chapter 4.5: Jaune

Jaune was worried. Very worried.

Not because Zhen was going to have to become a demonic martial artist. No no that would be a dumb thing to be worried about

He knew damn well that was going to happen. He had no choice. For some reason, pure qi seems to avoid Zhen's body like the plague, which unnerves Jaune as Jaune walks away while Zhen is on the ritual table and uses his Dial beads to call someone. As the voice of a woman comes from it

"Jaune? What is it?" It was Dan Jue. Jue and Jaune had met when they entered the frontlines to defend the Emei sect. Neither of them wanted to, but Jaune had no real choice. He had to convince the Murim alliance he was going to be a genuine ally. The 2 became friends shortly after, with Jue telling Jaune about her wonderful nephew she unfortunately never got to meet after the first couple of times when he was a teenager. That nephew…

is the now-adult Zhen. And so Jaune takes a deep breath and prepares his explanation for his long-time friend. "Jue, Zhen has just awakened his qi and is undergoing the Qi locking ritual-" before Jaune could even finish, he heard a loud "Whaattttt!?" From the beads, and Jaune says, 

"Look, we didn't want to do it now. Someone tried to possess Zhen. And we had to perform the ritual to push out the Possesor." Jue immediately replied back, 

"Understood. I'll get my sister and be there as fast as we ca-" Jaune immediately shushed her and said, "Are you crazy? Yang will kill me if she finds out that her nephew is in trouble when I arrive. Just come alone." 

There was silence before Jue said, "You don't think his mom-" Jaune cut her off saying, "Jue. His mom is still under the belief he died a long time ago. You made sure of it so he wouldn't end up like her." He says calmly as Jaune explains, 

"If his mother did do it, we'd know. The woman is a lot of things: monstrous, malevolent, malcontent, everything wrong with existence, but she is not subtle, worth a damn. She'd make sure we know it's her to rub it in our faces." Jue said back. 

"OK, Jaune. I'm currently halfway to your location. Who do you think may have done it?" Jaune sighed as he paced around Mudang. 

"Who knows? His mother had a lot of enemies who'd be willing to possess her son to get a chance to spite her. -" Jaune said as he imagined the people Dan wo hated the most and in turn hated her back. "Shen Mo of the vein leech temple." He remembers seeing an army of men and women with the red eyes of the Queen of the vermilion hive. "Nian Zhuo of the black fog cult." Jaune remembers how the arlechinno nearly possessed him when he and he fought. "Hell, even Zhen's horrid sister Aryeong of the nightshade cult had possession abilities." He says remembering seeing the lady in her finest possessing a mouthy disciple. "hell Bai Fan has had an obsession with Dan's bloodline for a long time." Jaune said remembering the Grave wax body the ghost man possessed that looked like….Her. Immediately, Jue said, 

"Jaune. Why did you list all 4 demon yin cults of the 16 great sects and cults?" Jaune shrugged and said to Jue, 

"Aren't demon yin users supreme masters of possession? And it wouldn't have been the demon palace because no red spots are on Zhen's body and that always happens given the palace is located in an area saturated with the blood of so many dead demons." He says as Jue replied back saying, "We don't know that for sure. Did you check his body for any marks?"

"I did. Nothing. No red spots, no black marks, not a character. For all we know, it could be anyone." Jaune says as he was trying to think about who may have done it.

If he were to guess, he'd most of his votes on who did it into Bai Fan the ghost lord given Fan is noted for his ability to essentially be invisible and possess bodies like, well, a ghost, plus his many many many spirits under his control, But then Jue said, 

"I'm almost there…I'm worried though. It's been years since I've seen my nephew and I never told him we were related…will he hate me?" Jaune sighed and said, 

"Old friend I have no clue. he will most likely have his grudges and despite what most of my family taught me, being family doesn't mean they'll Understand you." Jaune says as he rubs his eyes to avoid the old memories "but I think if we explain to Zhen the basic idea of what caused it he'll understand. But under no circumstances can we say Her name." Jue replied back

"Indeed. And for the love of all that is good in this world-"you learned that phrase from me" Jaune said smiling as Jue continued annoyed "we must pray Zhen doesn't have her name embedded in his mind" Jaune nodded as Jaune simply said 

"Let's hope so. I think the rituals almost over gotta hang up. Bye" Jaune ends the Bead call and walked towards the room where Zhen was as he saw the qi energy coming from the door begin to move faster and faster as he saw the signs Zhen chose his path as the fast paced energy began to grow an aura tinged with contained dark qi as Jaune felt Jue run behind him, and saw the golden light that came from the Golden Supreme Monk of the Emei temple 

"Jaune…He didn't…" Jaune replied "he had no choice Jue, His mother did something to him" he heard the sign of Jue containing a sob as he then heard Jue say

"Demon Yin…or demon yang" Jaune simply took a breath and said 

"demon yang." 

Jaune and Jue were silent. "…You think Yang will be annoyed? She'll have to-" Jue said before Jaune continued saying, "Don't. Don't try and lighten the mood, Jue. I know you long enough to know you're super stressed about it." As Jaune turned and saw his friend,

Jue was tall. Easily a head taller than Jaune, and the woman was quite literally golden. As in her skin shined a glowing golden color due to her miracle body. With her hair silver in color, she was almost remarkably beautiful. With Jaune having once, much to his eternal embarrassment, flirted with the woman once before finding out she was a monk, not his best moment, anyway. The woman was wearing a set of weighted robes with a red sash tied around the waistline of the robes. With the characters Jaune translated to be a set of 3 characters saying "Jue, unknown, Yang" with the middle name crossed out, as it was a sash made by Jue to represent her love for her sisters…either way, in her left arm, she wielded a staff made of gold bark. As Jaune said, 

"Oh hey, Xin. Been a while" while Jue couldn't hear anything. The staff answered back in the voice of a man, "Indeed, it has, Jaune. So the nephew of my wielder was forced to attune to the demonic path?" 

Jaune nodded…and Jaune said back, "It's an unfortunate situation."

To explain, Jaune has the power sword speak where he can hear and see the souls of certain weapons. He can't see wooden or stone weapons' souls, since they don't have any. Only weapons made of metal, special woods like ironbark or goldenbark, can have souls, and Jaune can hear them. It's a very useful ability despite the fact it seems more like a fun utility power.

"Either way zhens bout to wake up..let's hope yang doesn't get here soon or I'm dead meat." 

"Too late, blondie." As Jaune turned and sweat went down his face like rain as he saw the Crimson-haired woman in front of him. 

Unlike Jue, who maintained a calm look, Yang was furious with him to the point her muscles were bulging out of her kasaya robes. 

Also unlike Jue, who was basically just a tall, normal woman in terms of physique, Yang was a muscled-out monster, not unattractive but still, like to the point she could lift Jaune off the ground levels of muscled. Which she's doing.

"Jaune Aurelius Nero, please don't tell me my nephew is currently in a Qi-locking ritual." Jaune just said, "Someone tried to possess him." Yang's eyes widened, and she let him down as she said, "Who?" 

"We don't know. I think it's Bai Fan. We both agree it can't be her because she should still believe her son is dead." Jue nodded as Yang took a deep breath. 

"…Let's just go inside…I pray Zhen is willing to learn why we had to abandon him…and pray our brothers Shun or Tai don't find out…Jeok is a wild card so I don't think he should-" on cue Jaune turned to Yang with his eyes flashing red and the pressure in the room tensing. 

"Don't badmouth my master." Jaune had 3 things that made him mad: liars, his family, and badmouthing his master Jongmyeung Jeok, the man who took a chance on Jaune when no one else did. 

"Right right I'm sorry..still though kinda funny Zhens brother was your master." Yang said as she rubbed her face and the pressure went down as they heard the door creak open and Ren came out saying 

"Zhens awake. He's locked to demon Yang as expected." The 3 nodded and walked in expecting the worst