Spirit Forest 

Tang Yin saw the forest passing by beneath them. Her eyes gleamed in excitement. Out here, there was no human anymore. Only Spirit beasts and the occasional spirit master are out for a ring. 

Nothing more. Beneath them, eventually also üassed by a giant lake. With a bull-headed water snake rising its head as if to observe them as they passed by. Followed by a roar. Tang Yin observed it, and even though knowing she was to be cannon fodder this deep in the forests, she felt safe. 

Jiang was beneath her, curving through the sky and making his way through the forest. 

"We can land soon." He rumbled, and Tang Yin put her coat back into storage before spreading her wings. As she unfolded them, they gleamed in dark turquoise green, and she rose into the sky herself. Flying right at Jiang's side. 

"How long until we arrive?" She asked him. 

"Two, maybe three minutes." He said that, as they stood before them, a mountain rose. Tang Yin and Jiang headed lower with him taking on his human form with wings when they landed upon a ledge on the hill. 

"From here on it's only twenty metres upwards," Jiang said. "Till the cave." 

"I see." 

His expression was tight, and he was visibly uncomfortable.

"I will look around; maybe I can find a spirit stone. Want to help me search? Since it's mainly millimeters carps living there, my odds would be excellent, no?" She smiled, and Jiang nodded. It was probably going to be a waste of time. They're likely to find something close to zero. However, they still wanted to try, feeling far less comfortable trying it this way than killing an innocent spirit beast. 

They followed the last few metres upwards and then walked deeper into the cave. The moonflowers growing inside it are releasing a faint glow. But something was different. Vastly different from before. Jiang, next to her, stiffened as he kneeled down. 

"Human tracks." He said, and Yin walked up to it. Indeed, hidden beneath the growing moonflowers was a human footprint, and it was not an old one. The flowers and greenery above it have recently overgrown it. 

"Maybe from my last visit?" She asked, and he shook his head. 

"No. Too big. This is from an adult." He said, and Yin remembered the spirit master they had encountered. 

"The spirit master?" She asked. "The one we saw when we left here?" 

"Possible." Jiang rumbled. "But he has no need to be here. Moonflowers are pretty but frail and of no use to spirit masters, even for spirit beasts; they have more symbolic value than anything else. Spirit Ring? He is a nine-ring master; he has no need for a new ring." 

"Makes sense." She nodded, and as they walked further in, the traces of humans increased, and Jiang's expression grew darker with each step. Until they had reached the small pond. Tang Yin kneeled down and saw it empty; there were no more carps to be found. 

"Gone." She muttered, and behind her, Jiang thundered his first against the cave's wall. 

"Spirit Masters." His eyes glowed darkly. "These Carps were completely harmless, the last of their kind; there was no reason to hunt them to extinction. That is murder." 

Tang Yin swallowed hard. "Yet I was here to kill one of them as well." She muttered silently. "And you brought me here." 

Jiang still stood behind her and then turned quiet. "But there is a difference. You do it for survival." He muttered. "You would have taken one, not all of them...and..." He looked to the ground. "It would also have been for the sake of the graveyard." His voice was almost gone. 

She turned around and looked at him. "For the graveyard?"

Jiang turned his head aside, as if fighting against himself, before closing his eyes. "The guardian of the graveyard is the moon god, you are its heir..."

"You knew." She muttered and stared at him. "You knew I would be chosen and be taking the moon gods exam!" She said her voice rising. Each word louder. "You knew from the very beginning!" 

Jiang nodded. Yin knew she had gotten no loss from his knowledge; he had done nothing but help her so far. Still, it stung; the lie stung and hurt her more than she expected, like a betrayal. A stab into the back, from the first person aside her brother, she had grown to trust as thoroughly as she did. 

He could have warned her, said anything, maybe just a hint would have been enough.

She swallowed hard. "I see." Her voice was faint.

She wanted to be angry at him. But then there was no reason to be angry; he had never harmed her or even done anything bad for her. More like he had saved her life, a few times over, still she had trusted him, and he had said nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing. 

Sure, it had been clear that there was a reason he had approached them; it had been too big a coincidence. Still, there had been plenty of chances to speak with them, to say something, anything. Before she had declared that she was interested in him, that she cared for him as she did. 

"I see." She repeated to herself and then took a trembling breath. "Thanks for telling me." 

"Yin...I am sorry. I should..." Jiang said, and she shrugged as she interrupted him.

"Nah, it's fine, don't worry."