Journey to the Beautiful Ending

C3 - A-Yang

Note: All of the names that will be used for villages and mountains in the fanfiction aren't true. If it happens that there's an existing name of village or mountain, it was purely coincidence. Again, I'm not a medical practioner or a chemist.

And here our cute cinnamon roll – Wen Ning.

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The sun rose so high. It was scorching hot but the people in Chang village who resides down the Duwu mountain were all busy picking vegetables on their farm. Lately, there were few rouge cultivators who visited the mountain but no one was able to get back alive. They all thought that something evil was residing in there so no one of the villagers attempted to go there. Only few people did from the other villages but their lifeless body was always found at the foot of the mountain. They don't understand the cause of their death so they asked for cultivators from the nearest sect to checked on the mountain.

The village elder went to Koi Tower to asked for help but the Jin Sect Elders disregarded the request. Jin Ling didn't know about it since it was never escalated to him. As much as he wanted to make sure that every people who needs help will be entertained, the Jin Sect Elders are really a pain in the head.

Wen Ning happened to hear this concern as he passed by from few cultivators who was planning to check on the mountain. He thought that Sect Leader Jin should be able to take care of it but he realized that maybe, elders already blocked the request. So he travelled and checked the situation.

"A ghost!" A man shouted as he saw Wen Ning walking towards the village. All of the villagers who was busy at their chores ran back to their home.

He approached a man who didn't ran away from seeing him. "I need to know what was going on."

"I don't know if you can do something about it but there seems to be people who went to check the mountain but never came back alive."

"How to get there?"

"Walk straight to that way and turned right, you won't be able to see it well due to the fog. You need to be careful. Something evil was residing there."

"Where are the dead bodies?"

"We already buried them. We tried to keep them for a week until someone could send us at least one cultivator to check it but no one came."

"I understand. Thank you."

"You're a corpse too. Can you do it?" A voice of a young man from behind spoke bluntly.

Wen Ning and the old man faced the person with a basket of herbs at his back. The person was actually a good looking young man and probably around 13 to 14 in age. He was 175 centimeters tall. He was wearing a crossed-collared robes with narrow sleeves and trousers. On his head was a kerchief. With one look, one can easily depict that he was a commoner.

Wen Ning saluted at him. The young man returned the salute. "Childe, are you planning to come too?"

"I'd like to but the mountain was too toxic for a human like me."

Wen Ning, "Toxic?"

"Yes. I can smell the toxicity even from here. Can you not smell it?"

Wen Ning was about to ask the old man about the mountain's history but his attention was caught by the shouting.

"Corpse! Corpse!" A man came running coming from the way to the mountain.

"Hei Long, calm down." The old man told the panting man.

"Grandpa, there's another dead man again." The man told the old man as he turned his head. "Ghost!"

"Silence, Hei Long."

"B-But–" The old man hushed the newly arrived man. But when the young man who immediately ran towards the corpse, Hei Long yelled. "Hey, kid! Don't go there!"

Wen Ning told the two to stay then he ran towards the path of the mountain. When he arrived, other villagers surrounded the corpse but Wen Ning heard the young man warning the people to stay away from the corpse. The young man wore a piece of fabric to cover his mouth and nose.

"What are you doing?"

He checked on the corpse's body. "This man has corpse and acute poisoning. The mountain was toxicated with something but there were also corpses. He won't die immediately if he just inhaled the corpse poisoning as long as he won't move much. But based on his skin, he died due to toxication."

"Stay here." Wen Ning rushed towards the mountain. The fog was not that thick inside so he could see the situation well. He encountered fierce corpses. He fought them but some didn't. It looked like those corpses died there and based on their position, they struggled from breathing before they faced death.

Being a corpse, Wen Ning can move freely without being harmed. The toxicity of the mountain was very heavy. Not only corpses of people are there but there were corpses of animals too. Some are burned but some are not. The smell was indescribable. The horrific smell lingered through the air.

Wen Ning came from the family of best doctors. His sister, Wen Qing, was really great at medicine. With the smell lingered in every part of the mountain, he knew right away that there was a high concentration of acrolein inside the mountain. With all the dead bodies, burned part of the forest and bamboos that are being used to make fuels, the area was not easy to clear.

He went back to the foot of the mountain to see the young man waiting for him. The villagers who was just there before already left.

"I know you are a corpse but you just came from the place with high concentration of acrolein. It will harm the people if they come in contact with you."

"They are too scared to be in contact with me." Wen Ning stated.

The young man sighed. "My name is Liu Yang."

"I am Wen Ning."

"Wen Ning? The ghost general?" Liu Yang exclaimed.

"Yes."

"Wow! I have never thought I would meet the famous right hand man of the Yiling Patriarch."

"Infamous, you say." Wen Ning corrected him.

Liu Yang, "I'm not someone who has the right to judge just because of the rumors. You were here to help so I think you are a good person–" He chuckled and corrected himself, "I mean corpse."

Wen Ning tried to lift his lips for a smile. Other than Wei Wuxian, Sizhui and Lan disciples who have grown a liking to him, Liu Yang was the secind kind human he met. He saluted. "Thank you, Childe."

Liu Yang waved his hand in disagreemet. "Don't call me that. You see, I'm just a commoner. A travelling commoner."

"Then...may I call you, A-Yang?"

Liu Yang smiled showing his brith white teeth. "Sure. I'd like that." He put his hands to his waist and turned to face the mountain. "Anyway, what should we do now? The toxicity of the mountain was very hard to eradicate. If this continues, these villagers will soon be affected. There were people who was already harmed. I've already gave them some cure but the root of it must be pulled out."

"We need to evacuate them and burned the part that has been polluted. This way, other corpses will be burned too."

Liu Yang nodded in agreement. As a travelling person, he already heard a lot. He knew that the place was under the Jin Sect. "Shall we inform the Jin sect leader?"

Wen Ning hesitated. "We have to b-but–"

"You can't just show up there?" Liu Yang completed his sentence.

"Yes."

Liu Yang spoke, "Then let's not inform him." He walked towards the Chang Village. "Let's go and ask for the materials we need."

"Huh? Where?"

"To the villagers."