Life in the Unclean Realm was actually much easier than living in the Lotus Pier. There was no need for Wei WuXian to walk on eggshells around the Sect Leaders. As long as he did as he was asked, they left him alone. Of course, he missed Lotus Pier with all of his being, but not being held accountable for other people or being whipped for minor infractions was a decent trade-off. And someday they'd be back at Lotus Pier….

Wei WuXian, as head disciple of Lotus Pier, was put to work almost immediately. His skills in sneaking around (as Jiang Cheng put it) and hiding were almost more important than his skills in swordplay and cultivation. He, like most of the young cultivators, was put on a schedule: three days on patrol, two days in the fortress training physically or mentally. Wei WuXian finagled a way to be put on patrol with sects other than just the remnants of the YunMengJiang claiming he wanted to see how other sects did things. And on physical training days, he spent just as much time with other sects as he did the YunMengJiang. Sparring against other sects kept his skills fresh and helped him to become better. Especially when he sparred against the Nie; he'd never had a chance to fight with or against a saber and both required a new set of fighting skills. A saber was less elegant than a sword, required more brute strength, and did not permit him to be as quick on his feet as he was with Suibian. (Jiang Cheng watched his ShiXiong's saber practice with an equal mix of loathing and envy.) On mental training days, Wei WuXian found himself sitting (squirming from boredom) while the Sect leaders discussed strategy and tactics and then forced to regurgitate this information back when requested. At no time was he permitted to interject with his own ideas about strategy or to disagree with them on any points. Having to sit still and listen for hours on end was torture; he much preferred to be on patrol.

On the whole, living in the Unclean Realm was a positive place to be.

And it was made a whole lot better with the arrival of Lan WangJi.

The younger jade showed up with a group of Lan cultivators a couple of weeks after Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng. Wei WuXian was in the practice yard showing a Yan sect child how to properly hold his sword when Lan WangJi passed by on his way into the fortress proper. "Lan Zhan!" Wei WuXian shouted. "You're here!" He ran over arms stretched like he was going to give a hug only to skid to a stop right in front of the older boy. He abruptly dropped his hands, suddenly remembering that the younger jade did not appreciate hugs the way the Nie heir did. "How have you been?" he babbled to make up for the awkward arm thing. "Did you hear? The Wens attacked Lotus Pier, too."

Lan WangJi only looked at the menace in front of him. "Mm," he hummed when it became apparent the other boy required a response.

"Jiang Cheng is here, too. Did you know? The Core Melting Hand has that nickname because he really does melt people's Cores… ShiDi found that out the hard way. The idiot thought he was protecting me. Weird, right? I'm the disciple; I'm supposed to be the one protecting him. I didn't even notice the Wen were in that town, so I definitely would have been captured if he didn't step in. So anyways, Jiang Cheng doesn't have a Core anymore, but Wen Qing. Do you remember Wen Qing? She's an awesome doctor. So she and I did a lot of research after Wen Ning and I rescued Jiang Cheng. I'll bet you can't picture me doing research, can you? I did, though. I read through what felt like hundreds of books and scrolls trying to find a way to get ShiDi a Core again. There is a way, and I was going to just do it, but she decided that I had to tell him the truth. So I wasn't able to give ShiDi my Core, so he's still Coreless. But we're going to capture a whole bunch of Wen once the war starts in earnest. Especially Wen Xu and Wen Chao and Wen ZhuLiu. We can practice the surgery on the brothers because their Cores aren't as strong as Wen ZhuLiu's. Then we'll take his and give it to Jiang Cheng. We left ShiJie with her grandparents. It's better that she not be here with tons of soldiers, right? I miss her, though. I'm glad she's safe for now. Although Madame Yu, not Jiang Cheng's mother Madame Yu, her mother Madame Yu, wrote that the Wens have been sniffing around Meishan, too, so they're probably going to head over here shortly. And then you'll get to, oh I forgot, you've already met ShiJie. I'll ask her to make us her famous pork rib and lotus soup for you. I'll even tell her to make it a bit bland so you can eat it. Oh, are you completely vegetarian? Or just in the Cloud Recesses? Because I've been on patrol with some Lan that will eat meat and others who won't. I suppose she can make the recipe with tofu, but it won't taste as good. No spices and no meat?" Wei WuXian shivered in disgust. "Maybe I shouldn't ask her to make you that soup. She's good at making other dishes, though! She'll definitely make you something you can eat."

Lan WangJi turned away from Wei WuXian and bowed. "XiongZhang. Nie ZongZhu."

Lan XiChen was smiling indulgently. "Wei GongZi, did you even breathe through that oration? WangJi, was your trip uneventful?"

Lan WangJi nodded. "Two Wen patrols. No injuries on our side."

Nie MingJue snorted. "As it should be. There's food if you're hungry. A'Sang will assign you rooms.

For the first month or so, Wei WuXian had his own room. This was, of course, an optimal situation for a seventeen year old boy with a friend who held a rather large collection of spring books. As more and more sects joined the Nie, Jiang, and Lan, however, rooms with a single occupant became scarce. Other Sect leaders and their spouses started making grumbling noises that their heirs had to share rooms with multiple other heirs but this head disciple had his own room? A son of a servant had his own room when heirs had to share? They said it in so many forms until Nie MingJue was ready to stab them just to get them to shut up.

Nie HuaiSang did shut them up when he offered to share his room with his WeiXiong, and that was either a really great idea or a really poor one. And neither boy knew exactly which. Or cared. Living together made sharing porn easier. And allowed for drinking until all hours of the night without having to figure out how to remain upright for the walk back to their rooms. Unfortunately, sharing a room filled with spring books gave rise to another problem: the issue of reading them in peace. Wei WuXian came back from a patrol one afternoon, dirty and hungry, only to see Nie HuaiSang lying in his bed, naked, reading a book. Another night, Wei WuXian waited until he was completely sure Nie HuaiSang was asleep before thinking about one of the laundry girls he had flirted with earlier in the day. She had a pretty smile, her bodice was filled out quite nicely, as was her bottom, and... "Will you hurry up?" A'Sang whined. "I'm trying to sleep over here."

They came to an agreement: Nie HuaiSang would read his books on the nights Wei WuXian was scheduled to be on patrol. And when he was not on patrol, Nie HuaiSang would have to make himself scarce in the hours after dinner, to give Wei WuXian his alone time.

This arrangement worked for a few months before the grumbling started up again. Sect heirs were sleeping four and five to a room, but that son of a servant could sleep in a room that would comfortably fit twenty? Nie HuaiSang was apologetic and furious at having to kick his best friend out into a dorm room. But the allies needed the goodwill of every Sect there. And favoritism for a 'nobody' was not to be tolerated by those who mattered.

Wei WuXian was just back from a patrol and tired and filthy when he heard the news about being moved to another room. It was late, hours past the time when all good Lans were supposed to be sleeping by the time he finished bathing and dragged his weary body to the new room he was assigned to sleep in. The room was dark with tiny windows and small. There was just enough room for two pallets separated by the width of a boot, one of which was occupied. I don't think I can lay down the short way! It must have been a closet someone cleaned out. There was barely enough room at the bottom of the pallets for a pair of boots and a small chest. There wasn't even a sword stand.

It didn't matter. It was clean and small enough that no Sect leader was going to complain that their precious son wasn't sleeping in it. And it smelled nice; there was an incense burner sitting on the floor between the pallets. Wei WuXian crawled into the blankets on the other pallet and was asleep in minutes.

When he awoke, the other pallet was empty. Since there were so many people in the Unclean Realm, the kitchens were constantly setting out food; there was no need to hurry to get to breakfast on time So Wei WuXian pulled one of Nie HuaiSang's books out of a qiankun pouch, shoved a chest in front of the door, and began to read. When he returned late that night, the first thing he smelled was not the scented curling smoke being emitted by the incense burner; he smelled sex. So after that, he made sure to burn incense during his morning 'reading' sessions. Sometimes it didn't work, and he'd still smell sex in the air when he arrived back to collapse in bed. It was embarrassing, of course, knowing that his roommate could smell what he was up to in the mornings. But they were both men, right? It helped, though, having schedules so different from each other and only dim light in the room. It meant that Wei WuXian had never seen more than an outline of his roommate's body and so would never recognize him during the day!

Other people he didn't see as often as he'd like were Wen Qing and Wen Ning. They had their own little encampment segregated from the rest of the Sects. And they weren't allowed to attend strategy meetings or go on patrol. So Wen Qing organized them into becoming the medical division. She started training them on how to make various medicines and to stitch and wrap wounds and splint broken bones. Wei WuXian felt slightly humiliated for them; the siblings, after all, had saved the YunMengJiang Sect leader's life. And the cultivators under them, saved his life again. Setting them aside like this seemed like an awful way to repay them. Wen Qing, however, said she preferred this. She was allowed to work in peace and on her own terms. So Wei WuXian fumed silently instead of demanding the allies treat these Wens as allies and not potential enemies.

At least the injured allies did go to the medical tents for treatment. That was something to work from.

There was one other person Wei WuXian didn't see nearly as often as he'd like. He discovered, to his eternal dismay, that Lan WangJi was on a different patrol rotation than he was. And on the rare days they were both at the fortress, they were usually assigned to different practice times or fields.

But then one glorious day arrived. Wei WuXian strolled into the strategy room hiding a yawn (because Lan XiChen insisted on starting these strategy meetings at ungodly times in the morning) only to be immediately awakened by the sight of Lan WangJi sitting primly on one of the floor mats set aside for disciples. "LanZhan!" Wei WuXian exclaimed and rushed over to plop on the mat next to him. "There you are! Is this a new robe? It looks new…. You look so much prettier in blue than you do in white, you know." This earned him a sideways glare; glares were so much more interesting than being ignored. Wei WuXian leaned over, trying to see if he could get another reaction out of his friend. "When you dress all in white, you look like you're going to a funeral, you know. How do you manage to keep them so clean? When we were students together, I always wanted to ask you that. My student robes were constantly getting dirty around the hems but yours always stayed so pristine. Of course, all of my robes get dirty around the hems… it's just a lot less noticeable when I'm wearing black. Black really is a good color for cultivators, you know. You should buy some robes in black to see how they look on you. I'll bet you'd look really, really handsome in black. Or you could borrow my robes for an hour or two, if you'd like." That caused the jade to fully turn to face him and earned him an even sharper glare! "I promise to only give you my robes that are freshly washed, not ones I've been exercising in or anything," he grinned. "Black hides all sorts of stuff. Dirt, blood, wet. Unless the robes are silk, of course. In which case you can tell right away that they are wet because they stick. Cotton robes try to stick when wet, but you can always pluck them out away from your skin to look like they're not. Do you always wear silk and lace, Lan Zhan?" One hand crept out to trace the embroidery on Lan WangJi's sleeve. "This is really pretty embroidery, Lan Zhan. Did you order it like this?" He grinned. "Or did some young maiden who is violently in love with you do this?" This earned a more extreme reaction.

Lan WangJi yanked his sleeve away. "Ridiculous."

"What's ridiculous, Lan Zhan? Of course young maidens are in love with you. Maybe not violently in love, but…. You are quite good looking, you know. And a good cultivator. And rich. You have a lot to offer a wife. Why wouldn't they dream about marrying you?" The jade might have stiffened in his seat, Wei WuXian wasn't so sure because his posture was already perfect. There might have been a twitch, though... "Now, young maidens dream about me, too, you know. But they just dream about kissing me. Because I'm a good cultivator, and handsome, but I'm not rich. When the war is over and we're back home, are you going to get married? Sometimes I think I want to. And then sometimes I think I'd like to sort of become a roving cultivator. Not permanent, of course. I'll have to stay with Jiang Cheng and help rebuild the Sect. But sometimes, you know…. I think I'd like to just… oh, walk away from my duties for a month or so and just go on night hunts for the fun of it. Would you like that, Lan Zhan? You could go with me, you know. It would be fun! No responsibilities except for what we want? Even if you don't, you have to come to Lotus Pier when the war is over. I'll show you the best places to fish. And the best ponds to pick lotus pods. And we can swim for hours. I'll bet the night hunting will be good, too, since no one will have gone after any of the creatures for a while. How about this, Lan Zhan. Once Lotus Pier and Cloud Recesses are on their way to being rebuilt, you and I will definitely go night hunting together. We can clear out Gusu first if you want, or YunMeng. I really don't care which one because I'm sure other disciples will be going on smaller night hunts, too. What do you think?" Here Wei WuXian stopped to take a breath and waited for an answer.

All he got for his troubles was, "Boring."

"I don't think going on a night hunt with you would be boring at all, Lan Zhan," he pouted. "You know what's boring? Having to listen to strategy meetings and not being allowed to speak up and state my opinion. It's worse than lectures at Cloud Recesses, I tell you. At least there, I could talk every once in a while. Your uncle almost went into qi deviation on a daily basis, but that, at least, wasn't boring!"

Jiang WanYin walked behind Wei WuXian and slapped the back of his head. "You're talking now! We Sect leaders are trying to prepare for a war, and you're jibber-jabbing nonsense!"

Wei WuXian slumped back into his seat. He forced himself to listen to the Sect leaders argue back and forth over whether it was better to stay and defend QingHe or if it was better to send an army out to attack Qishan. The only interesting portion of the argument was grouping who wanted to defend and who wanted to attack.

Those in favor of defense tended to either be really small sects or those who lived in QingHe. They just wanted to be away from Wen control, and as long as the Wen kept away from QingHe, they were fine with that. Those in favor of attacking had larger holdings outside of QingHe and, obviously, wanted to be able to regain their property. So once the Wen were repelled from their holdings, they were content to let things be. Only two, Jiang Cheng and Lan XiChen, wanted to actually punish the Wens sufficiently for their attempt at attaining dominance over all the sects. Jiang Cheng burned with the need to destroy the Wen brothers and the Core Melting Hand. He would accept no less than their deaths. Lan XiChen was not nearly as fervent, at least openly, but he, too, would accept no less than the imprisonment or death of Wen RuoHan, his family, and immediate retainers.

Outside of making that observation, however, Lan Zhan had the perfect word: boring. Wei WuXian slumped on his mat and tried not to fall he shifted his attention to the boy next to him…. Looking at Lan WangJi definitely was not boring.