After what feels like an eternity and a lot of dead brain cells, Iâve reached the end of my Daomu Biji Main Story English summaries. Lots of care was put specially into the last part because the amount of information revealed is insane, and I want to present the flow of events in the most understandable way possible. When I first read this ending 13 months ago, I was very confused. By today, Iâve re-read the ending 3 times and I think Iâve finally managed to connect A and B.
Without further ado, you can find the summary of The Grand Finale in this link or under Source.
This should answer quite a fair bit of questions that many of you may have about Daomu Biji. If what you want to see isnât there, it either a) is not yet revealed by the author even until today (donât ask me what is behind the Bronze Gate lol) or b) will be mentioned in later books.
Well then, Iâll hopefully see you again in the summary of the sequel Tibetan Sea Flower! (・â˘Ěá´-)â§
ââ
Image is credited to artist ĺ°ĺˇéżĺ ĺ @ Weibo.
okay i havenât talked about the color spread and i just need to so
**402 SPOILERS**
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okay first, bokuto & iwa, wow. goshiki is starstruck and tsukki is regretting his life decisions we love that
THEN oikawa and akaashi having an intellectual conversation, and semi looking fine as always
whatever the fuck is going on here. shirabu and kunimi are the same spirit. kita and ushijima are being good captains pretending like they have no idea whatâs happening
i call this stonermemesquad.png no one is surprised they get along tbh thatâs the lunch table iâm sitting at idk about you. thatâs at least four of my favs
âSo, Requiem,â Wei Wuxian says as soon as the image on the surface of the bronze mirror ripples out into the uppermost three quarters of Nie Huaisangâs head.
(âMy brother hung it in the office when he took over as Sect Leader,â Nie Huaisang explains during their first mirror-call after Wei Wuxianâs return.Â
Wei Wuxian immediately drops the topic.
âDo the other Sect Leaders just ⌠let it go?â he asks Lan Zhan later, and receives a small headshake in reply.
âHe adds extra seat cushions to his chair during official meetings,â Lan Zhan says, his voice uncoloured by emotion, his gaze steady as he turns to meet Wei Wuxianâs. âBut he says theyâre difficult to balance on.â
Wei Wuxian drops the topic a second time.)
âThe song that we learned at school for calming restless souls?â Nie Huaisang asks with three quarters of an appraising look, and then adds, âThose of us who werenât tone-deaf, anyway.â
âThatâs the one,â Wei Wuxian agrees, and if thatâs a dig at the time he deliberately played out of tune and almost sent old Professor Lan beyond the veil to soothe the spirits of the dead in person, he stands by his choices.
(If itâs a reference to Wen Ning, then - well, the poor boy tried his best. You canât be good at everything.)
âI was thinking,â he continues, leaning back in his chair. He waves his wand at the small pile of paper birds in front of him, which line up obediently along the desk edge and take turns to divebomb the makeshift target drawn on the back of his office door.Â
âWe use Requiem as a conduit to magically encourage emotional calm - so thereâs no reason, in theory, that we couldnât use music to do the opposite, is there?â
Nie Huaisang taps his fan against his chin a few times (or, at least, thatâs what Wei Wuxian assumes is causing the soft patting sounds he hears, since his line of sight stops at Nie Huaisangâs upper lip), before asking:
âYou want to ⌠compose a song that makes souls restless?â
So I was chatting to @silverink58â about the beautiful original picture of Professor LWJ, and they were saying that when they picked up the prompt for the inktober exchange, they were hoping to read Hogwarts student!LWJ,Â
And I thought âoh how delightful, maybe Iâll think about that idea laterâ, and then that âlaterâ became ânowâ and what Iâm saying is they shouldnât have let me download the google docs app onto my phone, because I clearly cannot be trusted.
@silverink58â this is for you, lol. Thanks for naming âLittle Appleâ :âD.
He almost doesnât see it: a flutter of black fabric, the edge of a student robe before it slips away out of sight. But he catches the movement from the corner of his eye, and pure reflex has Lan Zhan drawing his wand to fire off a quick body-bind curse.
Thereâs a muffled noise of surprise, abruptly cut off, and then the thump of a body hitting the floor.
When Lan Zhan turns the corner, itâs to the sight of Wei Wuxian, lying face-down on the ground.
âItâs after curfew,â Lan Zhan says, turning him over with a quick Levitation spell. âYou should be inside your dormitory.â
Dark eyes glare indignantly up at him. Calmly holding Wei Wuxianâs gaze, Lan Zhan lifts the curse.
âReport for detention tomorrow,â he says, as Wei Wuxian sits up and pointedly rubs the small pink spot on his forehead.
âLan Zhaaaan,â Wei Wuxian complains, giving the edge of Lan Zhanâs robe a beseeching tug. Lan Zhan feels his own lips thin at the over-familiarity of both the form of address and the physical contact.Â
âDonât be like that! Let me off just this once? Think of the five wonderful years weâve spent together as potions partners!â
âJust last week, you exploded our cauldron,â Lan Zhan reminds him flatly, and Wei Wuxian grins.
âOh come on! Letâs not harp on about petty things like that,â he says, pushing himself up onto his feet. He shakes out his robes. âYou wanted to know what would happen if we added the xiezhi horn, too, just admit it.â
Lan Zhan doesnât dignify this with a response, and simply meets Wei Wuxianâs gaze and holds it.
The period after the Yiling Patriarchâs return is rife with rumour. They spread like wildfire throughout the Wizarding world, each seemingly wilder than the last: Wei Wuxian put part of his soul into a baby so his followers could bring him back to life, Wei Wuxian was alive all along and living under a different identity using Polyjuice (accounts of the precise identity vary) - soon even tales of the Ghost General being seen again begin to spread.
The students of Gusu Academy are taught not to put any stock into idle gossip (and frankly, itâs a little too convenient that the Ghost General has popped up right now, when heâs had any time within the past ten years to make an appearance), but who among them didnât grow up on stories of the Yiling Patriarchâs right-hand man, so thirsty for blood during the war that heâd risen from the dead to continue killing? And yes, itâs a little ridiculous that sightings have been reported in so many places (heâs a ghost, but even poltergeists donât move fast enough to travel around the Burial Mounds, Koi Tower, the Nightless City and Lotus Pier within a week. Whatâs he doing, anyway, taking a Grand Tour?), but that doesnât make it any less interesting, so the stories continue to circulate within the school grounds.
I just noticed that Iâve hit 500 followers ( ?! omg you guys!! (â ââ˘âĎââ˘â â)â), so I cleaned up and expanded on some of my HP AU headcanons from the AO3 comments section.
Things that happen before fic #1
During the War, Wei Wuxian has at least ten different balls in the air, trying to keep the innocent Wen children (+elderly) from Jin Guangshan, including:
The Stygian Tiger Seal,
Becoming an Animagus (which no one knows about, and tbh he was hoping for something more combat-useful than a bunny, but hey, at least heâs not a dog),
Inferi (so many dead bodies lying around, and their ex-inhabitants arenât using them, so he may as wellâ)
ANIMAL Inferi (because a bitch cannot be picky when a bitch has no army), but he mostly abandons the idea after the first few battles because if youâre looking to enchant things to work as an army, itâs easier to enchant 1000 of the same shape of thing than to enchant 3 each of 257 different things with different shapes, sizes and capabilities
Booby-trapping the fuck out of Yiling with:
Various blood arrays (ranging from magical versions of âsurprise!-now-youâre-in-a-net-hanging-out-of-a-treeâ and âsurprise!-youâve-fallen-into-a-hidden-holeâ to âsurprise!-now-your-head-is-goneâ)
A man-eating tomb inspired by Nie Huaisangâs ancestral tomb, possibly made possible by an ancestral blade that Wei Wuxian pilfered âborrowedâ from said ancestral tomb,
A magical oubliette - key to the storyline!Â
He was intending to stash the Stygian Tiger Seal in here to stop Jin Guangshan getting at it, because Jin Guangshan would either:
Fail to get in
Get in but fail to get out
Wei Wuxian either stocks the oubliette with necessities-for-life, or leaves enough loopholes in the spellwork so that anyone trapped in there would be able to access necessities-for-life (despite not being able to magic themselves out) because: 1) What if someone accidentally falls in, and 2) Although heâd be okay with Jin Guangshan dying, in the ideal outcome of his grand plan, they need him alive for Wizengamot trials, etc.
The plan is perfect, except that Jin Guangshan catches him in the act of stashing the seal, and in the ensuing struggle, Wei Wuxian gets himself (and the seal, thankfully) trapped.
(So he gives himself a pat on the back for making the oubliette liveable -Â âThanks, past-me.â)
During the ten years, Wei Wuxian works on the magical equivalent of digging a hole out of a stone prison with a single spoon (slowly working on loosening various parts of his containment spells or trying to find a way to send a message to the outside world via his food-and-air loopholes), and also works on some other hobby projects in his spare time because the going is slow. To his credit, heâs actually almost got it by the time Nie Huaisang stumbles on his notes and gets him out.
In the meantime, Jin Guangshan has died, and Jin Guangyao has taken over his fatherâs:
position as Minister of Magic;
search for the Stygian Tiger seal.
Either because heâs looking for the Stygian Tiger seal, or because heâs noticed Nie Huaisang skirting a little too close to the truth behind his brotherâs death and is following him, he stumbles upon Nie Huaisang freeing Wei Wuxian.
[Insert duelling]
Wei Wuxian gets wounded by a curse, turns into a rabbit when Jin Guangyao isnât looking, flees into the forest and ends up at Gusu.
He never plans to try to cross the ward perimeter, but then he gets noticed by the dogâŚ
The quote:Â No wonder the old saying goes like this: For love, the living can die, and the dead can once again live. The living who feareth death, and the dead who cannot again live, art those who love enow not. â Shen Wei
My thanks to the translators and @dtriad for their translations masterlist.