"Noah!" Lian shouted as he skidded in. "We were just about to look for you!"
He grabbed her by the shoulders. "You have to leave. Now! The city's collapsing. The plague's everywhere."
"We heard," Duyi said hoarsely. "Sects fighting in the inner district. Even the palace's divine formation collapsed."
"It's not a normal plague," Noah said. "It's corrupting qi. Anyone who cultivates—"
"We figured." Lian looked grim. "A neighbor tried to use a low-grade defense charm. She turned black in seconds. Grandma Mei choked on her own breath. But Aunt Ru, who never cultivated a day in her life, is completely fine."
Noah blinked in surprise. "Wait. So you already figured it out?"
Lian gave him a look. "We live in the slums, Noah. We learn fast or we die faster."
He nodded.
"I'm coming with you," he declared. "We'll flee together."
Duyi snorted. "We're already packed. Let's move."
"One sec..." Noah ran into his broken hurt and grabbed a few items.
He didn't have much but every little bit counted. He put them in a rag bag and was about to tie it up when he spotted his high school uniform at the corner, neatly folded.
The dark green jacket and pants seemed a bit faded but the white inner was still as translucent as ever.
A string of memories hit him as he paused briefly and then swiftly reached out to grab it.
Few seconds later, he was out of the hut.
"Let's go!"
---
They joined the flow of people heading west toward the main gate.
Thousands upon thousands. Noah had never seen this many people moving together, let alone with this much desperation.
Children screamed. Mothers clutched infants. Some carried broken swords or talismans that had long lost their glow.
All around them, faint black mist continued to seep through rooftops, market squares, temple windows but it ignored most of the crowd.
They moved like a living tide of fear with families clutching crying children, old men stumbling, and neighbors desperately carrying whatever belongings they could hold.
Noah River raced alongside Old Man Duyi and his granddaughter, Lian. The teenage girl gripped her grandfather's hand so tightly her knuckles had turned bone-white.
Screams exploded around them, blending into a single, horrifying chorus.
"Keep moving!" Noah yelled but his voice was barely audible due to the erupting chaos.
He glanced back in terror and spotted the black mist, rolling toward them.
The Withergrin Plague seeped through streets and alleys, trailing like smoke from the mouth of some hellish beast.
"Don't look back!" Duyi snapped while coughing violently. "Just run!"
But Noah couldn't entirely look away.
Cultivators who seemed strong enough to resist initially, fell to their knees as the mist touched them.
Noah watched in horror as their bodies contorted and their muscles twisted as the sound of bones cracking audibly rang out.
Their eyes burst open, glowing a sickly shade of purple-black, and their mouths gaped wide, emitting unearthly howls.
And then they rose again looking twisted, corrupted and utterly monstrous.
One such corrupted cultivator who was a young man with robes that marked him as a disciple of some prestigious sect, lurched forward, lunging at the nearest innocent bystander... a helpless mother holding her infant.
With monstrous strength, he gripped her shoulder, puncturing deep into her flesh with his claws.
"KIIAARRRHHHH!"
She shrieked once before his jaw opened unnaturally wide, and he bit down, tearing through her neck in a spray of blood.
The baby fell screaming into the dirt.
"UUAAAHH!"
"No! Please, gods, no!" someone wailed nearby.
More corrupted rose and attacked without mercy. Their corrupted Qi manifested visibly as dark rough blades of energy.
Noah ducked instinctively as a crescent-shaped wave of corrupted Qi flew over his head, neatly slicing three fleeing slum dwellers in half. Blood splashed across Noah's face causing him to retch as a warm and sickening metallic stench wafted across the air.
He staggered but kept moving.
The city gates which was their only chance of survival, could be spotted ahead...
However, the narrow opening created a bottleneck.
People bolted desperately, clawing and screaming at one another to escape the bloodbath behind them. The press of bodies tightened painfully, and Noah lost sight of Duyi and Lian for one terrifying moment.
"Lian!" Noah cried. "Duyi!"
"Here!" shouted Lian whose voice was strangled with panic.
But just then, a woman in elegant silks with her face half-melted, and purple glowing eyes seething with madness, charged directly into the fleeing crowd from above.
A trail of corrupted Qi followed her body like black ribbons as she flew downward in a predatory dive.
"Move!" Noah shouted while pulling Lian roughly toward him.
He shielded her as the corrupted cultivator barreled past, missing them by mere inches.
Another slum-dweller behind him who Noah recognised as a middle-aged man that sold steamed buns at the market, wasn't so lucky.
The corrupted woman slammed into him full force, shattering his ribcage instantly.
The man's body folded unnaturally with blood erupting from his mouth as he died instantly, crumpled beneath her.
She proceeded to bite into his flesh, ignoring Noah and Lian who were standing a few paces away.
Lian screamed into Noah's shoulder.
Duyi pushed them forward, wheezing from exertion. "Through the gate! Keep moving, dammit!"
Bodies piled beneath their feet now. Noah stumbled over corpses as blood pooled between his toes. Everywhere he turned, there was death: people crushed underfoot, torn open by corrupted claws, limbs severed by flying Qi attacks.
The gates grew nearer. He saw guards trying to hold back the infected with their swords flashing desperately, only to be overwhelmed and devoured alive before getting corrupted as well.
All of a sudden, a powerful corrupted cultivator leaped from the ramparts with a mighty roar.
He landed directly amidst the fleeing masses with his arms swung outward, unleashing a devastating wave of dark Qi.
The explosion of corrupted energy tore through the crowd, instantly reducing dozens of terrified innocents into shredded flesh and splintered bone.
Noah's ears rang as he got swept off his feet and landed over ten paces away.
His vision blurred as he tried to regain his bearings.
He saw a severed hand lying just ahead...
His eyes widened in horror upon realising that it was a child's hand, clutching a small wooden horse.
"N-Noah..." Lian gasped weakly while faltering beside him.
"Don't stop," Noah swallowed down the vomit forming at the back of his throat as he jumped back to his feet.
Adrenaline pounded through every vein in his body. "We can't—"
Before he could finish, a sudden surge in the crowd crushed against them. Lian slipped from Noah's grasp, falling beneath the frenzied stampede.
"Lian!" Noah yelled while reaching desperately downward.
She tried to shield herself but couldn't silence her screams of terror.
Feet pounded mercilessly around her, ready to crush her beneath their terror-fueled weight. Noah dove downward recklessly, shielding her small frame with his own body as boots slammed brutally into his ribs and back.
Pain exploded through him, but he gritted his teeth, holding it in.
He pulled Lian to her feet as blood dripped down his forehead, staining his vision red.
"Go!" he screamed raggedly and shoved her forward. "Keep running!"
Old Duyi grabbed her other hand, dragging her onward. Noah forced himself to keep pace, ignoring the agony in his side.
The city gate was now much closer...
"Almost there," he whispered. "Just a little—"
A shadow passed overhead. Noah's heart froze. He barely had time to look up before another corrupted cultivator dove straight at him, shrieking with animal hunger.
Noah lurched aside instinctively, narrowly avoiding the attack. The cultivator crashed into a panicking woman behind him, tackling her to the ground with such force her spine snapped like dry wood.
Noah didn't look back. He couldn't. The guilt, the fear, the horror... it all blurred together into a single driving impulse:
Survive!
Survive!