The doctor pronounced that Yu Lin needed to rest for at least a month in order to recover. In addition she would need occasional augmentation in meditation in order to help replenish the blow her spirit had taken.
Mo Yuan did this personally, out of the guilt he felt towards her father. As he released her, removing his hands from her back and the glow of the meditation transfer fading, she slumped backwards in a cross legged position towards him.
He motioned to Chang Shan to help him and his second disciple held her so he could extricate himself. Her eyes opened.
"Shifu?"
"Yes?"
"Can you stay here with me tonight again?"
A memory came to him of Seventeen huddled in her bed, calling out to him in her sleep. That seemed like a very long time ago. Something had changed in their relationship; something complicated and uneasy and it troubled him greatly.
He blinked, recalling himself. Both Yu Lin and Chang Shan were watching him, waiting for a response.
"Not tonight." He told Yu Lin. "You get good rest and I'll come check on you in the morning."
Yu Lin turned away disappointed. Chang Shan fussed over her somewhat like a mother would as Mo Yuan left the room. His first disciple Die Fung followed him.
"Shifu," He said as soon as they were out on the corridor. "I have something I want to say."
"What is it?"
"Although I wasn't there at the time but that Seventeen would attack Yu Lin so heavily for no reason, it's just not possible."
The same thought had crossed his mind several times but he was scared of being biased towards Seventeen. In the past he knew people had often commented about his partiality for his last disciple and had thought nothing of it. After all she was a girl and the Queen of Qing Qiu and from the moment she had grasped the Kunlun fan out of the sky, he knew that their fates were somehow linked. But now something had changed. He understood very keenly that thinking of someone day and night to the extent that he could barely close his eyes without seeing her pale, stricken face and tortured eyes was not ordinary.
He tried to make his voice as measured as possible. "Almost ten of the disciples say they saw the same thing. Are you saying they are all mistaken?"
"I don't know about that... but I know based on my knowledge of Seventeen's personality, she's definitely not that kind of person." Die Fung hesitated. "Shifu should speak to her."
"How can I speak to her if she's run away?"
"No doubt she's returned to her home in Qing Qiu, perhaps if Shifu goes there-"
Mo Yuan put up his hand to stop him. "Why should I go there? Is it the role of the Master to chase after the disciple?" The words came out sharper than he intended. If he was honest with himself it was merely because he had agonized over the same thought over and over again over the last few days. Die Fung didn't know this and merely thought he was being reprimanded. He immediately looked chastened.
"I apologize Shifu, I didn't mean to overstep." He bowed. "If Shifu doesn't have any other orders then I'll retire for the night."
Mo Yuan watched him go. The other disciples didn't know this but prior to this time Seventeen had never actually left without letting him know. Usually it was just in the form of a short note left on his table but it gave him some reassurance that she was coming back. But not this time.
But why should he go after her? Was she not the one who had abandoned him without so much as a word of explanation?
He had nursed his wounded pride for some time now. But as the weeks wore on, another thought presented itself.
If he didn't go to her, would she stay away forever?
***
It was always spring in Qing Qiu. The trees were evergreen, the flowers always blooming. Even in the late evening he could smell the fragrance of the peach trees planted by the side of the lake.
As he walked up the path he saw a young tree spirit running out of the Fox Cave to meet him.
"High God Mo Yuan." The tree spirit looked faintly terrified. "How can I help you?"
"I am looking for Seven- for High Immortal Bai Qian. Is she here?"
The tree spirit licked his lips. "Sorry gugu isn't here right now. But when she returns I'll certainly let her know you visited."
As Mo Yuan looked down at him, he broke out in faint sweat and couldn't meet Mo Yuan's eyes. Instead he stared down at the ground, the air of guilt almost palpable.
"I see." Mo Yuan said. He turned away but the tree spirit called after him, "Wait. Do you have some message for Gugu? I could pass it onto her... you know after she comes back."
"Tell her," Mo Yuan said, hands behind his back. "Tell her that to interrupt a lesson halfway is tantamount to not even starting. The junior disciples are waiting for her and hoping that their efforts have not been all in vain."
The tree spirit bit his lip. Clearly this was not the message he had been hoping for. "Yes, High God."
***
"I can't believe she even refused to see her shifu," Feng Jiu lamented after Mi Gu told her what happened. "She's really overdoing it this time. If you hadn't been the one to tell me, I wouldn't have believed it! She respects him more than even her parents."
"I've never seen gugu like this before and I've lived here with her my whole life," Migu said. "I mean if they've had a fight or something she should be angry, right? Gugu does have a temper. But I've seen her in a dangerous mood before, it's like talking to someone while standing on the edge of a cliff. Her smile hides knives and her words can kill someone. But that's not what I felt like when I went in to see her and give her the High God's message. Do you know what she did?"
"What?" Feng Jiu was somewhat afraid to know.
"She didn't do anything! Just sort of stared at me so I thought she might not have heard. But then she said, "You can go", just like that! I actually thought she was about to cry but that can't be right. Anyway as I was walking out I saw her just sort of staring blankly out the window and drinking wine straight out of the jug. What's the matter with her, could she be sick?"
"I think that perhaps she's sick in a way." Feng Jiu said slowly.
"Sick in a way?" Migu rubbed his head, looking perplexed. "What do you mean?"
Feng Jiu had a sneaking suspicion she knew. She was 40,000 years younger than Bai Qian but in matters of the heart she had by far the more experience.
***
Mo Yuan didn't go back to Kunlunxu but went instead to Zhe Yan's peach blossom grove. It was quite late and he half expected the other God to be asleep but the wooden house he lived in was lit up with lights. When he stepped onto the stairs leading up to the house, the door opened. It was not Zhe Yan as he expected but Bai Zhen, Seventeen's brother.
"High God Mo Yuan." He raised his hands in a gesture of respect.
"High Immortal," He returned the gesture. "I am looking for Zhe Yan."
"He is in the forest, gathering some kind of herb that only glows by moonlight... or was it some kind of mushroom?" Bai Zhen waved his hand dismissively. "Anyway, he should return presently. But meanwhile perhaps we could have a drink together?"
He didn't wait for Mo Yuan to agree but walked back into the house so the high God had no choice but to follow him. As he knelt down on one side of the table, Bai Zhen settled down on the other.
"All these years of you taking care of my immature younger sister, I haven't thanked you properly." Bai Zhen said, pouring wine.
"There's no need to thank me, I only did what I-"
"Then again," Bai Zhen interrupted. "What Qian Qian did to save your body and watch over you these 70,000 years, I suppose the debt can be considered repaid."
Mo Yuan drank silently. Clearly Bai Zhen had something he wanted to say.
"That old phoenix told me he already told you what she did," Bai Zhen continued in a conversational tone. "But I don't suppose he went into specifics. Do you know how the white nine tailed fox's blood works? It's not blood from her skin, it is from her heart. She must dig the blade through the layers of skin and muscle, navigating her bones. And Qian Qian is powerful, she cannot be wounded easily. The force she must use is immense and the pain she would feel is excruciating. And once reached, the heart's blood doesn't just spurt out as you might think but drips out only slowly. And all the while her heart would attempt to heal so she must keep cutting repeatedly until the amount of blood she requires is reached. And she did this day after day for 70,000 years. In the entire history of our family there is no one else that has managed it for that length of time. No one."
Mo Yuan's hand trembled slightly on the cup and it took extreme effort to keep his face expressionless. Bai Zhen was right, Zhe Yan had indeed been vague about details - probably at Seventeen's request. But now imagining her putting herself through such agony repeatedly; it twisted his heart into knots. The longing to see her was overwhelming.
"Why," Bai Zhen asked. "Do you think she did this?
Why? Mo Yuan didn't know how to reply. But Bai Zhen wasn't waiting for a response, plunging on, "I suppose you also know that she has an engagement with the Crown Prince. It's a marriage that most other people would pray to have and yet she's let it stand for hundred of years, refusing to even step foot inside Nine Heavens. And now that you are finally awake, instead of catching up on all those missing years in her life she instead chooses instead to shut herself back up in your Kunlunxu. Why do you think that is?"
"I know what it is you are trying to tell me," Mo Yuan said slowly. "But you are mistaken. Seventeen and I, the debts we owe each other and the ties that bind us together, are vast and bottomless. But as for the feelings between men and women... she's never... not even slightly... if she had those feelings towards me, surely I would know."
Bai Zhen gave a loud and inelegant snort. "My dear High God, you would be the last one to know! Anyway forget about her feelings for now, what are your feelings?"
My feelings? In the past months Mo Yuan had indeed reflected at length on his feelings. But every time he approached a conclusion - which was inevitably the same no matter which path he followed - he shied away. It was not something he could truly dwell upon. It seemed wrong, unconscionable even.
"You don't need to reply, I can see the struggle on your face." Bai Zhen said. "But at least you have some level of self awareness. I suppose I should be relieved. You are perhaps only marginally less dense than my sister herself. My goodness you two are a frustrating pair!"
"I am her shifu... how can I...?" Even the words were difficult to say. He was horrified to feel a warmth crawling up his neck and ducked his head hoping Bai Zhen couldn't see it.
"Whyever not?" The fox immortal demanded. "When you closed your eyes she might have been a child, but even you have to admit she's not that anymore. Honestly when I heard 70,000 years ago that she was going to Kunlunxu I didn't even think she'd last one month! Much less than it would end up like this." He shook his head. "Anyway I've said enough about this. Whatever you choose to do is up to the two of you. Now onto another matter."
Bai Zhen reached into his pocket and took out a stone and placed it onto the table. It took Mo Yuan, still distracted by his thoughts, several moments to focus on it. When he did however it gave him an odd feeling. The stone looked ordinary enough, smooth and white, but the aura it gave off was twisted and strange.
"Watch closely." Bai Zhen passed his hand over it. The stone began to move, it gained a mouth with an open jaw and two rows of sharp, pointy teeth. A dark miasma, a fume came from within it. The hair at the back of his neck stood up. Bai Zhen aimed his finger at it and a beam of light pierced it. The stone returned to normal.
"Is this demon magic?"
"Not exactly demonic but certainly twisted and untraditional. You see instead of striking out with one's own spirit, it relies on a collective imbuement of power from various sources which can then be released all at once. That power is usually, although not necessarily, dark: fear, jealousy, hate, these are all particularly potent."
"I see." Mo Yuan was not too sure why Bai Zhen was telling him this.
"You and I would certainly not teach or practice this kind of magic but I have been told that among certain folk spirits it's not uncommon, especially those who live in groups or packs such as, for example, a colony of butterflies."
Mo Yuan looked at him sharply but Bai Zhen merely sipped his tea. Before Mo Yuan could question him further the door opened and Zhe Yan came in wearing a straw hat and carrying a basket. The hem of his gown was thick with mud. He stopped short, looking surprised. "Mo Yuan? What are you doing here?"
Mo Yuan put down his wine and got up. "I'm sorry to disturb you. I should go now. Thank you for the wine."
He raised his hands to both of the other men who returned it, Zhe Yan looking slightly befuddled. He walked past the other God and down the stairs. From behind him he heard Zhe Yan say, "What happened? What did you say? You had better not have been rude to Mo Yuan, Zhen Zhen. You've been in an odd mood ever since you came back from Qing Qiu..."
***
It was late night by the time he returned to Kunlunxu. Decorum dictated that he should wait until the morning but Mo Yuan was not in the mood. He woke up Die Fung and Chang Shan and dragged his two disciples with him to Yu Lin's room.
"What's the matter?" Chang Shan was confused, his hair loose since he hadn't had time to put it up. "Has she had a relapse?"
Mo Yuan rapped on the door. In a few moments they heard Yu Lin say "Come in!" in a startled manner. When they went inside she was sitting up on the bed, looking confused. Die Fung went to light the candle as Mo Yuan took a seat, resting his arm on her table.
"What's happened shifu?" Yu Lin sounded perplexed. "Is something the matter?"
"Yu Lin," He said in the calmest voice he could manage. "When you and Seventeen fought together, you said she aimed a heavy blow at you without provocation. Was that true?"
Yu Lin blinked. After a pause she said, "Well it was very fast so I'm not too sure what happened but like I said I'm sure it was an accident - we were sparring after all - perhaps Sister Bai miscalculated her strength-"
"Seventeen would not miscalculate." Mo Yuan said. "Not unless something unexpected happened. Did something happen?"
A flush began to rise up Yu Lin's neck and onto her cheeks. She bit her lip and looked down at her folded hands on her lap. Chang Shan was looking between them, thoroughly confused, but Die Fung said sharply, "Answer the question butterfly spirit. You should know that shifu detests dishonesty above all things."
Yu Lin swallowed hard. She reached into her hair and took out something hidden under the voluminous tresses. It was an ivory hairpin in the shape of a butterfly. Looking at it gave Mo Yuan the same odd, twisted feeling he had felt when he had looked at the stone Bai Zhen had.
"This is something my mother gave me before for protection. It has been passed down in our family for generations. Through it I can summon the powerful force of my ancestors..." Yu Lin trailed off.
Chang Shan, finally cottoning on to what was happening, drew back sharply. Die Fung held out his hand and Yu Lin placed the hairpin in it. He bore it over to Mo Yuan who examined it.
"There's nothing in it now." Yu Lin continued dully. "Sister Bai struck it with such force that it dispelled everything inside it."
"Oh Yu Lin," Chang Shan said, his voice filled with disappointment. "How could you?"
"Why not!" Yu Lin said with sudden force and anger. "It's her fault for looking down on me. No, not even looking down on me. Looking through me as though I didn't exist! She told me that... she told me that no matter what shifu wouldn't like me. But I knew she was just jealous because now I was the one he doted on now and not her. And then I heard that story about how the High Immortal Yao Guang had put her in the water jail and how shifu had rescued her and I thought if I could just repeat that, she would have to see... wait shifu, where are you going?"
Mo Yuan had heard enough. He couldn't stand to spend one more moment in that room, not when he had more important things to do. He put the pin into his pocket and getting up, vanished from the room.
After he was gone Yu Lin burst into tears. Die Fung merely shook his head in a disgusted manner and walked off. But Chang Shan stayed behind. He knew why shifu had brought the two of them. He had heard Die Fung talking to Mo Yuan in the corridor earlier, pleading for Seventeen. Likely Mo Yuan had brought him as a way to apologize for dismissing him, to tell him that he was right. And Chang Shan, who had doted on Yu Lin the most and had defended her, he had brought Chang Shan to show him his foolishness and blindness.
He passed his hand over his face in a tired manner. "There, there." He handed Yu Lin a handkerchief.
"What should I do now, second brother?" Yu Lin sobbed.
"You should go home." Chang Shan said. "There isn't any way ahifu will let you stay at Kunlunxu now and even if he did, the other brothers wouldn't stand for it- oh, don't cry harder, what's done is done, even if you cry your eyes out there isn't any use."
Yu Lin continued to wail. Chang Shan sighed and took a seat by her bed side and patted her blanket. "You know, you are far from the only woman he's ever rejected. In the past the number of female immortals and goddesses lining up to be considered by him would have stretched to the bottom of the mountain. That was until Yao Guang moved here and scared them all away." He laughed a little to himself at the memory. Yu Lin stopped crying so loudly and seemed to be listening so he continued.
"Honestly there were quite a few of us who thought he might be partial to her. He allowed her to live here after all and although he was always cold to her, we thought maybe that's just the way he was. We told ourselves, Maybe shifu is too old and too dedicated to Kunlunxu to ever really express love. And then Seventeen came and Shifu drove away Yao Guang away and we thought, well we must have been mistaken." He shook his head.
"We were mistaken but not in the way we thought. It wasn't that he could love, it's just that he hadn't met the right one yet." The man Chang Shan had seen playing the zither by the lotus pond had looked as intensely and as violently in love as any mortal man.
"If you're trying to make me feel better," Yu Lin's voice cracked. "Then just stop."
"Whatever gave you the idea I was trying to make you feel better?"He wasn't finished yet. She'd tricked him too and Seventeen was just as dear to him as she was to his first brother.
"And as for doting on you just the way he doted on Seventeen, you've got to be delirious if you think it's in any way comparable. How should I compare it... it would be like the difference between his person and his smallest finger. That you might have thought it was the same is actually laughable.
"Anyway, I suggest you pack your things and leave first at first light unless you want to face the embarrassment of having all the brothers see you for what you really are. The things they say to you might not be half as nice as what I'm saying to you right now."
***
This time when the tree spirit appeared, Mo Yuan didn't wait for him to speak.
"I know she's inside." He said. "Tell her I insist on seeing her."
Mi Gu opened his mouth to argue but Mo Yuan gave him such a look that the tree spirit wilted. He nodded his head obediently and disappeared inside. A few moments later he reappeared and said, "Gugu said for you to come in."
As he came into Seventeen's room he saw her getting up from her bed. Clearly she had been sleeping. His heart ached to see how thin she'd become, her chin sharp and her cheeks pale.
"Shifu." She bowed to him. Her eyes were downcast, almost as though she were scared to look at him, but a warm color suffused her neck and cheeks. His heart leapt. Could Bai Zhen have been right?
Seventeen swallowed. She looked up at him only briefly and then away. "Migu," She said. "You can go."
The tree spirit disappeared, closing the door behind him.
"Do you want to sit?" Seventeen said, still looking at the ground.
"Aren't you going to ask why I'm here in the middle of the night?" He asked, ignoring the proffered seat.
"I suppose shifu is here to scold me for leaving without a word," Seventeen said. "I know I shouldn't have. It was unworthy of me. But believe me, I really didn't mean to hurt Yu Lin. I-"
"I know." Mo Yuan summoned the ivory hairpin to his hand and offered it to her. "I know you didn't."
"This..." Seventeen held it up wonderingly. "Shifu, do you already know everything?"
"I do. And don't worry, Yu Lin is gone. These few months I will consider it as a repayment of my debt to her father. If you don't want her to, she'll never reappear in Kunlunxu again."
Seventeen set her jaw. She tightened her fingers and the hairpin snapped in two before disappearing entirely. "Good." She said firmly. But still she couldn't meet his eyes. Instead she fiddled with her hair and her earring. "I suppose you want me to come back to Kunlunxu with you now but I'm sorry... It's not just because of Yu Lin that I left, it's because of something else as well. So until I can sort that out I have to stay away."
He put his hands around on her shoulders. "Why?" He asked her, seeking to look into her eyes. She didn't make it easy for him, keeping them downcast. "Why not? The place doesn't feel the same without you, Seventeen."
Almost imperceptibly she began to shake, a slight tremor that ran throughout her body. "You don't understand," She muttered lowly and intensely. "It's not the same, it can't ever be the same as before. I'm no better than that stupid butterfly spirit. Even though I know shifu doesn't have those kind of feelings, I can't help how I feel. So you see I can't come back until I've gotten over-"
He put his hand over her mouth. Her eyes flew to meet his. It didn't seem right to make her, his proud Seventeen, be the one to say these things. His heart was so full it felt like it might burst. Never, in the hundred of thousands of years of walking this earth; through mighty battles and great victories, had he never felt such overwhelming joy.
"How do you know that I don't have those kind of feelings?" He asked her softly. With one hand he touched her hair, smoothed it down the side of her face.
Her mouth fell slightly slack, her eyes widened with surprise.
He bent down and kissed her. Her lips were as soft as peach blossom petals.
And so the winds of fate blew and markings on ancient stone made. From that moment forth their destinies were inextricably bound to each other.
***
One more part + Epilogue left... stay tuned :)
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