💙 Caught in 4k by KizuKatana

🔒💙 Caught in 4k

by KizuKatana (@kizukatana)

E, Series, WIP, 184k, Wangxian

Summary: A night-hunt goes wrong, and Wei Wuxian is scapegoated for the death of the Jiang Sect Leader and the destroyed core of the Jiang Sect Heir. As punishment, his core is taken and given to Jiang Cheng, and he is stripped of his cultivation credentials and expelled from the sect. What everyone forgot was that Wei Wuxian was wearing the standard issue body camera that each cultivator wore on training missions and high-risk night-hunts. Struggling to make ends meet, Wei Wuxian finds his way to Caiyi Town with the doctor who performed the surgery, a partial core still secretly in place. His application to work at Cloud Recesses is summarily rejected by the hard-edged Second Jade of Lan after an unfortunate initial encounter. But things change when someone hacks into the Jiang systems and releases the footage of what happened. Kay's comments: The series is still a WIP, but the main story is complete! I am so weak for Kizu's modern AUs with cultivation, they are great. Especially the world building and how the cultivation society might function in a modern AU shines in this story. Definitely not a story for fans of the Jiang family, but a story for everyone who wants to see some retribution for the things Wei Wuxian went through. Here, Jiang Fengmian dies during a night-hunt accident where Jiang Cheng's golden core gets destroyed and Madam Yu makes Wei Wuxian give his golden core to him, unfortunately for her, his body-cam is still filming everything. Wei Wuxian finds himself taken in by Wen Qing and her family and we get the sweetest found family and Dadxian vibes here and then meets Lan Wangji as well, who's highly judgemental at first but soon finds himself drawn to Wei Wuxian as well. This story really got it all, the drama, the horny, the softness, the restitution & humor. Excerpt: Still Wei Wuxian forced himself to at least try one last time. “You could also interview me. Have me talk to your best talisman experts,” Wei Wuxian said, forcing himself to keep the desperation out of his voice. “Interviews are scheduled based on receipt of proper credentials and references.” “I don’t have any, at least not right now. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be a great teacher.” “No references, no interview.” “Come on. Look, ask me anything about talismans. You’re an experienced cultivator, right? So you must know enough to at least interview me to see if I know what I’m talking about.” “Simply ‘knowing about something’ is not sufficient. Our lecturers are renown cultivators, and masters in their fields. No references, no interview.” Wei Wuxian felt frustration well up in him, especially at the reminder that Lan Wangji didn’t see him as a cultivator. No one would, in his current condition. Why would they? He didn’t have a functional core, which was the main scale against which all cultivation efforts were measured. He thought he had done a good job of not getting his hopes up about the teaching position, but the suffocating feeling constricting his chest was calling him out for being a liar. He should have known better. Why did he never learn? Some people had luck on their said, but Wei Wuxian had never been one of them. “Right. Of course. Because it would be impossible for someone who wasn’t born to the fucking clan nobility to ever actually be good at something, and the cost of taking the mastery test makes sure that other people can’t do it!” Lan Wangji’s lips parted slightly, like he might say something, but his expression was as opaque and emotionless as before. Wei Wuxian didn’t need to sit around and listen to him defend the clan system. “Good to know that the Lan are just the same as all the other sects,” Wei Wuxian continued, his lips twisting into a sarcastic smile. “Thanks for making that clear.”

pov alternating, modern setting, modern with magic, yu ziyuan being an asshole, dysfunctional jiang family, jiang family bashing, canon divergence, golden core reveal, burial mounds ensemble as family, golden core transfer, golden core transfer fix-it, top lan wangji/bottom wei wuxian, dual cultivation, strangers to lovers, misunderstandings, meet ugly, families of choice, hurt/comfort, emotional hurt/comfort

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

I've been understanding a lot of cultural subtext around MDZS thanks to you. I'd like to ask more about what makes "cultivation partners." Is it synonymous to marriage or is it a different thing altogether? From my understanding of various marriages depicted in MDZS, marriage can easily be a power move, right. I've also read about dual cultivation, but not sufficiently, and I wish to understand if becoming cultivation partners, sex, marriage - all are supposed to be exclusive stuff. like Jin Guangsham was married yet had sexual relations with plenty of people, perhaps including cultivators? JFM and Madam Yu had a complicated marriage; were they cultivation partners as well? Mianmian married a non cultivator (?) but still went on night hunts to cultivate her core. Other marriages were Qin Su and JGY, and JZX and JYL - so, I do wonder if all of these were classified as cultivation partners.

Another thing I do wonder is, from where I am, in olden times in certain dynasties it was acceptable to have many wives or spouses or marry for gains. In others, the emperor had one true wife who would repeat 7 lifetimes with him and the others were on a lower social level - ploys for expansion etc. I wonder how monogamy etc plays out in chinese context around mdzs time frame, as well as what sort of "expectations" marriage should entail?

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Woo… that’s a fair bit. Okay. I’m going to try to answer what I can. Let’s take this one thing at a time. 

1. The O.G meaning of cultivation partner: 

Cultivation partner = Daolǚ （道侣） 

From a lingual view, dao is path, truth, knowledge, and faith. Lǚ is a companion who shares your food, your bed, and your path. So Daolǚ = one who walks the same path in pursuit of truth, faith, and knowledge as you. 

From a Daoist view, Daolǚ is a couple who cultivate together, who seek the same truth together, and who share life and death together. They don’t necessarily have to be husband and wife or lovers. They can also be family members, parent and child, or shifu and dizi. They can be of different sexes or the same sex. All of those are only accessories to the OG meaning. 

The core of Daolǚ is “ones who seek the same truth.”

This video is from a master Taoist answering the question, “Are Dao couples husbands and wives?”

http://baike.baidu.com/l/nBoL850d

2. So why did MDZS use Daolǚ when talking about married couples? AKA a stealth reference to a real-life historical split in opinions: 

The first time the topic of Daolǚ comes up in the novel is during the Cloud Recess era when Lan Qiren taught the history of the Lan ancestor, how Lan An met his Daolǚ, and together they created House Lan. Then the students started discussing their future Daolǚ, which eventually led to the fight with Jin Zixuan. 

Daolǚ, in this context, definitely sounds like a different word for a married couple in the setting. Why? 

Well…. Because there is a historical split in opinions regarding what Daolǚ really is in practice.   

Of course, if we are only talking in theory and lingual origin, then the married or sexual aspect just doesn’t come into play. But in real practice, this kind of close proximity inevitably ends up becoming (or is born out of) actual physical, emotional, and sexual intimacy.

Think about it. The one who shares your faith. The one who shares your path. The one who holds the same ideal. The one who shares your food, your life, your bed. The one whose life and death are intertwined with yours. The one who will walk with you to the very end, wherever it may be. The one whose soul is literally linked to yours through shared cultivation.

You don’t really get this kind of exclusive, super intense, intimate relationship from anywhere other than a married couple. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are, by and large, exceptions that prove the rule. 

It’s very funny because even in the official Baidu entry for Daolǚ, beneath the super official definition provided by Daoism associations and sourced from some of the most credible historical texts that survive to this day, even they had to admit in the modern understanding, and especially in media portrayal, Daolǚ is used almost exclusively to refer to Daoist couples in every way that a regular couple can be. Even funnier, if you go and search for the term 道侣双修 (Daolǚ dual cultivate) in the book section, it turns up some 4300 titles concerning Daolǚ dual cultivation. And a very significant portion of those 4300 titles aren’t actually entertainment media at all, but actual historical texts, modern research, and serious treatises written by reputable modern Daoists on the subject.      

Okay. So then, why not just admit that outright? Why the extra step? What’s there to disagree about? 

Well, because sex is icky. 

Hahahaha! But no really… 

3. Dual Cultivation aka Magic Sex: 

And here we are at the crux of the historical split of opinions. 

Dual Cultivation aka Magic Sex (eyebrow waggle!).

From Daoism's founding point, the idea of harmony between Yin and Yang has been one of the founding precepts laid by Laozi himself. There’s not a single reputable Daoist school that disagrees with this precept. The disagreement comes from the interpretation of this precept instead. 

From very early on, there were already schools that believed in the application of Yin Yang harmony to manifest as the physical and spiritual relation between men and women (or Yang bodies and Yin bodies). 

How early are we talking? Well, BCE kind of early. The earliest text that teaches sex art as part of Daoism is a pre-Qin-dynasty book named The Dao of Huangchi 黃赤之道. This text was later religiousized by various schools of Daoism. 

Before the 10th century, there was not much disagreement at all among ancient Daoists about the sex part. 

Sexually explicit dual cultivation only became an issue sometime around the Tang dynasty forward (618 - 906 CE). Why the Tang dynasty? Well, that’s around the time Daoism became bourgeois. Before Tang, Daoism was the religion of anti-authoritarian hippies (for lack of a better word). Yep, they were very screw-the-government, let-me-have-my-weed-and-intense-sexercise-while-high kind of people (I’m not even kidding).  

One of the earlier records of Daolǚ dual cultivation after the bourgeois-ification of Daoism that still survives to this day is Wu Zhen Pian by Zhang Boduan from the 10th century. Around this same era, numerous sects and schools adopting the same practice of Daolǚ dual cultivation (sexually explicit at that) sprouted up, such as: Shuangxiu Sect, Fangzhong School, etc… 

The Wu Zhen Pian, despite being a fairly cryptid text, also explicitly referred to the “places where the body is first given qi” as the male and female genitalia. So there really isn’t any room for misinterpretation as to what exactly it was speaking of. 

Around this same era, the disagreement around dual cultivation being sexually explicit and Daolǚ being 99.99% couples became very intense… as in sect war kind of intense. 

Ancient High Chinese society was, by and large, very “performatively” puritanical. So from the time Daoism started rubbing shoulders with kings and rulers (instead of eschewing them as the literal founders of Daoism taught), they also started eschewing their fairly sexual, anarchist roots. 

Ergo… the ideological schism.  

This schism would split between diehard, purists practicing Daoists from the more neutral ones that used Daoism as a political tool as well. 

4. A history of sexual exploitation:  

Okay, so sexy Daoism is the pure, root Daoism. Why isn’t it the one being preached as official these days? 

Because… as usual, whenever there’s a great idea, some chuckleheads somewhere would come along, bend it around its knees, and abuse it instead. 

Think about it for a moment. Daoist sects in ancient times were steeped in mysticism. Many of them were powerful and rich. You throw in the sex element. It’s extremely easy for exploitation to happen. 

Cults are some of the oldest things in the history of mankind. Sex cults aren’t new, and they aren’t rare, either. Charles Mansion of the Mansion family is just one in a very, very long string of such things. 

Let’s just say that for many reasons and many factors, pure Daoist schools practicing sexually explicit dual cultivation also tended to have a checkered history and that along with the historical transformation of Daoism from an anarchist religion to a state-sponsored philosophy massively discredited them. 

To this day, you can still trace this history of exploitation down to modern media concepts such as “Human Cauldron,” which is the term denoting a human being used as a sex slave and a cultivation tool by another cultivator. You would think that’s a modern media invention… but no… this term has a long and dark history. Forgive me but I don’t exactly want to go into details in this part.  

5. So, what does this all have to do with MDZS? 

Well, you can use this context to understand how concepts like dual cultivation and Daolǚ are interpreted and practiced by different people within the MDZS world. MDZS is based in Wei Jin period, which was a period of transition, chaos, and clashing ideologies. You can kinda see that complexity in the way a concept like Daolǚ seems so… mixed and different between theory and practice. 

When you really get down to it, there are two ways to understand Daolǚ. 1/ Those who share the same mind, the same faith, the same truth. And 2/ Those who are boinking magically. 

Do Wangxian meet these requirements? Yep, both of them. I think that’s pretty clear. Near the end of the story, when Wei Wuxian said his goodbye to Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui, he also remarked about everyone having their own “road” to walk and that, in the end, only one person walked the same “road” as him. That person, Lan Zhan, was also the one person he wanted to walk with. (I don’t have to provide a snap for this, right? People aren’t going to shoot out of nowhere and accuse me of not providing adequate citations, right?). Dao is road. So that’s another nod to the fact that Wangxian are Daolǚ in every interpretation of the concepts (And yes, I’m totally into the interpretation that their boinking is, in fact, magical and working to stabilize Wei Wuxian’s cultivation! Look at the Japanese art featuring Wei Wuxian with the blue cloud patterns on his body! Clearly, lots of people agree with this interpretation! You can’t convince me otherwise!).  

What about Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan? Are they Daolǚ? Ehh… it’s kind of a toss-up, isn’t it? There’s not really much in any permutations of MDZS (with maybe the exception of the live-action) that either supports or disprove. I think if you want to interpret them as Daolǚ and Jin Zixuan would eventually help Jiang Yanli cultivate a Jindan and be able to stay young alongside him, you definitely can do that. Or if you want to see them as a more traditional, ordinary husband and wife couple, then that’s a valid interpretation too. 

Jin Furen and Jin Guangshan? Ehhh… the above paragraph applies… although… geee… I really don’t see them as either pursuing the same truth or… exclusively boinking magically or that either is using the other as a human cauldron… although that doesn’t disqualify Jin Guangshan himself from using that for his sexual escapade? But then why would he die to marathon sex? I guess Jin Guangyao is hax enough? 

In any case, I’m going to stop here. I’ve been sick for the past three weeks and my work has been really demanding. I really tried hard to reserve some free time to write. So the things I have not answered, can you come back to me another time and I will, when I find the time and full citation materials, write a separate reply? 

Have a great day! 

Oh, also… just as a disclaimer, please don’t use my writing for fandom strife or anything like that. I only very recently found out there were people using my writing for… well… Let’s just say I’m not for that. If anything, please use my writing for creative purposes or just to learn something new!  

dare i ask tumblr. how do u guys think lesbians dual cultivate 🤔🔍

There had been no cure; Li Lianhua dies. In his last days, hours, moments, Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng take good care of him. The dog is there as well.

*****

The other day, I reblogged a post by @murderedbyhomework, and accidentally put a tag in the text. So in my notes, people had liked my post 'in their arms'. I was a bit irritated at myself, but couldn't take it back. During the night, the three words suggested themselves as a title and the fic percolated and coalesced in my brain; in the morning, I got up and spat it all out into a Google doc. Then, I did a few editing passes -- and here it is now.

Dead Dove: Describing death from the PoV of the character dying may be the biggest leap of imagination any writer can take; I am tackling this challenge here. None of us has ever died; one needs to be alive to use Tumblr. Descriptions of Near Death Experiences exist, but there still is no certainty. I am out on a very, very long imaginational limb here. If this subject matter is triggering or too painful to you, please don't read.

Even though this fic deals with Li Lianhua's death, it's not set in the same universe as my other three death focused MLC fics where Fang Duobing and Di Feisheng deal with having lost Li Lianhua. If anything, this is the best-case scenario Di Feisheng describes in 'The End of the Tether' when he accuses Yun Biqiu of having robbed them of it.

art for the 2023 MDZS RBB! the wildly talented @sugarbunbie wrote a deliciously heartwrenching, horny & healing story for this piece, the late hum by the river, in which the partly-successful core transfer kills wei wuxian, leaving a grief-stricken and core-sick jiang cheng to find a way to go on living. what kind of physician would wen qing be if she left him to struggle alone?

all the thanks in the world, bunnie, you’re amazing, kind, funny, smart and incredibly talented!!!!!! your fic made me so so so upset (complimentary). Also thanks to the mods and community of the RBB, who were so wonderful and gracious and full of secret knowledges!!

art is colored pencil on bristol board.

Please have my 2023 MDZS RBB fic inspired by @travelingneuritis's gorgeous, unforgettable art and deliciously angsty prompt --

the late hum by the river

WWX dies mid-golden core transfer

JC/WQ have sex for medical purposes

Rated E, wc 23k

Expect: angst, grief, humour, healing

CW: gore, blood, viscera, dubcon, multiple character deaths, violence, etc. (mind tags)

The atmosphere of the room had been weighty before, heavy with anticipation. Now with Wei Wuxian finally here, it was almost hard to breathe. His skin buzzed with restlessness and yet, Jiang Cheng found himself completely frozen, sitting on the edge of his bed feeling like a nervous maiden on her wedding night.

“Well?” He demanded, as if he could trick himself into feeling any less out of his depth, “You came all this way in the dead of night just to stand in the doorway?”

Me when Sang Jiu's brother told her she needed to do dual-cultivation with Ming Ye to get rid of her demonic energy: oh, word?

Me when I realised that nope, it's not *that* kind of dual-cultivation: oooooh *pouts*.

Fanfiction lied to me.

Mastering the dual cultivation

what I regretted not finding in mdzs (and I am sure there are fanfics there that address this topic, but I have not looked for them - yet?) is the potential of creating a completely different sort of magic by means of sexual dual cultivation

my premises are: 

wwx is a prodigy in creating new types of magic

when lwj started doubting that all the truth can be found in the given rules, he opened up to new possibilities

the lan clan cultivates by means of music and self-restraint, and there is secret knowledge related to both music and self-restraint

the jiang clan cultivates by means of challenging their limits and attempting the impossible, this is their key to the more advanced ways of energy accumulation and energy dispatching

maybe there are some itinerant cultivators that cultivate by means of use of sexual energies, pleasure and self-transcendence; I place my bets on the practitioners being mainly women 

during the 16 years of searching for wwx in all kinds of places, lwj might have met them 

the golden core is a traditional energy-processing internal organ that is developed through cultivation of certain energies through sword practice

the yin iron/ yin tiger tally is an external energy-processing device that allows to use the energy of resentment

without a golden core and without the yin tiger tally, wwx in movie-verse does not fit into the cultivation world anymore and resorts to the existence of a vagabond busker musician, I guess; lwj knows that freedom is very important to wwx and sets him free, assuming the position of his most powerful protector by becoming the high ruler of the cultivation world; this is a form of sacrifice on his part, too, because he doesn’t care much about wielding power and having to interact with people 

but this self-exile of wwx from the cultivation world is not necessary if a new energy-processing organ or device is created, also a non-orthodox path, but not involving the energy of resentment 

potentially there can exist an external, say, “energetic kiln” that processes the energies cultivated through sexual practice — an external intangible crucible, or potentially a talisman (or a pair of talismans) that is created and maintained by a pair of dual-cultivating partners 

being mutual chargers, opening up completely new possibilities for magic and other abilities

maybe it is the secret knowledge of the itinerant cultivators of erotic arts, and maybe they accept men as disciples, even if they do it exceptionally rarely

such practices of working with sexual energies existed in ancient china, but as we can safely assume, in most cases they were created for the mutually complementary reverse-polarity qi flow of a man and a woman

if I had a writer’s talent and tenacity, I would have written something that becomes au shortly after their arrival to yunping, and explored the potential of the erotic cultivation, not overstressing the d/s and s/m nature of lwj’s and wwx’ interactions in the novel (not my cup of tea, but I can accept other people’s preferences, allowing myself to stick to my own). 

Notwithstanding the challenge of writing the scenes where the erotic cultivation, besides being passionate, mindful and intentional, is also silly, or clumsy, or tender, or comforting, or teasing, or like a fight, or a mystical experience of transcendence, — a time and place also for laughter and tears and the feeling of coming home, of an impossible alignment of feeling the other’s feelings as well as your own, of one shared heartbeat, and of something mysterious and as large as life itself. 

Heart Deviation - Chapter 4

Summary: Lan Wangji is sick and the only one who can save him is Wei Wuxian. The problem? Lan Wangji doesn’t want to take his medicine. How can Wei Wuxian convince him that fucking him is better than dying?

Fortunately, Lan Xichen is there to help. (And boy does he help)

Words: 4.1k for Chapter 4, 15.3k in total

Fandoms: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn

Tags: Angst, Dual Cultivation, Fuck Or Die, Hurt/Comfort, Pining, Getting Together, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Aged-Up Character(s), First Time, Love Confessions, Kissing, Masturbation, Light Dom/sub, Sexual exploration, Happy Ending, Cloud Recesses Study Arc (Módào Zǔshī), Lan Wangji's canonically large cock and unhinged horniness take over his brain

Dynamic: Top Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Bottom Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn

My favorite thing about Dual Cultivation as a fic thing is that it *seems* like just a fic thing, but it's actually an ancient Taoist sexual practice. Like, there's Star Trek inventing all the tropes, and then there's that. Just a bunch of Taoist masters wandering around, fucking their way to immortality, as one does.

I just finished rereading Caught on 4k: Caught in 4k - KizuKatana - 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù [Archive of Our Own]

Jiang Fengmian is killed in a Night Hunt. Madam Yu has Wei Wuxian's core transferred to Jiang Cheng. Wen Qing gets Wei Wuxian the hell out of there before the woman can do worse.

Just brill.

Sex, Science, and True Love: A Rigid Analysis of the Practical Applications of Dual

“I once heard a rumour that this is how Lan An and his cultivation partner did it,” Ma Qiao piped up. “Which, I mean, if anyone could…”

“The Lans are far too boring and repressed for something like this,” Wei Wuxian said, with the authority of one who had been resoundingly ignored by a Lan for the past month. “Can you imagine Lan Wangji dual cultivating?”

Everyone knows that dual cultivation is a myth that only works in porn. Wei Wuxian discovers differently.

shang qinghua finds a demon-magic-plot device way to provide MBJ an heir to the throne. a dedicated advisor!!

Alternate paths