A chilling melody

Xian Wu had been seconds away from falling into another good night's rest. He was lying on the bed, cuddled into the quilt, his only remaining bits of consciousness left so that he'd stay awake until Lai Yiteng returned. Couldn't let him run off again or something.

But instead Xian Wu was rattled from his relaxed mood with bloodthirsty auras coming closer by the moment and a shout.

"Xian Wu! Get out here, your lackey is so fat!" is what he heard. He blinked with confusion.

Lai Yiteng was insulting his lackey? Who in the name of…

Shit. It must be Bo Penglai! How did they meet?!

Xian Wu hurried to his feet while throwing on another layer of clothes. He was getting nervous as he heard running footsteps and the shallow breathing of two people. He grabbed his saber and rushed outside.

"What happened?! Are you okay?"

Without any warning, Xian Wu abruptly had a body thrown onto him. The person he caught was bleeding from their stomach, and indeed the one Lai Yiteng had called 'fat'.

But this…meant that Lai Yiteng had met Bo Penglai.

How? His good servant Bo was always so skilled at hiding his presence and staying unseen. Lai Yiteng uncovering him seemed unlikely. And yet the truth was right in front of his eyes, the implications clear and nerve-wracking; that Lai Yiteng knew Bo Penglai was his 'lackey', meaning that Lai Yiteng now knew that Xian Wu was actually Graceful Dragon Sect Master.

Xian Wu frowned, then opened his mouth.

"Y-Yi'er, I can explain. But…don't tell me you were the one who stabbed Bo Penglai?"

Lai Yiteng let his eyes scan the surroundings.

The man who'd been chasing him had gone silent and now that he searched for him, had disappeared. How strange, he'd been right on his heel for so long, but now seemed to have poofed away.

Xian Wu grit his teeth and shouted, "Lai Yiteng! Answer me, did you stab him?"

Actually, Xian Wu didn't know about the other man who'd appeared, so he also had no one else to suspect stabbing Bo Penglai except Lai Yiteng, who probably did it because he was enraged to find out about the lies he'd been told. Not this again! Xian Wu was aggrieved that he'd have to spend more nights like he was some kind of doctor manning a the sick.

Hearing his whole name spoken with hints of anger and bitterness, Lai Yiteng's attention was finally caught.

"Who?" he asked uncaringly.

"You're crazy!" Xian Wu was already holding his palm against Bo Penglai's stomach wound, stopping the flow of blood, he carried him inside the house as he gave an exasperated reply. "…the guy you were calling fat a moment ago, the one in my arms! That's Bo Penglai."

"It was not me who stabbed him, nor am I crazy."

Lai Yiteng did not particularly want to speak with or hang around Xian Wu right now. Sure, he was not going to try to run and cut off ties with him because of the lies, but he was still annoyed. Besides, there was clearly something off about that man from earlier.

He wanted to find him, interrogate him, and cut him into pieces. And so he stalked away from the house.

What Lai Yiteng didn't expect was that he wouldn't have to go find the man. A silver needed shot through the air towards his forehead. Lai Yiteng deflected it with his knife with a glint of silver going through the night shadows.

"Oi!" exclaimed Xian Wu. "What was that? There's another enemy, isn't there?" he wanted to step away from Bo Penglai, but the younger's body was in critical condition.

"Yes," said Lai Yiteng calmly, "but I'm going to kill them myself. You don't need to interfere, just pay attention to that fat Bo or whoever."

"You're going to what? …hurry and come back inside," prompted Xian Wu. "It's dangerous."

"Nonsense."

Another needle came flying from a tree nearby, then three more in quick succession. Lai Yiteng could not pinpoint which one as he deflected four them. All of them seemed coated in poison of some kind, as per usual.

Lai Yiteng could not get away from 'poison' no matter how much time passed, apparently. After thinking a moment on how to locate his enemy, he said to Xian Wu, "There's a flute on their belt, ge-…no, Sect Master Xian. Do you think it could be the jade demon-swaying flute?"

Xian Wu choked on his own spit at what Lai Yiteng's words.

"For one, 'Sect Master Xian' is too stuffy! Secondly, how could any random flute be the correct one? Think rationally."

Lai Yiteng somersaulted out of seven needles.

"I am. There is a chance it could be the demon-swaying flute."

Xian Wu finished bandaging Bo Penglai, and took in a deep breath. But he picked up his saber with a kind of unknown trepidation. If "No, I think you're jumping to conclusions. How could the person I'm looking for happen to show up?"

"But it looked like an important flute, with dragons etched onto the outside and made of jade."

"…many flutes are like that, flutes in style right now, Yi'er. Everyone wants to have a flute on their belt to look cool."

"There's a small chance it could be the right one, though," countered Lai Yiteng.

Xian Wu sighed. "Yes but it's really tiny. Do you believe in fate or something?"

"Nope."

"…you are so…" Xian Wu didn't even know what the word he was looking for was. 'Obsessed'? Perhaps.

Lai Yiteng dodged another round of needles outside and lifted his palm, taking in two deep breaths. He struck at a tree nearby and toppled it over. Wood creaked as even more birds were sent flying out from their rest. Then he turned another tree into woodchips. Then another.

Exposed, the man hiding up in the trees moved like a blur farther out from Lai Yiteng and the confused but still dangerous Xian Wu. His dark robes fanned out as he hit the ground soundlessly.

Xian Wu went silent, his mouth had been about to offer another argument to Lai Yiteng's statements. Instead his body tensed, Lai Yiteng watched as the older man took on an ashen and serious expression as he stepped forward with a look that grew uglier by the second.

Hatred, unabashed hatred for this stranger Lai Yiteng had never seen more.

Xian Wu spoke in a low, menacing tone.

"Chen Yuwen, dare to show your face in front of me?"

Lai Yiteng was staring over Xian Wu's shoulder. Chen Yuwen, he'd never heard the name before.

Yet, Chen Yuwen only gave a faint smile.

"I see that Sect Master Xian is here. Tonight is truly one of coincidences."

As though on cue, he wasted no time in pulling the flute from the corner of his sash and holding it up to his lips as his smile grew wider, stretching the features on his handsome face with cold and cruel mirth.

"Is this the flute you're looking for? The one I pried off your shizun's cold body?"

Xian Wu raced toward Chen Yuwen with rage.

"Shut up!" he bellowed. His saber flew out at him, but Chen Yuwen just called upon his agile martial arts to avoid it, turning back another seven meters from Xian Wu.

Lai Yiteng was uncertain what all this meant. After all, he'd only learned the information recently.

Xian Wu was Graceful Dragon Sect Master.

His flute had been stolen.

The one who stole it was Chen Yuwen, and he'd even gone as far as to murder Xian Wu's shizun to get it.

Well.

Lai Yiteng had not expected his decision to save one chubby lackey of Xian Wu's to lead to this change of events at the end. But he, too, would not mind killing this Chen Yuwen.

Once again, perhaps he and Xian Wu could bathe in the blood of battle, fighting until their breaths were heavy and tired, defeating all enemies before them. Lai Yiteng had loved that feeling that he'd gotten on Deathly Howling Mountain a lot.

Then a noise reached his ears. Haunting and wispy, chilling him down this spine to the very mallow of his bone.

Chen Yuwen had begun to play the demon-swaying flute.

Lai Yiteng was not sure what was wrong with him. The only sound he could hear was its ghost tune. He felt like he couldn't move a muscle nor see his surroundings besides that full, luminescent moon glowing above. He opened his lips, somehow terrified, but no sound came out.

There was only the melody of the flute.