CHAPTER 99: THE FLYING SWORD

As the last syllable of Yung Mai’s chant vanished, swallowed by the dense silence, he turned and grinned at the boy standing behind him.

He moved closer to the boy, placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder, and then moved him closer to where the round lights were.

"Sit," Yung Mai said, his voice echoing like a metal thread. "Breathe in like it’s your last air to inhale before you die."

Seeing the boy’s facial expression change after he spoke, Yung Mai smiled, "Release every stress from your mind, and find the silence between your heartbeat."

Immediately, Yung Mai sat on the floor in a lotus posture and gestured for the boy to do the same.

For minutes Kai struggled, but when he finally crossed his legs and sat in the same lotus posture, he followed the movements of the man sitting at his front.

"Close your eyes and imagine yourself standing at the enter of your own mind."

Hearing the man’s voice, Kai’s eyes closed without him actually closing them, as if his body wasn’t his anymore.

And as he sat there, his eyes closed, a calm breeze flew by him, raising the strand of his hair and moving around him like water.

For minutes Yung Mai sat there like a statue, but Kai kept on shaking profusely as if an invisible boiled metal was being poured on him.

One after another, beads of sweat appeared at his forehead, his arms, and his crossed legs as the world inside his skull erupted.

From the ashes of Gray he saw flying in the sky when he pulled the sword from his hands. The wet, tearing sound of the ninja he struck his dagger at his throat. And the ghost-bird’s obsidian sword tapping on his body and peeling his skin.

As the memories reeled like a movie in Kai’s vision, the light that fell on him like a torch began to dim, turning grey and finally letting darkness take over the room he was in as well.

The moment all the lights dimmed, Kai gasped, but the air he drew in wasn’t having the taste of air, it was the shadows in the room.

His heart heaved, rising and falling as if something inside him wanted to seep out of his chest and run. Though his ribs arched, Kai didn’t crack his eyes open or stand up, he focused on the pain.

For hours, the storms that had been with Kai played in jagged loops, visceral and loud in the silent theater of his mind.

As another breeze brushed against his skin, the sweat beading him began to snake around his skin. One after another, the sweat fell, slamming on the ground like a chain broken loose.

And at that moment, as all the sweat seeped out of Kai, his body turned slightly pale, the arc at the back of his palms glowed in a faint purple glow.

In that meager light, the shadows that had been with Kai since his childhood bashed out of him like a soul, threading toward the walls of the room as if their host was no longer alive.

And for the first time under the dimmed light, Yung Mai’s head moved, then opened his eyes.

Seeing how the boy’s skin had turned pale, his eyes widened in shock. He stood up, held the boy’s shoulder, trying to let him jolt up or crack his eyes open, but strangely, as he touched the boy’s shoulder, he felt no life.

Meanwhile, inside Kai’s reeling mind, he saw himself standing at the center of the bone-filled land and holding an obsidian sword drenched in blood.

On the ground which at first looked bone-filled were now freshly slain bodies of countless people; from those he had seen before to those he had no idea who they were.

And beside him was the black bird, standing on a large table filled with seven shimmering black stones.

Kai hesitated, looked at the faces of the bodies scattered beneath his feet, then moved forward, stepping on the heads of the bodies.

Upon reaching the table, all the stones vanished, leaving only the bird and one black stone which seemed to be shaking on its own on the table.

The bird cried heavily, using its beak to signal Kai to pick the stone, and when he did, his eyes turned completely black.

Now with darkened eyes, Kai saw the face of his mother and a man he hadn’t seen before.

At that moment, around Kai’s lotus-seated posture, shadows – both the ones that had erupted from him and new ones from the carvings on the walls of the room – moved around him, encapsulating him.

Though Yung Mai was there and could feel how strange the environment was turning, yet he couldn’t see the shadows move past him and stop by the boy’s side.

The shadows stretched their limbs over Kai’s head. And without waiting, Kai’s eyes cracked open and glowed as the shadows dashed inside him like soldiers running to war.

And when the last shadow, which seemed to have the same structure as Kai, entered him, Kai gasped heavily and collapsed, falling on his back.

...

Meanwhile, at the shoreline of the sea, where Kai normally used to sit, a lot of seabirds flew at its top, crying and spiralling.

And inside the black BMW, which had now been like a refuge from infant bamboo trees, the bag placed at its boot shook heavily, bashing on the side and letting the bamboo leaves fall from the top of the car.

As two of the wine-dressed monks walking by the area at which the car stood heard the metal-trembling sound erupting from the vehicle dressed with leaves, they froze.

When they broke free from the shock inhaling in them, the monks rushed toward the car, opened the boot, then pulled the bag out and placed it on the ground.

"Should we open it or report to our master?"

"Let’s just open it, you know he’ll just take the bag without letting us see what’s actually making the bag and the car shake."

"Alright... but what if?"

"What if what? Let’s just open it... after all, we’re those in charge of keeping watch of the surroundings, so if anything happens, we can just say we saw something and gain a reward on it."

"Yeah that’s a good idea. Should I open the bag or you’ll open it yourself?"

"Who’s the oldest? Give me way and let me open it... if there is a treasure in it... we will share it instead of sending it to master."

After the two monks finished contemplating on who to open the bag, the skinny monk stepped back, letting the tall broad-shouldered guy take charge of the bag.

But the moment the guy unzipped the bag, he frowned, seeing only clothes and an obsidian object in it.

"What was that making the bag tremble?" the skinny tall guy asked, moving his head closer to the open bag.

And with a strange humming sound, a sharp object flew from the bag and sliced the skinny tall monk’s head, chopping it off.

Watching his friend’s head fall off, the tall broad-shouldered guy stumbled back in shock, placed his arms over his head and screamed.

"HELP!"

And when his voice died down, the monk saw the obsidian sword he had seen in the bag flying at great speed toward the temple’s gate.

Hearing the shouting coming from outside the temple, countless wine-dressed monks rushed out, and when they also saw an obsidian sword flying above their heads, they halted.

Some followed the direction the sword moved, while the rest bashed outside the temple’s gate and stood there, completely shocked as they saw the two newly graduated monks; one standing there in shock while the other lay on the ground, headless.