They say these mountains used to belong to a great sect, that others would come from all over to learn its disciplines. That it held the world's greatest cultivators, that the secret to the strength of their golden cores was in the cold springs that ran through their home. They aren't wrong - the cold springs are the source of their power, though the Lans have never been human. Gradually, the world changed, and Cloud Recesses has been abandoned for a long time.

Or at least, the world at large thinks it's been abandoned, but Lan Xichen's clan is still very much here. People come to visit, sometimes, and are either turned away or granted access to some of the Lan power - depending on the mood of the disciple who finds them. No one's come in a while, though, and they've been slumbering for some time.

Lan Xichen'd only stirred when he'd felt the vibrations that came from the wards they'd placed on the area - it's his turn to be on guard, and so he untangles himself from his brother's sleeping form and slips into the springs, using the water ways to travel to where the ward had been crossed. It's a cave some distance away, and the storm that rages outside gives him a pretty good idea for why someone might have taken refuge in it.

It's been a while, but he still remembers how to slip into a human form as he slides out of the springs, approaching the young man in the cave.

"Are you lost?"