It had been quite the trek so far. I wasn’t sure how much longer it would be. I had a horrible feeling that I might have accidentally turned around and was heading in the wrong direction. No, Star River City is in the East, and the sun is going down behind me. I reassured myself. I paused and adjusted the straps of my basket, stretching my shoulders. The air was fresh and luxuriant green trees and plants grew on either side of the road, but the treetops were strangely silent. I started walking again, just in time for a knife to fly out of the bushes and right past my nose. It dropped to the ground, spinning on its side before coming to a stop. The sticky blade had collected dirt, twigs, and what looked like human hair.

I grabbed the shoulder straps of my basket and pushed through the bushes the knife had come from. I stumbled into a clearing. To my right, a plump, very white, almost naked man with a wispy beard was grappling with two other men, one of whom was very muscular and hairy, and the other of whom was extremely gaunt.

Right in front of me, a young kid lay limply on the grass, blood pouring over his face. A third man with an average build and a fanatical expression in his eyes was using a club to whale away at the boy. With every hit, the boy’s body jerked limply, his fingers twitching.

What must have been muscle memory set in. Everything happened in just a few seconds. I grabbed the raised arm that held the club, sweeping the guy’s legs. Startled, he dropped the club and tumbled backwards. Continuing the circular sweeping motion, I grabbed his knee, extending the leg so I could grip his foot at the toe and the heel. Pressing my foot against his hip, I pivoted my whole body with his leg as the axis. Bones and ligaments snapped, making sickening noises.

The man screamed in pain, and his two companions came at me together. The skinny one swung his club at me. I dodged back to avoid it. As he almost reached the full extent of the swing and was overbalanced, I grabbed the club near the handle and used his inertia to swing him in front of the hairy, muscular bandit. I suddenly reversed the movement, jerking the club out of his hands. He fell to the ground and scrabbled towards the other club the first guy had dropped.

The hairy bandit came at me, arms wide as if wrestling. Even in my old life, I would have known that these guys weren’t very skilled. I drove my foot into the ground and used the whole force of my body to bunt the tip of the club into his sternum. I couldn’t tell if it had broken, but the guy gasped in pain, instinctively turning away, hunching over, and clutching his chest. I swung the club at the side of his knee, again with that sickening sound.

The skinny guy had already gotten a second club, and scrambled over. He was afraid, so he kept as far away as possible, swinging the club and backing up. His arm was almost fully extended, and he didn’t have a lot of control over the weapon. Using a lot of force, I swung my club hard against the end of his weapon. His arm swung out sideways in a wide horizontal arc. Before he could get it back under control, I darted forward and punched him hard in the throat. He staggered backwards, groaning and gasping, until his back hit a tree. His eyes were wide with terror. It was horrible to have that directed at me.

My memories of OG-me’s life were very murky, but muscle memory was almost too clear.

Every time I got the upper hand, there was a constant struggle against instinct. My hands wanted to grab an opponent’s head and jaw and give a sharp twist, breaking the neck. My fingers wanted to thrust into a carotid artery. It was as automatic as taking another step or breathing the next breath. I never thought about the potential downside of new abilities. Some parts, like being able to climb trees or scale heights, are great. But having to watch yourself every moment so you don't accidentally kill someone….

Still, I needed to make sure they were all incapacitated so they didn’t keep coming at me. Just like with the hairy guy, I swung the club against the side of the skinny guy’s knee, and a gruesome snap signaled broken ligaments. He had still been gasping, but now his eyes rolled up and he slid to the ground in a faint.

I turned around and focused my attention on the kid.

Shit, shit, shit shit shitshitshitshitshit shiiiiit. Only some patches of his face didn’t have blood on them. The skin of those patches was pale and waxy. CPR? I felt for a pulse and was relieved to find one. The kid’s breath was thin and weak. I wasn’t sure what to do. Then an idea flashed in my mind. Shrugging the basket off my back, I dug inside to find a small black pouch. It contained one last pill. I didn’t know if the kid would need more, but this had seemed pretty effective for me and for the fox. Making a mental note to buy more, I pinched the pill with my fingers to crumble it up and slipped it into the kid’s mouth, then dribbled in a bit of water from my makeshift water bottle. The kid grimaced. Finally, his mouth started moving as he reflexively chewed and swallowed.

While I ministered to the boy, the plump man went over to the other side of the clearing and started putting on clothes from a bag. There was a pile of bodies over there. After the man finished dressing, he dragged bodies from the pile and turned them over to check for breath. It didn’t look too promising.

The bandits had all stopped screaming, and the only sound in the clearing was a constant soft whimpering. The plump man sighed and shook his head, walking back to me. He bowed deeply.

“Young man, I can’t thank you enough. I am greatly in your debt.”

I was still stunned, so it took me a moment to register what he was saying. I waved both hands, embarrassed by the bow. “No, sir, please don’t. I just did what anyone would have done. I’m lucky I was passing by.”

There wasn’t much to say. I started to lift the young kid on my back. “He needs to see a doctor. Are we far from Star River City?”

The man looked startled. “No, not far.” He glanced over beyond the clearing at the broken remains of a palanquin before looking back at me. “A few hours on foot.”

I looked at my large basket and then back at the boy. Maybe I could carry the boy on my back and the basket on my front? It would be tough to see over though. I looked back at the plump man. “Could you help me carry this?” The man looked startled, then struggled to put the basket on as if he’d never carried one before. Which was probably the case, looking at his expensive robes. It was amusing to see someone in silk brocade carrying an enormous woven basket on his back.

I tried to lift the boy on my back, but he was too limp to stay in place. With a silent apology to the deceased, I took the outer robe of one of the palanquin servants. I turned it upside down, looping the sleeves under the boy’s legs and tying them around my waist before threading the hem of the robe under the boy’s armpits and in front of my shoulders, tying it at the nape of my neck. The plump man watched with interest.

We started down the road again. I tried to step as evenly as possible so as not to jostle the kid.

“What happened there? Were they bandits?” I asked.

The man sighed. “Yes, they ambushed me and killed the guards and servants.”

“Why? Were they trying to steal?”

“Yes, they wanted to steal some coins. And, of course, my robes, as you saw.”

“So many people killed for a set of robes.” I shook my head in disgust and adjusted my grip on the boy’s legs. There was blood running down the neck of my clothes. It was sticky, and in the late afternoon sun it smelled like a large, dirty dog.

The plump man was still talking, “.....humans are more valuable,” he said. I agreed with his sentiment up until he continued matter-of-factly with, “Human flesh goes for a premium price at the demon market.”

I swallowed the bile that rose at the thought. “Were they demons?”

“No, demons would have been stronger. Luckily for us, they were just humans.”

We walked on in silence. It was clear that the plump man wasn’t used to walking. He was panting a little and had started to limp.

I paused to readjust my grip on the kid. The plump man stopped in relief and shifted from one foot to the other.

“Why are you going to Star River City?” He asked as if trying to extend the moment of rest.

“I’m just getting some supplies at the market.”

“Are you from a nearby village?”

I paused, thinking for a bit. Well, as they say, honesty is the best policy. “No, I’m from the north, but there was a disaster and I lost everything. Luckily I have a distant relative near here.”

The other man nodded, a look of deep sympathy on his face. It felt a little uncomfortable to be the recipient of that kind of pitying look, so I started walking again and said, “I brought some mountain herbs to sell at the market.”

The man started walking by my side, clutching the shoulder straps of the basket as if only that white-knuckled grip was keeping him upright.

“I’m sure they are of fine quality. I’ll have my apothecary look at them for you,” he said with a condescending glance at me.

It was already night by the time we got to Star River City. Luckily, once we got to the gate, the guards seemed to recognize my travel companion, who turned out to be the newly appointed magistrate of the city. From there, it was a blur of activity. The magistrate brought us back to his home and installed us in the outer courtyard. A doctor came to inspect the kid, who was still unconscious. He did some acupuncture, wrote a prescription, and left, shaking his head pessimistically. For all his pessimism, the kid’s breath seemed much stronger now than before.

I went back to my little room in the outer courtyard. It was a very simple, utilitarian building, but it seemed like heaven after the long, stressful trek. I stretched my shoulders as I entered and was just wondering how to ask for some water when I noticed an enormous steaming tub behind a screen at the side of the room. On a stool beside the tub was a set of clean, simple clothes. After bathing, I slipped into the clean bed. A faint smell of incense warded off buzzing mosquitoes. I fell into a blissful sleep.

Before he was aware of anything else, a dull, throbbing headache filled his skull. Dou-Jin slowly opened his eyes and a blurry ceiling came into focus. He heard a flurry of soft footsteps and whispering. Dou-Jin slightly turned his head and was rewarded with another throb of pain. An elderly face with long gray eyebrows and a long white beard came into his field of vision. The face had a surprised expression.

After conducting several tests and doing acupuncture, the doctor gave a young servant boy instructions about medicine and food. Dou-Jin slipped in and out of a semi-conscious, almost sleeping state. He felt hot shame at the memory of his reckless flailing. If Mother knew, she would get seriously ill from worry and fear. He had a dim memory of someone else being there and of being carried on someone’s back.

As Dou-Jin was trying to sort out his memories, another face entered his vision. This face was of a young man, and it wore a very cheerful, almost goofy expression of relief.

“You feeling better now?”

Dou-Jin tried to nod, but was greeted by more pain, so he silently mouthed the word Yes.

The face looked amused, “Right, I can see you’re feeling better,” he said. “Don’t worry, there’s no rush. The man you saved is the magistrate here, and he wants you to stay until you recover.”

Dou-Jin could only blink his eyes and mouth Oh. Then Who are you?

The man’s eye’s widened, and he seemed to think for a second. “I’m Zhou. I was just on the way to Star River City when I ran into you guys.”

Thank you, Zhou-Ge. Dou-Jin closed his eyes in exhaustion, so he didn’t see the guy widen his eyes and wave his hands dismissively, but he did hear, “No, no, there’s nothing to thank. I was only able to do anything because of your efforts.”

Zhou-Ge sat beside the bed for a while keeping Dou-Jin company. The conversation was made lopsided by Dou-Jin’s pain-enforced silence, but that didn’t stop Zhou-Ge from chattering away until the servant boy came back with medicine. The foul smell and bitter taste made Dou-Jin grimace. After the medicine, he fell back asleep.

The doctor was surprised by his fast recovery. The second day, he was able to stand up. The third day, he seemed completely healed. This wouldn’t be unusual for Immortals, but Mortals were a different story. And no Immortal would have gotten in a scrap like that, much less gotten so knocked around.

Dou-Jin rifled through his sack. Everything had been soaked in blood. The servants had washed the clothes and somehow gotten the blood stains out. But the letter of introduction to the new school was so bloodstained that it was almost illegible. The magistrate offered to provide his own reference, though.

The only city that Dou-Jin had ever been in was his hometown, Shang-Cheng City. As soon as he felt steady on his feet, he headed out to explore. It felt disorientingly familiar, but also different. Shops, houses, and daily life all buzzed on just like they do everywhere. Dou-Jin walked to the main street, then turned east towards the river.

As he walked, he glanced at a pedestrian that drew up alongside, then did a double take. The man looked almost completely human, and was wearing very sober-looking robes, but had two pointed ears and a bushy tail like a raccoon dog. Dou-Jin stopped and looked around again. He had been focusing so much on what was familiar that he didn't even notice how many of the pedestrians and shopkeepers looked human only at first glance.

The hubbub of voices and the whooshing of the river got louder. A group of street-sellers clustered on one side of the street, crying their wares. On the opposite side of the street was a plain-looking building with a courtyard. A long line of people snaked back and forth through the courtyard and out the door to the street. The line extended several meters down the sidewalk. Street-sellers were making a brisk trade in various snacks.

The line of people seemed to be sorted into family pairs or trios, one or two parents and a child. Some of the people standing in line looked relatively prosperous, and they bore expressions of anticipation or excitement. Other people in the line showed various signs of poverty, some were even dressed in rags. Most of them had expressions of dread or numbed emotions on their faces.

Dou-Jin stopped in front of a candy-seller and bought a small packet of malt-sugar candy. He lingered for a moment and hesitated before probing, “That’s quite a line. There must be what, more than a hundred people?” The old man looked over at the line and sighed. “It’s the Immortals, they say they’re recruiting for one of their sects they have. They do it once every sixty years.”

Dou-Jin slowly extracted one of the candies and put it in his mouth. “Some of them look more excited than others.”

“The wealthy ones do it because they want to, they like the idea of Immortals,” the man said, shaking his head, “For many of the poor ones, if they don’t send the child to a sect, they’ll have to sell it as a slave.”

Dou-Jin paused there for a while, watching the line move slowly. Most children walked away empty-handed, as he watched, one exited clutching a thin jade rectangle, his whole body bursting with pride and excitement. Dou-Jin felt a small impulse to go in the line and just see, What if…? But he was too embarrassed to do so under the gaze of so many people. He walked to the river shore, then walked along the river for a while before returning to that plain-looking building.

By this time, most of the people had dispersed, and the street-sellers had packed up their wares. Dou-Jin walked into the courtyard and got in line. Before, the line looked very slow, but now it seemed to move almost too fast. It was already twilight. Torches burned brightly, attracting moths and casting long shadows on the ground. As people entered the inner building, the number if shadows decreased until just one remained. Dou-Jin stepped over the threshold of the door and into a dim room.

Many years later, he would look back and ask, Was that where it all began?

Three thousand years after Goddess Nuwa mended the heavens and, spirit consumed, disappeared, all three realms were at peace. The earth was young, and spiritual energy still abounded everywhere. In the mortal realm, one mountain reached up from the earth like an extended finger with its tip touching the clouds. This was where the famous doctor and alchemist, Immortal Wei, lived. At the foot of the mountain was a mortal village.

It was autumn. From a distance, the mountain looked like a lump of cinnabar. Closer, you could see leaves in different shades of yellow and scarlet. It had finally stopped raining after several unceasing days. The air was wet, and with every gust of wind, leaves drifted away, spiraling chaotically into the sky. A willow tree near the bottom of the mountain had large patches of green mixed in with the pale yellow. Long tendrils of leaves hung down from the tree like a veil. Under the tree behind this veil, two little boys were intently evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of some lopsided swordsmen they had constructed from leaves and sticks.

Suddenly, a loud wail broke through the chilly, damp air. “Zhou-Ge, Jin-Jin, they’re dying.” A little girl with very plump cheeks ran up, sobbing so tragically that she could barely speak. The sobbing was a not infrequent occurrence, but the words were unusually worrying. Dropping their makeshift warriors, the little boys sprang up to follow the girl, who was already dashing back where she came.

Next to a stream, the girl came to such an abrupt stop that they all almost collapsed on the muddy ground. She wiped her tears with one small hand and pointed with the other. The stream had overflowed its banks. Large puddles of water and mud were everywhere. In the center of one puddle, a colony of ants was stranded. Some tiny dead ants floated in the muddy water. More ants were continuously emerging from the anthill carrying small white ant eggs in their jaws. The little girl gave another sob and said, “That’s their babies.”

Kneeling in the mud, she clumsily tried to pick up the ants with her pudgy fingers. “Xiao-Yu, don’t use your hands, the ants will bite you,” Zhou-Ge scolded, exasperated. Zhou-Ge used the hem of his robe to wipe the mud and insects from her hands.

Jin-Jin’s eyes darted around as he looked for a solution. Then, taking a branch with several leaves attached, he started rescuing the ants. The two boys shared an exasperated look. With a big, wet sniff, the little girl stopped crying and joined the relief effort. All three children worked together to save the ants, who left without any indication of gratitude. Xiao-Yu waved goodbye, but the ants did not wave back. Even so, she felt very complacent at the thought of being savior to a whole village.

Afterwards, Zhou-Ge traipsed up the mountain towards home, thinking intently. He was covered in mud from head to toe. When Grandma saw him she would probably not only forbid him from eating sweets but also force him to eat all his vegetables. He sighed, considering and dismissing possible solutions as he walked higher and higher, surrounded by the clouds, until he seemed to float into the sky.

The night watchman struck a gong to sound the second watch of the night. Its resonating sound shattered the dream like ripples in water. Ah-Zhou tossed and turned before sinking back into a deep sleep.