#aguh

like holy shit man

Instead of taking a guilty but "this is the way" approach to resentful energy and the death it causes, Wei Ying seeks to change it. He seeks to have the chance to help every spirit that helps him, in a way that he could not achieve with living humans - mainly because they didn't survive long enough for him to help them. With spirits, he can simultaneously help them let out those wild, confusing feelings, while they help him get revenge on his enemies and be useful. He can learn about the individual spirit no matter what little that is, and give them a way out. Lay them to a peaceful rest after they have assisted him. It still feels exploitative to him, but then the Burial Mounds begins to whisper about how the spirits view him - he is their God, sent from the heavens to help the spirits forgotten by the rest of the world. Spirits that are too far gone to be nothing but overwhelming emotions rush to him and are given the sweet release that death was supposed to provide them.

Wei Ying also refines his skills with the dizi, forcing himself to work through the pain of moving his fingers, a pain that is getting worse with every day he is in the Burial Mounds. He learns how to use his melodies to influence spirits to do anything he wants, calming them out of a screaming rampage through the grounds and sometimes working them into (experimentation comes first, even if he gets attacked in the process). The Burial Mounds is doing Its own creepy version of cheering on Its son, feeling simultaneously proud and in awe of what he is doing right in front of It. How has this boy, this little baby teenager, fallen from the skies and almost died in Its lands, only to force his way back into life with Its help and then immediately begins offering a form of salvation to all of the forgotten, uncared for spirits in the Jianghu.

Now, the crows. "What is their role in this AU?" Well, at first, they're just chilling around, watching Wei Ying stumble around desperately every day, scrabbling for...indescript food in order to survive (yes, it is corpses. Bone marrow, usually. It's not like there's any other food sources aside from the crows, n he can't catch them in his state). They watch as he digs around in these corpses for the bones and then delightedly pick at whatever is left over when the human stumbles off again. Listen, if you've been around for a while, you know that I've learned my fair share about crows....so I know that crows are quite intelligent! They have the minds of toddlers, n they can recognise people - AND hold grudges. That doesn't really add anything to the plot but I just thought it was cool. Anyway, Wei Ying starts offering the food as he's eating it, and they all start eating together so it's pretty chill!

The crows have to return the favour of the chill eating sessions and start bringing Wei Ying cool shit that they find outside of the Burial Mounds, often shiny shit but occasionally there's shit from cultivators and Wei Ying is sometimes whipping similar stuff out, so they bring that as well. The crows like Wei Ying, Wei Ying likes the crows. Simples! Of course, it doesn't take long for the teenager to realise that the crows are brimming with yin energy, and are drawn to his melodies just as much as resentful spirits are, and he does take advantage of this, giving them more food in return for their efforts. As Wei Ying grows more powerful, he feels like it would be necessary to reach out to the outside world, so he starts experimenting with (dead) crows to basically use them as flying cameras to see what's going on outside.

It is Not Good. There most certainly IS a war, and Wen Ruohan's forces far outweigh that of the three major sects & co. "Three?" I hear you saying - YEP. In THIS AU, the Jin side with the Wen. "WHY??" Because Jin Guangshan knows that the Wen have notes of demonic cultivation from the literal genius creator of it, and he (mistakenly) believes that the Wen can and will use them in the war. It's a no brainer for him; they will fall if they do not side with the Wen. Also he sucks and I HATE him and he's power hungry, so he's hoping that he gets information about demonic cultivation if he shows support for the Wen. Don't worry, don't worry, Jin Zixuan and his small band of loyalists (Mianmian I love you, Mianmian I would die for you) are still on the good side, Lotus Pier has taken them in (because they haven't been burned down to the ground this time around)!! The Wens' forces and control, plus the Jins' money and control, equals UH OH. FUCK.

Wei Ying also can't get any read on his precious family - he thinks they're in Qishan, because there's no information implying that they are literally down in the city nearby. He's fucking terrified, but also doesn't want to get them into anymore danger by trying to attempt contact from them if they are alive. He needs to figure out if they're alive. He needs to know whether or not they are safe. How? There was a teenager who did always seem to know everything going on in the Jianghu. Wei Ying just needs to get into contact with him. He puppeteers a crow to nab some paper from a nearby city (just missing a Xue Yang storming down the street after another failure at decoding Wei Ying's notes), and then realises that his hands are far too fucked up to write. The Burial Mounds tries to help, but Its hands (even more exaggeratedly wonky and fucked up than Wei Ying's) are not helpful. THIS is where the crows get their true calling.

They're already brimming with yin energy, and that's only heightened through their time in the Burial Mounds, so it can be reasonably implied that they are smarter than a toddler depending on how much resentful energy they are exposed to and how long they have been in the Burial Mounds. They see Wei Ying desperately using his fingers dipped in blood (nobody's really selling ink and calligraphy brushes in these wartimes so they can't be nabbed, okay??) to try and write something, and they (sort of) learn as he writes. So, while he's passed out after so long of not sleeping, they take matters into their own wings and start scratching out the message with the blood and their claws (so much neater than what Wei Ying was dropping). Then they send a crow out with that message out to the first war camp they find, listening out for the name of the person they're searching for, and basically bombard this guy with both the message and their presence.

Meanwhile, Nie Huaisang gets attacked by a crow while he's supposed to be taking his mind off worrying over his da-ge out on the battlefield with a walk. He's at first confused and offended and rather scared (did he insult the crows somehow??) but then he realises that there's some sort of scroll clutched in the crow's grasp. He opens it, fully expecting it to be some sort of death threat rambling slur filled letter (okay so maybe not that but who knows what's going through his mind??) and finds a simple message. "My sect was filled with monsters, but I had a family. Ensure their safety, and I will ensure your victory."

Song Lan does not spend much time thinking about his birth parents. Nor had he ever considered a possibility of a mystery behind his birth.

He, like many other orphans, had been left at Baixue’s doorstep as a toddler. The only faint memories he had of that time was counting snowflakes. For some odd reason, counting snowflakes had felt so important and to this day, the memory made his heart pinch.

One, two, then he’d forget the next number and start again. Trying to catch the snowflakes in his hand and knowing somewhere in his heart that if the weather was cold enough for the snowflake not to melt in his palm, then he was safe.

Something about snow always feels safe to him. Chilly days make him peek over his shoulder as though something good might come with the wind. Snow makes his heart swell with a strange indescribable hope.

Sometimes he still counts snowflakes. Privately and alone. It was a secret he’d only ever shared with Xiao Xingchen, who once counted snowflakes with him.

Song Lan didn’t want for anything at Baixue, they always took good care of him. He assumes that he is like so many of his peers. Born to a family who couldn’t afford a child and hoped that he could find a better life as a cultivator. Song Lan likes to hope that his parents are doing well, wherever they are, but some part of him always doubted. There are so many orphans who came to Baixue after all. A common story would be a father who left or died, a mother who died in childbirth, and some neighboring villager who climbed the mountain to offer up the infant. It is such a common story that Song Lan assumes his parents were the same.

Song Lan likes his family at Baixue and likes the family he found in Xiao Xingchen. He doesn’t really feel a longing for parents who are nothing but strangers to him.

He feels a longing for snowy days and counting snowflakes. He feels an ache in his chest sometimes when he sees golden robes. He yearns for the faint memory of someone singing to him about baby sharks.

Parents, as an abstract entity, don’t fascinate him. Little things though, little things that feel almost like a memory and almost like comfort and so much like love, those little things stir his heart.

Song Lan does wonder sometimes though, if he can just count five un-melted snowflakes resting in the palm of his hand, would that mean something good would really come?

A part of him longs for that most of all.

CONTINUED BC MY BRAIN KEPT PRICKLING:

Airplane Shooting Toward The Sky regrets the day he ever fucking wrote a sword as stupid and shit as Xin Mo. Fuck that sword, fuck it’s powers, and fuck his entire shitty past life for writing something so fucking STUPID.

In truth, Airplane (now Shang Qinghua) cannot in sincere honesty claim he feels all that much sincere regret about a lot of the shit he wrote. Was it crappy and pandering? Absolutely. Did that shit bite him in the ass so fucking hard he’s still feeling the aches? Without a goddamn doubt. But he loves writing and he had loved Proud Immortal Demon Way and despite how shitty the world he crafted was, he’d never sat there and thought “I shouldn’t have written this” before.

Mostly because of the reality he lives in. It’s really fucking hard to look at your next door neighbor in the crap village you both grew up in and think to yourself “ohshit there’s a strong possibility that if I didn’t write this shit book, you wouldn’t exist and I’m totally okay with you not existing”.

Shang Qinghua is anything but a bleeding heart and he sure as fuck isn’t about to dedicate his life to protecting NPC Villager #4, but there’s a big difference between being the sort of internet troll that likes inciting discord online as rage-bait advertising for his crap novel and being the sort of person who straight up wishes non-existence on random strangers. He’s a douchebag, but he’s not THAT much of a douchebag.

Xin Mo though? Fuck that sword. That sword needs to die. That sword is worthless scum that has all of his pure and undiluted hatred. If he had the option, he’d use every bit of his authorial knowledge to destroy the hunk of metal. Bring the hunk of metal to life so that it can feel pain just so he can murder it while it screams for mercy.

There miiiiiggghht have been a bit of how he wrote Luo Binghe that existed because of how vengeful he himself could be when truly upset. The thing is, most things don’t truly upset Shang Qinghua.

Airplane Shooting Through The Sky was a man who could roll with the punches. Shang Qinghua is a man who had to roll with a lot more punches.

That was fine. Punch him all day and night. He’ll figure out a way around it or a way to endure it and in recent years, he’ll sic his OP as fuck husband on those punches with great alacrity.

But that fucking sword…

That fucking sword stole his son and dropped him who even knows where.

And Shang Qinghua was ready to rip apart every fucking reality that exists to find his son and bring him home, no matter how many years it might take. Luckily, in this regard, his OP as fuck husband is very like-minded and the absolute carnage left in their wake could put even the PIDW version of Luo Binghe to shame.

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