Way too untamed, way too wild

Different approach

Lan Wangji was returning back to the town after only one hour of searching for the boy. He had given up pretty soon this time around, he had realized he was approaching this the wrong way. The boy was at home, or so it seemed, in the Burial Mounds, if he did not want to be found, then Lan Wangji would not be able to. He had to try a different approach.

He could of course wait on the town's outskirts for the familiar cloud of resentment but that had not worked either before. He was pretty sure that the boy did not want to hurt anyone, he was apparently just stealing food this way in order to survive. Lan Wangji had to wonder how the child had found himself in this kind of situation; then again, it was not completely uncommon, after the war had ended, many found themselves without a roof above their heads and food on their tables.

The only time the boy had attacked him was when Lan Wangji approached him while he was in a vulnerable state. Seeing how he had injured the boy before, he could not really blame him for overreacting. He would have been surprised himself if he woke up and someone was trying to touch him out of the blue. And even then, the boy only lashed out on him and run away, it was not as if he actually intended to attack him in earnest. At least Lan Wangji believed so.

What would be the best way to get closer to the boy and convince him to come to the Cloud Recesses with him? Unfortunately, it was unlikely that the boy would trust him, not after today's incident if he called it like that. What could help him to earn his trust for at least long enough so he would be able to talk to him?

Lan Wangji smiled a bit, he just had the perfect idea. The boy was hungry, and he most probably had no source of food anywhere so he was left with having to steal in Yiling under the cover of a cloud of resentment if he did not want to be spotted. If that was the case, there was nothing easier than to get him something to eat.

Although this method made him think about taming wild animals – he had had good results when trying it out with rabbits living in the back mountains back in the Cloud Recesses –, he believed that it could do the trick in earning the boy's trust.

Once he had come to this decision, he abandoned his seemingly pointless search and headed back to the town. He did not know which foods the boy would fancy so he brought a bit of everything, including some sweets which he had seen the boy steal in the morning. He did not buy too much however as he was afraid that the other would be so eager to eat everything immediately that he would get a stomach ache. He will promise to buy him more, surely the boy would be more than willing to meet him again like this.

At first, he was about to go wait near the town, just as the first night he came here, but in the end, he opted not to. The boy would probably not be too keen on meeting him there, so close to other people who had probably not accepted him as he was not living inside the town but in the dreaded Burial Mounds. No, better option would be to go see him where he felt more comfortable, even though it escaped Lan Wangji's reasoning how anyone could be fine with living in such a hostile place. But perhaps the boy had no choice in the matter.

He also bought some medicinal herbs and new bandages. If the boy would not let him treat his wound, Lan Wangji would just give him the supplies so he could do it himself. He did not want the injury to become infected because it had been ill-treated and neglected. It was quite a serious one, it must have also hurt a lot despite the boy not showing anything in his movements.

With his qiakun pouch a lot fuller and his purse a little lighter, he did not spare another moment and mounted his sword again. He was tired since he did not sleep already for more than a whole day, but he also did not want to go back to the inn and try to get some rest, he could way too easily miss the boy going down to the town again.

He landed close to the body of water he got to know before. Although he could not be sure that the boy would actually come back here at all, he still hoped that this was the way he usually took when he was descending the mountains.

He looked all around and once again was shocked. The surrounding area was almost peaceful; only occasional swirl or speck of resentful energy could be seen while lazily flying around. It did not attack him and he was glad for that. Luckily, there also seemed to not have been any fierce corpses around here; not like near the barrier where it was crawling with them when he had flown above the area. There had been none when he was following the boy, he probably had some way to avoid them altogether.

He tried to clean one area near the pond to the best of his abilities and then he sat down, convinced that his robes had been ruined just now. It did not bother him too much, clothes were replaceable, human lives were not, especially lives of a child who could control resentful energy so well. The boy could help them understand the principles behind demonic cultivation so they would be prepared if another evil demonic cultivator emerged.

He got his qiakun pouch out of his sleeve and started spreading all the different kinds of food in front of him on a piece of cloth. Everything was set now, the only one who was missing was the boy.

Lan Wangji got out also his guqin and put it into his lap. He could as well let his presence to be known, if the boy would be surprised to see someone here, he would certainly flee and probably start using a different route. Lan Wangji started playing. One song after another were ringing in the silence of the Burial Mounds, making the place seemingly less barren and hostile.

He made sure that an observer would see him concentrating fully on his playing, but in reality, his eyes were scanning the surroundings, looking for the boy.