Wuji: A Promise Kept

81

The gang has been at Baoshan's for a few weeks now. Everyone has gained a significant amount of strength and new skills. It was time for Wuxian and Wangji to take their kids back home to Cloud Recesses. Luckily, they could visit her anytime they wanted as they can just teleport to her now. The disciples needed to get back to Gusu and get back to their other lessons.

Wuxian and Wangji also had talked to Haishi and she was going to stay with Baoshan for a bit longer to train. Haishi would miss her parents but she knew that her training was important, plus she could always ask Baoshan to take her home if she wanted to. Wuxian didn't like that they left Haishi behind but he knew it was for her to train.

Hua Cheng and Xie Lian would be able to see the others whenever they needed to as well. It was now time to head back to their normal routine but also work on getting Tan Lan taken care of.

So after saying their goodbyes, Wuxian and Wangji teleport back to Cloud Recesses with their disciples. The disciples all went back to their homes and Wangji and Wuxian went to see Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren.

"Wangji, A'Xian," Xichen greeted as the two entered the lecture hall, "welcome home."

"We missed you," Wuxian said.

"Where is Haishi?" Xichen asked.

"She is still with Wai Po training. She will come home often," Wuxian explained, "plus, it's safer for her there while we are still dealing with Tan Lan."

"Tan Lan?" Xichen asked.

"It's the name Hua Cheng gave the creature," Wuxian explained.

"So what is the plan for him?" Lan Qiren asked.

"Well, he is not easy to find and he only does this to anger us. Anger and hate fuel his abilities and make him stronger. So we need to work on that," Wuxian explained.

"Xiongzhang, Baoshan suggested we take our disciples out on night hunts more often," Wangji said.

"It would help them gain more confidence and experience," Xichen said, "we have a few disciples in mind if you are wanting to fill in that spot."

"Sure, we can have a look at their files and see them train," Wuxian said, "we'd have to ask them to spend at least a week with Baoshan so learn from her like the others did so they are not behind."

"I'm sure that will be fine," Xichen said, "If you two are not tired, we can get the files now and then you can look through them. You can come back to us when you have decided."

"Alright," Wuxian said.

Lan Qiren went to the archives for the few files he and Xichen gathered. Wuxian and Wangji took them back to the Jingshi and took a good look through them.

"We have three files here, if we don't find anyone here we can always go check how the disciples are in their classes and at the training grounds," Wangji suggested.

"Okay," Wuxian said and then opened the first file, "Lan Yitong, age sixteen, advanced in music and has led three different night hunts, all successfully managed and kept the group together."

"Mnn, can work well with others, that's good, and if he is advanced with the guqin, he can help the others with that," Wangji explained.

Wuxian nodded, "can we meet these students just to see how they are?"

"Mnn, we can," Wangji replied.

"Great, it might help us make a wise decision," Wuxian said as he pulled out the next file, "Lan Jiehong, age fifteen, good with hand to hand combat and even though he uses a sword, he has a spear as a secondary weapon...we don't have anyone who does well with spears. I didn't even know there was anyone here who had those skills."

"It is something he must have picked up on his own," Wangji said, "or his parents had influenced it."

"It's still something to think about," Wuxian said.

"Lastly," Wangji said looking at the last file, "Lan Ruochen, age sixteen..." Wangji scanned the file a few times.

"What?" Wuxian asked. And looked at it, "has been punished several times for disturbing other classmates due to his experimental use of talismans."

Wuxian laughed, "maybe we should take him so he can learn to properly use talismans and not hurt anyone. There isn't anyone in the group who has an interest in Talismans like this. It's rare and I always think those disciples need to be cherished as there are so few of them."

"Him and Lan Yitong are difficult to choose from," Wangji said, "but Ruochen would get into less trouble if he trains under you."

"Let us meet with Yitong and Ruochen," Wuxian said.

Wangji nodded and the two left to find them. On the way, they dropped the files off at Lan Qiren's office where their belong. They found Ruochen in the Mingshi. He was currently working on a talisman. He was making a talisman that could camouflage items. Wuxian has made similar talismans and noticed already that some of the strokes were wrong. If Ruochen activated it, it would explode.

"Don't activate that," Wuxian warned.

"Why?" Ruochen asked.

"You wrote it out wrong and it will be an explosive talisman instead," Wuxian said.

Ruochen looked at the talisman and then looked at the reference he had. He sighed, "darn," he said.

"Talismans are tricky, believe me. I learned the hard way," Wuxian said.

"You are Wei Wuxian, Hanguang Jun's husband," Ruochen pointed out, "I have looked at your work for so long. It's incredible and I want to learn more about it."

Wuxian laughed and looked at Wangji, "perhaps the others will do well with where they are at. This young man here has drive and I like that," Wuxian said.

Wangji smiled, "Lan Ruochen, how would you like to join our group of advanced disciples? You can learn from Wei Ying about talismans personally."

"Really?" Ruochen asked shocked.

"Yes," Wuxian nodded, "we have a spot open if you'd like to have it."

"Yes," the boy said happily, "I would love to join."

"Good, now let's get you set up for moving to our group," Wuxian said.

"Great," Lan Ruochen said.