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“A tiger,” Jin Ling repeats back to the man, nonplussed, “Surely this would be better suited to a hunting party? Why are you here?”
The man looks at him with a grimace, “We tried that. Twice. Neither party came back. We found them each days later, scattered about, half eaten. Please, Jin-Zongzhu, there’s something unnatural about it. Every few nights another person falls victim to it.” He pleads.
Jin Ling sighs. He’s not entirely sure this is a real nighthunt, but it doesn’t really matter. He’s sure he can handle it, whether it’s a yao or just a regular old man-eating tiger. Every few nights does seem a bit too often for a regular tiger to need to hunt a whole human, so it is a little suspicious, especially if the hunting parties were all massacred.
Either way, he’ll be helping his people.
“Alright.” He turns to the servants waiting patiently nearby, “Take this man to the dining hall and give him lunch. We will set off in an hour, from the front gate.” The man bows to him, even more deeply than he had when he’d arrived, and Jin Ling nods politely, then stands and sweeps to the back of the hall and out through one of the unassuming doors.
He’s not really bothered as to whether or not it’s a real nighthunt. It’s a good excuse to stretch his legs without the need for a retinue.
Two people, however, do not equal a retinue. Not when they’re friends.
His feet carry him quickly to the guest room that Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are currently using, visiting both in business and pleasure. They had been planning on leaving soon anyway, and the village the man hails from is on their way home. It’s actually closer to Cloud Recesses than Koi Tower, he might as well drag them along, it’ll be way more fun that way.
And his uncles won’t yell at him or look at him disappointedly for not bringing backup.
Jingyi answers the door promptly, and Jin Ling gives him a grin, “How about a nighthunt?” His friend’s face lights up with delight.
————————————
They touch down at the edge of a small town, and the man steps off Suihua as soon as Jin Ling lets go of him, looking queasy, clearly happy to be back on solid ground.
“Sorry about the turbulence,” Jin Ling apologizes, “It’s a bit windy up there.”
The man shakes his head, bowing, “No, no! It’s easier than traveling back on foot. Thank you for coming, Jin-Zongzhu. I hadn’t expected Zongzhu himself to come help out our town.”
Jin Ling shrugs, nonchalant, “It’s a nice excuse to leave all the paperwork behind for a few days, I assure you.”
The man shows the three of them into town and to the inn, and on the way he points out a house, “They lost their daughter about a week ago, she was only twenty. There’s probably been at least one more victim since I left.”
Sizhui nods, “Thank you. We’ll ask the innkeeper about it.”
The man leaves them at the door of the inn and they enter, walking up to the counter.
“You here about the tiger?” The gruff, burly man behind the counter asks.
Jingyi nods, taking the lead, “Yes. We’re going to handle it. We need two rooms.” The man nods and gives a price, and Jin Ling gets out his purse as Jingyi asks the man, “Can you tell us who the last victim was? And is there anyone who has actually seen anything that might be useful? We’d like to talk to them.”
The man nods, taking the money Jin Ling offers and putting it in a box, and handing Jingyi and Jin Ling each a key, “Last two rooms on the left, upstairs.” Jingyi nods, and the man continues, “Last one was just the night before last. An older man, carpenter, name was Na Jing. Lived on the edge of town with his wife. She’s a widow now, I suppose. I heard someone mention she actually saw the thing, too. Not many people have. Her name is Yu Xiang. If you need more than one, the fourth victim’s sister, Qin Caihong, lives on the farm east of town. She got an even better look, or so I’ve heard. It was coming for her, and her brother came at it with a pitchfork, died protecting her.”
“Thank you, that’s very helpful.” Jingyi says, “How long has this been going on?”
The man tilts his head and looks up, thinking, “Abou, say, four months? It wasn’t so bad at the beginning, it started with one every couple weeks, but it quickly got more and more frequent. These days we rarely get more than three nights in a row without a death. It’s got everyone terrified, people only leave their houses at night when they really have to, but still, there’s always something, there’s always someone. Every few nights.”
“Never during the day?” Sizhui asks.
The man shakes his head, “Only between dusk and dawn.” Then adds, “Always at least two peaceful nights between killings so far, sometimes more. Although it used to be more than that, so who knows?”
They talk to the twenty year old woman’s family first, as they’re the closest, but they don’t glean anything from the visit. Neither her parents nor her siblings had seen anything. The only thing they learned was that her parents were distraught, as any parent would be, but even more so because she had only left the house so late because they’d gotten into a fight about her engagement to a man she didn’t want to marry, not for the first time.
She’s gone out to get away from them for a few hours, and she’d never come back. The girl's parents seem to be blaming themselves, and Jin Ling can’t really disagree.
He’s glad when they leave. He feels for the victim. He’s had fights with family members that he would have braved a possibly supernatural tiger for, but never unarmed. She’d been helpless against it.
They visit the carpenter’s wife next.
Sizhui knocks on the door, and an older woman answers, maybe in her sixties, hair graying and messy, eyes red-rimmed with dark bags underneath them.
“Yu Xiang?” Sizhui asks gently, and she nods, opening the door wider as she takes in their fancy robes and swords, the forehead ribbons on the two Lan men, “We’re sorry for your loss, and we’re so sorry to bother you, but we’re hoping you might be able to tell us something about the tiger that killed your husband.”
She shakes her head, “Cultivators, I would like to help, I would like nothing more than for this nightmare plaguing our town to be over with, but I don’t think I can help you. I really didn’t see much.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Sizhui pries gently.
Yu Xiang sighs, heavy and world-weary, “I was standing right here, on the doorstep.” She points out at the tree line, maybe a few hundred feet away, at a felled tree, “He was right about there. I came out to call him to dinner, he turned and waved and said he’d be there in a minute, and it- it-” her voice breaks, and she takes a shaky breath, and then another, and continues, voice flat, “All I saw was a flash of orange, and then he was gone. Pulled away into the trees. He screamed, and by the time my legs would let me move I couldn’t find him anywhere. My neighbors helped me look in the morning, and I must have missed it in the low light, because he wasn’t far off. He wasn’t in one piece anymore. It was horrible.” There are tears running down her cheeks, and she turns away, wiping at her face with her sleeve, “I really didn’t see anything else, I’m sorry.”
Sizhui bows shallowly to her, “That’s alright, you’ve been through a traumatic time. We’ll leave you to mourn. Soon you won’t have to fear going out after dusk, we promise you that.”
She bows back, “Thank you. I will try to look forward to that. As much as I can look forward to anything, these days.” The woman says with a sad smile.
Jin Ling nods at her, “Thank you for your time.” And then turn to go, heading east towards the farm the innkeeper had mentioned.
Jin Ling takes the lead for this one, knocking on the door. There’s no answer, so Jingyi and Sizhui wait at the door while he pokes around, finding a woman around the back of the house, shoveling manure.
“Qin Caihong?” He calls out, and the woman turns. She looks about thirty, definitely older than Jin Ling himself, but still young, her hair tied up in a simple bun to keep it out of the way as she works.
She sets down the shovel and approaches, “That’s me. Can I help you, daozhang?”
Jin Ling gives her his best smile, “I think so.” He gestures at the house, “My companions are around the front, we knocked but no one answered. We were told you’ve gotten the best look at this tiger?”
She nods, wiping her hands on her robes and gesturing for him to follow as she walks briskly round to the front of the house. She greets Sizhui and Jingyi, then opens the door and invites them inside, setting a kettle over the fire to boil and pulling cups and a box of tea leaves out of a cupboard.
She seems busy, so they sit down at the slightly rickety wooden table she herds them towards to wait. When the water is boiled and the tea steeping, she finally sits with them, setting it down on the table between them.
“What do you want to know?” She asks, cutting right to the chase.
“Anything, really,” Jin Ling tells her, “We have very little information on anything but the victims, as of yet. The thing itself is a mystery.” He glances at the Lan men, “To be honest, we’re not even completely sure this is really a job for a cultivator. We’ll handle it regardless, it’s clearly causing a lot of trouble and we’re capable, but it would be helpful to know whether we’re just hunting a wild animal with a taste for people or if this is actually a proper nighthunt.”
She laughs darkly, looking at them with something a little wild and scared in her eyes, “Oh, it’s a job for a cultivator alright. That thing isn’t a tiger. Maybe it used to be, but it’s not anymore. There’s something off. Tigers, wild animals, they’re scary obviously, terrifying even, but this thing?” She shivers, “It made my skin crawl. It touched me, and it stung, not even where it scratched me,” She gestures at her side, “Well, there too, but here,” She indicates her upper arm this time, “Where its tail brushed me? Its fur felt like thorns. Through my clothing. Didn’t tear it, but I felt it all the same.” She picks up the kettle and begins pouring the tea, as if to distract herself from the memory of it.
Sizhui gives her a sympathetic look - he’s always been good at those - and asks, “That definitely sounds like our kind of thing, then. Did it look like a regular tiger?”
Caihong finishes pouring the tea and sits, staring down into her own cup for a while, fiddling with it, “I’m not sure, I’m sorry. It all happened so fast, and it’s been months. It looked… nastier than I would have expected. Too many teeth? The color of its coat was duller than the skins I’ve seen from hunted tigers. I don’t know, maybe my memory is just wrong. It definitely looked hungry, though. Starving, even. Thin, with bones showing.”
Jin Ling nods, sipping his tea, and she opens her mouth as if to add something, and then shuts it, frowning.
“Was there something else?” Jin Ling prompts gently.
She hesitates, then nods, “I think there might have been more than one? It moved really far in the blink of an eye. Literally, I blinked and it was in a completely different spot in the trees, before the attack. I only ever saw one at once… but I swear they had different patterns of stripes. There had to have been at least two of them.”
————————————
“So,” Jingyi says when they sit down to eat dinner, back at the inn, “A yao, yeah? Or two of them.”
Sizhui nods, and Jin Ling adds, “Yeah. It sounds like it. We’ll have to find the source of whatever caused them to become yao.”
“What’s the plan for tonight?” Jingyi asks. The other two both look at Jin Ling.
He contemplates for a few moments, “Let’s get a good night’s rest tonight. The innkeeper said there’s always been two nights of peace between incidents, and tonight is night two. Let’s assume that isn’t changing tonight. We can go out scouting tomorrow in relative safety during the day for anything strange in the area, look for the source of negative energy. We’ll worry about the yao themselves tomorrow night. We can pretty easily cover the whole town on watch between the three of us.”
The two Lan men nod, and they all tuck in to their dinner as the waiter sets the dishes down in front of them.
It’s a plan.
————————————
They set off the next morning to scour the surrounding forest. Their compasses of evil seem to be bouncing between multiple points, so they split up, each picking a direction to follow.
Jin Ling spends about an hour following his before he realizes he’s going in circles.
He decides to wander around without the compass, searching, but that doesn’t do much good either, and he hasn’t found anything useful by the time he sees one of the Lan flares - the kind they use for non-emergency situations - go up in the distance, in the direction Jingyi had headed.
He hops on Suihua and follows the firework, swiftly reaching Jingyi’s location.
It’s pretty far outside of the town, not something easily stumbled across, and Sizhui has already arrived by the time Jin Ling does, as he’d been closer.
The two Lan men are staring down a ravine when he swoops through the trees, and the negative energy is so thick in the air that Jin Ling can almost taste it. It reminds him of the burial mounds, or Yi City. There’s just something oppressive in the air. It’s not nearly as bad as those other two places had been, though.
It’s a sharp, rocky drop down, a stream running through it at the bottom, presumably having cut this gash into the earth over many tens or hundreds of years of erosion. There are various bits of plant debris that have fallen in over the years, branches here and there spanning the gap, caught between the sides, but nothing that would allow enough purchase for escape, we’re someone to fall in.
Jin Ling is beginning to realize what the likely cause of the negative energy is, and his suspicions are confirmed when Sizhui points down to one side with a grim expression.
A skull.
A human skull.
And further along, some other less identifiable bones.
They begin walking along the gash in the earth, and they see various things belonging to people who must have fallen in over the years, both bodies and their possessions.
“Do you think they fell in?” Sizhui muses, “I can’t think what else would have triggered this to happen, I have to imagine if someone recently died here or went missing recently, someone would have mentioned it to us.” He kneels down and leans over the edge, squinting at something before getting back up and catching up with the other two, “So nothing has changed, this place has been sitting here like this, probably for a long time. So why would it suddenly be affecting the local wildlife? Unless they spent a prolonged period steeping in the negative energy here, right in the heart of it.”
Jingyi nods, “They must have. It makes sense.”
Jin Ling sighs, ambling along, “This is going to take all day to cleanse. How far does this stretch? We might have to come back tomorrow, too.” He kicks a small rock into the ravine, and it bounces against the sides three times before splashing into the water with a loud ‘plunk’.
Jingyi looks up, scratching behind his ear as he thinks, “I’m not sure. I definitely saw it on the map, but I can’t remember how long it was.” He turns, and Sizhui is already holding the map out to him, and he takes it with a soft smile, opening up the scroll and studying it for a few moments, “It stretches over about two thirds of a mile, but there are a lot of twists and turns.” He rolls it shut again, and hands it back to his husband, who tucks it back into his sleeve, “We should find where it ends and start there.”
Sizhui and Jin Ling both nod, and they all hop on their swords to find the end of the death trap of a natural landmark.
————————————
Between the two Lan men’s adeptness at purification via musical cultivation on guqin, and Jin Ling’s control over demonic forces via his flute, Xiyin, they get the area clean quicker than Jin Ling expects.
It still takes all day, but they do end up with just enough time to lay down some preventative measures for when someone else inevitably falls in and dies, so that it won’t fester into something quite so bad, in future.
As Jin Ling places the last talisman into the stream at the bottom and flies back out on his sword, the sun is creeping low on the horizon, and his stomach is grumbling loudly.
The three of them head back to the inn together, satisfied with the day’s work.
“I can’t believe we had to skip lunch,” Jingyi complains as the alight on the edge of town. He throws one arm around his husband’s shoulders, and the other over Jin Ling’s, leaning heavily on the both of them, “I don’t think I’ll make it back to the inn, you’ll have to carry me.” He declares, grinning when both of them roll their eyes at him.
Sizhui’s eye roll is accompanied by a peck on the cheek and a smile, “I think you’ll survive. We’re almost there.”
Jin Ling leans heavily back onto his friend until they’re both staggering and laughing, Sizhui stepping deftly out from under his husband’s arm so that he doesn’t get pulled into their altercation, or the playful shoving that follows it.
Dinner is good, if slightly hurried, and afterwards they head back outside into the pink and grey light of dusk to discuss the best plan for their night watch.
“I don’t think we need to take turns sleeping, if it doesn’t show up tonight we can always safely sleep during the day tomorrow and stay up again all night.” Sizhui points out.
The other two nod, “Yeah. That’s fine.” Jin Ling agrees, “Let’s take posts on the edge of town then, Sizhui and I can take the North and West, where the compasses were pointing, Jingyi, why don’t you cover the Southeasternmost point, furthest from us? Just to make sure we have the whole area covered,” He glances at the map, “We’ll definitely be plenty close enough for flares, maybe even shouting distance,” He looks up when Sizhui makes a little snorting noise, almost a laugh, “What?”
Sizhui shakes his head in amusement, “I think your definition of ‘shouting distance' is different than mine.” He laughs again, “Not everyone can manage to be as loud as you and A-Yi.” He says it with a fond look at the both of them.
They both glance at each other and laugh a bit. It’s a fair point, “Okay, fine, flares only.” He looks between the two Lan men, “Stay alert, send a flare as soon as you see or hear anything suspicious. If nothing goes wrong, we meet back at the inn for breakfast at dawn.”
Both of them nod, and all three of them climb on their swords once again, and spread out across the sky over the town, hovering low enough that they can see the ground well, and high enough that at least one of them can see every place where the edge of the town meets the treeline.
It’s going to be a long night.
————————————
As it turns out, it is not as long as Jin Ling expects.
They are only about four hours into their watch when he sees Sizhui’s flare light up the dark sky.
It’s fairly far away from the village, well into the forest, which is strange considering their agreement to be cautious and notify each other immediately of anything suspicious, but there is no time to think about that, and within a second he is speeding off through the chilly night air towards his friend.
When he arrives, he drops through the trees on Suihua, and his heart drops out of his chest as he takes in the scene before him, barely landing before he’s broken into a run.
There are definitely two of them, that’s for sure.
Two tigers, skin and bones and orange and black fur, radiating menacing power despite their emaciated states.
They are circling a swordless Lan Sizhui, tails swishing and teeth bared, black wisps almost like smoke teeming around them. The man is clutching at his side and gasping, his light blue robes drenched in blood, and Jin Ling sees red.
The battle is quick and bloody, and he does not make it out unscathed, but by the time Jingyi arrives not even two minutes later, one of the yao is lying dead a few feet from where Sizhui is curled up, writhing and bleeding, and Jin Ling is in the process of slicing his sword through the neck of the second one.
He falls to one knee as soon as it is dead, dropping his sword as the cutting, crawling, searing pain down his left arm and thigh take his attention. He groans and bleeds, and Jingyi looks at him helplessly as he rushes to his husband’s side, clearly the worse off of the two of them.
“Fuck,” Jingyi breathes, a moment later, “Jin Ling, these are really deep.” Jin Ling barely hears him over Sizhui’s sobs of pain.
He breathes, calming himself, forcing the air in and out, deep and steady, until he can speak through the pain, “Gusu. Gusu is closer.”
Jingyi looks up at him from where he is pushing qi into his husband’s wrist, putting pressure on the wound, “Are you going to be able to make that flight?” He asks him skeptically.
Jin Ling gives a jerky nod, walking over to collect Sizhui’s sword and sheathe it, tucking it safely inside his sleeve. He knows he’ll be okay, it just hurts like fucking hell, an extra ten helpings of pain on top of what a wound like this should cause. His wounds are fairly shallow. He’s far more worried about Sizhui.
He walks back over to Suihua and steps on, rising up into the air. He’s slightly unsteady, but it should be okay once they’re going forward at speed.
“Jin Ling,” Jingyi says, sounding even more scared than Jin Ling is, “He’s not responding. He’s not even looking at me.”
“Pain.” He replies, teeth grit against his own, “Hurts more than it should, mine are shallow, his aren’t.”
Jingyi nods, seeming to calm himself and kick into action, pulling out a wound-binding talisman and activating it as Sizhui continues to sob, unresponsive. He lifts the slightly smaller man off of the ground, one hand under his shoulders and the other under his thighs, standing with his burden and stepping onto his own sword, nodding again, this time at Jin Ling as they rise into the sky.
Jingyi pushes forward quickly through the cold wind, pulling ahead of Jin Ling. He looks down at his husband as he speeds up, occasionally glancing back over his shoulder to check that Jin Ling is okay, is following, but Jin Ling begins to fall further and further behind as Jingyi’s anxiousness for his husband grows.
“Go!” Jin Ling has to shout over the wind to be heard, after Jingyi looks back at him yet again, clearly torn between his husband and one of his best friends, concerned for both. The older man looks back at him again at the shout, staring, indecisive, so he shouts again, “I’ll be fine, he needs help, go!”
Jingyi speeds off into the night, much faster than Jin Ling could currently keep up with, with the pain he’s in. His concentration just isn’t sufficient. He clenches his jaw against the pain and soldiers on towards Cloud Recesses.
————————————
It takes Jin Ling three hours to arrive at Clour Recesses, at the pace he’s forced to take the flight, and he’s surprised to find Jingyi waiting for him at the gates.
He’d expected him to be at his husband’s bedside.
Jingyi gives him a relieved smile as he stumbles off of Suihua, and instantly offers him support. Jin Ling is grateful, the gashes on his thigh, though shallow, are still extremely painful, and the long flight standing on that leg did nothing to help.
He’s going to ask, but Jingyi beats him to it as he helps him towards the infirmary, step by excruciating step, “He’s going to be okay. They removed the curse that was causing the pain, and he’s stopped losing blood. He’s not in danger anymore, and he’s asleep. He was coherent after the curse was gone.” Jin Ling opens his mouth to answer, but Jingyi shakes his head, “You don’t need to speak, I know you’re in a lot of pain.” He shuts his mouth again and gives Jingyi a grateful, stiff nod.
“I’m sorry for leaving you behind,” His friend continues, voice soft, “Thank you. For giving me permission.”
Jin Ling doesn’t have the energy for the words he wants to say, so he simply squeezes Jingyi’s shoulder with the arm that’s leaning on him, and hopes that’s enough to convey how he feels. That he knows what Sizhui and Jingyi mean to each other, that Sizhui was in much worse shape, that he would never blame him for putting his husband first, especially when the man clearly needed him more than Jin Ling did.
Jingyi gives him a small smile in response, rubbing his head against Jin Ling’s affectionately like some sort of cat. If he were in less pain, he would laugh. He’ll have to remember to tease him about it later.
“You’re both going to be fine.” The other man says with conviction, and Jin Ling believes him.
————————————
They get the curse taken care of, and treat his wounds, and once the doctors have done everything they can and someone - probably Lan Wangji - manages to convince Wei Wuxian he is not allowed to fuss over either his son or his nephew in their presence because they need rest, he falls straight asleep, the exhaustion of the night catching up with him just as Cloud Recesses is coming to - quiet, always quiet - life for the morning.
He sleeps off and on for almost a full day, and then misuses his power as a visiting sect leader to get the doctors to leave him alone so he can get out of bed. They still give him stern, disapproving looks, but they can’t stop him, so he goes to bother Jingyi in his rooms as he gets ready for the morning, needing to have something to do besides lying around in a bed in the infirmary.
He decides to stay in Cloud Recesses for a few days to let his arm and thigh recover before the flight home, and also because he’ll feel better about leaving when Sizhui is looking a little more lively. He knows his friend is going to be okay, logically, but it’s just hard for that to sink in on an emotional level after a scare like that.
He ends up hanging around Jingyi all day, watching him teach sword stances, and right now his friend is telling the story of their nighthunt to a small crowd of Lan disciples. Mostly the youngsters he’d just finished teaching a short while ago, but some older students and even a small number of adult disciples have stopped to listen to his animated storytelling.
He’s definitely exaggerating a bit.
A lot.
Wei Wuxian plops himself down next to him on the bench at the side of the training field where he’s sitting, near the edge of the crowd, “You know, I think you should have your own title,” Wuxian says, a smirk on his face, “From the way Jingyi and Sizhui tell it, you’ve certainly earned one. Honestly, I’m surprised no one’s tried to give you one by now. Hell, you could pick your own, you’re certainly powerful enough.”
Jin Ling shakes his head, “People already call me Jin-Zongzhu, isn’t that enough?”
Wuxian huffs, “Jin Ling, my nephew, so humble! Too humble. Clearly you need something flashy. Something impressive. Something fitting for the most powerful Jin cultivator in living memory…”
“Wei Wuxian…” He warns, but the man continues, seemingly oblivious to his nephew’s apprehension.
“Oh! I know what your title should be,” His dajiu says loudly. Too loudly, “How about Dujin Xian?”
Jin Ling gives him an unimpressed, flat look, “That is the stupidest title ever. Gilded Immortal? It’s garish and far too self-important.”
Wuxian just laughs, full-bullied and loud, always loud, “Fit for a Jin! Like I said! Half the Jianghu already think you’re actually an immortal anyway.” He teases, bowing mockingly deep, “Dujin Xian, please accept my humble thanks for your amazing and town-saving deeds!”
“Dajiu, please stop,” He grumbles, and It’s then that Jin Ling realizes that there are too many heads turned toward them, and he groans, “You idiot, people heard you!” He jabs a finger accusingly into his uncle’s chest, “If people start calling me that I am entirely blaming you, it will be all your fault that I have the most self-aggrandizing title in existence! People are going to get the wrong idea!”
The man just laughs again, “I’m sure it won’t catch on, don’t you worry Dujin Xian.” He reassures him, patting Jin Ling on the shoulder as the younger man glares at him.
Unfortunately, Wuxian is very, very wrong. Less than a month later he’s hearing the new title left and right. At the very least, it seems to be somewhat common knowledge that he didn’t choose it for himself.
Still. He’s going to make sure to accidentally spill some ink on his dajiu’s robes next time he sees him, and the man is going to deserve it.
Gilded immortal, honestly!