Withered Corpse#

In my lowly life, the end is here, Soul adrift, my body lingers there. Once suffered the wicked wind's cruel sting, No peace shall wandering ever bring.

In the shadow of Yellow Wind Ridge, where gusts weave labyrinths of sand, trade seldom reached here save for a lone hamlet downhill-the only bazaar in the land. Among the market stands, an Everlife Shop stood as the sole purveyor of coffins.

On that fateful day, the shopkeeper idled inside when a man of lumbering gait entered, garbed like a beggar. As the shopkeeper rose to shoo him away, the man spoke, "Hold, sir. I've come not to beg but to buy coffins." With quiet words, he told of his village laid to ruin by bandits and his need for four coffins to lay the dead to rest. Suspicious but intrigued, the shopkeeper agreed to a trade in their native herbs, Suoyang and Congrong.

The shopkeeper gathered his lads and followed the man, with four coffins on an oxcart. Laboring through sand and wind, they reached the village at dusk. Here, the man muttered, "'All life ends and returns to earth.' These winds can do harm, and if our bodies are not properly buried, our souls might be twisted. Please, sir, bury my family with these coffins. We had Suoyang and Congrong in our hearth. Take as much as you like." And with that, he vanished.

Entering the village, the shopkeeper found all living things slaughtered, not a soul left alive. There, before a grand dwelling, lay the man and his kin-long dead. Hurriedly, they entombed the four corpses atop a scenic cliff, took nothing, and fled for their lives.