#jin guangyao would immediately use it to gain power but would

[wutheringskies]

Wei Wuxian's first life was doomed

I really implore people to understand absolutely nothing would've saved Wei Wuxian and the Wens in his first life; either he'd end up half a prisoner, or in a bad deal or they'll all end up dying.

The tragedy of MDZS is that a bunch of powerful people decide to snatch all resources, because nobody stood up, nobody cared, nobody dared until there was a war which killed THOUSANDS, destroyed cities, probably let an immense number of resentful spirits linger. The Wens had a literal torture chamber. Wen Chao threw Wei Wuxian into the Burial Mounds so that he can never come back for revenge - they didn't even let the dying speak.

And then the one who fought the hardest realizes that now another sect was heading into the same direction, torturing people, taking the seat of chief cultivator, delving into demonic cultivation. He stands up against it but once again the world is blind, and instead fall prey to the newest authory to fill their own wallets.

Once again, this guy stands up even as the stakes are terribly against him. People say it was his hubris at thinking he could manage it all alone but I've two statements:

1. There was no other choice; it's either surrender and hand power to that sect, have the innocents die and live with that for the rest of your life OR wait until they kill you.

2. It is true as Jin Guangyao said that even if he hadn't lost control at Qionggi Path, could he have really never lost control? But regardless, that means that the world will continue to put him into unfavourable positions instead of just leaving him alone. Imagine, they could've just not invited him; or not ambushed him; or not accused him with an ambush; just left him alone.

Regardless, the point is - he dies, falling into the numerous plans and agendas. In his first life no matter what, he would've died. If not Jin Zixun, someone else would've had something bad happen; if not, one could paint it out; the rumors could worsen; they could literally ambush him while going to the market.

It's an unfair game because if he lives, then he becomes more and more ostracized and the attempts would become all the more devious. If he dies, then it's over anyway - the Wens would die. His cultivation would fall into the wrong hands. If he backs down they will push forward. If he even kills one, that death would be used to incriminate him further. If he gets a public ally, the ally would be killed too (Think about how nobody knows LWJ saved WWX other than the Lan elders - that was the mercy they grant him. Because they were afriad he would be killed)

But it gets torturous when now the sect that rose to power, that is the Jins are revealed to be annihilating entire minor sects and clans in their backyard, building watch towers, killing important people, taking complete domination over the cultivation world - the same things he had once spoken against.

And then another major clan's head summons this guy back to life to go on a personal revenge rendezvous engineered by him, with both the Jin side and the Nie side constantly putting a bunch of kids into danger so that they could hold it over each other's head or ultimately blame it, once again, onto the same guy.

So, yeah, he goes through the entire plot, trying not to fall prey to anyone's plans and saves the children twice and everyone marches over to him to demand compensation for having their parents killed when they came to kill him or their leg broken when they tried to kill him (lmao) and get saved by this guy and the innocents they robbed of from entering the reincarnation cycle by throwing them into the blood pool (sounds familiar yet?)

and now, this guy gets to see the Jin clan fall and immediately people turn onto the Jins because now they're sure to fall, right? It's not righteous. It's not to avenge anyone who was killed. It's to fulfil their own ambitions by dragging those who are at statuses of power to gain some for themselves.

And the fact his ending narration is expectation that Nie Huaisang will perhaps show the world his edges soon is just...like he has no belief in these people anymore. At 20, he perhaps held a sliver of hope. At 35, he understands all of these people are headed for hell and wishes to take no part in it

[silverflame2724]

Accidental Martial God WWX

That was exacty what I meant actually but I do have a few more povs if you want.

LQRs reaction to a demonic cultivator ascending, JGS and JGY reaction to the Yin Tiger Tally moving completely out of reach, WQ pondering the true requirements for ascension given WWX doesn't have a golden core yet ascended, WWX musing on Godhood and on his new followers both the good and the more disturbing worshipers.

Maybe LWJ protects the Wen Remnants because WWX asked him to in a dream and after he succeeds (13 years later) he ascends and is finally reunited with WWX.

Lan Qiren did not know what to think. Wei Wuxian, his most troublesome student, a demonic cultivator, had ascended. He’d ascended. How was that even possible? Were the Heavens blind? Why would they allow someone like Wei Wuxian to ascend?

From what Lan Qiren had thought, only those who are righteous and followed the correct path in life like the Lan clan’s founder, Lan An, would be worthy of ascending.

Either the qualifications for ascension were lower than he thought or Lan Qiren had been horribly mistaken about Wei Wuxian’s personality and motivations for using demonic cultivation. That last thought made Lan Qiren feel very uncomfortable.

He’d always been harsh on the boy and disregarded him, even - he ashamedly admitted - punishing him harsher and more frequently than others.

He’d thought he was in the right because of how Wei Wuxian was but…..

But if he was wrong then Lan Qiren owed him an apology.

………………….

Jin Guangshan wanted to scream out in frustration seeing Wei Wuxian ascend. That brat had the Stygian Tiger Seal on him - according to his spies - and now that he ascended, the Seal went with him.

He had had so many plans on bribing Wei Wuxian to his side or killing him when he refused - as well as stealing the Seal - and then taking over the cultivation world, lording over it as he was always meant to be.

Now those plans are ruined. He sighed. Hopefully that bastard son of his can finally prove his usefulness and give him countermeasures or he might retract his favor from him.

……………………

Jin Guangyao’s first thought upon seeing Wei Wuxian ascend was: Oh shit. I have to go make up new plans to help Father.

He knew his father wanted Wei Wuxian and the Seal and didn’t really care how he obtained both or either, just as long as no one traced it back to him. He sighed. This was going to be a big headache. But at least the plans on putting his father as Chief Cultivator were going smoothly. He could only imagine what his father would do to him if even this failed.

..............................

Wen Qing had still been in Yiling, making plans to relocate her family, when the news that Wei Wuxian had ascended had reached her.

Her first reaction was, That’s impossible.

Because it was, right? Wen Qing should know. She cut out his core, after all. But to think he was still able to ascend while he was a demonic cultivator made her wonder what the requirements were for ascending. Perhaps it’s an honest heart? Self-sacrificing tendencies? Or is it a sacrifice of some sorts? She paused. What if.....it was a trial? To test a person’s will? What Wei Wuxian had suffered was.....horrible. Could it have all been just a test from the Heavens?

If that was so, the Heavens really are cru--- 

“A’ Jie, we have to go! Some Jin were spotted nearby!”

Wen Qing gritted her teeth. Members of the branch families of Qishan, regardless of whether they were innocent or not, were captured and subsequently tortured to death by the Jin and sometimes the Nie. Because her family was all in Yiling, they were safe.......but only for now. They had to hurry and escape.

Wen Qing sent a quick prayer to Wei Wuxian, hoping for her family’s safety, and tucked the rest of her belongings in her qiankun pouch, remembering to wrap her arms in bandages to hide the needles she might need to paralyze any Jin that came close.

....................................

Wei Wuxian’s first thought when he landed in the Heavens was, What the fuck.

Then he looked around and looked taken aback and wary at the unfamiliar faces around him. Where the fuck am I?

“Hello.” A rather stoic-faced man greeted.

“Hello.” Wei Wuxian parroted back. The person in front of him didn’t seem to be a threat so he felt a little tension loosen from his shoulders. “Um, Xiansheng? I’m afraid I don’t know where I am?”

“You have just ascended.” The man replied, throwing Wei Wuxian aback.

“Are you pulling my leg?” Wei Wuxian asked. “How is that even possible! I don’t even have---” He swallowed. I don’t even have a core.

“I do not lie. Come, we are wasting time. We must get you washed up and dressed for the induction ceremony.” Seeing Wei Wuxian still frozen, the man sighed, signalled for some people to pick Wei Wuxian up and dragged the struggling man to some quarters.

After absentmindedly washing, drying and changing himself, Wei Wuxian noticed some differences in his body. He wasn’t....cold or hurting anymore. And - he touched his back - he could feel his back! After having his muscles and nerves shredded by Zidian, he didn’t think he’d ever be able to sense touch on his back or even move without pain! But now he can!

He heard the urging of some people and grumbled.

“You will become a god of demonic cultivation.” Was the first thing he heard when he stepped out of the room.

Wei Wuxian choked. “Excuse me?!”

“I said what I said. Now then, if you would please concentrate, you should be able to hear the prayers of the people below.”

Wei Wuxian felt like everything was moving a little too fast for him, but nevertheless complied. Immediately after, a flood of prayers hit him at full force.

“Wei Wuxian!” That was Jiang Cheng! “….Have some fun up there.”

“A’ Xian, do be well. Shijie isn’t there to take care of you so do be well.” Wei Wuxian refused to cry.

“Wei-Xiong! I hope there’s someone up there to supply you with you know what *winks*”

How does someone even wink in their prayers? Wei Wuxian thought amusedly.

“Wei Ying.” That was Lan Zhan. “Wei Ying, I will—be well.”

Ah, Lan Zhan. Always concise even in your thoughts.

Wei Wuxian was a little teary. As much as he was glad to not be a part of the cultivation world considering all the rumors, he did regret leaving behind those that cared for him.

That thought was much more cemented upon hearing…….

“Ah, Lord Wei, the pinnacle of evil, the role model of all demonic cultivators!” Wei Wuxian’s eye twitched. “Please hear my plea for more power! I need it, I need it to destroy everyone who harmed me!”

“Wei Wuxian, I wish to gain power over resentful energy so that I may tear my enemies limb by limb!

“Give me money! You’re a god, aren’t you? Be useful for once and give me some gold!”

“Tch. If I’m going to pray for anything, then it’ll have to be the Seal. You’re a god, now, right? So you have no need for the Seal. Just give it up.”

No matter the good or bad, Wei Wuxian heard the wishes and prayers of the people down below and while some were innocent enough, there were those that wished for death, destruction, tools for torture, power, money, women…….you name it.

It made Wei Wuxian feel a little disgusted with humanity. He cut off his focus from the bad and focused on the prayer he received from his friends and family.

“Wei Wuxian, I heard you became a god.” It was Wen Qing. He hadn’t heard her voice in a long time. “I know this might seem shameless of me after all I did to you, but please. Please guarantee the safety of my family. We’re being hunted down and—”

Her prayer was abruptly cut off, before coming back in full force with notes of desperation. Her family had been captured and taken to Qiongqi Path! Wei Wuxian panicked. He didn’t know how to escape from this place and try to go help her.

The…..person who was watching over him evidently knew what he was thinking about and merely stated that gods cannot interfere with the mortal realm. So he was stuck.

But that didn’t mean he was out of options.

It took a few days, but he managed to wheedle out how to help: via dreams. He merely needed to get into the mind of one of his followers and tell them to help. Much like those prophetic dreams Wei Wuxian had read about as a kid.

So he buckled down, thinking of the best candidate to help him.

……………………………

Lan Wangji looked at the landscape around him and concluded that he was dreaming. Though, it was a little odd that he was aware that he was dreaming. Not that he hasn’t realized he was dreaming before - especially in those many fantasies he had of Wei Ying - but to be aware that this is a dream and to see nothing but a flat landscape was pretty out of the ordinary. 

Anyway, he digressed. What was going on?

“Uhh, Lan Zhan? Can you hear me?”

“W-Wei Ying?!” Lan Wangji couldn’t be blamed for stuttering. He wasn’t expecting this!

“Phew. Oh good, you can hear me. Anyway, Lan Zhan, I gotta be quick about this because I’m kinda sorta bending the rules here, but do you think you can go to Qiongqi Path and rescue Wen Qing and her family?”

“Okay.”

“Huh? Just like that? Not even going to ask me for a reason, er-gege?”

Lan Wangji’s ears flushed red at the address. “If Wei Ying wants to save them, you must have a good reason. That’s enough for me.”

“Ah, Hanguang-Jun.” The title was spoken fondly. “Always so good. I’ll tell you anyway. Wen Qing and her family sheltered Jiang Cheng and I after Lotus Pier fell and even brought back Jiang-shushu and Yu-furen’s bodies! That’s a debt I cannot repay.”

“I understand. I will help.”

He couldn’t see Wei Ying, but could practically feel the amusement from him.

“Wei Ying.”

“Yes?”

“Are......Are you well?”

“Of course I am. I’m actually feeling so much better than before.” Wei Ying grumbled, “I’m not even in pain anymore.”

“You were in pain?” Lan Wangji asked worriedly. “Wei Ying, why didn’t you say anything.”

“Lan Zhan, there was nothing you or anyone else could do to alleviate my pain. It doesn’t matter now. I’m okay.”

Lan Wangji was still worried and wanted to speak to him more, but---

“Ah! Looks like my time’s up!” Wei Ying exclaimed cheerfully as the dreamscape wavered. “See you, Lan Zhan!”

Lan Wangji nodded. “See you, Wei Ying.” I’ll catch up to you soon.

.

.

.

And 13 years later, Lan Wangji kept his promise.

___________________

I didn’t edit this so I’m hoping there’s not too many grammatical errors lol. 

[cqlfeels]

Hope no one minds if I share a half-baked 3zun theory with the class 😊

It really is half-baked and is shared more like a drunk guy yelling in the subway than like a fandom scholar presenting a lecture 💖

So, sworn brotherhood is way more complicated than exchanging friendship bracelets and promising to be BFFs. It involves the families of all sworn brothers (and we know how important families are in the world of MDZS/CQL) and, for political leaders, it unavoidably gets tangled up in politics. Though speaking of modern-day rather than historical sworn brotherhood, this paper does a pretty good job outlining the functions of ritual kinship, and it's very readable, so I do think people who are Into Serious Meta would enjoy it:

Anyway, here's why WWX speculates 3zun swore brotherhood:

Ever since Meng Yao betrayed the QingheNie Sect, the relationship between Nie MingJue and him hadn’t been the same as before. Then why did they later become sworn brothers? From his observations, aside from how Lan XiChen brought it up, having always hoped that the two would reconcile, the most important factor was probably the gratitude of saving his life and writing the letters. To be precise, in his past battles, he had more-or-less depended on the information that Meng Yao sent over through Lan XiChen. He still thought that Jin GuangYao was a talented person whom one would rarely come upon, and intended on leading him back onto the right path. However, Jin GuangYao wasn’t his subordinate anymore. Only after they became sworn brothers would he have the status and the position to urge Jin GuangYao, like how he disciplined his younger brother, Nie HuaiSang.

Standard unreliable narrator disclaimers apply, etc.

But I always found this... Strange. I do think this is part of NMJ's motivation, but I think gratitude for JGY's role in the war is not nearly enough to swear brotherhood (WWX was also instrumental to winning Sunshot, and I just can't imagine NMJ saying "that's enough for him to become my brother"), and I... Don't think NMJ is so charitable as to swear brotherhood because he wants oh so much for JGY to be Good and not waste his talents. Yes I think he loves being able to have authority over JGY again, but enough to justify swearing brotherhood? Eh. I can see LXC suggesting both these things to pitch the idea to NMJ, but I don't think it's enough for NMJ to go from active distrust to ritual kinship. Of course these are important factors, yes, but not the whole picture. For all else you can say about NMJ, that he takes oaths lightly isn't an accusation you can make.

Interestingly, besides mutual affection, etc, LXC and JGY immediately gain material benefits by becoming brothers. JGY gains social capital by being held up as being close to two different sect leaders, and washes away his past work for the Wen by ritually aligning himself with the two heroes of Sunshot. LXC, on the other hand, can get financial help for his destroyed Sect without losing face - he's not begging for help, he's just gracefully accepting his brothers' generosity. For xiyao, sworn brotherhood brings some measure of stability to the power play they're entangled in the post-war world - JGY exchanges his sect's resources for the soft power of the Lan. (Note that JGY also gets a way to justify to his father why the Jin will lose face if they don't help the Lan, which, if you read JGY as genuinely wanting to help LXC, is also a perk for both of them.)

And NMJ......... Gets to scold JGY into virtue, I guess??? What benefit is he looking for? Just personal satisfaction??? Is he not Nie-zongzhu, isn't he considering his sect? I mean, the Nie as a sect gain nothing by their brotherhood...... Unless you remove NMJ out of the picture. When NHS gets to power, the Nie are poised to gain a lot.

Although both JGY and LXC clearly love NHS, if he outlived his political usefulness (and let's face it, NMJ is sure he will), there's no way they can justify to their sects why they're helping him indefinitely. If NHS is their sworn brother's heir, though? They don't even have to explain themselves - they're expected to help.

Even if NHS is a disastrous sect leader, he automatically inherits an unbreakable alliance with 2/3 of the major sects. The Jiang sure as hell won't go to war against all the other major sects put together, and LXC won't allow the Lan to be anything but nice to NHS as long as he can possibly help it. The Jin are more of a wildcard because NMJ has no reason to believe JGY will ever inherit leadership, but NHS - and by extension his sect - having a Jin on his side is better than no Jin at all. Plus if JGS were a normal father it'd be super awkward for him to go up against one of his son's sworn brothers' sect. There's always assassination and all, but hey, NMJ can't fix every thing in one fell swoop, can he?

So like, I'm not saying it's canon or anything, but it is possible that NMJ - who may be a hot-headed dude but must be capable of some level of strategizing, if he's such a great military man - was counting on dying before his time and leaving behind a beloved but incompetent brother who needs every advantage NMJ can get him if the Nie are to not disappear in a generation. I don't believe he'd take such an oath solely to Turn JGY Into An Upstanding Citizen, but I definitely believe he'd take whatever oath he had to if it's to ensure the protection of both NHS and the Nie sect.

I still have to think things through (maybe this whole theory will fall apart if I remember some direct contradiction or another) but for now I'm inclined to headcanon that this was like, 50% of his motivation, the other 50% being divided among the other reasons WWX outlined.

[xiyao-feels]

And this is from ch 42, on the watchtowers, by the way:

After Jin GuangYao officially succeeded the position of Sect Leader and became the Chief Cultivator, he immediately gathered people and resources from the sects, and started to carry out his past goals. In the beginning, the voices of opposition were deafening. A lot of people suspected that the LanlingJin Sect used it to gain personal benefits and stuff its own pockets. With a smiling face, Jin GuangYao persisted for five years. During the years, he allied but also fell out with countless people. Using both gentle and forceful methods, he did all that he could and what he wished for was finally completed. More than twelve hundred “lookout towers” had been built.

These “lookout towers” were scattered around the more remote places. Every one of them were assigned disciples from certain sects. If anything strange happened, they’d take action at once. When they couldn’t deal with the matter, they’d send out messages to other sects or rogue cultivators for help. Even if the cultivators who came wanted something in return while the locals were too poor to give them any, the money that the LanlingJin Sect gathered throughout each year would be enough to support them.

All of these happened after the death of the YiLing Patriarch. Wei WuXian only heard the ins and outs from Lan WangJi after they passed a few lookout towers during their journey. Rumors had it that Koi Tower was preparing to build the next batch of lookout towers, increasing them to three thousand in number so that they covered a greater area. Although after the first lookout towers were built, they received widespread approvals due to their notable effects, the voices of suspicion and ridicule had never died either. When the time came, the cultivation world would definitely be thrown into chaos again.

I really am always blown away by the sheer scale of it—twelve hundred watchtowers! There's a reason my blog title is what it is. They'd have only been in operation for about six years, but when I think about how many lives they must have saved just directly! And then all the lives saved indirectly, people who didn't die because there were enough hands for the harvest, say, when some of those hands would bave died if the watchtowers hadn't been in place...

And it's not like he was resting on his laurels—he's working to expand it! To three thousand! It's just this absolutely immense undertaking, and it did so much good and it would have done even more good, except—it's not even just that he died, that would have caused problems but I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to arrange something; it's that NHS wanted to destroy everything JGY ever built and loved.

But the watchtowers are one reason the story that he was corrupted by a desire for power really doesn't work for me. If that's so we should expect him to be worst when he has more power—but it's precisely the opposite! And he was working on the plans for these while he was still just Jin Guangyao, before he ever became clan leader, trying to petition his father to work on them—though of course his father wasn't interested. It was his goal before he had the power to bring it about himself, and once he did have the power, he kept working on that goal, and he saved innumerable lives. The idea that this is him being corrupted by power just doesn't fit.

[ibijau]

How to Woo a Lan pt8 / On AO3

Nie Huaisang brings wine and advice

When he had calmed down, Jin Ling wrote to Nie Huaisang. He explained, quite plainly, that he’d been entirely wrong about his assessment of Lan Sizhui’s feelings for him, and that he would no longer come and bother Nie Huaisang about his personal problems. Then, refusing to wallow in misery, Jin Ling had gone back to work.

First, he finished the list of items to be returned to the Ghost General. Even if he’d only started this little project to show his best side to Lan Sizhui, Jin Ling still wanted to see this through, because there was no sense in maintaining old grudges. He also wanted to prove to himself (and perhaps Lan Sizhui as well) that he was a very mature person who was capable of doing the right thing even if there were no advantages to be gained, for no reason other than it being the right thing. 

One could not grow with Jin Guangyao and Jiang Cheng as role models without learning to appreciate the petty joy of acting like the bigger man.

Secondly, Jin Ling then turned to the rest of his normal work, of which there was always plenty. No matter what had happened to Lanling Jin’s reputation among other cultivation sects, for people at large it was still renowned for its wealth and power, and thus received many cries for help every day, many new applicants who wanted to join it. Sometimes it annoyed Jin Ling that these things took so much of his time, but right then it was a real relief to have so much to do, or else he would have wallowed in misery and refused to leave his bed for at least a week.

Then, not four days after this whole debacle went down, Nie Huaisang came to Jinlin Tai.

He did not come in the quiet and solemn way a sect leader would normally visit one of his peers. Instead Nie Huaisang pushed his way past the helpless guards at the gate and made his way inside without anyone being able to stop him, until he’d found Jin Ling’s office where the young man was currently wrangling some bills. Jin Ling was quite shocked by that visit, but Nie Huaisang merely smiled at him, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to be there.

“I figured you might need someone to comfort you after that,” Nie Huaisang just said, ignoring panicked servants and closing the office’s door behind himself. “I know I’m not who you’d probably prefer, but I suppose you don’t have many other options. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s the excruciating pain of loving a Lan who won’t return it.”

Jin Ling, for a moment, was too shocked to say anything.

It wasn’t exactly unexpected for Nie Huaisang to come to Jinlin Tai uninvited. In fact, he used to do so quite often, back when Jin Guangyao had been sect leader. Jin Ling couldn’t count the number of times his unfortunate uncle had been working on something, only to be forced to give up on whatever it was that he’d been doing, because Nie Huaisang had barged in demanding that his problems be solved immediately. Jin Ling used to find it irritating, though since he’d started doing the exact same thing to Nie Huaisang in recent months, he had to admit he understood why the older man had done it. There was something immensely fun about being a nuisance.

But Nie Huaisang hadn’t been a nuisance lately, Jin Ling realised. He’d never come uninvited until that day, even though he clearly could have done so quite easily, as he’d just proven. It might have just been that he had nothing to gain from pestering Jin Ling the way he’d pestered Jin Guangyao… but it felt like more than that. Ever since Jin Ling had become sect leader, Nie Huaisang had been surprisingly polite to him whenever they had to meet on official business. Many of the other sect leaders would treat Jin Ling as a child, but Nie Huaisang, who might have had more reasons than most to enjoy tormenting him over his lack of experience, had never done so.

Even this visit didn’t feel like something he was doing to be annoying. Instead he looked sincerely concerned, almost as if Jin Ling were someone he cared about rather than a brat who’d forced him to become involved in his romantic trouble.

Almost as if they were friends, or something of that sort.

“I… wouldn’t mind some company,” Jin Ling confessed, much to his own surprise. “But I’m busy…”

“Oh, that stuff can wait,” Nie Huaisang replied with a dismissive gesture. “I can see you’re embracing your Jiang side here, trying to keep busy to avoid feeling anything, but that’s a very bad strategy. It certainly hasn’t done your uncle any favours. No, what you need is to let it all explode, maybe have a good cry… though I must warn you, I’m a sympathetic crier. I will be sobbing alongside you, maybe worse than you.”

Jin Ling snorted. “You do cry a lot.”

“It’s excellent for the nerves,” Nie Huaisang claimed. “Now come, let’s go somewhere quiet. You’ll order servants to bring us food, and I’ve brought a most exquisite wine… have you ever had Emperor’s Smile? There’s just nothing like it when you’re heartbroken because of a Lan.”

Again, Jin Ling snorted. Nie Huaisang was such a weird grown-up, nothing at all like his uncle who kept advising him against drinking anything, or his Jin elders who constantly told him he needed to control his emotions more.

But maybe a weird grown-up was what Jin Ling needed at that moment, so he agreed to the plan. Some orders were given to servants, and the two of them retired to Jin Ling’s private quarters, where they sat together at a low table while a number of delicacies were brought to them. Nie Huaisang was on his most polite behaviour while the servants were around, then as soon as the last of them closed the door behind herself, he took a jar of wine from inside his sleeve and started pouring some for himself and for Jin Ling.

“A toast, to love and heartbreak,” he said, before promptly emptying his cup.

Jin Ling drank a little more carefully, mostly because he wasn’t used to drinking too much alcohol. Emperor’s Smile was fresh and filled with delicate notes. It was a speciality from Gusu, he remembered, and like everything from that area, there was something almost impossibly perfect about it.

“Have some more,” Nie Huaisang encouraged, filling and drinking another cup for himself. He did not appear to mind that Jin Ling left his own second cup untouched, and just proceeded to drink most of the wine on his own.

“Are we drinking to my bad luck in love, or yours?” Jin Ling couldn’t resist asking when half the jar was gone.

“Oh, yours of course,” Nie Huaisang replied, his cheeks quite red already from having drunk this much, this fast. “I’ve already cried all that I had to cry for myself, and in the end I know what I’m suffering was brought on by my own choices. But you! Ah, you… you poor, stupid child. You could have had anyone, and you had to fall for a Lan. And not even one of the accessible ones. Which some of them are, let me tell you.”

“I can believe that,” Jin Ling retorted, thinking of Lan Jingyi who would probably be far less unreachable than Lan Sizhui, provided one enjoyed loud and rude people who never knew when to shut up. “But he’s perfect. How am I supposed to not love someone this perfect? I don’t understand how it’s possible not everyone is in love with him. He’s so perfect. And it makes sense that he doesn’t love me back. He’s perfect and I’m… not.”

While Nie Huaisang sympathetically nodded to that, Jin Ling felt overwhelmed by all the despairing sadness he’d been pushing down since Lan Sizhui’s rejection. Unsure what else to do he drank some more wine, but that quickly proved a mistake because almost right away Jin Ling started crying.

“I really do love him,” he sniffled. “It’s not fair… I love him and I thought he liked me at least! I really thought he did, I really thought I had a chance. I’m so stupid. How could I think I had a chance?”

“Nothing stupid in that,” Nie Huaisang replied softly, patting Jin Ling’s hand with surprising gentleness. “Plenty of people would be happy to have a chance with you, I think.”

“I don’t want plenty of people. I want Sizhui. And he doesn’t want me. He’s never going to want me. He thinks I’m stupid, and that I’m a kid, and that I’m not even really in love with him.”

Nie Huaisang froze in the middle of patting Jin Ling’s hand. His expression, which the wine had rendered drowsy and soft, suddenly turned sharp again and he straightened his back.

"Wait,” he said, no longer sounding drunk at all. “I need to know something, so I can give you my honest opinion as a Lan expert. What did he say when you told him you love him?" 

"He said I didn't," Jin Ling sniffled.

"Hm. Hmmm. Hm. Did he say anything regarding a preference of his own for women?"

The question was odd enough to startle Jin Ling out of his tears, and forced him to think again about that most terrible day when all his hopes had been so mercilessly crushed.

"No. He just said that I didn't love him either anyway, and he was flattered, and it made him happy that I'd think of him that way, but that we should stop talking for a while because it just couldn’t happen. And then he left."

"Fascinating,” Nie Huaisang exclaimed, suddenly quite excited. “Jin zongzhu, you still have a lot to learn about the Lan mind, I see. Something like that ? That isn't rejection."

"Well, it sure felt like it!" Jin Ling replied, and started crying again.

With more tact than expected, Nie Huaisang nodded, and calmed down again. He even went so far as to pat Jin Ling’s shoulder, giving it a little squeeze in sympathy.

"Yes, I can imagine that. I think it was intended to be taken as a rejection, in fact. But…” Nie Huaisang paused, and drank some more, but more slowly than before, as if trying to truly enjoy the taste of the wine. “You see, the Lans have a rule against lying, and I know for a fact that the innermost part of the Lan clan takes it very seriously. They will try not to lie even if it goes against their interest. And your little friend was raised by Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji, who in their respective ways are both unbending about refusing to tell a lie."

"I don't think I've ever heard Lan zongzhu called unbending by anyone before."

"Because he's very good at that game," Nie Huaisang explained with a proud grin, his cheeks flushing darker as if merely thinking of Lan Xichen still brought him joy. "He's very much like your late uncle in that regard. There's a reason they got along so well. I've seen them avoid entire conversations with immense skill. I've also witnessed Lan Xichen being asked unreasonable things by very unpleasant people and spinning them around until they'd promised to do the unreasonable thing on their own, or given up entirely."

"Were you ever one of those unpleasant people?" 

"Irrelevant," Nie Huaisang said, which meant yes. “My point is, I think your little friend was trying very hard to not lie to you, while also not telling you the whole truth. He didn’t say he doesn’t love you, he said… well, he basically said that he shouldn’t love you, for which I don’t exactly blame him. Not an easy position he’s in. Not easy at all. But I told you that the very first time you came to me for advice, didn’t I?”

“I guess,” Jin Ling sniffled, wiping the wetness on his cheeks with the palm of his hands. “I just don’t get why. I know it’s not ideal that we’re both boys, but I’ll jump through every hoop the sect elders demand, if I can be with him.”

“Cute. Sweet. Very touching. Absolutely irrelevant, though,” Nie Huaisang said, “because the problem really isn’t you, it’s him. There are certain details about Lan Sizhui that mean it would be complicated for him to marry anyone at all.”

“You know something,” Jin Ling accused. “And you’re not telling me.”

Nie Huaisang shrugged, and pulled out his fan. When he opened it, the movement was less elegant than usual, his trembling hand fumbling a little.

“I know many things,” Nie Huaisang replied, looking to the side. “A lot of which I’d be happier not knowing. Most of it, I would share with anyone asking and not worry about it. Ultimately people’s secrets are not my problem, and if they were stupid enough to share it once, I don’t see why I shouldn’t share it twice if it suits my purposes. But this…” He started fanning himself nervously. “I have not often been worthy of Zewu-Jun’s trust. For this, I must try to be. I will not tell you what I know, Jin zongzhu.”

“It’s a bit late to worry about being worthy of him,” Jin Ling muttered, pouring some more wine. “But I guess that’s fair. I’ll just have to figure this out on my own.”

“Hm. Hmmm. I could give you hints,” Nie Huaisang suggested, his fan stilling. “No oath broken in doing that. I’ve already given you hints anyway.”

“You’ve just said it’s a bad idea to be in love with Sizhui. And, and that he’s got a big secret.”

“Very big,” Nie Huaisang agreed. “Huge. Terrible mess when people find out… and in my experience, people always find out. Or maybe they won’t. The Lans are better than most at keeping secrets. But that thing… well. Well. Anyway. You see, Lans are good at secrets. And they’re also good at self-sacrifice. Your little boyfriend, he’s scared of what you’ll say, and he’s scared of what’ll happen to you if you’re associated with him when it all breaks out.”

“I don’t care what happens. I love him and I’ll stand by him!”

“Delightful. Lovely. Ah, to be young and romantic!” Nie Huaisang exclaimed, his eyes shining as if he might cry. “To think nothing can stand in the way of true love! I miss that! Jin Rulan, you are a delight, and I can see why someone like Lan Sizhui might fall in love with you. Sadly, it’s also the exact reason why he’ll do his best to keep you out of his life. How is the poor boy supposed to deal with being loved like that?”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s scary, letting someone love you,” Nie Huaisang said, getting more serious. “Especially when you carry a secret that could impact the life of others. I know that I… well. Sometimes, when you have a secret, you’d rather let it devour you alive than take the risk of sharing it. After all, to bare your soul to another, to give them the power to destroy you… It takes great courage.”

“And you didn’t do it.”

“I didn’t. I can’t even say I regret it. I couldn’t risk losing Zewu-Jun, I just wasn’t brave enough. But I think you would have that courage, because you're a much better person than I am."

Jin Ling considered that for a moment. The wine was starting to make it a little hard to think, but he was pretty sure that was intended as a compliment, though it might well have been an insult as well.

“Do you think Sizhui will regret it someday if he doesn’t take the risk of trusting me?”

“I think whatever he chooses, he’ll have regrets,” Nie Huaisang said, slowly fanning himself. “In his position, it would be impossible not to have some, because there’s no right choice for him. But I think it’s much easier to deal with regret when you’re in bed with a pretty boy who thinks you’re worth risking the anger of the entire world.”

“Shut up,” Jin Ling grumbled, feeling his cheeks heat up from the wine, but mostly from the thought that maybe someday he could be laying in bed with Lan Sizhui. He barely dared to think about doing more than kissing at normal times, but the wine was getting to him and making it a little too easy for his imagination to go wild. “You’re a horrible old man and a pervert, Nie zongzhu.”

“Can’t deny it. It’s pretty fun, and it lets you get revenge against young boys who come to pester you while you’re trying to be self-pitying and to convince yourself that love isn’t real, only to then remind you that you too used to have a heart. Do I look like I want to have a heart? Do I? A heart is more useless to me than my sabre, and that’s saying something.”

“You’re an idiot,” Jin Ling stated without heat.

“Of course I am,” Nie Huaisang laughed. “Why do you think they call me Headshaker? I am very stupid indeed. And yet here you are, relying on me for advice, so what does that make you?”

Jin Ling stuck out his tongue at the older man, annoyed that he couldn’t find anything clever to reply, then snatched the jar of Emperor’s Smile so he could finish it. Nie Huaisang made a great show of protesting against such a rude action, complaining that the youth of today had no respect for their elders, that he certainly didn’t drink so much when he was that age, and that in fact he still barely drank at all even now. A speech that might have been more effective if he hadn’t at the same time pulled out a second jar of wine, pouring some for both of them while Jin Ling cackled in a most unbecoming manner.

Nie Huaisang was an odd man, but he wasn’t a bad friend to have on a sad day.

[songofclarity]

Something that is so rarely talked about but is actually very good is that Xiao XingChen and Nie MingJue are basically cut from the same cloth. They were allies! At one point they stood side-by-side and sealed their tragic fates over the same cause.

Xiao XingChen, not Nie MingJue, was the first person to press the Jin Sect to severely punish Xue Yang for what happened to the Chang Clan. No one at the time knew that Xue Yang, a guest cultivator of the Jin Sect, was their secret Demonic Cultivation mastermind and Stygian Tiger Seal repairman. Wei WuXian was dead and the Jin Sect were still trying to rise up to be as the Wen Sect once were, but now this famous young cultivator who is still nonetheless an outsider is trying to make them cut off their own right hand.

Please just imagine Xiao XingChen standing in the main hall at Jinling Tower. He has receipts in his hands of all of Xue Yang’s crimes. Xue Yang, as Xiao XingChen’s prisoner, is probably sitting there wrapped in ropes and chains, but looks like he hasn’t a care in the world. It’s a Discussion Conference so all the powerful and prestigious people are there--except one. Everyone is nodding in agreement that yes, Xiao XingChen has brought excellent evidence! They have no objection to Xue Yang being executed.

But while no one objects to executing Xue Yang, no one else present is supporting execution, either, because Jin GuangShan isn’t supporting it. So Xiao XingChen can talk everyone’s ears off but it’s not going to change anything. The Jin Sect don’t care about justice. Xiao XingChen might be famous but he’s still an outsider. He’s powerless here. But he still doesn’t back down! A stalemate ensues and he still doesn’t back down!

And then the doors bust open and the light shines through and--Nie MingJue has arrived! Nie MingJue who was chilling at home until he got news of the complete and utter fuckery going on. He is the one and only person to give Xiao XingChen actual support because you know what? Xiao XingChen is right! The receipts are right there! And Nie MingJue doesn’t have the patience of Xiao XingChen to let the Jin Sect hem and haw over what to do to a now red-handed mass murderer.

Neither Xiao XingChen nor Nie MingJue have anything to gain from causing this scene, but it’s the right thing to do, so they do it.

"Taking advantage of the Discussion Conference that was happening at the Jinling Tower of the Lanling Jin Sect's residence, when the most prominent sects met up and discussed cultivation methods, Xiao XingChen brought [Xue Yang] over, explained the situation, and demanded severe punishment.

"With his straightforward list of evidence, most sects didn't have any objections, except for one--the Lanling Jin Sect. (ch. 30, ERS)

...

Although the Lanling Jin Sect was determined on protecting Xue Yang, Xiao XingChen didn't waver either. As the stalemate continued, they finally startled ChiFeng-Zun, Nie MingJue, who didn't intend on participating in the Discussion Conference. He hurried over to Jinling Tower from far away." (ch. 30, ERS)

Nie MingJue, who was minding his own business, is the one who breaks the stalemate. On a side note, it’s interesting how Nie MingJue didn’t even attend this Discussion Conference, which are usually sizeable affairs with many leaders present. We know that Nie MingJue does not usually stick his nose in where it doesn’t belong. Although he once called for the punishment of the Wen remnants after the Sunshot Campaign, he never followed through until Wen Ning killed Nie cultivators at Jinling Tower (wow, that must have been really convenient for the Jin Sect who wanted all the other sects to rally with them again Wei WuXian! Not suspicious at all. Having a secret demonic cultivator who could have taken control of Wen Ning on staff is quite a perk.) By all means, Nie MingJue has had enough of death and war, and he wants to focus on his mental health and home.

But it’s hard for Nie MingJue to stay out of a problem when Xiao XingChen has the evidence against a mass murderer who should rightfully be severely punished.

"Ever since Xue Yang was brought to Jinling Tower by Xiao XingChen, he hadn't been scared at all. Even when Nie MingJue's saber was pressed against his neck, he still had a grin on his face."

It’s easy to be confident when Xue Yang knows he’s untouchable, and he’s untouchable because he knows the Jin will do everything in their power to protect him.

Nie MingJue ends the stalemate by 1. giving Jin GuangShan an angry lecture (FINALLY someone stands up against Jin GuangShan!) and 2. scolding Jin GuangYao into silence for trying to calm everyone down (because Jin GuangYao only cares about appearances and not content).

"In the end, the Lanling Jin Sect could only give in."

So Xiao XingChen's efforts and evidence were good, everyone agreed they were good, but everyone was going to ignore him until Nie MingJue tackled the problem from another angle. Although Jin GuangShan and Jin GuangYao are lying about giving in, at the moment, Xiao XingChen and Nie MingJue get to part as unlikely allies.

Keep in mind this is the first and only time Nie MingJue goes against the Jin Sect directly. Nie MingJue had been the only person against the establishment of the Chief Cultivator position, but that situation never got heated. The Nie Sect is, however, the one sect that has been the greatest threat to Jin Sect domination since the Sunshot Campaign ended. So by Nie MingJue finally standing his ground here and now in a very public fashion by showing that the Jin are not allowed to do whatever they selfishly want, the Jin Sect is feeling very uneasy in their world domination plans.

But the matter is now publicly settled with the confirmation of Xue Yang’s upcoming execution. Xiao XingChen goes back into the world to be the best Bright Moon and Gentle Breeze he can be. Nie MingJue goes back home to mind his own business. (Remember how he wasn't even going to attend the conference! He wasn’t even acting like a public figure, throwing his weight around, until Xiao XingChen needed a heavy hitter on his team!) So whenit’s revealed that the Jin Sect lied, only one of them hears the news.

"The Lanling Jin Sect was indeed the sect with the thickest face. Although, on Jinling Tower, it promised in front of all the sects that Xue Yang would be executed, when it left Nie MIngJue's sight, it immediately shut Xue Yang into the dungeons and changed the original decision to a life sentence."

Who is left to continue fighting this battle on Xiao XingChen's behalf but Nie MingJue, the one person who actually agreed with him?

Xiao XingChen and Nie MingJue are literally hand-in-hand when it comes to justice. Nie MingJue uses his position as a Sect Leader of equal standing to Jin GuangShan to try to hold the Jin Sect responsible--and to keep the Jin from acting like the Wen Sect before them.

"Hearing about the matter, Nie MingJue was enranged and pressed on them again. The Lanling Jin rambled about, refusing to give him Xue Yang no matter how hard he tried. All of the other sects watched them from the sidelines, but, shortly afterward, Nie MingJue passed away from a qi deviation."

A qi deviation! Wow, what a coincidence, huh?? That sure made this rock and a hard place that Xiao XingChen and Nie MingJue pushed the Jin into go away real fast! Jin GuangYao says during the stair scene that he doesn’t want to lose his status and position, and that he is willing to sacrifice the lives of everyone else in order to prioritize his own standing. Nie MingJue insulted Jin GuangYao on a personal level, but the real issue is that he was continuing to press the Jin Sect to execute Xue Yang, which would mean the whole Jin Sect would lose their upper hand.

Nie MingJue's last public act was upholding justice and holding the Jin Sect accountable. The Jin Sect wanted to be in charge of everything as the Chief Cultivator but were doing a piss poor job at it already. He only approached Jin GuangYao when he was getting nowhere with Jin GuangShan, because wasn't Jin GuangYao supposed to be a good person? Wasn’t he supposed to have spied for them because he believed in their cause and not just the glory? Wasn’t he supposed to have murdered Nie MingJue's men because he wanted to save Nie MingJue's life and not just profit off of having Nie MingJue owe him something like sworn brotherhood to make up for the debt?

And Nie MingJue was murdered to protect the life of a murderer. With Nie MingJue gone and Xiao XingChen away, no one else cared to pay attention.

The Jin Sect broke their promise and good people paid with their lives over it. The watchtowers were a mockery of justice when Jin GuangYao, finally in control as Sect Leader and Chief Cultivator, was the one who set Xue Yang free once more.

And Song Lan lost his eyes, his temple, and his closest companion to that known murderer.

And Xiao XingChen committed suicide over being manipulated by that murderer.

But at one point Xiao XingChen and Nie MingJue stood side-by-side against a blatant evil. An evil that they have receipts for! But just as Wei WuXian on his own was not enough, Xiao XingChen and Nie MingJue as two were not enough. The mystery of Nie MingJue’s decapitated fierce corpse and the horrors found in Yi City, however, are directly connected.

The tragedy of two good men.

[scarletjedi]

Untitled Untamed Time Travel Fixit AU but make it Mingcheng

@piyo-13

Part 1

Part 2A

PART 2B: GUSU UNLEASHED

Nie Huaisang immediately grabs a piece of blank paper to write a message back to Nie Mingjue, leaving Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian staring at each other. “Well,” Wei Wuxian said after a minute. “Aren’t you going to write to him, too?”

Jiang Cheng startled, he’d been too caught up in Huaisang’s words, “He’s alive!”. He had been prepared to go through the process of meeting Nie Mingjue again, of hopefully catching his attention, of watching A-Jue fall for him the way Jiang Cheng had fallen years ago — that his lover was here, alive, and *knew him* had not had time to process.

Trembling, Jiang Cheng moved from his bed, weak limbs pouring him like water until he was sat up against the table, taking the paper that Huaisang handed him. He stared, blankly. What to *say*?

“Tell him you love him,” Wei Wuxian said from his bed.

“Tsk, he knows that,” Jiang Cheng said with little snap.

“Then tell him you want to fuc—”

“Ah, la la la la!” Nie Huaisang said, covering his ears, and Wei Wuxian fell back laughing. Nie Huaisang winked at him. “Be honest,” he said. “But be short,” he looked down at his own missive. “All of this needs to fit on the bird.”

Nodding, Jiang Cheng picked up his brush. After a moment, he put ink to paper, writing in quick, sure strokes. He fanned the paper back and forth a few times to dry the ink faster, and folded the note to hand to Huaisang. Huaisang took it with a grin and ran from the room to send the message back.

“What did you write?” Wei Wuxian asked.

“None of your business.”

Two days later Nie Zonghui would bring the messages to Nie Mingjue, who would open Huaisang’s note, only to have a smaller note fall free. He would pick it up with a small frown before reading Huaisang’s note, smiling — blinking, then reading the note again. “If he put nearly have the effort into studying...” he muttered and Zongui would hide a smile. Then, Mingjue would open the smaller missive, nearly dropping the paper in shock, scrambling to catch it. “Sect Leader?” Zonghui would ask, and when Nie Mingjue looked up, he would be beaming.

Now, Nie Mingjue, who had fought, lead, and won a war, lead a sect, and died a slow, agonizing descent into his greatest fears, finds himself once more at 19, newly made Section Leader, and the clearest minded he’s been in years, without the damage caused by cultivating a war and...well. He wasn’t actually sure *how* Meng Yao managed to kill him, just that he knew he had.

Which was another problem. By this point, Huaisang was safely in Cloud Recesses, but Meng Yao was on his way back to Qinghe. It would take him most of a week to return, traveling on horseback as he was, and Nie Mingjue wasn’t sure what reception Meng Yao should receive.

Meng Yao, long before he was renamed by his father, had acted in ways that were counter to the values of the Nie sect. Even if Nie Mingjue were to overlook the crimes he committed as Jin Guangyao, or the atrocities he participated in as a torturer for Wen Ruohan, his crimes began in Qinghe.

Crimes that, as far as Nie Mingjue was aware, had not yet happened. Even before Meng Yao had used the chaos of an attack to kill the captain of his guardNie, Mingjue was never sure how much Meng Yao spoke was the truth — just knew that at one point he was sure Meng Yao had never lied to him, and then was never sure Meng Yao was not lying.

In his previous life, Nie Mingjue turned most often to Lan Xichen for council, particularly wher Meng— Jin Guangyao was concerned. Then, as years passed, Xichen would turn ever more towards Jin Guangyao first, and Nie Mingjue found himself turning to Jiang Wanyin as their wartime sparring turned to tent-side comfort, to comraderie to courtship.

A-Cheng.

For all that Mingjue had more years of experience leading a sect, Wanyin’s experience was a similar enough trial by fire to grant him insight, and an outsider enough to the triumvirate to offer an outsider’s clarity.

Truly, his love possessed an uncanny wisdom hidden behind brusque words and toothless threats.

He wished for Wanyin’s council now. He wished for his presence. It had already been too long since they had last seen each other before Mingjue made his last, fateful visit to Jinlintai. It would likely be several months, if not years, before their paths would cross once more.

And— he missed his lover as a lover. Wanyin was a beautiful man, strong and proud and fierce and so sweet in private. A joy and a challenge.

Getting Huaisang’s letter was bittersweet because his didi had already suffered so much: even the first time, Mingjue had wanted Hauisang’s youth to be as worry free as possible, to have the freedom to be careless in a way Mingjue never had. And sweet, because it meant that Mingjue wasn’t alone in this.

Getting Wanyin’s message was a blessing and a curse. He had already resigned himself to wait, to reach out to the Jiang Sect in support to save Wanyin his own heartbreak, to court him properly from the beginning. To know that his love was here, and yet still so far out of reach...

Huaisang’s letter boiled down to “plan in motion. Do not engage.” Which...

“Didi,” Nie Mingjue muttered. “What are you doing?”

Because, the thing is, Mingjue would *like* to listen to Huaisang. Mingjue was tired, and doing the right thing was an increasingly difficult and murky task....but Mingjue was also a just and righteous man. Certain actions he would take no matter what...and certain actions he would not.

The facts were thus:

Meng Yao had killed him in a way that was both intensely malicious and duplicitous. (Nie Mingjue was unsure as to his motive. What did Meng Yao gain aside from petty revenge? No, the method was revenge. The act...the act was something different).

Meng Yao had not, as of yet, committed any crime, nor was he currently capable of the technique that had been used to kill Mingjue.

Nie Mingjue could not in good conscience kill a man who had committed no crime, nor could he stand by and allow another to fall off the righteous path when it was within his power to prevent. (Was it within his power?)

So, Nie Mingjue could neither punish Meng Yao for crimes he had not yet committed, nor could was he able to relax in Meng Yao’s presence the way he had the first time around.

...Maybe Huaisang had ideas.

[later] “I can’t believe this!” Huaisang glared at the letter from his brother. Jiang Cheng’s own letter sat in his pocket to be perused later. It felt almost hot, the way his focus continually drifted towards the folded paper, but he knew better than to read his lover’s letter in front of Huaisang. Not if he wanted to keep any pretense to dignity.

“What is it?” he prompted when Huaisang fell silent, re-reading furiously.

“He wants to rehabilitate Meng Yao! His own murderer!”

“Meng Yao didn’t come back with the rest of us,” Jiang Cheng offered. “He’s not the man who killed your brother. Not yet, anyway.”

“You didn’t see—” Huaisang cut himself off, looking away and biting his lip. Jiang Cheng shifted, focusing on the letter to let the heat of its presence chase away the chill of the reminder that when his lover had died, Jiang Cheng wasn’t there.

“A tiger can not change his stripes,” Nie Huaisang muttered, and hid his face behind his fan.

[The discussion over what happens to Meng Yao plays out thusly:

NHS: I don’t want to kill Meng Yao, Da-ge! I just don’t want him alive. Anymore.

NMJ: Didi, no.

NHS: Didi, yes!

Ultimately, NMJ pulls the big brother/sect leader card and says they have time to deal with Meng Yao, and since Meng Yao was currently NMJ’s problem, he would deal with it. NHS threw a tantrum that reminded everyone that yes, NHS is related to NMJ by blood, but finally went: “fine! It’s not like the *whole reason* we came back wasn’t to fuck up all of his shit!” and adjusted his plans again.]

When he goes back to his room, Jiang Cheng finds himself alone. He can bet that Wei Wuxian will be off with Lan Wangji (and no, Jiang Cheng doesn’t know why Wei Wuxian hasn’t just moved in with his boyfriend, considering how often he comes skittering into the room just on the wrong side of curfew, mussed and bruised in a very specific way that Jiang Cheng a) wants to know no more about and b)isn’t jealous of, fuck off.), so he has time to read his letter.

Cheng-er,

We never were a pair for letters, you and I, preferring to steal time for each other like a pair of romantic thieves. I regret, now, not making more time to woo and court you properly then — though I fear I already had all you could give — not desire, you showed me your hunger for me readily enough, matched only by my hunger for you — but hours of the day.

I think very fondly of our nights.

This second chance makes me desire to do better, to build you a place in my life from the start, as I hope you build a place for me. We are young, yet, and have time to hope.

I miss you, Wanyin. Cheng-er. Please write to me. A letter is a poor substitute for your fire, but I will cherish even these scraps above silence.

Yours,

A-Jue

Jiang Cheng wasn’t sure how long he was there, re-reading the letter, when Wei Wuxian tumbled in, only to stop when he caught sight of Jiang Cheng.

“Jiang Cheng! You’re pink!” Wei Wuxian crowed, pointing a finger and laughing at the way Jiang Cheng startled. “Who wrote to you to make you blush? What did he say?”

“None of your business,” Jaing Cheng snapped, tucking the letter away.

A-Jue,

Who gave you the right to write such a letter? Who would believe the NIe Sect leader to be so shameless? You can take a lesson from your brother in poetry if you are planning to continue!

Building a space — as if I did not rebuild my piers with a place for you. As if you had not already crawled into my heart to live.

I lost you once, A-Jue. I will not lose you again.

I await your next letter,

Yours, always,

Cheng-er

Jiang Cheng hands the folded paper to Nie Huaisang, face burning. For once, Nie Huaisang doesn’t tease, doesn’t give him a knowing smirk. Instead, his eyes are kind, and he takes the letter with little fanfare, tucking it neatly into his own missive to be sent off at once.

When the next letter comes, Jiang Cheng doesn’t even bother waiting, taking the letter and retreating to the sound of Nie Huaisang’s laughter.

Cheng-er

You want poetry, do you?...

Jiang Cheng’s eyes skip over the page and he gasps aloud, face burning as he looks around to see that no one else is near. To write such things! Shameless! But...oh, how it lights a fire in him, and he’s breathless with his, dizzy with sudden, frustrated want that he cannot satisfy.

In the end, Nie Mingjue was right. The words are a poor substitute, but Jiang Cheng would not trade this letter for anything.

The next morning, Jiang Cheng approaches Wei Wuxian with an idea for a long-distance communication array, one that could be personally powered and used. The reasons he gives are all to do with military strategy, but he needn’t have bothered. The challenge to create something new has Wei Wuxian distracted immediately, and he wanders off to the library mid-sentence.

The next free afternoon they have in Caiyi, Jiang Cheng purchases a wooden box, cleverly built with locking compartments and false bottoms. It is perfectly sized for folded letters.

Time passes. Now that Jiang Cheng has thirteen years of lived experience - and hard years of war and cuthroat sect politics and rebuilding his sect - the lessons aren’t easier, per say, but they have context that he missed the first time. HIs understanding is more in depth, which quickly makes him a favorite of Lan Qiren to call on — even if his actual answer (usually “threaten them with Zidian”) wasn’t the answer he provided in class. Wei Wuxian was also a calmer presence in class - still questioning, still pushing limits, but when Lan Qiren calls on Wei Wuxian to answer his questions, Wei Wuxian’s answers are thoughtful, inventive, but within the bounds of conventionality. Surprisingly, it’s Lan Wangji who suggests solutions that boarder on the heretical — solutions that Jiang Cheng knows come to pass, such as the spirit attraction flags.

It’s enough to make Lan Qiren change colors, and judging by the tiny smirk on LWJ’s face, it’s absolutely deliberate. (The one class that Lan Xichen sits in on is, actually, hilarious, as he seems consistently torn between laughter and exasperation at his brother’s small rebellion).

Nie Huaisang, however, seems to be *genuinely struggling* with the material. So much so that Jiang Cheng takes pity and drags him (and Wangxian) into the library one afternoon to actually study rather than their usual spot by the river where they would refine their plan to keep everyone alive that they actually cared about keeping alive, and killing those who needed killing as efficently as possible. (“That’s a rather blunt way of thinning about this, Jaing Cheng,” WWX said to him. JC had just shrugged. He didn’t see the reason to couch the truth in political double speak when he didn’t have to”)

After an hour or so, Nie Huaisang slumped forward over the table, thumping his forehead against he lacquered wood. “It’s no use. I’m going to have to repeat this year again, *again*”

“I don’t understand it,” Jiang Cheng said. He knew that Huaisang was smart; he figured out Jin Guangyao’s plot, he successfully modified the time travel array — Jiang Cheng was pretty sure he ran Qinghe’s spy rin duing the war, though that had never been confirmed. “I know you know things.”

“I don’t,” he wailed. “I don’t know anything. Don’t ask me.”

“I don’t mean to alarm anyone,” Wei Wuxian said, leaning in and keeping his voice low. “But we have a spy in our midst.”

“Those rumors were never proven,” Huaisang said, sniffling.

“Not you,” Wei Wuxian said, and angled his head in a way that he only thought was subtle towards where Jin Zixuan was sitting, stiff and imperious, with an exasperated Luo Qingyang. “He’s been doing that a lot,” he said.

Jiang Cheng watched him for a long moment, trying to remember the frustration he felt with a young Jin Zixuan who hadn’t yet unlearned the smug superiority of Jinlintai...but all he could see was little Jin Ling, awkward from growing up alone and desperately lonely (except Jin Ling had picked up Jiang Cheng’s bad habit of expressing any emotion as anger, and it seemed Zixuan had chosen...smug silence.)

“Aw, crap,” Jiang Cheng muttered, because as soon as he realized it, he knew what he had to do. Pushing himself up, he stalked over to Jin Zixuan, ignoring the hissed complaints of Wei Wuxian, and stared down at him, arms crossed.

“What do you want?” Jin Zixuan sneered. Behind him, Luo Qingyang rolled her eyes, and Jiang Cheng huffed.

“Cute. But you got nothing on my mother.” Jin Zixuan blinked, surprise loosening some of the stiffness in his posture. Rolling his eyes, Jiang Cheng snapped. “Look. You’re not subtle. We see you. So do you want to sit with us or not?” He looked between them. “Both of you.”

Jin Zixuan nodded, then blinked as if surprised at himself. Luo Qingyang stood to salute, but Jiang Cheng waved it off.

“Great, come on,” Jiang Cheng said, and turned around, not waiting to see if they. He sat back in his seat, shifting books to make room. He didn’t really want to sit next to Zixuan, but with Nie Huaisang sprawled over his books and Wei Wuxian practically in Lan Wangji’s lap, it was the only safe place for them.

Nie Huaisang sat back, looking at Jiang Cheng over his fan. “What?” He snapped.

“Softie,” Nie Huaisang said softly, and Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes.

“He needs to learn, and Luo Qingyang is the only one at Jinlintai right now that I trust,” he muttered.

Wei Ying squinted at Jiang Cheng, as if trying to figure something out, but when Jin Zixuan and Luo Qingyang appeared, he blinked at her, surprised, and perked up in recognition. “Mianmian!”

Which, of course, was the wrong thing to say. Jin Zixuan puffed up, and Lan Wangji hissed a pained Wei Ying, and Nie Huaisang was being no help. So, Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes again and translated.

“No offense meant, Lady Luo,” he said. “My brother’s memory for names is notoriously bad, but he means no disrespect by his over familiarity.”

Thankfully Luo Qingyang smiled. “No offence taken, Young Master Jiang. If your offer is genuine, and we are to be friends, then you may call me Mianmian.”

Jaing Cheng smiled. “Then please join us, Mianmian. I am Jiang Cheng.”

That caused everyone to look at him, and he glared. “What?! I have manners.”

“Jiang-xiong is quite a gentleman,” Nie Huaisang agreed, mildly, and Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes. That tone always meant mischief.

“And you’re a pain in my—”

“No excess talking in the library,” Lan Wangji interrupted, staring placidly back when Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng both glared at him. Well, Jiang Cheng glared. Nie Huaisang pouted.

After a moment, Jin Zixuan grunted softly, as if someone had elbowed him in his ribs. He cleared his throat. “What are you working on?” he asked woodenly, as if speaking from a poorly rehearsed script. Out of the corner of his eye, Jiang Cheng saw Mianmian nod encouragingly.

“We’re trying to help Nie-xiong pass the next exam,” Wei Wuxian offered.

“Who’s we?” Jiang Cheng muttered, flipping his book open once more. “Unless sitting in Lan Wangji’s lap is a new study method.”

Nie Huaisang giggled behind his fan as Wei Wuxian squawked, reaching out to smack Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, only to be hauled back with apparent ease by Lan Wangji.

Lan Wangji who, arms wrapped securely around Wei Wuxian, stared square at Jiang Cheng and said. “It is an advanced technique.”

“Lan Zhan!” Wei Wuxian protested, going pink in the face, and Nie Huaisang’s giggles turned to outright laughter.

Jin Zixuan leaned into to Jiang Cheng. “Is it always like this?”

Jiang Cheng shrugged. “Pretty much. Those two decided shame was for other people a long time ago.”

“I...have questions,” Jin Zixuan said.

Jiang Cheng turned and looked at him. “You know, so do I. But mine might involve yelling, so the library probably isn’t the best place for them.”

(It takes a while to build up to the conversation, a few weeks until Jin Zixuan is comfortable enough to sit with them without Mianmian as a social buffer. He’s still insufferable, but more and more Jiang Cheng sees the kid he remembers from childhood visits, and even shades of the proud yet just man that he almost had a chance to fully grow into being.)

Meanwhile, something is shifting between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, the simmering tension between them boiling over, and Jiang Cheng is both sure that they’ve actively started fucking and and sure that he wants *absolutely nothing to do with it.* He does not want to hear it, see it, smell it — which makes it difficult when Wei Wuxian proves that he has no filter, and Lan Wangji proves he has no shame.

What had actually happened was Lan Xichen had approached Lan Wangji and said that he was glad LWJ was making friends, and hey, haven’t you been spending an awful lot of time with that Wei Wuxian kid? Don’t worry, little brother, I’ll keep Uncle off your back.” LWJ was unsure if Xichen knew that LWJ and WWX were together, but was unsure how to clarify. Every time he tried, LXC seemed to double down on his interpretation of their relationship as being the same as his with NMJ (and while NMJ thought LXC was pretty, he was more interested in Xichen’s swordplay than his *swordplay*) - and LWJ decided that the best course of action was to kiss Wei Wuxian as much as possible as often as possible.

For the record, Lan Xichen was well aware of his little brother’s inclinations, and was quite enjoying his own spot of harmless rebellion by encouraging Wangji’s shamelessness. Besides, Wei Wuxian was a good match for Wangji, and it was a relief to see Wangji smiling. Perhaps it was time to begin drafting some marital paperwork. It wouldn’t do to be caught unprepared, afterall.

He hoped they married in the spring. He always loved a spring wedding...

Somewhere, Jiang Cheng felt a chill.

NEXT TIME - THE RETURN OF THE MAIN PLOT

[drwcn]

CQL Fanfic Idea: AKA That Time Yanli Becomes Sect Leader, Jiang Cheng found out that his core was not his own, and nobody dies.

When Jiang Cheng was left without a golden core, it was decided between the three siblings that Yanli would act as Sect Leader until they figure something out. It’s been done before: ex. Lan Yi.  

Yanli was charming and diplomatic, but firm and fierce when she needed to be. She was a leader, if only their parents had let her wield her talents.

Then WWX, as the self-sacrificng idiot that he is… began to work on the surgery with the Wens.

BUT! Every good surgeon knows, yall can’t just take someone’s organ and put it in someone else willy nilly. The transferring of golden core, as it happened was much like transferring an organ. When Jiang Cheng woke up, he felt immediately the difference of this core and his own.

It didn’t yield to him the way his own did. It burned hotter, unfamiliar, and it was almost heavy… And then WWX disappeared. Jiang Cheng had his suspicions.

After the underlings found all their confiscated swords, Jiang Cheng had held onto Suibian, and amidst a battle, Suibian flew out of its sheath to shield Jiang Cheng from a sneak attack from behind. Jiang Cheng’s suspicion grew.

What if when Jiang Cheng stormed the prison cells at Nightless City, he over heard Wen Ning and Wen Qing talking. “Without his golden core, WWX is dead in the water. If Wen Chao got to him… there is no doubt he is dead.”

When WWX came back as a demonic cultivator and everyone began to turn on him, Jiang Cheng stepped up to support him. Not as Sect Leader, but as brother. “Yunmeng Jiang’s Sect Master is our sister Jiang Yanli. What I do, I do as Jiang Cheng, as Jiang Wanyin.”  

“Jiang Cheng, what the hell are you doing?!” “ I’m not fucking stupid, Wei Wuxian. The golden core inside me is yours, isn’t it?” “What? That’s ridiculous!” “Yeah? Prove it. Prove me wrong. Pick up Suibian and fight.” “….” “That’s what I thought.” “You don’t owe me anything. You don’t have to do this.” “No. No I don’t. But you’re my brother. And besides, our sister is way better at this than I am anyway.”

Besides when the Wen’s were being carted off and killed, Jiang Cheng wasn’t gonna stand by and let that happen to Wen Qing.

Jiang Cheng helps WWX save the Wens. “One of us has to stay with A-jie. We can’t leave her without protection.” So they split off. WWX with the Wens and Jiang Cheng goes back to Yanli. He and Wen Qing exchange  a series of perfunctory letters to update each other on the progress of both sides. WWX thinks this is the shittiest flirting he’s ever witnessed in the history of mankind; it’s like watching machines fall in love. It’s gross. (Lol, how the tables turned)

Now that Yanli was sect leader, the issue of her marrying Zixuan became apparent. You can’t have to two sect leaders marry each other. One of them will have to forfeit their rights. And it’s not about to be Yanli.

Yanli make friends with Jin Guangyao, encouraging him to pursue his life’s goal through more positive channels. She wings the hell out of him and Lan Xichen and tells JGY as much.

Jin Zixuan - pissing off his entire family and growing a spine for the first time in his life - forfits his rights as heir, yielding it to Jin Guangyao, because he loves Yanli, and cares more about her than his slutty slutty dad anyway.

LWJ goes to Yiling to find Wei Ying and they work on controlling his powers....amongst other things. Wen Yuan maybe gains a dad or two. 

Idk where i’m going with this, but the bottom line, if we just remove some social idiocies, the deaths could’ve all been avoided.

[nutty1005]

Period Dramas – An Analysis on Xiao Zhan's Character Portrayal Part 1

This is a series of short articles by the same author which will be a 6 part analysis on Xiao Zhan’s various roles.

Part 1.1 – Wei Wuxian

Part 1.2 – Wei Wuxian

Part 1.3 – Wei Wuxian

Part 2.1 – Yan Bingyun

Part 3.1 – Period Dramas

Part 3.2 – Period Dramas

Original Article: https://www.weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404475300028219446 Original Author: 诗债累累

We frequently read about actors being so good that they meld into the role and become unrecognizable, and these performances showcased the actor’s ability to differentiate their roles and produce unique features. To the actor, this is also a mission of highest importance: to complete a performance with his creativity and imagination, and imprint an unique touch to his roles – “I acted this”.

Although this is not some technical jargon, this brings forth some curious questions from the audiences:

How did the actor enter his role to create a vivid, living and realistic character?

How did the actor forget his own personality?

How did the actor create his roles such that they are unique?

One of the common methods used in training acting:

“When you are portraying a character, it is like you finding an astonishing item, and then you run into a house full of people, but now you have to explain to them this incident with your back facing them.”

Perhaps you may find this requirement strange, but to the actor, after being asked to portray a specific scene in several different manners, to reposition themselves multiple times to match the camera angle – sometimes it seemed as though you are facing your partner, but due to camera positioning, you were actually positioned facing away.

So, how do you portray the character?

We would have to start with the relationship between the actor and the character.

For easy understanding, I have tabulated Xiao Zhan’s main roles thus far, using their character features in the drama as the basis, since “Jade Dynasty” was only the first portion of the novel, and might have adaptation differences.

This is something that all of us can consider – while the emotions for Beitang Moran and Yan Bingyun were both restrained, what differences were there? What are the differences between Wei Wuxian’s teasing and sharp words, and Zhang Xiaofan’s simple and straightforwardness? From the tragic story lines of both Wei Wuxian and Zhang Xiaofan, what were their differences when they were seeking their own deaths? 

(1) An actor does not create a character —- The first layer comes from the completeness of a character

A character is actually created by the script writer, then the director. If the drama is adapted from a novel, it is first created by the author, then the script writer and then finally the director.

When the actor receives the role, it is, in fact, an already processed piece of work, and this piece of work contains his lines, his basic emotions and actions (usually written by the script writer), how the positioning of the character is like, and how he is supposed to interact with his partner (usually written by the director).

As such, the first thing the actor needs to do is to clearly understand his performance mission, understand the actions which the character needs to do, and the purpose of the character. Using the actions and the purpose, discover the main story, such that he will be able to sustain the performance regardless of the retakes, and also aid him in clearing his thoughts quickly.

Based on the above explanation, we could say that the performance missions for Beitang Moran, Wei Wuxian, Yan Bingyun and Zhang Xiaofan were complete.

Example: Beitang Moran and Wei Wuxian

(1) Beitang Moran

Background: Regent with military power Action: To create resistance and difficulties for the protagonist Purpose: To improve the eventual ruler

This character was the nation’s second highest in power. He honed the Emperor’s ruling skills, and also honed his own. He knew that the nation was their home and while he was given great power, he wanted to return the power back to the Emperor once he had mature. This set Moran apart from the other court officials.

Besides Xiao Zhan’s looks, this character was attractive because of the sense of power. This power came from the political power as well as the strength of the character. The underlying line was “Everyone desires peace, if you are not worthy, I will take over”.

With this in mind, Xiao Zhan’s portrayal included a hidden sense of pressure, a sense of gravity that contrasted greatly with the general comical script. This quickly added charm to the character, and he also adjusted his vocal tone higher in consideration that this was a web drama (hence more lighthearted) and the age range of the target audience (teenagers), the direction was more haughty than noble.

If this character was written in a serious political drama, and 40 year old Xiao Zhan redid this character again, he would have gone for a deeper vocal range, portrayed nobility and regalness, and added more gravity to the role.

(2) Wei Wuxian (during Guanyin Temple)

Background: Self reconciled, moved on Action: To understand the truth, to rescue everyone Purpose: To save everyone’s lives (it was not important for Jin Guangyao to die, nor to understand the mystery behind Jin Guangyao’s actions) Additional Surprise: To discover the ridiculous reasons behind his demise

The scene at Guanyin Temple was the most complex, as there were many characters joining the scene one by one, escalating the incident with every step:

Discovering the truth behind the Sword Spirit

Unveiling the truth behind Qiong Qi Path – the turning point of Wei Wuxian’s life

Understanding Jin Guangyao’s background

After every step, the Wei Wuxian’s stance and attitude kept changing. When facing every other participant of the scene, he had to show different details to convey their relationship. This was one of Xiao Zhan’s most complex scene, with each unveiling of the truth, every interaction and attitude with other characters had to be adjusted.

To Jin Guangyao:

He was at a disadvantage, hence trying to buy time and discover his opponent’s weakness

He was in shock, after understanding that his demise was based on nothing but unreasonable and unprovoked malice and hatred

To Jiang Cheng:

He discovered that the truth about the Golden Core was made known

He had to comfort Jiang Cheng

At the same time, he was released from the burden of hiding the truth

To Jin Ling:

He had to rescuing him

He released himself from the guilt of accidentally killing Jin Zixuan, but also knew that he had an indirect relation to it

To Lan Wangji:

He realised that the truth about the Golden Core was made known

He felt that there was no need to hide the truth anymore

To Lan Xize (Zewu Jun):

He studied his interactions to understand his attitude, since he and Jin Guangyao were close friends

To Su Minshan:

He understood why he rather be Jin Guangyao’s lap dog

He understood why he would set him up.

The completeness of the scene was done extremely well, with high concentration of lines and interactions between different characters. The emotional flow and attitude changes after discovering each piece of truth was clean and smooth. The emotions went from anxiety to anguish (for one self) to resolution, interlaced with psychological and physical fights.

(2) An actor needs to add his own touch to the character —- The second layer comes from the special touches he adds to the character, besides what was scripted

There was once a great drama teacher once said, even though everyone acts a character in the same way, you should still try to twist your thumb differently.

Here, we will use the example of Zhang Xiaofan to see how the performance of a classic character is created. (TN: Jade Dynasty is a very popular classic fantasy novel.)

Zhang Xiaofan had quite a few scenes where he had to act without props, such as the scene with the Water Dragon, as well as the stick that is not there.

Action: To counter his lack of progress in skills by cooking and cleaning, or taking on the blame for his fellow disciples Purpose: To repay his benefactor sect (and to court his Shijie)

Xiaofan was a character that was easy to have performance ideas: to portray the kindness and innocence of the character, with optimism and open-mindedness. As compared with his other characters, he made the following adjustments:

He changed the way he smiled, by raising his head, and to openly smile by showing his teeth.

He added a lot of miscellaneous movements, such as scratching his head, wiping his hands and touching his face.

And we summarize his performance points below:

To animals:

He treated all creatures equally – he treated everyone the same, regardless of person, monkey, Water Dragon, or dog

To Shijie:

He had puppy love, immediate facial expressions upon seeing her

He always wiped his hands before holding her hands

He felt he was Jilted (he thought his Shijie liked him too), and ran to the mountain top to shout his thoughts out

To vengeance:

Although he kept saying that he did not have the ability to do anything, the thought always remained in his heart. The moment he found out the truth about his village, plus he had gained enough power to take revenge, he did not stop his hand

To truth:

He wished for his own death, fragile but sincere, after his dreams were shattered, it was all just his ill fate, and he was defeated by it.

After all of these designs, Zhang Xiaofan became someone that was more relatable, with blood and soul in the earlier part of the movie, and contrasted greatly with the latter part when he fell to evil, and this contrast elevated the tragedy.

Conclusion

Actors are like a sponge for emotions, a machine for rationality. They have to be absorb all emotions but yet memorize these emotions and actions rationally, in order to repeat endlessly.

In contemporary works, a common theory used is “emotional memory”, to let the actors use their own past experiences and emotions to directly or indirectly apply on their character, and understand how the performance is generated.

During these type of performances, the weight of the role hinges on the actor himself. For example, in “The Most Beautiful Performance” where Xiao Zhan acted in the short clip “Buying Ears”, because Xiao Zhan was brought up by his grandmother, he was able to apply that emotion when he acted the role of a hearing impaired deliveryman calling his grandmother (who was also hearing impaired). Or in “Family Rules”, where his lifelike performance of getting beaten up by his father, was probably also inferred from his real life – in his People Magazine interview, he spoke about how his parents would take turns in disciplining him.

Life experiences are a valuable treasure trove to actors, as they contain living material. The more living material there are, the better and faster it is for actors to be able to find the right emotional experience. As such, realistic material + lifelike performance + relatable experiences will have an advantage in reaching his audiences.

In the current day and age where scripts are often from the fantasy genre, the characters abandon realism, experience great ups and downs, have beyond human capabilities – these roles will need to move the weight from the actor to the character. Actors need to participate in the creation of the character, simply drawing from their life experiences will not be enough, and thus attempt to discover how the character felt. With more experiences, their treasure trove will contain more living material, and will be able to inject realism in their characters.

[marzaid]

Could you imagine if after Lan Wangji visits the Burial Mounds he hoes straight to Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren and is like “look I know you don’t trust Wei Ying but you are coming with me back to the Burial Mounds.” So they take a family trip to the Burial Mounds, unexpectedly, and are greeted by Wen Ning, the Ghost General, who seems harmless. They ask to speak with We Wuxian, who is very anxious because he might trust Lan Wangji but he isn’t sure about the rest of his family. The Lans find how they’re just trying to farm and make do with what they have.

Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren are very confused because they were told by a Jin Guangshan that Wei Wuxian was forming an evil army but apparently he picked up fatherhood and farming instead? A-Yuan calls Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren uncle and great uncle respectively because he just assumes that they’re family. Lan Xichen takes it in stride because honestly A-Yuan is the most adorable child and I headcanon that Lan Xichen adores children. Lan Qiren is conflicted because on one hand this child is adorable and he probably secretly likes kids but on the other this child is apparently Wei Wuxian’s??

Anyway so the Lans all collectively lose their shit and go to Jiang Cheng because they want to know if he was aware of this, which he was but he had no power to take care of his brother. Lan Xichen is like “hmmm I will call my sworn brothers here” and Jiang Cheng is having a hard time because Jiang Yanli’s wedding is probably in a day or so so he’s STRESSED. They agree to let Jiang Yanli get married first even because trying to clear Wei Wuxian’s name will be a long arduous process that might delay their wedding. Plus the marriage will give them another Jin to persuade. So they get married and the Jiang siblings tell Wei Wuxian the plan.

About a week or so after the wedding everyone is called to Lotus Pier and the situation is explained. Nie Mingjue refuses to believe without seeing it first, so suddenly there are group tours of the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian and the Wens are tired and confused and they just want to live in peace maybe find a better place to reside that doesn’t have resentful energy and dead bodies but they’ll take what they’re given. Nie Mingjue might have hated the Wens but he’s a fair man (y’all can fight me on this one he is fair and kind fuck you), so he also backs the campaign to bring justice because he doesn’t believe in involving civilians in the fight. He also has a long conversation with Wen Qing because he wanted to understand why she never came forward if she didn’t agree with her uncle and cousins and learns that her younger brother’s life was what she was trying to protect. He thinks of Nie Huaisang and understands immediately as he would do anything to protect his brother as well.

Jin Zixuan and Jin Guangyao also go on one of the tours of the Burial Mounds and their reactions are very different. Jin Zixuan is horrified are the implications of what his family has done and vows as heir apparent to the Jin sect to do something about it. His father refuses to go, no surprise there, but Madam Jin and some of the elders go on one and they are equally as horrified, vowing to help in whatever way they can. Jin Guangyao, on the other hand, sees his plan falling apart and is freaking out. If everyone sides with Wei Wuxian and the Wens then he, Jin Guangyao, won’t be able to use him as a scapegoat and a means to help himself rise to power. He tries to frame Wei Wuxian by setting out traps around the Burial Mounds for people coming in on tours. The problem is that they catch some innocent civilians instead and Wei Wuxian is furious threatening to put up a barrier to stop anyone from coming in at all.

The other issue for Jin Guangyao was that he had promised Jin Guangshan that he would get the Yin Tiger Seal but was unable to convince anyone that the chief cultivator should have it. One of the agreements between Wei Wuxian and everyone else was that he would give half the seal to the Lan and the other half to the Nie. This way they could have it destroyed publicly. He originally wanted to hand it over to Jiang Cheng but other cultivators especially from smaller sects were wary of this and thought that the Jiang would use it to take over. So the Lan and Nie split it since they are considered the most fair of the major sects.

The Yin Tiger Seal is destroyed and the crimes of Jin Guangshan and crew are revealed. The rest of the sects, especially the smaller ones, want Jin Guangshan to step down both as chief cultivator and sect leader but he refuses. Even within the Jin sect there’s a rift. Half the sect wants him to step down and the other half support him for various reasons. The half that want him to step down rally behind Jin Zixuan and nominate him as their sect leader refusing to acknowledge Jin Guangshan. They work together with the other sects to rectify the wrongs their sect committed. However, there’s the part of the sect that still supports Jin Guangshan and they won’t go down without a fight.

Surprisingly, there are people from other sects that also rally behind Jin Guangshan and the remnants of his sect that stayed with him. They form an army hellbent on taking down Wei Wuxian and the rest of the Wen and anyone that gets in their way. Jin Guangyao, who has been vying for his fathers approval his entire life, stays by his fathers side despite the evidence and knowing that it’s wrong. He tries to convince Lan Xichen of this but is unsuccessful. The trust and affection he built up from Lan Xichen is gone and maybe he’s devastated but he convinces himself that once he has his fathers approval and then once he is chief cultivator and the most powerful that Lan Xichen will come crawling back. He won’t but Jin Guangyao keeps trying to convince himself otherwise.

A battle at the Burial Mounds ensues and Wei Wuxian is only just able to ensure that the Wens are taken to safety. The other sects back Wei Wuxian and there is another long, exhausting series of bloody battles just like those of the Sunshot campaign. Wei Wuxian uses resentful energy as best as he can but at some point realizes that he’s been regrowing a golden core (this is a thing in my mind let me dream). He uses a combination of spiritual and resentful energy and teaches Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, and the rest of the Jiangi how to do it. They don’t have to use it to the extent that he used to but they still understand how to control it when needed (new Jiang technique besides what Jiang Cheng eventually develops too).

Jin Guangshan falls and his supporters lose. Some of them abandon him as they start seeing his side losing the war, others abandon him right after his death. There are still those who are extremely loyal to Jin Guangshan even after the man’s death but they become a small minority. Maybe they for, their own sect under Jin Guangyao. He can’t take the Jin name anymore because Jin Zixuan is still alive and rightfully claims that name. Maybe he goes back to Meng Yao, who knows, but he is still the face of that small group that want justice for their cause even if their cause means death to innocent people.

After the war is finally through, the position of chief cultivator is abolished, as none of the sects like the idea of one man having that much power. They saw it with Wen Ruohan, with Jin a Guangshan, and arguably with Wei Wuxian. They opt for a democratic panel where representatives from each sect regardless of their size have regular discussions to sort out problems arise. These discussions are not set in one spot and regularly move so that each sect regardless of size takes a turn at hosting everyone.

Wei Wuxian is reinstated as head disciple and right hand man of Jiang though if anyone asks Jiang Cheng he stubbornly says that it was a temporary hiatus. The rest of the Wen settle in Yunmeng because they liked being close to We Wuxian as they see him and now by extension the Jiang as their family. Uncle Four opens the best liquor shop in all of Yunmeng that has people from all over coming to it for a try of all his different brews. Wen Qing and Wen Ning because the official doctors of the Jiang but also regularly take people from anywhere and occasionally travel if needed. Granny and A-Yuan live in Lotus Pier with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and Granny becomes everyone’s Granny. She cares for the young disciples and also always makes sure that Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are taking care of themselves. How can they deny her anything anyway? Are you going to disappoint Granny? Plus she has Jiang Yanli on speed dial and they would die rather than make their big sister sad. A-Yuan becomes a new disciple of the Jiang.

It’s decided at one of the discussion conferences that it would be good for young disciples as they near adulthood to learn from other sects. Not necessarily all their techniques but to meet new people gain more knowledge. Some sects have occasional workshops while some of the bigger sects invite disciples to have an extended stay. A-Yuan, who’s already best friends with His cousin Jin Ling at this point, becomes good friends with the other juniors his age as well, Lan Jingyi and Ouyang Zizhen. The four of them form an unbreakable group.

The Jiang under Jiang Cheng grow exponentially because he takes in people that remind him of Wei Wuxian. People in bad situations and in bad spots and gives them a safe haven. There’s a running joke among the disciples to see which brother, Jiang Cheng or Wei Wuxian, adopts more kids to take care of.

Somewhere along the way Wangxian probably elopes. Maybe right in the middle of the war. Jiang Cheng loses his shit because he’s been planning Wei Wuxian’s wedding since he moved to Lotus Pier when they were kids. So they have a ceremony when things settled down that neither Wei Wuxian nor Lan Wangji could say no to because their respective brothers had been so excited at the prospect of a wedding.

In the end, things are finally peaceful. Occasionally, some tries to rise up and gain power and hurt others but they’ve got a pretty good handle on things.

Everyone lives and is happy. The end.

[axelsandwich]

Sorting The Untamed characters

In which I have a lot of feelings about sorting The Untamed characters into @sortinghatchats​ classifications because I’m a LOSER NERD WITH FEELINGS : D

Wei Wu Xian - Gryffindor primary/Gryffindor secondary

WWX’s Gryff energy is like….what are you so LOUD for. There’s nothing he can do other than stick to his morals and principles and what his gut is telling him is the right thing to do, no matter the cost. Even if it makes him public enemy number one of the cultivation world, even if it exiles him from his family and clan, even if it goes against everything he was taught and involves helping and saving his worst enemies - see: Wen clan in Xuanwu cave, the cultivators in Burial Mound after losing their spiritual powers due to Su She. This is someone who adheres brightly and with his all to his principles simply because it is the RIGHT thing to do and he knows this with unshaken conviction and is steady once he discovers this, which has its own power. 

Honestly I was actually initially thinking between Slytherin with Claw and Claw secondary because WWX has an improvisational streak to him, managing to thrive even when thrown into the worst of circumstances with a combination of his own prodigious skill and flexibility when it comes to drastically relearning the dark arts to compensate for a lack of golden core. But here’s the passage that convinced me otherwise: “it is a Gryffindor’s stark, direct honesty makes them them feel the most secure. Lies, or even misdirects, are slippery footing. For a Gryffindor Secondary, their blunt honesty is a facet of their personality and their morality—lying about who or why you are taints the victory. A Gryffindor Secondary can and will lie if the cause is important enough— but it will leave a bad taste in their mouth the same way trusting a stranger with their honesty might terrify a Slytherin Secondary.” The blunt honest is self-evident in…well, WWX’s entire existence lmao but even when young in the Gusu Lan sect. But what convinces me is after WWX gets Chenqing and the way the great lie about why he doesn’t use Suibian anymore is framed afterwards. It kills WWX to lie about all that he is, it’s presented as one of the fundamental tragedies of his story - the ultimate betrayal of himself that he makes for a greater purpose and in pursuit of his Gryff primary ideals. The fact it’s not treated lightly or as a tool to be used to achieve his goals is what makes him a Gryff secondary. 

He models a Claw’s curiosity and intellectual fascination with questioning the world order and a Slytherin’s keen eye for motivations and people, but ultimately it comes down to that red thread of charging when backed into a corner - quite literally, he charges towards the Xuanwu, out of Chiongqi Road with the Wen prisoners, into the plaza of cultivators calling for his ashes, directly into Guanyin temple where Jingyi is in danger; he puts himself in harm’s way without a second thought when his gut is telling him he’s right to do so. He also has the classic Gryff secondary trait of amassing an accidental army in his wake of the most unlikely people, all transformed by his draw and that irresistible quality of truth to him. 

Lan Wang Ji - Gryffindor primary/Ravenclaw secondary

LWJ is a quiet version of the Gryffindor primary, raised in a culture that forces him into like…the strongest of all Ravenclaw models. He adheres strictly and obediently to the Lan clan’s system of the world because in his mind, it was the right thing to do… until WWX forces him to re-examine his morality, about what he was taught and everything he believed was right. And when his model of the world is challenged, what he ultimately goes with is…his heart. Not necessarily because his morality is guided by how WWX is his in the same way of Slytherin/Hufflepuff’s personal morality, but because WWX embodies the new insight that nothing is truly black or white in the way his clan’s system has taught; because LWJ feels that WWX is good, even when every other rule he’s been taught is saying otherwise and, little by little, he rebels quietly by dismantling those systems that once shaped his worldview. 

LWJ wrestles visibly with this the entire flashback arc of the drama, unable to bring himself to denounce WWX despite all the ‘bad’ he had done all the way until the Nightless City battle and when push came to shove, at the very end, he still chose to clutch onto WWX’s hand until WWX made the choice for him to let go. I do think he was ‘stripped’ by the experience - his internal compass, sense of purpose, and even sense of worth broken by the loss of WWX and that’s what he spends 16yrs atoning and suffering for. After WWX’s revival, he accordingly sets himself up against the cultivation world with no hesitation because he’s had 16yrs to regret not following his Gryff primary heart that said WWX’s way of seeing the world is right and he’s not going to falter again. 

Ravenclaw secondary bc……his first instinct when his boyfriend was changed by demonic cultivation was to flip the library upside down trying to find a cure and try to invent a whole ass song to cure him nghghghshf. But yes, he’ll fall back on systems, skills and knowledge he’s carefully built from the ground up when backed in a corner, drawing on what he’s known and carefully cultivated, looking through resources to try and gain more knowledge. 

Wen Qing - Slytherin primary/Slytherin secondary

Wen Qing’s morality and driver is very simple. It’s her brother at the start, her family, and gradually expands as people help him and - by extension - her: WWX, LWJ, Jiang Cheng. For them, she’ll betray the wider clan with very few qualms because they’re not her people and those who are hers come first. She connects with Jiang Cheng on the basis of both their Slytherin primaries, but understands immediately that he would never have gone with her to rescue Wen Ning because while she may tentatively be one of ‘his’ people in his mind, Wen Ning isn’t, and so any future with him is tragically unaccepted. When it comes down to sacrificing even the brother she holds so dear, she does it in the hope that her people - WWX and her wider family by proxy - may be saved from the cultivation world’s wrath. She’s a Slytherin secondary because she’s adaptable and able to draw on whatever skills she needs and be who she needs to be to achieve her goals, with a knack for zeroing in precisely on people’s true motivations and what will and won’t work with a cultivation society looking to find a bad guy. You can bet she’s the one who figured out how to trick Jiang Cheng into believing he could get his golden core back. It’s telling that her most emotional moments are when she lays down all her defences and sincerely speaks from the heart - whether it’s crying over Wen Ning’s body or thanking Wei Wu Xian and apologising. ; _ ; Wen Qing is a good egg. 

Jiang Cheng - Slytherin primary/Gryff secondary

It’s clear from the start that Jiang Cheng’s morality revolves around his family who are his and come above everyone else, along with his pride (but we’re not gonna talk about thatttt...). His impassioned plea of ‘it was enough to just save ourselves, why did you have to save them’ re: bringing the Wen clan wrath upon the Jiang clan proves he could never see eye to eye with WWX’s Gryffindor primary that demands what is right be applied to all, and therein lies the source of their feud, when we get to the pointy end and doing what’s right involves a lot more sacrifice and hardship. Jiang Cheng’s very specialised loyalty is tested over and over throughout the beginning of the series by outsiders casting suspicion on WWX’s motivations, pricking at his pride and his deep set insecurities about his own position and whether he’s actually loved by the people he’s claimed as his own and also on their priority list (see: his father, WWX). 

What truly makes him give up and cut WWX out of his circle is when WWX himself says ‘I exile myself from the tribe’. In Jiang Cheng’s eyes, to betray the people who are yours is what is unforgivable and impossible to understand, and that’s what comes out as the most deeply buried point of pain in Guanyin temple and what’s driven JC’s anger the last sixteen years. That doesn’t make him any less of an extreme Gryff secondary than WWX, whether it’s charging straight into the feared Burial Mound where no one’s ever come out alive just to drag his brother out and confront him about all the problems directly, to confronting WWX directly in Lotus Cove, to marching into Guanyin temple’s front door. Which is probably why they fight. We also find out in the end that Jiang Cheng is fully capable of the same dumb self sacrifice that WWX made for him. Ironically, both of their actions boil down to ‘I must protect my brother’, except where WWX does it because it’s right, Jiang Cheng does it because that’s his brother. 

Jin Guangyao - Slytherin primary/Slytherin secondary

WWX’s diametric opposite. I do think he seems like a petrified Slytherin - Guanyin temple arc reveals that his world once comprised at least of himself and his mother, and perhaps the idealised image of who his father would be, and he strove and strove until his father shattered all his dreams, until his world narrows until it’s ultimately and dangerously comprised of just himself. I do think Nie Mingjue, Su She, Qin Su and Lan Xichen came the closest to who he would consider ‘his’ people, but even that falls away as they ‘betray’ him and because his actions are ultimately guided by his loyalty only to himself, and warps exactly what he interprets as ‘betrayal’. This is what allows him to betray them when they ultimately fall out of line with JGY’s priorities and give them such cruel endings despite how much he professes to treasure them. It’s what creates his resentment against NMJ that festers until it leads to NMJ’s demise - in JGY’s eyes, to throw aside everything in their relationship for the sake of some lowly, subhuman captain who’s always treated JGY with contempt and to keep holding it against him is incomprehensible, unforgivable. It’s also why LXC stabbing him is met with such choking disbelief and anger - because JGY, true to his word, would have never entertained the concept of betraying a person who was proving to be his and LXC was his last hope. His secondary Slytherin allows him to transform and shift with the wind, shedding personas and layers as easily as water, the same way it pains WWX to do the same. 

Nie Huaisang - Slytherin primary/Slytherin secondary 

Jin Guangyao’s equal and foil, ironically also putting up a very self-entered front in the world where it seems like he only cares about his own self interests but quietly loyal to a select number of people who are his - WWX, his elder brother - and will quietly work in the shadows playing the long con to systematically dismantle everything about the person he despises. Slytherin secondary allows him to make himself a fool without any qualms about it not being a reflection of his true face or authentic self, and pull the puppet strings on even those he cares about until he gets to where he wants to be. 

Lan XiChen - Ravenclaw primary/Ravenclaw secondary

Xichen sticks much more closely to what his clan’s systems are and his carefully constructed understanding of the world and that’s what both blinds him to JGY and shakes his worldview so heavily when JGY reveals himself to be a villain. But his felt morality, guided by the system of being just and fair is also what allows him to reject JGY and entertain the possibility of his betrayal. A Slytherin primary may stubbornly cling to faith in a person that he sees as ‘his’ person, but a Ravenclaw primary will feel guilty and immoral to be sticking with them despite knowing they’re betraying the system of justice that he prides above all. It’s what allows him to be an ally to both WWX/LWJ and JGY for the latter half of the series, trying to understand and question the logical holes in WWX and LWJ’s arguments. Where WWX and LWJ don’t have evidence for JGY being evil, they can feel it in their guts and they charge towards getting that evidence based on those convictions. LXC on the other hand may sense something in his gut but he will not act against JGY without being convinced of said evidence, until he is certain of what the real truth is and will methodically keep digging and questioning the evidence being presented to him until it becomes undeniable. It’s also telling that his anger when Huaisang manipulates him into stabbing JGY is not so much about the fact he betrayed his friend (which is the key pain point that JGY angrily latches onto) but that Huaisang may have been lying, that LXC may have acted on something that was not true and he had been unable to see through that. It’s a subtle difference I think, but what separates his primary. I think his Ravenclaw secondary is pretty obvious in the thoroughness of his methods and the ways we’ve seen him dodge the Wen clan, to be willing to work with JGY during the Sunshot Campaign. It requires flexibility of thinking and drawing on a range of resources and that’s what LXC quietly excels at. 

Jiang Yanli & Wen Ning - Hufflepuff primary/Hufflepuff secondary

Both are honestly quite similar — they’ll hold onto their belief in the basic goodness of all people, regardless of allegiance and regardless of their past history and that’s the source of what endears them to people and why they manage to build an army of people who would die and care for them when push comes to shove. 

The little we see of both Yanli and Wen Ning’s way of operating from a secondary perspective revolves around being of service to others, being a source of reliability, support and consistency, quietly building, strengthening and contributing to their little community. Wen Ning quietly and diligently attends to WWX’s protection at all times, reliably taking on the roles allocated to him with a genuine commitment to performing them to his best ability. 

When they ‘fight’, they fight by drawing on their resources, through a thorough, systematic and relentless persistance. A Li’s approach to the battle of words on Phoenix Mountain is an example of this - she draws upon her position, her knowledge of what is ‘proper’ to do within the community and the goodwill she’s built with Madame Jin to subtly dismantle Jin Zixun’s arguments while still pleasantly entrapping him in the niceties of the community she’s a part of without alienating herself the same way WWX can’t help but do with his bluntness. When JC threatens to push WWX to the limits of his endurance, Wen Ning defends WWX through words, standing up again and again despite being violently thrown back and systematically dismantling all of JC’s defence mechanisms by thoroughly and sincerely pushing back on every false claim and even urging JC to call on the community to verify the truth of his words. They’re indomitable, stubborn and effective and that’s Puff/Puff energy right there.

Jin Ling - Gryff primary/Gryff secondary

Gryff primary…why are you so LOUD for Pt 2. Poor Jingyi, two Gryff secondary uncles and father…he had no chance lmaaaao. Impulsive, reckless, absolutely a ‘charge first and ask questions later’ kid and screaming Gryff secondary. Will bash a hole in a wall when he’s denied entry and get caught by the skeleton demons than like…find another way around, you know? Or charge into Guanyin temple without much second thought. His Gryff primary and his gut morality of what is right - aka. trusting WWX and treating him with fairness - ultimately wins against him being pushed hard into the whole ‘pride in your clan only’ angle by his Slytherin primary uncle, and that’s what allows him to become a WWX duckling (begrudgingly) despite all his puffery and objections. It’s also what lets him survive and accept the betrayal of seeing his other uncle revealed as a villain and how he’s able to reject JGY when his misdeeds become undeniable. I also think it’s super cute he’s the same type as WWX, honestly...it’s why I love their dynamic. He’s the young, unjaded version of his uncle.    

Lan Sizhui - Puff primary/Gryff secondary with a Claw model?

There’s a kindness to Shizui that he extends to Mo Xuanyu, Jin Ling and Wen Ning against convention and despite - in Jin Ling’s case - how hard he tries to create distance in that relationship that makes me think Puff primary and his determination to see everyone as people to be respected. I feel like we don’t see enough of Sizhui in action to really be able to determine his secondary - he has something of secondary Puff/Claw vibes in the way he comes across as quietly diligent, reliable and insightful, but he’s also got a certain amount of fire when he needs to - grabbing people’s legs as a kid, making a move towards possessed Song Lan in Yi City despite WWX telling them all to get out, brawling with the other ducklings when tied up, rushing recklessly back up the Burial Mound path to find WWX and LWJ who were holding back the ghouls etc. Maybe a secret Gryff secondary that’s normally held in place by a Claw or Puff model. 

[chapitre7]

Endeavor

The Untamed [陈情令] | Mo Dao Zu Shi [魔道祖师] fanfiction

Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Yīng | Wei Wuxian (Wangxian)

Fantasy AU

Loosely inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

Characterization is based on the drama, since that's the version of the title I've consumed (along with fanon)

Read on AO3

He can sense the apprehension in his fellow travelers on their footsteps. He grins, a little sympathetic, a little mean, flashing it at them over his shoulder.

 “According to the rumors, it should be just a little further ahead.”

 They’re young, not having yet learned the art of hiding their thoughts and emotions displaying so easily on their faces, exchanging an entire conversation with their eyes. The grin turns into a grimace as he faces forward, hand hovering but not touching the hilt of the sword by his hip.

 It’s a decadent place. He’s a paradox of hope and rejection, the one he wants to meet needs to be there as much as he shouldn’t be there, in that black smudge of reality. It’s not a place, not really, only curtains eaten up by moths, floorboards bent by humidity, roof half blown away by storms. Yet the door opens and he sees him walking out that wretched, misplaced space, illuminated by the torches and by the moonlight, clothes and armor still shining as bright as they had a whole lifetime ago, when they were different men, who could speak with their eyes. His heart feels small in his chest, constricted, desperate to die before this meeting can be realized.

What have I done to you?

 “Light-Bearing Lord,” he greets, enough self-hatred in every word for the two of them.

 “Yiling Patriarch,” is the appropriate response, razor-sharp, and his wish might have been fulfilled, in the end. He doesn’t think he breathes until he’s laughing, empty and loud.

 “These young men and I have been hired for a tricky job.” He waves his hand in the direction of the warriors behind him, wide-eyed children, mesmerized by the man who defies the darkness of the night. “What says you, Light-Bearing Lord, of assisting us in defeating a foul creature that has killed many an honorable man and terrorized their wives and children?”

 The rumors did Lan Wangji no justice. The whispering tavernmen spoke of the fallen noble like he was a witch, hiding away in the woods and dissecting beasts with his dark arts, making friends with the spirits of the dead for revenge against the sect that threw him out when he was the best of them. It was supposed to be me, was all Wei Wuxian could think about. He was the one who had been excommunicated and vowed to kill the vile and the corrupt. He spent years in the solitude of meaningless battles, but when he heard the rumors that the Light-Bearing Lord was back, the mercenary used his talent in lies that he had perfected over the years to guide his awkward entourage there because he had to see him, sword burning against his side with shame and regret. He may have come up with a plan on the way there, but whatever it had been escapes him as Lan Wangji looks barely any different from when they had last seen each other. He’s thinner, bone structure sharp, casting shadows on his cheeks, but he has nothing of witch. His eyes are clear, so clear, deep waters that carry nothing but the truth in their current.

 “Where?” says the white-clad man, startling the mercenary out of his reverie. Whatever uncontrollable emotion that flashes in his own eyes causes his companions to swallow their fear down their throats. They had agreed to fight alongside the Yiling Patriarch, but both the heretics? They might as well die by lightning strike, punished by the heavens.

 “I’ll lead the way.”

 And Wei Wuxian leads, ice-white sword in his hands, unworthy of every success, of every glance he sends in Lan Wangji’s way, well on his way when the sun is not even out in the sky, in the dark where he belongs.

 ***

 “A water monster? I know an expert.”

 Time and time again Wei Wuxian guides them through the woods. How was it that the rumors of the Lan witch followed him wherever he went? He could have lived without ever seeing him again —

 (Maybe not a life but an existence, one day after the other and another after that, dreaming of times long past.)

 — but he’s a guidebook of excuses to seek his aide and presence in every single job. He braves through every angry stare, every silence in return to his attempts at conversation, because if nothing else he’s known for his bravery. Was he not the man who challenged the nobles who tried to steal the ancient knowledge of the Yiling folk to gain power over every kingdom and every piece of land? Was he not the one who stood in the throne room and pointed his sword at the Emperor, god among men, corrupted with dark magic?

 He’s lucky he’s alone that night, when he finds the Light-Bearing Lord bathing in a river. He would have fought every one of his allies to keep it to himself, that silhouette against the water mirror, black hair like silk falling down his broad, pale back. They had once slept in the same dormitories, whispering insecurities to each other when no one else could hear. He was once mesmerized by the fluid, dance-like movements of his swordsmanship, admired his excellence at the Academy’s teachings, desperate to have a place next to him in History books. What a pair they would have made, instinct and intellect, reckless and calculating, heart and mind. Be careful what you wish for, any fortuneteller could have told him, if only he had bothered to listen.

 Wei Wuxian doesn’t think he makes any sound, but Lan Wangji turns in his direction anyway, bared, but never vulnerable.

 “Hello, again,” he greets, waving a hand, and Wangji says nothing, betrays nothing.

 He wants to break the ice between them, but he’s too scared of burning down the bridge of their fragile connection. He sticks to killing monsters; takes whatever he can get.

 ***

 “You can’t defeat a dragon on your own,” he had told the men gathered at the tavern. He’s both hated and respected for his arrogance, long experienced in the art of faking confidence when everybody else’s had failed. It’s led him to more than one helpless situation, and as fate would have it, the moment he spoke those words, he doomed himself.

 He wants to go back to the tavern, drink their cheapest and rarest liquors at once, fall unconscious for a full day before taking another meaningless job. He wants to take his little pouch of gold back to Yiling, as he should have done days before, so the village leader can use it for more provisions and seeds and maybe even a small party, since there was enough to spare. He wants anything else than to be closed off in a cavern with a burned Lan Wangji, hiding from an angry and hungry dragon.

 “They’ll come back soon,” he says, hoping he can convince the other better than he convinces himself.

 “They won’t,” Lan Wangji replies swiftly, and Wei Wuxian clicks his tongue.

 “Then we only need to make it through the night. We’ll patch you up and kill it once you’ve recovered.”

 “We’re not going to kill it.”

 Wei Wuxian looks at him like he’s lost the last of his sanity.

 “What do you suppose we do to a dragon who’s been burning off villages? Pray into his good graces?”

 It’s cruel, to mock Wangji’s past convictions, but there’s no place for offense in the witch’s sweaty brow and tired eyes. However, no matter how far he had fallen, there’s still a fire in the man, burning behind his irises, stronger than Wei Wuxian’s outrage had ever been. He believes him then, before he even speaks, but he speaks anyway.

 “She’s distressed. She only needs to be reassured that nobody is going to harm her, and then she’ll keep her distance, as she’s done all these years.”

 Wangji takes a shallow breath and Wei Wuxian hurries to him, touching his unmarred side, supporting Wangji’s weight when he suddenly gives in against his shoulder. He freezes with Wangji’s breath against his exposed neck and the man’s hand that clutches the fabric of his clothes.

 “Do you regard me so lowly now, to detest my very presence?”

 Wangji’s voice is a whisper but his words are a push closer to the edge of a cliff Wei Wuxian has been hanging by for ages.

 “Of course not. I’m here, aren’t I?” His voice is a pitch higher with his lie, and Wangji’s nose touches his neck, falling deeper, deeper into him. He can certainly feel the way Wei Wuxian swallows.

 “If only because there’s no other option, and still you seem to contemplate your luck with the dragon.”

 He feels the fluttering of Wangji’s eyelashes and holds back a whimper. The man is burning up and Wei Wuxian knows that, if he so wanted, he could use Wei Wuxian’s spiritual power to heal himself, he’s skilled enough in magic to do so. Without a sword to wield, what was there for Wangji to brandish, if not the magic weaker men couldn’t hope to control?

 Wei Wuxian feels colder then, despite the physical contact with Wangji’s feverish skin. He laughs, because he doesn’t know what else to do.

 “You can’t fault me. We could have met in better circumstances,” he says, feeling the immediate huff of air that Wangji lets out.

 “Could we?”

 Wei Wuxian wets his lips. I spent years avoiding you, desperate to see you again, he wants to say. I’m not worthy of your friendship, there’s nothing else I want more.

 I want you and I want you to want me, but what is left of us to give? We’re hubris, remains of the consequences of our actions, but still, you...

 “You don’t want to meet me, Lan Zhan,” he says, meaning shouldn’t, meaning mustn’t, the man’s birth name falling from his lips as easily as he kills, easier, much easier than waking up to greet the world every morning; easy as breathing. Wangji’s — Lan Zhan’s — head rises from its spot on his chest, back away only enough to look at his face. In the campfire he sees everything; his pain, his fever, and the gleam of tears in his eyes. Wangji lowers his eyes.

 “Every time you leave is as painful as when you disappeared then, Jin Guangyao’s blood still fresh in our hands.”

 His grip loosens on Wuxian’s clothes and Wuxian takes that hand in his. The hand that protected him, when the emperor had gotten the best of him, his royal sword licking against Wei Wuxian’s neck. Yet Wangji, perfectly composed, the golden child of Lan, had killed him, for Wei Wuxian, had pierced the head of Jin Guangyao with Bichen, sealing the revolution that shook the land. The sword was a certainty in every tale, but the one who wielded it, if Wei Wuxian, if Lan Wangji, was a secret only the two of them knew. And Wuxian carried Bichen with him, to spread rumors, to take the world off Lan Wangji’s shoulder, because he was bright and he was good and he hadn’t used underhand means to take the emperor down, hadn’t lied his way into the royal guard to cleanse the kingdom of its curse. It was supposed to be his burden, so Wangji should speak not of pain, he should be... He should feel...

 “We’re from different worlds. You deserve better than what I can give you.”

 Nothing but a low life, with no glory, just infamy.

 “Do you suppose I could have acted differently?”

 Wangji’s hand falls from his, eyes hide behind the curtain of his hair.

 “Do you think us so different that I would have stayed still when my family did nothing in the face of injustice?”

 The wizard leans back, eyes focused on the fire, and Wuxian has never felt him so distant. Even in the aftermath of Jin Guangyao’s death, before he lost consciousness, Wangji had held him, hadn’t he? He had forgotten. Wangji had held him and Wuxian could have sworn he had comforted him, speaking reassuring words in his ears, over and over again, even though he had never been much of a talker.

 “Wei Ying,” he says, and his face betrays nothing, though the name says everything. “Am I still such a stranger to you?”

 Wei Wuxian gives in. He pulls the injured man back against him, shifting his position so his back leans against the hard wall and Wangji leans against his chest. His arms cover both Wangji’s healthy and injured ones, and his hands guide Wangji’s hands, fingers intertwined, to cross against his middle. Wangji winces and whimpers, but Wuxian hushes him, mouth right next to his ear, and says, “You can use my energy to heal. Use as much as you need.”

 Wei Wuxian closes his eyes, hoping that, if his words really had power, that he could really will their meeting to happen at different circumstances. If the dragon doesn’t kill them, if Wangji isn’t injured beyond recovery, he wants to tell him that he wants to stay, that he wants to hear his singing voice again as he did once, when they weren’t men, just tall children pretending to fight, looking at the stars and talking about missing a time when they weren’t at war. Lan Zhan had told him one of his ancestors sang her victory into the battlefield, and he had sung, and Wei Ying had been defeated, right there. Surrendered, hopelessly putting his heart in the hands of someone who would never betray him.

 ***

 There’s a whistling sound when he wakes up. The fire has long died out, and Lan Wangji is nowhere to be seen, but he hears it. Not too far into the maze of tunnels of the dragon’s lair, there’s a song. His heart is at his throat as he gets up, stumbles then tries his footing again, running as fast as his drained body lets him. We’re not going to kill it, Wangji had said, and he’s crazy, absolutely crazy to face a dragon without recovering properly, and Wuxian is not sure how much of his recklessness is his own and how much is a terrible influence of the Yiling Patriarch.

 (Could they be so easily separated?)

 He sees him with a leaf over his lips, whistling one of the melodies from the Song of Clarity of the Lan family. Wuxian was the one who taught him how to use a leaf as a makeshift instrument and if Wangji had died right then, remorse would have finally killed him.

 But the man doesn’t die. He walks calmly, his free hand reaching out to touch the creature’s scales, to feel its warm breath as its head lowers, nuzzling him like he’s one of its babies. Wei Wuxian still feels like death is going to take him over, both of them, at any second, but when Wangji turns to him, his left side completely healed and a tired smile on his face, he thinks this is the rebirth he had been waiting for.

 “It’s not going to be a problem anymore,” Wangji declares and Wuxian allows himself to fall on his knees, ecstatic and exhausted.

 ***

 The celebrations last until dark. They don’t take any money for the job, considering how poor the villagers are after losing so much to the dragon’s rage, but accept the food and liquor and thanks they are willing to give. Wuxian loses sight of Wangji halfway through the party, and he might have panicked if not for the conversation he keeps replaying in his head. Does he detest Wangji’s presence? No. Is every departure as painful as the first, all those years ago? Yes. Yes, and yes, and yes.

 He finds him whistling on a leaf again, in the woods. They call Lan Wangji a witch but his Lan Zhan is more like a faerie, easily capturing the moonlight in the white of his robes, ready to take him away with a glance, a gesture, the tilt of his head when he notices him approach.

 Wuxian brushes his knuckles against his left cheek and Wangji stops playing, almost imperceptibly leaning into his touch.

 “Are you okay?”

 He hums, and Wuxian is pleased to feel it under his touch.

 “It wasn’t bad. Your energy was enough.”

 “You should still rest. And we should gather some medicinal herbs tomorrow, before parting.”

 “We?”

 “Ah.”

 Wuxian drops his hand and his head, fully conscious that Wangji can see the redness creeping up his neck and into his face. Sometimes his thoughts act so fast that he forgets he had not yet said the things he meant to say.

 “I was thinking... Do you want to go to Yiling with me? I haven’t checked on them in a while and—”

 “Yes.”

 His head snaps up and he’s enraptured by the shy smile on Wangji’s lips. It’s the same, just the same as then, like nothing bad has ever happened between them, and they’re young and free and ready to start their lives. And aren’t they still? Sometimes it’s hard to remember war didn’t make them old, just tired.

 “Great!” Wuxian lets out, and it’s too high, too embarrassed, so he stands up. “We should head to bed, then, we’ll be traveling for a while and need all the rest we can get!”

 He turns his back to his best friend but he hears it. A low, but clear, “Wei Ying.” It ripples in the silence towards him, like the liquid sound of the lake.

 “You... Still don’t know my heart?”

 He doesn’t know what to say. He’s had years to ponder, to hope, to doubt. Up until the day before he thought Lan Zhan was better off without him, that he couldn’t, shouldn’t... He still held Bichen tightly in his grasp after all those years, like a lifeline, a reminder that he would be nothing without Lan Zhan. But what could Lan Zhan be without him? Something purer, someone...

 Someone who tamed dragons using a technique he taught him. Someone who was as much as him and he was them, white Bichen both his heart and Lan Zhan’s, Lan Zhan’s anger his own, as was his revenge, his fears, his sorrow.

 Lan Zhan walks past him, saying no more, blending into the night and back to their inn. Wuxian follows a little behind, words all spent, nothing left but resolution, caution thrown to the wind. What is he if not bravery, recklessness? He’s nothing but blind, desperate certainty.

 Lan Zhan’s door isn’t locked. Neither is he asleep, eyes open, dark but clear all at once. Although his steps are sure, when he leans down, both hands cupping Lan Zhan’s face, he hesitates. Could he lose his world right there, in that moment, if he were to give in to the love of his teenage years, all admiration, all pride, every single and everlasting dream of a lifetime by his side risked in a kiss?

 Lan Zhan meets him halfway and melts away his doubts and defenses. His grip is strong, that of a warrior, and Wei Ying tries to be gentle, even though he’s a mercenary, a heretic, someone unworthy of so much warmth and adoration. And every kiss that follows, every whispered confession, every blissful breath that escapes them speaks, stay, stay, stay.

 Don’t ever let go of my heart again.

 ***

 “Ghouls?”

 The bartender looks at him curiously over his spectacles, and the mercenary who had been trying for the job glares as he approaches, black hood still partially covering his face, but not his wicked smile.

 “There’s no one better at handling ghouls than me and my partner.”

 “And who the hell might you be?”

 He lowers his hood and his long black hair and signature red ribbon seem to speak for him.

 “The Yiling Patriarch!”

 “Right, right,” he waves the mercenary off. “Now, what did you say the reward for this job was, again? Lan Zhan and I wouldn’t refuse any job to vanquish evil, no matter how small it is, but we must talk business.”

 On cue, a second man sits on the bar stool, white hood lowered to show a perfectly impassive face, as if sculpted by faeries, using the most precious jewels. He gives the mercenary a sideway glance and the man flees, bolts through the double doors of the entrance, making Wei Wuxian laugh. Did the man not hear a word he said? The Yiling Patriarch and the Light-Bearing Lord are allies of justice. If he does nothing wrong, and if the nobles and the holy planned no evil deeds, then they have nothing to fear.

 Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian share a look, each giving a lopsided smile that speaks volumes.

 “Where were we?”

[boat-full-of-lotus-pods]

MDZS Chapter 90. “Sleeplessness” Part 1

Stealing lotus pods

Wen Ning became quiet at once. Wei WuXian woke up, with a splitting headache, to the sound of rowing paddles.

His entire body was leaning against Lan WangJi. Realizing that they were no longer in the Lotus Pier, it took a long moment for Wei WuXian to find his bearings. It was only until he noticed spots of blood on Lan WangJi’s sleeve, splattered like fallen plum blossoms in the snow, that he finally remembered what had happened before he’d lost consciousness. Distraught crept onto Wei WuXian’s face, miserable and unsightly. Abruptly, he sat up. Lan WangJi reached over to steady him. The ringing in Wei WuXian’s ears hadn’t ceased. The blood was still clogged in his chest; giving him nausea.

Knowing how much Lan WangJi loved cleanliness, Wei WuXian was worried that he’d soil his immaculate robes again, so he declined Lan WangJi’s offer with a wave of his hand, turned to the side of the boat, and tried to hold himself together. Knowing his discomfort, Lan WangJi remained silent and didn’t ask a single question. With a hand on Wei WuiXian’s back, he quietly passed over a gentle, steady stream of cultivation energy into Wei WuXian’s body.

Only when the clot of blood clogging his throat had passed did Wei WuXian turn to gesture for Lan WangJi to stop. A moment of silence later, Wei WuXian was finally confident enough to try speaking. He asked, “HanGuang-Jun, how did we get outside?”

Wen Ning became visibly apprehensive and stopped rowing at once. Keeping his promise, Lan WangJi mentioned not a single word related to the golden core but also told not a single lie. He simply replied, “We fought.”

With a hand, Wei WuXian massaged the muscles over his chest, as if hoping to disperse the discomfort in his heart with his bare hand. After a beat of silence, he grumbled, “I knew that Jiang Cheng would never let us go off that easily. That little shit……Unbelievable!”

Lan WangJi’s brows wrinkled. He said in a heavy voice, “Forget about him.”

Noticing the unpleasantness in his voice, Wei WuXian was momentarily startled. Immediately, he replied, “Sure, let’s forget about him.”

A moment of contemplation later, he continued, “So, um, HanGuang-Jun. Don’t take his words to heart.”

Lan WangJi asked, “Which words.”

Eyelid twitching, Wei WuXian replied, “Any of them. That guy has always been like this with his stupid temper. The moment he gets angry, he forgets how to speak properly. His mouth would become as foul as imaginable with no manners or tact. He would say everything and anything just to upset the other person. And it looks like he hasn’t grown at all in this regard. So please don’t take anything he says to heart.”

Unbeknownst to anyone, Wei WuXian was carefully studying Lan WangJi’s face while he talked. Slowly, his heart sank further and further.

Wei WuXian had thought, or rather had hoped, that Lan WangJi hadn’t taken to heart those things that Jiang Cheng had said earlier. Against his expectations, Lan WangJi’s expression remained displeased. He wasn’t saying a single word, not even a “Mmm”.

As it appeared, Lan WangJi was more upset by Jiang Cheng’s vile words than Wei WuXian had imagined. Or perhaps Lan WangJi simply disliked Jiang Cheng. Or perhaps…… Perhaps he could not tolerate insults like “shameless”, “without conscience”, or “random person” in particular. After all, the Gusu Lan Sect was a prominent sect whose motto was “Exemplary”. Lan WangJi must had never even come close to proving such insults true.

Judging from the past few days, Wei WuXian felt that Lan WangJi probably considered him as someone important; someone special. As for how important, what kind of special, and whether if it was the kind of special that he was hoping for, Wei WuXian ultimately couldn’t dare to make a guess. Wei WuXian had never believed confidence to be a crime. In fact, he had been so full of himself in the past that he had gained quite the reputation. Legends said that the Yiling Patriarch was a ladies’ man who was a master at the art of coquetry and love. In reality, Wei WuXian was quite new to the feelings of anxiety that came with guessing at another’s heart. In the past, he had always considered Lan WangJi easy to read. Now, however, he couldn’t be more unsure. It scared him—the possibility that he was overthinking it, that it was just him seeing things that weren’t there, reading signs where none was given.

Lan WangJi remained silent. Wei WuXian wanted to do what he did best, and brush away the situation in jest. Yet, he worried that the forced humor would only make the awkwardness worse. A few moments of pure indecision later, he suddenly remembered to ask, “Where are we going?”

It was a very stiff attempt to change the subject, but one that Lan WangJi actually took. He replied, “Where do you want to go.”

Rubbing the back of his head, Wei WuXian rambled, “We’re not sure whether ZeWu-Jun is in danger. And we don’t really know what exactly those people back in the Lotus Pier plans to do. How about we go to Lanling first……” Abruptly, he remembered something, “No, let’s not go to Lanling. Let’s go to Yunping City.”

Lan WangJi asked, “Yunping City?”

Wei WuXian affirmed, “Yes, the Yunping City of Yunmeng. I’ve told you, right? When I was at the Koi Tower, I saw some of my own handwritings in the Fragrant Hall’s secret room. Stored next to my handwritings was the deeds for a property located somewhere in Yunping City. The Lanling Jin Sect is wealthy and powerful. I feel like there must be something secretive going on in that property, otherwise Jin GuangYao would not have stored its housing deeds so carefully. Perhaps we can uncover something there.”

Lan WangJi nodded in agreement. Then, Wen Ning promptly asked, “Young Master Wei, is this the direction to Yunping City?”

Wei WuXian was startled, “What?!”

Both Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi were sitting with their back facing the rear of the boat. Wei WuXian had not noticed Wen Ning’s presence at all. The unexpected voice coming from right behind him had Wei WuXian rolling off his seat in shock. His scalp tingling, he turned back and exclaimed, “Why are you here?!”

Inclining his head, Wen Ning replied blankly, “Me? I’ve been here this whole time.”

Wei WuXian prodded, “Then why didn’t you say something?”

Wen Ning answered, “I saw that you and Young Master Lan were talking, so I didn’t……”

Wei WuXian said, “But at least make a noise??”

Wen Ning gestured to the paddles in his hands and explained, “Young Master Wei, I’ve been rowing the boat this whole time, making a lot of noise. Hadn’t you noticed?”

“……” Wei WuXian waved his hand and said, “I didn’t pay attention. Nevermind, stop rowing. The currents here are pretty fast during nighttime, the boat will go fast enough without you rowing.”

Growing up in Yunmeng, he’d been playing in these waters for as long as he knew. Naturally, he was familiar with the course of the currents. Wen Ning believed him right away. Putting down the paddles, he sat down by the boat’s rear cautiously, distancing himself at least six feet away from Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi. It had been three in the morning when they had first arrived at the Lotus Pier. After all that ruckus, it was now almost dawn. The dark night sky was already turning pale around the edges and the silhouettes of the surrounding mountains were becoming more apparent against the water’s horizon.

Scouting out their surroundings with his eyes, Wei WuXian suddenly said, “I’m hungry.”

Lan WangJi raised his eyes. Of course Wei WuXian wasn’t actually hungry, he had only just eaten three pancakes from the street vendor beyond the Lotus Pier’s gate not long ago. But Lan WangJi had only eaten one. It had been the only thing he had consumed in the past two days and Wei WuXian had been keeping track. Looking ahead, there were no signs of people or chimney fire anywhere in sight. No doubt it would take a while before they’d arrive at a town with food and shelter.

Lan Wang pondered, “Dock?”

Wei WuXian replied, “Not many people lived around this part of the river. But I know a place that we can go.”

Wen Ning went for the paddles at once and started rowing towards the direction that Wei WuXian was pointing. Soon, the merchant boat branched off from the river at a bypass. Not long afterwards, they arrived at a lake covered in lotuses.

Lotus stems of varying heights grew like small forests over the water. The long, slim merchant boat parted the myriads of thick, round lotus leaves, and headed straight for the heart of the pond. If one were to look from above, they would see bushes of lotus leaves trembling in waves as the boat brushed past the maze of stems and leaves. And as Wei WuXian parted a thick, huge leaf only to discover plump, fat pods buried underneath, his heart soared with the glees of discovering treasure. Just as he was about to happily reach out and snap them, Lan WangJi suddenly said, “Wei Ying.”

Wei WuXian answered, “What?”

Lan WangJi continued,  “Does this lotus pond belong to someone?”

Wei WuXian replied innocently, “Of course not.”

Of course it did. Ever since age eleven, Wei WuXian had been stealing lotus pods and water chestnuts all over Yungmeng from every pond that ever grew them. He had washed his hands clean for years now, but since the need for sustenance arose for their trip, Wei WuXian had no choice but to return to his old ways.

Lan WangJi commented lightly, “I hear that every lotus pond in the area belongs to someone.”

“……” Wei WuXian laughed, “Hahahahahaha is that so? What a pity. You sure hear a lot of things. I’ve never even heard of them. Then let’s leave this place.”

With his scheme foiled, Wei WuXian was of course too embarrassed now to drag Lan WangJi into juvenile delinquency with him. To have the righteous, exemplary HanGuang-Jun eat stolen lotus pods off someone else’s pond—it sounded too preposterous even to his own ears. Just as Wei WuXian was about to sheepishly steer them away, Lan WangJi reached out a hand and pinched off a lotus pod on his own.

He offered the lotus pod to Wei WuXian and said, “Just this once.”

-

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

(back to masterpost)

This chapter was almost the end of me, ok. We have established that I need to get Wei Wuxian to turn me into a fierce corpse to survive the rest of the story.

Chapter 57: Poisons (Part 2)

“All of a sudden, Lan WangJi’s tear-streaked face, reflecting the firelight, flashed within his mind.”

;-;

that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

“We’ve got so many sects. Can’t we join together and…”

Just you wait! It’ll happen! Man, all this foreshadowing...A nice move, actually, because this would be foreshadowing if we had a linear narrative. Too much foreshadowing as you go along the story has a tendency to make the plot look too forced and everything contrived, but in this case it it’s not really foreshadowing since we have known the outcome for ages already.

“Shixiong!!! You’re alive now!!!”

“Wei WuXian, “What do you mean I’m alive now? I’ve never died to begin with!”

This reminds me of that one meme. That “Stop talking about me like I’m dead!” one.

ah, kids. it’s like ‘lol don’t go killing me off!’

The shooting kites day in and day out part gives off a ‘trapped in limbo’ feeling really well I have to say.

“If I went out, Madam Yu’s gonna whip a whole layer of skin off me.”

You’re too good at foreshadowing, Wei Wuxian. Too good.

On the other hand, we can totally see yet again that everyone in this world exaggerates corporeal punishment but you can never be too sure of when they’re actually serious!! how nice.

Ah, more martial problems...please get these two some marriage counseling. and family therapy for the whole group.

“What a shame that our swords don’t have that much spiritual energy yet. If they could sheath themselves, then nobody would be able to use them.”

“Jiang Cheng, “If you cultivate for another eighty years, then maybe it’d be possible.”

UH. THIS IS INTERESTING.

Suibian apparently does this after Wei Wuxian dies which is how Jin Guangyao outs him to everyone. According to Jiang Cheng, this shouldn’t be possible unless you cultivate to a very high level, so it must not be very common.

Wei Wuxian’s sword actually manages to do this though!

“Don’t let them hear anything we say that could be used to hold against us.”

Funny to hear these words coming from you, Wei Wuxian. See, he can be serious! When he was younger, he was especially more impulsive and carefree with his words.

“Wang LingJiao, “Of course. I didn’t have the time to come have a seat inside the last time I came to give out orders. Please.”

I kind of want to know what becomes of this woman. But I also want the satisfaction of reading her death for the first time, if the story tells us outright. Hey, at least we know who survives this conflict or not right?

I don’t know if I could survive a straight through narrative not knowing which of the secondary characters would live and which would die horrible deaths (and which villains made it out or not).

“last time I came to give out orders” though. like, damn. ultra level of disrespect.

“Sure, then, why don’t you go inside?”

I love Madam Yu’s responses. We may not have many ladies in this story, but at least we have badass ones like Madam Yu to make up for it!

“JinZhu and YinZhu stood behind her, both wearing light smirks on their faces.

YinZhu replied, “There is no tea. Get it yourself if you want any.”

And her maids! Awesome battle maids who apparently always wear armor.

I guess there really are no servants in the Jiang clan’s immediate household to serve tea lol. Jinzhu and Yinzhu sure as hell aren’t going to do it, and neither is Wei Wuxian xD that’s all they’ve got. (i’m sure they have others we don’t see. I wonder if this is a thing or they’re just saying this to spite Wang Lingjiao)

“As the person saying this, you’re a servant as well, aren’t you?”

I’m glad we get Wei Wuxian’s commentary still even though he isn’t running his mouth.

“Madam Yu, however, seemed to deeply understand the phrase ‘servants should be what servants ought to be’. Glancing at Wei WuXian, she happened to concur, responding loftily, “That’s right.”

She really does not like him. xD

“Shooting down such a kite is actually implying ‘shooting down the sun’! He wants to shoot down the sun!”

Youngest shidi, you will be immortalized and your sacrifice will not be forgotten!

remember! The war against the Wen sect is called the ‘campaign to shoot down the sun’ aka “Sunshot Campaign”. And the game that the kids in normal villages play is the same shooting down the kite game with the symbol of the sun on the kite, imitating the Sunshot Campaign.

on a more serious note, I know people who draw these wild, conspiracy-theory level conclusions from something very innocuous and it’s actually quite scary. They can’t be reasoned with, either. Just gotta roll with it unfortunately.

“Seeing that such a woman dared to make up stories of Jiang FengMian right in front of them, flames bursted from within Wei WuXian, “You…”

I actually don’t have many reactions to this part because I was just screaming silently at this part and it continues throughout to the end lol.

Ahhh, Wei Wuxian was going to defend him, but then he gets hit.

“Zidian had turned into its whip form, sizzling between her hands of cold jade.”

Remember how just using Zidian around Wei Wuxian’s leg caused a burn in the early chapters? Apparently this damn whip is nothing to scoff at and a really powerful weapon, and he gets hit so many times with it, too!

you understand why she’s doing it. At the same time, you can feel that she’s not 100% reluctant to do it either and it’s kinda scary.

then you also really feel the kids’ panic. Jiang Cheng who can’t do anything to stop it, but also of course really really wants his mom to stop whipping Wei Wuxian! and Wei Wuxian who urges him to get away and not get involved so nothing happens to him, too.

it’s just a really messed up scene and ARGH

“In the past, although Madam Yu had always come at him with harsh words, she had never truly been cruel to him. The most that he’d been through were two or three strikes and being grounded.”

This little bit is important!

But it also doesn’t give a clear answer, which really gives these characters some realism.

Madam Yu, for all her yelling at him, never hurt him badly (this is exactly where Jiang Cheng gets his parenting skills from I’m dead bye). But Wei Wuxian doesn’t have negative or resentful feelings towards her even though she has never accepted him for as long as he has been there, so he is an unreliable narrator.

Then we get this scene where it seems like she has no hesitation in whipping the skin off his back with a really powerful weapon ok. What you can’t tell (since this is from Wei Wuxian’s pov) is the degree to which she means it. She could be a good actress, at the same time she could have been lenient before because of Jiang Fengmian (who always came to let Wei Wuxian out of punishment early). Or she could have been like Jiang Cheng to Jin Ling later and scream about beating him without ever actually meaning it (lol though Jiang Cheng has never hit Jin Ling, still, can you not threaten to break his leg).

We do know that she isn’t cruel enough to enjoy it, though, and there is a limit to what she deems acceptable (cutting off hands is obviously not acceptable)

“Young Master Wen is kind. He wouldn’t do something as cruel as chop off both of his legs. If only his right hand is chopped off, then he wouldn’t ever care about this again.”

see, like, this is why I’m glad we already know the outcome of these events broadly. xD

if you think about it from the characters’ perspectives, this is really fucking scary!

What! Cut off his hand? And if you don’t...? they’ll probably try to wipe out the whole sect or burn it to the ground like the Cloud Recesses!

“Jiang Cheng fought out of the arms of JinZhu and YinZhu. He crashed to his knees, hovering over Wei WuXian, “Mom, Mom, please don’t…”

oh, Jiang Cheng...I have feelings about this guy omg. no wonder he gains an inferiority complex and then as sect leader becomes a ball of Extra and anger issues who won’t stop until he catches Wei Wuxian!

He’s always second best, feels like his father doesn’t love him because of Wei Wuxian yet it��s not like he hates Wei Wuxian either. Then, through neither of their faults, Wei Wuxian is the brave one and Jiang Cheng gets to do the leg work. And when things turn serious, there is nothing he can do at all to save Wei Wuxian who he does obviously care about. for all the ‘you’re going to be the next sect leader, act like one!’ stuff, when it comes down to it there wasn’t anything he could do.

“Fabricking? What’s fabricking? And he suddenly realized, It’s abricating!”

this was nice to lighten the mood a little. only a little though.

“JinZhu, YinZhu, quick, go close the doors. Don’t let the others see the blood.”

see what I mean by ‘you can’t tell if she really means it?’ and the glory of a limited third person narrative done right: based off the description of her actions, it’s difficult to tell.

If it means saving the sect, I think she would absolutely cut off his hand, but only with a greater threat hanging over their heads. Well, this is because she sees him as a servant, of course she would never so readily, no hesitation or lack of composure, do the same to her son.

“Wei WuXian felt fear arise, Don’t tell me that she really is gonna chop off one my my hands?”

One of the times he does show fear!

However, this is where his sacrificial side which is really damn worrying comes in.

“Let it be, then! If it’s in exchange for the peace of the sect… a hand is just a hand. Fuck, if worst comes to worst I’ll just practice the left-handed sword from now on!!!”

It’s probably part of his personality somewhat to be self-sacrificing, or at least be willing to put himself in harm’s way to do good or the right thing. But it’s also highly tied to his upbringing/view of himself. As he states in the last chapter, he doesn’t see himself as Jiang Cheng’s equal. On this, he agrees with Madam Yu: he sees himself as their servant. A servant who is very close to them, yes, and super casual borderline rude, but he doesn’t see himself as Jiang Cheng’s brother.

On a subconscious level, this can really mess with you. He values his life and wellbeing, of course, as most people do. But it also allows his sacrificial nature to rear its head and for him to rationalize that it’s okay to allow himself to get hurt but not others.

Of the things that seem to get Madam Yu to stop/snap, mentioning Jiang Fengmian is one (It was all fine until he had mentioned Jiang FengMian.)

The supervision office is another.

And this is the final straw: “But seeing how obediently you followed my orders and how your personality suits my taste, I’ve still decided to give this great honor to…”

Madam Yu is a lady with a lot of pride. She endured it up to this point, kept swallowing her words, but finally she just snaps. It’s an accumulation of all the stuff that happened, not one thing in particular.

“You look at its owner before you hit a dog! You barged into my sect, and you want to punish my person in front of my face?”

Here’s the last part reveals something more about her true feelings here.

So, here we see her pride, which extends to her servants and not just the two that have been with her since she was young. She doesn’t like Wei Wuxian, she always thinks he should be disciplined more (or at least she says she does), but in the end of the day he is her servant and what right do others (especially another servant) have to punish people of her sect?

“Then let me teach you what superiority and inferiority means! I am the superior, you are the inferior!”

but, man, at the end of the day 57 chapters was worth the wait to finally get such a strong female character like Madam Yu.

This damn chapter was such an emotional rollercoaster omg.

(quotes from ExR’s translations)

← back・onward →

[qinghe-nie]

21. Act 5: Brightness, Part 3

"Eh, there’s a man-eating demon wandering around?"

It was similar to a legend he'd heard thousands of times, one he had spread hundreds of times before, so he couldn't help but feel bored by it. The quack exclaimed, "That's right! In that forest road, there's man-eating fortress! Inside are man-eating monsters. They'll eat anyone who breaks in, leaving behind no bones. Can't even find the bodies! No exceptions! Scary, am I right?"

No wonder Jin Ling would be here. He didn't manage to defeat the soul-eating goddess of Dafan Mountain last time, so he must be trying to find the monsters of Xinglu Ridge. Wei WuXian replied, "Wow, so scary! But since you can't find any bones or bodies, then how do you know that people were eaten in the first place?"

The quack replied after a bit, "Obviously there have been people who've seen it."

Wei WuXian, his voice respectful, asked "But wasn't it you who said that anyone who intrudes will get eaten, no exceptions? So who's the source of these rumors? Who's powerful enough to see these spirits, escape, and get the news out?"

"...." The quack replied, "Rumors are just spread, how would I know?"

Wei WuXian: "Then, do you know how many people have been eaten at Xinglu Ridge? When were they eaten? How old? Male or female? Surnames? Where do they live?"

Quack: "No idea."

Wei WuXian: "Qinghe Bai XiaoSheng? Pah."

The quack angrily retorted, "The rumors didn't say anything about any of that!"

Wei WuXian giggled, "Oh, don't be like that, don't walk away. I just have one more question – where's Xinglu Ridge? Is it still within the borders of Qinghe? Isn't Qinghe home to the famous Nie clan? If there was really a man-eating monster at Xinglu Ridge, wouldn't they have come to deal with it?"

He didn't think that the quack would reply with anything other than "I don't know," but the quack donned an expression of contempt. "The Nie clan? If it was the Nie family of old, then of course they would come out. They would find the location of the monster the day after the rumor started. But the Nie family of today, hehe, well, they have no idea what's going on.*"

In his heart, Wei WuXian knew who he was talking about.

The leader QingheNie sect used to be Chifeng-zun Nie MingJue. Nie MingJue was upright and outspoken, tough and unyielding – it was he who changed the previously weak Nie family. He and Zewu-jun Lan XiChen and Lianfang-zun Jin Guangyao were sworn brothers. After the siege on Wei WuXian, the Nie family became very influential, gaining power and fame rivaling that of the LanlingJin sect. However, something in him – his xiuwei* – changed, and he ended up bleeding from every orifice, dying in front of everyone. His younger brother, Nie HuaiSang, took control of the QingheNie sect after his death. Under his leadership, the QingheNie sect changed almost immediately, rapidly deteriorating.

Wei WuXian asked, "Can you explain what you mean by "no idea what's going on"?"

The quack elaborated, "You don't know this quote? This leader of the Nie family, whenever someone asks him something, he won't answer if he doesn't know. And if he does know, he's too afraid to answer. When someone pressures him to answer, he just lowers his head, and tearfully cries, "I don't know, I don't know, I really don't know!" begging his family members to ask somebody else. Is this not, 'having no idea what's happening?'"

Since Wei WuXian and Nie HuaiSang used to be schoolmates, he could say a few words about the kid. Nei HuaiSang had a good heart, and was smart, but he had no heart for studying. All his smarts were used elsewhere, drawing fans and catching birds, cutting class and slacking off. He was really talented, but a poor student, worse than his peers from other families, or even his juniors. It took many years for him to flower. Nie MingJue, during his life, often felt resentment towards his brother for not living up to his expectations, and would often discipline him harshly, but Nie HuaiSang still wasn't up to par.

Without his older brother to supervise him, the QingheNie sect under his leadership didn't really do anything. He would often encounter unfamiliar situations and be put under high-pressure situations, and would ask for help from everyone, especially his older brother's sworn brothers. He would go to Jinlin Tower one day to cry to Jin GuangYao, and go to the Cloud Recesses the next to stammer at Lan XiChen. The only way he managed to continue his role as the Nie family leader was by relying on the Jin and Lan families' leaders for support. Now everyone who raised Nie HuaiSang only had two words to think about him: worthless trash.

Wei WuXian still showed some consideration towards the quack after asking his questions about Xinglu Ridge, and bought two cases of blush. He stuffed them into his bosom*, and walked back to Lan WangJi, who still showed no signs of asking for his money pouch back. Together, they silently walked in the direction indicated by the quack.

There was a huge stretch of cedar forest on Xinglu Ridge, and a shabby road leading inside. They walked for a while, but didn't find anything strange. The two never had any expectations in the first place, though they were still on the defensive in case anything unexpected happened. If a place had horrifying rumors, there must be some other information associated with it. Dafan Mountain had the soul-eating goddess, where there were living victims, families affected by it – even A-Yang's husband's name couldn't be concealed. But if the victims names were unknown, then it was probably just hearsay meant to scare people.

After an hour had passed, they finally found, with some difficulty, a twist to the tale. Seven to eight staggering shadows were walking towards them, their eyes white, bodies ragged. They were very slow, and it looked like they would fall down from a slight breeze. It was a couple of low-level corpses that couldn't be lower in level.

These types of walking corpses were very easily pushed around.  If they encountered a strong person, that person could just kick them and they'd fall down in a row. If they encountered a child that could run fast, they would fall down in a row. Even if you had terrible luck and got caught by them, you still wouldn't die. Even though they smelled terrible, the corpses posed no threat to anyone. If high level a cultivator ran into them during a night hunt, they would just ignore them, setting them aside for their juniors, almost like a tiger ignoring a mouse.

Wei WuXian watched them stagger towards him, and hid behind Lan WangJi. Apparently, once they got within five or six zhang of them and saw Wei WuXian, they turned around and went back the way they came, their movements much more nimble than before as they fled. Wei WuXian rubbed his temples, turned around, and said in a terrified manner, "Oh my, Hanguang-jun is so strong! The moment they saw you, they turned around and ran! Hehe."

Lan WangJi was speechless.

Wei WuXian pushed him playfully. "Let's go and leave already. I don't see any other strange happenings around here. The people here really can make up a lot of stuff – just a few corpses on the road can be turned into a man-eating monster. The man-eating fortress is out of the question, too. I walked all this way for nothing!"

He pushed Lan WangJi for a bit before Lan WangJi started to walk forward by himself. Wei WuXian hadn't caught up yet when a crazy barking sound suddenly came out of the forest.

Wei WuXian's demeanor changed immediately, and he quickly ducked behind Lan WangJi, wrapping his arms around the other cultivator's waist as he curled up on the ground.

Lan WangJi: "...It's still far away, why are you hiding."

Wei WuXian: "H-h-h-h-h-h-hide first, ask questions later. Where is it? Where is it?!"

Lan WangJi held a hand up to his ear, listening, and said, "It's Jin Ling's black dog."

Upon hearing Jin Ling's name, Wei WuXian stood up, only to squat back down at the barking.

Lan WangJi said, "The dog is barking furiously. Something must have happened."

Wei WuXian, who was shaking uncontrollably, forced himself up, and replied, "T-t-t-t-t-then let's go see what's going on!"

When Lan WangJi didn't move a step, Wei WuXian said, "Hanguang-jun, you have to move! If you don't move, what am I going to do?"

Lan WangJi was silent for a short while, then said, "You.... let go first."

The two hobbled along the road, following the sound of barking, walked around the cedar forest twice. The black dog's barking was still far away. Wei WuXian, who'd been listening to the barks for quite a while now, was slightly used to it, and finally managed to say something without stuttering, "This place has a maze?"

This maze was clearly man-made. He'd previously said that the rumors about Xinglu Ridge were all baseless hearsay, but now it seems like they were based in fact.

It wasn't that hard to navigate through the maze – Lan WangJi's sense of direction was impeccable –  and the two soon emerged from the other side. At that point, the black dog's snarls got even more intense, like it'd been amped up a hundred percent, and the two broke into a run after the sound. Soon after, the outline of a stone fortress emerged through the thick forest.

The stone fortress was constructed out of an ash-gray rock, and was covered in ivies and fallen leaves. Every building was constructed in a strange semi-circular fashion, as if several large bowls had been planted face-down on the ground.

Turns out there actually was a stone fortress inside Xinglu Ridge – the rumors weren't baseless hearsay at all. But was this place really the "man-eating fortress?" It was hard to say what was actually inside.

Jin Ling's black dog was running circles around the outside of the stone fortress, wheezing  and making a lot of noise. Seeing Lan WangJi approaching, it didn't stop, but instead barked louder. It looked at the stone fortress and began to paw at the ground, seeming quite restless. From his hiding spot behind Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian painfully asked, "Why isn't it leaving? ... Where's his owner? Where did his owner go?!"

Even though they'd heard the dog barking this whole time, they never once heard Jin Ling's voice, or even saw any trace of him. They never heard any cries for help, or saw any indications that he was in trouble. This black dog was definitely Jin Ling's, and it was definitely this dog that helped him through the maze, but there were no traces of any living persons.

Lan WangJi: "Let's go have a look inside."

Wei WuXian: "How do we get in? There's no door."

There really was no door. The ash grey rock fortress was sealed tightly, with no doors or windows. The black dog jumped up and started howling, almost like it wanted to bite the corner of Lan WangJi's sleeve. But it didn't dare bite him, so it bit Wei WuXian's sleeve instead, dragging him out from behind Lan WangJi.

Wei WuXian's soul almost left his body. He thrust his hands out towards Lan WangJi and yelled, "Lan Zhan... Lan Zhan Lan Zhan... LanZhanLanZhanLanZhan!!!!"

The black dog dragged Wei WuXian, and Wei WuXian dragged Lan WangJi. One dog pulled two men halfway around the stone fortress, until they were at its far side. Unexpectedly, there was actually an entrance around the size of a person. The tunnel leading inside was in bad shape, with lots of fallen rocks on the ground. It was obviously dug out very recently and very forcefully by someone. It was quite dark inside, and it was impossible to see anything, but there was a faint red light. The black dog released its hold on Wei WuXian, and began barking wildly at whatever was inside and wagging its tail at the two men.

No doubt about it, it was Jin Ling who made this tunnel, and it was Jin Ling who had a mishap inside.

Bichen automatically unsheathed itself an inch, emitting an icy-cold blue light, illuminating the darkness in front of them. Lan WangJi ducked inside, taking the lead. Wei WuXian was scared shitless of the dog, and rushed in after him, almost running into him. Lan WangJi held his hand and shook his head, although Wei WuXian didn't know if it was out of exasperation or condemnation.

The black dog very much wanted to follow them, and tried very hard to follow, but was kept outside by some sort of force field. No matter how hard it tried, it couldn't get past the protective shield, so all it could do was stay outside, tail wagging furiously. Wei WuXian was happy to leave it behind, pulling his hand back. He walked forward a few steps before the cold blue light from Bichen was changed into a cold white light by the darkness around them.

There was plenty of shade and darkness in the forest of Xinglu Ridge, but the darkness  inside this stone fortress was much worse. Wei WuXian wore light clothes into battle, his cuffs and vest easily penetrated by the chilly wind (evil wind?). They were dry now, even though he'd broken into a cold sweat earlier from the black dog. The light from the entrance gradually got smaller, like the fading flame of a candle, until it too disappeared. The further they walked, the wider it got, and the darker it got.

At the top of the stone fortress, Wei WuXian kicked a loose stone, and heard an echo.

He could no longer bear to hear it, right hand going up to rub his temple, and frowned.

Lan WangJi turned his head and asked, "What?"

Wei WuXian replied, "...It's so noisy."

It was deathly quiet and still within the stone fortress, as if it were a tomb. It originally looked like one to start with.

But right now, to Wei WuXian's ears, everything was much too loud.

*no idea what's going on: the phrase they used here was一问三不知 (literally translates to 1 question, 3 'don't know's), which means a person who replies "I don't know" to every question they get, aka someone who has absolutely no idea what's going on

*xiuwei: the amount of qi possessed by a cultivator. It's a common trope in Chinese xianxia novels to have something happen to a person's xiuwei, causing them to die horribly via exsanguination

*stuffed them into his bosom: I know that's usually a phrase reserved for women, but I didn't know how else to translate this. He basically stuck them inside the front of his robes, kinda like when you stuff something inside your bra