Once upon a lifetime

Caution - Part two

“You know Ning-er?” murmured Granny Wen softly. Her shoulders relaxed and she sighed with a smile. “I see. You must be his friends from this year's visit to Gusu. Why didn’t you say so at the beginning? Aren’t the lectures still ongoing? Why are you here? And you as well, Second Young Master Lan.”

“We are on a mission,” said Lan Wangji smoothly. “We know there was an array previously placed on the Heavenly Maiden statue by Wen Ruohan. However, the Goddess in the cave temple is far too strong for a simple array to withhold. We wish to place extra precautions, so something like what happened to Young Master Wen does not happen again.”

Lan Wangji could spin a tale without a single lie just as quickly as he could pass out from a cup of Emperor’s smile. Wei Wuxian regarded him with deep admiration and approval, for Lan Wangji had surely proven himself today!

“I see, I see,” said Granny Wen, smiling widely. “If you are friends of Ning-er’s, then you are friends of ours.”

She gently took hold of Lan Wangji’s hand and brought him through the village gates, where the villagers instantly relaxed and were happy to welcome the pair with wide smiles. Lan Wangji looked extremely overwhelmed with all of the positive attention, and kept bowing his head and murmuring small “Thank you”s whenever someone complimented him and he froze when an old lady once passed him a bundle of flowers.

“They’re really great, aren’t they?” said Wei Wuxian, fondly looking at them as he told Lan Wangji the names of people he recognised from the Burial Mounds.

When Lan Wangji visited, they were certainly very welcoming to him, but both the entire incident in Qiongqi Path and the general enmity for Wens in the jianghu put them on edge, and they didn’t trust him completely enough to lower their guards. Now, however, while peace still took a stronghold, they could freely treat him like one of their own. And it seemed Lan Wangji noticed this too.

“Very great,” he wholeheartedly agreed.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the temple, and the entire journey there, Granny Wen relayed all of the information she knew about both the Heavenly Maiden statue’s origins and how it was revered today, hoping to be as helpful as she could. Granted, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji already knew most of what there was to know, but she at least refreshed their minds on the matter and therefore still deserved some credit.

The statue was still and silent, and even her large body didn’t completely cancel out the echoes of the temple, which was cave-like and filled with an eerie green gloom. When they first entered, Granny Wen looked very nervous for them, and constantly asked them whether they wanted to turn back. But she gradually started to realise that they knew what they were doing, and left them with nothing but wishes for luck.

Wei Wuxian skipped forward to the array, Lan Wangji slowly walking behind, and he crouched down, humming aloud for a few moments. It was a large circle, painted in thick blood, with characters and symbols rudimentary for array or talisman-writing. Of course, it was old and clearly made by a master, but Wei Wuxian tutted slowly, barely pushing down a grin.

“Wei Ying, how is it?” said Lan Wangji from beside him, staring down at the array. “We still don’t know how Wen Chao destroyed it. Is there a way you can prevent it?”

“Of course!” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, leaping to his feet. “I experimented greatly with talismans back at the Burial Mounds, as I needed really secure barriers to keep the Wens safe. I ended up inventing a few — not impenetrable, but good enough that someone like Wen Chao couldn’t even dream of destroying them. I know just the ones!”

He placed a few on the floor, and in mere moments he had made a half-circle of talismans – not quite finished, but the statue already seemed to be bound to its pose even further.