Xiaojun had the most vivid of dreams. The kind that he knew was imaginary, and yet he couldn’t help but dwell in its colorful beauty. Green fields. Bright skies. Leaf-adorned trees. And not a single beast or monster in his view. Xiaojun sat his back against one of the fertile trees as he looked and admired the beauty of the world.
It was a large village before him: one teeming with life. Rice paddies flooded and rich with good spoils. Animals that bleeted and baaed as children and shepherds tended to them. Xiaojun could even see Hua playing with a child. Her child. One that she never had, but seemed more than belated to care for.
He could see Rina sleeping by another tree, using her gun as an armrest and nothing more. In fact, all weapons had become useless since war had become as archaic and obsolete as violence in this dream. Only a world without war and violence could create such a beautiful village.
Then he saw Nina approaching him. She still had her short blonde hair which glistened like golden wheat in the wind. Her eyes still glimmered with light as she sat herself next to the now retired warrior. “This is a beautiful place,” she said, “this is what I wish the world could’ve been.”
Xiaojun nodded as Nina kissed his cheek. “This is the world you fought armies for. A world that had no need for armies, since all of the wars had been already won.” Nina laughed a little as she lay in the warrior’s arms. “This is the world you fight for,” then her smile disappeared. “After all, I’ve already lost.”
Xiaojun watched Nina begin to decay like a corpse as her flesh melted from her bones. The bones, still wet with blood, remained red as it tumbled down from the hill. The fields were set alight by dark soldiers who looked like shadows in the red eclipsed moon. Fire and war torched the land once blessed by peace.
Xiaojun saw Hua ripped away from her child as they slaughtered the innocent thing without any reason or need. As Hua grieved with tears, the dark soldiers pressed her against a house and prepared to mount her. At the same time, Rina was forced to shoot as many soldiers as she could before arrows pierced her skin and caused her an agonizing and screaming death. This was the hellish world that Xiaojun lived in. It was no dream, only a nightmare.
Xiaojun awoke with sweat on his forehead and terror in his mind. He found himself sleeping on a mat made from hides as the soft leather provided a sturdy mattress. A tent surrounded him as the light gently peered from the little openings. Sitting up, he winced as he found his body covered in bandages. Looking to the right, he found his armor and weapon gently stowed away. Both had been repaired and sharpened, though it was clearly not done by a master.
Then he noticed someone looking inside. It was a little girl, one which eyes as small and sharp as an arrow. As soon as Xiaojun saw her, the girl giggled and began to run off. The girl said something in her native Hongbei tongue, which, like the rest of the Northern Wastes, was hoarse yet beautiful.
Xiaojun slipped on his clothes and left his armor and weapon where it was. It was clear that these people did not want to fight. For once in his life, he decided that it was better to not walk with a weapon. With a tunic and trousers, he walked outside, initially blinded by the sun.
The village around him was constructed of tents as Hongbei nomads moved about and did their chores. Men and women alike worked together, as opposed to how Jiaoguonese societies worked. Here, men and women hunted together, bathed together, and toiled together. It was an egalitarian people, one definitely far from that of Jiaguo or even Vesterland.
Then, emerging from the largest of the tents, one nestled on a hill, was the great and tall nomad that Xiaojun had seen earlier. Walking with him was the boy that Xiaojun had spared, his arm still bandaged but definitely recovering. The giant then moved his way to Xiaojun, his height being only slightly bigger than Xiaojun. It was obvious: this great man was the khan.
After clearing his throat with a great cough, the khan spoke in the Jiaguonese tongue. “You are from the south, the land of the central kingdom. Why have you arrived to the Northern Wastes? A land known for its treacherous paths and barren deserts?” The way he spoke was accented, yet powerful as it was a voice that commanded authority.
“I am here on a journey to the northern mountains,” Xiaojun calmly responded. “I wish to put an end to the apocalypse that enshrouds the world with evil by silencing the Four Beasts and the Beast of Corruption.” To this, the khan nodded in understanding. “I have heard of those scourges through legends and myth. Had I been a younger man, I would’ve sliced you for saying such estranged things, but now that the world has become what it is, I cannot call your truth a lie.”
The Khan brought the wounded boy closer, teasing his injured arm to Xiaojun. “My son, Tehan, foolishly attacked you with his men, hoping to take advantage of a man in the desert. Even for the cruelest of the Hongbei, this is a treacherous act,” the khan bellowed. “And yet, when you gained the upper hand, you provided mercy to my son. Why did you do this?”
Xiaojun made his answer easily. “There are times when one’s hand is forced to take the life of another, but there are times when there is truly a choice whether or not to provide mercy or provide death. In my belief, I chose the right option.” The khan laughed when he heard this. “My son could’ve returned with more men to slaughter you! Did you not believe that?”
“I believed that he would reciprocate my kindness,” Xiaojun responded. “With every realm and land torn as it is, perhaps some kindness is needed to balance against the clear cruelty.” The khan nodded as he understood the strange warrior. “I do not agree, but I am thankful that my son managed to return home, as dishonored as he may be. Nonetheless, I must commend your strength. You are as strong, if not stronger, than many of my warriors. That is not a statement to be taken lightly.”
Xiaojun slightly bowed out of respect. “Thank you for your hospitality. I, Xiaojun, am thankful. But, I must still continue on my trek to the north. There is something I need to find in those northern mountains.” The khan looked at the warrior for a moment before sighing in disappointment.
“Those mountains are cursed,” he said. “For years, many warriors of different creeds and colors have journeyed to those mountains. Most of them died simply crossing the Northern Wastes, but many of those who actually make it to the mountains never return. Legends say that a great ghost haunts that place, one that refuses to bend its grudge on humanity.”
Xiaojun took a second look at those distant mountains, considering everything that he had endured up to this point. “I will take that chance,” he said. But before he could even take a step, the khan placed his hand on the warrior’s shoulder. “Xiaojun of the Jiaguonese Kingdoms, I apologize, but I must ask of something from you.”
Before he could explain himself, the little girl from earlier giggled as she grabbed onto Xiaojun’s leg. Hugging it and laughing, the girl was continuously jovial with relentless energy. “Naran!” the khan called. The girl suddenly went to attention like how a soldier would. Then, once the khan smiled, the girl went off into the village.
“That is my daughter,” the khan said. “Even I, Altan Khan, must fold when it comes to the raising of my children. That includes my disgrace of a son,” he added, scolding the wounded boy. “Now then,” Altan Khan said, “there is something that requires the strength and attention of a great warrior. I wish to take care of it myself, but that would jeapordize my family and my clan if it leads to my demise.”
Xiaojun nodded as he listened on. “What do you need?” he asked. The Khan gave a signal to one of his men who presented a rotting corpse. It was the body of a man-vulture, as the fleshy wings had decayed to the point where it sludged off of the bone. The flies which bit against it seemed to be dismayed by the horrid taste of the black flesh.
“These demons have spawned all around the Northern Wastes, using their size and pestful endurance to advance past the natural species of the region. They are not foolish enough to attack whole camps, but they are bastardish enough to raid our cattle, horses, and those who advance too far from the clan. You must kill them and burn their nest.” Xiaojun accepted this quest easily. “I will see what I can do.”
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He equipped his armor and weapon. He was also given a map of the Northern Wastes, as well as the location of the nest. “H-here is horse,” Tehan nervously said to the powerful warrior. Other soldiers laughed as they watched the already humiliated boy be further humiliated by the ritual.
“Our people have a ritual,” a young woman suddenly stated, “that when you best someone in battle, you earn their horse. As a result, you have earned his horse.” The woman had supple and smooth skin which was as tan as the desert sands. Her voice was as soft as a lute as it hummed like the wind. “I am Sarnai of the Hongbei. A soothsayer that has heard your name, Xiaojun,” she said. “You are the one they call the Envoy of Humanity. May the ever expansive God of the Sky bless you.”
All of the men in the village had their eyes set on her as she saddled onto her own horse, ready to ride alongside Xiaojun. “I shall direct you toward the home of the vultures.” She began to gallop her horse as Xiaojun followed, to the irritated dismay of the men. “Damned bastard is taking our beloved Sarnai,” they cursed. But none of them had any intention of fighting a battle they know they’d lose.
Sarnai and Xiaojun rode into the desert as the sands drifted with the wind. The sun was hot, but it was yellow in a way Xiaojun had not noticed before. It was as if he were seeing the same hell but in a different lens. For some people, this was a wasteland. But for the Hongbei, this was a beautiful home. The land of their people and the people before them.
“Xiaojun,” Sarnai said, “you bear a great burden. I have witnessed many of your exploits in my dreams ever since I was born. I was said to be gifted as a soothsayer, but now I realize I was gifted to help the Envoy of Humanity in his journey.”
She continued to speak as they traveled through the endless plains. “I witnessed your origin in the streets of Dajing. I witnessed your rise to power in the War of Sin. I witnessed your fall in the Diyu. And I witnessed your reprisal against every single beast.”
Xiaojun sighed. He heard enough. “Then you must know that I’m nothing but imperfection. I have resorted to hatred and violence when peace was an alternative. I am a man of wrath, and yet I wish to be a man of justice.” Sarnai said only one thing in response. “That is good that you are imperfection, for you are the Envoy of Humanity, and there is no perfect human.”
Xiaojun sat with those words, his mind absorbing these words like a sponge yearning for water. “Does that mean humanity is doomed to lose? That we are destined to simply die by the hands of stronger and more perfect beings?”
Sarnai smiled in the way an old woman who had seen the world would. “Perhaps humanity will die one day, just as any human can die one day. But our imperfection is our strength. Our ability to truly value the things we cherish is our strength.”
She continued on, the setting sun providing a strange background as they moved. “The Four Beasts and the Beast of Corruption only find value in simple things. The Four Beasts: lust, avarice, jealousy, and hate. What they all have in common is the basic want that exists in humanity. The want for satiation. The want for power. The want for others’ belongings. And the want for others’ destruction. But there is a thing inside every human that triumphs over this: the soul.”
Sarnai, despite looking like a frail girl, knew things not even a sage would know. “The soul is what gives humans that strange purpose that transcends basic want. Sometimes, this purpose is mistaken with ambitious avarice, but it is different. It is the kind of purpose that drives humans to be kind even when they can be cruel. Surely, you have witnessed its effects before.”
Xiaojun remembered that feeling when he spared Hua’s life. That moment, he had the full justification to kill that fox girl. After all, she attempted to take his life. But in the end, he had chosen the option of mercy. The same could be said for Tehan. That boy attempted to take Xiaojun’s life when he was weak, and yet the warrior spared him as well.
“The soul is what you are fighting for,” Sarnai said. Then her horse stopped. In front of them was the large nest of the vultures as they went in and out like starving bees. Suddenly, flying above them, they noticed another one of the vultures carrying something. It was a crying child, the same one Xiaojun saw with the khan. “Naran!” Xiaojun cried.
“Children are the embodiment of the soul,” Sarnai said. “Prove that you are worthy of fighting for the soul, and your path as the Envoy of Humanity will open to you.” She gave the warrior an ultimatum. “It is time for you to prove yourself, great warrior. Are you truly capable of defending man against gods? Or will you allow the soul to be swallowed by the abyss?”
Xiaojun only had one answer. “I will teach them what it means to be human.” He launched off of his horse and launched himself right into the nest. Shrouded by darkness, Xiaojun swung his weapon brutally against the flying creatures who shrieked in surprise. Usually, they were the ones doing the attacking, and never the ones victim to murder.
He could hear the sounds of the crying child echo through the tunnels and catacombs. Trudging through the strangely moist honeycomb, he dashed through hordes of man-vultures as he attempted to get closer and closer. In his wake, mains and parts of these vultures bloodily flew about as the demons screamed in decibels far louder than the child. And yet, with his mind focused, Xiaojun followed the noise of the child alone.
In the darkness, he could see countless bodies lined along the walls. Ingrained and stuck into the sticky structure, the bodies stared blankly as holes appeared all over their body. The man-vultures had implanted leech-like larvae into their bodies which had eaten them from inside out. “If I am not fast enough,” Xiaojun thought, “then Naran will be another victim.” The human soul would lose.
He slaughtered his way through the nest, turning the home into a graveyard. He would cut the wings and stomp the flailing creatures once they were on the ground. One stomp was enough to crush their skull. Two was enough to fully flatten them. Xiaojun would even wresltle them from the air and simply clobber them into mushy pieces. Though these creatures were multiple times stronge than the average man, Xiaojun was far stronger. This was nothing.
In the core of the nest, the queen riled with distress as she continued to digest food. She was a hideous creature, even in the eyes of demons, as she looked like a large fat slob with a round stomach that could open and close. The man-vultures would deliver people, animals, and dead man-vultures to fill this stomach. The stomach would then close, muffling the bleats of animals and the cries of people. Then, like a medicine bowl, the stomach would slowly and brutally crush each and everything inside to digest it into fine mush. This mush would feed into the rest of the system where the queen would lay the larvae’s eggs.
Naran was close to being delivered into this abominable creature’s stomach, but her small size and continuous wriggling allowed her to slip from the man-vulture’s sharp grip. Falling to the moist and sticky ground, Naran was face to face with the blobby creature whose face could barely be discriminated from its digsuting body. The girl screamed as she curled into a ball.
Then, the girl saw a light come from one of the tunnels. With it, she heard arrays of inhuman screaming as well as the grunts of a familiar warrior. Emerging from the tunnel with a fiery explosion was Xiaojun as burning man-vultures fluttered about only for their flight to oxygenate the flames further. Xiaojun holstered his weapon onto his back as he held the girl in one arm and a torch in another.
The queen looked at this little human with a strange amount of emotion. She was the queen of a once great hive that caused fear to countless humans. and yet this one human had the gall to defy her rule? With a powerful and revolting belch, she let loose a snotty scream that made Xiaojun smile. “Mad because I took your food?” he laughed. “Real monsters make me sick.” He set a flame to one of the eggs which began to catch fire. Carrying this flame, more and more eggs began to burn.
The queen screamed as she gave a call. She wanted each and every man-vulture to slaughter the Envoy of Humanity right where he stood. The man-vultures looked at the terrifying man. They were terrified. It wasn’t only because of his strength, but it was because of his resolve. This was a man fighting for a reaosn they could not understand. This was a man saving the child that didn’t even belong to him. And yet his ferocity was unmatched. This was the human soul.
The fire traveled to the queen where it began to burn the blob like how flames ignite gasoline. The fat creature jostled and gave inhuman cries as Xiaojun carefully covered Naran’s ears and curled her closer. “You are okay. No one is going to hurt you,” he said. Even though the child did not understand his tongue, she still found comfort as she hugged against his armor. Walking out of the chamber, Xiaojun carried the child out of the hive.
Xiaojun exited the now burning hive as man-vultures attempted to escape the oven of a home. Just as they exited, arrows flew about and skewered them right from the air. Altan Khan and his men had been standing by, awaiting Xiaojun’s sudden rescue of his daughter. Gently, the warrior placed her on the ground where she immediately began to sprint towards her father. “Aav! Aav!” the girl cried, using her native tongue as she hugged her father.
The thankful khan held her tight as tears rolled down his eyes. “For years, Sarnai had foretold me that a powerful warrior would venture to this land. That this warrior needed to travel north, and this his own strength would differentiate him from the many other fools who fell in their path. I know fully realize that you are that man.”
The hive exploded like a bomb as the trapped air forced the honeycomb apart. With each and every last man-vulture dead, the remainig wounded beasts were skewered and killed by the Hongbei nomads. “We are forever in your debt,” the khan said, “thank you.”
Xiaojun got on the horse he had won from Tehan, the boy still embarassed from his distant loss. “Warrior,” Sarnai said, “your journey will get no easier. Keep your mind clear and your heart purposeful, and you will represent humanity.” Xiaojun left the clan, venturing to the mountains once more. It was time to reach the destination he had long awaited.