The meaning of protecting you with my life

Broken promise

"Take them away!" Wen Ruohan ordered again, more impatiently, and the guards who were until then doing their best to hold the trashing prisoners in place started dragging them away in the direction of the dungeons.

Despite his exhaustion and his whole body being in so much pain he did not want to move ever again, Wei Wuxian shot to his feet immediately. He looked at the Qishan Wen sect leader and he understood that this must have been his intention from the very beginning, he had never intended to let his family leave this place. Now, he would use them as hostages to keep him by his side whether he wanted it or not, it was a kind of an ingenuous safety measure on his part. One that Wei Wuxian should have seen coming.

He saw red, his anger completely overtook him and he could feel how the resentful energy of this place started reacting to his emotions. It felt different than the resentment in the Burial Mounds, it was denser, more violent and fiercer if that was even possible. And it was so much harder to control and command! It must have been caused by the influence of the Yin iron.

No matter, Wei Wuxian pushed on, he still had to save the Jiangs by any means possible. And that he would do; he called upon the resentment and made it form a separate space around the Yunmeng Jiang clan members. He had seen how Jiang Cheng had been trying to free himself and he was glad, perhaps they could still win this fight and he can help his family to escape, never mind the consequences.

He knew they would be safe once they would make it past the main gate of the Nightless City palace. If his plan, or at least one part of it, was still working, Nie Huisang and the allied forces should already be waiting outside, high in the air on their swords, ready to dart down immediately and take the Jiangs away. All Wei Wuxian had to do now was to get the Yunmeng Jiang clan members outside of the room, everything would be fine from there. He trusted Nie Huisang's abilities, he would save his family where Wei Wuxian had failed to do so.

He focused some more, mobilizing all his last strength and every speck of his will that he could find. He fought the resentment every step of the way, making it obey him and start attacking the guards surrounding Jiang Cheng and the others. He would have liked to wreak havoc to the whole Nightless City, to the whole palace, or at the very least to the room they were in, but he simply could not. His body was once again betraying his will and he fell to his knees.

Every breath felt like it would be his last with how much effort it took to even get air into his lungs, yet, he persevered. He fought his eyes to stay open and his consciousness to not drift away from him, he could not permit himself to fail now. He could tell that the Jiang family members were fighting as well and it gave him hope. He just had to push on for one more second. Then everything would be over.

At last, he was really not able to keep going on, both because his exhausted body and mind simply refused to cooperate with him no matter how much he willed them to and because Wen Ruohan came down from his little podium and was now holding him in the air, his hand grabbing his throat and interrupting Wei Wuxian's last attempts at getting some oxygen into his lungs.

He could not care less about what was happening to him. His eyes were turned in the direction of the quickly dissipating wall of resentful energy. If he could, he would have given out a big sigh of relief when he saw that the Yunmeng Jiang clan was alright, a little more battered than before but standing on their feet, leaning onto each other and looking all around.

Jiang Cheng looked his way and Wei Wuxian saw horror and helplessness in his eyes. He tried to smile, not at all sure that he had managed it. He pushed the last of the air from his lungs in a desperate half shout, half whisper: "Run!"

He started crying for real when his brother did not argue with him and did not try to do anything else but what he had just been told to do. Jiang Cheng only nodded his head once and his lips were forming the words that Wei Wuxian did not know he wanted to hear desperately until they were out in the open: "I will come back for you."

Despite the dire situation, Wei Wuxian felt suddenly relaxed and happy. It warmed his chest to have the confirmation that while he would die for his family, Jiang Cheng also wanted to protect him in turn. He knew that it would not be possible as he would probably die in next moments. Still, it did nothing to dim the realization and his gratitude.

Wei Wuxian nodded back, trying to prompt his brother to finally start running away for real and Jiang Cheng did. He held Jiang Yanli closer to himself and helped his father to support his mother, dragging them away from the middle of the room, in the direction of the main gate leading outside. It could not have been called running at all, they were just stumbling around, limping as fast as they could, their backs more and more distant for Wei Wuxian.

The whole room was stunned and luckily, no one aside for one soldier tried to stop the fugitives. Wei Wuxian felt his vision getting blurry and black specks started appearing in the corners, yet he still saw that one man. With an almost lazy movement of his wrist, he commanded the resentful energy to hit him in the chest and effectively pushed him away from his brother's path. The man flew into the air and crashed down a few meters away.

Wei Wuxian felt satisfied watching his family finally making it to the main gate. Jiang Cheng let go of his mother long enough for him to open it and then they were all outside.

At that exact moment, seeing his family safely exit the room, Wei Wuxian finally gave in to his exhaustion and to the lack of oxygen, he closed his eyes, his consciousness fading. The last thing he heard, or perhaps he had just imagined it but he hoped it had been real, were sounds of wind as someone flew on their swords very quickly and a few unintelligible shouts. Then he knew nothing more.