“Throw a few bigger logs on it, let it heat up by itself. I’m going to pull apart that grave and want you on watch,” Wu Ying said.
Tou He grimaced but complied with Wu Ying’s request, standing guard as Wu Ying directed the mirror at the entrance and blocked stones. Wu Ying got down low, eyeing the grave, and had to smile at his own idiocy. Of course it was easy to tell which graves the monsters stayed in. It was not as if the jiangshi were able to complete complicated maneuvers. Due to the rotting nature of their bodies and their lack of dexterity, the monsters weren’t even able to walk properly.
The rock that was propped up to stop the light at this grave looked to have been maneuvered with great effort by a couple of jiangshi. The footprints and scuff marks all around each grave was more than sufficient evidence. Though,Wu Ying had to wonder how smart they were to work together to block off the sunlight. Perhaps he was giving their intelligence too little credit.
“Problem?” Tou He called.
“Just looking at the tracks,” Wu Ying replied.
He shifted his positioning, squatting deep and gripping the rock. Drawing a deep breath, Wu Ying placed his fingers against the broken stone and pulled, revealing the empty space within the grave. The grave had been dug directly into the hill and down at an angle, allowing the coffin to be slid in to rest on the stone flooring. Sunlight streamed in from both the mirror and the sky, showing the shattered remains of the coffin and the torn, slippered feet of the hopping vampire.
The jiangshi pulled its feet close, attempting to squirm away from the sunlight. Wu Ying waved his friend back as he dumped the rock and scrambled back to the mirror, adjusting the angle. As the sunlight hit the sentient corpse, it squirmed and shifted, still silent. As it found no escape within the tiny confines of its grave, the jiangshi finally gave up on attempting to hide and made its way out of the grave. In the sunlight, the monster lost its flexibility even further, the yang chi it had gathered boiling off its body as its skin grew ever more pallid.
The actual fight was anticlimatic, since the monster’s stiff movement and forced exit from the grave left it vulnerable to Tou He’s staff. A quick case of bludgeoning later, the truly deceased corpse lay on the ground as the freed ghost dissipated under the harsh glare of the sun.
“That was easy,” Wu Ying said.
“A little,” Tou He said, looking unhappily at his fire. It seemed, as usual, they were overthinking things. “Fire next?”
“Let’s try opening it up first. Your turn,” Wu Ying said.
Tou He sniffed but agreed.
Over the next hour, the pair moved through the graveyard, pulling apart graves to attack the monsters within. Yet as they walked toward the twelth grave, Wu Ying felt an apprehensive shiver run through him.
“Trouble,” Wu Ying said, moments before he spotted the steaming, baking hopping vampires. As Wu Ying turned, he realized that the jiangshi had surrounded the cultivators while they had been busy clearing out the last grave.
“Six, seven, eight,” Tou He finished counting their adversaries, his eyes tight with worry as the eight hopping vampires converged. One hand spun the staff as the ex-monk eyed their opponents.
“But they’re slower. And cooking,” Wu Ying pointed out. “We can do this.” Tou He hesitated and Wu Ying grinned, inspiration striking him. “Whoever takes the most buys the other dinner. As much meat as they want.”
“Demon beast?”
“Sure.” Wu Ying said.
The moment Wu Ying agreed, Tou He took off running, his staff already spinning.
“Cheater!”
Not to be outdone, Wu Ying ran, the initial joviality fading away as the cultivator got serious. Slow as the monsters were, the vampires were dangerous, with their supernatural strength and ability to drain chi. As he closed in on them, Wu Ying felt a touch on his aura, as if something was attempting to invade it, pulling at the membrane he had painstakingly built. Reflexively, Wu Ying pulled the aura tighter, surprised that the jiangshi’s chi draining effects were so strong. A matter of numbers or a greater pull due to the vampires’ lack of chi?
In the end, Wu Ying could not tell, nor did it matter. Since the closest pair of monsters were within lunging distance, Wu Ying launched himself at them. This time around, he did not commit to a full lunge, instead using Dragon turns while Slumbering to lop off a reaching hand. In short order, Wu Ying had positioned the jiangshi in front of its friend and stepped forward, throwing a precise strike that entered the vampire’s right eye. As the creature slumped, Wu Ying grunted as his wooden jian stuck in its hardened, dead skull.
As Wu Ying struggled to free the jian, his second opponent hopped around the corpse of its brethren, hands reaching for Wu Ying’s throat. Wu Ying leaned backward as the jian popped free, and he executed Wind Steps. The quick, circular steps gave Wu Ying a chance to move away before he executed Falling rocks in a Rainstorm, the drop step and roundhouse kick to the vampire’s body doing nothing other than hurting Wu Ying’s shin. Hopping around, the vampire lurched forward, forcing Wu Ying to execute a quick flip backward out of the way.
Even as Wu Ying landed, another vampire reached for his side, forcing Wu Ying into a defensive stance. The next few moments were tense and hectic as Wu Ying desperately fended off his attackers with his wooden sword, the sharpened blade leaving smoking lines and ripping apart rotten flesh. Yet the jian that Wu Ying favored was not meant to deal with undead attackers, being meant to slip between the gaps in armor or to finish off an opponent with a flourish. A broader dao would have suited Wu Ying’s situation better, but that was a regret for another time as he backpedaled and cut.
Wu Ying ducked another hopping lunge. This time, Wu Ying had nowhere to back up too, forcing Wu Ying to crouch low. All around, Wu Ying felt the jiangshi crowding him.
“Huài dàn!” Wu Ying cursed.
Out of options, Wu Ying dropped his sword and pulled his hands close to his body. He channeled his chi into both hands even as clawed fingers tore at his scalp and shoulders. Exploding from his crouch, Wu Ying threw both hands outward, directing his punches into the torsos of his attackers. The explosive motion, combined with his chi, threw the hopping vampires backward but also left Wu Ying reeling from the sudden expansion of his chi.
From the corner of Wu Ying’s eye, he saw Tou He was doing better as his long, blunt quarterstaff beat the monsters aside and shattered bones. Supernatural monsters or not, the vampires suffered from the punishing blows that left them limping on cracked bones. Rather than attempting to finish off the jiangshi with his attacks, Tou He focused on disabling the creatures in a safe manner. Even so, as Wu Ying watched, the staff shot forward from Tou He’s hip, twisting in mid-air as it drilled into the skull of a hopping jiangshi. Caught in mid-air, it took the full strike in its face without defense, shattering the nose and skull before it collapsed bonelessly.
Breathing deeply, Wu Ying refilled his meridians from his dantian. Refreshed somewhat, the cultivator kicked at the ground and snatched his jian from the air just in time to block one of the hopping vampires that had been pushed back. The impact pushed Wu Ying’s feet deep into the earth, forming a small, muddy furrow as his bones creaked under the strain. With the vampire’s initial impetus stopped, Wu Ying lashed out, slicing off fingers then using the return false edge strike to tear open a throat. As more chi leaked out of the wounded hopping vampire, Wu Ying turned to meet his next assailant.
Difficult perhaps. But they could do this.
Wu Ying prodded at the wounds on his side, frowning at the displaced slip of flesh that hung from his torn sect robes. For the life of him, he could not recall being hit that low by the jiangshi. Wounds across his scalp, his arms, and even his neck, he could understand. Heck, his legs had been torn up when he threw a kick that was caught by a jiangshi’s long claws. Those all made sense. This. This he had no recollection of.