MDZS, But if Lan Qiren Were Chill

Chapter 11: Lan Qiren and Wen Ruohan Fight Some Corpses and Get Yelled at

Wen Ning pointed them in the direction of the Burial Mounds where the Wen heirs had cornered his entire village. Even from the distance they were, Lan Qiren could hear beasts going on a rampage. He glanced at Wen Ruohan, his expression dark and angry.

He had never seen so much fury radiating from the Wen sect leader before. They were never close as children, but he had seen Wen Ruohan growing up through the years, and the man always had some coy or aloof expression, cold, irreverent, as if nothing could move him.

They descended nearby, on a higher hill to look down and observe what was going on. It appeared that an entire group of ghosts had mobbed around Wen Ning's village, the only thing keeping them from being attacked was a talisman barrier of sorts, looking to be designed by Wen Qing.

She looked worse for the wear, several cuts and slashes across her arms and torso, scratches on her face. Lan Qiren could tell that she had been keeping the barrier up for too long, the aura glowing from the talismans fading with her stamina.

"Jiejie--" Wen Ning tried to move forward, but his uncle pulled him back.

"You're in no shape to help A-Qing," Wen Ruohan stated sternly. "Wait here and tend to your injuries, A-Ning. Qiren," he looked at the head of Lan, "could you soothe the ghosts?"

"Of course," Lan Qiren huffed, and with a sweep of his sleeves, his guqin appeared.

With a flick of his fingers, Lan Qiren filled the air with the calming melody of Rest, the groaning and moaning of the ghosts quickly quieting. Wen Ruohan pressed a brief, thankful kiss against the crown of his head as he flew down to where the villagers were, easily incapacitating a good chunk of the ghosts.

The soft and soothing notes of Rest also helped circulate Wen Ning's qi, so the boy was slowly healing beside him. Lan Qiren continued to play, watching from afar as Wen Ruohan helped clear a line of ghosts, checking to see if the villagers were all right. The head of Lan looked to his side to see that Wen Ning had fallen asleep, whether out of exhaustion or from Rest, he couldn't quite tell.

Lan Qiren could see Wen Qing's shoulders relax ever so slightly at the sight of her uncle, but she suddenly asked something, looking worried. Wen Ruohan nodded, and his niece suddenly shouted something, her wide eyes darting back and forth in alarm.

Suddenly, the earth began to rumble and Lan Qiren turned to see a horde of what looked to be fierce corpses rampaging down the hills, towards the village all huddled at the base of the mountains. His eyes met Wen Ruohan's in alarm, and Lan Qiren changed his song to that of Sound of Vanquish.

A more powerful musical technique of Gusu, the Sound of Vanquish was one of the hardest ones to master properly. Xichen had mastered it at sixteen, Wangji had mastered it at fourteen, and Lan Qiren had mastered it at twelve.

His fingers splayed against the seven strings of his guqin, a wave of his qi blazing over the heads of all the fierce corpses. Some fell immediately, others slowed, but they were all at least affected. Several stumbled, several stalled, and several straight-up froze in their spots. Wen Ruohan immediately rushed out to cut them down in his graceful manner of fighting, a dance of severed limbs and spurting blood.

Lan Qiren kept playing, changing his notes to blades of qi that cut down any fierce corpses that approached Wen Ruohan's blind spots. It had been a long time since he'd had to do battle, but Lan Qiren was glad to see that he hadn't grown rusty in his lack of practice.

He had gotten so distracted from fighting off what looked to be hordes and hordes of fierce corpses that kept coming out of the thick forests, that he hadn't noticed anyone sneaking up behind him.