The Witch in the Woods: The Transmigration of Hazel-Anne Davis
Chapter 88: The Calm After Death

Chapter 88: The Calm After Death

The wind had teeth, and the stench it was bringing to General Sun’s men was enough to make even the most veteran amongst them sick to their stomach.

It howled across the open plain, carrying the scent of iron and ash toward the incoming army. Crows circled high above, black dots against the afternoon sky, their cries swallowed by the relentless drum of hooves striking hardened dirt. General Sun Baotai narrowed his eyes as the southern ridgeline dipped low, finally revealing the valley below.

While he had already seen a brief glimpse from a distance, it didn’t prepare him for what it was like up close. He had expected smoke. Screams. Blood. What he got was silence.

The Red Demon camp stood in eerie stillness, its banners fluttering lazily in the wind. Tents were pitched with military precision. Soldiers moved with quiet efficiency, tending fires, sharpening blades, speaking in low murmurs.

And beyond the camp—further south—the battlefield stretched out like the aftermath of a flood.

A flood of corpses.

Hundreds of thousands of men were buried under crumpled armor as Chixia and Yelan banners fluttered in the wind. Thousands of bodies lay twisted in the dirt, their limbs locked in grotesque contortions, faces frozen in shock. Some had been ripped open. Others looked as though they had simply fallen asleep mid-charge. The lines between the dead were jagged and broken—as if death itself had walked through them, changing direction on a whim.

Sun Baotai’s horse shifted uneasily beneath him. Even the beast could feel it: something unclean had passed through here.

No battlefield should be this quiet. And that only increased his suspicion that the men in the ’Red Demon’ camp were actually enemy soldiers. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be that calm.

He raised a fist, signaling his officers to slow the column. Dust billowed around them as the reinforcements came to a halt.

"Send scouts," Baotai ordered, his voice a low growl. "I want confirmation. No traps. No hostiles hiding in the ridge. And someone find my son."

The messengers bowed and broke off at once.

He remained still atop his horse, scanning the camp with a furrowed brow.

The Red Demons were not supposed to still be standing. Certainly not like this. Not calmly stirring cooking pots while the ground behind them was soaked in enemy blood.

This wasn’t victory. This was something else.

And then he saw her.

A girl in green—dark, nearly black, with soot along the hem and blood on her sleeves. She walked between tents like a ghost with purpose, her presence parting soldiers without a word. No one called out. No one bowed.

They just got out of her way.

Sun Baotai’s eyes narrowed. "Is that—" he started, pointing his finger at the figure.

"It looks like Crown Princess Zhao Xinying," murmured one of his captains. "But that’s impossible. No Crown Princess would be willing to be dirty like that."

She didn’t glance in their direction. She didn’t need to.

The very earth seemed to hush as she passed.

He dismounted slowly, boots crunching against gravel as he took a step forward. His legs, hardened by thirty years of war, hesitated.

What the hell had happened here?

A young Red Demon officer approached with a stiff salute. His face was pale, his armor streaked with dried blood.

"Report," Sun Baotai demanded, his hand by his sword just in case he was attacked.

The officer swallowed hard. "Sir... the enemy charged at dawn. Both Chixia and Yelan. Their numbers were... beyond what we expected."

"I know that much."

The officer glanced toward the field. "They never even made it to our front line. Not really. The mist got them."

"Mist?"

"Black. Thick. It moved like it had a mind. It—" He stopped, shaking his head. "I saw a man scream as it touched his leg. Flesh melted. Bones cracked inward. No weapon touched him." The soldier shuddered as if he was reliving a nightmare.

General Sun’s jaw clenched. "And the Crown Princess? What did she do?"

"She walked straight through it, sir. Didn’t blink."

Sun Baotai said nothing, simply nodded his head.

The soldier hesitated, then added, "She didn’t attack us. Not once. She circled the commanders. Shielded Lord Zhu Deming and the Shadow Guard with the mist. Protected them. Then she—"

He broke off again.

"She what?"

"She smiled," he whispered. "Not like a person. Like something enjoying itself."

A heavy silence settled between them.

Another Red Demon ran up, eyes wide. "General, your son—he’s in the healer’s tent."

Sun Baotai didn’t wait for more. He pushed forward through the camp, soldiers parting instinctively at the sight of him. Their faces were solemn, their postures weary—but not broken. Not afraid.

Not of him, anyway.

The healer’s tent was marked by fresh bloodstains and hushed voices. When Baotai entered, the conversation stopped.

Sun Longzi lay on a cot, his chest rising in deep, even breaths. Beside him, Zhu Deming sat with his back straight, cleaning blood from a folded cloth. Shi Yaozu leaned in the corner, silent as shadow.

Sun Baotai crossed the space in two long strides and dropped to one knee.

"Longzi."

His son stirred. "Father."

"You’re alive."

"So it seems," Longzi rasped, giving a half-smile. "The Witch wouldn’t let me die. Apparently, I’m still useful."

Sun Baotai’s gaze flicked to the bandaged chest, then back to the white mist still lingering faintly in the air. "What happened here?"

Zhu Deming answered first. "She happened."

Baotai turned slowly. "The Crown Princess?"

"No," said Shi Yaozu, his voice flat. "The Witch."

He didn’t elaborate.

Baotai stood, taking in the tent with a practiced eye. "You held the line."

"We didn’t hold anything," grumbled Sun Longzi, his face pulled into a frown. "She walked through it. And death followed."

Baotai exhaled slowly.

He didn’t believe in legends. He didn’t fear fairy tales. But standing in this camp, with two hundred thousand corpses lying silent behind him and soldiers refusing to even whisper her name...

He was starting to believe in her. It wasn’t like this many people could say the exact same thing and not have it be a lie.