The Assassin

The man clutched the hands that were choking him. The cold emotionless eyes that stared at his seemed like a two endless pits of darkness. The eyelashes were long and thick with dark brown pupils that can send chills down the looker's spine. The eyes and visible features of the person clearly shows that the person was a woman and wasn't a Tianxiaian by birth. Yet the deadly vibe she carried was evident from the obedience of the men that were following her. The woman had a cloth covering her face, her hair dirty brown were made into tiny braids which were then put into a half bun and a longer braid that reached her back a little above the waist. She gave off a scent which was a complex mix of blood, wine and dirt yet with a strong base note of amber. She wore a typical Tianxiaian warrior outfit; a long shirt up to her knees and on that a leather full-sleeve leather jacket; a pair of black leather pants and rough brown boots which reached up to her knees. Her upper garments were held in place with a wide leather belt where she has a dagger and a Tianxiaian blade fabled to be made only by a mysterious blacksmith who serves only the Royal General. The blade is said to make from a mysterious element from the volcanoes of the Xuānshan (lit. meaning 'black mountain'). The blade is said to be so light like feather that it is impossible to see the movements when wielded by a master swordsman. As such if attacked by the sword it will be impossible to follow the movements of the sword to block it. There was another small dagger in her left boot.

"I really don't know about any chosen one. Trust me please," the man answered in a trembling quavering voice as the hands around his neck squeezed harder.

A cold voice came from behind the mask, "Then you have no further use to me."

And the next moment she snapped his neck killing him. The man fell down like a slab of meat against the tree.

She turned around to her men and commanded, "Keep looking for the chosen one with the jade pendant birthmark. I will hit the town for the day."

"Shì, Yīn fūren*, the men said in unison.

TN * means 'yes, lady Yin'

Yin rode her mare and reached the nearest town of Sinwang. The town is closest to the Shrughnan border which is about 10 miles away and that is why there are many Shrughnans in this town who came for various businesses purposes to Tianxia. She dismounted her mare in front of an inn/wine house and casually walked in. As soon as she entered all the eyes present there were cast on her and the loud chattering of the crowd tuned down into whispers. The bartender blinked his eyes in awe and a little fear with the figure that approached.

"Give me two jars of your best wine."

She coldly and casually ordered throwing a silver ingot in front of him. However the man was so engrossed in checking her out that he froze and forgot to react at all. Noticing this Yin looked up with indignation at him, swiftly reached her dagger from her waist and stabbed the table in front of him.

"I said, two jars of your best wine."

She slowly repeated again. Startled and scared the bartender jumped to his feet before mumbling and fumbling, "Ahhhhhahaha ahh yeeeessss yesss yesss gūniang…getting it at once."

Yin lifted the knife up from the table and turned around towards the crowd which has now gone completely silent. The moment she turned around and cast a blood-curdling fearsome look the crowd hastily went back to its business. The bartender brought the jars and placed them in front of her. Yin opened up one and poured wine into her mouth gulping it down, she asked the bartender again, "Do you have any brothels around here?"

The question stuck the bartender like a brick to his head. A woman, who looks extremely scary and above all doesn't have a tinge of Tianxiaian features is asking for a brothel to visit, which was probably the biggest shock of his life. But with the knife indignation a while ago he swallowed the fear and shock of the question and answered,

"Well ahhhhh!! Well, guniang we have one a few blocks from here. Our town is famous, as foreigners stay here so the brothel has been built a few years ago to cater to their entertainment. You can find both men and women."

In the last sentence he said assuming that since Yin is a woman she might be looking for a man. But the mere fact that a woman is looking for a brothel was far more shocking to him. And given that Yin is a scary person he tried to be subtle in suggesting her preference.

"Splendid", Yin looked at him, smirked, and left. She has already finished the first jar and with the freshly opened second one, she reached the brothel. The scene at the bar repeated itself. People were shocked to see a woman customer. Never in her life had the head lady of the brothel had a chance to serve a woman customer. With a confused looked yet a smile on her face she approached Yin and asked, "How may I serve you, my lady?"

Yin took out a few gold ingots this time and tossed them at the head lady and said "Let me see your best men and women."

With a bewildered expression she obliged calling upon her best girls and boys. Yin looked at them with a lustful smirk and chose a girl and boy and went into a room on the first floor.

Meanwhile, somewhere near the Yeoson-Tianxia border, a group of Mountain Sect mofarens (Tianxiaian auras) are traveling in a group to track down a monster that has crossed the border and entered Tianxia territory, and destroyed an entire village. If the news reached the imperial court it could jeopardize the location of not just Tianxia's Mountain Sect but also the other two kingdoms as well. The monster is known as the bulgeomul. It is a thousand years old and was fabled to have been born out of greed and deceit. Long time ago nature worshippers were branded as evil and so whoever practiced nature worship were captured and assassinated. Like that once a man who was a nature worshipper was identified and targeted to arrest. He fled in time to save his life and took refuge in his brother's house in the neighboring village. However a hefty amount of money was put as bounty on his head. When his brother came to know about this he turned greedy and betrayed him by leading the soldiers to capture him. While hiding he came to hear his brother betraying him and he was so distraught and shocked that he prayed with all his spirituality and asked the nature deities to turn him into a creature after death who will be so strong that no man could kill him. The strength of his spirituality made the nature deities bestow him with his wish and he heard in his mind as the deity spoke,

"No man will be able to kill you."

After that the man was captured and burnt alive on a stake in a public execution. His brother was happy to receive such a hefty amount of money and returned back to his home. That night the dead man rose as a hideous creature and became what people call the bulgeomul which literally mean fire monster. His body was like burning coal, with large hands and feet that have metallic nails on them. His eyes were like burning fire with black wavy veins around the eyes. His hair was long and ashy. The first thing he did after becoming a monster was to attack his brother's house killing everyone including his brother. After that, he consumed all metal that was there in the house and grew even stronger. Subsequently, the more he consumed metals the more he grew hungry and bloodthirsty, attacking small villages along the border and wiping them out completely. In considerable time the monster became uncontrollable and one day he somehow crossed the border into Tianxia and destroyed an entire village. The Mountain Sect of Tianxia took swift action before the imperial court intervenes because the Commander is rumored to practice nefarimancy and allegedly, according to rumors, have established spiritual association with the Dark Realm. If they reach these evil beings before the Mountain Sect does instead of vanquishing them they will gain control of these creatures to wreak havoc on the Mortal Realm. The three Mountain Sects of the three kingdoms as such have entered into this strong pact between them to assist each other whenever necessary to vanquish these evil beings so that they don't get controlled by their respective kings who themselves are into a pact to track down the chosen ones and unleash darkness on the Mortal Realm.

Since the news of the bulgeomul reached the Tianxia Mountain Sect the Council dispatched their most skilled warrior auras to deal with the situation along with the assistance of the Yeoson Mountain Sect. The leader of the group, Yi Yun is a carefree guy and a womanizer, leads this team as he is the most skilled and fierce aura of his generation. He was found by a medicus (magical doctor) of the Tianxia Mountain Sect, fifteen years ago during the uprising against the then Emperor Jiaolong in which he was killed and the royal family fell. Yi Yun was found unconscious near the Mountain foothills, between two rocks. The medicus went to the forest in search of magical herbs near a stream when he found the eight-year-old kid lying injured. Being childless he took him with him, back to his cottage up in the Mountain where he and his wife adopted him and brought him up. He told them his name was Yi Yun and that he is the son of a soldier who and his whole family were killed during the uprising and he fled into the mountains. Being childless the couple showered all their love and care on Yi Yun and brought him up as their own. After that, the Mountain Sect was established by all three kingdoms, and the family moved into it. Soon they discovered that Yi Yun was an aura and not just that the strange pendant-shaped birthmark on his left shoulder was revealed to be the mark of the chosen one when the news spread across all three kingdoms about the respective ruling kings looking for them. Thinking that their son is special and might be taken away from them they concealed the truth from everyone. Yi Yun was enrolled in the Sect Academy and excelled in the martial arts of kung fu, the Five Ancestors Fist. Apart from that, he is an ace in taijiquan (shadow boxing) and the swordsmanship of the taijijian (straight double-edged sword). He is also fierce in shéng biāo (rope dart) fight. His power element is air. Yi Yun proved to be a prodigy within three years of his enrollment and soon was entrusted to carry out hunting assignments outside the Sect which further proved his leadership skills. This time he and his group have an important mission to track down the bulgeomul. The Yeoson Mountain Sect Council sent an urgent message to their Tianxia counterpart about the menace.

"Yun'er, there is nothing left in the village. It's completely destroyed," said Tan Feng a fellow aura and best friend of Yi Yun. Tan Feng and Yi Yun had been childhood best friends and these two are inseparable from each other. The group was inspecting the burnt village when suddenly they heard a noise at some distance. It was a sound of a human moaning in pain. They all ran towards the sound to discover a man burnt top to toe stuck in the rubble of a house which probably was his. They soon helped to bring the man out. Yi Yun checked his pulse and confirmed that he will not live for long as his body was charred severely. Tan Feng's power element is water so he produced a water charm and lets the dying man drink to calm him down. After calming him down Tan Feng asked about what happened here and the man spoke in a feeble weak voice.

"Gongzi, the monster was like burning charcoal. He devoured all the metals in our village right from utensils to weapons and then he burned the village down. I have never seen a such monster in my life."

Being extremely weak the man panted and struggled to breathe but with much difficulty, he hold Tan Feng's hand and spoke his last words before closing his eyes and dying,

" Gongzi, please catch it before it destroys other villages."

The group buried him with respect near the village before Yi Yun gathered the group and said, "Look around to find where it could have gone. We must track it down before any other village gets destroyed."

The group started to look for clues and then suddenly another member shouted,

"Yi gongzi, I have found footprints. Come and see this."

All ran towards him and saw clawed footprints in the form of burnt foliage on the ground. They started to follow it and soon they reached a river that flowed from along the Tianxia-Yeoson mountain foot and then took a turn and flowed along the Tianxia-Shrughnan mountain foot. The place they stood was the meeting point of the three branches of the Kangchen Mountain that acts as the natural border of the three Kingdoms. To their horror, they saw that the footprints went all the way toward Shrughna. Sensing danger Yi Yun sent a mental message to the Sect Council in form of a pigeon through an aura that can control the mind of the group. With the dawn breaking, they decided to camp near the burnt village until further instructions arrive from the Council.

Back in the town of Sinwang, Yin woke up with a thin steak of sunlight on her face through the window curtain. She lay completely naked with two other persons she chose as her service provider last night. They both lay on each side of her with their arms on her. Since it was a rough day for her Yin needed to blow out the stress which resulted in an intense session of wild sex last night, but the demeanor of the two prostitutes peacefully sleeping beside her was proof of the fact that they too have enjoyed the act as much as Yin. She got up, walked up to the wash basin and washed her face, got dressed, and left the room. She reached the bar of the brothel and ordered herself breakfast and a jar of wine. While she was eating a soldier came looking for her and saluted her and said, "Yin furen, we have information about one of the chosen ones."

Yin stopped eating and looked up at the soldier.

"Tell me," she said.

"Near the Yeoson border a monster has been spotted and our alleged chosen one has gone there tracking it with a few other Mountain mofarens."

The man stopped and Yin got up asking, "How far?"

The man replied, "Two days' journey from here."

"We leave at once," Yin commanded and they both left with their group.

Before leaving Yin had one of her soldiers send a hawk relaying the message about the chosen one being spotted and that she has left for the border, to Commander Xi back in the capital.

Commander Xi received the message and smiled wickedly. He stood on a spacious balcony high on top of the military barrack tower. The tower stood like an impervious pagoda fort in the middle of the royal military barrack. Its area around the tower was a sprawling spacious field for military training with numerous types of weapon stations and countless soldiers in training in the front. The martial arts compound was at the back of the tower. Commander Xi stood with the rising sun shining on his face and his mind subtly drifted back to fifteen years ago. The quest to kill the chosen ones led him to Shrughna where his ally the Grand Minister failed to capture the chosen one and Commander had to intervene. The five-year-old second born he took proved to be a mistake but instead of killing her, he brought her up, training her to be the most skilled ruthless assassin in the three kingdoms. He made it a point to kill all emotions in her so that they wouldn't create a hindrance in her judgment. At one point, he became so obsessed with training her to be the perfect weapon that he secretly ordered a powerful nefari (evil warlock) to perform various experiments on her in an attempt to instill magical capabilities in her since her blood is a carrier of the magical aura genes. But the effort went futile as she never gained any magic at any point. On the contrary, these unknown experiments rendered her with weak nerves which have to be kept steady with a potion made from a magical herb called 'hongse gen yaoshui' which literally means red root potion. It is derived from the roots of a special tree which grows near the mysterious Kherkhan Borderlands, the extremely cold region north of Tianxia. The Commander specifically makes it a point that there is no dearth of the root potion for Yin. At times when she is too indulged in her missions she gets severe nerve attacks in form of violent seizures and the potion helps to stabilize it. Yin always carries a pouch within her shirt. In spite of that she is the deadliest assassin created by Commander Xi. The Commander not only trained her in Tianxiaian martial arts but also from the other two kingdoms as well. While sieging Shrughna Raja Ratan Raj, informed him about the kalaripayattu martial art village of Brahmapuram. Most of them were killed and the rest fled he could not track them. Commander Xi was fascinated by the martial art and he with the help of his nefari tracked down one who has fleeing to the Mountains. He was however easy to negotiate in exchange for wealth and protection to train Yin in this rare art form. The master was shocked to see his student but he was asked to turn a blind eye to it and concentrate on his one job. The Commander trained Yin with rare fighting techniques that are unknown by the contemporary fighters, which will serve as an element of surprise during the fighting. He subjected her to psychological manipulation where he fed her lies about her origin and family to convince her completely that no one, other than the General, loves and cares for her. She was given a Tianxiaian name to forget her old identity and since then 'Yin furen' has been feared by mortals and auras alike.