bluedragonauthor

VIP: The Blue Dragon: Chapter 40

Added 2024-10-22 20:20:27 +0000 UTC

-- CHAPTER 40: The Path --

****

“Ohhh… myyy… goddd…” I groaned as I sagged against the mattress of the vintage Chinese rosewood bed. Spread my legs a bit wider, I let the feisty fellatrix between my legs prop herself up on her elbows to continue feasting on my throbbing erection.

Hannah and I had been given a one-bedroom suite in this magical Chinese mansion that looked like a dilapidated farmhouse from the outside but was more of a Plantation-style manor on the inside, and the busty babe had evidently decided to start off our morning by bobbing her dirty-blonde head up and down the length of my big dick.

“Mmm… yeahhh…” I sighed dreamily, letting the pleasurable perceptions emanate from my loins and through the rest of my body. Closing my eyes, I focused inward on the feelings of Hannah’s talented tongue teasing the tip of my tool, swirling around my dome-shaped knob and lavishing her love along the length of my rod. I soaked in the sensations of her supple lips surrounding my shaft and dropping ever lower and lower, the business end of my blunt instrument probing past her gag reflex and into the exquisitely close-fitting confines of her throat. And then she sealed herself around the very base of my shaft before humming happily, the subtle vibrations tickling my sensitive nerves.

I opened my eyes in time to see her raise her gaze to mine, the glow of inner delight evident in her sparkling green eyes. After I brushed a loose lock of hair back behind her ear before caressing her cheek, she pulled up and then turned her face so I could feel the pressure of my own cockhead against my palm. And then she pulled off just long enough to catch her breath before once again descending downward around my dick.

Over and over again Hannah took her time almost lazily giving me a morning blowjob. I once again closed my eyes and set my head down to sigh and enjoy the rhythmic ebbs and flows of her oral lovemaking. And it felt so good and yet so calming that I actually fell back asleep.

The next thing I knew a different kind of warmth was surrounding my shaft, followed by a firm but not heavy weight settling onto my upper thighs. I opened my eyes just in time to see the buxom bombshell’s beautiful face descending down to mine, that sparkle in Hannah’s twinkling green eyes full of mirth and love just before her lips captured mine.

I groaned into her kiss and instinctively clenched my abdominals to thrust my cock upwards into her warmly welcoming snatch. Hannah squeezed her inner muscles around my embedded rod, giving it a happy hello. Her golden chi energy, glowing like the sun, surrounded us both like a halo that felt as inviting as a warm patch of sunlight on plush carpet in the living room, making me feel calmly safe and secure.

Fully-enjoined, neither of us started moving right away. Hannah bent over me, crushing her bare breasts into my equally bare chest in a warm hug with her arms crossed beneath my neck. She set her cheek down on the pillow beside me and hummed happily, as if there were nowhere else in the world she’d rather be…

… and no one else in the world she’d rather be with.

The feeling was mutual.

My how far we’d come.

When she turned her face and started kissing me, I let my hands rove across the smooth, supple skin of her bare back. As our passion increased, my palms slid down to grab onto her naked booty, gripping the pliant flesh of her perky buns and guiding her gentle gyrations around my deeply embedded dick.

I still remembered staring after this same her naked booty as she slipped out of bed in my Santa Monica apartment, feeling simultaneously happy that we’d just had sex and sad to see her leaving me again. I was always thrilled to have her stop by and yet dreaded the moment she’d fly away to some exotic location without me. Before all of this, she’d never spent more than one night in a row with me. Now I’d lost track of the days we’d been constantly by each other’s side.

I wondered if she would ever to leave my side again.

I didn’t want her to, of course.

I loved her.

I hadn’t said I loved her yet, but I did.

I loved her.

And our destinies seemed as intertwined as our bodies were enjoined right now.

Hannah Hampton: international fashion model and influencer had always seemed a little beyond my reach. I did well enough financially as a contract programmer, but girls like her always ended up with Fortune 500 CEOs, Hollywood actors, or Formula 1 racecar drivers. But I wondered if perhaps she’d leave her modeling days behind. She certainly hadn’t posted on Insta or TikTok in weeks. And now that she had a seed - the seed – inside her, and in theory would someday become a tree spirit, perhaps she was meant to follow a different path.

A path with me.

“Ohhh… Akselll…”

The echoes of Hannah’s breathy voice in my ear reverberated over and over again in time with her tender undulations. She still clutched my neck and buried her nose against my cheek, panting softly as she rolled in rhythmic waves on top of me, pumping my prick back and forth within her love canal. Our bodies fit together like perfect pieces of a yin-yang symbol. She completed me, and I completed her.

I held her hips in my hands to help drive her motions on my dick. Our mouths mashed and mauled without either of us needing to open our eyes, our tongues tangoing together amidst our mutual moans. And our naked bodies slid against each other in happy harmony to accompany the melody of our languid lovemaking.

Together.

Forever?

It would be a dream come true.

While our time together might very well be forever, this particular lovemaking session eventually came to an end. After Hannah crooned her climax into my mouth, I rolled her over and started rutting a little harder in search of my own release. The leggy blonde raised her legs up and over my shoulders to let me get even deeper into her depths, and she panted breathlessly while staring up into my eyes, reveling in the sight of my ecstatic expression. I hammered her harder and harder and harder while she gasped and groaned beneath the force of my pelvic pounding. And in the end she came again, her cuntal convulsions drawing out my release, and I slammed forward one final time to pour out all my liquid love into the back of her womb.

And then I finally told her.

“I love you, Hannah.”

She inhaled sharply and clutched my shoulders a little tighter. I then said it again.

“I love you.”

She took hold of my head and stared into my eyes, her green irises afire as a slow smile spread wide across her face.

Then she locked her legs around my waist and violently rolled us over so that she was on top. I was still rock-hard post-nut, per usual, and our loins were still fully enjoined. Her mouth crashed down on my mine, her lips almost bruising in their urgency. Her tongue speared into my mouth, and suddenly we were kissing as passionately as we’d ever kissed in our lives.

Just as suddenly, she pulled her head back up. “I love you too, Aksel,” she told me sweetly.

And then she FUCKED me.

****

Only two minutes later, I let all four of my limbs splay out to the sides as the ceiling spun around in circles above me. The air in the room seemed to sizzle with the excess sex-energy from the frantic force of our aggressive, almost violent fucking. The second session had been the diametric opposite of our first languid lovemaking, filled with searing solar heat instead of the basking glow of warm sunlight. And for the moment we were both fully worn out.

Hannah’s head was pillowed beside mine, her naked, sweaty body slumped atop my chest. I was still buried inside her, my second load of sperm slowly soaking into her saturated snatch.

With a dreamy sigh, I caressed the back of her head while turning my face to the other side, exhaling slowly as I relaxed and enjoyed my post-ejaculatory bliss.

Only then did I notice the green Mangshan pit viper almost imperceptibly coiled up in a corner of the windowsill, mostly out of view. It was as still as a statue, eyes unblinking and completely motionless. But when my eyes sharpened and my forehead crinkled, the snake’s head retreated ever so fractionally as it realized it had been spotted.

For about a minute, nobody moved. Hannah continued to remain slumped atop me, and I absentmindedly continued to caress her spent body, paying extra attention to her ever-perky buns. My gaze remained on the coiled snake, curious to see what it would do. Its gaze remained on me, perhaps curious to see what -I- would do.

You could roll Hannah over onto her back and fuck her again. Or maybe push her face-down across the mattress and cornhole her colon?

‘Dong.’

Just saying… It’s an option.

‘Not in front of Jade.’

‘Not in front of Jade?’ Why not? She’s been there the whole time and watched the first two rounds. It’s not like she’s never seen you having sex before.

‘Ziyi has seen me having sex before.’

It’s the same body. The same set of memories.

‘She’s different and you know it.’

For that matter, another option would be to invite her to come join you and make this a threesome!

‘I’m not going to do that!’

Why not? It’s the same pussy, isn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like we already had this conversation before?

‘Dude, just shut the fuck up.’

The snake tilted its head. It had no human face on which I could read an expression, but I still got the distinct impression it could tell I was having a conversation with Dong. And after a moment, it even seemed to shrug before silently slithering down the wall from its windowsill perch, dropping out of my line of sight below the bed’s horizon, and disappearing from view.

I turned my head ever-so-slightly to try and track its movements, but I couldn’t see where the pit viper went. The motion must’ve stirred Hannah, because she raised her head to smile down adoringly at me. And her inner milkmaid muscles milked my erection.

“You’re still hard.”

“I’m always hard for you.”

“Mmm… yes you are…” she said with a bright-eyed grin. Then, with waggling eyebrows, the perpetually horny blonde added, “Wanna switch holes? I’m in the mood to get pinned face-down across the mattress, reach back to spread my asscheeks, and feel you cornholing the hell outta me.”

Dong popped into view on Hannah’s shoulder, patting her cheek. “I LOVE this girl.”

I grinned and quickly pecked Hannah’s lips, smiling back at her with equal adoration. And I kept my gaze locked onto her eyes as I replied to Dong, “I love her too.”

****

“Dead cow, dead chicken, or dead mystery meat?” Rae asked while spreading her arms out dramatically before the bustling marketplace in downtown Guilin.

“Did you just say, ‘dead mystery meat’?” I asked with an arched eyebrow.

Rae pointed at a food cart to our right side. “Try it. You might like it.”

“The sign on that cart has the Chinese character for ‘dog’,” Dong said helpfully as he appeared on my right shoulder. “It’s barbecued dog meat.”

I made a face. “Hard pass.”

“Why’d you have to tell him?” Rae complained.

“Bros before hoes.” Dong stuck out his right fist for me to bump, and I immediately reached up and tapped two knuckles against it. My physical form still couldn’t touch his intangible essence, but I felt a little electric tingle all the same.

Rae rolled her eyes. “Anyways, there are lots of options here. Fish, shrimp, veggies, dumplings, noodles. Hell… there are live chickens over there, not just dead ones.”

“Hard pass.”

Rae laughed as she continued to lead us forward.

There were six of us on this little excursion: me, Rae, Hannah, Jade, Magdalena, and Lin Tang. I hadn’t seen Tianshi since we’d first entered the safe house and those six Shu Han women had come into the living room to meet her, and while a part of me wondered just what Machiavellian machinations the ageless fox spirit was setting into motion, the greater part of me was simply happy to stay as far away from her as possible.

Yesterday, Lin Tang had come back to the safe house with us from Daxu Ancient Town and she’d outlined the steps we would need to take on our journey from here to find Faguang Long. Our ultimate goal was still to restore Ziyi’s hun soul, and if we could stop Shen Wu’s supernatural plague while doing so, I was all up for it. And I wanted to accomplish those goals as soon as humanly possible.

But along the way, it wouldn’t hurt to stop in town to buy some of the deliciously aromatic delights I’d started smelling as soon as I stepped out of the car.

Feeling like I was in the middle of the world’s biggest and most authentic Dim Sum restaurant, I immediately started going from cart to cart to check out their wares with Rae helping me as a translator. Within minutes, we were both feasting on xiao long bao, ha cheung, char siu, and lo bak go, not even bothering to haggle with the street peddlers over their tourist-inflated pricing.

To my surprise though, Jade was showing an equally ardent interest in the food as well. She argued quite sharply with one of the cart vendors, gesturing animatedly until the man pressed his hands together and bowed his head in apology. A moment later, she gave the man a few coins, he handed over a bowl of congee, and she walked away from the cart eating the food with relish.

This was the same woman who had listlessly watched me eat her dinner back in Kyoto, you’ll recall. Reanimated corpses didn’t have a need to eat, you see. But this was one reanimated corpse that very much seemed to be enjoying her meal, and any leftover doubts I might’ve had about Jade having a new hun soul were quickly washed away.

I wasn’t the only one to notice. After collecting her own basket of steaming har gow from the cart next to us, Rae stepped up alongside me and muttered, “That wasn’t Cantonese.”

I looked down at her in confusion, chewing and then swallowing before I asked, “Beg pardon?”

Rae looked up at me and then nodded her head towards Jade, who had already turned to walk towards another cart selling meat on skewers. “She wasn’t speaking Cantonese with the street vendor; I’m pretty sure that was the dialect local to Guilin. I didn’t catch all the words, but it sounded like she was lecturing the guy on trying to rip her off like any other tourist foreigner, he apologized and said he was just trying to make a living, and then he gave her a big discount.”

I snorted. “She’s spending your money. It’s not like the Shu Han can’t afford to pay whatever the guy’s asking for.”

Rae shrugged. “She’s Chinese. Haggling’s in her blood.”

“You’re Chinese. Shouldn’t haggling be in your blood?”

“Well… I’m half-Chinese. And raised in England.” Rae sighed ruefully. “Plus, you’re right: the Shu Han can afford it. I’ve gotten too used to not worrying about money when matters of global life and death are always on my mind.”

“Well for right now, the only thing you need to worry about is enjoying this meal.” I raised my disposable chopsticks and extended them out to Rae as an impromptu ‘cheers’ gesture, and she smiled while bumping the side of her chopsticks against mine.

Meanwhile, Lin Tang was leading Hannah and Magdalena around from cart to cart, patiently investigating their offerings before deciding on what to buy. At first, I thought that Lin Tang was working as a translator, speaking to each of the street vendors and then relaying whatever they said back to Hannah and Magdalena in English. But after a minute I realized that Lin Tang was holding onto Hannah’s elbow, and it was Hannah who was speaking with each of the street vendors in Cantonese.

“She can still only do it while Lin Tang is holding onto her,” Dong explained helpfully as he appeared on my shoulder. “As soon as Lin Tang lets go, Hannah loses the ability to speak Chinese.”

“Cantonese? Not the local dialect like Jade?”

Rae shrugged. “Cantonese is the primary language of southern China. My guess is that Lin Tang is channeling her linguistic ability through Hannah, so it probably just means that Lin Tang never spent enough time here to pick up the local dialect, or never needed to learn the local dialect.”

“But Jade did spend enough time here to pick it up?”

“Evidently.” Rae raised her eyebrows. “For all we know, Guilin could be Ziyi’s home.”

“Huh…” I processed that and then glanced back at Dong, asking, “Will Hannah ever be able to speak Chinese on her own?”

“Once Lin Tang dies and the tree spirit inside her fully blooms, almost certainly. She may even be able to do it before then, I’m not sure. I’m a Water Dragon, not a Wood Dragon.”

“Wood Dragon? There are Wood Dragons? I thought all Chinese dragons were associated with water?”

“Oh no, not at all. The five elements and the twelve zodiac animals are independent of one another, on what amounts to a sixty-year cycle,” Rae chimed in, gesturing sequentially in the air with her chopsticks. “2012 was the last year of the Water Dragon, 2024 is the year of the Wood Dragon, 2036 will be the year of the Fire Dragon, and then Earth Dragon, Metal Dragon, and back to Water Dragon in 2072.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that. So wait a minute, I was born in 1998. That’s not on a twelve-year cycle with the other dragon years. Does that mean I wasn’t born in the year of the dragon?”

Rae shook her head with a smile. “We were both born in 1998, the year of the Earth Tiger.”

I arched an eyebrow. “So I’m an Earth Tiger with Water Elemental powers and an avatar of the Azure Dragon inside me?”

“Well… yes.”

“This is getting complicated.”

“Under the Chinese Zodiac, the year of your birth is used for your horoscope and helps in forming your personality – for everyone’s personalities, supernaturals and muggles alike.”

“Just like the Western Zodiac. Like how Gemini are supposed to be social and intelligent while Virgos are pessimistic perfectionists?”

“Hey! I’m a Virgo!”

“I figured,” I said with a laugh. “What does the Chinese Zodiac say about Earth Tigers?”

Rae raised her chin proudly. “We are kind-hearted, generous, and known for being reliable friends. We are clever, confident, and ambitious.”

“All good things.” I arched an eyebrow. “But what are the negatives?”

“Earth Tigers are known for having very strong desires, to the point of being considered greedy,” Rae explained with a smirk as she gestured over towards Hannah, Magdalena, and also Jade now that she had joined the others. “And while we are considered to be reliable friends, Earth Tigers can sometimes be selfish with their sexual partners.”

I frowned. “Well that’s not me at all.”

“So sure about that?” Rae teased. “Don’t get me wrong, I know you always make sure your girls orgasm, but don’t try to claim you don’t go off on power-trips hammering after your own self-satisfaction.”

“Well…”

Rae laughed and then looped her elbow through mine. “C’mon. Let’s go catch up.”

****

“Are you certain these vessels are safe?” Magdalena asked dubiously as she remained standing on the concrete pier jutting out from the Li Riverbank, observing the… well… ‘boats’ would not appear to be the correct term. ‘Rafts’ would be more appropriate. Bamboo ‘rafts’.

Ten long bamboo poles were lashed together and slightly curved upwards at the bow, with shorter bamboo cross-braces at regular intervals. Small benches for two passengers had been placed at the center of each raft beneath colorful umbrellas which would have been useful had the sun been out, but today both the river and the surrounding karst mountains were shrouded in omnipresent fog. And the obviously handmade river vessels seemed barely buoyant enough to support the weight of the two passengers and the one boatman who guided the raft by means of a long bamboo pole like a Venetian gondolier.

Rae and I glanced back at the boatman behind us, his sandaled feet half-submerged in the water that seeped through the cracks between bamboo poles as he slowly pushed us away from the pier and into the middle of the river. I then looked up at Magdalena, calling back, “Certain? No. But I am certain that dead tourists are bad for business, so I have to assume this guy doesn’t mean for us to drown. And come on, we’ve got to catch up to Hannah and Lin Tang’s boat.”

Magdalena gazed across the river to the bamboo raft transporting the ancient Chinese woman and the young American blonde, already a hundred yards downstream. She then eyed the raft in front of her skeptically, looking for all the world like she’d rather be back in Venice with a proper luxury gondola.

Jade was already seated on the bench, and she glanced over at the boatman holding the rope that kept his raft tethered to the pier, saying something in Chinese that made the man laugh.

“You are teasing me, no?” Magdalena growled through her teeth.

“You crossed No Man’s Land at Verdun in the middle of a shell barrage, yet you are somehow afraid of this?” Jade asked with faux innocence.

Magdalena muttered unintelligible Italian swear words beneath her breath as she tentatively stepped down from the concrete pier and onto the raft, swore much more loudly when the entire vessel swayed dramatically in response, and then went back to muttering as she took a white-knuckled grip on the back of the bench and then sat down next to the Chinese girl, who reached up to rub the Italian woman’s forearm reassuringly.

Unsure what to think about that subtle, tender touch, I furrowed my eyebrows and then turned my gaze forward, looking out across the river as our boatman poled us further and further away. He wasn’t pushing very hard, but the current in the middle of the river had taken hold of the raft and was guiding it leisurely downstream. We glided along gently, the smell of crisp air and sound of nature refreshing in my ears. To either side of the lush green valley, the dramatic peaks of towering karst mountains loomed out from the mist and rose majestically above the clouds, creating a backdrop that took my breath away.

For most of the journey, Rae and I both remained silent as we took in the scenery. The rhythmic sound of water lapping over the lashed bamboo poles was occasionally punctuated by bird calls or the rustle of leaves in the wind. The raft bobbed up and down with the soothing sway of the water, giving me a unique connection to the river in a way that almost felt like -I- was gliding across the water’s surface instead of riding a raft.

Local fishermen cast their handmade nets along both shorelines. Water buffaloes waded in the shallows. Wherever the sun pierced through the clouds, the landscape shimmered with hues of gold, green, and blue – little moments of magic that left me wondering if there was a hidden world just barely out of view.

I lost track of time just looking out at everything, as if I’d fallen into some kind of trance. It simultaneously felt like the journey had lasted for forever and that I’d blinked and it was almost over already. Because I did blink when Rae elbowed me none-too-gently in the side, startling me from my reverie. But when I turned to complain about it, I found her pointing across the river.

“Aksel! Aksel!” Rae exclaimed, jabbing with her finger. “What does that look like to you?”

Behind us, the boatman pointed in the same direction as Rae and stated plainly, “他們稱之為象鼻山”

I glanced back at the man, who smiled back at me and revealed that he was missing one of his big front teeth. Turning my attention to Rae, I asked, “What did he say?”

“He said they call that formation ‘Elephant Trunk Hill’,” she explained excitedly. “Don’t you remember the map?”

“Remember what?”

“The map. Th-the bamboo scroll thingie you pulled out of a Volkswagen Bug at The Fremont Troll sculpture in Seattle.” Rae quickly glanced back at the boatman guiding our raft. His attention was on the karst rock formation, which consisted of a promontory section of the mountain that jutted out into the river where erosion had carved out a large arch. Trees and bushes grew atop the exposed slate gray rock, making the whole mountain appear to be a massive elephant with its trunk in the water.

I closed my eyes and wracked my brain to recall the phrases of the map. “Something about sailing past an elephant in the river?”

“Close enough,” Rae stated with a grin, and when I looked back at her I realized she’d produced the bamboo-strips scroll while both the boatman and I had been distracted. Unrolling the ancient relic, she read aloud, “‘Stone soldiers stand guard over the glass chessboard.’ Look out at the farming fields. See how they shimmer in the light?”

I followed where she was pointing and nodded in wide-eyed recognition. “They’re divided into rectangular sections for each farm. Like a glass chessboard. And the karst mountains are the stone soldiers standing guard!”

“And now we’re sailing silently among them,” Rae continued. “‘Past the elephant who would drink the river dry.’”

“And THAT’S an elephant who would drink the river dry!” My grin was as big as Rae’s. “Holy shit. What’s the next line?”

“‘Past the see-through mountain.’”

Suddenly alert, I sat up straight and scanned the horizon. We were still near the Elephant Trunk Hill formation, and I didn’t see anything else nearby that might be considered a “see-through mountain”. Then again, I had no reason to believe the next landmark on our journey would be close by.

I did notice up ahead that Hannah’s and Lin Tang’s raft had gotten closer to the Elephant Trunk Hill. Hannah pulled out her cell phone and took a selfie with Lin Tang, carefully positioning the distinctive rock formation in the frame with practiced influencer ease.

Behind us, Jade was pointing at the formation as well and leaning in close to Magdalena. Whatever Jade said made Magdalena laugh, which made Jade laugh, and I found myself smiling at the idea of both the dour Italian demigoddess and the lost soul inside of Ziyi’s body finding something to smile and laugh about.

An unnatural chill went through me just then, and for a moment I felt a sense of déjà vu. It was like I had been transported back in time a thousand years to when Ziyi and I had been together on a different river, by a different mountain. But the woman on the raft behind me looked just the same, had the same smile, with the same musical laugh. I felt my heart clench up with anxiety, and I found myself wondering whether or not I’d ever truly be with MY Ziyi once again.

Our raft continued lazily drifting along with the current, only occasionally steered by the boatman with his long pole. The scenery was still just as spectacular as ever, but instead of absorbing nature’s beauty, I found myself futilely scrutinizing the landscape for any signs of a “see-through mountain” or a “headless water buffalo” or any of the other lines on the bamboo scroll map that Rae read to me. I was getting impatient with the leisurely pace, anxious for us to get a move on, find the rest of the clues, and ultimately get to Faguang Long.

The water around the raft began to churn. Whitecap bubbles formed, and I felt the raft pitch ever so slightly as the river current sped up.

“到底是怎么回事？” the boatman muttered in alarm behind us, and I glanced back to find him raising his pole out of the water and frowning as he surveyed the river.

The raft was moving faster now… and faster… and faster. The leading edges of the bamboo poles that formed the raft’s structure were curved upwards like ski tips, keeping us from getting completely swamped. But the increased speed had the raft bobbing a bit like a cork, and multiple waves splashed over the edges around our feet.

“亲爱的大神们，请帮助我吧！” the boatman exclaimed in a panic.

“Hey, slow it down a bit,” Dong cautioned as he appeared on my shoulder. The boatman obviously couldn’t see or hear him.

‘Slow what down?!’ I thought back

“The current. Dial it back a notch.”

‘WHAT? I’m not doing it!’

“Of course you’re doing it. You were in a hurry, so you sped up the current. Perhaps unintentionally, but you’re doing it all the same. Just relax… Think happy thoughts… Think happy thoughts…”

‘Think… Shit… Okay, happy thoughts… happy thoughts… Slow it down a bit…’

The current slackened somewhat. We were still moving faster than before, but the leading edges of the raft were no longer getting swamped. By now we had nearly caught up to Hannah and Lin Tang’s raft, and our boatman started shouting stuff to their boatman in Cantonese. The other man looked puzzled but grinned and flexed a bicep while pointing at our boatman, as if suggesting the guy was much stronger than he originally thought.

Jade and Magdalena’s raft behind us had apparently been caught in the same enhanced current because their raft was right behind us. The third boatman started shouting something, his voice just as panicked as our boatman’s had been. I then concentrated on letting… whatever I’d been doing… stop completely. And as the natural flow of the river resumed, the three boatmen all settled down.

Rae arched an eyebrow at me, a wide smirk on her face.

I gave her a sheepish look and muttered softly, “I didn’t know I could do that.”

“Sure you didn’t.” She gave me an impish wink. But then a moment later, she gasped and pointed over my shoulder. “A see-through mountain!”

I turned to look the way she was pointing. Sure enough, one of the karst mountains rising high above us had a distinctive triangular peak with a semicircular cutout in the middle of it so that we could see the sky and clouds beyond through the opening.

This time it was Jade who spoke up from the raft that had pulled alongside us with the voice of an experienced tour guide. “That is Yangshuo Moon Hill. There are trails leading up to and through the arch. One could also hike to the summit if one so chose.”

“What was that about a see-through mountain?” Magdalena asked.

Rae held up the bamboo scroll. “These are the landmarks on the map. This is The Path to Faguang Long.”

Lin Tang leaned over from her raft and smiled a toothless grin at us. “We will be there soon.”

I glanced back at the boatman, who was still lazily guiding the raft with gentle pole movements to keep us pointed in the right direction while doing nothing to move us forward, simply letting the current take us. I then glanced over at Rae and gave her my own impish wink.

The current started speeding up again.

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Remember that all authors thrive on feedback, so let me know how you're enjoying the story! Leave a comment here or come chat with us on Discord! And be sure to connect your Discord account here on the Patreon website to get access to the Patron-Only channels! https://discord.gg/fg3m6MdfN9

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Prologue & Chapter 1: The Ax Effect: https://www.patreon.com/posts/99894240

Chapter 2: Santa Monica: https://www.patreon.com/posts/100614606

Chapter 3: The Zellij Fountain: https://www.patreon.com/posts/100887440

Chapter 4: Euhemerism: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101140816

Chapter 5: The Fremont Troll: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101373122

Chapter 6: Jade: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101713211

Chapter 7: The Blue Gecko: https://www.patreon.com/posts/101962728

Chapter 8: Yaoguai: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102225122

Chapter 9: Rome: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102437581

Chapter 10: Seeing Sights: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102690886

Chapter 11: Liu Kang: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102919633