“Disciple Rong speaks the truth. There is a demon somewhere under there.”
Elder Goldenseed’s words instantly transformed the unassuming hill of black earth into an object of foreboding. Lu’s eyes widened as his gaze volleyed between the centre of the deathly ki and Goldenseed’s veiled face.
A demon..? “Are you certain?” I don’t feel anything at all. But I suppose if it’s as stealthy as that small imp… There was a part of him that wanted to extend his spiritual sense to check the Elder’s words, but he restrained it; not only would it be agonizing with his damaged soul, it might also provoke a response – from either the alleged demon, or from Oldest Bones.
The flat stone ring spun lazily in Elder Goldenseed’s hand as she inclined her head. “Not a strong one – either a baron or lesser count – but it is certainly present.”
Lady Rong nodded in support. “You should stay back. Even the weakest of incarnated demons can match the inner realms; let me and the priests do our jobs.”
Once again Lu’s eyes fixed on the hill. All around a barrier was springing up, the other Elders working to cloak the particulars of what was occurring from any prying eyes, but the small mound consumed all of his attention. Is that really the correct option? It didn’t work out last time…
What is Hell’s game, here? If my seniors can sense the demon then it hasn’t entered the liminal space, so why just sit on top of the breach? Is it waiting for reinforcements? Acting as a rearguard for a group that’s already gone through? “Perhaps we let the holy men eradicate it, and then I can handle the breach?” And now that I think about it… “And it can’t sense us back, can it?” They were around a hundred metres from the hill, but by the standards of the higher realms that might as well be a single step.
Lady Rong answered. “It shouldn’t; Elder Seventh Wheel only dispelled the invisibility, we’re all still quite hidden from a spiritual point of view.
Lu’s brows rose. I am? He experimentally poked his sense outside his body, and to his surprise found that he couldn’t sense any of the cultivators around him. Oh my, the tenth realm really is different. There must be a powerful spell cast on me, more than one perhaps, but I can’t detect it even while knowing to look. It was eerie to see the men and women with his eyes but not his spirit; generally illusions went the other way around.
Some of the tension left his body. “And its normal eyes and ears?”
This time it was the younger priest Hun who answered, stepping closer from where he and his compatriots had gathered. “Demons tend to have poor senses – by Earthly standards, at least. Hell has a very different atmosphere, and they must build their bodies there before journeying on Earth.” The man had a pipe held in his teeth, his veil hiked up to reveal the beginnings of a messy beard – he must not have had any opportunity to shave during his travels. “Not that anything is guaranteed. But whether it knows we’re here or not is of little import; with this number of powerful people on our side, there’s nothing it could possibly do.”
Lu’s lips thinned, but he nodded despite his misgivings. That seems a bit optimistic, at least from the perspective of the least powerful person here. But it isn’t as though I have a counter-argument, and I doubt we’ll be proceeding hastily no matter what the man says – Winding Wind is too cautious to allow that.
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Lu’s assumption proved itself correct. When the group consisting of the young priestess Song, the core disciple Mai Rong, and Elder Goldenseed approached the hill, they did so under multiple layers of defences and concealments. Lu wouldn’t have been able to even imagine seeing them if not for a set of treasures that Goldenseed had brought out, fist-sized glass balls paired with a larger central one she hung around her neck.
There were at this point three different barriers shielding the breach site from the wider world, and Lu was between the outer and middle of them, along with the elderly Fong and Giro. Winding Wind was outside of the barriers entirely, while the special operations disciples and priest Hun were between the middle and innermost barriers.
Lu wasn’t certain he agreed with the logic of splitting into groups, but at least he could be certain that Tai Sho would be between him and any demonic activity. He and Fong peered intently into the ball, while Giro stood with admittedly more dignity a bit behind.
Reflected in the curved glass were the trio of demon slayers. They moved slowly but surely, the priestess’s staff held high and the cultivator’s hands extended and ready to fling spells. Of the three of them it was Elder Goldenseed who held Lu’s attention the most; she had swapped out her stone disk for a small pill, barely larger than a dried peppercorn, and he was eager to see what a top-tier alchemist was capable of concocting. I assume it will make my own explosives look like a polite cough. Or perhaps it’s something more subtle, like an untreatable poison? Ah, the anticipation is killing me!
They advanced steadily, and before long stood at the foot of the hill. The soil was exactly like Lu remembered in his dreams, rich and black as any field of tilled earth he had ever seen. It looked like a seed that so much as touched the stuff should spring to life instantly, but both the hill and the rest of the surroundings were entirely barren.
With a decisive motion the priestess made to stab into the ground, but a gesture from Goldenseed stopped her. The glass ball did not transmit sound, but Lu was fairly certain that an argument was breaking out as the young woman replied with a much more violent gesture, the gold in her eyes flashing. What’s happening? Why are they stopping?
Half a minute passed as Lu watched things unfold in maddening silence, Fong’s eyes as glued to the image as his were, their faces drawing closer until they were almost pressed against the glass. Tempers appeared to rise and lower dramatically as whatever dispute was occurring dragged on, until finally it seemed that Mai Rong had had enough.
With a movement of her hand a full half of the earth was pulled away, and Lu’s heart jumped into his throat as an otherworldly figure was revealed.
It was not nearly as ugly as the imp – indeed, there was a sort of regalness to it. The first comparison that came to Lu’s mind was to a jellyfish, the second to a panther, but the moment he looked closer any similarity to a living creature disappeared. The demon bore, if anything, more of a resemblance to a building with a multi-tiered roof; black scales like tiles coated the top of it, mysterious things like shelves of fungi reaching out in rings around a cream-coloured central square trunk. The ‘corners’ of the thing were a rich red like the shell of a boiled crab, slightly raised away from the underlying flesh like support beams anchoring terracotta walls. It had nothing Lu was confident in labelling a sensory organ, much less a head or limbs.
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And yet, the moment it was revealed some instinct in Lu’s chest curled in disgust. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind that the thing reflected in the glass was an unnatural abomination, even though it looked harmless. Did I feel this for the imp? I don’t remember, and it was so obviously wrong I might not have noticed…
And then there was a shimmer as Winding Wind stepped back inside the barrier. Lu’s eyes unstuck from the strange scene in the glass, his heart starting to settle as the demon failed to move.
“Elder?”
Winding Wind’s expression was as inscrutable as ever. “It seems you’ll get to play your part as you desired, disciple Lu.”
Play my..? “I’m not, ah, going in there with the demon, am I?” It doesn’t look very imposing, but I just received an explanation about how I’m no match for even the smallest of Hell’s creatures.
“I’m afraid you are.” Lu’s heart reversed and once again began the long climb from his chest to his throat. “But don’t worry, the demon will not trouble you. It is already dead.”
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For the second time in as many years, Goldenseed was utterly baffled.
It was a grand sensation, vitality flooding her limbs as if she had returned to her first century of life. The mystery was profound; the Hell Count was obviously dead, and yet obviously alive. There was not a single reaction from the soulless thing as she prodded it, and yet her sulphurstone compass reacted to its presence – albeit less than its power warranted.
She could feel the thing’s infernal cultivation, but it was hollow in a way she struggled to describe. Was it the unearthly soil that had done this? My experiments hadn’t yielded any reaction even close to this, but I had only the smallest pinch of the stuff to work with. I’ll have to press White Knuckle to set up a third exclusion zone; this hill is the sort of treasure we were dreaming of when we started. Would the corpse remain corporeal if it was taken away? If they could preserve demon flesh indefinitely, then any number of new concoctions could reveal themselves. The fingers on her right hand itched to bottle the substance away, while the fingers on her left itched to take out her field cauldron right there and then.
Even more than the corpses we’ve already collected, this is irrefutable evidence. The other sects will have no choice but to lend us their aid.
…At least, if it isn’t burned away by a foolish child. Said child, the priestess, was glaring at her with more venom than the average viper. Her hands were gripping her golden staff tightly, the rings on its head jingling softly like bells.
“You can’t think I’ll allow this to continue. We have to destroy it, before the false divinity corrupting this place finishes whatever plan it dreamed up.”
Keeping the exasperation from her voice was difficult, almost so much so that she was tempted to not bother. This is why I don’t have any students; I don’t have the temperament to deal with impulsive upstarts every hour of the day. “We will do no such thing. Demonic anatomy is barely understood, and that they dissolve into smoke at the moment of death is the greatest contribution to that ignorance.” Unlike the young woman, Goldenseed did not brandish her weapon threateningly like an animal bearing its teeth; she held the Soul Extinction Seed inside her sleeve, keeping it hidden. You’ve overplayed your hand, priestess. This is bigger than a single battle; rushing forward might cost us the war.
Mai Rong, at least, was acting sensibly. “The Elder is right, Song. Whatever is happening here, we should move cautiously. We’ll have Lu close the breach, then quarantine the area – this is something that needs to be understood.”
The gold-clothed woman’s hands tightened even harder around her staff, but before she could unleash the next round of argument they were interrupted.
The mercurial wall of the barrier rippled, and Winding Wind stepped through gripping outer disciple Lu by the shoulder. The boy’s eyes immediately went to the demon corpse, fearful.
“Pardon the delay,” Winding Wind said, “I hope nothing unfortunate has occurred?”
The priestess inhaled, but realising how outnumbered she was could only turn and stalk off without a word. Winding Wind raised a brow, and Goldenseed replied with a minute shake of her head.
“Some things can’t be helped. You’ve explained things to the disciple?”
“The basics.” The Elder released his grip on the youth’s shoulder. “Perhaps a different servant of the Heavens should swap out? The others seem of a more even temperament.”
Disciple Rong stepped closer. “No, that might cause her to take things into her own hands. Best to just get it done quickly.”
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Lady Rong’s hard-edged face came into focus on the periphery of his vision, and Lu managed to tear his eyes away from the demon again. It was different seeing it up close; from here, it was more clearly alive – or formerly alive, maybe. There was a network of thin veins crisscrossing its milky central stalk that hadn’t been visible through the glass, textures on its scales that he was almost certain would resolve into pictographs in the right light. Stop thinking about it and listen to the senior, Lu.
Mai Rong’s words were directed solely his way, now. “Can you do it? Close the breach without alerting whatever’s on the other side?”
Ah, that’s the question, isn’t it? A minute ago I would have said ‘yes’ unequivocally, but… Now that he was within a few metres of it, he could feel things a lot more acutely.
The demon isn’t just intersecting the breach, it is the breach. I can’t just seal it up with the splinter; it’s existing almost like an enchantment, as a property of an object. “Give me a moment to study this before I answer.” He turned away and stepped up onto the bisected hill, not bothering to wait for a response. If I’m going to shoulder the responsibilities of a mysterious expert, at least I can also act like a mysterious expert now and then.
He stopped within a single step of the thing and crouched, almost touching it. The corpse – and from here he could smell the death on it, similar but distinct from the general miasma – was not actually very large, only reaching a metre in height and about a quarter that in diameter. It really did resemble a pagoda more than anything. Let’s see. I don’t want to assume that Seventh Wheel’s stealth arts are proof against an emperor-adjacent entity, so examining it with my spiritual sense is out.
He focused his Comprehension as much as he could, nearly gagging as the corpse-stink became clearer. It’s definitely the source of all the ki in the area. With a small expenditure of his own ki a bright yellow splinter appeared in his right hand, and the now-familiar blue map splayed out in his mind’s eye.
Nothing strange on the map. But there is a sort of resonance happening – more confirmation that the breach is right here. Next he flooded his channels with ki, raising his hands and venting it directly out towards the corpse. Like a bat echolocating, Lu’s senses sharpened as the spacial ki suffused the area – and as it began to build up around the corpse, the spongy flesh actually seemed to drink it in.
Ah, I was hoping this would happen. The breaches are obviously spacial in nature, so… He eagerly observed the reaction as spacial ki intermingled with death, the mixture quickly destabilising and breaking down into noxious waste. It was foul, but obviously different from the smell of pure death. After a minute he stopped – actually disrupting the death-ki-generation mechanism might attract Sir Bones’s attention.
“Seniors, I believe I can close the breach without too much trouble. It might destroy this corpse, though; if you want to study it, you should do so now.”