Once the five disciples arrived in the training grounds they weren't surprised to see everyone was already there, separated by their groups. So the five quielty made their way to one of the corners and waited for Hanguang-Jun to arrive.
Once their teacher had appeared, the rule were layed out - there will be a night hunt in the groups they had formed, followed by a tournament between the groups.
"What is the point of fighting against each other like this?" Jin Rulan asked not getting the point of doing tournaments again.
Nie Yifeng laughed, "you haven't made it far in the tournaments yet, right?" He asked and the boy smacked him in the shoulder as he and Jingyi laughed.
"Tournaments help show us where we lack" Nie Yuèrú spoke dryly making the three boys stop laughing and look behind them where she stood. Lan Sizhui stood aside from the three and looked back at her as well.
"You're definetly overdoing them" Yifeng spoke sarcastically and the expression in Yuèrú face seemed ot falter for a second before going back to it's usual expressionless. "These boys change you" she mumbled in Qinghe dialect which the other three didn't understand as she smiled at her younger brother whose smile dropped before he looked ahead from her.
A Lan disciple aproached them and handed them an envelope similar to the one they used in their night hunts months prior, seeing it the Lan brothers both seemed to have their energy sucked out while Yifeng subconsciously looked around the training grounds looking for his roomates.
Jin Rulan took the paper seeing the other three boys clearly distracted, the boy had a rather easy task that time, and being with a disciple from his clan he had trained with, it really was a piece of cake for him.
The three read their mission and discussed everything. And the next morning them and other groups set out for their night hunts.
...
A week went by quickly, and all groups gathered at the Lan sects trainijg grounds once again.
Jin Rulan look awkward were he stood in between the Nie and Lan siblings, no longer joking with both younger soblings like when they had first formed the group. On the ends of their line sat Nie Yuèrú and Lan Sizhui on the left and right end respectively. Both of then looked serious, but that was their usual expression, what really got people to gossip was how Jingyi, Rulan and Yifeng were quiet as well, not to mention how anxious the middle Jin looked.
Once Lan Wangji walked in, he came with his niece trailing behind him. This time, with her wasn't just Wen Yuexuan, but Ouyang Zizhen was with them telling the boy something seriously as they walked.
Murmurs immidialtly filled the hall, despite their conjoined fame, it was quite unusual to see the three of the together. Those of the Lan and Wen sects showed barely any reaction though, knowing the three barely went on around together, but often visited each other at these two sect, rarely ever in Qinghe.
The three stood behind Lan Wangji as the chatter began to quieten down seeing as the elder was now here. A few older Lan disicples hd walked in with the squad, the same of which had started walking toward each group and handing them an envelope.
"Another mission...?" Jin Rulan questioned already grieing tired from just the memory of their first group mission. Non of the four responded to him, so he sighed as a Lan discples aproached them.
Since he was in the center of the group, Rulan recieved the envelope and opened it. He looked at what was inside and his heart sank.
Non of the others looked at what he was looking, seeing as he hadn't commented yet, Jingyi was the first to pick at what was on the paper, he had an almost identical reaction before turning to his brother.
"We fucked up" ge said and the older wanted to scold him, but Jingyi's tone made him look at the paper on Jin Rulan's hand instead. And indeed they had messed up, and really bad.
On the paper was their mark for their previous work together. In a group with straight A students, top of their generation, somehow their conjoined efforts had earned them a C. At this point the Nie siblings had looked at it as well. Being the pacifist he was, Nie Yifeng chuckled, "I thought we failed from your reaction" he joked only to recieve a glare from the other four. Despite their bad mood, they had to keep listening to what Hanguang-Jun said at the front, yet everyone could feel the dark air that seemed to freeze around the group of five.
Since all envelopes had been handed to the groups, it wasn't just their group but many of the groups seemed to have grown dull with their results. The air in the room was immidiatly rid of all the youthful playfulness that normally took over the training grounds.
"This marks aren't final" Wen Yuexuan spoke, anyone from the Lan sect knew how often he spent time in the cloud recesses, hence, it was usual for him to loiter around and help with the guest classes. "We will be having the relay tournaments next, those marks will your overall mark of this task." Ouyang Zizhen added with a smile, standing next to the Wen.
Lan Ruxue, "you are free to choose your oponents, anyone who still doesn't have one in 30 minutes will be chosen by us" she said seriously, Lan Wangji was silent the entire time, letting the three senior disciples speak.
After a while, a few groups of 10 formed arund the training field, while some groups tried and got rejected, others remained in place not even bothering to complete.
Once thirty minutes had passed, Lan Wangji handed a few papers to the three behind him. Normally Ruxue would be the only one helping him, but after she had become friends with the two boys, he had gotten used to them visiting and helping in order to spend time with her since she refused to go with them even with Wangji's authorisation.
On the scripts they recieved, were the members of each group and their group number, so they went around to check which groups had come together willingly. After that, they crossed out the paired group and separated the fields to the non-paired ones.
"Okay, group five" Wen Yuexuan raised his hand so the members of the group repeated the action. This was the Wen sisters' group, he crossed the group out once the 5 of then were in the front, on their group, people only recognised the two of then and Jiang Yueming.
Once they were ahead of the line, the Wen loomed back at his list before raising his hand again, "Group 7?" He called befre looking up, the other two senior disciples with hin looked interested as well peaking into the list to check the members of the group he had chosen.
Group seven was none other than Nie Yuèrú's group.
....
Sorry for the short chapter, I will be back to edit it. Since this arc is small, it is not written (unlike most arcs where I either have drafts or guides), and I am kind of free-balling everything rn😭
By the way, I didn't post on monday because I noticed every week was ending with an odd number and I hate every odd number that isn't 5. Anyways, hopefully I manage to finish the tournament on Monday and next friday we move on to the next arc.
Want a spoiler? The next arc is called 'The Nie Crown', curious on what topics it will cover?
Keep reading to find out.
Love y'all~
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Blood River
FanfictionWhat if Wei Wuxian isn't taken in by the Jiangs, but by the Jin clan instead? what if they find him only weeks after his parents' passing? what if they adopt him and announce him as the third hier of the Lanling Jin sect without revealing his true o...
