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16 - Fire Amidst Clouds

Fire...It is the one thing that can spread quick and destroy so much in a short period of time. The smell of burnt embers and flesh, the metallic smell of blood, the melancholic aura of pain, suffering, and death, in its path of destruction. That's what I came home to. I was traveling with Wei Ying in search of the Yin Iron, but we had no such luck. We only have the one from the cold caves of Cloud Recesses. Wen Xu and his army were invading my home, killing Lan disciples as they tried to fight him or any of the Wen soldiers.

"Kill them all! Young and old! I don't care, show them what happens when they defy the Wen Sect!" Wen Xu shouted.

The Wen Sect invaded my home and killed every single Lan in their path. I had out my Guqin, Wangji as I fought my way through, searching for survivors and taking them to the safety of the cold caves. Up ahead I saw Wen Xu and a group of Wens targeting injured Lan disciples. Shufu was one of them.

Shufu went forward to try to take down Wen Xu, but he couldn't hold off much as he was falling weak from his injuries. As he fought with Wen Xu, all he could do was block while spitting out blood. All of the Lan disciples went running toward Shufu to help keep him from falling down.

Wen Xu took this chance to attack Shufu, but with a strum of my hand over my guqin, a string of blue light lashed out to Wen Xu, throwing him and his soldiers back. Regaining his balance as he stood back to his feet, Wen Xu rushed forward again trying to attack me, only got push back by my chord assassination once more; I continued to attack Wen Xu with chord assassination.

The Wen clan rushed forward to attack the Lan Clan but they didn't expect that I fly into the air, use my chord assassination to hit the ground with a loud boom. It caused a wall of dust to block them from coming toward the Lan clan.

When I landed on the ground, they took this chance to enter into the cold cave, "Uncle, we need to go!" I ordered.

"Everyone stay close!" He ordered everyone else.

Many of them were able to enter the cold cave, many didn't make it in time. They were captured by the Wen clan and Wen Xu.

"One of you tell us how to get inside of this cave?" None of the outer Lan disciples spoke a word to Wen Xu.

Wen Xu caught one of the disciples looking at him, "I am just only an outer disciple. I will not tell you anything."

Wen Xu ordered his man to kill him, "Lan Wangji, you better listen here. Hand over the Yin iron or I will kill the rest of your disciples!"

I didn't have much of a choice and I could only do what I needed to, "Wangji," Shufu called for him as I stepped forward.

"Shufu, did you know? In this cave, Lan Yi said to me, I should have a clear conscience"

With that I left the cold cave. I arrived outside the cave just in time to save the outer Lan disciple, "stop!"

Wen Xu stopped what he was doing, "Lan Wangji, you finally came out."

The other disciple looked at me, "let them go, leave Cloud Recesses. I will go with you to Qishan."

Wen Xu ordered two of his men to surround me, "Where is the second Yin iron?"

"Leave Cloud Recesses first, I will hand it over to you when your gone."

"Fine, let them all go," Wen Xu man let the rest of the Lan disciple go.

When Wen Xu turned to leave, he turned back around. "Say, you think you're so powerful? You two break his leg."

The two Wens did just that, one of them hit the back of my right leg making me fall to the ground, and the yin iron from my sleeve fell out. I looked at Wen Xu with anger and revenge in my eyes. I was taken from my home. I didn't know what would become of my injured Shufu, and I had no idea where Xiongzhang was.

'Xiongzhang promised me he'd never disappear. He promised to be there for me. Where are you GeGe!' I cried on the inside.

On my way to Qishan, my thoughts were on Cloud Recesses, Shufu, and Xiongzhang. My thoughts also landed on Wei Ying. I wondered if he had issues? I wondered if he heard of what happened? I know my sect is struggling but I need to focus on myself for the time being.

The moment I stepped inside the gates of the indoctrination at Qishan, Wei Ying looked right at me. He had concern, written all over his face. It warmed my heart a bit knowing that he was worried for me. I was worried for him as well.