Chapter 7
She had no idea how this actually came about, she left early in the morning after waking and sharing some stale buns with A-An while the other two picky eaters slept (there’s nothing wrong with stale food, live on the streets long enough and anything looks good enough to eat and a stale bun is a blessing really). And after last night she was a bit fed up with the both of them, both for how they acted around that poor girl with the ripped dress (that she had to stop from slapping Xie Lian when he gave her his outer robe) and then the ensuing food fight with the alter offerings when Fu Yao went on to explain just how Nan Yang temple got renamed to something like tremendous masculinity and all the blushing girls that would come asking for… things… Lin Shuo did not want to think about it.
She did what she said she was going to do, ask around with the locals (unsurprisingly that took several hours, everyone and anyone wanting to give the cultivator that came to help little bits of information and stories and theories and she could only smile and take what they offered even if most of it was not useful to her), and found out there was only one path big enough for a procession to go through and took the time to mount her blade and do an overview of the path as quick as she could before dark.
It was kind of hard to follow the path from above, there was definitely a large building further up the mountain that she could see from above but there was also a spiritual array that she didn’t want to set off and notify whatever was hiding out in these woods. If she was to hazard a guess, it had to be the missing Ming Guang temple the others spoke about last night, and just as she had guessed, the compass had trouble locating anything, it spun rapidly as though there were many things in the woods and she just gave up on it after the first several minutes of watching it go.
Going slowly to keep an eye on landmarks and where the path would twist and turn took a lot of time out of her day, making an accurate rough map was also a pain but needs are musts and she had a feeling the two officials would rather run dicks first into enemy territory rather than try to scout the area and that A-An would be forced to follow and try to do damage control…
She could honestly see that happening and it made her sigh mentally in exasperation by the time she finished following the whole path to the other side of the mountain (honestly she had a feeling those two shared one brain cell). There was no way to know just where along the path they could be ambushed so it was better to have the whole way mapped out. Especially if they were going to be going in the dark, luckily she was confident enough now to be able to navigate it despite that, so that was a plus.
She wasn’t really prepared for returning and finding a village girl helping Xie Lian do make-up and don a red wedding dress… A-An was already a very pretty man, and makeup just added onto an already pretty face, and it wasn’t as though it was a lot of makeup, Xiao Ying was very good with what she was doing and it showed.
If Lin Shuo had a bit of trouble swallowing because of how beautiful A-An looked then that was her business and no one else’s. She assisted a bit with getting the veil on and helping him do a few stretches to see how far the fabric would go before it would restrict his movements. She relayed the information she had about the path as she guided him out of the temple to the other two officials, sharing the crude map she had drawn and informed all of them of the building she suspected was the temple they said should be here.
“That’s a bit odd though,” A-An trailed off as she helped him into the Sedan chair, reaching into her sleeve to pull out a few talismans to hand to him, a few suppression that could paralyze a ghost, one for silencing and hiding one’s presence, it wasn’t much but with his lack of spiritual power she had to charge them herself and tell him to activate it with a drop of blood if he needed. It was the best weapon she could come up with to give him for now.
Standing off to the side, Nan Feng spoke up, “What’s odd?”
“The locals said that all the Ming Guang temples were burned, and any construction to replace or restore them was hampered. So why is there one, supposedly intact in the mountains.”
He brought up a good point… Lin Shuo held a hand to her chin as she took the rear guard to the sedan chair, “I don’t believe in coincidence. I suspect it might have something to do with our Bridegroom ghost… if that’s the case then… expect to be ambushed around the areas of the path closest to that building. Then there’s the fact that there’s an array encircling an area. It’s quite large and seemed centered around that building and the surrounding woods. I couldn’t get a closer look unless I wanted to tip the ghost off.”
Her friend’s calm and reassuring voice came from behind the red curtains in front of her, “You did well, Lin Shuo. We have a better idea of the path and we have a general sense of where this ghost might be lurking. Now we just have to play our roles…”
She sighed again feeling a bit fatigued with all the running around she had done today, she spent half the day mounted on her sword and then had to rush back before nightfall, and now it was turning night once again and she already knew that there was going to be no rest tonight, why they couldn’t stretch this out over a few days, she didn’t know… or maybe it was just that she was the only nonheavenly official in the party… A-An always seemed to not get as tired easily as her and to him, it was almost like sleep was an option most nights that he just indulge for nothing better to do.
Not to mention she missed lunch and supper… actually… she reached into her sleeve and pulled out another old stale bun that had been from the alter from the qainkun that was sewn into it. She dusted it off and took a bite. Well, that solved one problem.
“Are you actually eating at a time like this… was that on the floor?!” Fu Yao seemed to have spotted her taking a bite of the sad-looking bun, her looking up almost like a guilty child getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Oh god, it was a rehash of the fight last night…
She answered with her mouth full, “When else would I eat? And it might be a bit old, but it’s still good. One shouldn’t waste food.”
His brow furrowed even more as his eye started to twitch slowing to walk next to her and try to swat it out of her hand, “Stop it, it’s dirty! Don’t eat that!” It was honestly a bit ridiculous because she stuck her one hand out, not exactly touching him, but preventing him from reaching all the way to swat it from her hands.
“You’re just picky, live on the streets long enough and anything edible is good enough!” She continued taking quick bites, leaning away as some of the sedan carriers chuckled at their antics, the tension lessening on their shoulders from the two idiots bickering.
The more bites she took the more distressed Fu Yao looked like he was personally offended by it as he finally managed to grab the half-eaten bun and throw it into the woods as he looked at her with a strangled kind of sympathy and annoyance, it was kind of weird for anything other than grumpy and pissed to be on his face, to be honest, “ Well you don’t have to eat that!”
“My bun!” She actually sounded sad and distressed as she stared forlornly out into the woods, hand raised like it could bring it back before Xie Lian spoke up from the sedan, “That was unnecessary Fu Yao, I doubt Lin Shuo had time to eat today except for in the morning.” The disapproval was strong and the figure behind the red curtains twisted a bit like he was looking at them.
“We’re going through town anyway, we can just grab something actually edible from there. You don’t have to eat garbage like that!” He looked like he wanted to smack her on the back of the head like an errant child, turning away when she turned her small pout at him. It was just a bun, and damn it she was hungry, she didn’t want to practice Inedia tonight when she knew there was gonna be a fight. Kicking her feet in the dirt she turned away from him and stared sulkily at the sedan, ignoring him as they continued.
He did actually replace the bun with a fresh one when they went through town, shoving it at her with a frown and eye roll as she smiled brightly at him with genuine thanks that left him uncomfortable. It was just a roll, that lump of bread they were eating before was pitiful and… thinking about it they all may have forgotten that the other cultivator was actually mortal, and while they could practice inedia it wasn’t pleasant either, and looking at the grey-robed cultivator his highness calls a friend, he kind of doubted they are always able to eat properly. Neither did his highness. It made him frown more thinking about it, his stomach twist uncomfortably.
The sun set soon turned into night and the fresh roll was long gone by then, having walked for several hours now they were nearing where she suspected things might start to get interesting. At the very least the sedan carriers were locals that knew some self-defense and knew to run back the way they came if they came across something the four of them couldn’t handle.
She listened half listened to the ensuing chatter between the three in front of her, Xie Lian making a comment about missing some bridesmaids and the others saying that the bride was too poor to afford them. She snorted a bit as she took a breath, looking out towards the sides at the woods surrounding them before pausing…
Something felt a bit off and it took her only a few moments to realize what. It was getting quieter the longer they walked, the crickets becoming softer, and the hoots of owls and squeaks of bats coming less and less. A-An stirred in the sedan, shifting and tilting his head to the side like he heard something.
“A-An?”
He shushed her quickly, “Did you hear the giggles?”
“No?” She replied just as quietly, trying her hardest to listen but failing to hear what he was.
“I didn’t hear anything either.”
“Me neither.”
She could barely hear A-An’s whisper, “So it’s only intended for me?”
The procession continued for another minute or so before one of the sedan couriers in the front spoke in a frightened tone, “Something’s wrong…”
“Keep going. Act as if nothing’s wrong,” Xie Lian said steadily, waiting a few more moments before stating,” Someone is singing…”
“What is it about?”
“Full of tears, going over the hills. Under the veil, never ever smile.”
Her hand was already posed to grab her sword, falling back a bit to give her more room to move if needed, eyes peering left and right as the air seemed to gather a slight hint of resentment to it. Something was going to happen, and she kind of regretted not trying to train or hone her ability to sense yin energy after being exposed to it and following the demonic cultivation path for a time.
It was a bit of an oddity that Wei Ying and her had found out, that cultivating that path led users to have some vague sense of resentment around them, Wei Ying theorizing that it was because those using demonic cultivation should be able to find resentment to use for themselves but neither of them really had the time to dwell or explore the thought.
It wasn’t useful here, or anywhere really, it just let her know, something somewhere around her was probably not good, at most it just put her more on edge and left her feeling tense. It was more of a nuisance than anything else.
“What does it mean, do not smile?”
“Is it a trap?”
She kept quiet as the other three discussed it, the night quieting even more, only the soft sound of distant crickets to be heard. Xie Lian cut through her thoughts as he said, “ There’s something I have to tell you three.”
“What?”
“I’ve been smiling since I got on the sedan chair.”
It was as though those spoken words had set something off, the soft patter of paws, the brush of leaves and it left Lin Shuo narrowing her eyes in the dark, circulating her qi towards her eyes to try to sharpen the blurry dark images of the night.
A howl sounded in the distance as the procession stopped, the lantern carriers backing up a bit as green eyes were spotted staring intently at them through the dark, “Wolves? There are wolves!”
“How can there be wolves here?!”
There was snarling from the front and the sound of rapid paws, Fu Yao and Nan Feng rushing forward as Lin Shuo rushed out from behind, sword pulled from her sheath and quickly dancing in front of the lantern carrier, a clean slice through the neck of the wolf that was primed to bite him. She didn’t wait as she shot forward in between the other two, the light reflecting oddly on the cracks that dotted along Aoyun.
The sedan guards stood at the ready beside the carriers and swung their swords at the wolves that got by them, but the main host was held at bay by the three cultivators. Wolves' eyes shouldn’t look like this, and this was far too many. No there was no mistaking it, these were not normal… A spirit formation she thought distantly as she continued to breathe steadily.
This wasn’t so bad, this was merely an annoyance so far, these are still wolves, meaning they can’t be spawned from nowhere. They’re finite. With that thought, Lin Shuo let her qi circulate to her legs, spinning to one foot before springing forward, the other two could defend, but pure defense will drag this out longer.
Quick, quick, quick, she chanted softly in her head, dancing between the beasts, light as a feather as they started to fall one by one. A grey shadow merely danced between and then the bodies thunking to the ground before she was back a few feet in front of the sedan carriers, face placid and serene, breathing controlled as she waited for something else to happen.
The two deputy officials turned with wide eyes looking at her as she merely said, “Focus, this was just a distraction.”
“How can you be so sure?”
The sound of snapping limbs and dirt being disturbed reached their ears, corpses being seen through the trees surrounding them with glowing red eyes, bodies bloated and naked, decayed and smelling just as pleasant.
“Predictable.”
She frowned thoughtfully at the approaching corpses, if she wasn’t wrong… these were Binu. Disgusting creatures that while maybe not having great strength, sure had tough hides. It took work to cut through these things and with how many she was seeing it would be easy for them to get overrun.
The seal in her sleeve flared to life as she threw out behind her a single talisman tagging the curtains of the sedan, it was a suppression talisman, not one meant for covering a large area but a small section. Something useful for here as it would repel any demonic creature… but against how many she was seeing, she wasn’t sure how long it would last without a cultivator continuously feeding it energy. It would have to do for now.
“ Everyone around the sedan! A-An don’t come out, you two keep fighting them off, the rest don’t leave the sedan or the talisman won’t protect you!” It’s been a while since she has worked with others, but she was used to telling merchants and mundane people to hide behind her protections, but the odd looks getting thrown her way from the two others were making her feel a bit self-conscious.
The fighting started in earnest, the two heavenly officials seeming to have a hard time cutting through them as the numbers never seemed to slim, the others hiding around the sedan carrier while the base slaves seemed to be repelled periodically when they got too close.
Lin Shuo was merely slipping into her night hunt persona, cool, calm, and collected. Don’t lose your head because as soon as that happens then mistakes happen. She rationed her energy, powering her strikes just enough to cut through as she focused more on speed. It was always speed for her, zooming between the binu as fast as she could, being slowed down by how tough their skin and necks were to cut through.
Fu Yao called out over the fighting, “Base Slaves! I hate these bloody things! They just keep coming! If they wear us out we’re done for!” He seemed to be running out of breath as he continued to slice at the corpses.
“They’re not endless! These have to have been from previous processions!” She called back, trying to be reassuring as her own breathing started to get harsher. This was going to be a long night.
Nan Feng called out somewhere to her right in response, “That could be hundreds then! Did Ling Wen tell you these things would be here!”
Well damn, he had a point. She frowned in thought as she continued, refusing to slow from the speed she set, dashing beside Fu Yao and covering his back from the claws of one of these blasted things before prancing away again, her legs were starting to burn with the excess of qi, old breaks from before feeling all the more unpleasant.
In the distance behind them, she heard A-An reply, “Not at all, how many are there?” He sounded like he was out of breath himself… She took a moment to look back and evaluate the talisman she had thrown earlier, seeming that it already was drained by how many base slaves were pounding on the barrier.
Nan Feng called out once more, “A hundred! Maybe more!”
A twist of her sword and the tip of Aoyun broke off into three pieces, only to freeze mid-air buzzing with excitement. “Protect,” was the only order she gave them, pointing at the sedan. The shards of metal shot off like an arrow, shooting through the sedan curtains and spinning around and seemingly catching the corpse going after A-An in the chest, slamming it from the sedan and with a decent tug of qi from her stores, tore through its chest.
She mentally cursed, Aoyun was good for protection but it just had to be base slaves. By itself, the separate shards of her sword wouldn’t be able to do more than distract the blasted creatures, and having to feed continuous energy into the shards to land a killing blow wasn’t a great idea, but… she thought for a moment as she adjusted momentarily to fighting with a shorter sword. Were they normal corpses or ghosts they would be much more effective.
She sheathed her sword quickly, reaching into her sleeve pulling out a blank sheet of talisman paper, biting the tip of her finger savagely to draw blood. It was quick and dirty but it would work, she jumped back to right in front of the sedan curtains, crouching on the wooden handle using her thigh as a support to draw what she needed.
“Lin Shuo, what are you doing?” Came the rushed voice of A-An as he peaked out from behind the curtains and veil, frowning pensively as the shiny bits of metal that protected him before came to hover off to the side, seeming to spin by themselves like they were sentient.
“Spirit attraction flag, these things aren’t that smart and hopefully most of them will follow if I use it, I can lead them away and handle them without having to worry about others.” She bit out hurriedly, sadly this talisman wasn’t one to be rushed and she had to make sure the characters were right because writing backwards was a shit.
“Even if you draw the ones here away, more will keep on coming unless…” Xie Lian paused for a moment before calling out, “ Everyone needs to leave! If you keep on surrounding the sedan they will keep on coming!”
Fu Yao turned around and called back to them, “What about the ones still here?!”
“Leave them to us! Go!”
The sedan carriers and guards didn’t wait, they merely covered their retreat as the other two had to fall back further away from the sedan, both seeming broken about what to do as they binu continued to follow them before seemingly freezing and turning back to the sedan, or more specifically the grey-garbed cultivator that was now sporting a bloody talisman on their robes, the white paper seeming to burn to black as yin energy sparked to life.
She took a moment to look at the mass of corpses now coming toward her, taking a moment to glance to the side at the shards twisting in the air next to her, “Protect Xie Lian, listen to him.”
Before she could jump from the sedan a hand grasped her wrist, her friend looking at her worriedly, “ Be careful, please. Ruoye, go with her. I’ll stay to meet the Bridegroom” Something wrapped up her arm under her sleeve, like a snake constricting on her muscles as she shot a look at him, “I thought you couldn’t use spiritual weapons?”
He smiled ruefully at her, “There are always exceptions… you’re sword shards don’t seem like a good match for Binu, so consider this a trade for now.”
She grasped his hand before it disappeared back into the sedan, giving it a reassuring squeeze before launching off into the air with a burst of qi, flipping over the main mass of base slaves getting too close to the sedan for comfort.
She landed on the other side before whistling at the group, pooling a bit of resentment into it to command their attention. ‘This would be a real pain,’ she thought as she pulled her sword back out. It’ll be even more of a pain that she had a shorter reach now but beggars can’t be choosers.
The thing about binu is that they’re slow and predictable, nothing like fierce corpses that were fast and deadly. She kept her eyes open as she lead them opposite of the sedan, away from the direction of the building she had seen earlier, towards where she knew there was a descent with a large hill too big to walk up, it would have to do to coral these things.
If she could coral them into a smaller file, without all the other people around they wouldn’t spread out to attack them, they would only be coming after her and so long and she kept leading them in one direction and not let them surround her it made it much easier for her to dart forward periodically and slice a head off one or two and dark backwards to continue to lead them.
Tedious but doable, time-consuming too, and there was definitely going to be a long trail of corpses following this. With over a hundred base slaves it was going to take quite a bit of time. She sighed to herself ruminating silently, twitching a bit when she felt… what was it, Ruoye?... When she felt Ruoye flex along her forearm and wrist like it was waiting to strike.
She considered it for a moment before her thoughts went to the shards of Aoyun that she had left to protect A-An, there was no telling how far he would go or how far she would lead these things and it was with that thought that she bit the bullet and tugged at her spirit reserves, feeling it drain to just below half as she sent the energy to the hilt of her sword, feeling the energy fleeing to the distant blimps on her senses that were the shards.
There, that should be enough energy to tie them over if she left their range, at least until she could get back… until then… she gave a disinterested stare to the putrid-smelling things shambling after her with one brain cell, “Well… it could always be worse…”