The Untamed 2: The Unlikely Hero -Book 1-3

11. Trouble Brewing

TROUBLE BREWING

Huang Jin continued to avoid Jiang Cheng's eye contact as she stood up from bowing.

"Excuse me I will take my leave now." she said politely, and began to walk towards the path to the back hills. "I would appreciate some time alone though." She said loudly, to no one in particular, but everyone heard her definitive tone.

She needed to be alone right now. After all of the excitement and the ensuing adrenaline rush, coupled by her injury now, she had barely been able to keep the resentful energy in check, and she needed to cool down and heal in the cold spring.

She wanted to be alone. She had absolutely tried her best to focus, but after everything that had happened this week, she was exhausted. Mind, body, and soul.

She quickly made her way to the cold spring, and barely even realized how fast she undressed, before she let out a huge sigh as her body sank into the cold waters of the cold spring pond. The familiar icy chill settled into her bones as the healing waters began to take effect. The still weeping wound in her shoulder, and hand began to bleed less and less. Her eyes closed and she felt like her brain melted into quiet bliss.

She had been sitting there for what felt like hours. It had been exactly what she needed.

A pair of grey piercing eyes flashed through her mind...Jiang Cheng...her eyes opened in bewilderment.

Why am I thinking of him? She thought to herself.

She twirled her hands in the water as her thoughts drifted.

He was rather adorable back there...He was an unbelievably talented cultivator. Handsome too...she rolled her eyes to herself...Why was she even thinking these things, he is a sect leader? She would never be allowed to be with him.

She breathed in another large breath of air, and let it out slowly, before rising and grabbing her robes. She frowned as she looked down at the robes she had dropped on the ground, the blood from her shoulder wound had already begun to dry into the silk.

She spent the next hour delicately trying to wash the blood out of the brand new robes she had been gifted. Man I am going to have to patch this when I get back.

When she was finally satisfied that she had been able to get all of her blood out, as delicately as possible of course, she finally looked up to realize that the sun had passed noon, and it was beginning to move into the signs of early afternoon.

Her shoulder sent a twinge of pain, as she carefully wrung the last bits of water out from the robe, and then laid it across a large boulder that was in the direct sunlight. The silk robe would dry quickly in the heat of sun on the dark rock.

Huang Jin sat down in a small clear grassy area next to the cold spring and summoned her guqin from the small pouch she always had tied to her waist, hidden in between folds of fabric. She placed her fingers on top of the qugin and felt the strings below her vibrate below at the sudden contact. She closed her eyes and began to play.

Lan Zhan had been teaching her some songs throughout the week of vigorous training, and she had been able to, not surprisingly, pick them up quickly. This one was called the song of clarity.

She had been listening to it for awhile now, as Lan Zhan played it for Wei Wuxian every night. Lan Zhan was hauntingly good at it. The beautiful song would fill the entire complex of Gusu with the sultry sounds of calm, every night.

She played the song once through, before she stopped, and took another calming deep breath.

Lan Zhan had been teaching her throughout the week to channel spirits thoughts. It was a technique called Inquiry, and a cultivator who mastered it could use a guqin to channel a spirit's energy, and communicate with them using the qin language.