Xie Bian looked up at Fan Wujiu like a cornered rabbit. "This, uh..."
Fan Wujiu pointed down at the book. "Why are you staring at a blank book?"
Xie Bian looked down at the book open across his lap gingerly, half fearing that it had been wiped clean by the foul air of Fan Wujiu's presence. But no. The pages were still filled with stark black characters, clearly detailing Fu Shulin's trials and tribulations.
His shoulders relaxed. Of course someone like Yanluo wouldn't let it up to chance. He must have put protections in place to ensure Fan Wujiu couldn't read the book's content.
"It's, uhm, I'm supposed to write in it!" Proud of his quick thinking he smirked up at Fan Wujiu. "Yanluo said I needed to look at it often, and eventually the words I need to write will come to me."
Fan Wujiu's frown became etched deeper into his face, but he didn't question Xie Bian further. He reached into the infinity pouch tied to his waist and pulled out a delicate white folding fan.
"Here."
Xie Bian inspected the bamboo fan, turning it around between his fingers. "This is my weapon?"
He expected a sword. A dagger at the very least.
He looked up at Fan Wujiu, filled with grievances, ready to complain about being given an inferior weapon, when he noticed the matching black fan tucked into Fan Wujiu's waist sash and relaxed.
At least until Fan Wujiu said, "Let's go," and Xie Bian heard the rattle of a chain when he turned.
A chain twisted around Fan Wujiu's left arm, peeking out from under his sleeve. Attached to the chain was a scythe which wrapped around Fan Wujiu's wrist like a cuff.
Now that was a first grade spiritual weapon!
Xie Bian shot up from the wall and grabbed on to Fan Wujiu's elbow. "Wait, why didn't I get one of those?" he asked, pointing down at the chain.
Fan Wujiu raised his arm with a smirk. "You have to earn it first."
Xie Bian sputtered after him indignantly. "How do I know you're not making that up? You didn't let me go with you inside the shop. Maybe your plan was to keep the best weapon to yourself all along."
Fan Wujiu nodded, paying Xie Bian as much attention as the passing breeze. "Sure."
Being ignored lit a fire under Xie Bian, he kept pace with Fan Wujiu, determined to get him to look in his direction. "Fine. What do I need to do to earn it?"
Fan Wujiu didn't as much as spare him a glance. "Be an Underworld General for longer than a day."
"You must be really incompetent then, since you only got yours today."
A muscle twitched in Fan Wujiu's jaw, but he didn't say anything. Xie Bian still counted that little flicker of irritation as a victory. It buoyed him all the way to their destination: A narrow doorway squeezed between two other buildings.
Fan Wujiu opened the two gates without knocking or announcing himself, Xie Bian followed behind him. The doorway opened into a long, narrow stone corridor that seemed to get narrower as they walked it. At the end of it was a luxuriant garden, lit by ghostly floating paper lanterns.
Xie Bian had been under the impression that no true greenery could grow in the Underworld, so the sight surprised him.
But not nearly as much as the young woman sitting across from Yanluo on the stone table, daintily flicking the lid of her teacup. Her shoulders were bare, and the robes she wore hugged her figure tightly. The many shawls pooled artfully in the crook of her elbows seemed wholly decorative. She smiled widely as soon as she saw them.
"Yanluo, you didn't tell me he was so handsome," she said, flicking the ends of her violet shawl in Yanluo's direction.
Yanluo gave her an unimpressed look over the rim of his own teacup. "How could it have slipped my mind?"
The woman got up from her seat and circled Xie Bian and Fan Wujiu, teacup still in hand. Her keen gaze made Xie Bian feel like a prime cut of meat at a busy market.
"Seeing the two of them together, I have to appreciate your vision. Who wouldn't welcome death with these two coming to collect?"
Yanluo grunted. "Yes, that was just what I was going for."
The woman trailed her long fingers along Fan Wujiu's shoulder. "Wujiu, I've moved on," she sighed, and then sent Xie Bian a flirty wink. "I have my sights set on someone else."
"I'm devastated," Fan Wujiu said, sounding everything but.
Yanluo cleared his throat. "We're here for a reason, Chujiang." He set down his teacup on the table and motioned for Xie Bian and Fan Wujiu to come closer.
The two of them sat down. Chujiang did her best to sit on Xie Bian's lap, but a beautiful emerald green snake slithered in from the tall grass and crawled up her thigh and around her waist, eventually tying her down to her own seat.
Chujiang tickled under the snake's snout. "Jealous girl."
"What did you find?" Yanluo asked, well used to Chujiang's antics.
She pulled out a rolled up scroll from the infinity pouch tied at her waist and unfurled it across the table. It was initially blank, but after she touched a fingertip to it, ink started spreading as if from an inkwell, rushing across the paper until it became recognisable as a map.
It depicted a large swath of Jianghu, but Xie Bian's eyes were drawn to a familiar name: Beishan.
"The latest cases are all from here. Three people have died but their souls haven't reached us," she tapped a city on the map. "All hail from Longbei."
Xie Bian did his best not to show any familiarity with the name. Just minutes before he'd been reading about Fu Shulin's meeting with the child cultivator in the city.
"Who do we suspect?" Yanluo asked.
Fan Wujiu scoffed, one corner of his lips raised in contempt. "Who else, if not Jade Dragon Manor?"