Beware what lies ahead of the North, my readers! Stay sharp!

-GZ

(Updated this chapter on 10/19/2021)


Episode 1: The Prince of Darkness ( 1 - 5 )


Chapter V

Yǐnxíng Summit

The snow thronged with frozen drops of ice beneath the skies in Tibet. Near a small village and mysterious mists of scourge mountains, a rabbit guided on a small road with his lantern each night to arrive at his cousin's house. Alone in the dark with only light, the snow breathed his cozy cloth, and the torch dimmed. A cold wind made the rabbit tremble his body. Not many villagers of this lonely village had to see him in the dark at once during a snowstorm, knowing he could find his way home on this ridge path a thousand times.

His warm garment and a torch could safely return to his wooden house not far enough on steep side rights near his homeland. The rabbit could not get himself other warm garments in this raging storm, which by day one, ice would frost living things enough. As his family occupied, most villagers in a steep side village could use fire in their house to keep themselves warm. They ensured no one would be frigid if they used too much wood to burn the rest.

The wind began to mute its shrieking streaks. Hell. I thought this storm could freeze my ears off. I am relieved! The rabbit stopped momentarily, his ears registering the soft silence as he slightly turned behind. His lantern brilliantly dazzled with dancing white-orange silks behind the sheet around it. But the lonely villager was not staring at his light. Something immovable over his surroundings ceased from the rage just as he almost returned to his home about the other side of steep side slopes below him. The snow immediately triggered with immovable drops in the air. The rabbit behind could not see the sparkling objects when the rabbit villager nearly returned home on the other side of steep rocks below him.

In the air and under the rent clouds, puffs of snow wafted with hesitation.

By the heavens. . . Am I cursed?

The lonely villager and his people comprehended that the mountain perching Northwest of Tibet was a damned terrain. Their stories once told by each generation that several people living in the forbidden boundary of the MengMeng Mountains kept disappearing. The villagers mentioned one that slept within the unknown could wake. The darkness snared on those who were closer to someone's territory. Only one made the wolf arrive home, who was the villager's grandfather's great-great grandfather's companion. He was almost smothered by solar glares on the ridges that hued gray. Somewhere the darkness occupied, about thirty-five miles from the village to MengMeng Mountains, stood one statue. And the wolf's old brother's red deer companion, bewitched by the sleeping darkness, murmured his revival spell on the warlord, commonly known as Ruler of Retaliation.

A fading scream crept above the sky. The rabbit squinted at a vulture carrying a large tan bag, whose eyes of velvet crimson sparkled on the villager. The squawk was not from the village; a muffled shriek screamed in the distance as the rabbit determined someone inside the bag where the vulture entangled it, spinning through the breeze of a snowstorm. Oh, no. Not another one! Behind the lone rabbit, the snow billowed with a snowstorm gust. And the bandit with his bag drifted away and beyond.

The vulture soared onward with his giant black wings, venturing long enough from China about two days behind him without stopping. His surroundings floated with vortex snow, which prevented the storm from his view. His talons gripped the knotted bag harder, which inside hollered with shrieking cries. "WHEE!" the vulture guffawed, swinging the bag like a ragdoll. "Your goose scream makes me laugh, Yao! HA!"

"PLEASE! LET ME LIVE!" The bird-napped goose named Yao wept and almost bellowed his sob after the blackbird cawed at him. The goose served with his master from Wolf Palace. His job was to send a confidential letter to someone crucial. Yao might have gone lost before he was captured alive. He believed that Master Wolf could search his supporter like him. How would anyone find Yao in Tibet when his teacher is in China? No one regarded the sleeping mountain except lone villagers and Chen Ming's grandmother — they were the ones who witnessed. And now Ming and Shifu, not knowing this rumor was confirmed.

The vulture immediately glanced through the mountains in his solar red eyes, spotting one of the flaming torches that waved near the tip of a Yǐnxíng Mountain covered in rime. Down toward steep sides, the gleaming gold eyes of Gorillas detected their ally with surrounding snow spheres. The apes steered a massive pirate wheel-like, with its sturdy rope that poured specks of ice stretching. A leopard who waved vulture with a torch cleansed white puffed snow using a spitfire from his mouth and burned to clear a hole path under the mountain.

Over many lights on the sides of this mountain were Gorillas with a giant steering wheels that immediately opened a large, flat entrance from the top of the ridge. For a moment, the vulture released his talon grip, freeing a goose inside the bag in mid-air near a tip. The bag was swallowed into the black hole, with Master Wolf's messenger shrieking with snowfalls.

Inside a deep opening, the bag plummeted like a raindrop. Surrounding Yao, warmness engulfed, and thunderous shouts swarmed as bandits occupied. Not a comfortable place to live under the mountain. The goose continued screeching horribly in the air as if he would never fly inside a bag. All the rocks below the hole were tinged with reddish veins. Thousands of sparkling eyes were living souls below — thousands of vicious warriors. Among these ridges were all the veins glossed with the orange underneath the mountain, filling with various artilleries and countless platoons. Crimson orbs emerged black vultures on the bag, their sharp talons snatching Yao with full force. Vicious creatures flung one and the next, deafening the poor bird's painful cry.

Up. Down. Up, and SLAM!

One vulture thumped the brown bag on the gray bridge, which its metallic platform structure sparkled with iron and velvet stars. After a short agony from Yao, the blackbirds trudged and dragged the messenger to the heart of the platform. The veins brightened a gush of blood over vast ridges as the shadow ribbons grew outnumbered. One vulture opened the bag and freed the messenger. "DON'T EAT ME! PLEASE!"

The vulture jostled his foot and shoved the goose on a thick rhyolite floor, invading his head near Yao's beak. "Nay! I find my beak to drink your splotches, birdie!"

"OI! My Lord!" one vulture ahead of the blackbird extended his wings with a flinch, bowing as the other stopped clenching and bent his body beside the bandit. Yao burst his fading sob while embracing his snow scroll with a wolf sigil dearly, and he surveyed the ribbon clouds that stood more mighty than countless bovines. Shadow silks breathed in and out with steady flows from its ruby scar muzzle under its left eye and nose, glooming its solar red eyes and large horns. Lingering on the rhyolite platform, the beast gazed at the poor messenger, whose beak and neck were quivering while Yao stumbled his gasp.

"Sir," the vulture on the right called to the shadow, tightly clenching his talon to the messenger's sleeve. "My ally has found him near Khong Mountain in China. This messenger has Master Wolf's scroll in his feathers, and that goose meat might message to someone important."

The shadow figure summoned crimson eyes, snatching Master Wolf's scroll on Yao's feathers with the cloudy hoof shade. The shadow scrutinized the manuscript after the goose immediately intimidated.

To whom I send my parchment to Gentle Dragon

I regard the upcoming Tournament from your message to send around China. I may have to send my messenger toward wherever the Gentle Dragon leads to any temple while I train my students. Inquire him when he is coming to my Snow Palace.

— Master Wolf

"Excellent work, Commander," a monstrous tone from the shadow uttered with murmurs to its lips, then placed the scroll on a large bag beside the second orb on the left. "Call out the army, and speed up their work as possible."

"Yes, sir," the vulture nodded and bounded off.

The shadowy figure of an enormous body roamed after the vulture dove to the bridge and screeched his snarl. The messenger could not do anything for himself to flee; once bandits were surrounding him, giving a grimacing look and growl toward an innocent goose. Yao rotated his neck in front as if the shadow clouds spoke inaudibly, and its crimson eyes went brighter than the fire. He visualized the shadow in black, revealing itself. An Ox, evilly smirking with a nasty scar below his left eye to black nostrils. He wore gray armor with gauntlets and a black kilt to his body. He drew a flaming sword, pointing to Yao's neck.

"Who are you sending this message to?" The Ox insisted on the terrifying goose.

Yao popped a single egg below the goose. Bandits and souls perplexed in their eyes. "Listen!" He tremored, swimming his neck quickly behind and front. "I do not want any trouble! Please, I'm just a messenger. I want to go home!"

"Your home is here now," The Ox immediately exhibited. "You go back to your land and report your master, and rumors will begin to spread, son of Tuan."

"How do you know about my—?!" Yao feared, but the Ox interrupted him.

"Your soul," The Ox identified the goose's life within his body.

He could name anyone's real identity from Ox's dark ability. "I sense your pitifulness soul in you, Yao."

The goose once again popped another egg as Yao trembled more. "I can set you free," the Ox craned his neck near the goose, his charcoal breath puffing. "But you'll have to clarify everything you must know about that message you are sending to who you deliver. Do such a favor for me."

"Who are you?" the goose demanded.

The Ox pulled and widened his arms back, smirking after sheathing the sword to his left waist. "I am the supreme Ruler of all of China," The Ox answered. "The essential warrior who skirmished people that built temples and repopulated their existence with knowledge of tranquility. Henceforth to who you demand ahead of this soldier you seek, is—"

"Prince Huoju!" the voice spawned beside the shadows. The Ox sighted the hawk, who clarified the goose after this bird soared beside his evil master. As the Ox named Huoju from one of the Emperor Khan's high warlords and a son depressed himself by closing his eyes. "The great tyrant who eradicated every master and student of all China. Known to himself as Ruler of Retaliation and always the Prince of Darkness."

Huoju shrunk his pupils after he glared his crimson eyes at the hawk. The Prince of Darkness swirled his blaze sword, nearly plunging the hawk's throat, silencing him and the rest of the servants. "You disgraced me by interfering in my presence and clarifying the messenger for my reputation," Huoju snapped. "The son of Tuan already knows my name. One more mistake, I will obliterate your existence. Return to my palace in thirty minutes, Ying."

Ying yelped and nodded. "Yes, my Prince," the hawk flew away.

Huoju dimmed his eyes and eyed his shoulder toward his servants, announcing them to return to their duties within this central mountain, including those on rocky temples. Countless red stars and a group of bandits dispersed with their echo complies. The Prince of Darkness unsheathed his flame sword, which the dancing fire hissed to its silence, appearing with sharp steel. "You'll have to come to my Throne Room," Huoju snatched the goose's front garment. "We'll discuss this privately."

The Ruler formed into pyroclastic clouds, soaring among the smoke trail as the messenger roared with frantic horrors. Ashes began to billow behind the streak. Below them, bandits watched their master fly beneath a vein mountain as the smoke searched a circular platform that Huoju occupied. The Throne Room was built with a chair and a table of bones. Within the inner hole from downstairs, the monument of a gray bovine in a long robe with a sword pinned to the floor stood, glimpsing down with a tense smirk.


Huoju shook the goose as the Ox gently thrust him to the table. The Prince sauntered beside the chair, caressing the hardened, black balcony with rocks, peering onto these lands. These horrific territories gathered with such sophisticated forms of stones where bandits camped their own homes, growing wickedness to spread immorality. Weapons sharpened, hammering metallic swords enough at the blacksmith somewhere near a steep rock. Every bandit growled from the fighting terrace near the sheer terrain with red smoke from many holes, brawling themselves in combat to face the battle. They trained to focus on killing the strong and weak. The Ruler was never a merciful warlord; he craved everyone's fear of death, impressing him on the darkest path.

Distant cries deafened as the Prince of Darkness surveyed the section paths near lava lakes. Within the metal bars were missing villagers and disloyal criminals — hundreds captured. Those captors were unfortunate to spread this news as Huoju sealed them from all of China to reveal who he was and his scheme; he would not let that happen.

Their laments that sang in his ears made the Ruler grin wickedly, facing forward while Master Wolf's messenger muttered in silence. "For over five hundred years of being resurrected, I desperately dishonored my father. He disapproved of his son for leaving every master behind who survived Qing Temple seven hundred years ago," Huoju said in desperation. "My father's wish was to conquer the land everywhere and slay life prosperity."

His father's harsh voice stormed in, vicious enough to hardly despise Emperor Khan, who swore deed with great power. Not able to neglect that he was always his father; his son Huoju would obey to carry their legacy, even after Khan's death. Gold was their virtue, and their power remained fierce, the Prince of Darkness envisioned. Prince Huoju bent his glare to the poor goose and roamed to him. "I will ask you one final time," Huoju again summoned his flame sword, his shadow hoof snatching the goose. He directly aimed the tip of the billowing fire on the messenger's throat close to him. "Who are you sending this message to, son of Tuan?"

His sword continued slithering the dancing fire under Yao's throat; the fire crackled and nearly burned his feathers. The goose screeched; Huoju heaved his razor sword as the blade wailed, and Yao immediately bellowed.

"NO! I CAN TELL YOU! PLEASE!" Yao covered his wings to his head from the flames. "Master Wolf... Forgive me!"

The Ox chuckled. He slightly sheathed his fire sword away next to his kilt. Huoju swirled shadows behind the goose after dropping the messenger to the hardened platform, vanishing the smoke with a gale.

"Do you forgive him?" Huoju inquired to him wickedly. "Perhaps your master will punish your life."

"Yes…" Yao trembled his body, shattering his cry. He did not want to be dead or killed otherwise, nor disgraced to Master Wolf, who had loved him ever since the messenger worked for him for almost fifteen years. "I am sending this letter message… to the Gentle Dragon."

"Who is the Gentle Dragon?"

"The Emperor of China."

"Emperor," Huoju vibrated his silky voice, dazzling his red eyes at the goose's trembling eyes. "Is that right?"

"Yes…" He startled.

The Prince of Darkness stormed his shadows in the goose's beak, browsing through the list of Emperor names from many centuries, which he carelessly bothered them. He advanced within the golden temple of Forbidden City. And within the Gentle Dragon's Throne Room, Master Wolf's messenger stood on the balcony and met an elegant, elder gray water buffalo in a yellow silk robe with detailed black dragon and yellow eyes in front last week. "Emperor Huangdi," Huoju named the current Emperor of China of the Song Dynasty. He insisted on Yao. "What does the Gentle Dragon interest now?"

Yao forced his beak to be open, mumbling as if the messenger quivered his mouth and stammered. "He... he interests all classes to enjoy martial arts…" the goose explained. "And someday, within a month from now, he'll soon choose any top three to challenge in the tournament."

"Such a spirit," Huoju affirmed, turning behind the balcony and glaring at the veins of the platforms. "He is constructing the Tournament. That will gather all masters and students there, those who have their forefathers' blood, their forefathers who survived the Qing Temple. Once everyone is there, no one in this life will continue to exist, making my father proud, even in his death."

Huoju swiftly turned and demanded the goose with a mild grimace. "When is the Tournament will open?"

"I do not know," Yao shook his head. The goose knew the Tournament could open, enabling the Gentle Dragon to invite all masters and villagers to one area. Yao could not answer truthfully but added a brief instead. "All I know is that the Emperor craves viewing in Kung Fu and all martial arts classes. I swear! Beg my life, mercy!"

Huoju laughed at once with a scoff. "Very well," Huoju forgave and affirmed. "Before I let you go, you'll have to send me every rumor you overhear from the Emperor and all masters."

Yao snapped, widening. "Why?!"

"I only want a messenger," The Ox craved. "For what purpose is by listening much intelligence to share. No other agents of mine will travel their wings to legit. But," the Prince eagerly met Yao's eyes and his soul. "You are one of Master Wolf's best messengers, traveling faster in the sky with stronger wings."

"Oh, dear…" Yao quivered rapidly.

"My vulture companion will watch your back while you soar to China. Travel with him to the Emperor's homeland and several palaces without your master's monastery," the Prince of Darkness strolled closer to the goose, clenching Yao's robe in the air. Huoju snouted his charcoal fire breath at him. "If my vulture loses sight of you while you return to Master Wolf's palace, torments may occur. By clarifying everything to either masters or the Emperor about me, my whereabouts, and schemes of mine, I will burn you alive."

Yao drained multiple eggs after a terrifying feeling from the deranged Ox. Huoju ignored the eggs. "Are we understanding?"

"Yes!" Yao cried softly.

"Good!" Huoju chuckled evilly. "By then, you return each time, and you will call me master. Now leave this mountain at once! Get out and go to the Emperor's Palace!"

He tossed the frightening goose in mid-air. Yao soared higher as he went, and the vulture immediately pursued him as long as he obeyed his master's command. The loathsomeness bird guided Master Wolf's messenger above the hole where the goose fell before; both birds escorted themselves out and disappeared. Now, as the Prince of Darkness respired from agitation mind, footsteps croaked behind Huoju.

"New crocodile bandits have arrived, my Prince," the soul badger in midnight vest noted the Prince of Darkness before the bandit cleared his throat. "Their leader assembled his men. They are interested in your potential plan."

"Remarkable," The Ox pleased.

The badger took a glimpse of the black table with skulls. The bandit looked at five large eggs that the messenger had hatched. His spine shivered with coldness as his feeling climbed to the back of his neck. "Um... sir? When did that happen?" the badger pointed.

The Ox turned to his table skulls and followed his servant's gaze. "Where are these things come from, Liu?" He rolled his head with bewilderment.

"Er — Oh, these things are eggs, your Grace. They came from underneath—"

"You do not have to inform me," Huoju raised his hoof. "Gather the crocodiles to the training. I will arrive there in the next hour."

The badger nodded as the bandit strolled beside him and was about to leap. The Prince held his left hoof open. "Liu. One more thing before you soar yourself across the terrain. Inform my bird soldier who occupies alone within his dungeon. Tell him to come to my Throne Room immediately. I shall speak with my colleague after Ying's presence."

"Yes, my Prince," Liu nodded, then vortexed his body into a red orb, soaring away from Huoju's Throne Room and deep down to a steep side rock ahead of Ox.


Shortly after Liu's dismissal, Prince Huoju sauntered through the hollow inside his Throne Room from downstairs. The petrified statue ahead of Huoju stood beyond large rocks behind as if the Prince peered only at a stone figure. He lightened red candles before the massive bovine figure in a long robe carrying a sword. Huoju immediately prayed to Emperor Khan's character, which was duplicated from Mengmeng Mountains. The Ruler of Retaliation knelt before the monument, praying to his father.

"I have found what I've been waiting for," Prince Huoji lightened all crimson and orange candles that wafted cherry and tangerine in his muzzle. Lights emerged from the rest of his father's belongings and the tower banners under Emperor Khan's feet. The next was the iron shield with black paint of fire symbol, the golden cape, and the thorn crown beside the cloak. "The messenger shall overhear any such rumors about this 'Tournament' from the Emperor… Whoever this person is, I will strip his title and reclaim what yours is, father. I foresee the great one who succeeds, outnumbering those who bear their glories. Parasites shall see the Prince of Darkness's wrath in the name of my master's achievement."

Huoju was concerned. The Ox respectfully listened within a mind of shadows. He could hear his father's past over his head. Each candle floated like lanterns of ash, lightened through stones where the Ox reincarnated beside his father near the Méngméng Mountains. The voice deepened its whisper like a snarl, and Huoju raised his chin.

"Your life as so-called the Prince's Wrath evolves procrastination, lingering the waste of your potential, Huoju," whispered the rusty voice of Huoju's father. "The Master of Death expects your greatness, decaying those who serve their righteousness. Their light and dark balance the universe. And darkness should swallow the whole."

"The light will fade, Father. Now this age seems to be the year of the Ox; the day will be promising, feeding the people's fears. Many will bow to your son."

We shall see.

Everything returned to normal after the Prince's prayer. The candles immediately lightened the rocks over the hollow. Heavy footsteps approached from the Throne Room above the stairs. The Prince of Darkness met scarlet eyes, pure as the sun, and revealed itself as the black bear in scathe armor and black kilt. "Praying to your father, again, are you?" the bear asked with boldness and elegance. "He has been insulting you in front of his presence."

"Whether he still insults me or not, he's still my father, Mingling," Prince Huoju spoke to her while eying on the bovine statue. "After centuries while building our army, those people in China focus comfort, not a single rebellion to reveal and defend their land."

"No wonder how the Chinese spread their joys for the last ten years," Mingling determined with her vicious grin. "They cry out to their hero who saved the country, do not stop talking about him."

"When you went to China, surveying outcast bandits that you invite them to my clan, who is this warrior that his souls call him the People's Hero?" Huoju asked. "Or the other title they name him — Dragon Warrior?"

"Only I perceived him once from new blood soldiers. They mentioned that he does not stop eating bamboo sticks," the black bear referenced. "The worst kind that I am glad not to be lazy."

The Prince of Darkness chuckled. "Mockery suits you well."

As I have been, my champion. Mingling fiddled her claw fingers on the bovine's bulky limbs and palmed his cheek, making Huoju turn to the black bear with a genuine smile. "Ying awaits you in the Throne Room."


Moments later, the Throne Room glimmered to dark and violet stones within the whole extent. The hawk sat on the chair to the left side of the table as Huoju locked his solar glare at the poor soldier. The black bear, who stood beside the Ruler of Retaliation, extended her right claw, bending her muzzle at Ying. The two tyrants scrutinized the bird's expression well enough: one had the brilliance of inner feelings, and the second was the brute-crushing bones. Such wasteful for being stupid, Ying. How long will he be when interruptions of his make my champion piss off even more? Mingling shook her head.

"My Prince Huoju and my Lady Mingling," begged Ying, adjusting his back while sitting on his chair. "For the last decade, I've been your loyal servant; I did achieve several that some were failures, but finished difficult victories. I do not mean to interfere with you, my Prince, while I helped the poor messenger to identify you as the great one."

"You imbecile," Huoju grimaced, stabbing the dagger into the pile of a rock table. "You apologize too much for many mistakes. Tell me, Ying. How many of my men are in this mountain?"

The hawk slightly opened his brown beak, then closed inaudibly. "About exactly thirty thousand, my Prince," Ying counted the current numbers of Huoju's army.

Huoju clenched his hoofs, tensing his cheek through his nose, glaring directly into the bird's eyes. "Thirty thousand?" Huoju repeated. "I want more than thirty thousand men. Is there anyone in China who has not interested in my army?" He snapped his head away from the bird.

"Not yet, my Prince," Ying could not realize other bandits' interest. Nevertheless, he saw Huoju's hoof dazzle into flames. The hawk noticed his master listening to him, having alone with him and the bear who endlessly smirked with a sense of sharp red eyes at Ying, and the Ox reflected on strangling this bird. "But there is something that could help you gain—"

"Gain on what?" Huoju interrupted the bird's words solemnly, turning to Ying.

Ying inhaled to his beak inaudibly, stumbling his words within a second, and replied. "There is a trio somewhere in Chorh-Gom Prison who can build more army you'll ever have."

The Prince landed his hoofs on the table, leaning and craning his neck forward to Ying; the hawk shook his neck. "Trio?" The Ox determined interestingly. "What are the three, Ying?"

"The Wu Sisters," Ying named the legendary criminals; Huoju bent his head to the right. The black bear relaxed her determined eyes at the Prince of Darkness once the hawk clarified again. "They were the ones who gathered many bandits using banners and recruitment posters across China before, as all three sisters planned to claim China for a purpose. About six years earlier, the Kung Fu Council of Gongmen City reasoned with the Emperor of China. The jail near Jiānyù Tǔdì in China does not contain Wu Sisters to use sarcophaguses to them. Those correctional rhino guards transported the three leopards to Chorh-Gom Prison less than a week from here in Tibet."

"Charming," Huoju crooned with fascination; he drew his body back from the table after leaning ahead of the bird. The Ox revolved to the bear next to the door as the grizzly grinned and nodded. "We'll set them free and soon join my clan."

"You want the Wu Sisters?" the hawk asked, rising from the table's chair. "My Prince, thousands of rhino guards are protecting the prison!"

The bear's eyes hued scarlet into violet close to her pupils, meeting the hawk's trembling eyes. She merged bits of shadow towards Ying's beak. Ying's body stoned without an inch as his heart stopped pulsing, smothering to neck and lungs, becoming purple as Ying's eyes lightly shaded to tears, stumbling to the floor. The bear roamed close to the bird; stifled with an intense grip, Ying's eyes began to color light red with veins.

Huoju palmed the black bear's silky ink shoulder; the bear's purple velvet eyes reverted to scarlet. The hawk rasped and inhaled, coughing harder.

"You learned your lesson, Ying," Huoju warned the hawk. "Can you not see I am interested in growing more army I will ever have? I require everything else to prepare before advancing to war!"

The Ox threw a fire dagger beside his flaming sword and nearly stabbed the hawk's throat. Ying trembled after yelping before the weapon floated, returning the Prince's hand. "And now, I have the proposition for you. Search for bandits and exiled combatants interested in my clan claiming China. Make sure no light will overhear my scheme. Is that clear?"

"Yes, master," the hawk nodded gruffly.

"Soar across China with vultures. Do not return unless you give me more than thirty thousand men."

Ying extended his wings and soared away, far to the ridge entrance above the mountain, to search for any bandits around China interested in his master's plan. The Ox's state of mind grew outraged, inhaling and exhaling through his nose like a bull's growl.

"This imbecile should not have existed in my presence," Huoju grimaced, shaking his head. One way or another, if Ying ever mocked his stupidity in my presence, the rest of his flesh would rip apart.

Clinging steps behind two wicked warriors echoed near the circular stairway. Huoju glanced forward at the fires beneath those terrains; the bear beside him gazed at a welcoming visitor. Hidden from hues, a shadow form with red-orange eyes strolled with iron claws, scraping the floor with a tap.

"Leave us, Mingling. My companion and I should discuss this private conversation. You go scout with your archers marching forward to crocodile armies, where they arrive in front of the gate. I will be with you in a moment," Huoju ordered the bear affectionately.

The black bear nodded, spiraling her body into a red star, and soared across the southwest of the mountain entrance.

"My Prince Huoju. You summoned me?" the elder voice crooned behind the Ox.

"Yes," Huoju smirked, eradicating his grimace and inhaling his nose breathy. "You have not been around in my Throne Room for months."

"Sometimes, I preferred myself to meet you in some time," the elder voice said ordinarily. "The only matter I do that is by glancing your bandits and must go solitary."

"Solitary fits you from being disturbed. On the contrary from loneliness, you supported my men well," the Prince of Darkness said. "So, my dear friend. What troubles to you?"

"My vision had a brief glimpse through my attempts. Not as worth satisfying that affection was oddly rare. The past persists to be buried."

"You've had to reflect on those who pretended to use their affection to you," the Prince apprehended someone behind him in shadows without glimpsing behind. He only surveyed reddish veins over the vast inner mountain in front, filled with all souls and bandits working much harder. "The rumor from the goose is true. He has now begun to acknowledge my command."

"Just as you have a scheme," the elder understood. The shadow of a bird with a long neck tugged his feathers within long sleeves. "I overheard your grimacing tone across the circular stairway before my arrival. Did Ying frustrate you once more?"

"The hawk made me desperate," Huoju shook his head icily, facing the stone terrain. "Ying made mistakes. He was the first to befriend you since you resided in your cavern after arrival."

"Shall I silence Ying after his return?"

"No," Huoju refused. "Leave that to me. Let him live for a short time until one final mistake." The Ruler could see Ying above a hole in the mountain.

The Prince of Darkness cast his zen glare into his servant, shadows of silky gray ribbons streaming in the clouds. The flash of disturbance, loss, selflessness, and defeat by the hero's icon bellowed its shrieking smoke from the golden plate, Yin-Yang. Within different sights of the distant memory, Huoju contemplated gongs of metal hammering with forge and wolf howls bearing across the sea of breeze, the water hissing. "The divination requires explanatory, which unveils fear of knowing how one's destiny ends, but to prevent prediction from happening, son of Feng," Prince Huoju urged his follower. "That fate, you once spoke to me, is history. The next era will fulfill my father's retribution, and the light will fade."

In the dark denim depths that Huoju manifested in, hulls floated onward with soft foams, a rent crimson sail with an eye sigil rising with tangled ropes. The shadow cloud heaved the metal barrel; flesh and bones of white left with muscle fragments, cracking its head open. The shadow's hoof cast its frothy yellow blaze in the white's heart, thundering the form's mouth scream into the inferno sphere.

Waking from his brief sensation, Huoju turned his solar red eyes at a cunning person who desired to claim something that belonged to that familiar character. "You grasp Gongmen City, and I will have the world, Shen."

The metal on a peacock's feet scraped while stepping out of the shadow. Dark feathers over the bird's gray robe revealed the color of feather markings over the train: red, white, and black. The Prince of Darkness and Lord of Gongmen grinned wickedly. "I accept, Master," Lord Shen agreed.