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Nov. 8th, 2019 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
It was really the most pleasant cursed and haunted forest Wei Wuxian had ever visited.
He swung his flute by his hip as he walked, relishing the pleasure of the warm sunshine dappled through the leaves. Birds and squirrels moved through the upper branches, seeming to be unbothered by the supposed legendary beast that stalked the forest.
In the village, the waiter at the inn had told him that everyone in the region feared the ancient forest, which was the home of a ravenous beast. It was a gigantic monster, twenty feet tall and covered in spikes, and it regularly stole and ate both babies and virgins. (Of course, the waiter didn't know anyone personally who had been eaten, but his cousin's mother-in-law had it on very good authority.) Even renowned cultivators who had come to vanquish the beast had been driven away or never been seen again.
Wei Wuxian had thanked the waiter and then made his way straight to the monster's forest. So far, no monsters. No people, either. Just a nice, quiet forest stroll up the slope of the mountainside.
After Wei Wuxian had walked for an hour or so without seeing anything but gentle wild animals, he caught a glimpse of a rooftop through the trees. It was a pagoda rooftop like a temple, carved of pale and delicate stone that looked like jade, though the expense of jade on a rooftop was unimaginable. Wei Wuxian guessed that this was the retreat of some reclusive cultivator who did not wish to be disturbed by the petty bumbling of common folk, and that was why they had created the rumors.
It would have been polite, he supposed, to go away at that point. He was not invited. But he was very curious, and the glimpse he had of the rooftop made him curious. As he climbed further, he found a wall and followed it for some time without finding a gate.
His curiosity was greater than his caution. Climbing the wall, he swung up over the top of it and dropped into the mysterious castle complex.
He swung his flute by his hip as he walked, relishing the pleasure of the warm sunshine dappled through the leaves. Birds and squirrels moved through the upper branches, seeming to be unbothered by the supposed legendary beast that stalked the forest.
In the village, the waiter at the inn had told him that everyone in the region feared the ancient forest, which was the home of a ravenous beast. It was a gigantic monster, twenty feet tall and covered in spikes, and it regularly stole and ate both babies and virgins. (Of course, the waiter didn't know anyone personally who had been eaten, but his cousin's mother-in-law had it on very good authority.) Even renowned cultivators who had come to vanquish the beast had been driven away or never been seen again.
Wei Wuxian had thanked the waiter and then made his way straight to the monster's forest. So far, no monsters. No people, either. Just a nice, quiet forest stroll up the slope of the mountainside.
After Wei Wuxian had walked for an hour or so without seeing anything but gentle wild animals, he caught a glimpse of a rooftop through the trees. It was a pagoda rooftop like a temple, carved of pale and delicate stone that looked like jade, though the expense of jade on a rooftop was unimaginable. Wei Wuxian guessed that this was the retreat of some reclusive cultivator who did not wish to be disturbed by the petty bumbling of common folk, and that was why they had created the rumors.
It would have been polite, he supposed, to go away at that point. He was not invited. But he was very curious, and the glimpse he had of the rooftop made him curious. As he climbed further, he found a wall and followed it for some time without finding a gate.
His curiosity was greater than his caution. Climbing the wall, he swung up over the top of it and dropped into the mysterious castle complex.