Nie Huaisang's shadow slithered through Cloud Recesses' corridors like ink spilled on parchment. He paused at Wei Wuxian's door, its cedar panels vibrating with faint mechanical hums.
The room breathed.
Tiny automatons whirred on shelves – a jade cicada shedding light-winged shadows, a bronze lotus trembling with subsonic resonance. Nie Huaisang's fan snapped shut. "Wei-xiong, you've built a demonic cultivation museum!"
Wei Wuxian didn't look up from the compass leaking spiritual energy. "If Second Young Master Lan catches you skipping lectures again..."
"Let him freeze me!" Nie Huaisang plucked a miniature guqin from the wall. Its strings played Rest in reverse. "You made these? Even Shiyu Pavilion doesn't—"
A cold voice cleaved the air: "Discipline rules. Ten copies."
Nie Huaisang's fan clattered. Lan Wangji stood framed in moonlight, frost patterns creeping across the threshold.
"Your brother awaits," the Second Jade added, glacial gaze slicing to Wei Wuxian's hand resting on Nie Huaisang's shoulder.
——
The confrontation happened near the medicinal gardens. Wei Xuan's blade hummed as she rounded the corner, frost fractals blooming beneath her boots.
"Nie-zongzhu." Her nod held the weight of glaciers.
Nie Mingjue's saber pulsed in response. "Qinghe Nie, Unclean Realm."
"Xunzhou Wei, Untamed Frost."
Lan Xichen's smile thawed the tension. "How fortunate—"
A scream tore through the mountainside.
Wei Xuan's blade leapt to her hand, its edge singing with anticipatory cold. The scream originated from the snow lily greenhouse – where Lan Qiren's precious blooms now oozed black sap.