Lan Wangji was used to knowing his own mind. He was not someone who made rash decisions or who took his own actions lightly. He had a very clear view of what was right and what was wrong, and aligned his actions accordingly.
Which was why he did not understand why he was heading to the office of the senior medical cultivator to ask about the recent core formation study the man was involved with instead of going to file a report about a potential violation of the rule regarding unlicensed core development instruction of a minor.
As he walked to Lan Haoyu's office, Lan Wangji tried to understand his actions.
Be of one mind.
Lan Wangji had grown up following the Lan precepts, finding comfort in the constancy of their application to his life, guiding both small decisions and large.
Discipline is the root.
Lan Wangji had grown up surrounded by a clear set of rules that guided his actions. He was not used to feeling conflicted, or second-guessing what the rules clearly told him to do. Which was how he found himself involved in a discussion he had not expected.
Lan Wangji bowed and greeted the elder doctor.
"Wangji. I was surprised to get your note asking to speak with me. You have not expressed interest in the research side of medical cultivation in the past," Lan Haoyu said, stroking his beard as he looked at Lan Wangji.
This was true, though it was largely because the 'research' was more to just continually re-validate and confirm their traditional approach, so there did not seem to be any new information forthcoming.
Lan Wangji wondered now if that had changed, and if that change was due to Wei Wuxian.
"Mm. I wanted to ask about dynamic core development techniques," Lan Wangji replied, fully expecting the elder to dismiss him for suggesting an approach the Lan had firmly rejected over a millenia ago.
Instead, Lan Haoyu's expression had immediately sharpened.
"Whatever you have heard, that experiment is still ongoing and should not be viewed as conclusive. I am highly skeptical about the results. Highly skeptical! A sample size of a single patient is simply not sufficient to upend centuries of established cultivation practice!"
So his suspicion had been correct. There was potential change happening in this field. He felt the guilt inside him for his failure to report Wei Wuxian fade away. He had made the right decision, even though it had broken one of his sect's rules. He was not sure how he felt about that, but at the moment he wanted to find out more about the study.
And if Wei Yi- Wei Wuxian was involved. Lan Wangji fought down the voice in his head that Wei Wuxian had given Lan Wangji his birth name on his application, rather than his courtesy name. Propriety still stated that the courtesy name should be used, despite Wei Wuxian not doing the same.
"Experiment?"
"At the hospital. That Wen doctor. Brilliant medical cultivator, but surely she can't expect us to simply accept this experiment without being able to examine the patient ourselves! All this modern equipment she uses. Who knows what it could be missing or overlooking! There is not enough investigation about how all of these new measurement techniques apply to cultivators with stable cores, much less ones growing new ones. The results must be validated before anything gets published," the elder said firmly.
Lan Wangji thought through what Lan Haoyu had said, a concerning thought occurring to him, causing him to revisit his decision to not report Wei Wuxian.
"They are experimenting on a child?" Lan Wangji asked, frowning.
Lan Haoyu's gaze snapped to him. "Of course not! Wangji, how could you suggest such a thing. That would be unethical! GusuLan would never condone something like that."
"Apologies. But you said core development," Lan Wangji said, relieved that A-Yuan was not part of some sort of experiment.
"On an adult. Core injury. Interesting case. Pathways and meridians are fully developed, and the base of the core is very strong. The rest of the core needs to be rebuilt," Lan Haoyu said, turning to rummage through the pages in a manila folder on his desk. "They are studying which cultivation methods are most effective at rebuilding the core. It's a unique case, because the nature of the injury will allow us to study specifically the rate of core development, separate from the co-development of the rest of the physical body since the patient is already an adult."
"And the results are unexpected in some way?" Lan Wangji asked, though he was pretty sure he already knew the answer, given Lan Haoyu's overall state of emotional disturbance about it when the man was usually as staid and tranquil as a Lan Elder ought to be.
Lan Haoyu then went on a tirade about all of the ways in which the current method being deployed by the patient were unorthodox, not conforming to any known cultivation style.
"Why were these techniques even allowed?! They should have chosen from a selection of the established cultivation approaches for these tests. Not made something up without any backing at all!"
Lan Wangji was reminded of why he had never taken an interest in core research before, when the options considered were already the known ones. He found the Wen doctor's approach much more interesting, but he did not see a purpose in informing Lan Haoyu of it, when the man was already clearly distraught.
"If you do not agree with the approach, and you do not trust the methods of measuring the results, why are you engaging in the study?" Lan Wangji asked.
"Of course I have to engage!" the old man said staunchly. "This is the most interesting piece of research in the last five hundred years for medical cultivators, and it is coming out of our hospital, even if it is a Wen doctor leading the study. It's just unfortunate that there is only one cultivator in the study, and they are, for obvious reasons, spending most of the time using the technique that has shown the best result. Even if the technique goes against all tradition. Everyone is rushing to get their questions in and approaches tested."
"Mm. May I see the current data?" Lan Wangji asked.
"The personal information about the patient has been removed, so I don't see why not. I will send you a copy. But do not discuss it broadly. Until the results are more conclusive, we do not want this getting out," Lan Haoyu replied. He frowned, looking back up at Lan Wangji. "How did you hear about it in the first place?"
"I had not heard any details about it. Merely that you were involved in new research," Lan Wangji replied truthfully.
He decided in that moment that he would not disclose that he had seen Wei Wuxian teaching a child in the park to anyone from his sect until he knew more. Wei Wuxian either knew about the study, or was involved with it in some way. They had been practicing in the park across from the hospital where the study was taking place, using the methods that were described in the research.
Wei Wuxian had not stated he had credentials as a medical cultivator during any of their interactions, so he was unlikely to be one of the doctors involved, but he could be one of the people who presented alternative cultivation methods to be tested. Based on what Lan Wangji had seen of the man's talismans, he was not someone who would shy away from considering new approaches.
There was also a chance that Wei Wuxian could be the patient in the study.
That would explain why he knew so much about cultivation but had no core. But if he had developed a golden core and had it damaged, why would he not have simply said so when Lan Wangji asked him about how he knew how to cultivate a golden core? Wei Wuxian did not seem like a person who would hold back from speaking his mind or backing up his claims with proof.
Lan Wangji decided he would return to the park at the same time the following day to see if he could find Wei Wuxian and ask him.
If he had been wrong in accusing the man of having no experience in cultivating a core, then he owed Wei Wuxian an apology. He would not apologize for looking out for the welfare of the child, but he would apologize for an incorrect assumption. He would copy that section of the Disciplines in penance, either way.
In the meantime, he pulled up the information he had on Wen doctor. There were three Wens in their employment files (which were available to Lan Wangji as a member of the inner circle of the clan, since the clan owned the hospital), but only one was a doctor. Of the other two, one was a registered driver of the medical transport vehicle for the hospital, and the other was some sort of part time computer expert in the research division.
Wen Qing was a physician with impressive credentials, particularly for someone her age. He could understand why Elder Haoyu was unable to dismiss her work, despite it going against everything the man had spent his life believing. Wen Qing's specialty was golden core trauma and irregularities. She had repaired many cores that had been believed to have been irreparably damaged from curses or physical injury. She had even performed a partial golden core transfer between a mother and child, something that had previously been believed to be impossible.
Wen Qing had also written articles analyzing historical texts of core-related phenomena back in the ancient times, from historic battles to tales of dual cultivation, putting a modern light on those events and discussing which elements medical science confirmed, and which it did not. There were also articles hypothesizing which curses or techniques would have been deployed to produce the effects described in the past, vs which were likely exaggerations.
Her work was solid and exceptionally well-informed. Despite not having had an interest in medical cultivation in the past, Lan Wangji found himself reading her work in great detail.
And if he read the article on dual cultivation effectiveness as a means of accelerating core growth and repair, it was purely out of intellectual curiosity. He carefully did not think about his initial meeting with Wei Wuxian, and the question the man had asked him on the topic.
Over the next few days, Lan Wangji went past the hospital park at different times of the day, but never saw any sign of Wei Wuxian or the child. It was possible that—after Lan Wangji informed Wei Wuxian that unlicensed instruction was illegal—the man began teaching the child indoors. Or perhaps stopped entirely.
Lan Wangji told himself that he did the right thing by informing Wei Wuxian of the laws, because any other sect member would likely have reported him if they encountered him and realized what he was doing.
He kept looking though, hoping to encounter him. He had the right to enter the medical facility and ask for him, but he felt as though that would be inappropriate since his interest in finding him and speaking with him was not specifically tied to sect business.
When Lan Wangji pressed himself on why he wanted to see Wei Wuxian again, his internal response was a jumbled set of answers—unlike his usual clarity—none of which felt entirely correct.
He wanted to see Wei Wuxian again, to apologize for his earlier assumption about Wei Wuxian not having experience in core development, if it had been incorrect.
He wanted to make sure that Wei Wuxian was properly monitoring the child.
He wanted… to see him and understand what it was about this one person that had somehow thrown Lan Wangji's usually calm and sure sense of right and wrong into chaos.
On the fourth day, Lan Wangji received a text from his brother.
Didi, one of your night hunt records has just been broken.
You will want to watch the video. [link]
Lan Wangji did not care overly much for the awards and recognition that he received. He enjoyed night-hunting as both a vocation and a hobby. He liked both the mental and physical challenges of it, and pushed himself to excel at these tasks.
But he was curious as to which record it was that had been broken, and what the context of the night-hunt that caused it was. With Lan Wangji's well-known prowess and cultivation strength, he had become the usual contact for particularly challenging hunts, even for hunts on the territory of other sects.
Some people use this to claim that the only reason he held so many records was due to favoritism or nepotism (as though the entire cultivation world wasn't rife with the latter, or cultivators like Jin Zixun would never be credited with a single hunt). But the benefit of the Council requiring video records meant that these claims were nearly immediately disproven.
Lan Wangji was not vain, but the fact of the matter was that few cultivators could match him in terms of cultivation prowess, and the night hunts he was the most famous for were ones that most other cultivators would not have been able to accomplish, if they even survived the attempt.
He clicked the link to see what his brother had found so interesting.
The first thing he saw was a thumbnail of Wei Wuxian standing in front of what appeared to be well over a hundred ghosts, contained in some sort of an array. The title of the video was: Hanguang-Jun's record smashed! Record of most kills/liberations in a single hunt broken by a non-Lan!
Lan Wangji looked at the title for a moment. Of all the records he held, of all the awards that he received, this was one of the more famous ones. They had only begun keeping such records in the modern era, after the formation of the Cultivation Council a hundred years or so ago.
While there were the annual awards (granted at the end of the period in an extravagant ceremony held during the Lunar New Year celebrations), there were a few achievements that were kept as actual records, in the same way civilians kept world records of the fastest mile time. The 'most kills in a single hunt' was one of those records. Lan Wangji had held the record for the past ten years, breaking his own record once himself.
Of course, there were tales of ancient battles and natural disasters where there was no (or insufficient) civilian infrastructure to aid in locating, identifying and burying the dead. Likely the cultivators in those times had significantly higher counts, but the records were not kept in the same way.
The category was one that the Lan were best suited to win, given their musical cultivation allowed them to communicate directly with the dead to better aid in putting them to rest.
It was… surprising to have his record broken by someone who was not his brother. Not a Lan. And possibly not even a cultivator.
But as he watched the video, he realized that the last point was not true at all. Whatever had happened to Wei Wuxian's core, he was definitely a cultivator.
It was against the Disciplines to wager, but if it weren't, Lan Wangji would be willing to wager nearly any amount that Wei Wuxian was the mystery patient with the core injury in the study.
The video opened with Wei Wuxian in a small, somewhat shabby-looking hotel room with a recently-slept-in bed just on the edge of the frame. He was wearing only the cropped, short-sleeved top and the fitted cargo pants from when Lan Wangji had last seen him.
Based on the articles laid out on the rumpled bed beside him, he appeared to be in the process of dressing, lending a strangely intimate feel to the usual night-hunt videos. As though the viewer was in Wei Wuxian's bedroom, and had been there from the start.
"Ok, so we are going to be doing something a little bit different in this stream," Wei Wuxian said, tying up his hair into a high ponytail. "I wasn't able to convince anyone that my talismans for luring and temporarily binding spirits actually worked, so I decided to test them out."
Wei Wuxian finished putting up his hair, and began buckling the straps around his thighs, looking up at the camera as he did so, directly into his viewers' eyes.
"A cultivator I met told me about a hunt that sounds like a good test case for me to show you all how they work."
Wei Wuxian grinned up at the camera as he fastened the next strap. Lan Wangji felt his own hands clench, watching the dexterous movement of his fingers. The simple act of dressing should not be so riveting, but Lan Wangji could not take his eyes from the screen.
" There have been ghost sightings in this area for years. But the reports have been scattered, and no one seems to agree what sort of ghost it was, or even if there was one."
Wei Wuxian explained the background of the case, stressing that there had never been any sign of violence, so the ghost was likely very low level and should be easily contained by his binding array. While he was explaining, he finished putting on his thigh straps, then fastened the chest harness as well as the cultivator skirt.
"Part of the reason it hasn't been hunted is that the sightings were reported over a huge area of wilderness. It would take forever to search for it. And since it hasn't been doing any real damage, no one has bothered."
Wei Wuxian picked up a pair of black leather arm braces, and began fastening those. They drew attention to the fact that his midriff was completely exposed. While the thin fabric of non-warded clothing wouldn't provide much protection, the contrast was still stark.
"Until me!" Wei Wuxian grinned, pulling on a pair of fingerless black gloves before picking up his sword and sliding it into the holster on his back.
"First, we need to ask around and see where the most recent sighting was. Most of where we need to go is pretty far from the nearest road, so we want to park the car in the closest place possible. Let's go check it out."
The next few scenes showed Wei Wuxian talking to the locals about the sightings. While Lan Wangji usually went to the local authorities to review any reports made regarding the incident he was investigating, Wei Wuxian evidently preferred to go to the market and flirt and gossip with anyone who would talk to him before ending up doing basically a bar crawl, drinking his way through seemingly endless glasses of baijiu while talking and laughing with everyone there, if the edited clips were meant to have all happened within the single day they appeared to have been.
"Shameless," Lan Wangji muttered, watching a stray droplet of alcohol slither down the curve of Wei Wuxian's throat as he finished another cup of his drink.
His hand clenched as a restless irritation snaked through him. It was improper to keep oneself poorly or in an unkempt fashion. The thought flickered across his mind of splaying his hand around Wei Wuxian's throat and swiping up the droplet with his thumb.
He refused to consider the errant thought about whether the man's skin would taste of alcohol, whether it would be warm and damp with it, and forced himself to think instead about the facts that Wei Wuxian's unorthodox approach to information gathering had revealed.
While Lan Wangji could (reluctantly) admit that Wei Wuxian had gotten a lot more detail, he still disapproved of the way Wei Wuxian laughed as he swayed slightly on his feet when he stood from the bar stool at the last pub.
"I keep forgetting my tolerance isn't what it used to be!" Wei Wuxian said to the cameraman, another piece of information that Lan Wangji filed away for later use. "But it's fine. We'll head out during daylight anyway. The reports are pretty scattered, and most of them are deeper into the mountains."
Wei Wuxian held up the notebook he'd been occasionally making notes in. Based on the amount of alcohol he'd consumed, Lan Wangji had expected it to contain no real information, but was surprised when it contained a fairly detailed map with markings of approximate sightings, as well as sketches of what the various people had said the 'ghost' looked like.
Both the map and the sketches were done with considerable skill.
"As you can see, there's a lot of variation on what witnesses have seen. Or thought they saw. For creatures that rely on our eyes so much, it's amazing how different our perceptions of what we think we saw often are. This case has a bit more 'differences' than most," he said, gesturing to the sketch of an old man next to one of a little girl. "Which is why I guess a lot of the sects had written it off as just ghost stories or mistakes. Tomorrow, we'll send out an invitation to whoever might be hanging around and see who answers! Since none of the accounts mentioned anything about violence or physical attacks, we should be safe. But if there is something out there, the longer it's ignored, the more it might feel the need to escalate to get attention. Let's try to take care of it before something like that happens!"
"Reckless," Lan Wangji said, the tension in his stomach shifting more fully into unease at the dangerousness of what Wei Wuxian was going to do, cooling the strange heat that had been building thus far.
It was a ridiculous risk for a cultivator as weak as Wei Wuxian to take. The fact that he had obviously done so (based on the title of the video), only made Lan Wangji's anger deepen.
Wei Wuxian didn't have a core. Even strong cultivators were discouraged from night-hunting alone. If something went wrong, which it obviously did if the hunt had broken the record for most kills, then how would Wei Wuxian be able to handle it?
This was why the Lan had such strict protocols in place. They would never allow a cultivator to go off on their own, especially not in what looked like a remote area, far from back-up.
The next clip only verified just how remote the hunt was taking them. They set out early in the morning (with Wei Wuxian complaining about the hour, despite he, himself, having been the one to set it). He had a large hiking backpack strapped to his back, which appeared to have a bedroll and some equipment that Lan Wangji did not recognize.
Having never night hunted without a qiankun bag to pack all of his clothing and camping gear in, he never considered how heavy and cumbersome it would be to attempt a remote night-hunt without it. Not to mention that he would have simply flown on his sword to wherever the hunt was, rather than having to hike through the mountains to get there.
The time marker on the video showed multiple time skips that covered six hours of vigorous hiking, with no one but Wei Wuxian and whoever was holding the camera. There were small snips of Wei Wuxian setting down his pack for a short rest, stretching his arms behind his head and arching back to relieve the strain on his body.
His collarbone and bare stomach had the faintest sheen of sweat as the sun rose high overhead. As a cultivator with a powerful core, Lan Wangji found it easy to regulate his temperature outside of extreme circumstances. But since Wei Wuxian did not have a core, he would be vulnerable to heat and cold, especially carrying a heavy load.
" Aiyo! When I have enough money saved up, I'm definitely going to invest in a qiankun bag. This is too much work for this poor, weak rogue cultivator!"
The small compass that Wei Wuxian held in his hand took them deeper into the mountains, but then began giving conflicting readings. Wei Wuxian stopped and looked around them, the camera panning slowly showing nothing but mountains, rocks and trees in every direction.
"The Compass of Evil keeps changing direction now. Either there are multiple sources, or the spirit is moving very quickly," Wei Wuxian said, his voice taking on a serious tone that Lan Wangji had not heard from him before.
He turned to look at the cameraman.
" Let's set up camp here. You can rest while I set up the array."
"I'm fine, Wei Laoshi," a male voice replied from offscreen. "Really, stop worrying. JieJie checked me over thoroughly before we left. If I felt tired I would say something. We have everything I need if I have a flare-up."
"You're not the one who's going to get in trouble if you have an episode. We have a few hours before sunset. I want to set up camp and draw the array before we lose the light," Wei Wuxian said, setting down his pack and bending over to begin unpacking it.
The video skipped through most of the camp set-up, with only a couple short clips of Wei Wuxian throwing his head back and laughing about something, and another of him stretching up to attach the mosquito netting to a low branch that would cover their bed rolls.
" People with strong golden cores do not understand just how lucky they are to be able to instantly heal mosquito bites! Those are seriously the worst. I'd rather have a gaping sword wound than a dozen itchy bites any day."
The video then focused on Wei Wuxian creating what quickly became a large array, spreading over most of the clearing.
"So, before we invite any guests, we need to make sure we have a place for them to stay," Wei Wuxian said, throwing an irreverent grin to the camera. "That's basic manners. This array will do that. It will hold low to mid-level spirits or creatures, including ghouls or fierce corpses. Higher level demons require something a bit stronger, and usually tailored, but this array can be set with no spiritual power if blood is used. If you want to use only cinnabar, then you have to have enough spiritual power to activate it."
He had begun by placing large rocks at the eight compass points around a large circle. He then pulled one of his gloves back enough to slice a deep cut into the palm of his hand, then mixing his blood with what looked to be a high quality cinnabar mixture. He pulled the glove back without bandaging it, and Lan Wangji wondered if he had placed healing talismans in his gloves, or if he still had enough of a nascent core developed to heal such minor wounds.
"The issue with drawing an array on grass or dirt is that those can shift, and weaken or even break a character. The same is true if you try to draw a blood array in pouring rain. You need to mix the blood with cinnabar to keep it from washing away, since cinnabar isn't soluble in water. That's why I've used a mixture here, since we're setting this outside and I'm not sure how long it will take."
Wei Wuxian continued to chatter while he set up the extremely complex, large array, describing the rationale between when to use talisman paper vs stone to set the anchor points, and what to do if you're in something man made, like a house.
When he finished the last character on the array, then stood, wiping his hand
"This will hold any spirit that the lure flag draws. The Compass of Evil would be reacting differently if there were something stronger nearby, so I'm not worried," Wei Wuxian said, grinning confidently at the camera.
Lan Wangji wondered if that would turn out to be true. Wei Wuxian then pulled out a flag that had another talisman drawn on it.
"This is a lure flag," Wei Wuxian said, moving to the center of the spirit containment array. "You have to be careful when you set these to make sure you don't put too wide of a range on it. It will draw any resentful creature within the radius. Since we're pretty far from any back-up, I'm going to set a small diameter of 1 km. If we don't get anything, I'll adjust this character here and widen it a bit. If you're in a city, start a LOT smaller. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, we should be fine with the range we have."
He nicked his finger with his sword and added the last stroke to the lure flag.
"Now let's see what shows up!" he said cheerfully. "The sun is just setting, so we'll probably have a while to wait. Most creatures are active after dark. If the wait ends up being long, I'll edit that part out so you're not bored. Lucky you! A-Ning and I have to entertain ourselves while we wait."
Lan Wangji recalled seeing the name Wen Ning when he had been searching for information about the medical experiment. The man was a low level cultivator who did contract computer work for the research hospital. He was listed as having a disability that prevented him from doing traditional cultivation work.
His jaw clenched in irritation. If Wei Wuxian needed a partner for his hunt, why did he choose a cultivator who would not be able to help if things became dangerous? Wei Wuxian should have a partner who was strong enough to fly him on his sword to remote locations, who could either carry the load or afford a qiankun bag to store their belongings.
Lan Wangji felt an unhappy twist in his chest at the words, though he had no real reason to feel that way. Wei Wuxian talked about what his plan was, if he was successful in luring the spirit to his array, discussing the methods of liberation, suppression, and elimination as a last resort.
It hadn't been more than ten minutes after sunset when a spirit came drifting into the clearing from the northeast. The light of the campfire passed partially through it, leaving only a slight shadow as it moved along.
The ghost was a middle-aged businessman, which seemed an odd spirit to find more than four miles from the nearest road or building.
Wei Wuxian had just begun to talk about his plan for how to try to ascertain how to put the ghost to rest when another spirit appeared, this time arriving from the northwest. This spirit was an elderly woman, wrapped in a shawl that appeared to have been burned.
"Ah, fuck. There are multiple ghosts," Wei Wuxian murmured, grimly.
Lan Wangji felt only slightly mollified that Wei Wuxian seemed to acknowledge the seriousness of his situation.
"I guess that explains the discrepancies in the stories. Here I thought I was going to be showing an example of why eyewitness reports can be a bit unreliable. Well, at least they are both low-level. I'm not sensing anything too powerful around here. The array will be able to handle both of them."
He'd barely finished speaking when another ghost arrived. Then another.
And another. All showing signs of violent deaths. Lan Wangji could see the concern deepen in Wei Wuxian's expression. He was no longer smiling. Lan Wangji wondered if the array could hold so many spirits, and what would happen if it could not without a sufficiently powerful cultivator there to eliminate them if they turned aggressive.
Lan Wangji's record for the current year was forty-seven spirits put to rest in a single hunt, when he had come upon a village that had suffered a landslide years ago, and recent rains had disturbed the area again. Whatever the final count was going to be, he already knew it would be higher than that.
"Ghosts don't have a physical manifestation, so it wouldn't really matter if they tried to occupy the same space in the array, but I guess it's a good thing that I drew it large enough to at least help me see who we have."
Wei Wuxian turned to survey the surroundings. The ghosts were mostly coming from the northwest, but there had been a few from the north and northeast. Enough to have confused the compass, but the main source seemed to be coming from the northwest.
"Maybe you should go back to the car and reach out to some of the closer sects to let them know the situation."
"It will take me too long in the dark to hike back down there," the man's voice from off camera responded.
" It's better than you staying here when we don't know how many more are going to be coming here," Wei Wuxian said tightly.
"I'm not going to leave you here alone. Plus, hiking in the dark is dangerous. What if I had an episode in the middle of nowhere on the way back down the mountain? At least here, you have the spirits contained. We don't know how many are outside of the range of the lure flag."
Wei Wuxian clearly didn't like the answer, but also didn't have an argument against it. They didn't know how many spirits were there. Lan Wangji had never attempted to hike through a forest at night with no trail, but he could imagine it would not be a simple matter.
" Ok. Ok, here's what we're going to do," Wei Wuxian said, approaching the cameraman and slicing his palm again. "You are going to stay inside this circle. No matter what happens, do NOT leave it."
The camera didn't show the details of this array, but from the little bits he saw, Lan Wangji could tell it appeared to be a decidedly powerful barrier array.
While Wei Wuxian worked, more spirits arrived. It was somewhat hard to see in the dark, but from Lan Wangji's count there were already well over fifty in the array and more arriving. Even a seasoned cultivator would likely be panicking at this point. The resentful energy of low level spirits didn't always add linearly. This was how landborne (or waterborne) abysses formed. There wasn't a clear understanding of what the tipping point was, since the objective of cultivation was to prevent it from happening. But it was a known risk, and from what Lan Wangji could assess about the strength of the barrier that Wei Wuxian had just placed around his companion, it was a risk he was aware of.
Aware of, and determined to take on with no golden core.
While Lan Wangji could understand the desire to prevent a landborne abyss from forming, as the mass of spirits would become significantly more dangerous with a collective conscience, it was not a task that could be safely attempted by any but the most experienced and powerful of cultivators.
Lan Wangji had to force his fist to unclench. If one of his junior disciples tried something so reckless, they would be banned from nighthunts for at least a year. The situation was unbelievably dangerous.
The title of the video indicated that Wei Wuxian had been successful, but it didn't indicate if he had been seriously injured.
Unable to help it, he scrolled to the end of the video to see if Wei Wuxian appeared to be unharmed, and felt some of the hollow tension ebb out of his shoulders at the image of him laying in the back of a van looking pale and exhausted but alive.
Lan Wangji drew a measured breath, then returned the video to the place he had left off. There looked to be nearly a hundred spirits in the array now.
"Wei Laoshi?" The voice sounded uncertain with a hint of entirely appropriate fear creeping in.
"Yeah. I know. It's a lot more than we expected, right?"
Wei Wuxian was studying the spirits inside the array, frowning in concentration. It was the expression of a man who had extensive experience on night hunts and was confident in his own abilities. It was not the face of a civilian or novice cultivator.
Who was he, and why had Lan Wangji never heard of him before?.
Whatever had happened to Wei Wuxian's core, this was far from his first night hunt. Lan Wangji's guess about how Wei Wuxian was involved in the medical experiment on the mysterious cultivator with the injured core was basically confirmed.
Lan Wangji wondered again why Wei Wuxian hadn't simply told him that he was a trained cultivator with an injured core, rather than letting Lan Wangji assume he was a civilian. While core injuries were rare, there was no stigma about them. They were feared, but no shame was associated with them.
He had no more time to think about it, because Wei Wuxian was approaching the array.
"What happened to you all?" He asked the ghosts, his voice soft, as though conversing with a living, injured person rather than a ghost.
Of course, with no instrument to act as a medium between the spirit world and the physical world, Wei Wuxian received no response. Frustration rose in Lan Wangji. If he were there with Wei Wuxian, he would have been able to assist.
"Where's a Lan when you need one?" Wei Wuxian murmured, making Lan Wangji's eyes widen.
Would Wei Yi- Wei Wuxian have asked for his help if they had not gotten off on such a bad start?
Wei Wuxian's head turned sharply, looking off towards the woods. Whatever he had sense, the camera had not picked it up. The moon was full, but it wasn't fully risen yet, leaving most of the area in shadow. The fire from the camp cast a flickering light around the clearing, but it wasn't strong enough to penetrate into the woods.
After a few moments, a small ghoul-child appeared, drawn to the array.
Lan Wangji frowned. A ghoul would be more resentful than a weak spirit. Putting her in with the others could be the spark that turned the situation from a collection of restless spirits into a nascent land-borne abyss, though most cultivators would not be experienced to know it.
The goul-child approached the array, but Wei Wuxian stopped her before she could enter it, using yet another talisman that Lan Wangji had never seen before.
" Ok. So this is a bit more excitement than we were expecting," Wei Wuxian said, his body tense, clearly aware of the danger. "So we're going to skip a few levels and go to some things that are a bit more advanced. I'm not going to describe what I'm doing here, since this is definitely not something I want anyone trying at home."
Wei Wuxian turned to the camera. His expression shifted from worry to consideration to determination in only a few seconds. Lan Wangji already had a premonition that whatever Wei Wuxian had just decided to do was going to be extremely reckless.
"Ok. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to strengthen the anchor points of the array, given how much it's holding," he said, slicing into his palm. He'd need more than just a few drops from the tip of his finger for this.
"Then, my partner here is going to be my anchor. A-Ning, I need you to stay fully in the warded area, and play the alarm on my phone if I'm not back in two hours," Wei Wuxian said, unlocking his phone and setting the alarm, then handing it to the cameraman.
Lan Wangji felt his breath freeze in his chest. There were not many techniques that required an anchor. All of them were exceedingly dangerous, if not outright forbidden.
A voice came from near the camera.
"Where are you going, Wei Laoshi?"
Wei Wuxian sat down in the lotus position, near the ghoul-child.
"Wei Ying!" Lan Wangji found himself calling out, despite knowing that the man in the video could not hear him… had already done what Lan Wangji was afraid he was going to do.
"Wherever she takes me," Wei Wuxian said, sitting down in a lotus position. He looked at the ghoul-child, meeting her gaze and letting her read his eyes. "I want to help you. And the others. Can you show me what you need?"
The child looked at him, her dead eyes flashing with resentment. Wei Wuxian slowly reached his hands out towards the child, palms up. His face was not filled with the disgust or fear that most would have expressed at looking upon such a being. Instead, it was filled with a gentle sadness that resonated within Lan Wangji.
Empathy.
"I'm going to touch you. And you can show me," he said to the child.
The ghoul-child tilted its head, its unblinking eyes locked on him. The hair on the back of Lan Wangji's neck prickled. If the ghoul-child lashed out, it could eviscerate Wei Ying in seconds. There would be no chance for him to get out of range in their current position.
"Wei-laoshi, I don't think this is safe."
Wen Ning's words echoed Lan Wangji's fears. His voice carried all of the fear and anxiety of anyone with any sort of common sense. Which clearly did not include Wei Ying.
"We don't have a choice. There are so many of them. I don't think they'll wait much more. The resentful energy is building. It will be much more dangerous if we leave them. We're here. We can help."
The child had been watching, listening to their words. She reached out, placing her small hands on Wei Wuxian's palms.
Wei Wuxian's body shuddered, then went rigid. His eyes took on a sightless, unfocused look as his mind turned inward in communion with the ghoul-child's memories rather than the world around them.
The video skimmed forward, showing the minutes, then hours passing, the moon climbing higher into the sky. The cameraman called out with increasing concern, and Lan Wangji wished he would activate the chime that Wei Ying had given him. Blood was starting to come from his eyes and nose.
Stop. Call him back, Lan Wangji thought tensely, knowing it was futile. Wishing he had been there to prevent this, to pull Wei Ying back. Most sects banned Empathy for exactly this reason. A significant number of cultivators who had tried it in the past never returned to their own minds.
If his anchor waited too long, the spiritual and psychological damage could be irreparable. Lan Wangji was relieved to know that Wei Ying had lived, but being alive did not mean unharmed.
Finally, finally , the alarm went off and the chime began to play, with increasing volume.
When it didn't work, the cameraman stepped out of the barrier array and pressed his fingers into a spot on Wei Ying's neck, just below his ear, moving the phone right next to him with the volume all the way up.
Wei Ying slumped, his hands breaking connection with the child.
" Ugh," Wei Wuxian said, hazily, his words slurring slightly. " What…. wait. Why are you out of the barrier?"
"You w-weren't coming back, Wei Laoshi. It's been three hours. You're b-bleeding."
"Ah, fuck. Yeah, it does that sometimes," Wei Wuxian said, wiping his bloody face with the silk of his arm.
The implication that Wei Ying had performed Empathy enough times for him to make this statement was deeply horrifying to Lan Wangji.
Did the man have no sense of self-preservation at all? Did he not understand the risks of what he was doing? Did no one care enough about him to prevent him from doing such things? If Lan Wangji had been there, there would have been no need for such a dangerous approach.
Using some sort of cheap phone chime as the anchor to bring him back from Empathy was beyond careless. It could not replicate the pull that a spiritual instrument would provide.
If I had interviewed him for the guest lecturer position when he first came, he might not have felt the need to take on such a dangerous hunt. Or I could have accompanied him. The thought twisted through him like razor wire.
Wei Ying had not taken this as his first option. He had tried a less risky approach, but had been rejected. By Lan Wangji.
"Are you ok, Wei Laoshi?" the cameraman asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I…," Wei Ying sat up slowly, looking at the ghoul-child, his eyes filled with sadness. "I'm sorry. I will make sure you get back to your mother. Can you show me where the plane is?"
"Plane?" the cameraman asked.
Wei Ying nodded, getting unsteadily to his feet.
" It crashed. A long time ago. During a storm. The wreckage was never recovered. They've been waiting. But there's something happening with the crash site that's had them getting more desperate to be found. I need to find it, and let the authorities know so the bodies can be recovered and returned to their families. That's what they want. This little one," he said, brushing his hand gently through the ghoul-child's hair. "Was coming back from a trip visiting her Popo with her father. She had been very homesick, and really wants to be back with her mama."
Lan Wangji could hear the raw emotion in Wei Ying's voice. This was not just a duty to him. Not just a way to make money. He cared for this child. For the others. It was something that Lan Wangji rarely saw in other cultivators. When most cultivators interacted with spirits, it was with the sole focus of liberating, suppressing, or eliminating them. There was an inherent arrogance in the aspect of it that ignored the humanity of the person whose life had ended and given birth to the creature they were there to remove.
It was clear from Wei Ying's interactions with the ghoul child that he did not view her as a monster. He viewed her as the child she once had been, and treated her with the care and dignity that she deserved.
The ghoul-child looked up at Wei Ying with her hollowed-out eyes, then gently, carefully, placed her hand on the place where Wei Ying's golden core should be. Lan Wangji felt a flash of fear at how exposed Wei Ying was to the sharp talons of the ghoul-child, how easily she could rip his flesh.
Wei Ying smiled down at her with aching gentleness, no fear in his eyes.
" Ah. Don't worry. It's ok. I was still able to come and meet you, so it's fine. Let's go find where you are so I can get you back to your mom, ok?"
The child tilted her head at him, then turned facing the direction she had entered the clearing from. She was still bound by Wei Wuxian's array, so could not move, but it was clear the direction she needed to take him.
Wei Wuxian turned first to the group of spirits, now approaching maybe even two hundred, contained in the larger array.
Several were watching him, their attention evidently having shifted to him during Empathy. This was concerning, as it showed the early stages of a collective consciousness forming between the spirits, which many had theorized was a critical step in becoming a singular abyss rather than simply a group of individual resentful spirits.
" I know who you are. I know what happened. My friend is going to go and notify the authorities that the plane is here. I'm going to go and find it now.. I, Wei Ying, courtesy name Wuxian, promise to make sure you are each put to rest. Your families will be told where you are."
Dozens of spirits faded on the spot, their final wish to simply be found already granted. Others lingered, either not having been able to hear what was said, or needing the confirmation of someone actually finding the wreckage in person.
"You can leave the camera on the tripod to monitor the array, but I want you to go back down and notify the authorities as soon as you're rested enough to do so. Let's move your tent a bit further away before you sleep, in case… just in case."
Ah. So Wei Ying was aware of the imminent danger of an abyss forming. He had recognized the sign of the early stages of connected consciousness.
"Sorry, Wei Laoshi. But it's a long way back and Jiejie told me not to get separated from you, in case I have another episode."
Wei Ying cursed, looking torn. He scrubbed a hand over his face.
"I'm pretty sure she would prefer that to you getting caught up in… this. You can take your bed roll and food with you, in case you need to rest."
"I can just rest here. I'll move the camp further away, like you said. The array is holding, and some of the spirits have already been liberated," the cameraman said.
The ghoul child was straining at the barrier, clearly impatient now that Wei Ying had made his promise.
" You don't need to—," Wei Wuxian began warningly, but the man cut him off.
"If I had a spell walking down, it would be more dangerous than if I stayed here and waited for you. The hike up was tiring. The crash site is probably close given how many spirits were in the range of the circle, so I won't have to wait long for you to come back."
Wei Wuxian gave him a somewhat skeptical look, but there wasn't time to argue. The spirits were getting restless, with more of them turning to focus on Wei Ying.
"You'd better by lying down when I get back, then," Wei Wuxian said. "But if this develops into anything here, you need to leave immediately. I don't care how tired you feel, or how soon you think I'm going to be back. If the spirits start to coalesce, get out."
Lan Wangji could not see the cameraman's response but it must have satisfied Wei Ying, because the man turned to the ghoul-child. He added a few strokes to the talisman that was attached to her, and the barrier vanished. It became some sort of cord instead, that bound her to Wei Ying.
"Show me where you and your baba are, ok?" Wei Wuxian asked.
The ghoul-child did not respond, but she turned and headed to the woods, though not in the exact direction she had come from.
The moon was full, but it still didn't provide enough visibility to navigate the terrain safely. Wei Ying pulled out a talisman from one of the pockets of his cargo pants and threw it up into the air. A small but bright ball of light appeared about two meters above his shoulder, hovering in the air.
The part of the woods she entered bumped up against a large, steep rock face that rose easily four or five stories before flattening out enough to be able to walk. The ghoul-child scrabbled up the rockface with preternatural skill and speed, leaving Wei Ying at the bottom looking up at her. There did not appear to be an easy path around.
"Of course it's up the fucking cliff," Wei Wuxian sighed. He looked back over his shoulder to where it was clear that the cameraman had followed him. "Do NOT follow me. If you fall off a cliff your sister will kill me. Go back and lay down."
Wei Ying looked at the cliff for a moment, the tether he had to the child reaching its limit when she was about two-thirds of the way up. He studied the rock surface for a moment, then shook out his arms briefly before dropping his hands to the fastenings of his cultivator skirts.
"Not a lot of options here. Being able to fly on my sword would be really useful right about now."
He took off his skirt and tossed it aside, along with his arm guards, which had buckles that were likely to catch on the jagged rocks. He left the fingerless gloves and body harness, then began to free climb up the cliff face.
"Be careful, Wei Laoshi!"
Wei Ying didn't bother replying as he climbed, the muscles in his arms and back flexing beneath the tight shirt he wore. His fingers and toes sought out small crevices in the rock, his body pressed close to the surface.
Lan Wangji did not hold his breath, but he would be lying if he claimed to be breathing easily, either. He was so focused on watching Wei Ying that he didn't even remember the timer at which he began his climb. The cameraman was standing at the base of the cliff looking up, making it hard to determine Wei Ying's progress up the cliff due to the angle. The relative bagginess of the cargo pants was put to use as he often had to extend a leg at an awkward angle to find the next toe hold, which pulled the fabric taut against his hips and thighs.
The video was not edited here, letting the full climb play out with no respite from the tension.
Lan Wangji felt his breathing return to normal when Wei Ying finally reached the top, pulling himself to safety. He turned around briefly, stretching his arms and looking down at the cameraman.
"Ok, time for you to go back to the clearing. Set up the camera to monitor the array. We can sync up timestamps to see when they disappear, if it happens as soon as the wreckage is discovered, or when we get back to notify the civilian authorities."
The video cut to Wei Ying's body camera for the first time in the entire video, showing the hunt now from his perspective, rather than his partner's. The ghoul-child was still visible, but the sky was beginning to lighten into early twilight. The time was running out for her to get him to the wreckage. Empathy had taken most of the night.
Wei Ying seemed to be aware as well, as he pushed himself to keep up with the ghoul-child, who seemed to move faster as they grew closer to their destination.
The heartbeat from the biosensor was racing, a thready pulse that showed how exhausted he was. Without a golden core, a normal body would run out of energy if pushed too hard without rest. The long hike up the mountain followed by the not-insignificant blood-letting to make the array, the physical drain of performing Empathy for hours, coupled with the cliff was pushing his body's limits.
Lan Wangji felt frustration war with concern as the video fast-forwarded to the edge of a narrow ravine, overgrown with trees and vines. The ghoul-child paused, looking back at Wei Ying who had stopped to make note of the exact location on his phone.
" No wonder the couldn't find it. It wouldn't be visible unless they were directly over it. And even then, it would be hard to see with the shadows," Wei Ying's voice came from above the camera. "All right. We're here. I've marked it so we can find it again and bring people to take you home. Take me down so I can see it, and release the others."
The ghoul-child turned and began a rapid descent into the ravine. Wei Ying cast another lighting talisman before following after her, bringing light to the deep shadows of the narrow gorge.
At the bottom, the larger pieces of the ripped apart remains of the plane's wings and fuselage came into view, scattered into a long line along the ravine floor. They were overgrown with foliage, but there was no doubt that the wreckage had been found.
The ravine was not dry, and the sounds of splashing filled the camera as Wei Ying followed the ghoul-child into a piece of what used to be the passenger cabin. Knee-deep water flowed through it. The child walked up to one skeleton, still strapped into its seat. The seat beside it was empty. The child turned to look at Wei Ying.
" Oh. Is this your baba? It's all right. I'm going to get you both home. I promise. You can rest. Thank you for showing me."
The child climbed into the empty seat, then leaned against her father. In a few moments, the creature slumped further, going limp and still, like a puppet cut. Lan Wangji allowed himself a moment of silent grief for the child. He wished he had been there to help put her to rest, and wish her well on her next cycle.
The video then cut back to the array, with almost all of the spirits fading away, liberated from their unrest by finally being discovered. There were five that appeared to still be waiting, perhaps for the actual retrieval of their remains, but the vast majority had been freed, and a dangerous landborne abyss averted.
Lan Wangji could only imagine the frenzy in the cultivation community to get their hands on the raw footage and compare exactly at what point did the collective consciousness begin to form, and when and how was it released. It was something he would also be quite interested in, as abysses of any time were rare and not fully understood. Learning more about them could lead to better, safer ways to resolve them.
Dawn had broken by the time Wei Ying made it back to the camp. He had recorded the exact location of the wreckage, but was visibly swaying on his feet with exhaustion, and possibly injury. Lan Wangji felt frustrated at only being able to see clips of the hunt, not knowing what had happened to Wei Ying during the times that the camera was not recording him.
"Wei Laoshi! Are you all right?" Wen Ning asked.
Wei Ying gave a tired smile.
"Aiyo. Such a mother hen! I'm fine. I'm just going to leave the gear here, though. I'm too tired to carry it back right now, and we need to get the remains returned to their families, before the spirits become disturbed again. We don't need to make it back to the road, just close enough to it that we can get a signal. I'll rest as soon as we've gotten through to someone."
The video was edited after that, but it appeared that Wei Ying had needed help hiking out, having stumbled several times before Wen Ning slipped his arm under Wei Ying's shoulder to support him.
"I thought you were too tired to hike back! You're definitely too tired to carry me."
"I rested. I'm fine now. But Wei Laoshi is not."
Lan Wangji had the feeling that the man had used his condition as an excuse to stay behind and make sure Wei Ying returned safely. Part of him was grateful, but another part of him felt a prickly sort of irritation that he was not the one helping Wei Ying down the mountain. He could have passed him spiritual energy to help restore him. He could have flown him down in minutes, instead of the hours it took for them to make the trek on foot.
But eventually they reached a place where they could get reception. Wei Ying placed a call to someone (that part had been edited out, likely so random viewers could not come and disturb the scene), and immediately slumped to the ground.
The video then cut to the ending scene, with Wei Ying being loaded into the back of a medical van. He smiled briefly at the camera (or cameraman) but looked only semi-conscious as he lay back on the gurney. The video did not show the emblem of which hospital he was being sent to, and Lan Wangji had no way of finding out unless it was his own. Given how far away Yiling was, it was unlikely.
Lan Wangji sat for a moment, staring at the screen when it had ended. Wei Ying did not appear to be severely injured, only exhausted. But the effects of Empathy could be more subtle, and might not have been visible from the outside.
He opened another tab to see if there was any additional information about how Wei Ying was doing. Finding the downed plane would have made the civilian news, meaning there was a chance of more information. He was going to search for 'missing flights', but the 'breaking news' headline on the browser page when he opened it already announced the miraculous discovery of the wreckage of a flight from over twenty years ago that had crashed during a severe storm it had gotten caught in. It had been far off course, trying to avoid the storm, and reported engine issues.
It had gotten out of range of the radar towers whether from being too far off course or flying too low due to its engine problems was unclear. But it had suffered a systems failure that had shut the communications off before it disappeared in the mountains. The authorities had searched and searched, but the wreckage had never been found.
Photos from the site showed why. The plane had crashed into a narrow ravine, making it almost impossible to see unless you were directly above it. There had been a landslide somewhere further down the mountain in recent years that had blocked the drainage from the ravine, slowly causing it to fill with water and further disturb the dead.
All 231 passengers and crew had died. The news had just broken, but families were already making posts expressing gratitude for finally being able to put their loved ones to rest. There was silence for the moment on the background of the person who had found the wreckage, and how.
Typical civilian reporting, wanting to downplay the role of cultivation to keep the general population from giving too much weight to cultivators. It was an old and delicate power struggle that Lan Wangji was aware of but avoided whenever possible.
The established sects would not be happy that it was a rogue cultivator using unorthodox techniques who got the credit for the hunt. He was somewhat surprised that they had allowed the video to be published.
Lan Wangji looked at the link his brother had sent him more closely, and saw that it had been submitted to the Cultivation Council's nomination thread for 'most kills'. What was odd was that it had been submitted to the Council by the Nie, not Wei Wuxian himself.
The original video had been posted on a very minor channel that had less than two hundred subscribers called WiFiDownForWhatever : Rogue cultivator and Talismans Expert with experience, not pedigree.
"Ridiculous," Lan Wangji murmured, his eyes lingering on the profile picture.
It showed Wei Wuxian, smirking irreverently at the camera, wearing his (evidently) trademark outfit as he lounged on the branch of a tree in what Lan Wangji recognized as the park across from the hospital. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling his golden skin with light and shadow.
Lan Wangji was not a man who felt 'connections' with others, outside of his brother and uncle. His focus had always been on following the Disciplines, improving his own cultivation, training new disciples and taking on night hunts. It was a full life, if a regimented one.
He had never wanted something else, something outside of his clan and sect.
But he looked at Wei Ying and wanted.
He just wasn't sure exactly what it was that he wanted yet. But he knew he had to talk to the man as soon as possible. The Lan would likely be called in to give an opinion on the hunt, as well as the approach used. It would be natural for him to be involved with that discussion, particularly since it was his record that had been broken by the unorthodox technique.