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Synopsis / Script
After the events of Guanyin temple, Jin Guangyao is surprisingly ascending to heaven. First he is stunned by this fact, but then the Heaven’s emperor (currently Xie Lian) explains him that his watchtowers saved many, and his action during the war changed the outcome of the battle, in the balance his great deeds far outweigh his bad deeds.
And also Ling Wen is buried under so much paperwork she might find a way for a god to die of exhaustion and he is a good administrator (or so Xie Lian heard).
Jin Guangyao is not going to say no to that, even though given his circumstance and how hated he is in the human realm currently, he will be known under a new godly name and worshiped as such. And it might take time for his first temples to get any attention. Xie Lian has been there on his third ascension no one knew him at all, and when asked he said he was the trash collecting god.
Xie Lian : Might start thinking about what you want to represent. Once you do, you’ll be able to visit people in dreams, under a new appearance and tell them to start building temple for you.
But for the time being Jin Guangyao gets the hat “scholar god” and is sent to Ling Wen’s palace, where he finds his new colleague half buried under a pile (they did not lie about her being overworked) For the longest time he focuses solely on learning about his new conditions and meeting his new colleague (at one point he meets the gods of medicine and thinks she looks a lot like Wen Qing but he doesn’t say anything and she doesn't’ either so) then he focuses on the pile of documents to go through and works to his bones to avoid thinking about what he lost and what happened. (It works) but that also means he does not think about his new title and what he wants his godship to represent…
So he is surprised when suddenly a prayer is addressed to HIM (Jin Guangyao! his real name) echoes in his mind. It’s Lan Xichen’s voice. Lan Xichen’s prayer are for his souls, wishing JGY does not suffer too much the rest is confused mix of grief and angst (why did you ask me to die with you and then pushed me away? Why didn’t you trust me and tell me you were suffering? Why did you kill- why- why wasn’t i strong enough-) that breaks JGY’s heart.
Xie Lian not being there to answer his questions (Quan Yizhen : Yes, he is visiting his ghost husband) so he asks Ling Wen who tells him what happens since he passed.
His body (souless now) is sealed with NMJ’s fierce corpse in a coffin and Lan Xichen has been in seclusion ever since.
Ling Wen : You’re not allowed to interact much with people you knew from your previous life, especially not meeting them with your new body, but you can visit them in dreams.
So that’s what JGY does, and he regrets almost immediately as he sees Lan Xichen’s pain in his dreams. He tells Lan Xichen his soul has moved on, and that he shall move on too.
JGY : Please do not waste away in seclusion like your father did, i pushed you so you could live.
But Lan Xichen is stubborn and asks : “Why did you push me, i wanted to die with you-”
JGY : “The fact that you were willing to die with me was enough, i just wanted to make sure that someone still loved me enough to give their life for me. I didn’t want to die alone and hated.”
LXC assures that he is not, that people misses him even if they are few (he speaks of Jin Rulan), and that while he understands that people are angry with JGY for what he had done, he can’t get out and hear them all curse his name, pins every crime or any inconvenience on his back. He just can’t. He is not strong enough to hear the person he loved be hated like this.
It’s a confession that JGY did not expect (probably due to the fact LXC thinks it’s a dream). They never quite named their feelings for each other, they kissed and slept together once - after the end of sunshot campaign- and it had felt like LXC would take him to Cloud Recesses if JGS did not recognize his son. But he did. And JGY had been grateful that LXC did not ask to choose because he is afraid of what he would have chosen.
(Today he wishes he had chosen LXC and not his father)
After that they never touched again, they hid behind the sworn brotherhood and pretended it was enough. JGY married -thought he could get over it, have his children play with LXC’s children, sometimes even wished they would marry each other when they would not - but LXC never married and Qin Su happened to be his sister and Rusong - he does not want to think about it.
He also does not want LXC to suffer, the last thing he wanted was any harm done to him so he plays along with the ream, with what LXC wants and tells him the truth :
“I hated Nie Mingjue, that’s why i turned around and died with him. But you? I loved you, that’s why I pushed you away.”
And then he stops the connection. I Hope it will make things easier for LXC. For a time it does, but then the prayers come back, the questions. Each time there is one, JGY goes into the dream and tries to answer him as truthfully as possible. (Though sometimes it’s hard as lies are easier, fancier, it has been his armor for so long and getting rid of it makes him feel naked. Fortunately LXC is probably one of the single people he had wanted to be seen naked with ;)).
Anyways after months like this, JGY realizes that while it seems to help LXC, in reality it does not. LXC is still in seclusion, spending more time sleeping than awake and when LWJ visits his brother and JGY spies it with Ling Wen’s tool he realizes that LXC takes those dreams as products of his mind to make him feel better.
Quan Yizhen (who is waiting here because Ling Wen promised to find a solution to fix Yin Yu’s soul and is listening to JGY’s rambling just because he has to stay here until Ling Wen arrives) : tell him you’re not then
JGY : good idea, then he will think the product of his mind and hallucination is getting even stronger telling him he is real and a god now. Yeah.
Quan Yizhen *who never gets sarcasm* yeah, simple enough. Oh Ling Wen! Ling Wen help me fix Shixiong’s soul!
Ling Wen *pterodactyl internal scream as she runs away*
JGY decides LXC will never believe him as long as he doesn’t meet him and decides to speak to Xie Lian to ask for permission to meet him. Xie Lian however has something else in mind, he takes JGY to a tiny village and shows him a little girl from a noble family.
Xie Lian : This is your mother’s reincarnation.
JGY : but my mother’s corpse… (He was pretty sure Meng Shi’s corpses had been cut in pieces by NHS, actually he even used Ling Wen’s tools to confirm this, even though he could not do a thing about it without getting on earth)
Xie Lian : you built her a temple, so she would gather prayers and pass on and get a better life. It worked, her soul got reincarnated before her corpse was destroyed.
JGY *tears up*
Meng Shi’s reincarnation looks happy, when he visits her in her dream,. He explains that all he ever wanted was to make her dream come true. and Meng Shi reincarnation she has plenty of dreams (like having a cat! and eating this or that for dinner) and JGY promises her she will get all that. Meng Shi’s reincarnation looks at him and tells him : “I hope your dream comes true too!” and it heals something in JGY.
The next day he tells Xie Lian he has chosen his god’s title and what he wants to represent. (Yet to find out, but probably a name that evoke safety like being in one’s mother’s arms, and he wants to be the gods for those deemed as hopeless)
Xie Lian is worried “if you gets the prayer of every hopeless people you might get depressed very quickly” but JGY says he wants to help the one who felt like he did in his life, that the one person who gave him respect and love meant everything to him. He also asks if he can go and save that person as he is currently drowning in despair.
Xie Lian warns him about his own mistake but does not have forbid him. So JGY descends and meets LXC in his secluded house.
(In the meantime Xie Lian wonders how he is going to tell Ling Wen that his new colleague is not going the god of administration and so won't be able to help her as much as they thought.)
Of course the reunion is a bit angsty and teary, and when JGY reveals he is a god now and that he wishes LXC to get out of seclusion knowing he is fine and no curse can get to him now, LXC asks if he could bring him to heaven with him.
“I was willing to die with you, i know you pushed me away but i don’t want to lose you again.”
And JGY knows he can brings him as a heavenly general but he is not sure about this. If LXC ascends as general, he will be bound to the same limit as JGY - not being able to return and meet his family. LXC says being in eternal seclusion is not that much different. JGY is annoyed by him a little bit and by his stubbornness but LXC replies that if he has been as stubborn in the past maybe then JGY would have not turned the way he did and dies like this!
In the end JGY convinces LXC to not be his general yet, because he is his current 1 follower/prayer and so he needs his devotion to survive. He promises him that when his new name spreads and his temples are established he will bring LXC back, at the condition that he tries to get out and live. LXC reluctantly accepts.
JGy kisses him before they part (and maybe they do more but hm im not writing smut i'm not good with it) and it’s better than during those shared dreams. (Though they still have those later)
No long after this, and LXC finally getting out of seclusion however things get more complicated. HC comes to heaven to say a new calamity ghost is rising and when he describes it, JGY recognizes NMJ.
JGY : Nie Mingjue will you never leave me alone == Also why he is turning into calamity he has done no wrong-
HC : Styrgian amulet sealed with him.
JGY : The cultivation world and NHS would be so appalled that i am the one ascending as a god, and Nie Mingjue is turning into a calamity. Logic be damned.
HC : Not really, gods are so-so (except Xie Lian) more often than none they ascend because they massacred all their enemies and made their country wins. This Nie Mingjue was a good general, but what good as he done in his life? He killed in the war, then lost his mind.
JGY *wants to say NMJ wouldn’t have lost his mind without his help but doesn’t because it’s a lie, and acting modest and hypocritical in front of HC is stupid*
HC : I’m not saying you’re a good guy, you’re terrible i’ve heard about you, i’m just saying you fit right in the bunch of gods we have in heaven. Minus Gege.
JGY : Sounds about right.
Anyways because an idiot broke into the seal and freed NMJ - NMJ future-calamity is heading toward Qishan (ex named mOunt tanglu ) and they need to stop him. It just happens that humans are part of this too because well, it’s happening in their realm.
NHS is trying to get his brother back, WWX and LWJ are helping because he is causing quite a lot of chaos and LXC is feeling responsible for this so he is also heading right into the mess. JGY is reluctant about it, but he decides to visit WWX in his dreams to try to convince him to bring NMJ’s sentient back like he did for WN.
Convinced by LXC, JGY is betting that if NMJ woke up he would rather tear himself up than become something as unrighteous as a calamity. It’s a risky bet because he could also decide to embrace the power and destroy everything he does not agree with / does not fit his black/white vision.
WWX is a bit reluctant because you know, he managed to bring back dead once and that's not that simple he isn't sure NMJ's soul is savageable (and we learn NHS brought him back to life because he thought WWX would be able to do it too, and went for sealing only when it was obvious that NMJ's soul was gone-gone) However JGY has an advantage they didn't have back then - he knows the king of ghost (it's his bosss husband) HC doesn't want to work with JGY but he doesn't mind working with WWX.
The battle starts at Nightless city, while LWJ fight NMJ's corpse, WWX plays his flute. Unknown to them LXC decides to destroy NMJ’s saber to give them more chances to bring back the NMJ he first befriended the one without the crazy-saber-curse.
The plan works, WWX ascends too as a result to everyone’s surprise. NMJ’s consciousness is back and he does not like what he is at all (and what the world and his brother look like). But JGY decides NHS wanted his brother back and was ready to kill for it, so yeah, you can have him back :) qualities and flaws packed together.
He leaves NHS deal with his brother. NHS is not happy with JGY being a god and swear he will never worship him, but he guesses they are even now since he killed him once + Da-ge is back. He returns Meng Shi’s pieces to a coffin and bury it because NMJ forces him.
WWX in the meantime has been ascended as a god and told he is not allowed to meet the one in his previous life and goes “lol nope” and descends, breaking Xie Lian's record (the only one who beat him is HC). Of course LWJ is here to catch him on earth ;)
However WWX does takes the opportunity to see Wen Qing (and hugs her so it is truly her) and speaks to HC about Mo Xuanyu’s soul.
HC : yeah i had reconstituted a soul that has been said to be destroyed beyond repair and not able to reincarnate anymore. One more is no big deal.
WWX : You know what teaches me the method :)
And when WWX comes back he makes sure MXY’s soul gets to the wheel of reincarnation + finds Xiao Xingchen’s soul to repair it. He also took advantage of his ability to change his body to get back his old body.- and have terrible sex with LWJ. But no one in heaven wants to know about that.
Xie Lian *finds this cute so he lets it go*
Quan Yizhen *hugging a reluctant Yin Yu’s soul* that’s illegal.
Xie Lian : I’m the one making the rule so i can say it’s not.
Quan Yizhen : That’s smart. But not very righteous.
Yin Yu : as HC says, gods are so-so.
WWX ends up being the gods for the lost souls, and he helps on the human realms with his demonic cultivation, which is weird but it works so. He more often meets with HC than with heaven officials though. He also manages to see that JYL’s soul reincarnated (and he guesses JZxuan too) so he finds them and their family and brings them to Lotus Pier and JC makes new JYL into his heir. JL befriends her too though he does not know who it is and WWX is not sure he should tell (he ends up telling it like it’s a joke and no one believes him, especially Jin Ling). Fortunately WN believes him when WWX says he met WQ (mostly because WQ decided to visit LSZ in his dreams) and also because WWX made him his general and brought him to heaven so he could see her (that helps). He doesn't make LWJ his general because he wants him to ascend because he knows he can do it, but LWJ ens up being venerated alongside WWX in his temples (as his husband) so he kind of becomes one anyways.
Speaking of temples, JGY gets his first one thanks to Jin Ling, who build it in Lanling. It is decided that the people who have no one will be buried in the temple too, so they could be prayed at and get a better next life like Meng Shi.
JGY ends up taking LXC to heaven as his general after LXC spoke to NMJ and finally got closure from this too. And surprisingly, NMJ ends up praying at one of JGY’s temple exactly once, to say something like :
“You know i was right about you, you’re a rat and murderer, but i guess i was saber-crazy when i kicked you down the stairs and insulted you and i’m sorry for that. Not for the rest though i was right!”
and JGY never answers this prayer (what is there to say anyways?) Besides he has many others hopeless to deal with. His temples rise where watchtowers once had been and get the same use (NHS reluctantly stops destroying the watchtowers when he is elected chief cultivator, not because of JGY but because he gets a dream from Ling Wen one night who scolds him and tear him a new one because the more people in danger the more works she has here!! And also because NMJ is a pain in his ass being like "NO MURDER! NO TRICK èé")
Ling Wen *grabs JGY* you might be a god now and helping people out but i still want your help every tuesday and thursday. You are a one-man army when it comes to administration.
Xie Lian : LinG Wen maybe-
Ling Wen *turns around and makes a angry-lion sound as she turns into a terrible beast*
Xie Lian : every tuesday, thursday and saturday, then. Deal.
JGY : Deal. *likes administration*
LXC *likes JGY when he is doing administration for some reason he won’t look into*
After a few years, LXC ascended as the god of mercy, as many hopeless bathed in his kindness when he came to help them with JGY.
JGY : You are their white moonlight, just like you were for me.
Multiple chapters story
Main Ships : Lan Xichen / Jin Guangyao - Wei Wuxian / Lan Wangji - Hua Cheng/Xie Lian
Side pairing : Quan Yizhen/ Yin Yu
Tags - aro!Ace Jiang Wanyin - Ling Wen is tired, give her an assistant - Yes she murdered some people - But so did JGY - and does this look like i care? - Clearly this fic proves that no i don't care who is righetous and who is not - don't overwork tiny scholar gods - they will kill you
Fandom - Heaven official's blessing - MDZS - Crossover