I add points to Indian martial arts.

Kinnara, a musician in the heavens

किन्नर—— Kinnara

This is a singer between gods and humans, an elegant being half-human and half-bird, an embodiment of art and eroticism.

According to legend, Kinnara are celestial musicians. The males are horse-headed and human-bodied, while the females are bird-bodied and human-faced. They are all proficient in music and skilled in singing and dancing, and they are the most romantic beings in mythology.

The male Kinnara have the upper body of a handsome human man, the lower body of a horse or the feet of a bird, and wings on their backs but cannot fly high; they can only glide among the treetops. Their songs can make tigers kneel and war elephants weep.

The female Kinnaras are depicted as exquisitely beautiful young girls, retaining only bird claws on their feet, with their wings folded behind their backs like a cape. Their dance can freeze time, even making Indra forget to drink.

This is a mythical creature, yet it appears in Labdore.

The Kinnara girl was singing softly. Her body was as graceful as a newly sprouted vine, her bird feet were slender, and her three golden claws gently gripped the railing. Her wings were half-folded, and in the afterglow of the setting sun, they shone with a faint bluish-gold, each feather as if woven from moonlight.

Her face was otherworldlyly beautiful—her skin was like jade, her eyebrows like distant mountains, and a faint smile played on her lips. Her eyes were pure gold, with pupils that were thin vertical lines. When her gaze swept across the crowd, everyone touched felt as if an invisible blade had slashed through their hearts.

Her voice was clear and ethereal, as if it did not flow from her throat, but rather was a fragment that leaked from a crack in the heavens, falling to earth and drifting into the hearts of every listener.

Shaha stared blankly. He knew, of course, that the Kinnara girl before him was not a true celestial being, but rather a descendant of a mythical creature. They lived in the Kinnara kingdom in the core region, and because of the beauty of their women, they were the object of competition among all the Brahmins and Kshatriya nobles.

As you can see, after the woman sang her melodious song, dozens of luxurious carriages were crowded in front of the entrance where the pavilion met the ground.

The carriage was inlaid with sandalwood and ivory, the curtains were made of Kashmir gold-threaded brocade, and the carriage was pulled by pure white horses, each of which was priceless.

Beside the carriage stood a group of young noblemen—wearing brocade totems, with jeweled scimitars hanging at their waists, and gold bracelets on their wrists gleaming brightly in the twilight. These young men were arguing and bickering over a woman, and two of them had even started fighting, tumbling under the carriage wheels, before the servants quickly pulled them apart.

These noble young men from Labdatta all wanted to meet the descendant of the celestial musician and see the beautiful golden-eyed girl, so they began to compete for her affections.

"Only in a city like Labdode can one witness the true beauty of this world." Suddenly, Shaha sighed. Sometimes he felt that his village and Labdode were truly not from the same world.

In Labdal, you can see races that come from the core region, such as the descendants of the celestial musicians, and the low mountain giants who were guarding the gate earlier.

How could Shah possibly encounter such people in his remote village?

He also envied those young men who fought over this Kinnara woman. These were the real young men, dressed in fine clothes and riding spirited horses, spending lavishly in the big city, just to see the legendary Kinnara.

Look at those young masters, spending money like water, pursuing the offspring of mythical creatures, the Kinnara maiden who is half-human and half-bird. The young masters in your village or Tuli Town who fight over women are all ordinary women. Can they compare to the offspring of mythical creatures?

Furthermore, Shah had heard that even offering a thousand gold pagos to see the Kinnara in the pavilion was impossible; a thousand gold pagos was equivalent to ten thousand pagos.

"Ten thousand pagos, even three generations of my Moyate family's wealth doesn't amount to that much. Three generations of wealth wouldn't even be enough to see that woman once." Shaha sighed silently, while the two servants beside him also looked stunned by the grandeur of Labdov.

They're not even as good as Shaha, since Shaha has already come several times.

After a long silence, the servant Old Bahei sighed, "If I could live in such a city for a month, I would gladly die. I've heard that when the Brahmins and Kshatriyas here eat, winged beings deliver their meals, and at night the city is brightly lit all night long, with people releasing glowing moon worms. It makes the whole city as beautiful as moonlight."

If Li Wei were here, he would definitely know what Old Bahrain was talking about: an ancient version of takeout.

Moreover, it was delivered by winged people.

The food delivery people in Labdaw are usually from the Sampadaw tribe, who come from the Sampadaw state.

Sambadobang is not a core region.

The Shanbaduo Yuren (a type of bird) is connected to the Sun King.

That year, the Sun King's chariot rolled across the Yali Grassland, heading south to the Land of a Thousand Peaks.

The Land of a Thousand Peaks is a desolate place that stretches between the Yali Grassland and the mountains of this continent. It is covered with snow all year round, and the wind is as sharp as a knife. Ordinary creatures cannot set foot there, but the Feathered People build nests on the cliffs, hunt in the clouds and mist, live with eagles and falcons, and are accompanied by lightning.

The Sun King's army was invincible, crushing all who stood in its way. But when his scouts reached the edge of the Thousand Peaks, they brought back a strange message:

"There's something blocking the mountain pass ahead."

It's not an army, it's not a fortress.

It's a song.

Tens of thousands of Shanbaduo people, from the highest snow-capped peaks to the lowest valleys, sang together the ancient "Song of the Wind." The song pierced through the clouds, through the snow and mist, and through the hearts of every warrior—there was no hostility in the song, only an indescribable sorrow, as if the entire mountain range was sighing for its impending fate.

The Sun King reined in his chariot.

He walked alone toward the mountain pass.

The winged people did not attack; they simply sang.

The Sun King listened to the song.

Then he said, "You can continue to fly under my sky."

No one knows what happened at the mountain pass that day, but since then, the Shanbaduo winged people have followed the Sun King south to fight for him and appeared on this continent.

Some say that the Sun King showed a drop of his blood to the leader of the winged people—blood that burned with the flames of the sun, more intense than any sun he had ever seen. The leader of the winged people knelt down and offered up his longest right wing feather as a sign of submission.

Some say that the Sun King did not display his power, but simply listened to the song quietly and then nodded. The winged people understood something from his silence and followed him from then on.

The truth is now impossible to verify.

All that is known is that history records the oath made between the Sun King and the leader of the Feathered People.

The inscription, written in Old Arisaema, is on an obsidian slab and is now kept in a sacred site in the center of the continent. Its core message is said to be:

"Under the sky, all is the king's land; above the wings, all are the king's envoys."

As a symbol of submission, the Shanbaduo winged people must offer one hundred wind feathers to the royal court of Naguta every year. These are the wingtip feathers that shed naturally when the winged people reach adulthood, containing the blessing of the wind god. These wind feathers are used to make royal banners, sacrificial implements, and bestowed upon meritorious Kshatriya warriors, making them as swift as the wind.

In return, the Sun King granted a kingdom on this continent to the Feathered People forever, allowing them to live and thrive there, and promising that no foreign race would be allowed to enter without permission.

That is Sanbadobang.

Today, the high-ranking Brahmin Kshatriya families of Labdah take pride in supporting the many winged beings of the Sambhogakaya.

Because in big cities like Labrador, people are tired of comparing gold and jewelry.

A new kind of competition is now popular in Labrador: whoever raises the most winged goblins can fly the fastest, and whose food delivery arrives first.

There are even gambling games specifically set up for this purpose, assigning numbers to the Shanbaduo people, and people placing bets according to the numbers, which is somewhat similar to horse racing.

These noble families of Labdov had many new ways of competing with each other, some of which were even absurd.

It can only be said that Labdava's Brahman Kshatriyas were perhaps a bit too extravagant and frivolous.

Of course, there is also a kind of inexplicable sigh about history.

"Under the sky, all is the king's land. Above the wings, all are the king's messengers."

But now, where is the king's land? Where are the king's envoys?

Ten thousand years is enough for the sun to fall, for myths to become legends, and for legends to become jokes.

Once a messenger of the heavens delivering royal decrees for the Sun King, he has now become a racing pigeon in a gambling game for wealthy young men.

It can only be said that in the long river of history, time can change everything, turning the humblest into the most noble, and causing the most noble to fall into the mud.

……

"Want to stay in Laba for a while?"

Hearing Old Bahei's words, Shaha smiled. If it were before, he would never have dared to dream of living in a city like Labodor, but now that he had his brother-in-law...

He believed that if he gave his brother-in-law another twenty years, he would definitely be able to become a Brahma.

Having become a Brahma, he was considered a powerful figure in Labdode.

At that time, with the support of a powerful Brahma, the Moyate family's business will surely flourish in Labdur.

And he, Shaha, will definitely buy a mansion in this city, no, he will spend a thousand gold pagos to meet that Kinnara, to meet this descendant of the celestial beings from the core region.

"Let's go to the auction house, but don't forget the important business." After strolling around the streets for a while, Shaha and his two servants headed towards East Street, eager to buy the Brahma Moon-level martial arts manual for Li Wei.

While the big city of Lapo is nice, one shouldn't be overwhelmed by all the sights.

After all, no matter how much he looked at it, this beauty no longer belonged to him.

Only when the brother-in-law becomes truly powerful will he, Saha, have the opportunity to experience the beauty of Labdode.

……