The Child of Demonic Cultivation

The Obstinate

*photo of Lan Wangji*
WC:746

Lan Tian had only just opened his eyes when some shook them. A voice he's very familiar with booms in their ear, "Lan Tian! Lan Tian! Wake up, my child please."

He had to blink a few times before slowly sitting up noticing the small red pool where their head used to be. "Dad? Where are we?"

A tall man with long black hair and flowing white robes helps Lan Tian up stabilizing him as they walk towards a small logging building. "You just suddenly passed out and hit your head. Are you okay? I brought us here so you could rest." Lan Tian brushes Lan Wangji off before he can worry even more.

"Dad, I'm fine." They look towards the sky gaging the time before their due to meet up with the other Lan clan disciples. "It's just..."

"What? What's wrong?" Lan Wangji begins to pick up and look at Lan Tian's limbs trying to find the source of their pain.

Lan Tian jumps a foot away trying to get their dads full attention. "I'm not hurt. It's just... they're back. The visions, and I think that's why I passed out."

He stops in his tracks face slowly going through the emotions, terror, fear, worry, and for a moment a glimpse of hope. "Is... is it the same one as the first one before?"

Lan Tian nods slowly before turning towards the way they  need for their mission.

"Lan Tian." This is one for five times that they had ever heard this dad raise his voice like this. "Stop. We need to talk about this. You can't just walk away."

Lan Tian turns slowly towards his dad, through blurry vision their shoulder slump, "What's the point. We found out last time that it wasn't him so this times not going to be any different. Don't try to get my hopes up again, I'm 16, please don't lie to me. It will only hurt us both."

Lan Tian watches as Lan Wangji's face looses all emotion and colour. After all how are you supposed to react when you 16 year old child tells you to give up hope and that his original father isn't coming back.

As the sky lights up beside them both Lan Tian and Lan Wangji begin making their way towards the Lan clan symbol in the sky. If they set it off that means that what ever happened was quite bad.

When they arrive to the scene Lan Tian instinctively plays two notes on their flute, being the rebellious teen he is, to calm the seemingly out of control ghost hand. The two notes were played with intent and calmness. Then they were followed by two ethereal and clear strums of a guqin.

The whole scene seemed to be stricken into stillness with only faint movement of the Lan Clan of Gusu youths beaming at the two white figures atop the building.

Lan Sizhui calls out "Hanguang-jun! Lan Tian!" In the same instance Lan Tian could barely make out the image of a figure turning to leave the area.

They can't help but stare trying to figure out why they seem so familiar. "Lan Tian."

Trusted out of his thoughts Lan Tian is pulled back to the present. "Sorry one second, I'll be right back." Lan Tian begins to run in the direction the stranger went trying to reach them. When they went out of sight Lan Tian decided to check out a building only a small distance away, all that was inside was nothing. There had been evidence that something happened there but nothing in particular and no one was there.

Lan Wangji, Lan Tian and the other Lan Clan youths came up with a scanning plan to look for the ghost hand. "You search in a cone shape for 100 steps then come back to meet and report in the middle."

Lan Tian's thoughts couldn't help but wonder back to the mysterious person that the youths were saying was Mo Xuanyu. He had met Mo Xuanyu a few times before but there was something different about the aura surrounding him that just didn't sit well with Lan Tian.

When the group reconvened no one had found anything but they did have an idea of where that hand may have gone. "Worst comes worst the hands not there and we have to search somewhere else. It's just... I have a feeling it's somewhere in that forest."