Two Sides

An unexpected shove by Kanghui caused Alex to trip into the entrance of the gate over the threshold and face down, much to the amusement of the giggling, mangled looking girls following them.

His ego plummeted like an anvil hurdling downwards from the summit of Mount Everest to the base at supersonic speed. It hurt more than his face.

While Alex was getting up, he noticed that one only had sliced up bits of her feet instead of the heels like the others.

Then someone lifted Alex by the collar like he was a kitten. It was Yata. Before Alex could complain, his jaw dropped and mouth agape, staring at the bustling streets in the dusk light before him.

His eyes wandered around, looking at each individual. Most looked human, but some had animal heads or one too many tails.

He reeled back at a centipede tail slithering past with the upper body of a human in ancient Japanese clothing.

"Welcome to Youdu city, where animal and human souls co-exist…"

"Insects too," Alex frowned as he spotted a Scorpion tail peeking out of another kimono.

"Oh yeah, but I am more of a spider, an arachnid, not an insect," Yata said.

Then Alex gazed upwards. To his surprise, there were two large floating islands high above the city where clouds would form.

A vast distance separated the two islands. Alex gauged by the mountain range ahead, peeking above the city between the two islands, that it was about fifty or more kilometres apart.

He squinted to make out the cities atop of them.

On the right floating island, a domineering white marble-like citadel of an Ancient Tang Dynasty design with its closed gargantuan red doors, over the city, which was surrounded by the picturesque scene of a vast mountain range.

It looked like a toy model city from Alex's position.

On the left was a more Japanese looking cluster of Japanese castles and large Shinto shrines around a central mountain.

The greenery on the Japanese looking island didn't look as forbidding as the other. However, there was an intimidating vermillion Torii gate towering over the entire island, dwarfing even the entire Tang-like fortress.

"Let me guess, Chinese to the right, Japanese to the left," Alex said. Any idiot could tell that the Torii gate was the symbol of the Japanese.

"West is the right. East is the left," Kanghui said. "The primeval beings who influence the Chinese are on Xitian island in the west. And the ones The ones who influence Japan, to the east and that's Takamagahara," Kanghui said.

"This is the entire capital region, Youdu, or Youtu. To the east, it's all Japanese influenced. To the west, Chinese. Divided that way," she continued.

Alex looked to the right where ancient Chinese shop huts alternated between double and triple storey traditional shop-houses, made of faux wood and bricks while the newer buildings looked built out of faux glass or cement.

It reminded him of the Xi'an city in Shaanxi province - a mix of ancient with the modern, flanked by a huge city wall which survived since the Ming dynasty

Then an ancient looking Chinese shop flickered for a bit like a bad television reception and then vanished. Before Alex could ask, another one flickered in the same spot. This time, it looked like a modern shop house had replaced the old Chinese building.

"The shops change?" He asked as he looked ahead at a few flickering, then changing entirely.

"Most always change - one flicker and gone," Yata replied with nonchalance, used to the scene. "The hidden dimension operates differently from the real world."

"So, how do you find the shops if you want to visit again? "

With a grin, a few cards appeared in Yata's hand. "Easy, you summon via the name cards. It's like a delivery service."

"The entire shop appears?"

"Well, a door way appears for you to enter, buy and exit. The front is more…," Yata thought for a bit before continuing, "like an advertisement. Nothing stays the same around here."

The vendors on the Chinese side were calling out at the top of their voices while bright neon signs advertised products, which he took little notice of.

It almost seemed like an outdoor shopping mall of sorts. Although he wondered why some would require a car.

A few skyscrapers peaked over the shopping malls in the grid like layout.

On the left, the Japanese side was more subdued. Alex noticed its resemblance to Kyoto with its old wooden machiya styled Japanese shop houses with the traditional wood frames and noren door way curtains at their entrances.

Compared to the right side, the Japanese stores looked more subdued, upmarket style. Polite attendants in kimonos were bowing to passing customers and starting contact by showing the entrance with their hands.

Some selling tea or foodstuffs which stopped Alex in his footsteps for a glance as an attendant watched him patiently as though waiting for a sign to invite him in.

"That aren't ordinary foodstuffs found on Earth," Yata gestured to the shops, "it is more of an energy resource."

"How do you pay for those resources?"

"Barter other energy resources or something that can exchange for the said resources. You will learn the type of currencies we use soon."

"Currencies? Youdu has its own mint?"

"No. it isn't a mint. You will soon find out what we use," Yata said.

"Why?"

"They have more resources than us based on ranks. Even in the human world."

"Like what?" Alex started to get very curious. How much entanglement did the primevals have with humans?

"Businesses, residences, even connections to politicians and the underworld."

Alex stared at Yata in disbelief. Was the spider being joking? Then another Chinese shop flicker and disappear, then replaced by a new vendor calling out new wares.

"Then what about the primevals influencing Korea?"

"They have their own city connected to the capital. Portal is in the middle of the mountain ahead," Kanghui pointed at the imposing alp like mountain.

"K-pop and kimchi central," Yata added. "That's what the rest of us call it."

"Why does the Japanese side only have short shop-houses when Japan has so many mega malls?" Alex asked.

"You can't see the huge flashing mall that's at least 10 storeys?" Yata asked.

"Where?" Alex looked to the left.

"There!" Yata pointed at an enormous space on the left where Alex saw nothing but the skies.

"Nothing there."

"He can't see much of that side because his soul belongs to the Chinese side," Kanghui interrupted them both.

"What do you see there?" She pointed at a huge pagoda like skyscraper rising deep within the Chinese side of Youdu.

"Huge pagoda," Alex replied while Yata squinted.

"Nothing there," Yata answered.

"So Yata can't see that pagoda on the right, and Alex can't spot the huge mall on the left."

"Why?" they both asked. "Can you see both?"

"Yes," she said.

"Why?" they both asked again.

"Because those the other can't see aren't necessary for them. Those shop-houses on either side of the street will serve anyone. That faux Aeon mall doesn't. And neither does the pagoda."

Then streaks of lightning flashed over the city as the wind started strengthening in the cloudless skies.

"It will not rain, will it?" Alex said.

"Just some fellow primeval beings returning to check in. They live on the floating islands," Kanghui replied.

"Uh huh… it looks like those fantasy xianxia television show about the heavens… how is your residence there like - palatial?"

Kanghui raised her eyebrow. "I don't like up there. I live underground."

"Huh?" Alex blinked in disbelief, but out of her earshot. "I thought primeval beings would live it up somewhere grand, like those two islands."

Any residence on top of those two floating islands is like living in the ultimate penthouse with a scenic view. Why wouldn't she want to live up there?

"Politics," Yata whispered.

"I have access to both islands," Kanghui shrugged without saying more.

"Huh? Then why not the top where you can see everything?"

"Nothing here works like Earth. The underground has its own scenery, and it is much more peaceful."

"An abyss," Yata whispered to Alex again. "With scary creatures worse than us."

"Heard of the four perils in the Chinese classics?" Kanghui asked.

"You mean the four most destructive mythological monsters? Taotie, Taowu, Qiongqi and Hundun?" Alex mused as he tried to remember what the ancient people wrote in the ancient Chinese text of Zuo Zhuan.

Kanghui chuckled. "No, in the Book of Documents, Shujing. I am one of the four perils, Gonggong. The others there are Huandou, my subordinate, and Gun, with Chiyou. The monsters you mentioned are just our pets."

"Pets? But… they are demons!" Alex exclaimed.

"Only if we allow them to transform into giants," Kanghui replied. "Otherwise, no bigger than your average cat. Hundun likes to whine. Cute really."

"Never seen them before to judge," Yata said.

"Because Qiongqi would chew on you," Kanghui answered. "Those pets are ancients which are exiled underground by orders of Xitian."

"What happens if someone releases them?"

"They can destroy Xitian, and Youdu," she shrugged like it was nothing.

"So they are as bad as Arahabaki?"

"Arahabaki is a demolition derby," she replied. "What takes those four to do in a day takes Arahabaki an hour, given his anger issues with Takamagahara."

"Heard he still visits them occasionally," Yata muttered.

"You won't want to be in Takamagahara when he visits."