The meaning of protecting you with my life

Burial Mounds

Time passed strangely for Wei Wuxian ever since he had jumped off the Wen sect soldiers' swords and landed in this god forgotten place. Immediately after landing, he tried to run away and hide somewhere only to find out that no was following him. He was only confused for less than a minute, a minute it took resentful energy to attack him. He only then understood that he had jumped right into the Burial Mounds, the most dangerous place there was and also the most feared one throughout the cultivation world.

If he could have taken his decision back at that time, he would have begged the Wens to rescue him from this hell. Unfortunately, it was not possible anymore, no one who entered the Burial Mounds had ever come out, it was common knowledge. He was about to become just one of its victims.

He would however not go down without a fight, he had a promise to keep. He had to get back to his siblings and protect them. He had to tell them that their parents were apparently still alive and then go save them. It was all nice and good to have a plan for the long-term future but he first would have to get out of this hell hole, preferably as sane and unscathed as possible.

He laughed madly at the realization that once again, Madame Yu would have punished him for thinking he could obey the Yunmeng Jiang sect motto better than his brother. If getting out of the Burial Mounds was considered impossible, that was still what he had to do, there was no doubt in his mind. Both Madame Yu and Uncle Jiang were counting on him to protect their children and he had already failed them when he had been captured. He could only hope that they would remain safe until he got out of here. It would not please Madame Yu if he died here instead of protecting her children.

And so he resisted the resentful energy invading his body and burning like ice in his now empty meridians. He did not know how long everything lasted, he was just fighting for survival, becoming feral himself and doing some things he better forgot the second he finished. It was all about his primary instincts at that point.

Over time, he somehow managed to get used to the place and it was not only about survival anymore. He had found out how to more or less defend himself from the resentment and how to minimize the impacts it had on his body and mind; he had never come to fully restrain it but he was slowly getting there even though the voices in his head were still screaming loudly.

Some time later still, he had started observing the resentful energy and experimenting with it, much like he had done with the spiritual energy when he still could. He had found out that with great effort on his part, the resentment could actually be bend to his will and used just as spiritual energy. Resentful energy was energy, spiritual energy was energy as well, they could be used for both good and bad depending on the person wielding them.

He remembered with a small pang of nostalgia that it had once been his innocent young self to say just this to Lan Qiren. Oh how mad had the teacher been at him at that time. But it was all worth it because he had received one of the few expressions from Lan Zhan. Yes, it was exactly the time when he had learned how the Second Jade's surprised face looked like. What he would have given at this moment for a simple glance from Lan Zhan?

He was lonely and everything hurt. Time passed strangely here in the Burial Mounds and he could not tell how long he was already here. Each time he remembered his siblings who he had abandoned to their devices in that small town, his chest hurt as if he had been stabbed with a dagger right through his heart. He had to go back, he had to protect them.

It was only these thoughts which were holding him together. He felt like if he stopped concentrating for only a second, the resentful energy would overcome him and he would not be able to ever get out of here.

So he relentlessly continued to practice cultivating the resentment and making it obey him. Once he understood that he could use a medium, just as the Gusu Lan sect was using for their musical cultivation, he would be able to wield it safer and easier. He remembered Lan Zhan's guqin and his careful fingers on it, its enchanting and gentle melodies; no, he would not be able to get one here. What else could he use?

One time during his search for food, he came upon a patch of dried, jet black bamboo. Immediately, he had just the perfect idea. He could craft a flute for himself. This simple instrument would surely be easy to make and he would hopefully be able to learn how to play it by himself. He had often saw people play in the markets so he knew how a flute should sound and how one held it. He needed several tries to get the construction right. It took him however a lot longer than he would have liked to be able to learn how one had to blow air into it and how he should move his fingers to play melodies. The next step was to understand what exactly he should play so he would be able to channel resentful energy without much effort.

Without any delay, he quickly made his way to the barrier and this time, when he tried to get through it while playing on the flute and making the resentment obey him, he was able to do it. There was no pain and no backslash, he was simply free.

The sun was hurting his eyes and the air outside of the Burial Mounds was now suffocating him with how fresh and free of resentful energy it was, but he would have never given up this feeling for anything in the world. No, that was no quite true. If he knew it would make his siblings safe, he would have returned back to the Burial Mounds without a second thought.

However, this was not the case. He still did not know how long he had been trapped in the Burial Mounds, or in Lotus Pier for that matter, and he also had to find out where his siblings were and how he would be able to protect them again. He had a lot of work ahead of him, he could not let himself be deterred by the fact that every time he used the resentful energy, his body was screaming for him to stop and if left him completely drained. Neither could he be bothered by his insecurities if his sibling would still want to even stay around him.

And Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan would probably outright hate him now if he had not been hating him enough before. He had become a demonic cultivator, someone the Gusu Lan sect would never approve of, they would probably only want to punish him. No matter, he should not be thinking about Lan Zhan anyway, it was his siblings who needed him at this moment.

He was actually strangely happy he had fallen into the Burial Mounds. He was now feeling stronger than ever, surely strong enough to protect the Jiang family, with his life if it came to it. And he knew, it the farthest corner of his mind that it would come to it eventually, his body would not be able to take the strain from the resentful energy for unlimited time. But it would be fine, he knew he could last until the whole Jiang family would be reunited again, he had to.