Prologue

Peaks rose clustered, waves raged in fury; Tongguan Road lay between mountains and river. Gazing toward the Western Capital, my heart faltered. The places Qin and Han Dynasties had passed through broke the heart; ten thousand palace halls had all turned to dust. In prosperity, the people suffered; in ruin, the people suffered. (Zhang Yanghao—"Ballad of the Slope: Nostalgia for Tongguan")

Encircled by eight enormous stone pillars, Wa Palace stood towering and solemn.

Countless stalactites of every size hung upside down from the vast black stone dome. Several Vicious Venom Hunter Spiders darted nimbly among them, their sickly green eyes carrying a bloodthirsty madness as they looked down upon the immense Wa Valley below.

"Peaks rose clustered, waves raged in fury..."

"The places Qin and Han Dynasties had passed through broke the heart..."

"Win, Gold Coin did not suffer..."

"Lose, Gold Coin suffered terribly..."

Tightening the ragged hemp scraps around himself, which let wind through everywhere, Gold Coin muttered and grumbled. He had a rat's head and a human body, was gaunt as a skeleton, and stood no more than four feet tall. Suddenly, he found himself yearning for his comfortable, warm ancestral leather armor.

He looked up at the "Void Sun" in the center of the black dome as it gradually dimmed. The light around him rapidly faded, and hearing the hoarse roars of the hunter spiders, Gold Coin shuddered. He hurried along a narrow goat-track carved into the stone wall, lightly racing toward the nearest abandoned mine outside Wa Valley.

After running several hundred meters, Gold Coin resentfully glanced back at a stone house on the sloping edge of Wa Valley below.

That was Wa Valley's only tavern. A quarter of an hour ago, Gold Coin had still been inside, enjoying the meticulous care of the wine girls like a true lord. Now, he was no different from a real beggar.

"I really ought to chop off these two hands..." Gold Coin ran briskly as he viciously swore, "My gold coins, my money... my ancestral leather armor... Damn it, they must have been cheating when they threw the dice..."

"How could I just not keep these hands under control?"

Dejected, Gold Coin hurried onward. The road ahead suddenly opened up, waves of hot wind rushing into his face, while a red glow flickered faintly upon the distant stone walls. Carried on the hot wind came the dim sound of clang, clang hammering.

Gold Coin abruptly stopped. Turning around, he made a viciously crude gesture toward Wa Valley. Gnashing his teeth, he shrieked, "Lord Gold Coin will be back! Just wait... Lord Gold Coin will definitely return! I'll win every last one of your gold coins!"

The ground shook violently. Amid a low rumble, four earthen-yellow stone steles several meters tall rose from the ground with a rumble, trapping Gold Coin precisely in their center. Yellow light swirled over the steles, and an immense pressure slammed down upon Gold Coin's withered body, barely four feet tall.

Gold Coin let out a strange cry. His body suddenly shrank, great clouds of black smoke spraying from around him as he curled up and burrowed toward the ground.

Under that immense pressure, movements Gold Coin could normally complete in the blink of an eye abruptly became several times slower.

A huge hand suddenly shot out from behind one of the stone steles and seized Gold Coin by the shoulder.

Red light erupted from the hand. Scorching, fire-like force surged outward, and the black smoke was scattered without a trace by the flames. Gold Coin's limp body was lifted into the air by that huge hand.

A mighty man over ten feet tall stepped out from behind the stele. He shook Gold Coin hard twice as he held him, his deep shout rumbling like thunder. "Wa Valley's finest intelligence broker... Gold Coin?"

Gold Coin raised his head, flashing a fawning smile full of snow-white pointed teeth. "My lord... you must have mistaken me for someone else! Who is Gold Coin? I'm an old native of Wa Valley... I swear on my father's head, I've never even heard that name!"

With a clang, a large handful of gold coins suddenly scattered across the ground.

Gold Coin's pupils abruptly contracted. He jerked his head up, his face filled with fearless righteousness. "My lord, that's right, I'm Gold Coin! You... these gold coins, are they for me?"

The big man's voice became extraordinarily low and weak. "Find Wu Tie and Wu Taiping, and I'll give you ten times, a hundred times as many gold coins!"

After a pause, the big man muttered with extreme heaviness, "Alive, I must see him; dead, I must see his corpse... No matter what, find him!"

Gold Coin's smiling face suddenly froze.