After long and arduous efforts, the Sunshot Campaign finally came to an end. Lotus Pier was still in the finishing process of being rebuilt.
Time seemed to speed up and drag slowly all at once.
Wei Wuxian was walking around the town, thinking back on about nearly three weeks ago with the confrontation between him and the what's-his-name Jin, Jin Zixuan's cousin. He felt bad about Shijie stepping in the situation for his sake. She defended him as family. It made his chest warm up with a familiar familial affection towards her.
Shijie was truly amazing. He admired and adored her. She was his friend, big sister and mother-like figure all wrapped in one. She and Jiang Cheng were important to him. He would do anything for them. No matter what it cost him in return.
Shijie and Jiang Cheng had no clue that he didn't have his golden core anymore, let alone that he gave it away to Jiang Cheng. It needed to stay that way. This secret would be taken to his death.
Others were starting to talk again and spread rumors and discord. Wei Wuxian knew that if he stayed with them, it would only bring them more trouble than either needed right now. Jiang Cheng was working so hard to rebuild the sect.
Wei Wuxian sighed. 'I knew I would have to leave them sooner or later. I just hadn't wanted it to be so soon.'
The other sects are looking for an opening - a weakness. They wanted to drive a wedge between him and Jiang Cheng because of his cultivation and that he was now considered an unknown threat and everyone accused Jiang Cheng of being power hungry and whatever else, 'keeping Wei Wuxian power' all to himself.
Wei Wuxian was immensely annoyed by the sects that kept coming to him with offers for him to join their sect. Greedy bastards.
Wei Wuxian shook his head and suddenly thought of Lan Wangji at Phoenix Mountain. And remembered the strong maiden who had kissed him sensely while he was blindfolded before fleeing.
Suibian snickered as he snuggled closer to Yanling Daoren, who then looked at him with an arched brow but Suibian just gave him a sweet innocent smile. Suibian turned to look at the golden eyed, white-robed cultivator with a wide devilish grin on his face and winked at Lan Wangji whose face had a faint blush and red ears.
Lan Xichen stared at his baby brother and shook his head with a small smile. Lan Qiren looked like he was about to spit blood and faint, being reminded of the memory scene where they had all watched a shameless version of Han-Guangjun kiss Wei Wuxian, the Yiling Patriarch in the memory.
Many were staring still in shock and muttering to themselves. It was no maiden. It was Han-Guangjun himself.
Nie Huaisang's eyes squinted as his lips curled into a smile which was hidden behind his fan.
Wei Wuxian sighed again.
He met Lan Wangji again not that long ago. The other man kept bringing up his cultivation method and the consequences of walking the path of demonic cultivation. Wei Wuxian was tired of it being thrown in his face.
He knows. Of course he knows, more than anyone, the price he must pay. He knew his temper was very slowly but surely getting worse as time went by. And all of it was a constant strain on his body which didn't have the same abilities without his golden core. And hasn't been able to sleep well since leaving Burial Mounds. The stress kept mounting and people kept cornering him left and right and he just wanted to be left alone. It was tiresome.
And then Lan Wangji had to bring up his cultivation yet again and put him in a bad mood.
Wei Wuxian walked closer toward a vendor after scenting a nice aroma and paused, staring at the person beside the vendor hugging their knees on the ground. Their clothes matted with dirt and grime, covered in filth.
He knew who this person was. The other noticed him and hurriedly stood up and struggled to walk to him and collapsed once again near his feet, holding onto his robes desperately.
To see such a strong willed woman that held her head high with pride reduced to such a state truly shocked him. He hadn't seen Wen Qing since she and her brother helped save him and Jiang Cheng and since he asked and had her remove his golden core to give it to his younger brother.
He had a bad feeling as she gazed at him with desperate, tear-filled eyes that begged him to help her. "Please! If it's you… if it's you…! You're the only one who can help me.. please. A-Ning… A-Ning, help me save A-Ning!" She cried. Wei Wuxian closed his eyes and stood still for a moment.
She needn't beg him to help her. He would have helped her regardless of what she had done for him, or what her brother had done for him. And Wen Ning was his friend.
He would help her, because it was the right thing to do. It didn't matter if their surname was Wen, it didn't make them like Wen Chao or Wen Ruohan, Wen Qing dealt in medicine and Wen Ning was the sweetest boy who couldn't hurt a fly.
"Shh, shh. Wen Qing, come. Let's get you some food, yeah?" He helped her up and guided her unsteady steps. "Careful now, I've got you." He murmured.
He bought her some food, sat her down and then she told him what had happened. His face darkened, becoming very grim. He told her to wait for him to return, so that she could rest but she refused and demanded she was going with him.
He gave up and decided to let it be. But he hoped, within his heart, but it was not too late. He hoped it was not too late and that he would make it on time to save Wen Ning.
|•|•|•|•|•|
As he rushed to Qiongqi path with Wen Qing at his side, recalled the infuriating attitude of Jin Zixuan's cousin and how their actions and others appalled him. Just because someone bore the surname Wen, they were guilty by association even if they were innocent branches of Wen families dragged into the chaotic mess. He knew in his heart that Wen Qing was no terrible evil like the rest of the Wens, like Wen Chao. And Wen Ning… he was too sweet and innocent and yet that little asshole Jin treated their lives so callously just like Jim Guangshan and the rest of their sect and no one else said anything or spoke up against it. He had stormed into Koi Tower disrupting Jin Guangshan's banquet - having to threaten Jin Zixuan's just to get the answer he needed which still made everything feel as though he were too late.
He begged, deep in his heart, that he wasn't too late.
Jin Guangshan was silent, face down, in embarrassment and shame and he could refute nothing at this point. Everyone else looked down, ashamed and filled with guilt once again. They always spoke of justice and doing the right thing and yet… What did they do?
Nothing.
He was sickened by what he saw. The Jins had really taken things too far. All he saw were enslaved innocent people who bore the surname Wen, made up of a few elderly and middle-aged citizens and a young male child, a toddler that was being carried on the back of an elderly woman who was clearly in pain and carrying a flag and the boy looked to be starving and so small.
He did not see Wen Ning and no matter how Wen Ning called his name, he did not answer. Wen Ning begged one of the Jin guards and was shoved away. Wei Wuxian was enraged. He'd had enough. He had seen enough. If they would not comply willingly while he was being nice then they left him no choice.
Wei Wuxian was silent as the inspector told Wen Qing after she inquired about her brother, that he probably ran away and she told him that all the others were here and that her brother would not run away.
The inspector told her she could search for him, that all of the people were here.
Wei Wuxian's mouth curled menacingly as his voice cut like a blade through the air. "They are all here?" He paced back and forth like a caged animal ready to snap, twirling his flute. All the faces of inspectors beside the one that had spoken froze.
"That's right," the inspector replied.
"Very well, then. I'll take that as all the living are here, but what of the rest of them?" Wei Wuxian asked, watching them closely. The inspectors paled further, fear shone on their faces. They knew what he was asking, what 'the rest of them' meant.
"Though the Wens are here, we swear we never dared to do anything fatal to them." The one inspector spoke up again.
Wei Wuxian had pretended he hadn't heard him, his flute was already being lifted towards his lips.
The few prisoners that had been near him screamed as they threw off the heavy objects they had and fled.
The inspectors lost their cool and everyone around him was panicking. He was at the center of a circle that had form from people that had hurriedly back away to give him a wide berth of space.
"It's the ghost flute, Chenqing!" Many people exclaimed in terrified shouts.
Wei Wuxian played a single sharp note and put Chenqing away with a terribly cold grin. He stood with his arms hanging still at his sides, hair and clothes soaked from constant pelting from the rain. It had been raining since before he had arrived and had not let up yet.
"What is that sound?" Someone spoke aloud. Soon, the inspectors were wide eyed and shaking as they stared at the tattered clothes of figures standing around in the area where Wei Wuxian stood. The stench of rotting corpses permeated the air and the bodies looked downright horrifying. At the forefront stood none other than Wen Ning himself.
Wei Wuxian himself turned a sorrowful gaze into his young friend, Wen Qing was already clinging to her dead brother and sobbing heartbroken sobs.
Wen Ning was pale as wax with dilated pupils. There was dried blood at the corner of his lips and half of his ribcage was already sunken, already collapsed. His chest did not rise and fall at all. Wen Ning was really… he had really died.
He was really too late after all. He hadn't wanted to believe it. He had internally begged Wen Ning not to answer his call.
Wei Wuxian's lips quivered and he bit hard into his bottom lip, instantly drawing blood. He closed his eyes to gather himself together and slowly opened them to stare at the Jins, at the inspectors.
"Who killed him?" Wei Wuxian's tone was chilling to the bone.
Someone decided to speak and give him a whole spiel of saying such a thing and that none of them would dare to kill anyone there. Saying it was Wen Ming's fault for not being careful and fell off the valley walls to his death.
'These imbeciles really take me as a fool. They think I could not know the truth and dare lie to my face.'
"Oh, I understand," Wei Wuxian smiled coldly, "it's because they are Wen-dogs, right? None of you see the Wen-dogs as people so it doesn't count if you kill them. Is that what you meant?" He growled.
Wei Wuxian walked forward, eyes on the pale and trembling inspectors as he spoke slowly. "Did you really think that I wouldn't know how someone died?"
All the inspectors were silent. Speechless.
"It's best to be honest from this point. Now, tell me which one of you killed him?"
One of the inspectors stumbled in their speech as they spoke out, speaking about how well Yunmeng Jiang Sect and the Jin sect were getting along.
"Is that a threat?"
"W-what? N-no!"
Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes. " Wen Qionglin!"
Wen Ning roared loudly and the inspectors scrambled back, petrified.
" The ones who caused you all to be like this - have them meet the same end at your hands! I give you that right. Settle the score, now!" Wei Wuxian demanded harshly, shouting. His wrath surging forward in the form of Wen Ning's vengeance with a spray of blood that seeped into the muddy earth as the death wails of the inspectors echoed long after they were violently torn apart.
Torn, shredded limbs and bleeding stumps of body parts were strewn across the ground, mixing with the rain and mud.
Wei Wuxian whistled sharply and the corpses all froze and became eerily still. He released the majority and the corpses collapsed to the ground, freed from his control. Wen Ning was by his side with talismans all over him to make sure he didn't go berserk.
He stole the Jins horses and after ushering terrified Wen Remnants to leave with him, he snatched up the only infant of the bunch from his granny and sat him on the same horse as him despite the Granny's protest. They had no time. They need to move quickly and not linger here. Wen Qing was sobbing quietly behind him but he could not offer any words of comfort at this moment.
Wei Wuxian was quite worried about the child he was holding as he rode away, the rest of the Wen Remnants following closely behind.
The child was very thin, bones nearly protruding from his skin and had bruises all over his small body. His anger flared once more.
'They laid their hands on a child?!'
He really wanted to go back and kill them all over again. Maybe he had gone too far today but had any of them stopped to wonder if they had also taken things too far? No. None of them cared. They didn't care about how thin and tattered and harmless these Wen Remnants were, that they too were victims and treated them less than human and lied to him about killing Wen Ning.
He glimpsed Wen Ning's death when he brought him back as a fierce corpse and even knew that before that those Jin inspectors had been lying through their teeth right this face and he lost patience with them. They thought they could play him like a fool. They thought wrong and paid the price.
Now his priority was finding a safe place for these people he had taken under his wing. And do something to help the thin child trembling and silent in his grasps. He knew the Wens were also terrified of him, but that couldn't be helped.
He didn't know who to turn to or where to go. Anxiety spiked up within him. He calmed, breathing slow.
A thought appeared in his mind. There was only one place he could go. The very same hell was thrown into by Wen Chao, the same hell he crawled out of after being trapped for three whole months.
'Burial Mounds.'
#####
He led the Wen Remnants to Burial Mounds and immediately got to work immediately to make the Burial Mounds habitable. He expelled the resentful energy that lingered but it took a large toll on his body and he collapsed into the ground, gagging and throwing up blood and lay spent for a moment since he was unable to gather strength to move his limbs.
A strange numbness crawled through his body and his sight was blurry and he felt his consciousness slipping and he blacked out.
The next time he woke up, he was laid out on a makeshift bed, Wen Qing at his side.
"You fool! You exhausted yourself to the brink of death! Had I not worried for you and came looking for you, you would have been a corpse! Your body cannot withstand the stress you are forcing upon it and without your golden core-"
"I know, I know!" Wei Wuxian waved her words away. "This is what I must do."
"You have done enough for us already, Wei Wuxian. You don't have to-"
Wei Wuxian gave a brittle laugh. "You want me to leave? You no longer need my help, is that it? The moment I walk away and 'wash my hands free' from all of this, I would be leaving you all to die. Absolutely not. That's not the kind of man I am, despite what others may think. And I told you I would help you. I told you I would help you save Wen Ning-" Wei Wuxian bit his lips, squeezing his eyes shut at the sudden onslaught of emotion that made tears burn his eyes, guilt ," - I was too late. But I will fix this. I swear. I will bring Wen Ning's consciousness back."
|∆•∆•∆•∆|
After Wei Wuxian was able to move around, once again he was busy. He set up a protective barrier around Burial Mounds to keep any outsiders out and to protect the Wen Remnants and set corpses on patrol.
Time passed gradually as Wei Wuxian moved around constantly, helping the Wen Remnants to build their homes and making plans for farming, and buying food so they could survive. Wei Wuxian knew it would not be easy and that they would all be struggling to get by. He knew a few things about being poor as a child before he was taken in by Sect Leader Jiang and also the three months trapped in this place where he had no food and resorted to eating flesh of the dead out of sheer desperation for survival. He wasn't all that picky. But the thought of eating any meat now made him sick because he would remember eating the corpses from when he was trapped in Burial Mounds for three months after Wen Chao threw him into the Burial Mounds.
He detested Burial Mounds. He had been trapped in this place for three months, left for dead and forced to suffer alone because of Wen Chao and yet he returned to this place for the Wen Remnants sake. After clearing the resentful energy that had clung to this place it wasn't all that bad, except for how uninviting and bleak it looked. The air was much easier to breathe.
Wei Wuxian sighed. 'It is what it is.'
The Wen Remnants feared him but we're also in awe of him, admiring and respecting him for unknown reasons. They slowly grew to trust him and warm up to him though because he stayed true to himself. He teased and cajoled and smiled brightly at them while running around helping them with their homes and getting settled.
The child Wen Yuan became attached to his hip and Wei Wuxian loved to tease the boy and bury him in the dirt and call him his little radish. Despite knowing only more hardship was ahead and that the future was uncertain, these weary and worn people persevered and carved out a home in a place no one else ever wanted to live.
They were resilient.
And when Wei Wuxian actually succeeded in awakening Wen Ning's consciousness again, they all burst into grateful tears and they celebrated.
He worked and worked from then to help make sure their homes were sturdy and he worked alongside them to farm what food they could to survive off of. It was a constant struggle. Sometimes he kept to himself in his cage and worked on his notes on demonic cultivation should anyone ever be put in the same position he had, powerless and without a golden core, and for them to cultivate cautiously and not be reckless. Demonic cultivation was not for the weak willed.
It slowly deteriorates the mind and body, the heart and soul. Like an extremely slow but deadly and fatal poison without anything to counteract it. He would live a little while using demonic cultivation but without his golden core and only the use of demonic cultivation at his hands, he wouldn't live out a long happy life. His life span would be shortened than had he still had his golden core and probably would live longer than a normal person who doesn't cultivate. He could feel the slow dull ache and pain of it ravaging his body on the inside. It's even more potent and deadly because of how he started cultivating resentful energy to begin with, in Burial Mounds. It was fueled by his own hatred and rage and need for revenge, which he already extracted. It festered like a disease. And the situation with the outside world, against him and the Wen Remnants and people making accusations against him and blaming him for everything and wanting the tiger seal for power and their own gains whether they admitted it or not.
It all weighed down on his shoulders, a heavy burden he could not lift and free himself from because the damage was already done. And it was because of all this and his unstable emotional state that the resentful energy was ravaging him and killing him the way it was. It was hard to stay calm and collected and worry-free with the way things were and it was eating him alive inside.
Otherwise, he knew he could find a way to ease it all and stop the resentful energy from slowly killing him and live out a regular, full life, or as much as one as he could hope to have. But that was wishful thinking. There was no easy fix. No miracle. He can only do the best he can with what he has now.
Everyone believed him arrogant and cocky. Sure, he was, but it was mostly a front and because he had to be. He had to believe, needed to believe that as long as he was alive, he was in control. He can control resentful energy. He has no other option, for without it he was well and truly powerless and more vulnerable and unable to protect that which he is trying so hard to protect.
The rest of the cultivation world basically wanted him to lay down and die and or use his power that he created for their own use, like Jin Guangshan, who seems to want to be like Wen Ruohan, and the Wens who destroyed everything and hurt so many people. He saw the gleam in the man's eyes. Jin Guangshan was greedy, he lusted for power, to be at the top, for his sect to be number one.
Wei Wuxian wasn't blind or a fool. He won't hand over The Stygian Tiger Seal. He honestly should have never created the damned thing, which was more powerful than he had expected to be and seemed to be somewhat sentient. He had already attempted to destroy the thing but it fought back with every try. He knows, in order to destroy the thing, he would need to give up his life. But he couldn't, not yet, not while people still needed him.
Wei Wuxian only created it because even with his new found power of demonic cultivation, controlling resentful energy and knowing he was the main largest force pushing the Wens back during the Sunshot campaign, alongside the help of the other sects fighting hard, they were still on the losing side of the battle. He needed something stronger and more powerful to help the sects defeat Wen Ruohan and the Wens responsible. It was literally the last option he had left. And so after telling Jiang Cheng about the sword in the cave, the XuanWu of Slaughter, he immediately went to find it and put it to use but decided to change the shape of it and made the Stygian Tiger Seal.
He only used it once and vowed to never use it again and despite multiple attempts to destroy it without success, he would have to be far away from civilian's or anyone and destroy it, because not only would the backlash kill him, it could hurt those around him and he didn't want to take that risk.
And yet, the cultivation world outside Burial Mounds, they wanted him to not fight back and accept his fate and hand over the innocent Wen Remnants to slaughter or give them the Stygian Tiger Seal for who knows what purpose. No. Not while he still lived and breathed.
Never.
'Once I'm sure the Wen Remnants are safe and I'm alone, I will destroy the Stygian Tiger Seal. I just need to hang on for a little while longer.'
Just a little while longer.
Lan Wangji clenched his robes tightly in his fists, he was shaking. He tried to slow his breathing to calm himself down. He had no idea of Wei Ying's internal struggles. Nothing at all.
He was suffering… Why couldn't I try harder to reach him? Why? Why couldn't I find the words to confess to him? Instead the misunderstandings grew between us and he drifted further from my reach.
Wei Ying…
Wei Ying…
Lan Wangji swallowed back the sob in his throat, eyes once again blurred, stinging with tears as he fought to keep from crying into a broken mess.
A gentle hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing startled him, and he looked into Suibian's eyes. His eyes were full of understanding and kindness towards him.
Lan Wangji's gaze returned to the memory viewing with a deep shaky breath, bracing himself, there was only one thought - one person in his mind which he heart continued to ache for.
Wei Ying...
