Tian Mingyun was bruised all over when he woke up. He was glad to have landed on something soft, but the bushes and the branches had cut him all over on his way down. He was glad that he could hold the shiv in his hand during that, but he had to fish the needle out of his thigh. He was fortunate that the needle did not end up in his eye or mouth with how rough his fall was.
Tian Mingyun noticed what was around him the moment he looked down. Half dead dogs, pigs, cows, and men... So many men. Tian Mingyun would have screamed, if his vocal cords allowed it. Instead, he ended up whimpering and falling on his ass and crying. His hands and feet were shaking while he kept looking left and right for a way out. Dead bodies, dying bodies, blood, guts the smell of rotting flesh and shit... All of Tian Mingyun's senses were being overwhelmed with gore.
He wanted to tear his eyes out. This place was pitch black, but his natural ability to see in the dark was now allowing him to witness the horrible scenes that surrounded him. To his closest right, a dying man's rotting arm was being eaten by a pig covered in black spots and glazed over eyes. To his left, a cow's intestines were wrapped around a dead baby and a paralyzed crow. Ahead of him, a man had killed himself with his own broken ribs by stabbing it into his neck. Behind him, a dog was fighting a boar, both of them missing at least one limb and their lower jaw. This place was the afterlife.
Tian Mingyun had heard others talk about a place like this, a kind of afterlife that punished the evil and the wicked. Surely, he had died and was being punished. He was clutching his head and crying while ignoring the screams and cries of both beasts and men. He was doing his best to not acknowledge the buzzing flies all around him and the maggots. He only stood up and ran after something unknown touched his back in that gory chaos. He did not bother to check what it was and ran until he reached the incline of the hill.
The cheapest oil in the Dark Mountain County was an odd mix of resin and human fat. It was easy to collect en masse after every battle, so it was mass produced in all the bordering cities. This kind of oil was called Corpse Oil, oddly enough, pits like this would be the perfect place to harvest if the city's Corpse Oil producing peasants were still alive and the facilities still running. This kind of disgusting oil was used for one main purpose, razing. Since the Corpse Oil clung onto a surface for a long time and could easily be burned and not even be put off with water, it was often applied to entire streets of an enemy city by soldiers before being let ablaze once the soldiers were away.
This kind of oil was also sticky to dirt, but slippery to the touch. It clung to the sides of the hill like glue, while preventing Tian Mingyun's climb by making slip as if the whole valley was made of ice. Tian Mingyun tired himself out in futile frustration as he kept trying to climb the slippery valley for a 10th of the night. He knew well that he had no chance when he looked back and saw the hopeless scene before him.
