#whatever wwx does* as in it cannot only be on wwx

[llycaons]

reconciliation fics are all like 'all jc needs is a little time to calm down and some open communication 😊' but I'm like yeah thats a start but I think he needs therapy for real HOWEVER I know therapy doesn't exist in this universe so how about the healing power of bdsm

[flowersdiceandlove]

Headcanon that WWX always wanted a family. Like this was not only his biggest dream while he grew up, but also could literally not imagine his life otherwise. He’s a romantic and always used to daydream about having a wife and kids. That one of the reasons that it took him so long to figure out his sexuality and feelings for LWJ is bc of this bc he always thought that you have to have a wife in order to have kids. You have to get married and be husband and wife to have children. Obvi he knows that people have kids out of wedlock and cheat, but he can’t imagine himself doing that. He wouldn’t disrespect a woman by taking her virginity before they were married or let her be shamed by having a baby out of wedlock. He never thinks to solidly on the who his wife might be and it stays a distant fantasy. 1) bc he’s in love w/ LWJ and can’t actually imagine himself w/ anyone else even if he doesn’t realize his feelings. 2) bc he thinks that whatever wife and kids he does have will be bullied by Madam Yu and (even if he doesn’t think of it for himself) he doesn’t want to subject an innocent woman and child to such treatment.

On the same note, I also headcanon that he wants A LOT of kids. He wants a really big family. He wants bio kids w/ his wife if they’re able (he knows fertility issues are real and wouldn’t pressure or fault her if they can’t conceive) but he also wants to adopt. Like adopting is a dealbreaker for him. His wife has to be able to love any adopted kids as much as bio kids. He feels like this may be a dealbreaker for a lot of women bc of all the pressures of bloodline and blood related family. The reason I headcanon this is bc since his parents died when he was so young and the Jiang took him in, he never really had a family he could call his own. (Your own feelings on the Jiang family aside there is no way he was actually allowed to call them his family or siblings growing up) All he wants is a family he can be a part of and call his family, not just reading between the lines. And the reason he wants to adopt is bc he lived on the streets for years before JFM took him in. He knows what that’s like and he wants to help any child he can if he has the resources to care for them. So his solution is to adopt them and give them the family he always wanted.

And I ALSO headcanon that when he was like 13ish, Madam Yu gathered all the male disciples around that age gave them a serious talking to about having sex before marriage (this is where he gets most of his ideas about not disrespecting a woman and shaming her by having sex before marriage since that’s how Madam Yu words it). It’s terrifying bc Madam Yu is terrifying and she was threatening them with Zidian and the discipline whip should they ever bring shame to their clan in such a way. (She’s extra harsh bc of her feelings about JGS and how he treats her sworn sister) Along w/ the fear inducing lecture, she arranges for all the boys to work in an orphanage/Jiang Clan nursery/something for like a week or a month so they can see how much work babies and kids are. AND (this is my fav part of this headcanon) WWX ends up LOVING IT!!! He cannot get enough of this kid and baby thing. It totally backfires on Madam Yu bc while all the other boys are very put off of fooling around for fear of knocking a girl up and ending up w/ a baby, WWX is totally starstruck thinking about his future kids. Even after the mandated time that Madam Yu made them work there for, WWX keeps going back to play w/ the kids and help out. It gets to the point that Madam Yu ends up punishing him for spending too much time there instead of training. But he just loves taking care of kids so much that he keeps sneaking (that’s right sneaking) out to do that. She ends up needing to literally ban him from those places, but he sneaks in anyway since he loves it so much. The people who are supposed to be the ones turning him away just turn a blind eye and don’t tell Madam Yu bc 1) WWX and the kids/babies both love it so much. And 2) they really need the help, so why would they turn away another set of hands? Especially when that other set of hands is just so good with them? As such, WWX is great at caring for kids and not just entertaining them. He never turns away from a dirty diaper or sick kid. He’ll clean up as much kid mess as you need him too. (This is even more true after the whole demonic cultivation thing bc after that he has seen far more gross and nauseating things than in his youth)

That’s all I have on this for now, but I think I still have enough ideas to make another post. Let me know if you want me to continue this.

Part 2

[amorremanet]

For Fandom confession ask game: I think jiang cheng loved Wei wuxian in a more than brotherly or platonic way but didn't have the emotional knowledge to recognize it and that's why it hurt him so bad when Wei wuxian defected from the jiang sect and later went off lan wangji because Wei wuxian was supposed to be his person and he left him behind

Y E A H

YEAH

And this isn't even me being amatonormative about it, because it doesn't even have to be romantic or sexual to be an intensity that is beyond what is typical of siblings or best friends or sworn confidantes. I posted once about how Jiang Cheng embodies Jo March's reaction to John Brooke asking to court Meg in Little Women:

“Of course not. It would be idiotic! I knew there was mischief brewing. I felt it, and now it’s worse than I imagined. I just wish I could marry Meg myself, and keep her safe in the family.“

IF ONLY HE COULD MARRY WEI WUXIAN HIMSELF AND KEEP HIM SAFE IN THE FAMILY!!

Of course, if you are interpreting this in a romantic/sexual context, there is SO MUCH to unpack there, especially re: his resentment towards Wangji, and it is outrageous to me that it's not one of the top Jiang Cheng ships.

[phoenixcatch7]

Up next, the only model I have of one of my rare fandom OCs. I typically only make one per fandom, so this is mdzs!

This is Crow, a nameless and amnesiac raven. The animal reincarnation of an ancient demonic cultivator puppeting the skeleton of their previous life. Wwx named them upon meeting them when he mistook their species in the dark, and then found it funny enough he kept the name.

It's vanishingly rare these guys get lore, but this one does!

I typically keep to book or anime continuity, and crow is my nod to cql/the untamed. In this, crow is the only known member of a rare and unorthodox species - a yin skeleton.

To 'become' a yin skeleton, a few criteria must be met: a creature of sufficient power and resentment must die an unsettled death and yet refuse to become a resentful spirit. Their corpse must then be left, undisturbed and unburied in whatever state it was left in, in a location of immense resentful energy with full exposure to (the purifying yin of) the moon. After many years, once the flesh has rotted off the bones, the skeleton left will rise once more and mindlessly seek out its soul. Should it encounter the soul in their new body, and the soul accept the undead shell rather than fleeing or destroying it, the bond between mind and body will be forged anew, and the skeleton becomes a second body of the soul, allowing it to cultivate immense amounts of yin energy without damage to the current vessel.

Having no organs, it of course cannot talk or feel pain, though resentment puppets its limbs and allows it to see and hear just as well as any reanimated skeleton - better, even. Though it can carry out orders and operate from a significant distance, a yin skeleton will always be drawn back to its soul, seeking out what it can never again have.

Crow is the reincarnation of whoever created the burial mounds, the losing side. It's been so long since they first reincarnated, gained their yin skeleton, and cultivated to sapience that they no longer recall anything about their human life, including their old gender. Wwx theorises that they could be Xue Chonghai himself, or one of his disciples, but any clues are long since lost to time and they're not really interested in finding out. Nonetheless, they have 'lived' in the burial mounds undisturbed and undiscovered for centuries, learning and experimenting with yin energy with their decreasingly limited intelligence and total lack of resources or modern knowledge.

Wwx encounters them for the first time utilising corpses for a dance ritual to expose the sky above the thick smog. Think a rain dance, but in reverse. Though they're not a fighter (nothing to fight in the burial mounds if you're part of it) or good at using their words (nothing to talk to in the burial mounds period), they nonetheless possess a deep understanding of yin energy/resentment and its interactions with its cultivators that wwx reverse engineers and uses to reach even greater heights. Vaguely endeared and deeply interested in the most unusual thing to happen in the mounds in literal centuries, their raven body often leaves the mounds to scavenge for berries and the like for wwx to eat, because lord knows what he was eating in canon.

When wwx breaks out of the burial mounds, they intermittently visit him, acquiring a veiled hat and covering robes to avoid getting hunted down, pretending mutism and the bird being a talking service animal trained for translation. They could not look any more like a demonic cultivator if they tried, though, so results are mixed. They are often one crow among the many that follow wwx around being ominous and creepy, so it's no surprise he thought they were one too at first!

With a reason and desire to explore and socialise (with like, one person lol), Crow slowly grows to genuinely like wwx and shows initiative by spying for information. This works worryingly well, being just a bird and a super powered undead. When wwx brings the wens to the burial mounds, Crow is introduced to them all and in turn shows them the way to the old sect ruins, where they settle. They bond with wn, unsurprisingly, and are extremely fond of him and the small human who is soon unafraid to approach them. During the first siege of the burial mounds, wwx orders them to hide and guard a-yuan, and they do so, though they struggle to care for him as his fever climbs. When lwj comes and rescues a-yuan, they follow him in secret, often checking in on the pair in between general spying and stalking and trying to clean up the mounds.

When wwx is forcibly brought back to life in a new body, his own skeleton wakes up and tries to find him. Crow takes care of it like an exasperated child minder, keeping it from running out in public or off cliffs in search of him, until they encounter him halfway up dafan mountain. A dark human shape looming in the shadows of the trees just off the path looking straight at him, following the narrative it'd be the first time the audience meets them lol. The very image of Bad News.

Crow leads wwx to a clearing, where there is the outline of a tall, broad figure standing just inside the shade cast by the trees. Red eyes, tumbling and tattered hair, flowing robes. It steps out into the moonlight, and wwx's skeleton is skinless and bare but for the cloak Crow has forced it into. Wwx reaches for the grasping bony hands with zero hesitation, and thus wwx gets his own yin skeleton - the first ever human to do so.

As a demonic hippie, essentially, Crow isn't really a fighter - preferring to cultivate through dance where wwx chooses music - though they aren't afraid to dish the pain. Like any other undead, the skeleton does all the work, fighting unarmed with immense brute strength, speed and endurance. Like wn, basically. When not covered from head to toe to participate in society they typically wear very loose, gaping clothing to allow Crow to climb around on the bones. They typically rest in the exposed ribcage like a birdcage, but when making a point they often climb into the skull to peer from an eye socket (which is why the design has a single red eye. All very goth. I was going to use a normal eye but it looks absolutely HORRIFYING on a skeleton XD).

Crow, being a bird in charge of a skeleton in a pit of death, cares very little for appearances, and their yin skeleton is clothed in repaired and stolen rags from the corpses. The only thing remaining of their past life is a weirdly indestructible cloak/outer robe embroidered with falling red leaves. Shoes are very hard to wear when you don't have any skin or muscles, and it's not like it can get scratches or sore feet anyway, so it's barefoot, only using wraps to give the illusion of shoes. The whole chest was supposed to be exposed so you could see the ribs! But there weren't any chest pieces like that so I had to settle. It does look SUPER cool though. The feathers on their chest are from the bird! It's hard to tell given the dark colours and the blood, but they're the same blue as the wings! The arm guards and wraps are basically just falconry gloves so Crow can land safely and not fall off the bones lol. The moon/yin bleaching has left the bones really white, unlike natural skeletons which are yellow. The bleaching white is for hygiene and aesthetic I think.

Due to the bird cultivating resentment, Crow successfully reached immortality in their flesh and blood body. Perhaps they could have been human by now had they stayed in the reincarnation cycle and led good lives, but they prefer the life they have. If they could speak eloquently enough they could revolutionise the study of yin, but wwx is the only one who really listened. Eventually, perhaps, if they form the undead trio with wn and sl (and a-qing, technically) and one of the two teaches them the modern writing system. Due to all the spying and exploring (breaking and entering) they do, they often struggle to have patience with surprise or denial. Crow may have bitten someone in frustration. Or five.

Luckily, lsh and jl regard them as the creepy but helpful uncle, and enjoy petting the raven as much as it enjoys being pet. The adults who know of them are mostly warily resigned to ominous eyeless staring and a bird randomly sharing personal details of their enemies. It's how they show their love.

Man but I'm SO happy with the design, it came out SO WELL!!

If you've read this far, yay! Tell me what you think ^u^

[kimboo-york]

A Short Treatise on Madam Yu

This is all about Madam Yu as represented in my fic The Bastards of Yunmeng, not canon!

Okay, first off, I need to make clear that I am not a Madam Yu respecter. I loathe the character, probably for very personal reasons. If Madam Yu is your babygirl, I’m sorry, this is not the meta for you.

WARNING: If you have not read up through chapter 11 of the fic, this meta is super spoilery!

This meta is not particularly spoilery for The Bastards of Yunmeng past chapter 11, but does have some information about characters that will become important later on. So, the usual warning about spoilers are in place here.

Read at your own risk, yada yada yada…

Importantly, nothing that happens in this story is meant to redeem Madam Yu. My personal headcanon is that she was a narcissist and unable to genuinely, selflessly love other people, and that is how I’ve written her here. She was in a very unhappy situation, but also she was simply not a good person overall, IMHO. It is interesting to consider if she was born that way or corrupted by circumstances, sure, but in the end, she was who she was. You can slap whatever diagnostic labels on her you want, I’m just saying she was toxic. Some people found that out later rather than sooner.

Honestly, I don’t know the specifics of how her affair with Wei Changze (and, very likely, Cangse Sanren) came about. What I DO know, however:

Jiang Fengman is sterile. She figured that out pretty quickly and took steps. This might be her villain origin story, actually; the only reason she was married off to him was to produce heirs, and so she had to do that no matter the risks. That Wei Changze was a cousin of Jiang Fengman’s and a strong cultivator in his own right made him a very attractive option, as any child of his would at least look like a Jiang.

Wei Changze is a complicated character in this story, but he’s also dead and cannot answer for himself. But here are a few important points: a) He did NOT cheat on his beloved wife. Not sure how that all went down, but it was consensual for all involved. I’m pretty sure Yanli was conceived before WCZ and CS officially got together, anyway. How Jiang Cheng happened, I’m not sure, but there was NO cheating. Well, aside from WCZ cuckolding JFM. I know this doesn’t paint Wei Changze in the best light, but what we know of Wei Wuxian is that he sometimes made outrageously dumb decisions with the best of intentions. (Maybe it’s genetic?) Personally I suspect he always disliked Jiang Fengman, though I’m not sure why. b) Also, I believe that when she was younger, before the bitterness and resentment took over, Madam Yu was very good at manipulating people (as many narcissists are). Yunmeng Jiang needed an heir and she was going to get it done. Anyway, I can’t say if Madam Yu seduced both CS and WCZ or convinced CS to share or what, but consent was given.

Madam Yu’s rage against Wei Ying had a lot more to do with her fear that a direct comparison to her son would reveal her secrets than with the rumors that he was JFM’s bastard.

I’m pretty sure that her feelings for Cangse Sanren were obsessive in nature, flipping from love to hate once she realized that CS well and truly had everything that she never would, including both WCZ and freedom. This definitely played into her hatred of WWX.

Why did she keep the letters? Because I’ve written her as a narcissist, and if there is one thing narcissists believe, it is that they are smarter than everyone around them and that rules don’t apply to them. She wanted to keep the letters, so she did. To be fair, they would never have been discovered if not for a freak lightning strike/fire in her quarters while she was away from Lotus Pier. Bad, bad luck.

I did toy with making Jiang Cheng’s father Wen Zhuliu, but I really wanted to bind the children closer together and I think that would have made JC feel isolated and left out instead. (I will maybe someday write the story of him being WZL’s son and inheriting his core-melting abilities, but that’s not this story.)

In Madam Yu’s favor, she offered to submit to her imprisonment and execution without a fight and make no attempts to escape if Jiang Fengman would at least let her children go free. He agreed, which is what led to their being immediately cast out rather than imprisoned. Would he have had them killed, eventually? I honestly don’t think so, but he might have sold them off or something.

Jiang Fengman offered Jinzhu and Yinzhu the option to return to Meishan in disgrace, but they declined and demanded to be executed along with their mistress as a point of pride. Yanli will find this out eventually, but it's not really important to the plot.

[truly-morgan]

[OT4, Juniors all getting together]

Junior Quartet | Mo Dao Zu Shi 23-03-2021

[#mdzsjuniors - ot4]

What if Jin Ling and Lan Sizhui started dating post-canon after some nervous pining, keeping their relationship a secret from the other half of the quartet.

Then, after some time, jl ends up asking lsz if he really loves him, because of the way he looks at ljy he has this something in his eyes. After some nervous turning around the subject, lsz finally admits he does /also/ love ljy, the same way he does jl. but lsz doesn't dare tell him, because he's sure ljy doesn't feel the same.

jl ends up telling him he doesn't mind sharing if it make him happier. Especially since it is clear ljy is also pining for lsz, but had noticed their little "secret" relationship and didn't dare step in. Turns out lsz is happily surprised and gets himself a second boyfriend, jl and ljy slowly develop their own brand of love.

So they now start this new poly couple, rather happy with how thing seems to work. But now that they are often only the three of them most of the time, they feel like they are missing someone all the time.

Then they realise that maybe, they didn't see oyzz as just a friend. They also feel a bit guilty for having left him so much to the side as they were trying to make this whole new thing work. lsz is the one to come up to oyzz to talk about it to him, as the two others didn't know how to bring it up to him. 

oyzz doesn't really know what to answer to this, as he never really thought about it in the past. He /does/ have a little something for lsz tho "now that he's thinking about it", but doesn't know if he should join them. He does, and things turn out even better than before. 

They are back to being the juniors quartet, but this time as lovers, even though most obviously don't know. Some days a more difficult, sometimes communication is hard, but they would rather not give it up for anything in the world, they absolutely like it the way it is. 

I also wonder how the parents would all react.

I'd see jc going "Really jl, /another/ boyfriend? I suppose at least this time he's not a plan, shouldn't be too troublesome". Yet he doesn't try to break them off anyway, as he would rather see his nephew happy than sad because he tried to break them off.

wn is over the moon that lsz is surrounded by so many people who love him that much. Although even this sweet cinnamon bun has warned one time that they shouldn't dare to break his heart. All three hurriedly agreed. 

lwj would be the silently supportive dad, ready to listen and give advice despite easy relationships not being his department. All he can wish for is for none of them to suddenly disappear on him for 13 years.

wwx isn't sure at first how come baby a-yuan is collecting this many boyfriends, but is just as supportive, ready to help them out. He's the dad ready to bring up the most embarrassing thing simply because he's trying his best to help his son out. If he can make sure lsz is not as lost as he was, then it would be this already won. 

I cannot tell what oyzz dad would say, but if he were to not be supportive of his son, oyzz is made quickly aware that he already has a new family ready to support him whatever happens with him (my hurt/comfort ass don't like oyzz dad, so it would probably not be a good react) but oyzz is better off with all these other cultivators ready to support him than him anyway.

They lived happily ever after and we forget that jl is the jll sect leader (am not thinking angst tonight okay, shoo shoo).

Original

[idlebeks]

New Bundle of Multi Fandom Fic Recs

Fics from various fandoms that have made it into my favorites pile in the last few months. I’ve included the first fics in some unfinished series in this bunch, so if that bothers you be sure to check the series pages before you start to read. Here you will find recs for The Untamed/MDZS, SVSSS, Word of Honor, and Star Wars. One of these days I will create master lists for each fandom.These are a mix of gen and slash with a range of ratings, so read at your own risk. Don’t forget to leave some love for the authors.

The Untamed/MDZS

Stray Dog's Parable by natcat5

Innocence isn't the only thing to die in war. Propriety is the last thing on the minds of the teenaged generals, the orphan clan leaders of the Sunshot campaign.

Jin Guangshan is the only leader who ascended as an adult, who didn't have his parents murdered by the Wen, who didn't come of age during a war. The last adult standing, the only one with experience and age. He assumes this will put him in the most advantageous position, once the war ends. That the infant leaders of the other clans will gladly fall into step within his shadow.

He is wrong.

Your Heart and Mine by natcat5

Wangji and his swan have never met a daemon so terrible and improper as Wei Wuxian's wretched, shameless raven.

Fierce Rabbits by FaiaSakura 

Lan Yuan didn’t mean to start a collection of undead rabbits.

Inquiry by incendir

Sizhui cannot fall asleep for a long, long time that night. He hears the ever-familiar melody again. He thinks perhaps he has memorized it by now.

the anger remains by Gaez (bell_flowers) 

The ghost, when it comes to Lotus Pier, is not entirely unexpected. That it is the enraged shade of his elder sister, does give Jiang Wanyin pause.

just as the stories say by TheDameJudiWench

When a young girl tries to kill the Yiling Laozu, she learns that revenge may not be what she seeks. As Wei Wuxian fights for his life in Cloud Recesses, she begin to carve out an existence she never imagined. Suddenly, she has far more to lose than she ever believed she could gain.

The more she learns about Wei Wuxian and the people who love him, the more she understands about grief and atonement.

This is a story about forgiveness.

Whatever you do [Podfic] by gndmlvr01

Podfic of Whatever you do, by apathyinreverie

Read by gndmlvr01, and posted with blanket permission Please note: I did adjust tags that I find helpful to locate works like this (ex: Genius WWX)

Original story summary:

During the attack on Cloud Recesses, both Jades of Lan are captured. It changes everything. Not so much by way of their capture. But rather by way of who ends up coming to their rescue.

(Or, a Wei-Ying-is-appreciated fic. ‘Cause, there can never be enough of those.)

To a fault by apathyinreverie 

The one where Jiang Cheng wakes during the Golden Core transfer procedure, wakes to the sound of his brother’s agony, to the sight of Wei Wuxian letting his Golden Core be torn from his own chest.

SVSSS

anachronism of the moment by plutoisgay 

daemon au that follows Shen Yuan through his transmigration and life in PIDW

We Are Not Wise by Boomchick, Suzoomie

When Shen Qingqiu drew Shen Yuan’s soul sword, it felt like being burned from the inside out. The fire wasn’t cruel, but it was still fire—hot and destructive, searing the softest pieces of him.

When Binghe’s fingers touch the hilt, he is ready for pain.

Transmigrated into a version of Proud Immortal Demon Way where cultivators manifest their own souls into spiritual weapons, Shen Yuan finds himself sort of kind of…accidentally blackmailing Shen Qingqiu into taking him on as a disciple before Luo Binghe joins the sect.

That should give Shen Yuan plenty of opportunities to make sure nothing goes wrong for his favorite protagonist, right? RIGHT!?

Protagonist Rehabilitation Programme by cinnamonsnaps

(oh my god they were roommates)

"Thank you, valued user, for accepting the Protagonist Rehabilitation Programme. Your task: Ensure the protagonist's happiness."

Shen Yuan is convinced that his favouri... least favourite novel's main protagonist isn't really happy. He has babes, money and power, but does he have any friends? Cue the system handily dropping Demon King Luo Binghe into his bedroom. Can Shen Yuan make him happy before the timer runs out?

(90% light-hearted comedy, 10% existential horror and fear because this is the OG PIDW Binghe we're talking about)

Can't we just skip to the end? by chaoticgoodlawyer

When it was all said and done, Shen Qingqiu comforted himself that the end of the plot meant that, surely, all major events were out of the way. They were firmly in HEA territory and he could relax a little. Right? Right.

A year and a half into his marriage to the protagonist, he cursed himself for a fool when he woke next to a Luo Binghe from ten years in the past.

Meanwhile, a recently transmigrated Shen Yuan struggled to retain what little face he had when confronted with an overgrown, disturbingly gorgeous demon lord claiming to be his husband. Which is impossible, because he’s straight, the most hetero heterosexual to exist. System? A little help here??

Sit With Your Soul by Tossawary 

The original Shen Qingqiu suffers a severe deviation that unsettles his daemon, transforming them into a childish and inconstant creature, too curious and without any memories of the life that has made him so bitter. His soul is now unrecognizable to him and everyone can see his humiliation.

Shen Yuan isn't exactly happy to have transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way at all, much less as this doomed scum villain's daemon.

A His Dark Materials Fusion AU. Knowledge of HDM not required.

Celestial Afterglow by elanor_pam

Shang Qinghua, also known as Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, stared flatly at what had once been a field boasting near sect-level Feng Shui alignment, and the drowned, bloated remains of the Sun and Moon Dew Flower cuttings that had sprouted within it. Their plan was now quite literally a wash.

If only he could consult Cucumber Bro on how to save Cucumber Bro! But in the absence of Cucumber Bro, he could but rely on the one plot coupon the infamous Peerless Cucumber had ever applauded.

Tongfang by The Feels Whale (miscellea)

Shen Yuan is reincarnated as a cannon fodder character and eventual murder victim in one of the whodunnit arcs in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Things escalate quickly.

Or: that one where young Luo Binghe’s career goal is ‘Bride’.

---

Shen Yuan shut his eyes as a young man waiting to die in a hospital and opened them again as a wrinkly infant covered in substances best left unimagined.

[Welcome to the System! The System is based on the concept ‘YOU CAN YOU UP. NO CAN NO BB.’ We hope to provide you with a rewarding experience. It is our sincere hope that during the course of your adventure, you can achieve your desire to transform a ‘Stupid Novel’ into a high-end and impressive classic. We pray for your happiness,] a mechanical and inflectionless voice announced over the general hubbub of the group of women handling him. Then it added, somewhat more worryingly, [Error.]

In Service by x_los

Emperor Luo Binghe goes looking for a Shen Yuan of his own. The one he finds has yet to fully ripen, but Luo Binghe is used to turning adversity into advantage.

Go Down With You by SpiritOfFox

Your experience when transmigrating largely depends on what role you assume. For example: - you might become the protagonist, the favored golden child of the world... ୧(ಠ⌣ಠ)୨ - you could be the scum villain, the most hated character in the novel... (งಠ_ಠ)ง - you could also end up as the protagonist's wife, one of the many many members of the harem... ❤(ಠ_ಠ)❤

Let's say that Shen Yuan would like to lodge a complaint against the Transmigration System.

AKA the fic where Shen Yuan transmigrates into the role of a certain wife.

Word of Honor

I tend to sleep with my boots on by etymologyplayground

"I just mean… What if Xiao Shu is really Shifu? Shifu left and didn't tell us anything, and then this cat shows up out of nowhere, and it hangs out with us and hisses and scolds me with a single look!!"

"How old are you?" Wen Kexing wonders with a laugh. "Maybe you're just easily bullied, you ever think of that? No, men don't turn into cats. That doesn't happen in real life, you little dummy."

-

It's true that Wen Kexing doesn't know everything.

[Podfic] The Will of Heaven by elrohir podfic (elrohir) 

Zishu straightened up as someone knocked gently on the door. “Da-ren, a refill while you wait?”

About to dismiss the staff, Zishu hesitated as he poured out the last of the tea from the small black pot into his cup. “Fine.”

The man who walked in was handsome, bordering on pretty, an elegant beauty who wouldn’t look out of place among the brothel’s most valuable courtesans. His clothes were too finely made, though, in shades of pale jade and snowy white, and his red mouth wore a smile that was too sharp. He glided across the floor with a poise and gait that was far too considered for anyone untrained in martial arts.

Star Wars

canis by peradi

Rather than obliterating Alderaan, Anakin makes a different choice. How the universe changes; how the Force sings.

(The Jedi and the Sith should have known: Anakin Skywalker will do anything for his family.)

the tiger is out by elumish

Wolffe looks like he’s regretting having a second Jedi with them. 

Smash the Walls of the Clock and Run by Drag0nst0rm 

Cody's memory of Order 66 was strained at best.

But he was pretty sure it hadn't happened like this.

Memo: Jedi Maintenance (The Care and Feeding of Your Jetii) by RainofLittleFishes

The Care and Maintenance of Your Jedi: A Clone Trooper's Guide

Let's be real, a document with the above title totally existed during the Clone Wars. Write an excerpt from that document. That's it, that's the prompt.

* Ding!

You have a memo (Level: Non-Urgent, Confidential, Ongoing Maintenance, Internally Generated).

Memo: Jedi Maintenance

To: You. Yes, you. Presuming you don’t want to get shot up or be responsible for getting your unit shot up because you were too lazy to prep properly in a moment of downtime.

From Orbit by astolat

“You’ve got to quit doing this,” Han said.

Luke glanced at him. “What?”

Han made a wide impatient sweep of his arm. “This. Standing in the bay staring out into the void. It’s creepy, kid. Come on, it’s dinnertime. The fleet can make it into hyperspace without your personal supervision.”

If Blood Be The Price by cadesama

Anakin promised to free all the slaves and it is a promise he intends to keep. Struck by visions of a slave uprising on Tatooine, he runs away to join the fight. Five years later, it his new alliance of former slave worlds that the Republic fears, rather than a Separatist threat. Enlisted to negotiate a peace treaty, Senator Amidala is dispatched to find Anakin, alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi, who only wishes to bring his former Padawan home. AOTC timeframe

[jenroses]

I’m on my fourth or fifth casual cruise through the MDZS LWJ/WWX tag in 3 years right now, and here’s what I do:

1. Sort the fandom by bookmarks. And for me, because my heart has been broken too many times, I check the “completed works only” ticky box.

2. Skim down, make a note of thing things that don’t look interesting. Are there tags they have in common? Exclude those tags, or pick your “bare minimum”. For me, it’s the relationship tag. There are some exceptions to that tag that I’ve read, but by and large they were by authors who also did stuff in that tag. If an author doesn’t like my main pairing in that fandom, I’m probably not going to enjoy their stuff too much. I exclude some common crossover fandoms, for example, I’ve not read enough of MXTX’s other stuff to tolerate the spoilers that will come from true crossovers.

3. Okay, once the excludes are set and the includes are set, start reading. Now, I read FAST, and I read voraciously, and I reread a lot. So on the first pass through I mostly kudos’ed, and some comments where I was very moved to do so, and I got to a point where the quality had dropped off some for several pages worth of fics, and I changed my dates to cover the last year of the fandom.

4. When the quality started dropping off again, I changed the dates again, and picked up the best newer stuff.

5. After a year or so of that pattern, I went back up to the top of the tag without qualifying dates and started reading again. This time, if I got the pink bar, I left a comment, most of the time. I bookmarked a few, but I wasn’t bookmarking a lot at that point. (Ergo you can assume my oldest MDZS bookmarks are roughly speaking the ones I feel the strongest about, in general, but not every case.) I did the date adjustment again for a while.

6. After writing a very long fic and then doing another shorter fic, I rewarded myself by rereading the tag again, starting from the top, and this time, if I got the pink bar of you’ve already left kudos and then typed “rereading kudos!” and got the evil pink box of YOU CANNOT LEAVE DUPLICATE COMMENTS.... I bookmarked, almost everything.

Every subsequent readthrough gets pickier. There’s a lot of things I remember fine and don’t feel like rereading or I’m not in the mood for it at the moment, or whatever. So if something has gotten to the point where I’ve read it three times and still wanted to give it a heart, it gets a bookmark. And more, the more recent stuff may pick up a bookmark on the first or second read through, if I feel like the fic is something I really enjoyed.

Everyone’s taste is going to be different. There’s a lot of stuff I’m not very picky about and a lot of stuff I flat out won’t touch, I don’t care who wrote it or how popular it is. I just don’t like mafia aus, I have to be in a particular mood to deal with royalty aus, and I’m extremely tolerant of various flavors of mpreg, which may well be schadenfreude of me, but one does not need to justify one’s fic preferences. Hits mean someone landed on a fic.

Kudos mean they finished at least a chapter, possibly the whole thing.

Bookmarks pretty much guarantee the person doing the bookmarking has an opinion about the fic, and usually good, especially if they ticked the “rec” box.

When I started asking people to bookmark my fic if they liked it, my stuff got read more because more people found it. So I figure I’m paying in kind. I’m something like 1500 works out of idk 25k worth of works into this tag read, and I think I’ve bookmarked probably 300-400 of them. I might look it up later if anyone cares.

I am absolutely aware and deeply appreciative of those who read everything new and comment on every chapter and help those of us who wait for completion find the good stuff, and we need that too. I’ve done that at other times in my life, but my stamina for it is very low right now. This is not the only right way, it’s just a way, and the way that works for me.

And yes, sorting by hits and likes can pop some really mediocre fics up near the top--it’s usually some of the oldest fics in a fandom, from the point where people were hungry for fic and able to read literally everything currently available before the media got popular. I’ve found that to be true in many, many fandoms. Things may seem very out of character a few years later, because they were written after early episodes before later character development. Bookmarks often sort that out.

I feel like my most "no, it's the children who are wrong" moments happen when I go to a new fandom on AO3 and sort by kudos and all the works at the top are absolutely terrible, and yet ... man, sometimes the children are wrong.

[llycaons]

'jiang cheng would like a strong woman' have you considered she would probably not like him

[grewlikefancyflowers]

So sorry!! My previous incomplete ask was my cellphone failing on me. So I have to send it you again.

Thank You for clearing out my query on that translation.

Some questions i have right now

First, If gui dao harms one's mind in long term then why couldnt Xue Yang be affected by it even after using it more years than WWX?? Could it be because of the frequency of his use is less than WWX and the amount of his energy he used at one single time given that XY uses his primordial spirit to control only Song Lan??

Second, i just read that part from the original drafts where WWX explains how he uses his primordial spirit to control the corpses. But i have questions- the part where LWJ asks him if he uses his own primordial spirit or someone else's and WWX answers does WWX mean primordial spirit of his "own" and the "corpses" , also is it same scene in which JC gets to know that Gui dao is connected to WWX's mental state or there is any other scene where he specifically mentions it to him??

Third, do you have any ideas ony why exactly he received a backlash from his corpses during the first burial mound siege??

Lastly, wanna say that i completely agree that WWX's emotions and Guidao are interlinked in a way that we cannot draw a line between them. Nor do i think that it was a moral failing from his side.

Thank you once again!! Many things were cleared out for me by your answer.

Hello again! :3

First, Xue Yang

I'm not sure we really see enough of XY throughout the time he uses guidao to draw definitive conclusions about if or how it harmed his mind. Also XY was deranged from the start anyway lol. However, one thing we do know about XY is that he uses tools to control corpses rather than doing it directly himself — the yin hufu, and nails for WN and SL. Actually, I'm not sure we ever see him controlling corpses entirely from his own power as WWX does. As for why this is, it's possible that XY is simply not able to control corpses himself. It requires carefully-controlled emotions, which he certainly doesn't have. It may also be the case that XY uses tools to avoid or limit the harmful effects of guidao (remember that this was the reason WWX forged the yin hufu in the first place). I think both these explanations are plausible, but I lean more towards the first one since XY isn't really the cautious type. But either way, if use of tools reduces or removes risks from guidao, then since XY primarily uses those, it's possible his mind wasn't harmed by it.

Second, the explanation of WWX's cultivation in the original draft. Here is that excerpt in case others are curious.

'Wei WuXian replied, “Fine. I’ll answer – I domesticated them.”

“Domesticated how?”

Wei WuXian blinked. “How did I domesticate them? I can’t explain that in a short amount of time. Let’s put it this way – think, how would you domesticate a ferocious beast? The method’s about the same. First, suppress them with a primordial spirit, then give them whatever they want.”

Lan WangJi immediately questioned, “Did you use someone else’s, or your own?”

“Both.”

Lan WangJi walked around Jiang Cheng and got close to him again. Wei WuXian held out his flute horizontally in front of him, adopting a defensive posture. “Isn’t this excessive? Lan Zhan, I’ve already answered all your questions, but you’re still like this, all insensitive to others’ feelings? Just what do you want?”

Lan WangJi spoke, one word at a time: “Come back to Gusu with me.”'

So, what other primordial spirit does WWX use to control corpses? Tbh, I am not entirely sure, I don't recall it being addressed again, but I'd guess he's either referring to the corpses' or maaaybe the yin hufu since the sword it was made from had cultivated a lot of resentful energy into itself? I'm also not sure how far we can consider WWX's use of a primordial spirit other than his own canon, this was removed during edits. And yes, this is the scene where JC hears exactly how WWX's cultivation works, they don't speak of it again iirc, however I am not suuuper familiar with the original draft so I'm not 100% sure.

Third, backlash during the first siege.

I don't think there is a definitive canonical answer to this, but there are probably two possible reasons. One, WWX lost control due his turbulent emotions just as he'd done at Qiongqi Path and Nightless City, resulting in his corpses attacking him. Two, the loss of control was due to destroying/attempting to destroy the yin hufu, resulting in it sort of turning against him.

I don't think the first theory is impossible, but it's not one I'm particularly inclined towards. As we see at Qiongqi Path, even when WWX loses control, his corpses still follow his base instincts. Eg, WN killed JZX because of WWX's instinctive response to being attacked. So if WWX's loss of control at the siege resulted in his corpses killing him (in a most horrible way), this would imply that WWX was, on some level, suicidal at the time. This doesn't really track with the rest of his actions imo, such as hiding A-Yuan in a tree... he can't have at all expected that LWJ or anyone else would save him, so WWX was probably holding onto some hope he would retrieve A-yuan from his hiding place himself once the siege was over. And WWX has been in plenty of horrible, dangerous situations and he has always been one to fight to the end, so I don't see why his character would so a complete 180 here and subconsciously choose death.

For evidence of the yin hufu being the direct cause, 'Yinhu Fu was way more powerful and frightening than what he had initially expected. Originally, he wanted to use it as a form of support. Who would have known that it started to show signs of overpowering him, its creator.' (tmwx, ch.30) It seems to have some will of its own, so it probably wouldn't be too thrilled about WWX destroying it. Since WWX was already in a bit of a state, perhaps it actually managed to overpower him?

There is very little description of what happened during the siege, but we do have this 'But before he was able to finish disposing of the other, the Siege of the Burial Mounds descended upon him. He had no control over the events that followed.' (fyy, ch.30). So it seems like the siege was the initial cause of him losing control over things.

In Yi City, WWX also recalls not being able to control corpses that the yin hufu was currently controlling. 'A sudden thought crossed his mind and a thin layer of perspiration formed on his back. That’s not true. It wasn’t that “this has never occurred before”. In fact, it had happened before, and it wasn’t just once. There was indeed a type of ghoul that he couldn’t command. That was – ghouls that were already under the control of the Yinhu Fu!' (ch.34)

Another thing to consider is that control over corpses is a first come, first serve basis. Someone else cannot take control over corpses that are already controlled by the yin hufu, and the yin hufu cannot take control over corpses already controlled by someone else (ch.68).

If I had to put together a coherent sequence of event based on what we know, probably... While WWX was destroying the yin hufu, his control over his corpses (which he will have been using to defend the burial mounds) began to slip as the siege came down on him due to him being already mentally and physically hurt and exhausted from Nightless City & the surrounding events. The yin hufu, which wasn't a huge fan of being destroyed, seized control over the corpses WWX had lost his grip on, and set them on him instead.

[stiltonbasket]

Not really something you've done before, but I can't help but think madame Jin and wwx could have gone along pretty welll, in a different setting. They both really love and admire jyl and criticize jzx. They could have snarked at him and spoil jyl together!

Though the whole jianghu must long for the world the Qishan Wen took away from them, Quan Yuyan misses it more than most.

Before the war, her sworn sister was still living, still there to support Quan Yuyan through the endless indignities that came with being Jin Guangshan's wife, and Yuyan was there to do the same for her. Before the war, she had assurance that her son would remain the only lawful heir to Lanling Jin, no matter what depravities Guangshan committed when he was away from Koi Tower; but now her husband's bastard roams the courtyards of her son's house, and holds a Jin courtesy name of equal rank and standing.

The fact that he was given Guangshan's generational character did not matter, for he should never have been taken into the sect at all. And as a result, Quan Yuyan does not stay her hand when she punishes Jin Guangyao.

And why should she? The boy's very existence is the proof of her husband's countless affairs, the evidence of Quan Yuyan's humiliation laid out for the very heavens to see--for who does not know, now, that her beauty and cultivation were not enough to keep Jin Guangshan? Who has not learned of Jin Guangyao's age, and known that Guangshan strayed from her before even giving her a child?

As much as Ziyuan had to suffer, with her husband pining after that huli jing of a Cangse Sanren, even she was never faced with proof that Jiang Fengmian truly had an affair with her. And even if he had, that affair could not have resulted in Wei Wuxian: she was visiting the Lan sect at the time her son was conceived, and Jiang Fengmian was at Lotus Pier with A-Li.

Whatever Ziyuan has said about Jiang Fengmian, Quan Yuyan cannot deny that he was a good father until he began favoring Liu Cangse’s son over his own.

But that counts for very little to her, because he even stopped thinking of A-Li’s happiness by the end.

What was he doing, canceling A-Li’s betrothal to Zixuan? Yanli loves Zixuan--has always loved him--and how could her foolish son ever find such a good woman to marry, after losing the one who has known him and held him dear all her life?

“That’s why Jiang-shushu broke the betrothal, you know.”

Quan Yuyan gasps, pushing her two handmaidens behind her, and draws her sword. She chose not to venture into the more densely-baited spots on the mountain, since Xiao Mei and Xiao Yin wanted to come with her, so who--

She looks up. 

Wei Wuxian is lying on a tree limb over her head, with a strip of black cloth wrapped around his eyes, and he had clearly been eavesdropping on her since before she mentioned A-Xuan’s broken engagement.

“What do you know about it?” Quan Yuyan says coldly. “Wasn’t it in your interests that it happened?”

“Of course it was,” Wei Wuxian agrees--not even bothering to deny it! “The Peacock didn’t love Shijie, and she deserves nothing less than a husband who worships the ground she walks on.”

Quan Yuyan’s eyebrow twitches.

“Like you?” she hisses. “Is that what you mean?”

“Oh, no. But Jin-furen, if you’d engaged Jin Zixuan to someone other than Shijie, and that girl made her displeasure with him known whenever she had the chance--you would have broken that engagement, wouldn’t you?”

“Girls are different. No girl worth marrying would ever do such a thing,” Quan Yuyan snaps back. “And A-Xuan was young. He would have learned in time, and you robbed him of the chance.”

Wei Wuxian unwinds his blindfold and props himself up on his elbow.

“My shijie is not any man’s chance,” he replies, suddenly sounding so threatening that Quan Yuyan takes a step backwards. “She is the best woman in the world, and you know it as well as I do. Since that is so, and since you love Jin-gongzi above all else--of course you want the best of wives for him, as you want the best for him in everything.

“But my Shijie is not a thing, Madam Jin. She is a person, under no power other than her own, and a marriage to Jin Zixuan would not make her happy, no matter how badly both you and she wanted it.”

With that, Wei Wuxian leaps down to the ground, and bows to Yuyan and her maids with such grace that she feels--despite all the embellishment on her robes, and the gold ornaments in her hair--somehow diminished in comparison.

Wei Wuxian smiles, a quick, mocking turn of his mouth and cheeks, and vanishes into the woods before she can call him back.

When she crosses paths with him again, a little more than half an hour later, she finds him standing between A-Xuan and Yanli with that terrible flute held out in threat, and turns to demand an explanation from Jin Guangyao.

My Shijie is not any man’s chance.

My sister is not a thing.

Suddenly, Quan Yuyan feels very tired.

Tormenting Jin Guangyao cannot resolve this new entanglement, or smooth over the times A-Xuan rejected Yanli when they were children, or keep him from saying whatever it was that made Wei Wuxian attack him in the Cloud Recesses, or help her son make up for the day he shamed A-Li before his regiment for bringing him something to eat.

It will not make her husband any more faithful, either. A-Xuan is already twenty-two, and his age might not even be greater than the number of his half-siblings.

She can beat Jin Guangyao all she likes, throw him down the stairs like Guangshan did when he had the nerve to come knocking on her doors on the day of A-Xuan’s birthday. She could arrange his death, if she wanted, and no one would care but for his sworn brothers, and perhaps her blockhead of a son.

But another bastard might appear in his place, and would. Guangshan likes his women stupid--and if not stupid, then too young to know better, or almost entirely unlearned--but if, one day, he met some noble beauty who was willing, and sired a child upon her, who could ensure that her family would not compel Guangshan to claim it?

After all, he once tried to seduce Wen Ruohan’s wife at a conference, though he was so drunk he could not remember who she was, and the exchange that followed that encounter was why Guangshan refused to join the war until the choice was taken from him.

“Young Master Wei,” Quan Yuyan hears herself say, “take A-Li back to the stands. She looks faint, and the day will only grow hotter before the hunt is called.”

“Mother--”

“And Zixuan, stay by Guangyao’s side. His cultivation is not high.”

Wei Wuxian gapes at her for a moment before hurrying away with A-Li, taking Jiang Cheng and Ziyuan’s snake of a nephew with him. Hanguang-jun follows, refusing to stray more than a couple of steps away from Wei Wuxian, and Lan Xichen (though clearly bewildered by whatever had just transpired) retreats a trifle more delicately, after asking A-Xuan and Jin Guangyao to show him a way to trap measuring snakes without killing them.

“Most of them die the moment Mingjue-xiong and I show up,” he laments, tucking a hand into Jin Guangyao’s elbow. “We’re too tall to capture them alive, you see.”

He sounds so regretful that Quan Yuyan bursts out laughing, and laughs until she begins to sob with her head on Xiao Mei’s shoulder.

Today has been a failure in every way imaginable; A-Xuan didn’t manage to propose to A-Li, and perhaps he never will.

But for some reason, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as she thought it would.

[whumpbby]

lunadiane

I want JC to burst into mortified angry tears in front of WWX and for WWX to realise that seeing JC cry because of him SUCKS and that, fuck, he made JC cry! This is the opposite of what he wants! JC runs away angry crying while WWX fruitlessly calls after him, apologising

Yesssss, that's exactly what I want!!! TAT

JC finally FINALLY losing his composure, because WWX keeps pushing him and poking at him and - say, maybe it was a day when the parents of the students visited mid-year to hear how their kids are doing and to socialise/have a mini conference...

And Jiang Fengmian showed up, but he was habitually unimpressed with JC's results. He's a good student, diligent and focused... usually. The note about being easily distracted is what JFM focuses on and points out. JC cannot even defend himself - the other student has it out for him! He's trying to do his best, but...

"Jiang Cheng, a sect leader doesn't look for excuses!"

"But it's true! Wei Ying won't leave me alone!"

"Wei Ying?"

And just like that JFM is going off to search for the troublemaker, eager to confirm whether the boy is who he thinks he is - a son of his departed friends, the boy he has been searching for years!

And what do you know, he is! WWX is a bit befuddled with the sect leader Jiang's sudden interest, but once he hears that the man knew his parents WWX all over him! He wants stories! He wants to know his parents! He cannot believe he's originally from Yunmeng! His mom was a badass rogue cultivator? And a disciple of Baoshang Sanren??? And is dad was a first disciple of Yunmeng Jiang? That's so amazing! So cool! And Sect Leader Jiang is so nice, too! No wonder Yanli and A-Cheng are both so great, with a father like that!

"You know Jiang Cheng?"

(It only vaguely pings that the man didn't say 'my son', but WWX can't focus on that now)

"Yes! We're best friends! He's so grumpy all the time, if it wasn't for me and Huaisang, he'd spend the whole year with his head in the books!"

(WWX thinks it's charming and doesn't quite understand why Sect Leader Jiang grimaces at that)

"He inherited his mother's character, unfortunately."

(Why does it sound like an apology?)

These little doubts are there, but WWX is so excited to have some connection to his parents that he ignores them. He spends the next couple of days in the presence of JFM and has a great time. Sect Leader even spars with him and praises his archery! It's amazing!

...he kinda wishes Jiang Cheng was with them too, but it's okay, he probably wanted to give WWX time to learn about his parents. Probably chose to lock himself up in the library and study, the old grump. It's okay, WWX will tell him everything later!

When the time for the sect leaders to leave comes, WWX is there with JC to say goodbye to heir father and Jiang Yanli, and JFM pats his shoulder, saying that Lotus Pier will welcome him whenever he decides to visit. WWX couldn't be happier! It's just... that Yanli's smile is strained as she says her goodbyes to him. And Jiang Cheng...

Jiang Cheng's serious face looks so fragile... like it's about to crumble.

After the stilted goodbyes are finished, JC turns to leave, steps fast, hands clenched into fists. WWX hesitates for a moment, unsure of what's happening, but - but he can't leave his grumpy friend alone with whatever bothers him! Being a bigger bother always worked, so WWX goes with that.

"A-Cheng, waaait!"

Are they going to eat now? Why the sour face? WWX will miss A-Li too, but there's no reason to despair! Hey, maybe they can ask her to send them some lotus seeds? He can't wait to finally visit Lotus Pier and try their food! Is it good? Is it spicy? Do you think your dad will take us on a night-hunt?

"We're young, but your dad said my swordsmanship is way above my age group, you know? I bet we could convince him to take us! Why the grimace, shidi? Are you afraid? Don't worry, I will protect you!"

Gods, it's not working. It's not working! His shidi's face is getting more and more piched, and he's walking faster, as if trying to escape. He's not even grumbling, not even looking at him. What can Wei Ying so than double down?

"Come on, shidi!" He throws his arm around the boy. "Sect Leader Jiang said you take after our mom! Don't let that pretty face get all wrinkled!"

He wants to get a reaction - he's not expecting that reaction to be A-Cheng pushing him away with a wild look in his eyes.

"Shut up! Shut up and leave me alone!"

"A-Cheng..."

"What will it take for you to leave me the fuck alone?!"

Au where Wei Wuxian was adopted into the Lan.

Lan Quiren, returning from a meeting with Jiang Fengmian, stopped for some reason in Yiling and stumbled upon a small orphan boy eating out of the trash pile... With two young boys under his care already, his soft heart couldn't let him leave the child.

Thus Wei Wuxian grew up as a sort-of a brother to the Twin Jadwd of Lan - except now it's Three Jades of Lan (one a bit cracked, as Wei Wuxian often jokes). Still genius, still unruly, just a bit better at pretending to adhere to the rules.

All is fine until the guest students arrive one year to Gusu and Wei Wuxian meets the serious, surly boy from the Jiang Sect and suddenly cannot stop himself from becoming his personal plague. Can't leave the Jiang Sect Heir alone and in peace. He needs to see the boy smile at least once! They will be friends if it kills him (or Jiang Cheng)!

[robininthelabyrinth]

Cultivated-to-Immortality post-canon where cultivation in modern day is mostly mysterious and many doubt it's real - and then WWX gets a cooking show...

“I’m going to murder him,” Jiang Cheng said blankly.

He wasn’t even angry or frustrated or any of the things he normally was when he said something like that. That would require actually reacting to -

What he just saw.

With his own eyes.

For real.

“You can’t do that,” Nie Huaisang said from where he was curled into a tiny little ball on their on-the-verge-of-breaking-down couch – modern things were really crap. The thing couldn’t be older than what, thirty or forty years, and it was already useless, and Nie Huaisang wasn’t helping matters by crying tears of laughter into the worn-out cushions like he was right now. “He’s immortal, remember? We’re all immortal.”

“Immortal in the sense that we won’t die of old age,” Jiang Cheng said. “I can still kill him.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I wouldn’t,” Jiang Cheng admitted. He was pretty sure they’d established that back in Wei Wuxian’s first life, forget his subsequent resurrection or when they all unexpectedly achieved immortality. “But I could definitely break his legs. He’d heal from that quick enough.”

“The day you break his legs will be the same day you do it to Jin Ling,” Nie Huaisang said wisely. “And I know you wouldn’t do that to our beloved junior squad.”

“You really need to stop calling them juniors, they’re all married with children and grandchildren a half-dozen times over already, and anyway stop getting away from the main point, which is this – this – this travesty.”

“It’s not a travesty,” Nie Huaisang said, pretending towards solemnity. Jiang Cheng didn’t know why he bothered, it wasn’t like they hadn’t spent centuries together by now on account of immortality being a little lonely and them not liking anyone else who’d reached immortality enough to want to spend that sort of time with them. “It’s a cooking show.”

“It can be a cooking show and a travesty! It’s a cooking show run by Wei Wuxian,” Jiang Cheng growled. His stomach hurt just remembering the many times he’d been suckered into trying something because this time I’ve really got it down, I promise, you’ll like it! “Of course it’s a travesty. Did you see the set up he has going on? He has an entire wall of hot peppers!”

“Hmm, good point,” Nie Huaisang said. “You’re right. Something needs to be done about this.”

“I’m glad we agree.”

“I’ll send him some peppers from our garden,” Nie Huaisang decided. “I have that new varietal breed that we’ve been working on, extra hot; he’ll love it.”

“Don’t you dare send him the Zidian pepper without letting me try it first,” Jiang Cheng said pointedly. “It’s mine. He only gets leftovers once I’ve decided it’s complete. Anyway, are you telling me that you don’t think that this - this - this thing is a disgrace?”

They both looked at the screen, where the words ‘CHEF CULTIVATOR’ had appeared in large letters.

“I don’t know,” Nie Huaisang said thoughtfully. “I rather like the conceit of it – the mysterious food-obsessed Chairman kidnapping the heirs of the various cultivation clans...it’s all very historically accurate, at least?”

“One, Wen Ruohan wasn’t a Chairman, he was a tyrannical warlord who made all our lives absolutely miserable. Two, if that set is supposed to be the Nightless City, why is it so dark, and what’s with all the lava everywhere? I’m not even going to touch on the rock chair thing that no cultivator who values the state of their ass would ever sit on -”

“I don’t know about that,” Nie Huaisang said, looking down at their shitty couch with a exaggerated thoughtful look.

Jiang Cheng ignored him. He didn’t want to go couch-shopping again. It’d only been a few decades!

“And three,” he said, soldiering on, “I feel the need to point out that the cultivation clans were not named ‘Spicy’, ‘Barbecue’, ‘Vegetarian’, and ‘Expensive Fusion’.”

“But he’s got the coloring right and everything! And it’s really funny to see a chef outfit done up in that awful Jin gold color...”

Jiang Cheng put his head in his hands.

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nie Huaisang said, completely unable to resist bursting out in occasional bouts of giggling. “This is exactly like the time the Wen sect forced all of us to attend their indoctrination camp. Exactly like! You’re just misremembering.”

“I’m pretty sure that I’d remember being forced to compete in some sort of absurd cooking competition with mystery ingredients.”

“Would’ve been nice if we had.” At Jiang Cheng’s incredulous expression, Nie Huaisang shrugged. “Better than listening to Wen Chao talk, no?”

“…well, yes,” Jiang Cheng admitted. “Still, the whole thing seems a bit much. Cultivation is now state-regulated - by which we mean mostly banned from public knowledge - and our sects are all shrouded in mystery...this does seem to lower the tone a bit.”

“Like you care about tone.”

Jiang Cheng, who’d declared that he’d stopped giving a fuck sometime around the eleventh century, had to concede that.

“How’d he get the whole thing approved by the government?” he asked instead. “I thought they censored anything to do with modern-day cultivation.”

“I don’t think they’re that concerned about him spilling actual cultivation secrets on his cooking show.”

Jiang Cheng huffed, not wanting to admit that Nie Huaisang had a point. At any rate, the commercials were over and the show was continuing; he had better things to do than listen to Nie Huaisang talk, like watch the television.

After a few moments, his face began to turn purple.

“Oh,” Nie Huaisang said, and buried his face back into the pillows. “Oh no. Oh no.”

“I cannot believe him,” Jiang Cheng said. “I can’t – he can’t –”

“Now, now,” Nie Huaisang said between laughter so hard that he was hiccupping. “Be nice. If Wei Wuxian is the despotic Chef Cultivator and - oh this is terrible - Grandmaster of Demonic Cooking, that is on the hunt for a chef worthy of being his successor by forcing teams to challenge his stable of in-house chefs, it only makes sense that the ‘challenger’ team would be protected by the – by the –”

Jiang Cheng closed his eyes. “Lightly-Braised Lord?”

“That!”

“I would say that I can’t believe Hanguang-jun agreed to this, except he hasn’t said ‘no’ to Wei Wuxian in centuries,” Jiang Cheng said bitterly. There was a reason he refused to live with them. “This is a disgrace.”

“Accurate, though!” Nie Huaisang said, grinning. “That’s a very mild flavor of cooking, very appropriate for Lan Wangji.”

“I think you mean tasteless.”

“I mean, Lan Wangji is that, too, at least when it comes to Wei-xiong”

Jiang Cheng couldn’t exactly say that that was wrong.

They continued watching.

“Oh no,” Nie Huaisang said a few moments later. “The Ghost Pepper General. Poor Wen Ning!”

“It doesn’t fit,” Jiang Cheng said with a sniff. “He has no flavor profile.”

Maybe he was getting more into this than he would be willing to admit.

...he wasn’t going to admit it out loud anyway.

Nie Huaisang sniggered. “I hope Wei-xiong isn’t the judge.”

Jiang Cheng stared at the screen. “I still can’t believe this is actually happening.”

“I love it,” Nie Huaisang said. He was now scrolling on his phone. “The internet agrees with me, apparently. It’s a hit!”

“It figures.”

Their phones gave a chime at the same time, indicating a message on their group chat.

“Huh,” Nie Huaisang said. “That was the notable Chef Cultivator himself.”

“Oh, I bet it was,” Jiang Cheng grumbled, making no move to reach for his own phone. “What does he want? To apologize?”

“No, to offer us walk-on roles in the event he gets renewed for a second season.”

“Absolutely not,” Jiang Cheng said at once. “I refuse to be known as the Sandwich Shengshou or whatever he comes up with.”

Nie Huaisang dissolved into giggles. “Oh no. He would, too!...I wonder what I’d be?”

Jiang Cheng huffed. “You’d be – the Saltshaker. Obviously.”

“Oh noooooooo…”

[truly-morgan]

[Relationship Building, awkward!JZX]

XuanLi | Mo Dao Zu Shi Modern AU 24-03-2021

[#xuanli modern AU]

I cannot stop picturing jzx as one of the most anxious and awkward person on earth, but he manages to hide it behind an attitude people will say he has because he's from the Jin family. He has been told over and over that he shouldn't be this anxious and awkward and to change it, so he hides it behind airs of being indifferent to people (but will internally scream in panic as he doesn't know what to do).

Now let's imagine that jsx and jyl are still engaged to each other since they were children, despite jsx not being interested in having a wife. As he grows up he's forced to pass more time with her on planned dates, yet they never do much.

Jsx nerves would barely leave him to interact much with someone he doesn't know anything about and doesn't seem interested either. He doesn't know anything about her that could maybe have her talk while he just listens. So he ends up convincing himself that jyl is just a bit sad and bland from these dates.

Then one day, for some reason, his attention is being dragged towards where jyl is sitting with her brothers. He then finds a smiling and laughing young lady, amused by whatever wwx was saying to her(of course it was to cheer her up from the yet again failed date).

This is something he had never really seen, only the polite and reserved young lady who doesn't speak much and has never smiled like THAT to him. And this is at that moment he falls for her smile and laughter, although this oblivious man doesn't know yet, want to also have a piece of that.

But the trick is to actually get closer to her, which isn't something he knows how to do, usually, people approach him and he somehow manages to deal with them (his way of doing so only makes people believe he's full of himself).

So the next time they go on a planned date he decides to /try/ and actually talk to her about more than the weather outside. She clearly seems caught off guard by the sudden change in these failure dates, but she takes it with a pleased smile.

The conversation is still a bit generic: school, family matters, her brothers (he notes that this is a subject that got her smiling a bit more) and what she has been to since last time. Most likely not the most interesting discussion of her life he believes, but that's the best he could come up with for now.

Yet she doesn't seem bored, her good mood and smile staying until the end, the both of them surprised when it's already time to part ways. jc, who came to pick her up, seems surprised to see her in such a good mood, tossing him a glance, before just taking her back home.

From here he also tries to interact more with her at school and not act as if they were strangers. He greets her when their path cross in the hallway, tries to team with her when teachers gives work to do in groups, leaving to the side the usual guys who usually just copy him. He even tries sometimes to go and sit down with her at lunch to talk, although most of the time he ends up finding an excuse to leave because his anxiety cannot stand jc and wwx staring at him. It is nearly as if they are ready to jump on the slightest mistake to push him away.

But the more they get to talk, the more he manages to learn about her, then leading to him feeling a bit more comfortable when he can bring up this subject. He learns that she loves cooking and food (good, better dates ideas then), but that she also shares an interest in art as wwx does.

Later he finds the nerve to ask her out for dinner, anxiously waiting for her answer as wwx looks at him suspiciously. She looks surprised, but accepts with a warm smile.

He takes her out to a fancy restaurant, because he was taught by his father this was the best way to please someone. Yet he notices quickly that this isn't necessarily putting jyl at ease. He learn after asking what kind of restaurant she prefers that she like smaller places that are a bit more familial.

He suggests they go somewhere of her choice next time. When they do he pass two hours worrying about his outfit, hoping it won't stand out too much.

Jyl is clearly more at ease, although the more unusual setting puts him on edge. She asks what he wants to try, giving him a suggestion he ends up following. When the time comes to give their orders jyl does it, giving him a knowing and reassuring smile, which helps him relax.

He doesn't understand what his father was on about the man needing to do everything not minding having jyl do things too. 

Trying to find a little restaurant becomes quickly a biweekly date, often helped by jyl when his awkwardness and anxiety got in the way. They don’t talk about that, not yet, but he knows jyl has noticed. He feels relieved when she doesn't comments on it or try pushing him to do things he doesn't feel capable of doing.

Then one day, when jyl is joining him at the meeting point (where he has accidentally arrived 20 min earlier) something seems off. Her smile seems forced and she looks as if she had been crying. He must have looked worried then because her smile waver a bit.

He awkwardly opens his arms, unsure what to do. He doesn't know if he has the right to outright take her in his arm, although he doesn't dare, he wouldn't want to be suddenly restrained if he was too anxious. As her eyes get teary again, she accepts the offer, burying her face against his chest so no one sees her cry. He hesitantly wraps his arms around her, rubbing his back in a manner that he hopes is soothing.

“Why don't we go get some tea or coffee instead?” he suggests as he spots a small cafe near them, seemingly calm enough for them to talk. When they get in he simply tells her to go and sit down, asking her what she wants. He goes to order, a tea and one hot chocolate (he's proud of not messing up in his order on the first try), then join her at the- booth when their orders are ready, even throwing in a little slice of cake he knows she will like (and he's proud and happy again that this managed to steal a small smile from her).

She's already calmed down when he joins her, sitting close to jyl. After asking what had upset her she finally explained the argument she had with wwx, things getting a bit out of hand. His guts twist a little bit when he learns it about him, not sure how he should take it, feeling like he would never get the brother's approval one day. Still, he reassure her, just knowing from what she told him before that wwx would apologise once she would go home.

They end up forgetting about the restaurant, jzx ending up talking a bit more about himself (for once) to change her mind, answering wonders she's been having for some time without asking him. They do brush over his anxiety, only then somewhat accepting that he /does/ have a problem with that (something he had tried to push away as no way his father would want him to have that).

They end up somewhat closer than before after that evening to talk more openly, showing more than the good and positive side they usually let through. This is to the joy of both their fathers, who had started to wonder if this marriage was really a good idea. After some time of everything kept on getting better, he even talked with jc and wwx (or rather, was forced to by these two), getting a warning of never breaking their sister's heart (which he took as their own way of approving him).

Jzx ends up officially asking her out when he remembers he has never actually done that, jyl rather amused at the act but clearly delighted that he decided to do it, making it meaningful by the fact that he was the one asking (contrary to just being engaged since childhood).

Then they finish their senior years, slowly getting ready to go to university. They are at a festival, having a great night. This is on their way back home, as jyl is holding his hand and talking about all they did and how she hopes they can go back the next years. This is when the sudden thought of “I want this all my life” flashes in his mind again.

He spontaneously proposed to her, telling her how he hoped they could be like this their whole life, declaring his love all over again. A deep blush spread over his face when he realises that they are /already/ engaged. Despite that, jyl tears up from joy, jumping in his arms as she accepts, laughing with him at how awkward and a bit out of left field it was, but she wouldn't have it any other way, it just proves her it does come from him, not from their fathers imposed choice.

(boy this has gotten so long, at this point I might as well write an actually long one-shot about it instead. Haven't written m/f in years tho, could be refreshing).

Original

[k1201a]

I have seen many reasons why people stan JC and many say because he's relatable, especially because he was "pressured by his parents" just like them.

Now, I kinda feel sorry whatever their situation is, but I as a person pressured by her parents as well, I simply cannot see anything I can "relate" to him, I won't go into personal because is not the point. The point is: I feel like the only pressure JC feels is because of his pride and ego, his father never wanted him to be the best, but to be a wise man as far I understood. Maybe YZY but that woman sweated pressure with her own presence to everyone around her, but JFM was gentle and rational, not even stern or overbearingly strict, yet he preferred hiding in his "boo hoo he hates me, so I won't listen to him and think better about my future responsibilities", and he never expressed being against the idea of becoming leader. Thinking of if, let's remember JC was a future sect leader and later a sect leader in the canon present, not a simple boy with the tiger parents who had his parents' breath on the neck everytime and for any trivial wasn't mistake was whipped or yelled (*cough cough* WWX *cough cough*). People one day had to depend on him for their lives and safety, Yunmeng citizens and disciples alike, and he was supposed to be more responsible and wise, not a brute leader he became. I don't know what kind of situation stans live to say they relate, but I don't think is JC's one. They are not young noble-like people who one day, I repeat, would have great responsibilities, in his case he should've used the pressure to think about himself and the good of YunmengJiang and to pass down their ideals, and how to be a good leader, but I feel he only liked the idea of being the boss and to have power, given the way he acted around everyone.

In short: JC is not relatable even for the pressure thing, but I see self projection does miracles. Hope I didn't annoy you with this ask or to have interpreted things wrongly, and hope you have a lovely day, you do great <3

I get what you're saying, my mom is a tiger mom, and I don't relate to JC at all, I also don't understand the appeal of reading similar experience in fiction. JFM was just teaching JC basic decency and good attitude, he wasn't comparing JC to every future clan heir to make JC feel bad. That's not pressure, that's a father giving his son guidance.

What JC stans find relatable isn't pressure from parents, it's JC's reaction to people who don't massage his fragile ego. They relate to his inability to control his emotions, his defensiveness and victimization when he can't deal with his own fuck up, and his tendency to shift the blame to other people, that's how a lot of people deal with life, it's relatable, I can understand. But the pressure from parents thing? It's not that notable in his situation, his father was not demanding, he didn't have high expectation. His mother liked to compare him to wwx to provoke JFM, but wwx was never in his social rank, his competition was people like wen chao and jzx

[ultfreakme]

First point: I agree, JC had no issues with DC during the Sunshot campaign. LWJ was the only one who figured it was a bad for WWX & would not end well. DC gave Lotus Pier power which they sorely needed, it's the reason they stood a chance against the Wens which led to helping restore Lotus Pier. The sword thing is far from inconsequential- swords are the FIRST thing the Wens took away from the sects & they are also among the first things they earned back in order to fight back. Swords are important, it shows your ability and standing as a cultivator, it's a matter of pride. It became even more important for WWX when the remaining sects began to fear that WWX's going to turn against them and abuse his power(an unfair assumption). But they were all rearing to slander WWX and JC asking him to carry it & revert to regular cultivation was to a) protect WWX from further scrutiny, b) Show that JC actually had his second-in-command's respect, which thereby leads to c) reconstructing Yungmeng Jiang's image as a great sect. JC was first-hand witness to WWX's drinking and downward spiral where he fully neglected his duties as senior disciple, he knew very well the DC was doing something to him and was asking him to drop it even before JZX.

Second point: Again I agree, LWJ prioritizes what is morally correct over what people will think of him. But that's because LWJ's not going to become sect leader. I think if you've noticed, all the inheriting kids were under pressure and were on a tight leash by the elders around them, it became worse amongst sect leaders(so that's Nie Mingjue who was in the campaign and used the saber despite knowing what it's doing to him, Lan Xichen barely speaking up for the Wens & mostly being witness & doing little, Jin Zixuan having to grow up and reach out to WWX, Jin Guangyao who had to bend over backwards to get approval). It was always the younger siblings & members who aren't inheriting that suffered lesser consequences, went unnoticed by elders for the most part, and moved more freely- not entirely but had a lot more room for doing whatever they wanted(Nie Huaisang, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji).

If LQR died, LWJ would be closer to being sect heir. He CANNOT do nothing. Sect elders and the rest of the sects would hone in on what LWJ's gonna do, what LXC is going to do. If LWJ says WWX is not at fault, he's dooming himself to being labelled as a co-conspirator of sorts with WWX, or he's going to drag down the whole Lan sect with him(why is the representative of Lan sect DEFENDING the guy who killed their elder??). Would LWJ go against LXC on this? Is LWJ going against LXC on bringing justice to his beloved uncle who raised him? Does LXC's trust in LWJ wrt to WWX extend that far? Will he be picking his uncle or his brother? JGY and NMJ would definitely be pressuring LXC to take action against WWX. It'd be LWJ vs. every cultivation sect and potentially his own brother.

Third point: Jiang Cheng also knew WWX wasn't doing it on purpose. Iirc he asks WWX something like "you said you could control it!" so atp, he knows WWX can't but he's begging him to try. This doesn't change anything though because JC had warned him multiple times. I'd argue JC knows WWX's moral character better & knows how he works on a deeper level, & understands how those mentalities get him into trouble. Because they literally grew up together and JC was trailing around him being like "hey don't do that, it's a bad idea".

WWX's morality and his tendency for self-sacrifice has fucked him over multiple times, JC is aware of this and was trying to protect him, trying to make him stop so they don't gain the ire of Yu Ziyuan or any other person who wants to wish him harm. LWJ doesn't know the extent of WWX's self-destructive martyring until way too late. JC knows what prioritizing morality will do to WWX and was trying to stop it. The WWX-DC situation is a natural escalation of their childhood disagreements.

So JC knows sure, WWX owes the Wens something, he's being the hero again. But that doesn't mean anything to him when the guy who promised to be by his side, his childhood best friend and practically brother is killing himself over it and has now dragged everyone else in too without regard for what being that recklessly self-sacrificial does.

LWJ would probably have the same realization too in that moment.

And sure, LWJ may not attack him the way JC(presumably) does by rallying all the troops. He doesn't find it in his heart to do that to WWX but he could fight him in order to stop him from furthering his DC. Likely a one v one private fight away from the sects (these two aren't strangers to arguing and fighting e/o). He'd be sect leader if LXC is gone and he could choose a "no, he's mine to deal with path" so that he can take him to Gusu Lan and figure out what the heck is happening to him. But we don't know HOW WWX dies. One thing common across all adaptations is WWX's exact cause of death is mystery but it's usually self-inflicted or his DC consumes him or that's at least the implication, with rumours attributing the kill to JC(again, we don't know, he led the campaign, no account of direct causation). It is entirely possibly that WWX's death will occur in LWJ's presence, no matter what.

JC torturing random Demonic Cultivators was first of all, a rumor. Second, even if he did, every demonic cultivator that wasn't WWX was fucked up. DC practitioners were rarely the good guys, they were usually pawns and were taking up the path to gain more power. DC doesn't have a valiant reputation, like it's literally seen as the Bad Guy Power That You Shouldn't Do. Even if JC potentially tortured innocents on suspicion of being WWX(unlikely, he does the Zidian test first on 'MXY', he still kept Chenqing, he was badly communicating to WWX about just wanting an explanation for wtf was happening post-resurrection), I don't care. He's a traumatized fictional character who takes bad decisions. WWX was the OG torturer in the duo anyways & he was massacring Wens by the hundreds. If Wen Qing(who was posted in LP at a watchtower and is the favored niece of WRH) and Wen Ning(he was a cultivator) are seen as innocent, what's to say there weren't more innocents that WWX was killing during Sunshot campaign just because they wore the Wen colors? We've established not all Wens are bad multiple times, are the Wen remnants WWX rescued uniquely innocent(exclude LSZ, not talking about the kids)? Or were they just the group WQ & WN were attached to and that's why WWX actually slowed down to assess them?

The point of this little exercise is trying to figure out how much emotional impact LWJ would experience and the freedom he would have to do what he wants in the event that he is the lone survivor of his family. It's not about comparing who'd do the more morally correct thing when put in this scenario.

Jiang Cheng represents the system, but he's also a victim of old cycles. He has no choice, and by the end of it, he gets an inconclusive ending where his position as Sect Leader and all the sacrifices he made amounts to nothing because WWX, his old family, is now gone. If LWJ was sect heir and was put in the position JC was in at the time, he too would've been victim to the system and despite his desires, would've been entirely incapable of doing what he wants. He wouldn;t do exactly what JC did but he'd be following the same basic outline. LWJ gets to make better choices, because he has the freedom to. JC doesn't. Take that freedom away and LWJ would be similar to JC, or actually, LWJ might end up like his dad- in love with a person who killed elders and because of love, is forced to trap their lover and live in misery. LWJ would be forced to become WWX's....well if not enemy, at least someone WWX doesn't like.

Also agreed on there being right and wrong in-story despite the complexity but JC wasn't entirely wrong for reacting the way he did based on the circumstances he was in. Imo JC had like 90% justifiable actions;

He tried to get WWX to be low-key and a non-threat so the sects would leave him alone

Visited him and discussed with WWX a deal where WWX gets to remain in Yiling without issue or question from the greater sects

He's the only person who properly, explicitly spoke FOR the Wens

Still kept in touch with him after the defection, took JYL to see him, likely was involved in making JZX invite WWX to Jin Ling's one-month celebration

He did what he could. And it didn't pay off and he got no answers till the very end. He fucked up along the way but again, idc about that. LWJ would've also made bad decisions if he was put in the ridiculously tough spot of sect leader with the weight of his family's death on his shoulders.

Any time JC antis start coming for him and his reaction to what WWX did, I always want to ask them to do the "Lan Clan Test". Basically, replace the Jiang family deaths with Lan family deaths. Instead of Jin Zixuan dying by Wen Ning's hand, say it's Lan Qiren. At Nightless City, imagine it's Lan Xichen who's mourning his uncle that's searching for Lan Wangji, and WWX accidentally kills LXC.

Like really picture Lan Xichen dying in Lan Wangji's arms, telling him heartfelt words assured of his death and Lan Wangji's like "Hey please fix this, please stop this" to Wei Wuxian and WWX is like "wait wait I can fix this I swear I swear!".

Okay how would you expect Lan Wangji to react to that? Ngl if he still somehow thinks of Wei Wuxian as entirely blameless and holds zero resentment towards WWX after that, I would lose my respect for LWJ and I don't think LWJ would react like that anyways. The person you love whom you warned against taking this path has chosen to disregard anything you say(pr even his closest people like Jiang Cheng say) and has now lost all control and has killed all that's left of your family. Who WOULDN'T lose it at least a little? Who wouldn't hold resentment or anger or frustration?

Jiang Cheng made mistakes but he's not uniquely evil. He was right to have felt anger towards Wei Wuxian because bro in his eyes, Wei Wuxian COULD control that. Only we as audience know the extent of loss of control. And even if JC realized WWX can't control it, he begged WWX time and time again to stop Demonic Cultivation. Trying to flatten this situation into a "he's wrong, he's right, case closed" is the worst thing you can do in MDZS.