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Legends of Ogre Gate
Legends of Ogre Gate Read online
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Demon Emperor Era Map
Qi Xien Map
Dedication
Prologue: Time
Chapter 1: A Brush
Chapter 2: Five Spades
Chapter 3: Benches
Chapter 4: A Sissy to Fight
Chapter 5: Crunch
Chapter 6: Fingernails
Chapter 7: A Finger
Chapter 8: Hail of Arrows
Chapter 9: Under the Pillow
Chapter 10: That Spot
Chapter 11: Cats and Rats
Chapter 12: Disdain of the Ogre
Chapter 13: Lessons Not Learned
Chapter 14: Rooftops
Chapter 15: It Has to Work This Time!
Chapter 16: The Only Question
Chapter 17: Crazy!
Chapter 18: The Whole Bowl!
Chapter 19: Younger and Skinnier
Chapter 20: Like a Grape
Chapter 21: I REFUSE!
Chapter 22: Wu-Sunan
Chapter 23: We’ve Got Company
Chapter 24: Don't Do That
Chapter 25: Protect Daolu
Chapter 26: Metalsmith
Chapter 27: An Eye
Chapter 28: Confident
Chapter 29: Scouts
Chapter 30: Tree Protectors
Chapter 31: Delicacies
Chapter 32: Anything!
Chapter 33: Three Pieces of Paper
Chapter 34: Blue
Chapter 35: A Jade Bottle
Chapter 36: The Time Has Come…
Chapter 37: Sit Down
Chapter 38: Dianxue v. Cathartic
Chapter 39: Wind
Chapter 40: Poetry and Dreams
Chapter 41: Urgent News
Chapter 42: Qinggong
Chapter 43: Surprise!
Chapter 44: City Walls
Chapter 45: A Golden Spear
Chapter 46: A Message
Chapter 47: Explosive Flight
Chapter 48: A Zhen Bird
Chapter 49: Two Boxes
Chapter 50: Meteor Hammers
Chapter 51: Sulfur. Saltpeter. Charcoal.
Chapter 52: Doors and Padlocks
Chapter 53: The Timeless Master
Chapter 54: Council Meeting
Chapter 55: Two Knives
Chapter 56: A Vial
Chapter 57: The Shan
Chapter 58: An Ancient Character
Chapter 59: Scroll Painting
Chapter 60: An Offer
Chapter 61: Chrysanthemum Lake
Chapter 62: Zun Shan
Chapter 63: A Debate
Chapter 64: Flying Crocodiles?
Chapter 65: The Speaker
Chapter 66: Ping
Chapter 67: A Letter
Chapter 68: Bronze Drum
Chapter 69: Footprints
Chapter 70: Fierce Fighting
Chapter 71: Sending a Message
Chapter 72: Zhizhu Coral
Chapter 73: Magistrate Zhou
Chapter 74: A Secret
Chapter 75: Shocked to the Core!
Chapter 76: A Rope and a Sack
Chapter 77: A Most Momentous Event
Chapter 78: More Names
Chapter 79: Growing Up
Chapter 80: Gates
Chapter 81: Journeys
Chapter 82: Women and Children
Chapter 83: Pulses
Chapter 84: A Potion in a Vial
Chapter 85: North Tower
Chapter 86: Look!
Chapter 87: Kun-Peng
Chapter 88: Exchanging Blows
Chapter 89: Souls
Chapter 90: Revelations
Chapter 91: It Has Three
Chapter 92: A Bear in a Cave
Chapter 93: Altering the Formation
Chapter 94: The Attack Begins
Chapter 95: Arrows
Chapter 96: Trickery?
Chapter 97: The World Trembled
Chapter 98: Golden Lions
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Other Wuxia Novels
Legends of Ogre Gate
By Jeremy Bai
ISBN: 978-1-7923-0661-7
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from the author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.
© 2019 Jeremy Bai and Bedrock Games
Edited by Crystal Watanabe
Cover art by Mario Saggia
Map art by Michael Prescott and Josephe Vandel
Legends of Ogre Gate was originally released in serialized form on WuxiaWorld.com. I would like to offer profound thanks to all of the beta readers who offered feedback and constructive criticism there, as well the team who helped me prepare the initial chapters for launch.
Dedicated to my wife, who makes everything possible
Prologue: Time
Year 1075
Reign of the Demon Emperor
An arrow smacked into the mud in front of Hui’s nose, and she blinked. The entire left side of her face was pressed down into the muddy street, her head spinning like a top.
The sounds of fighting met her ears. Clashing metal. Screaming.
Dying.
Pain stabbed through her right eye all the way to her left temple, jolting her into lucidity.
She blinked again, then swiveled over and pushed herself up onto her knees. She saw chaos.
People were fighting everywhere. A bolt of lightning illuminated the night sky, followed by a clap of thunder that reverberated in her ears.
A drop of rain hit her nose.
She slowly shook her head, trying to clear it, and that was when another arrow stabbed into the ground, this time next to her foot. Then another and another, eventually becoming a volley aimed directly at her.
Just as she was about to be turned into a pincushion, a blur emerged in front of her, and someone grabbed her by the shoulder. A sword spun through the air to deflect the oncoming arrows.
“Get her out of here!” someone shouted, and whoever had grabbed her arm pulled her off her feet.
Her vision blurred again, and she felt herself being thrown over a shoulder. Her head smacked against someone’s back, and whoever it was then began to run at top speed.
The sword, she thought. Where is it?
“I have it,” the person responded. Only then did she realize that she had actually spoken those words aloud. The voice belonged to a man, a man she recognized.
“Just hold on,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
More running. Turns left and right and left until she lost count, but as the man ran, her thoughts grew even clearer.
We were betrayed. By who? And… Bao Yang has the sword. Bao Yang? BAO YANG?
She tried to turn her head to confirm the identity of the man who was carrying her. She was almost sure it was Bao Yang, but then again, it was hard to say.
Bao Yang has the sword.
Hui’s teeth started to chatter. Everything was falling apart. All their plans. All their training. Had it been all for nothing?
All of a sudden, she felt herself swinging off of Bao Yang’s shoulder, and then she was plopped down onto a hard surface. A box, a crate of some sort. She looked around.
They were in an underground chamber or warehouse. She heard running water and saw the glow of torches. Somewhere in the background, she was sure she could detect the chatter of rats and mice.
Bao Yang crouched down in front of her. He was tall, powerfully built, with perpetually suspicious eyes. In his younger days, he had been considered one of the top rising figures in the martial world and had even managed to build a powerful criminal organization th
at controlled much of the southern reaches of the continent.
In the end, he ran afoul of the Demon Emperor. Rumor had it that he had been forced to watch while his wife and daughters were raped and beheaded, his lieutenants skinned alive, and his apprentices boiled to death.
After escaping somehow, he sold his services to the highest bidder as a mercenary. Although he was not a villain, he was no hero, and Hui happened to dislike him. What made it worse was that the character Bao that made up his surname was the same character as the name of the most famous woman in history: Heroine Bao.
Hui idolized Heroine Bao for many, many reasons, and she dreamed of accomplishing heroic deeds just like her. The only thing that made the connection tolerable was that while Bao was Bao Yang’s surname, Hui happened to know that Heroine Bao’s actual surname was something completely different.
Bao Yang looked her in the eye. “Are you clearheaded?” he asked. “You took a hard knock to the head.”
She put her fingers to her temples and rubbed them gingerly. “I’m fine,” she replied. “What are you going to do with me?”
His face was virtually expressionless as he stared back at her. “What do you think? Get this sword to your master.”
Her brow furrowed. “But you… you’re…”
This time he frowned. “I’m what? Not one of you idealistic idiots? No, I’m not. But I’ll take any chance I can get to stick a thorn in the side of the Demon Emperor, and helping you people is exactly that. Plus, I have lots of money on the line here. Can you walk? Can you run?”
She rose to her feet and slowly shook out her hands and feet. “I can run.”
“Then let’s go.”
Bao Yang started running, and she followed. It was then that she noticed the cloth bundle strapped to his back, the bundle that, until recently, she had been entrusted with. The sword.
That sword was the key to everything. It was hope. Their only hope.
Bao Yang had obviously taken it when she was knocked unconscious.
As she ran, her head cleared, and the pain from before faded into a dull throb. Her training took over, and she began to circulate her qi. It took a while, but she got her bearings.
She knew these alleys. They were in Yu Zhing, an ancient city that went back thousands of years. Back to the time before the Demon Emperor came. Back before the world began its descent into darkness.
Some legends said that Heroine Bao was born in Yu Zhing, and Hui couldn’t help but wonder if she might have run down this very alley at one point in her life.
As she followed Bao Yang through the alleys, she quickly realized what he was doing. He was taking a circuitous route to their original destination, to the place where her master waited.
As she settled into running, she focused her breathing and her thoughts. Perhaps the plan could still be carried out. If Bao Yang could really bring the sword to the underground temple, to her master, if the ritual really could be carried out, then perhaps things would change.
Time passed.
Twenty minutes later, they were in a wide underground corridor, in the middle of which was a channel filled with flowing water. The rain had clearly picked up outside.
“Everything look normal to you?” Bao Yang asked.
She nodded.
“Well,” he said, “you know what to do. Hurry it up.”
She took the lead and led him through the corridor, carefully avoiding the stones she knew to be traps. In one place, she motioned for him to duck down, and he did. When they reached the thick wooden door at the end of the corridor, she checked the secret symbols carved off to the side to make sure that it was safe, then knocked in the prescribed fashion.
The door was unbarred and opened, and light spilled out to reveal a hall filled with candles.
Her master sat cross-legged at the far end of the hall, flanked on either side by various robed figures. Some were monks or nuns, devotees of Hen-Shi, who most people said had been killed along with the wind god, Gushan, countless years in the past. The others were disciples of her master, the remnants of one of the most ancient sects in the world, whose robes were embroidered with a symbol resembling an intertwined dragon and phoenix, the mark of Sunan and Bao.
Whenever Hui saw that symbol, her heart filled with awe and hope. She had grown up hearing stories about Sunan and Bao and could recite every one of them by heart. She knew the Betrayal of the Emerald Monk, the Fall of Daolu, the Ballad of the Timeless Master, the Defeat at Heart’s Ridge, Sunan and Bao Steal the Zhizhu Coral, the Battle of the Cat Demons, and so many more.
Bao Yang brushed past the disciple who had opened the door, who smiled oddly at him as he passed, although neither Bao Yang nor Hui noticed that. As Bao Yang stalked across the temple toward Hui’s master, he reached up and untied the bundle strapped to his back. The sword.
Hui quickly trotted to catch up.
“Greetings, Iron Crab,” her master said. He was a middle-aged man with long salt-and-pepper hair and piercing eyes.
“Dispense with the formalities,” Bao Yang replied. “Here’s the sword. Now where’s my money?”
Hui hurried around to sit down cross-legged next to her master.
“As direct as ever, I see,” her master said. “Give me the sword. Once the ritual begins and the sword is proven to be legitimate, I’ll give you your money.” He reached into his robe and pulled out a plump bag, which he placed on his knee with a muffled clink.
Bao Yang glared for a moment, then frowned. Finally, he threw the bundle over.
Hui’s master grabbed it and quickly unwrapped the cloth. Inside was what appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary sword.
When Bao Yang saw it, he snorted. “That’s it?”
Hui’s master breathed out slowly. “This is most definitely it.”
He held the sword aloft with both hands, whereupon one of the monks who had been kneeling off to the side rose to his feet and took it into his hands.
“Begin the ritual,” Hui’s master said. “Our friend here is anxious to leave, as am I.”
The monk nodded. Two nuns appeared from the nearby shadows, carrying a small iron cauldron filled with white sand between them. They placed it on the floor in front of Hui’s master, and the monk carefully stabbed the sword down into the white sand. A handful of incense sticks appeared in the monk’s hand, which he then placed into the sand around the sword, arranging them in a complex formation. The nuns produced a brazier, which they used to light the incense sticks.
Nothing happened.
Bao Yang snorted again. “You people are crazy,” he said. “I told you from the beginning your little trick wouldn’t work. Did you really think you could force that sword to fail in its function? Now give me my money.”
“There is more to it than that,” Hui’s master said.
As if on cue, green smoke began to rise up from the incense. At first it simply swirled around the cauldron like ordinary smoke, but then it began to form the shape of an hourglass. Complex green and yellow symbols began to appear on the blade of the sword. Light began to shine.
Hui’s master smiled. “It is authentic,” he said. “Very well, take your money and go.”
With that, he tossed the bag over to Bao Yang.
Bao Yang snatched it out of the air, and without another word, turned to leave.
It was at this point that a cold voice split the air.
“You won’t be going anywhere, Bao Yang!” The voice came from the disciple who had opened the door for them moments ago.
Bao Yang stopped in place, and his hand went to the handle of the sturdy mace he kept tied to his belt.
The disciple stepped forward, and as he did, his facial features began to ripple like water. He grew taller, his clothes changed, and a moment later, he was a different person.
He looked like a scholar, with long green robes and a fan tucked into his belt.
“Hidden Arrow!” growled Bao Yang. “I should have killed you when I had the chance!”
Bao Yang spat on the ground. “I’d rather bash my own skull in than be a whore for the Demon Emperor!”
Hidden Arrow’s eyes flashed. “If it’s death you seek, I can accommodate you!”
Bao Yang hefted his mace. Farther back, Hui’s master rose to his feet, as did all the monks and nuns. Weapons were drawn with the sound of steel on leather.
“Hidden Arrow,” Hui’s master said, “why do you tread this path? Surely you see that our world is a dismal one. A world of pain and suffering, of choking clouds and fire. If you schemed against the Demon Emperor instead of people like us, we might be able to live in a very different world.”
Hui looked between Hidden Arrow and her master. He was trying to buy time.
Hidden Arrow chuckled. “I have my own plans, and they’re none of your concern. This little revival of the Dragon-Phoenix Sect that you have worked out is ridiculous. Sunan and Bao died a millennium ago, and their sect went with them. What is done cannot be undone.”
“Yet again you prove your ignorance, Hidden Arrow. The Dragon-Phoenix Sect did not fall a thousand years ago. It has been hiding in the shadows, planning and preparing for this very day. What was done can be undone, and it will!”
Hidden Arrow snorted. “Hand over that sword immediately, and you might leave this place alive!”
It was at this point that Hui noticed the rustling sounds coming from the shadows in the corners of the room.
The House of Paper Shadows? she thought, and her heart began to pound even harder.
A voice rang out in Hui’s mind. Her master’s voice. Hui, Hidden Arrow is a profound master and utilizes deadly poisons. Prepare yourself!
Yes, Master.
Hui needed no prompting from her master. She was young, only about fifteen or sixteen, but she was more experienced than many fighters in the world.
“Screw you, bastard,” shouted Bao Yang, lunging forward with his mace. “Bone Blasting Mace!”
His mace smashed through the air toward Hidden Arrow but ended up blasting nothing but air. Hidden Arrow shot backward at incredible speed, then snapped his fan open.
A metallic droning filled the air, and Hui twirled her fingers, causing her twin daggers to whirl as she spun into the move Deflecting Canopy.
Legends of Ogre Gate