The ravine was wider at the entrance than it was the further they went. On both sides, were two towering mountains made entirely of black rocks and a lighter shade of green snow.
The mountains stood high, skimming past the clouds and merging with the sky.
The wind blew slower, the storm had ceased.
Zero followed in Daiyu's footsteps till night time when they passed the first valley and came upon a wider field than the decay sludge. Only this time, the entire place was packed with stalls and strangely shaped buildings.
In the darkness of the night, hundreds of floating paper lanterns stood out, illuminating twisted pavilions, miniature and grandiose stalls and towering pagodas. The entire place was swarming with people of all shapes and sizes. Zero looked in awe as a group of flying cultivators passed overhead.
Daiyu snapped him out of it. "Be careful, kid. Come with me," she said, and gestured he come closer, standing directly behind her. He lifted his hood with his good hand and covered his face, blocking some of the sights.
They walked for a while, passing by crowded lanes full of shops and the shopkeepers that screamed at each other and at the passers-by. There were folks who stood silently too, staring blankly into the gathering of people from the tiny counters of their wooden stalls.
These shops were full of many things. Zero could see talismans, jars with odd inscriptions and an array of weapons in most of the shops. In a few, were colorful clothing, spices, oils, potions and food items. The "edibles" looked like they would do more harm than good, however.
Daiyu did not stop once to get anything from the sellers and Zero was unsure of how to ask that he looked around.
There was still the issue of freeing himself from the cursed eye. He could not possibly expose himself to Daiyu. She was nice— in her own way— but he did not think he could expose himself to her. Could he?
Daiyu stopped suddenly, and Zero saw that they had reached a circular building. It stood out from all the rest on this lane. A single lantern dangled from a pole at the entrance. On the lantern was a small character, Zhū.
Pig.
The young man looked back to Daiyu. The latter pushed the sliding door aside and walked in. She turned to him and raised a brow. He tucked his head to his chest and went in immediately, supporting his now numb arm.
It hurt still, but was healing slightly. By the time it was fully healed, Daiyu would have questions. He hoped he'd find his answers here at Heaven's Peak so he would not have to go with her. If he did not get any solutions here, he'd have to go with the next best, the Lilies.
He had at most, a week left. Who knew when the moon would show her face? He shivered at the thought. As long as there were no more deaths of innocents...
Daiyu walked straight up to the counter, leaving Zero at the entrance. He stood there unsure, watching from underneath his hood and finding this scene familiar. It was like the Bao inn all over again.
The people here, however, did not carry themselves with any sort of grace. Some were brawling, many were drunk and a few had faces full of vomit and clotted blood. Others caressed whores in the corners. The entire place had a certain stench of human fluids mixed with the horrible smell of the greenish snow.
The boy walked away from the entrance, chosing a corner at the far right of the room, hoping not to be in anyone's way.
He watched Daiyu slap impatiently at the bell on the wooden countertop. Her palms were blackened; whatever magic she had used had eaten up the pale milk colour of her skin.
And like the name suggested, the innkeeper was a human size pig. It was not just adult size, it was huge; as though five obese men stood in a circle with their bellies touching.
Zero's eyes widened slightly, seeing an animal of such size and with intelligence in its eyes. The thing snorted loudly and a jolly laugh came out its mouth, alongside other foul looking mouth particles. Daiyu shifted back a little.
"I need a room, Piggy. " She hissed under her breath. Zero who was far from the counter could not hear her. He had turned his eyes from the sore sight of the pig and was observing the people in the room quietly.
"Nice to see you again, my dear, dear Da—"
Whack! The woman delivered a blow to the pig's greasy cheeks. Slobber and body oils covered her palm. She wiped it on the counter, nose flaring.
"Don't be a fucking fool, pig. You don't say my name in public. We've been over this. Get me a room, clean robes and food. "
The animal raised its hoofy hands to hold its face in pain. Its slanted, dark eyes had swelled with tears. It snorted. "Oh, Senior sister why are you so cruel to me! I was excited to see you..."
It pouted...as far as a pig could pout. Daiyu's face twitched. What a horrible sight.
"My dear Piggy, Senior sister is in the worst of moods. If she could get some clean robes— please don't touch any— and some food, she would be soo happyyy!" A pained smile was on the woman's face as she cooed the animal. Heaven's Peak hardly had any suitable places to stay at night. Piggy was disgusting, but it was relatively safe here.
The animal in question frowned and turned its face away as much as its huge neck could allow.
"Hmph! You called me a pig!" Daiyu wanted to cry. She was extremely tired and could not begin dealing with Piggy's sense of self disorders. She grunted in a restrained manner and glanced back to see her priced possession at the moment.
Quiet as ever, he had chosen to stay in the far corner, black cloak blending into the shadows.
Zero who was unaware of her stare had his eyes fixed on a certain group. As the observer he always was, he had been watching the people around him, picking out any details just for the sake of it. And he had been opportuned to overhear the loud, drunk leader of a bandit group.
"Seventy bloody spirit stones. Not spirit coins boys...stones! Bergghhhhhh..." a loud belch came out his throat and he slammed at the floor table he was seated at, making the mugs of ale and rice wine jump. His mates laughed and patted each other.
"We're going demon hunting then? It's been a while, Pisser."
Pisser, the first man, laughed loudly again and chugged down what was left of his drink. "Seventy spirit stones for the scrawny demon thing? Hell yeah! Here, see the portrait I tore down at Feifei's city gates."
"Wait. The demon we're going after is the same bloody thing that wiped Feifei clean?! Did you see the state of those bodies..." The third man shivered. He was a one eyed fellow with a waist length braid. "Those corpses were like nothing I'd ever seen before...I—"
Pisser slammed on the table and reached over to draw the man's equally long beard. "Damn your fucking mouth, Lao! Cowardly twat..." He spat in the man's working eye and pushed him so he fell backwards to the grimy floor.
"Come on mates! Look here, do you think this thing can stop us...we've fought much worse!" He laughed, patting the second man. Lao had sat up. He was laughing. "You old coot! You didn't think I'd chicken out on a good loot now did you?!"
They all laughed, flinging around a very accurate painting of the black cloaked skeleton in the corner.
Daiyu had suddenly come up to him. "Come now. I got us a room. Upstairs, let's go." She sounded extremely upset and smelt of pork. He looked over her for one second and looked back to the table of laughing men.
There was a bounty on his head. The capital had acted. This could only mean that prince Qinshan's body had finally arrived in Jin City. They had probably been waiting to confirm that he was actually dead.
And now, Zero had somehow been implicated in all this. His eyes fell to the ground, heart growing weary. How was this fair...
He sighed. Oh the ever rightful and just Dao. Wasn't it just marvelous to have so many odds stacked against you.
There was hell with its frightfully long talons buried bone deep in his flesh and then there was the Dao barking at him for a destiny he had not chosen.
In all this, he was weak.
If he was caught by these men and given to those at the capital, he'd live out his days in utter misery or worse, be executed on the spot, releasing whatever it was that crawled underneath his skin— allowing the thing to take over while his soul remained caged within his body. The exact thing he was avoiding.
Either way, he could not afford to die. His soul had nowhere to go.
There was no peace waiting in some afterlife for him.
Daiyu had walked away, heading upstairs. The young man pulled his cloak tighter over his face more, skeletal hand shaking as he did so.
For the first time in a while, he could hear his once silenced consciousness speak. His true thought.
"If the Dao paints you a monster, why fight to prove it wrong? Why fight what hell promises?"
The boy genuinely had no answer today.