Ch 33: Victory is reserved…

Lan Zhan had landed amongst chaos in front of the Library Pavilion. Sizhui had been right to ask for help, and he hadn't been exaggerating when he had said the mob of cultivators was perilously close to the Library Pavilion. Not that SiZhui would exaggerate at times like this, he might have gone through the ceremony to acknowledge him as an adult now but he knew being stupid would still earn him a hard look from one father or a smack round the head from the other. Having not had a response yet from his message to his brother, he could only hope he was too busy fighting his own battles to respond and not…...No he couldn't let himself think like that. What he needed to do right now was focus. Luckily the invading cultivators had formed a semi circle around SiZhui who had Jingyi at his side, which wasn't surprising as the two were as inseparable now as they had been as children. Still two youths who had barely reached adulthood was hardly a fair fight against a group of mature men with bloodlust raging through them. He had landed outside this circle, to the rear, and even though the two Lan disciples could clearly see him arrive they knew enough not to give away his position.

Slowly, making sure not to make a sound, he rested Bichen on the ground and removed his Zither from where it hung ever ready in its travel pouch on his back. The instrument was elegant with smooth, clean lines, and the sounds coming from it could be wonderful to the ears. That made many people forget that it was also a weapon of war when used in the right hands, HIS hands. He couldn't send out a sound that would physically blast the men away, he would risk harming the library itself. Instead he would go for something more subtle. With a nods towards the disciples who quickly covered their ears, Lan Zhan let out a high pitched, long tone that made all the unprotected men cup their ears and fall to the floor in agony. Swords, and other weapons lay dis-guarded as each man rolled around on the cobblestones trying to get away from the sound.

At another nod from Lan Zhan both SiZhui and JingYi stepped forwards and began collecting the weapons, the sound was now purposefully lower but still the two youngsters winced and grimaced as they walked. Some of the cultivators saw what was happening and tried to grab hold of their weapons once again, only to have either of the Lan pair slice into their arm or leg, not fatally, but causing enough pain to take their minds momentarily off of their own weapons. Only after all the weapons were carefully out of reach did Lan Zhan put away his zither, with a careful swipe of his hand, and once again pick up Bichen. These people had invaded his home, literally. He intended to have a little chat with some of them. Both JingYi and SiZhui saw the subtle change upon their leaders face and backed away slightly, it was rare to see any kind of anger on Lan Zhan's face but once their the two knew he must be furious.

The door had been barricaded, he didn't know by how many people where around but it seemed like every time he tried to fight his way out no matter how many he wounded more stood in their place. Lan XiChen stood in the centre of his office, blood seeping from a wound on his wrist and a slice to his side, where he hadn't been quick enough to avoid two blades at once. He had received Wanji's message about the intruders at the JingShi, he had also received one from SiZhui about numerous intruders surrounding the Library. He had shivered at the second message with the memory of it, remembering what it once nearly cost all of them to rescue the books that building contained. He didn't believe for one moment that there wasn't someone behind this intrusion, someone placing the pieces for maximum effect. And whoever that someone was, knew enough about him to know that aiming at the library would be effective. That even after all these years the fact that he had left his brother and Uncle to face the threat alone had not gone out of his mind.

Still he had to be the Sect leader they needed, he had to remain in place and guide the fight as well as he could from here. Also in doing so he could keep some of the invaders away from the fight as they had to guard his door, they wouldn't know he had no intention of leaving. As butterfly messages came to him he began to get a clearer idea of who was where, both ally and enemy. His first thought was to make sure his brother, brother in law and nephew where protected but part of him knew that both Wanji and Wei Ying would make sure each other were safe, and they both would make sure of SiZhui's safety. No, he had to worry about every BUT those three. He still had the visiting Sect Leaders on his property, whoever this was surely would not give up the chance to kill off ALL the Sect Leaders so easily.

Jiang Cheng faced the huddled Sect Leaders. They had finally made it into one room but were surrounded by men dressed in various Sect colours. One of the colours he noticed as belonging to the clan with the big mouthed Sect Leader who thought it was a great idea to have a verbal sparing match with his brother. When will people learn that his most effective weapon is his mouth…...he wondered dryly. No matter what had happened between the two though, it had happened a matter of hours ago. There was no way a leader of a small Sect could have gained the support of this many other Sects in such a small amount of time AND figured a way through the Lan's wards. No, this had been panned long in advance. Although all of the visiting Sect Leaders had managed to get together in one place now, after some fierce fighting, none of them had been able to get hold of any of the leaders of the Lan. If that wasn't bad enough some of the Sect Leaders, and most of the healers were old and past there fighting years, this meant they needed to be protected rather than actually fighting.

Not for the first time Jiang Cheng cursed the fact that the YunMeng Sect didn't have anything like the message butterflies of the Lan. He had no way of contacting his brother or ZeWu Jun so he had no way of knowing what was going on elsewhere in the Cloud Reccess or telling them where he was currently hiding, all he could do was try to protect the rest of the Sect Leaders until help came from somewhere. As he straightened himself further up he turned his face as much as he could to see as many of the men grouped in the room as possible.

'Ok we need to make a plan to get ourselves out of here. Obviously these people are aiming at the Lan otherwise they would be here to help us already.' He said with as much authority as possible.

'Who put you in charge?' An elderly Sect Leader spoke from the back. A man who already had sustained injuries from a previous skirmish, his sword had blood on it but his hand was shaking from the effort to keep it raised.

Jiang Cheng didn't have the patience to speak to the men with the respect due.

'Because someone has to!' He shouted. 'And my brother is here, so are both my brother-in-law's and nephew, and yet I'm still here trying to help you all instead of going to help them!'

No one spoke. No one could really counter the truth of the statement. Instead they simply stood as Jiang Cheng lead the way to decide how they would approach the problem.

The air was frigid and the he could swear their was ice surrounding him. His hands where shaking uncontrollably on his ears, and only part of that was from the freezing temperature. The scene in front of him was terrifying. When HE had mentioned defeating Wei WuXian and the Lan's on their own territory it had seemed like a great chance to knock the insufferable Lan's down a peg or two. However looking at what was happening in the courtyard he had to think that maybe it wasn't such a great idea. The haunting melody coming from the ghost flute had half of his men in some kind of trance. As soon as the tune had begun, men had begun walking away from their places at the sides of the courtyard towards the centre. The first men had arrived in front of the YiLing Patriarch only to be soundly knocked to the floor by the Ghost General who stood guard by his side. For some reason once those first people had been been knocked unconscious a second few had begun moving forwards, then a third, then fourth!

The red eyes of the YiLing Patriarch seemed to be glowing brighter than they had an hour earlier. Those men that had covered their ears to fend of the music assault were now shivering like himself, yet neither of the demons in the centre of the courtyard had moved, they seemed happy to stand there until the men died of fear, cold or by walking into the range of the Ghost Generals deadly fists. He himself had tried to move a few times, tried to get away, but he was unable to. It was as if his feet had been frozen to the ground. All he could do was hold his nerve, and his ground, until the others completed their own duties with the various Sect Leaders and came to back him up. After all they just had to deal with cultivators, he had to deal with a demon!

Lan XiChen sent off another butterfly message to one of his disciples, informing them to check on his uncle in his seclusion and make sure none of the enemy cultivators could find the famous elder of the Clan. It would be a big blow if Lan QiRen was found, especially as he knew nothing about what was going on. He had stopped trying to fight his way out of the office and moved back around his desk, sitting at the small but graceful wooden desk while putting dots of ink signalling where people were as he got updates. The only people who had not sent him any update at all where his brother and brother-in-law, although that in itself didn't worry him. Wei Ying was probably causing trouble somewhere, and Wanji was probably enjoying himself along with him.