THE YILING MATRIARCH

Chapter 22 : Dirty hands and a clean heart

As well as a note on the sign saying something about how the cold treat was half off for couples.

Feeling his ears burn under his hair, Wangji could not fight against the pull on his arm as he was dragged towards the food stand, nor did he want to. The sweet substance was, while a good excuse to rest during their prolonged travels with Meifeng at his side like they were nothing more than ordinary people; being amongst the locals would also give them access to any interesting stories they overheard about a strange place near the village.

What had made this particular place their next destination was the fact Jin Ling had also appeared in the town in search of the origins of the severed body parts.

He just so happened to open Wangji's eyes to a very peculiar trait about Wei Meifeng that he had not had the pleasure to see before. It was really something that should've been small and normally insignificant, but there was no way to unsee this.

She, the great Yiling Matriarch- who wouldn't bat an eye looking into a horde of undead soldiers she had summoned and had played as one of the boys as a child- was afraid of dogs. Initially, the confrontation had started out as Meifeng scolding an older gentleman handing out poorly drawn flyers of the Yiling Matriarch, but had quickly spiraled out of control.

At this, Meifeng had tried to ease the boy's tension with the same gentle care she had previously used, but when Jin Ling had brought his fingers to his lips, releasing a sharp whistle, Wangji had quickly found himself as a haven for the woman to get away from the barking canine. "Ah! Lan, Lan Zhan! Help me!" Her cries instantly struck Wangji's protective instinct, the Lan staring down the Jin heir's companion as his body shielded a shaking Meifeng from her source of fright. Holding each other this close, something inside her chest purred being close to her Lan Zhan again even though he surely wouldn't recognize her like this. Momentarily being mesmerized by his eyes, Meifeng quickly let go as the two went on to find their next lead at Traverse Hill.

It was also known by another name, the Man-Eating Hill, and the name alone was a good reason to check it out in case they found anything that would bring them closer to solving what was going on.

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At the rate Meifeng was going to places which were no doubt bad for her mental health, she was at least sure her good deeds would hopefully make up for all the wrong she had done in her life. The Man-Eating Hill was, as she and Wangji found out, was a burial place for the swords of the Nie Clan after their masters had died since the weapons were too dangerous to stay with the bodies. However, the way the tomb had been sealed had accumulated a kind of evil energy that swallowed up any unsuspecting wanderer that passed by, thus the name, and that energy had threatened to eat Jin Ling whole.

It was only thanks to the teen's dog Fairy that the two had even known something must've happened to the canine's young master.

Pulling the unconscious boy from the wall of the gravesite, they had seen instantly that his body had been infected with a black substance that was slowly crawling up his leg. Then the tomb had come alive, with dark vines chasing them intensely until reaching beyond the constricting space; they had gotten separated somewhere in the midst of the chaos.

Stuck with an unconscious Jin Ling, Meifeng was alone to take away the poison that was obviously hurting the boy into herself, feeling the effects of her work already taking its toll on her weaker body. She cursed Mo Xiemei's small Golden Core, not being able to shake off letting this bother her as much as it did. Floating memories belonging to Jin Ling also filtered into her mind, painfully watching his childhood as someone who could do nothing to change the past.