“Mentor!” Monkey had shouted as he saw the remains of his Mentor, falling in the mud gracelessly. The offender, a tall young man, took the girl in his hands and travelled towards the city. Distracted and willing to pursue, Lin Leng took advantage and dug a furrow across his chest, two inches deep, not enough to kill him, but enough to keep him out of the fight as he worked to stem the bleeding.

With that, Lin Leng sheathed his knives and turned to his blood-brother and the spearwoman, who had all stopped fighting on account of what looked like a Heavenly Tribulation descending upon a pitiful transgressor.

It could not have picked a better target.

The combatants ran away, one and all. The ones that had not seen the death of their commander took the sign as an omen for retreat. The fight was over, and the day had been won.

The spearwoman gave chase to the man that had rescued the fiery woman, and for a lack of better options, he did too, his blood-brother in tow.

000

Deng Ming and the Monk had done their best to herd as many people into the inner district as possible, but complications arose when one of the combatants were actively trying to harm the fleeing civilians.

The Monk had been there, and he had tried his best to dissuade the attacker, but the world was not so kind.

The Monk had to, with a heavy heart, kill the attacker, and crestfallen, he had dug a grave in some dirt-yard before depositing the lifeless corpse of the attacker, chanting sutras as he wished him well on his next lifetime.

The whole situation had rendered him completely useless in the ensuing people-herding, but the amount of people left to herd had lessened enough to decrease the strain on the scholar’s part.

When the lightning bolt had struck the earth, its boom could possibly have been heard for hundreds of kilometres. It had stopped everyone in their tracks as the combatants all fled the city, at least the ones that the Guan Dao wielding soldier hadn’t gotten to.

…Somebody should probably have told him that the battle was over.

The excitement did not end there, however. Before him, a man had appeared, carrying the same fiery woman that had laid waste to the combatants. “Scholar, are you well-versed in the healing arts?”

“I… dabble,” he responded, completely lost. The woman was completely ruined, her arms and legs twisted into softness. They would have to be amputated.

He held the woman out. “Then I leave her to you.”

He accepted her without much fuss, noting her prodigious weight. “Wait!” Before the man could leave, Deng Ming called out to him. “Do you know anything about the bolt of lightning?”

He nodded. “Convey my thanks to the young woman. Had she not clawed out the Dragon of the East’s eyes, he would not have been too distracted to notice the technique which I was building up to.”

Gobsmacked, he just stood there as the man ran away, much faster than he had seen anyone run before.

Thunder Mountain. It had to be. It couldn’t be the Patriarch, himself. Most definitely his disciple. His focus fell back on the bleeding form of the girl. More people appeared, a spearwoman, and two men, one round and the other svelte.

They blabbered questions as he kicked in a door to an abandoned apothecary and laid the girl out on a table, placing her little sack next to her.

The Monk had appeared as well, along with the Guan Dao wielding brute, watching the girl breathing shallowly.

“I… know her,” the Monk said quietly as the scholar mixed together poultices, unguents and styptics. Deng Ming turned to the Monk tiredly.

“Can you bandage her,” he asked.

He nodded and got to work, leaving his Monk’s spade leaning against a wall as he found rolls of bandage. The scholar began with applying the medicine on her body before the Monk wrapped them properly. With a deep breath, he turned to reach Enlightenment as he held onto the girl’s head, forcing his senses into her body.

Something was happening. She was… she was mending herself. Her bones slowly congealed, crashing into each other, fusing and picking off bits lodged into her muscles.

Truly monstrous.

But she couldn’t do this process completely alone. She grabbed her one forearm and shoved the bone back into the arm, cutting through skin as he did so, but the bleeding would be stemmed by the bandages.

“Scholar,” the Monk looked wide-eyed. “You’re harming her!”

He could not do with the idiot’s naivete now. “Sometimes you have to hurt someone to save their lives. It’s called surgery, now stay back!”

He proceeded with her other limbs as the group of people sat and watched, all grim-faced and expectant of bad news. He faced the group of people somehow connected to her and gave a nod. “She will… be okay,” he said, the tension slowly reducing. “She is currently undergoing self-healing, unconsciously perhaps, but given enough time, she will recover. She does need food, however.”

“Thank the Heavens,” the spearwoman sighed, falling onto a chair. “What a waste that would be.”

“I’ll say,” the portly man bellowed. “She kicked ass out there… granted, she only did after she got beaten to an inch of her life, but who cares?”

Deng Ming massaged his temples, staving away his headache. “The attack that occurred today has a reason,” he began. All eyes suddenly fell on him. “I know what the reason is. It is a man called Tian Mo, an ancient warrior who wishes to destroy the Wulin and Jianghu, to destroy Martial Arts and become the supreme ruler of the lands. This was only the beginning, and could not be a major setback for someone of his resources.”

“Hold the fuck up,” the fat man said, brows furrowed. “Like, what? No, seriously, what? You’re telling me there’s a guy that’s gonna ‘destroy Martial Arts’,” he air-quoted. “And you expect us to just believe that?”

“I agree,” the spearwoman said. “I have never heard of this Tian Mo, and my Mentor has told me all about the most dangerous Warriors in the land. Tian Mo is not one of them.”

Deng Ming gnashed his teeth. “That’s because Tian Mo is older than your fucking mentor!” He shouted. The spearwoman glared at him. “He’s old enough to be your Mentor’s grandfather! He’s one-hundred and fifty years old, from a time long past, from the era of the Third Great Martial War! Ever heard of that?” Deng Ming challenged.

“Watch it, you shit,” the spearwoman boomed, pointing her spear directly at him, but he was not cowed.

The soldier finally spoke. “Ladies should not be this vulgar.”

She directed a hateful glare at him. “Fuck you, asshole.”

The soldier looked at her owlishly, blinking as if he didn’t understand what just happened.

The Monk stepped forward, tired and haggard. “Please don’t fight,” he said. “I can vouch for Scholar Deng Ming’s words. He swore an oath to the Heavens to prove his veracity.”

The spearwoman was not convinced. “And how do I know you’re not lying?”

“Lying goes against the Eightfold Noble Paths, specifically that of Right Speech! To lie would be to forsake the vows I made to live my life in accordance with the dharma, thereby also forsaking the path of Right Mindfulness and-“

“Shut up,” the spearwoman said. “Fine, I get it, you’re some kind of Monk. Still,” she turned to Deng Ming. “What does that have to do with me?”

Deng Ming sighed. “It doesn’t. You can back out if you want, but now that you know the dangers, you will also be backing out from saving the world. I can’t force you to work with me, but I would sincerely like for you to do so.”

She glared daggers at him for several tense seconds before nodding. “Fine. Where are we headed?”

“The mountains of Kunlun.”

Everyone in the room looked around at each other, surprise evident on their faces, but no one said a thing. He didn’t understand the confusion. Was there something he wasn’t informed about? Was there something going on there?

“Hah,” a voice behind him coughed out a laughter. He turned around to the injured warrior. “I was going the same way.”

He looked around at the room. Except for the Monk, who was still very gloomy, everyone was smiling. The portly man even held his stomach and began to laugh heartily.

Deng Ming couldn’t resist smiling, himself. That was, indeed, a fortuitous turn of events.

“Alright, I’m hungry,” She said. “Get me some food.”

000

Really.

…Really!

What were the odds that I would meet so many capable warriors all going the same way as myself! Also, I was almost certain that I would die back then, but somehow I didn’t. More than that, the scholar guy had actually taken me to be healed, and I got to meet the Monk again!

I was lucky to have found these people. As it turned out, Deng Ming was on the same exact mission as myself, only he actually knew the name of the person we were supposed to vanquish: Tian Mo, and the reason why Kunlun was our objective. It was the home of a legendary relic thousands of years old. With its power, along with the power of two other relics, one could be omnipotent.

Obviously, if the omnipotent person in question was a complete asshat, the whole idea didn’t really enthuse many people, hence Deng Ming’s frantic wish to be in Kunlun by yesterday.

We had decided to relocate to the hotel room that Mentor had rented out, after I had paid for the herbal remedies to the apothecary so the Monk could stop bitching about having ‘taken what was not his’, it being the bandages he used to dress my wounds. What an idiot.

“Obviously,” I said, looking down on myself from my position, lying flat on my back. “I’m in no condition to go anywhere.” I had taken a slight look inside my body during my state of unconsciousness. Long story short, it made my little stint in prison seem like a scrape on my knee. “Also, I’m still hungry.”

Deng Ming nodded. “You need food to heal. The order has already been made for you, but… we are on a time-crunch. If you can’t heal before we leave, then I’m not sure you can come.”

The Spear-Girl who had introduced herself as Han Yu Jie glared at him. “I’m not leaving without her.”

That was… kind of her.

“Eh-Mi-Tuo-Fuo,” the Monk chanted. “To leave one behind so callously, I’m afraid I agree with Han Yu Jie.” I expected no less from a guy with his moral fibre.

“Fine,” Deng Ming finally acquiesced. “We will wait for you to recover before leaving. Before then, we should discuss on the journey ahead.”

“I have a map,” the soldier said, unwrapping a roll of paper strapped to his back and showing it to us.

Deng Ming took it in his hand and read for a moment. “We can’t travel through the Himalayas, unfortunately. It will take much longer than if we simply go north, then head eastwards in the Gobi Desert, crossing into the Taklamakan before heading south to the Mountains.”

“How long will that take?” Lin Leng asked. “That’s really roundabout.”

“A month at the lowest,” the scholar admitted. “But it gives us ample time to prepare more for what is to come.”

“Yeah,” I said, raising my voice. “About that… if my mentor was worried about Tian Mo, there’s no way any of us could stand against him.”

They all looked at me questioningly. “What?” I asked. “Wait,” my voice was dripping with mirth. “Is this a ‘don’t know the distance between heaven and earth’ situation?” I looked around in the room. “Does any one of you know the distance between Heaven and Earth?”

Han Yu Jie bristled a little. “My mentor was the Scourge of Beijing!”

“Uhuh,” I said dryly. “So, like, what could they do? How high up can they jump?”

“He once leapt over a citadel wall in a single bound,” she said.

“Whoa,” the fat guy, Wei Chow, murmured. “That’s kinda strong.”

“My master once cut down a whole battalion of men on his lonesome,” the soldier said.

We all ignored him.

“Okay,” I said. “Well, my master leapt into the fucking sky and started walking on clouds. Like, easily thousands of feet.”

“Cloud-stepping?” The Monk asked. “That is… an extremely complicated skill. Only the most powerful Martial Warriors in this world are capable of doing such a thing.”

Han Yu Jie chuckled. “And I’m just supposed to believe that?”

“Believe what you want,” I said. “None of us are ready. My mentor could make that ‘Dragon of the East’ guy look like a child, and he still kicked my ass, and she was still worried about what Tian Mo could do,” I thought a little more on it. “In fact, it doesn’t even make sense! Why would she send me out to fight Tian Mo? I don’t think that’s why she’s sending me to Kunlun.”

Deng Ming nodded. “Kunlun is a place of interest because it contains a relic. I… or we… may be the only ones to know that, because I discovered that myself.”

“Good news,” Wei Chow said. “That means Tian Mo can’t-“

Lin Leng pulled out something from his jacket and threw it into the rafters. Down fell a man dressed in all black, with a mask. He ambled over gently and pulled up his mask. His mouth was frothing.

“Did you poison him?” I asked. “That’s-“

“I tried to strike an acupoint,” he defended flatly. “He obviously had a poison pill in his mouth which he bit down on when he was found out. Asshole.” He turned to Deng Ming. “Make sure you know who’s listening.”

“How long was he up there?” Han Yu Jie asked.

“Since we entered,” Lin Leng responded casually. “Thought I could wait for the right time to bag him without killing him, but he was more skilled than I expected.”

“Are we alone, now?” I asked. Holy shit, his senses were on point.

“Yes,” he responded, then gestured towards his companion. “You were saying?”

“We’ll have more time to train, there…” he said slowly. “We were going there to find some challenge. Everyone knows that the Kunlun Mountains are open to every Martial Warrior that can successfully enter its doors, and it’s not as possessive or dogmatic as other Wulin factions, or as bloodthirsty as Jianghu factions. Plus, the best of the best head over there.”

“That…” I said. “Might be why Mentor and I were making our way there.”

Han Yu Jie shrugged. “I’m down with that.”

“That is acceptable,” the soldier guy, Bai Guo, droned.

The Monk simply nodded. “If… if we cannot talk Tian Mo out of his plans, then the next best thing is to prepare for combat. After all, violence is a constant of this world, and if you wish to be alive long enough to truly Transcend, then it is only necessary to learn how to defend oneself.”

I made a note to talk to him in private. He seemed much more downtrodden than I would have imagined. Yes, there was an invasion force, and yes, people had died, but was he truly that naïve to think that he could avoid seeing death for so long?

Interrupting us, several knocks rang from the doorway, and in came trays and trays of food for everyone present.

“Shit,” I muttered. “I need… someone to feed me,” I turned to the Monk, knowing that he would say yes, but-

“I’ll do it,” Han Yu Jie said. I raised an eyebrow her way.

“Wait, really?”

“Yes,” she nodded.

“Alright,” I half-smiled, heat bubbling up in my stomach.

000

I ate often, and I ate a lot. Han Yu Jie was helpful in that regard, but when I needed to… attend to normal human functions, it was the Monk whom I called upon, knowing that it would be much, much less awkward for either involved. The Monk was an ardent adherent of the whole ‘no sex’ thing, and was probably one step away from castrating himself, anyway, and I just didn’t want Han Yu Jie to see me the way I was.

When I was consciously trying to heal, the effort proved tedious, requiring lots of mental strength. Unlike the time where my Mentor said that my body had healed itself in prison, this was a completely different ballpark, and it showed every time I saw into my body.

In the end, it had taken three whole days before every bone was fused, but when it happened…

…a veritable storm of Heavenly energy surged into my core, threatening to almost overwhelm me before settling gently, slowly running through my entire body, disappearing into my tendons, bones and muscles, leaving only some for my core.

My recovery had been predicted by Deng Ming, so everyone was already beginning to pack their bags. It was dawn, even, the perfect time to leave.

I stood up and began to jab the air, keeping my form fresh as I circled through some quick moves. I was much faster than I remembered, stronger too.

If this was how I would come out from every near-death experience, wasn’t that just encouraging recklessness? Ah, who cared, anyway? Results were what mattered.

Then again, my ‘results’ were at the bleeding edge of death, so perhaps I should just take a little moment to relax.

I went to get changed, removing my bandages and putting on something more practical, another set of black and red. With my bag of holding strapped to my back, I was holding everything that I needed for this journey. Mentor’s jade slip was still tied to a necklace which I wore at all times, and I didn’t even want to begin with the bag of holding.

With everything ready, we grabbed a horse each from the stable, funded by yours truly, and were on our way.

000

“Fuck!” He threw another pot on the wall, shattering it against the cave with ease.

“Young master,” someone approached him.

“Get away from me!” Monkey shouted. “I just… leave me be!”

They left his chambers quickly, leaving him to his misery. His Mentor had died, moreover, he had died to the Thunder Mountain’s disciple. That bastard would never have been able to get the drop on his Mentor had that other cripple bitch not blinded him.

“Fuck!” He screamed, unconsciously pouring Chi into his vocal chords, screaming himself hoarse. The Dragon of the East wasn’t just his Mentor. He had been his only father, the one person who had taken care of him when no one else would, the one man who gave a single shit about him in an uncaring world that would rather have him dead in a ditch.

Worse yet, he had betrayed his Mentor by allowing the rage to control him. He had gotten distracted by his fight, and was dealt a near-lethal blow that, had it travelled even a centimetre deeper, would have punctured his heart.

He raised his fist high in the air and punched the hard rock floor, again and again, shattering it with each punch, until even his fist could not handle it, breaking it, too. Again, he had allowed his anger to control him, becoming needlessly injured.

“I really am hopeless,” he said weakly. “I’m disappointing, and…” He began breathing faster, deeper. “I fucked up, okay?! Fuck!”

He wasn’t only to blame, a treacherous part of him whispered. His Mentor had also let his rage control him. He had played with his pray like a cat, thinking that the mouse could do nothing when, in fact, it managed to take both of his eyes.

If ‘rage’ was such a useful tool, then why did it completely fail him when he was using it right?

No, it was time to conclude the cold, hard truth: it was only inevitable before one succumbed to anger. It was like trying to train a tiger into attacking your enemies, and being surprised when, in its hunger, decides to have a crack at its owner. Anger was just a poison.

It wasn’t anger that was necessary, not even hatred. It was… passion.

Not even just passion. It was raw, undiluted passion, a cold fire, a spectrum of every single emotion at once.

But that was only secondary. Intent mattered firstly, an intent which the Dragon of the East had never quite grasped, no matter how much of an adherent he was to the Flames of Destruction. It was, unfortunately, one of his biggest weaknesses, his bullheadedness. Never could he consider himself as wrong, and neither could he ever apologize to anyone, not even Tian Mo.

He knew the intent, now: Destruction, to completely destroy something until it became mere ashes.

And Monkey was filled with that intention. If he could burn the Thunder Mountain bastard into ashes, his Mentor would be avenged.

For now, that was his goal.

Monkey sat down to reach Enlightenment, the Heavenly energies swirling about him, each one scorching hot, having to be carefully led through his meridians and into his Core. Emotions guided them, but the intent beat it into shape, forced it to conform.

When playing with fire, it was important to never get burned, but anger would always get you burned, which was why balance was vital.

The energy entered his core, circulated, faster, faster and faster.

Before, he could never get past the point where the Chi was said to ignite. His Mentor had tried to be tight-lipped about the process, but upon further investigation, it seemed that the point of the exercise was to move his Chi in a circular motion so quickly that it caught fire, like spinning a twig on top of sawdust to ignite it.

That was not the objective.

As the Chi spun wildly, he began to compress it, meeting cumbersome resistance on the way, but he did not stop.

The ball became smaller and smaller, until small sparks began to exit from it. With a final push, he poured every ounce of effort into condensing the Chi into a single potent core.

With a final push, the Chi went from pure energy, to heat, an absolute heat that could reduce anything to ashes.

This wasn’t just Flames of Destruction. His Mentor had explained the different flames that someone could awaken, but this… this was more than just a flame. This was a sun, plain and simple, an everburning ball of burning fire that could reduce everything to ashes, even himself if he was not careful.

This was Divine Fire.

And it was going to consume him if he didn’t find balance.

As he fought for dear life not to burn to death, he lamented once more the loss of his Mentor. Though his wisdom had bounds, he always knew what to say to pull him through every tribulation.

Now… he would have to go at this alone.

Sending a prayer to the Heavens, he trudged on in his mission for power.