Time Reversal

37. The Time Travel Talisman, Part 1

The answer came a few months later at a Discussion Conference hosted by Lanling Jin. Su Minshan was one of Wen Ruohan's attendants.

"This is not good," Wei Wuxian stated, from his position in the Lan contingent.

"Mmm," he agreed. Su Minshan holds no value as a cultivator with no jindan. His only value to Qishan Wen can be information about Gusu Lan. What has he told Wen Zongzhu?

The start of the conference was for news: births, marriages, deaths. Lan Xichen seemed almost too proud when he stood to announce the birth of his son.

Wei Wuxian had to be prodded to stand. "Announce your fan cultivation," he instructed his husband. 

"Fine," Wei Ying hissed before more loudly addressing those assembled. "I've been working on a new type of cultivation with Lan Xueqin and Lan Ruochen." He pulled out his fan from his belt and flicked it open. "It uses special fans."

Lan Xueqin stepped into the middle of the room, throwing her fan down to hover over the floor. "My cultivation ability was too low to wield a spiritual sword." She stepped onto her fan and flew around the Lan disciples. "But now I can fly and fight on night hunts."

"Fighting with a fan?" One of the clan leaders sneered. "I think you've read too many novels."

"FuLu Dashi is the one who read the novels," she countered with a mocking smile, bringing the fan to a halt and delicately stepping off. "I just taught him how to dance. He used that to adapt the sword path to the fan path."

Jin Zixuan stood up, eyes focused on her fan. "Who is FuLu Dashi?"

"A few of the juniors call me that," Wei Ying replied, rolling his eyes. "It's ridiculous. Would you like to spar with me, Jin Gongzi? I can demonstrate some of the techniques."

"Yes!" The Jin heir almost tripped in his rush to get out from behind his table to the center aisle.

It was obvious that neither side was trying to hurt the other, merely to find an advantage. Wei Ying's footwork when he was fighting with a sword was as fluid, persistent and ever-changing as the waters surrounding Lianhuu Wu. With that fluidity added to the gracefulness of fan dancing, it almost looked like he was floating above the floor. The Lanling Jin style of fighting was more structured; each move was strictly controlled, and more than a little bit showy with unnecessary flourishes. He wasn't as light footed as Wei Ying, but he also wasn't as heavy footed as the Qinghe Nie.

It was obvious that Jin Zixuan had the advantage in moderately near quarters; his sword was able to attack without a fear of retaliation. Wei Ying was relegated to using his fan's guard for defense only. But as soon as they moved apart, outside of the immediate reach of the sword, he was able to flick it open and send it winging past Jin Zixuan's guard forcing his opponent on defense. The Jin heir batted it away with his empty hand, "Ow! What?" Spectators could see a trickle of blood dripping down his hand.

"It's a spiritual weapon," Wei Ying reminded them, capturing his fan and sliding it back into his belt. "Every part of it is made with the same steel as our swords. The leaf edge is sharper than a knife."

"It's completely useless!" Jin Guangshan spat. "Even a halfway decent cultivator can use a sword."

"You are absolutely correct," Lan Xichen stood, nodding graciously at his host. "This is not necessarily for the cultivators who are capable of following the sword path. This was designed for those whose jindan are too weak to do so.

"My cousin, Lan Xueqin," he acknowledged her with a hand, "as she said, she was unable to develop her jindan sufficiently to wield a sword. These last few months of training with Wei Wuxian using fan cultivation has enabled her to develop it so she is now in classes with our second year juniors learning the sword path.