Third Person's POV
Is he going to die? He doesn't know, perhaps he should've taken his disciples with him on this night hunt. But, he didn't think that the supposed weak ghost actually turned out to be a strong soul eating monster. And for his ignorance, he was dying. Nie Jue courtesy Nie Mingjue, the Sect Leader of the QingheNie Sect, had gone on a nighthunt in a small village that had requested for assistance to deal with a resentful being and Mingjue had taken this opportunity to go and cool off from his Sect duties and satisfy his saber spirit's, Baxia, bloddlust who had become agitated recently. So, he went to the village in the day and went out to hunt in the night. But he didn't expect a soul eating monster to be there instead of a bunch of fierce corpses or other lower level resentful creature, he had underestimated the creature and suffered loss because of it. Mingjue coughed blood after he was flung against a tree, again. The impact was quite hard and Mingjue felt the tree behind him crack a little. Just as Mingjue prepared to finally die, which to be honest he didn't want to die, because he still had a little brother and a whole sect to take care of, Huaisang wasn't ready for that responsibility yet, nor was he strong enough to protect himself yet. However, Mingjue's luck shined when he saw from the corner of his eye, a red glint before a sword flew by and attacked the monster before it could kill him. The sword was quite powerful and strong that much Mingjue's experienced eye could tell, the cultivator who wielded such a sword must also be quite powerful. Mingjue turned his head slightly and his eyes widened. There, where Nie Mingjue thought stood the strong cultivator, his saviour, stood a young woman. The young woman wore elegant clothes and a black veil with red accents that covered her face, only her eyes and long black hair, which was tied up in a long high ponytail, were visible. Nie mingjue suddenly felt lightheaded and he finally felt something wet on the back of his head. Mingjue reached his hand up and touched the wet liquid before he brought his hand in front of him to see what it was. The liquid was his blood, he had hit his head and was feeling lightheaded due to blood loss. Mingjue looked up and met eyes with the young woman. She had...beautiful eyes, they were a beautiful colour of amazing silver, like the full moon. Nie Mingjue fainted with those last thoughts of beautiful and sparkling silver eyes.
The Next time that Mingjue woke up, he was in a bed with a warm blanket draped over him. "Ugh." Mingjue grunted as he felt a slight pain in the back of his head. Mingjue then looked around at his surroundings with caution, he was in a simple looking room with nothing more than a few simple paintings hung on the walls and a sitting area directly in front of the bed, with a screen divider dividing the room in half. "Good Morning, Nie-Zongzhu." Came a sweet and melodious voice from Mingjue's right, where the door to the room was and it was open now with the same female from the night hunt, standing there with a tray of food in her hands. She walked forward calmly and placed the tray on the bedside the table and then looked at Mingjue, who had been staring at her since the beginning from when she called out to him. "Would you like to sit up?" She questioned politely, and Mingjue gave out a raspy, "Yes." The woman gently helped him sit up and placed a few pillows behind his back to make sure that he was comfortable. Then the female sat on the chair beside the bed and turned to the tray and picked up the glass of water before she pressed the rim of the glass against his lips and Mingjue eagerly drank the water to soothe his sore throat. "May I check your pulse to see if you are alright?" The female said showing her right hand and Mingjue nodded before she grabbed his left wrist gently and felt his pulse with her eyes closed. 'Her finger are soft.' Mingjue thought to himself unconsciously before he heard the female hum in satisfaction. "Nothing seems to be out of order." The female said and pulled back her right hand letting go of Mingjue's left wrist. "Can I look at your head wound, Nie-Zongzhu?" Mingjue nodded at that and she stood up and checked his wound before she sighed in relief and sat back down in her seat. "It's almost fully healed and the opening of the scar is closed completely now. But, do you feel any pain anywhere, Nie-Zongzhu?" The female asked to be sure and Mingjue slightly shook his head. "No, I felt some pain there when I first woke up but it's fine now. Thank you for your assistance, Guniang." Minjue said respectfully and the female nodded with a smile, judging by the soft crinkling of her eyes as she was still wearing her veil. "Here, I made some congee for you." The female picked up the tray and placed it on Mingjue's lap and gestured for him to begin eating before she stood up and turned to leave.
"Guniang!" Mingjue called out to her after the female turned to walk out of the room. "Hm? Yes, Nie-Zongzhu?" She asked him as she turned back to him, her sudden turning made her elegant robes flutter slightly and the bells, that she had tied along her waist with her waist belt, chimed slightly. "I, May I know your name?" Mingjue asked her after he swallowed the lump that formed in his throat. The female smiled again, her eyes crinkled. "Juhua. My name is Juhua." She replied back. "No last name?" Mingjue blurted out with a frown before his eyes widened as he registered how disrespectful and offending that sounded. "Ah, I mean- I meant no disrespect!" Mingjue blurted out with a slight blush on his cheeks caused from embarrassment. Mingjue paused when he heard a sweet and melody like giggle come from the female. "It's alright, Nie-Zongzhu. I didn't take any offense." She replied as she hid her mouth behind her long sleeve. "But, I don't think that you would like my last name." She said and Mingjue frowned. "Why do you say that, guniang?" Mingjue asked her. "Won't you be angry hearing the name Wen?" She said before she chuckled and walked outside of the room without a pause. Mingjue sat there frozen before he just shrugged his shoulders, he assumed her to be joking because, 1 why the hell would a Wen sect member help him? They kept to themselves and didn't bother with others, and 2 Mingjue saw a slightly teasing and mischievous look in the female's beautiful silver eyes, so he thought that she was joking. Mingue turned back to the food and grabbed the chopsticks before he started to eat. Mingjue's eyes widened at the first bite, even though it was just a simple looking congee, it had rich taste and spices that he hadn't expected to taste on his tongue but he still loved the food as he quickly devoured the food.
The female came back in the room after thirty or so minutes had passed. "Nie-Zongzhu, I have talked with the village head and he has sent a letter to the Nie Sect for a few disciples to arrive and take you back to Qinghe." The female, Juhua, said as she took the tray from Mingjue's lap. "What about you? Are you going back to your own sect?" Mingjue couldn't help but ask her. "Yes, I do need to get back quickly too, My father will start worrying if I don't reach home by tonight as well as my brothers, so I need to leave now." The female said with a smile. "Oh!" Juhua said before she placed the tray on the bedside table and grabbed the qiankun pouch from her waist and looked through it before she took out another pouch from it. "Here. This pouch has several healing herbs and a healing salve in it. It will help you in your recovery." Juhua said sincerely with a smile and Mingjue slowly nodded with a, "Thank you for your help, Juhua Guniang." and took the pouch gently from her hand before he observed it. The pouch was simple yet elegant looking, it was plain black but the fabric was soft and expensive, the pouch also had a chrysanthemum embroidered on it with red thread. "Does it look good? I embroidered it myself!" Juhua exclaimed happily. "Yes, its beautiful." Mingjue said as he looked up at Juhua, not talking about the pouch anymore. "I shall take my leave now, Nie-Zongzhu." Juhua said as she bowed respectfully to him and Mingjue also bowed back to her whilst still sitting on the bed. Juhua took the tray and left. Mingjue opened his mouth to call out to her but she was gone already before he could speak. Mingjue sighed and leaned back against the pillows.
Later that day, Mingjue's rest was disturbed by the loud wail of his baby brother. "Da-ge!!!!" Nie Huaisang wailed loudly as he rushed into the room and lunged at his Da-ge in a tight hug and cried on Mingjue's shoulder. "Da-ge, I was so worried and scared! I told you to take the disciples or even Zonghui-ge with you, but no! Your so stubborn! What if something had happened to you in the night hunt?!!!" Nie Huaisang wailed after he pulled back from the hug and violently started shaking Nie Mingjue by the shoulders while he wailed loudly with a sudden bout of strength in his normally weak arms. "It's ok, A-sang. I'm alright now, I'm fine, It's just a light scratch." Mingjue reassured his little brother with a pat on his head. Huaisang sobbed one last time before he started to wipe his tears away and looked around the room, looking for something or rather someone. "Where's the guniang, who saved you, Da-ge? The village head wrote in the letter that she was taking care of you." Huaisang looked up at his brother as he asked him that. "She, she left already." Mingjue said with a slight twinge of sadness and longing in his chest. Huaisang's eyes slightly widened as he saw a familiar yet unfamiliar emotion flash in Mingjue's eyes. Huaisang just hummed slightly in response to his brother's reply before he snapped his fan open. A sudden plan forming in his mind for his brother's happiness.
After that incident, the days passed by in a blur with Mingjue never hearing anything about a rogue cultivator or even about a maiden, who wore red and black robes on night hunts. Mingjue never forgot about the guniang who save his life, his saviour, and unknown to him, the guniang, Juhua also never forgot about the strict and brash, brawn for brains, Sect Leader Nie Mingjue, whom she saved on her solo night hunt. The months passed by without a single notice of Juhua to Mingjue, who was slightly, or to be honest, greatly disappointed by that. Nie Huaisang was also greatly disappointed, because none of his spies found a single trace of the female, who actually stole his Da-ge's heart and then practically vanished away from the face of the earth. Huaisang had also made a painting of the female after he asked Mingjue of her description in order to find her quickly, and now the painting had ended up being hung on the wall of Mingjue's office, on the right side of where Mingjue sat in his desk, right before his eyes. However, Mingjue saw her or rather heard her name again, when he went to Qishan's Nightless city, for the yearly Sect Discussion Conference. To be honest, Mingjue's hatred for the Wens calmed down after he learned that the Wen Sect Leader actually had nothing to do with the death of his father. Mingjue sat in his designated seat along with the other Sect Leaders. Looking up at the Sky, Mingjue noticed a lot of point flares go off in the sky for the Wen Sect. "It seems that the Wen Sect has quite a lot of disciples, who specialize in archery and have a great aim." Jin Guangshan, the boot licker in Minhjue's opinion, said as he fanned himself with even less elegance than Mingjue's own little brother had. The Wen Sect Leader simply smirked as he drank tea from his tea cup before he parted his lips and spoke, "There is nothing like that, Jin-ZongZhu, rather, all of these flares are going off for only three people. One for my twin daughter and son each and the other for my nephew." That caught everyone's attention as not many knew about the fact that Wen Ruohan had a daughter and a competent son, because Wen Xu had crossed the age for participating being 20 years old now and everyone knew that Wen Chao was useless, and one of those people who didn't know was Nie Mingjue himself. "Oh, I didn't know that Wen-Zongzhu had such a talented daughter and son!" Jin Guangshan said, his mind running, thinking of different ideas, for the possibility of Wen Ruohan's daughter marrying his now not-engaged son, Jin Zixuan. "Yes, my children are very talented. They has always been a prodigy ever since they was young. My twin children both formed there golden cores mere months after their sixth birthday had passed." Wen Ruohan bragged about his precious children and everyone knew that he wasn't lying, Wen Ruohan may be many things but he was no liar when he bragged about his kids or the talented disciples of his sect. "My son has always liked tinkering around with talismans and new inventions. He is the one who made the compass of evil and the spirit attraction flag. While my daughter is proficient in many cultivations from Sword to Fan and healing ever since young." This, caused several quiet gasps to be heard from the Sect leaders. The Compass of Evil and the Spirit Attraction flag were the two inventions that had helped the cultivation world greatly over the past two years and they were produced and sold in great numbers by the Wen Sect too. However, no one knew who the genius was, who made these wonderful inventions, until now. And then there was the Sect Leader Wen's daughter, with how Wen Ruohan has praised his daughter's abilities, it was clear that she was genius in the field of cultivation. And, based on how Wen Ruohan himself looked, there was no doubt that his daughter and son looked beautiful as well, so the son was an asset to the Wen Sect while the daughter would become a great Sect Madam of whichever Sect she married into.
Suddenly the gong rang out loudly indicating that the archery competition had now ended. The Sect leaders all focused on all of the Sect's disciples, who slowly flooded out into the field before them. The Sect Leaders' attention quickly went to the Wen Disciples direction to see if they could get a glimpse of Wen Ruohan's prodigious children. The Wen announcer went forward after he got the results of the competition and started to announce the names of the people who made it into the top 20's. "In fifth place, we have Nie Huaisang of the Nie Sect with 77 points!" Nie Mingjue proudly clapped his hands as he saw his little brother get pushed forward by his disciples. "In fourth place, we have Jin Zixuan from the Jin Sect and Jiang Wanyin from the Jiang Sect tied with 81 points!" Mingjue saw as Jiang Fengmian and Jin Guangshan turned to each other and gave each other a slightly strained smile, Mingjue assumed the tension to be from the recently broken engagement between Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan after Jiang Wanyin punched the Jin Sect Heir in the face for disrespecting the young lady jiang during their studies in Cloud Recessess. On the field, the said Sect Heirs glared at each other furiously. "In third place, we have Wen Qionglin from the Wen Sect with 86 points!!" The Wen announcer shouted more loudly than before as the said Wen disciple was pushed forward too, not unlike Huaisang was, he seemed very shy to be from the Wen Sect. He must be Wen Ruohan's nephew, Mingjue mused and got the same answer from the proud look on Wen Ruohan's face. "In second place, we have the Twin Jades from the Lan Sect with 89 points!" Mingjue and Lan Qiren clapped, loudly and slowly for the Twin jades, Mingjue for his sworn brother and the said sworn brother's own little brother, while Lan Qiren clapped for both of his nephews. The twin jades of Lan also walked forward and stood in the second place along with the other top 5. "And, winning this year's archery championship is our very own Young Maiden Wen and Young Master Wen, tied with 95 points!!!" At that everyone turned their attention to the announcer in shock. "Wen Juhua and Wen Wuxian!!" The announcer announced louder than ever before. The disciples of the Wen Sect roared with cheers than when they had previously cheered for Wen Ning, who was also cheering loudly now too. Mingjue and Huaisang's eyes widened after they heard the familiar name, Huaisang had pestered Mingjue for a whole day to get the Guniang's name from him. Mingjue turned his gaze over to the field and saw a beautiful young woman walk out of the Wen disciples' line, who parted the way for her and the young man with her, who was her brother, Wen Wuxian. The male looked like her twin, he shared many features with her, but also looked very different from her, he seemed to have inherited their mother's features while the female had inherited their father's features. The female had several of Wen Ruohan's features, like the jawline and the perfect arch of eyebrows but her features were sharp and feminine. But, she didn't have the scarlet red eyes of her father, rather her eyes were a startling silver just like her brother, that shined and sparkled brightly in the light of the sun. And, she also had a matching bright and gentle smile on her face along with Wen Wuxian rather than their father's smirk of victory. The two wore the Wen main family robes but the white was replaced with black and the robes were also that of a spare heir's and they also had bells tied along her waist belt that chimed as she walked gracefully. The top five all looked towards the Sect Leaders and bowed before they disbursed but Mingjue quickly saw Huaisang run over to the Young Maiden Wen to talk to her, and Mingjue panicked, he was afraid of what his menace of a little brother would say to his savior. Mingjue quickly stood up and went to his little brother.
"Young Maiden Wen and Young Masters Wen!" Huaisang said in greeting and bowed to her. Wen Juhua, Wuxian and Wen Ning turned to him and returned the bow. "Young Master Nie, what can I do for you?" Juhua asked him politely after she let Wen Ning go taking her bow with him to his older sister, while Wen Wuxian went to pester Lan Wangji, leaving the Young Maiden Wen and Young Master Nie alone to talk to each other. "Oh, nothing! I just wanted to thank you for saving my Da-ge during that night hunt!" Juhua's eyes widened in shock at that. "How do you know that it was me? I wore a veil at that time." "Oh, that! My Da-ge gave me a very long and detailed description of how you look!" Nie Huaisang said suggestively and Juhua blushed slightly. "R-Really? He remembered me?" Juhua asked shyly and Huaisang immediately knew that his brother too had stolen the Young Maiden Wen's heart that night. "Yes! Da-ge didn't forget about you for a single second! He even made me paint a portrait of you through his description only!" Juhua's eyes widened at Huaisang's exclamation and she blushed. "He has hung that portrait on his office's wall! He sees it every day from morning to night!~" Nie Huaisang whispered from behind his fan making Juhua blush even more. "Huaisang?!!" They both jumped up slightly at the yell and turned to the source of the yell to see Nie Mingjue speed walking towards them. "Eeek!! Save me, Wen-Jiejie!!" Huaisang squeaked and hid behind Juhua, who stood in front of him. "Young Maiden Wen." Mingjue said as he bowed to her and Juhua bowed back to him, "Nie-Zongzhu." "I apologize on A-sang's behalf if he has bothered you." Mingjue said and Huaisang smirked mischievously at his older brother from behind Juhua's back. "Ah, he hasn't bothered me for one bit, Nie-Zongzhu, rather, he's rather been very honest and just told me the truth." Juhua said with a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. "Ah?" Mingjue asked with a slight blush on cheeks as Juhua smirked up at him. "Yes. Nie-Zongzhu, tell me honestly, is it true that you have a portrait of me in your office?" Juhua asked and Mingjue instantly blushed at that and glared at Huaisang, who smiled at him brightly with a thumbs up. "I, uh, I-" Mingjue stuttered before Juhua interrupted his stuttering. "If you are truly that much of an admirer of mine, Nie-Zongzhu," Juhua spoke quietly, barely louder than a whisper as she walked closer to Nie Mingjue, who took a step back each time that Juhua took a step forward towards, they took at least five steps like that. Juhua grabbed Nie Mingjue's left sleeve with her right hand making him pause and freeze in his place. Juhua leaned up to the taller male's left ear and whispered, "Then, you can come and visit me in my garden in the Sun Palace later tonight to talk." Juhua spoke and stepped back, just in time to see Nie Mingjue blush bright red from down the neck up to his ears and face. Juhua chuckled into her fist and let go of Nie Mingjue's sleeve and walked past him. Mingjue turned around to watch her walk away and Juhua knew it too. Juhua raised her left hand and waved back at him teasingly as she winked up at him from over her left shoulder. Mingjue blushed even more at that. But, suddenly Mingjue felt a sharp and fierce glare aimed towards and he looked at the source of it. It was the fierce glare of Wen Ruohan, who had seen the whole interaction from his seat and also deduced that this was the 'Young Master', who his daughter had saved on her last solo night hunt and talked non-stop about for the past few months, just like that time when Wen Wuxian returned home and talked non-stop about the second Young Master Lan. Wen Ruohan's attention turned away from Mingjue when his precious daughter waved enthusiastically up at him and ran towards him for a hug after her great victory in the archery championship, before she called over Wen Wuxian, who was pouting after Lan Wangji ran away with blushing ears from him. Mingjue sighed to himself in relief after he was saved from Wen Ruohan's fury by his beautiful savior yet again. "So, are you going to see her tonight?!" Huaisang asked his older brother getting back Mingjue's attention. Mingjue blushed bright red again after he remembered his recent interaction with Juhua. "Shut up!" Mingjue glared at his little brother, who had the audacity to laugh at him and tease him.
That night, Mingjue did go to Juhua's garden and let's just say that it was the best night of his life. The largest portion of the night was spent talking and getting to know each other, before the two fell asleep under the stars on the seats in the garden. After that night of getting to know each other, Nie Mingjue didn't think, he couldn't even imagine, of ever getting together with another woman, who was not Wen HuaYin courtesy Juhua. Mingjue finally found out after months of courting that he had a thing for women, who dominated over him in bed and took care of him afterwards, and there was only one such woman who could ever do that to him, his precious Juhua, no one else. The next morning, they had announced their courtship, much to the displeasure of Wen HuaYin's brothers and her father, and much to the pleasure of her sworn siblings, Wen Ning and Wen Qing, and Nie Huaisang. They got engaged in that same year and married right after Wen HuaYin's seventeenth birthday, and she was overjoyed when her twin brother finally confessed his feelings to Lan Wangji, something along the lines of 'I sincerely wanted to sleep with you', but oh well, she was just glad he was happy and they got married too, with Wen Ying and Lan Wangji moving into the Wen Sect. Then She had a son with Mingjue, who Wen HuaYin named as Wen Yuan, at the suggestion of Wen Ying, courtesy Lixin. Mingjue loved his wife and son more than anything in the world, so much so that he gave his position of the Nie Sect Leader away to his little brother, Huaisang, and moved into the Wen Sect with his wife and from then on lived in the Palace of the Sun and Flames. Nobody know, but they do it everyday, because no matter what, Wen HuaYin and Wen Ying are still twins after all.