♣︎┈ 'You are worth of nothing. You bring only destruction Wei Wuxian.'

Yes. I bring only destruction. Under my daunting command, the world will cower.
┈♣︎

He looked at himself in the mirror. The body which was barely anything more than a frail cane just few months ago, is now glowing with vigour and rigour of a warrior, as if carefully carved out of stone. Even though lean, the tight, bulky muscles added to the glorious robustness.

He is grateful towards Mo Xuanyu for providing him a vessel. Sometimes he worships this body which he had come to love after rigorously shaping it; sometimes his heart wrenches to feel the old body he had dwelled inside for nineteen years.

He ran his hand along his solar plexus. Void. Nothing but a dreary void screams within. Where there should be solace of warmth of his golden core, now carries nothing more than hollow void.

But not anymore.

Today marks a new beginning. Commencing from today, his soul will be replenished with a new spirit. Today is the fateful day when he will devote his mind and soul to gain something he had once willing given up.

He will once again nurture his core, and burnish it into a weapon - sharp, eminent, and indefatigable. He will once again reacquire the only part of him which he had loved and cared for but had sacrificed for someone he had once devoted his loyalty and immense love to.

Sharp notes of a gong rang and Wei Wuxian took a deep breath.

It is the time.

He met the man directly at the training ground. He looked as ethereal as ever - all glorious in his white robes billowing along the wind whose origin lies in the oblivion. It has been few days since he last met the other and it already feels like a decade.

For a moment he forgot how to respond. Should I smile? Or should I ask about his well being?

Deep down he knows that he is grateful to the man. How can he be ungrateful to someone who is helping you to gain your powers and never misses on providing you meals five times a day?

But sometimes...our heart are too detached to indulge in the humanly courtesies. It is too stoned to do so.

Wei Wuxian stared at the man for a moment. "Good morning." he greeted curtly. He knows he sounds rudely curt, but he cannot help it, specially when his mind is in jumbles.

"Good morning. Hope you had your meal?" The man asked and Wei Wuxian hummed.

"Starting from today, you will train to gain your core back." Wei Wuxian nodded. A part of him felt utterly overwhelmed and excited. Another paty of him felt proud for having reached this far. All thanks to the man.

"I was wondering... How will i gain back my core? In what way? You have told that it will happen through a special training, and i believe you. But how? It takes years for a cultivator to create their golden core. Am I going to train for a decade?"

The man was silent for a moment. Wei Wuxian would lie if he didn't feel that the man was appraising him from top to toe - heart to soul.

His heart throbbed.

"You will get a new core. However, it will be built purely of Yin. And Yin doesn't take years to be solidified and impressed in the solar plexus. But, your powers will be under your total control, and if you are devoted and worthy, your core will be thousand times stronger than the Yang cores of the greatest of the cultivators of the Earthly realm."

Wei Wuxian seemed to be lost in thoughts. "But why so?"

"Because resentment is more power than any other impulses in the world. It is sharp, it is cruel, it is unleashed, unbothered. It focuses only on one things - revenge. An individual quest. Until a spirit is liberated, it's resentment grows stronger and stronger."

Bold to assume that Wei Wuxian lacked this basic knowledge. He was called the grandmaster of demonic cultivation for nothing. He spent a crucial segment of his life dealing with Yin.

He just measured the reliability that could be put on the man. He wanted to make sure that whatever is happening is not a mere farce and the man is not tricking him.

The fact that the other is not oblivious about Yin, put Wei Wuxian to relief.

But, a core made of Yin? He is still sceptical to the idea. Is it even possible?

"Core made of Yin is not built, it's felt. The only was to solidify Yin into core is by feeling the Yin in soul and body. Feel and memorize their every pulse. One step at a time. And gradually, the Yin will accept you as it's owner."

Wei Wuxian listened. A sudden thrill occupied him. It has been more than half a decade since he last felt the pulse of resentful energy within him, and he is going to do it once again.

"Okay."

A very germane question whirled in his mind but something within him made him edgy and vulnerable - as if asking the question will lead to something he won't be able to assimilate.

"You want to ask something?"

Again. It happened again. The man seems to understand Wei Wuxian more than he himself does. As if he can read and interpret the deepest part of his heart and mind. Those mahogany eyes seem to caress his very soul with their gentle gaze.

Wei Wuxian lowered down his eyes. Unsure.

"You can ask me anything." The man asssured. Almost like a coaxing.

After few moments of hesitancy Wei Wuxian gathered the courage to ask the question that has been bothering him for past few months but he could not come around to further anything about it.

"Why are you doing this? What will you gain? Do you... Do you wish to fulfill any ulterior motive?"

At the statement, the man's face lost few layers of glow. His eyes dropped down with a disappointed glum. But why is Wei Wuxian feeling the certain harrow in his heart?

Silence prevailed between them for a surprisingly prolonged moment.

"Well... It is upto you to trust me. And for your question, I prefer not to answer." The man spoke. Almost dejectedly. But this dejection was directed towards the Wei Wuxian standing in flesh or bones or because of something he loathed over remembering about, was unknown to Wei Wuxian.

" I trust you." Each word was uttered like a syllable of promise and assurance, and Wei Wuxian saw the golden steaks returning to the man's glinting eyes.

The room was like an endless hollow, devoid of any humanly presence. It was a large spacious room, gleaming with an unearthly glow. Wei Wuxian sat cross legged at the center of the room. His mind and soul was concentrated on...

"Breathe in... Breathe out." The man's soothing voice was like a lullaby. Wei Wuxian could spend hours just blandly sitting and listening to the majestic voice.

The man released a string of Yin and a very familiar pain pierced through his chest and this time he didn't flinch. He could feel the resentment throbbing within his veins - trying to wretch his nerves and tear his flesh. Sweat began to ooze from his skin.

Painful. It was unbearably painful.

'I can do this.' He chanted. All he needs to do is control the directions of the Yin flowing within his body. Take total control of it. And prevent it from reaching the heart.

But it was a no child's play. Even after spending what felt like four weeks, he could not take control of Yin and channelise it as per his wish in his body. He has made plausible progress over the last few days, but it was not enough.

I have to do this.

"Relax." More than coaxing, it sounded like an instruction.

"Block your third meridian and open the second."

Wei Wuxian obeyed without hesitancy. He trusts the man enough to let himself be guided by him with closed eyes.

He did as the man told him to do. As soon as he opened the meridian on his chest, the Yin gushed towards his heart and loomed there like a rock. It was chocking him. The pain was excruciating. His respiration chakra was blocked by the Yin.

He gasped for breathe. What could possibly go wrong? He could die any moment now.

He tried to push the Yin out of his body but in vain. The resentment seemed to grow stronger and steadier - almost vehemently. With a jolt he stood up and reached for the man for support but again collapsed on the ground, panting and squirming.

"H.. elp... " He managed to choke out. The Yin seemed to eat him alive from inside.

"Help? Do you really think you deserve help from me Wei Wuxian?" The man spat. The initial tenderness in his voice was replaced by bitter malice.

Wei Wuxian froze.

He knows this tone. The underlying hate in the voice. He had heard this too many times in both his previous lives.

"No..." He rasped. The Yin has engulfed his core completely.

"What? Surprised? Do you really think that I will help a monster like you? Just think how much destruction you have brought upon multiple lives. Why do you even expect me to help you?"

Tears began to build in his eyes. His vision started to blurr. This can't be happening. The man must be trying to provoke him.

"If you think that I am doing this just to provoke you, then you are wrong. Listen properly, the only reason you are here is because I want to use you and have my own ways with you. You have brought enough destruction and I am going to make you pay for that. After I use you, you are going to die a most horrible death. " His eyes glinted with a sharp glare of animosity and devilry.

Wei Wuxian's eyes rolled back from the nullifying shock. He felt the emotion he hasn't felt for months - fear. Fear. The night at the dungeon flashed before him. He was almost... Those greedy hands... They almost...

"NO! " He screamed. He thought he had lost the part of his soul that receives and reciprocates emotions long ago. Then why did the man's words sore his heart? Why is he feeling like the heaven's dome is clashing upon him? Squashing him?

"You are nothing more than a monster. You deserve only hate and loathing. Understood?"

No he doesn't understand. He feels betrayed. Those words... Why do they sound so real?

"What? Why are you not saying anything?" The man growled.

This tone doesn't suit you...

Wei Wuxian thought and smiled. A bitter smile. Am I loosing my mind? He asked himself. Why am I not attacking him?

"You cannot attack me because you are weak. A weak log that needs to be broken and smashed." The man said brusquely.

Weak.

Weak

"I am not weak." Wei Wuxian gritted out. Gathering every bit of residual energy, he stood up. The initial shock was replaced by a disguised hope when he saw the man's serene face. So beautiful.

"You are doing this to just provoke me aren't you?" His voice was soft and vulnerable. But the next second, that moment of comfort dissolved when he felt a sword pierce an inch through his chest. Along with blood, thick streaks of Yin began to gush out from him lacerated flesh. The trance of his mind was over and what took over Wei Wuxian was a feeling of pure fear.

He looked up at the man. To his utmost horror, he saw the identical abhorrence and grudges he had witnessed once. Twice. Too many times on a certain face he had once worshipped.

The sword didn't stop there. It was pushed further and further until it almost reached his heart.

It hurts. The pain was more harrowing because it was mingled with drops of betrayal. Why does he feel betrayed? Did he really trust this man so much? Has he again been fooled?

But it didn't take him long to regain his purpose. Resentment energy was almost bursting within him. The trance of shock was replaced with wrath and he felt a solid energy pulse in his soul and body.

The shock transformed to wrath. And the wrath translated to resentment. The power he suddenly felt transpassed anything he had felt before. He stood up straight - majestically. His eyes was took over by a deep red hue and the glowing orbs challenged the threatening look on the man's eyes.

"What did you say?" He glowered. The entire room was engulfed by thick, heavy and bitter smoke of Yin. Thousands of voices were shrieking cynically.

'Yes Wei Wuxian. Kill him. Kill him. See he is going to use you front top to bottom.'

'Go kill him. Or else he will use you like a whore'

'Go kill him. You are weak. We will give you power.'

'Let us take care of you Wei Wuxian'

He is more than familiar with this sinister experience. The ghastly whispers.Hundreds of eerie, cynical voices began to rile him up - urging him to shed blood. Urging him to feed their vengeance. Provoke him with a bitter aroma of resentment.

And it worked.

He let the resentment take control of him. He took a deep breath and invited the Yin to take over his meridians. Within a moment every bit of Yin was soaked up by his meridians and they settled heavily inside his soul, flesh and bones.

He opened his eyes and they were not only gleaming with red hue, but they were burning. The months of anguish took over him again and they took the shape of destructive vengeance.

He grabbed the sword that was pierced in his chest and with a clank levitated it into ashes with the force of Yin. The man didn't faze but only stared at him with an inclement whirl of hatred and retaliation. He was taller than Wei Wuxian and the imposed an entirely intimidating aura - as if he would tear Wei Wuxian into pieces then and there.

Wei Wuxian couldn't be that mistaken. He was not a fool to be unable to pick up the too genuine hostility.

Out of the blue, another sword appeared in the man's hold and at the same moment Chenqing found it's way in its master's hand. As the man raised his sword to attack him, Wei Wuxian took Chenqing to his lips and started playing a tune.

A heavy whirl of Yin oozed from his body and they formed a swirl around him.

"Go" He commanded and like a typhoon, the whirl of Yin waved towards the man with utmost vehemence.

To his utter horror, the man didn't even flinch, but threw back the entire Yin energy with a gallon of Yang. Wei Wuxian threw Chenqing and raised his palm. Something seemed to form along his solar plexus. Like a knot, something settled thickly inside him, and a mixture of warmth, along with sharp coldness flushed across his soul. A bright spark flashed on his chest and then deemed down within a blink.

A streak of Yin darted out of his palm and it pierced right through the man's chest. The latter didn't even try to defend himself, but took every attack Wei Wuxian directed at him.

Gradually, the man was pushed back until he clashed against the wall. Wei Wuxian stood in front of him like a demon - daring to make a move, but the man made none.

Wei Wuxian grabbed the man's wrist. It was marred with sticky red hue - blood. His own blood also sullied both of his hands and under his tight grasp, their bloods mingled with each other with a spark.

"You di... " But before he could utter a word further, he felt like his body has been drained of it's vitality. Not even a dreg of energy was left inside. Like an autumn leaf, he slumped forward weakly and landed in a gentle embrace.

The warmth of a core was pulsating vividly inside his body - endowing his soul with solace and replenished energy. Though his body is exhausted from the ordeal and the loss of blood, his soul is awakened from the console of the core's vivid energy.