Xiyao: Rules of the Strange Descend on the Cultivation World

A Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation fanfiction, focused mainly on XiYao, with WangXian as a secondary pairing and a small amount of XuanLi. It has no connection to CQL.

Warning: The plot contains mild horror. This is a fan-created derivative work, and the original timeline and the order of some events have been adjusted where necessary to make the plot work.

Timeline: Roughly six months to a year and a half after the Sunshot Campaign. The Three Venerables have sworn brotherhood, but Jin Guangyao is still struggling to find his footing in the Lanling Jin Clan. Wei Wuxian has not yet been targeted by the cultivation clans, and Wen Qing's branch has not yet been driven to the brink. Strange realms begin appearing quietly in outlying towns and in the rumors spread by rogue cultivators, gradually shifting the attention and judgment of the cultivation clans.

Synopsis

After the Sunshot Campaign, the Three Venerables have only just sworn brotherhood. The cultivation clans are busy debating credit, settling scores, and reshuffling old accounts, while strange incidents begin to surface in outlying towns: the dead return home, names appear on yellow paper, and anyone who breaks the rules is dragged into a strange realm.

Lan Xichen, Jin Guangyao, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, and others are drawn into rule-based horror scenarios one after another. The rules written on paper listen to what people say, use rumors to kill, and even turn futures that have yet to happen into verdicts. Qiongqi Path, Lotus Pier, Koi Tower, and the Guanyin Temple, places that should have become tragedies, descend upon the world early as scenarios.

Wei Wuxian has lost his golden core. He can no longer fly on his sword, wield one as before, or use spiritual power. Jin Guangyao is trapped between the smiles and cold stares of the Lanling Jin Clan, yet he always understands the rules a step ahead of everyone else. The more Lan Xichen tries to protect him, the more he realizes that the familiarity in A-Yao's eyes seems less like quick thinking in the moment and more like a dream from the past that has yet to end.

If the future is evidence, not a verdict, then even a fate written in advance can be changed by the living with their own hands.