THE YILING MATRIARCH

Chapter 4: Idle hand of the Devil

It was at this exact same moment that, when Meifeng suddenly pushed a hysterical Madam Mo aside, a blurred form ran with blinding speed through the crowd where both women had once stood. Some of the ground exploded into multiple rock fragments underneath the pressure of the impact, throwing up dust into the air and inhibiting the others from viewing what had caused such an action for a few tense moments.

At the moment of impact, the spectating house servants that had filled the courtyard had now fled from the gardens, filled with fear at the sight of the Young Master's murder and the violence that had entered the residence. A few of them had even fallen over the other in the attempt of running as far away from the yard as possible, trampling on their peers in the process, leaving the Lan Clan disciples and the crazed Mo Xiemei behind.

When the dust did settle, what they could see under the moon's light was a pair of unseeing, blood red eyes that were staring at them as if it were more of a beast than something human, but there was nothing human about it aside from its physical form. Even the body itself seemed to give off a wicked aura, physically pulsing with a faint blue-black energy, especially around the left arm. No matter how monstrous it appeared, it was easy to recognize the ghoul had previously been in fact the male servant that had followed Mo Ziyuan.

Speaking of the servant, the ghoul lost his balance and folded in half as if all the bones in the body were as soft as dough the minute Meifeng and Madam Mo had stepped out of the way of its rampage, but the broken form only stopped for a moment to right itself before looking at them with another hungry stare.

Lan Sizhui and his peers moved in unison thanks to their teaching into a formation to seal the ghoulish creature, but it seemingly had no interest in them. Instead, the wrathful figure seemed to have a lot of interest in any noise it picked up- a fact that Meifeng took great advantage of once she noticed how it behaved. Picking her role back up, Meifeng led the ghoul away through the small garden of rocks as she kept its attention by yelling constantly.

Meifeng had gotten a good idea of the layout of the garden earlier, so she knew she would be well hidden from view once she ducked behind one of the rock formations, and when the affected servant was where she wanted it, Meifeng began charging up just enough energy in her fingers that would take care of it for good. However, her efforts were brought useless when out of one corner of her eye, she saw the flashing glint from a sword fly through the air, deflecting the zombie from assaulting Meifeng even though the action was not necessary. Lan Sizhui had forced the zombie back into the middle of the courtyard, and the two twirled in a deadly dance, exchanging blows that would cancel each other out until a paper seal latched itself onto the zombie's forehead. This small action seemed to subdue the zombified victim for a few moments as the team collected their breaths.

What was going on? Did the spirit that was plaguing this town have the ability to turn others into wraiths? If that was so, then there would've been more zombies infesting the town than the few that had already been counted. Or had the spirit evolved in some way to learn this new ability?

The seal, which should've given them more time than they were given to collect a new plan in exorcizing the entity, was now broken and a now familiar aura began accumulating around the creature once more as if it were leaving its host behind in the form of a mist into the air. Lan Sizhui, the first to step forward once sure he wouldn't be in harm's way, examined the completely limp form of the servant and noticed it had the same characteristics as Mo Ziyuan: completely dried out without any leftover blood, leaving behind a mummified appearance. The left arm above the elbow joint was gone as well.

While he could sense the initial danger had left, it was not altogether gone. Not really. Even the warm light of the lanterns went out, blown one by one even in the other houses until the dark night crept closer around them.