“…everything has gone astray, damn it all.”
Once the silent and serene visage of the Mourning Forest had left the fringe of her vision, An Fei heaved an enormous sigh in regret and disappointment. The young girl fought the urge to bury her head between her knees and wallow in self-pity as she continued the long walk down the Mourning Peak, only the habit to shake her head from side to side made its ugly presence known every few minutes.
Perhaps… it was best to say that she had lost everything?
“I had a month of medicine, two spare sets of inner and outer clothing, and the little grey pouch, all stowed away and prepared in the inner chambers of the forest. If only that damned Immortal Being didn’t appear, and that…. that girl.”
The Sanctum had long since been inaccessible nearly an entire year, and now she had lost her only contingency ever since she became conscious on the Mourning Peak. The grey satchel from Wei Xuan that once held a meagre ten gold coins after she deposited the entirety of its wealth in the bedchamber hidden within the crystal sanctuary, only held a pitiful two gold and eight silver coins after Xu Lingxin had ‘delightfully’ helped herself for the past few months, and was now forever lost in the depths of an unassailable forest. As the young girl slowly inspected her body, she finally accepted the realization that aside from the qama that had lost its sheath, her possessions consisted only of the clothes on her back.
“…not that this is anything spectacular, since most of it is torn and ripped apart,” An Fei sighed and clutched her head in distress.
“I’ve managed to stem the bleeding and applied some ointment, but, ah – He Xin really doesn’t have that many first-aid supplies – not that she or Xu Lingxin would necessarily need them?”
The only medicines deemed compatible with her body were mortal medicines that could rarely be found on the Mourning Peak, whereas the bountiful assortment of spiritual herbs grown by the celestial maiden in her backyard were deadly toxins that could take her to the high heavens in an instant. An Fei relaxed her grip on the long knife as she glanced towards the now illusory figure of the Mourning Peak, long since shrouded by the brilliant, scorching radiance of the rising sun.
The young girl bathed her aching body in the soothing, warming rays of the golden sun, before the clotted blood and stains along her clothes dampened her moon. She gauged the distance between her current position and what seemed to be the silhouette of a minor town at the base of the mountain. After cleansing her body of the disconcerting assortment of bloodstains, An Fei tried her best to ignore the throbbing pain and lightheaded symptoms of her wounds and continued her trek down the winding path.
“Three more hours of walking, and there should be the disciples’ barracks, if I remember correctly, hm?”
From her leisurely days on the Mourning Peak, and eavesdropping on the small talk exchanged by He Xin and the numerous cultivating youths seeking to “temper their mind” in the depths of the forest, the young girl had gradually, over the course of months, managed to generate a brief understanding of the Morning Star Temple. Though she had never walked on the path below her feet, An Fei closely held the belief of He Xin’s description of the winding paths leading to and from the mountain, and carefully counted each movement made by her foot.
“Three breaths towards the right, five to the left, and three steps back to traverse fifty meters down the peak… what a bizarre restriction.”
If she were to believe in He Xin’s seemingly boastful words, the Morning Star Temple, and other cultivating sects in Bei Tang and Great Yan secured their respective territories with massive arrays preventing easy travel. To access the numerous peaks reserved as the sect’s strongholds, storage vaults, and Elders’ quarters, the sect had carved winding paths leading towards the peak – paths that provided a straightforward ascent, but were recursive and repetitive in certain areas to ward off intruders. The scenery of the small, winding path before her eyes and the chirping of birds, screeching of insects, and the gentle whisper of the grass and plants below her feet were, by the young maiden’s eager definitions, illusions created by a massive array that spanned across the entire Mourning Peak.
Though He Xin seemed unaware of the details regarding such array and could only provide the algorithms to ascend and descend the peak, An Fei sighed and chose not to express doubt or disdain towards the matter. Relying on the fragmented memories of Wei Xuan’s light demonstrations and the harsh beating she received from the Immortal Being, the young girl staved off her desire to snort and continued the mindless pattern of walking towards her right until she had exhaled three times, then to her left until five times, followed by a retreat of three steps, before repeating the sequence from the beginning –
“–oh, so there really is an effect? The air pressure… how interesting,” the young girl abruptly paused mid-step and rubbed at her chin in shock.
“From what I could see from the peak, the entire Mourning Peak could be estimated to rest at a height of five kilometers from the ground, but now the altitude pressure isn’t as loosely concentrated anymore, at least increasing by half. So, this array… really works, then?”
Was it a transportation array, similar to the platform she had witnessed years ago in Great Yong? However, there wasn’t any instantaneous movement below her feet, nor did her hearing nor sight catch wind of any slight difference…
An Fei heaved a final sigh, before suppressing a light tremor of dread. The young girl quickly hugged her body to still the trembling and carefully paid heed to her breathing and the changes in the surrounding atmospheric pressure, repeating the numb pattern to descend. Gradually, she noticed that her breathing rate had drastically reduced since the beginning of her trek, and as she arrived at the realization that she was nearing the end of the path, the young girl forcefully heightened her caution.
The body nor the senses could fully comprehend the changes in its surroundings every time she completed the sequence, but An Fei didn’t doubt that she had abruptly traversed down the peak by a direct fifty meters – vertically. And yet, once she glanced to the brightening skies and noticed the ever-growing presence of the sun, the young girl couldn’t help but muse to herself.
“Surely she sounded the alarm? It should be around midday, and she wasn’t a heavy sleeper.”
…how did cultivating sects notify their disciples of missing prisoners again?
The grip on the qama tightened on reflex, and required several calm breaths to still the agitated hand. An Fei moved past the final winding barrier of willow trees covering her vision, and narrowed her gaze at the spectacle. The hands clenched tight, then swiftly relaxed.
“What… what on earth?”
An Fei heard the astonished phrase burst from her lips, and quickly closed her mouth. From a vantage point five thousand meters into the skies, her eyes relayed to her mind the silhouette of a functional village, with miniscule black dots amassing together and dispersing in regular intervals should she peer down the peak. And yet, the sight before her feet, just a mere ten meters away…
…could it even be described as a village?
Beams. No, the pillars themselves had been eroded until mere stumps jutted from the bruised and battered ground. The scenery of clay tile roofing and numerous, well-constructed structures and courtyards were nothing but clay tiles scattered across the ground, and paved stones burnt and eroded until only mere stumps the size of her fingernail remained. After a few breaths of staring at the devastated sight in disbelief, An Fei tore her gaze from the scorched earth, and balked when the people entered the fringe of her vision.
“This is even worse than the city in Bei Tang. At least they knew how to rebuild; the people here…”
