Those Three Months

Part 4

Wei Wuxian stood before the barrier that kept him confined in the Mounds. Using the black bamboo flute and the Yin Hu Fu, Wuxian called upon the resentful energy to push its way through the ward and busted it. After stepping out, Wei Wuxian set a new barrier to keep it contained.

Wei Wuxian had some silver handy and used it to rent a room at the closest inn he could find. He had just entered Yiling when he spotted one. Once he ordered a room, he ordered fresh robes, a bath to be prepared, and dinner to me brought to his room. He then waited.

He sat in the tub for a long time. He scrubbed his skin raw to get the grime and filth he gathered from the Burial Mounds. He scrubbed so much on some places on his body that he caused himself to bleed. Wei Wuxian didn't realize that his tolerance for pain went up immensely. He was in pain every single day due to the broken bones, pinched nerves, and torn muscles in his body, all being held together by the resentful energy that soaked in his body.

For Wei Wuxian, something so simple as breathing was actually painful. It was because his dantian had suffered damage and was unable to heal properly after his golden core was removed. The other reason was that his ribcage had multiple fractures. His lungs sometimes felt as if they were filled with needles.

When he plays his flute and calls upon resentment, that is when he is in the most pain. The resentful energy was cold and burned through his veins, the breaths he had to take while playing the flute, and feeling the resentful energy moving through his body was not a nice feeling. If there was not a war going on and he was able to get out of the mounds without it, Wei Wuxian would have never picked up this method, but he had no choice.

After sitting in the bath for what seemed to be two or so hours, Wei Wuxian finally managed to get out. The water was later taken care of by the staff as Wei Wuxian ate what he could stomach with the food he ordered. He found that he was not as hungry as he used to be. He'd eat enough that he would assume to be enough and then be done. He literally only at a small bowl of rice and some broth as it was easiest to eat. He didn't realize how soar his throat was from the lack of proper food and water over the last three months.

Once he finished, he sat on the bed and just meditated. He found out that sleep wasn't good for him all that much anymore. He would stay up until he could no longer keep his eyes open. He would have nightmares about the mounds, him falling to his death, his parents leaving, his sworn siblings dying, and even him being tortured to no end.

***

"Ahhhhhhhh...!!!"

Wang LingJiao sat up from her bed with a scream. Wen Chao, who was reading a letter by the desk, slammed its surface, enraged, "What are you howling at again in the middle of the night?!"

Wang LingJiao panted as if she still hadn't overcome the shock, "I... I dreamed of Wei again, I dreamed of him again!"

Wen Chao, "It's been three months since I threw him into Burial Mound. Why are you still having dreams of him? Just how many times has it been?!"

Wang LingJiao, "I... I don't know why either. These days I've been dreaming of him a lot."

Wen Chao had already been annoyed while he was reading the letter. He didn't have the time to pay attention to her. He didn't care much for holding her and comforting her like he had used to do either. He spoke impatiently, "Then don't sleep!"

She got out of bed and threw herself over to Wen Chao's desk, "Young Master Wen, I... The more I think about it, the more scared I am. I feel like... back then, did we make a big mistake? ... He was thrown into Burial Mound, but is it possible that he didn't die? Is it possible that he..."

The vein by Wen Chao's temple pulsated, "How could it be possible? Before this, how many cultivators have our sect sent to clean Burial Mound up? Did any one of them come back alive? Now that he's been thrown inside, his corpse has probably rotted away already."

Wang LingJiao, "It's scary even if he's dead! If he really did what he said and became a ferocious ghost and comes back to haunt us..."

As she spoke, both of them remembered that day, what Wei Ying's face was like as he fell, what his expression was like. Both of them shivered involuntarily.

Wen Chao immediately refuted her, "It's impossible even if he's dead! The people who died in Burial Mound, all of their souls would be shackled there. Don't scare yourself. Can't you see that I'm annoyed?!"

He crumpled up the letter in his hand into a ball and tossed it out, his voice filled with hatred, "What Sunshot Campaign? Some Sunshot it is. Want to shoot down the sun? Dream on!"

Wang LingJiao stood up. She carefully poured him a cup of tea. In her heart, she thought over some flatterings words before speaking in a sweet voice, "Young Master Wen, those few sects could only keep on doing what they want for a couple more days. Sect Leader Wen would definitely..."

Wen Chao cursed, "Shut up! What do you know?! Get lost, stop annoying me!"

Wang LingJiao felt wronged, but she felt hatred as well. She put down the teacup. Fixing her hair and her robes, she walked outside with a smile.

Just as she went out the door, the smile on her face faltered. She opened up the paper ball within her hand. Back then, when she exited, she secretly picked up the letter that Wen Chao had tossed away. She wanted to see just what news he had received for him to be so irritated. She couldn't read too well. After looking at it for a while, she could finally guess what the letter said: the eldest son of Sect Leader Wen, Wen Chao's elder brother Wen Xu, had been beheaded by one of the dissidents' leading sect leaders and was displayed at the tip of a sword as a sign of power in front of the battle array!

Wang LingJiao had frozen.

The GusuLan Sect was burnt down, the YunmengJiang Sect was destroyed, and many other sects, whether large or small, were cracked down upon. It wasn't that there hadn't been any defiant voices, but that they had always been quickly suppressed by the QishanWen Sect. For this, three months ago, the sects Jin, Nie, Lan, and Jiang formed an alliance and led the revolt. When they emerged under the banner of the 'Sunshot Campaign', nobody took them seriously.

Sect Leader Wen spoke up back then. Among the four sects, the LanlingJin Sect was on the fence—watching how all of the sects were angrily going on some expedition, it wanted to take part as well, but if it suffered more defeats than victories, it'd soon realize that there was no good in it, perhaps even coming back to hug the Wen Sect's leg and worship it once more.

The Qinghe Nie Sect's sect leader was so stiff that he'd easily snap in half—soon afterward, no need for others to move and he'd die in his own people's hands sooner or later; the GusuLan Sect had been burnt into ruins—although Lan XiChen was here to inherit the position of sect leader after he had moved the Library Pavillion, he was only a junior and couldn't do anything much.

The most laughable one was the YunmengJiang Sect, the people of which either had been killed or had scattered, leaving only Jiang Cheng, who was younger than even Lan XiChen and was still a child born yesterday, who had nobody in his hands but still dared call himself sect leader, holding up the banner of rebellion as he recruited new disciples.

It could be concluded with two words: unpromising and overconfident!

Everyone who stood on the Wen Sect's side took the Sunshot Campaign as a joke. However, three months later, the circumstances didn't turn out the way they expected them to at all!

Many places in Hejian and Yunmeng had been taken over, but that wasn't the most important. Today, even Sect Leader Wen's eldest son had been beheaded.