A disturbance crawled up his spine before Meifeng’s barked in warning.  He twisted out of the way of a swing aimed for his head.  Ironically, it was the same spot he hit Gui Peng, he caught the axe before it could be raised for another swing.  He followed the wooden handle to the axe’s wielder. 

It was clutched tightly in the older woman’s hands.  Over the last few minutes, the woman had changed.  She glared at him with a set of blood shot eyes and unmistakable black veins lined her skin.  The sight had sent him on a flashback to his town and threatened to rip him from the here and now. 

                “What’s wrong with her?”  Gui Bolin demanded.  The words freed him and with his new senses he inspected her.  Ian felt another qi inside of her.  It was cultivating her body.  His own sixth sense spread through it and even with his limited knowledge he recognized the signs.

                Her body was fighting it but losing.  The creature grinned revealing filed teeth.  Bones popped and her skeleton took on a strange shape. 

                “The heavens are blind.  How could this happen to you?”  Ian never took his eyes off her.  He saw his mother, his sister, and all the people he used to know.  Something heavy settled upon him.  No great force suddenly came to aide him.  He was alone and the demons were taking over the bodies of people around him. 

                “Turn away Gui Bolin.  You don’t want to see this.” 

                Ian raised his gun and pulled the trigger.  He never looked away.  The trigger pulled back slowly.  Memories of his sister’s death plagued him making him feel like he moved through molasses.

The older man leapt on the gun and tried to pry it out of his hands.  Ian held firmly on the weapon before the demon possessed woman turned and dove through a window.  Glass shattered and the spell was broken.  Ian tossed the man off of him.    

                Whatever spell held him captive was broken by outside interference.  He stared at the middle-aged man on the floor.  Despite everything he’d have liked to know that his sister couldn’t be changed.  The old man deserved some mercy. 

                “Your wife isn’t in there anymore.  She’s gone that thing killed her.”  Ian growled. 

                “I don’t care she’s my wife.  You might think this is the work of a demon, but it can’t be.  There must be a scientific explanation for it.    Her eyes were blood shot, there was a lot of pressure on her veins, and her body was convulsing.  It could be a mutated form of rabies.”  Ian shook his hand and put the side arm in his robe.  Odds were good Gui Bolin would turn into a possessed next. 

                “I’ve seen this before.  Once the possession starts there is no going back.”  Ian said. 

                “Sure, if we try to pray away the infection it won’t leave.  In town there are physicians.  They’ve cured the yellow tears, purple throat, and Typhoon in seventeen years.  They can cure her too.”  Gui Bolin said. 

                “The physicians will only offer the mercy of death.”  Ian placed his axe over his shoulder.  “How are you going to capture her in the dark with a bear on the loose?”  Ian asked. 

                “Bolin I’m alright now.  You can let me in.”  He looked over to Meifeng.  She held a bored expression and watched things play out.  Ian raised the gun and blasted the door.  From behind the door he heard a savage roar of pain. 

                “That was my wife’s voice.”  Bolin said. 

                “It was the bear pretending to be your wife.”  The demon seemed hesitant to enter the cabin.  Why?  Surely, it could break down the door or destroy the house. 

                “The bear, you’re insane.  Give me back my gun.  I’m going out there to save my wife.”  Ian stared at the man and weighed just killing him.  It would be easy, a swing of the axe.  Surely, it was better than being taken over by a demon.  He could save the man’s soul.

                That was something Ian was starting to question.  Did souls really exist?  Ian doubted it and he doubted that a wooden door could hold back a demon.  What was holding the demon back?  The sooner he figured that out the better. 

                He heard a yell and felt a chair break over his head.  For a moment he was dazed.  He felt the gun get taken from his hand and it was pointed at him.  Reality exposed herself to him in a slow strip tease.  The gun was pointed at his head and his axe was on the floor. 

                “Get up, we’re going outside to find my wife.”  Just as reality cleared a massive tree erupted through the side of the cabin.  The gun went off plugging his chest with hot lead.  Ian felt the bullet shoot out his back.  More trees fell upon the cabin and he watched Gui Bolin leave through the cabin door. 

                The cabin collapsed on top of him covering him in building material.  He sensed the presence of another demon this one wasn’t quite as powerful as the bear.  Trapped under the building material he cycled his cultivation.  The floor cracked open beneath him and he tumbled down into the basement of the cabin.  The rubble settled overhead. 

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                When she saw the rubble pile upon her companion of two days, she felt anger rise within her.  She hadn’t known him long, but he was kind to her.   He showed promise that she’d never seen in a human before.  If not for this human with a gun he’d have survived. 

                Meifeng followed the scent of Gui Bolin with only one desire.  Even if a bodyless demon made a host of him she’d kill it.  He couldn’t be allowed to exist.  She followed his footsteps and smelled the possessed woman had also found the trail.  She sped up to find the gun lay at the edge of a clearing and the possessed woman had the man bound to a tree. 

                Meifeng quickly gained human form and picked up the gun.  She exposed herself to the other demon and flared her cultivation base.  After feasting on so many fish she had reached the peak of demi imp stage 1 and neared the second stage.  She flexed her clawed hand and a whip of sparkling moonlight appeared. 

                “Oh, are you here to share in the feast.  I can’t wait to chew on his entrails before I swallow his soul.”  The psychotic ravings of the demon host meant nothing to her.  She flexed her wrist and watched a long red line appear on the mortal’s overbearing gut.  The mortal cried out in pain and she whipped him again.  She remembered that he wanted to do this to her human. 

                “It seems you pissed her off.  Go ahead cry out a name for your torturer.  Praise the perfect demon for she is pure.”  Meifeng raised the pistol and shot two rounds in the raving possessed head. 

Blood and brain matter covered the man bound to the tree.   Bits of skull glittered in the moonlight.  With that annoyance out of the way she raised her whip and got down to business.  She didn’t stop until the man’s guts poured out on the forest ground.  With her demonic power she was able to keep him alive long enough for the predators of the woods to fly or crawl to him to feed. 

                Meifeng brushed her white hair back and looked up at the moon with her slit golden eyes.  The haze of revenge slowly cooled, and she began to think rationally.  What were the odds that he survived that gunshot?  How long could he hold his breath while under so much debris?

                “That mortal must have surely annoyed you wolf demon.”  She turned her gaze to the Da Chao. “What did the poor demon host do?”  He asked.  The bear clawed at a wound in his shoulder.  She smiled with a bit of satisfaction. 

                “You weren’t supposed to show yourself yet.  If you had stayed away, you wouldn’t have a ball of metal qi lodged in your shoulder.  Maybe you should pretend to be a dumb wounded bear.  A vet in the town at the base of the mountain might take pity on you and take the metal out of your shoulder.”  She sucked in a breath and could smell the rot already setting in.  Bear demons no matter the name all contained a bit of wood qi at the base of their cultivation.  If the lead wasn’t removed his cultivation would suffer.  

                “Throw that weapon away.  Don’t even think about challenging me.  I’m still more than strong enough to take you on even with that weapon.”    Yes, he was today.  What about next week or a month from now?  He was wounded only the demonic qi of an open hell gate could heal him properly.  Even that would take time.  Either way he’d have to get the metal in his shoulder removed.  If it is stuck in the bone, she grinned a wolfish smile.  He wouldn’t be long for this world. 

                “What are you smiling at?”  Da Chao asked.

                “I was just thinking.  With spirits able to possess a mortal all the way down in the cabin.  The hell gate must be close to opening.”  She lied. 

                The demon bear laughed.  “Yes, that’s why I’m out here.  I can’t have a mortal qi expert attack me while I’m opening the gate.  In just three days the gate will be open, and we will advance into demon lords in no time.”  A small smile spread across her face.  Her ears turned and she heard a very familiar heartbeat. 

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                Ian was able to stop the bleeding and began cultivating immediately.  Qi was being dumped into his wound at an incredible rate.  Hours passed by while he cultivated.  Smoke filled the basement only to leak out of a metal pipe that lead to above ground.  A small hurricane of black smoke swirled around him while he cultivated. 

                A day passed before he had the strength to stand again.  A single thought pervaded his mind.  He had to save Meifeng.  His dog was out there in the woods with a hungry bear.  Ian had an advantage he lacked before. 

His machinery had finally entered the final stage of hardening. 

                By the night his machinery was strong enough to work operate fully passively.  The amount of mental energy he spent on it had decreased by 60%.  Power radiated from his body and he felt functional.  The bear had used some technique to throw whole trees through the building.  As much as he wanted to cultivate some more before tracking down the bear this was probably his only chance. 

                In an act of herculean strength, he ripped his way up out of the basement.  Wood was slashed apart by his cutting qi as he blasted the rubble with cut laced wind palms.  Every strike delivered cutting qi and moved the debris out of his way. 

                Elsewhere the basement was filled with debris.  A pipe burst and water began filling the basement.  There was no turning back now.  He continued to fight his way through the rubble until light shined down on him.  He expected to find Meifeng but instead found his axe planted in the ground with the handle pointing towards the mountain’s peak. 

                He followed the handle to find bits of clothes from Gui Bolin.  On some briars he found some of Meifeng’s fur.  Was she leading him?   If so, how?  He knew she was intelligent but not that intelligent. 

                Through the day he followed the trail.  Axe in hand he made his way up the mountain with contemptuous ease compared to his former climb.   On the ledges he found the occasional bullet and then he found the gun.  He popped the cylinder and loaded the weapon.  Up on the next ledge he saw her or a woman with some of her features. 

                She had the same golden eyes, wolf ears and glossy white hair as Meifeng’s.  “No! You can’t be a demon.” 

He felt baleful qi roll off her in waves.  It was mighty but weaker than his own might.  If it came to a fight, he had more qi.  The problem was techniques and the gun in his hand.  He had two bullets and a bastardized wind palm technique with some cutting qi added in for flavor.  There was no telling what she had or if he could take her on.  She might have some legendary technique that utterly out classes him. 

                “What’s wrong with being a demon?”  He saw red for a moment and every death pushed him forward.  Two days can’t wash away the sins committed by her kind.  The golden eyed sarcastic wolf always looked at him with the most intelligent eyes. 

                “My family was destroyed by the red vine plague.”  His hand shook while his gripped the axe. Ian wanted to kill her and to thank whatever god was out there for listening to his prayers.  She was alive and well. 

                “Those two days we spent together were they a lie?”  Ian asked. 

                “No, they weren’t.   I’m a demon and you’re a mortal but it doesn’t have to be that way.”  She smiled.  “I know of a ritual that can make you like me.  You’ll make a great demon; I’ve seen your talent for myself.  You’ll become a demon lord in record time and maybe even a president of hell someday.”  She held out her clawed hand to him. 

“Take my hand and drop that mortal weapon off a cliff.  Forget out the Atlas Mountain Sect they have no future in this world.”  He looked up at the cave pouring baleful qi from the entrance. 

Within his pocket he slipped some menta power into the jade slip.  The message sent immediately.