Wherever crows went, death and misfortune were often not very far behind. The pitch black birds were regarded as harbingers of ill, symbols of evil that knew no boundaries. Abhorred and feared by all those who did not wish to suffer a painful, violent death, it was only fitting that they accompany someone who was seen as the physical incarnation of death itself. Flocks of the accursed birds descended to join their compatriots to feast on the bodies strewn across the ruins of a village. One that had been a bustling hive of cheerful life and civility only mere hours ago. Now it had joined the ranks of the settlements that had been completely destroyed by an army of blood thirsty mercenaries, led by an individual whose mere presence brought terrible sorrow and suffering. Black smoke streamed up from the funeral pyres where the bodies of innocent victims had been piled up and burnt. Houses lay in smoldering ruins. Hundreds of dead corpses that had abandoned littered the streets, their i
"How much farther do we have to walk? My feet are getting really sore." The sound of her voice was the only thing that kept breaking TFW unspoken treaty of silence that existed between the quintet group as they moved steadily on a worn path through a thick forest. The question, like the others before it, had been directed at Liu Han. After the incident at the festival, the relationship between the two had improved considerably, to the point where Liling would intentionally throw superfluous statements at Liu Han just to break the white haired man's stoic expression. They had spent the next few days traveling and trekking across mostly empty land with only a few human settlements scattered here and there. The way they moved was designed to place Liling in a position where they would be perfectly capable of protecting her in an event that their little group got ambushed. Jiang Shui led the way because of the fact that he possessed the sharpest eyesight among them all, therefore
At the last two words, Gui's normally cheerful face became strangely shrouded in contained rage and what seemed like disgust, as if the words left a sour taste in his mouth. Liling nearly asked him what had irritated him so much before she put two and two together in her head. Her own expression sobered up immediately when she realized who Gui had meant. "Mei Daiyu came to your village, didn't she?" The burly man simply nodded and she turned her eyes back to the crackling fire morbidly. She had heard enough about the Lady of Death to know what must have happened afterwards. "I'll leave the description of the things that followed to your imagination," Gui said grimly. The flames of the fire cast his face in different tones of light. "By the time I regained myself, everything had been destroyed and everyone was dead. My father I found pinned to the wall by an arrow through his chest. He lived long enough to hand over the staff and pass on his last wishes for me to fulfill on his
Daoxi Province was exactly how Liu Liling had imagined it. It stretched out for several kilometers in each direction, and had quite bountiful flora and fauna. Many multi-storeyed buildings populated the main town, designed to reflect the affluence of the capital. With a population of over ten thousand people with a majority of them being traders, Daoxi, the capital town of the province was a thriving merchant town. Hundreds of traveling merchants moved in and out of the town daily through huge steel gates, bringing in various goods and articles from foreign lands to sell at largely affordable prices to the locals. Most of the town's houses were painted a dark brown that was just a shade shy of red. That seemed to be the town's color as a good portion of the population wore clothing of a similar color. There were more eye-catching things about Daoxi though, one of which was the local dishes of the natives. Some were exotic and exquisite to both sight and taste, while some looked li
It took the greater part of TFW evening for Liu Han to finish with the greetings. Apparently he was in very good terms with pretty much every monk in the monastery, evident by the literal crowd that swarmed him as soon as word of his return spread. All the while though, Liling was content with standing on the sidelines and watching the whole thing unfold. If she were to be totally honest with herself,a part of her was a bit envious of the warm welcome her new guardian was receiving. Having lacked a normal upbringing available to most children, she had never had the opportunity to establish deeper familial connections with anybody. The gang that had taken her in did not count. That group had been full of thieves and criminals who did nothing but take advantage of her skills every chance they got. And besides, if she were to return to them now after all she'd done, there was no doubt that they would slit her throat immediately. Later that night, a small scale celebratory party was
By morning, life in the monastery had returned to normal. The cleanup had even occurred sometime during the night, leaving no evidence that any sort of celebration had ever happened. Everyone went about their usual activities, paying little attention to the newly arrived group. As it was, the group might have arrived recently but this was definitely not their first time here. By the time Liling moved to seek out the other members of their little party, Jiang and the others had already left to attend to their matters, inadvertently leaving Liling on her own in an extremely unfamiliar place. Deciding to make the most of her 'abandonment', Liling headed out to explore the rest of the the temple where the welcome-back party had been thrown. On her way she made several observations about the place, the most apparent being the shockingly large amount of affluence around her. There had been no chance to look around the previous night but now that she really paid attention, she was more t
Lightning ripped through the night sky, bringing with it the promise of an impending rainstorm. All over the village of Shèngsuo, farmers sat in their beds at home, hoping for the rain to fall and bring life to their crops in the field. The streets were mostly empty, the population of the village having retired for the night. Only a few night stalls are open and the traders hung hurricane lamps inside to shed light on their wares. A black wagon pulled by two horses rolled down a street, its wheels disturbing the silence of the night. As it passed, all the open stalls in its path quickly closed up as their owners recognized the wagon. It was over that had brought suffering on many of the traders in the village. When it went past them without stopping, many traders sighed in relief. It seemed that the heavens were lenient with them tonight despite what the weather might suggest. In front of the wagon, the rider gripped the reins tightly, his face set in a grimace. He was not suppo
The man carrying the chest trudged on hurriedly through a dark passage. The box in his hands seemed to increase in weight with each step and he adjusted his grip to carry it better. Maybe it was just his nervousness that was causing it but he constantly kept looking over his shoulder with the uneasy feeling that he was being followed. The darkness did not reveal and he continued on, holding his lamp in front of him to illuminate his path. He came across two guards who were standing sentry in front of a large wooden door. Their faces were grim and intimidating and they each held a flaming torch in one hand and a lance in the other. As soon as they saw him, they crossed their weapons in front of him. The man halted long enough to hold up the golden chest up for them to see. The guards inspected the bids and eyed the man warily before acquiescing and opening the door to let him pass. After he had gone through, they were about to shut the heavy door but a soft clanging noise made th