With great power, came great responsibility.
Or something!
Zhang Wang was in a panic, Yu Yanlin's hair was already turning silver. He needed to think of something fast, something to distract Ariunbayar's attention. Currently, the Princess was trying to shoot more arrows at the thing, probably out of anger and annoyance more than to help. It was clear that Yu Yanlin didn't need any aid at all.
Or did he?
Zhang Wang was struck with an idea, "Quick, Se Mayang! Purify the spirit before it can get away."
"Do I look like some sort of exorcist to you?!" She complained but still raised a hand to her chest to form a hand seal in preparation.
"Yeah but I swear you're probably the only one here with the skills," he partially lied. "Unless you want the spirit to run rampant then you better do something about it, and quickly!"
Ariunbayar cursed and thought belatedly that she should just let the spirit be, because who even cared!? Not she! Ariunbayar only wanted her debugger back…
But her eyes were already fluttering closed with a chant upon her lips. The resentful energy was thick around the beast, rising as it came out from the twitching serpent in black puffs. A woman's distorted voice filled the hall with its cries.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!"
Ariunbayar grit her teeth trying to remember the words that her Shizun told her when she was younger. Somehow she ended up saying, "Hey! Pay attention, if you don't I'll just obliterate you!"
But the spirit was not in the mind to comply and continued to unleash that oppressive aura into the room, anger, despair and hopelessness clouded their minds, "Revenge! I need revenge! It hurts so much!"
Ariunbayar cursed. She couldn't remember what she was supposed to do at all! And didn't her Shizun tell her that she could just completely obliterate a spirit if she so wanted to?
Wait no, that wasn't it. She was supposed to show it empathy and bear the ghost's pain so that it may move on. And destroying the spirit was supposed to be the last-ditch option.
That…was going to be tough. With a sigh, Ariunbayar brought in her focus and made sure her voice was calm, "Why are you hurting?"
A mournful cry echoed across the room.
Yu Yanlin had finished his butchering of the snake leaving its corpse twitching on the ground before stilling. Huh. The entire thing had been corrupted from the inside out. The spirit was a little stronger than he originally thought after all Su Zui's servants weren't just ordinary snake demons…
Zhang Wang rushed to his side, a hand on his arm to summon his attention, "Ya- Erm, Baihu. Are you okay?"
"Hm, I'm fine. How about you? You're not hurt, are you?"
Wrong response! Zhang Wang wanted to roll his eyes. He reached up to tickle Yu Yanlin's neck with his fingers, caressing the soft skin at his nape before pulling him closer. With a whisper, he said, "You're supposed to say 'I'm tired'."
"Is that so?" Yu Yanlin's chest rumbled in response. Around them, more resentful energy swirled but it seemed to avoid the two men who stood there face to face. "Then: I'm tired. Will Zhang Wang give me a kiss?"
"Hm, that's better." A playful smirk pulled at Zhang Wang's lips before he pressed in. When their tongues entwined, the rest of the world seemed to completely melt away. This was just an excuse to replenish Yanlin's powers. Zhang Wang's mind was trying desperately to grasp on reason and logic behind his behaviour… even when he wanted to throw it all to the wind and get lost within Yu Yanlin's arms.
He never felt this strongly before, this intoxicated. So much so that he couldn't stop, his mind slipping from the strange euphoria. A foreign thought invaded. The memory of a dream.
At the bottom of a lake, lived a woman who called herself--
She had blonde hair and amber eyes, she--
He pulled away suddenly, and for a second saw her in Yu Yanlin's place. The demon king, alarmed as his sudden movement asked, "Are you okay?"
Zhang Wang felt suddenly nauseous but Yu Yanlin's hair was back to black. Back to normal he told himself and the Immortal of a Thousand Blossoms pulled away. "Yeah. As long as Ariunbayar can take care of it…" He glanced at the girl, whose eyes were closed and lips pulled into a snarl. There was no doubt that the crass princess was engaged in some sort of pointless argument with the ghost.
If Ariunbayar couldn't take care of it, Zhang Wang wondered if he should step in, after all he had already lied about not having the skill for purification.
But he would wait for now, it seemed that she was holding on at least for now even with the dark energy swirling around like a black tornado.
Zhang Wang turned his attention back to the serpent and cringed. Its enormous body was sliced clean open, blood gushing from the long wound. Its organs were exposed and spilled out of the long slit. But there was no evidence that Ariunbayar's hope was true.
Zhang Wang turned his attention to the snake's long stomach and was about to reach for a blade at his hip, only to come up with nothing. He supposed there was a little dagger somewhere in his interspatial ring but he didn't want to use that thing to slice open the snake's giant belly.
So instead he tugged on Yu Yanlin's sleeve and asked, "Hey do you think you can cut open its stomach for me?"
"Of course," Yu Yanlin nodded and went over to the snake's belly. With Ermei he sliced open the delicate organ.
A putrid scent was abound and Zhang Wang scrunched up his nose in response. He felt sick at the smell but held back the bile to get a closer look at the contents.
Alas, there was no evidence of the remains of a giant Man-Eating Worm inside. There were other trinkets though…Including enchanted clothes, weapons and other treasures that couldn't fully be degraded and digested.
Zhang Wang frowned a little. He held his hand up to form a hand seal and summoned a spell to cleanse the filth off something that caught his eye. A scimitar was revealed amidst the rubble of items. But that wasn't what caught his attention. Zhang Wang reached down and took a closer look at the symbol on the blade.
He knew this crest. It was the symbol of the Wandering Wolf Sect... Located down south, close to the borderlines. The last time a Wandering Wolf disciple wandered their way up north was for diplomatic reasons. Wasn't it kind of strange that this sort of thing was in the snake's stomach?
Aside from the erosion on the cloth binding on the sword's hilt, the blade was in relatively good condition. Zhang Wang tested its balance and the sharpness of the edge. Pretty well-maintained and protected by enchantments that had yet to completely fade and disperse in the snake belly. This couldn't have been an item that was just hiding in the depths on the beast's belly for long years. It must have been recent.
That made no sense to Zhang Wang. Did a Wandering Wolf disciple get eaten by this giant serpent on their way up north to deliver a message or something? Or maybe it was the snake who traveled the distance not long ago? But surely people would have noticed, no?
It seemed a little strange.
Zhang Wang even found the scabbard lying around in the slew of bile. Using the same spell, he cleaned off that item as well. Compared to the scimitar, the scabbard was a lot worse for wear, the acid having eroded some of the intricate details that had once been carved and the silver lining was all rusted. Oh well, it will serve for now. Zhang Wang sheathed the blade and tied it to his hip. At least he had a sword.
Yu Yanlin joined him at his side, "Find something good?" He asked.
Zhang Wang simply shrugged, "It's just something interesting."
Not far away, Ariunbayar was still chanting her purification spell. Trying to reason with the spirit was like talking to a wall. But she was slowly getting the damned woman to calm.
The ghost was reasonably enraged and in pain. Ariunbayar bartered with it and allowed it to transfer some of its pain to her, to allow her to shoulder some of her vengeance and pain.
"Promise me…" The spirit hissed hatefully.
The distorted image of a man flashed in Ariunbayar's mind. She gasped at the horror of it, lips rotten and eroded were pulled back, revealing black gums. The cheeks were hollow and gaunt, the flesh seemed as thin as paper, ready to be peeled away. But Ariunbayar steadied herself, understanding that this was the image of the ghost's husband that remained with her over time. It was merely a projection of what the woman thought of her husband.
"Promise me vengeance…"
"I will not harm anyone innocent," Ariunbayar stated. "But I can enact vengeance on men who have turned themselves into monsters…"
"Yes…" The ghost's hoarse voice calmed a little, "The monsters who turn on women…who treat love like it's less than dirt…destroy them."
A little notification popped up on the side of Ariunbayar's vision, letting her know that a question had been activated. Sadly, the notification was all gibberish, incredibly difficult to understand.
With a sigh, she said to ghost, "I promise."
The spirit, who appeared like nothing but a wiry, rotted skeleton slowly changed into a beautiful young woman.
She smiled but it was difficult to separate malice from happiness. Just like that, the spirit disappeared, wisped away in some nonexistent wind.
Ariunbayar stumbled a little, dizzy from exhaustion. But then her eyes suddenly snapped back open, shooting toward the two men. "Did you get my debugger!?"
"...uh."
"No, we did not."
A sharp cry of despair echoed out through the tunnels, so loud that it shook the earth.