Yin and Yang

I was ready to punch the creepy thin man in the face and break all sorts of havoc on his men but Xander got to him first.

I was really surprised at what he did. Xander was the oldest member of our group as well as the most level-headed, but I guessed Fa Xiao Min's greed and what he said made him finally snap.

"You dragged us here to disturb the lost tomb of one of the ancient emperors of China and now you want to sell these innocent creatures? Are you really out of your mind? Like bloody hell I'd let you!" he yelled angrily in English and with an English accent.

After all, he was half-English and half-Japanese, so he could pull off the accent really well.

As I watched the scene, I felt the surroundings get colder and it made me raise an eyebrow. I found it weird.

"You may not see it because of your greed," Xander continued but he switched in Mandarin. "But these fishes are important to this place. This is the only place where they can live and support the balance of the world."

"Xander-ge calm down." I said and held his hand.

"You tell him! He can't ever disturb these fishes! This place must never be disturbed by anyone!"

Xander was really angry but he had a point. When I heard him say that the koi fishes support the balance of the world I remembered an ancient belief of the Chinese people.

"Mister Fa, do you know what ley lines are?"

"No? Should I?" he responded in a flat tone. I resisted the urge to pummel him.

"Leylines or dragon lines for the Chinese are lines of energy that run all over the world. Important monuments, temples, tombs, etc. are usually built according to those lines." I explained.

"And how is that related to these fishes?"

"Let me finish. Cities, tombs, palaces, any infrastructures were created with those in mind to make sure its success. Now these lines are sometimes associated with the concept of yin and yang."

"Good and evil." Kyle said.

"Black and white, like Tim's necklace." Seven added.

"Yes. They are also depicted as male and female, dragon and phoenix, and their friendliest symbol, the carps or koi fishes."

"Like the movie? Avatar The Legend of Aang?" asked Calvin.

"Exactly. If what Xander said is the truth, these giant koi fishes help the world's balance so it is imperative that they stay undisturbed. Do you get what I mean Mister Fa Xiao Min?" I gave him a stern look.

He was silent for a few seconds before answering; "Whatever. As long as I get what I want inside the tomb."

"Hyung question." Calvin called. "I still don't get the connection between koi fishes and leylines."

"Right."

"Lei-hyung," Blake called as well. "How did these koi fishes get here? And how did they get so big?"

"I'm not sure. Koi fishes are originally from China you know, but they were popularized in Japan."

"Koi fishes are mutated carps brought by the Chinese to Japan originally to be food." Artemis added. We gave her skeptical looks, asking how she knew it. "What? I do read you know."

"She's right though. The first koi, mutated carp, ever recorded was a gift to Confucius' son by King Shoko of Ro thousands of years ago. Where he found it remained a mystery. This pool of water is probably fed by the nearby river and probably originally had carps but got mutated. The reason why and how probably has something to do with this place."

"What do you mean?" Jessa asked.

"Guys? Is no one going to answer my question?" Calvin complained.

"Here it is Calvin, so listen well. This place is probably an energy spot. Many leylines converge at this area. It's what's probably powering up the glowing crystals and made these koi fishes grow in such massive size. And where's the best place to put living symbols of yin and yang? An energy spot is obviously the answer." I explained.

"This is no time to talk about nonsense Zhang. You're basically saying everything is connected to magic." Mister Fa pointed out.

"When you're in this line of work you believe in just about anything Mister Fa." I stated. "But why are there only eleven koi fishes? Yin and yang is all about balance though."

"They said," Xander started. "Their twelfth brother was taken thousands of years ago. They had never seen him since."

We just stared agape at Xander.

"Sorry Xander but the fishes said what?" Seven asked.

Xander repeated what he said.

"You said 'they'. Who are they? And how did you exactly-"

Artemis did not finish her question and just looked skeptically at Xander. The latter pursed his lips together, took a deep breath and told us one of his precious secrets.

"Because I can understand them. Animals, insects, I can understand them. I don't know how or why but for as long as I can remember, I had been always able to understand and converse with them. And you probably think I'm crazy."

The strangest thing was… I believed him. I mean, I did remember my past life which resembled a fantasy-adventure involved with fighting and magic, so knowing he could understand animals and insects wasn't really a shock to me anymore. But I was curious on why he could understand them though.

Everyone else looked at him like he was crazy, but I smiled and gave him a hug.

"The most taciturn and reserved member of our group actually has a very strange secret." I whispered. "I have one as well, but let's wait until we're all together again."

I faced the rest of them.

"Think whatever you want but after all this you'll believe in things you neither knew nor believed before."

I asked Fa Xiao Min that we rest in the center islet before we proceed inside the other cave entrance and luckily he agreed (with a lot of protest).

Xander, Artemis, Kyle and I were at the edge of the center islet. We were talking to the fish… well more like Xander was translating for us just to have the conversation. Blake and Calvin were eating with Jessa.

"They said a man who called himself King Shoko of Ro took their brother thousands of years ago. Back then they were only just three-feet long."

"It actually makes sense!" I blurted after a long thought. "The first recorded mutated carp was a gift of King Shoko of Ro to Confucius' son. It's possible that he took that koi here! Fishes tell me… how old are you?"

"'We had been here for a very long time. We can't remember. We lost count at three thousand.' they said."

"Wow." Artemis gaped. "They're really old then."

"How are they still alive? And why are they so big?" Kyle asked.

"'The one called Lei is right. This is an energy spot.' said that one on the far left." Xander pointed to a koi with bright red and white scales and was probably the biggest. "'The dragon lines converge in this place so we are always bathed in pure energy.' said this guy here." he pointed to the one Artemis was petting.

"But if taken away from here you'd die."

"They all agree."

"But seriously you're so big. It's amazing." Artemis said and petted more of them.

"How did Emperor Yue find such a good place to be buried on?" I asked no one in particular.

"One of them said that this place was a sacred and secret meeting place of Qiqi and his closest friends. Wait, who's Qiqi?"

"Probably the emperor's nickname." I guessed. "You say this is a meeting place?"

"That scarlet one says yes. She said there were three best friends to be exact, Qiqi, Riya and Li Er. Sometimes Liu Fen and Shen Yu also tag along."

At the mention of those names, my eyes definitely lit up. I had read Emperor Yue's biography and all stories about him and his conquests, plus the stories about my family's relation to him.

According to what I read, Emperor Yue, birth name Liu Qing, was the emperor with the shortest years of reign. He was the seventh emperor of the Han Dynasty and ruled for ten years from 141 BC to 131 BC. He retired and relinquished his throne to his brother, Liu Che, who later became Emperor Wu. His reign involved a lot of military conquests and expansion which was continued and improved by his successor.

He only had one wife, Empress Hong, which was rare and looked down upon in ancient times, and they only had one daughter who later died at the age of sixteen. He also had no sons to serve as his heirs. But according to conspiracies, he was only holding unto the throne until his eleventh younger brother, Liu Che, was old and mature enough to govern the empire. Their father, Emperor Jing, was wary of having an empress dowager govern as regent ever since the rule of Grand Empress Dowager Lu and the Lu Clan Disturbance.

In the stories, the emperor had four trusted companions:

General Shen Yu, commander of the Red Dragon Troop, Emperor Yue's personal army. He was also the emperor's cousin from his mother's side;

General Liu Fen, commander of the Imperial Guards and his younger brother;

Zhang Li Er, his best friend, strategist and adviser, as well as my ancestor;

And lastly a mysterious lady whose identity was neither revealed nor discovered and her existence was actually full of doubts and questions.

In most records only the two generals and my ancestor were depicted as the emperor's trusted comrades, the mysterious lady's involvement was more like theories and conspiracies. In those theories the lady was the emperor's lucky charm of sorts. They said she was the reason Emperor Yue won his battles. Others say she was the emperor's secret lover. Other sources also stated that she was an immortal spirit sent by the gods to help Emperor Yue rule.

Well, nobody really knew the real story.

"Hey," I called. "Was there really a woman among the emperor's most trusted comrades?"

"They're saying yes. She was called Riya. And now they're just chanting the name Hauria over and over again."

"Hauria." I heard Artemis mutter. "Sounds familiar."

Jessa suddenly came to us and told us that we were leaving. We said our goodbyes to the koi fishes but Xander remained and told us he would catch up.

We gathered our things and proceeded to the last islet, the one that was near the biggest waterfalls. When we got there, we saw an opening behind the waterfalls, but there was a problem.

"How do we exactly get there?" Calvin asked.

There was no path that led to the cave's entrance from where we were.

"Did you guys use boats?" Kyle asked Fa Xiao Min.

"No, my men swam." he replied.

"Seriously?" Blake questioned. "Our supplies could get wet and damaged, and I can't swim. Calvin can't swim either."

Calvin nodded his head frantically.

We were on a stump. There was no path and we couldn't take the risk of swimming with our things on our backs. There was also nothing we could use as a boat.

"You should've brought an inflatable boat or something genius." Artemis commented with full of sarcasm.

"Tch, Shut it."

I sighed and started to look. I was hoping to find some sort of clue that could get us out of that situation. The crystal shards scattered all over the islet caught my attention.

"Hey Mister Fa, have you taken any of these shards?" I asked.

"No." was his immediate answer. "Well we tried but we could never get them out."

"What do you mean?"

"We tried to take some crystals as samples but once we're out of the cave the crystals would just vanish." Jessa explained. I gave her a skeptical look. "It's true! Promise! We were sure we took some with us but every time we checked the container there's no crystal. Every single time. And every time we checked the crystals in the islet again, they're back to their usual number, eighty-eight crystals in different sizes and shapes."

'Magic crystals?' I thought. 'Could they be some sort of clue?'

At that perfect moment, Xander joined us.

"The crystals! They're keys!" he shouted.

"What do you mean hyung?" Calvin asked.

"The koi fishes, well Zed-"

"""Zed?""" everyone asked in unison.

"One of the koi fishes. I gave all of them names, so what? No don't answer that."

Everyone just stared and started saying 'nothing' and pretended to be interested in something else.

"Continue Xander-ge." I encouraged.

"Anyway Zed said some of the crystals are keys. You just have to find the one that's different."

"Find the one that's different?" I asked, a little doubtful. "How?"

"I've no idea, but he said you would."

I pointed to myself and he nodded. I was very confused that time because I really had no idea. I started to look around and laid my eyes on the crystals. I picked one up and studied it.

The glowing crystal was smooth to the touch and was shaped like a cylinder. I looked at the biggest rock at the center of the islet and went closer. The first thing I noticed was the hole at the center of the rock. The rock was as tall as my waist and it was shaped like a boulder.

"Lei?" I heard Artemis call.

"Hey, is it normal for rocks to look like that? And have holes at the center shaped like a hexagon?" I asked.

Artemis and Jessa went to my direction and studied the hexagon-shaped hole in the middle of the boulder-like rock.

"Do you think we need a hexagon shaped crystal?" Artemis questioned.

"Probably."

"Everyone!" Jessa yelled. "Find all the hexagon-shaped crystals in this islet!"

Five minutes later, twenty hexagon-shaped cylinder crystals were laid in front of me.

'One that feels different huh.' I thought, remembering Xander's advice (well Zed the koi actually).

I skeptically picked up one crystal and studied it. I felt it in my hand, weighed it and even rubbed it on my face. But ten crystals later…

"Gah! How the hell am I supposed to tell which one's different?!" I said in frustration. "They all look and feel the same!"

"Lei-hyung calm down." Calvin patted my shoulder. "Just continue, maybe something will happen?"

He gave me a reassuring smile and handed another crystal. The moment I touched it, I could immediately feel that it was different form the other crystals I had inspected so far. To make sure, I checked the rest of the crystals.

'That's strange.'

I carried the crystal in both my hands and noticed the reddish spot at one of its sides. It immediately made me suspicious.

"Hey Calvin, were you the one that found this?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Where?"

"There." he pointed at the edge of the islet where a big glowing crystal was located.

The crystal felt heavier than the other crystals and the longer I touched it, I felt some sort of pulse inside.

"Did you… pick this up while bleeding?"

"Huh?" he checked his left hand. "Damn it! I'm bleeding!"

Seven immediately became a mother hen and fussed over Calvin's slightly bleeding hand. The latter kept telling him it was fine, but Seven cleaned and covered the cut. I let out a smile at the scene.

I put my attention back to the crystal and tried wiping the blood stain, but it didn't vanish.

"That's strange." I muttered. "And it's spreading?"

The red spot continued to spreading until the entire crystal and its glow became red. Without second doubts I placed it on the hole in the center of the rock.

A few seconds later, the crystal turned clockwise and familiar letters glowed on the rock's surface.

"I've never seen those characters before." said Kyle.

'Of course you haven't. It's not even supposed to be in this world.' I thought. 'Now how did the letters of the Rexon Empire get here?'

"The entrance of the tomb is filled with it yet none of the experts I hired could decipher it." Fa Xiao Min added.

"Those characters… it says 'Ring the doorbell.'"

"What?"

"Let's ring the doorbell then." I pushed the crystal in.