The meaning of protecting you with my life

Rumours

Jiang Cheng was sitting on the bed in his tent and taking care of his sword, sharpening it and cleaning. His sword did not need it, not anymore since he had been at it for several hours already, but the familiar steps and motions were helping him to calm down. It was the evening of the sixth day since he and his family had come back from Nightless City, since they had abandoned Wei Wuxian to deal with Wen Ruohan and his puppets on his own.

Ever since then, his parents were stuck in the infirmary, usually just sleeping and recovering. And when they were not, Jiang Yanli was there with them, keeping them from going off on their own and storming the Nightless City palace to save his brother.

He would have done the same thing long ago be it not for Nie Huisang's insistence that things would just be even harder for Wei Wuxian if Jiang Cheng would be captured and used as a hostage against him. Another message came from inside of Nightless City just yesterday, informing them that Wei Wuxian was still fine, albeit held a prisoner, and that he was working on finding a way to seize control of the Yin iron so the Sunshot campaign could safely proceed with the siege.

Jiang Cheng had been outraged when he had heard that his brother was once again playing a hero, endangering his own life in the process. Had he not had enough already? He must have been at the edge of exhaustion; without a golden core, the demonic cultivation must have been taking a toll on him in its own, not even talking about taking control of the most powerful and resentful relic of all times. And after everything he had already been through during these last few months, Jiang Cheng was extremely worried for him.

However, Nie Huisang had assured him that there was no other way they would actually be able to march onto Nightless City, not if they did not want to suffer serious losses. And Jiang Cheng had to begrudgingly agree with this statement.

Ever since Wei Wuxian had been captured and Wen Ruohan started to try to break him with the powers of the Yin iron, there had been a substantial decrease in the numbers of resentful puppets who were joining the battles as the allied forces approached Nightless City. There could have been only one explanation; Wei Wuxian must have been doing his part of the job in distracting the Qishan Wen sect leader enough to stop caring about the battles outside of his palace.

But at what price? Jiang Cheng would have given everything he had and even more to know what exactly was happening behind the walls of the Nightless City palace. The messages Nie Huisang relayed to him were not specific enough to put him at ease. While it was at least good to know his brother was still alive, the letters never mentioned his condition. Jiang Cheng was afraid that once they would find him, they would perhaps not even be able to save him anymore.

He knew Wei Wuxian, that idiot never cared about his own well-being so it could be that he was already dying but just refused to do so before he would defeat Wen Ruohan. From what his brother's plan, explained by Nie Huisang in details again and again, entailed, it seemed like Wei Wuxian was fully committed to help during the final battle from the inside and face the Qishan Wen sect leader on his own.

Not that it was such a bad plan, Jiang Cheng would have actually liked it if it would not mean most probably losing his brother. He had seen the state Wei Wuxian had been in even before being taken prisoner and he somewhat doubted that he had been treated any better since. Even if his brother had been in perfect condition, the task would have been a hard one indeed, but in this case, it was pure suicide.

And still, Wei Wuxian had been smiling when he had been left behind. That smile and the fond expression in his eyes were still haunting Jiang Cheng. He had known that his brother would do basically anything for his family, but not like this. He did not want him to sacrifice himself for them, and for the whole cultivation world who was shunning him out because of picking up demonic cultivation.

What did they know? Wei Wuxian had no other choice; he had protected Jiang Cheng and lost his golden core, so he was left with no other option but to take hold of what he was left with. The visit to the Burial Mounds, for Jiang Cheng now fully believed that he had been there during the three months he had been missing even though Wei Wuxian himself did not actually admit it, surely did not help in choosing another path.

And now, the allied forces were counting on Wei Wuxian to win them the war. At the same time however, rumours had started about his brother joining Wen Ruohan and working with him behind the scenes all this while. It was ridiculous! How could they believe that just because Wei Wuxian was using a similar – not the same, mind you! – form of cultivation as the Qishan Wen sect leader, it meant that they were cooperating and plotting against the rest of the cultivation world? It was just out of Jiang Cheng's understanding.

Every time he heard such rumours, he would make sure that the person spreading them would not talk about that topic ever again, Zidian reacting to his red hot anger was usually the only argument needed. He knew that Nie Huisang and Lan Wangji were also working against the rumours spreading but it was a lost battle. Just a handful of them could not stop all people from the allied forces, especially those scared of demonic cultivation in general, from gossiping behind their backs.

Jiang Cheng had already decided and confirmed with his parents and sister that when they would get Wei Wuxian back, for there was no other option that Jiang Cheng would accept but getting his brother back, they would immediately go home to Lotus Pier and hide him there. They would protect him this time, not the other way around. They were in his debt.

That would however be easier said than done. They still did not know if Wei Wuxian and all of them would survive the upcoming battle. Their forces were meagre after long months of war, many lives had been lost and most of the injured soldiers could not go to battle anymore. Their numbers were very small. On the contrary Wen Ruohan's army was just as imposing as ever; he had not suffered too many loses since he could resurrect the dead the allied forces had not burned to ashes and so he could constantly renew his forces. Moreover, once the Qishan Wen sect soldiers had been turned to puppets, they could not be killed or injured easily, it was really an uphill battle against them.

Seeing this, their own soldiers and cultivators were fearing Wei Wuxian even more, reasoning that he could start doing the same whenever he wanted, they feared becoming puppets themselves. That was utter nonsense but it was hard to explain to them when they did not even know his brother before he had turned to demonic cultivation. It did not help in the slightest that Wei Wuxian had been cold and even cruel at times during the Sunshot campaign, now it was hard to convince anyone that that was not his true character.

That was exactly the reason why Jiang Cheng had to take his brother back to Lotus Pier the first thing after he would be rescued. There could very well be another war lurking in front of them, one that would evolve around Wei Wuxian and his use of demonic cultivation. They had to protect him.

It was getting late and Jiang Cheng finally put his sword down. He really should go to sleep eve if his mind was in too much of a turmoil to rest properly, his body needed it. There was a battle to win tomorrow and it would not do if he was sleeping during the fight. He put the candles out and laid down on his bed, looking at the ceiling of his tent and willing his mind to calm down and drift to sleep.

 Hello everyone!

It has been exactly one year from the day I have posted the first chapter of my first work. Time flies, it seems just like it was yesterday. I am satisfied that throughout that year, I have managed to post a chapter or more every day, I tried hard.

I want to thank to all of you for supporting me and reading my stories, I am very happy that I have managed to put out there something someone else beside me enjoys.

As a special gift, I have started a new fic, a sort of a gamebook where it would be up to you readers to steer the wheel of the story. The first chapter is out already so you can check it out if you are interested.

Thank you all again for your support and lovely comments :)