Powerful, yet at the same time, weak. That's what TaiFeng thought about herself. All this limitless energy coursing through her veins, and yet she had no control over her fate. It slowly ate away at her until she couldn't take it anymore.

At first, it started as a warm tingling feeling, as she heard her once quiet heartbeat start back up again. But the pleasure soon turned into pain.

It started to burn like her insides were on fire, and her lungs were filling up with acid. At the same time, she could hear a sort of crunching sound in her ears. Soon she realized that she was hearing her bones being fused back together at an unnatural speed. Her limbs felt like they were about to melt

The entire time it had felt like divine punishment. As her screams grew louder and louder, so did her power. It was a terrible trade, but one she was willing to take.

In this world, the general rule was only the strong and smart survived. And recently, TaiFeng hadn't been too smart in her decisions.

The black tendrils of pure resentful energy made their way into her body, piercing their way into her like a needle into a pin cushion.

The mere sight of it was enough to make anyone disgusted with horror.

She was in that state for five hours.

For five whole hours, her once lifeless body had been mercilessly put back together, and pumped full of spiritual energy.

When she woke up, all she saw around her were the desolate Burial Mounds.

When she tried to move, her limbs were pretty much numb but she got up and started walking.

The noises were so loud it made her want to cry, and cry she did.

She excused herself just this once and wept until she couldn't.

At times like this, she just wanted to be alone wrapped up in a blanket next to a warm fireplace.

But there was no warmth here.

As she dragged herself further and further along, she saw that whenever she touched the resentful energy, it was like she had absorbed it.

She could feel the power that it held and it made her feel slightly giddy whenever a whip of resentful energy came her way.

It filled her up and made her feel a little less broken, for the time being at least.

But when she reached the edge of the mounds, she was soon back to suffering.

She was trapped.

"Wei Ying, oh Wei Ying." She miserably sighed.

"It looks like instead of changing your fate, I simply claimed it as my own."

Realizing what this meant she looked up to the black winter sky, eyes filled with pain and newfound understanding.

The first few days were filled with torment. Every waking hour, she would use all her energy to try and breakthrough. Relentlessly, she would pound on the barrier for hours and hours until she just passed out right where she stood.

In terms of eating, all there was were dead leaves and the occasional crow, which she did not hesitate to hunt down and catch.

Since she no longer carried TongQing, she could no longer understand animals, which made it a lot easier on her conscience, but not on her stomach.

She felt so thin, she could feel her ribs and she had lost weight in her face as well she looked deathly pale along with her dark circles and bloodshot eyes.

But the worst part wasn't having to eat raw meat from birds or shattering her bones, it was the loneliness.

It was killing her not knowing whether or not her family and disciples were safe.
She wished that she could see them just once, and hear all of their voices.

Instead, the voices she had to constantly listen to were those of wronged spirits trapped here over generations.

Some were despicable beings who would whisper could things in her ears. Others were poor, tragic, and pitiful, and told her of their grievances and heartache. Either way, it was absolute hell.

But the worst part of all, by far, was the changes she went through.

Initially, it was things like being able to see a bit further than she usually could, or hearing things a bit better. But soon she learned that it was more than that.

She could hear the sound of the leaves rustling, and she could see as clear as day in the middle of the night.

But it wasn't a blessing, it was a curse.

Sometimes she could hear the sound of her own heart. Even the smallest noises seemed unbearable to her now.

Which meant that the endless supply of voices was now deafening enough to drive anyone to insanity. It got so bad that she would just scream for hours on end trying to drown out the voices. But, it was no use, she could still hear them

It was only after one month of relentless agony and torment that was at last able to get it under control.

By this time she was growing more and more erratic. Sometimes she would break out into shaking fits that could last up to half an hour.

Even though she tried to control it, she would be reduced to tears by the end of it. Every single day she had cried until her eyes would simply give up in exasperation, unable to bear the load of her endless grief.

As the days passed by, her hair grew even longer. Now falling to her ankles it would sweep the ground when she walked, making her look like a ghoul. And she felt like one. As she would snatch crows from off branches and dig into their chewy raw flesh, she felt revolted and repulsed by herself.

She would wrap herself in the rags and pieces of torn clothing that she would pilfer off of the skeletons that are littered around the mounds. She looked like a beggar, but still, she didn't complain. Desperately trying to pass the time she made a sedge hat, it was extremely shabby and just made her look more and more like a beggar but she still stuck with it. It was all that was maintaining her sanity.

Her hair was still messily secured by her golden hairpin that had long lost its use, the pearl now faded into a murky grey.

After all, what was the point of having such a weapon if you were now more powerful than the weapon itself? But still, she kept it, as a memento of the one who had saved her.

And although her bones were healed, the pain didn't just stop there.
Every day, she was in incessant pain, it felt like she was slowly being torn apart. Like a balloon that had too much air, she felt as though one day she would just pop.

She wasn't a fool, she was far from it. She knew that her days were numbered and that she might not live too long as she would have liked.

But she had made a vow that she would get out of this wretched place before that happened.

Things on the outside of the barrier weren't that great either.

Even though a few supervisory offices were taken down it just wasn't enough, and after TaiFeng's "death", morale was low.

All the disciples of YueYang had fought bravely in honor of their fallen Sect Leader, wearing hemp white sashes along with headbands.

Inside the sect sat a huge shrine, at the top sat an ancestral tablet that read, "YueYang Sect Leader, Qian TaiFeng". It was a sign of just how much she meant to everyone.

The people of YueYang mourned as well, lighting incense and saying prayers in the night. The past few years, YueYang was bleak and unprosperous, but when Qian TaiFeng arrived, she had completely revitalized the place. Crops were plentiful, it was safer at night and the economy was booming. While she was here, investors from all over started building new businesses and making the town grow. Nobody had ever seen anything like it.

How could one person completely change the fate of a town in such a way?

But now, Qian TaiFeng, their Little Bodhisattva, as the townspeople affectionately called her, was gone.

And things were now even worse.

Now that she was gone it seemed that everything was plunged into utter turmoil.

In simpler terms, everything had gone to ruin, and it was all because of one person's death.

As the days seemed to move by slowly, everything seemed to merge into one. The only way people were differentiating between them was how much suffering was to be had each day.

But all that changed when 'that day' arrived.

It was a routine attack, they would sneak in like thieves in the night and leave no Wen alive.  They knew there were only going to be about forty or so people there. Wen Qing had told them so. 

But as they approached the house under the cover of darkness, the rampant odor of blood filled the frigid air.

Alarm bells were raised in everyone's heads. Jiang Cheng, Wuxian, and Wangji had all rushed to the front.

As they stood outside the maroon double doors, they could feel something in the air.

Like static after a storm, it tingled their noses and put them all on edge. As the rest of the group caught up, which consisted of about forty-five Qinghe and Yunmeng disciples, they dared to venture into the courtyard where the unknown awaited them all.

Pushing the gates open, they were all met with a sight that could either be interpreted as a blessing or a warning of something worse to come.

The bodies of about twenty Wen soldiers all lay littered around the courtyard. They were all sprawled about, with their eyes open and fear frozen on their faces.

As they walked further in, the smell was so unbearable some of the junior disciples just couldn't take it any longer.

The smell was that of putrid burnt meat, yet there wasn't a single fire, not even an ember was anywhere in sight.

As Wangji and Wuxian examined the dead, Jiang Cheng looked around with confusion.

"Nobody else was dispatched to this area." He said holding a sleeve to his face.
"I'm sure of it! Was it a different group? Or did we not get the memo?"

As he nervously fiddled with the white hemp sash he and Wuxian started wearing around their waists, he walked around trying to find some sign as to what had happened.

Wangji shook his head, deep in thought, as the cold dead eyes of the soldiers looked right back at him.

He wasn't someone that was easily fazed, and it wasn't the first time he had seen a dead body either. But this put him on edge.

"They weren't killed," Wuxian said, his brows furrowed in puzzlement.

"At least, not by a person."

As he hurried over from one body to the next, it had only confirmed his suspicions.

"They Qi Deviated. "

"What?!" Jiang Cheng yelled, sharing the general sentiment of everyone else.

"There aren't any stab wounds or other injuries. They Qi Deviated... But not in the usual way." He said, opening one of the men's robes to reveal a horrendous gaping cavity, about five inches deep, right where a stomach used to be.

The organs were hanging out and singed at the ends, while the stale blood and digestive acids mixed to form a disgusting liquid that made half of them gag. The ends of the flesh looked like they had burst, and even though the remainder of the body was cold and rigid, the atrocious wound was hot. It was practically steaming like a freshly cooked bun!

Gasps of revulsion and horror rang out in the group, and even Wuxian winced at the wretched sight.

"Their golden cores.... exploded, which made them all... vomit blood and die. Which could only mean Qi Deviation, but I've never seen or read about anything like this. " Wuxian said, shutting his eyes, doing his best not to puke in front of everyone

As they ventured inside it was more of the same. Blood-soaked walls and the smell of burning flesh filled the hallways of the building.

But this time, the poses of these victims indicated that they didn't engage in combat. They didn't even try and fight back.

They tried to run away.

Desperately from the looks of things, they could see claw marks on the wooden floors made by victims who were dragged to their deaths.

But from what, or who, they didn't know. But none of them were overly sure if they wanted to figure it out.

It seemed like whoever did this, hated the Wens just as much as they did, which was good if they wanted to win against them.

But was someone this powerful, this merciless, really going to be on their side for long?

As the trio checked out the second floor, they reached a room that had seemingly been untouched, at least untouched by any bloodshed.

The room itself looked like it had been turned upside down as if someone was looking for something.

Desperately trying to find out what was missing, as well as trying to figure out more about their new savior/potential adversary.

Looking in a crate that was meant for clothes, Wangji unlocked it to find that there were only Wen's outer robes. All the other items of clothing were gone, leaving only this behind.

Going over, Jiang Cheng and Wuxian eyed the crate with extreme bafflement.

"How come there are just some outer robes?  No Wen would ever step one foot outside of their door without these."  Jiang Cheng questioned.

"I think the person that did all this, took the rest of the robes." Wuxian elucidated.

"But why would they do that?" Jiang Cheng doubted of.

"Poor clothing," Wangji said.

"So they needed a new wardrobe?" Jiang Cheng questioningly reacted.

"I wouldn't be surprised actually. With what we saw on the way up to here, they were most likely coated in the blood of their victims."
 

"So they took the clothes and then just left without a trace. And the reason only these robes are here is that they didn't want to wear Wen colors."
Jiang Cheng deduced.

"Which means that, for the moment, they're on our side."