Sect Leader’s Quarters, Star Pavilion Sect

“Ouyang Che, I am not your personal scribe!”

With a whump, Mu Yelian dumped another stack of scrolls on the acting sect leader’s desk. “Will you just finish reading these before they all pile up again?!”

“N...no more…” Collapsed against the table, Ouyang Che raised a hand in feeble protest. “Can’t I get my core disciple to do it instead? Learning to run a sect...is also part of cultivation…”

“You slacker, you’re foisting bad habits on your disciple too?!”

“Yelian!” Ouyang Che sat bolt upright with an aggrieved air. “Can’t you see I’m only dispirited because our dear Brother Mo is missing? Where’s your heartbreak? Your sympathy?”

“It’s only been five days since Senior Brother Mo left,” Mu Yelian sniffed imperiously.

“Don’t you miss him?”

“Of course I do!” she huffed, “But I’m not going to bother him in the middle of a mission like you do!” 

Her eyes trailed to the table where Mo Yixuan’s origami boat had returned that afternoon with a simple message:

- I’ll be back after my disciple’s cultivation improves twofold like you promised.

“You and your ridiculous claims,” she disdained. “You know Senior Brother Mo would do anything for that clingy disciple of his. Did you trick him off the mountain that way?”

“Yelian, you’ve seen yourself how much I’ve changed,” Ouyang Che protested. “Yixuan and I are true sect siblings now—look at all the times I helped him in the past few months!”

“Hmph, you’re only being nice to him because he’s acting differently all of a sudden,” Mu Yelian exposed him. “You never liked the old Brother Mo!”

“I can’t tell why you liked him before either,” Ouyang Che muttered.

“How would you understand? You and Senior Brother Jun are both so—so…!” Mu Yelian shook her head. “Never mind. But it’s true, isn’t it? He is different from before.”

“Mm, much more tolerable.”

“Stop joking already. So it’s permanent? This isn’t some temporary state induced from qi deviation?” Mu Yelian wondered anxiously. 

Qi deviation, sometimes called cultivation insanity, often occurred after a great disturbance to a cultivator’s mental, emotional, or physical state. If death didn’t occur, then other effects included painful backlashes or changes in the mind that affected personality. Some cultivators were permanently damaged by the deviation while others gained the chance to grow in leaps and bounds. In Mu Yelian’s eyes, Mo Yixuan was a mix of the two: improving his cultivation while distorting his personality.

A part of her missed the flawlessly elegant Mo Yixuan of old, who always knew the right thing to say and charmed her effortlessly into his whims. This new Senior Brother Mo was still refined and graceful but lacked the warmth of the old and actively kept his distance. It was as if his very being had been thrust into a snowstorm and brought out coated in a layer of frost. Any attempts to get close only froze you with his ice. Even when Ouyang Che had brought her Mo Yixuan’s hand-made food, she felt like she was dealing with a stranger. She’d accepted it with a smile and happily left her Senior Brother Mo alone for two months, but inside she knew better.

The old Mo Yixuan couldn’t cook.

Ouyang Che saw the wrinkled crease in Mu Yelian’s brow and couldn’t help sighing. “So you did notice,” he stated.

“I’m not blind.”

“That puts you a step ahead of the sect leader at least.”

“Our sect leader senior brother isn’t clueless either,” Mu Yelian huffed, “He’s just overworked and distracted. Just like you’re trying to distract yourself from work now!”

“Aren’t we having a serious discussion right—ow, you hit me?!”

“I’ll hit you again as much as I want. Ouyang Che, stop changing the subj—”

Knock knock!

Both peak lords looked up at the sound of the door before Ouyang Che cleared his throat. “Come in.”

He shook off some of his jesting air to ease into his usual aura of languid amusement. Beside him, Mu Yelian shot him a dirty look before moving to the open window to admire the scenery outside. Moments later, the door opened and a head peeked in with some embarrassment.

“Acting Sect Leader Ouyang,” the young teen murmured by the door. “I was hoping to find Peak Lord Mu here…”

“An Chengyan?” Ouyang Che instantly frowned even as Mu Yelian’s head whipped back in alarm.

“What? Has Peak Lord Jun gotten into one of his fits again?” she exclaimed.

“No, Master is asleep now but...he doesn’t seem right, so I wanted to ask Peak Lord Mu to examine him,” An Chengyan admitted. “The disciple I sent to Mt. Luojia said you weren’t there, so I thought I’d check the sect leader’s quarters myself.”

“Don’t you have the paper messengers to contact us directly?” Ouyang Che cut in sharply. Even with Jun Zhen out of commission, his disciple could still communicate with them using his master’s paper folding. “Who told you to leave Peak Lord Jun alone?”

“Don’t scold him, I was the one who said to find me in person for emergencies,” Mu Yelian replied as she ushered the teen out of the room, “Come on, let’s go see your master.”

Soon enough, only Ouyang Che was left with the piles of scrolls in the study. He debated going after the duo, but ultimately decided to review those missives after all. Mu Yelian could handle things if Jun Zhen’s condition was odd and besides—he was expecting more visitors this afternoon as the acting sect head.

What I wouldn’t give to go on a mission myself, Ouyang Che sighed as he reached for his teacup. Unexpectedly, he missed and knocked the cup onto the ground where it shattered into pieces. 

“Luckily, it’s the cheaper tea set,” he consoled himself as he bent down to pick up the shards. Unfortunately, his shoulder batted into a stray scroll in the stack and sent it toppling off the table with a dozen others. A few of them even had their bamboo slats snapped in half.

...three bad omens in a row? Ouyang Che’s expression tightened as he turned towards the south-facing window with lips pursed.

Mo Yixuan, you better not be caught up in something troublesome.

—

Su Clan Mines, Abandoned East Shaft

Are you sure you’re your mother’s only child?

In the wake of Mo Yixuan’s question, Su Shimeng could only gape. “That’s—what a ridiculous question!”

“It’s yes or no,” Mo Yixuan said.

“No! Of course it’s no, I—what kind of scandal are you trying to pin on my mother?!” Su Shimeng demanded. “Mo Yixuan, don’t go too far!”

Mo Yixuan was unmoved. “Then give me a different theory.”

“It’s coincidence!” Su Shimeng sputtered. “Someone could’ve stolen my mother’s bracelet, but she was too afraid to report the theft and just said she lost it. Then the thief dropped it here as a hiding spot and—and forgot to pick it up later.”

“Even then,” Mo Yixuan reasoned. “Who would pick the bottom of a cave-in to hide their valuables? It’s too hard to access and on Su property besides.”

“Then maybe they dropped it by accident, or lost it without realizing,” Su Shimeng went on, but it was clear he was reaching.

“According to the map, this part of the mines isn’t close to any of the roads and bordered by rock,” Mo Yixuan refuted again. “It’s a dead end. Why go out of your way just to drop a single bracelet in the middle of nowhere?”

“Then they left the bracelet here because it could be identified by my mother’s name…”

“It’s only a single character. Once they left Stonecut Valley, who would know what the ‘Yan’ meant? And since it’s silver, they could always melt down the metal to make something else.”

“You have an answer for everything, don’t you?” Su Shimeng snapped bitterly.

Testing foundations for weaknesses was part of my job, Mo Yixuan thought wryly as he exhaled. “We could just question your family, but will they be willing to tell us the truth?”

“They can!” Su Shimeng suddenly exclaimed. “I have something that will—”

Thunk.

Behind them, the sound of digging stopped as Nan Wuyue dropped his piece of lumber. Both men turned to see the boy crouch down and start digging something out of the dirt with his bare hands. Minutes later, he held up a slender, grayish object.

“Is that…” Su Shimeng couldn’t finish the sentence.

“Bone,” Mo Yixuan filled in the blanks.

“There’s more,” Nan Wuyue murmured darkly as he prepared to continue, but Su Shimeng lunged forward and took his place, scrabbling at the dirt with his fingers. Master and disciple exchanged looks before moving back to let him work in frantic frenzy. Soon enough, Su Shimeng had dug enough to make out the outlines of a rib cage attached to a skeleton.

A very...small skeleton.

Su Shimeng’s movements began to slow as more of the skeleton was unearthed. His fingers were naturally smooth and slender, the skin exquisite from years of cultivation. Now they were smeared in dirt that piled higher and higher by the pit, the grime further staining the immaculate white of his veiled hat. Although the covering made it impossible to see his expression, his shaking hands had long betrayed his emotions.

“Su Shimeng,” Mo Yixuan took a step forward.

“Stay back.” 

Mo Yixuan stilled.

The soil in the cave-in had long been packed solid by years of rain, mud, and intermittent sunshine. It was hard to dislodge and stuck in clumps, forcing Su Shimeng to dig his nails into the earth to pry the clumps loose. Belatedly, Mo Yixuan realized they should have tried to wet the ground first, but it was already too late now.

By the time Su Shimeng dug out a perfect outline of an infant-sized skeleton from the neck down, it was already late afternoon. A fine layer of dust had completely caked the hem of the light blue robes he wore out that morning, to say nothing of his ruined sleeves and veil. By tracing the remains beneath them, Mo Yixuan could faintly discern that the child had been buried while lying on her side. The human skeleton was the building blocks of the body after all, the framework that supported muscle, sinew, and organs—he stopped there, suddenly feeling a little sick. By his side, Nan Wuyue was equally quiet.

No child deserved to rest in such an empty, desolate place.

“Where’s the head?” Su Shimeng suddenly asked after a beat. He had already dug up the rest of the body so the skull, which was rounder and more prominent, should have emerged much earlier. But the shallow depression above the neck revealed nothing.

“...maybe it’s nearby,” Nan Wuyue suggested quietly.

Su Shimeng didn’t answer but started digging deeper above the neck of the remains. Eventually, Nan Wuyue and Mo Yixuan both joined in to help with the areas surrounding the rest of the body. With the three of them combined, the work went quickly, but in the end they upturned nearly half the space in the cave-in without finding a speck of cranium.

“It’s not here…” Mo Yixuan frowned.

“Why is it missing?” Su Shimeng demanded.

Nan Wuyue hesitated before chiming in, “There are darker rituals that require mediums like human skulls, so it might have been stolen away…”

“You mean demonic rituals?” Su Shimeng snapped at him. “Are you going to accuse my mother of consorting with demons now?!” As if suffering through that once in her lifetime wasn’t enough!

“Not just demonic,” Nan Wuyue was quick to defend, “Yao have their share of rituals, too.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel any better?!”

“We’re wasting time,” Mo Yixuan quickly stifled the rising threat of sparks as he glanced outside. “It’s getting late.  The news of the deaths should’ve spread to Su Manor by now, so I say we go back and straighten things out there.” Before Su Shimeng could protest, he added, “It’s best to return before dark on the Ghost Festival.”

The one night where spirits were strongest.

“Fine.” Su Shimeng sounded like he was gritting his teeth as he relented. “But I'll speak to my brother and sister first.”

“You mentioned something that could make them tell the truth?” Nan Wuyue asked curiously. His bets were on a treasured artifact of some sort, but the Su Shimeng of his future had only left behind a sword and nothing else.

“They will tell the truth,” Su Shimeng retorted. “I’m just using that so you two will believe them too.” 

The next second he reached up and ripped the veil off his hat, revealing his stunning features yet again. Nan Wuyue only blinked while Mo Yixuan quickly averted his gaze. Strangely enough, the fading light seemed to accentuate the man’s looks more than ever, leaving him somewhat dazed.

“You took it off?” Nan Wuyue asked Su Shimeng after noticing his master’s obvious discomfort.

“It’s not like anyone will see my face once it gets dark,” Su Shimeng retorted. “Anyways, we need something to bring these back.” Without waiting for a reply, he started collecting the bones on the ground and placing them on the fabric of his veil.

“Whoever she was, she deserves a proper burial,” Su Shimeng added under his breath. “I’ll ask sis if we can find a spot for her in the family graveyard. We can burn offerings to send her to the afterlife—and those others who died today, too.”

Once Su Shimeng had carefully wrapped up all the bones in his veil and bundled it up, the trio left the jade mines and started heading back. It was faster to fly so they took out their swords—Mo Yixuan included, since he didn’t want to make a fuss about flying on his own. Su Shimeng gave a doubtful look at the low-level practice blade but didn’t comment. As they prepared to take off however, Mo Yixuan spotted something out of the corner of his eye and stopped.

“Wait.”

“What now?” Su Shimeng asked irritably.

“I thought I saw something,” Mo Yixuan said while looking at the forest bordering the caves.

Nan Wuyue didn’t hesitate to run over first to scope out the area. “Shizun, I don’t sense anything,” he announced a few moments later.

Mo Yixuan wasn’t convinced and went over to check personally. Unlike Nan Wuyue, he kept his line of sight towards the ground and poked around with one foot before finally hitting something solid. Nan Wuyue stooped to brush away the thick undergrowth in the way, revealing traces of a moss-covered stone. Further tidying showed that it was an aged statue of an animal around knee height with pointed ears and a long snout. Its eyes were made of a semi-translucent glass that had reflected the glint off Mo Yixuan’s sword, which was what attracted his attention in the first place. While most of the statue remained intact, something had broken it at its base, leaving the creature with no tail.

“Why is this statue here?” Mo Yixuan quirked a brow even as Su Shimeng trudged over sullenly. 

He gave one glance to the stone creature and dismissed it. “It’s only a relic from the past. They said these mountains were once guarded by some sort of animal spirits before humans took over.”

“What kind of animal is this? A wolf?” Nan Wuyue guessed as he studied the canine-like face.

“The Wolf Tribe holds dominion in the north,” Mo Yixuan shook his head as he recalled his readings. “They don’t have any members here.”

“It’s only an old statue that’s been here for centuries. I’ve checked it out before, it’s clean.” Su Shimeng waved it off. “Let’s go before it gets dark.”

“Why is it missing its tail?” Mo Yixuan asked.

“Old superstition. The locals don’t want the old spirits holding any sway over the mountain so they had them all hacked off. But they’re afraid of retribution and kept the rest of the statues intact,” Su Shimeng explained quickly. “You can find dozens of them scattered in Stonecut Valley. Can we go now?”

Mo Yixuan still had misgivings, but ultimately left with the others. Time was pressing, after all. Still, he clearly remembered how the head of the statue was directly facing the cave they just left.

Moments after the trio disappeared from sight, the eyes of the statue flashed bright red like a drop of blood against the approaching dusk.

—

{extra}

Mo Yixuan: I feel like this chapter ended too quickly…
Nan Wuyue: Who told Acting Sect Leader Ouyang and Peak Lord Mu to take up almost half the wordcount quota?
Mu Yelian: Hey! Other people have lives in this story too, you know!
Nan Wuyue: But do the readers care?
Mu Yelian: You…! I’ll have you know we were part of Senior Brother Mo’s life before you were even born!
Nan Wuyue: That was a different “Mo Yixuan,” wasn’t it?
Nan Wuyue: If you’re talking about spending time together with the current shizun, nobody beats me, his core disciple.
Ouyang Che: Don’t be so smug. You might be the closest physically, but you’re the farthest emotionally.
Mu Yelian: Hmph! That’s right. Even that one-save wonder Senior Shi has more rapport with your master than you!
Mo Yixuan: Enough of that.
Mu Yelian: Senior Brother Mo!
Mo Yixuan: I care for all of you…
Nan Wuyue: Shizun…!
Mo Yixuan: ...equally indifferently.
Mu Yelian:
Nan Wuyue:
Ouyang Che: Why you two expected anything else at this point is beyond my guess.

—

—

Ruyi

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