The Child of Demonic Cultivation

The Vindictive -17

WC: 1049

The corpses littering the room began to migrate towards Nie Mingjue, each stretch and pull of a hand was perfectly in sync with Lan Tian's tapping on the ground. An urgent but meticulous pattern began to take shape through Lan Tian's taps. As the sounds rang out accompanied by the slick sound of bodies sliding across the blood splattered ground, and even their moans fit a melody. The song that Lan Tian memorized first as a child, the one their father played relentlessly day and night for years.

Lan Wangji froze for a moment glancing over to Lan Tian's crouched form as they tapped the ground like the keys of their flute. Memories of those long days and nights searching for his lost love filled the forefront of his mind before quickly retreating back. For Lan Wangji it was a song of love and hope, grief and joy. For Lan Tian, it was a song of pain and sorrow, the song that took away their father for years, the song that haunted their dreams. To Lan Tian, it was the greatest song of resentment.

As Nie Mingjue began to gravitate towards Jin Ling, Lan Wangji unsheathed Bichen and struck Nie Mingjue squarely in the chest. As expected, the tip of the sword had halted as soon as it struck him. When Nie Mingjue looked down and saw the long, gleaming sword, he howled and reached for it. Lan Wangji immediately called Bichen back. It returned to its sheath with a shing, and Nie Mingjue caught only empty air.

The corpses began to reach and pull at Nie Mingjue's legs, holding him slightly in place. He tried to continue walking, pulling hundreds of naked corpses with each step.

Immediately after, Lan Wangji flipped his left hand to bring out his guqin. Without wasting any time, he held it in his palm and strummed a few clear and far-reaching notes.

Lan Tian let out a small yelp as the notes reached them from across the room. Their vision began to blur and with it the corpses began to return to their previous actions.

Nie Mingjue let loose an enraged roar and made a grab for Jin Ling. Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling had already retreated to a corner of the room, with nowhere left to run. Jiang Cheng had to push Jin Ling behind him as he drew Sandu, which was temporarily unable to use spiritual energy, and braced himself to meet the attack head on . Both guqin and xiao were already playing in unison, but it seemed they were not enough.

Lan Tian resliced their hand and drew several messy characters on a talisman paper before giving it as much spiritual and resentful energy it could handle and throwing it at Wen Ning.

Nie Mingjue's strong fist punched through flesh.

But this flesh was not Jiang Cheng's, nor was it Jin Ling's.

Wen Ning stood in front of them, shielding them. A soft red aura pulsated around him as it absorbed some of the impact, before the yellow talisman floated to the ground. He grabbed Nie Mingjue's steel-like arm with both hands and slowly pulled it out of his chest, leaving a massive hole behind that one could see straight through. Though he did not bleed, some black chunches of viscera fell out of him.

"Wen Ning!" Wei Wuxian and Lan Tian called out.

Jiang Cheng, on the other hand, looked like he might go mad right then and there.

"You? You?!" he spluttered.

The force of the punch was so powerful that it hadn't just pierced Wen Ning's chest, but also shattered part of his vocal cords. He couldn't even say a word before he toppled over—and he just so happened to fall directly on Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling. His body was temporarily immobile, but his eyes were still wide open as he stared unblinkingly at both of them.

Lan Tian's eyes grew wide the moment before they darted over to the group without concern for Nie Mingjue beside them. "Jin Ling!" they called.

Jin Ling sat in shock for a moment unable to bring himself to push Wen Ning off of him.

"Sect Leader Jiang." They nodded before Lan Tian knelt down kissing Jin Ling on the forehead before quickly checking him over and moving to look at Wen Ning. Lan Tian softly whispered "Thank you." to Wen Ning as they began assessing the damage he took.

Jin Ling knew full well that Wen Ning was a dead man. He would probably be fine even if he was cut in hald at the waist—having a hole punched through his chest was nothing. But for some reason he couldn't understand, tears just kept flowing uncontrollably from his eyes.

With that single punch, Nie Mingjue's movements came to a standstill as well.

Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen played their instruments in unison, the the guqin flowing like an icy spring and the xiao howling like forbidden winds.

"Ti Ti, are you okay?" Jin Ling asked recalling how the music affected them earlier.

They nodded with a tight smile, "Ya, just a small headache." Lan Tian quickly wiped their upper lip leaving a small trail of red tracing their finger. Just as fast as it had appeared, Lan Tian wiped the blood away before Jin Ling could see it.

The sounds they made were all ones that Nie Mingjue loathed, and the shrillness of the duet only increased exponentially. The music made him sluggish, as if someone had bound him from head to toe with an invisible rope. As the rope tightened around him, so too did his rage increase, until he finally went berserk and forcibly broke the shackles of the Eradication Tone.

He struck out at the one playing the guqin. Lan Wangji calmly spun to sidestep his attack. The sound of his guqin did not stall for even a moment.

Nie MIngjue's blow broke through the wall. He was just about to turn around when he suddenly heard two sprightly chirps. Withdrawing his fist from the wall, he looked in the direction of the sound instead.

Wei Wuxian whistled twice more ang greeted him with a smile. "Hello, Chifeng-sun. Recognize me?"

Nie Mingjue's hideous white eyes locked on him.

"It's fine if you don't," he continued. "As long as you recognize this whistle."

"That idiots got a second death wish, I swear." Lan Tian mumbled rolling their eyes at the middle aged child.