~~~

The corpse has four legs, and every time one hits the ground, the earth rumbles. It moves without hurry, yet the creature’s size is such that even those slow, lumbering steps manage to cover great distances. The closer it gets, the easier it becomes to appreciate how massive the creature is.

Long, yellow-ish horns grow from its head, and two long tusks come from its mouth. Half of its hide is rotting, and the other is covered in a thick, green-ish hide. It looks like some dead animal you’d find lying on a swamp, not that Feng Zhi knows of any swamp deep enough for this creature.

Neither its appearance nor the horde of dead creatures following it is what troubles Feng Zhi.

Preserving and animating a corpse is not beyond a cultivator with the right skill set. Feng Zhi has seen such things before. When he was much younger, he and Feng Zhou stopped a cultivator who had been terrorizing a small city by making them believe the vengeful ghost of a famous outlaw had come back to take vengeance on them. Feng Zhi has also encountered several disciples of the Infinite Mountain Sect that could create huge creatures of rock and iron to fight for them. He has even fought against the mysterious puppetry of the Wildwood Theater Troupe.

This is not that.

The Qi he feels from this beast and from all the many creatures marching alongside it lacks any shred of vitality to it. He wants to say it is Yin-aligned but hesitates to do so because that would be an insult to every Yin-user he has ever met.

This thing is foul and wrong and…dead.

This Qi is dead. The description comes to him naturally, yet his brain struggles to comprehend it, struggles to reconcile what is before him with everything he knows about Qi.

“What even is that?” Xi Mou asks, bringing a hand to his mouth as though he were about to throw up. Feng Zhi is not faring much better. In the face of this new threat, their enmity has been left forgotten. Though they had been mere seconds away from fighting, they now stand side by side.

“What point is there in asking? You just said you were my superior in cultivation,” Feng Zhi reminds him. “If so, you should be able to feel it.”

“I know it’s a corpse! I know it’s dead!” Xi Mou snaps at him. “That’s not the issue!”

Feng Zhi does not reply. He understands exactly what Xi Mou is getting at. It is not just the inherent wrongness of this thing that is the problem.

He cannot tell how strong this army of dead creatures is.

Feng Zhi knows there are multiple creatures before him. Size alone indicates that the largest corpse must have been in the True Realm before it died. However, no matter how hard he tries, Feng Zhi cannot discern their cultivation realm. He cannot even sense the dead creatures as individuals. It is all one singular, dead Qi that blankets the area and crawls over his skin like a thousand ants. The closer the horde gets, the worse the feeling becomes.

As Feng Zhi stares down the approaching army, an old memory comes to the forefront of his mind.

~~~

“Everything you can see, all the way to the furthest reaches of the horizon, belongs to the Eternal Flame Clan,” his father tells him while hoisting him over his shoulders. “However, there are lands even beyond that.”

“My instructors told me about this! Father is talking about the other members of the Four Great Sects, right?”

To Feng Zhi’s surprise, his father shakes his head no.

“Further still, son. It is true that even outside the Crimson Cloud Empire, few rival the might of the Four Great Sects. However, that is only true for this side of the Dead Plains. On the other side, it is a different story. The Four Great Sects have no authority there. Instead, those lands are ruled by three great powers. It pains me to say this, but each one of them is stronger than even our Eternal Flame Clan.”

“They are even stronger than you, father?!”

“Even stronger than I, son. Listen well and never forget their names. The Peerless Heavenly Sword Peak, The Temple of the Thousand Shadows, and...”

“Father? What is the last one called?”

“Death Fashioning Scripture.”

~~~

People often say his father is an emotional man, but that memory marks one of the few times Feng Zhi has seen his father truly bothered about something. Usually, his father is completely in control of himself. He is as lustful as he wants to be, as angry as he wants to be, and as joyful as he wants to be. All his excesses are deliberate indulgences. That is what makes dealing with him so infuriating.

However, at that time, he’d been bothered even though he didn’t want to be.

Death Fashioning Scripture…

The spectacle before Feng Zhi certainly feels like death. Still, it is too soon to make any assumptions. This could just as easily be some rare, natural anomaly of the Dead Plains.

But... if this phenomenon is linked to one of the powers from beyond the Dead Plains, is it wise to oppose them?

“It doesn’t matter,” Feng Zhi says at last.

“Young Master?”

“It doesn’t what this is or how it came to be,” Feng Zhi says as he begins marching towards the horde. Sparks flicker in his hands.

“What we must do doesn’t change!”

[Joyous Blazing Surge]

Blue flames erupt from Feng Zhi’s hands and engulf the land like a raging river. The grass turns to ashes instantly, and the earth melts under his power. Everything within hundreds of yards in front of Feng Zhi is alight with blazing blue fire.

The dead horde does not even scream.

They keep marching on even as their bodies burn and turn to ashes. Pain is the domain of the living. These things, whatever they are, probably don’t even realize they are being hurt.

By the time Feng Zhi stops his technique, the smaller critters have nearly all been reduced to ashes. The larger ones still march on. The giant monster which makes the earth rumble is not even singed. Feng Zhi immediately reevaluates his opinion of how strong the beast was when alive.

Xi Mou attacks next.

The Core Disciple leaps forward and brings down his hand in a slashing motion. Unlike Feng Zhi’s attack, which covered a vast area, the fire that emerges from the tip of Xi Mou’s fingers is thin like the edge of a knife. It pierces through the earth in the blink of an eye and reaches the giant corpse. The blazing flame instantly makes its skin blister.

However, that is all it does.

It cannot pierce its skin. It cannot stop its advance. The giant keeps moving forward through the fire.

Xi Mou clicks his tongue and stops his technique. “It’s in the Earth Realm then. Annoying.”

“It’s at least in the Earth Realm,” Feng Zhi corrects him. “I’ll take the left side.”

Not waiting for Xi Mou’s reply, Feng Zhi blurs towards the giant creature. As he does, the remaining beasts around the monster attack him. They are ugly and misshapen things with bones and muscle tissue exposed. Some are still on fire. The smell of rot and burning flesh reaches Feng Zhi’s nose as they try to swarm him.

He blazes through them in an instant.

His Qi manifests itself as an aura of flames that burns anything that gets within five feet of him. His path leaves a trail of ashes, burned corpses, and molten rock. In the time it takes for a hummingbird to flap its wings, Feng Zhi has already reached the giant. He leaps into the air until he is in front of its face and unleashes furious flames from his fist.

[Joyous Flame]

The giant beast strikes back.

It doesn’t move to tackle the airborne Feng Zhi with its many horns and tusks. At least, not in the way Feng Zhi expected it to do so.

It grows another head.

Its flesh twists and turns as horns pierce through its own skin. Flesh morphs and quivers, opening into a mouth full of sharp teeth and hollowing out into empty eye sockets to stare at Feng Zhi with. The Young Master of the Eternal Flame Clan finds himself momentarily stunned by the grotesqueness of it all.

The horns smash against his body, and Feng Zhi only barely manages to focus his Qi towards protecting himself. The impact tosses him back several yards. Feng Zhi grits his teeth and releases a burst of flame to counter his momentum. He can feel the bruises forming on his arms, just as he can feel his regeneration taking care of them near-instantly.

On the other side of the beast, Xi Mou is having the same problem. Another head has grown for a total of three. The three mouths snap at the air with great ferocity, as if they couldn’t decide which of the two to go after. The issue, however, does not last long. The giant beast rips itself apart before their eyes, each head growing its own body.

The creatures crawling below them twist themselves and grow misshapen wings that, somehow, allow them to take to the skies. Feng Zhi is suddenly surrounded by ugly winged creatures while one of the three giant beasts charges at him. The other one goes rampaging towards Xi Mou.

The third one starts moving towards the cave Feng Hao is in.

“I have had…ENOUGH!”

Gold Flame, Eternal Flame, erupts around Feng Zhi. The winged creatures around him burn to ashes. The golden flames wrap around Feng Zhi like a cloak and propel him towards the giant beast like a shooting star.

He flies right through it.

The monster does not have the chance to utter any sort of dying roar. Feng Zhi enters through its mouth, burns through its throat, and exits through whatever it has that passes for lungs. No matter how tough, the abomination's body cannot hope to withstand the Eternal Flame.

As soon as Feng Zhi has torn his way through the first beast, he slams right into the one heading towards the cave and unleashes an explosion that rocks the earth for miles.

As the blast fades away, Feng Zhi is left flying in the sky, propelled by his own flames. Sweat shines on his forehead, and his breath comes out in heavy pants. Still, he looks far better than the burned corpse below him. Feng Zhi hadn’t been able to hold the Eternal Flame long enough towards the end, but he had done what he needed to.

As soon as he thinks that, grotesque sounds emanate from the fallen corpses.

Not possible.

That is not possible.

The abomination he just flew through is getting up. Not only that, but it is healing itself as well. The first was expected. The second one should not be possible. The Eternal Flame is not the sort of thing one can heal from. If it was something so mundane, it wouldn’t be so hard to use!

And yet, right before his eyes, the abomination gets up. The same thing is happening with the other one. Flesh and bones twist into ugly strands before his eyes that head towards the first beast, merging with it and healing it

No.

Not healing, Feng Zhi realizes as the two giant beasts fuse into an ugly two-headed creature. This isn’t healing at all.

It is remodeling.

He does not have time to ponder the ramifications. A furious Qi flashes behind him. It is a power he has no trouble recognizing.

Eternal Flame.

Feng Hao.

Feng Zhi turns around and rushes towards the cave, propelled by his own flames. In that crucial moment, he lets his guard down and is punished for it. The two-headed beast slams into him. Giant horns knock all the air out his lungs and make him cough blood. Though sharp, they are so big it is like being hit with a gigantic bone cub.

The tusks come next. The two large heads swing towards Feng Zhi to strike him with those devastating weapons.

Feng Zhi stops them.

All the momentum behind the two attacks is stopped by Feng Zhi’s bare hands. The flames around his body are weak, and he’s bleeding from his forehead, yet the grip he has on the beast’s tusks is unshakable.

This thing thinks it can stop him from protecting his brother?

“YOU… ARE COURTING DEATH!”

Feng Zhi roars, and golden flames surge around him once more. Feng Zhi summons all the power his body can bear and then some. His body screams as a massive corona of golden fire completely envelopes the two-headed beast’s body. It shines like a second sun that can be seen for miles.

When it fades, Feng Zhi falls to the ground, tired and hurt from the strain.

However, of the two-headed beast, there is no more.

Someone laughs.

It is not a loud laugh, yet it fills the emptiness of the plains. Feng Zhi instinctively wants to shudder, but he refuses to show weakness. He wills his body to stand up and demands his regeneration to speed up.

“That… is the idea.”

The voice comes from inside the remaining beast. It is not menacing, yet it fills Feng Zhi with dread.

“The controller,” Feng Zhi states while trying and failing to find Feng Hao’s Qi. How could his brother have hidden his Qi so well when it was blazing bright mere moments ago. Dozens of scenarios flash through his mind, some too horrible to contemplate.

“Well met, visitors from the other side. A… brilliant display.”

“We have no quarrel with you, so why are you attacking us?” Xi Mou asks as he appears at Feng Zhi’s side, his fight with the remaining creature temporarily put on hold.

“Ah, but we do have… a quarrel. This meeting is no accident, visitors from the other side”

“Is that so?”

Fenz Zhi and Xi Mou freeze.

That voice just now wasn’t either of them. It also wasn’t Feng Hao. Slowly, they turn around towards the person who somehow got so close without them noticing.

No, it wasn’t that he had sneaked up on them.

He was just so fast they hadn’t realized he was close until he was right beside them.

“I’d love to hear more.”

Xun Huwen has arrived.

~~~