Way too untamed, way too wild

Spirit of the Burial Mounds

The very next day, Lan Wangji was heading to the Burial Mounds again, more food tugged under his arm and his qiakun pouch. His money was slowly running out and he knew he would have to go back to the Cloud Recesses soon to get some more. He could not support the inhabitants of the Burial Mounds like this.

But the trip back home would take two days and he did not want to leave Wei Ying and the children alone, not after he had gotten this attached to them and was looking forwards to every minute he spent with them, especially with Wei Ying. These last few days, he only ever went back to the town for food and supplies, he had even taken to sleeping together with Wei Ying and A-Yuan in the smaller cave, Wen Qing left them alone and went to join Wen Ning and the rest of the children without even being told to.

By now, he was used to directly fly into the small settlement, however, he noticed a glance of a familiar figure from above and he decided that he would first meet up with Wei Ying, they could go see the children together afterwards. He descended a little further away from him and decided to walk the last few meters, there were dead trees all around and it would have been a bit hard to manoeuvre his sword in between them; it looked like an old forest of a sort.

When he approached to where he had seen Wei Ying, he could hear his voice. It would have not been anything strange, the boy had a habit of speaking to himself, probably because of spending so much time alone in the Burial Mounds, but Lan Wangji could tell that he was having a conversation with someone. Or at least it seemed to be the case since Wei Ying's words suggested that it was only one half of what was being said.

"...I do not know how Lan Zhan is doing it, it just seems like when he is playing, his music has some kind of power to it. When he played for A-Yuan who had an upset stomach, A-Yuan immediately felt better and went to sleep. I am sure it was because of his music."

"..." There was a short pause, as if the boy was waiting for his conversation partner to respond.

"Infusing spiritual energy? What is that?"

"..." Another pause, this time an even longer one.

"Lan Zhan really is amazing. And it sounds so useful too. I want to try it."

"..."

"No worries, Lan Zhan taught me the melodies. But without infusing power as you said, they are just pretty songs. Can you teach me?"

Curiously enough, the Second Jade did not hear any other voices, he has also not seen anyone on his way here. He supposed that Wei Ying would not have been having this kind of conversation with any of the children, possibly with Wen Qing or Ning, but not the children. However, Lan Wangji would have heard their voices by now, he was standing apparently only a few steps away, the boy's voice was loud and clear, so why could he not hear the other party?

Even though he knew that eavesdropping was bad, he could not help himself. He quietly approached even more, and stopped when he could see behind the last trees. There was a small clearing there, with a big rock in the middle of it. Wei Ying was sitting on the rock and in front of him was standing an adult figure of a woman in robes matching the boy's.

Lan Wangji felt chills run up and down his spine. The woman, if he should really call the creature standing before him like that, was surely not a living breathing human being. Although her features were slightly humanoid, resembling Wei Ying's, she was half see-through and her whole figure was incessantly moving around, resentment oozing out of it and swirling around it nonstop.

She did not look like anything Lan Wangji had ever seen. She was surely not human, but he did not think she was a fierce corpse nor a resentful spirit either. She was a mystery; and apparently the one who spoke to Wei Ying and had been explaining him the secrets behind musical cultivation just a second ago.

Suddenly, Lan Wangji was surrounded by a thick cloud of resentment. He panicked for a brief moment but the resentful energy was not really attacking him, it was just all around him, keeping him effectively trapped in one place. Despite the fact that he could barely breathe, he remained calm and waited for the barrier to be put away. Since it was not malicious, it must have been just a way for either Wei Ying or the strange creature he had been talking with to protect themselves.

Sure enough, the next second, he could hear the boy's almost panicked and definitely pleading voice: "Big Sister, let Lan Zhan go. He is not here to hurt us; he is a friend."

Slowly, the resentful energy started dissipating and flowing back towards the woman. It did not disappear however, it still stayed between him and the two who were now both standing in the middle of the small clearing. The woman, whoever or whatever she was, was clearly protecting Wei Ying. As the Second Jade had already stated before, he would not be surprised by anything involving the boy, it seemed that the word impossible was not really applying to him.

He made sure to look as non-threatening as possible, he did not want to provoke the woman, for it must have been her who was keeping the resentment around, Wei Ying had long abandoned feeling on guard in Lan Wangji's presence.

The Second Jade even let his sword fall onto the ground. Although it could have seemed as an excessive measure to some, he thought it would be his best option to get out of this unscathed. He could feel power emanating from the woman and it was making all his hair stand up; he realized he was actually genuinely scared of her.

"Lan Zhan, hi, I am glad you are back!" beamed Wei Ying at him and run towards him to greet him up close, not taking any note of the resentful energy he was walking through.

Lan Wangji, still cautious, only raised his eyebrows in a silent question. Wei Ying seemed to have understood. He grabbed the Second Jade's hand and started dragging him closer to the woman. The resentment was clearing a way in front of him and Lan Wangji was grateful for that. Even though he had been visiting the Burial Mounds and going through the barrier for some time already, he was still not used to the sensation of having resentment gather all around him, almost suffocating him at every turn, he could really not understand why Wei Ying was not bothered about it.

They stopped in front of the woman who was looking at them. Well, perhaps looking was not the correct word as her eyes were all black, no pupils anywhere. Her expression was completely blank. From this close, Lan Wangji confirmed his suspicion; she really was only a thick gathered resentment which took form of a human body. He had never heard of such cases, but once again, nothing seemed impossible when it came to Wei Ying. Did he perhaps create a friend to keep him company in this desolate place?

The boy gestured towards Lan Wangji, then towards the woman, introducing them as if there was nothing wrong. As if the creature in the middle of the clearing was not made of resentful energy and probably extremely dangerous. "This is Lan Zhan, I told you about him, he comes here and brings food and gifts for the children. He is a friend. And this is Big Sister. She helped me when I first came here and she continues helping me and teaching me things ever since."

This short introduction did not calm Lan Wangji at all. Wei Ying had told it like it was the most natural thing but it explained nothing at all, not in the Second Jade's eyes at least.

Despite everything, Lan Wangji did his best to behave politely and he bowed to the creature: "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am Lan Zhan, courtesy name Wangji, from the Gusu Lan sect."

He was not sure what he had wanted to accomplish but he supposed he could never be too cautious. Although the woman did not attack yet, it was still a resentful creature and was probably this peaceful only because of Wei Ying's presence, he could not be sure that she would not try to attack him the second she found him wandering the Burial Mounds alone.

The woman was seemingly observing him closely, or as far as he could tell when she made no move and there was also no change of expression from her, she just stood there, completely motionless.

Then, the Second Jade heard a pleasant female voice directly inside his head: "It is a pleasure to meet you as well. I heard much about you from A-Ying, you helped him a lot. I am what you would probably call a physical manifestation of the Burial Mounds."