73 Piles and piles (1/2)

The bell led them down the halls of the Hidden Mist Manor. Every turn was filled with the groans of the undead their footfalls languid and without aim. Yuan Xuelan gritted his teeth, his fingers wound tightly around his sword. The halls seemed especially narrow now, with Silei's destructive power buzzing in his palm. He still had yet to get a hang of the sword and realized with frustration that he could easily burn the entire manor to the ground with one breath of error.

Nan Chang stuck close to him and he could feel the slight tremble of her body against his. He felt a little sorry for her and probably should have taken Liu Sumeng's side back at the inn. So he tried to reassure her by placing his free hand over hers. She was quick to entwine their fingers.

Peng Jipei, who had been talkative and lively earlier had fallen silent, his eyes staring ahead almost vacantly. Perhaps the horror of his home being wrecked and destroyed was only now sinking in. Yuan Xuelan couldn't sympathize with a lot of things, but this was something that he could.

He was livid as well.

Liu Sumeng stood vanguard and silently cut through any corpses that dared to wander too close. When Yuan Xuelan looked down at the body that fell to their feet, he noticed how the hair was thin and skin was like weathered leather. The stench was breath-stopping and terrible.

They walked on. Weren't they headed to the Main Hall? Even though Yuan Xuelan couldn't see the walls they passed by clearly, he knew much of the place by memory. Something growled up ahead of them, where the narrow hall opened up to a wider space. It thumped against the ground with a weight much greater than any corpse. It made a noise like a growl. The four of them shared a look. The bell was leading them straight to the source of that noise.

Yuan Xuelan furrowed his brows, the visibility was still too terrible to able to make out what exactly was going on. But just as he opened his mouth to share his opinion, another voice was heard instead.

But it was not from any of them and came from the direction of the mysterious, big, thing in the Main Hall. ”Xiao Pangqiu!” It hissed, ”Stay put, you fat ugly thing. I said stay put! Don't go off eating too many corpses behind my back, you hear?”

There was a rattling of chains. Footsteps walking away. They stayed silent, unmoving, and alert.

But after a while, nothing happened. Yuan Xuelan lowered his voice to the barest whisper, ”We should go around. Get the other flags first so that visibility can clear up a bit.”

”B-but how? The bell is saying this is the closest one,” Peng Jipei hissed, his voice a little too loud and invited the sound of something shifting. A thump. Chains rattled.

The four cultivators stood there frozen and waited.

”N-Nan Chang is scared…” the female cultivator whined and pressed herself so tightly around Yuan Xuelan's arm that he feared he was going to lose circulation.

”...We walk,” Liu Sumeng eventually said. They turned their attention towards him. ”Walk until another flag is closer.”

Yuan Xuelan looked at Peng Jipei, ”Would that work?”

Peng Jipei frowned, ”I think so. It should… The bell just detects whatever is the closest…I'm pretty sure that's how it works,” he mumbled.

And thus, slowly, they crept away one step at a time, careful not to disturb whatever creature was resting in the main hall. They would have to deal with it later. Peng Jipei led them around the halls. But for some reason, even after a few rounds, it seemed that the flag near the unknown creature was still the closest.

Maybe they didn't understand how the bell worked after all. ”Give that to me.” Yuan Xuelan held out his hand.

But Peng Jipei was hesitant, ”W-what, why? This bell is special to me…”

”Can't you just let me see it? It's weird that we're still being led towards the same damn flag.”

”Maybe something's wrong with it,” Nan Chang was curious as well, separating herself from Yuan Xuelan's arm just enough to get a better look at the bell.

But Liu Sumeng was uninterested in the tool and was looking at Peng Jipei instead. ”You're taking us in circles.” No one could miss the accusatory words that came out of his lips.

”I've only been following the bell's power…! You've all seen me.”