"Wangji, Wuxian-di..."

"...Went to transform, gege," Lan Zhan answered, raising Bichen higher.

"Yes!" Nie Huaisang punched the air with his fan. "Battle of the Beasts: Kun Peng Vs Qiong Qi!"

"Correction, Chief Cultivator," Lan Sizhui winked.

"Right. Winged Kraken and Sawtooth Blood Wolf Vs Winged Tiger! Flat-out outnumbered! Legendary battle this shall be."

"Quit the prattling and save your necks already," Jiang Cheng shouted, pointing with Sandu to the incoming onslaught of flames. 

Amd where was the woman who had started it all? 

Aria Verduria was being held under the custody of General Nie's massive sabre.

Zhang Huli had been easy to kill. And Chen Xuanji had been done with waiting to give her punishment, that woman deserved to die soonest, before she escaped again, and aroused more chaos. It wasn't a facet in her personality to repeat the same mistakes twice. Wasting another second on that woman would just be inducing more chaos.

But as for Aria Verduria... It would be necessary to keep her alive. For all they knew, she was the only way they had to control the Qiong Qi. If they were unable to kill it, then they would at least manipulate it. And for that, they needed the demonic creature.

So there she stood, often smirking smugly, tied up in Jiang Cheng's Purple Lightning and Jin Ling's Golden Thread all over, cowering under Xuanji's sabre-sharp glare.

The beast opened its jaw wide and let out a brilliant line of flames, assaulting them with sparkling green fire. Wangji and Ningjing were brought out in a swing and strummed loud and clear, shoving the evil energy of the fire away from nearing them.

"Ah, there's the fire," Nie Huaisang fanned himself and them all to wave away the heat. "So even the Heavenly Realm didn't know about the lightning thing?"

"That war was centuries ago, drawing by word of mouth over the generations should lead to this," Lan Sizhui sighed, flicking the sweat off his forehead.

Jin Ling didn't ignore how Sizhui was clenching his fists, biting his lip. 

Resisting. He was resisting. But resisting what?

With another roar, the Qiong Qi swept the ground with its flames. A thin streak of green fire lit up the clearing, forming a line blocking the cultivators off from approaching him.

"DAMN IT!" Jiang Cheng swiped Zidian at the flames to no avail.

"Jiang-xiong, use your brains, lightning won't put off fire!"

"NOR CAN A PAPER FAN!"

"I didn't say it WOULD!"

"Stop it," Lan Wangji cut in. "Gege."

"Mn," Lan Xichen nodded.

Wangji and Liebing were out in a flash. Strings strummed and gentle notes blown produced music as soothing as the wintry Gusu breeze; as soft as snow; as cold as ice, washing over the fire of evil, retaliating with purity. Raging green resentment fought with beautiful blue virtue, each striving to eclipse the other. After a good five minutes or less, the fire had died out, good having won over the bad.

"Woah, that was fast," Jin Ling gasped.

Lan Sizhui smiled at the Twin Jades. He had not even joined in, knowing these two will get it done on their own. He could never be on par with their skill anyway.

Aria snarled under the sabre and a single sharp note again darted out her pouting lips, not caring for the sabre digging into her neck. Yet again the Qiong Qi growled and roared, shooting out more flames along the same line, this time, fiercer, fierier.

In the meantime, Xuanji sliced off the puckering part of Aria's bottom lip. "No more whistling for you."

"Nice," Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. "And now what, we put up a damned orchestra to get this over with?" He pointed to the newly ablaze fire.

Lan Wangji shut his eyes for a second and smiled to himself.

"Wangji?" Xichen turned to him, resisting the fire from burning them with his flute.

"Problem solved," Lan Zhan smirked proudly. As proud as the proud husband he was.

"Eh?" Nie Huaisang asked.

"Dummies," Chen Xuanji laughed. "Wangji-gege's right. Look up!"

No need to. For all at once, every last creature in the battlefield, cultivator, demonic fox, Qiong Qi, whatever, found themselves drenched in water.

"WHAT THE-"

"A-Cheng, no swearing, A-Yuan's here!"

"WHY YOU-"

"What? The place stinks of resentment," the Kun Peng above their heads roared with laughter and spun his body one more time, sending off streams of water shooting off his still wet body and wings in every direction, drenching the ground, putting out the fire. "Hey you! Beast on beast, leave them alone!"

"Daddy, it's beasts on beast," Jin Ling winked. "Plural."

The Qiong Qi's emerald eyes swelled in horror when a massive black wolf and golden fish attacked it out of the blue.

Sawtooth fangs tore at the tiger-torso, razor-sharp claws slitting its limbs apart in a fury never seen before.

Serrated dragon's scales scraped and bruised the gleaming vermilion skin, tough phoenix's wings wrapping themselves around the wide crimson wings and wringing them around, partially disabling its flight ability.

Wei Wuxian endeavoured to reach over and snap its head apart with the power of his wings, and so did Jin Ling, but neither's wishes could come true so easily. For the Qiong Qi wouldn't surrender. Opening its mouth in a broad snarl, it clamoured and blew out massive flames of raging fire with an occasional lightning bolt embedded into the fury. 

Zidian crashed at the Qiong Qi, but was forced to retreat every now and then when it hit either Jin Ling or Wei Wuxian accidentally. Music hummed in the background, drifting through the smog of the fire, calming the resentment in the beast.

In all three beasts.

Jin Ling and Wei Ying nodded to each other, their initial flurry of pure anger dying and fading into epiphany as they realised they were blindly attacking. Using force, but not skill. Using their sheer stamina, but not tactics. The Qiong Qi was larger than the Kun Peng himself, so they would have to attack in unison.

Perfect unison.

One miss...

No, I won't think negative, Wei Wuxian shook his scaled head. "Hey yo, Little Rulan!"

The wolf's head snapped up.

The Kun Peng pointed with one wing to the Qiong Qi's rear and the wolf nodded. Seeing Jin Ling dashing towards the tiger's tail, Wei Wuxian embraced himself and floated above ground, ready.

"RAAAAAAAARGH!" The Winged Tiger screamed when sharp sawtooth fangs dug into his tail, threatening to rip it apart. Just as it felt the agony sear through his tail, like the fire it was breathing, spreading fast up its body, it kicked its legs and stood on its hind limbs, roaring in pain.

"Perfect!" Wei Wuxian leered and reached down. The tiger's glistening orange chest having been barren and exposed, a sharp streak of pinkish white down its torso showed where its softest skin was. Smirking, the Kun Peng rolled under the Qiong Qi's arching chest and harshly brushed its body — no, rubbed it, scrubbed it, grazed it.

Shaving the fur off of the flesh.

Kissing the throbbing veins.

Scraping the skin deep enough to leave irremediable gashes on the once-sleek chest.

The beast kicked and roared, its claws hitting Wei Wuxian and pushing him away towards the cultivators. Lan Zhan rushed forth and held out both hands, waves of energy and strength from his palms holding the Kun Peng's body, stopping it feet away from crashing into the others.

"A-Ying? Are you hurt?"

"Lan Zhan are you NUTS? Get your hands off me they're bleeding already!"

Wei Wuxian, lying on the ground with a bleeding side, wiggled his fins. Lan Wangji nodded and moved his hands to hold him by the fins.

"No you are not holding me, go get that healed by gege, I'm alright," Wei Wuxian shoved Lan Zhan's hands off of him and tossed and turned on the ground, before finally picking up his — slightly afflicted — wings and tail and soaring up to the sky once more.

Sizhui grabbed Lan Wangji by the sleeve and dragged him backwards to quickly cover up the wounds from the Kun Peng's scales with spiritual energy. Wei Wuxian kept looking down through the chaos, checking if his scales had hurt Lan Zhan too much. Seeing he was okay, he turned back to the fight.

Jin Ling nodded to him from below and he swooped down to Jin Ling's level. The wolf pointed with a raised paw to the tiger.

It was in torment.

Exquisite excruciation.

The massive gashes along its torso were spitting sparks of pain, tearing through its soul. And it was bleeding fast.

"Not bad, Little Rulan! Not bad at all." 

"Grrrrr! Roof!" Jin Ling lolled his tongue happily.

"Haha, son, you're a wolf, not a puppy," the Kun Peng's silver eyes twinkled with laughter. "Hm... A-Ning should be here by now, he should have sensed my danger..." Wei Wuxian flapped his wings and rose a bit higher to search the skies. "A-Yuan, where was he when we came?"

"Asleep?" Lan Sizhui shouted back, cupping his mouth for volume.

"Aish..." Wei Wuxian shook his head and dropped lower. "What's he doing twisting around like that?"

Neither of them could approach the Qiong Qi because it was writhing furiously, twisting its body this way and that, spitting sparks of emerald lightning and viridian fire every now and then.

Chen Xuanji saw her captive smirking. Not obstinately. But smugly.

"Wuxian-gege, look out! It's up to no good!" Xuanji shouted, gripping Aria's neck with her own hand and drawing her sabre down the svelte creature's back. Aria Verduria shuddered and shook, trembling under the sharp and cold cutting touch. Until the blade reached the tail bone and swung sharply, neatly chopping off all remaining six tails.

"AAAAAAAH! What the-!"

"I'm warning you. Be up to any crap and your arm's going off next."

Shaking and weeping over the pain in her back from having lost all nine tails by now, Aria bit her lip till it bled, shutting herself up under Xuanji's glare. "Women tend to be e– elegant and be– beguiling. You sure are seductive but– d– definitely not the way I... want you to... be!"

"Well, I'm glad to hear I'm not enticing to a she-fox like you anyway," Xuanji flipped her hair and focussed on the writhing beast.

"Wei-xiong, watch out!" Nie Huaisang gripped his fan. The Qiong Qi had all of a sudden stopped moving. It rose to its full height and spread out its wings, pushing its feet off the ground to rise a foot above ground. And another foot. And another. Three feet above ground it stood, flapping its wings, staring at the Kun Peng.

Wei Wuxian leered at him. "So, up to another fight, aren't you? One hell of a chest-torn beast."

The monster sneered back. It curled up its body and shot towards Wei Wuxian like an asteroid ready to break him apart. Wei Wuxian ducked and spun away in a bare second, his pectoral fin just hitting the beast's massive wings. Panting thanks to the sudden attack, Wei Wuxian heaved his chest. 

Some smell caught his nares and he looked around looking for the source of... of the...

Smoke?

"Fire!" Huaisang shouted.

Their heads turned in the direction he pointed to and Wei Wuxian roared in terror. Why this Qiong Qi, the sneak attack on me was to DISTRACT me?

Jiang Cheng had already raised Zidian — not to put out the fire, but because the one the burst of fire was being aimed at was...

"Rulan!" Lan Zhan shouted, horror ringing in every chime of his panic-stricken tone.

But even before Zidian or Wangji could retaliate to the fire, or before Shuoyue or the Kun Peng's wings could block the fireball and protect the wolf, Jin Ling felt a surge of heat rising from somewhere behind him and shooting into the distance. A flaming orange meteor-like flame darted past his head, skidding across the air towards the incoming attack and hitting it. The extreme force in the hurled ball of brilliant crimson fire kicked the Qiong Qi's green flame away into the forest.

All in all, Jin Ling was saved.

The wolf gasped and huffed and puffed, heaving sighs at the shock that was now sinking with the incoming relief. He turned his head and looked behind to see what had saved him just then.

Gleaming red wolf eyes swelled in consternation and befuddlement at the smiling eyes checking for wounds on his body. A gentle palm scratched him behind his ear.

And that palm was still glowing and warm from the fire it had just emitted. The fire it had... inexplicably... impossibly... somehow... emitted.

Because that fire wasn't a fire talisman. It was pure fire.

Jin Rulan gazed up into the dark orbs nodding to him.

"A-Ling, I hope you're not hurt?" 

____________________________________________________________

A/N: Sooooo soooo sorry for going dead on Wattpad for two/three days! I can't believe it myself! Too much work, school, Prefectship, and stuff, so sorry! But I'll be updating at least two chapters tomorrow to make up for it! Sowwy! I'll inform you all beforehand next time, just that this time around it was totally unexpected! Apologies, darlings!

And if you're confused and muddled by what just happened in the chapter... Course you know the one person who calls JL A-Ling... and that person literally just emitted fire, real fire, period. From his hand. Sounds familiar? 

[Hint: think back to the first day of WWX's classes at Cloud Recesses, think of who appeared at the gates and did what 🔥😉 NOOOW you see why I made the book's title's "Savage Wolf" ZhuiLing part from red to gold instead of blue to gold 😉]

Aaaanyways, await more updates tomorrow! Sorry and thank you for sticking with me! *sniff* You guys are amazing, really. 

♥️ WXLL.