I want to protect you.

Chapter Eight

Chapter  Eight

It took about a week for Wei Ying to completely recover enough for Wen Qing to give him permission to move without assistance and by that time because of him being unable to move he nearly went stir-crazy the only thing that partially kept him from doing so was the constant presence of Lan Zhan who refused to leave his side even when his brother came to visit under the guise of checking on Wei Ying's progress.

His true intentions were of course discovered by a disgruntled Wei Ying who at that point chose to tune out his obvious ploy to convince Lan Zhan to go back to Gusu. He didn't make it obvious that it was his intentions by mentioning that their uncle had gotten over his anger at Lan Zhan going against direct orders to aid in finding Wei Ying. Lan Zhan of course politely refused which of course gave Lan Xichen little choice but to leave it alone. In the end, Lan Xichen left with the rest of Lan Zhan's men promising to give his regard to their uncle even though Lan Zhan had not told him to do so.

Once he was gone Lan Zhan seemed to relax more and was finally able to give Wei Ying his full attention while Wei Ying was able to devote his time to taking care of A-Yuan who of course seemed content to spend most of the time nestled in Wei Ying's arms unless he needed to be taken to the wet nurse for feeding or because Wei Ying was confined to the bed taken by Lan Zhan to be Cheng ed.

It became apparent to everyone the extent of their bond as well as affection after the first few days when Jiang Yanli had come to check on Wei Ying and she found much to her delight that Wei Ying had fallen asleep in Lan Zhan's arms. It, of course, surprised her, even more, when she found that Lan Zhan had fallen asleep as well while A-Yuan was curled up between them more so nestled rather securely against Wei Ying's chest his finger's clutching a lock of his hair while his face was buried under his chin. At first, it concerned her due to not knowing how he was able to breathe until she noticed that his face was not pushed so close that he wasn't able to breathe and she could see the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed deeply.

After that, a larger group of people than they had anticipated began making their way to Lotus Pier mostly it consisted of the new disciples that had decided they wished to learn the Jiang Sect's sword techniques. The addition to this Wen Qing's family had been brought to The Unclean Realm having been cleared by Nie Mingjue given the testimonies of both Wen Qing and Wen Ning. No one, of course, dared to go against Nie Mingjue's judgment many of them finding him rather frightening due to not only the power he displayed during the sunshot campaign but also his temper.

The only ones who ended up putting up a slight fuss at his determination to give the remnants was the Jin Sect. No one was particularly surprised at the fact because of their arrogance that they thought that they had every right to demand complete control and say in what happened to them. In the end, they were shot down by not only Nie Mingjue but also Jiang Cheng neither of them would budge on their decision and in the end those that had been gathered up were sent to many of the smaller clan's the remainders of their days to be spent as prisoners of war not allowed to wield swords nor cultivate as they were used to. Their swords were melted down to be used in the making of other swords for the future generations of cultivators.

A few of them were sent with the Jiang Sect and though they had wanted to send some to Gusu to aid in the rebuilding process Lan Xichen refused having told them that they did not wish to subject anyone even the Wen's to a life of servitude finding it to be against their moral code.

It took a few days for the Jiang Sect to get back to Lotus Pier because of the distance between the Unclean Realm and Lotus Pier.

Wei Ying, Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan all made their way a little way ahead of the rest into Lotus Pier their hearts clenching rather painfully in their chests upon finding in the time the Wen Sect had taken it over that they didn't even take the time to remove the blood as well as in a last-ditch attempt to show their power many of the wings were destroyed. Luckily the ancestor's shrine was untouched as well as a few of the storage rooms survived. The amount of damage done would mean quite a bit of work to restore and meant that everyone would have to work together to make sure it got back at least for the most part to the way it was before.