THE YILING MATRIARCH

Chapter 7 : The Dancing Stone

Told you I would update this when it reached to 400 views! It's actually right now 432! Wowza! Can I challenge you to help this reach 500? Ch8 is right after this one!

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Left to wander by herself once Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng had left their conversation as it had been, Meifeng still couldn't seem to shake off the faces she had seen so soon after her incarnation, or the teen she had met related to the clan leader. With the cool night breeze tugging at her clothes and wisps of hair, Meifeng allowed herself this time to reflect a little with ease what she would do from now on. Maybe she would travel the countryside for a while, walking from village to village and helping people... She could, after a few years of laying low, use a bit of her cultivation to clear her name-

No. Thirteen years ago, the world had found peace in her death, and it would have to remain that way, for if people found out she had been revived then she would be sought after by people with less than noble intentions for the Cultivation world. It was best everyone continued to believe she was dead, and Mo Xiemei was a simple lunatic living on her own after her family turned into ghouls.

Again, the cool air tickled her skin, but something also prickled under her senses, alerting her of something nearby. The presence felt large, too large and... different for it to be a group of people passing by somewhere, nor was it anything Meifeng had ever sensed before in her previous life. It felt dark and off-centered... it was as if it was a piece of ribbon wiggling like a freshly caught eel at the fish market right next to her, yet also eerily familiar at the same time. Closing her eyes, Meifeng pushed her senses outward in better focus; it was tall... tall like a statue in a Hindu temple. Its grainy texture rubbed against her mind as it got closer.... And it was coming up right at her!

Quickly jumping back as the ground at her feet gave way, dust erupted into the air as three familiar shapes appeared out of the thick cloud, revealed as the two disciples that had followed Lan Wangji from Mo village and Jiang Cheng's young nephew, Jin Ling. What followed them, however, caused Meifeng's jaw to drop, for it was a large statue of a dancing Goddess! The serene smile carved into the face was possibly the most disturbing feature of the possessed rock as it attacked relentlessly. "Huh? What on earth is going on here?" The sudden arrival of a rogue team of Cultivators did not help Meifeng's confusion, yet their attempts to subdue the rampaging giant were sadly in vain, as it was for the younger generation.

After plucking a few leaves from a tree in order to gauge the statue's strength against her own powers, as well as determine the source of it, Meifeng cursed under her breath that the demonic spirit that took the form of a possessed left arm had latched itself onto a host that was not soft flesh. The damned thing had a bad habit of running into her in the worst possible ways, and she would put a stop to it. Watching as a Cultivator's last technique to quell the statue's rampaging on the mountain failed, Meifeng decided it was finally her chance to step in and show the children how a professional handled unruly spirits such as this one that was responsible for creating Xiemei's relatives into zombies.

As the night's gentle glow was replaced by the red heat of a forest fire, her little adopted nephew's attacks gave her time to quickly fashion a weapon she had used during the Sunshot Campaign against the Wen Clan long ago when these children had been babes suckling at their mother's breast: a simple bamboo flute that, while not a quality that she was used to, would do just fine for what Meifeng had in mind. Placing the hollow surface to her small lips, a whistling sound left the instrument that quickly gained the statue's attention, and so it should. Even the weakest spirit knew her deathly macabre and all it entailed for the Yiling Matriarch's enemies.

With its full attention now away from the others, Meifeng put forth her energy into the ground below her to summon any soul who would hear out her melody for help. Feeling something snag on the end of her line, she pulled it back, not caring who she was bringing from the underworld so long as the wrath was strong enough. Watching as the earth shook and ground rumbled, what rose from the soil before her was someone however she was sure she would never see again.

It was the Ghost General, slayer of one-hundred Lanling Jin Cultivators at the Burial Mound entrance whose strength was rivaled by none, and had been the most prominent zombie in the Yiling Matriarch's army of the undead... or as she had known him, the cowardly, kind boy who had been her friend, Wen Ning.

How was this possible? How was he here? Hadn't he been destroyed, like so many of her creations had been in that dreadful battle that also took her life?

Despite her shock, Meifeng could not let it stop her from playing, as her performance was the key in preventing Wen Ning from accidently hurting anyone. It was anyone's guess what had happened to her beloved friend over the years, but through her connection with him, she could sense that the fragile tether keeping his consciousness alive had withered and aged to the point all of her hard work to bring back the loveable teen had been lost. Playing a harsher tune, Meifeng wordlessly commanded Wen Ning to attack the Hindu statue, to aim for its arms on the left side of its body, until it was destroyed. Following her commands, Wen Ning jumped into action, the long chains on his wrist wrapping around the granite limbs with violent speed and brutal force that caused the Cultivators watching to gulp in horror, but that was quickly shoved away in place shock.

"It's... it's the Ghost General!" The title itself was enough to put fear in the hearts of men, having grown up listening to stories of the infamous wraith who fiercely guarded his Mistress against the combined forces of the Four Great Cultivation clans during the Second Battle at the Burial Mound. Jin Ling, whose eyes danced with absolute fear quickly grew hot blooded at the zombie whose very existence reminded him of one simple fact he had grown up with his entire life that he had been an orphan. As burning anger filled Jin Ling at this, out of the fire's smoke came one of the statue's hands as it pinned him to a tree, constricting his breathing as scratching bark bit into his back at the sudden assault.

Quickly changing her tune, Meifeng directed Wen Ning in his pursuit against the stone being, aware of the hot sensation in her eyes as they changed into a bright vermillion, and remained unflinching as her soldier ripped into battle once more. Her aid to Jin Ling would not take back what she had said to him, but she could not let her beloved older sister's only son die here. Not before she could properly apologize for everything that had been her fault. This thought drove her fingers to play its sweetly cruel song, maintaining an awareness of her battlefield as the world burned around her with suffocating black clouds, but instead of remaining a distance, the viewing audience jumped into action thinking her actions still those of a simple lunatic and Wen Ning's presence there was an ominous sign they could not afford to ignore.

Gathering to perform a ritual which would seal the evil arm away into a devil-trapping bag, Meifeng found that things were not as simple as they had initially seemed and that it was best if Wen Ning left for now. While Lan Yuan had been focusing on sealing the arm away, the Rogue Cultivators had focused their attention on capturing the Ghost General for their own glory as it was the chance of a lifetime to defeat the infamous champion of the Yiling Matriarch.

Attacking in unison, Meifeng saw that her flute-playing had awakened Wen Ning's bloodlust as he retaliated. Thick veins of energy pulsed under dead skin as the weighted chains struck out at any poor soul that came near him like a cornered beast. Even Jin Ling, having shaken his initial fear, pinned one whipping chain to a tree with an arrow hoping to stop the zombie as well, only to be thrown aback by Wen Ning's free arm flying to strike the boy!

Before her mind had processed the words leaving her lips, her ears heard her voice say the words. "Stop!" Halting a few inches from Jin Ling's face, Wen Ning's face changed, as if he had heard the sound of her voice before she had brought her flute to her lips and played a softer melody, into an expression of disbelieving relief. Invoking a softer memory that surfaced in her mind, the gentler melody pulled the zombie towards her. Like a child on shaking feet, Wen Ning walked a few paces towards her towards the sound of her flute. He had loved her playing, saying it relaxed him and made anything that was bothering him float away with it.

For every step he came towards her, she took one step back, drawing him away from the others and hoped none would pursue the two of them as she felt the fingers of fire threaten to burn at her clothing. When she had felt her back hit something, Meifeng had initially thought it was a tree, but trees did not have hands that quickly wrapped around her waist in a protective manner.

She had run into Lan Wangji, who was looking down at her with his molten gaze with something akin to recognition as his heart beat in his chest in surprise after hearing a song he had only played for one person.