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Chapter 23: The Flute Player in the Fog
The Silent Vein Forest lived up to its name—dense, gray, and still as death.
Fog coiled between the twisted trees. No birds, no beasts. Only the soft hum of the Ancient Longevity Sword on Liu Guan Yi's back, reacting faintly to the corrupted qi saturating the woods.
Each step he took seemed to echo through the void.
Then, it came again.
A flute.
Soft. Melancholic. Dripping with something wrong—like a child's lullaby distorted by cruelty.
Liu Guan Yi paused.
> "Still hiding," he muttered. "But you're getting bolder. You want me to find you."
The fog shifted.
A clearing revealed itself ahead—unnaturally circular, like something had forced the trees apart.
Seven wooden dolls hung from the branches.
No… not dolls.
Liu Guan Yi stepped closer. Their skin was too real. Too raw.
Each figure was strung by the wrists. Their mouths were sewn shut with black thread, their limbs contorted into marionette poses. One still dripped blood.
> "These aren't dolls," Liu Guan Yi said, eyes narrowing. "These were girls."
A breath of mist shifted. From the fog, a figure emerged.
White robes. A smiling porcelain mask. A black flute carved from bone.
The man's voice was high, childlike, almost gleeful.
> "You came too early," he said. "She told me you'd arrive after I took ten. But I only have seven."
Liu Guan Yi remained silent.
No questions.
No anger.
Only focus.
The masked man raised the flute and began to play.
The music twisted the air.
The seven hanging corpses jerked—mouths tearing open as something squirmed out.
Black insects poured from their throats and eyes, clicking, hissing.
> "Soulworms," Liu Guan Yi murmured. "A forbidden demonic art."
The corpses dropped.
They charged.
In a flash, Liu Guan Yi vanished.
Sword Escape.
When he reappeared, he stood with his blade extended, the seven bodies behind him—cleaved, bleeding black ichor.
The insects twitched, dying.
But the fog grew heavier.
The flute's pitch shifted—higher, sharper, vibrating through the air like blades against bone.
Then the masked figure vanished into the mist.
In his place, the ground split open.
From it burst a massive black cocoon, taller than a man, pulsing with grotesque life. Veins of crimson ran across its surface. A heartbeat echoed from within.
> "He's summoning something," Liu Guan Yi said, raising his sword. "Then I'll kill it before it draws breath."
He stepped forward.
Second Form: Cutting Edge.
The blade ignited with silver light—thin and silent like moonlight—and fell.
The cocoon split cleanly in two.
From within came a scream that wasn't human—cut short as its form dissolved into ash.
The fog receded.
Only silence remained.
And yet… a voice echoed from nowhere, soft and playful:
> "She's watching you… Sword Demon."
Liu Guan Yi stood still.
His gaze sharpened.
> "She?"
No answer came.
Only wind.
He turned his eyes toward the distant Black Pine Village, hidden beyond the trees.
> "This isn't about missing girls anymore," he murmured. "Someone's harvesting souls. Testing something."
The Ancient Longevity Sword hummed lowly, as if agreeing.
Liu Guan Yi stepped forward again.
> "I'll find out who."