A choked off cry and a meaty thump brought Wu Ying’s attention back to the world as he turned to his beleaguered friend. On the ground, Tou He was struggling to keep one hopping vampire from his face while the other two had their hands extended, a cloud of energy drawing from him into the vampires’ waiting hands.
Lips drawn into a snarl, Wu Ying took off running, his chi churning in his dantian and coursing through his meridians as he ran. Judging the entangled group, Wu Ying angled his approach. A quick motion sheathed his sword before Wu Ying launched himself into a tackle. The attack took the jiangshi that was on Tou He’s left side, sending the pair rolling and bowling over another of the vampires. Even before he came to a stop, Wu Ying was scrambling to get on top of the pair, the small pouch of rice in his hand.
A gesture and the rice rained onto the ground beneath and between the monsters and himself. Wu Ying jumped backward, moving away from the creatures, whose eyes were forcibly drawn to the scattered rice grains. As the supernatural curse to count the disparate pieces kicked in, the pair’s eyes flicked from grain to grain. So long as they were not threatened, this would trap the jiangshi.
Backing off quickly, Wu Ying looked around for the third monster and spotted it on the ground, its neck askew and skull cracked. Tou He was standing beside the downed body, face pale as he drew long breaths. In the distance, Wu Ying heard the thump of a pair of feet landing on the ground.
Wu Ying grabbed his friend’s arm and hustled him along, though not before discarding another rice pouch behind them. He cursed under his breath as the pair stumbled back up the hill, casting fearful glances around them. If they had remembered to use the rice earlier, they could have avoided their injuries.
Live and learn.
Chapter 10
“Foolish,” the old medicine woman of the village muttered as she finished wrapping up the wounds around Wu Ying’s head.
The sharp claws of the jiangshi had managed to cut his scalp, opening wounds that had needed painful cleaning in blessed waters before they were wrapped. The cuts across his shoulders and arms were dramatic in nature, but none had penetrated deeply or torn any muscles. They would not slow down Wu Ying in their upcoming cleansing.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” Wu Ying said.
The older woman stared at Wu Ying, who ducked his head, age winning over status.
Still, Wu Ying added, “We did manage to destroy two of the jiangshi.”
“Oh, well done then, great cultivator,” the medicine woman said as she stood and cleaned her hands. She turned away from Wu Ying, who stared after her, trying to decide if she had meant it or was being sarcastic.
“How are you doing, Tou He?” Wu Ying asked.
Since he was the more injured of the two, Tou He had been treated first. Though his treatment had been relatively quick since the majority of his injuries were chi-related.
“Well enough,” Tou He said. “I shall recover my chi by morning.”
“Are you good to go without sleep?” Wu Ying said.
“I shall have to be, no?” Tou He said, frowning. “They are numerous. If we do not thin them down at least tomorrow—today—the formation might not last.”
“In that case, I’m going to rest.”
Tou He nodded before he closed his eyes again, returning to his cultivation. Tomorrow would be interesting.
“You’re looking a little pale,” Wu Ying said. “Suckered almost.”
“No.”
“I’m trying to motivate you. We need to get a hop on the day.”
“Stop it.”
“Sorry. Sorry. I’ve never seen you look so much like a corpse,” Wu Ying replied and ducked as the staff curved toward his head. The blow was easy to dodge since there was no intent behind the attack. “Fine, fine, I’ll stop.”
“Good.” The ex-monk continued to plod along, though as Wu Ying had said, he was less spritely and paler than the day before. Recovered or not, the effects of being drained seemed to be affecting the man.
No longer allowed to tease his friend, Wu Ying unwrapped one of the leaf-wrapped rice buns they had been provided as a snack and followed their guide. The young boy, too young to be considered useful on the fields but old enough to follow directions—like “run away and don’t follow the cultivators into the graveyard”—skipped ahead of the pair of cultivators.
The graveyard was a good three hours away from the village. Such a distance made the vampires’ journey each night outstanding, since they had to return before daybreak. Of course, Wu Ying mused as he eyed the paired footprints, the monsters did not need to rest or breathe. In fact, it was doubtful the jiangshi had any significant reasoning ability beyond their driving hunger.
Oh, the jiangshi could create ambushes, as they had shown all too well last night. But that wasn’t necessarily an indication of high-level intelligence. Wolves did the same thing. As did certain demonic species. Still, as they crested another hill and Wu Ying caught his first sight of the graveyard, he could not help but wince. This was an old-style graveyard, one that had been untended for decades. Trees grew all across the graveyard, located between the stone-wrought graves inset into the sloping hill. Each grave was situated neatly next to and above another, allowing the dead a scenic view of their surroundings as they rested in their stone tombs. Of course, now the stone tombs were cracked and broken, their former occupants freed during the night to wreak havoc on the living before the vampires returned to rest during the day.
“Tou He.”
“Yes?”
“How are we going to get to them?” Wu Ying said, eyeing the cracked graves. He was not looking forward to crawling in to fight a jiangshi.
“I was hoping you had a plan,” Tou He said.
“I’m beginning to sense a pattern in our friendship,” Wu Ying said before he turned to their guide and tapped the child on the shoulder. “Time for you to get going. We have this.”
Their guide did not need another offer as he walked away. The kid paused after a few steps, looking at the esteemed cultivators with what appeared to be sudden fear over abandoning their honored guests without hesitation. When he looked back though, Wu Ying and Tou He were already walking down the hill, offering up different options to break into the graves.
“Stick on fire will be best,” Tou He said.
“Unless you can’t reach the jiangshi. Nevermind finding enough oil and rags to set the stick on fire,” Wu Ying pointed out. “We brought a few mirrors. If we can get the light right, we can see within and drive them out.”
“There’s not enough sunlight to do that.”
“How do you know?”
“Well… a stick with fire is better.”
Wu Ying snorted, but eventually the pair came to an agreement. An hour of work later, the pair were ready. Wu Ying had unloaded their bag of supplies and laid out a circle of rice, enough that any wandering jiangshi would be caught and held outside for some time. In the circle, Wu Ying had placed their supplies, including the mirrors he had angled toward one of the nearby cracked graves. None of the tombs was entirely broken open, so Wu Ying knew one of them would need to move the obstructing stones to make their plan work.
In the meantime, Tou He had walked around the clearing, raking dry leaves and collecting mostly dry wooden sticks. He had managed to form a big pile of such items near the circle of rice and was currently building a fire.
Wu Ying ascertained that the fire was able to sustain itself before he prodded his friend. “I’m ready.”
“The fire needs more care,” Tou He said.