The Nine-tailed Fox meets a Crane

Lu Meng comes out of the room with the mirror in his hands, and a sad smile on his lips.

Min Fengyi comes out after him, looking drained, she looks at the three of them and says, "Thank you for helping Tanmei, and for giving me the opportunity to talk with him one last time."

"Is he going to remember this, when we return his hun souls?" Lu Meng asks.

Xue Zhuan shrugs. "Hard to say, it depends on him."

"What is Madam Jiang going to do now?" Lan Tian asks, turning to Min Fengyi.

She sighs, making her thin shoulders slump. "I'm going to look for Jiang Yilong, Lu Meng has told me he died too, during Min Guifen's attack. He needs an explanation, if he wants one."

"That might be hard to do," Xue Zhuan says. "If he has any sins to atone for, he might be being punished in a court, or since he died more than a month ago, he might have already moved on to the cycle of reincarnation. Not everyone wants to stick around Youdu."

Wu Yun elbows him in the side. "Can't you help her?" 

Xue Zhuan flinches and rubs his ribs. "I'll check the reincarnation records, but I'm terrible at keeping them."

"Ask Yu Songdi to help you, when he comes back," Lan Tian says.

"I don't need his help for everything, you know?" Xue Zhuan says, mildly offended.

"Except for keeping records," Wu Yun whispers under his breath, earning him a smirk from Lan Tian and a glare from Xue Zhuan.

---

They leave Min Guifen's underworld palace, and Xue Zhuan personally walks them to Youdu's gates.

They have to say their goodbyes to Min Fengyi at the gates, as she's unable to cross them.

"Lu Meng, thank you for taking care of my son," she says, taking his hands in hers. "I know how much you matter to him, and I want you to know that the two of you have my blessing, if you wish to marry."

Lu Meng looks taken aback, "I- We...That wouldn't be proper, I'm just a servant, people would talk."

"You'll find that propriety matters very little after you're dead." She raises her hand to the gash at her neck. It has stopped bleeding ever since she regained lucidity in the tunnels, but it remains open and ugly. "So enjoy your life, and live well."

Lu Meng clasps his fists in front of his chest, and bows deeply to Min Fengyi. "I will love and cherish Jiang Tanmei for as long as I may live."

She smiles, and for a moment she looks more alive than Wu Yun has ever seen her. Some of the ghostly pallor leaves her cheeks allowing the natural honey warmth of her skin to shine through. "That's all a mother wants to hear."

She thanks both Wu Yun and Lan Tian again, and wishes them happiness and long life, they wave goodbye and leave her behind, surrounded by the newly dead who cast them curious glances.

Wu Yun spares one last look at Youdu's towering buildings, crowded streets, and noisy inhabitants. He doesn't know when he'll be back, but he thinks that humans are lucky, to be able to spend their deaths in a place so lively.

Xue Zhuan walks them towards the shimmering portal they crossed, inspecting it curiously, but making no comments.

"There's something I never asked you," Wu Yun says, turning to him. "How long has it been, since you've last seen Ling Yan?"

Xue Zhuan kicks some dust around his feet, but finally looks up at Wu Yun with a sad smile. "I've missed you for the same time as I've known you. Four hundred years. You have spent four hundred years in Youdu, and have been gone four hundred years."

Wu Yun reels. Eight hundred years unaccounted for, to say nothing of the time Ling Yan spent in the Heavens, and of his life as a human. How is Wu Yun supposed to make sense of it all?

He really hates immortality.

Lan Tian notices the forlorn look in Wu Yun's face and squeezes his hand. "We'll find out the truth about what happened to Ling Yan."

Wu Yun isn't even sure there's any purpose to that. Everyone forgets their past lives when they reincarnate, why shouldn't he?

Lan Tian's touch is comforting nonetheless, and he squeezes his hand back. 

"You," Xue Zhuan says turning to Lu Meng, "I hope I don't see you around here for a long time, and when you do come here, I expect some reports on what these two were up to when you met them."

Lu Meng snorts. "Stealing clothes, and not paying for their food, mostly."

Wu Yun smiles. That feels like something that happened in another lifetime too. 

He turns to Xue Zhuan with a smirk, "Just remember when you come back not to build any houses without a permit."

---

Xue Zhuan demands a hug from Wu Yun before he will allow them to cross the portal to Immortal Mountain. Wu Yun remains still and allows himself to be hugged, he even pats Xue Zhuan's back awkwardly when it looks like he might cry, or go into a tirade about the importance of sticking to Underworld regulations. Either or.

When they cross the threshold, Zou Qiao is waiting for them, as expected. He's wringing his hands, and walking back and forth on a straight line.

"You're finally back!" he says, when he lays eyes on them.

"We were gone from dusk until dawn, as agreed." Lan Tian says. He forgot while they were away how much Zou Qiao and his unctuous voice annoys him.

 "We need to rush back to Immortal Mountain sect grounds as soon as possible, something very unusual has happened and sect leaded Lian Feng, is very...uhm, agitated."

"How is that our problem? Why can't we just go back to Kunlun?" There's nothing Wu Yun wants less than to see Lian Feng's pinched face, especially now that the murder she accuses Ling Yan of, falls straight on his shoulders.

Zou Qiao won't be persuaded. "We really must go, the sect leader insisted you must go see her, as soon as you return."

"You know you're a beast, right? You don't answer to her," Wu Yun says.

Zou Qiao's red fox ears flatten around his hair, as if Wu Yun slapped him. "Please go see sect leader, it's important."

"As long as it makes you shut up," Lan Tian says.

They follow Zou Qiao through the woods at the edge of the sect grounds, Lu Meng trailing behind them, and feeling terribly out of place.

He leads them directly to Lian Feng's private rooms, where an Immortal Mountain disciple is playing the guqin as Lian Feng paces. The melody is soothing, but judging by the wrinkle between her brows it hasn't been very effective.

She zooms in on Wu Yun and Lan Tian as soon as they walk in through the screen doors.

"You owe me some explanations," she says, walking towards them with killing intent.

"I don't owe you anything," Wu Yun says, squaring his shoulders for a possible confrontation.

Lan Tian steps in front of Wu Yun, raising his arm to hold him back before he can say anything else.

"Explain," he tells Lian Feng, his amber eyes cold as ice chips.

She scoffs. "Why is it, that not two incense sticks after the two of you walked into the Underworld our disciples found a beast wondering around our grounds, and making some very interesting claims."

"Why would we know anything about that? We weren't even here," Wu Yun says. 

Lian Feng's smile is as sharp as a blade. "I have no problem showing you."

 She turns around in a flurry of robes and walks purposefully, to the next room.

Zou Qiao tries to pull Wu Yun back by the sleeve. "Brother, there's somethe-"

Wu Yun shakes him off. "I just want to get this over with," he says, and walks after Lian Feng, flanked by Lan Tian.

The room Lian Feng walks into is a small chamber, with a raised platform where a man is lying. Wu Yun has had is share of dead bodies to last him into this lifetime and the next.

It's only when he draws nearer that he sees the man's chest raising and falling with the soft cadence of breath. 

He has slick, long black hair, with a red circular marking on his forehead, coming all the way from his hairline, almost down to his eyebrows. His face looks youthful and unmarked. The tails of his eyes turn charmingly upward, as if trying to meet the angle of his sharp brows. His neck and hands are completely black.

"What is he?" Wu Yun asks, trying to recognize what beast is original form is associated with.

"He's a crane," Lian Feng says with a derisive twist of her nose. "The question you should be asking is who is he? But first you'll answer me, who are you?"

In a single movement she draws a sword from the sheath at her waist, and aims the sharp edge at Wu Yun's neck.

Lan Tian tries to pull him away from the blade, but Wu Yun holds him back.

"Don't worry, sect leader Lian woke up feeling dramatic, we should let her finish this play," his smirk exposes his sharp canines, candlelight glints off of them like a dare.

"This man was walking around in a panic, saying he was looking for Ling Yan," Lian Feng says, hissing out the words.

Wu Yun doesn't let the shock show on his face. Lan Tian stiffens minutely at his side, but Wu Yun notices the tension in the clench of his jaw.

"Even more curiously, he gave your exact description," Lian Feng says, smiling when her words make Wu Yun's eyes widen. "Now, why would that be?"

"I have a very average looking face. He could have been describing anyone," Wu Yun says, affecting a casual shrug.

"He described the robes you are wearing! Including the fur collared cape." The edge of her sword nicks off some of that fur when she uses the sword to point to the collar around Wu Yun's neck.

"It's getting colder, lots of people must be wearing heavier clothes," Lan Tian says, pushing the sword away from Wu Yun's neck with two fingertips.

Lian Feng is growing more and more agitated by their constant feints, and the vein at her temple pulses with anger.

It's Lu Meng who breaks the tense moment, "Uhm, not to interrupt, whatever this is, but he's waking up."

They all turn to the platform, where the crane is moaning in pain and moving around. Some type of talisman flares up when he moves, highlighting blue threads of energy restraining him to the platform.

He immediately tries to sit up as soon as his dark eyes fall on Wu Yun, but the restraints won't allow him to move.

"Ling Yan! I've been looking for you."

Wu Yun curses under his breath, there goes plausible deniability. 

"I think you have the wrong person," Wu Yun says, sparing Lian Feng and her sword a sideways glance.

"Who are you?" Lan Tian says, glaring down at the crane's radiant smile.

He blinks up at Lan Tian as if he's only now noticing his presence in the room. "My name is Shu Luan."