ENG
The bow's stark snap doth kindle fright,
The arrow's tip doth chaos incite.
Blind eyes traded for an enlightened heart,
Fate's ear deaf to a beneficent start.
In the past, the Yaksha King was betrayed by the celestial beings, leading to the massacre of the royal family and the downfall of the Yaksha Kingdom. After the kingdom's collapse, the yakshas were forced into exile. The ceremonial archers, who once guarded the royal entourage, clung to their former glory and refused to shed their ornate armor. Despite their exceptional archery skills, their slow shooting speed and lack of close combat prowess made their exile particularly harsh.
Due to their inadequate strength, they resorted to ambushes from the shadows. The abbot assigned them to the Pagoda Realm for rigorous training. They endured daily torment there, especially when the Mani Wheel played its beguiling chants, driving everyone mad. During these times, the Blade Monks would seize the opportunity to behead the archers with their large blades, leaving the yaksha archers desperate for a way to fight back.
They sought guidance from various sources and frequently challenged the Blade Monks, only to be defeated repeatedly. One day, some blind monks came to oversee the Pagoda Realm. They had blinded themselves to pursue the path to ultimate bliss, yet their martial arts were incredibly refined. The yaksha archers asked for their advice, and the monks replied, "Aim too carefully and you will lose the initiative. Learn from me; gouge out your eyes, and you will shoot from the heart, never missing your mark."
With the only other option available to them being annihilation, the archers adopted this drastic measure, gouging out their eyes. After this, the Blade Monks rarely targeted them. When asked why, a Blade Monk replied, "Who would want to go up against a madman? It's safer to just find another opponent."
Long ago the Yaksha King was betrayed by celestial beings. That betrayal led to the killing of the royal family and the collapse of the Yaksha Kingdom, forcing the surviving yakshas into exile.
Among the exiles were the ceremonial archers who had once guarded the royal entourage. They kept their ornate armor and identity, but their strengths were specific: excellent long-range archery, very slow shooting speed, and almost no skill in close-quarters fighting. Those weaknesses made exile brutal and pushed them into guerrilla tactics and ambushes from the shadows.
An abbot sent them to the Pagoda Realm for harsh retraining. The Pagoda Realm was brutal in part because of the Mani Wheel, whose chants could drive people mad. Whenever the chants took hold, the Blade Monks used the chaos to cut down the archers with their large blades, beheading many of them. The archers became desperate for a way to stop being easy prey.
They tried to learn from others and repeatedly challenged the Blade Monks, but kept losing. Then a group of blind monks came to oversee the Pagoda Realm. Those monks had blinded themselves as part of a quest for “ultimate bliss,” and they had developed very refined martial arts. When the archers asked how to stop missing and to survive, the blind monks told them bluntly to gouge out their eyes so they could “shoot from the heart” and stop losing initiative.
Faced with annihilation as the only other option, the ceremonial archers followed that advice and removed their eyes. After that, the Blade Monks largely stopped targeting them. A Blade Monk explained the reasoning plainly: someone who appears mad and unpredictable is dangerous to face directly, so it was safer to pick other opponents. The result was that the blinded archers survived by becoming feared and avoided rather than being easy victims.