Reddish hair waved peacefully in a soft wind. Just over where Qing Xiashu was laid in the field, sheltered by a tree.

If he turned his head, he might have the chance to view the face of the red haired man he so often saw in these moments.

Instead the slow roll of the clouds sated his curiosity.

•••

A creek bubbled off to their right and spring flowers were popping up everywhere they looked. Snow ever so slowly giving way to new life.

"Er-ge?" Xue Huayu hummed in a questioning tone, easily beckoning Qing Xiashu's attention.

"Hm?" And when she didn't answer back. "What is it?" He entirely expected a question about the beasts they were hunting.

"Is it possible that... we'll run into the him issue again?"

"Him? Mm, I suppose it's possible."

Who was him?

Well that would be Liming Yingxiong.

The man was famous for turning up where there were commissions available. Something Qing Xiashu and Xue Huayu were also famous for.

But unlike Liming Yingxiong, they weren't considered the people's hero.

How could they be the underdog heroes at their status?

Often, upon arriving at their commission, they would find it already completed and the reward gone. Finished by some rogue cultivator that was long gone every single time.

Whoever Liming Yingxiong was, he was incredibly competent.

Competent and their competition.

He seemed to operate largely in the borderlands, but the borderlands held most of the Northern population, so this was no help.

"At this rate, we won't be able to sustain our borders on commissions anymore. Da-ge is going to have to raise the taxes..." Xue Huayu murmured with a frown. "And after we finally got them so low too. I say we call a manhunt and kick him out!"

Qing Xiashu rolled his eyes softly. "The North has had open borders since its resignation from the South. I don't think Xue Shixiong will close it to a single person for any reason."

Instead of responding linguistically, Xue Huayu just threw her head back and groaned as loudly as her lungs allowed.

"Calm down." He chuckled, brushing off one of his pant legs where a leaf had fallen. "If he's taken our commission again we can ask them which way he's gone and track him ourselves."

"Uhg. Fine. If you say so..."

"I do say so, besides, if we tried to kick him out we'd lose public favor, everyone adores him."

"I heard you." Xue Huayu grumbled, twisting the ends of her horse's reins in one hand.

"Then aren't you glad I'm here to help you make decisions?"

"Not in the slightest."

When they rode through the city gates someone wringing their hands moved to greet them.

"Beifang Gongzhu. Head Disciple Qing... I'm afraid... that someone is already on their way to completing the commission we sent out."

"AHG!" The princess threw her hands up and flopped backwards in her saddle.

Qing Xiashu heaved a sigh before putting on a soft smile. "So they have yet to obtain it and leave?"

"Yes, he said there were a number of taotie at our borders and went to handle it."

This finally piqued Xue Huayu's interest. She sat upright instantly and quickly turned her horse.

She was gone as quick as she could snap her reins.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Not at all." Qing Xiashu said quickly, turning to follow her. "Thank you! We'll be right back!" Then to the retainers he passed, he called. "Get set up at the inn! Hefeng, stay with them!"

"Yes Shixiong!"

Xue Huayu wasn't too far ahead of him, but she didn't slow even the slightest, nor allow him to catch up.

She was headed back down the main road, narrowing in on the sound of the creek they had heard on their way in. She led her horse to leap clean off a path and down an embankment.

The feather hooved steed flew down the edge of the creek, kicking up pebbles as it went.

Then it was forced to skid to a stop, neighing some form of complaint as it danced backwards.

Xue Huayu was off the saddle far too quickly.

Kaihua glistened at the throat of a young man crouched on the ground over three writhing creatures.

"Don't! Touch them!" She panted.

"Xue Xiaojie!" Qing Xiashu scolded as he grabbed Kaihua from her hands, slotting it back in its scabbard and leveling her with a glare. One he had developed specifically for Hei Xianying.

"He was going to kill them!"

Qing Xiashu opened his mouth to placate her but the man stood and spoke first. "If you want the commission you can kill them instead, I didn't think anyone would be coming out here."

He sounded young.

One would hesitate to call him a "man".

A boy was more fitting...

Again Qing Xiashu opened his mouth, and again someone beat him to it. "Not the issue! You absolute buffoon!" Xue Huayu snapped, throwing one of her hands up as her brother held her back from advancing on the boy.

"Stop stop stop-" Qing Xiashu waved his free hand to stop someone from speaking over him again. "Xue Xiaojie please take a breath. Xiuzhe, please don't say anything more, you'll rile her up."

The young cultivator scrunched his nose and crossed his arms in a maneuver that felt undeniably snooty.

But thankfully he fell quiet.

"Taotie are relatively easy to negotiate with. Killing them is a last resort, moreover if you hurt those pups you will have condemned the town to endless taotie attacks." Qing Xiashu explained, gesturing to the squirming animals at his feet. "Best course of action is to return them to the den with full honesty."

The cultivator's face had paled but he didn't uncross his arms.

"Where was the den?" Xue Huayu asked in a huff, only just able to state the urge to stamp her feet.

"Up stream..." The cultivator murmured.

Qing Xiashu provided the young cultivator a gentle smile and stooped down, wrapping the three little whelplings into the sleeve of one of his arms. Keeping them nice and warm.

"Idiot..." Xue Huayu scoffed under her breath. Apparently relieving her glare was out of the question. But in return she earned a swat from her brother's free sleeve.

The cultivator, rather than argue, just dropped his head and began following the two back the direction he'd come. Helpfully, the horses trailed their owners without being led.

"Where are you from?" The head disciple asked, trying to draw the boy into an easier conversation.

"The Eastern Borderlands... in the turn of the river."

"Eh? That far South? No wonder you're not familiar with how to handle taotie." Qing Xiashu said with a chuckle. "You should visit Lu Tian and read through some bestiaries. A lot of yao here are relatively good conversationalists, you should make note of which can be negotiated with."

"I will."

Qing Xiashu looked over the young man slowly. Robes dyed in Eastern colors, oranges and yellows peeking out from soft brown cloaks that covered all but his face and hands. "I find the Southern resident sect to be a tad militaristic, it's best you avoid your sword while in the North. If you can."

"You carry swords."

"They're not plainly for yao." Qing Xiashu murmured quietly.

"We use them." Xue Huayu clarified. "For things that can't be argued with. The Southerners might like throwing around their swords but up here that seldom gets you anywhere." She muttered, slowing when she spotted adult taotie tracks.

"I'm sure most Southerners think we're obsequious to our environment." Qing Xiashu said, a chuckle under his tone as he shifted the small pups in his arms.

The den before them was in the mud wall of the creek bank. Its integrity seemed to solely rely on the roots of a tree that towered above.

"Basic respect and decency isn't the same as obsequence."

Qing Xiashu, who ignored her words, simply dipped into the cave. A neutral smile taking over his lips when a large taotie with a gaping mouth stood from where it had been resting.

"And who are you to be holding our cubs?" Its voice didn't seem to comply with the motions of its jaw, as if both features were entirely independent of one another.

"My apologies." Qing Xiashu said as he approached the beast, unconcerned with the way its mouth opened even more threateningly.

Behind him he heard the cultivator shuffle uncomfortably, as though he wanted nothing more than to haul Qing Xiashu back away from the maw.

In truth Qing Xiashu was quite safe.

"My companion here was confused, a nearby town seems to be dealing with a man-eater and suspected your pack for the culprit."

"Has he been educated?"

"Mm, he has." Qing Xiashu said with a warm smile as he knelt before the beast to gently return the pups.

"Very well, thank you for their return, please keep a closer eye on your companions, my friend." The nursing mother pulled her pups closer and rested her head down beside them. "Ah, I should mention, our pack is not the cause of their plight."

"I know, thank you for your help." The head disciple dipped into a bow before turning to evacuate the den.

"Don't move!" Another voice snapped.

From a rocky ledge a woman descended.

This was what made Qing Xiashu grow rigid.

Ah cultivator, why did you have to drag him into this?

"Come here." The woman demanded, her voice falling into a tone that was much softer.

Something about her seemed unusually heavenly. The white of her robes shone the way the moon did, dimly and with little light, but just enough in the darkness.

When he had grown close enough she stepped into his space. "That man is not what he seems, be wary. Please remove him from our territory as soon as you are able to safely do so."

"Thank you." He answered softly, expression unchanging. With another bow, he was allowed to leave with Xue Huayu and the cultivator.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"What was that about?"

"I think that was the matriarch."

"Taotie are mei shou?" The cultivator asked curiously.

"No, she must have built her immortality and ability to shift shapes through other means." Xue Huayu explained, kicking a stone down the creek bed as they walked. "Do you get it now? Not everything has to be so violent."

"Mn..." The cultivator hummed faintly while he bore a hole through his feet, likely looking back through all his kills and lamenting a good half of them.

"It can be difficult to make the distinction in the heat of it. It's best to learn what you can before you ever meet them."

"He says as though he didn't already know what was going on here and simply neglected to tell anyone." Xue Huayu rolled her eyes as she swung herself back into her saddle.

"I wouldn't say I did. There were two options." The head disciple hummed, stepping into Yun-Qiu's stirrup to hoist himself into place.

"Care to share, Er-ge?"

"It was between a rogue taotie and a baigu jing."

Xue Huayu groaned, flopping her head back. "Uhg... All the way up here? Why would there be one this far north? People barely ever decay into skeletons."

"Except in the case of an incorrectly executed cremation." The cultivator pointed out.

"Or someone eaten and stripped of meaningful flesh."

"Er-ge why is everything so dark with you?"

"Why is the world so dark all the time?" Qing Xiashu retorted with a smile that was far, far too chipper. "I'm just saying, which is more likely to result in a resentful ghost?"

"He has a point." The cultivator agreed, shrinking when Xue Huayu glowered at him.

Qing Xiashu leaned back to obstruct her line of sight. "Hey now, Xue Xiaojie, just because I'm right doesn't mean you should be mean." He said, grinning when she threw up her arms.

"Ugh! Since you're right all the time: Where should we start?"

"The local meat vendor." Qing Xiashu with a smile.

"Why?" The cultivator asked curiously.

"To figure out how one would butcher a human corpse."

•••

"I'm sorry?" The man at the counter of the shop asked incredulously.

"He asked you a question." Xue Huayu snapped, arms crossing tightly over her chest.

Dried meats that hung about the entire shop apparently captivated the cultivator's interest, leaving the Northerners to the questioning.

"I understand it sounds odd, but we just would like to know what kinds of tools someone might need." Qing Xiashu reiterated, swatting Xue Huayu with his sleeve for seemingly the hundredth time that day.

"Well... One would only need a corpse and something sharp to serve as a knife, it's the same principle as butchering a lamb, simply a different shape."

"And no one else has come sniffing around for similar information?"

"No, no one, I would certainly remember that."

Xue Huayu was turning around to leave before he finished his sentence.

"Thank you for your time." Qing Xiashu said as he picked down a small bundle of dried meat from the ceiling, handing the coin over before moving to follow Xue Huayu. "Here." He handed the meat to the cultivator. "You may as well have been drooling."

The cultivator chuckled, face warming, but took the meat. "Thank you. Meat is so expensive..." He sighed, picking a piece off to chew on for a while.

"Why are we trying to find a human and not the corpse?" The cultivator asked as the two Northerners led him back out of town.

Xue Huayu sighed. "We aren't. We're trying to find the person who might have killed our corpse. And then by proxy: where they hid the bones. Er-ge, why am I even explaining this to him? Can you make him leave?"

Another swat of long dark sleeves struck her shoulder. "Xue Xiaojie... Be more polite. You didn't treat Yan-gege like this."

"That's because he was actually helpful. Not to mention had actual information to add instead of tagging uselessly along."

Qing Xiashu sighed at Xue Huayu's complaints before shaking his head and turning his attention to the cultivator. "What's your name?" He asked with an apologetic smile.

"Yin Liming."

"It's a pleasure to meet you then, Yin Liming." Both the taotie matriarch and Xue Huayu seemed to be catching onto something off about the young man. But whatever was causing this, Qing Xiashu was missing it. "Why the hood?" He asked, attempting a tone that would disguise his curiosity with sensitive worry. "Has your hair been cut?"

"Ah..." Yin Liming fiddled with some of the ties that kept all his shrouds in place. "No, my hair fits my status. It's just very distinct. It's part of how I ended up with a title."

"A title?"

"Liming Yingxiong."

Xue Huayu rounded on them both, pointing squarely at Yin Liming. "AUGH! I knew I hated you!"

"What have I done now?"

This time Qing Xiashu could only shakily laugh. "Why are you surprised?"

"You've been taking our commissions for months! And Da-ge is going to have to raise the taxes because of it!"

"Excuse me?"

"Xue Xiaojie is talking about the commission hunts the palace sect uses to support the national security and health fund." Qing Xiashu explained lightly. "Because we've struggled to find paying work in your wake; the lost income may be significant enough to require being supplemented by a raise in taxes."

"I've not taken that many commissions at all though. Almost all of the jobs I take are paid for with food and board."

"They haven't even been paying you this whole time!? Er-ge please tell me I'm going deaf and he isn't letting people short him so... stupidly much."

Qing Xiashu heaved a heavy sigh. "I'm afraid you're not going deaf."

At that Xue Huayu stormed ahead, tossing up her arms and practically power walking down the road.

"You really should take the commissions they offer."

Yin Liming shrugged. "I don't see why, it would go to board and meals anyway."

"They're shorting you significantly, since this whole deal started the money you could have been getting could buy you three homesteads and a thousand meals. How many have you gotten out of it so far?"

"Less than that..."

"You've been working harder than they've been paying you." Qing Xiashu explained sternly. "And up until the taotie debacle, it seems like you've been doing just as well as the princess and myself could have. You deserve better."

The cultivator choked on a piece of dry meat he was chewing at. "She's the princess? The crown princess?"

"Oh. Yes, I'm surprised we both neglected to mention that."

"I fear for the status of your country when she takes power..."

"I heard that!" Xue Huayu called over her shoulder.

The head disciple chuckled but looked back to Yin Liming. "I wouldn't. She has an innate ability to handle crises with an entirely level head. You'll see."

"I suppose we will eventually." Yin Liming sighed with a soft shake of his head.

"I'm going to hurt him." Xue Huayu warned.

"Please don't, I'd like to see A-Ying again before next season. Besides, we hardly need a war with the South right now." Qing Xiashu chuckled, shuffling his hands in his sleeves.

He really didn't want to be in a fight.

He'd had enough for a bit.

The princess scoffed and scuffed one of her feet.

"I am sorry for messing up with the taotie, but is this necessary?"

"Yes."

Qing Xiashu finally pulled his hands from his sleeves just to wave them. "Can we focus first on where to start with the yao? Graveyard? A local religious leader perhaps?"

"Fine." Xue Huayu paused to heave a heavy breath. "Liming Yingxiong can go figure out what to do, I'll find a shrine, you should visit the graves."

"Acceptable." Qing Xiashu hummed before turning away, letting the princess storm off before he waved for Yin Limming to follow him.

"Do you actually expect to find what we're looking for in a graveyard?" The rogue asked with a slightly suspicious furrow in his expression.

"No." The head disciple admitted with a shrug. "Do you have a better idea in mind?"

"Mn."

"Oh? Do tell."

The teen slowly crossed his arms, shifting the shrouds over his hair and shoulders. "I've been smelling something rotting since we entered town."

"Have you? I haven't smelled much of anything."

Yin Liming gave a mild shrug, averting his eyes and taking an animated bite of his dry meat.

"Very well, lead the way, Liming Yingxiong." Qing Xiashu chuckled, immediately moving to trail the teen when he turned away.

Powdery snow was slowly beginning to filter down out of the sky making the local hero bristle.

"Are you cold?" Qing Xiashu questioned, already preparing to fish out one of the many kongjian pouches he used to stash excess necessities.

"I'm fine."

"Uh-huh." He didn't bother arguing, instead pulling one of Xue Feiyi's warm cloaks. "Here, this is my brother's. He's about your height."

Yin Liming blinked slowly, but carefully accepted. The smile that lit up the boy's face broke Qing Xiashu's brain just a tad. "Thank you..."

"Mm, no worries. Especially not if it gets me that smile again." Qing Xiashu teased.

A strangled sound echoed through Yin Liming's throat, making the head disciple snicker.

"Relax, I won't bite. Unless you ask me to, of course."

"G-good gods--"

Qing Xiashu laughed again, covering his mouth before turning happily crescent eyes on the teen made victim. "I apologize, I'm done now. So, this rotten smell you've picked up, does it smell human?"

"Smells like ghouls feeding." Yin Liming grumbled.

"Ghouls." The head disciple echoed. "I suppose a ghoul nest could create a baigu jing if they were hungry enough to properly strip a corpse. This close to the wilds, it isn't too far a stretch."

"That's what I was thinking..." Yin Liming nodded. "Can ghouls be argued with?"

"Oh gods no." Qing Xiashu said with a shake of his head, pulling his ponytail over his shoulder to rake his fingers through the ends for his hair. "Ghouls brains are so rotten there usually isn't much to debate with. Undead are on the short list for yao that it's best to just carve out. Though I hear ghouls are more common in the South, is that true?"

"Mn, their numbers are endless. But they don't really build nests the way they do here."

"Ah, so while we have eighty in eight groups across the nation, you have a thousand in a thousand places?"

"Effectively. Though it's probably something like five thousand."

"Oh that's awful. But I suppose when your cultivator population is condensed into the major sects, man eaters have the chance to thrive."

"The population's low qi sensitivity doesn't help. Here everyone is just as knowledgeable as I am, if not more. Down there, kongjian pouches alone are something of a myth."

Qing Xiashu chuckled. "Really? The barrier between cultivation and the public must be particularly strong."

"You have no idea. And neither side likes the other despite both halves being imperative to the survival of the other." Yin Liming said with a mild shrug. "Have you ever traveled through the South?"

"Never further than Yenie Mi. I heard that at some point the king would travel all the way to Ying Citadel before it... Ah-- froze."

"I see." With a small crinkle of his nose, the rogue hero gestured a hand out before him. "It's right around there somewhere..."

A slow deep breath announced the putrid yet faint stench of decay. "Yes, that certainly smells like mobile ghouls. But it's more mild than I've usually found. And maybe burnt."

"Perhaps it's alone."

"How would it have stripped our man eating baigu jing?"

Yin Liming shrugged again. "Maybe it is the man eater."

"I don't think so." Qing Xiashu answered lightly as he wandered forward into the brush, carefully extending his senses to attempt to detect any nearby xiong mo.

"How is that?"

"Ghouls shred their prey. Flesh ripped from bone like cloth. All the bites left on victims, alive or dead, were described as relatively clean in the reports." The head disciple said as he moved.

Dull aching thrummed about his core. It called to the small wisps of darkened decay, giving him a somewhat corporeal shape to follow in the empty air.

"So you're sure it's not a ghoul?"

"Positive." Qing Xiashu stated flatly as he stooped to pick up a small rock, rubbing it between his fingers to warm it. "Hold still."

When Yin Liming had come to a complete stop at Qing Xiashu's side, he threw the stone. It skidded across a few snow rifts before falling into a soft patch of moss. For a few moments nothing happened at all.

The stone didn't explode or anything.

It was so anticlimactic that Yin Liming arched a slightly suspicious brow at him.

"Watch."

Within another few seconds the rock was slapped down under the powerful weight of some snake-like beast with twisting feathered wings and a spitting mouth.

"What in the unholy--"

Qing Xiashu clapped a hand over Yin Liming's mouth, silencing his surprise. "Feathered wyrm. They're from the western kingdoms. Their hearing is poor but they aren't deaf. Same with their eyesight."

"How do they navigate?"

"Smell and heat."

The wyrm's head snapped in their direction before launching. "Looks like a juvenile." The head disciple mentioned, dipping out of the way of the beast. "Whatever you do, don't let it bite you, they're like snakes and scorpions, their venom is much more devastating than the adults." He grabbed Yin Liming's shrouds and hauled him away as a spray of acid cascaded across the space he'd previously occupied. "And they can spit it." The acid fizzled on the ground, burning through layers of fallen pine needles before sinking into the ground.

"Safe to say that might strip a corpse of meat?"

"Ah- yes that would do it."

"Are these animals negotiable?"

"I have no idea, I've only seen them mentioned in a single bestiary in Lu Tian." Which of course he had promptly traded for and brought back to the capital for Xue Feiyi to study.

It was really a full blown obsession at this point.

The man had a problem.

"Will you cover me while I test it?"

"Feel free."

Yin Liming had stopped moving and turned to face the beast so quickly that the little thing startled and froze in place. Its feathers raised dramatically to spoof its size. At moments it seemed to rattle before hissing, threatening another spit.

But the rogue simply lowered to the little beast's eye level and stared. His gaze sharp and golden, cut into the wyrm's very soul until it seemed to obediently make a small movement backward. It even lowered its feathers and head.

Yin Liming straightened with his hands on his hips. "That's better."

The head disciple tried to blink away his stunned confusion. "How did you do that? I thought you were going to talk to it."

"I don't converse well." The rogue said simply. "Body language is more inclusive anyway, isn't it? It might not know our language, if it can understand human language at all."

Qing Xiashu chuckled, giving the teen an easy look of approval. "I suppose that is true. Well done." He hummed before turning his attention to the suddenly shy little wyrm. "We'll have to relocate it closer to the wilds. If it hadn't landed so close to a town we probably never would have heard about it. In the meantime we should try to find its prey."

"Mn, should we secure it somehow? We can't really let it wander off."

"See if it will let you pick it up." The head disciple said with an unconcerned shrug, turning towards the trees the beast had descended from. "It's probably hungry for some warmth anyway."

"Fine..."

Maybe leaving the rogue with a dangerous wild animal wasn't wise, but the creature was bound to be more docile without him hovering. Besides, Yin Liming hadn't even spotted the lair. Best to leave the spotting of things to Qing Xiashu.

The smell of burning rot was rather mild, old like the scent had had time to seep into the ground.

What was much fresher was the scent of cooking blood. Following that led him to a tiny clearing under a few bushes which opened into a den, stuffed full of bones and a fresh melting carcass. A young deer if he had to guess.

It didn't take much looking to find the human bones, the distinct pelvis caught his attention first, leading him deeper into the small den.

By looking over just the bones, Qing Xiashu could decidedly tell they had died a rather terrible death. Fractures and splinters were rampant. That did beg the question what had happened to them. From what he knew, feathered wyrms were scavengers. Even if one had the hankering for fresh meat, the juvenile outside wouldn't be able to manage this kind of damage.

Qing Xiashu heaved a long tired sigh.

Collecting all the pieces of bones here was going to be practically impossible. They would have to burn the entire den to ash, or they would have to wait for the baigu jing to collect itself and appear to attack someone.

Though if it did appear to attack, they would be putting most of the townsfolk at risk.

Instead of worrying over that immediately, the head disciple went to work reconstructing the skeleton.

It didn't take much digging to complicate the situation.

A tiny floating shard of skull. Broken from where the eye socket should lay but naturally detached from the rest of the cranium.

"Crap." He whispered, searching for more shards of bone, many smaller than the print of his pinky.

Before long he had half of a skeleton.

A fetus.

Nearly brought to term it seemed.

This certainly explained the baigu jing's rage.

Little out burned a protective mother's fury.

Without completing the task, Qing Xiashu crawled back out of the den. "Do you think we'll be able to relocate the wyrm and return before nightfall?"

Yin Liming glanced down at the beast that was comfortably nestled in his arms, and shook his head. "No, the winds are strong over the wilds this week, it would take all day to reach them."

The head disciple heaved a long drawn out sigh. "I figured. The baigu jing was pregnant when she died, we'll have to burn the den to ensure we get all the fragments. Which we can't do while it's here, but we also can't leave her to keep killing tonight."

"Will we be able to catch her before she kills?"

"Chances are that she'll collect fully on top of her victim. Our best bet is just follow her bones and catch her before she lands a blow." Qing Xiashu sighed while he rubbed his face with both hands. "It'll be fine. I'm going to collect Xue Xiaojie, please wait here."

•●•