Molting the Mortal Coil

Jiang Hua.

It was a name that Sage was going to have trouble forgetting. The source of the whole clan being destroyed. Even if he wasn’t very close with anyone but his Uncle, he still felt a sense of kinship. Like distant cousins he’d never met before, he wasn’t wracked with grief over them… but he still felt a sense of loss and pity. It was different with Uncle Zhang. He actually felt like a real uncle he’d only just met. Being taken care of for six years by him and treated as his own blood. Of course, Uncle Zhang really thought he was… and the body actually was, it’s just that Lang Sheng’s (they said clan names first here) consciousness had died and now Sage had taken his body.

Uncle Zhang wasn’t the most upright and kindhearted of men, but he had raised Sage carefully. There was no abuse and the only advantage he’d taken was to urge him to work hard and become a cultivator. This would improve Uncle Zhang’s status, but it wasn’t really much different than someone pressuring their child to be a famous musician, doctor, or any other profession really. It wasn’t the kindest and more free path, but it was only partially done for their own benefit and mostly aimed at giving their children a good life. Sage was still in shock over the loss of Uncle Zhang and still hanging onto a thread of hope.

The clan was destroyed, but is everyone really dead?

Walking into the Clan hall, Sage walked around piles of rubble where the ceiling had collapsed. The balcony around the outer edge of the hall had mostly been destroyed by fire, it along with many of the internal walls were made of wood and other materials, only the main structure of the hall was stone and mostly intact. The further Sage explored the less hopeful he became. There was no signs of anyone having been around in quite some time. No food, no clothing, none of the basic supplies that would show people were around. It was very much deserted.

Sage was walking around town. He was at a small restaurant, asking people what happened to that burned down area at the edge of town. He’d been trapped in a mine for more than six months and carrying around bags made from spider abdomen, making him look like an eccentric from out of town. Moving to another restaurant he asked the same questions, gathering information. After a few hours, the story began to become clear.

A few years ago, Sage had actually seen the cause of this whole incident. The Lang Clan’s Young Master (which is what everyone called the next head of the clan) had been bumped into by a boy on the streets. Annoyed, the Young Master had his men kill the boy without even asking his name. The boy was actually the kid brother of that figure Jiang Hua which nobody had ever heard of. One rumor he’d heard was that the incident caused Jiang Hua great rage which caused him to undergo a massive increase in power.

Jiang Hua actually showed up at the Lang Clan on the second day Sage had entered the mines, the shock which caused him to be trapped was actually the effects of Jiang Hua’s battle. He used a deep red flame to suppress the Lang Clan’s strongest fighters. When they sent out a horde of Mantis and swarms of other insects, Jiang Hua got even crazier. People said the air seemed to get richer, the wind flowing strangely against the bugs before his flames appeared to ignite the very air itself. With a massive explosion much of the Clan Hall collapsed and all resistance from the Lang Clan ended.

The rest of the story is pretty tragic as he executed every member of the clan he could find. There wasn’t a single member of the Lang Clan left alive in Lionheart Town nor in the whole of Jade Spirit County. In order to befriend Jiang Hua, the Fu Clan, voluntarily went around the whole Jade Spirit County and exterminated every member of the Lang Clan they could find. Sage thought this was crazy till he realized the Fu (Bat) Clan were rivals with the Chong Clan. Both major powers in the 10,000 wave province, this was a good excuse to wipe out one of their enemy's branch families. They got to look like upright heroes and also befriend a promising youth.

No one one knew where Jiang Hua had gone to after the whole thing ended, but he raged to the whole town to leave the Lang Clan untouched as a warning to evil-doers. He even ordered some of the nobles in town that were trying to kiss up to him, to properly bury the Lang Clan in their tomb. He’d completely killed them all, yet here he was forcing people to bury them properly. Sage was flabbergasted by this story and found himself both in awe and terrified of this Jiang Hua.

So many dead. I wanted to become a superhero, but is that even possible? This world is so brutal.

What Sage didn’t know was that there were quite a few people watching the Lang Clan for those who might have survived the extermination. Eyes were on him as he dug through the burned rubble, and again as he asked around town about what happened. So, when Sage traveled to the ancestral tomb for the Lang Clan, there was a half-dozen following on his heels and he had no idea. There’s no way a man from another world who’d only spent his time programing software, reading books, playing video games, and now practicing martial arts, had any idea that he was being tailed.

Sage had been inside the tomb for an hour now. He’d walked past row after row of small shelves just large enough for one urn. Each had a tablet listing who it was and what they’d done. Looking for his Uncle Zhang, Sage continued deeper and deeper into the tomb. He wasn’t very well acquainted with many in the Lang Clan so he wasn’t sure if he recognized anyone else. Finally, he turned a corner and found a spot that looked far less dusty than the others and filled with thousands of much newer looking urns. He could even see that the shelves further into the tunnel were empty.

Uncle should be here…

The stories he heard in town gave him little hope that anyone had survived and so he had accepted his Uncle Zhang’s death. He just wished to find the urn so he could pay his respects. His feet stopped in front of one of the clay shapes and his heart dropped. Accepting it and actually seeing it were two different things.

Lang Zhang.

Sage read the tablet and felt the tears building in his eyes. The tablet listed his family and the highest cultivation rank he got to. There were no special achievements, but most of the tablets in this new area didn’t have any. People from outside the clan had performed the burials and didn’t know much about most of the people they were burying. Sage kneeled down, something he’d learned was the highest form of respect and submission in this world, he kowtowed. Kneeling with his shins against the ground, he bowed forward and touched his forehead against the ground.

Some time later.

Rising back to his feet, Sage didn’t know where he could go. He had no money and the only thing of value he carried were some Insects. If he was to sell them, surely somebody would find out he was from the Lang Clan and come after him. At a loss for what to do, his feet carried him deeper into the tomb. Walking past row after row of empty shelves, areas that would never be filled now as there would no longer be any more members of the Lang Clan. They’d been completely wiped out. Technically Sage could revive them, but he never truly felt like one of them. He came from another world and thought of them as his adopted family.

Sage wasn’t sure why he was walking deeper into the tomb. He had nowhere else to go, maybe he wanted to stay here a night. Maybe it was curiosity to see how large the tomb was. Or maybe it was because he felt comfortable being underground again. Whatever the reason, he kept walking deeper, turning a corner and reaching the tunnel’s end. In front of him loomed a huge stone door. The stones inscribed with more of those strange symbols he’d seen in the mine.

An array! I didn’t know this was down here.

Walking slowly forward, Sage wondered what the array did. If he had known that the array was attuned to kill anyone not of the Lang Clan he might have grown fearful over his inheritance of Lang Sheng’s body. Did the array check bodies or souls?

Oblivious to the danger, Sage ran his hands over the door, tracing the symbols carved into the stone and touching the inlaid Spirit Jade and precious materials. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, but something seemed to call out to him and he followed subconscious instruction. His fingers tracing a circle through some of the symbols on the door that suddenly started to glow after his hand passed over them.

Rumble!

The huge stone door rumbled with vibration as it slid slowly open.