Chapter Text
Three days had passed by now. They had a hard time telling the days apart because of the lack of a sun or moon, the only reason they knew was because no matter what Lan Zhan always followed the Lan’s strict sleeping schedule. It was honestly kinda freaking Wei Wuxian out.
Spending three days doing nothing but conserving energy was doing wonders for Wangji’s leg. The gash was slowly healing and most of the bleeding had finished by now. The once white forehead ribbon stained a deep red.
Soon enough, Wangji was at least able to meditate in their time stuck in the cave now. Wei Wuxian wasn’t wasting time either, he and Wangji took their time over the few days looking around the cave and assessing the situation.
The Xuanwu of Slaughter had already retreated back into the water and dragged the corpses of the few cultivators that had been unable to escape its wrath back into its shell to consume. They were forced to listen to the sounds of bones crunching and rotting meat for a good day and a half before it was replaced with loud snoring.
Wei Wuxian took the chance to search around underwater, but only had about half an hour before the beast seemed to notice his movements. When he came back to the safe part of the cave, he just shook his head.
“The beast covered the hole when he went back to sleep, there’s no way to move it.”
There was a mountain of arrows, bows, and iron rods stacked in the corner of the cave that was only neat because Wangji had 1. Way too much time on his hands, and 2. Got annoyed at how Wei Ying had just thrown them around.
As the night passed and the fourth day arrived, Lan Wangji awoke and started to examine the material and sturdiness of the bows. He picked one up and ran his palm down the wooden body of the bow. His slim finger curled around the string of the bow and pulled. The metallic clang rang off the walls of the cave.
A lightbulb must have gone off in his head at that moment because with a wave of his hand the string was pulled off the bow. He laid the string on the cold floor and started to puck all the strings from the bows.
These bows were used by cultivators who spend their time hunting beasts and demons instead of normal creatures for eating, thus of course the string was made of different materials. Once all the string was removed he carefully tied the ends together to make one long strong string.
Lan Zhan stretched it taut between both hands and flicked his wrists outwards, the chord striked out fast as lightning and smashed a rock about 10 feet away to smithereens. The blinding light hurt Wei Wuxian’s eyes, but he couldn’t look away in shock.
As Wangji retrieved the chord, the string broke with a sharp cry that echoed loudly through the cave. “Chord Assassination?” Wei Ying questioned as he glanced at the chord.
Chord Assassination was a technique only found in the Lan Sect for it was passed down from the founder, Lan An to the Third Sect Leader, Lan Yi. Lan Yi was the first female sect leader and she used the Guqin as a weapon. Her Guqins strings could be used as a musical weapon, but also could be debated and retied together from thickest to thinnest string to make a whip like weapon.
One moment she was the embodiment of gracefulness and beauty, the next she was snapping through flesh and bones as though it was soft gushy mud. The once elegant and refined Guqin’s strings transformed lethal in her slender fair fingers.
Not many people knew the technique for Chord Assassination, but it was undeniably one of the more versatile combat techniques of the lan Sect. Wangji looked up from where he was running the string between his thumb and pointer finger, “Breach the shell.”
Wei Wuxian nodded, It would do them no good just sitting here waiting to get killed or starve before they can get help. The only other option would be to kill the beast.
Wangji offered to be the one to breach the shell and drag the beast from the water, his injury wouldn’t be much of a help in this situation so might as well do the dirty work so Wei Ying can get a clean strike in.
But his idea was rejected by Wei Wuxian who just shook his head. “Despite how little your sect member use the Chord Assassination technique, I have still heard of it. I don’t believe it will be very useful in such a cramped space and your injury will drag you down. I have a better idea.”
And so the two spent the rest of the flames worth of time working through the plans details and what not. By the time the flamed burned out, Wangji was already preparing for bed. They saw no need to relight it if they were abut to sleep, so they just silently went to bed.
The next morning, they got ready as soon as Wangji awoke. Wangji prepared the string and Wei Wuxian stripped some of his robe so he wouldn’t get dragged down in the water. He was left in his under robes and a single dark gray layer on top. They nodded at each other when done and slowly moved out the crack in the cave wall they relied upon for safety.
Wangji hoped up into an indent in one of the stone pillars holding the cave up and settled himself there. He started to tie the string while Wei Wuxian slowly sloshed through the water and quickly dove into the hole in the front of the shell while the turtle was still sleeping underwater.
He gasped for air as the water ends and opens up to mushy flesh ground and hard shell roof, but he ended up gagging instead when he caught air of the stench. He coughed and quickly covered his mouth and nose with his robes as he looked around. There were skeleton bones and skulls that lay around along with recent rotting flesh, probably the poor souls who couldn’t escape the beasts wrath the other day.
The rotting flesh was stinking up the place to the point Wei Wuxian started to feel ill in the stomach. He prepared himself mentally and started into the pits of flesh and rotting meat. There were multiple weapons scattered around the area including swords, arrows, iron rods, etc.
His feet felt like they were sinking as he looked around the area, trying to find a weak point in the fleshy inside of the shell’s walls. He looked down and wasn’t surprised when he found his feet slowly sinking into the sludge, mud, bloody mixture of water. The sludge was almost at his knees by now.
He reached down out of pure curiosity and felt around in the sludge. The ground he was stepping on was most certainly the body of the tortoise and the sludge was weirdly thick. His hand felt something fuzzy and tangled and he retracted his hand immediately. He was incredibly grossed out to find his hand had a few bits of long tangled black hair twisted around some of his fingers. He had to look away and run his hand through the sludge to get it off. He moved on, head full of thoughts as he looked around.
It seemed the beast didn’t care about being clean if this was the state he left his victims and food in. If this was any other day or moment, Wei Wuxian might’ve actually either gagged or fainted as he realized what the sludge probably was.
Whatever left overs the beast didn’t eat probably leaked out from its fangs into the shell. After the thousands of years of being in here the bones and flesh just rotted and decomposed in the muddy and dirty water causing a thick layer to form. He was currently walking through sludge made of human flesh and bones.
It had been a long few days and he was already so dirty he just sighed tiredly and trudged on. He would walk for a little bit then stop to feel the beasts scales under his feet. As expected the further in he went the thinner the scales were and the less he could find.
As he trudged deeper the sludge also got higher. By now it was up to his waist. He reached behind his back and grabbed a rod he had brought in with a few other arrows and rods, but as he tugged, it seemed to be stuck.
After a few tries he was too fed up to keep it up like this. He tugged as hard as he could and the rod came out along with a few other metal rods and arrows. The resounding splash was loud enough that Wei Wuxian froze, waiting for the beast to awaken. After a few minutes there was still only loud snoring and nothing was happening, so Wei Wuxian breathed a sigh of relief
He looked around at the weapons sinking into the sludge all around him. Wei Wuxian furrowed his brows, he doesn’t remember putting anything the arrows and spears may have gotten stuck on into his bag.
He took his bag off his back and reached inside, carefully feeling around to ensure he doesn’t accidentally stab himself on the remaining arrows lingering inside the bag. He took ahold of something cold and smooth, metallic.
He pulled it out and froze. In place, bewildered. “How the?” He asked himself out loud. In his hands was a sword of silver, the swords singular red eye curved in a crescent, almost like it was smirking at him. In truth, this ‘sword’ wasn’t even a sword.
“Eming!?” He whisper-shouted. Wei Wuxian was obnoxious, sure, but he wasn’t stupid enough to shout when tiptoeing around a beast.
The scimitar’s eye started spinning like crazy when it heard its name. “Frick, how did A-Die found out already? I bet A-Niang knows too, A-Die always tattles on me.” Wei Wuxian rubbed his temples in frustration, brows furrowed.
Nothing he could do now, though he wondered why his Dad didn’t just come and get them himself. He shook his head and shot one last look at E-ming before continuing on through the waist deep sludge. He moved through the worst of the sludge and continued to search for the weakest part of the tortoise’s flesh.
As his eyes searched the walls, he caught sight of a dark black sword mounted slightly into the flesh of the beasts back. The flesh was swollen around the blade of the sword to the point it was raised in a slight mound above the sludge.
E-ming buzzed in his hand when its singular eye landed on the black sword. Wei Wuxian glanced curiously at E-ming’s reaction before stepping forward.
Dark resentment surrounded the blade and made Wei Wuxian curious about the swords history, He quickly shook the thought off, getting off track. He reached out, fingers slowly inching closer to the hilt of the sword while E-ming’s eye spun wildly and its body vibrated in his other hand.
He grasped the hilt of the sword and his mind was suddenly swamped with dark and hoarse whispers. Thousands of voices rushed into his head demanding violence and death.
The thousands of voices speaking at once made his head hurt and his vision went blurry. He stumbled and struggled for a good second before letting go with and gasping for the air that left his lungs.
Once he recovered his breath, he glared at the black sword in annoyance. E-ming rattled in his hand, Wei Wuxian smiled and petted E-ming’s blade. “Don’t worry, E-Ming. I plan on taming that beast of a sword.” E-ming just rattled more aggressively, in no way comforted by Wei Wuxian’s words.
Wei Wuxian settled himself before reaching out and once again taking ahold of the black swords hilt. He grunted as the voices once more crowded his mind. He blinked away the dizziness and the way his vision blurred. He had to lean on the hilt to stay balanced.
His eyes tinted red and he sneered, trying not to pass out as he used his spiritual power to push out the whispering thoughts and simultaneously using his demonic powers to pull control over the sword’s demonic energy.
He fought tirelessly for half an incense time when he finally broke through the thousands of vengeful spirits control and pulling the sword from the mound with a loud cry. He fell backward, E-ming and black sword in either hand, and into the sludge with a splash. He panted with a smile on his face, uncaring of the thick gross sludge now covering his robes and ends of his hair. His eyes shone with excitement as he gazed at the black sword he somehow managed to tame.
“E-ming, did you just see that!? I am awesome!” He laughed happily. E-ming’s eye crinkled into a crescent as it gazed up at Wei Wuxian’s smile. It spun happily in circles.
Wei Wuxian stood up, beaming. He was so proud of himself in fact, that he forgot where he was. A hot breath sow down Wei Wuxian’s back and he froze. He slowly turned his head and was greeted by a large pair of golden eyes glaring down at him. He threw his bag off his back and ran with both E-ming and the black sword straight at the beast’s snarling face.
The only exit from the shell was the neck hole, where the tortoise was currently the direction of, so the only option? Run at its face and pray you don’t die.
Wei Wuxian dover underneath the jaws of the beast, narrowly avoiding its mouth and he dashed off. The beast tried to follow him only to wind up tangled with its own neck. He took the opportunity to get as far away as possible from the beast while he still could, but that was harder said than done when his legs were being restricted by thick sludge resisting his every step.
As he neared the entrance of the shell, he was surprised to feel the same gush of warm wind again. He tuned just in time to catch the jaws of the beast wide open ready to eat its evening snack.
He swung his left arm around and lodged E-ming between the gums of the beast and the roof of its mouth. The beast screeched in agony as the blade pieced its mouth and shoved both its head and Wei Wuxian who was hanging onto E-ming out of the shell and over the pool of cave water.
It was quite the wake up call for Wangji who had just finished setting up the cord assassination technique. Lan Wangji was surprised to be greeted by Wei Wuxian dangling from the jaws of the divine beast.
He sat up and pulled on the end of the string that was wrapped around his palm. The tug released the loose rocks that the string was stuffed behind to make a large circle around the neck of the beast. It closed in tightly around the beast’s neck. Wangji struggled to stay seated in the crevice he found in the cave wall as the beast struggled against the restraints.
Wangji tugged against the turtle and continued to painstakingly tighten the string until the beasts scales cracked and the string started to puncture the skin.
E-ming rattled in Wei Wuxian’s hands, strained under the force of the beast’s jaw. Wei Wuxian clenched his teeth and glanced at the bleeding neck of the beast. This will be annoyingly painful. Wei Wuxian braced his feet against the beast’s neck, right above the string, and tugged E-ming with all his might.
With a final strong tug, he managed to free E-ming from the jaws of the beast. However, this meant he was left with no where to hold on. As he fell from the jaws of the beast, he threw the black sword that was still surrounded by resentful energy at the beast’s neck. That sword, surrounded by all those vengeful spirits, had enough power to not only pierce the beast’s neck, but also cut the string that was still connected to Wangji’s palm.
Wangji fell backwards into the crack in the cave’s wall as the beast screamed, over powering the sound of anything else. He quickly managed to regain his bearings and sat back up. The only thing he could see was a beheaded Divine beast and not single sign of Wei Wuxian.
He continued to examine the cave when he noticed the water rippling not too far away from the beast’s corpse. He jumped down from the crack in the wall and dove into the bloodied water. He grabbed Wei Wuxian by the waist and pulled him to the surface of the water.
The next time Wei Wuxian awoke, he wasn’t lying on the cold surface of the cave’s floor nor did he see the roof of the cave. Instead, he awoke to his mother’s face and the blue sky. He could see his father a little ways away examining E-ming seemingly for damage. In the distance, he could hear Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan talking.
When Xie Lian noticed his son was awake, he was overjoyed. “A-Ying! Oh thank the heavens you’re awake!” Hua Cheng quickly dropped E-ming to the ground and ran over. “A-Ying, How are you feeling? You scared me half to death!” Wei Wuxian chuckled, “But A-Die, aren’t you dead?” He asked.
Xie Lian looked like he didn’t know whether or not he wanted to laugh or cry at that. Hua Cheng lightly whacked Wei Ying on the head, “if you weren’t in such a state I would have hit you a lot harder.” The three laughed. Jiang Cheng and Wangji walked over as Xie Lian helped Wei Wuxian sit up properly.
Jiang Cheng playfully punched Wei Wuxian’s shoulder. “Stop scaring me like that won’t you?” Wei Wuxian laughed, “Sure Cheng Cheng.”
Wangji quietly sat down next to Wei Wuxian and stared at him. Wei Ying smiled, “In guessing this means we managed to finally kill that gross excuse of a divine beast?” Wangji smiled in return, “Mn.” He hummed.
Wei Wuxian laughed. “Lan Zhan!” He cried, playfully hugging Lan Wangji. Xie Lian and Hua Cheng glanced at each other knowingly.
Jiang Cheng just rolled his eyes and turned away in disgust, “Damn Gays.” He muttered.