The Sorceress' Revolt
Author: Toriumi Jinzō
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
Ko Biji's Story
Part Nine: Reincarnation
Ko Biji learned about the attack the salt smugglers were making, of course, but her room was always heavily guarded, so she wasn’t able to rush out and join the battle. If Tanshi had made it to the Inner Palace during the height of the battle, he would have had to confront Chō Ran, more or less on his own. Those weren’t great odds.
“Fight safely, Tanshi,” Ko Biji said, bowing her head. She couldn’t fight right now, but she could pray for the success of her allies. She listened intently and concentrated all her energy, as she’d been taught.
She heard the guards screaming outside her room.
“Tanshi!” Ko Biji cried out as loud as she could.
***
Tanshi ran as fast as a bullet. “Ko Biji!” He jumped off his horse. The soldiers around him started harrying his mount with their spears.
“Don’t let him escape!” a soldier shouted.
The horse fought so hard to break free that the soldiers shot it through the gut. The horse fell to the ground with a dull thud. Tanshi kept running, never stopping, as the soldiers gave chase. He used his staff to keep them from getting too close. Several of them fell down from the strength of his blows.
“Shoot!”
The arrows all fired at once. Tanshi rotated his torso with blinding speed, using his staff as a fulcrum. He was like a leaf dancing in a strong wind. It was a splendid Shaolin staff technique.
The archers flinched. They took their stances at a distance. Tanshi’s skill with his staff had been further honed at the Shaolin Temple. His speed and force were superior to what they were a few short months before.
Just as Tanshi was about to step into the estate, a dozen archers lined up in a row and drew their bows. Tanshi held his staff up high and glared.
The archers shot their arrows, but Tanshi spun his staff at great speed, deflecting them all. A fierce whirlwind emerged from Tanshi’s staff and swept the archers away.
“Bring out Ko Biji,” Tanshi said.
“I will kill you here,” Chō Ran said, approaching with slow steps.
“Chō Ran.” Tanshi raised his staff and glared at him.
Chō Ran appeared from behind the soldiers and pointed his cannon at Tanshi.
Tanshi’s eyes flashed with anger.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve met. I saw you in Sanmenxia,” Chō Ran said.
Tanshi frowned in confusion.
“Ko Biji is safe. I’d like to let you see her before I kill her…”
Tanshi said nothing.
“I bear you no grudge, but this is our destiny.”
“I will decide my own destiny,” Tanshi said.
The wind howled above.
Tanshi and Chō Ran stared at each other with blood-curdling murderous intent. They stood less than ten meters apart. All of Ryū Gen’s good advice was forgotten as Tanshi came face-to-face with his enemy. If Chō Ran fired his cannon now, all that would be left of Tanshi was a burn mark on the ground. The surrounding soldiers were silent, watching the confrontation.
“Farewell, Tanshi.” Chō Ran’s cannon erupted in fire.
Several different copies of Tanshi appeared and disappeared: a multi-body technique. Tanshi groaned, then stood up straight. There was only one of him again, and he was unharmed.
Chō Ran quickly reloaded his ammunition, but when Tanshi used his multi-body technique again, he couldn’t identify the real Tanshi with any accuracy. Tanshi had brilliantly mastered the multi-body technique during his time at the Shaolin Temple, but he was not aware of his mastery of the skill. He was panicked and doing whatever he could think of to save himself. One wrong step, and he’d be blown away by Chō Ran’s cannon.
Tanshi leaped at Chō Ran, knocking the cannon out of his hands with his pewter staff and then jumping again to prevent Chō Ran from retrieving the weapon.
“Nice move. You’re more interesting than I thought,” Chō Ran said, offering Tanshi an eerie smile.
Tanshi raised his staff high and got into a fighting position.
Chō Ran walked over quietly, his sword hanging at his side. He drew it and held it out in front of him.
Tanshi channeled spiritual energy into his pewter staff.
Chō Ran swung his sword at Tanshi from the side. A sharp metallic sound reverberated in the stillness. Chō Ran’s sword was stuck to Tanshi’s magnetized pewter staff—stuck rather dramatically. Chō Ran could not remove it, not even when he used all his strength.
Chō Ran was so shocked that he just stood there, his arms hanging in the empty air.
The soldiers stared in amazement. No one could believe what they were seeing.
“Tanshi!”
Chō Ran’s sword fell away from the staff as Ko Biji came running up from behind the shocked soldiers. She was barefoot. She must have taken advantage of a gap her guards’ vigilance to escape.
“Ko Biji!” Tanshi ran to her and embraced her. “You’re safe… thank goodness you’re safe.”
“Shoot!” Chō Ran shouted.
The archers regained their composure, readied their arrows and fired. It was the perfect opportunity, since Tanshi was distracted.
Tanshi returned to his awareness of the battle in an instant, but it was too late. The arrows had all left their bows. “Ko Biji!” Tanshi swatted away arrows with his staff.
Ko Biji collapsed to the ground. Two arrows had pierced her back and hip.
Tanshi threw down his staff and picked her up. Ko Biji’s face was twisted in pain.
Chō Ran glared at the archers and muttered to himself.
The sound of horses galloping echoed in the night. Ryū Gen dismounted from his horse, surrounded by salt smugglers carrying spears. He tossed Rai Ingyō’s severed head at Chō Ran’s feet.
“Rai Ingyō has been defeated. Step aside. I have no use for you small fry,” he said, approaching Chō Ran. Their fierce gazes collided.
“Ah!” Lighting flashed. Tanshi raised his staff, which was surrounded in a corona of pale blue light. Chō Ran’s sword was yanked out of his hand again and clanged against the magnetized staff.
Ko Biji’s face went pale.
“Ko Biji… don’t die. Please, don’t die.” Tanshi called out to Ko Biji, lifting her into his arms.
Ko Biji’s eyes opened slightly. She spoke with effort. “Tanshi. It’s been such a long time…”
“We’ll be together from now on,” Tanshi said.
“I will be reincarnated… I will be reincarnated as myself. Wait for me.” Ko Biji smiled, her head dropping onto Tanshi’s arm.
Tanshi held Ko Biji’s face in his hands. She was dead, but there was no trace of sadness or regret on her face. She had died happy after seeing Tanshi again. She was ethereally beautiful, like Chō Kin’s granddaughter in her shroud.
Tanshi stood up, holding Ko Biji’s body close to him. At that moment, an explosion occurred at the other side of the estate. A pillar of fire shot up into the sky. The flames engulfed the building, and the clouds were dyed red.
Everyone looked up in shock. No one could understand what had happened.
Ryū Gen recovered faster than everyone else. “Well, that was a spectacular finish,” he said to Chō Ran.
Chō Ran gave him a wry grin. “For a great actor, knowing when to leave the stage is of critical importance.”
With Rai Ingyō dead, there was no reason for Chō Ran to fight, so he ordered his soldiers to dispose of the remaining explosives.
“Ryū Gen, reinforcements will be arriving soon. It’s best to withdraw,” Ri Chū said. He and the other salt smugglers had rushed to the scene.
“I will do as you suggest,” Ryū Gen said.
The few remaining Imperial Guardsmen lost their will to fight after Rai Ingyō was killed. Their commander was dead, so now it was every man for themselves. It was foolish to sacrifice one’s life for loyalty. The Imperial Guardsmen knew that just as well as Rai Ingyō’s little Pekinese dog did.
From high in the sky, there was a bright flash.
“Lightning?” Ryū Gen asked.
“It made a strange sound,” Ri Chū said.
He was right: a dull, strange sound echoed from above.
They all looked up at the night sky. Clouds moved fast over the moon, but there was no sound of wind. The earth shook, and white smoke erupted from the ground, creating a curtain of fog that blanketed Rai Ingyō’s estate.
The shadow of a giant fox appeared in the fog.
“A monster?” Ryū Gen asked.
“A curse.”
The fox in the fog transformed into a woman, though far larger than life and wreathed in smoke. The woman laughed low and guttural in her throat.
“Sei Koko.” Tanshi recognized her immediately.
Sei Koko faced him and nodded in acknowledgment. “Tanshi. It’s been a while. I’ve been keeping an eye on things, but this was always supposed to happen. Ko Biji must be reincarnated.”
Tanshi glared daggers at Sei Koko. “What do you mean, this was supposed to happen? Who orchestrated her death? Tell me. I’ll never hand her over to you.”
“I am her mother, and I do not take orders from you.”
“Sei Koko, I understand your goals. You have been misled by the vengeful spirit of Empress Wu Zetian,” Chō Ran said harshly.
“I did not ask you to speak,” Sei Koko said to him. “But, say what you will. The future of this world belongs to me.”
Chō Ran had learned about some of Sei Koko’s plans from Ko Biji. He understood her selfish plans and highly disapproved of them.
The archers shot their arrows in unison, all of which were absorbed by the white fog. They didn’t harm Sei Koko at all.
“Rebel, or go to hell!” Sei Koko yelled.
From the fog, the arrows that should have pierced Sei Koko reversed course and pierced the archers. The archers screamed and fell dead. A curtain of fog settled over them, concealing them from view.
When the fog cleared, the bodies of the archers were gone… and so was Ko Biji.
“Ko Biji? Where did you go? Where are you?” Tanshi asked the fog around him. “Where…”
Tanshi just stood there with his arms outstretched. Ryū Gen, Chō Ran, the salt smugglers and the soldiers were just as shocked as Tanshi that Ko Biji’s body had disappeared.
“Look at the sky!” Ri Chū shouted.
In the moonlight shining through the clouds, Sei Koko emerged, cradling Ko Biji’s corpse as she rose higher and higher, out of sight.
Silence. Only Tanshi managed to regain his focus and center himself as Sei Koko drifted farther and farther away.
The white fog had first shown them all the shadow of a giant fox. Ko Biji had told Tanshi that she was born from a fox. What did that mean? Would she reincarnate as a fox? Tanshi was certain that she wouldn’t reincarnate as Wu Zetian. It would be difficult for Sei Koko to force Ko Biji to do something she didn’t want, even after she was dead.
Tanshi was about to boil over with rage. “Sei Koko… she used terrible methods to make the knowledge in the Heavenly Book her own. Used people. Used me, used her own daughter!”
Tanshi looked up and screamed.
He was overcome by an overwhelming sense of defeat. He felt weak and trembled all over. All his training, all his knowledge, his long journey, his love… all of it had ended here. He wasn’t strong enough to protect Ko Biji; he hadn’t even been able to wrest her body from Sei Koko’s clutches. He was powerless. He’d accomplished nothing in his life. No, worse than nothing, because Ko Biji was dead and it was his fault.
Rai Ingyō’s estate burned to ash behind
him as he collapsed to his knees. He’d lost. Lost everything.
No amount of power would ever restore what he’d lost to him.
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