Lord Shadow

FIRST YEAR OF EMPEROR GAOZHONG OF YONG

Spring has ended, autumn has passed and fall has come. The day today is cold and the area is covered by a white expanse of snow

A year has passed since that battle on top of the mountaintop of the Five Element Finger.

A wheelchair could be seen appearing out from the forest. There is five people that come out from the forest.

This scene looks like the beginning of a horror story. The one sitting on the wheelchair wears a black robe, his black robe fluttered amidst the fluttering wind.

One could sense that the man on the wheelchair possess a certain aura that causes him to appears like he is one with nature.

The wind keeps blowing around him but even though the black robe did not seem to be thick, the b lack robe person did not seem to be shivering.

Behind him is a man, tall and lean. On his left hip is a sheath of a longsword.

The man behind the wheelchair is the one pushing the wheelchair forward amidst the thick snow falling upon them.

Unlike the man in wheelchair, the man pushing the wheelchair is not shivering but he had to use his internal energy to regulate his body temperature to withstand the cold of winter

The man pushing the wheelchair wears a purple robe, looking elegant and dignified even when he is doing a job of a servant.

Then behind the two people, is three people. One of them is blind in one eye. The other one is crippled and using a cane to stabilize himself. The other had cuts all over his skins.

These five people if they were spotted by those people who listens to the news of the martial arts world will surely be described as the Three Devils and One Demon accompanying the God.

It is the saying that got famous in the martial arts worlds after the battle on top of the mountaintop of the Five Element Fingers.

Coming out of that forest is, Sword God Azief, Sword Demon Xi Feng, and the Three Devils of Han, The Crippled Devil Han Xiao, The One Eyed Devil Han Guang, and the One Thousand Cut Devil Han Xin

Azief look at the surrounding vast expanse and there is a smile on his face.

The smile looks forlorn and contains many of his emotions. It has been a year since he has come down from the mountain but it is now his fifth years on this world.

And probably his last

In the one year since he come down from the mountain, Azief has seen the moonlight in the sky, riding the boat on the Zhou River as the boat swing in the serene lake with their oars crunching through the water

He had seen many things and meet many peoples and learn many things. 

‘One year’ he muttered to himself as his wheelchair keep moving forward.

Azief sighed as the white snows feel on his lap. On his lap is a sword, and white snow that fallen from the sky.

White snow is all around him, the wheels of his wheelchair created a trail behind him and the creaking sound of the wheel spoke is drowned by the sound of the harsh wind of winter.

Creak!

Creak!

He touches the snow on his lap and he smiles a bit. He felt that the years has passes him by like the sand and dust

Behind him is his disciple Sword Demon, Xi Feng pushing his wheelchair forward riding the mountain to his last destination and the destination that might lead the answer to his question.

Not far behind his disciple, is the Three Devils of Han. A year has passed and a lot has happened in that time.

Azief sighed as the snow keeps falling gently to the ground. The cold wind blows and it passes them by.

The wheelchair keeps moving forward, accompanied with the sound of creaking and the sound of the wind.

There is a melancholic feeling as these people walk behind him.

There is an expression of contained sadness on Xi Feng face and there is a complicated expression on the faces of the Three Devils of Han

A few leaves fall down from the trees nearby as the wind picked up and it is blown further away by the wind.

Azief look at that leaves and wonder where it will fly to. Azief then notices the atmosphere around him and he sighed internally

Xi Feng pushes the wheelchair silently without saying a word.

Azief then ask

‘Why so silent?’ his face looking at the front, seeing the stairs going upwards. The stair itself look ancient but well maintained.

Azief question seems like it went lost with the wind.

There is only silence between teacher and disciple. The wind blows and only its sound could be heard.

Xi Feng did not reply and Azief bitterly smiles. In a way, he understands Xi Feng feelings. The time that they spent together is short but they create a real bond.

‘Hah’ he sighed

This is his last destination. Azief had made it clear to Xi Feng and the Three Devils that this is the last place he would challenge and with it he would disappears.

This last destination felt like a sendoff. And those four people all could feel it. Thus, they did not mind walking slower.

Xi Feng did not push his teacher wheelchair on the stairway instead he takes the trails beside the stairs. A stone tile path that lead upwards toward that last destination.

Pushing it slowly, like it is following the rhythm of the snow falling from the Heavens. Azief did not say anything. He just closes his eyes and let his disciple pushes his wheelchair.

He might not say it but at times like this, he too is reluctant to part. But this world is not his word, and this life is not his life.

He had people waiting for him back home and he had his own grand path. This kind of life experience could not dull the determination in his heart to walk his path until the end

Azief felt another snowflake fall into his skin and he smiles. His last destination is none other than the Xi temple.

Even from here he could see the many small monasteries and temple all around this mountainous area.

On the forest, they came out from, in the middle of that Forest of Stele, were countless of corpses.

These corpses were all cut in myriads ways.

Some got cut in half.

Some got cut in the waist. Some turned into only slab of meats scattered about under the many trees. Some had their heads meters away from their bodies.

The scene is full of gore and death aura pervades inside that forest. They are the corpses of the martial artist sent by Emperor Gaozhong, the son of the previous Emperor

But the commotion that battle had produced did not alarm the Monks on the Temple.

That is weird.

The sound of his sword scream and the effect of his sword force induced a change to the weather and parted the clouds of snows above yet, the Temple did nothing.

When he lifted his fingers and the sword will converge on his finger and when he brings it down, thunder break out in the skies, thunderous roars split open the clouds, winds howls and changes it courses, and the very land quake at the power of his sword will.

But the Temple remains silent

It made him felt that there is more than meets the eye about this Temple of Xi, regarded as the most mysterious martial arts organization in the world.

Azief had always felt weird about the Xi temple.

Now that he is in front of the stairway leading to the Temple Entrance Gate, he felt it even more.

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