Chapter 5: Chapter IV: Wei Lan III

Wèi Lan woke up feeling as if every part of her body had undergone a mauling by a Nocturnal Sabertooth before being trampled by a herd of Ivory Wildebeests, every muscle and bone in her body creaking with the effort of moving. She sat slumped underneath the rubble, content to first check every part of her was in working order before she began the journey to excavate herself out of here, cursing her aunt Ling with every breath she still had left within her.

 

Fortunately, as a daughter of the Wèi Sect, Lan had already been taught to harvest the soil surrounding her for essentials by the age of eight, the very earth surrounding her enough to sustain her with oxygen for a long period of time. Her standing as a cultivator on the Seventh Step of the Nascent Realm also served to help, ensuring her body did not need water to survive for at least another couple of days. More, since the ground was still wet with the morning dew. And seeing as how she did not need days to free herself from here but mere minutes, Lan was confident in her survival, a tidbit she was not so sure of when it came to the Qiáns.

 

Oh, she was certain no harm would befall Qián Ru, she did not know her aunt to be stupid, but Qián Ai was another question.

 

Wèi Ling had the propensity to see the negative side of things, and would undoubtedly view Qián Ai as her sister's attempt to humiliate her. She just hoped Ru would act fast enough to be noticed by her aunt, or else all that she had worked for for the last couple of weeks would be for naught.

 

Grumbling at the foreseeable turn of events begotten by her mother, Wèi Lan began working the stones surrounding her, yet again cursing Wèi Ling and her daughter, Wèi Hu, soon to be Eldest of the Wèi Clan.

 

While infuriating in its own way, Lan had come to terms with the fact she would not be appointed as Eldest and would not inherit her mother, the path of the Wèi Sect differing from those who saw blood as the most crucial aspect of a cultivator's standing. Instead, she wanted to imitate her aunt, Wèi Fen, a woman who could be said to have it all.

 

Sister to her mother, Wèi Fen had been Eldest to the Wèi Sect. She had been the one destined to be elevated to Matriarch-hood when the time came, and had been honored as the most powerful cultivator the Wèi Sect had known since the Founding Mother. But then something happened at the Elevation ceremony, something that Wèi Lan could not glean no matter who she asked, and Wèi Fan was cast aside, only to be replaced by Lan's mother.

 

Since then, a hundred or so years before Lan's birth, Wèi Fen had become a wanderer, her excursions fast becoming the stuff of legends amongst the Wèi Daughters of the Main Branch. She is said to have fought Spirit Beasts as powerful as Dragons in her time out west, battled foes from all over the Empire in her journey abroad, some of them from even Subordinate Clans to the Four, and it is only recently, when Lan was five, that the rumor mill had picked up on her newest predicament, hearsay proclaiming Wèi Fen had reached Emperor-hood.

 

To Lan, a girl who had not set foot outside Shenzhen at the time, hearing about Fen's escapades had been the epitome of intrigue, every tale and pip to come out of someone's mouth regarding Wèi Fen absolutely captivating. It stoked her heart and mind, dreaming about the things her aunt had seen and experienced, the wonders of the Jade Serpent Empire laid at her feet. It made her life worthwhile, made it so that she had an objective to look forward to, and as it now stands, Wèi Lan is without a doubt on her way to realizing it.

 

Or at least she would have been if it hadn't been for that fateful day in the marketplace.

 

Still, she has absolutely no intention to show deference to Wèi Hu, that self-centered brat, regardless of the fact it would be at least a couple of decades before her mother stepped down, and so she made plans to leave Shenzhen. Made them with all the zeal of a spurned child, her plans beginning and ending with finding Wèi Fen and begging her to take her underneath her wing.

 

But recent events made her realize there was a little more nuance to be learned. A little more caution to be used before one sets foot in the midst of an Emperor's travel.

 

After all, an argument could be made that the whole reason Wèi Lan had suffered for the past half a dozen years in shame, felt the spurn of her mother, no matter how small the actual measure, was so that she would be able to relate to the Qiáns just a bit more, and it would thus make it easier for her to gain their confidence.

 

Lan would like the thought to be pure asinine, tomfoolery of the highest order, but unfortunately she couldn't put it past her mother.

 

And if her mother had no qualms about using her in such a way, what chances did she have with an aunt she had not seen once in her whole life, and that could very well still harbour feelings of ill repute towards the current Matriarch of the Wèi Sect, and by extension, her daughter?

 

So yes, Wèi Lan thought it wise she reconsider her plans for the future. After all, bolstering a Minor Branch could still be a viable option, so long as it is far away from Shenzhen.

 

"Nice day for a stroll, huh? Too bad you're about to—Oh, Fuck!" A woman cursed out next to her, her knife moving from threatening to the defensive in the timespan it took for her to notice who she was actually dealing with.

 

It then became a battle of endurance between her hands and legs, their shudder causing a distinct rattling sound Lan hadn't heard in quite a while.

 

"I'm–I'm sorry." the woman bleated out, unable to meet Lan's gaze.

 

In all honesty, Wèi Lan felt rather sorry for her. Between the dust covering her clothes and the brick and mortar residue covering her hair, Wèi Lan very much did not look the part of a Young Mistress to the Wèi Sect, the fact the woman actually identified her in time to make a difference pretty surprising. To add insult to injury, Lan very much looked the part of a defeated mark, someone considered almost too easy to rob, and to sum it all together, Wèi Lan had seemed easy prey.

 

A fact she was very much not, even in her current state.

 

"I'll tell you what. Since I'm in a forgiving mood, I'm gonna let this one slide. But, the next time I see you, I want you to attack me with all that you've got."

 

"Mistress?"

 

"No, I'll do you one better. The next time you see me, I want you to bring your friends, the toughest people you know, and I want you to attack me together. It has to be in tandem or it doesn't count, alright?"

 

"Mistress, I don't know about that..."

 

"Look, it's either that or I beat you within an inch of your life right here, right now, for your insolence. So what would you rather do?"

 

After a moment's hesitation, the woman answered, "The group thing." still incapable of meeting Lan's gaze.

 

"I thought so. Well, now that that's settled, would you mind finding me a basin of water so I could clean myself? I'd rather not enter my house in this muck."

 

Wèi Lan chose not to comment on the look of mild consternation that enveloped the woman, allowing her a small measure of confusion before she made sure the woman knew she had no say in this.

 

"Now, please."

 

"Yes, Mistress. If you please, just follow me." the woman bid, defeated, her head hung low as she maneuvered through the streets, her destination her home, or so Lan reasoned.

 

Not content to walk in silence, Wèi Lan began asking the woman questions, wishing to learn of the current atmosphere in the city from the point of view of one of its inhabitants. One who had to stoop so low as to steal in order to provide for her family.

 

"Tell me, what is it people say about the Major Sects of Shenzhen?"

 

"They say there are none as glorious as the Wèi Sect. They say your light shines ever so greatly in the splendor of this great city."

 

"Cut the bull, will you?"

 

"Yes, Mistress. If it pleases you, I'll speak frankly. They say the Wèi and Lù Sects have forgotten about us. They say the Shěn Sect is the single one both capable and willing to administer the city's problems. It… They say the feud between the Lù's and the Wèi's is one that will end with the Shěn Sect's domination over Shenzhen, and that we should look forward to that great day."

 

"Interesting." Lan remarked, mulling over her words. "And what, pray tell, do they say of the Mistress of the Shěn Sect? Rumor has it Shěn Song is only on the Ninth Step of the Heavenly Realm."

 

"They say it is evidence of Shěn Song's care for the working woman. They say she could reach Emperor-hood in a matter of days were it not for her great love for the people of this city."

 

"Oh, come off it." Wèi Lan scoffed, her amusement as clear as day.

 

Only for her to startle when she noticed the heated glance from the woman, the venom in her tone unmistakable.

 

"They say should one need proof of the Shěn Sect's power, one need only look at their continued existence in the city. Their Mistress is a cultivator in the Heavenly Realm, and yet both the Lù and Wèi Sects dare not touch them."

 

Considering the woman's response, Wèi Lan noticed they had stopped before a door, one having clearly seen better days. It made the woman's words all the more visceral for it, to see the decay that afflicted the city the woman spoke of right before her very eyes.

 

Wherever she looked, dirt and squalor met her gaze, each house across the street looking weaker than the one she had been crushed into not so long prior. Beggars flooded the street, each one calling for help when they noticed movement in their midst, their faint cries for pity all the more wretched when they fell short as they noticed the shade of her eyes.

 

This wasn't even Ping Yang, Shenzhen's poorest neighborhood, and yet the agony was all the more profound for it.

 

"And should I ask you, instead of them, what will you have to say?"

 

"I would say Shěn Song is no more than a rat scurrying in the dark while two wolves grapple above her. And yet I would remind the two wolves that even a Mumakil is sometimes wary of a little mouse."

 

~~~~~

The Wèi Sect is distinctly tied to the Earth Element. It is evident in their Disciples uniform, the pine green colour reminiscent of the vegetation in the Wèi Sect's homeland. It is conspicuous in the way they train and fight, the firmness behind every step, the strength wielded with every punch and thrust. It is present in the secret techniques they teach their young, the harvest for essentials in the surrounding soil but one of them.

 

It is therefore only to be expected that Daughters of the Wèi Sect would walk barefoot, the touch of the ground underneath them more than illuminating.

 

Yet Wèi Lan never walked without her shoes.

 

It had become a habit of hers, one accrued over years of meditation inside the Wèi Sect's Main Branch, the willful blinding of oneself a remedy to wandering thoughts.

 

But the years passed on by and what had once been a mere aid to center her Qi, soon became a testimony to the lengths she went to to distance herself from her family.

 

To distance herself from her mother, a cultivator in the Emperor Realm.

 

Yet now she walked the path to her home bereft of footwear, clad in the newly washed robes of a Core Disciple to the Wèi Sect, all parting before her in her journey across the city.

 

She stood tall amongst Shenzhen's inhabitants, her tufts of gold spun hair and pale blue eyes, high cheekbones and rose coloured lips naming her a Wèi of the Wèi Sect.

 

A force to be reckoned with.

 

She was Wèi Lan, daughter to Wèi Chan, Matriarch of the Wèi Sect. She was a cultivator on the Seventh Step of the Nascent Realm in her own right.

 

She was—

 

A small shape crashed into her, almost sending her flying midstep, and if it hadn't been for her bare feet and her powerful legs, Wèi Lan would have toppled right there, the familiar scent of the boy touching her the only reason she didn't immediately retaliate.

 

"Where were you! Where were you!" Qián Ru cried into her, hugging her with all his strength as he nuzzled her neck, his tears wetting the thin fabric of her uniform. "She hurt Ai! She hurt my mother!" he croaked, latching onto her as if she had the power to set it all to right.

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It's in times like these that Wèi Lan realized what set humanity forth on the path of cultivation.

 

It was not the thirst for power, nor knowledge, that allowed humanity to seize the Dao of the Gods, although they both had a hand in it.

 

It was this, this visceral, subliminal need to provide and protect that drove humanity forward. This ambition that knew no bounds and saw no ceiling in its hunger for dominion.

 

She could not imagine a world where the cries of Qián Ru would go unanswered, and the boy is still just that, a boy.

 

It would be foolish to underestimate the hold he would have over women once he reaches maturity, the lengths every one of them would go to to claim him as their own, and that is without mentioning his peculiar condition as a male cultivator.

 

The intricacies of which she knew not.

 

"It's going to be alright." she soothed, hugging him to her chest as her hand played with his raven dark hair, a somber lullaby across her lips.

 

~~~~~

After Ru had calmed down somewhat, and Wèi Lan found she wasn't in any danger herself of spiralling out of control, Lan decided it was best she wait with her interrogation, hoping to do it at the Wèi Sect's Courtyard, where both the Inner and Outer Disciples sparred and trained.

 

It would allow her room to breathe and a target to lash at, which judging by Ru's expression, she would need plenty of.

 

The only problem she could see was exposing Ru to the Wèi Sect's Disciples, but even that could be avoided if she played her cards right. After all, Qián Ru was still wearing a dress. One of his mother's, if the larger cut was anything to go by.

 

Decision made, Wèi Lan rose from her perch at the floor and towed Ru with her, ignoring his jittery hiccups and sordid laments. Ones that quickly turned into thoughts of murder, much to her amusement.

 

"I'm gonna kill her! I swear. If she so much as looks at mother wrong again, I'm gonna find a hammer big enough and crush her with it! I should do it regardless. Would serve her right." he muttered, clearly not yet sober.

 

"And how exactly are you planning to do that? Kill Ling, that is."

 

"Aren't you listening? I have to find a big hammer first, and then hit her with it. Obviously you'd have to help—"

 

"Obviously."

 

"But I don't think it's impossible." he added, glaring at her for her interruption.

 

"And what, pray tell, would this hammer be made of? Elder Ling is a cultivator in the Earthly Realm. I doubt just any large hammer would do."

 

That got Ru thinking, the boy quieting down as he mulled her words over, his thinking face simply adorable to look at.

 

"I… Hmm… Suppose I could bribe Lù Xiu for the job? Since I'm guessing your mother won't want any part in this. Yeah, I could use Xiu as my big hammer!" he exclaimed excitedly, only to wince at his misslip. "Not that I'm saying Lù Xiu is a hammer. Or mine, for that matter."

 

Yep. That ought to do it.

 

Never in a million years would Wèi Lan have thought Qián Ru would come up with such an elegant solution to his problem, the ease in which he mentioned a bribe to the Lù Sect's Matriarch confirming the fact Xiu had a private conversation with him when she met him yesterday, in his house.

 

Mother would have to be apprised of this. That is, if she doesn't already know.

 

"Interesting. Anything else you feel like mentioning about Lù Xiu? Conversations in which she offered to make you immortal, perhaps? Or was it riches beyond your wildest imaginations?"

 

"No." Qián Ru whispered in a small voice, his tone hollowed. "She just offered me a place I could call home."

 

Wèi Lan found she had nothing more to say.

 

~~~~~

The Wèi Sect's Courtyard is one of the centers of activity inside the Wèi Sect's Main Branch, its halls and arenas teeming with the hustle and bustle of disciples training, the boisterous sounds of the most powerful women in the city clamoring in its intensity.

 

It is here that the Outer and Inner Disciples spend most of their time, their every waking moment focused on bettering their fighting technique and their Qi. From rudimentary exercises to advanced tactics, the Wèi Sect's Courtyard had been the setting of many a breakthrough, its vibrant and invigorating energy having a lot to do with the activities taking place within.

 

One only further exacerbated by the presence of boys from all over Shenzhen that sometimes wandered its gardens, content to both watch and be seen.

 

It is also here that Wèi Lan first learned the meaning of defeat, and here that she understood her place amongst the Core Disciples of the Wèi Sect.

 

She was, after all, the weakest amongst them.

 

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Sleepy Lan in the flesh. My, I'd swear I almost forgot how you looked since I last saw you. What has it been? A month? To what do we owe the pleasure of your presence, Sleepy Lan? Did your mother finally have enough of your absence? Because I highly doubt that was the case." A voice greeted her, its attachment none other than Léi Jing, one of Wèi Hu's countless cronies.

 

But wherever Léi Jing was, Wèi Hu was not far behind, and ostensibly enough, her cousin walked into the garden, surrounded by half a dozen of her disciples.

 

Ru fidgeted next to her.

 

"Wèi Lan! How nice of you to join us! I wasn't expecting you here at such an hour." Wèi Hu addressed her, her tone unusually pleasant.

 

A fact her cronies didn't quite pick up on, too used to heckling and jeering the Wèi cousin to notice the subtle change in Wèi Hu's demeanor.

 

"That's what I said, boss!" Léi Jing crowed behind her, chuckling at her own teasing.

 

Only for her to fall silent at the look the younger Wèi sent her, the heat of the summer morning faltering due to the iciness of the Wèi's daughter glare.

 

"Is that how we treat a daughter of the Wèi Sect, Léi Jing? With crude insults and even crueler mockery?"

 

"But… No, ma'am." Léi Jing replied, shamefaced.

 

"Good. I expect you to apologize to my cousin, this does not befit you—"

 

Wèi Lan, who had no idea what was going on, simply couldn't suffer another second of this farce.

 

"Enough! What is the meaning of this, Hu? Did my mother set you up for this?"

 

Wèi Hu did not even flinch at her interruption, turning to Wèi Lan with a thoughtful expression before she burst out laughing.

 

"You think your mother ordered me to play nice? That Wèi Chan actually cares about what happens to her sole daughter? You foolish little girl." she mocked, her eyes spelling pure derision. "No, it was my mother's order. My weak, stunted bitch of mother expects me to be on my best behaviour now that we have a visitor to entertain. She said it would not do for her to see us fighting. As if you can even draw the strength to fight me. How pathetic."

 

Wèi Lan, who had unconsciously moved a possessive hand towards Qián Ru at the mention of an important visitor, paused when what her cousin said fully registered.

 

"Wait, her?"

 

Wéi Hu was all too glad to notice the hand moving towards the poorly dressed girl, realizing she held some significance to her cousin, and could thus be used to antagonize her.

 

Her mother had been adamant she be on her best behavior, but that only meant Wèi Hu had to be smart about this. If Wèi Lan attacked her first, then it was only reasonable she fought back.

 

Yes, it had been a while since she fought a worthy opponent, she thought, her hands tingling at the mere notion of battle.

 

As much as Wèi Lan thought herself weak, and was undeniably weaker than her, there wasn't any doubt in Wèi Hu's mind the girl could punch far above her weight. Hell, sometimes Hu had a hard time defeating her, what with Lan's nefarious strategies, and she was on the Third Step of the Spirit Realm and a Young Mistress of the Wèi Sect to boot.

 

What should be a one-sided fight always ended in a contested victory, and Hu found she didn't mind it as much, content to fight her cousin over and over again until she learned all that she could from her. And then, when she had received all that she could from her cousin, she would kill her, her birth to Wèi Chan a sin she could never forgive.

 

But that would be many years from now, when Wèi Hu accepted her mantle as Matriarch of the Wèi Sect and changed her name to Wèi Chan, as was befitting.

 

Yes, the thought resonated with her. She would punish Wèi Lan for leaving her to die of pure boredom by attacking the girl who was the whole reason she left. For a whole month! Wèi Lan deprived her of a proper battle for a whole month! If her incredulity had been any more prominent, her eyebrows would have risen above her head.

 

Ignoring her cousin's question, Wèi Hu asked one of her own, wishing to learn more about the girl Wèi Lan had elevated above her.

 

"So, is this the girl you've been seeing in the city? The one you were so adamant to see, no matter my mother's restrictions?"

 

Wèi Hu's ire only grew at the protective hand her cousin laced around the girl, her eyes judging the wanton whore and finding her to be lacking.

 

"I admit, she does look quite tantalizing, what with her masculine features and golden eyes, but I would think a daughter of the Wèi Sect would be a little less rapacious in her desires. Especially one so weak." she spat, venomous in her fury.

 

She would not be bested by a girl on the Second Step of the Inner Realm, even if she was quite alluring, in her own homoerotic way.

 

For some strange reason, Wèi Lan's hand, formerly laced around her whorish concubine's middle, moved, her hand now covering the girl's mouth, as if pleading with her not to speak.

 

How pathetic. Her cousin couldn't even control the skank.

 

"Isn't she a bit young to be a two-bit whore? Or is she the only one you found cheap enough for your tastes?"

 

Wèi Lan merely ignored her, as if she wasn't even worthy of a proper response, the slight probably having the opposite effect to the one intended, seeing as how it made her laugh.

 

Only Wèi Lan would bring a whore to the Wèi Sect and stand as if Hu is the one too vulgar to merit a response.

 

"Who is the visitor?" Lan hissed, flustered to a degree Wèi Hu had no recollection of seeing, ever.

 

It was quite the contentious sight.

 

"Who do you think, Lan? Who do you think would be so important my own mother would give two shits about how I dealt with you because of her?"

 

Lan's dawning realization was quite the spectacle in Hu's own eyes, her eyes widening comically as she considered the only plausible scenario.

 

"Wèi Fen." she whispered, awestruck.

 

At the same time three things happened.

 

Wèi Lan uncovered her lover's mouth, too stunned to hold her mouth closed any longer.

 

Said woman raged at Hu with all the irritability of a mislabeled whore, cussing her with quite the sailor's mouth.

 

And Wèi Hu realized Wèi Lan had found a male cultivator and brought him home.

 

Dumbstruck would not even begin to describe the way Wèi Hu felt at that moment.

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