Over the next several days their steps were dogged by more beasts as they pressed ever further west. At first, it was much like it had been the first day. The beasts stayed close, but out of sight, as they pushed their way through the mountains, passes, and valleys. Each morning when they broke camp they would find that beasts had gathered outside the formation during the night, and then a fight would ensue.
On the third day, the beasts started attacking them as they traveled. At some unseen or unheard signal, all the beasts in the vicinity would suddenly turn frenzied, and attack anything nearby. The beasts were just as likely to attack each other as they were He Yu and his companions, but noticeably they never attacked their own kind.
Although He Yu could sense spirits occasionally moving around, they rarely drew close and never attacked. Much like the beasts, however, the deeper the five of them pushed into the wilds, the more spirits they sensed, and the closer the spirits ventured to a party far too large and far too powerful.
After a week of constant attacks, they were following a stream along the floor of a valley and had just finished yet another skirmish. The stream’s path ran along the floor of a valley, dense with the undergrowth and ancient trees they’d been pushing through for the past few days. Above, they could see a pass that led into more rugged and mountainous terrain. Once they’d stowed their spoils, He Yu headed off along the stream they’d been following.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Li Heng asked, his tone far more clipped and sharp than He Yu had ever heard him use. At least when speaking directly to him. Li Heng sounded like the other nobles did when issuing challenges back in the sect. Arrogant, formal, and condescending.
“Following the stream,” he said over his shoulder, not thinking too much of the shift in tone. They were all starting to run a bit ragged after being harried for the entire duration of their trip, and nerves had been getting progressively more frayed as the days passed.
“That’s a stupid idea. We need to get up into the passes.”
“According to both Yan Shirong’s father and Chen Fei’s stories we’re looking for valleys,” He Yu said, finally stopping and turning to face Li Heng.
Li Heng stood next to the stream, arms folded over his chest. His posture wasn’t exactly aggressive, but neither was it particularly friendly. Chen Fei and Tan Xiaoling stood off to one side, sharing a glance between themselves. Yan Shirong looked as though he’d have rather been left out of it entirely.
The surrounding wood had remained dense, and the further west they went, the more potent to area’s natural qi. The mix of wood and earth from the surrounding forest and valley loam was the most abundant by far. Mountain radiated from the surrounding peaks, and water from the clouds. As the forest around them grew deeper and somehow even more primeval and ancient, He Yu had begun to sense traces of shadow qi from gloomy patches under particularly thick sections of canopy. From their recent battle, the stench of blood filled the air.
“The passes provide a better vantage point. We’ll get above the tree line, and we’ll be able to actually see where we’re going. Perhaps there’s another valley on the other side. We won’t know if we don’t look.”
Although Li Heng had a point, He Yu dug in his heels. “We’re supposed to be looking for a valley. We’re in a valley. I don’t see what the problem is.”
“What if we just performed a divination here?” Chen Fei asked. “Once Yan Shirong has finished, we can decide our next steps.”
“Don’t be foolish,” Li Heng snapped. “Yan Shirong said we’d know the proper place when we found it, and he hasn’t said anything yet.”
He Yu frowned at Li Heng’s response. While he could understand Li Heng’s disagreement with his plan, at least somewhat, he couldn’t see any reason that he’d lash out at Chen Fei like that.
“You should watch your manners, Sect Brother Li,” Tan Xiaoling said. “Such behavior is unfitting of your station.” A cold sharpness settled over the group as Tan Xiaoling spoke.
“I’ll start getting my things ready to perform the divination,” Yan Shirong said, stepping away from the argument.
He Yu didn’t blame him and wished that he could do the same, but somehow this felt like something he had to resolve himself.
“Chen Fei’s idea is a good one, I think,” he said after a moment of increasingly awkward silence between the four of them. “I think we’re all maybe a little agitated from the fight—”
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“See, there it is,” Li Heng scoffed. “I don’t see why we should follow your orders, Yu. Not especially when we have people with actual rank present.”
For a moment, He Yu could only stare. Li Heng may as well have slapped him. Follow his orders? Since when was he in a position to order anyone around?
“We’re just following the plan we all agreed on before we left,” He Yu said, trying to keep the growing feeling of betrayal out of his voice. All of this felt strange and unfair. He’d thought that Li Heng was a friend, what with the way he called him “little brother” all the time, and the talks they’d shared over tea or wine over their first year at the sect together.
“If we’re going to follow anyone’s orders, we certainly aren’t following yours,” Tan Xiaoling shot back to Li Heng. “I agree with Sect Brother He. For the moment, at least, he’s acting far more the proper leader than you are.”
“Leader?” He Yu asked, suddenly feeling very much put on the spot. Tan Xiaoling stepped up next to him and stared imperiously at Li Heng. What was this leader nonsense?
As far as he was concerned, they were all equals. At least between one another. Tan Xiaoling had insisted they treat her like any other disciple since the very beginning. Except for that first day, Li Heng had always treated He Yu with an informal familiarity. Although Yan Shirong had some rank, he never really pushed it on others, preferring to stay somewhat on the sidelines.
“What’s gotten into you?” Chen Fei asked. A crease appeared between her brows as she stepped up next to Tan Xiaoling. “You’ve never been this rude before. Stop it.”
He Yu swallowed the growing lump in his throat. Whatever was happening right now, he couldn’t deny how it looked. It looked like the others were rallying around him against Li Heng. There was no way it would help matters, but he didn’t know how he was supposed to handle this. If he was a leader, shouldn’t he do something?
Yes, he should. He should do something. Tan Xiaoling and Chen Fei were clearly deferring to him in this. It was only right that he make the choice, then. The choice was his to make. He wanted to make it. He wanted to lead.
The instant he acknowledged that desire, it crashed over him. An empty longing rose unbidden within him. All these people, were his. They had gathered around him. Not Li Heng. They looked to him. For guidance. For companionship. It was his right to say where they went, and how they proceeded. Whatever they’d agreed on before be damned—and he would damn them all before anyone took what was his. He was on the path of an emperor, after all. Clarity blossomed in his mind at the thought. An emperor. He activated the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment, intent on gazing over his domain. Instead, he recoiled at what he saw.
He saw himself. Small and weak and wanting. Selfish and avaricious, he coveted things that he was better off without. He coveted subjects in those he’d come to care for as friends. He felt revulsion. At his actions, at his attitude, at himself. At the foreign influence he’d allowed to take hold of his spirit. The faint smoky black wisps that had curled around them all—and most thickly around Li Heng.
“Chen Fei, barrier!” he shouted.
A circle of formation characters flared to life around them. He Yu pushed aside the discomfort at the fact she hadn’t hesitated at his command. She had to have realized that something odd was going on and acted because she agreed with him, not simply because he had told her to.
With the formation activated, a shimmering dome appeared over them all. Whatever had gripped them recoiled. At the edge of his spiritual perception, He Yu sensed a faint distant rage.
More concerned with the immediate situation, he checked them over with the Cloud Emperor’s Peerless Judgment. Whatever had risen to grip them was fully gone. Gone, but not forgotten.
Li Heng looked aghast. Then ashamed. “That was inappropriate of me,” he said, offering a salute to He Yu. “You’re right, we were only following the plan we’d already agreed on.”
“No need,” He Yu said. “I don’t think it was your fault.”
Li Heng’s features twisted into a grimace at that, but he said nothing.
“What’s going on?” Chen Fei asked. At first, He Yu thought she was talking about the sudden change in Li Heng’s demeanor, but then he realized she was looking at the barrier.
The barrier was visible. When they stopped each night, He Yu had only been able to see the formation characters encircling their camp. Come to think of it, the only time he could see any of Chen Fei’s barriers was when they were under some sort of stress, like an attack. Even then, they’d usually only flash momentarily. Looking out beyond the barrier, He Yu saw the reason.
A black fog, unnaturally thick and low to the ground had rolled out of the forest. It gathered around the edges of the formation. Closest to the forest floor, where the fog was thickest, the barrier glowed the brightest. Worse, the fog seemed to be climbing the barrier the longer they waited, piling against it and flowing against the law of the earth.
“I think we’ve found one of these haunted valleys,” He Yu said, looking to Yan Shirong.
Yan Shirong had already produced his tools. A handful of coins, a turtle shell, and a Bagua diagram. With a nervous glance outside the barrier, he said, “I’m ready if we’re still willing to do this, but I would much rather we turn around and leave.”
Although Yan Shirong had spoken directly to him, He Yu looked to the others. Each one gave him a nod in turn. They’d agreed to this, so they would see this through.
He Yu took a deep breath and turned back to Yan Shirong. “It’s your call,” he said. “The rest of us are in agreement, but if you don’t think it’s safe, we’ll leave.”
Without another word, Yan Shirong tossed his coins and placed one of them onto the lowest trigram. It seemed he was in agreement, despite his misgivings. A second toss completed the hexagram, then Yan Shirong tossed the coins a final time. As he worked, the fog climbed ever higher up the sides of Chen Fei’s barrier.
Just as Yan Shirong placed the final coin, the barrier shattered. Black fog rolled in, and Yan Shirong screamed.