Jiang Cheng wasn't sure how he felt about flying again. After what had happened with Huaisang's faux plan to lure the huli jing, how he and Wei Wuxian had fought, flight hadn't been as enjoyable as it usually was.

Since those who had voted to continue on had voted partially with the intention to shorten the Xue Yang mission, it was decided that travel time should also be shortened.

It was a risk to fly since it either made them easier to see or it meant that someone needed to use energy to conceal them. Not to mention the fact that not everyone could fly on their own. Some of their party had to ride with others, which made for a tight squeeze.

Jiang Cheng glanced over at Lan Xichen and Huaisang, who were riding together. There was room enough for Huaisang to take one step forward on Shuoyue, but any further would mean dropping off the edge.

The two of them were positioned much more awkwardly than Luo Qingyang and Yu Qingqi were. Granted, the women were smaller in frame, but more than that, Yu Qingqi was able to hold herself to Luo Qingyang more tightly. They were married after all. It wasn't strange for them to stand so close.

The knuckles on Yu Qingqi's hands burned white from how tightly she clung to her wife. Luo Qingyang kept her arms spread to either side to maintain their balance, but every once in a while, she would pat Yu Qingqi's back encouragingly.

"Jin Ling! Sizhui! Watch this!" called Lan Jingyi.

A streak of white and blue shot past Jiang Cheng. Lan Jingyi kept going until he was a good distance away from the group. Then, he tilted his blade upward and performed a series of loops that even Jiang Cheng had to admit were fairly impressive.

"Jingyi, stop!" Lan Sizhui yelled from the back of the group. "You're drawing attention to us!"

"Oh what does that matter?" asked Wei Wuxian nonchalantly. "We're already out in the open. Plus, Hanguang-jun's talismans should help make us more difficult to see from the ground. You kids might as well have some fun."

"We're not children," Jin Ling insisted.

Jin Ling's injury had improved substantially after drinking a tonic provided to him by his doctor in Jinlintai. As such, Jiang Cheng felt much more at ease about his continued presence in their group. But he still didn't like it.

Wei Wuxian merely laughed at Jin Ling's indignation.

Now that Wei Wuxian was back in the body of Mo Xuanyu, he possessed a golden core once again and had clearly demonstrated that he could fly just fine on his own. However, for some reason, he had elected to ride along with Lan Wangji all the same. Somehow the two managed to hold one another even more closely than Luo Qingyang and Yu Qingqi had.

Jiang Cheng had made it a point not to look at them, but they were difficult to ignore when speaking.

"Sizhui!" cried Lan Jingyi. "Come show Jin Ling your new tricks!"

Lan Sizhui didn't answer his friend. He continued to look toward Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji for guidance.

"Are you sure?" he asked them. "Hanguang-jun?"

In his typical manner, Lan Wangji didn't verbally answer him. He only inclined his head.

Lan Sizhui beamed at his elder, and when Lan Jingyi called for him again, he shot off ahead of the group. Jin Ling was left on his own.

Jiang Cheng watched him to make sure that he wouldn't be foolish enough to go compete with the Lan juniors. Even if he was feeling better, he didn't need to push it.

When Jin Ling noticed him looking at him, he made a face and glided away to be nearer to Luo Qingyang and her wife.

"Brat," Jiang Cheng muttered under his breath.

At least he was being safe.

Trees and fields and creeks all passed under their feet at frightening speeds. It was a wonder how those two boys were able to move any faster than the rest of them were already going.

At this rate, they would reach Nightless City by dusk and could stay nearby until morning. This could all be over with by wu time tomorrow.

Something warm tickled Jiang Cheng's cheek. He reached up and brushed it away, surprised to find water on his face.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky. It wasn't raining.

Jiang Cheng looked around but could find no explanation for the droplet. A sense of uneasiness fell over him, try as he might not to dwell on something so insignificant.

He watched the Lan juniors twirl and flip around one another, moving in harmony with all the natural grace of their clan. Show-offs.

They went on like so for perhaps half an incense time. Jiang Cheng was beginning to wonder how the Lan juniors still had the energy to dance around, when he suddenly found that he could ignore it no longer.

A pain had been growing in his chest ever since they'd taken flight from the other inn. And it was worsening.

Jiang Cheng's eyes were watering, but he kept his head low. He didn't want the others to notice. Especially since it was probably nothing, just the same old problem he'd been having. He just needed a moment to quiet his mind. That was all.

His hand subconsciously drifted toward the clarity bell at his waist. That bell had protected him from many evils, but it could not protect him from this.

"Something's wrong!" Luo Qingyang shouted.

Jiang Cheng jerked his hand away from the bell, worried that she had noticed. But when he chanced a glance at her, he realized she wasn't looking at him.

Luo Qingyang had one hand against her chest while she held the other out to try to keep her balance.

Sandu shuddered beneath Jiang Cheng's feet. He was in agony now. Two faceless but familiar beasts, horror and despair, had clawed their way to the core of his being. Tears streamed down his cheeks. He could no longer hide his pain.

He doubled over, causing Sandu to dip low before he levelled it out again.

"We should land!" Luo Qingyang screamed. "Something is very wrong! GRAB THAT BOY!"

Jiang Cheng looked up in time to see one of the Lan juniors – Sizhui, if he wasn't mistaken from this distance – wobble precariously on his sword. The other one rushed toward him to help, but he didn't make it in time. Lan Sizhui wobbled again and then pitched forward, plummeting headfirst toward the ground.

The boy's feet had barely left his sword when Jiang Cheng heard Wei Wuxian speak.

"Lan Zhan," he said, his voice quiet and vaguely disoriented. Jiang Cheng had to strain to hear him over the shouting of the others. "Lan Zhan, I don't feel well."

Wei Wuxian's knees buckled. At the same time, Sandu shuddered again, even more violently than before.

"Wei Ying!" Lan Wangji cried in alarm.

But Wei Wuxian didn't answer him. His hold on the front of Lan Wangji's robes slackened and he tipped backward. Fortunately for him, Lan Wangji caught him before he could actually fall.

"Bring him to the ground!" Jiang Cheng heard Luo Qingyang say. "Don't carry him back up here! Can't you feel this too?!"

He couldn't hear anyone answer her.

Something was ripping him apart. He was sure it would kill him, whatever it was.

Sandu pitched forward suddenly, nearly throwing Jiang Cheng off. Even with his vision blurred, he knew it would be a long way down.

"Land, Sect Leader Jiang!" Luo Qingyang screamed at him when he almost lost his balance a second time. "No one here is well enough to catch you! Land! EVERYONE LAND NOW!"

Jiang Cheng didn't have the strength left to argue nor to be annoyed that Mianmian was ordering him around.

He tilted Sandu downward slightly, trying his best to guide his landing. But the sword was shaking constantly now. He could barely control it.

A few meters from the ground, Sandu gave out completely. Jiang Cheng fell hard onto his back while the others landed with significantly more grace around him. He couldn't be bothered to care. It felt like his chest was going to collapse in on itself.

"Jiujiu!"

He heard Jin Ling coming toward him.

"Stay away from me!" he hollered, not bothering to try to see where his nephew was.

The mere thought of anyone getting close to him or trying to help him up only made the fear inside him grow stronger. He knew this feeling. But why now?

"Jiujiu, are you all right?"

He didn't sound like he was coming any nearer. Jiang Cheng rolled onto his stomach, allowing his tears to drip onto the dirt beneath him rather than running down the sides of his face into his ears.

"I'm fine," he said, hating how his voice cracked. "Are you?"

Jin Ling didn't respond. The quiet between them was filled by the sounds of the others tending to one another.

"A-Ling," said Jiang Cheng testily, "are you well?"

If he had to, Jiang Cheng would get up to find him. Otherwise, he was content to lie there, propped up on his forearms in the dirt. The smell of earth was soothing some of the turmoil that had stricken him.

"I – it hurts," Jin Ling said in a small voice. "But I'm fine compared to the rest of you."

Curious, Jiang Cheng raised his head.

Indeed, Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi were the only two left standing, but their skin was ashen and they quaked where they stood. Luo Qingyang was kneeling, doubled over, a couple meters away. Yu Qingqi knelt across from her, holding her hand and whispering something that Jiang Cheng couldn't hear. She looked better than anyone else did.

Next to them, Huaisang was wiping tears from his face with one hand while his other was balled into a fist over his heart. He looked equal parts devastated and furious, an expression that Jiang Cheng was sure he'd never seen him make.

Lan Xichen was more quietly distraught. He didn't cry or shrink down or huddle next to anyone. No, he sat stock still, his face as pale as the moon, his eyes wide but unfocused as if he'd witnessed some terrible atrocity. The only indication that he was a living man and not some intricately carved statue was the tremoring of his hands, which sat loosely in his lap.

Aside from Yu Qingqi and perhaps Huaisang, they all looked the worse for wear. But none looked quite so awful as Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui.

Lan Sizhui was lying at the feet of his fellow junior. His chest rose and fell rapidly. He reached up toward Lan Jingyi, who immediately knelt to tend to him, though he seemed at a loss for what to do.

Wei Wuxian was held tightly by Lan Wangji, who looked quite ill himself. But Wei Wuxian looked a thousand times worse. He was as pale as Lan Xichen and might have been dead except that his lips were moving every once in awhile.

He was too far away to hear, but whatever he was saying made Lan Wangji's face contort with more anguish.

Heavy footsteps sounded from somewhere to his right. Jiang Cheng braced himself as another wave of despair crashed over him. He felt a scream bubbling up in the back of his throat but dared not release it. What would he be screaming about anyway? Why did he feel like this?

"Sect Leader Jiang, what's-?" Wen Ning's hoarse voice cut off abruptly. Though he wasn't looking at him, Jiang Cheng could sense Wen Ning taking in the scene around them.

After a brief pause, he shouted 'A-Yuan!' and rushed off toward where the Lan juniors were.

When Jiang Cheng looked up again, he saw that Jin Ling had meandered that way too and was locked in a heated discussion with Lan Jingyi.

Jiang Cheng groaned and tried to push himself up onto all fours. Why wouldn't these stupid tears stop falling? There was nothing for him to be upset about.

"We should keep moving," Wen Ning announced. "I passed a mob of corpses on my way over. They will be here soon. What happened here?"

"We don't know," Jin Ling answered as Jiang Cheng's arms quaked and gave out beneath him. He fell right back down where he'd started.

"I felt a little… strange while we were flying," Lan Jingyi said. "I feel pretty terrible now. Everyone else started falling out of the sky for some reason and now Sizhui can barely talk and I don't know what to do and there's no town nearby and now there are corpses coming too and I don't know what's happening and-!"

Lan Jingyi cut off, but Jiang Cheng didn't lift his head to figure out why.

He felt as weak and helpless as he had the day he'd lost his golden core. And he felt as lost as the day Yanli had died. And he felt every other horrible thing he'd ever felt in his life.

"You heard the Ghost General," Luo Qingyang barked. Though she spoke with fierce authority, there was a quiver in her voice that Jiang Cheng had never heard before.

"Stand if you can stand," she said. "Help those who cannot. We need to move."

Who put her in charge? a small snide voice in the back of Jiang Cheng's mind asked.

Who else would be in charge? You? said a different voice, distinctly feminine and harsh. He knew it well, even if he'd not actually heard it for many years. You think you can match any of them?

"I think it's the miasma," said Yu Qingqi. She sounded closer to him than she'd been before. "I felt it when we first entered Qishan. It got worse each step we took."

"You think when you flew in here, you moved too swiftly to adjust?" Wen Ning asked.

"Precisely."

Her voice was directly above him now. Jiang Cheng looked up in time to see her bend at the knee and extend her hand to him. She offered a tense smile.

"Sect Leader Jiang," she said softly. "We need to go. Will you accept my help?"

Jiang Cheng's stomach churned at the thought. Not because he found Yu Qingqi to be repulsive by any stretch of the imagination, but because the idea of touching anyone sent a shiver of disgust down his spine.

"Don't touch me," he muttered. "I can do it on my own. Go help Wei Wuxian."

His last sentence had spilled from his mouth before he could process what he was saying. He didn't understand where it had come from.

But Yu Qingqi didn't seem to notice or care. Or perhaps she elected not to say anything.

"As you wish," she said.

The hem of her hanfu brushed his forehead as she stood and turned to go to Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian instead.

No sooner had she knelt beside them than another hand was extended to Jiang Cheng.

"Why do you turn away assistance?"

He looked up again, this time into the face of Lan Xichen. His eyes were dull, his face grim. The hint of playfulness in his tone that Jiang Cheng had gotten used to hearing was gone. He was miserable.

"I don't need it," Jiang Cheng said. "Leave me."

He tried to push himself up again but couldn't. The ache in his chest was getting worse.

"I can lift you if-"

"Don't touch me!"

Jiang Cheng tried again. His arms shook and his legs felt like jelly. He wasn't injured. So why couldn't he move?

"I won't," Lan Xichen assured him. "I won't unless you ask me to."

"Nice sentiment," Luo Qingyang interjected curtly, appearing seemingly from nowhere, "but we don't have time for that."

"Don't you all have someone else you can bother?" Jiang Cheng asked without looking at them. "Why is everyone coming to me?"

"Because everyone else is accounted for," said Luo Qingyang. "Hanguang-jun is carrying Wei Wuxian, the Ghost General is carrying Lan Sizhui, and everyone else is well enough to walk on their own. Everyone except for you, it would seem."

She reached out to grab him. Weak as he was, Jiang Cheng had just enough strength to slap her hand away, though not with any amount of force.

"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!"

Luo Qingyang didn't back down, but her brow knit together.

"I know that face, Sect Leader," she said. "I've seen her in the mirror. And I would leave you alone like you asked if your life weren't in danger. But if you don't want to be touched, I suggest you get up right now."

"Don't you dare," Jiang Cheng breathed.

"Then get up!"

He tried. But there was no strength in his limbs. Panic filled his lungs. She was going to grab him if he didn't move. Why couldn't he just move?!

"Get up!" Luo Qingyang yelled at him.

"I'm trying!" Jiang Cheng screamed back at her.

When Lan Xichen raised his hands to call for peace, Jiang Cheng shied away. He hoped they hadn't noticed. But he knew they had.

"Please, Advisor Luo," Lan Xichen pleaded. "This is not constructive. We should think of another way-"

"Forgive me, Zewu-jun," Luo Qingyang snapped, "but I'm not in the mood to die for him. So he needs to get up if he wants to be left alone!"

"LEAVE ME THEN!" Jiang Cheng bellowed at her. "No one could argue that it wouldn't be fair! Just go! Go…"

Another wave of despair washed over him. He really was useless, wasn't he? There was no injury, no reason for him to be immobilized like he was.

Even though Wei Wuxian was similarly incapacitated, he was at least not holding anyone back by refusing aid.

Somehow, even at his lowest, Wei Wuxian was better than he was. He was always better.

You'll never compare to him.

"I'm not like you, Sect Leader Jiang," said Luo Qingyang coldly. "I won't leave you behind if I can help you."

"I've told you not to help me," Jiang Cheng snarled. "So don't help me."

"Not how it works."

"Leave me here!"

"No."

"Why not?! You despise me!"

"Like you despise me."

"So leave!"

"No."

"I SAID GO!"

"I SAID GET UP!"

Jiang Cheng shook with fury. Luo Qingyang's nostrils flared. Her eyes were wild with a rage of her own. And poor Lan Xichen was left to desperately try to settle the two – a role that he seemed doomed to repeat time and again.

"As much as I dislike you," Luo Qingyang growled, "I am sorry. It's not my preference to disregard your wishes like this."

"Don't you dare…"

"We are out of time."

"Don't!"

"Wen Ning!"

Jiang Cheng frowned as Wen Ning turned to face them and gently laid Lan Sizhui back down on the grass.

"I need you to do it," said Luo Qingyang. "I need you to do the thing you said you could – the thing your sister taught you."

His sister? Wen Qing? What?

But Wen Ning seemed to know exactly what Luo Qingyang wanted. He bowed to her, and then to Jiang Cheng while he reached into his pocket.

"My apologies, Sect Leader," he said solemnly.

That flash of silver was a familiar sight.

Jiang Cheng muttered a brief, 'No,' before the needle struck his forehead.

His body relaxed in an instant and the pain in his chest subsided. His vision began to darken.

Unlike the last time the Wen siblings had used the yintang point on him, Jiang Cheng was ready for it… slightly. He didn't immediately lose consciousness.

"I want you to know," he heard Luo Qingyang say, "that the weakness I see in you has everything to do with your character and nothing to do with this."

He had no idea what that was supposed to mean. And there was no time to figure it out.

In a matter of moments, Jiang Cheng was lost to the world.