Work Text:
Now Only Nostalgic Nights Remain
Standing with Chenqing on his lips, the red glare of the fire can be seen from Jiang Cheng's irises.
Blazing...
Scorching...
"Gongzi!"
There were hollowing souls.
It was vivid and snappy.
Blood in the breeze.
He hears his people screaming out:
"We see fire!"
They are encircled by fire and the cultivators of the Three Clans. They can't get away.
'His' Yiling Family can't escape.
The fire was becoming violent...
Scathing...
Everywhere touched by the flames started burning.
It grows and stretches.
It roars and rushes.
Quickly, it ripped through hundreds of acres, forcing (other) cultivators and his Yiling Family alike to stifle and choke.
The night sky was filled with smoke, wind, and noise, showering ash across much of the Burial Mounds.
Jiang Cheng can only see fire.
All.
Around.
Him.
The Wens burned painfully.
"Kuaaack!"
The fingers that he used with Chenqing shook.
Jiang Cheng couldn't save any of them. He looked at the deaths unfolding in front of him.
His...
Second... family...
The horrors of the past massacre replayed in Jiang Cheng's mind...
When blood and fire ruined Lotus Pier.
His A-Niang...
His Fuqin...
His martial siblings...
What became of him, his A-Jie, and Wei Ying...
All over, Jiang Cheng felt...
Cold.
Again.
It's happening 'again'.
Sweat stinging the eyes like small vipers, coursing down from a gore-splattered face.
"Jiang Wanyin!"
Cultivators were hollering, cursing his name.
"This place shall become your burial ground!"
Voices of resentment surged in his head:
"They killed your Yiling Family..."
"Avenge them."
"Kill."
"Kill..."
"Kill!"
"Kill more!"
Resentful energy coiled across his flesh.
All around was nothing but a swirl of turmoil and violence.
Fierce corpses charged!
Cultivators launched!
It eventually evolved into a blur of color and ruthless motion.
Pant.
Pant.
Pant.
The dry, panting tongue absorbed the dust-choked air that mingled with the bitterness of iron.
Blood pulsed in the ears, hammering to an awful beat. The sound was just loud enough to drown out the cries of men, the moans of dying Wens, and the terrifying strike of steel against flesh.
Above the lower scent of sweat was the acidic odor of all-encompassing horror, borne aloft by clashing bodies howling among a sea of crimson liquid drained from both cultivators and Jiang Cheng's corpses, to soak the field of the ever-the same cursed black mountain.
Step.
Step.
Step.
A figure was approaching through the hazy heat.
Staring, "Jiang Wanyin." he said.
Jiang Cheng received that silent gaze.
"Jin Zixuan."
His brother-in-law.
His confidant.
This man... he, too, was present.
It had been 'him' who had led the siege.
In place of A-Jie, Jin Zixuan was ready to kill him, to avenge Wei Ying.
Surely, Jin Zixuan witnessed A-Jie grieving, with Wei Ying in her arms, motionless, her throat pierced by a blade meant for Jiang Cheng.
Wei Ying...
Duibuqi.
'Wei Ying!' He called out, catching her weight before she hit the ground.
'It's fine! It's fine...'
Who was he fooling...
'It's not that bad!'
Who... was... he fooling?
'Not that bad...'
Who.
Was.
He.
Even.
Fooling?!
'I'll take you down right now...'
He was about to lift her up when she opened her mouth:
'...'
No words were spoken.
'...'
He is to blame.
His vision was clouded with tears.
Then...
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
...it cleared.
'Shijie, I...'
His words broke up.
'I'm here.'
All he could say were stuttering sounds.
Wei Ying reached a hand to cup his cheek, gently wiping away his tears, 'A-Cheng... Chengcheng... come home.'
Hot tears poured down, still. He forced his eyelids close in hopes that they would stop, 'I'll come home...'
His throat feels tight. His breathing ragged, his heart throbbing, he sat there, unmoving.
'I'll be obedient and come home...'
Once more, Wei Ying's lips moved to say: 'My good Shidi.'
Jiang Cheng felt full fear inside as he stared at the light that was slowly fading from Wei Ying's eyes.
'Wei Ying...'
He cries:
'...don't leave me...'
Wei Ying's eyes were half-lidded, brimmed with tears: 'Help A-Yuan be happy...'
Jiang Cheng felt lost, unable to find the right words, 'I... I...'
What should he say?
Should it be 'I will'?
Should it be 'I promise'?
How, if so?
Jiang Cheng was like a frightened child begging for someone to tell him what to do.
But... how? How could A-Yuan be happy? How could he find happiness when the boy's father is dead, his mother is... is... in such a state?
Everything was Jiang Cheng's doing.
'Help him be loved by many people.'
That was Wei Ying's last reply.
Eventually, she --
'Wei Ying!'
-- closed her eyes.
Her hand fell on Jiang Cheng's side, limply, the same one that was just moments ago tending to him gently.
Duibuqi.
Wei Ying was... dead.
Duibuqi.
Wei Ying...
Brilliant as the sun, compassionate, and always full of life... is gone.
Duibuqi.
It was Jiang Cheng's fault, entirely.
All Jiang Cheng could think of was the never-ending blood that seemed to stain his hands for the rest of his life.
He didn't know how to face A-Jie.
No.
No.
No.
He couldn't appear before her... any longer.
A...
A-Jie...
'A-Ying!'
Thud!
Involuntarily, A-Jie knelt beside Jiang Cheng, he tightened the hand he held on Wei Ying's body.
A-Jie gritted her teeth, 'Jiang Wanyin...' her voice trembling.
And he understood right then...
Jiang Cheng was shoved away.
That A-Jie...
'Let. Her. Go!'
Hated him.
Jiang Cheng raises Chenqing to his lips once more, blinking through tears of agony, remorse, and despair.
"Jiang Wanyin!" Jin Zixuan bellowed, with Suihua pointing at him. "Put an end to this chaos!"
Jiang Cheng downright ignored him. Instead, he played a rushed melody. An overly aggressive tune. Malevolent. Increasing the corpses's ferocity.
"Jiang Wanyin! Do you hear me?!"
Jin Zixuan's pupils are brimmed with fury and anguish, but there's also a vulnerability that Jiang Cheng hadn't noticed.
Blowing into the flute, with his breathing labored, he played even more forcefully. As if urging. As if to chastise.
Horrifying.
Screeching.
Fanatical.
Finally, Chenqing falls to the ground as Jiang Cheng's fingers loosen.
As a result, the fierce corpses ceased their onslaught.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"What's going on?!" Exclaimed a Jin Cultivator, in his expression a palpable perplex.
A Lan Disciple made an impassioned suggestion, "Let us use this to our advantage and put a stop to Jiang Wanyin!"
Suddenly, the corpses shifted, wincing the cultivators, their swords never lowered.
Exhaling shudderingly from a throat that no longer breathed, the corpses sprang at...
"Huh?!"
Was there any confusion?
"That's..."
...Jiang Wanyin.
"What?"
"No..."
"...way...!"
Jiang Cheng's instructions were rather clear:
Kill the 'Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation'.
The corpses lunge toward Jiang Cheng, their eyes lifeless yet bursting with cruelty. Jiang Cheng does not run away from them. Instead, he spreads his arms and accepts the dead.
As though to 'embrace' them.
"!!!"
Jin Zixuan looks at him in disbelief. In bereavement and shock. His voice was weak and hushed:
"Ni..."
Jiang Cheng's lip corners slope up into a smile.
Holding the Tiger Seal that he pulled out from his sleeves, it exploded under the immense power he was exerting.
Why...
Why is life so hard?
What makes life so hard?
'Why?' he wonders...
'What?' he wonders...
Still, he knew the answer.
It was the 'truth'.
When he saw Jin Zixuan at the Burial Mounds, he realized there was nothing left of him to return to.
Lan Wangji is dead.
Wei Ying is dead.
And A-Jie 'hates' him for it.
Maybe...
Maybe it wasn't the world that was hard. The difficult thing was 'Jiang Cheng' himself.
He thought, he might as well 'die'.
There is no room for him in Lotus Pier or in the Burial Mounds with the Wens, anyway.
He wants to just disappear.
Wei Ying...
Would you forgive Jiang Cheng if he killed himself tonight?
"Aaaggghhh!"
He let out a pained and depressed cry as he was ripped apart and devoured by his own fierce corpses alive.
'Jiang Wanyin! Put an end to this chaos!'
Jiang Cheng cried out of sheer grief, guilt, and unfairness.
Then...
"Rejoice, Jiang Wanyin is dead!"
The 'chaos' was ended.
"Jiang Wanyin is gone. He was destroyed along with the seal."