Chapter Text
Huaisang gripped his fan tightly as all the blood left his face. He had known it was dangerous, that whatever the Wen had sent towards Gusu could not be anything good but a Waterborne Abyss hadn't even crossed his mind! This was a whole other level of fucked, no matter how powerful Xichen and Wangji were there was no way they could deal with this on their own.
He wasn't even counting himself or Lan Qiren, for all the older man liked to think himself above everyone else -Arrogance is apparently not forbidden for everyone- he was more of a scholar than he was a fighter. Huaisang would be surprised if he had even picked up his sword at all in the last decade since Xichen had become Sect Leader and he had become solely a teacher, hardly even leaving Cloud Recesses at all. The two of them had only came along to watch the children, he had tried to hint to Xichen not to take the little ones but he'd said it would be a good learning opportunity. People should learn to listen to Huaisang more! Now he was standing on the shore of a cursed lake with a bunch of terrified babies, watching their beloved Twin Jades with wide eyes as they tried to no avail to calm the lake and Huaisang had no idea what to do if they started crying! He didn't know what to do with crying people, he was the one usually doing said crying!
Wen Ruohan had always been power hungry but in recent years he had been growing more and more bold. Huaisang had always been suspicious of the Wen Sect Leader, even before the man had caused his father's death when he had been fifteen. When he had been alive his father had forced both him and Mingjue to attend meetings and conference, Huaisang had the feeling the man had never been fooled by his acting and had always suspected how smart he was. There had been something about Wen Ruohan that had always unsettled him, his smile never reached his eyes, his words were always been just this side of condescending, never really crossing the line but always walking it. His servants were terrified of him and he never failed to flaunt his superiority and power. Wen Ruohan was a tyrant, even if the rest of the world didn't see it yet.
After his father's death, Huaisang had started investigating behind his brother's back. Mingjue would stop him if he knew, would try to protect him, but just because he did not practice the saber did not mean Huaisang was weak! The blades hidden in his fan could attest to that, not that they would do much against a Waterborne Abyss. At first the signs had been few and insignificant, a yao here, a fierce corpse there, a rise in resentful energy that no one could explain. Then two years after his father's death Yiling happened, and it fell quiet for years. Even Wen Ruohan was wary of pissing the Emperors of Qingya off.
Thirteen years ago, the resentful energy in the Burial Mounds had shifted. At first, Huaisang had suspected Wen Ruohan but then the Ghost King claimed the territory as part of the Qingya Empire. The Sects would have opposed it but they didn't have much leg to stand on, seeing as they had all but abandoned it long ago. Now the Burial Mounds were rumored to be as clean and pure as Cloud Recesses, Yiling was thriving and statues had been built in honor of the Patriarch who had healed their home. Another good thing that came out of the Qingya Empire expanding for the first time in centuries was that it had scared Wen Ruohan enough to stall him for over a decade by reminding them all that there were shadows and ghosts hiding in the dark far more powerful than any of them. What the Sects had failed to accomplish for centuries, one cultivator from Ghost Valley had done in a few months. Alone.
The effect did not last forever in someone as power hungry as Wen Ruohan though and a few months ago the signs started again. Huaisang had investigated rumors of water ghouls for weeks before realizing that whatever it was, it was heading for Caiyi Town so he made up some excuse about wanting to visit the library in Cloud Recesses. As much as he claimed to hate the place and its three thousand rules literally carved in stone it wasn't unusual for him to find excuses to visit in order to avoid his duties so his brother hadn't even blinked. Officially he had come over to study art history, unofficially he had wanted to figure out Wen Ruohan's latest scheme and maybe finally get some proof against him. Now he was officially fucked!
He was just about to attempt an experimental talisman - that he had read about in an old scroll in the darkest corners of their library and that the Lan Sect would burn on principle- consequences be damned, when the shrill sound of a flute was heard over the wind, so loud it deafened Xichen and Wangji's attempts at calming the resentful energy. The song that followed was dark and sharp, a harrowing sound that sent shivers down his spine and froze the blood in his veins.
Huaisang had grown up around musical cultivation, his brother and Xichen having been best friends as long as he could remember, and he had spent so many years studying in Cloud Recesses he should be able to identify their various songs in his sleep. He had always thought musical cultivation was peaceful. Meant to heal the body, guide souls, understanding the dead or calm the mind. No matter how much he whined and groaned, he had always enjoyed hearing the Lans play their music but this... this made him want to find a hole and hide.
He felt a couple of the young ones latch onto his robes with trembling hands and led their group backwards on weakened legs, not taking his eyes off the lake. He didn't dare look to see what expression Lan Qiren was making. Even Xichen and Wangji had stopped playing, watching with dread as resentment rose from the water like tendrils of black smoke dancing in the air, twisting and turning. Huaisang wouldn't have even noticed the man who walked up to them until he was but a step away from their group, a dizi at his lips, if it hadn't been for the sound getting closer, causing him to get goosebumps.
His height was the first thing he observed once he managed to tear his eyes away from the black smoke now merging into a small sphere -It looked like a caricature of a golden core, he didn't dare dwell too much on it, last it gives him nightmares for weeks. Having to listen to the haunting tune was bed enough.- He was tall. Almost as tall as his brother, and beautiful. Huaisang had always been a patron of the arts, he'd always been able to recognize beauty when he saw it, even when he and Wangji had been younger and did not get along Huaisang had admitted the other cultivator was the most beautiful person he'd ever met. He'd never thought he would meet another in his lifetime that was his equal.
The shrill music continued to echo around them as the Twin Jades landed next to him and he continued to watch their new ally. His skin was golden tan and his eyes were glowing red like the fires of Hell. He had long fingers, he couldn't help but notice them as they nimbly flew over black wood, and his ponytail was held together with a simple red ribbon, the ends flowing in the wind with his long hair. With a sharp jaw, sinful lips and a face gods would kill for and artists would weep over, the stranger was clean and his robes were expensive. Black over red, Huaisang's first thought had been Wen before he realized the details were all wrong. The sword at his waist was dark with no sign of gold and there were leather armguards over his tight sleeves to match his belt, a flower shaped jade token with black and red tassels hanging from the end of his flute. More fit for marching to war than a stroll through the market, this man could not have came to Gusu to admire the view. He was wealthy too, wearing it as if he didn't know how not to, but he wasn't flaunting it like most Wen would. It was just something that was there -in the form of the most expensive silks found in the known world and a musical instrument of such high quality that it would give the most Lan Elders an orgasm just looking at it- and he's never had to worry about it a day in his life.
Huaisang finished his scrutiny as the volume of the song lowered. The ball of condensed resentment floating towards them until the man caught it into a warded Qiankun pouch and the world fell so silent Huaisang feared he'd gone deaf until sounds picked up around them almost all at once. The town, the birds, the wind on the surface of the now clean lake -Where had the corpses gone? Had they turned to dust or should the fisherman expect to haul them out one by one with the fishes?-
The red glow of his eyes slowly dissipated, leaving warm, dark amber behind. He turned to face them properly and bowed shallowly with his hands over the flute and the Qiankun bag both -more of a nod of acknowledgement than anything else-, finally putting a name to the gorgeous face. "This one is We-Wei Wuxian." He hesitated.
Huaisang hid a frown behind his fan as he forced his heart to stop racing and mind to finally calm down. Who the hell hesitates over their own name? Unless... that wasn't really his name. Then the question would be why would he lie about his name? "My apology for my interruption of your hunt but I have been following this monstrosity for weeks, always arriving just too late. I couldn't allow it to claim more lives." He continued, looking from one Lan cultivator to another before finally offering the bag to the oldest. "I trust the Lan Sect can cleanse this with time, now that it is no longer an active danger?"
The man didn't reach to take it, unsurprisingly, his face was an ugly shade of purple as he exploded. "You... You... You heretic! How dare you practice demonic cultivation in the sacred lands of Gusu Lan!" Well, Huaisang thought as his friends looked at their uncle with wide eyes and the young disciples flinched back, they should have seen that coming the moment resentment had started rising from the lake.
He saw Lan Wangji press his lips together as if he was trying to stop himself from saying something. Huaisang could just imagine him reciting the rules in his head to stop himself from saying something that would definitely break them to his uncle while Lan Xichen schooled his face into that smile that said he was going to try and do damage control when a loud laugh echoed around them.
"How dare I, indeed." The beautiful man was smirking, the warmth that had found its way onto his face while he had greeted them gone like it had never been there in the first place. "Save so many innocents? Prevent so much sorrow? So much grief? How much time would it have taken your..." He paused, lips twisting into a sneer. "...conventional cultivation to purify this lake? Month? Years? How many more would have been lured here before then, driven mad by voices in their heads until they drowned themselves? What is the price of your pride, Elder Lan?" Huaisang sneaked a glance to the Twin Jades to see if they planned to stop this anytime soon only to find them as frozen as their title implied. It couldn't be that they agreed with this? Huaisang did, but surely Xichen and Wangji didn't, did they? And yet they were not moving. "How many lives should die out for you to be comfortable in your stagnation? In your stubborn unwillingness to accept change and progress? Tell me, Elder Lan, what even is the Demonic Path?" He raised an eyebrow, twirling his flute in one hand.
"Demonic Path is the the cultivation of resentmentful energy into one's core, it affects the body and the mind and harms the innocent!" The man spat back looking a step away from Qi deviation.
"I see." Wei Wuxian grinned but the look in his eyes was anything but kind. "Do I look crippled or mad? Am I spitting blood or rambling to the voice in my head about imaginary enemies? I walk the Ghost Path, I do not make blood sacrifices and turn people into puppets. I don't violate the corpses of the dead, I give them a voice, a choice and I help those who wish to be be free to move on. I don't foster resentment, I direct it. Who are you to say what is right and what is wrong? Who is good and who is evil?"
The grin fell from his face and his eyes got so deep and dark and cold Huaisang almost wished for the glowing red to come back. Surely looking into Hell is better than looking into a neverending abyss. "Arrogance is forbidden, Elder Lan. Do not succumb to rage. Do not tell lies. Do not fear the strong. Do not disrespect the younger. Do not be haughty and complacent. Do not take advantage of your position to oppress others. Do not make assumptions about others. Do not insult people. Morality is the priority. Do not act impulsively. Do not give up on learning. Make sure to act virtuous. Be careful with your words. Be respectful and humble. Be easy on others. Uphold the value of justice. Embrace the entirety of the world. Have courtsey and integrity. Discipline your own words and behavior. Do not criticize other people. No slandering. No vulgar language. No improper behavior. Don't be unreasonable. Do not treat other with contempt." None of them moved as he continued to recite rules as easily as breathing. They too, were right. Huaisang would know, he'd certainly had to copy them enough times by now to recite them all backwards, and not only during his time as a student. The Lan Sect Rules were not a secret, they were literally carved in stone outside the gate, it still didn't lessen the shock of seeing someone who was not a Lan do this.
"Do not associate with evil. Do not fall to evil. Stir away from bad men. Reject the crooked path. No dishonest practices. Follow the righteous way, don’t take crooked ways. Stay on the righteous path. Do you know what those mean?" Huaisang thought he did. He didn't think Lan Qiren understood that rule quite the same way. "It means speak out against injustice. Always protect the innocent. Do not condone rape. Do not condone abuse. Stand up to the rich who built their wealth by exploating others. Do not bully the weak. Do not indulge in deaubacery. Do not allow yourself to be ruled by lust. Do not be greedy. Do not act cowardly. Do not take advantage of your position to oppress others. Do not associate with the evil of heart, do not welcome evil into your own. Be righteous, Elder Lan." Lan Qiren opened his mouth as if to say something and then it suddenly clapped shut. Huaisang realized with a shocked gasp that one of the man's own nephews had stopped him!
"That was the only rule Lan An had set for his people during the three centuries that he had led the Lan Sect. Just that. Just one, and you fail even that." He actually sounded dissapointed as Lan Qiren seemed to lose all the blood in his face. Had he lost his steam or had he reached a new level of rage unheard of before now? Huaisang was just glad he couldn't speak yet.
It was Xichen who finally broke the silence that fell over them after what felt like forever, bowing lower to Wei Wuxian than Wei Wuxian had to him. Huaisang decided he was too tired to even try and analyze what that meant. "Thank you, Master Wei." He accepted the bag once it was offered again. "We will make sure this is properly handled. I am Lan Xichen, the Leader of the Lan Sect, and these are my brother, Lan Wangji, and my uncle, Lan Qiren." Xichen gestured for each of them as they were introduced and Huaisang nodded when it was his turn. "Nie Huaisang is the heir of the Nie Scet and these are some of the younger disciples in our Sect. Wrongly, we had believed the problem not to be so serious and had taken them on a learning trip, we are grateful for your intervention."
The foreign cultivator relaxed a fraction as he looked over the children. Of course he did, how could he not? They were adorable! Their eyes were sparkling and so wide and in spite of some lingering fear Huaisang could practically smell the hero worship on them now. Wei Wuxian had won himself their admiration for life. "Brother Wei is alright. I am glad to have been of assistance."
It looked like he wanted to say more but they were interrupted by two men, dressed in a similar fashion but not so much alike that Huaisang would assume a sect uniform. "Master W-Wei!" There it goes, that same hesitation again. "Master Wei! You left us behind!" The one who spoke was just a little taller than Huaisang with delicate features, red lined eyes and a cute pout on his face.
"The situation was dire, A-Yu." Wei Wuxian sighed. "I had no time to wait." Huaisang for one was glad he hadn't waited.
"Well, it wasn't our fault. The stupid donkey won't move!" The other one snapped, causing everyone's eyes to go to him. He was dragging said donkey behind him and the animal made no attempt to take steps on it's own. This one was taller and more handsome than pretty, unlike his companion. Those three must have turned many heads on their journey, Huaisang hoped no one's necks had snapped. A tongue or two might have been swallowed. His fingers itched for some paints, he hadn't felt like this since Wangji had left boyhood behind and had stopped looking like a child.
"Lil'Apple isn't stupid, she's stubborn." Wei Wuxian grinned mischievously. "Have you tried asking nicely?"
"We tried everything!" The cute, adorable one protested and Wei Wuxian raised an eyebrow, reaching into the animal's saddle to pull out an apple. He held it in front of the donkey and led her to walk a few steps to the left causing the taller of his companions to glare at him. Huaisang had to hide a laugh behind his fan.
"Brother Wei, you and your companions must have had a tiring journey following the Waterborne Abyss. You could rest in Cloud Recesses if you wished and we could..." Xichen looked at the sun and they seemed to all get the message because their new ally nodded with a frown. "...talk more about how this came to be."
"Lan Xichen!" Lan Qiren snapped, realizing his nephew had just invited the 'Demonic Cultivator' into their home. Huaisang wished whichever one of his friends had cast the Silencing spell had not taken it off yet.
"Uncle, do not cause excessive noise." Lan Wangji reminded calming and Huaisang almost tripped even though he wasn't walking! What the Hell was happening today?!
Wei Wuxian twitched a smile at Wangji before nodding towards Xichen with his hands clasped together once more. His companions bowed properly at least. "That would be acceptable, thank you. We have not had a good night's sleep in many days, the Abyss had left a trail of water ghouls in its wake for us to deal with."
"That must have been exhausting. How long have you been following it for?" The Sect Leader asked as they all started walking, the children watching in wonder as the donkey followed the apple still in its owner's hand. "Since Yiling."
Huaisang's fan froze in his hand as his eyes widened in horror. Yiling. Incredible control over resentful energy. High enough position in society to not bow to a Sect Leader and immense wealth. Wei Wuxian wasn't a rogue cultivator with two weird disciples and a very stubborn donkey. He was the fucking Yiling Patriarch and one of the few people Wen Ruohan actually feared! A Ghost that called his cultivation the Ghost Path, he had to pinch himself not to burst out laughing.
They walked in silence for a moment and he could almost see when the information overloaded finally settled into his friends heads because even they almost stumbled over it for a second. Lan Qiren on the other hand, had gone back from white to red to white again three times before he settled for neither and turned green.
The Yiling Patriarch was twirling his flute and humming quietly, as if he hadn't just scrambled their brains, waving the apple in front of the donkey once in a while when a tiny hand pulled at his robe half way up the mountain. "Senior, can we ride the donkey?"
"Lan Jingyi, do not be rude." Wangji reprimanded. Newly named Lan Jingyi, who will still be Lan Hua in Huaisang's mind for a long tome bit his lip and looked at the ground. "Sorry." Instead of reprimanding him about posture or proper use of words or a thousand other things he saw his friend's lips twitch up. Lans are not supposed to have favourites but Huaisang was sure this ten year old troublemaker was Wangji's. He couldn't even remember how many times the calm man had looked the other way when the boy had broken a rule or ten. He was the Jade Twins' second cousin and Huaisang would go as far as saying that Wangji spoiled him more than his parents ever would. It had been shocking the first time he'd noticed because the little boy was basically the opposite of what Wangji had been like when he was younger but his friend loved him.
"It's alright." Wei Wuxian grinned, stopping to pat his hand on the donkey's snout. "Lil'Apple loves children. Don't you, sweet girl? I bet we wouldn't even have to bribe her to move! You can go one at time time if you promise not to fight over your turns."
"Thank you!" The boy beamed up, then he frowned, looking at the dozen or so children around him. "Maybe Lian-meimei should go, though. She's the youngest and the way home is really long. The rest of us can pet her."
Said Lian-meimei couldn't be older than six and was practically dragging her feet through she stubbornly refused to be carried by an adult or one of the older juniors. Wei Wuxian looked questionably at Wangji, seeming to have determined he was in charge of the children, -that was so funny, he almost started giggling.- and helped the little girl up in on the donkey once he got an affirmative nod. Surprisingly enough, the donkey did actually look happy and paid more mind to the child on her back than the apple. The two pretended not to notice Lan Qiren's glares as they supervised the young ones petting Lil'Apple, sneaking her a fruit or two from her saddle bags.
Lan Hua grew bored pretty quickly and slid back closer to his new friend. "Senior Wei, why do you keep a donkey for a pet?"
"Lil'Apple is not a pet, she's helping us carry our bags." Right. Because they needed a donkey to carry her own food. Like they weren't cultivators who kept everything in Qiankun bags, on their own person at all times. The children didn't seem to catch on to that as Wei Wuxian fed the fat thing the apple in his hand as well. "We need her, don't we, sweet girl?" They needed her his ass.
Lan Hua pouted dissapointed. "Pets are forbidden in Cloud Recesses." Huaisang rolled his eyes. A lot of things were forbidden in Cloud Recesses, including breathing too loudly.
The Yiling Patriarch poked the boy's nose, because apparently that was something one of the most dangerous men in the world did. "Well, keeping animals in cages for one's amusement would be disrespectful, wouldn't it?"
Oh. That... actually made sense! Huaisang hadn't even considered there might have been another reason behind that rule besides some stuffy old people not wanting their quiet meditation time disturbed! It made the rule sound less harsh now, he wouldn't keep his birds in cages either. Though, how long had Wei Wuxian studied the Lan rules to understand them like this?!
Lan Hua brightened up a little, seeming to accept the answer without further questions in a way he rarely did... and was Wangji all sparkly eyed? "Did you have a pet growing up, Senior Wei?"
"As if!" The taller of Wei Wuxian's companions snorted. "Shifu would have broken our legs!"
"A-Yang, don't say such things!" The other puffed his cheeks. "Shifu would never had done that!"
A-Yang, Huaisang would have to remember that -at some point he was going to find out their actual names- rolled his eyes. "No, he would have had Shishu do it. He has far more experience breaking bones." That was... not something he should sound so proud of!
Wei Wuxian sighed. "A-Yang, you know neither of them would that."
"Maybe not to you, you were their precious grandson." Huh... so that was how they were connected. Was that why they called him Master, because he was their Shifu's grandson? But it would have made more sense to call him Shixiong than anything else. Maybe it was because he was the Yiling Patriarch. He wondered what kind of masters it would take to raise a man of Wei Wuxian's power.
"To none of us." The beautiful man rolled his eyes before ignoring them to turn back to Lan Hua. "I didn't have a pet Xiao Jingyi but there is a forest at the entrance..." Hesitation. Again. "...there is a forest close to the Manor. It has trees that are always in bloom, one kind for each season, and there are many wild animals there that are rather tame. Most of them had been injured and my grandparents had healed before releasing them there so they were rather well behaved. No one is allowed to hunt or hurt them. We played with them sometimes." There wasn't a place like that anywhere in Yiling, Huaisang knew, so it had to be in Ghost Valley. It wasn't a secret that the Yiling Patriarch had grown up there, after all. Did he personally know the Emperors of Qingya? He was itching to ask. They were said to be immortal, even though no one had seen them in centuries and their names had been lost to time, rumors had it they had sat on the throne of Ghost Valley for over a thousand years.
Lan Hua didn't seem to notice or care about any of that and Huaisang didn't want to bring attention to himself by asking. "Have you ever helped heal the animals?"
"A few times, I'm not very good." Wei Wuxian laughed, a much warmer thing than earlier. "My shijie and shidi are healers though, they were better."
"Your family sounds really nice."
"They are." A-Yang and A-Yu both snorted at once before Wei Wuxian turned to glare at them. Because Huaisang was sure that someone who had experience in breaking bones had to be a downright delight. He had always been told that Qingya was rather savage but that couldn't be normal even there.
Wei Wuxian continued to indulge the boy and answers his every question until they reached the imposing gates of Cloud Recesses, Wangji inching closer and closer to them until he was on the other side of Lan Hua, even contributing to the conversation!
The little ones faces fell when they glimpsed the disciples guarding the entrance and the Yiling Patriarch planted his fists on his hips like a little old lady. "Maybe it would be better to leave Lil'Apple here for now. She can be rather loud when she wants to and we wouldn't want her to disturb the peace of Cloud Recesses, would we? The children are welcome to keep her company, of course, given that they are allowed?"
He could see Xichen trying to find a polite way to decline and Lan Qiren open his mouth to yell something insulting again when Wangji actually smiled. Smiled! And gestured for a passing girl that couldn't be much older than Lan Hua to come over. She bowed, almost scared. "Yes, Disciple Bai can keep an eye on them and bring her in when night falls."
Wei Wuxian grinned widely, looking like he was holding back a laugh. "Thank you, Master Lan."
And, of course, the children could also be loud as they wanted while playing because they were outside the gate. Huaisang could not believe that the feared Yiling Patriarch had such a soft heart and Lan Wangji was indulging it. Lan Wangji! It had taken Huaisang years to make Lan Wangji open up to him even a little bit and they've known each other their entire lives! Who would have known all it would take to become his friend in an instant was some creative interpretation of his beloved rules?! Wait... Huaisang stopped just inside the gate, turning back to the Wall of Discipline with a slack jaw. How did Wangji interpret the rules? He realized for the first time that he'd never thought to ask such a thing! By the Heavens, that man's jade like face had fooled them all this time! He had secretly been a little shit all along and he hadn't told Huaisang! They could have had so much fun!
Pouting, he hurried to catch up to the group, making sure not to run. He decided he already liked this Yiling Patriarch, whatever his name was.