Wei Wuxian nods. He casts his gaze down to the mug, with its obscenity cheerfully nestled among the bright glaze of the ceramic.
He will tell it as if relaying long-forgotten history. He will shore himself up as he should have done by the inlet.
"Until recently, there were five great cultivation sects, not merely four," he says. "Qishan Wen was the fifth. They took pleasure in their cruelty; they wanted only power, as much of it as they could gather to themselves. And they were very powerful by the end. We were able to subdue them and destroy their sect leaders, but it took enormous effort from all of the remaining clans.
"The problem was that in Qishan Wen's expansion, they forced many to follow them whom they treated just as cruelly, who were innocent of any crime. Lanling Jin -- they rose to prominence after Qishan Wen fell -- they dedicated themselves to hunting down every remnant of the Wen clan they could find. Even the elderly. Even children. I stopped some of Lanling Jin's cruelty and managed to rescue a small group of Wen remnants. Fifty in all, perhaps."
He smiles again, and it is small, and terribly sad. "We made a home elsewhere. For a time, we were happy.
"And then I was invited to my nephew's one-month celebration. Shijie's son."
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branchandroot
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Date: 2020-09-18 12:58 am (UTC)He will tell it as if relaying long-forgotten history. He will shore himself up as he should have done by the inlet.
"Until recently, there were five great cultivation sects, not merely four," he says. "Qishan Wen was the fifth. They took pleasure in their cruelty; they wanted only power, as much of it as they could gather to themselves. And they were very powerful by the end. We were able to subdue them and destroy their sect leaders, but it took enormous effort from all of the remaining clans.
"The problem was that in Qishan Wen's expansion, they forced many to follow them whom they treated just as cruelly, who were innocent of any crime. Lanling Jin -- they rose to prominence after Qishan Wen fell -- they dedicated themselves to hunting down every remnant of the Wen clan they could find. Even the elderly. Even children. I stopped some of Lanling Jin's cruelty and managed to rescue a small group of Wen remnants. Fifty in all, perhaps."
He smiles again, and it is small, and terribly sad. "We made a home elsewhere. For a time, we were happy.
"And then I was invited to my nephew's one-month celebration. Shijie's son."