"Vermilion Sun disciples?" Yun Zisu asked, straightening up. Everyone had gotten up to their feet as they avoided being caught unawares by the decaying world, but tiredness seemed to already bog half of them down— only the new arrivals looked steady still, while Wan Yu, Yun Zisu and Shi Ze looked to be tethering on pure willpower alone. "You mean the ones that went missing?"
Ru Ge shot Ye Xiyang a look, to which he answered with a barely perceptible nod. Sighing, they said, "It's unlikely for Elder Xie to kill them directly; being sent with such limited manpower, those disciples were more useful as power sources to this array. They will die anyway, like this. At this rate, they probably will soon."
Wan Yu's expression changed several times before he said, "You're Xue Ying's shifu, right?"
"That's the question you choose to ask?" Xue Ying said, rolling her eyes. Standing a bit behind… him, she looked like a guard dog ready to bite. Was Ru Ge a he? Wan Yu didn’t know, and he wasn’t sure it was safe to ask. Was this a necessary question to ask, though? After all, regardless of gender, they were Ye Xiyang’s right hand person and thus free to be subjected to Wan Yu’s unadulterated bullshit.
"Do you want me to ask the Blue Cat one, then? Cos I can do that too."
Ye Xiyang, "......"
Xue Ying, "......"
Ru Ge, "......" The what, now?
Despite the threatening look Xue Ying shot him and the wary one Ye Xiyang had, Wan Yu opened his mouth. "If your peer is the Red Wolf of Frozen Dragon Sect, is Sect Leader Ye the Blue Cat, then? Because his personality is really all princess and cat."
Yun Zisu, "......"
Tian Ling, "......"
"If I am to have any title other than the Supreme Leader of Frozen Dragon Sect, then it'd be the Slumbering Black Dragon," Ye Xiyang said, sounding almost defeated. "Does that sate your curiosity?"
"Not really," Wan Yu said, pursing his lips as he faked the ability to think. "It just feeds my disappointment."
"There are no cats in the Slumbering Dragon Mountain," Shi Ze said. "It's too cold up there."
Wan Yu, "......"
Quan Su, "......"
"This conversation is a crime against humanity," Quan Su declared. "Can we move on to less idiotic topic?"
Right. The small world was falling apart, and here they were, having a dumb conversation. Wan Yu would blame this on the fact that he was pretty damn tired— it always sent him tethering at the edge of the cliffs of sanity before he leapt onto grumpy desert, where he’d stomp about, pissed off by everyone for everything until he got some rest. Ye Xiyang’s umbrella was keeping them all safe, though, for the time being— the ground shook every now and then, wobbling like it was made of agar, but the protection seemed to extend there, and kept them all standing on something solid. As if reminded by Quan Su’s words, Shi Ze packed his equipment back up— Wan Yu followed.
"I had a point, okay, asking him that," Wan Yu argued as he stuffed the pot and ladle back into his pouch. "Forgot what it was, though."
"I am Ru Ge, at times Yue Ge, as for when I use each name it is up to me and me alone," Ru Ge said, taking over the conversation from the shattered remains. It took Wan Yu a second to remember his original question. Oh, right. "If you call me 'Mister' or 'Lady,' however, I will skin you with a guzheng string."
That was nice and all, but… "Then what am I supposed to call you? Frozen Dragon Sect Chancellor of the Left? Qianbei?"
Ye Xiyang, "......" What is my Frozen Dragon Sect, a kingdom? You don't even call me Emperor.
Wan Yu shot him a look, as if to say, that's because you're the princess. Ru Ge’s returning stare was both piercing and unreadable— it was uncomfortable, for certain, but Wan Yu met it head on, raising an eyebrow as he did so. Ru Ge turned their attention to Ye Xiyang.
"In any case, the man who also set up this array would be a crux, as well as the Vermilion Sun Sect disciples. Do you have any idea as for the last one, Supreme Leader?"
The question was aimed towards Ye Xiyang, but it was Wan Yu who spoke up instead. "...Could something like Heavenly Rend be a crux?"
"It's possible, though likely a mere shadow of it. If it is, though, then…"
"I'll take care of it," Ye Xiyang answered. He turned to Wan Yu. "Where's Heavenly Rend? A weapon like that must've achieved sentience, it would definitely notice a copy of itself, if not out of indignation."
"Oh, if what you're looking for is bitching, I know the perfect weapon for you," Wan Yu said, tone taking a distinctly salesman tilt. "For the low low price of being harassed and scorched inside out, you can get zapped by Heavenly Rend. I'm sure it'd love to find its copy just to rant about it. Let's go, then. How are we dividing this?"
There was a moment of silence as everyone processed what he’d just said, and the crowds could then be divided into three categories: the disbelieving, the exasperated, and the tired.
"You'll have to go with me," Ye Xiyang said with a smile. "My umbrella can handle the lightning, while Heavenly Rend itself will be one way to pinpoint the location of this crux. Ru Ge, I entrust you with finding the disciples before you handle the last crux. Do you need to find them first before we destroy Heavenly Rend's copy?"
"I'll let you know when we find it," Ru Ge said, nodding. "The last one is easy. If we destroy all but one, his energy along with Elder Xie's will be the only thing powering this space, bar us, that is. But our influences are minute, it doesn't really matter; once we are down to one last crux, hop onto your swords."
"Why?" Shi Ze asked.
Ru Ge shot him a glance. "You'll see soon enough."
"Take the Vermilion Sun disciples with you," Ye Xiyang said. "Yun Zisu, I trust I can expect you to take care of your own folks once Ru Ge frees them. They're only here to dismantle the array."
Yun Zisu startled out of her tired stupor upon being addressed— she straightened up and nodded. “Many thanks for this, Sect Leader Ye.”
After that, the division was pretty natural: Shi Ze and Xue Ying would go with Ru Ge, along with Yun Zisu and Tian Ling. The matter was now down to Quan Su. After a moment’s hesitation, she inched one step closer to where Wan Yu and Ye Xiyang were standing, and that was that.
Ye Xiyang held out his hand and his umbrella drifted back down. As the diameter of its protection shrunk, Ru Ge pulled out one of their own, a similar white umbrella with an ink painting of a full autumn moon and drifting clouds. After opening it, they passed it to Xue Ying, who took it and held it like this was routine. Ru Ge then pulled out something that appeared to be a compass of sorts; it looked intricate, and that impression didn’t lessen when they rotated some of the rings that made up the outer bands and turned to face a direction.
“We will be going then, Supreme Leader,” Ru Ge said. At Ye Xiyang’s nod, they departed.
It felt like the sky came crashing down— all the exhaustion that had seeped into Wan Yu seemed to have cracked his being from inside out. Taking a deep breath, he propped himself up again. Ye Xiyang shot him a glance. “If you need a rest, it’s better to do it after we move. This area is more unstable than central regions.”
“Do I have to pull out Heavenly Rend right now?” Wan Yu asked, slumping. He was too tired to keep up a front, nevermind. “I want like, sleep.”
“Then let’s just find a place and rest,” Ye Xiyang decided.
They didn’t go far. Along the way, they passed by an area that seemed to have been a battlefield. Yun Zisu’s, no doubt. It was quite a clean battlefield, possibly due to the instability of the plane after Wan Yu destroyed the third crux— some corners of the cleared patch still had a fallen tree or two, cut clean by a sword, but most of it had become flattened grassy ground, free from undergrowth or twigs. Wan Yu and Quan Su immediately sat down by a couple of trees, leaning against it. Chuckling, Ye Xiyang walked over at a more sedate pace. Wan Yu turned his head lazily.
"We gotta wait, right? Imma take a rest."
"This array has been funneling energy out of whoever is inside," Ye Xiyang admitted as he sat down. The umbrella was back in the air; the rain, now back to its usual heaviness, hit the invisible roof at a soothing rhythm. It made Wan Yu sleepy, when combined with the chilly, humid air. "Very well."
Quan Su had been really quiet, Wan Yu thought as he turned his gaze to her. Not caring for it, she leaned harder against her tree and rearranged her cloak until it was a blanket, turning her head away as she tried to get some sleep. Oh well. Wan Yu looked at the sky— black, it almost felt like it was raining ink.
"So, wanna explain to me what the fu— what was up with the pearl?"
Barely higher than a murmur, his voice broke the silence like first rain upon a pond.
"There really is a pearl, and it is yours," Ye Xiyang said. "You just handed it to me. For, ah, safekeeping."
That day felt like the past, which was amusing. It had been tucked to the back of his mind and turned wispy, but upon recall, Ye Xiyang found it intact and in sharp clarity— he even remembered the look on Wan Yu’s face when Shi Ze, then already grown into someone with few words and a louder punch, dragged him out of that bed. Those brown eyes were nonchalant to the point of defiance, its current warmth extinguished and stomped on, its glint then more like cracked, parched ground. On that cold morning, he looked like the soil of the Slumbering Dragon Mountains: beaten into a solid hardness by the world, it turned its gaze to the sky, cursing its indifference.
"What do you know about Frozen Dragon Sect?"
At the change of topic, Wan Yu shot him a lazy glance. His voice had the lilt of sleep to it. "Jack shit. Other than what you told me, not much. Not exactly a common terror where I was heading."
"I figured as much. The heirloom sword, so to speak, that is passed down through the generations of Frozen Dragon Sect Supreme Leaders is one that is capable of cutting through distance… and time."
It had been in his shifu’s sword, and now it was tempered into Ye Xiyang’s Heart Mirror. As his shifu died it had raged, but as a rite of passage, Ye Xiyang subdued it; it was a bitter memory, and one that he had to admit only flitted through his mind as a sentence. And, once he recovered from the entire ordeal, he rose to his post and that sword was merged into his.
Not all characteristics of a weapon tempered into another would emerge; most of the time, only its strongest characteristic would survive. Though the previous Supreme Leader was powerful, indeed, and his sword even more so, in the end all Ye Xiyang got was that original ability, and he imagined once he died Ru Song would only inherit that, too, from Heart Mirror.
"...So you're telling me you're from the future."
A chuckle. "You don't sound convinced."
"Oh, you were trying to convince me?” Wan Yu’s eyes were half-closed now, and his voice buoyant with airy nonchalance. It reminded Ye Xiyang of that afternoon when they stayed at some cleared storeroom in some mountain village— the hazy trust, that magical space tucked into the pockets of an unusually quiet dusk. “Anyway, I don't know you enough to determine if you are from the future, so who cares. So you're saying I entrusted you with this oh-so-earthshaking pearl. I doubt it's because our personality mesh oh so well, so was I at death's door?"
How casual. Ye Xiyang raised an eyebrow. "I daresay you've been trusting me quite a bit."
Wan Yu waved his hand. It bore new cuts and bruises now, scabbing maroon and blooming blue. With just that flash of skin on his wrist, he appeared even more worn down. "I'm still young and foolish, me in the future would most definitely be jaded. I'm not stupid."
"Oh, you were."
"Which? Jaded, or stupid?"
Ye Xiyang thought about that conversation again, the one that kickstarted this whole affair. "In retrospect, you were neither. Let's cross this faction line, I will admit that I had a respect for you." A pause as he mulled things over. "Aren't you curious what you did in the future?"
Eyes closed now, Wan Yu let out a tired laugh. Behind him, from Ye Xiyang’s vantage point, he could see Quan Su slacken with sleep. The rain, ever steady and faded into nothing from being so, came back to life. "Did I ally myself with a despicable sect and sell out for my life?"
"No. You died a pariah."
Beyond disgraced, backed into a corner, breaking free only to die in his own terms. Ye Xiyang could still see, from behind his eyelids, the sight of blood blooming into the air as Silvergrass pierced him with a sickening, echoing crack— it looked like a red spider lily bursting into existence, falling apart into drops of tears as it sighted the man that died and brought it to life. Perhaps one day Wan Yu’s name would be cleared. Perhaps, when that day came, his image would be immortalized as a man in white in a field of red flowers— it would be fitting, given the flower’s penchant to bloom in response to heavy rainfall.
It was faint and unheard, but within Ye Xiyang was a feeling of mourning.
Wan Yu opened his eyes this time, tilting his head up to gaze at the sky once more.
"Then I don't need to know. If it is truly for a valid cause, then my step by agonizing step forward would've been done out of a calling I couldn't ignore, whether I hate or regret it or not. How I will do it, who needs to know? In this world, changing one's fate isn't so simple… even with knowledge. I'm not interested in living a life so fixated on fixing the future I lose sight of the present."
Ye Xiyang sighed. Getting up from where he was seated, he walked over closer until the three of them appeared to be placed at a triangle; in the center, he started a fire. The flames crackled into life and he stoked it larger until flecks of ember started rising, as though trying to fly into the sky and embed itself as stars in this weary night. "You've thought about things a lot, I see. It's a much more thought-out response than I'd imagined from someone your age."
Wan Yu didn't answer to that; his eyes were gazing into the fire, and on those brown irises reflected a desolate warmth.
"Your shifu would be proud, I'm sure."
"I hope so." Wan Yu glanced at him. "You bring up my shifu quite a bit for someone who has no interest in his collection. What about yours? He was the previous Supreme Leader, right?"
The ground seemed to have disappeared from under him— Ye Xiyang stiffened. "He was. There is nothing much to say about him."
"Mmm. Fine, I get it."
"Oh? Get what?" Ye Xiyang tried to gather himself once more. The question had caught him off-guard, but he could recover. The goosebumps that rose was just surprise.
Wan Yu pushed himself upright, then inched closer to the fire. Sighing at the warmth, he wrapped his arms around himself, though whether it was out of cold or in an attempt to keep himself together it was up for debate.
"Remember when I said I was lucky?"
"Ah.” Ye Xiyang stared at the fire, too. “You are."
"Yeah."
Silence fell; there were only three figures, the rain, the flame, and the invisible weight that pressed down upon them. Wan Yu pulled his knees to his chest, resting his cheek on them as his eyes drooped. Ye Xiyang bent lower, chest almost touching his lap— it was unbecoming, but the only witnesses would not remember this.
"I was primed to be the Supreme Leader since I was five. Then Shifu tried to kill me, so I killed him."
Another droplet into that still pond. The rain was finally becoming more than the heavens’ lone tear.
Wan Yu let out a faint exhale. "That's… really awful."
"...I'm aware." Ye Xiyang felt something swell within him, urging him to hide his face this close to the firelight, but he couldn’t. He avoided Wan Yu’s form instead.
"Do you? A teacher for a day is a father for a lifetime, but… I don't know, I think if you pick a child up as your disciple, to then try to kill him is wretched, regardless."
Ye Xiyang felt the world stop. "What?"
Lifting his head up, Wan Yu shot him a look across the bonfire. His voice was still quiet, but it had lost the textured murmur of sleep; he was wide awake now, though exhaustion continued to line his eyes red. "It's probably more complex than I'm making it out to be, yanno, but it's still… yeah. I don't know. I think unless you're a giant lizard monster who will bring the end of the world or something, it's really…"
The next words tumbling out of Ye Xiyang’s lips had the distinct taste of a mistake. "He… I… He was unmarried for decades but found someone, the love of his life I supposed. The next Supreme Leader is vetted on compatibility with the Slumbering Dragon alone, and it seemed like his unborn child inherited that compatibility. He wanted that child to succeed him."
But there was honesty there, too, and perhaps a sort of… innocence. It was a flavor that Ye Xiyang hadn’t tasted since he was fifteen. The day he became an adult, he found that he’d developed a mild distaste for it, the same way he grew out of the berry-sweet breakfasts of Slumbering Dragon Mountain.
"But at that point, you were already his set successor?"
"I already had sway inside the sect," Ye Xiyang said. "Ru Ge and Shi Ma had long been assigned to me, and they're loyal to me. Some people were already treating me as the heir. But I was young; my time will be long, and his child would probably never see their time in the sun."
These words, it had been said by Ru Ge, it had been said by Shi Ma, and Ye Xiyang had even heard it from the elders and the senior members of the sect. It was, in short, an objective truth. But Ye Xiyang himself had never said it; when the topic came to the reason why the entire conflict arose, he himself never said a word. It was the reason why the demonic faction thought that it was a coup spurred on by Ye Xiyang’s personal dissatisfaction with his shifu’s ways.
And it was. He thought it was that, too: his shifu did put the sect into jeopardy with his decision, laying to waste a third of their trained, highly qualified young members for their association with the disciple he himself chose. There were three candidates for the Supreme Leader, back when Ye Xiyang was four. In the end, he was chosen, and his life was built around it; to peel it apart because…
And with one question, Wan Yu made him come face to face with a truth he hadn’t wanted to see for over twenty years.
"That's shitty. That's just shitty."
Ye Xiyang didn't answer.
Wan Yu sat up a bit straighter, sitting cross-legged instead. "Children aren't made to be discarded. It doesn't matter. If you chose a disciple, even if you— I don't care what anyone else says, it's despicable."
Silence. Then, Ye Xiyang murmured, "Bold stance."
"We are ultimately seen for our choices, and good or bad, that is another thing. But if we can't even empathize with a horrible upbringing, understanding how much it changes a child, then we can't cast stones either, can we? Raised in comfort, if I'm to see a starving child steal from me, it'd be ghoulish to claim myself righteous for not stealing and someone for doing so when I've never been pushed, much less to the brink. So no, it's despicable, what your shifu did.” Wan Yu looked at him dead in the eyes, his own brown eyes red like the flames, like the spider lilies bleeding out of his body as Silvergrass cried in grief. “But Ye Xiyang, I hope, and this is me speaking as someone who had to live with you for weeks— I hope you and I never have to confront each other on opposite sides of a battlefield, because I still will judge you on what you choose to do."
