Age of Heroes (Age of Heroes Chronicles)

Chapter 470: Where art thou heroes (3)

CLOUD DISTRICT

'What!' as he slapped Ragherot with his hand.

Ragherot was flown away and crash into the stone statue on the courtyard, spurting blood from his mouth and nose.

The man slapping him has a well-trimmed beard, a fierce face and a muscly body with scars in his chest. 

He wears a tiger skin as his clothes revealing his chest but protecting his back.

This is Warchief Reoh, one of the Warchief of Ragran. Looking at the corpse of his son he feels grief in his heart. 

And also fear but he quickly dispels fear from his heart and that fear is replaced by furious anger.

From what he heard of the story the one killing his son was an expert. He was looking at the corpse, and then he started throwing things, vases, stones, cauldrons, making a mess in the courtyard while the other lackey of Ragni is trying to get out of the courtyard, trying to escape from the frenzied Reoh.

'Reoh what bothers you?' one man said as he walked to Reoh, unaffected by the anger Reoh is showing on his face. 

He walks among the broken vases, among the damaged trees with pure calmness and he had not even an ounce of fear looking at the frenzy Reoh.

The man that is walking like a cloud swaying by the gale is a young man wearing colorful purple attire with a paper fan on his left hand fanning his face, calmly, the appearance of a scholar.

He is thin and his face is smooth and silky like a girl but the man gaze is cold and devoid of emotions. 

Reoh quickly gather his emotion and stopped throwing things and look with respect at the young man.

He then cupped his hand and explains what happen.

'Brother Tang, my son was killed by an expert.' Reoh said. He might be able to use this man Reoh mused. 

The young man laughed

'Expert? HAHAHAHA. Is there so many experts in this world? Even in my land, those who dares called themselves expert is only a few. Maybe the one who killed your son is merely boasting, trying to incite fear for who dares seek him.' The man clearly understands that Reoh is trying to rope him in his personal matters. 

The young man has his own problems and has no interest in helping Reoh. Reoh seeing that this brother Tang is not interested, he then forgets his intentions. 

He still has an army. 

Why should he fear the one who kills his son? And Brother Tang is right. Maybe the man is not an expert but only a mediocre practitioner masquerading as an expert. 

After all Reoh knows his son is weak and so are his lackeys. Maybe because they were oppressed by his son killer they believed the killer to be an expert.

Making his decision, he declared

'Brother Tang, I will seek this expert to seek redress from him. I will not be here for a few days. I hope Brother Tang could take of yourselves during my absence. To make my son corpse like this, who could accept it?' He said in fury.

The young man was about to return to his residence when he chance upon the corpse and his heart beats fast and his hand trembles.

Thishow could it be here? He mused

The young man come closer and looks at the corpse. In one look he gasped.

'This..this'

'Brother Tang?' Reoh asked looking at the dumbstruck expression of the young man. Reoh called him Brother Tang only as a measure to become closer to Tang Jiexiu.

A few weeks ago, Tang Jiexiu and his martial brothers and sisters stopped in Ragran to wait for their orders to come. So Reoh quickly invites them.

Tang Jiexiu is from Tangmen School in Ming, located in Sichuan.

It is said, that when the First Generation ruled the world, some of the families among the First King domain does not want to submit themselves under the First King.

These people are called Han people. The other races called them Cinese or Cina or Chinese. 

Not many people read the Pure Tongue anymore so no one knows for sure how it is pronounced. 

Anyway, the Han then made their home in another continent as lush as their original home and created their own culture different from the culture of the First King.

They created back their city naming it, according to their ancestral land. 

They called themselves the descendant of the Yellow Emperor. No one knows what that means even now. 

Now the Han people are called the Ming people or Eastian for those who reside in other continents.

Tangmen is run by the Tang family and are famous for their poisons and hidden weapons. 

Even now Reoh could smell some herbs emanating from Tang Jiexiu body. It smells like a sweet fragrance but Reoh knows that the vilest poison can sometimes smells the sweetest.

Reoh once sail the Open Seas with a Leviathan tribesmen and reach Ming in his youth. He knows the reputation of Tangmen.

Their family castle is surrounded by thousands of traps and is very difficult to infiltrate. 

Even though the Tangmen are famous, very few people truly know them. 

They also have been rumored to possess seven different types of hidden weapons that would shake Jianghu if revealed.

One of them is the "Storm Pear Flower Needle". 

A highly skilled martial artist could hit enemies at 64 different points simultaneously, making the technique impossible to defend against unless you have a body that is as hard as diamond.

'No' Tang Jiexiu said as he finished checking the corpse. His voice was cold, and his eyes sharp like a blade.

'What do you mean Brother Tang? I could not seek revenge for my own son?' Reoh began raising his voice. 

He, of course wanted to make friend with this expert but that doesn't mean that he could do as his pleases either in his own house. 

If he wanted to avenge his son, how could an outsider interfere?

'Reoh, you misunderstand me. Let me help you with this. Consider it as repayment of the hospitality.'

'What? Really?' 

'Yes.' He answered confidently.

'Brother Tang.I don't know what to say.'

'It is fine. Let me rest for a few days before I seek this expert.' Reoh nodded in agreement and quickly he and his men is preparing for the funeral of his son.

Tang Jiexiu on the other hand is heading to his room when suddenly a shadow appears.

'Jiexiu-ge! What are you doing meddling with the matters of the Land of Shadows? Our instruction is clear. Retrieve the Thousand Poison Toad and return to Sichuan. What are you doing? Do you want to get reprimanded by Grandma Tang again!'

The voice was feminine but her face is hidden by the shadows. There is a hint of worry in her voice and concerns about the wellbeing of Tang Jiexiu.

Jiexiu did not reply but his face has a complicated expression. To call it a happy expression, it is not, but to call it a sad expression it is not either.

'That technique use to kill the boy was very vicious' he said. Jiexiu closed his eyes and he could still see the desiccated corpse in his mind

'So?' the woman voice asked. Tangmen itself sometimes resorted to cruel and devious method to achieve their school objectives.

'It is the Heavenly Blood Sucking technique!' Jiexiu said, half crazed, half excited, half sad. Hearing this, the woman in the shadows narrows her eyes.

'That couldn't be!'

'I have checked it. Other than Huangdi of Ming who else possess the scripture? This is a mystery. No one has managed to practice it in thousands of years. One part of Three.'

Then he recites what he remembered about one thing he heard from his teacher when he was a child.

'Having The Three Manuals, thus the Path to Immortals are shown, Heaven will Bless, World Could not Hinder. The Three Truth Manual, all Jianghu seeks this miraculous manual. Gaining eternal life, possessing eternal Youth, who could defeat such man who practices all three manuals? Mystery or mysteries, the gate of all wonders! The Way produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things.'

Jiexiu clearly remembered the stories about the bloody history of the Three Truth Manual. 

It wasn't until the Three Manual was separated and each faction that stores it promise to let no one train in it, that the bloody battles in Jianghu receded.

One at the Imperial Forbidden Library at Ming. The other at Shaolin. The other one at Huashan.

The forbidden Library stores the Heavenly Blood Absorbing technique. 

It is a devious cultivation technique, created from the evil sect great elders when they battle the monster that live in the Ming continent thousands of years ago.

Then the Celestial Divine Body Refining technique created by the righteous sect. 

This is stored in Shaolin as one of their Abbots were also the creators of this miraculous technique, making the practitioner to have a body tough as diamond, muscle as strong as steel, opening all meridians, unleashing godly might.

Huashan stores the Supreme Sword God technique. Of all the Three manuals, the Supreme Celestial Sword technique is the most mysterious.

The soul, the body and technique. Three Truth Manuals, manuals of Celestial Beings, invoking Heaven jealousy.

In his heart, Jiexiu has already made a plan.

'I just see the corpse, Ling-mei. There is no blood inside the corpse body; all of the life essence was sucked dry.'

'This You couldn't possibly think to-'

'I've made my decision' he said. 

Then he keep walking to his room, fanning his face as he recite a poem as the woman looked in sorrow and disappear into the shadows, his poems resonated in this residence, making the woman shed a droplets of tear.

The nation in shambles, yet the hills and rivers remain.

The city in Spring, yet overgrown with weeds and brush.

Such are the chaotic times that flowers spill tears,

Separation is so troubling that the call of birds stirs the soul.

Beacon fires have continued,

A letter from home would be worth uncountable gold.

White hair scratched so thin with worry,

Here is a man long from home,

Waiting a chance to once again regain dignity.

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