anyway now i cant stop thinking about an au where jiang yanli ends up talking to nie mingjue during the sunshot campaign, and instead of treating her with disdain bc of her 'low cultivation' or her 'average looks' he genuinely talks to her like she's a real person and ++

she finds that even though he's tough and harsh on the surface, underneath that lies someone who's very much still kind and just, and she starts to become,,, fond of him.

it's small things. she asks about his brother, and they spend hours talking under the moonlight and ++

when it blossoms into something more than just fondness, jiang yanli doesn't know.

the others there are confused as to what's going on. especially since at the beginning, it was only the jiang sect leader who would refuse help and treatment until jiang yanli showed up to ++

knock some sense into him. now, though, there's two big and easily angered angry sect leaders that need to be yelled at by jiang yanli to go get their wounds tended to.

she doesn't know why they worry about her so much.

(she doesn't realise that the sight of her, safe ++

and unharmed makes them feel at ease.)

the first time their troops saw nie mingjue smile (and at jiang yanli, of all people!) they thought they were hallucinating.

–– meanwhile, in the unclean realm, nie huaisang loses his shit when his brother writes to him, in the middle of a war, asking for advice on the kind of romantic poetry he can send to someone he wants to court.

eventually, they get married, and it's soon enough that wwx is actually able to attend. and between the twin heroes of yunmeng not sparing a single expense for their sister, and nie huaisang finally getting his time to shine, it's a grand, opulent celebration.

of course, yanli is later devastated that her younger brother defected from yunmeng jiang, but all the way in qinghe, what can she do, except send letter after letter, hoping to get some answers?

eventually, things go somewhat back to normal, and when the jins hold the ++

conference to discuss the 'threat' of the yiling laozu, nie mingjue insists on taking yanli with him.

everything's mostly fine until the sects start shit-talking wwx. still, she just stays calm and collected, and he can SEE how it's bothering her so much and he's ready to ++

speak up n defend him but she just places a hand on his wrist and shakes her head softly, and gestures for him to let it go.

later, she's courteous and kind to the same people that threatened her family and he's just ?? so confused at that because how is she able to smile at ++

someone who threatened someone she loves?

after the conference, where nothing concrete had been decided, thanks to his and xichen's efforts at stalling the other sects, he asks her why she didn't say anything and why she stopped him from defending wwx when it was clearly ++

bothering her, and she explains that it was bc she didn't want him to defend someone just for her sake. and she knows. she knows that he still thinks of wwx as a threat because of his amulet and how he protected the wen remnants, and she understands that. but so do the others. ++

which was another reason she stopped him. because she didn't want the other leaders to see the nie sect leader as someone who was easily influenced by his wife.

and if he really wants to help defend her brother, then he'll go with her, to the burial mounds and visit him. ++

she doesn't want him to go there as an attempt to convince him that wwx is anything more than he is. she just wants him to go there and see for himself. and then, maybe, he'll believe that wwx is worth defending. ++

nie mingjue stares at his beautiful wife, her kind heart, her dimpled smile, and realises that he'll never stop falling in love with her.

and so, they head out. nie mingjue, his wife, jiang yanli, a few of their best disciples – just in case – and oddly enough, even his ++

brother decided to tag along for this trip.

it was a party of around twelve people, but that was enough.

the journey took them a few days, and it honestly felt like an eternity, thanks to huaisang's endless complaining.

eventually, they made it to yiling. ++

the town was small and quaint, and it seemed harmless. but nie mingjue wasn't about to let his guard down.

as they climbed the mountain, nie mingjue could sense resentful energy all around him. only the light touch of yanli's fingers every now and them reminded him that he ++

would be safe.

they reached towards the top, and came to a barrier.

a fierce corpse stood there, tall and unmoving. nie mingjue would have been content with stepping around it and letting it be, but then it moved, right towards his wife.

baxia in hand, nie mingjue ++

stepped in front of his wife, arm already moving to attack the corpse, when he felt yanli's hand on his arm.

the corpse looked at him, face blank, and then, of all things, bowed to him???

"sect leader nie," he says, his voice timid, like a mouse, "madam nie," he bows again. ++

"wen ning," his wife greets back, stepping out from behind him, "would you tell a-xian we're here to see him, please?"

the corpse nods, a strange smile-like expression on his face, "he already knows you're here," he replies. "he's on his way dow–"

"SHIJIE!" voice booms from ++

beyond the barrier.

the yiling laozu shows up, and... he looks a lot more like a farmer and a lot less like a dangerous threat.

still, he doesn't let his guard down, and goes through all the social niceties with his brother-in-law, and follows him into the burial mounds. ++

wei wuxian, his wife, and nie huaisang lead the procession, the three of them chatting about whatever it is they want to talk about, and the corpse follows them.

when they come to a stop, nie mingjue can't believe his eyes.

it's a settlement. it's got a few barely standing ++

structures, and it's full of the elderly and the weak.

there were no evil wen cultivators hiding here. there was no uprising being planned. there was nothing nefarious at all. just a group of people trying to live.

from up ahead, nie huaisang could be heard talking about ++

paint for the houses, and fabrics for curtains and perhaps some clothes to help out. nie mingjue hears wwx say with a laugh, that he only had turnips to offer in return.

yanli seems to have drifted away from the two of them, and is now talking to an elderly woman with a ++

kind smile on her face.

yanli nods, and then gestures for the disciples to follow her to the kitchens.

nie mingjue stands there, simply looking around at the insides of the evil demonic cultivator's den, when he feels a force slam into his legs. when he looks down, there's ++

a toddler looking up at him with a toothy grin.

a child? why is there a child here? he picks up the child, much to the child's delight, and heads off to find wei wuxian to demand answers.

a place full of resentful energy is no place for a young boy.

"wei wuxian!" he ++

calls out.

wei wuxian and his brother step out from a cave like structure, and while wei wuxian grins and jogs over, huaisang stands there, staring at the toddler.

"ah, so you've met a-yuan!"

"wei wuxian, what is a child doing here?"

and for the first time, nie mingjue ++

sees something other than a smile on wei wuxian's face.

wei wuxian promises to tell him when they're all together, and later, over dinner, he explains to nie mingjue, nie huaisang and jiang yanli what had happened when wen qing found them. what he saw at qionqqi pass.

he ++

couldn't believe his ears.

but the truth was right there, wasn't it?

the jin sect was massacring the wen remnants. the weak, the old, the innocent...

after spending another few hours talking to the people at the settlement, nie mingjue had decided that there needed to be ++

an investigation. to find out the truth about the wen prisoners.

their stay at yiling lasts a full three days, and during that time, nie mingjue comes to understand that the amulet is under the process of being destroyed.

he believes wei wuxian, trusts him, and so, ++

the matter is put to rest.

later, with the help of jiang cheng, lan xichen, and a few smaller sects, an investigation is launched into the jin treatment of the wens.

he still tries his best to embody his wife's kindness when dealing with jin guangyao, but something at the ++

back of his mind keeps him on edge.

in the middle of the jin sect investigation, the 'threat of the yiling patriarch' is all but forgotten, and that's exactly how they want to keep it.

when the investigation ends, the jin sect is found guilty, and they're ordered to let ++

all the remaining former wen sect members go.

some have relatives in smaller villages and return to them. most, though, don't have a place to go.

the solution to this problem comes with thanks to the nie sect and jiang sect's mutual decision to send their disciples to ++

yiling as a form of punishment.

the settlement there is no longer a set of a few barely standing homes.

instead, there are now a few well-structured buildings, a clinic for wen qing, a records room, and more importantly, it has room for more people.

which is why the jiang ++

and the nie sect send their disciples to escort the former wen sect members to their new home.

at the newly formed yiling wei sect.

wei wuxian, as sect leader, wasn't on board with that idea at all, but one wistful comment from his sister about how nice it would be to ++

have his future niece or nephew have two sect leaders as uncles was all that it took for wei wuxian to melt like putty and give into his shijie's wish.

later, as he stands in the newly built town hall of the yiling wei sect, nie mingjue realises how powerful ++

his wife truly is.

it was true that her cultivation was not great. true that she didn't fight in the sunshot campaign.

but really, but what she did was far more important.

through her kind care, and her gentle actions, she saved innocent people's lives. she gave them a ++

new place to call home. she created a new sect.

nie mingjue looks at the most powerful woman he's ever seen and feels so, so proud to call her the love of his life.