I am not Chinese, and although I've tried my best to research for this fic and other MDZS fics I'm writing, there may still be errors that I am unaware of. If so, I apologize. If anything is offensive or incorrect, please let me know. Some lines are taken directly or with minor changes from the Exiled Rebels Scanlations translation.

A-Qing's hands gripped her bamboo pole so tightly her fingers hurt. Before her, the dark-robed daozhang knelt on the ground, one hand holding his sword while the other was pressed to his bloody mouth. Even before he'd had his tongue cut out, he'd been coughing, and A-Qing knew that whatever powder Xue Yang - and finally, she had a name for that bastard, a name to curse him by - had thrown at him had hurt him as well. If she didn't do anything, Xue Yang would kill the dark-robed daozhang, and he'd never be able to see her daozhang again.

Then she saw a flash of white in the corner of her vision, and the glint of a sword, and she remembered what Xue Yang had said.

"I discovered that if you cut off the tongues of people under corpse poisoning and made it so that they couldn't speak, Shuanghua couldn't tell apart living and dead corpses either."

Without pausing to think, A-Qing yelled, "Daozhang, don't kill him!"

Xiao Xingchen stopped just before his sword would have pierced the dark-robed daozhang's chest. "A-Qing? What are you doing here?"

A-Qing took advantage of the confusion to rush to Xiao Xingchen's side and quickly gripped his robes. "Don't kill him, Daozhang," she pleaded again. "He's not dead!"

"A-Qing," Xiao Xingchen said slowly, "Shuanghua can sense resentful energy. The person may not look dead, but-"

"He's not dead!" A-Qing protested. "He's been poisoned. Xue Yang poisoned him!"

Xiao Xingchen went very, very still at the name. "What did you just say?"

"Little Blind-" Xue Yang began, but A-Qing just clutched Xiao Xingchen's robes tighter and spoke over him.

"The bastard who's been living with us, his name is Xue Yang! That's what the other daozhang called him! And he poisoned the daozhang and cut out his tongue so you wouldn't know that he was alive, but-"

"Little Blind," Xue Yang said, his voice ice cold and threatening, "how do you know any of this?"

"I can see!" A-Qing cried. "I can see, and I saw you and what you did to this daozhang. I heard everything you two said."

Xue Yang's face twisted. "You are clever, aren't you? You passed every test. You even fooled me. Well done."

"You can see?" Xiao Xingchen whispered.

"I'm sorry, Daozhang!" A-Qing cried immediately. "I didn't lie to you on purpose! But please, you need to believe me now. The other daozhang isn't dead, he's alive! Xue Yang called him Song-daozhang!"

If possible, Xiao Xingchen's face went even paler. "Song-daozhang?" he whispered. "Is that you, Zichen?"

The dark-robed daozhang moaned, reaching out his bloodied hand for Xiao Xingchen. A-Qing could see his lips forming words, but they were unintelligible without his tongue to shape them.

Suddenly, shockingly, Xue Yang began to laugh. "Isn't this a lovely reunion?"

Xiao Xingchen's sword flashed through the air until it was pointed at Xue Yang's chest. "Why did you do this?" he demanded. "What have you done? Why would you…"

"Why would I stay with you?" Xue Yang asked. He shrugged. "Maybe I'm bored. It was fun, after all."

Xiao Xingchen was trembling with rage. "You-!"

"You aren't in a position to judge me, Xiao Xingchen," Xue Yang chided. "Do you remember how, a few years ago, we would go out and kill walking corpses every few days?"

A-Qing's heart leapt into her throat. She could see the dark-robed daozhang attempting to struggle to his feet, but she wasn't sure he would be able to make it. His face was white as bone except for the black veins that were creeping up his neck and the blood dripping down his chin. His hand was still gripping his sword, but A-Qing wasn't sure if he could lift it.

"Why are you bringing this up now?" Xiao Xingchen asked, his voice wavering slightly.

"The little one already said it, didn't she?" Xue Yang said, shrugging. "You couldn't see the so-called 'walking corpses' that you killed. If I hadn't cut out their tongues, they would have been begging for mercy, but you couldn't see them kneel and cry. They were so scared, so pained when you pierced them through the heart."

Xiao Xingchen was trembling harder now, his sword shaking in his hand. A-Qing was still clutching his robes, and she tightened her grip, trying to hold onto her daozhang and ground him with the touch. She wasn't sure if it would work or not.

"You deceived me," Xiao Xingchen finally whispered. "You wanted to deceive me."

"Of course I deceived you," Xue Yang agreed. "I've been deceiving you all along."

Xiao Xingchen's sword was shaking so much A-Qing thought he might drop it. "You- You monster-"

"Song-daozhang called me the same thing," Xue Yang said. "So little creativity."

Xiao Xingchen took a step forward, A-Qing still hanging onto his robes, and then a sword plunged through Xue Yang's chest from behind.

Xue Yang made a choked noise as the dark-robed daozhang pulled his sword out of his chest. A-Qing watched, eyes wide. The dark-robed daozhang met her eyes, then nodded once. He was barely on his feet, but that was more than A-Qing could say for Xue Yang, who had fallen to his knees.

"What happened?" Xiao Xingchen whispered. "A-Qing-"

"The other daozhang stabbed Xue Yang," A-Qing told him quickly. "His sword went right through his heart!"

"Zichen?" Xiao Xingchen breathed. "He- He killed him?"

Xue Yang, still barely alive, tried to reach into his robes for something. A-Qing cried out and rushed forward, letting go of Xiao Xingchen's robes. She swung with her bamboo pole and smacked Xue Yang's hand away as hard as she could. The impact was enough to send him sprawling on the ground and apparently rob him of the last bit of energy he had, because his face twisted into a scowl and then went lax as his body stopped breathing.

"A-Qing!" Xiao Xingchen cried, groping out for A-Qing. "A-Qing, are you-"

"He's dead," A-Qing whispered. She looked at the dark-robed daozhang, who was using his sword to keep himself upright, then back at Xiao Xingchen. "Xue Yang is dead."

A flurry of emotions passed over Xiao Xingchen's face, too quickly for A-Qing to decipher them. Finally, he took a deep breath. "A-Qing, tell me about the other daozhang. I-Is he…"

"He's hurt," A-Qing said. "Xue Yang poisoned him and cut out his tongue!"

"Are you sure he called him Song-daozhang?" Xiao Xingchen asked, his voice trembling.

"He did," A-Qing said, nodding quickly. "The daozhang was looking for you before. He knew about your sword and how you look!"

Xiao Xingchen took a careful step forward, Shuanghua held loosely at his side. The dark-robed daozhang lifted his own sword, and for a moment, A-Qing was almost worried, but then he laid it across his hands and stumbled towards Xiao Xingchen. He pressed the flat side of the blade against Xiao Xingchen's fingers, and Xiao Xingchen touched it gently, sliding his fingertips along the metal.

"Fuxue," he whispered as his fingers reached the characters engraved on the blade. "Zichen…"

The dark-robed daozhang mouthed something A-Qing couldn't understand, then his legs gave out and he crumpled to the ground. A-Qing gasped, and Xiao Xingchen frowned as the sword fell away from his fingers.

"Zichen?"

"He collapsed!" A-Qing cried. "He's hurt, Daozhang! Xue Yang poisoned him!"

Xiao Xingchen sheathed Shuanghua and knelt, reaching out towards the dark-robed daozhang's body. "Do you know what sort of poison it was?"

"He called it corpse poisoning," A-Qing remembered. "The other daozhang has black lines on his neck. Does that help?"

Xiao Xingchen's face was drawn. "If Xue Yang" - his voice only shook slightly as he spoke the name for the first time - "was carrying corpse poisoning powder, he must have had an antidote with him as well. Can you check his robes for it, A-Qing?"

"How will I know when I find it?" A-Qing asked, looking warily at the dead body on the ground.

"Look for an elixir," Xiao Xingchen instructed her. "Or perhaps some sort of pill. If you find anything that you think might be the cure, give it to me, and I can check if it is."

"Alright," A-Qing agreed, although she still was a bit tentative to go through Xue Yang's robes. He had pulled things out of his sleeves before, so she carefully bent to check those first, surprised to find that they were larger on the inside than they appeared. She quickly checked his pulse at his wrist as well and was relieved to feel nothing there at all.

There was candy in his sleeves, and a very sharp knife, but nothing that seemed like an elixir or a cure. Tentatively, A-Qing began to open up his robes, checking to see if he'd tucked it somewhere else. The robes were sticky with blood, especially around the chest, and A-Qing knew she was getting some on her hands as she pulled the robes away. She found a strange metal sculpture of some sort and a sealed bag that, upon peeking inside, seemed to have more of the powder Xue Yang had poisoned the dark-robed daozhang with, and then finally she found a small red vial.

"Daozhang!" she cried, rushing to Xiao Xingchen's side. He was kneeling by the dark-robed daozhang, his fingers glowing just a few inches from the daozhang's wrist. A shimmering blue ribbon of light connected them. "I think I might have found the cure!"

Xiao Xingchen took the vial that she pressed into his hand and opened it, the blue light disappearing as he pulled his hand away. He sniffed the contents, then nodded. "Well done, A-Qing."

"This will save him?"

"It should," Xiao Xingchen replied. He held up the vial, then hesitated and capped it again. "A-Qing, can you hold this?"

"Why?" A-Qing asked as she took the vial back.

"If Xue Yang cut out Zichen's tongue, then he probably swallowed a lot of blood," Xiao Xingchen explained. He gently maneuvered the dark-robed daozhang onto his side, then hesitated a moment and whispered, "Forgive me, Zichen," before smacking him solidly between the shoulder blades. A-Qing gasped, but the blow made the daozhang choke out a mouthful of blood, and the second blow did the same. On the third blow, nothing more came out, so Xiao Xingchen let the dark-robed daozhang roll back into his lap. He looked somewhat shaken, as if he disliked what he'd done, but A-Qing could see that it had probably helped. Swallowing that much blood couldn't be a good thing.

"Can you give me the vial back, A-Qing?"

A-Qing handed Xiao Xingchen the vial back and watched as he gently touched the dark-robed daozhang's face, fingers grazing over his cheeks before reaching the daozhang's mouth, which he opened gently before pouring the elixir down his throat. Almost immediately, the black veins receded. "The veins are gone," A-Qing reported. "Did that fix the poisoning?"

"It should have," Xiao Xingchen agreed. "A-Qing, could you get a bucket of water and a clean cloth? I'll carry Zichen into the coffin home."

"Is that his name?" A-Qing asked. "Zichen?"

"His name is Song Lan," Xiao Xingchen told her. "His courtesy name is Zichen, but most people don't use it. He…" Xiao Xingchen hesitated. "Perhaps it would be best for us to call him Song-daozhang."

"I thought you were his friend," A-Qing said suspiciously. "Shouldn't you call him by his name?"

Xiao Xingchen sighed, gathering Song Lan in his arms. He seemed to try to touch his robes as much as possible instead of his skin. "Matters between myself and Song-daozhang are… complicated."

"I asked him if he was your friend and he paused before saying yes," A-Qing said, half an accusation. "Are you friends or not? It isn't a hard question."

Xiao Xingchen huffed out a quiet laugh. He laughed often and easily, but A-Qing had never heard him laugh like this before. There was absolutely no humor in it, just a quiet sort of sadness.

"Sometimes, things are more complicated than that," he said, walking back into the coffin home. A-Qing scurried forward to enter with him.

"How is it complicated? Xue Yang said something about the reason you're blind. He said you gave Song-daozhang your eyes. Did you really do that?"

Xiao Xingchen almost stumbled, but caught himself just in time. "As I said, it's complicated, A-Qing."

A-Qing pouted, even though she knew Xiao Xingchen couldn't see it, and stomped her foot loudly enough for him to hear. "It's complicated, it's complicated… I'm not stupid, you know! I can understand complicated things!"

Xiao Xingchen sighed deeply. "I'll make you a deal. Let me treat Song-daozhang's wounds and deal with Xue Yang's body, then I'll tell you everything. Is that alright?"

A-Qing huffed. "Fine."

"Can you get some water, please?"

A-Qing went off to get water as Xiao Xingchen brought Song Lan into their little home. When she returned with the requested water and cloth, she found that Xiao Xingchen had laid Song Lan on the bed that used to belong to Xue Yang. His fingers were hovering over Song Lan's wrist again, the thin blue light connecting them once more. He lifted his head slightly as A-Qing stepped in the doorway.

"A-Qing? Did you bring water?"

"And a cloth," A-Qing agreed, passing it to Xiao Xingchen. "How are you going to treat his wounds?"

"I've been passing him spiritual energy," Xiao Xingchen says. "That will help his body to heal faster. I'll wash his face with the cloth, which will make him feel better when he wakes. Song-daozhang hates being dirty. As for the rest… There's not much we can do, I don't think. Is he wounded anywhere else?"

"I don't think so," A-Qing replied. "He was a better fighter than Xue Yang. He stabbed him a few times."

Xiao Xingchen didn't reply to that, simply took the cloth and dipped it into the bucket, then began gently wiping the blood from Song Lan's chin. His touch was impossibly tender, and A-Qing wondered again what exactly was so complicated about the relationship between the two daozhangs. They clearly cared about each other, and although A-Qing didn't know Song Lan well, she knew he was important to Xiao Xingchen and had killed Xue Yang, which meant she already liked him.

"A-Qing," Xiao Xingchen said as he finished wiping the blood off Song Lan's face, "is Fuxue still out in the street? Song-daozhang's sword?"

"I think so."

"Will you come with me and carry it back while I collect Xue Yang's body?" Xiao Xingchen asked.

"Alright," A-Qing agreed, although she didn't really like the idea of collecting Xue Yang's body. She didn't see why they couldn't just leave it in the street to be trampled, honestly. It was what he deserved.

Xiao Xingchen's hand hovered above Song Lan's for a moment, like he wanted to hold it, then he stood. "Let's go."

They headed back out to the street, where Xue Yang was still lying. A-Qing picked up Song Lan's sword, then scooped up some of the things she'd pulled out of Xue Yang's robes while Xiao Xingchen picked up Xue Yang himself. A few of the candies fell from her hands, but A-Qing left them on the street; she wasn't sure she was ever going to be able to eat candy again. The metal sculpture felt strange in her hands, remaining stubbornly cold despite her body heat and the fact that it had been tucked into Xue Yang's robes, but she didn't dare leave it behind. She had the feeling it could be important.

Xue Yang's knife, she thought she might keep for herself. She'd always wanted a knife.

Xiao Xingchen laid Xue Yang's body in a coffin, then took a step backwards. "We can give him funeral rites later," he decided. "A-Qing, do you have Fuxue?"

A-Qing handed over the sword. "And I have everything I took out of Xue Yang's robes."

"Set that aside for now," Xiao Xingchen dismissed. "We can look through it later, unless there's anything you think is important right now."

"I don't think so," A-Qing replied. "Daozhang, is Song-daozhang going to be alright?"

"I hope so."

"You promised you would tell me everything," A-Qing added.

Xiao Xingchen sighed deeply. "I did, didn't I? Are you sure you want to hear it? It's not a nice story."

"I'm not a baby," A-Qing protested. "I can hear stories that aren't nice."

"Very well," Xiao Xingchen agreed. "I won't tell it well, but you already know I'm not good at telling stories."

"Just tell me already, Daozhang."

Xiao Xingchen sighed. "Do you remember the story I told you about the Immortal on the mountain? I told you about two cultivators who left the mountain. I was the third."

"You grew up on the mountain?" A-Qing whispered. "With the Immortal?"

"The Immortal is Baoshan Sanren, my teacher. She raised me. But when I was seventeen, I decided to leave the mountain and join the world."

"Was it because the mountain was boring?"

The smallest hint of a smile tugged at the corner of Xiao Xingchen's lips. "It was a little boring, yes. And I wanted to save the world. I left the mountain, and after a while of wandering, I met Zi- Song-daozhang. We traveled together for a long time, and even had thoughts of making our own sect."

"Then what happened?" A-Qing asks.

Xiao Xingchen's face grows solemn. "At one time while we were separated, I led an investigation to discover who slaughtered the Yueyang Chang Sect. It was Xue Yang."

A-Qing sucked in a startled breath. She'd guessed that Xue Yang was evil, and then she'd seen it with Song Lan, but to kill an entire sect? She couldn't even imagine it.

"I brought Xue Yang to the other cultivators, and I demanded his punishment," Xiao Xingchen said. "The cultivators said they would execute him, but then they changed it to life imprisonment. Then they must have threatened the last members of the Yueyang Chang Sect, because Chang Ping changed his mind and said Xue Yang hadn't been the one to kill his sect at all."

"But he was!" A-Qing cried. "Wasn't he?"

"He was, but Chang Ping was made afraid to say it," Xiao Xingchen explains. "Xue Yang went free, and he…"

Xiao Xingchen's voice wavered. Whatever Xue Yang did, he clearly didn't want to talk about it, but he took a breath to steady himself and continued anyway.

"Xue Yang knew that I had been the one to discover what he'd done, and he knew that I was close to Song-daozhang. He couldn't go after my family, since they were all safe on the mountain, so instead, he went to the Baixue Temple where Song-daozhang grew up and he… he killed all of them. He only left Song-daozhang alive, and he blinded him."

A-Qing frowned. "But… Song-daozhang isn't blind, is he?"

"Not anymore," Xiao Xingchen agreed, his fingers rising to the bandages around his eyes.

Or, at least, around where his eyes should have been.

"Daozhang-"

"It was my fault Xue Yang went after his family and blinded him," Xiao Xingchen said simply. "And I knew I could fix it. I brought him to the mountain where I grew up, and my teacher gave him my eyes."

"So why wasn't he with you when I met you?" A-Qing demanded. "If you gave him your eyes, he should have stayed with you."

Xiao Xingchen let out a long breath. "When we were on our way to my teacher's mountain, Song-daozhang was angry with me. He had every right to be. He was only involved in the matter because of me. He told me we needn't meet again, so after I recovered from giving him my eyes, I left the mountain. I believe he left about a year later."

In A-Qing's mind, Song Lan's words sounded like something someone would say out of grief and not really mean, but clearly Xiao Xingchen had believed them wholeheartedly. Given that he seemed to feel guilt over the matter, she wasn't surprised, but she did think it was a bit stupid.

"You and Song-daozhang should talk," she decided. "Well, he can't talk anymore, but you should figure out a way to communicate."

Xiao Xingchen's face was sorrowful. "Last time, he lost his eyes because of me, and this time, he lost his tongue. I don't think Song-daozhang wants to talk with me."

"He came here looking for you," A-Qing countered. "He was asking around about you. He was excited to hear that I knew where to find you, and he was worried about you when he found out about Xue Yang. I think he wants to talk with you."

Xiao Xingchen offered A-Qing a small, sad smile. "Well, I suppose we'll just have to see what happens when he-"

There was a clatter from the room where Xiao Xingchen had laid Song Lan, followed by a sound like someone without a tongue trying to speak. "When he wakes," Xiao Xingchen breathed, then he turned and ran into the room.

Song Lan was sitting up in the bed, eyes wide and wild. Xiao Xingchen couldn't see the look on his face, but he must have been able to guess Song Lan's mood based on his ragged breaths, because he walked in very slowly, his hands raised in front of him.

"Zichen?"

Xingchen, Song Lan mouthed, then his lips moved too quickly for A-Qing to understand. The words he tried to speak were unintelligible, which wasn't helped at all by the overall raspiness of his voice, probably because of swallowing and then spitting up so much blood. Eventually, he stopped trying to speak at all and just looked at Xiao Xingchen imploringly, like he wanted to simply impart his thoughts into his mind.

"A-Qing," Xiao Xingchen said after a moment, "you don't know how to read, do you?"

"No, Daozhang."

Song Lan's eyes darted over to her. His mouth moved very slowly and deliberately, and after a few repetitions, A-Qing realized what he was trying to say.

Tell him I'm sorry.

"I think he wants to say he's sorry, Daozhang," A-Qing reported.

Xiao Xingchen looked startled. "What? Zichen, you don't have to be sorry! I was the one who angered Xue Yang, I was the reason he went to the Baixue Temple, I-"

Song Lan shook his head and reached forward. He seemed to steel himself for a moment, then he grabbed Xiao Xingchen's hands and squeezed them. Xiao Xingchen gasped, and A-Qing almost moved forward, but she stopped herself before she did. Whatever was going on between the two daozhangs, she didn't think she should interfere in it.

"Zichen," Xiao Xingchen whispered, "it was my fault. You don't have to apologize."

Song Lan took their joined hands and put one on either side of his face, then emphatically shook his head no. A-Qing saw a trail of blood trickle down Xiao Xingchen's cheek and realized after a moment that he was crying.

"I missed you," he breathed. "I'm so sorry."

A-Qing looked at the two of them, then she stepped out of the room quietly. The two daozhangs clearly had a lot of baggage between them, and A-Qing didn't think she should be there while they unpacked it. They could deal with it themselves, and if turned out that they couldn't, then A-Qing could just hit them with her bamboo pole until they fixed things. For the moment, though, she would give them a chance.

After things were dealt with, she had the feeling she'd be living with two daozhangs, not just one, and she had the feeling that would be pretty nice.