Every disciple must go hunting at some point, whether they like it or not. There are monsters out there, and the Sect is responsible for that land. We cannot forsake our duty to the people there. That would make us no better than Yokai as we use the literal fruits of their labor to fuel our paths. –Nuen Xi, Senior Disciple of the Ripple Mountain Sect

* * *

The half-moon rose over the village of Heimian, a tiny town in the middle of the forest which I genuinely mistook for a ghost town on first impression. Not a soul was outdoors when I entered, and many windows were tightly boarded over. Only the tiniest cracks of light peaked through the boards to show that there was anyone home at all.

I wandered the deserted streets, looking for an inn or something. It had been far too long since I’d spent so many nights camped outdoors. Distances mattered a whole lot less to those with power. In the old days, I had dozens of spiritual devices at my disposal to expedite travel, even before I ascended. Now, all I had was my own two feet and the dream of a warm, soft bed waiting for me in town.

“Psst! Hey! Do you have a death wish? Get inside!” hissed a voice from a large building. The establishment plaque indicated that it was, indeed, an inn.

What luck!

Accepting the man’s invitation, I crossed the street to the inn. When I entered, some twenty people turned and stared as if a divine messenger had entered. Inwardly, I basked in the look. I was the image of a regular wandering cultivator, dressed in my usual white and blue robes with my bamboo hat to keep my hair from shining in the light of the waxing moon. Most people never encountered more than one cultivator in their entire lifetime, and usually that one was a local they knew. Even fewer people could say they met a wanderer like me. It was nice to be heralded as a would-be hero again instead of the monster under the bed.

“Streets aren’t safe at night, Young Master,” the innkeeper said. “Better you rest up here and take yourself far from here come morning.”

“Is something the matter?” I asked. A few spirit beasts had crossed my path on the way here, mostly just a couple of hungry foxes and wolves, but nothing capable of frightening an entire town off the streets after sundown.

Whispers rose like an ocean wave. The twenty people sheltering in the inn turned to one another, passing a flicker of hope between them.

“He looks strong, maybe he can help?”

“Really? Look at him, he’s a twig. Barely make a single meal for them.”

“He’s definitely a cultivator, though.”

“Really? Where’s his badge?”

“Must be Untethered. No sect ties.”

“Must be. No sect would care about the likes of us.”

I cleared my throat, and the whispers died down. “Is there a monster harassing the town?”

“You could say that,” the innkeeper answered. “But, respectfully, Master Cultivator, without an army, I doubt there’s much even your esteemed self can do.” He set a cup down and filled it with wine. “But, if you’re willing to listen, that drink is on the house.”

These people were desperate. Though I didn’t think I was close enough to either the spider den or the hornet nest, it wasn’t impossible to find details on those problems, should the locals come to trust me. I took a seat and sipped the wine as the story began to unfold.

“People have been dying in the streets,” the innkeeper began. “No one has seen the monster, but it leaves behind corpses damn near every night.”

Someone in the gathered crowd let out an awkward laugh. “Corpse? That’s generous. Did you hear what happened to the girl they found on the docks? They only know it’s her because of a bracelet found in the viscera!”

“Tell me more,” I continued, mentally sifting through every yokai I knew of to narrow down those who liked destroying corpses.

“I heard a rumor that some of the corpses are missing pieces. It must be eating them!” said another person from the crowd.

“The Administrator is keeping that part under wraps,” continued the innkeeper.

Destroying corpses, possibly eating parts…by all accounts, it sounded like the work of a dozen different yokai, but something about it didn’t sit right. Certainly, there were yokai out there who only wanted to prey on humans, but why only take parts of the corpses? Why destroy the rest?

To solve this riddle, it seemed I would have to try and hunt the creature myself. I took another sip of the wine. It was decent, but weak so far as a cultivator’s metabolism is concerned.

“And what about the Administrator?” I asked. I had to admit, the fact that every town was guaranteed to have at least one cultivator nearby was surprisingly convenient. Maybe there was some merit to that idea after all. Though, no kingdom I oversaw would ever have them doing deskwork. That’s just a waste.

The Innkeeper rolled his eyes and snorted slightly. “Master Administrator is very busy.” Sarcasm dripped from his tongue, and I took another sip of my wine rather than commenting. For the common folk to be so openly scornful of a cultivator did not speak well of his qualifications and demeanor.

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“I think I’ll pay him a visit anyway,” I continued. “Hunting yokai is dang-”

Before I could finish my thought, a distant scream drifted into the room. Several people hurriedly snuffed the lights, leaving us in total darkness. As for myself, I sighed, downed the last of the cup, and set it on the table. Dangerous or not, a life was in jeopardy, and this yokai would wait for no man. I pulled my hat back over my hair before stepping back out into the moonlight.

Time was now of the essence. As long as the screaming continued, there was still a chance of saving the victim. It was somewhere west of my location, but, in a town with so many alleyways, I could easily search for hours on the ground.

Instead, I raced to a nearby building, leapt into the air, and pulled myself onto the roof. I choked down a small laugh as I caught the sound of a few loud gasps of excitement from the few people at the inn who’d been brave enough to watch me leave. It wasn’t like climbing a building was anything to write home about, but mortals get excited when cultivators are in action.

“Please! Help!” shouted the victim again. They were still alive. I altered my course, following their cries until I spotted the young man running with everything he had down a twisting alleyway.

I immediately recognized the creatures chasing him. There were six of them, each one resembling a person, but with skin as pale as death itself and eyes like sunken black pits. Their clothes were ripped and soiled with dirt and rot. Each face was pocked with rotting sections that flaked off, exposing the white bone underneath.

The six creatures growled and hissed as they chased after their prey. He tried twisting around corners, but they hunted him by smell and sense, tracking his presence even around the shadowed alleyways. Without knowledge of this creature, he’d never be able to outrun them. He’d collapse from panic and exhaustion before they even slowed. When he did, they’d catch up and consume him, body and soul. Better to avoid that outcome.

Wind ruffled the fabric of my clothes as I jumped into the alleyway and grabbed the man by the collar. I quickly pulled him back around another corner and held my hand over his mouth to keep him from screaming.

“Be calm,” I whispered. “I’m here to help.” He trembled and nodded. I released him and he immediately fell to his knees.

“Th-thank you! Please! I don’t want to die!”

“Then find the first open building, get inside, put out any flames, and try not to breathe too hard,” I instructed. “I’ll lead them away.”

He nodded and scurried away as quickly as he could. Then I did the exact opposite of my advice. I stepped into the alleyway and circulated my qi inside my body, making sure to expel some with each breath. These creatures had many names: walking corpses, hopping vampires, qi suckers. Regardless of name, at the end of the day, they craved the vital energy of the living and were willing to do anything to get it.

The corpses whirled around a corner, their red eyes glowing with excitement to find an even more vibrant source of life energy than the one they’d been hunting. My qi was like an all-you-can-eat buffet to these creatures. They just didn’t have the intelligence to recognize just how far out of their depth they were.

The first corpse lashed out with rotting nails. She was dressed in tattered, dirty white robes, likely how she’d been buried. Another of her companions lunged at me from the other side. I ducked beneath the first strike, letting the woman stumble past as I darted past the rest of the six. They whirled around and growled as I darted away.

Walking corpses aren’t particularly dangerous, but the biggest threat is proximity. Death qi oozed from their every pore, creating a miasma of rot that would be deadly to any mortal who breathed it in, and severely annoying to me at my current strength.

The best way of fighting them was to use talismans or music to soothe the spirits and disperse the death qi animating them. I was fresh out of talisman materials, not that I was very good at making them, and the flute I used to use for such problems was probably destroyed after my incarceration. Instead, I would have to rely on the second-best way to fight a corpse: destroy a significant portion of the body…preferably without breathing in the miasma.

I summoned void to my hands, solidifying it into a small orb before hurling it at the nearest corpse. It howled as the disintegrating energy melted the flesh from its bones and left a sizeable hole in its chest. The corpse shuddered and twitched, but still stood.

Okay, there’s something to be said for the second-best way being not as good as the first, but my options were limited. I darted down the alley, drawing them further away before hurling another ball of void at my target. The hole in the corpse’s chest was widened until the top half slid to the ground. Hatred still burned in its eyes as it clawed its way closer, but it was now much too slow to keep up. Death qi swirled out of the twitching remains in a deathly fog that would kill a normal mortal outright. I covered my nose and mouth with my sleeve. I was keeping my distance, but it was better safe than sorry when it comes to death qi.

The rest of the corpses fell much the same way. One by one, I dissolved their bodies until they couldn’t stand anymore. They weren’t smart enough to do anything about it, and there was no point in taking unnecessary risks in getting closer.

But, as I dealt with the undead, a nagging concern ate at the back of my mind. Corpses could sometimes rise naturally, if their resentment at the living was strong enough and conditions were favorable, but, generally, they were much more likely to be raised by a death artist. For six of them to be gathered together on their own was unlikely.

If these were the creatures responsible for the deaths in town, then how had no one discovered them? They weren’t intelligent. They weren’t particularly fast or strong, so why had the local administrator not taken care of it? Even a drunkard should have been capable of that much.

If someone was pulling the strings, however, that would explain how they could evade the incompetent authorities. Perhaps the local administrator had caught some of them, but couldn’t find the death artist, who would just raise more corpses to do their bidding. Now, why a death artist would want pieces of the bodies destroyed by their corpses, I couldn’t say quite yet. They must have had some dark purpose or ritual to complete.

I backed into a square with a gently flowing fountain at the center. A few lanterns lit by moon tears cast shadows across the open space as the last of the corpses, the one who first attacked, stepped into the open. I readied another ball of qi, but before I could throw it, a scuttling caught my attention. I whirled around, trying to find the source, but there was nothing there. All I could hear now was the stumbling corpse behind me.

One problem at a time, Yoru, I scolded myself, turning back to the corpse. I hurled my orb of void qi. It slammed into the corpse’s stomach, and she toppled to the ground in a heap of still-moving limbs.

In that moment, a wave of images passed before my eyes. Flash Forward warned me of an attack, then another, and another, all coming from different sides. I could barely even see the shape of the creature, it was just a dark, ominous shadow. Each image showed a pair of fangs, glistening with venom, piercing me in a dozen different places. All I could tell for sure was…

It was behind me.