Backlash Part 1

Chapter 139: Storyteller Mianmian

A rumour had begun to spread across the battlefields. Camps and supervisory offices that they went to attack were now being found void of life. Which is to say, every QishanWen sect soldier that had been stationed in them was dead. The causes of death varied from things as simple as a sword through the chest, to as confusing as... drowning themselves? Luo Qingyang was not certain she believed that last one. Rumours could often take on a mind of their own and she had never gotten to see one of these scenes herself.

She had been transferred to Langya with the rest of her sect. The LanlingJin sect were responsible for the Langya front. Which mostly meant that sects like the WuzhouLi, smaller sects that were affiliated with the LanlingJin sect, made up the bulk of the forces in Langya. Luo Qingyang could not find it in herself to be happy that the LanlingJin sect was finally participating. Mostly because they still had sent hardly a fraction of their own cultivators.

Well, mostly because the YunmengJiang sect was not in Langya and everything was worse when Luo Qingyang didn't get to spend at least a few minutes each day in the company of Jiang Yanli. This was exasperated by the feeling that the Langya front was... incompetent? Useless? Boring? Making no progress? She was pretty sure at least one of those words was correct.

Luo Qingyang wasn't exactly eager for battle, but she wanted to feel like she was doing something. Before there was a sense of progress. Of meaningful effort, even if the battles were bitter and their forces clearly outnumbered. Luo Qingyang had discovered a knack for scouting and had been increasingly chosen for challenging and vital missions. Then she was sent to Langya, and they didn't seem to do much of anything other than maintain their position.

So Luo Qingyang found ways to distract herself. Particularly with the rumours that sounded more like campfire stories. A ghostly flute, the sound announcing impending death. The player, some sort of demon, melting into the night. The dark figure with glowing red eyes that seemed to command nightmares and slaughter. A ghostly figure in white, the deadly guardian of this demonic master, would slaughter any cultivators that attempted to get close.

Luo Qingyang thought it made a brilliant ghost story. What ghost story could be better, than one that specifically targeted your enemies? The carnage left in the wake was always exclusively QishanWen sect cultivators. Some of the scenes were supposed to be horrifying, a level of brutal that could be painted into the depths of the underworld. Luo Qingyang found the idea equal parts entertaining and ridiculous. She doubted very much that some denizen of the underworld had come to help them fight. Most likely this was a group of two or more cultivators, rogues maybe. Musical cultivation was not exclusive to the GusuLan sect, and the targets were always the QishanWen sect.

As for the brutality, Luo Qingyang had a few ideas. The first idea was that those details might be exaggerated or simply made up. The battlefields were plenty brutal all on their own, it seemed possible that the fantastical imagery was simply an exaggeration of the normal horrors of war. The second, and one she felt deserved a lot of consideration, was that the nightmarish brutality might be deliberate. Luo Qingyang knew how spooked many of her fellow cultivators were by this story, and they were not even the targets. Luo Qingyang could only imagine that the QishanWen sect soldiers would be even more terrified.

Luo Qingyang wondered if that wasn't the point. Making a deliberately brutal scene. Something that sounded like a nightmare, something that sounded beyond what mortals could achieve, and let your enemies know that that nightmare was coming for them. Luo Qingyang felt that would be very practical. It would probably make it easier for you to attack. If your enemies start jumping at shadows, just from a few notes of a flute, wouldn't that make them more likely to make mistakes? Then it would be easier to kill them.