Chp 15. Awakened

AWAKENED

The moment that they had all felt the demon's energy explode from the seal in a giant rush of energy that vanished in an instant. Everyone in the room yelled "Huang Jin!" as her body flopped to the ground.

Wei Wuxian could feel the energy leave the room and felt the demon escaping through the forest. He turned and stared at Lan Xichen and rage filled his mind. "How could you do this? What did you do!!!"

Lan Xichen was bleeding from his mouth having been the one that helped to activate the seal and keep the demon trapped long enough to hurt it.

"Wei Wuxian wait! Before you kill me let me explain." he said backing up against the wall.

"Wei Wuxian stomped over to Lan Xichen and grabbed him by the collar, raising him off the ground. Wei Ying was much stronger now that he had half of a core again.

"Tell me what you did! Look at her, she is almost dead!" Wei Wuxian choked, the anger in his eyes turning to sorrow.

A hand landed on his arm and it was Lan Zhan's. Wei Wuxian turned his head to look at him, and he saw the look of pure sadness written on the features, that normally didn't betray a thing. Tears were beginning to trail down his face.

Wei Wuxian let go of Xichen immediately and turned around his heart dropping.

He couldn't see it anymore. He couldn't see the normally misty energy caressing Huang Jin's skin. He tried with all his spiritual energy to feel it but he couldn't. He could only sense a tiny flicker of golden light left where once it was a small fireball.

His heart broke at the sight before him.

As soon as the energy left the room Jiang Cheng's only thought was to get to her. He scrambled forward and scooped her up off the floor pulling her into his lap.

She felt so cold. His eyes were already beginning to tear up as he saw how pale her face was. She was barely breathing. What a stupid woman…he thought as he tried to gently shake her awake. "Huang Jin," he whispered softly as he held her. "Please, please wake up."

How could she have done this? They had all been so stupid. She hadn't been corrupted, she had been possessed. He glimpsed the red painted symbols in between the torn fabric on her chest and arms. It was the symbol for a spirit flag. She had used herself as bait to trap the demon. When they had been discussing it the day before she had suggested using spirit flags to track it.

You stupid, stupid woman…

The tears running down his face began to fall onto Huang Jin's face and he began to rock her back and forth. Jiang Cheng closed his eyes, and began to try and channel all of his spiritual energy into her. He tried to push it into her as fast as he could.

He choked as he felt the massive wall of resistance from her tiny spark of a core.

"Please...just live." Jiang Cheng spoke again, his voice a little louder than a whisper. He was becoming desperate as he could feel the flame in her core flickering.

Wei Wuxian saw his brother cradling the frail fragile looking woman in his arms, her clothes torn. His brother's shoulders were shaking and he could almost feel the sorrow like an intense aura in the room.

"It was her idea…" Xichen said from behind Wei Wuxian the sadness in his voice as well. Tears were streaming down his face. "She made me promise to not tell any of you. Or else it wouldn't have worked and it would have all been for naught."

"Jinse came to me last night and we had figured out what the demon was. The demon's name is Pipa Jing."

Xichen had recognized it as one of the three female specters.

"There are 3 of them. They are demons that prey on souls and in order to sustain themselves on this plane must consume one every 3 days."

Jiang Cheng had been only barely listening to the words behind him as he continued to try and force his spiritual energy into Huang Jin's body. He kept rocking her back and forth slowly cradling her to him.

"She and I formulated a plan that would only work if she could let the demon possess her and trap it inside a seal."

"That doesn't explain why you didn't tell any of us!" Jiang Cheng snapped. His eyes opening in fury.

"She was worried that one of you would try to sacrifice yourselves. You all know it. If any of you knew that she was planning to do this you would have absolutely sacrificed yourselves in her place. But, you all have seen it. She was the only one who could pull this off. She possesses the yin iron inside her. She knew it and she knew that she was losing control of it."

"So she decided to use it, before she lost control…" Wei Wuxian finished for him.

"The demon would have been attracted to the spirit flag and the massive amount of resentful energy she let go." Lan Zhan said shortly.

She had lost control on purpose. It had all been planned perfectly by her. To lure the demon to her and let it possess her. She knew she would be able to use the power of the yin iron inside her to increase her power to hold in long enough to be injured.

Huang Jin coughed at that moment spitting up the stale blood that had coagulated in her throat. The tiny amount of spiritual energy that Jiang Cheng was giving to her seemed to help just a bit.

Jiang Cheng felt the tiny fire in her chest spark as it slowly began to let miniscule amounts of spiritual energy transfer to her, but it was like threading a needle. If he tried to push too hard it would stop too little it would stop.

He closed his eyes again, focusing and continued to rock back and forth with her in his arms.

"Jiang Cheng." Wei Wuxian said as he walked over and placed a hand on his arm. "We need to get her to a doctor."

They had all gone down and found out that all the other disciples had ended up trying to track down the two other demons. The villager that had screamed in dismay had alerted all of the cultivators there, and they had raced off to try and track them down. They had no luck though in capturing them as they were far too fast for the younger disciples.

Lan Xichen suggested that they not travel by sword because Huang Jin's body would not have been able to handle it. Which was too frustratingly reasonable for Jiang Cheng. So they elected to carry her by stretcher the rest of the way. It was only a half a day's travel at most by boat.

Jiang Cheng had sent one of his disciples ahead to prepare for their arrival and get a renowned doctor to be there the moment they had arrived.

They traveled swiftly to Lotus Pier. As soon as Jiang Cheng stepped off the boats and onto the expansive docks of lotus pier he was already barking orders at those gathered around for their arrival.

Wei Wuxian was deeply concerned for his brother and Huang Jin. He had never seen Jiang Cheng so focused on someone.

Everyone could tell that Jiang Cheng was concerned for this woman. However, most would have just chalked it up to the fact that it was a woman. So of course he would be more concerned than if male cultivator had been injured.

Wei Wuxian could tell that this was very different. The way that Jiang Cheng had looked, cradling her unconscious form to him, and rocking back and forth in the moonlit room was etched into the back of his brain. He DEEPLY cared for this woman.

He had no idea why, as they had just met only a few days ago he had gathered. Wei Wuxian watched as his brother followed the group of disciples and doctors that had rushed to bring Huang Jin into lotus pier.

Everyone stood in a state of shock on the pier watching them go.

Wei Wuxian sighed deeply. "Well let's all not stand here gawking. We are all exhausted from the night, so let's all get some rest and recover. I will go find the head of house and get you all set up."

The day after they had brought Huang Jin back to Lotus Pier, Lan Xichen had spoken with Lan Zhan and told him that he would be taking the Lan diciples back to Gusu. He had said they needed to formulate a plan and look into the matter further using the ancient texts. They had seen a lot of useful information and Lan Xichen seemed anxious to get back quickly. They had left that morning.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian were sitting outside their families ancestral shrine. Lan Zhan had been sitting off to the side in a relaxed meditation.

Jiang Cheng's back rested against a pillar as Wei Wuxian languidly sat on the pier near him.

Jiang Cheng's face was gaunt, his eyes looked sunken in. He looked exhausted and there were several bottles of Hefeng liquor sitting by his side, already having been emptied. He was drunk, his eyes red rimmed.

"I just don't understand." He said, his voice sad as he drank another cup of the liquor staring out into space. "I don't understand why she wouldn't have told us anything."

"You know why." Wei Wuxian replied, drinking a gulp of liquor directly from the bottle in his hand.

"I don't care why!" Jiang Cheng barked back. "She should have known what the consequences were and she didn't care!"

Wei Wuxian looked at him with a caring smile. "Jiang Cheng. She did know the consequences, that's why she did it."

"She knew that if she had lost control that she would have become corrupted. Jiang Cheng, you weren't there when she lost it. It was like an explosion had gone off. It would have killed many if she hadn't have gone off like that and separated herself from the group."

"Lan Zhan and I almost died from it!" Wei Wuxian yelled back as he had seen his brother's sorrow and was frustrated himself.

Jiang Cheng's eyes were glued to the ground. His heart felt so heavy.

The doctors had been trying for days to figure out what was wrong, but Huang Jin was not recovering quickly. Her body had seemed like it had given up.All of them had tried to channel energy to her over the past day. The only tiny amount that she had been able to get was from himself. His heart thumped particularly loud at the thought, and he rubbed his chest absentmindedly.

But, he didn't have much to give her, as he had been injured as well. All of them had barely survived the encounter. It had been close…too close. Jiang Cheng thought sadly as he looked up at his brother, a sad expression on his face.

When she had thrown him through the barrier it had nearly killed him. The demon's barrier had been unbelievably strong, and had Wei Wuxian, Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen not been slowly breaking it down before he had gone through it he absolutely would have died. "I don't know what more I can do…" Jiang Cheng said, the liquor fogging his brain.

"I…I don't want to lose anymore people I care about Wei Ying." Jiang Cheng said, looking back down at the ground. He was never this emotional. He never showed what he was really feeling. He hated it. He hated having to be vulnerable but the feelings in his heart he couldn't deny.

He had spent hours watching over Huang Jin trying to figure out what more he could do, his mind hadn't had any rest as he tried to figure out why he even had cared so much for this woman.

A woman who had immediately from the moment in the forest path to Gusu had captured his eyes. Those piercing emerald hazel eyes that seemed to have tiny specks of golden light. The moment that she had snatched zidian out of the air, and held it with the amazing amount of strength and spiritual energy, his heart had been caught as well.

He had never felt this way before. There was only one other that he had something close as this….Wen Qing. A pang of sorrow tugged on his heart and he wiped his face; a single tear had started to fall down his cheek. He continued to stare at the ground, and took another huge gulp of wine from the bottle in his hand.

"Jiang Cheng…" Wei Wuxian said looking at him.

Jiang Cheng didn't even hear him, his thoughts somewhere else. The liquor worked its way into him even further. He didn't want to feel anything anymore though. He had immediately tried to revive her but he was working on fumes.

His spiritual energy had yet to even be able to get Zidian to react; he had been trying so hard to channel everything he had into Huang Jin's battered body to help her to recover.

Nothing seemed to work though. Her golden core was barely a tiny flame after countless hours of trying to revive her.

"Jiang Cheng." Wei Wuxian said looking sternly at him. Jiang Cheng finally realized that his brother had been trying to get his attention and he looked over at him. His drunken heavy lids barely open.

"She is going to be fine. She just needs time and rest. Don't you remember it took me days to recover after I got back from when we killed the Tortoise of Slaughter." Wei Wuxian said, trying to cheer him up.

Lan Zhan nodded.

"Wei Ying…" Jiang Cheng said sadly looking up at him. "I care if she dies. I don't want her to die." He finally admitted. It was what his heart had told him to say…Jiang Chengs choked out and put the bottle of liquor down that he was holding and leaned over putting his elbows on his knees and his hands covered his face as he tried to hide the tears that suddenly overwhelmed him.

"I know brother and we will all make sure she doesn't." Wei Wuxian said sadly and stared down at the bottle in his hand.

At that exact moment a dark figure landed on the pier in front of them. He was a tall, slender man that looked around the same age as Sizhui and Jin Ling. His face was pale and he had small intricate black vein-like lines peeking from the collar of his grey and black robes.

Jiang Chend had recognized him immediately. "WEN NING?" Jiang Cheng raised and unsheathed his sword.

Jiang Cheng's rage was clear across his face as he pointed his sword at him. Jiang Cheng would never forgive Wen Ning for being the one who killed Jin Zixuan, his sister's husband, and began the chain of events that led to his sister's death. He would never forgive him for also destroying Wei Wuxian's last chance to redeem himself and it had led to his brother's death as well.

Luckily, Wei Ying was brought back to life, but he would absolutely hate Wen Ning for the rest of his life. He secretly blamed him for being the cause of the death of the only person he had thought he loved, Wen Qing.

"How dare you come here! Who let you inside Lotus Pier?" Jiang yelled, and drunkenly stumbled toward him. Zidian around his wrist sparking but it seemed to sizzle in just a few moments. Jiang Cheng didn't have enough spiritual energy to control it.

"I am sorry Jiang Cheng. I was called here!" Wen Ning yelled his pale face concerned and tried to calm Jiang Cheng down as he backed up as Jiang Cheng aggressively approached him.

Wei Wuxian's sword blocked Jiang Cheng's attack at Wen Ning and he screamed into his brother's face, "Jiang Cheng, listen to what he just said!"

Jiang Cheng's face was still screwed up in a face of rage, his brain hadn't processed what Wen Ning had said, enraged due to his drunken state. Their two swords were locked in a battle of strength as Wei Wuxian continued to block Jiang Cheng's attack.

"Jiang Cheng, he said he was called here." Wei Wuxian yelled again right into Jiang Cheng's face and he head butted him.

Jiang Chewng's eyes swam and he stumbled backwards, a small gash on his forehead started to bleed down the side of his face, where Wei Wuxian's brutal headbutt hit him. A look of pure shock on his face and his sword resting by his side.

"Called here?" His brain seemed to finally put two and two together.

Wen Ning, having seen that Jiang Cheng had slightly calmed down, rushed forward a few steps with a look of worry on his face.

He rushed to explain "Yes, I was night hunting near Yiling yesterday and I felt a huge rush of resentful energy. It was like an explosion had gone off in my brain and I was called here. It felt exactly like when Wei Ying called to me when I was being held prisoner by Jin Guangshan. So I rushed to it. It brought me to the village and they told me what happened. I came as quickly as I could."

Wei Wuxian held his hand to his forehead as he tried to stop the blood from flowing down his face from the cut he had given himself, his head whirling, he managed to sputter out, "What?" before he sat down heavily still dazed.

Jiang Cheng stood there not moving. His brain trying to figure out what was going on. Why? Why would her energy have called to him? Her core…he recalled his brother telling him that she had accidentally tied her core and his…a crazy idea suddenly popped into his head.

"Wei Ying," he looked at his brother, his eyes wide as he began to formulate a plan.

If Wen Ning was linked to Wei Ying and he could control the resentful energy inside Wen Ning then maybe…Maybe Wei Ying could try to control the resentful energy in Huang Jin and wake her up like a fierce corpse would be called to the sound of the flute. Maybe it would wake her up…

Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng seemed to sit there as their heads raced with ideas. They both seemed to sober instantly as they looked at each other. A smirk crossed Wei Wuxians face as he stood straight up and nodded to each other, they all followed each other to the room Huang Jin was being cared for in.

Wei Wuxian followed Jiang Chen to his room and he knew exactly what had run across both their minds.

When he had brought back Wen Ning he had used the stygian tiger amulet which was made from a shard of yin iron. He had called the remaining part of Wen Ning's soul and used the power of the yin metal and resentful energy to revive him.

Jiang Cheng had had the same idea, to use Chenqing and the yin iron in her veins to call her spiritual energy back.

Wei Wuxian stood at the edge of the bed.

Huang Jin's fraile form lay on Jiang Chengs bed, her body wrapped in beautiful silk sheets. Her face was extremely pale and her eyes sunken in. Her normally full lips and cheeks, looked tight and stretched thin.

A deep sadness could be felt by all in the room. Jiang Cheng sat next to her and his face looked so incredibly sad.

Jiang Cheng's hand rested on one of hers. "Please Wei Ying. Please will you at least try."

Wei Yings heart almost broke at the sound of Jiang Chengs voice.

"Of course Jiang Cheng." Wei Wuxian didn't even hesitate to grab the flute at his waist. He moved to sit down at the small table in the room. Lan Zhan, and Wen Ning followed suit as they sat quietly and watched. A look of concern on everyone's face as they watched Wei Ying.

He breathed in deep and began to play. He focused all of his spiritual energy into each note and the flute instantly responded, swirling with the resentful energies misty fog. Within seconds the flute began to emit small puffs of black smoke that swirled around the room. As he continued the sad song, the angry wisps began to grow larger, and began to caress the small body laying in the bed.

"Huang Jin…" a whisper of a voice echoed through her mind, "Huang Jin…"

The black emptiness was all she could see. Her body floating in darkness. All she heard was a tiny whisper echoing around her. "Huang Jin." She could feel a pulling feeling on her mind.

You need to live. A tiny whisper pulled on her heart lighting it up in a golden light, it had been a tiny flame in the darkness but she felt it. "Just live." Jiang Cheng's voice echoed in the darkness.

She could hear a beautifully sad song coming through the darkness. It tugged on her soul. She could feel the tiny light in her chest trying to go towards it. But it was even harder than before. She couldn't feel her body anymore.

For a split second she thought she had felt the explosion of resentful energy from before, hitting her directly in the chest, and her eyes shot open as she felt her mind slid back into her body.

She breathed in a huge gasp of air and her hand clutched her chest.

It had felt like a lightning bolt had just hit her chest as the massive amount of energy she felt caressing her and pulling her to wake up jolted her consciousness back.

Everyone in the room seemed to jolt forward when they saw Huang Jin's eyes flash open.

Jiang Cheng was staring at Huang Jin so intensely. His heart couldn't believe it, his mind couldn't either.

Huang Jin looked at him, her eyes locking with his and she smiled gently, her hand rising to his face. "Well hello there." she said weakly, her hand touching his cheek.

She could tell he had been crying, but she was so happy he was there. Her body seemed to lose all of the energy it had, and she lost consciousness once again.

Jiang Cheng's hand grabbed hers as he saw her eyes close once again as she lost consciousness and he held it. It had worked!

He had felt her consciousness come back into her body the moment Wei Ying had called the resentful energy forth and had activated the yin iron in her veins. The moment that Wei Ying had finished that depressing song all of it seemed to suddenly bolt into her body.

"It worked." Wei Ying said beside him the surprise in his voice evident.

Jiang Cheng's anger tried to rise but his heart was so happy he didn't even say anything to his brother.

"Wei Ying. Let's leave them be." Lan Zhan said and he grabbed Wei Wuxian by the wrist. Wen Ning nervously followed not really knowing what to do.

Jiang Cheng ignored them all. His eyes locked on the now peacefully sleeping Huang Jin.

He was so glad that she was ok now. He had been so unbelievably worried. He had used every last ounce of strength and will he had as he rushed to get her here. He hadn't slept. Hadn't eaten. Every little bit of extra spiritual energy he had he tried to channel into her. He just wanted her to live.

A tear started to fall down his cheek as he knelt down next to the bed and laid his head down on his crossed arms on the bed. His heart felt so light though knowing that she was laying next to him, and that all his efforts had worked.

His eyes felt so heavy. He fell asleep with a soft smile on his face knowing the person he cared for was sleeping quietly beside him and that she would wake again soon, to tease him probably.