Discovered

They floated around the village, since they were now in ghost forms. Liena kept sending looks towards Yunxi as they moved.

Yunxi had had enough of her actions and turned to face her while saying," Stop looking at me . Your face creeps." without stopping.

Liena chuckled, and smiled " Glad to know you appreciate my real face. "

Yunxi ignored her and focused on the task at hand. Due to the memories she had extracted from the ghosts earlier, she was able to gather enough Intel for them to be able to infiltrate into the group of ghosts.

" Hmm…the Doctors Plague, do you know about it?" Nalan asked after a moment of silence.

Since she was beside Liena, and was looking in her direction, Of Course! The question was meant for her.

" Baby girl, I literally just hatched out of a giant egg, which means I am just like a newborn. Sometimes I wonder who is a child between us."

Nalan's eyes widened, hearing Liena's reply. She was about to open her mouth to retort, when a hand covered her mouth, and pulled her aside.

" Shut it!" Yunxi's stern voice resounded in their ears. She had both of her ghost hands, covering their mouths, as a group of ghosts passed by.

How her hands were able to cover their mouth, since her form was phantasmal, is a mystery. Maybe it's because she was touching another ghost.

"mmm…" Nalan mumbled, gaining Yunxi's diverted attention.

Yunxi slowly removed her hand from their mouths, while pinning her icy glare on them.

" As much as I would love to have your gaze on me, we have something important to do. And I am sure you have something to tell us." Liena said grinning.

Yunxi stared at her for a while before sighing.

" The meat that was brought to us hours earlier is that of a human, and it was meant to make us fall asleep. The ghosts earlier were supposed to bring us to their boss, who likes to eat human meat. It's been minutes and the ghosts haven't arrived with us . They would soon notice that something's wrong. Before that, we have to eliminate all the messengers, that is the ghosts, to avoid the leakage of messages to their boss. Clear ?"

From start to finish, Nalan and Liena listened earnestly. Both having different expression on . Liena looked unfazed like she was expecting such news, while Nalan had myriad of emotions from fear to anxiousness to calmness.

" We are clear. " Liena answered in her stead.

" Okay. Here's what would happen. Nalan would go with you, and I would work alone. We met back at the hut we stayed at. " Yunxi didn't wait to hear anything from them. After talking she walked in the opposite direction leaving both of them alone.

Liena stared at the direction Yunxi left in a daze. Her mouth kept opening and closing like a fish deprived of water.

" Hey! …Hey! What's with you? We should get going." Nalan tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention.

" What..? Yes. Ermm…You are a healer aren't you? " Liean said, scrutinizing Nalan with her eyes.

" Hey! I can defend myself well. I am not weak. Let's go." Nalan huffed in anger, and walked away.

Liena slapped her forehead, " Good gracious! My master isn't just cold but sharp. Where's this girl?"

Liena quickly caught up to Nalan, and floated beside her in silence. Nalan was still angry, and she didn't want to spook her.

They floated around for a while, before encountering a group of five ghosts. They floated towards them.

" Where are they? They aren't at the square or in their room." One of them said,

A flash of purple was the response he got. Before the others got to digest what happened, they were already on the ground, dead. Well, actually they were already dead, but now...they really died.

In the blink of an eye, they were all taken care of.

" Hmm…they were much weaker than I thought. " Liena commented as she watched the ghosts disperse into nothing.

" Yes…what do you expect from ghosts?" Nalan said sarcastically.

" They are free from the chains that bound them here. Now..they can rest in peace." She added.

' Ah! Show off! Who can't do what she just did?' Nalan clicked her tongue and looked away.

Liena looked at the illusion they had on slowly breaking apart.

" We have been discovered. "

Nalan walked over to her side and looked towards the direction Yunxi went."Is something wrong with Yunxi?"

" Maybe. Maybe not. We have to leave now. " She held Nalan's hand and pulled her along.

They ran towards the other side, passing by dark huts which let out cold air. Right in front of them was Yunxi, unhurt facing the ghost woman who delivered the food to them.

Nalan walked up to Yunxi, and stood beside her. " What's happening here?"

Liena walked forward and looked at the woman from top to bottom, despite the fact that Yunxi kept sending her disgusting looks . " The Doctors Plague…that's the reason for your death."

" Yes. It has been years since the incident took place. This village…" The woman answered.

Nalan was quick to interrupt her . " Wait! Why are you telling us ? "

The woman glared a bit at Nalan's interference. She scowled, " It's because I want to. The years of agony and pain…I am tired. I want to rest. For me to rest peacefully, I must confess everything."

" Okay…?" Nalan was a bit lost. She didn't understand what the woman was saying. The woman looked was about to burst out, but Yunxi immediately pulled Nalan behind her , and cold said,

" Say whatever it is you want to say."

Liena watched their actions with a slight smile. Although her master was cold , she really cared for them. ' She reminds me of a mother bear.'

" We used to live in a city, filled with brilliance, sunshine, happiness. We all had families, careers we majored in . We were happy, until the apocalypse arrived. Despair, fear, and hatred was what was left in the wake of a vibrant city.

There were only adult survivors left. We came together and journeyed forward. We found a peaceful place, and settled down. However, food and resources became scarce. We tried everything possible to survive. Amongst us there were medical practitioners. They started falling ill one after the other. At first we weren't that suspicious of it, but when they all became sick, and we were okay, suspicion arose.

We interrogated them, and found out that they had gone out to look for food, and found an unknown creature. They all greedily devoured it, and were now facing the consequences.

At first we didn't notice that the illness they had was contagious, until their attendants started getting ill, and it got spread over the village. "

" So you all named it ' The Doctors Plague ' because it originated from them?" Liena asked.

" Yes." The woman replied.

Liena looked around for a while, and asked, " Then what's with this setting?"

The woman bit her lips and replied, " We all died, but something awakened us in this form. It has been three years since we have been like this. We warmly welcome any two legged creature, drug their food, and delivered them to that thing. "

" You don't know what that ' thing ' is ? Like, you have never seen it before?" Liena asked further.

" Yes. The thing has the ability to torture us if we fail to do our tasks, that's why we did what we did. We had no other choice."

Yunxi patted Nalan's hand, stopping her from talking. She faced the woman who had a charming smile on, with an indifferent face. " No, that's not it. At first, that was the reason, but later it wasn't. You are already dead, what more could happen. You are depressed and resentful, there are people who get to live their lives to the fullest while you couldn't. Your life was cut short."

" I..we..it's…Ahh.. " The woman stuttered, not able to get a sentence out.

" I didn't want to do it . We didn't want to do it. It's the truth. " Yunxi said. The woman stared wide-eyed at her , because Yunxi said exactly what she wanted to say.

She pointed a finger at her and said "You…" She couldn't say anything when faced with Yunxi's cold face, and sighed in defeat. " Anyway that thing is powerful. I hope you can defeat it. Please..Avenge us!"

" Tch! I don't take orders. It's not a thing, it's things. "

Yunxi swiftly removed her sword and sliced the ghost into two. " Rest in peace." She said as she watched the ghost woman turn into particles. From the moment she removed the sword from the scabbard and placed it back in , everything moved quickly. Only the sharp eyed could catch the sight of her sword.

Liena looked at the sword on her back for a while, before looking at her face.

" Why did you do that? We could have extracted more information from her. " She said.

" She doesn't have any more information to give. Sometimes I wonder whether you are a succubus or not. '' Yunxi said straightforwardly.

" So..she told us about the Doctors Plague, why haven't we received any notification? Did she lie to us ?" Nalan finally opened her mouth and asked.

" She did and she didn't. She told us half-truth. There are loopholes in her words. " Yunxi answered.

" What ?! That entire story she rambled on was all made up?"

" When the apocalypse arrived, humans awakened. Although the population for the powerfully awakened was minimum, the other awakened could protect themselves well. They had power greater than the average human. Most awakened talents, while some didn't. Those that didn't, had increased strength and could hone themselves.

According to the observation made by my family, most awakened talents are based on what they are accustomed to. This woman was a gigolo, and she developed a talent based on that.

The apocalypse made people distraught and wary, how could they have lived peacefully away from the city?

About the Doctors Plague, what she said was true, but…that wasn't how they all got infected. The doctors greedily eating a creature of unknown origins? The doctors were weak and couldn't fend for themselves, because they didn't awaken an attack or defense like talent but support. They had to survive. They grouped together and ventured to the forest. They found the beast, but couldn't bring it back because it would be snatched from them.

Because they ate the unknown beast, they contacted a Plague. Seeing them sick, the other occupants were scared and burned them. They didn't know the Plague had spread, when they realized ,it was too late. No one could bury them , that's why those things could raise them as ghosts. " Yunxi slowly explained as they walked forward.

The two looked at her with bright eyes. This was the first time she spoke such lengthy sentences.

" Ohh…. So what are those things?" Nalan asked giddily.

In response Yunxi looked at Liena, who smiled and answered, " The only thing that could do that are creatures of the dark, necromancers."

" And they could only punish the ghost because they are able to see what they are doing. They have seen everything we did." Yunxi added as she looked into a certain direction, her eyes glowing in blue.