Empire (Xichen X OC)

Chapter 34

After that happened, Jin Ling led them to where the rest of the Yao Disciples lay, injured and unconscious. Wangji and Yue worked to move the bodies into a sitting position, their backs against the barks of the trees. Then, they used a Lan Technique to help purge any resentful energy that had infected their minds.

"He is not badly injured. He fainted because of the hallucinatory miasma" Wangji pointed out as he finished with the last disciple.

Guan-Yin, not that far away, finished with hers. "He has a mild head trauma but nothing too serious. He had also fainted because of the hallucinatory miasma. All should wake up after an hour" she explained as she stood up at the same time as her uncle.

Clan Leader Yao quickly bowed formally to the two of them. "Thank you Hanguang-Jun, Lady Lan"

Jin Ling, who was standing close by, was muttering his thoughts out loud before a question popped into his mind, "You two said that the miasma can cause hallucinations, yet why am I not affected?"

Wuxian, deciding to mess with him, spoke up. "Because of your oh-so exceptional cultivation base, of course!"

Immediately, Jin Ling looked at him with hopeful eyes. "Really?" he quickly controlled himself and puffed his chest in pride. "Well, I didn't need you to tell me that"

Guan-Yin rolled her eyes at how naive that boy could be sometimes and shook her head. And the elders make plans to marry me to him of all cultivators? She asked, she was fully aware of what Grand Master Lan wished, despite her disagreement on the topic.

Even Clan Leader Jiang was against it but the topic was never truly dropped. It was all a matter of time until they reached their rightful age. Perhaps, that was one reason why she was so sarcastic and cold towards him.

Yet again, nothing had truly been set in stone and many things could change in a matter of years. She truly hoped for that change to come and stay, for the sake of her sanity.

She focused back on them as Wuxian explained to Ling that the Clarity Bell of Yunmeng Jiang Clan protected him against the resentful energy and kept him sane, compared to everyone else that had entered the mountain around the same time.

Then, he tried to attend to Ling's wounds but the boy simply ran away from him, amusing Wangji and simply causing Guan-Yin to shake her head once again at his behaviour. How was it that they were the same age and yet she was more mature than him?

"Jin Ling! Wait!" she heard Wuxian shout, causing the boy to come to a halt.

"What is it now?" he asked.

Our three heroes walked towards him but it was Wuxian that had walked the most forward before he bent to one knee. With two fingers, he picked up some of the blood that was staining the grass where Jin Ling was about to step.

Guan-Yin slowly walked towards him, her eyebrows frowning faintly once she noticed it. "The blood has darkened" she pointed out, something not adding up. "That shouldn't be right. I mean, it was shed a while ago but it was not that long" she voiced out her opinion, glancing at her uncle.

Wangji gave a nod, showing that he was agreeing with her and that she had thought right about the situation. If the situation was any different, she would have smiled ever so slightly since it was not often she could receive that nod of approval from him. Simply, because most of the time he was correcting her mistakes.

Their focus was back on Wuxian, as he used his flute and his hand to push some bushes aside. In a small clearing right behind them, three cultivators lay on the floor; dead. However, their faces quickly seemed familiar to our heroes.