Chapter Text
Xie Lian seems to be waking again. He shifts uneasily in his sleep, his eyelids fluttering. Instantly Hua Cheng’s eye is fixed intently on the prince …Not that it ever /really/ left him. Ever since Xie Lian fell asleep Hua Cheng has continued to sit with his back to the pillar, watching the prince sleep and trying to figure out what’s happening and what he should do next. He’s tried a few times to feel for any other power around them but there’s nothing, no sign or trace that this is anything other than real. If this is real… If this is real then he needs to get Xie Lian out of Yong’an, and perhaps his parents too? Xie Lian has never talked about how his parents died. It happened during the days after Hua Cheng took human form he so was unable to follow his prince at the time and has no idea what happened but he guesses from his husband’s silences that it must have been bad.
At the thought his eye flicks to the little ghost fire hovering anxiously next to Xie Lian. Hua Cheng’s going to have to figure out what to do with him at some point, build him into a human form or something. It hasn’t escaped his notice that, assuming this is reality, the whole timeline is a fucking mess now, but he can’t truly bring himself to care, not when the alternative was leaving Xie Lian to be torn apart on that altar all over again.
Xie Lian’s eyes flutter open and Hua Cheng’s instantly leaning over him. “Your highness, how do you f…”
His voice trails away as the world blurs around him and he stumbles desperately forward, reaching for Xie Lian only to find himself standing back in the dark and the woods and the nightmare all over again.
What is this?
What the fuck is this?
He’s being tortured.
It’s the only possible option.
This is an illusion and it exists only to torture him, to force him to watch, helplessly, as the man he loves is torn apart before his eyes over and over again.
Bile rises in his throat and fury bursts to life in his chest.
“JUN WU! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!” He must be the one behind this. Who else would…?
“San Lang, don’t!”
It’s not the words that cut through Hua Cheng’s rage so much as the voice, /that/ voice, the only voice that could ever break through his anger. Hua Cheng spins around and there, behind him…
Xie Lian is dressed in white robes, plane but finely made. His eyes are red from weeping, there are blood drops on one sleeve, his face is pale, his whole body slightly shaking, but there are no bandages around his throat and in his hand he clutches something which hangs from his neck on a silver chain. It only takes one glance for Hua Cheng to know that this isn’t any current version of Xie Lian. This is his husband.
“Gege?” Hua Cheng moves toward him quickly, arms wrapping around Xie Lian who gratefully falls into his embrace. Hua Cheng’s dead heart pounds in his chest. Xie Lian shouldn’t be here, shouldn’t be anywhere near here, now, forced to relive any part of this torture. “How are you here? You need to leave, now.”
Xie Lian’s arms wrap around Hua Cheng, clinging onto him. “We both do. Fast. San Lang do you know what’s happening?”
“It’s some sort of dream loop I think.”
A cry echoes through the trees behind them and it cuts through Hua Cheng, all the way down to the core the undead essence of him, the undead essence that has lingered in this world for one reason and one reason only, to love the one now screaming in agony.
“It’s not a dream. It’s real.” Xie Lian whispers the words, his whole body beginning to shake.
Another cry echoes through the forest before being quickly stifled as though a gag has just been shoved into the other Xie Lian’s mouth.
Real? This is REAL? That means, even now, Xie Lian is really being… Hua Cheng lunges toward the temple but to his surprise he’s brought up short by his husband’s arms clinging desperately around him.
“You can’t go, San Lang, you can’t!”
“I can still save you!”
“You can’t! You have to l-let it happen!” Xie Lian’s tongue stumbles over the words as though it’s costing him everything to say this and yet his grip on the back of Hua Cheng’s robes is as strong as ever, trapping him in the embrace.
“We can find a way to make history work out! Nothing’s worth letting you be hurt this way!”
“But what about you? Is it alright for you to be hurt but not me?”
“What?” Hua Cheng blinks at that, the question catching him so off guard that it cuts through the haze of desperate pain and anger which have wrapped around his mind.
Xie Lian takes a shuddering breath. “San Lang, do you know where, when, I was just now?”
For a moment Hua Cheng stares at him blankly and suddenly everything clicks together. “Lang-er Bay?” The name comes out hoarse and rasping.
Xie Lian nods. “Do you remember what you told me?”
“Gege…”
“You told me ‘to make sure the future doesn’t change, this is a small price to pay.”
“When I said that you wanted me to abandon you to be hurt. This is different. I just want to stop you from being hurt. Nothing bad will happen to me if I stop this.”
“But it will.” If anything Xie Lian only clings on more tightly, his voice turning desperate. “I figured it all out, San Lang. I was never the target. I was only ever supposed to be the weapon he used to destroy you.”
“What?” Hua Cheng’s eye widens. “Gege, what are you saying?”
“It’s… His plan is…” Xie Lian shakes his head. “I don’t want to talk about it here. Please San Lang, trust me and take me home?”
“I…” Hua Cheng hesitates, the need to protect the Xie Lian in his arms waring with the need to protect the Xie Lian even now suffering on that altar. ‘I won’t let anyone else hurt you,’ he told him ‘you’re safe now,’ he told him. And yet… And yet Xie Lian is being hurt again, hurt so badly, and he’s just, just supposed to walk away?
“San Lang, please, trust me?” Xie Lian’s voice is shaking, his whole body is shaking, his face snow pale, his golden eyes wide and filled with pain and fear.
Hua Cheng takes a shuddering breath he doesn’t need and tightens his arms around his husband. “I always trust you.”
Drawing the array doesn’t take long and the brute force power it requires is a lot but nothing Hua Cheng can’t manage once. Every moment they are forced to linger in this place, this time, hurts the ghost king like he’s the one being impaled by one hundred swords, every moment he’s not rushing to Xie Lian’s aid a life time of agony, and yet with his husband’s question still ringing in his ears and the haunted agony so clear in his Xie Lian’s beautiful eyes, all Hua Cheng can do is wrap his husband tight in his arms and activate the array.
They tumble back into the evening dimness of Puqi shrine, truly tumble. Xie Lian is still shaking and Hua Cheng’s legs actually go weak from the shear amount of power it took to tear through time itself. Still embracing they stumble to the bamboo sleeping mat and drop onto it, unwilling release each other for even a moment. Xie Lian buries his head against Hua Cheng’s shoulder, his shudders turning into gasping sobs, and Hua Cheng clutches his husband close, his own body shaking with the shock of it all.
After a little while Xie Lian’s breathing starts to even out and he raises his head to look at Hua Cheng as though he’s scared the ghost king will dissolve into butterflies on the spot.
“San Lang…”
Quickly Hua Cheng untangles one of his arms from around Xie Lian and cups his husband’s cheek, caressing it to wipe the tears away then ducking his head to press his lips to Xie Lian’s.
“I’m here, Gege, I’m here.” He whispers the words onto Xie Lian’s lips then kisses him again, deep and long and desperate with his own destress. When at last the kiss breaks Xie Lian just pants for breath for a moment then he ducks his head to rest it against Hua Cheng’s shoulder and the ghost king at last asks the question that’s been burning through him since he first found himself back in that terrible woods. “Gege, what happened?”
Xie Lian takes a shuddering breath and cuddles closer to Hua Cheng. “I didn’t wake up in Lang-er bay right away. The first place I found myself was Xianle. I was on Shenwu Street. The palace was just in front of me.” There’s an ache in Xie Lian’s voice as he talks and Hua Cheng holds him closer, providing whatever comfort he can. “I think I was supposed to go into the palace but I didn’t. I went to find you instead. Do you remember it, San Lang?”
Does he remember? He remembers every glimpse he’s ever had of Xie Lian, every breath his god has ever drawn in his presence, and he remembers… He remembers these clothes, and waking up in his god’s lap and… “Is that my blood on your sleeve?”
Xie Lian nods.
“It is. Is it a new memory or is it something that’s always happened for you?”
“It always happened, though it never occurred to me that it was something you hadn’t experienced yet.”
Xie Lian nuzzles closer against him. “I’m sorry you went through so much back then. I wish I’d done more to help you when you were a child.”
“Don’t apologize Gege, you were always the best part of my life back then.” He presses a kiss to his husband’s forehead. “You still are.”
Xie Lian lets out a soft huff and presses an answering kiss to the side of Hua Cheng’s neck before continuing. “After Xianle I ended up at Lang-er Bay but it was all so much that I was just reacting, I wasn’t thinking anything through, but then you said what you said to me, and it made me start thinking, and that’s when I realized.” Xie Lian pulls back a little so that he can look up at Hua Cheng, his expression grave. “If I had stopped you from sacrificing yourself back then for me then you would never have left my side to go to Mount Tonglu and you would never have become a Supreme, and I would have been fine with that, I don’t need you to be a supreme, I just need you. Thinking that, I was actually going to go after you and stop you again, but then I realized… Shackled or as I am now, I might have the skill to defeat a ghost king but without your spiritual energy I don’t have the power.”
Part of Hua Cheng wants to argue, wants to tell Xie Lian, that no, he can definitely wipe the floor with Black Water even without Hua Cheng’s help, but that’s not who his husband means and the ghost king knows it. Xie Lian doesn’t mean just /any/ ghost king. He means one who is also a martial god, the only other person besides Hua Cheng himself to be god and ghost king combined. He means…
“Jun Wu.” The name leaves Hua Cheng’s lips in a growl and Xie Lian nods slowly.
“Once I thought of it I realized what the first stop had been about. I /was/ supposed to go into the palace. Jun Wu always loved to believe that I was just like him, so he must think that he can predict some of my actions based on what his own would be. If he was sent back into his past to right before it all went wrong I’m sure he would have done anything to stop it, I think he thought I would do the same.”
“I couldn’t stop the war back then, I know now that it wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t because he’d rigged everything against me, but knowing what I know now? If I confronted my parents with everything I know and everything that would happen to them and to me, I probably could have stopped it, even if it meant forcing them to abdicate and go into exile. If I had stopped the war then you would never have been a child soldier. You would never have died on that battle field. Even if we’d somehow still met again and fallen in love you would have died a normal death and if you’d come back as a ghost at all you probably would never have been more powerful than that little ghost fire.”
“When I didn’t make the choice he had planned for me he realized that you were my weakness and sent me to a moment when I couldn’t possibly resist saving you, and he was right. I guess it never occurred to him that you wouldn’t want to be saved.” Xie Lian’s lips curve in a weak smile. “He sent me to save you but you were the one to save both of us.”
“I meant what I said back then. It was worth it.” Hua Cheng leans forward and presses a soothing kiss to his husband’s lips. “You’re worth it.”
Xie Lian sighs softly and nuzzles into his shoulder again. “I want to argue with you but I know I can’t win. Tell me instead what happened to you? You said you thought it was some sort of dream loop? Does that mean you’d already saved me?”
Hua Cheng nods. “I did. I was helping you recover and then I was back outside the temple again. Did you do that?”
“I think so.” Xie Lian pauses for a moment, considering, then “The first time the …that happened to me, to us, neither of our future selves were there so it happened the way we remembered. But then you went back and changed it. I don’t know how long you would have continued to exist after you did that, because if you saved me before you became a wrath then you could never have been my Wu Ming and you would never have become my San Lang, so I think the current you would have faded out of existence, but then I went back too and because I stopped you from ever interrupting, the time that you interrupted never happened, …Or maybe you could say it un-happened? Either way I’m just glad I found you.”
Hua Cheng’s shoulders tense at that, self-loathing creeping into his voice.
“You knew I would be the weak link. So did Jun Wu.”
“No, San Lang, you weren’t weak, certainly no weaker than I was.” Xie Lian nuzzles against the side of his neck, leaving soft soothing kisses against Hua Cheng’s cool skin. “I would have saved you too remember if the you of back then hadn’t stopped me. It’s only that the me of back then wasn’t in any state to stop anyone from doing anything.”
The reminder of the ‘state’ the Xie Lian of back then was in has Hua Cheng tightening his arms convulsively around his husband again. “We’re finding him a different mountain.”
Xie Lian nods, sighing as he leans into Hua Cheng’s touch. “At least we know our barriers work.”
That was something at least. Once he knew who was behind it all, figuring out /how/ he’d done it wasn’t hard. Jun Wu was sealed under Mount Tonglu and, when active that damned mountain was a truly massive source of spiritual power. Was Mount Tonglu gathering itself to open again? Was it still capable of opening the way it had in the past after all the damage that had been done to it during its last eruption? Or was this merely a flare of power? Whichever the case it had clearly been the power source of this whole mess. As for Jun Wu…
According to the accounts sent to them by Xie Lian’s old Guoshi the former Heavenly Emperor was mostly calm, having given up on his reign of terror, but every now and then he would still have flares of the mad anger he had cultivated for so many centuries that it was hard for him to release, and it must have been during one of these ‘episodes’ that that fucking mountain had decided to flare up, combining power and the will to use it. After that Jun Wu, no White No Face, because in those moments he was absolutely White No Face, could have used that power to break through the buriers trapping him at the mountain, but what would have been the point? After burning through part of his new power to get out he would still have been faced with Hua Cheng and Xie Lian all over again. It wasn’t a fluke that the two of them had beaten them in the past, it wasn’t an accident or a whim of fate or a once in a life time confluence of circumstances. They were just better than him. Xie Lian was just better than him.
…So long as he had Hua Cheng’s power.
White No Face must have realized this and so, rather than attack them in the here and now, he’d poured all of that power into altering time itself so that Hua Cheng’s power would never have been Xie Lian’s to use. The fact that he didn’t just send himself back in time proves that their buriers and seals work well enough that even time manipulation can’t get him free of Mount Tonglu and so he’d needed to choose someone else to do his dirty work, and of course using Xie Lian to destroy Hua Cheng would have pleased him greatly.
‘Surprise for you then.’ Hua Cheng thinks smugly. ‘No matter what you try to pull old man, my husband is still better than you. He just is.’
“I need to contact Ling Wen.” Xie Lian says, beginning to pull away. “I told her that I’d tell her when we got back.”
Hua Cheng immediately tightens his arms around his husband, pulling him back down and nuzzling at his ear. “Tell her later, Gege. I’m not ready to let you go yet.”
To his pleasure Xie Lian doesn’t even try to protest, just relaxes back into Hua Cheng’s arms, shudders of a very different kind than earlier beginning to run through his body as the ghost king’s mouth and hands begin to move across it.
“My husband was very impressive today; won’t you allow me to appreciate you properly?”
Xie Lian shudders again at the words but he still sees right through Hua Cheng, of course he does. He reaches up with both hands and cups the ghost king’s face, voice soft and warm.
“I’m here, San Lang. I’m safe. I’m alright.”
Hua Cheng leans down and places a gentle kiss on his husband’s lips. “Then let me remind myself of that?”
“Please.” Xie Lian’s hands shift upward to run through the ghost king’s hair. “I need it as much as you do.” A soft pleased sound leaves his lips as Hua Cheng begins nuzzling at the side of his neck.
“San Lang, what you said before, about saving me. You have saved me, you know that right? You save me every day.”
“Gege…” Hua Cheng stares at him, emotion tightening his throat, and Xie Lian stares back at him, his beautiful golden eyes soft and warm and filled with love and what can Hua Cheng possibly do then except lean in and kiss his husband.