The Sorcerer's Revenge

Chapter Three

Lan Wangji had been instructed to sit down with his hands placed on his thighs where Wei Wuxian could see them when they all entered the cave. Wen Ning set Bichen and Wangji down on a table where Wei Wuxian had most of the inventions he'd been working on. Lan Wangji stayed silent throughout this but watched Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning for any threat of any kind toward himself. Wei Wuxian said no harm could come of him, but that didn't mean the child or Wen Ning wouldn't do anything.

Wen Ning walked back over to Yuan who was standing slightly behind Wei Wuxian, near the entrance of the cave. Wei Wuxian smirked walking up to Lan Wangji and began twirling Chenqing between his fingers. The tension in the air was still thick and his shoulders were visibly tensed.

"Lan Zhan, please relax, no harm will come to you, well unless you give me a reason to," Wei Wuxian said looking down at him.

Lan Wangji just stared up at him, how could he relax, he was in the Burial Mounds with an extremely dangerous fierce corpse and a famed dangerous demonic cultivator watching his every move. Like a hawk watching its prey from the sky.

"You've done nothing to warrant concern for my sect and home so all I want is for you to answer some questions," Wei Wuxian said after not receiving a reply from the other man.

Lan Wangji nodded once looking up into the man's eyes, staring daggers into his. He was slowly losing the tension in his shoulders but stayed on guard. Wei Wuxian wasn't going to hurt him, well at least not yet. 

"Three days have passed and it's strange you know," Wei Wuxian started, walking back and forth in front of Lan Wangji, "the cultivation sects have not come to the Burial Mounds yet. I assume you would have told them that I'd been found in Yiling. Why haven't they arrived yet?"

Lan Wangji shook his head, "No, I didn't tell anyone. I didn't even tell my brother or my uncle."

Wei Wuxian paused in his pacing and twirling of Chenqing to look at Lan Wangji from the corner of his eye trying to find any sign of lying but found none. But that didn't necessarily mean Lan Wangji wasn't lying, the man was like a walking stone statue, facial expression and body rarely moving unless necessary.

"Okay," He began again, "let's say you're telling me the truth and I'll believe you just this one. Then tell me, why did you come back here?"

Lan Wangji was silent again, he still hadn't been sure how he could explain that he knew something was off about the death of Qionqi Way and the night in Nevernight City before Wei Wuxian disappeared. He had zero information, zero evidence and he wasn't even sure what was 'off' about those days.

Wei Wuxian stared at him, daring him to lie, daring him to start a fight. He was being quiet for too long for someone who was being interrogated.

"I don't know," He finally answered and looked away from him. Bad choice.

"Try again," Wei Wuxian spoke and turned to face Lan Wangji completely. Lowering his arms to his side, red tassel and lotus pendant swinging around from the movement. "You came all the way here, it can't be another night hunt. You'd have said so, so tell me, why are you here?"

Lan Wangji didn't look back up at him, he felt as if he couldn't. The piercing gaze of those grey eyes was harsh and intimidating and that was saying something. Lan Wangji wasn't even intimidated by the mutated snake on Muxi Mountain several years ago, way before Lady Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan even got married. Why was he intimidated by another man, who he knew he could take on in a fight with comparable skills.

"Lan Zhan, I don't have much patience but yous should know that. And it's running thin, very thin, at the moment," Wei Wuxian said, voice lowering in pitch. He stepped closer to Lan Wangji, each step thickening the tension in the air.