I occasionally do shout outs for other stories I liked over on royalroad, but I've so far been skipping them here because they are for stories on royalroad, and that's off-site. Should I start adding them to posts here, yay or nay? Is that even much of a thing in SV culture?
Author Note: Want to read ahead? You can find some patreon-exclusive posts (new one just this week!), as well as SIX more chapters, over on my patreon, for a low price of 3$.
I also have a discord server, where I post memes I make about FSE, and occasionally discuss some plans and worldbuilding details.
Once they were done with the soup, Qian Shanyi shooed Wang Yonghao back into the tavern room. There was a chance someone would return, ask more questions, and someone had to stay up there to answer them, at least until midnight. She told him to cook something to pass the time - they would eat it in the morning, and they'd be doing so a lot over the next week.
She stayed in the world fragment. With the duel coming up, she had to take every opportunity to soak up the rich spiritual energy, to heal her ribs and meridians so that she could go back to cultivating as quickly as possible.
"Let's see about making you a hammock," she said to Linghui Mei. Most of her theories about the woman - the kitsune - were still based on guesses, so she hoped she could get her to talk a bit more about herself. "If you are going to be staying with us for an entire month, you would need somewhere to sleep."
Kitsune's eyes narrowed in sharp suspicion. "You said a week," she said.
"A week on the outside," Qian Shanyi motioned upwards, towards the entrance portal. "A month here. Time flows faster with the entrance closed. Did Wang Yonghao not mention this?"
"He did. I do not believe either of you."
"Hmm. Reasonable, perhaps. We'll prove it to you once a moon comes out."
They still had some spare rosevine rope, as well as plenty of fiber. Her rope spinning wheel had thankfully survived their little tussle intact, and she got Linghui Mei to help her. The kitsune watched her with suspicion - though at this point, Qian Shanyi was starting to suspect it was simply her true nature, and seeming "normal" was a carefully constructed mask.
It was hard to fault her for it, really. Qian Shanyi might have felt the same, if she had spent her entire life in hiding and pursuit, fearing for her life.
"Before I forget again - what do you eat?" she asked, once the wheel was secured, spinning gently with a push of her foot. Ropemaking didn't take much thought. Linghui Mei sat next to her, offering her new fibers to thread into the rope. "You didn't partake of our soup before."
"What do you care?"
And here she thought the kitsune was past doubting her every word. "If you will be staying with us for a month," she explained patiently, not letting her annoyance show, "we would need to know what to feed you, so that you won't starve."
"Meat," Linghui Mei responded after five entire seconds of silence.
Honestly, so much mystery over nothing. She'd have to ask the spirit hunter tomorrow about overall kitsune diet, if she could find him free in town somewhere. "Meat prepared how?"
"What do you mean, prepared?"
"Fried? Boiled? Steamed? Stewed?"
"Raw."
Because she couldn't digest cooked food, or because she preferred the taste? More questions... "Raw how?"
"What do you mean, raw how?" Linghui Mei scowled, her face twisting, fangs growing out for a brief moment. "Raw meat is raw meat. It's not cooked."
Qian Shanyi sighed. "Am I not an immortal chef?" she asked rhetorically. "If I say I can cook raw meat without cooking it, what godling dares to doubt my word? Raw meat can be hot or cold, it could be ground, sliced, cubed, tenderized or served as a whole cut, it could be salted, seasoned, marinaded or coated with sauce while still remaining raw. So tell me how you like your raw meat so I can make you the dish of your dreams."
Linghui Mei's scowl receded, and she looked at Qian Shanyi strangely. "Just…raw," she said quietly.
"I suppose we'll just have to try every combination and see what you like best," Qian Shanyi said grimly. A lot of work left to break through these thorns.
She tried to pull the kitsune into more conversation, though to no real success. At least the reflexive flares of anger seemed to be getting rarer - while the suspicion only grew. Even at rest, there was a nervous, agitated quality to Linghui Mei, but soon enough, she started to nod off, eyes fluttering closed. Qian Shanyi paused what she was saying, but Linghui Mei did not react, breathing quietly through her little nose. Asleep.
Hm. The spirit hunter said that he had chased her for two sleepless days, but spirit hunters worked in pairs - one could sleep while the other guided the thunderhorse. Not so much for their target, who had to flee on foot.
When was the last time she had any rest? That could certainly explain some of the tension. Perhaps it was good to simply give her some space - Qian Shanyi didn't want her to snap. There would be time enough for questions tomorrow.
Qian Shanyi snapped her fingers in front of Lingui Mei's nose, and watched her spring up in a panic, limbs shifting, both tails bursting forth, fangs out. From up close, she could feel that the physical tails moved independently from the tails of kitsune's soul, and it was only the latter that tore hungrily at the cilia of her soul, sucked in spiritual energy like a hose.
Most cultivators would naturally assume the two were one and the same. A deadly trick, that.
"Don't sleep outside," Qian Shanyi said seriously, once Linghui Mei's eyes focused on her, breathing slowly stabilizing. "There are rosevines in the ground here."
"Rosevines?"
Qian Shanyi pulled out the jade slate for the Three Obediences Four Virtues, and flipped to the corresponding page, showing the picture to Linghui Mei. "Plant demon beasts," she explained, "Ambush predators. If they get to you in your sleep, they will strangle you. Go into the hut if you are tired."
Narrowed eyes. More suspicion. Did she not want to fall asleep first? Good thinking, if so - Qian Shanyi would have felt the same in her place. Easy enough to resolve. "As a matter of fact," she said, faking a yawn, "I think I will follow my own advice. This was a long day, and you won't need your own hammock tonight. You can use Yonghao's - he won't be needing it while he sleeps upstairs. Let me show you our hut."
Qian Shanyi quickly changed into her nightly robes, tied her long hair into a bun with a protective piece of cloth over it, and showed Linghui Mei how to slot the two beams that served as their door into place. The hut plunged into darkness, only a few slits in the walls letting in rays of light.
"Bottom one is mine, top one is yours," Qian Shanyi said, motioning to the hammocks. After she noticed the sap dripping, she moved her hammock below Wang Yonghao's, so that his disgusting luck could at least serve as her shield. It worked brilliantly.
"I am not going to sleep now."
"You sure?" Qian Shanyi said, hopping into her hammock. She put her slippers below it, next to her head - in easy reach. Just in case, and her body would shield them from the dripping sap. Her sword likewise went under the hammock, next to her side. "You looked about ready to collapse."
For a moment, she thought about her gloves - usually she took them off, but... Better safe than sorry. There was no rational reason for Linghui Mei to attack her, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't do it. She was stressed, in an unfamiliar situation - hardly grounds to act reasonably. If they had to fight, she'd prefer to have her rope techniques at her side, just in case she needed them.
"I'll be fine," Linghui Mei said stubbornly.
Qian Shanyi shrugged. "Alright. Just make sure you don't tip the beams over when you move them around. They make a terrible noise when they fall. We used to lock them with a sword… But honestly, they are so heavy, I don't think rosevines can make them budge."
Wang Yonghao was going to be poking his head in and out of the world fragment every so often, so she didn't feel too bad about leaving the kitsune to her own devices. She turned to the wall, closing her eyes. Her breathing slowly eased, as she consciously relaxed her muscles one by one, a simple meditation exercise.
This was a long day. Hopefully the next one will be shorter. She awoke to the sound of wood scraping against wood. A haze of light passed over her closed eyelids, before the darkness returned. Linghui Mei must have come back.
She didn't move, pretending to still be asleep, and kept the cilia of her soul close, spiritual senses forcibly narrowed down to only a meter away from her body. For all that she thought she had something of a read on the kitsune... She still felt a bit anxious about staying in the same room as a spiritophage. But she didn't want to make it obvious, either. Their relationship started on a very sour note - to repair it, she wanted to show trust, even if she didn't truly feel it.
Still a bit groggy from a sleep cut short, she did her best to sharpen her awareness with some of the same techniques she learned to lucid dream. Once you knew how to relax your mind, staying awake simply involved doing the exact opposite.
A rustle of clothing here, a step there. Linghui Mei must have sat down next to one of the walls - not climbing into her own hammock - and stayed quiet. Qian Shanyi's mind played tricks on her - was she even there at all? But she knew better. So strained was her hearing, that she even heard a couple liquid drops fall on the wooden floor of the hut.
Hopefully she is not drooling, imagining how my spirit would taste.
It was hard to judge how much time had passed. Perhaps it was only a couple minutes, or perhaps a good part of an hour. She heard Wang Yonghao show up outside, and then leave again. The world fragment plunged into silence.
A soft, heaving sob broke it. Then another.
"Why me?" a whisper. "Why, Heavens?"
Inside, Qian Shanyi relaxed. Having a breakdown after a three-day long chase was only to be expected. Of all the reasons Linghui Mei had for not going to sleep, this had to be the best one.
Besides, it gave her a bit of a chance to eavesdrop.
"Will I even see them again?" A sniffle. "Will I even get out of here again?"
Interesting. See who?
"A month." Another quiet sniffle. "As if. Cultivators. But... No. This has to be a trap." A sharp draw of breath, with a bit of a whine. "But...why, then? It doesn't make any sense."
Rustle of cloth. Two soft footsteps, so quiet she was almost sure she imagined them. Two more. Pacing around? On the very edge of her spiritual energy awareness, dim as it was, she felt Linghui Mei step closer to her hammock - though her spiritual energy did not pulse like a kitsune, still beating softly like an ordinary person. Staring at her sleep, no doubt.
"She is a cultivator," she heard a whisper, quiet, barely even uttered, "she is just a cultivator. They are all the same."
Qian Shanyi tensed, though she did not let it show on her body. If the kitsune attacked… She could manifest her spiritual shield in a blink, and it took Linghui Mei a good second to shift, if what she saw from her before was any indication. In a fight between a spirit and a cultivator, the first strike decided all - and she would have it in hand.
She hoped it wouldn't be necessary.
She felt Linghui Mei bend down, reaching below her hammock. A quiet scrape - her sword - before she moved away. In her heart of hearts, Qian Shanyi sighed.
Oh well. So much for peace.
She really didn't think she'd go for it. It was a terrible idea all around, really - but if so…
She shifted in her hammock slightly, as if moving around in a dream, putting one of her hands under her cheek. The other dropped off the hammock, resting just a centimeter away from her sandals, ready to transform them into daggers at any moment. The kitsune froze, not even a breath leaving her lips. Minutes passed.
There was only one logical reason to move her sword - if the kitsune intended to attack her. But then what was she waiting for? Why not transform, get her soul-sucking tails out?
Another hitched breath, breaking the silence. "I have to." Another quiet sniffle. "But… then what? There isn't even an exit…"
Oh? Someone having second thoughts?
Qian Shanyi stayed quiet, her breathing even.
Best case, she talks herself out of it. I'll pretend nothing happened - what's a bit of planned murder between friends?
Linghui Mei stepped closer, just out of reach, but then stopped. Another couple drops hit the floor.
"Even if I escape, what do I do? The spirit hunter is still close… Another chase, I can't - I can't -"
Sweet mercy, either try to kill me, or go to sleep already. If this melodrama goes on for the whole night, the anticipation will make me end myself.
Somewhere up above, she heard the entrance to the world fragment open. Linghui Mei froze, silent like the grave.
Should she call out to Wang Yonghao? It would definitely startle Linghui Mei, and she was already on edge... Dangerous. She'd be ceding the advantage of surprise, too, and without it she did not envy her chances of getting out of the hut before the kitsune tore her soul out, spiritual shield or not. Still quite a bit better than a coinflip… But too dangerous to risk blindly.
And on top of that, she still felt there was a good chance of Linghui Mei talking herself out of it.
Taking the middle ground, she shifted around again, laying on her back, and letting out something between a moan and a yawn. Her eyelids fluttered slightly, as if she was about to wake up.
Go on then. Last chance to strike…
Just as she planned, it forced a decision, though not either of the ones she expected. Four steps, leg swinging over the hammock, and then Linghui Mei was straddling her, one hand closed around her throat.
Qian Shanyi let it happen, just barely holding herself from laughing out loud. The one uncertainty in fighting the kitsune was wherever she could get her tails out before Qian Shanyi could slice her throat - and she had just delivered herself directly within Qian Shanyi's striking distance. Forget the tails, her claws weren't even out.
Did she want to interrogate her? Fine. If Linghui Mei needed this false assurance of safety, so be it.
"If you would like to fuck -" Qian Shanyi said, opening one eye lazily.
A ray of sunlight fell on Linghui Mei's face, glistening wet from the tears, the collar of her robes all but soaked through. "Silence," she hissed, then hiccuped.
"- you would have to at least get me out of my robes," Qian Shanyi continued, ignoring the threat.
Somewhere above, the entrance to the world fragment closed. Wang Yonghao probably didn't even hear them.
"I will speak," Linghui Mei said, her voice cracking a bit. "You will answer my questions, or I will tear out your soul."
"Will you now? How terrifying," Qian Shanyi deadpanned. "I am quaking in my boots. Ones I am not even wearing."
"You are not the first cultivator I killed," Linghui Mei snarled. Her eyes were wild. "I see through your bluffs. You can't manifest your precious spiritual shield with my hand around your throat. You are defenseless."
Qian Shanyi snorted. That was true enough, but of course all it would take to change that was to sever those arrogant little fingers, or better yet, Linghui Mei's throat. Qian Shanyi's hand was already closed around her slipper, hidden behind her own head, ready to be transformed into a dagger with a single thought.
"Who are you trying to convince - me or yourself?" she said lazily. "But fine, very well. Far be it from me to refuse to talk to a girl who crawls into my bed. Ask your questions."
"What is your plan?"
"You would have to be a lot more specific."
"Your plan for me."
"What makes you think I even have a plan?"
Hand around her throat tightened. It was actually starting to feel a little uncomfortable. "Enough evasions," Linghui Mei said, "someone like you always has plans."
Qian Shanyi laughed. "Ha! Why, thank you for the compliment. Fine, I do have a plan. But what's it to you?"
"What?"
"What do you care what my plan is?" Qian Shanyi said patiently. "We give you refuge until you go on your way. Isn't it what you already want?"
"I want to know what your agenda is. Answer. Now."
"And if I don't want to?" Qian Shanyi raised an eyebrow. "Your threats are empty."
"I control your life and death," Linghui Mei said, with quite a bit of desperation in her voice.
Qian Shanyi slowly raised her free hand, casually stroking a single finger over the hand holding her by the throat. "Do you feel in control?" she asked quietly. "If you kill me, Yonghao would kill you. You can't even reach the entrance without him."
That was a lie. She could, the same way Qian Shanyi did, with a spear and a rope, as long as it was open - but she wasn't about to mention it.
"It's alright to be afraid, you know," she continued, "being chased by spirit hunters for two days straight - that must have been terrifying. But why threaten me? I have done nothing to harm you."
The hand around her throat relaxed again, fingers trembling slightly. A couple tears welled up in Linghui Mei's eyes, but she shook her head, scowling down at Qian Shanyi. "No. You are a cultivator. Cultivators lie and they butcher. Stop lying."
"Oh very well," Qian Shanyi said, rolling her eyes. "You wanted to know my agenda? I want to resolve our problems. Get kitsune taken off the list of species incompatible with sapient life."
"Why?"
"It's the right thing to do."
"I don't believe you," Linghui Mei said, wiping her eyes off with her free hand. "Three hundred centuries of blood, and then you would just stop? No. Impossible."
"There is precedent," Qian Shanyi said quietly. "Dwarves used to be on it."
"Why?" Linghui Mei glared at her, all that emotion shifting to fury all of a sudden. "Why would you want to help me?"
"Why shouldn't I help a fellow cultivator?"
"Who?"
Qian Shanyi rolled her eyes again. So slow on the uptake. "You, obviously."
"What?" Linghui Mei leaned back, her hand relaxing completely from shock. "I am not a cultivator!"
"Of course you are."
"I am not!" Linghui Mei snarled, hand tightening on her throat again, "I am a jiuweihu! I am not one of you butchers!"
It took Qian Shanyi a second to place it. Jiuweihu, one of a dozen ancient terms for a kitsune. Not a word anyone used nowadays. That Linghui Mei said it meant something - but what?
"Please," she smirked, "Anyone can be a cultivator. Why not a … jiuweihu?"
"I kill cultivators!"
"What of it? Many cultivators do as well," Qian Shanyi said, "to cultivate is to rebel against the Heavens, and what is the empire if not the Heavens to a lonely jiuweihu?"
She probably shouldn't have been needling her this much, but Linghui Mei's eyes burned with such delicious hatred that she just couldn't stop herself. "Shut your mouth!" the kitsune shouted in her face. "I do not cultivate and I will never cultivate!"
"A stupid cultivator is still a cultivator."
"No," Linghui Mei snarled again. Her shape blurred slightly, ink leaking in air once more. Simply losing control of emotions, or preparing to strike? "You lie. You always lie. Now tell me what you want with me!"
Alright, this was starting to get too dangerous even for Qian Shanyi's tastes. She mumbled a sentence under her breath, looking away from the kitsune, pushing a bit of blood into her cheeks to make them blush.
"Speak louder," Linghui Mei said, leaning forwards.
Qian Shanyi slammed her forehead into Linghui Mei's nose and, with a twist of her hips, flipped the hammock over. Linghui Mei howled wildly, blood flowing down her face as she was tangled up in the ropes. She began to shift, ink spilling into the air, but Qian Shanyi did not wait for her to finish.
Dagger in hand, she lept towards the door and slammed into it shoulder first, sending it toppling out of the hut. Her ribs protested at the abuse. She had no time to grab her sword from the hut, but… Rolling on the grass, she dashed to the side, and reached behind one of the foundation pillars, taking out the sword that used to secure the door beams in place - she never bothered putting it back into their treasury. Good thing she didn't.
The kitsune leapt out of the hut a couple seconds later, all snarls, fur and fury. One of her tails slammed into the doorframe on the way, and the wood splintered. She crouched down to the ground, fangs bared. Her spiritual energy pulsed again, like a monster the size of a building was breathing through her skin, as fast as a panting dog.
"You know, I don't appreciate being called a liar," Qian Shanyi said calmly, her sword spinning gently above her head on jets of spiritual energy, her dagger held loosely in her right hand. She felt a lot more confident now, with two weapons and plenty of space for maneuver. Her naked feet stepped softly through the grass. "Especially when I am, for once, telling the truth. I would accept an apology."
"The only 'apology' one of your kind will get from me is my fangs on your throat!"
"How very close minded of you. And we were having such fun chatting about cultivation."
Linghui Mei began to circle her, staying quiet. Rage flooding the eyes.
"Would you not prefer it if we went back to talking?" Qian Shanyi said lazily, "But this time, without the threats, if you don't mind? I was told it's rude to threaten those who saved your life. I assume you still have questions."
"Your lies are worth nothing to me."
Qian Shanyi pursed her lips in annoyance. "You know, in this entire town, I think you are the only person I told no lies. Even Yonghao got some, though he knows the truth of it now. What is it that makes my words so hard to believe?"
No response. Hopefully Wang Yonghao would poke his head back in soon. She was confident in her flying sword, but she would feel much safer if she could simply fly away.
"I would say I am sorry for breaking your nose, but you already seem fine," she continued.
A growl this time. "You will be sorry when I tear your throat out with my claws!"
Yet the kitsune didn't strike.
Back to bluster, are we?
She needed to de-escalate this conflict, but… How? Linghui Mei did not trust her words, and seemed set on lashing out, mind consumed with empty rage and confusion.
Perhaps she would trust her actions. She just needed to bait her a bit more.
Qian Shanyi gave Linghui Mei a little clap. She was still holding the dagger, so it wasn't much. "Such certainty! Where was it when you were deciding whether to kill me or not, back in the hut?"
The kitsune froze for a brief moment, and Qian Shanyi smirked. "But you can't beat me. So why must we fight, fellow cultivator Linghui -"
"I am not a cultivator!" the kitsune screamed, predictably, and sprung at her, an enormous leap that would have crossed the distance between them in a blink.
It would have been surprising if the flow of spiritual energy did not announce her every intention well in advance. Just before she leaped, it stopped flowing into kitsune's body, and pulsed outwards, empowering her leap. A break in the regular rhythm. Qian Shanyi sent her flying sword to intercept and, with nothing for Linghui Mei to grab onto in the empty air, this would have been the end of it - but Qian Shanyi was merciful, and spun the blade around at the last moment, slamming its pommel into the kitsune's diaphragm with a sickening crunch.
The kitsune fell to the ground, coughing up blood. Qian Shanyi calmly recalled the sword to her side. She expected this, really, when she considered the danger of staying here for the night. Cultivators trained to fight for many years, but Linghui Mei had nowhere to train, no sect to teach her, no library to pull knowledge from, nobody to spar with. Whomever her victims were, she surely simply ambushed them, relying on her natural advantages - but there was no technique here, no strategy. Just fury and grief.
"Of course you are a cultivator," Qian Shanyi said, gesturing with the dagger, still held loosely in her hand, heading towards the kitchens. There were two more swords there, as well as her knives. This discussion would go much better once Linghui Mei had no fight left in her. "You use spiritual energy. You are sapient. You have rebelled against the heavens -"
"I have never violated the Heavenly will," Linghui Mei cut her off, stumbling up on her limbs in a cloud of ink and smoke. "I serve the Heavens to the letter."
Surprisingly resilient, this one. Perhaps changing her form helped with injuries?
"The Heavens have no servants, only slaves," Qian Shanyi shrugged, studying her. "Will you say that you pray to them for help? I know spirit hunters who do so as well. Despite this debasement, they are still cultivators. As are you."
"You want to know what I pray for? I pray that the blood will boil in your veins and the skin will peel off your corpse," Linghui Mei screamed, her voice raising with every sentence. She went back to circling around, looking for an opening. "I pray that your children, and your children's children know no peace as celestials hunt you down through the night. I pray that your entire damned empire shatters until there is nothing left! Every night I pray that the Heavens will wipe your filth away from this world, and every morning I wake up disappointed!"
Qian Shanyi tapped her cheek with her free hand. "Hm. You know, I can actually respect that."
"Liar!"
"What?" Qian Shanyi laughed. "Most karmists are deluded in their view of the Heavens. To see plainly that all they can do is murder - this is refreshing. Evil to ask, of course, but refreshing. Even somewhat understandable, given your circumstances." She pointed her dagger at the kitsune. "But tell me, how many of your prayers have been answered? Seeing as how I am still here, I suspect the answer is none."
"Shut up," Linghui Mei said hoarsely. Her foot spasmed, making her sprawl on the ground for a moment, but she got back up. Lingering injury?
Qian Shanyi ignored her. "It never ceases to amuse me," she continued, "You can be the best servant the Heavens could possibly ask for, yet if they feel the need, they will discard you without a second thought. They have sent you here to die, little spirit. The only reason you still live is because two cultivators decided that your life has meaning. That Heavens do not get to dictate your fate."
"You lie," Linghui Mei said, though her voice shook. "Cultivators kill and lie. Behind all masks, that is what you are. At least the Heavens are honest."
"Where is the lie?" Qian Shanyi said with a light shrug, "If you follow their will and kill me, Yonghao will kill you. If you fail, then I would have killed you. If you flee, the spirit hunter will kill you. And if you, against all odds, succeed - the Heavens will still kill you, to conceal Yonghao's secrets. They want to kill me because of him, you see. All their paths lead to your demise, because your life is worth less than nothing to the bastards - and you know this!"
The kitsune sprung again, but she was moving slower now, even more predictable. Qian Shanyi didn't even feel the need to use her sword, merely dodging far to the side.
"Then just fucking kill me," Linghui Mei said as she landed, choking back a sob. "Just do it. What are you waiting for?"
"I don't want to kill you. I don't even want to hurt you, but you keep trying to bite my head off. If you would just stop doing that -"
Linghui Mei spun around, weakness partly faked, and lept at Qian Shanyi again - but while her acting was good, the pulsing of her spiritual energy still gave up the whole facade. Another crunch of the ribs. This time, Linghui Mei screamed in pain.
"Please, can you just listen?" Qian Shanyi pleaded. For all that she wasn't the one screaming, it felt like she hit herself with that sword. She was starting to regret baiting her. "Let us help. We'll teach you to cultivate, develop a new recirculation law to help fix whatever deficiency is forcing you to feed on people. Help you, help all jiuweihu - I have no intention of spilling unnecessary blood. Even if we don't manage that - it'd make you stand out a lot less, if you could pass for a loose cultivator."
More ink and smoke, as Linghui Mei slowly stumbled to her feet, but her legs spasmed again, sending her to the ground. Her shape shifted from fox to woman and back to fox, seemingly involuntarily. She began to sob, and then cry, harsh wails mixed with choked breaths.
Qian Shanyi sighed, and bowed. "For what it is worth, I apologize for my crude methods. I will give you some space."
She empathized with Linghui Mei, in as far as she could. To be hunted all her life, and then see an offer of help from the very people she feared - it must have been shocking in the extreme. That she lashed out wasn't unexpected.
At least it didn't seem likely she was going to try to kill her again.
Qian Shanyi settled down inside the hut, next to the entrance, leaving the door open, with her back against the wall. Out of sight, out of mind. Sadly, there was no way for her to leave the world fragment entirely.
While she waited for the kitsune to calm down, she went over what each of them said. Best to do it immediately, while the words were still fresh in her mind - there were a couple interesting morsels she wanted to follow up on. She wished she could have written it all down - but her writing set wasn't in the hut, and she didn't want to go out while Linghui Mei was still sobbing.
She frowned. Actually, that didn't sound like sobbing anymore. Just… choking...
She glanced out the entrance, and immediately sprinted over. Linghui Mei was writhing on the ground, two rosevines wrapped around her neck. Her lips were starting to look a little blue, as she scratched at the vines with her claws, but the rosevines were hard to tear. Keratin could not compete with the sharpness of a cultivator sword.
The kitsune was flailing around blindly, one of her tails coming perilously close to bashing Qian Shanyi's skull open. "I am trying to help, you moron," she hissed, trying to get closer. Linghui Mei kept thrashing, not responding. Perhaps she was already insensate.
A couple careful cuts with her sword, dancing in and out of reach, and the rosevines fell to the ground. Linghui Mei breathed deeply, coughing. Her body convulsed still.
"Are you alright?" Qian Shanyi asked, warily coming closer.
"Thank you for - for saving me," Linghui Mei sobbed. Her legs twitched, arching her back for a brief moment.
"Just helping out a fellow cultivator," Qian Shanyi said casually, "what happened to you?"
Linghui Mei looked away, and Qian Shanyi felt a spike of annoyance. Was she going to give a non-answer again? "Too much power," she finally said, and Qian Shanyi breathed out some of the tension. "I am spent. Don't have any more," she sniffled, tears welling up in her eyes again. "I've never gone this deep before. I can't even move my own body. What is happening to me?"
Qian Shanyi looked over the kitsune, writhing on the ground. She wasn't screaming in pain, so perhaps it didn't hurt. "There are some forms of qi deviation, caused by a bad training regimen or drugs unsuited to the body, that would cause a seizure like this," she said after a moment of deliberation, "I've seen it once or twice. Perhaps this is similar."
"Never push yourself," Linghui Mei sniffled. The words had a feel of a rule, repeated thousands of times. "Always quiet, always hidden. Keep each face as long as you can. I am sorry, mom." She turned to Qian Shanyi. Her eyes were open wide, honest and innocent. "Will I die?"
"I don't know," Qian Shanyi said honestly. "I am not a healer, and I have neither the skills nor the equipment to diagnose you."
"I don't want to die," Linghui Mei choked. There was true terror in her eyes now. "Please."
"How could I help?"
Linghui Mei looked away. Was that…guilt? "I need to feed," she said quietly. Qian Shanyi's face darkened. "Please."
Qian Shanyi scowled. "Please what? You want me to just offer you my soul? My cultivation? After you have repeatedly tried to kill me?"
"It won't kill you," Linghui Mei said quickly. "I'll only take a bit. People always recover. You'd forget your last day, at most."
Qian Shanyi's scowl deepened. "According to you. How do I know this isn't just another ploy?"
Nothing she had seen from Linghui Mei made her seem as a good actress, and she was not faking her state, but when someone was pushed to the brink of death, all sorts of talents rose to the surface.
"I swear it's not."
"A promise is worth nothing if I can't remember it."
Linghui Mei choked again as if slapped. "But I will," she said quietly.
Qian Shanyi stared at Linghui Mei for a while, before getting up with a sigh. "No. I don't trust you this much. Wait until Yonghao comes back. Best I can give you is food and water."
"You said if I kill you, I would die as well," Linghui Mei pleaded, "Please. I won't do it."
"And then you still attacked me, did you not?" Qian Shanyi threw over her shoulder, heading to the kitchens. They had a fair bit of heavenly rabbit left. "If I was in your place, there would be no rational reason for you to kill me. But you are not like me."
It only took her a few minutes to whip up a plate of raw rabbit slices and a cup of water. By the time she returned, Linghui Mei had gotten worse. More convulsions, more changes. Her skin was in patches now, different colors blending together. Her face looked like a wax figure left a bit too close to a candle flame, features melting, no longer quite human. One eye was half a centimeter off to the side.
"I am so sorry I attacked you," Linghui Mei whined. "I didn't know what to do. I was scared."
"Eat," Qian Shanyi ordered, using a pair of chopsticks to put a slice of rabbit in her mouth.
Linghui Mei swallowed it without chewing. "I can do anything, please. I'll learn to cultivate."
"Cultivation is for your own benefit." Another slice. "You may as well offer to eat well and live a long life."
For a while, Linghui Mei simply cried, in between slices of rabbit and sips of water. She might have stopped decaying quite as fast, but then again, it might have been Qian Shanyi's imagination at work.
Wang Yonghao did not appear. Ten minutes on the outside meant three quarters of an hour here - if he was busy with something, who knew when he would poke his head in again. He surely thought they were fast asleep. Perhaps he was too.
"I just wanted to see my son again," Linghui Mei sniffled. She didn't even have the strength to cry now. "I so rarely can. They have to stay secret, nothing for the spirit hunters to find. But he is so clever, so good with the needle… He made me a toy, a little crow. And I… I took it. I shouldn't have, but I couldn't not. And then that spirit hunter caught my trail." She paused, just staring into space. "I had to lure him away, but I lost the toy in the chase. Heavens, please, do not let him find my son. Anything but that."
"You mentioned daughters before," Qian Shanyi asked quietly. "If you tell us where your children live, perhaps we could help them later."
Linghui Mei shook her head, panic spiking in her eyes. The convulsions had progressed up to her neck now, and so the motion was jerky, uneven. "No! Never," she choked back a sob. "I would rather die than reveal that. They will do better on their own."
Qian Shanyi shrugged. Probably reasonable, all things considered. What could she even tell them?
Hello, I am a friend of your mother, who is a kitsune - would you mind admitting your relationship? Pay no attention to the cultivator robes and the sword, please.
Linghui Mei stared up into the sky, quiet. Qian Shanyi observed her quietly, thinking over what she knew of the woman. For all that Linghui Mei chose to attack her, she felt a bit guilty for baiting her into it. If she didn't, tried to speak more neutrally… there was no guarantee she would have trusted her, but perhaps she wouldn't have spent this much energy in the fight.
All things considered… Linghui Mei did not seem malicious. Paranoid, shortsighted, hurt and quick to anger - but not malicious.
Her thoughts turned to the other species on that dreadful list. For all that there were examples of them being taken off, the quickest way off that list was still death. So much easier to slaughter and be done than to make peace. And yet cultivators bled and died simply so that others wouldn't have to slaughter. The dwarves alone took almost two decades of work.
She never liked that list. It wasn't in the spirit of the reformation - an atavism from an age that should have been left behind. Severed like a gangrenous limb.
Could she really just let kitsune keep dying?
To cultivate is to rebel against the heavens. If the heavens proscribe your fate, is it not my duty to save you?
Qian Shanyi grimaced. Sometimes she hated her own thoughts. "Wait here," she said, and got up.
What a pointless thing to say, she berated herself as she picked up her writing set, and brought it back to the woman. What is she going to do, walk off?
"You have said you want to live?"
"Who doesn't," Linghui Mei said grimly.
"Plenty of people choose to die. Some for principles, others for honor. Besides your children - is there anything else you would die for?"
Linghui Mei grimaced. Perhaps it would have been a scowl, if she still had the strength. "I don't have the luxury to care about anything else."
"And for them, you would do anything?"
Linghui Mei glanced at her suspiciously. "Yes."
"That is what I meant when I said you are already a cultivator," Qian Shanyi said, shaking her head. "You have the mindset. Very well. I have changed my mind. To cultivate is to spit in the face of death, and so I have decided you will not die today."
She picked up a brush. Cracking fate in half took careful calligraphy.
She started to write down what happened today, using her personal shorthand. There was a delicate balance in play: the time was running out, but if she forgot a key detail, it would be disastrous.
She ended up with three sheets of careful handwriting. Shuffling through them, she pursed her lips. She had to be very careful here. If she messed this up…
I'll forget I ever wrote them. What if I think Linghui Mei hid the fourth sheet?
She added a numbering to the corner, page one out of three.
Not good enough. I might assume she added the numbering after she already tossed out one of the sheets.
She ran over to her sewing set, and pierced through the sheets, tying them together with thread so that they could not be separated without damage. Using some of her collected pine sap, she glued the thread itself to the paper, and then a small piece of paper on top, completely covering the knot. Then she wrote the first paragraph of the story of Gu Lingtian over it - she had it memorized by heart - making sure plenty of characters crossed from one paper to the other. Even if the glue could be removed to take one of the pages out without tearing them, putting it all back together exactly in place, so that all the strokes lined up, would be incredibly difficult.
Could she fake my handwriting?
Qian Shanyi circulated the Crushing Glance of the Netherworld Eyes, and used one finger to sign her name all the way across each page in glowing powder, as well as numbering the pages a second time. Folding the papers up into a simple triangular envelope, so that none of the text could be seen from the outside, she repeated the process, piercing the entire envelope up with more thread, and signing her name across it.
Okay. This should do.
"Listen carefully," she said, returning to Linghui Mei. "I am going to let you feed on me."
Kitsune's left eye was full of blossoming hope, glued to her every word. The other could no longer open. "I wrote notes to myself, explaining what happened," Qian Shanyi continued in the same even tone. "I can be a very paranoid woman. When I find myself next to a kitsune, with no memories of how it happened, my first instinct will be to chop your head off on the spot. Tell me to read my notes, and then explain everything that happened, in detail. If you seem at all aggressive, I will assume you already attacked me, and chop your head off. If you hide things and I notice it, I will assume you are lying, and chop your head off. If you make a mistake that contradicts my notes, I will assume you are lying, and chop your head off. If I see any indication you may have messed with my notes in any way, I will definitely assume you are lying, and chop your head off. Please be careful and make sure I don't kill you."
"I will. I swear. Thank you," Linghui Mei said quietly.
Qian Shanyi moved closer to Linghui Mei, keeping the letter she wrote to herself in her lap, and put a hand on Linghui Mei's shoulder. "Go ahead," she said.
The spiritual tails reached for her, and then she remembered nothing at all.
Some of my readers on Patreon have insisted that this chapter "has toxic yuri vibes". I have no idea where they got it from - Shanyi has zero romantic bones in her entire body, and also the story as a whole has no romance - but if you happen to be one such reader, then you may be interested in Comfort of the Knife, a story I have been recently enjoying. It is about a woman on a quest for vengeance, in a world full of fey-like creatures that grant mortals powers over key aspects of reality. The main characters are very proactive and the cast has a diverse range of perspectives, something that I think would appeal to you if you read my story, even though Comfort of the Knife has a very different vibe from my writing.
Because she couldn't digest cooked food, or because she preferred the taste? More questions... "Raw how?"
"What do you mean, raw how?" Linghui Mei scowled, her face twisting, fangs growing out for a brief moment. "Raw meat is raw meat. It's not cooked."
Qian Shanyi sighed. "Am I not an immortal chef?" she asked rhetorically. "If I say I can cook raw meat without cooking it, what godling dares to doubt my word?"
Shanyi absolutely did not have to ask or answer these questions this way. But it is honestly more fun this way. And Mei's seeing the true face of Shanyi.
Linghui Mei's scowl receded, and she looked at Qian Shanyi strangely.
Also, I find it interesting that Shanyi still calls herself an immortal chef. Add it to the list of hats she's worn and her toolbox of techniques, I guess.
"Don't sleep outside," Qian Shanyi said seriously, once Linghui Mei's eyes focused on her, breathing slowly stabilizing. "There are rosevines in the ground here."
Hm. Yeah, without context that's not exactly a fearsome name.
For all that she thought she had something of a read on the kitsune... She still felt a bit anxious about staying in the same room as a spiritophage. But she didn't want to make it obvious, either. Their relationship started on a very sour note - to repair it, she wanted to show trust, even if she didn't truly feel it.
For all that she was planning to turn Mei over to the spirit hunters, Shanyi might be the best possible ally Mei could have hoped for.
"You know, in this entire town, I think you are the only person I told no lies. Even Yonghao got some, though he knows the truth of it now. What is it that makes my words so hard to believe?"
Maybe you're just worse at telling the truth than you are at lying?
"You use spiritual energy. You are sapient. You have rebelled against the heavens -"
"I have never violated the Heavenly will," Linghui Mei cut her off, stumbling up on her limbs in a cloud of ink and smoke. "I serve the Heavens to the letter."
"I pray that your entire damned empire shatters until there is nothing left! Every night I pray that the Heavens will wipe your filth away from this world, and every morning I wake up disappointed!"
Hm. Her prior disagreement makes more sense. See sees the Heavens and the Empire as opposing forces, and the Empire are the ones hunting her kin (and also her), so of course she'd side with the Heavens.
Qian Shanyi scowled. "Please what? You want me to just offer you my soul? My cultivation? After you have repeatedly tried to kill me?"
"It won't kill you," Linghui Mei said quickly. "I'll only take a bit. People always recover. You'd forget your last day, at most."
Qian Shanyi's scowl deepened. "According to you. How do I know this isn't just another ploy?"
[...]
"A promise is worth nothing if I can't remember it."
Linghui Mei choked again as if slapped. "But I will," she said quietly.
Qian Shanyi stared at Linghui Mei for a while, before getting up with a sigh. "No. I don't trust you this much."
Ah, here we go. The slipper is on the other foot now. Only the peril is more immediate, so I guess someone turned it into a dagger.
She started to write down what happened today, using her personal shorthand. There was a delicate balance in play: the time was running out, but if she forgot a key detail, it would be disastrous.
She ended up with three sheets of careful handwriting. Shuffling through them, she pursed her lips. She had to be very careful here. If she messed this up…
I'll forget I ever wrote them. What if I think Linghui Mei hid the fourth sheet?
She added a numbering to the corner, page one out of three.
Not good enough. I might assume she added the numbering after she already tossed out one of the sheets.
Four steps, leg swinging over the hammock, and then Linghui Mei was straddling her, one hand closed around her throat.
"If you would like to fuck -" Qian Shanyi said, opening one eye lazily.
A ray of sunlight fell on Linghui Mei's face, glistening wet from the tears, the collar of her robes all but soaked through. "Silence," she hissed, then hiccuped.
"- you would have to at least get me out of my robes," Qian Shanyi continued, ignoring the threat.
"I control your life and death," Linghui Mei said, with quite a bit of desperation in her voice.
Qian Shanyi slowly raised her free hand, casually stroking a single finger over the hand holding her by the throat. "Do you feel in control?" she asked quietly.
"Please, can you just listen?" Qian Shanyi pleaded. For all that she wasn't the one screaming, it felt like she hit herself with that sword. She was starting to regret baiting her.
Qian Shanyi moved closer to Linghui Mei, keeping the letter she wrote to herself in her lap, and put a hand on Linghui Mei's shoulder. "Go ahead," she said.
Seriously, though. I think the main reason, more than any of the obvious stuff, is that this chapter focuses on the relationship between two women. Just as any man and woman who spend too long in the same room will get shipped by a substantial fraction of the fandom, any two women who develop a meaningful relationship will get shipped by a substantial yet largely non-overlapping fraction of the fandom.
And of course, the question this chapter was trust. Will Mei come to trust Shanyi? Does Shanyi trust Mei enough? Combine that with their complimentary personalities—both distrustful and violently self-interested, one cool and cunning while the other is recklessly hot-blooded; add a sprinkle of conflicting origins, two kinds of people who should want to kill each other. Who try to kill each other, or at least get each other killed! If you like enemies-to-lovers yuri, this is already almost exactly that. Just come up with some reason why Mei's spiritual physiology means she might die if she doesn't have sex and maybe rewrite their dialogue to be more suggestive.
Shanyi being aromantic also does less than nothing to stop shipping. It just means she's available. I speak from fandom experience. (thousand-yard stare) I can't tell you which was worse...smugbug or tattletares...
Shanyi absolutely did not have to ask or answer these questions this way. But it is honestly more fun this way. And Mei's seeing the true face of Shanyi.
Fair. She is pretty strange.
Also, I find it interesting that Shanyi still calls herself an immortal chef. Add it to the list of hats she's worn and her toolbox of techniques, I guess.
Hm. Yeah, without context that's not exactly a fearsome name.
Between this and Mei's reflexive distrust of everything, I think we've identified the chapter's theme.
For all that she was planning to turn Mei over to the spirit hunters, Shanyi might be the best possible ally Mei could have hoped for.
Maybe you're just worse at telling the truth than you are at lying?
Not a point I expected her to argue.
Hm. Her prior disagreement makes more sense. See sees the Heavens and the Empire as opposing forces, and the Empire are the ones hunting her kin (and also her), so of course she'd side with the Heavens.
Ah, here we go. The slipper is on the other foot now. Only the peril is more immediate, so I guess someone turned it into a dagger.
Appropriately enough, today's wild improvisation is a tool for preserving trust.
Mysterious. Truly mysterious.
Seriously, though. I think the main reason, more than any of the obvious stuff, is that this chapter focuses on the relationship between two women. Just as any man and woman who spend too long in the same room will get shipped by a substantial fraction of the fandom, any two women who develop a meaningful relationship will get shipped by a substantial yet largely non-overlapping fraction of the fandom.
And of course, the question this chapter was trust. Will Mei come to trust Shanyi? Does Shanyi trust Mei enough? Combine that with their complimentary personalities—both distrustful and violently self-interested, one cool and cunning while the other is recklessly hot-blooded; add a sprinkle of conflicting origins, two kinds of people who should want to kill each other. Who try to kill each other, or at least get each other killed! If you like enemies-to-lovers yuri, this is already almost exactly that. Just come up with some reason why Mei's spiritual physiology means she might die if she doesn't have sex and maybe rewrite their dialogue to be more suggestive.
Shanyi being aromantic also does less than nothing to stop shipping. It just means she's available. I speak from fandom experience. (thousand-yard stare) I can't tell you which was worse...smugbug or tattletares...
Some of my readers on Patreon have insisted that this chapter "has toxic yuri vibes". I have no idea where they got it from - Shanyi has zero romantic bones in her entire body, and also the story as a whole has no romance - but if you happen to be one such reader, then you may be interested in Comfort of the Knife, a story I have been recently enjoying. It is about a woman on a quest for vengeance, in a world full of fey-like creatures that grant mortals powers over key aspects of reality. The main characters are very proactive and the cast has a diverse range of perspectives, something that I think would appeal to you if you read my story, even though Comfort of the Knife has a very different vibe from my writing.
"You know, in this entire town, I think you are the only person I told no lies. Even Yonghao got some, though he knows the truth of it now. What is it that makes my words so hard to believe?"
Some of my readers on Patreon have insisted that this chapter "has toxic yuri vibes". I have no idea where they got it from - Shanyi has zero romantic bones in her entire body, and also the story as a whole has no romance - but if you happen to be one such reader, then you may be interested in Comfort of the Knife, a story I have been recently enjoying. It is about a woman on a quest for vengeance, in a world full of fey-like creatures that grant mortals powers over key aspects of reality. The main characters are very proactive and the cast has a diverse range of perspectives, something that I think would appeal to you if you read my story, even though Comfort of the Knife has a very different vibe from my writing.
As burybone alludes to, Shanyi is, yes, excruciatingly aromantic, but she's also pretty clearly not asexual, the sexuality she most consistently expresses is towards women, and we have here two women more or less trapped in an extremely fraught environment where they are both throwing social toxicity at each other and where one is at least jokingly bringing up the possibility of sex with the other.
"Toxic yuri vibes" fits, even if you're not actually planning to include romance or a sexual relationship between these two characters.
One point in Shanyi's favor (despite her being a chronically terrible person in all sorts of exciting and hilarious ways) is that she's consistent about certain things most of the time.
She routinely contemplates betraying people she holds no personal animus towards, and conversely doesn't hold a grudge over the fact that someone else contemplated betraying her.
I mean, in this situation, it's not herself she's distrusting. The danger is that she's going to distrust a hypothetical other person who she knows had her at her mercy, something she normally wouldn't sit still for.
I mean, in this situation, it's not herself she's distrusting. The danger is that she's going to distrust a hypothetical other person who she knows had her at her mercy, something she normally wouldn't sit still for.
Most directly, Present-Shanyi distrusts Future-Shanyi's trust in documents which claim Present-Shanyi wrote them. Also Future-Shanyi's trust in the soul-eating lady sharing a mini-world with her. The common enemy that Shanyi doesn't trust isn't herself in general so much as her specific reluctance to trust people.
Chapter 62: Read Out Your Thoughts From A Clean Slate
Author Note: Want to read ahead? You can find three patreon-exclusive posts (new one just this saturday!), as well as FIVE more chapters, over on my patreon, for a low price of 3$.
I also have a discord server, where I post memes I make about FSE, and occasionally discuss some plans and worldbuilding details.
Grass. Blue skies. Warm sunlight on her skin.
Qian Shanyi blinked in confusion. What was she doing? She was in Wang Yonghao's world fragment… Last thing she remembered, they've just come back from stealing the paleworm queens. Did she zone out?
"Thank you," a quiet female voice said behind her. Qian Shanyi spun around, and saw a naked woman, kneeling on the grass right next to her, her head angled in a small, deferential bow. She was blushing a bit, covering herself up. "I am much better now."
"Who are you?" Qian Shanyi asked suspiciously, taking two steps back. Her hand dropped on the pommel of her sword. If the spiritual energy flow was any indication, this woman was an ordinary person, but then what in netherworld's name would she be doing here? She'd sooner believe one of Wang Yonghao's swords acquired sentience.
"You left a note," the woman said, pointing towards a small triangular envelope on the ground. Qian Shanyi picked it up warily, surprised to see her own handwriting on the front.
She didn't remember writing any of this.
The woman made to stand up. "Stop," Qian Shanyi ordered. Something was really, really wrong here. She felt like someone had put her through a mincer, for all that her body was fine.
Where was Wang Yonghao?
"I'll just dress -"
"No," Qian Shanyi cut her off sharply. "Sit down and don't move. I am not letting you out of my sight until I know what is going on."
The world fragment was plenty warm, in any case, clothes or not.
She focused back on the envelope. A seal on the front, with ink and glowing dust, probably made with the Crushing Glance of the Netherworld. Whomever wrote this clearly didn't want others messing with the contents. Or wanted her to think the contents were not messed with.
She pulled it apart, careful to note the construction, watching out for any signs of tempering. Inside were three sheets of neat handwriting. Her handwriting. They were also sealed together, just like they used to bind documents back in her sect.
A word on the first page caught her eye, and she immediately pulled out her sword and retreated another five steps.
Kitsune.
The naked woman didn't move from where she was sitting, eyeing Qian Shanyi's sword with weary resignation. Qian Shanyi breathed out, and kept reading, keeping one eye out.
The notes were really concise, covering a day she couldn't recall - only it should have been two days, one here, and one on the outside, if the written schedule was any indication. She had to guess at some parts, novel symbols and characters she presumably invented on the spot to write faster, as was her habit. A character in a circle probably meant name or title, for a person or a sect - either the first one, 王 for Wang Yonghao, or cobbled together from the entire thing. There were arrows between different lines, where she did not want to write the same thing twice, and references to other notes she couldn't recall.
Deal signed 9SV, 10/50% -> 436SS + C./3Mo.
Nine Singing Vessels, something for over four hundred spirit stones, plus some kind of commission? Based on the price, perhaps I sold them our tribulation materials. With any luck, I'd have it all on paper somewhere.
Assuming any of this was real, in any case.
"Where is Yonghao?" she asked, skipping to the end of the notes. Allegedly she tricked a spirit hunter into chasing down a false lead, had a fight with this kitsune, and then, for some bizarre reason, decided to let an actual spiritophage feast on her soul.
"You told him to stay upstairs," Linghui Mei said, "in case someone else came by."
Plausible, I suppose.
The trouble was that 'her' notes only included facts and decisions, not the reasoning she supposedly used to derive them. It made it difficult to truly verify she was the one who came up with any of this. Some of the things she supposedly did sounded asinine on the surface, but almost any decision was reasonable in some circumstances.
And the one person whose memories were supposed to stay intact was absent.
The ache all over her body must have been her soul, a dull, vibrating feeling with no real source, but incredibly distracting. Her spiritual energy was a bit low, too - consistent with this supposed fight.
What she wanted was to investigate her soul, make sure there was no irreparable damage, but that would take so much of her concentration she'd be left all but defenseless. Unthinkable.
"Start talking," she said, putting away 'her' notes once she read through them twice. "What happened? Who are you?"
Linghui Mei spoke, her tone halting and anxious, eyes flickering between Qian Shanyi's face and her sword. Her eyes looked guilty, some shame bubbling forth. Pretending or actual? Impossible to say.
"I promised you we'd develop a new recirculation law for you?" Qian Shanyi interrupted her tale.
"You did, yes," Linghui Mei nodded, swallowing anxiously, "is it…not in your notes?"
Qian Shanyi narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Why do you ask? If you ate my memories, you would already know."
Linghui Mei scowled, then bit her lip, swallowing her first response. Or pretending to do so. "It… doesn't work like that," she shook her head slightly. "I only get impressions, tendencies. Names, if they are on the mind often. Not words or specific pictures. I do not know what you wrote."
Convenient. If she isn't lying.
"It is in my notes," Qian Shanyi finally admitted. "I don't trust them."
The notes were very well made, and certainly seemed to have been written by her own hand - but that did not mean by her own will. It was entirely plausible she was threatened into it - there were no signs she would have left for herself if that was the case, no hidden code among the characters, but if Linghui Mei could eat memories, all the codes she knew might well have been compromised. On top of that, there were those legends that kitsune could subvert minds directly. She could hardly trust her own writings blindly.
"Now speak, I need details," Qian Shanyi prompted, gesturing with her sword. "What exactly did I promise?"
Linghui Mei's eyes stayed glued to the sword tip. Smart. "You… didn't give details. Just said you would teach me to cultivate, help develop a recirculation law, so that I won't have to consume souls anymore."
"Ridiculous," Qian Shanyi scoffed. "I would have never promised that."
Entire sects spent decades working on developing new spiritual energy recirculation laws. And the three of them were going to develop a new one from scratch? One that fixed an unprecedented problem in someone's constitution?
"But…you did," Linghui Mei said uncertainly.
Qian Shanyi pursed her lips. This line of questioning had no future. "And then I let you feed on me? Why?"
"You didn't want to, at first," Linghui Mei said, looking away. "I was dying quickly. We spoke about my children. Then you changed your mind."
"Why?"
"How should I know why?" Linghui Mei finally snapped at her. "I eat souls, I do not read them like a book. Your soul tasted of sweet hope, with a bit of bitter guilt. That is all."
"Answer the implied question, spirit," Qian Shanyi said coldly. "What did I say, how did I supposedly justify this baffling decision?"
"You said I had the mindset to be a cultivator," Linghui Mei said, spitting out the last word with a mixture of fury, shame and yet more guilt. "You said… 'To cultivate is to spit in the face of death, and so you will not die today,' or something like that."
Qian Shanyi narrowed her eyes further. That did sound like something she would say… Or was it what someone who read her memories would decide she would say?
She glanced down at her notes. At the top, in bigger characters, was written "You'd be suspicious. Don't kill the kitsune."
If you didn't want me to be suspicious, past me, where are the answers to all the questions I have?
She idly tapped her sword against her own shoulder, contemplating the situation. Admittedly, the nature of knowledge was such that every question usually led to three more. Not having all the answers might not necessarily be a warning sign.
All things considered, she saw no glaring loopholes in the story or her notes, and this 'Linghui Mei' did not seem like a great actor either. So suppose it was the truth, or some version of it. What did that leave? Either things were entirely as described, or perhaps the kitsune had manipulated her past self, for one reason or another. She could imagine some circumstances where she could even decide to lie to herself.
She needed more information. What didn't her past self write about?
"Go, put something on," she said after ten seconds of deliberation, "And while you do, tell me more about your abilities. How often do you need to feed? Do cultivators differ from ordinary people, men from women? What else do you eat - my notes simply say 'meat', which is unhelpful. Meat cooked how?"
"Just raw meat," Linghui Mei grumbled, with a hint of something Qian Shanyi couldn't discern. She got up off the grass, and headed towards their hut. Qian Shanyi followed, still keeping some distance. "And I don't need to feed on souls that often. More often when I change forms, or use qi. If I don't, rarely."
"I need numbers, spirit, ones I can plan around. Once a day? Once a week?"
Linghui Mei didn't respond. Qian Shanyi gave her ten seconds, before repeating her question. "Just let me dress first," the kitsune snapped at her, disappearing into the hut.
Qian Shanyi let her be. Perhaps keeping her naked on the grass, held at swordpoint wasn't a good start to negotiations, but needs must.
Linghui Mei came out a minute later, dressed in one of their spare cultivator robes. They were tied up wrong, clearly by someone not used to this form of dress. "What does it matter, anyways?" Linghui Mei said, looking away. "I am the one who needs to feed. I'll tell you when I am hungry."
"You are being cagey," Qian Shanyi said, pursing her lips. "Why?"
"Because I tell you, and then you tell someone else, and then the next thing I know spirit hunters are that much better at finding us," Linghui Mei said, glaring at her. "My secrets are the secrets of every jiuweihu. You expect me to betray them just because you saved my life?"
That was… not an unreasonable concern.
Did she care?
"Are you blind?" Qian Shanyi said flatly. "Look around you. Half the sects would carve us up just to get their hands on this world fragment. We know how to keep secrets. Now speak."
"And if I don't?"
"I'll assume you need to feed frequently enough that me and Yonghao couldn't supply you alone, no matter how we twisted ourselves up," Qian Shanyi said, and paused for emphasis. "Then I would chop your head off."
Linghui Mei looked at her with hurt in her eyes. "I thought you were different from other cultivators. But as soon as I say no, you threaten to slaughter me like a pig."
"Cut the nonsense," Qian Shanyi snapped. Her soul ached more, and she wasn't in the mood for these emotional mind games. Especially not with her as the mark. "You don't get to keep secrets if I have to lie to thrice-damned spirit hunters to hide you. I am not even asking you where you find your victims, no matter how much I want to know - just how often we have to feed you."
Linghui Mei looked away guiltily. Qian Shanyi tapped her sword against her own shoulder again, calmly waiting for a decision. If her notes were to be believed, she had nothing to fear from a fight, as long as she kept her distance - and if they weren't to be believed, then peace wasn't feasible in the first place.
"It depends on how much I take," Linghui Mei finally said quietly, sitting down in the doorway of their hut, supporting her head with both hands, elbows on her knees, tucked in. Qian Shanyi paced in a semicircle around her. "And I try to take as little as possible. Never from the same person twice, lest they feel ill, go to a healer. I took much more from you than normal. Usually, I feed only once or twice a week."
Like squeezing water from a stone.
"How long does it take for their soul to fully recover?"
Linghui Mei bit her lip. "I don't know," she said warily. "My mother said if you drain the same person a lot, they get holes in their memory. Not just recent things, but way in the past. Take even more, they might forget how to write, speak, or walk. It's too noticeable, so we never do it, if we have a choice."
This was the critical question, in the end. How many people did the kitsune need to rotate between in order to be sustainably fed, without permanently harming those involved? If it was one, Yonghao could manage it alone. If it was two, Shanyi could perhaps chip in, if she could be convinced of Linghui Mei's good intentions. If it was three…
"Cultivators taste so much better than ordinary people," Linghui Mei continued, with some pleading in her voice. "So much more filling. It feels like even a single one should last me years, but after only a couple months, I get hungry again. I've never left one alive before, but…"
"You are saying that cultivator souls are more nutritious," Qian Shanyi said, catching on to the meaning. "Perhaps. We should also recover quicker, and the rich spiritual energy here should help significantly. I suppose we will just have to try and see if we can make it work."
"And if we…can't?"
"Then you die," Qian Shanyi said calmly. Best to be open about this right from the outset. "We will try other options first, obviously. Letting Yonghao recover in here while you spend a day on the outside should help, for example. Or perhaps you could derive the same form of nutrition from demon beast cores. But I won't let you go on feeding on ordinary people. Not without their consent, not when you can't even guarantee they aren't harmed in the process."
"Please. They always recover," Linghui Mei said with conviction in her voice, "they wouldn't even know."
Sure of the facts, or trying to convince herself?
"With respect," Qian Shanyi responded, "you have neither the skills nor the opportunity to diagnose long term soul damage. If you were clever - and you'd have to be, to survive this long - you'd avoid any contact with the people you fed on. At best, you'd observe them from a distance. Your statement can't be anything but a guess. An educated one, perhaps, but still a guess."
Linghui Mei bristled. "This is not my guess, this is the knowledge of all jiuweihu. It goes back generations!"
Qian Shanyi shook her head sadly. "We cultivators have a long history of knowledge that was assumed to be true for hundreds of years -"
"You cultivators have a long history of thoughtless slaughter!"
"- and the reformation had shown it was simply never reliable enough. Unless you will tell me there are kitsune that have managed to conduct long term studies?"
Linghui Mei did not respond, simply glaring at her more. Qian Shanyi shrugged. "You cannot. I'll study what you did to my soul once Yonghao comes back. And if it will take me many months to recover… You would have three options. Starvation, poison, or going to the Empire, in the open, and hoping they could help you in ways we cannot. Perhaps they would agree, especially if we swore to your trustworthiness. Ever since the reformation, making peace where we can has been a core purpose - and there is plenty of precedent."
"To think I trusted you two," Linghui Mei said bitterly, springing up on her feet and out of the hut. "You said I could always just leave. Just another lie, was it?"
"I have no idea what past me had said to you. Your life is not worth more than that of other people."
"They are fine," Linghui Mei growled. "This isn't about other lives. This is about you needing to feel so damn certain and in control. That's why you cultivators slaughter. So that you don't have to feel even the possibility of danger."
"In control?!" Qian Shanyi snapped, her even voice breaking a bit. "Damn straight I want to feel in control! My soul just got feasted on! I can't remember anything, all I have to go on are some curt notes allegedly written by me, and now you are refusing to answer my questions! After you have tried to kill me and I supposedly saved your life? Just how entitled can you be?"
"I am entitled?" Linghui Mei snarled, fangs growing out for a moment before she got herself back under control, "I thanked you for saving my life, but all I get in return is a cage! And you even want all our secrets? Just like that? After slaughtering my people for generations?"
"I have never slaughtered a single kitsune. How many people have you killed?"
"I do not kill people," she snarled again, "I kill cultivators."
Qian Shanyi slowly inhaled, filling her lungs with air, and then exhaled sharply. Her ribs ached. Her soul, even more so. But she couldn't just let that go.
She raised her sword with both hands, stepping towards the kitsune. Linghui Mei's look changed, certainty faltering as she started to back away.
"Say that again," Qian Shanyi said in an icy tone.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean -"
"Say I am not even a person. Go on, then, spirit. Say it."
Wang Yonghao gently blew on a small figurine he was shaping out of a small piece of pine. His fourth attempt at carving a rosevine - their tentacles were very thin, compared to their body, and broke off easily when he put too much pressure on the wood. His new tools helped massively, but it was still slow going.
He didn't mind. Slow was good. Slow was peaceful.
A pot of soup bubbled right next to him, and he tasted it with a little spoon. Just about ready - time to bring it back to the world fragment, put it on ice. He carefully closed the pot with a lid, took it off the fire, careful not to let hot steel touch his fingers, and let it cool down for a while.
Once the steel was tepid, he opened his inner world, and picked up the pot, holding the lid in place with one finger. Shanyi and Linghui Mei were already asleep, and he didn't want to wake them with an accidental clinging of metal.
This was going to be a nice, quiet night.
"Liar!" Qian Shanyi's voice cut through the still air of the world fragment. In her slow advance, she had backed Linghui Mei up against the edge of the world fragment, and now they were slowly circling around the place, a good twenty meters between the two of them. "Tell me what the spirit hunter has against you. The notes said it 'seemed personal'."
"I don't know! I swear!"
For all that Qian Shanyi felt furious, she wasn't planning on actually killing Linghui Mei. But she needed answers, and where calm discussion got her little, a bit of terror seemed to be working wonders. Perhaps it was down to playing into the misconceptions the kitsune already had about cultivators, or perhaps she was exploiting a bit of guilt she clearly felt from their previous fight. If nothing else, it confirmed what the notes said about their fight - Linghui Mei seemed intent on avoiding her.
Even then, for all she knew, everything the kitsune said was a lie. Still, the best she could hope for in these trying times.
"Notes said I'd forget one day," Qian Shanyi continued, switching over to a different track. "Why am I missing two?"
"It's - it's not precise, I am sorry!" Linghui Mei bumped up against the edge of the world, almost losing her balance. Qian Shanyi slowed down her threatening advance as a courtesy, letting her find her footing. "I needed a bit more than I expected, I have never been thisstarved, I just didn't know!"
"Uh huh. And why didn't you warn me in advance this might happen?"
"It's - I was dying, what was I supposed to do, scare you away from helping me?"
"And I didn't even ask? Unbelievable."
"Listen, lady," Linghui Mei snarled, suddenly halving the distance between them, fingers shifting to claws. "You made me promise I wouldn't kill you, but I am starting to change my mind! Enough questions! I told you what happened already!"
"Oh ho ho!" Qian Shanyi laughed, pouring spiritual energy into her sword to make it swirl in the air around her, like an eel in a river. She didn't stop walking, calling Linghui Mei's bluff. "Young cultivator dares? To cultivate is to dare, it's only your right. Go ahead! Let's have a second fight. Only this time I won't hold back."
Linghui Mei's face went white with terror, and she backed up to twice the previous distance, almost as far as there was space.
In the air above, she heard the entrance of the world fragment open. Wang Yonghao gasped. Finally, he showed up. Linghui Mei glanced upwards, but Qian Shanyi didn't take her eyes off the kitsune. Best to be safe.
Two seconds later, something heavy hit the ground with a thud.
If that moron actually passed out from the shock…
"How many people did you kill?" she asked, snapping the fingers of her free hand, bringing Linghui Mei's attention back to her.
Linghui Mei scowled, speaking on instinct. "I don't kill people -''
Qian Shanyi's flying sword pierced through the air between them, veering off to the side just five meters away from the other woman.
Linghui Mei screamed in terror, falling on her butt. "Eleven! Eleven cultivators!" she finally answered, raising her hands up defensively.
Qian Shanyi stopped, folding her arms on her chest, letting her flying sword return to hovering at her side.
"Shanyi, what are you doing?!" Wang Yonghao shouted, finally descending from the sky. "Why are you two fighting?!"
"Yonghao," she replied neutrally, "do you know this woman?"
"What happened here?!"
"She fed on my soul. Allegedly I consented."
"You did!" Linghui Mei shouted, still cowering on the ground.
"In either case, I cannot remember it," Qian Shanyi said, grabbing her sword out of the air and sheathing it with a flourish, before turning her head towards Wang Yonghao. "But now that you are here, at least I could confirm her words. Did we really agree to help her?"
Wang Yonghao sighed, coming to a stop in between the two of them. "Yes. We did. I said I'd let her feed on me," he said, turning towards Linghui Mei. "Why didn't you just say it if you were hungry? Do you have a death wish, feeding on Shanyi?!"
"She tried to kill me," Qian Shanyi said, approaching Wang Yonghao. "We had a bit of a fight. Then she ran out of power and I had to feed her to save her life."
Wang Yonghao's eyes snapped to her. "What?! Oh, Heavens, no…"
She gave him a soft glare, pulling out her folded notes. "Here," she said, handing them over. "This will catch you up to speed. Guard me while I investigate my own soul, please."
Leaving Wang Yonghao to his reading, she walked over to the edge of the world fragment, took a lotus pose with her back to the edge, and turned her senses inwards, her twelve meridians shining like rivers of light in between the lakes of her dantians. After a cursory check up of her body - ribs and lungs more than halfway healed, no new damage - she focused on her heart dantian, and through it, on her soul.
In the refinement stage, cultivators mostly refined their body. In the building foundation stage, they rebuilt their soul. It was simply not feasible before their senses and control over spiritual energy advanced to a new level.
Her awareness of her own soul was still fairly rudimentary, not extending much past the eight meridians passing through it, but even she could sense the damage, like cuts and scrapes on the surface of a mirror. She quieted the worry in her mind, and started to meticulously go over it, piece by piece, making sure all the essential parts were still in place.
She couldn't afford to make a mistake.
Linghui Mei rocked in place, sobbing into her knees. The male cultivator was shouting something at her, but it went completely past her ears.
Why wasn't she dead?
That cultivator could have killed her a dozen times over. So why didn't she? It didn't make sense.
She was so, so tired.
She swore she would be careful, but she just… Couldn't. She was barely keeping herself awake as it was. She snapped.
She was sure she talked herself into her own death. But then it… just didn't happen. Second time, now? Third?
Why wasn't she dead?
Linghui Mei continued sobbing, trying to put her mind together like a deck of scattered cards.
"My soul is fine," Qian Shanyi breathed out half an hour later, opening her eyes. "Past memories too. A week of rest, and I would be back in top shape - by which point my body should be healed as well."
She got up, and headed towards the others. Wang Yonghao was berating Linghui Mei not far from her. Linghui Mei was sitting down on the grass, hugging her knees, only occasionally cutting back. There were tears in her eyes and all over her cheeks. The two stopped, hearing her speak.
"This is great news," she grinned. Now that she knew her soul was fine, it was like a small mountain of tension was taken off her chest. For all that it still hurt, her soul buzzing as if she had gotten drunk with none of the upsides. "This means you can just feed on Yonghao without any big problems."
"Thank you. I guess," Linghui Mei said quietly, sniffling.
"How do you know your memories are fine?" Wang Yonghao asked.
"I had studied some memory techniques, back in my day," Qian Shanyi said, "there is a way to memorize events by putting them in a sequence that flows from one to the other, with rhymes or links of meaning. It's also good for meditation - or falling asleep - by going through such a sequence in order. If there was some damage, the chances were that the sequences would have fallen apart… but no, it's all still there." She tapped a finger against her cheek. "Perhaps it's good this happened, in some sense - this way, I can be sure your already patchy memory won't vanish entirely."
Wang Yonghao seemed too exhausted to parse her joke.
"Oh," Linghui Mei said. "So…what now?"
"Now I am going to sleep. I advise you to do the same," Qian Shanyi said. "Everything else can wait until tomorrow. Rising sun brings wisdom with it, as they say. There is no point in discussing things when we are both wired up on nerves."
Qian Shanyi crouched in front of Linghui Mei, bringing their eyes to the same level. "Listen, I am sorry for terrorizing you just now," she said apologetically, "I know I can be a bit paranoid."
"Yeah. You said that before," Linghui Mei said, sniffling again. She paused, fighting with herself over her words, but then turned to Wang Yonghao. "Can I talk to… Shanyi… alone?"
Wang Yonghao gave her a questioning look, but Qian Shanyi waved him off. He sighed, threw his hands up in the air, and stalked off. She turned back to Linghui Mei with a questioning look.
"Why didn't you kill me just now?" Linghui Mei asked after a minute of silence. "You could have. For all that I've put myself back together, I don't have the strength to fight. And you were stronger than me before, too."
Qian Shanyi blinked. "Didn't even think about it, honestly," she said, "past me thought you deserved a chance, and nothing you said was deserving of an execution." She paused, thinking it over. "Though if you say cultivators aren't people again I will punch all of your teeth out."
"I think…if our places were swapped, I would have killed you," Linghui Mei said with some trepidation, staring off into space. "I promised you I would not provoke you, but… I failed. I am sorry for what I said."
Qian Shanyi shrugged. "Don't worry too much about it. You can forget what I said about not letting you leave. If you want to, you can. Or you can stay, and we'll figure out how to fix the constitution of all kitsune. I think I've already figured out some of what I must have been thinking, before - but let's talk about it tomorrow."
"How could you just…do that?" Linghui Mei sniffled. "I was ready to kill you so many times, but you just… let it go? Why?"
Qian Shanyi scratched her head. How could she explain this? "I have a… I don't think she'd call me a friend. But she once told me that the rules of the Empire are written in blood, so that cultivators do not kill each other. Used to be, our conflicts drenched the land in violence. Our past record about other species is worse still. Learning to forgive - is that not a necessity, if we are to rebel against the Heavens? Your aggression is understandable, I think, and thus not something to hold over you."
"Did you mean what you said?" Linghui Mei said, wiping her tears. "About helping me learn to cultivate. So I could blend in better. So I wouldn't be hunted."
"That sounds like something I would say, yes. If you are not a danger to others, helping your entire species is only virtuous."
"Okay," Linghui Mei said. Qian Shanyi stretched out her hand, and Linghui Mei took it, getting up off the ground. "I think I'd like to stay, for now."
Also, did she remember to write about the duel she's supposed to have with Jian Shizhe? That could be a hilarious problem if that made it's way to the bottom of the priority list.
Also lmao at expecting this to enlighten Wang Yongao
She gave him a soft glare, pulling out her folded notes. "Here," she said, handing them over. "This will catch you up to speed. Guard me while I investigate my own soul, please."
I really like this character dynamic. We mostly see Shanyi as a social hero, using lies and trickery to punch above her weight. But with Mei we instead see the negative side of this, which is that it's impossible to have a normal conversation with her, since she might decide that, say, it would be more productive if you were terrified out of your wits.
The trouble was that 'her' notes only included facts and decisions, not the reasoning she supposedly used to derive them. It made it difficult to truly verify she was the one who came up with any of this. Some of the things she supposedly did sounded asinine on the surface—
For Wang Yonghao's sake, let us hope this incident gets Shanyi to reconsider her actions. Or at least how she explains them.
Linghui Mei's eyes stayed glued to the sword tip. Smart. "You… didn't give details. Just said you would teach me to cultivate, help develop a recirculation law, so that I won't have to consume souls anymore."
"Ridiculous," Qian Shanyi scoffed. "I would have never promised that."
Oh my god. Shanyi is so bad at figuring out what kinds of questions Shanyi would have about the notes Shanyi left her.
Linghui Mei looked at her with hurt in her eyes. "I thought you were different from other cultivators. But as soon as I say no, you threaten to slaughter me like a pig."
Yeah, sorry about that. Apparently erasing her memories reset her trust in you. Not in the sense that it was something that makes you untrustworthy, she just forgot why she trusted you. And didn't bother to write any of it down, I guess because she thought it was obvious.
"To think I trusted you two," Linghui Mei said bitterly, springing up on her feet and out of the hut. "You said I could always just leave. Just another lie, was it?"
"I have no idea what past me had said to you. Your life is not worth more than that of other people."
Yeah, um. Phrasing it that way is not helping matters.
Wang Yonghao gently blew on a small figurine he was shaping out of a small piece of pine. His fourth attempt at carving a rosevine - their tentacles were very thin, compared to their body, and broke off easily when he put too much pressure on the wood. His new tools helped massively, but it was still slow going.
It's nice to get a little glimpse of Yonghao's inner world. Well, not his inner world, exactly, just the—oh, you know what I mean.
Anyways, um. Sucks that his peaceful cooking and wood-carving are gonna be interrupted by Shanyi refusing to believe she did what she did and Mei getting pissed that Shanyi doesn't trust her any more.
"Uh huh. And why didn't you warn me in advance this might happen?"
"It's - I was dying, what was I supposed to do, scare you away from helping me?"
Shanyi, the notes you left to yourself so you wouldn't get into a fight with Mei are full of so many holes that you immediately started fighting with Mei. I don't think your self-perception is as accurate as you think it is.
She gave him a soft glare, pulling out her folded notes. "Here," she said, handing them over. "This will catch you up to speed."
Catch him—? Shanyi, they didn't catch you up to speed, and you're the person you wrote them for! Sure, Yonghao remembers some of the relevant events, but he also never experienced some of them! And the stuff he missed includes the most important parts!
Also, did she remember to write about the duel she's supposed to have with Jian Shizhe? That could be a hilarious problem if that made it's way to the bottom of the priority list.
2 &3) Now that I think about it, there are certain parallels between how Ch. 62 Shanyi woke up, and how Ch. 1 Shanyi woke up.
Locked in the world fragment with achingly incomplete information about her current circumstances, injured in an alarming way, and she can't currently deal with the injury due to the potential threat in front of her.
From a certain perspective, Ch. 61 Shanyi fucked herself over in an extremely similar way as Ch. 0 (pre-story) Drunken Wang Yonghao [did to her].
As for why it's going so much worse?
Agency, I think. When they first met Average Human Linghui Mei, they were tricked, but there was planning, action, and reaction. Then, she got to be smug about outsmarting the spirit hunter. When she approached Kitsune Linghui Mei in the world fragment, it was entirely of her own volition and planning.
This and the last chapter are such a good look at how Shanyi is a fascinating mix of blunt pragmatism, cold rationality, and intense compassion. We've now seen her twice immediately jump to "I need to save your whole species" as soon as she found out kitsune aren't actually inimical to human existence. It's very similar to how she interacts with Yonghao, where she can't help herself from trying to make his life better whenever she can. She's such an interesting character!
Author Note: Want to read ahead? You can find THREE patreon-exclusive posts (new one just this saturday!), as well as FIVE more chapters, over on my patreon, for a low price of 3$.
I also have a discord server, where I post memes I make about FSE, and occasionally discuss some plans and worldbuilding details.
When Qian Shanyi woke up, her soul still buzzed, and her ribs ached a bit from yesterday's exertion, but her head felt as clear as ever. She stretched lazily in her hammock, opening her eyes with a wide yawn. Yesterday was…
Can I even call it yesterday?
Three clocks, three time streams, all running at different rates. Outside, within Yonghao's world fragment, and her own. In the world outside, it should have been just around midnight, twenty four hours since they stole the paleworm queens. For her body, it was two and a half days, one here, one on the outside, and half inside the world fragment, dealing with Linghui Mei and taking a nap.
Language wasn't designed to twist itself around these problems.
Out of those, she could only remember the last half. The sleep helped a bit - she had brief flashes of memories from the days lost, but there was no way to recover what was no longer there. A vision of some whistle, and some kid who wasn't in her notes. Hopefully nothing too important.
Linghui Mei was curled up in the hammock above her, breathing light and quiet. She must have transformed in her sleep - there was a pair of fox ears on top of her head, and her twin tails were out. One was curled up around her eyes, the end of the other chewed idly in her mouth, with a bit of drool on the fur. Best let her sleep.
Qian Shanyi quietly slipped out of the hammock, put on her sandals, and slowly got out of the hut, making sure the beams did not fall away and make noise. She checked the time: nine hours of sleep.
She agreed with Yonghao to meet up after eight, but he must have decided to let her sleep in rather than wake her. Good of him, overall. She picked up one of her books on farming and settled down next to the baths, waiting for him to come back.
It took him just over an hour - thirteen minutes on the outside. She motioned for him to stay quiet, putting her book away. "How was the watch so far?" she asked, once he descended down on the ground next to her.
"Uneventful, thankfully," he said, with a bit of a yawn of his own.
"I'll switch up with you in the middle of the night, for a couple hours, let you sleep in here," she said, getting up. It was time to make breakfast. "Just a couple more loose ends to tie up, and then we will probably be in the clear at least until the morning."
Wang Yonghao shifted around uncomfortably. "You really think the heavens will do something new so soon?"
Qian Shanyi shook her head. "It's not about that - it's about the spirit hunters catching on to our deception. No lie is ever perfect, but there are many loopholes left in what I did. The biggest one is that nobody actually escaped through the sewers. Once they meticulously check every exit, they would never find any signs that someone left the system - no hatches that were opened, no trails, no smells. This would take time, and with any luck, by then too many things would have happened for them to be sure - but there is a chance they would come back, start to suspect Mei hid in the tavern somewhere after all. A dangerous link back to us."
Wang Yonghao groaned, rubbing his face in despair.
Qian Shanyi smiled at him. "It's not a big problem. I already have some ideas about how we can deal with it. But first, tell me in detail about what happened yesterday. I need a more complete picture than what was in my notes."
They spoke while she cooked them a pair of simple rice bowls, too lazy to make anything more substantial, and a plan slowly started to come together in her mind. She got some paper out, drawing a crude map of the town from memory, guessing at the speeds and distances.
They were interrupted by the sound of a falling wooden beam. Linghui Mei stepped out of the hut, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Her tails were curled up behind her, reaching up from below the hem of her robes. There was still some wariness in her eyes, but she finally seemed calm, not ready to bolt at the first crack of thunder.
"You look a lot better today," Qian Shanyi complimented. "Sleep well?"
Linghui Mei nodded silently, her ears twitching a bit. The way the orange fur on them turned smoothly into the black hair on her head looked quite cute. Like a little plush toy.
"Rabbit for breakfast?" Qian Shanyi asked, and once Linghui Mei nodded again, she headed over to the chiclotron to get some meat out. They were slowly running out, faster now that they had three mouths to feed - but the upcoming duel should give her a great excuse to stock up on food. "We've been discussing how to get the spirit hunter completely off your trail. My idea is to pretend you were hiding in the sewers, and then exited back through our tavern, once everyone had left. If you lay a trail to the river, where Yonghao will pick you up, we could tie that thread off cleanly, even if they come looking."
She expected the kitsune to tense, hearing about needing to go outside, where the spirit hunters might catch her - but surprisingly, she seemed to relax further instead.
Interesting.
She intended this proposal to double as a potential escape hatch - if Linghui Mei truly wanted to flee, she could simply not meet up with Wang Yonghao, and vanish into the night. After studying her own soul, she was much less concerned about letting her go free than before. Perhaps the Heavens would kill her for knowing too much - but that would be her choice. Was that what she wanted after all? Or was she similar to Qian Shanyi in spirit, and enjoyed it when someone else thought about problems that could fuck them all over?
"That's not going to work," Linghui Mei said quietly, interrupting Qian Shanyi's ruminations. "The dog will smell Yonghao's trail. They'll know you were involved."
"A rain had started, while we were here -" Qian Shanyi started.
"That will make things worse," Linghui Mei interrupted her again, shaking her head. "Rain brings out the scents better."
"Really?" Qian Shanyi angled her head in interest, bringing the meat back to the kitchens. "Why?"
"How should I know why? It just does," Linghui Mei grumbled, sitting down on the ground next to the baths, tails curling around her legs like a blanket. "Only heavy rain pushes them down a bit. Still brings them out when it stops."
"So even if I wash all the sweat, wear new clothes, a dog could still follow me?" Wang Yonghao asked.
"It's not just about your sweat," Linghui Mei said, gesturing to the ground. "The earth smells differently when someone steps on it. Moss and grass come through stronger, dust is airier. Even if you smelled like nothing, I'd have known you passed through."
Hearing her speak, Qian Shanyi opened the fire node in the kitchen, and put half of the meat she brought out next to it, to warm up. The other half she kept cold, serving it up on a wide plate.
"What if I walk high in the air?" Wang Yonghao continued.
Linghui Mei frowned. "Show me."
Qian Shanyi finished up her preparations while Wang Yonghao and Linghui Mei were trying things out. It felt good to not need to direct things for once. "Breakfast ready, Mei!" she called out, and the kitsune broke off from Wang Yonghao, eagerly approaching Qian Shanyi, licking her lips at the sight of all that rabbit meat.
Qian Shanyi had to slap her hands away when she went for the plate. "Not so fast!" she said, handing Linghui Mei a long cut of cloth. "Put this on first."
Linghui Mei gave her a puzzled look. "It goes over your eyes," Qian Shanyi clarified. "If your sense of smell is so good, focusing on it in cooking only makes sense. I have all sorts of meats here - hot, cold, different cuts, with and without salt - and I want to see which ones you'd like more. Cutting off vision makes other senses a bit sharper, so it will be good for our first proper test -"
"Just give me the plate."
"No," Qian Shanyi said, pulling it further out of Linghui Mei's reach. "I am the chef here. Put the blindfold on, we are experimenting with taste."
Linghui Mei glared at her, tails whipping angrily behind her. Qian Shanyi held her gaze with a small smile. Finally, Linghui Mei sighed in frustration, and tied the blindfold around her eyes.
"Excellent," Qian Shanyi grinned, picking up a piece of rabbit with her chopsticks, "now say 'aaaah'..."
"I am not letting you feed me like a damn child!" Linghui Mei burst out, an angry blush spreading across her cheeks. She reached out towards Qian Shanyi's hand. "Give me the chopsticks!"
"Oh fine," Qian Shanyi said, pouting. "Here you go."
She made Linghui Mei eat slowly, so that she could comment on the taste and the texture. The kitsune wasn't terribly good at giving feedback, clearly unused to focusing on the food as a thing in itself, separate from a mere judgment of wherever it was worth eating. It didn't help that she spoke so much more about the smells, beyond what Qian Shanyi's nose could actually distinguish - but she still got plenty of notes out of it. Enough to start working on the future dishes, in any case.
"Alright," Qian Shanyi said, clapping her hands once they were finished. "Breakfast over - time for crimes. Let's make some plans." While Qian Shanyi kept watch in their room, Wang Yonghao went out into the gardens. Opening the window, he snuck out, walked around the garden in no particular pattern, and then stashed Linghui Mei's old maid clothes in a distant corner, hidden behind a bush. Then he headed to the sewage access room, wedging the door and the window closed. It was already midnight, and the tavern was deserted - but best not to take any risks.
Opening his inner world, he let Linghui Mei out. The kitsune was like a coiled spring, all stress and strain. She refused Qian Shanyi's offer of the rope harness, and he had to carry her like a princess, a bag with Shanyi's clothes slung over her shoulder.
The memory of her slashing half his face open with her claws was still fresh in his mind, and he did his best to angle his head away without being too obvious. He didn't think it worked, on either count.
Once they were out, she leapt out of his arms, looking around the room. She had transformed back in his inner world, changing her appearance. Her figure was Qian Shanyi's, to fill out the dress she brought along, and her robes sat oddly on her. The face was new, unfamiliar.
The same wary look in her eyes as before.
The hatch had been closed already, and Linghui Mei yanked it open, gagging at the smell. "Heavens help me…" she whispered, taking the bag off her shoulder.
"Are you going to be alright?"
She eyed him carefully, just on the edge of paranoia. Whatever happened between her and Qian Shanyi to build a degree of trust didn't seem to extend to him. "Not the worst thing I ever had to do."
He turned around, knowing what was coming. They didn't want his scent on her new clothes, so she had to change into her "stolen" dress here, after he already brought her out. "You know, you don't have to do that," he said over his own shoulder. "Go in there. There'd already be a scent trail from this room - if it's too bad with your nose…"
Rustle of cloth, as she took her robes off. "No," a gagged response. Quiet slaps of naked skin on rusted rungs of a steel ladder. "It has to be perfect. Your wife was right."
"She isn't my wife."
No response, then some splashing of the waters. More gagging. Then finally, wet steps on the wooden floor, rustle of cloth. Soft whine of metal as the hatch closed.
Wang Yonghao turned around, and saw Linghui Mei wiping her hands and feet on the delicate cultivator robes she wore before, grimacing in disgust. Her new dress was purple, with patterns of white, like the starry night. She tossed the old robes to him, and he stepped aside, not wanting to touch the filth, opening his inner world where he stood. The robes fell through, and he tossed the bag after them.
"Well? Go," Linghui Mei said, gesturing to the door.
Wang Yonghao sighed, and unblocked the door, heading out. His part was the easy one, in any case.
He hoped Linghui Mei was going to be alright. Linghui Mei stalked through Glaze Ridge, hurrying towards the river. She avoided long thoroughfares, sticking close to the buildings. It was midnight, and rain was falling hard, with nobody else on the streets - perhaps she could pass for a housewife hurrying home.
Hurrying home from where?
Just being here, out on the streets at this hour, meant that the spirit hunters would surely question her if they crossed paths. New form meant new scent, and she had scrubbed herself thoroughly in their bath, until the musk of jiuweihu, of her transformation was completely gone - but she couldn't conceal the disgusting scent of the sewers on her hands. It was a bit of a gamble, to either leave the trail unanchored or to risk a confrontation on the street - but she chose the latter.
If the spirit hunters caught on to her trail, she would have no choice but to run. Better to risk it to lay a perfect diversion for tomorrow.
She had no shoes to wear, and so she walked with naked feet over the road, hurrying over the cobblestones and through muddy side streets, sweeping a leg behind herself to wipe the footprints off. Not her first time.
The heavy rain had soaked her, and she shivered in the wind. Qian Shanyi offered her a leather coat, but she declined. Too much smell on it. She was starting to regret it.
At least it also washed some of that sharp, tangy scent of the sewers away. She rubbed her hands together to help it. It was not going to vanish completely without some soap, or a transformation - but that would bring out her musk, which was far more dangerous. Her feet were already more or less clean from the puddles on the ground.
A dog barked three houses away, and her blood froze in her veins. She continued on her way, neither speeding up nor slowing down. Was it their dog? It had to be, but there was still a chance they didn't see her, especially with the darkness and the rain. It pushed the scent of the city down, of smoke and sweat and fruit and fresh rice.
She felt blind, exposed out here, but the dog would be as well. It would have to be right on her trail to catch her scent, and even then…
Qian Shanyi told her that as soon as they were out of this "world fragment", the Heavens might turn their wrathful eyes towards her. Because she was connected to the fate of Wang Yonghao, because she knew too much. She didn't believe it, but after everything that happened, perhaps she had to.
The dog barked again, the same distance away. Directly behind her, now.
No, no, no…
Linghui Mei felt rage and terror mix in her eyes, tears beginning to well up.
Already?!
She thought about running away from the two strange cultivators - this was a perfect opportunity, after all - but now she regretted even leaving their world fragment. Heavens smite them, why did she let herself be convinced? So what if the spirit hunters would go back to the tavern?
She couldn't go back to the chase. Not this soon.
The river was so close. She could already see the bridge. Should she run?
She didn't run. It would look suspicious.
She heard the dog bark behind her just as she turned onto a narrow street going alongside the river. So much closer. She only had moments now, for all that she still didn't hear the spirit hunters chasing after.
There was some kind of pole hanging over the street, perhaps from a sign that was no longer there, and she jumped off the wall, grabbed it, and swung into the river, aiming for a tall, vertical bollard next to the bridge. An entire cleaned tree trunk, standing tall in the water, secured down by a scaffold. Something to tie boats to, perhaps.
Her feet were silent as she landed on the top, though she slipped on the mossy bollard, soaked in the rain. She grabbed onto it at the last moment, and slid down into the water, slipping in slowly, making no noise. Diving deep, she swam upriver, towards the bridge, transforming her fingers into claws on the way. The current was strong, the water freezing cold. Her heart hammered in her ears, counting seconds, wondering when she would finally feel an arrow pierce through her back.
There was no arrow. She reached the bridge and hid beneath it, pulling herself close to the wall so that the passing water would not burble around her body. Her claws were wedged in a crack between two stones, barely wide enough, fingers going numb. She could slip at any moment.
She quieted her breathing and waited. Above her, she heard footsteps, a dog sniffing around on the street. Two voices, quiet.
"I thought I saw a shadow. Jian smelled something."
"The kitsune?"
"Maybe. Maybe not."
"Lost the trail?"
"Seems so."
"Let me give him the toy."
A whistle, then quiet. Linghui Mei waited in tense agony. The dog was, after all, just a dog. It could only follow the trail in two dimensions, and she didn't touch the railing of the riverbank. When the scent of the sewers went upwards - it should have gotten confused, unable to tell the handlers what it sensed.
Should have. They couldn't see her from where they were. Her breathing seemed deafening to her ears, the quiet burble of the current even more so, but up above, they surely couldn't hear it. The drum of rain on the water concealed all noise.
"No, nothing. Come on, boy, let's go. We have to hurry."
The steps receded, fading into the silence of the night. She waited, her muscles starting to lock up in the freezing waters. Counting in her mind, until they would be truly gone.
She let go of the wall and dived, letting the current carry her away from the bridge, and stayed underwater until her lungs burned so much she thought she would pass out. She had to fight her body to keep her breathing quiet once she surfaced.
The river had carried her around a bend, the bridge no longer in sight. As she got her bearings, she didn't hear the dog bark again.
She got away.
She was too exhausted to laugh. She laid back, letting the current carry her downstream, closing her eyes. The rain felt warm on her face, after that ice-cold river water.
She got away.
Her thoughts turned back to the other two cultivators. She could get out of the river, flee them entirely. She spent a good decade with the spirit hunters showing neither hide nor tail around her. They wouldn't find her again.
The town around her started to turn to farms, and then to a forest. There was a turn of the river she was waiting for, where Wang Yonghao was supposed to meet her. If she left before then, they wouldn't know where to even begin to look for her.
They are just cultivators.
If they were just cultivators, I would have already been dead.
As she thought about it, she started to tire, her eyelids growing heavier. The water was too cold. She tried to swim, to warm herself up, but her limbs were slow, unresponsive. She already spent too long in the water. Her movement turned her over, and for a moment, her head dipped below the water. She choked, struggling back to the surface.
No!
She tried to move faster, but her muscles weren't working, frozen stiff. Transformation was coming on slower, too, her blood refusing to move.
The current got stronger here. Her head dipped under the water again, and this time, she didn't have the strength to reach the surface. Her consciousness started to fade.
At least the spirit hunters could not catch me… Didn't… Give them satisfaction…
Suddenly, some force seized her hand, and she breached the surface, coming face to face with Wang Yonghao. She coughed up water on his robes. He swore, and opened his world fragment, pulling her inside. Her eyes burned at the light, searing after midnight outside.
The last thing she remembered before she lost consciousness was the warmth of a bath flooding into her limbs. Qian Shanyi turned over another page of her book about farming. She was lounging on their bed in the tavern, a cup of warm tea in one hand, a glass bottle full of glowing powder for light, cuddled up in a nice, fluffy blanket. If she tried, she could almost imagine she was back home, back before she became a cultivator, reading novels well past her bedtime.
She heard a key turn in the door, and Wang Yonghao entered, dripping water all over the floor. How did he manage to get so wet? He had a leather coat against the rain.
"Stressful night?" she asked, putting her book down on the windowsill. "I didn't think you'd decide to go for a swim. Was the water good, at least?"
