Chapter Text
"Xue Yang, there you are."
The child looks around, his face contorting one of happiness the moment he sees the redhead calling to him.
"Gege! What brings you here?"
Cale clocked an eyebrow, looking at the younger with judging eyes.
"And what are you doing here, when it's already past midnight?"
The redhead immediately shook out the memories that came when Wen Chao's mistress barged in with an injured Xue Yang in tow.
"Just training. I want to get strong and big enough to protect you!"
He clicked his tongue before ruffling the younger's hair roughly.
"If you want to grow up, then be a child first."
The wind rustled about, each of their respective hairs swaying through as Xue Yang looked at his gege who is almost the same height as him.
"If you are a child, you should act like one. Don't grow up fast, let us adults take care of the grown up matters."
He buried the underlying emotion in his chest, sincerely hoping for the younger to experience his own childhood peacefully.
"...I will, as long as you're there." Xue Yang whispers almost inaudible, yet Cale has heard it nonetheless.
"Do not say something obvious. I'll always be here until you grow up and won't need me anymore."
He opens his mouth before closing it again, Xue Yang then sighs before speaking.
"I think I'll always need you, gege."
Cale was dumbfounded to say the least, but he chuckles.
"Such a greedy brat." He says jokingly, yet his chest is warm.
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"He was just a child, who the fuck are you to decide whether he lives or dies?"
The familiar sense continued to thrum, his record playing.
"YOU DAMN FUCKING BASTARD! STOP WHIPPING HER! SHE'S JUST A CHILD!"
Familiar, isnt it?
How many times had he already said those words in his previous life?
Stop.
He continued to beg them to stop.
Ohn was just a child when she was whipped to death, Hong was also just a child when his eyes were plucked from his sockets, and Raon haven't even reached the part where he would boast his age the moment it finally reached the first decade of his long life.
And Xue Yang...
Xue Yang barely even reached his teens.
He swung his sword, its tips covered with rose gold color of ghastly essence similar to an aura.
And Jin Zixun simply screamed in pain.
Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying doesn't know whether to stop the redhead or not, considering Jin Zixun is already beyond saving.
"Gege...that's enough." Jiang Cheng immediately says, hugging the older on his back as if he was stopping him from going to the path of no return.
Jiang Cheng will support them in whatever shenanigans his brothers would do, but not like this.
Not when he couldn't help but be anxious when a strand of Cale's hair turned black.
Wei Ying looks in front of him with a pursed lip, then to Xue Yang who awaits for his next order just like the corpse he is.
Jin Zixun's corpse was feasted by the monsters, yet no one bothered.
All they watched is the quivering redhead, whose breaths were ragged and eyes bloodshot.
He couldn't cry, he couldn't dare cry.
"A-Huan!"
Yet trying so hard seems futile.
Cale choked, he won't cry. He wouldn't cry, not again. He already experienced this multiple times...he should've been used to this.
The redhead stilled, his face slowly becoming stoic the more he buries his emotions.
"A-Huan..."
"Everyone you love dies because you share a portion of the White Star's curse. This is true, even when you were Kim Rok Soo."
"Even now, it's coming back to haunt you...Wei Xun."
It was just as that, that damn curse is coming back to haunt him like a resentful corpse.
He didn't even know that he unconsciously pushed Lan Xichen away from him, words continued to utter when Cale knew he wouldn't say such things to him.
"Everyone will die again because of you."
"Shut up! Get away from my head!"
His nails dug against his scalp, resulting it to bleed thoroughly as he tried his best to calm down.
"A-Huaㅡ"
"In the end, you'll be all alone again."
"I said get away from me!"
Cale kicked him away forcefully, his eyes continued to brim red, both from rage and stopping the urge to cry his lungs out.
He's angry, mainly to himself.
"Gege! That's Lan-gongzi!"
Jiang Cheng screaming seems to make Cale break out of his stupor.
Lan Xichen takes this chance to hold the redhead's face and make him look directly at his eyes.
"A-Huan, don't bury it. If it's painful, then it's painful. If you feel like you want to cry, then cry. You can...you have the right to do so."
Cale didn't sob, he was as silent as he is. He swallows back the shameful noise in his throat, but his tears freely fell.
His hands gripped the sleeves of Lan Xichen's clothes, burying his face against Lan Xichen's chest in attempt to hide from the world, Jiang Cheng still hugging him from behind as if he was protecting him.
If he was pushing him away earlier, then it only took seconds to pull them closer to him.
They're here. They are still alive...they are still breathing.
There was a muffled noise that came from the redhead, they don't know if it was a scream or what, but they are sure that it's agonizing.
Wei Ying then approached then and caressed the black strands on his brother's hairline.
"Cale...Xue Yang, that brat can still be saved...will you trust me?"
"No one can ever bring back the dead, Wei Ying. Not even me."
If he could, then he should've simply revived everyone back then. Not in a way where they could live without his existence.
But then again, he wouldn't meet them.
Wei Ying's lips then curled up.
"You must have forgotten that I'm a demonic cultivator and a regressor, brother."
Just then, something resounded.
The clinking of silverly metals and alloys can be heard, footsteps approaching as the monsters blew up like an inflated balloon, creating a rain made of blood.
Thankfully, Wei Ying managed to create a barrier to cover them from the blood rain.
A figure emerges from afar, a wraith butterfly fluttering near them first before the figure finally appeared, holding a red parasol above his head.
The butterfly lands atop of Cale's hair. And in a matter of seconds, the redhead fell limp on Jiang Cheng's arms, creating an uproar.
"Gege!" Jiang Cheng yells in worry, before then glaring at the butterfly that flutters away.
Lan Xichen then was about to cut the butterfly before a voice can be heard.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You would be killing Wei Xun's consciousness the moment you split the butterfly in half."
The figure smiles coyly, his eye closing in mirth with a hint of threat.
Wei Ying stifled a gasp, his fingers twitching as he looks at the man clad in red robes.
"Taizi Dianxia wouldn't sure like it if anything happens to him."