The Hunters
Priest Lin Zhen
Youngest master of the Maoshan order. When his elders drew lots to decide who would walk the corpse road, Lin ate the lots and left that night.
Monk Bao Shan
A temple cook who out-wrestled the abbot and was handed the war staff as a joke. He carried it down the mountain anyway — someone has to walk in front of the frightened.
Blade Mei Qing
Seven generations of caravan escorts, ended in one night. She cut a branch from the peach tree over their graves. She fights close enough to read the burial name on every corpse she puts down.
Archer Yan Yixing
A mountain hunter who once shot a hawk through fog by sound alone. She inherited a sky map disguised as a hunting song — and on the comet night, the song gained a verse in her dead grandmother’s voice.
Elder Xu
He asks every spirit its name before he seals it, and has never once given his own. Nine hundred and ninety-nine so far. He has sworn to retire at a thousand for thirty years.
