Chapter 2 - The happenings

Gasp!

Zhi Yu startled up with bated breath, clutching at his chest and knotting the fabric in his fist.

'A nightmare..?'

His head pounded while his vision blurred. He laid back on the ground, dizzy.

'I can't remember a thing.'

He rolled on the side and sighed. His eyes distantly followed the trail of hardworking ants labouring to bring rotten fruit back to their nest. He frowned when grass tickled his cheek.

...

'Grass?'

Scrambling to get up, he quickly fumbled around in a startled manner. Before long, he ran like a madman, laid his face on the ground, petted a tree and hugged a rock.

'The scent of dirt and grass, the rough edge of the tree bark, and the sturdy feel of the rock—how come I can feel all that?'

'Could it be...!'

He breezed past the front courtyard, into the main hall and building, taking a sharp turn right. The wind whizzed past his ears, and his footsteps echoed in the empty hall as he rushed towards the pond. Almost slipping up a few times in his hurry, he arrived at the pond in a whirlwind of dust.

Falling to his knees, he dragged himself to the edge of the bridge, where he gazed into the pond.

Despite the murky waters, the reflection showed him what he was looking for. Clear cut from the ripples, a mask made of bones and flesh faced back at him.

Zhi Yu recoiled in shock.

"Is this me?" he touched his face, his mirrored reflection doing the same. He tilted his head, and so did the reflection. He pulled his lips up to make a grim smile, and so did the reflection, mockingly.

Splash!

With a rock, he rippled the dirty surface of the water, disfiguring his reflection. Then, taking a deep breath, he attempted to recall the events before his awakening.

"Let's see... I was..."

The imminent rebound from the entrance gate, the strange creature, the dream and the void flashed through his head like a vivid story being told. He sighed, feeling a headache coming in and flooding his mind.

'Who was that person? Could they even be called a person?'

'If what they said was the truth, why didn't I not reach the light but instead sink into the ground?'

'Why am I human now?'

Why was he revived? While he didn't mind the revival — anything to escape being bound to a dusty and grimy old building — why couldn't he ascend to the afterlife? Wouldn't a new addition to the afterlife be less demanding to manage than a revived human?

'Won't I get kidnapped by the Ten Thousand Rivers Doctor to be studied if found out? Revival is not exactly the most common phenomenon.'

He shivered at the thought. No, he must hide the fact that he revived. If power-crazy martial artists heard about it, he would likely be thrown around and ripped apart like a toy.

'No, absolutely not. I cannot stand this. I have to hide my identity. By all skies, if even an acquaintance sees me, I'd be doomed!'

At these thoughts, Zhi Yu almost felt like bursting into laughter. Acquaintances? Friends? Family? He had none. Before he died...there was no one by his bedside.

He stared silently at his reflection, the water slowly stilling again.

"Haa..."

'Never mind that. Let's get out of here first. I'm sick and tired of being in this manor.'

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Uh..?"

'I know I said I was going to get out of here, but it's not like I knew precisely where 'here' was, nor if any villages were nearby.'

Zhi Yu stood silently at the manor's gate, which he now knew was called 'Beishang Manor.' 

'A fitting name for this desolate and gloomy place.'

The road was surrounded by a thick forest that went as far as he could see, with no indication of human life except the manor.

'At least there's a road. I'd be damned to think I can survive in such dense vegetation.'

Zhi Yu trekked down the road with no other choice but to hope he'd encounter another human being.

"Huff.. huff" 

'Damn it. How long has it been since I've started walking?'

Zhi Yu could feel his legs aching; every step burned through his body. 

Unable to endure the exhaustion anymore, he collapsed on the side of the road, amongst the sandy rocks and stray weeds. He could feel his legs shaking, instinctively knowing it would hurt the next day.

"Still, I covered a lot."

He drew a breath as the wind ruffled his hair, savouring the sharp scent of nature, the slight tickle of the grass on his skin, the soft shine of the skin on the various rocks that littered the path and the distant rushes of a river.

'I never knew merely sitting and breathing would be that wonderful.'

"I guess that's the beauty of living," he mused as he looked at the forest absently. Evergreen trees, tall bushes and fallen logs piled together in a marvellous show of creation, topped by the swaying figure of what seemed to be a person.

'Wait, what?'

Zhi Yu squinted at the figure blankly. A road peaked through the other side of the forest and what seemed to be a young man was suspended in the air, held by something he couldn't quite see. Should he check out what this fiasco was about, or should he leave the thing alone?

'There's no harm in looking,' he decided as he painstakingly stood again.

As he approached, he could finally see the whole situation in its glory. A thick rope attached to a tall tree snaked around the young man's right leg, suspending him upside down. He seemed to be unconscious, probably from the blood loss as a small puddle of red gathered under him.

Carefully stepping around the puddle, Zhi Yu, afraid of leaving trails for whoever left the poor guy there to track, attempted to release the man from his trap.

The rope was burly and thick and appeared made of tree bark. It was unmovable, stingy, rough, and painful to pull at.

'I can't pull this with my bare hands.'

Zhi Yu searched around his pockets to find if he had anything, only to come up empty-handed. It was only then that he noticed the trapped man had a small dagger attached to his belt. 

'He must be a martial artist.'

At this point, he starts to regret his impulsive decision to save the man since he didn't know if doing so would inadvertently put him in trouble with an unknown group of martial artists. Still, since he had already seen the man and hurt himself trying to rescue him, it was too late to pretend he had seen nothing. So, Zhi Yu reached for and unsheathed the dagger.

'A rope this thick shouldn't be used on humans. Was this originally an animal trap?' he pondered as he slowly tore through the rope's many braided layers. 

With one last hit of the dagger, the last filaments holding the rope together broke apart.

Snap!

The male plummeted to the ground headfirst. Thankfully, having already predicted this, Zhi Yu dropped the dagger and caught him, although not without great effort to prevent him from diving face-first into the blood puddle.

He dragged the young man to the side of the road, momentarily forgetting about the pain in his legs. 

Zhi Yu rolled him over, looking for the source of the injury, recoiling when the intense stench of blood reached his nose. The male had a large gash on his chest and it was a miracle he was still breathing.

"Someone's been blessed by Lao Tian Ye,1" Zhi Yu murmured as he attempted to patch up the injured person. "I can't imagine being forced to live through such a horrible wound."

He paused when he noticed that the blood flow was still behaving irrationally, despite the wound being properly bandaged. 

"Huh? Is that poison?"

Additionally, the new blood flowing held the unmistakable rotten stench of poison, fuming as it touched Zhi Yu's skin.

"There goes my attempt at saving him." Zhi Yu murmured dejectedly. "With a poison potent like that, not even a medicinal ball would work. He'd need at least a large scale acupuncture session."

Zhi Yu was cleaning his bloody hands on the other's clothes as he spoke when a stinging feeling pierced through his skin.

'The poison! I must've cut myself on that godforsaken rope!'

Zhi Yu shook his ailing hand desperately, as if such action could magically reverse his blood flow and expel the poison. However, surprise overtook his expression as the stinging pain gradually reduced and fumes rose from the wound.

"My body... repelled it?"