text: > Go down
  You have had a wonderfully open-minded experience in your training. Luckily for you, the Order of the Peach Tree feels similarly. Are you a man or a woman?
  
  A: I am a man.
  B: I am a woman.
  
  > B.
  What is your given name?
  
  A: Yin.
  B: Meili.
  C: Yan.
  D: None of these is my name.
  
  > B.
  A name as beautiful as your features.
  
  And what is your family name?
  
  A: Liu.
  B: Wong.
  C: Cao.
  D: None of these is my family name.
  
  > B.
  You pull one of the outlaws to his feet, and in the process realize that this scrawny bandit is no more than thirteen. Malnourished and weak, it is amazing he is not dead from the beating he received.
  
  A: I feel admiration for his bravery, in spite of his conditions. I tell him he fought well.
  B: I feel pity for this boy who has turned to thievery to survive.
  C: I am furious that this urchin attacked us.
  
  > B.
  A wise decision.
  
  >Next
  As you walk back to the monastery, you take a moment to consider the path that has brought you here. As a child, you were told stories of the Order of the Peach Tree, a monastery where many great warriors were trained. But it was not just the combat skills that enticed you. Every hundred years, one member of the Order of the Peach Tree is given the honor of consulting the Dragon Sage. That monk may ask a single question of the wise dragon. It is only thirty years until the next monk of the Order of the Peach Tree is selected, and you are determined to be the order's representative to the dragon.
  
  What question drives you toward this goal?
  
  A: I know I have much to learn of combat, but I am convinced that the Dragon Sage holds the key to greatness beyond what I can learn from mortal teachers. I plan to ask, "How can I become the greatest warrior in the world?"
  B: The strife I see in the Middle Kingdom?so recently reiterated by my encounter with the bandits?disturbs me greatly. I wish to see balance restored to the Middle Kingdom, so that the Emperor is once again in alignment with the Heavens. I will ask, "How can the Empire return to Heaven's Favor?"
  C: I am more concerned with esoteric knowledge than worldly issues. I wish to ask, "What is the first question?"
  D: My question is simple: "Why do kites fly?"
  
  > B.
  You have set your sights high; if anyone would know how to set the Emperor back on the path of Heaven, it is the Dragon Sage.
  
  >Chapter One: Bandits in the Woods
  A few days after the conflict with the outlaws in the marsh, Abbot Bao Ho sends for you to meet him beneath the peach tree. The tree itself is ancient: you have been told that most peach trees live, at most, fifty years, but this one has grown wide around the trunk and gnarled in the branches. Despite its age, it continues to produce fruit. Some say that this is the peach tree after which the monastery was named, a true immortal tree in the breed of trees that represents immortality. Others believe it to be a descendant of the original peach tree, the result of careful cultivation by the monks who teach you.
  
  What do you think?
  
  A: It must be immortal.
  B: If it is grown from the cuttings of earlier trees, the continuation of its line makes it immortal despite its many incarnations.
  C: The tree is clearly not immortal; only the superstitious and uneducated would believe so.
  D: I haven't given it much thought.
  E: I don't care.
  
  > B.
  Perhaps you're right.
  
  The peach tree's branches extend over a reflection pool. It is normally a very peaceful spot, but now the atmosphere is tense. Abbot Bao stands there with Master Shen, the oldest teacher in the monastery, at his side, and the two men wear identical expressions of concern.
  
  Just as you arrive, Lu Jin approaches from the other side. He appears as surprised to see you as you are to see him.
  
  "Greetings, my senior students," Abbot Bao says in greeting.
  
  Lu Jin bows. "Do you have training for us today, masters?"
  
  Master Shen chuckles. "Always so eager for more, Lu Jin? As I recall, at our last bout between the senior students, Liu Meili gave you a very fine black eye."
  
  Lu Jin bares his teeth at you in a smile that is neither humble nor friendly.
  
  >Next
  "Unfortunately, my students, this is no simple matter of training," Abbot Bao says. "Or, perhaps it is, but not of our usual devising. You told us of your experience with the bandits along the road to the Order, and I am afraid it is becoming an all too common experience in these interesting times. Too many people of the Middle Kingdom are turning to thieving and banditry to make their ends meet, and too many honest folk are made to suffer."
  
  Master Shen grunts, and you think you hear him mutter something about a distinct lack of honest folk, but it is unclear.
  
  The abbot continues: "Because you have some experience, and because we feel it will be a good test of your readiness to fully join the order, we have chosen the two of you to lead a group of students to the village of Kuei Xian, across the Baijiang Bridge, to solve the trouble locals are having with the bandits."
  
  Lu Jin blanches momentarily, but your teachers do not seem to notice.
  
  How do you respond to this mission?
  
  A: It is an honor to be chosen, even if I must share leadership with Lu Jin. I agree to set off at once.
  B: I can't wait to try my skills against real opponents again.
  C: Lu Jin's hesitation is an opportunity for me. I volunteer to take the team alone.
  D: I am not really interested in this interruption to my training.
  
  > B.
  Hopefully your greater skill will aid you if greater numbers are on the side of the bandits. You pass a number of merchants with carts drawn by water buffalo, messengers and warriors on horseback, and travelers walking along the road with bundles on their backs. It is a fine day: the sky is blue, the clouds are wisps, and the summer air is thick with the smell of blossoms and ripening rice. As on your last trip from the monastery, you are traveling with a horse and cart, full of the food and supplies you will need for your journey.
  
  It is up to you and Lu Jin to set the tone for this mission. The trip to Kuei Xian takes three days at a steady pace.
  
  A: Three days is fast enough; the situation is urgent, but unlikely to get much worse in three days' time.
  B: This mission is urgent, and we have been trained to move quickly. We can make the trip in two days.
  
  > B.
  Abbot Bao leads you to the gates of the monastery. The courtyard has been cleared of students, and only a handful of monks are here to witness the beginning of your challenge. Just inside the gates, a brazier is lit, and over it is suspended a large urn, full of burning coals. Aligned to the cardinal directions are four animals: to the north is the tortoise; south, the phoenix; east, the dragon; and west, the tiger.
  
  While the metalwork is beautiful, it mostly looks hot.
  
  You must carry the urn with your forearms from the monastery to the river below. How will you face this challenge?
  
  A: I grit my teeth and carry the heavy load through sheer will.
  B: I will not rely on strength alone, but will use the heat to further forge my chi.
  
  > B.
  You contemplate the animals on the urn. The phoenix is a creature of fire, opposed by the tortoise, a creature of water. The dragon, which represents the element of wood, is opposed by the tiger, which represents metal. Although you are tempted to focus on the idea that the fire has the potential to consume wood and metal, but is opposed by water and only lends strength back to its own element, you know that there is still a fifth element to consider.
  
  There is void, the element of the center. Your own mind must be empty in order for the chi to flow through you, carrying the strength?and freedom?necessary to lift the urn. You still your mind, breathe, and reach for the urn.
  
  You feel the pain along your forearms, and it is excruciating?but it washes over you, just a part of the moment. With each breath, you let the moment flow and change, accepting it without worrying over past or future, or even holding a thought. Your feet know this path; they have walked it hundreds of times on the simple task of fetching water. You allow them to carry you.
  
  You breathe. You exist. The moment comes and passes, and another follows on its heels.
  
  You reach the river almost before you realize you are there, and you calmly lower the urn into the water. It hisses with steam, bathing you in hot air as your arms enter the cold stream. You realize that your body feels the shock of the contrast, but you only observe this as another part of the moment before letting it, too, go. When you return to the monastery, you show the monks your new scars to prove that you have withstood the challenge. You have passed. What scars do you bear?
  
  A: The dragon and the tiger.
  B: The tortoise and the phoenix.
  
  > B.
  Where the easiest access to the river lies below the monastery, near where the dry land becomes marsh, Bingdian Waterfall is on the far side of the karst mountain. The trip there is not a long one, but it is hard, as there is no path. As you begin your ascent, you find some goat paths to travel, delaying the true climb until the waterfall is in sight.
  
  You feel the mist of the waterfall before you see it. Despite the warm weather, the air takes on a clammy chill?the water here is always freezing, nearly ice cold. You rub your hands together and approach the waterfall. It cascades down the side of the mountain into a pool of unknown depth. It falls from perhaps ten times your own height, and somewhere in that length there is a cave or a hole behind it, in which lies the Scroll of Destiny.
  
  How will you attempt to find the scroll?
  
  A: Climb the mountain next to the waterfall until I see it.
  B: Use my chi to propel me up the side of the mountain, like a lizard. C: Make observations from below to calculate the most likely location for the scroll.
  D: Fashion an impromptu spear from the available wood and throw it until it hits an indentation.
  
  > B.
  You gather your chi and make a great leap, getting a long head start on your climb. From there, you are able to scramble up the side of the mountain by keeping your energy focused, and by borrowing some of the grounded nature of the mountain you climb. You can sense from the energy of the mountain where the indentation that stores the scroll will be, and you dart your hand into the cold water, drawing the scroll case out as quickly as if you were pulling a fish from a stream. You turn and jump, using your chi to float to the ground. You sit down next to the pool, the roar of the waterfall drowning out any other noise, and open the scroll case. Inside is what feels like an ancient scroll, marked with diagrams that show various techniques you have learned while studying at the Order of the Peach Tree. But though there are many images to contemplate, most of the scroll is empty. There do not seem to be any great secrets contained in the writing here. You do not see a hidden final technique explained, nor a clue about how to bring balance to the Middle Kingdom.
  
  What do you wish to do?
  
  A: Meditate on the scroll. An answer will come.
  B: Analyze the scroll and puzzle out its meaning.