Previous chapter:
"So.....who wants to be killed first ?"
" Wei Ying! "
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Now :
Before the dark smoke could engulf everyone or the first note could float in the air, a pair of hands grip an arm of the figure in the centre of the room and a hoarse voice pleads, " Wei Ying!"
Overcome with fury, Wei Wuxian whipped his head sideways to find a man in white plain robes, his hair down with pale features staring at him in panic.
" Wei Ying, you need to stop!" His voice was hoarse and almost like a whisper from not using it for a long time.
But Wei Wuxian can't stop, he won't .
" No" His voice sounded harsher even to his own ears but that might be just resentful energy speaking.
The elders thought it to be a nice time to open their mouth, which, Wei Ying had allowed only to get some answers.
Wrong timing.
" Wei Wuxian, stop this now! Do you know how big of a crime you are committing by attacking several elders of a Sect? Let us go!"
At this, Wei Wuxian turned his head at the elder who had spoken, Chenqing a nice weight in his hands.
" Oh..so me attacking you is a crime ? Just because you are an elder of a Sect? A Sect who worships righteousness and boats about justice and helping the needy in every breath of theirs, but turns its head away when it comes to act as such ? "
Another elder took this chance to open his mouth, " You cannot kill us!"
" Oh? And if I wish to, who will stop me, who dares to stop me ?"
The words were mocking, taunting time and people who had witnessed past and lived to tell the tale.
Raising Chenqing to his lips, he let the resentful air blow but before the first note could make it past the hollow of the flute, a pale hand grasped one of its ends.
The grip was strong but not so much that Wei Wuxian will have trouble in breaking free. It's a sign of warning, a touch of starter that there's strength there but the owner of that strength has yet to fully utilise them.
" Lan Zhan, let me go."
" No." The answer was instantaneous, like the speaker didn't have to think before speaking it out loud.
A test of patience.
" I am telling you Lan Zhan, don't test me now. Let. Me. Go!"
Lan Zhan doesn't. In fact, he just tightens his grip like he thinks he can stop Wei Wuxian from controlling the resentment if he wasn't able to play Chenqing.
Wei Wuxian showed Jin GuangYao why he was the Yilling Patriarch. He showed him and the world that he was the creator of a new path along the road previously tried by some.
The resentment was at his beck and call, ready to do his bidding with just a whistle or a flick of a finger. He didn't need Chenqing unless it was something big.
Thinking that maybe Lan Zhan didn't hear him before or just needed a clearer warning, he took a deep breath and repeated.
" I am saying this for the last time Lan Zhan, let me go or else..."
Still that foolish and stubborn man kept his grip strong as if afraid that if he released him, Wei Wuxian will create havoc.
Looks like something hasn't changed.
He still thinks I need to be controlled.
Later, Wei Wuxian would feel a mixture of guilt, worry, hatred, anger and loathe —all at once but in different directions. A dangerous mixture of emotions. The events a blur in his eyes but crystal clear in mind.
When Lan Wangji didn't budge from his position Wei Wuxian jerked his hand, throwing the other off balance and falling if not for two people who caught him. They called Lan Wangji's name in worry while Wei Wuxian became overcome with his buried emotions now freed, all forming and strengthening the resentful energy inside the hall.
The other two who held Lan Wangji didn't have to struggle to keep him in place because of their core strength. But suddenly a foot landed on one's left shoe while the other felt his jaw clamp painfully from the headbutt he received and so, they loosened their hold.
Before either of them could utter another word apart from a grunt of pain and shock, Lan Wangji had pushed Wei Wuxian who stumbled a bit only to see a blue streak of spiritual energy shot through the other while another wave of resentful energy came to blast in him from behind. He whistled sharply,but the smoke blasted in the back of Lan Wangji causing him to stagger and almost fall.
Wei Wuxian caught him with a shocked " Lan Zhan! No!"
He looked behind him to find that one of the elders pinned to the wall had managed to free his arm while Wei Wuxian's focus had wavered for a second on seeing Lan Wangji.
Taking advantage of their position the elder had shot the energy to attack Wei Wuxian but Lan Wangji had seen the blue at the last second only managing to make Wei Ying stagger sideways.
Behind Lan Wangji though, no one was free.
After the fiasco in the main hall, a worried and frantic Lan Xichen ran through the pathways of Cloud Recesses with an unconscious Lan Wangji in his arms, two more figures trailing behind him at a distance.
They reached Hanshi just like that and Lan Xichen placed his brother on the bed gingerly while a tense Sizhui informed him of the healer's arrival.
The healer took one glance at Lan Wangji and sighed. She ordered them to call another healer while she checked his meridians and made him sit and pushed his accupoints, making Lan Wangji vomit blood immediately. He opened his eyes at that and gasped quietly for a while with the healer murmuring some soft words and rubbing his back.
When the other healer arrived, he and the first healer had a silent conversation with their eyes and then got to work. For fifteen minutes, no one spoke. Just as they finished, the woman turned to Lan Xichen with a pinched expression.
" Zewu-Jun, please don't let Second Young Master Lan leave the bed for now. He must rest thoroughly. "
" He was attacked earlier. Did he get any wound or complications from that ?"
The healer's eyebrows furrowed at that and she turned towards the man still looking down at Lan Wangji lying on the bed with a confused expression.
"Surprisingly, he doesn't. I cannot detect anything wrong in him but there's definitely something. What was he attacked with ?"
" A shot of qi and resentful energy."
" And he didn't qi deviate at the spot ? Lao Zhu, that's strange. " The female healer asked Lao Zhu, who furrowed his brows more and hummed in thought.
" That's interesting. But dangerous too. According to general theory, he should either have qi deviated or burnt his veins from excessive qi but neither of them seem to have happened in some twisted miraculous way. What was the nature of qi you said ?"
" One spiritual and another resentful. "
Lan Xichen was going to have a headache for sure.
Just then another voice spoke " He wouldn't."
The three of them turned towards the door to see a frantic and vibrating Wei Wuxian standing there with his gaze fixed on the sleeping figure. He didn't look at anyone except Lan Wangji who was unaware of the blatant staring.
While Wei Ying walked towards the bed, he talked, explaining and answering the silent question of the two healers.
" He might have qi deviated but." Putting two fingers on the inside of his wrist, Wei Ying closed his eyes; concentrating and focusing on the flow of qi.
" But what Wei gonzi ?"
Lan Xichen was, probably for the first time in his life impatient. You can't blame him though.
Since two weeks he had been trying to find out what was wrong with his didi with no clue or hint except that the Meili sect hier had made him drink some concoction or potion whatever, but they didn't have the concoction or any clue as to how it was made.
The healer who was captured along with other cultivators in the forest had been mute ever since they brought him to Cloud Recesses.
Jiang Wanyin had held the other captives himself saying he needed them for something . But what that something was, he didn't disclose.
Also, none of the disciples had seen what exactly happened but they had a hunch. Sizhui had turned grim and silent when asked about it with Jingyi murmuring something and then shaking his head but nothing coherent. Jin Ling was not here, having stayed back at Lotus Pier.
Coming back to the present, Lan Xichen stared at Wei Wuxian, the only person who had been there but Lan Xichen hadn't talked to properly about the incident.
Maybe after this...
Wei Wuxian still had his eyes closed and a frown had appeared between his brows while he spoke, " He wouldn't have burnt his veins."
Before anyone could contradict him, Wei Ying continued, " That's because there's no spiritual energy flowing in his veins to heat them. His energy appears to be locked but it's there. "
Lan Xichen froze. No spiritual energy in his veins. His baby brother, who was one of the greatest cultivators of their generation had no spiritual energy flowing in his veins. He stumbled a bit but Sizhui caught his arm, leading him to sit down. He was saying something but Lan Xichen's ears were ringing.
He couldn't sense anything and only his brother lying there, clueless to everything and sleeping soundly was visible.
Is this how Jiang Wanyin felt when he got to know that his brother had actually given up his core ? How much turmoil he must have felt knowing that he was the reason behind it. That the only reason as to why Wei Wuxian, the rival and equal of Lan Wangji had given up his excellent sword skills just because he had drowned in a sea of depression ?
Lan Xichen knew that his situation was entirely different from Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian, and he could never relate to their situation.
His situation was as similar to theirs as the possibility of two parallel lines meeting.
But heavens above, he had never thought that he will hear those words ever. But Wei Wuxian's eyes, now open were blank. Like a vast ocean of grey which had witnessed every age in its wake silently, without any words; all the while aging but never ending.
Suddenly, Wei Wuxian really looked like someone who had lived two lives, the person who had seen and experienced so much more than others. Can Wei Wuxian relate to Lan Xichen's brother's situation? After all, he had also lost his golden core. He had also seen his younger brother losing his golden core. Had given up his own bright future for said brother. Can he also feel it ?
Wei Wuxian chose that moment to speak " I can feel a bit of spiritual energy but that's just the normal qi. There's no response from his core."
" Do you even know what to look for ?"
The man who had been frowning ever since Wei Ying came into the room asked. His tone very much suggested the answer he expected but Wei Ying had never stood on any stranger's expectations, maybe the man ought to learn that.
Wei Ying rolled his eyes. " Daifu, no offense but your methods as excellent as they are, do not welcome ideas. You send a bit of your own qi and determine a cultivator's health according to the response your qi gets from their own. But there's a major flaw in that. Your qi searches for the qi of it's own nature and sealed qi/core as you call it will never respond to your energy. "
" Why is that ?"
" It's very simple. Think of a house which has been abandoned for years. You are to find if there's any one in there who can respond. What will you find ?"
The male healer looked offended from the way he was being addressed but the woman spoke curiously " In normal circumstances if the house was abandoned only a few weeks ago or moths ago, maybe I will search the house. Even after years though, I could find some vagabond there for a rest. "
" What if I ask you to find the family who died in it ?"
" That's absurd. Obviously, the house will be empty. "
" A spirit!" Lan Sizhui exclaimed and Wei Wuxian clapped. " That's it! Correct. A spirit can be found in the house. A house maybe empty of people but at least one spirit lingers in such houses abandoned years ago where a family died. "
At this, Wei Wuxian turned to the healers,
" Since you are a healer who follows a single etched path, you couldn't find what I could. Lan Sizhui is a cultivator of GusuLan clan and so he knows music cultivation. Other cultivators may not find anything but he will as he knows how to talk with spirits. "
" But how did you.....?" Lan ZhouBan had never heard of such things. She had always known that the Yilling Patriarch was someone who raised the dead and cultivated an unorthodox path but never someone who knew so much about medicine.
" Let's just say, some memories are hard to forget." Wei Wuxian said with a rueful smile.
Lan Wangji woke up to people arguing. Uh..what was with people arguing these days ? Everyone seems busy to yell or advocate something, his peace has been taken hostage by these people. He needs it back.
Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was Wei Ying standing in front of his bed and wisher yelling at someone. The other person sounds gruff....is it shufu ?
Just then he saw Wei Ying vibrating and his hand moves before he can think.
Lan Qiren was never in Wei Wuxian's list of decent people, now he might be added in his list of 'worst stuffed and snobby people ever met' .
The old man had the gal the to come in Hanshi when only a few hour or was it minutes ? Wei Wuxian doesn't know but he knows that earlier the Lan elder had looked almost on the verge of qi deviation. But now he was here.
Before he could show Lan Qiren a glimpse of what he had planned, Wei Wuxian felt a tug on his robes and turned to find golden eyes staring at him.
Leaving all negative thoughts except one, he said through gritted teeth " Lan xiansheng, I don't want Lan Zhan to witness something horrible today, at least not more than he had seen. So do us all a favour and get out.
Lan Qiren looked red and ready to argue but Lan Xichen intervened before the matter could transform into something more violent.
" Shufu, you need to go."
Lan Xichen wasn't looking at him, but the Grandmaster still glared at his first nephew before storming out.
" Wei Ying.."
As soon as Lan Qiren was out, Wei Wuxian lost all pretense of fury and dropped down so fast, Sizhui was worried he will knock his knees.
But Wei Ying could care less. His eyes formed tears and with an overwhelming voice he started rambling," Lan Zhan, I am sorry! I am sorry, I am sorry Lan Zhan. Please forgive me! Please, please, please! I promise I didn't mean to throw you away or hurt you! Lan Zhan you have to believe me! I swear, I didn't! Just don't get angry—"
He stopped for a minute, a frown visible on his face and then said with a more steady voice,
" Or wait. Please do get angry. Or better yet, don't forgive me easily! Yes, your Lan Clan is really fond on punishing people, correct ? You have punished me before though I didn't deserve it back then, but punish me now. I promise I will copy the rules thousand times and kneel and handstand for as long as you wish! If that's not enough, ask your brother to punish me! "
At this he turned to Lan Xichen, who looked unprepared at the sudden responsibility and involvement in Wei Wuxian's monologue.
But Wei Ying didn't give him a chance to open his mouth at all and turned to Lan Wangji once again.
" Tell me Lan Zhan....please...anything. Just don't stay silent. "
Lan Wangji though seemed to have other ideas. He blinked furiously at being bombarded with the lengthy apology and Wei Ying's wish to take punishment. His brain was malfunctioning, he was sure of that.
Wei Ying hated copying rules and any punishment.
Why was he suddenly asking for it ?
He tried processing it all but then saw Sizhui shaking his head in his periphery.
In front of him, Wei Ying's face was adorable. His eyes had widened a bit and his lower lip was pursed with his chin proped on his hands where he rested them in Lan Wangji's own.
" Wei Ying....no need. "
Seeing that Wei Ying was going to argue, Lan Wangji tried again softly,
" Don't. Please, you are tense. "
And Wei Wuxian could upturn the world, scare the demons of the hell, make the Sect leaders kowtow but Lan Wangji's please and smile was something he could never win against.
So he hummed and relaxed, for now at least.
" Hmm...as you wish Lan Zhan. "
The day was spent like that.
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23 July, 2021
Published :25-26 July, 2021