Jin Mu: THUNDER UNLEASHED

Chapter 4

Morning came the air was thick with the smell of wet earth and old smoke Jin Mu and Orin left the tavern before sunrise their boots silent on the muddy street.

The village looked worse in daylight the people’s faces were pale and hollow-eyed no one met their gaze

Orin noticed it too. “They’re burying more than they harvest,” he muttered.

They followed the road toward the eastern fields, where the mists grew thicker The old shrine they’d seen the night before rose from the fog its stone walls cracked and veined with black moss the plum trees around it were dead their bark gray and flaking like old bone.

“This place has been corrupted,” Orin whispered. “I can feel it.”

Jin Mu could feel it too more clearly than he wanted the Death Qi here pulsed faintly beneath the ground familiar and wrong all at once like hearing his own heartbeat in someone else’s chest.

A monk stood at the entrance sweeping ash from the steps with mechanical precision. He was thin his robe threadbare When he looked up his eyes gleamed faintly red.

“You shouldn’t linger here,” the monk said. “The shrine is sealed.”

Orin bowed politely. “We’re travelers seeking shelter.”

The monk’s gaze flicked to Jin Mu, lingering a moment too long on his silver-ringed eyes. “Shelter brings shadows,” he said softly. “Some shadows never leave.”

Jin Mu felt a chill crawl down his spine.

The monk turned back to his sweeping. “Leave before dusk the dead don’t sleep in Heiyan.”

Orin had convinced the local record keeper a nervous man named Su Dao to let them into the village archive the building was little more than a thatched hall filled with decaying scrolls The air smelled of mildew and ink.

“Records go back two hundred years,” Orin murmured, scanning the shelves “If this village is built over a Death Shrine there should be a mention of it.”

Jin Mu stood by the window He couldn’t focus on the words. Every time he thought he heard whispering just beyond the walls soft, coaxing

Come closer… come home…

He clenched his fists until the voices faded.

Orin returned with a brittle scroll the ink smudged but legible. “Listen to this,” he said, spreading it on the table. “‘Year of the Withered Lotus the earth opened and the black fire devoured the harvest. The monks sealed it beneath the old shrine offering fifty souls to calm the Nether Flame.’”

He looked up. “Fifty sacrifices That’s why the ground feels wrong The seal’s weakening.”

Jin Mu exhaled slowly. “And if it breaks?

Orin hesitated. “Then the dead won’t need graves anymore.”

In the night Jin Mu woke to the sound of bells low, echoing through the village like a dying heartbeat. He rose every nerve sharp. Orin stirred in the corner, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“What?”

The window burst inward Cold wind swept through the room carrying a stench of rot and earth. Outside, shadows moved between the houses human shapes that didn’t move like humans.

“The seal’s broken,” Orin said, voice tight.

They ran into the street. Villagers screamed as pale figures clawed their way from the fields bodies half-rotted, faces blank Ghostly fire flickered inside their hollow chests.

Jin Mu’s pulse quickened The same power that stirred in him now burned in them wild and hungry.

He reached for his blade. “Stay behind me.”

“Are you insane?” Orin shouted. “You can’t fight death with steel!”

“I’m not planning to.”

He stepped forward the air grew colder His breath turned to mist.

One of the creatures lunged a farmer’s corpse its mouth stretched too wide. Jin Mu met it head on. Instinct guided him. His palm opened and the world dimmed. Black flame coiled from his hand weaving into a blade of shadow and light.

He struck the flame cut clean through the creature’s chest. It screamed in pain and collapsed into ash.

Orin froze, eyes wide. “By the heavens…”

Another came then another Jin Mu moved without thought the black fire flared with each motion, twisting into shapes like wings behind him

But with every blow, he felt it the pull the Death Qi inside him answering the call of the undead whispering for him to join them.

You are one of us…

He faltered The next blow came too close a claw raking his arm. The pain was sharp He staggered.

Then Orin’s voice cut through the noise. “Focus You’re not them, Jin Mu!”

He looked up the scholar stood at the shrine steps, clutching a talisman in both hands Silver light flared from it thin but steady.

Jin Mu steadied his breath the voices in his head screamed clawing for control He shut them out His flame dimmed from black to deep silver.

He raised his hand . “Rest,” he whispered.

The last of the dead froze mid step then crumbled into dust the mist thinned Silence fell over Heiyan.

When dawn broke the shrine was gone collapsed inward sealing whatever lay beneath the villagers emerged pale and trembling no one spoke to Jin Mu None met his eyes.

He stood apart from them his arm wrapped in a strip of cloth the wound had already begun to fade.

Orin approached quietly“You saved them,” he said.

Jin Mu shook his head. “I released them That’s not the same.”

The scholar studied him “You didn’t just destroy those things You guided them Like you knew what they were.”

“I did.” Jin Mu’s voice was low. “Because I could feel their pain they were caught between worlds Just like me.”

Orin was silent for a long moment Then he nodded. “Then maybe that’s why you survived the lightning. The world needed someone to stand between.”

Jin Mu looked out toward the hills where the mist was lifting Beyond them the path curved south vanishing into light.

He didn’t know what waited there only that the old man’s voice was fading and the whispers of the dead were growing louder.

“Let’s move,” he said.

Orin smiled faintly. “After what we just saw? You’re still walking toward it?

“There’s no other way.”

They left Heiyan behind as the first sunbeam broke through the clouds