The Tears of Thirteen Years

Chapter 26

This is part two of the ending.

Again thank you for support and all the amazing comments. I love you all and hope to see you again.

The next chapter is a gift to you all.

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In the darkness, there was a sizzling sound and the long, thin whip of Madame Jiang lit the night air with brilliant purple.

It was lightning, as if a bolt of pure energy had been pulled from the sky. Jiang Cheng in all his riotous fury held one side of it in his grip and the whip sparked violently.

Lan Wangji's body was taut staring over the shoulder of Wei Ying, held suspended like the strings of his guqin, his own righteous anger settling into his heart.

Zidian was famed for many things, many of which were untrue. What it could do, he remembered with mounting fear was dislodge any possessing spirit, demon or ghoul, shattering their existence, rendering them into scattered pieces never to be re-made into a whole.

No.

As the lightning flashed towards Wei Ying's unprotected back, he pulled his guqin into the void between them. Fear had his hand moving across the strings, sending out wave after wave of energy that formed a defensive wall between them.

Power rippled and surged.

Lightning met the waves and the whip's energy fell harmlessly from the barricade he erected before them, with the power of the music. Jiang Cheng could neither advance forward to attack Wei Ying from the side, or defeat the song crafted from years of battle experience.

For long minutes, they fought. Jiang Cheng's anger rose and he in turn focused on protecting Wei Ying, hoping to give him enough time to make it into the forest behind him.

Wei Ying moved, like a snake in the tall grasses.

His love had always been fast. A sprint runner and more than capable of vanishing into the shadows of the forest, but something was wrong. He was not as fast as he had once been.

Jiang Cheng feinted to the left at the center of his barricade of protection, then in one angry gesture sent the whip surging to the right, beyond where his energy whirled in waves of blue light.

Terror struck his heart as the whip slashed across Wei Ying's back, like the tail of a dragon. The sound of it would haunt his memory, as the ancient weapon struck his unprotected back.

Wei Ying!

The scream never left his throat and both of them stopped, staring at way Wei Ying was flung into the air, barely missing a grazing donkey and a tree. He hit the ground with a painful thud, the whip having ripped a long slash into the back of his black robe.

One pale hand covered his waist and somehow, unlike the scores of people over the centuries to be hit with Zidian's full power, Wei Ying stood up. He gripped the reins of the donkey and put himself behind it.

Grey eyes appeared black in the darkness and he faced them squarely with the reckless bravery of Wei Ying. In a tone of pure outrage, he shouted, "How amazing! You really can do anything when you're from a powerful clan, can't you? You can even beat up anyone you want! Tsk tsk tsk!"

The relief felt like the rush of water over his shoulders and back, his frantic heart easing as Wei Ying, faced his once brother with a scowl that was achingly familiar.

In an angry tone that was both shocked and enraged, Jiang Cheng shouted, "What is going on?"

There was only one explanation he thought, a feeling of pure elation lifting the weight of his grief. If Zidian did not throw his soul free of this body...then Wei Ying had not seized this body. He was not possessing it. He was fully residing within it. He had become the man standing there.