Bai Lianfei had her hands full with paperwork. After scouting the perimeter of the village and visually assessing the losses to manpower, stockpiles, and buildings, it was time to count everything and bring some order into this mess. Several servants she personally handpicked for their seemingly bright disposition were helping her with this colossal task. They did so quickly, efficiently, and meticulously.

“What do you think? I have everything here accounted for but can you check that again in case I missed anything?”

Bai Lianfei asked a rabbit girl, who bowed and took a pack of food stockpile records off her hand, then started flipping through them, an expression of utter focus and dedication adorning her part human, part bunny face. Soon she was finished and stated in a neutral, matter-of-fact tone.

“Everything is fine, but there are some spelling mistakes….”

“Correct them and go back to your other tasks.”

The young yaren bowed and immediately got to work, taking a fresh sheet of papers off the pile and moving to the adjacent room, where no one would disturb her work.

Despite her powerful qi cultivation, in the end, Bai Lianfei was just human, and just like humans, she was prone to stress, fatigue, and mistakes. That’s when mixed-breed employees proved their weight in gold, if not in jade. Their endurance and persistence was truly outstanding. She perfectly understood why Lan Caolu doted on them to the point of employing yaren servants exclusively, and she intended to be no different in that regard.

There was also a matter of letters. She intended to personally write a report of what transpired this night to every major and minor clan in the north, and ask for assistance in rebuilding the damage and tackling the terrible, dark clouds encroaching from the south. But she’ll get to that later.

For now, there was another pressing matter to attend to. She already sent for Chen Mengyao, who, although wounded, had one more colossal task to attend to before he could get a well-deserved break.

Suddenly, she sensed strong qi energy approaching the office. Was it…no, of course, it wasn’t her right-hand man. He would not scatter his energy so carelessly to be detected this easily. And no sooner than she thought that, two young men entered the office. Even though one of them was walking, and the other one was confined to a wheelchair, Bai Lianfei had no doubt as to which one was the source of the power she detected a moment ago. Despite her dislike for that particular individual, she kept her cool and made an effort to give them the most dismissive and disinterested look she could muster.

Not saying anything, she stared wordlessly, allowing them to express their intentions first.

Ming Libai bowed and handed her a long scroll.

“These are the burial reports from the village. The servant in charge of excavation told me there shouldn’t be any more left, but just in case, they’re double-checking the ruins in case they missed something.”

She furrowed her eyebrows.

“What about the coffins?”

“The village craftsmen are working nonstop, trying to match the quota. Everything should be ready by the evening.”

She nodded, satisfied. Good. The longer they waited, the greater the chance that some corpses will gather resentful energy and return as undead. Or worse, the miasma will gather, and they will have a plague to deal with in addition to everything else. Right now, this village didn’t need any of these problems.

Putting that aside…..

“Do you have anything to say to me?” she asked the young man sitting in the wheelchair, her voice cold and scrutinizing. She wanted to see if her former “rival”, as many people in the sect mistakenly perceived them, was going to continue causing her problems.

If he was, she’d deal with matters swiftly. Many people would be all too eager to blame him for everything that happened tonight, with slight suggestion and a gentle shift of dominant narrative.

However, Wang Shunji merely shook his head sadly and apologized over and over again in between bowing. It seems his old, haughty attitude was all but gone. For the second time since yesterday, she smirked.

“In that case, I take it you won’t have any issues with me putting my candidature for next leader of this school?”

This was, of course, a mere formality. Everyone in the sect and the village already accepted her as a new leader. However, the problem were people outside the tiny, cloistered world of Chenfei. There were many forces that would love to expand their political power and influence by putting a puppet on the twin-hilled throne.

For example, the pesky Wang clan, whose child prodigy was most likely sent to this backwater location with the sole intention of having him eventually take it over.

The office went silent. Even the servants, who were usually disinterested in the internal power struggles of the warriors, stopped working and raised their heads and ears. The atmosphere got tense.

“I will support your candidature before the other grandmasters in Yafan” answered Wang Shunji immediately, his face gravely serious.

“There is no need for that” she waved her hand dismissively, and eyed his wheelchair “besides, in your current state you aren’t going to be traveling anywhere any time soon. All I need you to do is to sign some letters of recommendation for me. Understood?”

He bowed again, not even a hint of disagreement in his body language.

Suspicious.

But nevermind that, as long as he won’t be causing trouble in this crucial moment of history, nothing he’ll do afterwards will matter. Perhaps she’s just overthinking things anyway, though life taught her that a vigilant mind is a healthy mind.

Ming Libai, too, was overjoyed with his friend’s submissive compliance, and kept glancing back and forth between them, nodding enthusiastically like a puppy. Bai Lianfei found this sight truly amusing, but she didn’t let even the tiniest spark of humor taint her face. Instead, she forced herself to turn her attention back to Wang Shunji and, trying her best to make her usually cold and robotic voice sound as warm as possible, proclaimed the following:

“Apology accepted, Shunji. In return, I am willing to pardon you for everything that happened during our match. You just lost control over your own powers, gave in to your inner demons, and paid a high price for your weakness. If you continue cultivating in penitence and self-discipline, you will become a great asset to our sect yet.”

She was well aware she sounded way too preachy now, and for a moment she feared she overdid it. However, both young men merely bowed in gratitude, and left soon afterwards, not betraying any signs of being affected by her words in any way other than intended.

Is this the power of having a title of sect master? The power to make others listen to you respectfully, no matter what you say…

…..this isn’t virtue. A lot of sect masters were fat pigs undeserving of neither the title nor any sort of respect. If she could decide, they’d be stripped of their rank and title, and forced to live among livestock they resembled so much.

“See, told you?”

Ming Libai’s hushed and excited voice was the last thing she heard before the footsteps and noises of the wheelchair moving on the wooden floor eventually faded away, giving her a moment of respite.

Lost in thought, Bai Lianfei involuntarily touched the bandage warped around her forehead. The wound she sustained this night cost her quite a lot of blood. But it wasn’t yet time to rest-there was still so much to do, so much to do…..

…………………….

When the sun began setting beyond the western mountain range, it was time to bury the dead.

A large mound was dug up, and the graves of the deceased were neatly arranged inside it. Some corpses were mangled, burned, or ripped apart almost beyond recognition, but it didn’t stop their families from trying to dress them up in the most expensive clothes they could salvage for the occasion, and furnish their makeshift coffins with all kinds of items that the dead favored during life, that were fortunate enough to survive the fire that consumed most of the village. For example, the body of old man Mo was buried with a tea set and a loaf of bread.

Contrary to bodies of regular people, the corpses of cultivators were dressed with utmost modesty, and their coffins were furnished not with actual physical objects, but paper effigies that represented whatever items, hobbies, or past times they favored in life. That’s because cultivator souls were thought to be strong enough to smoothly pass on in the cycle of reincarnation, and it was important to no impede that process.

Although the number of cultivators that were historically known and confirmed to have successfully reincarnated was quite limited, the general consensus was that every soul powerful enough to manipulate the flow of qi will sooner or later be reborn, though perhaps missing some or most of their memories.

Of course, this doesn’t apply to accursed black clouds who brought this disaster upon the sleepy mountain village. Their corpses, or whatever remained of them, were gathered around and burned away to the crisp, and several warding sigils were placed on the ashes to make sure they won’t come back as vengeful spirits.

This leads us to another group, and another burial, that was organized some distance beyond the borders of the village. Along the riverbank, a large fire was set up, and the corpses of yaren servants and native villagers with discernible beastly physical characteristics were incinerated.

Animals don’t rise up after death-neither as undead, nor as ghosts. They are also incapable of reincarnation, and their spirit scatters into pure particles of energy after death. Their control over qi is simply not enough to sustain a soul without a body. Naturally, this also applies also to various breeds of yaren. The furries of the northern mountain range thus believed that they have only one life, and struggled to make the most of it.

After the corpses were properly reduced into naught, the ashes were gathered by the living and dumped into the waters of the river. If there wasn’t a river available, they’d be thrown from the highest nearby mountain peak, scattered into four winds. If there was neither a river nor a mountain, a chosen elder would gather the ashes into urn or similarly shaped vase, and undergo a pilgrimage to a nearby mountain or large, flowing body of water, and throw its contents there. These rites, called Ritual of Impermanence, were observed by all the yaren in the middle kingdom since times immemorial.

There is popular speculation that humans and pure beastmen were once two different races, that originated in different parts of the world, and eventually met in the middle kingdom and started living alongside each other. However, even though the theory is sound, there is no archaeological evidence for that. In fact, there are fossils and traces of human and furry communities all over the known world, dating back to various periods of history, which imply that either both came from the same source, or the time they started mixing is so long ago, the origin is no longer discernible.

Then there is also a radical theory proposed by some yaren proponents who point out how diverse and based on various wild animal life forms various sub-breeds of yaren there are. Therefore they propose that all mixed types evolved naturally from wild animals, and “pure” humans are a result of fairly recent mutation, an exception, not a norm.

But in the end, none of that truly mattered to the inhabitants of the middle kingdom. There wasn’t a single person who would stop living only because it was scientifically proven to them that their existence is a mistake or they are physically or mentally inferior to some other type of people that also happen to live alongside them.

Thus both humans and yaren resolved themselves to make the best out of whatever cards fate has dealt them, and honor their dead in their own unique ways, a testament to having once received the fleeting gift of life.

……….

While the people of Chenfei were all coping with their own way with the tragedy that hit their peaceful little village, a pair of travelers were about to leave the northern mountains and reach the first major checkpoint in their journey south. Oblivious to all that happened, if anything, they were walking at a brisk pace, occasionally chatting and pranking each other. Soon the rocky formations and forests cleared out, and the sprawling metropolis of Kiyi, the City of Stone, came into their field of vision, with seemingly endless plains stretching beyond it as far as the horizon.

Fengli squeaked in excitement and accelerated her pace, running down the mountain slope.

Annu was having some trouble keeping up with her, but he didn’t complain, because he didn’t see her this happy in quite a while, and didn’t want to spoil the moment.

On the way to the city’s main gate, they passed through a small camp of tents and stalls build along the road, belonging to the nomadic Chuhua tribe who didn’t have permits to trade within the limits of the city.

The Chuhuas were humans, but their skin color was darker and their eyes more narrow than that of regular people, and because of their tribal and outsider origin, as well as different clothes and tendency to talking in a mix of official and their native tongue, they were treated with a degree of distrust by native humans and yaren alike.

Annu was no exception to that rule, however, his wolf-like companion didn’t seem to mind. She freely approached one of the stalls, and chatted up the merchant. Her ears were hidden beneath the hood, her tail was tucked beneath safely under her clothes and further concealed by the cloak. She looked like a human traveler with a sheepboy servant, and by all means she was taken as such by the man she approached.

“Hello, we are travelers from the north. Can you tell me what are the recent news and rumors in this city?” it was no news that merchants were masters of local gossip.

The merchant furrowed his brows.

“Young lady, if you want information, you need to buy something first”

His stall was trading in trinkets and souvenirs. None of that was very practical for them, and if it was Annu, he’d just leave and go ask someone else.

However, Fengli just laughed, happy to be called a “young lady” and bought a single clip-on earring in the shape of a dragon. The man nodded, seemingly satisfied, and told her everything about the city she was about to enter. After he finished, they bowed and resumed their journey towards city gates, walking at a leisurely, relaxed pace.

“Why earring?” asked Annu, confused. This type of accessory wouldn’t fit on her wolf ears.

“I’m trying to pass for a human….other than that, it’s indeed useless” she shrugged and extended the souvenir towards him. “Do you want it?”

He accepted and put it in his pocket. She shook her head, disappointed.

“That won’t do! You might as well throw it away then! Give it to me!” she took the earring off him, then grabbed his cheek with her hand and told him not to move. He blushed. What is going on!?!

Then he felt her cold fingers on his right ear, and with a loud clank, the earring was on. Unlike her, he had human-type ears, and wearing it posed no functional challenges. However, that wasn’t an issue!

“I am a boy!” he protested.

Fengli laughed again.

“Didn’t you know? Men in the south wear earrings like it’s nothing!”

Indeed, he didn’t know. He was born in a village even further north than Chenfei, and didn’t know much about the south. However, Fengli grew up in an orphanage far to the southern reaches of the central lowlands, and even tho she was just a child when master Lan took her out of there, she still remembered a lot about local customs and traditions.

As they approached the city, she felt her heart beat faster and faster in excitement. It was the first time in many years she was outside Chenfei, and now more than ever, she realized how bored and sick she was of ever-familiar surroundings. She gently caressed the medallion hidden beneath the sleeve of her robe, but even its icy surface wasn’t capable of calming her down.

She knew that beneath these gates adventure awaits, and then beyond that, a journey through the entire middle kingdom! Who knows what will happen now-who will she meet, who will she fight, what will she see, what can she learn! And last, but not least, what amazing powers she’s going to unlock, finally free from the orthodox supervision of Shuangshan sect!

The guards stared at them but didn’t say anything. During the daytime, the city was open to human travelers and yaren alike, as it was simply impossible to try to control pedestrian traffic going in and out of such a huge city.

Of course, the situation would have been different if they were a larger group or a caravan. The permits required and custom taxes enforced by Wuyun sect, which ruled over Kiyi, were quite draconian. A lot of merchants, such as the already disadvantaged Chuhua, simply weren’t willing to pay whatever money they had just for the privilege of trading inside.