I wish I had more time to ponder all I’ve learned from the young men who died in ceaseless mortal war. There is still one that sticks out in my mind more than others. The words of a chieftain, son of a chieftain, he whispered to me before a battle.

  “When facing monsters, it is okay to become one in return, as long as you keep your reason in your core and purpose in your heart. Once you’ve accomplished all you must do, then you can return to yourself, if you can remember who you once were.”

  — The War of Eyes, An Encyclopedia of Wars, Tellian Rekkensen

  Hao stood still in the dark, examining the face, the voice, the man as a whole thing. He was a part of the world, just like Hao, another piece of everything, another string that made up the rope called the Dao. A butterfly blindly flapping its wings. Hao would clip them.

  The man spun in the dark, swinging the spirit stone around. “Who is there?!”

  A famed beast slayer, scared of a breaking twig. Hao stepped on the stick again. “Are you a member of the famous hunting group that works under the First Elder?”

  The light swung towards his voice, shining on his robes. “Oh, you are just a beg—member of the Drifting Stream Sect good,” nearly calling Hao a beggar, a fair assumption based on his tattered attire.

  The man tried to collect himself, straightening his back, fixing his robes. Slowly lifting the spirit stone higher towards Hao’s face. “Good. Good, then you should help me look for our Young Master.” A grin grew on his face.

  Hao tilted his head, playing his role well. “Our Young Master? Does the Sect have such a person?”

  The man laughed, reaching out his hand. “Aha, of course you don’t know yet. It has yet to be announced. You know of Young Master Mo. The latest disciple of the First Elder, he will become his chief disciple when he reaches the peak of Reclamation. With the First Elder in charge, that would make him the Young Patriarch.”

  Hao took a step forward, dodging the light.

  “But don’t you have to complete the Bone-Shaking Trial for such a qualification? Even if you are the Sect Master’s Disciple?” Hao said, seething, looking at the man, but his words pushed Hao’s emotions to their peak. He was barely able to hide his expression.

  The man laughed again, like he had heard something funny. “I can tell Junior if he doesn’t tell anyone. Young Master Mo has already completed the Bone-Shaking Trial. It has been kept secret.”

  Hao’s stomach suddenly felt full, his heart heavy. He didn’t hear the bell ring, not since he rang it. His ears were buzzing. Hao wanted to crouch down and cover his face with his hands, but he kept himself steady. Even managing to trick himself into smiling.

  “Really! I only heard the bell once. I thought the only one to finish the trial was a servant!” Hao was truly surprised, so that wasn’t hard to fake, but cracks in his performance were forming. It was hard to smile.

  The man’s face sunk as he heard the words; he put on his best face of indignation.

  “No, no, no. Junior, the bell did ring only once. The idea that a servant rang the bell was just a rumour by someone trying to defame our sect. Do you really think some mud-covered Islander Servant with his piss colored hair could finish—”

  The man’s face, wrinkles and all, scrunched up like a dog showing his teeth. “—No, even start the Bone-Shaking trial. That day, it was Young Master who rang the bell, but that kind of rumour was the exact reason that it was all kept secret. All to protect the Young Master from possible enemies.”

  He was right in front of Hao by the time he finished speaking, yelling the last of his words into Hao’s face.

  Hao didn’t mind, his smile was no longer fake either. All the weight in his heart was alleviated. Hao thought he would have to force the information out of this man after hearing him speak similar words this morning.

  Hao lifted his hand, placing it on his forehead, covering one of his eyes, “Oh, by the Ocean’s salt.” He leaned forward, his skin crawling at the very thought, starting to laugh; he couldn’t help himself. His laugh was anything but funny: strange, screeching, disturbing. There were a dozen ways to describe it, all of them disconcerting.

  Hao crouched until his butt touched his heels before he started standing again, trying to speak through his laughter, “So that—that is your plan, haHA…” Would anyone believe that? Mo Bangcai was in the Lower-peak Disciple Trial grounds, in front of everyone. When I Rang The Bell and got little to show for it.

  Hao’s hand fell from his face, the laughing stopped, and his arm hung loose, his body going relaxed. His head stayed high, saliva pooling in his open mouth as his stomach growled. A part of him felt relieved; such a feeble plan would be easy to disrupt, but he didn’t let his guard down. The words of an underling would be far from what someone like the First Elder had in mind.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  The man, standing right in Hao’s face, placed a hand on his shoulder, “Are you crazy?”

  The blue light of the spirit stone shone harshly in their faces, fingers digging into the flesh of Hao’s shoulder. His nails meant to seek bone, but he couldn’t get past the skin, let alone the muscle. “You don’t believe those false rumours, right? It was obviously Young Master Mo—No, Young Patriarch that rang it, right?” He tried squeezing down harder.

  Hao reached out, grabbing the hand that held the Spirit Stone, as he put on a big smile. “No, no, of course not. The Bone-Shaking Trial is something brutal, it tortures your body, then your mind, and forces you to question your morals, your self. There is no way some random bastard could pass it so easily…”

  Hao let out a long breath, closing his eyes, pulling the man’s arm up closer to him, clenching down on the man’s wrist. Only enough to keep him still.

  The man began nodding his head, listening to Hao, closing his eyes alongside him.

  “But my words mean nothing. You are my Senior, so you know better than me. You are famed for your righteousness and honesty. Not to mention skill. After all, you are one of those things; A part of that little animal’s famous hunting team. How could I doubt you? After all, you and that little animal rely on The First Elder, that Old Ghost Gou, to force the truth into whatever shape you want.”

  Hao spoke quickly and fluently, his words came out with an amiable smile. He shook the hand he was already holding, his fingers slipping onto the spirit stone.

  The man kept shaking his head, opening his eyes to Hao’s smile. It took a while for everything to gather and get organized in his mind. He loved the first part of Hao’s little speech; it made him feel good and distracted him. Then he started to break down the rest so he could respond, “Junior Brother, you understand, we do what’s right and strictly punish all evil…”

  He froze mid-sentence and looked down at Hao. “You! What did you say?”

  His hand gripped down harder and harder again, pulling Hao in close.

  Hao caught a glimpse down his sleeve, seeing the arm of a white cloak wrapping the man’s arm beneath his blue robes. “You and I are probably more similar than I would like to think…”

  The hand crushed the air as it landed on Hao’s left shoulder. Nearly knocking Hao to the ground, left foot denting the frozen grassy dirt. The pain made water pool on Hao’s eyelids, but he had one last question.

  “Did you kill an innocent old man who worked in the library? Did you attack his wife too…” Tears froze on Hao’s cheeks as he pulled the spirit stone closer to his face. Light went past his empty expression up to his hair, which fell in two colors. A few strands called to the sun, a bright gold. The rest of Hao’s hair was black, vanishing into the night behind him.

  The man’s eyes went wide. “Abomination.” He pulled back the hand that was on Hao’s shoulder, raising a fist. He tried to free his hand that Hao held tight, but Hao released him after tapping his finger on the spirit stones.

  Hao let out a sigh, sucking the Spirit Stone into his bag. Light disappeared.

  Do what is right… Punish evil. Hao repeated in his head.

  Dark took the world. The air felt crushing between the two of them. Hao was slipping in and out of an enraged state, Seven Colored Steps assisting his mind and body in their movement in the dark. His shoulder had already taken a hit and was creaking.

  The last thing I need is to take the first real strike.

  Hao used the dent his left foot made as a leverage point, pivoting his body. His body was steady, but his mind rocked.

  The fist touched him, scraping across his neck, which made his pulse even colder.

  Hao took out a white spirit stone, which shone much brighter than the blue one. Its light flashed for only a moment. Hao threw it into his mouth, hiding its luminescence between the roof of his mouth and his tongue.

  Already locking onto his target during the brief flash, Hao raised his hand, making a flat palm to strike with, but as his hand shot forward, the world seemed darker than the pitch black that already surrounded him.

  There was something inside him moving along with his movements. In the back of his mind, the scene of his first near-death experience still remained. That was the first time he met the Drifting Stream Elders. The invincible palm strike of the First Elder was still taunting him.

  His fleshless, bleached skull still sat there, alone in the dirt, seemingly staring at him. It rested outside the mine, surrounded by broken pickaxes. Hao got lost in the hollow sockets, their emptiness pulling him in, drowning him in the abyss the Bone-Shaking Trial exposed, always waiting below.

  Wake up…

  Little Hao, Wake up.

  Hao opened his eyes. Grandpa He was right in front of him, placing a tin cup of tea next to Hao’s hand. “Come on, wake up. Did you fall asleep in here? I didn’t even notice. Grandma made some tea. Though, I’m not sure if you deserve it. I haven’t even gotten a cup yet.”

  Grandma He walked over, standing behind Hao, “He has been studying all night. What have you done to deserve some tea?”

  “You. I’m your husband, and you take his side over mine.” Grandpa He crossed his arms, turning his head away.

  Hao gave a small laugh at the old man, not loud enough to be chased out of the library.

  Grandma He began laughing too, it was the first time Hao heard it, “You are acting petty, yet it was you who said, he is like our real Grandchild now.”

  She tousled Hao’s hair. He looked down, red-faced, unable to stop his smile.

  “Hey, don’t go repeating things as you like…” The old man’s welcome voices faded.

  Hao let go. The library faded, the abyss, the skull.

  The tears on Hao’s face melted as World Energy ran rampant in his body, more tears rolling from his eyes.

  As much as it hurt, it felt addictively good to let his emotions run wild. He let out a roaring howl, his mouth opening wide, his teeth glowing until the white spirit stone rolled out onto the ground.

  His non-lethal palm strike curled, turning into a fist that was trained for shattering stones in the mine.