The scrapping sound of metal had slowly come to a stop as Tian Han started moving the earth with his hands.

Only after a long wait of Fu Ran fighting the urge to nod off, did Tian Han speak again. “There are preparations to be made before you cross,” Tian Han said, reading allowed.

Huh? Fu Ran thought that strange.

He vocalized the rest of the familiar phrase, “As even death alone is not enough to cleanse the sins of life? Why on earth is there a burial gate here?” Fu Ran pulled himself up, and he leaned his body over the edge of dirt. Sure enough, there was a metal archway barely visible where a coffin should be, and there was no body to be found.

The phrase he had just spoken was found on all burial gates in the region. The full thing went like this:

There are preparations to be made before you cross, as even death alone is not enough to cleanse the sins of life.

Cleanse the mind and body, while working to maintain purity of heart and soul.

Fret not the afterlife. Live life well and be reborn to a greater sense of self.

Do not make great efforts to disturb the natural passage.

“Lot’s of cultivators, and average humans alike, live by this phrase in hopes of being reborn well,” Tian Han clarified.

“It’s a shame it is only posted around graveyards and old shrines,” Fu Ran chuckled before continuing, “What good does it do to remind the dead?”

“For their second chance, perhaps?” Tian Han said simply, though his face seemed filled with troubled thoughts.

Fu Ran sat back up straight, and let his feet hang into the grave with Tian Han. His legs swayed back and forth with small kicks. “Something like this wouldn't be used as a spirit vessel. It is much too big. Though I am puzzled as to why it’s here, I think it has nothing to do with the reported walking corpses.”

Fu Ran’s head turned around to look at the shrine and the graveyard, overgrown with messy branches and weeds, and explained, “Besides… The whole area is falling apart. Perhaps it was just old damage. So this puts us right back to square one. We have found absolutely nothing.” He sighed.

Tian Han placed a hand on the grass beside Fu Ran and with little effort, pushed himself up to sit on the edge. They sat knee to knee and Tian Han chuckled, “We will find out what’s causing problems. Shizun, don’t worry or look discouraged, this one will do his best.” His words were drawn into low whispers, with not a shred of malice within them.

Catching a glance of a gentle expression, Fu Ran opened his mouth to say something. At first he thought he would say something rude or dismissive, but in reality, all he managed to let slip was a little noise of affirmation. “Mn.”

Tian Han watched him for just a moment more, as if taking in a sight, before his eyes lowered and turned towards the wooded entrance of the shrine.

“Do you hear… crying?” he asked. Fu Ran was suddenly alert and his gaze searched the trees. Fu Ran didn’t draw Shi Wei Ji, but he pulled himself to stand, and pushed the dark robes to the side. That way, his weapon was easier to access.

Tian Han was up in a moment, and held a protective arm in front of the other.

Familiar voices filled the little shrine area. Meng Xiao’s voice grumbled in an annoyed manner. “Lin An, please stop crying, okay? We have to be getting closer, cuz we’ve already walked pretty far.” Incoherent babbling responded to his anger. Even from a far distance her cries were broken up into little gasps and sniffles.

All worry vanished, and Fu Ran breathed out a sigh. They were late, but not nearly enough to warrant any punishment, so he would simply give them a heart, “good job,” when they arrived.

“Children! This way! Watch out there are…” Fu Ran’s voice trailed off when his disciples started to show from behind the bush.

His body began to tremble the longer he looked at them. “..there are holes.” Color drained from his face looking over the horrid state of his children. How had they gotten bruised and cut in the matter of hours?

He ran past Tian Han to their side.

Meng Xiao had practically fumbled his steps out of the bushes, but shakily caught his feet on the solid ground. He carried Lin An on his back, and her arms were wrapped tightly around him. She had tears streaming down her cheeks, smearing the dirt from where it looked like she had fallen on her face.

What stunned Fu ran most was the presence of red on both of his disciples.

Meng Xiao had red staining his lips and the front of his shirt. It would have been hard to see on the black fabric, but the front of his robes were cut open messily, revealing a large gash down the front of his chest. Lin An started to wail louder as soon as she met eyes with Fu Ran. Her small hands were reaching for him in desperation, forcing Meng Xiao to put her onto her feet.

She looked different. Her hair, it was chopped right down to her shoulders, and not a single of those cute pink and purple flowers remained.

“Meng Xiao! Lin An! What happened?” Fu Ran asked, before his mind immediately screamed in shock: Oh. My. Gods. They looked worse up close.

Fu Ran wanted to spend a hundred internal screams to describe how horrid he was, for not being available to his children! But medicine came first, he had to treat them.

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The first was coughing up blood and had to carry his Shimei. The second was severely cut, and probably had a hard time moving her arms. And the third was-

“Where is Wan Yu?” Tian Han spoke.

Meng Xiao looked at Fu Ran and forced a serious expression, as if he knew he was the only of the two capable of talking at the moment. “He got taken,” he said this as if it didn’t come at a horrifying shock.

“Kidnapped?” Fu Ran was frozen in place, and could barely force out a single word of question.

Wan Yu always seemed so capable that Fu Ran certainly hadn’t foreseen this being a possibility. Though he should have. Wan Yu was a child. His fists were tightened into a ball, and he felt his jaw tense up in worry.

Wan Yu was just a child, and Fu Ran let him be alone in a strange place before knowing what dangers were around. He felt he had committed a grave sin by leaving them be. This should have been something he knew well: Regardless of how simple the mission sounded, it never truly was.

“Did you see who took him?” Fu Ran asked, trying to mask panic.

“Describe everything you can about them.” Tian Han had joined the group now, he had propped up onto Fu Ran’s shoulder and looked down at the children. His facial expression didn’t let much worry be seen, as if he wasn’t surprised by this knowledge at all. This made Fu Ran tense.

Though Lin An had been placed onto the grass she seemed unsteady, so Fu Ran easily picked her up. “Let’s get them cleaned up first,” Fu Ran said.

Meng Xiao’s shoulders slumped, but upon doing so he winced and grabbed onto his chest in a jolt of pain. Only a few steps forward, and he too was collapsing into Fu Ran’s side.

Fu Ran used his free hand to support him. “Tian Han, carry Meng Xiao.”

“You're overreacting, Shizun. I’m fine,” Meng Xiao murmured.

***

The disciples were fed and given water, and their wounds were bandaged.

The shrine porch was now filled with four cultivators sitting on the red-leaf covered light wood. They hadn’t gone inside, as it was still abandoned and dusty with, and the children breathing fresh air would do better.

Despite Tian Han’s earlier harsh and uncaring expression, he took gentle measures to look after the disciples. He bandaged them with ease, like he had done this many times before.

“So, why do you keep playing evasive when this Shizun asks simple questions?” Fu Ran crossed his arms and gave Meng Xiao a glare of disapproval.

“You wont believe me even if I explain!”

Fu Ran wanted to bite back in a somewhat snappy tone, “Try me!” But instead it was Tian Han who gave a wave of his hand trying to calm him.

“He was taken… by Shizun,” Meng Xiao explained.

Fu Ran furrowed his brow, and his face showed that he, in fact, did not believe what the boy had just told him. “By me?”

Meng Xiao responded with a huff, and grit his teeth, his fingernails digging into the light wood serving as their seat.

“I believe you.” Tian Han reassured him, and raised his hand to ruffle Meng Xiao’s intertwining black locks. The gentle actions clearly shocked the boy, but Tian Han only chuckled, “I'm guessing that you don’t think that man was really your Shizun, correct?”

This seemed truthful, as Meng Xiao nodded. “I’ll explain,” he said, before loosely recounting the past events.

The disciples had gone their separate ways in search of information, and gotten dragged into a situation by a man that looked like Fu Ran. Lin An was jumped while with Wan Yu and remembered little before she woke up, and Meng Xiao stated that he stupidly trailed at the glimpse of the Shizun he thought was spying on him.

Upon both being knocked out, they both woke up on the floor of a ratty old farmhouse, and if not for Wan Yu saving them, they would still be tied up now.

Fu Ran understood, and felt great guilt for his misunderstanding and disbelief. “Meng Xiao, your skills are very good for a new disciple. So to hear that you had some trouble fighting an impostor, in concerning. It has this Shizun worried.” Meng Xiao was young and still inexperienced, but he did hold his own well against demons during his horrific entrance exam.

Fu Ran was frustrated, but mostly quizzical. The recounting of the disciple’s story left him with one major thought: Why me?

Choosing Fu Ran as a target to masquerade as, made no sense. Of all people to impersonate, why a Peak Master with no achievements in the outside world? Fu Ran had little to no presence anywhere outside of An Xian Yun Peak. He had little to no presence even inside An Xian Yun Peak, for that matter.

Any “presence” he did have was made up of idle things over the last three years.

Things like: sitting underneath the little red umbrella outside his back door, enjoying morning tea at his table, or watching over the Koi that he had cultivated. Fu Ran had not even left the mountain peak in over three years now, so what would someone gain from using his face?

More concerning, how did they know him and become acquainted enough with his looks to copy? There are even some Peak Masters who haven't seen him in over two years! It was just illogical.

Fu Ran had begun to worry about the quality of this fake. Would it be good enough to confuse even Zhi Lao and Shesui Lang?

One of his disciples finally spoke and took him out of his thoughts. It was Meng Xiao, and he declared, “Shizun, I don’t know what you are thinking, but this guy was good. I thought he might have been pretty lame and weak at first, because he was easy to get a jump on… but I think he just chose to not hurt me. If he didn’t have some ability, then he wouldn't have gotten me off that easily.” Meng Xiao crossed his arms and drew in a frustrated breath. It escaped through clenched teeth. “If he didn’t have some ability, he wouldn't have gotten the baby, either.”

“Why did he target you all?” Fu Ran spoke with worry.

“To capture Wan Yu, I think,” Lin An interrupted. “I am so sorry, Shizun. I am so sorry Tian Shibo. If I had been stronger, or even faster,” she said, not being able to finish speaking before her eyes began to well with tears.

Fu Ran brushed her bangs from her eyes. “Saying things like that is counter productive. Could have, or should have, are phrases best saved until after everyone in a mission is safe. Once Wan Yu is returned, we can talk about it together, and come up with ways to better handle future events like this.”

She nodded and wiped her eyes with her light blue sleeves.

After asking all of his questions, Fu Ran was assured of one thing: his disciples didn’t learn anything about the mission at all. It wasn't their fault, as they had been grabbed up, and by the time they were freed, they had to run for their lives. Fu Ran understood. In fact, it might have been even more shocking if they did make large leaps and bounds while investigating.

“So, no one saw where the man went?” Tian Han asked. He had remained awfully silent while the previous conversation went on. Whether he was being respectful, or looking down on the course of the events tonight, Fu Ran didn’t know.

Despite the kids shaking their heads nervously, Tian Han didn’t get angry with them. “It’s okay, really.” The disciples knew his relation to Wan Yu, so they thought they were going to be on the receiving end of a terrible lecture. Even Fu Ran was taken aback when Tian Han smiled. “Well, despite shortcomings. There is a positive to all of this,” Tian Han said.

“A positive?” Fu Ran furrowed his brows, and his voice turned accusatory. “How could there be any positives when your family is missing?” He didn’t bother hiding his annoyances.

Tian Han raised his hand up defensively without giving Fu Ran a chance to voice more bitterness. “We have a face that looks exactly like the man who took Wan Yu! Perhaps someone can point us in the correct direction,” Tian Han grinned.

Fu Ran hadn’t thought of that, so he nodded quietly.

With urgency, Fu Ran said, “Then we should be off investigating. The night only grows later.” Tian Han stood up and offered Fu Ran a hand, no longer dirty and grimy from the previous hard labor.

Fu Ran squinted his eyes, but his arm moved to subconsciously take it, and he was pulled to a stand.

“Let’s go.” Fu Ran turned to look at the children.

Lin An and Meng Xiao let out a matching, “Yes, Shizun!”