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Chapter 72: The astronomer ghost

The fight against the Agra Cadabra in the dark before helped Ye Yan a lot. 

Every time he was practicing blind fighting before, he never felt a sense of crisis because he knew that he would never get hurt for real. But now, this kind of fighting experience made him really exceed his limits.

Ye Yan's father taught him how to train his eyes to see the details that usually escape us when looking at things. He trained Ye Yan to expand his field of vision and to defocus his vision for him to pick up the slightest movement very quickly and see colors more vividly when picking up details of what he is seeing[1].

So, when the light is on, Ye Yan focuses on his surroundings, trying to memorize the details to assist him in battle when everything went dark.

However, most of the battle happened when it is dark. Luckily, he trained in this kind of battle a lot before, so even if he hadn't true blind fight experience, he can hold his ground.

When training, his father put coins over Ye Yan's eyes and blindfold him, so he would need to use his other senses to perceive everything around him.

When the eyes are open, people usually depend on it and don't use their other senses to the max.

When fighting in the dark, Ye Yan kept his ears and nose open as far as possible and placed the tip of his tongue on a specific point to accentuate his senses. When the body is positioned in a precise way, it expands the body's awareness and heightened the feeling of his body, permitting him to adjust the strength used more correctly.

Doing all this will develop and expand the parts of the brain which deal with information gathering. This can heighten the senses and don't will let people be taken by surprise, enabling them to not act by reflex but having a high reaction speed.

After a lot of training and experience, this reaction comes so naturally, that looks like the fighter is acting by reflex. This is like using a sixth sense to perceive danger, but it can only be active after training their five senses to the max.

Ye Yan, after more than ten years of training with his father, had reached this so-called sixth sense, enabling him to fight the Agra Cadabras with relative ease. In truth, he felt that he could perceive danger more easily while fighting them because he could feel the killing intent of the monster while fighting.

As a child, Ye Yan wished one day to reach the legendary seventh sense, being capable to create miracles. This was his dream after reading stories about some legendary knights.

The eighth sense is something that is beyond his imagination, so he didn't even though about it as a child.

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He is only using bronze mixed with silver pieces of equipment, and the seventh sense is an ability that only those who wear gold pieces of equipment could have, except if you are one of the chosen ones.

Now, the grow-up version of Ye Yan just thinks of the seventh sense as fiction.

The sixth sense he reached is more than enough for him to exceed most fighters in battle. And using the monster in the mausoleum to train will sharp this sense even more with real battle experience.

After Ye Yan stored the last magic source he got from the Agra Cadabras, a mist appeared in the middle of the chamber. It was silver in color and could be seen even in the dark.

After a few moments, the mist took form and Ye Yan could see a human silhouette.

Ye Yan knew that the place was suited for ghosts, so when one appeared in front of him, he thought it was very normal and something that should be.

The ghost looks like an ancient scholar using formal attires representing his official position, a jade pendant tied to his waist, and a folding fan in his hands. The ghost is the accurate representation of a scholar in novels and books.

"Finally I'm free! Now I can finally get my revenge!". The ghost said happily. After he opened his mouth, he didn't look like any ghosts Ye Yan has ever seen before in movies.

The ghost looked at Ye Yan thoughtfully. And after a few moments, he started to speak to him.

"The magic in this place locked my soul and didn't allow me to get deep into this mausoleum. But now, I'm free and can finally kick the ass of that hypocritical ruler."

"Sadly, it's only in this chamber... I can still feel the magic further inside and it will not allow me to get near the inner chambers."

The ghost spoke while walking from one side of the chamber to the other, holding his folding fan closed and touching his chin with it.

"As you proved to be strong enough to kill these beats, you might have the ability to help me exact revenge on that tyrant ruler that demanded my death. I will reward you for your help, of course. What do you think? Will you help me?"

Thinking about the reward, Ye Yan almost readily said yes but he thought a little and decided to understand the situation first.

"Who are you? And why do you want to get revenge?" Ye Yan asked first. He doesn't even know the ghost's identity yet.

"You can call me Ho. I was an astrologer in the Emperor Chung K'ang court but that tyrant ruler ordered his soldier to decapitate me! look at this!" The ghost said and held his head, raising it above his body for Ye Yan to see that he was indeed deacaptated[2].

"Do you want to know why, right? The answer is that I fail to predict a fucking eclipse of the sun." The ghost spoke so indignantly that he lose his elegant scholar posture and started to use vulgar words.

In ancient China, people believed that events in the sky reflected events on earth, and the Emperor, as the son of Heaven and the one that was given the right to rule by Heaven itself, should be capable to interpret the signals in the sky and predict the events of the sky and their relations with happening in the human society.

A comet appearing in the sky, for example, could mean something important and unexpected was about o happen on earth, like a major battle or the birth of someone of great importance to mankind.

The ability to predict the events in the sky and interpret the Heaven designs shows the power of an emperor, so it is of vital importance that the ruler be capable to predict the movements of the sky accurately.

The astrologers, or astronomers because as elsewhere in the ancient world there was no distinction between both, were expected to watch the sky carefully and kept accurate records of the movements of the stars, planets, and any happens in the sky because everything in the sky represents the Heaven designs.

The astrologers were also responsible for producing the calendar each year, which contained predictions of major events in the sky in order to affirm the emperor's divine link to the heavens and ultimate power[3].

As a Royal astrologer, Ho was in a difficult position. If he failed to predict an event, the emperor's power might appear diminished and political rivals could take it as an opportunity to rebel and install a new emperor.

When dynasties changed, it was considered that Heaven intervened to give the responsibility to rule to a more worthy line.

And when Ho failed to predict the solar eclipse, the Emperor punished him with decapitation. But he was only a normal man and didn't have superpowers to predict things and he didn't the knowledge necessary to calculate when an eclipse would occur.

Ho has always done his work well. He has cataloged the sky, making notes every time an event happened in the sky, and drew everything he saw. But, because he failed to calculate one fucking eclipse, he lost his head, literally.

Ho is not reconciled. If the Emperor has the power to interpreter the sky given to him by Heaven, why is it his fault that he was caught by surprise with this eclipse of the sun? 

Everything is the Emperor's fault! So, Ho wants the Emperor to pay for his crimes against him and for fooling people.

Even if Ho doesn't find the Emperor's ghost in the mausoleum for him to beat him up himself, he could at least tramp all over his body, kicking and stomping on it. Only in this way he can vent his anger and finally ascend to Heaven.

....

[1]This is how you train your senses in some martial arts.

[2] This event was described in ancient books and happened about 2159 BCE (Before Common Era) in China. Taken by BROWN, F. Crawford. The Eclipse in China. In: Popular Astronomy, vol. XXXIX, n. 10, 1931. (SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System)

[3] SUN, Xiaochun. Connecting Heaven and Man: The role of astronomy in ancient Chinese society and culture. In: International Astronomical Union Symposium, n. 260, 2009. (SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System)