The Blue Dragon: Chapter 11 (Patreon)

-- CHAPTER 11: Liu Kang --

****

Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.

“I have a feeling we’re not in Rome anymore,” I muttered to the tiny blue gecko standing on my shoulder. Pivoting in place to survey my surroundings, I realized that I stood in some kind of town square, with long two-story buildings constructed of stone and brick surrounding me on three sides and the fourth side open to the canal. Small, wheeled carts operated as merchandise stalls, selling everything from fish to cloth to… Were those insects?!? Space between the buildings was blocked off by stone walls, although certain walls had ornate archways in them, allowing people to pass through.

And there were a LOT of people. People crossing the town square. People working small huts in front of the buildings and shouting at passers-by to hawk their wares. People entering or exiting one of the buildings. People walking down the causeway crossing the canal, up and over the moon bridge, and to the other side. There was a much larger plaza on that side of the canal with the pagoda-roofed buildings surrounding it. That plaza too was full of people, many of them wearing what looked like religious robes.

People, people, people. Soooo many people. I’d always known China was the most populated country in the world, but still. People were absolutely everywhere, but not a single one of them paid me any special attention.

Why would they? I apparently looked just like one of them. Glancing down my body, I found that I was clothed in some kind of long, period-appropriate pants along with a long-sleeved, thigh-length jacket over the top. The material was coarse and devoid of any fancy stitching or decoration. The cut was baggy and did nothing to flatter my physique. But I supposed that was the point; it was certainly less attention-grabbing than whatever THAT guy was wearing over there.

That guy is wearing a lanshan, which is more formal attire for scholars and government officials, Dong explained helpfully. Also note the fancy hat. You’re wearing a peasant’s shanku, typically worn by lower-class laborers and servants.

Arching an eyebrow at the blue gecko, I realized that I hadn’t actually said anything aloud about that guy’s outfit. Dong must have simply read my mind. So rather than keep muttering aloud and potentially draw attention to myself from all those people who were currently ignoring me, I decided to continue the conversation in my head.

‘Well, that explains what I’m wearing. That doesn’t explain where we are or how I got here. Did you bring me here? And why?’

I didn’t bring you here; you did that all by yourself. Although I will say that your timing sucks, bro. You were like five seconds from an epic nut!

‘Please don’t remind me. It would’ve been glorious. Instead it looks like I’ve been transported back in time to… China? I’m assuming this is Ancient China.’

Modern scholars describe this time period as Imperial China. The year is A.D. 908. Four years ago, Warlord Zhu Wen assassinated the Emperor Zhaozong. Last year, Zhu formally ended the Tang Dynasty, which had ruled China for nearly three hundred years, and took the throne for himself. But China is not united. This period will become known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, which reflects more than seventy years of constant warfare until China is reunited again.

‘You brought me into the middle of a war?’

Many, many different wars, Dong corrected. And again: -I- didn’t bring you here. You brought yourself here.

‘Why the hell would I do that?’

Because it was your destiny to do so.

I frowned with tightly pursed lips, narrowing my eyes at the tiny blue gecko. Growing up, I’d never really thought much about destiny. What kind of orphan would ever want to believe he was meant to be an orphan? Well, Merethe had given me my name as an advent from God, and she’d always told me that God had a purpose for me. But after everything she’d taught me growing up, I never thought that purpose would turn out to be rooted in Chinese mythology.

‘So I’m really in Imperial China now?’

Yes.

‘But why?’

You’ll see.

‘See when?’

In five… four… three… two… one…

“There she is! Grab her!” a rough male voice shouted.

A sudden commotion burst from one of the buildings nearby: multiple people shouting, the sound of ceramic objects shattering on the stone pavers, and the sight of one of the wheeled carts tipping over and then crashing to plaza floor. A young woman vaulted over the fallen cart like a parkour professional, hitting the ground running before leaping onto another cart and neatly somersaulting directly over it before continuing her way across the crowded town square, slithering her way through the throngs of people with ease.

Five or six shouting men chased after her with far less grace and skill, tripping over objects on the ground, bumping into people, and generally getting stuck in the crowd.

You’ll catch up to her.

‘I will?’

Yes, you will.

‘And what if I don’t want to? What if I just want to close my eyes, transport myself back to my own time period… back inside Hannah… and go have that epic nut I was so looking forward to?’

Not happening. You WILL stay here until your task has been finished.

‘Because it’s my destiny?’

Because this is the past and it has already happened this way. Forget what you know about the MCU Multiverse or parallel dimensions. This one is a closed loop. You were always meant to find me. You were always meant to come here to this time and this place. You were always meant to meet her. You WILL complete your task and set in motion the events that will later shape the future. The past has already been written. The ink is dry.

I realized that Dong’s voice had gotten deeper and more resonant. His vocal tone had become quietly grave, and it unnerved me quite a bit. As annoying as his constant pop-culture quoting and crass sexual remarks had been before, they would have been a welcome distraction from the deadly seriousness of my current situation.

I had been transported over a thousand years back in time to a foreign place that I knew absolutely nothing about. My Western-centric education had taught me all about the American Revolution, the Civil War, and a couple of World Wars, but I couldn’t remember anything about Imperial China beyond what Rae had taught me and that one Oversimplified video on YouTube. The idiom “fish out of water” couldn’t begin to describe the enormity of the situation I was in.

Shaking my head and pacing away from the commotion in the town square, I found myself standing at the edge of the canal. Part of me wanted to jump in, drown myself, and hope I might wake up in bed at home, realizing that all of this - everything that had happened to me for the past several days - had been nothing more than a crazy nightmare.

Of course, this might actually be real and I might actually drown. Then again, didn’t Dong say this was all a closed loop? That meant that I couldn’t die, right? That meant that I was destined to be here, destined to be standing here at the edge of the canal, looking into the water and contemplating whether or not I should kill mys--

‘Huh. Is that what I look like right now?’

It’s a reflection, isn’t it?

The water in the canal was as smooth as a mirror. The Moon Bridge just upstream from me and its reflection created a nearly perfect circle. And with a view of the terraced farming fields and soaring mountains beyond, I had to admit I would’ve seen this place as fairly picturesque were it not for my pants-wetting terror at the idea of being lost so far away from my home.

So far away from my time.

In a body that wasn’t even mine.

The face of the man I saw reflected in the mirror was somewhat familiar. This guy had my same cheekbones, my same nose. The longer I looked, the more he seemed at least related to me, perhaps even a distant ancestor. But everything else about him was completely different from me. Beneath a wide-brimmed conical hat, his hair was jet black and long, hanging down to his shoulders. He had a full mustache and beard, somewhat ragged and unkempt as if he hadn’t shaved for a long, long time. And he was slender but very muscular, with the physique of someone who worked long hours in the fields while half-starved from malnutrition instead of my carefully honed Santa Monica “beach bod” born from hours in an air-conditioned gym.

‘Who is this guy?’

You see your own reflection in the water.

‘This is the body of another man. I don’t look anything like this.’

You look exactly like this right now.

‘You know what I mean. Did I transport back in time and take over the body of my own ancestor or something?’

Does it really matter? This is who you are at this very moment in time. Speaking of time, you’re wasting it right now. And she’s getting further and further away.

‘So? You said this is a closed loop. You said all of this already happened in the past. You said I’ll catch up to her. You said it’s already been written, didn’t you?’

Indeed I did, unfortunately for you.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

It means that you were always meant to be this stupid and stubborn. It means that this next part was always destined to happen. It means that this next part is going to hurt. A lot.

‘What next part?’

“There he is! Grab him!” a rough male voice shouted.

A sudden commotion burst from one of the buildings nearby: multiple people shouting, the sound of booted feet thumping against the stone pavers, and the sight of a half-dozen men holding long sticks or short clubs.

They didn’t surround me. They didn’t ask me any questions. The first guy simply lashed out with his two-meter wooden staff to smack the side of my head, immediately causing me to collapse to the ground while I howled in pain. The second guy kicked me in the ribs and then slammed his club down against my side. The third guy then smacked his stick against the side of my head.

I wasn’t conscious to remember anything that happened after that.

****

Something tickled my balls, and with a start, I jerked awake.

The wrinkled, ruddy face of an old man with squinty eyes and only three or four teeth in his gummy smile loomed above me. He cackled with laughter, sending spittle splattering down onto my face while I hurriedly crawled backwards away from him, only to bang my head against the unyielding rock of the brick wall behind me.

“Ow! FUCK!” I howled, rubbing my head.

The old man continued cackling, pointing a bony finger at me in scorn while the sounds of other men laughing filled the air. I would’ve gotten angry and told them all to shut the fuck up were it not for the fact that I was all kinds of freaked out at the fact that I’d been rendered unconscious and yet still found myself in Imperial China when I woke up.

So much for this being a crazy nightmare.

I was lying on the dirt floor of a small, cramped prison cell where the city police must have left me. Two walls appeared to be crude white plaster over gray bricks with multiple cracks in them where the plaster had worn away, while rusting black iron bars hemmed me in on the third and fourth sides, not so different from a modern prison cell. One thing that definitely wasn’t modern was the wood bucket in the corner instead of a toilet, presently half-filled with piss and filth.

I was alone in a cell, but the adjoining cell to mine was quite full. Six men sat in the dirt, including Old Toothless who kept laughing and pointing and then reached through the bars from his side to try and grab my crotch again. I batted his hand away angrily and scooted further back away from the bars between our cells.

“Hey! Hey! Leave him alone!” one of the other men called.

Old Toothless suddenly got jerked back, and he turned to babble some complaint at whoever jerked him back, but he still went to sit down in the dirt somewhere else.

A new face appeared at the bars, this one that of a younger man with a kind expression. “Ignore them,” he said advised encouragingly. “They’re just drunk.”

The other give guys all laughed and slapped each other on the shoulders and backs, but my attention was on the newcomer. I could see that his mouth was forming words in Chinese and I even dimly heard his speech in some form of Mandarin, but my brain was already translating everything into English. Meanwhile, other prisoners were talking loudly in other cells nearby, their voices echoing off the walls.

“Thanks,” I replied, the sound of my response in colloquial Mandarin echoing dimly in my ears. I dusted myself off and then sat up straighter against the back wall.

The other man did the same on his side of the bars, raising his knees and then resting his forearms on them. “What are you in for?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied with a shrug.

“You don’t know?” He frowned. “What is your name?”

“I don’t know,” I repeated.

“You don’t know your own name?”

“Well in my time, I’m Aksel. But here, I… Uhhh…” I let my voice trail off, unsure of how to finish that sentence.

“车轴? Your name is 车轴?”

I dimly heard him say Chēzhóu while my brain translated the word to ‘wagon axle’. It seemed close enough, so I simply shrugged and said, “Yes, my name is Chezhou.”

“I am Quan,” he pronounced, tapping his chest.

“Pleased to meet you, Quan.” I looked around my cell and thought about the question he had asked me earlier. “What are you in for?”

He waved dismissively. “A cow-filth-ridden bean-counter tried to make me pay him a bribe to bring my broccoli to market. I wouldn’t pay and--”

“And the corrupt bastard got you thrown in here,” I finished grimly. “You should get your revenge. Make him regret putting you in here.”

Quan shook his head immediately. “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.”

I winced and waggled my head. “I suppose.”

“Life is too short to waste time complaining about corrupt officials. The whole country is corrupt. This isn’t the first time I have been put in prison for refusing to pay a bribe, and it won’t be the last. I’ve done this before.”

“What will happen to you next?”

“They’ll keep me here overnight and send me home tomorrow.” He made a face. “But they took all my broccoli. I’ll be going home empty-handed.”

“That’s fucked up.”

Quan snorted and gave me a wry grin. I wasn’t sure exactly what the term ‘fucked up’ had translated to in Mandarin, but he apparently got the gist. He patted me on the back and said sagely, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

I nodded and then looked up around the cell. “Hopefully that means I’ll get to rise tomorrow. I assume if I’m in here with you and those drunk guys that they’ll let us all out tomorrow.”

“But you are not in with us. You are in your own cell. That usually means they consider you dangerous.” He looked at me quizzically. “You really don’t know what you’re in for?”

I shook my head. “No idea. I was just standing by the canal looking out over the Moon Bridge when the police hit me in the head and knocked me over.”

“Liu Kang!” a booming, authoritative voice suddenly called from somewhere down the hall. Booted footsteps echoed off the brick walls, becoming louder as they came closer and closer.

Five uniformed men arrived just outside our cell, the four in back holding two-meter staffs and the officer in front with a more decorative uniform holding a large, smooth baton with a fancy red tassel on it. The officer tapped his baton against the bars and then pointed it through them, directly at me.

“Liu Kang! Come with us!”

I blinked and pointed to my chest. “Me?”

“I thought you said your name was Chezhou?” Quan asked quietly.

“It is,” I stated plainly before holding up my hands and shaking my head. “I think you’ve got the wrong guy. My name isn’t Liu Kang.”

The officer narrowed his eyes and stepped closer to the bars. “Don’t make me come in there and get you,” he warned threateningly.

I sighed and reluctantly got to my feet. I didn’t know what was going on, but I didn’t see any benefit in antagonizing the cops, either. The five drunk guys had stopped laughing and all stared at me, muttering to each other.

“Is that THE Liu Kang?”

“I thought he was dead! Didn’t they say he had been killed last week?”

“I heard he escaped using magic.”

I walked to the gate and held my hands up. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“Put your hands through the gap. Together.” The officer eyed me warily, on high alert.

Obediently, I pressed my wrists together and put both hands through a single gap in the bars. One of the guards in the back handed his staff to a comrade and then stepped forward to bind my wrists together with coarse rope. I took a deep breath and relaxed, letting him essentially handcuff me. I still didn’t know what was going on, but Dong had assured me that all this had already been written, so I tried to tell myself that as long as I kept moving forward, I would survive this… whatever this was… and eventually go back home.

The guard finished his knots and then took a step back, retrieving his staff from his comrade. Only then did the officer in charge fit a key to the prison gate, unlock it, and then swing it open.

I started walking forward to exit my cell, only to have the officer shout, “Halt! Don’t move!” And the other four guards all immediately raised their staffs into defensive positions.

I immediately stopped raised my bound hands in front of me and exclaimed, “I’m not moving! I’m not moving!”

Two of the guards quickly entered my cell and then took up positions behind me. The officer in charge waved his baton in my face, snarling, “You do NOT move unless ordered to!”

“I got it! I got it!” I stammered before suddenly exclaiming, “OWWW!”

The officer had whacked my hands with his baton, cracking my knuckles painfully. I clenched up immediately, the pain radiating down my arms.

And then something… unexpected… began to happen.

My hands started turning blue.

Then the ropes around my wrists started turning blue.

Then the ropes around my wrists started to crystallize over with ice.

And then the ropes around my wrists shattered into millions of tiny pieces.

The officer’s jaw hit the floor as he gawked at me. I gawked back at him.

And then somebody hit me in the back of the head with his staff.

“OWWW!” I howled, turning around and waving my hand out in front of me defensively, trying to block what I assumed would be another impact to the back of my head. An ice barrier - not water, but solid ice - materialized in the space between us, first blocking the guard’s next strike and then zooming forward with alarming speed, blasting him full in the face and knocking him back against the wall.

The other guard behind me yelled, so I instinctively spun in place and threw out my arm. Another ice barrier materialized, blasting him backwards as well. And not only did it knock the guy back, but the barrier also slammed into the bars between my cell and the adjoining cell with Quan and the drunk guys, cracking the iron on impact.

Things then started to get a little crazy.

The officer smacked me in the ribs with his baton. He was close enough that when I flung out my elbow, it cracked him in the side of the head and he slumped down to the dirt floor. The other two guards charged into the cell, their staffs waving and swinging. I wheeled and turned, throwing out my arms to create ice barriers left, right, and center in a desperate effort to defend myself. I was moderately successful, only getting hit by their staffs ten or twelve times. But each time hurt like hell, sending agonizing pain throughout my body that drove me to keep fighting and keep defending myself to try and not get hit anymore.

Things then got REALLY crazy.

I didn’t know exactly when, but at some point I must’ve cracked the iron bars between my cell and the adjoining cell enough for them to break. One minute, I was fighting by myself against the four guards, each of us occasionally tripping over the unconscious officer in the dirt. The next minute, a bunch of drunk Chinese guys had fit through the gap, screaming and punching and kicking their way to freedom.

Two of them tackled one of the guards, a heavyset dude with a bushy beard sitting on the guard’s chest while punching him in the face. Two others surrounded another guard, but one of them caught a strike to the face and collapsed in a heap next to the unconscious officer.

Old Toothless somehow managed to sneak past everyone and raced out the open cell door. But he didn’t get far before six other guards came storming down the hall.

And these guys had swords.

Things then got CRAZY crazy.

The lead officer coming down the hallway slashed his sword straight across Old Toothless’s chest. I watched a spray of blood splatter against the white plaster wall in an erratic line as the old man fell flat across his back with wild eyes that would never again shut of their own accord and a ragged mess of bloody flesh in the gap of his torn shirt.

Feeling the presence of one of the guards on my left, I instinctively jerked my left forearm out as if I were a medieval knight holding a shield, and sure enough, a magical ice shield materialized to block his blow. I immediately followed that up by throwing a sharp uppercut with my right arm. But instead of punching the guy beneath his chin, a triangular blade of blue ice materialized and raced upwards, piercing the man beneath his jaw and skewering his skull from below, all the way until the pointy tip of my impromptu blade pushed through the top of his head.

Bits of bloody brain batter dribbled down his head and splattered to the floor with meaty thumps.

Ewww…

The six guards with the swords yelled and charged into my cell.

I’m running out of adjectives to properly describe how chaotically crazy things got after that.

With a dead guard on the deck, the remaining guards showed me no mercy. They attacked me with a fury, with sharp pointy objects that cut my arms, legs, and back whenever I failed to defend them. I had no doubt in my mind that if I stopped fighting, I would end up as dead as a doornail, destiny or not.

So I kept fighting. I blocked. I parried. I materialized blades of ice that slashed at my attackers. I did everything I could to try and not die.

So did everyone else. But while the guards had their staffs and their swords, I had magical ice shields and ice blades. They had numbers, but I managed to back myself into the corner where the brick walls met so that they could only bring two people against me at a time.

Unfortunately, that left the other prisoners completely defenseless.

The reinforcement guards didn’t care that the others were just a bunch of drunk guys who happened to be in the cell next to me. They didn’t care that those men had done nothing to deserve a death penalty. The guards with their swords slaughtered them all the same.

The same way they slaughtered Quan.

He never even tried to fight back. He’d stayed in his cell the whole time, backed up against the bars with his hands up, protesting that he had nothing to do with this. When one of the guards first tried to stab Quan, I actually managed to knock away the guard’s sword with a well-placed ice barrier. But the guard was able to pick up his sword and then finally skewer the poor broccoli farmer through the chest while I’d been busy defending myself against two of the others, and that was that.

Hot tears splashed my cheeks and I roared. Razor-sharp shards of ice flew from my hands, and the two guards in front of me dropped lifeless to the floor, leaving only three total guards left.

Then there were two.

Then there were one.

And finally, I was left standing in my prison cell all alone.

All of the guards were dead, even the first officer with the baton. He’d woken up and joined the fight in the end.

All of the prisoners with me were dead, including Quan in the corner and Old Toothless out in the hallway.

Speaking of the hallway, I heard shouts and screams echoing against the walls. More guards were coming. I had to get the fuck out of there. NOW.

So I ran. I heard official-sounding shouts from the right, so I ran to the left. I passed two other cells further down the hall where other prisoners rattled the bars and yelled for me to free them. Ignoring them, I continued running until I came to a door that was locked and barred shut. Placing my palm against the lock, I concentrated until my hand turned blue and the lock froze over with ice. It shattered in moments, I put my shoulder into the door, and it burst open to the outside.

And I ran.

****

It was easy to get lost in a crowded city like Luoyang. The capital city of the former Tang Dynasty - and still the capital city of the new Liang Dynasty - was a maze of narrow streets and alleys that sometimes attempted to run at right angles to each other but more often were shaped and sculpted to the geography of the river valley.

I would one day learn that the name “Luoyang” originated from the city’s location on the north or sunny side (“yang”) of the Luo River, which flowed from west to east. Over time, the city grew to the south side of the river as well and became one of the cradles of Ancient Chinese civilization dating back to 2070 B.C., eventually becoming the capital of the Han Dynasty in A.D. 25.

All this is to say that urban planning didn’t exactly exist back then, with walls and buildings built next to other walls and buildings at various angles that made sense to the people who originally built them centuries before people later on decided to build even more walls and buildings adjacent to the originals.

The city was a mess, and making things even more difficult to navigate were the throngs of people who were absolutely everywhere. Once I got a few blocks out of view of the prison, I slowed down to a casual stroll and acted as if I knew exactly where I was going, blending into the crowds so that my pursuers would have absolutely no chance in hell of finding me.

Of course, I had absolutely no idea where I was going or where I was supposed to be. Dong had told me that this part had already been written and that I was merely following my destiny, but that didn’t mean that I had a single clue what was going to happen next, and my so-called spirit guide wasn’t talking to me at the moment.

‘Stupid gecko,’ I silently cursed.

Still, he didn’t respond.

At the next intersection, however, I passed through a gate between very tall, very ancient-looking walls. Well, even more ancient than the other ancient-looking walls I’d already passed. The streets seemed cleaner, there were fewer people around, and I realized that my dirty peasant garb had become the exception, rather than the rule of those around me.

But I was in luck. A gate in the wall next to me opened up and a maid walked out, carrying a basket on her way to… somewhere. In the open doorway, I saw a small courtyard leading up to a well-decorated house. And to the side of the house, just over a wooden fence, I saw a laundry line upon which hung several articles of clothing.

I quickly darted through the door just before it closed, pausing just inside it to get my bearings. Nobody seemed to be around, so I quickly crossed the courtyard, found the latch to the gate in the fence, and snuck within.

Less than two minutes later, I walked out through the front gate and back onto the street, looking like a new man. I’d cleaned up my face in a fountain, slicked back my hair into a neat queue, and stolen a lanshan, formal attire suitable for scholars and government officials that made me appear to be right at home in the more expensive parts of the city like this.

I still didn’t know where I was going, but something about my current direction just felt… right. I was moving on gut instinct, with something telling me to continue deeper into this older part of the city where the government officials lived. Further, the peasants that crossed my path were deferential, moving out of my way. And although I stiffened up at the sight of a uniformed cop, he only gave me a passing glance before continuing on his rounds.

Up ahead, I could just make out the golden peaks of the Imperial Palace, including a towering circular pagoda with five levels atop the hill, and a massive octagonal edifice nearby. But I could feel that those amazing feats of architecture and engineering were not my current destination. Instead, I made a right turn and headed deeper into the residential areas.

And then another turn.

And then another turn.

And another.

There were fewer people here, away from the main boulevards. With no markets nearby, there was far less foot traffic. As I turned one more corner, I found myself in a small alley far from anywhere in particular. That feeling I had of where I was supposed to go faded away. And I came to a stop in the middle of the alley, pondering my next move.

“Are you lost?” a female voice called from above me.

I looked up.

The wall to my left was ten feet high and made of brick and mortar. There were no gates into the compound from here. If I had my bearings right, the front gate to the home would be on the complete opposite side of the compound. On this side, a three-story wooden structure had been built very close to the brick wall, with windows looking westward to the setting sun and the wider city rather than being afforded the more glorious views of the Imperial Palace to the east.

Standing at one of those windows was a girl with a round face and a sunny disposition. She smiled at me. I smiled back.

The Ax Effect did the rest.

****

“Yes! Yes! Yes! It’s so good! I’ve never had it this good! You’re incredible! You’re amazing! So deep! So hard! Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Lianhua was third concubine to the second magistrate overseeing the Jianxi District of Luoyang. As second magistrate of such an important district, her master spent much of his time at work outside of the family compound. And as third concubine - not even a wife - Lianhua was considered quite unimportant and only useful as a youthful bedmate on those rare occasions when Master Yen found enough time to come home and enough energy to get it up.

“Ungh! Ungh! Ungh! Oh you are so strong! How can you carry me like this? Are you not tired? Yes! Yes! Yes! So good! So good!”

Lianhua was a very pretty girl by anyone’s standards, with full lips, even fuller breasts, and shapely hips in a society where stick-figure underfed beanpoles were the norm. The teenager had certainly been attractive enough to garner the wealthy and powerful man’s attention and inspire him to purchase her from her peasant family for a tidy sum. But since then she had spent the majority of her time cooped up in her little corner of the family compound with little better to do than stare out her window at the setting sun over the city she was no longer allowed to visit.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! AAAAAHHHHH!!!” she screamed into my ear as she quivered and came in my arms, pinned like a little ladybug against the wall by my pulsing prick. The rational part of my mind suggested I make every effort to keep her screams muffled with my hand or something - I was still on the run from angry Chinese prison guards, after all - but I was a little too lost in the pleasure of pounding this pretty, young, sexy little Chinese lotus and stretching her too-tight snatch with my banging big dick to really care.

Sex was my superpower after all.

I could literally feel my body healing the more we fucked. With every pump, every thrust, every cry of pleasure from my lover’s lips, I felt trickles of energy flowing through my arteries and veins that knit together my wounds, restored vigor to my muscles, and powered my crunching abs. The longer we went, the stronger I felt. And the stronger I felt, the harder I fucked her.

Lianhua was delirious with pleasure, tossing her head left and right and occasionally forward in her orgasmic thrashing. It was one of those forward head-bobs that bonked her noggin against mine, hard enough to make us both dizzy. But while I’d quickly recovered thanks to my rapid-healing superpower, she’d been left a little limp and dazed, so I carried her over back to her bed and gently laid her down.

With my big dick still in her box, of course.

Lianhua’s eyelids fluttered like butterflies as her head lolled erratically about. All four of her limbs flopped askew out to the sides. And I paused my thrusting enough to finish removing my stolen clothing.

The lovely little girl’s irises swam back into focus as my bare abdomen was finally revealed to her. My wounds were gone and my muscles were tightly knotted, from bulging pectorals to washboard abs. I still had the slender stature of a malnourished peasant farmer, but there wasn’t an ounce of fat on my body and every inch of me radiated with wiry strength.

“Ohhh… yesss,” Lianhua moaned. She reached up to run her fingertips across my muscles, lingering on my abs. And then after cinching her legs around my back, she tugged me deeper into her, throwing her head back to groan, “I’ve never felt one so big before…”

I chuckled, mauled her big breasts with my hands, and started clenching my glutes to really lay down the lumber.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” I grunted, and to my surprise, I heard the words in English without any Mandarin translation. Perhaps one wasn’t necessary in this situation. Lianhua simply grinned and fucked back at me at the same time.

“So deep… so hard… Yesss! Yesss! Yesss!” she crooned.

Releasing her boobs, I bent over her body to brace my elbows on the bed and hammer her harder. She was a short little thing, not even five feet tall, so her face was under my chest while I repeatedly rammed her with my rigid rod. She kissed my pectoral muscles, tightened the grip of her small hands behind my shoulder blades, and thrust up to meet me as much as she could. She cooed and quickly cried out her climactic ecstasy for the third time since we’d started.

Her cuntal convulsions were what started to draw out my own orgasmic release. I grunted and wheezed as I felt my balls coming to a boil, and my long-dicking thrusts shortened up into staccato stabs, faster and faster. Lianhua sensed my impending eruption, and her fingernails suddenly dug into my skin.

“Not in me! Not in me! I must not get pregnant or the master will know for sure it isn’t his!”

“Ungh-ungh-ungh-ungh!” I grunted, momentarily unable to pull out. Her snatch was so snug and my schlong so perfectly content to remain rigidly clasped within her heavenly portal that I almost lost my load inside her.

But at the very last moment I managed to yank myself out. And the little pixie beneath me slid herself downward far enough to wrap her lovely lips around my pulsing prick.

“HNG-UUUGGGHHH!!!” I groaned, blasting a burst of salty jism straight into her mouth so hard that it might’ve snapped little Lianhua’s neck had she not been braced against the bed. I heard her choke, having never tried to fit such a thick prick in her mouth before. She managed to keep her mouth on me for the second shot, but after that the inexperienced girl coughed and turned her face so that the rest of my cum splattered against her cheeks, her neck, and into the valley of her lush bosom.

“Great gods will you look at that!”

“His snake is still flowing!”

“Have you ever seen one so large?”

“She is soooo lucky!”

I turned my head towards the now-open doorway to Lianhua’s bedroom. Four women stood there, one of them dressed in a simple maid’s outfit doing her best to block the door with her tiny body. But the other three were clad in the embroidered, decorative robes of high-ranking ladies of the house.

“EEEEK!!!” Lianhua shrieked in terror, scrambling backwards between my elbows and accidentally bonking my chin with the top of her head in her desperation to escape.

I wound up rolling onto my side, rubbing my chin as I flopped onto my right side. Raising my left knee into the air, I took deep, heaving breaths to restore oxygen to my lungs. And I was only too conscious of the fact that I was putting my sweaty, naked, richly muscled body on full display for all four of the other women.

“Look, he is still hard. Not flagging one bit.”

“When was the last time you saw Master stay hard after spurting?”

“Master has been having trouble getting hard in the first place.”

“My mistresses! You must not be here!”

“There is so much man-honey on her body. Have you ever seen Master spurt so much?”

“She has some in her mouth. I bet it is tastier than anything Master has ever spurted before.”

“My mistresses! You mustn’t!”

“Stand aside, Nan. That is an order.”

“But Mistress!”

“I said: stand aside!”

I grinned in recognition at the hungry expressions on the three well-dressed ladies’ faces. Even the maid was eyeing my big dick. All four of them were attractive and ranged in age from early to late twenties. The eldest was clearly the one in charge, so I went ahead and focused on her, giving her my best smile that clearly said, I’m about to give you the greatest fucking of your entire life.

Her challenging smile in reply clearly said, I look forward to you proving it.

So I did.

****

Well THAT went rather well, Dong complimented as I dropped to the ground on the street outside of Lianhua’s bedroom window. Night had fallen and there were no lampposts or other artificial lights to illuminate the city. There were very few people on the streets at this time. Some used handheld oil lanterns, but most simply navigated by moonlight.

Despite the late hour, and despite the past several hours of exercise I had just gotten, I felt as fresh as a daisy and better than I had felt since my arrival here. I’d fucked the five ladies of Master Yen’s household (the maid turned out to have the tightest twat) until none of them could walk straight. And then when two more maids discovered us, I’d needed to fuck them too.

You didn’t NEED to fuck them.

‘Yes I did. It was self-preservation! The last two said they were going to tattle. Only by seducing them could I make them equally complicit and therefore assure that they wouldn’t tell.’

Pssht. Self-preservation, my ass. Tell me you didn’t realize that second maid had the biggest ta-tas of them all and immediately decide you needed to motorboat them.

‘I don’t recall YOU complaining. I seem to recall you perched on my shoulder, staring down at her big flopping melons with two thumbs up.’

Well… they WERE a great pair of tits.

‘I know. Riiight?!’

And how awesome did that great pair of tits look when first wife started sucking on those huge nipples?

‘Totally awesome. Everything was awesome. I’ve been to orgies before, but seven girls and just me? That was INSANE. Banging second wife from behind while she ate out her own maid with first wife’s maid sitting on the girl’s face and making out with Lianhua at the same time? Or second concubine sixty-nining with Lianhua while fingerbanging Lianhua’s maid? Who knew Imperial Chinese chicks would be so horny? And so bisexual?’

It’s a direct result of their bureaucratic society. The rich get richer and gain status from forming these big harems that they couldn’t possibly satisfy. So all these women are trapped in these big compounds with no one to turn to for physical pleasure except each other.

‘We know there are male servants in the house.’

Some ladies try to sneak around with the male servants, yes. But if they get caught, both the man and the woman will be hung. Women having sex with other women? Most masters of the house don’t care, so the women are allowed to do it.

‘No other penis but mine. Classic.’

Well the ladies of Master Yen’s house certainly got some serious penis today. Like second wife reaching back to spread her snow-white cheeks begging you to ram your big dick up her backdoor?

‘God her asshole was so fucking tight.’

And then prissy first wife begging you to pull out of second wife’s asshole and immediately cum down her throat?

‘And then immediately swapping my cum with second concubine with messy kisses… Fuck, I’m getting hard again.’

Wanna go back?

‘Yes, but I can’t. The Master’s home now. I really hope nothing bad happens to any of them.’

Relax. They’ll be fine.

‘You promise? Has it already been written? Because those male servants DID catch us in the end.’

I promise. They won’t tattle. What’s done is done and they’ll lose their jobs if the Master finds out it happened under their watch.

‘I’m holding you to that. I feel bad enough for what happened to Quan. He was a good man, and I got him killed. I couldn’t bear it if something bad happened to Lianhua or the others because of me.’

It was Quan’s destiny to be kind to you in the prison, just as it was his destiny to die there. But take heart: the Buddhist people of this era believe in karma and reincarnation. Quan will be reborn a king for the good deeds he did in this life.

‘Really?’

It has already been written.

‘What else has been written? More specifically, what else has been written about this Liu Kang fellow. Am I really named after a Mortal Kombat character?’

How do you know the Mortal Kombat character isn’t named for you?

‘Because if any Mortal Kombat character got named after me, it would be Sub-Zero.’

Well, what if I teach you the Flying Bicycle Kick?

‘Can you?’

Don’t be ridiculous.

I chuckled to myself and kept walking.

‘You know, you never really answered me about whether or not I transported back in time to take over the body of some distant ancestor. I seem to recall you telling me that it didn’t matter, but I think it matters. Whoever the real Liu Kang was, he’s apparently a wanted criminal, and I just added to his rap sheet by killing all those prison guards. I got arrested in the first place for whatever things HE did, and is he now going to get into even further trouble for the things I’VE done? What happens when I go back to my own time? Does he get his body back with no memory of the things I did?’

He won’t get his body back. Liu Kang is dead. He was killed by Liang Dynasty soldiers and his spirit has passed to the underworld.

‘Waaaaitaminute. He got killed by soldiers? Does that mean I’m currently inhabiting a DEAD GUY’S body? Did you like reanimate his corpse or something? Did you have to dig him out of the ground and stitch his wounds back together or retrieve a leg that got hacked off and glue it back on so that I could wal--’

Dude-dude-dude-dude-chill. The real Liu Kang’s body is buried in a secret place where his friends continue to pray over him even today. I told you that you saw your own reflection in the water, and that statement was one hundred percent true. I didn’t bring you here, remember? You brought yourself here. Yes, Liu Kang was your distant ancestor. His blood runs through your veins. But the magic that brought you here did not reanimate his dead body; it created a new body for you in his image. So stop freaking out already!

‘Okay, okay. I’ll stop freaking out.’

Good. Finally.

‘But what the hell am I supposed to do now? The magic brought me here. It made this body for me. But all I’ve done so far is get beaten up, get thrown into prison, and get beaten up some more.’

And you got laid. With seven women at the same time.

‘Which was totally awesome, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t make up for the near-death experience, thank you very much. And I’d like to think I didn’t travel more than a thousand years back in time solely to get laid. Or wait: DID I travel more than a thousand years back in time solely to get laid? Was I supposed to impregnate one of those girls back there? Am I like Kyle Reese, the fighter from the future destined to time-travel and sire the future hero of the rebellion?’

This isn’t The Terminator. You’re not Kyle Reese. And you were careful not to cum in any of those ladies.

‘Because we all know the ‘pulling out’ method of birth control is super-effective…’

You didn’t knock anybody up. It has already been written.

‘I’m holding you to that.’

And you can stop worrying about where you’re supposed to go.

‘How am I supposed to stop worrying about that?’

Because your destiny has already found you.

‘What’s THAT supposed to mean?’

“Stop,” a new voice whispered out of the darkness.

I came to a halt in the middle of the street, all senses immediately on alert. I was still within the upper-class residential section of the city, and the streets were basically empty. But I had passed by a large lantern hanging above the front gate to some high-level minister’s compound, illuminating my entire face and body, and I quickly stepped away from the light and into the shadows. I had no weapons, but already I could feel energy surging through my forearms, ready to create ice shields and ice blades on command to defend myself against whoever it might be.

“How…? How is this possible?” the hauntingly familiar voice continued from somewhere above me and to the left.

Still on my guard, I turned and held my forearms out in a fighting stance, ready to summon ice shields to protect me.

The figure remained perched on the wall, a black shadow nearly invisible in a sea of shadows. I could see the barest hint of a head tilt as it evaluated me, and after a moment’s pause, it silently slipped off the wall to drop the street. Her voice emerged from the darkness in front of me. “I saw you fall. I saw you die.”

She then stepped into the light of the lantern, enough for me to see her face.

“Jade?”

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue & Chapter 1: The Ax Effect: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102225387

Chapter 2: Santa Monica: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102437478

Chapter 3: The Zellij Fountain: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102691018

Chapter 4: Euhemerism: https://www.patreon.com/posts/102919819

Chapter 5: The Fremont Troll: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103191700

Chapter 6: Jade: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103443053

Chapter 7: The Blue Gecko: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103699709

Chapter 8: Yaoguai: https://www.patreon.com/posts/103978374

Chapter 9: Rome: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104213388

Chapter 10: Seeing Sights: https://www.patreon.com/posts/104466709