Prologue

A star.  Eternal, unreachable, and noble - Yet its light is dim, and what warmth it sheds shall never reach mere mortals.

A meteor.  Ribbon of flame soaring across the sky - yet its beauty is brief, and its predestined course leads only to its own destruction.

And yet; and yet.

There exist stars so great that they become suns - and there are meteors that dance so well that they are forever seared into the memories of man.

What follows is the story of stars and meteors, of men and beasts, of swords and demons, and, perhaps - a legend.


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"This is a rare gem indeed; the Sabre of Lei-Zen, the Thundering Hand.  Over five feet long, an inch wide, and they say that the handle is wrought of gold."

"The Thundering Hand...  Was he not the leader of the QuiFuBang, the Jade Tiger Bandits?  The one who went down fighting against the Mao Brothers?"

"He killed three of the seven when he went down, too.  You can still see the chip in the blade where he clashed swords with Mao RenLiang."

"And these two... matching jade handles.  Two swords, but one scabbard.  Two blades of differing lengths, three feet long and two feet long respectively...  Could this be...?"

"Ah, quite an eye you have there.  The twin swords of Ximen Tsing, the Unmoving Storm."

"Wasn't he the one who never moved even a single step, whenever he fought?"

"Yes, that's him.  His feet never moved, but his swords could move all right; just ask Mo Men, the All-knowing Monk, or Tit YueSum, the Iron Tower."

"As I recall, they're both dead."

"Exactly; dead because they didn't believe how fast those swords were."

"And yet... even the Unmoving Storm was not invincible."

"Yes... he, too, died... killed by a sword that now resides in this room, in fact."

"A sword?  But... who could kill the Unmoving Storm with a sword?  He was undisputedly the greatest swordsman of his time."

"Is it really so hard to guess?  Ximen Tsing is widely known as one of the best swordsmen in the entire history of the Underworld.  In my memory, there's only ever been two, maybe three swordsmen whose skill equalled his.  And of the three... there's only one whose sword is in this room.  Or perhaps you simply haven't recognized it yet."

Sudden silence.  The buzzing of the cicadas.

"Surely... that isn't be Ba GuSing's lost...?"

"Oh, but it is."  A pause, a sigh, and the host continued. "Over three feet long, and barely half an inch wide.  Thin as a strand of hair.  Curved, but sharp on either side.  Light as a feather, unbending, and fragile.  Formerly owned by Ba Gusing, DuBi SenMo - The Single-Armed Devil-God, self-styled Emperor of JiangHu, the Underworld."

"I think we all know how he died - everybody in the JiangHu knows."

"His reign of terror ended fifteen years ago; but to this very day... very few know how it happened.  Even I only know this:  Over fifty of the Underworld's proudest and strongest united against him.  Fewer than ten remained standing by the very end."

The cicadas were silent; the sun's dying rays bathed the room in blood.

"It must have been a glorious battle - the likes of which would have graced the tales of storytellers forever.  If only they knew what happened..."

A snort.  "Foolish child.  It was a bloody battle, to be sure; but there was no glory, no honor, and no mercy on that bloody night fifteen years ago."

A forced laugh from the child, and then, "Still, it's pointless to speak of such things, right?  His reign is over, his sword is lost, and even the battle itself has been lost to memory... Let us speak of other legends hiding within this room."

And so the two departed, neither of them noticing the shadowy figure lying in wait behind a gigantic scabbard...

Author's Note

I'd really like some advice as to whether I overdid the opening. Is I began with a whole lot of prose, but it came off as odd somehow, to me. I had expected it to be sort of like an introduction to the characters later on, but it seems too abstract for the reader to hold any real expectations.

The next few paragraphs were intended to be a transcript between two characters talking about a collection of swords owned by famous JiangHu masters of the past. But it doesn't seem quite interesting. Is there any way to pump it up?

Help would be highly appreciated.