Savage Wolf, Lotus Heart [Never Let You Go, Again: Book 4]

38: Wen Yuan

"Sizhui?" Lan Wangji blinked.

"What the hell?" Wei Wuxian gasped, gawking at his oldest son.

While the Qiong Qi was still dazed by Lan Yuan's amber fire, Lan Zhan walked over to Sizhui and placed his hand on his shoulder, eyes still wide in surprise. "Sizhui..."

Lan Yuan gulped and looked down. "F– Father..." he flinched under Lan Zhan's touch, expecting his father to explode in anger.

But Lan Wangji was just... shell shocked. "Sizhui, that fire... you... since when?"

"I don't know, Father... it's actually even after I became Sect Leader. My core improved by a drastic proportion, and then this popped up. I wouldn't have accepted the Lan sect leadership had this appeared before... I'm sorry, Father..."

"No. It's great."

"AH?" Sizhui was mesmerised by the faint smile on Lan Zhan's face. 

"Aish, now's not the time, Lan Wangji," Jiang Cheng patted Lan Zhan's hand with Sandu and shoved it off Sizhui's shoulder. "Well, Sizhui, who cares if you're different? All the better! Now come on, help us out." Jiang Wanyin unleashed Zidian and nodded to him. "Go for it, Wen-Lan Yuan."

Xichen and Xuanji grinned wide, Aria sulking under her sabre. Huaisang wagged his fan approvingly. "Best to never forget your roots, son."

"Mn," Sizhui beamed at them, delighted to see they didn't really mind any of it. Every last one of them had seen the Wen's skill he implemented, the fire he lit up with a mere wave of his hand. A Wen skill. And yet they were this supportive...

Even the black wolf was nuzzling his nose on his arm to reassure him.

Lan Sizhui grinned and scratched behind the wolf's ear before nodding to Jiang Cheng. His Lan sword still in one hand, he swished his left hand in a circle, building up energy. He knew what to do. The same skill Wen Xu had used on their own Lan guards decades ago, on the first day of Sizhui's fathers' classes.

Easy as pie, Wen Yuan grinned to himself and swung his hand in the afflicted beast's direction.

The Qiong Qi had been blinking several times over to get out of the trance of the sudden burst of red fire he had seen. And Wei Wuxian was attacking it relentlessly higher up in the sky. One wing of its glorious yet torn body was damaged quite far, and yet it flapped with all its might to stay afloat mid-air. But somewhere amidst its struggle... all at once, the Qiong Qi felt a surge of heat rushing through his skin.

And then pain. Torment, throbbing soreness dashing across his fur and skin, scorching his flesh.

That's right. That was the word. Scorching. For his body was on fire.

So far, Sizhui had managed to set the monster's neck and the upper half of his torso on fire, but the rest of the body was hard to tackle, what with it being too far away and protected by its wings.

"Wings! Sizhui!" Jiang Cheng pointed. He lashed Zidian at the massive fiend, burning the wings and what little bit of bruised torso he could reach. The beast screamed in agony.

Lan Sizhui nodded and targeted the wings next. Once. Twice. Thrice. Still didn't work. The thing was moving too fast. Fifth try... sixth...

Whoosh!

Crimson and amber flames lit up the tips of the Qiong Qi's right wing on the seventh try.

"Hurray, A-Yuan!" Wei Wuxian shouted and twirled in the air with glee.

The joy came a bit too early. Almost jinxing the triumph.

The Qiong Qi swooped down and rubbed its wings on the forest's many trees, letting them catch the fire from his wings. By the time he rose up to the sky again, all in a matter of seconds, the forest was on fire but his wing was not.