Ignoring half of her mind that worried about what villagers lived in the now zombie-infested city, Meifeng was stuck with four teenagers that she had just cured of their Corpse Poisoning and Wangji in a small room that, with time, would be over-run once the undead found out there was some living targets inside with no way out. Still hearing the tapping that had become incessant from a hidden room, Meifeng decided she would figure out what was making that noise before anything else; it was not helping her growing headache anyway.
Pulling back on a few blanks that closed the space off, her night-vision spotted a slim figure curling into the dark as if trying not to be seen. Using her most gentlest voice, she called out to the little form. "Do not be afraid, little one... you've been following these young men for a reason I assume. Is there anything you need?"
The voice she used was apparently appropriate for the individual hiding herself, pulling enough of her body into what little light there was, and a gasp behind her told the woman that the young men could see now what had been frightening them all this time. True, it was a young girl not much older than the boys themselves, wearing an aged, filthy green dress that had once been a soft olive color with tears at the edges of the fabric and dark brown hair, but was an apparition that appeared to be crying tears of blood from frighteningly clear eyes! Meifeng wasted no time slapping the boys on the back of the head at their rude behavior towards a lady.
Even if she was dead.
"Enough of that! As Cultivators, you will see far stranger things, so you better get used to seeing people's faces covered in blood! If you can't handle this, then toughen up! Honestly, I know this little lady is a little strange to look at, but how would you feel if someone took one look at your face and acted like you were a leper!?" The boys at least had the common decency to look ashamed as she scolded them not much unlike she were their mother. Her posture did help the mental image all in the room was imagining, with both hands on her hips as she glared down at them.
After checking the previously infected boys to see that the corpse poisoning was gone, Meifeng unknowingly went into what the younger men could call a 'teaching pose', and it eerily made her appear just like Lan Wangji before a long lecture.
"Anyway, everyone finished looking? I want you to tell me in a brief summary of what you see and what details you can pick out." Both Jin Ling and Lan Yuan spoke up first and second as the others followed along, giving descriptions of different quality and quantity; Wangji was definitely a large influence on young Yuan's wider descriptive vocabulary. It would have sounded almost poetic if it were not talking about a ghostly girl. Still playing the instructor, Meifeng nodded along to their observations. "Very good. Both of your examinations are true and detailed young man," Here the son of a lesser clan leader that had commented found himself blushing underneath the woman's gaze as she winked at him as she said, "I can tell you'll be the sentimental type once you grow up a bit. A girl likes that." The other boys laughed at the blush that turned the teen's face a bright cherry, throwing light elbow jabs into his sides.
Once a third boy then commented on the strange sounds they had heard of a bamboo hitting the ground with accurate precision did not align with the fact those with no sight would instead be bumping into everything inaccurately, and Meifeng found a reason behind even this to answer his question behind the nimble blind girl. "I see someone deserves points for noticing that little tibet; anyone else might've overlooked that. So, in order to better analyze this... why don't we just ask her ourselves?" The panicked outbursts from the boys went unheard as Meifeng tore down the last of the boards that kept the spectre away from them and gently ushered the girl from her hiding place despite the ghoul's obvious hesitance to do so. "It is ok. Please come out, young maiden, and tell us what business you have to follow us here."
While the girl's widened eyes would have looked cute, it did nothing to curb the fact she had no visible pupils and had tear-like streaks of blood that stained her face. Also, while Meifeng did all she could to ask the girl despite her unfamiliarity with them, the ghost still did not speak for some reason until they learned the surprising reason why; she was without a tongue to speak at all. Peering carefully into the mouth, Meifeng and the others saw with horror that the appendage appeared to have been torn out at the root.
All were covered in goosebumps at the horrific sight, not knowing what to say or do... all but Wei Meifeng as she desperately sought to find a path to communicate with this poor soul trapped by whatever had been done by some cruel person to this innocent child that was not much older than Jin Ling. Just thinking about such lasting abuse made the deeply hidden part of herself that had fallen to her darker side bubble just below the surface of all rational thinking she had gained back due to her incarnation. Then, as if sensing the inner turmoil within Meifeng, the blind and mute girl began waving her arms as if attempting to communicate, yet none could figure out what the girl may have been trying to say.
Frustrated, the bamboo stick she carried was struck against the old floor as she was also unable to write in the dust that blanketed the ground like a fine mist. All of a sudden, as both sides failed to communicate, the same shuffling sound of feet burned the instinct to run from the approaching danger that followed that ominous noise, and flee she did. Seeing the ghostly girl vanish, Meifeng was the only one who peered between the cracked boards of the wall to see what the situation was outside just as a figure dressed in black crashed from the roof above in a very unceremonious style in the midst of the aggressive zombie's outside.
Something had to be done to help this mysterious man, so something was what Meifeng did as she turned her focus on the life-like mannequins the shop owned; they were the perfect tool for what the woman had in mind to rescue the man outside without risking the lives of the males under her protection. Scanning the faces for two that would be best, her gaze settled on a pair of twins with matching expressions and elegant clothing that would indeed be enough. Pricking a single finger on the uncovered edge of the blade that cut the surface of her thumb, Meifeng dabbed a single dot on the two pairs of eyes and recited a chant.
"Eyes behind thy long lashes, lips parted, and smiling in tease. Mind not the good or evil, with smeared eyes of red, I summon thee."
The ritual was both stunning for her audience to watch, but also truly frightening as they heard a pair of hauntingly beautiful giggles from the two mannequins that Meifeng painted with her blood. The false orbs even blinked a few times, as if getting used to their newly given sense of sight.
What perhaps made it even more eerie was the fact both newly animated figurines bowed their heads in respect to the one who had given them life, and Meifeng set to give them their orders without hesitation. "Go outside and bring the living person back here alive. Eliminate everything in your path that tries to stop you from doing this." Answering with the shrill laughter that erupted from them, they did as she bid with a surprising burst of wind behind their retreating forms. The young disciples, watching the mannequins tear through the corpses, were amazed as they brought the shadowed man into the safe residence they had taken refuge in before taking position to guard the only entrance into the shop.
Aside from the initial repulsed shock the disciples felt towards Wei Meifeng's actions in using such magic that used the improper use of methods that the Yiling Matriarch was infamous for possessing, they could find nothing within them other than awe at the woman's quick thinking that effortlessly saved the strange man, undoubtedly enriched by the talent they had witnessed. They, however, remained at a distance from the man in black as he had come in contact with corpse poisoning himself and could infect them if the young men were not mindful of Meifeng's warning gaze as she tended to the half unconscious man herself.
Now out of immediate danger with the female cultivator hovering close by just in case, the man was allowed the first clear breath he had taken since arriving at the haunted town.
"W-who... who are you?" Even the newcomer's voice sounded extremely taxed, unable to ask anything else as a thick band of cloth covered his eyes from viewing who had saved him; his only hint was the nervous shuffling of feet and the soft hand that would belong to a woman resting tenderly on his arm. Meifeng, at this question, did not take her eyes off the man's face as she took in what she could see of his appearance.
He was definitely young, with a charm about him that was between that of a boy and man, alongside being ridiculously handsome and blessed with features that could belong to someone of noble birth. His bandaged eyes told her he was most likely blind.
Why had she, in as little as one day, had she met two people who were both blind despite one being dead and the other alive?
Her musings were cut off by Jin Ling who, for once, brought up a very good question as to why they had saved this stranger when they didn't know who he was. For all they knew, there was a chance they had accidently let inside a poisonous snake who had changed its colours to appear non-threatening to its prey. Although that very train of thought was right to consider, it also felt wrong to say aloud when the object of their conversation was present, and it was Lan Jingyi who brought up as leaving a person to their doom was something that was against the Lan sect's rules.
Back and forth, the boys bickered until the argument ended with a stalemate thankfully when the black cloth that hid the strangers sword was revealed to them... and not a breath was quiet at the unequalled beauty of the weapon that had to be Xiaoxing Chen's blade, Shuanghua.
With the sword in mind and the man's appearance matching the description of Xiaoxing Chen, then this was without a single doubt who they all believed he was despite his attempts to hide his identity. Why else would he hide his sword like that from them?
Due to their current circumstances, none could leave the shop's safety in fear of the corpses outside that filled the air with their toxic fumes, yet... there was something that weighed on Meifeng as Master Xiaoxing Chen's behavior was suspiciously anxious since he was both still injured from his fight with the ghouls and should've known better against such enemies. It was, in her mind, the man's desire to leave that held her attention more than ignoring the freshly cured Corpse Poisoning since even she would not be so quick to recover from something like this. Other than this, it was frankly his overall demeanor as the man spoke that warranted her eyes to give the form another look that tried to appear relaxed when even the slightest twitch spoke of the instinct to flee... which did not make sense if this person was who they thought it was.
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It was after she had summoned forth an army from the remaining mannequins to fight off the hundreds of returned corpses outside that the sudden entrance of a certain fierce corpse that Meifeng was truly on the brink of confusion... as well as closer to affirming the odd feeling that was developing for the supposed Xiaoxing Chen. The terrible creaking from the roof above was their first and only warning before the figure came down with a rain of dust and splinters littered the ground where the fierce corpse landed. Once the dust settled, Meifeng was fortunate to catch a glimpse of their intruder while the fine material blinded the disciples; their guest was fine considering he was blind. Wearing black robes befitting a Cultivator, the tall figure would've imposed quite a powerful aura were he was still alive with a sword and horsetail whisk tucked into the folds of his clothing. However, no matter how haughty or good-looking the individual was, nothing could tear Meifeng's eyes away from the deathly white fields that stared unseeing at its opponents.
As soon as everyone's gaze could transfix on the fierce corpse with the same thought in mind, it attacked them without hesitation towards the person closest to it... which so happened to be Jin Ling as Xiaoxing managed to parry the first swing of an unsheathed sword despite his weakened state.
Forced to only watch the attacking continue, a sudden thought struck Meifeng as she noticed the fierce corpse's aggressive fighting style that in fact was just like Wen Ning's! If that were true, then there was no way her Diabolism wouldn't be able to calm the raging corpse with her flute that she eloquently pulled from her own robes before quickly playing a melody on the bamboo instrument to wordlessly take command of it so that she and the others could figure out where this dead soldier came from or who he might be. If Meifeng had paid any attention to the blinded man supposedly on her side, however, she might've noticed the smile that threatened to break wide across his face at her meaningless actions to contain what did not heed her command no matter what she did.
The fierce corpse would not stop for it already had a powerful Master, pulling its strings from the shadows to do his bidding.
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With the fierce corpse finally restrained under the tight grasp of the mannequins Meifeng still had control of thanks to the 'Summoning of Painted Eyes' after some struggle, she and the others were allowed time to breath from their close encounter. They were given a brief setback when the corpse was, like the female spectre hidden in the boarded up room, was without a tongue, so they were forced to rely on 'Inquiry' for the answers they needed. Played by Lan Yuan since his skill with 'Inquiry' was the best amongst his peers, Meifeng was the one who asked the questions as the Lan disciple would read the answers from his Guqin.
What they were shocked to discover, however, was three things: that the fierce corpse was in fact Song Lan, the person who killed him was Master Xiaoxing, and the master that Song Lan was obeying was none other than the man who they believed was Xiaoxing Chen....
A/N: Been awhile! Hope no one was disappointed with this chapter; it honestly felt longer than the others, and I feel like I've said that about others. How was motherly Meifeng? Lol