lounge.

          his sister relayed their information so nicely but lian was pretty sure that he could embellish it even more. “yeah, like yamyam said, there was an earthquake and the lady was rescued by a woman dressed as man. But my great theory is that’s the lover lady,” he said, grinning. “How freaking cool would that be if that was true,” he stated with almost a dreamy look. he then bites into a red bean bun that he’s hidden away. he then hummed a bit before thinking of what else he’s missing. 

“i..forgot.” that much was a lie from mingyan as her eyes slid from side to side, trying to--as much as possible, shy away from sharing the information that she had obtained. it was a fruitless information that she had received anyway, the paper clenched within her fist clearly crumpled over and over out of her fury at receiving what she had perceived as possible, useless information. her lips pursed, and a frown dazzled her brows as she sighed, folding her arms and tapping her foot as she tried thinking up of another possible excuse that she could perhaps use to stall a little for time.

“fine.” its barely a few minutes of reprieve after her impatience completely takes over, and mingyan finds her teeth slowly coming together in a harsh gnash of exasperation. “alright, fine. i’ll tell you more.” the paper is uncrumpled to the best of her own ability as she smoothens out the roughened edges, her handwriting on the paper a delicate print as she blinked down at the information. “but don’t go blaming me or anything, because this information that i got? its stupid.” she muttered disgruntledly to herself as her brows knitted together once more. 

“apparently, three years ago, there was a powerful earthquake. a normal woman who had been waiting under the mountain for her lover to come had been nearly crushed, if she hadn’t been saved by a woman, dressed in a man’s clothes.” she paused for a moment, scrunching her nose together into a little crinkle, as though trying to picture the image of everything within the recesses of her own mind. “and here’s the second one. a male was found to be ripped apart just right after the mist was formed. although his wounds weren’t pretty, apparently, he died with a smile on his lips.” mingyan crunched the paper back into a ball again, slightly calmed as she read out the second hint. if anything, she had realised that the two hints were somewhat important. a woman in a man’s clothes? could it have been a wandering adventurer? women tended to dress in male clothes to avoid being harassed on the streets occasionally. it also allowed them the freedom to move about with relative ease. as for the man....mingyan stared at the crumpled paper in her hand, a sigh leaving her lips as she huffed slightly and sat down on the rock.

not much possibilities came to mind.

why would he even die with a smile upon his face if he had such serious injurious? it made no sense. no sense at all.

        “their youngest daughter, bai jing,”  he drawls after dear xinfeng mentions a local mountain named after a cultivation clan.  “i was told a similar story.  they must’ve been quite formidable, this bai family.”

        he lifts his chin and leans forward just a tad to express interest in this newfound topic.  “i’ve spoken to a number of villagers -- some of which mentioned the bai family in passing, and while entertaining, i doubt its relevance beyond an old wives’ tale.”  his eyes trail over to the drunken man, lingering for a moment.  he wonders, albeit briefly, what else that man knows.

She grabbed her brother’s arm, an uncharacteristically bold action driven by fear and desperation. The horror of what she learned shone in her eyes and his golden robes crumpled under her white-knuckled grip.

If she couldn’t warn them herself, then at least her brother will know--and, Ziyu knew it in her heart that her brother would share this information to keep his colleagues safe.

“One of the workers here told me something awful,” She began, her voice trembling. “There is a monster up that mountain, brother. Initially it appears small and harmless... then... the moment you turn your back... it transforms into a beast twice the height of a normal man. With a mouth filled with sharp teeth that could--could easily tear off a person’s limbs with a single bite.” The words were so seared into Ziyu’s mind that she recounted them nearly perfectly.

“Excellent! What a superb rendition of events Daiyu, much better than anything I could have conjured, that’s for sure.” Yukai immediately followed Daiyu’s piece, brandishing his usual theatrics.

“Funnily enough, the same man who was called home by his dear, loving, ladle-wielding wife also showed up to our street performance and offered an epilogue to his wife’s account.”

“That very same night of his return from the mountains, the man lay in his cot, mulling the day’s strange events in his head...” Okay, Yukai was embellishing the story a little bit, but why not set the scene a little so long as the facts remained unchanged? “Suddenly, he realized enigma that had been bugging him all day. Back then... it was the middle of winter.” Yukai turned to the cultivators before him. “What birds stay in this part of town in winter? Shouldn’t they have all flown south by then?”

Yukai let the pregnant silence speak for itself.

The rogue cultivator was oddly hesitant about sharing his information. He seemed keener on assessing the situation, allowing others gathered to share their information first and foremost. Despite appearances, Xiao Jian was surprisingly inquisitive when it came to gathering and mulling over riddles. Baijing Mountain’s predicament seemed as much of a conundrum as any. 

With crossed arms, he finally raised his hand to volunteer his information. He figured doing so could lend him more answers, provide him with clues that would lead him someplace fascinating. There was no intent on his part to assist anyone else in the matter. Even if innocent villagers were perishing, the demon in question and the power it possessed interested him ㅡ for all the wrong reasons. 

“I was thinking about... from what Nie Jiuli said. The boy told me there was a lone cultivator who saved those children, but mere days later, his clothes were found at the mountain. Bloodied and with some large red feather.” He furrowed his brows and looked across the faces of the others in the room. He seemed obviously perturbed by this factor. The demon was powerful enough to eliminate a cultivator, rogue or not. It put a definite wrench in his plans.

Xinfeng’s face was lowered, his expression cautiously neutral as he processed Sijun’s speech. Yes, that was undoubtedly Sijun’s voice. It was clear the man intended to conceal his identity, and Xinfeng would not sabotage his efforts with acknowledgement. He just couldn’t believe Sijun really came.

Xinfeng nodded to everyone’s observations. Finally, it was his turn to share. The outer Lan disciple recalled the details carefully, and then he spoke.

“A few years ago, there was a local cultivation clan named Bai. The Bais were skilled and helpful, well-loved and respected by the townspeople. Such was their reverence that some even worshiped the Bais as deities. One local mountain was named after them.” Xinfeng paused, his gaze sweeping quickly around the room. If the next piece of information he held was true, it would perhaps be the most important and helpful; potentially life-saving if trapped in a perilous situation.

Xinfeng took note of everyone who joined this mission. Nie Jiuli. Jiang Lian. Wei Yukai. Jin Zhiyang.  

All privileged, formidable figures.

There was no doubt in Xinfeng’s mind they could fend for themselves if ever in danger. Him, however…

If you run into trouble, perhaps you out to try calling out to the Bais and see if they answer.

Xinfeng fell silent, and returned to his seat.

After assisting the confused lady--Daiyu and her partner ushered her into the nearest Tavern and bought her tea--something to soothe the poor ladies senses. The lady was very grateful--so much so that when Daiyu asked her what’s been going on-she started opening up, and it was this information that Daiyu brought to the others, 

“The lady shared this with us...apparently her husband saw a strange red bird on the last day he went into the Baijing mountain.” Daiyu sipped at her eye, brows furrowing as she recounts more,” He was near the foot of the mountain and felt slightly unsettled by its presence.. even though it was literally…just a bird. He told that when he turned his back, the bird started singing, its song so beautifully mournful and he was almost tempted to stay...” Daiyu finished off the tea then, and swept her eyes around to the others, “Obviously he managed to leave without anything happening.”

        “there was a mother whose son was ill.  she sought herbs from the mountain to curate the remedy, but was deterred by the thickening fog and the voice of her supposedly deceased husband.”  his gaze lands on xiao jian as he mentions the latter part.  “i learned this from a vendor,”  he continues, eyes trailing back to the senior lan disciples.  “so there is a possibility that they fed me a story in hopes that i would purchase.”  he does not mention that he did, in fact, buy a comb from the vendor in question.

        when the senior lan disciples asked everyone to share what they had gathered, a-fu’s hand  ( his only hand )  was among the first on his feet.

        “so,”  he begins, teetering towards one side of the room.  “so. so so so so, i have gathered.  i gathered a lot.  i went to taverns an’ pubs an’ brothels an’ taverns, an' the most interestin’ thing i learned is that this town . . .”

        he sways to the other side, his form slightly scrunched forward.  “. . . has a distillery.  we should have a distillery.  dunno why we don’t have one.  we should have one at cloud recesses.  think that’ll make things fun.”  he looks over to the lans to see if they agree.  the senior disciples and the lan that permanently looks like he’s sniffed chicken shit, do not.  ( see, this is why he likes the junior lans.  they’re nicer!  one gave him a pork bun, and the other . . . is super cute!  a bunny-infused lan! ).

        for about seven more minutes, not that anyone’s counting, he goes on and on about distilleries and how the women here are beautiful and, for a reason no one knows about  ( because who’s really following? ), blankets.  he says there are no blankets in the wei sect.  that is a false statement.

        “someone also said somethin’ bout this . . . blue phoenix-rodent thing.  ‘cept a nice lady told me phoenixes are not rodents.  but ‘tween us, i think she was tryin’ ta trick me.  us.  i was with, uh, miss jin -- jiang.  miss jiang.  that’s what she said, right?  no rodents?”  he gives a hearty wave at mingyan, his now self-proclaimed partner in crime.  “but blue phoenix that’s not a rodent appaaarently saved this one hunter one time an’ then turned into a beautiful blue woman.  well.  the woman wasn’t blue.  i don’t think . . . or maybe she was.”

        a pause.

Jiuli took the seat furthest away from Xiao Jian, as if that damned hobo could somehow infect him with his...wretchedness.

When the person seated next to him had finished sharing their information and everyone turned to him expectantly, he found himself shifting uncomfortably. This whole gather together and have a conversation thing just didn’t feel right.

He was one of the last to arrive at the inn, mostly because the grave site was located outside of the immediate town area.

“I spoke with some spirits,” he said, “with Inquiry.” Most of the inner disciples should have heard of the Lans’ special technique growing up, so he did not explain it further. “I was informed that there was a demon in this area some times ago and the towns people wanted to band together and fight it. Interestingly enough, the demon vanished on its own not long after it was detected.” Someone offered him a cup of tea - Xiaoyu? Nianzhen? Perhaps just a helpful inn worker. Either way, Jingyun responded to it with a smile and a slight nod.

“The spirits told me that the demon did not actually disappear and instead, found the grave site on the outskirt of the town and began feeding on the lingering souls there. Many of those who had died recently and had not yet moved on to the after life were consumed by the creature. The demon apparently gained strength from consuming the souls and eventually left the grave site. This was supposedly just before the mist formed around the Baijing mountain.”

The inn was surprisingly full and Sijun must admit, he was a wee bit intimidated by the sight of so many Lan disciples. If he was travelling alone, he would have stepped right back out before someone recognized him and shouted something like, hey, isn’t this the guy who killed that Jiang inner disciple and ran away from the dungeon? Arrest him, arrest him! Freedom was too sweet of a thing and Sijun would hate to lose it again so soon.

Alas, he couldn’t leave without Ziyu, who was left sleeping upstairs. She did, after all, hire him with good money. Besides, the group was discussing something he was interested in.

Sijun casually slid himself into one of the seats, lowered his head and listened. All sorts of information was thrown about and he figured he should share too. “Someone told me there was a strangely dressed young man in town a few days ago, before your lot showed up. He had a really cool looking sword so people thought he was a cultivator who could potentially help with the demon problem.” Sijun pretended to sip tea, but was mostly using the cup to hide his face.