The Child of Demonic Cultivation

Tremble Part 3

WC: 1295

Night had fallen by the time the group of cultivators reached the foot of the mountain. When they returned to town, the lights had been extinguished, and it was quiet all around. Everyone was in a sorry state, drained in both body and spirit. Even their marching formations were wobbly and askew, the rows uneven. But after using the last grains of their strength to do a headcount, they were heartened to find their numbers had hardened changed form when they first set out.

Since most of the group hadn't recovered their spiritual powers, they couldn't ride swords. Travel by water was the fastest route to Lotus Pier, so the travel-weary band of thousands set off near Yiling harbor. With such short notice there wasn't nearly enough boats for the group but they managed to rent every boat of every size and stuff them to capacity before they were sent off.

Dozens of juniors from prominent clans had been squeezed onto one fishing boat. Many were thrown into dismay at the filthy nets and decrepit, creaky vessel. The wind was stronger at night, making the boats rock up, down, and side to side. Several boys who hailed from the dry north came down with bad cases of motion sickness and struggled to hold it in.

Despite the rude comments and mentions of disrespect, Lan Tian opted for travel by sword as they flew around the boats landing on the least busy ones for breaks.

"Just who do they think they are.." A junior from some small sect mumbled.

Lan Tian sat on their sword with a foot dangling to touch the side of the boat in front of the boy. "Who do I think I am... well let's see. Clearly I'm stunning, I have amazing cultivation skills that could easily put you and all of your buddy's there to shame, and I don't particularly care what people think of me." Lan Tian stepped of their sword onto the boat. "I've been called demon, demon spawn, freak, and a thousand more names of the same theme, you can call me anything you like...." They thought for a moment before locking eyes with Jin Ling, "Except lover, only one person can call me that."

"You shameless little..." The junior was momentarily over come with a wave of nausea as Lan Tian jumped off the boat onto their sword rocking the boat.

"You talk too much, you bore me." Lan Tian left with a wink to Jin Ling before settling back on another boat.

Jin Ling laughed as Lan Tian shrugged. It seemed no one on that other boat wanted to be within an arms reach of Lan Tian and decided to instead crowd onto the other end of the boat. Lan Tian chuckled before sitting on the edge of the boat and dangling their feet into the water below.

It wasn't long before some commotion befell the junior's boat again. This time however, it seemed Wen Ning was caught hanging onto the bottom of their boat.

Lan Tian quickly flew over to enter the fray out of pure curiosity. "Hey Gege, what's going on?" He asked Lan Sizhui.

"What...what is your name?" Wen Ning asked Lan Sizhui.

Lan Sizhui was slightly taken aback, then stood tall. "I am a junior of the Lan Clan of Gusu. My name is Lan Yuan."

"Lan Yuan?" Wen Ning repeated.

Lan Tian tried to find Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian but they were blocked form view. They knew something wasn't right and couldn't help but assume the pair had some answers.

"Do...do you know, who...who gave you that name?" Wen Ning then asked.

"My name was, of course, given to me by my parents," Lan Sizhui replied.

"Then are you're parents still alive as well?" Wen Ning asked.

The more Lan Tian thought about it, the more they realized that no one had ever talked about Lan Sizhui's past. Nothing about parents or a family, but the same could be said about them after all. To be fair, Lan Wangji never hid the fact that they were adopted from them before, but he never said anything more. It seemed odd the more he thought about it.

"Mister Wen? Is there something about my name?" Lan Sizhui asked.

"You, you look...a l-lot like one of my distant relatives..."Wen Ning responded to Lan Sizhui's inquiry.

Lan Tian froze, "Oh... oh shi... no way..." He knew that if what he was thinking was right, it could cause some big trouble for a lot of people, but they were most concerned about what Lan Sizhui would think. Would be be okay if he found out?

With only a short look in each others directions the three if them came to a mutual understanding. and this was not the time, nor the place to speak about it.

Lan Sizhui was the first to notice Jin Ling. Both of the other two were two shocked to think about anything else for the moment.

Jin Ling's face was dark. His grip was tight on his sword and the veins on his hand slinked in and out of view. Only then did Lan Tian and Lan Sizhui become painfully aware that the Ghost General Wen Ning, who seemed so harmless, was the one who had murdered Jin Ling's father.

"Jin Jin I..." Lan Tian tried to move to him but felt as if their body was made of stone.

Wen Ning slowly turned toward Jin Ling. "Jin Rulan-gongzi?"

"Who's that?" He responded coldly.

Wen Ning fell silent for a moment, then changed his greeting. "Jin Ling-xiao-gongzi."

"Jin-gongzi..." Lan Sizhui started.

"Move. This has nothing to do with you." Jin Ling stated.

Lan Sizhui could tell this was not entirely unrelated to him. He stepped in front of Jin Ling and blocked his path. When he looked over to Lan Tian for assistance, all he saw was them standing frozen with their eyes glued to the floor.

"Jin Ling, put your sword away first..."Jin Ling was already tense ans with his vision now obstructed, he snapped without thinking, "Don't block me!"

He shoved Lan Sizhui to the side right in front of Lan Tian. They quickly moved with out thinking and grabbed onto Jin Ling, while Wen Ning caught Lan Sizhui.

"Jin Ling." They tried to pull him back but Jin Ling quickly drew his sword as he pushed Lan Tian to the floor and pointed his blade at their head.

Everyone seemed to move around the two of them as they both realized what just happened. "I- I didn't mean to." Jin Ling started as he put his sword away. "Ti Ti," his voice broke.

With in heart beats a wall of people formed between Jin Ling and Lan Tian who was still sitting on the floor, staring in his direction.

Lan Tian ignored all the words of concern and arms reaching to help him up, he just sat there, thinking. 'Jin Ling's probably hurting. I bet he feels alone. Why isn't anyone going to him? Is he okay? I bet he feels really guilty. I should give him a hug.' Lan Tian stood up waving away the hands trying to help. They slowly began pushing though the crowd but no one seemed to want to let them get close to Jin Ling.

"That's right! It's all my fault!" Jin Ling's words rang out finding Lan Tian as he yelled at the other juniors, "I'm just that terrible of a person!" What are you all gonna do about it?!"

Lan Tian took this chance to push closer until they could just barely see Jin Lin's head.

"What? You're the one who pushed him... What're you getting mad at us for?"

"So what?!" Jin Ling spat. "You gonna discipline me?!"

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were riding in the closest boat. At the sound of all that yelling, Wei Wuxian paused then came outside the cabin to see Lan Tian rushing Jin Ling before wrapping their arms around him tightly.