That afternoon after training with everyone and his own drills were finished, Wei Ying sat on the dock with a deep frown as he ate lotus seeds. For some reason today his heart not only mourned his husband but also remembered in detail the fact that Jiang Cheng had thrown him away, tried to kill him, and wanted nothing to do with him .... Even thought that was another life, he was not really able to look him in the eye at the moment. So he had just walked to the docks. 'This is really not a dream. Dreams are not minute to minute. I've not lost any time, jumped to another place and people do not just appear or disappear before me. I even slept and dreamed about Cloud Recesses. If this was a dream, I'm sure by now he would have appeared before me with those desired filled eyes and jumped me.' He giggled as he remembered his dreams of his husband but suddenly dropped the rest of the seeds in his hand and fell backwards to lie on the dock with his feet dangling in the water. 'I miss you.' He closed his eyes and sorted thing out in his head. So this is really not a dream, I am back to being young, before the Wen clan destroy everyone's lives. Before I met Lan Zhan ... oh Lan Zhan, I have to win you again. He looked to the cloud which floated across the sky as he spoke to the gods. If you are upset that I keep going over and over this part ... I am sorry but, I love that man and I needed to make sure before committing to this ... now I am, I will live this life over again, with that man by my side ... but first ... there are things I can to do from today onwards that will change the future. I will fight to change people's fate. Save this sect and all the others. 'First ...' he sat up straight. 'I need to find and protect Wen Ning and Wen Quin and in turn A-Yuan when he is born. After that I will do all I can to help Xue Yang before his little finger is cut off. Try to sort out Jin ZiXuan so he does not hurt YanLi and have Cheng understand his father does love him and make him realise having a strong person at his back does not make him weak ... well ... that's not too much to ask for is it ..... Who am I kidding .... This will be difficult ... just how do I convince Uncle to accept these people into his sect without telling him the truth. And all of that is before I have to stop a war .... Easy .... Not.' He thought for a while longer.

Just as he was getting up to look for his uncle, he felt something coming from the water. He stood up and looked into the depths before a smile formed and he dived in head first. It's been so long since I did it this way because Zhan always worried about me getting hurt so I stopped.

The people who had seen him dive in moved forwards when he seemed to take too long to surface. But even when they began to move even closer, ready to go in after him, they all gasped in shock when Wei Ying and two water ghouls sprang from the water and landed on the dock a dripping wet mess, but before anyone could do more than yell; Wei Ying had drawn his sword and killed both ghouls with a single slash of Suibian. He then sheathed the sword, put on his shoes and lifted both ghouls by the hair and dragged them from the dock.

'Sorry for the disturbance everyone, I will just get rid of this pair.'

'Wei WuXian ... why are you dragging those around? ... your not thinking of using them for a prank are you young man?'

'No I will never do that, I just killed them and they need burying.'

'Leave that to us.'

'Really?' he looked at the two workers as they walked over and grabbed the dead ghouls.

'Yes. We managed to kill one yesterday and now this pair ... I wonder why there are three water ghouls around this area so close together?'

'Thank you for taking care of them. Wait.' He called out as they were starting to walk away. 'Did you happen to notice anything .... Strange or abnormal about the water ghoul you killed yesterday?'

'No.' they said in unison.

'Okay, thank you for your help disposing of this pair. Remember to say a prayer over their graves to have them rest peacefully.' Three in a two days and this pair has a faint feeling of resentful energy in them, not just any resentful energy but from the Yin Iron. The Demonic Cultivation within me could feel it easily, that was why I noted the pair even though they lay perfectly still at the bottom of the lake. The Wens are obviously starting to test their Yin Iron .... But they are still really weak and show no signs of those black lines, there is time to leave that for now. Other things need to be done quickly.

Wei Ying hurried to his Uncle FengMian, who at that moment, just happened to be walking towards the docks to check on everything. This is something Wei Ying remembering his Uncle doing a few times a week even though Madame Yu said it was not needed. He just liked to let them know he was here to help if needed.

'Uncle, may I have a word.'

'Of course. Is something wrong?'

'No ... well ... may I ask how much you trust me?'

'Wei WuXian, you are the dear son of my best friend. I trust you .... Apart from your pranks.'

Wei Ying blushed a little when he remembered the times he would often prank his uncle just to see him laugh. 'Uncle FengMian ...' they started to walk along one side of the road. 'Let's say that you lived a long and wonderfully loving life, sure there are some .... Horrors in the early part but other than that, your life was wonderful. Lets say you died of old age and were allowed to relive your whole life ... now these horrors were the deaths of all those dearest to your heart ...' He suddenly realised he needed to make it sound a little different or his smart uncle may work it out. 'I was listening to a few people arguing about what they would do if they relived their lives. A couple of men said they would just have to relive everything the way it was the first time because fate is not something you should ever meddle with even if you could. Those who died were fated to die and you could not save them.' He picked up a small pouch of lotus seeds and showed it to the seller who nodded with a happy smile. 'Another few said they would move heaven and earth to change fate and keep people alive. Others were saying no matter what you do, fight as hard as you can, you are not able to change the way things happen and turn out because the gods set people's fate and we mere humans are not able to change it .... Which do you think is right ... personally I would move heaven and earth to change the world and stop the previous deaths.'

'Wei Ying, in my heart I would be right beside you fighting to change the way it happened but ... if fate has death set for your future, nothing will ever change that.' He nodded to another seller as they passed only to stop and turn back when Wei Ying stopped and just looked at him with an unreadable expression. This kind of unnerved him as he had always been able to read this young man's expressions. Now, it was like his eyes had blinds that he had shut tight. 'What is wrong?'

'I don't know, I listen in to two groups and find myself ....' He looked out over the water of the lake. 'I agree, fate is not really something that can be fought just for the fun of doing so. Fate is something that is at the very end of our lives and I believe that what road we take to get there ... that is our choice. Like if I was to try to head over to .... Cloud Recesses and took a road on the other side of town ...'

'That would take you away from your destination.'

'Yes. However, if fate is for me to end up at Cloud Recesses, no matter what road I take ... I will end up at Cloud Recesses. I chose the road I take, but fate has me end up at my destination.' He looked at his uncle only to see him thinking deeply on this. 'Anyway, that was one argument I was listening into this morning but ...' he looked around and then dragged his uncle a short distance away to make it look like he didn't want anyone to know he heard, then dropped his voice. 'I really can not tell you who I overheard talking about this but ... we have to help them before it is too late. They are nothing but healers and if they are left out there for too much longer, the Wen sect will ... uncle can they please be brought here for their protection? Please?' he tried not to beg but it still came out that way.

'Take a breath and try to explain parts of it to me?'

'Okay. I have heard of this off shoot before. There is this small off shoot clan of the Wen sect but they are not fighters, only healers, well a few are there because they had their golden cores melted because the Wen RuoHan thought they were a danger to his sons ... the truth is, they were just stronger than those idiot sons of his ... like almost anyone. This offshoot are rumoured to be the best healers. If we move fast enough right now, we can not just protect innocent people but also grow Jiang Sect ....' He stopped and tried to work his way thought the explanation without even letting on how he knew it. 'Um ... uncle ... who old am I right now?'

'What?'

'How old am I? .... It's like a test for you.' He tried to give that cheeky grin but he knew it came up short.

'Very well Wei WuXian, you are thirteen years old, you had your birthday just over a month ago.' Jiang FengMian smiled lightly at the thought of Wei Ying testing him like this. Did he think he didn't know how old his he was?

'Thirteen ...' Wei Ying paced for a short time then stopped dead. Wen Ning had told him that about this time he and his sister was back with their small sect so if he got them away before the Wen RuoHan tried to find a decent healer and stumbled over them, taking the pair with him for good that time. 'Uncle, we need to act now. Bring them here ... they really are the best healers and will be well worth any trouble we put into searching for them. I will go with the people who you send out to search for them ... I am pretty sure I know where to find them.'

'Are they in danger from the main sect so much we should protect them?'

'Yes uncle.' He stood there thinking if he was not given permission, he would just head off on his own to find and protect them. 'I have heard of something the leader did and it damaged one of the boys.'

'What was it?'

'Well ... apparently he took something from a statue and then the statue was said to draw something out of the boy before it was stopped with a binding, and now the boy really is very timid. Nice, but timid is the way he was described. I'm worried that if the Wen Sect Leader gets his hand on him and his sister, they will be in danger.'

'So be it ... but I will go ...'

'Please uncle, take me with you. I promise I will not mess around even once.'

'Wei Ying, I've never seen you like this before ... and since the trainers have told me of your perfect attendance and attention to them ... for the last two days, I will take you and Jiang Cheng with me.' He chuckled when Wei Ying threw himself at him and gave him a hug.

'Thank you Uncle FengMian ... when do we leave?'

'Tomorrow morning if things are set.'

'Just leave all of the arrangements to me. Everything will be ready before we leave after breakfast ... as I know YanLi will refuse to allow us to leave before we eat.'

'Are you sure you even know what will need arraigning?'

'I tell you what Uncle, if I so much as miss a single detail, you can call it all off.' He gave his cheeky grin and received a happy laugh in return.

'So be it Wei WuXian. Be off and set things up.' He watched as the first thing he did was race off to the boat workers. 'We will see what you know about setting up a mission young man.'

'Father?'

'Ah my beautiful daughter, what brings you here?'

'I was looking for A-Ying?'

'You just missed him. He is running around at the moment setting up a mission we are to run tomorrow morning, so he should be busy for some time.'

'Really?'

'Yes.'

They both looked at each other then Jiang YanLi went with her father to check on the rest of the stalls.