Realm Walker

Zhang Yuanqing stared at the skinned cat carcasses dangling from the rafters and suppressed a shudder. It was the stuff of horror, though a different kind from the supernatural terrors he was used to.

Whether Granny was afraid of something creeping in or something slipping out, neither possibility boded well.

The team exchanged silent glances, wariness and gravity flickering behind every pair of eyes.

Grass Upon the Plains was the first to break the silence. The quiet, melancholic youth shed his usual reserve, fury burning across his face as he whispered through clenched teeth, "Torturing animals like this is unforgivable. I say we make her pay. Let's just kill Granny Wang right now."

Zhang Yuanqing glanced at him. "Don't be rash. There's clearly a storyline tied to this woman. We watch, we wait, and we let the quest trigger on its own."

He allowed himself a thin smile. "Take it from someone who's cleared two S-rank dungeons. Think more, act less. That's the mantra for survival. The margin for error in an S-rank dungeon is razor thin. One careless move can cost you your life."

Call Me Queen turned to the Wood Specter, the twin silver hoops in her earlobes swaying with the motion. "The captain's right. The higher the dungeon tier, the fewer hints you get, and the more danger lurks around every corner. This isn't some C-rank or D-rank instance where the mission objectives and rules are spelled out for you. In a dungeon this difficult, one wrong step could mean a total party wipe."

Li Chunfeng considered her words for a moment, then added, "The reverse is also true. Maybe killing Granny Wang right now would resolve the whole event cleanly. It's just like Schrödinger's cat."

He chuckled slightly at his own analogy.

Fire Virtue blinked. "Who's Schrödinger? Did he like torturing cats too?"

The normally erudite Li Chunfeng froze. His mouth opened, closed, then opened again. After a brief internal struggle, he abandoned his planned physics lecture entirely.

"Close enough," he said helplessly instead.

Fire Virtue nodded and stole a glance at the room across the skywell. Granny Wang still hadn't emerged.

He lowered his voice. "Has anyone thought about why she's hanging cat carcasses specifically? Why not chickens, ducks, geese, goats, or dogs? If it were any of those, we might've at least scored a meal out of it."

What he really meant was that the choice of cats had to be deliberate, possibly a clue planted by the dungeon itself.

Zhang Yuanqing offered a Nocturnal Specter's perspective. "These cat corpses carry heavy yin energy. They're yin materials. Draining their yin essence could nourish spectral entities, or be used to refine jiangshi."

"They could also be used to craft items, perform special rituals, fuel sorcery, and so on," Li Chunfeng added.

As they were speaking, the wooden door groaned open. Granny Wang shuffled out, hunched over her cane, clutching a white glazed porcelain teapot.

***

Li Xianzong led his teammates along the roadside. Beside them ran a narrow river that cut straight through the ancient town, spanned by a stone slab bridge built from stacked bluestone.

"What kind of dump is this? Not a soul in sight, let alone a pretty girl," the gaunt middle-aged man complained as he craned his neck left and right, grumbling obscenities under his breath.

One of his previous multiplayer dungeons, had been set in the dead of night in a hotel that harbored a cold-blooded serial killer. The mission objective was to track down and eliminate the powerful criminal.

The hotel had also housed plenty of "civilians," non-Walker characters indistinguishable from real human beings. Over the course of that mission, the middle-aged man had forced himself on numerous women staying in that hotel, without losing a single point of Morality.

For Evil walkers, Spirit Realm dungeons were more than just opportunities for leveling up. They were playgrounds for their darkest impulses, places where anything was permitted and nothing carried consequences.

"Yin Yang Town is a PvP dungeon, not a private instance for those of our classes. You won't find the kind of environment that lets you do whatever you please," the bald, muscular man replied as he sized up his gaunt companion, then gave a dismissive snort. "Before you became a Hex Master, you were a rapist, weren't you?"

The gaunt man leered. "Let's just say those Public Security Officers were too incompetent to catch me. What about you?"

The bald man's tone was flat. "Murder."

He turned away from his companion and addressed their leader instead. "Li Xianzong, we've used up eight minutes. If we don't find the blacksmith's forge soon, we're all done for."

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Right on cue, the distant ring of a hammer striking iron drifted toward them.

Li Xianzong gazed ahead, the corner of his mouth curling upward. "And there it is."

His teammates brightened. "You actually guessed right. It's on this very street."

"Guessed?" Li Xianzong scoffed. "Use those pig brains of yours for once. A blacksmith runs a legitimate business. He's not going to set up shop in some back alley. Forging at high temperatures requires air circulation, which rules out any enclosed compound, while a large water supply is required for quenching. That makes the riverside the obvious choice. Follow the main road along the river, and you'll find him. It's that simple."

As he finished, they halted before the forge. A towering figure, easily two meters tall, was bent over an anvil, swinging an iron hammer down onto a glowing piece of metal in steady, rhythmic blows.

Li Xianzong studied the man for a moment, then ventured, "Are you Blacksmith Wang?"

The smith slowly raised his head, revealing eyes that were colored the vivid, unsettling red of fresh blood.

***

"Thank you, Granny," Zhang Yuanqing said to their host as he cradled the teacup in both hands and shot a glance at the Wood Specter across from him.

Grass Upon the Plains took a small sip and gave a subtle nod.

Zhang Yuanqing relaxed at once and drank. The Wood Specter was a Restoration Mage, and highly sensitive to toxins. If there was anything wrong with the water, it wouldn't have escaped his notice.

Some of the others drank to wet their throats while a few left their cups untouched, still wondering how the next phase of the storyline would unfold. Then Yuanshi Tianzun, taking the lead as the captain, struck up a conversation with the ease of an old neighbor dropping by.

"Granny Wang, why is the town so empty? We didn't see a single person on our way here."

The old woman's voice was slow and halting. "The town used to be lively enough. Then something happened a few years back, and people started leaving Yin Yang Town, one family after another."

"Oh? What happened?" Zhang Yuanqing pressed her.

The whole team perked up at once. The story arc was revealing itself.

"Well..." Granny Wang seemed reluctant, as if the topic itself were cursed.

After a moment's pause, she continued to speak. "Many years ago, people in the town suddenly began dying, one after another. Their hearts and livers had been cut out. Everyone was terrified. They said something evil had taken root here. Squire Zhao, the wealthiest man in town, hired a sorcerer from outside.

"The sorcerer arrived and before long, he found the one responsible. It turned out to be the Yin Yang Hermit's descendant, who was secretly preying on the townsfolk and harvesting their hearts and livers to refine pills. The townspeople and the sorcerer joined forces and destroyed her. Before she died, she placed a curse on the entire town. She cursed everyone to turn into cats."

The Yin Yang Hermit's descendant...

Zhang Yuanqing and his teammates exchanged a look. "Then what?"

Granny Wang let out a long sigh. "At first, nobody paid much mind. But gradually, more and more people went missing, and the number of cats in town kept growing. That was when the fear set in. People didn't dare stay any longer and left, one household at a time."

He's quite the conversationalist, Queen thought as she studied Zhang Yuanqing with an amused smile.

"Then why didn't you leave, Granny?" she asked, picking up the thread.

The old woman shook her head. "I'm old. I don't want to leave the place where I was born. Besides, I've got one foot in the grave already. These things don't frighten me."

The Wood Specter raised his gaze to the skinned cat carcasses swaying on the rafters, his voice cold and hard. "Then why hang these cats in your house?"

"That was the sorcerer's idea," Granny Wang replied without hurry. "He said that hanging cat carcasses in your home, stripped of their skin, would ward off the curse."

The Wood Specter let out a derisive snort. A moment ago, she'd claimed she wasn't afraid of the curse.

"Granny, who exactly was this Yin Yang Hermit?" Zhang Yuanqing asked, digging further. "And why was his descendant harvesting hearts and livers to refine pills?"

The old woman's voice turned wistful. "The Yin Yang Hermit was a great sage, a figure of almost godlike renown. They say he founded this town and ascended to heaven not long after. That's what my elders always told me, though who knows if it's true? His descendant remained behind in the town. Because of her forefather's legacy, everyone treated her with great respect. No one ever imagined she'd do such terrible things."

Zhang Yuanqing frowned in thought. What was it about Ming Dynasty cultivators that made them so twisted? The temple keeper at the Three Paths Mountain Temple had slaughtered his own disciples, while this descendant of the Yin Yang Hermit had carved out people's hearts and livers to further her own alchemy.

He took another sip of the cold tea. "Was this the only descendent of the Yin Yang Hermit? Did he have no other family?"

"Yes, she was the only one left," Granny Wang replied. "Most of the others from the Hermit's bloodline died young. They say that when one person ascends, the fortune of the entire clan is spent."

They knew the truth, though. The Yin Yang Hermit never ascended at all. His pursuit of immortality had ended in failure. Could his descendant's grisly pill refining have been connected to that same quest for eternal life? Zhang Yuanqing was turning this over in his mind when Guan Ya's voice cut through his thoughts.

"Granny, besides us, have outsiders ever visited the town before?"

The old woman regarded her with hollow eyes. "They have."

"And what did they do while they were here?" Guan Ya asked with a gentle smile.

Granny Wang hesitated. "This old woman can't remember..."

The others didn't understand why Guan Ya had asked that question, but Zhang Yuanqing and Queen both paused, then sank into thought.

They had read several strategy guides, and none of those guides had mentioned any curse. Moreover, in those accounts, Yin Yang Town hadn't been deserted at all. How else could anyone have solved a case at the inn? Was it because the dungeon changed between runs, and therefore assigned different side quests to each group of Walkers?

That thought led Zhang Yuanqing to a different question: could he still encounter the hidden mission Demon Lord had spoken of? In all likelihood, this quest line he was following was certainly different from Demon Lord's. If the hidden mission only triggered along one specific branch, that would be absurdly unfair.

He set the thought aside. Never mind the hidden mission for now. What was the actual objective of this Granny Wang questline? Breaking the curse?

To test the waters, Zhang Yuanqing offered, "Granny, is there anything we can help you with?"

Granny Wang shook her head.

The Scholar, Li Chunfeng, jumped in as well. "Granny, aside from yourself, are there other people still living in the town?"

The old woman considered for a moment, then answered in her aged, rasping voice, "Besides me, there are five others. There's Widow Xu, who lives on the west side of town. There's Squire Zhao, who lives in the center of town. The largest estate there is his. Then there's Wang the Blacksmith. And then there's the sorcerer Squire Zhao hired. I'm not sure where he stays."

Lotus Eater, the round-faced youth, started. "That's only five. You said there was one more?"

Granny Wang looked at him. "The last one is my son."

"Your son?" Lotus Eater blurted out. "Where is he?"

The old woman turned slowly toward the room she had just emerged from, her voice drifting like smoke. "He's in there."

She turned back to face the group, and a strange, unsettling smile crept across her deeply lined face. "You'll all be seeing him very soon."

Zhang Yuanqing's stomach dropped. He couldn't explain it, only that some primal instinct inside him had recoiled.

Then he saw it.

Sitting directly across from him, Fire Virtue's pupils contracted into vertical slits, his irises brightening to an eerie feline green. Thick, jet black fur erupted across his cheeks, his neck, and the backs of his hands. His nose and mouth pushed outward into a muzzle, and pointed ears sprouted from the top of his skull.

In a matter of seconds, Fire Virtue Star Army had transformed into a black cat, roughly fifty centimeters long.

Zhang Yuanqing heard Guan Ya's trembling voice. "Yuan... Yuanshi..."

He whipped his head toward her and found her face drained of color, staring at him with an expression that was equal parts horror and disbelief.

What's wrong? he tried to ask. The words formed instinctively, but the sound that emerged from his throat was a thin, piercing meow.

His blood ran cold. He looked down.

Fur. Cat fur, covering his hands entirely.

A wave of indescribable terror crashed through him. He hadn't felt a thing. There hadn't been a single sensation as his body changed.

The transformation swept through the rest of the team around him. First the Wood Specter, then Lotus Eater, the Earth Wraith, and then Li Chunfeng, the Scholar. Cat fur of every shade burst from their pores. Their jaws and lips jutted forward and their ears shifted and tapered to points atop their heads as their bodies shrank at a terrifying pace.

Then Guan Ya. Then Queen.

Meow. Meow. Meow, meow.

The mewing of cats came from every directin, overlapping and frantic. All seven of them had become cats, each with fur of a different color.

Granny Wang leaned on her cane in the shadows, gazing toward the room. Her voice was a dry, hoarse rasp.

"Outsiders have finally come, my son. You've been waiting so long, haven't you?"