Ch12 – If at first you don't succeed…..

Walking with a renewed purpose Wei Ying entered his brothers room and slowly settled himself on the bed beside the unconscious body of Jiang Cheng. The room was silent so the laboured breathing could be easily heard and he was sure that it shallower than the day before. Placing his hand on his brothers forehead his suspicions where confirmed when he realised the temperature had defiantly risen. He wasn't sure what he expected or even what he was looking for so he reigned in his frustration and released his spirit enough to check on the golden core.

As expected the core was struggling, it was now more black than golden under the onslaught of the illness. With each day Wei Ying saw more and more of the blackness surround the core, almost like darkness surrounding the sun, and the scary thing was that it was increasing speed. It seemed like the more blackness surrounded the core the less power the core had to fight back and so the illness just increased in power. Bringing spirit back into himself he allowed himself to finally sigh, this is exactly what he had expected so what had his sister meant? There was no help in looking at Jiang Cheng. Placing a new cold towel on his brothers forehead, in attempt to prevent him from burning up before help arrived, Wei Ying left the room in the direction of the other person his sister had directed him to…...Lan Zhan.

As he approached Lan Zhan's room though he stalled. Seeing the powerful and confident HanGuang Jun in such a state hurt his heart no matter how often he saw it. Lan Zhan belonged at the head of army…..leading the cultivation world…..worshipped for his loyalty and unselfishness to the world…..he didn't deserve to be seen weak and fighting for his life against an unseen enemy. Gathering his courage he opened the door and once again walked into the silent room. Lan Zhan lay exactly where he had left him, not that he had expected anything else, but his heart still clenched as his hope diminished.

Placing himself on the bed he first held his husbands hand for a few minutes before going through the same routine he had with his brother. Checking the pulse, breathing and temperature. He had just placed his hands on his husbands forehead when he felt a shock through his mind. Lan Zhan's temperature was no higher than it was the day before! Wei Ying racked his brain trying to think back to the day he collapsed…..had his temperature gone up since then?….ugh he couldn't remember. He cursed his bad memory loudly and with great creativity.

Upon finally reigning in temper he once again allowed his spirit to delve into the body of Lan Zhan and check on the core. Once again he was met with another shock. The blackness surrounding the core had grown but by about half as much as that of Jiang Cheng's. Although Jiang Cheng had contracted the illness earlier than Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan's core was the stronger of the two. From what they knew about this illness so far this meant that logically Lan Zhan's core should be as bad if not worse by now, yet somehow it wasn't!

Maybe this is what he was supposed to find?

Pouring more energy into the searching spirit Wei Ying searched deeper than he had before. He knew that this level of search was not ethical to such a private man his husband but it needed to be done. He distantly heard himself speaking.

'Ohh Lan Er-gege you can be as angry at me as you want to be, if you will just wake up!'

For a while his spirit self found nothing out of the ordinary but just as he felt his physical body flagging and moved to withdraw he felt something strange yet somehow familiar. Following the feeling he explored until he found the origin of the strangeness. A small dark thread attached to Lan Zhan's body, winding itself around some of his inner organs. The thread had nothing to do with the illness, the colour he saw wasn't right somehow. It also obviously didn't naturally belong in Lan Zhan's body as he practised mainstream cultivation and was one of the most righteous people around. Creeping closer the feeling of familiar feeling got more intense until he couldn't hold on any longer and was almost sling-shoted back into his body.

Wei Ying didn't know how long he remained where he was, the world was too busy spinning and he was fighting to get a deep breath without throwing up for the second time that day. When he was finally able to focus enough to see and think straight his knuckles where white gripping onto Lan Zhan's fingers. If the other man had been conscious he would have been wincing at the pain...or probably knowing this particular man just raising his eyebrows with a blank expression on his face. Looking down at his husband Wei Ying began talking in a low voice, as if having a one sided conversation would somehow help him fit the newly found puzzle pieces together.

'You have dark energy in your body Lan Er'gege…..I know what you would say….well think as you wouldn't say anything but 'mmm' after all you never do…..This illness isn't dark energy so….' He paused and took a deep breath. 'The only dark energy you have been around is me!…...But how has some of my energy got inside you and what is doing to this illness?'

Wei Ying absent mindedly rose from the bed and meandered aimlessly round the room as he continued to talk to his husbands still form.

'Cultivation partners are supposed to share power, strengthen each other over time through mutual cultivation…...but how does that work when one partner doesn't have a core…...it shouldn't do and yet somehow you have ended up with some of my energy inside you…..I wonder what happened to the energy you transferred to me?'

Wei Ying shook his head and almost immediately realised it was a bad idea as the floor seemed to begin spinning like a whirlpool. Grabbing hold of the table in the centre of the room he waited until the dizziness faded and then rose to resume his pacing and monologue.

'No no that's a problem for when your better!….The point is that you have dark energy inside you now…...not a lot but some...and somehow that is having an effect on this illness's ability to attack your…..'

Wei Ying jumped mid sentence and let out a 'YES' loud enough to break any noise volume rule on the planet then raced back to Lan Zhan's side as if he had completely forgotten he wasn't able to hear him. Smiling like a child who had just earned himself a treat he grasped his husbands hand once again.

'That's it!…...That's it Lan Zhan….it isn't just that I dont have a core for this thing to attack that makes me immune its that I have dark energy….think about it, this thing attacks the golden core….everyone who cultivates the normal path has one and has the same kind of energy running through them…..light energy…...golden energy…...this thing must feed on that type of energy. The stronger the energy the faster it grows. That's why stronger cultivators get sick quicker. If light energy is what feeds it then dark energy must have a negative effect on it'

Wei Ying's body took an involuntary breath as he kept talking without stopping. At this point he had also resumed his pacing around the room and was looking a little insane, walking around in circles excitedly talking to himself!

'The little bit of dark energy you have in your body is having an effect but not enough, I somehow need to get more of my energy into you..…..but how? Somehow I don't think the usual method of duel cultivation is going to work with you like this.'

At last he seemed to run out of words to say and fell into a thoughtful silence. It was indeed a hard problem to solve, and yet he was closer to working it out than he had been a few hours earlier.

The sun slowly fell behind the horizon and in Lotus Pier everything was silent and still. Except for one lone figure walking in circles well into the night.

This was all too easy it was almost no fun. He would allow all the people who looked down on him, doubted him and pretended he wasn't there over the years to die or become normal. Then he would sweep in with a cure and become the hero of the cultivation world. Of course he would never expect them to give him HanGuang Jun's position as Excellency, he didn't want that. He just wanted to be recognised for who he was, as smart as he was. And make sure that no one could ever ignore him again!

Of course one person never quite followed his plans no matter how well thought out they were, one man always managed to somehow wriggle through a gap he never even knew existed. But Wei WuXian had been like that ever since he was a child and it seemed he wasn't going to change anytime soon. He had known Wei WuXian would take longer than the others to fall victim thanks to him cultivating demonic energy, which for some reason his illness didn't like, but he would have thought he would have shown some signs of being ill by now!

Sighing to himself he got up from the table and walked over to a shelf littered with brightly coloured bottles. It was ok, this time he wouldn't let even Wei WuXian make him fail.