Loyal, Brave & True

Chapter 26

They followed the growing grass, both holding the donkey that walked between them. Looking around, they stopped once they noticed a sort of open graveyard. A special entrance pillar stood there despite the years, two statues guarding it at each side. Jia shivered and rubbed her arm slightly.

"I do not like it here" she muttered, feeling something cold and dark.

Of course, she doesn't. This place is surrounded by dark fog because many cultivators have been buried here. The spiritual energy lingers for long and then nourishes the grass.

"Leave apple here. We won't take long" he said, and she tied the animal to a nearby tree before picking up speed to catch up with him.

She ignored the shivers and the cold feeling as they crossed the gates. All around them graves, old and forgotten. The spiritual energy there was strong, perhaps too strong. The spirits laying there were restless, the bodies decaying after their unfair death. She could pick up that much.

Thankful that they no longer wore their masks, she rubbed her forehead and slowed down her steps as Wuxian continued. However, he also stopped when he noticed an elderly man swiping the floor from the dead leaves and the dust.

"Excuse me. Which family do the graves here belong to?" Wuxian asked.

The man shook his head and left out a heavy sigh. "They disappeared long ago. The Wen Clan has disappeared".

"Wen Clan?" Wuxian repeated, Jia, being equally shocked and looking at the old man with wide eyes.

Then, finally, the fragments in his mind connected and completed the puzzle. A memory of a dear friend, now lost, informing him that her family was buried there. A glimpse of the fairy statue in a cave, its position being mimicked by Yan on top of that hill. Those eyes belonged to Yan.

Suddenly he understood.

"What is it?" Jia asked, noticing his gaze and having a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"It's not the soul-eater...Jin Ling is in danger" he said and turned to thank the man, but he was long gone.

He stood there for a moment before he started to sprint. Jia wasted no time following him. If Jin Ling was in danger, it was most likely that the Lan Junior Disciples were too.

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Reaching a cave that also served as a temple, inside rested the statue of the Fairy Dancer. A woman with four limbs, carved into a dancing position. People came there to pray on the shrine in front of her feet.

At that moment, many junior disciples occupied the space. However, something went wrong and already one Jin disciple passed out, dark aura and energy quickly forming in the closed cavern. Stones moving could be heard and everyone had turned, swords pointed at the statue.

Before anyone could make a move, Jia jumped at the entrance of the cave and sent two special yellow papered talisman on the statue. They stuck on the stone body and stopping the sound of rock moving.

Everyone turned and noticed her, along with Wuxian by her side. Both wore their masks and had worried expressions on their faces.

"Master Mo!" the smiley boy from the Lan Disciples, known as Shizui to his friends, said, happy to see a familiar face. "It's you...and you have a friend!"

"Get out! Watch out! It's a statue eating soul" he explained and then, the statue started to move again slightly. Everyone turned their swords at it and Jia sent another talisman.

However, it stayed on the statue for a second before falling to the ground.

"It's not working," she said, her worry growing as none of the other disciples dared to move.