Wei Wuxian pulled Chenqing from his lips. His eyes were wide in panic. Before any sound left Wei Wuxian's mouth Lan Wangji's eyes suddenly widened and he pulled Chenqing from his lips. Lan Wangji followed Wei Wuxian's gaze and saw Jiang Wanyin stagger.

"Jiang Cheng!" Wei Wuxian's voice held a desperate edge to it.

"Wei Ying." Lan Wangji said from Wei Wuxian's side. 'I'm here. Stay calm. Stay focused.'

Wei Wuxian's grip tightened around Chenqing and his eyes darted anxiously back and forth. He could tell Wei Wuxian was trying to think rapidly. He could see the panic, the flicker of different emotions. Wei Wuxian's posture was tightening, taking on ll the body language of a trapped animal. Lan Wangji quickly cut down the cultivators that had been closing in on them before returning to Wei Wuxian's side.

"Wei Ying." Lan Wangji gripped Wei Wuxian's arm, hoping to ground Wei Wuxian with his presence.

"Lan Zhan... I..." Wei Wuxian's eyes looked dazed, slightly lost.

"Wei Ying. What do you need?" Lan Wangji asked calmly. Wei Wuxian swallowed nervously.

"I... We need me to... do more? Don't we? I... I can't..." Wei Wuxian took a stuttering breath. "I can't make decisions. I am using the Yin Hufu, and I can't make decisions while I am using it. That's my rule isn't it? It's important?"

Wei Wuxian should have been able to say firmly that this was the case, but right now it seemed that this rule was little more than a flimsy notion. Something immaterial and half remembered. Something he told himself was important, but could not remember why. Without remembering why it was important, it was difficult to remember if it was true that it was.

"That is your rule. It is important." Lan Wangji affirmed.

Wei Wuxian frowned, appearing more troubled rather than less. His gaze darts back across the battlefield. It darts towards Jiang Wanyin's direction in particular. Their relationship is not good, and Lan Wangji in particular has not forgiven Jiang Wanyin for the tears Wei Wuxian cried because of his supposed shidi.

"Tell me what to do." Wei Wuxian says turning to Lan Wangji. "If you tell me what I am doing is enough I will believe you. If you believe I should do more, then tell me what to do. I trust you."

Wei Wuxian's expressions are not quite the same while he used the Yin Hufu. There was always something vague and distant, like his attention was half on things that no one else could hear. Lan Wangji can hear an echo of the tone Wei Wuxian would be speaking in were he not currently using the Yin Hufu. Earnest, anxious, afraid but trusting Lan Wangji.

Those things are all still there, but they are muted under a coldness that colours Wei Wuxian's every expression while he wields the Yin Hufu. The Yin Hufu is full of resentful energy. Full of anger and pain. Fear fuelling a desire to lash out. It made Wei Wuxian sound and appear cruel, where Lan Wangji knew cruelty was not truly in Wei Wuxian's nature.

"Wei Ying." Lan Wangji steadied himself. "Summon more. Corpses and spirits. I will tell you when to stop." Lan Wangji said in a quiet firm voice.

As soon as Lan Wangji said the words, Wei Wuxian followed them. Resentful energy flooded out from him. It covered the ground in an ankle deep fog that chilled to the bone. More corpses rose. Lan Wangji had forgotten that Wei Wuxian had previously avoided raising ally corpses.

Ever since Dafan Wei Wuxian had exclusively raised QishanWen sect cultivators to fight. Wei Wuxian turned them into fierce corpses and allowed their deceased allies to remain where they fell. Lan Wangji had not considered a need to specify. He hoped Wei Wuxian would not be too upset after the fact.

The resentment chilled air was filled with wisps of dark smoke-like energy. Those wisps coalesced into spirits. Rising from the thick energy coating the ground more figures took shape. Soon the battlefield was filled with almost as many spirits as there were corpses. Wei Wuxian's eyes burned red as he commanded them.

"Wei Ying. Continue to kill the QishanWen sect cultivators; protect allied sect cultivators." The words felt unnecessary. They felt insulting on Lan Wangji's tongue. It felt like he was implying Wei Wuxian could not tell friend from foe, or right from wrong.

Then again, Wei Wuxian himself had indicated that he might not be able to distinguish the two while using the Yin Hufu. Between the words Wei Wuxian had left unsaid Lan Wangji could glean that Wei Wuxian truly was not himself while using the Yin Hufu. His ability to remember himself was fragile. His ability to tell right from wrong may be tenuous, or even non-existent.

Lan Wangji had to remind himself that what he was doing was what Wei Wuxian asked of him. He was not doubting Wei Wuxian or insulting him. Wei Wuxian said he could not trust himself to make decisions right now. He had asked Lan Wangji to make the decisions for him.

Wei Wuxian was trusting Lan Wangji to guide him through this battle. He was trusting Lan Wangji to make the decisions, which meant Lan Wangji needed to make all of those decisions clear. Lan Wangji needed to tell him how much power to use. How to direct that power. Who to attack. Who to protect. No responsibility had ever felt so terrifying before.

Lan Wangji could devote very little focus to actually fighting. He began to need to rely on directing Wei Wuxian to protect them, more than doing the protecting himself. Lan Wangji had intellectually understood how much Wei Wuxian needed to keep track of. Wei Wuxian was not simply fighting one, or ten, or twenty enemies. Wei Wuxian was controlling an entire battlefield.

Lan Wangji had understood this, but some part of him clearly had not fully grasped it. Wei Wuxian made it look easy. He stood tall. An imposing figure draped in black and red playing a flute that was as dark as the resentful energy it manipulated. Lan Wangji had never been too focused on the greater battlefield. He had always focused on protecting Wei Wuxian and talking Wei Wuxian down when the battle began to stagnate.

Lan Wangji needed to be the one to regulate Wei Wuxian now. He needed to judge what was enough force, and what might be too much. If Lan Wangji judged wrong Wei Wuxian could suffer serious injury. If he judged wrong Wei Wuxian could die. Too much for too long and Wei Wuxian's golden core might sustain damage. Too much damage might permanently impact Wei Wuxian's ability to cultivate spiritual energy.

"This is enough. Maintain the corpses and spirits you have summoned. Continue to kill the QishanWen sect cultivators." Lan Wangji said steadily.

Lan Wangji wasn't certain yet if this was enough, but it was already so much more than they had initially planned on. The resentful energy was thick in the air. It spread out to fill an area much larger than the battle in Dafan, or any of the battles since.

Lan Wangji was attempting to gauge the flow of the battle when an imposing figure burst dramatically through the large doors of the palace. Wen Rouhan looked much like he did at the last discussion conference all those years ago. His gaze was full of contempt and rage. Likely Wen Rouhan never expected the sects to make it this far. Wen Rouhan would have believed, rightly so, that he had the strength to overwhelm all of the sects combined. Wen Rouhan could not have planned for someone like Wei Wuxian. Immediately Nie Mingjue charged forward, Lan Xichen close behind him.

"Wei Ying. Keep the area around Wen Rouhan clear of his allies. Give Xiongzhang and Nie Mingjue the space to fight him without having to worry about defending themselves from other soldiers." Lan Wangji instructed.

Wei Wuxian did not need to say anything for Lan Wangji to know that Wei Wuxian had heard him. Immediately a ripple seemed to pass through the resentful energy. Spirits dissipated and materialized closer to the palace stairs. Suddenly there was a large gap between Wen Rouhan and his troops. Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen could focus on Wen Rouhan unhindered.

It did not take long for their allies to notice the defensive ring of resentful spirits. Many of their soldiers began to make their way to the other side of the resentful spirits. Fighting the QishanWen sect soldiers from behind and beside the wall of murderous spirits. The shifting became something like a wall of their allies slowly sweeping back towards Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji.

This was not what Lan Wangji had in mind when he instructed Wei Wuxian to create space for Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue. He would not have had any issue with it, except that it meant more and more of their allies were on the far side of the QishanWen sect soldiers. Leaved Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji with a few other scattered cultivators on this side of the QishanWen sect forces, and one of these targets was clearly the softer of the two.

Lan Wangji summoned his guqin in front of him. Wangji hovered in the air in front of its master. Lan Wangji positioned his fingers carefully on the strings, readying the first chord as the QishanWen sect cultivators began to advance on him and Wei Wuxian.