retrieve in order to slay the dragon. However, you must first defeat the guardian of the sword, Tsun Tzu, before
you can retrieve the blade.”
Mai Long, too eager to go and retrieve the blade from the underworld, stood up immediately from the table.
Han Shun grabbed his arm with an iron grip, as he was about to enter the door to the underworld. He then said,
“
Remember, fight with a clear mind. Only then can you find what you are looking for.” Mai Long inserted the
key into the keyhole, and twisted the key. He then, slowly put his calloused hands on the brass doorknob, turned
it, and pushed the door open. In a blink of an eye, he was in falling down to the underworld.
As Mai Long fell down, darkness continued to close in, and he screamed at the top of his lungs, terrified.
Slowly, Mai Long felt his veins being pressed against his skin so hard that his whole body ached. He continued
to fall, and it was then he saw the ground below him. A dirt surface that was barren and completely void of any
life at all. He knew he was close to the underworld.
Mai Long landed on his back with a thud on the cold hard ground. He groaned in pain, and turned over. He
slowly opened his eyes, and found a man, clothed in a cloak of a velvet coat, with a blade in his hand. When he
opened his mouth, he spoke in a distorted voice, and bellowed, “Welcome to the gates of hell my friend…”
Then, he took another loud, deep sonorous breath, and shouted, “If you are not a dead man, and have a pumping
heart then you are not welcome here, in the underworld.”
Mai Long got up from his back, and shouted, “I’m here to get the blade which can kill the dragon.” Mai
Long only assumed that this man was Tsun Tzu, the guardian of the blade. Only a man like him could keep the
blade, in such a twisted dimension.
Then, the man, with a smile, crackled into a cacophony of laughter, and bellowed, “It’s a lie when men say
the best things in life are free, as they obviously are completely oblivious to the true value of all things… Even
your life itself has a price…”
Then, Mai Long proceeded to ask, “What do you charge for it? The whole of China awaits this blade to
rescue itself.” Then, Tsun Tzu only replied with a long, and demanding answer, “Well, I am in the debt of your
uncle… He has saved my neck from that dragon many times… I do suppose that I am in debt to his soul… Very
well, young warrior, I bid you farewell. I do warn however, that blade possesses… a very twisted and dark
power…”
Right after, Mai Long stood on the barren ground, and waited for a reaction from Tsun Tzu. Then, Tsun Tzu
merely vanished and the blade he was holding in his hands dropped cold on the floor. A certain enchanted aura
entranced the sword, and blue smoke lifted up from the blade. The blade was forged of a myriad of sanguine
diamonds and as soon as Mai Long touched the blade, a large purple hole appeared right below him. He fell, and
into the void he disappeared.
***
As Mai Long fell into the void, he had experienced a constant stinging on his back. He rotated inside the
space without any gravity for hours, and hours. The void is a space that theoretically does not exist. People say it
is the dimension that exists below hell, and right above the abyss of emptiness. It in fact, lies underneath the
Great Wall, a dark realm nevertheless. Void suggests emptiness, where nothing is able to thrive. However, the
void in contrast is a home to many unspeakable horrors that should never have to be exposed to the very likes of
men. It eats away at the mind, until the one trapped has to resort to killing and ending their own lives, to end the
infinite pain.
Mai Long continued to fall into the void, as he ventured on deeper, rotating helplessly. To this day, no one
has discovered what Mai Long has experienced there. However, when he exited the void, he became a changed
man having witnessed the horrors of the void. His heart that was once full of compassion and mercy evolved
into a heart thirsty for blood and death. Visions of death, pestilence, and suffering plagued his very mind, and
for years, Mai Long had been strengthened by enduring these near death experiences, and being resilient against
these visions which lured him into killing himself.
When Mai Long finally dropped out of the void as a strengthened man and woke up to the intense flames
smothering his face. He slowly opened his eyes, which had a flicker of ash scattered across his eyelids. Slowly
getting to his feet, he suddenly fell back down as the weight of the blade dragged his body down to the ground.
Scourging the last ounce of strength in the nooks and crannies of his body, he stood up. Before him stood the
dragon that had burned down the innocent of China.
As he stood up, he realised that he was standing on top of the Great Wall. Despite the fact it was scarred
with ethereal flames, and asbestos leaked from the walls, it stood tall, one of the only structures that stayed
intact throughout the years that Mai Long had disappeared in the void. He stood on the wall, a lone warrior
bearing the sword. Dressed in nothing but armour made from decade old bronze plates, which were decayed and