Zhang Fu Xian nets - golden-threaded nets Jin Ling uses on night-hunts, translated as 'deity-binding nets'
zongzhu - Sect Leader
Jin Ling could finally see the gates to Lotus Pier in the distance.
As soon as the guards saw him, they immediately sent a disciple to no doubt alert their leader.
Before Jin Ling could think about what to say, the purple-robed figure was storming out of Lotus Pier towards him.
At the sight of Jin Ling covered in blood with the again-unconscious Wei Wuxian on his back, he looked like he was about to lose his mind.
'What happened? A-Ling, we need to get you—'
He cut him off. 'Take him in and get him the doctor, please, even if you don't like him, he saved my life…'
'Saved your life? What happened?' His uncle's eyes landed on the YunmengJiang bell, still clutched in Wei Wuxian's hand.
Jin Ling hurried, 'no time to explain, just take him in, I need to send for people from the Jin Sect, Lan Sect and Nie Sect to come for a meeting.'
'What exactly happened?' He demanded, eyes still locked on the bell in Wei Wuxian's hand.
'I was ambushed, I signalled him, I have them trapped in Zhang Fu Xian—'
His uncle roared incredulously, 'you were ambushed and didn't signal me? You signalled Wei Wuxian?'
He had neither the time nor the energy to have this conversation with his uncle. Handing Wei Wuxian over to two seniors who had come to take him over, he left to send a message to the sects. He gave a one-sentence explanation to the GusuLan Sect and the QingheNie Sect, and only told the seniors from the LanlingJin Sect an emergency meeting was to take place. He wasn't sure where anyone's interests lay, and it was better no one tried to free the ambushers from where he left them.
When he came back, he decided to check on Wei Wuxian before tending to his own injuries.
He followed the directions of one of the disciples to the room where Wei Wuxian had been taken, and stopped in his tracks as his uncle's voice travelled from inside the room.
'Wei Wuxian!'
Oh no. Of the billion things running through his head and the million things he had to deal with, he did not need conflict between his terrible-tempered uncle and the terribly injured Wei Wuxian added to the list. He quickened his steps and cracked the door open.
'Get up! I'm gonna slap you!' Jin Ling's hand froze on the doorknob. His words were threatening, but Jin Ling had grown up with his uncle's threats undertoned with various emotions. He could easily hear the way his uncle's voice was shaking. His uncle wasn't there to pick a fight with Wei Wuxian. He was sitting by the bed, passing Wei Wuxian spiritual energy.
Feeling his heart twist, he quietly shut the door and turned away before his uncle saw him.
As he was about to find stuff to tend to his injuries, a few shadows caught his attention. Around the corner were six YunmengJiang juniors with their ears against the wall to the room where his uncle was sitting with Wei Wuxian. They were the same juniors who had been bullying Master Hu. On a day like this, how dare they shamelessly eavesdrop on his uncle in such a moment!
All his pain erupted in anger as he roared, 'what do you think you're doing eavesdropping on my uncle?'
'Jin- Jin zongzhu.' The boys hastily saluted him.
'Don't Jin zongzhu me! Get the hell away from here before I whip you myself!' As he roared, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
'Jin zongzhu…' The boy seemed genuinely concerned, which in this moment only enraged Jin Ling more.
'I don't need your concern! Get the hell away from here!'
He was in no shape to whip anyone, but the boys seemed to remember he was not only a Sect Leader but their Sect Leader's nephew. One by one, they picked up their swords and began to scurry away.
'He… He's Wei Wuxian? The Yiling Patriarch?' One of them had the nerve to say within his earshot.
Jin Ling seethed, 'if I were him, I would have torn all of you fuckwits to shreds in that alley.'
There was cold satisfaction in watching the boys freeze and stare at one another as they remembered the way they unwittingly attacked the Yiling Patriarch, and what he could have done to them if he'd wanted to.
'That's right,' he called after them, 'bother Master Hu again and the Yiling Patriarch will personally deal with you.' He would be alive to do so. He would have to be.
-x-
A Sect Leader should not stand awkwardly outside the gates of another sect, fumbling to tend to his injuries with ointments and herbs he was not sure he was using correctly. Jin Ling could feel the guards glancing uneasily at him, after he'd used his 'Sect Leader's nephew' status to stop them from sending for the doctor or his uncle.
He didn't have much of a choice.
As soon as Hanguang-Jun arrived, Jin Ling had bolted from the wing where Wei Wuxian was. He didn't know where he was going, all he knew was his uncle would soon emerge from that room and descend upon him.
He was lucky the LanlingJin seniors were the last to arrive. Before they could begin interrogating him, he led them along with Sect Leader Lan and Sect Leader Nie to the room where Wei Wuxian was.
If Wei Wuxian was awake, he could help him tell the seniors what happened.
If Wei Wuxian wasn't, he would still want Hanguang-Jun to be with him as he explain what had happened. Of everyone here besides his uncle, Hanguang-Jun was the one whose support he could count on.
Either way, the interrogation would be happening in the not-large-enough-for-a-dozen-men bedroom.
On the bed was Wei Wuxian, looking half-awake wrapped in Hanguang-Jun's arms.
Seeing Jin Ling enter the room, Wei Wuxian tried to sit up. But as soon as he moved, he collapsed again into Hanguang-Jun's arms, wincing.
'You can stay there.' Jin Ling diverted his eyes to the wall, not before he noticed the streaks on both of their faces. He swallowed, managing, 'it's nothing we haven't had to put up with before.'
Sect Leaders gathered in one room, Wei Wuxian collapsed in Hanguang-Jun's arms, a miserable Jin Ling. The scene indeed brought uncomfortable déjà vu for everyone who remembered the Guanyin Temple. There were even half a dozen hostile LanlingJin disciples to complete the grim scene.
One of them spoke, 'You little brat better have a good explanation for dragging us out here at the crack of dawn!'
Another added, 'You better not be calling a multi-Sect meeting over 'corpse noises' and 'scared villagers'!'
'Watch how you speak to your Sect Leader.' Jin Ling's uncle seethed.
'Let me explain!' Jin Ling hurried to stop a fight between his uncle and the LanlingJin seniors. 'Senior Jin, Senior Kong and their disciples ambushed me when I was night-hunting last night. Senior Wei came to my aid. We now have the disciples trapped in Zhang Fu Xian nets on those grounds.'
Questioning eyes landed on Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian shrugged, 'I can hear and feel the dead. I noticed unnatural corpse activity as I happened by, so I went to check it out. I saw a group of LanlingJin men ambush Sect Leader Jin, so I saved him. And unfortunately got stabbed by one of them.' Wei Wuxian was probably the only men in history to shrug and pout in an attempted-murder interrogation.
If Jin Ling was avoiding his uncle's eyes before, he was further-avoiding his uncle's eyes now. Wei Wuxian was downplaying their relationship, no doubt trying to minimise trouble for him. While the LanlingJin seniors and Sect Leader Nie might have believed it, he'd already told his uncle he'd signalled Wei Wuxian. Fuck. That's the story I should have told.
'What was the Yiling Patriarch doing out here in Yunmeng of all places?'
'Good question. I had a meeting with Sect Leader Jin scheduled for today.' Wei Wuxian took the manuscripts out of his chest.
'I was taking a walk around Lanling when I heard some corpse whispers. I followed them to this row of long black houses and this steel-fenced square. Based on what I found in there,' Wei Wuxian held up a few pages of the manuscript, 'I'm guessing it's Xue Yang's corpse training grounds.'
'I sent men to clean up those grounds as soon as I became Sect Leader!' Jin Ling protested.
Wei Wuxian looked up. 'Sect Leader Jin, may I ask who was responsible for cleaning up those grounds?'
'The team led by Senior Jin and Senior Kong...' Jin Ling realised, 'the same team who ambushed me last night.'
Sect Leader Lan spoke, 'Could we please see these manuscripts?'
Wei Wuxian held up a few pages, 'These are my manuscripts from when I invented ghostly - not demonic - cultivation.' He flipped through a few pages, 'These manuscripts detail the recreation of the Yin Tiger Amulet, and experimentation on living people for true demonic cultivation; these must have been Xue Yang's manuscripts. The annotations on these manuscripts are fresh.' He flipped through another few pages, 'these manuscripts are written in the same handwriting as these annotations. Whoever's been working on these manuscripts have figured out how to raise corpses, but not how to control them.'
Everything began to make sense. 'Gentlemen. Do you all remember the townspeople who were complaining of strange noises in that outskirt of Lanling City? Senior Jin and Senior Kong strongly opposed sending people to investigate. I'm sure you all recognise Senior Kong's handwriting.'
The LanlingJin seniors passed a few sheets of the manuscripts among themselves, none speaking to contradict him.
Before Jin Ling could let out a sign of relief, one of them demanded, 'You're telling us the Yiling Patriarch called you to report practitioners of his own path?'
'Firstly,' Wei Wuxian spoke before Jin Ling needed to, 'I invented ghostly - not demonic - cultivation. Never in either of my lives have I experimented on living people. These men were clearly set on following Xue Yang's footsteps raising living corpses. Secondly, if you look at these newest manuscripts, it becomes clear there is a target. I suppose we no longer need to guess who the target is.'
One LanlingJin disciple spoke up, 'The Yiling Patriarch just said the men behind the manuscripts haven't figured out how to control the corpses? They could not have planned an ambush!'
'The corpses didn't ambush Sect Leader Jin. The LanlingJin men did. It's pretty clear they wanted to run the teenage-boy-died-on-a-night-hunt narrative.'
The LanlingJin men were not easy to convince. 'No one would run that kind of assassin plan. Corpses in those numbers don't appear for no reason. Everyone would know Sect Leader Jiang would have investigated-'
Wei Wuxian cut the man off, 'So what if everyone knew it was suspicious. You hear the word 'corpses' and think of the infamous Yiling Patriarch. It wouldn't be the first time someone from the LanlingJin Sect framed me for murder.'
After what felt like hours of arguing between a ready-to-explode Jin Ling, his exploding-in-progress uncle, a tired Wei Wuxian, a terrifyingly expressionless Hanguang-Jun, a collected Sect Leader Lan, a confused Sect Leader Nie and the angrily defensive LanlingJin seniors, it was finally agreed they would all turn their interrogation to the still-trapped LanlingJin disciples.