The plan wasn't exactly great, if one could really call it a plan. It actually was a particularly bad one, but their options were a bit thin at the moment. They intended to follow signs of destruction to track down the sword, and quickly came across the first town at the base of the mountain. Or what remained of it. The town had been completely flattened, leaving a pile of rubble and dead bodies in its place. There was no sign of Yīn Xiàtiān at all. She had already left.

Làng Wū Yáo still felt angry as they reached the next town, this one at least still standing and bustling with activity. It was such a senseless waste of life. A sword with that sort of power needed to be sealed in the Index sooner rather than later. Yīn Xiàtiān had to be taken down, preferably permanently, as she would simply come at them again and again with something more dangerous each time.

The Hunting Fox was at least easier to deal with, even though he'd also need to be dealt with sooner or later. Làng didn't like him being alive and nipping at their heels much either. He wanted that imperial gone, but they had bigger problems at the moment. Namely two sorcerous swords in the hands of an obsessive assassin.

"We should find some food," Mù Tiān Mìng suggested. "I can smell something good. Excuse me." She called out to one of the passers-by. "Where is the market in this town?"

Her question was met with a panicked response as the man fled in fear.

"Well that was rude!" Líng Yá commented.

"Odd," Shāng Bù Huàn commented as people who noticed them fled. "It's like they think we're villains."

Làng turned, something along the wall catching his attention. Posted on the wall was a series of papers with drawings and writing scribbled down in simple characters. He frowned at the wall. So this was their approach.

"What the hell is that fox bastard trying to pull?!" Líng Yá hissed.

Shāng and Mù turned quickly to what Làng had found. The drawings were their faces, crudely done at best. They looked more mocking than anything else, like a child's drawing of someone they saw some time ago and forgot some rather important details. Their heads were very large with smaller bodies and oversized weaponry. It was terrible but close enough that the people recognized the trio from the signs.

"These drawings are terrible. They definitely didn't do us any justice," Mù observed, staring at her crude drawing. It was mostly a top knot with a crooked face and something that looked like a guqin. She looked like she was about to murder someone with it too. "They really made us look sinister."

Shāng's sign looked like a man with a long ponytail and his usual hair ornament but with ten different swords behind him and an evil devious grin on his face. He read the sign on his own poster. "'Sword-plundering Nemesis. Dangerous. Wanted for stealing the Court Virtuoso and countless swords. 20 silver coins.'"

"You didn't steal this guy!" Líng Yá fussed.

"Well they are at least right about the swords," Mù mused.

Làng frowned at his own drawing. It was his former self, the court virtuoso, in his white robes with a top knot. They had missed some details but it looked much more realistic than the other signs. So they were still trying to return him to that life he purposely left behind. He ripped the sign off the wall, crumpling it into a ball. Returning to the songbird life was absolutely not happening. Ever.

Shāng spotted a copy of the sign. "'Court Virtuoso. Reward for return to her highness Princess Cháo Fēng. 200 silver coins.' Damn, you're expensive." There was a second sign with Làng's current appearance that read much like the poster for Shāng's own face. Aggressive bard, accomplice to the Sword-plundering Nemesis. 20 silver coins.

Làng stared at the crumpled paper on the ground. He could still hear the princess's words in his mind. She had claimed him much as one would claim property. It was how things once were, and at the time, he thought it was the only way to keep his supernatural voice away from people. He was being used like the sorcerous sword he believed himself to be, one used for everyone else's desires. And for the princess, that desire was for a sadistic show of entertainment. He didn't want to live that way anymore. "I am no one's property."

"Definitely not, Wū Yáo," Mù placed a hand on his shoulder. She didn't want to think of what the Hunting Fox or the sadistic princess would do to him if they managed to drag him back to the palace. But he was different now. He had seen the world wasn't just a songbird's cage and wouldn't simply bend to their desires anymore.

Shāng scratched at the side of his face, annoyed. "Perhaps I should've continued to wear that hood."

"They've seen our faces already," Mù pointed out. "And they have two posters for Wū Yáo like he's two different people. One is the old self and the other is the one who has made his own choices."

"And the empire doesn't like people who think for themselves and have morals," Shāng added.

Làng fit both their descriptions pretty well. He had chosen to join them in this journey to fight the greatest evils in Xī Yōu and he did so of his own volition. He chose this path himself, desiring to be his own person, a free songbird who wasn't content in living up on that cold mountain and dying there alone. If he was going to go with someone, it would be two someones who gave more than half a damn about him.

He tore down another sign of his former self, crumpling it into a ball and stepping on it.

Mù patted him on the shoulder. These signs were a reminder of everything he left behind. She took a sign herself and crumpled it. It was like the signs she'd seen posted before, challenging anyone to sing and battle against Làng to earn the title of Court Virtuoso. These had a monetary reward instead of a title, but that title was never exactly much of a reward given what it entailed. "We should head out before the Hunting Fox decides to sniff around."

"Agreed," Shāng nodded.

The next town offered even less hospitality with more troubling signs.

"'Wanted for flattening multiple nearby towns with a dangerous stolen sword,'" Shāng frowned at the sign. This drawing was even worse, showing a crazed poorly drawn Shāng with a sword crushing a tiny town. "Still only 20 gold coins. You think it'd go up."

"That's not even accurate!" Líng Yá hissed. "It was that crazy obsessive buzzy bitch's fault! But even if they knew it was her, I bet they'd peg it on us anyway!"

Shāng sighed. "That's the empire for you. All the war crimes they've committed, they blame on us."

"We knew when we started this that we would be pegged as villains," Mù admitted. "But the swords in the empire's hands would only be worse. They'd flatten more cities and leave them floating out into the ocean again."

"Especially with that sonic sword," Shāng agreed. "That Hunting Fox is likely trying to cut off our resources. I don't expect anyone crazy enough to actually try to claim that prize, even if it would be enough for an entire city to live off for most of their lives. But that won't stop imperials from trying." He turned from the signs noticing that they had been surrounded by soldiers.

Làng's attention was focused further back, recognizing the malicious aura step closer and closer. Accompanying the steps was that familiar hat and annoying sinister snicker.

"You are truly something, Shāng Bù Huàn. Foolish enough to be pushed around by a bunch of signs until you ended up right on our laps," Xiào Kuáng Juàn mused, pushing up his glasses as he stepped to the front of the imperial crowd.

"Of course it's that fox bastard!" Líng Yá hissed.

"Not really a plan if you just wait and hope we happen by," Shāng commented.

Làng hadn't changed his stance, his hand poised by the strings as he prepared for a fight. He wasn't going to go with the Hunting Fox no matter how much money was on his head. He no longer was that sword with no will of his own.

"How rude," Xiào pushed his glasses up his nose before extending a hand towards Làng. "Come, Court Virtuoso. Come home to where you belong. The princess has been waiting for you."

Mù frowned. "He certainly goes back and forth between wanting to kill you and then kidnap you, Wū Yáo." It explained the conflicting signs they'd seen showing both the former and current Làng with different information and rewards.

Líng Yá shouted, "I bet he wants to claim those 200 silver coins for himself!"

"I am a man of the law," the Hunting Fox insisted, though that smug smile suggested otherwise.

"One that got his promotion by stepping on this guy and selling him off to that sadist princess!" Líng Yá hissed.

"It was better than the alternative, was it not, Làng Wū Yáo?" Xiào pointed out.

Làng scowled. It was better than the alternative, rotting in jail for something he didn't know he was involved in, but that didn't mean he had to like Xiào for it. "You still used me."

Shāng peered at Làng. So that was the connection he had with the Hunting Fox. Leave it to someone like him to walk all over Làng and use him to gain a promotion. The musician truly was constantly being used before he decided to become his own person. It was a good thing he made that decision. No one should be pushed around like that.

Xiào shook his head. What a troublesome songbird. As he reached for his sword to bark a command, he leapt backwards, barely dodging several sonic attacks. The soldiers beside him weren't so lucky. "That you would forsake such a high position. You had the whole world and the princess's affection."

Làng glared at him. "I am no one's property."

"Screw off!" Líng Yá hissed.

"So that's your answer," Xiào grinned, baring his teeth. "Kill them. Leave the musician alive."

...

Author's musings

I am endlessly amused by the idea that Xiao's plans early on were all accidental. His promotion was sort of accidental, as he had no idea what Lang could do. His finding Shang and Mu's hideout in the movie could've been done with investigation but it also could've been stumbling around until they found the right place. He definitely seemed to not realize it was a hideout until Shang and Mu hadn't fled.

I am also amused by bad guys using signs to annoy Shang, so it had to be done. Chibi angry vicious Shang with an arsenal full of swords! Ha!