It was dead in the night, wind stormed, leaves rustled. Two horses clouded within fog furiously dragged a carriage behind them, cutting across the forest floor, hastily crunching upon a thick layer of leaves while they made jumpy scared noises as they ran— a young man held their reigns huffing under his breath, his forehead glistening with sweat shone in the moonlight. He quickly looked over his shoulder. He turned back abruptly; his face suddenly showered by moonlight looked like a play of shadows and curves. Otherworldly.
He looked over his shoulder again. He clicked his tongue, flipped his long splaying hair back, tucked a few hanging locks behind his ears, and yelled fiercely, "Haah—Get ready! They are catching up!"
"On the count of ten, disperse," Wen Haiming shouted as the two Firebred horses neighed and snorted out wisps of smoke, "I sense foundation building cultivators approaching, five of them. You cannot outrun them, but keep running, don't stop! A Transmission talisman has been sent. Whoever is close will come to help, but don't foolishly keep waiting for rescue. You know it's almost useless. You're on your own, I hope I don't need to tell you how to escape or to use all your abilities and methods. Don't try to be idiots who save treasures for their enemies. Have I made myself clear?"
"We understand brother Wen, but you—," Gu Zhengwei gave Wen Haiming a hesitant look.
"Don't give me that look! I am not sacrificing myself. Don't think too much."
Gu Zhengwei stopped himself from saying anything further. His stout figure was shivering in the night's chill. As he peeked through the partition between the driver's seat and interior of the carriage, he kept shifting and turning like there were pins under his seat. He finally gathered enough courage to take out a magical artifact from his sleeve pockets.
Thrusting them towards Wen Haiming, he started persuading, "Brother, they're most likely coming for you. Please don't refuse this. These are some gifts my master gave to me, some magical artifacts which can help you avoid hits at most critical times—"
"I am fine, Zhengwei. Just worry about yourself," Wen Haiming heaved in a cold breath and shook his head, refusing to accept anything.
Gu Zhengwei looked at him as if he knew this was what his 'Wen ge' would do, but he still kept trying hard to persuade him. In the end, Wen Haiming used his spare hand to pat Zhengwei's back, then closed his eyes to signal his rejection.
A few seconds later, Wen Haiming cast a few more Disillusionment Talismans over tree barks to hide their traces as he whispered softly, "Take care of Yue'er for me if you can. She doesn't show it, but she is the one who is most worried about me. If something happened to me…I don't know what she will do. Try to rush through the fastest teleportation channel near Chenggong Pavilion when you reach Northern Tower. There, if possible, meet my father and alert him for me. Just say… There is a traitor in the Wen clan. He will understand."
"Brother, you—!" Gu Zhengwei looked astounded.
"Enough! Don't ask anymore."
The horses galloped. Thicker trees surrounded them now. Broadleaved, thick canopied and sheltering uncountable creatures hidden in the dark—tonight, they all shook with unquenched fury. Branches raged like furious wraiths, their cold hands spitefully rushing to drag the horses and the carriage back, appearing to be lunging down and sweeping past their cheeks and shoulders and backs. The atmosphere was thick and stifling.
"I tried. It's not working. Wu Xilai! You try and see if It's working for you. Your talismans aren't working? What's happening?"
"You're not wrong, sister Wenli! They are like useless papers, with not a shred of Qi in them!" Another feminine voice chipped in, "My Array plates aren't working too! They're not responding at all. What about your storage bag, sister Wenli, are they opening? I cannot use any of mine!"
"No, there is no spiritual energy here. I cannot open my storage bags at all! Tsk. This is a waste of remaining Qi... Sister Chen, sister Wenli, don't keep trying uselessly anymore. Be careful of draining too much spiritual energy from your body. There is no doubt—," Wu Xilai waved his weapon fan in front of his face as he mockingly smiled, his eyes growing tense and disturbed, "—we are somewhere where spiritual Qi doesn't exist. How many such places are there in the mortal world?"
"You mean—you mean this is…but…"
"Don't panic." Wen Haiming reminded them, "Take out your spiritual beast's bags. See if any of them can be summoned right now."
"No," Chen Hua shook her head despondently, as she tucked away a brocaded purse back into her sleeves. "Nothing is working properly, not even Beast space, brother Wen. The concentration of Qi is too small…almost negligible. This shouldn't be happening...why?"
Nervousness was palpable.
"Then I guess…We're heading towards a Forbidden Zone," Wen Haiming said after a while, as a mocking smile flickered in his eyes as well. "What a coincidence, right?"
"How is this possible?" Chen Hua shook her dainty head, then pursed her lips as she refuted. "Aren't Forbidden Zones like unruly secret realms? They should be part of the Cultivation realm, not appear in the mortal realm and so randomly too!"
"We haven't found one inside a mortal realm before doesn't mean they didn't exist." Xilai shook his head, while he pulled out his sword from its scabbard. "It has been thousands of years since our sects or Cultivators Alliance tried to comprehensively map this place. Can you imagine how much time has passed? I can be sure that not only these things have changed."
"Be prepared for the worst," Wen Haiming nodded, showing he agreed with Xilai's assessment.
Wei Zhiruo, already awake, heard such a tense conversation and sat up. Suddenly something wet fell on her cheeks.
It had started raining.
She raised her head and saw the mist and rain colliding above. Wei Zhiruo saw her cloak fluttering wildly in the wind, as the rain soaked her face. A new tingling pain grew in her bones as well.
Her fitful yet brief sleep had left behind a deeply entrenched ache in her muscles, aching, sweet. She felt nauseous and restless too, and in a more comfortable setting, she'd have wondered why she felt so drained despite sleeping for so long. She might've even noticed her own red mole itching as it enlarged into a three-petalled flower shaped like a huadian, glistening like a red dew drop.
But the pain numbed her mind. It was impossible to keep track of all of her discomforts.
"Gu Zhengwei! Chen Hua, Wenli and you, Xilai…try not to get yourself killed." Suddenly Wen Haiming said to everyone. "Let's meet again in the sect."
"We promise you brother Wen! We'll wait for you." Xilai immediately promised.
Watching the bizarre scene unfold, Wei Zhiruo sensed the upcoming turmoil. Despite her head still aching with mind numbing pain, she bit and snapped her pricked fingers again, summoned her bow and clutched it securely to her chest.
The wind picked its pace.
"Be quick—disperse!!"
Wu Xilai released his sword energy. As the wind picked up, then changed directions abruptly, a few night birds twittered and scattered angrily. Trees caught fire and smoke rose, and more and more noise sounded as the two Firebred horses started setting fire to every tree they came across. Wei Zhiruo gripped the wooden edges of the carriage.
Four shadows jumped over the carriage roof, then fled in different directions.
"Chase!! Don't let anyone escape!" An angry voice came from behind them.
Then something loud came hurtling towards the carriage—
"Booom!!!"
A giant fireball fell in front of the carriage, scattering dust and embers. Like shooting stars, a few more seemed to dive down from the sky. One hit landed just where the carriage stood, with its tail elongated into a streak of lightning bolts.
Wen Haiming suddenly darted like a shadow, clutched her waist and carried her away from the chaos. As they both landed on safer ground, he immediately dumped Wei Zhiruo on the ground and yelled at her, "Run to the north! Run!!"
He then ran back to attract others to chase behind him.
With her head still reeling in pain, Wei Zhiruo started following her instinct and running towards the opposite direction without being warned twice.
She sent a small wisp of her spiritual sense to track Wen Haiming. She saw him running southwards, cutting across a wide swathe of land between thicker trees and a waterfall some twenty miles away. It was surrounded with rocky boulders and sharp-edged stones, pine trees and evergreens grew everywhere over there and three figures could be seen darting through them like swallows. Wen Haiming's pursuers didn't give him enough time before they all came upon a place, deadlocked in a two versus one battle. The fight was fierce.
Debris blew up in the air, blasts sounded and mushroom clouds formed. Three shadows were locked up in a deadly battle where no one seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Trees blew up, ground rolled and thundered, then something caught fire again and blew up again —to be truthful, she couldn't keep track of the fight. It was all too much.
There was too much power, so much intent…it felt stifling to not be able to jump right amidst that show of power. She almost stopped in awe at one point to perfectly record how Wen Haiming, battling through a maze of sands and dust, entrapped a fully grown man into a corner with just his naked sword attacks.
Two sides' sword intents met in the air and blew up boulders and dug holes into mountains. Smoke rose, fire flared and trees caught the embers and burned like beacons in the dark.
"Boy, you're quite gifted. I see your reputation is not some kind of sandcastle! A real, good seedling!" He spat on the ground, and said, "Quite a shame. Dying at the hands of evil cultivators when he could've been safe and sound in his sect gaining fame for his clan and his master. Tsk. But that doesn't matter anymore. I will show you, boy, why you shouldn't have come out from your sect before establishing your foundation. The gap between us, you don't fucking think that can be settled with just your sword skills, do you?"
Wen Haiming knew this perfectly well. He was already running low on Qi, not considering his other resources. If it wasn't for his sword, his BloodMoon, he wouldn't dare take cultivators one level above himself. Even then he mocked, "And killing me like this will make you feel better? Don't forget you are the one cornering a mere Qi level cultivator when you both are at Foundation levels."
Wen Haiming used a level Five Talisman, taking the man by surprise. Immediately the sword flashed and a hit landed on his chest, blood spurted out. The man staggered, then sidestepped.
"Youu—!! You wait! I will skin you alive after I get my hands on you! Don't even think about escaping tonight!"
His black robes, embellished with a symbol painted on their cloak's breast, suddenly shone with a red gleam. It was an enchanted cloak casted with a healing charm. The engravings over it were fairly recognizable, a tree with silver leaves, shooting hundreds of branches everywhere. His straw hat shook vigorously in the blast of winds sweeping over them, while his companion observed them both.
Wen Haiming had never stopped guarding against that inconspicuous figure who was covering his face behind a fluttering veil.
Both the evil cultivators' appearances weren't striking; they would be considered handsome amongst mortals but there was something sickly, almost malicious in their aura, almost entirely subduing their features.
"You are strong, I'll give you that." The man with the veil praised. "But will your wit save you tonight, boy? Or, are you stalling for time?"
Wen Haiming's face grew colder. He straightened his back and reasoned, "I don't know why you've been chasing after us. But if we have offended you in any manner, you can ask for compensation from us. We will apologize appropriately and Tianlan Sect will definitely try to meet your legitimate demands. If we're found guilty, we will be punished too. Can you tell us how we offended you and your companions?"
The shorter man groaned. He snorted mockingly and said, "Oooh, listen to this young master, brother Lu! He asks us why we are chasing him. He is asking us, two evil cultivators, for a reason?! Isn't the reason that you are an orthodox cultivator enough to kill you? Listen boy, your ethics, your codes are nauseating to us! Your existence is an abomination!! In a world where the strong eat the weak, seeing the kinds of pretentious cowards like you people, we feel disgusted. Since we are free to kill whoever we want to, whenever we want to, I am going to show my disgust and kill you. Is this reason good enough for you, young master?"
Wen Haiming clenched his teeth. "You lie. Ha! Just for fun?! Don't kid me. You don't dare, you wouldn't go after Tianlan sect disciple if the stakes weren't really high. So stop pretending and tell me what it is. What do you want?"
"Tianlan sect, right?" The veiled companion interrupted, a glint flashing into his much older looking eyes. He folded his arms over his chest, his amused face becoming more amused.
He looked deeply at him, then scowled, "You think that by calling out the name of your sect you will dissuade us or save yourself, boy? Or…do you think we don't know who you are? Or maybe, you are hoping against all hopes that we actually don't and this is not what you think it is. I tell you, Wen Haiming, the youngest son of Wen Simin, and the heir of the Wen House of Snow-Valley, we have come for you. How unfortunate, right? Our spies have even infiltrated the unbreachable forts of the Wen family—unthinkable! Now, take a guess. Who sent us here after you, can you tell? There might be a surprise there."
A look of sudden understanding dawned over Wen Haiming. Wei Zhiruo felt a killing intent bubble around him, almost swallowing him whole along with his shadows, but then as if grasping his reasons, the young man immediately swallowed his emotions.
"You colluded with Elder Shen. Since the beginning the task was a trap, the real reason was to destabilize the Wen family by killing me, their sole heir. I don't think anyone who knows my grandfather, the Great Protector Wen Jiang will want my head. You are sure no one will find out how I died here, you've already made sure that neither my father, nor my grandfather can trace who killed me. Soo…this place is indeed a forbidden zone…"
"You didn't guess the name of the traitor." The veiled man burst into a pleased laughter. "I think you are afraid. But I want names. How does it feel? Being betrayed by your own sister?!"
"You're lying." Shocked, Wen Haiming shook his head. "My Yue'er will never do this to me! Stop lying!"
"But she has." The man chuckled, "She betrayed you, young master Wen. To gain the Evil Ghost's trust, she put a price on your head. He wanted to test her loyalty, and you became the scapegoat. I am not lying as soon you too will hear about the new Queen of the Western Domains. About the newest and youngest member of the Silver Council. How prestigious, right? What a beautiful turn of events!"
Wei Zhiruo immediately noticed Wen Haiming's furiously fluctuating emotions. Before the bad premonition came true, she picked up her bow and took an aim.
She watched the man wearing the veil sweep across the land between two of them, darting closer to Wen Haiming. Several snake-like deformities formed of dirt and sands rose from the ground leaving cracks in its places and joined the evil cultivator in the air, aiming for Wen Haiming's weaknesses.
She released the string.
Although she knew her arrow couldn't harm the man's mortal body, but her instincts told her it must have some impact on his soul.
In a split second, the arrow darted down in a flash. Descending down from the sky, it took all three of them by surprise. A huge whorl of patterns emerged, discs with oblong characters scattered like glowing ancient symbols. It crept overhead the two men. The veiled man sensed something off so he immediately deflected the attack, but soon he felt the pressure root in his soul.
"Soul Attack!" He couldn't help but mutter. Dodging, he tried to escape from the attack range, but it didn't work.
"Boom!! Crackle!!"
"What is this?" His companion yelled loudly, dodging the attack. "What are you doing to us, boy? Stop it right away!!"
Watching that a hit was imminent, the veiled man used all his energy in a single blow to cut through the source of the attack itself. The sword cut threw the looming pattern in the sky, but his face grew ferocious and pale. He'd exerted too much energy. His soul...his soul got injured!
"Cough, cough—," Wei Zhiruo on the other side of the forest, covered her mouth, and coughed up blood. Red viscous liquid dribbled down, and her mouth tasted of blood.
"Brother, there is someone hiding over there! He's got help! Did he summon—aarg!!" Before he could complete his warning, the man with the hat cried out in pain. A sword pierced through his back, cutting through his chest.
"You—!"
Wen Haiming had taken a chance when they were distracted to counterattack. In the end, the veiled man angrily slapped the ground. A ten-foot-tall mud wall swept out, cocooning his distressed companion inside.
"Do you think you can escape tonight? Don't dream!" The veiled man muttered angrily. He grew colder as he felt the energy seep out of his body, but his eyes became more cruel.
"Ziiing!!"
Wen Haiming's sword faced his enemies again. This time BloodMoon's silver blade shone, wrapped in a dusty red aura which brought a wave of ghostly looking shadows descending in torrents towards the veiled man. A sword energy swept across the land and hit the man directly, chopping one of his limbs.
"Boom—!!!"
The veiled man rolled and dodged. He glanced at his bleeding arm and grew furious. Suddenly he drew out another sword from his scabbard, removing a blade dripping in black goo, beading at the tip and dripping something sickly and viscous on the ground. The sword looked evil. "Don't blame me. You…forced me to kill you."
Wen Haiming paled. He recognized the blade and he connected the dots.
"You are the Shen clan's killers. You are not just evil cultivators, you are demonic seeds! No wonder your attacks look so feigned! You are already in a stage of transformation, how can you still use your spiritual Qi? You were just transfiguring your moves to hide their demonic origins…you are seeking me out not because you want to kill me but to get something from me. Is this it? This relic? Which was left to me by Madam Shen, is this the thing?"
Wen Haiming took out something silver from his sleeves. They both fell silent observing each other like two wolves going to tear each other apart.
"Killing me won't help you with anything," Wen Haiming seemed to have guessed correctly, as the man grew particularly serious. "Your true purpose…it's this. I know. I can feel the ancient presence, this magic. Doesn't it make the blood boil? Your masters must want me dead. But not for the reasons you told me. But because they must silence me, the only person who has felt this ancient power and held this thing in my hands or realized how precious it is! This is not a simple relic at all—it is a part of your future plan!"
"Believe in whatever you want, lad. However, will that change the truth?" The man didn't shy away from admitting it immediately. "You went on a mission without knowing what it means or whom you're going to offend by doing so. Of course, you'll reap what you sow! Nothing can save you tonight."
A cruel glint flitted in his eyes, hidden behind his veil. He started whispering angrily, "You don't have any way to keep it hidden in your hands now, brat. Jiaying Empress's Soul Effacing Jade. Is that something your soul can carry down to the hades? No, of course not. I will not allow that."
"So…that's it."
Wen Haiming muttered to himself looking down at his hand clutching the silver hairpin, "Indeed, it is a rare treasure. An Immortal Artifact. So what ghosts and resentful monsters are you going to appease with this thing? I know the legend behind this thing. Don't lie to me."
"It doesn't matter even if you knew. It's simple—we want it because our Demon Lord wants this relic." The veil fluttered as he drew nearer to Wen Haiming. Each step shortened the distance between them, and he kept increasing the spiritual pressure he was putting on the Qi practitioner. Someone else in Wen Haiming's place would have already knelt and started spouting blood. But not him, he just clenched his teeth and bore it silently.
"He needs this thing to keep those old monsters contained in Xicheng. You are surprised. You think I am lying? Monsters and ghosts hiding in Xicheng? You think it's impossible—something so big happened and right under the nose of those cultivators? You think I am joking—Ha! I am not. You fools! You righteous cultivators didn't even notice when hundreds and thousands of those mortals disappeared, nor cared what happened to them. It must be a famine. It must be sickness. What does the life of mortals have anything to do with you? But these very mortals were sacrificed. Butchered. Let me tell you boy. You cannot imagine how many ghosts are lying dormant in Xicheng, waiting for one command from our lord to take action! You cannot imagine, you cannot fathom! But you are going to die tonight—it hardly matters to you."
"Elder Shen. How did he help you?" Wen Haiming ignored his verbal attack and tried to clear another one of his doubts.
"He offered us this relic. He said his family had records of someone from the Shen clan possessing it. Of course we had to find it! How could such a good thing be left to mortals? Now enough talking. Hand it over here boy. It's not something you can keep."
The man lunged forward menacingly.
"Then take it!!" Wen Haiming dodged the sword, and yelled.
He put every trickle of remnant qi into that hairpin, and aimed it towards where he saw the arrows descend from. Then he used the last bit of qi to use another teleportation talisman.
"Whoosh!"
"Nooo—!! You dare—!!"
The veiled man tried to salvage the hairpin but saw a darting figure of Wen Haiming jumping down the cliff fifty miles away. He tried to give chase, but Wen Haiming was already out of reach. He cursed and desperately ran towards the hairpin.
Wei Zhiruo picked up the ordinary looking silver hairpin the moment it fell nearby, dyeing it with her own blood. Still bent down on her knees, feeling the blood dribble down her mouth like a thick viscous liquid, she couldn't help but feel angry at herself—she coughed loudly. She needed to do something immediately!
"Come out." The veiled man shouted as he walked into the fog. "Hand over the treasure."
Wei Zhiruo felt her forehead grow hot. Her hands grew inhumanly flexible as they wrote and swerved upon the dirt, digging runes with her aching nails—she stood up, jerkily, raised her neck, bent it down backwards as much as possible. Within a few minutes, she flung her arms around to start another ritual prayer. The rhythm dawned on her becoming somber and grueling.
"Tap, tap, tap."
Her feet scratched across the ground, crunching the branches.
She was muttering something under her breath. "...Calm and gracious mother of spirits, the mountain wishes its rise; wake up these walls and fences and wake up your swarm of ties. Make the mountain rise, O gracious mother, your son…the beloved of rivers and streams…"
She heard whispers brought by wind.
"—enough! Don't keep talking, hurry up! See, if any treasure can see past this fog!"
"I cannot sense anything, brother Lu. This is the real Forbidden zone. We cannot go forward anymore. We will die! Who knows what kind of monsters lurk in here!"
"Don't go back, we cannot go back now. Tsk! Hurry up. Search for me. We cannot fail."
"Crash!! Boom!!!"
A huge crater formed some miles away.
Something gloomy, twice the size of a tall pine tree stuck out his head from the grooves, looking coolly at the two cultivators. There were no features that were human to him, just a vague resemblance echoing from a mistaken notion —as if the creature had felt he should look like this, but had no concept of what that look actually was.
Wei Zhiruo peered through the realm in between, her anchors veering, fluctuating in darkness—she was almost on the verge of losing herself completely. Even then, she watched the mound of souls stuck upon the shoulders of those two men: skeletons, rotting cadavers, mutilated corpses clinging to their backs and howling, and that gigantic apparition, that mountain spirit whom she'd just summoned, hearing those cries and moving towards them. The cries of innocent dead were painfully loud. There was too much karma entangled with these men and ghosts they carried—
The gods were angry tonight.
Rain swept in torrents, trees crackled their branches and barks and birds and beasts shrunk and fell silent. Those two didn't know what hit them, but when the giant hand swept over them like an unavoidable catastrophe, crushing them in one fell swoop, only their eyes swelled into balls full of fear and horror. Wei Zhiruo heard the sound of bones crackling, crushing and watched blood splashing around. The ground turned red, as did leaves and barks.
They didn't even have time to cry.
'My…sacrifice…give me…my sacrifice."
As the summoner awakening a sleeping spirit, she'd exchanged nothing with him and owed him a favor. How could he not come for her?
She swallowed her blood again and flipped through the karmic threads over her own head; the recent thread was cut off, the debt she owed to Wen Haiming and his group had been paid in full. She clutched the silver hairpin in one hand and made a run for her life—stamping upon rocks, running across gullies and ravines as swiftly as her tired feet could carry her. The giant sensed her rebellion and chased, slithering behind her, his heavy feet digging deep pits into the ground.
"Thumpp! Thump!"
"Liar…sacrifice…you come back…!"
It was a painful journey. Wei Zhiruo took a quick look down at the abyssal depth, down the cliff. She took a deep breath and prepared to bear pain. Without much thought, she jumped down from the cliff. As she felt the air whirring in her ears, she successfully found the karmic thread between herself and the mountain spirit, then she snapped it into two.
"Splash —!!"