Wuji: A Promise Kept

58

The six disciples arrived to the training grounds following behind Wangji. Baihu, who was the oldest at age eighteen, seemed to be in a mood. Wuxian took notice and decided to keep an eye on him, "okay, how do you feel about a nice little fun activity today?" Wuxian asked.

Sizhui smiled, "What do you have in mind?"

"See this maze behind you?" Wuxian pointed, "while you were taking your little quiz, I set it up with talismans. There are traps, monsters, and resentful spirits throughout. Your job is to make it through to the other side but the twist, is you all have to work together. This isn't an individual task where it's whoever makes it out first wins, but you have to all come out together. If someone is left behind or comes out before others, there will be punishment. Baihu, you are the oldest so I expect some sort of leadership coming from you. Sizhui and Jingyi, you two have experience with resentful creatures and corpses, it will your job to help those who are struggling to understand. You have three hours to try and make it out before Hanguang Jun and I come for you. If you don't succeed today, you will try again tomorrow. This is to test you as we will be traveling soon. Now, do we have any questions?"

"Yeah, are you sure you want Chuanli going with?" Baihu asked, "being the youngest he would only slow us down."

"Lan Rong is only a couple months older than Chuanli. In this class, age does not matter. Chuanli will be going through the maze with you and if you berate him again because he is young, you will be punished accordingly. Baihu, you are getting a little too arrogant these days. Don't forget that  you are a student and a Lan Sect member, we will punish you if needed but there are also plenty of disciples who would gladly take your place in this class," Wei Wuxian said.

Baihu didn't say anything else, "you all have three talismans at your disposal, a flare if you are stuck and we will come to you," Wangji explained, "a binding talisman, and a Spirit-Repelling Talisman which you should all know as it is a basic talisman every disciple learns when they first start cultivating. It is used to repel evil spirits. Use them wisely."

"Your time starts now," Wuxian said. The six disciples then took off into the maze. Wangji and Wuxian went to a tall stand and stood up top to watch them in the maze. Lan Xichen was still there and was watching as well.

"You did well with Baihu," Xichen said, "being that he is the oldest he should learn more about responsibility and respect."

"We are hoping that he gets that soon," Wuxian said and looked at Wangji, "How has Jingyi been with you?"

"He has been well," Wangji replied, "he has grown into a responsible person. He has is moments as you do to, so I cannot fault him for that, it's just who he is. He is doing well."

"That's good," Wuxian said and looked at Xichen, "is he doing okay at home?"

"He is doing much better," Xichen said, "I've been able to get him to open up to me more. He's a good kid. He just needs some guidance. I think him working with Wangji helped, so good idea on that."

"I'm glad," Wuxian said and looked back at the disciples as they walked through the maze. Wuxian noticed already that Lan Rong and Jingyi fell behind because Chuanli was struggling a bit. Those Chuanli's skills are good, he was only fourteen so he had a lot to learn yet, "it seems that Baihu didn't listen to my words. Sizhui and Biyu are trying to reason with him."

"Any ideas to help him better understand?" Wangji asked.

"Yeah, but it's a bit much I think," Wuxian said.

"What do you have in mind?" Wangji asked.

"I can ask Wen Ning to hurt him a little," Wuxian said, "if Baihu was injured a little, he'd have to rely on others for help."

"Why ask Wen Ning when you can alter the terrain to do that?" Wangji asked.

Wuxian smiled, "that is true," he said. Further up the maze, Wuxian tossed a talisman to alter it again. He set up a trap that would specifically go off when Baihu passed by. It wasn't ideal but it was something that could get this boy to understand the importance of working with others. When Baihu walked through, an arrow struck his right shoulder making it a bit more difficult to use his sword as he couldn't fight well with the other hand.

"Master Wei, what gives?" Baihu asked looking up at him.

"I told you I will be watching. If you don't get your act together you'd be punished. It isn't just you who would be punished but you are not following the instructions given to you. Work together!" Wei Wuxian yelled.

"Like you know anything about working together with anyone! You fought alone loads of times!"  Baihu shouted.

Xichen and Wangji looked at Wuxian. Wuxian sighed and jumped down into the maze and grabbed Baihu by the collar of his robes, "listen here, yes I fought alone a lot but guess where that got me? Dead. If you want to make it out of this maze in one piece and alive! Work with your classmates or get out of my class!" He said angrily, "don't you ever think that you can compare me to any one scenario because my past life is always coming back to haunt me every single day of my life today. Do not ever talk back to me again! Do you understand?"

"Y-yes M-M-Master Wei," Baihu replied a bit nervously.

Wei Wuxian let him go, "get back to the maze! Do not anger me again!" Wuxian said and jumped back up to where Wangji and Xichen were.

"Wei Ying, are you alright?" Wangji asked.

"Fantastic," Wuxian replied sarcastically.

Wangji sighed as he knew that Wuxian would not talk about his issues right now with the other students around, "Xiongzhang, can you watch them for a moment please?"

"Of course," Xichen said.

"Thank you," Wangji said before picking Wuxian up into his arms and whisked him away to the Jingshi for a moment to talk.