A New World: Middle Kingdom Book 1

by Mike Han

  Early the next day, I was at the archway with what little clothes I had in a bundle, waiting for Will to arrive. Upon his arrival, he took a look at me, nodding his head in approval at my choice of travel clothes; I had chosen to dress light and comfortable, foreseeing a need for speedy travel. Will himself was dressed in simple travel clothes, with a bundle sling over one side of his shoulder. He had a well-used blade that was cross slung behind him.

  Will passed over the sword that he was holding in his hand and gestured to me to try it. I had been only using training sword with Elder Hao during his tutelage of the Chasing Shadow technique, this was the first time that I was holding an actual sword. Filled with excitement and apprehension, I drew the sword and gaze lovingly at the bare blade. Though it was a simple sword, it was well-balance with an elegant carving ‘Balance Sect Sword’ on the blade.

  “Normally this sword would be presented to students when they completed their training and are ready to explore the martial world.” Giving me a sly smile, he continued, “Seeing that you are supposedly a deacon, being Elder Hao’s disciple, I think we can make do without the ceremony.” He gave a laugh when he saw that I was uncomfortable. “I am just joking, Jun. You will need that for your protection. Our surrounding should be safe as we will still be in the vicinity of Balance Sect, but it is better to be cautious as we do not know what we will encounter. Come let’s be on our way.” With that, he picked up his pace, and soon we were both swiftly running down the stairs.

  “Sir, what is that you are carrying? It look bigger than the sword that you have given me. Also, can you tell me more about the mission that we are going on?” I prompted Will.

  “Jun, since we are now travelling as companion, you don’t have to give me such honorific. Just address me as Will. What I am carrying is a sword-knife; also known as big knife or broadsword. Unlike the sword that you are using, the sword-knife has a bigger blade body as compared to your sword. It is meant for greater explosive attack. As to why I use the sword-knife; the sword is the basic skill that we impart for all disciples, but there are multiples of other skills and weaponry skills in our sect. I had found that I preferred the sword-knife and was fortunate to receive personal instruction from Elder Ming in my unique sword-knife skills that he had helped me developed.”

  He fell silent as he mused about the quest’s details to brief me as we sped down the hill, he gave himself a small nod as if decided on how much I need to know and continued, “A month ago, Deacon Yu’Er was out investigating with another senior disciple on a series of attacks that happened to a few minor schools in Canyon Town, when we lost contact with her. The last notice we got from her was about two weeks ago that she had found a clue and would be following up on it. That was the last we heard from her. As we have little clues on what had happened, Grandmaster and the Elders had decided to send me to find out more, since I was working there for a couple of months and familiar with the surrounding. Our main mission is to try to establish contact with Yu’Er again, and if they required assistance to extract themselves, to offer our help.”

  “Alright, that sounds interesting. Instructor… I mean Will, do you think Deacon Yu’Er had encountered some incidents? She is a deacon, so she is probably better skilled than both of us. Wouldn’t that not be a concern if she is really trapped?” I further probed Will.

  He gave me a glance and said, “Deacon Yu’Er is also Grandmaster’s personal student, but more importantly she is his granddaughter and only of sixteen years old. So yes, she is skilled to have reach the position of Deacon at this age, the truth be, and she was considered a martial art prodigy. It was through her own martial merit and not due to her relationship with the Grandmaster that she was recognized as a Deacon. But no matter how skilled you are, you can still fall prey to a simple drug in your food or drink, considering that she is still pretty young. The place Canyon Town that we are heading to is about fifty miles west from Balance Village and as in its namesake, is located just beside a canyon. Three major trading routes passed by the town and it is quite prosperous. There are several small martial schools located inside the town teaching wannabe convoy escorts martial skills and is a relatively peaceful town till the attack incidents.”

  We had been running for an hour and had long since left the foot of the mountain and heading for Balance Village, when we heard fighting ahead of us on the route. Giving me an arch eye-brow, Will stopped his brief and said, “Jun, you really do have the luck. We just left our school and already encountering troubles? Let’s go see what the trouble is.” We slowed down our movement and creeped towards the sound of fighting. Ahead in a clearing, two ladies in similarly dressed light green attire, were standing between a group of commoners and a band of ruffians holding large sword-knifes and axes; while, across them another similar dressed young lady was holding a sword, trying to keep at bay a trio of rugged looking bandits, while using her body to shield two young children behind her.

  Will picked up his pace and shouted to me, “Jun, you head over and help that young lady with those three bandits. I will take care of that band.” I quickly nodded as we split way and I quicken my steps.

  The three bandits, roused by Will’s shout, had turned to look at us when we emerged into the clearing. The young lady had taken the opportunity and lunged at the nearest bandit, hoping to skewer him while he was distracted. The bandit, however was skilled, took a step back and raised his axe to parry the attack. He then leered at her, saying, “We will get back to you, lass. You just wait right here while we clear these busybodies.”

  Reminding myself not to be complacent, as I neared the trio, I did a quick sidestep to the side, placing them in a single file, so that they could not rush me together. I moved forward towards the nearest bandit holding two massive sword-knifes in each hand, who stepped up in anticipation of the fight. Swiftly he swung both two big sword-knifes at me at the same time, expecting me to rear back to avoid his attack; instead I step hard into him, my sword swinging up in a vertical cut at his arms, a close attack technique of Chasing Shadow that confounded the opponent and gave him no chance to react. As my blade cut into his arms, he gave a shout of pain, dropped both his sword-knifes and leaped backward away from me. But by doing that he jumped into the path of the bandit behind him and causing both of them to stumble to the ground. Without giving them a chance to recover, I snaked in close and with two quick swipes, cut both their throats. Blood spurting everywhere, both of them died tangled in each other arms.

  Leaping backward, I turned towards the last bandit, who rushed at me, hate glaring from his eyes, “You young punk! I will take revenge for my friends!” Holding his axe two-handed, he crouched low and swiped at me mid-level, preventing me from using the same close-in technique at him. Spinning away from his attack, the axe-blade passing inches from me, I swung back my sword in counter-attack even as I evade his strikes. Instead of striking at his axe-blade or his body, my sword pierced towards his hands holding the axe. Giving a shout of anger, he turned his body sideway an raised his right elbow, sacrificing it to block my attack and moving away from me. Blood dripping from the cut on his elbow, he quickly turned back, warily looking towards me.

  The Chasing Shadow Sword skill was indeed a unique and deadly skill. Not only did it emphasized on speed but also the angle to strike and the accuracy of attack. Conventional fights expected the duelist to maintain his distance to maximize his weapon’s obvious advantage. The uniqueness of the Chasing Shadow Sword technique focused on using Ghost Steps to move swiftly in or around the opponents, while focusing its attacks from unconventional angles at vulnerable points of the opponent, preventing them to mount an effective defensive move. Even if the opponent was to understand the principle, he could do no more to prevent the attack but to drop his weapons and grappled with the attack, hoping to save himself. However, it is not to say that the Chasing Shadow technique was an invincible skill. Without sufficient training or teaching to understand the essence of the technique, it would not be possible
to execute the skills and would be akin to sending a lamb in for slaughter.

  The bandit did a quick glance back at the lady with the two children. Guessing that he was probably considering rushing over to take them hostages so that he could escape, I decided that I would have to go on the offensive before this could happen. Sliding to his side, he had no choice but to turn towards me, away from them, to prevent me from attacking his blind side. Knowing that he had no more choices, the bandit gave an enraged shout and rushed me. Instead of retreating or side-stepping, I move forward as well, my sword tip aiming for his throat. The bandit swung at my sword to knock it aside, but to his surprise, instead of encountering any resistance from my sword, it flowed with his strike to the side, but with a quick flick, I swung it back towards his throat before he could react. He slowly fell to his knee and collapsed, bleeding profusely from the cut. I looked quickly at Will and saw the he had subdued the other band and after I sheath my sword, walked over to the young lady cautiously, since she was still eyeing me warily. Holding both hands up to show that I was harmless, I introduced myself as a disciple from Balance Sect and asked if she and the children were fine.

  Giving a sigh of relief, she said “Thank you, young sir for your assistance. We were passing by when we saw the bandits attacking the trader and his family. However we were outmatched and out skilled, and if not for your assistance, we would probably be killed or worse.” The realization that she was near death door finally overwhelmed her and she started to sob.

  Will and the other two ladies, with the trader and his family in tow, had approached us by then, the two ladies quickly went forward to comfort her. One middle-aged woman from the trader’s company, rushed out and sobbingly hugged the two kids. The trader gave a respectful bow to us and said, “Young heroes and heroines, we are so grateful for your help. If you did not help us, we would have suffered from these bandits. We don’t have much money but do accept these from us.” The trader push a bag towards Will.

  Will quickly forestalled him and replied, “Master trader, we are disciples from Balance Sect and we are just doing our duties, especially the fact that these bandits would dare to raid near to our school. More importantly, is any of you hurt? No. That’s good. There is no need to give us any rewards but we would ask that when you reached Balance Village to inform the constables of the incident here, so that they can deal with the bandits’ bodies.” After receiving more profuse gratitude, the trader and his family had continued to make their way to Balance Village.

  The two ladies were still comforting the younger, when one stood up and bow towards us as we turned to them, “Thank you kind sirs for your help. We can’t help but overhear that you mention that you were from Balance Sect. What a coincidence as we were on our way to your sect when we saw the bandits ambushed the trader. I am called Mei and these are my juniors, Ren and Min.” She pointed at the other ladies. Min was the one that was sobbing profusely.

  Will offered a greeting and smiled, “It’s our duties to help, especially to those who were offering aid to needy too. My name is Will and this here is my junior Jun. From your attire, would you ladies be disciples of the Lotus School from Canyon Town?”

  The ladies startled when Will mentioned his name. “Could you be Will, nicknamed Whirlwind? The hero that destroyed the bandit hideout at Hell’s Mountain two years back?” Mei asked respectfully.

  Looking embarrassed, Will replied, “That’s just a nickname that my friends gave me out of fun. I had some help at Hell’s Mountain, so I don’t deserve all the credit.”

  Wow, so Will had quite a reputation. I must remember to get him to tell me more about his deed. I wonder if I will get any fame from this encounter, heh.

  Ding! You have attained fame! You have just entered the martial world and no one know about you!

  A quick look at my stats showed that a new information tag had been added.

  Character Name: Jun

  School: Balance

  Strength: Breath of Fresh Air

  Fame: No one know about you

  Ability:

  Comprehension (15%). Give a chance to comprehend a deeper meaning to your inner or skill learnt and evolved them into a different level. As your mastery of this ability improved, you will be able to learn skills faster.

  Inner:

  Calmness of the Lake (20%), Balance beginner Inner Technique. Gaining mastery in this inner, will strengthen your body and enhance your movement.

  Skills:

  Silky Palm (17%), Balance palm technique. A soft palm technique that scale with the inner technique used.

  Ghost Steps (15%), a movement technique. This technique improves the speed and evasion of the user. It was rumored to be the requisite for learning Chasing Shadow Sword, the legendary sword skill that had since been lost to the martial world.

  Chasing Shadow Sword (13%), a sword technique. A legendary skill that appeared in the martial world twenty years ago welded by Elder Hao from Balance Sect. Considered one of the top ten sword skills, it had been considered lost after he retired from the martial world.

  “Senior Will, it is so fortunate that you happened to be around during our encounter with the bandits. We don’t recognize your junior brother but he is especially skilled and he saved Min from those trio. We are grateful to him as well.” Saying that Mei and her martial school sisters turned and bowed to me as well. I hastily bowed in return. She continued, “It is such a coincidence that we were on our way to your sect to bring news and ask for help as well, and ask if you could offer assistance.”

  “We are currently engaged in a quest, but perhaps you can tell us more about help that you required.” Will inquired.

  “Very well. It is no secret that a series of incidents have been happening in Canyon Town for the past months. Three weeks ago, we have a visit from Miss Yu’Er, who was accompanied by another male disciple, from Balance Sect. Then we just had an attack on our martial sisters that were out gathering herbs, but luckily they managed to beat off the attackers. Miss Yu’Er was trying to follow up leads on these series of attacks and we gladly answered her questions on the identities of the attackers. The two attackers were very skilled but unfortunately were masked and in nondescript attires. However their weapons and attacks were very unique and distinct. They were armed with twin hook daggers and their attacks focused on disarming the opponents before striking at their vital areas. Luckily for our sisters, they were accompanied by three of our seniors and they managed to beat them back. There were some injuries but nothing serious.

  Miss Yu’Er had appeared interested in the martial skills of the attackers. Our senior tried to re-enact the skills used by them. She suspected the attackers were remnants from Evil Demon Clan and had decided to visit the ruins to investigate for more clues. She had asked for a boon that if they did not return in a week time, could Lotus School help to send a message to Balance to inform them of the development. Our School Headmistress had agreed to her request and they had proceed there after a night stay. We had since not heard from them and our Headmistress had sent us to bring this message to Balance Sect.”

  Will was contemplative after hearing this, then turned and spoke, “Miss Mei, thanks for your update. Truth to be told, we were sent to Canyon Town to find out about the whereabouts of Deaon Yu’Er. Fortunate for us, we met you and know about this latest development. We will let our sect know about the update, and at the same time will proceed to the ruins to continue our investigation. It is getting late, why don’t we proceed to the nearby inn and we go on our way the next day?”

  Mei and her sisters nodded their agreement and we made our way to the inn located at the outskirt of Balance Village.

  Chapter Eight

  After our shared meal, Will and I discussed further on our plan to proceed to the Evil Demon Clan ruins, after which he bided me a goodnight rest before turning in himself. My thoughts were still fired over the fighting incident earlier in the day and after some tossing and turning in bed, I decided to have some nig
ht air to calm myself down.

  As I stepped out of the door to the outside courtyard of the inn, I noticed that someone else was already standing there in the cool of the night. Taking a closer look, I realized that she was Min of the Lotus School. As I studied her features, I realized that this fourteen years old lady was a beauty. During the excitement of the day, I had not appreciate her looks in the face of the fight. With the glow of the full moon on her, she pushes wisps of her long black hair across her fair face back behind her ears. Her almond shaped eyes framed by her high cheek bones, sharp nose and a pert mouth was deep in concentration as she gazed into the night. Her white flowing gown of her school uniform gave her an ethereal glow and if I was to suddenly appear on the scene, it would not be hard to imagine that I had encountered a divine. She must have heard on my approach, as she turned to see who it was, she startled when she recognized me.

  “Senior Jun, I did not realize that you are here. I am sorry. Do you need some time alone?” she quickly greeted me.

  “Min, you don’t have to be so formal with me. You can call me Jun. It’s alright, I don’t mind some company.”

  “Alright, Jun.” She replied shyly. “I realized that I had yet to thank you for saving me today. I am sorry that I was so rude.”

  “It’s alright Min. You were just overcome with emotion. To be honest, I was pretty scared too, myself. You did pretty well back then, you saved those small kids back there, even though you are scared. You and your sisters are the real heroes today.” Even in the dark of the night, I could see her blushing furiously from my compliments.

  Shaking her head, she said, “No, no. You and Elder Will are the real heroes. Balance Sect reputation as one of the mainstay sects for the righteous order is indeed true and not a fabrication of rumors. Elder Will is already a well-established martial artist, but I heard that you just graduated and left school to accompany him, and seeing you in action today, realized that the martial prowess of Balance’s disciples are truly powerful. Your skill today, I would say surpass many of our Lotus School senior disciples.” Her eyes were filled with admiration as she recounted today’s incident.