Fluffy WangXian Oneshots Book Two

Come Back To Gusu With Me Part 29

A week has passed since since Wei Ying and Lan Zhan were married, and life is good. A-Yuan lives with them now, though he still spends a lot of time with Wen Popo and Ning Shushu. Wei Ying has been welcomed into the Lan Clan with proverbial open arms (since he suspects no one does any actual hugging in the Cloud Recesses except for Lan Zhan and himself), and so he teaches a class every day. His favourite is the little Lan babies, and he suffers from cute aggression every time they bow to him.

They're so polite and well-behaved and eager to learn. Wei Ying has shared with the Lans how he managed to develop his core so fast, especially while in its early stages when he lived in Yunmeng. There has been a marked improvement in all the children, and the elders have had to concede that Wei Ying is truly a genius among his peers. He doesn't really care, but it's been Lan Zhan who has pushed for his recognition in the breakthrough theories and inventions Wei Ying has created.

Wei Ying is a little bit worried, though. He can't really bring it up again with Lan Zhan because they've already discussed Lan Zhan's lack of immortality. Every time they dual cultivate, Wei Ying makes sure to send a surge of his own spiritual energy through to his husband, and beyond asking if Lan Zhan had fun, (a roundabout way of asking him if he noticed anything different), he can't explicitly ask him again. He doesn't know if it's a sensitive subject for him, and if Lan Zhan has noticed all the little details, he hasn't said anything, either.

Thinking about immortality makes Wei Ying a little melancholic.

It was never a goal for him or a target to be reached, and obtaining it was an accident in the truest form. It was always a mythical thing, like dragons and huli jings, something talked about as far away from their reality as possible. He used to wonder about Baoshan Sanren, the Celestial Immortal hiding away on her mountain. He thought at first that she had chosen a coward's way of dealing with her gift. If she truly was Immortal, then why wasn't she out here in the Cultivation World, helping out? Surely she was more qualified than anybody else to fight the monsters, demons, and ghosts that the other, ordinary cultivators kept at bay?

But he changed his mind upon being fully acquainted with the other clans and realised that nobody in their right minds would want to get involved with them. The petty in-fighting, the useless speeches, and getting in the way of real progress was enough to deter the sanest of people.

Another aspect of immortality made itself clear to him one day, chewing on a dry stalk of wheat and lying on the boats he and his shidis would take out across the lake.

Wouldn't it be a lonely existence?

Full of pain because others would live their lives to the fullest, only to die before your eyes. Not just once, either, but time and time again. No wonder Baoshan Sanren forbade the return of those who left her mountain. Maybe she had devised something to keep her disciples living for longer if they stayed, or who knows? What if she gave them a way to reach her position, thus ensuring their companionship forever?

Now, Wei Ying thinks about that hot afternoon and his seemingly rambling thoughts that felt like the musings of an idle soul. He never once thought that they would turn out to be relevant to himself. Thinking about the years stretching ahead of them, Wei Ying knows without a doubt that he never wants to see anything bad happening to Lan Zhan. Forget being stabbed by a sword, Wei Ying can't even stand the thought of a scratch on his wonderful husband's body. His mind shies away from thinking about something worse happening to Lan Zhan, and that's why he's stressed about it.

But actually being an Immortal, a state that is extremely revered in the Cultivation World as the ultimate goal has its own benefits, too, especially if one is married to a person who fights on your behalf.