.
Wuxian felt much better the next day. He stepped out of his room and froze. Yuxio, who apparently had a death wish, was waiting outside his room sleeping on his doorstep. He steps back quietly and whispers to Wen Ning: "That's the pervert."
Wen Ning whispers back in shock: "The pervert is a woman?"
Wuxian turns around when Wangji coughs loudly in irritation.
Yuxio woke up startled by the loud cough and turned to greet the men. After bowing she rushed in to grab Wuxian's hand and was blocked by Biched's handle. Wangji glared at her: "No touching."
She sighs loudly in irritation: "Are these rules written somewhere I don't know about?"
Wuxian looks passively at her: "What do you want?"
She smiles at him and says: "Can I accompany you today?"
Wangji glares at her: "No."
She whines: "Why? I can protect him!"
Wangji steps into her space, glaring down at her: "It is not your duty to protect my soul-bond."
She smirks back at him: "I did yesterday, when the kids you sent with him failed."
Wuxian grabs Wangji's arm and sighs: "Lan Zhan, ignore her. I don't think she means harm."
She peeks around Wangji to smile happily at Wuxian. He shivers and pushes Wen Ning to hide behind him: "I take it back.. She's creepy."
She looks back at Wangji with a glare and says: "I can protect him better than the inexperienced boys assigned to him yesterday."
Wangji steps back and demands: "Name?"
She bows and says: "I'm Yu Yuxio, senior disciple of Jiang Clan."
Wangji stares blankly at her and after a few minutes of assessing her he says: "Wen Ning is Wei Ying's guardian. He is undefeated."
She huffs and points behind Wangji: "That's him?"
Wen Ning folds his arms and stares at the woman who looks doubtful of his skills.
Wangji nods. She squares her shoulders and proudly declares: "If I beat him, will you let me be Treasure Wei's guardian too?"
Wuxian screams from the back: "WHAT? NO!"
Wangji glares at the overconfident woman before him and Wen Ning laughs: "I'm a fierce corpse that cannot feel pain, be poisoned or die. Are you sure you want to challenge me?"
She smirks at him: "Why? Are you scared?"
Wangji turns around, grabs Wuxian's hand and drags him out. Yuxio followed them: "Wait! Where are you going?"
Wuxian looks worriedly at Wangji and whispers: "Lan Zhan, calm down."
Wangji dragged him all the way to Swords Hall, followed by a protesting Yuxio, followed by an amused Wen Ning. They all enter, welcomed by Cheng until he sees his disciple following them: "YOU! You should be training the younger disciples! Are you harassing my brother again?"
Wangji glares at him: ".. again?"
Wuxian coughs hard to get his attention and shakes his head at Cheng. Cheng gets up and moves towards them. With a resigned sigh he asked: "What did she do now?"
Wen Ning smiles amusedly: "She challenged me for the title of guardian of Treasure Wei."
Cheng turns and yells at her: "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?"
She huffs: "What? I can take him!"
Cheng looks unbelievably at her: "The last person he fought was turned into bits after being squeezed to death by his chains!"
She looks skeptically at Wen Ning then huffs: "That doesn't scare me!"
Wangji is starting to get angry: "You have no right to claim that title, with a duel or not."
Wuxian whispers when he feels Wangji's death grip almost crushing his hand: "Lan Zhan, you're hurting me." Wangji loosens his grip but doesn't break the glare aimed at Yuxio.
Cheng turns and glares back at Wangji defiantly: "Why not?"
Wangji: "Wei Ying is Gusu Lan Clan's Treasure. He will be protected by our clan and his disciples."
Cheng starts to get pissed: "He's my brother! If I wish to assign someone to protect him, who're you to stop me!"
Wuxian throws his hand in the air in frustration and yells: "I'M RIGHT HERE! I can beat you all up if I want to so stop talking about me like I'm an invalid who cannot protect himself!"
They all turned to stare at him. And when their look turned from shock to worry he got confused. That lasted a few seconds until he felt blood touch his upper lip. He closes his eyes in irritation and sighs loudly: "I can't even prove a point."
He feels someone placing a cloth under his nose and opens his eyes to look into Wen Ning's worried face. Wuxian takes the cloth and pushes him out of the way and storms towards the door, stopping on the way to yell angrily at his brother and soul-bond: "If she wants to die fighting Wen Ning, then let her! I'm done listening to you both arguing." He points at Yuxio and Wen Ning and commands them: "You and you! Training grounds now! If you can survive 10 minutes fighting my Ning then Wangji and I will consider your offer."
He storms off, holding a bloody cloth under his nose, pissed off at everyone. He made his way to the training grounds, followed by the people he left behind. Taiho was the first to spot him and ran to him: "Treasure Wei! You're bleeding!"
Wuxian angrily grumbles: "Taiho, ask the disciples to make space for a fight."
Taiho looks worriedly at him but when he sees Wangji nod behind Wuxian, he complies.
A few minutes later, the disciples moved to the edge of the training ground to watch while Yuxio was stretching and Wen Ning looked at her indifferently. Wuxian was standing on the side with Wangji and his brother behind him. The nosebleed was still going and he was too livid to allow anyone to do anything about it.
Wuxian turns around and glares at his brother: "Announce the challenge."
Cheng rolls his eyes and steps up to the two fighters and says: "Yu Yuxio of Jiang Clan has issued a challenge to Wen Ning, the guardian of Gusu Lan Clan Treasure. All is fair in this fight including death. To win, Yuxio needs to survive for 10 minutes. The stake is Wen Ning's title. Do you both agree to these terms?"
They both nod and the moment Cheng clears the area the fight begins. Wen Ning lets out a loud scream, followed by a wave of dark energy and his chains appear around his body and wrists. Yuxio smirks at him and takes out her sword. She performs a few intricate moves and her sword lights on fire. Wuxian turns to look at his brother who's smirking: "She's a phoenix warrior?"
Cheng nods with pride. She turns to Wuxian and winks at him before charging towards Wen Ning. Wuxian shivers and grabs Wangji's arm: "So creepy."
The fight was without a doubt impressive. Wen Ning's power comes from his ability to fight without getting hurt or tired. He has an unlimited amount of vengeful energy and he's not afraid to use it. Yuxio however was fast, accurate with her strikes and smart with her fire lit sword. Wuxian was impressed with her sword skills but felt that something was off. As the minutes passed on with a clear difference in power, Wuxian found himself more intrigued with her technique than caring about who wins.
At the last minute, Yuxio aimed her fire sword at Wen Ning who grabbed it with his bare hand and used his other hand to grab her by the front of her robes and fling her with a gust of dark energy to the ground a few feet away. He holds her flaming sword in his hand, it doesn't seem to affect him at all.
Cheng steps in and declares the end of the 10 minutes, looking at his frustrated disciple on the ground then looking at Wuxian for his deliberation. Wuxian, who's nose finally stopped bleeding, stepped up to Wen Ning and looked at the flaming sword in his hand in wonder: "I thought Phoenix warriors were all dead."
Cheng: "She's the last descendant."
Wuxian turns and walks up to Yuxio who just stood up: "I'm impressed."
That seemed to turn her mood drastically. She grabs his hand and happily says: "REALLY? I CAN BE YOUR GUARDIAN?"
Wuxian yanks his hands away and awkwardly says: "Heavens no! You're clearly no match to Wen Ning. Accept your loss."
When he sees the look of disappointment on her face he smiles: "However, I can help you improve your technique."
She looks skeptically at him: "I practice the secret arts of the Phoenix warriors. How can you, an outsider, help me complete my training?"
Wuxian nods to Wen Ning and he brings the sword to hand it back to Yuxio. He points to the sword when the flames burn out in her grasp: "Who gave you this sword?"
She says: "My teacher."
Wuxian: "Did he master the Phoenix warrior's ways?"
She nods: "He died before he can complete my training."
Wuxian smiles at her and turns to Cheng: "Do you mind if I train her?"
Cheng shrugs: "No one else seems to want the job."
She looks confused so Wuxian smiles at her: "I will make sure your training is complete on one condition."
She looks seriously at him: "Name it."
Wuxian looks at Wangji fondly and says: "I don't mind if you flirt with me. I do mind if your actions make him feel uncomfortable. He's my soul-bond, I cannot offer him more than my affection so please stop belittling our relationship by teasing him."
She bows apologetically to Wangji: "Your Excellency, I am sorry if my actions made you uncomfortable. I was just expressing how much I admire Treasure Wei. I do not wish to break your bond. I do not plan to steal him from you or have any intentions of competing with you for his affections. I'm raised to express my emotions freely and I hope you won't stop me from being by his side for as long as he will have me."
Wangji stays silent for a few minutes until Wuxian nudges him and he begrudgingly nods his approval then says: "If he complains about you, I will strike you dead before I even hear your excuse."
She says: "If he complains about me, I'll do it myself."
Wuxian sighs at both of them then says: "Yuxio, meet me here tomorrow morning. We'll start training then." He goes to Wen Ning and hugs him: "You're perfect. I'm so proud of you. Let's go eat something sweet to celebrate your victory."
He drags an embarrassingly happy Wen Ning along, followed by Wangji. Cheng turns to his disciple: "You have no idea what you got yourself into."
Yuxio looks confused: "Why?"
Cheng smirks: "He might not look like it, but that man can level us all into the ground without picking up a sword."
He turns around to yell at his other disciple while Yuxio looks at her sword: 'I will do whatever it takes to fulfill my legacy. I just hope he's the one that will show me the way.'
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