In the name of love || ONC2023

Chapter 4: Lan Zhan

Lan Zhan's POV

Location: Earth. 69th Dimension

My eyes stung till I couldn't keep them open any longer. "Kamloon!" I yelled, inhaling a lungful of smoke. It burned my throat like acid had been poured directly into it. It scalded my chest as it made its way to my chest, constricting it. Not one to display discomfort, I closed my eyes, ground my teeth, and stopped breathing till I heard the creature's now-familiar voice again, "I am sorry, Light-bearer. In all the excitement, I forgot you still have a few hours before we leave."

I opened my eyes with difficulty and glared at him.

"I apologized, didn't I?" It asked and floated closer. Its rancid breath hit me like a curse. I almost recoiled. "You may not return victorious, Light-bearer. I suggest you see your...Wei Ying off and take care of unfinished business. Your students don't know what has transpired here today, do they?" It suggested.

A soldier must always prepare for the worst. I nodded curtly and returned my attention to Wei Ying, confident that Kamloon would find me when it was time; the creature didn't offer anything more either and disappeared, unlike the last time, without flourish.

Wei Ying would have liked bantering with it. 'I want to figure it out, Lan Zhan.' he would have said; he loved to entertain, and thrived on it, my Wei Ying.

I sat in the open field, just him and I.

On the off chance of failure on my end, I couldn't let Wei Ying to fall prey to the dark arts. I had seen too many corpses manipulated and wasn't going let Wei Ying become one of them.

I needed to take him to Jiang Cheng. We were close to Yunmeng as is. "Wei Ying, would you like to see your brother? I hear Jin Ling is there too." The boy had a right to see his uncle off too.

I felt wetness on my cheek. The last time I had shed tears was when Wen Ning told me how Wei Ying had given up his golden core, the seat of a cultivator's energy, to Jiang Cheng.

"Why do the heavens always punish you, Wei Ying?" I lowered my eyes to the now-cold body in my arms and brought it to my heart.

"Masters!" Wen Ning called from somewhere behind me. It was the first time I had failed to notice his approach.

"Masters?" The Ghost General was in front of me a moment later. A heartbeat after, he was on his knees, bawling.

"Don't," I commanded, and he finally raised his eyes to meet mine. Once no more than a corpse, Wei Ying had returned his conscience to him. Despite knowing that demonic cultivation, even mastered, could turn on him any day and could take a toll on him, Wei Ying practiced it to help those in need.

'It's not what you have that defines you, but what you do with it that does, Shifu.' I recalled Wei Ying standing up to my uncle, our teacher, on his first day at our academy years ago. I was already in love with him then but wasn't in the know.

Wen Ning's kind, innocent eyes were bloodshot. He loved Wei Ying too. His love, unlike mine, was selfless and pure.

"Master?" He cocked his head, perhaps waiting for me to continue, only I was never much of a talker. Yet, there was something I needed him to do. Commands required words.

"There is something I need to do. I will be gone for a fortnight. There might still be a way to bring Wei Ying."

The simple-minded general blinked.

"If I don't return after that time, I might never return."

Retrieving a parchment and a quill from the front of my robes, I wrote a letter explaining the situation to Jiang Cheng. After Wen Ning and myself, Jiang Cheng was the only one I could trust to keep Wei Ying safe.