Way too untamed, way too wild

Third time is a charm

Lan Wangji was laying in his bed in the inn but he could not sleep at all. Partly because it was still bright outside and he was not used to sleeping during the day and partly, it was actually the bigger part of the reason, he could not stop thinking about the child he did not manage to save and who would now have to suffer in the Burial Mounds longer because of his inability.

After almost an hour, he decided that this was a pointless effort on his side and that he first needed to stop thinking too hard. Which was easier said than done. After a brief reflexion he opted for a change of scenery, he would go take a short stroll around the town. Seeing a lively street market would surely distract him enough so he would stop blaming himself for a while and be able to return to the inn to finally get some sleep. He knew he would most probably not be able to get any during the night as he would be waiting for the child to come back to the town again.

So he put on his outer robe and descended into the street. Immediately, the omnipresent chaos of voices surrounded him and he had to pay attention so he would not bump into anyone, the so desired distraction was working instantly. People were politely greeting him and he was nodding back in response, luckily, they were not asking him about his night hunt.

The distraction did not last for long, sadly. He remembered as soon as he saw a child running around with a wooden toy. And he had to wonder whether the child in the Burial Mounds could ever smile happily or play as any other children.

He somehow doubted it. It must have been kidnapped from its home for whatever reason and forced to be a medium for the resentful energy for who knew how long already. Once again, he almost wanted to cry, he would not wish such a fate to even his worst enemies, not even talking about an innocent child. He had to save them no matter what, and if possible, return them to their home.

Suddenly, he saw another child, a less fortunate one as it was wearing ragged clothes and was filthy, it was sneaking around and visibly trying to steal some food from the closest stall. Something in the child's movements was very familiar to him, Lan Wangji could not help himself but to think it was the child he had been searching for. It was even wearing the same colours in his clothing, black with occasional specks of red, and a red ribbon holding up his somewhat dishevelled dark hair. It however looked a lot taller and older than the other one.

Although that was completely irrational, it could not be the same one; the child in the Burial Mounds was controlled by the resentful energy, it would surely not be walking around the town this casually during the day. But what if it could be true?

Intrigued, Lan Wangji started following the child discreetly from a safe distance, never leaving it from his eyes. He saw how it grabbed some sweets from the stall while its owner was not looking and then it disappeared in the mass of people around it. The seller seemed not to have noticed anything but Lan Wangji saw everything clearly, the child was stealing, probably because it was hungry. Even from this far away, it was only too obvious how skinny it was.

After his deed, the child turned around a corner of the closest back alley. Lan Wangji waited for several heartbeats before he followed again, he did not want the child to notice him. When he went further, he could now only see a scrunched down figure disappearing into the tall grass around the town. It looked now almost exactly as he had remembered from the evening. His suspicion was growing steadily.

He did not hesitate and got onto his sword, flew into the air and exited the town a few meters above the ground. It did not even take him a second to spot the child again, the grass was being pushed open in places as the child was moving around inside it, more like sneaking around really since there was nothing to be seen above the grass level. It must have been crawling around on all four or something similar. Sure enough, it was moving in the direction of the Burial Mounds. Lan Wangji silently followed.

He was completely baffled. It was now clear to him that the child he was now watching and the child he had seen yesterday inside the cloud of resentful energy were the same. He did not know what exactly it meant. He was thinking about all the possibilities, but none of them seemed to fit too well.

It seemed like the child was moving on its own free will, which must have been the case since Lan Wangji had never seen anyone possessed by resentful energy behaving like this and just casually walking around stealing sweets in the market. He could not fully wrap his head around what it could mean; either the child was not in reality controlled by resentful energy and he had been wrong all along, or it was him who was in reality the new demonic cultivator the whole cultivation world was dreading so much.

No, surely the second option was impossible, where would such a young child learn demonic cultivation? And to this degree of expertise? Its cultivation would have had to be very high if it was able to control the resentment to the point it could freely let it manifest and then disperse into thin air. There was also the point of the resentful energy not attacking Lan Wangji before, it meant it held back by the will of the one controlling it.

There was moreover a third option he really did not want to think about. The child could have been forced into learning demonic cultivation from the real demonic cultivator. It would truly be an impossible feat to figure everything out by itself, not in such a short amount of time, the child was too young.

Lan Wangji would really have to find out more about this child, and its master if it had one. It could be a real threat to the cultivation world to have someone this powerful around again. All the cultivators and normal people still remembered the war too well to be able to pass by this, even if the perpetrator would turn out to be a young child.

Lan Wangji sighed, not sure what was the right course of action, to serve the cultivation sects or to protect a child? He could not choose as of now, he needed more information about the whole situation to be able to decide justly. This time, he barely noticed he was passing the barrier surrounding the Burial Mounds before he was almost knocked over from his sword.

He shook his head and willed himself to stop thinking this hard. The most important thing at the moment was to follow the child and discover where exactly it lived and who was living there with it.