#while Xue Yang became a destructive force | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

angstymdzsthoughts · 4 years

Note

wow im loving this new ask layout.

it was post canon and wwx has been living with his husband and son in cr for a couple years now. jc is still somewhat reluctant to talk to him but he understands. jl comes by to nighthunt with his friends regularly. one unlucky day wwx had a mishap with resentful energy during a nighthunt accident and lsz died in the process.

everyone was heartbroken but wangxian were absolutely destroyed. they stayed in seclusion for months. wwx couldnt stand the guilt and had no face to see his son's friends and the other lans. even when lwj finally had to come out for sect duties wwx chose to stay in seclusion. he abandoned his regular cultivation and swore off demonic cultivation forever. in an effort to cheer up his husband, lwj persuaded him to go on a trip to worship the gods to pray for sizhui's death anniversary.

they came across a small temple, old and rickety and overgrown, and out of kindness they cleaned up and left a small offering. wwx just wanted his family back. lwj wanted a chance to start all over again. it suddenly stormed heavily that evening, so they had to take shelter in the temple for the night, taking caution to ask for permission from the resident god.

when they woke up, they were at the cloud recesses. lwj woke up in his old bedroom in a body that felt too small. wwx woke up startled in a guest bedroom in cr with jyl sitting by his bed.

"a-ying? did you have a nightmare?" wwx choked back a sob and just hugged his shijie for comfort. only then did he notice that he felt too small, and too soft. he looked down at his hands, then at his body. he was somehow a girl.

then jyl's presence in his room would make more sense. girls and boys dorms are separated in the cr. wangxian woke up as an alternate version of themselves with their original memories as well as the memories of their new body. lwj was still lan er gongzi. but in this body, she was just wei ying, a senior disciple of yunmeng jiang.

wangxian met each other again in class and wy took caution to not vex lqr too bad this time, lest he disapprove of their inevitably impending union. jc eyed lwj furiously when he approached wy after class to talk privately. it seemed that the two of them were the only ones reborn.

the first thing lwj did after that was ask his uncle to send a formal betrothal request to ymj for wy's hand. which to lqr was weird, but lz wouldnt budge. he thought lxc could still marry a more proper wife, so its fine.

they spent the rest of the year courting, lwj was in such a rush to marry wy. wy wasnt /actually/ jyl's little sister so it was no issue if she married first. meanwhile, jyl's betrothal was broken. this time by her own brother who punched jzx so hard he broke his nose. wangxian got married a year after they finished studying in gusu.

everyone was overjoyed when wy got pregnant. even mdm yu was happy for her. when their son was born, lwj recognized his soul to be their a-yuan, and wy cried her lungs out in joy. their little son had his old nose, lwj's nose, but now the rest of him look like them too. his hair was midnight black like lz's but with wy's playful curls. he had wy's ears and little constellation of moles on his skin. he even had lz's light eyes.

lqr wouldnt let go of his grandnephew that lan huan had to bargain with his uncle to be able to hold his nephew. after a-yuan could walk, they went to visit lotus pier. the toddler /adored/ jiang cheng, laughing and squealing loudly in his arms. he loved getting head pats by jyl and kept demanding attention from mdm yu by pulling on her skirt or hugging her leg and crawling into her lap. he wasnt so fond of jfm, however, only looking away in disinterest or reaching out his hands to his parents. for once jfm felt left out in his family.

wangxian wracked their brain trying to stop the sunshot campaign from happening, but wrh's power ran deeper than they thought and they could only postpone it, not prevent it completely. the wens attacked lotus pier first, burning it to the ground and killing jc's parents. the jiang siblings ran to cr, but it only served to bring the wen dogs sniffing at cr's door.

wy is talented in cultivation, but having sworn off resentful energy and having to protect the sect's children as well as her own, she could only do so much while her husband was taken to the nightless city.

lwj eventually managed to escape and jc with the help from qinghe nie managed to gather the survivors of his sect. they all went to war and the sun was finally shot. lwj came home to wy just in time to tell him they were expecting a daughter.

this time there was no yin hufu for jgs to fight over, just the remnants of the wen sect. knowing llj would abuse the war prisoners, lwj spoke up and ppl listened when he proposed the wen remnants go to qinghe for trials. civilians are left to themselves while criminals are sent to labor. the resouces belonging to the wen sect was distributed to other sects both big and small depending on how much casualty they suffered under wrh.

jzx fell in love with jyl during the war and got married as soon as it was over. jin ling was born not too long after a-yuan's little sister lan yuyan. together jyl and jzx forced llj to give out resources for jc to rebuild his sect.

3zun still became sworn brothers and wangxian didnt exactly know when jgy got married, so he still married qin su. jgs had jgy kill nmj, and when jgy wont agree to spy on gusulan he had another one sent. lwj sent nmj a missive not to trust jgy with calming and avoided his death.

it took a couple years, but when jgs thought he was ready he even imprisoned jzx and his family in koi tower, depriving them of any communications and arrested disciples that are loyal to jzx.

llj was gearing up to war once again, this time against everyone else. jgs had, unbeknowst of everyone, gotten the note on core melting hand technique and had xue yang learn it.

wangxian reached out to nhs, trying to find a way to kill jgs. realizing that jgs was fully prepared to kill lxc, jgy turned his sights over to jzx, admitting his faults and teaming up to kill jgs. jgs had jzxun attack qinghe, but it was easily defended against. xue yang led the troop against cloud recesses.

xy aimed at the main lan family and injured a-yuan. in a desperate attempt to save his family, lwj jumped out and xy destroyed his golden core. meanwhile, he still sent spiritual energy towards saving his son. distracted by his victim, wy managed to cut xy's head off. back in llj, jgy along with jzxuan and jc attacked jgs's forces in koi tower. jc beheaded jgs and with that this new war was over.

thanks to lwj, lan yuan was fine and his injury was stabilized. however the destruction of lwj's golden core not only take away his cultivation but also mangled his meridians. wy could do nothing but weep with her daughter in her lap while lxc and lqr played healing for her husband.

lwj died in his sleep that night, finally exhaling his last painful breath while wy fell asleep from crying. his funeral along with those fallen during the attack was held a few days after. wy didnt look like herself in the mourning clothes she wore along with the children.

wy was inconsolable and kept apologizing the the children. especially a-yuan. fate had been so cruel on him that he couldnt grown up with two parents twice over. it seemed that in this life too he would be named sizhui. wy refused to move and kept sigil by lwj's coffin.

suddenly su minshan came out of nowhere and started yelling at her. calling her a jinx and an unlucky bitch that shouldve prevented her husband from dying. lqr yelled at him to leave. two and a half year old lan yuyan tried to shoo him away, punching at his knees. but the adult man just kicked the little girl away. jc couldnt stay silent anymore and wrapped zidian around sms's neck and pulled, making sure his neck broke when hitting the floor.

wy didnt say anything. she just took her crying daughter and left. after making sure lan yuyan is alright, wy locked herself in her room for 3 weeks. she didnt even open the door when her kids come knocking and begging.

it broke lxc's heart to see once again two children waiting on their mother's door. he asked jyl for help in persuading wy to come out. when they came in, wy looked like a ghost still in her white mourning robes with a whole head of white hair and her eyes so weary from weeping. she fainted soon after opening the door.

they checked on her only to find out she was 2 months pregnant. the tears start anew for wy and jyl asked lxc to take wy back to lotus pier so she can recuperate with her sworn siblings. lxc and lqr reluctantly agreed and wy came with jyl and jc back to lotus pier. jzxuan became the new sect leader and severely punished jgy along with his father's men while his wife and son stayed in yunmeng.

wy made a promise with lwj once to never let their children be orphans like they were. even if only for her kids, wy tried her best to get better. she stood out in her white mourning robes in lotus pier. wy was constantly surrounded by kids, all wanting her attention. she ate jyl food with the kids and watched jc teach her kids and jin ling how to swim. after a couple months, her dark hair came back and she got healthier. her second son lan shun was born in the middle of the hot yunmeng summer in lotus pier.

after lan shun turned 1, they came back to cloud recesses. wy had some time to accept her loss, but kept thinking abt lwj. after hearing from other lan disciples, lan yuan asked granduncle to teach him inquiry. the first time lwj responded to a-yuan's guqin strings, wy broke down on her knees. wy has been wearing lwj's headband on her forearm, so lwj attached parts of his soul in it. some of it went to bichen, which lan yuan inherited. some went to lan yuyan who inherited wangji guqin. lan shun never knew his father so he didnt want anything belonging to lwj.

for now, wy had to be content with inquires to lwj. for now they had to be content with waiting for each other on the other side.

121 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 4 years

Note

Prompt: imagine if Xiao Xingchen could see what Song Lan was seeing after the eye transfer. Like the visual input went to both their brains... Ps! I love your writing!!

Song Lan knew himself to be a fool, and an ungrateful one.

He’d lost his entire family, the entire Baixue temple that had taken him in as an orphan to teach him all he knew, at Xue Yang’s hands – not just Xue Yang, but whoever was behind him, egging him on. His master had conveyed as much as he’d died in his hands: Xue Yang had done the work, yes, but as hired help, looking horribly bored even as he committed atrocities and only looking even mildly interested when he announced the supposed ‘motive’ behind it.

And yet Song Lan hadn’t listened. Beside himself with grief, with pain, with the loss of his temple, the loss of his eyes, he’d lashed out against his best friend, blaming him for the misfortune – if you hadn’t insisted on going after him, on finding justice for the Chang clan, then he wouldn’t have come here, he would have picked someone else, it’s your fault. Harsh words, vicious words, words he shouldn’t have spoken, and especially not to Xiao Xingchen, who didn’t quite understand the way the world worked.

The way emotions worked – how humans could say one thing one day, and believe another the next.

And now, Song Lan was forced to hunt down the real culprit behind the destruction of his Baixue temple alone, all while searching desperately for his friend – wanting to apologize, to beg forgiveness – and all the while Xiao Xingcheng…

Song Lan had to stop along the road to bury his face in his hands, in grief –

Grief, and frustration.

Xiao Xingchen just had to find the least remarkable place in the entire world to settle in, didn’t he?

Song Lan knew he had, because Xiao Xingchen had given him his eyes, and Xiao Xingchen’s eyes were –

It wasn’t that Song Lan didn’t know that Xiao Xingchen had descended from Baoshan Sanren’s celestial mountain, armed with a sword and a horsetail whip and a mission to help people find justice. He’d been lucky enough to be the first person Xiao Xingchen met, after all, and he’d been helping him understand some of the nuances of the common world ever since – often things that most people should have known, but which apparently weren’t that common on celestial mountains.

It was only that Song Lan hadn’t realized that Xiao Xingchen’s differences from the common world were not merely experience, but also – physical.

His eyes, for one.

Apparently, Xiao Xingcheng had two sets of eyelids: one external, the normal ones that everyone saw, and one internal – as far as Song Lan could tell, now that Xiao Xingchen’s eyes were his, it mostly functioned to keep dust out of his eyes or to make it easier to see through mist. His pupils, too, were unusual: they could resize themselves as appropriate to deal with the dark, and now Song Lan understood why Xiao Xingchen never tripped over anything even when they had traveled in the darkest parts of the night.

The most important aspect, though, was the fact that they were still connected.

Now that Xiao Xingchen's eyes were his own, Song Lan could see what was in front of him, yes, but he could also see – somehow – what was in front of Xiao Xingchen, and it should have made it easier to find him, but somehow it didn’t.

It just made the need to find him all the more desperate.

When Song Lan first opened his eyes and saw the translucent form of Xue Yang, smirking up at him, he panicked. Translucent meant that it was Xiao Xingchen who was seeing him, and that meant Xiao Xingchen was in terrible danger. Oh, Xue Yang might be too injured to do anything at first, but Song Lan watched as his wounds slowly healed, the way he started to offer to help with things, the way he –

Those poor people.

And poor Xiao Xingchen, too!

After the first “night-hunt”, Song Lan bought some paper and wrote the words, “Your guest is Xue Yang and he is deceiving you” on it, then settled down in meditation to stare at the words until they felt as though they were imprinted on the back of his eyes, hoping against hope that the eyes would work in reverse, that he could convey the much-needed message to Xiao Xingchen.

It didn’t work.

Or, rather, it did – Xue Yang’s ghostly form, reflecting off of the remains of Xiao Xingchen’s optical nerve even through the thin cloth he used as a bandage, came up to him.

“Daozhang, why are you rubbing your eyes so much?” his lips said, forming the words so precisely that Song Lan could very nearly imagine hearing his voice. “Are you in pain?”

He couldn’t heard Xiao Xingchen’s response, of course, and he couldn’t see it, either, but Xue Yang was a remarkably responsive figure.

“You’re the strongest person I know, Daozhang. If you’re sure you want to ignore it, I know you can.”

That was about when Song Lan had given up, because he, too, knew Xiao Xingcheng too well: his friend was stubborn to the ends of the earth, when he thought it was called for, and he must have known – as Song Lan did not – what were the consequences of giving up his eyes.

He was deliberately ignoring the input from Song Lan’s eyes. Very likely in a misguided attempt to give him privacy.

Song Lan wanted to scream.

It had been about what he deserved, though, for having rejected Xiao Xingchen the way he did: now he had to watch, to be tortured by watching, as Xiao Xingchen was led around by the nose by a vicious and cruel Xue Yang, forced to bloody his hands, all unknowing, all while thinking he was doing good. It was enough to make Song Lan weep, and to fear the day that Xue Yang lost interest in this game – the day when Xue Yang had enough, and the last ghostly image he would see would be the bastard’s sword raised up over Xiao Xingchen’s unwary head…

It didn’t turn out like that, though.

Xue Yang the murderer, the irredeemable – he stopped on his own.

Song Lan knew why, probably before Xue Yang himself did. He recognized the way Xue Yang’s eyes softened when he looked at Xiao Xingchen, the eager way he ran to him, the smile that involuntarily appeared on his face when he did something that pleased him – a happy smile, nothing like the cruel smirks from before.

Song Lan recognized it, because he’d seen the same in himself.

Xue Yang was in love.

How could he not be? Xiao Xingchen was kind, gentle, righteous – he was born to be loved, not tormented. Little by little, he crept even into Xue Yang’s barren heart, and found a way to make his home there, just as they had made their home in the little coffin house that looked the same in every town that Song Lan visited on his desperate quest to find them.

And little by little Xue Yang put down his guard, and started sharing stories…

The one that affected Xiao Xingchen the most was the one about the little boy, with his love for candy – Song Lan knew that, seeing as he did Xiao Xingchen finding candy to leave every day on Xue Yang’s pillow. Probably with a secret little smile, wanting only to make his friend happy.

The ones that affected Song Lan the most, though, were the ones about cultivation. About where Xue Yang had learned it, and how.

Xiao Xingchen had been so pure and good, so upset about the fate of his shijie’s son, that he’d never really picked up the nuances of how demonic cultivation worked or what it did, how it damaged the temperament and corrupted the mind, but Song Lan knew.

Song Lan knew how to do math, too.

Xue Yang would have been little more than that stupid child who’d lost his finger as a result of his love of sweets when his first teacher found him – it might even have been immediately afterwards, when he was wounded and in pain and vulnerable, given some of the comments Xue Yang made about how he’d been stupid to follow the first person who offered him revenge.

That first man had had vile intentions. He’d taught Xue Yang demonic cultivation the way a farmer fed a pig: in order to raise him into a tool for his own cultivation. He hadn’t expected that when Xue Yang was still only eleven, he was already such a delinquent that he’d pick up a knife and murder his own teacher when that teacher tried to hurt him – Xue Yang had never gone into exactly what type of hurt, never even officially confirmed that he’d done the murder, merely that he’d broken paths with his first teacher when the teaching methods were too painful and that the teacher had died shortly thereafter, but who didn’t know about the dark history of the delinquent of Kuizhou?

Song Lan had known about the murder, long suspected by the citizens of Kuizhou but never proven, but he hadn’t known why.

Just as he had known that the Jin sect had recruited Xue Yang shortly after he became famous, but hadn’t known that it was specifically to try to recreate the Yiling Patriarch’s techniques, or that they’d given him as many cultivators as he wished to practice on…

Xiao Xingchen probably thought Xue Yang’s references to test subjects referred to practice dummies, and his references to “breaking” them “too often” as the harmless actions of a child.

Because Xue Yang would have been a child.

A street child, with no mother to raise him; taught by a demonic cultivator with vile intentions; taken in by the Jin sect at eleven, maybe twelve; raised there until fifteen, and required to do all sorts of dirty things for them as the means of keeping his place –

Had anyone ever taught Xue Yang the slightest scrap of morality?

The Baixue temple believed in justice, but it also believed in mercy – in mercy, and in redemption. As soon as Song Lan found Xiao Xingchen again, he would apologize for what he’d done, what he’d said, and he’d ask him to join him once again in a quest to bring justice to the world: to seek justice for his temple, for his teacher, from the person who had wielded the sword that was Xue Yang.

And as for Xue Yang himself…

Maybe there was something there that could be salvaged.

After all, he responded so well to Xiao Xingchen’s kindness – it’d been nearly three years now, and the vast majority of the time had been lived in peace and quiet. Xue Yang didn’t even threaten passerby merchants in the marketplace with knives anymore.

He didn’t practice demonic cultivation anymore, either. Three years without it, and Song Lan could see – through Xiao Xingchen’s eyes – how much cleaner Xue Yang’s qi was: how the meditation Xiao Xingchen coaxed him into trying actually helped bring it into a semblance of order, how he was belatedly forming a golden core the way a regular cultivator would.

Maybe there was still something left of that stupid street child who’d only wanted to taste something sweet after all.

If he ever found them, Song Lan would have to find out.

He sighed to himself, shaking his head at his own foolishness. He could dream about what they could do together – the three of them, and little A-Qing, too, the clever little blind girl that accompanied Xiao Xingchen and Xue Yang both – as much as he liked, but first, he had to find them.

Song Lan glanced at the signpost.

Yi City, with the ‘yi’ for coffin home – what a strange name.

#mdzs #song lan #xiao xingchen #xue yang #my fic #my fics #okay this is sort of backwards from your prompt #but it was too late by the time I realized that #Anonymous

189 notes · View notes

words-writ-in-starlight · 4 years

Note

Untamed TAZ Balance AU? Don't have to write anything, just consider that (is Wen Ning Lucretia in this or is he too nice for that)

NHS IS LUCRETIA, NHS IS ABSOLUTELY LUCRETIA, I HAVE THOUGHTS, my girlfriend yelled at me for these thoughts. Hell this got long, I’ve literally been saving it in my drafts until Tumblr fixed the Read More issue.

WWX is Taako, JC is Magnus, WQ is Merle, JYL is in the umbrella (became a lich to keep her brother from doing it), WN is the Red Robe (became a lich because he thought it seemed reasonable), NHS is Lucretia, XXC is Davenport, LWJ and LXC are mutually Kravitz (LXC sets his bro up with the death criminal wizard), Wen Zhuliu is John Vore, LSZ is Angus but also a baby Reaper

ONE

So Wei Wuxian isn’t really a wizard, is the thing. Like, he does the wizard magic, and apparently he has strong Wizard Vibes because wherever he travels, people ask him if he can solve their magical bullshit problems, but he’s, like, barely a wizard. He’s an inventor, technically, except that a few years back some stuff went explosively awry while he worked with this traveling show and–yeah. So he’s working as a wizard because, hey, he can cast Magic Missile and he needs to eat and he’s an Evocation specialist, anyway, so it’s not like he’s out here making food from rocks. He’s hired on with a couple other random jackasses, a fighter who took a dislike to Wei Wuxian right off the bat and a cleric with a bad temper and an itchy Sacred Flame finger, and they’re doing a job for some dwarf, or whatever. The dwarf has a guy hired on as muscle, but he doesn’t look like much, all wide eyes and baby face. He calls himself Qionglin, no last name, and stares at Wen Qing like he’s never seen a cleric before, and Jiang Cheng spends the entire trip to Phandolin messing with his whip, which is the stupidest weapon Wei Wuxian has ever seen.

Well, then everything immediately goes horribly wrong, though, and turns out that Jiang Cheng is pretty okay with that whip. Qionglin (Wei Wuxian spoke to the man all of one time, but he was sweet, if a little awkward) gets himself kidnapped by a bunch of goblins, and their employer is gods-know-where with whatever a Black Spider is, and suddenly this very boring escort mission is a very not boring rescue mission.

There’s a skeleton in the cave. Wei Wuxian takes an umbrella from it, and it crumbles into dust beneath its red robe. There’s a very annoyed man with a sword who calls himself Song Lan and speaks in static, and he’s somehow not the weirdest part of this whole day.

Phandolin doesn’t survive its brush with the Zidian Gauntlet, and neither does Qionglin. Wen Qing screams when he dies, and Wei Wuxian grabs her under the arms with Jiang Cheng and books it for the empty well in Song Lan’s wake, and they just hide.

And then they go to the goddamn moon, apparently.

TWO

The goddamn moon is run by an older man with hair still a glossy black, toying with a beautifully painted white fan in his hand. He calls himself the Director and–after some testing–hires them more or less on the spot. Something flickers over his face when Wen Qing, bemused by her own upset, makes an offhand mention of a man named Qionglin who died when the Gauntlet brought down so much lightning that it turned Phandolin into black glass. But it’s not Wei Wuxian’s problem, so he doesn’t worry himself over it too much. He takes the payment offered to him by the Director’s aide, a blindfolded, stunningly handsome man in Bureau blue and white who rests his hand on his own chest and says “Xiao Xingchen” and not another word.

The Bureau is–weird. They’ve got a giant jellyfish and a store run by–something Wei Wuxian Does Not Trust and a dorm. Wei Wuxian laughs and kicks Jiang Cheng cheerfully in the ankle and says “Just like college, huh?” and Jiang Cheng gives him a dark look and snaps “I never went to college.”

“Yeah,” Wei Wuxian says, blinking. “Me neither.”

Whatever. They go on a train adventure and there’s a kid, a kid who blinks and stares at Wei Wuxian like he’s seen a goddamn ghost and immediately walks up to introduce himself as Lan Sizhui, boy detective.

Wei Wuxian fucking loves this kid. He’s not sure why this wide-eyed fifteen-year-old latched onto him so hard, but he’s smart, funny, loyal, and extremely easy to pick on. 13/10 child rating, in Wei Wuxian’s book.

(Sizhui, for his part, more or less kicks down the door to his father’s offices in the Astral Plane the second the Reclaimers are gone and shouts “I HAVE A LEAD ON WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WORLD.”)

(His father, Lan Wangji, the Grim Reaper, is very interested to hear all about it–especially when his son casually name-drops three of the biggest bounties that the Raven King, his adoptive elder brother, has ever sent him after, with the exception of that absolutely insufferably sweet-tempered lich Wen Ning.)

THREE

So…the Crystal Kingdom.

Is it Wei Wuxian’s finest hour, shouting obscure tentacle-related threats at the second crystal construct they’ve seen in the past twenty minutes? No, probably not. But it’s been a stressful day, they’re already down one Regulator and Song Lan is fuck-knows-where with Mianmian and, again, this is the second menacing crystal construct they’ve seen in twenty minutes. Or maybe it’s the same one?

Whatever, doesn’t matter. They’re here to hunt down Meng Yao, a scientist who’s been dicking around with some seriously ill-advised necromancy and also the Philosopher’s Stone, and a crystal construct or two isn’t going to stop them.

Wei Wuxian actually physically cannot help himself, though, when the Reapers appear in the mirror, a matched set of beautiful men, and he grins broadly at the one glaring at him most viciously. They get let go on a technicality, along with a conduit still containing Meng Shi’s memory of a vision beyond the cosmos, and Meng Yao leaves with his life and not much more.

Later, Lan Wangji is absolutely betrayed by the realization that his brother willfully set him up to be the primary go-between for the completely breathtaking deeply irritating wizard-by-way-of-death-criminal. And that’s before the whole lich revelation. (He does get a kiss, though, after he watches his brother pulled under by the Hunger. That’s nice. He hopes Wei Wuxian will mitigate the death crimes now that they’re dating.)

FOUR

The seven Relics are as follows:

The Zidian Gauntlet, which can generate a lightning blast so powerful that it can obliterate an entire city. (Jiang Cheng–he watched the others try to lay in protections, try to make their Relics harmless, and he knew it wouldn’t work. All the Gauntlet does is damage. It can melt a city down to black glass, but it can’t be twisted, it can’t be made into any more of a nightmare than it already is. He’s a fighter. He knows all about damage, knew all about what he was making. That doesn’t mean it didn’t kill him by inches to watch it leave a path of destruction–so much that his beloved jiejie tried to seal it away.)

The Oculus, which can make any construct real. (Xiao Xingchen–Nie Huaisang didn’t take everything. He doesn’t remember the mission, or his own past. Something strange got confused in the process, and he lost most of his speech. But he remembers how to fight, handles his sword as cleanly and effectively as ever, and he remembers that he doesn’t think much of Nie Huaisang’s combat skills. Or maybe it’s just really obvious that Nie Huaisang isn’t much of a fighter. Regardless, Xiao Xingchen insisted on accompanying him, before–before. Then they went into the Felicity Wilds, and…Xue Yang is honestly delighted. He’s never managed to ruin someone so badly on the way into Wonderland before. It’s just a shame that Nie Huaisang sent Xiao Xingchen away before they reached the doors.)

The Healer’s Sash, which can manipulate natural forces like the wind, the tides, and tectonic plates just as easily as it can manipulate a heartbeat or a pair of lungs. (Wen Qing–she prays to Pelor, the Dawnfather, the healer and Lord of Light, but she’s long since lost her faith in him as anything but a contracted boss. It’s a shock to everyone including her when she’s granted a right arm made of glass and magic after losing it. She was so determined to make a Relic that could be used for good, but–well. She supposes she should have known better.)

The Philosopher’s Stone, which can more or less transform anything into anything. (Jiang Yanli–she’s a Transmutation wizard, she’s been feeding the crew of the Starblaster for a hundred years on whatever she can pull together. If the right person found the Stone, it would have ended world hunger. The wrong person found the stone. Jiang Yanli tried her damnedest to hunt it down, but she found the Gauntlet first, and, well–she already became a lich to stop one younger brother from doing it. It’s not a struggle to decide that she’s going to take responsibility for saving Jiang Cheng from his own guilt. Then things go horribly wrong, and she spends the next twelve years in an umbrella.)

The Temporal Chalice, which offers complete control over time. (Wen Ning–he was a strict scholar until his sister was contacted about the IPRE’s creation, but he always did want to travel, and his theories about bonds were too good for Xiao Xingchen to pass up having on his crew. Everything he’s done since they lost their home system has been about trying not to leave his family, about trying for second chances, he became a lich for them, he’s done everything to stay with them, of course his Relic is a second chance generator.)

The Animus Flute, which offers control over the spirits of the dead and, in the hands of a sufficiently competent expert, the living. (Wei Wuxian–he’s watched his brother, his sister, his friends, die so many times. He’s terrified of immortality, but he’s most terrified of being alone. He meant to make something that could keep the dead present, so that they would never have to fear being left behind again. Watching it rip Jiang Cheng’s soul clean out of his body in Xue Yang’s hands is the worst thing Wei Wuxian can remember, even after everything is over.)

The Bulwark, which Nie Huaisang never did explain to anyone, but took the shape of a hand-painted fan. (Nie Huaisang lost the only person who mattered to him when the Hunger ate their home, and then as he slowly, painstakingly, rebuilt something like a family, he had to watch them suffer and die for a hundred years. And then he watched them win, and grieve like dying all over again for the winning. He’s sorry they suffered for his actions. He’s not sorry for what he did.)

FIVE

Wen Zhuliu didn’t mean to make his whole plane give up. But he had spent his whole life being used, and it all just seemed so pointless. It all just seemed so pointless. There was always someone stronger, always something bigger, always a rule he couldn’t break, always something, and he started talking, started telling people as much, and--

Wen Qing is about the farthest thing in the fucking world from a peacemaker by nature, if you ask her, but she’s a healer first, last, and most of all. And, she thinks as she watches the sun sink with a very tired man crumbling away at her side, she might be the only person in the worlds who ever noticed that Wen Zhuliu needed a healer.

(They aren’t from the same plane, but--some of the others have found distant family, on their new home. It’s an unanswerable question, if they might have been family, a few dimensions removed. Wen Ning still thinks about it.)

#the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #taz balance #taz au #starlight writes stuff #*sprints into the room with this au multiple months late and completely out of breath* H E R E #this has been languishing in my drafts for. mm. ever.#i don't even remotely remember enough of my original thoughts about it to provide a lot of tags #but i do have a case for why wzl is john vore (and it's NOT just that i think he's interesting)#i could've made jgy the hunger BUT the plot of taz requires some...reconciliatory ending structure?#and honestly nhs still being something of a puppet master means that i couldn't justify that with jgy #i needed a villain less close to nhs' heart. so i thought about xue yang but i like him as the wonderland lich TOO MUCH.#so instead i thought about who i should make the parlay person--first instincts were jyl and wn because they're Nice #but then i decided that i didn't actually need Nice nearly so much as i needed Invested #and by god can wen qing Invest #so okay--if she was going to do the parlay then i didn't need someone who could be talked around i needed someone who needed a healer #so: wen zhuliu #i don't have to justify myself to you fools #also jgy is always everyone's biggest bad so he can let someone else have a turn #jyl develops a crush on a completely socially awkward rogue from inside an umbrella by the way!#pour one out for jzx because he is NOT equipped for an ethereal woman of violet fire to blush at him #a queue we will keep and our honor someday avenge #thishazeleyeddemon #asked and answered

93 notes · View notes

mdzsgildedfate · 3 years

Text

Gilded Fate - Chapter 4

Reincarnation AU [Chapter 4/?] Characters: Xue Yang, Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan, Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Jin Ling, Original Characters. Pairings: Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan/Xiao Xingchen, Lan Sizhui/Lan Jingyi

In all the world, there were very few cultivators that had achieved immortality. There was BaoShan SanRen, of course, who’d long since disappeared from the world after vowing to never take another disciple. Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, too, found their home together away from other cultivators. Wen Ning and Song Lan were technically immortal as Fierce Corpses, but most people believed them to be nothing more than myth and legend.

The other immortals, the only ones who hadn’t secluded themselves away, were Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Jin Ling, and Ouyang Zizhen. As good friends since childhood, the four cultivators had come together to build a joint sect on the south face of a mountain between LanLing and Gusu. The small village at the base of the mountain was one the larger sects paid no attention to, so when the renowned four immortal cultivators established their school there, the villagers flocked to their doors in hopes of being taken on as disciples.

At almost five hundred years old, the boys had long forgotten thoughts of encountering souls from their lives before immortality. All their attention was funnelled into their school, working hard to combine the principles from each of their clans into a single cohesive curriculum. Despite the first generation of disciples being an embarrassing train wreck of trial and error, they managed to produce a handful of decent and respectable cultivators.

The second generation was well into their studies when a long forgotten ghost appeared at their doorstep. Wen Ning had travelled to their mountain, bringing along with him a girl no older than 8 or 9 years old. After a heartfelt reunion between Lan Sizhui and his estranged relative, Ning had explained that he suspected the little girl to be the reincarnation of his older sister, Wen Qing. He begged them to take her in and teach her cultivation, hoping to give her a better life than the one she’d led in Wen Ruohan’s debt.

They agreed and Wen Ning left, saying if he stayed he’d be too much of an influence, either by his own feelings or his existence as a fierce corpse. So Wen Qing became Li JiaYi and was indoctrinated into BaLanSu Shi. Sizhui watched over her studies personally, feeling his own memories of Qinq resurface as she grew into the spitting image of her past self. By the time she was fourteen, her skills were well known in the cultivation world. With JiaYi representing the BaLanSu sect, they grew to be a gentry clan alongside Jin, Lan, Nie, and Jiang.

The world seemed bright and the future seemed promising until JiaYi became plagued with insomnia. The other disciples could find her up at odd hours of the night, practicing with her sword in the courtyard or poring over books in the library. After she fell asleep on her feet during a night-hunt and nearly lost her head to a measuring snake, Sizhui began playing Clarity for her twice a week before bed. For a while, it seemed to help.

When her soul finally awakened, the four immortals were unprepared. Soul awakening was rare and usually only heard of in small, insignificant instances. A farmer remembering a life where he fought in a war and so his sword skills improved slightly. A handmaid remembering a life in a kitchen and suddenly preparing complex dishes with ease. Nothing to the degree of what happened with Li JiaYi.

On the day Ouyang Zizhen was meant to marry, JiaYi stormed into the banquet hall and went on a sleep-deprived tangent about the crimes the gentry clans had committed against the Wen clan. When Zizhen tried to calm her down, she snapped and killed half the wedding guests, including Zizhen’s bride, before disappearing. If the slaughter of prominent clan members, some of which were clan heirs, wasn’t enough to bring the BaLanSu clan to an end, Wen Qing continued her siege of revenge in the city below.

The entire population of Da Su was decimated indiscriminately and reanimated as an army of walking corpses. The destruction was enough to bring Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian out of seclusion to intervene. With their help, the walking corpses were destroyed, but in the end it was Wen Ning who subdued Qing long enough for Sizhui to finish her off. In the aftermath, the JinLan Yang sect was abolished and Zizhen removed himself from the cultivation world to a life of solitude.

Centuries could lessen the guilt and pain of what happened with Wen Qinq, but it was something Sizhui had never been able to dispel from his mind. He encountered more and more reincarnated souls; some he knew, most were strangers, but he dedicated himself to each and everyone in repentance for his failure to Li JiaYi.

~X~

When Jin Ling revealed the contents of his conversation with Xinyi the night before, Sizhui and Jingyi felt a wave of dread wash over them. Experiencing the symptoms of awakening for so long was utterly unheard of, and for someone like Xue Yang to persist for so long without losing his mind- It felt impossible to believe.

“A-Yuan. This is your area of expertise.” Jin Ling said, breaking the long silence that had fallen between them. “How do we proceed?”

Sizhui shook his head slowly. “I… I’m not sure…”

“He seems perfectly fine.” Jingyi said, eyes glued to the floor. “He shows no signs of awakening. He shows up for class on time, he does his work well, he has friends- I don’t.... I don’t see how this is possible.”

“Last semester.” Sizhui chewed his lip anxiously. “My class last semester was earlier than yours, A-Yi. He was almost always late, and missed class so frequently I had to fail him. I thought he just didn’t care about the class, since he’s only majoring in anthropology because of the Wang Collection.”

“The what?” Jin Ling interjected, getting brushed off immediately.

“I can’t believe I dismissed such an obvious sign.”

“That still doesn’t explain how he’s coping so well.” Jingyi was pacing around the room now, chewing on his thumbnail. “Do we even need to do anything right now?”

Sizhui was silent for a moment, considering their options and the position they were in before speaking. “Since he seems fine for now… let’s try to hold out until we leave Leng Shuang. We can’t seal him without arousing suspicion, and guiding his awakening would just be a burden on Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen.”

The others nodded in agreement and set the conversation to rest for now, heading out to rejoin the group of students Song Lan had led out to the clearing near the temple. While Jin Ling headed off on his own again, Sizhui and Jingyi were left alone to keep an eye on Xinyi, watching out for any symptoms they may have missed before. In their absence, the students had already constructed a dozen or so poorly-made kites and were getting ready to send them up as targets.

Song Lan guided the students to line up in groups of five, with everyone else waiting impatiently behind them, and showed them how to hold their bows. The first group fired off their first arrows and missed their kites completely. Going through four more arrows each, only two kites were brought down. The second group consisted of Xinyi, Chen, QianHua, and MingYue, which of course made their turn an unspoken competition. Chen shot all five arrows into the air with no luck. QianHua nicked his kite on his fourth try, but it stayed suspended in the air mockingly. MingYue brought her’s down on the second try, and Xinyi shot his down with the first arrow.

After retrieving their kites, MingYue turned to intercept Xinyi with a smile. “Nice shooting-”

“No.” Xinyi picked up his kite and turned away from her without so much as a sideways glance.

She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, crumpling her kite slightly. “We’re here for four more days, are you really going to ignore me the whole time?”

“We?” He asked, back still turned to her. “Didn’t you come here with your twin? You’re not part of my class, I don’t have to pay attention to you.”

“He’s not my twin, he’s…”

“Oh, I’m sorry, are the matching robes a couple outfit? My bad.” Xinyi rolled his eyes, shooting Chen and QianHua an exasperated look as he rejoined them.

“Hardly!” MingYue’s grip on her kite tightened, tearing through the paper. She took a deep breath and loosened her grip, forcing a small smile. “Look. I may not be part of your class, but we’re here together regardless. Can’t we just be civil with each other?”

“I’ll be civil with you.” QianHua stepped in, waggling his eyebrows at her.

Her smile tightened, hiding an air of disgust. “A-Xin, I-”

Xinyi spun back to face her now, throwing his kite to the ground and stepping close to her. “First of all, don’t fucking call me that. Ever. Again. Second of all, there’s twenty other people here for you to bother. Just because your freak boyfriend keeps ditching you, doesn’t make you my fucking babysitting job. Just piss off!”

Without another word, he turned back and stormed off into the trees. Chen and QianHua exchanged startled looks and ran after him, ignoring Sizhui and Jingyi calling after them. Once they caught up to him, QianHua swung an arm around his neck, walking alongside him on the path back to the temple.

“Man. What fucked up shit did a girl that hot have to pull to make you blow her off like that?”

Xinyi pushed his arm off, but slowed his pace for the two to keep up with him. “She just gets under my skin. She’s irritating. And I don’t get why she’s suddenly trying to reconnect with me. I haven’t heard from her in two fucking years, and now suddenly she shows up here out of nowhere and wants to be my friend?”

QianHua nodded thoughtfully, humming obnoxiously. “Sounds like fate to me. You guys must have been lovers in a past life, destined to be together.”

Xinyi scoffed. “The only thing she’s in love with is my family’s artifacts. I’m certain that’s the only reason she dated me. I’d sooner marry Chen than consider giving her another chance.”

“Hmm… Chen’s pretty in these robes, but is he really wife material?”

“I’d make the best wife. Don’t be jealous A-Qian.” Chen replied, grabbing Xinyi’s hand. “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m the only one of us that knows how to cook.”

Xinyi broke out in laughter and pulled Chen close. “See? Perfect! I never have to look at MingYue again.”

“Wait! I forgot about his cooking, I want Chen for my wife!” QianHua grabbed Chen’s other hand and tried to pull him away from Xinyi.

“Hey! Hands off my wife, how dare you disgrace her like that!” Xinyi pulled Chen behind him and snatched up a stick from the side of the trail, brandishing it at QianHua. “Your whole clan should pay for her dishonour!”

Chen broke down to his knees, laughing so hard tears welled up in his eyes. The two launched into a dramatic sword fight, chasing each other up and down the trail, jumping off of rocks and spinning around trees. QianHua got two good strikes in, which just urged Xinyi to fight harder. He found another stick and held them both up at his foe.

“Yin QianHua! I never like to exaggerate when I’m talking.” Xinyi smirked and lunged forward, swinging both swords down at QianHua. “If I say I’m gonna kill someone’s entire clan, I’ll actually kill their entire clan. I won’t even leave a dog behind!”

QianHua blocked the first two blows, but missed the third as he burst out laughing. “A-Xin!”

Xinyi pushed QianHua to his knees with his foot and pointed his sticks at him.

“A-Xin!” QianHua kept laughing, even with the ‘swords’ at his throat. “A-Xin, you should be careful wielding two swords like that.”

Xinyi paused, breaking character to toss a bemused glance at Chen, who only shrugged in return.

“You don’t know the term ‘Ryoutoutsukai’?” QianHua dropped his stick and wiped tears from his eyes with his sleeve. “I didn’t realize you were so serious about marrying Chen.”

Xinyi was about to question the man further, but their nonsense was finally cut short by a pointed throat-clearing. Three sets of eyes shot up to see Lan Jingyi and Song Lan staring them down disapprovingly. QianHua and Chen both bolted to their feet, brushing dust and leaves off their robes.

“If you three have no interest in participating with the group, I can find you a better activity.” Jingyi said sternly, holding a hand out to signal them back towards the temple.

Once they returned, the three were sat down in the courtyard and left to stew in their nerves while Jingyi disappeared inside the temple. When he returned, each of them were given thick, blank notebooks, a couple dozen scrolls, inkwells, and brushes.

“These scrolls contain the 3,000 principles of the Lan clan. Transcribe them.”

~X~

It was nearly ten in the morning by the time Jin Ling made his way back to the pond. Despite having spent hours the night before exploring every inch of the surrounding area, things looked different during the day and he was bound to notice something he hadn’t seen before. He circled the pond a few times, trying to see if there was any spot where the water was clearer. When nothing new revealed itself, he decided to pull the compass back out and turn his attention to the forest.

As he followed his previous route, Jin Ling checked the talismans and sigils he’d left. Everything was still in place, untouched and unchanged. It almost seemed like a waste of sigil papers. Heaving a sigh, he ripped them down to hang up elsewhere later on. Reaching his last set of papers, he took out the compass and watched as the needle spun and jerked around, finally stopping to point up the hill in front of him.

He packed the papers away in his sleeves and started the climb. After ten or fifteen minutes, Jin Ling found the remnants of an old beaten path and began to follow it, leaving a sigil behind on one of the trees. The spiritual energy in the air had increased, giving him a small feeling of hope that he was close to finding what he was looking for. With the sensation growing stronger, Jin Ling wondered how Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen hadn’t been able to pick up on this.

During his first night at the temple, Jin Ling had questioned the two about it, but neither one seemed aware and had reassured him that if anything malicious resided in their mountains, they would have slain it right away. Not wanting to insult their cultivation, he’d dropped the subject, but continued to investigate on his own. Having Sizhui and Jingyi’s students at the temple provided a distraction for the priests and an excuse to ditch MingYue, not wanting to endanger her unnecessarily until he knew what exactly he was tracking.

Having followed the path for half an hour, Jin Ling slumped down against a tree to rest, deciding to stop for lunch before deciding whether or not to turn around and follow the path the other way. He’d barely taken a sip of water before a rustling in the trees had him springing back to his feet. He drew his sword and froze, straining his ears at the sound. The woods were quiet for a moment, but then the rustling came again. A twig snapping, leaves being disturbed, the clumsy sound of footsteps. Jin Ling walked forward slowly, approaching the noise with his sword pointed out.

From behind a thicket of vines, an ambling figure stumbled forward. It’s skin was nearly black, leathery, and it’s movements were stiff and jerky. It’s clothes were dirty and ripped and it’s eyes had no pupils. Jin Ling recognized the thing immediately as a walking corpse. It’s spiritual energy was low and posed no threat to Jin Ling, but it’s presence brought an unbelievable sense of foreboding. How many millenia had passed since Jin Ling had last seen a walking corpse? How many millenia had passed since he’d last seen anything beyond low level restless spirits?

Jin Ling lunged forward and slayed the thing with ease. A quick search of the corpse revealed no clues as to how it had transformed. Something about the modern world had quelled corpse transformation- if there was one here now it could only mean someone with cultivation abilities had reanimated it intentionally. In the past, Jin Ling had only encountered a handful of situations like this. One turned out to be an immortal who’d turned to necromancy, driven mad by her long life in solitude. Most instances were descendants of forgotten cultivator families who’d tried practicing with incomplete lessons passed down through the generations.

Although there had also been a couple instances of reincarnated cultivators who’d lived traumatic lives, died gruesomely, and awakened too suddenly. Considering the current circumstances, Jin Ling had a hunch as to which scenario he was probably dealing with. Packing away the corpse inside a qiankun pouch, the cultivator carried on in the direction the thing had come from. He tracked it’s path for a few hundred yards before it seemed to disappear. No other corpses appeared, so he decided to finish for the day and head back to the temple. Having wasted most of the day backtracking all around the mountain, he was looking forward to eating dinner and having a drink with Sizhui and Jingyi.

When he got back, Jin Ling was surprised to find only three boys sitting in the courtyard, as opposed to the gaggle of twenty-or-so children he was bracing himself for. Song Lan, Sizhui, and Jingyi were nowhere to be found. At a loss for anything else, Jin Ling walked up behind one of the boys and looked down at the notebook that was slowly being filled. He quirked an eyebrow.

“How’d you piss Jingyi off that bad?” He asked, startling Chen so badly he practically leapt over his table, spilling his inkwell onto the ground.

“Wh-where’d you come from?” Chen scrambled back, pushing his glasses back into place, smudging one of the lenses in the process.

“From behind you. Obviously.” Jin Ling retorted, turning to Xinyi. “This was Jingyi, right? What’d you do?”

Xinyi shrugged indignantly. “That girl you brought with you was pissing me off and she wouldn’t leave me alone, so I left.”

“Hmph. Whatever. Where’s Jingyi now? And Sizhui? Where is everyone?”

“Eating inside.” QianHua replied, slumping over his table.

Jin Ling narrowed his eyes. “What, did they forget about you? Get up. Don’t transcribe anymore of that bullshit.”

The three boys shot up, chirping out thank you’s and trailed after Jin Ling like baby ducks, following him into the temple to where everyone else was eating. He shooed them in and directed them to sit down before joining Sizhui and Jingyi. The latter gave him an annoyed look, immediately berating him for bringing the three back in.

“Jin Ling! Don’t interfere with the way I discipline my students! Did they even finish transcribing the principles? How can you undermine me like this-?”

“A-Yi, eat your dinner.” Jin Ling cut him off, shoving a piece of lotus root into his mouth. “There’s 3,000 Lan principles and you had them using brushes. They wouldn’t have finished even if they worked nonstop for the next four days.”

Jingyi frowned, mumbling through the root. “That’s still not for you to decide…”

“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Jin Ling snapped back. “Song Daozhang. Why has Xiao Daozhang not joined us for a meal yet?”

Song Lan looked over, tearing his eyes from where Xinyi and his two friends sat in the corner. “He’s here tonight, he just left to make more tea.”

~X~

After seeming to only see Xiao Xingchen when he was alone, Xinyi was relieved to finally see the man at dinner, confirming he hadn’t hallucinated him. However, it didn’t make him any less of an enigma. Xiao Xingchen hadn’t spoken at all the entire meal. Even when one of the professors or Jin Ling addressed him directly, he’d only smile or nod. With how easily Xingchen spoke to Xinyi, it seemed strange that he wouldn’t speak to the men he actually knew. The curiosity ate at him, but there was no way to even get near him with Song Lan there, and at the end of dinner, Xingchen quickly disappeared again.

Xinyi shrugged and decided to worry about it later. After staring at those scrolls for over two hours, his brain was too fried to do anything but go to bed. Accompanied by Chen and QianHua, Xinyi dragged his feet back to their shared room. They stripped out of their robes in silence and slipped into their beds, too tired to even complain about Jingyi’s arcane punishment. The only break in silence came from QianHua just as they were dozing off.

“Hey….”

“What.”

“After that battle today... you’re not even going to sleep next to your wife?” QianHua whispered, stifling laughter.

Xinyi snorted and grabbed whatever piece of clothing was nearest to him and chucked it at him. “Go the fuck to sleep.”

Do not kill within Cloud Recesses.

Do not fight without permission.

Do not go out at night.

Do not make noise.

Do not walk too fast.

Do not laugh for no reason.

Do not sit with a disgraceful pose.

The words echoed over and over again. Ghostly white figures walked past him in a line, one after another. As the whispers grew distant and muddled, the figures faced him and moved in closer. The one directly in front of him was a middle-aged woman, her face lined with worries. Her soft eyes were upturned with sorrow and tears spilled over her cheeks.

“How could you kill me so easily?”

Her voice was filled with heavy sobs. Tears spilled out faster and stained her pale face.

“You didn’t even spare my daughter, who was only four years old.”

A man took her place, his features much harsher and filled with anger.

“How disgraceful you are, cutting up my corpse for him.”

A young boy around his age spoke next.

“My body was never found. I was read no burial rights. No one burned paper money for me at a shrine. Why do you get to live again while I’m trapped in restlessness?”

He turned away desperately, trying to escape the ghosts coming towards him.

“You were still laughing as you carved the flesh from my bones.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, covering his face with his hands.

“You turned me into a corpse and made me kill my own brother.”

“I was on my way to my wedding-”

“You killed my children in their beds-”

“You were still laughing-”

“Was it fun?”

The whispers disappeared and, slowly, he opened his eyes. Only one ghostly figure remained. A man who shined like moonlight, with pale skin like porcelain, who’s only flaw was white bandage wrapped around his eyes.

“Was it fun?”

Two red blotches appeared on the bandages where his eyes would be.

“Of course it was. It’s always fun for you.”

The red bled down his cheeks.

“Killing people… it’s just a game to you.”

His throat opened up and added to the red pouring from his eyes, blooming down the front his white robes.

“Was my death… fun?”

Xinyi opened his eyes. The room was still dark. Chen and QianHua were still asleep beside him. He sat up and kicked the blankets off of him, his weary gaze settling on the crouched silhouette in the corner. Was that Chen’s backpack and clothes piled up? He squinted, leaning forward into a kneeling position. The silhouette mirrored his actions and leaned forward. His heart lurched and he jumped to his feet, his fingers turning cold. The silhouette stood up and took a step forward.

It’s long, black hair was disheveled, the knot at the top half falling out of it’s ribbon. It’s clothes were loose and sloppily held together. It’s eyes were blank slates, no pupils to indicate what Xinyi already knew- that it was looking directly at him. He looked down at Chen and QianHua for a split second, and when he looked back, the man was gone. Not waiting for it to come back, he opened the door and slipped out into the hall.

“Xue Yang!”

The figure reappeared in the hallway, spitting the words out with one finger pointed up accusingly. Fear shot through Xinyi’s body like electricity and sent him flying down the corridor, paying no attention to which way he was going, not stopping until he nearly collided with the closed door of the artifact room. He yanked the door open, stepped into the room, and slammed it shut. On his hands and knees, Xinyi crawled across the floor and made himself as small as possible in the far corner of the room.

Just as his heart rate was finally returning to normal, the door began to slide open. He held his breath, hoping the ghost somehow wouldn’t find him if he didn’t move or make any noise. But the man that appeared in the doorway wasn’t disheveled or dressed in rags. He was dressed in a plain, white night robe and his hair was neatly combed down his back. Xiao Xingchen stood across from Xinyi, his eyes finding him in the dark immediately.

“Appreciating the art?”

Xinyi let out a heavy breath of relief. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Xingchen smiled. “I was already awake.”

The light from Xingchen’s lamp illuminated the room as he came inside and closed the door behind him. He crossed the room and knelt in front of Xinyi, placing the lamp on the floor beside them.

“Nightmare?”

Xinyi nodded slowly. “How’d you guess?”

“It’s the middle of the night.” Xingchen replied, his smile widening. “And you’re hiding in the only room in the temple full of swords.”

He looked over at the wall of swords beside him, having not even noticed them until now, and broke out laughing. Or crying. Or both. He covered his face with his hands, trying not to let the other man see.

“Xinyi?” Xingchen reached a hand out and placed it on Xinyi’s knee.

After a moment, he dropped his hands, meeting Xingchen’s gaze.

“Did something else happen?”

Xiao Xingchen’s face showed such genuine concern it hurt Xinyi’s heart. Something about it made him want to laugh again, but another part of him wanted to tell Xingchen what he saw, confide in him about all the horrible nightmares he’s been having and how now he seemed to be plagued by restless spirits.

“Xingchen…” His fingers rubbed together anxiously. “What does… Xue Yang mean?”

The man’s body went rigid. The smile disappeared from his face and his gaze hardened. Xinyi regretted his question immediately. He wasn’t sure which was worse; the way Xingchen was looking at him or the fact that he recognized the words the ghost had shouted at him.

“Why are you asking me that?” He asked planely.

Feeling his nerves building up, Xinyi laughed quietly and looked away. “It’s nothing. It’s just nonsense from my dream.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

He clenched his fists. “Would you believe me if I said I heard it from a ghost?”

Xingchen was silent and Xinyi couldn’t help but look back up. To his relief, the angered expression he wore before had dissipated and his features were soft again. The man looked down at the flame from the lamp, wrapping his fingertips on the floor, drumming out that same beat from the day at the river. After running through the beat several times, Xingchen looked back at Xinyi.

“Every artifact in this temple is thousands of years old. The tapestries, the fans, and porcelain dishware. They all have ghosts attached to them. Most people aren’t sensitive enough to hear them.” Xingchen took Xinyi’s hand and held it between his own. “These restless spirits think only of why they’re trapped here. Time is frozen for them, so they don’t understand things like forgiveness or change. Your nightmares have made you vulnerable to them- you can hear them now.”

Xinyi swallowed hard, unsure of whether or not he believed what the man was saying. He didn’t want to believe it- that the ghosts he saw were real and that he was going to keep seeing them. Was it just one more horrible reality that he’d have to adjust to, like he had to adjust to the nightmares?

“Xue Yang.”

He looked up, startled to see that Xingchen had leaned in closer to him.

“It’s a name.” He looked to the right where JiangZai stood in its case. “The name of the man who owned that sword.”

#mdzs #mdzs fic #xuexiao #xue yang #xiao xingchen #jin ling #lan sizhui #lan jingyi #junior disciples #song lan

7 notes · View notes

hamliet · 5 years

Text

The Faces Under Bai WuXiang’s Mask

Or, dissecting Bai WuXiang. I’m not going to get into whose face is actually under BWX’s mask (there aren’t spoilers in this meta), or into Lang Ying, but I instead want to talk about Bai WuXiang’s foiling with primarily Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, but also a bit of He Xuan and Qi Rong (fitting as BWX and the latter three are the Four Great Calamities).

Anyways. Mount TongLu.

The funny thing about Mu Qing and Feng Xin’s horror over Hua Cheng’s love for Xie Lian is that they think he’s a demon stalking Xie Lian with the intent of harming him.

Feng Xin was practically getting chills looking through those murals, “My fucking god… who the hell is he? He’s been watching you since eight hundred years ago?! And he is still, even now? What the fuck! This is terrifying! Is he bewitched? What the hell does he want? Normal worshippers won’t even do this much, just what the hell does he want??”

And Hua Cheng has loved Xie Lian and lived for him for 800 years. Yet, while there is a demon stalking Xie Lian for 800 years, it is not Hua Cheng but Bai WuXiang.

Bai WuXiang’s obsession with Xie Lian seems to be that he wants Xie Lian to become exactly like him, as a sort of forced empathy (I’m sensing a pattern among MXTX villains: see here for He Xuan and here for MDZS’s Xue Yang). I’m curious to see where this develops. Bai WuXiang seems to recognize Xie Lian’s terror and understand it, even, and he wants to see it drive Xie Lian into the same kind of crying/laughing despair that governs him.

White No-Face lifted his face to look at his eyes, and he said warmly, “Your highness, I think, you might have misunderstood. There certainly will be a Supreme who will emerge from this kiln, but, it won’t be me. It would be you.” ...

“Do you remember this cry-smiling mask?” White No-Face asked, “It suits you.” ...

Then, without giving him a chance to protest, that tragically pale cry-smiling mask melted with the infinite darkness as it was heavily pressed onto Xie Lian’s face.

This is, of course, a crucial difference when compared with how Hua Cheng sees Xie Lian. He never forces Xie Lian to do anything, and accompanies him even when he doesn’t want Xie Lian to make a particular choice. In other words, Hua Cheng gets real empathy and what it’s like, that it doesn’t mean becoming exactly like someone or agreeing all the time, but walking with them.

Xie Lian softly sighed a breath of relief and forced a smile, “Nothing, it’s just, in these past years, how I passed my earlier days wasn’t the prettiest sight, it was all muddled and very much a failure. I just thought if you had witnessed it it wouldn’t be good.”

Hua Cheng laughed, “How could that be?”

Xie Lian however, didn’t laugh at all, “It’s not a joke, it really was quite the failure.”

Hearing this, Hua Cheng withdrew his smile and turned solemn, “That’s okay too. Didn’t your highness already say it yourself?”

“Me?” Xie Lian was confused, “What did I say?”

Hua Cheng recited languidly, “To me, the one standing in infinite glory is you, the one fallen from grace is also you. What matters is you, and not the state of you.”

Bai WuXiang doesn’t understand this perspective at all. He tells Xie Lian, regarding Hua Cheng:

“it’s probably for the best that he doesn’t come in. Otherwise, even if he doesn’t think so now, later when he sees the state of you, who knows if he’ll still want to be with you.”

He’s preying on Xie Lian’s worst insecurities, the ones he mentioned earlier: that he’s a failure, that he’s trash. I’m pretty sure this is actually what Bai WuXiang thinks of himself: that he’s a failure, and no one wants to be with him (well, I mean, look at you BWX...)

We see these fears of being inherently bad in Hua Cheng as a little boy. Everyone seems to believe this about him, especially when the priest tells his fortune:

The Head Priest wiped his sweat and suddenly backed a mile away, “Your highness, you really picked up something you shouldn’t have up the mountain! That small child is toxic! His sign is borne of the most ominous star, the Star of Solitude*, destined to bring misfortune and destruction, the kind that evil loves the most. Whoever touches him will have misfortune befall upon them, whoever gets close will lose their lives!”

... Seeing that everyone was avoiding him like he was a poisonous snake, that child was shocked and started thrashing even harder, biting and screaming, “I’m not! I’M NOT!! I’M NOT!!!!”

Suddenly, a pair of arms wrapped him around the waist, encircling his small form. A voice came from above his head, “You’re not. I know you’re not. Don’t cry, now. I know you’re not.”

That young child pressed his lips closed tightly, grabbing on to that pair of snow-white sleeves around his waist with a death grip, forced himself to hold back for a long time but in the end he still couldn’t. A stream of tears suddenly rolled down from that round, black eye, and he burst out crying.

Xie Lian embraced him from behind and reiterated firmly, “It not you. It’s not your fault.”

This scene was also paralleled recently in the confession scene in 177, where Xie Lian hugs Hua Cheng from behind to confirm he loves him. But what Hua Cheng fears is being alone because he brings misfortune to the people he loves. He doesn’t want to be alone. Connection, as we’ll see, is vitally important to staying alive and to staying connected to humanity--whether mortal, god, or demon--in TGCF. He even asks Xie Lian in the confession scene not to tell him, because he’s so afraid of being rejected, yet Xie Lian embraces him instead.

i’m not in pain at all

When Hua Cheng is wondering what to live for, thinking he has nothing, Xie Lian tells him to live for him until he finds another reason to live for himself. This scene again emphasizes the importance of connection and the importance of empathy in connection as well, that a god would speak to a lone, desperate mortal worshipper. Live for their connection. The problem is that Hua Cheng needs to extend some of that love to himself too (like, he’s still drawing himself as exceedingly ugly in his art), but I think that comes through allowing himself to be loved by Xie Lian. So he’s on that path.

There’s another aspect to the BWX and Hua Cheng foiling that makes me slightly uncomfortable to discuss, but it’s there so let’s discuss it. Hua Cheng’s murals that so panicked Mu Qing and Feng Xin were pretty obviously, er, erotic (the ultimate self-insert real person fanartist; Hua Cheng and Dante could get along). Bai WuXiang is definitely giving off some... creeper vibes.

The next second, his hair was grabbed, forcibly yanked back then bashed into the ground!

His ears were ringing, his nose and mouth were filled with the astringence of blood, and his head concussed.

It was a while later before Xie Lian felt a hand pull his head out from the shattered ground, and a voice came from above, “So sad, so pitiful.”

Xie Lian choked out a mouthful of blood. White No-Face said, “Every time I meet your highness, you always look like this. Makes one ache. Makes one excited.”

It could just be the translation, but given BWX’s foiling with Hua Cheng, the scene two chapters earlier where Mu Qing and Fen Xin clearly think Hua Cheng is going to harm Xie Lian sexually and Hua Cheng assures him he has no such intentions (not that Xie Lian thought he would), plus what we know of Xie Lian’s utter commitment to abstinence does make me think that Bai WuXiang knows what he’s doing and is doing it to distress Xie Lian. I don’t think MXTX will take it very far (ie I don’t think anything will actually happen in a literal sense), thankfully, but I do think something metaphorically along those lines (ie something humiliating that denies Xie Lian humanity in a sense other than that one, BUT metaphorical is not the same thing) might have happened in the past.

There’s also the fact that Bai WuXiang slamming Xie Lian’s face into the ground and demanding he be like him at the ending of book 3, right before we dive into the past, is a reversal of the scene at the ending of book 1 right before we dive into the past, where Xie Lian slams Qi Rong’s face into the ground because he can’t get him to stop possessing an innocent father. Additionally, in this scene Qi Rong tells Xie Lian something similar to what BWX tells Xie Lian, except Xie Lian is the one in power then:

Xie Lian’s breathing was becoming more laboured, his head dizzy, his body shaking, his hands itching to crush Qi Rong’s skull, but he couldn’t do it. Qi Rong spread his hands, “Hahahaha cousin crown prince, what a failure, what an absolute failure!”

Xie Lian picked him off the ground, raised his fists and rained punch after punch on Qi Rong’s face, yelling with each punch, “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!”

Yet, the more enraged he got, the happier Qi Rong became. To be able to drag the both of them to the same hell, Qi Rong was filled with rapture, his eyes shone brightly, “See! There’s your true face! Cousin crown prince, who knows you better than me in this world? You might look like a pathetic, drowned dog that anyone can trample now, but I know. You’re still proud on the inside; you couldn’t stand anyone calling you a failure! You must hate me for calling you a failure! Have I stabbed your heart enough to bleed? Hurry! Come! Or are you gonna tell me loudly that this body is innocent, so you won’t kill me in order to spare him? Come! Show me what you’ll do!”

It’s the same sort of temptation, except BWX has the spiritual power on his side whereas Qi Rong didn’t. Kill me, and become like me. If Xie Lian doesn’t give up, if he stands by his morals even though they’re being challenged because honestly his morals are kind of all he has at certain moments, then they themselves will be condemned, as they already know they are. But they want someone to empathize with them, to understand them. Qi Rong spent his childhood looking up to Xie Lian, wanting to be like him, and now he wants Xie Lian to be like him. He’s still a child, despite being an 800-year-old demon. I have hope Qi Rong will be able to grow a bit through being a parental figure for GuZi, I don’t really for BWX because I find him a terrifying baddie whom I love and despise at the same time.

What sets Xie Lian apart though, the whole reason Qi Rong loved him so much in the first place, the reason Hua Cheng fell in love with him, the reason He Xuan grew close with Shi Qing Xuan, is because Xie Lian can empathize. He has a sense of wonder about the world, and he doesn’t see himself as better than anyone. He’s naive and yes, proud in some ways, but when his priests tried to kick out a child because the child had a bad fortune, he protected that child. He dove off the ceremonial cart to save a falling child. He knows he failed epically to save Xian Le from falling, to save innocents from dying, but not for lack of trying.

He Xuan also tried to force Shi Qing Xuan and Shi Wu Du to understand his pain in losing all his loved ones. It backfired, and now He Xuan has lost the one person he still had. (I don’t think SQX is dead, but I doubt he is in a good state.) The meta I referenced earlier is entirely about this, and as @beneaththebrim wrote here, the whole Black Water arc “is a tragic mirror of the main plot.”

The faces under Bai WuXiang’s mask could easily be any of these characters, but they aren’t because they’re able to connect currently. Qi Rong has a genuine connection to Xie Lian, as twisted and torn as it is, and is developing one with GuZi. He Xuan is likely finding out that revenge on Shi Wu Du didn’t bring him the peace he wants, didn’t bring his loved ones back, and irreparably hurt the one person who loved him (Shi Qing Xuan). Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, of course, love each other, and through each others’ love, are hopefully starting, ever so slowly, to learn to love and value themselves too (Hua Cheng you don’t value yourself enough).

Bai WuXiang is likely terrified of facing the reality that he is alone (and if he doesn’t have the human face disease or some remnant thereof since he’s the mastermind behind it and it’s symbolic of society corrupting & also of loneliness, I’ll be shocked). So no matter how many faces he has in actuality, it’s really only his face under that mask, and that’s what he’s terrified of.

#tgcf meta #tian guan ci fu #heaven official's blessing #heaven official's blessing meta #hualian #hua cheng #xie lian #bai wuxiang #qi rong #he xuan #beefleaf

463 notes · View notes