I know what you are going to say about the picture above, but please just pretend it is Wei Ying

Wei Ying managed to ignore three different people who knocked on his door .....

Until one person knocked and after not receiving so much as a grunt, the person on the outside raised his icy voice.

'If you do not open this door right now, I will break it down!'

To this, Wei Ying finally stood up and walked to the door and opened it. 'Do not destroy property.' He quoted one of their own rules at him while looking at the floor between their feet.

'... Tell me what is wrong?'

'Nothing.'

'Tell me why you are not in class?'

'Just didn't feel like going to class today ... no one can blame me can they ... sitting there listening to nothing new every day is rather boring ...' he wanted to bite his tongue to stop talking but he just wanted him to leave. 'How can anyone bare sitting through all of that?' stop it, don't say any more. 'I am fed up with being in class.'

'Wei WuXian!' Master Lan all but yelled at him from beside Lan Zhan.

'Uncle ... brother asked me to see if Wei WuXian was ill enough for a healer to call on him.'

'HanGuang-Jun, I already said I just didn't want to listen to anyone rabbit on about the things I already know.' He suddenly found his wrist grabbed in the vice grip of Master Lan and dragged to the punishment area. He could have easily broken that grip but didn't bother.

'Uncle, he is just unwell.'

'Do not lie for him WangJi. He is just a lazy, good-for-nothing and he will be punished for his disrespect to me and every other sect member who would kill to be in his place.' He called over the two boys who were to use the boards on Wei Ying's back. 'Give him ten each of you.'

'Uncle! ... That is unheard of.' Lan Zhan stepped forwards and stood at the back of the kneeling Wei Ying. How can this be? How can anyone be punished like this for not being well?

'Do you wish a different punishment WangJi?' he caught the eyes of his nephew and let him see there was only one other punishment that would be used.

'Uncle.' He stepped back a little but still didn't step aside for the punishment to begin. 'Are you really ...'

'HanGuang-Jun .... Just stand aside and allow Master Lan to vent his anger out on me. I really do not care what he does.' Wei Ying stayed on his knees on the hard wooden boards and after he heard Lan Zhan move slowly out of the way, the two boys hit him with all their strength but he refused to show any pain, refused to move his body with the flow of the boards, refused to make a single sound.

'One.'

'Two.'

'Three.'

'Four.'

Each boy counted off their hits each as Lan Zhan stood there shaking in fury at his uncles actions but still didn't have it in him to stand between Wei Ying and those punishing blows. Even now, red marks bloomed on the back of Wei Ying's white student robes.

'Five.'

'Six.'

'Seven.'

Lan Zhan watched as now the blood flew from the boards to land on the ground at his feet. Wei Ying's blood ... but if he did anything to stop this punishment ... it would only be worse for Wei Ying. He felt the tears fall down his cheeks and didn't bother to wipe them away.

He refused to leave.

Refused to turn away.

Refused to do anything other than watch the horrific act preformed by his uncle.

He will remember this for the rest of his life.

'Eight.'

'Nine.'

'Ten.'

'Eleven.'

'Twelve.'

'Thirteen.'

'Fourteen.'

Lan Zhan watched as Wei Ying refused to utter a single sound or move with the board so the pain would be lessened. The blood between him and Wei Ying showed so many tiny images of what was happening, the reflections of Wei Ying's punishment. Lan Zhan felt his whole body tremble and the tears become a flood. If I stop this, for any reason, Wei Ying will be .... It will be so much worse ... damn them both ........ I will never forgive them for this act .....

Master Lan looked from the man being punished to his nephew and almost shivered. The look of utter anguish mixed with utter fury that filled his eyes was something he had never seen before. But he refused to allow the punishment to be stopped. This was the right thing to do. If someone is as deceitful as this young man was, this was the only punishment that could correct his behaviour. He remembered just this morning, before he went after Wei WuXian for not being in class, his informant told him that he had seen Wei Ying heading away from the rooms with a large smile and a bottle of Emperor's Smile. 'WangJi, do not allow this worthless person to deceive you even more than he has already done. He was seen this morning heading off with liquor, instead of going to class.'

'....' Lan Zhan didn't believe a single word of that. Other than the first night, he had never seen Wei Ying even holding a jar of that stuff, let alone smelt it on him. Who ever was talking to his uncle was lying and he knew the truth. If it is the last thing he does, he will find the liar and make him tell the truth even if that meant breaking his legs.

'Fifteen.'

'Sixteen.'

'Seventeen.'

'Eighteen.'

'Nineteen.'

'Twenty.'

'Now, go to you room and stay there until morning, but you better be in class tomorrow.' Master Lan growled as the two boys went to help Wei Ying to his feet but before they got to him, Wei Ying held up his hands to stop anyone touching him.

When he stood up he looked Master Lan in the eyes, gave him a soundless deep bow then turned and walked away without making a single sound. He walked through the blood and left bloody foot prints as he went. He heard the soft footfalls as three people followed him, but he didn't turn around, didn't speak, and refused to stop for the pain that seared his back.

He just walked to his room.

Shut the door behind him.

Sat at his desk and continued his work.

Lan QiRen had all the blood cleaned up fast before anyone could see it, he didn't want to keep repeating himself in explaining his punishment of that boy.

Somehow an hour before dinner, Lan Zhan had miraculously been able to calmed himself just enough to even look at his uncle and brother without cutting them down, when XiChen hurried up to him.

'I would like you to come with me WangJi; I have had a message sent about the water Ghouls.'

'...'

With a frown, he and WangJi hurried to their destination, a small hut which sat up just a little from the lake. Its view of the lake was unobstructed as they used the land between the hut and the lake to grow food.

'Greetings.' XiChen said with a warm smile and bowed his head to the elderly man and woman who sat in the garden. 'I heard you might now what happened to the Water Ghouls?'

'Yes. Sect Leader Lan, I'm surprised you do not know what happened, it was one of your own students who did it.'

'What?' Lan Zhan stepped forwards with a slight twinge to his heart that he didn't understand.

'He was dressed in one of those white student robes, but as I didn't see the emblem on his shoulder, I can not say which sect he was visiting from.'

'Is there any features you could make out?'

'Sorry, my eyesight is good enough to see that it was the student robe as I have seen them so often but nothing other than black hair that was loose. With the sun reflecting off the water, I could not make out anything else.'

'Can you describe what he did to rid us of all the ghouls in such a short time?' XiChen watched the man and woman look at each other with doubt. 'Is something wrong?'

'My wife just does not think anyone will believe us without opening the cave ... and if you do that, it will be released again.'

'It? Explain.' Lan Zhan said firmly.

'You see that we can all see the lake perfectly clearly from here, right?'

'Yes.' Both brothers answered as one.

'This is where we were sitting when a single man arrived and whistled. The song drew every Water Ghoul towards him from far in the distance; we could see them rushing towards him .... Even before the others got anywhere near the group, an Aqua Demon was there ... and this young man .... Kept whistling until all of the Water Ghouls came together with the Aqua Demon ... he then .... he drew it from the water ... lured it into that cave up there.' He pointed to a hight point of a mountain behind him. 'There, where it looks like a fresh land slide happened. There was a cave there, he lured that Aqua Demon up and into it, then caused a land slide to cover the opening. At first, there were angry sounds coming from inside, but now, it is utterly silent. If you open the entrance to check our story, I hope you are strong enough to place it back in and cover the opening again.'

'You are saying one student did this?' XiChen frowned as he looked up the mountain.

'Yes, one young man.'

'May I preform Empathy to see if I can tell who this student is?'

'Yes.'

Lan XiChen was suddenly sure the story was true, because if it was just a tale, there is no way he would be given permission to do this. He went into the old man's memories and watched with utter interest, the young student did what the man said he did. He controlled the Aqua Demon but ... he was not using them for any ill purpose, he was just shutting them away so no one was killed by it. What the old man didn't realise was at the end, after the slide happened, the young man placed a dozen talismans over the entrance.

'Brother, I do not recognise this person or his vast amount of power he has.' He looked to WangJi who just stood there looking up at the closed off cave.

'...' he just shook his head lightly.

'I can tell that the student is no danger at all ... even if he is this powerful, I do not feel anything negative emanating off of him.'

'...' Lan Zhan nodded his head.