The Nine-tailed Fox doesn't feel so good

"Maybe you should have started with that," Lan Tian says, glowering at Zou Qiao who flinches.

"I wanted to have a private conversation. Immortal Mountain is the kind of place where the trees have eyes and the grass has ears." Zou Qiao's ears flatten themselves against his head in a display of submissiveness under Lan Tian's anger.

"Every tree and blade of grass can have ears and eyes if they cultivate enough," Wan Mi says, looking up at Lu Jiao as if she expects to be praised for paying attention in class.

Lu Jiao is currently busy glaring at Zou Qiao. "You willingly allowed a potential informer for Immortal Mountain to walk into Kunlun? Even when our alliance still stood, you must have known what an incredibly stupid risk that was."

Zou Qiao flinches. "Zou Qiao regrets his actions, and is willing to suffer any punishment Master Lu sees fit, but Master must understand that this humble one couldn't be sure of what he was seeing until the events that transpired afterwards."

Wu Yun isn't sure if Zou Qiao is being completely truthful, he's suspicious of people who resort to extreme deference and a sophisticated manner of speech, when finding themselves in hot water. Most of his wariness stems from the fact he doesn't understand half those words, but just the same...

Wan Mi butts in, "Master Cang also has something important to say about Shu Luan."

Bai Xiaoli frowns, and turns to Wu Yun. "Isn't that the name of one of the gods you asked me to look up?"

Lu Jiao rubs her temples with both hands, looking angered beyond belief. "It seems everyone decided it was a good idea to keep things from me, I suggest we all go see Master Cang before someone else loses an eye.

---

If Cang Chuxi is surprised to see an entire group of people enter his pavilion, he doesn't let it show.

Shu Luan is sitting down in one of the cots, and waves when he sees Lan Tian and Wu Yun walk in. Neither of them return his greeting.

"I'm glad you're here, Master Lu too, please have a look at this," Cang Chuxi lifts Shu Luan's arm, and shows them an odd mark, shaped like three intersecting moons, just below his ribs.

"It's very faint, so I didn't notice it before, but this sigil means someone has complete control over him."

That doesn't sound like a good thing to Wu Yun. "In what way?"

"Basically, whoever placed that mark on him, can control his powers and actions, they would have to be close to him, how close depends on the sigil's area of affect, I'll need to conduct more studies." Cang Chuxi touches the mark on Shu Luan's skin and it glows black for a moment before returning to it's faint white colour.

Lan Tian turns to Shu Luan with a glare. "Who gave you that sigil, who is controlling you?" 

Shu Luan shrinks under his scrutiny and shakes his head. "I have no idea."

"Are we sure his name is Shu Luan?" Bai Xiaoli asks, raising an eyebrow, and giving Shu Luan a speculative once over. 

Wu Yun snorts. "He seems to be, no one else is."

Shu Luan opens his mouth to protest, but Lan Tian silences him with a glare.

Lu Jiao turns to Zou Qiao. "What did you hear him saying to Lian Feng, on the day he appeared?"

Zou Qiao averts his eyes from Shu Luan. "I heard sect leader Lian ask him what he was doing there, and that it wasn't the time yet. After that she dragged him somewhere, and told him to wait until someone else came for him."

For the first time, Wu Yun sees Shu Luan lose his look of impassive cool. "You're lying!"

Zou Qiao ignores him and turns to Lu Jiao. "Please Master Lu, I'm telling the truth."

Lu Jiao ignores him and addresses Shu Luan. "Was Lian Feng the one who gave you that sigil? It's in your best interests not to lie to me."

Shu Luan shakes his head again. "I had no idea about the sigil!"

Bai Xiaoli coughs. "Maybe now would be a good time, for me to say what I found out."

Lu Jiao gives her an unimpressed look, but eventually nods.

"So, as the two of you asked, I searched for gods named Ling Yan and Shu Luan. I found no record of Ling Yan, but as I mentioned before, that could just mean his name has been wiped from the records, and any gods who knew him are under a strict taboo not to mention him."

She turns to Shu Luan and smiles, folding her hands behind her back and bending at the waist to face him directly. Her smirk is like a dagger digging into her cheek. "This is where it gets interesting."

"I told you the name "Shu" belongs to the Heavenly Imperial family, so I checked the the genealogy records. I found one struck out name, apparently a sibling to the current Jade Emperor."

Wu Yun isn't surprised by that. "That would be Shu Luan."

Bai Xiaoli taps her chin, enjoying the suspense she's building. "You would think so..."

"I would like to remind the Heavenly Venerable, that no one here payed to assist an opera, and that she's not singing at the moment," Lu Jiao says, glaring at Bai Xiaoli who reddens under the attention, and rubs the back of her neck.

"Right, I did find a Shu Luan in the Imperial genealogy, but he was listed as Shu Ai's son, the current Jade Emperor."

Wu Yun feels dizziness overtake him for a second. He thinks he's going to fall, but Lan Tian wraps one arm around his waist to support him.

"This complicates things, somewhat, I imagine," Lan Tian says, smiling sadly at Wu Yun.

Wu Yun manages a wan answering smile.

He's not surprised to learn that Shu Ai is the current Jade Emperor. He got his brother out of the way, so it was only to be expected that he would take the throne after his father's death.

But him having a son and naming him Shu Luan? That was something Wu Yun wouldn't have been able to imagine even if he reincarnated again.

Of course, there is the far scarier possibility that Shu Ai managed to steal the fragments of Shu Luan's soul from Ling Yan, and that the wide-eyed crane listening to the conversation happening around him, really has Shu Luan's soul, despite not resembling him in any way.

He looks into Shu Luan's eyes, and asks, with as much sincerity as he can muster. "Is your father the Jade Emperor?"

Shu Luan looks up at him, with huge humid eyes, and says, "I don't know what a Jade Emperor is."

Bai Xiaoli bursts out laughing, and Lu Jiao lets out a frustrated groan.

"But you know who your father is, you looked like you were avoiding an answer when we asked you about your family." Lan Tian says, not giving Shu Luan the opportunity to avoid his eyes.

Shu Luan nods slowly, his shoulders hunched. "I have a father, but he's just a humble seasonal laborer, all my life I've only seen him a few times each year, when he had saved enough money to come by and see me."

"Was your father like you?" Cang Chuxi asks, indicating Shu Luan's dark skin around his neck.

Shu Luan shakes his head. "He was just a regular human."

Lu Jiao snorts. "It seems human parents are all the rage among Beasts these days, first the fox girl, now him."

Cang Chuxi shakes his head, and touches Shu Luan's shoulder gently, as if he doesn't want to spook him. "Your father certainly wasn't a regular human, and neither was your mother." 

Shu Luan looks up at him, his eyes huge and questioning. "But..., my dad, he..."

Lan Tian rolls his eyes. He doesn't have much patience for Shu Luan lost doe-eyed act. "How did you find out about Ling Yan then? Did your regular human dad tell you about him?"

For once, Shu Luan doesn't flinch under the strength of Lan Tian's glare. "I found some letters my father was hiding, where someone named Ling Yan trusted him with the soul of the one he loved most, and that he hoped that he could meet me, when I was old enough."

Wu Yun will eat his own tails, once he has them back, if Ling Yan entrusted Shu Luan's soul to Shu Ai. That's absolutely impossible. 

"That's fascinating, but how did you find Wu Yun?" Lan Tian asks, noticing that Bai Xiaoli is now giving Wu Yun a very curious look.

At this point that probably can't be helped.

"There was a token in one the letters, it said it would guide me towards him, when I was ready to meet. I lost it in the woods when those Immortal Mountain people found me."

Wu Yun narrows his eyes at Shu Luan. "That's very convenient."

Shu Luan looks on the verge of tears. "I'm telling the truth!"

Cang Chuxi runs a placating hand over Shu Luan's back. "I believe you, and there's a way to prove it. I know of an array formation that will allow us to access his memories."

Wu Yun's eyes widen, and he meets Lan Tian's amber eyes over Cang Chuxi's shoulder. "Does that work on everyone, and every kind of memory?"

"Of course, as long as the person the array is being used on has full recollection of the memories we're trying to access, there shouldn't be a problem."

As fast as they sprouted, Wu Yun's hopes are dashed. What he needs is something that allows him to access the memories he doesn't recall. 

"Nevermind, then."

Lu Jiao turns to Cang Chuxi with a calculating look in her red eyes. "You are not to let him out of your sight. If he really is the Jade Emperor's son, he might be a very useful bargaining chip, in our conflict with Immortal Mountain, and perhaps the Heavens themselves."

Bai Xiaoli is affronted at that. "Hey what have we done?"

Lu Jiao glares at her. "The question is, what haven't you? And returning to the issue at hand, how can the Heavenly Sovereign have a descendant without anyone knowing about it?"

That's something that has been worrying Bai Xiaoli as well, ever since she managed to find the genealogical records. "The Jade Emperor is a private person, and overly suspicious, perhaps he thought someone could target his son, if they knew of his existence."

She looks into Shu Luan's eyes, trying to find some trace of the Emperor she has seen only a handful of times, in his dark eyes.

Cang Chuxi pats Shu Luan's head, and spares him a sad smile. "Or of what could happen to him, if anyone found out he was half-beast."

---

They leave Cang Chuxi's pavilion with his assurance that he'll keep an eye on Shu Luan.

Lu Jiao takes Zou Qiao for an intense interrogation. Bai Xiaoli accompanies both of them, at Lu Jiao's request that she share what she has found regarding the matter Lu Jiao asked for her help with, in private.

Bai Xiaoli couldn't be more thrilled to hear her name and the words "in private" coming out of Lu Jiao's mouth in the same sentence.

The odd sense of dizziness he felt earlier accompanies Wu Yun all the way to his and Lan Tian's room in the cliff flanking the Dragon's Roost.

It starts raining on the way there, and he turns to Lan Tian with an excited smile. "I guess Cang Chuxi will be brewing the antidote soon."

Lan Tian doesn't feel as optimistic at Wu Yun does regarding both of them regaining their powers. Cang Chuxi's warning still rings clearly in his mind. They don't know how they are going to react to the antidote, and in his short existence he has learnt that before seeing the dawn, one has to endure the endless night first.

"Do you think Shu Luan is saying the truth?" Wu Yun asks, while he and Lan Tian eat a simple dinner in their room, spreading the plates on the stubby table on the first floor.

The harsh pelting of the rain hitting the pools below gives the whole room a tranquil atmosphere, almost sleepy.

Lan Tian eats a mouthful of rice and shrugs. "Maybe he believes what he's saying, but you heard Cang Chuxi when he first examined him. He is half-god, half-beast, under no circumstance could his father have been just a regular human."

Wu Yun hums in agreement. "It's all very confusing."

Wu Yun expected to feel less dizzy after eating, but that vague sense of wooziness still creeps at the edge of his sight. It gives the impression that the room is moving around him, every time he turns his head.

They hear a knock at the door, and Lan Tian opens it to let in a drenched Cang Chuxi, carrying a tray of fragrant smelling medicine.

"Please drink it while it's hot, and while the ghost flower's petals are still translucent, otherwise it will lose it's effectiveness."

Lan Tian thanks Cang Chuxi, and wishes him a good night.

He places one bowl in front of Wu Yun, and takes the other in his hands, raising it in a mock toast. "To having our original shapes back."

Wu Yun returns the toast with a mischievous grin. "To having my fluffy black fur back."

He drinks the antidote in one go. Other than the faint flowery aftertaste in his mouth, he doesn't feel much different.

"Not so bad, for now," Lan Tian says, taking stock of his hands and arms with an amused smile.

Wu Yun is about to answer him when a sudden heat starts travelling all the way from the pit of his stomach through his limbs. He squirms in place, trying to get comfortable. The sensation is eerily familiar.

"Uh, actually..."