WC: 1472

"Have you been waiting here all this time?" Wen Ning asked the corpses.

If he'd been alive, his eyes would surely be red and welling with tears. He held onto Lan Tian a little tighter as he spoke, feeling their heart beat.

No one really knew what to. Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning had so much to say but they just couldn't.

Lan Tian stepped away from Wen Ning to face the corpses and give Wei Wuxian a small smile.

The two both bowed and croaked out, "... Thank you." Lan Wangji soon followed, along with some of the corpses who couldn't decide on what to do.

And then, as if their spirit and life had blown away with the wind, they collapsed in a heap.

Wen Ning threw himself to the ground trying to gather all the bright red ashes that had fallen. The juniors tried to offer their perfume sachets and assistance to Wen Ning but were ultimately reminded that they cannot touch the ashes due to possible corpse poisoning, again.

"Wei-qianbei, Hanguang-jun, Ghost General, Lan-shidi, thank you so much for..." Lan Sizhui started.

"Thank you for what?" a cold voice came suddenly from the crowd.

Everyone turned their heads to face Fang Mengchen, who seemed to have many of his own opinions.

"What the heck is this?" He harshly demanded. "Atonement? You cannot actually be feeling grateful to him!"

Lan Tian popped their tongue and scoffed lightly in the deafening silence of the Demon-Quelling Cave. His father gave him side glance but he just raised his shoulders as if to say, "Well I didn't say anything did I?"

When no one answered him, Feng Mengchen fumed even more and then lunged with his sword. "Did you think making a show of repentance with a few good deeds could repay the blood debt you owe?!"

Wei Wuxian dogged his attack but Lan Tian refused to move staring the man straight in his face with a devilish smile. As his sword reached the end of his lunge Lan Tian stood, head slightly a skew with a shallow red line across the side of their cheek.

In an attempt to mediate, someone from the crowd yelled out, "Fend-xiong! Don't get so riled up. Just forget it..."

As soon as those words left the man's mouth, Feng Mengchen began seeing red, "Forget it?" he scoffed, "What do you mean 'forget it'? Do you think my dead family can forgotten just because you said so?!" He continued, his voice booming, "Wei Wuxian killed my parents- that's the truth. So how is he suddenly the hero? Can anything be forgotten with just a few good deeds? What about my family? What do they count for? And if you think that spoiled brat is any better, they act just like him! Did you not see the murderous intent in their eyes as they fought today?!"

Lan Tian tilted their head and raised an eyebrow towards Lan Wangji. A silent conversation was quickly held between the two in a matter of seconds.

'Now can I do it?' Lan Tian asked with a hand drawing near their sword.

Lan Wangji's head moved slightly as his eyes quickly grew then shrank, 'Don't even think about it. We're in enough trouble as it is. Besides, you could have absolutely dodged that attack.'

'But..." Lan Tian pouted slightly before perking up, "If he hits me again then can I do it?"

'No. Remember the rules...' Lan Wangji started.

Lan Tian sighed, 'But they're no fun, and there's too many. It's not like I'll be let back in there anyways after all this.'

'No means no. Do you want me to take away your ability to see Jin Ling? I could just tell Jiang Cheng you're dating and then he'd be locked up and barred from ever seeing you again." Lan Wangji motioned to Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling who were close by.

'You're so mean." Lan Tian tuned back to the rest of the group as Wei Wuxian spoke up.

"What exactly do you want then?"

Fang Mengchen blinked and Wei Wuxian continued.

"What do you want? You want nothing but to see me meet a miserable end so you can satisfy your hatred. That's all."

He pointed at Yi Weichun, who remained unconscious on the crowd, and continued, "He lost a leg, I was torn to shreds; you lost your parents, but I never saw a single grain of my parents' ashes. Do you still hate the Wen survivors? The evil Wen Survivors you all spoke about already died once thirteen years ago. And just now, right here - for my sake, for the sake of saving you-they died again. What more do you want?"

Feng Mengchen glared hard at him. After a while he gritted his teeth. "It's no use. Let me tell you, Wei Wuxian - no matter what you do, don't expect me to forgive you. Or forget the murder of my parents." He raised his voice to shout, declaring, "I never will."

"Who's asking you to forgive him?" Lan Tian spoke up unable to be quiet anymore, "No one is asking you to forgive or forget what happened to your family. Do you think he doesn't think about it either. You're just trying to push your grief onto someone else. Just because that happened doesn't mean you have to fight tooth and nail to denounce and kill Wei-jun when he just saved you ass."

The sudden shift to a soft slower tone by Lan Tian caught everyone off guard. Fen Mengchen felt himself grow discouraged as a mix of emotions swirled inside him. Wei Wuxian and the others did save him but he couldn't find a way to let go of his grudge. In the end he stormed out of the Cave with a short shout.

Once the situation had calmed down, someone spoke up. "There won't be any more waves of corpses coming, right? Are we safe for real this time?"

The crowd shot daggers at the man again. He was clearly just asking for trouble.

Nei Huaisang looked around. Seeing no one answer him, he added, "Then does that mean... we can go now?"

Everyone was antsy to leave but it was still unknown if everyone's spiritual powers were restored.

After everyone tested their powers by grabbing talisman's, the cave became brightly lit with a corresponding analysis of their recover.

"Mine is about twenty percent recovered."

"Ten for me..."

"It's coming back so slowly!"

With their second siege expected to be a victory but ended in this manner, Lan Tian could not ignore the irony of the situation, "So if this what they call karma?" he mumbled to Jin Ling.

Jin Ling held in a small chuckle before the two were off again in their own world. The two quickly made their way outside of the cave and prying eyes.

"I think this is one of the best views I've seen in a while, and on such a nice day too, it really is beautiful." Lan Tian said sinking along the cave wall to the ground. Jin Ling watched them as the slid down before joining, "It really is." he said with a smile.

"You're so cheesy. Actually look at the view at least." Lan Tian said as they leaned against Jin Ling.

"Okay, okay. You caught me." He said wrapping his arm around his partner.

Lan Tian rubbed the hand draped behind their body. "When we get out of here I'm gonna buy you the best gift ever. You will begging me to marry you after you see it." they said smiling mischievously.

"Well that's no fair," Jin Ling said pouting, "You already have be begging to marry you."

"That's right, you'll never get a gift as good as the one I'm gonna give you... wait." They turned their head to look at Jin Ling, "What did you say?"

Jin Ling smiled with an eyebrow raised, "I'm gonna marry you regardless. What did you expect? You're the one that made me fall so madly in love. One day you and me will get married, and adopt some children, enjoy every day together as we fall even more for each other, and when we grow old we'll spend every moment together before dying in each others arms."

Lan Tian buried their face in their hands, "You... don't say such things so casually. It's no fair."

"You're the one who started it." He chuckled pulling them closer.

Lan Tian pulled Jin Ling's free hand close before placing a small kiss on his knuckles with a smile.

The two sat in each other's presence while rolling their eyes at the arguing inside. "Why does everyone have to make everything so difficult?" Lan Tian asked with a huff as Jin Ling helped him up.

"I don't know, but it only makes our peaceful time alone even more special." With a light kiss on Lan Tian's forehead, Jin Ling was off to join the front of the group of cultivators going to Lotus Pier as Lan Tiana headed to the back with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.