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Wei Wuxian gasped as he found himself crash-landing back into his old body, just as Jiang Cheng crashed into him, pulling him close into a bone-crushing hug.
So it had worked, then! The ritual had worked!
Jiang Cheng was alive!
Wei Wuxian wrapped his arms around him, gripping him tightly and burying his head in the crook of Jiang Cheng’s neck with a sob.
“Wei Ying!”
Lan Wangji had crossed the room and threw his arms around the two of them, leaning his head against Wei Wuxian’s.
“A-Cheng! Lan Zhan! It is really you, isn’t it?”
“A-Xian, we came here as fast as we could, hoping to find you! It’s really you, isn’t it?”
“I- What do you mean?”
He asked, hope blooming wildly in his chest.
“Wei Ying.”
“Lan Zhan?”
“Do you know who Mo Xuanyu and Sizhui are?”
“Mo Xuanyu gave me his body and Sizhui is A-Yuan all grown up.”
“Mn, so it is you.”
Lan Wangji took a step back to let Wei Wuxian lift his head.
“Do you know what happened and why we are all in the past? Wangji and I suddenly found ourselves in the past after that building collapsed on us- we assumed that we’d died and somehow been sent back here. We tried to look for you everywhere just in case you’d also been somehow transported back too. Do you know anything about that?”
Jiang Cheng asked, blinking away the wetness in his eyes that they all pretended to ignore.
Wei Wuxian nodded, taking a small step back but never leaving Jiang Cheng’s arms.
“That was me. I had a time-travelling array I had worked on but never tried out. I survived the building collapse for a bit, enough to send a butterfly to Sizhui and Jin Ling to take the rest of the juniors and go to Zewu-Jun for help. Then I drew the array- it was a one-time thing, since it needed me to pour the whole of my core into it to power it, but I hadn’t figured out how to specify what time I’d send our souls back to. I didn’t even know if it would work! But I had to try- you two were dead and I couldn’t bear it-”
He was interrupted by Jiang Cheng pulling him back into a hug, this time with one hand on his head, guiding his head back into the crook of Jiang Cheng’s neck.
“I had hoped you’d survive, somehow. I didn’t want to leave you and Wangji alone. When I came back, I found us sharing a tent and knew we hadn’t found you yet. Then he jolted awake and asked me about you, and then about Rulan and that’s when I knew he had come back too.”
“Mn. We were worried for you, Wei Ying. We hoped you would survive.”
“Even if I had,” Wei Wuxian began, tears welling up in his eyes, “I wouldn’t want to live a life without you both by my side.”
“Oh A-Xian, I’m sorry.” Jiang Cheng said, pressing a small kiss into the side of Wei Wuxian’s head.
“Wei Ying. I am sorry too.”
Lan Wangji stepped forward and kissed the other side of Wei Wuxian’s head.
“I made promises to you both. I promised to fight evil and uphold justice with Lan Zhan. And I promised to stay by your side and support you as my Sect Leader and as a member of YunmengJiang. I failed both of you in my first life. I tried to keep my promise in the second, but you both were taken from me too soon. I want to try again in this third life now,” he said, voice trembling with emotion.
“Not true. Wei Ying saved the Wen Remnants and helped Jiang Cheng by giving up his core to him. Wei Ying kept both his promises.”
“Not to mention, you rejoined YunmengJiang as a dual disciple and helped to teach the next generation of Jiang cultivators too. And you and Wangji keep going on nighthunts to quote ‘where the chaos is’ unquote. You’ve kept your promises to us in both lives, even if we didn’t realise it in that first life.”
Wei Wuxian was silent before he raised his head to look at Lan Wangji, then Jiang Cheng with incredulous disbelief and love in his eyes. Jiang Cheng sighed and cupped his face in his palms.
“A-Xian. Stop doubting and loathing yourself, baby. Please. Listen to us, we can see your actions objectively without your self doubt and self esteem issues getting in the way, okay? If we say that you’ve always kept your promises to us, then we fucking mean it, okay? Would Lan Wangji here lie?”
“No.”
“Then if you don’t want to believe me, why not believe him? Take his words over mine if you want- but stop hating yourself. It hurts us to see it, and if you want me to stop doubting myself, then you also need to do the same, okay?”
Wei Wuxian’s eyes filled with tears.
“Okay A-Cheng,” he whispered.
Jiang Cheng pulled him in for a kiss, sliding his hands into Wei Wuxian’s unruly hair and tilting his head to deepen the kiss. Wei Wuxian made a soft, devastating noise and clutched onto the front of Jiang Cheng’s robes desperately. Lan Wangji watched his two husbands kiss with a soft smile in his eyes.
The sound of whimpering interrupted them and caused all the heads in the room to snap to where it came from.
The ghost bride was still there, raking her nails slowly over every exposed spot of Wen Chao’s flesh, his arms, his hands, his neck and cheek from where he was curled up, trembling in terror and delirium.
Jiang Cheng sighed and reluctantly let go of Wei Wuxian.
“I forgot that bastard was still in here with us. I’ll take care of him. Wangji, do you have a spare qiankun pouch? Now that we’re in the past and know what’s going to happen, we may as well try to change whatever we can. This is another chance for all of us to save who we need to save.”
Wangji handed him a pouch from his sleeve and then herded Wei Wuxian away to the other end of the room.
“What are you going to do with it? Put their bodies in it? They both won’t fit.”
Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes.
“No, I’m only taking their heads, silly. We’ve killed them, why should we let the Unclean Realm be the only one to have the heads of the Wen they’ve killed mounted onto the sect walls, huh?”
“Aiya, Jiang Cheng, so ruthless!” Wei Wuxian laughed.
“It will not be until a few months before we take back Yunmeng, Jiang Cheng. It would not be wise to keep their heads for that long, unless you have a preservation talisman,” Lan Wangji said with a frown in his eyes.
“Wait no, actually… What if we just took a detour through Yunmeng and liberated it on our way back to Qinghe? It’s on the way, and I have my amulet here still. Plus, I have years more of experience and you know my power and mastery over demonic cultivation has improved over time. The we could mount their heads on the walls and have another base of operations so we could form a two-pronged attack through Yiling to distract Wen Ruohan so Chifeng-Zun doesn’t have to get captured again and we can avoid his soldiers being killed by Jin Guangyao in this lifetime!”
They considered it for a second.
“Too risky, especially since you don’t have a core,” was Lan Wangji’s verdict.
“Also, we can’t do anything like that without backup or at least getting Chifeng-Zun’s approval as our Commander.”
Wei Wuxian slumped forward, but was immediately pulled into an embrace by Lan Wangji, who held onto him tightly, tucking Wei Wuxian’s head into the crook of his neck and murmuring something to him. Jiang Cheng turned to the whimpering Wen Chao and the bride ghost who was having too much fun with him.
“Leave, unless you want to be exorcised with this,” he told her, letting Zidian flick out. She pouted, then giggled after looking him up and down before she floated away and disappeared. Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes. She’d always done this whenever Wei Wuxian had summoned her in the future to be his spy, and he’d gotten used to it by now.
He flicked Zidian out and wrapped it around Wen Chao’s neck, before pulling harshly, breaking Wen Chao’s neck with a satisfying snap and stopping his body from being pulled further to him with his foot. He tightened Zidian around his neck until it had cut through it and Wen Chao’s head lolled onto the side.
Zidian retracted, leaving Jiang Cheng staring at his head, deep in thought.
What if they could do it?
They had all come back with their cultivation at the level that it was when they’d died; Lan Wangji was stronger than his brother currently would be, by his estimation; Jiang Cheng was currently way stronger than someone who had his core transplanted three months ago would be, and Wei Wuxian…
“A-Xian, do you have your core? Did Mo Xuanyu’s core come back with you?” he asked, turning to find him pulling away from Lan Wangji’s lips.
“Huh? What?”
“Your core,” he asked again, refraining from rolling his eyes.
“Did Mo Xuanyu’s core come back with you?”
“No. I mean, I don’t feel it anymore, and the array did use up the entire thing to power it.”
Lan Wangji sent a stream of qi into Wei Wuxian’s meridians to check for himself.
“...Wei Ying has a core.”
Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng turned to him in shock.
“It is very faint and very depleted, but I believe I can detect traces of a small core.”
Jiang Cheng rushed over to press his palm against Wei Wuxian’s dantian and feel for himself. Lan Wangji still hadn’t retraced his qi from Wei Wuxian’s meridians, and he gently guided Jiang Cheng’s qi to the center, where there was indeed the tiniest of cores spluttering away in his dantian. They looked at each other before simultaneously and silently deciding to feed that core with thin streams of their own qi, making Wei Wuxian gasp and clutch onto both of their robes.
“Holy shit I have a core now! My core came back with me! I thought I’d lost it again but now I can feel it!” he exclaimed as the core rapidly grew bigger and stronger, obviously wanting to grow back to the size it had been when Wei Wuxian had died (again).
All of their dual cultivation in the future had made their energies so used to each other that it almost felt natural, and Wei Wuxian felt his injuries from the Burial Mounds start to heal themselves, slowly but surely. The low-level pain he’d also been feeling was subsiding, leaving him feeling sleepy and letting his exhaustion start to take over.
“Rest, baby. We’ll take care of this, okay? And we’ll discuss everything when you wake up again, okay?” Jiang Cheng said, cupping his face and kissing him softly. They shifted so that Wei Wuxian was leaning comfortably against Jiang Cheng, with Lan Wangji behind him, still feeding him qi.
“Wangji, I was thinking…” Jiang Cheng began softly after Wei Wuxian was fast asleep, both of them still sending him qi, although he’d likely not be needing anymore for tonight at least.
Lan Wangji looked at him and waited patiently.
“About what he said earlier. He has a core now. And we’re all much more powerful than we were before, and we also have knowledge of the future that we didn’t have before. What if we did pass through Yunmeng on the way back?”
Lan Wangji wanted to shut the idea down, but then he thought about it.
“It would save a lot of lives and help with Wei Ying’s reputation if we both supported him and he was seen fighting alongside us. But…”
“We need to inform Chifeng-Zun first. And he might not like that we acted on our own.”
Lan Wangji nodded.
“But you do think it’s a doable idea, with the three of us against an army of cultivators occupying the whole of YunmengJiang’s territory?”
Lan Wangji nodded after a second of thought.
“Wei Ying alone took out half of Wen Ruohan’s armies without a core and the amulet alone. We can’t let him do that again, it’s too risky. But,” He looked at Wei Wuxian, whom Jiang Cheng was now cradling against his chest, letting him rest his head in the crook of his neck again.
“Wei Ying has a core now, which means he’ll only use demonic cultivation when absolutely necessary. And he’s physically stronger now. And we are by his side.”
Jiang Cheng pulled his hand away from Wei Wuxian’s dantian with Lan Wangji following suit, having given him enough energy to fill his core until it was almost the same level as it had been in the future.
“We will protect him this time,” Jiang Cheng stated. Lan Wangji nodded.
“We can talk about it some more. And we can come up with a strategy. Maybe we can hide the fact that Wei Wuxian is a demonic cultivator and attack without showing ourselves? We’re not supposed to have cultivation this high so suddenly, we might want to hide our identities when doing this so no one knows it’s us who are the high-powered cultivators who singlehandedly liberated Yunmeng.”
“That is a good plan.”
Jiang Cheng nodded, then carefully scooped Wei Wuxian up, bridal style.
“I’ll take him outside and we can set up camp outside this place. I’ll leave you to take off their heads and bring it with us. Tomorrow we’ll discuss it and you can play Rest and Cleansing to clear the resentful energy from this place.”
Lan Wangji nodded, then came over to press a soft kiss to Wei Wuxian’s cheek. Before Jiang Cheng could say anything, he felt Lan Wangji’s hands cup his face and then press a kiss to his lips. His eyes fluttered closed and stayed closed as they rested their foreheads against each other.
“Marry into YunmengJiang, then you can stay with us both instead of being split up like in the past. Or future, I guess,” Jiang Cheng said, breathily.
“Mn. Will I be wed to you or Wei Ying?”
“Wei Ying, perhaps. Or maybe I will be wed to him and you can be wed to me?”
“We could all just be wed together?”
Jiang Cheng snorted.
“I doubt that’ll go down well. We’ll have to see, I’m definitely marrying A-Xian though.”
“Maybe we can both marry him then?”
“We’ll have to ask him. We’ve never had to plan a marriage like this before- you eloped with him and then showed up at my doorstep for your honeymoon and then roped me into your honeymoon activities and now I’m in love with you chaos gremlins!”
The corner of Lan Wangji’s mouth quirked up and he pulled back.
Jiang Cheng grinned before turning to go, leaving Lan Wangji to make quick work of decapitating Wen Zhuliu and stuffing both his and Wen Chao’s head into a qiankun pouch, then setting his guqin down at the table and cycling through rest and cleansing until the room was no longer full to the brim of resentful energy.
He walked into the tent that jiang Cheng had set up to find their beddings already rolled out and Jiang Cheng sitting up and cradling a sleeping Wei Wuxian against his chest.
His heart swelled and he pressed kisses on his future-husbands’ faces before promptly passing out as soon as it reached nine o’clock, making Jiang Cheng stifle his laughter, only to find that Wei Wuxian was awake and trying to stifle his laughter.
The only to stop either of them from laughing was for Jiang Cheng to kiss Wei Wuxian, of course, which is exactly what he did, his heart happy and soaring at the second- third in Wei Wuxian’s case- chance they had.
“This time I’m going to protect you,” he murmured against Wei Wuxian’s lips.
“I promise you, Wei Ying. This time I will protect you. It’s my turn to make a promise this time, and I will keep this promise, I swear.”
Wei Wuxian smiled a teary smile.
“I love you too, Jiang Cheng. And Lan Zhan as well, but he’s sleeping so he gets his own ‘I love you’ later on when he’s awake. So... I love you, shidi, A-Cheng.”
“I love you too” Jiang Cheng mumbled against his hair a while later, after he and Wei Wuxian had sleepily kissed until Wei Wuxian had fallen asleep again, when he was absolutely certain that Wei Wuxian was indeed fast asleep.
The sun arose on a new day, a new opportunity for them to right the wrongs of their past, and as Wei Wuxian looked at his two husbands dismantling their tent while he sipped the medicinal tea they’d carried for him, he could help but feel grateful for this third chance he’d gotten. I’ll make the most of it, I promise , he thought.