The Prodigal Son

XXI

Sometimes you must hurt in order to know, fall in order to grow, lose in order to gain, because life's greatest lessons are learnt through pain.

One man stood alone in the midst of darkness.

"Xian-ge! Don't cry."

Hearing the death cries of the people who would stood in his way and his freedom

"Wei Wuxian! Surrender you loathsome demon!"

The painful course of lost crusade born from betrayal of those he held dear. The ineffable wisdom and judgement seemed obscure to many people that marched their way and kill un-minding the error of their ways in his place.

His tears turn to sea of blood, his sadness rose the darkness, his heart had fallen numb with the single stance of his beloved child save him from useless blades.

"Xian-gege...."

The cold winding road lone rogue took seemed endless. The rope on on his hand dangles with the wind.

"A-Yuan!..."

The moonlight sprinkles into the crimson blood of his lake. An indescribable ambiguous feeling silently spread throughout his gellish garden.

He smiles, bitterly smiled.

He held his little child's body with his own blood stained hands.

Footsteps echoed along with the cries of the mountain.

"Ha.ha... you finally arrived?

With a single step, the moon turned red, the land was sapped with life and turned barren. The bloody lake turned to a bloody pit where he basked in all his glory.

The tragedy, the betrayal, the anger he couldn't muster.

Thousands cultivator's lay dead under his feet with only one snap of his finger.

Darkness whirl, his name being called in disdain.

"You should stop.."

He did not reply, he continued to marvel at the beauty of stardust that kept him company for a while, whose colors contrasting with the red and black of this god forsaken mountain.

"Wei Ying...."

The name only one person would dare call.

"Lan Zhan?."

His words spat out in pure fury, legions of dead armies answered his call.

"Demonic cultivation can affect your body and temperament. You can still stop."

"The price to pay? I can pay it. As for my temperament, what do you even care? How dare you talk about payment? When you all took my child's life as payment?!"

The crisp sound of his voice rocked Lan Wangji's heart. The lifelessness in his answer made Lan Wangji crossed that line he should not have.

"Please... stop... Go back to Gusu with me Wei Ying." He begged.

How wrong he was to asked him this time? When everyone is trying to kill him, when he's being condemned as a criminal worse than the Wen's.

"Go back to Gusu?" Wei Wuxian smirked, "yeah right. After you all, your GusuLan despise crook people like me."

"It is not denouncing yo—"

"If not for denouncing me? What for?! Punish me?! Torture me like a live stock?! Or feed me with damn drugs?! Ah... Make a toy of me?"

"WEI WUXIAN?!"

"LAN WANGJI! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? WHO DO YOU THINK GUSULAN SECT IS?! YOU'RE THE SAME AS THEM! YOU'RE JUST LIKE THEM! WHAT DID I DO TO YOU?! WHAT DID I DO FOR YOU TO DRIVE INTO THIS PIT?! I SAVED ALL OF YOU! WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME! WHY YOU MUST TAKE HIM ALSO AWAY FROM ME?!"

He laughed, laughed so hard and sarcastically.

Due... He needs to ask payment for the debt due.

"I did nothing but save you, why must you do this to me?"

The heavens split, seven swords flashed down stabbing the madden cultivator. The chains of hell were summoned.

"YOU ALL OWE ME YOUR DAMN PETTY LIVES! IF NOT FOR ME! YOU'RE NOTHING!"

A broken heart.. that's what everything he sacrificed been returned to him. He had given all his love and yet he's being betrayed, stomped on the ground. He had given away his you, wasted so much of it, they only took advantage of his heart and played with his emotion.

Praise him when he saved them.

Condemned him when he's beyond and above them.

"I trusted you... Gave you the benefit of doubt... Had everyone proved right... When all I've ever done was love you... Why can't you.... understand—listen to me once?"

He wanted to lose this memory so he would no longer think of him. He just wanted to go so face so that he would no longer see him. He wanted to cry but he no longer had any more tears to shed.

His sad, lonely face.

"I shouldn't have reached for hands back then."

He thought he could still believe in him yet everything was shattered into pieces.

In this dark lone path, he can seem to find a way out.

What should he do?

How do he get out of this?

How do he stop this misery?

How do solve this mystery?

The sound of his voice when he told him that he cared. He had fallen for him so much that he thought he's going to die from the pain. He wanted to break free and move away.

In this god forsaken place, he had no where—no one to run to.

If the world betray him, retribution it is!

Lose in the abyss of his own darkness, Wei Wuxian finally made a choice.

"I am tired Lan Zhan. Can't you just kill me with that sword you're so proud of."

The little child in his arms couldn't cry. His little hands curls into a fist as he clung onto him tightly.

He could hear the mournful calls. The rejoice of the people to overcome the wrath.

Without needing an answer, we walked, tripped, and continued to walk. The child in his arms continued to bleed. He cleared his mind and silently weaved his path in the dark. The screams scared him, the dead bodies was nauseating.

He was chased and chased by demons and ghost of man.

He was chased to the pits of hell still trying to summon his courage.

His eyes now filled with tears.

His hands forward trying to feel something ahead.

The screams got louder and louder.

The cried of dead men filled his head.

He ran and ran, as fast as he could.

"Mother."

Dragging his steps he calls.

"Help me."

He didn't want this anymore.

...to be continued...