Demonic Tribulations - Chapter 48 preview (Patreon)

Chapter 48 – Yin Xue

“Ah, they come.” The farmer turned, following Yin Xue’s gaze. Spotted the flashes of light, eyes narrowing as he tried to pick the numbers out. “I wonder how many they will send?”

“Should you not be running?” Yin Xue asked, turning his head to watch the other farmers who were sprinting away. Many were headed for their houses, others just fleeing into the wilderness. Anywhere but near him and the oncoming battle.

“I wonder how fast I will die. What a coward, I am, to want to die faster than my own children.” The farmer mused, touching the pole. Spinning it about so that they might test the tips of the blunt forked worm catcher. “Do you think, if I am careful, I might be able to bloody one of them?”

Yin Xue stared at the other, incredulous. Realised then, that this one was broken. Mad, even. Taking the opportunity to use him to draw the ones he hated here, hoping to see death. Experience it himself, perhaps. Another part of Yin Xue found himself admiring the demon, acknowledging the pain he lived within. A hand raised, a compression of aura and energy as he waved it across the other.

Metal. It was a different kind of metal, similar but different from what he knew too well in the Middle Kingdom. Yet, Yin Xue had always been metal-aspected, though only mildly. Not enough to give him an advantage, nothing more than a note in his charts when apothecarists crafted custom pills for him.

But this, he could do.

When his hand ended its arc, when the aura he had compressed released, the tips and edges of the twinned fork glinted. Sharpened.

“Why…?”

Rather than answer, Yin Xue walked towards the roadway. There was no reason to fight amongst the fields. In fact, doing so would limit his movements a little, while his opponents – so busy flying on their way here – would be able to rain down attacks on him. Better to have space to move.

“I am called, Korcan. Remember my name, if I bleed one. Let it be ground under, if I fail. And who should I thank, in this life and the next dozen, dear huma falak?” Korcan called, as Yin Xue walked away.

“Wen Yin Xue. Fight smart, farmer.”

The man nodded, looked around and grinned, rushing forward and slipping into a nearby pool. One filled with a multitude of the worms, but smaller ones such that they might not consume him in moments. It could not, however, be comfortable.

Bitter amusement it was, that Yin Xue found himself allied once again with another farmer. Bitter irony that his existence seemed tied to such people. As though the Dao was trying to tell him something. If it was, Yin Xue was resolute in one thought.

He had no desire to listen.

The lights above stopped, as abruptly and quickly as they had been approaching. Instead of a single individual, there were a trio of demons hanging above. Blue skinned and with multiple arms, tusks emerging from their mouths. Their eyes were strange, overly large in flat faces, with red dots on the sides of their foreheads and along their cheeks. The trio sat upon a single instrument, a massive crescent moon of a disc that fit all three easily and pulsed with restrained chi. Made of gold and steel, the flying instrument was studded with precious jewels and spirit stones, gifting it flight.

The moment Yin Xue set eyes upon it, he knew he had to own it.

“You are no visal.” The leader was the largest of the trio, his aura of power carefully retracted but he could not hide from Yin Xue. The cultivator could sense the energy pulsing in his dantian, the strength in his bones, concentrated interestingly enough beneath the golden headband. Eyes drifted to Yin Xue’s enlarged, red arm that was so at odds with the rest of his body. “A huma falak then, borrowing our forms. You smell of the other interlopers, the servants in the lower realm.”

“I’d have washed if I could find a proper bathhouse.” Yin Xue sniffed, glancing down at his torn robes, and the traces of mud on them. He had done his best to clean them, utilizing his chi and pulses of his aura to discard dirt; but there was only so much one could do. Not after the beating it had received, not after his consolidation and the extrusion of further mortal taint. Though he might have some other robes left, few fit his new form and he had no intention on dirtying them till he found a proper place to clean. “Who are you, and what is your business with me?”

“So bold. So brave.” Sneered the leader. “You come to the land of the Urduta and demand answers from us. Let us see if you deserve such an answer.”

A hand was raised, and in answer one of the other demons raised a gold-and-red bow. The white-fletched arrow that was loosed burst into a rain of a dozen projectiles, each moving faster than a droplet in a center of a tropical storm. They tore through space, leaving back lines behind them as they bent space around them and flocked towards him.

A dismissive hand rose and struck downwards. The projection of his attack briefly appeared, smashing the rain of arrows into the earth, causing the road to be pockmarked by the attack. A huge wind rose up with his movements, causing the flying instrument to wobble and nearly throwing one of the demons off it.

Then, because Yin Xue was not one to allow another to attack him without paying a price, he swung his hand the other way. The projected blow crossed space in a flash, causing his target to raise his bow reflexively.

That was a mistake, for the snap of the bow and the explosion of shards sent the man staggering back, crying as bowstring and broken halves were embedded in their body. The other demon stirred, raising the long, flexible whip by their side but was stilled by the leader.

“You are strong.” That blue-skinned demon cocked his head to the side, then a smile broke out. “Good. We have no use for the weak, but a huma falak that is strong has many uses. We shall return to the complex where you will be feted as a proper guest of your station. Then, you will speak with the rahnuma, who shall explore what we may do.

“Perhaps you too can be our servant in the lower realms. We have recently lost our previous puppet.”

Yin Xue eyes narrowed at the words used, but after a moment he gave them a wide, toothy grin. Though he might be proud, he was being offered food, shelter and most importantly, a bath. What more could he ask for?

“Very well. Let us go.”

“One moment.” Another gesture and the two demons leapt off the flying instrument. Yin Xue tensed, but they ignored him as they turned towards the nearby villages, the bowman already drawing forth another weapon from their storage ring. They passed, nearby the pool that Korcan hid within.

Yin Xue frowned. “What are you doing?”

“Cleansing the area, of course. Any ghalzri who partake in the heresy that you have uttered must be cleansed, otherwise, who knows what might occur?”

Yin Xue did not bother asking for clarification. He understood what the euphemism meant. “Why? Is it that worrying, that I but mentioned the Dao?”

“I would ask that you stop that.” The leader glared at Yin Xue even as the other two demons stopped and turned to face him. “Such words and concepts should not be so easily bandied about. Nor should one who has all but abandoned that way speak of it.”

“I have not abandoned the Dao,” Yin Xue protested.

“Yet you have become one of us.”

“Demonic cultivation is just another pathway.”

“Is that truly what you believe?” A harsh, barking laugh. “That you walk the dao of demons now?” A shake of the head. “There might be a demonic way, but you have become one of us, stealing the form of a visal. And not even one, but making a hodgepodge of your body. You are no more human than the ghalzri who hide in their rooms. At least you had the good sense to steal from your betters.”

The leader’s berating brought out a harsh bark of laughter from the one who held that flexible sword. His laughter grated on Yin Xue’s ears, and he clenched his fist by his side. Ignoring the words of the one above, recalling how an Elder Dragon himself had agreed with his own beliefs, Yin Xue jerked his chin.

“Tell your people to come back. I tire of waiting. If there is a bath to be had, I require it now.”

“You can come with me. We shall leave them to their duties.” So saying, the leader lowered the flying instrument, as though beckoning Yin Xue upwards.

Whether he would have climbed on it and left the villagers to their fate, Yin Xue would never know. Years later, he would still debate that question, for he was truthful enough with himself that he had intended to leave. Meant to climb aboard, for the villagers fate – the rules and dictums they lived under was not his concern.

It would not matter. For Korcan acted, exploding out of the water. Covered with the tiny monstrous centipedes that had latched onto his body, biting into his body and sucking down his blood, he emerged. Wreathed in the creatures and stabbing at the nearest, the sword wielder.

Only to be unceremoniously caught with one hand, the weapon blocked with the flat pommel of the weapon.

“What do we have here? A worm that has delivered itself…” The polearm was ripped away, and the twisted blade was raised. Before it could lower, Yin Xue was there, gripping the arm.

Who was more surprised, cultivator, demon or farmer, it was unclear.