Chapter 27: A Sword Spirit's Adventure
Wei Ying
They left Lan Xichen's room holding hands and Wangji teleport him to the training island by talisman. Of course, they were the first ones there, as Xichen was going to summon the rest after he talked with the islands spirit Lord Zheng Xi. Been there alone, Wangji wasted no time in pulling him closer and kiss him.
To be honest with himself, Wei Ying was beginning to get addicted to his Lan Zhan's passion and care, to a point the young Lan could do with him anything he wished, including those things he already had fantasize about in his dreams. He was fine with having a hot male lover and more so, one who put him above all else.
Even if that was the first time he was attracted to a man, he could considered himself lucky, for taking the attention of the younger Jade at first sight, because he was more than sure, no woman will love him that way nor care for him as Lan Zhan does. He had just hit the jackpot no matter from which angle he look at it.
"My Lan Zhan..." Wei Ying whisper and they parted. He loved the way Lan Zhan's ears became red with blush, so he smiled at him so charmingly that the slight blush became deep red.
"You know, I got your brother's blessing..." Wei Ying said, placing his arms behind his back and moving his head at one side.
"That you have." Lan Zhan said simply.
"You know what that means, right?" Wei asked, moving backwards, several steps.
"That you are mine." Wangji said and Wei laughed, as his Lan Zhan was getting good at comebacks, however...
"I am, but more than that... it means..." Wei dashed the steps he gave back and jumped over Lan Zhan, who catch him effortlessly.
"It means that I have permission to take you away. We can elope at any time..." Wei whisper as he moved his head down to kiss his Lan, after Wangji smirked in agreement. Once the long kiss ended, Wangji let go of him and straightened his white robes, just before Song Lan showed up to meet them with a courtesy bow that both of them returned.
Thus, the rest came one by one until the group was completed. Then, Xichen along with Lord Zhen join them and take them to one of the place only the spirits of the immortals could reach on their own, inside the own dimension, where the white energy was the purest.
As soon as at they were in other side, Lan Zhan had to support Wei Ying, because a sudden wave of dizziness hit him hard. The heavy concentration of it, was having a toll on his sensitivity to spiritual energy. Wei Ying was very sure that was the place in which the immortals make their sacrifice to try restore the balance.
His head was assaulted with many residual memories from that time, but after a minute, they were gone and Lan Zhan help him walk toward a round pagoda in the center of the small stone island. Looking around, the place was filled with a night sky, full of shining stars and changing austral boreal lights crossing around the night. In the ground, everything was cover with a white mist, there was also a small greenish pool and a big plum tree next to the pagoda in full bloom.
There were a few others small islands floating around, mostly from the other immortals that gave their lives to try saving the world, but the one they were in, belonged to Lord Zheng. Wei Ying sat inside the pagoda, as the rest did, making a wide ring around a lone round stone table.
"Are you alright, Wei Wuxian?" Lord Zheng asked, knowing about his spiritual sensitivity.
"Yep, I'm fine now." He answer.
"Then lead the way, you are the talisman expert here." Xichen said, taking a sit by his brother.
"It's actually a simple process. Sword spirit are not affected by curses like we are, because just like Lord Zheng, they are not exactly alive. All swords spirit born from a concentration of white energy we embedded on our chosen sword, with a high level of cultivation. The energy stored inside the blade eventually gain awareness of itself and interact with it master, gaining personality, as it become stronger, to finally take a human form after cultivating energy on its own."
"The only reason Suibian was affected by the curse I was hit with, was because I have his blade on my hand and we were interacting, with our energies joined by our internal link, which make Suibian like an extension of myself, affecting him in the process for his link to me. If I had sensed the attack coming and let go of Suibian or close our link, he would not had been affected at all. The idea of this hunting is for them to go on their own, while we infuse their blades with the needed energy to stay out for longer periods of time and distance."
"One talisman will be placed on the blade, while a second one the spirits will carry it inside their robes. This will transfer the energy from us to them. As they are spirits, if there were to be troubles, we can summon them back to their blades unharmed, no matter the distance." Lord Zheng clapped.
"That's actually quite brilliant, Wuxian. You had a very good insight on the nature of spirits. Alright, make your talismans, I will gather the energy in here." Lord Zhen said as he sat over the round table in the center of the big pagoda and closing his eyes.
The swords spirits went out and this time, Xichen joined with Liebing. As it was the first time the rest of the spirits worked with Liebing, Bichen was tasked to keep him connected to their common link. They divided the sword spirits in small groups to check on the closer ruins around Gusu and they were teleported out the farthest they could.
Bichen, Liebing, Suibian and Sandu headed to the north, running toward the direction they were pointed out. As sprits, they could run long distance in a short period and as they got closer, they halted their dash to proceed with more caution. At first, there were no signs of corpses nearby, but as they walked deeper, things begin to chance. At some point, the thick forest was surrounded by an unnatural grayish mist.
"This is odd, the sun is shining out as strong as ever, no mist should be gather under the heat." Suibian said.
"But it does feels cold." Sandu said as he looked around.
"Suibian, be careful, there is a dark array close by, I can tell." Xuanyu said through their internal link.
"An array? What kind of array?" Suibian asked as he walked a bit more inside the forest.
"A magical one... Wei Ying may tell you more, my connection with you it's faint, I can barely reach you." Xuanyu whisper.
"Wei Ying? Do you know?" Suibian asked.
"I sense a barrier ahead of you... get a bit closer." Wei said internally and they walked further in until Wei Ying make him stop.
"There... it must be close. The feeling is stronger now. Look for talismans or writings, either in tree trunks or stones. It could be writing in cinnabar or something else, from black talismans to red or yellow." Wei Ying instructed and they split for a moment to look for the signs of the barrier.
Sandu walked to Suibian's right, carefully looking at everything that could be write on but saw nothing, until curiosity got the best of him and he looked up. There were at least four black talismans with red writing on them on the trunk of one tree.
"There... look up." Sandu told them and so they did.
"There is another set here." Liebing confirmed.
"Here too." Bichen said, as she looked up.
"Damn, those wicked things are everywhere up." Suibian confirmed.
"Suibian, copy the pattern in a blank talisman and seal it." Wei Ying told him and the sword spirit jumped up to a near branch to have a better look at it, then he keep jumping up until he was face to face with one.
"Bichen, pass on the information to the others." Wangji told her and she closed her eyes to have a talk with Fuxue, to pass the information to the rest of the spirits.
"Hum, Shuanghua... can you sense corpses were you are?" Suibian asked into their joined link.
"Many, but it's like they are contained." He said.
"Inside these barriers?" Bichen asked.
"Most likely." Fuxue confirmed.
"Senlin, is it the same for you?" Suibian asked.
"Yes, a barrier with black talismans about two miles from where the ruins were supposed to be." She reply.
"The same here." Suihua added.
"Should we enter and have a look at the inside?" Liebing asked Xichen.
"If you can, please be careful, all of you." Xichen warned them and so, they reunited and Suibian move his hand to touch the barrier, finding no resistance.
Apparently, the barrier was not meant to keep spirits out, just curios cultivators or hunters that dare go too far from their warded cities. Thus, they moved in and walked in a line with Suibian at the head and Liebing at the rear. They hear several corpses moving around, so they decided to jump to the highest trees to see if they could had a better look at what was ahead of them.
"Damn mist, I can't see anything..." Suibian cursed.
"Sent a human shaped talisman. I will take it from here." Wei Ying said and Suibian took out one red humanlike talisman already infused with Wei Ying's energy and throw it to the air.
"Good luck..." Subian whisper as he watched the little red thing glide over the tree tops.
Inside the spirits island, Wei Ying closed his eyes and concentrate, connecting himself with the previous infused talisman. He linked himself to the little talisman, as he did it when they were investigating the claw marks in town that lead them to the Cold Lake.
By his side, Lan Zhan was carefully observing him in his trance. Any sign of something going wrong and he was pulling Wei Ying out of it. In the other side, Wei Ying saw rows after rows of tree tops, as his little paper talisman glided far away. The mist was indeed odd, at certain point it was almost greenish and then, the forest ended and a set of ruins could be seen, not so far.
They were not rebuild and nature had call her rightful place in what was left of the once magnificent city, so he guessed that there was no one staying there in a while, which only make him wonder. Why was there a barrier?
The little talisman glide down and he had a better look at what was inside. Many corpses lurked around, so he hide behind the scattered ruins and observed them and as far as he could see all behaved like fierce ones, but they had dark veins all over the visible parts of their bodies. Also, their eyes were different color than normal, because just like Xuanyu, their eyes were deep red.
He ran deeper inside the ruins and saw a mark in a ruined wall. It was like the Clan's symbol that distinguish one from another, but none he had seen before. A red sun over clouds that it looked like it wanted to consume it all. Was that the symbols of the rogues? Was that their purpose? To rise over everything and be gods on earth? Wasn't that what Rouhan try it before? Was his madness really still alive after so many centuries?
He went in a little further and found the ruins of a temple that was the only thing that looked less mess up and as he go down the stairs, he saw the long rotten remains of someone over a stone table... a body of a villager most likely and there was a big symbol writing in blood around the table and several ones in the walls. Also there was a zither full of dust in a corner that stand out, it was black one with the same symbol of the consuming red sun and another huge half active red symbol in the ceiling.
Been so far from the roof, make Wei Ying run into another table full of dusty papers. He gave a look at them and read some, having a bigger picture of what was going on, then he focus on the bately active array in the ceiling, now that he had a clearer view of it, he was going to memorize it in full, but then, a hiding something got his talisman and ripped to shreds. Wei Ying wake up from his trance instantly, spitting some blood and Lan Zhan was holding him faster than he thought possible.
"Wei Ying! Are you alright?" Lan Zhan asked worriedly.
"Yeah... summon the spirits back. I know what they are trying now... come back, Suibian..." Wei Ying whisper, as he took out the talisman over the blade to summon his spirit back and the rest did the same.
"Then, what are they trying?" Xichen asked, as he looked at the young man his brother was holding.
"They are trying to summon back Rouhan's soul... so he can steal Yin's ability to manipulate darkness and set the world to ruins once more. They are trying to create a dark god." Wei said and the group looked at one another in utter shock.
"We are running out of time." Wei added, as Lan Zhan cleaned the blood from his mouth and nose with his fingers.
"Why so?" Lord Zheng asked.
"Because they almost got a scarifying curse that can summon any soul back, to transmigrate inside the one who offer the body. Once they complete the curse array, even if he was consumed by Taotie, it quite possible he will be summon back. After that, the newly reborn Rouhan, will had no mercy and as I see it, there is someone either from Clans specialized in music or connected to them in some way that are helping this group with their ambition. The one I found was just a test, a failed one. I'm sorry, Lord Xichen, but perhsps your Clan had been long betrayed, as it's the one closer to the ruins." Wei Ying said and Xichen widen his eyes, once again remembering what the seer had told him.
"Someone close to you will do great evil." Great evil, great evil, great evil... the words echoes inside his mind like piercing blades and he felt like his world was crumbling over him.
"Don't worry, Xichen... it's not like there is just one group working to destroy, there is another equally working to save it. Wei Wuxian's mother for example and the seer herself had been working for centuries to make the world right again. I think it's about time for the Clans to join forces again. Sent messages to all Clans, expect the Moling Su, sent them directly to the Clan leaders by spiritual butterflies. It's time to gather in the east and prepare for war." Lord Zheng said and Wei couldn't help but sigh.
He was going back home, along with the Lan that had steal his heart and with the good news of his mother found alive and protecting her family from the claws of darkness. Even if it was to plan a war, he had a reason to rejoice and a young man to seduce with both the freedom of his Clan and the love he had promise that will last a lifetime... well, if they manage to have one.
AN: Thank you my darlings. Valentine's drain me so much. I did soooo many gift wrapping my hands hurts, my feet hurts and my back was killing me, so I took yesterday off, to rest, but now I'm back. I know this one doesn't had all that much Wangxian, but I hope it was interesting enough. Until next time, take care and happy late Valentine's!🌹 😄😙💖💖
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