deercountry | Hunting Under the Bone Moon [Closed]

Shen Yuan is also in high spirits; going on a real night hunt, with a pack of real cultivators no less, how can he not be? When Huaisang approaches him asking for a ghost story, he smiles back at and beckons him to come sit with him by the fire.

"If A-Sang wants to be frightened, then he should come sit close to me," he teased, "the best ghost stories are told quietly, so tender ears can't overhear." This is Shen Yuan's way of giving anyone who doesn't actually want an adrenaline rush to opt out; if they don't want to hear the story, they can simply not listen.

So: once Huaisang is close enough, Shen Yuan lowers his voice, smile turning ever so slightly wicked as he says, "This one should mention that this is a true story: it happened to an immortal cultivator this one used to know. He was once summoned away from his peak by a call for help from a nearby city; several women had been murdered most gruesomely, and the local authorities had no idea what to do. So he set out, with two of his disciples behind him..."

Nie Huaisang ooh's quietly and leans in a little closer, and from nearby Shen Yuan can also hear faint rustling from Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao's robes, indicating that they too might be listening. He pulls out his fan and opens it silently, continuing,

"The cultivator and his disciples were offered hospitality by a magistrate of the city, who was himself near paralyzed with fear. He had just added a new concubine to his household, a young and lovely woman by the name of Butterfly, and the prospect of losing her to the killer filled him with horror."

"Oh, is it a love story, too?" Huaisang interrupts, because of course he does. Does this story have love scenes in it, by chance, because some people here will make faces but those people are not Huaisang—

But okay, okay, never mind him, he's ready to get jumpscared by this thrilling tale! He waves a hand as if to say ignore that, leaning his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, truly into the narrative now. "Go on, go on."

His eyes meet Huaisang's and there is a moment of mutual knowing that he is 'people here' that 'will make faces'. Keep it PG-13 kids, for the sake of Xichen's delicate virgin ears.

But he does like a good story and he listens in as he wanders the perimeter, checking, double checking, and triple checking their arrays, traps, and talismans.

Shen Yuan pauses for an indulgent moment, fanning himself slowly while he thinks. "I suppose one might say this story revolves around a sort of love," he finally concludes, "love of the self, perhaps. A-Sang will have to tell me when it's over whether he agrees."

He continues, "The cultivator questioned the magistrate most carefully, and sent out his disciples to ask more questions besides. From this he learned that all of the victims had been women of truly exceptional beauty -- and that their bodies had been found missing their skins. Immediately he suspected the work of a demon, but before he could formulate a plan his younger disciple, a boy not older than fourteen, returned to him in tears and terror. This sweet child had resolved to stay close to his shijie, for he admired her greatly, and suspected that any killer targeting lovely young women would set their sights on her next -- but the city streets were crowded, and this shijie was prone to wandering. In but a moment's inattention, he lost sight of her, and she vanished without a trace."

"Oh," Huaisang mumbles, making a point to look at Xichen again and raise his eyebrows significantly, cover those gentle virgin ears. "It's a story about self-love, this one understands completely."

Ah, but enough making this murder mystery ghost story into something that will make Xichen blush. Demons attacking the local beauties, yes yes, that's standard ghost story fare. Huaisang tugs on Shen Yuan's sleeve, tutting in disapproval.

"Shen-ge isn't going to kill this shijie in his story, I hope! Did the demon find her?"

Xichen makes a valiant effort not rolling his eyes. Instead, he closes them and rolls them behind the privacy of his eyelids. Good grief, Huaisang.

Though the story sounds like standard fare, he casts an inquiring look to Shen Yuan, curious if there is actual truth to it.

Shen Yuan has to hide behind his fan for a hot second to bite his lip, lest he burst out laughing at the look on Lan Xichen's face and totally spoil the mood.

"Did I not say that this was a true story?" he asks archly, tugging his sleeve out of Huaisang's grip. "A-Sang will simply have to listen and find out. Now," he cleared his throat and continued, "this cultivator had specialized in the study of demons and their ways, and so as soon as he and his disciple had returned to the spot where the shijie was last seen, he cast a spell that allowed him to perceive the demon's energy as a glowing trail, which he and his disciple immediately set out to follow. They tracked the demon all over the city; over rooftops, through gutters, in and out of the shadows -- but who could have foreseen it? The trail led them straight back to the home of their host, the magistrate!"

Sorry Shen Yuan, but shaking Huaisang off that sleeve lasts only a minute or so before he's latched on again, this time in grueling anticipation of the climactic scene. "The magistrate!" he hisses, excitable - nothing beats a good evil magistrate house, that's a classic. He is a responsive audience, if nothing else. Apologies to this sleeve.

"What did they find, what did they find? Where is their shijie?"

"Such was the cultivator's suspicion as well," Shen Yuan agrees (you know, like a liar). "But as he stood there, trying to decide what to do, suddenly he was struck - bang! - from behind," and on that bang, he snaps his fan closed, making both members of his audience twitch. Shen Yuan merely grins at them and opens it again, continuing to fan himself as he continues, "The cultivator lost consciousness, and when he awoke it was in a room he'd never seen before, and he and both of his disciples were tied to pillars with immortal binding cables, which blocked their cultivation. Most humiliating of all, the cultivator's sword had been taken, and he was stripped down to the waist. Before him stood none other than the magistrate's new concubine, sweet Butterfly."

Xichen muffles a chuckle from behind his sleeve.

"Is that not what usually happens to maidens in these sorts of tales?"

He has your number, Shen Yuan.

"Fortunately for the shijie, it seems this shizun is much more to the Butterfly's tastes."

Shen Yuan gives Lan Xichen a well-deserved sour look.

"Has Lan-gongzi spoken to my friend as well?" he asks archly. "How strange. But yes; Butterfly *was* most interested in the immortal himself. She opened her mouth and, in a voice that crackled and hissed like this fire," he indicates their campfire with his fan, "introduced herself as the demon who had been preying upon the young women of the city. She began to taunt the immortal and fondle his body, sighing that it had been so long since she'd worn a male shape - but with his body's vast stores of qi, she would easily be able to heal her damaged martial aspect, and live for all eternity besides." Shen Yuan drops his voice even lower, speaking more slowly as he says, "Laughing to herself as though she'd just told a funny joke, she extended a single, blood-red claw from her finger, and seizing the cultivator's face in her other hand, she brought that claw close to his eye --"

Acting on the pull of his qi, which Shen Yuan had disguised with the wave of his fan, a burning log suddenly splits with an echoing *crack*, sending up a monumental shower of sparks!

--and Jin Guangyao spooks like a hare from where he has been carefully applying a new warding talisman to the trunk of an ancient-looking tree, and has to crouch down into the grasses to pluck it up again. He blushes with embarrassment and flattens the paper against the bark. Everything's fine ~~you fucking psychopaths would have gotten along great with Xue Yang~~.

Huaisang clicks his tongue disapprovingly, and maybe a little bored? Sorry to Butterfly, but he just can't get into it when it's nonconsensual topless men. Now, if this story had a shocking, turned-to-the-dark-side-sexily twist...

Ah, but it's supposed to be scary. Right. And credit him this, he does startle appropriately at the shower of sparks, although he does so with an abrupt laugh and a pause to applaud, unlike Jin Guangyao. Wow!! Special effects! Very scary, indeed.

To that end, though, he asks, "Why is she telling daozhang her entire plan?" Like... girl, please. "Is she new? Shen-ge, tell us how daozhang chased this evil away."

The sparks are a great hit (sorry ge, but Huaisang did ask for a jump scare!) but Shen Yuan doesn't get the chance to enjoy it long. He coughs into his sleeve and points out, "She was a demon that either lucked into or inherited a single powerful technique, that doesn't mean she was actually *smart.*" And that's definitely the reason for Butterfly's many blunders, it had nothing to do with Shen Qingqiu bribing anyone to mess with the fabric of reality and make her dumb!

Fanning himself anxiously, he starts to wrap up the story. "Anyway, it turned out that as soon as she'd woken up to find herself a prisoner, the shijie had been sawing away at her bonds with a secret knife she kept up her sleeve. She took advantage of Butterfly's distraction to free herself and attack from behind, saving her shizun. Once the cultivator and his second disciple had also been freed, he was able to use his arts to confirm that the demon was truly behind the killings, and exorcised it on the spot. It was unfortunately much too late to save the real Butterfly, but at least she was avenged and the rest of the women in the city were safe. And that's the story as my friend told it to me." Stop looking at him now, the show's over!

A small, polite, round of applause from Xichen.

"A tragic end for the true Butterfly," he says, "but very fortunate for Shen-g--"

He cuts himself off, then corrects;

"--for daozhang that the demon was not so bright."

Well someone gives Lan Xichen a curious sideways glance at that, and then shifts their attention from him to Shen Yuan. ...huh.

He away from the edges of their campsite, satisfied that the talismans and arrays are secure for the night, and settles himself on a cushion near enough to the fire to warm up his extremities. "Thank you, shidi, for the story," he says politely, and smiles as though some part of it hadn't just caused him to jump out of his skin.

Well, that's a story. Huaisang wonders if-- it was scary? There weren't that many ghosts, although the sparks were a nice touch...

He's satisfied, anyway, giving Shen Yuan a polite little golf clap, fan tucked under his arm. "Our heroic shijie is my favorite part. Daozhang is lucky she planned ahead." He's a real fan of this surprise twist girlbossing, good job, shijie! Less good job to daozhang, who they are all pretending Xichen didn't just objectively call Shen-ge, for sure.

Damn y'all, why you gotta call him out like this? Shen Yuan continues fanning himself and pretending he does not perceive all these speculative looks people are throwing at him for absolutely no reason, until finally he suggests, "Perhaps someone else would like to take a turn? What about you, A-Sang?"

Go on then, show him how it's done.

In Huaisang's humble defense-- Xichen said it, not him. Huaisang perks up, tapping his fan on his chin a few times before he flicks it open, for the drama.

"Alright, since Shen-ge told a mystery," not a scary one, no offense, "This Huaisang will also regale you with a mystery— this one was a real hit during late nights at-" Xichen, don't listen, "-Cloud Recesses, back in the day."

He sits up straighter, primly, and clears his throat. Gather round, buds. "How many of you have heard of the secret of Zheng Zongying?"

"I have not." Jin Guangyao glances from Huaisang to Lan Xichen, then to Shen Yuan, then back again. "Should I have?"

Lan Xichen shoots Jin Guangyao an equally baffled look, then looks to Huaisang.

"I've never encountered anyone by that name that I know of. Do tell."

Shen Yuan shrugs expansively. "I have not." But he does like secrets, so. He stops fanning himself, listening with real interest.

"No? This one is shocked er-ge and san-ge haven't heard of Zheng Zongying!" Huaisang flutters his fan, so shocked, just shook out of his mind, then flutters it again in a less facetiously offended way. "Shen-ge at least has the benefit of being from another cultivation world..."

Well, anyway. He snaps the fan shut, for the drama, tapping it into his palm. "Now, Zheng Zongying was a monk in the ancient days, before any of the most well-known cultivation sects were founded— but not at first! In ancient times, Zheng Zongying was a common wanderer, and every day he would wander to the foot of an enormous mountain." A pause, to make sure everyone is paying attention.

"At the foot of this mountain, Zheng Zongying could always hear the strangest sound— it sounded like the cries of a thousand ghosts, coming from the mountain's peak! So one day, when he could endure the curiosity no more, he approached an old man who always sat at the gate to the mountain path, and he asked, 'Elder, what kind of creature is making those cries up there?'" A fan flutter, ohoho. "The old man told Zheng Zongying, 'That, I cannot tell you, for up there reside the monks of Thunderbolt Peak, and only the monks are permitted to know their great secret. However, there is a way to find out...'"

He pauses here for. Inquiries? Comments? Let him know.

He exhales patiently in response to Huaisang's scolding--yes, terrible, what a failure Lianfang-zun is--and gives Lan Xichen a sideways Look, because their littlest brother is being a bit of a shit, isn't he?

When Huaisang pauses, Jin Guangyao spreads his hands to either side. "Surely Zheng-xiansheng must go up the mountain."

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