Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

A/N - The chapter is long and un-beta'd but I hope I caught most of the mistakes!  This is where we start to see the direction that the story is going in. Have I mentioned my love of ancient libraries and my rage at the civilizations that destroyed them?

Fu Guiying had assured Lan Zhan that she was doing better, and that she was relatively safe at the moment. The poisoning had happened long ago but—since it had never been treated—the effects had lingered and damaged her, but not in a way that was life-threatening and that they were not sure who had done it.

Lan Zhan had been worried, but accepted her words and only made her promise that she would tell him if someone hurt her again, or if she needed to leave. He had remembered Wei Ying saying that his ‘Auntie’ was a rogue cultivator and that they might leave in the spring, and was worried about being left behind.

Fu Guiying had promised him that she wouldn’t leave without telling him, and that—for now—she had no plans to leave as long as they all remained safe. 

Wei Ying had wondered if Lan Zhan would be upset that he was able to stay in Fu Guiying’s home while Lan Zhan was not, but the boy seemed to be okay with it. If anything, he seemed relieved to finally at least know where Wei Ying was living.

The revelation had been somewhat overwhelming for the boy, so he hadn’t asked many follow-up questions. Wei Ying had a feeling that they would come eventually but, at least for now, they had not needed to explain exactly who Wei Ying was nor how he knew all of the strange things that he did.

Fu Guiying said it was a sign of just how isolated her children were from others their age, which she worried about. But there was nothing they could do about it at the current moment, and—at least in the short term—it made it possible to allow Lan Zhan to absorb one life-changing truth without piling so many more immediately onto his small shoulders.

It would be months before they needed to make any decisions that might require disclosing more.

Winter arrived in Gusu only days after Wei Ying had made his trip down the mountain to deliver the embroidered silks to the merchant, Old Man Fan, and visit the apothecaries. Unfortunately, the herbs he had been able to get from the local Apothecaries contained the most common remedies, but not two of the rarer herbs that Wen Qing had believed would be the most effective. Late in the season, many people had already stocked up for the upcoming winter, when the days were short and the nights damp and cold and so many took ill.

The only tiny upside of such a limited set of the herbs that Wen Qing had mentioned was that they didn’t give any clues as to his whereabouts when he told her about them and began testing their effect on Fu Guiying’s recovery.

The winter was unusually harsh, and the snow on the mountain stayed deep and did not melt until spring.

Despite being trapped up on the mountain by the weather and his own weak core, Wei Ying enjoyed the time. He had managed to finish the array around Fu Guiying’s house before the snows came, and tailored it to focus energy on both himself and Fu Guiying. Lan Zhan lived inside the Cloud Recesses proper and would be staying in the same building as his brother and uncle until he was older, so they could not do a similar array around his house. Instead, Wei Ying made one near the waterfall that Lan Zhan could use on the days that were not too cold. 

It would be more effective once Lan Zhan’s core had fully formed, so not being able to use it much over the winter would not slow him down. Lan Zhan had been focusing on forming the base of his core and—from what Wei Ying could sense with the small amount of qi that he was able to channel—he might even have been doing a better job of it than Wei Ying himself had. 

There was something about the intensely focused and methodical way that Lan Zhan approached his cultivation that was so different from Wei Ying’s. Wei Ying couldn’t wait to be able to see what the other boy’s qi would be like, once he had distilled it enough inside his golden core to be able to channel it. He was sure Lan Zhan was going to be an amazing cultivator.

At first, the snow had restricted their ability to see each other.

It didn’t just make Wei Ying’s feet wet and cold—something that both Wen Qing and Fu Guiying worried about, since evidently almost freezing to death had made him more vulnerable to hypothermia—but it also could give away his presence. In the early part of winter, he could rely on the sun to melt away the frost enough to erase any footprints he might make. But once the snowcover became permanent, it became much more problematic. 

Since Fu Guiying’s house only received visitors once a month, the path to her home was not cleared. Any footprints observed would draw immediate notice, even if Wei Ying used one of the talismans he knew that made the caster themselves hard to see. It wasn’t a true invisibility talisman—those required much more active qi than Wei Ying would have for years—but he did know one that made the user appear to blend in with their surroundings. It was part illusion and part sensory influence. But being basically invisible wouldn’t matter if he left a trail of very obvious footprints behind him. Once someone knew they were supposed to be seeing something and really focused on him, the spell would break.

Wei Ying did not have a large enough core to be able to fly on a sword, even if he’d had one. And Fu Guiying’s sword had been taken from her when she had been imprisoned.

It took Wei Ying a few frustrated days of testing things out, but he was able to come up with a talisman that created a swirl of wind that would erase his footsteps as he went. It didn’t last more than a minute or two so he needed to make the shortest route to the nearest cleared path when he went to visit Lan Zhan at the waterfall. Trips down the mountain were impossible, since he did not have enough spiritual energy to erase his trail all the way through the back hills to circle around to the main path.

The talisman worked best on powdery snow when the days were cold, which, fortunately, was most of them. On warmer days when the snow was heavy and wet, Wei Ying found himself trapped inside.

Lan Zhan was still uncomfortable going into Fu Guiying’s house without permission, so Fu Guiying came out on days that it was not too cold to meet Lan Zhan and Wei Ying by the waterfall.

It was good that they had stocked up on food staples for the winter. Wei Ying might be bored of eating so much plain congee, but at least there was enough food and it did not draw attention from the Lan.

As the cold settled in, Wei Ying found himself thinking about the last winter. When he had frozen to death on the streets of Yiling, hungry and alone. Fu Guiying kept the small house extra warm for him, lighting the brazier and stitching warming talismans into all the clothes he wore, but he still found himself shivering with remembered fear and cold some nights. 

He had known people who were afraid of storms, or afraid of the dark. He’d never met anyone who was afraid of the cold. One of the days when he had gone to meet Lan Zhan and the wind was particularly bitter, he had started shivering uncontrollably despite the warmth of the clothing he was wearing.

Lan Zhan had noticed and asked him about it, and when Wei Ying had reluctantly explained that it wasn’t that he was actually cold, more just a fear of it, Lan Zhan had looked stricken and insisted that they wait until the cold spell had snapped before meeting up again. After that, the boy always brought Wei Ying something warm when he came: tea kept warm in a talisman-heated cup, or warm food kept similarly warmed. He also asked his mother to learn how to stitch the warming talismans into fabric.

Fu Guiying had smiled gently and—the next time they’d met—she’d given her son a manual she’d written describing the specific talismans, the types of fabric they worked on, and how to stitch them to be most effective. 

Three weeks later, Lan Zhan had presented Wei Ying with a set of his own silk robes, painstakingly stitched with warming talismans.

“I did not have any other silk,” Lan Zhan had apologized, looking slightly embarrassed when Wei Ying asked if he would get in trouble for one of his sets of robes going missing.

They were too big on him, since Lan Zhan was tall for his age and Wei Ying was still small for him, but Wei Ying had grinned widely, and worn them around the Gentian House, where it didn’t matter if the hems dragged on the floor.

Even though the Lan did not celebrate birthdays, Wei Ying made Lan Zhan a rice ball shaped like a rabbit and a protective talisman charm that he carved into one of the remaining spiritual stones he’d collected for the boy’s seventh birthday. Lan Zhan had accepted both, studying the protection charm as well as the rice bunny with equal focus before giving Wei Ying a small smile, his ears red in the cold winter air.

All of them worked on their cultivation. Lan Zhan was focused with relentless determination on making the base for his core as broad and stable as possible, and Wei Ying on growing his, taking advantage while he could of cultivating on such a powerful Dragon Vein, with the added amplification of the array he’d carved into their house.

Fu Guiying’s core continued to very slowly improve, but not nearly enough as much as it should have given the array. 

Fortunately, the cold weather did not hinder his ability to talk to Wen Qing about it. Or about anything, really. He slowly got to know her over the winter months, talking frequently through the communications token. It oddly reminded him of texting on his phone with friends and colleagues back in his old life, though the memories of that time had become increasingly faint in his mind. There was something about the casual sending of messages that instant communication allowed that was different from the effort and formality of handwritten letters delivered by horse or even a butterfly talisman. 

He messaged Wen Qing about the things that she wanted to hear: his rate of core development, a new technique he tried that seemed to work well, the different medications he was trying with his Auntie and whether or not there was any progress. 

He also texted her about things she did not ask about: an interesting stone he found, thoughts about whether the qi through a Dragon Vein ran slower in the cold, how many stones he’d been able to stack before the tipped over.

At first, she had seemed annoyed or at the very least confused by his steady stream of chatter, but eventually she had also begun sharing tiny tidbits back. Her younger brother was ill again, and she was worried. The herbs she had set to dry were now ready to be stored. She had brewed a new tincture to treat a croupy baby that had fallen ill.

Occasionally, Wei Ying would share back ideas related to her projects, drawing on knowledge he had of advancements in medical cultivation that were developed centuries in the future. He tried not to do it too often, since he knew she was already suspicious, so he focused them on the things that mattered most. In particular, anything that had to do with her little brother. Wei Ying had never had any siblings, but he had seen the bond between Lan Zhan and Lan Huan and knew how powerful it was. Even though Wen Qing tried to hide her concern, he could hear it in her voice.

As the winter progressed and Fu Guiying’s core did not improve significantly, Wen Qing said that it sounded more and more like a specific spiritual toxin that required one of the rarer herbs to reverse the effects. She said that she had some, and would be in Jinlintai in the spring and could bring it with her if Wei Ying or someone else from the family could meet her there to get it.

Neither Lan Zhan nor Fu Guiying liked the idea, but Wei Ying was adamant that if Fu Guiying did not improve before the snows melted, he would go and meet Wen Qing. Old man Fan would be heading out in early spring to go to Koi Tower with a trade caravan as the markets reopened with the better weather, so Wei Ying would not be traveling alone this time, and the distance between Caiyi Town and Lanling City was not that great.

They would make the decision as the time grew closer, but at least they had options.

In the meantime, Wei Ying decided it was time to explore the library that the clan was so proud of, yet still had failed to protect. Given how meticulous they were about writing things down, any poison created by the Lan likely had a description of it, as well as its antidote, in its archives.

He just needed to wait for a night where the moon would be obscured enough for him to risk it with his concealment talisman.

When Wei Ying stood inside the library for the first time—turning in a slow circle to take in the vast collection of knowledge spread out around him—a nearly overwhelming sense of rage flooded through him. He had been unsure how much of the tales of the Great Library at Cloud Recess had been an exaggeration versus reality. He realized that, if anything, the stories had undersold the extensiveness of the collection. Especially considering how expensive paper was, and how delicate the silk tomes were.

He had been thinking about using a transcribing talisman to copy portions of the library over the winter to preserve some of it. He’d wanted to save the critical knowledge that would be lost if and when the Cloud Recesses was attacked during the war. But he realized now that it would be a nearly impossible task. 

While he had some access to paper, there was a limit to what would go unnoticed, even in a place like Cloud Recesses. Talismans could transcribe the documents, but they required a physical place to put it. Even if he came up with some way of shrinking the text to have more fit on each individual page, he would be lucky to be able to capture even one percent of the knowledge that was in the library. Additionally, any scrolls or tomes involving talismans couldn’t be modified, since the spacing mattered. Even small inaccuracies in the relative positioning could change their effectiveness, making the knowledge that had been painstakingly recorded in whatever manuscript it was trying to capture  lost. 

He sat down on the floor of the library, his head in his small hands, as he faced the magnitude of what had been lost… What would be lost in the years to come.

No.

He couldn’t accept it. There had to be some way.

Each book represented the knowledge of a person‘s entire lifetime. Sometimes multiple people’s lifetimes.

There had to be a way to preserve more than just the tiny fraction that had survived the war before, even adding the small amount that Wei Ying itself could transcribe over the winter.

He thought about the limitations of the ability to copy the knowledge and take it somewhere else.

He thought about the low chances of being able to find somewhere else that would be safe to take it to, even if he managed it. There had been rumors that the heir to the Lan Clan had fled with some of their most precious books, but if it was true, they had not survived the war.

Slowly, he began to think instead about how poor the wards were in the Cloud Recesses. How much knowledge advancement there was in barrier spells in the thousand years that followed the current time period.

He thought about Lan Zhan and his brother. Surely they were not the only good people in the Cloud Recesses. Fu Guiying had said that she’d had friends within the Lan. From her own journal, he knew that, at one point, she had liked her husband enough to consider him a friend and potential romantic partner. 

Was there really no saving this place?

No. Just because it had burned in the past didn’t mean it had to burn again. Wei Ying had already changed the fate of the people of Jishi Village. Fu Guiying was still alive. He could change this, too.

Feeling overwhelmed, he ran back to the Gentian House to find Fu Guiying. He was so distraught that he almost forgot to cover his trail and had to go back and set the talisman for smoothing out the snow behind him.

When he came through her window, she looked at his angry, determined, teary eyes with understanding.

As though she had been expecting it.

“Fu Auntie,” he said, his voice shaking. “We have to try to find a way to save the library. There’s no way that I could copy the books in it, not even just the important ones.”

She looked at him with soft eyes and stroked his hair while he wiped the tears from his eyes. She pulled him into her lap.

“I know,” she said, quietly.

“Is this why we haven’t left yet?” he asked.

“Partly,” she had admitted, continuing to stroke his hair. “And partly because of what you told me. You admitted yourself that there isn’t a safe place right now for anyone. There is corruption everywhere, and war is going to spread across the land. Within Cloud Recesses, we are safe for at least part of the time from the wars between the kingdoms that are breaking out.”

Wei Ying knew that. It was the reason that he had come to find her after all. If there had been an obviously safe place to go to when he’d first transmigrated into his current body, he wouldn’t have chosen to break through the wards of one of the Great Sects and track down a woman they had imprisoned in secrecy there. 

“Your friend in the Tingshan He clan. I thought maybe we would go there when we escaped,” Wei Ying said. “Tingshan He clan was one of the more honorable ones during the war last time, and you trusted him enough to send him a letter.”

Fu Guiying sighed.

“I do know him. But you also told me that his clan is one of the ones that was wiped out in the war, with everyone killed, down to the last child. Moving the library there—even if we could sew enough qiankun bags to carry them all out and escape cleanly without being caught—would not lead to safety.”

Wei Ying knew she was right. And also knew that they were unlikely to be able to get the books out. Even if they snuck into the library and began loading up qiankun bags the instant it was closed and weren’t discovered until they opened it again, there wouldn’t be time. The time it would take to properly store each book into the bags would take too long to do in one night, and the disciples would notice if books started to go missing.

In his old life, even moving out of his tiny apartment had taken most of the day and it was a drop in the bucket compared to the various scrolls and delicate silk bound books that existed in the library. Not to mention the additional protective words that were placed around them that would have to be dismantled. 

And for all that Wei Ying might dislike the Lan Clan and resent the way they sat on a pile of priceless knowledge and neither protected it nor deployed it to the full extent of its usefulness, he could not deny that the library was the heart of the Cloud Recesses. Disciples were in the building from the moment it opened until the moment it closed every day. 

While the Lan had no specific religion, the library was like a temple to them. There would be no way of carrying the act out over a series of days.

Wei Ying lay quietly in the comfort of Fu Guiying’s lap while he thought. He had the sense that she had already come to some of the same conclusions, but was simply allowing him the chance to catch up on his own.

He thought about Lan Zhan, and how right he looked meditating beside the beautiful waterfall on the Dragon Vein that his ancestors had founded the clan upon. 

Lan Zhan belonged on this mountain. It was his birthright.

“You said there were others who you had been friends with. Before,” Wei Ying stated, though it was a question.

“Yes. History only records the best and the worst of us. But the majority of people are something in the middle. Neither great nor terrible, but just people living their lives. It’s no different here in the Cloud Recesses than it is anywhere else,” she said calmly. “I had to leave my own natal clan because my father was trying to force a marriage with another clan against my will. It won’t be different anywhere we go.”

It was true. Fu Guiying’s beauty was dangerous. Especially at a time when powerful men could take what they wanted without permission. He might be content to live in hiding with her and her children for the rest of their lives, but then what was even the point of him coming back?

Wei Ying thought about the different questions Fu Guiying had been asking him about the rights of succession, the rise and fall of the various kingdoms as well as the history of cultivation law and clan politics. 

It was unusual that Lan Qiren, the clan leader's brother, was given the title of acting head of the clan. He didn’t have full authority. His brother’s sons were still the heirs, but too young to have power themselves.  So who had the actual authority? It was unclear, and that was suspicious. This was a time when clan bloodline was the most important thing. And the difference between the main line and the branch lines was stark and often fraught with murder.

There was a reason why—despite the longevity that a powerful golden core bestowed—the clan leaders generally were young with no living grandparents, parents, or uncles who could gainsay them. 

Usually—in order to avoid conflict of interest—the role would either have fallen fully to the brother or the child's mother would have acted as regent or dowager leader to hold the place for her son. After all, a mother is more likely to have the better interests of her own child than the brother of the leader, who could want his own branch of the family to take power. 

The Lan were isolated and naive. He’d learned that from the small number of interactions he’d had with the people in Caiyi. The Lan disciples would never think to question anything they were told about the situation because they assumed that the leaders and elders were all following the clan rules about ‘do not tell lies’ and ‘do not covet power’ and ‘do not use your power to abuse others’.

“Since you and the others continue to insist on addressing me as Madam Lan, then do me the courtesy of at least giving me the authority to order you from my prison, even if I have none of the other authorities that were supposed to go with this title,” Fu Guiying had said to Lan Qiren.

He began to get an inkling of what she might be planning. Or at least might be considering.

It would be dangerous. Extremely dangerous.

But so was everything else.

Wei Ying made several trips back to the library over the remainder of the winter. He found information on the poison as well as the antidote in the forbidden section of the library. As suspected, the antidote required one of the rare and powerful medicinal herbs that Wen Qing had mentioned. Using one of the transcribing talismans he’d learned in his past life, he copied the entire scroll, along with a tome he found with forbidden battle musical techniques, and a beautifully illustrated bestiary that had creatures and their strengths and weaknesses that he’d never seen before. He kept them all safely hidden in the qiankun bag that the nu gui had found for him.

He checked on her periodically, asking if she needed him to get her out of the wards for a while, but she only gave a gentle breath of cool air on the nape of his neck to signal she was content as she was.

Still, he was itching for spring to arrive, now that he knew exactly what they needed to reverse the damage the poison had done to Fu Guiying’s core.

As soon as the back mountain was passable in early spring, Wei Ying made a trip down the mountain to Caiyi. His first stop was to see Old Man Fan and sell the talismans and tokens that he and Fu Guiying had spent the winter making so that they would have money to replenish their supplies. They had their stores of extra food for the winter had run out and Fu Guiying was worried that the clan would begin to notice how quickly she was going through the rice that had been in the last month's delivery. 

He asked when the old merchant would be heading to Lanling City for his spring supply run. It turned out that Old Man Fan had planned on within the week with a caravan of traders that were hoping to make at least one trade run to restock his supplies before the rains started. Wei Ying asked if he was looking for an assistant to make the journey with him. The old man was skeptical, but Wei Ying told him about all he’d learned on his trip east about managing inventory, scouting other stalls to understand what the other traders were offering and at what price.

“Hm. Well, my knees aren’t what they used to be. I suppose it would be good to have a youngster who could keep an eye on the markets we go through to see what the competition is selling,” Old Man Fan said, stroking his thin white beard thoughtfully. “I’ll provide food, but I won’t pay you extra for the trip.”

Wei Ying agreed, readily enough. Traveling with the caravan meant there would be guards and places to sleep. The old man hadn’t become a successful merchant by being generous, but he was straightforward and honest about his terms, which was better than Wei Ying knew to expect from most others. Most importantly, it would be a free trip to Lanling City, where Wen Qing and a group of healers from her clan would be arriving within the month.

The journey from Caiyi to Langing City was less than a day by sword, but with horses and wagons, it would be nearly three weeks to make the 500 km trip. Old Man Fan had a shop in Lanling City that his nephew ran, with rooms above it that they would sleep in, so it was a good deal for Wei Ying. He would be able to stay with him until the man returned, or he could catch a ride back with another merchant making the trip from Lanling to Gusu.

Excited at the prospect of being able to get the herb that they needed for Fu Guiying, he hurried to purchase the supplies on their list so he could get back to tell her. He’d gotten more for the talismans and tokens than he’d thought they’d get, so he splurged to buy meat and spicy steamed buns to take back, along with some sweets for Lan Zhan. 

He stopped at the inn where they had posted Fu Guiying's letters and found that she had received two letters from the Tingshan He cultivator, and one from the family on the border with the Nie. He thanked the innkeeper for saving them for him, and said he would be back with a reply within the next week. 

He took the food and letters up the mountain, glad that they finally were going to be able to get the medicine they needed. 

Lan Zhan had been upset that he wouldn’t be able to go with Wei Ying to get the medicine, but it would be impossible for him to be gone for even a day without the entire clan being roused to go search for him. But with the potential to finally fully heal the damage done to Fu Guiying’s core, they agreed not to wait. The stronger she was, the safer they all were.

Wei Ying hadn’t told Lan Zhan yet that he had been breaking into the library to research the poison, nor that he had copied some of the clan’s most secret texts.  The boy seemed to trust that they had received reliable help from the person Wei Ying had messaged. On the one hand, Wei Ying was glad that the boy trusted him. On the other hand, it reminded him that he would need to make sure that Lan Zhan knew not to trust so easily.  They still hadn’t figured out a way to bring Lan Huan into the fold, but it would be less risky if Fu Guying was at full strength when they tried it, in case Lan Huan told his uncle again.

The letters had contained open invitations, if and when she was well enough to travel. She had carefully drawn out a map to show both boys where they could reach her, if she had to leave suddenly. It was too dangerous to leave the map with Lan Zhan, as his rooms were not fully private, but Wei Ying had folded the map and slipped it into his qiankun bag, promising Lan Zhan he would find him if anything happened.

But all of their best options hinged on Fu Guying being back to full strength, and that meant that Wei Ying needed to go to Lanling City with Old Man Fan.

When they were alone in the Gentian House, Fu Guiying said she wanted to create a pair of communication tokens for the two of them before Wei Ying left.

“We should make another paired set of the communication tokens before you go. I have enough qi that we won’t need to cut your hands all up this time. I can go with you to the array site you used for the last one. We’ll only need a drop of blood from each of us, based on what you told me, right?” Fu Guiying asked.

“Yes, but the type of spell that it uses is considered heretical. I don’t want you to get in trouble if they find it on you,” Wei Ying said.

“A-Ying. I know that you found your way here without getting hurt, but you said yourself how dangerous things are getting. Lanling City is a viper pit. I’m not going to let you go all alone without having some way for you to contact me. If you need help,” she said. “Besides, if they’re going to lock me away, I might as well be doing something actually forbidden.”

Wei Ying laughed, despite himself.

“Okay, Fu Auntie. I’d feel better about being able to check in on you as well. I don’t want you to be all alone again while I’m gone,” he said, feeling his throat close up.

She hugged him.

“Tiny Grandfather. Don’t worry about me. I can visit my a-Zhan by the waterfall while you’re gone. And I have letters that I’m sending with you again. I have people I can go to now, thanks to you.”

The thought of Fu Guiying possibly needing to leave while he was away set panic flaring through him.

“Fu Auntie, we can modify the tokens so we can find each other no matter where we go. Here… let me show you,” he said, running over to the stack of paper to sketch out the modified communication array that could also track the other person wherever they went.

They only had enough stones to make one pair. And even if they could have made one for Lan Zhan, it was too risky. They would have to ask him for his blood, which crossed a line that the boy was old enough to understand. They didn’t want him to have to carry that kind of secret until it was necessary. Not to mention that there was too big a risk that the token would be discovered.

Fu Guiying had promised that she would continue to meet with Lan Zhan by the waterfall and she could pass messages between the two boys.

The morning that Wei Ying left, both Lan Zhan and Fu Guiying saw him off before breakfast. Even though he would only be gone for two months, it was hard to say goodbye. Lan Zhan looked pale and tense, still clearly unhappy about Wei Ying going. But at least he would have his mother and brother there to keep him company, and he had promised to keep working on his core while Wei Ying was gone.

Wei Ying managed to keep the tears off his face until he was through the wards. The gentle pressure of the hairpin at the base of his neck and the weight of the communications tokens in his pocket reminded him that he wasn’t really alone.

The caravan was traveling light since there were only limited supplies this early in the season, so they were able to make good time on their journey towards Lanling City. Most nights, they were able to stay in one of the wayside inns that were placed periodically along the main road between the two capitals.

Occasionally, there was a smaller village along the way where they would stop to trade and take orders for future shipments.

In one such village, they stopped but found the local merchants all extremely concerned about the upcoming season.

“Our village makes money trading the vegetables it grows for rice and other staples,” one of the young men said, wringing his hands. “At the end of every season, the elders select the biggest best of the harvest to gather the seats from, and we carefully dry them and store them for the winter. But this winter was especially wet and one of our main storage areas leaked. The seeds are wet, and some of them have already started to mold. If we lose the crops, we won’t have enough money to buy food, much less anything else.”

The pale faces all around them nodded worriedly. Wei Ying knew enough about how economies had worked at this time to know that this could easily become one of the many villages in history that was completely wiped out due to famine.

“How much of the seed has already molded?” he asked, stepping forward.

The man looked at him, surprised at being addressed by such a small child.

He glanced over at Old Man Fan, but when the elderly merchant did not say anything to indicate that the question should be unanswered, the villager replied.

“Not very much, but usually by the time you see the mold, it’s too late to stop it from spreading. I’d guess we have a week at best before all the seed is gone,” he said.

Another man spoke up. “Spring isn’t the time to dry seeds. It’s too wet. Fall is for drying. There’s no stopping the mold now.”

Wei Ying clutched at the qiankun bag he carried with him inside his robes, his mind racing.

“I don’t know if I have enough talisman paper for all of the seeds, but I have enough that I should be able to save most of them,” he said.

“The boy is a cultivator?” an older villager asked, frowning and studying Wei Ying more closely than he had when he thought he was just a random child tagging along with the caravan.

Old Man Fan looked at the boy at Wei Ying sharply.

“He’s the son of a rogue cultivator that I work with. She gave me some of her talismans to sell. It’s possible the boy knows what he’s talking about.”

One of the elders of the village stepped forward.

“I’ve never heard of a talisman that could do such a thing,” he said skeptically. “We won’t pay for something we don’t even know would work. Especially not something drawn by a child. We’ll be lucky if we have enough money for food if we don’t have a harvest this season.”

Wei Ying blinked up at them in surprise.

“Oh I wasn’t gonna ask you for money,” he said quickly. “I just wanted to hel-“

A firm, gnarled hand landed on his shoulder as Old Man Fan cut him off.

“We know you wouldn’t be willing to pay for something untested. But we’ll be returning along the same route on the way back in six weeks or so. If the talismans work, you can pay us then. If not, then no harm done.”

Wei Ying opened his mouth to say he didn’t need the money later, either, but the old man tightened his grip on his shoulder and Wei Ying fell silent.

The villagers still seemed skeptical, but they didn’t have many options. The rains at this time of year were still light, but they were frequent. They had spread the seeds out to dry them, but had to keep them covered with tarps most days. Wei Ying looked at the sky, noticing the rain clouds on the horizon. There wasn’t much time to draw them out. The sun was already starting to set.

He sat down on the ground and pulled out his talisman paper, cinnabar, and a brush.

His fine motor skills were still not great, but at least they were those of a six-and-a-half year-old rather than a five-and-a-half year-old. He was able to slowly draw out the complicated talismans that would both dry the seeds and protect them from mold and other pests.

It took almost two hours, but he was able to make enough for each of the piles of seeds that they had shown him.

“I need to place these in the center of each of the seed piles. I don’t have a lot of qi, but they should work for long enough to keep them from molding before you can plant them. They should be dry within a few days, as long as you keep them out of the direct rain.”

The villagers hadn’t been sure what to make of him, but in the morning the seeds were noticeably drier and the mold hadn’t spread. They received a much warmer farewell than they had a welcome, and Wei Ying hoped that this could end up being another village he managed to help.

Old Man Fan had looked at him consideringly as they loaded up the wagons to leave. 

“You got any more ideas for things like that, kid?” he asked.

Wei Ying shrugged. “I guess so?  But I don’t have any more talisman paper with me. I left most of it with Auntie.”

“Hm,” the man said, thoughtfully. “Well. Let’s see how those seeds look when we head back.”

For most of the journey to Lanling City, the hairpin from the nu gui remained a gentle, comforting weight at the base of Wei Ying’s neck. That changed when they were three days out from Lanling City. One of the carriages had gotten a wheel stuck in the mud, and they’d lost several hours getting it unstuck. They’d had to stop and set up camp on the side of the road when the sun started to set and they hadn’t reached the inn yet. 

It was a few hours after he’d gone to sleep on his mat in Old Man Fan’s tent when Wei Ying felt the cold spike sharply on the base of his neck, waking him from his sleep.

At first, he wasn’t sure what was happening as he peaked out through the flap of the tent.

He saw a figure creeping through the camp, heading to where they had the horses tied up for the night. The man who was supposed to be keeping guard was dozing by the campfire.

Just as the figure reached for the ropes where the horses were tethered, Wei Ying let out a shout.

“Hey! What are you doing! Stay away from them!” 

The guard startled awake, his hand going to the knife at his belt as he lurched upright. The figure that had been reaching for the reins to the horses swore and jumped back, taking off through the night at a run.

Old Man Fan shuffled over to where Wei Ying was standing at the opening of their tent, laying a hand on his head.

“Good job, kid,” he said roughly. “It would’ve been a problem if we lost the horses. We didn’t take many guards with us this time because we didn’t have much to steal.”

It wasn’t that the other traders in the caravan had been unfriendly to Wei Ying before, but there was definitely a change in how they treated him the next morning. Everyone wanted to put a bit of food into his bowl as they got ready to head out.

He found himself the owner of several trinkets and a few pieces of candy, which he happily ate as they continued on the last leg of their journey.

Wei Ying did not like Lanling City.

While Caiyi was bustling, it had an energy about it that was tied to the culture of the Cloud Recesses, even if the villagers rolled their eyes at the cultivators that lived there. It had businesses and ambitious people like any town, but there was a sense of safety there, of cleanliness and order with just a hint of the ascetic disciplines of the Lan.

Lanling City was a city of excess. It felt shady and seedy, making him feel dirty despite the posh gilt veneer that covered everything. He stayed close to Old Man Fan’s side as they made their way through the market, feeling assessing eyes on him as they walked that made his skin crawl. More than one person came up to them, making a comment to the older merchant asking about the ‘pretty young boy’ he’d brought with him.

The old man had glared at them and told them Wei Ying was his godson, but Wei Ying didn’t like the lingering looks he got. The cold on the back of his neck told him that the nu gui didn’t like it, either. He hadn’t read much about human trafficking in the past, but he assumed it had existed. 

Some things never changed.

A young boy wandering around on his own would be a target in a place like Lanling. He wished that there was a way that he could meet Wen Qing at the old man’s shop in Lanling City rather than having to make his way to Wen Qing on his own, but he needed to ensure that there was no way that Wen Qing could trace him back to Old Man Fan, who was known to be based out of Gusu in the winters.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Wen Qing.

But she belonged to the clan ruled by a man who viewed the world as his for the taking, and Wei Ying did not want to draw Wen Ruohan’s attention before he was ready for it.

The easiest way for Wei Ying to get in contact with Wen Qing would have been to go and see her as a patient, but that would’ve made it difficult for them to speak privately. Wen Qing was still apprenticing and would not be allowed to treat patients on her own. But she had evenings free and knew of an area down by the river where they could speak without drawing attention, especially when Wei Ying explained that he had a privacy talisman that would allow them to talk without being overheard. 

When they met, Wen Qing looked like she had grown at least three fingers in height since they had seen each other a year ago. She put her hands on her hips and glared down at him.

“You still don’t look like you’re eating enough. I thought you said you were staying with family,” she said as she brusquely grabbed his wrist and pressed two of her fingers to his meridian.

“I am! I’ve gained a lot since we last saw each other. And I’ve been eating really well!”

She narrowed her eyes at him, looking unimpressed.

“Given how underweight you were when I met you, you haven’t put on nearly as much weight as you should have,” she said, frowning in concentration as she studied his meridians. “I’ll write you a list of foods that I want you to prioritize eating. If you can’t afford them, I can give you some money.”

“No! I don’t need any money,” Wei Ying said, feeling uncomfortable. “You’re already doing enough, helping me with my Auntie.”

Wen Qing didn’t respond for a moment as she continued to concentrate on her examination of him. Finally, she released his wrist and stepped back.

“Some of the things you told me to look into for my brother have been working. I come from a family of healers, and none of them had been able to help. My brother’s health is worth any amount of money to me,” she said, looking him in the eye with a directness that even most adults couldn’t manage. “Despite your physical condition, your core is much further along than I had expected. I had thought you might be exaggerating when you told me about your progress but, if anything, you had downplayed it.”

Wei Ying grinned.

“See? I told you I can focus when I try!” he said, laughing at how annoyed she seemed that he had made so much progress while ignoring so many of the rules that all of the clans said were core to cultivation.

It reminded him of Lan Zhan.

“I wish I could study you while you cultivate,” she said, sounding frustrated. “There has to be more to it than just sitting on a Dragon Vein. Even with the techniques that you talked to me about, this level of progress is unexpected.”

Wei Ying hesitated. 

He was grateful to her for her help. She had brought him a bundle of the rare medicinal herbs that would fully eradicate the damage of the spiritual poison from Fu Guying’s system. But she was also a member of the clan that was about to wreak havoc on the Cultivation World at a level that would still be felt a thousand years in the future. If he taught her too much about the advanced techniques and she shared it with her clan, it could mean that defending his home in the future would be that much harder.

She sighed, likely able to read the hesitation in his face and understand its source.

“You don’t have to show me the techniques. I just… I wish my brother had been able to come with me, but the elders said he was still too young. Maybe next summer they might let him come with me on one of the shorter trips to Yiling, if there’s a chance you’ll be back that way. Even the small changes you suggested have made a big difference in his ability to try to start forming the base of his golden core, but the spiritual injury that he suffered from a yao gui is making it hard. I know you don’t want to tell me where you live, but if you ever end up in Yiling, please let me know.”

Wei Ying bit his lip, wishing he could help more.

“I might be traveling more once my Auntie is recovered. One of her friends brought me to Lanling City but he doesn’t travel that far west. Especially not with the unrest that’s going on now.”

Wen Qing looked at him contemplatively for a moment.

“My uncle would be very interested in meeting with you. I know you seem to be trying to avoid the major clans, but he’s good to talented cultivators, regardless of bloodline. He wouldn’t treat you poorly just because you’re not of Wen blood.”

Wei Ying remembered a story that had survived of a cultivator who had developed the ability to melt a golden core. Wen Ruohan had taken him in and given him the Wen name, which was highly unusual. Particularly since his ancestor, Wen Mao, had been the one to prioritize bloodline over talent in the first place. The cultivator’s original name had been lost to time, but the moniker of The Core Melting Hand had been terrifying enough that it had lived on in legends, long after the Wen clan had ceased to exist.

Sometimes, Wei Ying forgot that the young girl in front of him had grown into the woman who had killed Wen Ruohan, but it had been too late to save the cultivation world, or to save Wen Qing herself. Maybe there was something he could say that could warn her without putting Fu Guiying and Lan Zhan at risk. 

“Wen Ruohan is good to the people he values,” Wei Ying agreed. “But he has them do things that I would never be willing to do.”

Wen Qing looked at him sharply, but he held her gaze steadily.

“No clan is perfect,” she said, slightly defensive.

Wei Ying nodded. He understood the importance of filial piety, especially during the era they were living in.

“I know. But the scale of it matters. There has to be a line somewhere,” he replied. “Do you know where yours is?”

Wen Qing studied him for a moment more, then glanced back over her shoulder towards the direction of Koi Tower.

“They’ll be expecting me back for dinner soon. I should go,” she said.

Wei Ying gave a small, sad smile. He really wished they could be on the same side.

“It was good to see you again, Qing-jie,” he said.

He liked her, but they both knew they had to be careful. Their friendship was dangerous. There was a reason she didn’t ask him where he was living, or the name of his ‘auntie’.

Just like he didn’t ask her what their clan’s business was in Lanling City. 

Some of the tension in her frame released as she gave a slight eye roll at his words, then turned and headed back towards Koi Tower. She did not look back at him as she left.

Later that night, when Wei Ying lay down on the bamboo pallet on the floor of Old Man Fan’s shop to sleep, the communication token from Wen Qing vibrated.

Remember to brew the tincture with boiled water that’s been left to cool for at least twenty minutes before you add the leaves, or it will be too hot and decrease the potency.

He smiled.

“Thanks, Qing-jie. I’ll let you know if I learn anything new about forming a core base that might help your brother. I have a friend who was working on his, and he’s a lot more disciplined than I am.”

After sending his reply, he settled back in to sleep. The next morning, he’d talk to Old Man Fan to find out how long he was planning to stay in town. As glad as he was to see Wen Qing, he would be relieved to be out of Lanling City. 

He wanted to go back to Fu Guiying and Lan Zhan.

Wei Ying never thought he would be so happy to see the endless stretch of stone steps that led up the mountain to the Cloud Recesses. 

While he’d enjoyed being out and traveling and interacting with people again, he had found himself missing the quiet of the Cloud Recesses and the comforting presence of Fu Guiying. He had especially found himself missing Lan Zhan. He couldn't wait to get back to see the boy and tell him everything he learned on the trip and all the things he'd seen. 

Fu Guiying had told him earlier in the week that there was a surprise for him when he returned, but she had been frustratingly tight-lipped about giving him any hints as to what it was.

Despite being exhausted from his journey and the late spring rain that had started to fall earlier that day, Wei Ying did not bother to spend the night in Caiyi Town. Instead, hurried up the steps as fast as he could. He must have grown since he’d last been there because he didn’t find the trek as difficult as he remembered it. 

He had messaged Fu Guiying to let her know that he would be arriving that evening. She had told him to be careful in the rain but had known better than to try to tell him not to come. 

He was sad that it would be too late for him to see Lan Zhan, since it would be well after dinner before he reached the Gentian House, but he consoled himself that he would be able to see Lan Zhan the next day. The weather had warmed enough that there should be no issues with meeting up at the waterfall, even if the rain continued. 

He slipped through the wards with practiced ease—his mind registering the now-familiar disapproval at how easy they were to breach—before racing through the backwoods to Fu Guiying's house. 

The rear window of her small dwelling was open and candlelight shone softly through it into the damp night air, welcoming him. 

Wei Ying pulled himself through the window with with grin, happily calling out. 

"Fu Auntie! I'm back! Did you miss me?" 

He froze midway through the window at the sight that greeted him. 

Lan Zhan was seated at Fu Guiying's low table, a cup of tea held elegantly in his hands as their eyes met. 

Wei Ying was so surprised to see him that he lost his grip and would have fallen head first into the room had Fu Guiying not already been there to catch him. 

“Lan Zhan! You're here!" Wei Ying exclaimed.

Fu Guiying chuckled at him as she helped him up and removed his cloak before it dripped all over her floor, rolling it up and setting it in the basin in the kitchen. 

“Well, someone had to keep me company while you ran off adventuring,” Fu Guiying said with a smile. 

Lan Zhan set his tea down and stood as Wei Ying toed off his boots and raced over. He barely refrained from throwing his arms around the boy and hugging him as he had done Fu Guiying. 

"Lan Zhan! You've gotten taller! No fair! How am I supposed to catch up to you if you keep growing on me?" Wei Ying said, half excited and half indignant to see how much the older boy seemed to have grown in the two months he had been gone. 

"Mm," Lan Zhan hummed in reply, a small smile on his lips.

Before Wei Ying could say anything else, the boy reached out and grabbed Wei Ying's wrist.

Almost instantly, Wei Ying could feel the trickle of icy-pure qi flowing into him. Wei Ying’s eyes flared wide in shock and happiness.

Lan Zhan had formed his golden core.

To be continued…