Ji Fa stood upright, amazed by the youthful aspect of the Great Mother — he’d been expecting an old, old woman — but as he also did not want to seem to be staring and admiring Yi Wu’s beauty, he didn’t know where to look.
‘You are surprised to see me unveiled?’ she queried, as if she had picked up on his thought, and the Xibo nodded. ‘We are to work together,’ Yi Wu said as she rose to standing, ‘and if I cannot trust heaven’s mandate, then who can I trust? Tea, brother Fa?’ she offered, descending the stairs to kneel on the cushion on her side of the table.
‘How kind of you, brother Yi. Yes, I would like that,’ replied the Xibo, advancing to kneel at the table — feeling comfortable with regarding the great Wu master as a brother.
He watched in silence as Yi Wu poured the tea, wondering all the while about her assertion just now. When she had placed his tea in front of him and he’d thanked her, he could not refrain from asking: ‘Am I the one, brother Yi? Do I have heaven’s mandate?’
The Great Mother smiled, amused by the question. ‘That is my prediction, Ji, but it is for you to prove to yourself and Tian.’
The Xibo was concerned by her response, but before he could voice his worry, Yi Wu continued. ‘Yet, if the journey to be emperor is one you wish to take,’ and she raised her eyebrows in expectation, ‘then I can supply you with the map.’
Fa was most relieved to hear this, but he also knew nothing in life came without a cost. ‘And what does the House of Yi Wu Li Shan stand to gain from its partnership with the House of Ji? Of course, our treasury and resources are at your disposal. No tribute is too high for such an honoured ally.’ Ji Fa proffered politely, and again Yi smiled at his lack of understanding.
‘The Wu are not interested in earthly treasure, and we have all the resources we need right here,’ she advised, raising her tea to him in salutation. Ji Fa returned the gesture and drank with her.
Deeply savouring the wonderful brew, he waited patiently to pursue the conversation until after he had complimented his hostess and requested another cup.
‘Surely, brother Yi, you would require some remuneration for your aid to our house?’ Ji Fa proffered.
‘No, brother Fa. This house serves Tian,’ she clarified as she poured, ‘and it is to Tian that you must give tribute for our service to the House of Ji.’
‘Ah,’ he replied, sounding enlightened, but wary.
‘As you can imagine, the aspirations of heaven are very different to the desires of earth, so the tribute expected by Tian will be very dissimilar to the simple material homage you would normally pay an ally,’ his hostess stated seriously and Fa was even more concerned.
‘Dear brother,’ Fa softened his tone and expression to make his plea, ‘I am very ignorant to the ways of the Wu. If you could give me some idea of what Tian expects of me, I would be very grateful.’
‘It is not wise to speculate,’ she advised. ‘Tian’s expectations will be revealed to you this night via the oracle.’
His eyes parted wide in wonder and apprehension.
The Ji family had court diviners who were very good at interpreting the Yi Jing hexagrams his late father had refined. Since the death of Xibo Chang, Dan had been working on a companion text to the Yi Jing: the Book of Changes. This was the Yao Ci: Explanation of Horizontal Lines, in which Dan elucidated the significance of the horizontal lines in each of the sixty-four hexagrams. The philosophy of Yi Jing was based primarily on the literature and administration of government; an oracle reading, on the other hand, was divination at its most sacred. Since he’d been enchanted by Su Daji, the emperor had decreed only he held a right to consult an oracle.
Fa recalled Jiang Hudan saying she had to prepare for this evening, and as she was the one who claimed to have predicted the downfall of the Shang, the pieces fell into place.
‘Jiang Hudan is the oracle?’ the Xibo asked, needing his guess to be confirmed.
‘Only the very best for you, brother Fa.’ Yi Wu raised her cup to him and Fa again joined her, feeling calmer in the knowledge that tonight many of his questions would be answered directly by heaven.
‘Shall I be allowed to query the oracle when she is in trance?’ Fa wondered.
‘A good oracle will leave you with no questions to ask,’ Yi Wu assured him.
‘Of course,’ Fa smiled. ‘As with last night, I expect this evening to be a memory I shall treasure for the rest of my days. I hope, at some point, to be able to return the favour you have shown me.’
Yi Wu placed her cup aside. ‘Actually, brother Fa, there is one favour you could do for me personally,’ she entreated him.
Fa felt he knew what this request might be. ‘If it is within my power, brother Yi, know that I shall be happy to oblige.’
‘That is well.’ Her smile was tinged by sadness now. ‘For this matter is very dear to my heart …’
Surprisingly, Huxin was more hospitable than her sister, and nowhere near as intimidating, in Dan’s opinion — at least when occupying her human form.
Dan and Song had been taken to view the balance of the morning meditation session, then had tea served to them privately in the heaven’s garden courtyard. Afterward, brother Huxin invited them to join the daily session of Dao Yin with the junior initiates, which was held on a large plateau in front of the temple. Dan was fascinated by the accomplished movements of even the five-year-olds and their ability to concentrate. They were also very attuned to one another. Ji Song, who was barely a teenager, was having trouble keeping up with their gymnastic movements and challenging postures — designed to target energy trapped within the body. Dan realised very quickly that he had energy trapped everywhere and that releasing it was painful; he might be a fit warrior, but he was far from supple. He quietly bowed out of the class and returned to where his tour guide had been standing back, discreetly observing them.
‘I feel like an old tree stump amidst a field of flowing reeds,’ he commented, and Huxin smiled, amused by his imagery. Dan took her silence to be polite agreement. ‘Please don’t tell me that is how it looked?’
She drew her brows together, apparently concerned about answering that question. ‘Would you like a tour of our gardens? Our sunset shrine has beautiful views of the thermal lake and the river beyond.’
A change of subject, very tactful, Dan thought. ‘That sounds marvellous.’
When Song noted his uncle moving off with their guide, he left the class to come after them.
‘No, you stay and finish the session,’ Dan instructed. ‘You’re young, it will do you good.’
‘But I’m dying,’ Song said in an overly dramatic fashion to Dan, who obviously had no intention of relenting. The lad looked to Huxin. ‘How much longer does the session go for?’
‘Until the hour of the monkey,’ she replied.
Song was horrified. ‘But that’s three hours away!’
‘That is our regular regime,’ Huxin informed him.
‘Will you be shown up by a group of little children?’ Ji Dan challenged and with a lady legend watching on, Ji Song could not maintain his tactic to avoid Dao Yin.
‘Hardly.’ Song glared at his uncle and was quietly fuming, no doubt dreaming of the day when he would give the orders.
‘We will come back for you later, then.’ Huxin led Dan toward another set of stairs at the far end of the platform, which gave access to the kitchen courtyard and to the gardens beyond.
On the way past the temple of Tian, Dan halted, curious about its illusion of having a larger interior than exterior. Huxin turned back upon noting his distraction.
‘May I?’ he queried, pointing to the temple door.
‘You will find it is as it was last night,’ she advised, but gave a nod giving him leave to investigate.
When he opened the door, the empty interior was patently larger than the exterior, yet as he backed up trying to view them in comparison to each other, there was still no logic to be drawn from it. Brother Huxin watched his investigations with som
e amusement.
Dan threw his hands up, as what he was seeing was impossible. ‘How can you explain that?’
‘Simple,’ Huxin shrugged, ‘there is no temple.’ She turned and headed back down the temple stairs, and Dan came after her.
‘I don’t understand. Clearly, there is a temple?’
‘Is there?’ Huxin emphasised, as though he was talking nonsense. ‘What if I told you none of this is really here? We …’ she motioned to him and then herself ‘… are not really here, and all perception is just the dreaming of Tian? Time, space, reality, individuality, are an illusion created by heaven to understand earth.’
It took a moment for Dan to digest the notion, yet with the suggestion he felt his consciousness expand.
‘If you can comprehend that, then the so-called miracles we perform by our manipulation of matter, the elements and our very forms are really just our greater ability to see matter as energy in motion — that is all.’
‘That is very profound,’ Dan conceded, still trying to fully wrap his mind around the concept while he followed his guide down the stairs into the kitchen garden.
At the garden gate, brother Huxin took the central path leading up a gentle incline in the direction of the mountain peak.
‘Brother Huxin, am I allowed to ask you what is planned for us this evening?’ Dan trailed her out of the formal gardens and onto a forest trail.
Huxin turned to address him, but continued to walk backward up the slope. ‘For you, we have nothing planned,’ she said. ‘Tonight’s festivities are for heaven’s mandate alone.’ She turned about and continued walking forward.
‘I don’t like the sound of that.’ Dan felt he had to protest.
‘You don’t trust us?’ She turned abruptly to confront him, and her pretty face was right in his. ‘It doesn’t matter what you like, court scholar. The fate of the land is now in your brother’s hands, and the deal he strikes tonight with heaven is strictly between Tian and the candidate.’
Dan swallowed, rather taken back to be so put in his place. ‘I have no part in heaven’s plan?’
Huxin moved away a step or two. ‘That remains to be seen,’ she said in a friendlier tone, ‘although my sister predicts you will play a far greater part in bringing peace and order to this land than anyone else of your generation.’
Dan gasped, partly honoured, partly fearful.
‘But not yet,’ stressed his guide. ‘Now is your brother’s time, and you must trust his judgement.’ Huxin traipsed on up the track.
But she had struck the fear of heaven into Dan now. ‘How could I play a bigger role than my brother, who would be king and bring down the Shang?’
Huxin shrugged. ‘You’d have to ask brother Hudan.’
The thought of asking Jiang Hudan anything after he’d insulted her this morning made him cringe. ‘I don’t think brother Hudan likes me very much.’
‘Really? I think just the opposite is true,’ Huxin mused. ‘And that in liking you, a man, she finds it easier to be hostile than to analyse the dynamics of a relationship that she does not know how to handle.’
‘So what could I do to make the situation more comfortable?’
‘Ignore her,’ she suggested.
‘Ignore her?’ Dan thought her advice was a little extreme.
Huxin nodded. ‘Wait for her to come to you.’
‘I think I’ll be waiting a long time.’ Dan didn’t hold out much hope for the success of this tactic.
‘Trust me —’ She walked on a few steps then came to an abrupt halt, her eyes fixed ahead. ‘Sorry.’ His guide did an about-face and headed down toward him. ‘We cannot go up to the shrine at present. It is in use.’
Dan’s curiosity immediately spiked. ‘May I see?’ He pointed in the direction they’d been moving, as he walked past her.
‘Quietly,’ she hissed, ‘we must not create any distraction.’
‘I understand,’ he whispered, silently creeping up the steep track with Huxin alongside him.
Dan crouched low and his eyes followed the trail to where it flattened out and led around the mountainside to a set of stone stairs. These led up to a stone platform, in the middle of which was an altar block. Behind the altar was Jiang Hudan, dressed in a robe — azure blue, just as the sky was this clear winter day. Her long dark hair was flowing in the breeze as she burned oils to honour and call upon Tian.
‘What is her offering in aid of?’ Dan was wondering if this had something to do with this evening’s events.
‘She is preparing her body to act as an oracle for your brother this night.’
Hudan was brewing something on the altar and poured herself a cup of the steaming liquid, which she held toward heaven and then drank down.
‘What is that?’ Dan asked softly.
‘A mixture of hemp seed oil, ginseng and other sacred herbs,’ Huxin advised. ‘It assists us to see within …’ she placed her palms together and reversed her hands so that her fingers pointed toward her heart ‘… and then without.’ She now opened her hands and held them palm up to the heavens.
‘It enhances your powers?’ Dan queried.
‘It enhances perception,’ she explained. ‘The source of individual power is internal, never external, and anyone or anything telling you otherwise is seeking to enslave you.’
Dan looked back to the altar to see Hudan relinquish her robe and bare her naked form to the world. ‘Goodness sake!’ Dan closed his eyes and turned away, but the beauteous vision burned into his mind. How liberated she looked with her arms flung wide to the heavens, hair blowing in the breeze as the morning sun beat down upon her bare skin.
Huxin was having a little chuckle at his discomfort.
‘The Wu do not seem to value modesty as much as other women.’ Dan quietly made his way back down the track.
‘We do not consider nakedness shameful.’ Huxin caught up with him. ‘On the contrary it is empowering!’
Dan halted, finding the statement curious for two reasons: firstly, because empowered was exactly how Hudan appeared, and secondly, because deep down he envied them such freedom and social abandon. ‘I imagine standing naked on a mountainside would feel quite empowering,’ he said cautiously.
‘You should try it, brother Dan,’ she suggested. ‘I would not object.’
Dan was briefly lost for words and embarrassed by the suggestion, but he could not wipe the grin off his face. ‘Thank you, no, not today.’
‘Aw,’ Huxin pouted, and Dan was shocked.
‘Isn’t flirting against your code?’ Dan ventured to inquire.
‘Not my code,’ the tigress grinned. ‘I am the exception to the Wu rule, as I have to mate eventually. And besides, seeing you naked wouldn’t be flirting. It would just be enjoying the scenery. You’re very beautiful for a man.’ She openly observed him, very matter of fact, regarding him as a man might a pretty young woman.
This was very off-putting for Dan and he now understood why Hudan had taken offence this morning.
‘Not quite so masculine as your brother, though …’ Her smile broadened and she gave a little growl and shimmy of delight.
Dan was relieved to note the tigress’ amorous mood shift toward his brother. ‘The Xibo was very taken by you also, brother Huxin.’
‘I know,’ Huxin boasted, gleefully. ‘He pleases me.’ Dan’s guide lost interest in seeing him strip and led off down the track toward the house.
‘You won’t mention our presence here today to brother Hudan?’ Dan felt Jiang Hudan would surely think him disrespectful again.
‘Brother Hudan will not care what you saw,’ Huxin scoffed at his fear. ‘She would tell you that she is not saving her modesty for a man or marriage. She will gladly strip bare to do battle and distract her enemies unto their death … as would we all.’
Dan was absolutely astounded to hear this. He considered being confronted by a beautiful naked female in battle and decided he would surely be stunned long enough to lose his life — even a naked ma
n would be distracting enough. ‘You are all very dauntless and clever.’
‘I am a beast, brother Dan. It is in my nature to have such traits.’ She brushed off his flattery. ‘My natural state of being is naked in the wild.’
‘And your sister?’
Huxin smiled at the question, and shook her head ‘I got the animal nature and desires. Hudan is my polar opposite, a goddess, pure in body and thought, more spirit than human. She spends most of her time out of her earthly body, so whether that body is clothed or not is of no consequence. Her body is just a vessel that enables her to serve Tian on an earthly level.’
Her answer got Dan to wondering about the legend of these two sisters. ‘Brother Huxin, may I ask —’
‘How could Hudan and I possibly come from the same mother?’ She guessed his query.
‘I mean no offence,’ Dan explained. ‘It is the scholar in me who must ask … for who shall record your legend correctly if no one outside these walls knows about where it all began?’
‘You’ve been researching us, brother Dan.’ His guide seemed flattered, and then not so amused. ‘There is a good reason you cannot find that information, and that is because some mysteries are better left secret.’
‘I am sorry if I —’
Huxin held a hand up to prevent an apology. ‘You have caused no offence. In fact, I’m surprised it took you this long to ask. Perhaps, one day in the future, we will reveal to you the mystery behind our birth, but at this moment in time, it is vitally important that those details remain hidden from the uninitiated in the human world.’
‘Vitally important to you and brother Hudan?’ He couldn’t help probing further.
Huxin shook her head. ‘To everything in existence,’ she replied. ‘One secret mystery tends to lead to another and before you know it, you are confronted by all manner of enigmas and phenomena that you are not equipped to fathom.’
Dan had always been one of the smartest people he knew, and that was not vanity; his intelligence was what he was most famed for throughout the land. As he trailed Huxin to the gardens, he felt like a complete novice for the first time in twenty years! I must secure Wu Fen Gong for my instruction. The brief glimpse he’d had of Wu disciplines this day had only emphasised to Dan how much work he had to do on himself and he could barely wait to get started.