Kind Young Master [Progression Fantasy - Cultivation]

60th Mortal Wheel Under the Eye of the White Tiger, Brightwater Dog Year, Ox Month, Second Decan Ding

(December)

By the time they reached Coughing Valley, there was only one more night until the full moon. Bai Tu prowled ahead of them, tail straight and still, nose to the wind. His winter coat had grown out, but it was more silver than white and carried a metallic sheen. He had begun to change shortly after consuming the darkmetal toad, taking on some of the aspects of its qi and getting larger every day since. If they ever donned illusions again, the guise of a cat would not suit him any longer.

"Immortals save us," Mei Li swore. "This place stinks worse than those sick people."

Twin mesas created the valley, or what was left of it, in an otherwise flat expanse of cracked clay and swirling dust. The breeze carried the stench of sulphur, which exuded from the gap between the mesas like the breath of a titanic beast. Over the last few days of travel, the landscape had shifted precipitously from high grasses and crops of trees to the wasteland they saw before them.

"It's just like I read," Lin said. "The heavens punished this place."

It was the smell that made Fushuai finally realize where he had heard the name of this place before. Mah Goshung had come from a tribe that called this region home. It was easy to forget that when his master spoke of the past, he could as easily be referring to something that occurred a few months ago as a historical event from a previous age. Had the Asura done this? More likely, something the Asura had done angered the gods so much that they sent a calamity.

Perhaps the meteor strike he'd witnessed on the Spine of the World was not the first such event the demon-wolf had survived.

As they proceeded, signs of the civilization that had once existed here became evident in the marks they had left behind. Near the rises, there were remnants of ancient stone structures, worn down to their foundations, now so coated with clay dust that they were the same color as their surroundings. Bones, tools, and the rest would have long been buried or destroyed.

The sense of Yin grew stronger the nearer they came to the pass, and he heard Lin's breathing grow shallow.

"Whatever happened here was terrible. It's still terrible. It feels like we shouldn't be here."

"You don't have to enter," he told her, and Mei Li perked up, speaking through the silk she was holding over her mouth and nose.

"I was thinking the same. Lin and I can stay behind while you search for ancient corpses, or whatever it is you think you need."

"No," Lin shook her head. "This is my journey, too. I want to advance like you have. I want to learn what you've learned. And I don't want to behave as a child afraid of the unknown."

Reaching into his pack, Fushuai produced a fist-sized stone and held it out to her. Simple granite, without inscription or binding, and she eyed it with suspicion.

"What's this for?"

"One of my masters gave this to me to carry early on. If you want to follow me on this road, then I thought you might benefit from doing the same."

"One of your masters? There was someone other than Xiao Sheng?"

"An old friend of his. Mah Goshung. He was my martial tutor." He had no intention of giving her the same treatment he had suffered on the way to Lonely Mountain. But she accepted the rock with great seriousness, and it appeared to give her something to focus on as they continued. Mei Li heaved a theatrical sigh, but she didn't turn back either, unwilling to let her younger sister go without her.

Zhang Sha strung his bow and kept an arrow in his hand as they came under the shadow of the pass. Thankfully, the wind and the stench it carried were not constant. They rose and fell in an extended rhythm, adding to the ominous impression that it really was the mouth of a great beast they were entering. Faces and forms had been carved into the cliffs on either side of them: men, women, and wolves. Stairs and ledges led to openings like the cells in a wasp's nest, what might once have been the homes of the Go Er Tsoon, the tribe that gave birth to Mah Goshung.

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They did not investigate the walls. Instead, Fushuai followed the shifts in the environmental aura. The pass stretched for several li, and Yin was most prevalent at the tail, where the ends of the mesas had suffered a collapse. The walls of the pass narrowed as they went, clashing in a mountain of rubble where they terminated.

A stream had run through the pass once, its trail was still clear-cut, but it had long gone dry. The bed dropped into a circular pit just before the tower of boulders and skree that marked the end of the pass. As they reached it, the wind rose again, along with the stench, emanating from the gap in the earth.

"This is wonderful," Mei Li said. "I suppose you're going to dive in there?"

Zhang Sha knelt beside the hole, unfazed by the fumes. "This is a Hellmouth," he said, as if he had come across a somewhat remarkable herb on the side of the road.

Lin gasped, and Mei Li looked bewildered.

"A what?"

The younger sister grabbed the elder's wrist, eyes wide, clutching the stone at her chest. "A conduit to the hells! This must be the reason for the tribulation. Demonic cultivation."

Mei Li took a step back. "Brother, are you certain that your master is innocent?"

"Innocent? Of what?" He wasn't sure what she meant by that, and the Hellmouth had the lion's share of his attention.

"Being a demonic cultivator. Killing the emperor."

"Oh," Fushuai said, probing the darkness below with his spiritual senses. "I would never call him a demonic cultivator, though one could argue that he bordered on unorthodox. And he was certainly willing to ally himself with beings out of heaven's favor. But I have no reason to doubt he killed the emperor."

"What!" It was very nearly a shriek, and the silk cloth fell from her face. "You knew he killed the Immortal Wang Yinjing? And you've let us come with you anyway?"

"I don't know what occurred between them, but as I said, I have no reason to doubt."

"I thought it was a misunderstanding! That we would one day clear our name." Her voice rose with every word, and she looked to Lin for confirmation. "Did you know?"

She blinked. "The sky spoke."

"But...it...we..." Mei Li dropped to the ground, for once unmindful of the dirt that might soil her otherwise pristine robes.

"It doesn't make any difference whether he did or not," Fushuai said, stepping closer to her. In all the days of running, they hadn't discussed the event that turned them into fugitives. He'd simply assumed that she understood the circumstances. "The empire believes he did, so it is the same for us either way."

"Then we can truly never go home." Her voice had fallen to a whisper. "We are dead. We are all dead already."

"Hah. You truly are a jade beauty."

She glared at Zhang Sha. "Was that supposed to be an insult?"

"Merely an observation."

Fushuai held up one bandage-wrapped hand, using the other to tap the earth with his staff. "The air here is thick with corruption. I think it is affecting all of us. There is enough Yin below for me to attempt a breakthrough, but the rest of you don't need to suffer this valley any longer."

Mei Li sniffed. "Why should I stand? If I die in this stench, it is no more than I deserve for being fool enough to follow you."

Lin hugged her sister. "Don't say that. None of us deserves death for what the Living Blade has done."

Bai Tu had spent his time exploring the area around them, oblivious to human arguments. Now his ears pricked up, and he issued a sharp bark of alarm. Zhang Sha dashed up the wall of rubble in the same instant, turning with his bowstring already drawn and an arrow pointed at the Hellmouth. Humanoid hands grasped at the lip of the pit, followed swiftly by an array of claws and chitinous limbs. A bowstring twanged, and a feathered shaft vibrated in the back of the thing that lifted itself out of the darkness.

It was not a chimera. Chimera's were, in a sense, imitations of demons. This was a creature that had developed without the benefit of divine order. A host of mismatched arms, legs, and mouths. The clicking noise it made was disturbingly close to laughter. Fushuai stepped in front of his sisters and blocked its first strikes as Lin dragged a frozen Mei Li away.

More and more of its body rose from the pit. What had at first appeared to be the size of a horse was closer to that of a wagon with a second in tow. Fushuai leapt to one side as a pair of its claws, not so different from those of the mantis that had once trapped him, snapped out, tearing rifts in the earth where he had stood. It shifted, limbs clicking and clacking, and then a boulder crashed onto its back, thrown by Zhang Sha. Chitin cracked, and the demon trilled in a dozen unearthly voices. Bai Tu darted in and ripped off one of its human hands at the wrist as it reached for Fushuai.

He channeled energy into his staff. Yin was plentiful here, but for a creature like this, he could think of only one answer. He leapt high above it, gu-en spinning in an arc, and expended thread after thread of qi in a single burst as it swung down. Darkflame exploded from the point of impact, more purple than red, and raced against itself to consume the demon.

Its screams filled the pass as it continued to fight, but Fushuai only had to divert its attacks as his foundation stage companion tossed boulder after boulder at the burning monster. The demon lashed out in madness and rage, tearing earth and stone, and finally quivering as it died, its tail still trailing into the ancient well. It burned for a long time after that, the odor only slightly worse than the air pouring from the Hellmouth.

"I think only Zhang Sha should accompany me below," he said.

His sisters did not disagree.