Hello, everyone. GrayZeppelin here. I decide to start a new chapter of The Trinity's third volume. This chapter contains plenty of dark elements, manifesting some flashbacks of my OC Wang, who becomes the new Jade Slayer after our mighty friend Kai. My work on writing this story will go slow for a while, as I have part-time to do self-employ on working automobiles (beginner level at first), and my first book A New Prophecy is still editing part one, almost finishing episodes one and two.
I present volume three! Enjoy reading!
12/7/2021
Volume III: Deng Wa
Chapter XXVII
The Broken Boy
October 27, 1210
Three days before the incident.
The red deer soared with his jombie hawks among the dense stream of velvet gray clouds, decreasing their altitude while reaching for the voluminous lake ahead. Wang had been wrapping his servants with Kai's chains, linked with jade knives that changed its alliance to the new Jade Slayer — the Iron Antlers. Whichever jombies and their master occupied the terrain for lounging, the land belonged to the new Jade Slayer. There's no permission to the landlord for borrowing nor imploring any landowner in this friendly lake to give newcomers; either way, if anyone could dare to demand a trespasser, they would likely sign a death contract to Wang.
Dropping on the side of the giant midnight lake, which reflected glaring white ripples by the autumn moon, Wang thundered his cry while flipping his body forward, clenching his knives. The Jade Antlers bounded a harsh land, the dirt rippling with numerous zig-zags.
More than four emerald orbs shrilled their lights, altering their bodies to senseless stone warriors beside their master. He had seven servants following, lost by the heroes' hands returning the missing masters and students. That would not matter to Jade Antlers as if soft shrills of shattering glass quivered his head while he surveyed several displays across China, one by one. Each one was small towns, rampage brawls inside taverns, and in the ocean of a velvet gray sky.
"Find more students to anyone in those temples. Maintain your stealth course in the barrack, Neo," Wang commanded with a firm voice. "You'll awake the charging bull and his pig servants close in their chambers."
One jombie from his ears whispered its clings as Wang slammed one blade and the other farther on the bank lake. "There's always replacements, which those masters will catch either of you, my servants," he gave a stern grin to Lady Kasi, his hoof stroking her jaw and through her cheek. The panther's forehead sparkled her velvet emerald dot. "Someone beautiful will be mine than you, Kasi. Your lion partner is yours."
The black leopard's eyes twinkled once, nodding to Wang. "No harm will come to Shujaa. You have my word," the red deer vouched, his mirror glance drawing into her memories of Righteous Seven. They were Master Sheep's persistent warriors of Tai Chi. The fox Leo of Vu City, the rhino Nam of Kong Su, the bear Huong of Mei Sao, the hawk Fei of Willow Fan, the lion Shujaa of Kenya, the impala Shi Dang of Gongmen, and the leopard Kasi of India.
The seven warriors were in the Bing Palace amidst the mountain ridge of Wugu, which lay in the far north of the Panda Village. The basil chamber across the long ice hall bore twenty white candles, and above kindles emerged the painting of their teacher, who balanced her whole body with her foot and the other swimming in a horizontal position. Their lion brother and leopard sister embraced with themselves as the other five members gathered moss flowers, placing the rest near candles and the painting. "Such a pity," echoed Wang in Kasi's memory. "She would have loved to see you seven continue Liu Bong Shien's legacy. I am glad her murderer Temutai is underneath Gongmen Jail debris. He and his clan are gone."
Wang stopped stroking his hoof on Kasi's cheek as he sauntered beside her. "Servants. I will be meditating in front of the lake. If you please, do not disturb your master," he uttered throughout the channels of jade warriors in his eyes, and many tapped their glass stones in his ears. "Thank you."
He went for the slight edge of the midnight lake, peeping on his ace avians who guard their flights across the sky, making sure trespassers do not invade his area (his current home for the time being) or masters hunt him. They were easy enough to spot their chi, even when lurking behind trees. Meditation is for the weak — mindless appetites, son. His father coarse tone muttered.
That's my choice, my path now. I am free from my father. Let him sorrow in his chamber, contemplating how he lost his son and someone he never cared about.
The red deer crossed his limbs on the bank lake, which soft waters rippled on sheets of moss and tiny black rocks ahead of him. For a moment, ripples danced with mushy rhythms, digging him further into his zen. Longing through the emptiness, swimming out of the cluster memories of his father's yells behind him, the Iron Antlers dipped his head forward, ringing currents floating Wang to another scene.
The deer's meditation propelled him into a lovely trance of the mystery scenery, which brought the deer into the Spirit Realm. It was good zen to him, possibly either the first or rare to clear his cloud of judgment. The fact was that his father never instructed his students to meditate after Lu Disciples finished training. Each day, Master Le filled his passion with his students by bestowing intensities, which thrilled them with poisonous tongues. On the apex of the golden temple, speculating the endless-apotheosis constellations across the sea of emerald, Wang appeared the swarm of deserted terrains, which left with soil embers, the crumbling temples standing for a thousand years.
A strange sensation the deer inspected his surroundings was his weight became a feather, keeping himself to float near two feet above the golden monastery's silver tiles. Gravity, the deer figured the realm with no density. He glanced over the steep tiles and other floating lands that ripped into large and tiny fragments, wishing to see if there was any soul close by or farther on the stars. This afterlife or not, Wang could find someone he cared for, only he thought of one happy memory.
Cherry foliage drifted from the jade ocean's countless rocks from stray copper clouds, spinning with slow glides. Mom? Wang recognized the leaf as he rarely knew the face of his doe mother, who planted her blossom tree on the meadow near the small stream's wooden bridge. Wang swam his body closer to the leaf as his hoof cradled the thin layer. Each stroke from his thumb, her chuckling song succumbed with a call, a haunting hail fluctuating in his ears. Her sob calling to her son impacted with a strong wave, waking him on the uneven meadows and a large creek with soft ripples.
The grazing rooted a peach tree and the second-story wooden house. The breeze wafted specks of white dandelions over the blooms, swimming by the hedge with deep red roses and peonies in front of the patio. Wang's old residence spread with the mass of small roots by both sides and the second floor's structure, thronging with poison ivy. Other houses like his perched on the farthest grassland, the other side of the yellow river.
The red deer ambled on the patio's creaking stairs, and behind the door, distortion of sobs mumbled. Master Le's crackling voice grumbled.
"Chuju. Where will our son go to now? This separation will now break Wang's heart. You take him, then he may not be the warrior that ever signifies for him. If I look after the boy, he'll remain his Lu legacy for the next generation. He's the only last living son who will regain honesty."
"More like spreading lies by making honesty? I will not be part of your ego, Le. Wang is my privilege to raise him from you!" his mother muffled her roar. Her voice grated with storming water.
"He's my responsibility," his father grimaced. "Beyond Guilin mountains, there will have our son to manifest Kung Fu. This faction I will be making is Wang's destiny now. Lu Academy started from one major soldier to a zen master for more than five hundred years. Do you think that our child should go spinning his ribbons across China by becoming your dancer while robing your dress?"
"Oh, SHUT UP, LE!" his mother snapped. "I saw what you did to Master Owl's daughter! Her father will still search for the one who committed an abomination crime! It's a death sentence!"
"You think his runt will remember the criminal, the one who I watched his daughter for Master Owl's purpose, Chuju? Why in all the Gods would I ever mistreat the girl?!" Le's deadening shout became intense, ringing Wang's ear as he stepped away further. "Some imbecile put a hoax on her father, making him flood his rage against villages and cities! That boar and his son caused more trouble!"
The Iron Antlers overheard his parents quarreling enough to destine their son's footsteps. Only one of two sides had to put up to him for what was worth: live with his mother for abandoning his legacy or live with his father to continue the bequest. He was too young to comprehend the argument, knowing they envisioned him into martial arts, something brilliant for the boy to reflect on harmony. Harmony suited Chuju, and dignity dragged Le, leading Wang into the middle of thin strings. After branches from the tree creaked over his mother's deadening weeps inside, he stood aside to the front patio, wishing the whole absurdity away from him.
"If that's how you should treat our son," Chuju throbbed her cry, now extreme from the front door, "then have him your way then!"
The door flung open, having Wang watch the most brilliant doe in voluminous yellow hanfu robe with antler flowers. Her cheeks flared red by tears while racing down to the patio and against the meadow. Foliages and dandelions continued swarming there and near the edge of the Yellow River; Chuju mounted on the sampan boat with a single roof.
"Momma!" a small red deer in black chang shan scampered toward the bank. His feet plunged on splashes, hardening his movement. Little by little, the weight of the current slipped to his back, making him clench on the tree's thick root from sinking with his robe. The last thing that he would never forget was the green eyes — his dear mother. The boat slowly narrowed toward the rim and dipped in the jade cloud.
"MOM!"
On the meadow beside the tree, Wang sought the young deer with small antlers, whose hoof extended above the raining surface. A raging yell pulsed behind him, and his father stormed toward his son. Without faltering to summon his emerald knife, Wang bellowed, flinging the sword at Le's head. Things happened elsewhere. The decaying body of his father fragmented to dust, splashing the whole terrain into bits.
The heavy rain stormed in, light sparks snapping over the heaven twice. Wang was now nowhere in a different place, different time as basil clouds surrounding him mended unfamiliar objects. Hordes in leather armors, tents with crimson banners, and bamboo cages perched.
Whose memory is this? Wang widened his eyes with suspicion.
One by one, within cages of soldiers in leather armor with a flame sigil, their screams thundered across the stream of dying ashen, dragging one on the sludge platform. Slices of gore from parts of each bandit's body spat, unveiling the giant bull's hoof that launched down to the mud. Gags lingered as the deer approached the towering figure with plain horns in a saturated green cape, heavily draped on the warlord's back. He could see someone's bulky arms below the mighty, swaying side to side, clenching the giant's shoulders.
Maker! Maker of Widows!
One's warlord declared a cruel title of the Emperor's General farther to the left, which piled with buffalo soldiers strangling all five behind their backs. They were antelope, the fox, the yak, the wolf, and the gorilla in random clothing colors. Many more lined up to their right on an endless path. They were women, those who married to their husbands in the corpse.
"Throw them all to where they sleep with traitors!" the giant bull warlord commanded his group of deer soldiers ahead of him. More than twenty warriors with sharp metal antlers in dark lime scathe robes dragged nineteen dead Fire Clan members. The two warriors, young and commander, pulled the colossus gorilla from their General. "Their Lord Commander will see his army how lovebirds grief their losses! Bring me that antelope!"
"NO! PLEASE! HAVE MY HUSBAND MERCY!" the antelope lady with curved antlers shoved her body forward. The buffalo guard gripping her hooves together resisted the bandit's wife with full force.
A soldier with a black and white tail in a hooded dark green cape clenched the antelope's wrist, which the bandit bellowed his sob while wrestling away. The soldier's grip shattered his forearm, flinging him to the center of the mud. "WHERE ARE LORD COMMANDER AND HIS ARMY? WHERE IS HE HIDING?" the mighty General stomped his foot against the bandit's chest.
"I beg you, General! My husband doesn't know where he is, I swear to you!" the antelope's wife burst her tears.
Wang inspected the left side as he wandered closer to the giant. The bull raised his scowl at her. The heavy rain flooded on his whole, his mane drooping beside his face and over his shoulders. A vicious stare from the Mightiest Warrior filled Wang's cold lungs; that way, if he had appeared in front of General Kai's presence, he would be dead to him. The Iron Antlers witnessed how frightful the warlord was during the Great War, but was this memory belong to Wang?
"Mercy is vanquished!" the Supreme Warlord of all China screeched.
The giant propelled his hoof, and the deer captain tossed him a double halberd. The blades and the pole together shimmered sage green as sparkling whites above the clouds clapped, the plunge along with ashen smokes obliterating the rest of Maker's story, stirring the Iron Antlers to his awakening.
There was no good night's rest when Iron Antlers feasted his mother's eyes in frantic memories. Night still prevailed its navy ink horizon with sparkling stars, which gray clouds clapped its white spark across the edge of the boundary. Surveying his surroundings while stroking on the realm's lake bank and his mass remaining real, Wang relieved his sigh before standing from where he had sat for only minutes, possibly been an hour he pondered. He yearned to anticipate what was unique to him, nowhere else to push on disturbing scenes breaking Wang.
Remorse dragged him into difficulties.
Something is missing. Neither of my parents showed me what was best for me, and they broke their son.
Wang began to dawdle near the water as reverberations of ghastly murmurs lingered, the harsh voice aggravating from soft pulses, creeping his surroundings close and away. In his youth, his mother regarded her son's concerns on listening to strange voices, even before and after sleeping. Despite Chuju's discovery to counter a ghost from picking on her son, flowers from hers allowing majorities to cast spirits and dark energies away from Wang were beneficial. Yet, a sharp call was relenting, demanding the deer's presence.
"What is it?"
The emerald pulsing his eyes quivered, forcing Wang to shove his extended hoof toward the lake's ripples near the bank. Ghastly basil smokes crackled while formulating harsh clouds to the size of a temple's gate, towering above the rippling water. The barrier formed its large drape sheets, undulating in slow flaps until the top of the ghost reached its maximum height, the face becoming visible to Wang. Round face, dazzling green eyes, and two rings of pine shade around its stare.
"Wang. The Iron Antlers," the specter introduced the deer with low rasps of grinding stones.
Iron Antlers rested his widening eyes at the ghost. "Who are you?"
"I am the voice of trustworthiness," the specter's clouds fiddled its chest. "You find that you were in Memories of Torment, the boundary of the old and a new Spirit Warrior. The depression fills the loathsomeness, the opposite of tenderness."
Wang's muzzle bent onward. "How spiritual you are, speaking to me who you do not know the biography of the Iron Antlers. That memory I sought is not bonded with the weak as those worthless shits believe they are omnipotent. Define glory as you please, this so-called the Voice of Trustworthiness."
"Define the opposite of affection, son of Master Le, the Monk of Worthless Shits."
The specter describing the face of Master Le and his title presented harsh to Wang's perspective, which did fit in his father well. One thing Wang could take one's honest opinion was one of his antelope brothers who wished not to insult Wang in Shaolin council. As only four but their fifth deer invited in the hearing with their teacher, Wang and his companion Han waited for their turns outside of the council's yin-yang gate, which you led into the chamber of all six monk councils. Lu Disciples were their first to invite in the hall before the Nine, as their competition manifested the lack of conduct and violence.
The antelope Han in a teal chang shan and dark trousers stood with his red deer brother beside the council's door, regarding their teacher's pride that made Wang boil his flesh. Iron Antlers wished to rip his opponent apart, depart away from his father's temple for good; the oddest way was Han spoke first to his brother. "My dad has the exact purpose, same comparison to your father. He was more a hot head person to do overtime at his metal factory instead of talking to my stepmother or me, just like the way Master Le has terrible taste in fulfilling his memoir. Do you know what I think of those two, Wang? I believe you'll be happy?"
Wang turned to Han. "Like what?"
"They're worthless shits."
How thoughtful to our dads.
Stopping his reflection, Wang suppressed his snicker behind his lips. "Quite amusing, you are, stalking into my remembrances. By the attention to marvel my glances, you don't know my father, whose ego rebuilding trust from his dishonesty house has been insulting one of his, and he is the contrary of affection."
The jade specter leaned half of its body. "Rather not insulting you, your father has no fond to what he could have done to you, Wang. Such a pity," it clasped its large paws. "I feel how you went through strifes, your family's marriage, the father feeding decay by building one monastery into shattering the mother's relationship, forcing the son's destiny to continue the legacy. Legacy to craft the divine art of perfection and ideal was your ancestor's integrity, and he lost loyalty."
Wang straightened his back, his right eye stretching upward. "I assume you perused Le's legacy. I am not too fond of his history lesson, which is his way of staying in the past so the Emperor of China shall not disgrace my father's house. The chronicle of my bloodline. Le is far arrogant to educate me, and his students fill triumphs on threatening people. What do you call balance of kung fu when the teacher does not sympathize with the talented disciple? He claimed that he chose me, more than anything."
"What thrills him to replace you with the daughter of the Owl Lord, he betrayed you."
His mother's deepening sorrow flooded his heart after his father's denial. On a summer night across the Yellow River, entering the small town close to Master Owl's third-story providence with upward tiles, merged two deer on wide and dark alleyways with yellow lanterns. A jade specter fiddled his cloud into the deer's head, marking the scene where Wang was with his mother last time before the separation. A white owl was last seen with a flash to the young deer while his mother's whole arms embraced him dearly.
His mother Chuju witnessed her husband walk with Lord Owl's daughter across the bridge from the temple. A snow-white owl in lime green hanfu looked up to the red deer, who knelt to her and his hoof embraced behind her head. The last thing Wang remembered while his father blessed the girl's head with empathy, his mother guided Wang and herself to the next alleyway. Thus, his parents' voices shook the whole wooden structure by the next, allowing him to repeat the scene of his doe mother's ride on the boat.
"He had," Wang crooned his low voice. "He never fulfilled his promise, the way he would bring his wife back. I wanted to search for someone who accidentally left me rotten."
"Rotten or not, you define yourself as a marvel achievement."
Wang beckoned his slow glare at the ghost. "What are you?"
The ghost raised its drones. "Your query of curiosity thrills. I am your guide to seek harsh truths, Iron Antlers. Revealing condemnation to all souls is my distinction. What you marveled at in your memory is authentic. Your father boasted your mother, wishing Le to spread his pride within the Song age. Have you reckoned your ancestor was a fellow soldier who served under the former warlords?"
Le's warlord ancestor. Wang surveyed the red deer in scathe armor in the raining scene with ladies' sharp cries. "Lujiao served one soul who would have gained success," the specter continued. "Success was the General of the Army's dignity. And that pride of his, the Emperor's General discovered his brother's betrayal."
Iron Antlers fiddled his hooves. "And who was the Emperor's General?"
"Is — the Emperor's General still breathes. The Beast of Vengeance."
In the reflection of Wang's meditation, the deer pictured a colossus warlord whose head was soaking from the storming rain. The eyes of General displayed monstrosity enough, even worse how his father was a cruel being who mistreated his son. Not compared to that one who disapproved sympathy against traitors and enemies, the other struggled his students by forcing Lu Disciples to abuse those who were cunning. Repellent words echoing — No weakness, no mercy! — in his head motioned his slight frown. A single flash drifted his vision to one of his jombies observing the famous monastery on one of the Guilin mountains that Lu Monastery mentioned of the People's Hero. The Jade Palace. A porcupine jombie, crouching on the steep edge behind the moss stone layer, squinted at the Arena as Wang was the only one to find his former competitor, who ruined him initially. At first, while the two familiar students of albino peacock and the panda strolling on the stairway, a towering figure amidst the square stood froze, gazing directly at the view.
"Yes. . . I have seen the bull before. That Beast of Vengeance, those people call him Kai, was in Gongmen City," Wang nodded while strolling back and forth. "Not only that, those dreams I went through were his memories, and his memories were barbaric that turned good to a relentless."
"The adoptive son of Chen Wing no longer matters to me, son of Le," the specter's jade eyes squinted along with harsh whispering clouds. "Pitifulness drowned in his clouds of judgment. He nearly achieved his succession, which all those who served with his brother bear their light. I provided him to manifest his chance by fulfilling the Mightiest Warrior's memory, becoming the ruler, and building a new dynasty."
The emerald cloud chanted its lofty limb under its round chin as Wang rested his green eyes upon the specter. "The one who is the same as I knew taught his apprentice to eradicate my pet. The opposition of hate. I waited for General Kai to relinquish his glory, reflecting the next play that he could go for another conquest. The rose necklace silenced his pain from decaying in his death, which my emerald should have converted him to a stone, ruptured him into shreds. Another who is in common with a terrible taste relieved me, so she unlatched chains from the inside and let us fall under the ripples.
"The blades you carry are my own, son of Le. The generation that my essence thrives in two swords. One was a double halberd, destroyed, and the other is a duplicate. The second halberd kept on for more than five centuries in the hands of the tortoise. Oogway gave Kai's weapon to one of his students he could trust to honor his brother's memory."
Iron Antlers hummed with enthusiasm. "Someone wished not to repeat history as only to learn lessons. Perhaps the past should have sealed from revealing again," Wang considered, showing a slow peep to the cloud. "What do you want for me, to who I may ask my new instructor?"
"You bear a new quest, son of Master Le as if the father described you the broken boy. I see what thrills passion about the unbroken son, fulfilling wishes to be a kung fu master," the specter's clouds gently hissed while swimming over the deer. Its large paw fiddled Wang's shoulders. "Reverence is your path, and neither of these souls your family betrayed you have any routes. I find one who can conquer several lands that many will see a new leader because the people believe one's virtue. There is something your childhood interest in before the separation. You chase a dream that you will achieve better than supreme rank. The four rivers were names of dragons, marvelous creatures that supported peasants' needs, and they disobeyed their leader on the throne chair — the Emperor who was greed and virtuous.
"For generations, dragons in various elements have been ruling in the throne room. And no color of emerald suits the realm, despite souls acknowledging the former leader did not aid his people, and his creatures in the sky fed them instead. The story of Four Dragons inspired you, Iron Antlers. I shall grant you to be in the Forbidden City, naming you as the Jade Emperor, when you please your new mentor."
This new scheme thrilling to Wang could possess him to envision a new novelty as he reflected thousands of ideas flooding into him: methods, trading goods, military strategists, the next ruler, and many more. He crossed his arms with perception. "How will I please you before I shall become the Jade Emperor?"
"Kill the one who failed me, Wang," the specter proposed, its clouds painting the Mightiest Warrior spinning emerald knives. "General Kai could have succeeded better than he visioned what loyalty meant to him. If it is the honor you seek, find antique parchments that hinted at the old times before the Great War, obliterate them from existence." After the Supreme Warlord of all China, the following view exhibited hundreds of library temples upon thousands of rolled parchments within section platforms. "Master the quality that empowers our magics, and when the time comes by gathering half of the disciples to an army, a new dynasty will form."
Manifestation into limitless views of the new dynasty led Wang to observe the globe's country, which its emerald hue crept from the east to west. What's more vivid to him was each scenery beyond meadows, mountains, and deserts thronged specks of jade lights (eyes pulsed across the endlessness), and the people of China close to the deer worshipped their new leader. Moreover, on changing aspects of compliments, blended another scene of his father. His neck forced down on the log with dry gores; next to him, his son raised Master Bear's ax and decapitated Le's head, letting Lu Disciples in front of greenstone hordes applause their brothers. The final glimpse surveyed the deer who sat on the golden throne (now forged to a green), in between his metal antlers appearing his father's skull with horns. Mortals and stone warriors ahead of the platform bowed to the Jade Emperor.
"I will not disappoint you, Master," Iron Antlers bowed to the ghost, whose round head followed its nod. Once emerald clouds swelled and shrunk into the deer's body, Wang took off toward Kai's knives and searched for his jombies. "Striker, Spikes, Lily, Amy, twin hawks! To me!"
Wang's jombies of buffalo, porcupine, praying mantis, swan, and two hawks gathered forward. The edge of his view spotted the black leopard jombie with a crown jewel, having Wang stroll to her. "You're coming too, Kasi. Your ways of Tai Chi fascinate me, and I will utilize your skills," he stroked the leopard's side of her jaw and turned to his group. "We march south!"
His hooves reached for all five stone warriors into orbs and shifted to amulets, filling in his pocket while the two avians remained with the deer. Wang linked chains on two hawks' necks, soaring their leader toward the gray clouds.
I am coming for you, Kai. I am coming for you, Xing.
Author's Note:
— This chapter was originally going to be the twenty-ninth to determine where Wang was going. But I find that Iron Antlers meeting the mystery character has more clarity to the introduction before the event happened in the last chapters of the second volume.
— Lu Disciples (six antelopes and two red deer) are mine, and I have this motivation on them, which they have likely compared to Cobra Kai dojo on one nostalgia movie and followed the remake. The Karate Kid. My version having my characters Lu Disciples fits their arrogant teacher, who forces his students to command no weakness and no mercy terms. Bad things to all antelopes and our broken boy Wang followed by their terrible master.
— I like to hear your thoughts on this new chapter, my constant readers! While I always need to improve writing (like reading books and your fics), critique is necessary. Punch those like and follow if y'all like this story so far!
— The next chapter will leave where the fight has ended. To the Valley of Peace, everyone! The truth about the Nine and Lu Disciples issues will reveal. Have a wonderful holiday, pandoms, and to you, my constant reader! Good luck with the finals!