Empire (Xichen X OC)

Chapter 35

It was not that long since Jin Ling had left our heroes behind, to try and released some put-up pressure that he had been gathering inside of him.

However, his trip was cut short when he found himself staring face-to-face with a mummified body, covered by thick vines.

His screams echoed across the forest, quicky alerting our heroes. Wei Wuxian was the one to sprint first, trying his best to find Jin Ling, all while worrying that the boy was in some serious trouble.

Guan-Yin and Wagji simply walked towards the source of the scream. They doubted anything big was around for they would have sensed it. Not to mention, Wei Wuxian could hold his own in a battle; until backup arrived.

They reached him soon after, quickly noticing the many bodies existing around them. Their human appearance had almost disappeared, now being covered by thick swamp vines that wrapped around them.

"These are..." Wuxian muttered as he looked around.

Wangji took out his Guqin and released powerful energy in a circular motion. It quickly made the green fog dissolve and exposed that our heroes were surrounded by dozens of those vine-covered bodies.

"Are those people?" Guan-Yin questioned, taking a few steps closer to one of them, looking at them with curiosity and some pity.

"I see" She heard Wuxian mutter but she wasn't the only one.

"What do you mean?" Jin Ling asked, turning to face him.

"A Zombie Trap Array was set on this hill." He explained and Guan-Yin paled faintly once she slowly started to connect the dots. "It can ensure feral zombies and seal resentful energy. That's why when we were at the foothill, the resentful energy had risen sharply within a few steps. Within the Array, resentful energy grows and accumulates, which ends up dulling the five senses and inducing hallucinations"

"And it affects everyone, right?" Guan-Yin asked her attention fully on Wuxian. "Human, beast or demon, can fall victim to it"

The cultivator in black gave a nod. "That's right. This is why there are rumours that say, one can enter the hill but never leave"

Jin Ling seemed to understand, for he looked back at the corpses that stood there like unfortunate statues. "Then these corpses are..."

"The Village people that disappeared all those years ago" Guan-Yin concluded, confirming her initial suspicion.

Jin Ling took a deep breath, trying to ease his nerves and play it bravely. "They...they are just corpses. Nothing to fear!" He started to walk away, inspecting the other bodies.

Guan-Yin placed her hand under her chin, pulling the usual face she did when she was bothered by something.

Her uncle was the first to notice her, recognising that face. "What is it?" Wangji asked, knowing she had a question but she was not going to voice it out anytime soon.

"Just...something doesn't fit in all of this...to me" she explained as she turned to fully face the two men. "I mean, if all this resentful energy in the hill had already been sealed, why was the Watch Tower still able to detect its abnormal fluctuations?"

Wuxian was surprised by her question, simply because he was wondering the same thing but he didn't manage to voice it out before her. Yet, despite that surprise, there was also some inner pride.

She is far smarter than she looks...and observant, he thought, slowly learning more and more about his niece.

In a way, she was his second-generation niece, because of the relationship he had with her mother. It was a complicated thing but he saw her the same way he saw Jin Ling.