Chapter Text
The last thing Wei Wuxian remembered was the resentful voices screaming in his head, cultivators yelling and cursing his name, the dark energy wrapping around his skin. If it had been any other cultivator, they’d have shuddered from the coldness of it, but Wei Wuxian didn’t. He had long embraced it. Wei Wuxian looks up through his hazed vision, eyes glowing red as he makes out one familiar figure in purple among the crowd of angry cultivators that were out for his blood.
Jiang Cheng…
His brother, his shidi was there too, ready to kill him to avenge his sister, and rightfully so, Wei Wuxian thinks. He had been the one leading the siege. He had been the one to hold Jiang Yanli in his arms as she took her last breath, her throat pierced by a sword that had been meant for Wei Wuxian.
Shijie...Jiang Cheng, I’m sorry. Wei Wuxian blinks through tears of despair, guilt, and anger as he raises the amulet and puts the pieces together. The resentful energy immediately expanded, lashing out at anyone who tried to get near him.
“Wei Wuxian!” His brother (former brother?) screams his name. “Stop this madness!” Purple lightning crackles through the shield of resentful energy as Jiang Cheng fights his way through, Sandu gripped tightly in his hands. Wei Wuxian closes his eyes, ready for the sword to pierce his chest and end this once and for all.
“Wei Wuxian! Stop this!” Wei Wuxian blinks opened his eyes. There’s anger and grief in Jiang Cheng’s eyes, but there’s a hint of vulnerability that Wei Wuxian hadn’t seen in his eyes, not since that day Jiang Cheng came to the Burial Mounds and Wei Wuxian told him to leave him be.
Jiang Cheng…
Wei Wuxian raises his hands above the amulet. That’s when Jiang Cheng lunges towards him with his sword raised, his eyes glaring in pure fury. He closes his eyes and doesn’t dodge it. Instead he opens up his arms and accepts the sword like a hug. For a second, he feels a searing pain through his chest. When his eyes open, Jiang Cheng is staring at him in disbelief, still gripping the hilt of the sword.
“Why?” Jiang Cheng asks him, his voice a broken whisper. He tries to pull the sword away but Wei Wuxian holds it fast in place.
“You...”
Wei Wuxian smiles at him and pushes him away with all his remaining strength, sending Chenqing along with him. Then he places the two pieces of the amulet together and raises his hands. He looks up one last time, seeing Jiang Cheng having recovered from being pushed back. Their eyes meet; one pair glowing bright red and another staring back at them with disbelief, grief and shock.
Then there’s a bright flash of white as Wei Wuxian’s hand makes contact with the amulet, glowing with energy. Then darkness.
Wen Qing…
Wen Ning...
Shijie…
And Jiang Cheng…
I’m sorry.
“Wei-xiong!”
Nie Huaisang?! What is he doing here? Was he in the Burial Mounds too? No...he can’t be here...not Nie-xiong. No…
Wei Wuxian blinks open his eyes with a loud gasp. Nie Huaisang is hovering over him anxiously. It’s only then that Wei Wuxian realizes his robes are soaking wet.
“W-what?” He groans.
“W-we were both fishing...then you suddenly collapsed!” Nie Huaisang says fearfully. “I thought it was the current or that you’d hit your head... so I dragged you out.
Fishing?
“Where are we? This isn’t the Burial Mounds,” He murmurs, his head still aching.
“B-burial Mounds? Wei-xiong, what are you talking about? Why would we be there? This is Cloud Recesses!”
His vision finally clears for him to see his surroundings. They were indeed in Cloud Recesses, near the back waterfalls. Wei Wuxian glances down at himself and sees that he’s wearing white Gusu guest disciple attire. The most noticeable thing that he notices though is the warmth of his golden core in this dantian, filling the aching hole of pain and coldness that he had had to live with for over a year. He immediately clutches the robes near his core, a sob choking in his throat.
“Wei-xiong? Wei-xiong! What’s wrong? ..ei-xiong!” He can barely hear the concerned voice of his friend and the hands shaking his shoulders before he falls unconscious again.