Poison City

“Something’s happening. We’ve gotta go.” Tae Kuo took a look back while they were speeding towards the abandoned coffin home: “This whole area’s gonna burn soon, I’m afraid.”

“Burn? What do you mean?” Gloria felt the answer was already at her throat just moments after her question: “How?”

“The same way the people tried to poison the entire area.” Tae Kuo sighed as he lifted up the trap door: “You know - come to think of it, whoever that person who ruined the Qiyun here was, I could more and more understand how furious the leader of the community was, and why he would want to kill that guy. But to be honest, I am not entirely sure that anyone from the community did it. Very likely it’s some enemies of the leader, or worse, maybe the city.”

“Elaborate, please.” Gloria looked left and right before following Tae Kuo into the tunnel. The dark tendrils and smoke began rumbling on her way here, and with the wind came that shifted directions rapidly, screams and curses flooded her ears. All of that was suppressed the moment they set foot in the walls of the abandoned coffin home, and when she entered the tunnel almost all of them went away. “Is it something to do with - with the dead guy buried there?”

“Yeah it’s just a start.” Tae Kuo shook his head as he led the way: “Normal dead bodies wouldn’t be able to do that much damage. In fact, I believe there had been stories about people burying their ancestors’ ashes in that spot just so that they could get blessed. Nonono - something else needed to be done in order for things to turn out that way. Maybe a specific kind of curse or ritual intended to poison the flow of Qiyun. And to plan it along with the burning of the blessed tree? That’s some deep, dark knowledge. I noticed that all the weeds that had been growing on the gate of the spot - wild chrysanthemum flowers and red spider lilies - all Yin-leaning flowers - ”

“Dark ritual? What kind of dark ritual?” Gloria could not help but ask.

“Rituals that would make a death full of poison. So possibly torture, desecration and other curse-generating arts and crafts.” Tae Kuo shook his head: “I don’t know - I don’t - I don’t even have any idea on how to do that even if I want to. ”

The trip back was faster than the way around. As they closed up the entrance to the secret tunnel, something in the air changed. Gloria felt it, and Tae Kuo felt it. It came from the direction of the deserted community. Or, to be more precise, the direction of the “gate” of the minor auspicious spot.

Light flashed. A golden pillar of light shot up into the sky, pushing all the gloomy clouds in the distance away. Rumbling vibrations spread to the ground below their feet, and gusts of wind escaped from the gaps of the trap door, spraying dust all over their pants and shirts, and throwing pebbles on their shoes. Before they even had a moment to complain, a blinding flash of lightning shot through the distant sky. Then many bolts rained down. Gloria and Tae Kuo were still behind walls and they could not see what the lightning struck on the ground, so Gloria just grabbed Tae Kuo and hopped onto the roof. It was still far away so they still could not see much of anything. But the flurries of lightning strikes sure did light things up - a lot of things up. Flames rose from the position of the desserted community, red, orange, some blue, some golden.

Golden cinders and sparks filled the distant sky over the abandoned community. A breath of the smell of warm wine blew over to them from the entrance of the tunnel. The community would likely be destroyed by the lightning storm. It was probably well deserved.

“They actually did it.” Tae Kuo sighed: “I mean - I had a thought they might want to do it, but - man, I don’t know if I can ever do that if I’ve ever become a pillar.”

“So they’re - they’re pillars?” Gloria frowned and asked: “I - I didn’t really - what are pillars anyway? And why are they called that?”

“Well, in one sense it’s - it’s slightly literal, and the way most understand it - that they are the very people holding things together - whether it’s a household, a community, or in our case, a ritual, an array, a managed area surrounding a Fengshui spot. But in another - it’s a reference to an old, superstitious ritual involving building of - things. During the old times, when people were putting up foundations for buildings or actual pillars for bridges, some of them actually put people in the foundations or cement pillars, as a means of sacrifice, and as a ritual to utilize their grudge to keep the buildings steady.”

“What?”

“Yeah - using dead people’s life force and their grudge to hold buildings together.” Tae Kuo shrugged and shook his head.

“Boom!” A shockwave blasted the Fuman Coffin Home through all the distance. Gloria had to grab Tae Kuo by his shoulder so that they could land on the ground without falling. The ground in the backyard cracked. And on the wall at the back of the coffin home, the very wall the main altar and the many incense burners were put against, showed a crack. And through it, some strange light came through.

“What is that?” Gloria pointed at the glowing crack.

“I - I don’t know. I’ve never looked into that wall before.” Tae Kuo shook his head.

“This is the wall with the burn marks.” Gloria nodded at Tae Kuo: “I mean - the wall at the same position of that - ”

“Yeah, yeah. But I’ve never been told about this.” Tae Kuo shrugged.

Gloria jumped onto the altar and looked at the widest part of the crack. Behind this wall was some kind of large stone artifact. The glow was only visible when she turned on her Qi vision, and was not visible to a naked eye.

Tae Kuo thought for a while, then spoke through his teeth, grimacing: “Open it up then.” 

“Okay.” Gloria pried open the wall with Qi concentrated on her fingers. It was a long piece of stone that was shaped like a straight sword. It was very crude, and the edge was dull. Some unfinished symbols were etched on the sides.

“Holy shit.” Tae Kuo narrowed his eyes as he ran his fingers along the crude stone blade and the symbols: “Talk about pillars. This - this - No wonder they closed us up for so long.”

Shout outs to my patrons:

mant06

Jonathan

Thank you so much!