‘Large thieves. Many flock baby, dead! No want dead. Mad!’
Yung saw shadows dressed in Youjin attire pluck cocoons from the mulberry trees before the foxmoth pupae broke free. The adult foxmoths tried to stop them, but they could not fight cultivators.
‘Boil. Thieves boil. Mad! Old guy need punish.’
The scene changed. An old man laughed exuberantly one moment; the next, Silky attacked him. His soul? A core barely formed in the old man’s temple shattered like ice. He withered away with an anguished scream.
Yung recognised this guy. It was the previous Youjin patriarch.
‘Silky leave. No need thieves. Could live in forest with flock. Could not. foxmoths too fat and weak.’
Silky’s thoughts grew frustrated. The images changed again; this time, it showed Silky leading the foxmoths away from the clan orchard. He also took all the remaining Dim gold foxworms, larvae, and cocoons containing foxmoth pupae with him; even the dead ones the patriarch had used in his demonic ritual.
The flock entered the Warring twilight forest. But the Dim gold foxmoths had been domesticated for generations. Even if they were chaosfiends, how could they possibly fight back the predators of the gloomy woods?
The flock fell one by one. And with each death, Silky’s powers fell as well.
‘Was wrong. Ego bad. Almost all die.’
At least Silky reflected on his conceit, though Yung could not fault him for his decision to leave the orchard. Not when the Youjin butchered their young.
The vision continued. After an indefinite amount of time, with barely a few thousand foxmoths remaining, Silky found a mysterious cave. It was nestled inside a valley, with many identical caves around. But this one was special.
No fiend nor beast approached it, only eyeing it from a distance. But the shadows Yung saw in the vision radiated qi unlike any he had felt. Vicious, powerful, and out for blood. Three of them stood out. A giant bird with three heads, a creature that looked like a zombie dog the size of a truck, and a skeleton snake with incandescent veins running through its length.
‘Scary. Pain. Hurts.’
Silky used the last of his xinqi to hide their presence and led the foxmoths inside undetected. But just as they were about to reach the entrance, the xinqi veil broke. It had clashed with a foreign force inside the cave and shattered.
The fiends notice them in a heartbeat. They screeched and dove down with the rage of meteors.
But the same foreign force that broke Silky’s stealth blocked the fiends. The giant monsters rebounded back.
The fiends got a few foxmoths, but most reached the cave unharmed. Inside, they found,
The foxball!
‘Hateful! Bad!’
There it sat, the treasured orb. With the same violet and gold as the one Su Nanya showed him. But it was dimmer and cracked. A shadow shrouded the ball, and the cave with it. The same shadowy barrier that broke Silky’s spell and repelled the fiends.
Yung could not see how far the cave extended, but it was deep. Enough to accommodate Silky's flock, build silk nests on the cracked cavern protrusions, and hatch new young. They could live on the water veins running through the cave walls and the algae and fungus growing all around.
Silky rested in the cave for months after settling in the cocoons. He fell into a slumber to recover. But when he woke up, he barely restored a fraction of the spent xinqi.
Because a strange event had taken place in the meantime.
The remaining foxmoths, including the newly hatched ones, started worshipping the orb while he was asleep.
‘Flock thief! Silky try protect them. Flock think Silky could not. Silky… could not.’
With the worship sent the orb’s way, Silky grew even weaker. The poor critter barely knew where things went wrong. But if he continued staying in that cave, surely he would perish.
‘No need Flock! No need friend.’
The foxmoth yaoguai’s thoughts trembled, cracked, and cried. Yung nudged the critter, opening his heart. I won’t leave you.
‘Yung good. Bao good. Stay. Clean home.’
Silky used the scant amount of xinqi he had to sneak past the fiends, and flew day and night to get back. Finally, he barely reached the shrine in the branch family graveyard.
So the fiends are still there, stalking the place. What’s keeping them?
Silky had a special connection to the graveyard. At this time, Yung and his grandpa regularly cared for Yung’s parents’ tombs.
Yung remembered dusting Silky’s shrine many times too. Even preying now and then for the good health of his ageing grandfather.
That scant amount of worship might have been enough to sustain Silky.
But then Youjin Bao died, and Yung was alone.
‘Last friend. Flock.’
Silky decided to show himself that fateful day when the wretched hornbeasts attacked Yung.
‘Could not protect flock. Ball could. Silky protect Yung.’
And the rest was history.
***
Showing his past to Yung might have helped Silky process his feelings. The foxmoth yaoguai began bawling the moment Yung left his sea of consciousness.
Yung stayed silent, simply holding the small fellow until it fell asleep. Yung followed him soon, bidding the long day farewell.
Su Xiya stood up, then made her way to the two contracted. She sniffed the foxmoth, and a thoughtful look flashed past her golden eyes.
She ruffled the bedding near Yung to straighten it out, then placed her pillow by the sleeping madlander’s arms. She coiled up, brushing against the palm-sized Silky and snoozing Yung.
“Yawn, Floofy. So fluffy.” Yung, this rogue, thought Su Xiya was a body pillow in his sleep and grabbed her in a hug. The grey fox struggled for a bit, then gave up with a low whimper. She closed her eyes, joining the duo in dreamland.
That night, Yung dreamt of Silky’s past over and again, feeling each emotion vividly. The only difference was the fluffy grey fox that joined him, comforting the crestfallen Silky like a protective sister.
***
“It is ludicrous how close we are to a breakthrough. For decades this body remained stuck. Yet now… Maid, prepare a bath!”
“…”
“Maid, are you awake?”
Snore!
***
The following day, Yung woke up refreshed. Silky was using Su Xiya as a cushion.
Yung caressed the palm-sized foxmoth; he deserved to sleep in.
I already told Youjin Chun I would help bring back the foxmoths, Yung pondered. But with how the flock left Silky for the foxball…and how the Youjin clan betrayed the foxmoth flock in the first place. Sigh, I don’t want to handle those scary fiends by myself. Yup, let’s talk to Nyanya and have her deal with them.
He gurgled salt water, then brought out a spare set of clothes, courtesy of the hotel staff. Silky and Su Xiya woke up. The fluffy fox hid when she noticed a Yung in his birthday suit putting on his underpants.
Shit! Is Su Xiya a fox yao rather than just a fox? Yung almost tripped. How old is she? Did I just do an indecent exposure?
Done changing, Yung took the two fox creatures and headed up. He found the foxball—no need to go through the trouble of using Su Xiya as a ball detector.
Better report it first and get Su Nanya's promised reward before thinking about other matters. Maybe I can convince Nyanya to round up the foxmoths when she recovers the artefact? That’ll save me some headaches.
Su Yafeng didn't let him in. Today, she was no maid. Today, she was a gatekeeper. It said so on her hanfu, written in domineering calligraphy.
"M'lady can't meet you right now." The gatekeeper maid said.
“But I got the foxball’s location! There are fiends guarding it, but with Fairy Nanya’s almighty power, she could—”
“My lady’s orders are clear. You must find the foxball without her help and hand it to the lady personally. It wouldn’t be much of a trial otherwise, would it?”
“But fiends! They look scary strong. I am thin and weak!”
“Where there is a will, there is a way.”
“… Wasn’t she in a hurry to recover it?”
Su Yafeng curtsied, “Good luck. I believe in you.”
Believe, my arse! Three giant arse monsters are guarding that cave. Yung poked the fish head roast with his chopsticks, skewering a piece before gobbling it down. I kind of get why Nyanya throws annoyed glances at Miss Yafeng.
Chew! Chew! Chew!
Su Xiya refused to eat, and Silky happily munched on a grape.
That weird barrier stopped them from getting in, but how can I get past them with my scrawny arms and legs? Grrrrr!
Yung took his anger out on the food, and with each bite, his rage soothed, the enticing aroma of the three-jewelled lamb shank slowly calming his mind with its inviting blend of herbs, garlic, and spices. The succulent meat practically fell off the bone with each bite, with a rich, savoury flavour that left Yung's taste buds tingling. The lamb must have been at least marinated overnight in a fragrant mix of five-spice, brown sugar, and soy sauce, giving it that complex depth of sweet and savoury flavour.
Gotta get stronger. Wait, I could play at being a spy? I'll use thread cutting to stealth my way across the forest.
To the left of the lamb shank lay the red-braised amber fowl, half submerged in a sauce of ginger, garlic, and Chinese prickly ash. The sauce also smelled of rice wine, adding an extra layer of complexity to the dish. The smoky, sweet aroma of honey and soy sauce lingered in the air, and the fowl itself was juicy and tender, with a crispy skin that contrasted beautifully with the tender meat.
Yung savoured every bite of his meal, grateful for the skill and expertise of the chef who had prepared it. He threw Su Xiya a contemptuous glance. The grey fox for her part ignored Yung, looking at Silky's stack of perfectly oval grapes with interest.
But the shadowy force inside the cave broke Silky’s stealth. It might break mine too. The barrier also let the foxmoths and Silky through but denied the fiends entry. What are its criteria?
Yung rubbed his belly and wondered if he could fit more food.
Fantasy food is awesome!
He burped, then concentrated xinqi into his eyes to activate his special vision. He named it ‘Link Sight’.
The world became filled with golden threads.
‘Golden thread’ sounds too generic. This is my cheat power! It needs a cool name. Yung pondered for a while. ‘Empathic Links.’ Since he could read people’s emotions from them, he felt it was a fitting moniker.
Not all empathic links were the same. Some were thick, some bright, some weaved, and some tangled. And not all threads were empathic links.
Some were transparent, like fibre optics. Yung called them ‘Null Threads’. He could sever them off as he could the empathic links connecting him to others. He called this technique ‘Thread Cutting.’
He could weave null threads into existence using xinqi: ‘Thread Spinning’. He also used thread spinning to reconnect severed emphatic links. Finally, ‘Thread Reading’: the ability to read empathic links.
Yet for null threads, there was nothing to read.
Let’s call the stealth thing ‘Empathic Isolation’; Yung grinned, then cringed. As for the mind screw…
Yung did not like that ability. But if he wanted to survive this messed up world, he had to use everything in his arsenal.
‘Empathic Fixation.’ And if I am in stealth, ‘Isolated Empathic Fixation.’
Yung noticed another strange thing as he worked his xinqi, and it wasn’t Silky convincing Su Xiya to partake in his fruit bowl.
Every person and object also had a golden thread heading straight up. This specific thread was so thick, it was more like a pillar. Yung looked out the window. Hundreds of pedestrians walked past the market square every moment. Mortals shopping for groceries, cultivators riding their strange mounts, and beggars and orphans dotting the alleys.
A madlander was kicked out of a weapon shop. The young man cursed, then threw a rock at the window. Youjin guards showed up in seconds, but the madlander had already fled towards the lower town.
Every one of them had this golden thread going up to the sky. Yung touched one belonging to a pedestrian loitering near the Dim gold hotel, just below his window. He couldn’t read it.
These aren't empathic links. Damn, I am out of names. 'Celestial Pillars'? Nah, too generic. 'Celestial Links'? It goes to the sky, so 'Sky Link,' perhaps? Sounds like the name of a murderous ISP. Okay, 'Celestial Link' it is. At least it'll be a cooler-sounding ISP.
“Kii!”
At Silky’s call, Yung turned around.
Holy Gaia!
An effeminate yet undeniably handsome man had entered the restaurant floor and headed straight for him. Yung stared above the man’s head. A boulder-thick celestial link rose as though it wanted to literally pierce the heavens. Its light created a saintly accretion disk around the man’s face, almost blinding Yung’s eyes. Even Su Nanya’s wasn’t so bright and big, maybe five or six folds slimmer? Her’s was around Su Xiya’s size.
Hmm, wait. How come Nyanya and Floofy have similar celestial—
“Greetings, brother.” The man cupped his fists before his chest, breaking Yung out of his thoughts.
He knew this man.
Youjin Chao, the cripple who had his engagement broken.
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