Yun Zisu’s Feng-shigu was surprised at Wan Yu, but signed him up anyway.

“This is the person you vouch for, huh?” She eyed his sword, then seemed to look right into him— “Mm. A good seedling.”

Wan Yu’s eyes twitched. What seedling? He was already another cultivator’s student, all right?

Once done, Yun Zisu took them to find a place to stay, telling them she’d be picking them up once night fell.

Everyone gathered around the foot of the mountain after sunset. There were about five, six dozen people here, over half of which were Vermilion Sun Sect disciples. Their attire were of a simpler sort, though, compared to the line of Vermilion Sun Sect disciples standing beside the coordinators of the hunt. The ones on the front were inner gate disciples who’d already been accepted as full-fledged cultivators, having received their courtesy names. This hunt, they served as supervisors to their outer gate juniors. Yun Zisu stood among them. Tian Ling was, notably, not.

“This night-hunt competition starts at the initial hour of xu, and ends before sunrise. Anyone who is not within 2 li radius of the starting point by the time the sun rises will have their points penalized. Anyone may light a flare to signal for help from the supervisors, but they will be disqualified upon doing so. This night-hunt comprises two days, and five people will be rewarded for excellence. With exceptional enough performance, the best hunter in this competition will have the chance to enter the inner gate of Vermilion Sun Sect. Any questions?”

Murmurs broke out at that last bit. Though many of the independent cultivators attending were on the older side, being admitted into Vermilion Sun Sect had one big benefit: access to resources. Who hadn’t heard of how generous they were with their inner sect disciples? Even if one was just the fifth disciple of a normal, not-too-exceptional teacher, they would be able to acquire magical weapons like rare jade guqins or hundred-years-old swords. The beloved disciple of their renowned sword master was known to have three personal swords, all made by famous blacksmiths. One jian, one dao, a pair of butterfly knives.

“If there are none, then may this night-hunt begin.”

The crowds dispersed into the charcoal-black gaps between the trees, their lantern glow and sword glints swallowed up by the dark as the moon above watched.

Despite agreeing to this night-hunt, Wan Yu didn’t look like he was intending to work hard— he and Yun Zisu just picked a direction and started walking, chatting as they went. In his hand was a night pearl lantern dangled on a string; it must have been a good quality one, given its substantial illumination despite the rice paper diffusing its light, and yet what kept it aloft was no better than bleached twine. But it was bright enough to light the way for Ye Xiyang too, who was left with Tian Ling before the young girl chased after them. Once she got close, though, she slowed, staying a few paces behind.

“How much worse is it?" Yun Zisu asked. She gestured to his lantern, and at his expression gestured to his sword— Wan Yu relented, handing the lantern to her. Right, better to hand it over to someone who wasn’t going to fight.

"They were trying to use the youngest son's knowledge of his father's dealings as blackmail against either the father or eldest brother," he summarized. "The insidious thing, I guess, is the fact that they pretended to be helping the younger brother by setting up all these arrays for basically a puppet show. The betrayal just stings that much harder."

After a few moments, Yun Zisu let out a long, sad sigh. “It’s just really awful to me that the ones who bear the brunt of the repercussions are the children.”

“Myeah. The younger son told me, yanno. Isn’t it suicide, too, if he does nothing? That they’re being placed on a precipice whose width they don’t know, without their knowing…”

What if Du Yuxun never found out? How could Du Yu’an keep up the pretenses when he one day took over the family business? Ignorance was bliss as much as an anaesthetic was; just because you ignore it, didn’t mean that the gaping wound wasn’t there. One day, without the pain signaling the continuing damage, death would come silent and resolute, though not without one last excruciating shock.

“It’s things like this that made me start trying to see more of the world, you know,” Yun Zisu said. She looked up, past the shifting black mass of the foliage, through its shard-like gaps. The moon. “These are the things you can only understand through experience. It hurts, but so does growing up. I hope that by learning early and being prepared, I could develop calluses that would make it more manageable, and not blister me when I need it most.”

Wan Yu let out a hum.

In a way, Ye Xiyang pitied them. It was a noble goal, still young, idealistic, with a tinge of awareness. But so long as they opened their hearts to anything and everything under the sun, it would continue to hurt. In the end, calluses layered over the same place would get thick enough you could no longer feel anything underneath. There always came a point where you had to choose who to care for— family, sect, a loved one. But no more.

A human heart was finite.

It seemed that the atmosphere was getting too heavy, though, for Yun Zisu then broke the silence with an awkward chuckle and changed the topic. "But yes, tell me more about your nephew? How was he? When did you leave, by the way? I don't think Jiejie had the time to reply."

It was as though a lamp had been lit— Wan Yu let out a cheeky ‘hehe’ and rummaged through his things. After several seconds, he pulled out a little toy horse and paused in his tracks. The horse was a bit goofy, with a wide, friendly grin carved onto it as well as two innocent dots for eyes. About the size of two fists and made out of wood, it had cloth wrapped around its middle, too, as a soft grip. He had tied a little saddle-like thing made from leftover leather. Yun Zisu laughed as she accepted it, turning it over as she checked. When Tian Ling shuffled closer to take a look, Yun Zisu moved to the side and moved her hand closer, letting the girl see.

“I think if you retire early from the cultivation world, you’ll be doing it because you started an orphanage,” Yun Zisu said. When Tian Ling moved back, she put the toy in her qiankun pouch. “You can probably sell toys. These are very cute.”

Wan Yu sighed. “What a dream. I’ll need a better source of income than that, though. Gonna need multiple sets of clothes for each of them, depending on where I settle down, then stockpile food, somebody to help… There’s a lot I need to prepare if I want to do that, which is a shame. Well, not a shame. But it’s definitely a hurdle.”

That sounded… like the Immortal Chen Xi he’d grown to know now. Ye Xiyang supposed that nobody could outrun their own calling, though. Wan Yu’s destiny had been laid out the moment he was found to have good roots and grew to have a strong sense of righteousness, much like Ye Xiyang’s had been the moment his shifu found that he was compatible with the Slumbering Dragon’s energy. That every single step had been predestined, Ye Xiyang didn’t fully agree, but that everyone would stumble down a path of mistakes predictable due to its roots in personality and values, he did believe.

Much like how Immortal Chen Xi will, inevitably, find himself a martyr and a pariah, Ye Xiyang will, inevitably, find himself repeating the mistakes of his ancestors.

This had been such a contemplative walk. Ye Xiyang decided he did not like it.

Putting more distance between himself and the rest of the group, he followed at the edge of the lantern’s light. In the quiet of the night though, where the sounds of insects and night birds faded into background noise within minutes when one had company, it was still easy to catch snippets of the conversation. That his hearing was enhanced by years of practice and cultivation didn’t help.

"Are you feeling any better though?" Yun Zisu asked, tone gentle. Her voice was quiet, meant for one pair of ears only. Tian Ling slowed down and gave them space.

Wan Yu's answering smile was melancholic. "As okay as I could ever be. I already spent two months just… doing nothing. And I still have that thing he wanted me to do. I still haven't found the answer yet, you know. I want to find it before… yeah.

“But yanno, I think Jiejie was right. I feel better when I’m doing something. It’s, you know… Well, what he would’ve wanted. There’s so much I need to do, I can’t stop for too long.”

Yun Zisu let out a sigh. “Don’t push yourself too hard. Everything will turn out all right. You don’t always have to be doing something, get some rest every now and then.”

“I’ll be fine,” Wan Yu said, waving her off. “I’m already as chipper as I can be. I got to meet some nice people, it was pretty great.”

And that sentence was what lingered in the air as they hiked up the mountain. After following the well-worn path for what had to be one shi now, Wan Yu took a smaller, wilder trail— there were trunks and branches chopped off, though the one sticking out from the forest floor was already covered by the undergrowth, indicating that it wasn’t too new. One likely explanation was that a cultivator made his way into the forest chasing an undead, leaving a trail of destruction behind him. The crunching of leaves and rustles of grass felt so loud it stung the ears. Still, Wan Yu proceeded ahead, pausing only to check hints dropped on the trail, Silvergrass as bright as moonlight in the oppressive darkness.

Wan Yu bent down and picked up something tucked away underneath layers of weed and twigs. The thing was fabric, long— his arm rose and rose until he had to straighten up to keep pulling, and uh.

“I think someone lost their belt along the way,” Wan Yu said. He paused. “Actually, I don’t want to know the circumstances behind this, nevermind.”

Ye Xiyang, “......” Coward.

Tian Ling, “......” That didn’t need to go there, but you took it that direction anyway.

Throwing the torn cloth belt with twice-done ribbon knot at one end, Wan Yu continued walking. They came across a 2 bu drop, which they cleared, and after another shi of walking, they found another established forest path.

“We haven’t gone out of the boundaries, have we?” Wan Yu wondered. Yun Zisu shook her head.

“The boundaries have marker walls, don’t worry. They shimmer and rise up to eye-level, so it’s impossible to miss.”

Thinking of the landslide bit, Wan Yu decided to go down. It wasn’t long before they heard the gentle trickle of water— a stream the width of about 3-4 bu cut their path, though whoever walked this path before had strung a thick rope across, tied onto two trees, and placed large, flat rocks as footsteps. Thanks to the heavy rains, though, they were submerged almost a finger-deep in murky, brown waters— Wan Yu led the way, with his jian’s light helping in gauging the depth of the water and distance to the next stone. Yun Zisu pushed Tian Ling forward, holding the lantern in such a way so that the girl could see her footing better. It was clear that they weren’t as proficient in crossing streams as the man reportedly jumping into rivers to take baths in the middle of winter.

Ye Xiyang, “......” Why are you treading the waters when you can hop onto your jian?

When Wan Yu saw Ye Xiyang simply walking atop the rope, he shook his head. “Ye-gongzhu isn’t one with nature.”

Ye Xiyang raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to do the laundry?”

“Only if you take on the chore of cooking.”

“What is there to cook?”

Using qi to dry themselves, the four of them moved onwards.

Walking up to Wan Yu, Yun Zisu leaned a bit closer. "Say, Wan Yu. I don't mean to push you so ignore me if you're not ready to share, but this Ye-xiong…"

Wan Yu tensed. Had Yun Zisu noticed something about Ye-xiong that could reveal his identity? Wan Yu only pieced it together because he'd seen his initial uniform— hard to mistake the dragons on them. But he had no idea if the righteous sects have pictures of demonic sect leaders and maybe other high ranking members to show so people would know who to be wary of? Ye-xiong, after all, chose not to meet Yun Zisu's Feng-shigu and other Vermilion Sun Sect teachers. What if she already knew? She was not the type to confront him over this.

It seemed like she noticed his prolonged silence, because she moved back and gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. "You don't have to tell me anything you're not comfortable with sharing, just know that I'm here for you as much as you're here for me. Our thing goes both ways, no?"

Wait, which thing again? They had several different things, from agreement to boldfacedly lie to Vermilion Sun Sect about a variety of sensitive information to battle stuff.

“Err, all right?”

“We haven’t seen a single undead,” Tian Ling piped up. “Is this normal…?”

“Probably not,” Wan Yu said. “Didn’t they say there’s way too many of them roaming around here? This is probably the quietest hunt I’ve been on, not counting the time I hunted actual animals.”

Most undeads, namely those that were normal people once and were just revived due to freak accidents of nature, weren't that powerful. Dead bodies weren't easy to move, no matter the stage; it was either too limp and heavy, or it was rigid and stiff. The biggest problem normal folks run into would instead be their own instincts— some froze, some went up against the undeads in a last showdown. In fact, it wasn't rare that they'd be able to get the jump on the undeads and probably win, given they have something that could serve as a weapon like an axe or a hoe. The problem was, they could get wounded and infected from the encounter and not recognize it. The most correct response thus was to run.

Another reason why people should leave these hunts to cultivators was, it could be hard to tell the difference between the more dangerous corpses from the common ones— until it was too late.

When Wan Yu heard a distant rustle from the side, Ye Xiyang had already moved back. The flash of something almost reached Tian Ling when Yun Zisu grabbed her and pulled her to the side, while Silvergrass swung out of its scabbard with a metallic zing, carving a second deep gouge into the earth.

Its white glow illuminated the two long lines carved on the ground— one was the thin, measured line of a sword swipe, the second a wider, rougher thing that looked reminiscent of claw marks.

The undead that came and attacked was hard to see in the dark, dressed in near-black as it was. His face, too, was dark— when Wan Yu dodged another attack, he realized that it was more dirt stains than anything. There was an iron smell to it. Wan Yu couldn’t tell if it was blood or the soil.

“Tian-mei, c’mere!” Wan Yu called after several minutes of parries and exchanged blows. He was starting to notice something, for one. “I think he targets men. I’ll distract him, you go sneak up behind him and get stabby.”

“What do you mean target men?!” Tian Ling cried out, sounding more baffled with each syllable. Still, she drew her sword, gripping it tighter before rushing out, flickering and reappearing far behind the undead.

“Yang energy!” Striding forward into the corpse's range, Wan Yu parried another swipe using his scabbard as he thrust his sword forward, whipping away when the undead tried to grab it. The arm bounced off from the first block, but then closed back in— Wan Yu parried the second swing with his fingers. “Not in the lusty kind of way!”

“Please stop right there,” Tian Ling begged.

The Vermilion Sun Sect’s signature jian was one more made for cutting, with its additional heft and wider blade. Its decorated crossguard stretched back, too, linking to the pommel to create a knuckle-guard— not a common sight these days. But another uncommon feature of it was its ring pommel, which often sported dangling tassels— it was a design most commonly seen on daos, the style popular with cavalries of the secular world, not on jians used by cultivators. But of course, symbolism and all.

Tian Ling’s form, as far as Wan Yu could tell from this obstructed vantage point, was pretty in line with the sect’s school. Lunging forward with an authoritative cut, she then drew back to the crane stance before coming down with a heavy swing. The sound of her blade through the air caught the undead’s attention— Wan Yu closed back in with a circular swing leading to a cut, grazing the creature’s messy hair.

The undead leapt sideways.

“Sh—!” Tian Ling diverted her aim into a diagonal strike and drew back. The tip of her sword missed Wan Yu’s forehead by several inches.

Almost dropping flat to the ground, Wan Yu swung his leg in a crescent flash. A violent thud. The undead toppled forward, having been hit behind the knees— Wan Yu used the momentum to spin to full height, Silvergrass glowing brighter as it swung towards its torso—

Thick, blackened blood spilled on the forest floor.

But before he could think about wiping off his sword, three more of the suckers appeared— right from behind Ye Xiyang, who only opened his umbrella as they rushed past him.

Wan Yu, "......" The truth has been laid bare, Ye-xiong is one of them zombies.

Leaping back to where Tian Ling was, Wan Yu shot her a sideways glance. "How good are you at your Thousand Sunset Clouds Gold?"

"Good enough!" Yun Zisu shouted from the sideline.

"Then set the pace."

Jumping into the three charging zombies, Wan Yu hopped into the air, then used one of their heads as a stepping stone— kicking back slightly, he grinned as the poor bastard toppled forward a bit from a heel to the back of the head. Using the momentum from the kick, he spun and landed on his tiptoes, immediately whirling around to rejoin the fray.

The less attentive might get disoriented from the split-second clashes of a good battle, but Ye Xiyang's eyes had been following Wan Yu. His moves flowed from one to the next like water down a stream— unceasingly, gaining momentum with each successful hit. His feet hardly seemed to touch the ground as the minutes passed by— after a split-second cat stance was a high kick, a sword swipe following right as his leg lowered, then a sweeping kick with the other leg.

The longer it went on, the more aggressive and relentless his moves became. Like summer rain breaking a dam…

Ye Xiyang had to admit, this wasn't the fighting style he had imagined Immortal Master Ning Shan would have and passed down to his disciple.

And it worked with Vermilion Sun Sect's, too, though Tian Ling slowed down several times from being unused to a fighting partner that seemed to dart around so light on his feet. Vermilion Sun Sect's style in general had always been decisive and full of power, but at the cost of exposing more weaknesses as the battle dragged on.

Between the two swinging swords, three undeads fell without another close call with half of Wan Yu's head.

"Great going," he praised Tian Ling. "Once you get one, two, five more battles side by side with someone, you'll get less nervous, I promise."

Yun Zisu nodded. "I was your age when I travelled with Wan Yu— we were both rather new with fighting side by side and it resulted in more, ah, shed blood. You did great, don't be so hard on yourself."

Wan Yu laughed, walking over to the bodies. With Silvergrass as a light, he checked the four bodies, squatting beside the big boy whose body they had been jumping over the entire time he and Tian Ling fought the three squirts.

All four of them were covered in soil head to toe, though some had cracked and flaked off, revealing pale, bluish skin underneath. The big boy, though, had a bit more ashen black creeping on his extremities, staining more prominently the web of his veins— the blood leaking from his torso was thick and sluggish, kind of disgusting and emitting a strange stench.

Ye Xiyang took out his fan.

“Wanna start poking at corpses, Tian-mei?” Wan Yu asked, the fake cheer in his voice blatant.

“Umm, no...”

Before he could make another comment, though, something moved— an arm, stretching upwards. It missed Wan Yu’s head by several inches, as though it couldn’t discern an exact aim anymore. Stiffened fingers tried to curl.

“What the hell is with this mountain?” he cried out, leaning away from the arm still reaching to grab him. “Did a landslide bury something funky?”

After a pause, Wan Yu and Yun Zisu looked at each other.