Chapter Text
Wei Wuxian was immersed into his brewing idea of using ‘traveling back in time paradox’ as a defensive advantage for his fellow cultivators.
You see, Wei Wuxian has been working on this ridiculous plan for a while now.
He had this brilliant idea of sending one’s consciousness back a few seconds to a minute in past so that they can prevent any fatal injury that may cost life.
That was his only objective. Really! It was meant to be a well-meaning talisman for his ducklings to get themselves a premium option of making a life-saving choice.
So, when he woke up this morning, he did not expect to find himself face-to-face with a prideful emo and an impudent teenager. Who were supposedly his past naïve selves, believing that they could pull any shit without thinking about the consequence of their action!
*******
“ Wei Wuxian!” A loud voice boomed around, making him abruptly sit up from the luscious green land on which he was sprawled onto.
He scratched the back of his head as he dazedly looked at his surroundings. The first thing that got his brain kick start was; too much light. Which wasn’t supposed to be there as it was midnight a few seconds ago.
In-fact, there shouldn’t supposed to be bright sunlight at all in a place such as burial mounds, where the light of day hasn’t penetrated the dense atmosphere of the resentful mountain for more than a millennium now.
It was always dull, always been like the mountain was covered with a blanket which allowed a handful of dispersed sun rays to light up the path enough for them to navigate their daily lives during day.
Just a moment ago, he was cooped up in his dark home which he affectionately called ‘Demon-Quelling Cave’. Lit up only by the faint glow of fire from the lamp while he was tinkering with his talismans.
He was poking around various talismanic characters to come up with something that can help them grow potatoes on this barren cursed land, now that they were successful with the radishes.
( He really wanted potatoes; he was tired of the radish soup…… radish pickle….. boiled radish…… raw radish…… radish……. In short, he disliked radish as their only food)
He was trying to use the character for ‘time’ to accelerate the growth of sprouted potato into a whole plant within a span of a week to experiment on its resilience to thrive in the soil of dead.
That could’ve actually worked, he was a genius after all……..
But Wei Wuxian is well known for his tendency to court trouble.
And so, he somehow ended up teleporting himself far away from the safety of his home to the dreadfully familiar place which he had sworn to never step on its land again the remainder of his life.
His body stiffened as now his sluggish brain finally comprehended the voice and was mortified to realize that the voice belonged to that old goatee yelling his name, breaking the tranquility of cloud recesses.
He frantically searched around for ChenQing, finding his waist band empty as his hand tried to grab around something uselessly.
Hauntingly his brain reminded him of how last night he had tossed her to the corner in disgust as he had promised himself to clean her later from the (literal)shit that his little radish had put her through.
Panic surged his veins as his face became terrifyingly pale.
Before he could attempt any stupid move like, try to break the Lan Clan’s wards. Which might surely be thrice stronger now after the gruesome Sun Shot Campaign.
A loud, boisterous laughter echoed after the old man’s outburst which rang twice loudly throughout the place.
Wei Wuxian stilled. It sounded achingly familiar to his ears. He had heard it before somewhere…. But he couldn’t pinpoint where?
As he pondered about it, a figure wrapped in white came running towards the Magnolia tree which was a few feet away from him.
The figure in white, most likely a teenager by how tall they were, climbed onto the broad branch of the tree with a singular high jump.
He realized that the exuberant laugh belonged to the teenager who was now slouching lazily on the branch.
He stared at the youth’s carefree freedom longingly, when his eyes caught the red ribbon.
‘Heh? Since when the Lan disciples started to admire the Yiling Laozu? Moreover, how did those stuffy Lans allowed their juniors get tarnished from this old Laozu’s influence?’
If this was really the case of a Yiling Laozu cult being started among the youth of cloud recesses, then he should definitely investigate it!
The earlier furious shout of his name being forgotten, he carefully moved closer to the tree where the teenager was now gone out like a light within minutes.
When he neared the tree, his entire body froze. Breathing halting with a sharp inhale.
That face………. His arms tremored unconsciously, knees going weak as he almost stumbled forward if not for his horror stiffened body.
He just stood there for who knows how long until the exhaustion from his sleepless night and prolonged exposure of sunlight after a long time caught up to him caused his eyes to roll back in his head and the world around him went dark instantly.
-----
When he woke up next time, he found himself alone in one of the Gusu Lan infirmary cot.
He fled from there immediately as his presence was now known by the Gusu Lan Clan.
And by the disbelieving way he was still alive and free rather than being tied up for an execution, his theory about what he had seen earlier was not just a hallucination made up by starvation addled mind.
The sun looked a few shichen away from the horizon which indicates that it has been only an incense time since he was passed out.
He quietly moved out of the healing pavilion, hiding behind a pillar just in time to see two disciples in white passing by.
“ Hahaha Jiang-xiong, be easy on Wei-xiong. Look, because of him we got to leave that boring lecture earlier than its scheduled period of time!” The cheerful voice of his old friend sent a nostalgic wave of sadness vibrating through his bones.
The all too familiar grunt made his eyes sting as he yearningly watches young faces of his old friend and his martial brother, untainted from the scar of war and hatred.
Tears trickled down his face. He just gazed at their backs, as they moved far away from him until his eyes couldn’t follow them anymore.
A soft breeze made him shiver; he was cold. He has always been cold, since the time he lost the feeling of his core revolving in his dantian.
With this the gravity of his situation dawning on him like a bucket of chilling icy water being dumped over his head.
‘ Somehow………. I, I ended up in past……. The past before everything.’ He stood there dumbly like an idiot waiting to be caught.
A rustle from the nearby bush startled him as his feet slowly took him towards the noise without any thought in his mind.
He was feeling numb after all. This whole shit felt like a ridiculous hell of a nightmare to him.
His eyes looked exhausted, his face displayed the letters ‘TIRED’ in bold with the dark bags under his eyes, hair tangled with matted patches along its length and not to mention the dirty rug he was wearing as his robes.
He looked behind the bush to find the very teenager from earlier, secretively gulping an entire jar of emperor’s smile with enthusiasm.
Their eyes met and the youth froze like a deer hearing the sound of a tig being crushed by a tiger’s paw before reading himself to flee from the spot.
**********
Wei Wuxian was peacefully enjoying his treasured prize that he had painstakingly smuggled in, hiding from the vulturous gaze of the Lan-er-gongzi of the Gusu Lan.
When someone caught him red-handed breaking several rules of that stupid rule-carved wall of three thousand nonsense.
He stiffened as his silver-gray eyes met with identical silver-gray pair. But other one was duller than his own shiny bright ones.
“ What the……” He muttered under his breath as he recognized that face with shocking devastation.
“ Hah…” The man sighed out while tilting his head to one side, looking down at him with despairingly exhausted face.
After a few seconds of staring at each other, he loudly exclaimed with a fright, “ ME?!” While pointing at the maniac looking man.
The said man crouched down to his level and pointed his own finger at him, mirroring his action.
“ Correct. I’m you. Listen up, Wei Wuxian. Pay more attention to Jiang Cheng.” The man started talking in a matter-of-factly tone.
“ Huh? Why?!” He asked dumbfoundedly, it was absurd to just look at his own future-self who looked like haggard.
“ Also fix your noisiness and your tendency to just do whatever you want to.” The Begger version of him continued, ignoring his distressed inquiry.
“ Am I poor in the future? Why do I look like that?” He asked worriedly as he watched the man sway slightly with the light breeze of air that might knock off this thin person without any efforts.
“ You’re too immature- ” The man was cut off by something that sent him stumbling forward onto him with a force of being hit by a giant falling boulder.
“ Mind your own damn business you dumbass!” A loud voice thundered as he looked up to see another man with his one leg lifted up as if to kick(or was the deed was already done?) with his flowing black robes having exquisite embroidery of red.
“ I can’t stand the sight of you, I could even die from the embarrassment.” The man said looking down at his future-self with disgust.
“ WEI-QIANBEI STOP!!” Many voices echoed at the same time.
He dazedly looked down at his future-self who was sprawled onto his lap like a puppet cut off its string then to the man standing above them huffing with fury, then to the four disciples looking frantic behind the angry stranger and at last his gaze fell onto the new comer with brilliant white robes with blue accent.
His eyes widened as he recognized the new person to be non-other than the Second Jade of Lans.
‘Fuck. If Lan Zhan saw the emperor’s smile and reported back then surely that old goatee will chew my flesh raw.’
He dreaded, unbeknownst to the upcoming chaos that will be keeping the Grandmaster Lan busy with the new source of his Qi deviation.
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