A Yaoguai

"Help me!" a sweet but scared voice called from within the forest. Liu Liangzhe would have rushed to them, once upon a time -- which was about a thousand years ago -- but he had to think about the chance it was a trap. He couldn't put Xiaolin in a position like that. He tried his second best plan.

"Can you come to me?" he called back. "Follow my voice!"

"Keep speaking!" the voice called back. "I'm trying to find you."

"I know there is a yaoguai in this forest. It's very dangerous for you to be out here by yourself. Can I ask how old you are?" he asked, raising his voice as he stood still to better give this person a chance to find him, if it was a real person.

"It's impolite to ask a woman their age!" was the response he got. "But I'm twenty-three."

"Twenty-three… that's awfully young for a young woman to be out all alone," he said, not bothering to hide his suspicion. A twenty-three year old girl in a yaogaui infested forest travelling by her lonesome. There was no way she came from Tongzhen with the Jin Clan protecting it, and if she came from the south then what was she doing without her husband? Perhaps she was poor, and had no brothers or husband to help her. He didn't know.

"Please don't judge my parents' decision to send me out," she called back before there was some rustling and cracked leaves to his side and a ruffled young woman appeared before him. She wasn't wearing common clothes, she was dressed in pink silk, finery. Liu Liangzhe was very sure this was a trap, that this girl was either an illusion or a shapeshifted yao, but still there was a chance she wasn't either of those things.

"You have a son," she said bluntly. "You said this place is infested with yaoguai. Why did you bring a child here?"

"I had no choice. We have to get home, and the Jin Clan is offended by my existence and forced us out," he said. While it was a slight exaggeration of the details, it was mostly what happened. "You can join us as we walk. Perhaps if we walk together, our numbers will intimidate them and they won't attack."

"Thank you," she said before falling into step beside him. They walked for a few moments in silence, save the chittering of cicadas in the trees, before she asked, "Why was the Jin Clan offended by your existence?"

"I don't--" he began, but there was a loud growl from beside the girl, and she immediately wrapped her arms around Liu Linagzhe and hid behind him. The sound of the beast lingered, and there were even glowing yellow eyes that towered over Liu Liangzhe before in a blink, they disappeared. Liu Liangzhe's eyes narrowed as the girl let go of him and brushed herself off before she dusted off Liu Liangzhe's arms.

"I'm sorry. I was frightened," she said.

"That wasn't a yaoguai," Liu Liangzhe said plainly before he continued to walk. The girl continued to follow him. "I don't know for sure, but that beast was more like a pixiu, a protector of the souls of the dead… it seems these yaoguai have killed enough to summon one of those… yet I feel no wandering spirits."

"You can feel wandering spirits?" the girl asked.

"Yes," he said simply before he looked around, only to be greeted by the darkness of night. The moon above was barely a sliver and offered little help, and there were clouds and fog caused by the yaoguai. It was one of their main hunting strategies after all. Still, if he could summon any lost spirits, he could easily get them under his control and they would have some form of protection, yet it was like they were also missing. Perhaps that's why they were intimidated by the pixiu, it didn't want the charges, the souls it protected, to fall into his hands.

"So you're a cultivator?" she asked.

"Nothing orthodox, I assure you," he said, also as if he were bored, and as if that was a common thing to say. Most people lie when they practice unorthodox methods, but with this girl, Liu Liangzhe found it very unnecessary to lie. If this girl was actually a yaoguai, to show emotion over anything may give it a better idea on how to best manipulate him. If he appeared indifferent, it would hopefully confuse the yao on what to conjure. "You asked me why the Jin Clan was offended by me, it's because I practice ways that they discourage. All the major sects discourage the ways. I use the spirits, corpses, and monsters I find."

"So someone unorthodox like you wouldn't kill a yaoguai if it helped you, would you, gongzi?" she asked, her own voice was hopeful. It led Liu Liangzhe to believe that she was indeed a yaoguai, but it was strange because she clearly didn't want to kill him if she wanted to help him to save herself? He was confused.

"I make allies with the enemies of most cultivators. I don't believe in condemning spirits or corpses, or even yaoguai, because of what they are. They are just as capable and worthy of respect as anyone else," he said. "You're a yaoguai, aren't you?"

The girl stopped breathing for a moment before she ran up ahead to bow deeply to him.

"This humble servant is indeed a yaoguai," the woman said with a strong voice. "I… I need guidance. I'm lost. I don't know what I'm doing. You seem like a wise and caring young master, so I beg for your assistance."

"What do you want me to do?" he asked. "You're only one of the dozens of yao in this forest, if the messages are correct. I will help you, if you promise not to hurt me or my people, but I cannot guarantee the same to anyone who does try to do us harm." The girl before him peered up at him with damp eyes. He felt bad for her. Most yaoguai didn't exactly plan or expect for it to happen, it just did. He was curious what she was originally, but he had no idea on the customs. Was it polite to ask for that sort of information?

"Let me stay with you. Help me out of this horrid forest and I will protect the boy with my life, I swear it," she said, before she dropped to the ground to kowtow before him. He looked to the side with a sigh.

"Get up. You can travel with us, but you have to protect this boy, his name is Shu Xiaolin. If anyone asks, you are my apprentice and helper, and he is your martial brother. Please help take care of him, too, though. He needs a woman, maybe, I think… I don't actually know much about children or what they need."

"I will take care of him," she said, before she stood up and brushed herself off again. "You can call me Mu Xiaohu. How may I address the young master and little master?" Liu Liangzhe paused to try and understand how a nameless animal or object had gotten such a name, but he mulled over how she pronounced it, and while he wasn't entirely sure, he had an idea of what had become gained enough spiritual energy to grow sentience: a tiger.

"How about we call you Mu Wen," he said. "I fear that Mu Xiaohu may be too telling. But you can call me Liu-Shifu, and you can call Xiaolin shidi. I am not taking you just as a servant, Mu Xiaohu, I'm taking you as an apprentice. You can cultivate, you've already proven that. You being a servant may just be more advantageous in the future."

"I'll be Mu Wen, the martial daughter of Liu-Shifu, and shijie of my shidi, A-Lin," Mu Wen said, very proudly. Liu Liangzhe was in shock at how articulate she was for a yaoguai, but she could be hundreds of years old and not look anywhere near that old either. She wasn't human, after all, and she wouldn't age like one in the slightest. She easily took Xiaolin from Liu Liangzhe's hands without having to be asked. He looked around them as Mu Wen hid behind him, carrying Xiaolin, who was wide awake -- his eyes no longer closed as instructed -- his head moving from side to side as sounds started to pick up.

"Did… did your wife die?" Mu Wen asked as the wind started to kick up. "Maybe they're going to try and make you see her!"

"I've never been married," he called back over the now whistling and whirling winds that threw their hair all around them, obscuring their vision even more. Liu Liangzhe twisted his fingers together and with three deft hand movements, he created a spell that kept the wind from touching them. And as long as Mu Wen stayed close to him, it would shield her as well. Hand spells and seals weren't as effective as talismans, and both were weaker than array formations, but they each served their purposes.

In front of Liu Liangzhe, people appeared, translucent figures that phased in and out of solidity. They appeared more like he remembered people looking and more importantly dressing a thousand years ago. They laughed as they floated past him, muttering about him being without a wife despite his age. He felt no issues with it, because he had a partner that he had loved more than any wife he could have had. A little boy ran up, his features indistinct but obvious. The boy clung to his leg, and Liu Liangzhe tried to shake him off. He had never had a child until Shu Xiaolin, he had never taken apprentices either, but Wu Mi had introduced him to his younger brother, a child of ten, who was already far too mature for his age. Wu Mi's didi would have never clung to his robes, he barely offered his brother affection, much less the man that ruined his brother's life.

"He didn't have a wife, because he's from the old country, he's one of them," one of the passing illusions said. The pretty women changed into handsome men. Still Liu Liangzhe wouldn't be tempted, none of them were--

"I know this one," a passing man with an ornate headpiece above his dozens of ropey braids said, dressed in soft blue robes, clearly a part of the gentry if he wasn't an illusion. "This one isn't just any cultivator, he's a sorcerer, a fiend, he's the Diyu Lord…"

"The Diyu Lord?!" It was said by variety, maybe two dozen, airy voices full of disbelief. Liu Liangzhe just smirked. If they were afraid of him, then it would play in his favour. Perhaps they would be smart enough to just leave him alone, if they knew anything about the Diyu Lord's reputation. However, it seemed to have the opposite effect. Now, all the yaoguai gathered, seemingly competing for his attention.

Mu Wen hissed and growled, her vocal chords mimicking something closer to what she was originally rather than the human facade that she was wearing. However, even she knew that she couldn't fend off all these new assailants.