Time Reversal

19. Muxi Shan, Part 3

Sitting by a fire after a night hunt was usually boring. The light was never sufficient to read by and he'd have other junior disciples sitting with him chattering about the hunt disturbing any peace he might find in the flames.

This should have been worse. Not only was he sitting with other sect's disciples, these people were excitedly discussing Tulu Xuanwu and how they would have fought against it. Boastful tales for the most part. I suspect we would have died trying to fight it. Yu Lijie was walking between other fires, performing the memory altering spell on the men and women seated around them. When she was done, only six people would know what really happened in that cave. The wind turned, briefly sending smoke into his eyes along with the scent of cooking fish. He didn't usually enjoy eating meat; right now, his stomach was empty enough that he'd eagerly eat this fish even if it was as spicy as the food in Lianhua Wu. Something heavy dropped into the dirt at Jiang Wanyin's feet.

"What the fuck?" the young man in purple shrieked. "Where did this come from?"

"Where did you get my journal?" Wei Wuxian accused. "When did you steal it?"

"I didn't steal anything!" Jiang Wanyin protested, using a foot to shove the book at his former head disciple. "You probably set a spell wrong!"

"I would do no such thing," Wei Ying sounded weird. He was skimming through the book, a frown appearing on his face. "Lan Zhan.... Why did you..."

"What's wrong?" Nie Huaisang asked, poking the fire. "Is the fish done yet? I'm starving."

"If this is correct..." Wei Ying flipped through a few more pages. "Lan Zhan has been using this journal to fix things." He paused. "And Jiang Cheng was the last one?"

"What?" clamored four voices.

"When I was thirteen, I invented an array called Time Reverse. It sends one object back into the past so you can fix something that went wrong. Lan Zhan has been using the array to save me for some reason. But it was last used by Jiang Cheng because... a yin infused snake killed Lan Zhan and I while we were gathering firewood."

Yu Lijie sat down between Jin Zixuan and Jiang Wanyin. "When did you get killed?"

The journal was passed from person to person as each finished eating their portion of fish. Wei Ying and Jiang Wanyin grumbled that the food had no flavor and needed salt at the very least. He would never openly admit it, but.... Food does have more flavor and tastes better with a bit of salt added. And some seasonings. There is no need to drench food in chili sauce, though. Jin Zixuan, Jiang Wanyin, and Yu Lijie elected to go hunting that snake and then bring back wood.

The setting sun turned the river into a river of fire instead of water. He settled at its edge on a convenient large rock that was almost flat. Wei Ying sat at his feet, holding his journal once again. They were far enough away from the fire that if they spoke quietly, there was no way Nie Huaisang would hear them.

"Lan Zhan... you really are the perfect person, aren't you?" He laughed lightly, and leaned back against the sun warmed rock. "You've sent this book back to save my life so many times. Isn't it tiring yet?"

"Mmm," came out in a negative tone. We're married. I can touch him, right? I can put my hand on his shoulder? It was right there. All he had to do was relax his arm and his hand would naturally slide from his thigh to his husband's shoulder.

Wei Ying was apparently thinking something similar. He scooted his bum a bit, so his shoulder wedged against a thigh. "You even married me to save me from being whipped to death by Jiang Furen."

There was a pause that seemed to require some sort of response. "Mmm."

"And now we're at war with Qishan Wen." He sighed loudly. "I suppose the peacock is going to ask me to install the new wards at Jinlin Tai. I don't really want to. It seems disrespectful to Shijie to help him out. The people there... they didn't ask to go to war, either. Not helping them would be cruel. I don't mind being disrespectful, normally. I hate being deliberately cruel."