Bridging the gap | Wangxian | ON HOLD

Chapter 11

The sound was heart-wrenching and Lan Zhan stood paralysed as he watched Wei Ying's body jerk and twist on the floor in front of him before Wei Ying screamed and went limp. Lan Zhan sunk to his knees tears falling down his porcelain face. He put pressure on the wound and shook Wei Ying again and again with no response. He stared blankly at the crimson layer coating his hands.

Shock spread through the group towards the actions of the past few minutes. Behind him he could hear Jiang Yanli sobbing quietly and several cultivators had begun to spread back out and ponder what had just happened. Lan Zhan could stand it no longer. He would not stand for Wei Ying's image being tarnished again. Icy venom rushed through his veins and he saw scarlet. His voice rushed past his lips quietly at first but increased in strength and volume as he continued.

"Jin Guangshan. Jin Guangshan you vile man, abhorrent and crude. How dare you? How dare you sit all high and mighty on your throne? Were you not the Wen sect's closest allies at the start of the Sunshot campaign? Were you not the one who refused to let your sect properly join the fighting until the war had ended? And then due to the unfortunate and untimely demise of fellow elders, were you not the one who insisted the victory was yours and that you should be crowned as chief cultivator? You have no right! Not once did you even stand on the battlefield let alone put yourself in harm's way.

Do you know who won that war for us? Do you know who sacrificed everything and more? Do you know who refused to be blinded by ignorance and hatred and cowardice and alone defended the weak? Wei Ying did that. Wei Wuxian. Without him, we would never have been able to conquer Wen Ruohan's Yin metal. Without his bravery we all would have died, someway or another, now or later. He never surrendered to them while the rest of us cowered. He endured the harshest of punishments but never crumbled.

He should be the chief cultivator. I dare you to prove me otherwise. In some way, I believe you are all indebted to him: he stood by your sides and fought valiantly for your lives, he saved your children in the Xuanwu cave... And yet, this man of unconventional good has been tortured by your jealously fuelled attacks and exiled from his home. Even then, his kindness and morality have not collapsed. He is willing to dissolve all of is pride and dignity just to see his 'family'. 

He has suffered through all this and still you would not leave him alone. Throughout this whole celebration, you have doused his food with lethal doses of poison, attacked his innocent child and even been willing to murder your own grandson in an attempt to ruin his chances. I will not stand for it. I am not and have never been a supporter of you and your whorish, disrespectful and privileged ways. You are no longer my chief cultivator and if that means that I am no longer welcome here, so be it. 

I would encourage any of you with an individual thought in your head to do the same but do not do it out of  cowardice, duty or loyalty to me, do it because you acknowledge the injustice of the situation!"

With that he stormed out Wei Ying in his arms followed by Wen Ning and a distressed A-Yuan. Unfortunately, Bichen was currently nestled in Wei Ying's abdomen and one of the main factors preventing major blood loss so he couldn't fly on his sword. He faltered for a second on how to proceed before remembering a talisman that Wei Ying had gifted him. 

He activated it quickly and the crowd watched in silent awe as a pair of the purest white wings tipped with tinges of blue sprouted from his shoulders.

And then he was away. Away from the stifling rules of the past and free. Finally able to see the way through the single track path in the dark as Wei Ying had proclaimed it. But first, he needed to get Wei Ying to Wen Qing for his best hopes of survival.