Sleep seems infinitely farther away from me now. 

After a moment, I get out of the bed. I walk over to my flute case, carefully opening it. The smooth wood of the flute’s exterior instantly calms me. 

I close the case and walk over to my clothes, changing into them. I grab my sword and walk out of my room, Shia still wrapped around my waist.

The palace is quiet with the night, only the occasional servant walking through the hallways. 

A guard greets me as I walk into the courtyard, bowing deeply. 

I nod to him, walking until I find a sufficiently clear spot. 

I draw my sword, wincing slightly as I pull on my bandaged wounds. After a moment of deep breathing, I move through the movements of The Ruinous Dragon. I move through each form with infinite slowness, careful of my injuries. 

The forms help me clear my mind, and I enter an almost meditative state. 

One foot forward, upwards swing.

A feint to the left, then a downwards slash.

I’m completely caught up in the movements until a whiff of familiar spirit catches my attention. I open my eyes, my attention focusing on the demonic spirit of that book.

“Shia, get Jing Xia and Master An Meng.” 

Shia wakes up at my command, her head shifting underneath my robes. “What is it, little one?” 

“I think I’ve found something, can you lead them to me?” I know that Shia has marked me somehow, she can find me even through my Movements Of The Silent Monster.

Shia slides out from my robes, “Do not injure yourself further.”

I activate The Movements Of The Silent Monster, following the trace of the book’s spirit through the palaces of the imperial capital. Eventually I’m led to the palace of a minor noble. I don’t know the owner of the palace, but two guards in early Qi Awakening stand at the gate. 

I study the entrance from a safe distance. A cart pulls up to the palace and a few men wearing black robes get off, greeting the guards as they walk through the gate. 

Shia slithers over my foot and up my robes to wrap herself around my body. A few moments later, two familiar presences arrive next to me. 

Master An Meng wears his farmer’s hat, looking decidedly normal without his sect robes. Jing Xia rubs her eyes, obviously having just woken up. 

“Who did you send to find us? I could not sense their presence.” Master An Meng says, looking at me appraisingly. 

“It’s not my secret to share.” I say, bowing my head in apology. I turn my attention back to the palace. “Demonic spirit surrounds this place like a fog.”

Master An Meng clearly doesn’t like my answer, but he accepts it. “I have messaged Master Quon Lu. He will be here shortly.”

I nod, my gaze stuck on the palace. Demonic spirit gathers around the place, pulsating. It's so thick that I’m almost surprised the others can’t see it.

It gathers and pulses again. This time, the demonic spirit rolls over us like a wave before pulling back for another pulse.

Shia hisses, her voice filling my mind. She’s loud enough that I look at the others, wondering if they can hear her too. They don’t react, Shia’s voice is only heard by me. “Little one! You must stop them!” 

I don’t hesitate, instantly turning to Master An Meng. “We have to go in. Now.”

The Master gazes at me appraisingly, his thoughts hidden. The moment lasts an eternity before he nods, unhooking his swords from his belt. 

He walks forward, each step covering more distance. Jing Xia and I follow after him. My wound reminds me of its presence, aching as I hurry to keep up with the Master. 

Master An Meng’s aura stays hidden as he approaches the gate. His hook swords swipe out, killing the two guardsmen in Qi Awakening in a single breath. He slashes forward again, his swing blowing the gate of the palace open.

His movements remind me that he is no ordinary cultivator, but a Master Swordsman, someone trusted to teach the youth of the sect the ways of the sword. 

I step over the bodies of the poor guardsmen, their severed heads still rolling. I turn my gaze away from them, focusing on the back of the Master Swordsman.

The courtyard inside the gate of the palace is empty. The air starts to smell of blood from the two dead men at the gate. Demonic spirit covers every surface, turning the fresh night air stale. Twisted trees create an overhang on the path to a wooden door that sits slightly ajar. 

Everything about the place disturbs me, but I can’t seem to keep my gaze away from the drops of blood that slowly fall from Master An Meng’s swords onto the dirt pathway. 

I shake my head, focusing on the door. Now that we are in the walls of the palace, I can feel the workings of qi in a complex technique. 

Master An Meng leads Jing Xia and I through the door into a decrepit hallway. Dusty portraits line the walls, showing men and women in expensive outfits. 

We reach a second wooden door, this one fully closed. The sound of a deep voice, rich with qi, echoes through to us.

Master An Meng motions for the both of us to be ready. Jing Xia and I both nod, our swords already drawn. 

Channeling qi through his sword, An Meng slices forward, blasting the door open. 

I pause as I come through the threshold, shocked by the sight.

Corpses of men and women litter the floor, their blood seeping into the stone floor. Black robed cultivators stand above the bodies, circling a black, stone altar. On the altar lies a young girl, a red dagger with black veins stabbed through her chest. Above her head is the demonic book I’d seen earlier. Blood now soaks the book’s pages, a shadowy image still visible on the page it is open to.

The startled cultivators turn to us, reaching for their own weapons. Master An Meng lets loose his full aura of Late Core Formation, his very aura cutting into the cultivators around him. He then steps forward, moving like a hurricane. The hooks on his swords grab the dark cultivator’s weapons and redirect their strikes as he seems to dance through the enemy cultivators. Jing Xia follows after him.

  I hold back, aware of my injury. Gently, I start humming The Seventh Requiem: After Life 

The dead bodies on the floor start twitching. 

As I open my mouth to fully sing the strange words of another language, the bodies rise up, turning on the cultivators that had killed them. 

Their movements are shaped by the song, striking with every word.

I feel the eyes of all the dead in the city as my song calls to them.

But I know it to be an illusion. 

My throat aches from the words infused with qi, but the cultivators fall, one by one, from the surprise attack.

The cultivator in Foundation Establishment rushes forward to meet Master An Meng, barely keeping up with the Swordmaster.

They are dying.

They believe in my illusion, so it harms them, tearing into their flesh, ripping their organs out. The dead are not forgiving.

The girl on the altar twitches, and a dark aura floods the room, pausing the fighting. 

I cough from the sudden pressure of the aura, my requiem stopping mid-verse. I fall to my knees, and the illusion falls apart. Thankfully, most of the damage was done.

Scarlet qi raps around the arms and legs of the little girl, as her spirit changes, overcome by what I know to be demonic spirit. She pulls the dagger out of her chest, and her chest knits itself back together.

She stands up, a demon looking out through her eyes.

Master An Meng takes advantage of the distraction to chop off the head of the cultivator he is facing. He then turns to the girl, raising his swords as he runs towards her.

The girl looks at him as he rushes forward, she raises her hand, the scarlet qi flies forward and sends him into the wall. More scarlet qi rushes from her, killing all of the surviving cultivators in the room.

I grab Jing Xia, pulling her away from a deadly strike. We both huddle away from the onslaught. 

Master An Meng coughs, having survived the first strike. He tries to stand up.

Scarlet qi flies out, it coils above his body like a snake. 

Then she stops, her qi dissipating as she clutches her head. 

My eyes widen. The little girl’s spirit, a soft, playful spirit, is still there. 

Master An Meng stands up, running to the girl. He lifts his sword.

“Wait!” I call out, causing him to hesitate. 

The demonic spirit reasserts itself and the Master is forced to defend against another wave of scarlet qi.

“Distract her for me.” I tell Jing Xia.

She nods, not questioning me. She runs forward as I activate Movement Of The Silent Monster.

Jing Xia and Master An Meng are clearly outclassed by whatever demon has possessed the girl, but the girl’s own spirit keeps pushing back, causing attacks to dissipate and techniques to miss. 

I approach her slowly, wary of her discovering my presence. 

Scarlet qi flashes through the room as I finally am behind her.

I reach out, grabbing hold of her hand.

The world disappears from around me as I focus on the two different spirits in her body. My own spirit rushes in, working with the little girl’s. 

My control is rudimentary, barely doing anything in the battle for the girl’s body. But I know she has stopped her attacks on my Sister and Master An Meng.

The demonic spirit attempts to overwhelm me, finding my own spirit abhorrent to its own. To my horror, it starts to succeed as it attempts to take over my body.

Another spirit joins up with mine, overwhelming in its magnitude. It consumes the demonic spirit in my body, forcing it back into the girl’s. 

The overwhelming spirit gently grabs mine as a familiar voice resonates within me. “Do not be foolish! Little one, you are not yet strong enough to face a demon’s spirit head on. You would be a soulless husk if I were not here with you.” 

I open my mouth to ask Shia whether the girl can be saved, but she answers before I can speak.

“I can not kill the demon without killing her, but I can seal the demon within her. Know this, little one, this does not come without a price and no seal is permanent.”

“I will pay your price.” The words echo from me, through our entwined spirit. 

Shia grabs my spirit, bringing it with hers into the girl’s body. Using my spirit as the material, she draws out a series of complex characters, written in a language I do not know. It feels like an eternity as she draws the seal and by the end of it my spirit is drawn out and abused. 

Shia leaves me as I draw my spirit back into myself. My attention comes back to the real world as the little girl falls into my arms. Pain fills me from my abused spirit, but I persevere, holding the girl gently.

Master An Meng steps forward, raising his sword for a strike. 

I hiss at him in anger, some of Shia’s spirit still affecting me. “Do not dare!.”

Master An Meng frowns, holding his strike. “She is a demon.”

“Right now, she is a little girl.” I say, gritting my teeth from pain.

Shia slips from my robes as I speak, neither Master An Meng or Jing Xia noticing her as she slithers up to the altar. Her mouth opens wide, her jaw dislocating as she swallows the demonic book whole. 

Master An Meng hesitates, then raises his sword again. “That girl just killed a quarter of the cultivators in this room.”

“I will kill you before I let you touch her!” I yell, my patience worn thin.

“Sister Jia? You’re not sounding like yourself.” Jing Xia says, stepping closer to me.

My gaze lands on her, and I calm from her familiar presence. I look back at Master An Meng.  “The demon is sealed. This girl is now under my protection. I pledge as a Core Disciple of the Flowing River Sect that if you so much as touch her, I will kill you.”