To Li Baobao, everything had become fantastical in the same sense that a nightmare would. Everything that he felt supported his idea of the world as a neat and orderly procession where demons and fairies or spirits were kept far away had been shattered. The four women in front of him were so eerily silent and still it made his spine crawl like a wounded insect. Bo moved slightly, standing in front of Li Baobao and Zhu'er who stood beside him looking over everything with wide amazed eyes. The women continued to remain still, four near perfectly identical looking sisters who held no expression on beautiful faces. Cold jade with no humanity. Li Baobao realized they were not even breathing.

"We have guests," Liu Xie's voice cut through the silence and snapped the strange women into action. They straightened up, turned around, and disappeared into corridors stretching out to the sides.

"Where are they going?" Rui Yifu asked.

"To get fresh clothing and food," Liu Xie answered. "We can go into the courtyard to talk more."

Li Baobao glanced over to Bo, who was looking over at the ink paintings on the wall. Each one was a masterwork of subtle and bold brushstrokes, yet the figures depicted were not simple staid depictions but active. One large painting depicted what he guessed to be either two floods colliding or two armies smashing together, sword strokes turning to fish and fish turning to spear points. Another showed either a towering inferno that raised its fiery hands towards a swollen moon, or a collapsing palace that the moon was falling upon. All of the ink paintings he saw around the hall were hardly the elegant paintings he knew. Who would want such unpleasant depictions in a place that guests might see them?

"Gege!"

Li tore his eyes away from one picture that might have been either a flower blooming upon a mountain or a woman trying to emerge from a pile of corpses to see Zhu'er waiting at a door close by, eager pointing outside. "What is it?" He asked.

"There's pretty things!"

"Ah?" He walked over to her and took her small hand as she pulled him out of the hall and into another expansive courtyard. In contrast to the sand in the prior courtyard, what stood before them now was a verdant display. Most courtyards in Li Baobao's experience were tiled, with small sections uncovered to allow trees or flowery shrubs to grow. Instead here was a soft carpet of small lush grasses, towering healthy trees that bowed heavily with fruits from plums to jujubes and more he could not recognize, the fragrant scent of orchid flowers on an impossible breeze. Dominating the courtyard was a large pond that was bizarrely dark despite the sun's rays beginning to fall on it, a red painted bridge arcing over it.

"Be careful or you'll fall."

Rui Yifu was standing beneath one tall jujube tree, and Li Baobao could see Bo moving through the branches above. Liu Xie was sitting at the patio, and Ji Ying was picking up some rocks near the pond. Zhu'er pulled her hand away from Li Baobao and he watched her zip off to one of the orange trees, where the ripe fruit hung like little suns. She scrambled remarkably swiftly up the trunk of the tree and onto the first branch with oranges. Li Baobao's sight zeroed in on the unnerving amount of wiggling the branch did so he jogged over to the tree and under the branch, ready to catch or rather be the landing bed in case the little girl fell. Instead after a moment she crawled back down the trunk of the tree, holding onto two oranges. She started biting at the skin while holding up the other orange to him. "Oh thank you," he said, taking it from her hand and peeling away the skin. Zhu'er stopped her savaging of her own poor fruit once enough of the skin was in pieces at her feet. Then she ran over to Liu Xie. Li Baobao focused on his own fruit. It looked much more... orange, and rounder, and juicier than any of the oranges he remembered from home. When he took a piece and placed it into his mouth, it even tasted better.

He did not like it.

"Li! There's food!" Bo called out.

"I know," Li Baobao replied before realizing that Bo was pointing at a low table that had been brought out onto the patio that everyone else had come to sit around, filled with all sorts of food. He shuffled over to sit with the rest of the group, between Rui Yifu and Bo. While the others, besides Liu Xie, were setting about the food, Li Baobao simply stared at it all. There were so many different dishes and he feared trying any of them. As tempting as the wonton soup looked, or the fried fish, or the braised pork, he could not bring himself to touch any of it. It was not meant for people like him.

"Hey Ji Ying, why not have some of this?" Bo asked, trying to push a plate of pork trotters to her.

Ji Ying looked a bit green and pushed it back, "no thanks, I don't eat meat."

"Why? Is meat a bit too hard on your lady-stomach?" Bo mocked.

"No-"

Rui Yifu coughed loudly, "ahem... Liu Xie. I think you have something to say?" He asked as he moved a bowl of soup and a plate loaded with different meats and vegetables in front of Zhu'er.

"Now?" Liu Xie blinked.

"Yes, now, while we're all together and relatively quiet," Rui Yifu said. Li Baobao thought his tone sounded like an impatient condescending mother. His heart ached. His mother had been in such poor health and yet she smiled at him and told him to go on his journey, to not worry about her or his brother. How were they? It felt like a lifetime since he had seen them. His chest felt stiff and he had to focus on his lungs to and on his hands to distract himself from crying.

"What is it, boss?" Bo asked around a mouthful of food.

Liu Xie looked exasperated and trapped. He picked up a jar of astringent smelling alcohol and fiddled with the seal of red paper and red wax on top. "The place we're going to, the Silent Mountains... do any of you know what's beyond it?"

"No." Bo said.

"Temples, the pilgrim paths, and the First Palace right?" Li Baobao said, hoping no one heard the strain in his voice.

"You're not wrong," Liu Xie said as he finally removed the wax and paper from the jar. "But that's not everything," he took a swing from the jar, which seemed to go on unnecessarily longer than it should have. Leaving a strange uncomfortable silence that lingered a little too long. "When the gods condemned the Last Emperor and revoked the mandate of heaven, the punishment came for all of the Emperor's cursed projects too. Think of it like an infection. It had settled into rivers and fields, it has sunk roots into buildings. When Judgement came, it broke the Ancient Dynasty and the very land itself."

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Li Baobao tried to put his words together in some sensible manner, but he did not understand. "So is the land sick? Or poisonous?"

"It's worse than sick. Judgement severed the land's connections to the gods, but corrupted Flames continued to burn within it. Things continued to worsen. The true reason the Silent Mountains were raised was to keep it contained. Pilgrim paths were established some time later, but the allure of all the abandoned tombs and cities drew more than just pilgrims. Just like those who wanted to go to the Three Sisters Tombs, many met terrible ends," Liu Xie spoke. There was a trickle of thin red coming down the side of his mouth.

"So we just stay on the paths and we don't get killed, easy," Bo shrugged.

"...There is no death there," Rui Yifu spoke now. Li Baobao stared at the Fish Person, who was delicately peeling the skin off a fruit and looking at nobody in particular. "There's soldiers of the Last Emperor's army who still stand guard, who still think the Emperor is alive. They've been hacked to pieces a thousand times and yet they cannot find rest. I don't know if they regenerate or if they're just a slurry of pulverized flesh in armor, but they're still there. I don't know if such a state can truly be called alive, but one cannot call them dead."

"But they don't go on the pilgrims paths do they?" Li Baobao asked hurriedly, feeling sweat break out over his spine.

"They might not," Liu Xie said, "but all the other treasure seekers and wandering sorts who have fallen in that place might, and then there's the Emperor's various pets as well. Not all pilgrims make it out. That's why I'm bringing this up now. Once we go past the Silent Mountains, we may not be able to come back the way we came. The lands shift over time. A field might change places with a town, or a forest with a battlefield. The pilgrim paths remain in the same spot. Usually."

Usually.

Li Baobao stared at the entire group. They were all silent, but none of them seemed to realize the madness in Liu Xie's words. He was asking them to come with him to a place that sense had long ago abandoned. A place full of monsters.

There was laughter.

It was high and peeling and it hurt to listen to. Everyone was staring at him like he was mad now. He was not mad! He was a normal human being! The laughter was coming from him in increasingly harsh croaks.

"Hey, are you okay?" Bo asked, his face full of concern, like what one would feel for a brother. It made Li laugh harder. "Li Ba-"

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Li Baobao yelled, his laughter gone as he slammed his hands on the table. "Stop! That's not my name! My name is Li Chunning and none of you have ever bothered asking me that! You all have talked over me!" Zhu'er's eyes were wide and she tried to reach for him, and he smacked her hand away. "Don't touch me! I'm going home!" It was like the bottom fell out of his chest. "Can you all even listen to yourselves? Going to a place like this? Are you all insane? I'm not. I'm just... I'm just a merchant son! I wasn't supposed to be like this! Nothing was supposed to... I wish I never met any of you!" He screamed, getting to his feet now. "I'd be happy if I never brought any of you into my life! Everything was fine until you showed up and ruined everything!"

Liu Xie's face was impassive, while Rui Yifu's was set in a deep snarling frown.

"Don't look at me like that! You're not even human! You're a monster! You both are!" Li Chunning shrieked. "YOU'RE BOTH MONSTERS!"

After that, everything fell into silence and Li felt like he was made of jelly. About to collapse at any second.

"...If you want to leave now, there's a stable towards the back," Liu Xie pointed northwards, behind himself. "There's seven white horses there. Take one and tell it the name of your home, and it'll take you there without wandering."

Li was shocked and numb. "...I can just... leave?"

"Wait, Li, listen-" Bo got to his feet to grab Li's arm. "I know things have been pretty scary but I think-"

Li pulled his arm free, "don't touch me." He hissed, moving backwards away from the group. "I'm... I'm leaving. Good luck." Then he turned away and ran in the direction Liu Xie had pointed in, covering his ears to avoid hearing the sad cry of a child or Bo yelling his name.

The stables were just as well appointed as the rest of the strange manor, and as he came closer one of the stiff white eyed servant women came out, leading an already saddled white horse by its reins. For a brief moment, Li Chunning thought it was Ji Ying leading the horse to him, but this silent woman did not have the same sour expression or simply done hair style. The horse was a stunning example of its kind, with a silky white mane and a strong body like a war horse. Its eyes were the same white color as the woman's. She approached silently and gave him the reins, bowing her head, then turning around and walking away. She had not said a single word.

Li Chunning was not a very experienced horseback rider, but the horse waited patiently for him to get onto its back and then he got it into a short trot. Near the stable was a much smaller gate door that already stood ajar. "...Okay..." he breathed. The horse did not even smell like a horse. It smelled like flowers. It went past the gate and back into the cold forest. "Uhm... lets see. Uh... what do I say? Li Residence?"

"Oh no. I don't think you'll be going there," a soft voice said.

Suddenly the horse's head was gone, replaced by a grisly red clump as the poor animal sank downwards, Li toppling off and rolling onto the dirt ground. He quickly got back onto his knees as his tired heart fired up with fear. Looking up, he found the friendly face of Wang Huaqing staring down at him.

Resting on the exposed roots of a tree, Baichan sat with his hands in his lap, smiling gently at Li Chunning. There was a pale flower tucked behind his ear. "I know you're tired, and afraid," he spoke in a warm tone. "You don't belong on this journey, you think."

"I-I'm leaving them," he said, shaking his head as panic and bile filled his chest. "I don't have anything to do with them anymore. Please let me go!"

"I have an offer for you," Baichan said, still smiling. "I know you want to go home. You want to forget all this, be relieved of your suffering. I can give you this, I just need you to do something for me. I need you to stay with your former friends until you get to the Silent Mountains-"

Li Chunning shook his head, "n-no!"

"No? I can promise you that you, in specific, will come to no more harm if you do. You just stay with them until then and then I can send you back to your home. Surely you can't still care for the others. The ones who ruined your home? Your life?"

"N-no. I won't," he said, his words far braver than he felt. He wanted to get away. He wanted to be home and hide in his room. They had ruined his life, he agreed with that. But also, deep inside, he did not want any of them to come to harm. He would no longer have anything to do with all of this, he thought to himself. He would keep it a secret, and tell no one. He would go home and tell his mother he had completed his journey and pick up what scraps were left to rebuild his family's fortunes. He would do all of this, and he would not betray those who had ruined him. Yet the gentle smile of Baichan continued, and he felt his courage melting away, his heart squirming as though attempting to escape out of his own chest. Anything to get away from that beautiful smiling creature that wore the shape of a human.

A sharp pain filled his chest. He looked down to find the point of a sword jutting from his chest, blood oozing out like a river. A heavy boot hit his back and the sword was pulled out, he could feel each inch scrape through ruined organs and his eyes watered as agony bloomed in his veins. Wang Huaqing dragged him up to Baichan and Li Chunning still found enough strength to push against the pale being. But not enough strength. His blood was pouring from him and his limbs were already growing weak. "Ah, he's still alive," Baichan held his chin and looked into his eyes. "So much fear and pain... I didn't really want it to be this way."

"My apologies, I missed his heart." Wang Huaqing's voice sounded like it was coming from beneath waves of water made of Li's heartbeats.

"Not to worry though, this is good." Baichan's face was so close, like a cold moon that radiated cruel light. The smell of flowers washed over Li Chunning mingled with the scent of his blood, then he felt a hand against the wound. "Agony makes for fertile soil." Something stretched delicate tendrils into the wound, slowly burrowing into his chest. Even as it fed upon his life's blood he tried to fight it through willpower alone. He gasped and groaned as roots knitted torn tissue. "I will keep my offer to you, Li Chunning. When you finish serving me, you will suffer no more."