Chương 5: Awakening in the Land of Shadows
For the first time, Jun felt the warmth of the sun touching his entire body while the wind pushed against him, flowing through his feathers. He liked this feeling; it was comforting, like his mother's embrace. For a moment, he felt as if everything that had happened was just a dream, a bad dream or nightmare. Jun opened his eyes to see the vast skies in front of him as he flew above the clouds. He was literally in the body of an eagle. Was it another vision? He didn't know, but all he cared about was that he had escaped the bloody vision, at least for now.
Jun continued living in the body of the eagle, hunting, flying, and sleeping all day long for three months. One day, he perched on a tree branch, watching a group of men in monk robes standing in a circle around an old man. A beautiful storm of energy swirled around the old man, who was in visible pain. The more pain etched on his face, the stronger the energy became. It was a fascinating sight that captivated Jun until one of the men standing guard around the old man took his sword and slashed toward him. The man was ten meters away, but the slow motion of the sword traveling through the air created images of golden swords moving toward the eagle before it cut off his head.
The pain was still there, the pain of the sword that had cut his neck. It felt like his entire head would explode. Jun opened his eyes to see the darkness and, in front of him, the white light of the lotus. The light kept embracing him, and his head began to clear more and more. He felt a refreshing sensation throughout his entire body, a feeling that took all of his pain away, until he lost his sight and then opened his eyes again.
This time, he was in a muddy place. The smell of the grass was so strong that he enjoyed it immensely. He kept moving forward in a dark, pipe-like space. It was narrow around his body, which felt so small, as he navigated through pathways of dirt. He kept moving right and left until he saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Finally, he emerged to see rocks everywhere, rocks so big and huge. It was a sunny day on a mountain, and he was there. Feeling an urge to scratch his head, he moved both of his arms over it and saw his small arms that looked like a mouse's. This time, he was a mouse.
He kept moving and jumping over the rocks, heading to a place this body apparently knew very well. He continued upward until he found the corpse of a human, a corpse that had just died recently. After everything that had happened before, he didn't get flustered. He knew one thing: he had found his food.
After eating his fill, he felt the entire mountain vibrating, and rocks started to fall from above. He quickly hid behind a nearby large rock. When the vibrations ended, he sensed something strange—an important presence was dying. He felt danger and an urgent need to be somewhere. His body instinctively knew where to go, so he kept moving forward.
He didn't run long before he saw them. They were the same men he had seen when he was in the body of an eagle, but this time there were only three men and the old man. The three men looked exhausted and injured; one had lost an arm and was crouching down, pressing on the wound, while the other two were terrified and injured. In front of them stood the old man, his frail body glowing with a golden light, with a shining sword in hand. The golden light revealed stab wounds on his body and a missing eye. He faced a creature.
It was a deer, a huge deer with enormous horns, with flowers and plants growing on its body. The deer stood as tall as two men, with eyes glowing with a spiral of green energy, standing in front of a cave and facing the men with swords. When Jun looked at it, he felt a surge of respect and an urge to kneel.
As the deer took a step forward, the men took two steps back. Suddenly, green energy started glowing from the mountain and the woods below, flowing towards the deer. The entire sight was of the green deer facing the golden old man. Suddenly, Jun felt the deer looking at him, peering deep into his soul. After a long silence, which felt like an eternity, the deer spoke.
"I see, then that's how things are going to be, little boy."
Jun felt the deer's words reverberating inside him. Is it talking to me? Can it see me? Does it know what is happening? A lot of questions popped into his head, but he couldn't move or do anything. He was just a mouse looking at a deer.
"Those are going to be the last words of a mountain god, you bloody demon," said the old man. "Wudang will not let you continue your blasphemy and demonic acts, controlling the poor and the weak to believe in the devil."
A mountain god! What is going on?
The old man took a fighting stance, his sword directed toward the deer, the golden aura intensifying until it shone like a small sun.
"Apparently, fate has been decided, and we are just pawns of the great and mighty. You better watch carefully, little one," said the deer.
Before the two energies could clash, the scene changed.
Jun found himself back in his original place, but this time it wasn't all darkness. The white glow wasn't just a small part; his entire space was white.
This time was different. He had no ability to think; he felt his entire world had changed. He sensed pulses around him, pulses that continued to grow and connect him to everything around him. Through his eyes, he saw only a white glow, but he could feel the world within. He could feel animals, humans, the wind blowing, life being born and ending. He felt everything and nothing at the same time before the glow disappeared again.
This time he was a fish living in a pond before getting caught by fishermen. This time he was a herb collector before falling from a cliff and dying. This time he was a wolf hunting a little child before a monk jumped in and killed him. He lived many lives, both of people and animals, before they died. Sometimes he would live their lives for a day, sometimes for a moment, sometimes for months. Each time he would experience their pain and struggle, but also each time his connection with the world and his understanding of energy would deepen.
Now he was Whitey fighting the masked men. Now he was a monk dying next to Banzan.
The more he lived and died, the more he could control and see the energy around him, different types and different feelings, until one day he could finally feel something solid. He felt dirt in his hands.
He felt the dirt in his hands and started to feel some coldness. He could negate the cold feeling with his energy. Finally, some change—something had shifted, and maybe if he followed that change, he could get back to wherever he was. His memory was a little hazy. What was his name again? Who was he? No, that wasn't important right now. He had to get out of here, that was all he was thinking.
The little boy tried to focus on his surroundings. Through the glow, he could feel the dirt around him. The more he focused, the more he felt a pressure on his body. That's dangerous, he thought. Maybe I should try to focus on the energy around me. He stopped pushing the cold energy away and instead tried to take it in. The cold started to move to his core in his abdomen.
The boy's condition was remarkable. For a warrior, you can store energy and control it with your core, but the boy didn't have a core. For any normal human, not having a core means you can't control or even sense energy, but the boy was different. His entire body was full of energy, not just a core. Energy was circulating in his body and condensed more as he took in energy from the outside. The most fascinating part was the types of his energy. Most people, or maybe all of them, would have one kind of energy of one color because each energy, or "qi," would have different properties that wouldn't coexist with another type. Maybe similar ones would, but that would be a natural existence, not a forced one.
If anyone looked at the boy, they would be amazed because his body contained five types of qi energy, five colors mixing together sometimes and sometimes separating: red, dark blue, golden, brown, and green. The boy took in the cold, dark blue energy and focused on it. In his mind, an image formed—a 3D model of his current place. He saw a glow, which apparently indicated his position, surrounded by brown and dark blue qi. He was deep within that energy, under a layer of dark blue energy.
He tried to think of a way to get out of this confinement. He kept focusing on the energy around him, wondering if he could control it and redirect it to carry his body out. But how? He remembered the old man with the golden energy and how he made his energy gather at the tip of his sword. Why not try to do the same and push his way out?
In a shabby place full of snow in the backyard of the Green Mountain, a mountain that was no longer green during the full cycle of snow, the barren land had become desolate. This land was no longer inhabited by people due to the harsh environment; sometimes a year would pass without the sun touching this land. That's why it became a hideout for the most wanted people—criminals running from the government or the martial arts sects, whether common criminals or those related to Jianghu.
In the land of the Green Mountain, in a village that lay right behind it, a village that no longer had anyone living in it, with houses that would never see inhabitants again, moved Xiao Feng, carrying a dead rabbit in his hand back to one of the huts. It was a rabbit he had just caught. Due to the absence of people for five years, animals were not scarce here. He moved back to the hut where his friend Liang Wei was staying. He had to take care of his friend due to his injury . They had spent 20 years together as bandits, a band of brothers. Even after things went south and major sects started chasing them more intensely than before, there were rumors that their band, the Vicious Snakes, were on a killing spree, taking many lives and even attacking Shaolin and other branches. What a ridiculous claim! If they were of such strength, they would have been stronger than the Qinglin Stronghold bandits. Come on, they were nobodies! Yes, some of them could use qi and were mostly Murim, but they weren't the Green Forest, goddammit.
Xiao Feng entered one of the huts, saying, "Yooo, Liang, wake up. I found something good to eat."
Boom!
All of a sudden, a strong explosion came from the east, specifically from the tombs.
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