Chương 86: Book 2, Chapter 8: Pyre of Perdition

Song was expecting the place to have been pillaged in the many years since its demise, but the The Sima Clan main residence was a ruin frozen in time. Ink paintings featuring the local landscapes, finely wrought bronze statues, and tapestries adorned every surface that hadn't been destroyed. And everything bore the scorch marks of that long ago battle. Even the bandits had been too frightened to enter and desecrate this space. Song felt that if he touched anything, it would turn to dust like the rubble at his feet.

"Is that a genuine Yi Un painting!?" Tae gasped, stepping out of formation for a moment and eyeing a wall-spanning ink painting. It featured a herd of low-lands deer running wild and free while cranes flew in the sky above. It felt like the beasts were actually moving, and could jump from the canvas at any instant. Wook thwapped his elder brother on the back of the head and hissed, "Focus!" With one last plaintive look, Tae nodded and resumed marching with the rest of them.

They passed in relative silence through the rest of the building, other than Tae's hard breathing and the rhythmic thumping of the younger cultivators' hearts. They eventually reached an exit to the rear courtyard – a pair of sliding paper doors that'd somehow remained untouched in all this time. Eunji edged forward and licked her finger, then slowly poked it through the worn yellow paper to make a peephole. She stared through it for a while, frowned, then motioned Jii forward.

"It just looks like some local peasant." Jii muttered as he peered through as well.

"No martial uniform or Sign. And I don't sense any qi, do you?" he whispered.

"Is that an old army-issue sword he's holding?"

"Looks like," Eunji looked through the peephole once more.

"Could he be a higher realm, and hiding it?"

"I should still be able to sense something," Jii shrugged.

"Unless he's a Nascent Soul…" Tae said with a shiver.

"Can't they fully hide their qi? And even regress their age?" Wook kicked Tae.

"Fool. Would a Nascent Soul have left those traces we saw from fighting mere bandits?"

"Wook's likely correct," Eunji gave him an appreciative nod.

"But we can't leave out the possibility that it's an Inner Demon of some sort. We'll approach with caution." Jii motioned for Dami, Jinu, and Song to come see, and when it was his turn Song stepped up to the peephole and stared through it. The rear courtyard of the Sina residence was just as blighted as the front, perhaps even more so given what sat in the center of it. A massive rectangular bonfire had been erected from the rubble, spinning smoke up into the grey heavens.

Standing before the fire with his back to them was a young man in stained peasant rags. He looked to be about Tae's age, in his early twenties. He was tall, easily taller than Wook, and he was completely motionless, save for his waist long black hair billowing from the hot air whipping around the pyre. He held a long sword limply at his side, its edge chipped and black with dried blood. Dami was white.

"That's a Pyre of Perdition."

"A what?" Jinu asked.

"It's a peasant tradition for especially heinous criminals. Rather than laying them to rest, they burn them in a great pyre marked with symbols of the Crimson Hunger, in hopes that the Great One devours their soul."

"Jii, with me. You lot, stay here. If I yell to run, don't ask questions." Eunji made sure her helmet was on properly before slowly sliding the paper door open. She and Jii filed out and stopped about thirty paces from the man, who still hadn't looked in their direction. With the door open, the acrid scent of burning fat was eye-watering.

"You there! Identify yourself!" Eunji shouted.

"Thousand Man Commander Lee Eunji of His Majesty's Imperial Army demands your attention!" The young man didn't seem to have heard her. He remained resolutely staring at the fire with nary a twitch.

"Do you not hear me!?" Eunji shouted once more, her horns beginning to glow with green qi.

"Answer, or I'll have to assume that you're with the bandits that were reported here!" Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. The young man slowly turned. Song flinched, and Dami let out a gasp. The stranger's eyes were black pits; still human, but without any spark of life. It reminded Song of the endless abyss of the Dark Dreamer's mindscape. He found himself falling into their maddening depths and had to shake his mind clear. ["Damn,"] Cyrus muttered.

["He's got it bad."] ["Is it an Inner Demon?"] Song shot back. ["How should I know? But he's got that look that I've seen in war photography. The thousand yard stare."] ["The what?"] Song asked But before Cyrus could explain, Jii spoke up.

"Eunji…" he warned.

"I know," she sighed, the qi slowly dissipating from her horns.

"How far gone is he?"

"I won't know until I talk to him," Jii shook his head.

"If he's even still capable of speech." Eunji slowly retreated back to the group, while Jii tucked his tentacles into his deel and approached the man with his hands out and empty.

"We're wandering cultivators from Changpo headed to Chengdu," he said in a soothing tone.

"The local villagers told us about bandits in this area and asked us to investigate. My name is Yu Jii. May we know the warrior's name as well?" The young man continued to stare blankly, but after a few moments he quietly said, "This one was named Yong by his parents." Eunji breathed a sigh of relief, whispering.

"Good. At least he's still in there. He hasn't sold his soul to one of the Great Ones or lost his mind completely."

"He hasn't blinked," Tae murmured.

"The heat from that pyre must be enormous."

"What's wrong with him?" Jinu asked.

"Be quiet and keep your ears open," Eunji muttered at them.

"You youngsters are here to see the world. Well, what you're seeing here is the survivor of a bandit attack. He probably killed all of them himself."

"A single peasant with a sword?" Wook said incredulously.

"It happens," Eunji shrugged.

"Some swear themselves to one of the Great Ones and are granted strength that warps their minds and bodies. Others are driven by madness and rage to fight and kill until they die or their enemies all lay slain. He's too lucid to be the former, but looks big enough that it could be the latter." Song remembered that moment on his moonlight ride when he'd considered begging one of the Great Ones for strength. What would have happened to him if he'd tried? Or worse, succeeded.

"Did you see what happened to the bandits?" Jii asked, continuing to placate the young man with his words and tone. He gestured at the sword Yong was holding. Yong looked blankly down at the sword in his hand, as though he'd hadn't known he was holding it. His voice came from a far distance.

"The bandits… arrived at our farm looking for food." Jii took another slow step forward.

"Did they hurt you?"

"They took our pigs. And then searched the house. They found Sister. Mother and Father tried to stop them, but… they died." The young man's voice cracked.

"And they took her."

"Bandits," Eunji spat hoarsely, her gaze murderous. She'd removed her helmet and was scratching furrows into the floor with her foot.

"And you followed them here," Jii more stated than guessed.

"They were drinking. And partying. And then I found a sword. It was right there on the ground."

"Do you remember the rest?" Jii was just a few paces from the young man now.

"I remember the blood beating in my ears," Yong turned to look back into the pyre. The fire flickered in his dead eyes.

"And the screams."

"Did you find your sister?" Yong's eyes flicked from the sword over to the side of the pyre. Song followed his gaze and sucked in his breath. Five bodies were laid out on the grass, their faces covered in white cloth. Song could tell from their attire that most were local peasantry, though two wore finer clothing that spoke of merchants or lesser nobility. Jii was just outside of sword reach now.

"I'm a physician. Are you injured?" Looking closely, Song could indeed see dark red stains on the side of the man's clothing, and a few nicks on his forearms. But not a single cut marred his strikingly handsome face. Yong didn't answer this time; he just continued to stare at Jii.

"You avenged your sister," Jii said quietly.

"And have been a filial son. Your parents can rest easy. The bandits are gone, they can't hurt you anymore." Yong stared blankly at the older man, and his hand tightened on his sword Jii took one more step forward and laid a paternal hand on Yong's shoulder.

"You did well. You can rest now. Let these cultivators deal with the rest. I swear by the honour of my Clan that we will keep you safe." Slowly, the sword fell from Yong's grasp, and his eyes drooped closed as he fell forward limply. Jii caught him deftly and lifted the young man up with his tentacles to carry him away from the fire.

"What do we do with him?" Dami asked quietly.

"We'll have to take care of him, and bring him to the officials in Chengdu. I'm already a glorified babysitter," Eunji sighed.

"So what's one more?" Song stared into the burning heart of the pyre. He'd wanted to come see how the past had touched his family. But instead, he'd learned much more than he'd ever wanted to know. This was the Gangho. Where the line between Man and Monster was as thin as lines of ink upon a page.