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Before they descended from the Death Hall mountain, Liu Liangzhe made sure to grab his spatial ring, slipping the thick band around his index finger. If they did manage to purchase items for his children's rooms, then he would need a way to carry those things, and he still needed to make a proper storage bags for his children, but that required him to embroider inlays and arrays to make them work, and he wasn't the best with that sort of stuff just yet, and unfortunately his ghosts couldn't do it, only offer him advice for when he did.

"You've eaten a lot of rabbits, but what else do you eat, A-Wen?" he asked as they walked. It was a good xuyu away (about 48 minutes).

"I'll eat anything, but I prefer meat and fish," she said. "Ever since I got my human body, I've been eating more ve-ge-tables. I'm not sure if I like them, but I don't think I hate them… I've never met another cultivator, besides you, that I didn't… Well, that I didn't kill. This one that's staying in this town, I won't engage, but do I have permission to attack?"

"If he attacks you or Xiaolin you can defend, but there's no reason to attack him unless it's in self-defense," Liu Liangzhe said. "Anyway, I bet you'll like yams, they have lots of yams here. That's all my corpses could help me grow in these parts besides what I grew in the mountain, and that's because of the qi I funneled into the mountain. This land is rather pathetic, the perfect place for a death lord like myself…" he said with a small smile thinking about how he and Wu Mi had made a mess trying to grow crops outside of the mountain before they decided that Liu Liangzhe didn't need the real sun to make things work, that would be boring. That fondness faded rapidly as they approached the lonely town of Beiling.

Standing outside a home was a man in pale pink and sage green robes: Wood Sect. The man had a sword at his hip that had a small wite flower blooming from the wooden sheath as if it were still alive. So the man was powerful enough to give life to the unliving. Liu Liangzhe knew how that felt.

"The damn fiends come in and they break my things," the old man complained from inside the shack-like house, which was barely holding together. The cultivator listened intently, but his face was blank, completely like he wasn't thinking or feeling a thing, as he listened. The fact that the man was Wood Sect, and Xiaolin could have ties to the Shu Clan, he turned to Mu Wen and handed her Xiaolin.

"Go get yourselves some food and look for things for your rooms. If you see the cultivator approaching, I want you to turn your backs to him and hide A-Lin's face, alright?" he asked, and Mu Wen nodded with the duty of an Imperial guard before she held Xiaolin against her and carried him further into town. Meanwhile, Liu Liangzhe slowly approached the cultivator and the old man.

"Excuse me, I heard something about fiends. I may be able to help," he offered. The cultivator turned to look at him with two impassive brown eyes. Somehow, though, despite the lack of emotion in those eyes, the fact there was nothing made Liu Liangzhe pity the man. He felt almost foolish because this cultivator could easily be his enemy.

"Well, maybe you can actually help, since this guy doesn't seem to know how to deal with them," the old man said, a real crotchety figure, wasn't he? Liu Liangzhe bowed to the man, who did the same.

"Can you describe what they looked like?"

"Little tiny ghosts, like babies, but with scary faces," the man said. "They just swarm in here every few nights and run amok like hurricanes!"

"I see. You're dealing with ying ling, and they're most commonly summoned by sorcerers. Perhaps you've angered a sorcerer in some way and he's sending his minions to attack you…" Liu Liangzhe said. It was curious, however, that this man would have ying ling ghosts, literally infant ghosts, especially corrupted ones that meant they were summoned rather than naturally appearing, that's why they had scary faces… there were no sorcerers in this area, or there weren't a thousand years ago, and surely if there was one, the major sects would put them down. Sorcerers were very dangerous. He had been one, after all. A cultivator and sorcerer, which just indicated he went to an unorthodox path and rejected the ways of the sects. If done incorrectly, the unorthodox methods were very risky and not many people could handle them.

"Maybe you're the sorcerer!" the man said. "How is it that this cultivator who has been helping us for over a week had no idea what it was, but you, some stranger, immediately knew?"

"Why would I come and tell you what it was if I wanted to punish you. Now that you know what it is, you can get rid of it," Liu Liangzhe said with a hum. "I guess I could leave, however, I do have apprentices to attend to more than a cruel old man who probably deserves this punishment."

As Liu Liangzhe went to walk away, the cultivator's arm shot out to grab him. The man gripped his upper arm with some strength, holding him in place. Liu Liagnzhe shook his hand off and crossed his arms. What did this person want now? Was he going to tell him his name and confirm his fears? Or was he going to lecture him? Cultivators were often predictable like that, or maybe they just liked to lecture Liu Liangzhe. Maybe he just had one of those lectureable faces.

"Thank you," the cultivator said before he bowed shallowly and turned back to the old man, who glared at the both of them. Liu Liangzhe let out a mocking laugh before he shook his head and headed away from the shack. If the cultivator thought that he'd been endearing Liu Liangzhe in some way, he was dead wrong. Liu Liangzhe wasn't endeared at all… he was just a little impressed. He was honestly expecting a reaction more like the Jin boys of Tongzhe gave him, but he was certainly glad to be wrong.

It was the orangeness in Mu Wen's hair, an unusual hair colour for a human to have, that gave her away. He found her and Xiaolin both eating yams that had been cooked over coals to make them soft. Mu Wen pulled a wrapped yam from Xiaolin's satchel and held it out for him, too.

"Thanks, A-Wen," he said with a smile as he accepted the food. He walked with them as he ate his white fleshed yam. It was slightly sweet. "Have you seen anything you like? I think we should find a bed mat for the both of you and a blanket for sure. It can get cold inside the mountain."

"That's a good idea. If shidi needs, I can sleep with him to keep him warm. My… other body--" she eyed the people nearby despite whispering, as if she was scared someone would hear her and condemn her-- "is very warm."

"If it comes to that, then we might. Thanks for offering. Such a good shijie for A-Lin!" he cried dramatically, only for Mu Wen's cheeks to turn pink. They found a small shop, it looked like it belonged to a carpenter, but there were only desks inside. There was a tailor that easily accepted some money to measure Xiaolin for some more acceptable clothes, something more fitting to be the Diyu Lord's apprentice, and while they were there, he commissioned proper cultivator robes for Mu Wen rather than her noblewoman gown.

"Should I make a pair for the master?" the old man asked, using a measuring tape and a brush to make marks on a paper for his clients. Liu Liangzhe looked at the rather deplorable state of his robes, but he knew he had robes back in his mountain, but the preservation spells may have worn off in his slumber. He sighed, and nodded, handing more silver over. He too was measured. "And what colours should I use? The daogu would look beautiful in blue."

Mu Wen looked at Liu Liangzhe with wanting eyes and asked, "Could I try something with blue, Liu-shifu?"

"We'll tie your hair up with blue, and have blue inner robes if you wish. But both will have black outer robes, do you understand?" Liu Liangzhe said, and the man nodded quickly, muttering 'yes, yes, of course, of course' to himself a few times while he took their measurements. On their way down the shops they found a small shop filled with all sorts of assorted items, a bunch of random objects, and they were all in some condition of former use. Still, they needed bed mats for the children, so he purchased what he could before they stopped at a quilter woman.

The old lady quilted outside her home, sewing with the sort of precision that Liu Liangzhe would need when he made two of the spatial bags for the children to store their items inside. They gathered two blankets of rather good quality, mostly soft. All of the items they collected were easily concealed inside the ring that Liu Liangzhe wore. Before they went back to the mountain, they stopped at an inn for a meal.

"Excuse me?" he asked the man bustling around. The man paused. "Do you sell meals?"

"Uh… well, I suppose…" the man eyed both Mu Wen and Xiaolin, and sighed. "Yes, but I don't have many options to offer you. You can eat with us tonight if you'd like. Would you also be needing a room?"

"No, we have a camp nearby. I just didn't want to have to hunt with these two," he said nodding back to the children, which seemed to be the biggest priority for the man.

"Okay, you can wait over there at that table, or rather I'll push two together. I have a few people who eat with me, as well," the man said. "I'm Youzhou, by the way."

"Ah, I'm Liu Liangzhe, and this is Mu Wen and Liu Lin," he said before he bowed to the man and Mu Wen did the same, with Xiaolin bowing the best he could from his position being bolstered in Mu Wen's arms. Liu Liangzhe took them to the table they were told to sit at, and the man came over and pushed a second table up against it. Liu Liangzhe wondered just how many people planned to eat with them, but he had no problem sharing. He would be paying for the meal, however, so he hoped it was good. What he didn't expect is for someone to walk in and take a seat beside Mu Wen and immediately stare at Xiaolin.

"Shu Xiaolin…" the man said. The man was the cultivator from before, the one that Liu Liangzhe hoped hadn't had any relation to Xiaolin, but apparently all of his fears were founded, because as soon as Xiaolin saw the man, he started to cry and leaned over the table to wrap his arms around the man, while the man grabbed him and pulled him to his chest. Mu Wen stared at them with worry before she looked at Liu Liangzhe.

Liu Liangzhe wasn't sure what he was feeling, he wasn't sure how to react, but he knew one thing. That cultivator would not steal Xiaolin from him. Not after how Liu Liangzhe found him, not after he carried him to his home, not after he decided to train the boy, to keep him safe from anyone who would do him harm. His birth family included.