Wei Wuxian wasn't the sort of person to hold grudges. He vaguely recalled someone saying he had a grudge against Jin Zixuan, but that wasn't a grudge. Wei Wuxian just didn't think the man was good enough for his Shijie, which was true. Wei Wuxian would tell Jin Zixuan off or punch him when he was mean to her. Which happened repeatedly because Jin Zixuan was repeatedly mean to her.

Jin Zixuan was frequently an ass. Possibly a side effect of his 'Jin' upbringing. Wei Wuxian has found the majority of Jins to be assholes from time to time. Always ready to seat themselves above others, just like Jin Guangshan at the victory banquet in Nightless City. Wei Wuxian didn't believe for a second that Jin Guangshan expected Nie Mingjue to sit on Wen Rouhan's throne. No one who fought in the war would believe that Nie Mingjue would ever sit in the chair of the man who killed his father.

Jin Zixuan wasn't even the worst of the Jins. Most of the time his rudeness was just a lack of consideration for others. Not a good trait, but it isn't like Jin Zixuan was the only gentry who acted that way. Most of them did, to varying degrees. Jin Zixuan renting out an entire inn when his party could have easily settled in two or three rooms was not only wasteful, but prevented other people in need of rest from being able to find shelter. Of course, Jin Zixuan didn't think about that, and probably didn't care. What concern was it of his if other people suffered?

That was a disappointingly common mindset among the gentry, but at least many of them would have offered up space if they knew someone was in need of it. Wei Wuxian could hardly start holding grudges against people for that. He'd have to spend his whole life angry and exhausted by the fact that he couldn't change it.

Jin Zixuan frequently falling on the asshole side of those common inconsiderate gestures just meant Wei Wuxian didn't have a great opinion of him. Wei Wuxian might have poked fun at the Peacock over the years. Wei Wuxian definitely disapproved of Jin Zixuan's cruel behavior towards Shijie, but Wei Wuxian never really held any deep seated resentment for the Peacock.

Wei Wuxian could even admit, silently to himself, that Jin Zixuan was probably not even trying to be particularly mean spirited towards Jiang Yanli. Wei Wuxian would absolutely never say it out loud, because Jin Zixuan's treatment of her was unacceptable. But, Wei Wuxian can admit to himself that most of the time it was just like the inn. Jin Zixuan thinking only about Jin Zixuan, and not thinking about anyone or anything around him.

Wei Wuxian wasn't about to hold a grudge over that. Wei Wuxian had never held onto his resentments. Even as a child on the streets of Yiling, Wei Wuxian didn't resent the people who insulted him, or the ones who chased him away with kicks when he tried to take shelter too close to their store. He didn't resent the other people living on the street when they ate all the good scraps from the garbage bin before he got there. Dogs were the exception. Dogs were evil monsters. Wei Wuxian was also perfectly aware that it wasn't really resentment that he held towards dogs, just terror.

Even Wen Zhuliu after the fall of Lotus Pier... Wei Wuxian wasn't certain if he held a grudge against him. The man had to die. That was very firm in Wei Wuxian's mind. Wen Zhuliu had destroyed Jiang Wanyin's core. Wen Zhuliu had destroyed the cores of Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian.

Maybe Wei Wuxian could consider that a grudge, but his hatred had never been for Wen Zhuliu. Wen Zhuliu was following orders. Wei Wuxian could understand that, even if he didn't think it was an excuse. It was why Wei Wuxian never tortured Wen Zhuliu. As much as Wei Wuxian wanted revenge for Jiang Wanyin, for Jiang Fengmian, for Yu Ziyuan, for the only place he had had the chance to call home... Wei Wuxian still only ever planned to kill Wen Zhuliu. Wen Zhuliu's death for the lives that he took, for the lives he would continue to take.

Wen Chao was another matter. Wen Chao had led the army. Wen Chao had commanded the deaths of his guardians. Wen Chao had ordered the destruction of Jiang Wanyin's core. Wen Chao had thrown Wei Wuxian into the Burial Mounds. Wei Wuxian had been in the Burial Mounds for three months, soaking in resentful energy. Nothing to push him forward but the desire to protect and the desire to extract vengeance.

Wei Wuxian had never hated the way he hated Wen Chao. The kind of hatred that you ruminated over for long hours. The kind of hatred that festered inside your heart. Wei Wuxian had never considered torturing someone before. Why would he? He had never hated like this before. His anger was always a bright spark. It exploded, loud and immediate, then it was gone. His anger never lingered. It didn't fester into a deep rotten hatred over months and months.

When Wei Wuxian found Wen Chao, he made him suffer. Wei Wuxian tortured him. He beset spirits onto his mind to carve away his sanity. By the time Wei Wuxian granted Wen Chao death, Wen-er-gongzi was barely recognizable as human. He haunted Wen Chao for weeks. Wen Chao trembled at every shadow, screamed at every whistle of the wind. Wei Wuxian didn't actually know at one point Wen Chao started eating his own flesh. Wei Wuxian only knew that he had caused that. His anger and resentment, his spirits that he sent to torture Wen Chao into insanity.

Considering where Wei Wuxian had been for three months, surrounded by souls who wanted nothing but vengeance. Wei Wuxian didn't think it was surprising that he had emerged from the Burial Mounds burning to give Wen Chao a gruesome death. It was gruesome. Sometimes Wei Wuxian looked back at what he had done to Wen Chao, and found himself sickened by his own actions.

Once Wen Chao was dead, most of Wei Wuxian's anger towards the Wens was used up. He had never held a grudge for months before. It was exhausting, holding onto all that venom, ruminating over how to extract the price of his pain in someone else's flesh. If there wasn't a war, Wei Wuxian would have liked to have stopped at that point. He would have liked to step back, maybe properly grieve everything that was gone.

Wei Wuxian didn't have that luxury. There was a war going on. There were people he needed to protect. A home he needed to reclaim, even if he no longer fit in it. There was tyrant who was determined to continue to hurt and conquer. A tyrant that should have been stopped a long time ago. A tyrant that everyone was too afraid to stand up against, content in allowing his abuse as long as their own homes were mostly safe. There was no choice anymore. There was a war, and Wei Wuxian would fight to protect the people precious to him.

Since then there were plenty of people Wei Wuxian disliked. It wasn't like Wei Wuxian never became angry, but he mostly just didn't think about those people. People like Jin Guangshan, or the Jin that had accused Wei Wuxian of casting a curse on him. Come to think of it, Wei Wuxian usually just avoided most Jins if he could.

There were many times Wei Wuxian had become angry since the war. At Qongpi Path, when he saw what the cultivator there had done to innocent people. That anger didn't linger though. He punished the perpetrators and rescued the victims. After that Wei Wuxian was prepared to let it go. He just wanted the innocent people to be able to live their lives in safety.

Wei Wuxian had honestly believed he would probably never feel the hatred he had felt for Wen Chao for anyone ever again. It wasn't exactly usual circumstances that had led to, what Wei Wuxian considered, his one and only grudge. Jiang Yanli had once told him that he wasn't cut out for hatred. His anger was a firework; bright, immediate, and fleeting. Once it was spent, it didn't linger.

Wei Wuxian felt the rage bubbling inside of him. The hatred that was born the moment Wei Wuxian came to understand what was happening. The second, that Wei Wuxian knew Jin Guangyao had taken Nuan-er, and was threatening her life. Wei Wuxian promised himself that Jin Guangyao would die. He would die. His father would die. Xue Yang, the demonic disciple and budding mass murderer that the Jin had sent to ride around in Wei Wuxian's body via a body swapping spell, Wei Wuxian still felt gross and violated thinking about that, would die.

Wei Wuxian would not accept any alternatives. Not when Xue Yang had kidnapped Nuan-er. Not when Xue Yang bragged about committing murder while wearing Wei Wuxian's body. Not when Xue Yang had grinned while he held a knife to Nuan-er's throat, apparently Xue Yang's contribution when they were threatening Wei Wuxian into compliance.

Wei Wuxian would have no mercy for any of them. He certainly would not have mercy for Jin Guangyao. Wei Wuxian had started to hear that scum's voice in his nightmares. Replaying that bland polite tone Jin Guangyao had when he noted the worsening of Nuan-er's illness. Th worm talked about her worsening fever and ruptured eardrums like it was an interesting observation about the weather.

Nuan-er screamed when her eardrums ruptured. Not that Wei Wuxian knew that was what was happening at the time. He just knew his little girl was in horrible pain. Then she went quiet while blood and puss began to leak out of her ears. Her pained wails became little more than soft sniffles.

Jin Guangyao had made that happen. Jin Guangyao had made her medical treatment contingent upon Wei Wuxian cooperating. Jin Guangyao had given Wei Wuxian a pitying look as he told him that Nuan-er's condition was Wei Wuxian's own fault. If Wei Wuxian had been more reasonable there would have been no need to bring Nuan-er here as leverage. If Wei Wuxian did as he was told, Nuan-er would have been given the medical care she needed.

Wei Wuxian was going to murder that man. Wei Wuxian was going to let the angriest spirits he could find rip that man into pieces and scatter the ashes in the wind. It was Jin Guangyao's idea to bring Nuan-er here as leverage. Wei Wuxian had to give Jin Guangyao credit. The man knew how to torture.

Wei Wuxian hadn't paid much attention to Jin Guangyao before. Wei Wuxian knew that he helped Lan Xichen and Wei Wuxian knew that Jin Guangyao had acted as a spy. He had never bothered to ask what Jin Guangyao had done in Wen Rouhan's court.

Principal Torturer indeed. Jin Guangyao wasn't like Wen Chao. He wouldn't just hurt someone until they broke. Wei Wuxian assumed Jin Guangyao was probably good at that sort of torture, but Wei Wuxian had been thrown core-less into the Burial Mounds. It was a rather high bar to compete with.

Jin Guangyao didn't want Wei Wuxian dead. He wanted Wei Wuxian compliant. He wanted Wei Wuxian to be obedient, and he was willing to hurt a five year old girl to do it. Jin Guangshan wanted the Yin Hufu. He wanted to know how Wei Wuxian controlled so many corpses. Jin Guangyao had been tasked with extracting that knowledge from Wei Wuxian.

Wei Wuxian would be dust in the wind before he handed over the power to conquer the cultivation world to someone who would use it to do just that. But, Nuan-er was there. She was there, and she needed medical treatment that Wei Wuxian couldn't give. She was there, and without medical treatment she might die.

If Wei Wuxian thought he could break her out quickly and get her to Wei Qing it would be one thing. Wei Wuxian had woken up with his core sealed and his ability to use resentful energy contained. Wei Wuxian didn't know how they had done it. He might have appreciated the brilliance of it if it weren't for the fact that it was being used to contain him. Wei Wuxian was almost certain it was an array, but the bastards had concealed it. Possibly behind the walls, or maybe even under the floor. Somewhere Wei Wuxian couldn't see it, and couldn't examine it.

Wei Wuxian couldn't even sense any resentful energy beyond the walls of the room he was kept in. The resentful energy that usually rested within Wei Wuxian's own body had been purged. Wei Wuxian wasn't certain how. The GusuLan sect had the best techniques for purging resentful energy, but even Lan Wangji would have needed a full day to cleanse Wei Wuxian to this extent. Wei Wuxian could barely summon enough resentful energy to snuff out a candle. Although he was angry enough that he would start to slowly generate his own.

That was a long term consideration. Something Wei Wuxian might have been willing to rely on if it was only him. Wei Wuxian couldn't wait that long with Nuan-er sick. At the same time, Wei Wuxian could not give them the Yin Hufu. He could not tell them how to obtain it, nor could he tell them how to construct a new one. He would have to give them something, comply in some fashion, for Nuan-er's sake. When she was healthier, Wei Wuxian would find a way to get her to safety.