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[twilightarc-gm]

MDZS Headcanon #1:

Jiang Cheng is very good with names and faces of people he has talked to or have been introduced. The epitome of this is that he knows all 1500 disciples of his Yunmeng Jiang Sect. Every outer disciple servant, long term guest disciple and master, and the ones that took his clan name (he remembers who they were before they chose him over their histories).

This earned him a lot of respect when he had only new recruits banded together by desperation and a drive for justice (or revenge). No one expects a rich young master to invest that much, but it is a big reason why those same recruits stayed after the campaign.

[twilightarc-gm]

MDZS Headcanon #2:

I share this similar idea with @sun-lava in that Yunmeng Jiang special techniques heavily feature illusions.

This really helped Jiang Cheng during the Sunshot Campaign to conduct guerilla style tactics with his limited resources, while Wei Wuxian would use his techniques primarily for distraction and defense against greater numbers to hold down the Jiangling front.

Adjacent headcanon: The clarity bell is a tool developed by Yunmeng Jiang to help with the mental cultivation needed to distinguish reality from everything else that would alter their minds.

Corollary headcanon: Within the novel, Wei Wuxian is last seen with any kind of clarity bell during the second Qiongqi path incident, when Jin Zixun destroys the one Wei Wuxian had brought for Jin Ling.

I like to think this bell used to be Wei Wuxian's, and the loss of it marks the deterioration of Wei Wuxian's mental state into an irrevocable downward slide.

[twilightarc-gm]

MDZS Headcanon #3:

Context:

Inspired by the xianxia genre, spiritual qi a cultivator uses for spells and attacks have a color association. The Founder of Diabolism also kind of uses this too since it's a visual medium.

Weapons will have their own qi colors. In the novel, for instance, LWJ's Bichen's glare (sword light) is described as icy and blue. XY's Jiangzai has a black qi. XXC's Shanghua is silvery.

Suibian has a red glare.

Notably, Jiang Cheng's Sandu has a purple glare and Zidian has purple lightning and is white when very bright.

There's a brief explanation of Soul-Tranquilization Rites that says those born into powerful cultivation clans, who cultivate with spirit weapons, are not susceptible to turning fierce upon death.

Descendants of illustrious clans, such as Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan, were nurtured by their families and influenced by their spiritual weapons from birth. As they matured, they underwent countless Soul-Tranquilization Rites in order to minimize the chance of them turning into malicious ghosts after death.

To me this implies that even in the world of MDZS, spiritual weapons can affect their user.

Actual Headcanon:

Jiang Cheng's original qi was an indigo (you'll see me use this a lot in all my fics), but when he received the miracle of his "reformed golden core" his qi became a purple (I call it violet) color. Until the truth was revealed to him, he believed the change in his qi color was due to the use of Zidian, whose qi is also purple (which I also describe as violet.)

Once the truth is revealed, he understands that Wei Wuxian's red (I call it ruby) qi is what changed his true qi to a violet color.

[twilightarc-gm]

MDZS Headcanon #4:

I think I share (again) this similar headcanon to @travalerray and @sun-lava and maybe a few others on the server...

That Suibian is actually an old blade that had already been well-cultivated by a prior master.

And of course I like to think Wei Wuxian just never knew this fact, because Jiang Fengmian couldn't let it be known he gave his ward a special sword or else his wife would see it as more favoritism. This also explains the overly plain hilt and scabbard, to oversell it as a new blade.

There's a couple of reasons why I think this headcanon works, and why canon doesn't explicitly disprove it:

1) How Suibian can seal itself when no other swords we know of seem to be able to do the same (Suihua and Shanghua both allow other users and Shanghua was a well known enough blade to be entered into a famous sword catalog). That it's considered such a rare event for it to happen.

Also that Suibian seems to be able to recognize a soul, which is different from a spiritual system, which is what the golden core would be a part of. Suibian recognizes Wei Wuxian within Mo Xuanyu's body—that has an entirely new spiritual system capable of solidifying a new golden core if Wei Wuxian worked for it.

I can’t believe it really sealed itself off. I just had to be the one to experience this kind of one-in-a-million event.

-

This sword was Suibian. This was Wei Wuxian’s sword. It had been taken by the Jin Clan of Lanling after the Siege of the Burial Mounds as a trophy for their collection. No one had ever been able to unsheathe it after that, since it had long since sealed itself of its own accord.

-

“I also heard that while no one could draw the sword, you [Jiang Cheng] were able to do so. How very curious, indeed. The sword was already sealed when it entered my collection thirteen years ago. Absolutely no one could draw it aside from the Yiling Patriarch himself…”

This fits with Jiang Fengmian's wish to take good care of Wei Ying as well as add to the golden heroic air of xianxia hero teen Wei Ying that a special sword became his.

Sentience that can recognize souls/masters across space and time is usually a very high level thing for spiritual tools for the genre—like Zidian recognizing a hierarchy of masters and obeying commands while at great distances from the master that commanded it. Yet if Suibian were new, it'd only been cultivated for 2-4 years at max and it'd be even more farfetched to believe it capable of Zidian's level of sentience. Like, Wei Wuxian is genuinely surprised it sealed itself...

Corollary Headcanon: This also means that piece of Wei Wuxian's original soul is attached to Jiang Cheng's gifted golden core.

2) The name of the sword is written on the hilt instead of the blade. Fuxue's was as well, so this seems to be common practice in this universe. But! The hilt is a part that can be replaced and equipped to a reused blade.

It follows then that Jiang Fengmian would let Wei Wuxian 'name' the sword if he's playing it off as a newly forged one. You notice some of the wording is funny here like Wei Wuxian says that "when Jiang-shushu was bestowing the sword upon me" only then does Wei Wuxian say 'whatever' and then the sword "came out of the kiln, that would be the word on [the hilt]". Obviously, this can't be taken too literally because hilts are attached after the blade is forged. Also use of the word kiln instead of forge implies casting metal which is a whole other thing. To me it sounds like a process Wei Wuxian wasn't involved in, and didn't see it all be put together.

Within the engravings upon the hilt were the carvings of two ancient characters, and what they spelled was the word “Suibian.” Wei Wuxian considerately explained, “You don’t have to say anything. I know. You must be wondering why I gave it that name? Everyone asks if there’s a special meaning to it. To be honest, though, there isn’t. It’s just that when Jiang-shushu was bestowing the sword upon me, he asked me what I wanted to call it. I thought of over twenty names at the time and wasn’t happy with any of them, so I thought, why don’t I let Jiang-shushu give it a name instead? So I responded with ‘whatever’! Who would’ve figured that when the sword was forged and came out of the kiln, that would be the word on it? Jiang-shushu said, ‘Since that’s the case, let the sword be called Suibian.’ It’s not actually such a bad name, don’t you think?”

Corollary Headcanon: The blade was Cangse-sanren's, hence it's snowy color (her name means 'hidden color' or 'colorless', you can play with the imagery considering it's a white blade) and vibes with how/why the sword was so utterly loyal. Jiang Fengmian found it when trying to back track to find Wei Ying. Again, the reason he never mentions this is the same reason in canon that he never mentions Cangse to Wei Ying—he just doesn't want to talk about it.

[twilightarc-gm]

This River Runs Beyond Heaven and Earth [江流天地外]

by twilightarc

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Multi

Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Yunmeng Jiang Disciples, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin & Original Character(s) , Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Original Character(s)

Characters: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Original Characters, Yunmeng Jiang Disciples (Modao Zushi), Modao Zushi Ensemble

Additional Tags:

Post-Canon, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin-centric, Slice of Life, Plotty, Cultivation Sect Politics (Módào Zǔshī), Cultivation Mechanics, Location: Lotus Pier (Modao Zushi), Not A Fix-It, Golden Core Shenanigans My Beloved, Secret Identities, Past Relationship(s), Worldbuilding, Flashbacks, Missing Scenes, Light Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin Loves Dogs, Animal Lover Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Demisexual Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Canon Compatible, Present Tense, POV Third Person Limited, Work In Progress

Summary:

Jiāng Chéng discovers the consequences of Wèi Wúxiàn's return and also the real reason he was brought back in the first place. He just wants to run his sect in peace and manage his inner demons, just move on with his life as he was challenged. Yet forces beyond Liánhuā Wù have different designs for him. It would be nice if it ended there but his luck was never that good, and the cultivation world falls under the threat of evil once again. It's not all bad, Jiāng Chéng will find new people to cherish and some he had lost will return to him. ​

Words: 27,520 | Chapters: 3/? | Language: English | Published: 2024-03-23

[twilightarc-gm]

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[twilightarc-gm]

Sad adjacent headcanon to this:

His memory is that good because he had to memorize all his own clan for etiquette lessons, but he didn't know the servants and outer disciples of old Yunmeng Jiang because it wasn't part of lessons and he was never introduced to them individually.

Also as Pallas pointed out, the follow-up headcanon of this from mainfic is:

Jiang Cheng uses intense, cultivated mental techniques to sharpen his recall and renew his long term memories so he doesn't forget the past of Yunmeng Jiang, that he is now the main arbiter of, and never forgets these new lives of those who put faith in him.

MDZS Headcanon #1:

Jiang Cheng is very good with names and faces of people he has talked to or have been introduced. The epitome of this is that he knows all 1500 disciples of his Yunmeng Jiang Sect. Every outer disciple servant, long term guest disciple and master, and the ones that took his clan name (he remembers who they were before they chose him over their histories).

This earned him a lot of respect when he had only new recruits banded together by desperation and a drive for justice (or revenge). No one expects a rich young master to invest that much, but it is a big reason why those same recruits stayed after the campaign.