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As a spirit Wei Wuxian quickly learned that he was too weak to interact with his surroundings. Even with everything he went through the resentment he held was barely enough to allow his soul to linger besides the blood pool, using what little energy he has left to attempt the futile task of recover the wen remnants souls from down there.
He didn't move when the sects started celebrating his death and the end of his "crooked path". He didn't move when those same sects on a display of their own hypocrisy started raiding his workshop to get a hold of his notes. He didn't move when Jiang Cheng grabbed chenquing and showed it to the rest like some fucking price for the atrocities he just committed. He definitive didn't move when they started trying to summon his soul (they never hear him while he was alive, why should he listen to them now he was dead?)
He only moved when a figure dressed in white descended from a sword and stumbled his way inside of the cave. At least you'll be the last thing I see, he though with a sad smile turning at the newcomer.
“Lan Zhan? What are you doing here? The siege it's over everyone else already- What happened to you?!” The smile dropped of his face like it was never there, loss on his scrambling to get close to the intruder. The whole expanse of the Second jade of Lan's back was covered by blood, his white robes darkening even more with every movement showing evidence of open wounds. “Why are you so hurt? who did this to you?! Lan Zhan, stop moving!” Wei Wuxian tried to stand on his way to stop his path but his partner just went through him without noticing his presence, looking for something on the desolate landscape.
“Lan Zhan you should be resting, let's go back to Gusu” ignoring his pleas Lan Wangji keep searching, getting more and more frantic after not finding what he was looking for. “Lan Zhan please stop. There’s nothing else here. The other sects already destroyed everything on the settlement”. Unable to stop him Wei Wuxian could only follow him around the barren place, attempting to get his attention even if he knew he couldn’t hear him any longer.
Finally realizing that whatever he was searching for was long gone Lan Wangji fell down on his knees, broken beyond repair, and reaching down for his guqin he started playing a painfully familiar song. As the first notes of inquiry began the Yilling Patriarch finally realized what was this all about.
Wei Ying…
“I'm here” the ghost quickly answered through the heavy lump on his throat. There was no change on the chords.
Wei Ying…
“I'm here!” he tried again. Still no movement.
Wei Ying…
“I’M HERE!” Desperate he tried to grab his hand forgetting that he would only pass through it.
Wei Ying…
“I'm here Lan Zhan, I'm here”. There were tears now running from both of their faces but it was useless, his spirit was just too weak to interact with his surroundings. He couldn’t answer to Inquiry no matter how much he tried.
Wei Wuxian didn’t know how long they’d stayed like that; Lan Wangji desperately trying to call upon his soul and him desperately trying to answer him if they haven’t heard a small whimper coming from one of the trees.
The discovery of a-Yuan, incredible feverish but oh so wonderfully alive temporarily pushed aside any sense of grief; their priority was getting him to a safe place immediately. A small flicker of happiness started blossoming on the death’s man heart; at least not everything was lost.
It could have ended like that; with a father and a son coming back to Cloud Recesses unknowingly bringing back the person they would miss the most. Wei Wuxian would have stayed besides his soulmate during those three long years of seclusion; refusing to leave this world until he was reassured that Lan Wangji would be okay. Chattering about anything and nothing knowing that he couldn’t be hear, telling him about a-Yuan’s days as a member of the Lan sect, new gossips that he heard from spying, joking about how he would reincarnate into the most obnoxious and cuddly bunny that anyone has seen. How he would demand petting every time he saw him and would cause a real mess whenever he missed his daily cuddles. Cultivating to the point of gaining a human shape, one moment you would have a cute little rabbit sitting in your legs and the next one it would grow into the handsome cultivator of your dreams that still would refuse to move from your lap and what do you think of it er-gege? People will fight for this beautiful face left and right but I’ll only want to stay by your side!
(Those plans wouldn’t be necessary; fate would bring them back together against all odds sooner rather than later. And this time they would never be separated again)
However that wouldn’t be happening this time.
A small, cruel and pathetic man with a heart filled with hatred will hear about the child and remembering his identity would reveal the secret to a man filled with greed.
A snake in disguise would trick an older brother telling him that they would send the child to live with a civilian family; and the older brother would surrender the child without further questioning before the younger brother was healed enough to voice his opinion.
A father will see his son dying at the hands of a man he sacrificed everything for, will hear his desperate cries for the family he didn’t remembered anymore. For his granny and uncles. For his auntie Qing and uncle Ning. For his Rich-gege and Xian-gege.
The father will see the monster in front of him and with enough resentment in his heart to destroy the cultivation society as a whole he’ll finally decide that enough it's enough.
It was easy to get the idea of the array on the monster’s head. All the Patriarch needed to do was softly nudge his notes from the stand in which they were haphazardly throw away to flutter on the floor on his line of vision; it only needed one look at the misleading tittle to get him to do all the work for him.
The array that Jiang Wanyin ‘found’ among his notes was one of the more dangerous things that the Patriarch ever created. It called for the Heavens judgment upon the soul of the caster, turning back the sands of time and erasing one person existence from their life while rewriting the timeline according to the caster past actions; the more righteous the person the more happier this new life will be.
What it didn’t say in the notes since he never wrote it down was that Wen Qing talked him out of following through the original theory; she considered that it was too dangerous if it ever fell in the wrong hands so in the end the Patriarch modified it. Instead of erasing one person from existence it would simply erase the circumstances of their meeting, making them unable to be anywhere close to the caster until the moment they wished to change so desperately had ended; only then they would be able to be in the same vicinity as the caster without suffering any kind of backslash.
The price to pay for the caster was also extremely high: a huge amount of spiritual energy was necessary to activate the array, more than a single person was capable of producing without sacrificing their golden core. The Patriarch’s had theorized that the caster would be merging with their younger self and assimilating their golden core but it wasn’t as he could prove it himself. Taking this into account apparently Jiang Wanyin as always wasn’t willing to made any sacrifices, so he tricked Lan Wangji and Nie Huaisang into powering the array alongside him (Lan Zhan must not know what he did, Wei Wuxian realized with a start. He would never go anywhere close to this monster if he knew what he did to a-Yuan) hoping that it would decrease the spiritual energy he would need to activate it. Joke was on him, as the main caster and the only one trying to erase a person’s from their lives the array would suck power from him like a vacuum. If he was really lucky he would suffer a massive qi deviation instead of simply end coreless, the Patriarch didn’t cared either way.
He didn’t really expected this new life of his to be any easier than the first one other than never meeting the Jiang (which would already be a huge improvement even if he wasn’t ready to admit that reality yet) but he have no doubts that while Nie-Xiong’s life would probably stay mostly the same if only with a few advantages; the monster’s life will become definitively harder than the one he had this time with everyone coddling him and covering for his mistakes while also having to withstand his temper tantrums.
And of course his Hanguang-jun’s life will be as wonderful as humanly possible, completely surrounded by love on every stage of his blessed existence. He could already see it: constantly praised for being the most perfect Lan disciple on the history of cultivation, the most handsome man of their generation, a deity walking among mere mortals with such a grace and peerless beauty that people would willingly the most ridiculous things just to get him to look at their way (wait that’s already true).
Lan Wangji had such an aura people around him felt like they were talking to an immortal; if people ascended to heaven Lan Wangji would be the first one to ascend through merely his righteousness.
Wei Wuxian was sure that if Hanguang-jun ever gets married (he ignored the pang on his chest at the idea) his spouse would faint after they saw his lips curl just a little upwards, ascending to heavens for making such accomplishment. And of course his would be a love match with a person that was his equal on every aspect who would love him with the same intensity; someone willing to escape death’s cold embrace just for a fleeting chance for one more second by his side and…
Shaking his head the Patriarch focused back on overseeing the drawing of the array, making some small corrections to guarantee that the trip would be smoother. Once it was ready he calmly walked inside the array and stood beside Lan Wangji. On a whim he reached out with his hand so it looked like he was actually touching his forehead ribbon the second the array activated.
Both of them turned in astonishment when his hand actually made contact before everything turned black.
Watching their son collapse so abruptly and seemingly without a reason Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze cancelled any plans for their future night hunts and immediately brought him to the closest healers, in Dafan mountain.
While he was being examined a nine years old Wen Qing stepped into the room, took one look to a-Ying's unconscious form and without a single doubt on her voice stated “That's our brother now”, with Wen Ning shyly nodding behind her.
A few weeks later not finding any issue besides a sudden and unexplained grow in their son's still developing golden core's they bid them farewell between promises of keeping in touch and visiting soon.
(Those same effects would appear every time they got too close to Lotus Pier, and it would take a few more months before Wei Ying gained access to the information they desperately needed. After hearing their son’s tale the couple would share one silent look and vow to never step a foot on Yunmeng’s territory ever again).
Their next stop was in Gusu for what it was supposed to be a short visit, which somehow turned into walking in the middle of a whole plot to murder the isolated Lan Furen and incidentally dragging a deathly furious Qingheng-Jun out of seclusion in a protective rage. In the meantime Wei Ying and Lan Qiren's younger nephew Lan Zhan became pretty enamored with each other. The now six years old child was often seen being guided from one extreme of Cloud Recesses to another by his friend with his little forehead ribbon skillfully tied on their wrists much to the Lan elders’ disapproval. Even after explaining over and over how it should only be touched for his family and future spouse Lan Zhan persisted, going as far as raising their tied hands on display whenever they crossed paths with an elder.
Little Lan Huan observed the whole ordeal with a confused stare and finally asked his a-niang when his little brother will marry a-Ying.
“We should wait until they're fully grown before start speaking about a ceremony. I'm sure they would like to take their time in knowing each other”. Wei Changze fell into a sudden coughing fit that sounded suspiciously like "Horny Lans’" while his wife covered her ears, not wanting to hear any more words about her precious baby getting married before he reached inmortality.
After many, many, MANY promises of writing many letters and visiting at the first chance they got the little family of three was once again on the road.
After a few more years spend between night hunting, traveling and visiting old friends, specially in Gusu and Dafan mountain they started to hear rumors about Wen Rouhan doing something to Nie Zhongzhu’s saber during the last sect’s conference, and after a moment of hesitation from Wei Changze’s part (listen, he has a huge amount of respect for the second Nie Furen with her very real spy network and he wasn’t ashamed to admit it) they quickly marched right into the heart of the Nie sect; just in time to stop the Nie sect leader from suffering a mayor qi deviation but not before him in his disturbed stated managed to mortally wound one of the disciples. The disciple, a newcomer called Meng Yao unfortunately didn’t survive the incident and passed away after a few hours. After learning that he was an orphan, Nie Furen made arrangements to have his body buried in the Nie disciples’ communal graveyard; she even arranged to have his mother’s body buried beside him once she learned that she was never given a proper burial.
Nie Huaisang watched everything from the sidelines, catching his mother’s eyes for one single second before turning around to write a letter addressed to Lan Wangji.
(Wei Changze watched their exchange and visibly paled, realizing that she was already training her rightful heir. Nie Furen just send an innocent smile on his direction)
Inside the protection of his office Jiang Feingman could only stare frozen at the letter it has just arrived. He has been dealing with the consequences of his son's explosive temper since he was a child and thought that attacking at the second heir of one of the five great sects was a good idea (He always laughed whenever Changze insisted that the second Nie Furen was someone you didn’t wanted to cross under any circumstance; now seeing the results of her anger he wished to have listened); it had already caused problems among the minor sects operating under Yunmeng Jiang territory but he never thought that his behavior would cause such results: in response of his letter asking for a place for a-Cheng on the next year lectures Lan Zhongzhu had answered with an absolute denial. His reasoning, as he explained extensive on his letter, was that there would be several young masters from both minor and mayor sects attending the lectures that year that had a history of been mistreated by his son, to the point that many of them refused to allow their children’ to attend if his son was permitted the attendance among them
Putting the letter aside he brought a hand to his face suddenly feeling exhausted. This was a nightmare, at the pace they were going his son would singlehandedly destroy Yunmeng Jiang reputation long before he reached the position of leader.
Sang Niang will definitively be mad at this he thought but for once her opinion wouldn’t make any difference.
Jiang Cheng doesn’t understand when did this life started to go so wrong when things were supposed to be perfect.
His father should be paying attention to him, his mother wouldn’t have a reason to be mad about without that servant worming his way into their family, his sister should still be engaged to that stupid peacock and give birth to Jin Ling only a few of years after he eradicated the Wen dogs. He would be the sect heir who was admired by everyone leaving the rest of his age peers li’s away from his progress. Everything should be exactly as he wanted to, that’s how it said on his stupid notes.
Instead his father either spend more time locked inside his office than ever or going from one place to other with the excuse of sect business; he didn’t even looked at him most of the time and when he did it was with such exasperated look that he had to turn away.
The servant was gone but the servant’s mother was still alive gallivanting around the world with her worthless husband instead of groveling at the entry of Lotus Pier paying for all the strain they put on his parent’s marriage.
His sister was alive but she refused to talk to him after he defended her honor in a banquet in Langjin a few months ago (who cares if Jin Guangshan’s broke her engagement with the stupid peacock?! It would be reinstated after the war like the last time!) and spend most of her time in Meshian Yu. To make things worse his cultivation wasn’t improving as fast as it should; instead of the blazing sun from his previous life his golden core barely reached the average size for someone from his age group. He didn’t even have his own sword anymore, instead of Sandu his father just got him a much more poorly crafted one and slapped the same name on it; Jiang Wanyin refused to wield such embarrassment, he would rather take a practice sword on night hunts or wait until he inherited Zidian rather than grabbing such piece of scrap.
The rest of the disciples avoided him but he didn’t cared about any of them; they’ll be all kneeling at his feet once the Wen attacked and turned to him for protection.
He would be the one who’d defend his home this time around. He will personally prosecute each and every single Wen dog after the war without missing even the most pathetic one. And once the war was over he will drag that ungrateful servant back from the death and make him fix what he ruined with his stupid array.
By the time Qishan Wen turned its gaze upon the other great sects, they were ready.
The attack to Gusu-Lan was a failure.
The core melting hand suffered a fatal qi deviation in the middle of the indoctrination; Wen Qing was unable to save him. Taking advantage of the confusion someone managed to kill Wen Chao, Jiang Wanyin took the credit.
Qinghe learned about the siege from an inside source, they turned the tiles in their favor. At the end Nie Mingjue decapitated Wen Xu.
…
Wen Rouhan lead the attack to Lotus Pier. They were received with the doors wide open.
Some things change while some things stay the same.
A few days before, a certain outer disciple surnamed Jiang, not-so-distantly related to their sect leader received and annonimus letter warning them about the attack. This disciple, well aware of how said news would be received instead did the smart thing; under the guise of night hunts him and his group managed to send as many of the yourger disciples far away of the sect until told otherwise. Once they were safe with Jiang Yanli and other older former disciples they returned to Lotus Pier to save as many more as they could.
At the end of the war Jiang Ruiseng, the newly appointed leader finally learned the name of their savior. Kneeling in front of Wen Ning during a conference he loudly stated that the life debt he owe him for his warning could never be repaid in full.
A certain tortoise met it's death at the end of the indoctrination; at the hands of one of the sect heir held hostages and his betrothed who under an unimaginable pain sneaked into the cave while the rest of the cultivators were leaving.
There was still a spy passing information to the sects; not a two faced man but a fierce doctor who only wanted to keep her family safe.
A recently turned sect leader tried to walk into his ravaged home the moment he was released from his mother’s spiritual weapon. There was no one there to stop him, he hasn’t been seen since then.
The Qishan Wen sect fell; and a smaller, less powerful and solely focused on medicine rise from it ashes.
Wei Wuxian woke up with a start, his body colliding with the hardwood floor.
Wen Qing loomed over him from the bed, a scowl marring her face. “Glad you finally join us to the land of living idiot. Get dressed, I need to show you something”
“What the hell Qing-jie? How could you be so cruel to your favorite little brother?”
“A-Ning's my favorite little brother, you're just the annoying middle child who keeps getting on my nerves”. The small quirk on her mouth disproved that statement, just like her rolling her eyes when he stick his tongue out. “Now start changing and for everything you love close your robes properly this time. Once was bad enough”.
“Hey, I resent that! You should know that Lan Zhan finds me irresistible”.
“We don’t need to see the proof of it every morning thought”. Looking down at where she was pointing at Wei Wuxian turned bright red and quickly grabbed the front of his inner robes; successfully hiding the bite marks and bruises that covered the expanse of his chest.
“Can you at least turn your back?” With an amused huff his sister finally walked to the door, not before reminding him to cover up also the hickeys on his neck. His parents were in Dafan for a visit too and he didn’t want to traumatize his poor and innocent a-niang.
Well, Wei Wuxian couldn't really argued with that statement
“So, what are you going to show me?”
“It's a surprise”.
“Yeah but what kind off? A good surprise like a-die finally admitting that he’s scared of Nie-Xiong’s mom, or a bad surprise like you're cooking today's dinner?
“You have no ground to criticize my cooking when food could easily melt someone’s mouth”.
“Blasphemy! I use the right amount of spices to add a little flavor”.
“Flavor of death maybe”.
“Wei Ying”.
“Lan Zhan! Qing-jie’s been really mean to m-” His brain stopped working, too mesmerized by the vision in front of him.
No matter how many years they'd been together the sight of his husband in the morning light always made his heart stutter, making him stop and stare for a moment.
This time however his eyes weren't focused in the love of his life, but in the little bundle he was carrying in his arms so delicately like it was some kind of treasure. It was, the most wonderful treasure in the whole world…
“It's that-” As if knowing they were talking about him the baby pocked his head from inside the blanket. Wei Wuxian breath stuttered at the first glance of that little face that he has mourned for so long.
“Granny found him in the fields this morning; no one has any idea where he came from”. Explained Wen Qing gently reaching for his shoulder. “What are you waiting for Didi? Go greet your son properly” with a small push he found himself suddenly able to move again, and wasted no time in scrambling upon two of his favorite people in the whole world
Without a making a sound Lan Wangji stood up, gently maneuvering their child so his husband could see him more clearly. With a shaking hand Wei Wuxian reached to caress the baby’s head, a wet laugh leaving his mouth when a-Yuan instead took hold of his finger.
“Hello there, Little Radish”. There was so much love in his voice, the last traces of resentment from the previous timeline vanishing like a nightmare. “Baba missed you so, so much”.