Acknowledging that his symptoms were tent mate-induced did nothing to stop them from occurring. However, it did mean that he could reduce their frequency to something manageable by staying away from his friend.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the more he tried to avoid Lan WangJi, the more the older boy went looking for him.

Being closer to QiShan meant more battles and fewer skirmishes. Neither side was gaining an edge. An early snow storm halted the campaign and the allies looked for a place to set up for the winter. They found a town with a nice field nearby, large enough for the soldiers and heirs to set up tents. The Sect leaders appropriated most of the compound of one of the richer families in the town as their base of operations. The wife, and owner of the property, was very shrill in her demands that the cultivators leave her home. Nie MingJue looming over her, leaning on Baxia, shut her up. Not permanently, of course; her complaints continued throughout the winter, just loud enough to be barely heard.

The Sect leaders were more bothered by her son, an obnoxious boy named Mo ZiYuan. Though little more than a toddler, he shrilly demanded to be taught how to use a sword, to be taught how to cultivate, to be included in their planning sessions. On top of that, he was pampered and treated like he was a young prince, so being told 'no' only made him fall to the ground kicking and screaming. The Lan Silencing spell took care of the screaming at least.

For Wei WuXian, other than living in a tent still, life at Mo Manor was very similar to life in the Unclean Realm. He went on patrol for three days, then two days of education and practice. It was during saber practice that he learned exactly how the Nie cultivators were able to control the puppets. Nie ChaunLi was his instructor. Wei WuXian was using a regular saber to practice with. He really wanted to use a spiritual one so he could learn a bit of how the Nie used them. Nie ChaunLi refused to allow it. "WeiGongZi, our sabers aren't like your spiritual swords. Our founder was a butcher; it's not simply that the blades are different. The uses are different, too. They were originally forged to assist in culling yao endangering the area. The swords sort of eat resentful energy."

Wei WuXian almost dropped his blade in shock and abrupt understanding. "They eat resentful energy? But spiritual energy and resentful energy don't…. Do a lot of your cultivators die from Qi deviation?"

"Too many," Nie ChaunLi replied. "Especially the strong ones."

Wei WuXian now had his answer as to how or why the Nie were able to manipulate the puppets. They channeled spiritual energy into the sabers which… did what? Expelled resentful energy? Converted spiritual energy into resentful energy?

And that must have been how he'd managed to get a puppet to move his arm, too. He'd been frustrated that day, so he must have somehow (how?) managed to force the Yin sword to accept his spiritual energy and turn it into usable yin energy and the puppet responded to that.

Knowing that theoretically one channeled spiritual energy into the Yin iron or saber and then used the resulting resentful energy and actually managing to do it were two completely different things. On top of that, the Yin sword was, well, a sword. And covered in hundreds of years in nasty evil turtle guts. After his fourth trip to Wen Qing to have her Heal cuts before body parts fell off, he decided that the sword was going to need to be reforged. Which meant he needed a place of peace and quiet where he would not be disturbed for several hours….

Nie HuaiSang was more than happy to give him a key to the room he shared with his brother. "The porn is on a chest right next to my bed, WeiXiong," he grinned. "Help yourself. Just light some incense first and make sure you clean up well. DaGe understands we have needs; he doesn't like being reminded in his own rooms.

Wei WuXian picked a day when it appeared the Sect leaders were going to be arguing the whole day about where to attack once the spring thaws arrived. He'd decided on dividing the sword into two pieces. Separate, they would be practically useless. Together, they could be the reason the war ended. He'd need to have hold of both, mentally or physically, to cultivate with them, and decided on the yin-yang symbol. He'd paint one white later. He'd never really thought about how to reforge metal, so it was slow going. It took nearly the whole morning just to turn the blade into roughly two equal halves of melted iron. And the afternoon to get one of the pieces into an approximate shape. He was bemoaning that he was going to need a few more days of 'private time' to get the shape right when he heard voices in the hallway, specifically Lan ZongZhu and Nie ZongZhu. Wei WuXian quickly took a book from his friend's pile of spring books, opened it to a random page (hiding the iron pieces underneath), and pretended to be engrossed in it when the Sect leaders unlocked the door and walked in.

The Nie Sect leader simply sighed at seeing yet another of his brother's friends reading porn in the solitude of their room. "When you are able to get up, please do so," he ordered. "Lan ZongZhu and I have matters to discuss." Lan XiChen, however, turned bright red upon seeing the book's picture.

Wei WuXian bowed as neatly as possible, given that he was seated, to the Sect leaders. "Of course, Nie ZongZhu, Lan ZongZhu." He started to slip the book (and the iron underneath) into a qiankun pouch when he noticed the image that caused Lan XiChen's embarrassment. It was two men pleasuring a woman while they kissed above her. He felt his own face inflame; being caught reading porn was something he could shake off. Everyone knew he was shameless. Being caught reading porn with three people in it? That exceeded even his ability to be shameless!

Alone in his tent, he pulled out the iron to examine how far he was able to get. The piece was vaguely in the curved teardrop shape; the bulky part was all lumpy and bumpy. "You look more like an animal than a yin/yang…." he told it quietly. "Here are your paws, he stroked four lumps, "And your tail," he drew a finger down the tail end of the 'teardrop'. "I could make you into a scary animal…." He laid down on his bed and wiggled, enjoying the feel of the tiger pelt against what little skin he had exposed. "In fact… I could make you a tiger…." The more he thought about it, the more he liked that idea. Tiger figurines were innocuous. If he placed enough confounding spells on it, even the strongest Lan elders wouldn't suspect it was anything more than a simple iron tiger. Lesser cultivators might not even notice the tigers at all….

Finding the time and solitude needed to complete the tigers was difficult. Nie HuaiSang's room was out of bounds now for too many reasons to count. Jiang Cheng shared his room with eight or nine other Sect leaders, so that was out. He'd managed to hide in a barn once, until Lan WangJi found him and dragged him to the training yard where he was supposed to be. Interestingly enough, the best place he found to hide was the young Master Mo's room. The toddler rarely spent any time in his room, preferring to play cultivator out in the training yards or wandering the Manor yelling at servants.

Wei WuXian had never, in all his years of training younger students, ever felt the need to physically discipline a child, especially a toddler. Mo ZiYuan made him question that nearly every day he was not out on patrol.

Finally he had two fierce tigers that roughly formed a circle when connected at the head and tail. Separated, they were just two almost inert iron tigers. Only when the two were sealed together was it possible to infuse them with spiritual energy and use the resulting resentful energy to control the puppets. He imitated the Lan's attempts and whistled at first. It worked, but only for the puppets in his immediate vicinity. And only if the other cultivators didn't drown him out.

Whistling would not work on a battlefield.

ChenQing, his flute, was much louder. And more noticeable than whistling.

He was able to steal a few of the puppets to 'play' with away from other cultivators. There was a forest only a few hours away by sword. He stashed a trio there and would fly out as often as he could escape his duties to work with them. He discovered pretty quickly that the actual music was less important than the instructions sent via the seal. The music was merely the vessel which delivered the instructions. Nursery music played with a marching beat was just as effective as military music designed for parade marches. Military music played to a soft and soothing tempo calmed the puppets down from a fighting position.

The problem became a question of numbers and distance. Controlling three puppets on a battlefield was not going to win the war. He needed to know how many he could control at once and how far away they could be and still obey his flute. He was either going to need to steal the rest of the puppets out from under the Allies' noses or he was going to need his own.

While he was pondering how to steal puppets, two sets of news came through to the Sect leaders. One, of importance to Jiang Cheng, was that his grandmother was allowing Jiang YanLi to travel from the Unclean Realm to Mo Manor. She would be staying in an inn a few streets away from Mo Manor, for propriety, but would be allowed, with appropriate guards, to visit the Manor to see her brother. And ShiDi. The second piece of news was that Wen Chao was stationed in Yiling for the winter. With Wen ZhuLiu and Wang LingJiao at his side.

That night Wei WuXian was practically dancing from happiness as he prepared for bed. "ShiJie is coming!" he crowed to his roommate. "I know you've met, right? She is the sweetest, most perfect woman ever to have existed. I wish I could punch Jin ZiXuan's face completely inside out for insulting her and breaking off the engagement. No. Not for breaking the engagement. She's far too good for him. He doesn't even deserve to wipe her shoes clean, never mind deserve to be her husband. Did you ever get to try her cooking last summer? ShiJie is the best cook. Madame Yu used to yell at her for that."

Lan WangJi seemed to be ignoring the monologue until he said, "I do not always eat vegetarian."

Wei WuXian's prattle died off. "I know that. I've eaten many meals with you." While at the Unclean Realm, he did only eat vegetarian food. But while on patrol or on the march, he ate fish and fowl and squirrel that were caught for dinner and dried meat strips soaked into soup. Living in the tent outside of Mo Manor, he ate whatever was served for dinner. The only meat he refused to eat was rabbit.

Lan WangJi simply looked at his roommate and Wei WuXian looked back. He had no idea what the younger jade meant by such an obvious statement. So he examined the older boy's face looking to see if there was a clue there. Were his eyes open just a little bit wider than normal? The head cocked just off center meant 'I'm asking you a question'. So what was he asking? There was no minuscule line in between the brows, so not 'are you ok?'. After a rather long looking contest, Lan WangJi settled himself into his cot and snuffed the candle out. Wei WuXian followed suit, almost moaning in pleasure as the tiger fur enveloped him with warmth. The sounds of the rest of the camp, not yet ready for bed, were loud and raucous. Laughter, shouting, boots stomping past: the two boys were nearly accustomed to them accompanying them to sleep. "You said your ShiJie made really good soup. But it wouldn't taste as good without meat and spices. I eat meat."

Wei WuXian sat up. "Are you asking me to invite you to share ShiJie's famous pork rib and lotus root soup?"

"Yes," Lan WangJi sounded small, embarrassed.

Wei WuXian flopped back down into his blankets. "Lan Zhan! Why didn't you just say that? 'I do not always eat vegetarian!' How am I supposed to translate that to 'please let me try ShiJie's soup'? I'm not Lan XiChen, you know."

Lan WangJi's puzzled sounding, "Of course you're not XiongZhang," made Wei WuXian start laughing.

"I mean," he chortled. "I mean I can't read your face the way he can."

"I know." And now Wei WuXian was confused. How can two simple words sound relieved and sad at the same time? Either emotion, he could understand. But both? Why would Lan Zhan be both glad and sad that Wei WuXian couldn't read him?

The soup would have to wait. A group of fifty Jiang and Lan cultivators were sent under the command of Lan XiChen and Jiang WanYin to Yiling. Ostensibly, they were going to remove the Wen threat from the area. That was the GusuLan's leader's plan, at least. The YunMengJiang Sect had a less noble purpose: to capture Wen Chao, the Core-Melting Hand, and the whore. The whore was to be tortured and killed. Wen Qing was supposedly acting as Healer; she was really there to experiment on how to remove a Golden Core and give one to Jiang Cheng. Lan XiChen was adamantly opposed to both the experiments and the actual procedure; Jiang WanYin was just as effusive in telling his ally to stay the fuck away from the Jiang's and Wen Qing doing what needed to be done. In the end, Wen Chao would be dead. And so would Wen ZhuLiu. And Jiang WanYin would be able to resume being a true cultivator and Sect leader.

The battle for control of the Supervisory Office was brutal and swift. Drunken Wen cultivators were no match for the avenging allies. Sober Wen cultivators were, unfortunately for the Wen heir, unable to prevail against the larger force.

Wang LingJiao was hauled into a courtyard and tied to a post, her branding iron set by her feet. Passing cultivators were encouraged to use the brand on any body part they wished. It took her almost a week to die.

Wen ZhuLiu, restrained by several sets of ropes and spells sealing off his access to spiritual energy and preventing him from using physical force, yelled almost loud enough to drown out the screams in the courtyard below. Wen Chao would have liked to have been able to scream; After a day of actively resisting his cousin's experiments in removing his Core, his tongue was cut out. They needed his Core; not his mouth.

A few days after Wang LingJiao stopped screaming for good, Wen Qing emerged from her laboratory to declare her findings. "Removing the Core is possible." Jiang WanYin wanted to shout in joy, but the Healer was still frowning. "Simply severing the connections to the meridians is insufficient. With each cut, the connection simply… dies for lack of a better word. I will need those connections, well, alive, in order to successfully implant it into Jiang ZongZhu."

"So what do you need?" Wei WuXian asked.

"I think I need…. Agreement? I was able to sever and reconnect one strand by asking Wen Chao if he wanted his Core to die one stroke at a time? Or if he'd rather have it whole, or as whole as I could make it, once I was finished experimenting. He was focused on keeping his Core intact. At least I instructed him to do so, and it worked…."

Jiang WanYin's eyes slid over to the building where the Core Melting Hand was tied up. "How are we going to make Wen ZhuLiu want to keep his Core intact?"

"How are we going to make him want to for multiple days?" Wen Qing sighed. "It's not like cutting out a kidney or heart. In order to keep the Core healthy, I'm going to need to proceed carefully, severing each connection and then waiting for the Core to settle before moving to the next." She smiled wearily at Jiang WanYin. "At least reconnecting the strands goes faster than severing them. With each connection, the Core becomes more stable; I will be able to work much more quickly."

Appealing to Wen ZhuLiu's sense of justice did not prevail. A Core for a Core did not change his mind. Torturing the man would also not change his mind; he'd be more inclined to let the Core die than give it up to stop the pain. Torturing Wen Chao was the answer. If he willingly gave up his Core, they would both receive clean deaths. If not…. Wen Qing knew how to keep a body alive for as long as the allies wanted it to remain alive. It wouldn't necessarily remain in one piece; it would be alive.

Four days later Jiang Cheng woke up with a new Core spinning warmly in his abdomen. He felt whole again as he swung Sandu to chop off Wen Chao's head. And triumphant when he removed Wen ZhuLiu's. Vengeance for his parents' deaths was partially accomplished.

Nie MingJue sent more cultivators to Lan XiChen and orders to remove any other Wen encampments in Yiling.

While waiting for the new troops, Wei WuXian decided that he should use the time wisely. He played ChenQing for hours at a time, occasionally sending spiritual energy into the tiger seal and seeing what would happen. He didn't have any puppets to play with so he was quite certain there would be no results.

The Wen cultivators' corpses were thrown off to the edge of the compound for carrion eaters to take care of. Filled with the resentful energy of the newly dead, they would occasionally remove themselves from the heap and attempt to kill the Allies. ChenQing's music, enhanced by the tiger seal, stopped them in their tracks. Or made them move into new tracks.

He made them fight each other until they were savagely pulled apart and could only twitch. He sent them on missions to see how far he could control them. As long as they were in earshot, they would obey. By the time the Nie reinforcements arrived at the Supervisory Office, he could control every corpse in the place at once: almost one hundred of Wen Chao's cultivators, another thirty or so servants (Wen Qing's former servants?) and several hundred other dead cultivators who might also have been here under Wen Qing.

Wei WuXian was now exceedingly happy with himself. To be able to control the puppets plus control the dead on a battlefield? He could even exclude using the Allied dead and simply pull the Wen to do his bidding. Let the dead Wen fight the living Wen and keep the Allied deaths to a minimum? That alone would be worth the price he would pay.

Using resentful energy always comes with a price.