CHAPTER 8: MEETING HALFWAY

Jian Tao, Chief Wen, and their two guards camped at a nearby lake for the night. It had been three days already and they were halfway to the border of Shan Kingdom. Since Mount Songgao was located in the high northern parts of the kingdom, there was another four days until they finally reached to their destination.

As they slept soundly, the fire died down until there was only a streak of swirled smoke left. Then, in the middle of the glistening lake, two water demons quietly rose up from the water, molding into two female shaped bodies. There they saw four sleeping men around the dead bonfire and licked their watery lips, yearning for fresh meat. Their liquid arms began to extend on shore, like predators creeping at their prey, toward them.

As their arms slowly made onto land, the horses started to freak out and made some noises, alarming Jian Tao and the others. By the time they woke up, the two water demons had already wrapped their watery arms around the two guards’ feet and began to drag them into the lake. The two soldiers screamed in terror for Jian Tao and Chief Wen to help them. Jian Tao and Chief Wen quickly ran to grab their soldiers’ hands, but the water demons swung their other arms and struck them hard across their bodies. They flew like ragdolls, hit the nearby trees, and fell onto the ground injured. The terrified guards disappeared into the lake from their sight and quickly, the water demons dove down into the water to collect their food. Burst of blood mixed with water came gushing out of the lake like a huge fountain, throwing pieces of limbs onto land. Jian Tao and Chief Li watched in horror and knew that it was too late to save their men.

The water demons came out of the bloody waters. Their liquid body had transformed into their solid forms-hairs silvery white, skins leathery blue as the morning sky, eyes black as night, and teeth sharped as razors. They let out a banshee cry and extended their sharped claws in front, flying in great momentum toward them.

Chief Wen and Jian Tao worked on casting their “Wu Demon Binding Spell” when one of the demons swung her arm sideways. Out flew water-like daggers from her, aiming straight at Jian Tao and Chief Wen. They didn’t have time to finish casting the spell and quickly dodged the daggers. The daggers struck the dark ground and returned to its original liquid form. Then they sprinted to the bonfire to grab their swords. Jian Tao grabbed his Five Element Qi Sword and pulled the blade out of its sheath. The blade casted a luminous blue light to indicate that evil was close by.

The water demons landed on shore and started to fight with the both of them. Jian Tao used his sword and swung at one of the water demons. It disappeared into droplets of water and then reappeared behind him with her razor teeth close by his neck. He felt her cold breath on his skin and quickly swung his sword around. Again, it disappeared and reappeared behind him. This time, the water demon swung its sharped claws and scratched his back. He staggered forward and swung the sword around, missing it again, and fell onto his knees. He felt hot blood oozed down from his wounded back and it stung painfully, weakening him. Chief Wen saw that his king was in trouble and quickly swung his sword at the other water demon; it flew backwards to avoid being struck.

Then he quickly ran to Jian Tao’s side to help him up. The water demons regrouped and sniggered as they slowly made their way toward them. They began to taunt Jian Tao.

“Your highness, go back to your kingdom. You are too old for demon hunting.”

“Your highness, you are a pathetic Mortal Protector. Without the Five Element Qi Sword, you are nothing!”

Infused by their provoking words, Jian Tao gathered his qi into the Five Qi Element Sword. His blade ignited into a green, powerful flame-like torch. The water demons jerked their heads back and second thought about their comments.

Jian Tao swung his sword in an upward position and the earth beneath rumbled. Little pieces of earth rose up in the air in front of him, and with another swung of his sword sideways, the pieces flew at the water demons, turning into thousands of little sharped earth particles. The water demons’ faces struck with horror to know there was no escape even if they disappeared into liquid. In an instant, the pieces struck the water demons everywhere on their bodies until they became unrecognizable, and they let out a shrill cry of pain.

Then Jian Tao flew toward one of them and stabbed it in the chest. The water demon let out a deadly shriek and disintegrated into ashes. In fear, the other injured water demon didn’t want to encounter the same fate as its companion and turned around to flee back to the lake. Weaken and badly wounded, Jian Tao had used up most of his qi already and couldn’t chase after it.

Chief Wen finally casted the “Wu Demon Binding Spell” and his entire body lit a gold aura; then it went into him. He flew to chase after the water demon and caught up with it. His hand grabbed a hold of its ankle and pulled it away from the lake. In rage, the water demon turned around and swung its claws at him. He swiftly turned his body to avoid the hit and came behind the water demon. With his palm, he hit the demon’s shoulder blade hard and it flew to the ground, lying next to Jian Tao. The water demon struggled to get up but couldn’t. The binding spell had bound its body onto the ground like a prisoner.

Jian Tao forced himself to get up and slowly walked toward it, dragging the green aura sword on the ground. When he finally reached to the water demon, he raised his sword up high, the point aimed down at the water demon.

Fueled by rage he said, “This is for my men.”

The blade plunged deep into its heart. The water demon let out an agonized shriek of pain and disintegrated into ashes. The green aura from the Five Element Qi Sword disappeared and became a regular sword again. Jian Tao collapsed onto his knees and held on to his sword to support his weight as Chief Wen rushed to his side.  He got a hold of Jian Tao and felt his back drenched with blood.

“Let me see your wound.”

Jian Tao nodded and Chief Wen helped him take off his bloody common robe. With the moon as their only source of light, he saw the wounds on the back and became horrified. It was deep flesh wounds and white bones were visible for him to see.

Chief Wen got worried, “Your Highness…We will need to abort this mission and go back to heal you…”

Jian Tao shook his head in pain, “No. Mortal lives are in danger…Use what we have to tend the wounds.”

Chief Wen hesitated and was concerned about his king’s health, “But you won’t make it!”

“THAT’S AN ORDER!” Jian Tao shouted in frustration.

Chief Wen lowered his head and replied softly, “Yes, your highness…”

Chief Wen hurried to grab the medicine bag from his horse’s saddle when all of a sudden, a blue light shone brightly from the corner of his eye. He turned and saw that it was the Five Element Qi sword, glowing, and on the ground, was Jian Tao’s body.

A few feet behind Jian Tao, was a very tall and slender demon-skin paled as a ghost and his hair was the deepest black that reached down to his knees. He wore a long cloak that covered his whole entire body, except for his head. Chief Wen knew what it was. A Night Lurker-one of the blood sucking demons that only came out at night to seek for mortal’s blood. No matter if a mortal was freshly dead or alive, if it smelled blood, it would come and drained the life out of a mortal until no dropped was left.

Chief Wen yelled angrily at it, “GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

The Night Lurker saw Chief Wen and hissed at him, showing his razor teeth and blazing dark as night pupils. Although he was too far out of reach to help Jian Tao, he had to stop this blood thirsty demon from killing him. It was about to grab Jian Tao when all of a sudden, a blade protruded from its heart. Chief Wen stopped at his track, shocked by what just happened. The Night Lurker died and disintegrated into ashes and the Five Element Qi Sword’s blue aura disappeared. Stood behind, revealed two Elder Priests that he recognized-Elder Shi and Elder Tao.

They were the Elders of Taoist Sect from Mount Songgao whom were loyal students of Grandmaster Huang Zhi Wei. It was a coincidence meeting them, but he was glad to see them. Chief Wen quickly ran toward them with the medicine bag in his hand.

He bowed his head and folded his hands in front. “Thank you for saving his highness Elders.”

The Elders saw Jian Tao on the ground and recognized him immediately. Elder Tao quickly kneeled down to check Jian Tao’s pulse and was relieved. “He’s unconscious, but had lost a lot of blood. We need to take him back to get healed.”

Elder Shi asked Chief Wen, “What happened here?”

“A while ago, we were attacked by the water demons and his highness got wounded during the fight,” explained Chief Wen.

Elder Shi turned to Elder Tao, “Since it’s very late, let’s rest here for the night to treat King Wu’s wounds.”

Elder Tao agreed. He extended his arms and in full concentration, he locked his hands together and chanted the “Taoist Protection Spell”. A huge half transparent bubble came out of him, and it grew large enough to protect them and the horses. Demons that lurked inside the bubble became ashes right away. Chief Wen’s was in awe by the Taoist’s magical spell. Comparing to Wu Tribe’s protection spell, where it only protected the individual, the Taoist’s protection spell protected within a hundred feet radius.

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Elder Shi started a fire, while Elder Tao and Chief Wen tended Jian Tao’s wounds. Elder Tao poured some white powder medicine on his opened wounds and then bandaged him tightly. Around the open fire, they sat down to keep themselves warm for the night. Chief Wen told them about their purpose in traveling to Mount Songgao and the Elders were stunned by news.

Elder Shi turned to Elder Tao, “The demons are spreading in all directions of the world. Grandmaster Huang will need to be notified quickly to send the alarm out to others.”

Elder Tao agreed. He took his horsetail whisk out and stroked his hand on the horsetail forward. It stiffened like a paint brush and then he started to write a letter in the dark sky. After he was done, the characters from the letter formed into a white dove and it flew away to deliver the message back to Mount Songgao.

Chief Wen was amazed by all of this and joked with Elder Tao. “If Wu Tribe could do this, it could have saved the time and trouble for us to travel.”

Elder Tao laughed and stroked his gray short beard. “We have different masters so we learned different spells and techniques.”

Chief Wen also laughed and agreed. Then Elder Tao thought about the Black Forest. It didn’t make sense of how the red string could be broken that easily. No one, even mortals, could break it except the creator herself; Wu Li Ling-a fallen immortal goddess of the Celestial Realm. She was the one that created the infamous demon trap for demon hunters to use after the Demon Realm was sealed off. Then he glanced at the Five Element Qi Sword on the ground next to Jian Tao and thought about its magnificent powers.

“The Five Element Qi Sword is one extraordinary blade made with 5 elements mixed with goddess Wu Li Ling’s blood…Once the sword finds its new owner, only he can use its powers until his last breath is taken away…” Elder Tao sighed as he reminisced the past. Then he continued, “…Wu Li Ling was one admirable goddess to mortals…”

Elder Shi and Chief Wen agreed with him and nodded. They knew the history of different realms battling for the sake of Mortal Realm. Some wanted to destroy it, while others wanted to save it. Like goddess Wu Li Ling and the other gods, they sacrificed their immortality to live among mortals and helped rebuild what once was completely destroyed, in their eyes.

Elder Tao glanced up in the night sky and stroked his beard. “Mortals do not live eternity as gods, yet when gods become fallen immortals, they die earlier than us.”

“Aren’t there still some Fallen Immortals left in our Realm?” Chief Wen asked.

“That is unknown; but if there are any, they are the ones that have strong will to live.” Elder Tao looked at Jian Tao’s sleeping body and let out another sigh, “King Wu will have to choose a new Mortal Protector for the Five Element Qi Sword soon. He cannot do this for long.”

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The next morning, Jian Tao woke up and turned to see Chief Wen preparing the horses. Next to him was the Taoist Priests, so Jian Tao called Chief Wen’s name in his hoarse voice. Chief Wen and the others heard him, turned around to see Jian Tao fully awake, and rushed by his side.

Jian Tao tried to get up but was too weak. “You’re Majesty, let me help you,” said Chief Wen.

Chief Wen lifted his body carefully up so he could sit. Jian Tao recognized the two Taoist priests and was happy to see them. “Elder Tao…Elder Shi…”

The Elders bowed their heads. “Greetings your Majesty.”

“Now that the both of you are here, we do not need to go to Mount Songgao anymore,” Jian Tao joked.

Elder Tao laughed at him, “Old friend, you still know how to joke at a time like this.”

Chief Wen turned to Jian Tao in excitement. “Your Majesty, Elder Tao had sent a letter to Grandmaster Huang about Black Forest.”

Jian Tao looked at the Priests and was relieved. He being worried of not able to accomplish the mission was over and thanked them for their help.

“Let’s take you back home and get yourself healed,” said Elder Tao.

Jian Tao nodded. All three of them helped him get up and walked him to his horse. He tried to get on the horse but was very weak, so they helped him by carefully pushing and pulling him up until he got on. They got on theirs and the four of them rode back to Wu Tribe.