𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐚. mo dao zu shi x male reader

thirty-eight.

it was not a pretty sight, y/n turned away.

"i see." wei wuxian hummed.

jin ling, who was still in a defensive stance, turns his head to look at wei wuxian. "what are you muttering about?" he asked, and quite rudely at that.

ignoring his rude tone, wei wuxian continued, "a trapping array was set up on this hill."

"a trapping array?" jin ling asks.

"yes. a trapping array can ensnare any target, such as fierce corpses to resentful energy. it makes it so that these corpses don't move, completely trapped." wei wuxian explains. "that explains why when we were at the foot of the hill, the resentful energy had gone up, even though we just took a few steps."

y/n muttered something incoherent under his breath as he hides behind the strong figure of his older brother.

"hmm? what was that a-y/- err... r/n-shixiong?" wei wuxian silently flicks himself in the tongue as he nearly let y/n's name slip.

"within a trapping array, resentful energy can grow stronger and accumulate, which ends up dulling the sense, thus causing hallucinations. but there is something in here that wants to kill. something with an incredible thirst for blood..." y/n tells him, his eyes wandering around in search for anything. "whether, humans, beasts, or demons, any being can get trapped. that's probably where the rumors of the hills came from. where one can enter, but never leave."

jin ling gulped before looking around as well. he tried to swallow back his uneasiness as he saw the figures wrapped in thorns all around him. "then... these corpses are..." he muttered.

"the villagers who went missing eleven years ago."

a look of uneasiness made its way to jin ling's face. he looked around, his hair rising at the sight around him. "they're... they're just corpses. nothing to fear." he mumbled under his breath. he walks away, about to throw up.

"jin ling..." y/n walks towards him. he goes to the junior and places a hand on his back, rubbing circles on him as a sign of comfort.

"shixiong, i'm gonna throw up." jin ling mutters, holding his stomach as he looks up at the older.

"it's okay, if it makes you feel that uncomfortable, just throw up." y/n reassures him.

they were a few feet away from wei wuxian and lan wangji as y/n tries to reassure jin ling. "it's okay, shidi." jin ling grips y/n's sleeves as he looks down attempting to calm the rising bile in his stomach. y/n allows jin ling to continue holding onto his sleeve, meanwhile, his free hand searches through the inside of his sleeves for anything that might help with jin ling's queasiness. he found a small vial containing a liquified form of crushed medicinal herbs, so he grabs, pops the cap open, and takes a whiff.

"all right...just sniff this, shidi. you'll feel instantly better." y/n instructs the junior as he holds up the vial to jin ling's nostrils.

the junior seemed a little weirded out at first, but he obeys anyways. he takes a sniff of the citrusy smell and he could instantly feel his head clear, the bile in his stomach settling down. he smiled at his senior, "that worked like a charm, shixiong! thank you-"

suddenly, a loud roar echoed throughout the mountains, catching the attention of the four cultivators. jin ling's grip on y/'s sleeves tightened, before his hands started to grip y/n's arm, his nails practically piercing through the cloth if it weren't for the protection incantation on y/n's clothes that rendered the material nearly indestructible.

"shixiong, what was that?" jin ling whispers shakily, looking around with panic in his eyes.

the fog started rolling in again, along with an air of evil. jin ling looks around as if chasing shadows in the corners of his eyes. a groan comes from behind him. both jin ling and y/n turns their heads, and they saw a floating figure approach them, but it was quickly flung back when y/n instinctively sends out a blast of qi energy in its direction. whatever that was, it landed on the ground with a hard thud before it was dragged away by a red aura. y/n grabs jin ling and pushes him out of the way as lan wangji pulls out his guqin again. he strummed his fingers against the strings and a powerful wave of qi energy spreads throughout the entire area. a floating head tried to escape, but ultimately gets caught in lan wangji's attack and falls into the ground.