The Shadow on White Hill

Dong Rui asked, "Fair enough. How do you plan to find her?" "Head back to Bo Kingdom—well, it should be called Peng Kingdom now." "She hasn't left yet?" "Arsonists always love returning to the scene of the crime. As the mastermind behind the curtain, wouldn't she want to admire her masterpiece up close?" Setting others aside, after he and Dong Rui set fire to the Heavenly Palace, hadn't they also stood on a hill outside Lingxu City and watched for a good long while? Naturally, the view from the front row was the finest. …… Xun City was still the same Xun City; from afar, it seemed scarcely different. Only when He Lingchuan and Dong Rui drew near did they see that the city gates, damaged several days ago, had yet to be repaired and had been taken down and leaned against the wall. Covered in the scars of war, they told the tale of the recent upheaval. Workers were scrubbing bloodstains from the walls, yet the wide-open gateway was already hung with grand, splendid red lanterns. A new country demanded a fresh aura. The checkpoint at the city gates had been dismantled. Though guards were still posted, anyone could enter and exit at will. People hurried about, keeping their heads down as they came and went, looking as if they had yet to recover their senses from the fighting a few days earlier. They were neither happy nor sad. The aftershocks of that great turmoil had not passed; they still rippled through the hearts of the populace. Everyone watched in silence, waiting to see whether this fledgling nation would follow the old path of Bo Kingdom. No one possessed any confidence. The notices in the barbican had all been torn down and replaced with new proclamations to reassure the public. With the new king You Enguang taking power, his first three tasks were naturally to consolidate power, roll out new policies, and win over the people. Thus, more than a dozen notices reassuring the populace were pasted on the walls, and officials were assigned to lecture on them while commoners gathered around, buzzing with discussion. The wording on the notices was always flowery and righteous, every item sounding like a blessing. But as for how much would truly be implemented—whether it was just chanting slogans or taking real action—heh, time would tell. The people of the Shanjin Plain understood the authorities' playbook all too well. Having seen plenty of hollow promises that never materialized, they were no longer easily swayed. This very scene before the notice boards had occurred just days ago, yet that was already a whole dynasty in the past. Dong Rui suddenly let out a startled sound and pointed to the notice board. "Consort Mei's wanted poster wasn't torn down. Does that mean it's still in effect?" Only the bounty amount had been crossed out and rewritten. "Looks like reporting Consort Mei will still fetch a hefty sum." He Lingchuan's gaze flickered. Why would this new nation, founded less than three days ago, continue to pursue a female criminal of the former regime? Things were getting interesting. As expected, the targets he pursued were never boring. "Let's go. To Ji Town." Ji Town had originally been a garrison town with four thousand troops stationed there. Aside from farming, the local folk had made their living by doing petty business with the army. Later, when the troops withdrew, the town fell into neglect. By now, there were no more than a hundred households and just over two hundred permanent residents, with scarcely a young person to be found. There weren't even a couple of dogs. The inns here had all been converted from barracks left behind by the army back then. The old man by the entrance had dull, vacant eyes, and his toothless mouth looked like a pitch-black doorway. When the two walked directly in front of him, his eyes didn't move an inch, treating them as if they were thin air. He Lingchuan made a point to ask him, "Old sir, when were the garrison troops on the low hill to the west withdrawn?" Only after He Lingchuan asked twice did the old man mutter, "Yester... day before yesterday." A desolate town had plenty of space, so the guest room was massive, but all four windows leaked drafts. Whenever the wind shifted to the northwest at night, it wailed like weeping ghosts. The two booked a communal kang room. Lingguang walked a circle inside and furrowed its brow in disgust. "This is nothing but a lice nest!" It scattered powder everywhere—across the kang, into the corners, along the rafters, sparing not a single piece of furniture. Within a dozen breaths of sprinkling the pest-repelling powder, countless insects and ants scrambled outward in a frenzy. There was even a whole nest of rats—five or six of them, big and small—squeaking as they lined up to slip through the gap under the door. Why was it that as soon as humans showed up, they were forced to relocate? Had no one taught these humans first come, first served? Only when the pests and rats had all fled did Dong Rui use strips of cloth to seal the cracks in the door and windows against the wind. The bedding gave off a foul stench of grease and grime and felt clammy to the touch, something Lingguang had no cure for. Though both men were used to sleeping in their clothes outdoors, neither felt like lying on this kang, so they simply pulled up chairs to rest their eyes and conserve energy. Dong Rui cracked open a window and looked out toward the low hill to the west. "Will she really come?" "Depends on our luck. The garrison only pulled out two days ago." Dong Rui wouldn't let it rest. "How long until she shows up? Aren't you a great immortal? Why don't you make a prediction?" He Lingchuan drew a tael of gold from his breast and placed it on the table. "Within fifteen shichen." Lingguang grew interested as well, fishing out several days' worth of wages from its pouch. "I bet five days." "How rare for Lingguang to join in." Dong Rui tossed down his stake as well. "I'm with Lingguang!" Squatting on the beam, the berserk ape scratched its neck. These people were truly bored out of their minds. "Just wait and see." He Lingchuan casually retrieved a blanket from his storage ring, draped it over his head, and his breathing gradually leveled out. After years in the field, he could fall asleep even hanging from a tree branch. Dong Rui clicked his tongue and said no more. As it turned out, their luck was poor. After lingering in Ji Town for fifteen full shichen, He Lingchuan's target never showed up. Dong Rui gleefully scooped up the tael of gold. "Much obliged, much obliged!" This was gold He Lingchuan had lost to him in a wager—an unprecedented first! At last, he could hold his head high and puff out his chest! Once they returned to Alfalfa Island, he was going to find a prime spot to display it. Beside him, Lingguang held out a hand right on cue. "Half of that belongs to me." It had won the bet too, so naturally it demanded its share. After eating, He Lingchuan devoted himself to cultivation, while Dong Rui wasted no time and slipped into another room to conduct his experiments. Not until late into the night two days later, when summer bugs murmured and wild foxes wailed mournfully, did anything change. Judging by the sounds alone, it felt as though they were deep in the wilderness, save for the occasional instance when the old man got up in the night, his heavy footsteps shuffling past. In the middle of regulating his breathing, He Lingchuan suddenly opened his eyes and looked toward the western hill. That place was called White Hill. Tonight, they finally had work to do. …… On White Hill stood a solitary grave mound, the fresh earth bathed in moonlight. Yet there were no offerings of fruit or melons before the grave, and the tombstone bore only a single line of shallow characters: Tomb of Lao Song of Bo Kingdom. Lao Song was the full name of the old King of Bo. After his defeat and death, the new king, You Enguang, had ordered him buried here to gaze alone upon his former domain of Xun City, watching his realm stolen by outsiders, without a single kinsman buried alongside him. A lone grave and an untended ghost, with no one to offer sacrifices. Yet at this moment, a cloaked black shadow crept quietly up the hill, picked up an iron spade, and began digging up the grave. At its side was a black wolf, which also helped dig, churning up dirt with its forepaws far faster than its master. In no time at all, the new grave was dug open. The grave constructed by Peng troops for a fallen ruler had naturally received little care, and the earth had never been packed firm. Even the wood of the coffin was quite ordinary. With effort, the shadowed figure pushed open the coffin lid, revealing the dead man within. The old King of Bo had had his throat slit. His skin was ghastly pale, the age spots barely discernible, but the fatal wound had turned black. The earth energy of White Hill was exceedingly yin, its geomancy poor, yet this favored the preservation of corpses underground. Naturally, with the old King of Bo dead for days, his body was not lifelike. The moment the figure lifted the lid, a foul stench drifted out. Yet the figure reached out and caressed the old King of Bo's cheek, murmuring faintly: "You're finally dead. Do you know how long I've waited for this day?" "Every time I fawned over you to win your favor, I had to imagine myself doing this—" The figure suddenly drew a dagger and plunged it fiercely into the King of Bo's chest! The force was so great that the entire corpse shifted. "—I had to imagine my great vengeance fulfilled just to bring myself to laugh before you!" the figure whispered softly. "I swore that I would eat your heart and drink your blood; otherwise, how could I face my parents, sisters, and brothers in the Netherworld?" The dagger was sharp. With a few swift cuts, the entire heart was soon carved out. "This heart truly is black, just as I thought." The figure actually used the dagger to slice the heart into small morsels, popped one into its mouth, and chewed carefully. A desolate hill, a lonely grave, a dead man, a wild wolf, and a shadowy figure gorging on a human heart. Perched on a treetop, an owl caught sight of the scene and couldn't help fluttering its wings. The King of Bo's heart was covered with dark spots, its blood clotted, reeking of raw gore. Yet this was far from the worst food the shadowy figure had eaten over the past few years. An enemy's heart—rotten, withered, and foul, just like her past life. Thinking this, she even felt that the flesh in her mouth tasted slightly sweet. Swallowing one piece, she took another, savoring it slowly and unhurriedly. She tilted her head back, and the bright moonlight illuminated her delicate, beautiful face, revealing the happiness and satisfaction upon it. Consort Mei. The fugitive wanted by two successive dynasties. Even in this wild, deserted mountain, she remained lovely enough to evoke pity, resembling a fragrant orchid quietly blossoming in a secluded valley— The bloodstains around her mouth and on her hands only added a touch of cruel, deranged beauty. The remaining half of the heart she tossed to the black wolf beside her. The black wolf sniffed it a few times, sneezed, and wouldn't eat it. "Something even a wolf won't touch, heh." Consort Mei took out a waterskin, gulped down several mouthfuls, and wiped the blood from her lips. A fair wrist emerged, wrapped in a red cord. Just then, the black wolf suddenly stood up, baring its fangs toward the base of the hill, the long fur along its spine standing on end. Consort Mei looked in the direction of its alarm. Points of fiery light had sprung up below the hill. Torches. At least several hundred people were approaching with torches. No—they were sweeping the mountain. They had come to hunt her. Consort Mei sprang to her feet, preparing to run in the opposite direction. Yet the people below had no intention of climbing up. Unbeknownst to her, they ignited something, and with a roaring whoosh, massive flames surged forth. In just a few breaths, the entire perimeter of the hill was engulfed in raging fire. A fire-gathering array. Around this desolate hill and lonely grave, a fire-gathering array had been set in advance, so that the moment it was lit, it had the effect of pouring oil on a blaze. Burning the entire low hill to ashes wouldn't even take two shichen. Moreover, the flames were tinted cyan-white, burning at a thousand degrees, capable of vitrifying the very soil into crystal. Attacking upward from all sides at once, it left anyone above with nowhere to run but to wait for death. Those who had ambushed her intended for her to perish in a sea of flames! Raging flames and thick smoke forced her and the black wolf to scramble toward the hilltop. But this low hill was barely ten zhang high; where else could they run? Just as tears were forced from her eyes by the coughing, something suddenly burst out from underground. This was a barren mountain burial ground; what could emerge from beneath the earth besides zombies and evil wraiths? Yet this was a bizarre, gigantic creature. Startled, Consort Mei instinctively leaped back. To her shock, the monster opened its maw and shot out a ribbon-like long tongue, wrapping around her in an instant and hauling her inside! The black wolf lunged forward to protect its master, only to be scooped up as well.