The Blue Pearl

Chapter 3 The Thunder

When Billy fell through the mirror, he thought only that he had fallen through the floor and landed in the basement.

He dropped hard on a marble floor. It did not feel like any kind of basement. Nobody put a marble floor in a basement.

It was pretty dark, and the only light was behind him. Billy looked around. He was in a big circular room. The wall around him was some kind of polished marble. He was in the center of room. The style of construction was ... not a Buddhist temple. He looked up. He could see the ceiling in the flicking weak light. The ceiling was the same marble, same color.

And the worst thing was that there was no hole in the ceiling.

What in the world is going on? Billy had a knot in his stomach that maybe he should not be interested in the answer.

Billy turned around and saw the source of the light.

It was a stone basin on a pedestal. It reminded Billy of an old birdbath. A very very old birdbath. The only light in the room was illuminated from the basin.

Billy stepped closer and looked in the basin. The basin was filled with a deep blue liquid. And he could see his reflection in the basin.

But, wait, that was not Billy's reflection. He had never had a bald head before.

That was when the bald reflection that did not belong to Billy jumped out of the basin, and materialized into a man.

The worse part was that before Billy could register the shock, the man landed on top of Billy and knocked him to the ground.

Billy recognized him as a monk in the bathhouse. Not only was he half naked, he was still holding a staff in his hands.

The monk was very agile. He jumped off Billy and bowed to him, "Terribly sorry."

How in the world could a monk jump out of a stone basin?

Billy wanted to ask him. But ...that was the time a second man jumped out of the amazing basin and landed on poor Billy.

Billy knew him immediately. He was the heavy set monk with the pail. And Billy knew the pail was very heavy. Because the pail hit him squarely in the face.

The monk sat on top of Billy and seemed disoriented for a moment. The first monk pulled him off of Billy right away.

That was when the third monk ...

Well, in total, Billy was the doormat to eighteen very polite monks. They all apologized immediately, except none of them pulled him away from the obvious landing spot.

Billy thought they had broken every bone in his body.

Finally, as the 19th blow never came, Billy was pulled up by the first two monks. Billy said, "What was going on?" But his voice was weak and distorted. One of the monks had landed on his windpipe.

Just then, a huge boom sound filled the cave. The whole ground shook, so did the wall of the room. The stone basin resonated sharply. For a moment, Billy thought it was going to shatter. But it held its ground.

The first monk bowed to Billy, "No time for explanation. Follow me!"

His last sentence was actually only directed at his fellow monks, but in his groggy state, Billy thought it was directed at him as well. So afte he found that he was lucky enough that none of his bones was broken, he followed the 18 monks through a previously hidden door on the wall.

Truth be told, Billy did not want to be alone in that weird room anyway. If the next thing dropped out of the basin was a piano, he was ready to explode.

As Billy passed through the door, he felt a slight tingling sensation. It was like pushing through a veil, and yet, as Billy felt around, he could not find anything in the doorway.

Just when he was marvelling at this, he found that the monks had all ran ahead of him.

Billy followed them out. They were actually in a huge cave now. It was big, huge, humongous. And it was dark. it was not totally dark, because Billy could see lights of different colors protruded from hidden doors just like the one he had just gone through. It was dozens of doors, maybe even above 100, all lined through one side of the wall that Billy and the monks were near.

The monks had ran along the wall, and the leader pointed at one of the fire-red door and said, "That is it. Let's go."

All the monks ran through the door with Billy behind them.

When Billy got through, he felt that tingling feeling again. He looked around, and found himself in a tunnel. The tunnel was about 10 feet high and about 7 feet wide. If was a rough stone tunnel that felt like a part of a cave.

It was pretty dusty there. About 100 feet beyond the tunnel was an exit. A stone exit that led to a bright golden red outside. Squirming his eyes, Billy still could not see beyond that exit.

Just when Billy hesitated, the monks jumped out of the exit one by one. They all disappeared from the view.

Billy had tears in his eyes now from the brightness of the exit. He stumbled forward towards the exit. Suddenly, he felt a pull. And he was dragged, ... no actually, it was more like he was sucked into that exit.

Billy fell to the ground. A huge sound wave almost deafened his ears. It was people shouting among clashing of thunders and a huge unnatural roar.

Almost immediately, Billy could not breath. The air was thick with the smell of burned ash and the rotten egg smell of sulfur. He coughed and felt his lungs on fire. He crawled backwards immediately. But his legs hit a stone wall. He could not find the exit.

Billy panicked. He jumped up, turned and ran head first in to the wall, almost knocked himself out. He struggled to open his eyes, and found himself face to face with a hard granite wall.

He felt around, and the exit was gone.

Billy felt a chilly up his spine despite the inferno like temperature. He was going to die here.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed Billy's arm. "Are you alright?" A voiced followed.

Billy barely peeked through his swollen eyes, and saw it was the fat monk with the heavy pail. He shook his head vigorously and pointed a finger at his throat fanatically.

The monk picked up his pail and waved at Billy.

To Billy's astonishment, a giant purple bubble blew out of the pail. It engulfed Billy and formed a sphere around him.

The air inside the giant bubble was as fresh as a snowy mountain. Billy felt the relief immediately.

The bubble started to thicken noticeably, and the best part was that it was transparent. Billy could see the monk's smiling face.

He nodded to Billy, "Stay in the bubble, you will be fine!" His voice got through the bubble without any problem.

Billy wanted to ask him how could he breath, but he was gone already.

In a moment, the bubble was as hard as glass. Surprisingly, even though the bubble was not big, Billy did not feel claustrophobic inside.

When he looked out, he felt confused and frightened.

He was standing on the edge of an erupting volcano. Thick molten lava, deep red, shot up 30 feet into the sky.

On the tip of that liquid fire floated a bright orb.

Billy shaded his eyes to look closely at the orb. It was a bubble just like Billy was in, except it was radiating an earthy brown color. Inside the orb was a man in Taoist attire standing inside.

Lightenings, as thick as a man's arm were bombarding the orb. From so far away, in the safe realm of his bubble, Billy could still feel the wrath of that power.

With every tenth lightening, came a rumbling thunder. And the ground shook. Billy suddenly had the impression that it was this thunder that caused all the havoc with the misty mirror.

Billy could see two dark spots flying around the orb. At first, Billy thought they were birds of some sort. Then he saw one of the spot came towards him.

It was actually a monk. It was Master Woo.

Master Woo flew towards them. Master Woo? Flew? Billy blinked. He was sure that he was in a dream now.

"Formation! Lotus Formation! I will be the point!" He yelled.

Then all the monks jumped up, and flew towards him.

OK! Standing alone in a giant bubble, on the verge of a volcano, with a bunch of flying monks!

This beated a flock of flying elephants, or one single flying pink pig. It was official. I was in a nightmare.

Billy slapped his own face, "Wake up! Wake up! Not working! "

His movement caught Master Woo's attention.

"What is he doing here?" He angrily asked the monks.

"I wanted to know the same thing." Billy murmurred, giving up on waking himself up.

The leading monk said, "Master Dragon cut his hand. His hand sealed the leak from the portal, but he opened it at the same time. Master Dragon asked us to come and help you."

Master Woo was visibly ready to breath fire. But he checked himself. He barked, "His bubble is not stable if there is a wind or earthquake. Sun, set him up with a Karma Tree."

Billy only noticed then that Master Sun was among the monks. He was still carry his green broom.

Master Sun looked like he was told he was going to have a root canal. He bowed, "Yes, master."

He flew towards Billy, and landed besides him. Then he twisted off a green twig with leaves from his broom and stabbed it into the ground.

Master Sun murmurred a very short prayer. Suddenly, the little twig thickened and sprouted roots. In a moment, it was a thick trunk of a tree about one man's height. But there was no more leaves on it. It was just filled with twisted brown branches.

Master Sun pointed his broom at Billy. The bubble levitated off the ground. The branches of the tree snatched up the bubble immediately.

"Wonderful, thanks a lot," Billy looked around, "You forgot some tinsels or fake snowflakes. Otherwise, I am really like a snow globe."

Master Sun did not respond to Billy's nonsense. He flew back up, and shot through the sky towards his fellow monks.

They set up a formation immediately. 9 on the bottom, 6 in the middle, 3 on the top, and Master Woo stood above all. They formed a human pyramid.
If Billy was not busy testing his snow globe theory, he would definitely have some wise cracks about monks cheerleading. But ... Oh well, missed opportunities.

Then the monks flew apart. They still kept the formation, it was several feet apart between man to man.

They flew towards the orb.

All the while, the man in the orb stood motionlessly. He was tall with black hair, and long flowing robes. Both of his hands were held at his back.

He looked ... causal. There was no other way to describe him. Causal, and fearless. He was at the center of of an enormous catastrophe, with red hot lava under his feet, fiery thunderbolt above his head, and he looked like he was enjoying a wonderful morning breeze on a sunny Spring day.

He was cool!

Billy could not help but admiring him.

The formation of monk flew to the top of the orb. An angry crack of lightening came down on them hard.

A rainbow of multiple colors raised from the monks, intercepting the lightening head on.

Billy dropped his jaw. He knew that rainbow color. It consisted of all the gardening tools he had previous saw. The staff, the pail, the broom, and a pair of outrageously inappropriate garden shears.

But all those objects were no longer the dirty black, used tools Billy had seen before. They were all brightly sparkling, like they were made of jewels. Some of them were even awesome.

The pail, which Billy had known intimately since it almost squashed his face, was translucent. Then it changed its shape. It looked like a giant jellyfish now. It rose above everything else, and opened its mouth to the lightening.

The lightening hit the jellyfish right into its mouth. The whole soft jellyfish brightened for a moment, and actually gulped it down. The other tools were no less impression.

Master Sun's green broom transformed itself into a blooming peach tree. Billy had the sneak suspicion that he needed to go back to that little courtyard to see if the peach tree he had sat under was still there.

More than one staffs had transformed into pythons, hissing at the dark cloud that was the home to the lightening bolts.

The garden shear has changed into a huge open jawed alligator.

Most impressive!

As the monks took over, the lightenings intensified, but all the tools sucked up the electrical energy like it was starving for meals.

In about quarter of an hour, the lightening stopped abruptly.

The dark clouds rolled and grumbled. Even though nothing was happening, a sudden sense of doom was weighting on Billy's heart.

The man in the orb suddenly, "Han, release me. It is the finale of the Thunders. You need your full set to get through this."

He spoke in the Northern Dialect of Ancient Chinese. His voice was ringing crisp like the sound of a chiming bell.

The other dark dot materialized into Master Han. His robe was sparkling an unearthly golden yellow. He pulled a set of praying beads off his neck and threw to the heaven. The beads moved in cycles, but there was a visible gap in between.

The orb around the man dissolved into a flash of light and shot towards the string of praying beads. The beads opened to welcome their final member, and when the cycle was complete, all of them glowed with a deep crimson.

A low sound of praying was heard, and Billy could smell the aroma of the burning prayer sticks. But he felt that it was the beads that was offering the prayers and the aromas.

Master Han flew to the top of the pyramid, suspended himself above Master Woo. The cycle of praying beads circled above his head like a red umbrella.

"Amitabha's body is the color of gold,
The splendor of his hallmarks has no peer.
The light of his brow shines round a hundred worlds,
Wide as the sea are his eyes pure and clear.
Shining in his brilliance by transformation
Are countless Bodhisattvas and infinite Buddhas.
His forty-eight vows will be our liberation,
In nine lotus-stages we reach the farthest shore.
Homage to the Buddha of the Western Pure Land,
Kind and Compassionate Amitabha."
Master Han's voice sounded throughout the space.

"AMITABHA!"
Master Woo and the other 18 monks recited together.
The world was still.
Next moment, A golden light shone in the west, like a sun.
The golden aura appeared first. Then gently, it illuminated a golden Buddha. He was standing in the middle of the space, smiling, with one hand holding a blooming lotus flower, and the other hand outstretched, palm up, towards all the people.
"Wow!" Billy mouthed the word.
A flick of lightening stroke down from the middle of that dark cloud. It was a very unimpressive lightening. Small, not so bright, yet, Billy almost dropped from the bubble.
Just like a black hole, when the energy was concentrated enough, light could not escape from it.
The energy of this final thunder bolt was so enormous that it became dim itself.
The lightening hit the stature of the Buddha, and it slid through the illusion as if it was dragging in water. The Buddha faded in and out, but in its body, the lightening could be seen visibly. As it traveled down, its speed was visibly slowed. It looked rather like a small marble ball. And the marble grew brighter and brighter.
When it finally exit the Buddha, it was as bright as a sun.
Master Woo threw something up at the bright spot that used to be the lightening. At first, Billy thought it was an old oil lantern. But then he recognized it. It was the little clay portable stove that Master Woo used to brew his tea.
The little round stove flipped up and caught the bright thunder-bolt. The next instant, the lightening was gone. Engulfed, eaten, whatever you could call it, the little stove sucked it up.

The stove shook a little bit, and burped a red flash. Then it was still.

A burping stove on top of everything else! Billy wanted to watch it closely, but the stove was gone.

The dark cloud trembled obviously, visibly angry. But before it could send another lightening, the man below the monks threw something out.
It looked like a little blue star, and it went straight for the dark clouds.
The clouds looked tense for a moment, or was that just Billy's imagination. Then the little blue star hit it.
A bright blue moon exploded inside of the clouds, and immediately dissipated the whole pieces of clouds. Just like that, the sky was clear.
The monks started to cheer loudly. The sky was still dark with ash and smoke, but the pressure that Billy had been feeling was gone. Even the lava flow dropped down to a mere 10 feet. But the man still suspended in the middle of the air as if gravity was not part of the law he had to obey.
The blue moon shrank immediately, and it became a little star again. It made a circular pass and returned to the man.

A boomerang? A boomerang in the hands of a Taoist?

The next moment, Billy could see all the flying gardening objects returned to their owner's hands. So maybe it was not a boomerang at all. It was just a ... a what? A little blue star?
But the golden Buddha still stood in the sky. Master Han, Master Woo and the man were all staring into the north direction.
A black spot appeared there. It grew to cover half of the sky in an instant.
"The Sorrow Wind of Hell." Master Woo exclaimed. "And it was right after the Angry Thunder of Heaven. Which levels of the Divine Punishment did you invoke, Fu? "
He looked at the man in shock.
The man that Master Woo called "Fu" nodded in return, "All three levels. Thunder from Heaven, Wind from Hell, and Fire from Inner Heart."

All the monks became silent.
"If you pass that, ... you become immortal. A living god that will ascend to the heaven." Master Woo stated heavily.
"Well, yes," Fu shrugged causally, "But I doubt I can make through all three. Thanks to you all, I passed the first one, but that was the easy part."

"If you do not pass," Master Woo stated, "Then you will be shuddered to pieces. Not just your body, but your soul as well. Into millions of infinite pieces. It will take aeons before your soul can gather itself to be able to reincarnate. By then, our world, our universe may have already died in flames."
"That is your religion, Woo," Fu waved a hand, "In my religion, my soul is simply dead. But at least I will be free. Free from all the laws of heaven, earth and hell."

The words gripped Billy's heart suddenly. Dead! Death! All gone! No longer in existence! The words were like hammer chiseling at his conscious. Even though he had just met the man, Billy admired him enormously.
Listening to his causal conversation, a chill went up Billy's spine.
And yet despite all of his power and ability, in the next few moments, he could be no more!

"Oh! That reminds me," Fu said to Master Han, "Han, I release you from your promise. You and your people better get out of here."

"I am not leaving." Master Han was still holding his Buddha in place. His voice sounded so far away.
Fu frowned, "What are you talking about? I told you you are done! Now be gone."
"I am not leaving." Master Han sounded stubborn even from such a distance.

"Why you little stubborn, beetle-faced, bald-headed, crazy donkey (The original word was the other name for donkey, started with A, but I wanted to make it 13+, so ...), SCRAM!" Fu's temper flared immediately.
Master Woo coughed nervously. That sentence could describe almost everyone here. It was a good thing they were all even-tempered monks.
He said, "Now, Fu, you know that we could deal with the Sorrow Wind of Hell better than you... Buddhist Monks Vs. Taoist I mean ... Our training ..."

Fu interrupted Master Woo rudely, "I am not going to say anymore. It is the last warning. Get out of here. Training or not, you are not qualified to face hell. None of you have been there. So move!"

"He is right," Master Han said from his remote location, "Master Woo, take your monks and leave us."

"That includes you, you dung faced monkey!" Fu yelled at Master Han.

"I am not leaving you!" Master Woo was as stubborn.
"Then go to the cliff and stay with Mr. Lin. Take all the other monks with your, Keep your lotus formation. " Master Han said decisively.

Just as they were arguing, the dark cloud gathered again. This time, Billy could hear the wind howling. The weird thing was that the howling really sounded like people crying.

Millions of people moaning, yelping, crying, screaming. The Sorrow Wind of Hell was here.