The gate seemed to begin and end in the sky. Ming Ran and Cang Mu stood atop the blue of the heavens and the tufts of white that accompanied it. They also stood under the sky, where the gates disappeared far, far above them, out of sight. Seemingly out of existence. Ming Ran approached the door. Etched onto the door was a few lines of a poem:
"Being and Absence give birth to one another,
difficult and easy complete one another,
long and short measure one another,
high and low fill one another,
music and noise harmonize one another,
before and after follow one another:"
Cang Mu approached Ming Ran and rested his chin on his shoulder, looking at the script with a lazy, rapt attention. Ming Ran glanced briefly at him and began to think to himself about this verse. Being and Absence give birth to one another rang true. Ming Ran thought to the Spring of Origins and knew this to be true. When a soul returned to its origin it lost its individuality and became part of a whole. It is an absence of self and therefore an absence of being. Ming Ran paused, thinking all of this was very familiar.
"It's from Tao Ching." Cang Mu said. Ming Ran nodded, understanding. This was an odd world they had ended up in. Tao Ching, Confucius, Chaung Tzu… all of these were philosophers from their history. From the world known as Earth. From their previous life. Yet, somehow, in this place that was similar, but not the ancient China they knew, had philosophers from their world.
Maybe we're not the first people to have transmigrated to this world? And remember it?
Cang Mu shook his head. He buried his face in Ming Ran's neck and his voice rumbled out, "Technically we reincarnated, not transmigrated." Ming Ran flicked his forehead in annoyance. Cang Mu gave a mock yelp but moved on nonetheless.
"Still," he said, "I wouldn't be surprised if we weren't the first. It is odd that everyone transmigrated and somehow remembered it. Your siblings, you, and I." Ming Ran nodded. He looked back at the rest of the verse,
"that's why a sage abides in the realm of nothing's own doing,
living out that wordless teaching.
Ten thousand things arise without beginnings there,
abide without waiting there,
come to perfection without dwelling there.
Without dwelling there: that's the one way you'll never lose it."
Ming Ran pondered the last line. Without dwelling there… you can't lose it? From the sky beneath and above them, the space rumbled with a great ferocity. From the vast expanse of blue, a great, white dragon arose. As it rose into the air, it opened its great maws and slowly, the giant gates opened. The dragon flew into the sky and as it disappeared beyond their vision, it became entirely black—its scales flowing into the darkest midnight. The gates opened, and on the other side, they found stone stairs leading up to the second half of the tournament.
"I think that's our cue." Cang Mu looked back at Ming Ran and offered his hand. Ming Ran nodded and began after him. They began to ascend the flight, slowly they found they rose into the heavens. The sky seemed to meet the strange blue expanse that they had tread on before. Nothing seemed to begin or end.
Before and after follow one another… Ming Ran signed. If Cang Mu had seen these motions, he didn't show it. He focused solely on the stairs, climbing one after the other with a single minded determination, until finally, they made it to a large basin where one hundred other cultivators waited. Some were not even from their same sect. Some were dressed in uniforms, others had no affiliation with any sect—the only thing that seemed to draw everyone there from one another was the identification tags that were wrapped around their belts. Everyone eyed each other wearily, but before anyone could even move, the great dragon from before rose and danced above them for a while, letting out another silent roar. Ming Ran felt for this dragon, here was another being unable to voice itself under the heavens.
"What on earth is that noise?!" someone cried out.
A few cultivators covered their ears and stumbled about as though shaken by a horrible quake. A young woman in a pink dress approached her friend.
"What noise?"
"Don't you hear that? It's terrifying!" the girl's face was stained with tears. Everyone strained hard to hear, but none could fathom what was upsetting the small group who were harassed by a phantom sound.
"What does it sound like?" Cang Mu asked. The girl was about to make a retort, her face scrunched up before a blush creeped across her face. She began to stammer nervously for a moment. Slowly, and with great astonishment, she realized she could no longer hear the noise. Ming Ran tugged on Cang Mu's shoulder.
I know that rabbit. He signed. Cang Mu lifted one eye brow and looked down at the small, otherworldly rabbit that stood in the middle of the arena with a giant white picket sign, twice its height. It was not majestic, on any level; what made it "otherworldly" was that it looked as though a child's drawing had come to life. The rabbit's head was shaped like an almond, with long, lopped ears that dragged across the ground after it. It wore a blue shirt and had a cloud-tuft, cotton tail. Its eyes would have been similar to the eyes of any character from The Peanuts. It stood proud (though Ming Ran wasn't sure how he could even interpret its posture as "proud") and waved at the contestants to gather around. The sign that it hoisted over it's head with surprising ease began to fill with words. More accurately, it began to fill rules.
This is a melee The last one to stand above the heavens wins Do not attempt to take the life of any other
--Our master commands it!
You have been warned…
The rabbit waddled to the side of the arena and hopped off. That was the start of the final match of the Thousand Year Tournament.