#the first siege

[only10th]

Okay, so I’m writing this fic of the first siege at the Burial Mounds (yes, it is hurting my soul to write 😭) but I gotta ask, cause read the book and watched the donghua, but none of these are very specific (unless I’m completely missing it)

Did the siege happened right after the nightless city massacre?

I just need double confirmation cause, I had this thought of… the siege happening close to A-Yuan’s birthday. Why, you may ask, well cause in my mind, wwx killed a lot of cultivators, a looooot, so the clans had to need some time to rebuild their army, right? That could’ve taken from weeks to months.

Not to mention the clan leaders regaining strength, the the Jiangs mourning over JYL passing away. They needed time to strategize and plan out how to get rid of wwx.

I know LWJ was hiding wwx in a cave fir two days after the nightless city massacre, and I know he dragged his injured self to the BM after he got the news of wwx’s passing. Even if it was a month after, he was still in rough and horrendous condition. I bet it still felt like he got the whipping just the day before.

I want to use this for this fic, but I also want to stay to canon as much as I can. I dunno, any insights?

[cnovelssirmeower]

I like that The First Siege is written like both tragic and inevitable. It was a result of culmination of malice and many mistakes, from all involved.

I loved the continuous closing towards the point of no return. Since freeing the Wens, since refusing LWJ's help... It was coming. To save WQ and the rest, there would need to be a strong force, drastic action to change it and the longer WWX was at the Burial Mounds, the more powerful the intervention would have to be. Be it from outside or inside.

JZX's death only made it faster. It had to happen as WWX would loose control sooner or later or JGS would attack. WWX's only hope would be to become like Baoshan Sanren, but that didn't happen as he was in a known location and still minimally involved with the outside world.

And the thing is, from certain point, I cannot fault the cultivation world (except them being massive hypocrites). The plot point that is rarely discussed, WN losing control and killing cultivators after giving himself up, made ignoring the situation impossible. Why? Because it along with JZX's death showed that either he's either willing to kill anyone for fun or revenge or has very little control over his abilities.

Even the most careful and righteous cultivator would see this: WN killed JZX (I doubt they wouldn't notice injury made by a fierce corpse in location without fierce corpses) and him being created by WWX made it WWX's responsibility as well. Reasons why and how... no reliable source. WQ and WN gave themselves up to ensure peace, but WN then killed some of the third neutral party's members. At this point, WWX is either killing indiscriminately or has no control over his creation (as he is under his protection, any crime WN commits is WWX's even if they would consider WN full fledged independent human being).

It may be tragic, but since then WWX was a massive threat to the society. He had to be detained or eliminated and WWX was too powerful to imprison. You just can't let someone extremely powerful without control over his abilities alone and unchecked.

The Siege wasn't about the Wens, they were just collateral damage, but about WWX. It was tragic, not right, terrible... But The First Siege was logical and had the happen. There was no way they could ignore WWX.

[mathi-cql]

While it's true that Jgy/Jgs wasn't involved in the nightless city massacre in mdzs the way they were in cql, I don't think it's right to say that there was zero involvement in their part in the situation. Especially in creating it.

This is somewhat speculative, but I think the text bears this out. When we learn of the events leading to the incident, we get know that in the three days that Wwx was bound by Wq's needles, the sects have gone from a cease fire to participating in a pledge conference to destroy the wen remnants and to oppose the YL. The reason for this is Wen Ning's second rampage. During which, we learn from the cultivators wwx ran into, the biggest damage was to Gusu Lan, as they lost the most desciples (along with Qinghe Nie desciples, I actually don't know if any Lanling Jin desciples died there, rather tellingly Jgs doesn't mention it).

To me, this is deeply suspicious for a few reasons. Why would Wn loose control like that? Especially as his family's life depends on his death and his surrender? Wn's rampage on Qq road was because Wwx lost control of his own cultivation and let the resentful energy overwhelm him and this affected Wn who killed Jzx. But the second time, wwx was far away, and also bound, so it's not very obvious why Wn lost control. It could be an incredible coincidence/bad luck of course but I don't think it is for the following reason. The most losses was for Gusu Lan. We learn from Wn later in the book that Lwj actually spoke up for them (the siblings) when they turned themselves in. Gusu Lan (and the Nie to a certain extent) don't have the same motivation to siege the BM, but they are two of the great sects, and their support would be neccessary. Isn't it interesting then that there is immediately an incident that now makes it clear that Wwx is against their sects and means them harm?

Again, before Wwx learns of the conference, he thinks there is a cease fire between them. He even thinks, in a low moment, that he's glad the wen sibs have given him a way out (and he hates himself immediately for it) and the only reason he learns of the sects gathering is by pure chance. He has no reason to believe that they were going to attack him, so part of his anger is also because they are going back on their word. But to the great sects, wwx was the one who apparently went back on his word. He sent Wn to apparently surrender, but Wn killed their desciples and it seemed like Wwx just sneaked him to destroy the sects. Which comfirms their idea that Wwx is infact against them. What happened at Qq road isn't clear to them, but this incident to them confirms that Wwx is deliberately going against them. Enough that they don't listen to him at all. Again, this could all be incredible coincidence, but I don't think it is.