Wen RuoHan's Heir

8. Year 7: Qishan

The best way to reduce or eliminate this inconvenient liking and jealousy was to absent herself from Lan XiChen's presence. Going on nighthunts, then, served two purposes: one, removing herself from Lan XiChen's vicinity, and two, reacquainting herself with Qishan. Her grandfather's former territory was divided up into chunks, each controlled, more or less (usually less), by one of the major sects. By nighthunting in the YunmengJiang sector of Qishan, she not only familiarized herself with the terrain and people there, she might be able to make a slight name for herself, which would only help when she finally took her proper place.

Most of the nighthunts were simple: youguai that flourished now that the QishanWen were no longer around to hunt, and the other sects tended to ignore problems the residents encountered there. Or there were ghosts left over from the war.

This village seemed to be suffering from the latter condition: it was haunted by ghosts every night for months. Ghosts that, so far, limited themselves to battering at locked doors. Xie An found something off about the villagers.... Something that wasn't obvious.... Something... that wasn't quite right.

The headmaster claimed no knowledge of why the ghosts appeared, and was vague about when the hauntings started. He was only clear that they were now nightly occurrences. Xie An kept an eye on her juniors, ensuring they looked as competent as any juniors should look, while she reassured the villagers, "We will need to identify where the ghosts are coming from as well as what they want."

"Why be concerned with what they want? They're dead!" the headmaster spat. "Just make them go away."

"There is no need, yet, to resort to extreme measures with these ghosts," Xie An firmed her voice. "They have caused no damage to structures, animals, or people, correct?" She gave him her sternest look. "As they are relatively harmless, we will follow protocol which requires us to see if we can satisfy what's causing them to rise in the first place. If we can fulfill that, it is probable that they will settle into their graves and enter the reincarnation cycle on their own." She noticed a few of the villagers giving each other side-eyed looks upon mentioning 'graves', and she knew it wasn't in response to her blade's name.

So were the dead not buried properly?

As dusk fell into true night, the villagers holed up in their houses, barring every door and window against the specters. Xie An felt that was odd, given that they claimed the ghosts only knocked on the doors.... Shortly after, the first of the wraiths 'walked' down the street. Xie An motioned to a pair of the older juniors. "Follow where they're coming from. Do not interact. Just investigate and pay attention."

"Yes, AnJie," they chorused, and started off in the direction the ghosts had 'walked' from.

Xie An watched silently as the ghosts approached a house, tried to open the door, and then started knocking. "Children," she asked softly as midnight approached. "Tell me what you observe. Or what you question."

"They don't hesitate," one offered. "They each went to exactly one house. They aren't trying to get into one house and then moving to get into another."

"What does that mean?"

"They're used to going to that one house?"

"What does that mean?"

"Does it mean... they used to live here?"

Xie An nodded, another piece of the puzzle falling into place. The juniors who were backtracking the ghosts returned, and reported. "There is a mass grave," one stated.

"Mass grave? More like a pit," the other scoffed. "No proper rites were observed. No precautions taken. The bodies were just dumped into a shallow hole and roughly covered with dirt."