A/N Before I start on my next chapter I would just like to say thank you to everyone taking the to read my story. I am not a professional writer (as is probably plainly obvious) but I do enjoy writing. This story has already gone on longer than I thought and still has no end in sight so thank you all for keeping up with me this long and I hope you will keep up until the end. I enjoy reading the feedback and comments I get from you all, if anyone has anything to say please feel free and I will try to keep it in mind for this or any future stories.
CH 24 – Family problems
This was turning out to be more fun than he thought. The aim was just to kill as many cultivators as possible, especially the powerful ones, and then either kill or command the ones left over. But he put the pieces in place and both HanGuang Jun and the YiLing Patriarch had walked straight into his trap. Now not only the cultivation world as a whole was falling apart but the famed Lan Clan was destroying itself from inside out. If he had known it would be that easy to get the worlds most incorruptible Sect to implode just by killing the two lovers, he would have done it years ago. Leaning back in his chair he laughed, the sound echoing in the empty room. It didn't really matter if this has been part of his plan or not, it had happened. He was the one standing and they were the ones falling. Ohh this was so much fun. The laughter echoing around the room lasted many hours and was filled with glee.
It had been a week since chaos had reigned, once again, at Nightless City. All of the healed cultivators had woken up, although with various degrees of success, some where still recovering their full strength. Those that were able had returned to their homes and using the method created by Wei Ying and Lan Zhan had healed everyone they either were related to or had a strong relationship with. There were still many people still unconscious though and the cultivators where unable to help them for various reasons. The numbers arriving at the Cloud Recess every day seemed to be growing not dwindling as hoped. Lan XiChen put down the latest letter from one of the small clans. They had 20 people they couldn't heal themselves and where asking for help from the larger clans. The only problem was that the larger clan's had more people who couldn't be cured and need healing, and the only person who could defiantly heal this thing was…..
He glanced through the open door in the direction of the JingShi that had been home to both Wei Ying and his younger brother for many years. Sighing his fist curled up into a ball, crushing the pen that had been in his palm and leaving ink staining his wrist. A week since both Wei Ying and his brother had been returned to Gusu unconscious and barley breathing. A week since he had seen either of. When himself and Jiang Cheng had landed with the two unconscious men in the main square of the Cloud Recess everyone had forgotten about Wen Ning in the chaos to try and find some kind of aid. If he was honest with himself Wen Ning had been around for so long that they were all used to him being in the background. It was his own stupid fault, he shouldn't have forgotten.
Once Wen Ning had seen his two Masters bleeding and unconscious he had grabbed them both and taken them to the Jingshi. Any complaints from either man had fallen on deaf ears. When they had tried to enter the room to check on their brothers they were met with the wall of muscle and temper that was Wen Ning, who politely informed them that NO ONE was entering the room without his permission. At first he would let SiZhui see his parents, and SiZhui would report back to the two worried brothers pacing outside, but then he overheard them all speaking of what had actually happened to cause the life threatening injuries to both men. And soon even SiZhui could not get past the human wall that didn't have to sleep nor eat. Wen Ning just stood there day and night like a guardian protecting some treasure.
Luckily though even Wen Ning wasn't mad enough to stop the healers entering the room, although he watched them closely. The healers would in turn come to Lan XiChen's office and offer their report. When the healer had come this morning he had had mixed news on the pair. He had reported that both Wei Ying and his brother were no longer in danger of dying, which was the good news. However the bad news was that neither showed any signs of waking up. The healer thought that there was a few factors that could be the reason for this. For Lan Zhan, the healer thought his mind had shut down to the immense emotional stress of what had happened. Seeing Wei Ying possessed, fighting his brother, being stabbed by his own husband and of course seeing Wei Ying seemingly die in front of him once again. The healer had said that the only person who would be able to break Lan Zhan out of this would be Wei Ying. Which bought the second lot of problems. Wei Ying seemed to have a whole different reason for still being unconscious.
The healer had reported that in his opinion Wei Ying was in a much worse physical state than Lan Zhan. His body seemed to have been running on the borrowed energy from Lan Zhan for too long, and that was even before the possession had occurred. Even though Wei Ying was no longer in danger of dying, the healer didn't even know IF he would be able to wake up at all. In short the report had stated, if Wei Ying was to have any chance to wake up he needed the bond he shared with Lan Zhan…...and if Lan Zhan had any chance of waking up he needed Wei Ying. Both needed each other to be awake, and yet both were unconscious. They could only treat the physical wounds and wait.
Lan XiChen sighed loudly and leant back in his seat. As if that news hadn't been bad enough, on top of Wen Ning's obsessive protectiveness and the fact Sects were still asking him for help. Jiang Cheng had left Gusu a few days ago with Jin Ling after the two youngsters almost got into a physical fight in front of the library pavilion. Ever since bringing the two boys back both himself and Jiang Cheng had been trying to get the boys to speak about what happened and why they decided to act. Neither would talk, even when asked directly SiZhui was uncharacteristically evasive on the subject. After the conversation over heard by Wen Ning however, where coincidentally Jin Ling had raised his voice to high, both youngsters had begun saying it was the idea of the other. Not surprisingly neither boy wanted to be the mastermind behind possibly killing either their uncle or their father, and so the argument grew.
Since Jiang Cheng had taken his nephew and left Gusu, SiZhui had been almost silent. Locking himself in the library pavilion all day or practising his martial arts until he fainted from exhaustion. Anyone, including Lan XiChen himself, who had tried to speak to SiZhui would either get a blank stare (reminiscent of one father) or a shrug and smile (reminiscent of the other). Wei Ying and Lan Zhan had been together for over a decade and until seeing both of them in SiZhui's demeanour it had never occurred to him just how annoyingly similar they both were about hiding their emotions. Jiang Cheng might not be as good at hiding his emotions as his elder brother but he was just as stubborn, since he had left Gusu the only notes XiChen had received were asking if Wei Ying was awake. He refused to ask about anyone else or respond to any other messages.
The family that had been so close a few weeks ago had now fractured down the middle. XiChen didn't know who to turn to. He was the Sect leader, he couldn't afford to look weak, especially at a time like this. His Uncle was in seclusion after waking up from the illness, after all the man was old he needed to recover in peace. XiChen needed to go speak to his brother…...see his brother….but as impossibilities go that was high on the list. Rather than calming down, Wen Ning was getting more and more irate and protective with everyday the two remained unresponsive.
SiZhui sat in Gusu's cold pond, letting the healing waters work their magic on the scrapes and cuts he had given himself in his latest training session. Although the old ones hadn't completely healed yet he had felt compelled to practice this morning, he needed to practice, to show both his fathers that he hadn't been slacking off his studies while they slept. It was martial arts 101 that you needed a clear head to swing your blade, it was also obvious that the one thing he DIDN'T have right now was a clear head. He had stabbed his own baba! OK baba wasn't himself at the time but he was. He knew he didn't personally hold the sword but he held the talisman which froze baba in place for a few seconds allowing Jin Ling and easy stab. He couldn't work out why Jin Ling had stabbed his own uncle so close to the heart when he had time to aim for an arm or a leg, he could even have stabbed him in the side if he had chosen.
A voice kept creeping into his mind that no matter how many times he tried he found it possible to ignore. Jin Ling was raised by Jiang Cheng and it was Jiang Cheng who killed baba the first time, it it really so surprising it was his nephew who tried to kill him now?. No! He kept reminding himself, Jin Ling was arrogant and bossy but he wasn't a murderer. Jin Ling grew up thinking baba killed his mother…...are you sure he didn't aim for his heart on purpose?…...the nagging voice would croon in the back of his mind. SiZhui held both hands up to his head and willed the two voices to stop fighting. He needed the calm back in his mind and soul. He needed his balance back. However he couldn't speak to his Uncle Wen because right now every time he even approached the Jingshi the look on the man's face was either murderous or disappointed. SuZhui didn't know which look he hated seeing more on the face of the man who had always smiled and laughed with him. Always crept off into a corner with him to share some comforting words when he had been told off by either of his parents.
He couldn't speak to his other uncle, Lan XiChen, either. He was the head of the Sect and right now he had more to do that deal with what he would he as a sulky youth. He couldn't even speak to his best friend JinYi as all the youngsters his own age where not speaking to him at the moment. As soon as they had known that he had taken a part in nearly killing two of the most loved cultivators in the Sect, not to mention the men who had adopted and raised him, everyone had thought him extremely unfilial and selfish. He could see how they had come to that conclusion but they hadn't been there, they hadn't seen what he had seen, and he couldn't explain it to any of them because it would just look like he was making excuses. So he just sat alone, ate alone and studied alone. Wondering every moment of everyday if his parents would ever wake up, and if they did would they feel the same way about him as everyone else? Would he ever be able to look his baba in the eyes again without feeling this heart-wrenching remorse over what he had done? Would his father even allow him around his baba now he had helped betray them both?
Jiang Cheng had taken Jin Ling back to Lotus Pier firstly while they checked all the cultivators health. Helped heal those that could be healed and explain everything that had gone on in the past few weeks. Then they had headed to LanLing to check on his nephews Sect. The longer they had remained at Lotus Pier the more unstable Jin Ling's mood seemed to get, and quite frankly his own mood had gone from unhappy to plain irate in the past few days as well. It seemed as soon as people had begun waking up after being healed a rumour of what had happened that day at Nightless City had begun circulating. Only this time instead of Wei Ying as the villain and himself as the hero, Wei Ying was placed in the position of the victim being sacrificed by his unloving family yet again.
There could be whispers heard around Lotus Cove about the rumour and his and Jin Ling's part in what happened.
'It wasn't the Sect leader this time it was Young Master Jin'
'They do say the Young Master takes after his uncle'
'Well he seems to forget he has TWO Uncle's'
'How could a nephew try to kill his own Uncle…..well don't forget that's the same brother who DID kill his own brother once….mmmm you have a point'
It was enough to make Jiang Cheng grind his teeth in annoyance. They were keeping there voices down low enough that he could only get snippets of conversation so, as much as he would like to, he couldn't punish them or even yell at them for spreading rumours. Sadly once they arrived at LanLing the atmosphere wasn't much better. The rumour had had more time to travel and grow before they arrived and both of them, especially Jin Ling, was met with overly polite greetings bordering on the insubordinate.
He could have managed his temper if the two Sects where just giving him the cold shoulder. After all they were right, he had once killed his own brother, and maybe this was what he should have been experiencing that first time. But Jin Ling was also going through all this and the boy was struggling greatly. For the first few nights since the attack he had slept in his Uncles room, waking up several times a night from nightmares. Each time shouting into the darkness for Wei Ying to move so he didn't get hurt, or for a medic to come and stop the blood from both men that was mixing on the floor. He would only go back to sleep when Jiang Cheng had calmed him down enough to remind him that both men were still alive and getting medical aid at Gusu. Jiang Cheng himself didn't remember when he had got a full nights sleep since this whole mess began.
Sighing loudly to himself he thought about writing to SiZhui, after all he was Jin Ling's best friend. Maybe the other boy could help with all that was going on. But the one time he had written to Lan XiChen asking about the boy, after they had left Gusu, he had received a brief and just barley polite answer in response. It was clear that the Lan Sect, as with most other Sects, where clearly blaming this whole thing on Jin Ling. After all SiZhui was the golden child of the Lan Sect, raised by both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan. Jin Ling was a temperamental and spoiled leader of a Sect that, thanks to the two leader before him, now had a bad reputation. Plus he had been raised by an Uncle famous in the whole cultivation world for killing his own elder brother, the same elder brother that had been stabbed by his nephew. Was it any surprise they all thought that way….he guessed not.
That didn't make it right, or any less painful. It was HIS nephew and HIS brother involved in this mess. HE was being vilified for something he hadn't even done, in fact he had gone out of his way that day not to injure Wei Ying even if it meant his own life was forfeit. That damn walking corpse Wen Ning had even threatened to kill him if he tried to go inside the room that held both men at Gusu.
'Damn you Wei Ying!' he shouted at the sky not caring who was around, just needing to get out the pain and stress of the last weeks. 'You took us there, you insisted on going…..now its all gone to hell and not only am I paying the price but your nephew is to. You had best wake up and make things right soon, if you don't how are you going to face our sister and tell her you made failed her son?' All useful emotions exhausted tears started slipping down his cheeks as he spoke in a much quieter tone, filled with broken words and long pauses. 'If you don't wake up…...how am I going to face…..our sister….and tell her…...I…..failed…..you both…..again?'