Chapter Text
Xie Lian and his fellow cultivators made their way towards the dense forest. The moon was hidden behind the clouds casting a terrifying darkness behind each tall tree they walked past. The shadows drowned them in darkness. It was unsettling even for Xie Lian, but he clutched onto the hilt of his sword that hung at his waist. Everyone chatted before him, he always hung out by himself in the back when they went on group missions such as tonight.
There was a ghost terrorizing the people within the town near their cultivation temple. However, the cases reported to the temple were of people fainting from terror, injuries only occurring from the fall itself although the people were too embarrassed to admit that part. After the case began to shake the town in fear, their master decided it’d be best to send some well-trained cultivators to deal with the potentially low-grade ghost.
Xie Lian was supposed to be the leader on this mission, but here he was dallying unseeingly in the back of the group. As always.
It was no big secret that his fellow cultivators resented him, even his master knew of the matter, but you couldn’t prevent the mouth of rumors and gossip until it was directed to your face. And it never was, because although they resented Xie Lian, he was at the top of all his classes. Whether it had to be studying the Daoist scrolls or sparing against his classmates, he exceeded in every task thrown at him. He was also favored by their master. It was a losing battle that Xie Lian was always winning.
“Wait! What was that!?” one of the cultivators whispered shouted to the group. He was the ringleader of Xie Lian resenters, it was arrantly obvious that he’d take the position of leader whenever he was grouped with Xie Lian. Although Xie Lian never complained or reported, he did find it funny that he’d never ask for the position in front of their authority.
“I saw it too, what was it?”
“That’s too creepy, is it following us?”
“Shit, why does it have to be so dark now?”
The group grew anxious, but Xie Lian didn’t sense any danger. He knew they weren’t alone, for a while now actually. But the extra party’s intentions didn’t seem harmful. Nevertheless, Xie Lian’s grip on his sword grew stronger. The cool white jade calmed him and kept his mind clear.
“Let’s keep going, we aren’t even there—”
A quick light flashed like an arrow past the group, nearly knocking them down. The light seemed to slow when it got to Xie Lian; he could almost discern its color as silver. As it passed it left a chill down everyone’s spine, the night getting colder around them, and their surroundings seemed to get even darker.
The light flashed by them again and again, as if a swarm of arrows was aiming for the group but nearly missing them each time. The more lights passed, the more the group got separated and pure blackness took over their position. Now even the moon’s faint glow behind the clouds seemed to disappear.
“Everyone, activate your connecting talismans!” Xie Lian shouted pulling out the thin yellow paper from his robes and using his index and middle finger to complete the characters on the talisman.
“I just activated mine!”
“Mine too, but I still can’t see anyone!”
“Shit, at least we can still hear each other!”
Xie Lian saw as the talisman glowed and fizzled in his hand. If he didn’t find anyone in the group soon, the effects of the talisman would eventually wear out. He began going in the direction that the talisman pulled towards. He tried calling out to his group, but unlike earlier, there were zero responses. This is odd, how am I getting closer to them and now there’s no response?
Xie Lian stopped in his tracks. He hadn’t realized in his attempt to find his classmates that he’d walked into a clearing in the forest. A strong, icy wind passed by, and the talisman got whisked away by it. Xie Lian couldn’t help but put his arms around himself. It was getting unusually chilly.
He looked around and tried to figure out his location, but the moon was gone from the sky and the blood in his body was running colder. He covered his ears to protect them from the wind. He tried to rub his arms through his white cultivator robes for some warmth to no avail, it was freezing.
Only minutes later when he was switching between his ears back to rubbing his arms did he hear a sound. It was someone’s voice, so faint and quiet behind the relentless wind.
“Who’s there?!” Xie Lian stood at guard again, his limbs rigid from the drop in temperature. But he didn’t stand down. “Show yourself now!”
“Your Highness.”
The voice was deep and smooth like silk. It made his chest whirl causing another chill down his spine. He unsheathed his sword and forced his stiff body into a battle stance. He fought against the wind that was scattering his hair in all directions refusing to let up. Was this some type of trick to lower his senses? He had to keep his defenses up high.
“Your Highness.”
The voice sounded disappointed. No, it sounded quite sad, like it couldn’t believe Xie Lian would really raise his sword against it.
“Stop the wind and just come out,” Xie Lian commanded through chattering teeth. The wind was becoming unbearable. He felt his eyes prickling with tears from the cold as the gusts grew stronger. If he could truly see the tips of his fingers or his lips, he wouldn’t be surprised to find them a blue hue.
It seemed as soon as Xie Lian requested the wind to stop, the creature listened. Was all you wanted for me to ask? Had I known I wouldn’t have stood here freezing to death. Xie Lian wiggled his fingers around his sword and increased his grip but lowered his sword the slightest amount.
“Your Highness.”
Xie Lian was confused as to why every time it said that title, there was an emotion behind those words that he couldn’t quite place. Sometimes sad, sometimes just depressingly devasting. Yet faintly familiar. The tears threatening to fall earlier from the wind seemed to fall without help at all. It couldn’t have been the voice; he wasn’t from a royal lineage so there was no way it was referring to him. But the tears were ceaseless. Xie Lian’s chest pulled at him, almost making him double over. A devasting feeling of longing took over his heart and his heartbeat seemed to skip, rising into his throat. He could no longer hold his sword so hard. It dropped from his hand as he gripped his chest.
“Who- who are… you? What are you!?” Xie Lian’s voice came out pained and broken. His knees buckled and he landed on the cool ground with a thud.
A light emitted from in front of Xie Lian, all his blurry eyes could process it as was the same silver light from earlier. The light landed on one of his knuckles that clutched tightly onto the fabric of his robes. The silver light cleared in his vision.
“A butterfly? How—”
The silver butterfly flew away; Xie Lian wanted to chase after it. He got up in a rush and started to run, leaving his sword behind before realizing that the pain in his chest wasn’t gripping him any longer. He patted his chest once more. His heart rate was back to normal, no longer beating so rapidly.
This was all too bizarre for Xie Lian to comprehend. Perhaps the ghost was far stronger than they initially thought. Otherwise, why would it be able to invoke so many emotions and physical pain without even touching him? He was about to grab his fallen sword before pausing. He heard a shuffle in the woods behind him, it was approaching him. He grabbed his sword with extra vigor. Had the ghost decided to finally reveal itself?
When he turned around, he was faced with a fox. The fox had a thick dark coat, the color of red maple leaves. The stripe separating its deeply pigmented coat on his underbelly was silver rather than the white or black that Xie Lian had seen before. The fox’s eyes were red, even darker than the fur on its body. Its eyes glimmered from the silver butterflies luminating in its presence. Xie Lian couldn’t bear to raise his sword any higher. He sheathed it and made slow steps toward the ethereal creature.
“So, all along, you were just a conniving little fox spirit?” Xie Lian asked without expecting a response, he smiled as he approached the creature. Its ears rose in acknowledgment, not seeming scared in the slightest by Xie Lian’s approach. It even seemed a little delighted. When Xie Lian finally got close and crouched down by the creature, it moved its head to Xie Lian’s white boot and started nestling by it. Xie Lian chuckled lightly and began scratching behind its ears. “Such a pretty fox, aren’t you?”
Different animal spirits were found near spiritual mountains such as the one that Xie Lian trained at. They were attracted by the immense amount of spiritual energy that those mountains emanated. It wasn’t uncommon to see animal spirits lingering by. However, the one that Xie Lian had just found was much too powerful to go unnoticed.
Fox spirits were the strongest of their kind. They were usually kept by royal families after being deemed unharmful by cultivators. When they were treated well and took a liking to their owners, they tended to become protectors. They could be troublesome at times, often playing tricks on people. Xie Lian had suspected that this particular fox spirit had gotten separated from its royal caretakers which would explain the voice from earlier. It surely looked exquisite enough to be part of the royal family’s collection of spiritual pets and it was definitely strong enough.
“You must be someone’s spiritual animal. You must have a strong connection to them,” Xie Lian guessed. The fox just continued going around Xie Lian, happily accepting the petting Xie Lian gave it. “Well, now that we’ve found what has been terrorizing the town then I can take you back to the temple and have master return you home. Would you like to come with me?”
The fox seemed to be happy with following Xie Lian anywhere and its ears wiggled adorably. Xie Lian remembered that fox spirits were very emotionally aware and needed to be treated with a kind heart so they wouldn’t harm those that approached it. The people in the town probably tried to capture the poor creature for money and it scared them in turn. It must’ve been thought that he and the other cultivators were there to do the same.
⸙
By the time Xie Lian made it back to the temple the sun was already settled into the sky shining bright. The fox that followed him by his feet looked even more fascinating in daylight. The red and silver glowed prettily under the sun’s beams and the black of its tail shined like onyx under the sunlight. Xie Lian was thoroughly impressed, maybe because he hadn’t seen many animal spirits of powerful degrees, but it was still so interesting to see a fox of its color.
As Xie Lian passed the threshold into the temple’s grandiose courtyard, he saw no one was outside. It clicked that it was probably class time, and everyone was receiving lectures inside or practicing on the other side of the courtyard. Xie Lian was just about to make his way to his master’s office when he heard a familiar voice emerge a short distance away.
He hid himself and the fox spirit behind a space between two of the lecture halls. He listened carefully and made sure that the fox spirit was hidden from sight.
“I can’t believe we wasted our time last night,” the voice complained annoyingly, but it was easy to tell from his tone he was exhausted. Xie Lian recognized it as the ringleader’s voice. “Not only that but master also gave us an earful because that self-righteous Xie Lian didn’t come back with us. How fucking annoying!”
Xie Lian wanted to think, when have I ever claimed to be self-righteous? But he decided right now was not the time to contemplate such thoughts. He continued listening.
“Maybe we can go there later tonight and finally catch that annoying ghost. At least this time we’ll know we have to be more aggressive. We just have to be more prepared,” the ringleader continued his tyrant. “Then I don’t have to hear any more about Xie Lian did this and Xie Lian did that. He didn’t even help last night; he just abandoned us.”
Xie Lian refrained from rolling his eyes hard enough that they’d get stuck in the back of his head. The urge didn’t get better when the two other cultivators following the ringleader began to agree blindly. He wanted to know whether or not they truly believed they could defeat the fox spirit behind him after the incident yesterday. He also wanted to know what happened to them yesterday, they surely didn’t experience the same as Xie Lian. Xie Lian looked at the fox spirit sitting quietly behind him, although he wasn’t completely sure, he could’ve almost sworn that the fox looked absolutely bored. Xie Lian suppressed a laugh.
Now, Xie Lian couldn’t just take the fox spirit to his master. The fox currently had a hit team of cultivators after the embarrassment from last night and there was no real guarantee that the fox belonged to a royal family nearby. If the royal family was only visiting and accidentally left the spirit behind, then they’d surely make the fox spirit’s life miserable while it waited for its family. Xie Lian couldn’t subject it to the wicked treatment of young cultivators with egos bigger than their experience in martial arts. Xie Lian would know he’d spared (and won) against them all before.
Xie Lian made up his mind. He’d keep the fox spirit with him, in the comfort and safety of his room.
He couldn’t lie and say that his master didn’t dote on him. Xie Lian was one of the few cultivators who had a room to himself. He was the only junior cultivator for that matter. And his room was placed in a very specific area of the mountain’s cultivator dorm where it was never too cold or too warm. Perfect for a posh fox spirit.
Xie Lian took a memorized hidden route to his room. Since everyone was at lessons and practicing quite far away, it was easy to make his way to his room without bumping into any unexpected persons.
When he opened the door to his room, he let the fox spirit in. The fox began walking around as if it was judging the room’s condition. Xie Lian was a clean and neat person; he preferred his things organized and put away. The fox seemed to like that, and Xie Lian smiled with pride at his simple space.
“I know it’s not as lavish as you’re probably used to, but it’ll have to do for now until I can figure out how to protect you from my classmates’ clutches,” Xie Lian explained. The fox listened intently and lay curled up on the floor as Xie Lian spoke. “I promise I’ll bring you some food when I have time. All you have to do is hide whenever someone who isn’t me enters, but that doesn’t happen often.”
The fox’s head seemed to lift at that last sentence before getting up to be petted by Xie Lian once again. Xie Lian let out a laugh again, this fox spirit must’ve been used to getting lots of attention before.
“Why don’t I give you a temporary name for now? So, when I want to come in, you’ll know it’s me,” Xie Lian suggested. The fox’s ears rose, and it let out a soft raspy bark before nestling close to Xie Lian again. He took it as a yes and began to think of a name.
San Lang.
A voice spoke into Xie Lian’s mind like a soft whisper. He hadn’t known its origin. It was an odd name too when he didn’t know the fox’s genealogy. Xie Lian rubbed a hand against his forehead. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep.
“What of San Lang? I know it’s a bit weird, but it is only for a little while,” Xie Lian smiled when the fox let out another soft raspy bark and turned in several circles. “San Lang it is then!”
Xie Lian rose from his position close to the floor and began to dust his clothes. He needed to see his master to inform him about his return before the search party was sent out. He also needed to think about what fabricated story would work since he hadn’t known what happened to the rest.
“Well, I’ve got to take my leave, San Lang. I’ll be back soon though, make sure not to make too much noise,” Xie Lian scratched behind San Lang’s ears once again before moving towards the door and closing it quickly behind him.
⸙
Xie Lian came back to his room several hours later.
When he first left to relay his absence to his master, there seemed to be an explanation already laid out for the taking. Before he could speak on the matter of the forest, several members of the group he embarked with were asked to come in to tell their master what had happened. It turned out that everyone was unconscious after they got separated that night and woke up at different times later on. However, none of them had half of the experience that Xie Lian had; most just remember their talismans turning to dust before they passed out.
It was all very convenient. Xie Lian wanted to think someone was playing some type of trick on him, but he could only agree with his fellow cultivators and tell a similar story.
His master dismissed the rest and asked Xie Lian one one-on-one why such a thing happened. It was undeniable that if Xie Lian had led the group, nobody would be left astray, and he would’ve asked everyone to activate those talismans from the get-go. Xie Lian tried to avoid telling the complete truth, but his master berated him for defending his classmates blindly. It’s not really defending them if I’m trying to avoid further ridicule, Xie Lian had thought, but he couldn’t voice his thoughts aloud lest he cause more problems for himself.
After he was dismissed, he made his way back to his usual lessons and trained for a while by himself as he always did. Falling into routine made him forget himself and it wasn’t until the sun began to glow a familiar red and purple hue that he remembered to return to his room.
He stopped by the kitchen first. The attendants didn’t question him at all; they were well aware of Xie Lian’s habit of skipping meals and not eating with the others. So, he was able to sneak a few snacks under his robe on his way back to his dorm.
Now that he’d arrived at the door to his room, he wanted to push it open as he usually did but quickly remembered the rule he set for himself and the fox spirit. “San Lang,” Xie Lian spoke softly. When he heard a small shuffling of paws in acknowledgment, he pushed the doors open with a sigh, closing it quickly behind himself. San Lang was lying curled into himself on the floor before the door as if he’d been waiting for Xie Lian’s return.
“My apologies for taking so long,” Xie Lian sat with his legs crossed on the floor behind San Lang. The fox spirit got up and languidly made its way to Xie Lian’s lap. Xie Lian laughed and pulled out the snacks he got from the kitchen. “I’m glad to see you’re already fond of me. Here’s a few treats for you… although, I’m unsure what royal fox spirits eat.”
The fox looked at the treats and then at Xie Lian. Although most spiritual animals didn’t need to eat, fox spirits tended to be picky and pampered, usually choosing to eat specific types of spiritual foods. Xie Lian could only assume that this particular fox was used to more luxurious treats, explaining its refusal.
“Oh, these have been created with spiritual fruits from the trees behind the courtyard, here,” Xie Lian pulled out a talisman from his robe and activated it, he placed it on the treat to alight its spiritual growth. The short show of light showed in the fox’s red eyes, the glimmer enchanting Xie Lian briefly.
The fox seemed unimpressed by this display and simply lowered its head in Xie Lian’s lap, nudging his arm. Xie Lian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, he put the snack back into the brown wrapping material and then set it on the edge of his nightstand. He took notice of the fox spirit’s nudging and scratched behind its ear, complying with the silent request.
They stayed like that for a few minutes before Xie Lian noticed a small red thread glaring out among the silver coat of the fox spirit’s stomach. “What’s this?” Xie Lian asked, not really expecting a reply. He picked up the thread and saw that it was attached to the leg of the pretty fox.
The fox took notice of what Xie Lian had seen and moved its body to show off the intricate thread tied into a small bow knot on its leg. Xie Lian smiled, fox spirits were kept for good omen and often symbolized love and harmony. Whoever this spirit belonged to must’ve put the red string on to bless their marriage. For some reason, the longer Xie Lian held the string, the brighter it got. Xie Lian’s heart wrenched, and his eyes lost focus. That same feeling from last night took over his senses. He dropped the string and clutched it onto his chest, both it and his head growing hot and painful.
San Lang took notice of Xie Lian’s condition, wagging its tail in distress. Xie Lian’s vision blurred, he could no longer see the elegant maple red coat of the fox spirit. His senses were depleted, but there was no way to determine where this sensation arose from. Surely the fox spirit wasn’t inciting this. He’d already shown his goodwill and hadn’t done anything to hurt the fox, so why was this happening again?
As Xie Lian’s mind stirred for reason and relief, he felt a cool pair of hands on each side of his face. The hands were smooth and slender, unnaturally low in temperature. He didn’t have the strength to open his eyes, but he could tell the person in front of him wasn’t trying to hurt him. Not that he had the mind to defend himself right now.
The person took one of their palms from Xie Lian’s face and held onto the hand that was clutching his chest. The person laced their hands together and Xie Lian could feel the warmth of spiritual power entering his system. He felt the power surge through his veins and cleared his mind. He almost missed when the stranger softly leaned his cool forehead on Xie Lian’s, cooling that burning sensation in his heart. This spiritual power was different than what he’d gained so far in his cultivation path, it didn’t feel new or foreign like it had as he trained vigorously day by day. This was familiar like it’d always been there with him.
“Your Highness, use it to clear your mind.”
Deep and smooth like silk. That voice from the forest. Is this the fox spirit? But that can’t be right, if it was the fox spirit that could transform then wouldn’t it have found its way home earlier? Was the voice I heard from the forest, not San Lang at all? What followed me here?
Xie Lian’s mind filled with anxious worry as he wondered who it was that was holding him now, he hadn’t listened to the words the stranger said.
“Your Highness, Xie Lian, listen to me.”
The stranger pleaded, his tone sounding worried and afraid. Almost like that night when it sounded so sad. Why are you calling me that? How do you know my name? Xie Lian still couldn’t speak, and the more that voice registered through his mind the farther his pain swirled within him.
“Please listen to me, Your Highness, use the power to push the pain away.”
Xie Lian finally listened to the words of the stranger. He channeled the familiar warmth within his body and pushed out the burning pain. It subsided slightly before coming back in full force. He didn’t know how to do this, his head just kept spinning and aching. He felt he was on the verge of unconsciousness. A darkness took over his mind, clearing away any coherent thoughts and replacing them with the burning confusion.
He couldn’t feel those cool hands on his skin, or the forehead leaning against his own. He thought of the pretty fox spirit and hoped the stranger wasn’t here to hurt it.
He used all his remaining strength to push out his last words in a painful gasp, “San Lang,” before his entire mind fell into the painful nothingness, his body going limp, and he lost consciousness.