Jade Rain's struggle
They trained vigorously.
For a week, the rabbits plunged themselves into ferocious and frenetic preparation. The experienced adepts and practitioners had already set off to look for the Elixir and the evil pigs who stole it. The novices and initiates trained daily with their blades and honed their skills against such a dangerous enemy. The training hall rang with their voices and shouts as they went through drill after drill after drill.
"I don't like fighting other cultivators," Autumn Moon said one day when they paused for a brief rest. "I hate it."
"But there're unorthodox clans out there. They harm others," Jade Rain listened to Windsong's soft hum. "They are not good people. It's weird. Rats poison people, but they've an orthodox branch of healers. Snakes also have assassins. They kill for coin. Yet, they're considered orthodox. But if we go after the pigs, aren't we killing them too? Aren't we considered unorthodox? too" They mused aloud.
Autumn Moon had a perturbed look on her face: furrowed brows. "That's why Father says it's an necessary evil."
"Necessary evil? Then what the pigs did was necessary for them."
"Shhh, don't let Father hear you. That's heresy!"
Jade Rain inhaled and flowed easily into the combat stance. Drawing energy from the earth, feeling the dan tian - the body's center - warm up with the fire of chi.
"From what I've read, the pigs were exiled because of a crime they did a long time ago. They wanted to redeem themselves..."
"By stealing the Elixir? Now, that's a bold move."
"Bold, but imagine. Our clan's disgraced, exiled. Would you do anything to bring its honour back? Would you?"
"I would... But not with unscrupulous means!"
"You see what I'm trying to say..."
"Yes, but... that's so wrong! You can't do that. We are people of honour. We are cultivators!"
"Idle tongues do not sharpen the blade!" Old Bing's voice jarred them from their conversation. The two quickly began working on their drills again, wary of Old Bing's roving eyes. "Beware of loose focus!" the warrior intoned.
Jade Rain still struggled through the drills, especially the ones that required them to use the skills. They still couldn't see the strands, no matter how they recited the Steps To Serenity. Jade Rain hated feeling blocked, as if they had hit an invisible hall.
Were they being blocked?
What was blocking them?
*
Lady Chao Feng laughed victoriously as she held the relic in her hands. It pulsated with its own silverish light. She felt strong just holding it. Its power was already filling her. Her muscles buzzed with strength. The chi within her burned like the mid-day sun and growing even hotter. And she felt so much younger. The vitality! She could run and feel no fatigue, no exhaustion.
It was such a curious thing: a silver bracelet made of mysterious metals which flowed like mercury. Not a true elixir where you imbibed it as if it were some potion. The ornate carvings reminded her of creatures of the primordial sea, sinuous serpentine beasts that breathed fire and shaped air with their claws. Not the arrogant dragons... but more of an alien breed. Why did the Celestial Court ever create such a strange relic? And why did it contain so much power?
Why did they seal the relic in Hei Shan?
Now she knew why: power.
Sheer power.
The Celestial Court didn't want the clans to attain so much power that they would rival or even compete with them. The Court was filled with self-righteous gods who only wanted to thumb mortals down... simply to preserve their own precious and misguided power. Legend had it that the clans competed in a race the Jade Emperor had mandated. Lady Chao Feng didn't know how the pigs lost - but from then onwards, the pigs were exiled. The pigs hated the Celestial Court. They lost everything: their position, their power, even their original clan home which was obliterated and lost even in their archives.
The other clans didn't even bother to lift a finger to help them. The moment the pigs were exiled, the orthodox clans were quick to vilify and brand them as evil. The dragons, especially, loudly condemned them. Banned them from attending the Great Lectures.
She slipped the bracelet on and gasped as more power flowed into her. Even her hair sizzled, her scalp crawled. She tilted her head back and yelled out her triumph. The earth around and beneath her shook as if in sympathy with the sheer power coursing through her.
Now she could rebuild her clan and bring it back into eminence. Now she could shame the orthodox clans to all the levels of Hades.
Lady Chao Feng laughed and laughed and laughed. Her chortling echoed off the halls, filled the corridors and made the serving maids shiver where they stood. They held their charges protectively in their arms. The children were too young to understand clan politics and even younger to fathom why their own flesh-and-blood mother was behaving this way. Little Pebble fretted in her nanny's arms and squirmed restlessly.
A silverish-red vortex lifted Lady Chao Feng into the air. She luxuriated in the sheer pleasure of power. Power from the relic. Power that filled her like a blazing star now consuming her whole.
Brown fur rose from her skin. Her fangs grew, jutting up from the gums. She was a ferocious wild boar sow, powerful now with claws and teeth that could slash and kill her foes. She burst forth from her robes, the silk falling off her body like red rain.
Blood lust filled her.
She was ready to kill.
*
"Under the wrong hands," Old Bing said with the patience of a man who had seen a lot in his life. "Under the wrong hands, the Elixir will be a weapon of destruction. It will become a bad omen, a curse. Whoever wears the Elixir literally have the power of life and death. Woe to the cultivator who is targeted by the wearer."
"The Elixir will make the wearer kill people," Jade Rain said.
"Yes, it does," Old Bing nodded and he suddenly looked weary. He had to sit down on the boulder as if wind had been taken out of him, as if he was punched hard in the gut. "The Elixir makes you immortal but in return, it turns you into a blood-thirsty beast."
"Not Fallen?" Jade Rain pressed on, ignoring Autumn Moon's look and the pained expressions of the other initiates.
Surprisingly, Old Bing didn't reprimand them. "Almost similar to Fallen. The power taps into the cultivator's nature and amplifies it. Imagine your animal nature... but a hundred times over. You are a terrifying flesh-tearing creature, because of the Elixir's power."
"But, it still feels like the Fallen state," Jade Rain sighed.
"Semantics," Old Bing said brusquely, brushing the comment off. Why did he keep skirting the issue? Was he afraid to speak further about the Elixir of Immortality? What was he hiding?
"One thing," he continued, seeing the disappointment on the faces of the initiates. "The Elixir is a trickster. The Celestial Court made it that way. It changes its appearance according to the wearer it encounters."
Jade Rain's skin crawled. "What a nefarious thing!"
"That's why the Celestial Court, in their infinite wisdom, chose to seal it," Old Bing said.
"Why did they even make it?" Autumn Moon sounded aghast. "Why... when they know its power?"
"The machinations of the Celestial Court are beyond our mortal imagination and knowledge," the old warrior said. Did Jade Rain detect a sense of anger in his voice? Old Bing was never angry. Yet, he had faithfully served all the clan lords, including Jade Rain's uncle. He was ancient, but how ancient ... the initiates didn't know and would often speculate.
"Now back to your drills! Let's not waste time!" Old Bing said, clapping sharply to signal the end of the impromptu lesson. "We have a war to fight!"
*
The body crumbled, dropped from a height. Its skin was pale, all blood gone, sucked dry. It used to be one of the dog cultivators.
Lady Chao Feng stared at her empty hand. Pity. The blood had proven to be quite sweet and the bright chi from the young man filled her chest and belly like precious nourishment. He was also quite good-looking, long of limb and delicate features.
She found that she was hungry for more. Idly, she glanced around at the bodies littering the ground. Oh yes, she had fed. These dogs had thought they would attack her and her clan. Mongrels, all. But they had fed her and she was satisfied... for now.
So, they wanted war.
And she would give them war.
The bracelet purred, content.
*
Howls filled the valley as the packs met up, swords and jians in hand.
"She killed our brothers and sisters!"
"Revenge! We will bring her to justice!"
"Justice! Justice! Justice!"
*
Lord Fu roared with incandescent fury when he received the news. Lightning flickered around Heaven's Heights. The other dragons growled, their eyes flashing gold and silver.
"We have unleashed an evil across [Tian Guo]. We should have guarded the pigs more strictly. Now they are rampaging through the land and killing cultivators!"
"My lord, she sucks the bodies dry. And she's becoming stronger every day," Bright Song said, trembling with adrenaline. Tall and slender, she was the best fighter in the clan and Lord Fu's niece. She also served as the face of the clan, assisting visitors. "We need to fight her now."
Lord Fu snarled. "We will. Now we fight like thunder, now we clash like lightning. We will show her no mercy."