Chapter Text
It was a usual quiet and serene day at Cloud Recesses, Lan SiZhui just finished classes and was walking towards Jingshi. He had some documents for his parents to look over and approve of. Along the way, he bumped into Lan JingYi, who had just finished copying some ancient scriptures that the sect had recently acquired and needed copies of in case of any… unexpected issues. Turns out he was walking towards JingShi as well. They agreed to go together as it’s always pleasant to have someone to talk to while walking (even if that someone is one of the loudest Lan in Cloud Recesses).
While walking towards their destination, something unexpected happened. Both junior disciples heard screaming from above and when they looked up, they saw someone falling out of the sky! “AHHH!” the boy yelled as he frantically flung his arms around. Lan SiZhui wasted no time and activated a levitating talisman and flung it the boy’s back to help to slow down the boy’s descent.
One second he was strolling around Cloud Recesses after completing his punishment with Lan Zhan, and the next he was falling from the sky, and he didn't even know how it happened! Wei WuXian was walking along the stone path as usual, when he suddenly tripped and fell into a hole he didn’t even know was there! And now he was falling out of the sky!
Wei WuXian shut his eyes tightly, anticipating a hard fall, but nothing came. He opened one of his eyes to take a peek and saw he was just a couple cun off the ground. He opened both his eyes and blinked a couple times before seeing two Lan disciples making their way towards him.
Whatever was holding him up suddenly wore off and he fell on the ground with a loud thud and a yelp. “Gongzi, are you alright?” one of the disciples asked. Wei WuXian was a little dazed, he wasn’t quite sure how to respond, so he just nodded. The disciple then reached out a hand, offering his help. Wei Wuxian reached for his hand and was pulled up effortlessly by the Lan disciples. Seriously, the Lans have impressive arm strength!
“Where did you come from and why were you falling from the sky?!” the other disciple exclaimed. “And who are you?! How did you get through our ward?!” Snapping out of his daze, Wei WuXian looked around. He was definitely still in Cloud Recesses, but things seemed off. Like he knows he's at the same place, but the building looks slightly different and the path doesn't quite feel the same.
“Hey, aren't you going to answer?!” the other Lan from earlier exclaimed, to which the first Lan reprimanded. “JingYi, be polite.” That Lan isn't really Lan-like, Wei WuXian thought to himself. The disciple then turned back to Wei WuXian. “ I'm Lan SiZhui and that is Lan JingYi. May we inquire about your name, gongzi? And where did you come from?”
“Why, aren't you quite rude for a Lan?~” Wei WuXian teased Lan JingYi. Lan JingYi was about to say something until Lan SiZhui stopped him, “JingYi.” Interesting… Wei WuXian giggled to himself. “This one is Wei WuXian, nice to meet you! And as to how I got here… I don’t know.” The two Lans now we're looking at him as if he grew another head. “Ya right, you’re not Wei WuXian.” the louder Lan proclaimed
Wei WuXian was confused. Lan JingYi claimed that he wasn’t himself as if he knew him personally. “But I am? I'm Wei Ying, Wei WuXian, head disciple from YunMeng Jiang.”
“Psh, ya right. If you're going to impersonate someone, at least -,” Lan JingYi was cut off by a hand on his shoulder. “SiZhui?”
“JingYi, look,” Lan SiZhui said as he pointed at the attire Wei WuXian was wearing. “He's wearing a guest disciple robe.”
Now that JingYi looked closer, SiZhui was right, the boy was wearing robes a guest disciple would wear. “Huh? Didn’t guest lectures end a few months ago?”
“It did, the next one doesn’t start until next spring.” SiZhui answered.
Wei WuXian was now even more confused. He swore it has only been a few weeks since he stepped into Cloud Recesses.“Wait what? But I was here for only a few weeks?”
“SiZhui, JingYi,” they all heard a voice calling. All of them turned to the direction of the voice and saw a Lan cultivator walking towards them.
“HanGuang-Jun,” both of the Lan junior disciples greeted with a bow. The Lan cultivator then turned and looked at him with an unreadable stare.
Wei WuXian was confused for a while. He certainly saw this Lan before, but he can’t put his finger on where he saw him. He looked him up and down a couple of times before settling on the cultivators piercing golden eyes. “Lan Zhan?! Is that you?!” The Lan cultivator was quiet, as if assessing his appearance before calling him.
“Wei Ying…”
“Lan Zhan! You wouldn’t believe what happened! I was walking my way back to my room when I suddenly tripped and fell into a hole, and then I somehow ended up falling from the sky! Can you believe it? Like how did that happen? I was walking out of the library after writing lines and somehow I ended up falling out of the sky!” As he finished his rambling, he looked at Lan WangJi only to see him staring even more intensely at him. Lan WangJi is probably assuming he is playing a prank on him! “Lan Zhan, I’m speaking the truth! You can ask them!” Wei WuXian pointed towards the other two Lans.
“Hey! Don’t drag us into your mess!” Lan JingYi exclaimed.
“JingYi, be polite, if this gongzi is really who he claims he is then…” Now it was Lan SiZhui’s turn to stare at him. Now Wei WuXian was kinda weirded out. Both Lan SiZhui and Lan Zhan looked extremely similar with the way they were staring at him! Now that he looked at it… does Lan Zhan look taller and more mature than he was a while ago?
“Oh my, are you all starting a family meeting without me?”
Wei WuXian was in MingShi when something weird happened.
He thought it was time for Ouyang ZiZhen to take what he learnt into practice. ZiZhen has been studying under Wei WuXian for a few months now. He learnt how to harness resentful energy into pure yin energy. Like himself, ZiZhen has developed a core consisting of yin energy. When his disciple asked if there will be any unwanted effects of his new silver core, he explained as long as there is not any resentful energy residue, his golden core would not be affected in any way, instead it would help strengthen it as it balances the energy within his body.
Wei WuXian had given him instructions on how to raise a corpse to obey commands and had already shown him the basics and encouraged ZiZhen to experiment with what he had learnt. Wei WuXian assured him that he would be nearby in case anything happened, but as long as there aren't any problems, he had full rein to do as he pleases. “Ready?” Wei Wuxian asked his student.
ZiZhen looked nervous at first as this is afterall his first time raising corpses, even if the corpse was already subdued by him and his husband a few days ago. “I hope so,” ZiZhen answers.
“Don’t worry, I know you’ll do an amazing job. After all, you were taught by one of the most amazing and powerful cultivators of all time.” Wei WuXian boasted, which made ZiZhen laugh and the tension in his shoulder seemed to relax. Wei WuXian huffed out fondly at his student, glad to help to relax his nerves. “Don’t worry my duckling, you’ll do just fine. You have me, and I’ll be with you every step of the way. If it gets too much, we can stop, alright?” Wei WuXian reassured his student once more.
ZiZhen nodded with a new found determination. “Alright, I won’t let you down, shizun!” To which Wei WuXian chuckled. “You never have.”
With a watchful eye, he observed how ZiZhen blew into his dizi to call out to the corpse in front of him until it began to stir. As he continued playing, the corpse slowly rose up. Eventually, it fully stood up and awaited orders from its master. His student began with simple movements like walking and running, as he grew more comfortable, he started to command bolder moves like punching and kicking.
He noticed ZiZhen was about to do some risker moves when doors of MingShi flew open, sending a strong gust of wind along with it. Wei WuXian was shocked at first, and that quickly turned into alertness and confusion. He was sure he had placed a protective ward before entering MingShi. The ward is supposed to keep people out and resentment in, only him and those he approved of can enter, so how in the hell someone managed to break in without alerting him?! He was the sect's talisman and array master and the most skilled one at that, so there is little to no chance of error in the ward array he drew earlier. Whatever the problem was, he can think of it later, he needs to make sure ZiZhen is safe first before anything else.
He stepped in front of ZiZhen and took ChenQing out of his robes. He may only have one subdued corpse right now, but it's better than nothing. He looked behind to check on ZiZhen, making sure he's fine before turning back to the intruder. He anticipated for the intruder to be anyone, but the person he was least expected to see was staring back at him. …It was himself…from 14 years ago… back before siege… back before his family, his sister and the Wen remnants died… before he himself died. But how can this be possible, he's sure that this isn’t a dream, he would know ( his husband would make sure he does ). No, it was real, the person in front of him was Yiling LaoZu, Wei WuXian.
“What do you think you're doing?!” his younger self exclaimed.
The older Wei WuXian didn’t respond, instead he sighed and turned towards his disciple. “ ZiZhen, seal the corpse, I’ll be taking our…visitor. You know how to find me if you need to, ” he instructed. ZiZhen was dazed, (which was understandable, who wouldn’t be when a stranger suddenly burst in in the middle of the day at one of Cloud Recesses most contained facilities that only a select few could enter?) when Wei WuXian dragged his younger self out of MingShi.
“Hey! What are you doing?! Let go of me!” his younger self demanded. “Don’t you know who I am?! I can destroy you in a matter of minutes if you don’t-” his mouth then clamped shut, his words got cut off by the Lan clan’s signature silencing spell (Lan QiRen had agreed to teach him all the clan’s secrets when he finally acknowledged him being the spouse of the sect’s Second Master and the parent of the sect’s heir). Having his speech taken away, his younger self resorted to kicking and squirming as a way of protest, but he knows his younger self better than anyone. Despite Mo XuanYu having a weak body (but he is getting better as his husband constantly dotted on him and his uncle-in-law fretting him over his health), he knows that his younger self didn’t have the strength to pry himself out of his grip as his younger self was both physically and mentally weak due to not having a core, being malnourished and practicing demonic cultivation. It wasn’t long until his younger self grew tired and resorted to glare at him the rest of the way.
As they got closer to JingShi, he noticed his family gathered together on the path. They seemed to be discussing something, but he couldn’t quite hear what they were talking about. “Oh my, are you all starting a family meeting without me?” They seem to have heard him as they all stopped and turned towards him at the same time (which he admits is kinda adorable and creepy at the same time) as he called out.
As he stepped closer, he saw something he wasn’t expecting at all. It was his even younger self from during his time at lectures! His younger self seems to have noticed as well as he has completely stopped moving behind him.
The Yiling Patriarchy stood frozen as he stared at his younger self, his eyes so full of life, his smile still bright and his skin tanned and flushed. How he missed when life was simpler, when he didn't need to lie, when he still had his core… but… what was he doing here?! How was he here?!
He remembered being in the Burial Mounds with the Wen remnants. He was working in his cave like usual when an array suddenly showed up beneath him. He remembered yelling for Wen Qing and Wen Ning, closing his eyes and grabbing Chenqing before a bright red light shone around him. He distinctly remembered Wen Qing calling him, but when he opened his eyes again, he found he was no longer in the Burial Mounds, instead he was in front of a warded building. He looked around to find the place eerily familiar. Serene white buildings, crisp air and fog surrounded him, then it hit him, he was in Cloud Recesses!
He stood there for a long while, as the place he was where he assumed was secluded, judging by the lack of disciples roaming around. Was this some kind of trick? Have the Lans set up a trap when he wasn’t looking? That doesn't make sense, no Lan has set foot into the Burial Mounds…except… No, Lan Zhan would never, no matter how much he wants to punish him. The righteous and honourable Hanguang-Jun would never do such a thing. If it wasn’t Lan Zhan… has someone else entered the Burial Mounds without him noticing? Again, it would be impossible. The ward only responded to him and the Wens (and Lan Zhan), no way someone would have entered without him noticing.
As he tried to piece everything together, a sudden wave of resentful energy flooded his senses. The energy seems to be coming from the warded building in front of him. The plaque (he didn’t even realise was there in the first place) wrote the words for darkness and room, MingShi.
Although the resentful energy wasn’t that strong and there was what seems like a strong ward enclosing it with multiple talismans around the building, it is still worth investigating, especially if there isn’t anyone walking around these parts. The ward was expertly crafted, it seems to be made by a master that probably has a lot of knowledge under their belt. When he went to touch the ward to inspect it, he didn’t expect the ward would let him through so easily! It’s either the ward was weaker than it seems (which was more likely as he managed to get through the Lan’s infamous security ward on his first day of lectures) or the ward somehow recognised him (which was more unlikely as he had never even seen this building before when he was a student here). It doesn’t matter how he got through the ward, he could think about it later, now he needs to check on the resentful energy coming from the building.
When he threw the heavy doors open, he was once surprised to see a junior cultivator from the Ouyang sect playing a dizi that slightly resembles his and what seem to be a high ranking Lan cultivator (judging from the typical Lan attire, white robes with blue clouds embroidered on the hems of it, minus the forehead ribbon) standing at the side with his guard up. Such hypocrites, they condemned him for using the unorthodox path, citing that their rule of ‘don’t take crooked ways’ and ‘stay on the righteous path’ or ‘do not associate with evil’ and ‘do not fall to evil’. He can call out their hypocrisy later, right now, he needs to stop them.
“What do you think you're doing?!” he yelled out. The Lan cultivator looked surprised before quickly composing himself and turned towards the Ouyang disciple to say a couple words. Before Wei WuXian could say anything further, the Lan cultivator dragged him out. “Hey! What are you doing?! Let go of me!” he demanded as he tried to release himself from the grip, unfortunately, his body wasn’t strong as before, so forcefully trying to get out was impossible. “Don’t you know who I am?! I can destroy you in a matter of minutes if you don’t-” his mouth then clamped shut. How dare he! He was involved in demonic cultivation and then had the gulls to silence him with that damn spell?!
He tried to get out of the grip a few more times before eventually giving in and reluctantly following the cultivator. He gripped Chenqing tight and started to plan his escape when they suddenly stopped in the middle of the path.
“Oh my, are you all starting a family meeting without me?” the cultivator called out. Wei WuXian looked up to see more Lan sect members standing not far from them, and among them was the person he dreaded seeing the most, Lan Zhan. He sucked in a breath as all heads suddenly turned towards their direction. However, among the Lans was a really, really, familiar face. It was like looking at a mirror, but the mirror was alive and had thoughts.
He stood there frozen. This has to be some sort of sick dream, right? There was no way that he was seeing his younger self standing in front of him. Perhaps Lan Zhan was right, his mind was probably damaged by the resentful energy he cultivates…