Following the Trail

We leave the palace through a hidden gate and proceed outside the city walls. To the west of Xiyang, there are rough hills with little potential for farming, so we don’t run into anyone for the first part of the trip. Once we enter the forest to the south, however, the roads are busy once again. The scare of the monster attack seems forgotten as we pass one merchant caravan after the other. They’re risking their lives for their livelihood, but then again, so are we. Feng Yu is greeted by the odd passersby. Many people know the young master of the Feng family well. It makes me giddy every time I see Liu Renqing look at these interactions, scowling in a way which can only be attributed to jealousy.

“This is the place,” Feng Yu says as we reach the part of the road they were attacked on. Nothing speaks of the dramatic fight we experienced that day. It’s a busy day on the road, with many people glancing at the group of guards curiously as they walk by. There are horse-drawn carriages and people with baskets all around. I spot some broken wood at the forest’s edge and point at it.

“That’s the rest of the caravan. I’m going to have a closer look.”

Once I proceed into the treeline, I can see even more broken bits. They seem to have merely pushed the debris into the bushes to clear the road. Broken wheels and crates are piled up behind the shrubs. Liu Renqing joins me behind the foliage, standing to the side like a proper bodyguard. I acknowledge him with a nod before feeling along the broken wood. Some parts are splintered, some are charred. When I touch the dark spots, my skin starts crawling in reaction to the remnants of what feels like a curse. This is what I was looking for. I close my eyes and concentrate on the signature energy, circling my own genuine qi like Queen Zhu showed me. And indeed… When I open my eyes again, I can see the air shimmering around the cart… and it trails off to the southwest.

“I’ve got it.”

Being attuned to the magic of the artefact like Murong Zhiyu is a blessing for these kinds of tasks. Even the faintest traces of energy are visible to her with just a thought and some expended qi. Finding something in the city would be difficult for me, but out here the trail stands out like a sore thumb. Liu Renqing calls the others over and I walk ahead through the forest, following the erratic path of the monster dogs. At first their energy is dispersed over a large area, but the longer we follow it, the more it narrows down. Finally, we follow a stream southwards, along which the shimmering trail leads down a waterfall.

“Everything converges here,” I say and point at the narrow gorge, into which the waterfall leads.

“This looks like a trap,” Liu Renqing says and I have to agree. The opening to the gorge is narrow, I can’t see where it leads because it curves with the stream, and the drop is easily steeper than the dam below Yueji Lake is tall.

“We could go around it. I can probably see the trail from above,” I suggest.

“Let’s do that,” Zhu Chun agrees.

We progress along the canyon edge, forging our way through the dense growth. This close to the water, the plants benefit from the energy of the artefact and grow abundantly. I have to go close to the edge several times to confirm that the trail still leads along the stream. Keeping constant track of the magic is exhausting and I can feel it draining my reserves. I’m sure Murong Zhiyu would perform this task with ease. No, I can’t talk myself down like this. Compared to the first time, I’m holding up brilliantly.

“Do you need a break?” Feng Yu asks. “You look exhausted.”

Okay, maybe not so brilliantly.

“A few minutes would be good,” I admit.

Zhu Chun signals everyone to stop, then sends out two of the guards to examine the area. They disappear quick as lightning, one second still in front of me, the next gone like they vanished into thin air. Every single one of them will be more useful in a fight than me. I sit down on a rock and take a deep breath as I concentrate on letting my magical senses ease up. Feng Yu comes to stand to my right and Liu Renqing to my left like personal bodyguards. I do feel much safer with them here. Zhu Chun eyes our constellation with interest, but says nothing. The other three guards are positioned around us as lookouts. The forest is quiet, only insects and birds making noise and the water rushing in the gorge below.

We wait for well over twenty minutes, but the two scouts don’t return. Zhu Chun gets visibly nervous as time passes. Finally she sends out another of her subordinates to find the other two. The longer we wait in vain, the higher my anxiety gets. I concentrate again and reach out in all directions for any sign of cultivation energy… and while this is much more draining, it also yields immediate results. All three of them are to the south… and their energy feels erratic.

“I think they might be fighting to the south,” I say as I have to relinquish my hold on them. “I can’t tell for sure, though.”

“Follow them immediately,” Zhu Chun says and we move as one.

It’s a peculiar feeling to be putting so much power into my legs that I’m basically flying through the trees, following Liu Renqing closely, as he jumps from stone to stone on a relatively safe path. Small branches and leaves hit me painfully as I rush past, trying to ignore the stings. Murong Zhiyu’s body instinctively pushes cultivation energy into the affected parts and soothes the pain. Is this how a video game character feels when their HP is regenerating?

And then we stumble from the forest onto a clearing, where two of the guards are enveloped in a battle with a group of enemies. One guard and several of the attackers are on the floor, bleeding out. Zhu Chun doesn’t stop for even a moment and rushes forward, tearing through the enemy group like an angry tiger. Her dress flutters in the wind behind her and she looks like a vengeful ghost as she twirls and jumps between them, never in the reach of their blades, bestowing a thousand cuts onto them with a fan held in each hand. The fans are deep red and their edges are lined with blades, which tear through cloth and flesh. I am spellbound by the display, watching one after the other fall under her attacks.

“Shimei!” Liu Renqing yells and there’s a metallic noise to the left of me.

As Feng Yu draws me back, my brain finally catches up with the situation and I draw my sword, holding up the sheath in my left hand and use it to block another incoming strike. Power rushes from deep within me into my muscles to hold fast and bear the pressure. With my right hand I strike, like Murong Zhiyu showed me, but I miss. At least my attacker has retreated. Behind me, I hear an explosion and feel the heat of fire. Feng Yu flicks a mahjong tile past my head, which hits another enemy squarely in the face. He screams as flames jump to his hair and he falls to the ground.

Suddenly the whole forest clearing is full of people. They are clearly not residents of Xiyang and their dress is like nothing I’ve seen in the city and the surrounding fields. They are dressed in closely fitting red and blacks, with a broad belt around their waists. Most of them wear long cloaks, wrapped around their shoulders. Their hair is braided and swings with their movements as they lay into us. There are easily twenty of them, with various weapons, attacking from all sides.

I block the ones coming for me as well as I can, relying on Murong Zhiyu’s body to find the balance and strength to make the returning strikes count. Next to me, Liu Renqing holds up one hand, water streaming from it like a shield, which he uses to deflect strikes and push the others over. Feng Yu picks the ones off that fall, setting them on fire. It’s a very effective tactic and one that they’ve obviously practised before. Then I realise that both of them have shifted into their half-beast forms.

Most of Liu Renqing’s visible skin is covered in smooth scales, which are blue-green and shimmer in all colours of the rainbow when the lights hit them. Except this, I can see no other visible sign of his shift, but the colour is dramatic enough. That’s when I see his eyes, which have gone completely black, frightful in their otherworldliness. Feng Yu, on the other hand, has undergone a more dramatic change. His hair has been replaced by long, red feathers like a bird of paradise and his eyes shine like orange gold. The air around him shimmers from the heat he gives off.

On the other side of the clearing, I see Zhu Chun still tearing through the onslaught. Her white robe is stained with fresh, red blood. Considering the way she moves, it’s definitely not hers. She is like a whirlwind of blades, her steps like a deadly dance, mesmerising in its precision. People fall around her like flies, dropping one after the other. Around me, the forest has started burning from Feng Yu’s magic, the smoke rising into my eyes. Zhu Chun takes a leap across the divide, kicking several heads in the process, to land next to us. As she does, she cuts down another, who Liu Renqing has just toppled. I feel utterly useless next to them. I wonder if they think it strange that Murong Zhiyu is so passive and amateurish. I am supposed to be as brilliant as them, aren’t I?

“It’s a trap,” Zhu Chun yells. “Go and follow the trail while I hold them off. We can’t go back empty-handed.”

Her subordinates have long fallen and the only reason I’m still standing are my bodyguards. Feng Yu grabs my arm.

“She’s right. If they’re that determined to stop us, they’re hiding something big.”

“I can’t leave her behind!”

“You’re already exhausted from following the magic. You’re no help to her like this. We’ll only be in her way,” Liu Renqing says and grabs my other arm. “She can hold her own against larger numbers than this. I’ve seen it.”

They drag me away, Zhu Chun disappearing behind the trees as we run, the sound of fighting growing dimmer. No one is following us for now. In hindsight, I should’ve figured there was something fishy about this. We speed along the edge of the canyon, both my companions back in their human form. Then I spot it: A concentration of energy in the canyon wall below. An opening to a cave.

“In there!”