Nanming and Flame Streak walk through the forest floor, accompanied by the dark of the night where Moonlight occasionally shed their shy light below, in such scene one might wonder, how beautiful the time where there is hardly any light can be? For seeing a prevailing shine flanked by dark is a testament of nature's will.
Until the small shine was snuffed by a dread of grey clouds overhanging the already dark night.
"…Can you even see beyond this dark?"
Flame Streak asks, her eyes glow green due to the mutation of Nethersea Fruit. Nanming shifted his head to regard her, but he didn't stop walking.
"I can… And I assume you can too"
"…"
Flame Streak founds it incredibly baffling that this boy, who claimed that he is a human, is the farthest away from human. Sure, she can make a case for herself, a Beast of Nether who just happens to have human skin.
That is the case for everyone in the Netherstride Sect, no longer human, just like the Fiend of the Demonic Sect.
But at least she is honest about not being a human, half-human is probably a stretch in the context of referring to herself, and even then, this boy managed to be even weirder than her.
"-!"
Flame Streak then shifts her head like a startled rabbit towards the left; the bell attached to her straw-hat jingles as she does so. And Nanming did the same, his head on full alert facing the same direction.
"Blood"
Nanming muttered, the voice too quiet for anyone to hear but Flame Streak picked up those words nonetheless due to her enhanced sense.
"…Its old"
Both move like a pair wolves, their steps so smooth and careful that a dry leaf won't break under their feet. And with their sight perfectly calibrated to see through the dark, they soon saw a horrific scene.
A particular clearing littered with animal bones and blood, scattered fur and bits of carcass decorate the green grass but its not the animal corpses that shocked them.
In the middle of it all, a torso of a girl can be seen naked. Every bit of her flesh has been picked of clean, leaving only a skinless mass of flesh that is hollow of any organ, as if she was harvested of anything she is worth.
"…"
Nanming looks around, searching for a potential victim beside this unfortunate woman. But his face displays nothing, not even disgust or horror, just… plain, neutral and that's it.
Flame Streak stomach however churn, their bile as if boiling inside as she saw confirmation of the woman's fate. Her lower-half, bare and untouched, yet in her private spot a clear liquid pools out, a sign of severe violation.
"…This is the work of Pekung"
Flame Streak remarks.
"…One more here"
Nanming said, seeing a whole corpse of a woman who is naked and is covered in either urine or something else, her eyes empty and is in extreme pain and in such state of miserable she might as well die instantly than to be subjected to such torturous experience.
Nanming closed his eyes, for a reason unknown to him his stomach, ache so very much. Who can enact such cruelty? Pekung?
He reads from a book that Pekung is a savage monster that ravages and rape everything, even animals and male. But he never expects that it could be so… grotesque.
Nanming then resolved his heart, he gathers around stone and pebble as well as digging out some dirt to make a grave mound.
Flame Streak who noticed his action, couldn't help but to be surprised, is he really planning to bury these corpses? Even when he didn't have anything to do with them?
"Can you bathe them or at least clean their corpse?"
Nanming ask, as he prepares the first mound. Flame Streak just stood there, a rite of passing for these corpses? This is just a normal thing that happens in the wild, why did he care so much?
In time, they will be devoured by either Jiangshi, Beast or Animals, so why bother preparing a grave that will be defiled by them anyway? And so, Flame Streak didn't move, she instead decided to scout ahead to see if the hordes of Pekung were still around or not.
"…"
Nanming can't help but to be discontented by Flame Streak apathy, isn't she a human? Why does she not have even the slightest bit of empathy to help her own kin?
Or is this the truth of the outside world? Where death is just so normalized and violation like this such a common story that people just stop… reacting.
What kind of world pushed its inhabitants to be as cruel as itself? And if the World is cruel, shouldn't the one living inside it try their hardest not to be cruel as well?
Seeing the corpse right in its eyes, Nanming felt weird. This is a real human, a real person with actual life and consciousness.
Can she not imagine this by herself? That one day she too, will meet an unfair ending? And what would she have felt if no one cared about her rotting corpse?
She should've feared Death, what happens if it catches up to her… But its as if she had confidence that Death won't get to her, was this merely a desensitization? Or Fatalism to the extreme?
About two hours had passed and Nanming managed to bury them side by side, he decided to pray to them as well.
Clasping both of his hand and closing his eyes, imparting a word that he hopes would be their last shines of light, no matter how small, he tried his best to satisfy their unjustly end.
"Namu Amituofo, may the soul of one that lies here be cleansed"
.
.
.
"Done praying?"
Flame Streak ask upon Nanming returns, wearing quite literally the same face he had ever since she met him, perhaps it was just his nature, to not be able to express emotion, maybe what afflicted him is the disease of the immortal, the Deadening of the Six Sense.
But she concurred, if this boy an immortal in disguise, then she won't be alive the moment she shows hostility to him.
"…Why didn't you pray for their death?"
"…Difference in culture perhaps?"
Flame Streak has no qualm nor intention in answering him seriously, but she decided to humor him, nevertheless.
"And I have no obligation to, I do not know them, and they do not know me"
"…Is it because Death is such a common occurrence for you? That you felt no remorse in seeing it befall others"
He had a point, Flame Streak had watched a lot of people met their demise, she is even the reason for some of their death, its in-line with work and she never bother to be sentimental about it.
Those of Jianghu know exactly what they want and the risk that comes with it, they simply didn't care, it's either that they die or not, nothing beyond that.
"Don't be mistaken, I am from Jianghu and is a part of this cutthroat world, dancing with Death is simply an occurrence I must partake in daily"
Flame Streak said, and yet Nanming didn't act nor say anything in protest. Perhaps he had accepted that she is, by all means, different from him. His morality won't get him anywhere.
After a while Flame Streak spoke.
"…And I find the cave the Spirit told us about"
Flame Streak then points her hands towards a cliff that can be seen just beyond the tall outgrowth of trees and vegetation.
Both spares no time in walking closer, finding no irregularities they decided to step in closer. Flame Streak went in first, lighting her lantern as it glows in sick green, illuminating the dark entrance and revealing nothing abnormal.
But something is wrong, Nanming can feel a certain… existence inside. The Spirit mentioned that beyond this is his 'kin', or perhaps the follower of said 'kin'. What do they mean by that will remain ambiguous until it reveals itself.
As they walked closer inside the dark corridor and damp interior of the humid cave, they soon found a large artificial chamber inside. A figure can be seen sprawled on the floor, still intact and well.
"Is this Hao?"
Flame Streak ponders, as she went closer to inspect him, a figure appears just beyond the glows of her lanterns, sitting atop a pedestal in a lotus position.
A figure of nothing but skeletal remains, wearing an age-old robe reminiscent of Buddhist monk. Flame Streak immediately dashed back, ready for the worse.
Nanming too, ready his sword in case of the worst. Yet the skeleton didn't move nor react, stuck in their position and spot. That is until it speaks.
-Who are you?
The voice travels straight into Nanming's mind and judging by Flame Streak rection it seems she also heard the sudden voice.
-Nether wielder and you…
The skeleton eyes then glow in distinct purple, the same shade as Tenpei a couple days ago. And when it did, the skeleton moved its head and regards Nanming.
-Whose Sins do thou serve white one?
It asks, the words of something archaic echoes inside Naming minds as he struggled to find an answer.
"…Who are you?"
-…I am the one asking, who are you?
Should he try to be honest? Nanming shifts his head towards Flame Streak whose form was illuminated in green by her lantern. If he answers incorrectly, will she be roped in to whatever problem that may entail?
"I am Nanming from Jiangnam"
The skeleton rattles when it heard his name, before the entire place was consumed in darkness.
-You… are Shura!
The skeleton seems pissed off, given that its entire form was clouded in purple aura and white light.
"What did you do?"
Flame Streak ask, intensifying her own flame in preparation for the worst.
"I'm just telling him my name…"
Nanming is also confused on the skeleton violent reaction, but more than ever, he felt that this white light surrounding the skeleton to be familiar…
-Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayur Punye Jnana Pushtim Kuru Ye Soha
And sure enough, the white light contorts into an image of golden lotus as wave of White Light explode outwards from within him. When that light touches Nanming he could feel his entire body boiling, literally.
It's like his body is water in a pot, and the exploding white light is a fire from within, he could feel every blood and flesh inside to heat up to the melting point as his figure slowly meld to one another.
Flame Streak was pushed away by the light, soon crashing into the caverns wall before she fell to the hard floor and passed out.
Nanming regeneration was pushed to its utter limit, yet the skeleton mutters another word.
-Om…
And the White Light explodes once more, burning Nanming's away in a wave of heat before he felt an intense sharp puncture deep inside of him, like a vine of thorn violently thrashing the inside of his guts.
"Ughhh"
He cannot stomach the pain any longer, unconsciously he shoots up his inhibition that glows in violet rather than blue, surprisingly it shelters him from the showers of White Light.
-Preposterous, how can you resist the Buddha's light? Mere Demons devoured by Sins even…
"…I refuse to yield, for I am not Demon!"
Nanming shouts in between the torturous impact of intense pain he felt throughout his body, managing to force himself up.
-Not a Demon? Imbecile! You put a blind eye to your true nature! That is far more destructive than being Evil!
The skeleton rattles on, its robe lifted off from an unknown force as the golden lotus surrounding him becomes bigger and burns brighter to the point that Nanming's Violet inhibition was threatened to be blown away.
-Aham Namam Vadami
The skeleton speaks, those words echo in the cavern like a falling pan in an empty room, it echoes in emptiness and something calls back.
-VACA!
The words of something beyond echoes not in the cavern wall but straight towards Nanming head, the sheer force of the voice disorient him to the point where the world in his eyes seems a bit blurry and wavy.
-Yak'sha
The skeleton said, and from behind its figure a wheel of White Light overtaken by black spins before it produces an orb towards the left side of the skeleton.
-Feel the power of Nagaraja you Demon!
The orb transforms into a beam of Black Light, it pierces Nanming shoulder. And what he felt is a sensation foreign to even him, pain, a pain so catastrophically overwhelming that he cannot even hear anything, see anything or feel anything.
For every bit of his five senses were obliterated by an unknown Light that breaks each one of his living tissues, before his mind reels into extreme Chaos.
-Look at your pitiful being, Asura…
The skeleton then floats, still in its lotus position as it hovers just above Nanming, looking down towards his exsanguinated and exhumed form, nothing of him resembles a human, right now the power of Yak'sha has brought forth his true self, Asura of Flame.
-Soot, to think I will have the honor to enact vengeance upon the Great Buddha and my many brothers
The skeleton frail hand then procures a blade from within the wheel of light, a stave with many rings attached to its end that resembles the figure of a lotus, glamoured in gold and silver.
-I shall violate the first Sila to seldom killing, I will retract my title as a monk if it means slaying you…
How long does it wished for this opportunity to come by, to kill the Asura that burned everything it had. Attachment is nothing but a roadblock for its mediation, it is sure that the burning of the Buddhist Temple is nothing more but a test, to evaluate its non-action.
And it failed, the pain of losing its purpose is too much for this poor monk to handle.
-Thus, an Evil shall Die!
But before it could bring down the staff, a throwing knife struck his hand and cut it cleanly, the hand and the staff fell into the ground that created an echoing sound from the surrounding caverns and caused the skeleton to reel in pain.
-Aghhh-! Who dares!!
Flame Streak woke up, her entire form covered in Nether Flame that burns away her robes, revealing a body filled with cuts and scars and her face that is decorated in bandages that threatened to be rendered undone by the Green Flame.
"Forbidden Hex Arts:"
-Accursed Nether Wielder! I should've known that you have colluded with such Evil!
The skeleton prepares to recite the mantra of White Tara yet again, but before its bony jaw could move, its entire form is whisked away by the sudden explosion of Nether Flame that envelopes the entire cavern in Green except for the foolish man who wanders into its cave.
"Gate to the Nethersea"
The burning Nether Flame gathers towards the center of the room, creating a portal that leads to a place where Karma is washed and returned once more.
-Fool! I am a Buddhist Monk! I cannot be brought towards the—
But the skeleton entire figure was chained by the Nether beyond the portal, before the multitude of lonely spirit burst forth with their blacked hands and fleshy nails to embrace the skeleton in their multitude of misdirected compassion.
-Aghh-! Begone, filthy Nether Spirit!
The skeleton shouts, it was about to recite another Words of Greatness before the hand of the King of the Underworld reaches towards it.
Araka Niala wished for the skeleton to be brought into the Nether.
-S…uch Poor Unguided…. Souls
-Begone, King of the Nether!
-Or dained Piti ful Failed Enlightenment Failed In life
The ghastly voice then revealed its speaker, a woman clad in white cloth, her face concealed by a long black hair that falls like a willow tree. From within her white cloth a multitude of hands travels forth, parting away the black hair to reveal a ribcage that opens into Avicci.
-Noo-! Away from me! I am the student of the Great Buddha! How can I be ordained inside Avicci!
-Denied Mortality Denied Naturality Punishment befits you
Araka Niala then screams, a scream that can devour even the Space and Time itself as everything swirls inside the gate of Avicci, including the skeleton who can only cries out and flailing its bony hands to not be cast away into the deepest pit of hell where only suffering may exist.
Before it was all cast back into profound silent, Araka Niala regards Flame Streak in turn.
-Mulak The price Is yours I de mand Life Your Life!
Flame Streak presented her right arm, not even a beat later it was cut by an unseen force, Flame Streak grunt permeates the silent cavern as she clutched the sudden loss of her right hand. And since her robe has been burned away, she does not have anything to use to staunch the bleeding.
-Fare well Mulak… In Time Shake the Right Hands
Araka Niala then disappeared alongside the portal, bringing the darkness back into the cavern and leaving Flame Streak alone with Nanming and Hao who are both still unconscious.
As her black blood flows out of the stump that used to be her arm, feeling the cold pain of the caverns wind biting through the exposed limb, she couldn't help but to wonder. Why did she help Nanming? He didn't have anything to do with her, nor did she have anything to do with him.
As she observes Nanming body slowly regenerating, Flame Streak ask him a question and expecting no answer.
"Why did you bury them? Why did you help the old lady?"
If he didn't accept the old lady help, he could've been able to do what he wanted to do and not get caught up in such a difficult and life-threatening situation.
In this Cruel World, Flame Streak has been done dirty by both the World and its inhabitants, her defiled and scar-filled body is a testament to that, even when she undergoes mutation, the mark left by the World remain unhealed, forever a reminder that this world of Dog eating Dog, the only way to survive is to be just another Dog.
Yet Nanming is different, whether from naivety or genuine compassion, he sought and went out of his way to help others, even those who are long gone, for what?
Flame Streak could feel Nanming warmth returning, his black robe regenerates alongside his body, something she thinks wondrous and bizarre all the same.
If, her young self, Mulak, were to meet Nanming…
Would the present she endures be different? Could she see this world for its beauty? Who knows really, her past is long gone, and her present has been decided, all she can do is to tough it up and endure.