The trek out of the clearing didn't take long before they finally reached a destination that looked remarkably magical, an alcove with a large pond of water that seemed to move with underground rivers filtering it constantly. Shui and Jun had both jumped and started when they first entered the gorgeous area, and yet Yin Hu had not. He had seen it from a distance; the remarkable, floating wisps of energy, the beautiful flowers, the myriad of colored stones along the edge of the pond, and the shimmering, moving water that reflected the sun’s rays just perfectly.
He had been startled by their reaction.
Yin Hu walked around the large area, surveying it bit by bit to make sure he missed absolutely nothing. There could be a world-ending disaster just waiting to jump at him and the girls for all he knew.
Shui and Jun did not hold the same amount of caution that he showed. Both of them ran around within the tufts and flowered areas, enjoying the scenery; the beautiful smells, and how well placed everything was. It was as if someone had arrived and designed it with intent. Nothing was out of its perfect position. Sharp lines created the edges of the distinctly collared flowerbeds and certain bushes seemed to have been cut into the shapes of animals.
Yin Hu sighed.
He would have to have a conversation with them later on.
You don't just run headfirst into strange and foreign areas before scouting and figuring out if there are dangers. That was in his ‘Surviving for Dummies’ lesson 101.
The longer he searched, the less he found of what they were looking for. There were no outright signs that there were any spiritual beings within this alcove. It rather seemed pretty empty of any life at all. No butterflies, no insects, no critters, no birds, no squirrels. Nothing except for the odd honey bee to keep pollinating the flowers. Yin Hu paused as he noticed a lone bumblebee that floated back and forth around Shui and Jun.
It danced with the two girls within the tufts of flowers.
Isn’t that strange?
His assumption was proven correct when the girls finally collapsed onto the ground, laughing and too tired to continue. The bumble bee joined them by resting directly on top of Shui’s head. The little girl began to talk to it as though it were a normal person.
The older girl reacted in slow motion, launching herself to her feet. Nearly crushing it within her hands before the bumblebee vanished in a cloud of nearly transparent yellow fog.
Jun lost sight of it in her haste.
Yin Hu watched it circle around the older girl and hover directly behind her ears. It moved back and forth with her swiveling head, preventing her from ever catching a glimpse of its figure.
Is that some type of Movement Technique? Or is it just that fast?
“Jun! Stop it!” Shui jumped to her feet and hurriedly kicked Jun’s shin. “Ancestor came here to talk to the spirit!”
The bumblebee froze.
Jun Froze.
Both slowly swiveled their heads towards him as though it was a comedic skit.
“You can manifest on our plane?” Yin Hu said. He remembered that the other spirits could not including his extremely powerful Weapon Spirits. “How so?”
“Ancestor, you're scaring it!”
Jun shouted and fell backward as she noticed it hovering directly next to her head. Had it any evil intentions, Jun would not have survived a moment against its speed and power. Yin Hu can already imagine her getting cut up into pieces without ever noticing what happened until it was too late. This was no juvenile Shao Yating, this was an ancient spirit that had lived for many folds longer than Jun had.
“I asked it a question,” He said, falling back into his ancient predecessor persona. He crossed his arms behind his back and tilted his chin up just slightly. “If it can manifest on our plane, it can speak as well. The two of you come here.”
He couldn't allow something as powerful as it to take the initiative.
Jun and Shui followed his orders and hurried to stand behind him. Hu Shui gave the spirit a chagrined look, but otherwise said nothing else.
Yin Hu wanted to know how it was able to materialize onto the physical realm, maybe he could bring his own Weapon Spirits into this cultivation world instead of keeping them locked up in their weapon form or in his rice bag. Mr. Mo Mo and the She-Devil were strong enough as is to make most potential dangers into nothingness. Everything except the Calamity maybe.
Jun had mentioned it a few times, but he hadn’t felt or heard hair or hide since his arrival of any monstrous power that could end existence altogether.
If it did exist, it would have acted by now, right?
It only took a few seconds before the bumblebee vanished and was replaced by a shadowy figure, standing in front of them with its hands behind its back in an awfully familiar form.
Yin Hu frowned deeply.
It had taken his form, without any details. If they were both covered in shadows, neither one would have been easily identifiable.
The spirit stumbled backwards, dropping to the floor and raising its hands. Its form shifted and rippled like the water within the pond before it solidified into a child. Yin Hu would've done everything in his power to destroy it had it changed into one of the girls. Thankfully, the kid before him looked nothing like them, if anything, it was the wrong human race entirely. Closer to a blonde European than the Chinese setting they were in now. A little mischievous boy with a forced grin on its face.
It couldn't hide the trembling of its arms and legs, the pale skin tone on its face, nor the way it searched for possible paths of escape.
“Well?” Yin Hu said.
The spirit scratched its head, its voice was a low hiss that was closer to a mockery of human speech rather than actual communication. As though it did not have the correct organs within its body to generate the words. “Lots of reasons and rules. Many more than you can imagine–”
“Be concise.”
He didn’t have time to go deal with riddles and obscure metaphors.
“My bloodline! Inherited skill by me, a spirit that originates from this plane of existence. Not bound by any form ever since it first came into thought. An amorphous thing I was. Now I take the form of things seen–”
Yin Hu narrowed his eyes.
He didn’t need a mischievous little spirit to take or copy his and the girl's forms and cause them trouble without ever knowing what happened. He didn't need enemies that he had never met before, creating enmity for what looked like him when he had nothing to do with it. Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea, dealing with spirits had never been worthwhile.
“–I forget!” It wiped at its eyes with a palm. “Never seen your form to copy!”
Yin shook his head.
He was already here, might as well ask the questions they had been looking for answers for and get out of its way as quickly as possible. The longer they were in its little alcove, the more likely they would cause themselves issues.
“There are traces of Void Qi within the ether not too far from here. Do you know anything about that?” Yin Hu said as he took a few steps to approach it.
Its reaction was immediate and visceral. They all watched it literally cave in to itself, turning into a shivering blob of amorphous liquid on the ground. The same creature that had played around with Jun, as though she didn't stand a chance, seemed nothing more than a weak little creature that trembled and tried to hide in a large tuft of grass. Just the word Void Qi had sent it spiralling.
“D-Don’t kill me please,” it whispered. “You smell of the Void. You’re like it. You come for destruction and annihilation.”
Yin Hu shook his head. “No. I only want to find comfort and peace. What do you mean I smell like It? What’s It? And what does that have to do with the Void Qi.”
This was the first trail of information that he had finally caught. Something, anything that could lead them to a proper answer and figure out exactly what they were even searching for. Primarily, that this was an it. That means there was a form; a monster, a human, some type of predator? It wasn’t an object at least. Though he couldn’t quite cross out plants with this bit of knowledge. They were in the gray zone right now.
Said font of knowledge pointed at him. “Are of its essence. Filled with a similar energy. No,” the spirit morphed back to the little boy to show widening eyes that grew the longer it searched for something in him. “More. You are far more. Void? Qi? Elements? Dao? None are applicable to you. Yet, they are all present within.”
Yin Hu missed the shocked look in Jun’s eyes as she stared at his back. Shui didn’t quite understand what was being said and neither did Yin Hu.
“You never did explain what It was,” Yin Hu needed it to keep on track to get the answers he wanted.
He didn’t need something or someone kissing his boots to escape the interrogation. He had enough of that already in the short time he had been here; from Dong ZhenKang all the way to Cai Xuefang. Yin Hu needed answers to figure out why his system was going crazy.
The little boy crawled a few feet towards him. Eyes in wide circles that began to frighten the girls behind him, a sharp maw of needle teeth appeared in its mouth, claws in its hands, heckles rising out of its back as though it was a cat, and a rumbling that sounded closer to the grinding of stone than anything else escaped its lungs.
“The Original Calamity spilled its blood in these lands, spilled its life essence where you’ve camped. It died to the inhabitants of this world. I was there. I saw it kill thousands of us, ending entire races of creatures and sentient beings! Destruction it had come for! Annihilation! Wishing to tear the very core of our planet and feed upon its existence to power itself for a Great Ascension to the next realm of power and plane of existence. None can break the Void and space, none can survive Heavenly Tribulations without masquerading as a living being of these lowly realms.”
Yin Hu took a step back as his head spun at the words. A being so powerful it could literally tear the very core of the planet? Was that the literal core in the center of the earth? Or a metaphorical core? How could something be so powerful that it could end an entire planet’s existence, yet somehow still lose to the inhabitants of the world it was trying to feed upon. Was this just another Galactus and avengers storyline?
Where the hell was the silver surfer in all this and what did he have to do with everything?
What did the spirit mean he had the same essence as though they were the same?
What connection did it have with his system going crazy?
And above all else, did the Calamity, that Jun spoke about, also plan something similar? Was it in hiding as it worked to annihilate all of existence in one fellswoop instead of the grueling battle the previous had gone through? Had it learned from the failures of its predecessor? What the hell was he supposed to do about it and why did he end up on this cursed little ball of a cultivation world.
From pyramids of heads, beatdown refugees everywhere, the Demonic Bloc taking over much of the world, and now he had to contend with world crushing forces out and about.
Fuck! I need to start planning to fight off this world ending monster too–
His eyes slowly turned back towards the spirit.
It noticed his gaze and broke back into the amorphous blob. Though this time there was nowhere to hide from the fire in his eyes.