Times Have Changed [MDZS]

Chapter 3: Removing Thorns

⸞۞⸟

Chapter Three

Wen Qing parted the curtain of the carriage with her slender hand, revealing an empty and ghostly street. Empty of living, but not of the undead.

No one noticed when it started. It was so sudden and before they knew it, Yiling was already shrouded with thick miasma of resentful energy, invaded by large amount of corpses, and plagued with evil spirits. Reports proved that this all started from the Burial Mounds. Actually, it wasn't a surprise.

As a result, non-cultivators were forced to stay inside their houses to avoid being haunted. Even they, cultivators, only came out today because it's urgent. They needed to restock some of the herbs that are commonly used in concocting medicine. It just so happened that Wen Qing also needed a medicinal herb that only grew in specific areas and delicate enough that she had to personally pick it, so she came out with them.

"Is it him?" Wen Qing mumbled, surprising even herself.

Thinking that the superior was asking for something, the disciple outside asked, "Office Leader?"

Wen Qing, "Nothing."

She also didn't know why she said that. Why did she even entertained that thought?

Wen Qing had heard that the head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang was caught by Wen Chao and was thrown in the Burial Mounds; he must be dead, but she doubted. It might not be a coincidence that the strange phenomena in Yiling started on the very same day Wei Wuxian was reportedly thrown in the Burial Mounds.

She knew that no one had ever came out alive from that place, but what if? Impossible as it might seem, but the determination and courage within those silvery eyes as he gave up everything for his shidi was something that she wouldn't forget. Someone with that kind of spirit would do everything for his loved ones. Undead or not, she felt that he would come back to support, if not take revenge for his family.

Wen Qing wanted to laugh at herself for caring about someone she's not so familiar with. They studied in the Cloud Recesses in the same year before, but she really had no clear impression of him. There were many times they had encountered each other in the back mountain of the Gusu Lan, but they hadn't really talked. Their true acquaintance was when her brother saved him with the Jiang heir and that also was just a patient to doctor relationship.

She sighed. Though unfamiliar, she genuinely wished him well. Perhaps it's a sentiment. She and Wei Wuxian are the same; they would do anything for their family.

Wen Qing was about to withdraw her hand when an eerie sound of a flute scattered to the wind. The disciples outside started to panic, stopping their carriage, and unsheathing their swords.

Hand left parting the curtain of the carriage, Wen Qing witnessed how the mass of black clouds danced with the tune sounding from faraway. Her eyes widened. How could this happen? How could someone gain a great control towards resentful energy? Nevertheless, the scene in front of her was the evidence that it's indeed happening. Someone was controlling these resentful energy, drawing it to somewhere.

Wen Qing raised her head, staring at the distant mountain surrounded with thicker miasma of resentful energy. The Burial Mounds, that person was calling back the resentful energy to the Burial Mounds.

The dark energy in the mountain was becoming thicker and thicker; consequently, the mass of black clouds covering the town was thinning visibly. Like things under a spell, the corpses also started walking back towards the mountain where they were originally shackled.