Ma Qianle thought that returning to his body after soul traveling was disorienting, but this was far, far worse.  He was in his living room and, for a moment, he was in an unknown place at the same time. He felt as though his body had been crushed into a dense point of matter, or perhaps as if it had been spread across the whole universe.  It wasn't painful exactly, but it certainly wasn't comfortable.  And then, just as quickly as it had started, he was back to something resembling normal, standing in that unknown location.

He staggered, and would have fallen to his knees had Ruan Ye not caught his other arm and held him up while he regained his balance.  He glared at Ruan Ye.  "I am never doing that again! You can't just do something like that without warning me what it's like!"

To his credit, Ruan Ye winced.  "Bear with it for now. I did not realize how unpleasant it would be for you.  It seems mortals were not meant to travel this way, I will teach you a more suitable method later so you can travel on your own."

Feeling steadier on his feet, Ma Qianle jerked his arm and hand roughly out of Ruan Ye's grasp. "I'll pass," he said brusquely.  "We need to find the others."

"As you wish," Ruan Ye said.  He backed away, giving Ma Qianle space.

Ma Qianle looked around, letting his eyes adjust to the darkness.  It was past sunset now, and the thin clouds that had been hanging over the sky all day blocked any starlight that might have brightened their surroundings.  Even the moon was no more than a thin sliver shrouded in veils of cloud.  They were standing on a dirt road in front of a run-down village.  Though they were only a couple hours from the city, it could not have seemed more remote.

As the two walked forward, Ma Qianle tried to reach out with his senses, just as he had done in the penthouse not even a full day ago.  His powers were too weak yet to give him much range, but he still expected to find more than he did.

He frowned.  "Where is everyone?"  Even without his powers he could tell that much of the village had long been abandoned, just as many others of its kind had been as young people moved into the cities, but there still should have been people.  He couldn't even detect a dog or a chicken.  

Ruan Ye stopped and closed his eyes for a moment.  "There are people in a few of the houses, but the signs are weak.  Most likely they are very elderly."  He opened his eyes again and headed off through the plant stubble roughened fields at the back of the village.  "Wei Yaling and the others should be this way."

Ma Qianle followed, eager to find the rest so he wasn't stuck relying on someone he couldn't stand.  The village was eerily silent and a cold mist rose up from the ground.  There was a damp, moldy smell in the air.  Ruan Ye's dark hair and clothing blended in with the darkness, leaving his pale face and hands seeming to float in midair.  Ma Qianle was glad he didn't scare easily, because the setting couldn't have been more perfect for a ghost story.

The village was tiny, and it didn't take long for them to catch up to Wei Yaling.  She and a few of the other Impermanents were gathered in a clearing not far beyond the fields.  The clearing backed up against a rock wall, from which a spring bubbled.  Broken branches hung off the trees, and some of the scattered stones showed fresh edges where they had been knocked loose from the wall.  Dark patches spattered the ground and led back to the village along a well worn path.  Kneeling to inspect them, Ma Qianle smelt a raw coppery scent and realized the dark patches were blood.

"Have you found anything?" Ruan Ye asked, inspecting a damaged patch on the wall.

"Not yet,"  Wei Yaling said.  "That blood is the trail Deng Xiuwen left when she dragged herself back to the village.  We followed it here, but it's a dead end.  No ghosts, no people, no sign of Impermanent Yu."  Her irritation at the lack of anything remotely helpful was clearly evident from her tone of voice.

"Where's Deng Xiuwen?"  Ma Qianle asked.  "Couldn't she at least give us some leads?"

"Scouts say a couple of the villagers drove her into the city for better treatment than a tiny place like this could provide." Wei Yaling replied.  "She couldn't have told us much anyway, she was unconscious."

Ma Qianle poked at the bloody ground with a stick.  No wonder she had passed out, if this was all hers.  "What about the rest of the villagers? This place seems like it's deserted."  He stood and went to rinse his hands in the pool where the spring came from the rocks.  Before he could touch the water, Wei Yaling darted over and grabbed his arm, stopping him.

"Don't touch the water," she said seriously.  "Something's happened to the villagers.  We couldn't wake the few we found in the village, and who knows what's happened to the rest.  We don't know what's causing it yet, so don't touch anything."

Ma Qianle backed away from the water, wiping his hands on his pants instead.  He'd had enough of being knocked out by mysterious forces.

At this moment, another Impermanent came into the clearing.  She was petite and carried a long club almost half her height on her back.

"Officer Wei!" she said.  "We found something!"

"What? Where?" Wei Yaling exclaimed.  

"There's an illusion covering something on the rock face two li north of here.  My brother is waiting there." 

"Lead the way."

The three followed behind the woman.  After walking for a quarter of an hour, they came to a place where another Impermanent that bore a clear family relationship to the woman was waiting.

"Officer Wei, it's here,"  he said.  "We almost missed it, there's barely any aura coming off the spell at all."

"Da Wu, Xiao Wu, well done,"  Wei Yaling said.  She pulled out a token and held it to her mouth, then spoke.  "All Impermanents, assemble at my location.  We've found something."

Ruan Ye approached the illusory wall and ran his fingers along the rock.  "These are demonic spells.  It is strange.  There is barely any aura and the appearance of the illusion is flawless, but at the same time the barrier behind it is...sloppily done.  It is as if they meant this to be found."

Wei Yaling frowned.  "You think it could be a trap?"

"It is possible," he replied.

"Sounds like fun,"  Wei Yaling said with a wicked grin.  "Wait for the rest to arrive, and then break the spell."

"It could be a trap and we're going to walk straight into it?"  Ma Qianle asked, incredulous.  Was the woman mad?

Wei Yaling shrugged.  "It's our only lead, so it's not as if we have much choice.  We may as well enjoy ourselves."

It didn't take long for the other twenty or so Impermanents to arrive.  Wei Yaling took a moment to brief the rest on the situation and give some orders, and then nodded to Ruan Ye.

Ruan Ye stood in front of the wall and extended his right arm out at a low angle.  A breeze rustled through the trees, and it seemed as if the scant moonlight that flickered through the nearly bare branches caught on something.  The faint motes of light coalesced into a long silvery spear in Ruan Ye's outstretched hand.  When it became wholly solid, he brought it around to grip in both hands and spun quickly, speaking an unfamiliar incantation.  He made a full turn, then slammed the tip of the spear into the rock face.  There was a bang, and the stone seemed to shatter into nothingness, leaving a cave entrance leading into the rock.

Ma Qianle retched, almost choking on the stench that rolled out of the cave with the destruction of the barrier.  There was blood, yes, a great deal of blood, but that was not all.  Under the sharp metallic tang there was a miasma of shit and urine.  It was the smell of death.

'I'm supposed to be dealing with ghosts, not corpses!' he thought as he lifted an arm to cover his nose and mouth.  With his other hand, he reached into his new pouch and pulled out a softly glowing pearl the size of a ping pong ball.

"I think I know what's in there, but we ought to check," he said, his voice muffled from speaking into the crook of his elbow.  He cautiously entered the cave, followed by Wei Yaling, Ruan Ye, and the rest.  A moment later, he turned and ran back outside to vomit.

"Well," Wei Yaling said matter-of-factly.  "I think we've found the rest of the villagers."