"Message from Ghost King. A response to your message," Xiao Xiang answered Wei Wuxian.

"Ah, great–"

"Message?" Lan Wangji asked. 

"Ah... erm..."

"A-Ying, speak."

"Nothing, nothing too serious, right Xiangxiang?"

"I... erm... well..."

"XiangXIANG–"

"Yes, yes, absolutely nothing wrong, Hanguang-Jun."

Lan Wangji narrowed his eyes, looking between demoness and master. "So what is Hua Cheng's response?"

"Ah, it was–"

"Hush for a minute," Wei Wuxian held up his hand. "LanGui."

"Master," the Blue Brawler bowed.

"I want you to help Mama Dragon. Break that blasted thing's wings while it's distracted by her fire. Bring it down to the ground so we can tackle it easily. I can't have her fighting with us for too long, she needs to get home fast."

"Sure," LanGui shot upwards to the sky and landed on the topmost branch in the forest. The Jiaolong nodded to Wei Wuxian, understanding his plan, and spun around the Qiong Qi to its rear. The Qiong Qi turned around to face the Jiaolong properly, exposing his back to the awaiting LanGui in the process. LanGui waited for them to continue fighting until the Qiong Qi was only a short distance away from him. Reaching over, he caught one tip of the right wing, and twisted it around.

Sharply.

Relentlessly.

A full three-sixty degrees until the bones in it could be heard snapping and cracking apart.

"RRRRAAAAAAAARGH!" The Winged Tiger roared in agony as it fell to the ground, rendered flightless.

"Bravo, LanGui!" Wei Wuxian clapped. "Knew you could do it. Hei'An."

"Master."

"Go and help Xuanji-mei. Should that Aria-whore dare to even budge, you know what to do."

"Sure," Hei'An nodded. The black cloud of doom fluttered over to stand with Chen Xuanji.

"Xuanji-mei, take care of her! Don't join the fight, we need you to restrain that woman."

"Of course," Xuanji nodded, happily sliding her sabre down Aria's arm and slicing the skin off. This Immortal Fox was temporarily turning her into a sadist of a General.

"And me, Master?"

"Xiangxiang... Did Hua Cheng say yes?"

"He said..." Xiao Xiang side-glanced at Lan Wangji and saw him watching with hawk's eyes. Best to tread cautiously, Xiao Xiang sighed. "He said he doesn't want to, but he will if you need it."

"Of course he wouldn't want to, he's as worrying as this worrywart husband of mine," Wei Wuxian chuckled. "But he said yes?"

The Scarlet Seductress nodded.

"Great. How soon?"

"Don't know. Might take time."

"A-Ying, you better tell me what's going on."

"A-Zhan...–"

"No whining. I need to know."

"Tch, getting bossy, are we? Well guess what? You can't boss me around, haha! Xiangxiang, I want you to be with Little Rulan. If he loses control, use this," Wei Wuxian snatched the Clarity Bell in Lan Wangji's hands and gave it to Xiao Xiang.

"Roger that," Xiao Xiang bowed to him and darted to Jin Ling's side, bell tinkling constantly.

"Gege, guys, let's finish this."

"Yes!" Huaisang punched the air with his fan and zoomed towards the fallen Qiong Qi. Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji followed suit, with Lan Xichen taking up the other side with Wen Ning. Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling took up the front, Xiangxiang and LanGui ready at their sides. The tiger rose to his three feet and managed to magically balance himself quickly, before it began to attack the men surrounding it.

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian stood a good distance away up on a treetop and raised his hand. While the Jiaolong rubbed her muzzle against his palm, he smiled and nodded his gratitude. "Mama Dragon, thanks for coming for me. For A-Zhan. He really needed you. We all did. You should get going, we can take it from here. Fighting on land is something you can't tackle, no legs. Take care, will you? And the children."

The Aqua Dragon nuzzled his palm before nodding and flying away hurriedly, rushing back to her unprotected children.

"Now then," Wei Wuxian sighed as he watched them fight. "Gege, Sizhui, play Rest to calm this thing down, try subduing it," he shouted over the clanging of the swords and the claws.

"And you?" Lan Xichen asked, already pulling out Liebing.

Wei Wuxian grabbed Lan Wangji's arm and dug into his white sleeve. "Ah, here it is," he nodded and took out Chenqing. "I'll be playing something else," he winked. "But I don't want you guys focusing on me, it might hinder your music. Also, Little Rulan, you must stick by Sizhui's and Xiangxiang's side. Listen to Ningjing's music, not Chenqing, understood? I might harm you with my tunes."

The wolf nodded keenly. 

"Sizhui, protect him."

"Mn!"

"A-Zhan," he patted Lan Zhan's shoulder thrice and leapt up onto a branch high above.

Lan Wangji gulped and turned back to the beast as it was assailed by Jiang Wanyin's Zidian. He quickly walked to Sizhui and pointed his fingers to Sizhui's forehead, rushing in a few waves of bright cyan energy.

"Father?"

When the transfer was done, Lan Wangji nodded and retreated his hand. "Use it well," he mumbled and dashed back to Jiang Wanyin's side, Bichen unsheathed.

"Lucky you, to have A-Zhan's Immortal's energy in you for a battle," Wei Wuxian winked from above. "Go for it, A-Yuan!"

Lan Yuan gawked at them before quickly looking down at his hands. With his right hand he slid out Ningjing, and he curled up his left fist. Twang! He strummed on Ningjing's strings, sending forth a brilliant white wave of energy that left a sharp angular cut on the beast's body. He hurriedly swished his left palm, and slammed it into the air in the monster's direction. The untouched left wing caught fire, burning into ashes fast, under the blazing and humongous red flames.

An Immortal's power. Sheer force and overwhelming potent. Father... gave this to me because he'll be busy fighting to play the zither? Father... thank you. With a nod to his uncle, the two kicked up a perfectly harmonious and in-sync duet of Rest. Zewu-Jun was secretly impressed to find their little Shuijing-Jun was at his own level.

Smiling at their synchronisation, Wei Wuxian kept his own flute at his lips. Let's do this, Chenqing. 

The others looked up in shock at the sound of the melody being played high over their heads. It had been quite some time since they last heard Chenqing's catastrophe-inviting melodies, and this one was...

This melody...

The same one he had used at Nevernight two decades ago...

The last melody he had used in that life.

Jin Ling's fur stood on end at the eerie tune attacking his eardrums, threatening to tear his composure apart.

"A-Ling, focus on me."

The wolf nodded and shook his head furiously to ignore the creepier music taunting him.

"A-Ling..." 

Tinkle, cling!

"Thank you, Xiangxiang-jiejie."

"Mn. Little Rulan, wake up, not the time to go wild right now."

Tinkle, cling!

The black beast bobbed his head in firm agreement. He let his soul listen to nothing but the notes his Sizhui plucked. 

He pounced on the tiger as its paw came crashing down on them, fangs sinking into the flesh, ripping open the popping veins.

"EXCELLENT!" Jiang Cheng roared merrily. "Tear that limb apart and we might as well have won, Jin Ling!"

But Jin Ling couldn't hold on, for the tiger flailing its paw was too mighty it might fling him away from the battlefield. So he jumped back down, having left a prodigious gash. 

With the unbroken remainder of his chains, Wen Ning swung the metal at the beast, attacking it, striking its body sonorously, over and over, merciless, furious, trying and perhaps succeeding to wound and exhaust the fiend.

A slim paper fan that boasted of grace swan across the air, boomeranging towards the tiger, cutting its heavy and murderous tail clean off. Nie Huaisang caught the fan in his hand and gave Xichen a thumbs-up for his wonderful playing. 

Jiang Cheng unfurled his whip and slung it over the tiger's neck. The Qiong Qi tore at Zidian, hands being scorched as they clawed at the Purple Lightning, pulling it away from wringing his neck. Jiang Cheng tugged on Zidian, pulling the beast's head down lower, thereby lowering the body.

"LAN WANGJI!"

Slash!

Gleaming white sword dripped with green blood as it was drawn out of the wound in the Qiong Qi's waist.

The fight it had put up to protect its neck had been somewhat in vain, for Lan Wangji had taken the opportunity to attack his waist instead. The Winged Tiger staggered a foot backwards, claws crashing at the cultivators and wolf — and the demons and ghosts Wei Wuxian was calling in to wrap him up. 

"Hmph. Lan Wangji... not bad."

"Mn," Lan Zhan nodded curtly, an indication of him implying 'you too'.

"Looks like you can collaborate like back in the Wens' traitorous days when Wei-xiong went missing, after all!" Nie Huaisang grinned.

"Tsk," both Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan smirked sourly and looked away. 

"JIANG CHENG!" Chen Xuanji shouted.

"WHAT?"

"ZIDIAN!"

"What about it?" Jiang Cheng looked at his lightning whip — only to find its purple turning into a dark green at top speed.

The same evil emerald the Qiong Qi's eyes were glaring with.

"Goodness!" Huaisang cried in horror.

"Take it off!" Lan Zhan urged him, seeing the green was spreading to his hand fast.

"But why– Oh... too late anyway..." Jiang Cheng gulped hard when he saw his beloved whip having turned completely green. "Zidian's connected directly to my core. If Zidian is... poisoned............"

"What!" Liebing crashed to the floor with a loud clatter that brought Wei Wuxian's attention to the scene.

"What's going on?"

Luckily, the Qiong Qi was almost immobile, having been wounded in the stomach, losing blood fast, and still being strangled by Zidian.

Albeit a green Zidian...

"Green? What the– A-Cheng! A-Cheng!"

Jiang Cheng flinched when he felt the pain in his aching meridians. "To hell with the bloody beast," he cursed under his breath, clawing at his chest.

Sensing a weakness in the whip around its neck, the Qiong Qi pulled at it harshly. The whip tore off its neck, feebly disappearing, retreating into the purple-turned-green ring rapidly.

Wei Wuxian hopped down and grabbed Sandu from him. "Sandu recognises your core, I'll be able to use it. You go back and rest, quick. Gege, do something! We'll finish this thing off."

"Mn," Xichen nodded and ran with Jiang Cheng to the same tree Lan Zhan had lied under earlier. 

Wei Wuxian frowned. A-Cheng... Please... Please hold on... Swallowing the dread, he looked at Jin Ling. The black wolf was trembling in fear, watching his uncle's suntanned face turning paler by the minute.

"Little Rulan. He'll be alright."

The wolf nodded and turned to the now growling Qiong Qi.

Wei Wuxian followed suit. Tucking Chenqing away into the pockets in Lan Xichen's outer robe's sleeves, he gripped Sandu and felt it a bit. He could feel the power of the Jiang sword, he remembered using it once while teaching the Jiangs during his honeymoon-stay at Lotus Pier. Okay, Sandu. Bear with me.

A-Ying, he'll be alright.

Wei Wuxian looked up to see the wielder of Bichen also watching him. Though Wei Wuxian went around reassuring the others Jiang Cheng would be alright, only Lan Wangji could see through Wei Ying's mask of certainty. Behind it, was a crumbling soul, on the verge of shattering under the fear.

He will be alright, he's your brother, he's strong.

Thanks, darling, Wei Ying nodded and raised Sandu. With one last look at his brother, Wei Wuxian ran at the Qiong Qi, slicing across its puffed chest and assailing claws with all his might. They will kill this damned thing, then go home and get A-Cheng treated. Problem solved.

After all.........

Lan Wangji never lied.

Right?

Right, Wei Wuxian ignored the memories of the recent past. He never lies. Not to me, not to anyone. Lan Zhan never lies. 

Tsk, things would be so much easier... If only Hua Cheng allowed me to do it...