Volume 2 Chapter 26

  A clearing was made before the audience, and Tan took off his shirt. He handed his shirt to his father, and he sat for a few moments while waiting for the avatars to appear.

  After a few minutes, he tied a blindfold over his head, for his mortal eyes would just get in the way if he were to really go seriously against his uncle’s avatar. He breathed deeply, he closed his right eye, his left eye, and he opened his third eye.

  He waited until the first avatar appeared, then he stood. With his sword in his right hand, he waited for the avatar to attack him, then sliced it in two.

  Another avatar appeared. Then another, and another, and another and another.

  He sliced them all in twain with his sword, and they vanished as soon as they were cut.

  Soon, the avatars came so swiftly that he was forced to enter the Sublime State of Clarity to keep up. While in that state, his perception of time was slowed, and his mastery of his body increased. While he was in that state, he could fight against the avatars even as they continued to swarm him.

  He fought for a few minutes. For a few hours. For a few days. He lost all track of time, as he continued to fight before the audience, swarmed as he was by the avatars of the emperor himself.

  The audience watched in awe as this young master of the blade did display his skills to them by fighting the emperor himself. Finally, however, one of the avatars got through his defense and he was burned. He cried out in pain, for in the sublime state of clarity his sense of pain was also amplified. Abruptly the avatars vanished.

  Tan lost focus, his third eye closed, and he fell to the ground, his chest heaving as he drew breath. He didn’t get out of breath very often, but he had been exercising very hard just now, and so he sat on the ground and pulled to himself the Qi of the air to help his body recover.

  Abruptly he became aware that people were shouting his name.

  He took off his blindfold to see that the audience was on its feet, jumping and clapping and celebrating his performance.

  He blushed, and he reached for his shirt, which his father promptly handed to him. Suddenly, lightning struck the gate tower of the palace and a booming voice shouted “The voice of the emperor bid his loyal subjects be silent! I say, the voice of the emperor bids the children of the emperor be silent, save only those asked to speak!”

  Once the crowd had calmed down, Tanshen stood up and turned to his uncle.

  “That was quite a show you just put on,” his uncle told him. “Are you proud of yourself right now?”

  “I guess,” Tan said, and the voice of Tanshen shouted “I bear the pride of the empire, do I not?”

  “Indeed you do, Tanshen. You are the pride of the empire. Let me ask, how many times were you burned during your display?” his uncle asked.

  “Just the once,” Tan and his voice answered.

  “Quite impressive,” the emperor’s voice said. “I name thee a master of the blade, what say you?”

  “I still have much to learn,” Tan answered, and his voice repeated his words. The crowd cheered and cheered until lightning struck the tower once again and the voice of the emperor shouted out “Be thou silent, children of the empire!”

  The crowd remembered themselves and settled down.

  “Tanshen, I say to you this. Attend me in the bath today, so that I might treat your burn with my own hand. While we bathe together, I shall invest upon a man the power to speak in my voice. His name shall be Erk, and he is on his way right now. He carries the throne of the empire, and when he arrives, he shall sit upon it and answer all questions put to him until you return for your next display. Do you understand my instructions, child of heaven?”

  “Not even a little bit,” Tan said. “But I guess I’m supposed to take a bath?”

  The crowd laughed.

  Tan blushed.

  The emperor was mighty pleased with himself as a young man in a mask appeared and whispered in his nephews ear. His nephew was taken by the hand, led through the front gate, and brought into the royal baths, which has always been near the front gate.

  “And with that,” the emperor announced, “I call the end of act two of the play, the day that two emperors took a bath. In act three, we shall hear the boasts of Tanshen’s father, and judge whether they are true or false! Be prepared to witness how the humblest Dirt Farmer in the empire does raise his son!”

  The audience cheered. Renshon Shen was seen leaping from the bell tower and walking into the men’s bath, following behind his nephew.

  The applause did not end for twenty minutes, but when it finally did end, all eyes were upon Tan’s father, waiting to be entertained.

  Tren Shen sat upon the ground before the front gate and wait for the throne of the empire to be carried before him. When it arrived, there was a man already sitting on it, but nobody could see his face, for it was obscured by a mask.

  “Your emperor does call for all loyal subjects to kowtow before the throne of the Blue Dragon Empire! If you wish to answer this call, you may present yourself to the front gate any day that the sun does shine and request of the guardian of the gate the privilege of serving the empire!” the mortal man on the throne said in a loud voice. “Now then, let us hear the dirty Dirt Farmer of the emperor boast about his son!”

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  The audience cheered.

  While Tan was in the bath with his uncle, his father stood, and politely kowtowed before the emperor’s throne. He was heard saying this words.

  “Thus does the former emperor return to bow invest upon the man whose milk name is Erk the privilege of speaking in his name. The man named Erk shall bear witness to the son of heaven. What say the man named Erk?”

  The man on the throne was silent. Then, after the words of the dirt farmer were recorded by the emperor’s left hand, the man named Erk began to question the man named Tren Shen.

  Tren Shen did answer every question put before him honestly. Act three of the “day that two emperors took a bath,” lasted for thirty minutes before the audience began to grow bored.

  “Dirty dirt farmer, I ask you,” The man named Erk said. “When is the last time you bathed?”

  “Not since I arrived in the city, for I’ve been busy preparing the way for my son,” the dirt farmer answered.

  “You are offending the imperial nose! I command you to bathe with your son.”

  “If that is the emperor’s command, then the dirt farmer shall attend him in the bath. Perhaps he will be permitted to wash the emperors back,” Tren Shen answered. The members of the crowd who heard the words laughed, and the humble dirt farmer of the empire was seen stepping into the men’s bath.

  “Very good!” the man named erk announced. “That concludes act three of the ‘day that two emperors took a bath. However, the emperor has decided to rename the play! The name of the play is now the ‘The day that Tanshen Shenlong came to court!’ I ask thee, children of the empire, is this name better or worse than before?”

  The crowd’s reaction was mixed, but mostly filled with approval. In the end, the man named Erk raised his hand for silence, and he was eventually met with it. “In the next act, we shall evaluate Tanshen’s left hand! Does Tanshen’s left hand stand ready to be weighed and measured before the court?”

  Pao shouted at the top of his lungs “Tanshen’s left hand is prepared to be measured by the court!”

  “Then when I clap my hands next, we shall evaluate Tanshen’s left hand. Prepare a space for Tanshen’s left hand at court!”

  The space around Ko was cleared, and she was handed a staff.

  “Tanshen is asked to show how she wields a staff,” the man named Erk said.

  Slowly, Ko began to perform a kata. Then she sped up until the audience could not keep up with her movements. When she finally stopped, the audience burst into cheers.

  “Quite the impressive display,” the man named Erk said. “You seem to have worked up a sweat. Would you like to take a bath, Tanshen?”

  “Yes,” Ko answered.

  “Then we shall suspend the current act until after you have bathed. Next, we shall evaluate Tanshen’s right hand. He is asked to display his fire cultivation, so that we may compare the way that Tanshen controls fire to that of the emperor himself. What say you, Tanshen?”

  “I stand ready to display my cultivation to the court,” Pao said in a booming voice.

  “Then, once Tanshen’s left hand has entered the women’s bath, we shall begin the fourth act of the play, ‘The day that Tanshen came to court!’”

  The crowd was heard cheering as Ko walked through the front gate of the imperial palace, where she was shown to the women’s bath by the emperor’s servants.

  “Now then, it seems that the imperial dirt farmer has raised some very impressive children,” the voice of the emperor, whose name was Erk, announced. “Be though prepared, right hand of Tanshen, to show your cultivation to the court?”

  “Yes,” Won said. “But I ask for some assistance. I wish to fire arrows from my bow to display my cultivation, but I am not certain that this is permissible in the imperial presence. I ask for permission to display before the court my archery.”

  “You are given leave to display your archery to the court,” the voice of the emperor answered.

  “Then I ask for a bow, and a target,” Won said.

  “You may hold this bow, which has been held by the emperor, and you may fire at any target. I only ask that you do not kill a child of the empire,” Erk announced. A bow was handed to Won by a masked servant of the emperor, who had been in the crowd.

  “Then I shall burn down the front gate of the palace!” Won said. “In the name of Tanshen, I ask that the gates of the palace be closed so that I may practice my archery!”

  Erk thought about the request for several moments. “In the name of Tanshen, we shall close the front gate so that he may practice his archery.”

  The gate was closed.

  Slowly, firing one arrow after another,

  The right hand of Tanshen did burn down the front gate, firing one arrow after another from the bow that he had been given by the hand of the emperor.

  The crowd cheered the display, for Won was a very good archer. He walked among the crowd, and he fired at the gate from different angles. He leaped to the rooftops and he shot from there. He stood from thirty yards away. From a hundred yards away. From a thousand yards away he stood and he shot at the gate. He never once missed, and he never once faltered.

  Not until the gate was burnt to ashes and fell to the ground was the display ended, and the crowd continued to cheer as Won, the right hand of Tanshen, announced that he had finished displaying his archery and handed back to the masked man the bow of the emperor.

  “The right hand of Tanshen has pleased the court,” the man named Erk said. “He is to be granted one boon by the hand of the emperor. What do you ask of the empire, Tanshen, who’s milk name was Won.”

  “I would ask to take a bath,” Won said.

  “Then by the right hand of the emperor you shall be made clean!” the man named Erk announced. “Bare this child to the men’s bath! Make haste, make haste, and make him clean!”

  The crowd laughed as the man with the bow took Won into the men’s bath, where he joined Tan, Tren, and Renton Shen.

  “Now then, we shall have to wait a while before the next act, I think,” The man named Erk announced. “Let us see. Are there any other matters that must be put before the court today? Present your issues to the guard of the gate! Present your petitions to the scribe of the gate! In the mean while, I think that I shall take a nap!”

  And the old man, whose milk name was Erk, did proceed to lay down on the throne of the empire and take a nap.

  And that was the day that the mortal emperor took a nap on the throne.

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