Chronicles of Heaven - Chapter 0

Tune: Sheep on the Slope
Thinking of the Past on My Way to Tong Pass 

Peaks like brows knit,
Angry waves spit.
With mountain and river far and near,
On the road to Tong Pass I appear.
Gazing on Western Capital,
I hesitate, alas!
To see the place where ancient warriors did pass.
The ancient palaces, hall on hall,
Are turned to dust, one and all.
Before my eyes,
The empire’s rise
Is people’s woe;
The empire’s fall
Is also people’s woe.

Surrounded by eight giant stone columns, Palace of Wa stands in splendid isolation. A black giant stone dome, with myriad stalagmites on it, covers the Valley of Wa. Some highly toxic hunting spiders are moving through the stalagmites, seeking preys with their pale green eyes.

“Peaks like brows knit, Angry waves spit...”

“To see the place where ancient warriors did pass...”

“The empire’s rise, Is Coin’s joy…”

“The empire’s fall, Is Coin’s woe…”

Coin, a four inches tall thin man with a mouse-head, is talking to himself in a low pitch voice. Feeling the cold weather and looking for something in his worn-out sackcloth, he thinks of the warm and comfortable armor inherited from his family.

The artificial sun in the valley is getting darker and the night is falling. The hunting spiders are more active now. Coin is moving very fast on the narrow path excavated on the mountain. He is heading to an abandoned mine outside the valley.

After moving hundreds of meters, Coin looks back to a stone house with resentful eyes.

That house is the only one tavern in the Valley Wa. A quarter of hour ago, Coin was treated nicely in it, just like he was a real boss. But now he is the same as a beggar.

“I should have cut my hands off…” thinks Coin, “It was my money! My armor! Damn it! They must have cheated on the gambling…”

“Why couldn’t I just control my desires… I should have…”

Coin keeps going with pity. The path is becoming wider now, and the weather is getting warmer. Coin seems to hear the “Ding Ding” sound coming with the warm wind, so he stopped. He turns back and gives the middle finger to the valley. He shouts to the valley with anger “Master Coin will be back! We’ll see…I will be back! And I will win all the coins you have!”

Suddenly, the earth starts shaking. Four earthy yellow stone monuments are rising from the earth, and Coin is stuck in them. Yellow light shows on the monuments and emits a very powerful force on Coin’s thin short body.

“AARGH!” Coin shouts, and he shrinks his body with black smoke rising. He is trying to flee underground. But the force is too powerful, which slows down Coin badly.

A hand emerges from the back of the monuments and it seizes Coin’s shoulder. Fire-like red light blazes from the hand, and the Qi breaks up with the black smoke. Coin is lifted up by the giant hand.

A ten inches tough looking guy shows himself from the back of a monument. He grabs Coin and shakes him rudely. He uses his thunder-like voice to shout at Coin:

“Are you The Coin? The best information dealer in Valley Wa?” 

“You must’ve misunderstood something, sir. Who is Coin? I’m a native here…I’ve never heard of this guy…I swear…I swear on my father’s life!”

With a clanking sound many coins were spilled on the ground.

The pupils of Coin shrinks in the blink of an eye. Soon he raises his head and talks in a fearless voice: “Yes sir, I’m Coin! And about these coins…do they belong to me?”

In a low, powerless voice, the tough guy says: “Find Wu Tie, known as Wu Taiping, I can give you much more than this.”

After a short pause, he says very seriously: “If he’s alive, find him; If he’s dead, find his body…Whatever you do, just find him!”

The Coin`s smile got frozen on his face.