Dark Timeline Meiling Post (Patreon)

Warning. this is very dark.

This is from "dark Timeline Meiling" where Jin never went to the Azure Hills. In this, the Wicked Blade Destroys Meiling's village, with her escaping with Meihua, Yun Ren and Gou Ren... only to run into Zang Li, where he kills Gou Ren andtakes Meihua.

What follws then is Meiling and Yun ren igniting as cultivators and going to avenge their brother and Meihua.

This particular snip takes place after her own "Shrouded Mountain Arc", where everything has gone to shit, and is meant as kind of a jumping off point for Darkl Timeline Meiling meeting Jin and the rest of the Crew.

Its just a small snip. Its not required reading, and instead just soemthing to get it out of my system. If you don't like dark stuff, don't read.

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Hong Meiling stared over the depopulated city with tired eyes. One of her arms was in a splint. She was wearing only her dudou as a top, the rest of her clothes having burnt away.

Corpses lined the streets, too fresh to rot, and too poison–filled to start anytime soon. They were locked in rigor mortis, foam leaking out of their mouths, their eyes bloodshot and swollen, and piss and shit staining their pants. Limbs had broken from the strength of their convulsions.

Mortals. Normal people who had had no say in their city being chosen for Meiling’s battlefield.

“If this is the path you’re going to follow… then I want no part of it.” Xiulan said. Her once warm blue eyes were cold and hard. Her hair was a matted, ragged mass, and blood marred her beautiful face. Xiulan turned her back, and walked away, limping back to the Azure Hills.

The sweet moments they had shared evaporated like mist under the sun, leaving only bitterness behind.

Dotted between the corpses of mortals were the uniforms of the Shrouded Mountain Sect, and the furred ears of the Foxes. Some she knew. Most she didn’t. Her eyes ghosted over the massive crater and the blooded pelt of Nezan. He had been pierced by a thousand swords and burnt by lightning… and in death his jaws were clamped around the torso of Elder Chongyun and Elder Zang.

Nezhua was beside him. Her blood too weak to transform into a fox. The pretty courtesan wasn’t beautiful any longer.

None of the foxes were. She supposed the Shrouded Mountain Sect finally got what they wanted. There probably weren’t any foxes left, now.

Meiling carefully pulled her eyes away, to stare at the few deaths that really mattered.

At her feet was the rotten sack that was Zang Li. A demon wearing the skin of a man. She had desecrated what little of the corpse remained, and cursed the bastard’s soul to the hells.

She should have felt great. They had finally avenged Meihua and Gou Ren.

Instead, the victory just tasted like ashes, as she looked upon the other corpse.

“I got him. I got him, for both of us, Gou.” Yun Ren said, tears pouring from his eyes, and blood dripping from his mouth.

Meiling did her best to save him.

Her best wasn’t good enough.

It was him who had landed the crippling blow, sacrificing his life so Meiling could kill the bastard. Her brother. One of the last survivors of Hong Yaowu.

Now it was just Meiling.

On her back the mangled remains of Crimson Demon’s Tooth were silent. Meiling would have liked to hear its rants about cutting again, but instead.. There was nothing.

She was alone.

“Mistress. Are you alright?” a voice croaked from Meiling’s feet.

Alone, except for one.

Meiling looked down at the injured woman next to her. The orange-haired woman was taller than Meiling by a hand length, with a lithe, thin frame. Pale skin contrasted with black facial markings, and her body was covered in bandages.

The only one who hadn’t died or abandoned her. To think she had named the kitten given to her by that mad old crone Useless. She regretted that, now. But there was no medicine for regret.

“I’m fine, Wuyong.” Meiling lied. The hollow, sucking void in her chest seemed to get worse.

“I’ll follow you until the end, Mistress.” the poor, stupid spirit beast said loyally, smiling at Meiling’s voice. Like her end wasn’t going to be Meiling’s fault too.

“...thank you, Wuyong. Sleep now. You’ll need your strength for the next part of our journey.” Meiling had no idea where that was going to be.

“Mmn!” the cat-turned woman agreed. “I’ll be ready to help you soon, Mistress!”

Slowly, Wuyong drifted off to sleep. Her face smoothed out, and she looked younger than her mid-twenties body suggested.

She looked innocent.

Meiling doubled over, gagging.

Tears filled her eyes, and her soul screamed along with the thousands who had died.

For the first time in four years, Meiling let her emotions flow. Tears splashed to the ground, and silent sobs wracked her body.

She regretted it. She regretted it. She hated everything she had done. Everything she had become. She just wanted all of it to go away.

She would give up all her power, all of her strength, to go back to being a peasant girl whose biggest concern was getting married.

To have them back. To have all of them back—!

Her remaining Qi shuddered. Her eyes rolled up, back into her head as she fell unconscious.

Twenty Eight Heavenly Constellations swirled around her.

And then She and Wuyong were gone. From the killing field.