Mō Qīn exhaled, looking at the eight-eyed one. "Oi. You tell him. I was not around too early."
"Well." The eight-eyed one floated up, coming close to their boundary too, arms behind like an elder. "In short, you were not in your right mind. You were hallucinating that curse which we had seen just rush past to another mountain."
The words made Lìngxiāo pause.
'How could she have come and go without..doing anything to me..?'
Lìngxiāo stared in disbelief, his hands too hard over the weak boundary. "Nothing more? Have you not fought with her?"
Then unexpectedly—the boundary cracked and fell from its place into the lake.
'Oh Lord. What else more..?'
'Everything seem crumbling around me like my luck..'
He gasped as he almost lost it again while his whole body was stiff around the wet blue robe and shaken all over again.
"Careful, Gōngzǐ." Both Mō Qīn and the eight-eyed one said as they still kept hold on him since it was confirmed that he was still mentally troubled.
Lìngxiāo exhaled in unspoken frustration and went back to Chóng Fēi's side. He had never felt this stressed about any person in his life. Usually everything moved as he planned. His memories didn't hit all the time—only when he needed to release his energy, or when he was touched in a certain way, or when he felt uncomfortable using someone else's things.
He had never been close to anyone to lose control regularly. So this failure was eating him up from inside, though he knew nothing was perfect and he was still a human—not a Gusu cultivator, to be like a statue.
"Yes. I did clash with her a bit, Gōngzǐ." The female one said from behind. "But she was too powerful for us. We could not sense her properly, nor did we have any way to catch her on our own without your help."
Lìngxiāo listened. It was true.
The curses were the same from their roots, and if the other one was this powerful—able to hide her presence from another curse whenever she wanted—it was more threatening than any other which just attacked with plans. As far as he had read about them, he had learned that hiding from another curse was a long-time spotless progress. They usually had something extra which wasn't even part of their body system.
They had earned it separately somehow. But it was still unknown what she used, because Lìngxiāo felt every single curse around himself without trying, after mastering his hyper-aware spatial exorcism.
Lìngxiāo had been thinking about that element for a long time.
But he didn't know if the curse was always hiding her presence—then how did he feel her more than once, and around Chóng Fēi too? Was she with him? Or making a new threat to break him with guilt again, by using another piece of the very past he had thought even that day when he was close to death?
He sighed again, like it was the only thing he could do to release his stress. Everything was too messy in his head, so he thought to finish listening to them.
'Everything else was an addictive puzzle for me to solve..until this one. Guess what..everyone has a limitation at some point.'
"And about him?" He muttered softly, almost tired with the weight of something heavier than any mission itself. His smile soft and bitter.
"The heir came and saw you try to jump from the valley, which seemed to hit him too hard for some reason.." The eight-eyed one continued, a little amazed gaze over Chóng Fēi. "When he stopped you—you started fighting back, and then—the frozen fire hit his arm and his eye, and he lost consciousness."
"We were not able to remove the evidence or save him quickly because you two were with each other and he had been seeing everything. You were technically senseless, so we could not stop you or hold you back. And he lost consciousness without our help. All we could do was remove his memory." The three-eyed one added.
"Then when I reached here, I took the heir here and did a few spiritual treatments—though curses aren't designed to heal. I did as much as I could." Mō Qīn said too.
Lìngxiāo parted his mouth and closed it. He didn't know what to say.
'I really did..get carried away greatly..'
"You know it can still come back if he sees anything related to it, Gōngzǐ." The female curse also added, carefully looking at the lashes of Chóng Fēi. "Besides, he seems psychologically strong, even if traumatized. He does not let go of the memory even while stealing it.."
Lìngxiāo blinked, also looked at Chóng Fēi.
'He always was critical..in mental ways. Even when he breaks..he cannot break completely like me..'
'He does not just..let it go.'
'I wonder if he had let go of that past or not. Or perhaps yes..which is our benefit as emotion-driven cultivators. Perhaps not too..I was not the one who did something remarkable but my zhù fù..'
He thoughtfully yet hesitantly reached out to make things easier, as he usually did for people he worked on.
'I should spread open his hair..it is too tightly bound with the crown. Hair should not be bound while wet either.'
His fingertips touched the warm grayish crown that kept the high ponytail caged and made it stand even higher. At the first touch, the frozen fire was faintly spreading.
His breath caught. His fingers moved quickly, untying the crown completely. But within the aim of not destroying it, the crown flew away from his grasp.
'He is really prideful with his crown!'
The female curse caught it in the right time, watching it like analyzing human craft. "Too long. But gorgeous." Like the way she used Lìngxiāo's hat, she wore it over her head—just balancing, since this one needed a ponytail to wear.
Lìngxiāo felt himself relax a bit. He still couldn't make himself work normally, so he took out a thick long needle and used it to tug open Chóng Fēi's hair carefully, then left it spread.
"Now he can breathe more properly.." He tugged open his own small bun and left it spread. A sneeze followed, which was like a reminder that he really was a human.
The female curse faintly pouted, batting her lashes. "You should have been resting but you keep pushing yourself!" Her eyes sparkled. "Your sneeze is so cute."
Lìngxiāo cleared his throat, which felt like needles growing inside. And that flirting of hers had always been noticeable since the day she had found him falling from that valley and became a part of his tamed curses—not after a fight, but intentionally.
"It is..fine, serpent. Mō Qīn, what were you saying? Continue while I try to do things as much as I can..without messing up." He said, though his words came a little from his nose after the sneeze.
"But he is amazing though.." Mō Qīn muttered while watching Lìngxiāo work, and rolled his eyes at the female curse. "He directly absorbed the raw dangerous energy and it reflected in his hair and eye. He would not die by it..but his body should not have done it either."
"Absorbed?" Lìngxiāo looked at Mō Qīn, getting lost in new thoughts. "It was not filtered the way..other transfers work."
Then he paused. "Wait.." The needle pressed over his bottom lip like it was any calligraphy brush.
'According to his generational qì..they have two types of snake web—normal and..danger attracted type.'
'They are rare..but can be one of the greatest qì recyclers..'
His lips pressed into a thin line with a possibility he didn't want to admit—or just yet.
'Also known as..containers..'
"I think you have got it already." Mō Qīn said, not saying all but letting it press gently.
The other two young curses stared—only he, Lìngxiāo, and the eight-eyed one knew...what it meant.
The eight-eyed one smirked faintly, as if it was both good and..bad news. "Qīn~ are you in your right mind?"
He rubbed his two fingers over Chóng Fēi's affected eye like dropping salt—crimson red sparks which made the frozen fire melt away without harming his lashes.
"Yes I am." Mō Qīn hid behind Lìngxiāo's hair like wet curtains, hiding the tip of his tail at his mouth. "And stop making fun. It IS serious."
Lìngxiāo stood there, hands tight over the table and back straight, the wet robe making his figure impossibly clear which he couldn't hide either. He said nothing, his cheeks heating up.
'It is..the fever reaction. I am not overthinking again.'
The female curse raised an eyebrow and watched them. "What double meaning are you two talking about now? It feels like.." Her eyes went to Lìngxiāo before she said lower than before. "You know this already too. Stop it."
"Are you two..suggesting me something or making fun of my specific..insecurity more with him?" Lìngxiāo asked both Mō Qīn and the eight-eyed one.
He removed his hair from Mō Qīn's face, demanding answers while he was drowning in thousands of emotions.
His expression lightly darkened—which he couldn't even show proper serious annoyance for his problematic new shifting every five minutes. The corners of his eyes were reddened, and the tip of his nose had a faint blush—like the flower powders women usually used for makeup.
Mō Qīn and the eight-eyed one paused, having their own sign language. Perhaps to explain things without getting some punishment from him, since Lìngxiāo was still the one in charge.