WangxianPrompt - So this is what the future looks like

by Amaterasu Susanno

It started off as another one of these incredibly boring, lengthy days at Cloud Recesses. It went over to a strange array appearing in the middle of the classroom. It ended with the disciples (plus Lan Qiren) seeing a few things the future held. But oh well, as cultivator one simply called this a 'Monday'.

Wei Ying was going to die of boredom.

The lectures were growing more and more tiring by the second, the topics all being verbal versions of sleeping pills. Everything Lan Qiren ever talked about were ancient texts, the history of cultivation, rules and a bunch of other useless details concerning the different Clans. It was an utter waste of time. No cultivator would ever be able to subdue a fierce ghost or corpse with all of that theoretical, purely academic stuff – and yet, all of them (guest disciples and Gusu Lan Clan-members alike) were sitting inside the classroom, listening to Lan Qiren going on and on about whatever nonsense he felt he needed to teach them.

It was unbearable. Wei Ying really needed to find something to occupy himself with, otherwise he would end up knocking his head against the table in a desperate attempt to end all of this by blowing himself out like a light. He really did not have the necessary patience or interest to pay any more attention to these horrible long-winded, verbose lessons!

And for the love of god, no matter how fun Lan Zhan was to tease for it – how could he just stoically listen to Lan Qiren's monotonous speeches like there was nothing more important or interesting in this world? How could he be diligently taking notes, absorbing every single one of his uncle's words, engraving them into his very core while everyone else only waited to be released from this hell?

Wei Ying genuinely wanted to groan. He would rather copy hundreds of texts in the library than sit here. In fact, he would copy every single scripture, book and scroll in the entire Cloud Recesses should he, in turn, be excused from these lengthy lessons as long as he did so – especially since Lan Zhan would not react to anything he did (and thus not amuse him in the slightest) while his uncle was teaching them. No, Lan Zhan would only ever show him that incredibly entertaining range of slowly growing irritation to full blown anger whenever Wei Ying and he were alone – while Lan Zhan was supervising Wei Ying as he copied (or more truthfully: did not copy) the texts he was supposed to copy.

Which in turn meant that, right now, Lan Zhan was ignoring him and would continue to do so. Which logically had the consequence that Wei Ying would have to die of utter and complete tedium at the tender age of fifteen.

And to make the story even more tragic: Wei Ying wouldn't even die in an epic battle or while rescuing a fair maiden – no, he would die during a lesson of the stiffest old fuddy-duddy he had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

It was unbearable.

"– and that is why there is no way to control or purify resentful energy and the damages caused by it by any other means than suppressing or dispersing it."

Wei Ying did not believe Lan Qiren's words.

There was no way that resentful energy couldn't be manipulated. In Wei Ying's opinion resentful energy wasn't even all that different from normal energy anyway – which led him to the obvious conclusion that, since pure energy could be tamed, corrupted energy could be used by a cultivator as well.

In other words and to make a long story short: in Wei Ying's opinion Lan Qiren was simply being narrow minded whenever he stated such hypotheses – proving nothing but the fact that his way of thinking was controlled by the complete opposite of an innovative mindset.

"Resentful energy is born from a person's inner darkness, which in turn means that it possesses no good traits by nature. Simply speaking, it is an accumulation of evil thoughts and the wish to harm others, nothing more." Lan Qiren paused, tapping the booklet in his hand against his bearded chin as though he was thinking about how to make his point even more palpable.

A few seconds later he spoke up once more, seemingly having found the perfect words to express his point of view. "The only things – in this entire world – that fuel resentful energy, are rooted in the darkest corner of people's minds and hearts." Lan Qiren slowly nodded to himself, putting the booklet back down as he faced the class. "The vengeful thoughts, that the individual person emitted when they released all of their pent-up negativity in their moment of death, are bound to become the resentful energy's nourishment." He sent a pointed look at Wei Ying, the only disciple who had ever asked him why resentful energy couldn't be used by cultivators – his eyes shining with silent judgement. "And in these last few moments, during their last few breaths, the dying persons personal demons and worst regrets manifest and become what we, broadly speaking, call resentful energy. And since it is born in such a way, it naturally carries all of the perished persons dreadfully twisted emotions and memories and is thus capable of making, whoever comes in contact with it, go insane from the pictures it chases through their heads." Lan Qiren's eyes wandered away from Wei Ying's (inattentive) form (he naturally made a mental note to punish Wei Ying for being disrespectful of his teachings later on) and towards the faces of his other (more or less attentive) disciples – he sincerely hoped that they had, at the very least, understood to never be careless whenever resentful energy was involved. "And always remember this: resentful energy corrupts and pollutes the golden cores of those who are unfortunate enough to be hit by it, so-."

Suddenly, without a warning or sound, an oppressing bloodthirsty pressure filled the air. Dark stormy swirls appeared in the classrooms middle – a blood red light exploding in between dozens of fine black tendrils of smoke.

Wei Ying immediately felt all of his inner alarms going off and reached for Suibian, instinctively moving away from his desk the very second he registered that said desk was bordering to whatever had come to life beside him. He could see all of the other students (who had been seated close to the classrooms middle like him) mirroring his course of action and scramble away from the obviously ill-natured thing in their middle as well.

Su She ended up bumping right into Nie Huaisang while Jiang Cheng and Jin Zixuan managed to run straight into each other as they both tried to escape whatever evil kind of dark thick smoke randomly reached for them before it could bring any real harm to them.

Another male disciple (who hadn't really ever gotten Wei Ying's attention due to being below average in all aspects) wasn't as quick as the rest though. He managed to suffer a wound on his arm – the smell of burned flesh instantly filling the entire classroom as the boy screamed in pain.

Wei Ying took a few extra steps backwards, covering his nose with his sleeve, at the same time taking a defensive stand in case the clouds surrounding the expanding thing in front of him became even more aggressive – it may have been true that he didn't know what to expect, that he didn't have a single clue as to what was going on here, but he was most certainly prepared to fight should it be necessary.

"Wangji, play rest! As for the rest of you: maintain your calm and don't do anything reckless! Think before you act!" Doing his best to get a full picture of the situation as quickly as possible, Lan Qiren moved away from his spot in front of the class and rushed towards the spread-out teenagers in front of him. He needed to make sure that all of his disciples had managed to flee the grasps of the resentment filled thing. Plus, he definitely had to inspect the wound of the hurt Jin-Clan-boy to his left (especially since the boy was a part of the Jin-families side branch and thus had a horribly weak cultivation base – in fact it was so feeblish that it may just have gotten shattered).

Only after having assessed that all of his students were safe and the wound on the Jin-Clan-boy may look ugly and would definitely take some time to heal but would not seriously threaten the boy or his cultivation, Lan Qiren turned back towards the no-longer-expanding thing, dedicating himself to figuring out whatever had just happened.

Upon closer inspection of the black, red, swirling chaos, Lan Qiren noticed that it seemed to be an array scribbled onto the ground – written in human blood. Not even a mere second later he recognized the inherent dark buzz of the chaotic assembly of words, lines and circles – the array had been made by using resentful energy. "That is impossible!"

Wei Ying's reaction was another entirely. Ironically, he even found himself relaxing his stance as he finally understood what he was seeing. It was as though all of his adrenalin was suddenly gone. His fight or flight instincts were all quieting down. He wasn't afraid in the least, he didn't think of what he was sing as a mirage, as something impossible, either. If anything, there was a deeply rooted fascination inside of him now – something that was close to amounting to a kind of giddy satisfaction, maybe even bordering to real happiness.

He had been right, controlling resentful energy really was possible!

Wei Ying nearly laughed out loud.

"What is this!" Jin Zixuan sent a horrified look at the array, his face pale. "How could something this vile even exist!"

"Shit, Wei Ying you better not have anything to do with this, otherwise I will break your legs! I told you not to experiment with such dangerous things!" Jinag Cheng's snarls did not reach his brother. "Hey, how dare you ignore me!? I'll seriously break your legs!" Wei Ying still didn't notice the slightest bits of his brother's rage. He didn't see that it was fueled by fear rather than anger either.

Actually, he saw nothing but the array. He couldn't help it – it was somehow drawing him in, as though the energy was calling for him.

It didn't do so for much longer though. The silent calls seemed to weaken as the continuous notes of Lan Zhan's music repressed the array's boisterous energy more and more.

Wei Ying's dancing silver eyes immediately wandered towards the second jade.

The white clad boy had silently and elegantly pulled out his guqin, strumming the seven strings of the instrument with complete calmness, looking entirely unfazed. If anything, he looked like his mind was dead set on completing the task that had been assigned to him. He was obviously a man on a mission, the personification of achingly beautiful dedication and gentle domination.

Lan Zhan, gifted as he was, played rest with awestriking ease, the soothing crystal-clear notes resounding in the heavy air, ridding it of its oppressive pressure, cleansing it from its darkness.

Wei Ying starred, lost in every single sound the other boy's fingers evoked from the instrument. Maybe it was ridiculous but somehow the music seemed to lull his soul into the same soft warmth it wrapped the array in.

Or at least attempted to wrap in – but the array was having no part of it. It did not want to be subdued. The demonic power caged inside the circle started to defend itself as though it was a living being, suddenly going wild, leashing out at everything it could reach.

"Su She, Nie Huaisang, get up step away from it!" Seeing what was happening, Lan Qiren picked up a paintbrush from a nearby table and set it ablaze with his spiritual energy before throwing it at the tendrils of haze attacking Nie Huaisang, close to cursing himself for not having his sword by his side. A sword would have been a much more practical weapon.

But the brush did the job too.

The smoke disappeared the moment it came in contact with the spiritual energy Lan Qiren had pushed into the object. The brush itself embedded its wooden end in the next wall.

"As long as we do not fully understand how this array came here or what it does, none of us should remain too close to it! Especially not while it displays such obvious signs of violence!" Lan Qiren took a few steps back himself, pulling the wounded disciple along with him. "Wangji, I need you to quickly suppress the energy the array emits, after that I will figure out how to eradicate it!"

"Yes, uncle."

Lan Qiren felt immense pride of his younger nephew. Even though the fifteen-year-old had never been in a situation like this, he was composed and played rest accurately. His mind was visibly unperturbed by the distress plaguing most of the other students. And even though Wangji was shouldering every bit of the responsibility to resolve the current problems and gain the upper hand over the array, taking control of the situation (due to Lan Qiren not having his own instrument or sword at his disposal and no other students having yet mastered rest as it was one of the songs that would only be taught to them later on) he kept fighting the raging darkness with a perfect analytical rigor.

Lan Qiren was truly lucky that his little nephew was not only born with a rational mind but also as a musical prodigy (especially considering the fact, that not even Xichen had been able to flawlessly play songs like 'rest' at Wangji's age).

"No, I don't want to die yet!" All of a sudden Su She, like a frightened bird, half crawled, half stumbled towards the door, tearing himself away from all other disciples in an attempt to at rescue himself from whatever was going to happen from here on onwards.

Su She's fish-like eyes were ripped wide open in fear. He was obviously taking everything happening around him as message of doom and impending catastrophe. And seemingly he wasn't the only one who thought of things along those lines: Two other boys were quick to follow him – the hurt one among them (he abruptly freed himself of Lan Qiren's grasp so he could follow Su She, crying snot, tears and blood all the way) – a screech coming from him just a second later. "The door is locked!"

Lan Qiren could feel his blood pressure rising when he heard the three fleeing cowards wailing. Not only did they breach the cultivators code of honor by turning their back on an obvious problem, no, they also worsened the entire situation by infecting the other students with their useless panic, effectively disrupting all of Lan Qiren's attempts at maintaining the calm state of his disciples so they would stay level-headed.

Not that that they had been to calm to begin with – but it was definitely worse now.

Lan Qiren cast a withering look at the three whimpering boys. He would make sure the three of them copied 'conduct' a thousand times after this was over.

But for now, Lan Qiren dropped the matter, tuning the teenagers out, unwillingly acknowledging that they wouldn't listen to his reasoning.

He returned his attention and focus to the array in front of him. To his great frustration that didn't do him any good though. He couldn't find any hints as to who had drawn the array and what his intention behind all of this had been as the array was not fully visible to his eyes (due to being partly covered by the students' desks standing on top of it).

On the bright side: his nephew had at least managed to push the tendrils of black fume back into the array, allowing Lan Qiren to catch more and more glimpses at the frightening work of blasphemy in front of him.

Begrudgingly Lan Qiren apprehended that he would have to get rid of the furniture covering the array – he couldn't really come up with any countermeasures as long as he lacked each and every bit of required information about what the array was capable of doing.

"Wei Wuxian, though I hate to allow you to do so, I need you to move the objects from the array." Lan Qiren already knew he was going to regret this, but he didn't have much of a choice right now – not when Wei Ying was the only one who was familiar with causing mischief and trouble from a safe distance while the rest of them had to physically get close to the array to push the objects off of it. "And this is the absolutely only time I will ever let you act like this but for now you are allowed to use any tricks to get everything off of the array. You can use whatever you have up your sleeve as long as you don't have to get close to that devilish thing to act. I will not punish you for anything you do from here on onwards – even if you end up breaking half of everything inside this room."

Wei Ying had definitely never even just considered that he would one day be allowed to pull tricks within Cloud Recesses – which of course made the whole experience all the more enjoyable.

In all honesty: it made him feel the most alive he had since days.

Especially because he would be able to test one or maybe two of his inventions in action instead of a simple 'testing environment' (aka the back of the mountain).

"I'll do as you said teacher Lan!" Allowing a grin to climb onto his lips, Wei Ying blindly reached below the lapels of his cloths, randomly pulling out whatever his fingers came in contact with first.

It ended up being his newest invention – a boulder-cracking talisman capable of pulverizing any object, no matter how large or hard it was (in theory at least, in fact he hadn't really tested it on really large or viciously hard objects yet).

"Ah, great, this will do the job! May I present my newest invention? It will fulfill all of your requirements to-"

"Wei Ying, stop it! This really isn't the time for you to try and sell your talismans to us! And we don't have time for your haughtiness either! – We all know you are great, so be happy and just do as teacher Lan has told you to!" Hissing Jiang Cheng maneuvered himself towards Wei Ying. "And for the sake of your legs, don't cause complete havoc!" Threatening his adoptive brother to make sure he wouldn't cause more damage to the classroom than absolutely necessary, Jiang Cheng stabbed the hilt of his sheeted sword into Wei Ying's chest to round his show up.

Though, honestly, it wasn't all a show. A bit of it was Jiang Cheng's desire to evade whatever this could have as consequences – after all Jiang Cheng had absolutely no intention of giving his bad-tempered mother any reason to cut him into shreds with that sharp tongue of hers. He really didn't miss her constant berating of his lacking ability to control 'a mere servant's son' even though he was 'the future leader of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan'.

"Oh, come on, you just hate the fact that I am the one who was called into action and not you!" Lightheartedly joking around Wei Ying pushed Jiang Cheng's sword away from him so he could fling the first batch of his talismans at the objects inside the array – effectively crumbling them to dust.

He sent the second wave right after the first one, cleaning the arrays surface of the last objects resting on top of it (they were mostly books the Gusu Lan Clan used to teach their students, a truly painful loss).

For his finishing touches Wei Ying pulled out a self-igniting talisman and threw it at the little mountains of dust spread out all across the floor – they burned down within seconds (which was kind of logical given the fact that everything that Wei Ying had crumbled had been organic material).

Satisfied, Wei Ying focused his eyes on the now entirely visible array. It was giving off a short-lived ruby-red glow, pulsing once, twice – exactly three times –, activating itself with the strong heartbeats of a beast.

The array's power resounded within Wei Ying's body, echoing inside of him.

Wei Ying felt thrilled, somehow feeling like he had a connection to the array – like it recognized him as its creator.

For a short moment Wei Ying was drunk with power.

"Look at this Jiang Cheng, I was right about the resentful energy all along!" Elation flooded Wei Ying's senses, rising inside of him like the high tide. "It's nearly a pity that I can't take credit for coming up with such an array! I am sure that whoever managed to control the resentful energy well enough to draw this array must be the predecessor of a revolutionary change in the way of cultivation!" A joking smile. "And he had the same idea as me!"

"Wei Yi-" Jiang Cheng choked on the rest of his words, his heart stilling as he looked at the array, all of the air inside his body leaving him – as though someone had ripped his lungs out of his body, deciding that he didn't need them to stay alive.

He felt hurt. He felt betrayed, backstabbed, ridiculed.

There, in the middle of the bloody drawings and scribbles, stood a few boldly written words: 'Yiling patriarch Wei Wuxian'.

"I'll break your legs, liar!" Jinag Cheng's pain turned into rage. "Do you really think it's funny to cheat all of us, acting all innocent while you, in truth, staged all of this!? Do you really think it's funny to act like you don't have your fingers in this, straight up lying to all of us, just to show us your name on the array later on!? Seriously, what kind of sick joke is this!" Jiang Cheng glared his brother down – by now his eyes were nearly as furious as Lan Qiren's (who was, at this point, definitely thinking that all of this wasn't anything but yet another one of Wei Ying's detestable pranks).

"How dare you stage such a thing! How dare you instrumentalize something as evil as resentful energy! How dare you sign your name on it in a taunt us!" Casting a burning look at the young teen, Lan Qiren clenched his right hand into a fist – his eyes ablaze with distaste and something very close to hatred instead of just simple disliking. He deeply regretted not having rewritten Wei Wuxian's entire soul the moment the boy had shown interest in things outside of the proper and just paths. "How could you stray of the correct path and harness such darkness!"

Wei Ying didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to defend himself either. He only knew that he had not done anything to deserve such a berating. "I don't have anything to do with this – seriously, I promise I wouldn't make jokes like this!" Wei Ying lifted his arms upwards in defense. "I am ok with being punished for my wrongdoings, but I won't allow my name to be cursed due to some kind of slander! Besides, even if I like stirring things up a bit, I wouldn't do something like this, I mean, I would maybe brag about successfully having manipulated resentful energy for a bit, but that's it – I swear!"

To fortify his words, Wei Ying pointed a single finger at the array and the name in its middle.

He made a face.

"Besides I would never call myself something as lame as the 'Yiling patriarch'-" Looking at Jiang Cheng Wei Ying waved his hand in between the two of them. "-I always labeled myself as one of the two prides of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, didn't I? So, tell me, why would I change that?" Wei Ying looked back at the array, searching for further arguments to prove that he really didn't have anything to do with all of this. "What's more-" He broke off.

This had to be a joke. A horrible joke. A joke gone wrong.

Now that the array had activated itself, it had managed to break itself free of the chains 'rest' had placed on it. There, hovering above the bloody bold letters of his name, was an image of a person. And even if it was flickering and was slightly frazzled around the edges, it was clearly him.

He looked a bit older, somehow skinnier, his skin paler – nearly grayish. His eyes and lips weren't holding any traces of humor and life. There was nothing but deep-rooted contempt written on his face. He looked like he was about to commit a crime called 'murder'. Maybe even 'mass murder'.

And what was-

Something glimmered through the vision-Wei-Ying's spread-out fingers. It looked like a piece of metal, hovering just above the palm of his hand, emitting dark waves of hatred.

"That can't be me." Wei Ying knew he was in denial, knew that that man was definitely him – but he simply couldn't accept that he would look at the world through such eyes at any point of his life.

And even if he didn't have any issues with cultivating resentful energy, he didn't want to believe that he would ever experiment with arrays crossing over time to interfere with the flow of time (like it seemed to be the case for this array).

That was entirely immoral.

Wei Ying hoped his intentions hadn't been bad when he had done it.

No, he hoped this wasn't something he had done in the first place.

He wanted this to be someone's messed up sense of humor.

"Wei Ying." Seeing his distress Lan Zhan moved to stand beside Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng, his guqin no longer underneath his slender fingers. He silently attempted to provide Wei Ying with some sort of emotional support, even if he wasn't sure how to do such a thing in the first place. He only knew that Wei Ying seemed to want it. Thus, he would do his best to give it to him.

"Uncle, please consider whatever judgement you want to pass onto Wei Ying. He truly doesn't seem to know of any of this. Furthermore, his name being written on the array could be nothing more than slander while the image could be a simple mirage."

"This isn't a mirage Wangji." Pointing at the array's top right drawings, Lan Qiren started reading out the ancient Chinese words. They came from a famous poem written many hundreds of years ago. It told the story of a man who had wanted to see the future so he would know what fate awaited him. He had wanted to be able to change every detail he did not like. The moral of the story being simple: Instead of seeing what he had wanted to see, the man had ended up seeing only the things he had not been prepared for. He had seen scenes that had made him fear the future too much to await it.

In the end he had committed suicide just to escape from these few scenes.

"This poem is a clear hint as to what this array shows us. Some of you might have guessed it too – this seems to be the future." Lan Qiren looked at Wei Ying, his eyes unreadable. "This poem is one of the many that I planned to teach to you shortly before sending the guest disciples home – which means that you do not yet know it but will know it very soon. And combining this knowledge with the name written in the middle, I am very sure that all of it is an assembly of dots for us to connect to a story." Lan Qiren looked at the name written on the array once more. "I am very sure that this array was developed by the future Wei Wuxian." The Lan elders hand moved upwards to stroke his beard. "My guess is that the future Wei Wuxian wanted us to see a certain ugly truth so we could change it. Otherwise, why would he have written the exact line of the man seeing what he ended up fearing worse than death instead of any other part of the poem? And actually, to make yet another guess, I believe that the array reacted to Wei Wuxian's statement just now – he was explaining how he didn't cause this array to appear and in response it showed us the future – the one who will cause it. In other words: the array will display future of anything that is verbally being expressed around it."

Wei Ying stayed silent. What Lan Qiren was saying seemed to make sense, but he really hoped the future didn't hold anything that bad. Especially since he wasn't the type to think of a single trauma was bad enough to justify such an action – so if Lan Qiren was really correct then something really, really bad must have happened to them: something like the murder of half of all humans.

"But if that was the case, wouldn't I have made sure that we know what to ask about?" Wei Ying threw another look at the array – there weren't any more words or sketches that would have been able to serve as hints.

"That's a good point – even you wouldn't be stupid enough not to make us ask for whatever you wanted to present to us." Jiang Cheng shook his head, his eyes looking somewhere far past the image hovering in the air. "I think this is a trap. A scheme of someone who wants us to think this is Wei Ying's attempt at making us change the future when in truth all of this is nothing but some type of a wicked scam."

"We shouldn't trust it then." Jin Zixuan nodded, surprisingly actually agreeing with Jiang Cheng instead of refuting him – but of course these pleasantries did not last long. In fact, they didn't even last for the next sentence – Jin Zixuan was already back to being a rude, arrogant ball of narcissism (at least in Wei Ying's eyes). "Besides the entire idea of someone like Wei Wuxian being able to create such an array is way too farfetched. He doesn't even possess the needed foresight to come up with such a plan to change anything."

Wei Ying huffed, taking offense but not contradicting Jin Zixuan in order not to imply that he did indeed have the foresight and would thus pull through with such a plan.

"Besides, if it was possible to create something capable of showing one the future then Wei Wuxian would surely not be the first one to come up with it. I really can't imagine that he would ever be the first to be able to invent something of this level. Especially not through the means of controlling resentful energy."

The hovering image above the array started to swim, shifting into a scene of Wei Ying kneeling on the ground in some kind of cave, cutting his entire hand open to have sufficient blood flowing out of his body to draw the pattern of the array onto the ground. He seemed to be experimenting.

"Wait, that actually looks like brother Wei is doing exactly that…" Nie Huaisang nervously fumbled with his fan. "…but that isn't bad right? I mean if this array really just shows us the future and brother Wei simply wants us to find something out, then we can just ask random things about whatever could be bad enough to deserve being rewritten and we will be good to go!"

Nie Huaisang's face lit up, his posture relaxing as he stopped playing with his fan, instead opening it and breathing a sigh of relieve. "In other words, this array isn't dangerous for us – god, I am so glad I will get to return to my chambers tonight!"

Su She let out a ferocious hiss, clearly not sharing Nie Huaisang's sentiment of alleviation. "There is no way that things could ever be that easy, so stop thinking about all of the porn you still want to read tonight! We need to get rid of this first – you can enjoy your pathetic erotic art booklets afterwards!"

"Slander! I would never keep something that dishonorable!"

"Oh yea? Let's ask the vision then!" Su She had not even spoken all of his threatening sounding words as the image already wavered, rippling as though its surface was made of water.

A new scene appeared under their eyes, showing them a vision of Nie Huaisang lazily flipping through the pages of some kind of porn-book, an entire stack of other booklets depicting some form of erotic art right next to him.

Nie Huaisang turned red (which was impressive because everyone else would have turned pale at such a thing being revealed about them) and quickly hid his blushing face behind his fan.

Lan Qiren let out an angered shout, demanding Nie Huaisang to rid himself of all books containing such vile drawings, telling him to prepare to be punished for possessing such things.

The rest of the class (at least for the most part) perked up, forgetting all about their prior tension and distress in the face of Nie Huaisang's shame. They laughed at him, openly commenting his dirty habit, some of them even teasing Nie Huaisang about how he would never find a wife as long as he remained this way.

A Jin cultivator laughed, kiddingly stabbing into Nie Huaisang's direction. "Who would ever want to marry a man like you – your wife would probably always feel like looking at her doesn't satisfy you!"

The snickering boy had clearly forgotten that there was one thing one should be aware of concerning Nie Huaisang – he may have looked like a mouse but was actually a fox. He wasn't only quite smart, no, there also wasn't a single possible setting in which he would ever fail to realize an opportunity whenever it presented itself to him.

Which in consequence meant that Nie Huaisang's brain kicked into gear the moment the Jin-cultivator started his teasing – so, within seconds, Nie Huaisang had switched his position in this game.

He went over to strategically drawing the attention away from himself and towards a Jin cultivator. "Hey, you aren't really in a position to laugh at me like this Jin Feng – in fact, you should be more worried about your own marriage than mine! After all you are the one with the secret crush on that maiden in Gusu, not me!" Nie Huaisang waved his fan in an exaggerated manner, deliberately making a scene. "And don't try waving it off: we all know you have a thing for the pretty girl selling the kites at her parents store!"

"Not true!"

The hologram did not care for the Jin-cultivator's denial – it had already taken in the presented statement and gone over to showing his future romantic life. Nie Huaisang's figure was fading, morphing into a pair of two.

Both of them were dressed in simple red clothes – celebrating a frugal wedding. Jin Feng was smiling down at the lady, pulling up her red vail so he could look at her face.

It just so happened to be the cute girl Nie Huaisang had just mentioned.

"Stop using the array for the purpose of embarrassing each other – such actions are against the rules!" Lan Qiren raised his voice above the noise filling the classroom. He did not agree with the student's misuse of the array. "Besides, remember the poem – there are some aspects of our future that should not be seen by us. So, the only thing we should use this for is its original purpose!" Stepping forwards and towards the array, Lan Qiren prepared to put a stop to the students playing around, finally asking what Wei Wuxian may have wanted them to ask – staring off with the typical dystopian settings which a person would what to prevent – such as plagues, wars, deaths of important people and so on.

"Wait teacher Lan! Before we try to find out whatever Wei Wuxian wanted to show us, I want to know who I am going to marry first!"

"And I want to know whether or not I will pass the exams!"

The array was quick to show both answers.

The first one was a lovely image of a friendly smiling woman – a chubby little sweetheart.

The second one was less pretty. It was a straight up 'no, try again next time' – at least judging from how the boy in the vison was banging his head against his desk (he had probably not even failed by a bit – he had probably messed up every single exam to the degree that shouldn't even be possible).

"Shameless! This array isn't something for you to play around with!" Lan Qiren glared at the two disciples, judgement clearly evident in his gaze. "All of you should consider that seeing the future does not equal living to see the said future – as I said: remember the poem! There is no guarantee that the future is written in stone. And I, for my part–" Taking the opportunity to give the disciple, who was seemingly going to fail his tests, a glare, Lan Qiren continued talking in a tone close to a growl. "–sincerely hope your future is indeed not set in stone."

Still bristling with his remaining anger, Lan Qiren turned back towards the array. "You youngsters should lean to allow the future to come as it will – you will have to accept a few lows in your life, otherwise you won't learn to appreciate the highs. And even if the future Wei Wuxian wants us to change a single detail, he can't want all of you to change your entire lives!"

The vision wavered, only very faintly showing two different expressions on the future Lan Qiren's face: Utter desperate pain mingled with endless rage and a soft smile, gentler than any expression any of the students had ever seen on their teachers face.

Unbeknownst to all of them Lan Qiren would make both of these expressions for his youngest nephew – the first one being the one he would wear when sentencing Lan Zhan to thirty-three whiplashes, the second one at seeing Lan Zhan more alive and happier than he had ever been. All thanks to his marriage to Wei Ying.

"I hope none of you will ask any further questions except the ones that need to be answered." Not taking his eyes off the weak impression of his smiling face Lan Qiren directed his next words at Su She – who had given yet another impatient rattle at the still locked door of the classroom. "I believe the door will unlock itself once we saw what we are supposed to see."

The vision backed Lan Qiren's words up, showing the disciples a vision of the door opening, Lan Xichen stepping into the classroom.

"Sit down, I will do the questioning." Still looking ahead Lan Qiren made a gesture, imploring his disciples to do as he had said.

"Teacher Lan, with all due respect, but I believe Wei Ying and myself should do the questioning." Jiang Cheng stepped forwards, speaking uncharacteristically mildly – there wasn't a single hint of sarcasm or unspoken thoughts in his tone. "Wei Ying knows his values better than anyone else and I believe they will not change drastically enough for Wei Ying not to be able to grasp his future self's intention. And even if he does fail – I am the one who understands Wei Ying the most. I am sure I am capable of asking the questions Wei Ying wants us to ask."

"You keep talking as though Wei Wuxian wants to prevent something from happening – but maybe he just wants to cause some kind of chaos and harm!" Su She was back to being vicious, his tone acidic as he realized he couldn't leave the scene and was stuck with the others. Normally he would have gone ignored by most of them, but not this time – not when the vision flashed like that, suddenly presenting thousands of scenes. Jiang Cheng grew defensive.

"Nonsense!" Jiang Cheng glared Su She down. He had never liked the guy. "I refuse to believe in your words!"

"You saw the images!" Su She was biting right back at Jiang Cheng, sharing his sentiment of never having liked the other.

"What gibberish are you sprouting!? These so-called images are shifting way too quickly for us to properly make any of them out! Besides, with how you phrased your statement the vision could have showed us scenes in which Wei Ying wanted to prevent some kind of harm just like it could have been scenes of him harming others!"

"That is enough! If you two don't stop it, I am going to forcefully silence you!" Lan Qiren glared at the two boys, his voice angry enough to promise an incoming storm of punishments. Especially since both of the boys were far too gone to take any note of him.

"Aren't you just being suspiciously defensive!? It makes one think that you would, frankly speaking, always simply bury the corpse of anyone Wei Ying killed without caring for his crimes!"

Su She may not have intended it, but the vision reacted to him, pausing on one of the thousands of images, which were still flashing in the air above the array, before flicking to another and back again.

It was entirely impossible to guess whatever the displayed scenes contained – but they seemed to be two very different answers to Su She's statement.

It was disconcerting – somehow nearly implying that Jiang Cheng would indeed have Wei Ying's back at some point and then, later on, make him pay for the very same crime.

"I said: that's enough!" Without a further warning Lan Qiren silenced both Jiang Cheng and Su She, not caring for their argument in the least.

"Maybe we should just go back to discussing our marriage partners?" Joking around in such a situation probably wasn't the best idea that Wei Ying had ever had, but he knew the situation had to be deescalated before anyone jumped another's throat (plus he wanted to take his mind off of the strangely flickering visions in front of him. They did not sit well with him). "I bet Su She and Jiang Cheng are just angry they didn't get to ask whom they would marry!"

Lan Qiren was close, oh so close, to silencing everyone around him. Why couldn't his students simply behave for a change? Was it really too much to ask for?

"I think you said the wrong thing brother Wei."

Looking at Nie Huaisang in question, Wei Ying confusedly watched as Nie Huaisang pointed at the array, his faces lower half hidden behind his fan – probably hiding a silent laugh.

Wei Ying looked at the vision – half expecting to see something ridiculous like Su She and Jiang Cheng being married in the future. But of course, that wasn't what awaited him. In fact, what Wei Ying's eyes were met with was… nothing.

What the hell.

Why wasn't the array displayed anythi-?

Oh. Ohhhhh.

Neither of those two was going to marry. Oh god, this was awkward now.

"Well marriage isn't everything!" Trying to somehow get out of the sticky situation he had somehow gotten himself into, Wei Ying scratched the back of his head, doing his best to play the entire thing off. "It isn't important whether people marry or don't marry anyway – it's a choice everyone can make for themselves!" Even someone with a thick face as thick as Wei Ying's was not immune to feeling uncomfortable while saying such a sentence – after all Wei Ying was pretty sure that neither of the two had chosen not to marry. They had probably just not found someone patient enough to be able to tolerate them. "Ah yes, yes – it's just the same as the choice of whom you marry-"

"Easy for you to say! You aren't engaged to a useless woman!"

Every semblance of humor let Wei Ying's body, his hands clenched into fists within a single heartbeat. His anger boiled within his veins and gut – demanding him to cross the room and knock that arrogant peacock out. "How dare you say such a thing, you useless peacock! If there is anything that is wrong with your engagement to my shijie, then it's that fact that she is way too good for you!"

Wei Ying would definitely have listened to his violent impulses and gifted Jin Zixuan with a pair of eyes as violet as the Yunmeng Jiang Clan's robes had the vision not flashed back to life.

But as it did exactly that Wei Ying found himself starring and blinking at most – his lips parting the slightest bis from his shock.

Jin Zixuan was standing there, hugging Jiang Yanli to him, a single arm wrapped around her waist. His second arm was raised to the level of her chest, his hand resting on the face of the baby in Jiang Yanli's arms.

Both of them were smiling like the sun, looking like they couldn't be happier.

"Well, would you look at that! Seems like you are bound to succumb to my sister's charms after all!" Somehow freeing himself of the silencing spell without tearing his lips into shreds, Jiang Cheng threw his words and a single glance (which was swimming somewhere between looking gleeful and satisfied) at his future brother-in-law – his own loveless life disappearing into the back of his head as he taunted the golden clad peacock.

It felt good to know that his sister's feelings would eventually be returned – and that she would have a child with the man she loved. It was only fair. His sister deserved nothing but the best (and if Wei Ying and he had allowed Jin Zixuan anywhere close to his sister, the peacock really must have proven himself and his worth to them).

A few steps away from them Lan Qiren was slowly but surely giving up on ever achieving anything productive today. Especially given the fact, that Jiang Cheng had just demonstrated that not even something like a silencing spell would stop him (and most likely also a few others) from hindering Lan Qiren to actually ask the array any proper questions at all.

Maybe Lan Qiren had to use another strategy. Maybe he had to let the disciples satisfy their worst curiosity and tolerate a bit of their mocking of each other, just so they would at least be compliant later on.

He just hoped it wouldn't ruin the flow of time too much, ending up changing the things that should not have been changed at all because the children saw things they should not have seen.

Taking a deep breath Lan Qiren decided to stay silent, letting the situation evolve into any direction the teenagers would push it into.

He kept repeating a single one of their Clan's rules inside his head.

Be patient. Be patient. Be patient.

"Indeed, it's good to know that he will mend his ways." Wei Ying nodded, agreeing with his brother. "I was slowly getting worried I would have to come up with something ruthless to break off their engagement."

"Stop acting like you are any better than me! You aren't allowed to judge me!" Jin Zixuan's reddened face displayed his embarrassment even though he spoke in anger. "I may have always rejected your sister, but you aren't a gentleman either – you don't reject anyone! You are nothing but the other side of the same coin! You are nothing but a player! If you want proof, then just look! You always play around with girls and-"

Jin Zixuan pointed at the array, clearly expecting to see dozens of visions showing Wei Ying fooling around – well, at least he certainly didn't expect that he would have to bite his own tongue in the end.

But he had to.

There wasn't a single scene of Wei Ying indulging in promiscuity.

"Brother Wei, did your future self manipulate the array?" Nie Huaisang used his fan to point at his friend and then the array, alternating between the two in a rather accusing manner. "There is no way you are this loyal."

Wei Ying narrowed his eyes at the boy. He did not take the words kindly.

"You actually shouldn't even be the type who cares about marriage! According to all of your flirting and the very core of your image, you should be the guy who has loads of experience but no romantic feelings."

Wei Ying crossed his arms, looking at his 'friend' with eyes shining in annoyance. "Now that's just nonsense Nie Huaisang. Having a working mouth and golden tongue doesn't mean that one doesn't value matrimony. In fact, aside from talking a few sweet words to a few nice ladies I have never done anything to tarnish anyone's reputation" Wei Ying clicked his tongue, pointing at his heart. "I see no reason to do such things with anyone other than my other half. I mean just think about how worthless your partner would be if they didn't keep their eyes on you and you alone. Actually, I would even go far enough to say that such intimate contacts should, under all circumstances, only be shared with one person in your life, which in turn means that my virtue belongs to that one person in the first place and not me."

Nie Huaisang had not seen this coming and had not wanted to see it coming either.

In fact, he just prayed he would forget every single word of this horrible sappiness.

He didn't believe in marriages in the first place – he believed in nothing but the grandness of porn (and as far as he knew he had shared all of his said porn books with Wei Ying, which should totally have made him unavailable for such sugary words).

Besides what kind of mid-fuckery was it that the biggest flirt in their chaotic trio was going to be the only one of them who would ever marry (at least probably, under the assumption that Wei Ying was going to marry – which seemed to be pretty natural at this point).

"Wait – you are a virgin!? You mean to tell me that even with all that lip service of yours you didn't even yet have your first kiss!?" Yin Zixuan did not know what to think – he couldn't quite grasp that Wei Ying was nothing but a paper tiger when it came to romance. And the worst part: that meant he was indeed a worse man than Wei Ying.

"Of course, I didn't." Wei Ying huffed, uncrossing his arms. "If I had just gone ahead and kissed some random person that would have been really disrespectful to my future partner, don't you think so? Besides, since I believe that we should all treat our other half the best, I'll be a good example and remain polite to my beloved. I'll just keep my lips in my own face until the right time has come."

Next to him Lan Zhan went rigid, probably stiffening up in discomfort – well figures, there was no way the walking wall of rules could ever be okay with such a topic being discussed this openly.

Poor Lan Zhan.

"Disgusting romantic." Jiang Cheng rolled his eyes at his brother, even though he had always known him to be a complete and absolute sucker for these corny stories of eternal love and those stupid honey-glazed words of marriage.

The only one who actually looked proud of Wei Ying for bearing such opinions ironically appeared to be Lan Qiren, who, for once, looked at Wei Ying with acknowledgement and approval in his eyes. "I really wouldn't have ever thought I would ever say this, but I guess today is a very special day." Stroking his goatee, Lan Qiren nodded at Wei Ying as he spoke. "All of you should take Wei Wuxian's words to heart and imbed them into your very cores – virtue and honor are the best base for a healthy relationship."

"Or maybe he only talks a lot while secretly covering for the fact that no one ever wanted to kiss him. I bet he will never have his first kiss!" Somehow Su She had broken free form the silencing spell as well – immediately continuing to fill the air with his unpleasant toxicity. He didn't bother to hide his starring at the array either – he was clearly waiting for his theory to be proven by the lack of any visions appearing. He clearly wanted the world to see that Wei Ying wasn't any better than him – that he would stay unloved and unmarried just like Jiang Cheng and him.

Outside of Su She's field of vision Lan Zhan subconsciously tightened his grip in Bichen, his hands pressing down on the swords scabbard with enough force to bend any normal piece of metal.

Wei Ying, compared to Su She, noticed it though. He saw how Lan Zhan's body language closed up, how the muscles of his jaw tightening ever so slightly while the rest of his body seemed to stay perfectly composed – it didn't take a genius to know that Lan Zhan was angry (which was logical as far as Wei Ying was concerned – Lan Zhan had always hated the way Su She spoke about others).

Wei Ying himself wasn't any different from Lan Zhan. Even though he would have liked to claim that all of Su She's pettiness didn't bother him, in the end, he wasn't any different from others – he grew angry. He felt a bit of pettiness inside his own body – wanting to see Su She being proven wrong by the array.

Wei Ying ended up giving into curiosity, looking at the array, hoping to see a vision of his other half.

But there was no image – the air above the array merely shifted from transparent to black.

"Hah! You see he-!"

Suddenly a wave of emotions hit all of them squarely into the face. The vision – even though there was no picture – did not stay lifeless. It emitted waves of dizziness, presenting all of them with the heady sensation of pressure being applied to one's lips – the warm feeling conveying the overflowing love and hotheaded desire of the one in control of the kiss. It was quite obvious that Wei Ying's lips would not stay virgin. And the rest of him was probably the same – if the forcefulness of the sensation was any indication.

The only confusing things about the whole affair were the puzzling trails of wonder coursing through the air – as though the one being kissed didn't quite understand what was going on here.

"What the hell, why is there no picture! I want to see who brother Wei is kissing!" Nie Huaisang slammed his fan shut, incriminatingly pointing it at the array. "It must be broken! This is unfair!"

Wei Ying on the other hand found himself laughing. Seemingly he wasn't supposed to see who his first kiss was – or he hadn't seen it himself when it had happened, and the kiss was shown from his perspective (though he highly doubted that).

"Actually I don't think that's particularly interesting anyway – Wei Ying is definitely going to get together with some pretty girl anyway. My guess is that it will be a Lady from Yiling." Jiang Cheng rubbed the back of his head, looking rather annoyed. "I mean given the fact that the array was labeled with 'Yiling patriarch' that is kind of intuitive, isn't it? I mean why else would he have taken on such a name?"

The illusion did Jiang Cheng the (totally unasked for) favor of reacting to his words, showing the class and their teacher two pictures (the first depicting Wei Ying with his future lover and the second the origin of his 'title') – though the first one barely counted as it consisted of nothing more than a few flashes of white and black (which, given the fact that Wei Ying always wore black, implied that his beloved must have been the one in white – which hinted at either mourning clothes or the Gusu Lan Clan, so yes: it was probably mourning clothes). The second picture however stayed. It was a scene of Wei Ying storming into Glamour Hall inside Koi tower, being called Yiling patriarch by everyone around him, making it apparent that Wei Ying had not given himself that name.

There was a strange detail to the vision though: the only one who did not seem to curse at Wei Ying in one way or the other, was Lan Zhan – the one, who usually would have been the very first one to distance himself from anything that was deserving of judgement.

But in the vision Lan Zhan remained neutral, doing nothing except telling Wei Ying a single sentence in a low voice, trying to get him to calm down as he remained seated, looking up at Wei Ying's form quivering due to his rage.

Lan Zhan didn't even change his behavior when the rest of the cultivators rose up, clearly close to drawing their swords to slice Wei Ying into bits.

It was evident that Wei Ying had somehow turned into the cultivation world's enemy. And yet the one everyone called righteous did not behead him on the spot.

"In the end you aren't any better than anyone else! You are going to side with the unjust Lan Wangji!" Su She let out a sickly satisfied laugh. "I can't believe it, the man who always acts all high and mighty is going to kiss up to someone whom others obviously deem to be a demon!"

Under all of their eyes, the vision changed – showing Lan Zhan pinning Wei Ying to the trunk of a tree, catching the black clad man's wrists in his hand and holding them above Wei Ying's head as he moved Wei Ying's head with his other one – crushing their lips together in obvious hunger.

He was literally kissing up to Wei Ying.

And he wasn't doing so gently either. There was a forcefulness that none of them would ever have expected the refined second jade of the Gusu Lan Clan to have.

Shaken to the core, Lan Qiren harshly coughed up a few droplets of blood – for a moment not sure whether he was about to faint or go straight into qi deviation – in the end fighting both possibilities off with a surge of his spiritual energy to stabilize hie meridians (on a sidenote, he only did so because both fainting and qi deviation would render him incapable of punishing his nephew for (in the future) being uncontrolled, acting outside of every sensible border and going against their Clan's very teaching). "Shameless! Disgraceful! Dishonorable!"

Lan Qiren was very sure he would go into qi deviation the instant he remembered scene at any given point at a later time.

In contrast to Lan Qiren's rage, Wei Ying was nothing but stupefied. He found himself needing to look at Lan Zhan to make sure he wasn't just imagining things – even if he was quite certain he wasn't doing so. After all it didn't take a genius to count two and two together. The sensations from before and the picture right now matched perfectly. Lan Zhan was going to be his first kiss.

Besides him, the jade statue's façade fell underneath Wei Ying's puzzled eyes – and quite frankly a lot of other stares. Lan Zhan dropped Bichen to the floor, the lightly colored metal noisily clattering against the mats on the classroom's floor.

Lan Zhan's eyes were wide, his lips parted the tiniest of bits, the tips of his ears pink – he was wearing the most expressive facial expression Wei Ying had ever seen on him.

"I-" Lan Zhan couldn't say a single thing. His throat was blocked, refusing to let him explain or justify himself – not that he even knew what he wanted to say, words had never been his forte anyway.

On top of that he didn't quite yet believe what he was seeing either. He was unable to put any trust into the (wonderful, absolutely perfect, endlessly beautiful) daydream of a mirage in front of him.

Lan Zhan couldn't imagine such a thing becoming reality at all. There was no way Wei Ying would ever let him act like that. Wei Ying wasn't cut-sleeve. And actually, without priding himself on his self-control too much, there was also absolutely no way that he would end up snapping, giving in to his innermost desires without asking for his beloved's consent either. So, this scene couldn't happen in any setting – not with and not without Wei Ying's consent. No way. He didn't even have enough boldness for such a shameful, sinful act.

"God Wei Ying! I can't believe you are gay! And you watched me undress so often! I'll kill you!" Jiang Cheng covered his eyes, clearly trying to rid his mind of the picture in front of him. "And please, have some sense of shame! Noone wants to see this, make it go away!"

It wasn't like Wei Ying had any control over the array, but even if he had had the control over it, he wouldn't have listened to Jiang Cheng – not when Lan Zhan was looking this adorable.

God, Wei Ying wanted to tease him so badly – even if it made him a bad person.

"Both of you are shameless! Wangji could you indulge yourself like this!? And you Wei Wuxian – how dare you seduce my nephew this way!" Lan Qiren starred Wei Ying down – clearly ignoring the fact that Wei Ying's hands and eyes were clearly bound in the vision, his entire body being dominated by the poor, pitiable 'seduced nephew'. Actually, Lan Qiren didn't even seem to fully grasp that his nephew was the one initiating the kiss and that Wei Ying – for once – seemed to be rather innocent, being the victim instead of the criminal.

"Both of you will copy 'virtue' and 'conduct' a hundred times! No, five hundred times!"

"Uncle, I think it is unjust to punish Wei Ying for this." Seemingly having regained control over his tongue and body, Lan Zhan raised his arms in front of his chest, bowing to his uncle, speaking steadily, his tone giving none of his current feelings away. "But if you insist on punishing him, I will copy half of his share on top of my own punishment to make up for my crime of not controlling myself around him to both the Clan and him."

"Suit yourself Wangji, maybe the punishment will clean your head off this nonsense!" Lan Qiren's voice did not soften at all as he continuously glared at Wei Ying – he did not appreciate the boy dragging his youngest nephew into the pit where the lost causes broke the rules of conducting oneself well at all times and in all places.

"Wow, I think we just witnessed the only time Lan Wangji will ever be punished." Nie Huaisang threw a glance at Wei Ying and Lan Zhan. He had not expected them to become an item. But actually, going from porn books, they actually kind of made sense as a couple. Fire and ice surely always matched well – seemingly even to the degree at which the ice fell from grace and got punished for loving the fire.

Once more – maybe to spite someone or prove something – the vision decided to come alive with an entirely different set of scenes. It showed the people gathered inside the classroom multiple events of Lan Qiren sentencing his youngest nephew to punishment.

"Kneel until sunrise, reflect on breaking the curfew!"

"Hundert strokes from the wooden plank for drinking!"

"Hundred-fifty strokes from the wooden plank for angering the Wen Clan!"

"Don't eat for three days to prove your regret for mingling with the Yunmeng Jiang Clans affairs!"

"Two hundred strokes from the wooden plank for causing trouble at the banquet in Koi tower!"

Lan Qiren could not believe his own ears. How could his nephew force him to punish him this often? What was going to become of the proper Wangji he knew?

"Copy every single book in the library pavilion to make up for meeting with that demon!"

"Kneel until sunrise for offending Clan leader Jiang!"

Jiang Cheng failed to remain in his prior posture. His arms dropped from his eyes to his sides as he starred at each and every scene of Lan Zhan simply accepting the punishment, his face always stoic, never suggesting how he felt the punishment was unjust – not even the one for drinking – even though they could all see Wei Ying kneeling next to him, telling Lan Qiren that everything had been entirely his fault.

Jin Zixuan and Nie Huaisang eventually both stopped looking at the visions, instead directing their eyes at Lan Zhan.

He looked untouched, unperturbed. As though he was in no way shocked that he would end up breaking quite a few rules – probably knowing he would be breaking all of them for or at least because of Wei Ying.

"Wangji! Kneel!"

When they heard Lan Qiren's new tone all glances fluttered back to the vision. Something was awfully off about their teacher's tone in this particular scene.

"You will receive thirty-three lashes from the disciplinary whip! One for every single elder you hurt!"

Wei Ying flinched, looking away after the first time the disciplinary whip made contact with Lan Zhan's clothed back, instantly dying the white fabric red. He couldn't bear the sight.

Naturally looking away did nothing to spare him from the terrible vision.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't tune the sounds out – not the lashes themselves, not the tearing sounds of flesh, not Lan Qiren's enraged tirade, not Lan Xichen's begging and crying on behalf of his brother and most certainly not the comments seemingly coming from around Lan Zhan, speaking of how he deserved every single one of these hits.

Wei Ying's eyes shut tighter every time he heard the whip landing on Lan Zhan once more. He couldn't bear the mere imagination of such a cruel thing happening, finally he cracked. "It's going to kill him! There is no way he deserved it!"

The vision flickered, showing Lan Zhan kneeling on the ground, a hysterical Wei Ying in front of him, sitting before him but not seeing him, telling him to go away, to leave him alone, to just let him die.

Behind them a group of Gusu Lan elders appeared – exactly thirty-three of them.

Dread filled Wei Ying. So, Lan Zhan had hurt these elders because of him?

"Please move aside second young master. We have come to talk the Yiling patriarch's life."

"I will not."

The disciples watched in absolute silence as Lan Zhan drew Bichen, protectively standing in front of Wei Ying.

"You must go through me if you want to harm Wei Ying."

The elders tried.

They failed.

Lan Zhan cut every single one of them down, wounding them badly enough to ensure they wouldn't be able to lay a single finger on Wei Ying while also making sure that none of them would die on the spot.

"Oh my god. I am so sorry Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying couldn't keep on watching. He turned towards Lan Zhan, hoping the other boy wouldn't distance himself from him now that he had seen what Wei Ying was going to cause him to do.

"Well, seemingly the hits from the disciplinary whip were deserved! Copying a few texts isn't enough to make up for such a horrendous crime as harming thirty-three elders for a criminal who seems to deserve death even by the Gusu Lan Clan standards!" Su She did not show any pity for Lan Zhan's situation at all. If anything, he looked elated.

"Shut up!" Jiang Cheng flashed Su She a burning glare. "You must be stupid not to feel any sympathy for such a severe punishment! How could anyone with their heart in the right spot feel like Lan Wangji deserves such a punishment for preserving Wei Ying's life! I would have done the very same thing!"

The vison flickered once more, showing Jiang Cheng leading an entire army of cultivators somewhere, screaming at the top of his lungs, evidently trying to motivate the men behind him. "We must take down the Wen remnants and Wei Wuxian! We can't allow such an evil creature to continue living!"

Jiang Cheng backed off, taking multiple steps backwards until he bumped into a table. He was pale, a ghost of a shiver rattling his form. "That's impossible! I would never do that! That can't be me!"

"Wei Ying." Seeing Wei Ying filch violently, shivering as though he had been doused in ice cold water the moment he saw the revelation of his brother one day leading an army to fight against him, Lan Zhan stepped over Bichen, leaving it discarded – something he would usually would never have done. He needed to get the other boy look at him, he had to make sure that Wei Ying's eyes would no longer follow the events the vision displayed.

But Wei Ying didn't take any note of him – apparently having gone into shock or maybe suffering from a mental blow too harsh for him to deal with anything else besides it.

Seeing that words would not reach Wei Ying, Lan Zhan tentatively rested a hand on Wei Ying's shoulder, attempting to at least somehow convey his presence and support to the slightly shorter male through the physical contact. As far as he knew Wei Ying had always reacted well to all forms of physical contact as long as he liked the person initiating them enough.

Lan Zhan hoped he was among these well-enough-liked people.

"I'm fine Lan Zhan, thank you. It just…hurts to know that this is how things will go. I feel like I understand that ancient poem on a whole new level now. I understand the pain the man must have felt – it's probably worse than any physical pain I have ever been in."

When the vision flickered yet another time, no one had a good feeling about it. In fact, even Jin Zixuan, who held no particular liking for Wei Ying, rushed over to cover Wei Ying's eyes, not wanting him to see any more hurtful things – seeing his brother trying to take him down was bad enough.

That however did nothing to blind the rest of them. They ended up seeing Wei Ying lying on the ground, Wen Ning fanning him some air as Wen Qing drew out his golden core – planning on transferring it to Jiang Cheng, who was lying right next to the three of them.

The moment she opened her mouth Nie Huaisang scrambled over towards Wei Ying, covering his ears as well.

"Stay awake Wei Ying, you can't fall asleep now! You won't wake up ever again if you allow yourself to doze of now! Please hold on! Wen Ning, fan some more air at him!"

A blood-curdling scream left Wei Ying's lying body.

"You nearly did it, it's almost out!" Wen Qing sounded close like she was close to tears – her voice wavering with worried nervousness.

An evident pain dripped into her tone as she continued speaking, trying to somehow keep Wei Ying focused on her while also cleaning her own soul of the horrible sensations gathering in her chest. "Don't you dare become a martyr! You have no right to die on me – just think of my reputation as a doctor, ok? You have to live! Now that you made that entirely braindead choice to give your golden core to that ungrateful brother of yours, you can't burden him with it happening on the cost of your life! Besides, who will safe his ass the next time!? When he acts the same as he did before – running into trouble – who will safe him if you don't come for him!? Come on, you said it yourself – you have to stick around! You told me you wouldn't let him bear the consequences of losing his golden core – so how is him suffering from the loss of his brother any better!?" "You don't… understand Wen Qing. I will – argh – not die. I am a sore loser, did you forget that?" "Young master Wei, hold on! It will be over in just a bit – come on, talk to me, stay awake!" Wen Ning was visibly panicking now. "I really don't get why you would do such a thing and give your brother your golden core!" Wei Ying only huffed, his breath stuttering to a halt as his golden core finally left his body, only kicking in after a longer pause of him looking like he had been frozen. "Jiang Cheng is competitive…he won't be able to live without a golden core-" Wei Ying coughed, no longer feeling new ripples of pain tearing him apart, instead feeling the raging energy inside of his body die out as all of his spiritual energy left him. "I promise, I will be just fine…really…just giving my golden core to Jiang Cheng, ok?" Wei Ying coughed up the first drops of blood, trying to move but being to week to even roll over to his side. Wen Ning helped him. "Just take it as my repayment for the…life his family allowed me…to have…if you want to do so. Just remember to never let him know about any of this… He won't accept it." Wei Ying spat even more blood. He looked like he had just died.

Tears sprang to Jiang Cheng's eyes. He couldn't believe what his brother was going to sacrifice for him – especially not after he had found out that he would thank him for it with a war.

"This is horrible." Jin Zixuan's hands were shaking over Wei Ying's eyes. His dislike for the other had drained completely – there was nothing but pity inside him anymore.

A few silent seconds later Jin Zixuan finally said what they were all thinking. "And it means he won't have a golden core to defend himself during the war. He will go down."

The statement did not need a vision to prove anything.

The array went over to show them every single bit of the inevitable anyway.

They saw Wei Ying controlling corpses by using the resentful energy inside of them, trying to buy at least a bit of time so the ones around him could escape – all of them being elderly people with the exception of a single child. They probably were the Wen remnants whom Jiang Cheng had mentioned before – though they didn't seem dangerous or worth taking down. In fact, murdering them seemed to be nothing but simple cruelty.

The temperature inside the classroom dropped as every single last person realized that there was nowhere for any of them to run.

The moment Wei Ying felt Jin Zixuan's and Nie Huaisang's hands going limb on him, he ripped himself free – feeling of how Lan Zhan's hand, which still rested on his shoulder, clenched down on him, keeping him in place, rendering him unable to move so he would get a full picture of what was going on in the vision. Wei Ying however still saw enough to witness his own death – at his own brother's hand.

"So, I am going to die just like that?" Wei Ying felt like crying – so he decided to come up with a joke. Had he not done so he would have sunken into the darkest of pits. "Well, I guess the world decided there was no more need to have me around."

The vision flashed once more.

By now all of them were sick of seeing what it showed to them, but none of them could look away when they saw the image of Lan Zhan coming into view. The entire back of of his clothes was bloodied, he looked feverish, pale and weak – but he somehow still managed to drag himself to the place which they all recognized as Wei Ying's last station in life, the place where he had died.

It was obvious that Lan Zhan was searching for his corpse – his soul.

Looking at him, the second jade had lost every single ounce of his regal composure, calmness, distance and flawlessness.

He looked beaten, forlorn and desperate.

He kept searching, looking, wandering, pushing himself further and further.

He never found the slightest trace of Wei Ying – the man's body had been ripped apart by the resentful energy after all.

But the part that was even worse to watch – as it wasn't something they all knew to be bound to happen – was Lan Zhan's usually beautiful music.

Every single note was clear and technically perfect as always, but this time not a single one of them sounded soothing – they were all praying, begging for an answer.

Lan Zhan was on his knees, talking to every soul he could summon – all in order to find Wei Ying.

But Lan Zhan couldn't obtain a single clue regarding the man – Wei Ying's soul did not answer him on its own either.

It was a horrible sight.

Even though Lan Zhan played inquiry over and over, Wei Ying's soul did not show itself. It didn't do so the first time and it didn't do so after hundreds of times.

Lan Zhan's fingers had long since started to bleed, the skin starting to peel of the pads of his fingers.

Lan Zhan was losing himself.

He was losing his common sense.

He was succumbing to his mourning.

He could no longer play.

He rose up and started searching all over again, clearly in denial.

At some point Lan Zhan finally seemed to spot something. Without a single moment of hesitation, he forced himself move through multiple obstacles before sinking down next to the curled-up bundle he had spotted – it was a child.

Lan Zhan immediately stretched his arms to pick the child up, not caring for the blood the movement forced out of his wounds. He didn't even seem to notice the pain the movement must have caused. He had grown numb, only still living because his spiritual energy was regenerating the blood he was continuously losing.

He pulled the boy close to his chest – the child's face visible to the onlookers for just a second.

It was the child that had been with Wei Ying before.

The future Lan Zhan's last bit of whatever had kept him together broke. The unspeakable happened – his face seemed to crack, showing the world an entirely different person.

Utter sorrow spread across his features, numerous silver glittering tears escaping his eyes as he cried silently, clinging to the child as though it was a lifeline.

A single broken "Wei Ying" escaped his lips.

It made Wei Ying himself cry. He had never seen such a heart wrenching sight.

He was going to die. His heart couldn't take it.

"Uncle! I hope your lessons are finished, the elders are asking for you concerning the problem of the waterborne abyss."

The door opened with ease – no longer blocked by the spell the array had cast on it.

Seemingly they had seen what they were supposed to see – and prevent.

Lan Xichen stepped inside the room – the array disappearing before he could get good look at it, the blood seeping through the floor, leaving no traces of having been there in the first place.

"Uncle, what happened here?"

"Nothing." Feeling as though his life had been shortened by ten years, Lan Qiren dismissed his class, very sure the future they had seen was nothing if not Wei Ying's and Lan Zhan's personal hell. "I will join you and the elders now. We are done with everything here anyway."

Even minutes after Lan Qiren had left with Lan Xichen, the rest of the class remained frozen. With the exception of Su She none of them had any words left to speak.

"We really need to change this future." The first one who spoke up was Jin Zixuan. While he himself seemed to have a bright future ahead of him – in which he even loved his fiancée and had a child of his own – he did not like the idea of his (seemingly actually very beloved) wife losing her smile due to the loss of her brother.

"No shit, that's the entire reason we even saw this in the first place." Jiang Cheng couldn't bear to look at his brother. His guilt was tearing his heart apart. But that just strengthened his resolve to keep Wei Ying alive this time – he would not harm him. He absolutely refused to do so.

"Wei Ying will not die. Not like this." Lan Zhan appeared to be the most collected out of all of them. It was nearly inhumane.

"Of course, I won't – I can't have you cry your eyes out over me." Wei Ying put his hand on Lan Zhan's, slowly loosening its grip from his shoulder so he could turn around and face Lan Zhan, whipping his own tears from his eyes. "I don't want to put you through all of that – and I want to live as well, so we need to find out why what happened."

Nie Huaisang (who was the only smart person among the onlookers) had seen enough to know that Lan Zhan and Wei Ying were absolutely going to be the tragic kind of lovers this time too if he didn't give them a little push. So maybe he should just help them this once – for the sake of Wei Ying marrying (urgh, he didn't want to imagine that though).

But the point was another one anyway: Lan Zhan and Wei Ying absolutely had to confess their feelings while they both lived – and they should just get started right now before something happened and history – or the future? – repeated itself. "Ok, how about we go to the library and search for useful books or whatever!"

Shooing every single last person outside – and demonstratively closing the door in Wei Ying's and Lan Zhan's face before they could follow them – Nie Huaisang marched off, fully intending to give the lovebirds some space.

"What the hell-" Annoyed at having the door closed right in front of his nose, Wei Ying reached to open the door – and found it locked. "Nie Huaisang! Unlock the door! This isn't funny!"

"I do not believe that this is Nie Huaisang's fault."

Turning around at Lan Zhan's words, Wei Ying was entirely unprepared to see the array having appeared once more. Seemingly it hadn't been destroyed after all.

Then he got what that probably meant – the situation from before was repeating itself.

"Wait, you mean there is something else that the array wants to tell us?"

"Mn."

"And what? How should we ask fo-"

Wei Ying fell silent. This time the array did not wait for them to say anything. Without being asked for it, the array showed them how Wei Ying was pulled back into life. How Lan Zhan and he grew closer and closer once more.

They saw how Wei Ying got Lan Zhan drunk and kissed him, never telling Lan Zhan about it.

They saw themselves getting intimate for the first time – Lan Zhan being drunk once more.

They saw Wei Ying's confession of love in the face of death – Lan Zhan actually being sober this time.

They saw themselves getting married – Lan Zhan looking more alive than ever.

They saw their wedding night – both of them still dressed in red, Lan Zhan towering above Wei Ying as Wei Ying's back rested on the bed, his arms wrapped around Lan Zhan's neck. They kissed, both their eyes overflowing with so many things that they did not yet tell each other.

"I love you."

There was no way to say who or when these words had been said – it could have been the future Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, consummating their marriage.

It could have been the present Wei Ying, who suddenly realized he wouldn't only fall for Lan Zhan. He had already done so. Maybe he just brabbled his revelation out loud.

But it also could have been the present Lan Zhan, who's lips were suddenly on Wei Ying's own, unable to hold himself back now that he knew Wei Ying would accept him – one day.

Hopefully today.

"I won't let go of you."

But this, this had definitely come from the present Lan Zhan.

"Don't, I'll die if you do."

And these words could only ever have come from the present Wei Ying.

"Well nice to see they finally got it."

And that was the future Wei Ying – getting a last look at the two through his crumbling array (yes, he was quite happy he added that hidden-eye-vision-thingy-feature to the array).

"Who got what?"

Oh yes, and that was future Lan Zhan, coming home to his husband.

"Ah, nothing much – just wanted to fix a few things for my dearest husband. I felt as though I had a few years of stupidity and even more years of death to make up to you. Ah, you know Lan Zhan, let me promise something to you: I'll be with you for every second of your life this time around."