The disturbance caused by a single drop of winter rain fallen from the skies of Bei Tang was so miniscule that An Fei failed to recognize its presence. Before Xilong had notified her of the anomaly after its own observations, she was oblivious to her circumstances.
The patch of soft fabric covering her right shoulder sported a small, circular stain caused by a damp fluid. After a few seconds of blank confusion, An Fei connected the presence of the stained region of her clothes with the winter rains repeatedly mentioned by Xu Lingxin and the other residents of Bei Tang.
She could only recognize the cause for the phenomenon on her clothes simply because… the fabric was being devoured.
“Acidic fluid?” the young girl’s brows twitched, and she removed the affected layer of clothes to inspect the stain from a closer distance.
“No, some type of energy?”
Withstanding the momentary spasm of pain to enhance her vision with spiritual essence, An Fei squinted as she closely observed the blackening hole on her outer clothes. Above her head, the heavenly dragon coiled its head to glare upon the rapidly deteriorating clothes, and the pair of suns in its eyes blazed with a profound gleam.
The outer clothes that were now looped around her arms were rapidly being corroded after coming into contact with the drop of winter rain. Perhaps… corroding wasn’t the proper term, for what An Fei observed wasn’t a physical byproduct manifested following an oxidizing chemical reaction.
Perhaps with a normal human’s range of magnification, she would have witnessed the soundless corrosion of fabric, but the young girl’s eyes firmly captured the scene of thousands of wriggling black threads.
Thinner than a strain of human hair, and with microscopic follicles attached to its sides thrashing around in the surroundings, the grotesque amalgamation of tentacle-like appendages and centipede legs directly ripped apart and devoured the threads of fabric surrounding its existence.
“The threads aren’t falling onto the ground… rather than being severed by a sharp material, they’re being consumed?”
Yes, devoured.
She couldn’t place another definition that seemed to fit its current behavior, given its voracious tendency. With each of its movements, a thread of woven fabric that was of larger proportions than its entire body was cleanly consumed and absorbed by the wriggling black mass, and the latter seemed hardly satiated from its subsequent behavior. Moreover…
…there were thousands of such monsters that seemed to be crossbreeds between hair and tentacles.
“Xiao Fei, drop the cloth, immediately!”
Xilong’s rushed order broke through time and space to imprint itself directly into the young girl’s mind, at the same time conveying its panic and fear in full intensity. Cold shivers rushed through her body the moment she felt the heavenly dragon’s consciousness imprint itself on her, causing her vision to nearly shatter into a brilliant mosaic of color.
In her haste, she quickly retrieved her arms, and allowed the outer clothing to fall to the ground with a soft, dull impact. After a few, tentative seconds had passed, the actions of the thrashing threads increased in intensity and speed, and before the young girl’s astonished gaze, a breathtakingly beautiful hanfu dress that had been tailored for a young teenage girl dissolved into particles of light.
Grasped by a mixture of fear and curiosity, she even crouched down to blow upon the patch of cobbled ground that once held a spectacular dress woven from high-quality silk, yet discovered that there were no traces of residue. Any possible remnant of fabric, shed human skin or strands of hair – all were devoured and eradicated by the grotesque monsters of miniscule proportions, and nothing was left to be witnessed.
“What… was that?”
An Fei remained silent for several long minutes, until the words forcefully pried themselves from her lips. The soft, tapping noises of the slowly falling drops of rain accompanied her silence, awaiting for the heavenly dragon to condense its thoughts into viable words.
“…a curse,” Xilong finally spat through its teeth.
“An indiscriminate curse that seeks to eradicate all forms of spiritual essence, regardless of their origin. As for how such a curse exists in Bei Tang… I do not know.”
The young girl numbly nodded in understanding, but quickly raised her head in surprise. As she moved under the protruding roof of a nearby warehouse, An Fei rubbed at the base of her chin in confusion.
“Those creepy… tentacles or hairs that I saw, they were part of a curse? But their movements seemed so lifelike and inflicted physical damage onto my clothes – how is that possible?”
“I do not know the specifics, but there are Immortals who specialize in constructing a variety of curses that can afflict permanent changes to the physical world. Compendium should know more on that matter – I’m unfortunately only a dragon who knows how to kill, ah.”
An Fei could only nod her head in bemusement and resignation. She considered the matter of snapping a quick, sarcastic retort towards Xilong’s rare moments of humbleness, only to discard the idea when a swift gust of air slammed against her body from her right.
Cold, far too cold!
Having rapidly shed her outermost clothes to hastily distance herself from the malignant curse caused by the water stain and later consumed by morbid curiosity regarding the grotesque black threads, An Fei had forgotten to cover herself in warmer clothes. Her current attire of a thin inner sleeveless gown covered by a liandang weaved of soft, supple spider silk was hardly prepared to withstand the ravage of nearly subzero winds, causing her to yelp and clutch her arms to her chest.
Feeling as though her limbs had become encased in a thick layer of frost, An Fei immediately abandoned the dragon and entered the Sanctuary at the fastest speed her lips could chant. Then, she pressed herself flat against the ground, allowing the warmth of the crystalline floor to permeate her body and disperse the cold sensation.
“Xiao Fei…”
The scarlet silhouette of the heavenly dragon emerged from a corner of the throne room, and Xilong stared onto the shivering figure with concern. The young girl threw a chattering reply whilst in the midst of a spasm, and could only regain the ability to speak properly after bundling up in new clothes and a few minutes of quiet rest.
The moment she had recovered, a burst of emboldened curses erupted from her lips.
“F*ck, that was far too cold.”
“You’ve relied far too much on the enhanced clothing provided by the Sanctuary,” the heavenly dragon complained.
“Do you really think that an ordinary hanfu can provide adequate protection against the cold wind? It should still be somewhat fine for right now, but should people become suspicious regarding an ordinary person withstanding cold weather that can scare away cultivators…”
“Then I’ll say that I became a cultivator a long time ago! There’s the <Golden Lotus of Establishment> – that should work as adequate bait, no?”
“Who in their right mind would fall for such an obvious red herring!?”
The heavenly dragon and a young girl bickered for a joss stick’s length of time, until the latter finally capitulated and rummaged through her extensive wardrobe for a thicker set of clothing. At the end, An Fei emerged from the Sanctum clad in the linen coat given from Wei Xuan, and an ordinary parasol grasped in her left hand.
“Will this really work?”
Doubt was clearly expressed on her countenance, but she faithfully followed Xilong’s orders and opened the parasol. To her surprise, the parasol did manage to redirect the incoming raindrops and scatter them onto the ground without being afflicted by the curse contained within the latter. An Fei rubbed at her nose in exasperation, pretending that her ears were not flooded by a heavenly dragon’s consistent bragging.
“The Sanctum held many artifacts that were completely ordinary – was it for this purpose?”
“Of course,” Xilong chuckled.
“Each of the Ten Disciplinary Channels contain a numerous collection of mortal artefacts and objects. Don’t underestimate them because of the lack of a divine enhancement or some astonishing quality – such objects can become useful in certain circumstances.”
“How convenient…”
Since the initial findings of the heavenly dragon revealed that the curse only affected objects blessed by or contained spiritual essence and the parasol’s reach extended much beyond her thin frame, An Fei remained untouched from the creepy and terrifying raindrops. Alas…
The intensity of the winter rain was only beginning to increase, and there was even a blasted wind to assist in the former’s reign of destruction. As she glumly trudged back towards Plum’s Grove while cursing at the agile raindrops that threatened to bypass the parasol’s defenses, An Fei could only admit that her plans of abandoning the temple maiden and foraging ahead alone had to be revised.
Significantly.
