If anything, Mingyan rarely showed any plausible emotion for many to track amidst her interference in the Bajing Mountain. Brows furrowed and lips clamped tightly into a thin line, the young woman had no doubtedly suffered more than just a slight flesh injury in her attempts at battling alongside the others against the demon.
Her limbs ached, the hand lifting her sword heavy as she gritted her teeth and pushed through as much as she could, a shout of astonishment bursting from between her lips as the earth cracked beneath their feet and split open, the dark aura that had poured forth in waves instinctively making her raise her sword and grit her teeth. A chill spread all over her skin, raising goosebumps as her frown intensified, teeth chafing her bottom lip as she lowered her sword slightly, eyes widening as they focused in on what seemed like a beautiful white jade glowing mysteriously in the pulsing red of the activated ancient runes.
“What’s...that?” Mingyan didn’t know if her voice could be heard by anyone else, alarm and awe mixing in a moment of terrified splendor as she fought internally with herself whether or not she should sheathe her sword.
The glowing jade, as beautiful as it seemed, was something of a rather unknown source after all.
What was she supposed to do?
Mingyan sucked in a shaky breath, alarmed as yet another figure slowly emerged from the dissipating fog, the sound of crumbling earth filling her ears as she tried to steady herself, straining her eyes to make out something of the form of the woman as the strange language she spoke sung through the air like a haunting melody that she couldn’t comprehend.
“Hey!” Mingyan lurched forward just as she felt a phantom beat of a fiery pair of wings brush against her face, hand outstretched to grab onto the figure’s frame just as everything dissipated with a last groan from the mountain, and a strange blue sword stood in the cracked earth’s place, etched with the name of the phantom guardian most had heard of but never saw.
Mingyan exhaled shakily, passing a hand over her face as she grimly turned around.
Whatever happened there was nothing more of her concern. She lacked in the area of the spiritual--but there were others that could make up for her lack of understanding in such an area.
Abandon things not of your concern, Mingyan.
An echo of the voice of one of the sect’s elders echoed in her ears as she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, shifting her feet towards Lian as she spotted her brother in a distance.
He leans against the wall of the alley, scanning the surroundings. “Besides. if i had my way, we’d have a pretty girl under our grasp,” he states. As she points out two civilians, who seem to tipsy drunk, he is almost ready to say something snarky but of course, before he can say anything, she once again almost scares people. “Yeah, if you’d rather hide your sword, you will be far more approachable. Use your good looks, yamyam.” he says, grinning. He offers a polite smile and bow to the passersby freaked out by his sister’s intimidating sword and guardian angel of the dark aura she often exuded. “But yeah, i think those two should be good to be interrogated.”
“I’d still prefer a pretty girl but i shall go along with your suggestion. Go forth, seduce away,” he says, with a grin.
rarely does mingyan ever have a reaction, but she always finds that she does react when it comes to lian teasing her. she strikes out at him with her fist huffily as soon as he teases about her being jealous and pouting, the huff on her lips becoming more prominent as she gave him an evil side eye, brushing the imaginary lint off her clothes as she huffed once more. “i’m not pouting.” she nearly storms off in the direction of the two men like a raged bull intent to take down its enemy--at least, until lian makes yet another suggestion that she can’t ignore.
she pauses.
“...what do you mean by using my good looks?” she eyes him warily, sheathing her sword and touching her face. “i look good?” ironically, mingyan was never one to care much of beauty nor facial care, her focus intent on a lot of things other than just making herself pretty. like for a stately example, increasing her cultivation so that she no longer lagged behind lian for starters. “and what do you mean seduce?!” she very nearly desires to threaten lian herself, but holds back for the sake of their mission to find out information about what they needed.
“show me first. how do you seduce someone.” she demands, slipping back to the side of lian as she peered up at him, grumbling slightly under her breath, jerking her chin in the direction of the two men. “go seduce them! show me an example.”
Ugh. Disgusting. That man was the target? Ugh. “Ah, you certainly know how to pick them? COuldn’t have chosen a more sober one?” he asked, sliding up beside her when the man began leering at her. Where she hesitated, Lian had zero hesitation. He swiftly whipped his sword out and pushed the drunken man back against the wall with the sword against his neck. Lian kept the sword a bit away and looked at his sister. “I think he should answer our questions now. Or would you rather find someone more sober.”
mingyan actually considers the logic of lian’s words there and then, an utterly ironic turn of events, considering how often she went on what she called was my way, rather than listening to other’s words and suggestions about everything. “we could keep him, and match his words with a more sober one.” with her sense of hesitation vanished, and her competitiveness aroused at the sight of lian holding a sword perfectly to the male’s neck, a deep sense of disgruntledness overcame mingyan, and something almost akin to a rare pout surfaced upon her delicate lips. “i was going to stab him, you know. you didn’t have to take over for me.” her eyes meandered about the small alleyway and out into the open street, one hand upon her sword in her other hand like a guardian angel about to massacre anyone that got in its way.
“perhaps you should observe too and point out someone more sober. you seem to be good for that anyway.” mingyan’s words were blunt, her eyes already landing upon a few potential targets, her back leg sliding back slightly as she prepared to take the few men by surprise and kidnap them back into the alleyway that they were in. “those two men right over there. i’ll be back before you know it.” she muttered just loud enough for lian to hear, a huff upon her lips as she slowly prepared herself, unsheathing her sword in all its glory and startling a few of the nearby civilians, who glanced at her almost warily with the unsheathed blade out in the open. what a sight she must be, a thought popped up in mingyan’s mind for the moment, before she simply repressed it back with a shake of her head.
“so ? what do you think of those two?” she jerked her head in the direction of the two men she had been talking about, clearly walking straight, even with some tubs of wine in hand.
“he looked at me funny.” the reply that mingyan gave was more than simple, as though a couple of words simply sufficed the explanation of her actually stabbing someone in the shoulder. technically, his eyes had been roaming around her chest and waist, and mingyan felt disgusted at the feel of his eyes upon her body. that was the cause of the sword stabbing--for one. two, he had attempted to touch her waist right after that, and the thought and act itself was absolutely criminal. didn’t his parents teach him how to respect females? or perhaps not. disdain was clear in her eyes as she unsheathed her sword, more than ready to stab down and ask for her information that she needed when another male had come barrelling her way, stopping her sword with his own flesh and blood.
subconsciously, mingyan winced. being stabbed by her sword wasn’t something exactly to be trifled with, the blade itself having been lovingly sharpened daily till it could easily cleave through meat and bone. but now wasn’t the time to consider all of that. what remained on the forefront of mingyan’s mind was the fact that this male--afu, she recognised rather vaguely in the back of her mind--was preventing her from obtaining the information she needed, and the punishment that the man should have been given for eyeing what wasn’t his.
“ah. he escaped.” disappointment was barely an emotion that mingyan expressed, the disgust in her words easy enough to detect as the hooligan slipped away from beneath her sword and ran away, screaming on top of his lungs. that should teach him to respect a woman or two. mingyan preened to herself rather proudly, before turning almost vengefully at afu, glowering magnificently at the other male. “i was about to get information from him. you made me fail my mission.” her words were clipped as she resheathed her sword, the bells at her waist tinkling merrily. “what are you going to do about that?”
Mingyan was lost. Lost at what to do, lost at which part to turn within the winding roads of the small village. Worse still--she didn’t know really how to interact with people. What was she supposed to do? Smile? Wave? Her eyes catch hold of a small village girl staring almost bashfully at her, letting the corners of her lips lift into a frozen smile. Her cheeks ached from having her expression stay almost stoned for a long while, and the child burst into tears, wailing as she ran away into her mother’s arms, leaving a confused Mingyan behind.
“Am I that terrifying?” She points to herself, turning to her brother behind her, brows furrowed as though thinking deeply, her long lashed eyes flickering up to scrutinize Lian, eyeing his every facial movement for a single lie. “That kid looked at me and cried like I stole her candy or something.” Her eyes dropped back down to the sword in her hand, feet scuffling together as she muttered under her breath, clearly more disturbed by the thought than anyone else. Perhaps it was her sword. Mingyan turned her gaze towards Siying in her hand, tightening her grip upon the sword with determination as she turns around and briskly walks into an alley, presuming that Lian would have somewhat had the decency and brain to follow her.
“I heard that you mentioned something about demons haunting a certain place.” She finds her target, half drunk with wine and stumbling in the alley into wall after wall, chortles upon his breath and eyes half open with drunkenness.
“Well, well, if it isn’t a pretty lady. Are you here to keep me company?” The male leered at Mingyan, bending close enough to her to allow his breath to fan across her face, making Mingyan’s face crumple in discomfort. She was almost tempted to draw her sword and stab it into the man’s shoulder to pin him to the wall, but graciously decided against spreading her name in ill-will over the whole village.
mingyan was bored. how could she not be--when she had expected the regulations test to be a tad harder than she had expected? mingyan herself had come to the test extremely prepared, and more than ready for difficult questions that would stump her from the left to the right, only for the exams to be that of quite a breeze for her. the disappointment was slightly clear in her long lashed eyes as she flipped through her paper once more before submitted, stretching her bones as soon as she got the results that she had expected, and a bowl of red bean soup with sugar in it as a reward.
she had bowed politely to the testers, keeping her lips gently pursed in a simple line, her fingers lightly brushing over the bells by her side as she quickly made her way out of the hall, the tinkling of merry bells following her in every step of the way, calming her rather turbulent heart. a low sigh bubbled from her lips as she glanced down at the bowl of red bean soup, making a careful beeline to the pond to enjoy a little bit of a quiet reverie amongst the milling crowd of disciples outside the testing hall.
it barely takes a few minutes for her to make her way to the water, setting down her bowl carefully on the large rock and letting her feet dangle in the water after removing her shoes, the bowl of red bean soup left untouched by her side as she tilted her head upwards towards the blue skies, flopping on her back and pillowing her head as she languidly closed her eyes.
she had never liked things with much sugar in them anyways. it felt like a crime for her to be enjoying such luxuries that reminded her of her family, the sugared soup that her mother would prepare for her each time she turned older, or the honeyed cakes that her eldest brother would secretly keep for her to share. anything sweet reminded her of them, and the fact that they were no longer by her side. with her mood soured by the thought, mingyan turned to her side, refusing to land her eyes on the bowl of sweetened red bean soup as she picked up her sword and left the pond, leaving behind the bowl of soup as she strode away.
“I was just enjoying the view.” And believe it or not, that wasn’t a total bullshit excuse he’d made up on the spot. Sijun was trying to find a way out of the Lan sect, but ended up getting distracted by the night sky. His mother had always told him that a beautiful woman resided in the moon and he always wondered how it must feel to live so high up, far beyond even the birds’ reach. “The moon, the night breeze…sorta romantic, ya know.” He grinned openly before lowering his hands, thinking he’d shown his harmlessness well enough by this point. “My name is Sijun,” he said, once again opting to not give out his last name. “What about you?” His eyes slid from her face down to her chest, pausing there for a second longer than necessary before letting them drift to her waist.
A silver bell, engraved with a nine-petalled lotus. “Yunmeng Jiang sect?” Oh, great. He kept on running into the relatives of the dead guy in his forest.
romantic? what the hell was this male talking about? what was he--a pervert? a faint look of displeasure crossed mingyan’s face as his eyes visibly slid from her face down to her chest, and then her waist, the hiss of her sword slowly being drawn out of its sheath contemplatively ringing through the air for a moment, lips pursed thinly in a faint line as she reconsidered her options and resheathed her blade.
“...mingyan.” she didn’t deem it as necessary to share her last name at all. after all, the silver bell that shifted merrily with her every movement served its purpose of letting anyone with the intent to know who she was without her having to explicitly say anything. the bell itself belongs to the jiang sect, and would save her the energy of introducing herself in most ways.
“yes.” she reaffirms lightly, wondering what had possessed him to be out so late in the night, instead of being in the warm bed that the lan sect had provided. “sijun.” his name lingers upon her lips, her eyes dropping back to her sword almost expectantly. “you don’t seem to be from the lan sect.” too carefree, she thought to herself, giving him a light once over with an icy glare. “the weis, perhaps?” he definitely had the propensity to possibly be a part of that sect, considering how his eyes had wandered when he’d first met her. mingyan huffed lightly, untucking herself from her position on the rock, a yelp escaping her lips as pins and needles filled her foot, causing her to dangerously wobble.
nightmares were the most oft things that plagued mingyan’s mind during winter--it wasn’t as though she had intended it to be so, quite the contraire, she desperately desired than to have her dreams void of her dead parents and siblings loitering about. not to mention, failing to have a good rest ultimately did nothing to help ease her mind about cultivation. there was nothing more that chagrined her than the ultimate fact that lian had gotten ahead of her with regards to their cultivation ranks, despite having both been lauded as geniuses within the jiang sect.
the moon glistened delicately within the silvery night sky as mingyan heaved a sigh from her parted lips, squeezing shut her eyes for a moment as she tried to clear her mind from all its thoughts, her lips pursed into a thin line as she glanced down at her sword, trailing her fingers delicately over its body. it had to be that she wasn’t used to living in the Lan sect, or sleeping in their rooms--that her wintery nightmares of her family’s massacre came back ultimately in full force. a crunch of slow footsteps pricks her sensitive ears, the soft rustle of her clothes parting slightly as she shifted her weight filling her ears as mingyan whipped around sharply, still seated, her eyes shifting from sadden to warily cautious within a blink of an eye.
“who’s there?” her voice sharpens, cold penetrating her tone as the slide of her sharpened sword filled the cold night air, the hiss of the blade meeting the cold frigid air as mingyan’s eyes darted about, trying to discern the source of sound.
“maybe its just me being paranoid.” she muttered after a while, sheathing her sword swiftly as she heaved another sigh, contemplating if she should spend the night completely awake once more, in fear of more unwanted dreams.
Hello hello everyone! If you don’t already know--I’m Lina, and this is my late intro post for Mingyan! She’s my precious first muse that’s a tsundere, hates evil and way too obsessed with cultivation and her sword.
Here’s her full profile (fair warning, its long, but i do suggest you read! :D)
below the cut there’s more information that hasn’t been included in her profile ^^ I look forward to plotting with everyone! i have a twitter & a discord as well, so feel free to ask for either if they’re much easier for you to plot there rather than in ims!
(ps: pretend that li yifeng isn’t in this T-T because i have so little resources for mingyan and don’t know how to make it for myself)
adopted daughter of the jiangs, she’s the adopted sis to lian and jingxuan, 26 yrs old and very tsundere. her two traits are superior swordsmanship & natural beauty. her swordsmanship is known to be very beautiful, most would describe it as 出神入化 cuz of the amt of time she spends on perfecting it.
she doesn’t like to dress in the purple uniform of the jiangs, so she’s prob the one of the individuals in the jiang sect that wears her own custom made uniform sdfjdkf in colours of white or bluegreen.
she smells of fresh tea leaves, delicate rain, with a light mintyness and lavender.
was born ji mingyan 姬茗嫣 to the second wife of her father, had 4 brothers and 3 sisters out of which only two were her siblings and not half siblings.
her family was massacred on a wintery night, a day before her bday (winter solstice), by evil cultivators. mingyan was the only survivor, but aged 12 she watched the evil cultivators kill everyone in her house, including her 2 yr old twin brother and sister.
her eldest brother picked her up and ran while heavily injured, trying to bring her to safety and to the nearest sect, which was the jiang sect
she knelt for a half a night out in the snow (she was safe since she was right at the jiang’s doorstep) asking to be taken in. her eldest brother that had carried her had died by her feet already, after forcing her to wear his coat to keep warm, since he was too injured. he gave her their family heirloom and she had to watch him pass on
the jiangs were hesitant on taking her in, because they were afraid she would use her cultivation skills to seek revenge for her family, esp after they tested her and she was proven a genius in the way of the sword + her cultivation roots (she has affinity with all five elements)--they made her swear not to take revenge, so she kept revenge deep in her heart and hidden away, and focused on what they wanted her to do, which was to cultivate and be the top.
she has a little rivalry with lian because he teases her, and most of all, he got to jindan before she did (she was a step away from forming jindan, but he got there first)
she’s a little terrified of dogs, and WILL stare down any dog just because she’s internally freaking out
she’s a tsundere, and people call her pretty much someone very inconsistent with her looks--she looks adorable & cute with chubby cheeks and big eyes, but the girl speaks in a cold tone, is vry calm and pretty much doesn’t care for most save for her brothers and her beloved sword. she’s also vry hot tempered when it comes to seeing things that aren’t justified, and will strike first before asking (jumps to conclusions rather quickly)
her sword is made of really cold metal, it took 3 yrs for her to get used to it, and the jiangs chose to make it for her because they wanted to give her a goal to work towards, and redirect her mind from revenge to purely cultivation
she’s honestly a pure babi adfjdkf, innocent and a bit naive, sees things really in black and white--but really hates evil cultivators. her loyalties lie with the sect and her way of justice as well as the sword, and if something shakes that foundation (lets say if the jiangs were found to have done something evil (like what jin mengyao did), her trust and her belief will be shaken, and she’d teeter on the edge of probably falling into evil
she’s absolute for justice--so if she sees someone in trouble she’d just strike first and ask later (plot point! maybe she made some enemies or had some misunderstands cuz of that)
so far her brothers are prob the only ones that would have seen her show other emotion apart from just neutrality and being calm
her sword’s name is SiYing (the sword of reflection/lamentation), and due to it being made of cold metal, its cold to touch, and she has a set of bells which are her family heirloom, called WangYou Ling (The Forgetting Bell)
The Forgetting Bell is a heirloom that has two bells--and is usually given to the heir of the family to give to their significant other. One bell will be on Mingyan, and the other on her significant other (if she falls in love or gets married). The bells can sense anytime the person’s other half is in danger, and react to it with a jingling sound, alerting their owner that their significant other is in danger.
well done for getting to the end of this long ass intro T-T i KNOW ITS LONGER THAN EVERYONE ELSE’S kjdfksjf sorry about that, but thanks for being patient and reading through! ;;;
I hope to plot with yall soon! :D pls hit me up uwu
