Volume Three: Deng Wa

Chapter XXXIX

Victims I

December 1, 1210

The following day passed, entering the final month of this year, which followed the twilight's cobalt hue laying beyond the rim of stars. The Nine waited for several masters visiting the Shui Palace long enough, allowing the Nine's Leader to tread his walk back and forth on the Fighting Square while clasping his paws behind his back. For this essential night, his student craved contemplating this hidden enemy who robbed his soul. Chen Xing advised Kai not to reveal himself to the public as the Nine requested an invitation to top masters and a few of Wang's victims.

Visitors in various garment colors entered from the front gate, delivering their salutations toward the Fellowship before taking their gallery seats. Plenty of guests introduced the Swan Dancer Amy, Master Owl and his daughter of Yellow River, Master Storming Ox of Gongmen City, and Master Eagle under General Bear's second authority of Emperor Huangdi's Resistance. Following these honorable guests presented Masters of Jade Palace and two panda youths. On the same boat that both should not participate in the public sightseeing, Tai Lung and Shen reached for their paths to the hidden backyard beside the Nine's Barrack, where panda teens Lei Lei and Bao went in touch with the Nine's Dancer and General Kai. Only eyes of trust knowing the three had confidential, permitting in favor than telling the public.

Once entering the garden beside the Bathroom and Barrack with his peacock companion, Tai Lung reached for the edge platform and had his golden eyes find one who fragmented his bones. The leopard glanced sternly at the yak standing opposite, whose ocean eyes shrunk pupils when Kai steadied his harsh breaths beside two wolves. Tai Lung lowered his fruity growl before leaning forward with his arms wide open, but Lei Lei launched her paw on his chest.

The Great Dragon ceased his quivering snarl, breaking his grimacing look to a soft composure ahead of the panda. "There will be no fighting today, Tai Lung. And the same goes for you, Kai," Lei Lei uttered, which was not attending her voice to shout, but gladly controlled her pose. Her eyes stared at the leopard in nonchalance. "Tigress and Po wish you and Shen to get along with my boyfriend's student, so I advise you to get to know him well. Because Tigress says so."

Lotus simpered after chuckling, strolling on the side platform toward the panda. "Master Tigress made you her right hand, Lei Lei. I like your spirit."

Lei Lei gaped. "I love that flower! Where did you get that?"

Lotus stroked her blossom flower beside her ear, simpering. "My peahen momma presented her gift to me," she inspected the panda teenager's peach bloom on her black ear. "I see you are into blooms. Would you like to see all of the Nine's flowers over here?"

"Sure!"

Watching the wolf and his cousin saunter on the opposite platform, Bao Panda approached the one-eyed lupine with admiration. "Pleasure to meet you, tough guy," he upheaved his fist and landed on the old wolf's paw.

"Same to you, Bao," Wolf Boss greeted. His eye rested on his peacock brother and snow leopard, beckoning his nod. "Tai Lung. Shen."

"Greetings, Zhong," Shen stretched his half-smile upon him.

Tai Lung caressed Bengal flowers in rich pink after addressing Zhong. Sensing the rose had him vibrated his chuffs. "It's good to see Master Ming has her home," the snow leopard inspected the roses' sharp thorns. "This garden reminds me of Shifu's teacher."

"So as the Sacred Flame's garden, where my brother's respected ancestors sleep well underneath the Earth," Wolf Boss reflected, his fingers stroking pink foliages. Across to the side platform introduced friendly giant trudges. The eyes of the Mightiest Warrior delivered his grumble grunt, posing his greeting to these visitors.

With such curiousness, Wolf Boss was the one turning his head to both warriors. "You two met before?"

The yak firmed his eyes at the leopard, his thoughts flooding shadow emotions into glaring green views at Tai Lung's soul, which was rooted in a dense yellow light in his heart. "Whiskers used to be my final challenger before searching for another in the Spirit Realm," Kai said. "He and I had a fair fight, his chi remaining stronger than others."

"By robbing every master's chi," the leopard filled his gruff voice, withdrawing his clenched paw from the flower.

"As I was. Tai Lung, is that your name?" the yak raised his eye attentively. "No wonder the name means the almighty great dragon. I have more common titles than one. The more respected and less terrible ones I once lived."

Bao Panda firmed his red bandana on his forehead. "I like the title Beast of Vengeance better."

"Which suits the General as an avenger," Wolf Boss complimented.

The peacock surveyed jasmine plants near peach blooms. "Those flower colors present something extraordinary. The peach blossom has an exemplary character that casts gruesome spirits away. Other plants could do no ordinary than usual," Shen conjectured, readying his red-orange eyes at the giant. "What say you of these flowers here, Beast of Vengeance?"

Kai suppressed his glare at Shen, who he and his feline companion ravenously stared at him, expecting the Mighty's answer. "I am no garden whisperer who hears their zen music. They're majestic."

That suits the bloom, nothing else poor.

Shen hummed with delight. "You expressed among my words well."

"If that's what you were, the former Lord of Gongmen, who has the same look as one I fought alongside," Kai expressed, fiddling pink rose foliages as Shen raised his crests. "Birdie Brother was full of elegancy and ruthless. Before he became the Lord of Gongmen City, the one and only Prince was called Li Han, the Cunning."

Well then. The beast remembers my father's ancestor. The peacock determined, humming.

The yak steadied his soft glare upon Tai Lung, whose growl deepening under his throat silenced. "And you, Great Dragon. Your glare hungers by slashing flesh to your claws, bones snapping from your teeth, and I know his face too well — the face of my feline brother, who was not soft but always ferocious in battles. Rather than being born as a monster from Mongolia, Tiny-Whiskers was a good brother of mine. A relentless warlord who delivered his might was called Zhanshi."

Tai Lung only answered by lifting his brow with wonder, commencing the wolf interfering with two warriors. "That settles our introduction and your thoughts on the Emperor's Warlords. I say they were honorable fighters," Wolf Boss uttered.

The peacock ambled onward next to the leopard. "The Nine invited us here and brought only their trusted warriors of Shaolin," Shen tucked his feathers in his draped sleeves, rotating his head at his lupine brother. "What do you know of this critical matter, Zhong?"

"From what I heard, the boy found something many of us should listen to," Wolf Boss eyed the leopard. "This topic, Tai Lung, must not let you ignore. After this public meeting, you only put that inconvenience to you and Kai behind."

Kai watched his wolf companion turn to him. "The kid wants you to observe. While he desires to speak with you, Kai, but difficult to explain, Xing will show the revelation. The only way the kid spoke to me earlier had me concerned about your demand. Who followed the rest before you and the Iron Antlers."

Double tap beside the former baddies had themselves turned toward the Bathroom's side door. The Nine's Messenger cleared his throat. "The meeting is about to begin, Commander."

Nodding to the goose, Wolf Boss set his crimson eye at the Mightiest Warrior, whose fur bristled behind his back with a cold. "Are you ready to witness the enemy, Kai?"

This earnest question kept the yak holding his breath from his muzzle, unable to bear his sight at Shen and Tai Lung while he heard striped feline masters announcing their introduction. At no regard to hesitate for a brief moment, the Mightiest Warrior beckoned. "I am ready."

Tigress bridged her arms on her chest once she observed Shaolin Disciples taking their seats; she sought Master Storming Ox in silver garbs meeting the buffalo in gold and purple clothes next to the gallery. "What do you think your buddy will show us, son?"

Li Shan asked Po when Viper slithered next to Tigress's feet, and both Monkey and Crane joined their feline sister before their red panda teacher. "Something scary?" the Dragon Warrior assumed.

"How scary?"

"Xing said that Kai was not Kai when we faced him."

"What does that mean?" Mr. Ping asked, becoming anxious as he clasped his feathers.

"That's what we are here to find out," Po said.

In flowing blue hanfu robes that dyed a snow trail, Chen Ming embarked on expressing the topic matter toward her grandson's discovery. "Welcome, Masters," the Nine's Master introduced. "As we are an excellent folk of Shaolin Disciples to each other. Despite these recent events, we face this mysterious participant responsible for abducting those you cared for in your life. Several victims are in good hands before their notions of Iron Antlers may encounter mentality torments for quite a while. A few Jade Warriors who remained under Wang's commands are no longer suffering. We lost those who were good people; a recent message from Wukong clarified a rumor that Master Bingwen accepted his fate, never to join the army of Stone Warriors."

The people in the gallery filled their inaudible gasps before glancing at each other as Tigress held her head with concern next to Po. You see Shifu in a brown robe with silver wraps planting his tiny paw on his chest. "If this news appears to be accurate," Ming continued, "we Shaolin Disciples of Grandmaster Oogway share our grief with our beloved colleague."

The Nine's Master made her eyes slip to the side where she found her red panda brother, whose ears drooped. For a moment, when silencing to reflect on their dearest buffalo companion, Ming and Shifu could remember Bingwen sauntering across Masters Garden with Oogway. The brown eyes of a meticulous being who became the whisperer of Tai Chi, mentioning the soul that bears particles of qi: touches, senses, life. Chen Ming remained in her pose, masking her sorrow in front of the public.

"Master Le's son introduced in a role while controlling his Jade Warriors as his army," Ming uttered. "Before you ask crucial questions about the poor boy who survived domestic violence from his father, what I meant 'mysterious participant,' my grandson has discovered the hidden enemy."

A brown eagle in a sleeveless scathed armor beckoned his head on the second row. "Who is this hidden enemy we are facing, Master Ming? Is this General Kai behind all of those attacks?"

Chen Xing intervened in his walk next to his grandmother. "A hidden enemy, Master Eagle, is not the ordinary being, nor the Supreme Warlord using Wang as his puppet," he clarified. "Let me be clear with my clarification, Masters. Iron Antlers expressed his words that remained sealed. Before my former competitor fled from the cave with his Jade Warriors, there were his words, 'The era of Deng Wa has come again.' After a few weeks, while digging for further clues about previous dynasties, there is no such thing the era exists, but the subject's name came from the end of the Zhou Dynasty."

The Nine's Leader presented his call to the Dragon Warrior, who strolled on the Fighting Square platform, sharing their discerning glances before the panda led toward the opposite side, waiting for his feline colleague to place Bingwen's scroll on the floor. For a moment, as the people surveyed two heroes who whispered to their ears, Po and Chen Xing stepped their feet away from the scroll, its murmuring whirs clanging.

Kai made his way to the garden barrier's gap and looked upon his feline teacher, who gave his last step backward. This sense of remembrance on the boy who linked his palms as the Dragon Warrior did the same had the yak weighed on pandas who supported his wounded brother before presenting this beyond aid. He could not regain his strength with his lack of relentlessness after days of searching for help across China. Only fear what these monks could do in such specialties was watching Oogway hopeless. Battles flooded in his eyes as each soul would have attempted killings. But panda monks were no fighters but gifts of people helping people. Once the bears of black and white reached out their paws toward his wounded warrior, Kai's new ambition of power of chi was onward.

From Kai's regard, seeking Chen Xing and Po reaching their aim at Bingwen's scroll, pulses of dawn and light gray on their paws muttered light, glimmers of sun and silver veins casting toward fingers. The panda lay all four joints as the tiger opened two fingers and one thumb; with incredible matters of rays screeching, the gallery filling wonders at the scene, Po and Xing's beams pounded on the scroll, overflowing streak blends of gold and snow cloud.

An orange-brown red panda with a tan shawl stirring in the blending cloud flowed his arms in the breezing air of peach foliages, whose paws pulse dandelion sparks. Master Storming Ox, whose edges of his garb billowing under his knees, dilated his crimson eyes with astonishment. "You find the introduction of Master Wuxi, who carried on his legacy. He taught aspects of lethality contributions to the rest of his students, then passed their generations as many have been holding the Wuxi Fingerhold," Ox heard Chen Ming's strong voice delivering. "Here, you feast your eyes on Master Wuxi's sorcerer disciples."

Chen Ming commenced her tale on each student who forged complexities of summoning. The leopardess swimming in the black along with silver and white stars blessed the terrain by her lips, following her striped feline companion, whose paws dancing in the air glistened with yellow dust light. Beyond the reach with the utmost atmosphere of gold and the lands raised temples by the hooves of an Ox, the tool of his hammer crafting structures and stone monuments of lions and dragon fish. In the air that swam the bovine's sunlight, embers rushed within the beings and children of goats, geese, bunnies, and antelopes, surrounding the goat storyteller on the platform as soft winds swept orange lanterns across the street.

That's so wicked!

Po could not resist his anticipation as he filled his breath with awe, as the Furious Five did observe, unable to grasp their eyes at Wuxi's sorcerer disciples. A group of former adversaries with the panda teenager holding their limbs against the brilliant light fixed their gaze, which had Lotus and Lei Lei storming behind Wolf Boss. Tai Lung bristled his dark shoulders as he sought a red panda teacher with his students, who beckoned his tiny dark brown paw clenching the mountain lion's fingers, dissipating him with a single ripple of a white and gold wave. A familiar incident reflected the People's Hero gripping his clouded forefinger.

Oh, you do know this hold?

You are bluffing! Shifu didn't teach you that!

Nope. But I figured it out.

Shen felt his chest gripping his frigid spine while filling his breath in his beak. His flawless mind of one's face remembering his family of his own had him the most pleasing nurse at his core. Every night, he stormed into the Tower's chamber near the keeper's room, waiting for his mother's loyal companion. With full of expectancy with thrilling moments to hear night stories, Shen had every corner of his smile watching the eyes of wisdom, a strong lady who had more amity than his parents. This head of a goat figure with large and curved horns in the cloud made him wish to see Soothsayer Mali again. Owing thousands of apologies, he could imagine scars mending from her, the only soul who envisioned a troubling bird to another path of compassion.

Being right makes me right.

And another scarred Shen's heart his life, hearing the last breaths of his dear caretaker before Mali died in his wing.

Your Nana — is proud of you.

Just before he could sweep his tear after sniffing, Shen radiated his ruby eyes at the silver and gold cloud; vibrations of wood and metal clangs flooding toward its heart intensified, introducing the haunting figure behind the conical hat. The wielder's dagger-ax swirling in the air that devoured flesh and bones into a yellow-turning green whirlpool presented an engraved metal with the shape of a serpent. A flowing ink sketched two on the badger's white face, whose emerald eyes drenched dark green bloodshed, becoming a threatening stare as the triangular head turned to the tiger, whose snow eclipse sights broadened full of appalling.

"What on Earth. . .?" Shen lowered his beak jaw, startling. The bloodbath rained down on the mystery sorcerer's sleeveless straw garment.

"Who is that?" the giant bovine master dazzled his crimson eyes toward Chen Ming.

"That is Master Wuxi's fifth follower, Master Ox," Ming clarified beside her grandson. "A wushi badger who wields his dagger-ax into summoning chi by swallowing unfriendly eyes to the Spirit Realm. That, Master Storming Ox, is Deng Wa."

Fastening his harsh breaths, unable to disperse his chi that stroked Bingwen's scroll, Chen Xing manifested unfamiliar figures in apparitions of gray and basil shrouds after the Asian Badger.

A billowing smoke of the black leopard in flowing dresses spread her claws wide, her fangs unsheathing before dissipating into the next victim. Mauled by the black leopard claw, an Indian elephant bellowed his trunk in the air, whose massive white tusks outgrew to sharp spikes as he rammed against the crowd. Down to the center, yellow rays of spears rained on the giant, his tusk of dark crimson scraping the floor to a blaze. Following severe mauls, the canine in orange wrap garbs strengthened his war cry; his yellow ray spear plunged into Master Elephant's heart.

Elephant's hundred stings on his tusk penetrated in Dog's heart. The canine master gave his final howls before he and the Indian elephant felled.

The bug on his companion's shoulder gasped. "Yikes."

"Right in Master Dog's heart," Monkey gritted his teeth, clasping his chest. Tigress and Crane glimpsed at their eyes with concern, watching the Dragon Warrior's whole limb unleash more of his ray of chi.

"Are those visions part of the scroll, buddy?" Po asked.

Chen Xing's stone eyes registered a flicker of white, shaking his head. "No," he widened.

"Something is rising."

Viper flung her tail, pointing at the concept of two dead warriors.

Green shrouds of thin air swarmed in the canine's chest, bursting his muzzle and eyes with jade, shrieking his scream. Drenching his eyes with dark velvet green, strolling into a sinister creature, Master Dog grimaced his wide teeth, spreading his arms before he propelled his body across the meadow. The next episode cloaked specks of moss surroundings as twines and branches attached to Master Dog's outer body of his chest: thorns twirled over his neck, his chest ingrown with great roots, his paws drenched with draped moss. Swirling on his dominant paw was the dagger-ax with the serpent sigil, the weapon that belonged to the original wielder of the wushi badger. Gathering metal with the iron bell and swords and the Dagger of Deng Wa throwing in the smoldering ash, Master Dog let his emerald glare on the hissing molten lava stream into a large pot. With vibrations and reverberations of a hammer pounding against the metal rushed in thin air, he poured on the forge with four slots of blades, modifying into two shapes of halberds; a streak of velvet basil lay within sword embers.

The next event thundered Master Dog's halberd plunging the meadow field into large chunks with streaking glare lightenings, filling agonies in the green mist blanket as he attempted acrobatic spins with his weapon in the air, lacerating villagers' screams. In the following massacre of the Weeping River, having the canine lead into the snowy landscape across thick ridges, Master Dog encountered the monk behind the white mist, whose round paws twinkled amber chi. "Bo Shan," Master Dog snarled.

The snowstorm unmasked into shreds, and the panda in a brown robe with his conical hat appeared.

"Bao, panda!" Bao Gorilla grunted with approval next to two panda teenagers, following the public's drawing their breaths in their throats.

Between the lands of ice and earth cracked to fragments, ruptured by the atrocities of Masters Dog and Panda combating. The canine's double halberd crossed his deflection from the bear's ray of lance chi raining down on him. Dog plunged the surface into zig-zag emerald ruptures, darting each shard forward before Bo Shan cast his round shield against two blades. As the punishment for the canine giving his seventh slam toward his right, Bo propelled his guard on Dog's chest and shoved the left side, disarming his double halberd.

With haste, the panda monk extended his lofty arms and slammed his paws close to Master Dog's temples, the velvet dawn and yellow of chi radiating in his eyes. Ripples of the sun flooded the canine's head, strengthening enraged sounds of rumble and clang. Leading to the unknown manifested the golden beam blasting the green into specks of emerald dust, dissipating into nothingness.

And finally, Bo Shan caught Master Dog, who fell forward, dying in his arms.

"What did that guy just do?" Bao Panda demanded.

"That monk banished Deng Wa with his bare paws?" Lei Lei gestured her paws.

Li Shan maintained his view with awe at his ancestor, who watched Master Dog's body in horror, which altered living wood branches into soft gray and ashes. Every master and warrior felt whimpers from the canine, who gave out his tears to the panda. Dog gave his last firm grip on Bo's paw before the rest of his remains swarmed into blossoms, singing with the snow breeze, freeing him from the pain.

A long, dead silence filled, only the people giving little grief to witness the death of Master Dog. Po and the Furious Five glanced at each other when Shifu did the same to his dear sister. Following most of the glances, Li Shan beckoned his head toward the green flash scene, and Mr. Ping puffed, widening his eyes.

Hissing charcoal of green cast its beam on the gallery and the temple, and the crowds' gasps intensified, bringing warriors' to feast their eyes on a familiar character. The following victim was dressed in battle armor with a long cloak, whose muscles were bulky and great horns towered, and his inky mane flowed in the air.