Sunshot Campaign and the Unkown

Somewhere in Gusu...

The gentle strumming of strings resonated with the calm motion of water, Lan Wangji sat near the edge as he continues to play Inquiry. Droplets of water that slightly glowed, grazes the three items laid on the rocks; a bell, a ribbon, and a bracelet. The spirit water rose as it was faintly illuminated and briefly pulled on a string to answer his question in mind 'Where are they?'

For a moment, Wangji had a disheartened look on his face, until a presence made itself known, the disciple beside him must've also felt it, "Second Young Master, someone's here" this confirmed his hunch and faced the direction of it, there stood Lan Xichen.

The disciple smiled, "Master Xichen"

Xichen acknowledges him before turning his attention to Wangji "I trust you've been well"

"Brother" Wangji salutes

"I could tell it was you by the tune" Xichen side glanced "But as the souls have responded, it seems that those three are still missing"

The disciple sighs, "Well, it's so strange. It's been several days. We've found some clues about Master Jiang, but nothing about Master Wei. Has he been caught or not? We would've heard something. We've been asking everyone we see, communicating with the deceased, but not a single clue on Master Wei. However...Lady Jie and Master Jie are-" Wangji gave him a sharp look but Xichen encouraged the disciple to continue "..they might actually be dead"

"Dead or alive, there must be some clues where they are. We will find answers" Wangji flicks his sleeves and the spirit water dispersed. He bows as Xichen watched from the sidelines "Young Master Wei is strong and smart. He'll be fine...Wangji, don't worry too much" he couldn't speak on the matters regarding the Jie.

The twin jades of Lan began to discuss the proceeding of cooperation with other clans. How most clans were hesitant as the Wen Clan have displayed their power by wiping out Jiang Clan of Yunmeng in one night. Therefore, they're still undecided.

+++++

Clan Leaders were gathered in the hall of Cloud Recesses. Lan Qiren stood infront of them, "Everyone, the Wen Clan has pushed us too far. If you continue to stand back, you will soon find yourselves in the line of fire"

Jin Guangshan puts down his cup "We've come here, which shows that we want to discuss it. It's just..."

"What's your opinion?"

"I humbly speak, we shouldn't be too hasty in fighting against QishanWen and LuzhouXian. It may be bad timing" a few agreed with Guangshan.

Nie Mingjue chuckles "Please forgive me for being blunt, if we give up those things, in the eyes of Wen Rouhan, we'll be like lambs to slaughter"

"You..!"

"Let's all calm down. What I mean is we should avoid confrontation. The Shadow Duo of Qinghe are capable yet look how they ended up" Mingjue glared at Guangshan "Not to mention, Lord Qingheng is also powereful, GusuLan is also one of the strongest clan, but what now?"

"Thank you for your generous praise"

All of their gaze shifted to the voice's owner, Lan Xichen "Lack of abilities isn't an excuse to avoid one's enemies" Qiren smiled at the sight of his nephew "From what you've said, LanlingJin plans to surrender and be like LuzhouXian that used to be the unreachable Sect but now serves QishanWen?" Guangshan coughs and kept silent

Xichen and Qiren greeted and expressed their concern for each other before facing the rest.

"Easy for you to say. YunmengJiang put up a fight and ended up being destroyed"

A hooded person walked forward "So you mean if there's no chance of winning, you're willing to give in?"

"Who are you?!" the cloak was pulled off to reveal "Jiang Cheng?!"

"You can say such things because YunmengJiang has already been destroyed"

"We're not like you, we still need to protect our clansmen"

Jiang Cheng held back his anger and smirked "Right, everyone has different ideas. You may think it's no problem for your people to be slaves and prostitutes, willing to tolerate it as long as you can live"

One of the leaders present stood with an offended look "Do not push your luck! You tried so hard to persuade us. You just seek revenge by taking us down with you!" this sets off Jiang Cheng "That's right! I want revenge! As long as I can destroy them, I'm willing to do anything. If you don't dare join me, then be a coward waiting for Wen Ruohan to destroy you" Xichen stops him.

"Wen Ruohan is suspicious and capricious. You all know that. If we compromise now, we may have an even bigger trouble in the future"

Mingjue slams his fist on the table "Well said. I'm telling you all, whether you join or not, I swear I will kill Wen Ruohan" Xichen salutes him "You're a righteous man. I'm impressed by your courage. Our clan will do the same"

"For those present who decides to do this, you should say it and let the world know. If one doesn't act now and decides halfway, it'll be a matter of reward or punishment" Qiren was hinting on the silent Guangshan who's eyes widened before trying to speak in a light hearted tone "However, how can we possibly win. Like you said, Xian Clan is serving the Wen Clan for more than a decade. Mind you that they are descendants of a God and a powerful being. They're said to be blessed by them as well"

"If that's the case then shouldn't it be the Wen Clan under them? This just proves that LuzhouXian isn't what it used to be"

"But with just us, it would be a losing battle"

Xichen, "They might be powerful but their people may not be as loyal as they think. You can persuade the clans they've enslaved to join us"

Guangshan, "I don't think any of them would take the risk of doing so"

Xichen gestures for them to look outside as people slowly reached their view. They salute and stated their reasoning of joining the fight against QishanWen.

Xichen smiles "Over 200 people will join. Clan leaders, any problem?" Mingjue felt energized by the enthusiasm "What Wen Clans have done is not less than the ten suns disaster. In ancient times, Da Yi shot down the suns to save the world. You people who have gathered here are today's Da Yi! Let's name this battle, the Sunshot Campaign!" he offers them a toast.

When the Sunshot Campaign begun, QingheNie, LanlingJin, GusuLan, and YunmengJiang all led 800 cultivators to Qishan. Nobody took them seriously.

Among the four sects, the LanlingJin was on the fence—watching how all of them were aaggressively advancing, even if they wanted to take part, if it suffered more defeats than victories, it'd soon realize that there was no good in it, perhaps even coming back to hug the Wen Sect's leg and worship it once more.

It could be concluded with two words: unpromising and overconfident!

Everyone who stood on the Wen Sect's side took the Sunshot Campaign as a joke.

×××××

3 months later...

In Hejian, QingheNie won the battle. Nie Mingjue decapitated Wen Xu, the eldest son of Wen Ruohan. Hanging its head on the frontline sneering at QishanWen's weakness that inspired Mingjue's army.

-----

"Ahhhhhhhh…!!!" Wang Lingjiao sat up from her bed with a scream. Wen Chao, who was deep in thoughts was startled, "What are you howling at again in the middle of the night?!"

Lingjiao panted "I… I dreamed of Wei Wuxian again"

"It's been three months since I threw him into Burial Mound. Why are you still having dreams of him? Just how many times has it been?!" although Wen Chao wouldn't admit, he would dream of the Jie siblings. Especially Chun, carrying Xue in the middle of the tall flames that made it look like a place from the underworld as she maliciously grinned while her sinister golden brown eyes reflected the rage of fire.

"I don't know why either" both were suffering the nightmare of their victims. It became fequent; the gradual success of Sunshot Campaign is what triggered it for Lingjiao whilst it was the recent disappearance of Luzhou Sect's leader for Wen Chao.

He shook his head "Then don't sleep! Crazy bitch" she got out of bed and threw herself over to his desk, "The more I think about it, the more scared I am. I feel like… back then, did we make a big mistake?"

"How many cultivators have our sect sent to clean Burial Mound? Did any one of them come back alive? His corpse has probably rotted away already"

"It's scary even if he's dead!"

"The people who died there, all of their souls would be shackled there. Shut up and get lost already!"

-----

When Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji's faction arrived at Jingchu, they were greeted by scattered bloody corpses that had their eyes rolled back.

Jiang Cheng kick one of the corpses "Well, looks like tonight's mission's already been done for us"

A disciple behind him was hesitant to speak but carried on "Master, all Wen and Xian Clan's cultivators are dead. Most of them were scared to death" Jiang Cheng faces him "Scared to death?" another Yunmeng disciple appears "This method is different from the previous one at Tongduo" Jiang Cheng thought to himself for a bit "Who could've done this? Are there any clues?"

"Master, we haven't found any clues"

Jiang Cheng smirks "It's okay. They killed them, they must be on our side. The more, the merrier"

"An army of Wen and Xian in the Southwest are heading this way"

"Burn their resources then move out"

"Yes!"

×××××

The sound of metals clashing, constant footsteps, and arrows wheezing were heard within Chongyang as Yunmeng disciples continuously train.

"Clan Leader" a disciple salutes "Recently, they sent more people to search for us"

"What about Chongyang?"

"Not suspicious yet but...these are new cultivators. Once they attack, I'm afraid we won't last long"

A few disciples barged in "Master Jiang, we've recovered the swords. We also caught some of them that might know something about.." Jiang Cheng got the gist and demanded them to take him to their prisoners.

Jiang Cheng arrived at the same time as Wangji, near a metal cage where three people were beaten up and almost wearing nothing.

Wangji was the first one to ask "Where are Wei Ying, Jie Chun, and Jie Xue?" it was nerve-racking for the both of them but none of them spoke. Jiang Cheng lets out Zidian and lashed at them a few times before one of them finally cracks.

"I-I will tell!...We don't know about Wei Wuxian b-but about the other two. The woman went to Nightless City looking for her brother. Young Master Wen, Luzhou Sector Leader, was there. Wen Zhuliu arrived dragging her brother and Lady Wen trailed behind them"

For some reason, they felt uneasy 'Lady Wen?..Wen Qing?!'

"What else?!" Jiang Cheng shouted.

The man whimpered "Their deal seems to consist of her working under them but Young Master Wen also wanted her to be his woman. Everything happened so fast, that woman was vicious! She's the reason I lost my left eye!"

'For Chun to be able to put up a fight even if she just got out of Mt. Muxi...how did she even manage to stay conscious' Jiang Cheng grits his teeth and Wangji took notice of this and might've guessed his thought, he was told that Chun left not long after he did.

"Her brother was wounded by Sector Leader so they try to quickly flee. When we got to them, the man was dying and she wasn't also in a good state. We were ordered to set them aflame which went on for hours...only burnt blood, ashes, and few singed hair were left after the massive fire dissipated"

Wangji felt sorrowful "Where did you kill them?"

"N-Near the borderline of Yueyang and Hedong"

Jiang Cheng didn't want to accept it he wraps Zidian around the man's neck "How?! How are you damned dogs still alive?! Th-They..." Wangji calmed him down.

Wangji manage to calm Jiang Cheng and get away from the captives. They were talking atop of the inner walls. He holds out a talisman he got from the previous mission, Jiang Cheng takes it "You mean there's something wrong with this. Isn't it just for exorcism? Nothing special" after further inspection, he gasped "There are a few added stroke on this"

Wangji, "Four stroke draw in human blood"

"Human blood? Most are painted with cinnabar, I've never heard of blood symbols before..such sinister way. I'm afraid this isn't written to exorcise"

"Exactly. This has an opposite effect"

Jiang Cheng had a puzzled look "Opposite? How so?"

"Ordinary ones drive out evil spirits. This charm...attracts it"

"A charm ro attract evil spirits? I've never heard of this"

"Neither have I but I've tested it out and it does have power to summon ghosts"

"That means, all those strange occurrences are associated with this talisman?"

Wangji sighs, "Not all but...that kind of talisman was used at all three locations I've been. Those added stroke were written by the same person"

"I don't know of any great men doing anything like this" Jiang Cheng wanted to seek out this person and asks him to join them.

Wangji turns to walk away "This charm is evil. I've never seen such technique from within all the clans. And about the other case, it's better to be careful. Their way of killing is..savage" the other person's killing method was grotesque.

Jiang Cheng had an unpleasant grin "Evil? Savage?" Wangji looks at him with anxiousness "Not more evil and savage than those damned Wen and Xian. I don't care what they are as long as our goal is the same" he grips the talisman.

A disciple dressed in white calls to them "Lady Jiang has been escorted here from Shuchuan" Jiang Cheng straightened himseld "Sister, where is she?"

Jiang Cheng was sprinting to the said location of Jiang Yanli and he stops on his tracks as he finally saw the silhouette of his older sister who he haven't seen since the downfall of Yunmeng. He slowly approached her and held her hand "A-jie.."

Yanli turns to him "A-Cheng" she was engulfed in a hug. A calm breeze went by as the two continued to hold each other as tears began to fall.

Jiang Cheng pulls away and wiped his tears as he pulls out the only remnant of their mother and father. Yanli's mouth quivered, caressing the clarity bell of their mother and the purple guan of their father "Lotus pier..I will definitely go back and avenge our mother and father. I'll make them pay for this!" His infuriated expression vanished onced Yanli put her hand on his cheek "A-Cheng...you've grown up...If father and mother could see you, they'd be happy and proud" he sadly smiled at her.

"Is there any news about A-Xian?"

Jiang Cheng shook his head "Could he have..." Yanli held his hand in comfort "Don't make a wild guess. I believe he's going to be okay...What about A-Chun and A-Xue?" a tear fell and Yanli could only embrace him "A-Jie...th-they-"

A paled Yunmeng disciple frantically ran to them with a cylindrical container "Leader Jiang!" he took notice of Yanli and salutes before continuing to speak "This- It was found at Pingyang a-and it's addressed to Leader Jiang" he hands it to Jiang Cheng and it was completely sealed "What if you brought in an explosive to us?!" the disciple flinched, indeed what if it was something harmful and he brought it in Chongyang "B-But it says only you or blood relative can only open it"

"What?! Then throw it away!"

Yanli calms him "They've traveled for long and nothing happenes. Open it and see what's inside" Jiang Cheng sighed and read the instruction "You, go at a distance and be a shield of my sister" the two complied as he pricked himself and let it from on the seal.

The seal dissolved, and he was finally able to pull out a scroll from in it. After reading the content again and again, his heart dropped and the scroll fell from his hands.

"A-Cheng!" Yanli rushed to him and picked up the scroll but nothing was written on it "What? What is it? What was written?"

It took a few seconds for Jiang Cheng to collect himself and when he was about to speak, crackling sound caught their attention and the symbol of QishanWen was prominent in the sky.