It usually rained in the west of the Abyssal Sea, quite portentously; and in the days of old it was not an issue. The waving sheets of raindrops, incessantly trapping the darkness and wielding it like a yarn, knitting out a blank verse from it; when asked which way the north ceased – undoubtedly, the sea with its unceasing, unwavering showers was the end of the far deep north. Here, even the Gods couldn’t light up the abyss like darkness. Yes, abyss lived here, dwelt in these wet, misty premises and unraveled his giant existence akin to a nodding yawn.

A little farther from the Abyssal sea, was the fearsome 'Deep Trenches of Forgetfulness'. In deep here, the yearnings of mortals, the wishes of floating immortals and deities alike reached to make an end of its long wistful journey. All those emotions that could never see the day of the light, flitted through the breast of men and beasts alike and unfettered reached these trenches to sleep for an eternity. And so, the people of Fa worshipped the Deep Trenches as the home of their departed, and called the Abyss the guardian. 

These two fearsome, ancient dwellings of Yuanshan world, was separated from the rest by a bearer of the sovereignty of Heavenly Court, the people of Fa. A small ancient town and villages, with a language that only they understood, sounds only they could produce, food only they could harvest and lands only their hands could till. It was a place they had called home for ages uncounted for, and memories blinded with its stretches.

The people of Fa, had seen many tumultuous times in their lives, singing and writing many epics about the great hero’s who died fighting the beasts of the abyssal sea, saving the villages from the brink of destruction. These were melancholic, heroic tales that fed the imagination of several generations of Fa people, filling them with unceasing veneration for the love of courage, and as a bearer of the ’Pandora’s Box’, an inherent curiosity for the dwellings of the soul - the Deep Trenches. But before this curiosity could lead them anywhere near a fatal end, they found themselves in the midst of battle between Gods. And invaders from other worlds.

Some old Fa citizens, couldn’t help but take notice and scrunch up their shrunken faces into ponderous silence, dwelling over the fact that the people who fought were humanoid creatures, bearing the same kind of Divine Energy as any other Gods. Strange, strange. Curious! Gods fighting Gods, for what?  

But no one was courageous enough, powerful enough as the 'Heroes' of the past, to venture out and solve these mysteries. Many battles had taught these weary backed men and women to steer away from things that should never be touched upon, like staying on this land when they knew that it was the end of its existence. From thence, there wasn’t going to be any Fa people, or lands, or trees they were familiar with. Their orchards dating thousands and thousands of years back, were destroyed, uprooted in a blink of an eye. And they could only watch with wistful patience.

And so, when the first Immortal, no, the alien Demon came to the village to cause chaos, the elders stood together and led the young, the tender newborns and weak women, receding to the giant mountains that had separated them from the rest of the north. They were right, soon many Immortals fell from sky. And many Gods, rang the bells of peril. There were drum beats, and thrumming of swords in the air, a melancholic smell of blood and sweat and stringent lingering of the departed souls!

With just that sound of the commencement of war, they lost the land they had cherished for unknown times. But what else could matter more than continuing their meagre bloodline in these perilous times! And so, they lived in crooked caves, narrow dugouts in the Northern Mountains. The courageous of them even liked to go and join in the war, look at the faces of dead, dig out for forgotten spoils, and if they were extremely lucky, a whole corpse of dead immortal full of treasure! These encounters were few, and as the days progressed took the form of a long back heard legend. No one was lucky enough to encounter a dead Immortal, as there were many new scavenging faces, other then them.

There were cultivating immortals in the Fa people as well, but they followed a very different system then the orthodoxy of the rest of Yuanshan. Because of these peculiarities, they could often purify the negative or magical energy from beasts. Even the water coming from the Abyssal sea wouldn’t trouble them, they had drunk it for ages unknown.

A boy could be seen at the moment, fishing and playing in the abyssal sea, still, in the shocking blasts of aftereffects from fighting Gods; he would fish through the creaks, shallow inlets and then swim in the black waters to seek the bony, ferocious tunas of the Abyss. There was another child, with similar looking features betraying his blood-ties, looking on and watching out for any attack that could reach them. Though their mortal bodies would be definitely dead from such an impact instantly, if it did happen, but a lookout was the custom of old; their rotten clothes buried the same respect for the old as curiosity of the Men of Fa deep down in their breast. A respect for the tradition as thick as their blackened blood!  

Many Gods and Demons would beg these Fa remnants to purify the attacks of the Abyssal beast that had become insane with the ongoing attack into their territories. Even in the heart of disappointment, being left with no land, no heritage to carry on any longer, these people grilled through the pores, finding ways to survive. They were only human.

There was hope in their breast. Their grave faces, shone with a straight light, unflinching in its determination. It was alike in the young tender faces, in the older faces. In the faces of mortals and half-deities. Even the rotten food they scavenged was a statement of their determination to never waver and move further away from the home - or mostly, the unceasing Abyssal Sea, and Deep Trenches they worshipped.

And what else could they do; they were forced to part with their peace for a far longer time even they could have imagined. Many generations passed like mayflies, and newer eyes that opened to the shattered world, unfortunately couldn’t hear the silent lullabies of the whales of the Abyssal sea, or play with the dark ears of curling wheats, or fly with the fishes of the shallow bottoms – a past only residing in the hearts of some old cultivating men and women. And these nostalgic noises, smells were left for the Deep Trenches to feed on. Ebbing time, lingering attachments, and eyes that cried through the endless nights, begging the mercy of the cruel time.

For fifteen thousand long dreadful years, till the last Mahayana Elder of the Fa took his last breath – the old town of the Fa was not given back to them. The war was still raging. They were still teetered to the edges of destruction, and now were so numb to their hungry, unsatiated and crumbled selves that they thought it was the state they were born in. And death seemed to be meaningless to most; in the growing casualties, the bothersome customs of burial faded away and mass burning was given acquiescence at large. "You die today, maybe I will follow you tomorrow" became the salute at the funerals. 

That numb looking boy, peering through the layers of unfading black waters of the inlet watched his shrunken body reflected over it and wondered whether today would be a good day – a day with a naïve fish falling in his lousy trap. Impossible! how many people had died hoping for this luck but couldn’t get anything? But who will ask him to stop hoping?

He rose from his languid state and looked at his small brother, looking out for the attacks from the sky. The raining bombardments, shaking the land and water were still ongoing as ever. In fact, these young minds had never felt the silence. If one day, the season changed and they were left alone, they would wonder whether the world had changed, or were they born changed for the new world? Whatever their conclusion might lead them to, it wouldn't be an healthy understanding of silence, for sure.

For now, his bony hands rippled through the water of the Shallow waters. “No luck, brother?” A questioning, listless voice echoed.

“None.” And here they turned their faces with the same dullness back to the dark sky, raging with light flashes.

Grueling days were alike. And today was one such everyday like long day in their life.

Somewhere a forgotten lark echoed his long dreading ‘none’, and thunder clapped with the starting downpour. The rotten clothes hanging on their backs were completely soaked, but they couldn’t feel the warmth receding their limbs, or the lips trembling over their faces. Some eras, become so painful that a numb heart and pang-less consciousness becomes a blessing – for them too, the cold, the pain and anguish of poverty and starvation was a matter of everyday life.

“Let’s go back to Amuja, Granny will be worried if we tarried any longer.” The younger looked at the face of his elder brother and called out. They both rose up to the same tumultuous sky as their ancestors and soon, with few tunes stringed on their backs,  head home in the Northern Mountains.  

*

“The War God has already overtaken the last Jade Immortal! Before long we are going to hear about the ceasefire! Go, prepare to get out from this space field! Chop any heads you see! Let’s show these intruders what it means to eye our lands! The reinforcement is going to reach the Abyssal Trench soon, there is no longer any worry my brothers, so hurry!” Earth Immortal master Shen Xinghe, looked over the burning sky, where two huge catastrophic forces fought with each other, while his left ear took in the words of Commander of the nearby regiment echoing a battle cry. The beating of the drum started, and the tandem built a force to reckon with; the tired shoulders burst into a final bout of struggle against the faceless enemies.

The impact of the battle between two Gods could be felt even to the far end of the fringes though; where Shen Xinghe stood, a small rock that rose over the plain of black soilless field of rocks and sands, he too felt the rocking with many other unprepared warriors, toppling them down like a handful of grass under a pertinently ferocious wind. Still, he himself was able to be safe by digging his feet under the soil, looking unblinkingly at the two raging forces above the small space field.

The white-haired God of War raged with his thunders piercing through the layers of the space, many stars toppled down under his attack, the force pushing them to break up and vanish away as a wisp of flimsy light. The Jade Immortal facing the War God faced these onslaughts from all around him,  equally ferociously; his back taut with force, but his hand holding a golden scepter which he held tightly, in both of his hands, creating ripples in the fabric of space all around him. Each of those ripples were warm, as if effacing the onslaught with a soothing voice of lullaby, gentle and silent, swallowing the upcoming rage of a ferocious beast.

But Shen Xinghe knew for a fact that this won’t last for long. For three whole long days filled with the same unceasing amount of force, the Jade Immortal had long stopped any attack as he was too busy defending himself. There was no backup, there was no sign of reinforcement. How could that be, who could come to save a Jade Immortal and face against a Natural Deity? Shen Xinghe smiled, a slightly sarcastic smile lingering over his lip. He enjoyed the priceless show of power between the two powerhouses. This was a once in a lifetime moment to see two peerless masters raging at each other, and he was living each moment cherishingly, each attack of it!

‘Yes, undoubtedly that Alien is powerful, peerlessly so.’ Shen Xinghe grumbled under his breath, as he stood away from his regiment in the Open grounds of Space fields.  

While he observed the unceasing bouts of attacks, the shielding field of the Jade immortal fluctuated for a while and for the first time, a gash successfully cut through the ripples penetrating deep into the golden fortress of the shield and soon cut through the Immortals skin. But then, a sudden silver light flashed, with an echo lingering with the drums of the background – the penetrating voice of the Jade Immortal was crying out a charm.

“Moon Gods, thy servant recalls ye with blood, sacrifice to thee its soul for eternity, for perpetuity, to be meld in soulless attachment of ageless tie. Mercy!”

The bells upon the scepter rang with a rhythmic beat, creating huge ripples in the space, and soon the figure of the black-haired Jade Immortal was lost in the silver light coming from his hands.

Shen Xinghe’s pupils recoiled with surprise. But soon looking at the growingly flashing silver lights, over the sky, and a star melding powerlessly into scattered stones, he burst into a shout urging him men to attention. “Come under protection, hurry, hurry, hurry!”

“The Immortal has opened a Sacrifice!”

“Hurry!”

“Over here, under the Protection Array, you all! Come here!”

‘Look! Weren’t his assessments, right? Driven to do a sacrifice – no, there was no going back from here! The fifth Jade Immortal of the Invaders will soon take his last breath!’   

Shen Xinghe excitedly looked over while shielding his own body from the rippling affects and the thunderous ripples, and aftershocks of the war. While he was engaged in watching the spectacle, he still didn’t forget to yell at his retinues and guide them to walk through the space crack that had opened due to the fight, into the Fortress of the Array masters had crafted with the treasures of their whole life – and there he watched the war with renewed gusto.

“Hurry! You won’t be able to get back if you don’t hurry!”

Shen Xinghe still heard few voices from outside the shield. These natural space cracks in the Abyssal Sea were very volatile in nature. Any fluctuation could lead them to travel through unknown channels, or even get lost in between the space between two openings.

If they don’t hurry back from the Trench today after the attack, then they will more likely never come back. The whole of the Deep Trench was full of these vague, invisible space fields and cracks. Fighting over these fields had its inherent losses and good points. The volatility of the space fields, was similarly the same kind of double-edged sword that could even cut through the wielders hand.

But wasn't this the fate of the weak? This was the fate for the ones left behind and had always been! The world of Cultivation doesn't allow the weak to exist as a law written in stone!

Shen Xinghe coldly looked at the few backs that didn’t successfully recede from the battlefield, and were still entangled with their enemies and coldly waved his own magical weapon, a small fan crafted from Dragon bones and hairs of Phoenixes feathertail – cutting a deep gash through the crack, sealing the space of the Protection Array around the Portable Fortress, along with the fate of those who tarried.

One space channel was closed. He sighed, satisfactorily. There were still many left in the trench but they weren’t under his command or near this fortress Pagoda. He gazed through the raging war all around him, through many open space cracks, as Immortals fought with all their might.

“Here, look who is late today? Shen Xinghe, don’t tell me you couldn’t even take down an unworthy alien, taking a whole day to deal with an Earth Immortal, is that it? Is it all that you have got now, my friend?” Master Jinhua smiled at the upcoming friend and reached out to shake his hand, giving him a warm shoulder hug. He peeked through the several cuts on Shen Xinghe’s stomach glaring openly for the viewers. The green pus showed that it was poisonous, yet there was no tendency of the Immortal flesh to heal on its own. Master Jinhua narrowed his pupils and raised his head to meet his silently observing friend. “Doesn’t look like a work of Earth Immortal, that, huh?”

“He had a companion beast, Golden Immortal level, no, perhaps a little higher if not lower than that.”

“Unlucky!”

“Yes, but what can I say, came back from the brink. Do you think the 'Heaven’s Physician Guild' will be able to treat this saliva wound. The beast really took a big chunk off my chest!” Shen Xinghe pointedly looked at his wound and light heartedly patted his tired looking friend and then both the figures sat down, with a jade cup in their hands giving off a wisp of curling steam, losing off into the air; their eyes never ceasing to take a random look towards the figure of Two Gods fighting above in the sky.

The Great War God had been by now, once again pushed two thousand miles back, the attack from the sacrifice had boasted the Jade Immortals power a whole level higher.

“Looks like a Priest, if you ask me, doesn’t he?”

“Who knows how these bitches practice? What Priest and nots!”

“Come on. How else, we call them Jade Immortal, isn’t it all the same? Just the words and charms are different.”

“Not orthodox, if you ask me! Look, what is different in them and the people from the Demon Realm, or those from the Devil realm?” Shen Xinghe replied callously, he wasn’t ready to humor anyone at the moment. His heart was beating with the unexpected turn of events. “What do you think, will Master Xiu be ready for reinforcement?”

“uhum! Doesn’t look like it. Who would ask the War God to cheat! Who dares.” Master Jinhua shook his head.  

There was a long stretching silence, as the Jade Immortal breached the last shields of War God piercing through his ‘Recluse Bell of Silent Saint.’ The treasure was as renowned as the holder himself; it was the only artifact that was passed down as a tradition, from the hands of each generation of War God. With a nervous breath stuck in their throat, the two stopped even sipping the tea they held. Suddenly Master Jinhua called out –

“Looks gruesome, that, your wound! But lucky for you I spotted the same wound a few days ago in the Physicians tent. By now, they must have come with a way to deal with that if not completely heal it. By the way, did you hear? Shark Immortal is dead.”

Master Jinhua took a light sip from his cup, his lips turning taut. The frown on his brows creased his almost impeccable features, making the air almost tight with urgency. A nice news to divert attention. 

“What!” Shen Xinghe looked up with genuine shock in his golden purple eyes, only replying a whole minute later as if still dwelling deep in its comprehension.  “Oh.”

He really couldn’t look up, but rose the jade cup and emptied it, bottom up. The shock was too deep for him to clear with a sip, and he tried hard to grasp the end of the matter. “Dead?” He couldn’t help whisper once more.

“Yes.” The one sitting besides him replied.

With that there was no other sound coming out inside the Pagoda’s Pavilion.

Shark Immortal…Shark Immortal the sovereign of the Southern Seas of the Heavenly realm of Yuanshan World was no more. A rightful Jade Immortal who could shake fear into any of his opponents by just calling out his name. Who was once renowned for his piercing sword, and tail that cut through skies – that shark Immortal has died!

The Death of a legend of their childhood, whom they have grown up listening to felt like a strange tale. His wondrous deeds were the lullabies accompanying their younger days, life fluttering petals that fell over a sleeping wanderer giving them an encouragement to follow. Who didn’t know of his Ten Great Battles, when he fought against the ten great monsters asleep since ancient ages in the Southern sea? Who didn’t remember reading his ferocious victories in their youth and imagining the courage it took to overwhelm an ancient sea and become its overlord? That was Shark Immortal, the rightful heir of the Silver Shark clan that was famous for its siren like voice and equally ferocious fighting style! The ruler of waters...

With that silence, many memories and ages flickered past as if taking a last lingering breath over them. Yes, like the silent red star that shone over their youth and faded away once they reached out of its tenderness – but who could claim that they wouldn’t be the next one to come in the fold of the long list of fallen warriors? Shen Xinghe wasn’t sure he could walk out intact.

How hateful! These intruders!

“I am going back to the battlefield.”

“Wait a little longer, there is going to be a judgement soon. Look.” Master Jinhua pointed towards the flashing sky.

*

War Gods bell gave way at last. The last chime, and then it sank like an evening star. As if the spirit called out to its master, there was a lingering cry, piercing all around in that last chime. It rang, it rang far and wide for the last time, and as if shadowed with his defeat, bowed his head in shame – with a last lament in its ringing breast, it fell in the ripple less bottom of the Abyssal Sea.

But his master didn’t look at him; the War God was busy fighting with his sword. Each of his heavy strikes, pierced through the silver layers of Jade Immortal, forcing out blood from his mouth. The dripping line of blood painted a gruesome, yet a macabre beauty over the dying features of the immortal. But his long staff never fell short of meeting the fearsome warriors attack. The sword was reaching faster and faster, the blades of ‘Thousand Layers of Mortal Snow’ fiercely penetrated through the layers of silver fortress, chalking out the material of the specter – and suddenly, the last of its unceasing formation ebbed closer to the innermost layer, and like a charm that ceased to be effective the fortress of silver protection fell. It was all in a moment. Few trinkets, and bells attached to the long specter fell down, similarly falling down into the endless depths of the Abyssal Sea. By now, it was doubtlessly the tomb of many legends; the cruel water of Abyssal Sea.

The jade immortal fell down on his knees, his face spattered with his own blood. His eyes opened in disbelief, and deepened horror, yet soon the emotions settled into a silent remembrance and acceptance. His eyes, looked through the space around him, as if not understanding how he had reached this moment. Not his home. A strange land, a strange black sea. And no friend or companion to carry his bones back.

His nose caught a whiff of the golden smell of ripening ryes of wheat in fields that stretched farther, farther into the open blue horizon. And the heavenly music his mother hummed under her breath; her hands busy spreading the grains of freshly picked berries. Maybe there was even a lark that accompanied her, a small little cuckoo over the pomegranate trees too, harmoniously creating a noon full of blessed rhythm. She was a small woman, wasn't she? And Yuneah small World, was still not at the brink of its breath wasn't it? Because, he recalled having seen a field full of ripened wheats. Not for masters, but his own mothers toil, for the family. Unlike many others around him, her mother wasn't a slave. Why? Why was it so? Yes, because she had a life-saving grace from the Immortals. She had taken in refuge a small girl, who later turned out to be the Oracle of the Wilderness Snake Clan. How fortunate was his childhood, even if it was surrounded by lies?

He recalled the silent smell of olives and rosemary, and breads and ashes of oven. The stifling moment of daybreaks, and silent respite of nights. It all came back as if breaking through a flood-gate. His already kneeling figure, bent down further with the reminiscence.

“Surrender, or die?”

The voice seemed to be coming from far away, so far away from him yet closer to his stilling heart, as if a voice of his mother.

"Rue,er ya! I have done you a lots of wrongs in this life. Many of them by the grace of my boundless maternal love. But even then, I will never expect you to fall short of the expectations of the rest of our people. You were brought up in fine breads, which you owned. But many here don't have this fate, my child. So, when I die and go to other world, never betray your people. Even if we were blessed by their grace, never surrender your heart. Take what they give with a smile, and then when the time comes, never forget to avenge the rest of your fallen people. Not for yourself, but for the disgrace of other - even if others call you a White eyed wolf, my child, be ashamed of that grace and equally indignant of the evils suffered by your men. You will listen to me, right?"

'No surrender, only death.' His fate, since the day he decided to walk on this road.

The war god might have looked through his answer, peering in his violent eyes, because he raised his sword to behead the fallen Immortal.

But then, the sword didn’t reach the neck.

At that moment a figure suddenly teleported by their side. With a full head of floating white hair, and melancholic eyes peering on that face, and lips taut in a straight line. The War God looked at the strangely familiar face of the intruder, felt the blood call out to him pulsing in that maidens veins, telling him that no doubt, he had not recognized the wrong person. It was his daughter, who had come. 

But then, without a moments wait, and a sweep of her hands, Princess Jingwei moved past the barriers of the two Gods; held the kneeling man, toppled down over in her small arms and as if a flash of light, a strange hallucination or a play of mind, she cut through the space and teleported. There was so much shock in the eyes of the War God that he didn’t even have the thought to chase.

After a long while of ponderous silence he moved his lips.

“Jingwei…?”

As if asking the endless night-sky for a reply, he mumbled but, the torrential clouds under his feet didn't reply, nor the waves of the Abyssal Sea, or the fluctuating lights of the burning stars.