heaven official's blessing Keitteishimai (edited)

a generals tomb.24

Honger landed with us; no one was harmed. The sand storm was still growing. I checked Kiyoshi, and he buried his face beneath my hair and against the crook of my neck.

"a cave!" Feng Ling cheered as she knelt beside Nan Feng. Mu Yoong Yoong was kneeling with her fist in the sand with her knee while the other rested on her bent knee. I looked at her, then looked over my shoulder. There indeed is a cave, one made from digging tools and dynamite.

"Let's get inside." Mu Yoong Yoong said this as the others noticed the cave too. She and Feng Ling were the first of our group to rush towards the opening. The storm continued harder and grew more persistent. Once we were safely inside the cave, we stopped to take a breath.

"Why did neither of you use the thousand-pound technique back there?" I asked while kneeling.

"Uh-" Nan y-... Nan Feng hesitated. He must have thought of something I would not have approved of. "we tried."

i raised my brows after slipping off my mask.

"we are..." Fu Yao trailed off, seeing the look on my face.

"It's too far from either of our dad's territories for them or us." Mu Yoong Yoong said as she sat on the ground with Feng Ling beside her. I gave them a look, and they both nearly laughed.

"do you mean shared dads?" both tried not to laugh as the deputy gods looked to me with off faces. i remember in Xianle i would tease the two generals about eventually being together after hearing them fight for the first time. they sounded like an old married couple.i began to snort a little.

"dad and Nan Yang are not together!" Mu Yoong Yoong managed to calm down enough to speak. all in the while that Feng Ling was holding her stomach and nearly rolling around the floor.

"that would be a surprise." a feminine voice sounded. Feng Ling froze and grew silent as did the rest of the group. i looked to the boys, none of them seemed to know the voice. all but Honger.  i looked to the deeper reaches of the cave.

"snake?" i asked. the name of the young woman, who lived in New Xianle after i found her starving on the streets of a distant kingdom i traveled to for trades. she hadn't changed a bit. tall, and slim. pale green eyes. faded brunet hair. light skin, and an outfit of dull pink and faint aged black. around her right ankle was a bracelet with a pink thread of yarn and magenta round beads. her face is young and would be said to be an almost perfect face of a young beauty in many eyes. what they would see as set backs, would be the scar just below her mouths right corner, the snake like nose, and the snakelike slits in her eyes. she wore no shoes, but carried a scarf around her back and wrapped around her arms.

"snake!" Feng Ling shot up and ran to her. Snake greeted her with an open armed motion. she always enjoyed being around her. they are similar, both get agitated in sunlight. it isn't anything new for snake since she became a ghost after she was run over by a runaway carriage. she doesn't have much resentment, and she could have moved on. but she chose to stay. she has said before that it isn't worth leaving the world to be fixed, to someone else to accomplish. i internally gag at those words i said so long ago. i had such an ego back then!

"ugh! why haven't you two visited new Xianle?" i look up after hearing this.

"it's still standing?" i asked. the three girls look to me.

"Shoot, that's what we forgot to mention!" Mu Yoong Yoong exclaimed as she looked at me. "we were supposed to tell you about how new Xianle is finished with repairs and is back to how it was a little over thirty years ago."

i couldn't understand. the fight that transpired, it should have destroyed it just like in Xianle. what was so different that time? the only real difference i can think of is that there were other deity's and half ghosts alongside human. my power was-... i had two new beacons. my love, and the place i called home.

"I'll guess you are Xie Lian?" Snake asked. Kiyoshi hugged me. he must have felt that i wasn't thinking right.

"yes, how did you know?" flower sword asked.

"aside from General Xie's description," she began to explain. "you also are the only one who's stronger than her here."

brother gave an off look. he is stronger than me. it's why i couldn't protect him, and asked Honger to protect him when i couldn't.

"Gege." Honger spoke to my brother. "there are characters written on that stone."

"oh?" my brother stood from the stone to take a better look. Snake and the girls moved to sit beside the stone.i lifted Kiyoshi and moved to the girls side. we were beside Xie Lian while Honger stood on the other. Fu Yao and Nan Feng stood behind us. from what i could tell, it was too dark.

"Nan Feng we need light. think you can make a torch for us?" i asked. more like ordered. with a quick crackle of a fire being lit, a spark was formed in his palm.

"what does the stone say?" he asked. he and Fu yao don't know Banyu language. so they can't read it. "it looks like a big mess of words."

"it's Banyu." i said as i could see some words. "i remember from my last trades visit."

"trades visit?" Fu Yao asked. he also ha a palm torch in his hand.

"while i was in new Xianle." i said. the trip was enough to learn basic trades, not enough to create a peace treaty between our homes. "so i am limited with the language, more so than brother probably."

"i know this language, since i have collected scraps there." brother said while i held Kyoshi in my lap with my arms around him to keep him in a safe barrier.

"I'm curious where you haven't collected trash." Fu Yao made a comment. i shot him an icy glare. he backed off an looked away. brother cleared his throat, and began to read it.

"general." he said. both deputies were stiff and panicked.

"what?" both asked.

"i think this is a generals tomb stone." i said looking at the stone.

"oh?" Xie Lian sounded.

"that's what i can come up with as to why this would say 'General'." i said. "let's-"

i stopped when the face of a stranger could be seen from above the stone.