Fanfic / Impenetrable Walls

Impenetrable Walls is a Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi fanfic written by Gina 3 on Archive of Our Own.

After casting his greatest spell in order to protect the Wen remnants and Yiling from anyone seeking them harm, Wei Wuxian needs to lie low for a bit and decides to hide in Gusu. Somehow, he gets identified and... offered as a concubine to the Imperial Brother? Who happens to also be Hanguang-jun, one of the Sunshot Campaign heroes?!

Well, at least being a male concubine merely entails playing chess and chatting. And it's a temporary gig, right? Right?

Contains the following tropes

• Be Careful What You Wish For: Lan Wangji wanted to bring Wei Ying to Cloud Recesses in order to keep him safe and living in luxury. When the other man becomes his concubine, their interactions are completely devoid of the intimacy and trust they built during the Sunshot Campaign due to their new positions.
• Cool Big Bro: The Emperor is a startingly dark example. He deeply loves his younger brother and is giddy over the prospect to help him in his love life... without any care about potentially ruining said younger brother's crush's life.
• Deadly Decadent Court: Jin Guangyao is hinted to have Lan Xichen's absolute trust and favour. At least one imperial consort has been executed for high treason. Wei Wuxian thankfully has been spared being targeted during his first months as a concubine.
  • Lampshaded when Mianmian reveals the Imperial Brother is rather unpopular among the higher-ranked eunuchs and officials because he disapproves of bribery, to Wei Wuxian's bewilderment.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Just that someone can just be accosted on the street, taken in front of the Emperor and be made a concubine for a prince against their will.
  • Eunuchs are a rather common sight, but are not considered men because of their mutilation. Mianmian can affirm she didn't see a man since she entered the Cloud Recesses since they don't matter.
  • Consorts and concubines are locked away in the women's quarters since a female's life is "indoors", and no one can look at them if they're not their husbands, maidservants or eunuchs.
  • Kissing is considered as heavily intimate, to the point that Wei Wuxian is shocked when Lan Wangji gives him a lip-lock in front of his maidservants.
  • A household is so tightly bound to their master or mistress they will share fortune and misfortune with this person — Mianmian barely escaped the purge when Consort Jiao was found guilty of treason, and is now desperate for Wei Wuxian to not fail in his duties as a concubine as it would see his maidservants punished with him.
  • When a woman's husband died, she's strongly encouraged to kill herself in order to stay chaste and prove her devotion to him.
• Doorstopper: Word of God is that the story will be just as long as the usual Chinese web-novel, and they easily go further than 100 chapters.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • Concubines according Wei Wuxian are there to have babies or to look pretty and friendly. Since Wei Wuxian cannot bear children, he has to be there because the Imperial Brother needs a live-in friend to play chess! Hum, sweetheart, entertaining can mean something more carnal, actually...
  • After being made a concubine, Wei Wuxian tries to be as proper as possible since he believes Lan Wangji would prefer him this way — only for the prince to be dismayed and horrified every time he's reminded of their new dynamic.
  • The Imperial Court is hinted to believe the Imperial Brother and his concubine were busy having a sexual relationship in the Sunshot Campaign, when the demonic cultivator instead believed the righteous Hanguang-jun loathed him with all his might.
  • Lan Xichen at first believed that Wei Wuxian was purposely leading on Lan Wangji. It takes the Emperor visiting the Palace of Quiescence to clear the misunderstanding.
• Eunuchs Are Evil: Zigzagged. The general opinion is that eunuchs are untrustworthy and subhuman for their mutilation, Su She certainly is a jerk to newly-named concubine Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao has quite the skeevy vibe, but Eunuchs Xiao and Ma from the Imperial Brother's household are nothing but nice, if rather nervous around their masters.
• Everyone Can See It: Pretty much everyone in the Sunshot Campaign was aware that the Yiling Patriarch and Hanguang Jun had feelings for one another. The Imperial Court even assumed that they were going at it like rabbits during the war. Lan Xichen at the very least had been keeping an eye out for when Wei Wuxian would next appear given that he was snatched barely an hour upon arriving in the capital.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Lan Wangji flat-out refuses to have sex with his concubine as long as Wei Wuxian doesn't genuinely reciprocate his feelings and trigger an encounter.
  • According Wei Wuxian, even Jin Guangshan wouldn't send one of his sons to be castrated — just imagine the loss of face!
• For Science!: Wei Wuxian is really enthusiastic about exploring dual cultivation as a new research field. As for Lan Wangji, he would like a bit less science and a bit more romance.
• Gilded Cage: After being offered to the Imperial Brother, Wei Wuxian is taken to live in a luxurious palace with servants to attend him. Unfortunately, he's not allowed to leave the Palace by himself, has no control over his food and clothing, needs to act subservient towards his husband and everyone expects from him to have sex with the Imperial Brother no matter his feelings on the subject.
• Girl on Girl Is Hot: While spying on Carp Tower, Wei Wuxian accidentally stumbles on a lesbian couple busy having a good time. Not only does it give him some pointers about foreplay, he gets so hot and bothered that he willingly incites Lan Wangji to kiss and caress him after coming back to their courtyard.
• Go Look At The Distraction: It's hinted that Jin Guangyao manipulated the emperor into kidnaping Wei Wuxian so Lan Wangji would be distracted and not look too closely at court intrigue.
• Gold and White Are Divine: The Son of Heaven is consistently described as "beyond mortals", almost worshipped as a living god and being the only person allowed to wear elaborate gold robes, while the Imperial Brother is dressed in pristine white.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: Wei Wuxian is not very stable at the beginning. Being locked away in the Palace of Quiescence (since it wouldn't be proper for a concubine to go outside) with limited interactions and stimulation doesn't help, and he reflects he would probably run away if he hadn't the comfort of it being a temporary gig.
• Gossipy Hens: Jin Guangyao is in the habit of writing gossip to Lan Xichen. Including the fact that when Jin Guangyao was visited by Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, the later had a hickey on his neck.
• Groin Attack: Losing the "three treasures" is needed to become an eunuch. Wei Wuxian also barely escapes passing under the knife when he's made a concubine, as the Emperor thinks his brother would rather be reunited with his lover intact.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: Wei Wuxian does look good in finery. However, Lan Wangji doesn't look particularly happy to see him dressed as befits an imperial concubine, which hints at the inversion — he would rather have his Wei Ying messy and disheveled because he's more himself that way.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Mianmian is Wei Wuxian's principal lady in waiting and very, very good at her job. She's comically horrified when she realizes she probably knows more about sex than him.
• I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Poor Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian keeps being extremely sexy around him when the prince is trying to be a gentleman and wait until Wuxian is ready.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Lan Wangji is subtly shown to be despondent when Wei Wuxian is acting as protocol dictates he ought — since a tame, submissive concubine isn't the feisty, argumentative Wei Ying he fell in love with.
• Important Hair Accessory: Lan Wangji gifts a cloud hairpin to Wei Wuxian after the necromancer complains about the flimsiness of his current ones. Not only wearing the imperial cloud marks Wei Wuxian as belonging to the Lan dynasty, hairpins were a romantic token exchanged between fiancées in Ancient China.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • Lan Xichen doesn't seem to be aware that people are too afraid or awed by his person to not obey him, so his acting as if Wei Wuxian becoming a concubine is a willing choice is more thoughtless than anything.
  • Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian he can write a letter to Lotus Pier and Jiang Cheng would have no choice but write back. Wei Wuxian immediately clams up and begs him to leave the matter alone.
  • Wei Wuxian's fascination with dual cultivation is rather painful to witness for Lan Wangji due to Wuxian's obliviousness.
  • Also, Wei Wuxian trying to be a properly obedient concubine reminds Lan Wangji they're not equals anymore — Wei Ying now is his Sex Slave, unable to give him the emotional intimacy he craves so much because it wouldn't be respectful towards royalty.
• Insistent Terminology: These are not porn books, these are dual cultivation manuals! If you're saying so, Wei Wuxian...
• Intimate Healing: After learning of the Imperial family's tendence towards yang energy excess, Wei Wuxian comes to believe he has been brought to Lan Wangji for papapa treatment sessions.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: A platonic version with Lan Xichen, who grants Wei Wuxian as a concubine to Lan Wangji because he knows his brother is pining after the man.
• King Incognito: No one had any idea during the Sunshot Campaign that the war hero Hanguang Jun was the Imperial Brother. It makes for quite the shock when Wei Wuxian is introduced to his new husband.
• Kissing Cousins: Cangse Sanren was an imperial princess of the previous dynasty, therefore Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji might be distantly related.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Yiling Patriarch managed to erase every tidbit of information about the Wen remnants and the Burial Mounds to make the Empire leave them alone. Even learning something about them will promptly be forgotten.
• Lineage Comes from the Father: Inverted when the Emperor officially gifts Wei Wuxian as a concubine to Lan Wangji, as he presents him as the Imperial Princess Cangse Sanren's child. After all, it's more flattering to marry a scion from Royal Blood than a servant's get.
• Mills and Boon Prose: Chinese language is heavy in euphemisms when it comes to discussing sex — a penis is a "yin stalk" that needs to be sheated within a woman's "flower" and such. It works against Wei Wuxian realizing the true nature of a concubine's function since no one wants to frankly discuss the matter with him instead of being flowery and delicate about it.
• Nondescript, Nasty, Nutritious: Cloud Recesses' meals are geared towards health and not pleasure, to Wei Wuxian's utter dismay. They also aim to leech yang energy (since the Imperial family has an excess of it) and Wei Wuxian's demand for something more suited to his yin-constitution is waved off since he can gain yang energy from sleeping with Lan Wangji.
• Noodle Incident: Mianmian and her two fellow young maids are assigned to Wei Wuxian because their previous mistress, Consort Jiao was executed for treason. No one thinks to tell Wei Ying exactly what Consort Jiao did to merit death.
• Oblivious to Love: Wei Wuxian has not clued into the fact that Lan Wangji is desperately in love with him. Despite being kidnapped to be said prince's Sex Slave, his servants constantly dropping hints, the Emperor himself sending him porn and outright telling him to stop toying with his brother's heart.
• Outside-Context Problem: A male concubine within the household throws the imperial bureaucratic apparatus into a tizzy, since they can't exactly treat him as a eunuch or a prince but he's not a woman either. So yup, protocoling headache.
• Princeling Rivalry: Averted between the Emperor and the Imperial Brother, something Wei Wuxian notes as quite rare in the ruling family. Lan Wangji is far too dutiful and righteous to even consider dethroning his brother, and Lan Xichen outright dotes on his sibling.
• Privilege Makes You Evil: Downplayed with Lan Xichen who's genuinely well-intentioned and gentle-natured but so completely out of touch with normal people that he has no idea whatsoever about how to not destroy their lives on a whim.
• Questionable Consent: Since he's the Imperial Brother's concubine and hopelessly unaware about sex matters, any attempt by Wei Wuxian to let Lan Wangji sleep with him is suspect by default. Fortunately, Lan Wangji refuses to have sex until Wei Ying gains some understanding of his own desires and what sex actually is.
• Rags to Royalty: Wei Wuxian could be seen as a male Snow White take on the trope — he might be from Imperial descent through his mother and is currently forced into hiding due to his past actions. However, he's not really enjoying being a concubine.
• Rebellious Princess: Potentially Cangse Sanren, since she's rumored to be a former Imperial Princess who ran away to become a cultivator instead of being married off for a barbarian alliance, and scandalized everyone by her romance with the servant Wei Changze.
• The Rich Have White Stuff: Lampshaded by Wei Wuxian, who remembers Madam Yu dressing him with a dark wardrobe because he would only stain paler shades and it would have been costly to clean. Now that he's the Imperial Brother's concubine, he gets to wear pristine white since he's intended to be more decorative than active. And even if he manages to dirty them, his maidservants would take care of it.
• Royal Blood: Wei Wuxian is the son of the Imperial Princess Cangse of the former dynasty.
• Royal Harem: The Emperor bluntly admits there's no place for love in his harem — his consorts and concubines are supposed to bear his heirs and quench his yang energy. Sex happens on a schedule carefully constructed by the astronomers and is purely mechanical according Mianmian, women without any influence or friends are forgotten to rot in the Palace, and the Son of Heaven can execute someone with the entire household if he wishes it.
  • Wei Wuxian first manifests terror when he's slated to become a concubine, remembering how nasty Madame Yu was towards him for being the offspring of her husband's former flame and fearing the Imperial Brother's official wife would torment him for being a competitor. Fortunately, Lan Wangji has a Single-Target Sexuality.
• Royal "We": As the Son of Heaven, Lan Xichen speaks in the plural when he's making an apparition.
• Servile Snarker: Mianmian for Wei Wuxian, a lot. Also enforced and deconstructed in her case — her snarkiness prevented her to be chosen as a potential concubine because you cannot hit your wife for being a smartass but a maid is fair game.
• Sex Magic: Dual cultivation is all about the mixing of yin and yang energies through physical intimacy such as kissing and caresses.
• Sex Slave: All the concubines. Wei Wuxian is lucky that Lan Wangji actually cares for his consent.
• Sexual Karma:
  • The Emperor - who casually destroys Wei Wuxian's life by reducing him to a Sex Slave - has a very cold, machine-like sex life. However, Lan Xichen is not so much evil than spoiled to the point of insensitivity and is described as gentle with his consorts.
  • Wei Wuxian kissing Lan Wangji is immensely pleasing and enjoyable for both of them.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Lan Wangji only wants his Wei Ying. Despite suffering from an excess of yang energy he refuses to have sex with anyone than Wei Ying. And will only do so if Wei Ying is one hundred percent willing.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Lan Xichen seems to have no idea how the world works. He basically kidnaps a Sex Slave for his brother. Thankfully Wei Wuxian doesn't hold it against Lan Wangji.
• Shipper on Deck: Lan Xichen for Wangxian — you can't do much more blatant than kidnapping your brother's crush to make him a concubine, sending porn manuals to the brand-new couple and visiting them to openly ask why they're not banging already. Also the eunuchs and Mianmian, since they're shown to be baffled and frustrated by Wei Wuxian's inability to entreat Lan Wangji to his bed.
• Shout-Out: One of the porn manuals (dual cultivation manuals!) sent to Wei Wuxian is titled Secrets of the Luo Dynasty. Shen Qingqiu really can't get a break.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: After being named an Imperial concubine, Wei Wuxian is made to leave his tattered black and red robes for pristine white garments — as the Imperial Brother dresses in white, the new clothes showcase Wei Wuxian now belongs to him.
• Taking a Third Option: When the Imperial Princess Cangse was betrothed to a barbarian lord, the Empress offered her a white silk cord in order to commit suicide. The Princess instead stole her father's sword and ran away to Baoshan Sanren's mountain.
• Unexpected Virgin: Why yes, Mianmian, your new master didn't actually banged the Imperial Brother silly when they were fighting the Wen clan. And yes, he's really completely clueless about what his new job as a concubine entails — actually, he's clueless about sex in general.
• Uptown Girl:
  • Lan Wangji is so far above Wei Wuxian as the Imperial Brother it's not even funny.
  • Potentially Cangse Sanren to Wei Changze, as she was a former Imperial Princess. It made their marriage extremely controversial.
• You Need to Get Laid: The whole court hopes that Lan Wangji will stop being such a strict hardass now that he has a concubine.