What was his plan?

If he was pressed, Rui Yifu knew he would not be able to answer it with any actual coherence. It was not a plan so much as a general feeling that he would find what he needed if they all just kept moving forward. Staying in one place would mean a likely slow false death, moving might also mean a false death and yet there was a possibility of escape in it. He just needed water, not even water any liquid in a sufficient quantity would work. He looked down at his hands, which were becoming thin and greying with visible denticles forming. The temporary vitality he had gotten earlier was fading. The new corridor they were going down was likely one used mostly by servants, ideally to keep them out of sight of the more important people. It was narrow and cramped, with no decorations or even any windows to allow light in. Instead the only thing providing light were gold lanterns bearing undying amber flame hanging from silver chains. A show of the wealth and prosperity of the Ancient Dynasty, which was too miserly to give its servants a window.

"Rui," Bo spoke low with a slight quivering to his voice. "What are those?" He used his free arm that was not carrying the pale form of Zhu'er to gesture towards the floor ahead of them.

On the ground were black sludges swathed in ash. They were not evenly spaced. Some were against the wall, others flat upon the ground. They were diagonal, side by side, crumpled up, scattered. In them all, Rui Yifu could feel the faintest flicker of Flame in them, traces of stagnant qi. "...Don't step in them," Rui Yifu instructed. He thought for a moment, "do you still have those stupid talismans you bought?"

"They aren't stupid! Do you want one?" Bo had already produced one, handing it to Rui Yifu.

Rui Yifu rubbed his thumb against the strange horned horse carving, then reached into his mouth and grasped one sharp fan-like tooth, popping it out with a small spark of pain and tonguing the bloody hole left behind while ignoring Zhu'er and Bo's panicked yells. If he survived, he thought, he could expect a shiny new tooth in four days. He jammed the sharp tooth into the back of the talisman.

"This is yours, if you get lost because you do something stupid I should be able to find you." He handed the talisman back to Bo. "Now lets go."

As they moved through the hall, the faint bubbling voices from the lumps started to reach his ears. Their dialect was ancient, but he could understand the whispered pleading that came from them.

Help...

"Do you hear that?" Bo asked.

Help help help....

"Keep moving," Rui Yifu said. Something grasped at his ankle, but it was too weak to even stumble him. "Don't look down at them, and just keep walking."

Help help help help...

"What are they?"

Help help help help help help help...

"I'll tell you later," Rui Yifu shook his head, keeping his gaze resolutely towards the end of the corridor.

Help help...

Another thing clutched at his ankle, he could feel the sludge moving down from his boot as he walked.

Please help...

The door was like the rest of the corridor; plain with a number written on it in barely visible faded ink. He fiddled with a talisman in one hand while the other pushed the door open a crack, peeking out. The next area at first appeared to be a new hallway, but as he opened the door a little wider he could see another much grander door in the center of the 'hall'. "Ah," he muttered. The door reached up to the ceiling, a high vault that looked like it once had a deep inset in its center, but whatever was in it had long vanished. Roaring flames had reduced all the paint that had likely been upon it into charred black, and the grand door itself had lost most of its grandeur. Yet the shapes of sinuous dragons, lotuses, and a hanging moon were still visible in its carved blackened surface that held strange dim glowing embers of jade and black.

Rui Yifu fully opened the door he was standing behind to lead Bo out of the hallway and into the new corridor. On the other side from the great door were great latticed windows and a big gaping space where another set of likely also grand doors had formerly stood. Their remains were laying in the courtyard, covered in green grass and small wildflowers. Rui saw dozens of armored shambling mounds of familiar white flowers moving in a circular pattern in the courtyard that seemed to have a strange red glow covering it from above, gripping weapons that were half eaten with rust. Palace guards, he guessed. For a brief moment he considered shoving Bo and Zhu'er back into the hallway, but the shambling mounds did not move towards them. They simply continued their patrol.

There were the black sludge lumps here too, but far more spaced out and much fewer in number. It was easier to avoid their grasping malformed hands.

Rui Yifu had never been to the First Palace himself ever before, but he had gotten to read quite a bit on it. The legends always said the palace was initially one grand house, given as a reward to the very first Emperor who had slain a great corrupted beast. It was supposedly right below the final remaining mortal-accessible pathway from the mortal world to the celestial. It had been added onto for generations afterwards, becoming a sprawling strange complex, ever changing to the shifting desires and beliefs of subsequent emperors. At some point, a library had been created under the palace itself to avoid fire, the original grand house had been dismantled and repurposed into other parts of the First Palace, and the throne room had contained most of it, including its grand door.

Was this where they were? Rui Yifu knew the palace was not one, but many interconnected ones all with grandiose names, so it was possible they could have been in any other palace. But he felt a spark of hope.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Rui, those things-"

"Not now Bo."

"Rui, those were people, weren't they?" Bo persisted, walking by Rui Yifu's side. "I heard them calling for help. What happened to them? Why did they become... piles of mud?"

Rui Yifu was spared having to give his theories on how the disintegration of a stable reality, even for just a brief moment, obliterated a boundary between flesh and all other things that had catastrophic consequences for some people, due to a stirring near the grand doors. A waxy thing by the corner of the door moved, a head turned to face them, wizened with age and its eyes consumed by mold that stretched over its cheeks. The spine was somewhat visible, small traceries of a black waxy substance moving up it. The rest of the body had been so fused to the wall that it was nearly indistinguishable except for the vague suggestion of ribs. "Visitors?" It croaked, a puff of ash leaving its mouth.

Slapping a hand over Bo's mouth to muffle any sound he would make, Rui Yifu spoke pleasantly, "why yes we are. Tell me, is His Highness behind that door?"

"His Highness is indeed behind this door, waiting for Lady Peng. Do you know Lady Peng?" The head asked. "I am Wang Zhiming, Assistant Courier of Imperial Edicts and His Majesty's doorman."

"It is very nice to meet you," Rui Yifu said, pausing for a moment to choose on whether to give his current name or not. "I am Chen Zihua."

"Oh, Chen Zihua? A young man came some time ago and said you were a great writer! Do you have any books you would like to donate to the Imperial Library?"

"I'm honored by the request, but I did not bring any with me," Rui Yifu replied softly. Suddenly his heart hurt again. "So you really did come all this way after all," he mumbled before forcing his mind back on track. "I am here to come speak with His Highness on literary matters, may I go see him?"

The head sighed heavily, "of course you may but do not expect much from him. He has lost all interest in things outside of Lady Peng after Her Majesty died. Lady Peng left a few weeks ago to attend to something, and he has remained inside his throne room since."

Rui Yifu opened his mouth slightly with a soft 'oh'.

Wang Zhiming, despite his current state, believed only a few weeks had passed by. He had no eyes, so he could not see the ruin around him although Rui Yifu doubted that would have changed much. The man did not even realize he was currently melted almost entirely into the wall. Rui Yifu decided to play along.

"I understand, Her Majesty died recently yes?"

"Yes, to a horrible disease. She had been coughing up white flower petals for weeks, have you heard of this sickness?" Wang Zhiming's face was frowning, as though the memory brought pain.

Rui Yifu glanced over at Bo, moving his hand off the other man's mouth. Bo's eyebrows were raised in worry. "Yes, I have. Has anyone else displayed it?"

"It had killed Her Majesty and some of the servants from her quarters, but no others. His Highness has not been the same since though. It's a good thing that Lady Peng had been there for him, he may have entirely lost himself otherwise. What would we do if he passed with no heir? The land would fall to ruin and madness!"

Bo snorted.

The sound of marching outside stopped. "Is someone else there? I'm very sorry, I do not have good eyesight anymore. I'm very grateful His Highness still keeps me in his employ though."

"No, it's just me," Rui Yifu said. The sound of marching began again. "Ah, I have something else to ask. Where is the library?"

"There's multiple ways to go there, I would suggest since you're here to ask His Highness if he would not mind you using the private door in the back of the throne room. It leads straight into the library so long as you do not mind going down a long flight of stairs," the head nodded. "Personally, I don't feel this old bones are quite up to it anymore. Let me open the door for you..."

The doors swung open slowly, creaking painfully as they did so. Zhu'er whimpered and covered her ears and Rui Yifu glanced back to the marchers outside. They were still shambling around.

The throne room was a blasted charred thing. The great pillars that were once shades of red and gold were pitch black, the various decorations reduced to ash. White flame illuminated all in an eerie glow. Right in the center was a raised melted throne, a pile of flesh stretched over bones sat within, its fine clothes reduced to scrap. Thick clotted blood still oozed from the severed neck. Long black hair that had been uncut for thousands of years spooled outwards from the lap, the face of a young man half-hidden beneath.

"Peng? Peng is that you?" A soft sonorous voice called out.

This was the Last Emperor, the one who had ended the Ancient Dynasties and led to the Four Kingdoms. He was still atop his throne, in the center of the ruined husk of his palace, surrounded by the monstrous remains of his servants and courtiers.

Yet the way he called out was full of loneliness and despair.

"I'm afraid not," Rui Yifu said. "I'm here to visit your library," this was only half true.

"...My library? Why would you want to go there? There's nothing there useful anymore. None of it helped me," he said glumly. "Lady Peng said she was going to reunite us, but I have not seen her in so long. Why did she leave?"

"Can he use the library though?" Bo prompted.

"Bo-"

"He can," the Emperor sighed. "But it's all useless, useless, useless knowledge for useless things."

"What happened to you?" Bo asked, glancing around at the burnt surroundings.

The Emperor was silent for a long moment and Rui Yifu took a few steps closer to him, "A god called 'Judgement' came and chopped off my head."

"Do you know why?" Rui Yifu said, coming closer to the Emperor. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. It felt heavy and unfamiliar and his heart was quickening in his chest. "It is because you slaughtered your people en masse. They say the rivers ceased to flow because they were full of viscera, and that you turned many into monsters. Do you remember, your Highness?"

The Emperor's thin hands rested on his own head. "It was a mercy. I remember. I do not understand. Why would anyone want to continue in this world? Lady Peng was the only one to offer me comfort after my wife died, everyone else simply demanded I find a new wife. The more she helped me, the more I saw the cruelty of this world. There was a famine in the eastern quarter, and a plague in the north. Why had no one shown me these things? I saw many like me, losing their loved ones, eaten away at by the truth. I am the Emperor, and yet I could not save my own wife. It was a mercy. It was a mercy. It was a mercy-"

"Then so is this," Rui Yifu drew his sword. The blade easily severed ribs, flesh, and spine. A geyser of surprisingly fresh blood surged outwards just as a shrieking sound came from right outside the door. Rui Yifu snatched up his two coral foci, drawing up the newly spilt blood which swirled into a small whirling array that opened up like a red mirror. "Bo! Take Zhu'er and jump through."

Bo hesitated, "through this?"

"Yes!" Rui Yifu felt his flesh withering. He really did not have enough energy left to hold it for very long he realized.

"What about you?" Bo asked as the shambling white flower covered creatures began to lumber inside the throne room.

"I'll follow," Rui Yifu lied.

Bo stared at Rui Yifu. It was a look that dug into him and he realized that Bo did not believe him. He watched Bo grit his teeth as his eyes reddened. Rui Yifu wanted to tell him to not be so ridiculous to cry, or he might not be able to hold open the path to escape anymore. Bo took a deep breath and Zhu'er reached out, briefly grasping at Rui Yifu before he stepped back. "Alright, see you on the other side then!" Bo took several steps back and then raced towards the portal, jumping towards it.

"Take care of Zhu'er and don't get yourself killed, I've regretfully grown fond of you Bo." Rui Yifu said as he watched the two disappear. The two coral monks clattered into a pool of blood that continued to expand.