It felt oddly utopic, sitting in a cozy bright cave and getting serenaded almost to sleep by the sublime song of the elegant harp.
When Yingyue plucked the final string, the sound echoed for a while before getting swallowed up into silence, and the cave's atmosphere instantly felt... empty.
"There,"Yingyue announced happily, opening her eyes"isn't that better, Shixiong?".
Yuchen did not need to look at his arm to know that the injury had vanished.
"Thank you"he said.
"I'm glad I could help. Are you well enough to move now?".
"Yes,"Yuchen rose to his feet"we should travel on our swords this time, to be safe".
"That works"Yingyue agreed.
He extinguished the lights,then they stepped out of the cave.
"Wow..."Yingyue mumbled "what is this place?".
As it turned out, the cave was actually an opening on the side of a mountain, and it was one hell of a mountain. There was a rather heavy gale whistling outside the cave, and the atmosphere was the color of blood,as though someone had sprinkled gallons of crimson powder all over the mountain.
Altogether, the whole place looked ominous.
"The severed peaks"Yuchen replied.
"Severed peaks? Sounds sort of foreboding".
"It should. During the Rain of Blood fifty years ago, the demons who were slaughtered by cultivators were casted down the cliff into the abyss below".
"That sounds dark,"Yingyue shivered"wait, that doesn't explain why it is called the severed peaks, though".
"The mountain split down the middle fifty years ago, leaving what is known as the abyss in-between".
"Wow! That sounds like something straight out of a storybook!!"Yingyue exclaimed,stars pouring out of her eyes"can I see it?".
Yuchen blinked, clearly surprised. Then he looked away.
"Sure".
"Yay!".
They proceeded to ascend the mountain, until they got to the peak, the wind blowing through their hair and clothes. Quite a long walk later, and they stood before the famed cliff.
"This..."Yingyue mumbled, short of words.
The severed peaks weren't quite what she had expected. The chasm between the splits in the mountain, "the abyss", as Yuchen had called it was much wider than she had imagined.
In fact, she could barely see the other side from where she stood.
"Their bodies were casted down there?"she said, stepping closer to the edge to have a better look.
"Careful,"Yuchen said"you could fall".
"I won't. Don't worry".
"The mountain became like this because of the demons' resentment,"Yuchen added, walking up to stand beside her"their grudge lives on, and whoever falls down there is completely consumed until there is nothing left of them. You can't afford to be careless".
"You don't need to tell me that. Even without the mountain's...uh...special condition... I know falling is one of the worst ways to die".
She was quiet for a moment as she stared down at the seemingly bottomless depths.
"Good thing I've never seen anyone fall to their death. I don't think I could possibly get over such an experience. Have you, Shixiong?".
She was simply asking for the sake of it, and not expecting an answer at all, so she was extremely shocked when he responded.
"My mother".
"Huh?Wha... your...".
Yuchen's face was blank, but he was actually more surprised at himself than she was.
Why exactly had he let that slip?
And now she was staring at him with eyes more than thrice their size.
But he had already spoken, and now he found that he could not stop.
"Everyone said she didn't just fall, though. They said she threw herself off the roof, deliberately. They said so to my hearing for weeks, even though I was told to say later that it had been an unfortunate accident".
By then, Yingyue was both speechless, horrified and flabbergasted. She simply could not understand why her Shixiong was narrating such a tragic story in such an unaffected tone,as though it had happened to someone else that he did not know at all.
What was she supposed to do now?Comfort him? But doing so would be awkward with him being all indifferent like this.
"W-well..."she said, her voice too loud"you don't have to listen to them. She was your mother, after all, not theirs. So as long as you know she would not do such a thing...".
"She would, though".
Yingyue's mouth clamped shut, and she resisted the urge to glare at him resentfully.
She had been trying to comfort him, for goodness' sake!
But Yuchen would not have seen it, even if she had. He was staring into the abyss, and, -horror of horrors- he was speaking again. Though he seemed to be soliloquizing rather than speaking to her.
"She wasn't quite alright. She wasn't... happy".
Yingyue waited, but that was it. Suddenly, he sighed.
"What in the world am I doing?"he mumbled"I don't even know what got into me. You should just forget I ever said any of that".
With that, he turned and began to walk away.
"Wait, Shixiong!"Yingyue hurried to catch up.
What the hell?! He had dumped all of that on her out of the blues and now he was telling her to forget about it?!!
Exactly how did he expect her to do that?!!!
As she walked beside him, though, she could not help but feel the sadness radiating from him, even though he was expressionless as usual. Yingyue felt like her heart was being squeezed. Her Shixiong's melancholic mood made her feel helpless.
"Shixiong"she called.
She expected to be ignored, but he actually looked at her.
"Listen, maybe she did throw herself off the roof. But...at least she died on her own terms. Not everyone gets the freedom to do that, so... I think throwing oneself off is much better than falling without planning to... so...".
Yingyue was well aware that she was rattling off absolute nonsense, just like she always did in the most awkward situations, and her face was already adopting the color of the atmosphere.
Yuchen was watching her with an unreadable look on his face, and she badly wanted to sink into the ground and disappear.
But then he nodded, and Yingyue's shock reached it's peak.
"We should hurry"he said, taking out his sword.
Feeling even more awkward than before, Yingyue drew Xinying as well.
The severed peaks was long behind them when he spoke again, flying ahead with his back to her.
"Meng Yingyue... thank you".
*
*
*
Seeing him reappear, the diabolic cultivator clicked her tongue in irritation.
She clearly had not expected to see him again so soon. As it turned out, she was right to wish him far away from her, because he had her on the defensive in no time at all. It did not take her long to realize that she stood no chance of winning, despite the poisoned blades and every other trick she employed. Even her signature black flames were no match for his blue-tinted protective barrier.
A well aimed jab at her wrist, and her lovely dagger went flying from her hands.
That was when she leapt far away, pulling out a teleportation talisman. Before Yuchen could give chase, the talisman erupted, and the diabolic cultivator was gone.
Yuchen turned back to Yingyue and Xinyue,who had actually not even left at all, because Xinyue was worried that he would not be able to handle the diabolic cultivator on his own, and Yingyue was too worried to leave her sister all alone.
"She escaped"Xinyue mumbled.
"That she did, but I don't think she will be returning anytime soon,"he replied, sliding Fenlide into its sheath"can you move, Meng Xinyue?".
"I can, thank you"the Saintess rose to her feet and bowed"thank you for your help, Young Master Pan".
"Don't worry about it".
"So, it's over?"Yingyue said.
"Not really,"Xinyue took out the soul-trapping pouch"I need to send these souls on their way".
She untied the pouch gently and held it towards the sky.
"Go now,"she said"rest in peace".
One after the other, they floated out of the pouch, dispersing into the sky, until they were all gone.
All of them but one.
It remained inside the pouch, stubbornly refusing to leave. Xinyue was confused.
"What is it?"she asked"why won't you go on to the other side?".
There was no response, which could not be helped, since souls could not speak.
"What does this mean?"Yingyue asked.
"This one probably has some attachment to the mortal realm"Xinyue replied.
"We'll have to use Xunwen on it,then".
Xunwen was a spell unique to the Meng clan's main family only,a method of inquisition that involved the summoning and interrogation of souls and spirits.
"Yes. But the instruments I need to carry out the procedure...".
"We can go down and get them. We might as well do it down there. Are you coming, Shixiong?".
"I don't mind"Yuchen replied.
Shortly after, Yingyue sat with a bowl of clean water before her, and her harp in her hands.
She opened the pouch, and this time the soul floated out to rest atop the water,as though it was familiar with Xunwen.
"I'll convey my questions through the tunes I play,"she explained to Yuchen "and the soul will supply answers by making ripples in the water, which Jiejie will interpret".
This was because while Yingyue was excellent at asking the questions during Xunwen, she had not quite gotten the hang of interpreting the answers to the questions.
She was not an all-rounder like Xinyue.
"Alright, let's begin"she said.
She proceeded to play. Each tune passed across a different message, and no two were the same. The first she played was.
'What is the matter?'.
The water rippled seven times.
"I was murdered, it says"Xinyue interpreted"I left my daughter behind".
'So what do you want to do in regards to your daughter?'.
Three more ripples.
"I want her to know I'm sorry for leaving her all alone. I want to warn her".
'Warn her about what?'.
A single ripple.
"What killed me".
'Well, what was it that killed you?'.
"I do not know exactly. I was asleep, and I fell into a nightmare. I felt like I was drowning, but it was not just my body. My soul seemed to be drowning as well, and all around there was blood. It was cold, and it was dark, and it was death".
After interpreting, Xinyue looked from Yingyue to Yuchen and back to the soul, clearly at sea.
"It sounds like the work of diabolic cultivation"Yuchen said.
Yingyue was about to play some more when the ripples resumed.
"There were eyes that I could see. Just as I heard the distant call of a whistle, I saw them. They were red and beautiful, like rubies. Like crystals of blood. And I knew they belonged to my murderer".
"That's absurd!"Yingyue blurted out"the only one who was ever known to have eyes like that is the demon king, Huang Yichen".
"It could have been an illusion,"Xinyue mused "and anyway, the information is a little too vague to be of any use".
Yingyue played again.
'That is a little too vague to be of any use. Anything else you could tell us?'.
"I visited a friend on another friend's request, to remove an unidentified evil from the household. I arrived with my husband, and my daughter who was but a child. Having arrived at night, I lodged with the family, but I never woke up again".
Xinyue's eyes were wide by the time she finished speaking, her hammering heart making her voice tremble.
"A-Yue... ask who it is".
Yingyue nodded, and played.
'Who are you?'.
There were three drawn out ripples, and Xinyue turned white as a sheet.
"Jiejie, are you okay? What did it say?".
Xinyue opened her mouth, but no words rolled out. Yingyue abandoned her post and hurried to her sister's side, holding her shoulders firmly.
"Jiejie, it's alright. You're going to be alright. Tell me what it said. Please".
Whatever could shock her indomitable elder sister this badly had to be something really serious.
"Jiejie,"she begged"tell me what the matter is. Please".
When Xinyue finally spoke, it was in the smallest, shakiest whisper.
"Mother...".