Wei Ying cautiously approaches it. She can apologize to Meng Yao in a minute; her multitasking abilities are limited and right now she's got all she can handle with the ongoing corpse situation and catastrophizing what a terrible person she is for causing it. 

Meng Shi blinks sluggishly at the ground. She is... very confused. Her hands lay folded in her lap; they are covered in blood and dirt. Everywhere she can see, she’s covered in blood and dirt. Her entire body aches.

She hears someone approaching and looks up at them uncertainly. 

--She freezes. 

There is intelligence in those eyes, that she's never seen before in any kind of ghoul. 

...She slowly finishes walking up to her, and instead of trying to yank the Yin Iron out of her ribcage, crouches down in front of her. 

“W....” Her throat is very sore. Air whistles through it uncomfortably when she first tries to speak.

“Wh.... Where am I?”

"This, uh, this is a graveyard, you died, you've been dead for years, this shouldn't be possible--"

Blink blink. That’s right, she was dying. She’s been sick for years. Only she doesn’t feel her sickness right now, she feels — something else.

Alive, mostly.

“I don’t believe I understand what happened. I do not recognize you, may I know your name?”

"My name is Wei Ying--Yao-ge get over here right now."

His legs move, somehow. 

“A-Yao? What —” She stares.

He looks so much older, he has a jaw now, his chin — and his hair is done up in unfamiliar braids, and his robes are dirty but cut from a shiny cloth more expensive than anything she’s ever seen him wear — 

He drops to his knees. “Mama?”

She reaches out. Her hands shake. “A-Yao —

You’ve done your hair so nicely —”

Touching her hand does not make her crumble into dust or disappear, and touching her shoulders does not make her crumble or disappear, and leaning against her does not make her crumble or disappear,

and then A-Yao is in his mom’s arms crying into her shoulder.

Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. Wei Ying is pretty sure this has never happened, ever, in the history of bullshit fuckups nobody has managed to fuck their way this far back up the impossibly good things happening scale before. 

She contemplates rounding up survivors to question, notices that Probably Still Technically Undead Meng Shi is next door to naked, pulls out a pouch and then a spare dress therefrom, puts it on a relatively blood-free spot near where the two of them are hugging, and then goes to round up survivors to question. 

Eventually Meng Yao and his mother stop crying on each other and collect themselves. Meng Shi dons the offered dress and combs out her hair with her fingers while Meng Yao updates her on things like how old he is, and how long it's been, and the fact that they are in the middle of a war and also technically a battlefield.

Wei Ying comes back, and--looks at them, and swallows. 

She drops to her knees, then presses her palms and forehead to the ground. 

"I'm really sorry," she says. "I mean, not about how it turned out, but I couldn't know that--and using a corpse as a hiding place is incredibly disrespectful, that's what gave me the idea in the first place is who would look there, and if I didn't have some kind of bullshit talent for accidentally pulling miracles out of my ass it would have turned out horribly, and it was a split second desperate call but that doesn't make it okay." 

"A-Ying, are you saying that the Yin Iron is inside my mother?"

"...Yes."

"...I'm sure we are both very relieved that this was the outcome." He would not have enjoyed killing Wei Ying, but he definitely would have.

"Is her current state... permanent? How do we know that the Yin Iron will have no further adverse affects?"

"I don't...know? I mean this is. Not something I was expecting at all. Uh I guess naively I should really re-do the talismans more permanently on her skin just to be safe, but like, if this is what it looks like when the Yin Iron is, present, but suppressed, it seems like it would continue looking like that? If it has further adverse effects then I figure out how to fix those, I guess. I had no idea this was even possible as a thing to aim for but now that she's--you're--back--I'm not going to let that just go away again, that's not a shape the world gets to be."

"How will we explain what has become of the Yin Iron? Many are invested in the potential of such a tool. I would disprefer that anyone attempts to retrieve it."

"Yeah, uh, I...questioned the survivors, and apparently Wen Ruohan managed to work out a more precise and long-distance method of tracking it. I think our best bet is to go back to the war camp where there are like a million cultivators who really don't want it in his hands. And maybe explain the whole situation to Zewu-jun and Chifeng-zun on the grounds that they're both good people and also like specifically good people who care about you in particular? I can't really think of a better way to handle explaining it than that. As long as it's, you know, contained, and keeping your mom alive, and not hurting anyone, that's better than not that, right, it's not like either of them is likely to go 'what if, instead, demonic cultivation for personal gain.'"

Meng Yao is still not overly at ease, but that's... at least an acceptable plan, for the time being.

He tells his mom that Zewu-jun is very kind and Chifeng-zun is very righteous. He has confidence that they will provide the necessary protection.

Meng Shi appreciates that and looks forward to meeting them. The provision of safety is a strange and unfamiliar prospect. She is unsure what to expect, but at the very least Meng Shi is happy that A-Yao has made friends.

Speaking of which, she and A-Yao's friend (?? girlfriend?) have still not been properly introduced. Meng Shi lets go of her son and bows to Wei Ying with Meng Yao's perfect bow. "Forgive me that I have been too distracted to properly thank you, my Lady."

"Ah! Ah! No need, I mean, strictly speaking this situation is because I did something disrespectful, you know, and you two have both had more than your fair share of that, don't get me wrong I'm incredibly glad it worked out like this but I really don't know how much credit I can claim! Both for Yao-ge's sake and--well, I've heard wonderful things about you from him but I never thought I would get to meet you or anything, I'm honored, really."