I didn't want to believe it but it was true. I spent three months in hell and I come out to find out that he was engaged. She was beautiful too. She was a woman from the Lanling Jin sect, Jin Liang (A feeling of elevation; A light of light). She wasn't one of the main heirs of Jin Guangshan, but her family and education was outstanding. Her eyes were a nice warm brown, her hair was long and to her waist, and her body was as the best shape for a female.
I should be happy for him, but I am not. The day I met him, I knew he was special to me but I am worthless. I was told by Yu Ziyuan herself. My parents are dead and according to her, it was to get away from me. I was called a son of a servant, I was a servant, I was a shield, I was Jiang Cheng and Shijie's shield. I did what was asked of me, Jiang Cheng was withering away, so I gave him my golden core as he had lost his. I picked up a new cultivation method because I had no other choice.
I was standing there by my Shidi Jiang Cheng at the conference meeting in Glamour hall. The war was ended, and my services were no longer needed. I needed to destroy the Yin Hu Fu but it would kill me. Maybe it was for the best. I am not worth being alive.
"Wei Gongzi?" A voice asked.
I looked to see a face that seemed like an innocent puppy face, but I could see in his eyes, Jin Guangyao's eyes, that he was up to no good.
"Lianfang Zun," I greeted calmly.
"What do you think of Hanguang Jun's match? I helped Er-Ge and his Shufu pick her out myself. I heard Hanguang Jun cannot keep his hands off her," he said.
Pain, so much pain.
"She is good for him," I replied.
"Must be nice to be an heir, they can have anyone," Jin Guangyao said.
I saw that Zewu Jun was close by and he was listening in, but I didn't think Jin Guangyao knew that, "is there a point to this conversation?" I asked.
"I heard that you are a cut-sleeve, and you are in love with him," he said.
I saw Zewu Jun's eyes widen at the realization and look at me. I took in a deep breath, "he is better off with who he has. I cannot give him anything he deserves. Even if it is just the love inside my heart, it still won't be enough. My cultivation method is also a factor. He doesn't need to be around me, and it is forbidden in his sect, I am forbidden in his sect. I was told many times I would die alone and on the streets, and I have no doubt of it."
I saw Zewu Jun head the way, "A'Yao," he said calmly.
"Er-Ge, we were just talking about your brother, saying how happy we are of his engagement news," Jin Guangyao said.
I sighed and turned to leave, "Wei Gongzi," Zewu Jun said grabbing my arm. I winced in pain causing Zewu Jun to let me go, "I am sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
"No one every seems to," I said, "and you know what," I walked to the center of the room and got everyone's attention, "since you all want to know why I gave up my sword, why don't I just show you why. I will use the Remembrance array!"
"No!" Lan Zhan said, "it's dangerous, it requires your blood to make the array and once it starts, no one can leave."
"Since when do you care about what happens to me, Hanguang Jun?" I asked, "you have other priorities now and I am doing this array."
I cut my hand and drew the array on the floor. I then sat in Lotus Position in the center. It was good that all the sects were here, including Lan Qiren. He will know for sure, why I am the demon he says I am.
"Activate it!" I yelled.
Jiang Cheng stood by the array, "are you sure?" He asked.
"Yes, now do it," I replied.
Once he activated the array, I fell into a deep meditative state. All the exits of the room were sealed, and everyone will experience one-tenth of the pain that I endured. They want to know what I am and why I am like this, they will know.
***
~*Author's POV/ 3rd POV*~
There were many sect disciples and heirs all lined up in a row. Standing up front were the heirs and Wei Wuxian. It was in Qishan, the indoctrination. Wen Chao has just called out for Jin Zixuan, Lan Wangji, and Wei Wuxian to read out the Wen sect words. Wei Wuxian went first. Many within Glamour hall laughed as he mocked Wen Chao by reciting the Lan Sect principles.
Zewu Jun was standing beside his brother at the moment, still remembering every word that Wei Wuxian said. He was in love with Lan Wangji and he had failed to see that Lan Wangji loved him in return only to cock block them by getting Wangji engaged with someone else.
Zewu Jun was surprised to hear Wei Wuxian say his sect principles and not get a single one of them incorrect. Wei Wuxian actually did pay attention. Even Lan Qiren was amused. Lan Wangji was smiling at Wei Wuxian's performance. Zewu Jun had never seen his brother smile, but he smiled for Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, and Jin Zixuan were punished and had to go tend to the gardens. They all witnessed Wei Wuxian stand up to Wen Chao when he tried to mock Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian was bound and a whip slashed across his chest. The crowd in glamour hall felt that pain but not in a way that Wei Wuxian had.
They watched as Wei Wuxian was dragged into the dungeons and placed in a cell in chains with a large Wolf. Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli felt their blood run cold as they knew how terrifying it must have been for Wei Wuxian.
A quick flash of memory for the past came of Wei Wuxian as a little boy wearing rags and running through the streets while wild hounds chased after him. He had bite marks on his arms and legs and was soon tackled by a hound. The bun that Wei Wuxian had was soon let go and the hounds took it from him. Wei Wuxian ran away while the hounds were distracted and hid in an alley.
Lan Wangji had tears in his eyes. He remembered Wei Wuxian telling him that he had lived on the streets and dealt with stray hounds. He felt the pain of the bites, it was one-tenth of the pain be he still felt it. He couldn't even fathom what the full amount of pain was like.
Zewu Jun was once again taken back by his brother's appearance. He had not seen his brother cry since the death of their mother. It was hard to believe but there Lan Wangji was now, in tears as he watched the man he loved suffer. Zewu Jun immediately realize his mistake and planned to end the engagement as soon as this array was over.
Zewu Jun knelt beside him, "Wangji?" He asked getting his attention, "you are in love with him, aren't you?"
Lan Wangji could only nod.
"When this is over, I will nullify your engagement to Jin Liang if that is what you want," he said.
Lan Wangji only replied with a nod once more before turning back to Wei Wuxian.
The scene changed to Wei Wuxian distracting Xuanwu as people were escaping the cave they were in. As he was being a distraction, Wei Wuxian felt a sharp pain in his arm. He turned and saw that a Lan Sect disciple had shot him with an arrow. Lan Wangji took the bow and threw it away.
"Insolent!" Wangji said.
Wei Wuxian broke the arrow for now until he was able to tend to it later. Lan Wangji shoved Wei Wuxian aside as Xuanwu lunged for an attack. His broken leg was caught in Xuanwu's mouth. Wei Wuxian immediately helped pry it's mouth open and then carried Lan Wangji on his back to a place deep within the cave where Xuanwu could not reach them.
Wei Wuxian sighed, "wait here," he said and left for a moment and returned with a branch. He broke it down into a splint and used his red ribbon to hold it in place. The ribbon was important to him as it belonged to his mother, and it was the only thing he had left of her.
Lan Wangji took out the red ribbon from he sleeve and felt not only blessed to have Wei Wuxian's only keepsake of his mother's but he also felt guilty as he felt he should return it. Zewu Jun saw that saw ribbon was now in his brother's hand. He held into it this entire time.
Wei Wuxian teased Lan Wangji by removing his robes. He even tried to get Wangji to remove his. Lan Wangji panicked and spit out the bad blood that was blocked up in his chest. Wei Wuxian tapped both sides of Wangji's chest to help him relax.
"Thank you," he said.
"No need," Wei Wuxian said as he took out herbs from his robes and started to apply them to Wangji's leg. People within the hall were stunned by how kind Wei Wuxian really was. He didn't even pay any mind to the arrowhead still lodged in his arm or the brand mark he just received by saving a maiden from getting hit by it.
Lan Wangji took the herbs from him and applied it to Wei Wuxian's chest. He then had Wei Wuxian turn so he could take the arrowhead out of his arm. Wei Wuxian gripped the wall of the cave as it was successfully removed and Wangji applied herbs to that wound as well.
Wei Wuxian then kept his distance from Lan Wangji, as the two had their differences before. Wei Wuxian may be falling for the jade but he knows that he isn't worth his time. Wei Wuxian teased Lan Wangji too much as it is and felt that he hated him.
Lan Wangji's eyes widened at the confession, Wei Ying loves me? He thought.
Zewu Jun could see the light flicker on in Lan Wangji's eyes. That light only shined for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had come to realize his true feelings as well. He was in love with Wei Wuxian too. Zewu Jun was going to make sure to help the pair get together. He didn't care about Wei Wuxian's sudden choice in cultivation, he just cared for the happiness of him and his brother.
Time skipped again to Wei Wuxian back home in Lotus Pier. They witnessed Wang Lingjiao manipulating Yu Ziyuan. The crowd only now saw just the amount of hate that Yu Ziyuan had for Wei Wuxian. They all felt the pain of Zidian as it came lashing down on Wei Wuxian. He was whipped several times, one whip had him flying across the room into a table.
Jiang Cheng remembers that scene all too well. He wished he could have done something but he was held back. Jiang Yanli was crying for her Shidi. She couldn't believe her eyes. Her mother was just too cruel.
Lotus Pier was soon ambushed and Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian were bound by Zidian on a boat. Yu Ziyuan forced them to leave. She even made Wei Wuxian protect her children even if it cost him his life.
Later, when Wuxian and Jiang Cheng returned, they saw the aftermath. No one had survived and Wei Wuxian saw the corpses of Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian. He ran off with Jiang Cheng and was soon blamed for the massacre.
"Jiang Cheng! No wonder A'Xian kept telling me it was his fault!" Jiang Yanli yelled, "how could you blame him like that?! It was not his fault!"
"I'm sorry okay," Jiang Cheng said.
"Tell that to A'Xian!"
Many in the room felt the sorrow that Wei Wuxian carried. They even felt like they were suffocating for a moment as Jiang Cheng was strangling Wei Wuxian within the vision of the array. Lan Wangji had a newfound hatred towards Jiang Cheng and did not want him anywhere near Wei Wuxian.
Wei Wuxian and his sworn siblings were hiding. He left momentarily to get medicine for his shijie but returned to see that Jiang Cheng was gone. He found out he had gone to Lotus Pier. Their he ran into Wen Ning and with his help, he got the remains of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan as well as an unconscious Jiang Cheng.
Wen Ning took Wei Wuxian and his siblings to a supervising office that he and his sister were hiding out at. Their they witnessed Jiang Cheng had lost his golden core. Wei Wuxian spent several days looking at medical books and old scrolls to find a way to help him, until he came across a scroll that was only a written theory by Wen Qing.
The Transfer of the Golden Core.
Jiang Cheng stared at those words with wide eyes, "do not tell me he is dumb enough to do this!" He mumbled to himself.
But of course, Wei Wuxian had talked Wen Qing into it. They tricked Jiang Cheng into thinking the mountain he was at was Wei Wuxian's grandmother's Baoshan Sanren. But it was just a random mountain in Yiling. They watched and felt the tenth of the pain that Wei Wuxian endured.
They found that Wei Wuxian couldn't use pain medication or anesthesia as it could effect the core. So with only a fifty percent chance of success, Wei Wuxian lied awake for two nights and a day getting his core removed and was given to Jiang Cheng.
Lan Wangji found himself move near one of the exits and threw up in the corner. Zewu Jun was beside him right away to help calm him down, but Lan Wangji was a mess. He had never cried this hard before. He cried not for the pain but for what Wei Wuxian had done. He saw that Wei Wuxian really lived up to the promise Yu Ziyuan made him make. He gave up his life for Jiang Cheng.
"I am so stupid," he said.
"No you aren't, you did not know," Zewu Jun told him.
"Should it matter? This kind of thing is hard to talk about. If this was a secret he meant to take to his grave, who are we to judge him for his actions. Who are we to call him evil if he chose a path he didn't want to use but had no choice!" Lan Wangji yelled.
Everyone in the room felt Lan Wangji's words pierce through their souls. He was correct, who were they to get into Wei Wuxian's personal life.
Wei Wuxian waited for Jiang Cheng in Yiling for a few days. He never showed. Wei Wuxian entered a tea house and found he was trapped by Wen Chao and his men. He was tortured and beaten, and he had just had a surgery. Their was no way Wei Wuxian could possibly live through this, but he did someone. Everyone even felt their blood run cold as they witnessed Wen Chao push Wei Wuxian into the burial mounds from the sky.
They watched Wei Wuxian suffer three months inside the burial mounds, learning to cultivate resentment, creating the Yin Hu Fu and his Chenqing. He broke through the wards that kept things within the mounds and then reset it once he left. He spent several days hunting down Wen Chao and tortured him and his whore. They even witnessed how much Wei Wuxian had changed in personality and began pushing people away from him. Especially if they tried to make him use his sword again. It was most painful to see Wei Wuxian push Lan Wangji away.
Wei Wuxian's heart shattered upon hearing of Lan Wangji's engagement. It was announced during the banquet right after defeating Wen Ruohan. They peered into Wei Wuxian's mind, hearing how he felt it was for the better, that he was as never good enough for anyone, especially Lan Wangji. He pushed him away because his sect does not tolerate people like him, mischievous and a demonic cultivator.
The array was now to the point of the current banquet they were at. Seeing Jin Guangyao purposefully mocking Wei Wuxian and rubbing it in that Lan Wangji was engaged. They saw within Jin Guangyao's eyes that it was his plan to make Wei Wuxian miserable, but why?
Wei Wuxian passed out within the middle of the array. The memories were done, and Wei Wuxian no longer had any strength left. He used a lot of blood to make the array, and he used all his strength to run it through. His desire to live was pretty much gone. Lan Wangji went over to him and cradled the man in his arms. Lan Wangji cried as he felt he was the one who was unworthy of the man he held not the other way around.
Since they could leave the room Lan Wangji stood with Wei Wuxian in his arms like a bride. He then began to leave until he was stopped by Jin Liang.
"Hanguang Jun, you cannot seriously take this servant over me," she said.
"I can and I will. And if my sect will not allow Wei Ying, then I will leave it," Wangji said looking right into his uncle's eyes, "our engagement is off. I am a cut-sleeve and my heart only belongs to Wei Ying. No one else."
Jin Liang was so angry, she grabbed her hairpin out of her hair and stuck it into Wei Wuxian's chest, "then he can die!" She yelled.
Zewu Jun grabbed the girl and pushed her over to her parents, "this engagement is off. I will not have such a person within my sect," Zewu Jun said and turned to Lan Wangji, "get him to Gusu, let our healers look at him, I will go find Wen Qing and Wen Ning."
Lan Wangji nodded as he stepped out of the hall and flew away on Bichen. The hairpin was still lodged in Wei Wuxian's chest but thankfully it was nowhere near his heart.
"L-Lan Zh-Han?" Wei Wuxian whispered.
"You are going to be okay, I am getting you to a healer," Wangji said.
"Why?" Wuxian asked weakly.
"I love you, Wei Ying, and I will take care of you," he said, "I have always loved you, but I did not realize it until I saw your feelings about me too. I guess I didn't want to admit it as I felt I was not worthy of you, especially with all that you have sacrificed."
"I am-not worthy," Wuxian whispered.
"You are to me, and I will spend the rest of my life protecting you and proving it to you," Wangji said.
"You do not hate me?"
"I do not," Wangji replied, "I could never."
"I am so sorry," Wei Wuxian said and started crying.
Lan Wangji shushed him and told him to try and relax. He needed to conserve his energy until he could see a healer. Wei Wuxian passed out again in his arms.
Lan Wangji arrived to Cloud Recesses and informed the healers everything that he learned just from the array. The healers were surprised to see this man was still alive. They treated him with what they could at the moment. They said Wei Wuxian has so many broken bones that they didn't know how he was still standing. The resentful energy was actually the one thing that kept him alive. In order to even consider cleansing his body of resentful energy, they would have to allow his body to heal itself first.
It took several days before Zewu Jun found Wen Ning and Wen Qing. He found them in a labor camp among elders and a child. Zewu Jun took every one of those wens from that came and brought them back to Cloud Recesses to help and protect. Wen Qing was informed of Wei Wuxian's injuries and said she would help him recover.
It took about two full years for Wei Wuxian to properly heal and was no longer using the amulet as he let Zewu Jun, Hanguang Jun, and Chifeng Zun destroy it. Zewu Jun and Chifeng Zun also detained Jin Guangshan and Jin Guangyao for their crimes. They knew of the Wen labor camps and none of the Wens they had were cultivators. It was illegal to harm civilians that do not cultivate, no matter who they lives under. Chifeng Zun ended up as the new Chief Cultivator and did his best to help clean up the mess Jin Guangshan left behind.
Zewu Jun had talked his uncle into letting Wangji and Wuxian marry. Upon seeing Wei Wuxian's deeds through the array, Lan Qiren had a newfound respect for Wei Wuxian and could not deny him his happiness, not even his youngest nephew's. They two loved each other and who was he to get in the way of that.
Wei Wuxian married into the Lan Sect. Upon their wedding night, they dual cultivated and found out that doing so, helped Wei Wuxian build a new golden core. While dual cultivating, that was when their energies merged and Wei Wuxian would feed off of Lan Wangji's energy. That energy was then stored within his dantian and it soon became a new core.
Upon researching more, that energy exchange will only happen between fated soulmates. So Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian had come to realize that they were fated, and now soul-bonds. Lan Wangji was forever grateful to have a man like Wei Wuxian by his side. He was to love and protect him at all costs, and he would like to see anyone try to get past him.
To Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji's over protectiveness is as actually really sweet and it was something new. He never had someone who would give up everything just to be by his side, and Lan Wangji has help him gain his self-worth back.
The two eventually adopted the little Wen child that was in the labor camp, and his name was Wen Yuan. His new name was Lan Yuan, courtesy name, Sizhui. They also adopted another Lan by the name of Lan Jingyi. So they were a little family of four.
THE END