"The colonies that bargained for their liberation were all still penetrated through by the ideals and contracts of the UUP. As Shen and Selorong attempted to revitalize Communist efforts, the Plutocrats engendered the greatest propaganda effort known to Mankind, branding the revolutionaries are terrorists and upstarts threatening the Universal Peace of the Utter Islands. This led to the leaders of the established, newly liberated nations (closer to neocolonies) to enact pogroms across the Utter islands to expunge Communist thought from its politics, and to push them to the margins, the mountains, the rivers."

  From the Heaven and Earth Megadeath

  The Adamantine of Endings and the Sword Dancer piled all the dead bodies into a circle within the forest, where others would not see, and where their bodies would be safe. Then they set fire to it, while Koago performed the rituals for safe-passage and ascendant-rebirths.

  They took the ashes that belonged to the villagers and placed them into jade pots. They left the ashes of the bandits to generate merit by nourishing the earth.

  "We must return the ashes to whatever family they belonged to. Or at least into the village cemetery or charnel ground," said Koago. Xing agreed with a silent nod, keeping her lips close together. It was better that way, rather than letting them stay and turn into charnel ground.

  Xing, furrowing her brow, said: "Master. What did happen to my parents after the fire?"

  Koago thought for a moment. A silent wind cutting through his throat. It felt like forcing a flower's petals to blossom before its time.

  The owl grandmaster said: "Your parent's ashes... I could not retrieve. There were other corpses there, but I left it behind after performing the sacral rites to bless them for better rebirths into the Pure Heavens. It has become charnel ground now no doubt, to feed the skies and to act as sacred meditation grounds for cultivators."

  Xing sighed. "Then I have to find my parent's ashes. If... I ever get to return to it."

  "We will, eventually," said Koago. "You will have to see for yourself."

  "But I suppose... it is good that the site of death has become a site of enlightenment." Xing was not so sure if she believed this to be true, or if she simply said it to comfort her anxious heart.

  Koago smiled. The melancholy was a scything spear. "Yes. You walk closer to Omniscience, my disciple."

  Koago and Xing gave the jade pots to the four girls that still alive there. They were mostly safe, now. Koago stemmed the bleeding from one of them, and cured the wounds from the other.

  "Uncle Koago..." said the oldest one. The one who could still speak. They knew Koago's name, as Koago frequented Kabini Town as a wandering elder. "What will happen to us now...?"

  Koago looked up, and he saw another autocar. This one was taller, with a flag flying atop it. Kabini Village Chief's car. "Worry not, youngling. You will be safe," said Koago. "The village will take care of you. I cannot let the village chief see me for now, so wait for him to arrive. He is over yonder, just by the bend. I will return to you to offer you any help that I can when I can, in the future. Do you understand this?"

  The girl nodded. They were all visibly shaken. None of them could even cry yet.

  The village chief's autocar neared. Koago and Xing mounted the water buffalo, and moved through the trees, toward Kabini Town. Avoiding the autocar completely.

  Xing asked, raising an eyebrow: "Why do you hide from the Chief of Kabini Town, Master Koago?"

  "A long story," he said. "Better we stay away, for now. I have no ill blood, but the Chief might. And that will only cause suffering for all of us. Better for the Chief to focus on helping the girls first. Besides, we don't have the capacity to help the girls medically. The Village Chief will most probably bring them to the nearby hospice, which is in Ojoko Town to the East of here. Away from Kabini Town."

  "I see," Xing said. "The master thinks three steps ahead of me, as always."

  Koago shook his head. "We must simply think expediently and dialectically. That is true Skill."

  Kabini Town really was a roadside stopover town. A singular road cut through the middle of it, and you could feasibly go to the most important parts of the town just by going down that singular road. The Town Hall, the Temple-Chapel, and rows upon rows of diner establishments and carinderias lined that very road.

  Against the river too was a wet market, a marker of the intersection of the two transportation lines. Kabini Town wasn't a richer town because it was so far inland. Distant from international trade.

  Koago preferred places like this. Quiet, soft, idyllic almost. They did not have the extreme expectations of the city and city-adjacent areas. They stood at the liminal spaces of capitalism and neoliberalism. In nigh primeval-traditionalist harmony with nature. Yet indulging in the free market.

  Its idyll was its downfall, of course. The right company, just the right pay, and Kabini Town will be subsumed by the greater capitalist maw, by the Market, and exploitation strengthens.

  But for now, it is safe. Hence, Koago had chosen to situate his personal lodgings so close to it.

  Upon the carabao they rode into town. A few kids playing with a rattan ball waved at them. The people here in Kabini Town had tinges of green and red in their hair. A symptom of some greater spiritual affectation near the area. They were geographically to the Kalavala Forest around Kij Dakmala, after all.

  One of the kids, a child, broke off from the group and ran up to them. "Hello Miss Beautiful! Your hair is white like jasmines!" she said.

  Xing smiled widely. "Hi Gentle Little Sister! How are you today? What's your name?"

  "My name is Atissa," replied the gentle little sister. She was playing with a yoyo, with her other friends. "What is your name Beautiful Magnolia Lady?"

  Xing couldn't help but be possessed by the spirit of cuteness aggression. She scrunched up her nose and ruffled Atissa's hair. "I am Xing Naramao! But you can call me Xing."

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Atissa nodded, grinning, showing off her missing two front teeth. "Oh, okay Elder Sister Xing! Are you Owl Ultramystic's wife?"

  Xing smiled again, more ashamed this time. "No. I am his Disciple!"

  "Oh! You are Owl Ultramystic's First Disciple!" said the slightly older boy beside her, playing with a wooden sword. "You are so lucky! Owl Ultramystic wouldn't even take Big Brother Joro as a disciple and he was the best fighter of Kabini Town..." The boy's nose was larger than his eyes, and his grin was crooked and his teeth were chipped. But his heart was one of gold. "I want to be a powerful martial hero like Owl Ultramystic!"

  Xing turned to Koago. The Owl Ultramystic only gave them a sad smile. "The ways of the Ultramystics are unknowable, Aljun," said Koago. "You know that already. Who knows—if Elder Sister Xing here learns all the Secrets, she will return here and become your master."

  "Ah, please please please become an Ultramystic Master by next week, Elder Sister Xing!" said Aljun, and he began kowtowing. Xing climbed down from the water buffalo to stop him from kowtowing more than thrice.

  "Enough of that, enough of that!" Xing laughed as she stopped Aljun. Aljun smiled sheepishly, and the other boys of the group became teasing him with "oohs" and "yieees". Aljun chased them away.

  "See you later Big Sister Xing!" said Atissa, waving, and then running away to catch up with her friends.

  "Naughty children, aren't they?" said Koago as he fluttered down from the water buffalo. "Come, follow me. The noodle shop is here."

  Koago had paid a kid to watch over the water buffalo while they went into Tononggong's Noodleshop. That was the name etched onto a wooden signboard placed above it. Not a very big noodle shop. A salon and a smokeshop sandwiched its small vertical slice.

  At this time—around the 14th hour of the Day—they did not have a lot of customers, as it was far past lunch time. But Koago knew that any other time, there would be long lines and crowds waiting outside, eating outside, talking outside. A veritable community centerpiece.

  Xing and Koago walked past the corrugated steel threshold of the door. A young male manned the front station. Narrow shouldered yet tall, he had the sway and swagger of a post-teenager. When he saw Koago walk in, he bowed, though his face did not change nor show any emotion.

  "Young Trangie!" Koago waved to him, and it was at this time that Xing noticed just how elderly and fatherly Koago's movements were, despite him looking not too old himself. No wrinkles on his face, no pores... Xing found herself wondering if Koago had a nightly skincare routine. Or perhaps this was the effect of cultivating one's Cultivation Womb?

  The boy waved as well. He was busy frying some noodles on a flat iron pan. "Uncle Koago." He smiled and nodded to him, and then awkwardly waited for Xing to look at him so that he could not at her too. He hastily avoided her gaze.

  Xing didn't want to think too much of it. Her mouth watered at the smell of fried noodles. "This is Miss Xing Naramao, my first and only Disciple," said Koago, holding Xing's shoulders and showing her off as if she were his own daughter.

  "I-I see," said Trangie. He did not know where to look. Xing surmised that he was a very shy, introverted, and awkward person, despite his height and potential capacity to fill up a space. "N-Nice to meet you, Miss Xing."

  Xing bowed as well. Despite being very friendly and talkative, she was not particularly warm when it came to strangers. Worse yet, she was extra awkward with people that were awkward themselves.

  Koago said: "Xing, this is Praxuntrang, son of Tononggong, my friend. Go and have a seat." Xing bowed to Praxuntrang and then took her seat.

  Koago turned to Praxuntrang and said: "Where is the old coot?"

  "Uhm, he drove somewhere to pick up a batch of green onions, I think," Praxuntrang replied. "He should be coming back anytime."

  "Ah, well, we're just here for some lunch before we head to Alchemist Tsu Hyan's place. Give us two signatures please. And two iced milk teas."

  The food was served promptly. Within ceramic bowls, topped with all kinds of greens, shrimps, and meat pieces. On the table they sat were condiments—soy sauce, salt, vinegar, black pepper, little chilis, and calamansi. Koago instructed Xing to put some soy sauce and calamansi onto the fried noodles before eating it.

  "I know how to eat Pansit Pangseoi, master."

  Koago smiled, sheepish. "Right, of course. Just making sure."

  "I appreciate it," Xing said, smiling still. She felt a little bad for saying that, but it was true! Pansit Pangseoi—that is, fried noodles from Pangseoi Port City of South-Seas Shen—was one of the most common fastfoods in the Selorong area. And in truth, fried noodles is one of the most common fastfoods in all of the Utter Islands, with each island and each culture within the island having their own spin on the ages-old method of cooking fried noodles.

  Xing in particular loved pansit. Especially the orange fried noodles Pansit Palabok, made popular by the noodle cooks of Dambuwong in Northwest Jeng. While Pangseoi was the basic fried noodles doused in soy sauce and cooked to fried perfection, Palabok was doused with a cassava starch and powdered shrimp mix cooked with tomato sauce and oyster sauce.

  Unfortunately, one thing she didn't like too much about Pansit Pangseoi was the abundance of greens. Cabbage leaves, particularly. Both she and Koago dug into the food, but she spent some of her time segregating the green vegetables that she could see before diving in.

  Koago chuckled. "I've long been wanting to ask you about that particular habit of yours. Why do you so avoid vegetables? They are important and healthy for your body."

  Xing shrugged. "I never got accustomed to them, I suppose. Though as long as I cannot see them, I do not mind. I can eat them all the same. I just love meat much more."

  "That explains your high energy and strong musculature," said Koago. "Unfortunately, the lack of green vegetables might also explain your, er... relative lack in height."

  Xing's eyelids fluttered and her mouth twitched. "Master treads on thin ice," Xing replied, smirking as she forked pansit into her mouth.

  "You endanger me, Disciple? You court death," said Koago, smiling as well. "Ah, but since we're about to meet Alchemist Tsu Hwan, it is prudent to remember the little rites of the Black World. I've never taught you this before in full, have I?"

  Xing nodded. "You have not, master."

  "Very well. I will give the three most important rites of Black World or the Realms Belligerent. Everyone that travels this martial underworld we usually call wanderer. More legendary ones we obviously call heroes. But that is old, reactionary titling. Now, Alchemist Tsu Hwan is a wanderer of the Black World, but he is very skilled at his art, and perhaps even more skilled at avoiding detection from the greater minds and greater politics of the Black World.

  "The first little rite of the Black World is to never reveal your best technique off the bat. As the Black World is filled with martial arts, just showing off your technique might cause watchers—and perhaps even your opponent—to develop counter-techniques against it. And that is one of the gravest mistakes a martial art can make. Many Sects and many Martial Arts are lost to time and history due to this mistake. The Arts that survive are the crafty ones, that evolve and grow according to the material and cultural conditions of their very beings."

  "Next is do not insult another Art, nor insult another Artists' Practice. Even just an insinuation of this, such as offering to teach someone else your Art, or offering a Master of an Art criticism of their art. This is crucial. The practice of one's Arts is one of the most important aspects of fighting in the Black World. To insult another Art is to insult a soul. It is to scar an Omniscient, one of the five major Gravest Sins. Besides, the truth of the matter is that no Art is explicitly better than the other—in the end it is all up to the application of the practitioner and the particular context wherein they are employed. However, in truth, this stuck-up rigidity causes the stagnation of the Black World. All Arts must evolve and grow for it to be able to stand up against Global Reactionary Forces, which consolidates its own martial and magick arts to create an Iron Fist to crush the Black World under its own rules. Though, if one were to cut through all appearance, one quickly realizes that this is how every Art has evolved through the years—learning from each other through being defeated. In the end, it is a matter of Ego, and Ego is the most common mistake of every martial arts and magickal arts master.

  "Finally, the third is to never threaten another explicitly. To do so is to invite challenge, or even a duel. To invite a duel is to court death. If you threaten another wanderer explicitly, be sure that you can back it up, lest you bring shame upon your Art and yourself, for all of history that will come after you. You do not want this, trust me. It is very important and integral for you to understand this. Especially at your Stage."

  "I see. So there is a web of social rules that governs the Black World," said Xing. She was halfway through her fried noodles at this point. Stopping every so often to mentally note down the things that her master was saying. "And at the core of it is to be cordial and friendly?"

  Koago laughed again. "The Disciple truly is a Sword Dancer! You cut through the chaff of socioculture and find the meat of Reality!" Koago nodded, almost proudly. "But yes, that is the core of it. But even while being cordial, you might make a mistake. And so, one must practice caution and mindfulness. Just as the Law Masters and Monks would do."