Learning Diabolism

☞︎Chance meeting☜︎

When the girls entered the city, they were immediately met with a crowd too huge for their liking and shouting shopkeepers everywhere. They tried to get around and make out some bits of conversations, which only worked partially. They learned more about the soul sucking creature that the people around here were so afraid of, some small details about the hunt, but god forbid, nobody seemed to be caring about what happened in those past 13 years! Though they heard one or two false stories about the siege of Burial mound.
Why does everyone think they were killed there too? Altho that's probably for the best...
As to why someone would be talking about that, who knows...
after some looking around, they decided it would be best to take a look at what is up the mountain.
They didn't go the usual way, since they still wanted to avoid people as much as possible, they didn't think there would be so many cultivators, chances are, there might be someone from that night in Nightless city who has a good memory and than they would be exposed. That was dangerous and scary.

They wandered around a bit, until they heard a voice coming from close by, they couldn't understand what they were saying, or who was talking, but spying on these people could bring them info. They hid behind a big tree and looked at the scene before them. There were some poor people caught in a spirit-trapping net, a brat and a strange man with a weird mask. Also a donkey. For some reason...
Either way there was a brat from the Jin sect, probably quite a few years, well if you don't count that 13 year gap, younger than them and he really didn't waste his breath when it came to insulting and being mean to the man with mask.
"He's... a brat," commented silently "A-Lu". "A-Yu" nodded her head and they both continued to watch.
When the masked man tripped our brat and put the spirit on him... both girls exchanged looks.
"That definitely reminded me of SOMEONE," this time it was "A-Yu" who whispered. It wasn't about the move itself per say, but master Wei always wanted them to learn more than just demonic cultivation. He would sometimes make them drill ways to trow, dodge various attacks and yes even trip people until it became an automatic response. So having to do these things so much, they quickly learned the little difference between how different humans around them used them. Especially their master, and surprisingly this was way too similar for comfort.

Sadly they didn't get the chance to ask this masked man, before a certain Sect leader Jiang came to view. One look and both girls were running at the speed of light the other way. The last thing they heard was the Jin brat calling him "uncle". Ah... Their uncoordinated and badly thought through plan of escape accidentally led them further into the mountain.
"Jiang Wanyin!" cursed Wan Yunque, "we are the most unlucky people in the world I tell you!"
"Exactly! If he sees us we'll get Zidan'd to death!" complained Song Anyue.
"Wait... if that was Jiang Wanyin... and he was the uncle of that brat..." froze Wan Yunque in place.
"That- that brat..." caught Song Anyue on.
"Was that Jin Ling!?!" they looked at each other in horror.
"Did we just insult miss Jiang's son?" covered Wan Yunque her mouth.
"Well not really... but! We're in the same age group a frickin' Jin Ling! Nooooo! H-he-h he was a BABY!! The baby, that I held when you comforted miss Jiang and he put his spit all over my well washed clothes! Which may have been my fault, but still... This is the worst day of my life," exaggerated Song Anyue.
"That is what you noticed?" raised Wan Yunque an eyebrow at her, sometimes she couldn't believe this girl.
"Yes it is. But, what is more important, what now? Are we just gonna leave?" changed Song Anyue the topic.
"Well we could-" Wan Yunque didn't get the chance to finish, before loud voice came from behind them.
"What are you two doing here? Don't you know there is a night hunt today?" the one asking was a Lan disciple. He had those clothes, that Master Wei liked to refer to as mourning clothes, black hair, that was shorter than his pier's and that stupid forehead ribbon to symbolize his heritage in the clan. Song Anyue always wondered, why was the forehead ribbon so important? I mean, it looked terrible! At least in her opinion.
"Who says we aren't here for the night hunt?" returned Wan Yunque with a raised chin.
"I apologize, we didn't see your swords anywhere so we thought you were some villagers and got lost," bowed a second Lan, who stood right next to the first one.
"I-it's alright," joined Song Anyue the conversation, and started thinking of ways they could excuse the absence of the swords.
"But, why do you not have them?" asked the first Lan and the second one punched him a little, probably as a warning.
"We... don't use them that much, so we forgot them, we prefer different weaponry," explained Wan Yunque, combining a few excuses that Master Wei used in the past. Oh well, at least they worked...
"Of course, forgive the rude question," apologized the second Lan again and the two started feeling uneasy from the amount of bowing and apologizing that went on.
"It is quite alright, we don't mind at all," quickly replied Wan Yunque and stopped the boy from bowing to them again. The Lan smiled and continued talking: "Than would you mind joining us, we are heading towards the temple that the locals often pray in, we think there may be some clues on what is happening there and we could use an extra pair of eyes," he offered them casually.
"Of course," agreed the girls even tho it just the tiniest but strained, they shared a look saying "not our best idea" and the four of them started walking in the direction of the temple. When the silence that seeped in started to get uncomfortable, Wan Yunque asked:
"So, um, what are your names?"
"We didn't... oh my bad, my name is Lan Sizhui," bowed politely the "always apologizing" Lan.
"I am Lan Jingyi," said the supposedly rude Lan, although both girls found his questions normal and natural.
"Song Anyue," pointed "A-Yu" at herself and made the tiniest bow.
"And I am Wan Yunque," finished their little introduction "A-Lu".
After this little awkward small talk, they started debating on what they knew about this night hunt.
"I'm not sure if it's a ghost tho," said Song Anyue at some point.
"Why not?" asked Lan Jingyi a bit surprised.
"Well... there is a graveyard in Buddhas feet, wouldn't it be easier to snack on the souls of the dead, than living?"
The two Lans looked at her a bit weird, as if this was the first time hearing this.
"Oh come on, what the hell do they teach you in Cloud recesses if not this!?" asked Song Anyue and Wan Yunque nodded.
"They teach us a lot of important things," defended Lan Jingyi.
"If you're gonna say "like etiquette" I will throw your teacher down this mountain," warned Wan Yunque.
"Ha! Well I was going to say something else, but when you put it like that than, yeah like etiquette. Have fun trowing Hanguang-Jun down the mountain," laughed Lan Jingyi at them.
"Your- oh wait, you did say that you were a Lan and you have that terrible forehead ribbon," realized Song Anyue and slapped her forehead lightly.
"What's terrible about it?" pouted Lan Jingyi.
"It is the worst accessory I've ever seen anyone use, honestly it looks terrible, I bet you would look a lot better without it," Song Anyue explained.
"Well..." Lan Jingyi tried to find a design flaw on Song Anyue, but turns out she can pull together a coherent outfit and it kind of turned into him checking her out... Which did not go unnoticed and Song Anyue blushed. Probably for the first time in her entire life. It was weird and she was starting to get a bad feeling about this.