VIII | THE RED FLOWER

3rd crown of the Red Flower, Town of Xin Xi. The air was thick with the scent of cinnamon and fallen leaves. Red and yellow petals adorned the streets and the roofs. She leaned over the bridge railing, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Senior Brother, you must have countless secrets,” she said, looking at him sideways. “Tell me, Senior Brother, if you had to leave someone you love behind to escape from something, how would you feel?”

He blinked, caught off guard by her sudden question. “Huh? Uhh… I wouldn’t know—ow.” He felt a sharp pinch on his sleeves, making him flinch.

“What would you do?” she asked, pinching him again.

“I’d— I don’t know,” he stuttered, rubbing the spot.

She giggled, enjoying his discomfort. “You’re so cute when you’re clueless, Senior Brother,” she teased, gently pinching his cheek.

“Ow, stop that. You’re trying to give me more bruises than I already have,” he complained, pointing at his face. His cheeks were purple, his eyes covered by a blindfold.

“Senior Brother, why do you hide your eyes? It’s just us; no one will recognize you,” she said, reaching for his blindfold.

He jerked back lightly. “Don’t touch that. You know me? How?” he demanded.

She smiled, “Senior Brother, you must think I’m naïve. It’s pretty obvious with my special eyes, and besides, I’ve heard tales of your reputation beyond these lands. Hehe, don’t worry, I won’t tell Master it was you that day.” She winked.

He felt a cold sweat on his forehead. “Heh. Speaking of your Master, is he alright?” he asked, slightly adjusting the cuffs of his sleeves.

She shrugged, tossing her hair over her shoulder. “I suppose. Some doctors finally managed to get a clue, if Master knew it was you that day, I wonder how he would react."

Aegis imagined the wrath of her Master, brandishing a cudgel and pursuing him with a roar, “Get over here!” What madness possessed him, Aegis wondered.

“Senior Brother, what is your purpose for joining the sect? My Master told me you were someone high, a champion even. You were someone the Temple Master personally referred to.” She tilted her head, studying his face. “Senior Brother, the Temple Master is from that clan, are you also from that clan?” She pointed at the pond below, where the water reflected a serene scene.

He fell silent, feeling her gaze on him. He could hear the rustle of the branches above them, reaching down like fingers. The cold had arrived and flowed between them. She watched as the clear waters rippled, reflecting her beauty.

She broke the silence, her voice soft. “They say… when a Kuzin is born, the skies are ashen and crackle with death.” He remembered the night of a particular birth. “That’s right. Senior Brother, during the 5th crown of Red Flower Khalasi, that day—”

“Not me…” He sighed.

The dream-like ambiance faded, and they found themselves strolling through the streets of a muttering town, awaiting Lady Nourn and the Prince.

“Do you enjoy your life, Senior Brother Aegis? Dealing with creatures from beyond and all. It must be truly extraordinary.”

He smiled, teasing her. “It has its moments. But nothing compares to being with you.”

She blushed. “Senior Brother…”

Aegis smiled, when you tease me I only endure, and when I jest a little you turn all rosy. Hehe.

They reached a bustling section of the town, where wooden stalls lined the road. Lady Nourn and the Prince were engrossed in their tasks, surrounded by bags of leather and straps. Before them stood a skilled artisan, diligently preparing a pot on his stall. He expertly masked it with oil, and with a flourish, his hands were lit with flames. The aromatic scent of whatever concoction he was preparing wafted through the air.

Karak Mountain Village

Why?

I asked myself surrounded by cries of many, and there was dried blood and burnt flesh remains, it was everywhere across tables, wooden walls, bricks, they lay scattered.

In ancient lore, a marvel seldom seen, where blood is most spilled, the Red Flower gleams. I saw its blooming, three crowns and one red petal had formed.

The Red Flower, the lifeblood of the world, unfolds in ten stages. Each crown from first to last, endures the withering. Every ten days within a crown begets a petal, while the thirtieth of a crown was not a day but an Anarkali. The last passing of the whole flower is an Anarkalia and every single one would bear a dark stain that foretells the god arising black on black.

He was a young man with a flying wyrm, green and brown scales, fleshy wings, and twin horns. His brown long hair is crowned, blue robes and a silver belt waistbelt etched with gold covered by a layer of woolen cloak buttoned by an insignia of a broken arrow of fire. He was now a rogue sorcerer-warrior and it often involved death and carnage.

Before he was trained as the king’s eye, prompting a meticulous investigation of the scattered bodies. The recent influx of outer villagers to Karak Mountain Village had only been known now, it nestled deep in the mountains, and the cries heightened the chaos. Distraught filled their breath as people desperately sought their fallen kin, wrapping them in black cloth and ceremoniously burning them under the shroud of night—believed to cleanse lingering resentments in this nation.

Examining the bodies, it was barely discernable, he noted the signs of savage slashes—some singed, others splatted. His thoughts gravitated toward a possible onslaught by airborne creatures, given the village's vulnerable wooden walls, reinforced only by stone pillars showing signs of weathering and damage from the recent assault.

In a village where mortals predominated, the notion of lacking a sorcerer’s defense against aerial threats appeared implausible. It was inconsistent, he dismounted and entered a burnt wooden dwelling, stooping beneath a fallen, scorched doorway. Inside, the familiar sight of utter desolation met his gaze.

Suddenly, the rhythmic clatter of hooves reached his ears, heralding the arrival of newcomers on horseback.

I take a breath and puffed mist.

There were four of them on furred cloaks, a young pale man on lead riding a white pegasus tied with four staves. He had long black hair, a blindfolded, furred cloak strapped around his brown armored tunic, and black robes beneath.

“Senior brother Aegis…” A beautiful pale young woman by his side, face veiled by a bamboo hat, head slowly darted left and right. “This is…”

There were also two on horseback behind them, a child with blonde hair and a woman in black, who seemed to be shivering and throwing up at the sight.

The young man looked at the devastation, his head was aching by the stench. “Who is in charge here?” the youngster with the blindfold asked.

Just then in a random house, someone was heard screaming, They all came and the ground of dirt and stone was filled with hooves. They saw an old man in brown beating a dried corpse, the head was almost cut off and the limbs were almost gone. The old man was screaming, the veins on his neck and arms were swelling.

“Return my money!” He yelled at the corpse.

“Give me my money! I sold you the house, it was my rightful payment!”

He kept hitting the disgusting remains until it was almost a pile of mud, he stopped when he saw me and then the four, he looked around and then stood up and walked to remains wrapped in black cloth, his hands and face were painted in brown, his eyes were sadness.

“This… is my house…”

“Your house?” Said the blindfolded youngster, “This house doesn’t belong to anyone, there is no one left alive—”

“I know! They’re all dead!” The man’s voice trembled, and he fell on his knees, he began to sob.

“The money, I needed the money…”

“Why?” The blindfolded youth asked, his tone was cold.

“For my grandson’s education! I need it! Give me the money! I need it!” The old man pleaded.

“Where is your grandson?” I asked.

The old man kneeled before a pile of black cloth, he began crying.

“I need the money… to send him to the Academy, if not he would suffer… I need it.”

He sobbed, and I saw him, his heart was full of grief and despair. I turned to the blindfolded young man, his expression was hard to tell. The youngster got down the white pegasus and walked towards the sobbing man.

“You’re the only one left, no?” He asked, his tone was calm.

“Yes… I was late to the… my son and my grandson… they are dead now, in front of me.” The old man was still sobbing, clutching the damp earth.

“I’ll give you the money.”

The man suddenly perked up, he stopped crying, and his face was full of hope.

“I’ll give you the money, but I have a condition.” The youngster said, his tone was solemn.

“I’ll do anything! Just give me the money!”

“I want you to kill yourself, here and now.”

“What?” The man was shocked.

“You heard me.” The youngster said.

“But…” The old man hesitated, he was confused.

“Do it.” The youngster said.

The man was silent, his face was a mixture of confusion and sadness.

“I’ll do it, but you have to work for the trouble—”

I could not stand the sight anymore, the man’s grief was too much, I could feel the pain in his heart.

“No! Are you crazy?” I put out in rage. “This is not how we do things!”

“How then? How would you make him live, knowing that his life is worthless?” The youngster asked, his tone was harsh.

“That’s not for us to decide,” I yelled. “How would you know you bastard! Who are you to judge the worth of a life?”

“Senior brother…” The young woman behind let out a sound.

“You don’t need to kill yourself, old man. This is not how it should be.” I said, my voice was shaking in rage.

“It is.” The youngster repeated.

“You’re wrong!” I fumed, my voice was breaking in anger, I unsheathed my sword and faced the young man.

“Haha! I was merely joking! Here is your money! Have a happy life!” The young man said grabbing a brown pouch filled with fortune and throwing it over to the scrambling old man.

He seemed excited.

“Thank you… thank you so much!” The old man was delighted, he hugged the bag.

“Now get out of my sight, I am a busy man.” The youngster said gesturing to his blindfold, waving his hand in dismissal.

“Of course! Of course! I’m sorry!” The old man got up and scurried away.

“Senior brother! That was very mean!” The young woman pouted. “I didn’t expect you to go that far, senior brother.”

“What? Honesty is being rude!” he laughed. “Hahahaha! You young ones are all so sensitive.” The youngster said, grinning. “I am just having fun, no?”

“I didn’t know you were capable of being serious on jokes.” She said.

“Right lady Nourn, the village that was supposed to restock is gone, we won’t survive long in upcoming desolate mountains.” The young man went on.

“The horses won’t take it, and neither will the prince.” Added the young woman, she was worried.

“What happened here?” Said the man in a blindfold kicking about rocks and adjusting his blindfold.

“Why don’t we look around first."

The young woman nodded. “Right, there must be some clues.”

“Let’s get moving then.” The young man in blindfold ordered.

We searched the cold surrounding structures and area for clues, but there were barely signs of a struggle, just destruction and death.

“It is hard to see anything in this darkness let me get a torch, someone start a fire.”

“We’ll have to wait till dawn.”

The sun was shining high, we gathered in the center, the cold was melting and the air was fresh. The blindfolded young man stood in front of the wreckage and the remains, his expression was grim.

“What do you think, Senior Brother Aegis?” The veiled young woman beside him asked.

“I am not sure,” said the young man, his voice was low.

“Ah, all we know is that the attack isn’t the work of mere beasts; there are unmistakable signs of sorcery,” I shared. “There must be some reason why they’ve targeted this village.”

“Hehe, look,” The blindfolded youngster pointed out, his gaze focused on an earthen hole amidst the aftermath of the attack. “There’s a hole right there. I wonder what it could be?”

“After examining earlier, that’s what I was thinking too,” I acknowledged.

Lady Nourn, intrigued by the hole, joined the conversation. “But what could it be?” Her accent in another language was there.

The veiled woman pondered. “Is there anyone, perhaps a former resident of this village?”

“I am not. But I know of it. It was a stone tablet right here!” An old man recently arrived, atop a brown horse in a ponytail, chipped right ear, brown robes, and a bronze belt forwarded.

“Hehe, you guys are such clueless wanderers. Every deep secluded village of mountains in all the provinces in Qilinria has been annihilated one by one. I am the only one who has known it all this time.” The man with protruding ears, a beard over his chest, and a shabby grey robe tied with a rope around his large belly. His horse, laden with wooden jugs, suggested a cargo of beer, and the foaming mouth at the ends of his mouth and the jugs hinted at his recent indulgence. Even with the dawning sun enough for a blind even to see, he continued to hold a lit wooden torch.

“Senior, can you share with us what you know?” Aegis inquired, his tone curious.

“Hehe, you want to know?” The man threw a wooden jug away, retrieving another from his horse. He carefully dipped the lit torch into the jug, spinning it inside before taking a swig. “Sigh, I don’t even know. I heard the Qilin’s Daughter has gone out of seclusion. The best course of action is to go to other secluded mountain villages.”

“Not necessarily,” another voice on top of a black wolf interjected, belonging to a bald figure in black sleeves, gray robes, and iron-strapped shoulder guards, adorned with a tribal mark on his forehead. “Their target isn’t the villages themselves, but the stones, right? I’ve seen them and I know of one. The city of Un-Tro, one of the cities of Akran Republic—you…” He was splashed with beer on the face. “Wanna fight you, fat bastard!”

“Un-Tro? Isn’t that near Jing Zhou? That’s like a mountain away.” Aegis remarked, retrieving a map from Yuhong’s steed amidst the brawl.

“Senior brother, the dead bodies here, it looks like a crown already passed by.” She said, looking at Aegis inspecting the map.

“Could it be that Un-Tro has already been besieged? But cities like those have powerful cultivators and enchanted barriers!” The chipped-ear old man voiced his concern with a furrowed brow and a scratch of his beard.

“That’s right. If the annihilated villages are very secluded, news spreads very slowly. Right now, there are only a mere few numbers of us. Then, they must be preparing to annihilate the city as well!” The former king's eye put forth the unsettling thought, his words gaining urgency as the brawl beneath his foot intensified.

“You guys have forgotten one big thing: Why,” Aegis interjected, spinning the fat man on his belly with his woolen boots. “Why would they be gathering the stones? Is there some big secret to it?”

“Honestly, we don’t even know, but the Blessed Daughter might. She has the blessing of these lands and knowledge,” the former king’s eye offered with a tone of uncertainty.

“Yea…” Aegis’s eye twitched beneath blindfolds, apparently, he had offended the old lady, his uncle Ren told him.

“Senior Brother, is there something wrong?” Yunhua inquired, her concern evident in her voice.

“Uhhh, anyways we should band together and stop this evil!” Aegis cheered.

“Right, someone should stop these guys first,” the former king’s eye suggested, pointing towards the chaos of two individuals, broken and battered. Even their mounts were engaged in a bizarre struggle, the horse was drinking wine and spitting out fire. Yet, despite the unusual antics, the brawl between the bald and the fat persisted with relentless fists.

“I am Zhang Shi Sui, you can call me Uncle Zhang,” the old man with a chipped ear put out as he struggled to hold back the drunkard. “My mother’s side of the family had been wiped out. I’ve tried to spread the message, but no one would believe or care.” Uncle Zhang spoke his reason without delay, he had spread the word of the slaughter to all who would listen, but they only spurned him, no one cared for the mountain village after all, it was a kind of a prosperous land of its own with no dealings with the outside, as Old Zhang had often seen in his youth, having your kin on your mother’s side wiped out was a bitter thing, it was sorrow he felt.

“This junior is Li Xin, merely a wanderer.” The former king’s eye said. Li Xin was a trained spy in his youth, and he had a noble heart though it did not stop him from being ruthless and deadly, if a few lives would spare many then so be it. He was somewhat different, he had a skill that made him very valued when he served as the king’s eye, though due to some court intrigues he was betrayed by a brother, and was cast out.

“Hehe, this great man is called The Iron Mountain!” the fat man proclaimed in ragged breaths, shooting a provocative gaze at the bald figure.

The bald man, looking sideways, arms crossed, couldn’t help his face twitch. “Jun Zhou, the tribe in the north, Qilino Province,” he declared, trying hard to be the mature one.

“Haha, lame!” Iron Mountain spat.

“This junior is Aegis, and this junior sister of mine is Saintess Yuhong Xianhua,” Aegis introduced himself and his junior sister. “We are disciples from the Mortal Hea—”

“Yuhong Xianhua as in that Imperial Dynasty?” Uncle Zhang interrupted and was in deep thought.

They stood still, hearing the mention.

Li Xin was lost in deep thought. It seemed as though Li Xin already knew something, having trained the king’s eye after all.

Aegis looked beside him, noticing the downcasted junior sister of his. “You alright?” he asked, gently caressing her cheeks within the veils.

She was sorely astonished, her face aflame, and said in a trembling voice, “Yes.” The touch of a man and a maiden in her folk was forbidden.

Aegis smiled inwardly in triumph. It was a perilous deed!

A light cough came from Uncle Zhang, and Aegis responded quickly, “This lady and… brat right here,” Aegis noticed the prince was sleeping, “They are from distant lands!”

“You can call me Lady Nourn.”

“So, what shall be our next move? I suggest we split up; some will notify the Blessed Daughter, and some will go forward,” Uncle Zhang suggested.

“You guys are chickens! Chickens, I say! Let’s barge in! Let them know the wrath of this Mountain!” Declared The Iron Mountain, his boisterous enthusiasm cutting through.

Jun Zhou twitched. “Yeah, right, you crazy bastard. Look around you. I wonder how we can fight them all with our numbers. It’s better to be a—”

“Waaa! Waa! Kick this coward bastard out!” Iron Mountain spat, his steed ready for action.

Jun Zhou’s veins throbbed crazily. “You… What did I ever do to you? You are one crazy fat bastard.”

“Waaaaaa! Coward.”

Snow snorted and laughed crazily.

“No, Senior Iron Mountain is somewhat right. We should all go there. I believe the Blessed Daughter knows what’s happening too.” Li Xin said.

“If we want to go there fast, we should take the Zina Ridge path, but I’ve heard the nomads, Angkas, are currently settled in there,” Li Xin proposed, “they have both the air and land guarded.”

“These bastards are crazy too! They demanded all our livestock from one of our tribe branches,” Jun Zhou exclaimed.

“Cowards! They’re cowards like you! Chickens—”

“Fat bastard! Don’t go too far!”

Iron Mountain responded with a tongue gesture and made faces.

“This is bad. With our numbers, this junior thinks we can’t barge through. This junior believes there was a gathering. They’ve also collaborated with nearby bandits,” Yunhua expressed.

“Since the route is an open land, no forces have responded to this threat yet as they don’t want to take losses, merely telling to take detours.”

“Right, there was an incident recently with some bandits. Some merchants were attacked near the town of Liz Zuli,” Li Xin confirmed. “Then it’s decided. We are going the Zina Ridge route, no complaints.” Li Xin said, his tone resolute.

“This is a stupid idea! But if the Blessed Daughter knows about the whole situation, then so be it.”

“Yeah, she might’ve already been to the other side,” Aegis said. “It’s settled. We’re taking the Zina ridge.”

Town Liz Zuli, Its structures were mainly of wood, and clay bricks, and inside an inn they were gathered. Aegis, Snow, and the others decided not to take the hidden route this time. However, a new concern emerged as there was a child, a nonsorcerer mortal, accompanying the group.

“Right, here’s the plan. I’ll pretend to be one of their own,” Aegis said, his face shifting to resemble Iron Mountain, who was soundly asleep on a mat with a wooden jug spilling from his grasp. “Then, I shall plant these smoke crystals, detonate them all, and make a giant wall of ice, Uncle Zhang will shift the wind to your favor, and you guys barge through.”

“Lady Nourn should be on Snow,” Aegis declared, looking at Snow to his right. “I believe the brat should be safer on Brother Li’s mount. “

Li Xin, who was leaning on a wall with both arms crossed, appeared uncomfortable being called “brother” by Aegis.

“Senior brother, what about you?” Yunhua voiced her concern as she knelt beside him, squatting on both knees.

“Junior sister, as one of them, you should know how powerful I am, right? No need to worry…” Aegis responded, injecting a touch of confidence into his words.

…

“Then we shall do as you say,” said Uncle Zhang. “I feel bad, old relying on a junior, but merely how do we detonate the smokes?”

Jun Zhou, sitting quietly on the side, raised his hand. “Me, my tribe’s wolf clones, can be fodder.”

“Then it is decided.”

With all that said, Aegis was not confident at all, there were still five days left till his bloodline got unsealed.