"...it feels unwell. This gate... something is wrong here." Really it's impressive how ominous those gates manage to be when the view is obscured by fog. "Do you think whoever has been leaving the dead animals is inside?"

"Where else? And it is odd..."

"There's not much else around here... I think this is the only city in the region. Otherwise it's just - tiny villages."

"An adventure, then!" She walks up to the gates, step cheerful.

The junior disciples flock after her, less cheerfully. The heavy gate doors creak open as slowly and menacingly as one could imagine, and then they are able to wander into some even denser fog and dust clouds. Some of them cough.

"We should all stay close together. If someone gets lost, we might not be able to see them."

"I agree - this fog's thick enough we might want to make sure no one gets stolen, either, or silently gets attacked... Frequent sound offs, or keep in contact with each other."

"Okay, good idea."

Nobody gets stolen, for the moment. They make it to a row of dusty houses, all technically intact but in unsettling states of disrepair. They can make out the shape of what seems to be an abandoned wagon. Ahead of them the path disappears quietly into the mist. The resentful energy in the air grows stronger, prickling at their skins.

"Jingyi? Are you still there?"

"Yeah..." Then, muttering: "Is the whole city deserted?"

"It does look like it. We could start knocking on doors and check?" Sizhui does not actually want to do that very much, but he doesn't know what else they can really do here. "At the very least, whoever killed the animals might be hiding in one of the houses..."

She looks around, analyzing the area. "I don't think it's fully empty." She crouches down. "It's more mud than dust, with all this fog - but see these little scrapes here? People have been about, recently and over a long time - but this dragged bit here... There might be walking dead in the area. No recent signs of animals, wild or domestic... Nor of carts. If there are living people, what are they eating? They don't trade with the farms nearby, and the road hasn't been maintained, besides. But! People did not flee this city; the farmers would have remarked on that. There are no signs of violence. If this is a city of the dead, where are the signs of the dying?"

"A mystery on top of an adventure, I think."

Sizhui would appreciate the mystery a lot more if he could see any better. It feels like danger could be lurking just feet away, or clues that they might miss...

"Maybe the animal-killer took the bodies away after he, or it, killed them? Or maybe it hid them somewhere. Where do you think we should look?"

Honestly they should probably try to leave but that's not the fun answer.

"There's places people tend to congregate when they're afraid - temples, administrative offices..."

"...If everyone here's dead, should we leave and - make sure somebody knows? The resentful energy of an entire city would be..."

"We should leave and get Hanguang Jun first," he agrees. "Jin Ling said he saw him in town close by; we should be able to find him. Do you agree, Lady Liu?"

"That wouldn't hurt - backup's good, and warning people outside of here is good, too."

They count off once again, and then the entire group turns around to head back. They walk ahead into the mist.

Somehow the fog seems to get thicker and thicker the more they walk, until they can barely make out the shapes of houses any longer. They certainly can't make out the gate, where it should be before them. The juniors huddle together and continue on. 

"I could swear that we've been walking back longer than we spent going ahead."

"I think we have been, too... Stay wary." She keeps her hand on the hilt of her sword - not drawing it yet, but ready to. It can't cut her allies, so it won't be too dangerous to use even in circumstances like this, everyone clustered together and blinded...

"...We shouldn't have left Fairy behind..." Jin Ling murmurs.

They stay wary. After five more minutes, they have definitely been walking longer in this direction. 

Nothing attacks them, but when they pause to confer about the bizarre walking distance things that are happening they can all hear a quiet tapping from somewhere nearby.

"Does everyone else hear that?"

"Yeah..." 

"...Yup!"

"Hello?" she calls, towards the sound. 

She receives no answer, but the tapping sound moves haltingly closer. Some of the disciples make unhappy noises about this.

Whatever that is - it doesn't feel resentful, at least not towards them...

"A sign someone else is here, at least..." she murmurs.

"I think, perhaps one of us should try flying? Whatever enchantment is warping our path, or our perceptions... it is possible that it won't affect us if we get higher."

"I'll try - there's a risk of getting lost or separated or attacked, and I'm the most senior here, so I'd rather take that risk."

"Please be careful, Lady Liu. We'll stay right here. We can make noise if you lose track of where we are, just call out for us first."

"Alright. Thanks."

She mounts her sword, rising rapidly into the air.

She has to fly upwards for an absurdly long time before the mist begins to thin: longer than it should have taken to rise above the gate or even the surrounding cliffs. Through the gradually clearing fog, she can see dark shadows flitting overhead. The air becomes turbulent.

...Not a good way for the junior disciples to escape. She can handle whatever's up here, but she'd rather be where she can keep an eye on her allies.

She flies back down.

Junior disciples are so relieved to see her! "Lady Liu! You are alright? Did you figure out where we are?"

"I'm okay. The - odd effect seems to go up, as well. It became hard to fly before the fog fully thinned."

"So we cannot escape that way either... should we try to move away from that tapping sound? Or... go towards it?"

"Hmmm..." She shrugs, draws her sword, and points it in the vague direction of the tapping sound. It does not seem to think the tapping sound is a priority murder target, so she sheathes her sword and says, "Towards."

Jin Ling grumbles something, then:

"Fine. Let's get out of here. Or finally fight whatever it is that's hunting us."

"That's the spirit!"

...If looks could kill she would probably not be dead but she would definitely have some more holes in her.

She laughs. It's - bright. An odd contrast to the almost oppressive resentful energy.

And she starts walking toward the tapping.

"...I'm not sure about this..." Lan Jingyi mutters, but he follows her, along with Jin Ling, keeping their weapons close at hand.

"Mm. I'm not sure about anything, but I don't think it's a good idea to just stand there. Investigating means we might find out more about what's happening here. Just be careful."

The juniors huddle along behind Lady Liu, holding on to each other's sleeves with their free hands so that no one gets lost. 

"I will..."

And what does this direction have to reveal to them as they walk?

A silhouette appears in the fog, not very distant by the time they are able to see it. It moves towards them very quickly -

- and resolves into a man who looks very surprised to see them. "-Jin Ling? Sizhui?"

He groans. "You again! Why are you here?"

"Why are you here?"

"Master Mo, you're here! Does that mean Hanguang Jun came here as well?"

Sigh. As if his presence isn't rewarding enough in its own right!

"Yeah, he's here, he's here. But how did you all get here together? Don't tell me Jin Ling met up with you to go night hunting."

"It's a bit of a story," she says. "And probably best saved for later."

"Who are you?"

Is she Jin Ling's girlfriend. He can't think of why any girl would tolerate Jin Ling's behavior but it would be so funny if Jin Ling got a girlfriend. Jiang Cheng would lose his shit.

"Oh, just a rogue cultivator. I've been calling myself Liu Wuxian, lately."

"You what now?"

"Master Mo, this is Lady Liu. We have been working together. Lady Liu, this is Young Master Mo."

"Pleased to meet you."

"Sure, me too. Uh, so why are you all here? Have you found anything?"

"We were following a trail - someone's been leaving dead animals near us, and other things of that sort. We've found that the mist turns you around in a maze - you can walk straight, turn around, walk back, and not end up where you began. Flying out doesn't work, the mist continues up and then there's dark shapes in the sky. There's an odd sound - footsteps, and a tapping sound like bamboo - that we were following just now."

"Hmmmm. Huh. Well none of that's especially good. Did anyone see the shadow fly by just now? Like a person moving very fast?" He squints around and then gestures in the direction of Bichen's distant glow, which cuts through the fog at quick angles. "Looks like Lan Zhan found them. Do you know who else is here?"

She's already turned her head in the direction the odd shadow went, before he said anything. " - should we help your friend?"

Wei Wuxian flaps his hand. "Eh, I'm sure he's fine. I think our Hanguang Jun would rather I get you kids out of trouble first! Is anyone hurt? Jin Ling?"

"I'm fine. We've been careful."

"Lady Liu had us sounding off pretty frequently. No one's gotten hurt or vanished."

"Good, good, you should probably keep doing that. How many of all of you are there?"

"Thirteen, including me."

"Cool. Do you kiddos all want to hold hands, for now? Jin Ling, why don't you pick a buddy. Our next move is getting to the bottom of that tapping sound you were hearing, I think. Sound good? Do you have any ideas of what it's from?"

He sighs but grabs onto Lan Jingyi's sleeve. "Sounds like bamboo on stone."

"Maybe it's a bamboo ghost! I wonder..." He broke off, tilting his head. The sound of footsteps cut through the fog behind and around him, crunching on the dry mud. "Eh? Now that doesn't sound like bamboo at all."

"Could be multiple ghosts. Or one with a walking stick." Still, she's wary, listening. "The bamboo sound led us to you."