Chapter 104 - General Lei Ming's Diaries

Inside the estate, Mafan heard that the Goding army were running around the city looking for him. Apprehension rang in his mind. 

"I must hurry out to find the caves. That blast yesterday came from the camp. Those cheap fools were useless." He gritted his teeth thinking of Anghus, his men, and the failed illusion trap but maintained his cool. 

As he left his room, his friend Qinfen approached him. Mafan had forgotten his host invited him to breakfast together that day.

"What took you so long? I want you to meet some of my friends." 

As Qinfen turned around to walk to their destination, Mafan knew he had to do something now before the army find him. "I'm sorry, my friend." 

"What are you..." Qinfen turned towards him, confused to what he was apologizing about. 

Mafan stared at his companion's eye and concentrated till Qinfen was under his control. The latter looked normal but his eyes were lifeless. 

"Show me where the cave's location is." He gave the map and ordered the poor man who did not understand what he was doing.  Qinfen opened the map and pointed it to the west of the estate. 

Mafan grinned and commanded him to guide him there. They rode on a horse and Mafan disguised himself so people wouldn't recognize him. 

As they got there, he was having second thoughts whether Qinfen knew where the entrance was because he didn't see any cavern at all. Poor Qinfen got off the horse and led Mafan for a long hike to a dense place within the forest, very far from the estate's residences. 

Finally, they stumbled upon the side of a rocky mountain. Base on the outward formation, it could be the entrance because the rocks were on top of each other, but wasn't sure since it was covered with moss and grasses at the moment.

Yet, based on his intuition, it could have resulted from the collapsed cave ceilings. It had no way to go in at all, but Mafan expected this. He knew it had been some time since people went there. But he didn't think it would be this hard. He frowned.

"Isn't there any other way inside?"

The controlled Qinfen didn't answer because he only knew the location based on the map but not its situation. Mafan had to do something, fast. He was running out of time. Soon, the generals might learn where he was and his intentions.

"Qinfen, give me some room for entry." 

"I apologize, but I'm not strong enough to clean the area and carry those rocks."

Mafan's temples throbbed. He was so furious for picking a person who had no muscles. Out of frustration, he walked out and kicked whatever came into his way. Suddenly he noticed the area getting rocky. 

He analyzed the area. Mafan wondered why there were piled on one another. Then right at that moment he remembered something. He hastily surveyed the area and found three more possible entrances that had the same situation as the first one. 

"Where's the other two? General Lei Ming said five caves."

Mafan recalled the day he found the secret room in Goding's Royal Library. 

There was a table and chair in the middle of the room. He saw thick books arranged properly on bookshelves attached on the four walls. The book covers were made of leather and had three pebble-size orange stones inlays.

The titles were simple and easy to understand. There was only one author's name written, General Lei Ming. Mafan wondered what the stones were for but didn't give much thought. He opened the first book with the title First Travel. 

After spending days studying the books, he read the secret of the past and General Lei Ming's exploits with the organization called Cleansing Fire against the abusive ruling Chiangdas centuries ago. 

Mafan realized the ironic truth that kings and kingdoms worshipped the Chiangdas like gods and goddesses before. The painful truth was some of these rulers took advantage of the people. General Lei Ming didn't include the good Chiangdas. But the organization had no control of their men in different countries. So, the good Chiangdas got involved in the fray. 

General Lei Ming cut off his relationship with them but he couldn't stop the organization anymore. He did everything in his power to save those good Chiangdas but everything was out of hand. 

While he fought to serve justice for the good Chiangdas in the court, a few people who became wealthy selling weapons, armaments, and magical stones didn't want the wars to end. So they spread lies about ordinary men gaining powers once they kill a Chiangda. 

As time went by, the rumors got twisted and worsened. The Chiangdas became demon possessed.

In the latter years before General Lei Ming retired, the rumors said that the Chiangdas served demons. Since no one refuted the lies, the people accepted it as the truth and led to uncontrolled killings and caused the huge persecution of the Chiangdas until the present.

General Lei Ming made his last attempt to stop the senseless murders after he learned the organization was after his fiancee, who turned out to be a powerful sorceress and fought with all her power against the organization. 

Unfortunately, he was too late. His fiancee used her last life essence to save the Chiangdas. After her death, all the Chiangdas disappeared. 

"What? They just disappeared? Where did they go?" Mafan flipped the rest of the books written by General Lei Ming but nothing written about the Chiangdas anymore.

"Wow! Such a powerful sorceress. So, that's the reason the war ended while General Lei Ming received the praise as the one who ended the war. Humph."

Then he continued reading at the last page of the twentieth book. There, it said the general regretted everything he did. He regretted obeying the king's command to help the organization. He regretted not knowing his fiancee was a Chiangda before he accepted the mission. As a result, he left Goding nation. That marked the end of General Lei Ming's diary.

Knowing this, flared Mafan's hatred with the people who mistreated him in the past. A desire ignited in him. Mafan yearned to see the day the Chiangdas would rule again. And he decided he would not be an abusive ruler but a good one. 

"Yes, we have powers and these ordinary men must respect us." This started his desire of building his own kingdom someday. 

Mafan studied the rest of the books written by Ming's ancestor. He spent his days inside the library and only went out for court meetings and when he was hungry.

He read the books about the magic stones. From it he learned about Verves, the black stone, a natural magic amplifier. The blue stone Kreg, the body energizer. Wag stone to repel and eradicate any magic. Orange stone called Tharah of which people used for preserving anything from rotting, including the books. There were more to mention.

Mafan hired men to seek the stones and had a hold of a few from different sources. 

Later, as he spent more time in the library, he leaned against the last shelf near a wall and accidentally hit a hidden lever at the bookshelf's edge. Suddenly the wall, with the shelf, turned sideways, and he stumbled in a narrow and long hallway.

He walked in until reaching another room where he found chests of various sizes. He opened them one by one and behold; the stone written in the books and he had searched were all there. For him, this was a miracle. 

"At last, these stones could aid us Chiangdas to rule again." He lifted each kind and laughed while gazing at these like his treasures.

One day, he stumbled upon a book where General Lei Ming had recorded the secrets of every country in Chiji, but there was nothing much that piqued his interest. Only a portion written about the caves in Fengfu City in Youshi country intrigued him. 

It said... 

The caves in Fengfu has a unique transparent stone called Haptorite. If the Verves stone could magnify powers, this stone can evolve a Chiangda's power to greater heights. 

A wind wielder could create a storm. For fire, one could bring out geysers of flames from the ground. Earth, it could help a wielder make a great quake and opened the ground to swallow an army. With water, could bring out a great storm of ice and more. 

But nothing described for a mind manipulator.

"Hmm, it seems my ability is rare. Even now, I'm the only one of my kind while other abilities have three or four wielders."

This Haptorite stone was an epitome of power for Mafan. His desire to acquire it grew as the years went on. And he eventually proposed the war to expand Goding's borders. 

Now, he was already here and had to get it. No matter what it takes.