okay okay wait. so. i am too far gone on sleeplessness to not just ramble therefore you all will simply have to avert your gaze from the embarrassingly self indulgent things i am about to say. anyway. i am now genuinely considering writing the jiang!my au. which i shouldn’t since i haven’t finished canon but i WANT to. specifically because i want to explore him as a character ie his constant calibration and calculation and ordering and organising. specifically in relation to emotions—telling himself he feels or doesn’t feel certain things until the conviction becomes indistinguishable from the truth. in this au his drive isn’t centred around jgs/acceptance into the jin, but rather around his siblings (wwx jc and jyl) and their happiness. so i think it would be really interesting to explore this like. whole scheming thing he has going on, his constant evaluation and ranking of threats and leverages and allies etc etc but instead of being used for “bad” (ie the plot antagonist’s benefit) rather for “good” (in line with the plot protagonists). i think it would still mean he does a number of rather unethical things—but in this case it’s very much “better my hands bloodied than theirs, if it means their happiness”. in this au sunshot/the war doesn’t happen but it’s because my/jly basically takes an “ends justify the means” approach to preventing it (possibly involving infiltrating the wen as in canon, but at an earlier date?). and then of course at the end of it all you have a man who is aware that he has done horrible things, and no one else is aware the full extent of them, so you also get a nice little bit of a sense of alienation from those around him. there would also be an element of xy because i want jly to be happy and it would add a nice little bit of angst on the level of jly not wanting the relationship to progress 1. out of fear of vulnerability (i think even in this au that would be the case) and 2. because he doesn’t think lxc could truly love him if he was aware of everything he had done, ie therefore lxc must love a mask/a man who doesn’t really exist, because jly can live with what he did because it kept his siblings safe and that’s his highest priority, but he knows (or at least believes) that to lxc and by the lan precepts, what he did is unquestionably unforgivable. i don’t have a nice neat solution to this but i think lxc pointing out that if it were him and lwj he would have done anything necessary as well could at least begin to bridge that gap. unfortunately this is all very plotty and political drama-y and i am not good at those things so as much as i want this written it will probably only stay as a concept.

Wangxian au were lan zhan breaks something so he stay in the burial mounds: what if he's still there when Jiang Cheng smuggles Yanil to vist. What if instead they came to the burial mounds to see wei wuxian and surprise they see lan zhan there. Or what if lan zhan is out with wei ying when he's sees them hobbling with a crutch so wei wuxian doesn't have to carry him while shopping.

So it happens when LWJ is already doing better (he might be pretending he’s doing worse than he is, but if he does, he thinks he can be forgiven). WWX announces that they lack [necessary thing] and that he needs to go down to Yiling to buy the thing. He’s going to take A-Yuan with him. And of course LWJ is like “I’m coming with you.”

First WWX rejects the idea because LWJ is still injured, but LWJ can be remarkably stubborn if he wants to be, so LWJ joins the little expedition. A-Yuan is THRILLED, because if Rich-gege is coming, there’s a chance he’s going to get a toy. “I see how it is,” WWX mumbles, pouting. “Bought with money.” Secretly, he’s really happy though.

 They head down to Yiling and it’s not really an issue, because A-Yuan’s pace is hardly faster than Lan Zhan can go injured. So they walk around the market, get the things WWX needs and even get a toy for A-Yuan, but WWX seems strangely dirstracted, looking around all the time. After asking for the third time, WWX finally confesses that his brother and sister are supposed to be here today.

Of course LWJ is immediately like ‘let’s seek them out’, so they go. JC and JYL are absolutely floored when WWX doesn’t come alone, but with a child and LWJ in tow. Like... how? And hasn’t LWJ been missing for a while now?? And WWX is like.. ahahaha yeah funny story, he broke his foot when he was here, and he’s staying until he’s fully recuperated, no evil kidnapping of anything involved guys. Anyway this is A-Yuan, my child. (A-Yuan is already JYL’s favourite nephew and JC is pouting because how the fuck did WWX manage to acquire a child in the BURIAL MOUNDS???)

They spend some time together and WWX is the happiest he’s ever been, because basically all his favourite people are in one place. Meanwhile, JC and JLY kind of keep wondering what LWJ is doing here, until A-Yuan gets tired from the excitement. He first turns towards WWX, but WWX is talking to his sister, so he turns towards LWJ and unceremoniously crawls into his lap. And LWJ lets him. Even steadies him, and affectionaly brushes his cheeks.

JC and JYL are like (ö.ö) (ö.ö) And suddenly this little group looks like something completely different. And JYL sends WWX a shrewd look and is like “A-Xian, have you ever thought about marriage?” WWX blushes from head to toe and is like “What? Me?? Who could I possibly marry?” But JYL just Knows.

LWJ is in the background debating whether he should ask the two siblings for their permission. It would make sense, no? All very reasonable and economic. They have a child to think of, too.

Okay, so this is going to contain some major spoilers for mdzs regarding golden cores and cultivation. If you don't know exactly what I'm talking about I'd finish your version of the watching/reading experience then come back.

Also, I'm drawing pretty heavily from both Scum Villain Self Saving System and Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation for this, so if the information between the two books are wildly different and only alike in genre than this post will make little sense.

So, onto my point.

First, the term 'golden core's. Now in SVSSS it's implied that most people don't get far enough in cultivation training to develop a golden core, but that it meant they were farther developed and closer to being immortal. In MDZS it's much more common, though I'm unsure of if that's because it's just more common or because it focuses on sect leaders and other powerful figures. Now it's sort of implicitly stated that everyone named in MDZS has a golden core (except civilian types like YangLi) but if you consider points from SVSSS I would consider the 'weaker cultivators' as those who hadn't developed a golden core or improperly developed a golden core, such as Nie HuaiSung (and you know the little shit did it on purpose, but that's a whole other post).

Now in both novels having a golden core came with a few benefits. Inedia (the ability to function without food by using spiritual essence as a replacement), increased physical strength (Wei being unable to hold himself up when Jiang pushes him for example), temperature regulation (pretty sure people mention this a few times though aparently the Cold Spring in Gusu is too cold for that?), the ability to wield a spiritual weapon (hence Wei not using Suibian post core-shift), and healing abilities (by this I mean both the external use of healing by putting spiritual essence into someone else and being able avoid bleeding out from a missing ARM).

So we know that after giving his core to Jiang he gets thrown into the Burrial Mounds where he is beset by resentful energy which his golden core cannot protect him from. Mastering this is how he is still able to use cultivation without a core, as instead of his own core, he uses external resentment to power his talismans and corpse-control music.

But using this isnt the same as having a golden core.

It's been a while since I read this part, but I just watched Untamed again and he's clearly holding his chest throughout the show as though he's constantly in pain, so I imagine there are many things different. If he's using external power for his cultivation then he can't automatically do things he's used to.

But he'd probably forget this.

Just imagine for me-

- WWX leaning heavily on his flute because hey it's okay that my brother stabbed me in the gut just to make it seem like I defected. I'll heal, no need for WQ to patch me up, someone else could use those supplies. Why am I coughing blood?

-WWX being relieved that he's renowned for liking spicy food and liquor because they're the only things keeping him warm when it would be odd to ask for more blankets. Not that anyone would notice if he did.

-WWX pestering JLY for her soup and cooking more often. She thinks it's because it's a war and he's homesick or heartsick but he's honestly starving because high level cultivators don't get large portions so that they have enough food to go around to the common soldiers on the battlefield, and everyone knows WWX is scary powerful so why would he need large portions anyways?

-having to avoid wearing ANY sword casually, let alone Suibian because what if he gets challenged to a fight and he cant refuse they'd break his guard in a moment and then his secret would be out and JC would be furious, the Wens would be in danger and he'd rather face ridicule for the rest of his life than watch that happen.

-watching fellow cultivators jump on their sword and having to make quick excuses why he 'forgot his sword' or 'could use the exercise' or 'wanted to hold onto LWJ- WHY ARE THEY FLYING AWAY' but being secretly relieved when they scoff and think he's arrogant.

- honestly believing that he can regulate his emotions and the amulet's influence because he's used to having a core to pass things through to purify them and he forgets this sometimes and he panics. But he promised LWJ it wouldn't consume him. So obviously he can't be losing his control, he's just righteously angry, who wouldn't be? (He's losing his mind and he knows it)

BONUS:

- WWX instinctively runs from fights now, dodging and diving and using the dark tricks he'd taught himself. He braces himself for a surge of resentment, anger- but it's not coming? It's muted, barely there and he realizes, MXY doesnt have a golden core- he was kicked out of the Jin sect before it formed, but even though he cant use SuiBian properly he STILL HAS SPIRITUAL ENERGY. He feels boneless with a sort of longing relief.