“Another battle here.” Said a female cultivator as she examines the remains of the ashen wolves. Though not much could be gleaned as most of the corpses have been picked apart by scavengers. Be they men or beasts.

  “The corpse of the pack leader is missing.” A buddhist cultivator chimes in. He plants his khakkhara on the ground as he prays for the dead wolves.

  “Still thinking it's the mountain guardian that has become demonic?” The sword cultivator asks while folding his arms.

  The three of them have tracked the trails of destruction. From the place where the demonic deer crashed to the royal Jin carriage back to the village that worshiped a mountain guardian in the form of a white deer. Then they are now here after following the trails into a clearing with plenty of remains of ashen wolves.

  “Could be, it could be chasing after a rogue cultivator. But the remains here are too old to determine if that’s the case. We just need to follow its trail of destruction.” The female cultivator finished examining.

  “Regardless of rogue cultivator or not, we still need to stop the demonic deer. If the demon is the mountain guardian as we suspected, then we will have to be very careful. Spiritual beasts are physically stronger than cultivators of equal level, even more so if the beasts have been worshipped for so long.” The buddhist cultivator finished his prayers and immediately follows the trails of broken trees

  “There are still three of us and all of us are foundation establishments. Well, whatever it is, I can cut it.” The sword cultivator boasts only to find the other two already flying and following the trails. He rolls his eyes and follows the rest.

  —

  Chaos immediately erupts as the villagers see the thing. Diving over the table, under the table, falling down the chair, and upturned tables. Foods trampled and thrown everywhere as the villagers stumbled in panic. A villager crashed into a huge cooking pot, spilling its boiling content to other villagers. Screams of pain accompany the screams of terror while the thing walks and examines the place.

  “The Immortal! Call the Immortal for help!”

  “Sùxīn! Where’s the Immortal!?”

  “Mama!”

  Thus the shouts echo and clash with each other. Unfortunately the immortal they helped was already gone. The villager that hides under the table prays to Buddha, spirits, or whatever immortal that is listening. Then he notices that the table covering him is gone. He looks up only to see the thing’s head, a deer skull with three pairs of eyes examining him. The size of its jaw, enough to bite a grown man in half.

  “Parts?” The thing spoke, stunning the villager

  “No parts, no parts.” The villager quickly answers for his dear life while shaking his head desperately

  “NO?” the thing asks again before moving to examine the other.

  To a frightened mother, her daughter in her arms, laying down beside the wall and trying to make themselves smaller.

  “PArts?” It asks again

  The frightened mother looks around for help. But most villagers have already gone into hiding. Then she saw the villager, who was hiding under the table. Still locked in his last position, unable and unwilling to move in case it attracts the demon’s attention again. The villager just shakes his head desperately to the mother, telling her to say no. The thing’s head inches ever closer as it examines the mother and daughter.

  “N-no parts.” The mother finally manages to said as the snout of its skull head are inching closer to her daughter

  “No?” The thing tilts its head before moving to examine the others.

  The thing moves to other villagers. The one that got burnt by the pot’s content, the one hiding in the outhouse, then the family that hides in their house as the thing demolishes the wall and asks the same thing. The thing turns away from all that answer with a no and the villager that hides under the table finally gathers his courage to follow the thing to make sure other villagers also answer no. Another villager, the one that hides in the outhouse, made sure to gather all that has already answered to leave their previous spot and guide them to the village’s shrine. For a moment, things seem to be going well.

  Then a bright flash appeared. Then a fire explodes on the thing’s back. The villager that tails the thing thrown back from the explosion, ears ruptured from the loud explosion sound. The thing burned, but still standing and now it straightens its back from hunching over to examine the villagers. Then it looks back. The villager also looks back on who throws the fire, expecting to see the immortal that the two siblings save. Only to see the younger of the two and his terrified older sister beside him. All color drained from his face as he knows the village is now dead. The younger boy that throws the talisman, also has his confidence immediately gone as the fire puts out and the thing’s eyes are now locked on him.

  The villager and the thing ran towards the two siblings at the same time. The former nearer after being thrown away by the explosion, blood flowing from his ruptured ears. He doesn't know why he is doing this, his earlier burst of courage upturned into terror as he desperately tries to run faster than ever in his life. The latter, its much longer legs, moves that with a few steps, enough to catch up with the villager’s speed. The boy, recognizing his error, at least, tries to run to the side.

  In the final stretch, the villager jumps, its hand stretches outward to reach the girl that is terrified into stillness. He prays again like before, to reach her and to save at least one more life. The thing barrels from the side, its sheer momentum throwing everything away. Thrown by the momentum of the thing’s charge, the villager manages to catch the girl that is thrown first, pulling her into his body to protect her as both are thrown away. Rolling by the momentum until they crashed into a wall, the villager crushed his left shoulder, but the girl is fine. The young boy however is not as lucky. While he manages to run away in time, the momentum of the thing’s charges similarly throws him off the ground. Headfirst into another wall. Instant dead. Sùxīn, noticing his brother's bleeding body, tries to reach him but the villager pulls her tighter. The thing returns, now inspecting the dead boy.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Why are there parts now?” The thing asks no one in particular

  “What do you mean you are not telling?” It asks again as its two hand reaches for the dead boy

  The girl screams are immediately muffled by the villager as she sees the thing pull his brother's eyes. His vibrant purple eyes, glowing. Before the thing eats them and they are gone forever. But that is nothing compared to what she saw next. The thing opens its mouth again, inhaling. Then, the bright glow of his brother's soul pulled from his body, into the thing’s mouth, and went with the sound of its jaw closing.

  —

  Its done

  What’s done?

  The Thing is happy now that the voice returns. It follows the dim glow that turns brighter after some time. Then when it is near, the glow immediately gone in an instant. It found a place with plenty of other colors, but all of them are red. It asks the voice for where the parts are. Surprisingly it is not the voice that answers it but the red things that it is inspecting. The voice tells it that red means that they are not good parts so it doesn’t need to ask twice when the red thing answers. That is until he felt something hot and tickling pain on its back. It tries to make the thing that hurt it go away and they did. Only then two small purple colors appear. It doesn’t understand why the voice doesn’t answer it on why there are good parts now but at least the voice returns. More bizarre is when the voice told it to try to pull more purple color from where the two small ones but it works.

  Follow me

  Where to now?

  A comfortable place to sleep

  Yay

  It follows the voice. Leaving the village behind and the crying girl. Her eyes, always uncertain, finally found its determination and a target for her vengeance.

  —

  Its close now

  The thing shakes its head. Everywhere it looks it's getting more vague and dizzy. The once clear outlines are now gone. So it can only follow the voice. It hears something rushing or falling or both. It thinks it should know what it was but doesn’t.

  Over here

  It followed again and eventually, it felt very exhausted all of the sudden.

  Here is the place

  Here?

  Yes

  Felt nice

  The thing finally lies down. Then, for the first time since it woke up in the deer’s body, it breathes.

  When you wake up again, I won’t be here

  Why?

  You don’t need to—

  What?

  You will understand. Or maybe not

  Will I understand the colors too?

  Definitely for the colors

  Can I hear you again later?

  Idiot. I am—

  What?

  One more thing, when you meet the old man, make sure to tell him that it works

  What works?

  You will know

  The Thing wants to ask more questions. Some answers are somehow missing and he can’t make sense of it. But the drowsiness won and for the first time since I arrived here, the thing finally sleeps. Slow and steady breathes as his soul settles in his new body.

  —

  Luòchén sat beside the river from the waterfall. He has been meditating and cultivating here as he waits. The answer from the Elder is cryptic as usual. Most boil down to the fact that he will understand when he meets the mortal, which will be completely recognizable. Regardless, soon he will meet the mortal again and everything will be answered. As the end of his one week wait closes in, rain starts as a storm cloud passes overhead. He doesn't mind the rain, it washes away the blood. Then finally as the time draws near, Luòchén stands up. Then in a flash of thunder, Luòchén saw it. Instead of answers, more questions appear.

  The first face, no, the elder said that the first thing he saw will be the mortal again. But in front of him, is what can be considered as a demonic being. Standing three meters tall, its tail twice longer than it is tall trailing behind it, its three pairs of purple eyes all gazing at him. A pair of human eyes, a pair of serpent eyes, and a pair of deer eyes. Then a flash, a vision. Something he knows with certainty and familiarity. The creature in front of him has been or will, kill a lot of people. Then the second thing the elder told him, a choice for him to abandon his old name and resolve his old karma, is to kill him now and prevent whatever the creature will do. But doing so, will have him break his oath, to not kill unless in self defense. Then to break his oath, is to break the only thing he has left.

  “What are you?” Luòchén asks the creature, an effort perhaps, to find reason to kill the creature

  “Me? I’m a human of course.” The creature answers with the same voice as the mortal that fell from the sky. He examines Luòchén with a tilted head.

  “Wait, I know you. You are the old man that uses me for drug testing.” The creature rudely points at him with its clawed hand

  “Ehem, what happens to—

  “It works.” The creature interrupt

  “What?”

  “The elixir or whatever, it works as intended.” He repeats

  “Then-then why did your body liquify and… turn to this?” Luòchén asks, uncertain if his elixir did work properly

  “Hmmm. I just woke up after what feels like a very long sleep. I’m sure I will remember tomorrow or so.” The creature said then sat on the ground

  Even when the creature sat, he was at eye level with Luòchén.

  “So, what now?” The creature asks uncertain, eyes looking at him for direction

  It will be so easy to kill the creature now. But is it in his hands to kill a creature of things he hasn't committed yet? Even Luòchén himself was not killed before and after all that he regretted. To do so, not only betray his current oath but also his life from before. At loss, with more questions than answers, he recalls what his friend has done and resolves himself.

  “Why don’t you come with me? You can remember what happens slowly.”