Title: Who They Will Use
Fandom: Modao Zushi
Rating: Gen
Length: 661
Content notes: Alternate Universe
Author notes: For the current Amnesty challenge using the prompt, role reversal.
Summary: She is not the one the resentful spirits of the Burial Mounds want, but they will use her all the same. For his part, Wei Ying wonders how he can help her when he had such dangerous ideas prior to the War.


As she fell to the dark ground, Yanli remembered the research that she’d once caught her brother doing on energy types and their uses. How he’d secretly studied what was considered orthodox and unorthodox long before the lectures before she’d asked him to stop, fearful and concerned that someone else would find out and berate him for the curiosity of knowledge.

When he met Lan Zhan in the Lan Sect, Yanli knew that he would be safe and protected in the strong arms of another, beyond the reach of her mother. She is grateful that there is now someone else around to nurture her brother’s happiness. To protect him when she no longer can.

She’s distracted from her thoughts by her bones breaking harshly as she hits the ground

‘What is this?’

‘You! ...You are not supposed to be here.’

‘Yes… there is another that we wait for. He will come.’

She has no idea what the voices around her could be talking about as her body shivers and goosebumps dot her skin under the rough breeze of the Burial Mounds. In her heart, sadness and revenge burn within her heart as she wonders if she can harness the power of these lingering vengeful souls to protect her remaining family like her a-Xian had theorized it could be harnessed. “Take me instead.”

‘Very well. If he is not coming, then let us see if you survive what comes.’

‘Yay, finally! Let’s play with her!’

She would find a way to avenge the lives lost to the Wen.


Three months later:

Wei Wuxian stumbled back first into the crumbling wall behind him as the Wen forces overran the base camp. He had no idea where Lan Zhan and the Lan were, having lost sight of his husband early in the attack as he steadied himself and threw himself back into the fray attempting to find Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng.

Hearing the strum of a guqin nearby, he fiercely pushed back his opponent with a gut wound and vaulted over a crumbling wall and ran towards the area where the beloved sound was coming from. Lan Zhan spares him a brief relieved glance as he slides to a stop at his side before turning his attention back to the Wen now surrounding them.

Jiang Cheng is tossed at them as he’s thinking of a talisman to use against the Wen, when a dizi suddenly starts playing, bringing dead Wen back into action, and going after the living Wen. Wei Ying ignores his former clan brother’s harsh chuckling as he and Lan Zhan share a concerned look between them once they both notice the short figure standing on a crumbling rooftop near them.

The electric feeling of the resentful energy gathering around them is nearly suffocating as they watch this person torment Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu with the corpses of their closest people makes him feel sick to his stomach as the shadows give way to reveal Jiang Yanli as resentful energy dances around her.

He’s unsure what to make of the snarl that has no place on her gentle face.

“I think I understand what Lan Qiren meant now before he tossed the book at me in class. That my ideas were blind to the dangers of such evil energy.” He glances at Lan Zhan, who nods in response and says nothing as he stays by his husband’s side, watching the scene in front of them.

Eventually, the Wen are dead by the resentful energy and Yanli beheading them, a small part of him is relieved about that as he turns his attention to his husband’s bloody figure tips and quietly leads him to where the other wounded are waiting for aid.

In the back of his mind, Wei Ying resolves to find a way his former clan sister manage the resentful energy she now wields as he watches the Jiang heirs embrace each other in the corner of his eye.