Chen Erniu leapt up from his pallet, snatched the clothing from beside the bed, threw it on any which way, and dragged his son out toward the door, asking in haste:
"What in blazes is going on!"
The eldest son of the Chen family, a lad named Chen Sanshui, was anxiously reaching down a long knife from the wall, crying out as he did so:
"Take the knife, Father, take the knife! We shall talk on the road!"
Chen Erniu took hold of the long knife, bound it about his waist, and struck out at great strides toward the head of the village.
"One of the village watchmen rose at night to patrol the fields, and thought he heard a rustling out among the furrows, as though someone were there. He supposed it was folk coupling in the field and crouched low to peek — and there he saw a corpse, all blood-soaked, its occiput gone clean away. The poor man voided himself on the spot in terror."
"How did it die?"
"Its occiput was smashed in and its brain dug out. A wretched death."
At these words Chen Erniu halted his stride and asked in surprise:
"Has anyone yet sent word to the main household?"
"Not yet..."
Chen Sanshui answered haltingly.
"Fool! Did you think such a matter could be kept quiet?!"
Chen Erniu flew into a rage on the spot.
"I have already come to an agreement with the watchman and a few households by the field... urging them not to speak of it for the time being. This is the first murder on our Lichuan Pass these years, and I fear that Xu Wenshan may use it to do you harm, Father!"
Seeing his father fly into a temper, Chen Sanshui hurried to explain himself.
"Fool! The man's brain was dug out!"
"Well..."
Seeing the fright and fury upon his father's face, Chen Sanshui slowed half a beat, as though the true import had at last dawned on him.
"Would an ordinary murder go to the length of digging out a man's brain?! And mark it well — I and that Xu Wenshan merely play at feuding for the eyes of others; each of us is well content with the other. Would Xu Wenshan seize the chance to kick a man who is down and do me harm? And if he harmed me, would he not thereby needlessly offend the hundred-odd households of Lichuan Pass?"
"You brothers are all dull as swine. That Xu Wenshan is younger than I to boot. If I should one day be gone, with what would you contend against him then?!"
"Father..."
Shamed to silence, Chen Sanshui hung his head and stammered, saying nothing more.
Chen Erniu's face had darkened. He spoke coldly:
"Most likely some unearthly creature is at work. Go yourself and inform the main household."
Chen Sanshui nodded vigorously and hurried away toward Lijing Village. Chen Erniu watched his eldest son recede into the distance, and at last a measure of fright and grief crept onto his face, and he murmured:
"I know not how heavy the hand of this creature is. Let Sanshui's eyes be keen, and it may yet spare the Chen line an heir."
Chen Erniu had lived through that dreadful drought of Lichuan Pass. A child then, he had been sitting on the doorstep at play when a great bird wrapped in crimson flame descended upon Lichuan Pass, swallowed a few of the village watchmen whole as though they were grubs, beat its wings, and flew away — leaving fields that exhaled steam for three months.
The surviving watchmen devoured everything edible about Lichuan Pass. They ladled water from the Meichi River and poured it into the fields, yet it vanished without a trace. Chen Erniu's father hauled bucket after bucket, watering the earth for nine whole days, until at last he embraced his starved-dead wife and took his own life.
Chen Erniu abandoned the bodies of his parents, gritted his teeth, and fled to Lijing Village with tears in his eyes. He knocked his forehead against the earth until it was a smear of blood, and only then was he taken into the Li household.
At that time every home in Lijing Village was overfull with fellow refugees. Some attempted to storm the great households, only to be beaten to death by tenants who had been fellow refugees but a few days before; so most bowed their backs and threw themselves up into Greater Li Mountain.
Three months later the people began gradually to return. No one dared speak of that day, and no one dared ask how the hundred-odd souls left behind had survived. In silence they buried the bones that had been licked clean, and a Lichuan Pass of near three hundred households and fourteen hundred souls was left with no more than three hundred.
As he stared into the wavering firelight before him, he started sharply back from his reverie. Chen Erniu pushed aside his second son, Chen Qinshui, who had come forward to greet him, and raised his torch, staring at the blood-soaked body lying there with its skull empty and hollow. Tears were already streaming down his face as he ground his teeth and demanded:
"Who is this?"
"Old Ye, at the head of the village."
Chen Qinshui studied the tears upon his father's face, his heart full of misgiving, and answered in a low voice.
"Go and rouse the whole village, light great fires, and take up knives and staves."
Chen Erniu gave the low-voiced command, but even as he did so a village watchman came hurrying in from the village gate and called out to him:
"Steward Chen, Steward Chen! The main household asks: is there anything amiss at Lichuan Pass?"
Chen Erniu was taken aback, and alarm filled his breast with a host of suspicions. He thought to himself:
"From Lichuan to Lijing there is no such speed to be had, not even for a spy bearing the news. It would seem the household knew of it the very moment the man died — and being so, it must have some means of dealing with the creature."
His knitted brows relaxed at once, the weight lifting measurably from his heart. He called back:
"There is fear of an unearthly creature at work in the village! I have already sent a man to inform the main household!"
----
Li Xiangping stood in silence, gazing at the blue-grey mirror upon its stand. Its shattered facets had recovered a little since the day he had found it as a boy, yet it still wore the look of something that might shatter at any moment, a faint silvery sheen breathing from its face, wholly dreamlike.
"How long since that man set out?"
"He has been gone already a quarter of an hour."
Li Tongya had been staring anxiously out the window, and now set down the bamboo slip in his hand, saying:
"We ought to go out now, lest those people should see we are not there and, breaking with custom, come round into the rear courtyard."
"Let us go!"
Li Xiangping glanced at Li Xuanxuan, sitting cross-legged in meditation, and started out. He had no sooner left the rear courtyard than he came upon Li Yesheng pacing the main courtyard like an ant on a hot griddle. The man's eyes lit up at the sight of them, and he hurried forward:
"One has come from Lichuan Pass, saying a man has been found with his brain dug out!"
"His brain dug out?"
Li Xiangping started for a moment, then turned toward Li Tongya:
"It seems there is an unearthly creature about."
"Quite so."
Li Tongya nodded gravely, thought for the space of a few breaths, and said in a low voice:
"That creature abandoned tonight's ground once it had dug out the brain — a sign that it still fears mankind, and that its cultivation cannot run very deep. It must surely remain in the Embryonic Breathing realm. Were it in Qi Refining, it could have slain the whole village and ridden the mists away."
"I shall go and see!"
Li Xiangping turned to Li Yesheng:
"Call together the able-bodied men of the village, and have them bring weapons."
"Yes!"
Li Yesheng agreed and hurried away. Only when he had gone did Li Tongya speak, his brow furrowed:
"We do not know the depth of that creature's power. The two of us should not go."
"Were we not to go this day, all the authority the Li family has laboured to build among the villages would be lost entirely. I must go!"
"Do you hold the mountain here, Second Brother. I shall go down and scout the creature — you know my temper; I shall not take heedless risks. If aught should befall us, the Li family would still have you. At worst we may abandon Lichuan Pass and beseech the sect for aid."
So Li Xiangping nodded to Li Tongya, took up his bow and arrows, draped over his shoulders a robe of woven yellow-brown vine, and hurried down the mountain.