You are well out of your way then,” Gu Xiulan replied, not letting her suspicion color her voice.
Zheng Nan chuckled. “Ain’t never been an adventure that came to a man traveling in a straight line. I’d insult my teacher, making light of my first journey like that! You gotta take the time to get lost and let your feet choose the path.”
Gu Xiulan pursed her lips. Ah, yes, she had forgotten the… unique attitudes of the Zheng clan. “Well then, Sir Zheng, can you tell me what happened here?”
She looked to the desolate seeming town around them. Behind, the ragged soldiers and her own men were clearing the debris from the gates and the walls. The particularly burly men emerged from the gatehouse hauling immense bags filled with salt, mixing it with the Walker’s ashes would ensure they did not rise again from the same ash, out here where the power of the Grave was weak. Where they stood in the square, she spied a handful of frightened mortals poking their heads out from behind rapidly thrown together barricades.
Shameful, Gu Xiulan thought. This town’s lord should not have let such a weak attack reach his wall. Beside her, Captain Yun clutched his spear tightly, scanning the streets for stragglers.
“Fraid I can’t be much help there,” Zheng Nan replied, loudly cracking his neck as he hopped down from the pile of crushed Walkers. “I came here listening to my gut, but it seemed boring at first, so I decided to get myself a drink and a nap. Didn’t notice the racket until the gate splintered.”
Of course, Gu Xiulan sighed internally. She caught motion out of the corner of her eye. From the great ministry building that took up the north side of the town square, there emerged a round-faced little man in a bureaucrat's robes and cap. He was red faced, and scrubbed at his sweaty face with a silk handkerchief even as he bustled toward them, huffing and puffing.
“O gracious Lord and Lady, the village of Dingjun is grateful beyond words for your assistance,” the pudgy man said as soon as he was within mortal earshot, bowing as low as his build would allow. “Let this humble magistrate offer his own personal thanks as well, for the good fortune which brought your steps here.”
What an obsequious fellow. Still, it was only right for him to praise her, Gu Xiulan thought, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes.
“Where is your lord or his second? Why does this village have so few cultivators at arms?” Captain Yun barked. “Half of the men I saw on those walls should be guiding their grandchildren, not manning the gates.”
It was a bit presumptuous of him, but she wanted to know as well. “Yes, I am pleased to assist, but I must know. Is there some danger which the bulk of your warriors are confronting, a greater host in the region perhaps?”
The magistrate jerked his head down a fraction lower. “Lord Gong has taken the military to support the host of the great Lord Luo in the south, milady.”
“Count Luo called for such a muster?” Gu Xiulan asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. She had never judged the Luo to be such irresponsible lords.
The beaurocrat hunched his shoulders. “...Lord Gong wished to ensure that the Lords of the eastern plains knew of his zeal and loyalty.”
Gu Xiulan wrinkled her nose. Honestly, this was the trouble with new barons and the Sect program. Of course it also gave those like her friend Ling Qi their proper due, but honestly there were downsides to giving every jumped up soldier a patch of land.
“Pfah, he’s a bit dim then isn’t he,” Zheng Nan said, picking at his ear. “Courting tragedy he is.”
The poor little man trembled, clearly not having a response to the crude statement. It was so inconsiderate, to put the poor man in such an untenable position.
“...Your garrison performed bravely,” Gu Xiulan said, acting as if Zheng Nan hadn’t spoken. “And deserve commendation. Show us where I might stay, and rest from my journey.”
“Of course noble lady,” the portly little man said with some relief, the return to what was proper buoying his spirits. “If you will just…”
“You feel that?” Zheng Nan interrupted, looking down at his feet.
Gu Xiulan frowned at him, but looked down. She saw a pebble lying by her boot shaking, jittering away with vibration. “Captain!”
Stone and dirt erupted. Zheng Nan blurred and the portly minister folded over his thickly muscled arm with a wheeze as Zheng Nan bounded onto the rooftops. Captain Yun was in front of her in less than an eyeblink as Gu Xiulan lept backwards jets of flame erupting from her boots to launch her into a graceful leap that ended atop the high arch that marked the entrance to the town's square.
There was a thunderous crack of impact from within the dust cloud forming where they had stood and the sound of shattering flagstones as Captain Yun was thrust out of the debris pushed by the tremendous skull of a serpent, scraps of withered scale still clinging to bone and dried sinew. It’s snout pressed against the haft of his spear, ramming the old captain backward as the heels of his boots dug molten furrows in the paving stones.
As the dust dispersed, Gu Xiulan saw on the skeletal serpent's back, the ancient mummy of a cultivator in regal robes soiled by millenia of dust and ash. A few strands of white hair clung to the yellowed dome of its skull, and malevolent golden light lit empty sockets. All around the burrow the serpent had risen from more Walkers were clawing their way free.
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Gu Xiulan felt a thrill of terror, her muscles seizing as the thing's gaze fell upon her. She had thought herself inured, having dealt with Bai Meizhen a time or two, but directed malice was far different than mere disregard.
“Hah! A Bai I’m allowed to hit! This is the best adventure ever!” Zheng Nan’s roar of joy shattered the malefic atmosphere. He was there, in front of the Ash Walker’s leader in an instant, his staff pulled back for a tremendous two handed swing, his robes still snapping from the boom of broken air that trailed his passage. The lights in the Ash Walker’s eyes flickered and its jaw fell open, snapping tendons dried to cords. Sand and liquid darkness poured out, in mockery of the living’s arts, mantling the mummy in shadow and sand even as a spear of glass and ash formed in its hands.
Zheng Nan’s staff struck it across center mass. The air bent, a visible ring of pressure erupting from the point of impact. The windows in the square shattered under the clap of thunder, wood and stone groaned as every building in the little town shook from the impact. The Walker lord rocketed up and back, in a blur too fast for Xiulan to follow, and Zheng Nan followed it with a leap, cackling joyfully.
The moment of frozen fear passed, and Xiulan looked back to the square, dozens more of the ashwalkers, these garbed in the tattered equipment of the thousand lakes and the imperial armies shambled outward from the hole torn in the stones. Xiulan’s expression twisted. This trash dared try to tarnish her victory like this? She would see about that. The air hissed and shimmered, the heat under her skin bleeding into the world, sparks and crackles of static hissed in the air and the paint of the arch under her feet blackened and peeled. “Soldiers of the Gu, come to me! We have foes yet!”
Then she was down on the ground, the lashing tails of a whip of flame extending from her good arm curling about the limbs of a half dozen Walkers who had begun to claw at the barricades of a home, the flames hurling them into the sky like scattered straw even as it burned through their extremities. She spun on her heel to face the bulk of the creatures. Lightning crackled and the scent of boiling blood steamed between the bandages covering her blessed arm as she threw her hand out and arcs of roaring lightning turned the frontmost ranks to ash.
Above her head, Linhuo materialized, laughing as she nestled in Gu Xiulan’s hair and the wildfire fairy's flames spread across Gu Xiulan’s body, further intensifying her fires.
They came on regardless, she danced backwards avoiding chipped blades and withered claws. Mundane metal sagged and melted where it came close to her and papery flesh caught fire. Her footsteps left spots of stone glowing cherry red.
There was a tremendous crash as the great skeletal serpent smashed down among their back ranks, its skull scoured and cracked. Captain Yun landed back at her side with a crack, splintering the flagstones with his landing. His golden spear spun, shredding the limbs and splintering the weapons of the encroaching walkers.
“You would be more helpful elsewhere, Captain,” Gu Xiulan said, twisting aside to avoid a thrusting spear that she then seized, wood blackened and burned, and lightning crackled up the haft, causing its wielder to burst into ash and powder as lightning arced out to scour its comrades.
“My duty is to the Gu family,” Captain Yun replied dryly. His spear seared through three rib cages, and its butt shattered a chattering skull gnawing at his boots.
Gu Xiulan snarled in irritation, knowing that arguing would be pointless. Her parents' orders no doubt superseded her own. However-
“Hmph, fine. The Walker’s seek warmth? Then let them seek me,” Gu Xiulan said haughtily. She felt her boots sinking into softening stone, her hair flew upwards, becoming streamers of fire. Captain Yun sighed.
Gu Xiulan leaped forward, her flame sheathed hands thrusting through ancient armaments and ash covered bone as she pushed into the core of the horde, seeking where they were thickest. Skulls turned toward her, claws and blades reached. The slow shuffle toward the rest of the town slowed and reversed. She saw the soldiers from the gates, her own and the town’s, pouring in, putting themselves between the walkers and the buildings. She even saw the short little magistrate, red faced and terrified, holding the doors of his ministry, surrounded by walkers in twitching cocoons of paper and ink.
He was, already scratched and scuffed, a bloody line drawn on his robes. Gu Xiulan curled her hand into a fist and three radiant lines struck down around the man and swept in a circle, burning away his closest foes. Dutiful little fellow.
There was a series of tremendous booms from outside the wall, sending the earth shuddering.
A great shudder passed through the horde and some of the animation left their movements, qi guttered out in their eyes, some collapsed outright.
Hmph, as if victory was ever in question.
***
“No round three incoming, more’s the shame,” Zheng Nan bemoaned. “These things don’t leave trophies either.”
“That is your concern,” Gu Xiulan grumbled. With the ire of battle faded, the throbbing agony in her burned arm had returned in full force. “In all seriousness, I am more concerned for what will happen after we leave. There is clearly something amiss in the region.”
“I cannot countenance staying here,” Captain Yun warned. “Your Father’s orders were very clear, Miss Gu.”
“Hm, we just need to let the upper lords know these folk need their warriors back,” Zheng Nan replied.
The short little minister grimaced, fiddling nervously with the ragged cut in his robes. “Lord Gong would not be pleased to be embarrassed so…”
Hmph, to have such a poor lord, she felt some pity for the man.
“Eh, the closest Luo manor’s not far, I can run a quick message,” Zheng Nan shrugged, his grin turning wolfish. “Heh, it’s not like you can gainsay a big scary Zheng eh, little man? We run right over people. If this Gong wants to come and complain to us, he’s a bigger man than I think he is.”
“Honored sir,” the bureaucrat said, looking as if he was going to tear up. He bowed low again. “The people of Dingjun cannot repay the Lord and Lady.”
Gu Xiulan smirked. Such gratitude was only natural, but it was gratifying all the same. “I shall be satisfied with a bath, a meal and room. It would be ungracious to ask for more, given your circumstances”
“Hm, maybe I should stay awhile longer,” Zheng Nan chuckled, giving her a charming grin. “I’d not say no to dinner-”
Captain Yun stepped between them, glowering.
Gu Xiulan sighed. Honestly, she wasn’t a child.
“Well ain’t you a brave one,” Zheng Nan said, looking down at the older man. The thick staff in his hands, tapped casually against the ground. “Heh, the Gu know how to pick their retainers.”
He turned away, raising a hand in farewell. “Well, don’t worry ‘bout me. I’ll catch up in a day or two. No matter how fast ya drive those horses.”
Then he was gone, vanishing in a plume of dust. The rest of this journey wouldn’t be dull at least.