It was like awakening from a dreamless sleep. Except he felt neither tired nor refreshed. He did not feel anything at all. Like he was just a pair of eyes floating in featureless white. Gradually the blank emptiness broke down, crumbling away like a dried leaf falling to bits as his vision came back to show him a shambling crowd he stood near the front of. It was men and women, from dogs to horses. There were things he could not even identify, like a strange creature with multiple stretched limbs, flesh and vivid green veins curling unnaturally around rotting wooden pillars that it used as legs. Fear filled him but his heart did not stir, instead he felt a dry shifting inside of him, like something rustling around. He tried moving his mouth but nothing happened. His head was slightly bowed, fixed upon two raw red slabs that struck the ground at a relentless march.
Where was he?
He remembered the white horse he was riding, and then... the empty smile of that man Wang Huaqing, the pale form of Baichan.
His eyes went downwards towards his chest, where his clothes where the large blood stain had dried into his clothes.
Li Chunning was dead.
But he was still walking. He had walked so much he had worn through his boots, his feet had become gory messes held together by sinew and pallid roots that squirmed to grip bone.
Around him were not the forests of the Northern Kingdom. Instead it was a large plain, tall grasses extending up to his hip. Ruins made of stone emerged, warped into strange shapes by the passing of years. Further on he spotted crumbling city walls to his right, far enough that they only looked the size of his hand. Strange feathered things sat on top the walls, long scaled tails coiling downwards.
Sometimes the tall grasses would shift, shiver, with distant snarls. But nothing ever emerged from them as the army of monsters walked on.
Li Chunning looked ahead, another strange creature was there. It looked like a fleshy overturned flower, or some horrible aquatic creature that had grown too big and incorporated cut stone to hold up its bulk. Whatever it was, it was big enough for Baichan to sit on. His own head seemed to be bowed, and his long white hair spilled down onto the bizarre beast he rode, Wang Huaqing was beside him on top of a headless white horse.
"This place has not changed much," Baichan said.
"Have you visited in the past?"
"Mhm, about three thousand years ago," he said. "In fact I think the only thing that changed is the grass grows taller now. There's plenty of lost souls here, but that's always been a constant."
Wang Huaqing chuckled, "I see many can't resist the allure of treasure."
"Ah, before this place was destroyed there used to be so many beautiful cities. Tall buildings made of iron, tamed winged serpents brought from exotic places that were turned into messengers, libraries with knowledge from all over the world, into the heavens, and collected from below," Baichan recounted with fondness, "we would visit a different city at the end of each month for a festival, where we would dance and sing. There would be plenty of food and drink, poetry contests. Oh how he loved those."
"Who?"
Who indeed, Li Chunning thought. He wanted to yell and run but his dead body was not his own, he could do nothing but continue to follow them.
"Ah, the last emperor. A sad fellow, but he knew how to organize a nice party," Baichan said, his tone polite yet dismissive. "He knew me as Lady Peng, we became quite close after his wife died. The cities had become somewhat dependent on his visits, so I encouraged him to leave rather than staying in her tomb all the time."
Li Chunning would have swallowed a lump in his throat if he could. The name of 'Lady Peng' was very familiar. Most written legends of the Last Emperor and his fall into hedonism and nihilism placed the cause squarely in his wife dying and leaving him at the mercy of Lady Peng's manipulation. The surname had become so disliked various historians claimed that all surviving members of the Peng family had changed their surname except for those who made it to the Eastern Kingdom. It had therefore become very rare. The only time he had ever seen the name was in those stories and histories.
The dirt ground changed into a stone one. The stones were grey in color and looked well worn. Each was neatly cut into square shapes, but the edges had moss and grass growing from them. Remnants of a prosperous age, stuck in the jaws of nature that could nearly devour it or release it. The shambling group went over a wide bridge over a bone dry river. Trash that had accumulated in its bed stuck out, along with bones and withered bodies that Li Chunning swore were moving slightly.
The stones extended wider and wider, a massive shadow arched over them all. Li Chunning could only barely move his eyes enough to see an imposing wall standing before them. Even with the great scorch marks on it and chunks missing, other ruined pieces as big as bell towers managed to make deeper jagged shadows around them. One of them was in fact a bell tower, laying on its side with its bell overturned, full of water from the splashing of birds he could hear. Old banners on the wall painted a dull red and gold flapped forlornly in a breeze that went right through him. The stonework was precise, ancient lanterns wrought with strange silvery metal hung at regular intervals and white flames danced within them. If there had been a gate, it was long gone since the entire massed army of creatures walked easily in.
Li Chunning thought about all the bodies around him, were they just as stuck in their flesh as he was? Were they dead too? As he looked around he realized some were foreigners, limp hands continuing to cling to weapons. Had those been the adventurers? One was a man with brown colored hair. He looked familiar, but Li Chunning could not remember from where. Their mouths were moving, but he could not hear what was being said except a low murmur, like the tumbling of dust.
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Before them was a set of stairs. It was here that any illusion of magnificence vanished. Scorched bodies were crawling down it, dragging broken legs or fried entrails behind them. Their hands left greasy imprints as they moved, the entire stairway which looked big enough to accommodate an army in full panoply marching side by side had been stained black by the charred grease of their bodies. Their voices rattled as they reached the end, then rose to a scream as they touched the ground and they began crawling back up the stairs. Li Chunning could not control his legs as he trampled over one body, the shreds of scholarly clothing that still clung to its body catching on his feet and yet both bodies continued their path unerringly.
Why?
The question ate at his mind. Why was he awake for all this? He was dead, he knew it, his heart no longer beat. But why was he still awake?
He only had wanted to go home.
The crawling bodies furthest along had reached the top of the stairs and Li Chunning watched as a burst of pallid flame greeted them. They yelled again with ragged throats, turning back around to once more crawl downwards.
How long had they been doing that?
They were not dead, even though their bodies looked like they should have perished long ago.
"...There is no death there."
Rui Yifu's voice had come unbidden. This was the place they had been talking about.
"They've been hacked to pieces a thousand times and yet they cannot find rest."
These crawling people had been burned a thousand times and yet could not stop.
He took the last step up, over the stairway onto a flat surface that led further towards a platform of painted red wood with wedding banners, and behind that was a magnificent castle painted a profusion of colors. Red, gold, green like new leaves, blues darker than the sea. It was larger than any other structure he had seen yet. More like a manmade mountain in size than a palace. How could it have so many floors to it? Somehow its roofs were burning, the air itself seemed to seethe.
Yet somehow the platform before them all seemed so much more prominent.
The platform was a wide space, at each corner was a tall pole with a vivid red banner that shuddered from the tumultuous air above. Soldiers in moldering ancient armor stood straight backed, lining the platform's edge. Their flesh was a greying color, shriveled and clinging to their skulls but he could see the dim light in their wrinkled eyes. Their jaws worked, but the only sounds that came out were angry hisses as they approached. In the center of the platform was a lone altar, a red draped form laying atop it perfectly still. Something awful bloomed inside of him, a sense of second-hand fear. He, for some reason, felt he knew who it was beneath the red fabric.
The soldiers moved with the awful grinding noise of leather on raw bone, their armor rattling and their hands tight around their weapons as they blocked the stairway.
"Shall I deal with them?" Wang Huaqing asked.
"No, no, not at all," Baichan replied in his usual soft tone. The abomination that he rode lowered itself so he could slide off, and he sat on the ground. "Ah, will you all not move? I have no quarrel with any of you, you remember me do you not?"
One of the soldiers hissed louder, a vague growl emanating from its chest.
"I understand," Baichan sighed, "then let me free you from your dutiful suffering."
His hand extended upwards, pointing to the grey swirling sky. The ground beneath them all groaned in agony as the sky split open slowly, a great white eye staring down with a baleful glow that cast all in a luminous aura. The soldiers swayed on their legs, their heads bending backwards as ribs loudly snapped. Licks of moon colored flame rolled from their flesh, bloomed from their eye sockets. Their weapons clattered to the ground as they reached up to the great glowing light above them. Then with a mighty crash, a branch of light struck each of them. Their bodies erupted, pieces of armor flying away as twisting vaguely human shaped trees remained in their place.
Then Baichan went up the stairs slowly, Wang Huaqing moving quickly to support him in the few last steps, and they both walked across the platform.
Li Chunning wanted to scream. But there was nothing he could do but watch. He could not even blink. His autonomy had been completely removed. His eyes moved left to right, where the floral wrapped horde of bodies and monstrosities had come to a stop right at the edge of the stairs. He wanted that person on the altar to get up and run.
The moment Baichan reached the altar he staggered against it, his hand gripping its edge to support himself as he leered over the red. "...How long has it been?" Baichan asked. "I've missed you."
Please, please, please, get up. Wake up! Run! The desperate plea circled his mind repeatedly.
Baichan's arms wrapped around the figure and pulled them down from the altar, the red veil falling away and fluttering in the wind to get caught on one of the new 'trees' that surrounded the platform.
Her resemblance to Zhu'er was startling. The red haired woman's face was round and soft, eyes closed as though in the deepest of sleep. Even the scarring that touched the corner of her lips did not ruin the gentleness of her face. Yet she did not stir even as Baichan cradled her close. Her chest was still. Pallid long fingers, like terrible spiders, ran through her hair. "What a beautiful bride I have," Baichan's soft voice was warm and melancholic.
"She isn't moving," Wang Huaqing observed with some concern. "Was this supposed to happen?"
"Well, yes," Baichan answered. "Idony is not here, so she still cannot wake up. She'll sleep until then," he rested her head on her chest. "...Her heart is beating," he smiled.
"How long do you think it will take?"
"I have some assurance that she will come. Liu Xie wants Eona, after all, and there is a way to keep him on track with that." Baichan did not move his head away as he spoke. "After my deal with that other one, I thought maybe it would be better to have an extra to help guide Idony to me. Just in case. This is why I invited our friend Li Chunning to come with us though, if one fails another may succeed." He then moved his head to look back into the sleeping woman's face, then slowly brought her closer, leaning down to her and kissing her, the long white hair obscuring them to some degree but not enough. This filled Li Chunning with a sense of horrified disgust that he could not explain. This was Idony's mother, and the lady Liu Xie loved, and this thing was kissing her. It felt wrong. This creature, Baichan, was all wrong. He did not belong, he was not supposed to be holding people, or kissing them. His touch was corruptive. He wanted to look away but for some reason he had even lost control of his eyes. He stood still, the long moment stretching on.
"Li Chunning, come here," Wang Huaqing called out.
His feet began moving. He wanted to stop them. He wanted to stand still and close his eyes, and to wake up in his bed. He wanted to be back with his friends. Anywhere but near them. He moved up the platform, past the 'trees', walking step by step until he stood before Wang Huaqing. "No need to look so sad," he laughed.
Li Chunning could not frown, but he definitely did not want to laugh along with the other man.
"We need you to return to your friends," Baichan said, still sitting on the ground with the woman's body now pulled onto his lap. One hand was wrapped around her waist, the other was beneath the fabric at her collarbone, slowly brushing it away. "Please bring Idony to me."