Abide With Me

One Eye

This book is dedicated to @NebulusCharlie: You are the wind beneath my wings!

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A/N: All MDZS characters belong to the original author of The Untamed.
All other characters are a product of my imagination and bear no resemblance to anyone living or dead.

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Wei Ying was exhausted. Tired to the bone. Fed up of the routine, the sameness and the utter predictability of life in Cloud Recesses. Bored to tears. Tears that had tracked down his pale cheeks, as he lay under his favourite evergreen just outside Wen Ning's cottage. Very little excited him these days.

Lan Zhan always woke him up at 7 a.m. Of course, Wei Ying grumbled and wheedled and cuddled his way to sleeping in for another hour! He made it a policy to never open his eyes before Lan Zhan had bathed and dressed him. Then after a typically Gusu breakfast of rice and bland, bland boiled vegetables, it was off to the Clan Offices for Lan Zhan while Wei Ying headed to the field where the juniors were readying for sword fighting.

Some stretching and warming up later, Wei Ying fought off a series of hopeful young Lan acolytes with Suibian in his right hand, the left folded elegantly behind him.

"Watch Out!", he called to the youngster fighting SiZhui, just as SiZhui swiped at the feet of the startled junior.

"Leap up, turn, open your sword arm and strike left!" Wei Ying called out, while neatly switching arms and knocking his own hapless opponent to the ground.

"That's it for today, keep going," he called, to groans from the rest of the class. Clapping SiZhui on the shoulder, he pointed to a few students who needed help with their technique, before sprinting off to the Seniors' class.

The Creation of Talismans and their Deployment was Wei Ying's undisputed speciality, and Uncle Qiren would entrust this subject to absolutely no one else. Wei Ying skidded to a halt outside the Great Hall, where over 50 seniors awaited him. Wei Ying's teaching methods were, like him, unorthodox! Instead of teaching them writing of the characters, the mastering of the incantation, and the drawing of the blood intention as separate steps, Wei Ying preferred diving right in.

"You are faced with a water-based monster, the size of a small house! It can be defeated by fire and air, and becomes immensely powerful on land. It can regenerate limbs, squirts poison off its skin and swims like lightning. You have your sword, your headband and five talisman papers. What would you do, Lan Bai Tuzi?" he asked the feisty and petite girl with laughing green eyes.

"Play Suppression on the Guqin, followed by an Immobilizing Charm!" she said.

"And then, Lan Yin Hu?" he nodded at the lanky young man leaning, very un-Lan like against the doorway, watching Lan Bai Tuzi unblinking. "I'd create a hurricane and shoot a Fire Spiral through the funnel," he said.

"Really, you reckon that will work?" Wei Ying asked the class. Lan Yin Hu had resumed his unblinking stare. Wei Ying sighed.

"Lan Yin Hu!" he barked, uncharacteristically annoyed. "Let's see if you can light a fire talisman inside a tornado. We'll meet tonight at Lotus Pier for a night hunt," he announced, whacking the startled boy on the head with Chenqing.

Evenings meant chores at the Jingshi, nowadays the diplomatic workload at the offices kept Lan Xichen and Lan Zhan occupied till late evening. Wei Ying watered his Moon Tree*, the magnolias, peonies, orchids and lilies planted all around that turned the Jingshi into a fragrant bower with spectacular splashes of colours that kept changing with each season. Wei Ying's garden was envied by many, he looked up at Chang'e* and waved cheekily.