Dragon Vein Storyteller

Chapter 41 The Road to Heaven

When the Milky Way below completes one revolution, sixty years have passed on Earth.

Two circles, one hundred and twenty years.

Spin around three times...

I squatted on the glazed pavement, my mind buzzing as if a thousand bees were buzzing around. The images from that tattered ancestral book flooded my vision one after another, making my temples throb and the jade tablet on my chest feel like it was burning through my flesh.

Ladies and gentlemen, my Wang family ancestors served in the Imperial Observatory, possessing a rudimentary understanding of celestial phenomena and a few Taoist texts. Those books described a path, not a path for humans, but a path for all living beings in the world. The books called it…

"The road to heaven." My voice was squeezed out of my throat, hoarse and unlike my own.

"What do you mean by 'connected to heaven'? Are you stupid?" The little chick plopped down on the paved pavement, crossed his legs, and looked up at me. His little face was completely nonchalant, his lips pouting like a mischievous child who had just skipped school. "What's wrong? The road behind us is completely blocked. How are we supposed to get through if we don't move forward?"

"Yes, you're a half-immortal." Baldy Liao quickly caught up from behind, blood still seeping from the several cuts on his face, smeared and blurred by his hands. "Explain yourself clearly first. What 'path to heaven'? What's going on?"

I squatted on the edge of Liuli Road, pressing my fingers against the transparent pavement, feeling the jade seal burning my chest like a branding iron just pulled from the fire.

"I'm somewhat of a member of the Celestial Master's Mansion, and I know a thing or two about Taoist scriptures." I swallowed hard, lowering my voice as if to prevent anything below from hearing, "Gentlemen, have you ever heard of the Jie Sect?"

Sanjin stopped in his tracks. Liao the Bald's hand slid off the Tang sword.

"The Jie Sect from the Investiture of the Gods?" Liao the Bald asked in a low voice.

"Yes. It's that Jie Sect." I glanced down; the earth dragons were still standing there, heads raised, staring at us, motionless. "Back in the Investiture of the Gods, the Chan Sect and the Jie Sect fought to a draw at the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation. The Chan Sect said they were following the will of Heaven, while the Jie Sect said..."

I paused for a moment, feeling as if a huge rock was pressing down on my throat as I squeezed those two words out.

"Take a cut."

"Cut off what?" the chick asked.

"A glimmer of hope."

As those four words landed, something on the glazed pavement seemed to tremble slightly. It wasn't the wind, nor a vibration, but the pavement itself, as if someone had called its name and responded softly.

"The doctrine of the Jie Sect can be summed up in one sentence... 'To seize a sliver of life for all living beings in heaven and earth.' I removed my hand from the glass surface, the cold touch still lingering on my fingertips. 'If Heaven decrees your death, the Jie Sect says, not necessarily. If fate decrees your demise, the Jie Sect says, there is still a sliver of hope. All living things in this world—plants, insects, fish, birds, and beasts—if you wish to live, the Jie Sect will provide you with a path. This path is called the Path to Heaven.'"

I looked down at the earth dragons at my feet, at their silver-gray scales, obsidian-like eyes, and human-like, ghost-like features peeking out from between their scales.

"Look at those things below. What were they originally? But they embarked on this path, and this path is teaching them... teaching them to stand up, teaching them to grow scales, teaching them to transform their crawling bodies into standing bodies. This isn't walking; it's evolution. The Path to Heaven governs evolution. Those who walk this path change with every step they take, ascending higher and higher until they reach the end of this path."

"What's at the end?" Baldy Liao asked.

"I don't know." I shook my head. "It's not written in the book. My family's tattered heirloom only had the words 'Path to Heaven, Main Evolution' written on it, and the rest of the pages were torn out a long time ago."

The little chick sat on the glazed pavement, its legs stretched out on the transparent material, its hands supporting itself behind it, looking up at me with an impatient expression. This kid seems to have forgotten the meaning of fear since crawling out of the mass grave; now it dares to sit on the ground and act like a spoiled brat.

"And what about us?" he asked. "We're taking this same road too."

"no the same."

I stood up, turned around, and looked at the straight, stained-glass path behind me, then turned back to look ahead… still a straight, stained-glass path, stretching all the way to the deepest part of the rosy glow. On both sides of the path were sheer cliffs, cleaved by a knife and axe, where not a single blade of grass grew. The Milky Way beneath my feet flowed slowly, seventy-two stars following some ancient, unchanging rule in their cycles. Twenty-four "poof" sounds completed in one cycle, marking a full year.

"Think about something," I said, "how did we get onto this road?"

No one spoke.

"We came from the Hall of King Cheng. What are those walls carved with? People's names. Jiang Ziya, Zhang Liang, Han Xin, Xiao He, Zhuge Liang, Guan Yu… From the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Qin and Han dynasties, from the Wei and Jin dynasties to the Sui and Tang dynasties, from the Song and Yuan dynasties to the Ming dynasty, each one was someone who assisted an emperor in establishing a dynasty. What is carved on that door? 'Enter for the sake of a king.' What are carved on the three stone platforms? Civil officials, military generals, and emperors and empresses. The entire Hall of King Cheng tells one story… the dynasties of the human world."

I pointed to the glazed path beneath my feet, and then to the earth dragons below.

"The earth dragons walk the path to heaven, primarily for evolution. They take this path to transform upwards, gradually evolving from insects into scaled, upright beings. But we are different. We came from the King's Palace; we take a different path."

"What road?" Sanjin asked, his voice muffled and deep, like a stone hitting another stone.

"The path of people."

As I said those two words, the jade pendant on my chest suddenly felt hot again. It wasn't the lukewarm heat from before; it was a sharp, intense heat, like someone knocking on the door from the inside.

"What does the Path of Man represent? It represents change. Throughout history, the victors and the vanquished, everyone standing on that wall has walked this path. This path doesn't teach you evolution, it doesn't teach you to grow scales and armor, it teaches you... how to survive in a crowd, how to stand at the highest point amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, how to make the world kneel at your feet."

I looked down at the earthworms. They were still standing there, heads tilted back, motionless. Dozens of pairs of black eyes stared at us.

"The Path to Heaven gave the earth dragons a glimmer of hope, and they evolved. The Path of Humanity gives us a glimmer of hope, so we must..."

I didn't finish my sentence.

Because I've thought of a very serious problem.

The two roads are the same road.

We and the earth dragons walk the same crystalline path. They evolve below, while we walk the human path above. But... what if this path truly has an end? What would happen if, at the end, the evolved earth dragons and the humans collided? Would it ignite a war between the three religions?

Sanjin slowly turned his cane horizontally and gripped it in his hand, his shoulder, swollen from being hit by pebbles, slumped slightly. He didn't look at me, nor at the ground beneath his feet, but stared at the straight, almost otherworldly, crystal-clear road ahead. He remained silent for a long time before finally speaking.

"Shall we continue walking?"

It wasn't a question. There was no question mark. It was just one word at a time, spitting out of his mouth, like stones falling off a cliff, each one hitting the ground with a dull thud.

I glanced back at the path I had come from. It was no longer visible, swallowed by the mist and the glow of the sunset. There was no end in sight either, only that straight, glazed road stretching to the brightest point of light. Beneath my feet, the Milky Way spun, earth dragons stood still, the twenty-four solar terms cycled, the seventy-two stars completed a sexagenary cycle, and these few tomb raiders, carrying severed heads and wielding swords, were caught between evolution and dynasty, inching forward step by step.

"Let's go." I tossed the roll of cloth forward, sending pebbles thudding to the ground. "Staying here means certain death. Going here, we might survive."

I took the jade tablet out of my chest and held it in my palm. It was still warm, calm and steady, like a heartbeat slowly throbbing in my hand.

It seems to know where we're going.