The Tamed

Rise of the Patriarch

His pair of light golden eyes set on the back of the figure cladded in a black and red robe. The soft habitual humming escaped Wei Ying's lips while he was strolling along the street full of variety of stalls. Wei Ying started wearing that ensemble the day after their stop at Gusu city, right after they left Cloud Recesses. At first, he was taken aback, and his heart twinged in pain. That attire instantly reminded of the broken one who stood at the edge of the cliff in Nightless City. For some reason, when Wei Ying zestfully asked his opinion on the new look with those starry eyes, he could only say 'good'. In fact, Wei Ying looked even better in those contrasting colors. Perhaps it was due to his own biased view of the 'crimes' of the only son from Jiang family that made him want Wei Ying to shed the robe with lotus motives and leave that clan. He rather had Wei Ying wear that black robe than a purple one. As long as Wei Ying was happy with it, he would be happy as well.

"Lan Zhan, hurry up." The red ribbon danced in the air on that windy nightfall when their eyes met. The yellow light from the hanging lanterns nearby bounced off that lovely well-proportioned facial feature gently, illuminating his clear skin and his gleeful expression. Wei Ying made yet another stop at a street food vendor stall.

Lan Wangji began to wonder the true purpose of this night-hunt because these past few days since they set off, he lost count on the stops they had made for food. He did say that he would treat Wei Ying with food, but he definitely did not see this coming. So far from day one, they had been to stalls that sold candied fruits, steamed buns, pastries, sweet desserts, porridges, noodles and so on. His tongue had been introduced with new flavors every time they made a pit stop in each city they passed by, not that he was complaining. As he was made to try new things, it gradually dawned unto him that Wei Ying was right about things that he had been missing out. There were more things out in the world to be explored and one of them was, food. He concluded; food-hunting would be the more appropriate term for this journey to the West.

Needless to say, they did not forget their main other objective and still did the hunting at night along the way. Following their prior agreements and as a safety measure, Wei Ying only used his dark cultivation with one hour limit per night as practice. Be that as it may, he still was filled with concerns whenever he saw that red eyes. To his relieve, Wei Ying was always in control so far. Therefore, he just kept a close watch while he went on with his own goal of perfecting his Chord Assassination Technique and only stepped in as and when it was necessary to do so. At the end of the night, he would play the mind-calming song for his partner. It was Wei Ying's own prerogative that he eagerly obliged.

When the day light was bright enough for people to do their business, Wei Ying would bring him around in search for more local specialties while gathering information on the unusual occurrence around the area with his brilliant social skills. When the night sky turned dark, they would wander around places where Wei Ying could feel the presence of resentful energies and evil spirits. Wei Ying had developed a skill, which he named as 'tingle sense' whatever that meant, as he got more sensitive to the voices of the spirits. According to him, the higher the resentment, the noisier they became. He could activate it while using the dark arts and he was able to block those noises out on a whim. Occasionally, he would dismiss the sudden appearance of a ghostly apparition or two with a command and a snap of his fingers (after a short series of cussing). For the time being, Wei Ying only used the flute to play the tune of 'Rest' to put the resentful beings he summoned, to an eternal slumber. Although, he did wonder if Wei Ying had learned the music score from the library as he never played that melody in Wei Ying's presence before.

That early evening, they arrived at Yang Ping town after five days of stop-go. He watched from the side as Wei Ying went to have a chat with the lady who owned the inn that they were staying. That person of his interest was as charming as usual, and his effervescent chattering alternated with soft laughter. His eyebrows twitched as he wondered what could be the topic that made him flashed his bedazzling charismas and made the lady owner all giggles and smiles.