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

14. Awakened

15.AWAKENED

Wei Wuxian could feel the energy leave the room in a rush, and felt the demon escaping through the forest. He turned and stared at Lan Xichen and rage filled his mind.

"How could you do this? What did you do!!!"

Lan Xichen was bleeding from his mouth, having been the one that helped to activate the seal and keep the demon trapped long enough to hurt it.

"Wei Wuxian wait! Before you kill me let me explain." he said backing up against the wall.

Wei Wuxian stomped over to Lan Xichen and grabbed him by the collar, raising him off the ground. He was much stronger now that he had half of a core again.

"Tell me what you did! Look at her, she is almost dead!" Wei Wuxian choked, the anger in his eyes turning to sorrow.

A hand landed on his arm and it was Lan Zhan's.

Anger filled Wei Wuxian's eyes and he slowly turned his head to look at Lan Zhan. He saw the look of pure sadness written across his partner's face, the same face that normally didn't betray a thing. Tears were beginning to trail down his face.

Wei Wuxian let go of Xichen immediately and turned around his heart dropping.

He couldn't see it anymore. He couldn't see the normally misty energy caressing Huang Jin's skin. He tried with all his spiritual energy to feel it but he couldn't. He could only sense a tiny flicker of golden light left where once it was a small fireball.

His heart broke at the sight before him.

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As soon as the energy left the room Jiang Cheng's only thought was to get to her. He scrambled forward and scooped her up off the floor pulling her into his lap.

She felt so cold. His eyes were already beginning to tear up as he saw how pale her face was. She was barely breathing.

What a stupid woman...he thought as he tried to gently shake her awake.

"Huang Jin," he whispered softly as he held her. "Please, please wake up."

How could she have done this? They had all been so stupid.

She hadn't been corrupted at all, she had been possessed. He glimpsed the red painted symbols in between the torn fabric on her chest and arms. It was the symbols used to make spirit flags.

She had used herself as bait to trap the demon. When they had been discussing it the day before she had suggested using spirit flags to track it.

You stupid, stupid woman...

The tears running down his face began to fall onto her's and he began to rock her back and forth.

Jiang Cheng closed his eyes and began to try and channel all of his spiritual energy into her. He tried to push it into her as fast as he could. He choked as he felt the massive wall of resistance from her tiny spark of a core.

"Please...just live." Jiang Cheng said again, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

He was becoming desperate as he could feel the flame in her core flickering.

Wei Wuxian saw his brother cradling the frail, fragile, looking woman in his arms. His brother's shoulders were shaking and he could almost feel the sorrow like an intense aura in the room.

"It was her idea..." Xichen said from behind Wei Wuxian, the sadness in his voice evident as well. Tears were streaming down his face.

"She made me promise to not tell any of you. Or else it wouldn't have worked and it would have all been for naught." He cleared his throat trying to control his voice. "Huang Jin came to me last night and we had figured out what the demon was. There are 3 of them. They are demons that prey on souls and in order to sustain themselves on this plane, they must each consume one soul every 3 days."