Yue Ran's gaze lingered on Xue Hua for a moment before he pushed open the door, it seems something had happened during the moment he was gone.
Xue Hua seemed slightly on edge, his fingers tightly pressing on itself it almost seemed as though blood would flow out soon
The name lingered in his mind, "Xiaoming".....
There was no one else who this name could've belonged to other than the chief's daughter.
He merely wondered how Xue Hua learned her name, and it doesn't look like that name was the only thing he had learned,
Was he exposed to a certain illusion? That didn't seem unlikely,
However, it didn't seem harmful for now, so Yue Ran decided to check on him after leaving the village.
Xiaoming... So that's what "it's" name was.
Regardless, nothing seemed all that important now, after all, she was already dying now.
Opening the door, cold air seemed to breeze past the two,
Xue Hua noted that this room seems to not have those fleshy things unlike any other place in the manor, but he could smell the distinct metallic scent of blood.
It seemed to belong to the chief.
The room was pitch dark and the silence chilling,
however, if one paid close attention he would be able to hear another slow dragging breath after their own
It belonged to "Xiaoming"
Xue Hua looked towards Yue Ran, he couldn't see his face, but he didn't need to read his eyes to realise that Yue Ran wasn't going to enter
He was merely showing him as he had said earlier.
With hesitance, Xue Hua entered, it seems that he immediately stepped on blood as he heard an unpleasant squelching sound whenever he walked.
As he walked carefully he heard a soft snap from behind him,
But before he could look back the room lit up,
He could finally see everything clearly,
And only a few distance away from him he finally saw them,
His heart seemed to stop for a moment with the sight he saw,
The chief...
His blood were still spilling over from his missing stomach,
Despite most of it covered by a smaller figure, there was no doubt about it, the chief or rather his corpse had a missing stomach.
The ragged slow breaths came from the figure between his arms, it was coming from "Xiaoming"
Who had curled up making her smaller like a ball, yet, unlike the Xiaoming he saw in memories, her body was much slimmer, sickly, and almost unsightly as her ankles peeked out
She looked like mere flesh was covered over her skeleton, he didn't know what he had expected, but even so, this seemed far more extreme, his last memory of her was just before death, and even then she had already lost many weight
Yet,
she still looked alive then-
But now ?
Xue Hua's steps faltered for a moment,
Her face was sunken, eyes hollow and empty, body so pale and purple that people would've wondered why she wasn't buried yet
Instead of a child, what he saw was a preserved corpse that was still somehow breathing.
He felt his hair rise and his scalp tingling,
The amount of blood only seemed to increase the closer he got to those two figure
Xue Hua finally stopped,
Now he understood why Yue Ran didn't enter,
He must have realised that they were merely carcases now,
The spirit or whatever it was that took over Xiaoming must've been dead too– or would soon be dead
His eyes landed on the chief's missing belly once more before he turned his gaze away, he took a deep breath, despite those stubborn metallic scent penetrating his senses
He wouldn't have felt better unless he did it, his heart shook
And he stood still for a moment,
He had many questions in his mind but he couldn't voice a single one and it just didn't seem....right
This room no doubt belonged to Xiaoming,
Xue Hua could still see how she ran around this room, hung out with her mother and hid under the bed...
This room, he realised, was unlike any other, it wasn't large, but it had many things most rooms didn't, which was obviously fixed by the chief due to his love for her, despite how much she couldn't see it.
The entire room was painted in floral patterns, pink plum blossoms... Was it an attempt to get her back to health?
Was it The chief's late attempt to make it up to his daughter whom he made feel unloved?
It was quite ironic,
How he painted the room in her beloved tree after her death, long after the tree had rotted
The room was furnished by soft carpets and thick warm beddings, but they all seemed dull now
Maybe it was the light, or simply the absence of the owner.
And the only reason he could see all this was also because this room in particular, the one on the furthest--
corner from the yard was untouched by any sort of deformed flesh or even the smell of rot despite the entirety of the manor being swallowed by it.
It seems that his hug came far too late,
Xiaoming could not longer appreciate it, nor return the hug,
She died feeling unwanted and nothing would change it now.
No amount of blossoms, furs or hugs would move a decaying corpse
Yet he still hugged her, clinging to her through his death
....
It wasn't surprising
Yue Ran watched from the door, leaning lightly on the its frame
He already knew the chief was going to die sooner or later, but what did surprise him was how the being died.
The chief tried to sustain it by feeding himself to it along with spirit stones, which wasn't at all out of pocket
Since many beasts when injured would be fed spirit stones to recover or heal however,
It seems he didn't take into consideration the elements,
Or maybe he did, that's why he tried to reduce the shock by offering it through him
But no matter, he had picked the purest spirit stones for the being for better or worse and nothing would've changed the outcome, since anything that consumed mortal souls had already been disqualified as its user
Having been considered demonic it could no longer handle pure spiritual energy, much less the sheer amount of it, without any doubt, it turned fatal for the being,
Which turned out to be quite ironic.
Unlike actual demonic cultivators who still had means of using spirit stones, it was different for beasts or monsters
So it seems that the parasite that clung to Siquan turned out to be a corrupted spiritual beast devouring souls to heal itself.
Seeing how capable it actually was, it was quite a shame since it also seemed to have some intellect to it.
He remembered a moment from earlier, when he felt a sudden surge of spiritual energy, almost like a burst, when he was still fighting the "villagers" who kept patching itself up, getting more and more deformed with each moment, and in desperation the beast had searched for a source of quick energy replenishment--
Which was the chief.
Whether he went there by himself, or was dragged there wasn't of importance, but his actions seemed to have done the opposite of what the beast would've hoped for
As the spirit stones ended up giving it a huge backlash,
And that was also when he finally got rid of those fleshy phantoms, finally giving him time to check on Xue Hua
Whom he later found within the fleshy lump of the beast,
Swollen, hanging from the wall like a pregnant belly
It seems, he didn't even do much, and the beast would have died either way had they entered this village or not.
Leaning on the wall he looked at the scene too,
His robes were soaked from blood that splashed over him while combat, and it wasn't at all pleasant,
The scent itself was absolutely foul
That all he wanted to do was burn the clothes right here and now,
Their clothes were still in the woodcutter's home from when the snuck in as scholars,
Despite his growing discomfort, he watched Xue Hua for a while,
Then his gaze landed on the pale figure, hugging what was supposed to be his daughter,
One that devoured the entire village, he was hugging so fondly that it was nothing sort of ridiculous
Was fatherly love something that could delude a man so much to the point of bringing destruction to his village that he is supposed to be protecting?
...he didn't get it.
He took one final look at the chief, who even in his death seemed to be firmly clinging onto the illusion of his "daughter"
"So this is your love?"
He murmured under his breath,
Pondering on it by himself for a couple of breaths his brows slightly furrowed,
"Unfortunately, I'm not too intrigued"
Saying those words to himself he glanced at the chief's dead face one last time before flicking his sleeve and turning away, walking towards the dark hallway leaving the kid who was still inside the room knowing that the kid would soon follow him out as well
The night had passed the darkest phase, dawn would soon grace the village once more, however, instead of a warm hug enveloping the village, it'll be a light unveiling this disaster.
After a couple of hours people would be coming soon,
There was no way those old folks from the sect hadn't sensed the abnormal energies, if they didn't, he'd surely be disappointed and doubt their capabilities.
The beast whose life too was now merely hanging on a thread would soon cease to exist
Yun Buizha would be free from illusion, free from the village and forced to face the reality how he grew was now up to him, with no one now to comfort or guide him, with no one now who knew him he'd have to build himself once more, being the sole survivor
He'd surely be taken by the sect
Yue Ran looked towards the dark sky,
This was the end for this place.
....
After the beast took its final breath,
The place finally began changing, the atmosphere was now lighter, the foul stench was disappearing, the unnerving feeling around the village was vanishing
Xue Hua felt his entire body relax as exhaustion soon knocked on his door, he hadn't realised that he had been tensed the entire time, but no one could really blame him
His eyes felt a slightly dry and painful, as he rubbed his eyes, he took a deep breath
He knew Xiaoming was already dead, but even so he still felt slightly shaken
Now it was only Xue Hua who still remained inside the room, he noticed Yue Ran leaving a while ago, but he couldn't bring himself to look back,
If he did, Yue Ran would've surely seen how unsightly he was,
His eyes were probably red right now, even so, his heart felt lighter,
Closing his eyes for a moment, he glanced towards the corner of the room, opposite from where the chief and Xiaoming were,
He walked towards the drawer beside the bed
*Slide*
Pulling the drawer open
He remained still for a moment,
There it was, just as he had seen in those memories...
The only thing now left of Xiaoming---
An embroidery she made herself.
Xue Hua picked up the handkerchief embroidered by Xiaoming
As he did, feeling the soft fabric rub against his fingertips
He recalled the memory he saw very vividly
There was not a single difference between his memory and reality as he stared at the messy embroidery with conflicting threads overlapping over each other
It was messy yet he could clearly tell what it was
Even if he hadn't seen it from her memories, he would still be able to say that it was the very plum blossoms he saw through her,
One she often visited with her mother.
She had tried to embroider the plum blossom, and give it to her mother, he could still see Xiaoming secretly staying up late and working on it
It was supposed to be a gift to her mother--
But even before she could actually finish it, her mother died, and she never once took it out of the drawer again.
Xue Hua gently but firmly gripped the handkerchief,
It was such a shame that now her emotions, her efforts, her memories were all nothing
But it felt too pitiful, so Xue Hua decided to take it instead
To remember her, remind himself of those memories, and what happened to her, so-
he took the handkerchief
Perhaps, if not for her he would've never known such...desperation, and such warm love that he too, felt from her mother.
He turned towards the figure one last time softly lowering his head then he firmly turned his face way
Walking towards the door
Then he felt a soft tug at the corner of his chest, he immediately turned around, only to see the darkness once again return to the room.
He felt that if Xiaoming were alive, maybe she'd wave him off with a smile.
He could vividly see that image-
Xiaoming waving while mouthing thanks,
Xue Hua's eyes trembled, and with a smile, he closed the door
Yue Ran was waiting for him standing in the middle of the hallway, hearing the steps behind him come closer, he resumed walking,
Yue Ran didn't ask what took him long, instead when Xue Hua caught up to him,
He merely nodded saying,
"let's go"
Stretching his hands to hold Yue Ran's sleeves,
The weight from his shoulder had lifted,
He thought of the moment Yue Ran pulled him out of that helpless place, Xue Hua's lips curved slightly
"Mn"
.....