WangXian Forever Book 8

Chapter 92 Home

Baoshan Sanren rolled her eyes.

"We have to go back and report to the Jade Emperor that the problem has been taken care of." She sighed as if it was a chore.

"Okay...and we just came to get Hui Gai and Zago...so I guess we should head home too." Wei Ying said, smiling at his grandmother’s attitude.

"Aww! PengYou...you came just for me!" Hui Gai grinned.

"And me!" Zago elbowed him in the ribs, gently.

"Both of you." Lan Zhan said, only to prevent a dispute.

"Before we go back..." Hui Gai said, "can I show you something? It has to do with Rumi."

"Of course! Did you find out why that fat guy wanted our child?" Wei Ying wanted to know.

Hui Gai nodded.

The twelve Celestials took their leave and vanished.

Haitch and Yezi, Lor and Venator arrived, panting from the exertion of climbing the steep slopes. The fighting had taken them far from where Hui Gai was sparring with his enemy.

Greetings were exchanged and then the inevitable questions about how Wei Ying and Lan Zhan’s transformation happened. The listeners were in awe at the tale, including Hui Gai.

"Where's Wen Ning?" He asked.

"We told him we could handle this and he should just go home...so Cloud Recesses. We flew back!" Wei Ying told him, still excitedly remembering the journey back.

"He's a good person." Hui Gai remarked, smiling a toothy smile.

"Yes, he is! I've been saying that for ages." Wei Ying sighed. "Show me what you wanted to and then we really should get back. The children will be worried."

"Mn." Lan Zhan also wanted to go back home, for that reason and...others.

Miraculously, the shack where Qiangda and Zuzhou had hidden away from the world was still standing, even after the chaos of what had happened.

As Hui Gai opened the door for them to enter, he told them what had happened after he as Rumi, had left Cloud Recesses with that Demon.

"The Sleeping Sickness Demon's master, the fat guy, his name was Heian Wangzi. I don't know his real name and he picked that one."

"Out of choice?" Wei Ying asked.

He had seen the dark array in the middle of the room and gone to crouch down next to it.

"Yep, out of choice." Hui Gai snickered. "Anyway, he told me about Rumi's parents. You know...they were just a young couple in love. Qiangda was a high ranking demoness and her title...or what people liked to call her was Mistress of Magic. She was renowned throughout the lands for her talent...and it might be the case that Rumi inherited some of her magic...and maybe even her skills."

"What about Rumi's father?" Wei Ying glanced up at Hui Gai, listening intently to what he was saying.

"He was curiously, an albino Demon...that's why Rumi has unusual scales. He was supposed to guard her but they ended up falling in love." Hui Gai sounded sad. "Apparently Qiangda had managed to disguise him and Rumi to look like us, so they could blend in and not be discovered. They were on the run. Her father had held a contest to see who could win her hand...it was that guy, by the way. His pride and dignity were wounded...that's why he went after them."

"There are two arrays here...and..." Wei Ying tapped the side of his nose, thinking hard.

"And?" Lan Zhan asked.

Whenever Wei Ying was in thinking mode like this, Lan Zhan felt incredibly honoured that he got to see the wheels of thought grinding and when he came up with different solutions, just that alone was incredibly hot.

In fact, in his head he was keeping count of the many times he wanted to kiss Wei Ying and could not; into double figures now and Lan Zhan was determined to collect.

"And...that one is a teleportation array...but this one is similar...but not." Wei Ying figured it out.

"I can shed some more light. That fat Demon said he killed Rumi's parents in front of him, and at the last minute, she pushed him into that array...I'm guessing that's the market place where he found you. In fact...the more we're finding out about his past, the more I'm inclined to think he chose you two because one was wearing black and the other was wearing white...it was the closest thing to his parents that he could find and his traumatised brain just latched on."

"That makes sense." Wei Ying agreed. "But it's so sad! I'm really glad he found us...but the circumstances?" Wei Ying shuddered. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to have Rumi in his arms and hold him tightly.

"Heian Wangzi wanted Rumi here because this array," Hui Gai pointed to the second one, "is only activated through a blood connection. It's how she drew that one in the first place."

"With her blood?"

"She was fatally injured. It's a reasonable assumption." Hui Gai shrugged. "But I'm thinking Rumi's mother might have hidden something for him...something that could only be accessed by him. Maybe a gift...who knows?"

"Are you suggesting we bring Rumi back here? To find out?" Wei Ying wasn't sure what to think about that.

He looked around the room, noting its size and structure. Even for three people...it wasn’t very big. It had been obviously raided because it was in disrepair and looked quite bare, stripped of anything of value.

But the arrays were worrying, drawn from the blood of Rumi's mother.

"I'm not sure what to do." Wei Ying said, finally.

He stood up.

"If he's forgotten those memories...should we expose him to whatever this place might trigger? I don't want to upset him...he's just a child."

"While none of us wants to hurt him... It may be that the choice is taken out of your hands." Hui Gai looked grim.

"What do you mean?" Lan Zhan asked, frowning.

"I mean, if this guy, basically a random stranger figured out the connection between this place and Rumi...it's a possibility that his life will always remain in danger if there's a question mark about what this entails." Hui Gai pointed to the second array. "So if you want to keep him safe, it might be better to get this over with. So no one else gets funny ideas..."