Chapter Text
Something was burning. Wei Wuxian woke up next to his husband, with the smoke already in his nostrils. It was probably burning somewhere in the Cloud Recesses. He needed to help. He rubbed his eyes and quickly pulled at Lan Zhan’s shoulder to wake him, but his husband, who was usually a light sleeper, didn’t pull a muscle. Wei Wuxian grabbed his Lan Zhan’s shoulder and shook harder but to no avail. Lan Zhan’s eyes remained stubbornly shut.
“Lan Zhan, wake up please,” he pleaded. No response.
“LAN ZHAN!”
The door to the Jinghsi slammed opened. Masked man, wrapped in dark cloaks, slipped inside, with their weapons raised, smoke curled around their ankles. Wei Wuxian scrambled from the bed to the floor and tried to grab his flute or Suibian or just anything that could be used as a weapon, but one of the hooded men was faster, and lunged forward, trying to grab his arm. But Wei Wuxian was faster. He twisted and evaded the grasp, scrambled back on the bad and kneeled protectively in front of his still unconscious husband. Something was very wrong. Lan Zhan would never be able to sleep through something like this.
“What did you do to my husband?” Wei Wuxian asked. There was nowhere to go for him now. He was surrounded by swords pointed at him. But still, if one of these man had done anything to Lan Zhan, they were all going to die.
But he received no answer. One of the men stepped forward and pulled out some rope from his cloak, lowered his sword and approached Wei Wuxian carefully.
“Just come with us willingly and we will all leave here alive,” the hooded man answered.
“What did you do to my husband?”
Wei Wuxian’s eyes began to glow red around the irises. He didn’t have Chenqing with him, but he could wreak havoc either way. Resentful energy was already crawling around the room, curling on the floor, just ready to be used by him, waiting to be commanded by him.
One of the hooded man lunged forward again, this time trying to strike him with his sword. Wei Wuxian flinched aside quickly, reaching forward to grab the man’s sword out of his hand but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a shadow behind him.
“Whistle and he will die,” the hooded man sneered.
Wei Wuxian froze. The man held a knife to Lan Zhan’s throat, who was still unconscious to everything around him. One of the men must have stepped around the bed, while the other had side-tracked him. He couldn’t risk a move now, not with Lan Zhan unprotected.
“Now tie him up and get this over with, -” the man, who appeared to be the leader of the group, said to the man with the rope, “-our diversion won’t work forever.” They quickly tied up his hands with thick ropes and Wei Wuxian silently complied. He couldn’t risk his husband’s life. His gaze desperately went to Lan Zhan, but his husband still appeared to be sleeping soundly, undisturbed by the turn of events.
“Let’s get out of here,” the hooded man said. Wei Wuxian was roughly grabbed and pulled along outside, the rest of the men surrounding him with their swords still drawn. Outside, he finally saw the diversion the men had mentioned, and his heart skipped a beat. Almost all the buildings and pavilions that were leading up to the Jinghi were burning and more than three dozen hooded cultivators were wreaking havoc upon the Cloud Recesses. Everywhere was fire and heavy smoke, clouding his view. He could only see some of the Lan discipled between the buildings, fighting against the hooded attackers. But there were clearly surprised about the attack and appeared stunned from the smoke.
The leader of the group grabbed him again and pulled him along towards the path that led away from the Jingshi and behind the mountains. He gave a quick command to one of his other men who pulled out a whistle and blew it, producing a shrill sound. Suddenly, more men appeared at their side, leading the group towards the path, with Wei Wuxian stumbling along, as their unwilling participant.
‘So, the men are retreating’ he thought, ‘how stupid of them’. He couldn’t help but smirk as he was further pulled along and away from all the people that could complicate his escape from his captors. He quickly looked down, pursed his lips and –
Pain exploded at the side of his head, and Wei Wuxian went down hard. His vision blacked out for a moment only to return blurry with black dots threatening to take it again. He blinked slowly, trying to get his bearing back. One of the men must have struck him with the butt of his sword. Wet hot blood trickled down the side of his face and a sharp pain throbbed at his temple. But Wei Wuxian was no stranger to pain. He had had worse.
The Cloud Recesses were burning because of him, and he needed to help. Lan Zhan was still unconscious in the Jingshi and there were so many burning buildings. He didn’t know if his husband was even alive anymore or the disciples that were fighting earlier, Lan Zhan’s uncle or brother or even the Clan elders. He had a tricky relationship with almost all of them, but they still had begrudgingly welcomed him into the Clan- into their home. The home that was burning to the ground right now. Just like his first home, where he had no choice to help save it. But now he was capable. He was the Yiling Laozu for damns sake. So, he needed to act now.
Wei Wuxian grit his teeth and released his breath, pushing the pain to the back of his mind and gathering the resentful energy around him in a heartbeat. Immediately, he could feel it pushing and pulsing around him, demanding to be controlled. The men who had hit him realised this too late.
He quickly whistled out a short command and the resentful energy immediately surrounded the men closest to him, effectively stunning them. The leader of the group tried to move, but he was rooted to the spot, just like his men.
Wei Wuxian struggled to stand with his hands still bound in front of him. When he got upright his vision was still swimming and lurching behind, but he managed to keep the control of the resentful energy, feeling it thrumming through his veins and all around the clearing.
One men had his sword still raised when the resentful energy commanded his body to freeze and Wei Wuxian quickly stepped towards him, slicing his restraints on the blade. Now freed, he stepped in front of the leader, a smirk on his lips and his eyes glowing red.
The leader of the group still tried to get his limbs to cooperate, but in vain. The veins on his neck were bulging with how much he was trying to move, his face twisted with the effort. But the resentful energy wouldn’t let up.
“You never should have touched my husband or my family,” Wei Wuxian whispered.
And with that he released a thrill of a sharp whistle, directing the resentful energy outwards. His tune began to sound disturbingly peaceful as the energy obeyed his bidding, slowly curling around the ankles of the attackers, moving up their bodies, caressing them like a gentle lover might would. Around the hooded figures, the smoke thickened and creeped towards their heads, shrouding them in darkness. The energy flowed down the throats of the attackers, pushing inside the men, flowing down, cutting of their breathing.
The smell of fear began to penetrate the air all around him, as the smoke curled on further and further into the bodies of the hooded clan. The three dozen men surrounding him gurgled and whimpered, but no one could move a muscle as their breathing was stopped. Their faces grew red, and their necks convulsed as they desperately tried to get in some air, fighting desperately for their life. Blood began to flow out of their noses and dropped to the ground. Wherever the blood hit the resentful energy, it hissed and grew thicker, expanding more and creeping into the ears and eyes of the other men, drawing blood. The only sound that could be heard on the field was the hiss of the resentful energy and Wei Wuxian’s eery whistled tune. There were no screams from the cultivators, only their naked fear in their eyes.
Wei Wuxian raised his hands, his eyes now glowing a bright red and with one final whistle, the paralysis of the men fell away, and they dropped to the floor, some still gurgling on their own blood, but some of them already dead.
Wei Wuxian was blinking hard. His vision was distorted, his head swimming. The whole left side of his face throbbed in rhythm to the beat with his racing heart, pulsing pain in every direction. Wei Wuxian knew, he should dissipate the resentful energy, but his thoughts were jumbled, all coming together at once and overlapping, making him nauseous.
In his last desperate attempt, he tried to call the resentful energy to himself again. It curled around his ankles, then legs and creeped up towards his body, awaiting his command. But Wei Wuxian was too tired. He was losing the battle against the tidal wave that tried to pull him down, eyes blinking heavily. He struggled with the command of the energy for a second, but he couldn’t hold it anymore. It creeped further towards him and black engulfed his vision.
He let it take him away.