What Han Yu saw weren't men. They were corpses.
More accurately, they were zombies—Jiangshi, powerful undead controlled through ancient curse and necromantic arts.
He studied them more closely now. The faint scent of old decay clung to them, hidden beneath the smell of metal and blood. Their armor occasionally emitted a faint pulse of red light, like the beating of a heart that no longer existed.
When a disciple passed too close, one of the guards tilted its head ever so slightly, following the movement with eerie precision before returning to stillness.
"They are watching," Han Yu thought. "Even if they look frozen, they see everything."
The oppressive aura of death around them made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He had fought many things in his life, but this was different. These creatures were beyond reasoning. They would not flinch, hesitate, or bargain.
