Yue Ran was now sure,
There was an entity who, likely, was the reason behind the strange phenomenon.
Drawing the seal, he placed his intentions, inhaling deeply he stood up slowly,
"Young master?"
"gege?"
Two voices resounded at the same time within the cave.
Yue Ran, stopped and glanced over at them for a moment, and sighed
"I'll be back soon so stay here"
If Yue Ran hadn't said that Xue hua would've already hurried towards his side by now, Xue Hua stayed-
However...
He didn't want to be left behind.
Yue Ran saw his expression, even so, it was better if he was alone.
So he ignored him.
Yun Buizha noticed Xue Hua's unwillingness to stay, and decided to help the immortal, persuading Xue Hua by telling another story of the villagers. Leaving Xue Hua feeling a little down.
Outside the cave, the temperature was starkly different.
The cold wind brushed against his cheeks.
As his breath started to fog.
"Windy"
He muttered as he started walking further away from the cave.
Once he was finally away and found a suitable place, he slipped the seal out, holding the thin paper with his two fingers he placed it near his forehead as he closed his eyes.
The seal was immediately consumed upon use.
he felt the surroundings with more clarity, aware of his heart's every beat.
The energy from the spell however, dissipated quickly leaving only a breeze behind.
It vanished.
So quick that he almost missed it as he opened his eyes.
No demons
The spell didn't react at all.
Not even a single spark.
There weren't any demons, at least within 50 li.
That often was good news however, it wasn't exactly good for this situation.
This meant that the troublemaker wasn't a demon.
Making the situation far more complicated.
Demons were easy to track even for new cultivators, and Yue Ran was much more proficient in it.
If it had been a demon he could've immediately gone to deal with it without much trouble.
But it wasn't.
The seal he drew was a kind of spell that would immediately burst into flames when coming in contact with a demon.
But it didn't.
So Yue Ran could only stand and think for a moment.
This was a seal where he could fully depend for reliability after all it had been renovated by his master to be further effective.
Hence, it didn't need close contact with demonic essence in order to react.
Its coverage was quite large and Yue Ran was sure that that village, too, came within the coverage area as the pillar was posted only a walk away.
So now, it could only be a divine beast or some entity.
But he couldn't easily make conclusions, divine beasts, after breaking through often found or built places to cultivate in peace as they are often hunted for materials or to be a mount.
So most divine beasts capable of influencing the weather wouldn't even think of exposing itself to humans.
Since they could be tracked if found.
It could be the young of those beasts, but again-
They aren't quite capable.
So he was at a loss, divine beasts could influence the state of the sky quite strongly, while high level demons could manipulate it using means forbidden.
There could also be something...
Or someone.
Maybe a cultivator, who is pretty strong.
And needed human souls.
A Lost soul.
As people call these demonic cultivators,
They had many forbidden techniques up their sleeves, and could even be capable of such things when using particularly rare artifacts.
It wasn't rare to come across them, there were more demonic cultivators around the world than one could imagine.
Even some sects have a secret technique that relates to calling upon souls. But the difference from demonic cultivators being how they acquired it.
While those demonic cultivators mostly killed and forcibly took hold of the souls, the latter would call upon wandering souls with a song and use them by helping those souls move on.
It could be a demonic cultivator.
One responsible for Hanling, and it could be the cause of the blocked route severing the village's connection.
Yue Ran walked forward, feeling the trees and observing for any signs of the previous traveller.
Channeling his spiritual energy into his senses.
Although it was impossible to find traces of steps it couldn't be said to be the same for spiritual energy.
As long as there was even a slight trace, he could make a proper guess.
While it was a bit more complicated regarding those cultivators when using spells or talismans, he could still use his senses in order to make them out.
After all, they too carried demonic essence with them, despite being fully human.
That was the case with demonic cultivators, once they took on those powers, they would never be able to get rid of the stench.
The demonic essence that clung to them.
No matter how strong they got they could never get rid of it once they walked such a path, it would merge with their own essence, many times corrupting them, which also made it much easier for them to form heart demons.
They could try to hide it, by masking it however, it was merely temporary, as they could never get rid of it.
Forever making them outsiders.
Mortals shunned them and righteous cultivators despised and hunted them.
As no mortal wished to associate with them their path was often lonely, even those of their own kind were many times foes rather than friends killing in order to acquire more for their cultivation.
So despite it being much faster to climb through cultivation stages, most first succumb to their heart demons or loneliness before ever succeeding.
And whatever it was, it was responsible for the unusual storm, it was intelligent enough to block reinforcements from the sect so its intentions were far from good, nor was it small.
With these findings he was getting closer to the answer.
.
When he returned to the cave, it had already darkened, Yun Buizha was already asleep, his back facing the dying fire.
But, Xue Hua was still awake,
"Gege..." He mumbled, looking up,
His face lit by the fire's light.
Yue Ran had expected him to be awake, but he didn't know if it was a good thing to be correct this time, he didn't have much of a reaction, rather he took a seat beside the kid and tended to the fire.
Dragging some dry wood and keeping the fire lit.
"It's late, you won't grow if you don't sleep"
His voice was low, yet still gentle as he talked slowly,
Xue Hua lowered his head and nodded.
His hands gripping on his knees.
This kid was sulking,
Yue Ran didn't understand why, it was really not something he was good at-
Understanding people's emotions.
He could guess, but understanding it was a different thing.
He resigned himself internally, he didn't know why he was upset, but his master whenever he came across kids, would always do all sorts of things, and one time, he saw the same expression on a child in the past.
How did his master handle it again-?
Did he ask the reason first? What did he do? He only remembered the kid being all smiles again after that.
Maybe he should've paid more attention then.
The silence felt longer with how Xue Hua talked so often.
He hadn't realized it.
But, he didn't know how to ask.
He took a deep breath.
"Why are you-"
But for the first time he got cut off,
"You said you'd come back soon..."
He grumbled,
Yue Ran was taken aback
'So this was what he was upset about?
Now that was just ridiculous, how could anyone get upset over that? '
But this little kid wasn't done voicing his grievances as if he had been wronged badly.
However none of those words truly processed into Yue Ran's mind.
"You're upset?"
Yue Ran looked at Xue Hua's face, his breath almost dragging longer than usual.
Xue Hua, stopped talking, looked at Yue Ran, and perhaps saw just how confused he was.
"Yes"
He answered,
Time slowed, and besides the cackling fire, two people sat down, looking at each other.
The sound of three breaths resounding within the cave.
....
On the next morning, the woodcutter woke up, and soon took them to his village's entrance, a spot where nobody could see them. Keeping them there he sneaked into the village, his home.
Then soon returned with a bundle of clothes for the two.
Then, he "returned" to Siquan with two strangers.
When the villagers saw him, they all started to chatter,
"My! If it isn't little Yun, but who are those two besides him?"
Yue Ran and Xue Hua were dressed, a little bit more decently than Yun Buizha, who could immediately be distinguished as a woodcutter from his bulky, yet rough clothes.
While Yue Ran was dressed similarly to a scholar and Xue Hua was dressed similarly as well.
Making them seem like brothers despite the stark difference in their hair.
Where did the woodcutter find these clothes?
He said that a scholar once visited the village for his study and left his clothes and items when he returned.
And Yun Buizha said he simply couldn't make these two, who were also his benefactors, wear something so ragged and dirty like his clothes.
The jade pendant hanging from Yue Ran's waist complemented his scholarly look, fortifying his image further.
And he wasn't a stranger to acting, he had acted many times in the past, though mostly not out of his own choice..
He glanced at the kid, who was walking beside him, holding the hem of his sleeve.
Xue Hua could now voice his mind.
Feeling rather...unsure.
Even though they had been together for a few weeks, last night was the first time Xue Hua spoke his mind without turning his gaze away. That was the longest he had looked at Yue Ran, consciously and despite not knowing why, Yue Ran was bothered.
So for the first time, Xue Hua broke one of the immortal's assumptions of him.
Yue Ran believed him to be a timid yet curious child as Xue Hua followed him wherever he went and acted shy, feeling quite awkward, but to think it only took something trivial for him to garner courage, Yue Ran didn't know what to think or feel.
However, the kid was back to his usual act, after leaving the immortal this way.
How audacious he was, Yue Ran had never encountered someone more ridiculous than him.
He was almost as ridiculous as his master-
He paused for a moment, stopping on his tracks
This was quite...
He glanced at the kid, rubbing the pendant and continued walking.
Soon, one of the ladies who were staring from the corner of the street came up,
"Young man!" She paused,
"Who are these two?" An elderly lady walked up to them, eyeing Yue Ran and Xue Hua curiously,
Yun Buizha nodded, and started speaking
"Aunty Ming" he greeted with a smile,
"That young master over there is a scholar who was on leave studying our north and the small one is his younger brother." He explained, with an expression that seemed to be no more sincere than a monk.
Xue Hua couldn't hide his awe, making Yue Ran cover for him as he bowed politely,
"If not for them I would have been no more"
He said with a slight shudder, causing aunty Ming to express a sudden surprise, and then soon she patted his shoulder with a pitiful look.
"Aiya, how many times have you told you to be careful and not go too far, but you never listen to us old folks" she scolded him lightly,
Yun Buizha continued to smile but Yue Ran noticed his awkwardness despite how close they looked.
The lady then turned to these two strangers she took Yue Ran's hand squeezing it lightly as she mumbled,
"I'm so grateful for your kindness, you have our thanks" she bowed,
Glancing back she continued,
"We've watched little Yun grow up, and our old hearts wouldn't have been able to take it if he were lost too"
She shook her head, unable to imagine it.
Then look at the peeking white head.
She smiled at the kid, "you two must be tired" she added at the end, and then placed her hand back on the woodcutter's shoulder
slapping his back promptly, it made quite an impressive sound.
"Introduce these two to the chief and don't forget to repay them properly!" She was clear with her instructions, speaking beside his ears but Yue Ran was sure everyone heard that so there was no point in that action.
As they walked towards the chief's house they couldn't help but notice how clean the place was, the streets were clean despite the outside being heavily piled with snow, it seems that the villagers swept the snow everyday.
Just like with aunty Ming, the same thing happened to them, it happened a couple of times again before they finally arrived at the chief's manor.
Showing how popular he was with the villagers, well that was to be expected since he was the only bachelor in the village according to one of the old ladies.
[TANG MANOR]
It was written in big bold letters with smooth strokes.
In front of the large blue gate.
Yun Buizha took the handle and knocked thrice
Waiting for a moment a servant came out greeting him,
her eyes lingered on Yue Ran a while longer when she saw them.
It didn't take long for the Chief to come out,
Seeing the two new people he smiled warmly.
"Visitors from afar?"
He asks, implying if they were from a different territory
Yue Ran nodded.
The chief nodded his head in approval, but a sigh soon followed
"However it's a pity as the timing isn't the greatest"
He shook his head, a hint of disappointment and sadness displaying on his face.
Soon, Yun Buizha took the initiative to introduce the two.
"These young masters are my benefactors, I met them after they had saved me from freezing to death" he spoke in a bit more formal tone.
"This young master over here is a scholar-" Yun Buizha looked at Yue Ran who soon nodded politely,
"And this young master over here is his younger brother"
Xue Hua took the cue and nodded promptly after.
Yue Ran then stepped forward and formally introduced himself to the chief,
"I'm Yue Ran, a scholar and this is my younger brother Xue Hua"
.
.
.
The disguise was perfect!
Yun Buizha could hardly hide his proud grin.
After speaking with the chief for a moment, Yue Ran and Xue Hua were arranged to stay at the Tang mansion sharing a room.
Which was a request made by Yue Ran himself.
So Xue Hua and Yun Buizha were both chipper
However, it was soon time for them to part
Yun Buizha went back home after saying he'd come back around by evening to have dinner.
The people here were full of hospitality that was something no one could deny.
But maybe that was only because they didn't know Yue Ran as an immortal.
Food was scarce right now making the village more united than ever before in this struggle for survival, the path had been blocked for more than a month.
While Yue Ran talked with the elders regarding the situation,
The disguise gave Yue Ran the perfect cover to ask around without arousing the village's suspicion.
Xue Hua who was left waiting was dragged by the older ladies, they loved beautiful things after all, especially children.
They took care of him and fed him whatever sweet things they could find.
"What's your name, little one?" The older lady asked Xue Hua, who was sucking on some sugar balls with eagerness.
"Xue Hua" he answered, looking at them hesitantly while fiddling his fingers. This the ladies seem to find cute, seeing how shy he was.
Xue Hua felt a little anxious because he was away from Yue Ran and was not able to see him from where he was.
Yue Ran was busy talking with the chief so he could not pay attention to him, and although these older ladies meant no harm he couldn't help but feel nervous.
"Such a pretty name!" Aunty Ming clapped her hand,
The other ladies also agreed with a hum,
While he was with them, they made his hair into a nice and fancy braid. But Xue Hua couldn't help but think how he found Yue Ran's braiding the prettiest on his hair.
Then one sighed shaking her head,
"If only the chief's daughter was in good health, he would've had a friend or two instead of humouring us old ladies"
These words made the other ladies who were smiling also drop their smiles a little.
The others also felt that this was quite unfortunate, there were no children in this place, most had entered the sect to train or had gone elsewhere for studies or even business and youths these days did not like living in a place that had nothing except snow.
So despite being mothers of many, these old people were left to themselves, having to be happy with their own company while only seeing their children once or twice a year.
So it wasn't wrong to say that this place has no children except the chief's daughter who was eight years old therefore she was adored by the villagers but she had fallen ill after getting lost in the forest for a couple of days.
Xue Hua while listening to those ladies talk, felt a shiver creeping up his spine out of nowhere, he immediately looked around but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary...
However, it felt as though he was being watched.
His eyes swept past the dark corner of a room before his attention was brought back by the old ladies.
.
.
.