The Nine-tailed Fox finds a diary

Lan Tian doesn't even need to ask to know that Wu Yun's night was plagued with nightmares again.

Wu Yun raises his neck to drop a kiss on his lips, and says, "I don't want to talk about it."

So they don't. 

They leave their small room, hand in hand, but don't walk very far before meeting Bai Xiaoli.

"I was just coming to find you, Lu Jiao wants to talk with you," she says, her expression unreadable.

"You're still here?" Wu Yun is surprised that Lu Jiao isn't tired of her pining yet.

"Normally, I would comment on how those marks on your neck make you look like a wild animal mauled you, but right now, we are in a bit of a hurry."

Wu Yun's hand flies self-consciously, to his neck, which Lan Tian peppered with kisses until they both fell asleep, the previous night.

For his part, Lan Tian doesn't look contrived in the least. Then again, it's not his neck who looks like a tapestry of debauchery.

---

Bai Xiaoli enters Lu Jiao's rooms with all the propriety of someone who has spent a long time there.

Lu Jiao barely lifts her eyes from her papers when she hears the sound of her footsteps.

"They're here, Master Lu," she says, and only then does Lu Jiao acknowledge them with the upwards flick of her long lashes.

"Good, I was afraid, you would still be the world's cutest little dragon, and wouldn't be much help," she says, addressing Lan Tian.

Wu Yun hides his smirk behind his sleeve, but Lan Tian catches him at it. He can only shake his head and let out an exasperated, "Wan Mi..."

"Quite, she would not shut up about it. In any case, we have more urgent matters to discuss."

"Zou Qiao has made some troubling revelations," Bai Xiaoli says, wringing her fingers in a gesture that is unlike her usual self-assuredness.

Lu Jiao scoffs. "For you perhaps, I can't say I'm surprised at all."

Wu Yun thinks he knows what these revelations might entail. "Does it have anything to do with the nine-tailed fox girl Lian Feng was trying to auction?"

Lu Jiao nods. "She still hasn't revealed us her name, but Zou Qiao knows, from his dealings with Immortal Mountain, that she is one of several of our young, taken at the time of creation from Kunlun, and brought to Immortal Mountain until their birth."

"Were they all given to human families like her?" Lan Tian asks, wondering what purpose would that achieve.

Bai Xiaoli lowers her eyes, when Lu Jiao shoots her a charged look. "We suspect that isn't what happened at all, from what Zou Qiao has told us. We believe Immortal Mountain had the assistance of either one, or several Gods, to manipulate these Beasts' minds, and implant them with false memories of a pleasant life lived among humans, to keep them more docile and easy to manage."

Wu Yun shares a look with Lan Tian, this story is familiar to them.

"What do they hope to accomplish with this?" Wu Yun asks, his mind spinning as he tries to see the bigger picture.

"Profit. To Immortal Mountain the answer is obvious, they keep these Beasts in a state of placid apathy until they have a use for them. Either to sell their parts to humans who believe consuming them will heal them, deliver them from some tribulation, or sell them alive to be forced into dual-cultivation, so they might increase someone human cultivator's cultivation level."

Lu Jiao's face twists in disgust and she massages her temples, tangling her finger in the long feathers there.

"What is the Gods' stake in all this?" Wu Yun asks. 

Bai Xiaoli's shoulders rise defensively. "We're not sure, but... I don't know if you heard about the battle for the Heavens that happened millennia ago, between Gods and Beasts?"

They both nod. Wu Yun remembers Cang Chuxi's account, vividly.

"It might be tied to that. I wasn't a God then, but some Gods might still hold grudges, there were a lot of casualties on both sides. Maybe a faction of Gods aren't happy with the current truce, and would gladly see Beast numbers depleted, with Immortal Mountain's assistance as mediators in the mortal realm," Bai Xiaoli says, not meeting anyone's eyes.

Wu Yun remembers how those other Gods ignored Ling Yan's pleas, how they looked on as Shu Ai murdered Shu Luan without producing a single shred of evidence for the crimes he accused him of. 

He only needs to remember those looks of indifference on that crowd of perfect faces to know there's very little that will turn a God's stomach. They wouldn't lift a finger to save one of their own, let alone Beasts.

Lan Tian notices the apprehension on Wu Yun's face, and rubs a soothing hand down his back. "What do you need our help with?"

"Well, Zou Qiao is adamant that he doesn't know who was smuggling unborn Beasts out of Kunlun and into Immortal Mountain, but he is very willing to assist," she smirks derisively. 

"You don't believe him?" Wu Yun asks.

"We've carefully investigated everything he's told us," Bai Xiaoli says, walking towards Lu Jiao. "And we've managed to confirm most of it, the only part of his story that doesn't make sense, are his assurances that he isn't involved."

"That's why we need your help," Lu Jiao says. "You can investigate his claims in a far more discreet way than we can."

"How-" Wu Yun's next words die on his lips as searing pain travels down his spine.

He has to close his eyes against the blinding agony, but when he opens them again, he's still surrounded by darkness. 

 It is only when Lan Tian lowers himself to the ground, and pull hims out of his own robes that he realizes what happened.

He's back in his fox form, only he's much smaller than he used to be. He can feel his nine tails coiling around his body. They move in rhythm to the frantic thumping of his heart, coiling around him excitedly.

He opens his mouth but the only sound that comes out his a loud yip. 

Lan Tian smiles and lifts him up, nestling Wu Yun in his folded arms. He pets his head gently and says, "What a cute little fox."

Wu Yun flattens his hears against his head and glares up at him. He wants to bite his fingers. He's not cute, he's a majestic nine-tailed fox!

"Well, there goes our plan," Bai Xiaoli says, crossing her arms and shaking her head.

Lu Jiao peers at Wu Yun's fluffy black tails curiously, and tilts her head to the side. "Not necessarily, this might actually be advantageous. In this form, he can sneak into the Foxes' Burrow, and have a look around Zou Qiao's rooms, undetected. It is actually more discreet than the two of them trying to ask questions."

Wu Yun hasn't been to the Foxes' Burrow yet, and his pointed ears stand up in excitement at Lu Jiao's words.

He tries to communicate his agreement, but the only sounds that come out are a series of yips and yowls.

Lan Tian snorts and scratches behind Wu Yun's left ear, making him close is eyes in bliss and move back into the touch.

"He'll help," Lan Tian says, smiling fondly at the way Wu Yun's small nose twitches.

---

Lan Tian takes him to the Foxes' Burrow, all the while hiding him behind his sleeves. When they get close to the giant pine tree, and to the giant knot in its trunk that serves as a gate, he lowers Wu Yun to the ground behind a few wild bushes.

"I'll wait here for you, be careful." He pets Wu Yun's soft fur, and then adds, "little fox."

Wu Yun tries to jump up and bite his fingers, but Lan Tian quickly moves his hand away.

He throws one last yip behind his back, before running towards the Foxes' Burrow, ears flat to his head, and body close to the ground.

No one notices him going in, but he can hear voices all around him, coming from the underground galleries and tunnels.

He has his superior sense of smell back, in this form, and it isn't hard for him to follow his nose towards the paths where Zou Qiao's scent is stronger.

He hears two voices coming in his direction and hides himself in a little alcove in the hallway, in a space beneath the pine tree's giant roots.

One of the voices belongs to a woman with sleek white tails and tufted ears, she's talking with the grey tailed man walking besides her. 

"I can't believe he's still around, isn't it time for him to go back to Immortal Mountain, with those cultivators he likes so much?" the woman asks.

Wu Yun's ears perk up at the contempt in her words. They can only be talking about Zou Qiao, but why do they dislike him so much?

"Who knows? Maybe Fei Lin told him to stop being Lu Jiao's errand boy?"

The pair of foxes go into the room next to Wu Yun's hiding place, which means he's still able to listen in on their conversation without moving.

The woman with the white tails scoffs. "Unlikely, Fei Lin doesn't care about how bad it looks. Besides, she can hear him screaming every night over that Huang Yin, and still hasn't done anything about it."

"How can those cultivators stand him?"

"They probably have sound-proofing talismans."

Wu Yun wonders who is Huang Yin? What is their relation to Zou Qiao? He comes out of the alcove as soon as the coast is clear, and dashes through the snaking hallways, supported by wooden beams, and interrupted at odd intervals, by earthy smelling roots.

The mixture of different scents confuses him for a while, but he manages to catch on to Zou Qiao's scent again, in one of the lower levels. He goes inside a small room with a window cut through the dirt and overlooking the vast expanse of blue sky surrounding Kunlun.

There's a nest of soft looking sheets on the floor, and a low writing desk pushed against a corner.

A book, roughly bound, lies open on the desk, and Wu Yun peers over the pages.

"The dreams don't stop, I see Huang Yin's smiling face every time I close my eyes. She is a constant presence in my dreams, and I recall our childhood adventures every night. My only solace is knowing I'm close to bringing her justice. I'm so tired."

That makes no sense to Wu Yun, why won't anyone acknowledge Zou Qiao's questions about this person?

He uses his paws to clumsily leaf through the book, starting at the beginning, at the very first entry of what he now realizes is Zou Qiao's diary.

"I had a dream about a girl, she had red ears like me and called me gege, we were running through the Wutong tree path, and trying to spook the luan birds. I asked Elder Fox Fei Lin about her, but she says there was no one with that name in the Foxes' Burrow. Strange."

"Her name is Huang Yin. I called her that name in my last dream, we were in class together and she wanted to copy my essay! Imagine that, she wanted to copy my work! Again, no one seems to remember her but me."

"I dreamt about Huang Yin again, I know what happened to her. We were practicing archery, and some masked men took her. I have no idea how they could cross Kunlun's protection seals. Fei Lin says nothing like that ever happened."

"I went to Immortal Mountain for the first time, everyone was really nice to me, which I didn't expect, since everyone in the Foxes' Burrow treats me like a burden. I met sect leader Lian Feng, she told me I had a lot of promise and that she could help me improve my cultivation. I like her."

That entry makes bile rise up in Wu Yun's throat, and his fur stand on end.

"Sect leader Lian says dual cultivation helps increase both partners cultivation level, but I just feel exhausted most times. All the Immortal Mountain disciples that practice with me are very nice, though, so I must be doing something wrong."

Wu Yun has to give himself a moment before continuing reading. He would tear Lian Feng's throat with his teeth if she was here. He's beginning to understand Zou Qiao's groveling nature, his constant need to be liked, and it makes his stomach sink.

"I told sect leader Lian about my dreams, and she believes me! She thinks people in Kunlun are probably hiding something, and that they could have sold Huang Yin. It seems there are several human buyers who are interested in Beasts for our powers. I don't want to believe her, but everyone else continues to act as if she never existed."

"I'm sure of sect leader Lian's suspicions now. I just had a dream where Huang Yin told me she discovered something horrible happening in Kunlun. What else could it have been? I've promised to help seact leader Lian to smuggle unborn Beasts out of Kunlun so they can't suffer the same fate."

"I feel tired every day, now. I don't see any improvements in my cultivation, but sect leader Lian assures me it's going to happen, it just takes some time. I know it works because the disciples that lie with me are all becoming more powerful, some of them can do truly amazing things."

Wu Yun paws at the pages so furiously they almost tear.

"I met another nine-tailed fox today, and he's not from Kunlun, imagine that! His name is Wu Yun. He's nice, but I don't think he likes me very much."

Wu Yun lets out a raw sound from his throat, and feels guilt bubbling in his stomach. Maybe if he had talked with Zou Qiao he could have discovered this much sooner.

"I saw something weird today, I think sect leader Lian Feng is trying to trick Wu Yun and his friend. She was talking with some Crane, and then pretended she never met him in front of everyone else, very weird."

"I'm so tired even my eyes hurt, but sect leader Lian Feng told me she finally found out what happened to Huang Yin."

There are several blank pages after that entry, and the last one is the first Wu Yun read, dated today. A sinking feeling turns his limbs cold. He has to warn Lu Jiao. He picks the diary in his jaws and runs out of the room.