The tale of the fox and the dragon egg

Chapter 37 - Song of Clarity

Just as Lan Zhan did before, he held onto Nie Mingjue's arm and placed his fingers on the pulse point. His eyes closed in concentration as he held his breath, allowing himself to truly feel the resentful energy that called for him. He wanted to reach out, weave his own yan energy through it and guide him to the mess inside his meridians.

It turned out that he didn't even need to try. But that was more of a bad thing than a good. 

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"Young Master Nie, good to see you again!"

"Master Wei."

The entrance hall of the Lan was more than modest, but was still as elegant as the clan by itself. It was a makeshift room, one of the best that remained almost untouched after the attack and one that was made to accommodate for such guests.

A true difference to the powerful and beautiful buildings they had seen before this whole ordeal, but it sufficed for now. There wasn't much room, but the same wasn't needed right now. Nie Huisang, who arrived a little time ago, stood next to Lan Xichen as Wei Ying and Lan Zhan entered.

The atmosphere was not the absolute best, but Wei Ying cared very little for that. Maybe the both of them had talked about what happened with Nie Mingjue, maybe they had talked about what would happen now. With Wei Ying's arrival, they turned silent. His grin was bright as he stepped in, Lan Zhan hot on his heels, and greeted the hawk he had known in his past.

Wen Ning and A-Yuan were not with them. The fox didn't want the little child to hear a discussion about death, or almost death and the whole situation that wanted to desperately kill him and abduct his son. That was not something he needed his son to hear, nor be questioned about by the little dragon later.

As Nie Huisang dropped into a short bow, Wei Ying and Lan Zhan followed him in the motion.

"Master Wei, Hanguang-jun", Nie Huisang said. A half of his face was hidden behind his fan as he looked at them with attentive eyes.

The picture was almost just like the boy Wei Ying knew from before – the boy that shied away from blades but enjoyed the little pranks they did around the area. But that was a very long time ago. Especially that look in his eyes told of the changes he had went through.

It was wary and not as naïve as back then. Of course, it had been a long time since they really met like this, but the nearly deadly qi deviation of his elder brother was surely adding to that change. How much of a change this had become, that was a question that needed to be answered with time.

"I heard that your elder brother is also here. I hope he recovered a little from the recent happenings", Wei Ying spoke. His voice was a little quieter. Such matters, like the near death of Ni Mingjue, were surely still sitting heavily on Nie Huisang's heart.

The hawk had been nervous in the past, because of his heavy dislike of fighting with any weapons. His way of interest was bathing in the arts and beauties of the world, a peaceful and luxurious way and the whole opposite to his elder brother. Accompanying to that, there was a certain warmth and a slight smile that always played around his lips – a smile he knew when Jiang Cheng and himself spoke of Jiang Yanli. Wei Ying was very familiar with it and now, after he and Lan Zhan had seen him so desperately clinging to the last signs of life of his elder brother – he knew that he loved him very much.

At Wei Ying's words, Nie Huisang shifted his eyes towards the ground once and shut his fan in one motion.

"Elder brother is better now. But he's not as well as I would like him to be."

"He is currently taken care of by our healers", Lan Xichen hummed with a thoughtful look on his face, "His energies are still in tumult and he did not wake since the accident that occurred. Several of my disciples are currently playing cleansing for him."