The departure of the expedition team was a quiet affair, a stark contrast to the grand, triumphant march that had set out for the Blackwood Sect. There was no army, no fanfare. Just four figures who left through a private gate, their mission a grim secret known only to the sect's highest echelons.
Wei, as the leader, set the pace. He did not summon his bee-cloud, a tool far too conspicuous for a mission that required subtlety. Instead, they traveled on a high-grade flying shuttle artifact provided by the First Elder, a sleek, silent vessel that could cover vast distances without leaving a spiritual trail.
The atmosphere within the shuttle was thick with a tense, unspoken friction. Wei sat at the controls, his eyes closed in meditation, his presence a void of cold, silent focus. Elder Jin sat near him, his massive form as still and unmoving as a mountain, his trust in Wei absolute. The other two passengers, however, were a different matter.
Elder Lihua, the master healer, spent her time reviewing ancient medical texts, her brow furrowed in a constant state of worry. Her gaze would occasionally drift to Wei, a mixture of grudging respect and deep-seated apprehension in her eyes. She was a woman whose entire Dao was dedicated to preserving life, and she was now allied with a man whose very essence was a monument to its destruction.
Her disciple, Sun Ling, was far less reserved. The young prodigy made no effort to hide her distrust. She sat as far from Wei as possible, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword, her own spiritual energy a bright, warm sun that seemed to actively push back against the subtle chill that emanated from Wei.
"Elder Wei," Sun Ling began, her voice sharp and clear, breaking the silence of the second day. "Now that we are approaching the Azure Province, what is your plan of action? Where will we begin our search for this 'Necrotic Anchor'?"
Wei opened his eyes, the abyssal darkness within them meeting her bright, challenging gaze. "We will not be searching for the anchor," he stated simply. "Not at first. We will be searching for its shadow."
Sun Ling frowned, her righteous impatience showing. "With all due respect, Elder, that is needlessly cryptic. People are being turned to stone. We are wasting time."
The air in the shuttle instantly dropped twenty degrees. Wei did not move a muscle, but his 'Domain of Silent Death' flared, focused into a needle-point of pure, soul-chilling pressure aimed directly at Sun Ling. It was not a physical attack, but it was far worse. For Sun Ling, it felt as if the vibrant, sunlit world of her spiritual sea had been plunged into a lightless, frozen abyss. Her breathing hitched, her heart hammered against her ribs, and the spiritual energy she was so proud of froze in her meridians. It was the pure, primal terror of a mouse being stared at by a serpent.
"Disciple Sun," Wei said, his voice a low, soft whisper that was somehow more terrifying than a shout. "You seem to be under a misapprehension. You are not here to question my methods. You are not here to offer your opinions. You are here because your master believed you might have some minor utility." He leaned forward slightly, his dark eyes locking onto hers. "I am an Elder of this sect. I am the leader of this mission. You are a junior disciple who is present by my grace alone. If you ever again presume to tell me that I am 'wasting time', I will leave you in the next petrified village we find. Your role is to watch, to listen, and to act only when I command it. Is that understood?"
"Wei, she is young..." Elder Lihua started to say, trying to intervene on behalf of her terrified student.
Wei's gaze shifted to her, and the pressure in the cabin intensified. "And you, Elder Lihua, are here for your knowledge of the living body, a subject which may prove useful. You are not here to second-guess my leadership. In this cursed land, your healing arts are useless. My methods are all that matter. Both of you will remember your places."
He then retracted his domain as if flipping a switch. The warmth and air returned to the shuttle, but the atmosphere was now charged with absolute, terrified respect. Sun Ling was pale and trembling, her eyes wide with the memory of that soul-deep terror. She could only manage a choked, "Yes, Elder. Understood."
The rest of the journey was completed in absolute silence.
They arrived in the Azure Province, and the reality of the Grey Rot was as horrifying as the reports had claimed. They landed and approached the first afflicted town, Seabreeze Point, on foot. It was a monument to silence, an entire village of grey stone statues.
Elder Lihua let out a choked gasp, her hand flying to her mouth. Elder Jin's jaw tightened, his face a mask of cold fury. Sun Ling, however, was now driven by a desperate need to prove her worth after her humiliation. The horror of the scene was overshadowed by her desire to show that her 'minor utility' was, in fact, essential.
"I can save them," she declared, her voice still trembling slightly but filled with a renewed, desperate conviction. She strode forward to the statue of a young boy. "My Sunlight Purification art is the bane of all necrotic energy!"
"Do not," Wei commanded, his voice flat.
But Sun Ling, desperate to prove him wrong, to show that her righteous light had a place here, ignored him. "Ling'er, no!" Elder Lihua pleaded, but it was too late.
Sun Ling placed her hands on the stone boy's shoulders, unleashing a brilliant, blindingly pure light. "By the light of the heavens, I command the darkness to recede!" she chanted.
For a moment, a faint crack appeared on the statue's surface. But then, a horrifying shattering sound echoed through the silent village. The crack widened, and the entire statue crumbled from the inside out, collapsing into a pile of grey dust and rubble.
Sun Ling stumbled back, her face a mask of absolute horror. "What... what did I do?" she whispered.
"You were given an order, and you disobeyed it," Wei said, his voice devoid of any emotion. He walked over to the pile of dust. "The curse consumes the life force to fuel a transformation. Your art, a surge of pure life force, simply accelerated the process. You overloaded the cursed matrix and destroyed what was left."
He turned to face her, his eyes like chips of ice. "This is your first and only lesson. Do something like this again and I'll leave you behind."
His cold, pragmatic words, combined with her catastrophic failure, completely shattered her spirit. Their righteous ideals and healing arts were useless here. In this land of silent death, only the man who understood death's mechanisms had any hope of finding a way forward.
As dusk fell, Wei began his work. He stood in the center of the village, the others keeping a wide berth. He closed his eyes, and his 'Domain of Silent Death' expanded outwards. Within his domain, the vibrant life force of his companions was like a series of bright fires. The petrified villagers were like cold, dead stones. But there was something else. A faint, almost imperceptible trail of energy, like a thin, black thread, leading away from the village, heading inland. It was the echo of the curse, the shadow he had been looking for.
He opened his eyes, the direction now clear in his mind. "I have the trail," he announced to the others. "It leads east, deeper into the province."
He did not wait for their response. He simply began to walk, following the invisible thread of death that only he could see. The others, their own methods proven useless, had no choice but to follow the Poison Elder into the heart of the cursed land, their fates now entirely in his hands.