𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐚 ⚣︎ mo dao zu shi x male reader

thirty-seven.

"i will return soon with news."

lan wangji was saying his final tasks and assignments to the disciples who were being left behind. he was speaking to them a few feet away, discussing strategies in case something were to ever happen whilst also ordering them to remain vigilant on keeping an eye out or the demon arm. as he was wrapping up his discussion, wei wuxian and lan y/n were standing a couple feet farther, y/n patiently waiting for his older brother. his arms were tucked comfortably into his sleeves, eyes closed as the wind gently blows by, fluttering his silky hair as if they were playfully ruffling his hair.

his ears gently listens for the sounds carried by the wind — he could hear the rustling of the bamboo trees, the excited chirping of the birds, and the sounds of hardworking disciples refining their skill with the guqin. the wind carried all sorts of sounds, delivering them to y/n's ears. he was waiting patiently for what was to come. his mind and heart could not be at ease because he knew something was amiss. wei wuxian couldn't have reincarnated so quickly, and all on his own at that. mo xuanyu sacrificed his body to bring back wei wuxian in the material world, but y/n was afraid that while it did return his old, and dearest friend to him, he worries that it might've set off a chaotic sequence of events. mo village was most likely the starting point of some bigger, sinister scheme. but who would do such a thing?

what creature, alive or dead, would want to ruin the near-peaceful era that the cultivation world has entered? ever since the death of the yiling patriarch and the crimson ruiner, the great clans could finally rest easy, knowing that they'd no longer have to sleep with one eye open for fear that if they did, the dark of night, controlled by both sinister figureheads, would devour them whole.

wei wuxian stared at lan y/n, noticing how deep in thought he looked. his eyes were closed, hair and robes fluttering ever so slightly. the veil lan y/n wore, flipped up for a few moments, revealing the scarred portion of skin underneath. wei wuxian cringed internally, yet he wonders, was that his only scar? what about the scar on his chest? the scars on his back? or... wei wuxian released a deep sigh and turned away. sixteen years... sixteen years, he waited for his partner, but he never came. he waited and waited, only to get revived by a crazy cut-sleeve. then he finds out that his partner had been residing in the cloud recesses this whole time and has since then, become a full-fledged cultivator of the gusu lan clan. not only that, but he was also being taken care of. he was receiving all the love and care he did not receive in his previous life.

as happy as wei wuxian was for his friend, part of him still missed his partner. he missed lan y/n. the crimson ruiner who stayed by his side until the very end. the one person who stood by him as the whole world turned its back on them. the one person who set the world ablaze with his fury.

this person clad in white, was not lan y/n. rather, he was what lan y/n should have become. if it weren't for the curse, the lan y/n he knew would have never existed.

what a saddening thought. wei wuxian frowns, turning away from lan y/n. lan wangji joins them after few more moments with the other disciples. he noticed the slight tension between the two, his eyes darting from his well-behaved little brother, and the mischief-making wei wuxian. he shook his head. whatever they were going through, they had to fix it up themselves. they aren't children anymore after all. he didn't need to spoon-feed his little brother with the answers to his problems.

"come." he beckons, walking past the two and elegantly gliding over to the stairs leading down the mountain, where the entrance was.

lan y/n quietly follows behind, his robes fluttering slightly as he moved. wei wuxian jogged to keep up with the two brothers, but with his new body, he had a bit of a hard time. soon enough, he managed to catch up to the two of them. they were already at the entrance by the time he did, and they were just standing there, patiently waiting for him to catch up.