It was late, very late, when Wei Wuxian heard Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen make their way upstairs. He strained his ears to listen to their conversation but sadly didn't catch much of it. They were probably trying to be quiet for Huaisang.
He nudged Lan Zhan to see if he was awake. Lan Zhan groaned, pulled Wei Wuxian closer to him, and kissed him on the forehead before settling back to sleep.
"You never can make it long past the sunset, can you?" Wei Wuxian muttered fondly.
Lan Zhan didn't answer.
Wei Wuxian wiggled out of his arms and gazed down at his sleeping form. How he managed to have his hair cascade perfectly down his cheek and onto the bed while he slept, he would never know. He would also never understand why someone like Lan Zhan would be interested in someone like him.
The moonlight shone on Lan Zhan's skin, lending him an almost spiritual glow. His graceful features lacked their wakeful iciness. He looked so very peaceful. He really was too good-looking.
Wei Wuxian smiled to himself and leaned over to return the forehead kiss that Lan Zhan had given him.
"Sleep well," he murmured.
He swung his legs out from under the covers and got up.
Once they'd moved farther into the region of Qishan, Wei Wuxian had become more sure of what he'd suspected: Xue Yang was still following them. He could have sworn he'd seen him outside before they'd all gotten settled for the night.
He was up to something.
Xue Yang was following them more closely than he had been before. Wei Wuxian wasn't sure why he bothered to follow them when he had to know that they were delivering themselves to Nightless City. After speaking with the three strangers at the bar, Wei Wuxian was absolutely certain that Xue Yang had laid a final trap for them in Nightless City. So why risk getting so close without the safety of that powerful magic to back him up?
Lying in bed with Lan Zhan, Wei Wuxian was detecting a demonic presence more strongly than he had since the run-in they'd had with Xue Yang and the wall of smoke days ago.
He crept across the room, listening hard for any noises in the hallway or for any hint that Lan Zhan might be waking up. The door squeaked when he opened it. Wei Wuxian paused and listened, but Lan Zhan simply turned over and muttered something. He wasn't a very heavy sleeper. Wei Wuxian was lucky he hadn't woken.
Very quietly, he eased the door closed behind him and snuck down the darkened hallway. He allowed his fingertips to run along the walls as he felt his way toward the presence he had sensed.
Outside Huaisang's room, he stopped.
The pull of resentful energy reached an unbearable level there. A buzzing sensation filled his head. Something was in there.
Not wanting to startle Xue Yang and cause him to run off with that impossible speed of his, Wei Wuxian leaned quietly against the door, straining his ears to listen inside.
At first, he heard nothing. And then… a voice. But it was too hard to make out what it was saying or even to identify who was speaking.
Wei Wuxian closed his eyes to concentrate on amplifying his senses. That was when someone grabbed him by the wrist.
"What are you doing outside of Lan Xichen's door?"
"Jiang Cheng?!" Wei Wuxian breathed, opening his eyes only to see darkness. "What are you doing outside of his – wait. Lan Xichen? Did I hear you call him that?"
"Don't avoid my question," Jiang Cheng hissed, letting go of him.
"Since when do you call him anything except Zewu-jun?"
A single violet spark flew from Jiang Cheng's hand. Wei Wuxian's teasing smile was wiped clean off his face as his fear of Zidian returned. His back still ached from where Jiang Cheng had struck him.
"Why are you out here?" Jiang Cheng asked. "Was it you that I heard outside the window?"
"Outside the window?"
"Don't play dumb with me."
"But I…"
Wei Wuxian trailed off. There was no point arguing if Jiang Cheng would only think he was lying.
Plus, the whispering inside of Huaisang's room had started again.
Wei Wuxian turned on his heel and headed toward where he knew the staircase to be.
"Where are you going?" Jiang Cheng hissed, his question hilariously delayed due to the fact that he hadn't initially heard him sneak away.
"You said there was something outside," Wei Wuxian murmured back at him, praying the huli jing wouldn't hear them talking. "I'm going to find out what it was."
He started down the stairs, placing his feet where he knew the wood wouldn't creak from his weight. A loud squeak from behind him, however, nearly caused him to fall down the rest of the flight.
"Jiang Cheng, what are you doing?!" he demanded.
"I'm going to see what's out there too!"
"You're going to scare it off! I thought you were convinced that I was the one messing around out there!"
"Until you started investigating!" Jiang Cheng said, jabbing squarely between Wei Wuxian's shoulder blades.
"OW! What are you thinking?!" Wei Wuxian asked. "You're going to get us discovered!"
"Tch."
Wei Wuxian glared at him. He was sure it didn't do much good in the dark, but it made him feel better.
He and Jiang Cheng quietly let themselves out the front door of the inn, motioning for the innkeeper to stay quiet. The man turned a ghostly white, but nodded that he understood. He remained behind the bar as the two of them crept outside.
The whirring and chirping of insects and the intermittent croaking of frogs helped to cover any noises they made as they tiptoed around the outside of the building toward where the window to Huaisang's room would be.
"I don't see anything," Wei Wuxian whispered, speaking more to himself than to Jiang Cheng. "I think I should get closer."
"How do you propose to do that?" Jiang Cheng demanded. "Xue Yang might sense you if you fly up there."
"I'll climb."
"Do not-"
Jiang Cheng prattled on about why climbing up was foolish and disrespectful to Zewu-jun as Wei Wuxian picked his way up the wall, pausing only to dodge the pebble that Jiang Cheng threw at him.
"You're going to get us caught," Wei Wuxian grumbled to himself.
He would have said it to Jiang Cheng, but he was high enough up to risk alerting the huli jing.
It was a good thing that he'd stayed quiet too. He could hear faint voices above him.
"Can you come back down here?!" Jiang Cheng hissed.
Wei Wuxian frantically waved at him to be silent.
"No, no," a soft voice said tenderly, "don't be afraid. You were right. This isn't real."
That voice was awfully familiar, but it definitely wasn't Xue Yang. Why couldn't Wei Wuxian place it?
"Don't you shush me!" Jiang Cheng hissed from below. "Get back down here!"
"Someone else is in there," Wei Wuxian mouthed at him, praying that Jiang Cheng could see him well enough in the moonlight.
It seemed that he had. Jiang Cheng visibly stiffened.
Wei Wuxian rifled around in the pouch on his belt, searching for anything that might allow him to look into Huaisang's bedroom without poking his head over the sill or using magic. But there was nothing useful.
"Right," he heard Lan Xichen say in a strained voice. "This can't be real."
"So come with me," the voice said. "Come with me and no one else has to suffer. Everything will be so much easier if you leave tonight. I don't want-"
Wei Wuxian didn't catch the rest of what was said. A scraping noise from the ground drew his attention.
He looked down to see Jiang Cheng scrambling up the wall toward him. His technique was significantly less fluid. Wei Wuxian's abdomen tensed with worry. He wasn't bad at climbing, but what noise he did make could draw the attention of the visitor inside.
"If this is a dream, how could you promise the safety of the others?" Lan Xichen asked. "You're not real. Not anymore."
He sounded dream-like and sad. Thoroughly, deeply sad. Like the kind of misery that had burrowed so far into the heart so as to be forgotten until a single reminder brought back every ounce of devastating heartbreak. Some pain was simply too strong to bury.
Wei Wuxian resonated with that pain, all the way to his core.
"So I'm not real," the visitor whispered. "What would you say to me if I was?"
"Is that…?"
Jiang Cheng had caught up to him and was panting softly under the opposite corner of the window. It was difficult to make out his expression with the moon to his back, but from what Wei Wuxian could see, he was livid.
"How would Xue Yang-?" he breathed. He was practically shaking with rage. "Why would he use Jin Guangyao's form? Why would he think to do that?"
Wei Wuxian let out a quiet 'oh!' That was why the voice had sounded so familiar! Xue Yang had taken the semblance of Lianfang-zun.
Which did beg the question: what made him think that particular form would be useful here? And furthermore, what was he hoping to accomplish?
"What would I say?" Lan Xichen repeated in that same dream-like tone.
"I want to know," said Jin Guangyao's voice, speaking almost lovingly. "Won't you tell me? There's no harm in it. This is just a dream after all."
Jiang Cheng began to lift himself up higher. Wei Wuxian caught his wrist to stop him from flying through the open window and assailing the image of the man who had ruined his life (and countless others).
Zidian bit sharply into Wei Wuxian's skin as Jiang Cheng violently wrenched his forearm from his grasp. He glared at Wei Wuxian, but made no further attempt to climb.
"We should try to figure out why he's here," Wei Wuxian breathed.
Jiang Cheng looked away without arguing. They were in agreement.
"What would you say to me after I spared your life?" the likeness of Jin Guangyao asked. "Even in the end, I couldn't hurt you. Would you still condemn me? Would you still hate me?"
It wasn't impossible for Xue Yang to know that Jin Guangyao had spared Lan Xichen at Guanyin Temple. He'd rifled through Jiang Cheng's memories when he'd tampered with his core before. Anything Jiang Cheng knew, Xue Yang did too.
Despite the fact that he'd just warned Jiang Cheng about climbing higher, Wei Wuxian's curiosity got the better of him.
Very slowly, he shifted up on his aching toes to peek inside the bedroom.
It was quite dark inside. At first, he couldn't find Huaisang. But a moment of careful search revealed his sleeping form on the bed farthest from the window. Whether or not he was actually asleep was a mystery. When they were young, Huaisang had been a sound sleeper. Wei Wuxian didn't know if that held true to today.
In front of him, on the opposite side of the room, were Lan Xichen, a noble, splendid figure shrouded in white, and beside him, Jin Guangyao, dressed in the same robes he'd worn in Guanyin Temple. Notably, he still sported two arms.
They were easy to see, but far enough away that Wei Wuxian's spying would only have been noticed if the two looked away from one another.
There wasn't any question about how Lan Xichen felt to be visited by his old friend or, at least, the memory of him. His devastation was as plain to the eye as Jiang Cheng's wrath when he, too, peered into the room.
Lan Xichen was seated on his bed. Jin Guangyao was kneeling in front of him.
"Tell me," Jin Guangyao said encouragingly, rising up just enough to reach his hand toward Lan Xichen's face, as if to caress it.
Lan Xichen pulled away.
"I didn't hurt you then," Jin Guangyao said, frozen in place after his touch had been rejected. "I won't hurt you now."
When he reached for him again, Lan Xichen didn't move. Jin Guangyao smiled and used his thumb to brush away the tear that slipped down Lan Xichen's cheek.
There was a weird feeling in Wei Wuxian's stomach, something like embarrassment. He felt wrong watching them.
Beside him, Jiang Cheng gripped the window sill so tightly the veins in the back of his hand popped out.
"I'd never hurt you."
"You did," Lan Xichen said, his voice cracking a little.
Jin Guangyao frowned. "I didn't," he insisted.
Lan Xichen pushed his hand away and drew himself up, pushing his shoulders back as he did so.
"You did," he said firmly.
Jin Guangyao's expression changed instantly from caring and gentle to downright imploring.
"Is that all you have to say to me?" Jin Guangyao asked. "Even in this dream, won't you speak to me?"
"This is a nightmare," Lan Xichen said. "I want you to leave."
Xue Yang didn't give himself enough credit. His acting skills were incredible. The visage of Jin Guangyao looked truly anguished.
"I'll give you anything to stay. Anything to come with me like I asked. Tell me what you want."
"Leave or I will," Lan Xichen said.
"No, I want to talk to you."
"I'm going."
Lan Xichen stood abruptly and swayed in place for a moment before heading toward the door. He was still drunk.
"Please don't go," Jin Guangyao said. He rose and caught Lan Xichen's hand to stop him from leaving.
They had moved from how they were seated before. It was more likely that they would notice they were being watched from the window.
Wei Wuxian began to drop back down below the sill, but Jiang Cheng had different ideas.
Abandoning all reason, he hoisted himself up and leapt into the room. Violet light spilled out onto the grass outside and a shriek from Huaisang rent the air.
"What could I expect?" Wei Wuxian muttered to himself before following suit.
Huaisang was seated upright in his bed. Lan Xichen was staring wide eyed at Jiang Cheng.
Wei Wuxian had mere moments to get his bearings.
And then, the whole room moved.
It was as if the floor had turned to liquid. It pitched and yawed beneath his feet like the stormy sea. Wei Wuxian threw his arms out to either side to keep his balance. Beside him, Jiang Cheng stood still, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Ugh stop that!" Jiang Cheng shouted. "Your illusions won't save you."
He reeled Zidian back to strike. Fear gripped Wei Wuxian's heart. Could he aim through all of this?
Lan Xichen struggled to move out of the way. He stumbled a few times and ended up falling to his knees near his bed.
Surprisingly, Jiang Cheng swung Zidian with all of the accuracy he normally would. The whip cracked into Jin Guangyao's side, dropping him onto all fours instantly. Huaisang yelped again.
The floor was simply too distracting. It needed to stop. He needed to figure out how to break the spell.
Wei Wuxian focused, clearing his head to try to see through the illusion that the huli jing was using. He was at a disadvantage since Jiang Cheng had a clarity bell and he did not. But when he squinted hard enough, he could see the hazy quality to the undulating floor. And suddenly, the sensation of being tossed around like a ship on the ocean faded away.
At the same time, Jin Guangyao's form began to dissolve, replaced by that same silvery fox with too many tails that he'd seen before.
Wei Wuxian readied a binding incantation. Jiang Cheng reeled back again with Zidian.
It didn't matter.
In the blink of an eye, the fox was gone. Wei Wuxian felt something soft brush against his hand and instinctively whirled around to see nine silver tails plummet out of sight beyond the window sill.
"Oh no he doesn't!" Jiang Cheng snarled, racing toward the window.
Wei Wuxian seized his arm and ducked to avoid the punch directed at him. He straightened again, feeling annoyed. Thankfully, Jiang Cheng decided against trying to hit him again.
"That's what he'll want," Wei Wuxian said. "For how long do you think he'll keep sparing your life?"
Jiang Cheng shot him a look of utter loathing. "For as long as he continues to labor under the delusion that I'm worth something to you."
Wei Wuxian released him.
His attention shifted to Huaisang, who was looking back at him intently. There was a fine-focused rage behind his eyes. He wanted Wei Wuxian to understand something or to do something, it was unclear which.
However, Wei Wuxian wasn't bad at piecing together clues. He had a strong feeling that Huaisang wanted him to understand something, and he was equally confident that he knew what it was. It was the same thing that had been bothering Wei Wuxian for days…
…but he just couldn't be sure of it yet.
Jiang Cheng started toward the window again.
"Did you not hear me?!" Wei Wuxian asked.
"Jin Ling and the Lan juniors are out there on a night hunt," Jiang Cheng snapped without turning back around. "Trap or not, I'm going after that demon."
"The boys are out there?!" Wei Wuxian said incredulously. "They didn't tell me they were going!"
"They told my brother and myself," said Lan Xichen quietly.
He was still kneeling on the floor and hadn't moved at all since the huli jing had gone. He looked dazed.
"Very well," Wei Wuxian said. "I'm going too."
Jiang Cheng didn't seem to be listening to him. He had jumped from the sill to mount Sandu and was speeding off into the night. He was going to leave all of them behind.
"I'll come," Lan Xichen said, struggling to his feet.
"No, Zewu-jun," Wei Wuxian replied as he drew his own sword for flight. "With all due respect, you are in no condition to come with us. Go back to sleep. Finish your dream."
Lan Xichen scowled and looked away from him. "That was no dream," he said. "I'm awake enough to know that."
Wei Wuxian inclined his head. "I didn't mean to offend," he said. "I only wanted to spare you whatever pain that I could. Will you please stay here to look after Huaisang?"
Lan Xichen glanced over at the Nie Clan leader. He gave him a small smile. Huaisang tried and failed to return it. He still looked very angry.
"I'll stay with him," Lan Xichen said.
"Thank you."
Wei Wuxian strode to the window. Jiang Cheng was already out of sight, far ahead of him. But he'd paid attention to the direction he'd gone and, considering how bad they were at avoiding one another, he was confident that he would find him again.
He looked back and caught one last glimpse of Huaisang's intense frosty stare. And then Wei Wuxian leapt out the window and shot off through the night air.
"There's nothing out here," Jin Ling grumbled. "We should just go back to the inn to sleep."
"There's something," Jingyi said firmly. "Everyone in this town is afraid of something, and I'm going to find it."
Jin Ling looked to Sizhui for support, but he only shrugged and continued to follow Jingyi through the field of pearl millet.
It was the middle of the night and they'd been out there since dusk. Jin Ling's side and head were aching, and he was having difficulty keeping his eyes open. Not to mention that the very air around them was suffocating. He just wanted to go to sleep, but Jingyi had other ideas.
"There's nothing stopping you if you want to leave us," Jingyi sneered. "Go back to the inn if that's what you want to do."
Jin Ling bristled.
"Jingyi," said Sizhui in an exasperated voice. "Please don't be so combative."
"Are you calling me a coward?" Jin Ling demanded.
"Jin Ling, please-"
"That isn't what I said," Jingyi replied smugly, "but if that's how you interpreted it, perhaps that's closer to the truth."
Jin Ling clenched his fingers and stepped forward aggressively, fully prepared to hit him. Jingyi, too, turned around to face off against him.
Sizhui put a hand on each of their shoulders, both to calm them and to hold them apart from one another.
"What is this?" he asked, a hint of despair in his tone. "You two have been on better terms lately. What's the matter now?"
It was true. Jin Ling and Jingyi had been on better, albeit still awkward, terms since their second debacle. There were times that Jin Ling felt more embarrassed by the event, so he would find excuses to avoid the Lans every now and again, but overall, they had mostly smoothed things over and pretended like nothing had happened.
"Yes," Jin Ling said hotly, "what's wrong with you?"
Jingyi's eyebrows shot up. "What's wrong with me?" he breathed. "You are unbelievable. You know that, right?"
"Stop!" Sizhui cried as Jin Ling and Jingyi started to move closer again to fight. "Why won't either of you ever tell me what's going on?!"
"It doesn't involve you," Jin Ling and Jingyi said in unison.
"It always involves me!"
Sizhui shoved each of them back from the other one. Jin Ling and Jingyi stared at him in surprise.
"Who has to keep you apart?" Sizhui asked, his voice harsher than Jin Ling had ever heard it. "Who has to try to fix the problem without knowing what it was in the first place? Who has to pick which of you to stay with when you don't want to be around each other?"
"I told you that I didn't care which of us you wanted to talk to," Jingyi said sullenly.
" I care!" Sizhui shouted. "I want to be with both of you! I don't want to keep bouncing back and forth!"
Jin Ling stared down at his feet. He was right. Sizhui was constantly caught in the middle of their antics. It wasn't fair to him.
"I'm not against helping you two figure out what needs to be done," Sizhui went on. "But in order to do that, I need you to tell me what's wrong. Please don't leave me in the dark like this."
So Jingyi really hadn't told him what had happened in the forest. Jin Ling felt equal parts relieved and guilty. How annoying it must have been for Sizhui to put up with them this whole time!
Jin Ling glanced up to find Jingyi looking at him. There was a question in his eyes. He wanted permission to tell Sizhui everything.
Jin Ling shook his head ever so slightly. Jingyi sighed.
"I was angry because Jin Ling has been avoiding us," he said hotly. "I'm sorry to have put you in such a position."
Sizhui's expression became uncharacteristically stony. Despite sharing no blood with him, he very much resembled Hanguang-jun.
"That makes no sense, Jingyi," he said. "You've been avoiding Jin Ling too. And you know he chose to stay with Sect Leader Jiang to keep the peace. I think you're not being truthful with me."
Jin Ling's head hurt too much to think of a good deflection. He was depending entirely on Jingyi's ability to lie.
He wasn't sure he'd ever felt so apprehensive in his life.
"It's a mess, Sizhui," Jingyi explained. "We don't want to pull you into-"
Jin Ling stopped listening as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
A light colored something was moving quietly amid the millet stalks, slightly off the dirt path that the three of them were walking on. He strained his eyes and held his breath, staring at the area around where he'd seen the figure.
"I'm already pulled into it!" Sizhui insisted.
Jin Ling started to return his attention to their conversation, but it was at that moment that the figure made the mistake of stepping back into view.
Even in the dark, he could tell who it was. His heart stood still.
"Shushu?"
Sizhui and Jingyi fell silent.
Very slowly, the figure turned to face him. It had been months since Jin Ling had seen his uncle, but he would not so easily forget the face of one of the men who raised him.
Jin Guangyao stared at him with a blank expression. Jin Ling stared back.
What was with that look? Did he feel nothing upon seeing him again?
And then, just as quickly as he'd appeared, Jin Guangyao disappeared back into the field.
"Shushu, wait!"
Jin Ling started after him, but Jingyi caught his arm.
"Don't," he warned in a low voice. "That's not him. That's Xue Yang."
He saw their worry, but he only shook his head.
"It isn't," he said. "I know it isn't. This might be my one opportunity to talk to him."
Jin Ling ripped his arm out of Jingyi's grasp and took off after Jin Guangyao, following the path of bent and broken millet stalks.
"Talk to him about what?!" Jingyi hollered.
"Jin Ling, come back!" Sizhui called.
He didn't listen. Jin Ling was sprinting as fast as he could. Behind him, he could hear the Lans struggling to keep pace. They were built for strength more than speed. It would take a miracle for them to catch him.
I found this little thing, but I don't know what to call it. A-Ling, do you want to give it a name?
His eyes stung. Jin Ling redoubled his efforts, trying to steady his breathing as memories of Jin Guangyao continued to flood his mind against his will.
Your father built this for your mother so she would feel at home in Fangfei Palace. I think they'd want you to be able to come here too.
He could hear the steady beat of racing footsteps ahead. He was gaining on him.
You shouldn't fight with the other juniors so often. I'm worried you'll get hurt.
He had to be very close. The stalks ahead of him hadn't stopped swaying by the time he reached them.
Of course I care about you, Jin Ling. Don't you ever doubt that.
"Shushu," Jin Ling wheezed, reaching out in front of himself to blindly catch Jin Guangyao. "Shushu, please wait."
Something crashed into the side of Jin Ling's already aching head. He was sent stumbling off of Jin Guangyao's trail and landed hard on the dirt.
"Jin Ling!" he heard Sizhui and Jingyi yell. They sounded far off, but it was hard to hear over the ringing in his ears.
He sat there, dazed and panting for a moment. When he looked around, he realized that Jin Guangyao had stopped and was watching him with that same blank expression from before.
"Shushu?" Jin Ling muttered.
He pressed his hand against his temple, sure that the blow he'd received would have drawn blood. But his palm came away clean.
"Did you… did you hit me?"
Jin Guangyao didn't answer except for an almost imperceivable twitch of his mouth that Jin Ling didn't know how to interpret.
He supposed it didn't matter. He had other, more important things to ask him.
"Shushu," he said, "I need to know – wait! No!"
Jin Guangyao turned tail just like before and vanished into the field.
"Come back!" Jin Ling yelled after him. "Stop running from me!"
Of course, he didn't listen. Jin Ling could hear him getting farther and farther away.
"Shushu!"
He jumped to his feet and nearly fell back down as a sudden wave of dizziness crashed over him.
"Jin Ling! Move!" cried Jingyi from behind him.
Strong arms wrapped around his chest and pulled him off to the side just as a flash of silver went whizzing past in the direction of Jin Guangyao.
"Please forgive me," Sizhui murmured before releasing him.
Jin Ling whirled around to yell at him for stopping him from pursuing his uncle.
That was when he smelled it.
Fetid, revolting, and almost strong enough to make Jin Ling dizzy again. It was the scent of fierce corpses. But, with that level of stench, there had to be at least ten nearby.
How had he not noticed?
Jingyi ran past, chasing his sword that he'd sent flying out into the field. The stalks around them were beginning to rustle.
"Are you going to help me, Sizhui?" Jingyi called back heatedly.
"In a moment!" Sizhui answered.
He was studying Jin Ling closely. Jin Ling glared back at him.
"That wasn't your uncle," Sizhui said gently. "I'm so sorry. That wasn't him."
"You don't know that! You weren't there when – when he – when-"
"CAN YOU TWO HELP ME?!" Jingyi screamed.
Sizhui and Jin Ling turned away from one another. Pale dead faces peeked out from the tall millet stalks on all sides, surrounding them. The stench of decay was overwhelming.
Jin Ling drew Suihua and, following Jingyi's lead, sent the sword flying off into the crowd. Next to him, Sizhui had drawn his own weapon but had not moved beyond that.
Suihua lanced the first corpse with ease. However, when Jin Ling ordered it to return to him, it merely wobbled in the chest of the fallen corpse.
"Is something wrong with it?" Sizhui asked, also watching Suihua try and fail to free itself from the body.
"I don't know!" Jin Ling cried.
The corpses seemed to sense his desperation and became bolder in their approach. Two from either side leapt at him with gnarled fingers outstretched.
Sizhui ducked and slashed upward, cleaving one corpse in two and slicing deeply into the belly of another. Jin Ling turned and drew his bow to defend himself from the pair on his other side. His arrows felled both cleanly.
He summoned Suihua again. This time, the sword answered his call, returning to his hand sluggishly.
He peered at it in the dark but could detect nothing wrong with it. He didn't have long to analyze, though, as the corpses he and Sizhui had dealt with were quickly replaced by more.
"How many are there?!" Jingyi bellowed.
He was off on his own, twirling and parrying with decent success. But Jingyi was slowing down. He was getting tired from having to move as fast as he was.
Jin Ling tried to get to him, but the corpses began to spill into the area between them. They even snuck their way in between Jin Ling and Sizhui, pushing them away from one another.
His head hurt so badly.
"There are too many!" Sizhui cried. "We'd be better off returning to the inn!"
"How do you expect us to get out of here now?!" Jin Ling roared, trying to push a corpse away from himself only to find that there was nowhere else for it to go.
It hit the corpse behind it, and tipped toward him again, putrid arms outstretched, maw open wide.
He swung as hard as he could at the creature's neck and succeeded in separating its head from its body. Simultaneously, Jin Ling felt a sharp pain in his side. He looked down to see crimson blossom on his robe. He had torn open his wound from their fight in Lanling.
"Swords!" Sizhui shouted. "Maybe we can fly out of here!"
Jin Ling could barely hear him over the hoarse growling of the crowd of corpses.
He cut off the head of another enemy and then concentrated on levitating his sword.
Again, Suihua resisted. The metal trembled in the air and dipped down low when Jin Ling tried to climb onto it. There was no way he was going to be able to fly.
He dismounted and picked Suihua up again, manually swinging to prevent the nearest corpses from chomping down on his flesh.
To his left, he saw a streak of white shoot up toward the sky. Sizhui had escaped the mob.
Jin Ling kept his attention split between the sky and the corpses around him. Several moments passed and still there was no sign of Jingyi.
"Sizhui!" Jin Ling yelled. "Where is he?!"
Sizhui didn't answer. Even from a distance, Jin Ling could tell that he was looking back and forth between him and another spot some twenty meters or so ahead of him.
"I'm fine!" Jin Ling shouted, cutting off another head to prove his point. "Go to him!"
He lingered for a moment longer, and then Sizhui shot off toward where Jin Ling had assumed Jingyi to be.
Suihua was growing heavy in his hands. Normally, the sword weighed almost nothing to him. It was bonded to him and intimately linked to his golden core. It had never betrayed him like this.
Jin Ling swung and swung again, always meeting his mark, but meeting it with resistance. It was as if his sword could bear to fight no longer. The metal, slick with his own sweat, felt somehow ill.
In the distance, he heard a scream.
"Sizhui?!" he yelled. "Jingyi?!"
There was no answer. His heart rate began to climb.
"Jingyi?!" he yelled again. "Sizhui?!"
"Do you have a signal?!" came Jingyi's panicked reply.
Jin Ling tried to check, but there was simply no opportunity to do so.
"I don't think so!" he yelled back. "Does Sizhui have his guqin?!"
"No!"
"What?! Why not?! He knew we were coming out here to hunt!"
"I don't know!" Jingyi shouted, not bothering to hide the frustration in his voice. "It's not like I can ask him!"
Jin Ling's breath caught in his throat. "What does that mean?!"
No response.
"Jingyi!"
"Worry about yourself right now! We need to get out of here!"
Images of Sizhui bleeding out or knocked unconscious in the middle of the hungry fray began to zip by in Jin Ling's mind.
Feeling desperate, he fought harder to shove the corpses out of his way so that he could reach them, but the corpses just wouldn't move. He went so far as to try climbing over them and managed only to have his legs bitten in several places.
He cried out and dropped back down onto the ground.
Jin Ling knew that he'd made a mistake when he'd tried to climb over. He had lost all the space he'd gained for himself.
Suihua, heavier than ever, could not swing hard enough or fast enough to buy him any more room. The corpses were practically on top of him.
Which meant that they were close enough to do what they wanted to do.
Jin Ling screamed again as many teeth sank into the flesh of his arms, shoulders, and back. He dropped Suihua in his shock and was left to grapple against the many bodies around him.
He couldn't fight them off. He was going to be eaten alive… slowly.
In his pain and terror, Jin Ling recalled that although he hadn't packed a signal flare, he had brought many different talismans with him.
He twisted one of his arms out of the mouth of a corpse and plunged his hand into his pouch. Not bothering to pick out a specific paper, he pulled free at least three talismans and directed spiritual energy into all of them, activating the group as one.
The effect was overwhelming.
A mess of gold, white, and lavender light erupted from his hand. He was blasted backward and then straight down into the ground. The back of his head hit the dirt with substantial force. Stars popped in front of his eyes.
The immediate result was what he'd wanted. He had succeeded in pushing the corpses away from himself.
But he couldn't rise from the ground. His head lolled to one side and the world around him blurred.
"Shushu," he whispered.
He saw two white figures. One stood while the other remained sprawled in the dirt. Around them, the gray mass of corpses began to rise. And still, Jin Ling couldn't make his limbs move.
"Shushu," he said again to no one.
There was an uncomfortable pressure on his forearm, but Jin Ling had no strength to remove it. He didn't even bother to turn his head to see what it was. He was resigned to his fate. He was too tired… too nauseous… too defeated.
He didn't investigate the quick, heavy footsteps that sounded somewhere above his head, first at a distance, and then very close by. He didn't sit up when a corpse dropped to the ground beside him, sunken eyes open and staring into his. And he didn't respond when a hoarse voice asked him if he was all right.
"Jin-gongzi?" the voice repeated. A dark figure knelt next to him. "Can you hear me?"
Wen Ning looked very concerned. He reached out, as if to tap Jin Ling's shoulder, but then seemed to think better of it and folded his hands back on his lap.
"Jin-gongzi, please answer me if you can."
"Sect Leader," Jin Ling said quietly. "I'm a sect leader."
Wen Ning bowed his head. "Apologies, Sect Leader. I meant no off – You should not sit up so quickly!"
At Wen Ning's mention of 'sect leader', Jin Ling sat up with a start.
Indeed, the Ghost General was correct; he should not have sat up so quickly. He pressed his palm flat against his forehead in an effort to stop the world from spinning.
"Shushu," he muttered, scrambling to his feet.
Another bad decision.
Jin Ling rocked precariously on his heels. When Wen Ning held out an arm to steady him, however, he pushed it away and began to stumble off in the direction he remembered Jin Guangyao had gone.
His feet caught on the bodies of corpses that littered the field. Wen Ning had made short work of a crowd that had been nigh on impossible for the three of them to defeat.
It would have made Jin Ling angry had he not been so addled.
He kept moving forward, walking almost like a corpse himself. Jingyi looked up as he passed both him and Sizhui, who was lying unconscious on the ground.
"Jin Ling," said Jingyi, still kneeling beside his fellow Lan, "where are you going?"
Jin Ling didn't answer except to murmur 'shushu' again as he ambled on.
"Sect Leader Jin," Wen Ning said, "you shouldn't wander off. I think you're wounded."
Although he was surprised to realize that Wen Ning had been walking with him, Jin Ling said nothing and didn't stop walking.
"I cannot leave A-Yuan," Wen Ning said. "I cannot leave him like this, and I dare not force you to stay here. Please, Sect Leader, don't go."
"Then don't leave him," Jin Ling whispered. "I'll be back soon."
"Jin Ling, you're being stupid again!" Jingyi said. He heard him getting to his feet. " I'm not scared to force you to stay! I'll-"
"Jin Ling, stop."
The voice that had interrupted wasn't Wen Ning's, but he couldn't immediately identify it. When someone touched his arm, he jumped and reached for Suihua at his belt only to discover that the sheath was empty.
"Stop! It's me!"
Jin Ling spun and found himself face to face with Wei Wuxian. Beside him stood Jiang Cheng, looking as cross as he ever did.
"Shushu," Jin Ling said, trying to piece together an explanation for them but struggling to clear the fog in his head enough to do so. "I saw him. Let me go. I'll find him."
He tugged against Wei Wuxian's grasp, but he wouldn't release him.
"That's not your uncle. It's Xue Yang. He wants you to go after him," Wei Wuxian said. "He wants to lure us all out there."
Jin Ling wasn't listening. He was starting to regain lucidity.
No matter what it took, he would have his chance to speak with Jin Guangyao. He had to get away from Wei Wuxian, but force wasn't a valid option for him when he felt as lousy as he did.
No, he would have to trick him. And the best method would be to feign compliance.
He hung his head and let his arms go limp.
"I'm sorry, Jin Ling," Wei Wuxian said sincerely.
The instant his fingers slackened, Jin Ling lurched forward.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
Jin Ling had taken no more than a few steps before he was caught again, this time by a firmer hand.
"Don't you think you're getting a little old for that trick?" Jiang Cheng asked in a low voice.
When Jin Ling hung his head this time, he meant it.
"We're going back to the inn," Jiang Cheng said sternly. "Let's go."
"No," Jin Ling said, digging his heels in as Jiang Cheng tried to pull him away.
"Don't be a child. Come back to the inn."
"No. You can't order me around anymore. Leave me."
Jiang Cheng exhaled in exasperation. "I'm not leaving you out here. Let's go."
"You should listen to him, Jin Ling," Jingyi piped up. "The doctor said you're supposed to be careful. You look horrible. You need to rest."
Jiang Cheng's grip tightened and he spun Jin Ling around to look at him.
"Doctor?" he said, eyebrow raised.
"It was nothing," Jin Ling mumbled, averting his eyes from both him and Wei Wuxian.
"I thought you said you weren't hurt when you came back," Jiang Cheng growled. He pointed at the blood along Jin Ling's side. "How did you get that?"
"We were ambushed by corpses. I got scraped up."
"By a sword?" Wei Wuxian asked skeptically. "That's from a sword. You didn't get that from a fall or a bite."
"What happened?" Jiang Cheng demanded. "How badly were you injured?"
Jin Ling sighed. "Just this and I hit my head."
Wei Wuxian crossed his arms and clicked his tongue. There was an almost joking aura to his disapproval.
There was no joke to Jiang Cheng's.
"Come with me. Now."
When he tried to pull him away again, Jin Ling again dug his heels into the dirt.
"I'll know if it's him," he insisted. "Let me find him."
"I said no," Jiang Cheng snarled. "Come with me."
"No!"
Looking awkward, Wen Ning bent to lift Sizhui. He motioned for Jingyi to follow him, but he wouldn't go. Wen Ning gave him a lingering look and then turned to carry Sizhui back to safety.
Jiang Cheng seized the front of Jin Ling's robes, pulling him so close that they stood nearly nose to nose.
"I don't care how old you are," Jiang Cheng said. "I don't care what titles you hold or what honors you've earned. You will not risk your life unnecessarily in front of me. Do you understand?"
"I'm not risking my life! He's my family! I want to talk to him!"
Jiang Cheng's face contorted with rage. Jin Ling tried to step back but was held fast by the fist that was wrapped in his clothes.
"That was not your uncle," Jiang Cheng said, his voice cold and quiet. "Your uncle is dead. And if you recall, he tried to take you with him."
"But I-"
"I have indulged you long enough," Jiang Cheng went on. "I've held my tongue when I could because he was your family and not mine, but this is too much. He tried to kill you. He tried to kill me… and Fairy… and Zewu-jun… and Wei Wuxian."
Beside him, Wei Wuxian looked surprised to have received a mention, but he didn't interrupt. So, Jiang Cheng continued.
"People in your life can and will betray you," he said. "Family does not exempt them from that possibility. Jin Guangyao was your family, and he betrayed you. So, I don't want to hear you so much as utter his name unless it is to curse it."
Wei Wuxian shifted uncomfortably. "Jiang Cheng, don't you think-?"
Jiang Cheng didn't even look at him, but somehow, his tone alone delivered the same venom that Jin Ling had already received. "Stay out of this if you know what's good for you."
Wei Wuxian grimaced and slunk back a few steps. Surprisingly, Jingyi continued to hold his tongue too.
Jiang Cheng spoke again to Jin Ling. "You will pick up your feet and march straight back to the inn with me," he said. "Or else."
"Or what?" Jin Ling retorted. He hated how his eyes watered. "You'll kill me?"
Jiang Cheng somehow looked even angrier. "Get. Back. To. The. Inn."
"NO!"
Jin Ling used all of his remaining strength to knock Jiang Cheng's arm away from him. As soon as he was free, he turned to run off into the millet field, but his body had other plans.
Just that small pivot aggravated his dizziness. Jin Ling found himself kneeling on the dirt, kept upright only by his uncle's quick intervention. His head lolled against Jiang Cheng's arm. His eyelids fluttered as he fought to remain conscious.
"Jin Ling?!" he heard Jiang Cheng say.
"Jin Ling, you need to stay awake," Wei Wuxian said. "Look at me, Jin Ling."
"A-Ling! Wake up!"
They sounded so far away.
He felt someone slip one arm behind his knees and another around his shoulders. The ground beneath him dropped away.
"Suihua," Jin Ling muttered, unable to keep his eyes open any longer. "I left Suihua."
"I'll get it," he heard Jingyi say.
"Stay awake, A-Ling," Jiang Cheng murmured, his voice soft… or maybe it just sounded soft. The noises around them were weirdly distorted.
"I – nmmf – I-"
"You don't have to speak," Jiang Cheng said. "Just open your eyes."
But that was the one thing that he couldn't do.
Since he couldn't do what Jiang Cheng had asked, Jin Ling gave up entirely. He allowed his head to rest against Jiang Cheng and listened to the muffled songs of the insects until he was swallowed by darkness.