Burial Mound, as so named, was really one large cemetery. There were no graves. It was a communal plot going back hundreds of years. The Wen clan had been unable to purify it after the resentment of the restless souls degraded the quality of the soil. That did not fully explain everything dwelling there. As time had passed, others had been added in to the original inhabitants, from the mentally impairs to lovers committing suicide. Giant centipedes had made a nest there, eating the flesh of the rotting dead and leaving only bone powder behind. There was also the Roc, living at the top of one lonely spirt where she kept a nest. Wei Ying had a mutually respectful relationship with the enormous reptilian bird but it was not his pet or familiar. Sometimes, if he slew a few centipedes, it would give him a ride. Recently, it had been in hibernation so he had not dared stray into that region, as when a Roc bird awoke from hibernation, it was bound it be intolerable hungry.

Luckily, he did not have to take Xue Yang that far. Beyond the Demon Slaughtering Cave, there was a narrow back between the walls of two low, broken off spires. The spires were juts of earth that had made a shape like unto waves, pure black in colour. Wei Ying had a suspicion on how they had assumed that shape but he dared not say so, even to himself. Now, Xue Yang stopped and looked around, his brows pinched, his mouth puckered, and said it bluntly. "It looks like someone did something here so powerful, so awful, that it pushed the surface of the earth aside and the turmoil came back like waves." He looked over his shoulder. "So you're not the first. There is someone else, someone who taught you!"

Sighing, Wei Ying put a finger to his lips. "Be quiet. Be still. This is not a place for the living. If you must breathe, breathe without stirring the air. Every grain of sand we tread upon is aware of us, analysing us. Every vapour passing on the current has a thousand eyes." He moved foreward cautiously. "From here, this is not longer a place normally habitable by the living. So, you must die once. If you die once, you will be reborn once. I had already ripped my core out myself and I still went temporarily insane. For you, it will be many times as painful." He took a small stick from the ground, examining it, before he put the tip into the soil and drew a circle. Back and forth, back and forth, he drew the basic seal. Then he handed the twig to Xue Yang. "You fill in the blanks. However you like."

Xue Yang took the stick and expertly added sigils and runes. He had a good mastery of the language, all right, making it exceedingly powerful. He looked over, frowning suspiciously. "That's it?" He asked, softly. "That's not it."

Shaking his head, Wei Ying looked around. "Xue Yang..." He said. "...what do you see when you look at me?"

"I see a thin man with an attractive face. You have an impish smile that seems to be stitched on. And you are clearly injured to your centre chest in a way that should have killed you." He pointed it out. "I can also see that there are more things here than at the base of the mountain. Vapours that have eyes...some kind of wraith or spirit. It's weak. I can smell it. If I complete this, I will be able to see them clearly like you."

Nodding, Wei Ying sighed. "Take out your seal. The seal you made. The first thing you need to do is acknowledge that thing as something you made. It's not mine. It won't ever be mine. This Stygian Tiger Seal is someone unique to me. I made it. It made me. Yes, that artefact you hold is like an egg. You created it but what is it? What do you want it to do? Control others? Kill people? Store information?" Wei Ying took out a small knife and drew a cut on his palm. "Things are going to get worse. If you want that power, you need to make an opening. It's like being raped. It's like being eaten. Either you eat them or they will eat you, but even if you eat them, they will not die. They will crawl around inside your body forever." The black tendrils came out from inside his flesh and pulled at the edges of his skin. "That's what you would call demonic, isn't it?"

Xue Yang gulped. For the first time, a bead of sweat appeared on his brow and he looked at the seal in his hand. His nostrils flared. But he quelled the innate fear of death and pain and held out his hand for the knife.

Tossing it to him, Wei Ying walked a dozen paces away. "I will speak that 'language' to call them." He said, aiming his hands palm downward. "I who am of that kind, recite words of wisdom, and offer up libation. I call, I call, I call. Across ages. And with awareness seek power. All ye who worship me, who are all seeing, all seeking; those who devour; I call across ages." The earth was rippling and undulating, seething black air from the cracks breaking at his feet. The cracks form another circle on their own, which filled in with the red that held in a continuously suspended state under the ground. It was not lava but something more akin to sap. "I call and call again. Take form. Be my arms, my hands, my eyes. I offer up this vessel and will bear all sins. Again, I call across ages."

Xue Yang's eyes were extremely big as the red and black hands came up out of the ground to fondle him, to pull and rip at his hair. They tore his skin open. Fully humanoid forms took shape, blinking intimidating eyes at them, only to vanish once again. Something, something hideously big, stirred under them but it only took a second's notice. Slowly, a few separated out and forced their way into Wei Ying's chest, opening up the wound a little but then immediately sealing it. He looked up at this insolent person, glaring with his scarlet eyes. "Begin!" He commended, his voice like a clap of thunder.

He gulped and turning the knife, drove it into his left palm. He went over the seal with it before sitting in the middle. The came from the edges, just curious at first. Xue Yang spoke in a more tremulous voice than he had up until that. He was just about nineteen and had the bravado of a grown man yet there were still doubts, uncertainties. Every single one of them was exposed and forced out of him. They seized him by his arms and legs, twisting them around so that his bones snapped. When his spine broken he wouldn't speak anymore. They degraded his skin, blinded him, ruptured his ears. They found a way in, even through the pores of his skin. And inside him, in his gut, they warred with the golden core trying to drive them out. He was a lump of seething flesh at the end of it, perhaps fifteen minutes, and the robes were entirely soaked through with blood.

Seating himself at the edge of the seal, Wei Ying put his hands on it. They took notice. "Conform. Assume shape. Join together." He said, gently. "Respite. Give respite. Take shape. Bind to this flesh. Find a way. Into the bones. Into the flesh. Into the marrow, the grit." He muttered, sweat trickling down his spine. Xue Yang's body shuddered and wiggled. His internal injuries were healing as the entities inside him burrowed. They left his core and found other parts to inhabit. They moved upwards, toward his head. It took a half hour before the rips in his flesh sealed and his skin became paler, almost white. He sat up, his hair tangled like a barbarian. He gasped and coughed, shuddering and holding his arms around himself, chewing on his lips. His eyes darted around, able to see everything now. He could hear it. He chewed on his fingers, rocking back and forth like a lunatic.

Not surprised, Wei Ying wondered if he would be able to get up. He had to get up and move on his own. Even if it hurt. "Stand." He said. "Or you will remain there forever."

Xue Yang looked at him with tears pouring from his eyes but he managed to at least move. He was mute and still wide-eyed as they left the mountains. He now and then looked to either side, trembling incessantly. The Demon Slaughtering Cave looked like a humble, cosy house now. He moved to drink water only to collapse on his knees, hugging his stomach. He wretched, moving his hands around as if trying to dig the sensation out. He collapsed onto his side when he realised he could not do that, dark smudges under his eyes.

Taking a clean set of clothes out of box, Wei Ying set them beside him with a rag to wash off his body. Then he turned, leaving the cave. There was nothing he could really hurt in there, since he was not really doing any experiments anymore. Letting out a sigh, Wei Ying lent on the wall that blocked off the cave from the village. Lan Zhan was waiting there, the light caught in his eyes. Seeing him there, waiting, Wei Ying rushed to him and flung his arms around him. He buried his face in Lan Zhan's chest. Lan Zhan hugged him back, almost too tightly. Wei Ying knew he did not really like to kiss in front of others but he put that aside and caught his face.

"Wei Ying." Lan Zhan had a deep blush over his nose and cheeks when he managed to break free. "You have more cuts." His eyes turned to the blood on his sleeves.

Frowning, Wei Ying smiled at him and shrugged. Taking him by the hand, Wei Ying guided him to their private area. It was very simple but also rather opulent. The biggest thing there was the bed. Not because either of them were much into exotic play but because they were both men and needed the space. Nearby, there was a chair and a basin to wash from. It was fine for most days. There was a chest of drawers for spare linens and undergarments. A screen held a special array that cut most of the noise Wei Ying was always bombarded with. He sank into the chair and pulled off his boots, wanting to wash his feet first. His feet hurt. Lan Zhan had put Bichen and the guqin down and knelt, washing his feet for him. He did not stop there, though, but tugged at his trousers until he obediently took them off. He was in just his thing undergarment, perched on the chair, as Lan Zhan drew the rag gentle over his skin. When he got to his back, he lifted his hair and bent, kissing his neck and placing a mild bit there. "Oi, oi..." Turning to look up at him was the wrong move. His eyes were alight and Wei Ying felt his stomach drop, he was too handsome! The scent of the sandalwood was pervasive and made him blush.

Getting up, letting the chair tip over, Wei Ying took hold of Lan Zhan's robes and drew them off of him, slowly, so that the scent rose into the air even more. Reaching up behind him he undid Lan Zhan's forehead ribbon. Even now, he still wore it everyday out of their private quarters but no matter how many times it had been, he seemed to become the most shy whenever this ritual was gone through. Wei Ying had once mistakenly thought this forehead ribbon was a sign of the sects arrogance. That they were too good to mix with others and showed it off on their faces. He had ascribed all kinds of impertinent meanings to it, simply because it baffled him the extent to which they went to protect a single strip of cloth. It was nothing like that. When he had fully comprehended the meaning, that it was about their feelings, feelings they were conditioned not to show even to their own family members, he had felt he was the caddish one. Now he took the precious silk ribbon and drew it to his lips, kissing it as if he was kissing the man himself and Lan Zhan blushed again.

They were all caught up in each other from that point and did not take note of the wide world. So they were in some disarray and not a little groggy when someone clamoured at the door. It was Wen Qing and she was very upset, something Wei Ying had only seen in that other life, when she had spotted him on the road and called out for him to help her save her brother. He sat up but failed to move correctly. He tumbled out of the bed and onto the floor, wincing as his hips and back locked up. A hand was placed on his back, easing his muscle complaints with warm yang energy. Lan Zhan put his clothes on him first, then got dressed himself. Smiling, Wei Ying waited for him to be completely covered before he opened the door.

Wen Qing was standing there, her back to the door. She had one arm folded, one to her face. It was a picture of a strong woman in distress. When she turned, she ignored the state of things and rushed to him, taking hold of his sleeves, just as she had taken hold of his hem in that other time.

It made him feel panicked and he hastily took her hands. "What happened to Wen Ning?" He asked, causing her face to full crumple.

"He went out before that man came here. He went to get rice. But he was approached as a gentleman cultivator to help with a fierce corpse that was disturbing some people at the border of Yiling! Now, he has been taken away by a group of cultivators. They took him toward LanglinJin. The Jin clan has him, I know it!" She bit his lower lip. "I...I was asked to betray you by some people from the LanglingJin. To no longer use medical cultivation for demonic practitioner. I thought it nonsense, this is an established sect now! How would dare to say you contributed any less?! I should have thought more of the implications."

"It is not your fault." Wei Ying assured her. "They were aiming for Wen Ning from the start. I will get your brother back, alive or dead. He will see his child!" He made it a vow. "You need to prepare for the worst. From right now, put everyone on alert. Get read to treat wounded and even to fight if you have to. And Wen Qing!" He grabbed her chin. "If you even think about sacrificing yourself for me or for your brother, I'll drag you right back out of the fire and beat you senseless! Do you understand me?!

She gaped at him but then she swallowed and nodded once.

It was clear she would still do it if it came down to saving her brother, though. Sighing, Wei Ying turned to Lan Zhan. He was waiting in the courtyard. "Wait a moment." He said, nodding once. Amplifying his voice over Burial Mound, he spoke to one and all. "I, Wei Wuxian, Yiling Patriarch, am Grandmaster of this sect. I give you all my promise that I will bring Wen Ning back, one way or another. I will not allow even one of my people to be taken away from me. That said, I cannot know what will happen while I am out. It is possible this is done to bait me. So take up arms. Arm yourself. Every living thing has the right to fight for its own life, so fight bravely! I expect nothing less but your utmost! Die trying!" He then put his face in Lan Zhan's chest as they mounted Bichen, hoping and praying that it never came to that. "But even in that case, he's too young." He said, softly. "We need to hurry but I can't. Let's take A-Yuan to the Cloud Recesses before we go to war."

Lan Zhan's brows twitched and he nodded once.