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[daozhangs]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, XIAO.XINGCHEN. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 *** XIAO.XINGCHEN has joined 018.07.154.55 <XIAO.XINGCHEN> You have reached Xiao Xingchen. <XIAO.XINGCHEN> I am often away from my laptop, but I will do my best to answer as soon as I'm able.

Comments

[legbreakings]

[ Such caution is certainly useful but not something Jiang Cheng has in him anymore these days, and now that he has declared himself it is far too late to back down anyway. He can't bring himself to regret it either, for all it is inconvenient. ]

Be careful anyway. You wouldn't want too much of her attention. Nothing good can come out of it.

[daozhangs]

Rest assured that I will be.

( honestly, he's a bit shocked that jiang-xiong isn't trying to stop him - whether it stems from some manner of trust or from recognition of the value that such an endeavor holds, xingchen isn't certain. )

[legbreakings]

[ Both. It's both. He is a practical man, more concerned with needs being met than with safety, at the end of the day, but he also trusts Xingchen not to take foolish risks. ]

Good. That is all I ask of you.

I might want to accompany you part of the way, in case you return injured.

[daozhangs]

I thought that you might.

It might comfort you to know that there's no need to venture anywhere of concern. She will speak to me wherever it is that I call to her. I'd prefer not to do so within either of our homes, but the woods should do well enough.

In such a case, you could keep your distance without losing sight of me.

( because xingchen is quite aware that jiang wanyin only said part of the way because he recognizes the danger inherent in being anywhere which the fog's followers happen to be. otherwise, he doesn't doubt the man would be there just as he was in the doctor's office in felfri, hovering terribly even as he pretended not to do so.

as such, being able to keep xingchen within his line of sight (albeit at a distance through the trees) is likely that much more ideal. )

[legbreakings]

That's acceptable. We can negotiate the details closer to the date.

[ Which, yes, means he has just made a unilateral decision that he will be making decisions here. Enjoy. ]

[daozhangs]

( for now, there's no pressing need to question it. this isn't an immediate plan of xingchen's, regardless. )

We can.

( and after a pause, )

This is nice, you know. Working together toward something rather than simply surviving. Even if we haven't actually begun yet.

[legbreakings]

It is.

A moment's hesitation since this might come across as rude but when has this ever truly stopped him.

It almost feels like having a sect again.

[daozhangs]

( that, xingchen wouldn't know. he's never had a sect. and though he can't imagine this is anything like the sect life that jiang wanyin is accustomed to (far fewer formalities and political games), it's not a terrible stretch to think that this might not be entirely unlike a sect standing apart from such things. a sect like the one he himself had once wanted to start. )

How many people does one need to designate a sect?

[legbreakings]

[ The question is enough to make him pause, simply from how unexpected it is. ]

Yunmeng Jiang was a sect of three once. There needs to be one for it to survive but one isn't a sect just a legacy to rebuild.

[daozhangs]

At least two people, then, and a shared set of goals and beliefs. What else does a sect require?

[legbreakings]

Techniques unique to the sect, their sword form. A sect residence and acknowledgment as a sect from other sects but both can come later, we did without at first after the massacre, but we still considered Yunmeng Jiang alive as long as there was Jiang blood left alive.

[daozhangs]

Techniques seem awfully hard to come by in a realm without qi.

[legbreakings]

I'm not sure what a sect would need here.

I have thought of rebuilding Yunmeng Jiang again. I'm a sect leader. Teaching disciples and night hunting is what I'm supposed to do with my life, not sit by myself in a house too large and watch the snow fall, or spend my days fixing fishing nets and boats. But I have yet to figure out what a sect can be here. They need cultivators, but are we even still cultivators when we can't cultivate?

[daozhangs]

I suppose that depends on how one defines a cultivator.

If we can find other means by which to combat the dangers of this world, we could still do as cultivators would. Fight against evils, protect those wo cannot protect themselves. We can even grow stronger, through training and meditation and through dealings with Mana.

I've been remiss. I should have followed up more diligently on your offer to spar.

[legbreakings]

There was no time limit to this offer. We can spar whenever you want to visit Lotus Pier.

I like to think Yunmeng Jiang is more than people who have cultivated golden cores. If that were all there is to it, sects would be interchangeable.

[daozhangs]

Shall we wait until the weather clears, or practice in the snow?

As for Yunmeng Jiang... Yi City heard little of the cultivation world at large, and what did reach the market was mostly some manner of scandal. Yunmeng Jiang was the only sect without. I only ever heard of the way you rebuilt, or the night hunts, or you diligence in dealing with demonic cultivators.

In truth, were I any less stubborn, I might have contacted you for aid with the corpse poison curse - that's what I thought that it was at the time, a curse.

[legbreakings]

I don't mind practicing in the snow. I have the training field cleared so I won't get any snow into my body.

To think. Things would have gone so differently if you had successfully managed to call for help.

[ Not that he believes Xingchen's plea would have ever reached Lotus Pier, not when he didn't know to do so in utmost secrecy. The demonic cultivator toying with him would have never permitted it; he might have even turned against him sooner if Xingchen became a threat to him by wanting to bring in others. But still... It is a mind-boggling thought. If only rumors had reached Lotus Pier in time, if he had turned his eyes in that direction...

It is yet another piece of evidence why he can't rue his relentlessness. It's not just about his personal quest for Wei Wuxian. If more sects hunted down demonic cultivators as his own did, the world would be a safer place both for common folk and cultivators. ]

I would have liked to meet you again in our world.

[daozhangs]

I can't pretend I didn't picture you training in your rain-suit.

( but the rest is quite a bit heavier. his own fault, really, but xingchen can't help but sit for a moment with the notion of what that reality might have looked like.

and then with the dull, aching recognition that his notion was skewed - that it pictured a version in which xue yang arrived from behind the scenes only at the end, not a version in which xue yang was there to observe him (isolate him, how else had zichen ended up dead?) at any given time. )

Perhaps it's better that you didn't. Your first impression of me was far better than that would have been.

[legbreakings]

I

I might have trained in my rain suit once or twice.

[ He does grin a little at the thought but then he thinks of how to respond to the more serious part of the text message and... Well, that is certainly sobering. ]

It would have been a terrible second impression but I like to believe it would have improved eventually.

[ And maybe, just maybe, he would have been able to save Xiao Xingchen's life. No saying that he could have - demonic cultivators know he spares them no mercy, so knowing he would die, he figures Xue Yang would have wanted to take Xiao Xingchen with him. But it's hypothetical, so he can fantasize about better outcomes. ]

[daozhangs]

( this isn't the first time they've spoken of his fate and the brief time before it, but he has had quite a bit more time to think since then. time to ruminate, to wonder - not just at how things might have been, but at how things even were, before his death or after it.

but now isn't the time for that. )

You're certain you would've had that sort of patience? ( which is less about jiang wanyin's patience at all and more about how frustrating xingchen is entirely self-aware enough to know he would've been. he was frustrating enough coming here, where it's all (somehow) a bit easier to adjust to. where retribution for the harms he's committed comes built right in, even if just in miniscule doses. )

[legbreakings]

[ Jiang Cheng, meanwhile, takes it quite differently than intended. With a wince, even. ]

I would like to think I would have given you a chance to explain yourself before killing you, yes.

[daozhangs]

My friend, you've misunderstood.

I simply meant that I would have been terribly frustrating. More so than I've been here, I'm quite sure of it.

[legbreakings]

[ The next response takes longer. ]

I apologize.

You would be frustrating, in a place where our differences of opinion hold more weight.

[daozhangs]

How fortunate that we're no such place, then.

[legbreakings]

[ Hrmpf! ]

Hilarious