Chapter Text
Caiyi town, Gusu.
Lan Wangji walked listlessly through a crowded street.
His complexion was gaunt, pale---almost bloodless. His steps were light, drifting silently against the current of passersby. His countenance coupled with his fluttering white robes, made him almost, appearing like a ghost.
That connotation wasn't entirely wrong, perhaps.
After all, his life, Wei Ying, was nowhere to be found.
One of his hands was carrying an unconscious toddler wrapped in his outer robe, while the other one was carrying a jug of liquor, Tianzi Xiao.
Faintly, the sound of people conversing from inside the tavern where he bought the liquor could still be heard;
"Rejoice! Wei WuXian has died!"
"That YiLing Laozu has died? Who's the Hero who could have killed him?"
"Who other than his shidi, Jiang Cheng, putting an end to his own relative for the greater good? Jiang Cheng led the Four Major Clans of YunmengJiang, LanlingJin, GusuLan, and QingheNie to destroy his den-Burial Mound."
"I must say, good riddance!"
"Well done, indeed! We finally eliminated this Scourge."
"That said, although Jiang Cheng was one of the main forces, he did not give Wei Wuxian the final blow. Because he cultivated the Ghost Path, Wei WuXian's powers had backfired and he was ripped to pieces."
"Hahahaha... That's karma! The ghost soldiers that he created are like unleashed dogs, biting everyone that they come across. It serves him right to be chewed to death!"
"But, if it weren't for Jiang Cheng making a plan, aiming at Wei WuXian's weaknesses, the siege might not have succeeded. Should I remind you folks of the item that Wei WuXian possesses? Did you forget about the day that three thousand skilled cultivators were completely annihilated?"
"YinHuFu!"
Lan Wangji paused his steps. Fingers clutching tightly. Looking back at the crowds consisting of cultivators from various Sects, rogue cultivators, and mortals.
It wasn't the first time Lan Wangji heard such a conversation.
Less than one day since the successful siege in Burial Mound, the news of Wei Wuxian's downfall had already been spread far and wide across the cultivation world.
From Gusu to Yiling,
and back again from Yiling to Gusu,
Lan Wangji had had enough of his share, listening to similar talks.
Those people, every word they spilled, were like pins and needles being inserted into his heart. Over and over.
Every word reminded Lan Wangji,
...that he had failed to protect his beloved.
...that Wei Ying was no longer in this world.
For a brief second, a bewitching voice whispered in his mind;
"The world is so big, yet it can't accommodate a single Wei Ying."
"What good it is, living in this kind of world...?"
"...Wouldn't it be better for you to destroy them, kill them, like how they pushed Wei Ying to the abyss of despair?"
"Lan Wangji, Shall the world be buried along with Wei Ying-,"
"...cold..."
It was not until the toddler in his arm let out a muffled whimper that Lan Wangji snapped back to reality.
Looking down at the toddler, Wen Yuan, the only piece he could save of what's left of Wei Ying, Lan Wangji closed his eyes.
He hastened his pace, up to the mountain, to the Cloud Recesses he eventually still went back to.
Hejian, Qinghe.
Lan XiChen, "Mingjue-Xiong, I will have to stay at your place for the night. I am departing on the next morning, then meeting with Wangji."
Nie MingJue, "Where to?"
Lan XiChen, "To Jiangling"
Nie MingJue frowned, "Isn't Jiangling still in the hands of the Wen-dogs?"
Lan XiChen, "Not since a few days ago. Currently, it is in the hands of the YunmengJiang Sect."
A sect leader spoke, "Sect Leader Nie, I don't think you've heard yet. Yunmeng's sect Leader Jiang is quite powerful in the area."
Another person added, "How can he not be? Wei Wuxian alone can face millions, so who'd he be scared of? He can just sit in there controlling his area, unlike how we're always running for our lives. With such luck..."
Someone noticed that his words weren't in a good tone,
"Well, good thing that Zewu-Jun and Hanguang-Jun are helping everyone. Or else, I don't know how many sects and innocent commoners would fall into the hands of the Wen-dogs."
3 Months since the start of the Sunshot Campaign.
A week or so since Wei Wuxian rose from hell-on-earth, Burial Mound.
A few days after Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu's death, and that fated meeting in the Supervisory Office, between Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Wangji.
That night, at the battlefront in Qinghe,
When the last Cultivator had just finished his words, regarding the latest situation of the Sunshot Campaign---suddenly the world became still.
It was as if the world had lost color for a moment, turning gray, before going back to normal in a blink of an eye
1 second.
2 seconds.
3 seconds.
4th-,
"This, what's going on? What the hell is happening...?"
The trembling voice from a Cultivator in the camp finally broke the eery silence.
Once a person started, immediately after, as if a dam had been broken, thunderous voices; whispers, exclamations, even shrieks, were heard one after another.
Regardless of the current reactions of the people present, there's something, no matter how unbelievable it was, but it was clear that apparently right now:
They were back in the past!
...They were, as incredulous as it sounded, but they had all been reborn, back in time, to the early days of Sunshot Campaign.
Just a breath before, they were still gathering in Jinlintai.
Chugging on good liquor, enjoying some troupes' dancing and singing performance, and savoring various Mountain and Sea delicacies---all while boasting and sharing the joy of victory against the Supreme Evil Venerable-Yiling Laozu.
So, who could tell them, why another breath later they suddenly opened their eyes and found themselves in this situation??
"Is this Yiling Laozu's? It must be his trick, right?" One of the cultivators started.
"Is it his illusion? Damn that Wei Wuxian! As expected, he wouldn't just stay dead honestly!"
Another one couldn't help but chirped, "But, how? We have put the 20 Stone Beast, soul suppressing array, and even tried to mass summon his soul to put him down once and for all, if even after that he still..."
The Cultivator didn't finish his words, yet his alluded meaning had caused the remaining people to feel cold from the bottom of their hearts.
Deep down inside there's indeed a deep-seated fear. How could that Wei Wuxian be so easy to kill?
Yes. It was easy. The Siege in Burial Mound was laughably easy.
In the preparation prior, they need not do something. There were already YunmengJiang and LanlingJin who proposed and took the lead for the siege.
Even when they arrived at Burial Mound, they needn't worry about them being blood bathed as they did in Nightless City before. After all, Sect Leader Jiang had cleverly chosen the time of the siege right after Yiling Laozu had just finished destroying the frightening YinHuFu. Aiming exactly when Wei Wuxian was at his weakest period, and when the man no longer had any dreadful weapon in his hand.
Entering Burial Mound was also rather easy, since the fierce corpses guarding the mountain foot apparently were ferocious to others but paid no heed to Sect Leader Jiang. With YunmengJiang and also LanlingJin leading to breach the barrier in front, the rest only need to follow behind.
Fair enough, before Yiling Laozu played his infamous ChenQing for long, he had a backlash, torn apart by his ghost armies, leaving no scum behind.
After the Ghost Master died, then the remaining evil spirits were like headless chickens, ready to be exorcised and taken care of by the capable Lan Xiansheng-Lan Qiren from GusuLan, and the mighty ChifengZun-Nie Mingjue from QingheNie.
All that's left for the other Clans and Cultivators were killing those weak, women, and old folk---cough, those Wen-Dogs Army, and throwing them into the blood pool.
That was it.
For some people, it was almost like a walk in the park.
How easy it was before, and how scared they were after, doubting the credibility of Wei Wuxian's death. So much uneasiness in their hearts that perhaps, every year they'd conduct soul summoning ceremony, without fail, even after 13 years had long passed.
At this time, currently, they immediately placed their hope on Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue who were present, hoping the 2 sect leaders would know something, or do anything.
Lan Xichen, however, furrowed his eyebrows tightly.
"Xichen?" Nie Mingjue looked at him, his gaze was similarly heavy.
Both of them vaguely noticed. There was no trace or sign of all this being an illusion.
If it was an illusion, then the clear-heart piece courtesy from Gusulan that Lan Xichen had immediately played just now, while it wouldn't stop the illusion, at least would make him aware of what's real and false.
But there's still nothing. No result. No response.
Responding to Nie Mingjue's call earlier, was a wry smile from the Lan Sect Leader.
Nie Mingjue quickly made a decision, "For now, let's assess everyone's situation first!"
Lan Xichen nodded, before adding, "We have to check the situation outside as well, and the people who aren't here."
In this way, the panicking Cultivators in Hejian were temporarily appeased.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the outskirt, at the junction between Jiangling and the Northern region, under QishanWen Sect.
"---ould I do with them?"
A female ghost in red was talking to a young man in the middle of the night.
The young man obviously had handsome features, yet the pale complexion and cold expression on his face made him appear to be more intimidating instead.
Finding that the young man hadn't responded to her inquiry immediately, the female ghost called him again, "Gongzi? Do you hear me? Wei Gongzi?"
The young man, Wei Wuxian, had his gaze spaced out for a while.
A few seconds later, when clarity seemed to be returning to his eyes, he heard the calling from the female ghost beside him.
Blinking his eyes several times, he called her in return, slowly enunciating her name, "...Hong-Yi?"
---his voice hoarse, from lack of sleep and staying awake all night long.
Hongyi, the female ghost, slithered closer to him. Her sharp, bloody red nails---tugged at his black robe, surprisingly gently. "Gongzi, I was asking you, what should this one do next with our new companions?"
At this time, Wei Wuxian had already started to take a look at his current situation.
He was, currently, in a Burial complex.
Rows after rows of graves were opened, and corpses were dug out---or now they were fierce corpses, standing obediently before him, growling quietly, waiting for his command.
This was Sunshot Campaign.
Back in those days when Wei Wuxian was still in his nightly adventures in the war, digging the graves.
QishanWen ancestral graves to be exact.
He wanted to wake their beloved ancestors from their sweet dream, and made those dead ancestors take a good look at what had become of their descendants;
'Look at what atrocity your good descendants have committed. See what kind of chaos and bloodbath your good descendants have caused.'
'People said, it's parents' and teachers' responsibility to teach their children and disciples a lesson when they're straying from the right path. Now, I shall wake up these very ancestors of yours, and let them teach you, QishanWen, a lesson of your own actions!'
...But that was a past long gone.
Wei Wuxian, no, Yiling Laozu, who could still remember freshly the lingering feeling of his death in the past-future, the taste of his body being torn apart by 10,000 ghosts due to the backlash of his cultivation,
---looking at these rows of fierce corpses, his heart was dull.
Between Good and Evil,
Foes or Friends,
Wei Wuxian no longer knew anymore, the boundary between those concepts to him had long since blurred.
___It's long since blurred, from the moment the Cultivation World had torn down the bridges after crossing, shunned him out like a plague after using him enough in the war.
___Ever since the people who were supposed to be his former enemies, the Wen Clan, actually became like a close family during his days in Burial Mound instead.
___And eventually later, when his previous Ally of Justice, the Cultivation World, framed him, drove him into despair, and killed the people he wanted to protect...
But for this moment, what's clear was, he did not need these fierce corpses.
He lifted ChenQing to his lip, guiding the fierce corpses in front of him.
One by one the fierce corpses turned their body, and jumped back down to the still-opened graves. Oh, and they didn't forget to help each other to push the dirt mound beside their graves back covering their comrades' coffins.
The last fierce corpse who jumped down to the coffin didn't have anyone to cover the dirt back, so he looked at Wei Wuxian pitifully.
"Hongyi, help return the dirt to the pit."
The last fierce corpse was satisfied, laying back and pulling his own coffin closed.
After the last fierce corpse laid back down in the pit, Wei Wuxian changed the melody of ChenQing, from commanding the dead to playing "Rest".
Hongyi numbly, using her well-manicured nails, clawed the soil back to the last opened grave.
She raised her head, looking at Wei Wuxian. "Forgive Hongyi for her insolence, but, Gongzi, you...?" Her words trailed in the end, unable to utter her bewilderment.
Wei Wuxian never knew that a vicious ghost could actually make a dumbfounded expression.
Yet right now, the look on Hongyi's ghastly face was almost comical.
She couldn't believe her eyes, looking at the fierce corpses her Master had spent hours, yes HOURS, to dig out and raise---only for her Master to send them back down to the pit!
"Gongzi, you, you wouldn't be digging graves at night---just to make a roll call, would you...?"
"Pfft! A roll call? Hahahahaha." Wei Wuxian bent down, clutching his stomach, and laughed out loud.
Hongyi on the other hand was helpless.
Her Master was actually laughing for a few minutes straight.
Somehow the female ghost wondered, what's so funny about her words earlier?
For Wei Wuxian, the laughter that he let out just now was more than just feeling funny at Hongyi's words.
It's more like him, deliberately venting out his emotion. Brushing away the haze from coming back to life after such a horrible death.
The young adult in a teenager's body eventually shook his head lightly. Smiling, and patting her head briefly, he said, "Forget it. I just suddenly remember, I have a more urgent thing to do. Let us go, Hongyi."
"...Hongyi listens to Gongzi."
Yunmeng, Lotus Pier.
"A-Jie! A-Jie!"
Jiang Cheng, red-eyed, stormed in a rush to the pavilion where his sister's boudoir was located in their just-regained back-Lotus Pier.
There, just coming out from her chamber, hair down-the style used for unmarried girls---was his sister, Jiang Yanli.
Disregarding all propriety, Jiang Cheng threw himself into his sister's embrace. "Jie!"
Her body was warm. Alive. There's no bloody hole in her throat. Tears couldn't help but stream down Jiang Cheng's face.
Jiang Yanli freed her hands with difficulty from the tight embrace her brother had suddenly given her. She raised her hand and touched the side of his face. Hesitantly she said, "A-Cheng, you, are you also..."
"What's the matter, Jie? I am, what..." He paused.
Jiang Cheng loosened his grip, looking at his sister's face. Finding the complicated gaze in her eyes, he realized: His sister had also been reborn!
"Jie, you...? Do you, after, after that, Nightless City..." He swallowed his saliva unable to continue.
Jiang Yanli nodded and directly said, "Yes. I died, and for some reason the next time my consciousness returns, I'm here."
She suddenly pushed Jiang Cheng aside, looked around, and asked anxiously, "A-Xian? Where is he? A-Cheng, A-Xian what about him?"
The expression on Jiang Cheng's face contorted into a mix of resentment and fury.
With a low voice, he replied gloomily, "So what about him? Why are you still asking about him, Jie?"
He was ready to lash out, to vent and berate Wei Wuxian. It was all because of him. Not only had his sister lost a husband, but even she herself died after, leaving only a parentless 1 month old-Jin Ling behind!
If it weren't for Wei Wuxian, insisting on saving those Wen-Dogs, would any of those tragedies happen? Would Jin Zixuan die in Wen Ning's hand? Would his sister die in Nightless City?
Whether they'd meet a dead end or not, clearly, it has nothing to do with them. Wei Wuxian should have listened to him. He should have handed over those Wen-Dogs to LanlingJin instead of trying to be a Hero.
So what if the Wen Sibling saved them, healed their injuries, and hid them from Wen Chao's pursuit before?
So what if Wen Ning helped them to take back his parents' bodies and gave them a proper cremation for their ashes to be put in their Ancestral Hall later? So what?!
However, in the next second, as if something clicked in his mind, the distorted expression on Jiang Cheng's face changed drastically. The corner of his mouth lifted upward in a strange smile.
He was reborn. His older sister was also reborn back.
And Wei Wuxian, that person must have been reborn as well!
'Very Good. Well well well, Wei-Wu-Xian.'
'---This time, I must drag you back to kneel on my parent's tablet and confess what kind of mess your heroic disease had put A-Jie into!'
Still on the same night, at the outskirt of Jiangling.
Wei Wuxian fluttered noiselessly, hiding within the shadow and darkness, closing into the nearby small town.
He was about to enter one of the still brightly lit Taverns, when a flurry of white suddenly dropped in front of him.
"Wei Ying."
Wei Wuxian helped his forehead speechlessly.
'Just how come, even after being reborn, how come my luck is still so bad?'
Why was it that the first person he encountered after rebirth had to be Lan Wangji!? The one and only person who had relentlessly chased him, wanting to drag him to the Cloud Recesses, and rehabilitate the old and confused-Laozu back to the right path.
Heaving a heavy breath, as he wasn't in the mood to quarrel right now, Wei Wuxian coldly greeted him, "Hanguang-Jun."
He hurriedly continued before Lan Wangji had the chance to speak,
"Listen! Right now I don't have time to, uh...you...?" The Yiling Laozu who was ready to fight like his tail was stepped on, suddenly flattered like a deflated porcupine.
"Lan Zhan? You, what happened with you?"
He had yet to take a good look at the other man before, so when he finally paid attention to Lan Wangji just now, he couldn't help but forget all of the prepared rhetoric he initially wanted to say.
Just like in the past, when he saw the red-eyed Lan Wangji punching a tree in Baifeng Mountain, the first reaction Wei Wuxian had upon noticing Lan Wangji's current embarrassed and disheveled appearance was---fussing over his well-being.
Without thinking further, Wei Wuxian approached the young Hanguang-Jun, closing the distance between them in two or three large strides. "What's the matter with you? Why are you covered in mud? Did you get ambushed on the way here? Did you get injured? Let me take a look."
When later Wei Wuxian remembered that Lan Wangji was supposed to dislike close contact, it was already too late. He was already clasping Lan Wangji's wrist in his palm.
That being said, strangely enough, Lan Wangji didn't refuse his touch. While he did feel the other man's body tense slightly, but he didn't fling his hand away either, letting Wei Wuxian carefully check on his pulse.
After a while, frowning, Wei Wuxian looked up, catching Lan Wangji's eyes, that apparently had been staring at his face, for who knew how long.
"There isn't any injury." He said, letting go of Lan Wangji's wrist.
To his surprise, it was Lan Wangji who backhandedly clasped his palm back.
His gaze moved downward, looking at their entwined fingers, he hummed softly in response, "Mnn."
"So, what happened with you? Why are you---,"
Wei Wuxian tried to pull his hand back, however, again, his movement was halted midway, as he finally noticed the mud not only staining Lan Wangji's pristine white robes, but upon closer look, his jade-like face was also caked in mud!
"---Just what in the world happened? Lan Zhan?"
"I fell."
"Huh? Did you fall? As in, falling from your sword?"
"Yes." Lan Wangji calmly explained, "Below me was a muddy rice field."
Wei Wuxian, "..."
The image of the peerless Hanguang-Jun diving face-first into the muddy rice field...was a bit too much to imagine.
"Lan Zhan, oh, you..." The corner of Wei Wuxian's mouth twitched, he couldn't decide whether to laugh at his blunder or sympathize with his bad luck.
However, a realization struck him.
For a Cultivator of Lan Wangji's caliber, falling from a sword like an amateur was impossible. Unless, something else happened, something that could've disturbed his control over his spiritual energy or his sword.
And yet, judging from the absence of injuries on his body, the disturbance shouldn't have come from an external factor.
Wei Wuxian thought back to his own situation not long ago. Right before the moment of his rebirth, a blank moment seemed to be there for a brief second.
His eyes narrowed.
"Hanguang-Jun, will you let go of this Yiling Laozu's hand? Could it be, you're here to catch me? Are you going to restrain me and bring me back to be trialed?"
As expected.
Lan Wangji's pupils were dilated and his whole body was shaken. His hold on Wei Wuxian's hand inevitably fell off.
"Wei Ying! You...?"
"Me? What's the matter with me? Why? Are you surprised? Honestly, I must say I'm surprised as well, Hanguang-Jun. To think that my poor ghost didn't go back alone, fair enough, there's no way a good thing like a rebirth to be hoarded solely by myself."
Wei Wuxian smiled, putting a distance between the two of them. "Now, it's inauspicious to shed blood on a lucky day like this, I suppose. Let us both turn away, and pretend we don't see each other tonight, shall we?"
'Pretend not to see each other?'
'Turning his back away from this person??'
Lan Wangji's mind went blank.
The last time he had turned his back to Wei Ying, and instead of staying with him he had gone back to receive his punishment---the next time he heard was Wei Ying's death.
"---ssible."
Wei Wuxian, "Hmm?'
"It is impossible."
Wei Wuxian frowned in displeasure. "I said, Lan Wangji, why are you so stubborn? I've died once, is it not enough yet? Why can't you, even for the sake of our past relationship as old classmates, let me go for tonight? If you all want to besiege me for the second time, I don't mind, go and come kill me once again! But tonight, there's something I have to do first---, you! Lan Zhan what are you doing?!"
For the umpteenth time, Wei Wuxian had to cut his words midway, because Lan Wangji in front of him had suddenly dropped to his knees.
The man, as if begging for amnesty, repeated the words over and over with a desperate look on his face, "Don't go, Wei Ying. Don't leave..."
Lan Wangji was obviously distraught. It was clear that his emotional state was anything but calm.
Wei Wuxian, "..."
'If I'm not mistaken, it was me who died terribly and in a despairing situation, right? So why did it look like Lan Zhan who was deeply traumatized instead??'
Actually, it was inevitable for Lan Wangji to be in this condition.
After all, for him, it was just yesterday that his heart had been forcibly gouged out from his chest, the moment he heard of Wei Ying's passing.
It was just 3 months ago that he had almost faced death after the last 33rd discipline whip landed on his back.
He had no time yet to properly set his life back. There's not yet the 13 years of proper mourning and self-reflection.
Lan Wangji, at this time, the wound in his heart, mind, and soul was still freshly opened.
During this period, Lan Wangji wouldn't hesitate to kneel and kowtow to any kind of God or Deity, praying to get his beloved back to him. Not to mention, begging directly to the said beloved.
Good for him, because showing vulnerability was the correct move.
At the end of the day, when it came to Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian had always been soft-hearted, unable to get really angry and heartless toward him.
Just look back at their younger days, even if the other person had never given him any face, but he never held a grudge about it. Or even in the past Sunshot Campaign, despite how many times he had lost his temper to Lan Wangji, yet the next time they met, Wei Wuxian would still be able to throw flowers at him.
Tonight as well, Wei Wuxian ended up relenting.
"Fine. Fine. I won't go, I won't leave, okay? Now, get up quickly." Walking back to Lan Wangji's position, Wei Wuxian tried to pull him up, while muttering, "Seriously, Lan Zhan, why are you like this? What's wrong with you?"
Standing straight once again, Lan Wangji spoke, "Wei Ying, I..."
"What now?" Wei Wuxian replied offhandedly.
Seizing Lan Wangji up and down, he shook his head, and said, "Forget it, Lan Zhan. Let's go find an Inn first. You're like this, if you were seen by others, won't you be reported to your Uncle for not being elegant?"
Lan Wangji's opened his mouth, looking like he was about to say something. But the words he wanted to say remained stuck in his throat. In the end, he merely nodded, agreeing to Wei Wuxian's offer.
Later, as if afraid Wei Wuxian would leave when he didn't catch his response, Lan Wangji said, "Alright. Let's find an Inn."
He didn't stop at that, and emphasized once again, "Together."
---causing Wei Wuxian who was walking in front to almost trip himself.
'Just what the hell happens with Lan Zhan?! If it weren't for my confidence for I'll find any sign of possession, I think this Lan Zhan must have been possessed!'
'...Or could it be, the sequela of rebirth? His brain circuit hasn't been set back properly?'
Oh well.