Capitolo Terzo: Conquista (13)

It was a bustling day at the market in Guilin and things had gotten quite frisky ever since modernization had been introduced.

Guilin was a landmark city when it came to connecting Guangzhou to the rest of China, specifically the central plains and the mountainous sections of Yunnan, Gansu and Ningxia. A city that had many sights and many colorful people… but it would be a lie to say that young Xiong Bao was as optimistic as the rest of the locals regarding the last few years.

The young man had seen enough of how corruption unfolded, and he knew that, despite the best effort raised by the local law enforcers to curb the noble’s power in the region, things were not going to get any easier for a few more decades.

Most of his family understood this point, even his father, a most honorable sage driven by wisdom and knowledge, was keen to nod at his perspective. The one individual that opposed this view was someone that Bao had never thought would have butted heads with. Despite the humble and rural origins of his family, there was a secret which made Bao’s relatives proud of their current standing in society.

They held an individual which, by the knowledge of their oldest-known ancestor and influential scholar Xiong Zexian, was close in birthright to the imperial family as a ‘child of the heavens’. That knowledge would have, supposedly, gotten to the heads of many, but this didn’t happen due to Zexian’s own discipline in keeping such a pious and divine matter under the rug and avoiding having anyone ‘taint it with political pollution’.

Bao could nod at this point of view, but it didn’t make him any less frustrated with said ‘gift’, especially when she was known to abuse her wise ways to tease and pick on people out of pure entertainment. It wasn’t necessarily horrible, but it made for a daily annoyance to be wary about. At least the novelties of these years have led to a price decrease for rice and other ingredients, making it easier to buy those in large quantities and sustain the large Xiong family.

Once he was done browsing for products in the local market, he walked back home to the small plot of land which his family had held for many centuries now. They were quite small and insignificant, plus their land never held any strategic purpose- no military force ever considered using it as a base of operations or even as the stage for battles. In a peculiar way, their insignificance avoided them to suffer immensely in these intense decades of rebellions and civil wars.

The sight he was greeted by as he came back home was the same as usual, yet it didn’t hold him from pause and sigh before the beautiful garden that was now setting for playful games among the young children of his family, cousins, nephews or even local friends to those relatives which would at times tag along for these activities. The beauty of childhood was still enough to leave him pleased with the simplicity of their lives.

He stopped once more, this time to greet his paternal uncle Lei as he stood guard over the entrance of the compound. Both shared a bow and Bao provided the big-boned man with an apple he had bought for their weekly ritual- a ‘toll’ to pay to enter their home, but done so in a more playful fashion.

The rest of the family was moving around to keep the house alive, with most of the men having already left for the fields while the woman handled the house chores. Those were not just a matter of cleaning or cooking, but also giving a look to the paybooks and seeing if any mistakes were made the night prior by their husbands, siblings, fathers or uncles.

It was an odd fashion to keep an eye on, and one that did raise some ‘concerns’ in the past but… the estate had been fairly successful for so many centuries, and the arrival of the new tools for the field will allow them to improve some aspects of their home to fit more people and perhaps modernize a few obsolete aspects of it.

He dropped most of the bags by the kitchen, waving hands at the many girls and women there before venturing to deliver the last bag, the one filled with numerous items not even he knew much about, to the curious individual they have been harboring for so long. One that had been there for even longer than his own grandfather, and the grandfather before him.

The beautiful large room he stopped in was filled with many shelves packed with books written in various languages. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindu, Russian, and even some old tomes in Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese recovered from the rare times when western countries could trade with the Celestial Empire.

There were large pillows to rest on while reading too, a choice that, by the owner of said room, allowed readers to enjoy the words while also resting and allow their minds to fully focus on the content of these sources of knowledge.

“I brought to you the products you requested, Ambar.”

It felt so improper to address such an ‘honorable’ individual in this manner… but Bao was no fool and he had long given up trying to see the woman he was trying to address in a respectful manner. There wasn’t much he could do beyond addressing her the way she had grown to love and demand from many through her playful remarks and pranks.

“Little Bao!” A voice squeaked from beyond some curtains, right from the bed in the furthest corner in the room. “I didn’t expect you to be back so soon. How was Guilin? New changes I hope.”

“There were more… foreigners.”

“And?” The woman pressed on, clearly aware he was withholding information from her.

“Well, I have heard news that Dio Joestar has just recently reached the country for a visit,” Bao admitted. “No one knows why, but some imperial officers were quite confused by the news since he isn’t there by imperial request.”

“Things will soon change, young Bao. It’s just a matter of days now.”

The ominous response finally shook the youth from his general boring self, his eyes widening as he regarded the smiling woman beyond the curtain, glowing azure eyes piercing through the curtain which… sported a giddy glint.

“Hopefully I will get an autograph from him, hehe~!”

Which prompted Bao to groan in true frustration.

Ah yes, Ambar would never stop being the playful moron.

----------d-d-d-d------------

“Master, he has returned. The odd one is back in China, this time with his family.”

The interruption within that darkness led the weary old man meditating at the edge of the ritual room to frown and open his eyes to one of his apprentices. It was just the two of them, the grandmaster and one of the humble servants that had long swore an oath to him and their cause.

“Good.”

And the follower left, returning to his duties.

The old fortress in Suzhou had been seen by many as a decadent and abandoned structure devoid of life, yet that was a mistaken view. Within the depths of such a realm, a small group of monks and assassins had made a home.

A religious site to their own order, a cult that was unknown to many, but powerful in its own unknown status. It has been this case for many decades now, and, even now, the foolish Emperor knows not that his little empire could easily crumble if they so decided.

The pure form of anarchy that would come from this would be… not entirely pleasant for them. The old mentor had long questioned how to enforce their will on the world, and age had given him the notion of patience not many in this group could muster. Especially his late brother.

Anger still stirred at the thought of his passing, but it came together with the need to accept he died due to his own stupidity. He tried to gain a new agent for their cause- one that would act on their behalf without even knowing, and then he got burned by this.

The old master didn’t even question the validity of his brother’s subsequent subordination to the malicious avatar of evil since their main goal was to create the strongest form of disorder the planet could endure and suffer through. And if that meant losing free will, then it was all worth it.

Yet, the fact said Avatar, the real one that he was aiming for, turned out to be a force of good despite destiny claiming him as a force of darkness left a bitter taste to many. And the old mentor was no exception to that as he spent years trying to understand how that was possible.

Yet nothing came to mind despite the many efforts put forth to decipher this mysterious development and how it came to kill his own sibling. He just couldn’t do it if he didn’t get close enough to the source of this disturbance, and even then, he knew the odd one’s power was far stronger than any form of magic at their disposal could handle.

That was something else which stunned the old master since he would have never known there was such a power lying around and one that was close to the very opposite of their goal. Order. And it was so powerful that it made him hesitate the first time Dio came to visit the country.

He had been alone, but his solo status made him an even more dangerous target than he was now. Rather than drag his attention to them, the master ordered his loyalists to listen and follow the man around, to study him and understand his motivations and mindset.

He didn’t get much out of it due to how keen the man was in seeing himself out of chases and stalking sessions, but it was enough to understand one thing about his visit: something had drawn his attention to the point of visiting China again with the visit to the Emperor being secondary to his current goals.

Thus, it had to be something that could help them with their goals in the long run and… no more they were going to hesitate in their steps now that there were so many targets to deal with.

“My brother’s murderer… he shall pay for good this time.” Wang Jun concluded.

The older brother of Wang Chan now resolute enough within his soul and old coils to promise the swift demise of the one that led him to lose family.

There was not going to be patience, for this was their chance to be wrathful and just in their own devotion to the one power above all, even above gravity and order.

Chaos.