>>gory
Lin'an City back then was deep in the midst of war, congealing blood covered the ground everywhere the eye could see, and all around were crumbled walls and ruined houses. Suffocated by the heavy miasma of malicious ghosts, the trees and flora had all withered away.
Mo Ran hadn't even collected himself yet when he heard some strange sounds and looked up. Not far away, fresh entrails were hanging off the branch of an old pagoda tree, and a dozen crows had set upon it in a feast, blood and flesh dripping nonstop.
And underneath the tree was the corpse of a middle-aged man, blood and organs spilling out from his stomach where it had been torn open by claws. No one would ever know if he had died with his eyes open or closed, because his eyeballs had already been pecked away.
Mo Ran was no stranger to such scenes.
In his past life, he had once crossed the breadth of the human world to put all seventy two cities of the Rufeng Sect to the sword. Back then, blood flowed like rivers and corpses covered the fields, making for a sight much like this one.
But for some reason he couldn't understand, even though he had reveled in the blood spilt in that life, with every fiber of his being roaring willfully, to suddenly see a similar scene of devastation before him now, he felt instead a biting sympathy... had he been faking tameness for so long that his true nature had actually gotten unwittingly changed?
He was just pondering the point when he heard the sound of hooves from up ahead, accompanied by a cloud of dust.
Anyone galloping around in such war-torn times was probably bad news.
Mo Ran immediately pulled Chu Wanning behind himself, but there was nowhere to hide on this barren old road. A group of riders quickly emerged from the dust cloud, some dozen in all, but when they got closer to see, it was apparent that their horses were the opposite of sturdy—a few were so starved that their ribs were sticking out.
They were dressed in the same style of white attire with patterns in bright red, wore helmets embellished with feathers in like colors, and each donned a circlet of entwined dragons. The clothes were dirty yet neatly worn, and the people were thin but spirited. Even more unusual was the fact that each of them had a bow and a full quiver of arrows on their backs.
In times of war, the two most valuable things were food and weapons.
These were clearly not ordinary people.
Mo Ran was still trying to decide if the new arrivals were good or evil, friend or enemy, when one among them—a youth of only fourteen or fifteen—cried out in horror: "Dad! DAD!!" The youth stumbled off his horse and fell in the muddied ground below, but immediately crawled up and staggered toward the tree to throw himself on the mangled body of the middle-aged man, crying miserably: "Dad! Dad!" The others wore expressions of pity, but they had all clearly seen too much death already, so much that they had become numb to it. And so the youth held the corpse and cried in agony, but no one else so much as got off their horse to offer any comfort.
One of them noticed Mo Ran and Chu Wanning standing not far away, and was startled for a moment before asking in a thick Lin'an accent: "You guys aren't from around here, are you?" Mo Ran answered: "Yeah…...we're from the Shu area." "So far?" The asker was shocked, "The way the world is these days, ghosts are everywhere as soon as night falls, how did the two of you survive this far?" "...I can fight a little." Mo Ran knew it was best to reveal as little as possible, and since these people don't seem to be malicious, he pulled Chu Wanning out to change the subject, "This is my little brother, we were passing by and stopped to rest for a while." Some of the riders, upon seeing Chu Wanning, seemed a bit taken aback; a couple of them turned to whisper amongst themselves.
Mo Ran, alarmed: "Something wrong?" "It's nothing." The young man at the head of the group said, "But onto serious matters—you should go into the city if you want to rest. There may not be any monsters around right now, but ghosts will be crawling the streets once night falls. XiaoMan's adoptive father came out looking for food during the day yesterday, but there was a thunderstorm and he couldn't make it back before nightfall, and then..." He sighed heavily and didn't finish the sentence.
XiaoMan was the name of that wailing youth, and the one under the tree was his adoptive father. Such occurrences were commonplace in these chaotic times; someone in a family would go out to look for food, perfectly fine as they leave in the morning, but never to return by night.
Even knowing that these were already events of two hundred years past, Mo Ran, watching that youth cry miserably as if he were about to weep blood, still felt a tightness in his chest.
Followed immediately by a sudden unease.
Had he grown so soft? He hardly even blinked when killing people in the last life.
He quickly grabbed Chu Wanning and bid the group farewell.
The leader of the group said: "When you get to Lin'an City, find somewhere to stay for a while. We're planning to relocate everyone to PuTuo soon, where the abundance of spiritual energy has warded off the ghost invasion, at least for the time being. You should come with us, rather than traveling with just the two of you." "Relocate?" "That's right." The leader's eyes sparked to life, and even his face seemed to light up at this, "It's all thanks to Chu-gongzi's brilliant plan, everyone in the city,
from the elderly to the tots, will get to keep their lives now! But enough chatter,
we still have to patrol around the city before it gets dark, see if we can find any more survivors to bring back——ai, XiaoMan, come on, we should go." But XiaoMan only continued to cry, clutching his father's corpse without even turning around.
Mo Ran sighed and tugged at Chu Wanning, saying in a quiet voice: "Let's go to the city first." Chu Wanning nodded, but then suddenly asked: "Do you think they managed it in the end?"
Mo Ran, holding his small hand that felt a bit cold: "Do you want the truth, or a lie?" "The truth, of course." "The lie would be better for little kids." So Chu Wanning answered his own question: "They didn't." "You're right." Mo Ran said, "See, you already knew the answer, but you still had to ask, as if that would change the outcome." Chu Wanning ignored him and continued asking: "Do you know why they didn't make it out?" "It's not like I'm some two hundred year old demon, how would I know?" Chu Wanning fell silent for a while before saying gloomily: "Two hundred years ago, practically no one in Lin'an City survived." Mo Ran: "..." Chu Wanning: "Only a few escaped." "Wait, shidi, you're so young, how do you know so much?" Chu Wanning shot him a glare: "Yuheng Elder went over this in history lessons more than once. You decide to not pay attention in class, then turn around and ask me how I know things, how despicable." Mo Ran was speechless, thinking: Sure I spaced out in class, but even my own Shizun didn't scold me, what're you scolding me for? But then again, no point arguing with a little kid, so he'll let it slide.
The two of them headed toward the city, chatting along the way, and arrived at the city gates before long. The ancient city stood tall on the bank of the QianTang River, and was already heavily fortified against ghosts and demons,
with defensive structures lining the walls and the perimeter.
Countless corpses with curse marks piled outside the city. Such remains, if not taken care of, will reanimate at night.
There were cultivators outside spreading incense ash on the corpses while the sun was still high in the sky and the Yang energy was strong. And for the ones afflicted with especially strong curses, they performed exorcism using talismans drawn with cinnabar dipped in wine.
A pair of guards stood before spiked defensive frames by the city gates,
dressed just like the riders they met earlier, with white attire trimmed in red, twin dragon circlets, bows on their arms and a full quiver of arrows on their backs.
"Halt, identify yourselves." Mo Ran repeated his story from earlier. The guards weren't there to refuse anyone entry, but only to register new arrivals, and so they were let through after putting their names down.
Before leaving, Mo Ran remembered that the riders earlier had mentioned a "Chu-gongzi"; since the relocation was this Chu-gongzi's idea, he must be crucial to breaking the illusion.
"Sorry to bother, sir, but might I ask about someone?" Mo Ran said.
The guard looked at him: "Aren't you from Shu? You know someone here?" Mo Ran smiled: "No, but we met some sentry sirs earlier who mentioned a gongzi by the name of Chu who's going to take everyone in the city to PuTuo in two days, so I was wondering who this Chu-gongzi was. I know some magic,
and wanted to see if I could help in some way." The guard looked him up and down, and probably decided that he must have some skill to be able to bring a little kid all the way here without any mishap, so he said: "Chu-gongzi is the eldest son of the lord governor. The lord governor was killed a month ago when the Ghost King descended, and the gongzi has led us since." "The governor's son?" Mo Ran and Chu Wanning exchanged a glance, then Mo Ran turned to ask, "That's strange, how does the governor's son know magic?" "What's so strange about that!" The guard glared at Mo Ran, "Since when was there a rule that you have to be in a big sect to cultivate, that the common people can't do it?" "..." Sure, there were independent cultivators, but they never amounted to anything.
Mo Ran thought to himself, could it be that this amateur Chu-gongzi and his half-baked idea was what got everyone at Lin'an killed?
But as they followed the guard's directions toward the governor's residence,
Mo Ran immediately realized how wrong he was. This esteemed personage who just so happened to share a name with his Shizun was clearly no amateur.
Because he saw a Shangqing barrier.
Shangqing barrier was a powerful variety of barrier formed with purified energy, capable of warding off all evils. As long as this barrier stood, even thousand-year malicious spirits can't hope to enter, much less the average ghost.
But this barrier required the caster to remain within its range in order to ground the spell, and protected a relatively small area. Even a mighty zongshi like Chu Wanning could only cover about half of Sisheng Peak with a Shangqing barrier.
But right here and now, this Chu-gongzi of two hundred years ago had erected a Shangqing barrier covering a radius of ten li [5 km] around the governor's residence. Although a far cry from Chu Wanning's capabilities, it was certainly no ordinary achievement.
The two of them headed toward the gates of the residence. Mo Ran was going to try his luck and have someone notify the governor gongzi that a cultivator was offering help, see if he would be willing to show them the courtesy of a personal meeting.
But when they turned the corner, they were met with the unexpected sight of three long lines of people queued up in front of the gates. Six female attendants,
dressed like the guards, were bringing out large wooden barrels, and hundreds of emaciated people—the elderly, the infirm, women and children—were waiting their turn to receive porridge.
Those who had gotten their porridge went to a haitang tree by the residence.
A man dressed in white, with his long inky hair loosely tied back, stood under the tree, passing out protection talismans and patiently repeating instructions.
His back was facing Mo Ran, so he couldn't see what he looked like.
But he heard the people who had received the talismans muttering "Many thanks for Chu-gongzi's kindness, many thanks for Chu-gongzi's kindness..." as they dispersed.
So this was the governor gongzi?
Mo Ran, curious, dragged his little shidi around to get a look at his face.
Just one look, and Mo Ran's eyes were boggling out of their sockets, as if struck by lightning—— I-isn't this Chu Wanning???
Not just Mo Ran, even Chu Wanning himself was dumbfounded. Straining to see from their place at the end of the line, this governor Chu-gongzi had a lean face, with sword brows and phoenix eyes, but a gentle curve to the line of his nose, and he even wore all white, just like himself!
Chu Wanning: "..." Mo Ran: "..." After a long while of being frozen stiff, Mo Ran said shakily: "Shidi ah." "Mn." "Don't you feel like... this Chu-gongzi looks just like a certain somebody?" Chu Wanning, drily: "Just like Yuheng Elder." Mo Ran smacked his leg: "Right?! What's with that? Who is this? What's his relationship to Shizun?" "...Why are you asking me, how would I know." "I thought you paid attention in class?" Mo Ran was frantic.
"This is obviously not the content of any class." Chu Wanning was irked.
Then they fell silent again, scooting forward slowly with the line, both of them staring unblinkingly at the gongzi.
Upon closer inspection, Chu-gongzi didn't look exactly like Chu Wanning.
This gongzi's features were more mild and scholarly, his eyes weren't quite as long and narrow, his pupils were softer, and his gaze was much gentler than Chu Wanning's.
Mo Ran stared and stared, then suddenly let out an "eh?" and turned to look down at his little shidi.
"Let me look at you." "What do you want..." Chu Wanning, ruffled, turned his face away.
But Mo Ran only grew more persistent at that, reaching out to grab his face and forcefully turn him back around. He stared for a while before finally coming to a realization and muttering: "Aiyah." Chu Wanning forced himself to remain calm: "Wh-what is it?" Mo Ran narrowed his eyes: "No wonder those people outside the city were muttering amongst themselves when they saw you. I just noticed, but you look kinda like Shizun too." "..." Chu Wanning hurriedly wrenched himself out of Mo Ran's grip, the tips of his ears turning red: "Nonsense."
"But how come those guards noticed immediately, but it didn't even occur to me for so long?" Chu Wanning: "..." In the midst of puzzlement, the voice of a young child called out: "Papa."