The shoes were not his. They felt strange on his feet but he comforted himself with the thought it was better to have some sort of shoes on rather than none at all. They had remained in the shack until Rui Yifu was well and Liu Xie had assured them all he was ‘just fine’, they scrounged up what supplies they could which amounted to some dry tubers and a few handfuls of suspicious rice they found in a pot in the shack. With that they had started their journey, following a well trod road that stretched into the horizon.

The sky was still filled with ash.

The Western Kingdom was mostly flat fertile plains mixed barren stretches, with the occasional set of hills to break up its features. Li Baobao had read a book that said the Western Kingdom used to have more forests but those had been cut down years ago. He had no idea where they were going, but the disciples of Lady Gu did.

Or at least he hoped they did, he felt it would be rude to ask.

Bo has no compunctions about such however, and Li Baobao saw Rui Yifu glaring at Bo.

“How long until we see this lady?” He asked loudly.

“As long as it takes for us to get there,” one of the disciples replied.

“Which is how long?”

“As long as it takes.”

“We’ve been walking for a while,” Bo crossed his arms. “Isn’t there a faster way? You all literally fell from the sky.”

Liu Xie had been largely silent, walking a few steps behind everyone, but now he spoke, “Lady Gu sent them. They aren’t able to do that on their own.”

“How do you know, boss?”

“I know Lady Gu well, and how she teaches her students,” Liu Xie answered. “It’s a bit different from how I taught her. And you too, I guess.”

Abruptly a few of the girls ahead stopped, turning around and flocking over to Liu Xie while nearly knocking over Li Baobao himself. The girls were clamoring with questions.

“You taught her? When?”

“Have you known her a long time?”

“Are you also an immortal?”

“What’s her favorite food!?”

“Did she sleep a lot back then too?”

“Do you know her actual name?”

Liu Xie side stepped the girls mobbing around him to keep walking forward. “We’ve known each other a very long time, if she hasn’t told any of you any of this information then I don’t feel it is my place to tell you either.”

There were sounds of protest and disappointment, but they were silenced when a girl who had continued to walk ahead called out, “I see a town!” She looked back to them and seemed slightly surprised that they were so far from her.

Li Baobao walked faster to be next to the girl, peering out into the distance. He could see town walls, and even the shape of a small watch tower that poked out awkwardly on top. “Oh! Maybe we can get a cart from there!” He suggested.

“None of us have money,” the girl next to him said a little sheepishly.

“No, no, don’t worry! I have money,” Li Baobao said while clasping his hands together. His feet were beginning to ache.

The group began moving forward again at a slightly more brisk pace. Behind himself Li Baobao could hear chatter and found his spirits were lifting up a little bit.

Those spirits crashed down fast once they had come close enough to see the town’s gates. They were reduced to broken splintered wood that lay scattered on the main road in the town. Inside people in black and white or undyed clothing were moving about. Some carried shovels or large containers, others rushed by with bolts of hempen cloth or carrying wrapped up figures. Doors had been smashed and some buildings had collapsed. There was a sick stench of old blood and offal.

Stolen novel; please report.

The assembled group of travels stood silently at the threshold.

“...It’s a Grave Clan,” Rui Yifu said.

“A what?” Bo asked.

Before anyone could answer, an elderly man completely in white that was only decorated with a morose looking badge that hung from his waist hobbled up. He tightly clutched a staff as he peered at the group. “Are… are you townsfolk, perhaps? From here? Survivors?”

“I’m sorry, we are travelers sir,” Li Baobao answered.

The old man’s shoulders sagged, “oh. We had hoped someone would be coming to help us identify the dead.”

“Excuse me sir, what happened here?” One disciple girl asked.

“Hrm?” The old man moved aside and gestured for the group to come into the town. “We don’t know. Something came in and attacked these people. Come, come. You all look worse for wear. We have food and some tea we can share.” He lead them down the main street of the town into the center, where tents had been set up. A large building had its doors open and inside Li Baobao could see dozens upon dozens of bodies laying inert on the floor, covered in simple cloth. Not all of them looked whole. Young veiled women moved silently, moving one corpse to lay it down on the ground inside and carefully covering it up. “We had come originally to get supplies only to find the town deserted, or so we thought. It wasn’t long until we found the bodies.”

The old man sat down on a small stool, still clutching his staff.

“At first we thought it had something to do with that ridiculous spat going on between the two princes but… nothing has been taken,” the old man shook his head. “The food stores, the armories, the apothecaries. All of them untouched; except for the bodies.”

“We just came from one of the Free Cities,” Rui Yifu said. “There was an… incident there. With strange monsters.”

“Monsters you say?” The old man blinked. “That wretched hive of scum and villainy was already full of them.”

“Excuse me,” a veiled woman walked into the small makeshift camp. “Are you survivors?”

“No, they aren’t unfortunately. Just travelers from one of the Free Cities apparently,” the old man sighed.

The woman’s hands were folded into her white sleeves, and the black veil only allowed the vaguest hint of a face to be shown. Li Baobao looked further down and noticed that she had two swords, then he looked at the elegantly yet simply dressed disciples of Lady Gu with their own weapons and wondered if there was a connection of some sort. “If you’re from one of the Free Cities, it must one of the closest ones. It was burning some days ago wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” Rui Yifu answered.

“Come with me, please.” She turned on her heel and walked towards the large open building. The group followed, Li Baobao included despite his increased uneasiness around the covered corpses. Further into the building, different bodies had been laid out on small wooden cots with other veiled women making notes in thick books as they talked in hushed voices. She stopped at one body. It was of a middle aged man, one arm had been nearly snapped off, held only by a shriveling piece of skin, while his torso was gutted and torn. “As Grandfather Shang said, we believed it had something to do with the feud between the princes. But these are not the wounds of battle, are they? Might any of you know what they are?”

“Forgive me if I sound presumptive,” Rui Yifu did not sound like he was asking for forgiveness. “But do you know of the term ‘flesh puppet’?”

The woman’s back straightened, “...that’s a forbidden white flame art, isn’t it?”

“The Free City we came from had a site making dozens of them. Perhaps more,” Liu Xie finally spoke. “It was enough to completely overwhelm the city when they escaped.”

The mutterings of the other women nearby stopped.

“Flesh puppets… the burning city…” The veiled woman hit her palm, “yes! That does make sense. If they weren’t being properly controlled, they would likely go mad and head to the next closest source of humanity they can find! No wonder we couldn’t find any survivors. They wouldn’t have been able to return so long as those creatures were still around, and if the creatures could still sense them, they would start pursuing them.” She paced back and forth for a moment. “But wait… there’s still that… hmmm…” She stopped and motioned for them to move to three bodies that had been set aside in a corner.

The three were obviously foreigners. One was a delicate looking young man with broken antler like structures on his head. Much like the other man, his chest had been torn open. Beside him was a young woman, her upper skull and leg were missing, and then beside her was an extremely short solidly built woman with both legs torn away along with numerous chunks on her arms and neck.

Liu Xie leaned close to them. “...Were these some of the fortune seekers from the tombs, I wonder?”

“I don’t know, but we did find something strange in their bodies,” she moved a small bowl in front of them. Besides old blood, small seeds sat in it. “Their bodies were full of seeds. Some of which had sprouted. I’ve never seen anything like these.”

“We’re actually on our way to Lady Gu,” one of the disciple girls spoke up. “We can take them to her.”

“Oh?! Lady Gu?” The veiled woman sounded hopeful. “Wonderful. There’s another thing. We found someone a few hours ago. We’ve done what we can, but if you’re going to Lady Gu then perhaps she can help?”

“Lady Gu is very kind, she wouldn’t mind.”

The disciples began speaking with the veiled woman, but Li Baobao was still staring at the bodies. He did not know who they were, or where they came from, but something deep in his chest twisted and his eyes began to burn.

A hand rested on his shoulder. "Hey, are you okay?" Bo asked.

"I can't... I can't imagine what happened to them," Li Baobao said. "And they're all so far from home. Grave Clans give proper rites and bury the dead when nobody else can but... they can't give these people back their names, can they? Do they even know what their rites are?"

Bo was quiet for a long time, also gazing down at the bodies.

"This is her..."

Li Baobao looked back up to find a shivering slender woman being led over to Lady Gu's disciples. She had long blonde hair and pointed ears studded with purple jewels, and her wide purple eyes swept over everything and she flinched as she moved. Her body was mottled by bruising and heavily bandaged. She looked familiar but Li Baobao could not quite place where.

"...That lady!" Bo said suddenly, grabbing Li Baobao's arm. "That lady gave me a dumpling and-and she was at the city! She did the fire thing! Hey! We know her!"

"We do?" Li Baobao blinked.

"She saved us!"

The memories came back. The split second of flames lashing through creatures and the woman who had casted them, demanding them to run.

Liu Xie turned his head from the bodies he had been examining to look at the woman, his brows rising slightly. "Anemone?"