Determination

Moments prior to Shun's horrible discovery, atop the hill that overlooked Condor Village to the north, Eru Tara was calling his daughter Kira to him. He waited for her arrival by sitting atop a flat stone and meditating. He heard the nearby rustling of grasses and opened his eyes to see his daughter approach him.

"Kira, what were you doing?" he asked his daughter.

Kira flinched at his question and said, "N-Nothing." Her eyes were focused to her left and her body shook nervously, yet she tried to keep her face as casual and unreadable as possibly.

Tara could very well tell by his daughter's body language that she was keeping something from him and sighed. He got up from his seat and descended to the ground. "Didn't I tell you to train?" he asked his daughter. Kira slowly nodded her head with the same expression on her face. "Were you out playing again?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow. Kira quickly answered him by shaking her head furiously. "How are you going to be a Duelist if you don't train?" he appealed to her.

Kira's eyes faced the ground and she hung her head in apology. "I'm sorry, Father," she told him.

"Now, as punishment, you will scale this tree fifty times," he told her, pointing to a nearby tree. The tree was a behemoth and reached up to the heavens above. Its branches were short and the leaves were well spaced out, yet its girth was comparable to a wild pig's. Kira took one look at the tree and almost jumped back in disbelief.

"T-T-That tree?!" she asked her father fearfully.

"Yes," her father told her. "All the way to the top," he added sternly.

"That's impossible!" argued Kira. She had experience scaling trees before, but never had she come across one this monstrous. Though she knew that it wasn't impossible for an average adult to do it, it was surely impossible for a person of her age, height, and level to attempt this superhuman feat.

"No arguments about it," her father told her.

"Yes, sir," said Kira in defeat. She walked up to the tree and wrapped her arm around it and began to climb. It was hard for her to get a good grip because of the tree's monstrous girth, but she knew that there was no way out of this. She tried her best to secure a tight hold on the tree and, with a jump, she pushed off with her left foot and ascended up the tree. She circulated her chi to her hands and feet to boost their grip and strength, as per her father's instruction. The first few steps were easy enough for her to reach halfway up the tree. But the tree's thickness began to become a real problem for her and she found it hard to hold on. Looking down, she saw that she was very high up and a drop would likely injure her grievously.

She remained stuck like this for a few minutes, arguing with herself over the merits of ascending the tree versus descending back down. If she were to use the skills learned from her father and descended back down safely, she wouldn't have to worry about falling and injuring herself. But she couldn't get out of this situation since it was her punishment for going against her father's orders. And if she were to descend back down now, he would for sure punish her with something else. 'Why do I have to punished like this?' she bemoaned to herself. 'Alright,' she said to herself with newfound confidence, 'looks like there's no other way but up.'

Kira clutched onto the tree with her thighs and brought back her arms to her side. She then placed her hands on the bark like a squirrel. She circulated chi around her body again and focused them into her fingertips and toes. Once they were strengthened, she released her thighs and began to scale up the tree like a monkey. 'Climbing up the tree this way is actually pretty easy,' she thought to herself with an accomplished smile. It was true—she was able to climb the tree with little effort and finally made it to the top.

Now sitting atop one of the highest branches, she called down to her father below. "Father, I did it!" she told him. Tara looked up at his daughter and nodded his head approvingly. "Alright, I'm going back down!" she told him. As she was about to descend back down, a bright red glow from the corner of her eyes caught her attention. She turned her head and came to witness a large inferno consuming a village below. Anxiety and fear settled inside her and she quickly shouted down to her father, "Father, look!"

Tara saw his daughter pointing to something out in the distance and followed her finger. What terror he saw before him inflamed his heart. He quickly turned back to Kira and said, "Let's hurry!" Kira nodded and gracefully descended back down. And then, both father and daughter rushed down the hill for the burning village.

Once they arrived, Tara gestured for his daughter to step back. He brought his hands in near his kidneys with the palms facing downwards. He channeled chi from his lower tiachi and focused it into his Sensual Chaka to draw on the element of water. Quicker than the flap of a bird's wings, he thrusted put his hands forward and raised them into the sky. Suddenly, the atmosphere began to change and a coolness filled the air. The vapors in the atmosphere quickly changed matter states and became water droplets. The droplets fell to the earth like a rain shower and gradually killed the fire.

As the flames were being extinguished, Tara turned back to his daughter but found that she was gone. He ran around the village while searching frantically for her. 'Where is that girl?' he asked himself. 'She couldn't have gone inside the village, could she? Did she spot a survivor? But there's no way anyone could've survived those flames.' He turned his attention back to the still burning village and prayed that his daughter wasn't inside. With the fires not yet completely extinguished, it was still dangerous to approach the village, much less enter it.

Suddenly, he heard her voice calling to him. He ran to the back of the village and saw his daughter standing before an unconscious boy. 'A survivor?' thought Tara. He jumped over the village gate and stopped right in front of the him. "How is he?" he asked Kira.

"He passed out," Kira told him. "I tried to cool him down with some water," she explained.

Tara knew his daughter must've used her own chi to produce water for the boy. "Though I appreciate what you did, in a very big fire like this, all that could do is cool him for a few seconds," he told her. Tara walked up to the boy and felt his pulse. "He's still alive, but the fire has done a number on his lungs. We need to get him out right now." He then grabbed the boy and, together with Kira, jumped out of the village.

With the boy on his back, he and Kira made their way back to the hill. He laid the boy on the flat rock atop the hill and then turned back to his daughter. "Keep a close eye on him. I'm going back down to see if there are anymore survivors," he told her.

"Yes, Father!" said Kira.

Now that the fire had been snuffed out, the village was nothing but ash. Tara searched throughout the ashen village but couldn't find any survivors at all. In fact, the only thing he found were skeletons of dead people, their flesh consumed by the fire. And judging by some of the damages they received to the bone, such as small fractures and chips, he could only assumed that they were all killed previously before the fire burned away their flesh. The injuries were consistent with sharp blades and other forms of assault such as being thrown against solid objects and being trampled under the feet of horses. From this information, he came to the conclusion that the boy they saved must've came to the village while it was being burned to the ground. The only injuries he received were damages to the lungs and skin. Finished with his search, he returned back to the hill.

"Kira, can you help me prop him up?" he asked his daughter. "I need to purge all of the toxins from his lungs." Kira nodded and helped her father sit the boy up. Tara thanked his daughter and then began to heal the boy. He first placed both hands on the boy's back where his lungs were located. The boy's breathing was ragged and erratic. He could also feel that his lungs were shriveled up at the edges from a combination of the smoke, heat, and toxins. Tara then smoothly turned his hands upside down to feel the boy's middle tiachi. 'His chi is almost depleted here. His body is really unbalanced,' realized Tara. He then moved his right hand down near the base of the boy's spine. 'His lower tiachi is overflowed with chi with no way of expelling it,' he said with a shake of his head. 'If this continues, his entire internal organs will surely crumble and this boy will die. His chi circulation has been disrupted from the fire and his own over-exhaustion.'

Now that he had completed his diagnosis, Tara placed his right hand on the base of the boy's spine and channeled his chi into his hand. Once there was enough focused there, he gave his right hand a slight push and the boy's body jolted upright. 'Alright, I unlocked his lower tiachi,' said Tara. He could feel the chi in the boy beginning to circulate normally. 'Now, I need to refocus some of the chi to his middle tiachi and then force the toxins out of his body.' With his left hand, he formed two fingers and pressed it in the center of the boy's abdomen. He could now feel the chi flowing to where his fingers were and beginning to collect in the boy's middle tiachi. He then formed two fingers with both hands and placed the tips under the boy's lungs with the inside of his hand facing up. Tara took in a deep breath and lightly pushed them in. He continued holding them there until he could feel something gathering to where they were. 'The toxins,' he said. Once he could no longer feel anything collecting there, he slowly brought both hands upwards until they reached the boy's shoulders. And then, in one quick awesome movement, he opened his hands with the palms out and pushed the boy at where the toxins were now collected.

The impact forced the boy to lurch forward and he spat out large lump of black matter. Kira was disgusted by it and ran to her father's side. "What is that?" she asked her father.

"The toxins," answered Tara. "Kira," he said, turning to his daughter, "go to our tent and bring me my bottle of dragon-leaf pills." Kira nodded and ran off to get the bottle of pill. Once she came back, Tara shook out a pill and fed it to the boy. "Now, we let him rest," he said. His daughter helped him put the boy on his back.

"Will he be okay?" asked Kira.

"Just give him some time," said Tara. "The medicine will help his lungs to heal."

Shun sat atop the flat rock and gazed out to the ashes that was once his village. Tears welled up in his eyes but he didn't break into sobs. It wasn't because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't. His emotions were a jumbled mess in his mind and he was lost as to what the correct emotional response should be. So he just remained quiet and kept his eyes on the black ashes that covered the ground like snow.

Kira silently crept up beside him and stood next to him with her eyes on the ashes too. She didn't dare say a word and thought it best to leave Shun to his thoughts. She stole a glance at Shun and saw the tears collected in the corner in his eyes and she couldn't stop her own tears from responding to his.

Tara walked up to Shun and placed a hand on his shoulder. The sun was rising up in the distance and a new day was upon them. "Shall we bury your family?" he asked the boy. Shun silently answered back with a grave nod.

They chose a spot right in front of the village and dug a big hole in the ground. Tara brought the skeletons and placed them in the grave. They then buried the skeletons and Tara placed a large rock he had found amongst the rubble and used it as the headstone. He then brought out a small knife and began to carve on the rock the words: "Here Lies:—."

"What were their names?" he asked Shun.

"My father's name is Junlong Yan, my mother's is Song Mizan, and my siblings are Junlong Kairo (brother) and Junlong Fenli (sister)," answered Shun in a monotonous voice.

Tara carved those names onto the headstone and finished with the following poem and prayer: "Souls devoured by flames under the guise of the moon, darkness has fallen upon the people. Why have all mercy left us in our time of need? Shall the villain forever hold the throne over the true? Let us rest and accept our fate for we all will be judged by the king. May Heaven Accept Their Souls, May Sinokazan's Hall Be Empty." (Sinokazan = king of the underworld and the god of death, judgment, retribution, rebirth, and spirits).

Shun read what Tara had written and, admittedly, couldn't understand most of the words nor what they meant. But from those that he did know, which were little compared to those he didn't, he assumed that it was a poem of sorts. Judging from the word choice used, he knew that they were employed is some kind of metaphorical way. Although he didn't understand poetry either, he was a sharp boy who, armed with what little education he had received in the village, understood the basics of metaphors and proverbs and the like.

But the very last line, the prayer written at the bottom of the headstone—he knew those words very well because they were the very last part of the Prayer of the Dead. He had also seen the very same characters written on tombstones and on altars during the Festival of Sinokazan. However, only monks and priests were allowed to write such things on the headstones of the dead. Shun saw Tara wrote those words on the headstone with no effort or mistake at all, as if he had done this many times before. This led to Shun wondering about the old man's real identity.

"Eru-ri," said Shun, "may I ask you a question?"

"What is it?" came Tara.

"Are by any chance a priest?" asked Shun.

"A long time ago," was all Tara said.

Shun left it at that and turned to look carefully at the finished headstone. He read the names on the rock and found something weird with it. That's when it occurred to him: he had forgotten his other sister. "I'm sorry," he said to Tara with a bow of his head, "but can you add one more name? I have one more sister. Her name is Junlong Miri."

"You have another sister?" asked Tara. "But there was only four bodies, wasn't there? I didn't see another one."

"What? Really?" came Shun in surprise. He then recalled back his memory when he rushed to his family's tent yesterday while it was being burned to the ground. 'There were only three bodies!' he realized to his own surprise. 'But what does this mean? Could she have survived?' he wondered. Although the chances may seem slim, he knew that he must at least look into it.

"What are you going to do now?" Tara asked him.

Determined to go through with this quest, Shun looked up at Tara and said with pure confidence, "I'm going to look for my sister. If she wasn't among the dead, then that must mean that she must've survived."

"How do you know for sure?" asked Tara.

"How will I know if I don't try?" responded Shun.

"But it's dangerous!" protested Kira. She hadn't spoken at all until now. "Shun-wan, what will happen to you if you encounter danger?"

"It's true that it will be dangerous, but I have to do it," declared Shun stubbornly.

"I believe my daughter was asking you how will you be able to protect yourself against enemies on your quest?" clarified Tara. "You are a village boy, right? You're from the countryside. Have you ever stepped foot into the cities? Do you know the rules of society? Do you know the common knowledge of the Great Central Empire that is Chirokai?"

"I—I will learn as I go," said Shun adamantly.

"Do you know what a Duelist is? Are you aware of the different sects of the martial world? What will happen if you come across an enemy who is an expert in Chidao? Your countryside way of thinking cannot help you in those life-and-death situations. And skill-wise, you may have certain skills gained from hunting in the wild, but those will not help you to survive the cities for more than a few months. You can't defeat your enemies with snares and brute strength," said Tara.

Shun was now at a loss. The words that the old man was talking was true. He had heard stories before about the cities and the wonderful martial artists that populate them. He had never stepped foot into a city before, but he had only learned of them through his father's stories. His father and a few of the village's men had been to the cities before for official business, and he would always come back relating stories of people with powerful skills and techniques that were synonymous with the powers of the heroes and gods of folklore. The power to levitate in the air, the power to shoot fire from your hands, the power to create illusions, the power to traverse great distances in one leap, the power to split a metal column with one touch; Shun always loved to fantasize about them and how it would be if he himself had those very same powers.

Here in the village, martial arts, or Chidao as it is known, was not something that the villagers practised. They are familiar with the term, as it is also used as a general term for martial arts in general, but it couldn't be said that the skills the villagers practised were in anyway a form of it. The only skills Shun had ever learned were to build snares out of branches and leaves and rocks, simple wrestling and grappling maneuvers that could also be used on wild animals, and physical training to improve his strength and speed. Other than these skills, he couldn't hope to truly engage in a fight with an expert in Chidao and win.

Kira noticed Shun's defeated expression and came up with an idea. She smiled brightly and said, "Shun-wan, you can learn from my father! He's a Chidao master!"

"Hey, Kira, what do you think you're doing?" asked Tara in annoyance.

Kira turned to her father with her hands clasped behind her back and said, "Please, Father? Couldn't you accept him as your student?"

"It is not my decision to decide," answered Tara.

"But—," Kira began to protest.

Tara placed a hand on his daughter's head and ruffler her hair. With a softer smile, he said, "That's for him to decide."

Those words gave Shun a little bit of hope and he turned to Tara and got down on his knees. "Please, may I become your student?" he implored, bowing his head until it was level with the ground.

Tara placed a hand on Shun's head and said, "Alright. I will accept you as my student."

"Hooray! Hooray!" cheered Kira. She ran and threw herself onto Shun, pulling him into a tight hug.

Tara exhaled and smacked his daughter lightly on the head. "Enough," he told her sternly.

That night, Shun slept in the Eru's tent. As he did, he clutched tightly onto the red armband that once belonged to his father and was the symbol of the village chief. Tara was kind enough to give him the little memento before burying the skeletons. However, the thought of his sister Miri's survival and being lost in the wide open world kept him awake. His eyes were open and he stared dazedly at the tent's red roof, now a dark crimson due to the blackness of the night sky. 'Miri, where could you be?' he wondered with an anxious mind. He turned on his side and closed his eyes. Although he didn't drift off into a deep sleep, he allowed his mind and body to rest and regain the strength it had lost from the injury the night before.

The next day, after eating breakfast, Tara presented to Shun five small wooden altars. The altars were rectangular plaques with fat semicircle bottoms. On each of the plaques were the names of Shun's family members that have passed away, as well as the name of Condor Village on the fifth. "I apologize that we could not perform the necessary funerary rites for them," said Tara. Shun accepted the altars with a grim nod. "If I hadn't already planned to leave today, we could've performed the necessary funeral rites."

"Thank you, Eru-ri, but it is not your fault," said Shun with a small smile.

Traditionally, when someone dies, there are proper rites that must be performed to ensure the dead can pass on. Though there are many traditions within Chirokai due to the different religions of the nation, there are six rites that are practiced by the people no matter what religion they adhere to. These six rites begin by first splitting the funeral into two days: the Day of Mourning, and the Day of Burial. On the Day of Mourning, family members of the dead are expected to wear specific colored clothing at different points throughout the day to symbolize the journey of the dead—this is the first rite. The second rite, which occurs on the Day of Burial, calls for all attendees to wear white clothing as the dead are being buried, all the while observing silence until the burial is done. The third rite dictates that, for the duration of a fortnight after the Day of the Burial, the name of the dead cannot be spoken. The fourth rite encourages for the stories of the dead to be told and enjoyed as a way of keeping their memory alive. The fifth rite, which occurs for the entirety of a fortnight, orders the family to pay respect to the dead three times a day by bowing eight times before the grave of the dead or their markers within an altar. The sixth rite, which only happens immediately after the Day of Burial, all colorful clothing are forbidden to be worn by family members; the only permitted colors are white, silver, gray, and black.

Shun could not faithfully observe the first, second, or sixth rites. It hurt him that his deceased family's spirits and those of his village could not be honored the way they should've. However, now that Tara had made these altars for him, he was determined to at least help their spirits move on by faithfully observing the third, fourth, and fifth rites without fail.

After paying his respects to the dead by bowing before the altars, Shun helped the Eru family pack up their tent. Tara gave him a sack for him to carry. "This pack contains all of our provisions," he told Shun. Once everything was packed up and ready to go, the trio descended down the hill. They then traveled along the road.

As they walked, Kira excitedly did her best to cheer up Shun. She asked him questions, played word games with him, posed riddles, but everything she did was met with a lukewarm response. A loud cry from up above caught her ear and she looked up. There, flying mightily in the bright blue sky, was a giant condor. It was a beautiful bird with golden-tipped feathers, glistening brown talons, a diamond-edged beak, and a puffy mane of feathers around its neck. "Look! Look!" she yelped happily, pointing up to the bird above.

Shun followed her fingers with a glum expression and saw the condor flying above. Seeing the condor made him stop in his tracks and he felt his stomach sink. Tears gathered in the corner of his eyes and slowly streamed down his cheeks. Tara glanced over at the boy and understood what was going on. He approached his daughter and smacked her on the head again.

"Ow! What was that for?" whined Kira. Tara subtly pointed a finger at Shun. Kira saw the tears flowing down Shun's face like streams of misery and immediately understood what she did wrong. She shuffled close to Shun and apologized for her actions. "I didn't mean to bring back up bad memories," she told him sincerely.

Shun sniffled and wiped the tears away with his arm. "I'm fine," he told her.

"Why did she have to grow up to be a troublesome meddler?" said Tara quietly to himself with a disappointing shake of his head.

The trio made it to the trading post where Shun would come to trade in their goods for money and walked past it, moving further down the road in the direction of the closest city: the Red City of Bliss. Shun had never been to the city before. As they got closer, Tara explained to Shun the laws of the city and general mores of society. He also stressed the importance of what is called the Ten Precepts, ten implicitly established rules in the world of martial arts that is to be observed by all Duelists: 1. Never Wrongfully Take The Life Of Others, Even Through Established Combat; 2. Never Take What Is Not Yours Nor Shall Objects Be Used For Betting Even Through Established Combat; 3. Never Surrender Yourself To Your Opponent As A Form Of Pity For That Is Disrepectful To Their Honor On All Levels; 4. Never Do Intentional Harm Onto An Opponent Unless Justified; 5. Chidao (Martial Arts) Shall Not Be Used Solely For The Purpose Of Cultivating Fame Nor Any Other Form Of Desires, Such As Thievery or Villainy, Unbefitting Its Honorable Nature; 6. Any Dishonorable Acts And Unacceptable Behavior Such As Lying, Becoming Intoxicated During A Fight, Or Engaging In Lascivious Behavior With Your Opponent, Is Subject To Ostracization As Divine Punishment; 7. Mercy Is To Be Observed On All Accounts Unless Otherwise Unwarranted; 8. The Rules Of The Battle And Any other Agreements As Put Forth By Both Combatants Must Be Observed At All Times, Even After The Battle Has Ended—Failure To Do So Will Be Grounds For Ostracization And Other Forms Of Punishment As Determined By The Wronged Party; 9. Any Form Of Violation Against The Duelist Code Will Be Subjected To Ostracization And Punishment By The Martial World; 10. Failure To Comply With The Ten Precepts Is An Unforgivable Offense That Shall Be Dealt With Punishment From The Martial World.

Shun found the Ten Precepts to be astonishing. He had never heard such rules before and it amazed him at how complex the world of Chidao really is. It somehow excited him, especially since he was beginning to step foot into this new world too.

They came to the city's gates, which were large and made of silver metal, and entered. Inside, the hustle and bustle of the busy city streets excited Shun. He was stunned by the bright clothing of the citizens and the shiny displays of the shop signs, and the sparkling lanterns hanging on the eaves outside every shop never failed to draw his attention. The fresh and rich aromas of the colorful vegetables and fruits being sold on either side of him enticed his nose and made him salivate. And the sounds of the exciting chatter around him were like strange music to his ears.

As he walked along the street with the Eru, the people around them stole glances at him, and they weren't exactly fond or friendly glances either. Tara noticed the public's eyes on the boy and realized exactly why their attention was drawn to him. Shun's appearance and attire was that of an outsider's. Everyone were stealing looks at and gossiping about the strange young man with the unkempt long black hair, dressed in dull and dirty colored felt rags and worn shoes.

"Shun," called Tara. Shun turned his head to him. "Come with me." Tara led Shun to a clothing shop and bought the boy three new pairs of clothes.

Shun quickly changed into one of the new pairs, as per Tara's suggestion, and his old clothes were thrown away. He was now dressed in a red short-sleeved shirt that is tightened at the neck with a string (Zao), a crimson fabric sash tied around his waist (Bori), and a pair of navy blue trousers that is tightened at the waist with a pair of strings (Goam). His feet were also clad in soft woolen socks (Anpo) and a pair of black closed-toed shoes (Ün). After he finished changing, Tara brought out a cloth ribbon and tied up Shun's unkempt hair into a smooth ponytail. Once his transformation was complete, Shun took a look at himself in the mirror in the tailor shop and was amazed at how different he looked compared to how he was before. He looked just like one of the city people! A wide smile spread on his face as he flaunted his new looks before the mirror, twirling around and making gestures like a happy little kid.

Tara smiled at the young man's happiness. It's not everyday that he can enjoy the bright innocent smile of a child as they experience something new and life-changing for the first time. On the other hand, Kira, who was already taken with Shun ever since their initial encounter, was captivated by his transformation. Seeing him sparkle really excited her, but when she tried to get close, his smiling face made her blush and when she realized just how cool and handsome he looked, she became too flustered to act.

They exited the shop and Tara led them down the street to a restaurant for lunch. Along the way, Shun's new look attracted the attention of passersby. However, unlike the hostile looks and glances from before, these new looks were ones of admiration and wonder. The men all commented between themselves on the young man's good looks and excellent fashion sense, and the women all giggled amongst themselves on his handsomeness and their likelihood of choosing him as a romantic interest.

They made it to the restaurant, a large establishment by the name of Pavillion of Everlasting Bliss, and went inside. They sat down at a table in the center of the room and the waiter came to bring them their menus. Shun opened his menu and read through it. He didn't understand much of the words on the menu, much less pronounce them, and found it hard to get through. Back in the village, the restaurant would have menus only with the dishes' names along with an illustration. But the menus of the city, however, had entire paragraphs! After the name of the dish, there were entire lists of words (ingredients) and sentences that he couldn't read, save for the few basic ones such as: sugar, salt, beef, chicken, onion, pepper, soup, and fried. Everything else was just a jumble of letters to him. And to make it worse for him, the menu barely had any pictures of the food at all! The proportion of pictures to listed items were so far apart that Shun wasn't sure what was what anymore.

"What would you like?" Tara asked him, bringing him out of his mental dilemma for a bit.

Shun looked at Tara with wide, anxious eyes. "I don't know," he admitted honestly.

Judging from Shun's reaction, and remembering the boy's upbringing in a village far away from the city, Tara deduced that he couldn't read the menu at all. "How about I order for you?" he suggested to Shun. Shun liked that idea and nodded his head in approval.

The waiter brought them their food. Placed in front of Shun was a bowl of noodle soup. The soup was a light red color and glinted in the daylight. Two kinds of noodles, okwang noodles and ngowasu noodles, rested atop the soup like little yellow and white islands. Thick cuts of beef floated in the soup and drifted in between freshly chopped onions, ginger, spring lettuce, and mint. The dish's wonderful and majestic aroma delighted Shun's nose and couldn't wait to dig in.

But before everyone dared to eat a single bite, they bowed their heads and clasped their hands. "We humbly accept heaven's blessing," they all prayed in unison. And then, they picked up their utensils and dug in.

"So you also practice the mealtime prayer back in your village?" Tara asked Shun.

"We do," replied Shun with a nod of his head.

"Tell me, Shun, did you also have school back in your village? I've been to villages before where they had a school system of sorts and those where they do not, save for rudimentary education for young children."

"We had a school of sorts," said Shun. "Both girls and boys are required to attend lessons once they reach four years old. The lessons last for five years and we learn things like counting numbers and writing our names."

Tara brought a finger to his chin and meditated on this fact. He then took out a piece of paper from inside his robe and held it out in front of Shun. He then pointed to a character and asked, "Can you red this?"

"Water," replied Shun.

"How about this?" asked Tara, pointing to another character. Shun had never seen such a character before and shook his head no. Tara then moved on to a set of letters and asked Shun the same question.

"Heaven," he replied.

"Based on this little experiment, I know now that you were only taught the alphabet and the most rudimentary of characters," concluded Tara. He pointed to yet another word consisting of letters and asked, "Do you know what this says?" Shun could read the word very well, but he couldn't tell what the word says. "So your vocabulary is very rudimentary too," said Tara with an understanding nod. "Judging from your knowledge, the education you received would be equivalent to a fifth grade education in the city."

Hearing Tara said that made Shun blush a shameful red. "Our village's main focus were on hunting and farming. So once we learned the alphabet and the numbers, we turned our focus on learning how to hunt and cultivate the land," he said, his ears burning with embarrassment.

"That's nothing to be ashamed of," said Tara. "Of course, for villages such as yours, maintaining the village takes precedence. You do not have the luxury of the cities, where, due to the cities' naturally high populations and bigger land areas, complex systems of government are established to govern the people and the land." Tara was about to add to his reassurance of Shun's village upbringing when voices coming from the table behind him caught his ears. Judging from their talk, he concluded that they were workers for the government, low-level, most likely soldiers or law enforcement officers.

"Man, yesterday was brutal!" exclaimed one of the men.

"I heard what happened, but did it really go down like that?" came a second.

"Our commander ordered us to burn it all to the ground," said the first man. "I've burned villages before, but that last one was one of the biggest I've ever set my eyes on! There were a lot of people and a lot of tents and the like, so it took quite a bit before it all turned to ashes. At least, that's what I imagine since we didn't stay behind to watch it burn to the ground, ha ha ha!"

'Burning a village? Could he be referring to Shun's village?' wondered Tara.

"Geez, the screaming and the running from the people were annoying! I'm glad that they all died. Now, they can scream all they want in the court of Sinokazan!" continued the first man. Both men laughed their heads off at the joke.

'These corrupt dogs,' growled Tara angrily.

"Say, why were you there in the first place?" asked the second man.

"The commander apparently got the order from an official to burn down the village. We also took a girl back with us too. When we asked why, the commander didn't say anything. So we all just assumed that he's going to turn her into his own slave," added the first man.

"Or maybe a trophy wife," offered the second man.

"What's the difference?" joked the first man. And they laughed their heads off again.

"How old was the girl?" asked the second man.

"I think she was about eight years old," said the first man.

"Seriously? Is your commander into little girls by any chance?" asked the second man.

"No way!" said the first man dismissively. "That's why we all automatically thought he was going to turn her into a slave."

"But I've heard that many members of the high court often take young girls as their wives and concubines," pointed out the second man. "It's not an unusual practice. In the other kingdoms and nations too, nobility and royalty tend to have way younger wives."

'Could that girl be Shun's sister?' wondered Tara. He then turned back to his dish and ate as if nothing happened. Once the trio were finished, they left the restaurant. Halfway down the street, Tara excused himself and told Shun and Kira to stay here and wait for him. He had told them that he had 'forgotten his wallet' back at the restaurant. The kids obeyed his orders and stood on the sidewalk to wait for him as he turned back and returned to the restaurant.

By the time Tara arrived back at the establishment, the two low-level government soldiers were exiting through the entrance. They paid him no mind and turned to walk up the street. "Excuse me, gentlemen," called out Tara. The two soldiers turned their heads and threw him dirty looks.

"What do you want?" came the first soldier rudely—he was the one that boasted about burning down a village.

"Make this quick, please. We have other work to do," came the second. Despite his addition of a polite word, there was no politeness at all to his tone.

"I have a question," said Tara, ignoring their rudeness. "You see, I recently just came from the South and I walked past a village that has burnt down to the ground. Do you men perhaps know what has happened to it?"

"Who cares?" spat the first soldier venomously.

"Well, I had a friend who lived there, and I was sad to have seen his home turned to ashes," continued Tara. "But I was even more grieved to learn that he had perished in a terrible incident along with his people."

"What are you suggesting?" asked the second soldier with a raised eyebrow.

Tara feigned an innocent smile and said, "I was just hoping that perhaps you men might know something."

"Your friend's dead now. Why should it concern you? It's not like you're his keeper," came the first man with no intention of hiding the cruelty of his words.

"Well this friend of mine had a daughter," said Tara, dismissing the first man's cruel undertones as if they were mist. "When I walked through the village, I found that her body was missing where it should've been in her family's tent," he added with a tilt of his head.

"Are you sure that she was missing? She could very well be lying amongst the other bodies somewhere in the village," said the second man smartly.

"Exactly!" agreed the first man.

"But she couldn't have been more than eight years old," protested Tara. "The people of that village have a custom where young children, especially girls, are expected to be by their mother's side until they reach the age of apprenticeship."

The second man held out his hand in front of Tara's face and said, "If you have a complaint, you can file it with the authorities at the station."

"I would if I could," said Tara with a nod of his head. "But if I want to, I must know the name of who I am complaining against. Would you mind telling the name of who could've been responsible for burning down that village?" he asked the first man.

The first man was caught off guard by this sudden turn of events and his body shook with fury. He tightly kept his lips shut and his eyes widened with clear disgust and animosity at Tara. He was ready to explode.

Tara could tell by the man's expression that he had unwillfully admitted defeat. Deciding to not press any further on this matter, he bowed his head and said, "Thank you, kind sirs, for your assistance. Glory to the Heavenly Son."

Both men simply turned back around without saying a word in response to Tara's respectful farewell and walked on. Now that they were on their way, Tara could now express his hatred and disgust at their rudeness with a scary scowl of his own. And then, in one quick fluid motion faster than the blink of an eye, he channeled his chi and executed a magical skill. With two fingers pointed outwards straight at the first soldier, he sent his chi towards his target. This sensation was invisible to the naked eye and could not be felt by any normal man; only a person experienced in Chidao and especially those who are well-versed in magic can sense it.

His chi finally struck his target and the soldier began to slowly rise up off the ground as if his body had suddenly became weightless. He floated up and up into the sky, all the while screaming to his friend to help bring him back down. It wasn't long before a huge crowd formed and took pleasure in seeing the soldier being tortured with fear by floating through the air like a balloon. With his job done, Tara walked back to join Shun and Kira.