It was bitterly cold, frost already permeating the earth and freezing the smaller streams. Jia Fu was barely visible in the snow in his white robe. Only his sword, which cut through the undergrowth like a flash of light, could be seen if you looked very closely.
"There it is!" Mu Bai jumped out of his hiding place in the undergrowth. His clothes were now clean and kept him warm. His crescent blades whizzed through the undergrowth, missing the undead man's head by only a few centimeters. As the blade described an arc and whirred back, it severed his head from his shoulders.
"Why are there so many?" Xinxin gasped.
She knocked one of the undead's head off and then kicked him so hard in the chest that his body parts fell in different directions. Using the momentum, she did a somersault and split the skull of the second corpse approaching her from behind. When she landed back on the ground, she kicked the next one with momentum, who fell to the ground and allowed himself to be decapitated without resistance. Jia Fu's white flash of light shot through the snow-covered forest, decapitating half a dozen of the moldy undead.
"There must be a cemetery nearby that has been flooded with corrupted qi. So the corpses cannot rest in peace," he replied calmly. Xinxin was sweating and freezing at the same time. She gasped, whirled her sword, and saved Mu Bai from being pierced by the claw-like hands of another undead. Mu Bai spun around and sank his blade deep into the decaying creature's throat. He wrinkled his nose. His clothes had come undone, revealing the faded curse scar that had collapsed in on itself.
"Why are they all running in one direction?" Xinxin asked, wiping the congealed blood from her face. Jia Fu approached her. Without hesitation, he stained his white clothes to clean Xinxin. Mu Bai took a step back and looked away, embarrassed.
"They will follow the nearest unclean source. Like everything else, they are driven by instinct," he explained, gently stroking Xinxin's face. A slight blush spread across her cheeks.
"In which direction is that?" Mu Bai asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"The city of Caifeng." Since none of them answered, all three turned around. A young woman stepped forward. With a jade sword in her hand, she folded her hands respectfully in greeting and bowed.
"My name is Tao Cui. I have been following these corpses from the mountains for several weeks," she explained, stepping closer to the group. Her expression was serious, even though she still had an almost childlike quality about her. "They are not to be underestimated." With these words, she took her jade sword and with a powerful wave of sword energy, the snow trickled from the trees, revealing another dozen undead creatures hiding in the branches.
Jia Fu raised his index and ring fingers to his lips. From his other hand, his sword shot out in a bright flash. Mu Bai sighed as he whirled his blades through the branches, and Xinxin fought back to back with Tao Cui. The battle was long. The walking dead were tough. Xinxin lay on the ground, breathing heavily. Mu Bai had done the same, only Jia Fu still stood there like a god statue carved in stone, and Tao Cui reached out a hand to Xinxin.
"Is Caifeng special?" Xinxin asked as she let Tao Cui help her up.
"Caifeng is the largest city in the Tian Empire after the imperial capital," Tao Cui explained. "If the undead reach it, the ordinary citizens won't be able to defend themselves, and there will be a massacre of thousands of people." Xinxin brushed the snow off her clothes.
"That doesn't sound good at all. We have to get to Caifeng before the undead do," she said. Tao Cui nodded.
"We have to hurry." With a wave of her hand, she threw her sword into the air and jumped lightly onto it. Mu Bai followed suit, except that he used his crescent daggers for propulsion. Xinxin turned pale. There was a good reason why they had only traveled on foot or by carriage so far. There was a spell she refused to master.
Wanted, not could. Because she was terrified of heights.
"Oh, uh," she swallowed.
"Fly ahead, we'll catch up," Jia Fu took her side. Tao Cui and Mu Bai nodded, and in the next second they were gone. Jia Fu stepped up to Xinxin and stroked her back.
"If we don't fly, we won't make it in time; the undead are already far ahead of us. We've only caught up with the rearguard," he said gently. Xinxin nodded. She clenched her hands into fists. Jia Fu gently took her in his arms.
"I'll hold you," he promised. Nevertheless, Xinxin stiffened like a stick when the white flash burst from his palm and she felt the pressure under her soles. The next moment, the world spun before her eyes. She could no longer tell up from down, and her stomach dropped. Her body trembled and a wave of panic and fear washed over her. Xinxin clung to Jia Fu's robes and clenched her teeth so hard that she tasted blood. The cold wind rushed past them and through her hair. No, she really couldn't find anything good about heights. Shortly before the city limits of Caifeng, Jia Fu gently lowered her back down. Mu Bai approached them.
"Tao Guniang has gone to the supervisory office. She hopes that the soldiers will be able to fortify the city and the ramparts. A call has also been made for all cultivators in Caifeng to gather at the gates," he explained. Xinxin staggered across the frozen ground. Jia Fu caught her with one arm when she lost her balance.
"The undead will most likely reach the city tonight. We'd better be prepared for anything," he said seriously. Mu Bai nodded, but looked skeptically at Xinxin, who was vomiting unattractively. Jia Fu didn't even bat an eyelid.
"She made it," he said firmly.
"I can do this," Xinxin echoed with a trembling voice, raising her fist in the air.
As dusk fell over the city and its thick walls, an eerie silence settled over it. Most of the fires on the wall and around the city limits had been extinguished. Nevertheless, the undead would be attracted by the warmth and life energy of the people in Caifeng. All available soldiers and cultists had gathered at the main gates. Jia Fu, Xinxin, Mu Bai, and Tao Cui waited tensely in front of the gates, whose road led into a dense forest and from the direction from which the undead would come. It was quiet and bitterly cold. Small clouds of mist formed in front of their mouths. Their muscles and tendons were tense to the point of breaking. The onslaught was already apparent minutes before the first undead appeared. The ground shook, stones, sticks, and snow loosened and danced across the frozen ground.
"How many are there?" Xinxin whispered.
"The mass grave I investigated a few weeks ago could have held several hundred dead. And it was completely empty," Tao Cui whispered back. The two women exchanged a knowing, fearful glance. Xinxin's grip on her sword became even more determined. In this memory, Liu Yan stood close behind her. Even though he couldn't do anything, he simply couldn't leave Xinxin alone. If he had been as powerful then as he was now, he would have burned this army of undead to ashes in a matter of seconds.
But if he had been as powerful then as he was now, he wouldn't have cared about the life of someone like Caifeng, let alone a few cultists. He raised his hand and gently stroked Xinxin's cheek. Even here in her soul space, he could feel the power rushing through her spiritual veins. She was strong and fast, her sword skills rivaling those of other cultists who had trained for years. His pale, almost translucent fingers reached for one of her dark, full strands of hair.
Xinxin sprang from his ghostly embrace with the first appearance of an undead. Jia Fu's sword shot out in a flash of bright light, cutting its way through countless heads of the army of the dead. Mu Bai swooped down from the clouds like an eagle, making room for the individual fighters who found themselves surrounded.
Tao Cui was a master of her wind blade. With a single stroke, she struck down several enemies and threw them meters away before advancing quickly and gracefully to roll their heads. Xinxin was also fast, but not as skilled in fighting with magic, which is why she was always in a one-on-one battle. She whirled around the dead, knocking them down and setting dozens of them on fire with her talismans without tiring. Soon the air was filled with the smell of rotten blood and black miasma. Many of the younger and inexperienced cultists staggered and gasped for air. The number of dead was not decimated until dawn.
When the squad realized that no one else was coming, they were already knee-deep in corpses, body parts, and rotten blood and guts. Xinxin vigorously wiped the blood from her face and suppressed her gag reflex. Jia Fu approached her. "We should patrol again to make sure none of them got lost or stuck along the way," he said. Sweat was also beading on his forehead, and he looked pale. Paler than usual. His white robe was soaked in blood, but he still kept his cool, cheering up his comrades and spurring them on. Mu Bai groaned. Tao Cui bowed formally. "Thank you, Jia Gongzi. Once we have made sure that all the undead have been slain, I would be delighted to invite you to the nearest tavern," she said, slightly out of breath. Xinxin nodded and a smile lit up her face, which had been through a lot. "That sounds promising, Tao Guniang," she laughed. Tao Cui smiled back cautiously.
She seemed unaccustomed to such familiarity, but Xinxin infected her with her cheerful mood and unwavering optimism. In fact, Jia Fu's foresight paid off. Some of the undead had gotten caught in the dense undergrowth or in ditches along the way. A few particularly obsessive ones had continued crawling with their upper bodies torn apart, leaving their lower bodies behind.
"But isn't that strange?" Xinxin muttered, thrusting her blood-covered sword into another undead head until it stopped moving. Tao Cui turned to her.
"What do you mean, Luo Guniang?" she asked. Although she had also fought fiercely, she had remained largely unblemished.
Only the hem of her light, pastel-colored robe was soaked with blood, as were her light-colored shoes. Xinxin wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"Isn't that exactly what the curse shackle is supposed to prevent?" she asked, looking at Tao Cui. Jia Fu stopped and turned around as well.
"Me, absorbing and neutralizing my corrupted qi?" she said. Jia Fu looked up at the sky. A gray-white bowl arched above them, heralding more snow.
"The powers of the curse shackle are strongest where she is. So high up in the mountains, far away from the imperial capital, her abilities should not reach," he evaded. Xinxin had followed his gaze to the sky.
"But if the powers of the curse shackle were used for the good of the people..."
"A'Xin," Jia Fu's voice sounded warning, so she fell silent. She tilted her head and thought for a while. Tao Cui had also turned away again and continued to search the forest floor and the mixture of blood, snow, and earth.
"I understand," Xinxin said quietly. "It is not in the interest of the rich nobles to protect the people as long as they can protect themselves." Jia Fu looked at her warningly, and Ta Cui also visibly squirmed under Xinxin's fiery gaze.
"That won't change, Luo Guniang.
The Curse Binder is reborn into the imperial family, and they have always used her abilities to protect it. If the Curse Binder were allowed to purify too much corrupted qi nationwide, there would be... well... the danger," she stammered. "That the Curse Binder would gain power and follow her own will?" Xinxin pressed.
"And the interests of the Curse Binder would probably not coincide with those of the imperial family, would they?"
"Xinxin!" Jia Fu had now raised his voice, but Xinxin just glared at him. "In order for the Curse Binder to do what it was born to do, it must suffer, right? The more suffering it endures, the more corrupted qi it can absorb and purify. Like a vessel whose hole must be constantly enlarged by force so that it can continue to be filled."
"Luo Xinxin, that's enough." Jia Fu had approached her.
"There are things that simple wanderers like us cannot change. All we can do is help people. Break curses, drive away evil spirits. Hunt demons. Help keep the corrupted qi in check. We do what is right, we do what we can. That is our task. Not to question. What you just said out loud is like inciting hatred against the imperial family. If anyone ever finds out, you could lose your head for those words," he explained. That was probably as many words as he usually spoke in a year. So Xinxin just nodded and admitted defeat. Jia Fu breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't argue any further and took her in his arms.
"Let's go back and finally get something to eat," Mu Bai suggested, trying to lighten the mood. Tao Cui nodded, glad to change the subject.
"I cordially invite you all!"