Chương 35: "To return, Tie Zhen, you must get past us all"

Ch 35: "To return, Tie Zhen, you must get past us all" Zhen woke on the grass with Hagra and Gaarch stood a short distance away. Zhen picked up the war hammer, but instead of settling into a ready stance he placed it on the ground and leaned on it while facing the two langren. His last death had made him realize something he should have worked out much sooner. Hagra's eyes narrowed but he let out a whistle, and at the same moment Zhen activated the Eye.

Hagra's Growl rolled across the plain and the spectral wolf's head appeared, lunging straight for Zhen's chest.

Zhen's muscles locked but he fell onto the hammer and continued looking at Hagra as the rabbits swarmed over him. Death came swiftly. But Zhen had started what he had meant to. Until he understood the qi flows that made Growl of the Crushing Maw work he was just going to die. If that was the case, he may as well not get distracted by trying to protect himself but rather use the time to learn as much of the technique as he could before the rabbits took him down.

It wasn't pleasant, but if he was going to die without being able to fight back anyway, he would make the most of it. Fifty cycles of brutal, yet unresisting, death followed. To Hagra's clear frustration, Zhen didn't even attempt to fight back. Instead he used the Eye to silently observe for as long as he could, even while paralyzed. Without the walls from Earthen Citadel hiding what Hagra was doing, Zhen could watch him directly. The Eye tracked his movements and the flow of qi through his meridians.

Hagra drew earth-attuned qi into his throat and lungs and, as with Earthen Citadel, the energy moved through his meridians in a specific pattern. Zhen had already done the hard work of widening his meridians. He knew how to channel qi directly without pulling from his dantian first. Now he just needed to memorize and copy the pattern, and the Eye let him see the pattern perfectly. But knowing how to reproduce it was of no use if he couldn't move. After another four dozen deaths, Zhen felt he had figured it out.

Then he took another dozen to be certain. He woke again, but this time, instead of leaning on the war hammer, Zhen lifted it up. As Hagra's Growl spread Zhen blocked it from affecting him, then as the rabbits charged, he drew earth qi into his meridians exactly as Hagra had done. Growl of the Crushing Maw rumbled out from his throat. Every rabbit in the clearing froze where they were. Those that were mid-leap, hung in the air for a moment before crashing, paralyzed, to the grass.

Zhen looked down at the motionless creatures, then grinned up at Hagra. The older langren's face had an irritated look on it. He glanced over at Gaarch, then both langren turned and strode toward Zhen They came at him in a coordinated attack. Zhen tried to use Earthen Citadel to deflect Gaarch's blows to buy some time, but Hagra's Growl shattered his concentration. Before he could do anything else Gaarch's hammer shattered his skull. He woke and tried again.

This time he used Growl first, but the paralysis didn't slow them long enough for him to be able to exploit their weakness. For a moment he managed to block their strikes before Hagra's hammer took him in the ribs. Everything that had gone before was preparation, this was his true education. Even if the two langren weren't using techniques, they would have crushed him through sheer skill and physical prowess. Yet they did both use their techniques.

Hagra would unleash Growl while raising walls to control Zhen's movement. Gaarch anticipated Hagra's actions to coordinate with his strikes, driving Zhen into positions where he would, inevitably, lose. Zhen activated the Eye and watched himself as much as he watched them. The Eye revealed his own flaws and he slowly fixed them. His Growl grew stronger.

The basic version became reliable, and after countless more cycles of observation and practice he managed to, finally, work out the advanced version and create a wolf's head. It shot forward and locked Gaarch's muscles for a full second that created time for Zhen to create a wall and reposition. It obviously wasn't going to be enough as Hagra shattered the wall with his hammer and killed Zhen with a casual backswing. But it was another step forward.

Zhen died repeatedly, but each death taught him something more about how to fight with his war hammer and then how to integrate that with Growl and Earthen Citadel. The langren never held back, but that only meant that he had more examples of perfection to learn from. Training with Shuo had created the physical and mental foundation he needed. However, what Hagra was doing was teaching him how to combine the langren techniques with the use of a war hammer to create a cohesive fighting style.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. It had been hundreds more deaths and Gaarch's hammer crushed Zhen's head once more. He woke on the grass and leaped to his feet while simultaneously throwing up two walls. Hagra raised his hand.

"Enough." Zhen straightened, his war hammer still in hands, ready for whatever came next. But Hagra lowered his weapon and planted it in the earth. Something shifted in his expression that wasn't quite approval, but might have been getting close.

"For a human, you've done well." Hagra's tone was surprised as much as showing a grudging respect.

"No doubt it's because my blood flows in your veins. You've learned our techniques and gone on to master them." Zhen's grip on the hammer tightened slightly. Praise from Hagra was always the prelude to some kind of escalation.

"There is now only one more technique for you to learn." Hagra gestured for Zhen to watch." Stalker's Prowl." The ancient langren circulated qi around his meridians. The energy flowed differently than with Earthen Citadel or Growl. It moved downward, concentrating in his lower limbs, and dampening each footfall. Hagra moved across the grass. His massive frame shifted noticeably faster, but each step was silent despite his size. Somehow his movements didn't even crush the grass beneath his paws.

"You've got to make sure that the qi flows continuously through your limbs, but in a balanced way." Hagra continued to use the technique as he spoke.

"Too much and you'll leave qi traces that someone could use to track you. Too little and, well, everyone will still see and hear you." Zhen activated the Eye, watching how Hagra was moving ki around his body. The pattern was intricate but clear enough for him to be able to follow. As he tried for himself, Zhen remained alert for the trap. This wasn't how the Ordeal worked. Learning here came from dying multiple times, and through trial and brutal error. Now Hagra appeared to be simply teaching him.

Zhen pushed the thought aside and focused on mimicking the technique. For now, whatever game Hagra was playing was working in his favor, so he allow it to play out for as long as the langren would allow it. He gathered earth qi and channeled it into meridians in his legs and feet. His first try failed entirely, and in fact, earth scattered in small explosions around his feet. The second attempt left deep footprints, while the third left the grass flattened beneath his feet.

"Don't worry. It's fine. You'll get there. Lighter pressure in the heel," Hagra said.

"Let the qi absorb the impact." Over what might have been days or weeks, Hagra's demeanor continued to be pleasant. The brutal taskmaster who had killed Zhen with a smirk had been replaced by a patient instructor whose corrections came with understanding and even the occasional bad joke. Time passed even though the sun still hung motionless in the sky. Through all the failures Hagra never lost patience or grew frustrated.

He guided Zhen through the technique's subtleties with the care of a teacher who wanted his student to succeed. Zhen didn't like it. Hagra being nice was more unsettling than all the deaths had been.

"Well done. Well done indeed," Hagra said eventually.

"You've mastered the basics quite splendidly, now we move onto something a little more advanced." Hagra gave a kind smile that Zhen still found disconcerting and circled to the left.

"You need to use shadow-attuned qi for this. Push it outward, and let it wrap around you. Like this." Zhen used the Eye to watch Hagra as he transformed the qi within him to become a mixture of earth-attuned and shadow-attuned qi. He worked the shadow-attuned qi in his meridians outward to coat his skin in a thin layer. As he did so, light scattered around him instead of reflecting directly. The langren's form blurred, the edges becoming indistinct.

"Now you." Zhen copied what Hagra had done and was surprised at how natural it was to transform the qi within him from one form to another. It took more effort to work out how to push the qi out to his skin but he managed it. Except for the world taking on a slight haziness he felt just the same.

"Good. But don't force it. The technique works best when you become part of the terrain itself. Whether you've realized it yet or not, everything is an expression of qi." Zhen stepped into a patch of shadow near a large rock that hadn't been there moments before. He drew in the shadow qi that was there and then pushed it back out. As soon as he did so his outline all but vanished completely. Hagra nodded approvingly.

"Excellent. You've grasped it faster than most langren do. My blood is strong within you." Under his guidance Zhen continued to practice the advanced form until he was able to transition without having to think about it. Finally, Hagra smiled, and it was almost a relief to Zhen to see that his sardonic smirk had returned.

"Well. This has been a more productive diversion to eternity than I expected, but my part is almost done. It's time to see what you've learned." He gestured upward. The sun, which had remained fixed overhead throughout the entire Ordeal, started to move. It rapidly crossed the sky in a steady arc and, within moments, day tuned into night. Darkness fell as a pale moon rose to take the sun's place, bathing the plains in silver.

Zhen's enhanced vision, sharpened by the langren blood, spotted the altar in the distance immediately. He had spent enough time in this space to be certain that it hadn't been there before. It was roughly a mile away, and made from monolithic stone and at the top of a set of five shallow steps. Rather incongruously it sat there on the grass. Zhen squinted at it and gave a start as he worked out what he was seeing. Somehow, out there on the plain, was the altar from the shaman's cave.

"So now the end has come." Hagra took some steps backward.

"The rules haven't changed since you began. To complete the Ordeal, all you have to do is touch the altar." As he spoke, figures materialized in the moonlight. Hundreds of langren either alone or in small clusters formed a living barrier between Zhen and his goal. The Eye revealed they were all beings of pure earth-attuned qi, but the intelligence in their eyes was real. Roughly half carried war hammers, but Zhen spotted axes, qiang spears, jians and curved daos among them.

In a small cluster off to one side were several unarmed shaman in simple loincloths and shawls similar to those worn by the shaman who had started the Ordeal. Like him, their meridians blazed with concentrated power. Every one of them radiated competence and danger. Gaarch turned and jogged toward the altar. The assembled langren parted to let him pass before closing ranks again. Hagra drew his war hammer. His usual mockingly amused look had vanished and was replaced by a grim, uncompromising mask.

The avuncular teacher was gone and the ancient War Leader stood in his place.

"Brutal though you may have thought it, everything up to now has been preparation. Few remain unbroken to reach this stage. This is the true Ordeal of the Ancestors." He leveled his weapon at Zhen's chest.

"To return, Tie Zhen, you must get past us all." He paused, and there was no mercy in his eyes.

"And know that the safety net is gone. One death here will be your last. No resurrections."