Dainty Lady's Corpse

"!" Heian Ciemnosc became astounded when he looked at the face up close. It startled him a little, and his eyes widened somewhat stupidly. Heian Ciemnosc's actions didn't raise even an eyebrow from the Ghost of Longing Nature, but Heian Ciemnosc still didn't dare utter a sound, not even in his mind. The old woman looked ahead in the same way, lifelessly and blankly, as if she were already dead.

“... … …” The silence was stifling, but Heian Ciemnosc liked it. As he became aware nothing would happen soon, he scanned his surroundings with his darting, darkest eyes. He noticed many long, trailing clouds above at the sky, dull-gray and as lifeless as the Ghost of Longing Nature’s features.

“We don’t come from here, don’t belong here. But neither does you,” the old woman’s voice suddenly sounded, and Heian Ciemnosc turned to look at her immediately. His darkest eyes’ pupils constricted as she looked down at him, effectively startling him with goosebumps.

“Hoh, how well-behaved… It’s interesting, you see.” The Ghost of Longing Nature returned to face the front and continued speaking. Her wrinkled lips didn’t impair her speech at all. “What are you looking for? Hmm, what you’re looking for can be given. But can you take it? Keke, I wasn’t serious. Take it for all I care. It’s the least I can do for the tattered, tragic younglings. They’ll thank me another time. It’s time… Time for everything to return, even the worst.”

“...?” Heian Ciemnosc listened attentively. He tilted his head to the right and slightly frowned at the end of her words, but he still couldn’t utter a thing. Yet, she seemed to know a way to talk with him without him needing to even look at her. Was it nature reading? But if it was… how could she do it without setting her focus on him? In fact, there wasn’t anything from ‘this’ Ghost seemingly alive or belonging to ordinariness.

“It’s been a- yaaaaaaaawn… little bit since I had to act as a gatekeeper, nanny, and caretaker. Damned hell!” The Ghost finally showed something, shaking her head with a grimace and a reprimanding, disappointed expression in her eyes as her mouth disdainfully spoke.

“But it’s good now,” the old woman returned her eyes to Heian Ciemnosc, tilted her head backwards, and scared the shit out of him with her anti-life-like properties. It was simply… too unrealistic and outside the world he knew existed. It made Heian Ciemnosc question many things. Even those that didn’t need to be thought of even once after learning them. He rapidly figured that… an ordinary person might’ve died upon looking at the Ghost of Longing Nature.

“It seems to come… Ah, I wonder if it had already found its lost master, ehehehe.” The Ghost’s laughter was like a little girl’s, but her words were spoken from an old woman’s throat. “Yaaawn. Now, I don’t feel like talking and definitely don't feel like working. But it’s my duty, ah… it’s everyone’s duty. It’s in our blood and our flesh.”

“Don’t you feel curious?” The old woman finally stopped talking to herself and faced Heian Ciemnosc again— to his dismay. He looked up at her, not backing away, and glared into those gray orbs with a black dot at the center. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t nod or shake his head and just stared back at her, waiting until she spoke again, but she didn’t turn her head this time.

“What you have seen compares to what others have, but only those above you know what you could never unless you reach their level because of things they’ve seen. Beliefs aren’t important when becoming a cultivator. What matters is power. But it is the foundation of our lives. Yet, you take belief away. What else is left? What happens to the desire to live?!”

“No, no, no… When a thing wants to procreate, it only needs to think. But when anything and anyone in all that exists and there is— wants to remember what is forgotten, there is simply no way! That’s belief… there is none left here.” The old woman looked up, her neck craning, allowing Heian Ciemnosc to see it, but it was only a regular neck, not even a Titan-sized one, but of a Human’s volume.

“These nights of looking at it… the world… it has been… disordered. It needs its order back… it needs flesh!!” She looked back down and made Heian Ciemnosc’s body shiver from the notion. He felt his ears trembling from within as his head trembled ostensibly.

“Dread, it isn’t important. But it’s nice for others to feel it when it is born in others from your actions. Knowledge. It is vast! It is unmatched! But it is only so after someone attains it. Dependable and… lacks procedures! Not enough… Terror… Mm, now that one is sweet. Honor… always… a pleasure. Ah, but pride and glory? Untouchable. Envied wherever it exists!”

“Yet, what about… injustice?” The old woman closed her face on Heian Ciemnosc, making his pores throb in creepiness as her eyes seemed about twice his height from up close. “How many can’t help but give up after feeling every inch of their bodies, their beings, their Souls, and their putrid brains under the pressure of the world?”

“And- and- and! The dark! Even when cultivators break into the Sixth Step when they look far beyond the Universal Land borders… don’t they wet their pants? Don’t they feel it? Don’t they understand how small they are? These existences… what are they without all the other 5 Steps? What are they under the world?”

“But… BUT!!!!” The old woman said, shouted— crawled as she became incensed for whatever fucking possible reason! Heian Ciemnosc looked at her still, helpless and not knowing what to do or think of the situation other than keep himself alive!

“The violent forces of nature… NATURE!!!” The Ghost of Longing Nature whispered. Her last emphasized word fiercely gritted through her teeth. Heian Ciemnosc felt a sort of calling within his chest, and the old woman continued as she formed a creepier, crazed smirk. “Yeah! That’s right, you feel it too, don’t you?”

“Who isn’t aware of the Glorious Nexus Entente? Who doesn’t know the death provoked by its violation? Is it the wrath of the world? Of all that exists and there is? Or… nature? Or is it none of them?! Is it any reason?!”

“Whoever defies it, down!!” The Ghost said, suddenly flinching backwards to sit on the log like before. Her crazed expressions were gone, and so was her attitude. She sniffled once, capturing Heian Ciemnosc’s attention before turning her humongous head to him again. “Yet, the only thing that seems to be above the world is nature. So, nature cannot be without existing. When did it exist and why… or what… could be above it?”

“... You only know what you hear and what you listen… You only savor what you eat and what you drink… You only see what is before you and what is truth… But what are you? What is the origin of everything? The world stopped asking after the Lords’ disappearance. What about nature? Why isn’t it beloved anymore but only feared? The people no longer cared after an error like the Great Sage appeared. We’ve been observing, it’s been tiring… but now… now…

The old woman looked up. “It’s time!”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc felt no unusual notion or realization within his body. He didn’t lose his patience and waited, looking at the Ghost before gradually retracting his gaze and sitting straight on his spot after avoiding the terrifying, bizarre, rectangle-headed old granny.

Time passed, and despite Heian Ciemnosc’s willingness to wait, but nothing happened! He looked at the Ghost of Longing Nature again, yet he didn’t expect she was looking at him already. “What. Curious? Oww. Busy! Time for you to return, don’t you think? Bwaah!”

Heian Ciemnosc watched as she flung her arms upwards, sending him flying into the sky without harming him. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes widened, and his mouth felt as if it was sealed by something while his wrists were joined and shackled, once again, by invisible ties. However, what he wanted to curse within his mind didn’t come as her last words thundered from below, shocking him.

“Be careful, now! You did well so far. Don’t get yourself killed now~! Fly away already!!” The last 3 words were enraged, and Heian Ciemnosc had no choice but to meekly submit to the voice of anger and remind to him to keep his mental state as placated as possible. Heian Ciemnosc watched as the place he just sat with a so-called Ghost of Longing Nature disappeared from his view and had the strange sensation it was just a little room prepared for him to exist in. A strange, confusing notion he simply couldn’t let go of… Just as he knows flora and Fauna despite not investigating them beforehand.

But when Heian Ciemnosc finally felt the pressure, and his instincts no longer warned him of the perilous, scary-as-hell danger, he echoed with a roar inside his mind. ‘Why didn’t you let me talk?! I had so many things to ask!! I came to you for that reason!! What the hell was that?!?!’

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

… Peeeeeeew~!! Thud! Fumble~...

Before Heian Ciemnosc knew it, his body flew from a smooth-sailing floating upwards motion to shoot at a terrible speed from the goldish smog into the platform he led everyone in the main group. Heian Ciemnosc still felt the restraints on his body, so he couldn’t move. But he was ‘saved’ by seemingly nothing as his body flew past the cultivators until reaching his Team members.

Heian Ciemnosc could see everyone’s faces and even hear the words they were spitting while eating, laughing, chatting, and flirting. A strange sensation, and if there was one way to put it, it should be to Heian Ciemnosc as if he traveled through a slowed time-space. But that wasn’t real. Time was gone, after all.

Suddenly, when Heian Ciemnosc felt his body stop, he had a bad premonition, which proved true 2 seconds later. In one instant, everyone was busy cultivating, meditating, and chatting. 1 second later, all cultivators’ hair, clothes, and words were stolen by a passing object that nobody could discern but whose heads were forcibly turned to the direction it flew into.

They watched as, suddenly, their commander’s body stopped in midair above the covert operation’s forces’ VIPs group. Then, in under a second, their commander’s body fell on a tower-tall young man’s lap. “Gasp!”

“...” As everyone watched, Heian Ciemnosc silently stared at Yun Tang, who, like the rest, didn’t know what was happening. His darkest eyes narrowed, side-glancing at the tower as the latter perplexedly looked down. Heian Ciemnosc finally felt his wrists and mouth freed. He immediately sat up beside Yun Tang.

“...” Everyone in the VIP group looked at Heian Ciemnosc, Yun Tang wasn’t being blamed, and things became impossibly more awkward with every passing second. Finally, Heian Ciemnosc rolled his eyes and commented with a bothered face. “The way’s open. Everyone can enter now.”

Heian Ciemnosc even tilted his head to the right and stuck his chin to the right. Not only was he fuming about the Ghost of Longing Nature’s antics, but he was even brutally humiliated!

… A couple minutes later, everyone stood up and prepared to venture into the palace. They were notified, and the excitement on everyone’s faces highlighted the group’s mood after so much time was wasted in such an accursed place like this Semi-Space. Never once did they imagine their cultivation paths trekking on something like this.

Heian Ciemnosc didn’t walk ahead of everyone this time. He stood a little behind Yun Nitu as she held the box device in her arms. Yun Tang was behind them, looking at Yun Nitu worriedly. Heian Ciemnosc studied the place as everyone else entered, and his Team prepared to obey his orders. Yet, as they went through the gates and were welcomed by solitude and desolateness in the palace, they were… strangely surprised.

There was nothing inside! Instead of meeting a patio, as soon as they stepped in, everyone found themselves treading through a long hallway, about 6 meters wide, and who knew how endlessly long. Only after everyone entered and 5 minutes of walking did the group find an entrance.

It was an open entrance without doors or a gate. It gave a direct angle to peek into what seemed a burial hall. Everything inside it was gray. From the walls to more pillars with the thickness of an infant, all of which led a path in the center to an open coffin-shaped sculpture at one of the hall’s extremes. Heian Ciemnosc and Yun Nitu looked at each other before nodding. Only the 2 walked inside the burial hall as she held the box device and Heian Ciemnosc his capabilities.

Step~~, step~~, step~~, step~, step~, step~, step~, step.

Their footsteps echoed too much at the beginning. But as they neared the coffin-shaped sculpture and realized its dimensions, they had less echo and more solid ground. It was about 4 meters long and nearly 1 meter wide. No matter how they saw it, it was strange. Either for a person or treasure to be hidden in there.

Heian Ciemnosc arrived at the coffin first, and he leaned over the edge of the sculpture, as it had a depth he didn’t expect. Then, it hit him. When he looked at what was at the bottom of the sculpture coffin, it was as if he became paralyzed. Heian Ciemnosc’s actions were followed by Yun Nitu, who walked forth after leaving the no longer glowing box device on the floor, hence taking a little more time to get there.

“!” Yun Nitu’s eyes widened. She jolted, and like a little girl suddenly surprised by something unearthly unexpected to her, she looked at Heian Ciemnosc and tugged his dark coat’s arms down to draw his attention. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her, and it gave her peace. She calmed down, and after giving each other 1 look, they glanced down again.

The sculpture was made of stone, whatever kind, but its dimensions were only decoration. Several meters below it was the actual coffin Heian Ciemnosc saw from the images he saw at the Phosphorescent Flower Sect’s Carrier. A wooden coffin… and it was open! The lid was just leaning to the side, giving light to… a young maiden.

… … … …~

Heian Ciemnosc’s Vocón Link went down, coiling around the corners of the wooden coffin and hugging its lower base after elevating it a little. He carefully lifted it under Yun Nitu’s nearly sobbing eyes and careful watch. She looked at the young maiden as if it were her ancestor, but the young maiden looked like a young girl from her height and a young woman from her facial features. Even then, her youthful, mature face had puffy cheeks and tender, closed eyes.

However, one thing was confirmed when Heian Ciemnosc brought the coffin up carefully. She was dead, as deader as any death can be. And then, as Heian Ciemnosc observed the young maiden. Her chestnut, warm golden short, smooth yet wild hair, pale-creamy skin, and placid expression as she held a staff that would turn into dust but looked so mightily archaic it could even be a legendary Armament. Sara destroyed Heian Ciemnosc’s mental state.

“She… is one of the last Lords!!”

“!!!” Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes widened, but that would’ve been fine, and Yun Nitu wouldn’t have noticed. However, his energy fluctuations went erratic. With the speed they have inside his body and the way Heian Ciemnosc reacted, any other cultivator would’ve self-imploded and detonated everything in a 1,000 km radius just from his cultivation base alone in less than a minute.

“Heian… Ciemnosc…? What is it?” Yun Nitu worriedly looked at Heian Ciemnosc. She was too concentrated on the young maiden to notice, but the undulations beside her scared her too much to ignore them.

Heian Ciemnosc slowly moved away and parted the hands he moved to feel her face. Then, under Yun Nitu’s fearful expression, thinking they were cursed, he relayed the information without the need to hold it from her or her Sect.

“This is… one of the Lords… to have ever existed.” Yun Nitu became astonished. She didn’t even doubt Heian Ciemnosc’s words. His nature reading was rumored to be great, and that was before experiencing it herself. Now that she heard those words, and they were about someone inexplicably linked with her organization, she was… thrilled.

“Could she really be one of the Lords?!” Yun Nitu said, her words immediately garnering attention from Heian Ciemnosc’s Eternal Return Team outside and Yun Tang. She carefully held the coffin but realized she couldn’t carry it. She looked at Heian Ciemnosc and let him keep the coffin stable in his hands as he carefully placed it on the floor.

Looking at the young maiden’s face up close as he bent and placed the coffin down, Heian Ciemnosc was mesmerized. When he stood back up, Yun Nitu had her box device in her hands again, holding it dearly more than ever. He nodded and said, “I don’t know anything else, but I know that for sure. It’s something to do with my nature reading…”

Lying through his teeth, Heian Ciemnosc noticed Sara’s absence but didn’t bother her by asking her a round of questions. Heian Ciemnosc watched as Yun Nitu vigorously nodded twice and dropped the box device between their shoes. She turned to look at the young maiden before soliciting Heian Ciemnosc with a gentle, soft voice.

“I… by sacrificing this device, we can directly form a portal that’ll help us flee from this place. Well, that was the original plan. But right now, it is our safest and quickest route back to the world. They’re waiting for us in space… Heian Ciemnosc, you must understand how important this is for me and my people, right? It’s a costly thing… and my Master told me not to do anything to it unless absolutely necessary, but…”

“After Master learns what it is about, I’m sure she won’t mind, much less punish you.” Yun Nitu said, making hand gestures and looking down at the box device. When Yun Tang saw this, telling them to prepare to come out to his Eternal Return Team before going back to do the same with the rest of the group.

“I just need you to hit it,” Yun Nitu said. The box device glowed, but not with any marvelous or positive light. It burned with red colors and a somber feeling to it. Heian Ciemnosc looked at it, then at the young maiden, and finally, at Yun Nitu’s face. “You mean the box, right?”

“... You… not the time,” Yun Nitu’s mouth hung loose before she facepalmed and said. A little smile formed on her lips. She felt more sober now, and as she looked at Heian Ciemnosc again, she nearly burst into tears. Yun Nitu lifted her hands and cupped his cheeks, “You’re the best little brother anyone can ask for.”

“Cough…” Heian Ciemnosc’s face fell a little. ‘Little? Little brother? Alright, I asked for it, my bad.’

“...” - “...” Once both idiots looked at each other and lightly smiled, Heian Ciemnosc nodded and prepared to punch the box device between their feet. The cultivators, still in the hallways, formed orderly around the entrance, waiting to return and escape this place as soon as possible.

“Time to go,” Heian Ciemnosc muttered. Immediately afterwards, he bent his back and his right arm. It folded, bulging his dark coat before suddenly launching a fist into the box device. When it connected with it, Heian Ciemnosc felt his hand convulse with a soft, elastic force enveloping his pale skin. Yun Nitu rapidly held his right arm and aimed it at the wall opposite the entrance.

Bam!! Pshi-... PUUUUUUUUUSSSHH! Pshiiiiiiiinggg~~! Pshift, phift~~!!!

Yun Nitu let go of Heian Ciemnosc’s arm after his hand aimed at the wall. A strong burst of energy flew from the force wrapping his right fist, now open hand. It exploded forth, latching onto the wall like a virus. As it sounded with a sharp, deafening noise that became more high-pitched with every passing second, Yun Nitu formed hand gestures to evoke an unknown Art, making the bloody energy on the wall contract and seizure into selective forms before forming a circle.

“Done! Let’s go… cough… quickly! It will only last 1 minute!!” Yun Nitu yelled. Her voice seemed exhausted but still determined. But after coughing, her voice became hoarse as blood painted from her lower lip to below her chin in abundantly powerful red blood.

Whoosh!! Swish, step, step, step- stomp! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…!!

Yun Tang rushed towards them and carried Yun Nitu while she pointed at the wooden coffin for Heian Ciemnosc. Heian Ciemnosc nodded, and seeing that, Yun Tang brought Yun Nitu outside the Semi-Space. The bloody circle didn’t change. But when they rushed into it, their figures were coated by meat-skin-like energy. Heian Ciemnosc’s nature reading didn’t show him what happened, and he could only guess it was a wonderful one-time-use device.

Heian Ciemnosc nodded at his Team, who did the same and rushed into the red portal. Heian Ciemnosc grabbed the coffin and followed suit with the rest of the cultivators behind him. Time was of the essence.

…