by Tao Wong
To make the request, the village had sent some of their own over with the requisite payment. While Wu Ying had gotten the rice and the rest of the camping gear together, Tou He had gone to talk to the villagers.
“Not much. The hopping vampires are based in a cemetery. The villagers have been trying to contain them with a ring of rice, but that’s insufficient with the constant rainfall,” Tou He said. “They tried banishing a few, but their Taoist priest fell ill and has been too sick to do more than paint a few talismans.”
Wu Ying grunted, recalling the specialized peach-wood weapons the pair had drawn from the sect’s stores. That the sect had these weapons lying around in the armory, waiting for someone to borrow them, was kind of amusing to Wu Ying. Because really, how often did you need edged peach-wood weapons?
“Did you get any urine?” Tou He asked.
“Har.” Wu Ying shook his head, recalling the shocked look on the attendant’s face when he asked. And the attendant’s greater shock when the attending Senior crossly informed the cultivator that such stores were reserved for greater threats. “No. Surprisingly, black dog urine that is properly conditioned and treated is hard to acquire. It seems the urine has to come from pure black dogs during certain periods of the month for proper effectiveness.” Grinning with mischief, Wu Ying added, “But I was told that if we could find a young man who has never touched or shared an intimate moment with a woman, his urine would work.”
“Really?” Tou He said blandly. “That’s good to know.”
The pair raced down the mountain, crossing li after li before Wu Ying finally couldn’t stand it anymore. “It’s you. You’re the young man!”
“No. I’m not.” The still-bald ex-monk picked up the pace.
Wu Ying’s eyes widened and his friend pulled well ahead of him before the cultivator shook off his shock. After that pronouncement, Wu Ying definitely needed an answer. Or better yet, a story.
***
Days later, the pair finally arrived at the village sans a story about Tou He’s scandalous rendezvous with a young lady. Wu Ying wondered how much his friend hid beneath that smiling demeanor. After all, Tou He had been kicked out of the monastery. Wu Ying had even briefly doubted the veracity of his story, but the cultivator pushed those doubts aside. He had no reason to believe his friend had lied to him and good reason not to let doubts mar their friendship.
Wu Ying eyed the village as they reached the top of the grass-covered hill that housed the central living areas and the shops that made up this farming village. Beyond the fact that Hongmao was located in a series of rolling hills, unlike the flatter terrain of Wu Ying’s village, Hongmao could have been said to be a copy. Numerous residences rested among the hills and stepped fields. The villagers were out in the fields, working the land, weeding, clearing out ditches, and repairing terraced walls. A wave of nostalgia washed over Wu Ying as he saw the all-too-familiar scene.
The villagers eyed the pair of sect cultivators, clad in their green-and-blue robes, with caution and some relief. Wu Ying understood the caution entirely. Too many “real” cultivators considered those who had not ascended in their cultivation as lesser beings. Though now that he had been on the inside of the sect, Wu Ying could not help but wonder if some of that might have been an issue of nobles looking down on commoners, rather than cultivators looking down on the untrained.
As they entered the center of the village, the village head appeared, breathing hard from his run to greet them. “Greetings, honored cultivators.” The village head bowed low. “I am Teoh Kah Hock[46]. Welcome to our small village.”
“Cultivator Long Wu Ying of the Verdant Green Waters Sect.”
“Cultivator Liu Tou He of the Verdant Green Waters Sect.”
The pair bowed in unison as if they had planned it, forcing Wu Ying to smile as he realized what they’d done.
“Thank you for coming, cultivators. The hopping vampires have been troubling us greatly,” Kah Hock said.
“Not at all.” Wu Ying followed the village elder as they walked into the village. “Have you not tried to hunt them during the day?”
“We have, honored cultivator. But though the jiangshi might be weaker in sunlight, they are still not weak. And there were too many by the time we found them,” Kah Hock said.
“Too many?” Wu Ying said.
“Yes. The cemetery they live in is an older one. Abandoned by our village centuries ago. We did not realize it was not consecrated any longer till, well, now,” Kah Hock said, making a face. “The Taoist priest we hired to consecrate the grounds and appease the spirits when we learned of it was injured and grew sick from the overabundance of yin chi. He says he will go back when it’s cleared.”
Tou He nodded amiably, looking around the quiet village center. Wu Ying followed his gaze, spotting a group of elders and a pair of kids lying and sitting in a corner of the village square, soaking up the rays of sunshine. All of them were strangely pale and entirely too lethargic, especially the children. Wu Ying extended his senses, feeling toward them, and frowned as he felt the lack of pressure from their auras, the absence of vital chi within their bodies.
“They are the victims of the jiangshi,” Kah Hock said when he spotted the pair’s eyes. “Those who survived.”
“I see,” Wu Ying said, growing more resolute. Thrice-damned restless spirits.
“It is too late to journey to the cemetery tonight,” Kah Hock said. “If the honored guests will accept our humble hospitality, we will show you the cemetery tomorrow. We would ask for your aid tonight if they break through, but the priest’s formation should hold.”
The pair quickly accepted Kah Hock’s suggestion, placing their burdens down in the guest rooms offered inside Kah Hock’s own home. As the largest building, it was also the only one that had enough free space to properly accommodate the pair. Wu Ying took the opportunity to wash away the stink of his excess cultivation while leaving Tou He to finish unpacking. Once they were done, the pair exited their rooms to explore the small building.
To their surprise, the cultivators found a silent Taoist priest in the inner courtyard, seated in a cross-legged meditative position. Like the other victims, the bearded priest was unnaturally pale and doing his best to soak up the yang energy from the sun. Unlike the other victims, he also bore physical injuries along his arms and across one blood-stained, bandaged shoulder.
Tou He elbowed Wu Ying, jerking his head toward the exit, and the pair tiptoed out. Best to leave the priest to heal. Over the next few hours till the end of day, the pair walked the village, eying the defenses set up, their peach-wood weapons strapped to their bodies.
***
Later that night, Wu Ying and Tou He sat across from each other in the lamp-lit courtyard. The priest had abandoned the courtyard when the sun fell, passing a few words of greeting and caution to the pair before he retired. Village-head Teoh excused himself after offering the pair their supper, indicating he had to check on the remainder of the village.
“This is really very good,” Tou He said, holding up the simple bun made from a rice wrapper and stuffed with fresh chives, bean sprouts, onions, and marinated pork. “Not enough meat, but quite tasty.”
“You and your meat,” Wu Ying said with a roll of his eyes.
Tou He grinned unrepentantly. “What do you think?”
“Of?”
“The assignment.”
“There are more hopping vampires than we were told to expect,” Wu Ying said.
Initially, that number had been six. Too many for the single Taoist priest, but viable for a pair of experienced cultivators. Even if neither of them were in the Energy Storage stage. From their conversations with the few villagers, it looked as though the initial estimates were grossly wrong. There were at least a dozen of the monsters, a number that would require at least one other cultivator. If not two.
“Can we do it?”
Wu Ying considered the question. “Not if we fight them all.”
“Then
?”
“We hunt. Tonight,” Wu Ying said, pushing aside his concern. “If we can catch them alone, it should work.”
“Will they be alone?” Tou He asked as he finished off the bun.
Wu Ying shrugged. It was not as if he had ever dealt with so many hopping vampires. There were many reasons for the vampires to be born. Evil necromancers would raise them to harass a village for money, while others rose from corpses that were not properly consecrated. In this case, errant spirits had chosen not to return to hell and taken control of rotted bodies. In Wu Ying’s village, there had been but a single incident of these monsters, and in that case, it was a single body.
“Well, the sun has set,” Tou He said, eyeing the darkness before he picked up another rice bun and his new staff. “Shall we?”
***
Wu Ying frowned as they walked the inner perimeter of the village. In the village center, he heard the fearful murmurings of the villagers and saw the blazing lights the villagers had started to offer a modicum of safety and illumination. But at the edges of the village, where the bangua signs marked the beginning of the spirit formation, Wu Ying found the leaking light an annoyance. Unfortunately for their night vision, the pair had to often turn back toward the village center thanks to the twisting paths.
“Can you see anything?” Wu Ying asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Not whispering though, because that would make his voice carry.
“A little,” Tou He said, eyes resolutely fixed on the outside of the village.
Before Wu Ying could speak, a low buzzing sound permeated the air. The pair took off immediately, knowing that the noise originated from the spiritual formation activating. In seconds, the pair dashed backward, treading through the streets back toward the main road and the harsh illumination of the bonfire, before crossing over to the path that led to where the noise originated.
By the time the pair arrived, the only sign of the hopping vampire’s previous presence was a pair of footprints in the soft earth. A short distance from the first pair, the cultivators eyed another set of footprints that marked the vampire leaving. Any further footprints were lost in the abyssal darkness of the night.
Wu Ying hissed in frustration, looking at the mostly-gone waning moon. This was the third attempted breach of the formation the pair had failed to reach in time. Having to traverse between buildings and being forced to stare at the bonfire within the village meant that by the time they reached the breach attempt, the vampires had left. If they continued with what they were doing, the pair might as well go back to the residence and sleep.
Standing where the formation had been recently tested, Wu Ying could tell that the formation itself was wearing down. It would likely last tonight and perhaps a few more days, but it would not last forever.
“Shall we try to follow?” Tou He said, gesturing toward the footprints.
If they stood there long enough, their night vision would return. And there was enough moon and starlight that they could follow the tracks if they had their full night vision.
“Dangerous,” Wu Ying pointed out. He hesitated, looking at his friend who returned his gaze placidly, and shrugged. “We run for the formation if we meet more than two.”
They could probably handle more, but there was no way to know how fast reinforcements would arrive. One each they could probably handle.
“Lead on.”
***
Cold. Wu Ying shivered the moment they crossed the formation, his peach-wood sword in hand. As he extended his senses, Wu Ying felt how the yang energy from the surroundings had been leached away, replaced by the yin of the vampire. As a monster that existed by feeding on the yang chi of others, it also exuded the yin chi of its makeup. A hopping vampire that did not feed often enough would rot and eventually have its corpse form destroyed. At that time, a strong enough ghost would inhabit another corpse, though others would dissipate, losing their hold on this plane.
All of which meant that a particularly sensitive cultivator could track one of the monsters via the way they drew yang chi from their surroundings. Unfortunately, Wu Ying had yet to gain that level of expertise, something he regretted.
“Can you track them?” Wu Ying said.
In answer, Tou He pointed at the footprints in the soft earth, making Wu Ying snort. At least he had an answer. Keeping one eye on the footprints and another on the surroundings, the pair moved into the darkness and down the hill.
Wu Ying tried to keep his breathing even and slow, drawing the cold night air into his lungs rhythmically while listening for the jiangshi. All the cultivator could hear was the crackle of the distant fire and the occasionally raised voices of playing children, ignorant of their parents’ concerns. After weeks of living with the fear of the vampires, the children had adapted and bounced back. Well, all but those who had been drained.
A pair of footprints became two. Wu Ying felt a shiver go through him when he spotted the new footprints. The hairs on his body stood on edge as a feeling of dread ran through him before Wu Ying shook his head, gesturing for Tou He to continue. It did not matter how he felt, they still had a job to do.
The footprints headed down to where a short wall demarcated one field from the other. As the pair approached it, a noise ahead made the pair hesitate. As they peered into the darkness, the pair of jiangshi the cultivators had been following hopped out from below the hill, approaching a spot in the wall which had been broken through.
For the first time, the cultivators saw the monsters they were hunting. Long, claw-like fingernails, black with rot, sat on arms extended stiffly before them. Feet together, the rotting corpses stared at the pair of cultivators. One monster’s face was so decayed that its jaw hung askew, showcasing a long tongue and greenish-white skin. Clad in the ornate, ragged robes that they had been dressed in upon burial, the monsters hopped forward with nary a sound.
Wu Ying hissed and raised his sword. He was so focused on the vampires to the front, he was startled when Tou He spoke.
“To the right.”
Wu Ying glanced that way and felt his eyes widen as another pair appeared. “Shit. Run on three?”
“Let’s just run,” Tou He said, crouching lower as he held the staff before him.
Acting on instinct, the pair turned in unison and dashed back the way they came. At first, they were neck and neck, but Wu Ying found himself outpacing his friend. As he debated slowing down, another figure hopped into view.
Snarling, Wu Ying raised the tip of his sword and shot forward, pushing his entire body into a single lunging strike. The Sword’s Truth caught the jiangshi as it finished landing, the blade sliding between the monster’s upraised arms and entering its heart. The monster thrashed around, motions jerky as rigid limbs refused to bend, fingers tearing at Wu Ying’s arm and the top of his head. Recovering forward, Wu Ying twisted and kicked, sending the vampire off his jian. The vampire thrashed on the ground before stilling, its gathered chi dissipating as its heart was destroyed.
The meaty thunk of a staff behind him made Wu Ying turn, his sword coming up to guard his body. It was fortunate that he did, as a lurching jiangshi was warded away, its grasping arms pushed aside by the rising blade. Reacting on instinct, Wu Ying released a series of quick cuts even as he backed off, his gaze slipping away from the monster to eye his friend as he fell back.
For some reason, Tou He was a distance from Wu Ying and caught in a desperate battle with three of the vampires. His staff blurred, forming defensive patterns that beat aside grasping arms. Each blunt blow left hissing, burning wounds on the green-white flesh of the vampires. Tou He’s style, The Mountain Resides, was a staff style that excelled in defense. But even then, three jiangshi was more than his limit.
“Wu Ying!” Tou He called as he backed off, his staff blurring as he struck out and retreated to keep himself from being surrounded.
“Hún dàn!” Wu Ying growled as the vampire he was fighting hopped forward again. He blinked away the blood that had begun to colle
ct above his eye, deciding to gamble.
Dragon Stretches got Wu Ying below the arms, while he used Clearing the vermin from the Doorstep to cut at the vampire’s feet. As he stood, Wu Ying focused on his off-hand, borrowing his chi and the guard of his sword to give him the time he needed to form the attack.
A sudden bellow erupted from Wu Ying’s chest as he focused his attack. The attacks from the Mountain Breaking Fist style were numbered instead of named. The first fist started above his lowest floating rib, fully chambered before it was launched with stone-shattering power through the synchronized, matching motion of foot, hip, and fist. The blow caught the jiangshi right above its solar plexus, shattering the sternum and sending the monster flying away from Wu Ying. The attack was not without cost though, as Wu Ying swayed for a second at the sudden release of chi.
A choked off cry and a meaty thump brought Wu Ying’s attention back to the world as he turned to his beleaguered friend. On the ground, Tou He was struggling to keep one hopping vampire from his face while the other two had their hands extended, a cloud of energy drawing from him into the vampires’ waiting hands.
Lips drawn into a snarl, Wu Ying took off running, his chi churning in his dantian and coursing through his meridians as he ran. Judging the entangled group, Wu Ying angled his approach. A quick motion sheathed his sword before Wu Ying launched himself into a tackle. The attack took the jiangshi that was on Tou He’s left side, sending the pair rolling and bowling over another of the vampires. Even before he came to a stop, Wu Ying was scrambling to get on top of the pair, the small pouch of rice in his hand.
A gesture and the rice rained onto the ground beneath and between the monsters and himself. Wu Ying jumped backward, moving away from the creatures, whose eyes were forcibly drawn to the scattered rice grains. As the supernatural curse to count the disparate pieces kicked in, the pair’s eyes flicked from grain to grain. So long as they were not threatened, this would trap the jiangshi.