Countless splinters of wood.........

Seven silvery strings...........

Splattered with blood...

Wei Wuxian's jaw dropped in horror.

"A-Ying?"

"A... A-Zhan... that's... that... it... he... t– turn and look..."

Seeing Wei Wuxian shaking, trembling in dread, despair and fear, eyes pouring like broken dams... Lan Wangji twisted his neck sharply to see what made him cry so much.

Just as he did, a loud roar shook the skies above.

Loud enough to shake the ground and the forest around them.

Loud enough to shock the Qiong Qi into silence.

Loud enough to tell them all exactly what happened.

Not the Qiong Qi's monstrous roar...

But the Sawtooth Blood Wolf's desperate and tragic howl.

Lan Wangji felt as though a sword stabbed through his heart at Jin Ling's cry of grief. Not just him, but everyone else. Nie Huaisang, Lan Xichen, Xiao Xiang, even the emotionless Wen Ning... Chen Xuanji's hand dropped to her side as she gasped softly, a single tear escaping her dark eyes. She still held Aria Verduria with her left hand around her neck, but even Aria was too shocked and pained to move.

"Rulan?" Lan Wangji called, his voice a bare whisper against the howling wolf.

Jin Ling transformed. Picking up the black cloak from nearby, he wrapped himself in it loosely and stumbled back to where he had stood. 

Where they had stood.

"Sizhui..."

And then Lan Wangji saw.

The Qiong Qi had attacked. But when it had attacked, Jin Ling had been distracted by the suddenly lifeless Jiang Cheng. And so to protect him...

"Sizhui blocked it with his guqin..." Chen Xuanji gulped.

Clearly the claws of the beast had reached through the wood of the guqin and torn Lan Sizhui's flesh.

Lan Wangji was... beyond horrified. There lay his most beloved son, the little baby boy he had taken care of since he was four, brought him up safe and sound, never let him go too far into danger... only when he thought Sizhui needed to learn did he let go.

Did he let go too early?

Why else would Lan Yuan be lying on the ground right now, amidst a pile of wood and strings, head on Jin Ling's lap, body limp, awful crimson smeared all over his ripped robes?

"... Sizhui..." Lan Zhan gasped for air.

"A-Zhan..." Wei Wuxian hugged him tight. "Come on, A-Zhan, finish the damned thing off, please. We'll take A-Yuan to Yuanhua. Quick!"

"Mn," Lan Wangji had had enough. Grabbing Bichen, he gently let go of his husband and laid him against the tree, and rose to his feet.

The Qiong Qi saw the real fight was coming, and knew it wasn't up to another battle.

Nothing to do but flee.

Grabbing the chance while it lasted, making use of the dazed state everyone was in, it ditched its stubborn plan of not-stepping-back-from-the-battle... ... ... ...

and vanished. 

"Where the hell did it go?" Xiao Xiang gasped as her shawl fell at her side.

"Disappeared?" Nie Huaisang wondered, voice weak with the stress surrounding him.

"Teleported," Lan Xichen tsk-ed angrily. First it poisons his Wanyin, then attacks his nephew and then goes poof!?? Goddammit.

Lan Wangji was, on the contrary, senseless. Numb.

But emotionless? Maybe not. The only time the world saw the cold facade of Hanguang-Jun breaking down into pieces of shattered ice was whenever Wei Wuxian was in danger.

And now Lan Sizhui.

"Sizhui..."

Gulping, biting back the reservoir of tears... because he wouldn't believe it. He wouldn't. He couldn't.

"Father," Jin Ling snivelled, fingers running through Lan Sizhui's hair, tugging, shaking. 

Is he shaking him awake? Possible. Sizhui's fallen asleep. 

"Father, shall we take him home? Quick?"

"No!" Xiao Xiang shouted.

"Why not?" Wei Wuxian looked up from his seat at the tree.

"Not yet. The Qiong Qi's not done with us yet. I can sense it. Hiding in the woods. Ready to attack if we make a move."

"If it attacks... we really will lose. Won't even have a chance to save them," Chen Xuanji nodded along with the demoness.

"But... we can't... just leave them be... or sit here waiting," Lan Xichen shook his head. "Wangji, do something!"

Lan Wangji looked at him, taken aback. Isn't it always gege who did things? Now gege's begging me?

Sure, Lan Xichen was in a state of despair. But who said Lan Wangji was not?

Wei Wuxian saw this, the Jades' pain, crystal clear. 

He always had. 

Glad that his husband had let go of him and moved away, he finally stumbled to his feet.

"Wuxian-gege?" Xuanji frowned. "Sit down, we'll sort it out–"

"No. You can't. The Qiong Qi's not something anyone can randomly deal with. Must kill." Pale fists drenched in the blood dripping down his chest clenched into tight balls of anger. "Must kill."

He took a few steps forward, watching his son bleeding with green venom from the beast's claws smeared across his chest. "I need you guys to stay put in here. No coming after me."

"What!" Nie Huaisang and his wife shouted simultaneously.

"Ying-ge, not again!"

"Wen Ning, no..."

"At least I'm coming with–"

"No. You stay here. I won't take ONE MORE risk. NOT anymore. Don't ANY of you dare come after me. I can't lose everyone I've known at the same bloody time." He spun on his foot to face his demoness. "Xiangxiang."

"Master?"

"At least you will do as I say, right?"

"I shall always listen to Master."

"Thank you, child. Then stay here and make sure they don't go. The Qiong Qi's fire around us in the forest seems to prevent us from teleporting outside, eh?"

"Yes. I can't use my shawl."

"Figured as much. Then just stay here and make sure A-Cheng and A-Yuan don't lose a lot of blood. Leaves, shawl, something. Ah, remove their outer robes, they're soaked with venom."

"Yes, Master."

"One more thing."

"Master?"

"Hua Cheng?"

"King... Shall I go check on him?"

"No need. If he won't send it then... I'll just have to make do with something else..." 

"Have you got such a something-else? Wei Wuxian, had you told me so, I wouldn't have brought this!"

Wei Wuxian's and Xiao Xiang's eyes sparkled in relief at the deep voice chuckling at them.

"Hua Cheng! Thank goodness. Gimme that."

"All yours. BUT!" Hua Cheng held the Carmine Catastrophe, which he had hid in his realm's Black Water Lake not-too-long ago. He held it in the air above Wei Wuxian's head. "Promise me not to use it more than once. One swing or touch or whatever on the Qiong Qi. That's it. I just don't want you harmed."

"Promise."

"Thank you," Hua Cheng smiled and handed the staff to Wei Wuxian. "Wei Wuxian? You look... distressed..."

"King..." Xiao Xiang mumbled and waved her hand around the battlefield.

Hua Cheng had just materialised at the centre, close to the Scarlet Seductress, and had not really noticed the chaos. Green flames lighting up the dark around them. Blood red moon. Purple-robed man lying on a white lap, purple sparks fizzing and fading from his now green ring. White-robed boy on a bloodied knee, body tainted with blood, venom, tears. Tears from the flaxen-eyed boy weeping above his face.

Chaos. Utter chaos.

"That... that's Jiang Wanyin..." 

"Yes, your pal," Wei Wuxian nodded, fist gripping the Carmine Catastrophe tightly.

"And... tell me that's not your oldest son..."

"........"

"Wei Wuxian... I... didn't think using the sceptre would bring good because... well... Lan Wangji's told me of you being possessed by Satan long ago, thanks to this. Not good at all to wield it again. But had I known things would be this bad..."

"Hmph," Wei Wuxian smirked. He patted Hua Cheng's shoulder. "My friend, had I known things would be this bad, I'd never have let them come with me in the first place."

"Makes sense. No use dwelling on the past or future, anyway. Let's get the present sorted."

"Hua Cheng, you go back. I don't want Xie Lian worrying. And I don't want you two getting involved in this, because after my fight with the Qiong Qi, that good-for-nothing know-all up above would show up. Not good for a once-expelled God and the Ghost King, is it? So you go back. I'll manage."

"Well, neither the Ghost or Heavenly Realms could subdue the beast in all the past centuries anyway. Might as well give you mortals a try. Fighting, Wei Wuxian!"

"Fighting!" Wei Wuxian nodded, unsmilingly, as the red-cloaked King disappeared again.

No explanations. No discussions. No comments taken. Ignoring the glances of dread everyone was shooting in his direction, he waved his hand for the sceptre to return to its home in his sleeve and walked over to where he had sat.

He picked up Sandu.

Brushed it against his robe.

Tossed it over to his left hand.

Limping, ignoring, he staggered towards Jin Ling.

"Daddy?" Jin Ling mumbled, wet face looking up at Lan Wangji dazedly seated beside him and then looking at Wei Wuxian how was looming over him.

Wei Wuxian bent down and uncurled Lan Sizhui's right fingers.

Slipped the Lan sword out of his grasp.

Jiang Cheng's sword in his left hand, Lan Yuan's in his right, without another word, he marched into the woods.

"A-Ying?"

No reply.

"A-Ying!" 

Walking on.

"A-YING!" Lan Wangji clambered up to his weak and wobbly feet and began chasing after the only one he probably had left.

Slam!

Lan Zhan rubbed his face and held up his pale and shaking hand, tracing the transparent barrier he had just run into. 

"A-Ying..." 

Lan Zhan slumped to the floor, gripping the robes as his knees bit the dust.

**********

Am I turning heartless overnight?

A-Zhan, don't get me wrong. I'm not being cold to you. I heard you slamming on the barrier I put up...

I heard you collapsing...

A-Zhan... forgive me. Just this once. I'll come back, put things right, back to the way they were. For now, just let me finish this... Sorry... A-Zhan, stay strong for a few minutes until I get back, hm? 

**********

...Mn. 

**********

Slash!

Crrrrash!

Thud-

"OI!"

Whack!

"Get out here!"

Cutting his way through the forest, letting the Carmine Catastrophe completely absorb the evil energy of the flames and thereby extinguishing the fire, Wei Wuxian shouted and called.

"Why you coward! Ready to burn down the world but not fight a single man? Get OUT here, you son of a–"

Thwack! Smash! Several trees before him fell to their sides as the gigantic beast from before came teetering in, roaring in all its monstrous clamour. 

The roaring only increased as Wei Wuxian leapt up and swung both swords at him.

Cutting, lacerating, tearing apart the flesh...

Hissing as the pain seared through its one remaining front limb and upper torso, the Qiong Qi staggered backwards.

Biff!

Zoom-

Whap!

Strike the head, slice the back.

Swish-

Zap!

Drive one sword into neck, dig other into waist.

Two swords having plunged into its sensitive and delicate innards, the Qiong Qi stopped fighting. It stopped moving altogether. With a loud thundering thud, the massive tiger fell to the ground. Careful not to touch the green venom of its blood, Wei Wuxian held out his sceptre and kept the colossal ruby harshly against the almost unconscious Qiong Qi's forehead. 

Smirking feebly, Wei Wuxian watched as the limp beast's form begin to waver. Flicker. A candle in the wind. Slowly but surely. Time flew by, he didn't know how long it was before the body disappeared altogether: a demonic beast trapped inside the sceptre. For as long as was possible.

Hopefully, eternity.

Wei Wuxian's brains had worked to perfection again. Of course, the Qiong Qi was an evil beast. One of the Four Evils, perhaps the strongest. All the Heavenly Realm could do so far was trap it, imprison it. If the Jade Emperor himself couldn't kill it, how could they? For now, imprisonment was the only solution.

And how better to do that, but to use the great sceptre that absorbs all evils?

Wei Wuxian let out a breath he hadn't known he'd held. It was done. After months of tedious researching, after a night of... tragedy... the fiasco was over.

The swords that had stabbed the trapped beast to unconsciousness lay on the ground as Wei Wuxian smiled at them. "You two deserved the honours of killing it. Come on, let's get you back to your masters," he picked up both swords, dismissed the sceptre, and trudged back. 

**********

Just as the roars in the forest died down, the darkness looming overhead began to tremble. The Qiong Qi's last roar split the heavens apart.

Down below, the two Nies stared around them, aghast. Chen Xuanji had had Wen Ning tie Aria Verduria up to the tree with his chains, and Xiao Xiang had tied her shawl dangerously tight around Aria's neck. LanGui had left early. Hei'An was busy giving the demon fox the worst torture he could give. Wrapping his black wispy clouds of doom around her svelte figure, encasing her and the tree together, he let her sink into a chasm of doom. Visions, hallucinations, those of the worst sort, the most terrible illusions Hei'An could think of. Ultimate mental torture.

"Because that's what this whore deserves," Xiao Xiang growled through the tears streaming down her own face. "Sizhui had been as caring and adorable as little Mistress... You whore... You... You hag... You wench... You... Tsk. Words aren't worth you."

"Certainly not," Nie Huaisang whispered, gripping his fan to contain the malaise bubbling in him.

Rain cascaded to the ground in loud and gentle showers, soaking them, drenching the dust, turning sand into mud, washing away the blood so effortlessly shed.

"Sizhui... Sizhui, please. J–Jingyi and X– Xiyi will kill me... A-Xia will miss you... Sizhui please... S–..." Jin Ling bit his lip, blood dripping down in tiny drops, letting the pain drown his sorrow, finding serenity in the pain. "A-Yuan," he sniffed.

Zewu-Jun huddled up Wanyin's body closer to himself, burying the insentient head in his warmth. One hand swathed around Jiang Cheng, holding his back and head closely. The other held on to their one connection.

He's still here. How else am I alive and well? He's still here.

Right hand clenched around the lotus-shaped locket, amethyst cutting into his skin, beautiful lilac covered in his blood, sweat and tears.

A symbol of the Jiang Love Curse.

But also a symbol of their bond.

Wanyin... Wanyin, come back.

Through the mercurial raindrops falling from the weeping heavens, shone a big and bright red Super Blood Wolf Moon, lighting up the bloody night with its bloody light.

"A-Yuan... Wake up..."

"Wanyin... Please... Please don't go..."