced herself as Fang’s friend. “Any friend of Fang’s is a friend of mine,” thought Jin Long. He retracted his qi sense. It was unlikely Milani posed any threat to him. In fact, even without qi protection, Jin Long’s physique alone could withstand most harm done to him by non-cultivators.

“What your name?” Milani asked while observing Jin Long devour the buns.

“I’m called Jin Long. I must say these buns are absolutely scrumptious, Milani,” he answered.

“Happy Jin Long like food. Milani need to go now. Bring more food later, okay,” Milani assured Jin Long who nodded. Although he felt lonely locked in the shack by himself, Jin Long understood that he was a prisoner. The fact that Milani had brought him food already spoke volumes about her relationship with Fang.

“Hatukni want me say, ‘he get you out fast.’ Wait. Patience,” said Milani. After Jin Long had grabbed all the buns, she quickly scooped up the tray and retreated. However, in haste, Milani had failed to see someone else entering the hut at the same time, resulting in the two bumping straight on. Milani’s eyes widened upon realizing the individual’s identity - the village shaman, Madessa.

Jin Long watched the two exchange a brief conversation in their foreign dialect. Milani kept her head bowed the whole time in the presence of the other woman.

“The woman in the black cowl must be someone of importance,” Jin Long guessed. Nonetheless, it wasn’t their interaction that had piqued his interest but rather the strange spiritual aura that emanated from the woman. The aura fluctuated erratically, leading Jin Long to believe she inappropriately dabbled in the spiritual arts.

“Must be an amateur practicing forbidden techniques or rituals,” Jin Long concluded. The Dao of Life, which governed spiritual matters among other things, was a complicated power requiring the utmost prudence. Carelessness only invited disaster. In the best case scenario, the practitioner would simply die. In the worst case scenario, the practitioner could accidentally summon interdimensional beings, or daemons, capable of great devastation. Daemons caused concern for cultivators like Jin Long because they existed outside the bounds of reality. In a sense, they were truly heretical beings.

Having opened three Dao gates, Jin Long’s mastery of the Dao of Life allowed him to sense these subtle spiritual perturbations. It worried him. The spiritual fluctuations suggested that an otherworld daemon had latched itself to the woman’s soul. Luckily it had only managed to impart a small portion of itself, otherwise the woman would have already been dead.

“Great. This day just gets more peculiar,” Jin Long muttered grimly. The particular problem was complex, and no one was more qualified to handle it than him. He could always turn a blind eye, but that wasn’t Jin Long’s personality.

After she dismissed the seamstress, the village shaman approached the boy. A momentary look of shock escaped her neutral demeanor though she quickly caught herself.

“I apologize for the ill-welcome you’ve received. I assure you, I’ll have a talk with our men regarding how we treat visitors,” the woman spoke amicably.

If Jin Long hadn’t sensed her spiritual decay, there was no way he could’ve guess she practiced the dark arts. While the woman dressed weirdly, she appeared quite friendly. It wasn’t Jin Long’s place to judge how someone looked, especially since his own clothes attracted so much attention. But when Jin Long studied the woman more closely, he could see the physical toll of her sorcery evidenced by her wrinkles and bloodshot eyes.

“I’m surprised you can speak my language,” Jin Long remarked, buying time as he crafted a plan. One option was to forcefully extract the daemon with a high possibility of killing the woman. Another was to observe and wait for better conditions. There was a chance to separate the daemon without killing the woman. Jin Long liked the second option because it gave him time to figure out what he was going up against. Failing once would make the second try much harder.

“When I was younger, I lived in the nearby town of Fu Luo for some period of time, studying under a local witch doctor. I learned the common tongue then,” the woman explained. “I am the village’s master of ceremonies, Madessa. May I inquire your name and how you came to possess such interesting clothes?”

“I am Jin Long. As for my hanfu, it was given to me,” Jin Long lied. Truthfully, he’d been wearing the robe for as long as he could remember. It never got dirty in the other dimension.

“Does your hanfu have any special properties?”

“I don’t know,” replied Jin Long curtly.

“How did you meet Hatukni, our village healer? Did you know him before?”

Jin Long didn’t know what to say. He considered making up a story since the truth was too bizarre. Moreover, he didn’t trust the woman and was beginning to get annoyed by the barrage of questions.

“It’s okay. You can trust me. I just want to know the truth, so I can better plead your case to the village chief. I have a little something here that might help you relax,” said Madessa, pulling out an old leather-bound book from her sling bag.

“Now listen carefully, boy,” she began, her eyes carried a hint of madness. “O spirit of wills, master of fates, lord of fortunes, I gladly offer my life force to the desecrated one. Grant me the power to control his will.”

The qi in the air vibrated, reacting to Madessa’s chant. Jin Long didn’t know if he should’ve been more impressed by how crappy the spell was or by the fact that she butchered the pronunciation of the spell in Jin Long’s native tongue, Arbelic. It took all of Jin Long’s will not to burst out laughing. All jokes aside, the spell would have been potent to other people, just not him.

“That book is definitely interesting. I can’t believe it’s written in Arbelic. I’ll need to get my hands on it, one way or another. For now, I should play along to prevent alerting the daemon. Given how small it is right now, it’s not likely fully sentient yet,” Jin Long thought.

Jin Long pretended to lose focus and slumped over. He hoped he didn’t overdo it. Madessa examined the boy.

“Stand up,” she commanded. Jin Long promptly obeyed, the chains rattling off his hanfu.

“Good, I didn’t think the daemon would honor my request. Now boy, tell me your real name, who you are, and how you know Hatukni?”

“My name is Jin Long. I was traveling with my family at sea, but we encountered a storm. The next thing I knew, I washed ashore. I wandered around and met the old man by chance,” Jin Long replied concisely. He gave her partial truths; less was more in this case. It was by a simple stroke of luck that he had asked Fang about the surrounding geography during their flight to the village. The information Fang provided gave Jin Long just enough material to fabricate a lie.

Madessa had a look of disbelief, causing Jin Long to sweat. “Did I mess up somewhere?”

“Are you a noble? And is your robe an enchanted item?” Madessa’s questions were also to the point, not giving Jin Long time to think thoroughly.

“She’ll suspect I’m lying if I say it’s not a special item. Probably better not to deviate too much from her expectations,” Jin Long surmised. Successful manipulation required the victim to think they’re in control.

“Yes, but I’m only a minor noble. The robe is enchanted to improve vitality,” stated Jin Long, hoping she’d stop asking questions soon.

“That must be an expensive item then. I like it. Take it off and give it to me,” Madessa ordered. She reached over and unshackled Jin Long’s wrists.

Without hesitation, Jin Long stripped to his inner garments, composing of a white shirt and grey pants, and handed the one-piece robe to the woman. Jin Long applauded himself for his resolve. However, that didn’t make him any less displeased. Xiao Long, the dragon on his hanfu, had been his silent companion all this time. Leaving him in the hands of a stranger didn’t sit right with Jin Long.

“I’m liking this woman less and less,” he thought.

Once Madessa saw how decisively Jin Long handed over his prized robe, she smirked, somewhat convinced that the boy had fallen under her spell.

“Good boy. I want you to act normally for now and await my orders. You will tell no one of our conversation.”

“Yes, master.” It made Jin Long’s hair crawl calling the woman his master, but he was patient, biding his time. In the future, the daemon would likely let it’s guard down around him.

“One last thing. Boy, take this pill and consume it,” Madessa spoke while handing him a generic looking pellet. Jin Long, having no choice, took the pill and swallowed it. The pill instantly took effect, spreading a slow-acting poison in his body.

“Wow. This woman is meticulous. She wants to make sure I’m completely under her control. Even now she doubts whether the spell really worked,” thought Jin Long. Despite his amazement, it didn’t change the fact that these petty tricks were futile against someone like him, who had easily nullified the poison with his mastery of the Dao of Life.

After Madessa confirmed the boy had consumed the poison pill, she placed his shackles back on and left without saying a word. With her back turned as she walked away Madessa failed to see the strange glint in the boy’s eyes. If she had, she would have understood who the real monster was.

Wen Er woke up sometime during the evening of the second day after Fang and Jin Long returned. She felt sore and weak, as if she had played tackle with a mature hyperian boar. Teacher Fang fretted about like an old mum. He made her drink various bitter concoctions and did a flurry of tests on her.

“So, how do my meridians look?” Wen Er asked in anticipation. She had learned that the source of her sickness was cultivation deviation, which could have happened for many reasons, the most likely being that Teacher Fang’s cultivation technique didn’t suit Wen Er’s physique.

The old man had kept trying to apologize and looked like he was on the verge of tears. Wen Er comforted him the best she could. Teacher Fang held a special place in her heart. It was he who took her in when her parents passed away. Everything she had, including her cultivation level, owed largely to the old man.

“I know it’s bad, but I have a right to know, Teacher Fang,” Wen Er requested softly. The old man’s face said it all though Wen Er preferred to hear it directly from him.

“My child, you must forgive this old fool. Better that you never started cultivating than to suffer this ordeal,” announced Fang, every word was a struggle to say. “Not only has your qi core dissipated, all your meridians are completely ruined. I’m afraid you’ll never cultivate again unless we find a way to fix them.”

The news broke over Wen Er like cold water on a chilly morning. It pained her to hear the final verdict. She loved cultivating. It granted her a sense of control over her life and made her feel like there was something to work towards. Although Wen Er wanted to cry, she mustered all her strength to hold back the tears. She had to be strong, if not for herself than for Teacher Fang. Wen Er tightly clasped the jade pendant around her neck, a habit whenever her emotions were difficult to handle.

Fang sat on the side of Wen Er’s bed and looked vacantly across the room. “There’s got to be a way...I remember there was an alchemist in Dong Hai...I wonder if he’s still living there. He can help us... no he will help us...he still owes me…,” Fang mumbled unintelligibly.

Wen Er wrapped her arms around the old man, leaning the side of her face against his back.

“Teacher Fang, you’ve done all you can. I’m grateful to be alive. Even though I can’t cultivate anymore, there’s still a lot I can do. You’ve taught me how to read and write, and I’ve read most of your books now,” said Wen Er, in a soothing manner.

“Yeah, but what good will that do in this backwater village,” Fang retorted. “Wait, unless we leave this place. Move to the city.” Fang looked as if he had a moment of epiphany.

“But your enemies will find you. You said it yourself. It’s too dangerous Teacher Fang,” Wen Er remarked.

“Nonsense child. We’ll just have to be smart about it. Hide our identities. I have an old acquaintance in Dong Hai who may be able to fix your meridians. Yes, yes, that’s a good plan.” Fang seemed to console himself.

Wen Er didn’t try arguing with Teacher Fang when he had that look. The old man could be unfathomably stubborn at times.

“It’s getting late Wen Er. You need to rest as much as you can. I’ll take care of everything, don’t you worry.”

“I don’t want to go to sleep. I’ve been doing that for the past few days already,” Wen Er pouted. She knew the old man had a soft spot for such expressions.

“I know, I know. How about let’s make a deal. You rest tonight and tomorrow I’ll take you to see the village chief?”

“Really? What for?” Wen Er asked excitedly. She liked visiting the chief’s residence. His daughter, Melshan, was one of the few people who treated Wen Er nicely. In a way, Wen Er considered Melshan as an older sister, someone Wen Er looked up to. Melshan was not only kind but also beautiful, two endearing traits.

“I will be requesting the village chief to free a boy from the isolation huts. I want you to meet him. He’s an extraordinary fellow. If it hadn’t been for him, I would not have made it back from the ruins.”

Wen Er rarely heard Teacher Fang praise anyone. For someone to be spoken so highly by Teacher Fang only added more to Wen Er’s curiosity.

“Okay,” Wen Er agreed. She let Teacher Fang tuck her into bed. Not soon after, Wen Er entered into blissful sleep.

[Chapter End]