Chapter Text
Yi City. An unimportant place found by His Excellency, Song Zichen, leader of a sect built upon mutual values rather than bloodlines, which welcomed all manners of cultivation. Home of Xue Yang, Yi City’s head disciple. A student of the demonic arts. A man with no true values, but one obsession that forced him to pretend. Xiao Xingchen. The best friend of the Sect Leader, and a powerful disciple in his own right. Or at least, he would have been were it not for a terrible accident which stole his eyes when he was a child.
Despite this obvious setback, he grew to be a kind and powerful man. He chose not to spend his time in the safety and comfort of the sect, but rather to wander and help those most in need. He would always come back, usually with a new disciple under his wing. He never stayed for long, but his return was always greatly anticipated by both His Excellency as well as the common folk. You couldn’t help but love him.
Xue Yang could not love, but he could want. And the only thing he wanted was Xiao Xingchen.
And so, this evil man devised a plan. It was simple enough to request to travel with Xingchen, stating that a pair of eyes would be extremely helpful, and who better to protect His Excellency’s best friend then his head disciple? And once they began to travel together, it was easy enough to use his demonic abilities to begin to corrupt the good man. His sword could detect evil, but with the right tricks, it wasn’t able to distinguish between an actual monster and a poisoned human.
With each night hunt, Xue Yang corrupted a bit more of Xiao Xingchen’s soul.
And at the end of each night, he would sneak just a little closer, until eventually, he held a place in Xiao Xingchen’s bed, taking what remained of the naïve man’s innocence.
However, he was unaware that Xiao Xingchen’s blind servant was nothing more than a little con-woman who saw everything. She had watched in horror as innocent common people attempted to beg for their lives, and immediately ran to tell His Excellency what she had seen.
Song Zichen had refused to believe his dearest friend would murder the innocent and had set out to see for himself.
He was horrified at the many empty villages that marked the path Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen were taking. He summoned his greatest allies, the honorable Gusu Lan clan to assist him. Unfortunately, he caught up to the two, before the Lan’s could reach him.
He was enraged at the way Xue Yang had been taking advantage of his dear friend, and decided to confront him alone. It was an equal battle, but Xue Yang had the poisonous ability to weaponize his words, twisting the truth, and squeezing His Excellency’s heart until he couldn’t focus. With a single, well-aimed blow, Xue Yang severed Song Zichen’s tongue before infecting him with a poison, making him undetectable as a living person.
As Song Zichen made one final attempt to strike down his treacherous disciple, he was stabbed through the heart with the sword of his best friend.
Xue Yang thought that that was the end of it, until the Gusu Lan clan finally found them. He had been out, getting groceries for their daily meal when he saw their signature white robes, standing with a distraught Xiao Xingchen. He watched as the only other person he cared for fell to his knees in horror at the knowledge that he had killed his best friend.
And nobody was able to stop him as he grabbed his sword and drew it across his throat with a scream of agony.
For his love, Xue Yang sealed the remains of Xingchen’s soul in a spirit pouch, and stole the Yin Iron, a powerful metal with indescribable powers. He desecrated Xingchen’s tomb and brought his body to the Burial Mounds of Yiling. A sacred place where the Emperors of the past were laid to rest, along with their treasure. It was also a place filled with powerful resentful energy. He placed Xingchen’s body next to a pool of blood and began the ritual to bring him back.
For three days and three nights, the corpse remained still.
Xue Yang decided to trade a life for a life, and stole a child from the small city nearby.
That would be his undoing.
Before he could complete the ritual, the Lan Clan found him, lured by the story of the stolen child. For his many crimes, he was sentenced to a terrible death. An unholy curse so terrible, it had never been used before. They carved out his eyes and his tongue, and severed his smallest finger, burning it and forcing him to be unable to rest peacefully after death. They dressed him in red and sealed him alive in his coffin, with three giant centipedes. Their bites would infect his skin and blood, causing his flesh to rot while he was still alive.
They sealed his coffin with talismans’ and placed him beneath a statue of King Yan, the God of Death. He was cursed to be the undead for all time.
The Lan Clan of Gusu dedicated their lives to ensuring he was never resurrected, for if he was, he would arise a calamity. A walking disease, a plague upon mankind. An unholy flesh-eater with the strength of ages, power over the wind and the glory of invincibility.
He stayed for three thousand years.
And then someone woke him up.