On the Petals of a Flower, I found something that does not belong to me

29

For those with an upset and churning soul.

 Jiang Cheng scoffed once again. "I did not want to go near her from the beginning."

 Wen Ning frowned. "And then, why did you kiss her?"

 "Eh?" Jiang Cheng and I did it at the same time.

 Had he seen that too? Now I wanted the earth to open and swallow me!

 "I saw you. Normally, your mouth would fall..."

 "Stop it!" did Jiang Cheng. "You are talking nonsense! Are you serious? She needs help now, not such jokes in her head."

 "Really?" did Wen Ning. "You were with her and you failed to protect her. Do you want to help her now?"

 "What did you say? Did you just call me a failure?"

 "That's not what I said."

 "Don't try to scold me. You're just a corpse."

 I coughed loudly. "Well, sorry. I'm here too, in case you forgot."

 The two men turned and looked at me angrily. Then their gazes softened.

 "I'm going to get herbs," said Wen Ning.

 "Let me bring what I can find from that home," said Jiang Cheng.

 And then they both left in different directions, leaving me alone.

 "Ah, where the heck did I got myself into" I murmured and took a huge exhale.

                                                                                          ***

 Jiang Cheng, as if running a bloody road race, arrived first at the place where I had been left waiting.

 With his hands empty.

 "I only found these clogs to bandage your wounds. There was nothing in that damn house," he said.

 I, who had started to gather my strength, smiled slightly.

 "I want to go where the sound is," I said. "Or in that cave. Maybe we can find something there... "

 "Are you in your right mind?"

 I looked at him. "What do you mean?"

 "You are injured and you want to go there?" he raised his voice. Then he sighed loudly. "No, you do not know what is there. Whoever went there did not return."

 I raised one eyebrow. "Then let me ask you something else," I looked at him. "Why did you take me from that house? Why did you save me from the people who were throwing stones at me in Yunmeng?"

 Jiang Cheng didn't speak. He turned his gaze to the waterfall.

 "I know you didn't take me in because you wanted to hide your mission and keep my mouth shut. I think the reason you brought me with you in the first place has to do with this cave," I continued. "So why? Why do you want me?"

 Jiang Cheng rubbed a ring on his hand.

 Holly shit, I thought to myself. I had seen this ring before, but it never crossed my mind that maybe at some point in his life he had someone. Did I open old wounds?

 "We took you in because you nullify our powers."

 Lost in my thoughts, I didn't hear his words clearly. "Sorry?"

 He sighed again. Then he turned and looked at me. "As cultivators, we have powers. They come from our golden core that we develop from a young age. And naturally we can do a lot of things, like move our swords to fight without holding them, or create a talisman fire, or fly on our swords."

 For some reason I wanted to laugh, but I held myself. I remembered when they had flown in the beginning.

 "Do not laugh," he said. "It's normal. We climb our swords and fly. It's a technique that not all cultivators can do. But Sect leaders can. We have trained for this. The thing is..." his eyes played here and there, "... that after a few days since you came, when you were near us, we began to notice that we were not able to use our powers at all. In the beginning we could. But then little by little, we realized that none of us can. It started with Zidian. And continued with all of us Sect leaders, and all our powers."

 I tried to think what he was saying. If he was telling the truth, then why was that happening?

 "That's why we took you in. First the appearances of monsters, then the cave, then the sounds and then you. We thought you might have something to do with the cave and the monsters. And we took you in to find out. Plus, you saw us."

 I let him continue and shook my head.

 "When you told us in the end that you are not from here, but from another world, we were not afraid to believe you, because we had already seen many strange things. It was unbelievable and like a fairy tale, but the facts showed otherwise. You had strange objects with you, you could dye your hair any color you wanted and you spoke strangely. You did not have a gold core, we could not feel anything from you, but we decided to help you. We believed that if we kept you from going back enough, we would find the answer on how to kill those monsters, which were here before you came, and destroy that cave."

 My jaw dropped. My eyes blurred with rage. My hands began to tremble.

 I grabbed the grass with my hands and tightened it. "I mean, are you telling me that you were holding me back on purpose, to help you with your monsters? You're telling me... that... you knew how I could go back?" my voice became a whisper.

 Oh, how stupid I was. I was wondering before if it would be better to stay with them. Along with those liars. Along with those hypocrites.

 I laughed out loud. My body ached, my lungs felt torn, but I no longer cared. I felt like I was losing my mind from my anger.

 "And you kept me here, huh?" I did and laughed again. "Because ... because you wanted to kill some monsters..."

 "These monsters and this cave are a threat to the whole cultivation world and the whole world in general!" Jiang Cheng shouted and clenched his fists.

 "Your own world!" I shouted in turn. "They are not a threat to me! I don't care about yours! You can burn, I don't care! I just want to go home!"

 My words were harsh and I could understand that they hurt Jiang Cheng from the expression on his face.

 Jiang Cheng drew his sword.

 Before I knew it, hands grabbed me and the next thing I knew was that I was many meters away, with Jiang Cheng's voices and screams behind me.

 "What in..." I did.

 "I'm going to take you somewhere far away, Charlie. Away from everyone and everything. Just trust me."

 It was the voice of Wen Ning. I raised my head and looked at him. He was looking straight ahead as he ran, with me in his arms, at an unreal speed.

 I could fight and leave. But Wen Ning had said something I wanted from the beginning.

 He had said he would take me somewhere far away.

 Away from everyone and everything.