Brother in Laws ||Mo Dao Zu Shi||

Chapter 100: - Distant Voice - III

I'm alive.

Very sorry.

I end up in a mental slump at this point of the year. However, it was really bad this year. I haven't had many depressive thoughts since three years ago, but it really sucked this year.I'm also extremely busy and have so much work to do T-T

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Lotus Pier was a place of lavish noises and colors. A warm and loud environment bustling with activity and laughter. The swishes of purple robes had only ever fit the mood of their pier, a beautiful symbol among the petals of their flower and the droplets of their rivers. Disciples of the Jiang Sect were often seen playing with the young kids who snuck over to the training grounds to watch as the cultivators trained. To enter the pier of Lotuses was to enter yourself into an environment of joy.

No matter what, it had always been the case.

The people and the sect were closest than any other Great Sect. The Jiang's were rangers who grew and adapted to the winds and waters, the scents and sounds. The lotuses were the stars of the watery sky.

A painting of serenity and peace.

The silence and tension wafting around the residence of the Sect was out of place. An anomaly. And an anomaly drew attention. And as their rivers, the tension and whispers reached the concerned ears of the people.

Their head disciple had refused to share meals let alone casual conversation with the Sect Leaders. Wei WuXian had refused to speak about anything other than whatever had been causing this. Their head disciple, their once bubbly warm and ever smiling head disciple had turned as cold as the power he wielded. The healing home as tense as it was years before.

The disciples suffer the blows of it the most. They are bore witness to the attempts of conversation between their leaders and da-shixiong, only for the two to receive cold glares and scoffs. Wei WuXian's training is harsh, his mood spiraling out of his control and his tone strict. He is, of course, still their da-shixiong. He still gives rare small smiles and assists them individually, but it is not fun or welcoming as before.

The disciples are also witnesses to the poor fate of their heir. Jiang Cheng who seems to be the only remaining bridge–despite being a weakened bridge–between his parents and his brother. Their heir, who is brashy and impulsive, quick to annoy and yet fiercely protective of what he calls his, has dark circles under his eyes and goes painfully still when Wei WuXian and his parents meet. It is too familiar to the older disciples and servants. Too familiar that they cannot help but fear.

So the rumors circle and spread until they trickle out of Yunmeng and into the cultivation world. Whispers of tension within the Jiang Sect ranks causes ripples of shock and disbelief. Many ignore such hearsay for all who have seen the Jiang Clan in the past few years know it to be one of the most whole and stable of the Great Sects.

Jiang Yanli is one such person. When she hears the first rumor, she frowns and ignores it. Then she hears a second and a third and then twenty. Koi Tower catches rumors like a fisherman catches fish. So she cannot help but ask her husband, who gives her a frown and speaks carefully, "Yes...I have heard the rumors. I sent out some correspondence to Huisang and WangJi if they have heard anything from A-Xian or A-Cheng, but there is nothing,"

"Have they both attempted communication with A-Xian or A-Cheng? No one from Yunmeng has even thought to inform me..." Jiang Yanli's expression falls further.

"Yes, A-Li. Neither got a response, well...from A-Xian. A-Cheng merely said that he's uncertain of all the details and even the ones he knows are rather confusing and...abrupt"