Spirits of Falling Snow

吊死鬼 diào sǐ guǐ- Hanged Ghost

In the old city of Dali, west of Yunnan, decorated with countless Pagodas and Pavilions, lay a mountain recently known to host dozens of hanged bodies that seemed to disappear at dusk.

It has been precisely ten days since Jūn had started Fēi's training, she was bewildered at first, the training consisted of meditations and swordsmanship, she exceeded Jūn's expectations in both meditations and swordsmanship, 'Well she did attack me with a dagger' Jūn chuckled at the memory, he was happy with how things had turned up,

"All right, let's finish up" Jūn instructed, they have taken the liberty of training by the foot of the mountain near the inn they have been staying at ever since they arrived three days ago, the mountain, Mount Dian Cang is covered in coniferous and broadleaved trees, giving it a daunting look especially when the sky is dark, you can catch a glimpse of the moon between the heavy branches of the trees, but besides that, the mountain was barely touched by the moonlight.

There is another reason why Jūn has chosen to train Fēi at the foot of the mountain, the case they were working on involves sightings of a hanged man in the mountain's lush forest, but it has been precisely three days since they arrived at Dali, however, so far they have yet to see a single ghost, Jūn had said that if it comes to the case where they did not find anything at all, he will do a cleansing ritual and hope that the hanged ghost would not appear again.

It had been the same routine ever since they first arrived, sleep in the morning till the afternoon, venture out the forest until the time of the ghost, and then cultivate until the first light of the day breaks the horizon, but there was something different today, an anomaly in the flow of qi, at first Jūn had hoped that this was a sign that the hanged ghost will show itself, but to no avail, there was nothing again, still, there was something in the back of his mind, something is not quite right, like a misplaced piece on a chess board, as such, Jūn decided to end the training early today.

Jūn began packing their items to head back to the inn when Fēi suddenly called out for him,

"Jūn" Her voice hinted at a sense of urgency,

"What is it?" Jūn replied, oblivion to the scene unfolding before him, above him, a hanged man appeared, its clothes ragged and its neck crooked to the left in an impossible manner, its tongue was red and hanging from its mouth, saliva dripping from it,

"A...Above you" Jūn looked above and jumped back, his hands steady on the hilt of his sword, ready to strike the ghost if needed, but the ghost was motionless as if it meant no harm, it was then that he knew something was off, the wind brought forth a cold breeze as more shadows appeared surrounding Jūn and Fēi, half a dozen, two dozen hanged ghosts appeared, each with its tongues red and long, dripping saliva with the floor below them covered in red, blood from its distorted neck. All of the hanged ghosts have one thing in common, their index fingers pointing at Jūn and Fēi.

"Jūn!" Fēi panicked at the sight, it was foreign to her, after all, this is her first official mission although she is still in training,

"Hang on" Swiftly Jūn reached out for his talisman pouch and brought forth a paper with the word 'Protect' written on it, the character was written in a rigid manner, as if imitating a sturdy barrier, Jūn placed it around themselves and told Fēi

"Stay here" Jūn brought another set of papers, this time it had the word 'Cleanse' written sleekly on it, he threw the talismans at one of the hanged ghosts but the talisman burned and dropped to the floor to return to ashes, the hanged ghosts started to let out a weird gaggling sound, and before Jūn and Fēi knew it, the hanged ghosts turns, spinning and circling them, the wind turns into a shriek as the hanged ghosts circle them faster and faster, and then it all stopped, they disappeared and the wind calmed down as the sun broke the horizon.