Wen Qing shepherded Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian into the apartment she shared with Popo and Uncle Four. Wei Wuxian hadn't spoken a single word the entire trip to their home, his face pale and eyes slightly unfocused. Classic symptoms of dissociation, common after being triggered the memory of a recent trauma.
Putting a name to it didn't keep the anger from simmering inside her. As bad as she had imagined the hunt had been, Wen Ning's reaction made her think it had likely been even worse. She hoped that getting him out of the hospital environment would help him.
When they arrived at the apartment she shared with her family, it only took one look at Popo's face and the steel glint in her eyes told her that Popo had seen the video that Wen Ning had found. Popo walked up to Wei Wuxian and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.
It took a moment for Wei Wuxian to respond, but then he wrapped his arms around Popo, hugging her back tightly. His tall frame was bent low as he rested his head on the old woman's shoulder. Everyone ignored the wet, shuddering breaths they could hear coming from him.
"It's all right now, A-Ying. It's over. You're safe," Wen Popo said.
Wei Wuxian's entire body quaked at the words. Wen Qing wondered how long it had been since the man had had words of comfort spoken to him. Based on where he'd come from, she couldn't imagine it was recent. Uncle Four looked over at them, his eyes hard. He had seen the condition Wei Wuxian had been in when they'd taken him from Lotus Cove.
"That's right. They've got no influence here. Anyone comes lookin' for you, we'll make sure they regret it," Uncle Four said gruffly. "We might be outsiders here, but that doesn't mean we don't have connections."
Wei Wuxian lifted his head, his eyes red and almost confused as he looked at the older man.
"It's fine. You don't need to—" Wei Wuxian began, his voice choked.
Uncle Four cut him off. "No one needs to . You didn't need to work with A-Ning or let him stay at your place when he had a spell. You didn't need to offer to help build our Yuan-er's core. We are all making our own choices here. You made yours, and we made ours."
Wei Wuxian's eyes were wide and glassy as he looked at Uncle Four, completely at a loss for words.
The sound of small, running feet approached, breaking the moment.
"Dancing gege!" A-Yuan called out happily, racing up to put his arms around Wei Wuxian's legs, oblivious of the heaviness in the room. "Did you come to visit my house?"
Wei Wuxian blinked rapidly, visibly getting ahold of himself as he crouched down with a smile to talk to A-Yuan.
"Hey, Yuan-er! Yeah, your Qing-JieJie invited me over."
Wen Yuan beamed up at him. "Can we go to the park?"
Wen Qing looked over at Popo, meeting her gaze. They needed to talk about what was on the video, and Wei Wuxian was not in a headspace that he would be able to handle that conversation. And it certainly wasn't something that A-Yuan needed to hear.
She was a little hesitant to let Wei Wuxian out of her sight, given his current mental state, but being in the sun and playing with A-Yuan might be the best thing for him.
"A-Yuan. Why don't you take A-Ying to the park. He's a little bit tired today so he won't be able to do the exercises with you. But you can show him flowers you were telling me about this morning," Wen Popo said, having evidently come to the same conclusion.
Wei Wuxian looked over at them, unsure if he should take the out they were giving him, or if he would be needed there.
"We'll handle things here," Wen Qing said.
"You can't… don't tell anyone else, ok?" Wei Wuxian said.
Wen Ning stiffened, but Wen Popo spoke before he could say anything. "All we're going to do while you're out is talk. No one's going to send anything anywhere without discussing it with you first."
She didn't agree to not tell anyone else at a later time, which the strained look on Wei Wuxian's face said he had clocked, but he nodded.
"Ok, Yuan-er. Why don't you show me the path you've been taking to come see me when I was in the park."
Wen Yuan glanced sheepishly at Popo, who shooed him to the door with Wei Wuxian. She handed him a small bag that had some juice boxes and snacks.
Wen Qing looked at Wei Wuxian. "I want you each to drink one of these when you get to the park before you do anything else. Text us if you start to feel unwell or need to lie down.."
The sugar would help, and she gave Wei Wuxian had hard look to make sure he understood that her words were not simply a suggestion. He might have hesitated more, but A-Yuan was already dragging him by the hand towards the door.
When the door closed behind them, all eyes shifted to Wen Ning.
"Jiejie," Wen Ning said, his voice still carrying the emotion from earlier, but firmer now. Determined. "They can't get away with this. They… she…"
"I know what they did," Wen Qing said. "I was the one Uncle sent."
Her brother's eyes looked at her, full of anguish.
"I saw the video. Of you, and… Madam Yu. Talking about the core surgery. Did you do it? You really did what she asked?"
Wen Qing stomped down at the guilt that she felt when she saw the remnants of what used to be an amazingly powerful core in Wei Wuxian's body. He would have been killed outright if she had refused. And if anyone else had performed the surgery, he wouldn't have the base that he had now to build from. Even if another medical cultivator had been brave enough to go against Madam Yu's orders, they would not have had the skill.
But she could not say any of that to her brother, due to the contract she had signed.
"There is a nondisclosure agreement," Wen Qing said. "The consequences of breaking it would hurt Wei Wuxian far more than they would me."
Wen Ning looked at her, heartbroken, and Wen Qing found she couldn't bear to have him think the worst of her.
"He is healing. If you heard the whole conversation, then you know why," Wen Qing said tightly. The argument she'd had with Madam Yu where the woman had been insisting that every piece of Wei Wuxian's core be removed, regardless of whether Jiang Wanyin's body could accept it was carved in her mind. If she had done as Madam Yu had ordered, Wei Wuxian would have had no chance of rebuilding his core.
Wen Ning seemed to understand after a moment, but his fists were still clenched at his sides, his face full of helpless anguish.
"She can't get away with it. It isn't right, w-what she did," Wen Ning said.
"The autonomy of the registered sects is absolute," Popo said, though she didn't look happy about it. "Once someone belongs officially to a sect, the sect can control everything about how they are paid, the work they do, the medical care they receive, and how they are punished. Anything that happened to Wei Wuxian while part of the Jiang Sect is allowed, no matter how unfair it is. It's been this way for over a thousand years."
"But if people knew how the Jiang treat their disciples, no one would send their kids there to train. They wouldn't be able to recruit new members," Uncle Four said. "And I'll bet that the disciples there don't know what happened to Wei Wuxian. Not all of it, anyway. They saw the whipping, but I'll bet they don't know what happened after. The kid who snuck out to see him before we drove off sure didn't."
"There is an NDA," Wen Qing reiterated.
"A-Qing. Show me the contract," Wen Popo said. "I'm assuming Wen Ruohan had the full team on it, so I'm guessing it's well constructed in our favor. But let's see just how tight of a box they managed to put A-Ying in."
Wen Qing went to her room and brought the contract out.
"What is on the video, besides my conversation with Madam Yu?" Wen Qing asked.
"The night hunt where Sect Leader Jiang died," Wen Ning said. "The c-camera is designed to store the video to the local memory when it's out of transmission range. It's used on night hunts that go into remote regions, or in caves or mountains. The video also has t-the… the trip back. And Wei Laoshi being w-whipped. The battery d-died on the camera before the surgery."
Wen Qing was glad that her brother hadn't had to witness that. But the night hunt was something she had been curious about. And the fried sensor in her lab had made her even more so.
"I want to see the night hunt."
Wen Popo nodded. "You watch that video, and I'll read this contract."
Wen Ning had queued up the video on his desktop computer. She turned up the volume so she could hear the audio. She advanced the feed until it showed the late Sect Leader Jiang and Jiang Wanyin separating from the group to approach the gorge.
She hadn't watched live night-hunt footage before, since her role as a doctor didn't create a need for her to do so. She didn't realize that the modern cameras also recorded the vitals of the cultivator. Wei Wuxian's heartbeat came through, a slow steady thud… thud… thud.
The small tracker at the bottom of the screen showed his pulse rate at 56 bpm, normal for someone who trained as much as Wei Wuxian obviously did. From what she could see from the video, the hunt appeared to be going well, at first, but Wei Wuxian's heartbeat suddenly spiked while everyone else still seemed to be fairly relaxed.
thud, thud, thud
She couldn't tell what he had sensed, but he took off at a dead sprint, racing towards the ravine. That's when Wen Qing saw the second yao. And then another. And another.
Sect Leader Fengmian was already down, and Jiang Wanyin followed shortly after. The camera was mounted on Wei Wuxian's chest, jostling with each step he took, jerking from each slash of his sword. His blade moved so fast it blurred, but there were too many.
Thudthudthud
His pulse was well over 200, and Wen Qing could feel her own adrenaline kicking in, even though she knew that Wei Wuxian had survived. There were too many. His swordsmanship was skilled, but he would not last much longer.
Then he cut his hand on his sword, and appeared to write something on his chest, though the camera was pointed outward, so she couldn't tell for sure. Wen Qing wished she could see what it was, but suddenly the air around him erupted into a ring of fire. She had never seen anything like it. The yao who were closest to him went up in flames, but more were still coming. The flames weren't large enough.
He wasn't going to make it.
The sounds of the hiss of the fire, the scream of the demons, and Wei Wuxian's rapid pulse and gasping breath filled the room. And then suddenly, everything changed. Wei Wuxian's pulse abruptly slowed, dropping down 50, then dipping even lower. 46… 43…
Thud… … … thud… … … thud…
The sound of his breathing was also slowing. What was happening to Wei Wuxian's body, that his heart rate was dropping so low? Was his metabolism dropping as well? In the back of her mind, she was already making a list of the new tests she would run, and the biometric monitoring device she was going to request for him.
The flames grew larger, taking out yao after yao. Wen Qing felt a prickle of fear at the same time she felt a rush of intellectual curiosity about how it could work. There was no way the energy of those flames was coming from a single cultivator's core, no matter how powerful he was. The camera recorded inputs outside of the visible range, so Wen Qing could tell the moment that the energy that had been feeding the flame shield that had encircled Wei Ying shifted from the usual spiritual energy to something denser. Darker.
The same energy that had fried the sensor in her lab.
Wen Qing had thought her anger towards the Jiang could not get worse, but after watching the video up to the part where the Jiang sect heir had tried to choke Wei Wuxian out after he had saved his life, she realized she had been mistaken. The fact that Popo's expression was grim did not mean she had good news about the contract.
"Since Wei Wuxian still belonged to the Jiang at the time the contract was drafted and signed, he's tied to all the terms fully. Anything he does that causes the truth of the night hunt or his core to be revealed will mean they can revoke his pardon for their claim of causing the death of Sect Leader Jiang."
"I didn't s-sign it," Wen Ning said. "No one will need to say anything, if we release the video."
Wen Qing sighed. "That video clearly came from Wei Wuxian's camera, based on the perspective of the video stream. Him giving you the video would break his part of the NDA."
Wen Ning looked at her, then at Popo. "But he didn't know it was on the camera. He thought the camera was broken."
Popo clicked her tongue. "They won't believe that. The Jiang will claim he stole the camera then had the video released. The word of an established sect will be weighted over the word of an expelled rogue cultivator. They'll likely claim the video was doctored."
"But it wasn't!" Wen Ning said. "The video could be analyzed and—"
Popo gave him a tired smile. "The Council won't bother. They have never been very tech savvy. They will believe their own."
Wen Ning had an expression on his face that Wen Qing could not read.
"So the problem is that the evidence we had is coming from Wei Laoshi's camera. But all the Jiang disciples on that hunt were wearing body cams. If those streams were released, then it wouldn't violate the NDA?"
Wen Qing narrowed her eyes at her little brother. She did not like the direction it seemed his thoughts were taking.
"They've probably deleted everything from those cameras," Uncle Four said. "At the very least they'd have the footage locked down. It'll never see the light of day."
"They already posted some of the footage from the night hunt," Wen Ning said.
Popo's eyes sharpened. "They did what?"
Wen Ning told them about the submission of the night hunt as a candidate for the 'Most Challenging Kill' award.
"If they're releasing false information about the hunt, it opens the door for someone to challenge it. The NDA was binding on all parties. Not just Wei Wuxian," Wen Popo said.
"Why would they release some of the footage, then?" Uncle Four asked.
"It was a high profile night hunt," Wen Ning said. "The civilian authorities had called them in. It was in the news."
"So they had to release something," Wen Popo said thoughtfully. "But they didn't want to have A-Ying mentioned, or everyone would wonder where he went. And when they found him without a core, when he'd clearly had his at the end of the night hunt, it wouldn't be hard for people to put two and two together."
"The Cultivation Council asked for additional footage, since it only showed a small part of the hunt. They claimed the footage was damaged in the hunt," Wen Ning said.
"Who did they credit for the kill?" Wen Popo asked.
"Jiang W-Wanyin and Sect Leader Jiang," Wen Ning said.
Wen Qing's lips compressed to keep the words she was thinking trapped inside. Uncle Four had no such compunction.
" Fuck them."
Wen Popo hummed thoughtfully. "They've opened the door on anything pertaining to the hunt. The rest of the video is still out-of-bounds, for now. But the hunt is potentially fair game. Especially since the Cultivation Council has asked for additional footage. The Jiang are the ones who made it public."
Wen Ning still had that slightly unreadable expression on his face that made Wen Qing's skin itch. Her little brother had always been an open book to her, and she found it disconcerting that she could not tell what he was thinking.
"I'll look into it a bit and see how risky it would be for us to come forward with the requested footage from a legal perspective," Wen Popo said. "The voting on the award isn't for a few months, so there's no rush. If the Jiang got their hands on A-Ying again, it's clear what Madam Yu would do, and she's still the acting sect leader while her son is recovering. In the meantime, I'm going to file these patents and get them registered with the Cultivation Council. The more established A-Ying is, the harder it will be for them to lay claim to anything he does."
"It might actually be good that we're only submitting a few at a time," Wen Qing said. "If he'd submitted all 100 at once, it would be easier for the Jiang to claim he had developed them while part of their sect and therefore they belong to him, even with the documentation that his shidis gave him. Having 5-6 at a time will make it appear they were made after he was expelled."
"Alright. Let's call that boy and little A-Yuan back. I'm going to get these submitted today, and A-Qing probably needs to head back to work," Wen Popo said. "While you're there, find out who in administration is the one we need to talk to about a contract for the food preservation talisman. Even if they only need a few of them, or some plates inscribed, it will bring in a bit of income for him. We can try some of the food stall carts and restaurants that do a lot of take out as well."
"I can get the numbers of the bigger restaurants," Wen Ning said.
Wen Qing felt some of the tension in her stomach ease at his words. Maybe if he had something to focus on, he wouldn't take any big risks without discussing it with her first.
"Good. And you can also help Wei Wuxian get his channel set up. If he's going to make money off the talismans, he needs some way for people to find them," Wen Qing said. Maybe if she gave him more concrete things to do, he wouldn't do something… else.
Wen Ning perked up, and nodded at her. "Ok. I spent some time looking at it before. I'll get some things pulled up to talk with Wei Laoshi about when he comes back."
"Let him rest if he needs it," Popo said sternly. "He looked white as a sheet when he got here. Let's hope A-Yuan was able to get some color back in those cheeks."
Wen Ning nodded again, and headed off to the small work station they had set up for him in his bedroom. Wen Qing watched him for a moment, wondering if she should say something more, but then her work phone went off. She was needed back at the hospital for a new patient that had just been brought in. She would keep an eye on him, and hope that he would talk to her before doing anything that could get him in trouble.
"Is Xian-gege sad?" A-Yuan asked as they reached the park.
Wei Wuxian had been trying his best to keep up a steady flow of commentary as they'd walked hand-in-hand along the way, and he felt bad that A-Yuan had noticed something was off. It wasn't the job of a child to comfort an adult.
"I'm ok," Wei Wuxian said, ruffling Wen Yuan's hair. "Just silly grown-up stuff."
Wen Yuan frowned. "It's ok to be sad sometimes. Popo says it's good to let the feelings out when they happen."
Wei Wuxian smiled, though he wondered at the things that made Wen Yuan sad. His parents were clearly not in the picture, but Wei Wuxian hadn't felt it was his place to ask about it. There were some street vendors set up across the way. The one closest to them had baskets of produce, likely from a local farm.
"That's true. I was feeling sad earlier about something bad that happened a while ago, but I'm ok now. Especially being outside with a little radish on such a nice day!"
"I'm not a radish!" A-Yuan shouted, laughing just as Wei Wuxian had hoped.
"I don't know. You look like one to me. Should we go get you some brothers and sisters from that cart over there? And Qing-jie said she had packed snacks. Are you the snacks?" He pulled Wen Yuan into his arms, pretending to eat his tummy.
The boy shrieked with laughter, then squirmed away. "You have to catch me, Xian-gege!"
Wei Wuxian pretended to chase Wen Yuan around in the small park, earning some annoyed looks and gentle smiles from passersby. After a while, Wei Wuxian sprawled out on a patch of soft grass, claiming defeat.
"This radish is so fast! I need to find vegetables that are easier to catch!"
The warm, mid-morning sun made the green of the leaves almost glow where they fluttered in the gentle breeze. Wei Wuxian did feel better, and he let his eyes drift closed for a moment.
He opened them when he felt small hands touching his hair. He looked up to find Wen Yuan placing some small flowers he had picked into his messy ponytail.
"Ning-gege sometimes braids them into my hair, but I don't know how," Wen Yuan said. "Here is the juice Popo gave us. One for you and one for me!"
Wei Wuxian sat up, careful to not disturb the flowers in his hair as he took the juice boxes. He opened Wen Yuan's, then his own, and they sipped their juice together on the soft grass. The sugar did help settle his system, somehow.
"What's this?" Wen Yuan asked, brushing his fingers along the thin, red bracelet tied around Wei Wuxian's wrist.
"A present from another, slightly bigger radish that I used to teach," Wei Wuxian said, feeling a pang of sadness at the thought that he might not get to see his sixth shidi again.
He tried not to think too much about the shidis and shimeis that he had left behind in Lotus Cove. But the bracelet that Sixth Shidi had given him was something he would keep.
"I will make Xian-gege one, too!" A-Yuan said.
Wei Wuxian smiled. Wen Yuan was such a good boy, it broke his heart sometimes. "You already gave me flowers."
Wen Yuan seemed satisfied with this, and grabbed Wei Wuxian's hand to take him over to where more of the flowers were growing.
Wei Wuxian hardly noticed the time passing until he got a text from Popo that he and A-Yuan should come back for lunch. He felt his stomach twist a bit, not feeling ready to talk about the video.
But when he got back to the Wen apartment, no one mentioned it at all. Wen Qing had already left for the hospital, and Wen Ning and Popo were busy on their computers. They ate together, then Wen Popo asked Wei Wuxian to help put Wen Yuan down for a nap.
He ended up falling asleep next to the boy, the sounds of people moving around in the other rooms so much more comforting than the sterile silence of his own small apartment.
Lan Wangji entered his login information on the Cultivation Council portal. Each of the major sects was granted three access seats (which allowed the specific user to see Council information that was not fully public, and—more importantly for most sects—to cast a vote on behalf of their sect on key decisions), and each minor sect was given one. Shufu used his access regularly, though Brother did not, unless there was a matter before the council where his vote was required.
Lan Wangji usually checked monthly, as the cultivation world did not change at a rapid pace. The fact that he had been logging in every other day to check the list of recent certifications or applications for mastery tests was therefore unusual, but no one other than himself would ever know about it, so there was no need to justify it. Unfortunately, there also appeared to be no purpose for it, because the list remained unchanged from the last three times he had checked it. He had already checked the list of existing talismans masters, but Wei Ying (or any Wei at all) had not been on it.
Wei Ying's comment on the fee for taking the mastery assessment had stuck with him. He had looked into it, and had been surprised at how high it was. It wasn't something he had ever thought about before, given his sect paid for any of its disciples who wanted to attempt such an accomplishment.
Lan Wangji still found it unprofessional that Wei Ying had shown up asking to be interviewed for a job that he had spent no time preparing his application for. But. The man had had a point about the fee for gaining certification being a barrier that excluded candidates based on financial reasons rather than cultivation skill. He had raised the issue to his uncle, who had at first blustered that the fee was there for preventing cultivators who were not serious about it from wasting everyone's time with endless attempts.
Lan Wangji had let his uncle rant for a bit until he had said his piece, and then he had mentioned that the fee was also preventing self-taught scholars from getting credit for their knowledge. Lan Qiren had grumbled, but had looked thoughtful. He had said that—if Wei Ying were to request it—they could help him cover the fee. Lan Wangji did not think that was the point, but he knew his uncle would need time to reflect further upon the issue.
In the meantime, Lan Wangji had taken to checking the Cultivation Council databases for any activity on talisman experts, including checking the attendee list for the upcoming Cultivation Conference that MolingSu was hosting in three weeks on musical cultivation. The fact that the sect was claiming to be expert enough to host such a topic had enraged the Lan elders, and Lan Wangji had been hopeful that they would boycott.
Unfortunately, what they had decided to do instead was to send Lan Wangji as a physical representation of their disdain. He was more than a little bit bitter about it, not just because he loathed conferences (and social interaction) in general, but because any conference hosted by MolingSu meant that Lan Wangji would have to actually greet Su Minshan, which he typically tried to avoid at all costs. Protocol was very clear on the point that one may not ignore the sect leader of the hosting clan at such events, even when the sect was MolingSu.
It was going to be incredibly tedious.
It would have been marginally less tedious if Wei Ying had been on the registered guest list.
He forcibly did not allow himself to think about his first meeting with Wei Ying. The fact that there would be alcohol at the conference and the inevitable consorting in the evenings that many cultivators seemed to wish to indulge in was irrelevant. If he did encounter Wei Ying, it would be to offer him a chance to interview for the position he had expressed interest in. It would not be to discuss other… previous offers.
Firmly closing the door on that school of thought, Lan Wangji navigated over to the online talisman registry. Some of the ideas that Wei Ying had mentioned in his exam were truly revolutionary, yet the man had written about them as though they were common knowledge. Lan Wangji was exceptionally well-studied, and it irritated him to have such a gap in his knowledge. He was not a talisman expert himself, but he had read extensively on all forms of cultivation.
When he pulled up the list, he noticed that five new talismans had been registered and submitted for patenting the day before. All five of them were listed under an unaffiliated cultivator named Wei Wuxian.
Lan Wangji immediately clicked on the first talisman design to see if there was any other information about the creator, but all it had was his name.
It was extremely likely that Wuxian was Wei Ying's courtesy name, though it could also be a relative. Somehow, Lan Wangji didn't think so. Perhaps Wei Ying was establishing his credentials in the hopes of reapplying for the position when he had more than just his assessment results to demonstrate his skills.
Lan Wangji pulled up the list of new patents and began to read their descriptions. The first described a talisman that could be used as a lure to attract resentful spirits or creatures. The implications that such an invention could have on the nature of night hunting was… revolutionary.
By the time he had finished reading them, he was more than satisfied that—the next time Wei Ying came to apply for the guest lecture position—he would definitely receive an interview, and likely an immediate offer.
Since no one was talking to Wei Wuxian about the video, Wei Wuxian decided to pretend it didn't exist. The fact that Wen Qing now had him wearing some sort of high-end heart monitor taped to his chest and an energy sensor band wrapped around his bicep belied that line of thinking, but Wei Wuxian was more than happy to ignore such things if it meant he didn't have to think about the video.
He knew that something had happened during his final night hunt with the Jiang, but the memory was hazy, and generally preferred to keep it that way. He had other things to focus on, like how to get his talisman business off the ground.
Wen Ning had been tired lately, not coming into Wen Qing's lab and spending most of his time resting in his room with the door closed. Ever since Wen Qing had brought him back that first day, he'd been heading over to the Wen apartment after his morning checkups, at Wen Popo's insistence. Wen Ning would briefly come out of his room, looking exhausted. They'd have lunch together, but then Wen Ning would go back to his room.
Wei Wuxian was worried about him.
It made him even more determined to make the business successful, since Wen Ning had spent so much time testing the food preservation talisman. With the talismans now registered, he needed to get his channel up and running. From the links Wen Ning had sent him of the successful channels, there were some clear rules he needed to follow:
1 - The thumbnail had to make people want to click on it. That meant either showing shock, disgust, or sex appeal, in general.
2 - The videos needed to mix up the pace, but avoid 'dead air' time. Night hunts were perfect, because there was a natural build of suspense before the creature attacked or was spotted. He wasn't sure he was up for a night hunt yet, so he had to figure out a way to do this some other way.
3 - The most successful channels had a recognizable look and feel for the visuals, starting with whoever the creator was. This was where Wei Wuxian was currently focusing his efforts. He needed a look that would draw attention, since he wasn't going to have funding from a sect to boost him. If he leaned too hard into the sex look, he might not be taken seriously as a cultivator. But if he leaned too hard into the traditional cultivator look, he would never stand out because he simply didn't have the money to compete on those terms.
He knew that he was considered good looking, so that would help. He just needed to find a way to get people to click on his channel. He needed a hook.
He had met with Xiao XingChen, and he had given Wei Wuxian some practical tips on how to fight without a core, especially around what kind of gear he would need. Arm guards were a must, and not just ones for show. A lot of night hunts involved hand-to-hand, or at least occasionally blocking an attack with a forearm, if there were multiple attackers. With his old golden core, Wei Wuxian had been easily able to not just heal minor cuts, but also send his qi to his forearm to reinforce his bones to keep them from breaking.
That wasn't something he could do anymore.
So he'd need a pair of thick leather arm guards. He'd also need a sturdy pair of combat boots, to keep from getting taken out from something embarrassing like a twisted ankle from a fallen log in the woods at night.
Then there was the fact that he'd have to pay a lot more attention to the weather than he had before. The heat and the cold didn't really matter much when you had a large golden core to regulate your body, but without it, he'd have to worry about things like heat exhaustion in the summer and hypothermia in the winter. Or just catching a cold from being out in the rain.
It turned out that being coreless was a huge pain in the ass, and Wei Wuxian wondered how civilians managed to live past the age of twenty.
Luckily, summer was just starting, so he'd purchase summer gear for now and hope he'd made enough money to get warmer clothing when the weather turned colder. The problem was, he had no idea what to actually buy, and not a lot of money to work with. Wen Qing had heard back from the hospital that they were willing to try out his talismans, but they weren't going to have him create more than thirty until they saw how the patients felt about it.
So he had some money, but not a lot. To add even more time pressure, Wen Qing told him that there was going to be a small cultivation conference hosted by MolingSu in just a couple of weeks.
"It's invitation-only, which is ridiculous because they're one of the smallest sects. Usually only the big five do invitation-only. If you want to get an invitation, you either have to belong to one of the larger sects or pay a hefty fee. But the smaller sects don't have that much of a draw, so they tend to take whoever will come. At the last conference they hosted, almost half the seats were empty. I doubt it will be any better this time. I think they only reason anyone is going at all is to see if the Lan bother to send anyone to a conference on musical cultivation that a sect other than GusuLan dared to host."
Wei Wuxian was definitely not on the invite list, but he decided he would go and hang out in the hotel in town to see if he could sell any of his talismans there. According to Wen Qing, most of the cultivators who needed to go would likely escape for a drink at the local bar at some point.
He also wouldn't mind seeing Lan Wangji show up and be pissed at someone who wasn't Wei Wuxian for once, though it sounded like most people thought the Lan were going to take a pass on going at all.
Either way, it would be a good chance for Wei Wuxian to try to make a few contacts in the non-Jiang cultivation world. Madam Yu had never bothered with the smaller cultivation conferences before, so he didn't have to worry about running into anyone from his old sect.
He had a deadline and a rough plan. Now he just needed to look the part. The problem was he didn't really know what look to go for. Luckily, there were channels for everything online, and he found some who gave fashion advice. Most of it was irrelevant, but there was one cosplay supply site that Wei Wuxian found interesting. It was called JustAFan(butNotOnlyFans). It had an extensive collection of fans, but also some pretty creative interpretations of cultivator robes for cosplay.
The costumes were a little more expensive than the other cultivator cosplay sites, but the fabric looked like it wouldn't fall apart on the first flip kick. Being cheap didn't matter if they only lasted for one use, so he thought the price was probably worth it. And they were still way less expensive than real cultivator gear.
And the costumes actually looked pretty cool.
The problem was that they didn't have any rogue cultivator outfits. It made sense, since most of the civilian focus was on cosplaying high profile cultivators, and those all came from established sects. No point in cosplaying someone no one knew about.
Wei Wuxian saw a note on the side of the screen saying the company accepted requests for custom outfits, though it didn't say how much they were. To get a quote, it asked for a description on what was wanted, and the measurements of the person who would wear it. Wei Wuxian had to borrow Popo's tape measurer to get the information, and wasn't entirely sure he'd gotten it right. The site had asked for a lot of measurements. Height, inseam, across the shoulders, arm length, wrist, hips, and waist.
He entered his measurements, then wrote out a quick description of what he wanted.
I'm looking for a rogue cultivator outfit (NOT 'unaffiliated'... I want to go full "rogue cultivator" vibe), but am new to this and am not sure of the specifics. Mostly black, for practicality, but red is a good color on me so I guess black and red? And something that will hold up for parkour-like activity levels. And can get wet. I'm starting a new channel on rogue cultivation and want something eye-catching, but also actually functional.
Watching the civilian channels had introduced Wei Wuxian to the concept of parkour, and he had decided that was the best civilian equivalent to what a night hunt would be like. Minus the claws and blades.
He typed in the measurements and hit 'send'. He had no idea how long it would take to hear back, or if anyone would even respond. He had no idea how many messages they got a day.
It was a few hours later when he saw a notification on his phone that he'd gotten a response from the seller:
If you give me your REAL measurements, I can give you a few quotes. FYI, I'm a costume designer, not a miracle-worker. If you're hoping some clothes are going to make you look like you have these measurements, you're wasting both our time.
Wei Wuxian felt his face heat. Had he taken the measurements wrong? He would have to borrow Popo's tape measurer again the next day and do them over.
Sorry. I've never done measurements before. I'll be able to re-measure them tomorrow.
Except when he took them again, he got the same thing. He considered not sending them, but he really did need to get his channel started. He typed out another message.
Hey, I measured again and I got the same thing. Can you just use these and let me know what you could make?
The response this time was much faster.
Send me a picture of you from the side and from the front in some form-fitting clothes. Stand next to a regular dining room chair for scale. You don't have to show your face, but I'm not going to make something that won't fit and then have you leave a negative review..
Wei Wuxian figured that—since he was about to put his face online anyway—it really didn't matter if the guy saw his face or not. He changed into the tightest pair of jeans he had (they were a little short, from one of his younger shidis ) and the red cheongsam blouse. It was sleeveless, so it would also show his shoulders and arms. It also would hopefully let the guy know that Wei Wuxian was comfortable thinking outside the box for his costume.
He kept his hair up in its messy bun, since he usually wore it up while he was hunting. He didn't have a dining room chair, so he stood next to the stool at his small kitchen counter, and used the timer to take 2 photos as instructed.
Sorry. This is the only chair I have. Does this work?
It was less than a minute later that he received his reply.
What the fuck?!? YES, I will design a costume for you. If you tell people on your channel that you bought it from me, I'll give you a discount.
Wei Wuxian nearly wrote back to tell the guy that he didn't have a single follower yet, so advertising on his site was not really worth a whole lot. Maybe the guy had missed the part where Wei Wuxian had said he was launching a channel? But he heard Popo's voice in his head telling him to just go with it, so he agreed.
Hopefully, by the time the MolingSu cultivation conference came, he'd have something to wear.