If you can't beat them, recruit them

[zvi]

if you can't beat them, recruit them (228416 words) by moeblobmegane
Chapters: 48/48
Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Nie Huaisang & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian & Wen Qing
Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Nie Huaisang, Wēn Qíng, Wen Ning | Wen Qionglin, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Jiang Yanli, Jin Zixuan, Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao, Nie Mingjue, Xue Yang | Xue Chengmei, Mo Xuanyu, Wēn Remnants, Mò Xuányǔ's Mother, Qin Su (Modao Zushi), Qin Cangye, Song Lan | Song Zichen, Luo "Mian Mian" Qingyang, Lan Qiren, Sisi (Modao Zushi), Xiao Xingchen, Baoshan Sanren, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Conspiracy, Spies & Secret Agents, Team as Family, Found Family, Burial Mounds, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Pining, Morally Ambiguous Character, Rumors, Politics, Background JZX/JYL, Developing Friendships, Good Uncle Lan Qiren, Demonic Cultivation (Modao Zushi), YilingWei Sect
Series: Part 1 of wwx time travels and accidentally creates a platonic harem
Summary:

Rather than mourning a future that had not happened yet, he would rather work with all his might to prevent it from happening. [...] His aim was to fortify his home and his family so that they would never again be left vulnerable to greedy cultivators aiming for his genius. For that, he needed help.
He may be a genius, but he was not the cunning manipulative man they thought him to be.
No, that was not him.
He knew who was, though.

 

(Or: Wei Wuxian uses a powerful array to go back in time and builds a secret squad to prevent the misfortunes of the future.)

I love a time travel fix it, but I don't think most of them benefit from the fate of every character in MDZS being addressed. We don't quite hit that mark in this story, but we're damn close. Part of the problem is that there's several parts where it seems like we've achieved our goal (YilingWei is safe) but we just keep going, and the parts where we keep going don't all get particularly well resolved.
Also "platonic harem" is over selling the found family of it all a little bit. Partly this is because everyone has important jobs to do not at the Burial Mounds, so they're not in constant proximity, but also, for a 200k fic, Wei Ying et al don't get that much pure interpersonal relationship time.
That being said, I like this story, I just don't love it.