Lan Xichen's PoV

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The next morning half of our group prepared to leave. I approached A-Yao and wished him a good trip. He walked towards Jin Ling. My heart was pounding. I still didn't have the courage to talk to him. I had to do something about it. I called him back.

"A-Yao" he turned around with a surprised look.

"When I get back to Jinlintai, we should talk...

"What do you want to talk about Brother? About the upcoming battle?" I smiled slightly.

"I think you know what I mean... A-Yao" I saw him turn pale and lower his eyes.

"I'll wait for you to come back and... we'll talk" was his answer.

He joined Jin Ling and they left. I followed them with my eyes as long as I could. Wangji and Wuxian surrounded me.

"Brother, don't worry, you will see him again soon!

"There are so many words I would have liked to say, so many gestures I would have liked to make, but I don't dare!

"Feelings are a complicated thing, Xichen-Xiong," Wuxian told me.

"Look at Lan Zhan and me, it took us 17 years to admit what we felt for each other! In love, there must always be one who jumps in!

I looked at both of them. Would I have the courage to tell them? I hesitated, and finally decided to trust them.

"Wangji, Wuxian, I think .... some nights he breaks into my room to caress me and steal kisses!

Wangji's countenance barely changed, just a slight furtive lifting of the corner of his lips. Wuxian was more expressive and burst out laughing!

"Xichen-Xiong, this is interesting and explains the questions you asked me... provided of course that you share Meng Yao's feelings!"

"If he does have feelings for me, then I share them..."

"Brother, the best thing you can do is to talk to him frankly and tell him. You must have an explanation!"

"That's what I told him and implied that I knew about his nightly visits!"

"Well in that case, Brother, in seven days at the latest you'll have an answer..."

But that time was cut short! After this discussion, Wuxian had gone back to the cave. He worked relentlessly on strengthening and controlling his amulet. After three days of hard work, with almost no sleep and no food, he came out exhausted and with reddened eyes. The same evening he announced that we could return to Jinlintai the next day.

Deep inside, I wondered if he had not done everything possible to allow me to meet Meng Yao earlier than expected! When I asked Wangji about it, he told me that it was just like his soul mate to play matchmaker and meddle in other people's hearts!

At the dawn of the fourth day, we took the road to Jinlintai. I made the return journey behind Wangji. I hardly dared to hold on to him for fear of hurting him more than he was already hurt. He told me not to worry and that he was better now. The cold spring and his son's healing music had helped him greatly.

We arrived near Su Yong's farm shortly before nightfall. We finished the road by walking to his house. He offered us hospitality which we accepted. The next morning we took our horses for the last stage of our journey. The end of our adventure was approaching. It would take us about two more days on horseback to Jinlintai, maybe a little less!

I hoped that everything would go well for Meng Yao and the others!

We left with the sun. We rode along the ridges that snaked above the Yangtze River. At the bottom of the steep slopes, the tumultuous muddy gray water washed away everything in its path, a bit like my feelings. We joined the road to Tsinan by taking a suspension bridge over the gorge of the "Tiger Leap". It is at this moment that our journey became a little more eventful!

We came across a group of soldiers of the Wen Clan accompanied by 2 monsters! This was the first time I saw Wen Ning unleash his ferocious corpse power. It must be said that he was formidable! I didn't have to draw my sword against these "things"! They were destroyed by Wen Ning and Wuxian while Wangji eliminated the soldiers with what he called "the murderous rope". I had heard of this ancient technique, but it had long been forgotten by my clan! I was rediscovering its power.

When all our opponents were eliminated, we resumed our journey... which was much calmer. The next evening, we arrived at Jinlintai just before nightfall.

As soon as we crossed the doors of the city, we were led near the master of the places. We were guided along the many stairs leading to the palace of the chief of the Jin clan. At the top, we crossed the reception courtyard decorated with porticoes and took the direction of the southern wing, where were the private apartments of Jin GuangShan. It was no surprise that we found ourselves in front of the door of the "Perfume Room".

We were let in. Inside, my two "brothers" were waiting for us, along with Meng Yao and the companions of Wangji and Wuxian. Jin ZiXuan was also there. He was standing next to Jin Ling and talking with him under the inquisitive eyes of Jiang Cheng,... Meng Yao's benevolent and Jin GuangShan's greedy eyes. MingJue immediately came to meet us and greeted us.

"Brother, it's good to see you again. I was beginning to think that time was very long..."

I greeted him back.

"We're back...we had to go more slowly because of Wangji's health. But he is much better now, so we hurried back.

"And we are delighted to see you all," said Jin Guangshan.

I greeted him quickly and turned to Meng Yao.

"Were you able to see for a battle plan?" Before he could answer me, Jin GuangShan interjected;

"I made the decision of a lightning attack at nightfall and the sooner the better so that Wen Ruohan would not have time to turn around!"

I looked at him and then at Meng Yao, who rolled her eyes. It was clear that the plan and the details of it had been worked out by MingJue's right-hand man. But the head of the Jin Clan was taking it over! I listened with one ear to what he was saying. I wanted to talk to A-Yao, but here in this room with all these people, it was impossible!

I heard the voice of my "Brother" Jin going up a notch... I had not followed the conversation but it was clear from the twitching of the corner of Wangji's eye that he was starting to annoy him and now that I was starting to know him well, I told myself that it was going to end badly!

Suddenly, Jin GuangShan was silent. He put his hands around his throat. It seemed that he could not speak anymore! Wei Wuxian leaned towards MingJue and me.

"Get out of the silence! The specialty of the Lan Clan and especially Lan Zhan!" .

He then turned to my "Brother" Jin.

"Don't worry, it's only a temporary thing, if you knew how many times Lan Wangji used it on me!

"But you know in my opinion you did something he didn't like!"

"He talks too much!" confirmed Wangji.

Jin GuangShan glared at him. Jin Zixuan saw his father reduced to helplessness and intervened.

"Lan Gongzi, my father meant...

"Your father is talking nonsense.

"I don't agree with you, he just wanted to know what you did with the Iron Yin!

"Iron Yin is our business!"

"It is also ours, we are not in your world!" replied Jin ZiXuan. Behind his son, Jin GuangShan was gloating.

"None of you are capable of handling it.

"Why don't you let us judge for ourselves?"

"Too late!"

"What do you mean too late!" intervened MingJue.

"The 5th piece of Iron Yin no longer exists!

With that, a stunned silence fell over everyone in the room.

Wuxian cleared his throat and rubbed his nose back and forth a few times.

"Heyyy, I'll explain what we did. Lan Wangji is right, in the form it was the Iron Yin was too dangerous so I transformed it like I did in our world, ... but with some small improvements."

"What do you mean?" continued MingJue.

"I recreated the Tiger Amulet. But because of what happened at home, I decided to lock down its power and make it usable only by Lan Zhan and me. It's that simple!"

I wondered how MingJue would take it? As for Jin GuangShan, it was understood... he could not say anything and I must admit that I was pleased that he was silenced. Wangji was right, he talked too much and for nothing. Basically, he was doing it to make himself look good by using other people's facts to his advantage. We had proof of this with Meng Yao's plan just now!

"What do you plan to do with it?" asked MingJue.

"Use it to neutralize the other four pieces of Iron Yin and Wen Ruohan," Wei Wuxian replied.

"You think you can do it with just one piece and him 4?"

"The amulet is not everything! Its power depends on the person who uses it. Don't worry about that. I am... much more powerful than you can imagine! ... How about Meng Yao presents us with his battle plan and then afterwards we can go rest because the road has exhausted us I must admit."

Jin GuangShan was silenced, Meng Yao presented in detail what he had planned. Wei Wuxian made some remarks to improve the course of operations. After that, Meng Yao left to make the changes and to inform the companies of soldiers concerned.

The night was well underway when we all returned to our assigned rooms.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)