THE YILING MATRIARCH

Chapter 30 : Stranger Truths

Ignoring half of her mind that worried about what villagers lived in the now zombie-infested city, Meifeng was stuck with four teenagers that she had just cured of their Corpse Poisoning and Wangji in a small room that, with time, would be over-run once the undead found out there was some living targets inside with no way out. Still hearing the tapping that had become incessant from a hidden room, Meifeng decided she would figure out what was making that noise before anything else; it was not helping her growing headache anyway.

Pulling back on a few blanks that closed the space off, her night-vision spotted a slim figure curling into the dark as if trying not to be seen. Using her most gentlest voice, she called out to the little form. "Do not be afraid, little one... you've been following these young men for a reason I assume. Is there anything you need?"

The voice she used was apparently appropriate for the individual hiding herself, pulling enough of her body into what little light there was, and a gasp behind her told the woman that the young men could see now what had been frightening them all this time. True, it was a young girl not much older than the boys themselves, wearing an aged, filthy green dress that had once been a soft olive color with tears at the edges of the fabric and dark brown hair, but was an apparition that appeared to be crying tears of blood from frighteningly clear eyes! Meifeng wasted no time slapping the boys on the back of the head at their rude behavior towards a lady.

Even if she was dead.

"Enough of that! As Cultivators, you will see far stranger things, so you better get used to seeing people's faces covered in blood! If you can't handle this, then toughen up! Honestly, I know this little lady is a little strange to look at, but how would you feel if someone took one look at your face and acted like you were a leper!?" The boys at least had the common decency to look ashamed as she scolded them not much unlike she were their mother. Her posture did help the mental image all in the room was imagining, with both hands on her hips as she glared down at them.

After checking the previously infected boys to see that the corpse poisoning was gone, Meifeng unknowingly went into what the younger men could call a 'teaching pose', and it eerily made her appear just like Lan Wangji before a long lecture.

"Anyway, everyone finished looking? I want you to tell me in a brief summary of what you see and what details you can pick out." Both Jin Ling and Lan Yuan spoke up first and second as the others followed along, giving descriptions of different quality and quantity; Wangji was definitely a large influence on young Yuan's wider descriptive vocabulary. It would have sounded almost poetic if it were not talking about a ghostly girl. Still playing the instructor, Meifeng nodded along to their observations. "Very good. Both of your examinations are true and detailed young man," Here the son of a lesser clan leader that had commented found himself blushing underneath the woman's gaze as she winked at him as she said, "I can tell you'll be the sentimental type once you grow up a bit. A girl likes that." The other boys laughed at the blush that turned the teen's face a bright cherry, throwing light elbow jabs into his sides.

Once a third boy then commented on the strange sounds they had heard of a bamboo hitting the ground with accurate precision did not align with the fact those with no sight would instead be bumping into everything inaccurately, and Meifeng found a reason behind even this to answer his question behind the nimble blind girl. "I see someone deserves points for noticing that little tibet; anyone else might've overlooked that. So, in order to better analyze this... why don't we just ask her ourselves?" The panicked outbursts from the boys went unheard as Meifeng tore down the last of the boards that kept the spectre away from them and gently ushered the girl from her hiding place despite the ghoul's obvious hesitance to do so. "It is ok. Please come out, young maiden, and tell us what business you have to follow us here."