'Chaos walks through the garden, enjoying how the well-maintained and neatly-trimmed plants immediately scramble to tangle and go out of place in her presence. It is rather amusing especially when Flora inevitably comes to see who's messing with his garden. It starts raining.
Hooray, Sky and Weather are probably having yet another argument. They and Earth should just go and have a threesome and hate sex or something. It might stop them from affecting everything all the time.
She reaches the carnivorous plants section and laughs as the plants start freaking out.
On a bench outside the the hedge maze—actually just a place Flora puts people he wants gone forever—is Balance. She prefers those paper books instead of the data and digitized versions that Knowledge goes crazy for.
Balance gives her exactly one glance before standing up and leaving. Chaos snickers at that, there probably isn't any Chaos-Balance pairs that will ever get along.
Of course, that whole thing means that Lightning will try harder to make them get along. Lightning, mom, can be really insistent at times. Especially when it involves two of her family members.
Balance had been the one to raise Lightning and Music after their parents died after all. The rains stops, good, Sky and Weather stopped having a pissing match.
That or someone broke them up. Thinking about it again, the second is more probable.
Chaos looks at Balance's back, steadily growing smaller, and wonded if it is her that Balance hates or the fact that she is a Chaos.'
There isn't any.
That is, there isn't any evidence that shows that Jiao Zihua is being framed. Everything points to one thing—that the boy had poisoned his own father with such a vicious thing and the boy himself is currently being detained.
The sect leader was thorough and careful in making sure to be guarded against people, but he never did guard against his own family. It's one of the entire reasons that he either cooks for himself or asks one of his sons to do it for him when he's busy. Demonic arts cultivation doesn't give the user the ability to not eat, drink or sleep for periods of time like 'righteous' cultivation does.
Meaning that it was either Jiao Zimu or Jiao Zihua, but the one who had been managing things that morning was Jiao Zihua and thus the current situation.
Ling Hongyun couldn't care less about what happens and had left. Which, fair, considering that it wasn't him who had spent a week in the place. Jiao Zihua just grew on Leiji and they couldn't leave him in his current situation.
The thing is, even if someone wanted to kill the sect leader, the likelier target for being framed should be Jiao Zimu, because they can reason out that he wanted to inherit the sect faster or something like that. Besides that, the sect's general populace prefers Jiao Zihua as a person more than his brother...
Which is odd, because usually it is the person who is more favored that will inherit. But anyone just needs to soend one hour in both their presences to understand why.
Just because someone is a morally favorable person, doesn't mean they should lead.
For example, Leiji can easily cite Tian Lanbing. She's sweet, soft and absolutely not to be in charge of anything that can physically harm others. Ling Hongyun had told them that she was acting odd; Leiji will have to see what it's about when they get home.
"You!" A rather rude tone of voice called out. Leiji blinks and turns to look at the boy who now stands before them...they've met him before, what was his name again?
Spluttering is heard, "you forgot me?!"
Did Leiji say that out loud? Judging by the offended look on the boy's face, yes. They muster thr blankest look they can and reply, "What's your name?"
"My name," the boy points at himself, then at Leiji, looking rathe rpeeved, "is Zhang. Xuan. He! I'm the sect leader's fourth disciple, don't forget it!"
They blink once. Twice, "And what did you want from me?"
Zhang Xuanhe visibly pauses at that, looking around and seeing a few scattered peopke in the corridor with them. He lowers his voice and asks, "How much do you know about the poison?"
"Not much," Leiji admits. They knew very little about what actually happened, only that Jiao Zihua had been accused of poisoning the sect leader, it probably happened during the first meal of the day and that Jiao Zimu had been suspiciously quiet. A presence stirs in the back of their head, Leiji ignored it. "Is there something about it?"
"I'm asking if you were the one who brought the poison or not!" He hisses, posture defensive. They tell him, "No, I wasn't."
Then, "How did you come to that conclusion?"
Zhang Xuanhe clicks his teeth, looking around nervously again. It isn't like there was anyone who was really listening in on their conversation, Leiji had checked. He sighs and tells then, "Someone's been spreading the rumor that Third Martial Brother took the poison from you and because people are stupid, it has now evolvd to you being the person who had brought it here for him."
That's a rather bold accusation. Leiji thinks and replies to him accordingly, he grumbled and continues, "You don't believe that he did it either right? There's a way to prove it and..." Zhang Xuanhe grits his teeth, as if the following sentence was painful for him to say, "I need help."
"Shouldn't you explain everything first?"
The Devourer is a special kind of poison, created specifically for demonic arts cultivators with high enough cultivation to have formed their own versions of golden cores and such, meaning it only works on Emperor, Myth and Legend ranks.
In a far past, 'righteous' cultivators used to bring themaround everywhere but due to overproduction, several ingredients neared extinction. Those same ingredients were needed for other things and the 'righteous' cultivator's personal strength dwindled as their resources did.
The Qin clan, as one of the main forces in the 'righteous' cultivators, proposed that a ban be put on the poison and that it may only be made and used when another war with the demonic arts cultivators eventually started again.
That being said, since the poison was used so much, the demonic arts cultivators also found a cure for it.
One of the ingredients of this cure is moss that grew in a mostly abandoned and haunted place, which Leiji finds honestly odd. Is there a reason why it has to come from an abandoned and haunted place?
"Of course there is!" Zhang Xuanhe snaps and goes on about energy and different types and how they affect the growth of plants or animals. Leiji tunes most of it out, arranging the information into something more understandable to them.
Sect Leader Jiao was poisoned with the Devourer. The medicine brewing or healing whatever section had gone on a frenzy with moss last week and there was no longer any.
What does all this lead to?
Zhang Xuanhe heaves a sigh and stops rambling after seeing Leiji's completely ininterested look. He then continued, "There was a mission posted yesterday after Hall Master Ling came back. The task is to scout out some ruins and report back, only King or Queen ranks and above is allowed to join."
Meaning that no one would have the time of thought to do it. It's just...
"You still haven't told me why we should save the sect leader." Leiji deadpans.
"Because I said so," he snaps again, then slumps, "Teacher has been rumored to have his own provate spies, ones that only answer to him. I want to see whether or not that's true and if they saw what truly happened."
...spies? Did Lightning and Lu Leiji not notice or did they not tell them? No, the first is impossible. Meaning that they didn't tell them something, again.
It was probably to test Leiji or something, but they definitely would have told them if one had decided to follow them, so it probably isn't all bad. The others aren't that mean.
"So you're basing this entire thing on a rumor." They say calmly. Zhang Xuanhe flushes in embarassment and retorts with a scowl, "So what if I am?! At least curing Teacher will make him wake up and be able to join the investigation or something! We aren't doing anything useless!"
Leiji suddenly feels the inexplicable urge to be mean to hom, but swallows the words and instead asks, "Why me?"
"You are relatively unassociated with the sect and have no reason to see the sect leader dead. I can also trust that you won't exhange me to some devil for something or other, because clans have weird moral codes." He lists what seems to be obvious to him. "Also, Third Martial Brother thinks you're a good person."
So Third Martial Brother is Jiao Zihua?
"So to summarize," Leiji says, arranging everything into something legible enough to speak, "you want my help to explore some ruins and look for moss that is needed to cure the sect leader. After the sect leader is cured, he may or may not have spies he can call on to uncover the truth and reveal that Jiao Zihua didn't poison him. I have a question."
"What is it?" Zhang Xuanhe seems confused. Leiji wanted to sigh at this child who probably understood very little. They asked instead, "Why hasn't anyone left and gotten the moss?"
He jolts at the realization. "That's...odd."
Leiji continues, "How about, as a safety measure, we get all the ingredients needed while out? Then we can ask the healing hall or whatever to make it. Unless you can do it, that is."
Zhang Xuanhe tells them, "First Martial Brother is proficient in herbs and the like."
Who? Leiji must have voiced that thought out loud because Zhang Xuanhe gives them an offended look before telling them that Jiao Zimu is this First Martial Brother and that they really should remember what people say. Something about it being offensive or other. They don't care much about it, are they supposed to care?
But if Jiao Zimu is proficient with herbs...
Combing through the information that had been poured into their head, there isn't anything about the Devourer's ingredients other than the fact that some of them are also needed for other things. Lu Leiji never learned about it? Leiji makes a mental note to ask Ling Fengbao about this when they see him again.
"When are we going to do this?" Leiji asks after Zhang Xuanhe finishes ranting. He gives them an odd look and tells them, "Why don't we reserve the mission and go tomorrow? Besides that, I'll go look for people that might help us."
They nod and Zhang Xuanhe leads them to the disciple's dormitories, walking past a few residences to get to a gathering space, a board with bunches of paper pinned on it in the middle. There are few disciples still at the dormitories at the time. They probably all went off to wherever.
"Here," Zhang Xuanhe points out one of the ones on top. "This is the one. Now we just need to confirm it with the sect—uh, acting sect leader."
"Which is?" Leiji prompts him, the boy looks at him with exasperation and snaps, "Hall Master Ling, of course!"
...Hall Master Ling again, is the world trying to tell them that their fate was with the Ling clan or something? Was it not onvious enough when Ling Hongyun crashed into their life and Ling Fengbao very calmly told them that they are now his student, no arguments?
Leiji reaches up and plays with the ribbon mother gave them.
In any case, now that that was done, they should go in their current room and check on everyone in the mindscape. See why they're so quiet.