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13 - Biling Lake

Xiongzhang and I were standing at the docks observing the disciples roaming the streets for a bit before we went out onto the lake. The streets were filled today, more than I usually recall. I could hear Wei Ying's cheerful laughter from where I stood. I caught a glimpse of him sitting with his sworn brother Jiang Wanyin eating frozen dessert. Caiyi Town has always been well known for its famous frozen desserts, even I would sneak out for one every now and then.

"How was your night, last night?" Brother asked as he noticed me staring at Wei Ying.

"It was fine," I answered, "just spent some time getting to know Wei Ying."

"Nothing else happened?" He asked curiously. The smirk on his face said it all. He wanted to know if we did anything special.

I sighed and shook my head, "no, just talked," I told him.

"What about?" He asked.

"The mystery of the lake and why people are disappearing. Then we talked about our swords," I told him.

"Your swords?" He questioned.

"I questioned why Wei Ying named such a highly spiritual sword, Suibian," I told him.

"Huh?" He asked.

"The engravings on his sword read 'Suibian,' so I was wondering why he picked the name. He then asked me about Bichen."

"He actually named his sword Whatever?" He asked.

I nodded, "he did."

"Now I am curious as to why he named it that?" Xiongzhang asked curiously.

"He said when he was given the sword by his Uncle Jiang Fengmian, he was asked for a name, he couldn't think of one so he just said Whatever, and the name was engraved on him," I explained.

"Him?"

"He refers to his sword as a he," I told him, "just like I refer to Bichen as a he."

"Respectful of you both," he said, "at least you are bonding."

I looked at him. He winked at me as he stepped into a boat with a few disciples and started in his way. I sighed and got in a boat by myself.

Later on as we were heading up the river to the open lake, Wei Ying started to ask questions referring to the water ghouls, "Zewu-Jun, did it happen in this river path?"

"This water path leads to a large lake ahead, called Biling Lake," Brother answered, "Water ghouls have not haunted Caiyi Town in over ten years, but in the past few months, people often drowned in this river path and Biling Lake. Boats carrying goods have also been sinking."

"Were arrays set up to catch the water ghouls?" Wei Ying questioned.

"Yes. A few days ago, I set up net arrays here. I thought that I could catch one or two, but there were more than a dozen Water Ghouls," Brother explained.

"Though, Water Ghouls are very cunning, are we to stay out here until we catch them all?" Wei Ying asked, "it's hard to determine how many of them there are. Water ghouls become accustomed to specific regions of water. It's usually a single region, the region where they drowned. They never really leave it. Which is why the chance that they floated here from somewhere else isn't big."

"As cultivators, it is our job to do what we can to keep the community safe," I told him.

From my side view it looked as if he was going to say something back to me but he didn't. He paused for a moment then he waved, "Hey! Lan Zhan!" he broke into a series of jumping and splashing the water, "Look at me! Look at me!"