บท 146: Days of Madness - Ruined Temple

Dàilán found herself thankful for the recent increases in strength throughout the group all over again as the grim run through the cloying gloom of the withered forest stretched endlessly onward.

It was simple to say, 'run at your top speed without stopping for a Shí, through a heavily overgrown jungle, in a close formation with eighty or so other people, while remaining combat ready at all times and avoiding injury.'

To actually implement such an order, especially for a group of half trained almost civilians, was something else entirely.

But everyone was doing it. Perhaps she should stop being surprised and start thinking of her Clanswomen as fellow Batlle Cultivators, rather than the Noblewomen they used to be.

For the sake of trying to watch for threats, Dàilán, her father and the BloodWitch ran in midair, coasting just above the trees as equivalently ranked Yāoguǐ leapt through the canopy. All of the higher leveled Cultivators and Yāoguǐ repeatedly used whatever low-cost Essence techniques they could to repeatedly uproot or dislodge obstacles in the group's path that lower ranked Earth Levels would otherwise be unable to navigate at speed.

Dàilán pushed away the ridiculously indulgent wish that they had more Sky Levels in the group. If the whole group could fly…

She shook her head at the insanity of her own thoughts. Out of several thousand civilians and Mortal Cultivators that made the bulk of the Guan, there had been less than two hundred Earth leveled Cultivators.

Now every member that had followed her - nearly forty young women and girls - were Earth Level. This would have been considered an impossibility. Let alone that every one of them could hold their own in combat against threats at their level - and fight above their rank.

Despite her Sky Cultivation and mastery of Formations, Grandmother was vulnerable outside of an area she had time to prepare. The ancient traditions - which she was beginning to suspect were not so ancient - discouraged noblewomen from training in combat techniques and likely part of the reason that her Grandmother had worked behind the scenes to enable Noblewomen to develop outside the 'acceptable' arts.

Other than her Grandmother, there had only been her Father and two Uncles at Sky Level in her entire Clan.

And that many Sky Levels in a small Clan had been considered unusual - enough so that she and her Cousins had been sought after as potential brides by many other Clans - despite the Guan's relatively minor rank.

And now she was wishing everyone here had advanced to Sky Rank? She would be better off wishing them to their destination instead.

The density of Essence slowly increased as they travelled rapidly towards what she was beginning to suspect was one of the main sources for the increased Essence levels, her own Cultivation adjusting to compensate.

She was thankful that the Essence Storm appeared to have fixed the issue with sharp gradients of Essence and the Essence disturbances that had been causing so many issues earlier in their trip. Of course, it had replaced it with the threat of a Wraith wave, but the slow increase was manageable and for the moment, within everyone's abilities to tolerate.

Dàilán shook her distracting thoughts away, scanning the trees under her as she ran through the air, keeping pace just ahead of the column on the ground; the BloodWitch and her father were rotating places in the air with her - she was in front, clearing obstacles and ranging out to the sides to watch for threats coming up ahead - while the others were trailing slightly behind the column and switching back and forth on the flanks to watch for anything coming in from those directions.

Speaking of which - she nodded as her Father came in from his turn on the flanks as the BloodWitch rotated onto where her Father had been. Dàilán dropped back to take up the tailing position, looking downward as the group rushed through the thick, partially withered jungle.

Unfortunately, the Yāoguǐ travelling with them were disinclined to fly despite their Cultivation, leaving the three of them responsible for keeping watch above the trees.

Apparently the abilities and forms of their Essence Beast forebears had a great deal more influence on the weaknesses and strengths of the Yāoguǐ than they cared to openly admit.

Even Yāoguǐ possessing the equivalent of a Sky Rank Cultivation, found using Essence to fly difficult - unless they were descended from some form of flight capable Essence Beast.

Those were apparently uncommon - at the very least, there had not been any Sky Level avian Yāoguǐ in present Mówáng Xióng's Herd.

The Yin Miasma that was rising from the forest below was making it increasingly difficult for Dàilán to see down into the jungle passing beneath her. Repeated usages of the Mountain Winds technique did little to disperse it, though it sent the branches shaking wildly. It appeared the miasma was not completely affected by physical actions, which was not particularly surprising - just disappointing, given the current situation.

A sharp cry below attracted her attention and she watched with dismay as several of the women below fell at high speed, smashing apart smaller trees and boulders as they tumbled. Dàilán winced, quickly swooping lower to check.

Regarding the wreckage of the trees and boulders around the small pile of Cultivators and a couple Yāoguǐ that lay haphazardly along the route of march with the others who were unaffected maneuvering around them or assisting them to their feet, Dàilán glanced worriedly at the trees that had been smashed to kindling and rocks shattered from the impacts around the group.

"Even with Earth Level Cultivation, they should have injured themselves in impacts at that speed," she muttered to herself, speaking from experience, although she made sure she was not speaking loud enough for anyone else to hear, "especially with such high Essence Levels - the trees and boulders should be much tougher than normal."

Focusing her Essence she sent out a small pulse tightly focused on the broken wood and stone, below, managing to pierce through the thickening miasma sufficiently to get a sense of what had happened - the materials were weakened and brittle from exposure to the Yin.

The figures below waved her off as they picked themselves up, most of them laughing sheepishly while making sarcastic remarks at one young woman at the center of the pile of tumblers, "It is ok! Just a small trip!" one of them called up to Dàilán as they re-joined the column.

Seeing the familiar figure of the head healer making her way back to the few that were limping, Dàilán sighed gustily to herself, "how long before the yin affects us similarly, I wonder…?"

---

It was definitely over a Shí later and Dàilán was beginning to become concerned. When it was her turn to switch to the front of the caravan, she ran higher upward in the air in an effort to try and check for any oncoming threats from further away.

The miasma was an omnipresent haze which made determining distant details difficult, but everything appeared ominously still as far as she could see from her higher vantage point. Dropping close to the canopy, she verified that she could see no immediate obstacles visible ahead of the group and took the chance to spring towards the ground, jumping from tree to tree to bleed off speed.

Their trunks creaked and shook alarmingly despite their size and Dàilán fought back a surge of worry. The yin was much heavier here at ground level - she wondered how much more moving through the cold and cloying Essence the group could take.

Seeing the strained and pinched faces turning to her as she landed, then silently turning back in strained effort to continue running gave her the answer. Not much more.

Without ceremony, she approached the Yāoguǐ who had spoken earlier regarding the distance to the border and gestured towards Monitor Leng, who maneuvered to her side even as they all continued to run.

"You estimated a Shí," she began without preamble, "clearly we are not there yet. Why?"

"We cannot maintain the speed in this miasma," responded Monitor Leng, "and," he looked towards the Yāoguǐ who appeared distressed, if the whites of his eyes showing meant the same as it did on humans.

"The wilds are larger than they were when we went to sleep, though I am positive we are close - this area has shown signs of heavy spatial fluctuations recently. The landmarks are still roughly in the expected locations - perhaps an extra fifty to seventy five lǐ difference," the Yāoguǐ panted with distress as he spoke, "the location on your map - it is an old temple that was there even before we slept."

"I just went up and extra few lǐ to check for threats or landmarks - there was no temple visible," she responded flatly, "are you certain?"

"Check either side of the line of march," suggested Monitor Leng, "if the local increase in Essence has caused expansion the temple may have shifted slightly off the original location."

"We cannot be that far off," insisted the Yāoguǐ, "we recognise some of the land shapes!"

"We had better be close," interjected the Healer grimly as she ran closer to the three of them, "some of the lower ranked Earths are struggling to push the Yin back from invading their Cultivation - they cannot run anymore as all their energies are focused on resisting. The stronger ones are towing them, but…"

"That cannot last much longer," Dàilán frowned, knowing that the stronger Cultivators having to carry others meant they would deplete their own Essence faster. Soon everyone would not have the Essence to continue resisting the miasma.

"The temple was on a small mountain," added the Yāoguǐ insistently, "well, more of a large hill actually. You - should - be able to spot it somewhere ahead of us if you are looking for it."

Dàilán nodded sharply and roasted her Cultivation again to push herself into the air, gritting her teeth at the discomfort as her Essence clashed and sizzled against the clinging murk that tried to hold her down.

The Yin mists gave way reluctantly as she rose. Once she got above the canopy the restriction lessened and she was to resume her previously smooth flight a little ahead of the column. She immediately began sweeping the horizon for any sign of a hill or old - probably ruined - buildings. Although if it was a temple, perhaps some Techniques or Formations could have been used to preserve it?

There was nothing ahead of their line of travel so she started looking left or right, even casting behind her to check they had not bypassed any likely locations - although she liked to think she would have noticed passing a set of temples.

Nothing was immediately obvious and she bit back a curse. Could they have somehow missed it entirely?

Sudden movement on the horizon caught Dàilán's eye, slightly off their line of travel. A small cloud of black flecks suddenly rushing up out of the trees. Crows… or other birds?

"Everything is dead…" the group of specks seemed to shift in the direction of their caravan and her eyes narrowed, tracing a slight shifting of the trees between the birds and her current location - that was moving in a straight line towards the caravan.

"Something is headed for us," that sudden shift in direction was too purposeful for it to be anything else. She moved downward to alert the others when her gaze caught on a small portion of the forest between the shifting in the canopy and their current position. As her angle of sight changed, it was suddenly obvious that the trees in that area were raised a lǐ or so above the rest.

The young Heiress took a breath to focus on it - making out tumbled boulders and what looked like overgrown structures - and a brief glimpse of the steep side of a hill between the thick vegetation.

"Heaven gives and takes in equal measure," she murmured, before dropping like a stone.

The people at the head of the caravan dropped into defensive positions as she landed heavily, but she swung an arm out to point in the direction of the hill she had spotted, several degrees south off their current path, "I think I see it," she directed, "unless there were several steep sided hills with buildings on it in this region?" she asked the Yāoguǐ who shook his head, "No, that should be it," he agreed, with relief clear in his voice.

At the confirmation, the others around her immediately altered their direction of travel to match with Dàilán's arm and the caravan started shifting southward.

"There is another problem - we should hurry," Dàilán declared, "something is headed this way. We need to reach the temple ruins before it does. Move faster!"

At her urging the faces of those around her paled and the whole caravan began to exert the last part of their spare Essence that had been held in reserve. Despite staying on the ground, the whole group seemed to be gliding over the ground or lunging between trees and other parts of the landscape in an effort to travel faster.

She was interrupted by both her father and the BloodWitch landing on either side of her, "we are headed for the hill?" her father asked without ceremony.

Dàilán nodded sharply even as the BloodWitch chuckled, "~fig~ures that it wou~ld be between~us and a bunch of ~Essence Wraith~."

"Are you sure?" asked Dàilán's Father and the tiny woman who had reverted to her 'little girl' form unlimbered the massive sword from her back as if it was a feather, " do ~you see~ ~anything ~a~live a~round here, ~brat?" She asked the other man in a sarcastic sing-song voice, "I guess we have~ a fight," Dàilán noticed the Senior Enforcer did not look particularly unhappy about that.

"The Essence Wraith birds - are following something ahead of them. Whatever it was - it is moving to intercept the caravan," Dàilán interrupted the two older Cultivators before they could start arguing.

"Are you sure it is not other Essence Wraith?" asked her Father, "maybe some land bound ones?"

"Wraith ~birds would be ~ahead or ~above the main group of ~Wraith - not be~hind ~them," pointed out the older woman, "~advance scouts, ~prob~ab~ly."

"They are chasing something down, then" agreed Dàilán's Father, "leading the Essence Wraith right to us."

"If the Sage set up the same Formations on the hill that he did the other two Sanctuaries, we MUST get to the hill before the Wraith do" interrupted Dàilán, "I doubt the Sage's Formations would allow Wraith access, but we cannot allow them to cut us off from the only strong point in the area."

"I ~go~ ahead and ~hold the ~hill," ordered the Senior Enforcer, "~the rest of you ~should catch up in a kè. I will re~turn if it is not the ~place we search for." She leapt into the air, leaving an afterimage behind her as she appeared to turn into a streak of light that shot southward.

"Go watch the tail and flanks in case it is a distraction," Dàilán's father ordered, waving in the appropriate directions, "I will stay up front and watch for attacks coming towards the front."

Dàilán nodded and moved quickly along the column, shouting orders as she went, "keep together everyone! We have found the next Sanctuary! There may be Essence Wraith - prepare to fight!"

She continued repeating the encouragements and warnings as she moved to the rear covering position, then pushed her way upward again. She noted the miasma appeared to be less able to constrain her as the group drew closer to the hill, compared to her last attempt to fly - which likely indicated that the something in the general vicinity was having a cleansing effect - giving her additional hope that she had found the next area that Chún had constructed.

"We are past the original border and too far south," shouted a nearby Yāoguǐ, "the temple was once the marker in this area for the border between our territory and the next Pack as well as much more northward, so there has definitely been some shifting."

"It is less than five hundred lǐ ahead," Dàilán shouted back, "the representatives can renegotiate the treaties if we all survive!"

---

The last stretch of the trip seemed to last forever. The caravan rushed forward as Dàilán focused on watching for any ambushes from the rear.

With no one watching the flanks both her father and herself split the caravan in half, focusing on the appropriate directions as they continuously patrolled the front and back halves of the rapidly moving groups; the two of them made certain that one of them was at the front or rear when the other was in middle.

The jungle seemed to crawl below with ridiculous slowness now that they had their goal in sight. The young Heiress winced every time she heard a detonation or heavy impact, but it always turned out to be her Father clearing out the route in front of the caravan.

Several times, Dàilán risked climbing higher to try and spot any other signs of movement coming from any other directions, but she only saw the disturbance in the canopy that she had spotted earlier, drawing closer even as the flock of Essence Wraith drew rapidly closer a little way behind it.

During her final check, she spotted the buildings on the hill they were headed for clearly. The temple buildings did not look like ruins - except perhaps the artistically designed sort of 'ruins' that some of the more eccentric sort of nobles placed in their gardens - such that they clearly looked like a ruined temple, but also as if the buildings were constructed to be in ruins all along, rather than having deteriorated.

Dàilán suspected that the Mountain Spirit had something to do with that. Particularly as all of the buildings appeared to have a soft glow to them that appeared almost holy. There were also the gleaming seated buddha statues that were visible under the trees. She was sure she saw one of them turn their head in her direction.

Of greater concern was that she also spotted the BloodWitch floating in midair, just outside of the far side of the temple compound on the hill from the side the caravan was approaching, cutting off the approach of whatever was shifting the trees about. It was only a few lǐ ahead of the BloodWitch's position and approaching rapidly directly towards the hill now.

Dàilán took another look at the flock of Essence Wraiths as she observed this and this time spotted an additional detail that had not had been readily apparent until now - almost directly below the flock of Essence Wraiths there was another disturbance in the jungle. This one appeared to be withering and killing the vegetation in a straight line beneath the flock. Even as she watched one of the forest giants directly in the path of the flock shook and shivered; parts of it visibly crumbled away before it fell with an audible crash.

"Senior was right…" Dàilán muttered, before she darted downward, noting the almost complete lack of miasma in this area as she landed, shouting a warning, "More Essence Wraiths under the flock! We must get into the Temple first! Combat capable fighters prepare to defend!"

She looked upward, noting that the flock of Essence Wraiths were visible in the sky from the ground now, though they were still some distance away - a distance that was rapidly closing. She heard the BloodWitch's distinctive voice yelling something even as the caravan began climbing the hill. Fighters detached warily from the rest of the caravan to form combat groups guaring the caravan from all sides as the others who only had enough strength left to run dashed past the first of the giant stone Buddhas that appeared to surround the hill, some distance from the top.

There was a bright flash and a pulse of something that cleared the miasma completely as the Cultivators and Yāoguǐ moved past the intimidating boundary statues. Dàilán released a breath of relief she had not realised she was holding as the fatigue of the past half a day of running vanished and she felt a clean Essence surge through her meridians, echoed by joyful shouts from the rest of the caravan.

"Do not stop!" she shouted as some of the women appeared to stumble to a halt in astonishment - a few even taking a look back as if considering joining the battle, "those who were exhausted - setup a camp and prepare for casualties!"

"Do as the Sect head says!" came the reprimanding tones of the Head Healer, "we do not know if the effect is permanent and the fighters need a prepared position to fall back to if necessary! Tents, medical, defensive formations…"

"No Formations!" that was Monitor Leng, "The Temple's defenses are much stronger than the Sanctuary Clearing and appear to contain divine intent - it may react poorly to any battle Formations…"

The chorus of assent as the lower level Cultivators, merchants and emissaries in the caravan streamed into the temple made Dàilán grin fiercely, "Monitor! Set up a perimeter with the lower Earth levels who can still fight. Anyone who is willing to fight - with me - we must reinforce the BloodWitch!"

Putting actions to her words she dashed over the hill even as both Cultivators and Yāoguǐ who were still capable of fighting split into orderly chaos - some immediately going towards Monitor Leng nodded a quick assent at her words and started hastily directing the construction of temporary defensive positions around the hill - while the rest of the caravan still willing and able to fight followed her.

"Do we have a plan? Or are we just going to go charging down to where the BloodWitch is?" Chénli's voice came with a dry tone over her left shoulder as the fighters broke into battle teams and readied techniques even as they blurred through the temple complex at the top of the hill.

"What she said," agreed Dàilán's Father as he appeared at her right shoulder.

"We get to Senior first. The Wraith I saw are barely a lǐ away," she risked a glance up at the flock of Essence Wraith that was nearly directly above them, close enough to hear their harsh cries and see sparks of purple and green spitting and curling from their bodies, "I heard her shout before, but there is no sound of battle yet…"

"There was something else - whatever the Essence Wraith were chasing," reminded her father as the battle squads began running down hill and through another set of giant Buddha statues that were glowing fiercely golden and copper. Dàilán briefly noticed these statues were all standing with one arm extended with the palm raised in the classical buddhist warding gesture and the other with fingers folded in some symbol she did not recognise - as if the buddhas were defending against the approaching Essence Wraiths.

Dàilán nodded in response to her father's warning, "I am guessing she challenged whomever or whatever it was - they are not fighting, so…"

She stopped speaking as the group of about twenty Cultivators and Yāoguǐ burst upon the scene; a heavily wounded fox Yāoguǐ panting weakly in a crumpled heap just behind the BloodWitch who was glowing with Essence and giggling - and coming out of the trees in front of her in a hissing, snarling flood, was a wave of dark shapes more bone and broken flesh than recognisable beast.

Bitter green and savage purple wisps curled from the eye sockets and mouths of the shambling Essence Wraiths and heavy yin Essence poured off their bodies in waves.

There was a harsh humming sound from behind the Cultivators that had halted in shock. Blasts of golden light speared past them to smash into the horde of Essence Wraiths as they roared with a sound like ripping fabric that seemed to tear from the inside of your skull. The horde of dead beasts lurched forward in a wave of snarling hate.

The Bloodwitch cackled and leapt forward, meeting the charge.

Yāoguǐ and Cultivator charged forward, techniques sizzling out to blast the nearest Essence Wraiths away as the creatures leapt and spat foul Essence, yelling their own cry of defiance in the face of the abominations.

Dàilán saw one Yāoguǐ scoop the fallen fox Yāoguǐ from the ground and dart back up the hill as more harsh humming preceded another volley of light spears being cast from the flat palms of the Buddha statues behind her, shredding Yin Essence and Wraith bodies alike.

"Watch the statues!" she warned belatedly, suddenly wishing she had more long range techniques or at least a massive slab of metal like the BloodWitch whose cackling seemed to be trying to outcompete the Essence Wraith for 'most unnerving sound possible' as she bounced like a demented hare from one spot to the next, black blood and body parts flying in her wake.

A harsh scream had her reflexively slashing the daggers she had not even realised she had slid from their arm sheaths in the air as a heavy weight slammed into her with a wave of putrid air. Wickedly sharp claws skidded on her Essence Silk robes, sparks flashing off as a large crow tried to stab her eye out with a dagger-like beak.

Dàilán ducked just in time, letting her head drop and bringing her right arm to defend as the hood of her robes suddenly flowed up and over head, the Formations in the Essence Silk catching the strike in a spray of crackling energy. The bird's wings flapped wildly as it lost its balance - exposing a gaping wound that had more of that purple and poisonous green Essence leaking out of it.

Instinct took over and Dàilán plunged her free dagger through it and tore it up through the body as she pushed Essence though the weapon in a bid to overload the Essence Wraith's core.

The Writh's core exploded from the overload of Essence and consumed the creature in an ugly swirl of savage purple and green lightning.

Several shouts over the sudden battlefield cursing the flying attackers let Dàilán know her experience was not unique as she staggered from the blast and then spun its momentum into a dodge away from something that might have started out as some sort of rabbit, judging from its hind legs and its leap towards her face but now looked like a rabid, frothing badger made of black shadows and sickly blue, green and purple Essence leaking out of numerous rents all over its form and what was left of its face.

She stabbed her blades into it and pushed Essence again as she ripped them apart for maximum damage. Again the massive explosion all out of proportion to its size, but this time Dàilán was half way expecting it and merely lashed out with a kick at another unrecognisable animal leaping towards a Yāoguǐ, who smashed its weapon into it.

There was no strategy or cunning in evidence - just a berserk attack - even as that harsh humming warned the fighters again, who moved aside to let the beams of golden light smash the wave of Essence Wraiths back.

"BloodWitch!" yelled the young heiress as that sight gave her an idea, "back up the hill! Everyone, tactical disengage! Behind the statues!"

The fighters scrambled to reposition in the breathing space provided by the defenses of the Temple, but the Essence Wraiths were charging again, uncaring of their losses as the long range Techniques of the Cultivators and Yāoguǐ reaped what would normally be considered a deadly toll.

"This is going to take a while," the young Heiress spat as she spotted several corpses that had not been completely destroyed, seemingly reassembling themselves and resuming the attack.

"~Forward, be~twe~en the voll~eys," the Bloodwitch cackled from somewhere along the line, "~do ~not let them get b~ehind the Buddha Palms. ~Push!"

Another round of techniques lashed out and Dàilán followed the close combat specialists out - stabbing and kicking down the hill to push the snarling horde back, shaking her head in dismay, "this is going to be truly unpleasant…"

"Have to make the cores explode!" shouted someone else, "or they just get back up!"

"En. I should have stayed in bed this morning," Dàilán grumbled, smashing another pesky bird with an Essence enhanced fist, stabbing what looked like what was left of a panther with her free dagger and blasting it with a surge of Essence to make its core crack and explode, "wait your turn turtle-heads!"

A familiar body crashed into her back and Dàilán adjusted her stance as Chénli's voice came from behind her, instinctively putting the two of them back to back, "was this your plan?" her maid/bodyguard shouted as she smashed aside a few more Wraiths trying to get around the Heiress.

"Do not stray too far from Buddha," quipped Dàilán, "hear the wisdom of the mudras!"

"You always take me to the most interesting places, mistress," Chénli answered sarcastically as that harsh humming started again and the statues glowed in warning. The two of them rolled between the nearest two statues, along with the rest of the fighters as the golden beams lashed out from the palms of the statues again.

"Glad you approve," Dàilán replied dryly.

"I did not say that," Chénli disagreed as the Essence Wraiths recoiled from the beams of light, then charged forward again.

"Hmph. So stingy," complained Dàilán as the pair of young women met the charge together.