Volume Four: Snow and Fire

Chapter VI

Where to Start

June 8, 1211

The tiger was ready to work at Mrs. Yan's farm, beginning to use the large crate with sharp tools from behind by scraping the soil for more rooms to fill with loads of seeds. Finding himself stubborn about earning more yuans for his grandmother's temple, Chen Xing needed to work after realizing Chen Ming's revelation of her late monthly fees had him, and the students filled their minds with worriedness. After Chen Xing had his yuans from the anonymous subject in favor of him and the Nine for saving the town and in Gongmen City, he thought he could borrow a few of five figures as their temple had stood for almost two decades. And their house remained more potent than ever, keeping the Shui Palace's maintenance under warranty.

The bunny in her rose-pink tops and brown trousers volunteered her role to be the Prosper Valley's sentry, patrolling the village's streets. Her needing a partner to survey the residential areas and business places across the alleyways with their board signs was preferable, and Lotus decided to join her company. Fanshe had his turn to observe the Shui Palace under supervision as Chen Ming determined to hear visitors who would be taking their detours around the hall inside. Rather than having Chen Xing do the burdening duty, Zhong, Kai, and Bao Gorilla participated in helping the tiger and Mrs. Yan's requirements.

Alone with his struggles to haul the plow with four deep blades and two handles, Chen Xing presented his resilient strength forward, one leg and the other stepping to a rigid while pulling the device harder, growing tiredness in amounts of his force. He had his walk with the large scraper across a thousand yards back and forth twice, neglecting the fatigue.

The tiger never wanted help from the Nine, regardless that Xing was the same ever since the Fellowship competed against the disbanded class — the Lu Disciples. After the two temples agreed with the Shaolin Court not to engage in their conflicts (Lu Disciple's teacher delivered his first blood and disobeyed the monk judges) after Chen Xing and his former late competitor Wang prevailed in their bloodbath in the tournament, the tiger wished to wash off the recent events that kept triggering him. Instead of thrashing the dummies for endless days while his fists were fragmented with cherry blotches, criticizing the deer teacher and his students, he thought of one suggestion from his grandmother, who craved her grandson to do their neighbor's work. That Xing became new as the farmer's burdener, carrying and heaving the crate wheels with the loads numbed his belligerence — buried all the tension and anger.

The tiger's distraction of reflecting on his late competitor made his foot trip on the small boulder, tumbling him forward without warning. Received a minor bruise on his left knee, Xing let out his stressed breaths rather than gritting his sharp teeth. Strengthening his durability from exhaustion, he stood and dusted off bits of soil from his knee, and behemoth steps thumping close from his presence emerged his student, grasping the plow handle.

None had their words to speak with, but understood well that Chen Xing required assistance after his solo hard work. Heaving the plow with one handle and the other, Xing and Kai advanced, the four blades ripping the weeds much quicker. Adjunct as the tiger expected his hard work to finish, Xing looked over the vineyard lines that the seeds planted, readying for more food for the whole village. Beside Kai and Xing, observing the yard, Mrs. Yan thrilled her voice with encouragement as she noticed the tiger's help from the yak. Giving her gratitude to the giant, the sow farmer manifested them large rounds of pocket bags full of mixed seeds of radishes and all kinds of vegetables. She predicted the rain would fall within a few hours, and knowing that the charcoal clouds crept and hovered from the east, summoning the whispering thunderclaps, the group and the farmers advanced their routines.

Kai poured seeds one way and the other while walking across the vineyard back and forth, and both Chen Xing and Wolf Boss did the same by the yak's sides. Zhong heightened his sharp whistles, performing his zen song as he inspired the brotherhood song, which had the wolf liking the taste of the warlords' succession to bring justice against the corrupt and for the people of China. Kai could see his growth and recognition, though his initial idea of wanting the souls to fear the Supreme Warlord was behind it all, the past remaining history. Since his old friend submitted his title and decided to face the change, Kai would have done the same. But now, the changes ahead of the yak grew scarce, the light of his seed expanding its growth a little to understanding nature and tranquility.

One drop of cool water struck and drooped on Kai's mane as he and the two warriors watched the vineyard planted with thousands of seeds under the soil. Other farmers across the next meadow were on the water, placing rice plants on each row before Mrs. Yan finished stacking other rice on the coach wagon, which had grown large for a few weeks. Five to thirty drops later, the clouds writhed into showers; many returned to their homes.

Pacing their runs across the wide road from the farmhouse, Kai, Xing, Bao Gorilla, and Wolf Boss made their way to the Shui Palace's front brick wall and opened the doorway. Other arrivals emerged. Lotus and Hong stormed through and entered with them. Most students' clothes were lightly soaked, but Master Chen Xing advised them to take their baths as the storm flooded the dusk sunlight, soon inviting the night.

Kai and Chen Xing were the last to enter the small pool, brushing their furs with bars of soap.

The water pouring on the yak's head was undisturbed when Kai scrubbed his armpits with soap, relieving to see most of the dirt washed away.

"I... I never get to say thanks back there, Kai. But," the tiger worded him with appreciation after a prolonged sigh. "Thanks for helping."

"Hmm," the yak's throat stiffened to a kind manner. "I had hoped you needed a hand back there. You often do your own thing at your neighbor's farmhouse?"

"Most of the time," Xing answered, washing his torso. "I could do the burdener job without any help. It has been my way of doing the work instead of having some assistance."

The bovine arched his sight on him with curiosity. "You never asked for help?"

"Sometimes I need help at work, but I learned the hard way," Chen Xing answered. "Instead of working alone across the vineyard, plowing the land, I needed a big muscle by my side."

The yak's snout of understanding strengthened, presenting his smirk as Kai wrenched the left side of his mane. "So, how did it feel to be helped by someone like me?"

The tiger thought of his student assisting for the past few months. Chen Xing mainly had a few giants — Bao, Niu, Shou, and Zhao — put a few fighting modules in the storage beside the palace's sitting stand. As only four of the Nine lived in Gongmen City with the Masters Ox, Croc, and Boar, the tiger had Bao to carry most of the dummies and lethal blades. Albeit slight changes that Bao wanted to patrol the town with his serpent companion, Chen Ming allowed Kai to give her grandson some acquaintance with his needs when Zhong maintained his healing meditation process with his daughter Lotus.

"It means something, Kai," the tiger said, finding his tone wander off with caring. "I never thought I could have a big warrior standing close to me like a bodyguard or something, unlike Niu — my brother. Whether in fighting or not, he's like a big brother checking on his little brother. The same goes for me looking after my best friend Lao and my sisters."

"The boy looks like I knew someone before," Kai thought, washing the other side of his mane on his shoulder. "Considering how mighty he was, he had a big brother — smaller, like you."

"One of your boys?" Xing asked.

"Yes."

The tiger's student could come up with his thoughts about his soldiers but still forbade him to mention the past because Kai had bitter judgments, including his actions that made him drain his reputation with his tortoise brother. Xing reckoned that the yak's soldiers were Kai's sons — one for the giant, and the other for the odd warrior compared to Chen Xing, but not as clever as the next Sun Tzu if he was a decent warlord who knew more than a hundred battles across China.

Chen Xing still remembered the night after Lao's wedding. After drunkness conquered his mind, the tiger heard his student mistake his name while spitting rice for a triumph, defeating the evil specter who robbed all five souls and tricked them into Deng Wa's puppets. Xing wanted to know more about Kai mentioning the soldier. Who was Dakai? He still thought about him.

"Your Nana knows what you are thinking, Kitten," Kai said. "She and I spoke earlier that you could not stop staring at something you wished for. Isn't that what you feel you have wanted for the longest time?"

"Like what is that I have wanted?"

"Having a papa?"

Nana sees too much, and she knows that more than her grandchild.

Chen Xing deepened his mind about seeing his sister with her biological parent the moment he craved to have one. The rest of the tiger's youth days broke his heart when no parents were around him. Most of his missions led him to watch thousands of children spend their time with fathers and father figures, and, for his desire, he wished to have one who could guide and protect him. But his mothers did; his grandmother nursed him since Xing's birth, and his peacock brother's mother nestled him and their children.

"When I think of someone, Kai, like Zhong, who looks after his daughter," Chen Xing brooded, looking down the ripple reflection of a scarred tiger. "I wish I could feel what my sister feels. Being so loved by him."

"You are his son," Kai expressed.

"He treats me like I am his boy, but I am not his child," the tiger regarded.

"So, what is wrong with that?" Kai sharpened his query at him with a bold tone.

"I mean..." the tiger's words faltered. "Zhong's trying to be a dad."

"From the wolf's way of loving, Puppy is enjoying a better life being part of your family," Kai said, determining. "Hmm. I suppose you want his attention more."

If Little Kitten thinks I am that one.

Kai flipped his mane backward before vaulting over the platform, leaving heavy waterfalls from his back. Scrubbing the fur with his towel, the yak wrapped it around his waist. "Your friends are waiting for dinner. Do you and Nana have a rice ball?"

"Yeah, we should have," Chen Xing smirked, stretching his digit with determination. "I'll serve you the best one you like."

"Oh yeah?"

"You'll see."

The yak's anticipation of trying out Chen Ming's rice ball became expected. The Nine served their radishes and a side of noodle soups as Chen Xing wished for his grandmother to start cooking pasta and their dumplings with rice balls. Gods to be. . . Kai, without hesitation, chewed most of the dumplings ravenously and without a word to share his voice with the students. Deep in his thoughts, he craved to speak with him about his long history of the Great War battles. Though his experience of bitter events filled his mind, he would instead not mention it. But finding another satirical surprise from one of them had cheered his spirit, liking Wolf Boss, who impersonated the general in his dark green lamellar armor and a battle helmet.

Lotus burst his cry of laughter, and her feline brother, Xing, unveiled his smirk when chewing a large chunk of dumplings and radishes in his mouth. What a day. Xing thought.

Pardoning his companions to take a walk, the tiger entered the Nine's Hall, as most of the paintings on the structures were vivid and alive, stretching across the beginning of the Qing Temple's destruction to the end of the newest history before the Second Gongmen Battle. The emerald vortex with dots of swarming fireballs floated above Guangxi terrain in shadows, and within the storm emerged the face of the evil badger sorcerer in the deer's body.

In between the entry of the Second Gongmen Battle and Deng Wa's Rage, Xing looked in another corridor with a sigil of trees and antlers, and the symbol belonged to a discontinued temple that separated all the antelope students — the Lu Disciples. Thanking the heavens that all of them were in one piece, Chen Xing was glad not to confront their teacher, who was behind the living cell inside the dragon's heart in Jianyu Prison; the guards claimed Wang was the cause of his first-degree murder, but many were wrong. Xing heard from Kai that Deng Wa was the one who killed him in the lion's vision.

Passed on the corridor, which was under near complete construction, the walls carved with tree branches plaguing with roots before the rotten apple. Most displays carried volumes of old-fashioned texts with wrapped scrolls of green ribbons, the list of previous deer masters before the grandfather of Wang.

Xing came into this gallery of Lu Disciples, more likely his quotidian routine for him to check a few volumes of who they were after the Great War. Before the rest, one soldier from Tibet survived the rain of black arrows. Lu's conception of writing the history of how he lived through the tale was bittersweet and tragic; most were passed with generations, starting from a soldier to peasants, peasants to nobles, and nobles before one descendant decided to build a martial arts temple.

The tiger stopped and glanced at the painting of his late competitor in the middle of the Antelope brothers. His reflection sank him with remorse.

I wish you were here, Wang.

January 20, 1211

A day after Lord Dongji and Lady Huiliang's Marriage

Most of the windows washed the interiors with pumpkin lights from the dawn outside the Tower of the Holy Flame, and Chen Xing had his company with his peahen mother, Lady Xia. On the night celebrating Lord Dongji and Lady Huiliang's marriage, the two conversed with the former Lu Disciple member who mentioned his late teacher's crime that the Shaolin Court accused Le of; neither of the people believed his innocence. The peahen regarded her son's emotional behavior that Xing shared his sympathy for the antelope's loss; after the tiger lowered his head on his forearms, she wished for him to share his grief the next day rather than showing his tears ahead of the spectators at the wedding.

Strolling down the stairs before reaching the Holy Flame's Garden, the flowers blooming outside, the peahen and the tiger sat on the stair floor and looked upon the sea's ripples glinting, the waters beating and retreating with calm rhythms. The two were bundled in warm garments of light blue and black trousers and turquoise with pink hanfu with a red rose shawl over her right shoulder.

"Beautiful. . ." the tiger gaped, arching his eyes. Smiling, Xing looked upon the sky and the flowers. "Everywhere else."

The peahen, turning to him, leaned her head close to him. "Mama knows you have troubles, my kitten," Lady Xia regarded. "Mama knows you have been through what your Nana told me — about your former competitor. Wang."

The name of his former competitor stung in the tiger's stitched heart with sharp pricks. The name of the second and former Jade Slayer struck the tiger's back with ice. Unveiling his downcast face and lowering his black ears, Chen Xing closed his silver eyes, knowing the time of his grief was imminent. "Could you fetch us some water, my dear?" Lady Xia requested the dow maid, whose fluttering robe of gold made her head bob and disappear.

Knowing one failure that the tiger could have kept a promise for the past month, Xing thought of Wang more and always wished that either of the red deer's struggles could not happen. He began to sit on the step before his mother joined him on his side. "You and the Nine handled small attacks from Lu Disciples. I know you and your students had bitter conflicts at each other's throats but did not end well to Lu Disciples's fate. Everything that those students mastered the bad ways, my kitten, they were from their teacher's ways. You had seen what was worse from Wang's father, my child."

The tiger's face remained unresponsive, but his eyes looked down to his feet, listening to his mother's heavenly voice. "I was told by someone who truly cares about you dearly that if you wished to bring Le's son home here, he would have changed at the next chapter to heal his heart and mind," Lady Xia continued, her sympathetic voice sharpening than the last. The peahen rounded her aquatic wing behind his back. "If you brought your former competitor to Shui Palace, what would have happened to him if his father could do such a terrible thing?"

"Either way, Mom," Xing answered, his tone weighing down. "If that abusive parent would have come to my Palace and wanted his son for more damages, I would stand with Wang from Le."

"You ever thought he would have lived with a horrible father of his?" Xia asked.

"His dad went too far," the tiger expressed in his calm tone, having her sight Xing's lips curl downward. "He was the one to be blamed for abusing his only son."

"Should I give you my plain explanation to you before. . . before the Jade Antlers occurred?" she reminded him. "Wang left home. He left home for his prime purpose, Xing."

His black ears flickering upward was detected, gradually motioning his head to her. Lady Xia spoke more. "One of his antelope brothers came to my son's throne room about a week before Deng Wa's incident. Han spoke the truth in every word he clarified to Dongji. Their former master forced his way for his students to rip everyone's fortunes. The last time Han saw Wang was a week after the Second Gongmen Battle. He and his brother did speak final words to each other as Wang carried out his journey."

Debris flooded in at every corner where Gongmen City was bathed in the fires before the whole land was swaddled in dark gray ashes, puffing a few black clouds of smoke from the falling residential areas. At every turn, the roads piled with victims and soldiers who cleared out the mess with wagons and shovels, one by one from the giants holding one stone before the rubbles piled to one and the other. The antelope Han was blanketed in silvery ashes and swam his head, searching for his brother across the wasteland. For hours, he observed most of the wounded civilians and warriors at every seven feet, most laying dead across the streets and under the pile of rubble with their hands out. Han threw up after he saw a stiff body from the debris; the mouth dried with a gore drooping down.

"By the Gods. . ."

He moved on and pressed onward, looking for Le's son where he could be anywhere beyond the city in near-ruins. Finding the physicians who expanded the stretchers close to the single-story building of charcoal gray powders, Han neared the area where only a few injured fighters emerged, unlike the masters or Huangdi's allies. One who stood taller ahead of him was a large stag giving his maroon eye gaze at Han, robed in his green tunic with gold and red tribal patterns and a long black hooded cloak, mostly bathed with dark gray dust — unlike his kind, unlike Wang. Between them, the antelope in dark emerald tops with a silver sail pin and brown trousers was on the stretcher, lying unconscious but barely wheezed. Gladly, thanking the heavens, the survivor was not one of the Lu Disciples.

Surveying the complex hill roads one more time, almost giving up to return to his class, Han could see another deer standing alone at the northwest boulevard. At this time, the form was easily recognizable, and Han filled his breath with spirit and relief, squinted, and approached closer to the road's slope. The deer had ebony antlers sharpened like metal blades, dark green robes, and onyx trousers.

"Brother!" Han stormed to him before Wang turned.

"Han!" the red deer clutched his arms around the antelope and heightened his chuckles. "You are alive."

"Same as us, Wang," Han said, refusing to let go of him. "I thought I lost you."

"I thought I did. . ."

The antelope and the deer continued speaking to one another, although mentioning what they fought around the city before the Lu Disciples separated during the siege and the black dragon. A few survivors clearing out the debris at the front of the blacksmith store with a sign of two hammers mentioned the heroes from the Jade Palace and the Shui Palace had departed Gongmen City, returning to their homes. Han noticed one of the Nine became the rightful heir to the Holy Flame's Throne. Not only the young peacock was the Prince of Gongmen, but the Will note from Shen's parents, Lord Feng and Lady Muqin, wished for their grandson to reign the house, and the Emperor of China granted his late friend's wish to inherit Dongji as the Lord of Gongmen. Only four members stayed with the Masters of Gongmen.

"Did anyone survive?" Wang asked Han, observing the west hill country before the behemoth ridges.

"Everybody, including your dad," the antelope answered. "All of them are in one piece. And they are still occupying the tent quarters near the Harbor. But I haven't been found yet. I cannot go back there because you know your dad is picky about me, and he does get angry if I cannot bring you to him."

Wang's throat was hummed, quite understanding. "Your dad is looking for you, brother. We all are."

"Han. I. . ." the red deer cleared his rough throat, turning to him. "I need to tell you. Remember what I wanted to go for the adventure since we were little?"

"Yeah?"

"Instead of coming back home," Wang drooped his head. "I. . . I really need to go."

"To go?" Han repeated with surprise. "Where?"

"Somewhere, I will never be bothered by the poison apple," the deer answered. "The tree has been rotten with all the bad, and one apple must fall and grow its seed to be fully grown again."

Han figured their connection with their teacher was resentful despite the aggression and dominance that had overthrown his students with abusive manners. "You. . . You are leaving?" Han arched his brows.

"I am, Han," Wang answered. "We all know what my dad is capable of, and he has gone mad, always the same him when my mom —"

The deer lessened his breaths from anxiety. "When my mom abandoned me."

"Our brothers and I don't want to stay behind. . . We will find a way to disappear from your dad for good," Han said. "We can work things out."

"We planned this for a while. That is my opportunity to go on my own," Wang told him. "After the tournament's conclusion, the Shaolin Court forbade us from promoting and antagonizing all the classes. Since, if you have not noticed, I have intended to leave Lu Disciple for five years, Han. And now, this is my chance."

"You know your dad will be worried," the antelope forewarned.

"Let him. . . I am never going back."

The deer's honesty had Han hesitate, but he was genuine about his friend's departure. Sighting his teacher abusing his son had enough answers. "Where will you go, Wang?" Han begged. "I swear to you. Neither of them will know but me."

"I'll have to find my mother in China. Somewhere, she could accept me if she's alive," Wang held his head high, now glancing at the West. "If not. . . there's only one way I can live at the temple if all nine students allow me to be part of them."

"The Nine are genuine people, brother. The tiger and his white dragon saved us all from that Ox monster," Han remembered, meeting his companion's eyes. "How will their leader be able to accept you?"

"I need my time to think about joining them. The Nine are not ready for me yet," Wang said, alleviating his posture. "Han, Xing almost lost his good eye; I pity him. I should wait for Xing to recover. They expect not only me, you, and our brothers to owe apologies to them for everything we did wrong. I will go to their home whenever I am ready. When his dragon is soaring in the sky."

The antelope took moments observing the western terrain, thinking of him and his buddy in early times rather than being forced from their teacher's actions. "I wish I could come to you, away from Le. . ." Han wished, expressing his face with uncertainty and sadness. "He'll torture me and our brothers if he strongly desires. . ."

Wang watched his friend stand ahead of him. "But I will not tell him where I found you. I only know you are missing."

Han regarded the deer's face with an understandable posture without masking his face from despondency. The antelope clutched him, and the deer did the same. "Please, take good care of yourself," Han wept. "I hope we cross paths again with the Nine, brother."

"Me too," Wang wished. "Thank you. . . for being my friend and brother."

"Lu Disciples saw your dragon, Xing. And that signified Wang to travel to the Prosper Valley," Lady Xia elucidated from Han's perspective and the discovery. "But then — on the night, your sisters and your grandmother's farmer Gidahn brought Kai home; Wang could have been closer to the Prosper Valley. Whatever something caught him ravenous to your student's blades, that evil spirit Deng Wa took him. Those blades called in Wang."

Shaking his lips, Xing grasped his knees, sniffing. He wiped his dry tears as he let out his grieving sigh, the feeling of loss striking him in his mind. "The boy went to the wrong place at the wrong time. How unlucky he was," Lady Xia said, throbbing her throat in sympathy. "With all the things he experienced misuse from his father. Wang was about to give in to you, my kitten."

She could see the tiger's lips pressing in from quivering, though the impact worsened when the tiger looked down to the dirt. "It's not fair," Xing shed his tears.

"What is not fair?"

"Wang's dad abused him, and he embittered him. I almost killed his son at Lu Disciples's dojo," he gritted his teeth, sobbing. "I promised his dad that I would bring Wang home! I had failed because — BECAUSE—!"

"Shh. . ." the peahen rounded her wing and held him. "I know."

"I could have saved him!" the tiger cried, tightening his eyes closed. "I tried to reach Wang under the ice after Kai freed him from Wang, but he — he — he's gone! He doesn't deserve to die!"

"My sweet precious kitten. . . I know."

Lady Xia folded her whole neck around him as he broke down and wailed, letting out his warm tears. Little by little, he lessened his sorrow when she aided him with soft hums. "Wang's no longer suffering, my boy. He's living in a new realm, another happy life," she soothed Xing. "Life has always been unfair, but happiness is where your heart lives. You must understand that we are born, reaching among the stars until we land on our feet to end. Death is always a natural life."

He knew his mother figure was right that the cycle of life depended on the mortal souls' durations. Xing never liked to be aged as he looked upon himself growing from the water reflection every year, nothing like he used to be a tiger cub. No matter how small had grown to be adults, the parents always see children in them. Coming from the Garden's door, the dow maid held a tray of two white cups and a small pot with cobalt dragons. Lady Xia poured one for his son. "Drink some water, Xing."

As attended, Xing drank cold liquid ravenously. His burnt throat was now blanketed with a nippy stream, diminishing the warmth. Most of his tears were close to being swept with cool breezes. Mostly his thoughts flooded with his first encounter with Wang through his last sight of the deer floating away into the abyss. "The rest of the world may not carry his name," Lady Xia said, folding her arm on his back again. "But you can. Think of your parents, and they think of you as well. I reflect on my panda nana Taozi, even in my sleep."

She motioned ahead of her adoptive son and held his head. "Look at me, son. Remember not to dwell in the past. Be the present."

His cries faltered, but the tears draining from his eyes started to become gradual and stop. Chen Xing had done letting out grief before his adoptive mother held her wings around him, giving her son as much comfort as long as possible.

His peahen mother's blessing had the tiger continue to move on from lingering in the tragedy. There was no need for Wang now because one disciple was now with the Nine at the Tower of the Holy Flame with the tiger's brothers, and Xing had to accept Han, the only replacement he could have instead.

Without being noticed, Chen Xing left the Nine's Hall and returned to the Meeting Room. Empty as it was before he checked outside, the Fighting Square became bare — nothing but the bamboo chimes drumming under the path ceiling. It's already a bedtime. I should go to sleep. Xing thought as the breeze nulled when glancing at the moonlight behind the charcoal gray clouds. Yawning, he closed the Nine's Barrack's great yin-yang door, another chime from the corridor whispering the alluring throbs of the female's tone in Kai's chamber.

Now that's more like it.

The tiger peeped through the shoji doors left ajar, and all the students dozed, motionless as they arrived in their dreams. But one thing to check the last chamber, Xing stayed close to Kai's door and listened to Wugu's song from his amber necklace, which the light steadily pulsed, matching her rhythms. Contemplating the spiritual ambiance, Xing was reminded of the journey with him and his grandmother used to go on the high ridges and see most of the monks play their suonas, dizis, erhus, and guqins.

At last, Chen Xing returned to the front of his chamber. Before opening the shoji door, tiredness plagued his eyes. But that was not exactly how he felt his whole mouth open wide. His mind was becoming fainter and lighter. His head wobbled left and right, his claw clutching the shoji handle for dear life from falling. What is happening? The following physical sensation occurred with his eyes glimpsing mysterious sightings in silky black strokes and the backgrounds.

The round head of a furious black bear with purple eyes flashed before him.

Author's Note:

— Did you spot a cameo character appearance? Yes, sir. You saw Colin, the Stag Knight (and no! I never watched the last two seasons of the non-canon show, the Dragon Knight), and unfortunately, his appearance is not that important for now. I have plans for him and the other two knights (Alfred and his sister, Luthera (who will be a European badger)) to be in my other projects that I might start to work on after The Trinity. What has Colin been up to around the Second Gongmen Battle incident? *I cross my arms, giving a suspicious, determined glance at the stag.*

— This is where the fun begins. At last, Chen Xing has the vision episode, which I have been waiting to write for a long time. The whole puzzle becomes mysterious as my boy will be the one to decipher what he saw the last for the very first time since Mingling hurled her void water at his eyes.