Never Let You Go, Again

32: Dark Reminiscences

The celestial blue was perturbed by smoky clouds slinking across the sky. The sun was nowhere to be seen, rendering the stratosphere and the lands below it ashen and gloomy. 'It will rain soon' some people were predicting.

A cool breeze drifted into a bustling inn. Townspeople and traders from Yunmeng were all gathered here, chattering among their own groups, grateful for the arrival of the great sects' disciples to save their ring of villages in time. A couple of businessmen drinking cheerfully at the front of the inn shivered as the cold draught of wind whistled past them.

On the contrary, three men in magnificent robes sat in another corner of the inn. Despite the cold, a golden fan flapped furiously in an attempt to dry away the sweat leaking all over the shortest of the three. Flap, flap, flap. Slam! The golden fan whacked the table. "Xuanji... Wei-xiong... Er-Ge... We better do something fast."

The two others just stared at the cups of wine in front of them. While Huaisang swirled his wine, plotting, conspiring, the man in purple robes grabbed the cup and swallowed all the wine through gritted teeth. Slamming the cup back on the table, his purple ring sparking incessantly, he continued to grit his teeth as he spoke. "I told Xichen. I told him to stay by my side. Did he listen? No. He had to stay with that idiot. And that idiot? He's no better off."

"Jiang-xiong," Nie Huaisang tapped the infuriated man's arm with his fan. "It's not their fault, and you know it. We need to find that Qingfei. That... that..."

"Whore." A voice more icy and cooler than the stormy wind outside floated into the ears of the other two, sending shivers down their spine.

"Ji-xiong?"

"That's what she is." Lan Wangji picked up his wine and gulped it all down in one go. Any other time, he'd have conked out then and there — but this was no other time. He could cope with the drink. He's used to it. Plus, there was no Wei Ying to handle and protect him this time.

"Right. She's a whore. A devil from hell," Jiang Wanyin barked as Zidian's energy built up.

"Hmph!" Nie Huaisang smirked. "You two don't forget, while Luo Qingfei's a devil, our Wei Wuxian's a daredevil! He won't let the three of them be manipulated easily," he said, opening his fan and flapping himself once again. "But we have to think of something. We're running out of time. That woman hates Er-Ge most. God knows what she'll–"

"If that bitch does anything to Xichen..." Zidian was reaching its limits. "She'll wish herself dead."

"Xiongzhang..." Lan Wangji propped his elbow on the table, leaning on his hand as his fingers pinched the bridge of his nose. The other clenched the empty cup. His xiongzhang... His sweetheart... Like Jiang Wanyin had said, that woman had just claimed her death certificate.

Jiang Wanyin bent towards the table, supporting his flushed face with both hands. A slow growl was building up within him and he was trying to sustain it.

Nie Huaisang had stopped flapping his fan and was subconsciously knocking the side of his head with it instead. "It can't be she has dungeons all over the land. We need to check out that earlier Zhen Xiuming's cavern. Track more of Jin Guangyao's hideouts. This snake. He won't let us be even after death!" He was mumbling. A few minutes passed by and the chatter around them multiplied. None spoke to these cultivators out of fear but all highly admired them for their help. They barely noticed that the Yiling Patriarch, Sect Leader Lan and Nie General were missing. As the commoners' whispers and exclamations increased in quantity and volume, purple sparks in one end of the room grew brighter and frequenter.

Suddenly, a drunk tradesman shouted at the top of his lungs. "So much for those thieves, couldn't take a penny–!"

CRASH! Jiang Wanyin had had enough. Purple Lightning flashed across the inn as the wrath of Zidian unleashed itself. "SHUT UP!" He shouted.