Butterfly Effect: Wangxian

4

~*Some time ago, just before Wei Ying's transformation*~

The people of Yiling were a bit different from those in other cities and villages. They were nice and friendly but they had a very hard time when it comes to trusting outsiders. It had a lot to do with the resentment in the area nearby. It was the Burial Mounds that was a massive graveyard of bones of past wars and battles; eminence of the dead and plagued with a cold crisp atmosphere.

It was a place that held so much history. Aside from the past of Xue Chonghui and the Yin Iron. Allegedly an old battlefield, the Burial Mounds is famed as a haven for walking corpses and vengeful ghosts. It resists the Qishan Wen Clan's purification attempts multiple times, until they are forced to close it off.

There was the history of the Yiling Patriarch. After transferring his Golden Core to Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian is captured by Wen Chao and cast into the Burial Mounds. Injured and alone, without access to any spiritual abilities, Wei Wuxian resorts to his old theories regarding Demonic Cultivation. He develops a method to control Fierce Corpses and persuade ghosts to do his bidding.

After discovering that the Qishan Wen Clan members have been abused so badly that Wen Ning died under Jin Zixun's men, Wei Wuxian kills the Lanling Jin Clan's disciples in revenge and frees the remaining Wen remnants, including a grandmother and Wen Yuan.

Upon learning that Wei Wuxian plans to revive Wen Ning as a conscious fierce corpse, Jiang Cheng confronts and duels Wei Wuxian for his reckless actions at the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian renounces his place in the Yunmeng Jiang Clan and begins a life building houses and planting potatoes to eat and sell alongside the Wen Remnants. Sometime later, Wei Wuxian succeeds in reviving Wen Ning's consciousness, to the gratitude of Wen Qing and the surviving Wen Remnants.

During the First Siege of the Burial Mounds, Jin Guangshan's Lanling Jin Clan and Jiang Cheng's Yunmeng Jiang Clan are the two main forces. While Lan Qiren leads the Gusu Lan Clan and Nie Mingjue leads the Qinghe Nie Clan, their efforts make little difference in the battle. After Wei Wuxian's death, one hundred and twenty stone beasts are erected on the Burial Mounds. For thirteen years, though many soul summoning rituals are conducted, none can summon his soul.

Now the Burial Mounds is famed as a haven for walking corpses and vengeful ghosts. Throughout the mountain, skeletal remains poke up from the soil from the sheer number of bodies buried here. Crude houses line the mountain, partially demolished and burned from the First Siege. At the top of the mountain is a cave with a mouth fifty feet wide – the Demon-Quelling Cave, in which Wei Wuxian is rumored to have carried out his wicked acts.

Inside the Demon Slaughtering Cave is a Blood Pool. This is where, at the moment, two people are in. One dressed in white robes with cloud motifs embroidered on them, their hair had a distinguished hair piece that suggests that he was of someone with higher authority. Their hair was long and gray, and their skin was a bit more pale and wrinkled, that of an elderly male.

The other person was dressed stylishly in dark grayish robes, adorning themselves with rings of jewelry and carrying a paper fan. They carried a nervous demeanor and always seemed to make others believe he knew nothing about anything involving gossip and lore about the cultivation world. Which was entirely false as they always knew what was going on.

They both wore masks even though of anyone else saw them, they'd know where these two people were from based off of the robes they wore. It was evidently clear they were from two different prominent sects. Their cover would be blown but they had a mission.

"Elder, are you sure you are okay with this?" The man in gray asked.

"I am not going to separate them permanently, just change a little bit of the past," The elder in white said.

"Tampering with the timeline is dangerous, it will change how things are now," the man in gray said.

"Do you want your brother back or not?!" The elder spat.

The man in gray squealed a bit and felt a chill run down his back, "y-yes b-but how d-does this b-bring him back?"

"We will see if it works," said the elder.

The elder entered the cave and went to the blood pool. The elder had a long staff in his hand and he began to etch an array into the ground. He'd dip the staff in the blood pool and use it as its source of energy. The blood pool was filled with yin energy and it will be useful to activate the array. Once the array was drawn, the two men grabbed each other's hands and chanted a spell. The array began to glow and in an instant, they were taken to another location.

They were still in Yiling, but only a few minutes away from the town, "let's go," the elder said.

The two went around Yiling looking for something..or someone. They asked around even. Asking if they saw a little boy, possibly going through garbage for food. Some said no, but some said they have seen the boy with someone as of recently. The boy was seen with a distinguished man in purple robes. The two men knew where to go from here.

It took some time but they eventually got to their next destination, Lotus Pier. The two had waited for the right time to sneak into the Jiang sect. Waiting for a shift change as disciples will change shifts to guard the gate entrance and patrol the grounds. The two got into the sect by boat as there were places in the sect that allowed access this way.

"Where do you think they brought him?" The elder asked.

"If I am correct, they'd probably place him with Jiang Wanyin," the man in gray said.

The elder nodded and they began to carefully look for what they came for. The elder soon came across the infirmary. He heard a woman yelling god awful things that no one should be told. Garbage, useless, disgusting, and not belonging in the sect. The elder felt bad for the person and then saw the woman storm out of the infirmary in fumes. It was Yu Ziyuan.

"I take it we are in the right timeline," the elder said.

"Yes," said the other man.

They then entered the infirmary and found what they came for. A little boy who had yet to be treated for the wounds on his arms. The boy was balled up on the bed and waited for the healer to arrive. The elder snuck in and used a needle to get him to sleep. The elder then picked him up and then he and the other man went back to Yiling. They were back at the burial mounds and made the array to get back to their original timeline.

Once back, the elder was easily able to enter his sect. It may be past curfew but he returned when the disciples were changing shifts. He then went to the Jingshi. He actually stood beside the window of the bedroom and quietly opened it. He set the boy on the bed and removed the needle before disappearing back to his own residence. It was as if he never left and he didn't just alter the timeline by taking away a big piece of its history to the future.

What changes were made when the elder brought the boy back with him?