Your dreams

Chapter 13

Lan Wangji got hardly any sleep that night. He had spent the whole time watching the window to the infirmary, wishing Wei Wuxian to have a good rest. All the while though, he knew that it was the farthest from the truth as it could get. Ever since coming here, he never stopped having more and more visions, every one more confusing and terrifying than the other. For various reasons.

Lan Wangji sitting in a gorge of a cavern and playing some unknown music while watching the moon. It sounded like a melody from the Gusu Lan sect. He was immensely sad and there was a suffocating longing in his heart. Longing for someone he had long lost and could never have back. For someone who was far away but still felt close with the song.

Snap.

Lan Wangji was laying on a piece of rock and seeing Wen Qing and Wen Ning in front of him. Both Qishan Wen sect siblings were telling him something with tears in their eyes. He did not hear their words clearly; his hearing was muffled and his head was getting dizzy with how much his heart was hurting. Hot tears were running down his cheeks and there was an agonized scream stuck in his throat. Then, everything went black.

Snap.

Lan Wangji was fighting in the middle of a chaotic battle. He was surrounded by fierce corpses from all sides. But he was not scared. On the contrary; they were all obeying his command, even if it costed him way more strength than he was ready to admit. His head was pounding heavily as he mechanically moved his fingers across the flute, creating an unsettling tune. It was mixing with the screeching and whispers in his ears and making him even dizzier.

Snap.

Lan Wangji was standing in front of a cavern. There were many young cultivators shuffling nervously behind him. There was that other older Lan Wangji standing by his side. They were facing a crowd of enraged cultivators who demanded they returned their children to them. Lan Wangji smiled sadly, were they about to misunderstand him once again?

Suddenly, a horde of fierce corpses came running in from the surrounding forest. Lan Wangji ushered everyone to come into the cave so he could protect them. The older version of himself was still by his side, as if refusing to take even a single step away. Lan Wangji's heart was warm and he smiled to himself, happy and moved.

Snap.

Lan Wangji was running away in panic. He heard frantic pants approaching from behind. He looked back and his heart almost stopped. The fangs of the beast pursuing him and its sharp claws seemed as close as ever. He was about to be attacked any second now, the dog was enormous and fierce, it would snap his neck in a single bite.

"Lan Zhan, save me!" he shouted on top of his lungs. He was calling for the only person who was still on his side after everything, the only person who had promised not to leave him ever again.

An older version of Lan Wangji suddenly descended from the sky as a graceful deity. Lan Wangji's heart stopped beating for a second time. Now for a different reason though. 'Lan Zhan looks way too handsome like this,' he though.

Snap.

Lan Wangji was screaming his lungs out. There was a vivid fire ranging in his lower abdomen, exactly where his golden core rested. He turned his head to the side and thought his tears looked at Jiang Cheng who way laying next to him. He knew for whom he was doing this. He knew it, and he would not be swayed in his determination by a little bit of pain. His brother needed his golden core way more, how else was he to revive the Yunmeng Jiang sect?

Snap.

Lan Wangji was darting away from a sword pointed at him. He was sitting on the ground and his hands were tied so there was not much space to actually escape. Though, he had no intention of actually getting away. The older version of Lan Wangji was sitting by his side and he had to protect him. Instead of avoiding the sword, he was putting his own body in between the weapon and the older Lan Wangji's chest.

Snap.

Lan Wangji skipping towards the older version of himself and he was grinning widely. The shopping street was lively and he loved it. He was especially excited by all the stuff he could see at the festival stalls. And most of all, there was another eye candy standing just up ahead, waiting for him. The older Lan Wangji smiled faintly when he came closer and stopped in front of him. They looked into each other's eyes and Lan Wangji almost could not contain himself out of sheer happiness. He had no idea what he had done in his previous life to deserve someone as perfect as Lan Zhan.

Snap.

Lan Wangji felt stabbing pain in his abdomen. It was so bad and so sudden that he only stood there, completely frozen and did not even lift a hand to defend himself. And why would he when it was his nephew who had just stabbed him? And was that sword the one he had inherited from the father that Lan Wangji had killed in his previous life? He closed his eyes and let his knees give out under him. There was no more need for fighting, he deserved it. He was the terrible Yiling Patriarch after all, he should not be haunting the cultivation world and hurt all those he loved for another second.

Snap.

Lan Wangji's eyes widened as a sea of arrows was shot in his direction. The Jin cultivators around the gorge were sneering at him and Jin Zixun looked like he was about to burst with pride and contentment. Lan Wangji lifted his flute to his lips but soon realized that there were no dead bodies for him to rouse anywhere in the vicinity. He was defenceless. Wen Ning's figure flashed in front of him, blocking the attack. The Ghost general was the last person he had supporting and protecting him.

He wondered if Lan Zhan had betrayed him and had any hand in laying down this trap. After all, he had been the one who had sent the invitation to celebration of Jin Ling's birth. Lan Wangji hunched his shoulders a little in pretence to be hiding better from the incoming arrows. In fact, he was being torn apart by heartbreak. Had Lan Zhan really betrayed him or did he have nothing to do with this ambush?

Lan Wangji lifted his flute; now was not the time to ponder on such matters, he had to protect himself or he would never be able to find out the truth from the man himself.

Snap.

The visons kept coming faster and faster and Lan Wangji's head was now spinning so much he had to keep his eyes closed the whole time. He was even getting confused about where exactly he was or who he was.

The images were swimming in his mind, overtaking everything else. Was he Lan Wangji, the respected head disciplinarian of the Gusu Lan sect? Or was he Wei Wuxian from whose point of view he was seeing everything? Or was he an older Lan Wangji, the esteemed Hanguang-Jun who was very clearly in love with the former Yiling Patriarch?

He truly did not know anymore. His forehead was threatening to explode as he was doing his best to continue holding onto his sanity and not let himself be carried away by the violent torrents of someone else's dreams. It was not helping at all that the visions were not in any particular chronological order, at least as far as he could tell. Moreover, Wei Wuxian was also getting called another name in several of them. Who was Mo Xuanyu and what was his relationship to the current Yunmeng Jiang sect head disciple?

There were so many questions in Lan Wangji's mind. Although he was seeing more and more fragments of memories, he was only getting more confused with each new one. They did not fit together at all. How could they when Wei Wuxian was at times a happy and smiling youth, and then he transformed into a broken young man who could manipulate resentful energy and even another youth who went under the name of Mo Xuanyu and had an older version of Lan Wangji travelling with him around the cultivation world and protecting him?

Just who was Wei Wuxian?