32. Placing the Slab

Something nudged at his nose. Hui turned away, vaguely brushing it away. “Zhubi, not yet…”

Cold hands caught his arm and drew it away from him.

Hui’s eyes snapped open. His yanked his arm away from the ghoul and instinctively kicked it. The ghoul fell back, arms flailing.

Jumping to his feet, Hui raced at the ghoul. His sword slid from its sheath with a whisper. He swung at the ghoul’s knees with both hands, meaning to break or dislocate.

The sword bit through putrid flesh and slashed bone. The ghoul flopped to the ground, legs severed at the knee.

Hui blinked. He looked at his sword, then back at the ghoul, then at his sword again. “Damn.”

The ghoul clawed toward him, mouth open, hungry. Strings of drool dripped down its jaw. Hui glanced at it, then back at his slab of slate.

He pointed at the ghoul. “You wait here, alright?”

Digging a claw into the sandy earth, the ghoul hauled itself toward him. It let out a horrible grunt, half a struggling breath, half a groan.

“Good talk.” Grabbing the slate block by one end, Hui dragged it into the cave. The ghoul crawled slowly after him, barely a hair slower than he could move.

At last, Hui reached the chamber at the end of the tunnel. Letting out an exhausted breath, he dropped the slate block, then kicked and pushed it until it blocked off the end of the tunnel. Just as he laid the final kick on the block, the ghoul arrived.

Time for the first test! Hui crouched on the other side of the block to watch the ghoul.

Dragging itself, legs trailing dark blood behind it, the ghoul reached the block. It clawed toward Hui, but stiff arms couldn’t reach over the block. It bumped its head against the block once, then again, again, its arms clawing uselessly at the slate.

“Ah! It does work!” Hui cheered, delighted. In the old days, they would always make the threshold of a morgue extra deep, because if the dead rose, their stiff limbs wouldn’t allow them to breach the deep threshold. I’m not strong enough to cut the floor of this chamber deeper, but I can use the block to, in essence, raise the threshold!

Hui hopped over the block. The ghoul clawed slowly toward him, yellowed teeth bared. Sidestepping nimbly around to its rear, he grabbed it from behind and hefted it over the block. It plopped down on the other side and laid there, stunned, for a moment, then began to crawl toward him as numbly as before.

Alright, one ghoul captured! Time to go capture some more!

Skipping along, Hui left the cave behind and headed out into the deserted secret realm.

Darkness descended slowly over the secret realm when Hui returned for the final time, kiting two ghouls after him. He paused at the cave’s entrance and gazed up into the sky. Thick clouds obscured any sun that might have existed. Not a single glowing orb or patch of light stood out in the sky.

This secret realm… I already suspected it, but it really isn’t a part of the main world, is it?

A hand swiped for his neck. Hui ducked and danced backward, out of the ghoul’s reach. He jogged into the cave, ghouls following obediently.

From outside, something shrieked, the same shriek he’d heard earlier. As before, it cut off abruptly. Hui halted again, just an instant, not long enough for the ghouls to catch up. As he walked, he peered into the fog uselessly. It didn’t get closer, did it?

On the far side of the threshold stone, five ghouls bumbled about in various states of liveliness. The crawler bumped his head repeatedly against the stone, while two of the walkers stumbled into it or him alternatively. Another of the walkers stumbled toward the back wall, unaware that her toes scraped against stone with each step, while the final ghoul slumped numbly against a wall, eyes dim. The final ghoul sat up at his approach, and the back-wall ghoul likewise spun around to face him.

Hui stood on the far side of the threshold stone and waited, watching the last two ghouls approach. They reached for him, pale hands clawed.

Hui ducked around behind them and kicked once, spun, kicked the other one. Almost in sync, the two ghouls tripped over the threshold stone and into the cavern proper.

Looking at his seven ghouls, Hui nodded to himself. This is probably enough to study death qi. He sat cross-legged, facing the ghouls, and entered a state of meditation. Cautiously, he sent a thread of qi toward the undead.

The second his qi touched the ghouls, it vanished. Hui frowned. Did I lose track of the thread? Am I not concentrating hard enough?

He tried again, pushing more qi out with the thread. This time, he felt cold, a void, devouring—nothing. His qi vanished.

“Ah? So that’s how it’s going to be?” he said, opening his eyes to narrow them at the ghouls. Death qi cancels ordinary qi. It really is true. But not completely. Not immediately. If I throw enough qi at them, I’ll be able to probe them anyways!

So determined, he closed his eyes again. This time, he circulated his qi vigorously, pushing it through his meridians and back into his dantian, faster and faster. When it was on the verge of rioting, he threw it out at the ghoul.

Darkness. Void. Nothing. His qi vanished, as surely as if he’d thrown it into a black hole. Still, he pushed. Cold. Ruin. Rot. Faint impressions returned to him even as his qi vanished. Destruction. Stillness.

This—this isn’t enough! I don’t understand anything. I don’t comprehend anything! Even if I poured all my qi into these creatures, I wouldn’t get anything out of it. It gets destroyed too fast! Hui drew his qi back, frustrated. Putting his hands on his knees, he opened his eyes and frowned at the ghouls. “I don’t suppose any of you know what death qi is?”

The crawler groaned.

Hui sighed. So much for that.

The shriek echoed from behind him, so loud it pierced his ears. Hui whipped around. That almost sounded like—like it came from directly outside the cave! He held his breath and listened, enhancing his ears with qi.

The faint crunch of footsteps-on-gravel-on-flint travelled up to him.

Hui’s eyes widened. He backed up a step and banged his heel on the threshold stone behind him. Fuck! I forgot to block off the entrance!

Another shriek. This one echoed down the tunnel, so close Hui had to cover his ears. Behind him, the ghouls groaned and twisted, growing aggravated. He turned, peering at them. Pushing against one another, they gathered eagerly at the threshold stone and reached out, not for Hui, but for something past him.

Hui’s stomach twisted. He turned back around, slowly.

A pale form stood behind him. Black hair fell just to its shoulders in ragged clumps. Pure black eyes gazed into his. The ghoul opened its putrid mouth and shrieked, directly into his face. He squinched up his eyes and nose, but still couldn’t escape the blast of disgusting air or the hideous sound.

“Excuse me, elder brother, but I’m supposed to startle you,” Hui muttered, drawing his sword.