Mirror of Truth 4

"You've gotta be joking… are those…" Alex muttered, with his finger pointing at them. "Like actual dragons and phoenixes?"

"Real like horses. Too weak to shape-shift, too wild to reason with, but went through the final evolution, be it earth or other worlds all the same. The more powerful the primeval being is, the more beasts they control. All require a cordial trusting relationship to control, like pets," Fuji explained.

Alex recalled Yata's two brothers. They were like him, spiders, but Yata is the only one able to take human form. Then he recalled Kanghui's words about the four beasts: Taotie, Taowu, Qiongqi and Hundun.

'The monsters you mentioned are just our pets.' Kanghui's words when he first entered the hidden dimension echoed in his mind.

"So, why are those beasts here?"

"Showing you my memory of the conflict between Nüwa and Kanghui."

"Whose side were you on?" Alex asked.

The legends referred to Fuxi as the brother-husband of Nüwa. Would he be showing Alex his side of the story?

Alas, Alex couldn't ask Kanghui for fear of triggering her fury again. If not for the sudden appearance of Yasomagatsuhi, she might have demolished the entire place, especially accompanied by Arahabaki. Fuxi was his only hope now.

"None. It was an all out war among primeval beings of all factions, not just Xitian or Takamagahara, and the first humans bore the catastrophic price," Fuxi gazed at the skies now filling up with more beasts hovering over the human settlements and the fortress city.

The clouds were rolling in, darkening the atmosphere before them. Day soon turned into night. Flashes of lightning sliced through the now dark greyish clouds as the thunder boomed loudly with each flash.

"That city," he continued with his head tilting in its direction, "is more advanced than what you have now on Earth. Like one of the many others on the planet."

Alex watched a glittering force-field rising around the fortress city and the settlements to form a dome of a shield, beyond current day Earth's technology.

"Nothing left of them except for a few ruins, the second batch of humans, your fore-bearers, found," Fuxi lamented.

"Ruins? Like which one?"

"Pumapunku, that would be our South American counterparts in La Paz, Bolivia. The underwater city in Fuxian lake in Yunnan, China. Yonaguni Jima in Okinawa, Japan. And a few which the humans don't know the name of, or haven't dug deep enough," Fuxi replied.

Alex knew these ancient sites where scholars couldn't agree on the dating because that meant human technological advancements began long before, against well established archaeological methods like carbon dating.

The site of Pumapunku itself was a mystery. A few years ago, Alex remembered his classmate mentioning that the stone cutting skills resembled laser cutting after a trip back from Bolivia.

He had marvelled at the detailed macro photos his classmate had taken of the andesite and red sandstone structures, especially the double curved lintels, in Pumapunku. The cuts made were almost laser precision and not by simple chiselling. Even modern day stonemasons couldn't replicate the work.

"But Pumapunku dated back to current era 536."

Fuxi shook his head. "It's much older than that. They built those structures to last a long time. A lot of human usage and remodelling, but believe what you may."

The ancient underwater city of Fuxian lake and Yonaguni Jima made Alex frown. He only read in brief about them to know the general gist. Most of the site exploration in both ruins required diving, which was more difficult than land excavations.

"They said that there is a pyramid there in the underwater city of Fuxian. Like the Mayan ones."

"Like Yonaguni Jima," Fuxi added.

A loud booming noise of a thousand war drums being beaten from afar distracted them from the banter.

"So it has started…" Fuji muttered.

Alex blinked and found himself standing on the hill overlooking the shielded city. He felt strange and looked down at his clothing. It has changed to a turquoise flowing hanfu gown with flapping sleeves in the wind. His hair was longer, waist length instead of shoulder length.

Fuxi had disappeared from his sight.

Then he spotted the familiar face of Kanghui, dressed in a black ancient flowing gown of shimmering silk with a snake emblem emblazoned on it. Instead of her modern outfit, which made her look like a hot goth chick. Her hairstyle bore similarities to the ancient Chinese men in the televised period drama, with a black snake hair piece tying her hair into a pony tail.

Almost like a man, Alex thought.

Kanghui looked taller, but she had two legs, unlike Fuxi. Her presence radiated a regal aura, with no sign of her gloomy blackish wisps, even when she stood there in silence, looking straight ahead with her eyes trained on something approaching.

Alex followed her gaze and saw Fuxi following Nüwa - both were also in human guise.

"My sister, are you sure?" Kanghui spoke in a more masculine voice, yet cordial.

"Destroy the plains. It's an act to spare us from the war."

"Those humans…," Kanghui trailed off and turned her head towards the city. "They are your work."

Alex detected a tone of hesitancy in Kanghui's voice, like an unwillingness.

"A failed experiment - any way I wish to dispose of them is my choice."

"So be it," Chongli's voice emanated from Alex's mouth.

Alex tried to cover his mouth, but it was as though his body was on autopilot.

"You, take down the shields of all the cities along the plains, and I will channel the floods to them," Kanghui said as she threw a bulging bag at him.

"I don't know why, but I actually think it's a bad idea," Chongli (Alex) muttered.

"She's my elder sister. I trust her."

"Nüwa can destroy them herself, but why is she asking you? In this war, it is better to keep out, be neutral, sit back and do nothing until they attack us. So far, it's contained in other regions," Chongli (Alex) countered as they walked along a path away from Nüwa and Fuxi.

"Perhaps it is hard for her."

"Or she could climb over your head. You are dispatching your top people. She isn't doing anything but ordering you about," Chongli (Alex) argued.

So far, Alex could agree with Chongli's line of thought. Why lift a finger to take so many lives?

"I understand if you want to pull out," Kanghui replied. "It doesn't make you less of a friend."

Friend? Chongli was Kanghui's friend at one stage. Alex thought through the events. Chongli had selected Kanghui's site and placed a device to trap his soul into the hidden dimension.

Chongli (Alex) threw the bag back at her. "I will. Something tells me that this matter may not end up well."

Then Alex found himself sucked out of Chongli's human form and found himself beside Fuxi again in the hall.

"That was close," Fuxi huffed. "I should have noticed that one of your energy waves belongs to Chongli. This hall can go up in flames if its seal activates within the Mirror of Truth."

That didn't sound surprising with what Alex knew of Chongli's energy wave. Arahabaki had told him about how it nearly set even Da Siming on fire. He just needed to control that energy wave, but that isn't the most important thing. The vision Fuxi granted him of his memory did not answer his question why Kanghui detested Nüwa with such magnitude.

Alex stepped back. "What happened after Kanghui destroyed the cities in the central plains? Or did Kanghui not succeed?"

"Ah, the real reason, Kanghui took the fall for Nüwa, even though I tried to testify for her to the Xitian Council. That's why I choose to isolate myself in the Mirror of Truth while Nüwa enjoys that prestige of being the mother creator in the legends."

That must have been bad, judging from Fuxi's words.

"Nüwa lied, but Kanghui never said a thing in defence," Fuxi said softly. "You know Jiuwei, right?"

"The nine-tailed fox who caused the fall of the Shang dynasty? I've met him," Alex replied.

Fuxi nodded. "Yes. Anyone betrayed or abandoned by Nüwa gains Kanghui's protection. That tradition begun after Kanghui escaped from the Void."

"What is the Void?"

"A prison for recalcitrant primeval beings. Worse than a human's imagination of hell. The Void is an emptiness that seals off all your powers, your senses, but keeps your consciousness alive just empty. Usually impossible to escape, but Kanghui did through strange circumstances," Fuxi explained.

"Why didn't Xitian try to imprison her again?" Alex asked and then quickly added, "not that I want my mentor to get imprisoned again."

Fuxi sighed in regret. The damage done to Kanghui and her deputies in the Void was beyond reparation.

Kanghui had made unsavory alliances with some of the worst primeval beings from other factions, not just Takamagahara during the great escape from the Void.

Not to mention the repeats of the great deluge repeated on the central plains each time Xitian tried to recapture Kanghui. Some of which traced back to Kanghui's many newfound friends. Over a few millennia, Xitian gave up and left Kanghui alone.

Nobody knew who it was or what that opened the flood gates from the void, releasing the worst of the worst primeval beings. Less said is always better.

"Xitian has their reasons," Fuxi said and then paused. "when you get back to the Courts of Hell, don't tell her you spoke to me."

Alex held no suicidal thoughts. Fuxi's name may trigger a repeat of the incident with Nüwa's statue.

"When can I return?" Alex asked.

Pointing to a faint lighted outline of a closed door, Fuxi said, "walk through there."