Solstice Souls: Solstice Sons (Book 3)

The Sun Scorching Palace

Lan Zhan's POV

It's taking all of Lan Zhan's self control and willpower to not to grab Wei Ying and make him behave. They are right inside the heart of the Sun Scorching Palace, and smack bang in the middle of Nightless City, about to meet the most dangerous man in the Cultivation World, and Wei Ying is behaving like a teenager on a sugar rush with highly caffeinated tea in his veins instead of blood.

He knows it's a distraction, a carefully constructed ruse to throw off their captors, and he's under no illusions that they are the captives, forcibly entering the mouth of a tiger.

Wei Ying is a mastermind of wiles and clever thinking, and Lan Zhan knows that what he's doing is absolutely necessary to make their enemies believe they are simply dancers touring the country. But this private struggle in his head is the real battle, not to give in to the desperate urge to take Wei Ying and get out of there, Wen Ruohan be damned!

Nightless City will forever be a place of great evil and wrongdoing in his mind, because first impressions always stick.

As they are escorted through hallways carved out of granite and mountainous stone, Lan Zhan looks around, trying to memorize the way they're being taken further in. They're still surrounded by human boulders, these inner palace guards much stronger and meatier than the soldiers of the Wen army who surrendered. These men are pure muscle, built like the ancient impenetrable tombs of old and equally hard to get through.

Nightless City is surrounded by active volcanoes, and as a result, brimstone and sulfur, the smelly tang of rotten eggs permeates the air along this dark walk into the centre of the palace. Lan Zhan breathes slowly through his mouth, and sees Wei Ying doing the same. There's tension all around them, a bad feeling of being led away from anything good: sunlight, fresh air, life.

They are being swallowed up by this monster of a mountain, delivered straight into its cavernous belly. It is a suffocating thought, and Lan Zhan is stamping down on his rising panic as their progress deepens.

There is little light to see by; one of the guards is carrying a flaming torch but it's as if it too, is being subdued by the terrible air quality, and so they are being guided only by a hazy, dim orange glow.

Had there been an opening in the ground ahead of them, Lan Zhan doubts they could be alerted to its presence and would plummet to their deaths just because of inadequate light to see by. Definitely a stupid death in his book.

Wei Ying takes his hand and squeezes it while he still can, when no one is paying attention to what they're doing. When they reach the court of Wen Ruohan, he doubts they will have the same freedom. But it's amazing how such a small touch can be so uplifting, so comforting to him. Lan Zhan squeezes back, keeping his gaze forward.

They don't dare to communicate openly now.

Huge metal doors ornately carved with the designs of the past depicting old glories rise up suddenly in front of them, blocked by two burly gigantic men.

Lan Zhan is of no short stature and yet he has to look up to see their faces. They are both wearing heavy armour and carrying maces as tall as themselves, ugly grimaces on their faces. The maces are held in a cross formation in front of the door, barring them from entering.

He looks up to see how tall the doors are, but the meager light only illuminates a few feet above the guardians, increasing the shadows on either side.

Wei Ying nudges one of the guards that have escorted them up to here.

"Who let one rip?" He wiggles his eyebrows and points to the tall guards with his eyes. "To smell this bad, I bet it was one of them!"

There are muffled titters and then silenced around them as the person he spoke to glares back. Their leader bows to the tallest guards and announces them.