Chapter Text
Lan Sizhui was very excited for this night hunt. Not just because both Jin Ling and Ouyang Zizhen were tagging along with him and Jingyi, but because Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian were close by while they had the full responsibility of the nighthunt. Of course, Hanguang-jun always trusted them enough to leave them alone in nighthunts, but it was always calming to have his parents nearby.
It had been half a year since the events in Guanyin Temple, and he still wasn’t used to the thought of calling Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji his parents. Lan Wangji had never asked Sizhui to call him anything, content with whatever Lan Sizhui wanted. However, ever since Wei Wuxian realised he was his A-yuan, he kept insisting Lan Sizhui should call him baba and referred to Lan Wangji as Lan Sizhui’s A-die. Lan Sizhui did not mind it at all; in fact, he was happy to do so, but he was still embarrassed.
Regardless, now was not the time for that, because if Lan Sizhui thought about it too much, he would start to feel a bit too emotional, so he turned his attention back to his two friends who were arguing.
“No one asked you to come here, you know. If you're too scared, you ca-” Lan Jingyi said as he passed Sizhui, smirking at Jin Ling.
“Shut up! You’re the one who’s scared.” Jin Ling stuck his tongue out, hitting Jingyi’s shoulder.
Lan Jingyi yelped in indignation and turned to retaliate, but Sizhui stepped in between them before he could. “Guys, that’s enough. Hanguang-jun and Wei-Qenbei are nearby, so let’s not mess this up.”
Zizhen laughed at the glare Jin Ling sent towards Sizhui. “The nighthunt isn’t that complicated anyway, it’s probably just some guǐ we have to take care of, shouldn’t be too difficult.”
Lan Jingyi raised his eyebrow while side-eying Jin Ling. “Yeah, if the young mistress doesn’t drop dead in fear.”
Jin Ling swats Lan Jingyi's head, walking faster to leave them all behind. “We’ll see who drops dead.”
Lan Sizhui sighs, looking up the mountain, the temple becoming more visible as they draw near. The temple was well kept, at least on the outside, which only confused Sizhui. Usually, places like these are abandoned and therefore unkempt. However, the temple before them was even cleaner than the houses they had seen in the village.
“This place looks good for an abandoned temple.” Said Ouyang Zizhen, sounding as bewildered as Sizhui felt.
Jin Ling scoffed. “Would you rather it were dirty then? I, for one, am glad we don’t have to go into a weird and creepy temple again.”
“Young Mistress.” Whispered Lan Jingyi, earning a glare from Lan Sizhui. He agreed with Jin Ling, of course, but he couldn’t help the uneasy feeling in his chest.
As they reached the building, Lan Jingyi looked around for a minute before pushing the doors open. The inside of the temple was just as clean as the outside, with a statue placed right in the centre of the room. Unlike the Heavenly Maiden statue back at Dafan Mountain, this one looked rather normal.
They looked spread around the room, looking for anything that might have caused the disappearances that were reported. For a while now, anyone who went anywhere near this temple would disappear, and therefore, the people of the village would avoid it at all costs. However, a few weeks ago, two rogue cultivators who had been near the area had heard of the temple and had decided to take a look, but one of them had decided to go for a quick look beforehand and never returned.
The other rogue cultivator who had stayed in the village had been too afraid to go there after their partners' vanishing, so he had contacted the chief cultivator to ask for help. And that is why the four of them had been assigned here by Hanguang-jun.
Well, it’s why Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi had been assigned here. Jin Ling had only wanted to have an excuse to run away from his newly given sect leader responsibilities, and Ouyang Zizhen had heard of the nighthunt from a ‘friend’ and wanted to join. Sizhui knew that Ouyang Zizhen was actually avoiding his father's nagging, but he wasn’t going to call him out on something that wasn’t his business.
“Uhhh, guys! There is an array back here!” They all turned their heads to where Ouyang Zizhen was standing, looking down at something.
Lan Jingyi, who was the closest, walked over. “I’ve never seen characters like these before.”
“Seriously? Don’t they teach you this stuff in Cloud Recess?” Jin Ling asked as he leaned over Jingyi’s shoulder to look at the array.
“They do,” he said, shuffling to the side to allow Jin Ling space. “But they never taught us anything like this.”
Zizhen stared at the array warily and took a step back from it. “Maybe it’s better to ask Wei-Qenbei to take a look at this before we do anything else.”
“Huh? Aren’t we supposed to do this night hunt by ourselves? Asking for Da-jui’s help will make it look like we can’t do this stuff on our own.” Jin Ling huffed, glaring at the array.
“That’s because we can’t; we have no idea what this array does,” Jingyi said, folding his arms and turning to look at Jin Ling.
“We don’t have to know what it does; we can just break it by pouring water or something on it and be done with it.”
“No, we can’t do that.” Sizhui cut in before it could turn into a full argument between the two. “If the array has something to do with the disappearances, then we need to figure out what it does to know what happened.”
Jingyi smirked at Jin Ling, who scowled in response. “Fine, I’ll go tell Da-jui and Hnaguag-jun. I’m not sitting around waiting for them; I’ve done enough sitting for a whole year. ” He said as he stomped out of the temple and got on his sword.
“This whole being a sect leader thing is really not suiting Jin Ling, is it?” Said Jingyi as he sat down on a stone near the array.
“Tell me about it. My dad has been constantly scolding me about how a sect heir should behave, even though I do all of my duties…” Zizhen paused before, sighing. “I just don’t want to get engaged with anyone yet.”
Lan Jingyi winced in sympathy. “It really sucks being a sect heir, doesn’t it?”
“Jingyi.” Sizhui chastised as he kept studying the array.
“No, he’s right, it does suck.” Said Zizhen as he stared longingly at nothing in particular.
They waited for a while before, finally, Jin Ling arrived with Hanguang-jun and Wei Wuxian in tow. They dismounted their swords before they approached the door.
“You juniors can’t stand to be away from your Qenbei for too long, it seems,” Wei Wuxian said as he and Hanguag-jun entered the temple.
“Who in their right mind would ever miss you!” said Jin Ling, following behind them.
“Ayiah, it seems my dear nephew missed me the most then.”
Wei-Qenbei laughed as Jin Ling spluttered. “So, let’s see this mysterious array you were talking about.”
Sizhui moved to the side to allow Wei Wuxian to examine the array. Wei Wuxian's eyebrows rose as he observed the writings.
“We could not tell what the array's purpose was, so we decided it was best to call you to examine it instead,” Sizhui reported, as Wei Wuxian crouched to look more closely.
“Mn, well done.” Lan Wangji replied as he too examined what was on the ground. “This is beyond what you have studied.”
“It seems it’s also beyond what I know.” Wei Wuxian said, standing to turn towards his husband. “A few of these characters are familiar, but I never seen the others.” He said cheerfully.
“Why do you sound so happy about it?” complained Jin Ling. “What are we supposed to do then?”
“Ayiah, patience is a virtue. A-Ling, don’t go learning your Jui-jui’s bad habits.” Wei Wuxian scolded.
Before Jin Ling could reply, Lan Sizhui brought the attention back to the matter at hand. “What do we do now, Wei-Qenbei?”
Wei Wuxian smiled indulgently at Sizhui. “Since we can’t tell what it does by reading the array, there is only one option left.” He said, not elaborating. The juniors all looked at Lan Wangji, expecting him to finish, but he only looked at his husband without saying a word.
“What?” Jingyi asked, the first one to give in.
“By activating it, of course, what other way is there?” Wei Wuxian said cheerfully.
“What? Isn’t that dangerous?” asked Ouyang Zizhen, more than a little surprised.
“Yes, it is.” Wei Wuxian said as he unsheathed Lan Jingyi’s sword.
“Are you crazy?” Jin Ling hissed through his teeth in disbelief. “What if it kills us?”
Wei Wuxian sighed as he turned towards them again. “Now, now. Calm down, as long as Lan Zhan and I are here, we won’t allow anything to happen to you. Alright?” He smirked before turning back towards the array. “Besides, I wouldn’t try to activate it if it were dangerous.”
Jin Ling squawked in annoyance as Sizhui spoke. “Wei-Qenbei, can you tell if it's dangerous or not?”
“I did say I could read some of the characters.” He responded as he moved to cut his palm with Lan Jinyi’s sword.
However, before he could, Lan Wangji placed his hand on Wei Wuxian's, stopping him. “I will do it.”
Wei Wuxian blinked for a moment before chuckling. “Ah, of course, it would be easier if you did it. Old habits are hard to break, I guess. Go ahead, husband.” He said, winking at Lan Wangji.
Lan Wangji hummed non-comitally as he moved in front of Wei Wuxian and directed his spiritual energy into the array.
The juniors waited with bated breath as Lan Wangji stopped transferring the energy. But even after a few moments of complete silence, nothing happened.
“It’s not doing anyth-” Lan Jingyi started to say, but was cut off when suddenly the array started to glow.
At first, the light was as small as a candle, but as time passed, it quickly became too bright to handle, forcing them to close their eyes.
“It’s so bright,” Said Zizhen, moving his arm to shield his eyes.
After waiting with their eyes closed for a while, the light started to dim, allowing Lan Suzhui to slowly open his eyes. Instead of the clean walls of the temple, he saw trees.
“What the-” Jin Ling said, looking around. “Where are we? Was it some sort of teleportation array?”
“Possibly,” Wei Wuxian said. “We should look around to figure out where we are. Stand close to eachother in case something tries to attack.”
The Juniors huddled together as Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji walked up the path before them.
Silence cast itself over the group, which was unusual with Wei Wuxian's presence. However, he said nothing as the atmosphere turned tenser with every step. Lan Sizhui was about to propose that they use their swords to fly, but he was cut off by Lan Wangji.
“You know where we are.” He said, his gaze on Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian nodded. “I might. It certainly feels familiar.” Narrowing his eyes at the path above them, he continued. “Which begs the question, why here of all places?”
“Why where?” Jin Ling asked as he saw nothing. “There’s only trees here.”
“This is-” Wei Wuxian began; however, before he could finish, they heard shuffling behind them.
“Hanguag-Jun?”
As they turned around, Lan Sizhui saw Wei Wuxian reach for his flute, so he reached for his sword as well, prepared to attack. Yet, he paused when he saw the person in front of them.
“Wen Ning?” Wei Wuxian asked incredulously. “What are you-” He cut himself off, frowning as he looked at his friend.
Wen Ning, who looked even more confused, addressed Lan Wangji as he spoke. “Y-you did not inform W-Wei Gongzi that you were coming.”
Lan Jingyi glanced at Lan Sizhui in bewilderment as he spoke. “Uh, what? He’s right here.”
Wen Ning’s brows furrowed as if Jingyi was the one who wasn’t making any sense. “I- I’m sorry, but who are these people, H-Hanguag-jun?”
There was complete silence in the clearing as everyone processed the question.
Then, slowly, as if the question would scare the Ghost General away, Wei Wuxian spoke. “Say, Wen Ni- Wen Gongzi, what is today’s date?”