The Faith and Salt

He opened his eyes; one of them was glowing red.

The night fog on the canal carried the scent of salt.

Xiao Yan crouched at the bow of the covered boat, rubbing his fingertips over the brownish stains on the gunwale.

The rusty smell of old blood mixed with river-bottom silt rose as he brought them to his nose.

It suggested one of the flesh-eating river creatures....

He shook his hand sharply, noticing the Iron Ward Talisman at his waist growing slightly warm.

A familiar prickle ran up his side.

The boatman working the oar at the stern swallowed visibly, his blue tattoo partially exposed beneath his straw cape, a mark of a secret agent of The Bureau, the kind meant to frighten corrupt officials.

Xiao Yan pretended not to notice.

Even with this mark, Xiao wouldn’t trust him easily.

The boatman seemed to read Xiao Yan's mind. "Who knows what kind of treacherous villains are whispering in our sacred Emperor's ear now?"

Xiao didn't respond; he was thinking about something else:

This village drowns a young girl every year, and nobody knows why.

But this case shouldn't have fallen to a Lieren…

"Master Xiao, Swallow Rock is just ahead," the boatman warned in a hoarse voice.

Thump thump—thump, thump thump—thump thump

Xiao Yan heard the boatman deliberately tapping out a rhythm on the rocks with his oar: two long, three short.

Several points of phosphorescent light suddenly appeared in the reed marsh, illuminating the crooked salt warehouses on the shore.

Xiao Yan pricked his finger with a needle and sprinkled the blood over his right eye.

The spell was triggered.

Blood spread across his vision.

Shapes emerged beneath the river.

Children-sized things carrying pale lights…It was watching the boat.

Under the eaves of the salt warehouse hung countless icicle-like secretions.

Silt devourers. He had hoped otherwise.

Small enough to ignore.

Until they weren't.

The boat reached the shore, but Xiao Yan didn't disembark.

The spiritual pressure beneath the salt mountain pressed outward like a held breath.

Not one thing. Many.

That explained the abandoned warehouses, at least.

He surveyed his surroundings, finding no escape routes.

Reed marshes, tidal flats, and mud pools were everywhere.

The only land route was through this ghost-fog-shrouded salt warehouse.

If the boatman betrayed him and pushed the boat away, he would likely die with no proper burial.

He continued observing from the bow.

Behind a dilapidated warehouse door, under a thirty-foot salt pile, lay over a hundred grievance-haunted skeletons.

Among them, a fresh female corpse facing the door was particularly eye-catching.

She tightly embraced a three-or four-year-old child's corpse, both with their skull caps removed and brain matter completely drained.

Red strings were tied around both their wrists.

Something made viscous noises inside the warehouse, the sound of its mucus-covered fish belly crawling across the ground.

In the shadows, its outline resembled a giant, bloated lizard.

He scooped up a handful of river water, and the glow dispersed through his fingers.

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The Iron Ward Talisman grew hotter.

"Let's withdraw," Xiao Yan said, standing up.

The boatman placed his thick fingers between his lips and produced a series of urgent whistles.

The luminous lights suddenly extinguished.

A package of silver fragments flew up and landed in the boatman's cracked palm.

"Thank you."

Xiao Yan rubbed the phosphorescent river water from his hands, as if rolling sand between his fingers.

The shore wind brought in damp, salty air.

And the shadow of these days is getting darker...

"Where to now, sir?" the boatman asked.

Xiao Yan came back to his senses, but before he could answer, a low, wet scraping sound echoed from the salt warehouse behind them, like a giant tongue dragging across stone.

He turned slowly.

Under the moonlight, fresh red strings now dangled from the warehouse door, swaying gently though there was no wind.

They were being followed.

"The nearest inn," he said quietly, his hand tightening around the Iron Ward Talisman that was now burning hot against his skin.

The inn was built on the canal dock, at what had originally been a ferry crossing.

Now, the ferryship had sunk to the river bottom. The dock was still working, though.

Several river patrol soldiers dozed against their shields.

The lantern’s wick sputtered with green sparks, casting their helmets in alternating light and shadow.

The opposite bank was where the salt warehouse had been.

When Xiao Yan approached the inn, the soldiers stood up one after another, sizing him up with hostile curiosity, yet clearing a path for him to step ashore.

The river water reflected Xiao Yan’s figure.

His long black hair was pulled back and firmly secured with a simple iron hairpin, exposing the sharp lines of his face.

He possessed a strange kind of beauty, marked by his unnaturally smooth skin and a single red eye that mirrored the cold of a snake.

This bizarre look, paired with the silent pressure radiating from his tall frame, made everyone around him look away.

Xiao Yan stepped into the inn without slowing down.

Inside the inn, the innkeeper sat behind an elm counter, clicking his abacus, the beads making creaking sounds as they moved.

The attendant walked with a limp.

In the corner, a table of fishermen silently chewed on snails, rudely spitting the shells toward the merchant at the neighbouring table.

The merchant's satchel bulged suspiciously, revealing half a yellow talisman paper.

The river breeze brought in several damp pieces of spirit money, covered in eyes, that had been following Xiao the whole way.

The people in the inn glanced at the newcomer at the door.

The cowhide sheath at his waist held what a careful eye might recognize as an Imperial Guard's blade.

Though only sixteen inches of it remained.

And those arm guards.

Snake scales...A wrong kind of person to share a meal with.

"Are you stopping for a meal or staying the night, sir?" The hoarse voice of the innkeeper's wife broke the silence.

"Staying the night." Xiao Yan casually pulled out several packages of silver fragments.

The innkeeper's eyes brightened, and he exchanged a glance with his wife.

Xiao Yan leaned forward, his Iron Ward Talisman clanging against the counter edge.

"I'm at your service, sir," the innkeeper said, lowering his voice.

"Keep an eye on travelers passing through, especially merchants or any strange-looking ones," Xiao Yan spoke curtly, his voice low like an incantation. “Note down what they say.”

Then he straightened up and walked directly to the fishermen's table, snapping his fingers twice to summon the attendant for food.

Several fishermen who had been eating heartily suddenly turned grim.

They stopped their greasy hands and stood up as Xiao Yan sat down.

With clinks and clangs, they picked up their iron basins.

Without a word, they walked out with their basins.

The innkeeper didn't try to stop them. He just whispered something to the attendant.

Outside the window, the fishermen sat by the dock, placed the iron basins on their laps, and continued their feast.

The attendant approached and filled Xiao Yan's cup with tea.

The merchant's cup remained completely dry.

"What would you like to order, sir?"

"Bring me a basin of crucian carp soup and heat a pot of wine."

"Right away!"

He limped toward the kitchen, calling out in a drawn-out voice: "Crucian carp soup—"

The merchant behind Xiao Yan clicked his tongue against his teeth and exchanged a glance with the innkeeper.

Leaving behind half a table of uneaten fish soup and wild amaranth, he walked out quickly, as if fleeing.

Xiao Yan’s Iron Ward Talisman grew increasingly hot as an unnatural, gurgling sound rose from the distant river.

He stood up, leaving his cup of tea smoking hot on the table.

Walking outside to where the fishermen sat, he said, “Would it be best for you to return indoors for a while?”

“No,” one of them replied.

Xiao Yan could feel that whatever was beneath the water was approaching fast.

“There is business to be settled here, and you might get hurt.”

“Are you threatening us?” The fishermen stood up one after another.

Those pieces of spirit money lay silently at the threshold of the inn.

With a flick of Xiao Yan's fingers, a spark flew out and set them ablaze.

The cluster of eyes hidden within the paper burned into flame and burst with a horrifying shriek.

At this sight, the fishermen finally came to their senses. Gripping their iron basins tightly, they spat at Xiao Yan’s feet in anger.

“Jinx,” they cursed. “Your kind of freaks are the source of all these troubles.”

The other fishermen passed by Xiao Yan one after another, spitting on the ground and casting hostile, contemptuous glares at him.

Xiao Yan’s expression remained entirely unchanged. He turned his gaze toward the soldiers dozing on the dock.

Snapping out of their daze, the guards slapped each other awake, scrambling into the inn with their weapons and shields.

The river water began to churn as if boiling, and Xiao Yan closed his eyes, tracking the entity by sound alone.

It's a mid-tier Tracer, hard to kill.

But charging like that?

Something is testing my limits. Xiao Yan realized.

The last soldier to retreat inside hastily shut the door, barring it tightly with his heavy shield.

The innkeeper's wife glared at the soldiers in deep disgust.

One of them snapped back, “You think I’m risking my neck for the copper coins they pay me?”

“Be grateful, woman, we are protecting you, not him,” another soldier said.

“I don’t see you protecting nothing,” She mumbled.

Inside the inn, the returned fishermen could not help but peer out the windows.

But a sudden, deafening explosion forced them to shut their eyes before they could see a thing.

When they opened them again, the space outside the window was already filled with a dense, red mist of blood.

“Who… who died?” one soldier asked.

“I don’t know,” another answered.

“Take a look then, you coward.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“I’m your senior, you listen to my orders.”

“Horseshit—”

Before the words could fully leave his mouth, the door was slammed hard from the outside, forcing a terrified shriek from the soldier bracing against it.

The door shook violently under another heavy slam.

It was announcing itself.