Chapter Text
Lan Wangji startled awake. The Jingshi was quiet that evening, only the the muffled sounds of the cicadas made it through the thick walls and now, his ragged breathing. His thoughts were disordered, he could not make sense of what he had seen.
Quickly, getting dressed in thicker robes he made his way out of his quarters. The gentians were still in bloom and the chill of the night allowed him to fully wake, shedding the last vestiges of sleep. He regulated his breathing, the infamous Gusu Lan discipline coming to the fore and allowing him to fall back into the patterns he inculcated throughout his life.
Disordered thoughts create for a careless person. Be of one mind. Maintain your discipline and train your body and in turn your mind.
Once he was more sure that he was calm and present he allowed himself to examine the dream and his thoughts. What exactly had he seen?
Wei Ying. Wei Wuxian. Yiling Laozu
Who exactly was this boy and why did everything in the dream centre around him? Everything felt too real for it to only be a peculiar dream.
In reality he did not personally know much about the Jiang disciple in question. Nor was any information volunteered besides the basic name and roles in his studies. Wei Wuxian was from Yunmeng Jiang, a prized ward and upcoming talent. What was inferred in the dream was to be questioned. Did he grow up in an uncertain home? Was he as prone to mischief and rule-breaking in real life? Because Lan Wangji should not know his milk name, he should not know that underneath all that teasing smiles and frivolous facade was a boy with a truly good heart and moral grit.
While he could have subconsciously dreamed him up because of his lack of company, which he truly doubted since he never did see anything lacking in his current life. He had his home, his brother, his uncle and his sect. He was content as the Second Young Master of Lan Sect. Respected, valued, nurtured and trusted. Thus the dream disturbed him, how could one miss something they had never had, or experienced?
The Lan Wangji in his dream, was forged by strife and tragedy. He had learnt that there were situations not covered by rules, that personal integrity should be valued just as highly as discipline, if not more. What use was discipline when it perpetuates injustice? What happens when the rules come in conflict with the ground reality of men in the world of other men.
Dreams could indicate subconscious thoughts and contention but this was something else. It was not a curse due to an unfortunate night hunt since he had not ventured forth in months, extremely busy with his new duties as the Head of Discipline and his own extensive study of musical cultivation on top of his regular education.
If it was a curse to target his feelings for his home, it did not negatively affect his opinion of Cloud recesses. If anything, it had strengthened it. The rules were still worth striving for, in an ideal world they could even govern people into good lives but the understanding that the world he lived in was not ideal did not detract from its intentions. Acknowledging that they were not absolute, or prescient did not detract from the fact that most of them were worth striving for.
He would still be approaching the medical pavilion to confirm that he was not cursed. Harmful intentions or not it was still circumspect.
His nose was burned with chill of the morning as he turned to outline the rest of peculiarities he had ignored, assuming that what he had been seeing was a dream.
In hindsight, the level of detail present, the length, as well as the clarity with which he could remember provided an opportunity to test the veracity of the information. He could remember events spanning almost two decades, despite only being one dream. The time distortion led more credence to the theory that it could be a vision or a divination of a possible future.
The smaller details would be easier to verify. Wei Ying’s life, the existence of Wen Qing’s brother. It would be the larger events that would be harder to corroborate since they had not yet happened.
The sun’s rays were just hitting the land as he considered the war. Qishan Wen was the most powerful clan and Wen Ruohan was the Chief Cultivator, his reign marked with increasing high-handed tactics to position his sect at the very top of the cultivation world. The newer laws were being passed under the authority of Wen Ruohan as the Wen zongzhu first, and then the Chief Cultivator, subsuming the judicial authority to his position as the Sect Leader.
No one could argue, or bring this discrepancy to the most powerful man in the cultivation world. Contentious territory were being ceded to the authority of Wishan Wen by force. Their territorial expansion had been contained to such areas and some strategic locales but nothing too alarming.
The martial buildup was considered routine, a way to keep up their feudal obligations to their new acquisitions but could they be actually preparing to wage a war? There would be no concrete information on military expansion, and why would there be since no one were expecting conflict. Four hundred years of peace, it was outlandish to think that the Chief Cultivator would overstep his bounds to such a degree. It was unprecedented. The Sects had been staunchly independent for almost four centuries, that Wen Ruohan would be trying to conquer all other sects to build an empire was unthinkable at present.
The other Great Sects rallying in response to the tyranny itself would make history. Outreach and cooperation to such an extent had never been seen before.
It would not be surprising that once the possibility of an emperor opened up, Jin Guangshan would do anything to become that. Trying to coerce Wei Ying into giving up the Yin Tiger Tally, was in line with his ambitions. Unifying the clans under his leadership to defeat the one man brave enough to oppose his plans and tyranny was par on course, only for his ambitions to be destroyed by his illegitimate son who orchestrated the murders of both him and his legitimate heirs.
He was disgusted with the blood letting and strife caused by immoral ambitious men. In the cesspit of violence and depravity, it was only Wei Ying who stood firm to his morals and conviction to justice. Not him, not the Gusu Lan who espoused such values.
While he still believed in the Gusu Lan precepts, he was coming to the realisation that his faith in Gusu Lan itself had shaken. They were mortal men, and it seemed foolish to ignore that they too were prone to make human mistakes and be above politics just because of their belief in their moral superiority. He still loved his clan, his sect and his people but the dissonance in what they preached and their own action was hard to ignore once aware. Gusu Lan was deeply constrained by politics.
The sun had completely risen by now, birds tweeting, buildings and world coloured a gentle gold. All the turmoil in his heart, yet his conviction in one person remained.
Wei Ying. Wei Ying. Wei Ying.
His name was benediction. Like power and passion. A genius, a good man and an unsung hero. He embodied all that Lan Wangji believed to be right in the world. Justice, conviction, determination, resilience, courage, kindness and empathy.
If Wei Ying was real, he was already in love.
He sighed. He needed advice and help expediently. If what he saw even had a chance of becoming possible there would be trouble, the ball had already started rolling and there was only one person he trusted to guide him. His brother was kind and gentle, he would listen him without judgement and provide him recourse even if he did not believe him. The divination too confirmed that his brother was the right person to approach.