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Chapter Fourty One
After their talk, the three retired to Wei Wuxian’s room in the Demon Slaughtering cave. His room was simple with a single study table and a bed that could fortunately fit the three of them. Thankfully, he was used to staying at the Bloody Cold Pond Cave so this place was not messy.
Wei Wuxian lit the lamps on the cave walls while Lan Wangji was gently placing the already sleeping A’Yuan on the bed. When Wei Wuxian turned around, Lan Wangji was already sitting on the side of the bed, staring at A’Yuan with unknown emotions. Wei Wuxian sat on the other side of the bed as he watched his husband fixed the stray hair on A’Yuan’s face.
Wei Wuxian shifted his attention to the sleeping child. He had to admit that he was really different from the trouble maker that he knew from his past life. Even while sleeping, this child looked so well-behaved and proper. It was no doubt that Lan Wangji raised him. Thinking about this, Wei Wuxian raised his head and returned his gaze to Lan Wangji. He couldn’t help but shake his head and smile.
Lan Wangji looked at him, “Wei Ying?”
“Nothing,” Wei Wuxian paused. He leaned on the headboard of the bed and sigh. As he looked up and down between the father and son, he couldn’t help but nod as though he had confirmed something, “I just think that A’Yuan looked so much like you; no one will doubt me if I said that he is your biological son.”
“…”
“What? I’m serious ah!” Wei Wuxian swore, raising his three fingers towards the sky.
“Mnn,” the corner of Lan Wangji’s lips slightly lifted as he met Wei Wuxian’s mischievous eyes with his own. He then touched A’Yuan’s plump cheeks and continued, “Furen said, A’Yuan is our son.”
Lan Wangji said these words in a half-asking-half-reminding tone. His low magnetizing voice sent tremors into Wei Wuxian’s heart.
“…”
Wei Wuxian was speechless for a second before laughing, “That’s right. He is our son. I just hope that Fujin will not regret this~”
“Mnn?”
“Not regret if your uncle got into Qi Deviation when he finds out that we made A’Yuan in such a young age.”
“…”
Wei Wuxian smiled triumphantly. Since he met this Old Man Lan Zhan in this new life, he had been shooting himself in the foot. Now, he would even feel proud for such simple things he made that could make Lan Wangji wonder about life.
“After the campaign, I will let Uncle and Xiong-zhang meet you and A’Yuan,” Lan Wangji finally reacted.
Wei Wuxian hesitated, “You don’t have to…”
Lan Wangji shook his head, “No matter, Wei Ying and Sizhui are my family.”
“Lan Zhan you…” Wei Wuxian was really helpless. He understood that Lan Wangji want them to be recognized by the Lan family and he was really touched by this intention. He could only heave a sigh, “…thank you. I know, between the two of us, there should be no sorry and thank you, but what can I do when you always do things that are so moving?”
Lan Wangji reached out and touched Wei Wuxian’s face. There’s no word to utter when they could completely understand each other’s heart.
Remembering the serious matters in hand, Wei Wuxian was the first to break the lovely atmosphere, “Lan Zhan.”
“Mnn?” Lan Wangji was a little confused.
“It’s about the array you used to re-open the crack between the space and time…”
Wei Wuxian shared his thoughts to Lan Wangji. So far, there’s him, Lan Wangji, Nie Huaisang, and A’Yuan. If he’s not wrong, the crack could be opened at any point in time after he died and will throw them at the same period of time before the Sunshot Campaign.
Wen Ning and Jiang Cheng didn’t seem like they came from the other timeline. Although Meng Yao was somehow different, he already died in the previous timeline.
“There are no suspicious person in our sect. The sect leaders who attended the meeting were also normal,” Lan Wangji assured.
He and Nie Huaisang were also fearing that others will travel back in time. From when they arrived in this timeline, they had been paying attention to any strange happenings, especially around the certain people that could be of great variable in the future.
Wei Wuxian heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this assurance.
Nevertheless, the most urgent matter right now was to stabilize the Jiang Sect territory. To do this, he had to start forging the well-behaved younger brother of the Stygian Tiger Amulet.
The next day, the husband and wife, together with the powerful old demon, entered the Bloody Cold Pond Cave.
When Wei Wuxian first created the Stygian Tiger Amulet, he didn’t expect that it will have a power that was so much for him to control. Not Only did its powers nearly overwhelmed him, the Stygian Tiger Amulet was bound to no one. Unlike many spiritual weapons, which only respond to their owners, the Stygian Tiger Amulet can be used by whomever grasps it; whether they are good or bad, friend or foe.
The second time he created it, he already had a vague understanding of what went wrong on his first creation. But the Burial Mounds was in urgent need of it so he was not given a chance to confirm his inference.
The Stygian Tiger Amulet was made out of mysterious iron. Originally, this mysterious iron came from a piece of large artifact that was forge from purest energy of the earth with the power of origin that could create and destroy life. A series of incidents happened that caused the original artifact to be tainted with resentment and led to more serious matter that resulted into the separation of the original artifact into five parts. Three parts were now in the possession of Wen Rouhan, while two parts landed on Wei Wuxian’s hands.
The parts of the mysterious iron had been soaked in yin energy for millennia. It’s near to impossible to cleanse it. Wei Wuxian had already given up on that idea since he himself uses demonic cultivation.
Needless to say, the Yin Iron could only be cultivated and forged with the fire of resentments from different spirits and this was where things started to be complicated. Why would the Stygian Tiger Amulet obey anyone that could grasp it? It was obviously sentient yet unlike any other spiritual weapons, it’s not loyal to one master.
It’s wrong to say that unlike other spiritual weapons, the Stygian Tiger Amulet has no identity. Rather, the problem was being soaked in yin energy for millennia and then forge with resentful energy from different spirits gave it too much identity.
Wei Wuxian knew that there’s only one way to solve this problem. Like how an emperor could make an empire, Wei Wuxian could also use absolute power to control these spirits. This really became simple with the presence of his master. Wei Wuxian didn’t have an emperor, but he had an old demon.
Inside the Bloody Cold Pond Cave, the Stygian Tiger Amulet was solely embedded into the high platform with incantations surrounding it like veins, sulking and feeding from the resentful energy of the Burial Mounds. But soon, it will have a competitor.
Wei Wuxian flew above the crimson pond and sat onto the air in a lotus position. A piece of iron reeking with resentful energy floated in front of him. The ritual has yet to start but a thin layer of dark miasma was already gathering around them.
Lan Wangji stood at the corner of the cave. His hands tightly clenched around the hilt of his sword as he watched the scene with eyes showing rare worries.
Wei Wuxian produced a dagger from his sleeve and unhesitatingly cut his palm.
Seeing this, Lan Wangji’s feet moved subconsciously, wanting to stop Wei Wuxian. Clenching the hilt of his sword even tighter, he managed to stop himself.
Elder Heiying also entered the cloud of resentful energy. He let a wound appear on his paws. Together, they offered their blood to the Yin Iron, forming a contract between the three of them.
The piece of Yin Iron slowly lit up with a crimson hue and started to spin. The spinning turned faster and faster every second as the amount of resentful energy it was attracting grew thicker and thicker.
Wei Wuxian and Elder Heiying who were in the middle of this turbulence focused their attention into forging the Yin Iron. Wei Wuxian’s hands blurred as he successively formed strange hand seals that were obviously his own inventions. Meanwhile, Elder Heiying was not idle either. He closed his eyes and sent intent to the Yin Iron.
Lan Wangji watched this chaotic scene silently, but his heart was in complete turmoil. He couldn’t help but remember their past lives. People only knew that Wei Wuxian is strong, that he could control legions of corpse puppet with a piece of metal. They didn’t know his struggles, didn’t know how he lived and survived inside the Burial Mounds, didn’t feel the coldness and hollowness that his missing golden core created. They didn’t know that he had to put his life on the line in order to cultivate the piece of iron that they badly wanted to steal and that the reason he created it was to help stabilize the situation in the border of Jiang Sect territory.
To Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian’s life was the most important. However, he also respected him, respected his decisions and choices.
Lan Wangji didn’t know how long he had waited, but for him it felt like forever.
The thick miasma of resentful energy started to dissipate, leaving a smiling Wei Wuxian with a humming new Stygian Tiger Amulet in hand. But this ritual had taken a heavy toll in his body. He started to feel dizzy as his vision started to blur. With consciousness slipping away, he smelled the refreshing scent of sandalwood and immediately let go of his worries.
Lan Wangji noticed that Wei Wuxian and Elder Heiying were in a bad shape. He immediately flew towards them and caught them in his arms before they completely lost consciousness and fall. He hurried and brought them to Wen Qing who was already prepared in case something bad happened during the ritual.
“It’s only exhaustion. They should be awake by tomorrow,” Wen Qing assured, tucking Wei Wuxian’s hand back into the blanket.
“Mnn,” Lan Wangji responded even though it was evident that he was still worried.
Wen Qing opened her mouth. In the end, she chose not to speak. She eyed Xue Yang and directed, “It’s enough for Lan Wangji to be here. Don’t disturb your master’s rest.”
Xue Yang worriedly glanced at his master. His mouth pouting with defiance.
Wen Qing’s patience had reached its limit. She reached out for his ear and unkindly pulled Xue Yang out of the room.
Wen Qing, “Your master didn’t need your care, but Elder Heiying does!”
“Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! You let go!” Xue Yang protested but still followed.
A day had passed and the two patients indeed woke up. Wei Wuxian smelled the fragrant smell of a familiar dish even before he opened his eyes.
He sat up and immediately saw that above his study table was indeed a bowl of pork ribs and lotus root soup. He rubbed his eyes to see if it was only his imagination but the soup was still there, making his stomach rumble uncontrollably.
Wei Wuxian looked around the room but there’s no one present. He slowly got out of his bed to reach for his food but a large hand stopped his actions.
“This soup is already cold,” Lan Wangji’s deep voice sounded beside his ear.
“You walk so silently, you could pass as a ghost,” Wei Wuxian joked.
“…”
“No fun…” Wei Wuxian pouted. He wanted to say something but he noticed something and asked Lan Wangji instead, “What’s with that cloth tied around your shoulder and waist.
“…” Lan Wangji did not immediately answered. He instead started placing the newly heated soup that he had just brought on the study table while moving the old ones aside.
But Wei Wuxian, who had personally taken care of A’Yuan for the past months, had still understood the situation.
“I get it, it’s for A’Yuan,” Wei Wuxian chuckled.
Lan Wangji sat on the side of the bed with a soup in hand. He scooped a spoonful of soup to stop Wei Wuxian’s mouth, “You had not eaten for a day.”
“Alright, Fujin is really caring… ouch it’s hot!” Wei Wuxian whined jokingly.
Lan Wangji knew that it was Wei Wuxian’s another nonsense, but he still considerately blew the second spoon of soup before feeding it to Wei Wuxian.
“Our family is really poor,” Wei Wuxain suddenly said.
“Why?” Lan Wangji asked as he was scooping for the third spoonful of soup.
“There’s only soup and no meat,” Wei Wuxian seriously answered.
Lan Wangji stilled, his hand holding the spoon remained suspended a few inches away from Wei Wuxian’s mouth. After a quick internal deliberation, he put the soup back to the bowl and dotingly scooped a piece of meat for the picky patient.
Wei Wuxian, “That’s why I say, Fujin is really caring. Not only he hangs a cloth around his torso to carry his son, he even patiently feeds his sick wife.”
“…”
Wei Wuxian had finally had enough fun, “Alright alright. You’re really more adorable when you’re not shameless. Even cute when you do household chores. Right! I forgot to ask, is Shijie here?”
“No.” Lan Wangji pulled-out a piece of white handkerchief from his robe and naturally cleaned the corner of Wei Wuxian’s mouth.
“No? Then who cooked this soup?”
“…”
“…” Wei Wuxian also wordlessly looked at the man who was already placing the bowl of soup back to the study table.
“You cook this?” Wei Wuxian asked the obvious.
“No… You cook this.” He said more certainly.
“…”
Hearing no denial, Wei Wuxian reached out and grabbed his wrist. “Don’t. I mean, I want to eat more of it! I want to eat the whole pot!”
“A’Yuan also wants to eat meat!” A small voice of a child interrupted.
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji saw A’Yuan running towards them with his adorable short legs.
Wei Wuxian cooed, “Come come, A’Yuan and I will eat the soup that Fujin worked hard to make!”
“…”
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Author's Note
I'm really lazy right now. No, I'm always lazy. If this chapter is not clean and you find many technical errors, please do forgive your lazy author. I don't have beta readers so yeah... Well, I'm lazy so I would really be ashamed if there's a beta reader waiting for my random updates. Anyways, two chapters to go. Might proof read it when I have time lol. XOXO.