The tale of the fox and the dragon egg

Chapter 14 - What others see

When he did find his nephew, it was in the company of the man he sought. Only to see that face again, those eyes that seemed to haunt and taunt him, his words that denied everything that happened because of him-

Their meeting was fate and history.

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Jiang Cheng was livid.

Only one day prior he had the image of his home in front of his eyes. A safe place of calmness and familiarity, where he could rest and simply get his energy back.

Where he would see children jump around, the water flowing in calm waves around the different see and rivers, where he would be able to see the lotus float across their home-

The ride on their swords took three long, long days for everyone. He and his man barely rested on their journey from the burial mounds to lotus pier.

Their prisoner had the ability to wake in the most difficult situations and he didn't want a fit on two of their swords. Two weeks within the burial mounds were enough for him and his men to be exhausted beyond believe.

Not to speak about Jin Ling. The boy he told to stay put right before they began their journey. The boy who blatantly ignored his words and commands and followed them anyway. The boy who he needed to help fly on his sword because that stupid teenager got injured and – gods forbade – even managed to get himself cursed at the same time!

Safe to say, Jiang Cheng was at the end of his patience. Which wasn't really long regardless, but this mission took a toll on him.

The last months were testing him. Pinching him in every way possible, an annoyance and deep fluttering rage brimming just under the surface. He hasn't been so tense since the war – since the siege – and it was on days like this that he really felt his age.

He was still young in regards to every immortal that walked this earth. However, his every muscle felt like it could snap at every moment.

First, there was the never anticipated attack on the Lan sect.

There had been rumors and stories of turbulences within Gusu that reached his ears, but he never regarded them further. He was the sect leader of the Yunmeng Jiang. He couldn't afford to ponder over the incidences within the competence of another sect.

That would be one of the worst things he could do, to push his nose into stuff that didn't regard Yunmeng and so he blatantly ignored every word.

Even though he already had a bad feeling about it.

Rightly so.

When his messenger informed him of the attack on Cloud Recess, he was just reading through a report of a minor inconvenience right at the border of Yunmeng. The bowl of tea he enjoyed had met the table underneath him with a bang, loud enough to make the man in front of him jump back.

Nobody would dare to attack one of the strongest and proudest sects head on, not since the almost endless war against Wen Rouhan.

Only the blatant thought was enough to push the cultivation world into anger and uproar. With it happening right in front of his eyes and the message of the sect leader of the Lan missing, it was too atrocious to believe.

His first reaction was to look at the messenger in front of him, stabbing him with his gaze and demanding that he should stop lying if he had nothing to report.

With the Lan arriving at his doorstep only one week later, he realized it had been true.

Such as every other sect, as it seemed.