WangXian Forever Book 8

Chapter 37 Dragons

JingYi paused at the bed having rushed in. He looked at the cocoon and made a face.

"What happened to them?" And then he turned to Jiang Cheng. "What did you do?"

"Why did you assume I did something? You little sh-"

XiChen interrupted Jiang Cheng quickly.

"We need you to contact Shen Ling, it's an emergency. Can you do it?" He asked.

"Sure thing...so not gonna explain what's happening there?" JingYi took one look at Jiang Cheng's face and scarpered.

Baoshan Sanren turned to the Soothsayer.

"You know something and you're not telling us."

"Everything is subjective." He replied enigmatically.

Hui Gai appeared with Zago.

No smoke to herald his appearance, just raw concern all over his face.

"I can barely sense him...or the other one. What happened?" He demanded, looking at XiChen and Jiang Cheng in particular.

"Why does everyone think I know something about this?" He threw his hands up in the air.

"I can make him talk." Zago offered, sucking on a red lollipop.

Hui Gai appeared to actually be thinking about it.

"Maybe I should explain. They were fine yesterday, A-Xian was tired so WangJi brought them back to the Jingshi. We assumed they were just resting." XiChen suddenly looked so distraught.

Jiang Cheng reached over to squeeze his fingers.

"It's not your fault. Nobody could have predicted this." He said.

"Isn't that his job, though?" Baoshan Sanren looked pointedly at the Soothsayer.

Again, the Soothsayer remained quiet.

*********

JingYi ran up the long winding path up into the mountains to the cliff edge where he usually met his babies.

They usually liked to hibernate in the winter time, since they were still technically babies despite their size. He could only hope that they would be able to hear him.

He still thought it was amazing that somehow he could communicate with them. It had happened accidentally when he had to watch them for the parents and they were hidden in Cloud Recesses until their mother was saved.

One of the babies had hooted, and he had mimicked the sound. It had been so surprised that it had accidentally spurted out fire towards him. They had to always have a bucket of cold water on standby in those early days.

And while he had to be patient with the dragon babies, they were equally patient with him and teaching him how they communicated.

When they got bigger, they also began worrying about him, so they taught him one elongated whistle in a totally different pitch to use for emergencies only, and that's what JingYi used now.

He stood atop the edge of that cliff and called out for them, hoping for a quick reply.

**************

Two disciples this time, burst into the Jingshi.

"Sect Leader! You have to please come. There's a beast! It's landed on the training grounds. It's huge!" They cried.

XiChen glanced at Baoshan Sanren and then at Jiang Cheng.

"Is that-"

"Suanni?" Jiang Cheng finished. "Let's go find out. There's nothing much we can do here. Should we..." his voice faded as he thought about the implications of what he was going to suggest.

"What?" XiChen paused by the door.

"Jin Ling and SiZhui...we should wake them and inform them on what's going on. Especially SiZhui. I don't want to worry Li XiWang and Rumi just yet, but SiZhui would want to know."

"Yes, of course. You're right...SiZhui would want to know." XiChen dispatched one of the two disciples immediately. "Tell them to come to the training ground directly. Not here." He added. "I should have thought of that before."

"It's alright, Huan. You have a lot of things to deal with at the moment. And that's why we're a team." Jiang Cheng half hugged him. "Let's go see who has come to visit us...plus, if it is Suanni, then that bell still works. You don't think he'll be upset that we kept ringing it, right?"

"We don't have to tell him who rang it, do we?" XiChen gave him a rare, naughty smile. "We'll just explain to him what the problem is. Don't worry."

Baoshan Sanren rolled her eyes and left them to it. The Soothsayer followed her as she went to the training grounds but Hui Gai and Zago had already arrived.

Sure enough, Suanni with his beautiful golden fur howled into the night. His great jaws were open, revealing his huge canines shining wet with saliva by the light of the moon.

Baoshan Sanren bowed to him.

As did the Soothsayer.

Everyone else quickly followed suit, but Suanni ignored them all, scanning the crowd, looking for two people, one of whom he thought of as family. Suanni, being another immortal celestial, could communicate through a mental connection, and he picked out XiChen to do it.

"Where are the other Young Masters?" He asked.

XiChen explained the situation to him.

"Bring them here." He commanded.

The disciples looked nonplussed at XiChen.

"How?"

XiChen thought about it quickly.

"Gather the ends of their bedsheets together and carry them here. Take three others and you should be fine."

They nodded and scurried away.

Jiang Cheng saw the bags of exhaustion under XiChen's honey coloured eyes and knew all he wanted, was to go to sleep. But this night was turning into something no one had any experience in, and they were needed to give support to those not sure about how to handle this emergency.

About half an hour later, Jin Ling and SiZhui turned up, helping the other four disciples carry Lan Zhan and Wei Ying in the centre of the bedsheet. Their faces were drawn and anxious. With them, Li XiWang and Rumi were following too.

They brought the cocoon right in front Suanni and bowed, before leaving both cultivators to lay right in front of him.

Li XiWang went up to the huge half lion, half dragon. She thrust her arms into his thick fur and cried. Suanni wrapped one talon around her body and held her tight.

Just then, more flapping wings alerted them all to the presence of Shen Ling, Shen Qing and their babies, with JingYi riding on one of them.

All of the dragons were here now.