Xie Lan was very sure that "Rongrong" was behind whatever was wrong with the town.
"I think it's safe to say that Rongrong is behind the problem of this town."
Feilong who was in a deep thought said "But something doesn't add up. When we met with Rongrong, I didn't detect a single malevolent energy from her, which is alarming." He continued "I think we should be very careful, something feels off."
Xie Lan blinked at him "Let's see what the others discovered. It's almost time to meet up."
With that he left the market area, as he walked he kept trying to piece the information they had gotten together today. Xie Lan was in the middle of explaining something to Feilong when he suddenly sneezed. Xie Lan was shocked, while it was very normal to sneeze, this ancient dragon had never sneezed since he knew him.
"Woah you actually do sneeze? I was thinking you were above that."
Feilong rolled his eyes "There is something wrong here, I sense a very high concentration of malevolent energy."
Xie Lan became serious at once and looked around trying to pinpoint anything weird. His eyes stopped at an abandoned well that seemed out of the ordinary. he softly asked, "It's that well, isn't it?" he received a nod in response, then he walked towards it.
Just as he was getting close to the well, the Mayor appeared from nowhere startling Xie Lan.
"What are you doing over here? The rest of your friends are waiting for you at the town hall." The Mayor said with a nervous laugh.
Xie Lan narrowed his eyes at him for a while before smiling slightly, "Oh I thought this was the way to the Town Hall."
The mayor's eyes shifted nervously and he said "No no problem, you're new here so it's normal."
After that brief exchange Xie Lan glanced at the well one more time before leaving. He met up with the First Prince and Xueying, they exchanged their different observations and thoughts. Xueying said that there was no pregnant woman in the town and no new born baby.
"I know I might be over thinking but in a big town like this, there should be even one pregnant woman and at least a year old child. But there is absolutely nothing."
Xie Lan nodded, that does seem a bit weird, then she thought of something and asked, "How old is the youngest child in the town?"
Xueying thought for a while and answered, "3 years old. So it means that for 3 years there hasn't been any new born child or anything pregnant woman in this town."
Xie Lan nodded, then thought of something and said to Feilong "This doesn't add up, I was thinking that Rongrong's arrival to the town stopped childbearing in the town, but Rongrong has been here for only 2 months. Is there something else wrong with this town?"
Feilong replied "With time everything will be settled and resolved."
Xie Lan nodded and told the other two about her observations, leaving out the part about his true gender. Then they turned to The First Prince to hear of his observation; He nodded and said calmly "I noticed that there wasn't any trace of spiritual energy in this town. This is not normal because even if there are no practitioners in a place, there has to be spiritual energy in the air. As long as a place is occupied by living things, there is always the presence of spiritual energy unless it is a ghost town."
Xie Lan and Xueying immediately frowned, the implications of the First Prince's words were very heavy.
They trio decided to continue to observe this night and to be at alert. They dispersed to their various rooms.
***
In the middle of the night when everyone in the Mayor's manor was asleep and everywhere was quiet, Xie Lan eyes was bright with determination and he said to Feilong "Let's go".
Feilong that was interrupted during his meditation said irritably "I'm sorry, let's go where?"
Xie Lan rolled his eyes at him and said like it's so obvious "We're going to check the well, the one we saw earlier. Don't you remember?"
Feilong was taken aback "Okay I understand the words you're speaking, but piecing it together just doesn't make sense."
He paused for a while and continued "Let me get this straight, you want us to go to the well that reeks of Malevolent energy, now at this time when the Yin energy is at it's highest?"
Xie Lan nodded like it was the most normal thing to do.
Feilong was frustrated that he laughed out in anger, "Don't you think that, that is the most foolish thing to do?"
Xie Lan countered, "Are you trying to say that I am foolish?"
Feilong sneered "I am not trying to call you foolish. I am saying that you are downright foolish. Why do you want to gamble with your life? Or do you think that with your mediocre cultivation skills you'll be able to to fight against an evil entiry?"
Xie Lan said calmly "relax, nothing will happen. We're just going to look around and come back and besides No pain, No Gain."
As Feilong was trying to convince Xie Lan, they arrived at the well.
Xie Lan shrugged and said "Well since we're already here, we can only check it out. What's the worst that could happen?"
Feilong rolled his eyes and kept quiet, because no matter what he says, they're already at the well.
The temperature was noticeably lower around the well, Xie Lan felt a chill down his spine. He walked to the well that seemed like any normal old well and pushed away the lid, he looked down and saw that it was too dark and seemed to have to end.
He groaned "Ugh!! So much for a well with malevolent energy. It's really an abandoned well."
Feilong was silent and didn't say anything in reply, Xie Lan continued "I was actually expecting a ghost to pop out and scream or something."
Feilong rolled his eyes "Well since it's nothing, why don't we go…"
Before he could finish a mighty force pushed Xie Lan into the well, but that wasn't the most surprising thing. What shocked Feilong was that, the Force separated him from Xie Lan's body.
Feilong was in a daze as he looked at Xie Lan's falling body. In all his years or being a dragon living in people's bodies, there has never been a situation where he was forcibly pulled out of the body. The only situation was when the person had died.
As he came to this conclusion he woke up with a start and felt his body was loosing power at a very fast rate which was a sign that the body he was living in was also dying. He immediately transformed into a human and appeared inside the well, where Xie Lan or rather Fusheng (because his disguise had vanished) was lying unconscious. He checked her and discovered that her spirit was no longer in her body which in other words means that she was dying or in a coma. He regretted agreeing to her request of coming to this well or even coming to this mission in the first place.
With his remaining strength he took her and appeared in their room. He put her on the bed, he tried to rack his brain and come up with a solution but because of his dissipating strength he couldn't come up with anything fast and he felt himself about to disappear. At that point a face came to his head and without any more thought he disappeared and reappeared in another room.
The Young man in front of him was in a deep meditation, he was really at his wits end to be coming to this person for help, but a dying man has no choice…
***
On the other hand, Fusheng was in the middle of witnessing a standoff between a young girl named Rongyi and an equally young man Junhao. Junhao seems to be trying to court Rongyi, although the girl doesn't seem to be interested.
You might be wondering how Fusheng got to be the light bulb in the conversation between Rongyi and Junhao, after Fusheng fell into the well, she blacked out for a while and upon opening her eyes she found herself in a bright bustling village. She could not exactly remember or understand how she got there or even who she was, she just knew that for some reason the people in the village could not see her and that she was bound to a girl called Rongyi, she discovered this because she could not be more than 5 feet away from Rongyi or she would feel a sharp pain down the marrow of her spine.
Rongyi was a beautiful girl, to some people she was nice, while to some she was especially aloof,(this includes Junhao). She was the daughter of an ordinary farmer and an incense maker mother. Her parents looked ordinary but maybe the gods blessed Rongyi I'm the womb because she turned out to be very beautiful, with long black hair that fell to her waist. She wae the prettiest girl in the whole city.
As the prettiest girl in the village she had no lack of suitors, but Rongyi was very picky and never accepted any of the suitors for various reasons. Most of the suitors left with vague resentments in their hearts, but Junhao could not handle her rejection and continuously pestered her trying to make her accept him just like the incident Fusheng was currently acting as the light bulb.
Junhao on the other hand was the son of the village chief, a pampered young master wh could not take no as an answer. He had taken a fancy to Rongyi while she was helping her mother sell incense. He approached her and made his intentions known to her but to his shock he was rejected without even a clear reason. Contrary to normal people's mindset the rejection made Junhao obsessed with getting Rongyi to bend and come down from her "high horse".
"Rongrong, how did you see the gifts I picked out for you?"
Rongyi rolled her eyes, "Shàoyé, please I am not worthy of your gifts. I will immediately send them back to you."
Junhao frowned slightly "I have told you countless to call me by my name. And also why will you return the gifts I gave you, if I say you're worthy of accepting my gifts then you're Worthy."
Rongyi sneered, "Shàoyé, you make jest of me, I am not worthy of calling you by your name, neither am I worthy of accepting your gifts either. Besides word all over the village is that you are betrothed to the daughter of the richest merchant, so please it is even more inappropriate to accept your gift."
Junhao chuckled "Oh, now I see. You are upset because of my betrothal, but let me clear the air, the whole thing was an affair that happened when we were little and was concluded by our elders. I barely even like her, you are the only one in my heart. If it makes you sad, I'll definitely make you the secondary wife."
Fusheng couldn't help and roll her eyes at the typical words.
Rongyi directly walked out on him, having been unable to continue listening to him.
Time flew by quickly, but for Rongyi the passage of this time brought wave after wave of bad news, First was that her father was attacked by bandits while on his way to farm which led to his death some days later, her mother could not handle the loss of her husband and fell in to depression which slowly withered her life till she finally died after 2 years.
While Rongyi was experiencing waves of bad news, Junhao was actually living his best life, He got married to the daughter of the richest merchant and successfully increased his father's social and financial connection.
Due to the waves of bad luck on her family, Rongyi became really aloof and quiet, always keeping to herself as she continued to run her mother's incense business. Throughout this time, Junhao still came to ask her to accept him and also helped her out in many ways. Infact Rongyi was already softening up to him, but what made her stop from accepting him was the fact that she didn't want to be a secondary wife or a concubine.
Then one day while she was coming back from delivering incense to a neighboring village, trouble struck.
A/n: I know it's confusing to understand the switch between Fusheng and Xie Lan, trust me even as I was writing it, I made a lot of mistakes with the gender and the names •́ ‿ ,•̀.
Fusheng is our girl without the male disguise, and Xie Lan is still our girl with the male disguise. They are the same person, and also sorry for any kind of mix up.
* Shàoyé means Young Master*
I especially dislike males like Junhao, like tell me where they get their guts…
Happy reading…