The whole night passed.
The lights outside—at the roadways faded, faint laughter or faint gossiping of the locals faded like people disappearing from the world.
But Lìngxiāo still almost stubbornly waited.
The food he had cooked was neatly arranged at the table—even that had turned cold over time. Lìngxiāo wasn't really a late night person to even keep his eyes open too long at night—not strong enough for long-term exorcism which needed late night presence.
It was like a more important but easy requirement left unfulfilled—which was also needed for the job. Because late night was the time the world turned dark and cold enough for curses or ghosts to roam around more freely than ever. So he fell asleep while sitting near the table, rereading what he had studied even in half sleep.
**
Even in morning, he wasn't back.
The rooms were left as they were. Usually when his uncle came back late, already organized things would get another shade of attention, rearrangement—as if his uncle could see the imperfections within perfection too.
Lìngxiāo stared at the door which was never opened after last night. He wondered about the moment before he left. The last glance. The faint smile. Those words.
That energy.
He tried to search if there was something hidden beneath the casual words. He couldn't help but look over the whole history they had shared together. Being kidnapped by him and raised this better without anything in return was already pinching him enough.
'What if he was just..kind to me?'
'Is he..alright?'
'Maybe he went too far to bring those scrolls. He is so stubborn to even let go for now.'
But deep down he didn't feel right.
**
Later, while waiting for him, at afternoon after doing all the household chores alone, he was writing the information by answering questions of his exorcism to keep it all practiced.
His mind was getting blank in every ten minutes that he would grip his calligraphy brush without writing anything. He had already ruined at least two scrolls because of overflowing ink.
'Focus. He is fine. He would not like it if I get distracted because he is not watching me write.'
He took a deep breath as he wrote at another new scroll. But ended up frozen into thoughts again which kept circling him back to the same fear. Same emptiness.
'But..what if something really happened to him?'
'He could have informed me by messenger talisman if he was late.'
His grip silently tightened over the calligraphy brush. Drops of the ink turned the whole scroll at the middle into black.
He couldn't take it anymore.
"Let us just..drop those for a while." He exhaled tightly, dropping things as messed up as they had gotten. He didn't clean it too.
"I should look after." He whispered to himself and moved to his closet, wearing his hat, his warm brown hood and the harness of his horse.
Without wasting any time, he rode his horse all over the town, looking at the familiar places like local markets of Yíngluò Chéng or the library which was the place his uncle usually used to buy those scrolls.
All the places where his uncle could possibly be.
He didn't want people to know about his current condition because the more they would know he was alone, the more clans or others would try to manipulate or take him under themselves.
His uncle had warned him a thousand times about it. He wouldn't let the lessons go to drain even at his bad times. Releasing some curses wouldn't hurt, but neglecting them would.
By the whole strange weather on the surface, one thing was already clear to him: he had not gone anywhere.
'He have..disappeared..?'
'If he was here, I would have found him by now.'
"Mō Qīn.." Lìngxiāo called a little hesitantly to the necklace, touching the gem faintly, not sure if he should do it or not.
The necklace pulsed softly. Mō Qīn—who still hadn't gotten much tamed—spoke. "Cannot find that irritating falcon?" His tone kind of dry and careless.
Lìngxiāo's gaze was still ahead while he was now sweating from nonstop running to this place and that. Even the horse was getting tired too.
"Where could he be..?" He breathed thoughtfully, but also asking Mō Qīn.
"Will you unseal me now to search for him?" Mō Qīn almost mocked lightly, "Heh, try on. I would just simply run away."
'What is the meaning of keeping you if the one who caught you does not exist anymore?'
With that thought, he sharply stopped his horse near to a bridge over the running thin and narrow lake. It also locked because this was the boundary of Xuè Gusu.
He had literally come near to the border from straight to the capital.
His fingers moved mindlessly into symbols and unsealed Mō Qīn.
Mō Qīn chuckled, came out and tangled around his neck. "Such a foolish, desperate boy you are. That kind of human stumbles across rocks more, no?"
Lìngxiāo just stared at the other side of the boundary. His mouth already aching with bitterness.
The words were true after all even if they pinched. Perhaps he did get stumbled at least three times the most into his life. The realization just kept raising up high to his guards which had just started to get hardened.
'It was better if I was always humble, kind, helpful as I am but never close to anyone. If connection means to be exposed, abused or later..abandoned..I do not need it. I would be professional only.'
His thoughts ran too far too soon.
This pain was dull, throbbing also deep because he had passed his next ten years with this man when he had already seen and understood the world much better.
He didn't only miss his father and searched for his root. He would search about his uncle too—a person he hadn't questioned anything about because he felt too safe.
"I do not need you to come back." He said flatly to Mō Qīn. "Just search for him. Do not miss a single clue. After this, you are free forever. I would return your curse body back."
Mō Qīn blinked. "Huh? Just that? It is easy peasy." He looked around to the bushes, now eagerly working to be free.
"According to my experience, we should follow that energy which left with him. I have a strong feeling that he might have had any..contract with a high-ranked curse and this thing.." He paused, added darkly and seriously, "Have done something to him."
Lìngxiāo felt like his heart stopped for a second—before slowly spiking up. Because of the guess of Mō Qīn.
It did feel logical but also..not.
His uncle never had been really open to anyone. Even he found out he was a cultivator just at the age of fifteen back then. He didn't even look like power thirsty. He seemed like a hater of clan joining too, which had big reasons—and he himself found reasons to follow his uncle's path too.
Besides, he had just felt that dark energy as if it was already after his uncle, but Lìngxiāo was young and too naive to understand it properly.
'But could he really contract with any curse? Why?'
'Was he any fellow hidden demonic cultivator or am I overthinking again?'
'But how can a demonic cultivator be this kind..to a helpless one like me—to raise me without any hardship, taught me so many things for my own good?'
'I do not believe he was evil...I think he was..trapped by something.'
'Maybe he had nobody to talk to and share his problems, that he needed to catch his own path while I was another heaviness..on him.'
'What if he left..to save me from that presence too?'
'Should I believe in this half-tamed mō of mine..?'
He had not much composure left nor he had learned it fully. His grip tightened over the harness that those yellow ice was spreading from the harness—reacting to his fear and confusion.
He immediately released the harness, not wishing to hurt any innocent animal. The ice melted away. The fire left a really tiny burn at the harness like a drop of lava.
His soft hop down left a small space of ground covered in a thin layer of yellow ice fire.
"Just do it already." Lìngxiāo finally said. His smile turned tight, eyes dark.
He grabbed Mō Qīn by his warm body and threw him into the bushes—something he does even now, yet started doing from this time.
"The fucking life. You are really disgraceful, kid." Mō Qīn rubbed his head with his tail in the bushes, eyes twitching.
Lìngxiāo was just straight on point.
He raised up his needle like blackmailing lightly in the composed way of desperation. "Do not make me change my mind."
"Fine." Mō Qīn turned into his giant worm form and flew up, trying to sense the energy while mumbling. "Never seen this kind of special grade curse which even I cannot find out. Shame on myself."