Work Text:
Pei Ming wandered through the seemingly deserted town with two fingers against his temple, speaking in his communication array.
“You’re sure this is the right place?”
“Am I the kind of person who makes mistakes, Pei?” Ling Wen replied.
“Well, there was that one time with–”
“There are always exceptions, and we agreed we would never mention that one again,” Ling Wen cut him off, causing him to snicker into the still air. “Besides, all I did this time was repeat exactly what the Wind Master told me.”
“And doesn’t that seem strange? I mean, he requested my help specifically? Shi Qingxuan and I don’t exactly see eye to eye, especially since Shui-xiong told him about our relationship.”
Somehow Ling Wen managed to convey a shrug over the telepathic array. “Maybe he’s finally coming around,” she suggested. “Eventually he has to realize you’re not going anywhere, so he might as well try and get along with his new gege.”
Pei Ming shuddered. “Don’t call me that in relation to Shi Qingxuan, that’s just wrong–”
A sudden movement in the corner of his vision caught Pei Ming’s eye. He whirled around and heard footsteps racing away down empty streets.
“What’s so wrong about it?” Ling Wen was saying. “You’re dating his older brother, so wouldn’t that make you–”
“I have to go,” Pei Ming cut in. Hearing his serious tone, Ling Wen dropped the communication array and left him to his business.
Pei Ming sprinted after the sounds. Being a martial god, he was in no way slow, and yet somehow whatever he was chasing managed to stay far enough ahead that he couldn’t even get a good look at it. He would catch glimpses of it in the distance, turning corners, ducking behind buildings, but when he caught up to where it was just a few moments later it would be gone.
He lost track of it next to a broken down fountain in what he assumed was once the center of town. A thick fog was rolling in too quickly to be natural, completely obscuring his view. He strained his ears, but the footsteps had faded away as well.
It seemed as if he were alone, and yet his senses—honed over the centuries—told him there was something there. Something was watching him.
“Show yourself now and maybe I’ll go easy on you,” he called out, raising his sword slightly.
For a moment, there was only silence. Then, a bloodcurdling shriek cut through the fog. Pei Ming froze. He recognized that voice. It was Shi Qingxuan!
He began to sprint towards the sound, trusting his honed martial skills to help him navigate without tripping. As he ran, his ears started to pick up on whispering coming from the surrounding fog. They picked up as he went, getting louder and turning into groaning and shouting, bombarding him with a cacophony of horrible noise.
Then, a clawed hand swiped at him. He dodged, but another reached out from the other side and caught his arm. Shortly after, another managed to scratch his leg. More and more appeared out of the fog, none cutting him too deeply, but still leaving him bloodied and on edge when he suddenly found himself standing back at the fountain. Was it the same one? It looked the same, but he couldn’t quite tell.
He also couldn’t really bring himself to care about the mystery of this place for too long, because sitting on the edge of the fountain was Shi Qingxuan. She was in her female form, gently swiping her hand down in the bowl where there would have once been water, though it stood empty now. Still, Pei Ming somehow thought he heard the sounds of splashing as she brushed her hand through the space.
“Qingxuan!” he called. “Are you alright? We have to go!”
He ran up to her, but she just tilted her head back to look at him, no sign of fear or urgency in her expression.
“Why wouldn’t I be alright?” she asked.
Pei Ming looked around. Though the hands had stopped reaching for him when he arrived here, the two of them were still very obviously in the middle of the creepy abandoned town. The fog still rolled around them in thick waves, and he could even still hear the whispering and moaning of whatever spirits were lurking here.
“Why wouldn’t you– can’t you see how cursed this place is?! Weren’t you the one screaming and asking for my help?!”
“Hm, I suppose I was.” Shi Qingxuan tapped a perfectly manicured nail against her chin. “General Pei is so chivalrous, running to help the poor frightened lady. It’s a shame he didn’t notice that he fell right into my trap .”
She stood then, and it seemed as if the fog swelled around her, billowing out behind her and forming into shapes, terrible, twisting limbs that seemed to now be coming from her as much as she seemed to be partially consumed by them, one with the fog that was now reaching out towards him to do the same.
Pei Ming didn’t even realize that the hands were back until one swiped across his face. Another reached out and grabbed his ankle, and he shook it off without a second thought.
“I’ve had so much fun watching the general run around today,” Shi Qingxuan’s voice echoed across the square, somehow amplified over the screaming sounds of the spirits in the fog. “Won’t you put on one more show for me?”
Instinct took over. Pei Ming ran.
He raced through the winding roads of the town, desperately trying to remember how he’d gotten here, which turns he had taken on his earlier wild dashes. He tried to contact Ling Wen but his communication array was blocked. What had happened? Did something in the fog consume Shi Qingxuan? Was it just using her body as a puppet or was she still in there somewhere? If something had happened to the Wind Master on his watch, dating or not, Shi Wudu was going to kill him .
Finally, he noticed the fog was growing thinner the more he ran. The attacks from the hands began to slow down, and he caught a glimpse of where buildings turned into the trees of the surrounding forest. He picked up the pace and broke out of the town with no small amount of relief.
As soon as he was free, he bent over, panting heavily as he tried to regain his breath and calm the beating of his heart. Once he had himself more under control, he stood up–
“Going somewhere, Pei?”
Shi Qingxuan was right in front of him, fanning herself with her spiritual device. He shrieked and jumped back. Was it dignified? No, but after what she had done in the town, he wasn’t taking any chances.
She chuckled and stepped towards him. He stepped back, only to realize that directly behind him was the edge of town. The fog had gathered there, thick and rolling, a few hands still reaching out at him as he stood there. He was trapped.
“Whatever you’re doing–” he started, but she cut him off.
“Oh, don’t worry, Pei. I won’t hurt you… any more,” she added, taking in the lines left all over him by the clawed hands.
“I just wanted to chat,” she continued. “Can’t I do that? After all, you’re dating my Ge now.” She smiled coldly, and abruptly Pei Ming realized what was going on.
“Is that really what this is about?!”
She stepped closer, forcing him to lean back towards the hands that were still attempting to grab him from the fog.
“I have a lot of friends, Pei Ming,” she said. “Most of them aren’t nearly as nice as me. Something like this… it was really rather easy to pull off.” She stepped even closer. “There’s not a lot of lines I won’t cross when it comes to my brother. Understand?”
For a moment, Pei Ming saw Shi Qingxuan as she was in the heart of the fog, eyes seeming to glow as misty tendrils swarmed around her menacingly. Then he blinked, and it was gone.
He nodded. “I understand.”
“Good.” Shi Qingxuan stepped back, allowing the tension to fall from Pei Ming’s shoulders. “His favorite flower is chrysanthemum by the way.”
Then, before he knew it, she was gone. When he looked behind him, the fog was completely gone. The town was silent.
“Ling Wen?” he tried his communication array.
“Pei. Is the issue resolved?” she responded immediately.
He sighed, mostly in relief. “Yep. Everything is resolved,” he answered. “Coming back now.” Though, he might pick up a bouquet of chrysanthemums on the way.
If he continued to have a healthy dose of fear of the Wind Master going forward… that was for him to know.
Bonus
He Xuan stood on the opposite side of town from Shi Qingxuan, corralling ghosts back to Ghost City, much to their displeasure. Now that they’d had a chance to mess with a Heavenly Official, none of them wanted to stop. It was taking every scrap of patience he had left not to just devour them all and be done with it.
It was lucky that he didn’t, because a moment later Shi Qingxuan appeared from one of the many transportation arrays he had hidden around the town to allow the two of them to move around as needed and to guide Pei Ming where they wanted him, as well as make the town feel much bigger than it was.
“Ming-xiong!” she squealed as soon as she saw him. “It went perfectly! Thanks for the help!”
“Mn,” He Xuan grunted, grabbing one of the last remaining ghosts and shoving it back through the teleportation array to Ghost City. Shi Qingxuan watched him do it with a sparkle of awe in her eye.
“How did you get all these ghosts to join anyway?” she asked.
“Sold my soul to the devil,” He Xuan grumbled, thinking of just how much debt Hua Cheng had decided to add to his total in exchange for this.
Shi Qingxuan laughed. “You know, no one believes me when I tell them you’re funny, Ming-xiong!”
He Xuan rolled his eyes. At least she wasn’t pushing him about how he got the ghosts, because he really didn’t have an answer that held up to scrutiny. He made sure the last of the Ghost City residents made it through and then closed the array.
“Come on,” Shi Qingxuan said, returning to his male form and grabbing He Xuan’s arm. “Let’s go get dinner. My treat!”
He Xuan smiled slightly. “Now you’re talking.” They started to walk off together when a thought occurred to him.
“Hey, I don’t think you ever mentioned… why were we doing all this to Pei Ming anyway?”
“Oh yeah! Ming-xiong, you won’t believe this, last week Ge sat me down and told me that he and Pei Ming are dating! Isn’t that insane?! My brother and Pei Ming! Famous womanizer Pei Ming! So of course I had to let him know what would happen if he tried to pull the same shit with my Ge.” He crossed his arms indignantly.
He Xuan stopped dead in his tracks. “So… all of that… was to protect Shi Wudu.”
“Yes!” Shi Qingxuan stomped his foot and started ranting about Pei Ming, but He Xuan couldn’t hear it. All he could hear was the flapping of a silver butterfly’s wings, and the sound of uproarious laughter in his communication array.