The Demonic Clan of Yiling (MDZS Fanfic)

Hanging Tree Night Hunt (Pt.2)

The second A-Yuan stepped foot into the cave, the voices started and resentful energy swarmed around him for a split second. The suddenness of it made Zizhen jump as he walked past him.

A-Yuan shot him a small smile as an apology and continued on his way inside. Absentmindedly humming, to keep the low whispers at bay.

Something dark had to be hidden in the cave for resentful energy to react to him like that.

The group made their way deeper inside until they made it to a large, moonlit cavern. How the moonlight was getting in was unclear. There were no holes in the ceiling or walls apart from the entrance they had just used. However the lighting wasn't the strangest thing in the cavern.

A large tree stood in the centre. It had no leaves. It's thick branches shaped like claws. From those branches hung ropes and at the foot of those ropes... Bones... Human bones.

"A hanging tree..." Nie Huaisang mumbled from the back of the group and Jiang Cheng hummed grimly.

"What's a hanging tree?" Jin Ling asked his father who had gone a little pale.

"Exactly what it sounds like." Wei Ying answered. "The town probably used it to hang criminals."

He took a few steps closer to inspect the bones at the roots and Hanguang-jun followed him. Neither of them paying attention to the disapproving glare Jin Zixuan shot.

A-Yuan also turned his attention to other things, still humming softly. The cavern was strange... Something felt off. There was too much resentful energy around for something like criminal execution. There had to be more.

There was a clinking of chains from the very back of the group and soon Wen Ning joined the boy in his inspection of the walls.

"This place is weird." A-Yuan said to the corpse man. Wen Ning nodded and looked back over at Wei Wuxian, who was now examining the tree.

"Your father thinks so too." Wen Ning whispered back. The others in the group had begun to look around too. Each of them keeping to their own conversations.

For some reason there was a lot of tension in the air. He had even noticed it when he spoke to his friends. There was a sudden and unexplainable, lack of trust amongst them.

"A-Yuan, come here for a moment." Wei Ying called, pulling the boy out of his thoughts.

A-Yuan and Wen Ning made their way over to where Wei Ying and Lan Zhan stood. Both men had calm expressions on their faces despite the situation. When A-Yuan got close enough Wei Ykbg reached out for him to come closer.

"What's the matter, Baba?" A-Yuan asked, but Wei Ying placed a finger to his lips and nodded at the tree carefully.

"Place your hand there and tell me what you hear." He said. His words had caught the attention of the others and they all peered over at them.

"What's going on?" Jiang Cheng asked but Wei Ying shook his head and gestured for A-Yuan to go ahead.

A-Yuan did as he was told and reached out. The bark was surprisingly smooth under his palm. He then stopped his quiet humming that he had managed to keep up and let the voices take over.

"I'M INNOCENT!"

"DON'T KILL ME!!"

"I HAVE CHILDREN! I HAVE A WIFE!"

The sudden screaming made him flinch and use his free hand to clutch his head in pain. Wen Ning took a step forward out of concern but Wei Ying held up a hand.

"Do you hear it?" He asked his son.

A-Yuan took a minute to steady himself again and then focused on what the voices were saying. The screams were all different. Every person was crying over different things. All of them begged not to be killed, but what was the most unnerving thing, was that every single voice proclaimed their innocence. Not like how, criminals would deny their crimes out of desperation. These people... The way they screamed the resentment they had... They were really, truly innocent.

"They're innocent..." A-Yuan looked up at his father wide eyed. "Why were so many innocent people killed here?" He asked.

"False accusations, or they were framed." Wei Ying answered with a shrug.

"Why would so many people be framed?" A-Yuan still hadn't recovered from the shock of the voices hitting his ears, but even if he had he was sure he would still be confused.

"What do you mean false accusations? What do you hear?" Jin Zixuan took a step forward, shuffling Jin Ling behind him protectively as he did so.

He wasn't the only one in the group on edge, all of them were staring at Wei Ying and A-Yuan like they had done something wrong. Well all except Wen Ning, who in turn stood in front of A-Yuan.

"What the hell did you just do!?" The Jin sect leader persisted and Wei Ying rolled his eyes.

"So defensive. We were investigating you idiot peacock! Which is a lot more than what you were doing!" Wei Ying shot back at him with a glare.

"Please calm down, both of you." Zewu-jun placed himself between the two men with a gentle smile on his face. "Now is not the time to mistrust each other."

"I have every reason to mistrust him." Wei Ying glared and Zixuan's eyes grew wide with anger.

"As do I!"

A-Yuan couldn't listen to the rest of their fight. His head was killing him, even as he hummed to calm his mind. Nothing seemed to quieten the voices.

Wei Ying's voice grew louder in the background, but A-Yuan could barely hear it. He had stumbled away from the foot of the tree. Hands covering his ears as the voices started to scream. What they were saying A-Yuan no longer knew. He couldn't tell. It was just pure noise.

"Sizhui?" Zizhen had noticed his friends behavior and made his way over to him while the others focused on the adults' argument.

A-Yuan was barely aware of him as the older boy stood by his side. He was barely aware of anything that was happening outside of his head. The one thing he was aware of was the gut feeling he had in his stomach. The gut feeling to get the fuck out of the cave!

He opened his eyes and looked over at his father and Jin Zixuan. He looked at the group. Nothing was wrong, but something was definitely wrong.

"We... We need to go..." He grabbed Zizhen tightly. "Something is seriously wrong with this place..."

He was about to practically drag Zizhen over to where the rest of the group was, but before he could even take a step. Something made him stop.

The ground... The ground was... It was cracking...

"Stop! Stop fighting!" A-Yuan yelled. Fear had taken control. He was genuinely terrified because the minute he saw the tiny red crack appearing under their feet, the voices had stopped and all that could be heard was the venomous voices of his father and Jin Zixuan...