Fanfiction: Mo Yuan and Shao Wan - Chapter 26 (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花)

Chapter 26

written by kakashi

It was simply laughable. Mo Yuan, the most venerated Taoist Master in all the realms, sat in his meditation cave and failed spectacularly at meditating.

Unnerved, he opened his eyes. It was pointless to try and sit still if all he could do was fidget around like the most inept beginner. Would he ever be able to settle back into his old routines?

‘Certainly not if that woman keeps making trouble,’ Mo Yuan thought and got up. He knew it was unfair to blame Shao Wan for his own inability to concentrate, but it was her he could not stop thinking about. 

After spending the required amount of time with his bride and her father, who was desperately trying to save this marriage alliance despite his daughter’s grave misconduct, he had rushed to the Demon encampment to find Shao Wan. But she was gone. There was no trace of her or her Mount anywhere, also not the next day, when the Purple Queen had come to honor her promise to escort Shao Wan to her palace as a guest.

What else should he have done than return to Kunlun with Sixteenth and First Disciple?

He should have gone in search of her immediately, that’s what he should have done. He should have trusted his gut, which told him something was wrong. But he hadn’t gone because his head had stopped his body. The political consequences of him going to the Demon Realm after the festival and everything that had happened between him and Cheng Yin were likely to be considerable. As a result of not going, he was so worried by now that he had lost his appetite and wasn’t sleeping well. How could she have disappeared without a trace? It had been days.

He stepped outside the cave, into the crisp air of Kunlun. The day was particularly clear, with hardly any haze so that he could see unusually far. Not that staring in the direction of the Demon Realm helped his peace of mind. Maybe it was time to design a new weapon to collect himself, he thought, taking a deep breath. Or he should make a new batch of wine. He even considered going up to the Nine Heavens to pay Ye Hua a visit.  

Mo Yuan had almost reached the hall when he saw Sixteenth approaching. His disciple was running. Trouble?

“Shifu,” Sixteenth exclaimed, out of breath, “there is a magical beast at the Gates. It is heavily wounded, almost its entire cultivation is gone. It refuses to identify itself, but whatever it wants, it seems urgent. I think you should come and see for yourself.”

***

Mo Yuan recognized Fong Hung immediately, despite his altered appearance. Hot rage engulfed him. Shao Wan’s Mount was in such a poorly state, it must have taken him days to drag himself from the Demon Realm to Kunlun Mountains like this.

“Where is she?” Mo Yuan pressed out between gritted teeth. He was ready to rip Cheng Yin into a thousand pieces.

The large toad tried to form words, but could only croak feebly. Mo Yuan signalled to one of the disciples to bring the animal a small stick.

“Draw a map in the dirt,” he told it, “and write instructions. Do you remember how?”

The toad did. It first tried to clutch the stick in its bloody hands like a human, but failed. It used its mouth afterwards. It was painfully slow and Mo Yuan had to probe Fong Hung with many questions until he understood that a heavily wounded Shao Wan was hidden in the Barren Mountains, in a sealed cave that Fong Hung had marked with toad venom.

There were thousands of caves in those mountains, Mo Yuan knew. But he was ready to search all of them until he found her. If only he wasn’t too late.

“Take Fong Hung to the top of the Mountain and take very good care of him,” he ordered Die Feng. “No … wait. The divine energy will be too strong for him in his current state. Take him to the cave where the Demonic Phoenix was kept. 2nd, make him an elixir to heal his wounds.”

He turned to leave, but his entire flock of students milled around him. Ever since he had scattered, his disciples were prone to extreme worry when it came to his safety.

“Take us with you, Shifu,” Die Feng begged, and the other echoed the request, bowing deeply.

Mo Yuan shook his head. “I cannot appear on Cheng Yin’s territory with sixteen trained generals in tow.“

A strong sense of déjà-vu overcame him. This was eerily like that time he had gone to the Ghost Realm, to free Si Yin and Ninth. Well, that hadn’t turned out so well. He better made sure he didn't give anyone a reason to start a war this time.

“I will be back shortly”, he added curtly. “Stop being so concerned, I’m not an invalid.”

That came out sounding too harsh and now his disciples looked like scolded children. Mo Yuan sighed - he would need to talk to them after his return. He had no time to spare now.

“Please prepare Seventeenth’s old room for a guest”, he said, and jumped.

***

The Barren Mountains were swarming with demons - Cheng Yin’s men. Fong Hung had probably not been able to hide his presence sufficiently and had alerted them to Shao Wan’s approximate whereabouts when he had started his journey to Kunlun. Mo Yuan was forced to kill several of the Demon soldiers as he searched for a sign of toad venom on the rock surface. So much for not starting another war.

On the upside, the mass of soldiers told him what area to concentrate his search on, so that it did not take him too long to find the cave. Her seal was very weak, he broke it easily.

Shao Wan lay on the cave floor, so very white and still, and his heart rose to his throat.

Kneeling down beside her, he checked for her breath - thank the heavens, she was alive. Suddenly, his phoenix fire scars started hurting, as if to warn him, right before small flames danced over her skin, disappearing again quickly. He grabbed her wrist to feel her pulse, realizing her body temperature was much too high. The pulse was irregular and disappeared completely in between.

He felt a strong and very unpleasant aura drawing close. Cheng Yin.

Mo Yuan gathered a lot of energy quickly and poured it into Shao Wan, in a desperate attempt to revive her. However, it didn’t seem like his Celestial energy agreed with her at all. Her unconscious face contorted in pain and he stopped, horrified to have hurt her more. 

His energy did something at least, because she opened her eyes. They were almost completely red and unfocused.

“Shao Wan,” he said, grabbing her arm, “can you stand? I need to take you with me.”

“Where am I,” she whispered, her voice almost inaudible, “is this a dream?”

“Most certainly not,” Mo Yuan said and hoisted her up to a sitting position. If Cheng Yin cornered them in the cave, they were gravely disadvantaged.

“Why are you here?” she rasped. Speaking seemed to hurt her.

“To get you,” he retorted, cursing her stubbornness. She was trying to shake off his hand, clawing at him.

“Let me help you, woman,” he said with urgency, “we need to leave.”

“Where is Fong Hung,” she whispered, not listening to him at all, “I need to save him.”

“Fong Hung is safe, Shao Wan, he was the one who-”

Suddenly, her sky power exploded and Mo Yuan was slammed painfully against the cave wall. Now he understood what he had sensed before - she had been bleeding energy through that link all this time, in small doses.

She cried out, but seemed to get a grip on her powers - the maelstrom stopped. Approaching her again cautiously, Mo Yuan checked her energy points. When he touched her, she screamed in pain and hit him. Something was not right. Were they closed? She seemed highly unstable.

“Enough,” he snapped, “we can discuss this later, but you have to follow me out of this cave right now. I have no wish to die here at the hand of a Demon spawn.”

He grabbed her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder, having surprise and her disorientation on his side, she didn't struggle much. When he stepped outside, his presence drew the attention of at least thirty heavily armed demons. Mere moments later, Cheng Yin materialized in front of them too.

“It is a surprise to see you here, butchering my people,” the Demon King hissed, “I thought you wanted to uphold the peace.”

Mo Yuan dropped Shao Wan to the ground unceremoniously and summoned his sword.

“Killing you will be my contribution to peace today,” Mo Yuan retorted and moved to stand between Shao Wan, who was struggling to her feet, and Cheng Yin, who leisurely unfurled his long, blood red whip.

Whips were Mo Yuan’s least favorite weapons to fight against, because they allowed the opponent to stay at a considerable distance and put someone with a sword in a difficult position. It did not take Mo Yuan long to realize that Cheng Yin’s teacher must have been Shao Wan - his style was almost identical to hers. That was an advantage - at least he knew what moves to expect. He was soon busy dodging the Demon’s attacks, always trying to shield Shao Wan with his body, in case Cheng Yin attempted to move against her.

Everything became much harder when Cheng Yin had his soldiers charge him too. At least, Shao Wan seemed alert enough by now to realize the danger. He saw she took a protective stance, but she had no weapon.

Quickly, Mo Yuan moved against one of the soldiers and disarmed him before plunging his sword through his abdomen. He threw Shao Wan the demon short sword and she caught it, still looking confused, but increasingly awake. She locked eyes with Mo Yuan and he saw how her whole face lit up. He smiled back at her, feeling overjoyed she was alright.

This small moment of inattentiveness cost him dearly - Cheng Yin’s whip caught Mo Yuan across his sword arm and his upper back, leaving a trail of numbing pain in his wake. Quickly, Mo Yuan changed the sword to the left hand and dodged the next attack of the thong. More and more soldiers came pouring in, pressing in on them, restricting their movement. It was getting crowded. At least, Shao Wan was killing almost as many as he did.

Mo Yuan increased his speed, trusting Shao Wan was able to take care of herself for the moment, and tried to get inside the whip’s danger zone. He almost succeeded to get close enough to attack Cheng Yin, but the Yellow King managed to retreat in time by blasting demon soldiers at him. Mo Yuan saw himself closely surrounded by a mass of them for a moment, before Shao Wan created an opening behind him. He quickly returned to her side, noticing with a sinking feeling she had a new long dash across her arm and was dripping blood.

Again, a moment of inattentiveness that Cheng Yin exploited - Mo Yuan he was hit again with full force, this time on his left arm and upper body. The pain took his breath away and he fell to one knee. Was Cheng Yin using venom on his whip? That would certainly explain the lightheadedness Mo Yuan was beginning to feel.

Shao Wan used her left arm to pull him to an upright position, fending off demons with her other arm. Her touch on his arm burned like fire. He threw her a worried look, which turned to alarm when he saw little flames dancing all around her again. Her powers were already surging, he could feel them all over his body. He would be killed by Cheng Yin if he stopped fighting long enough to close her sky power link. He was in danger of being severely injured if he didn’t close it in time. And if he abandoned her, Cheng Yin would have her.

Stepping right in front of her, he threw a protective bubble around them and looked deeply into her surprised eyes as he said: “Forgive me.”

He hit her with enough force to knock her out and jumped, hugging her limp body close. As he always taught his students, only a fool kept fighting if retreat was the better option. Before they arrived at Kunlun, he shut down her sky power link, but it was not enough. Her energy points were a mess and he still felt her powers surge and decrease uncontrollably, threatening to burn him. Using as much power as he could spare without falling off the cloud, he sealed her powers completely.

Their arrival back at Kunlun was very inelegant to say the least. Feeling increasingly faint, he stumbled off the cloud and collapsed in a heap with her at the steps of the hall. Maybe his disciples were right to worry about him, he thought, as he saw them running towards them, shouting in alarm.

Chapter 27