Nie Huaisang had not changed much in the time Meifeng had not seen the man other than maybe growing his hair out a few inches and being named as the Nie clan leader, but he was the same outside of that. His eyes still betrayed a sense of trembling uneasiness when he found himself in their commanding presence. Wangji, who had actually dragged the infamous headshaker into the room after Huaisang was caught listening to their conversation, stared down the clan leader even though the other man had every authority to arrest his old friend for his disrespectful behavior. This was not the case, however, as Wangji and Meifeng's eyes were treated with Huaisang's teary-eyed expression.
"Lan Wangji, I'm not the one who followed you from Traverse Mountain! When I arrived, a strange dog attacked me, and I could not dare go anywhere else. P-please, it has been hours since then, so let me go!" Meifeng and Wangji shared a glance over the pleading man's head, silently debating whether or not they could trust Huaisang. While he had never given them a reason to doubt his sincerity or pause at his actions, they had no idea who they could still believe this person they had once known as fellow students twenty years ago.
Wangji did, as part of his own test, laid down a fan he had discovered on the mountain that belonged to Huaisang and placed him near the Man-eating castle that had almost consumed Jin Ling and left a Devil's mark on Meifeng when she had tended to her nephew. When Wangji revealed this to him, Meifeng noticed a shift in his posture; it spoke volumes to her as a person who could expertly read people that Huaisang had something to hide, namely his knowledge of that place.
Huaisang was under Meifeng's scrutiny the entire time as he began trying to explain his presence there at the castle while 'hiding' behind the fan that was returned to him. "I- I only followed you two there. I swear I don't know anything about that place! Not about the sword there either!" There it was; something Meifeng could go on as she spoke to him. Never had she or Lan Zhan mentioned the sword, so how did he know about it? This was what she liked in talking with men like this who lost their composure at the first sign of being in deep trouble with people who were intimidating. Calmly pouring herself a cup of tea, Huaisang's face never left her gaze as she spoke as the 'good cop' in this scene compatible to Wangji being the 'bad cop'.
"Since you said you don't know anything, please just sit there and listen if anything I say triggers your memory. You see, I've heard stories from the locals in town that anyone who goes near that man-eating castle will be eaten alive, like Mr. Jin Ling almost was. If no one has survived like the stories go, why does everyone say the bodies are eaten?" Sweat was now accumulating on Huaisang's brow at her question, rubbing his cheek with the tip of his fan as he avoided her knowing gaze. "In my opinion, it's obvious that someone came up with that story so that no one comes near that place. Then there's how sophisticated the formation of Traverse Hill is, which strikes me as a little bit odd, if I must say so. Without a spiritual beast that is good at following scents, or possessing the inner strength that Huangang-Jun has, a person wouldn't be able to go leave a place with no door or windows. Without any magical weapon, it would be twice as difficult to get inside. So, Nie Huaisang, my theory is that the man-eating castle, the formation and the barrier around it, are actually methods set in place to keep people away from Traverse Hill and protect its secret. Does this sound familiar to you in any way?"
The longer Meifeng had spoken, the more Wangji noticed her method was slowly wearing down on Nei Huaisang until he could no longer hold back the water boiling inside him yearning to be released. Breaking down in front of their very eyes, he told them everything he knew about Traverse Hill. "T-the castle does belong to the Qinghe Nie clan. It's a tomb belonging to countless blades belonging to Nie Clansmen named the Tomb of Blades. M-my brother's, Nie Mingjue, is the one you found. It's tradition, since the sixth Nie Clan Leader, to bury the sabers of past clan members with hundreds of corpses that are about to turn so that the sabers won't cause trouble for the newer generations. The sabers are full of violence and killing intent, and they continue to want to destroy evil spirits, so we collect corpses from all around to keep the sabers in check while also suppressing the resentful energy of the corpses-" Suddenly seeing how judgemental the two looked, he panicked and said, "We d-didn't kill them! We j-just collected them to keep the sabers from causing problems!" The longer explanation hurt Meifeng's head to listen to, but Wangji seemed to understand.
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Later, as midnight crept closer with every passing hour, the trio found themselves back on the mountain as they walked towards the Tomb of Blades; Nei Huaisang found himself at the back of the line cowering in both Lan Wangji and Wei Meifeng's presence. However, it was the other man he was most intimidated by, knowing that one word from him would ruin him. "Hanguang-Jun, it's late, so why do you and Ms. Mo want to go back to the Tomb?" Without letting a pause break his steady pace, he replied to the young clan leader in his usual monotone filled with purpose.
"Something needs to be done about that place." The answer, however short and sweet, did nothing for Huisang's worry about what would happen to him once everything blew over and the Nie clan's secret was revealed: his secret. Even Meifeng was not sympathetic to her former friend, knowing the man never did well under stress where force and worry weighed down on him until the effects brought out a negative outcome. She thought about further saying something to strike up a conversation, hopefully calming the individual enough to spill more information they would need to know, but that was not needed as words began spilling from Huisang's lips.
"B-But Hanguang-Jun, if you destroy the corpses, then the sabers wouldn't have anything to suppress them, a-and then people would be in more danger!" the Nie Clan Leader said frantically, starting to explain about something that had happened in the past. "T-ten years ago, we'd h-had an incident with grave robbers, so that was why we added the walls without doors or windows and put the corpses in the walls. The castles do eat people, but only because at least one corpse got destroyed and the buildings seek out new bodies to keep everything in balance!"
Tears threatened to spill from the Nie's eyes even as he tried to hold them back, remembering someone close to him saying Nie men did not cry like little girls. It had hurt to hear that so much that, for the first time in his life, he had talked back and said some mean things to that person. It had been exactly two days after this that his older brother had died from suffering a sudden qi deviation while training. Of course, this had been six years ago, but Huaisang had for all this time wanted to take that incident back where it hadn't been the last time they spoke.
Before long, they had arrived at the Tomb of Blades, and the choking air around the grave was as stifling as it ever was. Even the sky itself, casting a soft glow from a crescent moon, was brown with impurity and resentment pouring out of the open crypt. They grew alarmed when all spotted what looked like pools of blood around a cluster of uniforms and that was when Huaisang looked even more scared. "Oh no, it's just like ten years ago!" he said, and then sounded more fearful by the minute as he said, "Th-those are my clan's uniforms! I-I'd sent some clansmen here to bring corpses to replace the ones Young Master Jin destroyed. Wh-what happened?!"
Meifeng, forcing herself to remain undisturbed by the truly gruesome sight, investigated the bloody clothing closer to find what had happened to the bodies, and what she found was interesting to say the least. "The bodies look to have been melted by something. Other than all the blood belonging to these people, there isn't a trace as to what might've done this."
Wangji's expression barely changed at the news except his frown deepening into something of concern, but Huaisang's face was a textbook case of pure horror. Even after all they had done, encouraged even, the horrible event he had witnessed ten years ago had happened again to the people he was supposed to lead like his brother had.
"M-my clansmen. W-when Jin Ling accidently destroyed the tomb, I sent some of my m-men here to seal the entrance. Oh, please forgive me." There were no words to describe the agony Huaisang felt, not meaning to send these good men to their deaths at such a horrible place. Both Wangji and Meifeng couldn't help but feel somewhat sympathetic for the man, seeing him break down before their very eyes as he mourned his clansmen's deaths. However, it was Wangji who broke out of the silence, hearing the sound of a twig breaking that alerted him they were not alone.
The dozen men in black with cloths covering their faces alerted them to be assassins sent to kill the trio. Meifeng, standing firmly at Wangji's side, recalled how more assassins had attacked them when they had discovered the identity of the severed head on Huaicang Mountain, and knew that they must be getting close to the truth if someone believed they were now better off dead. "Lan Zhan, you go into the castle. I can take care of these guys; looking at them, I know I won't even break a sweat now that I know about their little vanishing act." The memory of that last assassin disappearing to prevent interrogation burned in her mind like the body that went up in flames, and she swore she wouldn't let the truth slip her fingers this time. Wangji gave her a knowing look before wishing her luck and running inside the structure.
Once Wangji had vanished from her sight and aware Huaisang would be out of harm's way, her gaze had narrowed to the men in front of her as pitch-black smoke rose around her like the flickering of a fire. From her waist belt, she pulled out her flute as the bodies circled around her like a cage, but they appeared unprepared as her soft grey eyes shone with the harsh red light as she prepared to use her Diabolism to put these puppies in their rightful places. One charged at her, swinging a fight through the dense fog to strike at her, but she wasn't there.
Appearing behind them, Meifeng twirled her instrument in a relaxed manner. "This flute isn't really the easiest to use, but I think it's more than enough to deal with the likes of you lot." As if playing with a group of children, she spun around in the midst of them as she avoided their blind attacks, knocking them all of them away to the ground with a pulse of red and black energy. Suddenly, she then heard Huaisang cry out!
"Miss Mo, save me!!" Huisang's whining voice alerted Meifeng, spinning around to see three swords flying in the air as they went straight for his head as the man ran towards her. Just as he came within twenty paces of her reach, a stray root poking up from the ground tripped the flailing man, and a burst of pure blue energy pushed back the weapons meaning to harm their target. Knowing Wangji was still inside the grave, both Meifeng and Huaisang were surprised to see Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao were the ones to come to their aid; Meifeng was instantly on the defensive upon seeing them.
Guangyao was the first to speak up in worry for their friend, kneeling to help Huaisang stand with concern in his voice. "What happened?" The worry was fake, not caring in the slightest what happened, but certain images had to be kept up to appear likeable to the public, especially around Lan Xichen who really had been fearful for their peer.
Huaisang shook his head furiously, both men silently questioned whether or not the fast movement would give the man a headache. "I-I r-really don't know this time!" Guangyao, patting him on the shoulder in order to calm down his crocodile tears, was suddenly struck surprised when he saw Meifeng standing back and watching the three men interact. He of course recognized her as one of his father's illegitimate children, but for a brief moment she reminded him of another woman with long black hair and piercing grey eyes. His musings were cut off as the sound of fighting alerted everyone's ears where Wangji was still inside the tomb.
"That's Lan Zhan!" Not giving the others any second thought, Meifeng plunged herself forward through a few assassins attempting to block her way until all were thrown back by her power. When she saw the fight, she was shocked to see, when one of the men was thrown to the ground, that he had on his exposed body "The traces of the Kiss of Decay?! How!?" Wangji's Guqin echoed beautifully in the empty space, pushing back his assailants, and the Devil's Mark he had previously sealed suddenly pulsed with such agony that Meifeng fell to the ground as her own opponent fled. "I thought Lan Zhan had taken care of this! Why would it suddenly-" Another pulse ripped through her body, causing a pained sound to leave her throat. Her mind raced with what could've caused it to suddenly act up before it came to her.
It was that damned arm, which had appeared as it rolled past her, but it had made sense to her that at the moment the curse acted up; the evil limb would be close to her to agitate the darkness within the inflicted wound. Or it had meant that whatever had put the mark on Jin Ling was connected to that arm and the Jin clan that had affected whatever resentment it provoked upon themselves. The arm's appearance was also not lost on Wangji apparently, as Meifeng saw a sealing formation hover above the flailing arm before submitting to its power.
With the arm subdued, a calm haze settled over the gathered crowd as the overhead moonlight crawled its way through the dusty atmosphere, leaving them to collect up the dead bodies of the Nie clan for a proper burial and further question how they would successfully subdue the angered swords and find out what the hell was going on.
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No matter how much I look at this chapter, seems kinda long to me. Then again, I'm on my phone since internet at my house has made getting on my computer unreliable. Anyway, here's the teaser!