To Live a Thousand Deaths

by CrystalHeartZyx

A Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation fic, huzzah! Fu Xuanming is a walking corpse. After the destruction of her home, she has focused her efforts on protecting her younger sister from the Wen Clan. A chance encounter with Wei Wuxian brings her to the Jiang Clan, and her fate becomes linked with the demonic grandmaster - all the way into his second life.

6. Thine Home to Burn

Should I have made this chapter shorter? Yes. The same could be said about all of these chapters. Whoops. A lot's happening, okay? I organized it all while drafting, so neat and tidy, such great breaks between chapters. Then I edited it. And added more. And more. And the chapters got kinda loooooong. This chapter's literally 32 pages fml but it was just so entertaining to write!

---

"I will see you again," Fu Xuanming assured him.

"I know you will," Lan Xichen agreed.

Somehow, a year had already passed since they had first come to the Cloud Recesses. Even though her experience had far improved since the beginning — thanks in part to Lan Xichen's favoritism — she was still growing sick of mountains and clouds and rabbits and precepts.

"I pray for your safe return to Yunmeng," Lan Xichen continued.

"Yeah, yeah. Save your prayers for yourself."

Fu Xuanming wasn't good with farewells. She never liked to drag them out or try to make them meaningful. Lan Xichen, meanwhile, seemed intent on trying to give her something to remember. That, or he was simply like this with everyone.

"Do my eyes deceive me?"

Wei Wuxian had taken the liberty of scaring the shit out of Jiang Cheng by bursting out of the water like a corpse when their boat had approached the Lotus Pier. Fu Xuanming had caught Fu Lianmin before she could fall off the edge in surprise, but Jiang Cheng tackled Wei Wuxian in retaliation and the pair ended up soaking wet by the time they made it to the docks.

"You look like a proper disciple of Gusu! Did the Lan Clan indoctrinate you?"

Fu Xuanming was currently carrying a guqin on her back and a jade xiao flute in her sash. Though the guqin looked big for her, she had little trouble carrying it, wrapped for protection in the white cloths from Gusu.

"They have not," Fu Xuanming insisted. "I just found out instruments are fun to play, especially when weaponized."

Fu Lianmin explained, "Zewu-jun insisted he be gifted them."

"Oh, Lan Xichen, huh? You were getting all chummy with the Twin Jades without me? Betrayal!"

"Don't worry, Lan Wangji still loathes your very existence," Jiang Cheng assured him.

"A-Xu! A-Cheng! A-Yao!"

"A-Li!" The three of them hurried to meet Jiang Yanli.

Sure enough, Fu Xuanming slowly readjusted to life in the Lotus Pier. She didn't play her guqin for the first few nights, feeling the instrument's icy chords didn't fit in the warm, lively environment of Yunmeng.

After a few months, the time spent at the Cloud Recesses felt like a fading dream. Fu Xuanming had experienced loss before. She had moved from home to home, residence to residence. Each time, she had come to expect that once she left, she could never return. A part of her had been worried about the Lotus Pier while they had been away. Whenever Wei Wuxian had mentioned it, he kept reminding her that their life in Yunmeng was still there, and it would be there for them when they returned.

He made sure to send plenty of letters to remind her that Lotus Pier was still doing well, all scribbled with calligraphy to rival Fu Xuanming's — and with vulgar statements sprinkled in just in case any of the Lans tried to intercept their messages. Fu Lianmin always had to read them out to Fu Xuanming since her da-ge stubbornly refused to learn how to read, and they had to avoid Lan Xichen hearing any of it, or else his pure mind might just lead to him bleeding from his apertures.

Fu Xuanming must have certainly annoyed Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji, the way she brought up the Lotus Pier just as often as Wei Wuxian had. One day, they would come to pick lotus pods. Together.

Their next adventure would come over a year after Wei Wuxian had gotten kicked out of the Cloud Recesses early.

"Qishan?" Fu Xuanming repeated.

"You do not have to participate," Jiang Fengmian informed her.

The Wen Clan was to host a Grand Symposium that spanned seven days. There was a different recreational event each day, and one was an archery competition.

The rules of the competition were as such: young juniors of each clan who had yet to reach crowning age would enter the grounds to battle for prey. There were over a thousand life-sized paper doll targets that fled swiftly about the arena. However, only one hundred of these had a fierce spirit sealed within. If one should shoot the wrong target, they must immediately withdraw. Only those who consistently shot the paper dolls containing the fierce spirits could remain. Those who shot the most by number and the most accurately would be calculated and ranked accordingly.

"Is Qishan particularly dangerous?" Fu Lianmin asked.

Fu Xuanming didn't want to worry her little sister if she didn't have to. Still, Qishan was a dangerous, dangerous place. Fu Xuanming didn't know much of the area — just one palace had been where she had spent most of her time. Fu Lianmin was lucky that she didn't know anything about the heart of the Wen Clan.

"All of the major clans are participating, so I'll naturally be representing the Jiang Clan," Jiang Cheng was saying. "You don't need to bother yourself with attending. I'll only be taking the top disciples of the clan to prove our clan's might."

"What are you saying, Jiang Cheng?" Wei Wuxian argued. "You're acting like I'm not joining you, as your most amazing da-shixiong in the whole world!"

Jiang Cheng did his best to shrug him off. "As if! You'll just end up embarrassing us. The Twin Jades of Lan have suffered enough because of your antics."

"Ah, that's right! Lan Zhan will be there. Hey, I can finally invite him to Yunmeng. He's probably missed me dearly all this time we've been apart!"

"Zewu-jun will be there?" Fu Xuanming said. "Isn't he too old to qualify?"

"Not so," Jiang Cheng announced. "He should be nineteen this year, and the competition accepts those beneath the age of twenty."

"I see…"

Fu Lianmin noticed a change in her demeanor. "Da-ge?"

Clearing her throat, Fu Xuanming announced, "I shall attend as well. Archery is one of my greatest strengths. If you want to give the Jiang Clan some face, I can assure you, I won't disappoint. Besides, I may run into Wen Qing."

Wei Wuxian was wide-eyed. "Wen Qing?"

"She's one of the Wen Clan's most skilled practitioners of medicine."

"You know this Wen Qing figure? How?" Jiang Cheng asked.

Fu Xuanming gave him a sideways wink. "My secret. I come from a line of healers, after all. Wen Qing and I would get along swimmingly. She's the author of some really great medical journals, didn't you know?"

Jiang Cheng looked like he was fighting back a headache. "Fine, fine, you can both come. But if we do end up meeting Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji —"

Wei Wuxian held up his hands, the very picture of innocence. "I know, I know! Best behavior! I'll be a perfect gentleman."

Jiang Cheng grumbled, "At least pretend like you mean it!"

They were given standard event attire for the juniors attending the Qishan Grand Symposium: red robes, round-collared and narrow-sleeved with a nine-ringed belt. Another good reason for her to pretend to be a boy, no one questioned that she was still a youth when she had to request a uniform so small. She wouldn't be able to maintain the façade for much longer, but that was a problem for the future.

"Wen Ning," Fu Xuanming greeted. The stuttering young man had decent archery, especially considering he and his sister came from a healer line of the Wen Clan.

Wen Qionglin was Wen Ning's courtesy name, though like Jiang Cheng, no one ever used it. He was from a collateral branch of the Wens, and with the strict hierarchy based on confidence and merits, Wen Ning didn't have much to note about himself. His peers appeared to look down upon him as a talentless, meek young man. No passion or fury, no arrogance or confidence.

Wei Wuxian had spotted him practicing archery in the gardens, doing rather well before the social interaction scared him away. But as he always did, Wei Wuxian immediately latched onto the young man and began giving him shooting tips. There was nothing better for him to do during the boring days before the archery competition, and while he was skittish and shy, Wei Wuxian's warm personality and compliments to Wen Ning's archery eventually won the kid over.

His older sister was, in fact, Wen Qing.

She was a healer, and a very good one at that. Fu Xuanming had read her research papers on the studies and advancements of medicine with regards to both cultivation and regular healing techniques, and was eager to discuss further matters on her essays regarding theoretical divine spiritual compatibility. While Wei Wuxian was chatting it up with Wen Ning, Fu Xuanming managed to find Wen Qing and had a more refined conversation regarding the techniques of healing that went beyond simply channeling spiritual energy into someone and hoping for the best. Her acupuncture needles were to be feared across the lands.

She wasn't the daughter of the head of the Wen family, Wen Ruohan, but rather the descendant of one of his elder cousins on the maternal side. Although they were distant relatives, Wen Ruohan had had a good relationship with his cousin since they were children. Furthermore, Wen Qing excelled in both the literary arts and the study of medicine. She was highly favored by Wen Ruohan for her talents and often attended the Wen Clan of Qishan's various year-round banquets alongside him. For all her pride and dignity in a high position in the Wen Clan, she was allowed to care about others in the art of medicine. She was on good enough terms with Wen Ruohan to even recommend others for skill and prowess.

However, true to the oaths of healers, Wen Qing was never regarded for killing people. Talking to her was the only thing that alleviated the days of the Discussion Conference in the Grand Symposium.

"To think, you would come here at such a time," Wen Qing said, her expression calm but her tone slightly strained.

"I have come to see you, of course," Fu Xuanming said. "How have you been doing?"

"I should be asking that of you. My life has been the same as ever. Hands stained with the blood of guilty and innocent alike, yet I have never once drawn a blade." She ran her eyes up and down Fu Xuanming's figure. "You appear to be doing well. Slightly small for your age, though."

Fu Xuanming grumbled defensively, "My size is perfectly average. It's all but a matter of scale."

"You should eat better," Wen Qing insisted. "You're likely to be forgetting meals because you don't bother acknowledging the hunger pains."

"You're not my mother," Fu Xuanming said, petulant.

Wen Qing stifled back a chuckle and quickly schooled her amused expression. "It is in the nature of your doctor to worry about her patients. It's all standard business, of course."

"Of course."

Fu Xuanming glanced back over to Wei Wuxian, who was already moving onto his next victim. He said something like, "Look at that eye-catcher over there," to Jiang Cheng beside him.

Wei Wuxian had nearly fallen asleep standing up listening to the morning debates. Only once they had taken up their bows and quivers had he finally come to life. Not only was his head swimming, but it was finally reaching the time in the day when he would have actually woken up.

On the way, he cast a casual glance beside him and noticed a handsome young man whose face was fair as powder and cold as ice. He was dressed in the standard event attire for the juniors attending this Qishan Grand Symposium, and it looked particularly good on him: three parts refined, three parts gallant, but handsome in every way. An eye-catcher.

This youth had a quiver of arrows with snow-white fletching strapped on his back. His head was lowered as he tested the bow. His fingers were long, and when he plucked the bowstring, the sound thrummed like a strummed guqin — pleasant to the ear, bold and vigorous. He also looked a bit familiar…

After pondering this briefly, Wei Wuxian slapped his thigh and greeted him excitedly. "Well now! If it isn't Wangji-xiong!"

Before today, he had only ever seen Lan Wangji in the Lan Clan of Gusu's simple "funeral clothes," and never in anything so vibrant and eye-catching. Combined with Lan Wangji's beautiful face and the suddenness of the reunion, he was so dazzled that he hadn't immediately recognized the boy.

As for Lan Wangji — done testing his bow, he twisted his head away and left. Having been snubbed, Wei Wuxian turned to Jiang Cheng. "He ignored me again. Heh."

Jiang Cheng shot him a cool look, also planning on ignoring him.

Fu Xuanming spotted Lan Wangji too, of course. One couldn't possibly mistake his face, fair as jade yet cold as ice. She scanned the area around him, and eventually settled on the gathering of Lan Clan disciples.

Finally, her eyes settled on Lan Xichen. He was speaking to his fellows, likely encouraging them to do their best. His smile was reassuring, regardless of how nervous his fellow disciples were. Even though he was still a youth, he already had the qualities of a leader. His people rallied around him, took solace in his confidence.

A part of it still irked Fu Xuanming, for many unexplainable reasons. The more she saw of that dazzling smile, the more she wanted to crush it. Over the months spent together in the Cloud Recesses, Fu Xuanming had grown accustomed to being beside him almost every day. She openly teased and taunted him in their daily conversations, but no matter how honest or blunt she was, he never seemed bothered.

Whenever she thought she was getting too irritated by him, she thought back to his expression when he had told her about his past. The sadness behind his smile, the tragedy of his childhood. The only reason he was so mature was because he had never been allowed to be a child. That smile of his was false, she knew it for certain. It was a fake smile that tried to compensate for a loss of his childhood innocence.

She thought he looked better when he wasn't smiling. When he let the melancholy of it all finally crash over him, and accept that he was unhappy.

Fu Xuanming herself was a bit of a masochist — at least, she didn't mind pain, and even felt odd when she wasn't in pain. But she thought that Lan Xichen wasn't much different. Always smiling, always being dependable, always bearing the burdens of those around him. By smiling, by being so friendly and open, he laid his heart bare for anyone and everyone to take advantage of him. He was practically asking someone to stab him in his unguarded heart.

Wen Qing followed Fu Xuanming's line of sight. She waited patiently for a few moments, but when Fu Xuanming didn't stop staring, she said, "I see. So it wasn't me who you risked coming to Qishan for."

Fu Xuanming blinked, forcing her eyes back to Wen Qing beside her. "I don't know what you're talking about. Lan Xichen is a friend of mine. I should go…save him from Wei Wuxian. I'll see you around after the competition."

Without looking back, Fu Xuanming hurried to intercept Wei Wuxian. Wen Qing looked on behind her, but ultimately didn't say anything more.

There were over twenty entrances to the range, and every clan started at a different one. Lan Wangji approached the entrance for the Lan Clan of Gusu, but Wei Wuxian had sneaked over first. Lan Wangji shifted to the side, and Wei Wuxian matched his movements. Lan Wangji moved away, and he did too. In short, he blocked him, refusing to let him pass.

At last, Lan Wangji stood still and raised his head. He said, sternly, "Pardon."

"Gonna stop ignoring me now?" Wei Wuxian commented. "Were you pretending not to know me earlier, or were you pretending not to hear me?"

Not far away, the boys of the other clans were all looking in their direction, curious and amused. Jiang Cheng smacked his lips irritably and strapped on his quiver before heading off to the other entrance.

"Lan Xichen." Fu Xuanming greeted the elder brother properly. "You all look fabulous in a color that's not funeral-white."

"Fu-gongzi. You look radiant with your robes tucked like the living."

The two of them exchanged familiar smiles.

Lan Xichen continued, "It's not been long since our parting, truly, yet I am glad you could make it."

Fu Xuanming murmured with a strained smile, "Lan Wangji certainly isn't…"

Lan Wangji raised his eyes to Wei Wuxian and coldly repeated, "Pardon."

A smile hung off of Wei Wuxian's lips. He wiggled his brows before turning to the side to allow him to pass. The entrance was narrow, and Lan Wangji had to press close to him in order to squeeze through.

Once he entered the grounds, Wei Wuxian called after him. "Lan Zhan, your forehead ribbon is crooked."

Juniors from prominent clans were very mindful of their bearing and poise, especially those from the Lan Clan of Gusu. Hearing him, Lan Wangji unthinkingly reached to right his ribbon — but it was clearly fastened correctly. He shot a peeved look at Wei Wuxian, but the latter had already turned and left for the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng's entrance, laughing all the way.

Fu Xuanming sighed. "It's been a while since I've apologized for him, hasn't it?"

Lan Xichen laughed. "Once, for old time's sake then."

"No, the moment's ruined. Best of luck today."

"Of course."

Wei Wuxian tugged Fu Xuanming close as they returned to the gate for the Jiang Clan. "Hey, you and Zewu-jun really are good buddies!"

She flicked his hand away. "Unlike you, I can be civil. You see, just because I share the same impulse to burn the world down, I can also trick even Lan Xichen into thinking I'm a respectable member of high society."

"Pfft, more like you just couldn't crack him."

"Ahem! You got the easy one!" she protested. Lan Wangji was so easy to annoy, it was almost comical. All Wei Wuxian had to do was look in his direction and he seemed to bristle. Fu Xuanming could talk about burning the world down and Lan Xichen would just smile and shake his head at her like it was the most amusing thing in existence.

Once the competition formally began, the number of participants dwindled as they shot ordinary paper dolls in error. All cultivators seemed to have a means of tracking down the ones with actual spirits in them, so Fu Xuanming didn't feel bad for using her own skills to easily keep track. Especially with Wei Wuxian there to negate any possible suspicion of foul play.

He brought down one doll with every arrow fired. He was shooting slowly but never missed once, and it didn't take long before seventeen or eighteen of the arrows in his quiver were gone. Fu Xuanming was deliberately staying a few dolls behind him, but the numbers were rapidly thinning.

Nineteen from Wei Wuxian, seventeen from Fu Xuanming, seventeen from Lan Xichen, fifteen — no, now sixteen — from Lan Wangji, four from Jiang Cheng, five from Fu Lianmin. Those were just the ones she could keep track of based on shooting technique alone.

Based on the signal flares marking the kills, there had been ten from the Jin Clan, five from the Nie Clan, and three from the Wen Clan. Four more proper targets remained after barely a single incense time.

She caught sight of Lan Xichen, able to identify him in the distance by both his headband and the way he moved. She had spent months training on the archery range in the Lan Clan with him, having competitions like this to see who could shoot down the most targets; she could identify both him and Lan Wangji with barely a fractional glance in their direction.

He shot her a smile from all the way across the arena…and then shot down a spirit not ten meters from her position.

Eighteen to her seventeen, and only three targets left. No one would ever believe Lan Xichen had such a coy side to him! Cheeky! Arrogant! Insolent!

Fu Xuanming dashed towards him, looking as though she was going to ram him head on as she soared over the rocky terrain — and used the winds to push them just past one another. An arrow nocked, she fired while facing downwards, right above Lan Xichen. His smile never wavered as the arrow soared just past his cheek and came down on a spirit hiding in the shadows of the rocky maze far below.

Wei Wuxian, meanwhile, shot down his twentieth spirit, leaving one true doll remaining at play. It was no longer a competition of who would beat him, but who would come closest. Naturally, all eyes were on Fu Xuanming and Lan Xichen, who landed a distance apart, backs facing one another, scanning the arena.

Of course, Wei Wuxian could still beat both of them, just for the fun of it. Just when he was considering switching to his off hand, something fluttered into his face. It was light, soft and tickled like silk thread or willow catkins. He looked back to see that Lan Wangji had unwittingly wandered near him. He was aiming at a paper doll, his back turned to Wei Wuxian.

Those fluttering ribbons were swept up by the wind, dancing gently as they brushed Wei Wuxian's skin. His eyes squinted in a smile. "Wangji-xiong!"

Lan Wangji had his bow drawn as full as a full moon. After a momentary pause, he still answered. "What is it?"

"Your forehead ribbon is crooked," Wei Wuxian said.

This time, however, Lan Wangji did not believe him. The arrow flew. The final spirit had been slain. Without a backward glance, he left one word for Wei Wuxian. "Frivolous."

"It's true this time!" Wei Wuxian insisted. "It really is crooked. Look at it if you don't believe me. I'll fix it for you."

His hand moved as he spoke, catching the ends of the ribbon fluttering in front of him. The awful thing was that he just couldn't keep his hands to himself. He'd gotten into the habit of tugging on the braids of the girls in Yunmeng, and whenever his hands found anything long and string-like, he couldn't help but want to yank it.

And so, without thinking, he yanked this time as well. But because this forehead ribbon was already a little crooked and a little loose, this made it slip completely off Lan Wangji's forehead.

Lan Wangji's hand instantly shuddered on his bow.

It was a good while before he stiffly turned his head. His eyes very, very slowly turned to Wei Wuxian.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to," Wei Wuxian apologized sheepishly, still holding that silky forehead ribbon. "Here, you can retie it."

Lan Wangji looked extremely upset. A dark cloud enveloped his face, the back of the hand that held his bow was popping with veins, and his entire body was so tense with anger that he seemed about to start shaking. Seeing red crawling into his eyes, Wei Wuxian couldn't help but give the forehead ribbon a squeeze, like he expected it to be made of flesh and he had just pulled off a body part.

Seeing him actually daring to squeeze it too, Lan Wangji brutally snatched the forehead ribbon back from him. Wei Wuxian let go as soon as he grabbed it.

Fu Xuanming was instinctively beside Lan Xichen as the other juniors from the Lan Clan came to surround them. Lan Xichen had his arm around his little brother's shoulders, whispering something to the deeply silent Lan Wangji.

"I'm very sorry about him," she was saying, among the low murmurs from the other Lan Clan disciples. "Really, I mean it this time."

The others looked serious, like they were about to face a formidable foe, talking and shaking their heads and sending indiscernible weird looks at Wei Wuxian. He vaguely heard the words "accident," "no need to be angry," "pay it no mind," "a man," "family rules," and other such things, and grew increasingly confused.

Lan Wangji shot him a glare, then turned and left with a sweep of his sleeves, heading straight out of the grounds.

"Really, no need to apologize on his behalf. Let us meet again soon on better grounds," Lan Xichen assured Fu Xuanming, before following after his brother at an unhurried pace. The rest of the Lan Clan juniors followed as well.

Jiang Cheng walked over. "What did you do now? Didn't I tell you not to tease him? Can't be happy without courting death at least once a day, can you?"

Wei Wuxian shrugged. "I told him his forehead ribbon was crooked. The first time was a lie, but the second time was true. He didn't believe me, was even angry at me. I didn't yank his forehead ribbon off on purpose, why do you think he's so mad? Mad enough to ditch the competition."

"Need me to spell it out?" Jiang Cheng mocked him. "It's because he finds you particularly abominable, of course!"

Fu Xuanming returned from her attempt at damage control with a heavy sigh. Then she punched Wei Wuxian's arm with a heavy thud. "You must be a token of sheer misfortune! It's an anomaly of devastating proportions how you're so skilled and lucky while simultaneously being an idiot and a dumbass!"

"Aiyah! Not so hard! I'm a delicate man, you know!"

When all the clan disciples were recalled for the final results, many of the clans didn't bother paying attention, knowing they had not put a single point on the board.

The other disciples of the Jiang Clan met up with them, praising the group for shooting down any targets at all, but especially Wei Wuxian. He was the top disciple for a reason — and to Madam Yu's frustration, many of the other disciples knew they would never be able to surpass him, so they long since stopped trying.

"Xuan Zheng, Year of Ji Mao. Qishan Discussion Conference, the Archery Competition," the announcer began. "First place…the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng's Wei Wuxian! Twenty points!"

Wei Wuxian was immediately picked up and spun around in celebration, with cheers and applause. "You're our da-shixiong indeed!" "We won!" "Da-shixiong is awesome!"

"A-Xian is incredible!" Fu Lianmin agreed.

"Incredible is one word for him," Fu Xuanming sighed. "'Incorrigible' is another. Remarkable. So many remarks. Not all of them good."

"Second place," the announcer continued, "Lan Clan of Gusu's Lan Xichen and Jiang Clan of Yunmeng's Fu Xuanming — tied at eighteen points!"

Fu Xuanming flushed when she realized what she'd done. She had intended to get fourth place at best, trying not to draw too much attention to herself. It was all Lan Xichen's fault. He had practically challenged her personally! She was so used to taking up that challenge in Gusu, that the moment he flashed that arrogant smile, she knew she had to shoot him into the dirt!

She could still see it now! That coy side-glare, like he knew he was going to win, like there was nothing to worry about! Even when he had lost back in Gusu, his smile had remained unwavering. He was such a good loser, it was unfair!

"Haha, gege, you did so well!" Fu Lianmin exclaimed, wrapping her in a tight hug.

"Third place, Lan Clan of Gusu's Lan Wangji — seventeen points! Fourth place, Jin Clan of Lanling's Jin Zixuan — ten points!"

"Damn, the peacock got on the board," Fu Xuanming sighed. Jiang Cheng grunted in response.

Fu Lianmin had tied with a young boy from the Nie Clan at five points, Jiang Cheng had gotten four points, and the last two spots went to the Wen Clan at two and one.

Fu Xuanming recognized Wen Ning talking with the Nie Clan boy, much younger than she had expected. Most of the participants who had won anything were closer to sixteen or seventeen, but the Nie Clan disciple who had tied with Fu Lianmin couldn't have been older than ten years of age. What had his name been? Nie…Xian? He and Wen Ning seemed to be trying to disappear into the crowd together after the names had been called. Fu Xuanming thought to go and congratulate them, but they were lost long before she could even take a single step.

"Wow, two of the top five from the Lan Clan of Gusu!"

"As expected of the Twin Jades of Lan."

"Well the Jiang Clan has two at the top! And four overall!"

"I'm not putting us down, I'm just saying, how impressive!"

"Three of them trained at Gusu for a whole year, you know."

"But da-shixiong got kicked out within three months!"

"Look at the Wen Clan. They're hosting the competition, and they barely made it on the roster! How embarrassing."

"Mind your mouth now," Fu Xuanming urged.

"Shut it!" Jiang Cheng agreed.

The Wen Clan leader, Wen Ruohan, sat up above looking down on the clans. Four clans had a strong showing: Jiang, Lan, Jin, Nie. He looked at each of them in turn, searching for the disciples who had done so well in the competition. Fu Xuanming couldn't fight the tremor running through her whole body. She desperately wanted to look away, but she was frozen in place.

"A-Xu."

Wei Wuxian moved in front of her, and waved his hand to block her view. He managed to break the spell holding her, and they ducked back among the other Jiang disciples.

He was never quite sure how to calm someone down in this kind of situation. Wei Wuxian was more of a boy who created anxiety, not quell it. When it came to Fu Xuanming, he had been learning, ever since they met, when she was overwhelmed and how to avoid triggering some kind of breakdown. If he could do nothing else but stand between her and what she feared most, if he could hide her away from the past she had been running from, then that was what he would do.

Fu Xuanming was grateful for him, for everything he had done. Still, something told her that she would not have him by her side for much longer. She shouldn't have come here today. She shouldn't have been so arrogant.

---

"You said I would owe you nothing, no matter how much you gave. I need you to look after my sister."

Lan Xichen's smile could not endure. His brow pinched and he looked conflicted. He reached out to Fu Xuanming, and then reconsidered.

He asked, "What's this about?"

The two of them stood at the steps leading up to the Cloud Recesses. Fu Lianmin had been escorted up to settle in with the female cultivators. In the distance, the Wall of Discipline and its thousands of rules could be seen, looming over the path to entry.

Fu Xuanming was as blunt as always. "The Wen Clan will make a move soon, and you know we are in no position to stop them. Qishan was a test."

Lan Xichen's eyes fell. "I know. We got carried away."

"He will move on the Jiang Clan first. I have already warned Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu so they can make preparations."

"They will likely divide their forces between the Lan Clan and the Jiang Clan."

She shook her head, resolute. "No. They will come for me. I will draw them away, hopefully keeping both the Cloud Recesses and the Lotus Pier from taking too much damage. Prepare your people to flee with whatever they can carry. Buildings can be rebuilt, but your records and your people cannot."

The vault, that Fu Xuanming and Fu Lianmin's mother had so desperately locked away, was the Hall of History in Yong'an. It was their Library Pavilion, although far less organized. The Wen Clan of Qishan didn't want to just erase the people, they wanted to erase the past. They had wanted to make sure that once they were in charge, everyone would forget the times that came before, all of the traditions, cultivation methods, the people, and the ideals of any clan that wasn't their own.

Luckily the Lang Clan had been prepared for such an eventuality. It had been built upon a nation utterly ruined by war and rebuilt from whatever scraps could be found. They were well aware how fleeting history could be, how entire nations that towered to the heavens could crumble in just a few short years.

The Hall of History had two levels, one above ground and one underground. The Lang Clan family head, Fu Xuanming and Fu Lianmin's mother, had been charged with preserving the lower level. It was the Lang Clan's duty to maintain the Hall of History's secrets. Over the generations, new inventions to protect and reorganize the underground had advanced further and further, with copies made in the upper level for the general public. Sometimes it was the copies stored down in the Hall, but the result was the same. No matter if the upper floors were burnt into nothingness, the Hall of History was meant to be a time capsule to rebuild in the event of disaster.

When the clan fell, Lang Ying had ensured that the Hall had been locked down, encased in a protective wall of stone and enchantments with the power of the Lang Clan's most infamous yet best-hidden secret. The Wen Clan had burned down the upper Hall of History and thought that was the end. For the time being, it was. Only when Fu Lianmin grew to restore the Lang Clan could the Hall of History be restored.

Lan Xichen seemed to want to argue, but he wasn't foolish enough to state he and the Cloud Recesses had the resources to properly protect her against the Wen Clan. He had spent the past years discussing the possibility of war with his clan and many in the area, and what the Wen Clan's might truly amounted to. The Cloud Recesses had produced many powerful fighters and wise cultivators, but there could be no denying the might of the Wen Clan if they went to war.

"You don't have to answer me, but…what did the Wen Clan do to you?"

Fu Xuanming let the pang of regret and guilt fill her expression. Lan Xichen almost took back the question entirely, tried to say something to move the subject of conversation forward, but he managed to refrain. Fu Xuanming always seemed to be even more upset when he backtracked; if he never asked, she would never answer, and he was learning that perhaps she wanted more people to share with.

Like Lan Wangji, she was so lonely in that she kept people at a distance and warded them off with an erratic demeanor and piercing sarcasm. In reality she wanted people to trust, but was too afraid to take that risk. And like with Wei Wuxian, the only way to break past those defenses was to hold his ground.

It wasn't easy for Lan Xichen to seek answers when it made someone uncomfortable — especially when it was a friend. He could interrogate spirits with Inquiry, forcing out the truth just by being present, but when face-to-face with a living person, it was the one thing that made him seem weak. As Fu Xuanming had pointed out many times over the course of their friendship, it might one day be his downfall.

"The Wen Clan participates in experimentation to invent new weapons," Fu Xuanming began. "My father was special, born with…he was born very far away and came here with me to find a new life."

"You said your father was a servant," he recalled. "A medic, wasn't it?"

"Healing people was his life before, and it would be his life now. Lord Lang…my mother's husband told the Wen Clan of him. They took over the whole region just to…" She shook her head. "No. I'm sure they were already planning to take over. We were just an excuse. The Wen Clan claimed he was harboring a great weapon and conspiring the downfall of the Wens. My lady, my mother, Madam Lang, refused to hand him over. You can figure out what happened when we resisted. Lord Lang used this opportunity to betray us, allowing the Wens access past our defenses to…you know."

"You told me before that your father had been taken…and that you went after him."

Fu Xuanming nodded, just the gentlest movement of her head. "I left Fu Yao in the care of others for a time. I had to quickly learn how to evade even cultivators, with their heightened senses and acute tracking skills. Luckily the Wen Clan sent rather weak lackeys at first, giving me a chance to learn and grow and adapt as I killed them and new ones were sent. After that, only the hounds were capable of reliably tracking me. But eventually, they caught up as well. I was brought to a torture chamber in the Nightless City's Inferno Palace, where my father had been tortured to death, and his fierce corpse was still there, still being experimented on."

Lan Xichen's eyes widened.

"They experimented on me as well. I didn't know what they wanted, what I could give them just to make it stop. In the end, I don't know if they succeeded."

"Then Wen Qing…you were very familiar with her."

Fu Xuanming mustered a weak snicker. "She was my doctor. Always patching me up, whenever I was…a little too broken. I never blamed her. She was very nice. Our conversations were sometimes the only thing that kept me sane."

"How long…were you there?" Lan Xichen winced, as though he immediately regretted asking.

Fu Xuanming told him the only thing she knew. "Based on Fu Yao's age, I couldn't have been there for more than a year or two. Three. Four, at the very most. It felt longer. I try not to remember, but I do know that I…it felt like dying every day. There's no way to describe — no way that I want to describe — how it feels to have people look at you like you're not human. Like your feelings don't matter, like your pain doesn't matter. Like you're just a thing they can poke and prod at however they want, and no one will stop them. No one will care."

Lan Xichen, of course, could also hardly imagine how someone could ever think like that. He had been raised in the service of others, to value life and value individuality — to value humanity. He didn't want to think about how young Fu Xuanming had been at the time either.

The way Fu Xuanming had acted, back when they had met at the Cloud Recesses, he could have never assumed she had gone through anything like that. Fu Xuanming was just a rebellious youth alongside Wei Wuxian — following his lead for fun, but ultimately her own person who enjoyed following rules just as much as she loved breaking them. It was less so a defiance of anything (authority or lack thereof), but the choice to do what she pleased, regardless of what rules on a wall or rules of polite society would tell her was right or wrong. Fu Xuanming was just living her life freely, with the freedom of choice that she had been denied for a large period of her life.

Maybe, he concluded, that was why she had been so determined to be punished. For Fu Xuanming, kindness and forgiveness were not the nature of people. Everyone had to have a breaking point, when enough was enough, and they revealed what kind of hatred they were capable of. Wei Wuxian was comforting to her because he was open and upfront about how cruel he could be. The worst parts of him were certainly not all that bad.

How could Fu Xuanming not fear a man who smiled so much? Polite, honest, forgiving, without wanting anything in return. For all the grievances he suffered, all he did was grin and bear it. What a terrifying thing indeed, because what could possibly make such a man snap? How much would it take? And how far would he go once such a nature finally cracked at the seams? The brighter one's light, the darker its shadow.

And maybe, just maybe, Fu Xuanming didn't know what to do if Lan Xichen truly was that pure.

Fu Xuanming wanted to expose Lan Xichen's darkness because that would make him human, it would allow her to understand him like she understood all others. But if he really was different, if he was someone so bright and clean and pure, like nothing she had ever seen before and might never see again…then what had she been doing, trying to sully such a beautiful thing with her bloody, dirty, tainted hands?

"You escaped, though," Lan Xichen said, with such relief and longing in his voice. He seemed desperate to remind her of that fact. "You're alive."

Fu Xuanming sometimes looked down at herself and wondered if that was true. Was she alive? What could even be called living, for her?

"My father's fierce corpse had one goal left for its existence: to protect me. It was thanks to him that I escaped, and I made it back to Fu Yao before the entire town she had stayed in was razed to the ground. The same pattern followed everywhere we went. I tried to leave her in many instances, but she always managed to catch up. I concluded it was simply safer for me to protect her directly. We eventually ended up at the Lotus Pier, and for the first time in years, I had hope that maybe she could return to a life of peace. I tried to leave and draw my pursuers away once more, but Fu Yao and Wei Wuxian would not have it. Thanks to Madam Yu and Jiang Fengmian, I was finally able to disappear."

"But in attending classes at the Cloud Recesses, you made yourself known to the cultivation world again," Lan Xichen said.

Fu Xuanming agreed, "Under a different name, yes. It was a risk I was willing to take. Fu Lianmin deserved it, and I wouldn't leave her. She deserves it. The chance to just live her life. Even if Yong'an is never rebuilt, and her claim to a clan forgotten and lost, she deserves to abandon the past that's caused her so much trouble. Besides, I knew I couldn't hide forever. I thought maybe I could make a new identity for myself too."

"Then why draw even more attention to yourself with Wei Wuxian?" Lan Xichen wondered.

She chuckled, bitterly, "He seems to bring out the worst in me. And the best. He's the only reason I relearned how to laugh. To stop caring about the rest of the world and the consequences or how anyone saw me. What anyone saw me as. It's a very nice thing, to relearn what a simple thing it is to be happy. In a way, he was a shield. And an excuse. If only I could live my life like that. Unfortunately, whenever I…let go, I end up being a little crazier than him. It's in my bones. Cruelty, blood repaid for blood. I'm getting better, but it's still a work in progress."

Lan Xichen nodded in understanding. That was why she could jump between respectable and focused to chaotic and just out to have fun. He remembered the first time he had seen the switch; when Lan Xichen had identified her as an accomplice of Wei Wuxian's, when that cool façade of hers broke down and she busted out laughing just as hard as he did — amused at her own mistake, asking for punishment like it was a challenge.

A thought brought him back to reality. Of course she wasn't afraid of punishments, and in fact goaded them on to bring their worst. What punishment could they possibly administer that could overshadow what she had already survived?

The Lan Clan of Gusu wanted to promote positive behavior, not more negativity, through their punishments, and so they prioritized seclusion, reflection, and memorizing the precepts. Their punishments were not supposed to go so far as the ferules or a discipline whip unless the crime was of the highest degree. That made it all the more tempting to see what it would take for them to snap, for the calm and respectable aura to fade away and reveal what anger lay beneath the surface of a people that were so repressed. How angry did they get when they were angry?

Fu Xuanming continued, "To be honest, I don't want to forget the person that I was. That person kept me alive in my darkest hours. The cost of peace is having things to love, things to lose, and the cost of security is my sense of caution."

"You do not have to sacrifice one for the other," Lan Xichen insisted. "There is a world out there where you can trust and be rest assured. You can be strong enough to both love and protect."

"Huan-xiansheng…I sincerely want to believe you. But that world is not yet here, and until I find it, I won't drag anyone else into my problems. I don't want anyone else to go through what I've already had enough of."

That was the summation of her farewell. She turned back down the mountain of the Cloud Recesses, where her lack of a jade travel token had stopped her and her sister from entering, when they'd arrived. Lan Xichen had gone to meet them. When the other disciples took Fu Lianmin, to accommodate her and treat her well, it left just the two of them.

"Wait!" Lan Xichen had moved before thinking. He had taken her hand, pulling her to a halt. "There must be something else I can do."

Fu Xuanming was frozen, unable to look back at him, and yet unable to pull away. Finally, she said, "The only thing you can do is keep yourself safe, so that I don't have to worry about you."

She could hear the smile creep back into his voice. "You worry about me?"

She managed to tear her hand free, but had turned back to face him once more. Her expression was painful, even as she said very gently, "Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

"So then, does that mean we're friends?"

Fu Xuanming didn't have many she would call friends, and much less she would call family. Lan Xichen understood now; friends and family, people she worried about — they were her liabilities. Painful weaknesses, where it would hurt all the more if and when they were met with misfortune. For her, it was better to avoid such things, if they would only add to her pain.

If Lan Xichen was her friend, that was a very big thing. He had decided when they met that he just needed to prove his sincerity to win over that defensive nature. Now, he finally knew how. He just had to be strong enough to be relied upon, honest and endearing. Someone she could hate and push away with all abandon, and still he would never give up on her. Just like her sister, just like Wei Wuxian.

Fu Xuanming coughed, very forcefully resetting her composure and preparing herself to speak. "You proved me wrong, okay? You want me to say it? You're just as righteous and honest and radiant and kind as you appear. No ulterior motives — as of yet — and you are flawed, but…I trust you with my sister because of those flaws. I know you are strong, smart, and you listen and you learn. Fu Lianmin has spent too much time at the Lotus Pier; I need to put her somewhere else just as reliable. So if you want to do something for me, you do exactly as I say. Take care of her, and take care of yourselves."

Lan Xichen dropped his hand, forcing himself to let her go. "I will take care of her. I will guard your sister with my life."

"I'll hold you to that. A single hair on her head is harmed, and I'll have your head, understood?"

Lan Xichen's smile grew wider. "Completely. We will meet again."

It took Fu Xuanming a few moments to reply. "You think so?"

"I know it."

She was caught between laughter and tears. "If that's what you want, I know you'll stop at nothing to make it happen."

Lan Xichen didn't force her to make any promises. He knew she wouldn't, if she sincerely believed it wouldn't happen and she wouldn't try to make it happen. He didn't mind. He had hope enough for both of them.

"One day, I will show you my true self. Perhaps when we do meet again," Fu Xuanming promised, and then disappeared down the mountain path.

She hoped that the day they met again would not be soon.

---

It had been a long time since Fu Xuanming was on the run. It couldn't be helped that she was rusty. Hunting cultivators was an ever-changing environment of outsmarting, outrunning, and outmaneuvering.

"Papa. Da-mei."

A warrior clad in a red robe emblazoned with the pattern of the Wen Clan of Qishan shot forward to attack a group of cultivators. This man did not move like a living being, and indeed that was because he was not. He was like no fierce corpse the cultivation world had ever seen. His body appeared to be made of pottery or stone yet it moved like flesh; the whites of his eyes had turned pitch-black, causing the brilliant blue of his eyes to seem to glow. Swords and arrows could not pierce his defenses, spiritual tools of suppression were unable to bind him. Most importantly, he was completely under Fu Xuanming's control.

Da-mei the ghost had no physical form, but she was more than strong enough to terrify any of the undead in the area, and had therefore been refining her abilities to guide a number of ghosts and walking corpses into the correct positions for ambushes and attacks.

"How exciting!" Da-mei said. "We haven't gotten to fight in so long!"

"How many cultivators is that?" Fu Xuanming asked.

"Just around two hundred. Nothing much at all."

A group of anxious youths had been pushed to the forefront of the hunting party, which Fu Xuanming watched from her hiding place in the trees above.

Fu Xuanming had power over healing, wind, archery, poetry, truths, sun and light, sound and music. The act of hiding herself visually and audibly was a honed skill — wrapping, reflecting, and mimicking light; redirecting and containing or neutralizing sound waves; pushing and pulling the winds to hide her scent and her very breathing. She could stay awake at all hours of the day and night when the sun or moon were present, and if they were not, she could often store up enough energy when they were and tap into those reserves later on.

These cultivators were inexperienced compared to the many challenges she had prepared herself for. It was a harsh reminder that the Wen Clan had subjugated a significant number of clans and independent cultivators who had no way to resist. They had been forced to become cultivators of the Wen Clan, constantly threatened with death, all of them expendable in the eyes of the higher ups.

"Let them go," Fu Xuanming said. "We need to focus on the more important targets. Wen Chao will be descending on Yunmeng, and he will be accompanied by Zhao Zhuliu. Wen Xu will be moving upon Gusu."

The young ghost hovered in front of Fu Xuanming, hands clasped behind her back. "Then…where will we go?"

"Fu Yao is in Gusu. We must prioritize their protection."

"What if the Lotus Pier is to suffer heavy losses?"

"Then what more will we be able to do to help? We moved Fu Yao to the Lan Clan for a reason. Yunmeng is more vulnerable. They will have to make do on their own."

Da-mei wanted to suggest many ways that they could be of use — ambushes, massacres, slaughters, etc. Despite being the same age as Fu Xuanming, her maturity remained nearly the same as the age she had died. As such, her logic was that they just needed to kill everyone that posed a threat and everything would be fine!

But she had been told to avoid such solutions by Fu Xuanming for many reasons, the first of which being that many cultivators in the Wen Clan were innocents. Another was that they didn't want the cultivation world to know about them. Whether it was to revere them for their skill and want to control them, or to fear them and want their torture and destruction, it was better never to get involved. They could only afford to care about themselves, only get involved when it was about their top-priority confidants — in this case, Fu Lianmin. That was something Da-mei could understand.

Still…hadn't Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and the entire Jiang Clan of Yunmeng become part of their…higher-priority confidants? Weren't they friends? Family?

"There's nothing more we can do," Fu Xuanming insisted. "If they insist on fighting to the death and refuse to flee, then it seems we will take responsibility — if only because the Wen Clan would never dare."

Fu Xuanming did want to allow any cultivators who realized the danger to escape if they truly didn't want to fight, but as to what happened to them afterwards, she was once again not responsible. The Wen Clan were likely to threaten friends and family if it would force cultivators to fight on their side. Protecting everyone was impossible. This world was too unfair for that.

The only thing that could properly stop the Wen Clan as a whole was an entire war — if the rest of the cultivation world took up arms against the most loyal Wen Clan followers, liberated all of their unwilling followers, and somehow remade the very foundations of this society.

Fu Xuanming never liked to dwell on such impossibilities, yet she kept finding herself going back to the idea over and over again. What kind of things would she change to make things better? Well…she would probably just ask Lan Xichen. Fu Xuanming herself wouldn't be able to remake the world, but he could make something truly beautiful…

"Xuxu? Jiejie? Helloooooo…"

Fu Xuanming exhaled, trying to regain her focus. "Let's go. Papa will do reconnaissance on Wen Xu's forces. We need to draw their attention away, disrupt their troops, and protect the Cloud Recesses."

"Can we visit meimei or the pretty man? Please?"

If Da-mei had possessed any sort of physical form, Fu Xuanming would have flicked her nose. "What are you talking about?"

Da-mei clasped her hands together and hovered alongside Fu Xuanming as she began to soar across the winds through the trees. "Lan-da-ge was so nice and pretty and you like talking with him, right? He and Wei-xiong are the only ones who know our whole story, and we left so suddenly that we never really got his reaction…"

"Why would we need his reaction? We're going to protect the Cloud Recesses, but we're not going in for a visit."

Da-mei pouted, but she didn't have any further arguments.

Fu Xuanming continued all the same. "I specifically didn't accept a jade travel token from him — we have no reason to go back in there, and we can't be the reason someone else manages to get in. I mean, I only told him the truth about my past because he told me the truth about his; it was only fair. If anything, it was purely selfish. I just wanted to prove that I had a reason to be the way I am, just like he has a reason to be the way he is — and my backstory is obviously more tragic than his, so there's no excuse for him to always be talking like he knows me so well, and he knows what's best for me, whatever."

Though Fu Xuanming knew Lan Xichen was never one to press his beliefs upon others if they truly resisted, and it was so infuriating how little he fought back. He never changed, not when Fu Xuanming tried to explain that he could be in trouble with such a heart driving all of his actions. He was always so understanding, so accepting, so…so annoying! Someone like him could never survive in this world that would eat him and his kindness alive. Fu Xuanming wished he could be the one to remake all the tragedies of this world with that heart of his.

Wen Xu was Sect Leader Wen Ruohan's oldest son. This meant that he was also one of the most powerful cultivators in the Wen Clan, probably second only to Wen Ruohan himself. Fu Xuanming knew all too well how strong Wen Ruohan was; the level of his power was beyond anything that should have been possible in this world. She had witnessed Wen Ruohan slap around cultivators stronger than any and all sect leaders she'd ever met. Wen Xu was a slightly spoiled brat like all of Wen Ruohan's sons, but that didn't mean Wen Xu wasn't skilled both personally and surrounded by skilled cultivators to do the dirty work that he didn't want to do.

Fu Xuanming made sure to cover her tracks during her attacks, trying to plan her ambushes on the weakest links of Wen Xu's troops. They had surrounded the Cloud Recesses and were at a stalemate, demanding that the Cloud Recesses surrender. They had been accused of plotting against the Wen Clan, more specifically with some undescribed texts in their Library Pavilion. The Lan Clan had held out longer than Fu Xuanming had expected. Lan Qiren's stubbornness was finally paying off.

Fu Xuanming had finally managed to find Wen Xu's location. She set up an ambush, trying to consider how to make Wen Xu's potential death unrelated to the Lan Clan and bring them further troubles. Regardless of who it was and where, there would be a massacre against whoever killed him — and if Fu Xuanming remained undercover and there wasn't a single person to blame, it would be everyone in the area who were blamed instead. Wen Xu had been sent to conquer the Lan Clan of Gusu, so the Lan Clan of Gusu would be the ones who killed him, regardless of if they didn't even know who the culprit was.

"Damn that man," Fu Xuanming hissed.

"We need to haunt him with the evilest of evils!" Da-mei agreed.

That was the main problem when the villain they hated so much was also a cultivator. They weren't something unequivocally evil that heavenly abilities could harm. Fu Xuanming, unfortunately, was something both dead and alive. Compared to orthodox cultivators, she was an evil to be hunted, eliminated, and her end would be celebrated without remorse.

Da-mei was made with the power of over a thousand deaths, and so this made her one of the most powerful ghosts in existence. Her only limitation was a lack of a physical form. She was made from resentful energy, and without a body to protect her, talismans, bindings, purification rituals, and the like could still harm her. As to whether anything could be strong enough to actually permanently damage her, they had yet to find anything that could break her down forever. Wen Ruohan had, ironically, built up Da-mei's tolerance.

Once, long ago, Da-mei had possessed a physical form. It was the very form that had been used to house her spirit in the first place, to collect Fu Xuanming's deaths in a tangible form in order to be made into a weapon. However, Da-mei had proven to be too loyal. A weapon she had been, a dangerous one. In the process of fleeing from the Wens, Da-mei had been a key instrument in Fu Xuanming's survival — alongside her father's corpse. Da-mei had been neutralized by another of the Wen's most powerful cultivators, but the spirit that had been ejected still remained attached to Fu Xuanming at all times. Haunting her, one might say.

Fu Xuanming heard movement as a cultivator approached her in the trees, but they were making no effort to hide themselves from her. Wen Xu's cultivators were far more experienced than the regular grunts she had been hunting, so whoever this was deserved to die for such carelessness.

However, under the pale moonbeams, her attacker was illuminated in icy white robes with a face like fine jade and a smile that cut through the frost. The tails of his cloud-patterned forehead ribbon flicked in the wind, rippling along with his dark hair as smooth as the ocean waves.

"I knew it. It is you." Lan Xichen made not a sound as he landed only a branch away.

Fu Xuanming was the exact opposite of Lan Xichen, wearing pure black robes, even the purple trim and accents stained red by blood. She was not so careful in battle, unable to avoid dirt and stains like he did. Her hair was tied in a hasty tail behind her, unkempt and probably unwashed for at least multiple days. She was holding in her hand the broken remains of a cultivator's sword, its bloody and jagged edge still dripping, and a guqin string tied up to a freshly-carved branch to form a makeshift bow.

Anyone else would have died from the shame of presenting themselves like this in front of the illustrious Sect Leader Lan, one of the ascetic and orthodox Twin Jades.

Fu Xuanming's first response was to say, "How did you find me?"

Lan Xichen didn't seem surprised that Fu Xuanming bypassed any tearful greetings. He was equally calm as he replied, "You have been protecting my clan. How could I not?"

While that didn't answer her question, Fu Xuanming generally didn't care. But if Lan Xichen was able to locate her, then that meant any of Wen Xu's cultivators might have been able to as well. She would need to be even more careful, especially as she prepared herself to assassinate Wen Ruohan's eldest son.

"They're planning to attack us," Lan Xichen continued.

"What gave it away? The part where they've surrounded your Cloud Recesses, or the part where they've made demands that you burn down your own Library Pavilion?"

Lan Xichen gestured in the direction of the path leading up to the mountain. "They've set up talismans all along the edges of the barrier. They've made an array to break past."

Fu Xuanming had noticed them attempting to tamper with the barrier, and she had known Wen Ruohan continued his experimental efforts to overtake the other clans and their special techniques. Breaking past a barrier array powered by an entire clan was no easy feat. If anyone could find a way, it was Wen Ruohan and that stubborn madness of his.

"You're fleeing," Fu Xuanming realized.

Lan Xichen would have never been allowed to leave his sect at a time like this. If he was leaving, he wouldn't be out here alone. He would be accompanied by escorts, even if they were attempting to sneak out. This was completely beyond anything in the etiquette of the Lan Clan of Gusu, and Lan Xichen was an exemplary role model of such things. Had it really seemed so hopeless that the other elders had allowed him to leave like this?

A hint of embarrassment seemed to flicker across Lan Xichen's face. His smile was almost sideways as he glanced back at Fu Xuanming over his shoulder. "I am. Shamefully, I am running away."

"Your shufu and your brother know? Your father?"

Lan Xichen exhaled, just a little too heavy, and confessed, "I wanted Wangji to accompany me, but he insisted on staying behind."

"My sister," Fu Xuanming realized. "I left her in your care, I've been protecting your sect for her sake — where is she?"

"She is safe. She escaped to Lanling, to beseech her father for help."

This did not comfort Fu Xuanming in the slightest. "Jin Guangshan will never help us. You think he'll do anything to draw Wen Ruohan's ire? He's a coward and bootlicker when he knows he's at a disadvantage, but a pompous peacock, a shameless liar, a frivolous flirt…" She took a deep breath. "You sent her there, or did she sneak out on her own?"

Lan Xichen seemed to turn his head away, pressing a hand to his mouth, and then clearing his throat. "Regretfully, I was unable to stop her from taking her leave."

Fu Xuanming scoffed. "Tsk. To be expected. I've never been able to leave her anywhere for long. For better or worse, she has her ways of disappearing."

"You care for her very much," Lan Xichen said, as if that were some big revelation.

"So?"

"You are very calm, hearing that she has escaped and been left to her own devices."

Fu Xuanming tried to cross her arms, then realized she was armed with weapons in either hand and so couldn't do so very elegantly. "Of course. I taught her to take care of herself. If she's managed to irk even me, then I pity any other fool who dares try to control her."

"That's good, then."

Lan Xichen didn't seem to know what else to say, nor did he know how to dismiss himself. Fu Xuanming would have simply left him without a word, but for some reason, she also found herself unable to just leave.

"Where are you going to go?" Fu Xuanming wondered aloud.

"I don't know," Lan Xichen confessed. "Anywhere, to keep my family's texts safe."

Fu Xuanming shook her head. "To keep you safe. Your family needs you safe, as the next leader of your clan."

"I know." Fu Xuanming thought she could see Lan Xichen rest his hand on Shuoyue. "Fu-gongzi, I have no right to ask this of you. I've failed you, unable to ensure your sister's safety. But…this is a unique circumstance, and I have broken so many rules already. So I will ask anyway. Take care of them. There's no way for them to avoid this attack, and they are too prideful to surrender — or once they do, it will be because we have taken too many losses."

"You really think your clan isn't strong enough for a fight?"

Lan Xichen shook his head. "I think they'll put up a very good fight, but I would rather we lose our pride before we lose our lives. The lives of our more inexperienced disciples will be lost before that of the elders and the older generation. I am… Shufu was right. I am simply too young to have mastered any of my spiritual energy to its fullest extent. No matter how I have studied or trained, I can't protect my people right now."

Fu Xuanming had only ever seen Lan Xichen during training, and she had been surviving against powerful cultivators for many years. She would be lying if she said that Lan Xichen was the strongest cultivator she had ever seen — yes, simply because of his age and his experience. If and when his cultivation continued, he would no doubt have limitless potential, but some things could only be garnered through time.

Fu Xuanming had to ask, "So why are you asking me? I don't even have a golden core; I'm nowhere near your level, let alone stronger."

Lan Xichen almost seemed to laugh, and not bitterly or ironically. He just seemed…amused. "You may not have a golden core, but there are things that make you very special. You don't need to tell me what it is. Maybe even you don't know all of the details. It doesn't matter. I've seen what you're capable of."

"And you also believe I'll use that power of mine to help your people, now that my sister is no longer in their care?"

Lan Xichen's smile somehow only grew wider. "I have faith. That's all. Not a single piece of physical evidence, just my own intuition."

He removed Liebing from his waist, and then after tugging on Shuoyue and fiddling around, he hopped over to the same tree branch that Fu Xuanming stood on. She backed up a step without thinking, to give him room, and Lan Xichen followed. He had slid Liebing onto her waist, a jade token that had been on his sword now hanging from his xiao flute.

Lan Xichen kept his gaze down on his flute, tapping the end where the token had been strung. When he spoke, Fu Xuanming was acutely aware of how close he had gotten. "Recently, Wangji has been feeling many new things. He's been confused, happy, sad…he's been living. He's come alive. And he's quite perturbed by it." Lan Xichen seemed to be laughing to himself. "I think I understand how he feels."

Fu Xuanming did not know what that meant. She very much did not know what that meant. She did not want to know what that meant.

Just as Lan Xichen raised his eyes to meet hers, a spark lit from behind him, and he jumped back. Fu Xuanming took the opportunity to flee, leaving Lan Xichen with his robes set ablaze. The enchantment on his robes protected against nefarious energies, and all it had taken was Da-mei reaching out to touch his shoulder for the pale flames of purifying fire to light him up.

"Aw, jiejie, why are we leaving?" Da-mei was attached to Fu Xuanming, and so she was dragged away before she could properly say anything to Lan Xichen.

"What did I tell you? Did I give you permission to show yourself to him?" Fu Xuanming chided.

Da-mei was refraining from telling her that Fu Xuanming had, unconsciously or not, ordered Da-mei to help her escape the situation. "I like it when he smiles at me."

"He smiles at everyone; it's nothing special."

When Fu Xuanming thought she had gotten far enough, she pressed her back against the trunk of a tree, hiding her form in the darkness. Her chest was still tight with panic, as though expecting an attack from any direction. Lan Xichen wasn't following her. Hopefully he hadn't gotten caught thanks to his robes being set ablaze.

It was unclear how long she had been standing there, waiting for her heartbeat to calm, before she finally moved again. She made her way down to one of the rivers leading down the mountain. She washed her hands as thoroughly as she could without any soaps or limestone. Even then, her hands still seemed unbearably dirty. Fu Xuanming wondered when the last time her hands could be considered clean.

Finally, she reached down to take Liebing from her waist. The jade travel token hanging from it was slightly heavy for the xiao, as it was supposed to be hanging from his sword. Of course Lan Xichen wouldn't offer his Shuoyue to her; Liebing could be used to subdue resentment and evil spirits, but if he was fleeing from cultivators, his flute would be of no use to him.

His jade travel token had one of the highest levels of authority within the Cloud Recesses — Fu Xuanming had stolen one from him on more than one occasion. He had wanted to give her one when she had left the Cloud Recesses, but she had adamantly refused. She wanted to protect the Cloud Recesses from herself…and if she set foot in that place again, she might get attached.

All of the places she called home eventually came to ruin because of her. Just when she thought both Yunmeng and Gusu had managed to become her homes, now they were under attack, and she couldn't protect both of them — she could barely protect one. She should have given up and ran, like she had in the past. It wasn't worth trying to save a crumbling foundation.

"Xuxu, what are we doing now?" Da-mei prompted.

Fu Xuanming wished she knew. She wished she could easily have her answer, as she always had in the past.

"We…" Fu Xuanming tightened her grip around Liebing. "We're going to the Cloud Recesses. We're going to save them."

---

"Da-mei!"

"Yes Xuxu!"

The ghost girl flew ahead, unburdened by the winds or physical limitations. She dived inside of multiple attacking Wen Clan members, and with only a moment of hesitation, they would burst out screaming and instantly die horrific deaths out of nowhere. One had his head caved in by an invisible blow, another was petrified to stone, another drowned standing up.

Fu Xuanming had no time to worry about the traumatized Lan Clan members who were confused beyond reason and horrified. Fu Xuanming fired arrows upon each of the Wen Clan members that Da-mei didn't catch, and split them away from Lan disciples with small flashes of light. When she ran out of arrows, she pulled off the guqin string from her bow and used it as a whip, sending bursts of light with enough force to blow back anyone within range of its crack.

When she passed the outer wall that she had scaled so many times, the chaos was even worse. The sound of guqin strings being played rang out over and over, but they were most effective against the dead. Trying to distinguish between the living and more living was not easy when the guqin focused on a burst attack that applied force within an area when unable to target the undead. The same could be said about the flutes, and all of the other cultivation instruments whose sounds were slowly fading out in favor of simply using spiritual swords.

"Da-mei, focus on the cultivators here!"

"Okay Xuxu."

Fu Xuanming continued up the mountain, passing the ancestral hall. It wasn't long before she saw the fires. The Wen Clan did not need to win any of these battles, they only needed to make the Lan Clan fall. The Wall of Discipline and its three thousand rules had been vandalized beyond recognition. The proud temples and elegant rooms with beautiful feng shui had been deliberately only half destroyed or carved up in ways that would make them look like unsightly ruins.

Fu Xuanming went to the fanciest, most isolated building in the Lan Clan, using her whip to carve through the remaining Wen cultivators that had managed to make it this far. Corpses lay strewn about — significantly more Wen than Lan, but too many Lans for Fu Xuanming to not feel a knife twisting within her heart.

This building was very important to the Lan Clan, and very well defended. Multiple cultivators had fallen to keep this place safe. Fu Xuanming joined them, and once they had a moment's relief, she checked to see how many were still alive. Some of them could be saved — but only if they were tended to properly.

Fu Xuanming was forced to take their place, attacking any other Wens that came near. Bodies piled up as Fu Xuanming sliced and strapped, strangled and smashed. She didn't have time to think about who was innocent or who was guilty anymore. Her limbs burned with fatigue, but she pushed onwards and let not a single one past.

It took a full incense time for more Lan disciples to make it there to defend the place. Some of them were fighting just as hard as Fu Xuanming, still on their feet and exhausted, but determined to fight till their last. Others were fleeing from the carnage, limping and cradling injuries. Fu Xuanming ignored them all and focused more on their Wen pursuers. Having determined that she was an ally not an enemy, they didn't question anything more. They didn't have the time.

"Tend to the injured," she ordered. Fu Xuanming had patched herself up many times before, and her father had managed to teach her the basics of healing others, so she did her best to guide those who stumbled in her direction. "Staunch the bleeding and use your medicinal herbs. You have some on you, right? Good. He's lost blood, but he'll live if you tie off the wound. You know how to make a tourniquet? Use your flute as a brace to tighten it. This burn isn't bad; you can apply this cream directly on it. It's going to sting, but better than a permanent scar."

Whenever more pursuers came their way, Fu Xuanming took up her broken and liberated weapons from the Wens to handle them. Against half a dozen cultivators, she was at an extreme disadvantage, but she had handled twice as many before, while keeping her sister safe.

Cultivators were extremely powerful, especially against someone who had no golden core. They seemed to dart about faster than the eye could see, their blades seemed to come from every direction at once, their true qi formed weapons of beauty and destruction. Fu Xuanming's natural abilities had to be pushed to the limit to keep up with them. Her past experience allowed her to know their sword techniques, as well as the fastest way to kill a man with the least amount of hassle. Even then, she was barely hanging on, and it was a miracle she hadn't been killed as of yet. These cultivators were not the keen hunters she had faced before, and that was the only reason she didn't have to die to win.

"You!" Fu Xuanming dodged a spiritual sword, wrapping it in her guqin string and bringing it to a halt with effort. A familiar, scathing voice berated her. "How dare you return to this place?! You seek to take advantage of our misfortune?! Do you side with these Wen scoundrels?!"

Disciples from within the building behind her rush out at the sight of him. "Lan Qiren! Please stand down! He has not done any harm!"

Lan Qiren repeated, furious, "No harm? None of this mountain is free of guilt on this day!"

"Shifu, this is Fu Xuanming of the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng."

"I am aware of who he is!"

Fu Xuanming would have once laughed at seeing Lan Qiren lose his temper, going against the Lan Clan's peaceful precepts against clamor, but these were extreme circumstances.

Another, calmer disciple cupped his hands and took up a proper bow. "Then you must also recall that he is an honored guest of Lan Xichen. It was thanks to him that we were able to protect Sect Leader Lan."

"Lan-lao-qianbei, is Lan Wangji with you?" Fu Xuanming asked. "What of their father? How many of the disciples have fallen?"

Lan Qiren recalled his sword, and Fu Xuanming let him, coiling her whip. "I am under no obligation to inform you of their whereabouts."

"Qiren."

An unfamiliar voice caught all of their attention. All of the disciples immediately took up a proper position, and even Lan Qiren bowed his head before approaching.

A figure had appeared out of the room she had been protecting. While it was not the Wintry Room, where the leaders of the Lan Clan of Gusu were supposed to reside, the figure before her was unmistakable.

Qingheng-jun certainly resembled his sons. He was just left of Lan Xichen, just right of Lan Wangji. His hair was tucked slightly differently and his headband was thicker with more details on the rolling cloud patterns. There was no doubting the elegance and radiance of the Lan Clan, though Fu Xuanming thought his seclusion had taken a toll on both his physical and mental health. If one's seclusion was unsuccessful — if they were unable to clear their mind, to focus on their cultivation — they could have neutral advancement at best, and regression at worst.

He had to have been older than Lan Qiren to have inherited the position as the head of the clan, and yet he looked far younger than Lan Qiren — the latter must have aged from the stress alone.

"Sect Leader Lan…" Moonlight and fires lit the whole of the Cloud Recesses, but even with the distorted colors, Fu Xuanming could tell that Qingheng-jun was pale and weak. She could recognize sickness from fifty paces, and immediately approached to assist.

But Lan Qiren stood in her path, and immediately shoved her away. "You will show respect to our Sect Leader, if not for my sake, then for Xichen."

Fu Xuanming held her ground. "He is sick. I am a medic; let me help."

"It is the business of the Lan Clan alone. You have no authority here to be making demands."

Fu Xuanming tightened her grip on her whip. She could have Qingheng-jun at peak health within half an incense time. He was clearly in a poor state, dare she say a critical one! At this rate, he wouldn't last another season.

"Enough, Qiren," Qingheng-jun said. His voice was raspy, without energy both because of his sickness but also because…he was defeated. "We will surrender."

"Sect Leader!" The disciples made various curt protests before realizing they may be causing a clamor and came to a halt.

Qingheng-jun sounded so sad as he said, "No more. Our pride is not worth so many lives."

He motioned for Lan Qiren to go, and after their eyes met and a silent argument ensued, Lan Qiren finally bowed and acquiesced. Most of the disciples followed after him, returning to the burning buildings. Most of the fighting had died down because the wave of invading Wens had been mostly defeated, but the Lan disciples that were still alive were likely not standing. Some had managed to hide, at best, but others were suffering from injuries that needed to be tended to immediately. Lan Qiren was to send the signal for the surrender before the next wave of the Wen attack.

"You." Qingheng-jun stood as straight as he could. If not for his pale state, he would have looked exactly like Lan Xichen, if the son were just a few years older. "A disciple of the Jiang Clan, yes?"

She nodded, taking up a proper bow. "I am Fu Xuanming. Though I study at the Jiang Clan of Yunmeng, I am currently unaffiliated with their affairs. I came here of my own volition. I left my younger sister, Fu Lianmin, in the care of the Cloud Recesses."

"Fu-gongzi? You are the eldest of the Fu line?"

"I am."

Qingheng-jun released a breath. "Lan Huan has spoken of you many times. So that is why Qiren was so upset."

Lan Xichen told his father about her? Even in this situation, Fu Xuanming found herself smiling because of him. "All nonsense, I assure you."

When Qingheng-jun smiled, he even further resembled Lan Xichen. "Perhaps. Is that not his Liebing on your waist? If he has entrusted it to you, then that means not all of it can be nonsense."

Fu Xuanming had Liebing tucked at the back of her sash. Some of the Lan disciples had noticed it, but they could hardly make up their minds as to whether Fu Xuanming could have possibly stolen it, or if Lan Xichen had truly entrusted it to her. If he had, that meant that Lan Xichen had personally vouched for Fu Xuanming's integrity and position in the Lan Clan during these troubling times. They had faith in the capabilities of Zewu-jun, his judgment, his power, and so Fu Xuanming was low on their priorities when it came to defending against intruders. Lan Qiren would have known and respected this, if he hadn't already been pushed beyond his limits in many ways, much less by Fu Xuanming.

"The battle here is lost," Qingheng-jun declared. "We will take care of the sect and the disciples. I entrust A-Huan to your care. We will make sure there is a sect for him to return to."

"Sect Leader Lan…"

He bowed as far as he could in his current state and repeated, "I entrust Lan Huan to your care. I can offer you nothing more in return, but I humbly request you take care of him."

'I entrust A-Yao to your care. Please…take care of her.'

Fu Xuanming felt her eyes sting as she tightened her grip on the flute. Then, she dug through her sleeves, frantically searching for something. Something…there! She took Qingheng-jun's hands and forced him to accept her offering. "This is my Clarity Bell from Yunmeng. Promise to keep it with you, and I will stand by Lan Xichen without fail. He will be put at ease only if he knows his family awaits his return."

Qingheng-jun stared down at the bell between his fingers. Then, he closed it securely into his palm and nodded. "I will do so, then."

She gave one final bow and steeled herself to leave the Cloud Recesses behind. Her Clarity Bell was charged with enough of her power to hopefully help restore Qingheng-jun's condition, as well as keeping him safe in the normal manner of Yunmeng's unique artifacts. Fu Xuanming had maybe two incense times before she started to feel the effects of its loss.

"Lan Wangji! Hanguang-jun!"

Lan Wangji's fingers bled, his guqin strings snapped. Bichen flew alongside him as he simply swung the remains of his hefty instrument with one hand and wielded the strings tied together into a whip with the Killing Chord.

Da-mei and Fu Xuanming's father scattered, tearing through the Wen Clan cultivators who had surrounded him. He was defending the Library Pavilion tooth and nail. Fu Xuanming had never seen him so unkempt, bloody, exhausted, and desperate. Even so, he didn't acknowledge his own pain when he could, and continued fighting as though he planned to die here.

His eyes widened ever so slightly as he watched cultivators slaughtered around him by a figure dressed in the Wen Clan robes, yet moving fast and powerful as a fierce corpse. Others simply died on the spot, as Da-mei inflicted death upon death using her undead spirit.

"Lan Wangji." Fu Xuanming knelt beside him, pressing a hand to his chest and forcing a wave of healing magic through him. Cultivators were tough, or perhaps just stubborn. Lan Wangji had broken multiple bones, was bleeding internally and externally, and even Fu Xuanming could feel his spiritual energy waning. "Your father has ordered a ceasefire. He doesn't want any more lives lost. Enough. Go join the others. They've surrendered. If you can survive, you can return for whatever revenge you want — or you can rebuild everything."

Lan Wangji said nothing for a long period of time. He didn't move at Fu Xuanming's urging. The only thing he said was, "Where is Xiongzhang?"

"I don't…I don't know."

"Find him. There is a path beneath the Library Pavilion. I will cover your retreat." Lan Wangji stood once more, and Bichen flew into his hand.

"Lan Wangji —"

"Go. I will not fall here."

"Lan Zhan!" Fu Xuanming finally got him to look at her. It really was the best way to get his attention. "You care about your brother? Then you have to stop resisting. You must live. The Wens will not hesitate to make you suffer for every grievance. Nevermind death — they will cripple you and break you and then feed you to the beasts and watch with glee as you are torn to shreds. Huan-xiansheng sent me to ensure those he loves are safe. Do you know how hard it was for him to leave you behind?"

'I only have one Clarity Bell on me, dammit!'

"Lotus Pier," Lan Wangji said.

"What?"

"Have they been attacked?"

"I…I don't know. Why are you asking that?"

Lan Wangji did not reply. Instead, he began restringing his guqin called Wangji as he heard more cultivators approaching. "I will not die here. You know how to fight cultivators; you know how to survive. Protect him with your life."

Fu Xuanming took him by the arm. "Come with me. I can protect you both."

For some reason, Lan Wangji remained stubborn. She thought that Lan Xichen had probably urged Lan Wangji to come with him too, and if even his brother could not convince him, then this was the closest thing to defiance Lan Wangji had ever demonstrated. Fu Xuanming could not read Lan Wangji. With effort, she could tell when he was angered or when he was at ease, but that was about it. Lan Xichen would have been able to read his reticent little brother's every thought.

"Stay alive, or I'll…I'll make sure Wei Wuxian haunts you forever! You'll be teased through your entire afterlife, you hear me?"

Lan Wangji stiffened beneath her touch. He pulled his arm free with that uncanny arm strength of his and twisted Bichen in his grip. "Go. I will know when you are gone, and only then will I stop."

His energy had been temporarily renewed thanks to Fu Xuanming, but he wouldn't last long. His jade travel token had the authority to know who passed in and out of the barrier, and even though the barrier had been breached, he would probably at least be able to sense if Lan Xichen's token had left.

Left with no other choice, Fu Xuanming would just have to apologize to Lan Xichen if Lan Wangji did indeed perish. But for Lan Wangji, it must have been even worse. Knowing that his brother was alone, isolated, just trying to survive, completely out of his element — Lan Xichen had never been forced on the run before! If Lan Xichen had told Lan Wangji anything of Fu Xuanming's past, then he would trust that Fu Xuanming was far better equipped to endure such a situation, and therefore the best person to keep Lan Xichen safe.

The Library Pavilion had been raided. All of the scrolls and books in the neat shelves had been overturned, torn to shreds, or were just missing. She found evidence of struggle, blood drawn, but far too much for a single person to have sustained. Any of the bodies, either Wen or Lan, had been retrieved — for whatever reason.

Fu Xuanming knew there was a secret room in the Library Pavilion for the secret texts — every clan had one, and during her days of study, Fu Xuanming had been curious enough to search for it. To find wherever they were stored, one had to know the location, they had to know to play a very specific instrument (likely this exact flute, no replicas or replacements), they had to be able to play a very specific song in a very specific manner.

Lan Xichen confirmed that it existed, but obviously hadn't granted her access. For his sake, she had stopped searching. But this meant she had no idea where the entrance was, let alone how to get in. Her jade travel token would probably allow her access, but first she needed to find the entrance.

"Liebing…"

Fu Xuanming lifted the pristine xiao in her hands. Unwilling to press the mouthpiece to her lips, she simply wiggled her fingers and forced wind to flow through at her command. All she did was play a single note, but she heard something shift in the Library Pavilion.

That was a good sign. She thought she heard Lan Wangji engaging in battle just outside the Library Pavilion. With a mental command, she sent her father's corpse to help him and ensure that Lan Wangji was not overwhelmed.

"Okay, okay…" Fu Xuanming tried not to panic.

She tried to think of all the songs Lan Xichen had ever taught her. Most of them would be taught to any disciple of the Lan Clan. "Rest", "Evocation", "Cleansing", "Eradication" — she needed something different. Fu Xuanming began playing random notes and using her hearing to try and discern when a specific note caused a response from somewhere in the library.

A memory came back to her, a question Lan Xichen had once posed: 'Why don't you like to sleep?'

Fu Xuanming had replied, 'I don't like wasting the time, leaving myself vulnerable. I don't like not knowing what happens when I close my eyes. I can get things done in the night, be prepared for attack, and when the sun rises, I am filled with new energy.'

Lan Xichen had never asked about how that was possible or why. Instead, he said, 'I wanted to write a lullaby to help you sleep if you had trouble, but if you're fine with it, then I won't bother you.'

'I appreciate your concern all the same.'

Despite that, there had indeed been instances where Fu Xuanming had fallen asleep in the Cloud Recesses. She wondered if Lan Xichen had indeed played his lullaby in her dreams.

Fu Xuanming stopped thinking about the notes she was playing. She closed her eyes, imagined what it was like to sleep, to dream, what was going through her mind at the time. The deep resounding flutter of a xiao filled her mind, rather than the sharp tickle of the flute she was playing. A melody came to her, though she would not be able to recite it consciously if asked later.

Soon enough, Fu Xuanming woke up again, and she was standing in front of an open staircase in the Library Pavilion, leading down into darkness.

Fu Xuanming called for her father to disengage. With one final glance out the window, she saw Lan Wangji surrounded. He had tossed down his sword in surrender, and was made to kneel by force. She thought she heard his bones crack as his leg was broken. It took every bit of Fu Xuanming's strength to descend the steps and let the entrance close behind her.

Liebing was returned to her waist, and just as Fu Xuanming was contemplating pulling up a light, lanterns flickered to life to fill the void and reveal a dry, spacious, underground stone chamber. The rumored Room of Forbidden Books…it was empty of all treasures! Not a single book or scroll remained, even though the shelves had not been destroyed and there was no sign of a struggle. Lan Xichen must have taken everything.

Rows and rows of empty shelves towered high. Many of them had dust revealing that there had indeed been something placed there recently, something rarely touched or flipped through, removed with not even a hint of smudging on the surrounding area. There was but a single desk in the Room of Forbidden Books, which had only one paper lamp. Brushes and papers remained for use, but they had clearly not been touched for many years.

"Is there a door anywhere?" Fu Xuanming asked.

Da-mei flew around the edges of the room and flew through the walls. The area was heavily enchanted against demonic forces, and so Da-mei returned to her rather quickly. "There are so many doors, Xuxu."

"So many?"

"Look!" Da-mei lifted her hand and sent out a small explosion of demonic qi. All of the arrays and spellwork in the room lit up. Fu Xuanming saw endless rectangles forming along the outer walls, all of them capable of being doors that led to different paths out of the Room of Forbidden books. How many of them could lead somewhere? How many led to dead ends or traps? Only someone who actively knew the path would know.

Fu Xuanming rushed toward the nearest door and then held up Liebing. This time, it was the jade travel token that flickered with a dull light. She walked in a circle around the perimeter, along each of the doors, and finally the light began to flicker brighter and pulse at a more rapid rate. Once it had reached its peak, Fu Xuanming was standing before a door that had two characters carved on the door, rather than glowing like a spiritual array.

"Manyue."

Fu Xuanming would recognize Lan Xichen's delicate, precise handwriting anywhere. Without thinking, she reached out and placed her fingers along the carving made by Shuoyue's tip. She traced out the one character she knew so well. Of all the reading and writing she refused to learn properly, this was one character she had learned with Lan Xichen for fun. One day of his "punishments", he had forced her to fill an entire page with nothing but these characters alone.

Then, just as she had finished tracing the characters, they illuminated alongside the rest of the glowing symbols, and then the stone door completely dissolved. The path within led into utter darkness, a corridor only the shape of the rectangular door, no taller, no wider.

"Look, a book."

Fu Xuanming knelt down to grab a small book she wouldn't have noticed if Da-mei had not pointed it out. Lan Xichen had dropped one of the texts?

When Fu Xuanming flicked through, the pages were empty.

"So many puzzles, that cheeky man!"

"Try the flute and the token again!" Da-mei urged. She was having a great deal of fun.

"And do what? Play it into revealing its secrets?"

Da-mei shrugged. She could not touch Liebing thanks to its enchantments, so Fu Xuanming had to take it and tap the flute against the book. Neither of them had expected anything to happen, but to their surprise, it flashed with a hidden array. Ink bled onto the pages, words formed, and Fu Xuanming wondered what Lan Xichen would have possibly needed to tell her.

"What's it say, what's it say?!"

"You ask as though I can read it." Fu Xuanming could frustratingly read nothing, and despite Lan Xichen's attempts, Fu Xuanming could not translate characters to words, even if her handwriting had slightly improved under his tutelage.

However, though she could not read the words, she recognized her own handwriting! This was one of many copies Fu Xuanming had made of the Lan Clan precepts, with all her awful handwriting that could hardly be called characters, and the pages weren't even in order!

"So cheeky, so sly, so sneaky," Fu Xuanming grumbled. "One day, I'm going to reveal your character to the world, Huan-xiansheng, and it'll be all over for you."

She tried to make sense of the odd book. She took in the number for each of the rules in the page order, then read the first and last words of each page, then she began flipping from each page corresponding to the rule number on the page. Back and forth, back and forth…

Wait. Notes! If she just put the numbers in order onto a scale, accounting for when the number went higher than eight…

This time, she recognized the song she was playing. It wasn't in any of the official music scores meant to be taught for cultivation, but it was a song they had heard while out on a Night Hunt, visiting towns far and wide. That was where he was going! And Fu Xuanming knew exactly where they had heard the tune as well.

Fu Xuanming sprinted down the dark corridor, holding up a faint orb of sunlight above her palm to guide her way. She came out in a small cave along the mountainside of the Cloud Recesses. It took some crawling, moving through thick foliage, and then climbing out of a ravine, but Fu Xuanming had found a path to escape the Wen Clan cultivators with ease.

With every step she took, abandoning the Lans to their fate, she felt a pang in her heart. She couldn't block out the whispers of what was happening, the accusations. Though the Wens had been the ones to attack, they were now claiming that the Lan Clan had wronged them first. What remained of their home that they had salvaged was now to be burnt down by the Lans themselves!

As the rumors continued, it would be said that even Fu Xuanming's presence could be added to their crimes — hiding a wanted fugitive in their territory and allowing Fu Xuanming to escape! Killing and stealing from the Wen Clan. They would force the Lans to burn down the rest of their residence, 'allowing the family to put things in order and be reborn from the flames'. Lan Wangji had been singled out, one of the disciples that had excelled back at the Qishan archery competition. If Lan Xichen had been there as well, he too would have been targeted.

She had once told Lan Xichen: the Cloud Recesses could be rebuilt, but the people and its collective history could not. Lan Xichen couldn't save every building, he couldn't save every person, so he had run off with as much of the Library Pavilion as possible — even the Room of Forbidden Books. Especially those. The Wens could not be allowed to get their hands on such weapons.

As Fu Xuanming fled, she thought she saw the Lan Clan of Gusu go up in flames. Such a familiar sight, despite her trying her best to make a difference. Fu Xuanming was such a horrible omen, just her very existence itself. The best way to keep Lan Xichen and his people safe was to run very, very far away.

Instead, Fu Xuanming ran in the direction Lan Xichen had indicated he would be heading. If Fu Xuanming was lucky — and she was exceedingly not; she was friends with Wei Wuxian, after all — she could make it to Lan Xichen before the Wens figured out who had stolen anything at all.

---

Doing math in this chapter was fun. The only official numbers I found was the book translation where Wei Wuxian had let off like seventeen arrows, and thanks to the nature of the competition, that meant that he had taken seventeen points, so I assumed some of the other prodigies had to have similar numbers. But dang, Wei Wuxian was doing well for there only being 100 targets in total. Like we all knew he was a prodigy but he's just so casually taking almost a quarter of the points in this really tough game.