#DFS wakes up during JLQs attack at Shishou village

[howdaretrashships]

For the WIP Guessing Game:

I’m requesting the word “holds.”

:D

Y'know surprisingly there are no "holds". But there are 3 instances of "hold" and 1 of "held". so I'll give it to you anyway. From my Ep 27 AU:

Then Li Xiangyi’s tight control falters.

Di Feisheng turns around just in time to see him fall to his knees, his soft sword barely supporting him as he spits up a mouthful of blood.

“Xiangyi!” he calls as he drops beside him. He catches him as he collapses and passes out, falling against Di Feisheng’s shoulder as the soft sword slips from loose fingers.

A moment later Fang Duobing appears to finally unfreeze, and falls to his own knees in front of them. The boy’s hands hover over the man he claimed as his shifu, and retreat without ever touching. It’s only when he looks up into Di Feisheng’s eyes that he finally snaps out of his own head.

The younger swordsman jumps up and scrambles to point his sword at Di Feisheng. “What are you doing?” he demands.

“Put that down,” he growls back, flicking the point out of his face. “I’ve warned you before. Even he can’t blame me if you keep pushing your luck.”

Fang Duobing is stunned, but quickly rallies. He raises his sword once again. “It was the Jinyuan Alliance that attacked us; your people that attacked us. What nefarious things are you plotting now? Was all of this just a lie to get Li Lianhua to trust you?”

Di Feisheng smacks the blade away with more force this time, and follows up with a blast of inner power that knocks the brat back several steps. “This is your final warning,” he says with a pointed finger.

The boy glares back at him, but thankfully stays quiet. “Why don’t you go make sure all these traitorous idiots are actually dead,” he continues with a pointedly raised eyebrow. “And that there’s no one waiting to ambush us.”

Fang Duobing huffs, giving him one last distrustful look, but does as the older swordman suggests.

As he walks off, Di Feisheng mutters to his unconscious rival, “Of all the bull-headed brats in the world, you had to pick that one as your disciple…”

He picks up Li Xiangyi’s wrist to check his pulse, and finds it a mess. How he held on so long is impressive, though no short of a miracle. It’s very possible they could have found him dead this morning if Jin Youdao hadn’t retained enough of his cognizance and helped him.

Li Xiangyi is in the worst state he’s ever seen him in. He needs an energy transfer at minimum, but he would prefer not to do it out in the open when they’ve already been attacked. Ideally, they should get back to Lotus Tower. It’s easier to defend, and would be more comfortable than the forest floor.

But with how far away it is, he would rather Li Xiangyi be stable and awake first.

Di Feisheng slings his dao onto his back once more, then carefully lifts Li Xiangyi with a hand under his knees and the other supporting his back. Across the field, Fang Duobing notices his movement, and jogs back over.

“Where are you taking him?” He’s apparently cooled down a little, though his sword is still unsheathed in his hand.

“I’m moving him to cover. Get the sword,” he adds, nodding to the soft sword that had fallen. “Once he’s awake, we can head back to that ridiculous thing he calls a house.”

Fang Duobing gives the sword a complicated look, but finally puts away his own sword and bends down to pick it up. He follows the older swordsman in tense silence all the way to the tree line, then leans it against a familiar looking tree.

Di Feisheng props Li Xiangyi against the same tree and kneels beside him to transfer qi. Given that the last times he did this he found that Windy Poplar was too forceful, and the man is unconscious and unable to circulate the borrowed power through his own meridians, he knows he’ll have to be more careful. He closes his eyes to concentrate.