The meaning of protecting you with my life

The Yin iron

Note: This chapter contains mild description of depressing thoughts and thoughts about death which can also be interpreted as suicidal tendencies (even though Wei Wuxian only does not value his own life as he should), please be warned and proceed at your own discretion

Wei Wuxian was extremely happy that his vision of Lan Zhan agreed to sing him the song he needed to ground himself. Although he had successfully managed to take control of the Yin iron due to the fact that Wen Ruohan's consciousness suddenly disappeared and he had had a clear field, he still had one last task to accomplish before he could let go of everything and finally fully succumb to his exhaustion.

It was not as if anyone would miss him after he would close his eyes for good. Even though, it occurred to him suddenly and he would have laughed if he had not been so tired, his eyes had been closed for a long time already, only his consciousness remained awake and even that was questionable at this point. He felt too spread out and too tired to care anymore.

The only ones who could miss him were his family and they did not actually have any reason to. He had accomplished his mission of protecting them. Madame Yu had clearly said that he should give up his life for them and he had long accepted his fate. They would not mourn him too much surely. He had always been only a son of a servant, and the Yunmeng Jiang clan had many other servants to take his place. He did not have to worry about the Jiang family to not be protected. They would certainly get a new head disciple, someone better and stronger than his coreless self, so the juniors would not have any reason to miss him either.

Wei Wuxian's heart hurt when he wondered whether Lan Zhan would miss him. They had not been friends during the time they had spent together in Cloud Recesses, not really. Wei Wuxian had thought of it that way but it had been only his selfish wish, he knew how annoyed Lan Zhan had been with him, the relationship was purely one sided and he was the one pushing everything onto the Second Jade. And he had been ignoring him and pushing him away during the whole Sunshot campaign too, brushing away his concern as if it was nothing, Lan Zhan must hate him at this point.

But still, he was singing him that special song that he loved so much. Lan Zhan was simply too good. Even though he could not stand him, he was still indulging him now when he knew he was so close to death.

Wei Wuxian was a bit sad that he would leave this world just as he had come to it, with nothing; no one caring and with no one missing him, not really. Then again, it was a good thing, no one would be sad that he would be gone. Perhaps Madame Yu or Lan Qiren would even be happy that he would not be able to cause any trouble anymore.

Wei Wuxian shook his head internally to get rid of such thoughts. It really did not matter anyway, he had other things to worry about than his own life. He had to protect his family and that could only be done if he destroyed the Yin iron just as he had planned.

He used the song to help him gather his last strength – it really must have been some kind of a healing song and it worked so much better when Lan Zhan was singing to him. Perhaps he knew what Wei Wuxian had to do now and wanted to help him in this way? Sweet and good Lan Zhan – it was time. Now that Wen Ruohan was not standing against him, it would be a bit easier, though the Yin iron was putting up a fight of its own and it was sucking away Wei Wuxian's strength to keep it at bay. He did not want to let it go on a loose without a master, there were high chances that the Yin iron would act on its own, following the Qishan Wen sect leader's last commands to resurrect puppets.

The power of the relic was overwhelming and Wei Wuxian could understand why it had driven Wen Ruohan insane. It was attacking his consciousness nonstop and he did his best to not be overcome by it for he did not want to end up being controlled by it as the Qishan Wen sect leader had been. It was now clear to him that it had been the will of the Yin iron all this while and not Wen Ruohan who had wagered war and caused so much resentful energy to be released to the world.

It had been the Yin iron all along, it wanted to feed on the misery of people and the demonic cultivator just did its bidding, unconsciously or not.

Wei Wuxian wanted to cry and to laugh at the same time. Everything that happened, all the lost lives, distorted families, all the resentment; it was all just to power up the Yin iron. They should have realized earlier, perhaps then it would have been possible to save everyone by tackling the issue. He was sure that if the three pieces of the Yin iron were not reunited, the effects would not have been this devastating. One piece would not have had enough power to cause so much damage.

He realized at that point that even if he was to give up his life trying, he would not be able to destroy the Yin iron. It was a force of nature; he had once heard a legend about its creation and now he thought that there must have been more truth to it than anyone realized. The Yin iron had been forged from a piece of iron which had been saturated by resentful energy. The relic had only been broken apart by several high ranking cultivators giving up their lives to appease it and then it had been hidden, each piece separately, never to be put together again.

Or at least that was what should have never come to pass. Not that Wen Ruohan heeded the warnings of the past. He still gathered three pieces of the relic and the Yin iron now had a will of its own. He had been such a fool! And Wei Wuxian as well for thinking he could actually destroy something this powerful. The best he could do was to control it as long as the pieces were not put apart again.

How could he do that thought? He felt like he would not live long enough to be able to accomplish this. How could he let others know about what he had found out? He had to warn someone to store the pieces separately and put up wards to protect people from their evil influence.

But how could he do that when he could not even manage to open his eyes much less speak anymore? He was lamenting his weakness. Surely there was something he could do.

The Yin iron itself was not making his job any easier by fighting against his control and trying to suck into it even more resentful energy. Wei Wuxian could now hardly think anymore because the voices in his ears were so loud. It was not unlike what he had lived through in the Burial Mounds, yet it was so different. He was starting to wear out and he felt his consciousness fading.

He tried to focus on the song Lan Zhan was still humming to him. It took him an eternity to gather his thoughts but it worked, his mind cleared a bit and he was able to focus enough to come up with a desperate way to weaken the Yin iron at least a little bit; and also perhaps to let someone know what his intentions were and what they should do so that the relic would be subdued.

With an enormous effort, he put every ounce of his remaining strength into one last attempt. He pushed back against the Yin iron and willed the connection between the pieces to crumble. Then, with the last of his consciousness, he commanded the pieces to separate and fly apart from each other. That was all he could do. There was nothing more left in him, but also nothing more for him to do. He could finally rest.