Path of Dragons-Chapter 56Book 7: : Tin Hau Temple

Though he endeavored to hide it, even Elijah was a little surprised at how much damage he had done with Incinerate. The ability itself didn’t sound terribly impressive – especially next to more complex spells with flowery names – but he couldn’t deny its effectiveness.

On the surface, killing one monster – no matter how big – didn’t seem like a big deal. Except that doing so had given Elijah an entire level, pushing him to one-thirty-eight, which didn’t seem like it should be possible. He’d only just gained a level in the Shrine of War, which suggested that the creature he’d killed was extremely high-leveled. It was no wonder that Ke Ming’s abilities – which were supposed to deter monsters from noticing his ship – hadn’t worked against the squid. The level disparity was just too large.

And yet, Elijah had killed it, and mostly alone. Certainly, Swarm and Envenom had done their part, but he questioned whether or not they’d even been necessary. Incinerate had been overkill, instantly killing the monster and irreparably damaging the environment. Even the harbor had boiled, albeit briefly, killing anything within a few hundred feet of him.

Sure, the other forms had their places, but Shape of the Master was a total game-changer.

“Was that a new form?” asked Sadie, walking beside him. Via Soul of the Wild, he’d already established that there were no beasts or monsters nearby. They’d already killed all of the zombies, and the undead had taken care of any wildlife on the small island.

“Yeah,” Elijah answered. Then, he explained the basic nature of Shape of the Master before asking, “What is this place called?”

He’d already noticed that the island’s landmass formed a vague U-shape, and it was barely more than a quarter of a mile across. The total area was probably approximately three square miles, which meant that it was positively tiny, with a small, tourist-trap village at the base of the U.

“Peng Chau,” she answered. Then, as they waited for the others to catch up, she explained that it had undergone a massive restoration project a couple of decades before, and it had been a popular tourist destination ever since.

“I can see why,” Elijah said. The area was quite beautiful, with lush vegetation and quaint buildings that didn’t intrude on the natural landscape. However, that perception was mitigated by the thick death-attuned ethera hanging over everything. The smell of charred squid didn’t help, either. “This Tin Hau Temple, do you know anything about it?”

“It is one of many,” she answered. “Dedicated to the goddess of the sea and protector of fishermen and sailors. Religious nonsense, but each temple is culturally significant. I’ve never been to one, though.”

“Wait – you’re not religious?” he asked. He’d never even considered addressing the subject before. “You’re an angel.”

“I have an angel core,” she corrected. “Which is just a powerful tool of magic that can help me protect my people. Angels are just another race, albeit a powerful one. They are not objects of worship.”

“Technically, they never were,” Elijah pointed out. “They were servants of God, not gods themselves.”

“Regardless, I don’t see any of this as religious. If anything, it counters every myth humanity once believed. Likely, the beings humans once considered gods were just the result of twisted tales of powerful people who’d somehow come into contact with Earth,” she said. “Not worthy of worship.”

Elijah shrugged. He wasn’t sure about gods or anything else, but he could see how the World Tree’s touch might have changed a few minds one way or another. He’d even heard that a few people worshiped the World Tree itself. In any case, he didn’t think it was the time to have religious discussions.

“Interesting,” he said, noticing that Nico and the others had caught up. Dat was, of course, scouting – for what, Elijah wasn’t certain. The island wasn’t big enough to house any significant secrets. “You all okay?”

“We’re fine,” Nico stated.

Elijah could see that Gideon was limping – just further evidence that Nico wasn’t doing his whole job. It wasn’t his place to tell a Healer how to heal, though, so he ignored it. Instead, he and Sadie continued up the slight hill until, at last, they reached their destination.

Like the Man Mo Temple, it had clearly grown quite a lot. According to Sadie, the Tin Hau Temple on Peng Chau had once been sandwiched between two unrelated buildings. Back before the world had changed, it had been a tiny thing, only interesting because of its cultural significance. Now, though, it was a free-standing temple at least as large as the last one Elijah had visited, with a green roof and detailed frescoes decorating the eaves as well as the crown of the building.

It also looked brand new, as if it had just been refurbished, and it glowed with powerful ethera.

Sadie stepped forward, passing through the door without issue. “Seems…normal,” she said. “No teleportation to a hidden temple on a mountain.”

Elijah had given her the rundown of the challenge against the three-hundred fighters and the old master, though he’d downplayed the difficulty. When he’d explained it, Gideon had scoffed, saying that it couldn’t have been too taxing. Elijah had let him believe that. The last thing he needed to worry about was impressing someone like Gideon.

However, he did wonder if the man still harbored such beliefs after seeing what Elijah had done to the squid.

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Probably not.

That thought prompted a smile as he followed Sadie into the temple, and he was briefly taken aback by the richness of the décor. Murals, each one depicting fishermen, sailors, or mighty sea creatures, decorated every wall, but his eyes were drawn to four pillars arranged around a simple dais in the center of the large room.

As Elijah studied his surroundings, the others stepped inside, and even Gideon was impressed by what he saw.

“So much gold,” he muttered, losing some degree of his pomposity. Not all. But some. “This place is worth a fortune.”

Sadie shrugged. “It used to be. Now, it’s just gold,” she said. “Pretty, but not useful.”

She’d clearly felt the same thing Elijah had. There was no ethera there, which meant that it was just mundane metal. The same could not be said for the pillars or the altar. The square in the center of the room practically glowed with powerful energy.

Elijah stepped forward, drawn to that dense ethera.

A disembodied voice, deep and resonant, echoed through the temple, “The guardian’s blessing lies beyond the tides. Find the pearl that glimmers and guides. Return it to its rightful home, to reveal the chance to make Tin Hau’s blessing your own.”

Elijah knew there was no speaker, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking around. Predictably – as revealed by Soul of the Wild – no one else was there. The others spent a few moments searching the chamber, finding nothing.

By contrast, he spent his time recalling the poem.

“I think we need to find a pearl,” he said after only a few moments. “And I think it’s in the harbor.”

“We still have our water breathing rings,” Dat offered holding up his hand to reveal the clunky piece of jewelry.

“Wait – you wear that all the time?” Elijah asked. “Seriously?”

“I think it’s pretty, bro.”

Elijah couldn’t help but smile – at least until Gideon spoke up. “You’re not seriously considering going into the harbor, are you?” he asked, incredulous. “There are more of those things down there.”

“Oh, there are much worse in the harbor, I’m sure,” Elijah said. “But I can get by without being seen. I’ll go down there, find this pearl, then swim back. Easy.”

“We should go with you,” Sadie suggested.

“You don’t have a stealth ability.”

“I know, but –”

“Be smart, Sadie. There’s more to this than just the pearl. You heard it. It’s just a piece of the puzzle,” Elijah said. “I can move more freely alone, and the rest of you can try to figure this thing out. Like, what are those pillars for? They seem important, right?”

She clearly wanted to argue, but she decided against it. “Fine. We’ll stay here.”

“What about me?” asked Dat. “I have stealth.”

“I swim a lot faster than you.”

“Oh. Right,” Dat said. They were all well-acquainted with one another’s aquatic skills, and while they’d made it work in the City of Toh back in the Trial, Dat’s deficiencies as a swimmer were well established. He also clearly didn’t enjoy being underwater for long stretches. None of them did, really.

Except Elijah, who, for whatever reason, had no issues with it. When he’d described his time in the Sea of Sorrows – which had taken weeks to traverse – it had elicited quite a few adverse reactions. But to him, that had never really been the issue. Instead, he’d been focused on simple survival.

In any case, everyone quickly agreed to his plan, such as it was. Elijah suspected that Gideon, Nico, and Zhang Yue would have agreed to just about anything that kept them out of the water. Or more importantly, away from ridiculously powerful monsters like the squid.

Left unsaid was the fact that the Explorer likely had an ability that would facilitate underwater travel. After all, Hannah had kept Lamar’s group from drowning long enough for them to conquer the Challenge of Niflara, and back then, she’d only been a few levels higher than Zhang Yue’s current level.

But Elijah wasn’t going to put him on the spot, largely because the man’s reluctance to use his entire skillset played into what Elijah wanted. Which was to explore the harbor alone. He knew he could take care of himself, so bringing the others along would just endanger them.

With that strategy decided, the others resumed their exploration of the temple while Elijah returned to the site of the previous battle. Unexpectedly, even in the short time that he’d been gone, Ke Ming had already made noticeable repairs to the ship, and he was hard at work finishing the job. Elijah watched for a few minutes, but he couldn’t make heads or tails of how it all worked together. Deciding that further observation wouldn’t help, Elijah slipped out of sight, adopted the Shape of Venom, then used Guise of the Unseen.

Cloaked in stealth, he padded into the gentle waves, which was colder than expected. As he waded forward, he couldn’t help but notice just how peaceful it all seemed.

At least until he felt the first creatures that entered into range of Soul of the Wild.

They were just fish, but to Elijah, it was obvious that they’d been affected by the ambient death-attuned ethera. Many were missing chunks of flesh, and they all moved with the same twitchy momentum characterized by the zombies. The second they detected prey, they threw themselves forward with such speed that Elijah was put in mind of schools of starving piranha.

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Only it was much worse because he could feel the beasts’ twisted nature. Not quite alive. Not quite dead. There was life in there, sure. But death as well. To his senses, their existence seemed paradoxical but oddly fitting, like two sides of the same coin suddenly existed in the same space.

It was both unnerving and fascinating, though Elijah couldn’t spare the time to examine it further. He had a job to do.

With that in mind, he swam forward, staying close to the seafloor, noting that it was largely devoid of vegetation. There were stands of kelp and patches of coral, but nothing like what surrounded his island.

For a while, he just swam in a grid that spanned a few square miles, hoping to sense his goal. Along the way, he saw more than one undead horror. There were more squids, but none quite as large as the one that had attacked the ferry. A few octopi. Quite a lot of shrimp the size of housecats, and even a lobster that had grown to the size of a motorcycle. They had all been altered by the aura of undeath that lay over the region, though they’d each adapted to it in their own ways.

Only the weakest of the fish had gone the way of the zombies, with most of the stronger sea life developing more in line with humans. That meant they were healthy and alive, but they displayed abilities and characteristics that utilized the ambient ethera in novel ways.

Elijah only got a glimpse of those traits – like when he saw a large shrimp surrounded by undead shrimp minions – but as he swam through the harbor, his fascination continued to mount.

It took all of his willpower not to investigate further, but he kept himself on track until, at last, he sensed a powerful bubble of energy nearby. At first, Elijah wasn’t even sure what he was feeling, he’d spent so long surrounded by death. However, after only a moment, he knew the truth.

There was a guardian nearby, and it was standing sentry over a powerful natural treasure. It didn’t take a genius to recognize what it was guarding, either. Clearly, the quest for the pearl mentioned in the temple’s poem was going to be slightly more complicated than simply grabbing it and returning to the island.

Elijah swam forward to investigate.