Wu Lingtian’s words seemed to hang in the air even after his voice had faded. Fan Yi slowly came back to himself. Now was not the time to be arguing about the past. Wu Lingtian’s face had grown deathly pale and there was a faint glean of sweat against his forehead. Fan Yi gripped Wu Lingtian’s hand and turned back to Li Ran, but before either man could say anything, Zhou Ying’an stepped forward once more.
“Please take care of him.”
Fan Yi smiled politely. “I do not need Miss Zhou to remind me.”
Fan Yi held Wu Lingtian and turned to leave. When Li Ran tried to stop them, Zhou Ying’an intercepted. Her voice was filled with anger as she spoke to Li Ran, but Wu Lingtian could hear nothing but garbled noises. He could barely hear when Fan Yi spoke to him again. All he could feel was the heat of the palm against his own and the pain of his nails digging into his own hands. The cold sweat on his back was more apparent than ever and he couldn’t help but tremble slightly.
Fan Yi glanced behind him and tugged Wu Lingtian from the path. Darkness soon enshrouded them as Fan Yi guided them deeper and deeper into the forest until it was just the two of them and the trees and the moon up above.
“Lingtian,” Fan Yi spoke gently. He reached out and held Wu Lingtian’s other hand. His brows furrowed when he noticed a faint wetness seeping from under the clenched fist.
He carefully guided Wu Lingtian to sit down and then knelt in front of him. “Lingtian, look at me.”
Wu Lingtian lifted his head with some effort and stared blankly at Fan Yi.
“Are you listening to me?”
Wu Lingtian nodded once.
“Try to breathe with me,” Fan Yi said. He began to take deep breaths and watched as Wu Lingtian made a shaky attempt at doing the same.
Fan Yi continued this exercise until Wu Lingtian’s breathing no longer trembled as terribly. He sat down beside Wu Lingtian and released his hands. The two men sat side by side, leaning against the trunk of the tree as Fan Yi waited for Wu Lingtian to calm down. He stared up at the moon that peered through the trees—the only witness to their interaction.
“It was summer when he brought me back,” Wu Lingtian murmured.
“Was it?”
“It was,” Wu Lingtian recalled, his eyes growing somewhat distant as he stared blankly at the clouds that floated by. “It was still cold though.”
Fan Yi fell into silence as Wu Lingtian began to recount his first meeting with the late sect leader of Drifting Clouds Mountain Sect, during a time before Rong Meihua was in power, when things had just calmed after centuries of disasters and wars.
Summers in Heixue Town were equivalent to the start of winters in the Xianping and Jianshi areas. Although snow didn’t fall during the warmer season, many people still wore clothes that were more suitable for the winter months. Their heads were often buried into the collars. Their breaths would always come out in cold curls of smoke.
The streets of Heixue were contained a plethora of battered homes. The roofs were thatched and the walls of most buildings were peeling, rotting, and begging for repair. The streets were not much better. It seemed that, at some point, someone had attempted to pave the path but gave up half way through the town. Now the road was half dirt and half cracked stone, making it extremely difficult for carts and carriages. The streets were lined with vendors—some itching to trick any passing traveler and others offering genuine goods at a decent price. The town was as lively and bustling as any major city but if one were to listen closely, they would realize most of the noise stemmed mainly from arguments and accusations.
While everyone wore clothing that had been patched up and worn out throughout the years until it lost its original style, there was a group of people that stood out amidst the crowd. All eyes, greedy and curious, were trained on them. They wore light seafoam green and turquoise robes with elegant white embroidery down the chest. The man standing at the front didn’t appear any older than thirty. His wide sleeves carried the embroidery of wispy clouds and he, himself, appeared to be the scholarly type. In this crowd of thieves and barbarians, he stood out the most.
“Please, we only want to ask a few questions,” the man said.
“No! I don’t want to answer no questions,” the butcher waved his butcher knife at the man. “If ya wanna get answers, go to the next stall!”
The man smiled helplessly at the butcher and thanked him before moving on with his entourage. However, each person he spoke to, they either claimed they knew nothing or yelled and screamed for him to get away.
It was obvious just how unwelcome foreigners were in this town.
The man fell into silent contemplation in a slightly more deserted corner of the town. One of his entourage stepped forward.
“Sect Leader Wang, what should we do? If the townspeople are uncooperative, should we just leave?”
“How could we just leave?” the man murmured. “There have been rumors of supernatural events in this area. People are going missing without explanation. If we allow it to continue, then more people’s lives will suffer.”
The cultivators accompanying Sect Leader Wang fell silent. They let out an internal sigh and could only ponder on what they could do next.
They had been in this town for a few days now. They booked an inn in the town several miles before this one and traveled back every day in hopes someone would give them a lead. Unfortunately, nothing had come up. The only information they gathered were from people of the surrounding villages and towns, but who knew how reliable that information was? After all, they were all outsiders and what they knew was most definitely just rumors.
“Let us return for the night,” Sect Leader Wang finally concluded. “It’s getting late. We can return tomorrow morning.”
Yet, again, another retreat.
The man’s entourage acquiesced and reluctantly began to head out of the town again.
“Hey, Mr. Daozhang,” an old woman’s hoarse voice called out to them. Sect Leader Wang turned to find a wrinkled hand holding up a shining apple.
This side of the street had yet to be explored. They had looped around this time in order to the particularly unfavorable citizens. It was in this part of town that the path had become dirt, so they had yet to come here, thinking that it would be filled with the shabbiest people who knew the least.
“Thank you,” Sect Leader Wang accepted the apple and reached for his wallet.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Ct, cb cffv,” atf biv kbwjc kjnfv tfg tjcv. “Tbe iba rffw ab yf tjnlcu fcbeut agbeyif jr la lr.”
Vfma Ofjvfg Qjcu rwlifv. “Zj’jw, vb sbe tjqqfc ab xcbk jybea atf wlrrlcu qfbqif?”
“Ktf wlrrlc’ qfbqif, tet?” atf biv kbwjc tewwfv yfobgf ibbxlcu ja Vfma Ofjvfg Qjcu jujlc. “Tbe xcbk ktja’r lcafgfralc’ jybea Lflzef Kbkc?”
Sect Leader Wang shook his head. “What is it?”
“It normally isn’t the grownups that know the most,” the old woman winked. “It’s the children.”
Sect Leader Wang’s brows furrowed. He suddenly became aware of the round eyes that had been watching them from the shadows. He recalled the nimble scuttling of children that flashed by nearly like a shadow. Despite not being trained, they moved fluidly without much purpose, allowing others to let their guard down despite their lack of presence.
“Thank you, ma’am,” Sect Leader Wang smiled.
“Particularly a kid named Xiao Wu,” the old woman said. “That one’s the best one.”
“Xiao Wu? Do you know where I can find him?”
“Erm…he hangs ‘round. When he gets too hungry, he comes back here to steal,” the old woman chuckled. “Since he hasn’t been ‘round in a few days, I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”
“I see,” Sect Leader Wang breathed out a sigh of relief. “If he does happen to come around, could you inform me?”
“Of course,” the old woman gave a crooked teeth grin.
Sect Leader Wang thanked the old woman and he and his entourage departed for the day.
When they returned to the stall the next day, they found the old woman had a new companion. Sect Leader Wang’s steps slowed as he observed the child from a distance.
Unlike the other orphan children that roamed this street, this child seemed particularly neat. He was wrapped tightly in a white, fluffy cloak that had become somewhat dirty from rolling about. His clothes, although old and worn, were still washed well. His wavy hair was pulled into a lazy, yet neat ponytail and his face was clean from any dirt. His eyes were bright and shining as his red lips jabbered on about goodness knows what. He waved his little hands about and gesticulated as he spoke.
From what Sect Leader Wang could assume, the child was no more than seven years old. As they roamed closer, they heard the child’s clear voice.
“—Lao Lu didn’t know what was comin’!” the child clutched his stomach as he laughed. “His wife threw ‘im out of the house fully naked and then kicked his mistress out too!”
“You didn’t see that, did you?” the old woman asked with a hint of concern.
“I did,” the child’s eyes were bright with wild amusement. “You should have seen his face, grannie. His squinty eyes grew thiiiiss big! His wife didn’ even give ‘im a blanket! Now, she was a bit nicer to the mistress. She let ‘er get dressed first.”
The old woman shook her head in disapproval. “Xiao Wu, you’re far too young to be seein’ this stuff.”
Xiao Wu gave an exaggerated role of her eyes. “Grannie, does bein’ a child mean anythin’ ‘round here? Just last night I saw Xiao Cong get kicked half to death. Does anyone care that he’s a child?”
The old woman showed a pained expression. “Did he survive?”
“Survived!” Xiao Wu grinned. “Strong as an ox, he is!”
The old woman let out a soft sigh. She was about to issue a word of warning as she usually did when she noticed Sect Leader Wang and his entourage standing right near them. The old woman smiled and waved them over. She turned to Xiao Wu.
“Xiao Wu, these are the people who wanted to ask some questions.”
Xiao Wu seized Sect Leader Wang up. After a moment, he spoke: “You aren’t cold?”
Sect Leader Wang smiled. “Cultivators don’t get cold as easily.”
“Ooh, so it’s a cultivator uncle,” Xiao Wu slowly nodded, his eyes traveling up and down Sect Leader Wang. He crossed his legs and leaned back. “So? What did you want to ask me, Daozhang-bóbo?”
Sect Leader Wang noted the way Xiao Wu so easily switched to the more standard way of speech, his accent fading away almost completely. His smile grew. “Xiao Wu, have you heard about the disappearances recently?”
Xiao Wu tilted his head. “Daozhang-bóbo, there are always disappearances in Heixue Town—what sort of disappearances are you searching for?”
“It didn’t exactly happen within the town, but more on the outskirts,” Sect Leader Wang explained. “It should be a supernatural cause.”
Xiao Wu let out a long hum of understanding. He grinned. “Daozhang-bóbo is naturally looking for creepy things, huh?”
He glanced around, his gaze seemingly on-guard while his expression remained relaxed. He stood and brushed his hands down his fuzzy cloak. He turned to the old woman. “Grannie, I’ll see you again in a few days!”
The old woman frowned worriedly. “Be careful.”
“Got it, got it,” the boy hopped from one foot to the next until he stood in front of Sect Leader Wang.
The child was cute and charming. When he smiled, Sect Leader Wang couldn’t help but smile back. His little hand waved at Sect Leader Wang to bend down. The cultivator did as he was told and he felt the child’s warm breath against his ear. His expression changed. He looked at the child in front of him and his innocent expression.
“Come with me,” Sect Leader Wang said.
“Mmkay!”
The child happily followed after Sect Leader Wang with a skip to his step. The entourage of cultivators watched the child skeptically, but after looking at Sect Leader Wang’s expression, they refrained from expression their doubt.
When the left the town, Sect Leader Wang quickly drew up an array around them that made it so that no one would be able to hear their conversation. He turned to the child.
“Speak.”
Xiao Wu looked around. He stepped towards the barrier, that was normally invisible to those who had yet to cultivate, and carefully touched it. He let out a fascinated gasp and withdrew his hands. He looked over his shoulder with wide eyes. “Is this an ‘array’?”
Sect Leader Wang’s brows furrowed. “You can see it?”
“So, it is!” Xiao Wu laughed excitedly. He reached out again, just barely allowing his fingertips to hover near the surface. “Wow, it feels so weird. What’s it do, Daozhang-bóbo?”
“…It makes it so that no one can hear us outside.”
“So, if I scream really loudly, nothing can hear us? Can animals hear us?” Xiao Wu asked curiously.
“They wouldn’t.”
Before the cultivators could stop the child, Xiao Wu had already inhaled deeply and let out a loud, high-pitched scream that was enough to startle any surroundings birds. However, to Xiao Wu’s amazement, none of the surrounding wildlife had been startled by him.
“Wow!” Xiao Wu laughed. “If Lao Lu had had something like this, then he wouldn’t have been caught by his wife!”
Sect Leader Wang cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Xiao Wu.”
Xiao Wu turned innocently to Sect Leader Wang. “Yes?”
“Could you please tell us about the disappearances now? What do you know?”
“What do I know?” Xiao Wu echoed. He hummed as he softly clapped his hands together. “Let’s see…it was dark that night! There wasn’t a moon. Um…I was walking back to Heixue after catching some fish and then I heard a sound.”
“Wait, you saw it?” Sect Leader Wang paused the story.
“Uh-huh!” Xiao Wu nodded. “Um…yeah, so I had my fish and I was wondering who I should share it with, y’know? And I wasn’t really paying attention to where I was going, but then I heard this girl scream. I thought it was some slave traders again, but when I snuck near there to look…hm…how do I explain this?”
Sect Leader Wang and the cultivators waited patiently for Xiao Wu.
“Oh, I know. It uh…they? I dunno,” Xiao Wu shrugged. “At any rate, it seemed human but not exactly human. I saw…um…I thought I saw a snake at first, but then I think I saw a woman? But then the bottom half was still a snake.”
“So, it was a snake spirit?”
“I guess,” Xiao Wu scratched his cheek. “Oh! And then something weirder happened.”
“Weirder?” Sect Leader Wang’s brows furrowed.
“Yeah!” Xiao Wu’s expression grew serious with a hint of discomfort. “The lady kept screaming and screaming but eventually she stopped. Then the snake lady’s head turned towards my direction! And then she disappeared! But then seconds later, she was right in front of me.”
Xiao Wu gestured with his hand how close she had come to him. He frowned. “I think I wasn’t supposed to see her.”
“What did she look like?”
“Like…a shadow. Just smoke,” Xiao Wu said. “And then she started talking, but it was in this weird voice that didn’t really sound human.”
“Do you know what she said?”
“What she said?” Xiao Wu hummed. “Yeah. She said I smelled good, but she’s too full so she couldn’t eat me.”
Xiao Wu shrugged. “That’s all I know. Oh! Wait. There’s one more thing.”
“What?”
“Um…there’s also another rumor,” Xiao Wu said. “Some say that the disappearances happen once every month, so it’s been going on for a while now. So, I think it might just be when the snake lady’s hungry.”
Sect Leader Wang’s brows furrowed. “She must be a snake spirit cultivating off the energy of humans then.”
“Sect Leader, what should we do?” one of the cultivators asked.
Xiao Wu looked at the worried expressions of the adults and smiled. “I have a suggestion.”
Sect Leader Wang looked skeptically at the child. “What’s your suggestion?”
“I can be bait,” Xiao Wu said.
Sect Leader Wang quickly became enraged. “No!”
“No, we can’t use a child,” the cultivators immediately rejected the idea.
“Why not?” Xiao Wu showed a confused expression. “The snake lady’s supposed to come out again soon and she said that I might taste good, so what’s wrong with me being used as bait?”
“You could get hurt!” a cultivator said.
Xiao Wu looked at the cultivator strangely, as if they were the ones that were odd.
“She is a demonic spirit, Xiao Wu, not a human. It will be dangerous,” Sect Leader Wang decided to explain calmly. “We cannot allow you to put yourself at risk.”
“But didn’t you say people were going missing?” Xiao Wu scratched his cheek. “Wouldn’t it be better to find her faster?”
“We do not want you to get hurt,” Sect Leader Wang reiterated.
Xiao Wu stared at the adults in front of him for a moment before laughing. “Grannie was right—city folk sure are strange!”
“You are still a child,” Sect Leader Wang said seriously. “Thank you for your help, but we will not use you as bait.”
Xiao Wu shuffled between foot to foot. In his white cloak, he seemed like an energetic rabbit. His cheeks were somewhat pink from the cold and his eyes darted as he thought.
“Daozhang-bóbo, isn’t there that one saying?” Xiao Wu said. “To sacrifice oneself for the greater good?”
“You—”
“I’m not saying I’m sacrificing myself,” Xiao Wu said. “But think about it, if I do end up dying, I’m only one person but you’ll be able to catch that weird snake lady and people will stop dying. Just one me for…tens, maybe hundreds others—isn’t that worth it?”
Sect Leader Wang put his foot down. “No way. I cannot guarantee nothing will happen to you and I will not use a child as bait. You best return home and don’t think about it anymore.”
“I don’t have a home,” Xiao Wu let out a long pitiful sigh. “Who knows, maybe today I’ll wander around the woods for shelter and then get snatched up.”
“You—”
“Wouldn’t it just be better for Daozhang-bóbo and the other cultivator jiejie and gege to watch over me to make sure I don’t get eaten?” Xiao Wu asked, his lower lip protruding pitifully as he stared up at the cultivators.
Sect Leader Wang looked at the small child and slowly let out a breath. “Are you sure?”
“Sect Leader!”
“Sect Leader, we can’t. He’s just a child.”
Xiao Wu smiled cutely. “Someone as amazing and great as Daozhang-bóbo can surely keep a small child safe.”
Sect Leader Wang stared at the childly silently before sighing. “Fine. Tonight then. Listen to what we say and don’t act out, do I make myself clear?”
Xiao Wu nodded enthusiastically. “Xiao Wu will naturally listen to Daozhang-bóbo!”
↳ 小吴 – Little Wu
↳ 道长 (Dàozhǎng) – senior Taoist priest. However, in stories, people usually say this to refer to cultivators though.
↳ 道长伯伯 (Dàozhǎng bóbo) – Cultivator uncle. The “uncle“ used in this instance is someone who is older than your own dad. It felt a bit weird to write “Cultivator Uncle” as a way of address, so i switched it to pinyin
What do you all think of baby Wu Lingtian? He’s such a little angel uwu
Baby Wu was so talkative, clever and used his pout to his advantage. So what turned into an ice Prince adult ?
Seems like the sect is even more of a problem then I originally thought, kicking all life and individually out of its people
What a cutie 🥰
I can see where a Sect Leader would want to oversee his training to bring out that potential. I’m sure Sect Leader Wang didn’t expect his sect to become a place that would attempt to execute one of their best without a trial.
Younger him is so different :0 cute
baby Wu Lingtian is absolutely darling!!! i love him in present day but there’s this energy to kid him that is just so cute!!
What a big heart ❤️
He’s freaking adorable!
Ahhh baby Wu so cute