The Ancient Capital Tomb

Winter had arrived, though snow was nowhere to be seen.

Generally, the further north you traveled, the more likely you were to find it — yet Shanghai basked in crisp winter sunshine while Hangzhou received a soft, drifting snowfall. The flakes settled over this city that already resembled paradise, adorning it in even more brilliant white.

Mo Fan was beginning to understand why Xinxia had chosen to come here. He was the kind of country boy who had always itched to claw his way into a big city, but that wasn't what she wanted at all. What she sought was something quieter — beauty of the simple kind: one mountain, one lake, one bridge, one city.

Xinxia's school wasn't far from West Lake, and Mo Fan saw no reason to rush her away once he arrived in Hangzhou. Instead, he found himself genuinely curious and took her out for a stroll.

They moved slowly along the full length of Su Causeway. Weeping willows lined both sides, swaying gently, and beyond them the lake shimmered in the pale winter light. Further still, the hills rose in uneven silhouettes — peaks, temples, pavilions — while on the other side, a cluster of skyscrapers stood tall, their reflections rippling on the surface of the water.

Past the causeway, they reached the Leifeng Pagoda scenic area. Mo Fan stood gazing up at the new tower, his eyes drifting to the ruins of the original foundation, lost in thought — when a man who looked unmistakably like a local sidled up to him and murmured in a conspiratorial tone:

"First time here, young man? Heh heh. What you're looking at right there is the base of the old Leifeng Pagoda. The elders say that a white snake was once unearthed right on this very spot!"

"A white snake — how big?" Mo Fan asked, his interest piqued.

"About this big." The swarthy local spread his arms wide as though going in for a bear hug.

"*That* big?!" Mo Fan blinked.

*Something that size would basically qualify as a Demon-Beast, for heaven's sake.*

"Couldn't kill the thing, they couldn't. In the end, some great master nearly drained himself of his life force to seal it away..." The local glanced left and right as if sharing classified intelligence.

"Couldn't kill it — impressive. So where did they seal it?"

"Well, it could be inside the new Leifeng Pagoda. Could be under Broken Bridge. Maybe at Three Pools Mirroring the Moon. Possibly near Bai Causeway. As it happens, I have a guidebook right here — covers this legend and plenty of other attractions besides, only five yuan a copy. I can tell you're the adventurous type, the kind who's after the truth, so seeing as we were clearly meant to cross paths today, I'll let it go for four."

"Four yuan, not bad," Mo Fan said, tilting his head. "Though I have to say, friend — a story about a giant snake isn't really going to hook people. Now, if you changed the snake into a person — an achingly beautiful woman — and had her meet a young scholar on Broken Bridge, and the two of them fell deeply in love, only for some meddlesome master to decide he couldn't stand it and seal her beneath Leifeng Pagoda... *that* story you print up as a little booklet, get an artist to paint a few gorgeous illustrations, and every teenage girl and young couple in Hangzhou will be buying it. Seeing as we were clearly fated to meet, I'll let you have that story idea cheap — nine yuan."

The swarthy local blinked, then blinked again. The kid actually made a fair point. The problem was that somehow he had gone from selling something to being expected to hand over cash himself.

From her wheelchair, Xinxia had been listening to Mo Fan and the map-seller trade their perfectly earnest nonsense — and she couldn't stop laughing.

They went back and forth a while longer, and the whole thing fizzled out with neither of them having sold a single thing.

Once the map-seller had wandered off, Mo Fan resumed pushing Xinxia in a slow circuit around the pagoda grounds. "The man's never even heard of The New Legend of Madame White Snake," he muttered.

"I haven't heard of it either," Xinxia said.

"Oh. Does it not exist here? I'd assumed the history of this world was basically the same, so I figured the myths and legends would line up too."

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," Xinxia said, looking genuinely bewildered.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm a man from another world — a place where nobody studies magic. The dynasties are the same: Qin, Sui, Tang, all of it. But maybe because animals here can actually transform into Demon-Beasts, some of the legends ended up going in different directions."

Xinxia muttered to herself, "I'm not a child. Why would I believe something like that?"

"Even you won't believe me. I suppose I'll never manage to prove I'm a man from another world."

"You're still you, though," Xinxia said quietly.

Mo Fan paused. He had only meant it as a bit of self-deprecating humor, but her words settled somewhere in his chest, and he found himself genuinely turning them over — and somehow, in the turning, felt something ease.

Noticing his silence, Xinxia assumed she had said the wrong thing. She softly changed the subject. "Brother Mo Fan, my history teacher once said that the people of Bo City are something special."

"How so?"

"Do you remember the Earth Sacred Spring? It has an incredibly long history — traceable all the way back to around the year 200 CE."

"Is that right." Mo Fan absorbed this. "Nearly two thousand years... a great deal must have unfolded around that spring over the centuries. But why does your teacher say we're special?"

"He says the people of Bo City may actually be its guardians. Bo City was once just a tiny village. By order of some ancient king, its people were tasked — generation after generation — with protecting the Earth Sacred Spring. As time passed, those guardians multiplied, and the village grew into a town. More years went by; the town became a city. Outsiders arrived, rulers changed hands, the old feudal order was torn down... and Bo City became what it is today. The guardians, so-called, have long since vanished into the mists of history. Or perhaps," she said, "the whole of Bo City *is* the guardians." Xinxia's voice was quiet and earnest.

Mo Fan listened carefully. His thoughts drifted to the Black Church.

Those people had clearly gone after Bo City with a purpose. Could the city's catastrophe have been connected to this guardian history?

Then again — this would all be matters from two thousand years ago. Could it really still matter now, whether someone was a guardian or not?

*Was the Earth Sacred Spring their target all along?*

The Earth Sacred Spring was in his possession right now. Which would mean the Black Church had been chasing something that he had been carrying with him this whole time?

*Oh hell. Doesn't that make me incredibly dangerous to be around?*

Those animals in the Black Church were capable of anything. The slaughter of an entire city. The days of Scarlet Alert were still vivid in Mo Fan's memory — every detail seared in.

"Did your history teacher say anything else?"

"He was working mostly from historical records, piecing things together. He said that to find the true answers, you'd likely have to venture into a particular tomb — but the undead creatures inside are said to be terrifying, and no Mage has ever actually dared set foot in it."

"A tomb — what tomb?"

"There's one in the ancient capital. It's the most famous place of the undead in the entire country." Xinxia looked up at him. "Brother Mo Fan, do you ever actually pay attention in class?"