A Phoenix Rising - An Untamed Story (Book 1 In Series)

Chapter 33

Wei WuXian slumped at his table in the banquet hall from the night before, feeling every single one of his twenty-two (or thirty-five) years. The lack of sleep coupled with the amount of energy spent creating the phoenix and fighting off those archers had drained him more than he wanted to admit; he hadn't felt this weak since leaving the Burial Mounds. He wiped a drop of blood dripping down from his nose. Lovely. Just another sign that he overworked his body. A woman in black and red placed a pot of tea and two bowls of soup on the table with a slight bow. As desperate as his body was for sustenance, he pushed the bowls away. At Lan WangJi's inquiring look, he explained. "Do we know it hasn't been tampered with? It's not easy to poison almost five thousand cultivators who aren't drinking the same thing.... Someone, or several someones, in the kitchen must be in on the plot to kill us."

Lan WangJi pushed a bowl back towards his husband and then picked up his own to drink. "Did you forget? There are YilingWei disciples in the kitchen making food now.... You sent them." Wei WuXian blinked with blurry eyes at his love. Did I? "Eat," Lan WangJi encouraged. "You need the energy to deal with what's to come."

Wei WuXian picked up his bowl and drank; his sleeves swung with the movement, wafting the smell of smoke into his nose. "I need a bath," he muttered. "I stink."

The hall was filling up with cultivators, most of them looking hung-over with the after-effects of the poison. There was no order to their gathering; the strict seating and entrance rules of the opening and closing banquets were ignored. However, they left a wide gap between them and the YilingWei sect. It could be due to the Yiling Patriarch's power demonstration. Or a general distrust of the Patriarch's use of resentful energy. But it was most likely because behind the Patriarch, perched on the top of a chair that had been dragged into the hall for that purpose, sat the phoenix. The bird spit little plumes of fire at any cultivator not wearing the black and red who dared to go too close to its creator.

The hot soup warming his insides and giving him some energy, Wei WuXian looked around the hall paying special attention to the men and women who appeared to not be feeling the effects of the poison. He ignored Sect leader OuYang who was alternately hugging his children and scolding them; that man didn't seem like the kind who would willingly place his children in danger. He also ignored the blustering Sect leader Yao; that man was too direct in his dislikes to use poison and ambushes.

Nie HuaiSang.... His former classmate sat alone at his table, fan barely moving. Was he the one? Rumors and innuendos and getting others to unwittingly do his bidding were his way of getting things done.... But does he want me dead? Is he really willing to potentially kill thousands to keep his position as a major sect leader? But then why the assassination attempts on ZeWu-Jun and Li MeiLi? Or Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing? And even killing me doesn't change the number of disciples in Sanctuary.... Unless the men in black were supposed to pretend to be YilingWei disciples? But then why were they just in black and not in the black and red?

That Jin elder who was trying to marry off his daughter to Lan XiChen.... What was his name again? Jin Lo something or other? Whatever his name was, he looked smug. But then, the few times Wei WuXian remembered seeing the man, he had also looked smug. Standing next to his beautiful daughter, who also looked like she had not ingested the poison, he looked... happy? This one may not be responsible for the poison nor the attempt at murdering me and Shidi, but I'm sure he's the one who ordered the assassination of Lan XiChen and Li MeiLi!

Wei WuXian scanned the room again. There was that young cultivator who wanted to persuade any Wen that he came across to confess their crimes before handing them over to the Sect leaders to judge.... Was he the one behind the attack on Jiang Cheng, Wen Qing, and Wen Ning? If so, he had overindulged in something as he looked extremely hung-over.