Way too untamed, way too wild

Fight

Lan Wangji was startled from his half meditative state. The sun was already setting and the darkness would not let itself be waited for for much longer, it was already creeping from the eastern side of the skies. He looked around, trying to discover what had alerted him. He could however not see anything. The grassy field in front of him was completely empty and he could also not see any fierce corpses in his vicinity. Neither could he hear anything; the world was completely silent and still safe for the gently blowing breeze and the grass dancing in it.

Suddenly, a cold chill run up his spine and he looked behind himself, in the direction of the town he was supposed to be guarding. He could see thin smoky black tendrils of resentful energy gathering in one place. He could not see it earlier probably due to the growing darkness. The fierce corpse was emitting so much resentment that it would have been otherwise impossible for him to overlook it sneaking around him.

He jumped up onto his feet while grabbing his sword. He was silently berating himself that he did not notice the fierce corpse or resentful creature passing by him. Now he would have to affront it inside the town as the cloud of resentment was already entering and leaving the first houses behind. He jumped onto his sword and followed.

Once he had caught up to the intruding cloud of smoke, he observed it carefully. It did not seem like the resentful creature had noticed him yet, or at least it did not attack him right away. He could not see any solid body inside of the jet black smoke. Was it possible that some of the town's peoples' stories had been spot on when they mentioned that the creature was only this dark mass of resentment? He watched for a while longer, but the creature did not move at all, it was only staying in that one place, swirling around almost peacefully.

Since it was not doing anything at the moment, Lan Wangji decided he would observe it for a while longer. He would fight it only when it would be returning to the Burial Mounds, once it was out of the town again.

It actually took another ten minutes or so before the cloud of resentment finally started moving. To Lan Wangji's utter horror, it did not go in the direction of the Burial Mounds but instead proceeded towards the centre of Yiling. He had no choice now but to fight it where it was. If any of the town's people did not listen to his advice, they could be in danger if he let the creature roam around through the streets.

And he could not let that happen. Even if the creature seemed quite harmless now, for whatever reason that was, it could change any second and he would not bet innocent lives on a mere possibility that it would not be hostile towards them.

He slowly descended from his observation point high in the air, making sure he would not be heard, if the creature could hear of course. He set down from his sword and still the cloud of resentment did not make any move to attack him. It was getting more and more strange. Lan Wangji had never seen any resentful creature to have this much self-control unless it was one of Wen Ruohan's puppets. He hoped that was not the case, it would really get troublesome if it was true.

Deciding that there was no time to lose, he sent his weapon flying towards the cloud of resentment. As he did not know what exactly the creature was, he did not want to risk getting too close to it himself, not when he could first try fighting from a distance. Perhaps the Yunmeng Jiang sect disciples had made the mistake of attacking up close.

He saw how his sword disappeared in the swirling smoke. He was still in control of it, that was a good sign, at least he knew that the creature did not want to take control over it, at least not yet. He let it fly around inside the cloud of resentment for a while but it did not seem like it had any effect whatsoever. It did not flinch or move, the swirling also stayed regular, as if the creature did not even notice that there was a sword in its insides in the first place.

Lan Wangji was getting more and more confused by the second. He could not understand what kind of creature this was. It almost seemed like while it did not have any compact physical body, the cloud of resentment had not been its representation either. How was he supposed to fight something like this? Perhaps he should go get some reinforcements after all.

He made one last attempt, having his sword circle around inside the swirling smoke. To no avail, he could not hit anything. He recalled his weapon back into his hand.

As the sword was exiting the darkness, the swirls came apart just for a split second. Lan Wangji could not believe his eyes, he thought saw he a movement inside the cloud of resentment. At first, he was not sure he saw right because it could have just been an illusion, a swirling of black on the background of darkness creating a kind of mirage. But then he heard a rustling sound, as if someone had moved and his clothes shifted around him.

There was definitely something inside the swirling resentment. Something, or someone. Lan Wangji could not be sure at the moment. He would have to get a better and closer look. If it would actually turn out that a person was moving inside this thick cloud of resentment, they would either had had to be already insane and possessed, or they were a demonic cultivator. He could see no other option.

Perhaps their worries had been spot on after all. Perhaps there really was a new demonic cultivator living in the Burial Mounds. Or somewhere close to them as Lan Wangji could not imagine anyone surviving in there. Then again, those cultivating the resentful energy were known to have strange tastes and habits.

If this was actually the case, he would have to report to the other sects what he had found. However, he could not be sure for now. He would have to first confirm his suspicion, otherwise, he would be mobilizing the whole cultivation world for nothing.

Lan Wangji grasped his sword tighter and he started slowly walking towards the swirling black mass, one step at a time, prepared for an attack which could come at any moment. He was already only five or so steps away when the cloud of resentment started suddenly dissipating. Lan Wangji stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide open, trying to penetrate the darkness and see the movement one more time.

It only took a few seconds and there was no more resentment to be seen anywhere nearby. The cloud had just disappeared as quickly as it had appeared previously. There was no sign left that it had actually ever been there. And there also was no one on the street.

Lan Wangji was now as confused as never before. He was sure he had seen and heard something move around inside the gathered resentment, and it not leave as the cloud had been disappearing. So where was the creature or the person who had been hiding inside? It was a mystery for him.

One he would have to solve another time as there was literary nothing left for him to do now. He had no leads about where the intruder could have disappeared to. The only place he could maybe find something out were the Burial Mounds.

Lan Wangji looked over in their direction. The mountains were still visible in the distance, a black mass against lighter blackness of the horizon. He shuddered slightly remembering how the place had looked like during the day. He really did not want to go there at night time. But he had a duty to accomplish, his personal feelings had nothing to do here right now.

He mounted his sword and flew over to the barrier. He spent half the night looking for any breaches or other clues which could help him determine where the resentful creature, or the demonic cultivator, could have crossed it. After hours of pointless searching, he still came out empty handed.

He was tired at the moment, any further searches seemed to not bear any fruit, especially in the darkness of the night which had fully fallen a long time ago. He sighed and turned his back to the barrier around the Burial Mounds. He headed towards the town and into the inn where he had rented a room. He could continue searching tomorrow, when there would be higher chances for him to find something in the daylight.