Mdzs Novel - Tumblr Posts

Can we take a moment to appreciate that Lan An's(the founder of the lan clan) cultivation partner's gender is never actually specified?

Chinese bronze sword with turquoise studded, gold inlaid rock crystal hilt, Warring States Period, 4th-2nd century BC

from Cardale Auctioneers

The Guanyin temple confession is maybe my favorite scene of any piece of media I've ever consumed because it's so unpredictable.

You got the villain just halting his evil plot, full stop, in the middle of his gloating speech, no less, because "What do you MEAN you guys aren't even together?! What?! No, no, no, there won't be any romantic misunderstanding in my hostage situation! Honey, tell him!"

And then the calmest, most polite character alive procceeds to go his version of apeshit on this punk like "my brother like-likes you, you fucking pinecone! You useless twink! We all thought you were a hoe but you are just an imbecile!" (Which is a nice parallel to the Jiang brothers' hatred for the peacock, but I digress)

And THEN, when it's the perfect moment for a climatic love confession, homeboy goes and screams for everyone to hear that he... really wanted that dick, Hanguang-jun! Where's love? Who cares? WWX wants to ride you like a carnival ride: sticky and filthy and multiple times.

It's a wonder that Xichen didn't yank that string from Jing GuangYao to strangle WWX himself.

This has been my favorite addition, I cackled like a seal irl lol

If I see the ridiculous argument that WWX was bad for not giving JC a choice in the golden core transfer I'm just going to round everyone up and force them to read the novel properly - curing you of your stupidity, clockwork orange style.

JC consented to receiving a new golden core...

There are two ways in which he may have consented, depending on which way you want to believe JC acted, but he very much gave consent either way.

So WWX tells JC he knows where Baoshan Sanren is... You think JC is that DUMB he believes this?! You think the fact WWX knew he had a lifeline the whole time he was starving and fighting for his life on the street, he never once thought - I know, I'll go see Baoshan Sanren, she'll look after me. Or the whole time he was being treated like a lowly servant and whipped for the most insignificant of reasons?! Give me a break!!!

JC either knew this was a total lie and did not ask questions, because he wanted a golden core and he did not want to consider how, who or why. This was consent. WWX fed him a story that was obviously a lie and JC did not point this out - he just took it, because he was desperate to have power once more. He did not give a 💩 where it came from or any real details. THAT'S CONSENT.

And if you think that JC is stupid enough to believe the glaringly obvious lie, then he still consented in taking something from WWX either way. How? Hmmm well JC took the only thing WWXs mother ever left him, her own son, to use if he should need it. He took it with a second thought, without any hesitation for taking something so precious and poignant to WWX. Something that was not his to take. He took it without any humility or grace, without a single word of thanks to WWX. He posed as the very boy his vile mother abused, he posed as the son of the very woman his jealous mother hated - all without any shame. He was greedy and had no thought for WWX. He consented in taking something so precious, it might as well have been his golden core either way.

So either way, WWX received consent from JC.

I complied all the rules LQR broke on his first interaction with WWX in CR days:

Do not bully the weak.

Do not succumb to rage.

Do not disrespect the younger.

Do not take advantage of your position to oppress others.

Do not make assumptions about others.

Do not insult people.

Do not take your own words lightly.

Do not act impulsively.

Be careful with your words

Be easy on others.

Maintain your own discipline.

Do not hold grudges.

Discipline your own words and behavior.

Do not criticize other people.

Don’t be unreasonable.

Do not treat others with contempt.

Do not mix public and private interests.

And I assume more but those are the rules I found… as much as I love ‘good uncle LQR’ fics because a fic with that premise made me read MDZS; I can’t stand that hypocrite old goat.

I’ve always been curious: where do y’all be getting your list of Lan rules from??? I know some of them are named directly in the book, but there always seems like more in the lists than I remember reading about.

Excuse me while I dig through the notes like the nosy little trash panda I am…

Absolutely wild to read through mdzs and tally the sheer amount of lies the cultuvation world tell about and around Wei Wuxian that eventually get debunked:

Wwx purposely and maliciously ordered Wen Ning to kill Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan. Jin Zixuan died for siding with his cousin in an ambush his cousin created to kill wwx, an invited Jin guest. Jiang Yanli died protecting wwx from a cultivator stabbing him in the back, after Wen Ning was supposedly already destroyed.

Wwx attacked the Nightless City banquet for no reason, killing between 3,000-5,000 cultivators. The major clans and many smaller clans were gathered at Nightless City specifically to go back on their word to the Wen siblings to leave the Burial Mounds settlement, and to pledge to kill wwx. There weren’t even 3,000 present at the whole pledge, and wwx didn’t kill nearly all of them since a good portion of them show up to the second siege 13 years later.

Wwx ordered Wen Ning to attack the cultivators at Koi Tower, and his and Wen Qing’s surrender was a ruse to allow them close access to the clans to do so. Wwx was immobilized for three days, and otherwise does not control Wen Ning like a toy. Edit: the Jin purposely agitated Wen Ning to violence, then ensured that a majority of the cultivators in the room killed were from other clans to secure their support of the pledge conference.

Wwx had a great life at Lotus Pier, treated like he was part of the Jiang main family, only to betray them in the end. Wwx was whipped so gratuitously that he had scars as a child despite having a high-level golden core. Nobody bothered to tell him about his parents, despite Jiang Fengmian supposedly being close to at least his father before Wei Changze left the service of the clan. He was given no tablets to honor them in death, no keepsakes. Still, wwx fulfilled both of the Jiang rulers’ final wish/order to protect their son (above his own life), and wwx’s connections are why either were able to get a proper burial (unlike wwx’s own parents).

Wwx was committing evil acts and took on the Wen remnants as followers/test subjects for his dark arts. All demonic cultivators can be linked to his followers. Wwx rescued the Wen Remnants from labor camps set up, again, against the word of the cultivation world, and lived secluded in the Burial Mounds and Yiling until basically his death. The only “demonic cultivators” we see are Jin disciples who are given wwx’s notes after his death to study in an attempt to recreate his methods and secure the Jin’s power over the other great sects. Nobody cares that the Jin are doing this, even as they use other clans as test subjects.

Wwx created Wen Ning to be a weapon. Wwx resurrected Wen Ning on the request of his sister after the labor camp guards murdered him. The Jin, after lying about his destruction, try to turn him into a weapon and fail.

Wwx was killed by Jiang Cheng in a fitting moment of justice for the crimes committed against the Jiang. While Jiang Cheng’s part in the first siege was integral, he did not kill wwx. The Jiang have committed more crimes against wwx than anyone, and owe their entire continued existence to wwx.

Wwx turned to demonic cultivation because he was greedy for power. Wwx created the ghost path as his only means of surviving the Burial Mounds without a golden core. He sought no power and blatantly called out those who did (the Jin), only to be ignored because of his status. In turn, he defects from his sect and exiles himself to the Burial Mounds (with the Wen remnants), to which the sects continue to pursue him in a bid to kill the “servant” who won’t bow to them and to steal his power for themselves.

Wwx’s cultivation corrupts people, both in mentality and their health, which is why he became evil. Wwx’s cultivation path is shown to do no such thing, and nobody has precedence for saying this, as wwx’s cultivation is entirely new. On the other hand, the Nie saber technique is known to corrupt body and mind of the Nie who practice is, resulting in horrifyingly violent deaths by qi deviation, and yet no one shows care or concern about that being a problem for the whole cultivation world to have to deal with.

Wwx was ugly. Do I need to debunk this? 😭

And some ones tangentially related to him, but having to do more with the cultivation world lying to make themselves seem better than they were:

The first Burial Mounds siege was a deadly undertaking, but ultimately worth it to stop the Yiling Patriarch’s reign of terror. The siege was hundreds of trained cultivators against around 50 sickly people and a child with no tools to fight back. The only person who could fight back did not. It was the very definition of a massacre.

The participants of the first siege burned all the corpses on the Burial Mounds to release their resentment. The participants of the first siege threw the Wen remnants’ corpses into the blood pool to desecrate them, thereby imbibing them with even more resentment.

Disciples (or anyone connected to her) of Baoshan Sanren who leave her mountain are destined to meet bad ends as they are corrupted by the world. The cultivation world allows righteous people to die and their reputations to be tarnished in order to maintain their facade of “righteousness” while leaning into corruption and constant power grabs. It is often directly the fault of the cultivation world that these individuals are killed in the first place.

mxtx novels have made me feel many a strong emotion but a moment of absolutely electric joy i remember feeling was when it was revealed that sizhui was a-yuan. like i was so surprised and SO happy. just completely totally elated.

i feel like i can’t think of a ton of moments where a plot-twist caught me off guard and made me feel a big feeling, but the reveal was something exceptionally joyful. mxtx does a good job setting you up to have no expectation for a-yuan to have survived. wwx thinks he’s dead, the group of people that he’s associated with all died (except wen ning, sort of), mxtx so far had not been pulling punches killing off characters designed to be loved. you just assume he’s another tragic casualty of the sunshot campaign and it’s aftermath.

so when it turns out he’s not only alive, but one of the adorable teens that you (and wwx), have already grown to love through out the story, it feels like you just sat down to take a stressful exam but instead of handing out the exams, the professor just hands out 100 bills and tells you that you can play with puppies for the next hour instead. using the non-linear story telling to make the reader become fond of a-yuan and sizhui independently was so clever and such a good use of the split timeline.

He spat, “What gives you the right? Wei WuXian, what gives you the fucking right?”…

…“How much has my family given for you? I’m his son. I’m the heir of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect. But all those years, I was never enough next to you. Their love, their dedication, even their life! The lives of my father, mother, older sister, and even Jin ZiXuan! Because of you, all that’s left now is an orphaned Jin Ling!”

–Chapt. 102: “A Hatred For Life” Part 5, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

I find this part so interesting because Jiang Cheng is really asking what gave Wei Wuxian “the right” to have been an unreservedly kind and giving person to him while he spent all but 9 years of his life hating Wei Wuxian just for existing. Wei Wuxian is the root of all his life troubles, according to Jiang Cheng, so the moment it’s revealed that actually, Wei Wuxian is the root of Jiang Cheng having received everything he ever wanted in life, therefore making his failures his own personal fault, he can’t handle it. Even at this point when he knows that everything that went wrong was directly his fault, it “must” be the gods laughing at him to have turned him into the world’s biggest laughing stock behind his back while he strutted around like he was hot shit.

“And then look what happened? You went to shelter some outsider, haha! From the Wen Sect, of all people. How many years did you eat their food and drink their water?! You betrayed us in an instant without any hesitation! What do you think my family is to you?! Endless good deeds, you’ve done them all, whilst every fuck-up was always because you had no choice! You ‘had no choice’! What difficulties can’t you explain?! What hardship must you hide?! Hardship?! You don’t tell me anything, you treat me like a moron!!!

He’s really trying to tally up every “good” thing his family has ever done for Wei Wuxian ever (conveniently leaving out the bad) in order to justify his acceptance of the golden core, desperately attempting to nullify an act of ultimate selflessness by throwing minor kindnesses at it and hoping they stick enough to cover it. He can’t even list his own good deeds, because he knows he has none. And he still falls short because he knows that nothing anyone has ever down for Wei Wuxian could amount to Wei Wuxian willingly giving his own golden core up. This is a debt he can literally never draw close to repaying, but he’s already at a deficit because he decided to repay such an act with treachery.

“What gives you the right to make me feel bad?” Idk, Jiang Cheng, I think that’s just where most people store their morals and sense of decency, something you’ve lacked for so long you can’t even appropriately recognize them, anymore.

Do you have any posts about all the things the people who use demonic cultivation have in common?

I’m not sure I can explain it properly, but I came away from the book thinking that all the people who used demonic cultivation (either directly or through the Yin Tiger Tally) are very similar to one another in terms of their trauma, background, and status as cultivators.

They all have quite traumatic upbringings, either living on the streets for some time or otherwise mistreated as part of the serving class. While they end up with some form of sect alliance, they are only ever half accepted, with their common parentage being brought up quite often. They’re all stuck living on that razor edge of not quite acceptability.

It makes me think that demonic cultivation represents or reflects that sort of traumatic razor’s edge position. (Appropriate when they are literally using resentment).

The major difference between the demonic cultivators is how they decide to use the trauma they’ve been stuck with. Wei Ying does his best to channel it towards protecting people, while trying to minimize harm to the innocent (though some “splash damage” is inevitable), while Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao use it as an excuse to hurt others with impunity (trying to drag the whole world down with them if they must).

Hopefully I’ve made sense.

Hate to say it, but the only demonic cultivator in the text is Xue Yang. Wei Wuxian does not cultivate with mo (living humans) but gui (dead humans), which is why his cultivation is called the ghost path. A better wording would be about who strays from the orthodox path of cultivating, but even then, all of the “righteous” cultivation clans would fall under this because they use Wei Wuxian’s inventions that they stole after his death. Speaking just on the characters listed, though, Xue Yang uses living humans by turning them into living corpse puppets, making him a demonic cultivator, but he also still uses a sword and his golden core, meaning he never left the orthodox cultivation path.

Other than both being street orphans taken in by major clans as kids, Wei Wuxian and Xue Yang have nothing in common. Wei Wuxian had a moral code that he followed even on the street, while Xue Yang didn’t and made a name for himself being a terror before he became a cultivator. When they become cultivators, it is only Wei Wuxian who is disparaged for his background. Nobody ever calls Xue Yang a servant, insults his parentage, or treats him less than courteously, from what we are shown in the text, until he massacres the Chang Clan. He is a guest of the Jin, therefore making him practically untouchable. Now, bringing Jin Guangyao into this, yes he was disparaged in the beginning, but he was definitely accepted once he climbed his way into the clan leader position. People stopped bringing up his past and parentage due to it, because now he was in an accepted and traditional position of power.

The story isn’t about how the type of cultivation one uses represents a theme or says something about the person using it (other than the demonic cultivation because that one says a lot about Xue Yang who created it); it’s about how any cultivation path, orthodox or not, can be used for good or evil and what really matters is to look at the character of the person. Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao are greedy bastards who want to be universally feared (the former) and worshipped (the latter), and will sacrifice anyone or anything that goes against their plans to attain power. They both use sword cultivation to achieve these goals, even if they use other tools to aid. Xue Yang turns to demonic cultivation because he is not clever or powerful enough to use the ghost path as effectively as Wei Wuxian does nor does he have empathy or care for the living or dead which is necessary for the ghost path, so he takes shortcuts with horrific (intended) consequences, instead. Wei Wuxian made his name exclusively with the ghost path and only did so by doing what was right. But only Wei Wuxian was reviled for it until the very end.

In short, mxtx doesn’t write stories where you can use characters’ identities and backgrounds as shorthand for moral lessons. So while all three characters had their traumas and bad encounters with the “righteous” established cultivation clans, Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao are villains because they ultimately believed in the same system that abused them and, thus, strove to uphold it so that they could benefit from that power to oppress others, while Wei Wuxian is the hero for challenging that system and rejecting it for its corruption.

Gossip Following the First Siege (and Where They Are Directly Debunked)

1st Lie:

“Rejoice, rejoice! Say, which hero dealt the finishing blow to the Yiling Laozu?”

“Who else could it be? His shidi, Chief Jiang Cheng of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan!

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked:

“But that’s not what I heard. I thought one of his evil tricks backfired and he was shredded to pieces by those ghosts of his. Some say that they bit and tore at him so viciously that by the end of it, his body was no more than a slurry of flesh and bone dust.”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

“Jiang Cheng, Clan Chief Jiang, brought people to encircle and besiege the Burial Mounds. He killed you, sir.”

“I have to clarify this. He didn’t kill me. I died because one of my techniques backfired.”

–Chapt. 43: Beauty I, fanyiyi

2nd Lie:

“Exactly! He thoroughly deserved it! If the Jiang Clan hadn’t taken him in and raised him, that Wei Ying would have spent his whole life as a worthless vagrant. What else is there to say? The old Chief Jiang raised him like his own son, yet he betrayed them and made an enemy of everyone. Not only did he humiliate the Jiang Sect, he killed nearly all of the Jiang Clan! He’s the definition of an ungrateful, treacherous bastard!”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked:

Wei Wuxian was the son of a servant of the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, Wei Changze, and a wandering cultivator, Cangse Sanren. Jiang Fengmian and his wife were both close acquaintances of his mother and father, but Jiang Fengmian had never reminisced about his old friend in front of Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Fengmian’s wife, Yu Ziyuan, had never been interested in having a conversation with him at all. If she didn’t whip him a few times and tell him to get out, kneel at the ancestral shrine, and keep far away from Jiang Cheng, he already considered that pretty good.

–Chapt. 29: Morning Dew II, fanyiyi

Jiang Fengmian nodded, “Well done.”

[Wei Wuxian] was able to kill a four-hundred-year-old beast at the mere age of seventeen. It was much more than a ‘well-done’.

–Chapt. 56: Poisons, exr

Jiang FengMian stared into his eyes. Suddenly, he reached out. Only after pausing in the air did he finally touch Jiang Cheng’s head, slowly, “A-Cheng, be well.”

Wei WuXian, “Uncle Jiang, if anything happens to you, he won’t be well.”

Jiang FengMian turned his eyes to him, “A-Ying, A-Cheng… you must look after him.”

—Chapt. 58: Poisons, exr

3rd Lie:

“Not only that, Jiang Cheng tolerated that arrogant, up-jumped servant for ages… Even if you grew up with them and loved them like a brother, you can’t show people like him any mercy. ”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked:

Chapter 13: Elegance III – Chapter 18: Elegance VIII, fanyiyi (no I will NOT be writing down every instance of storm cloud Jiang Cheng appearing to darken Wei Wuxian’s mood in the Cloud Recesses arc. Too many quotes; you gotta read it yourself)

Gradually, [Wei Wuxian] grew deathly frightened of all manner of dogs, big or small, and had endured no small amount of Jiang Cheng’s mockery for it.

–Chapt. 20: Sunshine II, fanyiyi

Not a single lenient or merciful word left Jiang Cheng’s mouth if he could help it, nor was he ever willing to offer charity and kindness.

–Chapt. 23: Malice I, fanyiyi 

4th Lie:

“…Don’t you remember when he annihilated more than 3,000 high level cultivators?”

“Wasn’t it 5,000?”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked: here

5th Lie:

“It just goes to show that cultivators have to stay on the proper path. Taking up demonic cultivation, ‘free spirit,’ pah! Sounds to me like he was arrogant and egomaniacal. Heh, and what was the result?”…

…“But it wasn’t only demonic cultivation that killed him. At the end of the day, it was also his horrible personality and rotten character…”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

Debunked:

“Aye, this Wei Wuxian…back in the day he was a promising cultivator from a good background, and not without high merits. When he was young—what a glorious, free spirit! …”

–Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

In [Wei Wuxian’s] previous life, because he couldn’t let people chatter on about how he hadn’t been brought up properly, there were certain limits on how far he could take his mischief.

–Chapt. 3: Feral II, fanyiyi

Wei Wuxian had always considered himself protective and caring of women, so seeing her state, he moved to create space for her and went to bother the donkey.

–Chapt. 6: Pride I, fanyiyi

Even if the Yiling Laozu’s reputation was bad, people had to admit that prior to Wei Wuxian’s defection from the Yunmeng Jiang Clan, he had been famous far and wide for being a gorgeous man, cultured, sophisticated, and proficient in all the arts of a gentleman. Among the young masters of all the clans of cultivation, his appearance and personality were considered the fourth best, and he was described as “bright, clever, and full of life”…

–Chapt. 10: Pride V, fanyiyi

Do you know is 7seas like. Even fixes the mistranslations? Or do they only fix blatant typos 🥲

They do fix them, but from what I’ve seen and heard, they don’t fix the ebook and the physical versions at the same time, they don’t fix all their mistranslations and general mistakes at the same time, and they stopped making announcements about what mistakes have been fixed, in what versions, and when, so currently there are multiple iterations of the physicals with different mistakes fixed. No word on how many of these partially-corrected versions are in circulation, so this fandom is probably gonna get even more “interesting.”

"'[The child ghoul] helps me propel the boat, so what's wrong with giving it a few lotus seed pods to eat?'"

Random Yunmeng lotus farmers are out here using 'demonic' cultivation and we wonder where Wei Wuxian gets all these craaaaazy ideas.

Fandom Gripe #22: I wish the novel fandom would stop ascribing to Jiang Cheng things that he did not do (at least not alone) to make his character seem like some outstanding model citizen who pulled himself up by his bootstraps instead of the rotten product of wealth and nepotism that he is.

No, Jiang Cheng did not rebuild Lotus Pier on his own. In fact, Lotus Pier didn't need to be rebuilt at all because it was never destroyed. Wen Chao was using it as his supervision office, which is why Wang Lingjiao showed up in the first place:

Wang LingJiao spoke in a tender voice, “Young Master Wen, congratulations for moving into Lotus Pier.” Wen Chao, “What Lotus Pier? Change the name. Bring down any door carved with the nine-petaled lotus crest and replace them with those with the QishanWen Sect’s sun crest! JiaoJiao, come dance for me your best song!”

—Chapt. 59: Poisons, exr

If anything, any "rebuilding" that was done happened after Wei Wuxian defected, as Jiang Cheng remade Lotus Pier to be more extravagant than it originally was:

It was perhaps because too many places had been renewed. The training field was two times larger. Each new building seemed to be taller than the previous, adorned with curving roof decor. It seemed grander than before and had more splendor. But, compared to the Lotus Pier of his memories, it had changed too much. Wei WuXian felt a sense of loss from deep within. He didn’t know whether the old buildings from the past were blocked behind these impressive new buildings or if they were torn down already.

—Chapt. 85: Loyalty, exr

No, Jiang Cheng did not recruit new disciples on his own. He was recruiting on his own during the war for the 3 months that Wei Wuxian had been trapped in the Burial Mounds, as per Wang Lingjiao's musings:

...leaving only Jiang Cheng, who was younger than even Lan XiChen and was still a child born yesterday, who had nobody in his hands but still dared call himself sect leader, holding up the banner of rebellion as he recruited new disciples.

—Chapt. 60: Poisons, exr

But after Wei Wuxian returned, Wei Wuxian had a large hand in disciple recruitment, specifically because of the interest his ghost path garnered amongst cultivators at banquets where they were recruiting, such as the Phoenix Mountain Hunt:

One of the sect leaders spoke in a sour tone, “This time, Lotus Pier is really the center of the show. Almost all of the spirits and corpses were summoned to the YunmengJiang Sect’s grounds. There’d definitely be a number of cultivators interested in them.” ... Someone sneered, “Huh? Interested in them? I don’t think so. To put it simply, they’re interested in Wei WuXian, aren’t they? Didn’t the YunmengJiang Sect grow in fame during the Sunshot Campaign only because of Wei WuXian?”

—Chapt. 70: Departure, exr

Despite the above quote being gossip from jealous cultivators, we know this to be true because after Wei Wuxian defects, cultivators begin to flock to the Burial Mounds to ask to be his disciples, still:

After he found himself in the limelight during a few night-hunts, there really were quite a few people who came for him, hoping that they could be accepted by the ‘patriarch’ and become one of his disciples. The mountains that used to be so deserted suddenly became crowded. None of the fierce corpses Wei WuXian set up on patrol down the mountain would attack on their own. At most, they’d send the person flying and roar their throats out. Nobody got hurt, and so more and more people gathered down Burial Mound.

—Chapt. 75: Distance, exr

No, Jiang Cheng did not raise Jin Ling on his own. First off, Jin Ling is the heir to the Jin Clan, so him being raised wholly by Jiang Cheng would make absolutely no sense. Which is why nowhere does the novel say this happens; Jin Ling spends his time split between Lanling and Lotus Pier:

When Jin Ling was young, he was brought up by two sects. He lived at the LanlingJin Sect’s Jinlin Tower half the time, and the YunmengJiang Sect’s Lotus Pier the other half, so he should be carrying belongings from both sects.

—Chapt. 38: Grasses, exr

(However—and this is just my conjecture—I doubt the overtly homophobic and sexist Jiang Cheng would personally go about changing the diapers of a child who only knew him to be merciless and cold:

From the beginning of his memory until now, Jin Ling had never seen such a look on Jiang Cheng’s face before. This uncle of his who led the prominent YunmengJiang Sect ever since a young age had always been cold and dark. When he spoke, he was willing to neither show mercy nor do good.

—Chapt. 23: Malice, exr

Rich people have servants for a reason.)

No, Jiang Cheng does not spend his time helping the people of Yunmeng. He really does spend a good deal of his time fobbing off his duty to the people (not unusual for a large sect) in favor of hunting down and torturing people (very unusual, the reason why his citizens prefer to pray to gods) who either had the surname Wen or that he suspected of either being possessed by Wei Wuxian because they remind him of the latter, which extends to people who use his inventions:

Jiang Cheng spoke grimly, “Break his legs? Haven’t I told you? If you see this sort of evil and crooked practice, kill the cultivator and feed him to your dogs!”

—Chapt. 7: Arrogance, exr

Zidian definitely wouldn’t deceive [Jiang Cheng] or make a mistake, so he quickly calmed himself and thought, this doesn’t mean anything. I should first find an excuse to take him back and use every possible method to get information out of him. It’s impossible for him to not confess anything or give himself away. I’ve done things like this in the past anyways. After thinking it through, he made a gesture. The disciples understood his intention and came over.

—Chapt. 10: Arrogance, exr

The owner, “Young Masters, you’re not from Yunping City so you don’t know. The Jiang Sect is responsible for all of us along the Yunmeng area. The Sect Leader’s got quite a bad temper. It’s almost frightening. His subordinate’s said so a long time ago. Only one sect is in charge of such a large area. Each day, there are almost a hundred cases of small ghosts or other creatures pulling pranks on the living and all that. If every single small thing had to be dealt with immediately, would there be enough time and energy? Those that don’t kill anyone aren’t malign spirits, and we’re not supposed to disturb them with trivial matters that aren’t malign spirits.” She complained, “What is this supposed to mean? Wouldn’t it be too late if we waited until somebody’s died to find them?!” ... The owner continued, “On top of that, Lotus Pier is truly a scary place. How would anyone dare go there again?” Wei WuXian moved his gaze from Lan WangJi’s calm face with a short pause of surprise, “Lotus Pier is scary? How could Lotus Pier be scary? You’ve been there?” The owner, “I haven’t been there myself, but I know someone who went because his house was being badly haunted. But it was all bad luck. That Sect Leader Jiang was cracking a glowing whip right on the training field. The victim’s flesh and blood flew as high as his screams! A servant secretly informed him that the sect leader caught the wrong person again, that he hadn’t been in a great mood, and that he definitely shouldn’t be irritated in any way. He was so scared that he dropped off the gifts he brought and fled at once. He never dared visit again.” Wei WuXian had long since heard of how Jiang Cheng had been searching for cultivators of the ghost path who seemed like they seized another’s body, taking all of them into Lotus Pier to be tortured and questioned. The owner’s friend probably just happened to have ran into him when he was letting off steam. It wasn’t hard to imagine how hideous Jiang Cheng would’ve looked, so no wonder a normal person would make a run for it. ... The owner, “No, no. It was his misfortune. The person’s surname was Wen, and that Sect Leader Jiang’s archenemy happened to have the surname of Wen as well. He’s hating on everyone in this world whose surname is Wen. Whenever he sees one, he’d grind his teeth in hatred, wanting to skin them alive. How could he give a single friendly look to...”

—Chapt. 92: Longing, exr

The time he isn't spending hunting down people to torture, he uses to trail after Jin Ling on nighthunts to make sure nothing happens to him.

Wei WuXian, “Huh? Jiang Cheng? How did you run into him while night-hunting?” Lan SiZhui, “We invited Young Master Jin to join our night- hunt last time, so...” Wei WuXian immediately understood. One could even guess that while Lan SiZhui led the group in the night-hunt, Wen Ning naturally wouldn’t be idle either. He must’ve followed them in the dark to protect them, so that he could provide assistance when they encounter danger during the night-hunt. Jiang Cheng must’ve been sneaking behind Jin Ling as well, scared something would happen to him again.

—Chapt. 116: Banquet Extra, exr

Any other "single jiujiu!jc who don't need no man!" fanon I'm missing?

Random Thought #34: If Madam Yu really had cut off Wei Wuxian's sword hand in order to appease Wang Lingjiao before the Jiang Clan was wiped out, then Jiang Cheng truly and honestly would have been fucked cause no way in hell would Wei Wuxian give up his core after that. He was already thinking of his hand in terms of debt ("if it's in exchange for the peace of the sect..." —exr), and to take away his sword hand is to cripple his ability to cultivate, which he considers a debt he owes to the Jiang for teaching him, to begin with. The scores would have been cleared, then, so any other ask (like, say, protecting the only surviving heir with his life) would be considered extraneous. Wei Wuxian would still do it because it was the right thing to do at the time with the knowledge that he had, but once Jiang Cheng lost his core? That's a wrap!

3,000 or 5,000: What’s the Difference?

How many cultivators did Wei Wuxian actually kill at the Nightless City bloodbath? From the mouths of gossiping cultivators directly after the first siege:

“…Don’t you remember when he annihilated more than 3,000 high level cultivators?”

“Wasn’t it 5,000?”

“3,000 or 5,000, one or the other. I think 5,000’s more likely.”

—Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

From the mouths of a married civilian couple 13 years later, in the present-day timeline:

Her husband, “Who could possibly guarantee that? When he killed over three thousand people in Qishan, I was very young, but I can still remember that back then, not only the immortals who cultivated, even normal people were scared of him. He’s a bloodlusting demon who has no heart.”

—Chapt. 67: Tenderness, exr

From the narrator speaking on the aftermath of the Nightless City bloodbath:

The bloodbath of Nightless City, legendarily, was a bloody battle in which the YiLing Patriarch, Wei WuXian, slaughtered over three thousand people during the night of the pledge conference on his own. Some said that it was five thousand as well. No matter three or five, one thing was for sure—in that night, the ruins of Nightless City became a gory hell in Wei WuXian’s hands.

—Chapt. 79: Loyalty, exr

From Wei Wuxian’s own mouth at Nightless City before it became a bloodbath:

What came out was indeed Wei WuXian’s voice, but he spoke in a strange tone, “Why should I dare not show myself here? Do you people here even add up to three thousand? Don’t forget that back in the Sunshot Campaign, let alone three thousand, I’ve fought against five thousand on my own before. And by appearing here, haven’t I granted your wish? No need for you to come all the way to my home tomorrow to scatter my ashes.”

—Chapt. 78: Nightfall, exr

So there you have it: the number of victims at the Nightless City bloodbath cannot number above three thousand, as that number in and of itself is a rounding up of the amount of cultivators present at the banquet in total. Notice that in Wei Wuxian’s speech, he says that he brought down five thousand Wen-aligned cultivators on his own, which is probably where the embellishment that he killed five thousand cultivators at the Nightless City bloodbath was born from. However, at the second siege, when the group of cultivators—including survivors of the bloodbath—charge Wei Wuxian with slaughtering “three thousand” cultivators, this is what he has to say:

Wei WuXian interrupted him, “Three thousand people? There were indeed three thousand cultivators present that night at Nightless City, but so too were the leaders the sects and many of their elites. With all of them present, could I have really killed all of the three thousand people? Are you thinking too highly of me, or are you looking down on them?”…

…“It’s not that I want to bargain about such a thing, but that I don’t want my charges to be doubled just because of some words from another. I won’t shoulder what I didn’t do.”

—Chapt. 79: Loyalty, exr

Wei Wuxian rightfully points out that for the fact that he was being charged with massacring three thousand cultivators, and only three thousand were gathered at Nightless City tops, along with the fact that many of the attendees of the Nightless City banquet are also present at the second siege 13 years later, it is illogical to claim that he had killed them all or even a good portion of them. So, why does this matter?

In revealing the lie within the number of deaths reported for the Nightless City bloodbath, Wei Wuxian has both revealed the cultivation world’s willingness to spread blatant lies within minor truths in order to conceal their own immoral actions as well as showed how their exaggeration of his crimes serve to fuel their continued hatred of him. The Nightless City bloodbath was an act of betrayal on the “righteous” clans part, yet even in his defense in the midst of unimaginable despair—and remembering that he has wiped out larger armies than the remaining clans’ then coalition, so much so that no cultivator who went up against him in the Sunshot Campaign lived to even report what he looked like to their fellow allies—Wei Wuxian still… managed to keep a fair amount of people alive. And now, 13 years later, Wei Wuxian refuses to bow to this slander. He didn’t slaughter five thousand cultivators at Nightless City. He didn’t even slaughter three thousand. And he will not accept these false charges on his head in the name of clans’ vengeance, any longer.

One of the greatest accusations levied against the accursed Yiling Laozu is, at last, exposed for the lie that it is, and it is only one of many narrative-changing reveals the story has to offer.

I've been thinking of how JC attempts to sacrifice himself for WWX when they first run from the Wens after the fall of LP and his reasons/feelings for doing that and reconciling them with this person who acts so shamefully and is full of such hatred that he kills all 'demonic cultivators' after wwx's death. Even as WWX thinks of whether JC and JL are okay, I notice he calls JC "Sect Leader" out loud to others. I don't know how they could reconcile. Sorry lots of feelings.

Hi again anon 👋🏻

I've answered your two asks separately as they were addressing different aspects of the novel and my original response was getting rather long 😆

It certainly was an unexpected revelation when we found out that JC lured the searching Wen cultivators away from an unsuspecting WWX. Of course, I don't think it was his intention to get caught in the process, but he definitely thought about someone else other than himself for once - which was interesting. Although it was one of the very few selfless acts he did during the course of the novel, it still doesn't retract any of the awful things he has done, nor the way he treated WWX or his homophobic outburst.

Even after WWX has died, JC's bitterness remains very strong and he does indeed hunt down those that use the ghost path in hope of capturing WWX, should he return. Which I always find quite telling of just how little JCs actually knows and understands WWX - who would never actually do such a thing.

In all honesty, JC actually redeemed himself ever so slightly at the very end of the novel, when he decides not to tell WWX about how he really lost his golden core. Instead, he finally let him go, severing the very last thread of "debt" and "obligation" between them. It was actually a fitting character arc for him and it showed a glimmer of possible growth.

Even if JC had selfishly told WWX that particular fact, I don't think it would have changed much at all. WWX has already paid back his "debt" and "obligations" to the Jiang sect far beyond what was required or reasonable. There is nothing left to say between them and WWX literally has nothing left to give. Too much water has gone under the bridge. All of that is in the past and WWX always focuses on the present. So either way, nothing would have changed. I also think WWX would not want to associate with someone he thought his love for LWJ was disgusting and shameful regardless of anything else at play. He chooses love, happiness and freedom as his parents did before him.

JC and WWX are too different, in both personality and virtue. They would not have been friends or hung out in any other scenario bar the circumstance they found themselves in during the course of the novel. They both literally embody the traits that the other actually cannot stand! Their relationship was that of a master and subordinate, it was toxic and they are both better off giving each other a wide berth and moving on.

A reconciliation would never happen and it doesn't need to. WWX is entitled to a happy life for all his efforts in his previous life and JC needs to live with the consequences of his actions and learn from them in his own way.

I know it's probably not the response you were hoping for. But if you consider the above, they both got some form of a happy ending. JC is finally learning to let go of things that little bit more and WWX is free to move on and live his life how he always wanted. I honestly couldn't think of a more suitable and realistic ending.

wait can you please speak more on WWX qi deviating after the LP confrontation with JC? I've always wondered what that sudden sickness was.

Hi anon 👋🏻

Of course! I think this detail is often missed because of the rest of the drama and overall poignancy of the scene. It's also never outright stated as a "qi deviation", but MXTX expects us to use the information she gave us in prior chapters to arrive at such a conclusion ourselves - as she so often does.

Not long before the scene in question, WWX and LWJ were a major part of the driving force that saved everyone from an onslaught of fierce corpses intent on attacking them all at the burial mounds. He was exhausted from that and even though he claims to have been exaggerating to "trick" LWJ into looking after him while on the boat to LP, he was still feeling the effects of the past few days catching up with him. After all, he was stabbed a few days prior to them travelling to Yiling as well.

All of the above, alongside the heightened emotions of the past few days; realising his feelings for LWJ, how deeply he feels them, if LWJ feels the same way, coming back to LP after such a long and traumatic time, living through a second siege of the burial mounds and facing his trauma head on at the very place he died - all quite an emotional rollercoaster for our beloved WWX.

Then the altercation with JC, where he is being verbally abusive, just pushes all those overwhelming emotions over the edge and causes WWX to have a minor qi deviation. That being said, it could have been fatal, as qi deviations often can be. Which is why some fans find JCs unwillingness to stop attacking WX (both verbally and physically) and refusing to let them leave when WWX was showing signs of his health deteriorating, all rather underhand. It's also why LWJ lost his cool a little and WN served him a verbal bitch-slap to shut him up and finally make JC understand just how much WWX has done to pay back his "debt" to the Jiang sect.

WWX was under great emotional stress at the time, feeling attacked for not only being in love with LWJ, but being once again wrongfully blamed for everything that happened at LP - which even JC admits is simply not true.

Qi deviations can occur for many reasons. I won't go into it too much right now, but one such reason (in the MDZS universe) is being greatly affected by emotions or becoming emotionally unstable. WWX is so overcome with all those strong emotions he begins to bleed from "the seven apertures" and even starts to faint, finally losing consciousness - which are signs of a qi deviation. We see examples of this earlier on in the novel with LQR and the cultivator who escaped the Mingshi for help once they all began bleeding from the apertures and essentially qi deviating. And again when LQR wakes up to shout at WWX and qi deviates once more - which is hilarious 🤣Obviously NMJ, and his father before him, both suffered similar symptoms before qi deviating and eventually succumbing to gruesome deaths as a result as well.

So there you have it anon ☺️ that's my understanding of qi deviations (in the MDZS universe, as the term/cause/effect can differ from one fiction to another) and my reading of the novel. I hope it helps to answer your question to some extent!

hi, ive been reading your jc takes and i found i p much agree with everything, but i wanted to ask, how do you square the moment jc sacrifices himself for wwx by distracting the wen guards with... everything else he does

also the moment he brings wwx his flute, if he only feels hate for wwx why would he do that?

As I’ve said, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian were friends, and I 100% believe that the fall of Lotus Pier and the emergence of the Sunshot Campaign is why they remained friends for so long, especially in the direct aftermath of the fall which saw Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian having to rely solely on each other for survival. So I believe without a doubt that Jiang Cheng distracted the Wen cultivators to protect Wei Wuxian… without considering the full consequences of getting caught. I believe that had Jiang Cheng considered losing his golden core a real possibility, he would not have used himself as a distraction. But he did use himself as a distraction, and he did lose his golden core, and despite the fact that Wei Wuxian rectified that with his “miracle connections,” he spends close to twenty years taking that out on Wei Wuxian, lest we forget that upon waking after being rescued, he tries to go for Wei Wuxian’s throat again.

As for Jiang Cheng returning Chenqing, it’s a symbol of the one moment of character growth he has in the entire novel: fully letting Wei Wuxian go. Jiang Cheng held onto that flute because he just “knew” that if Wei Wuxian came back to life, he would immediately search for his most fearsome weapon, because Wei Wuxian “must” be a showoff obsessed with power (because Jiang Cheng would be, in his position). He was keeping it in hopes of successfully luring Wei Wuxian in for a slaughter. But what he failed to realize before and finally understood at the end was that Wei Wuxian never was and never would be like Jiang Cheng. He did not seek power or fame or vengeance over perma-grudges; he didn’t need Chenqing. So Jiang Cheng gives it back, thereby thematically releasing his last standing preconceived notions on his former shixiong and his need to hunt him down in a one-sided competition. (Now if only he’d done the same for Wen Ning… 😒)

Wei Wuxian is perpetually being dragged around and forced to fulfill other people’s expectations. And also, and I blame CQL for this one: Once the Mo family was dead, the contract was fulfilled. He did not spend the entire novel hunting for the last person Mo Xuanyu wanted revenge on. The people Mo Xuanyu wanted dead were his aunt, uncle, cousin, and A-Tong.

So whatever happened when Mo Xuanyu was kicked out of the Jin? He didn’t care enough to take revenge.

Wei Wuxian did not “body-snatch” Mo Xuanyu’s body; he was forcibly pulled from the afterlife to inhabit said body to enact revenge on behalf of Mo Xuanyu, under threat of having his soul annihilated. Mo Xuanyu only had to sacrifice his physical body—not his soul or ability to reincarnate—on his end to complete the spell. Wei Wuxian’s consent was not necessary, and he was not exactly jumping for joy upon discovering he was alive again because someone thought he was cruel and evil.

Quotes under the cut:

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