Way too untamed, way too wild

Who are you?

Lan Wangji was flying towards the barrier around the Burial Mounds. He was looking at the ground, searching for anything which could help him discover where the person he had just seen could have disappeared to. At this point, he could only hope that they did not run go towards the town, he would not be able to find them there, not among all the other town's people.

If the intruder was a fierce corpse, it would have been easy to spot them, but by now, it did not really seem to be the case. After all, they could only growl, they could not cry out in pain as the person had done just minutes ago. He was now sure that the one controlling the resentful energy, or being controlled by it, was actually a human being.

He was still flying back and forth in the skies, trying to see anything on the ground. It was getting harder and harder with every passing minute as the night was now falling and darkness was taking over the land.

He was already coming to terms with the thought that he would have to go back to the inn empty handed today as well as yesterday, he was not able to continue searching when he could barely see anything. Luckily, there was a crescent moon suspended in the skies so he could at least see a little bit, or else he would have been flying around in a complete darkness and would have probably flown into the barrier sooner or later.

He had just decided to give up his search for the evening and head back to the inn when he turned around and suddenly saw movement below him. He was not sure it had not been just an illusion he had imagined in his desperate search, but it would not do if he did not go check it out nevertheless.

He descended somewhat, still flying on his sword a few meters above the ground, and he went near to the place where he had just seen the grass moving unnaturally against the wind. He remained above it, completely unmoving and barely breathing.

He strained his eyes to see what was happening below him. He was utterly shocked when he realized that there was a person in what looked like black clothes making its way through the high grass, directly towards the Burial Mounds. For a second, Lan Wangji was about to call out to them, warn them that there was a barrier up ahead and that they should turn around if they were returning to the town.

He however stopped himself at the last second, his mouth already open. He had told the town's people to remain home after the night had fallen and he was pretty sure they knew that even without him warning them. None of them would certainly be running outside, this close to the Burial Mounds no less, at this hour. So the person below him could only be the one he had looking for previously, the one who had disappeared from inside the cloud of resentful energy. He had finally found his target again.

As he watched the person slowly and cautiously advance towards the barrier, Lan Wangji was debating with himself whether he should fly down and go talk to them or if he should rather follow them to learn where their hideout was. He could go talk them only after knowing where they were hiding. It could also help him to determine whether this person was a demonic cultivator who knew well what they were doing while they were controlling resentful energy or if it was just some poor victim who had no idea what was happening to them.

The decision was not a hard one. He stayed in the air, making sure to not make any noise or any sudden movements which could attract the attention of the person sneaking around below him. He realized that his pristine white robes were not the best choice for this kind of stealthy pursuit. It was hard to not lose them out of sight, their black robes melting in the darkness of the night, but he was doing his best.

Just as he had expected, the person headed towards the barrier and slipped right through it. Lan Wangji stilled for a second in front of it. He still vividly remembered the strange sensation when he had put his hand through it and also the ice cold wind blowing on the other side of it, completely independently from the outside world.

Then he took a deep breath, bracing himself for both and prompted his sword to fly forward. He did not want to lose the person he was following just because he was scared of going inside the Burial Mounds. If they could go there, surely it could not be all that dangerous. When he was passing through the barrier, he felt the fine hairs on his forearms stand up and his skin tickle. It was a very strange sensation but not a painful one.

The resentful energy surrounded him immediately once he was inside and suddenly, he had trouble breathing. It was weighing heavily on him, seemingly crushing his chest and making him want to turn around and run away. He was overwhelmed and had to start counting his frantic heartbeats to be able to calm himself again.

Once he was conscious enough to start feeling anything else, he realized he was frozen to the bone due to cold wind blowing everywhere around him and almost knocking him down from his sword. Tears gathered in his eyes, trying to expel the omnipresent black dust which got into them. The Burial Mounds really were a damned and completely inhabitable place and Lan Wangji was wondering again what the person was doing here.

Who would want to survive in this kind of place? He could hardly imagine that even a demonic cultivator found the Burial Mounds too pleasant. Despite the resentful energy being abundant here, the place was clearly hostile and hard to live in, if not outright impossible. Or perhaps did the person not choose to live here but was forced to? That was very much possible since otherwise, a demonic cultivator would have been prosecuted and took into custody immediately.

His eyes finally cleared and Lan Wangji could see the person walking a little bit ahead of him. He followed quickly, not wanting to let them escape, he had to discover their lair.

For the first time, he had a chance to observe the person in more details. He had thought they were wearing black clothes but now he could see that there was also a bit of red mixed in them. They were ragged so it was probably an attempt to have more layers to protect them from the raging elements. They had long un-kept hair, tied behind in a disaster of a ponytail, red ribbon was fluttering desperately in the wind. They were moving a bit funnily, as if sneaking around, half walking, half skipping and flinching from place to place.

What surprised Lan Wangji the most was however that their figure seemed small, too small for a grown up man or woman. The person must have been in reality a child! What was a child doing in this kind of place? And how come he had been controlling resentful energy? The poor thing must have surely been possessed and dragged here against its will. Tears started stinging in Lan Wangji's eyes, and this time it was not solely because some more dust had gotten into them.

He decided that he would take the child away immediately, he had to save them. When he looked at the spot where the child had been standing just seconds ago, there was however no one there. The child had disappeared as if by magic.

Lan Wangji spend hours looking all around for him, but he could not even find any footprints of other traces of its presence. Everything had been blown away by the wind and there was nothing left on the rocky ground. He had lost the child for good.

Long after the sun climbed onto the horizon, he gave out a big sigh and decided to abandon his search. He could only hope now that the child would come to the town in the evening again. With heavy heart he mounted his sword and headed back to the inn to get at least a few hours of sleep. He would have to do better than this if he wanted to save anyone.