October 24th, 2023

3pm PM KST

Wu Xinyi

The sun was shining high in the sky as Ms Wu walked back to her job. She had been working as an archaeological assistant for three years, acting as a go-between with her own father, head of Chinese archeological study in the Shaanxi province, and the Westerners who studied their archeological resources. Of particular interest to westerners were the big projects, and as a manager she was going to check out the most important of those locations right that moment.

The Terracotta Army was a UNESCO World Heritage site sitting on the counter outside Xi’an. Xinyi had wanted to go make sure it was okay, especially given its importance to the history of the first empire, and the Qin Dynasty that ruled it. She had made a bid to go and check on it sooner, but the party was bureaucratic at the best of times and given the complete lack of information about these odd screens they were weary to trust them. Xinyi herself had been instructed by her father to not examine or follow the directions of the odd screens, and to instead ignore them altogether.

As she walked in to the entrance to the large structure that covered the army from rain and outside threats, another small blinking light joined the three that were already in the corner of her eye. They were starting to get annoying, and try as she might she was sure that she would eventually crack and stop following her father’s directions to ignore them.

The interior of the place, a massive safety building that held the first pit and the majority of the army, looked relatively normal. The dusty smell of clay, dirt, and wood so long rotted away it was now just dust there in the air and was easy to dismiss as she was so familiar with it. She walked along the ledge, letting her eyes adjust. It was then that she saw something odd. Out in the center of the room, floating over one of the more prominent soldier statues, was a soft orange light. As she tried to look closer, it began to float away.

“What in the world is that?” She asked herself, startled that there was something so strange. Perhaps it was some kind of drone, perhaps it was something odd and new due to whatever agic brought them these screens, but either way it was far too close to the statues for her liking. They didn’t seem safe and protected, not hile knowing there was a foreign object floating above.

“Hey, stop that!” She shouted, staring at the retreating light. “Get back here.” It didn’t reply, but that only drove her to do more drastic actions, as she began to walk and follow the light, making sure to follow the walkways that had been built and set aside for workers and those with authorization. It was better than sticking to civilian walkways, that would have been foolish, but it did mean she had to do a lot of zigzagging to try to keep up.

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After a minute of fruitless following, Xinyi followed it into a small tunnel, one that led to the other pits. This was pit 2, filled with the calvary. Still the light didn’t seem to want to stop, quickly guiding Miss Wu across and to the other side of the doorway, this time to Pit 3. Pit 3 was the smallest but filled with the most detailed figures in all of the terracotta army. This was the command post, and had many of the Terracotta Generals in all of their glory.

Tourists were often stuck in the shock and awe of the thousands of figures marching in pit 1, but pit 3 was Wu’s favorite because the positions and expressions on these figures looked so much more lifelike… at least for that time. She watched the light, knowing it would settle here. There had to be some explanation, but more and more she became confident in the belief that it would be something urgent and considered what the possible connection could be between the supposed magic of the screens and this light.

Xinyi didn’t like to admit it, especially not to her father, but she had spent a good amount of time reading books in the Wuxia and Xianxia generes. They weren't the most proper for her to read, and the web forums they were hosted on sometimes felt grimey to talk through. Some men simply didn’t know how to talk to a lady, and while they were still recovering from the aftermath of the party’s child policies the women had to deal with near constant harassment, just because they existed where they were in the major minority. It wasn’t fair, but it existed.

Still, the books were good, and Xinyi was reminded of several where foxfire appeared, the magical fire held by foxes. But that fire didn’t quite look like this, it looked more like something out of western myth. Her thoughts were cut off as the light continued and ducked into a third tunnel. She hadn’t expected anything to happen there, because that led to the fourth pit. While the first three pits were filled with fascinating objects, the fourth was empty and had been during all studying. Whether that was intentional, a lack of funds, or even through graverobbing they were not sure, but there was a lack of information.

Walking into that last room, Miss Wu was taken aback. This was because there in fact was something there, a massive much larger figure that took up a lot of space. The light settled on the figure’s shoulder, and she could see what the figure looked like. It was thirty feet tall, looking just like the Terracotta Army figures, but in a slightly different style. It looked hundreds of years younger, a figure wearing a robe and carrying Guandao polearm. The figure looked much more like one from a scroll in the Song dynasty, than the old Qin dynasty statue work.

As she watched, Xinyi watched the figure begin to move and stare at her. Behind it she glimpsed another thing, an orange crystal set into this massive being’s throne. “Shit…” She muttered to herself.