Chapter Text
After the shattering of the Nie sabres, Lan Wangji spends a couple of weeks in the Unclean Realm.
Part of this time he spends recovering. The Nie carry powerful blades, and destroying so many over such a wide area all at once was incredibly taxing. Lan Wangji takes several days just to regain his strength in the wake of the ordeal, resting in a guest bedroom in the form of a barely-solid shadow.
When he emerges, he does so to a much-changed Nie Sect.
“When I revealed the secret of the Nie cultivation style, I gave our disciples the option to stay or go,” Nie Huaisang says, as he and Lan Wangji take tea in what used to be Nie Mingjue's office. Black Water, who's made himself a fixture at the new Sect Leader’s side, is leaning against the wall behind Nie Huaisang, eating peanuts from a large bag without even bothering to remove the shells. “Almost two thirds chose to leave. Most were furious they had unknowingly been using resentment for years. Plus, losing a spiritual weapon is a terrible blow for a cultivator–many couldn't bear the shame of it. We’ve had a mass exodus of disciples to the Jiang and Jin. Even some of the smaller sects are seeing growth from this.”
Lan Wangji takes a sip of tea and places his cup delicately back on the table. “Not the Lan?”
Nie Huaisang waves his hand. “The Lan Sect has completely shut themselves off from the rest of the Jianghu. The Cloud Recesses are in lockdown. I imagine they're facing some internal strife after what you did to them.”
Lan Wangji frowns. “What I did?”
Nie Huaisang blinks. “Xichen-ge told da-ge that you were the one who cursed the Lan elders. Is that not true?” When Lan Wangji doesn't immediately respond, Nie Huaisang continues: “According to him, it was the sound of a qin that drove them all to madness. Did you… not mean to do that?”
“Mn,” Lan Wangji answers in the negative, staring down into his cup. He hadn't realized the impact of his music at the time, but in hindsight he isn't sorry for it. He played with honest feeling, and if this was the result then perhaps it could be called justice.
In an odd way, he feels relieved. He had been dreading taking his sect to account for their crimes. Having already caused so much damage, he can consider the debt paid, and dust his hands of them.
“How is former Sect Leader Nie?” Lan Wangji asks.
“My brother's, ah, not the happiest with me at the moment,” Nie Huaisang says sheepishly. “He's mad about the sect losing so much face, and that he can't cultivate the same way he used to. But in my opinion he's being overdramatic. He still has a golden core, it's not like he has to cultivate with resentment. He'll get over himself once he picks up a new cultivation path. The important thing is, he's alive, and should stay that way for a good while longer.” He lifts his chin defiantly. “I don't care if I go down in history as the useless Headshaker who presided over the downfall of the Nie clan. All I care about is doing what I like and living a good life, and now that my brother’s safe, that's exactly what I'm going to do.” He puts his hands on his hips. “I'm going to drink wine and paint fans and write erotica, and the Nie Sect is going to be small and unimportant so that nobody will ever bother me for anything ever again.”
From behind him, Black Water scoffs through a mouthful of peanut shells.
Nie Huaisang lets out a dramatic sigh. “...Ok, and I'm maybe going to do a bit of rebranding. The Nie can't cultivate like we used to, after all, and we need to attract disciples somehow! Currently, no sect specializes in intelligence gathering and, ah… covert operations. It's a niche waiting for someone to fill.”
“Spies,” Lan Wangji says drily. “You want to make the Nie into a sect of spies.”
“Specialists, Wangji-xiong! People who get things done. Nothing so crass as spies.” Nie Huaisang flips open his fan to hide the lower half of his face. It's a new fan, much less ornate than those he usually carries, plain except for the character 風 written in elegant calligraphy. Its powerful aura tells Lan Wangji it's a spiritual weapon.
Lan Wangji sees the wistful look on Black Water's face and wonders.
“Anyways, enough about my problems! What's your next move, Wangji-xiong? Where to next?”
Lan Wangji has had time to consider this. “Chenqing and Suibian,” he says. “I would like to recover them.”
Having already learned about Wei Wuxian's survival and ascension, Nie Huaisang nods in approval. “Do you know where they are?” he asks. When Lan Wangji shakes his head, Nie Huaisang lets out a thoughtful hum. “In that case, let me help you. That way, you'll owe me a favor.”
“That is…” Kind is maybe not the right word for the sort of shameless opportunism Sect Leader Nie is currently engaging in. “...Appreciated.”
“Excellent!” Nie Huaisang snaps his fan shut and claps his hands. “It shouldn't take more than a few weeks. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy our hospitality. Though I'd recommend avoiding my brother–he’s very determined to exorcise you at the moment.”
Lan Wangji bows his head. “I will keep that in mind.”
___
In the end, it takes slightly over a week to get the information on the whereabouts of Wei Ying’s spiritual tools. “Suibian is listed as part of the Jin’s requisition of the spoils from the siege on the Burial Mounds,” Nie Huaisang tells Lan Wangji, when he comes to him to deliver the information. “Officially, Chenqing was lost, but I have it on good authority that it's in the hands of the Jiang.”
How fortuitous. Those are the two sects Lan Wangji has unfinished business with.
“Which will you go to first?” Nie Huaisang asks.
“Jiang,” he replies.
The choice is obvious. Of Wei Ying's spiritual tools, he greatly favored Chenqing over Suibian in recent years. If Lan Wangji were to only be able to present him with one, he'd prefer it be the flute.
Plus, he has a personal reason to go to Lotus Pier. A question for which he wants answers.
“Ah, well, good luck dealing with Jiang Wanyin, then!” Nie Huaisang says, then opens his fan to hide behind. “And keep an ear out for interesting gossip. A little birdie told me some fascinating rumors have been spreading lately about your recent…achievements.”
Lan Wangji gives him a flat look. “What did you do.”
Nie Huaisang flutters his fan nervously. “Nothing! I don't know, I don't know anything! It's just, it would be a bit bad if it got out that the current Nie Sect Leader was involved in the destruction of all the Nie sect sabres, wouldn't it? It would probably be better if people thought it was all the work of an evil calamity… plus, with the whole Jianghu focused on Wei-xiong as a villain, having someone new to fear could only be good for him, right?”
Lan Wangji considers his words. He's… not wrong. As a god, Wei Ying requires the devotion of followers to exist. As a ghost, Lan Wangji has no such limitations. Transferring some of the cultivation world’s ire onto him would help along the process of Wei Ying's image being rehabilitated.
If Nie Huaisang blackening Lan Wangji's name helps Wei Ying, then so be it. It's not like he's cared about his reputation since his death.
Lan Wangji is halfway out the door before Nie Huaisang stops him one last time. “Oh, and Wangji-xiong?”
“Mn?”
“When you get to the Jin…” Nie Huaisang's eyes turn steely, and he snaps his fan shut with a powerful burst of wind. “Make Jin Guangyao pay for what he tried to do to my brother.”
Lan Wangji lowers his head in acknowledgement. He will add it to the tally of that man’s sins, right alongside scheming against Wei Ying and manipulating his brother.
___
Black Water Sinking Ships is there at the gates of the Unclean Realm to see Lan Wangji off.
“You will stay,” Lan Wangji says. It is not a question.
He Xuan grunts. “I already updated Crimson Rain over the communication arrays. There’s no need for me to report back in-person.”
Lan Wangji levels the man with a stare. “That is not why.”
He Xuan pauses. “...No. It’s not.”
During the time they spent working together, Lan Wangji was never able to get a read on Black Water. His fascination with Nie Huaisang has remained a mystery, though Lan Wangji has gathered his intentions aren’t malicious.
Black Water seems to sense the question in his silence and sighs. He looks out into the distance, refusing to meet Lan Wangji’s gaze. “Never fall in love with a mortal,” he says eventually. “Having to find them every time they reincarnate, only for them to die again and again… it's a pain. They're the same, but they're not, and they don't remember you, but they do…it's best avoided if you can help it.”
Lan Wangji is at a loss for words.
“...Anyway. Qing–uh, Huaisang told me what you're up to. Avenging your man, huh? Crimson Rain is gonna eat this up.”
Lan Wangji stiffens. How did Nie Huaisang know? “...Do not stand in my way.”
“I don't plan on it.” He Xuan meets Lan Wangji's gaze, his black eyes fathomless. “Still, a word of caution. The Yiling Patriarch is an influential figure in the ghost realm, and even Crimson Rain and I don't know the true extent of his power. Out of respect for a fellow Supreme, I'll leave him alone, but the moment he even hints at turning his powers against one of us there's nothing in the Three Realms that will save him from retribution. A man powerful enough to control a ghost king cannot be permitted to exist.”
Lan Wangji bristles at the threat at the same time as a chill trickles down his spine. Could Wei Ying even do that? Sure, Wei Ying can command low-level undead using demonic cultivation, but what was the limit of his power? How strong did a spirit need to be to resist his control? Lan Wangji imagines the sort of untold devastation Wei Ying could have wrought upon the Wen with someone like Hua Cheng under Chenqing’s thrall, and he shivers.
Still, he finds the prospect unlikely.
“He destroyed his greatest source of power,” Lan Wangji says stiffly. “The Yin Tiger Tally.”
“And it's a good thing he did.” Black Water gives Lan Wangji a once-over, assessing. “Regardless. Don't underestimate him, and don't let him take advantage of you.”
Lan Wangji blinks, realizing that Black Water's concern extends to him as well. He’s a ghost now too, after all. Could Wei Ying influence him using demonic cultivation?
Something hot and dark slithers in his gut at the thought.
“He does not need to control me,” Lan Wangji says. I'd do anything he asks of me regardless.
Black Water gives him another long look, then snorts. “I can't believe this. A second Crimson Rain. I need a drink.” Conversation apparently over, He Xuan turns around and stalks back inside the walls of the Unclean Realm, waving Lan Wangji off. “Good luck haunting the Jianghu,” he calls over his shoulder. “It's been a fun show so far.”
“Mn,” Lan Wangji replies, too quietly to be heard. He waits until the man is out of sight before mounting Liuchen and flying off in the direction of Yunmeng.
___
As Lan Wangji flies, he reflects on Nie Huaisang’s earlier words about his brother: He still has a golden core. It's not like he has to cultivate with resentment.
It’s a reminder of the growing suspicion Lan Wangji has had since his death about Wei Ying’s cultivation.
When Lan Wangji had been unable to draw Bichen upon leaving the Burial Mounds, he realized that if he wanted to hide the fact that he was a ghost he would need an explanation as to why he could no longer wield his sword. Every excuse that came to mind was an echo of something Wei Ying had said to explain away why he no longer carried Suibian.
That caused Lan Wangji’s perception to shift: what if Wei Ying had been unable to wield his sword, rather than just unwilling?
At first, Lan Wangji was afraid this might mean Wei Ying, too, was dead. He quickly realized this couldn't be the case: he had checked to make sure Wei Ying was breathing dozens of times after the final battle of the Sunshot Campaign when he’d lain in bed unconscious for days, and had heard Wei Ying's heart beating as he carried them away from the massacre at Nightless City. Wei Ying was definitely not a ghost.
But if Wei Ying wasn’t dead, then why couldn’t he cultivate the sword path?
The answer was obvious: Wei Ying must have lost his golden core.
But how?
Common sense would say Wen Zhuliu, but something feels off about that explanation to Lan Wangji. Why would Wei Ying keep it a secret if his golden core was crushed by the Core-Melting Hand? Wen Zhuliu may still be involved, but Lan Wangji's instincts are telling him there's more to the story.
There’s a narrow window of time in which Wei Ying could have lost his core–he definitely still had it when they parted ways in the Xuanwu cave, and he'd almost certainly lost it by the time he reappeared in the Yiling Supervisory Office wielding resentful energy after his three month disappearance. That means Lan Wangji needs to look into the fall of Lotus Pier and what happened after. Which, unfortunately, means investigating the only person still alive who was with Wei Ying at the time. A person Lan Wangji finds irritating at the best of times and traitorous at the worst.
Jiang Wanyin.
___
The trip to Lotus Pier takes a few weeks.
He would have gotten there faster if he'd flown straight there without stopping–it's not like he needs rest or sustenance anymore. But Lan Wangji is a creature of habit, and routine has always been a source of comfort to him. As a result, he keeps to the Lan bedtime, retiring at nine and rising at five, staying at inns along the way.
Stopping by small towns as he travels is a habit he developed after the war. With slander about the Yiling Patriarch abound, Lan Wangji had little motivation to remain in the Cloud Recesses, and as a result he would routinely go night hunting for weeks at a time. He gained his reputation for going where the chaos is by attending to these obscure villages that most cultivators would ignore, finding that mingling with the common folk often revealed situations requiring a cultivator's aid that would otherwise go unreported. He doesn't even have to talk to people–he just has to listen.
Because of this habit, he ends up being waylaid a few times along the way to Lotus Pier, helping people sort out various hauntings. He may be dead, but he's still a cultivator. If he encounters a problem worthy of a night hunt, he's obviously going to stay and help.
In one village, an unknown malingering spirit had attached itself to a young bachelor, tearing up laundry on the line, turning freshly cooked meals rotten, and griming up recently swept floors. When Lan Wangji investigated, it turned out to be the ghost of the man’s mother, who was upset her son had not yet married and had decided to express this frustration by disrupting chores she saw as a wife's duty. After Lan Wangji calmed her with his qin, he was able to convince her to move on, pointing out that being haunted by his mother's ghost would assuredly prevent her son from attracting a wife.
In another, a herd of cattle had mistakenly been allowed to graze on the site of an old burial ground, and were tainted by the resentment of the dead as a result. They were well on their way to forming beast cores by the time Lan Wangji arrived to address the issue. Thankfully, he had caught it early and was able to disperse the resentment without harming the livestock, thus saving the rancher’s livelihood.
In yet another, a terrible coincidence of superbly bad Feng Shui had resulted in a pocket of poisonous qi accumulating in the master bedroom of a local wealthy merchant's home, resulting in bad dreams and restless sleep for both him and his wife. Lan Wangji clears the bad energy and advises the couple on how to prevent such circumstances in the future.
There's even one instance where the ghost Lan Wangji is asked to eliminate is no ghost at all–just a tree branch knocking on a roof, and a grandfather skittish from the war.
These are all minor issues, certainly not requiring a cultivator of Lan Wangji's skill level. But as trivial and mundane as they are, these night hunts are his bread and butter as a cultivator. The matchmaking mother ghost, the herd of cattle slowly turning monstrous, the poor flow of energy poisoning a man in his own home–all three of these issues could have become deadly if allowed to fester in silence.
Ultimately, a cultivator's best method for addressing problems isn't liberation, suppression, or elimination–it’s prevention.
___
As Lan Wangji travels, he begins to hear the rumors.
“Did you hear? There's a new Supreme ghost!”
“Oh gods, another? Crimson Rain Sought Flower always gave me nightmares as a kid!”
“They call him Po Qin Jue Xian, Broken Zither Snapped Strings—the Yiling Patriarch’s last and greatest act of revenge.”
“Can you imagine? A scion of the Lan clan, falling so low…”
“They say he sought retribution against his own sect, driving his elders to madness in revenge for his death.”
“What did they expect, executing him in such a brutal way?”
“Apparently, when his own brother tried to play the song of rest, he smashed the zither to pieces, not even sparing the strings.”
“Did you hear about what he did to the Nie? Apparently, he was so enraged by their participation in the campaign against the Yiling Laozu that he destroyed each and every one of their spiritual weapons! Cultivators are leaving the sect in droves!”
“My cousin told me the Nie Sect Leader was so injured from his battle against the ghost king that he had to retire! His useless brother is in charge now!”
“I wonder what he’ll do to the Jiang and Jin?”
“So scary!”
“They say there's a god who ascended specifically to oppose him.”
“It’s true! We better pray to Yin Xing for protection!”
Nie Huaisang works fast, Lan Wangji thinks, as he passes yet another group of common folk trading sordid tales of his supposed evil deeds. Ridiculous. This is why gossip is forbidden.
At least Wei Ying’s reputation is benefitting from all this talk. It’s impressive how quickly the public shifts their attention from one villain to the next–the only time Lan Wangji hears the Yiling Laozu mentioned is when it’s in connection to himself, as the one who supposedly summoned his vengeful spirit to enact chaos on his behalf.
He isn’t sure how Nie Huaisang learned Wei Ying’s new title, but Lan Wangji thinks it suits him. Yin Xing. The Yin Star, light born from darkness, just as Broken Zither Snapped Strings is darkness born from light. Disparate yet entwined, opposing yet complementary. Lan Wangji feels a strange warmth at the thought of him and Wei Ying being spoken of in this way, as if they’re puzzle pieces meant to slot together. As if they’re each waiting for the other in order to be whole.
It is with this feeling of confused hope that he finally arrives in Lotus Pier.