Come Back to Gusu

38. Xue Yang interrupts: Good morning, Shizun

Lan WangJi knew it was a mistake to allow his husband to go pack on his own. Wei Ying... where did you go? The room looked like a windstorm had blown through it. Obviously, Wei WuXian had only packed the absolute necessities for the fight and left the rest of his belongings in messy heaps.

Jiang WanYin looked around the room, Zidian a physical whip, sweeping and flashing. "Where the Hell did he go?"

"To kill Xue ChengMei," Lan WangJi guessed.

"We don't even know where they are."

"Yin Tiger Seal."

The Jiang sect leader swore. "He's going to use that thing to search out yin energy? Fuck. I'm going to break his legs into thousands of pieces when I find him. Be ready to leave in half a sichen; I'm sending out a search party after him."

Lan WangJi nodded his agreement. Wei Ying... stay safe. I will be with you soon.

~*~

Wei WuXian staggered as the teleportation spell dropped him off. Exhaustion and yin energy were not a good combination. The desert heat hit him hard. He'd scoped out this place before the move to the Burial Mounds. It was far enough from the sect lands that no one would immediately think to look for him here. He fixed the wide brimmed bamboo hat more firmly on his head. "Time for you to go," he informed the Yin Tiger Seal. "If Xue Yang wins? There's no way I'll allow him access to you." He placed the Seal on the sand and began sketching out a containment array. "Actually, no one else should have access to you. I trust Lan Zhan with you. But no one else. If I had known how to tie you to me, it would be a different story, of course. My death would leave you inert. Which would be a good thing. But as you are?" He used a knife to slice open his palm and walked the array again, drawing it in his blood. "As you are... you're too dangerous to leave to chance." He stepped out of the array and activated it. Then he drew a second containment array; he was going to destroy the seal, not himself along with it. He stood in the center, and activated that one. 

His body was already weak from purifying the Burial Mounds. And made weaker from the desert heat and the teleportation spell. He ate a piece of dried meat for physical energy and began the spell to destroy the Seal.

The explosion was huge. Even contained within the parameters of the array, it was huge. The sheer volume of yin energy released was awe inspiring. It's almost a shame there's no witnesses. Historians will have to make up what this was like. I doubt their imaginations are sufficient to the task. The actuality is far beyond what even I imagined what it would look like and I saw the smaller pieces destroyed. He dismissed his own protection array, but left the one up around where the Yin Tiger Seal had once been. "Shelter and sleep," he reminded himself. "And food." He pulled out a small tent from a pouch at his waist and set it up. "Protection from the elements is important." Once inside, he plastered a talisman to the side of the tent; it would cool the air during the heat of the day and warm it during the cold night. From another pouch he pulled out some food and began replenishing his energy. Before sleeping, he sketched out a few talismans he might need....

An explosion this big might attract the attention of the wrong sorts of people. As drained as he was, he was going to need to cheat a bit to fight them off.

His sleep was fitful; he woke himself up, screaming from nightmares, multiple times. Lan Zhan.... I need you. Why didn't I bring you along?

He knew why. If something went wrong with destroying the Seal.... If one or both of the containment arrays broke, he'd be forced to destroy the Seal with no protections. And that was a suicide mission. His body would be so thoroughly destroyed there wouldn't be anything left to bury. He couldn't allow his husband to see him die any more than he could allow his husband to be the one to destroy the Seal.