v5c17: In the Emperor’s Name, Leave None Alive

A solemn silence surrounded Bi De as they rode upon the backs of Master Forest Sweeper’s constructs towards the Sleeping Hollow. Bi De was in his natural form for this occasion. Master Forest Sweeper’s declaration last night, the great Thunderhoof’s mien, and the fact that they were departing today silenced any thoughts of idle chatter. All of them were ‘locked in’ as his Great Master would say. Focused and prepared for the arduous journey ahead, even as they traveled toward the secret heart of the forest.

‘We will arrive shortly. Brace yourselves. The formation is unkind even to guests,’ Master Forest Sweeper commanded, and he received nods.

Again, the intensifying cold first heralded that they were getting closer—then Master Forest Sweeper stepped over some invisible boundary line.

And Bi De realised why Master Forest Sweeper told them to brace themselves. For a brief instant, something brushed against their Qi. It was something ancient, and so powerful Bi De had trouble comprehending its vastness.

The cold here was alive. It gazed upon them, it touched them, and Bi De felt its intent. He could feel the cold’s desire to wick away all his warmth. To freeze him and turn him into a statue like the army at Forlorn Sculpture Pass, never to move again. His breath caught in his throat as he beheld an ocean—it was like interacting with Tianlan, or Shen Yu, with how mighty it was.

It was trying to seal him. It was trying to seal everything that wasn’t a Thunderhoof, freezing them for all eternity.

Bi De’s muscles all seized at that instant. Yun Ren doubled over. Ri Zu shuddered. Han and Yushang stopped breathing, their faces contorted. Yingwen grabbed his leg, the one that had been transplanted, and his mouth opened in silent anguish. Shao Heng and Fenxian simply didn’t move, only their scared eyes betraying the fact that they had reacted at all.

Even Nezan and Shen Yu reacted. Nezan’s ears flattened against his skull, while Shen Yu frowned.

Yet the ocean of might stopped and its attention waned; Master Forest Sweeper’s power gently turned the ravenous, inevitable thing away from them, and once more, it was merely cold.

Suddenly, all of them could breathe again.

“Quite bracing,” Shen Yu said as he rolled his shoulders. “But that is not yours.”

‘It is not,’ Master Forest Sweeper agreed. ‘It is the legacy of the First Forest Sweeper. Now, we continue on foot.’

Shen Yu was looking around with consideration as they dismounted and the constructs disappeared. Master Forest Sweeper once more took the lead as they headed deeper into the forest.

The stone cairns, ubiquitous throughout the forest, became more and more numerous.

Though instead of sticks made to merely look like antlers… each cairn was topped with an enormous bleached skull of a Thunderhoof. Some were large enough that entire mortal families could live in them, and the cairns themselves could house hundreds if they were hollowed out. Bi De stared into those empty eye sockets and bowed his head.

It was clear what this place was meant to be, the Sleeping Hollow of the Iceheart Forest.

“A tomb,” Bi De’s voice was soft as he looked to Spooks. “Do all of your people return here to rest?”

‘Most do, yes,’ Spooks whispered back. ‘But… they are laid to rest elsewhere. This is for those who died during the Black Times. During the Demon War.’

That caught Shen Yu’s attention, who had been considering the sky more than the graves. The man had seemed utterly relaxed, but as soon as he heard those words… he changed. His steps became more purposeful and his polite disinterest turned into what seemed to be genuine respect.

Ten cairns became hundreds. The hundreds became thousands. The cairns got bigger and bigger, the skulls atop them reaching proportions that nearly matched the truly titanic form of Master Forest Sweeper, yet was still dwarfed by the surrounding trees.

‘My young Apprentice speaks true,’ Master Forest Sweeper rumbled, as their stride slowed. ‘Many demons came from their northern gates; and against the Iceheart Forest they led their assaults. Though they charged out from the frozen north, the killing cold was too much for all but the most determined. We fought. We died. And the Thunderhooves nearly perished. But at the hour of our doom, a great cataclysm rocked the world. The demon gates broke—and the backlash slew millions of the beasts. What little did not die to that, we slew, trampled, and destroyed. Yet even in victory, we were cursed.’

‘Our kind is solitary by nature, and after being freed from our fortress, we roamed once more. We were victorious, so what did we have to fear? But the corpses of our foes corrupted the land. They twisted the snow and ice and spawned forth abominations, like pus festers in a wound. Even small demon gates began to open again, pouring the enemy out into the world once more. There, the demons preyed upon our young. They poisoned our food and desecrated our corpses. It was them who first started driving mothers to the south to give birth, where they would be safer.’

They rounded a bend, and Bi De heard everyone but Spooks suck in a breath. The young Thunderhoof simply bowed his head.

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Ten titanic pillars of ice, covered in scrawling characters, stood at what had to be two Li tall. Trees of ice twisted around them, their mighty boughs looking like they had been shaped to hold something truly gargantuan—yet they were empty.

‘And so the First Forest Sweeper devised a plan. With his might, he gathered all the corpses, all the corruption, and used the power of the Frozen Font to weave a mighty formation—to turn the heart of our home into a frozen prison.’

The largest cairn yet stood just outside the boughs.

‘He sealed the corruption away and the First Forest Sweeper pledged on his soul to purify it, to grind it down with all his Qi so it would never again threaten our kin.’

And then there was a second cairn, deeper within the trees.

‘Each Forest Sweeper, protector of the Iceheart Forest, our sacred home, has made this oath.’

Master Forest Sweeper led them deeper, past the first and second cairns, and then they laid eyes upon the true body of the Thunderhoof.

His construct was barely an exaggeration of his true size. He was gargantuan, a towering behemoth that could single-handedly break any fortress in the world.