Who You Are

Chapter 18 - Liberate, Suppress, Obliterate, and...Resentment?

Wei Ying was sitting there bored and not even paying attention to Lan Qiren speaking up front. He took a glance at Lan Wangji and smirked. He pulled out a red paperman cut out and placed some energy in it. He then let it float over to Lan Wangji's shoulder.

"Wei Ying!" Grandmaster Lan called out.

"Here," Wuxian answered and stood up at his desk.

Lan Wangji took the red paperman as he looked at Wei Wuxian with a look that could kill. He crumpled the red paper figure and tried to calm down his annoyance and anger.

...

"You look so mad," Wei Ying pointed out, "but I find it cute when you are mad."

Lan Zhan rolled his eyes, "only you would find it cute," he said.

"I would," Wei Ying said and kissed his cheek.

...

"Seeing as you are finding my teachings a bit dull, let me ask you, what was the profession of the founder of Qinghe Nie Sect?" He began to pester Wei Wuxian with questions.

"A Butcher," Wuxian answered.

"The heraldry of the Lanling Jin Sect is a type of flower. What kind of flower and its rightful name?"

"A white peony known as Sparks Amidst Snow," Wuxian answered again.

"Who was the first in the cultivator world to focus on his clan instead of his sect?"

"The founder of Qishan Wen Sect, Wen Mao," Wuxian answered.

Qiren furrowed his brow, "Are Yao, Demons, Ghosts, and Monsters the same?"

"No, they are not. Yao are formed from non-human beings; demons are formed from living humans; ghosts are formed from dead humans; and monsters are formed from dead non human beings."

"Yao and Monsters are often hard to differentiate, tell me how to tell them apart," he continued to prod Wuxian.

"Easy," Wuxian said and pointed at a tree outside the window behind Qiren, "For example, if that tree behind you is tainted by the energy of your principle and it would cultivate into a conscious being, then cause trouble, it would be a Yao. If I took an axe and chopped it half to have half left, a dead trunk and this would cultivate into a being, then it would be a monster."

"As head disciple of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, it would seem reasonably for you to answer such questions. No need to feel proud of yourself. Let me ask you, there is an executioner with a wife and children but he has executed more than one hundred people. Now he suddenly dies in public and his body is left alone for seven days with the repressed energy of resentment he started to hunt and kill. What should be done?"

Wei Wuxian didn't answer he knew what to say but he didn't want to keep being berated by the old man.

"Don't go looking in your books! You should all know this," Lan Qiren turned to Lan Wangji," Wangji, tell him what should be done."

Lan Wangji raised from within his seat and cupped both hands into a bow, "First, liberate; Second, suppress; Third, obliterate. The initial approach is to utilize the gratitude of his relatives and grant his dying wish, setting free what he could not let go of. If this fails, suppress it. If the crimes committed were extreme and its energy of resentment does not dissipate, exterminate it completely. The cultivation world should precisely keep to this order of measure. No errors should be allowed."

"Answered with no mistakes," Lan Qiren stated proud of his nephew.

Wei Wuxian rolled his eyes, 'of course he would be proud of his nephew. Let him keep breaking his own rules. Picking on me only. Don't be to proud...that's a rule...you just broke that rule. Why is it no one calls him out? He can break his own sects rules but nobody else can? So fucking ridiculous.' Wei Ying thought. He was super annoyed, 'and of course, Lan Wangji would love to berate me or anyone stupid if he got the chance.'