The Blue Dragon: Chapter 14

-- CHAPTER 14: Longmen --

****

The more time I’d spent in this world, in this era of 10th-century Imperial China, the more familiar and at home I’d come to feel.

Intellectually, I knew that body was not my own, that this face did not look like the real me. But with each passing day, it felt like Aksel Andersen from Santa Monica and Liu Kang from the fall of the Tang Dynasty were becoming more and more in sync. By now I was starting to feel like I’d lived here my whole life. Hearing and speaking Mandarin felt… natural. Recognizing the cultural customs and behaviors felt… natural.

Wielding my magical water powers felt… natural.

Without needing to think about it, I swirled both hands around to form the opposite sides of a circle before tucking them in together to complete a Yin-yang symbol, instinctively knowing that the movement would amplify the strength of my powers like a baseball pitcher’s windup motion. When I thrust both palms forward, an immensely thick sheet of ice materialized before me, shaped in a perfect circle with a magical Yin-yang symbol glowing white around the ice sheet’s perimeter and through its center, reinforcing the strength of the ice to be as hard and as durable as titanium.

The Huodou’s fire-breathing blast erupted from its mouth with the force and fury of Smaug the Dragon in The Hobbit, but its flames were solidly stopped by my reinforced ice shield, deflecting upwards and outwards to start scorching the ceiling and walls of Puning’s Palace of Great Benevolence. Like a World War I flamethrower, the continuous spray of fire persisted for several seconds, the length of the great beast’s exhalation.

The flames then stopped.

And it was MY turn to go on the attack.

Rather than fling my still-solid shield at the Huodou just outside the window, I pivoted and flung the floating mass of magic ice into the Liang Imperial guards at the bedroom door. Even though the shield was wider than the doorway itself, I’d flung it with enough force to blast through the doorframe and slam straight into the guards, knocking them all back into the living room. But I didn’t pause to watch them fall, already running forward and stacking my fists together with enough empty space within my curled fingers to form the handle of a shimmering blue-white, double-edged longsword that extended upwards from my hands like Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, with the Chinese characters 青龙之怒 etched into its surface.

Without knowing HOW I was doing it, I leapt into the air, materialized a floating disc of ice to step on with my right foot, materialized another floating disc of ice to step on with my left foot, and flew forward through the air while swinging my magically summoned blade around horizontally like Mike Trout going for a home run.

My ice blade slashed straight across the Huodou’s cheek, turning its great head to the side and opening a split in its black fur that oozed glowing orange-red blood. The ginormous dog howled in rage and pain, but it also swiped out with its massive paw, catching me in the side and smacking me into the wall, splintering the wood on impact.

OOOOUUUUCCCCHHHH.

Aksel Anderson of Santa Monica would’ve probably been knocked out cold by the force of the collision. I, on the other hand, was the reborn avatar of Qinglong within the magically reincarnated body of Liu Kang and had just spent the better part of an hour having sex.

And sex was my superpower.

Getting hammered into the wall certainly hurt, but I didn’t even drop to my knees on the floor. Post-sex supernatural strength flooded my muscles, keeping me upright as I landed with my feet apart. Fuck, it felt like I wasn’t even touching the ground. I could practically feel myself glowing with a sort of cool-blue aura of energy that radiated around my entire body, not unlike the Huodou’s shimmering flames. And the soldiers standing by the shattered window all hesitated outside, unwilling to climb in.

He’s beginning to believe, Dong intoned seriously in Morpheus’s voice.

My senses felt sharper: vision, hearing, smell, and touch. I already had the sword up in a defensive stance with my left hand while I raised the knuckles of my right hand without even thinking about it. Four sharp icicle daggers materialized between them, and I flung all four of them at the soldiers at the window.

One caught a guard just under his chin, burying itself in his neck, and he dropped his sword to clamp both hands over his throat in futile desperation to step the blood gushing out. The other three were far less deadly but still enough to make those guards back away. And in the meantime, I leaped at the Huodou with my sword once again, this time with the pointy end first.

Time slowed down around me.

I watched the Huodou’s snarling mouth droop into a panicked whine as its fat lips dropped down over its white fangs. Its glowing eyes turned into upside-down crescents as it took several backwards steps away from the window and slowly turned around, showing me its hindquarters and drooping tail.

Three floating ice platforms appeared at staggered intervals beneath my feet as I charged up them just like climbing the stairs. I raced straight out through the window, twisted face-first into a corkscrew flying motion, and rapidly twirled with the business end of my ice blade thrust forward, stabbing straight into the meaty asscheek of the Huodou.

The creature howled in anguish as the magical sword easily stabbed through its flesh like a wet peach. The great dog’s hind legs buckled, its forepaws lost their grip on the ground, and it flattened belly-first across the stone courtyard outside of Princess Puning’s house.

A sharp, searing pain suddenly pinched into my back. I turned and looked over my shoulder to see an arrow embedded against my shoulder blade, with five more arrows slowly flying at me.

Time continued to move at a snail’s pace. I wasn’t much faster. It wasn’t like I could move normally while everything else in the world moved slowly. Rather, it felt like I was in a movie where the director favored extensive use of slo-mo filmmaking for action scenes. I could see and react to everything with plenty of time to make my decisions. I’d become Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, able to witness the world without hurry and gently move my arm into position to create an ice barrier that would shield me from the oncoming arrows. I heard each impact of each arrow hitting the large block of ice I’d manifested in thin air, and then I telekinetically pushed the barrier at the archers across the courtyard, sending them into retreat. And that gave me enough time to look around the area and decide how best to proceed.

The Huodou was down for the moment, its flickering flames dim. When I pulled my ice blade out of its ass, the wound glowed with bright orange-red blood. But hundreds of soldiers were approaching from the direction of the Tian Tang, all dressed in heavier battle armor than the regular guards.

Hundreds.

I sucked in a deep breath of concern while immediately looking around for an exit. I had my magical water powers, yes, but my flesh was just as vulnerable as always, as the arrow in my back already proved. Fighting four or five or even a dozen soldiers at the same time I could probably handle, but I’d already gotten shot once and I didn’t like my chances of trying to fight hundreds of them off with nobody to watch my back.

Speaking of somebody to watch my back, I knew that Ziyi was still inside Puning’s bedroom. I didn’t know for sure whether or not she was still alive, but I knew for sure I’d never be able to live with myself if I left her body to the mercy of the Liang Dynasty. So I quickly slashed my ice sword across the Huodou’s hamstring, hoping that would stop the beast from being able to chase after us, I threw another ice barrier at the archers to keep them pinned back, yanked the arrow out of my shoulder blade (ouch), and then turned and raced back for Puning’s shattered bedroom window.

The guards by the window had run away to join up with the oncoming regiment of soldiers, but there were four guards inside the room looming over Ziyi’s body and barking at Puning and Juhua when I leaped back inside. Those four guards immediately raised their weapons, but I threw my ice sword at the first one, impaling him through the chest and pinning him to the wall like a bug, and the other three couldn’t run out the door fast enough.

I saw my clothes on the floor and only then realized that I was presently naked, and I’d been naked throughout the entire battle up until this point. I stopped to quickly get dressed and then I knelt beside Ziyi, scooping my arms beneath her body while being careful to use my bicep to try and support her head. It was still bent at a completely unnatural angle, but there must’ve been some serpent spinal flexibility at work, because she proved to me she was still alive when her eyes opened to look up at me.

“Chezhou…” she whispered weakly.

“Gotta get you outta here,” I told her, standing up.

“AAAAHHHH!!!” she exclaimed in anguish, and I nearly dropped her. Clearly, the wound in her side was causing her a lot of pain, and I started to panic as my mind raced, trying to figure out the best way to carry her out.

But a moment later, Ziyi hissed, gritted her teeth, and then transformed. Within the space of two seconds, she’d morphed into a normal-sized Mangshan Pit Viper, albeit one with a gaping wound in its side with missing scales and blackened skin beneath. Still, she was able to coil herself around me like a necklace, and after I paused for a second to marvel at her transformation, I took one last glance at Princess Puning and Juhua cowering in the corner with a blanket covering their naked bodies.

“I’m sorry for all this,” I apologized. “Just tell them that I used my evil magic powers to hypnotize you and take you against your will.”

Puning nodded with an awestruck face.

“What ARE you?” Juhua exclaimed in astonishment.

“He’s incredible,” Puning breathed with obvious admiration, her eyes literally shining. I could almost see them pulsing out of her eye sockets like a cartoon. “I will never forget my first time.”

I gave her a charming smile. “And I’ll never forget you. Either of you. Live well, Princess. Take care of her, Juhua.” Then I grabbed my ice sword out of the wall (and out of the dead guard’s body), magicked up an ice shield, and ran out through the bedroom door and over to the front of the Palace of Great Benevolence where I hoped there would be fewer soldiers stationed.

Indeed, the courtyard on that side of the building was presently empty with all the action happening on the other side. Night had fallen and there were only a few torches illuminating the grounds of this residential area. It took me only a moment to get my bearings, and with Ziyi safely wrapped around my neck, I let both my ice sword and ice shield evaporate into nothingness and then darted off into the darkness.

For about a minute, I was able to race through the various “palaces” out of view of any enemies. I could hear the shouts of soldiers in the distance and generally tried to keep away from them, but at the same time, I knew we needed to get to the northern gate to make our escape.

Or did we?

Moving further north through the palace grounds, I could hear soldiers yelling as they spread out to find us. For all they knew, we were intruders seeking to either recover the great Sword of Baihu or to assassinate the emperor, and given the sounds of their positioning, they were blocking off any path I might have to get to the Tian Tang and the sword or to the Emperor’s Inner Court…

… The Emperor’s Inner Court at the northern end of the palace grounds, over by the northern gate.

Shit.

There were four gates: North, South, East, and West. I could hear the soldiers moving north, the main barracks were to the west, and the southern gate was at the far end of where I was. But the eastern gate?

The eastern gate that led to the old river.

It would still be guarded, but perhaps wouldn’t be heavily guarded at this time of night. Nobody would be shipping large items by barge after sundown. Plus, I was already in the northeast corner of the palace grounds, and heading east would take me further AWAY from the soldiers guarding the Tian Tang and the Inner Court.

Qinglong was the Azure Dragon of the East, and the eastern gate led to a river, which was made of water. I chose to take those facts as good omens, so east I went, and within minutes I emerged from the residential sections and arrived at the inner dock.

There was a small man-made harbor with a dock where supplies could be offloaded from barges and the elaborately decorated royal transport was safely moored. At the far end of the harbor were two massive water doors currently barred with iron locks that would permit the transport of floating vessels, but I couldn’t see any walkways to the other side. Stone staircases provided access up onto the ramparts atop the walls for defense, but I didn’t expect there to be any way to walk down the other side.

Fortunately, I’d figured out my own way of creating stairs.

A dozen guards were visible in the area, all of them on high alert given the commotion going on back behind me. Only two of the guards at the top of the walls continued to stare outwards, the rest were all looking curiously within.

All looking curiously in my direction.

And then one of them spotted me.

“Intruder! Alarm! Alarm!” he yelled, pointing with his spear.

Gotta move.

I sprinted forward with no time to lose. An archer at the top of the wall took aim and let fly with an arrow, and my world went into slo-mo once more. My pumping feet and arms moved slower, but I had time to look around and assess my situation. I figured I could cross the open courtyard easily enough, but from then I’d need to ascend the nearest stone staircase, get past five guards on the way, and then go over the top and drop to the other side to make my escape.

Piece of cake.

Without knowing how I knew to do it, I crossed my arms over my chest, my thumb and two fingers of each hand extended while my fourth and fifth fingers were curled inward. A spinning ball of water appeared in the air before me as I ran, growing and glowing bright blue as it sped up in speed and increased in size. And after another dozen paces, I flung both hands forward, sending the massive spinning ball hurtling forward to explode against the staircase with enough force to crack and break some of the stones.

The two guards nearest the explosion got tossed over the sides, and I swore I heard one of them making the Wilhelm Scream.

The guard at the base of the stairs turned to gawk at his colleagues being thrown, and I was already on him before he managed to turn back around. I didn’t kill the guy, I merely smacked him in the head as I passed, and he crumpled sideways, unconscious.

Then I was on the staircase, taking the steps three at a time. The stairs were built alongside the wall itself, leaving me completely exposed to the guards above me. With my world in slo-mo, I saw two archers firing arrows, and I couldn’t dodge without leaping off the stairs themselves. Instead I summoned an ice barrier to deflect their shots and then flung the barrier itself at them. I managed to gain the top of the stairs and the rampart walkway where another guard awaited me with his sword out. In a flash, I had my own ice sword in hand and swung it so hard that it cleaved the man’s iron blade in half so that the top half of his sword fell over the wall. He staggered back, staring at his broken blade, but I paid him no mind as I simply vaulted myself over the far edge of the wall into the open air, forty feet off the ground.

The plan was to make a series of floating ice steps to run back down.

Things didn’t quite go according to plan.

A larger ice disc appeared beneath both of my feet, but it didn’t maintain its altitude and instead dropped like a rock beneath me. My world suddenly stopped being in slo-mo, and I howled in surprised terror as I rapidly started falling.

Another ice disc appeared beneath me, about three feet below, but this one shattered when I hit it and I kept falling right through, although I somehow rolled mid-air so that I was belly down like a skydiver.

Another ice disc formed. This one didn’t shatter. It stayed solidly right where it was supposed to be, but it caught me right in the chest, knocking the wind out of me.

And then I rolled over to the side and fell off of it.

My mind had gone blank when the wind got knocked out of me. I couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, and no further ice discs appeared. I was falling again, and this time there was nothing to stop or slow my descent.

And then I hit the water.

Fortunately or unfortunately, the old river formed a natural moat on the eastern side of the Imperial Palace walls. It definitely gave me a softer landing than if I’d hit the ground from forty feet up, but now I was soaking wet.

Still, Ziyi remained safely circled around my neck, I came up for air a couple of seconds later, and it was a simple matter for me to swim arm over arm to the far side of the sedately flowing waterway. I heard shouting from the top of the wall as I dragged myself up onto the far riverbank, and then two arrows suddenly impacted the rock and dirt beach beside me, stirring me back into action.

I didn’t look back. I simply got up and ran.

Ziyi and I had escaped and were still alive.

For now.

****

The extra energy boost I’d gotten from sex with Princess Puning and her maid Juhua stayed with me for about an hour, by which time I’d pretty much run across the entire city of Luoyuang, getting about ten miles south of the Luo River and into some farmlands at the distant outskirts of the city.

During that time, Ziyi faded in and out of consciousness, only occasionally able to direct me where to go with labored breathing that made it sound like she was at Death’s door. Her small serpent’s mouth was unable to form coherent words, so in order to speak to me, she had to partially transform her head into the shape of a human’s (which looked really weird by the way). But each transformation sapped her strength, and by the time my extra sex-energy ran out, she hadn’t woken up for the past ten minutes.

Her basic instructions were to keep going until I reached the Yi River and then follow it to the mountains. Specifically, she wanted me to go to the caves in the mountains, although she hadn’t been able to provide much detail as to exactly which cave she wanted me to find.

I was quite weary by the time I made it to the Yi River, a slow-moving tributary of the larger Luo River. I followed a well-beaten path on the riverbanks further south, already able to see the forested mountains rising in the distance. So even though I was exhausted, I summoned enough willpower to trudge onward, knowing that my destination was in sight.

The mountains themselves were massive mounds of what looked like limestone rock to my uneducated eyes, covered with a thick layer of trees. In some sections, the hill sloped gently, and I was tempted to follow one or another of the small but visible trails that climbed into the mountains. But on the riverfront side, erosion had undermined the mountain structure and formed sheer cliffs in the rock. Into these cliffs I could see several caves, and so I went to investigate those.

Most of the caves were naturally formed: run-of-the-mill limestone erosion over millions of years and all. But some of the caves were quite clearly carved by man, with lines far too straight and rectangular to be the result of nature. I wondered if Ziyi wanted me to stop and take shelter in one of them, but these caves were immediately adjacent to the well-beaten path and many of them had elaborately carved Buddhist sculptures within, and I worried about travelers or pilgrims (or soldiers) walking up and discovering us in the morning. So I continued onward until I found a gap in the cliff face allowing me to make a right turn and head deeper into the cave complex.

After a few hundred yards, I caught sight of another trail that would take me up the mountainside and followed that. I must’ve climbed a hundred feet or so in elevation before the trail leveled out into a wide, flat area perhaps ten yards wide and a hundred yards long. There were three separate large caves here, each one having clearly started out as a naturally occurring cave that was later expanded by humans. And it wasn’t difficult to imagine Ancient Chinese people from thousands of years ago making this place their home.

Something about the third cave, the one on the far left, simply felt… right. My legs were buckling, but I managed to stagger over there. This particular cave had a relatively narrow opening, perhaps twice as wide as the front door of my Santa Monica apartment, but within the area was much larger, providing ample “living space”. A rectangular niche had been carved into the side wall, the perfect length and width for a bed. And it was there that I brought Ziyi, unwrapping her snake form from around my neck and setting her onto the flat surface.

Although the doorway was narrow enough to block the majority of outside wind, it was still ice-cold inside the cave. My wet clothes had long ago dried during my ten-plus-mile run, but I was still determined to get a fire going. Leaving Ziyi inside, I headed out and walked into the forest a ways, enough to be away from any of the main trails but not so deep as to lose my moonlight. There, I gathered fallen tree branches and other dead kindling, and I returned to the cave with my materials, for some reason feeling perfectly confident in my ability to create a fire despite having never possessed that knowledge in my modern Aksel Andersen life.

Once again, my preternatural familiarity with this time period that must have come from the original Liu Kang served me well, as I formed an ice blade to cut one of the dead branches in half lengthwise, scrape back a fistful of shavings, and then rub a stick against the branch’s inner surface until it sparked. In a corner near the back of the cave beneath a wide crack in the ceiling, there was evidence of previous fire pits. So I set up my own fire pit in the same area, and I found myself quite pleased to see my first-ever campfire spring to life, with that crack in the ceiling forming a natural chimney to suck away any smoke to who-knows-where-else in the rock.

I knew that as a metal elemental, Ziyi wasn’t particularly fond of fire. Still, I knew her body needed warmth, so I picked up her snake form and set it down close enough to the fire pit to feel the heat. Then, I headed back outside to collect more firewood, enough to be sure to last us through the night, and only then did I return and lie down beside her.

Sleep eluded me at first. The fire certainly helped, but it was still pretty cold. My stomach growled from hunger, even though I’d enjoyed a plentiful dinner; fighting Imperial soldiers was hard work that burned a ton of calories, after all. Also, the rough, uneven surface of the cave wasn’t exactly comfortable. It was certainly far worse than the lumpy bed Ziyi and I had shared in her old cottage before it burned down.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed having magic water powers. But at a moment like this, it would’ve been really nice to have magic wool-blanket-summoning powers instead, you know?

But even if I couldn’t sleep, I knew I needed to rest. I took a moment to add more fuel to the fire, keeping the rest of my stockpile close so that I could wake up in the middle of the night and add more without having to move far. And I lay on my side, my folded left arm serving for a pillow, with my body’s curve backstopping Ziyi’s slumbering serpent form.

I looked down at the green Mangshan Pit Viper in front of me, studying her scales. Was it just my imagination, or did the size of her wound look smaller than it had a couple of hours earlier? Did her blackened skin look a little less… raw?

No matter. Eventually, my exhaustion caught up to me. And then I surrendered to sleep.

****

A stray beam of sunlight woke me up. There was only a narrow opening in this cave, but it faced to the east, and at this very time on this very date, the sun’s rays came through at just the right angle to hit me right in the eyes.

The morning air was cold, quite cold. I snuggled a little closer to the warm body tucked against my chest, only my shirt separating her skin from mine. As my senses came alive, the fingers of my right hand automatically squeezed the large, bare breast I was currently palming. Reflexively, I ground my morning wood into the cleft of her bare-naked ass. And breathing deeply, I let my head roll forward to push my nose into her jet-black hair, smelling her natural musky fragrance, so different from modern women with their scented shampoos, lotions, and perfumes.

I remained like that for a good several minutes, just enjoying the feel of Ziyi’s naked body spooned up against mine. The hard rock against my side was distinctly uncomfortable, but the desire to keep holding her outweighed any urge to shift my position into one that wasn’t holding her, and thus I remained. I wasn’t even consciously aware of this decision, my sleep-addled brain not fully up-and-running just yet. It simply felt better to keep spooning Ziyi and holding her breast, so I kept spooning Ziyi and holding her breast.

Wasn’t even the first time I’d done so. The very first night we’d spent together on that lumpy bed in the cottage, I’d woken up in this very same position.

She’d slapped me that morning.

It felt like I could still feel her handprint on my cheek even now.

I opened my eyes in alarm.

The very first thing I did was let go of Ziyi’s breast. I stiffened up, now consciously aware of the fact that she was completely naked in my arms, and that if I wasn’t wearing pants, I would’ve had my dick in the cleft of her bare butt-cleavage. She must have transformed back into her human form sometime in the night, and I jerked my gaze down to the burn wound in her side.

The wound was still there, but it looked significantly better than it had the previous night. Ziyi wasn’t covered in any scales whatsoever - she wasn’t covered in clothing, either - but the point is that I couldn’t tell anymore whether or not her scales were still damaged the way they had been during her fight with the Huodou.

I’ll recommend you go ahead and do a Google Images search for “third degree burn”, but I’ll warn you not to do so on a full stomach, lest you lose your lunch. Ziyi’s burn marks weren’t a pretty sight, with scorched and peeling skin, bubbling blisters, and red marks that seemed to visibly ooze before my very eyes.

But her skin looked intact now in a way I could’ve only prayed for yesterday. The gaping hole in her side that had revealed charred flesh beneath was no longer there. And the sound of her breathing wasn’t labored at all.

Ziyi seemed peaceful. Tranquil. Relaxed.

Still naked.

Even though I’d pulled my fingers off of her boob, she was holding my arm to her chest. I tried to slowly withdraw it from her grasp, but she reflexively tightened her grip on it, unwilling to let it go. I took deep breaths and forced myself to relax, letting her continue holding onto my arm. Even though she seemed a million times better than she had been last night, I knew that she was still recovering from a serious injury, and I wanted to make sure she got as much rest as she needed to heal.

So I laid there with my eyes closed, slowed down my breathing, and tried not to think too hard about the fact that I had gorgeous naked girl in my arms. I tried not to remember the feel of her firm and yet supple breast in the palm of my hand. I tried not to think about her sinuously lithe and limber nude body with curves in all the right places, the angular beauty of her bright-green eyes and sharp cheekbones, the wide mouth with supple lips that I knew looked absolutely amazing wrapped around my rod.

Shit, I had to stop dry humping her bare buttcheeks in her sleep.

My stomach gurgled loudly, still seeking compensation for last night’s calorie-deficit activity. I didn’t think it was that loud, but it was apparently loud enough to stir Ziyi from her slumber. I heard the shift in her breathing as she started to wake, her body naturally uncoiling from its present fetal position, with her legs stretching out and bumping into my knees.

At first she clutched my arm to her chest and squeezed it even closer. That pressed my hand right back down onto her boob, and I had to strain to extend my fingers away from her warm and welcoming flesh. She took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, still completely at peace. But then she seemed to realize I was spooned up right behind her.

She suddenly stiffened.

She abruptly released my arm.

And then she jerked away from me, rolling over just once across the hard and cold stone floor of the cave, coming to a stop on her side while facing me.

The same side as her wound.

She howled in pain and abruptly rolled right back towards me to relieve the pressure, back into my arms, crying out again and curling inwards in pain while I instinctively held her and squeezed, shushing her soothingly.

“It’s okay, it’s okay! We’re alright, we’re alright!” I told her. “We’re in the caves you talked about, the bad guys are gone, and we’re okay.”

“Iiiyyyaaahhh…” she hissed, still clearly feeling the sting. She didn’t try to roll away from me again; if anything, she tucked her body even deeper into my warmth, crossing her arms over her chest. The fire was quite low and needed refueling, so the warmest place she could be was in my arms.

“You’re okay, you’re okay,” I soothed her, stroking her shoulder and upper arm. “You got pretty banged up, but that burn in your side is already looking better and better.”

“The Huodou,” she muttered through gritted teeth.

“Yeah. Didn’t know that thing could breathe fire.”

“You defeated it?”

“I stuck my sword into its ass. Wait, that came out wrong. I wouldn’t say I defeated it. Pretty sure the big beastie is still alive. But I got you and me out of there and here we are, wherever ‘here’ is.”

Ziyi slowly got her breathing under control and sighed, relaxing in my grip. She didn’t try to roll away again, although perhaps she was more relaxed with my arms wrapped around her body with my palm NOT pressed directly atop her breasts. She looked up at the ceiling, evaluating our present location. And after a moment, she twisted her head to look back at me over her shoulder. “These are the caves of the Longmen Grottoes. Six hundred years ago, the Northern Wei Dynasty began shaping these caves and carving sculptures within them.”

“I saw some of the sculptures in the caves down by the river. Lots of Buddha statues.”

“This is a powerful place, a spiritual place. There is great energy here,” she said while looking up and around before again turning her attention to me. “Metal energy.”

“That’s why you wanted me to bring you here,” I stated with realization. “You knew your body would heal faster in these caves.”

Ziyi nodded. She then stretched again experimentally, but only for a moment. She tensed up partway through the stretch and then raised her right arm out of the way so that she could scrutinize the wound in her side. And then she looked back at me with a new grimace. “I’ll heal faster here, yes, but a wound like this will still require at least a week of rest, if not two.”

“Will we have two weeks to rest? You said this is a spiritual place with metal energy, and the bad guys know you’re a metal elemental. Will the soldiers know to come looking for us here?”

“They may, but they will not attack us here. The Longmen Grottoes are a sacred place, and no battles have ever taken place in these mountains. To commit violence here would invite extremely negative karma that not even the Warlord would risk.”

“Nobody wants to be reborn as a cockroach. Got it.”

Ziyi chuckled and then winced, as if laughing caused her pain. I winced in sympathy and then held her a little tighter.

She sighed and snuggled deeper into my embrace, closing her eyes and enjoying the hug for a moment. But it was just for a moment before she seemed to remember that she was naked, and after jerking her face around to look back at me over her shoulder, she took a deep breath and then shapeshifted some clothing onto herself, a simple peasant’s shanku outfit.

Awww… Dong whined.

‘Dude, shut it. Not important.’

At least she remained in my arms.

And then my stomach gurgled again.

With a sigh, I unwrapped myself from the gorgeous girl and grabbed the last few pieces of firewood I’d stored. I formed a neat tent formation and added a bit of kindling to stoke the flames and then turned around to face Ziyi.

“I’m going to go get us something to eat and collect more firewood,” I told her. “Stay here, stay warm, and get some rest, alright?”

She nodded with a grateful expression, and I stood up to go. But before I could leave, she reached out and grasped my hand, causing me to look back at her.

“Thank you, Chezhou,” she said simply. “I would have died last night if it wasn’t for you. Thank you for saving my life.”

“You’re welcome, Ziyi.”

And then I left.

****

After first collecting more firewood and then returning it to the cave, I told Ziyi I would be back in a couple of hours and set off to get some supplies.

My initial thought had been to walk back to the farmland and perhaps steal some fruits and vegetables, but then I realized I could really just purchase food. I still had my purse of qian coins, and since we were going to be staying in the caves for a while, I told Ziyi I would head to the market to buy us some provisions to make the temporary shelter a little more homey.

On my way back to town, though, I caught sight of some fish swimming around small eddy at the river’s edge. Without really thinking about it, I extended my hand with two fingers pointed and my thumb tucked in, swirling it in a counterclockwise motion. The speed of the eddy’s current sped up, at first forming a small whirlpool in its center. As I sped up my swirling motions, the water likewise sped up and the diameter of the whirlpool got wider and wider, until there was no more water in the middle and a large catfish was trapped in the wet mud at the bottom, surrounded by nothing but air. Forming an icicle spear with my left hand, I quickly reached down to stab the fat catfish and picked it up.

Piece of cake.

I was still in half-disbelief at this newfound ability but felt perfectly happy to go along with it. Having such supreme control of my rapidly growing water felt incredibly amazing, and I wondered just how far these abilities would continue to grow.

Ziyi looked up in surprise when I entered the cave so soon after leaving, and I had to stop and immediately turn my back to her while blushing in embarrassment. She was investigating the wound in her side, an activity that apparently required her to shapeshift out of her clothing and be naked again. I got an eyeful of spectacular big titties before spinning around. And with my back to her, I held out the catfish and said, “Umm… you hungry?”

“Yes, thank you. That will do nicely,” she replied with a bit of a nervous titter in her voice. “You can turn around now.”

I peeked first to make sure the coast was clear and then relaxed to find her “wearing” her peasant garb again, only then turning around.

She extended a hand, saying, “I think this will be plenty to feed us for breakfast. Why don’t you go collect more firewood for later and I’ll start cooking this. Then you can eat before heading into town.”

I nodded and walked into the cave to give her the catfish. She immediately extended the nail of her right index finger to form a claw, using its sharp edge to start slicing off its skin. I didn’t particularly want to witness the rest of the process, so I turned around and headed out to gather more firewood. When I returned, she was already cooking the fish, filling the cave with incredibly aromatic smells. And a short time later we were both moaning and groaning in bodily delight at the pleasure of such a fine-tasting meal.

Thus feeling quite satisfied with a full belly, I left the cave again to fetch new supplies. It took me about half an hour to hike to the nearest marketplace, a small farmer’s market kind of place that unfortunately didn’t have everything I would really need. I did get a sack full of produce and dry rice, figuring I could do some more fishing for protein at the river. And then I walked on another twenty minutes to get to a different marketplace at which I could buy some blankets, new clothes, a waterskin, a large knife, chopsticks, two bowls, a pot, and a frying pan.

All in all, I was gone for about three hours and returned to the cave to find Ziyi asleep by the fire. After covering her cool body with two of the blankets, I found that filling the pot with water was as easy as me waving my hand to manifest water out of the air, which was nice. No need to go down to the river or find a stream. So I cooked up some rice and then cut up some vegetables. And then I went back down to the river to do some more “fishing”.

My elemental water powers were a cheat code, but I had to be a bit circumspect about them. At this time of day, I saw a few pilgrims on the road to the Longmen Grottoes. So I had to wait for the right moment when I could be sure nobody was nearby before catching a couple of carp. Likewise, I took care that nobody saw me turn off the main trail alongside the river and head deeper into the mountains towards our cave.

Ziyi was awake when I returned, eating some of the rice and vegetables. She was wrapped in a blanket for extra warmth and gave me a sunny smile at the sight of the two fish.

“You’re amazing, Chezhou,” she said brightly, with such a beautiful expression that made my heart soar at the mere sight of it that I wanted to rush back down to the river again and catch more fish just to make her give me that exact same expression over and over and over again.

So of course I said the absolute worst thing I could’ve said in reply. “I’m sure Liu Kang was quite the fisherman, too.”

Ziyi’s bright-green eyes clouded over as her lips dropped into a frown at the mention of her previous companion. She rather sullenly studied my face for a moment before dropping her gaze back down to her bowl. To my mind, she must’ve been seeing Liu Kang’s features on my face, only to be forcefully reminded that I wasn’t him.

I mentally kicked myself for ruining her mood, but I still walked forward with the fish.

“Give them to me,” she said, setting her bowl aside. “I’ll clean them and cook them.”

“No it’s alright. I know how to clean and cook a fish, surprisingly enough. You should keep eating.”

“Please. I insist.” She held out her hands and gave me a look that brooked no dissent. “Besides, you have been doing all the work today while I’ve done nothing but lie here and rest.”

“You need the rest. That wound in your side is no small matter.”

“I wasn’t the only one wounded. How is your shoulder?”

“It’s fine,” I told her, rolling the shoulder in question around a bit. The arrow had dug deep and ripping it out during the battle had only worsened the wound. Still, I muttered, “It’s little more than a flesh wound. It’ll heal just fine on its own.”

Well there IS one way you can heal yourself faster, Dong volunteered in my head.

‘Dude. Don’t even bring that up.’

Why not? It’s not like you haven’t banged her before.

‘I’ve banged Jade before. But Ziyi has NEVER been banged before, remember?’

It’s the same pussy, isn’t it?

‘She’s injured.’

You could be gentle.

‘Dude, just shut the fuck up.’

I looked up to find Ziyi looking at me curiously, as if she could tell I was having a silent conversation without her.

“Talking to Dong again?” she queried. “What’s he saying?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“I would always be interested to hear what the avatar of Qinglong has to say.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to hear this stuff. He’s kind of annoying.”

Dong promptly appeared on my shoulder in the blink of an eye, scolding, “I am NOT!”

“EEP!” Ziyi squealed, jerking back as if she’d seen a massive spider again.

“Dude! See! Annoying!” I exclaimed.

The little blue gecko stuck out its tongue - its extremely LONG tongue - and blew a raspberry at me before disappearing.

“You know what? If you really want to clean and cook the fish, here.” I handed the fish over to her and then sat down with a sigh.

Ziyi accepted the fish blankly, still staring at the spot on my shoulder where Dong had disappeared. She didn’t say anything further, simply taking a deep breath to collect herself before sitting down with the fish and the new knife and getting to work. A few minutes later, we ate a delicious lunch and then decided to take a walk.

We didn’t get very far, though. Ziyi’s injury made it difficult for her to walk, but she still wanted to get out of the cave and into the sunlight for a little while. We headed out and up the hill just a bit, finding a quiet spot with a gentle breeze and a nice view of the Yi River far below. And together, we sat down on a fallen log.

The Longmen Xishan Forest was peaceful and quiet. It felt like we were a world away from the hustle and bustle of Luoyang City, although the sounds of people were still faintly audible in the distance to the south.

“Have you been down that far yet?” Ziyi asked me softly. “Have you seen the giant statues?”

“Depends on what you mean by ‘giant’,” I replied. “I saw some pretty big ones. Bigger than me, at least.”

She chuckled and shook her head. “Then you haven’t seen them. There are thousands of statues, perhaps a hundred thousand, and the largest are almost sixty feet in height. Far, far bigger than you.”

“Really?”

She nodded. “We should visit the largest grottoes when I am able to travel. The great Empress Wu Zetian, perhaps the only legitimate female ruler of the Chinese Empire, built Feng Xian Si more than two hundred years ago. It has the largest statue, the Vairocana Buddha. The colossal statue is meant as a reminder that we are but small, temporary beings in the vastness of grand, cosmic existence.”

I thought about that and nodded, processing the idea. “I know better than most that I’m little more than a small, temporary being caught up in something far greater than myself. I’m not Liu Kang, even if I may look like him. I’m another man, from another time, brought here to this place and here to this time for a reason, even if I don’t know exactly what that reason is.”

“You know what that reason is. You’re here to take his place, to complete his quest.”

“It’s just a theory,” I replied with a shrug. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for helping you complete Liu Kang’s quest to recover the sword. It’s just that I can’t help but wonder: What happens after that? Do I go back to my own time period? Do I stay here with you?”

Ziyi turned to look at me and then quickly turned her face away, perhaps a little too fast. A rosy blush colored her cheeks, and realizing she’d been caught, she tried to shrug it off as no big deal while asking, “Well, what do you want to happen after you complete the quest? Do you want to go back to your own time?”

She left unspoken the other question rather than ask if I wanted to stay here with her, but I heard it anyways.

Still, I stopped to think about both of those questions. Despite the sense of familiarity with this time period I now felt, I’d actually only been here in Imperial China for four days. I could still remember every detail of my life as Aksel Andersen of Santa Monica, and the desire to return back to the reality I’d known for twenty-six years was quite strong.

I wanted to go back. I wanted my iPhone, I wanted Instagram, I wanted the internet. I wanted automobiles and airplanes and In-N-Out burgers. I wanted air conditioning and central heating. I wanted to feel the comfort and convenience I’d become accustomed to instead of sleeping on the bare rock of a hollowed-out limestone cave next to a fire for which I’d needed to wake up every couple of hours to keep adding fuel lest it burn out.

I wanted to go back to beautiful blonde Hannah Hampton. I wanted to finally bury my dick into smokin’ hot redhead Madi Cressy. I wanted to explore the wide variety of pussy available to me in the modern world with The Ax Effect. And hell, when I stopped to think about it, I actually missed Rae.

Fuck, I didn’t even know Rae’s real last name. I didn’t even know if “Rae” was her real FIRST name.

And I wanted to go back to Jade.

To the future version of Ziyi.

But could I really do that if it meant abandoning THIS version of Ziyi?

Besides, how much of that reality could I truly return to? My Santa Monica life as Aksel Andersen: Contract Programmer had already been turned upside-down. Secret agents of the shadowy Cao Wei were out to kill me, so even if I did go back, I’d be going back to the life of Aksel Andersen: Man on the Run. Sure, I’d get to have In-N-Out and surf the internet on my iPhone, but I’d already been warned against using Instagram for fear of the bad guys tracking me down and killing me. Would that life really be so much better than a life lived here?

And of course, this was all hypothetical theory in the first place. Dong said I’d transported myself here all on my own, without his interference, but that didn’t mean I had any clue of how to transport myself back.

Was I even meant to transport myself back? What if this was always meant to be a one-way trip? What if my destiny was to live and die here as Chezhou?

With Ziyi.

I glanced over to find Ziyi looking back at me. I was still struck by the surreal experience of seeing a younger version of Jade’s face looking back at me, so much like the woman I’d come to know and yet… different. I imagined Ziyi felt much the same about me, about seeing Liu Kang’s face and yet… not.

Of course, the younger Ziyi blushed at getting caught staring and immediately turned to look away from me in a way that the more mature, aloof Jade never would.

I knew that whenever I found myself gazing at Ziyi in a way that was… well… filled with physically attracted interest… she would always look back at me with an expression that clearly said, Don’t even think about it.

On the other hand, whenever I’d looked at Jade in the same way, she’d always be quick to look back at me with an expression that clearly said, Oh hell yeah, let’s get jiggy with it.

Dong promptly snorted, muttering, I have a hard time picturing Jade saying the word ‘jiggy’.

‘You know what I mean.’

Yes, I do. Good lord that woman has a glorious sexual appetite. Mmm-mmm-mmph!

‘Is this your way of suggesting I should actively try to get back to my own time period? To get back to Jade?’

Not necessarily. Don’t look now, but Ziyi is looking at you right now in a way that suggests she wouldn’t be particularly opposed to your lingering, lecherous looks right now… I said DON’T look, bro!

Too late, I had glanced back at Ziyi, and she once again blushed before averting her gaze and then abruptly getting up from our fallen log.

“Hold up a second,” I said, raising my hand and reaching out to her.

Ziyi stopped where she was and turned back to face me, although she didn’t walk back. Her expression was now neutral, perhaps even a little cold.

“You asked me if I wanted to return back to my own time,” I began.

“You don’t need to actually answer that,” she replied with a dismissive wave, jutting her chin out and turning to look out across the mountaintop view. “I already know the answer. It was written all over your face.”

“But do you want me to stay? I mean: if given a choice, would you want me to stay here with you? Assuming we survive this, assuming we recover the sword and find somewhere to safely hide it, what then? Do you have other people, other friends you can meet up with? Right now I’m worried about leaving you all alone.”

Ziyi pursed her lips and shook her head. “You don’t need to worry about me. I don’t mind being alone. The life of a serpent is a solitary one.”

I nodded. “That’s what Jade told me.”

Ziyi’s eyes narrowed. “You and your precious Jade. Well let’s hope we can get you back to her soon enough. The only thing that matters to me is this mission: to take back the sword. Your purpose here is to help me do that, not to stay in a time period where you don’t belong, just because you’re worried about leaving me alone. Your grand purpose for being here isn’t to be my friend. The quest is your purpose. Help me complete it and I’ll gladly do whatever is necessary to help you return to the future, to return to Jade. Alright?”

I didn’t need any magical superpowers to tell that Ziyi was feeling a bit catty. It was just a little surreal to hear her being catty towards the future version of herself.

“One step at a time,” I stated evenly. “Like you said, we need to take back the sword. But once that’s done, I want to revisit this whole ‘returning to the future’ thing. You may not believe my purpose here is to be your friend, but I’d like to believe that I AM your friend anyways. And where I come from, friends don’t just abandon friends. I won’t leave you until I know you’re well taken care of.”

Ziyi shook her head in the negative. “The truth is: we’re NOT friends. You’re not Liu Kang. You wear his face, but you’re not the man I knew for four years. I’ve known you for less than four days. Liu Kang died. I mourned him. As far as I’m concerned, you’re nothing but a stranger. You’re a stranger that saved my life, yes, and for that I will be forever grateful. But once your task here is done, you and I WILL go our separate ways, and I won’t miss you at all.”

I frowned. “Is that really what you want?”

“It doesn’t matter what I want. It doesn’t matter what YOU want. You are only here because you’re the Chosen One of Qinglong, and it is your destiny to complete the quest. You’re only here because the powers of the Four Auspicious Beasts brought you here. There is no point in me trying to become your friend, even if I wanted to. Because you’re not real. Because you don’t belong here. As far as I’m concerned, you never should have existed at all.”

Ziyi stopped talking and looked at me expectantly, but I didn’t know how to respond to all of that. I heard the truth in her words, words that I couldn’t refute. And once it became clear that I didn’t have anything else to say, she simply threw up her hands and walked away.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue & Chapter 1: The Ax Effect: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102225387

Chapter 2: Santa Monica: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102437478

Chapter 3: The Zellij Fountain: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102691018

Chapter 4: Euhemerism: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102919819

Chapter 5: The Fremont Troll: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103191700

Chapter 6: Jade: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103443053

Chapter 7: The Blue Gecko: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103699709

Chapter 8: Yaoguai: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103978374

Chapter 9: Rome: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104213388

Chapter 10: Seeing Sights: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104466709

Chapter 11: Liu Kang: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104728056

Chapter 12: Ziyi: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104949855

Chapter 13: Huodou: https://www.patreon.com/posts/105203881