A pearl-white flash from the sacred blade had just carried two figures up from the crystal waters beneath the underwater palace and set them down on dry land. Diamond Axe Kid trotted forward on his stubby little legs, snapping his red-lacquered wrapped trousers straight—not a drop of water on them, like a turtle shell shaking off the rain. Behind him came the wealthy merchant in his fine purple robes, now hunched under the weight of a massive golden offering tray balanced on his shoulders, his face pale and shaken, though his eyes had begun to clear with the quiet brightness that comes from letting go of sin.
"Young divine master," the merchant said, shifting the tray, "we've walked all the way from the Mekong and we're nearly at the walls of the Laterite City—and I still haven't seen a single sign of this 'Hundred-Faced Demon' that black serpent spirit warned us about. You think it was just a bluff to scare us half to death?"
Diamond Axe Kid stopped short on a low earthen rise. He pressed a chubby finger to his round cheek and peered through the scrub forest ahead, where a mass of gray clouds—like cotton balls smudged with charcoal—hung low and smothered the sun. When the breeze came, it carried no fresh smell of earth or grass. Instead, a thick, nauseating mix of incense smoke and rotting offerings rolled over them.
"It wasn't a bluff, Uncle," the topknotted boy said, his voice bright and clear, his eyes sparkling with dead seriousness. "Sage Fireye always told me that demons like to hide wherever people's greed runs deepest. The more a city is drunk on power and fooled by fake glitter—gold paint slapped over everything to dazzle the crowd—the more it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet for creatures like that. Look over there."
The moment the words left his round little mouth, the two of them stepped out of the tree line and into the "Ancient Laterite City"—a great walled town with walls carved in breathtaking detail. But what was happening inside those walls was something else entirely. The common folk wore threadbare, tattered cloth, their faces so gaunt their ribs showed like a hungry ghost begging for merit. They shuffled in long lines, hauling stone blocks, dragging logs, carrying grain and coins toward the city center—a column of human ants, hollow-eyed and mechanical.
What stood out most was the contrast: the court nobles and royal attendants were draped in shimmering gold-threaded silk, strolling along with canes, lashing the backs of the commoners without mercy, bellowing at the top of their lungs—
"Move it! You thick-skulled peasants! Get that Hundred-Faced Temple built for Lord Hundred-Face right now! Donate enough gold and you'll ascend to the Heavens! Got no gold? Then give your sweat and your life! Otherwise His Lordship will personally snap every neck in this city!"
"Please, my lord," a fisherman cried, pressing his forehead to the laterite ground, "my wife and children haven't eaten in three days. Every last coin of our taxes is already gone. Please—just let me keep this one brick so I can take my kids fishing."
"Let you off? You insolent wretch! If your faith isn't strong enough, this whole city will crumble!" The fat, self-satisfied noble—belly round as a water jar—grinned at his own reflection in his mind and waved a golden cane like a threat.
Diamond Axe Kid watched the suffering in front of him, and his playful eyes shifted into something warm and aching, the look of a divine child who genuinely hurts for the world. He gave the merchant a gentle nudge. "Uncle, would you take the gold from that tray and hand it out to these people so they can eat? I'm going to go have a little chat with that pot-bellied nobleman over there."
"Right away, young master!" The merchant's eyes filled with the kind of remorse that comes from remembering your own greed—and he was off at a run, distributing the wealth on the spot.
The little boy in his bright red wrapped trousers toddled straight up to the fat noble, right through the stunned stares of the gate guards. He tilted his head and asked in the perfectly innocent voice of a divine child, "Oh wow! Uncle Noble, sir—you're wearing enough gold cloth to cover a house, but how come the soldiers and the people all around you don't have decent clothes? And that Hundred-Faced Temple back there—it's bigger than a mountain blowing its top. Is it for people to live in, or is something in there just snoring away? And hey—if someone's got a hundred faces, do they need a hundred spoons to eat dinner? Or maybe those hundred faces are for swapping out—use one face to trick this person, use another face to trick that person—so nobody ever remembers what you really look like. Isn't that what you'd call mistaking a millstone for a lotus, Uncle?"
The noble jolted as if he'd been poked with a hot iron. He spun around to find a boy of about eight staring up at him with wide, guileless eyes. "Why, you little brat! Who are your parents? What gives you the nerve to mouth off like this inside the royal grounds?! Don't you know our Lord has a hundred faces, a hundred wisdoms, and the highest power in the land? Every human being must bow in faith!"
"I don't have a father, Uncle," the little boy said, smiling sweet as May honey. "The Celestial Jewel Fairy sent me down. But I'm genuinely curious—if one face is already a lot of work to wash and brush your teeth every morning, how does your Lord manage a hundred? And I'm starting to think those hundred faces might just be for switching out whenever he does something bad, so nobody can remember his real one. Isn't that just mistaking a millstone for a lotus?"
"Why, you milk-breathed little—talking back to me like that!" The fat noble's face cycled through colors like a ripe ivy gourd. He jabbed his cane at the soldiers. "Seize that child and take his head! How dare he insult the authority of our Lord!"
Four hulking soldiers lunged at the boy, reaching to grab his small frame—but Diamond Axe Kid moved like a sparrow on a gust of wind. He sprang into a forward roll, sailed clean over the soldiers' heads, and on the way down gave a cheerful little bump with his round backside—
UGH!
—straight into the fat noble's gut. The round man lost his footing, skidded, and plunged headfirst into a roadside basin of sacred holy water, legs kicking at the sky, face submerged and gulping, looking exactly like a catfish that had headbutted a dam.
"Oh wow! Why do the big shots in this city always act like they're hunting grasshoppers from the back of an elephant—chasing one little kid around until they trip over their own feet? That's hilarious!" Diamond Axe Kid laughed and clapped his hands. The watching villagers couldn't help but stifle their own laughter—but the fun didn't last long.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The laterite ground shook like a mountain coming apart. A ragged, thunderous roar rolled out from the gates of the royal palace—and with it came the appearance of a colossal figure that sent every villager trembling. It was the Demon Lord Hundred-Face, the true villain of this city. His body was tall enough to brace against the city walls, his skin a rough, dark gray. But the truly horrifying part was this: covering his head and neck, packed in tight and writhing, were hundreds of human-sized faces—each one moving, each one wearing a different expression. Greed. Rage. Delusion. Envy. Deceit. When he spoke, all hundred mouths moved at once, filling the air with a chorus that made your soul want to flee your body.
"RAAAGH! Who dares disrupt my sacred rites of devotion?!" The Hundred-Faced Demon's roar blasted out a wind reeking of blood and dark magic, scattering dry leaves in every direction. "I am the supreme power of this land! I have fed on the blind faith and the wealth of foolish humans for a hundred years! No one can bring me down! Even the gods of the Celestial Realm bow to me!"
"Wow, you sure do love advertising yourself," Diamond Axe Kid said, completely unbothered. He walked over, crossed his arms, and stared up at the demon's head with wide, calm eyes. Then he called out with the guileless honesty of a child who just happens to be telling the truth: "Hey, Uncle Hundred-Face—you say you're all-powerful because you've been draining the villagers dry. But how come every single one of your hundred faces looks starving? Pale and hollow, like someone who's never once felt full of anything good? Sage Fireye told me that someone who's drunk on their own importance—who thinks stolen wealth and status will prop them up forever—is actually the most pitiful person alive. Because their soul is locked in a cage of endless envy that never gets satisfied. I think that's what people call being thick-faced but paper-thin inside, isn't it?"
"Why, you impudent little brat! Your words cut straight to the bone! I'll grind you to dust with my bare hands!"
The Hundred-Faced Demon lurched his massive body forward like a boulder rolling downhill. He raised a giant hand—nails sharp as blades—and slammed it down toward the small figure below, meaning to crush him flat. But Diamond Axe Kid didn't dodge. He reached back, gripped the handle of the Diamond Axe, and drew it in one clean sweep. The blade, etched with curling vine patterns, blazed with a radiance like a thousand stars colliding—pure white light, clean and clear, blasting away the fog of ignorance until the sky above looked like high noon on a cloudless day.
"Diamond Axe's righteous radiance—shatter every false face and every last scrap of corruption!" the little boy declared, and leaped straight up into the air, bringing the Diamond Axe down in one sharp stroke!
FLASH!
A wave of diamond light surged into the demon's hundred faces. The sacred glow, gentle as it was absolute, washed away the dark enchantments—and one by one, the false faces crumbled and dissolved into dust. The Hundred-Faced Demon screamed in agony as every face of greed and deception was stripped away. His enormous body shrank and shrank until only an ordinary demon remained, powerless, collapsed on the laterite ground.
The scheming noble, seeing his master broken by the weight of his own karma, tried to crawl away into the shadows to save his own skin. He didn't make it. The villagers who had been crushed under his boot—now freed from the spell of blind devotion—closed in from every direction. Their eyes held something new: solidarity, and the firm refusal to be anyone's slave again.
"Lord Noble, Lord Demon," Diamond Axe Kid said, giving the villagers a warm smile, "you reap what you sow. There's no running from that, no matter how fast you crawl. From here on out, I hope everyone looks after this city with honesty and integrity—and always remember: wealth and status are things you carry on the outside. Real goodness, real faith—that's what actually protects you."
When the darkness lifted, the air around the Ancient Laterite City settled into a calm, cool peace. Dawn light filtered through the treetops and touched the ground. The city walls that had looked so grim now caught the light and glowed gold. The villagers bowed low before the divine child, tears of relief and hope streaming down their faces, while the truth of what had happened seemed to breathe itself into every corner of the Three Realms.
But just as the little boy was about to sit down and enjoy a sticky rice dumpling, the ground beneath his feet shuddered with a new tremor. This time, a wave of mysterious energy rolled in from the north—ancient, heavy with the scent of old magic, threaded through with a call from distant high mountains. A signal. Something new was stirring in the Three Realms, and somewhere out there, someone in desperate need was already waiting for the Diamond Axe.
Diamond Axe Kid gave a small shrug and hummed a cheerful little tune. "Whoa—another job already? Fine by me! Let's go see who's causing trouble up ahead!"
The small figure leaped once and vanished into a curtain of golden mist, heading toward the next adventure with a heart that didn't know the meaning of fear.
*Moral of the chapter: Wealth, power, and social standing built on deception and the exploitation of others are nothing but hollow illusions. When they come face to face with truth and the law of karma, every false face crumbles—leaving behind only the reality of what you chose to do.*