15 Infiltration

The moon hung in the sky a sliver of light, illuminating the surroundings just enough for trained eyes to see decently. Three darkly dressed figures walked the silent night, sticking to the cover of the shadows. As they came upon the rear wall of the compound hidden in the mountains the one, wearing an ivory mask covering the upper portion of the face, drew to a sudden pause.

Li Yu Rong slanted An Ying a glance with the eye visible from his mask. It gleamed an ominous crimson as it caught the light of the moon. "An Ying, go with Lu Se Ying. Only act if Lu Se Ying is about to fall."

An Ying had been a malevolent ghost; a bloodthirsty killer. He had been betrayed by a dear friend, left to die among the corpses of his loved ones. The anguish and hatred felt in that moment followed him as his soul crossed into the Spirit Realm. It gave him a strength and determination to remain. Having absorbed spirit energy he was able to turn away from the Wheel of Reincarnation to carry out the revenge deeply seeded within the essence of his current self.

When Li Yu Rong had first taken over the Palace of Four Gates at the age of five, he had been tasked with the mission of collecting and returning all the residents of the Spirit Realm to whence they came. An Ying -though nameless at the time- had been the first denizen he had come across.

One of the spirits of the palace led him to a small village a short distance from Mencheng; the town that contained the gates. When he stepped into the village square he was met with a scene of bloody carnage. Standing in the middle of the villagers' corpses was An Ying staring off into the distance, his eyes vacant as though his mind had left him.

Being only Five at the time, Li Yu Rong was terrified. Though he had been sent to the cold palace nearly from the moment he was born, and he'd seen many cruelties, he was protected well by the spirit creatures loyal to his mother. He had never before been acquainted with such a horrific scene.

So, even though the spirit at his side insisted for him to go forth and complete his duties by creating a seal and exorcising the malevolent ghost, Li Yu Rong had felt more like running away from the terrifying thing. In the end, he did neither. As he looked at the ghost he felt his fear abate and his speedily racing heart calm.

With careful steps, he had drawn closer. When the ghost had brought his attention toward him and his aura shifted into a feeling of rising violence, the little him had said. "Why kill them if you're going to cry about it in the end?"

All violence had fallen away from the ghost as he fell into a stunned and contemplative silence. From the eyes toward the chin, there was a trail of tears. Once the ghost figured out there were such an emotion and the cause for it, he said. "Their faces are wrong."

Hearing the reply Li Yu Rong knew that there was still a part of who the ghost used to be, existing somewhere within him. Having learned many seals and arrays from the spirit creatures that cared for him from infancy and those from the Palace of Four Gates, an idea came to him. Someone with such a sad and lonely figure, he didn't want to destroy. Instead, he would seal it to himself.

"Follow me." The young him had said. "Follow me and I'll take on all your hatred and resentment and when you find the one you want to kill I'll help you kill him." The ghost remained silent and did not answer. Though he did not answer, he could feel the ghost's favorable reception to the thought. The little Li Yu Rong then asked. "What is your name?"

"I can't recall," the ghost said after a time.

"Then you'll be An Ying."

"Master?"

Li Yu Rong snapped from his thoughts when Lu Se Ying called him questioningly. He shook his head to show that he was alright and gestured for them to continue on. They scaled the wall in a single movement and then soon after went their separate ways. As they parted the prince hoped that An Ying wouldn't have to lift a hand.

It was hard to say if any would be left alive once he did.

A good portion of the reason for their infiltration was to take captive the people guarding and running this compound. To not alert the enemy only the three of them would sneak in while Commander Jiang would sit outside the area of detection until the signal was given. Once the people and evidence were secured, it would be left with the commander to question and investigate.

While Li Yu Rong was to deal with the three experts guarding the top, Lu Se Ying and An Ying were to make their way to the underground room and secure the researchers. This compound was a hidden research facility. These places came into existence well before he had been placed into the Palace of the Four Gates.

Back when his predecessor had mysteriously vanished and the denizens of the Spirit Realm ran rampant, it had been suggested to create group tasked with the studying them. They knew nothing of spirit energy except that it could poison those of the Mortal Realm. They had no intimation towards dealing with these creatures whose energy and ways worked so differently from their own.

Hiring out a few top-level experts having reached the profound upper level of their martial arts, they managed to catch a few of the lower level beasts that could not conceal themselves. Having performed multiple kinds of experiments they managed to develop a higher understanding of spirit energy and how it evolved within the creatures that contained it. It wasn't quite unlike the natural qi or energy a mortal contained in their dantian that allowed for them to practice their martial arts.

However, they later discovered that the two energies opposed one another and could not coexist. While they may fair well against the lower creatures they could not fight those on an upper-level and vice-versa. After a while of exchanging blows, the two higher level energies would fight over the other for dominance eventually causing both to explode.

Knowing this, there weren't many who were willing to take the risk and thus villages and towns outside the major cities were left in torment.

The next research had been upon contracts and seals. Back when the master to the Palace of Four Gates had still been around, spirit beasts had been contracted and neither party faced any adverse effects. However, before the research could show any results everything had been halted and cast away.

Li Yu Rong had been placed into the palace. The collected spirit beasts were placed back into the Spirit Realm and the Emperor that sired the current Gate Guardian forbade any further research for fear of those chaotic times returning.

Coming upon the first expert, kicked back unawares in his chair drinking tea, a dangerous smirk fell from Li Yu Rong's lips.