Ch20 – Alternative healing

After gathering together in Jin Ling's room later that day all five men where either too tired or too confused to speak. The meal was therefore eaten in complete silence, which for SiZhui and Lan Zhan was nothing strange, however for Jin Ling and Wei Ying it was strange indeed. For both Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng to be in the same room for more than five minutes, let alone at the same table, without a full scale argument breaking out was completely unheard of. Yet the meal went off without a single harsh word or sarcastic response spoken. After the meal both younger boys where sent off to clean up the used dishes and go check on the ill cultivators, something that surprisingly Jin Ling didn't utter one word in complaint about.

Once the two had left Lan Zhan turned his attention to Wei Ying who was fiddling with a small stick he found on the floor trying to pick something out of his teeth. Jiang Cheng also understood that classic 'I'm avoiding you' behaviour from his brother and stared at him himself. Caught between both husband and brother Wei Ying could only throw down the small stick in what approached a child's tantrum and whine in an equally childish voice.

'What are you both staring at me for?'

If he thought the tantrum would work he was badly mistaken. It only served to sharpen Jiang Cheng's attention on him and gain his wrist a grab by Lan Zhan. He knew it was pointless trying to get away from any of Lan Zhan's grips so he just stared at them both as innocently as possible waiting for someone to speak. Eventually Lan Zhan spoke, his low voice still echoing through the room.

'How did you know that would heal SiZhui?'

The question was reasonable but the pressure on Wei Ying's wrist and the fiercely controlled tone of Lan Zhan showed he thought otherwise.

'I didn't know!' Wei Ying said in a mix of whiney and self important tones. 'You gave me the idea…...and it worked…'

Wei Ying hadn't finished before Jiang Cheng turned to Lan Zhan and almost shouted.

'You gave him a stupid idea? What are you thinking…...he has enough stupid ideas of his own without your help!'

Lan Zhan didn't even spare a glance at Jiang Cheng, just because he had to work with the man occasionally didn't mean he had to like him...didn't mean he had to forgive...and certainly didn't mean he had recognise he was in the room when he was speaking to his own husband. He kept his attention on Wei Ying, who had given up trying to get the feeling back in his wrist and was glaring at his brother.

'Hey! I don't have stupid ideas! And anyway this one wasn't stupid …..it worked'

'You called a sprit full of resentful energy to come cure our son! How is that not stupid?' Lan Zhan said said quietly, still ignoring Jiang Cheng.

'He did what!' This time Jiang Cheng was fully glaring at his brother with complete disbelief. 'You utter idiot!'

'Hey when where you on his side all of a sudden' Wei Ying couldn't help but whine.

''When you became a suicidal idiot all of a sudden' Jiang Cheng replied

Lan Zhan couldn't help but smile despite himself at the whingeing tone that had come into Wei Ying's voice now he had found out he was cornered.

'Well at least it saves you from killing me this time….' Wei Ying muttered under his breath. Although obviously not quiet enough as Lan Zhan's smile slipped, his grip got bone crushingly tight and Jiang Cheng's face drained of all colour. Wei Ying took a deep breath and looked at both men who had been hurt as much as, if not more than, he had by that horrible fight at Nightless City. He knew Lan Zhan still had nightmares about it, although he would never say, and he could imagine Jiang Cheng would be the same.

'I'm sorry' He said honestly 'That was thoughtless and uncalled for, I shouldn't have said such a thing even as a joke.' Lan Zhan's grip relaxed and some of the colour slowly returned to his brother face. Wei Ying felt it was his job to keep the conversation going. 'The thing is, that odd feeling I got from SiZhui's core, was almost like the extra darkness was not part of the illness but something else. So it needed a different kind of cure. Lan Zhan gave me an idea so I used it.'

'Not part of the illness' Jiang Cheng muttered as if to himself. 'If its not part of the illness what could it be?'

Wei Ying was about to say he had no idea when a single word from behind him made him stop in his tracks.

'Poison' Lan Zhan spoke up.

'What?' Wei Ying asked.

'This isn't an illness it's poison' Lan Zhan said again.

'That makes sense' Jiang Cheng spoke up. 'We have been wondering how this affects only those with cores, it's made that way. It also affected all the Sects seemingly at once. We don't all interact daily, certainly not enough for an illness to travel so quickly….so….'

'So someone poisoned enough of us for it to spread quickly. SiZhui was one of those poisoned which is why his illness was different and why it couldn't be treated normally.' Lan Zhan finished finished, still facing Wei Ying.

Wei Ying was still figuring out how all this made sense, and what it had to do with him. The others had put links together that he hadn't thought of, but in a way they made sense.

'What does this have to do with me then?' He asked, looking blankly at both the others.

Jiang Cheng shook his head but Lan Zhan spoke up.

'You said yourself, only those in this room know you no longer have a core. Even if whoever made the poison knew it had a weakness to your cultivation they would assume you become ill like the rest of us before anyone could work that out. Even if anyone actually did, you don't have the strength to cure this on your own.'

Wei Ying had to admit Lan Zhan had a skill he had never seen before. He could have a complete conversation with his brother without looking at him or even acknowledging he was in the room. It would have been funny if he hadn't know the reason behind his husbands behaviour. They had tried speaking about it before and although Lan Zhan understood why Wei Ying wanted to reconnect with his brother, and had agreed to be civil around Jiang Cheng he had flat out refused to forgive him himself. As far as Lan Zhan was concerned any man who turned his back on his own family and then took an active part in pushing them over a cliff never deserved forgiveness.

The room went silent for a moment before a voice from the door rose as Jin Ling and SiZhui entered. None of the three men sat down knew how long the two boys had been listening to their conversation but glanced over at them. Neither boy backed away from the accusing looks as Jin Ling squared his shoulders to speak.

'You might not have the power to cure it on your own Uncle Wei, but what about with some help?'

Jiang Cheng was just about to open his mouth and scold his nephew for interrupting when Wei Ying held up a hand.

'Continue' He said blandly.

'You cured me with the help of a resentful spirit' This time it was SiZhui speaking up, and ignoring the glares he was receiving in the process from Lan Zhan. 'Maybe with enough resentful spirits you could cure enough of the poisoned cultivators. Without the poison being passed around the others can be healed slowly.'

Wei Ying placed his hand on Lan Zhan's arm, who felt like he was going to explode into motion at any time. Sadly anchoring himself to his husband didn't leave him any room to lean across and hold down his brother who exploded instead.

'Are you two insane!' Jiang Cheng didn't even try to hold back the volume. 'Forget the fact that we don't know who is poisoned. Do you even know what your asking? Using that much demonic energy could kill him!'

'Brother calm down!' Wei Ying said in a tone he rarely used, a tone of authority. 'What the boys said actually makes sense. And we can make an educated guess as to who the poisoned might be. Think of SiZhui, young enough that the poison wouldn't affect him right away but high enough raking he could move easily and freely through the Cloud Reccess.'

'Wha…...Yo…...'Jiang Cheng was incapable of finishing words through his astonishment and Lan Zhan was purposely looking anywhere but at Wei Ying as he spoke.

'Jin Ling is a Sect leader, poisoning him would have been too risky' Wei Ying continued. 'We can use this idea to limit the amount of people I need to heal. Then we take them all to a place with heavy resentful energy and heal them all at once.' Wei Ying glanced around the room. 'But it will mean all of you helping me. Lan Zhan was correct when he said I can't do it alone.'

'And where exactly do you expect to go for this resentful energy? YiLing?' Jiang Cheng had regained his voice and was speaking to his brother in the same sarcastic tone as normal.

'No that would be too obvious' Wei Ying said thoughtfully 'I can only think of one place….Nightless City!'

At this point the whole room descended into an eerie silence. Everyone knew what had happened at Nightless City, as well as the people involved and how much had been taken from all of them. No one ever wanted to return to that damned place. Wei Ying just looked back at Lan Zhan who was still avoiding his gaze.

'Lan Zhan….you were somehow able to tell something was wrong with SiZhui's core. You couldn't see it but you could sense it. Can you please go and show the others how to do that so they travel to the other Sects as soon as possible?

Without raising his eyes Lan Zhan simply got up and walked out the door, the two boys looked from him to Wei Ying and back before silently leaving the room. Wei Ying couldn't help but sigh himself before realising Jiang Cheng hadn't left.

'Going back there will kill him!..…Letting you go THERE…...knowing you will die!..…... but he will do it because you asked!' Jiang Cheng spoke in a type of voice he had only ever heard before from their sister, the types elder siblings used to scold younger ones, not younger ones scolding older ones. 'It will kill all of us facing that again!'

With that remark Jiang Cheng rose from the floor and walked out the room in search of the others without looking back. Wei Ying couldn't help but collapse onto the small table. He knew going back to that place was a long shot at best, but it was the only shot he could think of. Trying to cure this one person at a time wasn't realistic without curing the carriers of the poison. Even if there were no carriers he didn't have the strength to cure thousands of cultivators on his own. There was simply no other way to save everyone. But Lan Zhan hadn't even looked at him since the boys entered the room. Was Jiang Cheng right? Was he asking too much of his husband to ask him to go back to the place where his nightmares all began? If he asked Lan Zhan to stay away would he do it?

Wei Ying's head was swimming. There wasn't a right answer to this problem. The right answer to him meant curing his family but staying away from that horrid place, only that meant leaving thousands of people to die. How would he look at himself in the future knowing he had done that? More importantly for him, how would Lan Zhan be able to look at him, touch him, knowing he had married a mass murder. How could SiZhui or Jin Ling look at him as family knowing what he'd done? Both boys would be forever scared by such a choice.

Yet if he chose to save the cultivation world as a whole, he might end up loosing the very family he had fought so hard to regain.