Chapter 61: Chapter 59: Reunion of Teacher and Student

As they went up the mountain, the exhaustion that afflicted them all seemed to lift. The forest that hugged the mountain was full of all sorts of trees with heavy boughs of green as well as the shapes of the various students and disciples of Lady Gu. Liu Xie could glance at girls walking by themselves or together occasionally past the trees. He was walking ahead of most of the others while keeping behind Ji Ying, Bo, and a few of the other girls that had traveled with them and let his thoughts wander.

It was as though everywhere he looked there were more beautiful girls milling about. Some were tall like reeds, others were small like little flowers. Bo kept twisting his head this way and that way to take in all the gorgeous sights and Liu Xie could spot some of the girls taking notice of the short haired young man oogling them.

He reached down to pull off his boot and then, with precise aim, lobbed it at Bo’s head. It hit true and knocked the man face down into the ground.

Liu Xie came up behind him to pick up his boot to put it back on.

“Why did you hit me!?” Bo asked after pulling out a mouthful of grass.

“If Lady Gu sees you oogling her students, no one in this entire Wheel will be able to help you,” Liu Xie warned as he heaved Bo back to his feet. “Go find a cave or something to take care of that.”

Ji Ying looked behind herself to stare at the two, “don’t masturbate in any of the caves here you sick weirdos.”

“I wasn’t planning on doing that,” Bo mumbled. Bo looked behind him to see Rui Yifu helping Li Baobao up the increasingly steep slope. “How are you holding up Li?”

“I’m fine,” Li Baobao huffed and puffed. “Just a bit unused to climbing mountains is all. I can feel my hair sticking to my back.”

“You look like an overheated sheep,” Ji Ying said.

“Are you just going to insult everyone?” Bo snapped. “We don’t really need to deal with this.”

Ji Ying shrugged and returned to walking ahead. Liu Xie waited and watched for Li and Rui, with Bo slipping Li’s free arm over his shoulder to help him as well. With more support they moved slightly faster up the ever slanting slope.

Abruptly the path came to a stop. A flat surface had been carved at some point into the mountain to allow the foundations of a strange building to be built. The building reached up high, built and carved into the tip of the mountain and devoured by centuries worth of plant growth. Black birds fluttered near the windows at the very top. The building itself was as much part of the mountain as it was made out of wood painted red with slim colorful ribbons fluttering from its windows. Ji Ying continued walking to the entrance, two doors hung with crumbling bronze bells that she pushed open. Then she turned around, “Lady Gu will be at the very top room. Don’t do anything weird in her house.”

Inside they were faced with… stairs.

Lots of stairs.

They ascended slowly, passing by closed rooms and small hallways. Occasionally a quiet whisper would float on the air, or the creak of a step somewhere above or below them. But the massive building seemed vast and empty. Light only filtered in through the windows dotting one side and even then the light provided was faint as it struggled to pierce through the dust on some of the windows. The very concept of spoken words seemed taboo in the strange silence.

When they reached a landing, Bo did not know what to expect. It was a short hall towards the open door of a room. Liu Xie walked forward first, followed by Rui, then Li Baobao, and finally Bo.

Inside there was a table, a lantern hung somewhere above to provide light to the seemingly windowless room. A pile of dark fabric sat in one corner and in another corner were stacks of notes, letters, and small chests. “Where’s Lady Gu?” Bo finally spoke.

“She’s right there,” Liu Xie pointed at the pile of fabric.

The large lump of cloth shook itself and the pale face of a tired woman suddenly emerged. Her hair was so long it appeared to swamp her small body which was already wrapped in a bundle of archaic looking clothing. She turned her head towards Liu Xie and blinked. Slowly a smile cracked over a face that seemed to have forgotten how to do so. “It’s been a long time, teacher. I hear you need my help?”

“I’m happy to see my only student still hasn’t changed,” Liu Xie replied with a small smile. “Your disciples said you still nap a lot.”

“Well it’s not like I have much else to do in here. I want to talk to each of you alone,” Lady Gu said from her spot in the dark corner of the large room. Her face seemed to shine like a strange moon in the shadow.

“Why can’t you talk to all of us at once?” Bo asked. Li Baobao shifted uncomfortably and Rui Yifu rolled his eyes.

Lady Gu’s smile took on a more exhausted tinge at the corners. “Private discussions should be kept private, shouldn’t they?”

“B-”

Liu Xie held up his hand, “it’s fine Bo. Go wait outside. It probably won’t take long.”

“Oh I wonder what you two will be discussing? Past romances?” Rui Yifu said conspiratorially, snapping open a rather dingy looking fan. Li Baobao had already retreated out of the room, pulling Bo along with him.

“I am glad to see your attitude has fully recovered,” Liu Xie snorted.

“And I am happy to know you were so concerned for me with everything else that has happened.” With that Rui Yifu bowed to Lady Gu and left.

Lady Gu raised her brows slightly and blinked before she pulled her long hair to rest behind her shoulders which took a few moments as what looked to be endless coils and locks of black ribbon like strands were tugged and moved over. Then she rested her hands on her knees and sighed heavily. “It’s been a very long time, teacher, it’s almost unfortunate this isn’t a casual visit.”

“I’ve been led to believe you prefer being alone, so I don’t come visit,” Liu Xie slowly sank down to sit and wondered if his knees were creaking loud enough for Gu to hear.

“You are correct, but unfortunately people keep insisting on coming to me for help or refuge,” she gestured towards the door. “Who am I to deny them?”

“The mistress of this mountain.”

“I am Lady Gu, the Immortal of Kindness,” she waved her hand near her head like trying to swat a bothersome bug away.

Liu Xie raised his brows, “where did that name come from?”

“I don’t know, the first person to call me that was a disciple who came from the Western Kingdom, she didn’t explain why though,” Lady Gu said while she fiddled with a thread on her sleeve. “I’m so old I can’t keep up with what everyone calls me, teacher. My names are like smoke in the wind. I can’t even remember what my parents called me.”

Liu Xie stared at the immortal as she continued fiddling with the thread in her sleeve. It had been a very long time from the perspective of mortals since he had last seen her. She had been tired back then too, having descended her mountain to help refugees fleeing a war that everyone but the most studious of scholars had forgotten by now. But now she seemed exhausted. As if continuing to smile alone was painful.

“-I heard you fell in love.”

He snapped out of his thoughts, blinking, “ah. Yes. Actually.” His face felt warm.

“That poor woman. Does she still have a pelvis?” Lady Gu asked with a frown. Before he could respond Lady Gu continued, “she was a foreign woman with red hair and a scar on her face, correct?”

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“Yes,” Liu Xie sat back, confused. “How do you know?”

“I had a visitor who claims he owes a foreign woman and a white clad immortal a debt,” Lady Gu explained dryly. Liu Xie wracked his wooden brain to think of anyone who owed him a debt that might also owe Eona as well. A few faces gradually emerged from his memories. “He came to me to give information on where a child is.”

He was not sure when he had lunged but suddenly he found his hands on Lady Gu’s arms, holding them tightly. “Where is she?! Where is Idony? Is she okay?” He asked, almost feeling the rapid beat of where a heart would be in his chest.

Lady Gu patted one of his arms which sounded strangely hollow and Liu Xie quickly released her and recoiled. The immortal did not seem to have heard anything off however and spoke in her normal dry tone. “The child you’re looking for is in Lang Lang’s town.”

“Whose? Lang Lang?”

Lady Gu looked mildly surprised. “You don’t know who Lang Lang is?”

Liu Xie shook his head, “I have some questions about whatever parent named their child that.”

“Lang Lang’s not anyone’s child. He’s a hateful ghost that turned into one of the most dangerous demons currently around,” Lady Gu explained. “He’s killed and eaten almost five hundred immortals and lesser gods.”

Liu Xie’s eyes widened, “I guess I really should be paying more attention to the latest rumors from the heavens. Five hundred immortals and lesser gods?”

“Or so I’ve heard, I’ve never confronted him myself and what I do hear is from the likes of Song or Hou. Song’s a perverted braggart and Hou is more interested in math puzzles than fighting, but both tell roughly the same story.” Lady Gu pulled the offending thread from her sleeve out and let it fall into her lap. “However he’s not malevolent in his actions as other demons can be. He takes people in trouble and spirits them away to this village he’s made. He moves it around occasionally and hides it well.”

He bit his thumb in thought, “do you know where it is now?”

“My visitor said it’s been moved to the Northern Kingdom, right beside a red mountain and a river that split in two.”

His shoulders sagged, “that’s not exactly helpful.”

“It’s all he would tell me,” Lady Gu said apologetically. “He refused to say anything else and left shortly after.”

He got up and winced slightly from the creak in his knees. “Can you describe him?”

“Who? Lang Lang?”

“No, your source. The visitor.”

Lady Gu straightened up, “he wore a lot of black and spoke through a raven.”

“Ah,” a flash of memory lit up in Liu Xie’s head. “Him,” a slight smile grew on his face. A spirit who had reached such potency to assume a human shape, as well as learn the languages of Man, and yet only ever named himself after his first shape; the Raven. “I’m glad he’s doing better. Eona and I helped rid him of a parasite in the Southern Kingdom.” He remembered the sight of Eona pulling the squirming fleshy worm-thing from the spirit's exposed spine. "When I asked him what happened, he could only say he had been investigating disappearances and got attacked."

Lady Gu started pulling at another thread, “a parasite? How long ago was this?”

“Maybe… thirteen or twelve years ago?”

Her hands fell back into her lap, “where?”

“The Southern Kingdom.”

Her face turned thoughtful now, “that’s also when the first report of face eater ghouls in the area came to me.”

Now that he thought about it, it seemed odd. "We had an… incident… with the ghouls a few months ago, on the border near the Western Kingdom while in the South,” he flinched a little from the memory. Idony had nearly died because of him, and now she was in the grip of a demon. It seemed like misfortune was stubbornly clinging to her. “But I had no idea they were in the Southern Kingdom prior to that.”

“That’s because Song and some of my students put them down quick before they could hurt anyone, Song can be useful after all. I had them scour the area to look for any nests but they couldn’t find any and there had been no further reports of any activity in the area or around it.”

Liu Xie crossed his arms. Face eater ghouls were monsters from the Northern Kingdom, so a migrating group would surely have been noticed, if not immediately then from the trail of victims they would leave in their wake. “Someone brought them there.”

Lady Gu nodded gravely, “both times at that. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Also recently the Black River flooded without warning, and a Free City-”

“Burnt down, yes I know that one. I was there,” Liu Xie rubbed his forehead as he began to pace back and forth. He was being forced to deeply think, which was his least favorite thing to do. “Someone had set up an entire… production thing,” he held up his hands to try and give an idea of the sets of massive buildings. “Full of vats of corpse syrup and waxy moon flowers. They were making flesh puppets, a damn army’s worth.” He groaned as the pieces of a puzzle laid out in his mind refused to mash together.

“How would someone get waxy moon flowers? Or even learn how to make flesh puppets?” Lady Gu pondered aloud.

“They would need to have found one of the few gardens where the flowers are still grown for moon festivals,” Liu Xie muttered. “I’ve heard some gods also have gardens with it, but that seems a bit harder. Flesh puppets are easy though, even if mortals have been told to destroy all records of it, there’s all sorts of other creatures who might know. Fish people, demons, some spirits, exiled immortals or gods…”

“This is concerning,” Lady Gu muttered. “Lately I’ve felt like the winds are changing, teacher. I smell smoke on them. Something is burning.”

Liu Xie looked down at Lady Gu, “you and your students should get some buckets of water and put it out then. I don’t know what this has to do with w-”

Lady Gu sighed heavily, “That’s not what I meant and you know it. Go get the crossdresser, I want to talk to him.”

Liu Xie gave her a short bow, “it was nice speaking with you again. Age has hardly dulled your tongue, you're just as disrespectful as I remember!” He laughed in amusement. Unlike Bo, Lady Gu had never treated him as all knowing. She questioned everything and had even raised her hand against him multiple times. He liked those kinds of students. He then turned around and moved to the door quickly before stopping just before he opened it. Liu Xie turned his head just slightly to look back at her through the corner of his eye. “Gu, can you answer a question for me?”

“I suppose so.”

“Are you still looking for an end?"

There was a sad grim smile on her face, "perhaps, teacher, one day I will again close my eyes and finally fall into dust. As of now, I need to watch for the smoke and ash."

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