Never Let You Go, Again

26: MeiRen Sha

Luo Qingfei attacked with all her might and talent, swinging her sword from left to right, slicing up and down, chopping off diagonally, while Wei Wuxian jumped and ducked like an acrobat. She slashed across his feet and he jumped, leaping up high enough to land on a branch nearby, before lifting his hand in the air to catch an incoming Suibian.

"Oh? I thought you only used that flute of yours?"

"Well," Wei Wuxian grinned jumping down from the branch to face Luo Qingfei, "you clearly don't talk to your sister too much. This has always been my sword, my Suibian. Now, then, let's get back to the killing!"

And with that, he unsheathed Suibian and slashed away furiously. He knew every last one of the Jins' moves well enough to be able to predict her moves. Luo Qingfei was indeed impressive, so much so that Wei Wuxian had no doubt she was Mianmian's cousin. The two assaulted each other, one with the Jins' obstinacy and the other with the ferocity of the Jiangs.

Suddenly, the villainess's moves changed. She began to attack in a new pattern, a new style, an entirely different technique. It took Wei Wuxian quite some time to recognise it, thanks to having never truly fought with that conceited Wen Chao: all they had done was brawl. Well, turns out competing with Jin Zixuan and practising with Wen Ning will save his life today.

"Good! Using the haughtiness of the Wens?"

"I can be as crafty as you, Wei Wuxian. Do you know what they call me? MeiRen Sha!" She cackled.

"Oh? Evil Beauty? Fine! Then let me give you a good treat too!" He cackled, as he too abruptly changed his style. Now this was a style completely different from the Jiangs in every way, such that it left the woman flabbergasted.

Wei Wuxian assailed her, but in the most gracious way possible. The swiftness of his turns, the sharpness of his moves, the elegance and the grace with which he wielded the usually thrashing Suibian, would have been breathtaking had she been under different circumstances. This finesse... it was like poetry in motion... The Lans?

"Since when does the Yiling Patriarch practise the charm of the Lans?"

"Since I married the most charming Lan ever," he Cheshire-grinned, before twisting his wrist and swinging the sword in a series of beautiful circular movements.

Luo Qingfei twisted her sword and twirled very now and then to avoid the dexterous onslaught of Suibian. She was bewildered. Of course, he had married Lan Wangji, but they'd actually taught him their skills? Not good, she better finish him off soon.

With the next swing of her sword, she leapt into the air, somersaulted and landed on the grass behind Wei Wuxian. During the few seconds of delay Wei Wuxian took to realise and spin around, she spun on one foot and crashed her blade through the man's side. Wei Wuxian halted mid-turn. His hand moved to the side of his waist as he touched the region that was sending urgent pulses of pain through his skin. As he moved the hand away, it was already blanketed in bright carmine. There was even a hint of silver, not that Wei Wuxian noticed. 

He sighed. His eyes grew blurred and his consciousness began to threaten to fade away. But he wouldn't let himself succumb to weakness just like that. If he couldn't even defeat Mianmian's sister, what use was he? And the Seal? And Chenqing? If he fainted now, she'd take it all. No, he'd have to finish this first.

Forcing his demonic energy to liven him up, he waited as he felt his core and meridians flare up with dark energy, before straightening his back and staring at the woman.

"Luo Qingfei. How dare you come to my Lan home to shed blood on its pure land!" The light and cheery voice now turned deep and chastising as his roar echoed across the woods.