Promise and Betrayal: A Mo Dao Zu Shi (the Untamed) Story

Chapter 33

Lan Zhan stands behind Wei Ying, sword dripping with blood, white robes finally stained with red and brown, breathing heavily. The next moment, I am beside him. We look at each other, a silent agreement before us. We will defend Wei Ying.

And we do. While he stands frozen still, transfixed by his sister's kneeling form, we keep him alive. A blocked sword here, a knockout there, a puppet killed. I want to kick my brother back into himself so he can see himself to safety, but time does not let me. Now that the Yiling Patriarch is in the middle of the battlefield, everyone thinks they can take a swing at him.

I notice he starts to walk again, slower this time, in the direction of his sister. I move to his right side, Lan Zhan to his left. We can now see in front of him, while still guarding his back against attackers.

They reach each other, miraculously. Yet, Lan Zhan and I are forced from Wei Ying's side by the onslaught. It is just enough time for an opportunity attack. And one comes. Before my very eyes, a bold young cultivator hurls his sword straight for Wei Ying's back.

The world slows, and it suddenly feels like I am back at Qingqui Way, witnessing Wen Ning kill Jin Zuxain.

To my horror, as the projectile soars through the air, Jiang Yuanli pushes her brother aside, shielding him from the incoming blow. He stares back at her in disbelief, nothing but shock and grief on his face when the sword lodges itself in her chest. With a smile, she falls to the ground, dead.

Wei Ying lets loose a grief-stricken shriek, cutting above the combat noise. He sinks to the ground, making no attempt to go to her. Jiang Cheng is already there, cradling his sister's limb body, urging and pleading her to wake up. She does not move.

I urge myself to move, but my body does not respond. I am rooted to the ground, my limbs unresponsive. As I watch, I see Jiang Cheng gradually raise his head to face his estranged foster brother. "Wei Wuxian!" He uses the name a curse. "You killed your sister's beloved, and now you kill your own sister?" His eyes are red and bloodshot, yet the vengeance sparkles in them, clear as day.

My brother extends a trembling hand, his mouth agape, but says nothing. He only has eyes for his fallen sister. Jiang Yuanli died with a smile, a profound contrast to the battle and grief raging around her. Yet Wei Ying only looks at her smile, his hands grasping at nothing, his mouth moving, yet forming no words.

"The Yiling Patriarch, killing his own sister? Have you sunk that low?" Jiang Cheng snarls. "You never deserved to be in our family. You are a lowborn, a son of our family's servant! My father—my father—took pity on you and raised him as one of his own. Yet you would kill his eldest daughter? You would kill your own sister?" Jiang Cheng is hysterical, now, I realize, but that does not change the fact that I can tell his words bite deep with Wei Ying. "Go. Run back to your 'spiritual sister'. See if she will take care of you the same way Ah Li did. Run away after you claim to be the hero. Take all the credit, then leave the cleanup for us! Just like you always do!"

I watch as the horror of what happened dawns on Wei Ying. His sister sacrificed herself to save him, and despite Jiang Cheng's twisting of the event, I see as he begins to blame himself. The grief and self-hatred gather in his eyes, the loathing of what he has caused.

I finally find it in me to move. I run to him, leaving Lan Zhan to defend the four of us. I trust his abilities.

"Brother," I whisper, embracing him. He does not react. "It is not your fault. She pushed you away. You did nothing to cause her death."

"It is my fault," he says. "She came because of what I did. Who I killed. If I hadn't lost control...if only I hadn't lost control of these godsdamned spirits... she would not have needed to save me..."