#probably even before the end of the sunshot campaign

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

Apr 9th

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1. ITMF fics with (a) good and well-developed original characters! i really enjoyed "I told you when I came I was a stranger" and would really love to read more like these. also looking for (b) fics where wwx is brought back in an OC's body, where their identity matters to the plot (eg politically), like "The Housewife’s Guide to Causing Chaos" (wwx brought back as a yu) & "Everyanything" (wwx brought back as qin su).

would still like wangxian to be tgt, & complete/actively ongoing fics only please. thank you!!!!! @potatokunst

1B)

There's the wwx resurected in other people's bodies comp, but more specifically,

❤️ Beauty and the Boot by PTchan (T, 44k, wangxian, summoned by f!oc, Canon Divergence, Romantic Comedy, Genderbending, Denial, Fem!WWX, WangXian kids, Crack-ish, WIP) would probably fit

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2. Hey there! For the next itmf:

I want fics where wwx is in love with lwj, and he knows it too. So I don’t care if its time travel or anything like that, I just wanna see wwx treating lwj good/like a spouse while being aware that he’s doing it.

And even greater would be, if lwj was very much confused/ in gay panic mode/ horny for it .

Thank you :3 @desperation-is-my-middle-name

two guys r in love thats literally it by victortor (M, 11k, wangxian, Time Travel, the fluffiest thing ive ever written)

When the Words Stop Coming by mrcformoso (T, 7k, WangXian, Canon Compliant, POV WWX, POV LWJ, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Pre-Sunshot Campaign, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Canonical Character Death, Love Confessions, Rejection, LWJ is a Panicked Gay, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Trauma, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Sad with a Happy Ending) more of an angst take honestly but it fits the prompt?

And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami (M, 139k, WangXian, XiChengQing, Time Travel, Fix-It, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Healing, Mental Health Issues, PTSD, Hurt/Comfort, Depression, BAMF WWX, BAMF JC, BAMF LWJ, BAMF JYL, Getting Together)

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3. Hi! For ITMF, can you suggest fics where it picks up soon after the novel ends and explores wangxian’s relationship and how it develops?

Or just fics where wwx learns to take up space/ adjust to gusu and in lwj’s heart?

Thank you for your help, always!

And Yet Here You Are by cosmicmilktea (T, 10k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Domestic Fluff, Cloud Recesses, settling down, Separation Anxiety, Teacher WWX, very light angst, Chief Cultivator LWJ)

call me home and I'll build you a throne by anaphoricae (E, 51k, wangxian, Post-Canon, Canon Compliant, Cloud Recesses, Getting Together, Developing Relationship, Self-Indulgent, Gusu Lan Juniors Dynamics, Touch-Starved, Non-Sexual Intimacy... and then Sexual Intimacy, Lán Juniors Gossiping about Wangxian, as a treat, Nightmares, Hurt/Comfort, little hurt lots of comfort, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, WWX Has a New Golden Core, Farmer WWX, Chief Cultivator LWJ, iMutual Pining, Communication, Quietly Falling Into a Married Life, Light Angst, Wholesome, POV LWJ, POV WWX, LWJ in braids agenda, Sharing a Bed, WWX's Birthday, Semi-Public Sex, Cold Springs, Inventor WWX, Jealous WWX, turkish translation)

I hope that you will come and meet me by feyburner (M, 28k, wangxian, Post-Canon, Getting Together, Love Letters, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Cuddling & Snuggling, Literal Sleeping Together, Intimacy, CQL Compliant, No Plot Just Feelings, First Time, Two soulmates figuring their shit out, Let Hanguang-jun talk about his feelings agenda, Podfic Available)

my age has never made me wise by idrilka (E, 63k, wangxian, Post-Canon, Part-epistolary, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Marriage Proposal, Homecoming, One Brain Cell WWX Strikes Again)

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4. hello! for itmf any fics with wei wuxian and mo xuanyu? smth like i'll take a secondhand monster by stratisphyre

tysm<3 @r3n-vy

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5. Hi! Hope u r having a great day!

Do you know any good wangxian fics where LWJ leaving cloud recesses along with A-yuan and raise him on his own? You know, before WWX's return? I remember reading one where LWJ competely fell off the radar once. Sadly, i can't recall the name. Pretty please @grrumpywoof

❤️ And Miles To Go Before I Sleep by Glitterbombshell (T, 23k, WIP, WangXian, Heavy Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, LXC is not really a good brother in this sorry, Canon Divergence, rogue cultivator!lwj) It's a WIP that hasn't updated since 2020, but there's this

Home isn't Where the Heart is. by Hauntcats (Not rated, 7k, wangxian) Jingyi comes along too here

The Best I Can by Zephyr (ZephyrAndTheSilverfish) (T, 26k, LJY & WWX, wangxian, WWX talking to his donkey, Canon Divergence, Light Angst, Drama, Recovery, Coming of Age, Secret Identity Fail, Friendship, Rogue Cultivator LWJ, Road Trips, POV Multiple, Happy Ending)

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6. Hi!!! Thank you, you are all amazing and this place is magnificent!! Well, In the mood for... A) Fics were Wei Wuxian raised or helped raised the Juniors, all of them, modern if possible, I just finished The Edge of Night by Hobbsy3 and the relationship with the kids is so amazing, even if is not the central theme also B) Zombie themes fics, similar to the previous one, modern to if posible with happy ending!! Thank you so much for everything!! Be well :) @monicaop21

6A)

🔒 and having a marvelous time by varnes (E, 108k, WangXian, Yúnmèng Siblings, Sound of Music AU, (i know!!! i know. stay with me on this.), Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Family Feels, spies to lovers???, Protective Siblings, Sometimes You Just Want Your Dads To Admit They're Your Dads, Angst with a Happy Ending, podfic of and having a marvellous time by varnes by Spinifex) not modern but WWX raises all the kids

6B)

Darkness Before the Dawn by Selenay (E, 64k, wangxian, Zombie Apocalypse, Modern With Magic, Necromancer WWX, Reunions, toddler A-Yuan, There Was Only One Bed, There are zombies but not graphically horrific zombies, Angst with a Happy Ending, Find a home in the middle of an apocalpyse)

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7. Academic rivals wangxian? :<

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8. For the next itmf! I wonder if there are any fics where the lan and nie bros are really close and then wwx gets added into the mix, and there are shenanigans! Things like the lan/nie bros having a problem that only wwx can solve, or the bros discover how wwx's been treated by other people and get super protective. I just read With This Shadowed Blade and discovered that I very badly want to read more of this dynamic! Thank you all!

Come Around and Stay by trippednfell (M, 160k, wangxian, modern, slow burn, kid fic, found family, it gets worse before it gets better, PTSD, blood and injury, dissociation, trauma, angst w happy ending, musicals, alternating pov, JC & WWX reconciliation, hurt/comfort, panic attacks) 

Debts of a Child Part 2 by Hauntcats (M, 111k, WangXian, YZY Bashing, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Angst and Feels, lots of anger, JC Bashing, not Jiang friendly, Angst with a Happy Ending, Content warning for icky spiders in later chapters.)

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9. Pls pls next itmf secret relationship wangxian? Bonus points if it’s CRA but modern au or post canon or whatever is great too I just need it (I have read a few where their families don’t believe they’re dating but I want them hiding it)

Silenced With A Kiss by NinjaKK (E, 132k, WIP, WangXian, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Flirting, Teen Romance, Cloud Recesses Shenanigans, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Soft WangXian, WWX in WWX’s Body, Secret Relationship, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Dates, Inventor WWX, Genius WWX, Canon Divergence, Protective LWJ, Protective WWX, Ripple Effect, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Optional Smut, Supportive LWJ, BAMF WWX, Inappropriate Use of Gūsū Lán Forehead Ribbon, Has an Angry LWJ Kink, Drunk LWJ, Gusu Lan Alcohol Tolerance, No Golden Core Transfer, WWX Leaves the Yunmeng Jiang Sect)

A Guide on How to (not) Have a Secret Relationship by Grapesey (YumGrapeJuice) (T, 6k, wangxian, Established Relationship, Secret Relationship, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Boys Kissing, they are horribly in love, WWX is a Little Shit, LWJ is So Whipped, WWX is obsessed with LWJ's hair, JC is So Done)

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10. For the next itmf could I see if we could find any fics where mo xuanyu is adopted by wangxian. I’ll take both modern au and canon type fics

a thousand fragile and unprovable things by theLoyalRoyalGuard (G, 5k, WangXian, Modern AU, Trans Male Character, Trans MXY, MXY Deserves Happiness, Best Dads Wangxian, Handwaving The Legal System With The Power of LWJ, A little bit of angst, mostly soft, Happy Ending, Gender Happiness, Let LWJ Wear Skirts Agenda, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note)

silk linked together by theLoyalRoyalGuard (G, 6k, LWJ & MXY, Wangxian, Modern, Autistic LWJ, Cellist LWJ, LWJ, Runs A Rabbit Rescue, MXY Deserves Happiness, Fluff) which ends w/ both wangxian relationship and Mo Xuanyu adoption in process.

🔒 and having a marvelous time by varnes (E, 108k, WangXian, Yúnmèng Siblings, Sound of Music AU, (i know!!! i know. stay with me on this.), Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Family Feels, spies to lovers???, Protective Siblings, Sometimes You Just Want Your Dads To Admit They're Your Dads, Angst with a Happy Ending, podfic of and having a marvellous time by varnes by Spinifex) (link in #6A)

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11. Hello! ITMF current wips? For the last few months Truth Will Out has been super fun to keep up with, but now it is complete I would love to find other wips to follow! Any genre (canon, au, or modern) and any topic/plot! Preferably something that updates with relative frequency, like weekly or every other week. Thank you so much!

No Matter What You Are by LilyFaraday (M, 209k, wangxian, WIP, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Female WWX, MXY is a girl in this one and WWX has to deal with it, Genderbending, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, A lot of comedy coming from WWX dealing with being a girl, and also using it to his advantage, Marriage of Convenience, Pregnancy, Unplanned Pregnancy, no miscarriage)

A Matter of Time series by mrcformoso (E, 84k, wangxian, time travel fix-it, graphic depictions of violence, underage, LWJ pov, JC pov, dark LWJ, manipulation, grooming, teen body adult mind for LWJ, happy ending for wangxian, problematic consensual underage sex, blood & violence, insane LWJ, manic LWJ) My current MDZS WIP is the A Matter of Time Series, it's currently on worlbuilding extras before the actual sequel. It's update about monthly but considering the amount of thought and worldbuilding and the size of this series I think that's pretty fast hahaha make sure to read the warnings first!

once upon a time, 很久很久以前 by gentil-minou (Flyingsuits) (M, 69k, wangxian, LSZ & WWX, LSZ & LWJ, WIP, Modern, Canon Divergence, Transmigration, of the townwide variety, Amnesia, of the nearly everyone variety, Mystery, of the shenanigans variety, Not Everyone Dies AU, WWX Has Self-Esteem Issues, WWX is sad and down bad, Single Parent LWJ, except a-yuan runs away to find his other dad, Fluff and Angst, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Minor Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending, Once Upon a Time Fusion, Curses, part of the fun is figuring out how to make these characters as miserable as possible :) ) may i offer up my wip? Updates arent thay frequent cause each chap is over 15k but im hoping to post the next chap this month!

🔒 The Second Hand Unwinds by trulywicked (E, 51k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, WIP, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Time Travel Fix-It, Not JC Friendly, Not Yunmeng Jiang Sect Friendly, Not Jiāng Family Friendly, Not YZY Friendly, Time Travelling LWJ, Protective LWJ, Fluff, Minor Angst, Minor Character Death, JGS is his own warning, Wooing, LWJ is romantic af, Inventor WWX, Genius WWX, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Protective Gusu Lan Sect, Supportive LXC, Good Uncle LQR, WWX Protection Squad)

A-Yuan's Big Adventure by KatanaHatake (G, 13k, wangxian, WIP, Time Travel, transmigrator LSZ, Found Family, Canon Divergence, Parents LWJ & WWX, People believing WWX birthed A-Yuan, Eventual Happy Ending, Accidental Baby Acquisition)

We Meet at the Thousandth Step by Admiranda, Rynne (T, 273k, wangxian, CSSR/WCZ, WIP, Canon Divergence, No Sunshot Campaign, CSSR & WCZ Live, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Different First Meeting, Night Hunts, Genius WWX, Inventor WWX, Romance, Drama, Fluff, Strangers to married, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Everyone Lives AU, Developing Relationship, Minor Violence, Case Fic, Mystery, Flirting, WWX's Canon-Typical Flower Flirting, Arson, There Was Only One Bed, Getting Together, First Kiss, Meeting the Parents, Resolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Romantic Tension, WWX Is a Good Big Brother, New Relationship Bliss, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Blood and Injury, Yiling siblings)

🧡 The Shade of Old Trees by Kryal (T, 266k, WIP, WangXian, Ridiculously Long Notes, History, Canon Divergence, Modern AU, Slow Burn, Worldbuilding, Slow Life, Action/Adventure, Magic Returns, BAMF WWX)

At heart by apathyinreverie (M, 28k, wangxian, WIP, Dark LWJ(Ish), Amnesia, WWX gets to be Not Okay after the BM, Hurt WWX, Recovery, Caring, Protective LWJ, Possessive LWJ, some definite manipulation, but not everything is as it seems, not nearly as dark as the tags make it sound, Canon Divergence, Golden Core Reveal, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, kind of, Domestic WangXian, Fluff, WWX Goes to Gusu, Possessive WWX, WWX happily atticwifing away, Sunshot Campaign, BAMF WWX, BAMF LWJ)

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12. Itmf for qiongqi path divergence 🖤

The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou (E, 66k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Injury, Injury Recovery, Blood, Respiratory Illness, Major Illness, Fever, Grief/Mourning, Burial Mounds, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hunger and food scarcity, Surgery, Fix-It of Sorts)

when you're doing all the leaving (then it's never your love lost) by tardigradeschool (T, 23k, wangxian, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Sharing a Bed, Sharing Clothes, Fix-It, the inherent eroticism of under robes, Golden Core Transfer, LWJ finds out about wwx's missing core and says i have plenty to go around)

the cycle of regret by KouriArashi (T, 14k, WangXian, Groundhog Day, Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending)

in this place where we don’t have a prayer by Cerusee, Mikkeneko (T, 42k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, WWX dies at Qiongqi path, Demonic Cultivation)

Home and the Heartland by Witch_Nova221 (T, 210k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, LWJ Stays at the Burial Mounds, Slow Romance, Romance, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Fix-It, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Self-Discovery, Golden Core Reveal)

isn't there a Qiongqi Path canon divergence comp?

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13. itmf fics with Lan Wangji laughing/smiling/giggling etc. The bts of The Untamed with Wang Yibo laughing his ass off are killing me and i need LWG just being happy and laughing now

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14. An ITMF ask: I am looking for fic where WangXian's marriage is being arranged but one or both of them simply don't know about it until late in the game -not just "everyone knows but them" but literally they are being measured for wedding outfits and are clueless. Pining a plus! HEA pls! <3 @kimboo-york

Searching for a Heart by vesna (mrsronweasley) (E, 21k, WangXian, Modern AU, married at first sight au, this is basically modern arranged marriage, Getting Together, Reality TV AU)

Lead Me On Through by vesna (mrsronweasley) (E, 54k, wangxian, Alternate Universe, Arranged Marriage, Practice Kissing, practice other things, horny boys in love, questionable logic, Questionable Choices, they're dumb but cute, but dumb, but really cute, slight knives, Happy Ending)

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15. itmf modern au inventor wwx, similar to kizukatana's Truth Will Out? thank you for all that u do 💗

💖 One Can Keep A Secret (If He Does Not Know It’s There)by H_Belle (T, 5k, wangxian, NHS & WWX, modern w/ cultivation, inventor WWX, secret identity, identity reveal, YLLZ WWX, rogue cultivator WWX, pining LWJ, WWX pov)

There's An App For Everything by Sweetlittlevampire (G, 4k, wangxian, Modern Cultivation, Rivals to Lovers, Friends To Lovers, Competition, Demon fighting, Getting Together, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Night Hunts, Wangxian x Caves is the real ship here, Happy Ending, Humour)

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16. hi hi! could you recomend any fics where Lan Yuan grows up in Lotus Pier? thank you <3 @nyxiblue

What Remains After the War by Swan_Song (T, 41k, JC & LSZ, JC & JL, JL & LSZ, JL & LJY & OYZZ & LSZ, JC & WWX, WIP, Canon Divergence, LSZ is a Jiang, Good Uncle JC, Cousins JL & LSZ, JC Needs a Hug, JC Needs Therapy, The juniors solve a mystery, Junior Ensemble Shenanigans, Good Uncle LQR, he tries his best, LSZ Needs a Hug)

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17. ITMF any fics where other characters preferably Jin zixuan has an unrequited/one sided crush on Wei Ying. Could be any setting preferably Canon/Canon divergence or with some sort of cultivation and wangxian end game. Gimme all you have please @linossock

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If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[cerusee]

saw an old post that reminded me that canonically jc has a second in command. how insane do we think this makes wwx. is he perceiving this. is he perceiving his own feelings. all precedents say no.

all roads lead back to zhanchengxian so how do you think jc having this sic can help or hinder this?

I think when WWX edges up to the reality of this fact, his brain whites out and does a lil system reboot. Furthermore, I think this is a strong contender as an explanation for why this fact is never directly addressed in the novel that WWX is the primary POV narrator of. WWX is emphatically not perceiving or processing anything related to this, and given that he’s married to the most indulgent man in the world (to him), and that LWJ would probably prefer to keep WWX away from all things Jiang forever, this can kinda go on indefinitely and be carried to some comically absurd extremes. This could go on for years. Like, at some point, it is going to come up—someone’s gonna ask something of WWX or task him with something that requires him to acknowledge that Jiang Cheng has a trusted 2IC who isn’t named Wei Wuxian—at which point this will either result in a door-slamming farce for the ages, or WWX is going to throw a hissy fit and freak out LWJ about it, before he stomps off to Lotus Pier to yell at Jiang Cheng for breaking their forever promise and going out with some late-comer hussy Jiang wanna-be who only joined the sect during the Sunshot Campaign for the easy promotion opportunities.

Even odds whether chengxian end up in the lake, arguing/making out over it, or, when LWJ shows up to collect WWX, a very annoyed/tired JC just goes “oh good, take your husband home, Hanguang-jun, he’s drunk and he’s causing problems” and LWJ is faced with the choice of complete denial or dealing with all this weird messy prior emotional entanglement he thought he’d previously cured with repeated applications of big dick, inserted directly into unlubed ass.

[lansplaining]

Been thinking about how little we actually know about the Wen’s as a whole. Like Wen Chao has a whole ass wife that he’s cheating on that we know nothing about. And if WC has a wife, Wen Xu must have one and probably kids. And he never even gets an on page appearance or even description. That the big bad of the whole Sun Shot campaign, Wen Ruohan doesn’t even meet our main character! Do we know why he kicked off the campaign besides evil? That’s not even going into Wen Qing’s branch, because presumably she’s the daughter of WRH’s younger brother and all the other family there. For as many characters as there are in MDZS it feels weird how little we get about the Wen’s.

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF QISHAN, a new series premiering on Bravo

forreal though, this is an interesting question! The one nitpick I'd make is that Wen Ruohan isn't doing what he's doing out of evil, he's doing it for wealth and power. They've got the most land, they've got the most disciples, they've got the most money, and... well... nobody has stopped them yet? It takes a pretty egregious series of oversteps before anyone does anything about it!

I have a lot of trust in MXTX as a writer so I'd like to say that there's some deep, thematic meaning behind how little we know of the Wen, but... at the end of the day, I think sometimes you just need a baddie, especially given Sunshot is really more background setting than plot in itself.

[old-men-mmm]

I love Jiang Wanyin so much and I honestly don't get why people hate him so much.

Yes, he's done some really fucked up things (torture and murder) but it's understandable if you take a quick look at his character & backstory, namely his home/early life. (Excusable is... dependant on the person looking at him, but understandable) (Also long-ass post with lotsa backstory analysis so brace yourself)

He grew up just fine-ish in the time before Wei Wuxian showed up (assumedly- we don't get a lot of insight into this time). He has dogs and his parents and Jiang Yanli. However, in comes Wei Wuxian and suddenly his father doesn't love him as much. Actually, it doesn't seem as if he loves him at all. He seems to love this new kid, his dead friend's son more. He loses his dogs because of him and is made to share, even though he's never met this kid before and never had to share before. He wigs out and feels guilty later because, if this kid is going to be his new brother, he should treat him better.

Years pass and Wei Wuxian becomes his brother, never more than a servant on paper but so much more to Jiang Wanyin. His father doesn't seem to have started to love him more or even love him at all and his mother has grown resentful of both his father and him, often using Wei Wuxian to belittle him and beat him down. He's jealous of Wei Wuxian, of his achievements and skill and how everyone seems to love him, even his beloved jiejie, but he doesn't let that get in the way of his love for him. They are going to be the Twin Prides of Yunmeng and Jiang Wanyin is going to lead the Yunmeng Jiang Sect to glory, Wei Wuxian by his side.

Then everything happens. His family is slaughtered, the bodies of his sect and his mother and father strewn across Lotus Pier as the Wen sect stains its presence into Lotus Pier alongside the blood of her former occupants. He is ripped from his teenager years and shoved into a world of bloody and fierce hatred and forced to be a man. This is where he initially starts to deteriorate, though the sudden drop happens a while later.

He then loses his core protecting his brother. He is tortured and loses the one thing he had that he could prove to his parents he was worth it. He loses what he would need to lead his sect, his years of cultivation suddenly useless and wasted. He has no reason to live anymore. And then his brother, one of the only lifelines he has left, says that he can get him his core back. That he can go to the immortal Baoshen Sanren and she can give him his core back. He accepts and does so- but Wei Wuxian gives him his own core. Without asking if he would accept it, without wondering how much it would/could hurt him to eventually find out where his core came from, he gives his own core.

Jiang Wanyin rebuilds his clan singlehandedly and fights in the Sunshot Campaign still a teenager. He takes his anger, his grief out on every Wen soldier he sees, every person he slaughters, because it's the only way he knows how to. His mother, who he is extremely similar to, probably did something similar. She found an obstacle and whipped it to shreds, taking out whatever rage she had on her at the moment on whatever it was. He does the same.

The Sunshot Campaign ends and everything is... muddled. His sister marries the prick she was engaged to, and he seems to have gotten better somehow so he isn't too upset about it. But his brother, Wei Wuxian who has been acting strange since he reappeared after being missing, defects from the Jiang Sect for a group of Wens. They weren't responsible for his Sect's death and two of them did save his life, but they're Wens and that's a good enough excuse for the rest of the cultivation world to hate them. And so Wei Wuxian leaves him, leaves the promise of the Twin Prides of Yunmeng and leaves Jiang Wanyin more alone than he already was. He can't complain about it and he can't change this because when Wei Wuxian sets his mind to something, he won't deviate from it. And so he is isolated and cut off.

Then the slaughter at Qiongqi Path happens. And then the Massacre at the Nightless City. His sister, his beloved, sweet jiejie and her so-so husband are killed, leaving his little nephew an orphan, only at one month old. Both times because of Wei Wuxain. Jiang Yanli's last words are to Wei Wuxian. Because of Wei Wuxain. Wei Wuxian is responsible for the deaths of everyone he's known and loved, somehow. The thing with the cave and the Tortise of Slaughter gave the Wens the excuse to provoke the Jiang Sect enough into (somewhat) starting a conflict, "rationalizing" their over-the-top response (mass murder). Wei Wuxian lost control at Qiongqi Path and at the Nightless City. He's angry and grieving and confused because he hates Wei Wuxian so much but he's his brother and he loves him but he's also ruined his damn life. The fact that Wei Wuxian's losing-control was artificially induced is not known yet, so it is all Wei Wuxain's fault in his eyes. This is where he seriously starts to deteriorate and lean on his unhealthy coping mechanisms more; when he loses most of what little family he has left.

He reacts in the only way he knows how to: fight and whip whatever is causing his pain into pieces. Except, when he does, he doesn't feel better. So he takes it out on anyone and everyone who reminds him of his brother, his worst enemy. He tortures and murders every demonic cultivator he comes across because he's still so angry at Wei Wuxian and doesn't have any other way of venting that anger. He has no healthy way of expressing his emotions because one of his parents didn't give a damn about him enough to teach him and the other was too busy pointing out everything wrong with him to give a shit about his emotional state.

He raises Jin Ling but gives a bit too much of a fuck about him and, most likely inadvertently, takes his anger out on him as well. He mirrors his mother in his standards, prioritizing Jin Ling's achievements and tries to add a multitude of achievements to his name (maybe projecting onto him and trying to make him everything he wasn't when he was that age?). But he loves him and would give his life for him (take his actions in the Guanyin temple when JGY did the whole hostage thing). Jin Ling is the last real family he has, and even though he's so fucking emotionally constipated that he can't express it correctly, he loves him.

The overarching point is that he's a hurt(TRAUMATISED), sad, angry man in a world that seems to be out to get him. He reacts the only way he knows how to, which only makes his problem worse as it isolates him further and furthers the problem. He is not in a place where he can be vulnerable to anyone and he cannot allow himself to falter and appear weak, so he's self-destructive in his rage and digs his own pit deeper. He can't accept outside help either, because it makes him look weak and it would have made him look weak in his parent's eyes. He's still trying to impress them even though they're long gone and dead. He's still holding himself to their standards and punishing himself for it more than a decade after their deaths.

[criticalrolo]

i INSTANTLY need to know more about cormorant da-ge

im sticking nie mingjue in a house by the river run by two lesbians with their younger siblings so he can make friends with some birds and be wildly overprotective of the kids to his hearts content

anyway here's what's going on to get NMJ sent to the seaside for his health like a jane austen character

JGS is making noises about how much more convenient his life would be if someone would Rid Him Of This Turbulent Sect Leader, Henry II style, and JGY has the idea to try out this cool new composition called the Song of Turmoil

Except he's never tried to kill someone with the Song of Turmoil before, and apparently those songs are powerful enough to kill people within three notes if played by a master! and this is a Modified Version that could conceivably do... Anything

So the first time he decides to try out the song. well. instead of a slow poison he's got a half-dead da-ge spitting blood on the floor 50% of the way into a qi deviation

PANIC. drag his sworn brother to the Koi Tower Basement to see if your half-baked stygian tiger amulet can do anything

the song is still in NMJ's head causing problems so he works out a plan with XY to try to just. erase the song and the memory of that afternoon. see if that does the trick

NMJ wakes up and says what the fuck. where am i. who are you

FUCK SHIT FUCK okay. we're going into crisis mode since we obviously can't send an amnesiac da-ge back to Qinghe when we were SUPPOSED to be doing medical care

Xue Yang go dump this guy in a river to get him as far away from here as possible while JGY does some DAMAGE control to make it look like NMJ left Lanling like expected and possibly disappeared on the way back home

1 terrible trip down the river later, local Yunping fisherman's cormorants find a body in the weeds. he fishes the biggest dude he's ever seen out of the water and OOPS this guy is still alive!! good thing his sister's "very good friend who shares a room with her and is raising a child with her" is the town's doctor!

Cue frantic life saving scene where eventually This Guy wakes up and tells them he doesn't remember anything about himself or his life. oh no he must have fallen off a boat somewhere and hit his head really hard :(

Doesn't even know his own name. He's pretty sure he can remember being called Da-ge by someone though

They'd feel bad if they just set this guy wandering off with literally Nothing to go on in the world. plus he can reach the top shelves in their house without having to get a chair

He can stay with them if he helps with the farm animals, learns how to fish, and helps out the family business. And even though his meridians are all fucked up he's got a little bit of cultivation ability so he can help their daughter build up her golden core. He's pretty good at this training thing!

They've got nine cormorants named after the Nine Sons of the Dragon. Baxia the cormorant is fucking obsessed with Da-ge for whatever reason

Domestic life continues with Da-ge out on a boat during the day and helping the cultivators out with developing their golden cores, training they normally wouldn't really have access to

One day the doctor says her cousin is coming to visit! she hasn't seen her since the end of the Sunshot campaign and she's excited to reconnect with her. oh look here she comes!! hi luo quinyang it's been forever since we've seen you!!

POV: you are Mianmian, you left the cultivation world a year ago and you're traveling around as a rogue cultivator now. You visit your cousin. Fucking Chifeng-Zun is in her front yard. He's been presumed dead for the last year. what the actual fuck do you do

meanwhile JGY is desperately trying to convince NHS back in Qinghe to accept that his brother is dead for his own sake <3 for his own closure so he can lead the sect in his brother's memory <3 please god stop looking into this <3

NHS: "haha yeah you're probably right sang-ge. anyway im going to go look into all of our historical records to see how i can get access to Dead People's Spirits to Find Their Bodies and maybe this will lead to me bringing my dead necromancer friend back from the dead. xoxo"

anyway eventually they reunite and it's a whole debacle. this is actually a v long way for me to make NMJ and mianmian accidental friends because I think it would be funny

[mxtxfanatic]

I only brought up the Lan Wangji is not caring about anyone else’s opinions because you ended your commentary saying that he might have hoped to save his clansmen’s minds through his actions. I may have misunderstood what you meant by adding that, but I def don’t agree with this added comment. The Lan were absolutely as bad as everyone else. No they didn’t go to the Burial Mounds settlement to verify the truth but… that was their negligence. Not following Wei Wuxian to the labor camp was Lan Xichen’s negligence. (The Qiongqi Path labor camp was also a joint-clan endeavor, but that's neither here nor there.) The Jin were spinning lies about Wei Wuxian and not only do Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen close ranks around the lies, Lan Xichen praised Jin Guangyao for them in private while publicly contradicting Lan Wangji who called the lies out (proof). Lan Xichen is neither ignorant to or naive about any of the Jin's intentions nor specifically of Jin Guangyao's crimes (proof). It is a running theme that leads directly to his narrative punishment and subsequent character growth.

Nobody thought that Wei Wuxian was “building an army.�� That is runaway fanon. Their grievances against Wei Wuxian were that he, a mere servant's son was more powerful and popular than them, and the lies they told to justify hating him was that he’d build his own cultivation clan that would overshadow the orthodox clans, thereby challenging their power and authority as the ones who must be given deference by everyone (proof from Wen Qing):

Using the atmosphere, Jin GuangShan turned to Jiang Cheng, “He’s been plotting for a while to go to Burial Mound, hasn’t he? After all, with his skills, it wouldn’t be too hard to set up a sect of his own. And so, he used this as a chance to leave the Jiang Sect, intending to do whatever he pleases in the bright skies outside. You rebuilt the YunmengJiang Sect with so much work. He’s got a few controversial traits in him to begin with, and still he doesn’t restrain himself, stirring up so much trouble for you. He doesn’t care about you at all.” Jiang Cheng pretended to stand his ground, “That probably isn’t that case. Wei WuXian has been like this ever since he was young. Even my father couldn’t do anything about him.” Jin GuangShan, “Even FengMian-xiong couldn’t do anything about him, huh?” He chuckled a few times, “FengMian-xiong just favors him.” Hearing the words ‘favors him’, the muscles beside the corners of Jiang Cheng’s mouth twitched. Jin GuangShan continued, “Sect Leader Jiang, you’re not like your father. It’s just been a couple of years since the reestablishment of the YunmengJiang Sect, precisely when you should be displaying your power. And he doesn’t even know to avoid suspicions. What would the Jiang Sect’s new disciples think if they saw him? Don’t tell me you’d let them see him as their role model and look down on you?”

—Chapt. 73: Recklessness, exr

And even if he was building an army? The cultivation world sat still while the QishanWen built up an army and trampled over anyone they felt like. The same cultivation world sat still while the LanlingJin did the exact same thing directly after the Sunshot Campaign, despite having the power to do something about it before the Jin became unimpeachable (proof and proof 2). Yet Wei Wuxian is the only one they felt moved to go against. Gee, wonder why.

And even if them thinking that Wei Wuxian had an army was canon? They certainly didn’t by the time they showed up and slaughtered a settlement of impoverished farmers and threw their bodies into the blood pool (proof). None of the participants of the second siege are shocked by the existence of the Wen remnants crawling out of the blood pool, including the Lan. They knew. Somebody smashed Granny Wen's head in, and a bunch of other somebodys watched. The cultivation world isn’t stupidly “choosing to believe the Jin’s lies.” They were active and willing participants in the spreading of these lies with the explicit intent of restoring the classist hierarchy by tearing the “servant’s son” down from what they considered their rightful place on top of the food chain. Just like they all sat back when Xue Yang was running around massacring clans and only Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan stepped in to stop him.

Why Lan Wangji Endures

I breifly touched on this topic before in this post, but I wanted to go more in-depth with it in combination with this post. When Lan Wangji says this:

"...When I went to see him, I told him, ‘Young Master Wei was already in the wrong, why add onto the wrong committed?’ And he said....... He can’t affirm whether what you did was right or wrong. But no matter what, he was willing to shoulder all of the responsibility together with you...."

—Chapt. 99: A Hatred for Life Part 2, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

...he is not making a statement on the morality of either his or Wei Wuxian's actions. In fact, his opinions about the moral righteousness of their actions are separate from his opinions on his clan's (and the greater cultivation world's) meted-out punishments. Why? Because the rules and laws of the cultivation world are now wholly separate from what is moral, and so Lan Wangji has matched Wei Wuxian in cleaving his sense of morality from what is considered acceptable by the status quo. Lan Wangji cannot confirm to Lan Xichen (or the Lan Clan, or the cultivation world as a whole) whether Wei Wuxian was right or wrong because they are not operating under the same understanding of "right and wrong." At the same time, Lan Wangji's (summarized via Lan Xichen's) speech above is not in conversation with his brother but actually in conversation with Wei Wuxian's speech back in Yiling:

There was no such road. No solution existed. Wei WuXian spoke slowly, “Thank you for keeping me company today. Thank you for telling me the news about my shijie’s marriage too. But, let the self judge the right and the wrong, let others decide to praise or to blame, let gains and losses remain uncommented on. I, too, know what I should and shouldn’t do. I believe that I’ll be able to control it as well.” As if he’d anticipated such an attitude since a long time ago, Lan WangJi nodded slightly and closed his eyes. And that marked their farewell.

—Chapt. 75: Distance, exr

Wei Wuxian was put into a dead-end situation where any act of self-defense or defense of innocents was an automatic crime. In the end, he experienced the ultimate consequence of death because his act of self-defense led to the death of an important individual, a death that was seen as "unforgivable" in the eyes of the cultivation world, unlike the deaths of Wei Wuxian and the Wen remnants. Likewise, Lan Wangji's actions in protecting Wei Wuxian against his clan were met with punishment, because even though he had good cause in rescuing the Wen remnants' only protector, going against his clan is "unforgivable" in the eyes of a society ruled by tradition and orthodoxy over morality. This is why Wei Wuxian says that the self must judge the self, and why Lan Wangji is following that creed by enduring the Lan Clan punishment while maintaining an unshakeable belief in Wei Wuxian's righteousness.

It was never about Lan Wangji doubting his or Wei Wuxian's morals. It was never about Lan Wangji putting love above righteousness. It was always about how Lan Wangji so much believed in Wei Wuxian's morality and the righteousness of his actions that he was willing to protect the man when the entire world said he was in the wrong, when his own family stood opposite him. And just like Wei Wuxian eventually accepted the consequences of his actions and used his last moments to attempt to destroy the Stygian Tiger Seal, Lan Wangji, too, endured being whipped 33 times by the discipline whip, then went on to rescue Wen Yuan and raise him and the other Lan disciples with morals so strong that they could transcend the mob mentality that their parents never learned to unsubscribe from. Lan Wangji's steadfastness in the face of the incredible hypocrisy and corruption baked into the system he lived in is why Wei Wuxian is able to resurrect into a world where the new generation can look up to him as a hero and a mentor rather than a scourge and a terror.

This endurance is Lan Wangji's ultimate act of love.

[thisisallthehattersfault]

I know the general consensus is that the yin hufu was actually a problem, either due to the resentment itself and WWX’s control of that resentment, or due to the fact that the sects would have absolutely never let him live so long as he kept it, and ignoring the second one which is more indicative of the hypocrisy of cultivation society, that first bit…

Sometimes, I think about Chenqing. The ghost flute, the Yiling Patriarch’s terrible instrument, spreading death to all who hear it. I think about WWX using it like a melee weapon, plain black bamboo, blocking swords and bludgeoning like something wrought from iron.

I think about the fact that it’s covered in teeth marks. Little baby teeth marks, from little baby Wen Yuan, who would have, in the way of all babies, grabbed that cursed flute without a second of fear and shoved as much of it into his mouth as he could fit before any of the adults had even noticed it was happening. I think about Chenging, the Ghost Flute, iron-hard in battle, lethal even when it’s not being played, soft under the aching gums of a teething child. Letting itself be marked, permanently. Sitting, quiet. Doing no harm.

Wei Wuxian was not called the Yiling Patriarch during the Sunshot Campaign, which the general fandom seems to forget. He was not the Yiling Patriarch when he was mowing down Wen soldiers. He was not the Yiling Patriarch at war, blazing and furious, playing his cursed flute and raising the dead to march. The title, Yiling Patriarch, didn’t come until he and the Wens were hidden away in the burial mounds, gathering around their meager meals every night and sharing bottles of Uncle Four’s wine, trying to coax radishes from grave dirt. A toddler, moving from caretaker to caretaker at his own whim, standing among people who love him, gnawing on a cursed flute because his mouth hurts. Wei Wuxian was the Yiling Patriarch because he was also Xian-gege. One does not exist without the other.

Chenqing means “setting forth one’s thoughts and explaining one’s actions.” It was about clarity, an explanation. “This is me,” said Wei Wuxian. “This is what I stand for. This is who I am. This is what I am capable of, and what I will do.”

War, yes, when the world calls for it. Probably that was all he thought he was saying, at the time. War, and the succinct, complete end of it. Retribution. “You brought this on yourselves.”

But what Wei Wuxian actually ended up saying, what he actually did with that flute and that resentment and that hill filled with corpses, what he said was: “How can I help? What do you need? Are the innocent safe? Are the children cared for? I love you. I love you. I love you.”

I think about the Yin Hufu. I think about the general consensus among the fandom that that resentment, that power, would have been too much even for Wei Wuxian. That it would have hurt him or those around him in ways that even he, with his brilliance, could not foresee and mitigate.

I think about Chenqing, soft under a’Yuan’s tiny teeth.

And I wonder.

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

Aug 11th

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1. Hi guys! This will probably I think goes in the fic finder.

So all I remember is wangxian had gotten together, it was post cannon I think? And they go on a hunt together along with Jiang Cheng or maybe they meet Jiang cheng on the way but either ways, things go wrong and the demon slashes wwx's neck and somehow they all fall down a cliff where lwj and jc try to keep wwx alive.

Thank you!

FOUND? The Warmest Hands by AvoOwO (M, 46k, wangxian, JC & WWX, WWX & LSZ & LWJ, major character injury, hurt WWX, blood & gore, heavy angst w/ happy ending, blindness, PTSD, alcoholism, fights, JC & WWX reconciliation, non-sexual intimacy, tenderness, WIP)

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2. Hi! I hope you are doing well. Please help me find this fic. Wwx erased himself and travel back in time. Wwx saw his parent and they have a little bit conversation, such why the couple never had a child or something. I remember there is a scene where wwx ask ‘how do you know I’m your son?’ then I think csr said ‘I always recognized my husband face everywhere’.

Please help me. Thank you!!!

FOUND? This unrolled threadfic by cerbykerby (WIP)

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3. For a fic finder:

It was during an AU version of the sunshot campaign where people thought that WWX and YLLZ were separate people and LWJ had fallen for both. LWJ decides to gently let down YLLZ but realizes that the two are the same person because he played/recognized wangxian. Thank you for all the help you provide

Number three on the current finder “The Scarlet Lotus” is wrong, the fic im looking for was a one shot. Thank you for the suggestion, may read the suggested fic later to try it out

NOT FOUND The Scarlet Lotus by rainbowninja167 (M, 137k, WangXian, Marriage of Convenience, Secret Identity, Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Canon-Typical Violence, canon-typical war crimes, Yunmeng Bros, the mortifying ordeal of getting seduced by your own husband, nonlinear chronology we die like cql, just kidding nobody dies in this fic, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Miscommunication)

FOUND! Found the fic, it’s Lan Wangji and the Love(s) of his Life by baobeibaobae (T, 4k, WangXian, Identity Porn, Identity Reveal, Kissing, First Kiss, Marriage Proposal, Love Confessions, Happy Ending, Oblivious WWX, Flirty WWX, Jealous LWJ, Courting Rituals, Idiots in Love, Mutual Pining, JC is a Good Bro). Thank you anyway and have a nice day

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4. Hello! I'm trying to find this fic where WWX was transported into the body of a female Mo Xuanyu and promptly feels dysphoric about it. When LWJ finds him and takes him back to the Cloud Recesses, he helps WWX feel more comfortable and even allows him to change Mo Xuanyu's name into something else. Somewhere by the end of the fic, it's revealed that the reason why LWJ knows so much about "gender cultivation" is because he himself is trans and found ways to help himself transition.

I can't find it anywhere and I don't wanna lose hope in case it's deleted. Thank you for your help!

FOUND! In Reflection, Truth by Shadaras (T, 55k, WangXian, WWX is summoned into a woman's body, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-Typical Gore, this is a story about being transgender, Dysphoria, Misogynistic Slurs, Ableist Language, it's not slow burn if it's going to be faster than canon, Trans Male Character, Trans wish fulfillment, Canon Divergence - Yunmeng Brothers Have A Real Conversation)

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5. Hii hope you're having a good day!! I was wondering if you could find a fic where wei ying gets his original body back, completely unrecognisable, and decides to stroll around gusu in lan zhans clothing. People see lan zhan and wei ying together and assume that wei ying is a new consort. They later go together to a conference meeting where everyone gets mad because they think lan zhan is cheating

FOUND? Is Your Old Body Considered a Halloween Costume? by The_peregrine_falcon (G, 3k, WangXian, WWX's original body, Junior quartet makes an appearance, LQR's blood pressure is going up, LWJ is chief cultivator, Fluff, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon)

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6. Hello! I sent in this ff a couple months ago with no luck. Hoping to try again to find it! The fic was set during the Cloud Recesses Lectures era and WWX was cursed to lie. Everyone else mistakenly thought he was cursed to only tell the truth, so when he says things like “I hate you” they believe it. WWX gets really depressed that everyone believes that he doesn’t care about them. The curse is eventually broken when LWJ realizes it is a lie curse not a truth curse. If this sounds familiar at all please let me know!

FOUND! A Kiss of True Love to break a Curse by Wangxian101 (T, 5k, WangXian, Teenage Wangxian, Not Canon Compliant, kiss of true love, curse of lies, truth curse, Angst, Fluff, When the only way to break the curse is to kiss, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Teen Angst, They are in love your honour, Oblivious WWX, Oblivious LWJ, there is only one brain cell in this group and it belongs to JC, LXC is the biggest wangxian shipper, jc is a good bro, Love Confessions, Getting Together, Gremlin WWX, Happily Every After, LXC will gut anyone who hurts his precious little brother, True Love’s Kiss, JC is an awkward bean, LWJ POV, WWX POV, WWX is a closet romantic, WWX loves his romance novels, Protective JC, JC loves his gremlin brother, Unrequited Love, Requited Unrequited Love, it all works out in the end)

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7. About 4-5 years ago I read a fic where WW awoke as a god of luck/fortune/fate after the siege. He ends up saving a-qing and she ends up following him after "fixing" XXC's soul, as well as XY's soul being stuck in a sword. God!WWX also ended up saving MXY too. The fic is also very long. the first couple of chapters are average length, but the last few are between 30-70k each. @annacakes2

FOUND? despite it all by novalotypo (T, 292k, wangxian, canon divergence, god of luck WWX, memory loss, non-linear narrative, WIP)

FOUND? Wuqian, the Local God of Yiling by Grace_ShadowWolf (TaubeLePigeon) (M, 80k, wangxian, WWX & LSZ & LWJ, major character death, canon divergence, angst w/ happy ending, god WWX, Chinese mythology & folklore, pining, temporary character death, WIP)

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8. looking for a fic where jin zixuan is a demonic cultivator? it's an au or canon divergence fic where it was him who got the sword in xuanwu. appreciate all the help you give us <3

FOUND! no step had trodden black by Stratisphyre (T, 32k, wangxian, LQR & WWX, JYL/JZX, canon divergence, madam lan lives, past rape, golden core reveal, hurt/Comfort, referenced to attempted suicide & suicidal thoughts, canon-typical violence) most likely not this one, as JZX doesn't go full modao (or even guidao) in it, but he does certainly pick up the sword and is influenced by it; just in case this IS the right one, tho, JZX's bit comes up in chapter 3

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9. Hi! This is for fic finder. I dont remember much because i read that around 3 years ago. I hope this is not a mix between wo fic. I think its an arranged marriage story between Wangxian. Every month WWX leaves CRRS to visit the wen without anyone knowing but LWJ (i think he noticed) because LWJ make some arrangement that allows WWX leaves anytime he likes. 1 month and WWX still come back. Just like the following months until LWJ noticed WWX is not coming back. I think before that the two of them has a fight (? Not sure about this). LWJ search for WWX and found him. Instead of make his presence known, LWJ follows WWX in secret. WWX noticed of course and ignore LWJ. A few days like that and WWX relenta and calls LWJ to follow him without hiding. Thats all i can remember. I dont know if its an ao3 fic or thread fic. Thank you @idontknowwhattowriteforusername

9 is right. For the first half is right (wwx leave every few months) but not the second half (LWJ followed wwx while hiding). I think i mixed two different fic. But the "Light of Stars (and the Destroyer)" Is the one i meant. Thanks

FOUND! 🔒 Light of Stars (and the Destroyer) by Sanguis (T, 22k, WangXian, Legends, Arranged Marriage, Pining, Pining for your spouse, Adoption, Canon Divergence, Married Couple)

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10. hello! i was hoping you can help me find this fic where jiang cheng finds wwx’s journal in the burial mounds and he ends up experiencing(?) the events there. i read it ages ago and can’t find it. thank you!

FOUND? Waiting On You by SmellsLikeDeanSpirit (M, 26k, JC & WWX, WangXian, WIP, Graphic Depicitions of Violence, Major Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending, Memories, Time Travel, Sort Of, the characters watching the show trope but different, WWX has magical diaries that force the reader to experience his memories, JC finds them and reads them, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Bashing, Bad Parent YZY, YZY Bashing, Canonical Character Death, he comes back tho, JC regrets, JC Needs a Hug, WWX Needs a Hug)

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11. Thank you for all the work you do!! I've been driving myself crazy trying to find this fic. All I remember is one scene. At the Jin banquet, Jiang Cheng allows (sends?) WWX to dual Jin What's His Face. WWX obviously trounces him, but nearly has a flashback, prompting JC to pull him back when he realizes that maybe sending his traumatized brother into that situation wasn't the best plan.

It was either a canon diversion or a JC goes back in time fic, but I can't remember which. It was relatively long and it isn't recent.

Ring any bells for anyone? Thanks!! @kirk-spock-in-the-impala

FOUND? Lynchpin by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 103k, WangXian, JC & WWX, Time Travel, Fix-It) JC went back in time and he realized his mistake about the skirmish like right after it happened. The part that they are looking for is in chapter 2.

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12. Hiii thank you so much for the hardwork you do and I enjoy the fics here. I haven't seen this in fic finder yet. I remember lwj leaving gusu for yiling he brought his own money and it was used to buy food and stuff I think. By the end they sell at the market with kids styling lwj hair and gusu saw this the elders was mad mad with the vanity. Lxc asked for bunnies cause the ones in gusu dissapeared(. Thank so much be well.I wrote this today and there was error if there is two pls ignore 🙏) @ladyxyraine

FOUND? 🔒 Share Your Silence series by Terri Botta (Isilwath) (E, 138k, WangXian, Romance, Everybody Lives, Canon Divergence, LWJ Has Feelings, Protective LWJ, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, LWJ Stays at the Burial Mounds, Burial Mounds Ensemble as Family, WangXian in Love, YLLZ WWX, Lan Clan Elders are Assholes, Minor Transgender Character, Qiongqi Path Divergence, LWJ loves his bunnies, Explicit Sexual Content, Burial Mounds, OCs, Drama, NMJ Qi Deviation, Awesome WQ, The Wen Twins, Wen JunZhu | MinYue (OMC), Wen YanJeng | MinYi (OMC), Fluff and Humor, WWX Has Feelings, Lotus Pier, mention of non-con roleplay, Sexual Roleplay, NMJ Needs a Hug, Nie clan sabers, baxia, Unclean Realm, Protective NHS)

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13. Hi im looking for a specific fic. The fic was on ao3 and was a modern au where Wei Ying realizes he might be a bit gay and kisses lan zhan but then freaks out, and they get a bit awkward. He then goes on to forums to see what others might think of his situation, he tries watching gay porn etc. and finds that he's dreaming of lan zhan. He ends up being jumped by homophobes goes on a drinking binge for the next few days as a result and hears that lan zhan has been staying in his room and hasn't been doing well, wei ying thinks it's because he kissed him but later finds out he sent lan zhan a homophobic message when drunk. Any help would be appreciated!!! @livesformitski

FOUND? it's always open by ScarlettStorm (E, 60k, WangXian, Modern, vague north american setting, First Time, Getting Together, Pining while fucking, Some angst, Happy Ending, not straight boy WWX but not NOT straight boy WWX, not practice kissing but not NOT practice kissing, that feeling when you know you're making bad decisions but keep making them anyway, LWJ FUCKS, Sexual exploration, demi WWX, not that he knows that yet, Kissing, Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, confused but enthusiastic consent, WWX's not sure about all his options but he's got the spirit, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, truly absurd amounts of naked pillow talk, switch rights)

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14. Hi!! Thank you for all you do 🫶

I’m looking for a fic that was on ao3. It was one where I think WWX was brothers with Hua Cheng and Luo Binghe and I believe he was a god or something of higher power and as a trial he was born as the WWX we knew and he went through everything he did in canon. When he died he ended up back with Hua Cheng and Luo Binghe but LWJ couldn’t move on and he tried to find him there?

Thank you for your help!! @bigmeatycl0ws

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15. Hi! Kindly help me finding this fic. Wwx teaches the lan juniors to solve arrays. He makes it diffucult to solve so that he can have time with his husband. I think I remember they was a scene where JL ask the Lans how they can easily solves the arrays and then got jealous when he learn it was wwx who taught them.

FOUND? 🔒 A More Practical Approach by Elhana (T, 9k, WangXian, Canon Compliant, Teacher WWX, Humour, POV Multiple, Implied Sexual Content, when you just want to get frisky with your hot husband but your in-laws crave their peace and quiet, huge conflict of interest right there, WWX is resourceful, wuxia magic shenanigans, Post-Canon)

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16. Hey, this is for the fic finder!

I'm trying to look for this specific Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue fic where NMJ gets reincarnated as NHS' cousin's son and promptly falls in love with LXC all over again. I can't remember the title and I've been trying to look for it so I can reread it ;w; I think Age Difference was tagged and there's scenes where LXC tries to dissuade NMJ from getting together but in the end they get married and NMJ recovers his memories from his past life.

Thank you in advance ;w;

FOUND? Song of us by Ziane (E, 142k, LXC/NMJ, JC/NHS, Post-Canon Fix-It, Explicit Sexual Content, Reincarnation, Happy Ending, Angst, Fluff, Smut, Soulmates References, Pining, Canon-Typical Gore, Novel Spoilers, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Flirting, Implied LSZ/LJY, Porn with Feelings)

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17. Hi!! I’m back with another request!

It was an ao3 fic where WWX had left the cultivation world behind because he/she (there was a male and female version I believe) was pregnant with A-Yuan and Jingyi and he/she wanted to give them a better life. LWJ does find them eventually (he’s the father) and he gets to meet the kids. They end up staying together and raising the kids there after LWJ fakes his death @bigmeatycl0ws

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18. Hi! I'm looking for a fic where LWJ and WWX have a sex and a love confession during the sunshot campaign. LWJ visits WWX during one night and asks to let him help WWX with his health after using demonic cultivation. WWX , in a fit of rage and a desperate act to drive away LWJ, behaves crudely and proposition him.... I think the name of the fic was "fool for you"? I'm not sure.

Thanks in advance! @grrumpywoof

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19. Hey! Thank you so much for your hardwork 😊😊

Im searching for a fanfic which is completed

Yu ziyuan is present in the sunshot campaign and wwx invents turtle shields. Yzy tries to show wwx as a traitor but fails.

Can you please help me in finding this fic?

FOUND? Lessons relearned by Iamnotawriter (T, 44k, WangXian, LQR & WWX, Not Madam Yu Friendly, Time Travel Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Inventor WWX, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, No Golden Core Transfer, YZY Bashing)

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20. Hello! Could you help me find a fic where pre sunshot campaign ends up in a room to watch the future and 4 juniors from the future join them. The main pairings I remember are Wangxian where Sizhui is there biological child. XiCheng Jingyi is their biological child and of course XuanLi with Jin Ling. No one believes them until they pull their parents swords from their sheaths and explain because Wangxian and XiCheng have high cultivation Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng got pregnant. @megdbrew

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[asideoftrashplease]

How did JC get his title?

Hello, my friends, today I would like to introduce you to and convince you of a particular headcanon of mine: Because jian aren’t typically suited for the warfront, JC probably had to do some military innovating re: the sword form in order to survive Sunshot, and that’s how he got the title of Sandu-Shengshou.

So here’s a little bit of technical explanation: There are 2 types of classical Chinese blades, the 剑 (jian; translated as sword in MDZS) and the 刀 (dao; translated as saber). QHN use the dao, the other sects use jian. The jian is considered the weapon of gentlemen, while the dao is considered the weapon of soldiers. This is because jian are poorly suited for warfront conditions. I’m of course not a weapons expert so feel free to correct me if you’re some sort of Chinese military expert, but in summary, there are several reasons the jian is poorly suited to the warfront.

(1) Jian aren’t good for crowd control compared to the dao

This is because the jian is a piercing and slicing weapon. Jian are sharp at the tip, which is good for piercing, and the sides are straight, which is good for slicing, but they aren’t good for hacking. Dao are much better for hacking, and what do you do when you are surrounded on all sides by enemies? YOU HACK.

In other words, jian require too much precision and don’t do enough damage in warfront conditions. This makes them bad for crowd control, when you’re in a siege condition and surrounded on all side by enemies.

(2) The jian warps and snaps more easily

Because of the straight blade, jian aren’t as flexible, so they may damage or even snap. Dao have curved blades, which means they can flex more safely. In war, you would probably have to be very careful not to damage your weapon during battle. Once your jian snaps, you’re dead. As such, there’s a certain finesse and technique in the use of the jian. You have to be wary of its limitations.

(3) Jian are generally less versatile than dao

The versatility of the dao makes it better for guerilla conditions and just in general. You can hack at difficult terrain more efficiently. You can generally hurt someone or something in a lot more ways with a dao than with a jian. People who are highly trained in the use of the dao (like NMJ) obviously will wreck a whole lot more damage, but it requires less finesse to do damage with a dao than with a jian.

(4) Because of this, it takes a lot more time to train a soldier in the jian than in the dao

When you’re on the war front and losing soldiers every day, you NEED to be able to replace your soldiers at the same rate you’re losing them. Jian-wielding armies would thus face a problem. Ultimately, jian are used for cultured combat, e.g. 1-1 duals. They are used for CULTIVATION, not war, because the sword form is said to be more refined, more difficult to master, and requires an even temperament and discipline. They are weapons of culture, not military might.

SO WHERE DOES YMJ FIT INTO THIS?

YMJ had the most active jian-wielding army. YMJ and QHN were the main sects who were maintaining war fronts throughout the campaign. QHN was maintaining the Hejian Front, and YMJ the Jiangling Front. While GSL were technically defending a Gusu Front, this was mainly defending their existing territory, and their main role was back up and coordination for the other fronts. In comparison, YMJ was RETAKING territories that had been lost to the Wens, and QHN was advancing into primary Wen territory. LLJ later maintained the Langya Front, but they only came in at the end.

So in other words, YMJ was training and maintaining the most active jian-wielding army in warfront conditions, since QHN uses the dao. Yet YMJ was also faced with the most manpower challenges, especially in the early days before WWX constructed the Yin Tiger Seal and gained the ability to command armies of corpses. Because YMJ was massacred, they initially had to build up an army from literally a SINGLE PERSON, JC, who was also the only trainer. 

Yet by the time WWX emerged from the Burial Mounds, they had a workable enough army that they were already attempting to retake Lotus Pier, and it was stated that they had ALREADY taken back many places in Yunmeng by that time. After that, they survived in warfront conditions for the rest of the campaign, continuing to conquer lands held by the Wens. As a result: (1) their kill rates had to be higher than other jian-wielding sects, (2) their death rates had to be lower, and (3) their training times had to be shorter.

I argue that JC probably had to engage in quite a bit of military innovation. This probs involved creating military formations suited for the YMJ sword form (something that was shown in the donghua), and maybe even making slight adaptations to the sword form, such as creating a simpler version of it that protects against weapon-specific weaknesses, which he could teach more quickly to new recruits, and that fared better in warfront conditions. YMJ were renowned for being masters of the jian, and JC, being the sect heir and second only to WWX, was at the time probably one of the most proficient jian-wielders in their generation.

AND FURTHER FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Although he’s shown favoring Zidian in WWX’s second life, his title is not Zidian-Shengshou, but Sandu-Shengshou. I headcanon he was given this title to acknowledge his military innovations surrounding the YMJ sword form. 

I think his accomplishments were probably not obvious during the Sunshot Campaign because of WWX’s eventual construction of the Yin Tiger Seal. I don’t recall his title really being used in the gap between the end of Sunshot and the beginning of the Siege, and he didn’t also seem to be PARTICULARLY respected by the other sect leaders. But that seems to change with the Siege, which (although it happens off screen) is mentioned in the prologue.

In the prologue, he is acknowledged as one of the main leaders of the Siege, the one who seems to have designed a fair bit of their tactical maneuvers (taking advantage of WWX’s weaknesses), and the one ultimately credited with taking WWX down despite his young age (he is still referred to as Jiang-xiaozongzhu here). By the time WWX is resurrected, YMJ is one of the great sects again, JC’s title is being widely used, and his reputation is such that people are saying: You can offend anyone, but you cannot offend Jiang Wanyin.

[r95irth]

Of course we can disagree, and i'm going to point out MY says to NMJ aout the abuse only in justification after he gets caught, as to explain his actions ;) (which okay, it's on him) the only person he ever tells/complains to before anything happens is LXC.

(And both time NMJ eavesdrop on them, he either go "yeah you complain so i'm fixing this problem" -which is very honorable of him even if it has disastrous consequences and is not the bets optimal way to do it- or enters mode "this is manipulation"!! He is lying to get LXC on his side against me!!")

So no, i'm not saying he is lying, i'm saying JGy doesn't share that kind of thing with NMJ because *points out the scenes where NMJ acts to fix things* he doesn't appreciate his method of fixing this probably? Maybe he likes the fact that he can just complain to LXC and LXC will not do something rah and immediate to fix it (ot anything at all >>) maybe he is like a French person and is just here to complain xD

I firmly believe NMJ does not like spy work in general due to his unbending mentality. Besides LXC does not share his informant to him nor how he gets the information on purpose. He learsn about it during Sunshot campaign final act.

Finally...Excuse me but you again run into the same problem as the beginningf or QIn Su. How JGy was supposed to not marry her BEFORE he gets the news? WHy would he do that? He appreciates/likes her, she treats him well, and respects him enough to GO AFTER HIM despite his reputation. there's no reason for him to let go of a woman like that without a reason?

Besides even if he did let go before being warned because of future sight, if there is ONE THING rich and powerful people hate more than anything it's rejection. It would go "HOW DARE YOU SON OF A WHORE DECIDE YOU'RE TOO GOOD FOR LADY QIN SU?" in a matter of a seconds (like the end of the story). So the only way out of the wedding is to give the awful reason behind it, and immediately throws his father under the cart and so the only person that's keeping him at the Jin.

Yeah we certainly have a different way to se tragedy U-U° It's fine but i wanted to clarify those two points above.

Have a good day.

As a character Meng Yao is largely defined by his lack of freedom and while I think it's very important to understand that when he insists over and over that he had no other choices (that wouldn't put him at serious risk of death or severe harm) he is usually right, I do fucking love that just once- just once- the narative presents him and us with a crystal clear heartbreaking example of a better choice, a way out that he didn't even know was there, right as that possibility is taken away from him forever.

When Nie Mingjue walks into a forest angry on Meng Yao's behalf, ready to help him in any way he can, and Meng Yao kills a Jin captain thinking no one's gonna come. And then their eyes meet.

Fucks me up.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt request: Lao Nie survives through the sunshot campaign and really doesnt get why his sons aren't trying to marry YilingPatriach!Wei Ying. (Please no referring to WY as wife, thank you!)

Win Some, Lose Some - ao3

Defeating Wen Ruohan was all well and good and glorious, Wei Wuxian thought to himself wryly, but not exactly the ‘end of the war’ the way the Jin sect was trumpeting. Not when Wen Ruohan still had an outstanding army under some very determined generals who’d just realized that the death of the entire main Wen family meant winning would crown them the new heads of the Wen sect.

Wei Wuxian’s fingers had started hurting long ago. His lungs had started to burn, too, and he was getting a cramp from standing for so long in one place – he tried to remind himself that making himself a target was a good idea, luring out his enemy for his undead army to attack, but it was getting harder to justify as he continuously lost undead soldiers to magic-infused arrows and showers of talismans.

His eyes drifted to the Tiger Seal hanging at his waist.

He was currently using it only for a power boost, not actually using it directly. He’d learned his lesson on that one! It was so powerful, no person could control it, not even him. It was like riding a tiger.

He’d definitely learned his lesson.

Yeah.

Definitely.

Two shichen later, he put Chenqing away and pulled it out.

“I’ll control it better this time,” Wei Wuxian promised himself. “It’ll be fine.”

It was not fine.

It was…not a complete fiasco, mostly on account of the ghosts in the Nightless City being by and large very vengeful against the Wen sect in particular, but that was about all that was keeping it from turning very bad, very fast. Wei Wuxian really didn’t have control over the Tiger Seal, and even just keeping it from summoning every dead thing within a thousand li was proving extraordinarily difficult.

Not that he was letting anyone else know that, of course. If anyone found out…the hit to morale alone…

Wei Wuxian made himself laugh and allowed the resentful energy wrap around him to fan out dramatically, filling his robes as he turned to survey the battlefield.

“Nice,” one of the ghosts hanging around not far from him said. A cultivator whose soul had been torn out of his body by force, it seemed – Wen Ruohan had some strange habits.

Wei Wuxian ignored him. He’d go away eventually.

“Nice ass, I mean.”

Wei Wuxian had meant to continue ignoring him, but he turned to stare instead. “Are you joking? You’re dead.”

The ghost looked unrepentant. “Can’t blame a guy for trying, right?”

Wei Wuxian couldn’t help himself – it was a dire situation, near to disastrous, and he needed his full concentration on trying to fix it, but the smile overcame all his better instincts. It was just so ridiculous.

“I’m flattered,” he said. “But also, no.”

“Mm, fair enough,” the ghost said. “Looks like you’re having some trouble with that seal of yours. Have you considered grounding it?”

“Considered – what?”

“Grounding it, sending the resentful energy into the earth to dissipate. That’s what always worked for me when I was being overwhelmed.”

Wei Wuxian stared. Demonic cultivation had existed before in other forms, of course, albeit mostly murder-other-cultivators-for-their-power forms, and he knew there must be technically orthodox methods that probably came closer to demonic cultivation than their users preferred to admit, but he had never expected to actually meet someone, even a dead someone, who had anything useful to add.

“Show me how,” he finally said. It was worth a shot.

As the ghost had said – can’t blame a guy for trying, right?

It ended up working, too. Not so well that he’d be able to use the Tiger Seal regularly from then on, nothing was going to allow for that, but he was able to bring it down under control and then fight it the rest of the way to dormant, locking the monstruous resentful energy into place.

“Well done,” the ghost said approvingly. He’d stuck around even when the other ghosts had dissipated, whether out to cause mischief in the world – Wei Wuxian would worry about that later – or on to the reincarnation cycle. And that was a bit of a problem, actually: he’d been very helpful in coaching Wei Wuxian in his battle, and now Wei Wuxian felt like he owed him one.

“All right,” he said, rubbing his arms to try to regain warmth. “What can I help you with?”

“Me?” the ghost seemed surprised. “You need to go fill your stomach, take a nice bath, and sleep for three days before you even think of doing anything practical.”

That sounded good. But he couldn’t spare the time –

“If you don’t, there’s a risk the Seal will break through your protections and you’ll be too drained to do anything about it. And that’s much worse than anything else you could otherwise be doing.”

…that was a good point.

“At least tell me what it is that you want in order to be liberated,” Wei Wuxian said stubbornly. It wasn’t like the Jiang sect would even have food, hot bathwater, or a safe place to sleep – they were too poor for that. He could keep daydreaming until he got there, when he’d have to settle for stale leftovers, a frigid bucket of water over his head, and a too-small cot in the side of Jiang Cheng’s tent, getting disrupted every few moments by someone rushing in with urgent business. “I don’t know if it’s something I can do, but at least I can start thinking about it.”

The ghost considered it for a moment. “Well,” he said, and glanced out at the battlefield. “You know the Nie sect at all?”

“Of course,” Wei Wuxian said, surprised, but then glanced down at the man’s clothing, characteristic of the Nie sect now that he was looking for it, and the face had some of typical Nie sect features, too. Maybe he’d been part of their clan before he died? “Something to do with them?”

The ghost nodded. “If you could take me to them, I can probably handle the rest from there.”

“Well that’s definitely not enough to pay you back,” Wei Wuxian said wryly, “but I can do that even before I sleep. We’re all allies, after all. Come on, follow me.”

“My pleasure. I’ve always enjoyed a good view.”

“…will you give it a rest with my ass?”

The ghost gave a long sigh. “It’s not my fault,” he complained. “I’ve always had a thing for people who might be able to kill me.”

“Is that how you died?” Wei Wuxian asked. He was smiling again. He hadn’t smiled in what felt like a year, and this ghost had done it twice in a row, almost effortlessly. “Hit on someone you shouldn’t have?”

“…you know what, some things are private.”

“You did, didn’t you?” Wei Wuxian sniggered. “Was it worth it?”

“Probably not,” the ghost said with a shrug. “But you don’t live your life by whether it was worth it or not, you just try your best and hope it’s good enough, you know?”

Wei Wuxian paused briefly, then continued walking towards the Nie sect camp.

“Yes,” he said. “I know.”

He made it to the Nie sect encampment fairly easily, using a few walking corpses as guards to hide the presence of the ghost – he didn’t want to risk bumping into someone who had a problem with the ghost before he got Nie Mingjue’s approval for the ghost to be liberated – and started heading towards the main tent.

“You don’t want to go there,” the ghost said. His voice had gone oddly flat; he sounded somewhere between worried and guilty. “He’s probably in his private tent. He got hurt, earlier, and he’d want to be somewhere private to recuperate – too many doctors, otherwise.”

Wei Wuxian glanced over, but decided not to ask, and changed the direction of his steps.

Sure enough, when he clapped outside of the tent Nie Mingjue had chosen for himself, he heard the man’s familiar voice shout out, “No more doctors!”

Wei Wuxian suppressed an inappropriate giggle. “It’s Wei Wuxian, Chifeng-zun. Can I come in for a moment? I won’t take up too much of your time.”

A brief pause, then, “Enter.”

He ducked in through the flap. Chifeng-zun was shirtless, covered in a fair number of bandages, and scowling at an empty bowl of medicine as if it had offended him personally, but he still rose up from his bed to greet Wei Wuxian with a welcoming expression, waving off his attempt to salute.

“How’s it going?” he asked. “I heard you managed to summon up another army of corpses with the Tiger Seal, then put them back down again before they went out of control, this time.”

The ‘this time’ was fair, though it hurt Wei Wuxian’s pride a bit.

“It was extremely useful. We couldn’t have done without your contribution,” Nie Mingjue continued, and the hurt slipped away at once. “Is there something still lingering? My understanding from the reports I’d received was that we were only doing clean-up now…”

“Nothing new,” Wei Wuxian assured him. “Clean-up only, that’s right. It’s just, you see, I had some help from a ghost in getting – some help, anyway, and I want to liberate him in thanks. Only, you see, he’s a Nie, and he wanted to come here…”

“Naturally we will do everything we can to assist. What is his desire?”

Wei Wuxian crooked his finger to let the ghost out and a moment later the ghost appeared, his face extraordinarily tense.

“A-Jue,” he croaked, and all the blood abruptly left Nie Mingjue’s face. He sat down on his bed so hard that there was an audible crack, staring at the ghost.

Wei Wuxian glanced between them. “Uh…”

“A-Jue, I’m sorry,” the ghost said, and well, shit, Wei Wuxian hadn’t realized the ghost that he'd brought with him from the battlefield was new enough to actually know Nie Mingjue personally. “I didn’t mean to – you know I didn’t –”

Nie Mingjue opened his mouth a few times, not saying anything, and then, just when Wei Wuxian thought he was just going to give up, he finally said in a very small voice: “…a-die?”

…well.

Shit.

Shortly thereafter a lot of people came running in and there was a lot of noise and yelling and such things, and Wei Wuxian was politely led away – which actually turned out to be a good thing, because unlike the Jiang sect, the Nie sect’s camp actually did have warm food, hot bathwater, and nice comfortable beds covered in privacy talismans. Apparently they were ranked as essential army supplies, which, in combination with the advice the ghost (former Sect Leader Nie, apparently) had given Wei Wuxian, raised more questions than it answered, but Wei Wuxian decided not to question it.

He’d heard a little about how the former Sect Leader Nie had died – Wen Ruohan had apparently done something to his saber, which had shattered on a later night hunt; the man had apparently had a qi deviation as a result, and then slowly died of rage. He didn’t know anything more to it than that, but the fact that no one had ever spoken of it, not even in gossip, suggested it had been an ugly sort of death.

To think that Wen Ruohan had gone even beyond that, going so far as to steal the man’s soul…

It was a good thing Wen Ruohan was already dead.

By the time Wei Wuxian was allowed to rejoin the rest of the world – he’d been allowed to refuse the care of a doctor, but apparently the food-bath-sleep-food-sleep-food cycle was non-negotiable – Nie Huaisang had somehow been spirited out from the back lines and brought to meet his father’s ghost, and they were all having a very good time. Nie Huaisang was the happiest Wei Wuxian had ever seen him, Nie Mingjue’s eyes were often red for reasons other than rage, and they were both very, very grateful to Wei Wuxian for having summoned up the ghost.

The ghost, who was universally referred to by everyone in the Nie sect camp as Lao Nie and refused to give any more details than that, seemed to be quite happy about it, too.

“I’ve written to Xichen and Wanyin,” Nie Mingjue said at one point. “We need to talk seriously about what to do next, and they’ve been doing all the real work – the Jin sect is only showing up now to help split any treasures, rather than actually risk having to fight…there’s no point in including them.”

That was a little ruder and a little less equitable than Nie Mingjue usually was, but both the ghost and Nie Huaisang looked very pleased with themselves, and in all honesty Wei Wuxian agreed; including the Jin sect now felt almost like an insult to everyone who did put in the effort.

Jiang Cheng arrived first, pulling Wei Wuxian into a hug and then into a corner to scold for what felt like half a shi for not having come back to the Jiang sect first after he finished fighting – they’d been worried about him – and Wei Wuxian felt a little bad about it, but even Jiang Cheng admitted that his counterargument (“They have hot baths here!”) was a very compelling one. Wei Wuxian, by now wise in the ways of the Nie sect, flagged someone down and had them bring over copious quantities of barbeque with chili sauce, and by the time Jiang Cheng was full for the first time in months he’d completely forgotten what he was scolding Wei Wuxian over in the first place.

The Lan sect arrived next, Lan Xichen, Lan Wangji, and even Lan Qiren – at first Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure why that last had arrived, since he was normally in charge of the Lan sect back line, but then it transpired that he’d been friends with Lao Nie while he was alive and had wanted to come see him. Even he called the ghost Lao Nie, which meant that Wei Wuxian might as well give up and accept it; any creature on earth that could make even Lan Qiren unbend in his rigid formality was obviously far too powerful for him to do anything about.

“He likes to flirt with me sometimes,” he informed Jiang Cheng gleefully, and was amused by the expression of horror on Jiang Cheng’s face. Lan Qiren, in contrast, merely looked long-suffering about it, which confirmed Wei Wuxian’s suspicions that that was just a thing for Lao Nie.

“I’ve promised to stop,” Lao Nie protested when Lan Qiren confronted him with it later. “Anyway, I’m dead, as certain peoplekeep pointing out. It’s not as if I can do anything with it…hey, Wei Wuxian!”

Wei Wuxian arched his eyebrows at him.

“You and Huaisang are on good terms, right?”

That wasn’t where Wei Wuxian had expected him to go, so he blinked, but answered gamely, “Yes, we’re quite good friends. Why?”

“Plans for the future,” Lao Nie said cheerfully. “You’re the head disciple of the Jiang, but not a blood relation. That makes you perfect for marriage alliances.”

Wei Wuxian felt a shiver go up his spine and Jiang Cheng was abruptly sitting straighter as well.

“What was that?” he asked. “You don’t have any women.”

“So what? Wei Wuxian’s obviously a cutsleeve anyway,” which, rude, Wei Wuxian was not, “and he likes my younger son well enough. That means he can marry in! Anyway, it makes sense. Your Jiang sect is still rebuilding and needs strong alliances, and he’s a demonic cultivator, disdained by the orthodox path, with an extremely dangerous object of power that he needs help controlling – my Nie sect can provide your Jiang sect with resources, Wei Wuxian personally with protection, and also guidance on controlling the Tiger Seal. Perfect alliance!”

Wei Wuxian opened his mouth, then closed it again. It was a surprisingly cogent argument, actually.

He glanced at Jiang Cheng, who was still in the open-mouthed horror stage.

“Uh, I have an objection,” Nie Huaisang said, and sharply elbowed Lan Wangji, who he was sitting next to – apparently they’d been friends as children, which Wei Wuxian hadn’t known and had become suddenly deeply jealous of the second he’d heard it. Lan Wangji had gone strangely pale, too; Wei Wuxian wondered if he should order him some food and bundle him into one of the tents with a bed as well, everyone knew how hard Lan Wangji was always working, he was probably exhausted. “Everything you said is just as true about the Lan sect, isn’t it?”

“They’re still rebuilding,” Lao Nie objected. “They need resources as well, they can’t be giving them out…huh, actually, that’s not a bad idea! Wei Wuxian, I’ve changed my mind. Why don’t you marry in with my elder son, and we can marry Huaisang off to Wangji, send him to the Cloud Recesses? That way both sects have a reason to draw on ours –”

“You can’t just marry Lan Zhan off like that!” Wei Wuxian protested. Nie Huaisang and Lan Wangji? Impossible! Childhood friends or not, they didn’t even like each other!

“I don’t want to leave the Unclean Realm!” Nie Huaisang protested. “And maybe Lan Wangji does!”

“Then they can both marry in! I don’t see what’s the problem –”

“You can’t make decisions like that,” Jiang Cheng put in, a bit belatedly.

“Why not?” Lao Nie wanted to know. “I might be dead, but I’m still the eldest person here, and I say it would be a good idea to get Wei Wuxian married in…hey, Qiren, Qiren! You’re in charge of your nephew’s marriages, right? Work with me here!”

Lan Qiren was pinching the bridge of his nose. “I will do no such thing,” he said sternly. “We have just finished fighting a war. We do not need to rush so quickly to marriage…especially since you’ve proposed ones with no issue for both your sons.”

Lao Nie shrugged. “That’s what concubines are for.”

“Also, who says I cut my sleeve!” Wei Wuxian finally and belatedly manage to interject. “Why do you think that, anyway?”

“Because you immediately figured out that I was flirting with you, and you were flattered, not repulsed,” Lao Nie said practically, and Wei Wuxian gaped at the sheer shamelessness of the statement – which wasn’t a feeling he’d ever had before. Clearly his statement that if he were second in shamelessness, no one would dare to be first was only applicable to his current generation; the past generation obviously had him beat! “You have no idea how long I spent flirting with Qiren before he noticed long enough to tell me to jump off a cliff. Months. I wasn’t subtle, either.”

Given that Lao Nie had opened with ‘nice ass’ when it came to Wei Wuxian and that had been when he was already dead, Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure he wanted to know what Lao Nie considered to be ‘not subtle’. Also, he wasn’t sure he agreed with that method of analysis. Surely there were plenty of people who would have noticed and responded the same way? It didn’t mean he cut his sleeve!

“There’s an easy way to test it,” Nie Huaisang said. “Wei-xiong, look at Lan Zhan here. Would you say he’s attractive?”

“Naturally,” Wei Wuxian said. What a stupid question. “I mean, have you seen him? He’s the second most desirable young master in the cultivation world, according to the list, and he probably should be first, meaning no offense to Zewu-jun.”

Nie Huaisang nodded as if he’d said something very wise. “Which feature of his would you say is the best? His eyes?”

“That’s an impossible question,” Wei Wuxian objected. “His eyes are gorgeous, of course, but he’s also got those ridiculously powerful arms, and he’s one of the best fighters, too – the way he moves is just perfectly graceful – and –”

“I think the point has been made,” Lan Qiren said. He was now covering his eyes with his hand. For some reason, Jiang Cheng had a similar posture, while Nie Mingjue was covering a smile with his sleeve in a pose that looked an awful lot like his father’s. Lan Xichen just looked pleased. “Please desist at once.”

“What point?!”

“Wei Wuxian,” Jiang Cheng said. “Just…shut up, okay? Before you get yourself married out.”

“To my sect,” Lao Nie said.

“To the Lan sect,” Nie Huaisang corrected forcefully. Wow, he must really not want to get married.

Lao Nie looked at his youngest son, who glared at him. They didn’t speak for a long moment, but some meaning had to be conveyed because eventually Lao Nie gave a great big sigh and said, “But it’s not fair. I want him to come to our sect, he’d fit in so well! We’re the ones who can really help him with his demonic cultivation; the Lan sect has too many rules against it…can’t they both marry in? Are you sure that wouldn’t work? Huaisang, work with me here…”

“Maybe I want to marry a girl?” Nie Huaisang argued, then frowned. “Wait. Do I want to marry a girl?”

“Wait, why did everyone decide I was a cutsleeve?” Wei Wuxian argued. “Lan Zhan, help me out –”

“You are to do no such thing,” Lan Qiren informed his nephew, who promptly turned and looked at his older brother.

Lan Xichen looked at his uncle. “Shufu, under the circumstances…”

Lan Qiren grumbled for a moment, then said, begrudgingly, “At least wait for the matchmakers.”

“What matchmakers?” Wei Wuxian asked. “Jiang Cheng –”

“Wei Wuxian. Shut up.”

“But –”

“I think this is all going to go very well,” Lao Nie said happily. “Very well indeed.”

[kikyan]

hi!! I just found this blog and I can't say I don't absolutely love it!!

I just read poly lan zhan and wei wuxian.

so I'm wondering if you could write something like that!! maybe with a really strong reader or the reader from the wen clan.

I would prefer male reader but I understand if you want to make it gn!!

love your work by the way!! <3

Thank you for your support, omg I’m sorry I’ve been on an unofficial break and had a lot to return to! Thanks for understanding with the GN reader since that’s what I’m most comfortable with! 

I tend to write separate headcanons for them but tbh, at this point I’m going to write them together. I’ve seen the animation (donghua) and the live action, currently reading the novels! The animation and the drama are a bit different, in the drama the Wen Clan was a part of the event the Gusu clan held but in the animation, that wasn’t a thing so I’m going to stick with the animation. WWX did meet Wen Ning during the sunshot campaign if I remember correctly? Regardless, the Wen clan are slightly hated at this point. Minus the exceptions (Wen Ning and Wen Qing’s small branch), the Wen clan is full of arrogant and ego full assholes who nobody likes. While you try your hardest not to be like them, people still lump you with them. 

I like to think that LWJ doesn’t exactly hold any negative emotions towards you, you’re just. . .there. WWX however, is a mix. You’re apart of the Wen clan so at first he may be a bit like on guard, but he’s not one to judge too quickly so he waits to see how you are before affirming his belief. Once he deems you’re not a threat and just misunderstood, he tries to do that playful teasing. 

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, normally the Wen clan is full of inexperienced yet proud members.” 

While he may be correct, it hurts to have your name disrespected. You try to avoid WWX as much as possible and focus on your mission, but he’s always around. I think the main point is what you chose to do when the Wen Clan tries to take control. Are you going to stand up for the others or are you going to assert power. LWJ, I’m gonna be honest, I don’t see him liking anyone other than WWX, so while I have written headcanons for him in the romantic sense, he’s doing it for WWX. LWJ may end up forming platonic feelings, but probably not romantic. So having that in mind, I think LWJ would enjoy knowing that even in the Wen Clan, there are still some good people. He’d probably give advice or support you, try to guide you into doing the right thing. WWX is probably the person who probably thinks power dynamics are somewhat attractive. He loves assertion! I don’t exactly have much to add, during the battle they probably hope you haven’t died or on apposing sides. When the small Wen Clan branch is being murdered they also hope you have gotten to safety. WWX would probably try his hardest to ensure you survive. LWJ would also, he really admires the strength you have to go against your own clan even if it’s wrong (secretly until after WWX dies because he did go against his clan and received I think 300 slashes?) 

[grewlikefancyflowers]

When someone (WQ?) asks if they hate each other, doesn’t WWX literally say “nah, we don’t”?? Why can’t these fandom read 😩

Yes, in chapter 75.

'Wen Qing, “Really? Don’t you two have a bad relationship? Heard that it’s like you’re ice and fire, fighting every time you see each other.”

Wei WuXian, “Don’t listen to the rumors. Our relationship really was quite bad in the past. During the Sunshot Campaign, we did get into a few fights because of our bad tempers. But afterwards, it wasn’t as bad as the rumors say. We’re so-so.”

When they meet in Yiling, WWX also thinks that LWJ does not, nor has he before, held hated or enmity towards him. 'Hearing that his voice was no different from before, without any sense of hatred or enmity, Wei WuXian finally felt a part of him relax.'

WWX similarly summarises their relationship in chapter 48,

'This person’s story wasn’t as bad as some others. The more exaggerated ones even told of how on the battlefield he and Lan WangJi fought with each other as they killed the Wen-dogs. In reality, back then, their relationship wasn’t as utterly incompatible as the rumors say, but there were some trivial clashes. At the time, Wei WuXian went around digging graves all the time, while Lan WangJi always chose the most vexing of vocabulary, such as how it wasn’t a righteous path and harmed both the body and the mind. He even straight up hindered Wei WuXian at times. What was more, they battled the Wen-dogs once every few days, both directly and secretively. Both of them were quite easily angered at the time, so they often parted on bad terms.'

And again in chapter 12,

'He honestly didn’t think that he shared a deep memorable bond with Lan Wangji. Even though they had studied together, faced dangers together, and fought alongside each other in the past, these encounters ended as quickly as they had started. Lan Wangji was a disciple of the Lan Clan; he was destined to be “refined” and “upright”. This was incompatible with Wei Wuxian’s character. Wei Wuxian had personally felt that even though they weren’t on bad terms, they weren’t exactly best buddies either. Lan Wangji most probably had the same evaluation of him as an average bystander: He was a sinister man who lacked righteousness and created havoc in his wake; it wouldn’t be long before he would become a major source of trouble. After betraying the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng and taking on the title of Yiling Laozu, one could say that the rift between himself and the Lan Clan of Gusu was fairly noteworthy, especially in the months prior to his demise.'

Even straight after his resurrection, he doesn't think their relationship was particularly good or bad. WWX also thinks that LWJ probably views him as someone who lacks righteousness, etc. Even he knows he is making an assumption. It is more due to WWX's perception of the Lan clan rather than LWJ himself that makes him feel this way.

So, prior to his death, straight after his resurrection, and after he has spent a lot of time with present-day LWJ, WWX's appraisal of their relationship in the past stays the same; neither good nor bad, rocky due to both their tempers, but never with any true hatred or animosity from either of them.

[lansplaining]

So for the inverse of Jiggy never being unveiled and living into old age leading to great prosperity for the jianghu, would WWX dying early before his most righteous acts lead to that much worse a world? Let's say he dies a hero's death against Wen Rouhan at the final battle of the Sunshot campaign, in a way that cements him as a martyr who made his takedown by JGY and NMJ possible. So the Wen Remnants get a few years less life, Wen Ning never gets resurrected and the biggy: Wen Yuan/Lan Shiziu dies. But on a wider level, how big ae these things? And on the other hand, no Zixuan or Yanli dying or Jiang Cheng having to play damage control rep-wise.

this post makes me wonder what Meng Yao would have said if he'd been at the lantern ceremony at Cloud Recesses

because I think to wish to live with no regrets, which is the gorgeous heart of Wei Wuxian's character, might inevitably mean that you prioritize the small and the individual and the immediate over the big and the long-term. Jin Guangyao has a lot of regrets for, uh, a lot of reasons. but I think that the scale of his ambition and the shape of his dreams means that even if he hadn't done some dramatically regrettable things to retain his position, he would have ended up with the inevitable regrets that pave the way to big progress.

for example, in a world where for some reason JGY met A-Yuan and decided something needs to be done about these acts of mass retribution against fallen sects, he might still conclude there isn't much he can do for A-Yuan specifically-- he needs to work out a solution for the future. he might deeply regret that! but I think it's the choice he'd probably make, because the long-term change is more important and will help more people. WWX can't and won't live with that individual instance of regret, even if it means blowing everything on an ultimately small-scale effort and having no leverage or power left to change things in the future.

so basically: you're right, but that's also just at the heart of who WWX is. he'd be the first person to argue that that single, one life does matter, is all that can ever matter. JGY wouldn't agree. if pressed, I'd argue that MXTX actually lands on WWX's side of the equation, not out of a belief that it's the morally superior position, but because their world can't be lastingly changed, and so to change one life is all you can ever do.

[baoshan-sanren]

im kind of curious why you use the phrase "absolute stagnation" to describe jc's character arc - although it's true he never goes from solidly Heroic to Villainous (or vice versa) or has some dramatic blackening, there are i think solid changes over the course of the story (following the sunshot campaign, his sister's death, etc). do you just mean that he never has a single big shift, or have i misread that?

oh boy, and that’s my last ask for the day

The thing about a character arc is that the character has to undergo significant changes in response to these events, otherwise it’s just... a bunch of events happening, and the character... growing older. If you look at Shen Jiu as someone who blackened in response to the events around him, and you look at Mu Qing as someone who grew and changed for the better in response to the events around him (plus a thousand years, give or take), then the fact that Jiang Cheng does not change one significant iota is pretty hard to miss in the text.

Character arc isn’t Jiang Cheng becoming a sect leader after his sect is slaughtered. Character arc would be Jiang Cheng’s character (as in the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual) undergoing significant change as a result of his sect being slaughtered, and as a result of him becoming a sect leader. The basic premise is “The character begins as one sort of person and gradually transforms into a different sort of person.” Jiang Cheng who blamed Wei WuXian for Jiang FengMian’s “inattention,” then for the death of his parents, then for the death of his sister, is exactly the same Jiang Cheng who would torture potential practitioners of demonic cultivation because they “might” be Wei WuXian. “Arc” is often used to describe a sweeping change; it implies that he became something he wasn’t previously (not him getting older and having more power to do things he couldn’t do as a disciple, or had no cause to do back then) and literally none of that... happens in text.

The reason I don’t do JC meta any more is bc CQL JC has little to nothing to do with MDZS JC. Like a lot of other characters in CQL, JC is pretty inconsistent, and definitely not faithful to his canonic counterpart. His canonical counterpart has a place, and a meaning, in MDZS as a xianxia deconstruction novel. 

This Jiang Cheng:

blames Wei WuXian for everything he’d blamed him for before Wei WuXian's death. He is exactly the same person he was then, with an addition of a Sect Leader seat, more rumors about him, more power, and probably some nicer robes idk. Like, substantive change leading from one personality trait to a diametrically opposite trait? Not a thing that happens with JC at literally any point.

From a literary (and psychological) perspective I’ve always found JC fascinating, because I think he is meant to be frustrating. His lack of development is intentional, and reads like nails on chalkboard. We want our characters to grow, to change, to learn to let go of their resentments, to do some introspection, to work on themselves. If we can’t have that, we want them to go in the other direction. We want them to be an easily-definable villain, or to at least fit into the mould of one. A lot of fanon JC is exactly that, one or the other with very little room in between. Humans hate things they can’t define, things they can’t easily identify as either right or wrong; that’s no great mystery. 

JC didn’t blacken, and he didn’t become a better person. JC didn’t do anything except build himself a timeless little bunker of his festering resentments, and then decide to just huddle there until the end of time. And although I’m sure the water is nice and warm in that bunker, and that A LOT of real people would react in exactly the same way, when you pick up a xianxia novel to read for enjoyment, that’s not what you wanna see happen. So people tend to add things that are only canon in CQL, or their own headcanons that can hardly be supported by text, in order to alleviate that discomfort. Which is understandable, but not who JC is in MDZS.

If there is character development to be had for JC, it should be happening post-MDZS. The golden core reveal is exactly the type of event that would precipitate a major character change. But there is no hint that mxtx meant to even give us that. And I understand, completely, the frustration in that decision, especially if JC is someone’s favorite character. But a lot of fanon interpretations of him, in my opinion, have little bearing on canon JC, so honestly, I really have no interest in discussing him any further than this. 

[admirableadmiranda]

Probably in order to showcase that even the Lan sect rules were not as mighty as the Jin’s strength. We are the strong sect that came through the war in the best shape. We are the ones with a sect leader who knows what he’s doing. We know better than your silly rules.

Jin Guangshen really lucked out on having three other great sect leaders who were all young men, Nie Mingjue as the oldest of them is probably twenty-four at most compared to Jin Guangshan’s fifties and he uses it. The pressure in the scene is most on does the sect that holds itself apart with rules stand against the Jin sect and risk alienation, or fall into line with the “right” way of things. Which Wei Wuxian proceeds to smash by saying that he is the sort of person that will stand even alone against these actions and help those being pressured by the Jin.

That is why they target the Lan sect. To prove that no one is better than they are. Break your rules or break the peace. Which option is the better one? Can you really actually choose a side, Lan Xichen.

Random Thought #23: was Lan Xichen, a sect leader of a great sect, really gonna let himself and his clan be publicly disrespected at another sect’s banquet in which they were guests? And by a nobody in that sect who didn’t participate in the war effort while the Lan did??? Like, I really want to know how that whole thing would’ve went down had Wei Wuxian not stormed in to ask after Wen Ning.