In the ancient days, greedy gods and demons would pray on the week humans of china, killing them for entertainment and competition. A young couple, Houyi and Chang’e tried living in the outskirts, away from the populated villages the evil gods tormented. Every now and then a demon or two would find their home but Houyi was a skilled archer, and would take them out himself.
One day, When Houyi was returning home from farming, he heard a scream coming from inside the house. Chang’e was in trouble. He prepared his bow and arrow and ran to the house. As he was getting near the door and giant rabbit burst out destroying the front of the house holding Chang’e in one hand. Houyin aim at the rabbit but hesitated to shoot. He was afraid he would accidently hit Chang’e. The rabbit crouched as low as he could, and in one jump he launched himself to the moon.
Houyi was devastated, heartbroken, he was filled with regret for not shooting. He knew he had skill, he wanted a second chance. Or just a chance to confront the rabbit of the moon again and claim back his wife. That same night he journeyed to Kunlun Mountains in seeking The Queen Mother of the West. She was known for her elixirs and wanted to ask if she can help him reach the moon to slay the rabbit. She told him she had to prove himself first. If could kill the 9 Sun Gods that scorched the villages, he would be worthy of an elixir. In addition, he would obtain the hidden powers every sun god had. Houyi agreed and headed to the nearest village. For now, the only thing the Queen could do was spray a elixir on his arrows so they could actually dealt some damage to the gods.
Houyi was on a stakeout, waiting for the unfortunate god to pass by. A week passed by, then one morning houyi woke up to an intense heat. Followed by screams from the villagers. Houyi went outside and spotted a large fireball floating over an elder. The elder was on fire and he was suffering. Houyi did the right thing by shooting an arrow at his heart sparing him a painful death. This caught the fireballs attention.
“How dare you interrupt a sun god’s entertainment mortal?” Said the fireball as it morphed into a human shaped warrior.
The Sun God stood 8 feet tall, he was muscular, wore a unique designed of armor that clearly represented the sun, and carried a giant sword. Houyi knew this wasn’t going to be easy but he had to do this if he wanted his wife back. Houyi shot arrows at him but the god was fast with his swords. Any arrow that hit his armor would have no effect. Houyi had to take a defense position to win this one. He swiftly moved behind houses, rocks, and objects to stay hidden from the sun god and shot arrows to areas of his body that weren’t covered by his armor. After practically cutting his limbs off from all the arrows, the god was disabled enough for Houyi to was straight up to him and shoot two arrows at his eyes. The god disintegrated leaving his armor and sword which shrunk down for Houyi to use. He was going to need it. After this victory Houyi was clearly declared a hero of this village, but he had to move on, had to travel to other Villages and tame the god suns that preyed there.
The second Sun God Houyi confronted Morphed into a different kind of warrior. He stood even taller, 10 feet tall to be precise, and had three pair of arms on each side of his body. He had big feet to help him keep his balance. He didn’t wear armor, but his rock solid muscle like body still endured the hits of Houyi’s arrows. The challenge this time was defeating pure strength. Houyi may have the armor, but this god was able to push him and throw him across the village like a softball. Eventually this god fell to the sword of his brother and dozens of arrows to his body. Houyi then absorbed this god’s ability, super human strength.
Houyi now had armor of a god, and superhuman strength, but even with these two combined he still had trouble defeating the 3rd God Sun, A giant bird with four wings covered in flames. The god soared the skies high above from Houyi’s reach. When Houyi defeated it, he gained the ability to fly.
Next was the tallest of the sun gods, extending over 40 feet with his long limbs. He was skinny but had really big and wide hands. Houyi couldn’t fly any higher than the god could reach. Staying low Houyi risked getting hit by the god’s swinging arms that acted like mace weapons. Houyi had to fly in close and make precise cuts on his long limbs to bring him down. Literally and metaphorically. This triumph gave Houyi the ability to grow enormously at will.
The last one was the biggest, and this next one was the smallest. And the fastest. The god was about 2 feet tall, and looked like a cross between a frog and a monkey. He was swift and skilled in acrobatics. He looked weaker than the previous gods, Houyi would be able to crush and grind his bones if only he could touch him. It was tough, but the god was brought down mostly with Houyi’s archery skills. Speed was Houyi’s reward.
Speed alone was pretty much useless with the next god, who was stationary and slow because of his weight and size. He looked like a fat personification of molten lava. As you can imagine a swing of a sword would slash right throw the lava harmlessly and the arrows would just get sucked in. Houyi’s victory came when he combined his flying abilities with his speed abilities to make a cold gust of wind around the god and freeze him. After this Houyi had the power to regenerate.
Three Sun gods remained. One took the shape of a flamed lion, one was a flaming skeleton, and the last one sustained his fireball look. Defeating the lion gave Houyi an animal’s sense of smell and instinct. Defeating the skeleton made him flexible and double jointed. Creepy, but useful. And finally defeating the fireball gave Houyi the ability to turn invisible.
“You have brought piece to the innocent villagers.” Said The Queen Mother of the West. “You are more than worthy of an elixir of mine. You already have all the strength you require to defeat the rabbit, this elixir will merely allow you to fly to the moon and be able to breathe there. Houyi respectfully took the elixir and flew to the moon.
Once arriving there it didn’t take long for Houyi to find the over grown rabbit.
“Where is my wife” He yelled furiously at the rabbit of the moon.
“ Oh, I have her” said the rabbit deeply impressed of how far Houyi had come along.
The rabbit knew where Houyi got his powers from and figured that if he killed Houyi, he could have the powers for himself.
“Defeat me and I will give you your beloved wife back” Said the Rabbit.
Houyi didn’t hesitate to take out his bow and arrows, but the rabbit had the power of ice, and used it to bring down the temperature in the area, freeze the floor, and create deadly spikes of ice coming out of the frozen floor. This made Houyi slowed down, and it took every ability and skill Houyi had to beat the rabbit up and make him talk.
“Where’s my wife!?” Houyi shouted to the dying rabbit.
The rabbit smiled. “It’s too late. It’s been too late. I sacrificed her to the moon the keep the moon alive. The rabbit’s head fell back and he stopped breathing.
Houyi screamed caring less about the ice powers being transferred to him.
“You lied to me!” Screamed Houyi furiously with tears in his eyes.
Houyi was about to rip his head off when something unexpected happened. The Father of the 9 god suns showed up.
“You, you killed my sons”. The Sun said in a deep and loud voice.
Houyi didn’t have time for him, without thinking twice he extended his arm out towards the sun and froze it. Suddenly everything became cold. He earth was starting to freeze. But Houyi didn’t care anymore. Then, miraculously, the spirit of Chang’e appeared before him.
“Chang’e”.
“Houyi, my love, thank you for coming here, but I’m afraid you’ve made a great mistake. You killed the sun and now this part of the galaxy will suffer because of it.”
“I don’t care. I just wanted you.”
“You’re a good person. I’ve you didn’t care you’ll be just as bad as the other gods you’ve slayed to get here.”
Houyi looked away feeling ashamed, he knew she was right.
“Look at me” said Chang’e lifting his chin up. “I am now the spirit of this moon, and I will be here protecting it and keeping it alive for the earth. You should take over the father Sun’s place and become the new sun. Together we can bring balance to this solar system. I’ll always be yours.” Chang’e said before disappearing.
Houyi looked at the earth below and saw how it was freezing up and turning white. He concentrated all his powers, jumped to the other side of the earth, and ignited himself turning into a sun.
