The sun will turn into darkness, and the moon into blood...

Showers of thundering rain will cascade from the Heavens to wash clean the earth that is dirtied with the inevitable bloodshed.

The sky outside was still dark, albeit lit up with a fading red glow. The super blood wolf moon was bidding farewell. The clouds ruled over the twilight, shrouding the world in a gloomy and dark cocoon of ominous black. The Heavens cried and wept sorely, thundering splashes of the rain outside echoing through the Healing Hall.

And yet through it all...

The deadly grey was shattered in one teeny tiny corner. A minuscule hole shredding the black cloak. A single soft ray of light boring into the darkness.

Of course. Dawn was only an hour or less away. The battle had lasted long and strong. 

Sunlight. A single ray of hope amid the gloom.

Sunshine... Sunshine... A-Ying. A-Ying will know what to do, Lan Zhan nodded to himself as he finally slumped into a chair.

"Wangji," Lan Yuanhua tapped his shoulder and forced some water down his throat. "You're running out of energy. You rest, we'll do this."

"We can't lose you as well, Father..." Jingyi sulked.

Lan Zhan gulped.

"Jingyi!" Xiyi rammed her elbow into her husband's stomach. "Watch your mouth!"

"What? It'd make him see things clearer, at least," Lan Jingyi shrugged. "Look, we'll do this. Auntie Qiang take Mingxia and stay in your room. We need someone to stay with the poor girl."

"And the energy?" Lan Qiang asked, already brushing down her robes to take off.

"While Wen Shushu and Senior Yuanhua work on this, Xiyi, Doctor Jiang and I will do the energy-passing. Father needs to rest."

"Good. Make sure he doesn't overwork himself," Lan Qiang nodded to Jingyi and swished out the door.

Lan Yuanhua shoved a bowl of water into Lan Wangji's hands as the latter slumped on his chair, face pale and eyes drooping. Tired, exhausted... done with this. All any of them ever wanted was peace and a happy family. Not... not this... anxiety, grief, loss, pain, dread... none of this.

He buried his sweating face in his palms, taking in gallons of air to calm himself down. Albeit peaceful on the outside, his heart was trembling on the inside. Gege was unconscious; Jiang Wanyin was nearly gone; his dear son was out cold; A-Ying had disappeared. What next?

Wait what? 'Jiang Wanyin was nearly gone'? Why would I care? Lan Zhan shook his head slightly.

"Hmmmm why is nothing working..." Jin Xiyi bit her lip, staring at Lan Sizhui's still pale-as-snow face.

"Maybe we're not sending in enough? Maybe our power isn't enough..." Jingyi frowned, tautening his hands and forcing more energy out of him into Lan Xichen.

Jiang Yunxi looked up from Jiang Cheng. "Not really. Just... just their poison... the Qiong Qi's thing is completely resentment energy... why won't it leave?"

"I wonder if we're worsening things," Wen Ning frowned.

"Why?" Lan Wangji perked up in fear.

"Well... if the Qiong Qi's dark energy has already firmly attached itself and really is invincible... maybe it's too strong for your spiritual energy... in which case there'll eventually just be both dark and good energy in high proportions, attacking each other. If there are huge amounts of both energies... and an internal conflict between them, which is likely..." Wen Ning bit his lip and looked up at the others. "Wouldn't that make them weaker?"

Jiang Yunxi immediately stopped sending in energy. His right hand dropped to his side, left pinching his forehead. "It's not like passing in demonic energy will help... what on earth do we do?"

"Isn't there any other way to remove the dark energy?" Lan Yuanhua wondered aloud, glancing at Lan Wangji questioningly.

"Music would be too weak in this case."

"Talismans?" Lan Jingyi deftly pulled out a golden sheet.

"Why not try an evil-summoning talisman?" A gentle but regal voice hummed from behind him.

Beaming with delight, he waved the paper at the ladies. "Cangse Sanren, Baoshan Sanren! You finally got back."

"Mhm," Cangse nodded. "Mother's right, why not try that?"

The others looked at each other. "Explain?" Lan Yuanhua asked.

"Right now we need to save at least their last thread of life. Evil-summoning talismans call out evil. Perhaps we could use them to attract the energy within them outside," Baoshan Sanren said, snatching Lan Jingyi's sheet without a word.

"Right. And when it's out, we reduce the energy to ashes with the usual evil-controlling methods," Jiang Yunxi nodded.

"The Lan music!" Jin Xiyi grinned at Jingyi and Wangji.

"Mn," Wen Ning happily agreed with the solution.

"Erm... Baoshan Sanren knows demonic cultivation?" Lan Jingyi blinked when the elderly woman snatched his talisman paper.

"Of course I don't," she shook her head. She walked over to the little girl who was seated curled up into a sorrowful ball in a corner of the room, between Nie Huaisang and Jin Ling who had fainted out of fatigue. "Erm... you. Little girl."

Sniffing, Jiang Meilien looked up at the proud and towering woman. Her damp eyes swelled in awe.

"You seem to be the niece Wuxian boasts about. I sense the demonic energy in you."

"Mmm," Meilien bobbed her head weakly.

"Good. Then you must know the evil-summoning talisman?"

"Mhm..."

"Great," Baoshan Sanren smiled at her as wide as her stern face would allow. "We need your help. Draw an evil-summoning talisman, but I need you to make one alteration. Restrict it. Restrict its attraction power so that it'll only draw evil energy from a targeted area."

Jiang Meilien frowned. "A bit hard..."

"It's for your fathers, you know." Baoshan Sanren knew well enough what a Jiang child was like. One small nudge of motivation related to their family... and boom.

Meilien nodded and took the paper, turning it over and over in her hands. She mumbled something to herself, ideas on how to carry this out, until her mind finally settled.

"Well?" Baoshan Sanren smiled and held out her hand.

Meilien smiled back, gripped her hand and pulled herself up onto her feet. The golden sheet on one palm, she nudged Baishan out of its sheath and slit her fingers on the blade before starting to scribble. Criss-cross, up-down, right-left, across, reverse... a thought or two before completing it with her bloody fingers going round and round for a red smear of a circle atop it all. "Here," she held it up.

Baoshan Sanren handed it to Lan Wangji, who had seen demonic talismans his entire lifetime thanks to his husband. "Mn. Usual spell, with a circle for restriction. Good job, Meilien."

Jiang Meilien nodded silently. Neither she nor Lan Wangji had the energy to actually smile...

Raising the talisman in the air, Baoshan held it right above Lan Sizhui's chest. "Child first, others later," she muttered coldly.

"Yes, Mother," Cangse agreed. "Sizhui's at the greatest risk."

"Now then. Since I won't be able to hold this..." the older woman flung her hand towards the ceiling, slamming the sheet on the spot directly above Lan Sizhui's chest. "Demon Mistress," she waved to the ceiling.

Meilien nodded and shot out a spark of red energy, lighting the talisman up. As soon as it was activated, the red glow fell onto and washed over Lan Sizhui's body. Slowly, his hands began writhing, body squirming.

"Well thank goodness he's alive enough," Cangse Sanren sighed.

Body twisting this way and that, the energies in him fighting fiercer than ever, the poison doing its best to resist...

The group watched as a thin tiny string of grey smoke shuddered its way out of and drifted atop Sizhui's chest. With each passing second, several threads of energy had been drawn out, forming a thick black cloud of darkness. Clearly the energy was still resisting being drawn upwards completely... three minutes had passed in the snap of a finger, and the black cloud's growth stilled. All at once, it shot upwards to the talisman where Lan Jingyi swung his sword at it. With a flash of blue light, the energy was dissipated.

"That was easy... we didn't even need the music," Jingyi hummed. "Is he alright now?"

"Too easy," Xiyi shook her head.

Lan Yuanhua felt his pulse. "My my, far too weak to say he's 'alright'... how come it didn't work?"

"So most of the energy's actually still in him. Whatever came out was only the weakest of the poison," Jiang Yunxi sulked. "How can a beast's resentment energy be THAT strong? Strong enough to resist a powerful talisman?"

"Qiong Qi..." Nie Huaisang mumbled, slowly awakening and sitting up against the wall. "Legendary beast... one of the four legends..."

Lan Wangji nodded slowly, heart faltering further and further... if nothing seemed to work... what now?

"A-Ying... where's A-Ying?" He mumbled. "A-Ying went somewhere..."

"Why yes," Cangse Sanren nodded. "Where did he run off to?"

"Mn. Ying-ge would know a way. He must have gone to find it."

Nie Huaisang pulled Jin Ling up to his feet, seeing that the latter had also awoken. With Huaisang's help, Jin Ling staggered over and sat on Sizhui's bedside. "Nie Shushu's right," Jin Ling sighed. "The Qiong Qi wasn't a legend for nothing... a beast that even the Heavenly Emperor could never kill."

"Like I said, that guy's a lazy loser anyway!"

"DADDY!" Lan Jingyi and the Jin siblings squealed with relief.

"A-Ying!"

"A-Zhan, out."

"Ah?!"

Wei Wuxian strode into the centre of the room. "Sorry, darling. I'm really sorry. I want all of you out. Now."

"HUH?" Jiang Yunxi shrieked. "Shixiong, what are you-"

"NOW."

Yunxi zipped his lips shut, grabbed Meilien's hand and Wen Ning's arm, and marched out angrily, muttering, "Shixiong didn't have to shout..."

Wei Wuxian sighed. "Sorry..." he shook his head. Reducing his tone to a much calmer and reassuring one, he looked around. "All of you, out. Please."

"Not even the doctor gets to stay?"

"No. If you want these three to get up as soon as possible before losing what remaining life they have, all of you leave the hall- Right. Now."