Beware Of Chicken

Bao Wen sighed as he jabbed the maintenance rod at another crystal. The ancient stone rod, inlaid with crystal, pointed directly towards the black, lifeless gem, and once again it did nothing. It was part of his duties, his superiors said. It was an ancient and necessary tradition!

He was sure it was. The crystals sometimes flickered and hummed when they did it, but did the little dance they had to do have to look so silly? It was embarrassing.

Bao Wen grumbled, irritated.

He was new in this job, as one of the members of the Affairs for Spiritual Ascension. His father had pushed him into it. He had thought it would be an interesting, exciting job. Instead, he was just a manual worker. He had to do weird body movements and breathe correctly while jabbing the maintenance rod at things. Nobody even really knew how it worked, other than that it was essential to prevent the Dueling Peaks and Earthly Arena from degrading further.

The crystal he pointed at stayed dark. He sighed and took a breath, rubbing at his arms. It was kind of cold down here in the vaulted stone hallways, with no heating crystal system in place. And creepy.

But even this would have been tolerable… if he had been assigned any place useful.

Instead, he was in the “Dead Wing”. Rooms and corridors that hadn’t been used in centuries, with everything within cold and lifeless. No crystals recorded. Nothing floated. Even the lights had died ages ago, necessitating a lantern.

At least the rod opened some of the doors. You pointed your rod at it and it opened! The ones that still worked, anyway.

Still, six months of studying movements, only to go around pointing it at walls and crystals.

He jabbed the maintenance rod at the dead crystal again.

He considered just... not doing it. It wasn’t like anything in here worked anyway, and his senior had gone to take a piss.

He could just say he had done the entire wall. Spare the asshole from smirking at him as he “supervised his junior’s work”.

Bao Wen sighed again. His anger warmed him like a summer breeze. He looked up and glared at the ceiling, jabbing the maintenance rod at it in frustration.

The rod lit up, signaling a successful activation. Every light in the room turned on with a blaze of yellow light. The crystals hummed and chimed as the entire mountain shuddered.

The area on the ceiling that he pointed at burned with gold light as weakened locks broke. The hidden compartment opened up and a crystal gently floated down.

Bao Wen fell on his ass.

=============================

The night had seen Cai Xi Kong experience a roiling storm of emotion. Joy and pride in his daughter’s victory had been dampened by a most unwelcome visitor, plunging his mood into black fury and making the sting all the more bitter from how joyous he had been.

The Shrouded Mountain bastard lusting over his daughter and throwing his weight around. It was a bitter pill that one so young held such power over Xi Kong and his sect. At least the other Elders were in agreement. He had taken satisfaction in refusing the shit, and to his relief the little bastard had accepted the refusal. He could have pushed the issue, but Zang Li’s own youth stymied some of his authority. If it had been an actual Elder asking for Xiulan they would have had to swallow their objections, bow their heads and thank them for giving his Xiulan the opportunity.

The thought stoked fresh rage in his heart.

Still, the man had left in the end and the night had seemed to be looking better. Xi Kong had taken his leave of the sect’s manor to go attend to the last part of the ceremonies. In the depths of the Dueling Peaks, each Elder still present would kowtow to an ancient banner and swear that the event would continue as long as the peaks stood.

A final bit of tradition, continued unbroken as long as they had records. A promise to continue to raise up the younger generation. His body felt warm, like he was standing in a summer breeze, and he let the last of the rage fade away.

Bai Huizong, of Spiritual Ascension affairs, was present, making a record of their oath.

“That is all for this year, Honoured Elders. We thank you for your—”

The entire mountain shuddered.

“What in the blazes was that?” Bai Huizong demanded, sitting bolt upright in his seat. Several of his aides were looking around in shock, while the Elders snapped to attention, casting their senses out.

A panicked feminine scream echoed down the hallways.

Xi Kong was out of his chair and heading towards the disturbance, several of his fellows in his wake. They shot through the darkened corridors, moving at speed.

They did not have to travel far.

It was one of the recording crystal rooms. One of the dead ones… but every light was on.

A rather panicked looking young man had fallen on his rear, his eyes wide as he stared at a floating crystal in the center of a room in shock. The maintenance rod he was holding had fallen to the wayside.

Xi Kong stared in wonder, seeing the same thing the boy was staring at.

The crystal floated serenely above them, like most recording crystals, but it was of a style Xi Kong had never before laid eyes upon. Its facets were reminiscent of what the Mengde Crystal Emporium used, but the cut was far, far more complex. The facets had facets within them and were glittering with characters rather than the flat cuts of the Crystal Emporium.

Xi Kong glanced at Elder Daxian, who was staring at the room with a frown. This room was supposed to be dead, was it not? Nothing useful in it?

“Boy! What, by all that is good under these Heavens, did you do?” Bai roared, puffing as he arrived behind them. The man was portly, but surprisingly fast for a mortal as he skidded to a stop in front of the gaping young man.

“Lord Director! I was following the manual! It said to perform this rite here, and… and...” the boy pointed helplessly to the ceiling, and the shining crystal that had descended from it.

Bai Huizong’s face twisted, but he visibly calmed himself. “It happened after you used the maintenance rod?”

“Yes, Lord Director! I swear, Lord Director! How would a maintenance rod make the mountain tremble?”

Daxian picked up the rod. He glanced at it, then at the mortal boy.

“One way to see.” He declared, holding the rod out for the young man to take. “Boy. Perform the rite again. Try to turn this crystal on.”

The young man looked at the rod as if it was going to bite him, but did as the Master of the Grand Ravine demanded. Taking the rod from Daxian’s hand he stood still, taking a breath to center himself... He then went through a series of movements that looked like a basic martial kata. The movements were largely useless, Xi Kong had deduced long ago, after seeing a man turning on the crystal lights, but they were in aid of focus and breathing.

The rod pointed to the crystal and it flashed. The floating crystal crystal flickered to life. It fuzzed and hissed before the image cleared up.

Xi Kong sucked in a breath, as did his fellows.

An image of a mountain split in two appeared in the air. A deep pit had been carved into the earth and men were heaving huge blocks of stone around.

“By the Heavens...” Xi Kong heard somebody muttering.

It was the Dueling Peaks. The Dueling Peaks under construction. They barely had records of that time, faded passages carved into stone, but nothing like this. This recording was likely over three thousand years old. At the minimum.

A piece of the past, locked in time and preserved forever.

The recording crystal moved. The image was silent, but the focal point floated through the arena. Workers turned and waved, some grinning and nodding their heads. The crystal got closer to one of the workers. The man waved the crystal over and pointed to a carving. He looked back up to whoever had the crystal, nodded, and got out a large sheet of paper, a blueprint, and pointed to the symbol on a formation that travelled all across the arena.

“Get the others,” somebody stated as they all stood transfixed at the images. Bai Huizong collapsed into a nearby chair, while the mortal worker stood, shuffling around nervously.

The rest of the Elders filled in as the recording suddenly stuttered. The image was now outside the Dueling Peaks, resting upon a giant tree. One so large that ten men laying head to foot would barely be its diameter. Xi Kong recognised the wood of the massive tree. It was one of the strikers of the gong.

Another grainy blueprint was revealed to the crystal, as the man spoke to whoever was controlling it. Elder Shu of the Reed River Sect had brought out a brush and was frantically glancing back up at the scroll, copying down the formation blueprint.

The crystal started moving again. Guo Daxian the Elder took a sharp breath as it revealed a man with blue tattoos and dressed in the style of the ravine folk. He clasped his hands together in the gesture of respect to whoever had the crystal, before he caught a jug of wine thrown at him from behind their field of view.

He burst out into silent laughter. The recording continued on, heading back towards the arena, when suddenly, the person walking stopped.

The crystal shook, like it was being poked.

The recording cut, then turned back on. The view was different now, the inside of a well-furnished room.

“—Wait, it’s doing it properly now—or is it?”

“It wasn’t recording sound this entire time?!” A female voice exclaimed, incredulous.

“I—uh, maybe?” the male voice stuttered.

“Ha! The great and powerful—” the recording stuttered again. “Doesn’t know how to use a recording crystal properly!” the woman cackled.

“Shut up, Tianlan,” the male voice demanded, petulant. The crystal rolled over. A woman was laying against a cushion, howling with laughter. She was dressed like a princess in a fine blue and green dress, her silky brown hair tied in an elaborate knot. The only blemish on her porcelain skin was the brace of freckles across her nose and cheeks.

She grinned at whoever was not in view. “Recordings are forever~” she sang.

The recording cut off abruptly. The crystal went dark.

“Boy. What is your name?” Daxian asked, his eyes boring into the young man.

“B-b-bao Wen, Master Cultivator,” the young man stuttered.

“Bao Wen.” Daxian’s voice commanded, his eyes returning hungrily to the crystal after witnessing one of his ancestors within it. “Perform the rite again.” The boy complied, but the crystal remained dark.

Daxian grimaced. “This one then.” he said, pointing to another.

The crystal fuzzed to life, though this time showing an empty hallway. It was completely silent, until two men walked past, rolling a cart.

“That’s Fang and Yu”, Bai Huizong muttered. “They’re on the other side of the mountain.“

Wen performed the rite for a third time, this time on the largest crystal, the one that took up the entire wall.

It hummed and flickered to life. It immediately began playing the match between his daughter and Rou Tigu, the fight captured perfectly. Then the crystal beside it lit up. Xi Kong’s eyes widened. It took him a moment to place it, but the person in the recording was himself, when he was young. Doing battle against a member of the Azure Horizon Sect. Another crystal lit. Another member of the Verdant Blade Sect, showing what Xi Kong guessed was his father.

One by one, the crystals lit up, spreading out and across from each other. Each one a member of the Verdant Blade Sect, until finally the ancient, floating crystal also awoke for the second time. This time it showed the image of a woman. She was dressed in a flowing dress with long sleeves. Fans floated behind her as she danced with elegance and grace. There were gasps as the Elders were struck dumb by her beauty. She could have been the sister of his own daughter—

Then suddenly, golden cracks appeared across the image. They took over the crystal and it went dark. They spread like vines over every crystal in the room, moving in a wave from the crystal in the center, and with them each recording cut out.

The mountain shuddered again. Something in the walls began to whirr.

“The Hells is going on?” Daxian demanded.

The Heavens seemed to give him an answer. A section of the wall hummed and lit up. It had the same symbol as the maintenance rod had upon it.

The Elders turned to Bao Wen expectantly. The boy swallowed. His maintenance rod moved.

With a hiss, the previously completely nondescript section of the wall pulled inward and slid to the side. It was a thick, solid piece of stone, and yet it moved like it had no weight at all.

It revealed a flight of stairs.

“There aren’t any records of a flight of stairs or a false wall here.” Bai Huizong muttered.

The Elders glanced at each other, before coming to the same conclusion. A previously unexplored section of the Dueling Peaks. Ancient treasures could lie within, or relics of their ancestors.

They descended the stairs. Guo Daxian seized the lead, to grumbling from the others, his body tense for anything. Xi Kong was next, his blades floating down the stairs, taking the position by dint of his sect’s rise. The rest squabbled for a moment, but no fights broke out. The stairway was wide and well lit. They kept Wen in the middle of them, ready to protect this boy who had the luck of the Heavens on his side. Best to keep that luck with them.

They plunged into the bowels of the earth. The walls were sanded smooth and rounded, grey stone, but completely undecorated. They advanced slowly. The flight of stairs ended, transitioning to a curving hallway with branches leading off to the side. Most of the branches were caved in. Occasionally, an Elder would break off down one of the side passages. Most returned empty handed. But one came back with an entire box of maintenance rods.

They only had one path forwards.

“It seems to curve underneath most of the mountain. Or it would have.” Elder Shen mused as they advanced.

“East for five hundred twenty three paces, with the curve. We’re under the seating section, beneath the arena.” Elder Chen said. Xi Kong did the math in his head and found no fault with his conclusion.

They were on guard for anything. The traps of the ancients would surely be deadly… but there did not seem to be any.

They came to a locked door, which had the rite of maintenance symbol upon it. The Elder with the box of rods, Elder Hai, drew one and performed the same movements, attempting to open it.

The door didn’t budge. No flash happened.

Daxain the Elder chuckled. “Bao Wen, we request you give this old man some pointers.” He jabbed. Elder Hai flushed red with anger, glaring at Daxian, before he huffed, stepping aside for the mortal boy.

He moved to do the rite and the door opened.

“What manner of training did you undergo, mortal?” one of the Elders asked.

“Uh… a month of technique and breathing training after signing the contract?” The boy answered nervously.

“An attunement then.” Elder Hai muttered. “It just needs some time.”

They entered the vaulted room. It was dark as crystals flickered fitfully, but grew in strength each moment, revealing a squat, hulking thing in the side of the room.

It was an arcane thing. All pipes and pieces of crystal that were embedded in the walls, and this ancient piece had not emerged unscathed either. Several of its pipes were broken by fallen rocks or had been torn loose from the walls. In a better time, the room would have been dominated by the creation of the ancients. Now, it was a husk.

None present knew what it was. They stared at the silent machine even as a soft golden glow began to rise off its vents, strengthening within the crystals.

Pulsing like the beat of a heart.

One of the Elders licked his lips and then forged ahead towards it. His body was tightly wound, ready to move away at a moment’s notice. He weaved around the larger rocks to the machine’s bulbous core. There were cracked formations and levers upon it.

He studied it tensely, examining the side of the machine for a maker’s mark or some description as to tis use. “Most of it is gone, but this is the character for “cycle”.”

The machine shuddered. The Elder threw himself away as fast as he could. The machine coughed and spluttered as the golden glow grew stronger.

It was activating on its own.

“Bao Wen, see if you can shut it down.” Daxian began. A sound plan. They did not know exactly what it did.

The boy swallowed. “I don’t really know what I’m doing, Master Cultivator—” the boy said with complete honesty, his eyes fearful as something within the construct engaged. The whirring sound intensified as something within it began to grind.

“... Attempt it.” Daxian commanded. “I shall be with you.” The Elder placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder, a rope-blade uncoiling from his arm.

The boy swallowed thickly and raised the maintenance rod, beginning to walk forward. Elder Daxian was at his back and ready to whisk him to safety should the machine explode.

Yet before he could do anything, the construct of the Ancestors heaved and shuddered. Qi within it pulsed. The earth rumbled again.

The machine screamed, the gold turning to red.

There was another click and grind.

The doors slammed closed and the room pulsed with Qi, barriers springing up around the crystal and the walls.

Wen paled, turning to the Elders with panic in his eyes.

Daxian stared at him, then at the walls. The machine continued to wail.

“Unexpected.” he declared.

========================

Fists slammed into the door. The Earth Wrecker Stance, wielded by an Elder, could shatter stone like a man could shatter glass.

The Elder bounced off the barrier, the thing shimmering for a moment and the entire room shuddering.

Several of their number glanced at the ceiling as dust collected on the blue shield above their heads.

The strike failed, just as the maintenance rod had, to allow them to leave. They were, for the moment, trapped down here. The best the Azure Hills had to offer. Nearly every Elder. Trapped by curiosity.

“We might be able to break it down… but it might also bring down the ceiling. Digging our way out would be... annoying.” Daxian concluded, raising his voice slightly over the wail the machine was still emitting. Xi Kong agreed. They would likely survive such an event—but it was not guaranteed with this much stone, especially if they got trapped and couldn’t move.

Elder Chen of the Framed Sun Sect returned to the group, having gone to examine the perimeter of the vault. “One of the barriers to the east is damaged. All along the wall it flickers for two seconds, before restarting. It leads to another tunnel. Let us see if it yields answers before resorting to naked force.”

The Elder of the Rumbling Earth S3ct glared at the doorway before nodding his head.

Xi Kong glanced at the mortal Wen, who still looked like he was about to be ill.

“It’s hardly your fault, lad. If we didn’t know what would happen, you cannot be blamed for it.”

Wen nodded tentatively.

“Now, can you walk?” he asked the boy. “We’ll have to go a bit longer.”

The mortal maintenance worker swallowed thickly. True to Chen’s words, the barrier would drop, the blue colour cutting out, before it would restart with a hiss at a regular interval.

It was a simple matter to pass through it and continue on to the hallway beyond.

They set off to the east. The tunnel they were travelling down was surprisingly well lit, with glowing crystals running along it at roughly head height. They were wary of traps, but privately, Xi Kong did not think they would encounter any. If his hunch was right, this was just a maintenance tunnel.

His fellows seemed to think the same, as their stances became less guarded.

Still, the mortal was flagging, his steps starting to stumble. It certainly was a great distance to walk for a mortal and they had increased their pace.

The boy looked nervous, twitchy, and close to breaking, surrounded as he was by Elders.

“Tell me, Bao Wen. How did you become a maintenance worker?”

The boy jumped at the question. His eyes locked onto Xi Kong’s warm expression. Sweat poured down the mortal boy’s face.

“Uh... well, my father talked to Lord Bai…”

The dam broke. The boy just started talking. They went quickly from how his father was friends with Bai Huizong, to his childhood in Grass Sea City, to his worries about attending the first of his matchmaking meetings.

“And I have no Idea what to do. She’s beautiful and elegant, but how do I… How do I even… Girls, you know?”

Xi Kong and several other Elders nodded.

“Remember to order a small section of the pastries and take note of which ones she eats. If there is a second meeting, then bring more of the ones she likes, yes?”

“Ah… yes, Master Cai.” Wen nodded, taking his advice with a bewildered expression. The mortal was flagging from the walk, but trudged along admirably. “This Bao Wen thanks you humbly for your wisdom, Master Cai.”

“Indeed. Cai speaks true. Brush up upon your poetry or your ability to play an instrument. A man must have a broad selection of skills to attract a wife.” Chen said.

“This Bao Wen humbly thanks you for your wisdom, Master Chen.” the boy repeated.

Several others chimed in.

“You may not be able to take down a Spirit Beast Boy, but a woman needs to know her man can protect her. Get a spear and take out a boar! Women love that—or a rack of horns from a big buck.” Elder Gang of the Bonepile demanded.

“Your father is friends with Bai Huizong? You have connections, boy. Use them. Show your wealth and power. Perhaps even I might pitch something in. You have aided us this night and we should be generous, no?” Elder Xinling of the Greywater added, the woman looked at the boy with amusement.

“Another door ahead. Bao Wen.” Daxian stated bluntly.

The boy swallowed thickly and dashed head, scrambling over debris from the partial cave-in before the door.

The door chimed when he pointed the rod at it and opened, much to the boy’s obvious relief.

Another vault. But instead of housing a crystal, this one housed tables and shelves.

Row upon row upon row of neatly organized shelves. Bright chandeliers from which light crystals would hang. Chairs and lecterns were arranged at regular intervals.

A massive library or archive, filled to the brim with scrolls. Twice the size of his own sect’s archive.

However, the wonder had obviously seen better days. While the room was largely intact, it was still dusty and dirty, shattered crystals lay in pieces on the floor and several of the light fixtures were broken.

They approached a table, the one closest to them. It was covered in dust, but they could still see the outline of three scrolls upon it, knowledge undisturbed for thousands of years.

Guo Daxian approached, reverently lifting a scroll. He brushed some of the dust off and read the title aloud.

“Functions and maintenance of the arena stage shifting mechanism, scroll 22...”

He hummed, interested, and opened it.

It was an instruction manual. One that showed platforms of floating stone, another with lakes and waterfalls, and a third with buildings covering the floor of the Earthly Arena.

No one alive had seen the arena with anything but a bare stone floor.

“I have seen some of these symbols. But how could such a thing…. No, this part has been broken for thousands of years.”

“It would generate it? How would it generate the earth and the water?”

“To think the Earthly Arena is capable of this…”

The other scrolls were scroll twenty one and twenty three. Each with their own revelation.

“Truly, the wisdom of the ancestors is unsurpassed.” Guo Daxian declared.

None cared to disagree.

“Perhaps we may find a way to turn off the barriers within the scrolls?” Xi Kong suggested.

“Good idea, Elder Cai:” Daxian complimented. “We should attempt to find the mechanism. To have to free ourselves by breaking this place would be a sin, and dishonor our ancestors. No harm shall come to these works.”

There was a chorus of agreement.

Several Elders split off to explore to the sides, but Xi Kong simply kept walking, heading straight for the back. The place was neatly organized. The lanes between shelves had arrows, upon which side a man should walk, when they are going in a certain direction. There were a few broken carts clearly meant to hold scrolls.

But there were no bodies. It would seem that every man within had just… disappeared. He took a moment to pull another scroll off the shelf. A maintenance log on one of the floating mechanisms, along with what they had done to fix it. They would have to remove this entire archive and set it somewhere else. Or keep it secret.

He set the scroll back in its place and looked at the room. A treasure trove of lost knowledge. Each scroll he pulled off revealed more manuals on mechanisms or were more maintenance logs. There was even a pay stub for one of the workers, but Xi Kong didn’t understand the currency that was being used.

The vault… contained the complete knowledge on how to build and maintain the Earthly Arena. Written by the ancestors themselves, whole and undamaged, instead of pierced together from carvings in the walls or oral histories.

But all this was useless if they didn’t find a way out.

Xi Kong made a circuit of the vault.

The rest of the entrances were blocked with rubble. They would either have to find the answers in here… or dig their way out. And digging their way out risked damaging this archive.

Xi Kong took in a breath and started looking for a scroll with “cycle” upon it.

====================

It was several hours later when one of them found what they were looking for.

“Its one of the regulators for the floating mechanisms. It says here if it detects damage… Its also one of the security mechanisms. With so much of it destroyed, it thought it was under attack and so activated every defensive measure it could.” The Elder of the Azure Horizon Sect stated.

“Thus locking the doors and activating the barriers. Is there any way to remove this?” Daxian asked.

“....yes. But we’ll need the mortal’s assistance, and to dig out some of the components. Or simply wait until it runs out of energy again.”

Several started arguing the merits between attempting a repair and simply waiting it out, for it likely didn’t have much energy left.

Somebody started brewing tea. Bao Wen had taken off his outer layers and bunched them up like a pillow, trying to get some sleep.

Smart lad. They could be here for a while. He chuckled as the arguments started between the Elders. At least the priceless scrolls prevented them from exchanging blows.

Xi Kong sighed. All he could feel was the humming of the Qi from the machine and the resonating barriers.

It had been rather a long time since he had gone on such an adventure.