The Child of Demonic Cultivation

Family Core Part 3

WC: 1010

Jin Ling saw Lan Tian curled over in pain and could feel a shift in the energy of the cave around then. he could feel a slight tug in his chest and an aura as if inclining him to move, yet also as if pushing him away. A small ringing noise echoed through his ears, it wasn't loud just unrelenting. He glanced around to see everyone transfixed on each of Wei Wuxian's words. With only a moment of hesitation Jin Ling crawled over to the entrance of the cave to find Wen Ning.

When the two made eye contact it only took a second for Wen Ning to realize Lan Tian was in trouble. After quickly subduing a large chunk of the incoming walking corpses Wen Ning shot his head into the cave to see what was going on.

As all of Lan Tian's senses seemed to explode once again it all when away into silence and they were plunged into darkness. He slowly blinked trying to regain control of their own body when a faint waving white light appeared before them. Lan Tian followed the path with their eyes as it appeared in the darkness to reveal the outline of a small dagger suspended in mid air. In the corner of his eyes Lan Tian could see a figure clouded in the bright white light. They longer he staired at it the more clearly he could see the figure's face and body come into view. "You..." Lan Tian gritted his teeth before turning back to the small dagger.

Jin Ling moved to glance back at Lan Tian when he froze. As his breath hitched and body began shaking, he could only stare blankly as the person he loved stared back at him. He wasn't even sure if he could call it staring, it was more that they were swaying while facing his direction. Jin Ling began to question if he was in a waking nightmare as Lan Tian's pure white eyes seemed to glare in his direction. In the moment it took Jin Ling to blink he had felt a strong wind slam into him before Lan Tian stood in front of him tilting their head slightly.

"Ti Ti?" Jin Ling choked out as he frantically examined them with his eyes. As he followed their arm he saw Wen Ning struggling to stop Lan Tian's arm from reaching his side.

They quickly reached with their other hand before croaking out, "I... need it. Gi.. give it to me."

Wen Ning moved to place both of Lan Tian's small wrists into one of his hands before grabbing a small dagger from his right side pocket.

"Is that?" Jin Ling asked as he began to back up. Wen Ning glanced at the boy before responding, "The blade that they stabbed you with... Yes."

Jin Ling slowly walked between the two before he faced Lan Tian and gently wrapped his arms around them. "It's going to be okay Lan Tian, I don't know what's wrong but I'll help you." He made a little space between them before holding out the small dagger to Lan Tian.

"When did you..." Wen Ning reached around his pocked but couldn't find the dagger.

Lan Tian quickly wrapped his hand around the dagger, just as Jin Ling let out a sigh of relief a brief dark band of spiritual energy rushed around the dagger then around Lan Tian's body before the blade silently flew in the direction of Su She barely missing his head and then disappeared with the band of energy. Jin Ling quickly moved to grab Lan Tian the moment he saw their legs buckle. Jin Ling was grateful no one seemed to notice due the dagger due to it's speed or that at the very least they were too distracted to care.

"You scared me there for a second Ti Ti." He chuckled as the colour returned to their face.

They used the last of their energy to toss aside the dagger before cuddling into Jin Ling's body. "You better not ever do that again." They said grumbling.

Jin Ling, somewhat respectfully, silently chased off Wen Ning before turning back to Lan Tian, "You can rest now, I'll protect you."

Lan Tian shook their head, "I... I... you have to... stop him." They kept shaking their head against Jin Ling's body.

"What do you mean? Are you still not feeling well?" Jin Ling tried to look around the crowd of cultivators to see if there were any who would be willing to help Lan Tian. "I can try and call over one of your Gege's? Lan Sizhui? or Lan Jingyi maybe?"

"No... It... he... he did something. The corpses... he did something..." They just kept repeating the same words over and over as Jin Ling struggled to make sense of it all.

At least, until he heard Wei Wuxian's words, "...So even if there was something off about a section of the battle music the Su Clan played while killing walking corpses on the trek up to the Burial Mounds, the Lan Clan wouldn't think anything of it," Wei Wuxian slowly continued. "They would just write it off as the Su Clan making errors due to their poor technique and poor memory of the score. They'd never suspect the melody might be deliberately incorrect. Is that right?"

Jin Ling began piecing the clues together. The kidnapping, the cultivators lost spiritual powers, the corpses, the dagger, and Wei Wuxian's words. It all lead to...

Su She's pupils contracted. Veins popped violently on the hand pressed to the hilt of his sword, which he'd secretly drawn half an inch out of its scabbard. At the same time, Lan Wangji raised his eyes and saw the mirrored understanding in Wei Wuxian's gaze.

Jin Ling watched as Su She drew his sword in full and was about to come to Wei Wuxian's aid when he used two fingers to push aside the sharp tip of the blade.

"What're you doing? Don't forget you lost all your spiritual power. What's the use in threatening me, huh?" WeI Wuxian asked head tilted to the side of Su She's sword.