MDSZ1 45
MDSZ1 45
Chapter 1: Prologue
“Great news! Wei WuXian has died!”
“The YiLing Patriarch has died? Who could have killed him?”
“Who other than his shidi, Jiang Cheng, putting an end to his
own relative for the greater good. Jiang Cheng led the Four
Sects of YunmengJiang, LanlingJin, GusuLan, and
QingheNie to destroy his ‘den’—Luanzang Hill.”
“Jiang Cheng allowed this fellow to live for too long. If I were
him, at the time of the defection, I wouldn’t have just stabbed
him. In fact, I would have thoroughly examined the disciples
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“But, if not for Jiang Cheng making a plan that aimed at Wei
WuXian’s weaknesses, the siege might not have succeeded.
Should I remind you folks of the item that Wei WuXian
possessed? Did you forget about the day that three
thousand skilled cultivators were completely annihilated?”
“Oh well… You know, back then, Wei WuXian was one of
the most promising cultivators, coming from a highly
distinguished sect and finding success at a young age. How
on Earth did he end up where he was?”
After Wei WuXian’s death, the era was focused on the topic.
The discussions of the people were mostly the same, with a
few unconventional opinions being brought down
immediately.
If it was the first, then all was well. Then again, nobody
doubted the fact that the YiLing
Patriarch had the power to move mountains and empty
seas. If it was the last, his soul would eventually return to
revive in his body. When the day came, the cultivation world,
or even all of mortal land, would be faced with the most
insane damnation and revenge, sinking into nothing but
chaos and despair.
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Chapter 2: Reincarnation
Wei WuXian received a kick just as he opened his eyes.
The kick threw him backward, head first onto the ground.
Fighting the urge to vomit, a thought formed in his head—
that’s quite a lot of courage you have to kick me, the
Patriarch.
Who is this?
Where am I?
As the group went away, silence fell upon the room. Wei
WuXian thought about getting up.
Fortunately, the body wasn’t born this way—it was only one
of the owner’s penchants. He was no-doubt a man, yet he
was covered with makeup (not to mention, badly applied
makeup). How unbearable!
The difficult part was that, as soon as the evil spirit had
taken over the body of the caster, the contract was sealed
by default. The evil spirit must grant their wish, or else the
curse would cause a backlash. The spirit in possession of
the body would be completely annihilated, never to be born
again!
Even though the house was large in size, it was empty and
shabby, with sheets and blankets looking like they hadn’t
been changed in a long while. There was a bamboo basket
in the corner. It was supposed to be for storing trash, but,
having been kicked over earlier, the scraps all tumbled out
onto the ground. Wei WuXian scanned around the room and
picked up a crumpled piece of paper. He unfolded it and was
surprised to see it crammed with words. He hurriedly
gathered all of the paper.
But, not for long, since the Sect Leader was only involved
with her to experiment with something new, he grew tired of
it in a few years. After Mo XuanYu turned four, his father
never came back again.
The second-lady stuck her nose up in the air again, and told
everyone that her son would most certainly become an
immortal as fast as he could, bringing glory to his ancestors.
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Like adding frost to snow, aside from the event itself, when
Mo XuanYu returned, he often behaved in a crazy manner,
almost as if his life was scared out of him.
The story was almost too complex to be put into words. Wei
WuXian’s eyebrows twitched.
Wei WuXian couldn’t help but sigh, “You’ve got the wrong
person…”
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Chapter 3: Aggression
Part One
Wei WuXian wanted to wash his face so that he could gaze
upon the face of his body’s owner, but there wasn’t any
water in the room, not even for drinking or washing. The only
basin-like container was probably, he suspected, for lavatory
purposes instead of cleansing.
Wei WuXian lifted his foot and was about to kick the door
open, when, suddenly, the sound of footsteps approached.
Someone stomped on the door and grunted, “It’s mealtime!”
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The door was slightly smaller than the kind for dogs to crawl
through. It didn’t allow the passage of humans, but bowls
could be easily pushed inside. There were two dishes and
one serving of rice, which looked quite unpleasant.
Then, the servant outside spoke again, but with laughter this
time, “A-Ding! Come here!”
Why did the fluttering black flags on top of the roofs and
walls look so familiar to him?
As for why they looked familiar… How could they have not
come across as familiar? The creator of the Phantom
Attraction Flags was none other than the YiLing Patriarch!
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Wei WuXian looked him over. He was fair and refined, with a
dignified appearance and smiling faintly. Wei WuXian
silently approved of him. The flag formation was set in an
organized way, and his mannerisms were also respectful,
making him a disciple with astonishing potential. He didn’t
know, within a conservative clan such as the Lan Clan, who
on Earth brought up such a junior.
The whole courtyard was set alight with fire. Someone cried
out, “Drag the insane murderer to the Main Hall and make
him pay for it with his life!”
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Chapter 4: Aggression
Part Two
Wei WuXian’s first thought was that something went wrong
with the flag formation that the boys set up.
“... Less than three minutes had passed since the body was
discovered?”
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Wei WuXian hid behind Lan SiZhui’s back again, and spoke
while squatting, “How does your son’s tragic death concern
me?”
During the day, Lan SiZhui saw Wei WuXian make a scene
in the East Hall, and, afterwards, he also heard a lot of
exaggerated rumors from other people. He felt extremely
sympathetic to the invalid, and couldn’t help but to take his
side, “Madame Mo, seeing from your son’s condition, his
flesh and essence have been drawn out of him, which
means that he was killed by evil beings, not him.”
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It had been a few years since he last heard the phrase being
used to describe him, so it was quite cordial. Wei WuXian
pointed at himself, but no words came to him. He didn’t
know if he was the ill one or if it was Madame Mo. When he
was younger, he talked quite a lot about exterminating entire
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When Lan SiZhui and the others saw what was taken out of
Mo ZiYuan’s sleeve, they also understood the situation.
Associating this with the farce that happened today, the
cause was easy to guess. During the day, Mo ZiYuan lost
face because of Mo XuanYu’s crazy behavior and loathed
him, still wanting to square up with him. However, Mo
XuanYu wandered outside for a long while, so Mo ZiYuan
planned to sneak up on him at night, when he would be
returning.
The flag formation utilized six flags, of which five were set in
the West Courtyard, with the boys from the Lan family as
baits. However, they were all carrying countless magic tools
on them, and, although Mo ZiYuan only took a single flag,
he didn’t have any tools for protection on him. It was
common sense to pick on the weak, so the evil beings would
naturally be attracted to him.
If there were only walking corpses, then it wouldn’t matter
too much. Even if he was bitten, he wouldn’t die immediately
and could still be saved. Unfortunately, the Phantom
Attraction Flag accidentally attracted something worse than
a walking corpse. The unknown being was what killed Mo
ZiYuan and took his arm!
Wei WuXian raised his wrist. Sure enough, one of the cuts
on his right hand had healed. It looked like that he had
scored a lucky hit—the sacrificial contract had already
deemed the death of Mo ZiYuan as his doing.
The boys were still young. They hadn’t been outside much
and were too inexperienced to find anything wrong with the
area, which was why they felt sorry for not detecting an evil
being as fierce as this one. Nonetheless, after Madame Mo’s
senseless scolding, they all looked blue in the face. After all,
they grew up in a prominent family, so nobody dared to treat
them like this. The GusuLan Sect was extremely strict to its
disciples, forbidding violence against the powerless
everymen, not even allowing disrespect. Therefore, even if
they felt displeased, they had to keep everything down with
dark expressions.
Lan JingYi and the others let out a breath of air, faces not so
dark anymore. Madame Mo was both extremely mournful
and resentful, and all she could think about was the word
“death”. Not her own death so that she could be with her
son, but the deaths of everyone in the world, especially the
ones in front of her right now. She had a habit of ordering
her husband to do everything, and so she knocked him,
“Call everyone! Call everyone inside!”
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The servants were all scared out of their wits from her
expression. A-Ding helped her up while quivering.
Madame Mo clutched her chest and spoke in a trembling
voice, “You… You… You, get out of here as well!”
Now that the signal for help had been sent, other cultivators
would come to aid them within a short period of time. To
prevent things from getting out of hand, Wei WuXian should
withdraw and keep away from the situation. If the persons
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Chapter 5: Aggression
Part Three
The boys on the side were all young and inexperienced.
However, although they all looked nervous, they strictly
stuck to their positions and protected the Mo family’s house,
fixing talismans onto the walls. The servant named A-Tong
was already carried into the hall. Lan
SiZhui felt his pulse with his left hand and supported
Madame Mo’s back with his right. He couldn’t save both of
them at once, and was in a terrible fix when A-Tong crawled
up from the ground.
Before her face had the time to light up, A-Tong raised his
left hand and clutched his own neck.
Her tone was sharp and her voice was shrill, making
everyone’s blood run cold, and so they believed it
effortlessly. Wei WuXian’s judgement happened to be
the opposite—it wasn’t a ferocious ghost.
It was not the group of kids’ fault for reacting too slow, but
the creature was indeed cruel. The cultivation world had a
strict definition for the category of “ferocious ghosts”—they
had to kill at least one person a month and continue the
behavior for at least three months. The criterion was set by
Wei WuXian himself, and it was probably still being used. He
was the best at dealing with this kind. To him, killing one
person in seven days would be considered as a ferocious
ghost who killed frequently. This thing killed three people at
once, and within such a short period of time. It would be
hard for even a capable cultivator to think of a solution
immediately, let alone these juniors who had just started
their careers.
Left hand!
Lan JingYi snapped, “You idiot! How can you still laugh in a
situation like this?”
Lan SiZhui stopped the fuming Lan JingYi and asked, “What
do you mean by ‘these are not them’?”
Wei WuXian only smiled. He knew that the hint was too
deliberate, but he couldn’t have helped it. The good thing
was that Lan SiZhui didn’t think too much about it either, and
thought, anyways, if Young Master Mo was willing to remind
me of it, he probably didn’t mean any harm. His eyes moved
away from him, passing A-Ding, who fainted from crying too
much, and landed on Madame Mo.
His gaze travelled from her face down to her hands. Her
arms were hanging down and were mostly hidden inside her
sleeves, with only half of the fingers showing. Her right hand
had fair, thin fingers, undoubtedly those of a woman who
lived comfortably and never worked.
However, the fingers on her left hand were much longer than
the ones on her right. They were also thicker. The knuckles
were bent, full of power.
This was the evil being that the Phantom Attraction Flag had
attracted.
It was like this left hand—eat the left hand of a living person,
and replace it. After draining all of the person’s blood and
energy, it would abandon the body and find another
container for parasitism, until it finally collected all of the
other parts of its corpse.
The third container was A-Tong, and the fourth one was
Madame Mo. During the chaos from when the lights
suddenly went out, the ghost hand had transferred onto her
body. When Madame Mo died, the last cut on Wei WuXian’s
wrists also disappeared.
The boys from the Lan Clan saw that, although talismans
didn’t work, clothing did, and all took off their coats to cover
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The crueler the being was, the better Wei WuXian could
control it. These walking corpses hadn’t been trained by him
and couldn’t withstand direct manipulations from him. He
didn’t have any materials on him, which meant that he
couldn’t immediately make tools to ease the walking
corpses. He couldn’t even muddle and assemble bits and
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There were not only one, but multiple corpses in the East
Hall!
Wei WuXian strode into the East Hall and grabbed Madame
Mo and Mo ZiYuan’s corpses, one on each hand, and spoke
in a low voice, “Wake up!”
The left arm fractured one of the swords, and was about to
break out, when three cruel corpses without left arms came
at it.
The sound of another strum came. This time, the pitch was
higher, piercing through the sky with a few degrees of
bitterness. The three cruel corpses backed off and covered
one ear with their right hands. However, it was impossible to
block out the Eradication Tone of the GusuLan Sect by
means such as this. They had just retreated a few steps,
and slight bursting sounds came from within their skulls.
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Since the arm had just endured a tough fight, after hearing
the sound of the strings again, it instantly fell onto the
ground. Although the fingers were still flinching, the arm was
unable to move.
Lan JingYi said, “Hmm? Why are you looking for that
lunatic? Who knows where he ran off to. He’s probably
frightened by my threats to hit him.”
“...” Lan SiZhui knew that Lan JingYi had always been
careless and straightforward, not thinking twice about
anything or suspecting anyone. He thought, I’ll wait for
HanGuang-Jun to come, and then tell him about everything.
This was one of the people who had fought with him before,
so he should retreat quickly. He was in a hurry to find a
mount, as he passed a courtyard and saw a big millstone
inside. A donkey was tied to the handle, chewing on its
mouth. When it saw him run over rashly, it seemed like it
was surprised, and eyed him sideways as if it was a real
person. Wei WuXian made eye contact with him for one
second, and was immediately touched by the miniscule
amount of contempt in its eyes.
He tried to grab onto the rope and pull it out, but the donkey
complained by making a few loud noises. Therefore, Wei
WuXian had to use both his words and his strength to
deceive it and get it onto the road. As dawn came over the
horizon, they went off onto the main path.
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Chapter 6: Arrogance
Part One
Only a few days passed, and Wei WuXian realized that he
might have made a wrong choice.
After pushing and pulling along for a few blocks, the road
reached a vast farmland of some village. Under the
scorching sun, there was a large pagoda tree and thick,
green grass underneath it. Beside the tree, there was an old
well, with a barrel and a dipper on the side, placed there by
the farmers for any passersby to quench their thirst. The
donkey ran over there and nothing could make it leave. Wei
WuXian hopped down and slapped its honored buttocks,
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“If there isn’t, then how did the seven people lose their
souls? They couldn’t have all attained the same disease,
could they? I, for one, haven’t heard of this disease at all!”
“I never said that you can’t doubt it, much less his creations
are flawless, so why accuse me?”
Wei WuXian reined in the rope and hopped off the donkey’s
back, holding the apple, which had been ahead of it for the
whole journey, in front of its mouth, “One bite. One bite
only… Hmph, are you trying to eat my whole hand with that
bite of yours?”
He ate a few bites from the other side of the apple, and
stuffed it back into the donkey’s mouth, pondering upon how
he came down to the point of sharing an apple with a
donkey, when, suddenly, someone bumped into his back.
He turned around to see a girl. Although she bumped into
him, she didn’t acknowledge him at all. Her eyes were dull
and she had a smile on her face, staring into the distance
without blinking.
The dance was wild, with her arms flinging about savagely.
Wei WuXian was watching the performance with keen
pleasure when a woman ran over, lifting her dress slightly.
She embraced the girl and cried, “A-Yan, let’s go back, let’s
go back!”
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A-Yan brushed her off with force, her smile still unfaded,
creating a terrifying sort of affection, and continued to dance.
The woman had to chase her down the street, sobbing while
running. A street vendor on the side spoke, “How awful. A-
Yan from Blacksmith Zheng’s family has escaped again.”
Although only one word was different between the two, they
were completely different beings. A spirit was a ghost, while
a beast was a monster. To him, it was likely that the
landslide had destroyed an ancient tomb, and, with lightning
splitting the coffin open, a resting spirit had been let out. If
he looked at the type of coffin and the presence of any seals
on it, he could figure out whether or not this was the case.
However, the townsfolk of Buddha’s Feet had already buried
the charred coffins somewhere else and laid the corpses to
rest again, which meant that there wouldn’t be a great deal
of evidence left.
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“Would the leader of a big clan like that need to fight over a
soul-consuming spirit with us? He probably killed tons of
them when he was young.”
Chapter 7: Arrogance
Part Two
“Help us!”
The eviler the creature was, the better it was for him!
He was about to call others to come help him when the crisp
sounds of parting branches and stepping on leaves
approached. A boy wearing a light-colored robe emerged
from within the dark forest.
The young master already had an arrow on his bow and was
preparing to shoot it, when he realized that the deity-binding
nets only caught humans. After an initial moment of
disappointment, he quickly became annoyed, “I find you
idiots every single time. There are more than four hundred
deity-binding nets in the mountain, but you guys have
already broken ten or so, and I haven’t even seen the prey
yet!”
one. This was why, although the people trapped in the nets
were red with fury, because of the mean words of the boy,
they could not talk back. The middle-aged man spoke with
tolerance, “Please, Young Master, do us a small favor and
let us down.”
The boy was restless with the anxiety of his prey still not
arriving, and it was convenient for him to direct his anger
toward the country bumpkins. He crossed his arms, “You
guys should just stay here, in case you mess around and get
in my way again! I’ll let you down after I catch the spirit
consuming beast, that is, if I still remember you.”
If they really stayed on the trees for the whole night and
happened to bump into the creature that haunted Dafan
Mountain, being unable to move, all they could do would be
to wait for their souls to be sucked dry. The round-faced girl
who gave an apple to Wei WuXian felt scared and started
crying. Wei WuXian was originally cross-legged on the
donkey, but as it heard the sob, his long ears quivered, and
it suddenly leapt forward.
Following the leap came a long bray. If not for how horrible
the bray sounded, its unstoppable vigor could almost pass
for a purebred horse. Unprepared for this, Wei WuXian was
thrown off of its back, almost injuring his head as he fell. The
donkey ran head-first toward the boy as if it believed that it
could knock him off his feet with its head. The boy’s arrow
was still poised on the bow, conveniently drawing the bow
toward its direction. Wei WuXian didn’t want to find a new
mount so soon, so he quickly yanked on its reins. The boy
took a look at him, a look of shock to suddenly appear on his
face. After a second, the shock turned into disdain. His
mouth twitched, “So, it’s you.”
back to your village? How could they let you outside when
you looked as freaky as this?”
Seeing that he was spacing out, the boy grew even more
annoyed, “Get out of here! It’s disgusting just looking at you,
you damn gay!”
teeth, “If you don’t stop, I’m gonna tell my uncle, and you’re
gonna wait for your death!”
Hearing the voice, all of the blood from Wei WuXian’s body
travelled to his head and drained away a moment later. The
good thing was that his face was already a pile of white. A
shade whiter wouldn’t make too much of a difference.
The young man had thin brows and almond eyes. His
features were handsome in a sharp way, and his eyes held
a composed vigor, with a slight intention of attack, appearing
to be two bolts of lightning as he stared. He stood ten steps
away from Wei WuXian, his expression resembling a honed
arrow on the bow, ready to be released at any moment.
Even his posture emitted an air of arrogance and
overconfidence.
sleeve and made the piece of paper retreat. Jin Ling felt his
back lighten and immediately rolled up, grabbing his sword
in the process. He shifted near Jiang Cheng and pointed at
Wei WuXian accusingly, “I’m gonna break your legs!”
What first came into his sight was a long, slender blade,
crystalline and translucent, as if it was made of ice.
The blade turned, and the clank of the sword being inserted
back into the scabbard sounded from above Wei WuXian. At
the same time, Jiang Cheng’s voice came from afar, “And I
was wondering who it was. So, it is you, Second Young
Master Lan.”
Mourning clothes!
Jiang Cheng replied grimly, “Tsk, do you really think that you
should butt in when your seniors are conversing? The
GusuLan Sect has always been known for its respectful
conduct. Is this really how it teaches its disciples?”
Lan WangJi frowned. Jin Ling was about to speak again, but
he suddenly realized that, shockingly, he could neither open
his mouth nor make any sounds. Seeing that Jin Ling’s
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The silence spell was used by the Lan Sect to reprimand its
disciples. Wei WuXian had suffered a ton from this little trick.
Although it wasn’t anything too complicated or obscure, only
people of the Lan Clan could release the spell. If one wanted
to forcibly speak, it would result in either their lips being
ripped bloody or a hoarse throat for a couple of days. The
only solution was to stay silent and reflect upon the
wrongdoings until the time limit of the punishment was over.
Lan
SiZhui spoke, “Sect Leader Jiang, there is no need for
anger. As long as he does not break the spell forcefully, it
would release on its own, after thirty minutes.”
The man spoke in a low voice, “Not long ago, a blue sword
flew over and destroyed the deitybinding nets that you had
set up.”
Chapter 8: Arrogance
Part Three
However, after stroking it for a while, Jiang Cheng
compelled himself to restrain his hostility.
favour, and turned around to see Jin Ling still covering his
mouth angrily, “HanGuang-Jun wants to punish you, so just
let him do it for this one time. It’s not easy for him, either, to
discipline juniors from other clans.”
Jin Ling threw Wei WuXian a tough look, but was too scared
to look at Lan WangJi, the person who had silenced him. He
put his sword back into its scabbard, saluted the two
seniors, and retreated with the bow in his hand. Lan SiZhui
spoke, “Sect Leader Jiang, the GusuLan Sect will return the
exact number of spirit-binding nets that had been
destroyed.”
The voice was deep and alluring. If one was too near, the tip
of their heart would tremble. The juniors replied mannerly,
afraid to linger for too long, and walked into the depths of the
forest. Wei WuXian thought that, undeniably, Jiang Cheng
and Lan Zhan were extremely different from each other.
Even their advice for juniors were the complete opposite.
While thinking, he suddenly saw Lan WangJi give an almost
unnoticeable nod to him. He was quite surprised.
Ever since a young age, Lan WangJi had been so prim and
proper that it was painful to watch. He had always been
solemn and stiff, as if he had never been lively before. He
couldn’t let a single grain of sand appear in his eyes, which
was why he had never approved of Wei WuXian cultivating
the dark path. Lan SiZhui had probably informed Lan
WangJi of his suspicious behaviour in Mo Village already.
Even so, he had nodded in acknowledgement, probably
thanking him for helping out the juniors from the Lan Sect.
Without thinking, Wei WuXian immediately returned a salute.
When he looked up again, Lan WangJi had already
disappeared.
The slap was both loud and hard, causing his right cheek to
sting. Suddenly, shuffling sounds came from a thicket on the
side, and Wei WuXian saw a donkey emerge from within. As
he dropped his hand, the donkey actually approached on its
own, unlike other times. Wei WuXian pulled on its long ears
and forced a smile, “You wanted to save the damsel in
distress, but asked me to be the hero to the rescue.”
“It really was too bad for Jiang YanLi, bringing up a wolf that
bites the owner’s hand. Jin
ZiXuan had it even worse. Just because he had something
to do with Wei WuXian, he ended up like that.”
“Indeed. Have you heard him being close with anyone other
than the mad dogs that he raised? His enemies were
everywhere, and he did wrong to everyone. Even with
HanGuang-Jun, they were like fire and water, hating each
other.”
Seeing the light of the fire, Wei WuXian held it to detect the
spirit’s direction, watching attentively. When he turned to the
east, the fire weakened; when he turned to the west, the fire
suddenly intensified. He walked a few steps toward the
direction, and saw a white, stooping figure appear under a
tree.
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The talisman had finished burning, and the ashes fell from
his fingertips. An old man was sitting with his back to him,
speaking in faint murmurs.
Wei WuXian slowly approached. The words that the old man
murmured became clear.
He walked a few steps to the side of the old man, and saw a
bloodied, large hole on his forehead. This was a ghost,
probably killed with a weapon which was smashed onto his
head. He was dressed in a burial robe made with fine
material and craftsmanship, meaning that he had already
been encoffined and buried properly. This wasn’t the soul
that a living human had lost.
The rural clan from back then had sneaked up the mountain
again and joined the group of nighthunters, after hearing that
all of the deity-binding nets were destroyed. The middle-
aged man recognized his clothing and the grimacing
donkey, realizing that he was lunatic who’d saved them
earlier. He felt quite awkward, and pretended that nothing
had happened. Nonetheless, the round-faced girl showed
him the path, “Over there. It’s a divine temple in a cave on
the mountain.”
Chapter 9: Arrogance
Part Four
On the other hand, Lan SiZhui and the other disciples did
not find anything in the area of the ancient tombs, and had
moved on to search for clues in Goddess Temple.
Lan JingYi lifted and lowered the compass of evil, but its
pointer still didn’t move. A thick layer of incense ashes
covered the table for offerings, and disordered candles lay
on there as well. A sickly sweet scent came from the plates
for holding fruits. Most of the people from the GusuLan
Sect had some degree of minor mysophobia. He fanned at
the air in front of his nose and spoke, “The locals said that it
is quite effective to pray at Goddess Temple, but how can it
be this ruined? They should at least come and clean once in
awhile.”
Jin Ling came inside, with his hands crossed behind his
back. The time limit for the silence spell was not long, so his
mouth could already open. However, nothing nice came out
of that mouth of his, as he looked at the goddess statue and
humphed, “These rural villagers don’t work hard when they
face difficulties, but instead pray to the Buddha and other
things every day. There are thousands and millions of
people in the world, but gods and buddhas are already
hands-full with their own matters, so who would care about
them? Let alone a powerless goddess without status, like
this one. If it’s really that effective, then I’m gonna pray for
the soul-consuming creature in Dafan Mountain to appear in
front of me right now. Can the statue do it?”
Lan SiZhui held his sword and bent down to examine it.
There was nothing wrong with the cultivator’s breathing, like
he had just suddenly fallen asleep. Yet, no matter how hard
he was pushed or called, he would not wake up. Lan SiZhui
stood up, “He seems as if…”
Before, the statute clearly had one foot lifted and both of its
arms raised upward, of which one was pointing directly at
the sky, its form graceful. However, amid the crimson and
yellow flames, it had lowered both its arms and its foot.
There was no doubt—it definitely wasn’t a mistake of the
eye!
The next moment, the statue lifted one foot again, and
stepped out of the fire!
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Wei WuXian tried to scare them, “Is this a matter that you
should forget about? If HanGuangJun knew about this, he’s
going to make you sorry.”
Lan JingYi’s face was pale with terror, “It’s over. This time,
we are gonna be punished to death by HanGuang-Jun…”
Lan SiZhui, “Young Master Mo, Young Master Mo! How did
you know that it was not a spiritconsuming spirit or beast,
but the goddess statue instead?”
Lan JingYi also caught up. They each ran on one side of
him, “What did you see? We also saw lots of things.”
“What else could there be? There were only dead souls.”
90
This time, there were more than one person who asked,
“Why?”
“What is wrong?”
91
Wei WuXian, “Yes, they are guesses. But, following this train
of logic, all of the things that happened afterward could be
explained.”
Lan SiZhui, “How can this explain what happened with the
girl, A-Yan?”
Wei WuXian held his palms out, “It’s simple. If her husband’s
‘whole life’ immediately ended, wouldn’t it count as ‘loving
only one person for his entire life’?”
Lan JingYi finally understood and shouted excitedly, “Oh,
oh! So, so, so, the reason behind her husband being eaten
by wolves the day after her engagement was that it was
highly possible for
A-Yan to have been to Goddess Temple to pray!”
Wei WuXian struck while the iron was still hot, “It was
hard to say whether he was attacked by a wolf or something
else. There is another factor that is unique to A-Yan: why is
that, out of all of the victims, only A-Yan’s soul returned?
How is she different from everyone else? The difference is
that she has a relative who also lost his soul. Or, in other
words, a relative replaced her! Blacksmith Zheng is A-Yan’s
father, especially one who loved his daughter. So, when he
saw that his daughter lost her soul, and there were no ways
to deal with it, what was the only thing that he could do?”
This time, Lan SiZhui was quick to reply, “He could only
entrust his hope to the Heavens. Therefore, he also went to
Goddess Temple to pray, the wish being ‘I wish my daughter
A-Yan’s soul can be found’!”
The similarity of the people who lost their souls was that,
most likely, they had all prayed in front of the goddess
statue. The prices to pay for their wishes were their souls.
The others agreed with Jin Ling, so it was accepted that they
had all wished the same thing. At the time, the soul-
consuming goddess was right in front of them, so the wish
was granted. Then, it was time to seize the sacrifice!
Lan SiZhui yelled, “Young Master Jin! Send off the signal on
you!”
Jin Ling turned a deaf ear to his words, determined to kill the
monster. With a solemn face, he set three arrows onto the
bow at once. Although she was shot in the head twice, the
soul-consuming goddess was not angered, and advanced
toward Jin Ling with the same smile plastered on her face.
Although she danced while walking, her speed was
terrifyingly fast, decreasing the distance between them by
half in just a few moments. A few cultivators appeared from
the side and fought with her, hindering her strides. Jin Ling
shot each arrow as the goddess took each step, probably
intending to use up all of the feathered arrows first, before
fighting in a closer range with the soul-consuming goddess.
His arm was quite steady, and his shots were accurate, but
all magical weapons were useless against it!
This should have been a last resort for him, but however,
with the situation already like this, it didn’t matter what he
summoned. It’d be fine as long as the dark energy was
strong enough and the killing intent was keen enough, so
that it could rip the soul-consuming goddess into pieces!
Wei WuXian put away his flute and carefully looked into the
direction.
After having a clear view of the figure and the face, the
cultivators’ expressions became twisted.
Even when facing the goddess statue that could suck away
their souls at any minute, the group did not cower or show
any fear, but however, their shouting voices right now were
filled with terror that they could not conceal.
“... The ‘Ghost General’, it’s the ‘Ghost General’, it’s Wen
Ning!”
It wasn’t that Wen Ning shouldn’t be here, but that Wen Ning
shouldn’t be in this world at all. He was turned into ashes
even before the siege at Luanzang Hill.
She bowed her head to look at the wrist which broke off
sharply. Instead of turning her head toward the correct
direction, her entire body turned around, so that she was
facing Wen Ning with her face and her back. Wei WuXian
didn’t dare to relax. He took a deep breath and commanded
Wen Ning to fight. However, not long had passed, and he
became even more shocked.
Jin Ling almost had his soul taken away a moment ago, but
he was fine now, and stood on the ground properly, “Uncle!”
Seeing that Jin Ling was safe, Jiang Cheng finally calmed
down. Quickly afterward, he scolded angrily, “Didn’t you
bring signal firelights with you? Don’t you know to use them
when you meet something like this? What are you
pretending to be strong for? Scram over here!”
Jin Ling was also angered from not capturing the soul-
consuming goddess, “Weren’t you the one who told me that
I have to catch it? And, if I don’t catch it, I shouldn’t go see
you?”
He let go of his left hand, and a long whip dangled from it.
in front of him. For him, running away like this was the same
as seeking his own death!
Wei WuXian was almost flung away from the attack of the
whip. If not for the donkey blocking him, he would have
directly crashed into a tree. However, after the blow, both
Lan WangJi and Jiang Cheng stopped, looking quite
stunned.
It was absolutely impossible for the first strike to fail and the
second to succeed, for a magical weapon of such high level
like Zidian. If nothing was taken out, nothing would be taken
out; if it wasn’t the seizing of a body, it wouldn’t be the
seizing of a body. In fact, the shout made Jiang Cheng, who
cared about maintaining his reputation above anything else,
unable to make another move.
“That… As in that…”
Lan JingYi spoke, “That is right. You have seen Sect Leader
Jiang’s methods, have you not?
They are quite cruel…” He paused here, remembering the
rule that stated “talking behind other people’s backs” was
prohibited, and secretly glanced at Lan WangJi. Seeing that
HanGuang-Jun didn’t show any means to chastise him, he
was bold enough as to mumble on, “It is all because of the
unhealthy trend that the YiLing Patriarch started. There are
so many people who copy him and cultivate that foolish
method. With Sect Leader Jiang being so suspicious of
everyone, is it even possible for him to catch all of them?
Just look at you and your flute skills… Heh.”
The heh told more words than what any sentences could
describe. Wei WuXian felt like he really needed to defend
himself, “Well, actually, you might not believe me, but I
usually play the flute quite well…”
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Wei WuXian didn’t know what was going on. The rest stared
among themselves, afraid to make any sound.
Wei WuXian clapped his hands and finished the last gulp in
the jar. After searching, he found that there were no places
to throw it away, so he filled the empty jars with clear water
and sealed the lids again, stuffing them back inside and
closing the wooden board. With this done, he ventured out
to find the jade token.
The disciple on duty for watching over the cold spring was
quite a distance away. The female cultivators were in
another quarter of the Cloud Recesses and didn’t come here
to use it. Nobody in the Lan Sect did an impudent thing such
as coming to the cold spring to watch others bathe, anyway.
Therefore, the security wasn’t strict at all and it was
extremely easy to overcome, making it easy for Wei WuXian
to go and shame himself. And, coincidentally, there was a
set of white clothes on top of the white rocks behind the
crisscrossed eupatorium grasses, meaning that someone
had already came.
The person in the spring was quite tall. His skin was fair and
his hair was black, wet and gathered to one side. The lines
which outlined his waist and back were smooth, graceful yet
holding strength. In simpler terms, he was a beauty.
Wei WuXian, seeing that it was Lan JingYi and the others,
were ecstatic, thinking that he could finally be chased down
the mountain. He presented himself at once, “I didn’t see! I
didn’t see anything! I’m definitely not here to peep at
HanGuang-Jun bathing!”
Wei WuXian struck the iron when it was still hot and
confirmed his conviction, “I didn’t see a single peek of how
HanGuang-Jun looks like without his clothes!”
Amid the ruckus, Lan WangJi walked out from behind the
layers of eupatorium grasses with his hair down, wearing a
white robe. The conversation hadn’t even finished yet, and
he was already dressed in an orderly fashion, Bichen still
unsheathed. The juniors hurried to greet him. Lan JingYi
rushed to speak, “HanGuang-Jun, Mo XuanYu really is
awful. You only brought him back seeing that he assisted us
at Mo Village, yet he… he…”
his past life, the two were of similar height, both somewhat
slender and tall. Wei WuXian was only shorter than Lan
WangJi by a tiny bit. When they stood together, the
difference of less than one cun between them were almost
unnoticeable. However, after waking up in another body, he
was more than two cun shorter than
Lan WangJi. While being held in his hand, he couldn’t even
struggle against him. Wei WuXian staggered, wanting to
shout, but Lan WangJi spoke coldly, “Those who make
noise will be silenced.”
And, the sear on Lan WangJi’s body was exactly the same
as the one on his body in his past life, no matter the position
or the shape, so it was only natural for him to recognize it
and become surprised.
He was still not giving up, hoping to fish the jade token for
passage out of him. However, as he just extended his hand,
Lan WangJi’s long lashes fluttered, and he opened his eyes.
Lan WangJi spoke, “Are you sure that this is what you
want?”
His voice was low and deep. His chest vibrated slightly as
he spoke each word.
Just what in the world happened to Lan Zhan in the past few
years, turning him into a person like this?
sects all knew the others, although they weren’t close, they
had seen others’ faces before. It was widely known that,
although Wei WuXian’s surname was not Jiang, he was the
leading disciple of the sect leader of the YunmengJiang Sect
—Jiang FengMian, and also the son of his friend who had
passed away. In fact, the sect leader regarded him as his
own child. This, along with how youths were not as
concerned with status and ancestry as elders, they were
soon friends. Only a few sentences passed, and everyone
started to call others older brothers or younger brothers.
Somebody asked, “The Lotus Pier of the Jiang Clan is much
more fun than here, right?”
Nie HuaiSang replied, “Not that old man. The one you need
to be careful of is his proudest disciple, named Lan Zhan.”
Wei WuXian spoke, “The Lan Zhan from the Two Jades of
Lan? Lan WangJi?”
the energy of a teen. He’s stiff and strict, even worse than
his uncle.”
Jiang Cheng sneered, “Is there anyone who looks ugly in the
GusuLan Sect? His sect doesn’t even accept disciples with
unclean features. If you can, find me one who has an
average face.”
“Yesterday night”
The others were out of speech. Jiang Cheng even felt his
head growing larger and clenched his teeth, “We just came
and you got into trouble! What’s the matter about?”
137
Wei WuXian, “Well, when I just flipped over the top of the
wall, before I even had one leg inside, I was caught by him.”
Wei WuXian spoke, “He said the same thing to me. And I
asked, ‘Why don’t you tell me what exactly is not forbidden
138
“That’s right!” Everyone felt the same way, and all started to
complain about the strange, outdated conventions in the
Cloud Recesses, regretting that they didn’t meet sooner,
“Whose sect rules are over three thousand in number, and
don’t even repeat? Things like ‘killing livestock within the
area is prohibited, fighting without permission is prohibited,
promiscuity is prohibited, venturing at night is prohibited,
causing noise is prohibited, running is prohibited’ are
tolerable, but there’re even ones like ‘sneering for no reason
is prohibited, sitting improperly is prohibited, eating more
than three bowls is prohibited’...” Wei WuXian suddenly
added, “What? Fighting without permission is also
prohibited?”
Jiang Cheng, “... Yes. Don’t tell me you fought with him.”
“I drank it.”
Wei WuXian lifted his brows, “Lan Zhan’s skills were quite
good.”
When Wei WuXian turned his head, he could see the side of
Lan WangJi’s face. His lashes were long, appearing to be
extremely delicate and elegant. His posture was also very
upright, looking straight ahead. As he was just thinking
about starting a conversation with him, Lan QiRen walked
into the room.
Lan QiRen was tall and thin, standing with a straight back.
Although he had a long, black goatee, he was definitely not
old. And, according to the tradition of the GusuLan Sect
producing beautiful men each generation, he was definitely
not bad-looking either. Yet, unfortunately, with the pedantic
and stiff air that surrounded him, nothing would feel wrong if
one called him an old man. He entered with a scroll in one
hand. The long scroll of paper rolled all over the ground as
soon as he opened it, and he started to talk about the rules
of the Lan Sect. The faces of everyone in the room started
to grow dark. As Wei WuXian was bored, his gaze flew
everywhere, and landed on the side face of Lan WangJi. He
was shocked as he saw concentration and seriousness that
were nothing like a facade, “How can he listen so attentively
to something so boring?”
“A butcher.”
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“Who was the first in the cultivation world to focus on the rise
of his clan rather than his sect?”
The disciples took their hands away from the books that they
intended on quickly flipping through. They were confused as
well—having died in the public and left on the streets for
seven days, it was definitely a fierce ghost and a ferocious
corpse, and therefore a question hard to solve. Everyone
hoped that the old man Lan wouldn’t pick on them to
answer. After a few moments, seeing that Wei WuXian didn’t
143
Wei WuXian raised his brows and took a look at the side of
Lan WangJi’s face. He thought, so, apparently this old man
meant it for me. He called his best pupil to listen with us in
order for me to watch.
Lan QiRen raged, “If you thought of it, the cultivation world
would not allow your existence! Get out!”
Nie HuaiSang spoke, “Why does it seem like old man Lan is
especially strict towards you? He always directs his scolding
at you.”
Nie HuaiSang quickly spoke, “I’ll copy for you! I’ll copy for
you!”
Wei WuXian, “No good person does favours for others out of
the blue. Tell me, what do you want me to do?”
Nie Huai Sang replied, “It’s like this. Wei-xiong, old man Lan
has a bad habit. He…”
149
realized that Lan WangJi did look pretty. And so, he happily
threw away his desire to twitch his lips.
Only after three days, did Wei WuXian finally know of Lan
QiRen’s bad habit.
Nie HuaiSang, “Old… Mr. Lan said that you have to copy
both Virtue and Conduct.”
Wei WuXian rarely kept his mouth shut for such a long
amount of time. Feeling suffocated, he thought, I have to sit
153
Lan WangJi didn’t even lift his eyes, “Copy it one additional
time.”
Lan WangJi put his brush down. Wei WuXian thought that
the other couldn’t endure it any longer and finally wanted to
beat him up. Just as he got ready to put on a goofy grin, he
discovered that his upper and lower lips seemed like they
were glued together, so he couldn’t laugh.
Lan WangJi closed his eyes and let out a faint breath of air.
When he opened his eyes, the calm expression returned
again. He picked up the brush again, as if nothing had
happened. Wei WuXian had been aware of the hated
silencing spell of the Lan Sect since long ago, and he
refused to believe it. Yet, after making every effort,
scratching the corners of his lips red, he still couldn’t open
his mouth no matter what. And so, he grabbed a piece of
paper, wrote as if his brush was flying, and threw the paper
over. Lan WangJi glanced at it. “Pathetic,” he responded,
crumpling it into a ball and tossing it away.
Wei WuXian had always forgot about the pain after the cut
healed[3]. Although, on the first day, he suffered greatly from
the silencing spell, after a few moments, his mouth started to
itch again. After recklessly speaking a few times, he was
silenced once more. He couldn’t open his mouth, so he
scribbled on paper and pushed them to Lan WangJi, who
crumpled it and threw it onto the ground. The same thing
happened on the third day.
During his stay at Gusu, he left his sword all around the
place, and was never seen carrying it properly. Yet, he took
it with him today, loudly slamming it onto the desk. He even
went as far as to start writing without a word, contrasting his
usual behavior of relentlessly harassing Lan WangJi in every
way possible. He was so obedient that it was strange.
Lan WangJi slowly spoke, “You have spare time, yet you
scribble instead of copy the text. In my opinion, the day of
your release from this punishment will never come.”
Wei WuXian blew on the ink which hadn’t dried yet and
spoke nonchalantly, “I already finished copying, so I won’t
be coming tomorrow!”
The drawing was thrown onto the mat, but Lan WangJi didn’t
have any intention of picking it up. During these days, the
paper which Wei WuXian wrote on to curse him, cajole him,
apologize to him, beg him, and other messy scribbles all
ended up this way. He was used to it and didn’t mind. He
suddenly added, “I forgot. I need to add something else.”
After his words, he picked up the paper and his brush, and
added a few strokes. He glanced at the drawing, then, the
actual person, and fell toward the ground in laughter. Lan
WangJi put down the book, and saw that Wei WuXian added
a flower onto the drawing, where the side of his head was.
Lan WangJi turned his gaze away, picked up the book which
he put on the desk, and opened it again. He only took one
look at before he hurled the book away, as if he was burnt
by fire.
Lan WangJi swiftly drew his sword, Bichen. Ever since they
had met, Wei WuXian had never seen him appear so
discomposed. He hastily grabbed his own sword. Drawing
his sword so that a third of the blade was out, he reminded
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Wei WuXian continued to distort the facts, “If you won’t read
it, why did you grab it? Secretly keeping it? You can’t do
that. I borrowed this from someone else, so I’d have to
return it after you read it… Hey, hey, hey, don’t come here.
You’re too close; I feel nervous. Let’s talk nicely.
You’re not gonna hand this in, are you? Hand it in to whom?
Old… Your uncle? Second Young Master Lan, do you think
that you can let the elders see this? He’d definitely think that
you already read it. With a face as thin as yours, you’d be so
ashamed that you’d die...”
Lan WangJi filled his right hand with spiritual energy, and
the book broke into thousands of millions of pieces, fluttering
downward. As Wei WuXian saw that he successfully
provoked Lan WangJi to the point that the evidence was
destroyed, he finally felt relieved, and spoke with fake regret,
“What a waste!” Then, he picked up a piece of paper which
had fallen on his hair, raising it up to show the fuming, pale-
faced Lan WangJi, “Lan Zhan, everything about you is great,
except that you like to throw things everywhere. Tell me,
how many wads of paper have you thrown onto the ground,
in these past few days? Today, you aren’t even satisfied
with throwing paper wads anymore, and instead ripped
paper. You ripped it, so you clean it up yourself. I’m not
gonna help.” Of course, he had never helped anyway.
Lan WangJi tried again and again to put up with him, but he
couldn’t do it any more. He thundered, “Get lost!”
Wei WuXian replied, “What was he like? Ha! Didn’t you guys
hear that loud shout he gave?”
Nie HuaiSang blurted, “It’s not a pity at all! You can have as
many as you want.”
Wei WuXian waved his hands, putting his arm around Jiang
Cheng’s shoulders, “Who cares, as long as I tease him
first? You’ve already buried my corpse so many times, so
what’s wrong with once more?”
Now that the old one is gone, the young one can be easily
taken care of! Wei WuXian quickly climbed up, beaming as
he put on his boots, “A lucky strike, indeed, almost as if
Heaven is blessing me with its clouds.”
Lan XiChen spoke again, “And, also, you wish for him to go
as well, do you not?”
The place where the water ghouls haunted was named Caiyi
Town, about ten kilometers away from the Cloud Recesses.
Gusu was in the Jiangnan area, and all the voices one could
hear were soft and gentle. As two boats crashed into each
other, and a few jars of rice wine were spilled, even the
arguments of the two boatmen sounded like chirps of the
oriole. Although Yunmeng had many lakes, there weren’t a
lot of small towns with so much water. Wei WuXian found it
quite interesting. He bought two jars of rice wine and gave
one to Jiang Cheng, “Gusu people talk in such a sugary
way. How is this arguing? If they see how Yunmeng people
argue, they might be scared to death… Why are you looking
at me, Lan Zhan? It’s not that I’m too stingy to buy you any
— aren’t people from your sect prohibited from drinking
alcohol?”
Having only stayed for a short time, the group boarded ten-
or-so narrow boats, and rowed toward where the water
ghouls gathered. Gradually, the number of houses on the
banks decreased, and the river path became quieter as well.
Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng each had a boat, competing
who could row faster while listening to events in the area
that concerned water ghouls.
Wei WuXian spoke, “It doesn’t seem like that the corpses
drowned somewhere else and floated here either. Water
ghouls are picky about their area. Most of the time, the only
169
place they settle on is the place they drowned at, and they
usually don’t leave there.”
Lan WangJi replied, “We will wait until we find them. After
all, we do what we must.”
Jiang Cheng couldn’t watch the scene any longer, “If you
want to help, then stop chattering and come here!”
The strange shifts of the water had ceased, and the net also
became still once more. Although, a few moments ago, Wei
WuXian’s sword attacked at an extremely fast speed, Lan
WangJi could already tell that the sword he carried was of
very high quality. He asked with a serious face,
“What is the name of this sword?”
Wei WuXian let out a sigh, “Think outside the box, won’t
you? I wasn’t asking you to call it whatever you wanted to,
but the name of my sword just happens to be ‘Suibian’.
Here, look.” As he spoke, he passed the sword over for Lan
WangJi to see the characters on the sword. Surrounded by
lines and patterns, two ancient characters were carved onto
the sheath. It was
“Suibian”, indeed.
taken out, these two characters were on it. Uncle Jiang said,
‘If this is the case, then why not let this sword be named
Suibian?’ To be honest, this name isn’t bad either, right?”
At the same time, from within the virid lake, a long shadow
darted around the small boat. After Jiang Cheng finished the
water ghouls on his side, he was still watching out for any
that they had missed. Seeing the shadow, he immediately
yelled, “It’s coming again!”
174
This time, the blade of the sword wasn’t inserted into water,
but instead, the tip of the sword jolted, and whisked up a
piece of shadow from within the water. A pile of wet, black
mess fell onto the floor of the boat with a plop. Wei WuXian
went on his toes to have a look. To his surprise, it was a
piece of clothing.
The people of the Caiyi Town area were all familiar with
water, so sunken boats and drowning deaths rarely
happened. It was impossible for a waterborne abyss to grow
out of here. Now that one had appeared here, there was
only one possibility—that it had been chased here from
somewhere else.
the sky. And, among these, there was a titan which stood
above the others without a doubt—the QishanWen Sect.
The Wen Clan used the sun as the motif of their clan,
signifying that they could “compete with the sun for radiance,
match the sun in longevity”. Its sect residence was quite
large, almost comparable to a city. It was named the
Nightless Sky, also called the Nightless Celestial City,
because it was said that there was no nightfall in the city. It
could be described as a titan for the fact that no matter in
terms of the number of disciples, power, land, or magical
tools, there were no other families which could compare to it.
A great deal of cultivators took being a foreign disciple to the
Wen Sect as a supreme honour. Based on the Wen Sect’s
style of doing things, it was highly possible that the
waterborne abyss in Caiyi Town was chased here by them.
After passing the arch bridge and entering the river paths,
Wei WuXian started to go at it again.
The woman put her hand into the basket, and threw him a
round, golden loquat, “You needn’t be such polite. It’s for
how handsome you look!”
After the second one also landed in his hand, Wei WuXian
shouted, “Sister, you’re not only pretty, but you’re nice as
well. The next time I come here, I’m gonna buy a whole
basket!”
The woman’s voice was vibrant, and she was more daring
than the other. She pointed at Lan WangJi, “Get him to
come as well. You all can come here and get them!”
Just then, the boat which Jiang Cheng was on whirred past.
He caught the loquat with one hand, a slight smile appearing
on his face, but immediately snorted, “You’re being all flirty
again?” Wei WuXian smirked, proud of his success, “Get
lost!” Then, he turned around and asked, “Lan Zhan, you’re
from Gusu, so you know how to speak in this dialect, right?
Teach me. How do you swear in the Gusu dialect?”
Yet, Lan XiChen spoke to him, “If you want to eat loquats,
should we buy one basket?”
“...”
Jiang Cheng drank too much last night, and his head still
ached as he lay on the ground with his eyes closed. He
randomly grabbed something and hurled it at where Wei
WuXian’s voice came from, “Shut up!”
185
At this point, the boys who had woken up also rushed over,
but they were blocked outside the ancestral hall, not allowed
to go in. They scratched their heads, scared speechless
from seeing the discipline ruler. Then, however, Lan WangJi
lifted the bottom of his white clothes, and knelt down beside
Wei WuXian.
“It’s understandable for Lan Zhan to punish you, but why did
he himself also get the beating?”
Jiang Cheng spoke, “Cut the crap! What on Earth did you
do?!”
Wei WuXian, “That’s actually it. Who knew what was wrong
with my luck—when I carried the jars of Emperor’s Smile
and came up here, he stopped right in front of me again. I’m
doubting that maybe he really watches me every single day.”
Wei WuXian, “And then I said hello to him again. I said, ‘Lan
Zhan! What a coincidence—it’s you again!’. Of course, he
ignored me again. His hand came at me without any words. I
said,
‘Hey, what’s the use of doing this?’ He said that if a guest
disciple violates the curfew so many times, they need to go
to the Lan Sect’s ancestral hall to receive their punishment.
And I said, ‘There’s only the two of us here. If you don’t say
it, and I don’t say it, then nobody would know whether or not
188
The boys were filled with the thrill of the story, and Wei
WuXian was enraptured as he spoke. He forgot the fact that
he was still on Jiang Cheng’s back, and gave Jiang Cheng’s
shoulder a hard smack, “I said, ‘Fine!’. Then, I stopped
dodging, threw myself over, clung to him, and plummeted
outside the wall of the Cloud Recesses!”
“...”
Wei WuXian, “And so, the two of us fell outside the area of
the Cloud Recesses together! It was such a bad fall that I
saw stars before my eyes.”
Wei WuXian replied, “Oh, he did try. But with me locking him
in my arms and legs, he couldn’t break free even though he
wanted to, unable to even get up from my body. He was as
189
Jiang Cheng wanted to not only shake him off, but, even
more so, to make a few man-shaped dents on the ground by
slamming his head down, “Is simply carrying you not up to
your standards?!”
“...”
Wei WuXian slowly crawled up, and spoke as he took off his
sash belt, “ZeWu-Jun told me to come in.”
Lan WangJi firmly kept his arm between the two of them,
maintaining the distance. He sternly declared, “It is not.”
Wei WuXian swam near the edge of the spring, and leaned
back with his arms on the blue rocks, “I’m always really loyal
towards my friends. For example, I’d definitely let you be the
first person to look at new porn that I get hold of… Hey, hey,
come back! It’s fine if you don’t look at them. Have you been
194
Immediately after Lan QiRen left, Wei WuXian sat down and
spoke to Jiang Cheng, “Don’t you think that it’s a bit too late,
telling me to get lost now? He only told me to get lost after I
finished tainting his person. It’s too late!”
Wei WuXian, “Heh. Just let him wait. I’ll deal with him after I
get back.”
Jiang Cheng, “Don’t you dislike how he’s boring and how
he’s not fun? Then, you should stop teasing him. This is like
196
Wei WuXian, “Fine. If you don’t want them, I’m gonna give
them to other people. We aren’t having much flavors in our
mouths, anyways.”
“...” Lan WangJi spoke one word at a time, “Give. It. To. me.”
Since nobody expected the Lan Sect, which was famous for
being orthodox, to have such a founder, they started to chat
among themselves. As they chatted, the center of the
conversation tipped toward the direction of “cultivation
partners”, and they started to discuss the cultivation partners
of their dreams, evaluating the well-known girls in the
different sects. At this point, someone asked, “ZiXuan-xiong,
who do you think is the best girl?”
Another person spoke, “It’s best for you to not ask ZiXuan-
xiong about this. He’s already got a fiancee, so his answer
would definitely be his fiancee.”
202
The ways of the Jin Sect were proud, and Jin ZiXuan
inherited every single drop of this. With his high standards,
he had been unsatisfied with this engagement since a long
time ago. He was not only unsatisfied with the candidate, but
even more so with her mother taking the liberty to decide for
him, making him grow more and more rebellious at heart.
Today, he took the opportunity to break out. Jin ZiXuan
asked in reply, “Why don’t you ask me how on Earth can I
be satisfied with her?”
All of the blood in his body rose to his head, and he blurted,
“If she’s unsatisfied, then tell her to get rid of this
engagement! In conclusion, I don’t care for your shijie. If you
care for her, ask her father about it! Doesn’t he treat you
better than treating his own child or something?”
After the two sect leaders went to see the two who were
punished to kneel, and received a severe scolding from Lan
QiRen, they wiped some sweat from their foreheads and
started to engage in small talk. Jiang FengMian soon
brought up the idea of cancelling the engagement.
At this time, Wei WuXian still didn’t know what this fight
broke up, as he knelt on the stone path that Lan QiRen
assigned him to. From a distance, Jiang Cheng approached
with a sneer on his face, “Look at how well-behaved you are,
kneeling so properly.”
Wei WuXian was gloating, “Of course, I kneel all the time.
But Jin ZiXuan is a spoiled brat, so he’s definitely never
knelt before. If I don’t make him kneel to the point that he
cries for his parents, my last name won’t be Wei
anymore.”
Jiang Cheng, “Why would she come? To see how you lost
face for her? If she did come, would she not come to your
side and bring you medicine?”
Jiang Cheng, “I was going to. If you didn’t push me, the
other side of Jin ZiXuan’s face would also be ruined.”
Never.
“...” Jiang Cheng spoke, “You should get lost and go back to
Yunmeng as soon as possible! I don’t think that he wants to
see you ever again.”
And so, on that night, Wei WuXian packed up his things and
returned to Yunmeng with Jiang FengMian.
Wei WuXian lay on his stomach for the whole night. The first
half of the night was spent thinking about what in the world
had happened to Lan WangJi during these years, and he
only drifted off during the second half. When he opened his
eyes the next morning, Lan WangJi had already
disappeared into nowhere. On the other hand, he lay on the
bed properly, with his arms placed on the sides of his body
in a position that made him seem well-behaved.
Wei WuXian fed it the apple that was given to him for
breakfast. As he expected, the donkey stopped making
noise as it chewed on the apple, crunching its teeth
together. Wei WuXian stroked the back of its neck as he
thought about the passage tokens on these juniors and
pointed at the round rabbits all over the ground, “I really
can’t roast them? If I roast them, would I be chased off the
mountain?”
Suddenly, rings of the bell came from the the western side of
the Cloud Recesses.
These rings were completely different from the ones that told
the time. They were hurried and violent, as if a madman was
striking it. With a sudden change in their faces, Lan JingYi
and Lan SiZhui both stopped joking around with him,
dashing toward the bell at once. Wei WuXian knew that
something was wrong and quickly followed.
Yet, even so, the hand still drooped gradually, under the
combined forces of the guqin and the flute. Wei WuXian
thought shamelessly, Although it sounds bad, it doesn’t
matter as long as it works.
Instantly, after the last echo of the guqin, the doors of the
mingshi sprang open, pouring in a flood of sunlight. It was
likely that the alarms of the watchtower stopped ringing. All
of the disciples who surrounded the mingshi rushed inside,
their voices calling “HanGuang-Jun”.
216
With three fingers still set on Lan QiRen’s wrist, Lan WangJi
remained silent. Lan QiRen had directed at least eight
hundred, if not a thousand, spirit summoning ceremonies
before. Of those, a lot included fierce spirits. Seeing even he
was harmed by the energy of resentment, it was clear that
the amount of resentful energy within this ghost hand was
unprecedentedly strong.
Wei WuXian stuck the bamboo flute back beside his waist.
He squatted down beside the bronze bell and gently stroked
the inscriptions on it. As he was thinking, he suddenly saw a
downcast expression on Lan SiZhui’s face, “What’s wrong?”
Lan SiZhui lowered his head, “If so, for the lives lost at Mo
Village, we should… we should also be responsible. And,
now, we also involved Lan QiRen and the others in this
matter…”
The few nodded, “Okay! Are you going to travel down the
mountain?”
Following the left hand’s direction, the two went toward the
northwest. They duetted Rest every single day, in order to
temporarily calm its anger and killing intent. As the travelled
near Qinghe, the posture that the arm maintained to show
them the way suddenly changed. Its index finger curled
back, and it formed a fist.
This meant that what the hand pointed at was just around
the area.
It had always been hard for him to bring it up, but, although
the YiLing Patriarch was known for being ever-so invincible,
he’d become a coward whenever he faced a dog. This
couldn’t be helped, though. When he was still young, before
Jiang FengMian had brought him home, he grew up on the
streets, often having to fight for food with vicious dogs. After
several bites and chases, he gradually became extremely
scared of all dogs, no matter the size. Jiang Cheng laughed
at him because of this quite a lot of times. If he told others
this, it would not only be shameful, but also believed by only
a few people, which was why practically nobody knew of it.
226
Finding Lan WangJi after chasing this far, Jin Ling was
shocked, Why would this lunatic show up alongside him
again?! Lan WangJi had a serious personality and never
chattered or joked. Even a few disciples of the same
generation as him feel nervous when they see him, much
less these juniors. His level of intimidation was even worse
than Lan QiRen’s, back in those days. The dog underwent
harsh training. Being different from the average dog, it was
quite intelligent. As if it also knew that it couldn’t behave
rudely in front of this person, it howled a few times, then hid
behind Jin Ling with its tail between its legs.
Yet, Wei WuXian ducked under Lan WangJi’s arm and went
behind him, seeming as if he wanted to climb up like
climbing a pole. Feeling a pair of arms clasp around him,
Lan WangJi froze for an instant. Taking this opportunity, Jin
Ling blew two more whistles, and ran off with his black-
haired spiritual dog.
The charlatan, “There’s isn’t any here, but if you go a bit less
than two miles ahead, there’s a mountain ridge named
Xinglu Ridge. I suggest you don’t go there.”
228
“...” The charlatan, “That’s how the legend goes. How would
I know?”
230
Wei WuXian laughed, “No, no, don’t go yet. Let me ask you
something else. Is the Xinglu Ridge a part of the Qinghe
region? Isn’t Qinghe the Nie Sect’s area? If there really are
monsters roaming around Xinglu Ridge, why are they
ignoring it?”
Wei WuXian pushed him while laughing, “Let’s go, let’s go.
Let’s get off this ridge. I don’t think that there are any other
monsters. The people here are so gossipy that a few
useless walking corpses became ruthless monsters in their
mouths. Things like the ‘man-eating castle’ must have been
fabricated as well. Such a waste of efforts, don’t you think?”
Lan WangJi, “... It is still far away. What are you hiding for?”
Who would have known that there really were such stone
castles inside the Xinglu Ridge? It seemed that the legends
didn’t appear out of thin air after all. However, it’d be hard to
say whether or not this was a “man-eating castle”, and what
beings were inside of it.
From upon hearing the barks until now, they hadn’t heard
anything coming from Jin Ling at all, not even cries for help.
This black-haired spiritual dog must have been brought here
by him, and it must have been the one who broke the maze
236
It was clear that Jin Ling must have broke open the stone
castle by force, but something happened to him after he
entered.
Inside the stone castle, there was only dead silence. It was
as quiet as a cemetery. Actually, it itself also seemed similar
to a cemetery.
The two had already walked for a while inside the stone
castle, but they hadn’t seen anyone. Wei WuXian had
shouted a few times, without receiving any reply. The first
stone rooms were all empty, but, as they went in deeper, in
the center of one of the rooms, there was a black coffin.
240
The moment the lid was opened, the noise around them
suddenly multiplied, flooding through Wei WuXian’s ears in
the manner of tidal water. It was as if, before this, they were
secretly watched by countless pairs of eyes—the owners of
the eyes silently monitored and discussed every word they
spoke, every action they performed, and suddenly became
agitated as they saw that the coffin was about to be opened.
Wei WuXian thought of a few dozen possibilities, already
prepared to fend against strong odours of rancidity,
stretching claws of monsters, an overflow of poisonous
water, toxic smoke that dispersed quickly, or attacks from
resentful spectres. Of course, his greatest wish was to see
Jin Ling. Despite this, nothing happened. Nothing.
The two closed the coffin lid and continued walking. They
found other coffins like this in some other rooms. Looking at
the texture of the wood, their ages were all different. And,
within every coffin, there was a long sword. Even until they
went inside the last room, there still wasn’t any trace of Jin
Ling. Wei WuXian closed the lid of the coffin, feeling slightly
worried.
He only played a short excerpt, and then took his right hand
away from the guqin. He stared attentively at the still-
vibrating strings.
same two notes as before. Wei WuXian could tell that, this
time, the answer was
“I don’t know” as well. He asked, “What did you ask it, this
time?”
Wei WuXian, “If it was secretly killed when it was not paying
attention, then it’d explain why it doesn’t know how it died.
Why don’t you ask it if it knows who killed it?”
It was a spirit who had been trapped here, yet it didn’t know
where this was, how it died, and who killed it. This was also
Wei WuXian’s first time meeting such a deceased person.
With a change of thought, he spoke again, “Then, let’s ask
something else. Ask him whether it’s a man or a woman.
There’s no way that it doesn’t know this.”
It answered, “Yes.”
After the sixth step, the guqin finally silenced. No more notes
sounded.
The two hastened to dig him out of the wall. However, who
knew that, as if dirt clung onto a carrot being pulled out of
the ground, the moment Jin Ling’s upper body emerged from
the dirt, the sword on his back caught on something else
and dragged it out.
Lan WangJi laid Jin Ling flat onto the ground and felt for his
pulse. Wei WuXian, on the other hand, took up the sheath of
Bichen, and skillfully started to poke around in the dirt,
following the length of the bone. After a short while, a
complete skeleton appeared before their eyes.
This skeleton was the same as how Jin Ling looked, buried
inside the wall in a standing position. With ghastly pale
247
He took a few steps back. The noise in his ears was as wild
and turbulent as tidal waves.
Wei WuXian pulled him out of the wall again, feeling that the
situation was both hilarious and strange. As he was about to
tell Lan WangJi that it was best not to stay here for long, he
suddenly quivered out of fright, hearing a few barks that
came from afar. Ever since they went in, the black-haired
spiritual dog behaved itself, wagging its tail as it sat before
the entrance. It waited for them to bring back its master in an
anxious yet pathetic way, without barking anymore.
However, right now, its barks were fiercer than ever.
The two quickly went back the same way they came.
Bending down to exit, they saw the spiritual dog face them
with its back, growling with the bottom of its throat at a
certain direction. Although Wei WuXian managed to come
over, he really couldn’t bear this type of sound, and
involuntarily took a few steps backward. When the dog
turned around and saw that he had Jin Ling on his back, it
249
Lan WangJi, “I will go after them. What about you and Jin
Ling?”
Wei WuXian, “I’ll take him down the Xinglu Ridge and settle
down somewhere in Qinghe, around where we met that
charlatan. Let’s meet up there.”
Hearing the ‘I’ll be back’, Lan WangJi took one deep look at
him and walked off without any more words. The spiritual
dog wanted to throw itself over again. Wei WuXian
immediately shouted, “W-w-w-wait! Take the dog away!
Take it!!!”
Jin Ling’s whole leg had turned black, and the bruise was
still stretching upward. Wei WuXian had never seen a Curse
Mark in such an intense shade of black and covering such a
large area.
The more he looked at it, the sterner his face grew. He put
Jin Ling’s legs down and undid Jin
Ling’s undergarment. He only felt relief after he saw that his
chest and stomach areas were all clean, not affected by the
Curse Mark yet.
He was confused for quite a while. With his body naked and
cold all around, he came to at once.
He immediately got up and roared with a flushed face, “Wh-
wh-wh-what are you doing?!”
Jin Ling snatched the sword that lay beside the bed in a
manner so courageous that it seemed if Wei WuXian walked
252
one more step forward, he would kill him and then commit
suicide to prove his innocence. Wei WuXian finally managed
to stop laughing, “Why are you so scared? It was only a
joke! I spent so much effort to dig you out of the wall, and
you don’t even thank me.”
Amid the ruckus, Jin Ling combed his hand through his
messy hair so that it looked a bit more decent, and
continued to rage, “If not for this, the fact that y-y-y-you
dared to take off my clothes w-w-would’ve gotten you killed
for thousands of times!”
With a muddled look, Jin Ling did as he was told and put the
sword down.
When they played Inquiry, although Jin Ling’s soul left his
body and he couldn’t remember a lot of things, amid the
haze, he knew that it was the person in front of him who dug
him out and carried him down the mountain. For some time,
after he was buried in the wall, he had been conscious for a
while, the fear and despair in his heart at their height. Yet,
he really didn’t expect that the one who freed him from his
fear and despair was this person whom he had hated ever
since the first time they met. The color of his face switched
back and forth between white and red. He was also both
dizzy and embarrassed, his thoughts still fluttering
everywhere. Suddenly, his eyes went toward the window
and was shocked to see that the sky was already dark, with
a few stars scattered here and there. Coincidentally, Wei
WuXian bent down to pick up the new clothes that fell on the
ground. Jin Ling hopped off the bed, put on his boots,
grabbed his jacket, and sprinted out of the room.
Jiang Cheng!
Jiang Cheng, “Nothing wrong? You look like you just rolled
around in a muddy ditch, and you say there’s nothing wrong
with you! Don’t you think that it’s an embarrassment to be
wearing your sect’s uniform? Hurry back and change into
something else! Speak. What did you run into today?”
Jiang Cheng, “So, what now? What did you catch? Where’s
the spiritual dog that your uncle gave you?”
With the dog appearing here, it must have meant that Lan
WangJi had already caught whoever was spying near the
stone castles and went to point of rendezvous that they
settled on earlier. However, at the moment, Wei WuXian had
no time to think about these things.
The owner was getting ready to close the shop for the night.
Suddenly, seeing that a fancyclothed, dark-faced young man
kicked open the door and walked inside with someone in his
hand, appearing as if he was going to disembowel the victim
right here, the owner was so frightened that he couldn’t
speak. A disciple went up and whispered a few things in his
ear. With some silver pushed into his hands, he quickly fled
to the back of the hall and never came out again. Without
any further instructions, the Jiang Sect’s disciples instantly
spread out from the inside to the outside, making it so that
nothing could enter or escape the place.
256
From the beginning of his memory until now, Jin Ling had
never seen such a look on Jiang Cheng’s face before. This
uncle of his who led the prominent YunmengJiang Sect ever
since a young age had always been cold and dark. When he
spoke, he was willing to neither show mercy nor do good.
Yet, right now, although he was trying hard to suppress
unnecessary facial expressions, his eyes were alarmingly
intense.
For a moment, no one spoke a word. The cup of tea was still
steaming hot. Without having a single sip of it, he hurled it
onto the ground.
Jiang Cheng pulled a curt smile on his face, “... Don’t you
have anything to say to me?”
Jiang Cheng laughed from the anger, “Sure, then let’s see
which of us is the one who hasn’t made any progress.”
Yet, he just couldn’t find the right words to put after it.
Jiang Cheng interrupted, “It’s just what? You can’t say it?
Don’t worry, you can go back to Lotus Pier and say your
excuses while kneeling in front of my parents’ graves.”
Jiang Cheng raised his voice, “Didn’t I tell you to stay where
you were? Why did you come here?”
261
Jiang Cheng opened the door with a fuming look on his face,
“Tell me, then get out!”
Jin Ling told him, “It was this afternoon. There’s a worn-
down house about a dozen miles south of here. I went
because I heard that something strange had happened
there, but who could have guessed that there was a fierce
corpse hiding inside.”
Jin Ling replied with an “oh,” and his footsteps faded into the
distance. Seeing Jiang Cheng turn around, Wei WuXian
immediately pulled a mixed expression of “I’m so shocked,”
“my secret has been disclosed,” and “what do I do now that
Wen Ning had been found.” Jin Ling was actually quite
clever. Knowing that Jiang Cheng hated Wen Ning more
than anything, he made up such a smooth lie with the
previous knowledge he had. Jiang Cheng knew that the
YiLing Patriarch and the Ghost General often appeared
together, so he already suspected that Wen Ning was in the
area. Having heard Jin Ling’s words, he was already mostly
convinced, and Wei WuXian’s expression convinced him
even further. On top of that, he burst into fury whenever he
heard the mention of Wen Ning’s name. With his eyes
blinded by wrath, how could he still have doubted? The
hostility that built in his chest was almost making him
explode. He flicked his whip, hitting the ground beside Wei
WuXian, and spoke through clenched teeth, “You really take
this obeying dog of yours everywhere, don’t you?!”
Wei WuXian spoke, “He’s been dead since a long time ago,
and I’ve died once as well. What else do you want?!”
perish back then. Very well! I shall destroy him today, with
my own hands. I’m going to burn him right now, and scatter
his ashes right in front of your face!” He slammed the door
shut behind him and walked toward the main hall, ordering
Jin Ling, “You keep a close eye on him. Don’t believe or
listen to anything he says! Don’t let him make any sound. If
he dares to whistle or play his flute, block his mouth first. If it
doesn’t work, just slice off his hand or cut off his tongue!”
Jin Ling whistled twice, and the dog rolled out its long
tongue. Whimpering softly, its pointy ears twitched, and it
ran away disheartenedly. Jin Ling sneered in contempt,
“Such a loser. Fairy never bites. It just looks scary. It’s a
spiritual dog trained to only bite evil beings. Did you really
think that it’s just a regular dog?”
Wei WuXian refused, “No. No. No. The point isn’t whether
it’s little or not! … Who in the world taught you such a way of
naming?!” Without doubt, it must have been his uncle. In the
past, Jiang Cheng also had a few puppies. The names he
chose were things like ‘Jasmine’, ‘Princess’, ‘Love’, and so
265
Wei WuXian asked, “Do you know why your uncle wants
me?”
Jin Ling, “It’s not the first time my uncle did such a thing. He
has never let any of them go, even if it was possible that he
caught the wrong ones. But, if Zidian couldn’t draw out your
spirit, I’m just gonna trust that you’re not. Besides, he wasn’t
a cut-sleeve, but you even dared to harass…”
Wei WuXian put his hands behind his back and walked over,
“Young man, there are two cringe worthy phrases in one’s
life that must be said, no matter what.”
Wei WuXian, “I’m sorry for the words I said to you on Dafan
Mountain.”
It wasn’t the first time that Jin Ling was told he had ‘no
mother to teach him’, but it was the first time someone
apologized to him in such a serious way. With an ‘I’m sorry’
shoved right into his face, he didn’t know why, but he
suddenly felt a bit uneasy.
Jin Ling was already feeling guilty since he stole Zidian and
let Wei WuXian go. Hearing the name, he whirled around to
look. Using the chance, Wei WuXian hit Jin Ling’s neck,
forming a blade with his hand. He laid Jin Ling flat on the
ground, rolled up the bottom of his trousers, and examined
the Curse Mark on his leg. He tried a few methods, but none
of them made it fade.
After a moment, he sighed, knowing that it’d be difficult.
Jin Ling slowly woke up after a while. Putting his hand to his
neck, some pain could still be felt. He was so angry that he
jumped up and unsheathed his sword at once, “How dare
you hit me! My uncle hadn’t even hit me before!”
Jin Ling fumed, “He’s only saying that! You damn cut-sleeve,
what on Earth do you want? I…”
Jin Ling was more scared of Lan WangJi than he was of his
uncle. After all, his uncle was from his own clan, but
HanGuang-Jun was from someone else’s. Frightened, he
fled at once, shouting as he ran, “You damn cut-sleeve!
Disgusting maniac! I’ll remember you! This is not over yet!”
She said that, after his father heard of the news that his
parents both died in battle, he had always dedicated himself
to finding the child that these past friends had left behind.
After searching for a while, he finally found the child in
Yiling. The first time they met, Wei WuXian was kneeling on
the ground, eating the fruit peels that somebody tossed on
the ground.
Yiling’s winter and spring were quite cold, yet the child only
wore thin layers. His knees were already tattered, and on his
feet were two different shoes that didn’t fit at all. As he was
looking down, searching for fruit peels, Jiang FengMian
called him. He still remembered that there was a “Ying” in
his name, so he lifted his head. Although his cheeks were
both red and chapped from the cold, he still wore a smile.
His entire leg was covered with the black bruise of the Curse
Mark.
then walked toward the shop. He didn’t notice before, but his
leg felt a bit numb, probably from Zidian. It was a good thing
that Jiang Cheng controlled Zidian’s force so that he wasn’t
made into a scorched corpse that had been struck by
lightning.
Lan WangJi, “This was transferred from Jin Ling’s body, was
it not.”
The two doors sprang open, and the person who sat
nervously inside instantly wailed,
“HanGuang-Jun, I don’t know, I don’t know, I…”
Wei WuXian, “If you don’t know, I’ll talk. As you listen to me,
maybe you’ll figure that you do know some things after all.”
master, allowing nobody else to use it. It’s not like we later
generations can melt the sabers. First, it’d be disrespectful
to the ancestors; second, it’s possible that even melting
them won’t solve the problem.”
“Since the saber tomb was destroyed, the sect leader at that
time began to think of different methods. He chose another
spot on the Xinglu Ridge and built a saber hall instead of a
saber tomb. In case grave robbers came again, he hid the
corpses inside the walls in disguise.
Wei WuXian took the stone. After having a better look at it,
he found something white that protruded from the stone. It
looked like… the bone of a human’s finger.
Who knew that he had such bad luck. First, the disobedient
Jin Ling had his mind set on the
Xinglu Ridge, and then the two in search of where the ghost
hand pointed, Lan WangJi and Wei
WuXian, came as well. He spoke again, “HanGuang-Jun
and you… I already said that you mustn’t tell anyone else
about this. Or else…”
If he weren’t a sect leader and spent his whole life the same
way as he did back in the Cloud Recesses, fooling around
for entire days, he’d certainly be in a more comfortable
position than he was now. But, since his brother had passed
away already, no matter how hard it was for him, he’d still
have to take the responsibility on his shoulders and stumble
forward.
Nie HuaiSang left after telling them again and again not to
say anything, and Wei WuXian blanked out for a while.
Suddenly, he felt Lan WangJi walk over. Lan WangJi
kneeled with a single leg in front of him, then proceeded to
roll up his trousers with an earnest face. He hurriedly spoke,
“Wait, again?”
Lan WangJi turned his head away and did not answer. Wei
WuXian found it quite odd, “Lan Zhan?”
287
Wei WuXian felt for the bamboo flute that had been by his
waist, but he found nothing. Turning around, he saw that
Lan WangJi already had the flute in his hands. Lan WangJi’s
head tilted slightly downward. He only handed the flute back
after carving on it for a while, in a dedicated manner. Taking
the flute back, Wei WuXian noticed that, after it had been
adjusted, even rough details such as the finger holes were
much finer.
288
Jin Ling’s Curse Mark was left on him when he was at the
stone castles of the Xinglu Ridge. Seeing how strongly the
ghost hand reacted to the Curse Mark, did it mean that…
Wei WuXian, “Do you mean that another part of his body
might be within the walls of the Nie Sect’s Saber Hall?”
A few disciples of the Nie Sect also joined them. Now that
there were other people doing the work, Wei WuXian
backed off and stood on the side, waiting for results. After an
hour, the stone bricks on the wall that Jin Ling had been
buried in were mostly taken off. Some disciples put on face
masks while others swallowed special red-colored pills, so
that the breathing and human energy didn’t cause corpse
transformations. Among the black dirt, an ashen hand or a
vein-laced foot sometimes poked out, in addition to the
tangled, grimy hair plastered everywhere. Each and every
male corpse was hastily cleaned and set row-by-row on the
ground.
291
Although Nie HuaiSang still said “see you” when they set off,
judging from his frightened face, he most likely didn’t want to
see them ever again for the rest of his life. The two left the
Xinglu Ridge and returned to the inn. Upon arriving at the
relatively safe place, they took out the three limbs and
started to examine them. As they had expected, the pair of
legs were of the same color as the severed arm. And, if they
were put close together, they would react strongly, vibrating
nonstop as if they wanted to join together. But the efforts
were useless, as there was still one part of the body
between them that was missing. It was certain that they
belonged to the same person.
Aside from the fact that this was a man with a tall physique,
long limbs, a muscular body, and a high level of cultivation,
they knew nothing else about the mysterious corpse.
Fortunately, the ghost hand soon pointed at where the next
step would take place—the Southwest.
Following its direction, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi made
their way to Yueyang.
295
Wei WuXian, “Jin Ling was buried too close to our dear
friend and got stained with quite a lot of resentful energy. It
faded a bit, but it’s not completely gone. The chances are
we can only find a way to remove it after we find the whole
corpse or at least the head. It doesn’t really cause much
trouble anyways.”
The “dear friend” was none other than the man that had
been cut to pieces. Since they didn’t know who he was, Wei
WuXian suggested that they referred to him as a “dear
friend”. Lan
WangJi didn’t say anything after hearing it, but he didn’t
object to it either, which could be interpreted as a silent
approval. Of course, he himself wouldn’t ever use the word.
Wei WuXian indicated with his hands, “A bit is just a bit. How
do I explain it? Should I take my clothes off and show you?”
Wei WuXian laughed, “What did you ‘mnn’ for? That’s not
how you should’ve responded.”
Meanwhile, in his heart, he commented gleefully, “Mnn” is
the only thing he knows to say. He’s still so stuffy!
Lan WangJi replied with a “mnn”, but it was written all over
his face that “you just want to have a few drinks, don’t you?”
“This one doesn’t smell strong, but wait until you drink it up!”
“If you can still stand after you finish this, I’ll adopt your
surname!”
The waiter was more than delighted and rushed back inside
the shop. Wei WuXian turned to Lan
WangJi, “We're doing business here, aren’t we? First we
help their business, then we talk about other things. After we
pay, it’ll be easy to get them talking.”
The two walked inside the shop. Inside, there were wooden
tables and chairs for the customers to rest and chat. One of
the other waiters in the shop saw how Lan WangJi looked
and figured that he wasn’t the average person. Not daring to
slight him, he only directed them to a table after he wiped
the table and chairs for a long while. With two jars by his foot
and another in his hand, Wei WuXian chatted with the waiter
for a few moments, then cut to the chase, asking again for
any strange things that had happened in the area. The
waiter was also a talkative person. He rubbed his hands
together, “What sort of strange things?”
The waiter laughed, “If you say this, the young master next
to you will be displeased. Strange things, wasn’t it? They did
happen. Not now, but ten years ago. Walk in this direction.
After you leave the city, walk for around two miles, and you’d
see quite a lovely residence. I don’t know if their signboard
is still there or not. It’s the Chang Clan’s residence.”
“The entire clan died!” The waiter said, “You asked for
strange things, so of course I’m telling you the strangest of
things. The entire clan was wiped out, and I heard that they
were frightened to death!”
Wei WuXian, “Then how did they deal with the situation?”
“Deal with the situation?” The waiter swung the cleaning rag
onto his shoulder and also sat down, revealing the secret
that he had been keeping in for so long, “Young Master, do
you know what the surname of the cultivational sect in
Yueyang was? It was Chang. The clan who died was their
clan! If everyone died, who would there be to deal with the
situation?”
302
The Chang Clan that was wiped out had been the
cultivational sect stationed in this area?!
The waiter, “This is what I’ve heard. One night, the noise of
slamming on doors suddenly came from the Chang Clan’s
residence.”
Lan WangJi paid the price for ten jars. The owner beamed at
once, warning the waiter, “Look after the customers
properly. Don’t go running around!”
“Think about it. People like them who fly in the skies have
seen countless ghosts and monsters before, yet they were
frightened to death. How frightening would that have had to
be? If you’re often out at night, you’d definitely bump into
some ghosts. Even after they were buried, you can hear
them slamming on their coffins! Although the head of their
clan, Chang Ping, was away from home and survived…”
Wei WuXian, “Didn’t you say that the whole clan died?”
304
Logically, you guys should know more than me since you all
cultivate. I’ve only heard some vague talk of of how they
offended someone whom they shouldn’t have! Anyways,
after that, nobody was left in charge of the evil beings
around Yueyang.”
Him again?!
“...”
Wei WuXian, “We’re also just gonna sneak a few looks, from
far away.”
Wei WuXian followed his gaze just to see Lan WangJi turn
around, stand up, and walk outside the liquor shop, “Oh,
him. This friend of mine was brought up strictly. He
absolutely hates it when other people are being too
comfortable with each other in front of him. Isn’t that
strange?”
Finally recalling the “if you can still stand after you finish this,
I’ll adopt your surname” that he said earlier, he blurted out,
“Oh… Ohhh! Uhm… Wow! I’m not kidding, but this is my first
time seeing someone who can still stand and speak properly
after downing a jar. Young Master, what’s your surname?”
308
After they left the city, the two walked in the direction of
where the waiter pointed at. The number of people gradually
decreased, while the number of trees increased. Wei
WuXian asked,
“Back then, why did you not let me continue asking him?”
Wei WuXian, “Before you tell me, let me ask you something.
Confirm for me that the, uh, wiping out of the Chang Clan
wasn’t done by me, was it?”
Other than how he died ten years ago and his soul had been
fairly stable, it was impossible that he killed an entire clan
and didn’t remember anything!
Wei WuXian knew about the fates of the first and second
pupils ever since he was young, so no further explanations
were needed. Thus, Lan WangJi told him the stories of the
last pupil, his shishu.
That was around when the wiping out of the Yueyang Clan
happened.
ago, while the siege at Luanzang Hill only just ended. On the
surface, the situation seemed rather stable. With the sudden
disclosure of this event, the entire cultivation world was
bubbling with discussion, some even exaggerating that it
was the revenge of the revived YiLing Patriarch, Wei
WuXian.
However, there wasn’t any evidence, so it had been
impossible to find the killer. Of course, Xiao XingChen didn’t
sit back and do nothing. He volunteered to be responsible
for the matter and find out the truth for Chang Ping. After a
month, the murderer was finally discovered.
When Wei WuXian first created it, he didn’t think too much
about it. Single-handedly controlling corpses and spirits, of
course he’d occasionally grow tired. Remembering a rare
piece of iron ore he happened to have seen in a beast’s
stomach, he used it to cast a Tiger Seal.
But, after the Tiger Seal had been created, Wei WuXian only
used it once before finding out that it did more harm than
good.
315
After the seal had been forged, it wasn’t that Wei WuXian
never thought about destroying it, but since the seal was
created with much difficulty, it would’ve been extremely hard
to destroy, costing him both time and energy. And, back
then, he had already vaguely understood that he wasn’t in a
good situation and would be hated by everyone sooner or
later. With a weapon as appalling as the Stygian Tiger Seal,
others didn’t dare to act rashly, so he temporarily kept it. He
separated the seal into two halves, making it so that they
could only be of use when they were put together, and never
used without careful consideration.
He had only used it two times before, and both times caused
great bloodshed. The first time was during the Sunshot
Campaign. After using it for the second time, he finally
decided to destroy one half of the seal. Before he could
completely destroy the other half, the siege at Luanzang Hill
happened, and it had since then been beyond his
capabilities.
At this point, Wei WuXian knew that the “wait and see”
would make Xiao XingChen pay an agonizing price.
The LanlingJin Sect was indeed the sect with the thickest
face. Although, on Jinling Tower, it promised in front of all of
the sects that Xue Yang would be executed, when it left Nie
MingJue’s sight, it immediately shut Xue Yang into the
dungeons and changed the original decision to a life
sentence. Hearing about the matter, Nie MingJue was
enraged and pressed on them again. The LanlingJin Sect
rambled about, refusing to give him Xue Yang no matter
how hard he tried. All of the other sects watched them from
the sidelines, but, shortly afterward, Nie MingJue passed
away from Qi deviation.
Now that the person who was most difficult to deal with was
gone, the LanlingJin Sect became more and more reckless
and started to think of worse ideas. Jin GuangShan started
to try as hard as he could to get Xue Yang out of the
dungeons so that he could continue to restore and examine
the Stygian Tiger Seal.
And thus, the tiger had been set free back to the mountains.
Xue Yang put his hands to this side. Repeating his past
technique, he wiped out the Baixue
Temple where Song Lan grew up and studied at, and used
poison to blind Song Lan’s eyes.
For some reason, in his heart, Wei WuXian cared quite a lot
about those scars. However, it was inconvenient for him to
ask directly, so he had to hold his thoughts for now, “Then,
what happened to the Daozhang Xiao XingChen
afterwards?”
For the sake that they were once teacher and pupil,
BaoShan SanRen agreed. Thus, Xiao XingChen left the
mountain once more, and he was never seen again.
321
together, it’s likely that he’d hit me with his horsetail whisk,
haha.
However, the waiter said that the haunting was ten years
ago and stopped long before now. Why would the slamming
happen to start again when they came?
The two of them held their breaths, attentively waiting for the
person in the hole to come out on their own.
Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi could tell that these were two
people only because they had good vision. These two
appeared as if they were conjoined twins. One carrying the
other on their back, they were tightly connected together.
With both of them wearing entirely black clothes, it was
extremely hard to tell the two apart.
The person that hopped up had long legs and long arms,
standing with his back toward them. The one that he carried
seemed lifeless, their head and limbs hanging down. This
was only natural. Since the person was dug out from a
grave, then it must have been dead. Lifeless was what
should’ve been expected of it.
There was a mass of thick, black mist over the man’s face,
making it so that nobody could see how their face and
features looked!
324
Wei WuXian knew why his face suddenly turned cold. It was
because, during the fight, even an outsider like him could tell
that the gravedigger was extremely familiar with Lan
WangJi’s sword moves!
A Transportation Talisman!
Wei WuXian easily jerked the corpse’s head off. With the
delicately-crafted dummy head, he sope, “What is this
supposed to mean? There’s a fake corpse made of cotton
and rags buried in the Chang Clan’s cemetery?”
Wei WuXian felt the corpse from head to toe and discovered
that, aside from its drooping limbs, only its chest and
abdomen felt firm and real. After he tore off the clothes, as
he expected, he found that only the torso was real. All of the
other body parts were fake.
The head and limbs made from cotton were to “deceive” the
torso, so that it still thought it was attached to its owner’s
body. Seeing from the skin tone and the part where the left
shoulder cut off, this must be the torso of the dear friend.
The gravedigger was here for this.
Wei WuXian straightened up, “It looks like that the person
who hid the corpse already noticed that we’re investigating
the issue and came to transfer the torso somewhere else in
case we find it. To come early isn’t as good as to come in
time. We just happened to bump into him, haha. But,” with a
change of tone, he continued, “Why was the mist-faced
gravedigger so familiar with your sect’s sword style?”
327
It was obvious that Lan WangJi was also thinking about this
matter, the coldness on his face yet to fade. Wei WuXian
spoke again, “His cultivation is quite high, enough to support
the energy used for one Transportation Talisman. He casted
spells on both his face and sword. It’s understandable that
he casted a spell on his face—after all, he wouldn’t have
wanted to be seen. But most lesser-known cultivators
wouldn’t have needed to cast a spell on their sword to cover
it, unless, of course, it was either somewhat or very famous
in the cultivation world. He’d then have had to cover it,
because if everyone could recognize his sword glare, his
identity would be revealed as soon as his sword was
revealed.”
The young waiter was true to his words. Most of the other
liquor shops on this street had closed already, but their
banner was still up and their lights were still on. The waiter
was outside, eating from a large bowl. Seeing them, he
beamed, “You’re back! We kept our word, didn’t we? Did
you two see anything?”
Xue Yang, Xiao XingChen, and Song Lan left one by one.
Some disappearing, some passing away. Quite a few years
after the incident passed, one day, Chang Ping and the
remainder of his clan’s members died overnight due to
lingchi. Moreover, Chang Ping’s eyes were dug out.
This time, nobody could find out who the murderer was.
After all, everyone apart of it had vanished. However, there
was one thing that could be determined.
… He fell asleep?
… He fell asleep!
In these past few days, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi spent
their days and nights together. He didn’t have any alone
time, so he couldn’t summon Wen Ning. Aside from hiding
his identity in the beginning, there was another reason.
With his head lowered, Wen Ning’s figure appeared from the
shadows of the city wall ahead.
Wei WuXian put his hands behind him and slowly paced
around Wen Ning.
Wen Ning extended his right arm. Wei WuXian grabbed his
wrist and lifted it up, closely examining the iron cuff and
chain locked onto it.
Turned to ashes?
The person who kept and restrained Wen Ning must have
prevented him from thinking on his own. To make him listen
to other people’s orders, Wen Ning’s sanity must have been
destroyed, which meant that they must’ve planted something
inside his head. As he had expected, after pushing around a
few times, Wei WuXian found a hard nib on an acupoint of
the right side of his head. He put his other hand on the left
side of Wen Ning’s head and found the same thing,
resembling the end of a needle.
Wei WuXian pinched both needle ends at the same time and
gradually pulled two black, long nails from within Wen Ning’s
skull.
The two nails buried deep inside of Wen Ning were around
an inch long and as thick as the red strings used for jade
334
He didn’t know how long Lan WangJi had been here for or if
he had seen and heard what he was doing. If Lan WangJi
had never been drunk in the beginning and followed him all
the way here, the situation would be even more awkward,
especially with him not saying anything to Lan WangJi’s face
and sneaking out to summon Wen Ning after Lan WangJi
fell asleep.
Lan WangJi crossed his arms in front of him and held
Bichen in them. His expression was particularly stiff. Wei
WuXian had never seen him with such an obviously
displeased expression on his face before. He felt that he
needed to speak first and explain the situation, ease the
atmosphere, “Ahem, HanGuang-Jun.”
Lan WangJi finally let down the hands that held Bichen and
walked a few steps forward. Seeing that he went toward
Wen Ning with a sword in his hand, Wei WuXian thought
that he was going to kill Wen Ning, Oh no. Don’t tell me that
Lan Zhan really pretended to be drunk so that he could kill
336
Both the smack and the push, both his speech and actions
were unusually… childish.
337
He made the number two with his fingers. Lan WangJi didn’t
answer and reached his hands out. With one on the left and
one on the right, he solemnly wrapped his hands around
both of Wei
WuXian’s fingers.
Drunk people usually didn’t admit that they were drunk. Wei
WuXian took his fingers back. Lan WangJi attentively
maintained his gesture of how he grasped Wei WuXian’s
fingers, with both of his hands in loose fists. Wei WuXian
was utterly speechless. Standing amid the chilly night
breeze, he removed his gaze from Lan WangJi, and looked
up at the moon.
Most people became drunk before they slept, while Lan
WangJi slept before he became drunk. And, when he was
drunk, he looked no different from how he usually was,
which was why it was hard to tell.
Wen Ning’s head was even more lowered due to the smack.
Even though his facial muscles were rigid and couldn’t make
any sort of expressions, even though his eye whites couldn’t
make any sort of gazes, for some reason, he still looked as if
he had been wronged. Not knowing whether to frown or
laugh, Wei WuXian grabbed Lan WangJi’s arm, “What are
you hitting him for?”
“What?”
341
Was Lan WangJi’s face so thick that the blush couldn’t even
be seen? He wasn’t this sort of person, was he?
Wei WuXian used his sleeves to wipe off the drops of water
on Lan WangJi’s jaw and put his arms around him,
“HanGuang-Jun. Now, are you going to do whatever I tell
you to do?”
Wei WuXian put one knee on the bed and smirked, “Okay.
Let me ask you. Have you… secretly tasted the Emperor’s
Smile you hid in your room?”
A frown, “Hmph.”
Indifference, “Huh.”
“...”
He got off the bed and walked around the room with Bichen
in his hand, from the left to the right, from the East to the
West. As he had expected, Lan WangJi’s gaze closely
followed wherever he walked, ever so sincere and
straightforward, ever so blunt and bare.
A familiar place behind his back was tapped once. His entire
body felt sore and numb and he couldn’t move at all, similar
to the first night at the Cloud Recesses. Lan WangJi took his
hand away, lay down beside him, and put the blanket over
them, carefully tucking in the blanket corner on Wei
WuXian’s side, “It is nine. Rest.”
So, after all, it was the scary bedtime routine of the Lan
Sect.
With closed eyes, Lan WangJi raised his hand and covered
Wei WuXian’s mouth.
He shushed, “Shh.”
The breath that Wei WuXian was about to take got stuck
between his chest and his mouth, unable to come up or go
down.
Wei WuXian winked his left eye at Lan WangJi and smiled
mysteriously, resting his chin on one hand, “You were so
bold last night, HanGuang Jun.”
“...”
joke. I just took off our clothes. You’re chastity is still there.
You hadn’t been tainted. Don’t worry.”
Lan WangJi was still frozen on the spot and didn’t answer. A
shattering sound came from the center of the room.
And, at this point, one of the ropes that tied the pouches had
come loose. Half of an ashen arm had already crawled out
of the tiny opening. Wei WuXian put his hand into Lan
WangJi’s semi opened clothes and searched around, fishing
a flute out of the other’s arms, “HanGuang-Jun, don’t be
scared, alright? I’m not going to do anything to you. It’s just
that you took away my flute last night. I need to have it
back.” After the comment, he even considerately pulled Lan
WangJi’s collars back up and tied his sash belt properly.
350
Wei WuXian, “You? What else did you do? Nothing much,
really. You just said a lot of things.”
“...”
Lan WangJi closed his eyes and turned his head to the side.
Wei WuXian added in consideration,
“It’s okay! Rabbits are so cute—who doesn’t like rabbits? I
also like them, as in, I like to eat them hahahahahaha! Here,
HanGuang-Jun. You drank so much last night… Uh, not
really. You were so drunk last night, so you’re probably not
352
feeling that good right now. You can wash your face, have
some water, then rest for a while before we set off again.
This time, it's pointing at the
Southwest. I’ll go buy some breakfast downstairs and not
bother you any longer.”
Wei WuXian grinned, “Yes! You didn’t think that I don’t know
where you keep your money, did you? I’ll grab some
breakfast for you too, alright? HanGuang-Jun, you can take
it slow. We’re not in a hurry.”
He left the room and closed the door behind him. In the
hallway, he bent over and silently laughed for quite a long
while.
Back when Wei WuXian lived in the Lotus Pier and played
shooting kites with the Jiang Sect’s disciples, he won a lot of
first places. Jiang Cheng, on the other hand, had always
been second. His kites were either flown too far away to
shoot down or near enough to shoot but not as far as Wei
WuXian’s. Their kite was almost twice the other people’s
kites, made into the shape of a flying beast. It had bright,
exaggerated colors, a large, gaping mouth, and a few sharp
tails that flapped in the wind. From a distance, it was
exceptionally vibrant and lively, not quite terrifying, but
almost a bit silly. The framework had been assembled by
Jiang FengMian himself, then given to Jiang YanLi to paint.
This was why, whenever they took the kite out to compete,
they both felt a sense of pride.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew over. The kite wasn’t that high
in the first place and it wasn’t in an open space, so it was
immediately knocked off. One child cried out, “Oh no, the
sun fell!”
354
Someone else protested, “But I’m Nie MingJue! I’ve won the
most battles and captured the most people. I should be the
leader!”
“Nie MingJue” raised swung his fist, “So what if you’re the
Chief Cultivator. You’re still my youngest brother. You’ll have
to run away whenever you see me anyways.”
feebly, “I’m here… Uh… I’m just saying… When the Sunshot
Campaign happened, I wasn’t dead yet…”
When the children played this game, there had never been
an adult who stepped in. Not to mention, it wasn’t a scolding,
but this sort of serious question. The “YiLing Patriarch”
looked at him with both wonder and caution, “What do you
want to ask?”
“There is.”
Wei WuXian quickly waved his hands, “No, no, no. You
didn’t do anything. I’m just being ridiculous,
hahahahahaha… Okay. Ahem. HanGuang-Jun, I’m going to
talk serious business now.”
Wei WuXian, “Good question. I think that the cause was the
corpse being dug out.”
Wei WuXian, “That’s right. So, since the gravedigger dug out
the torso yesterday, there wasn’t anything to suppress the
Chang Clan’s resentful spirits anymore, so that coffin-
slamming noises started again. It’s the same as how the
QingheNie Sect’s Saber Hall suppressed the saber spirits
and wall-corpses. Perhaps, this technique was derived from
the Nie Sect’s Saber Hall in the first place. It looks like that
this person is connected to both the QingheNie Sect and the
GusuLan
Sect. I’m afraid they aren’t some easy opponent.”
right hand and the head are left. After this, we must also
arrive before they do.”
Walking straight toward where the left hand pointed, the two
of them came upon quite a small village.
Among the group women, some were old and some were
young. Noticing the approach of an unfamiliar man, all of
them looked nervous, as if they wanted to throw their
dustpans away and flee back inside. Only after Wei WuXian
exchanged a few words with them, a cheerful smile on his
face, did they finally begin to calm down and respond shyly.
As the left hand formed a fist, a city gate lay in ruins at the
end of the long path.
The tower in front of the city had missing paint and a broken
roof. With one corner chipped off, it looked unusually
dilapidated. The walls of the city were covered in graffiti
done by some unknown person, while the red color of the
doors had almost faded white, every single one of its
doornails rusty and black. The pair of doors was left
unlatched, almost as if somebody had just opened a slit and
slipped inside.
Ever since the ancient times, there had been the saying that
“the greatness of a person brings glory to their birthplace”.
The opposite saying was also present. In some places,
because of the terrain or location, the feng shui would be
exceptionally awful. Surrounded by a natural gust of sinister
energy, it was easy for anyone who lived there to die early
or be generally unlucky. If all of their ancestors dwelled
there, then they’d be even more unfortunate. Also,
irregularities such as living corpses or the return of souls. It
was clear that Yi City was such a place.
For the city’s residents, the easiest solution was to leave the
place. But, if someone’s family had been living at a secluded
place for generations, it’d be almost impossible for them to
make the decision to leave where they grew up. Even if five
or six out of ten people would have short lives, maybe they
367
The two halted before the city gates and exchanged a look.
The fog was even a few times denser than the fog outside
the city, allowing them to only see a long, straight street
ahead of them. On the sides, there stood no passers, but
only brooding houses.
Then again, since this was the place where the left arm
pointed, it’d be stranger if it weren’t peculiar.
They walked down the street for a while. The farther they
went, the thicker the fog, as if evil energy permeated the air.
At first, they could still manage to see anything within ten
steps’ distance. And then it became impossible to make out
any figure more than five steps away. In the end, they
couldn’t even see their hands in front of them. The more Wei
WuXian and Lan WangJi walked, the closer to each other
they shifted. They could only manage to see each other’s
368
The head had the face of a man with thick brows, large
eyes, and two smudges of rouge that stood out acutely.
Hearing that Lan WangJi might also be here, Jin Ling shut
his mouth immediately, as if he had been silenced again. He
was probably scared that he’d be punished again. Lan
JingYi also shouted, “He definitely is! The glare before was
from Bichen, right? It was Bichen, right?!”
371
Wei WuXian, “Yep. He’s here, right beside me. You should
come over.”
Wei WuXian, “This won’t matter for now. How did you guys
run into each other? Don’t tell me that you arranged to night-
hunt together.” Jin Ling saw everyone as an eyesore and
wanted to fight with everyone. And, since he already had an
unpleasant interaction with the Lan Sect’s disciples, how
would it be possible that they wanted to night-hunt together?
Lan SiZhui obediently explained, “That would be a long
story. We were originally…”
Amid the fog, if the juniors all withdrew their swords and
attempted to attack, it’d be possible for them to hurt
themselves instead of the enemy. After a moment, the noise
stopped. Having waited in silence for a few seconds, one
disciple spoke under his breath, “It’s that again… Just how
long is it going to follow us for?!”
Lan SiZhui, “After we entered the city, because the fog was
too thick and it would be easy to wander off, we decided to
walk closely together. Then, we suddenly heard the noise.
At the time, it was not as fast. It went quite slowly, one knock
at a time. Through the fog, we also managed to see a short
shadow walk past, right in front of us. But when we chased
over, it disappeared. The noise has been following us ever
since.”
Jin Ling couldn’t help but replied, “We never turned around.
We’ve always been walking forward, following this path.”
Wei WuXian asked again, “Have you tried using your swords
to fly up and see?”
Wei WuXian, “It probably isn’t. We’ve been in here for quite
a while, and we’re still alive.”
Jin Ling, “I should’ve brought Fairy with me. It’s all because
of your damned donkey.”
Jin Ling didn’t believe that the donkey was a gift from Lan
WangJi either, “I can’t even stand looking at that donkey.
And it’s even called ‘Lil’ Apple’. It’s so damn stupid!”
Wei WuXian didn’t expect this at all. Not only did the
command not work, it actually provoked them. He would
never have mixed up the two different commands of “back
off” and “be stimulated”!
Yet, at the moment, there wasn’t any time for him to think.
Seven or eight slanting figures had already appeared
through the white fog. Judging from the thickness of the fog
in Yi City, the fact that they could see them meant that the
corpses were already extremely near!
Lan WangJi lifted the silence spell, and Lan SiZhui could talk
again, “HanGuang-Jun, is the situation really dangerous?
Should we leave the city at once?”
“But the fog is so thick. We cannot use the path or fly out
either…”
Lan JingYi, “Okay. But I cannot see you. Where are you?”
Then who was the person that had always stood silently
beside him?!
It was very dark on the other side of the door, not allowing
anyone to make out what was behind the slit. The person
who opened the door didn’t speak either. The boys who
were close by couldn’t help but stepped backward.
Lan SiZhui regained his composure, “Excuse us, but are you
the manager of the shop?”
Jin Ling blurted out, “How would you get the money to pay?
Let’s make this clear—I won’t lend you money.”
The rest finally realized that the people who stood in the
room were not real humans, but actually paper mannequins.
Wei WuXian, “Hmm? Perfect timing. How did you know that
I was going to call you over? Lend me a hand.”
Jin Ling, “I’m not here to help! Urgh! Did somebody kill
someone but forget to bury them?!”
Jin Ling raged, “Who are you calling Young Mistress Jin? Be
careful what you say!” He pinched his nose for a while,
debating with himself whether or not to stay or to leave, and
finally humphed, “Well I want to see what on Earth you’re
trying to do.” With this, he stormed inside. Yet, he didn’t
expect that, with a bang, Wei WuXian opened a chest on the
ground, which was where the stench came from. Within the
chest, there were ham and chicken. Blotches of green
dotted among the red meat, while white, coiling maggots
dotted among the green.
Jin Ling was forced to exit the room again. Wei WuXian
picked up the chest and passed it to him, “Throw it away.
Anywhere works, as long as we don’t smell it.”
391
Jin Ling, “What’s the use of cleaning the hearth? We’re not
making food or anything.”
Wei WuXian, “Who told you so? We are making food. You
can sweep the dust. Get rid of all the cobwebs up there.”
Jin Ling hurled the cleaning rag onto the ground. Wei
WuXian commented, “You see how you get mad after
working for just a bit? Look at SiZhui. He worked the hardest
and didn’t even say anything yet. What’s wrong with
congee?”
Jin Ling, “What’s not wrong with congee? It’s so watery and
tasteless! Wait… I’m not mad because there’s something
wrong with congee!”
Jin Ling was even more angered, “What did you say? I
worked for so long, and I don’t even get any?!”
Wei WuXian smiled, “Yes, but it’s not the congee that can
cure corpse poisoning—it’s the rice. This is folk medicine.
Normally, you apply the glutinous rice to the scratched or
bitten wound. In the future, if you ever find yourselves in
such a situation again, you can try this. Although it’ll hurt a
lot, it definitely works efficiently. But, since they swallowed
corpse poisoning powder instead of being scratched or
bitten, we can only make some rice congee for them to eat
up.”
Jin Ling, “Who knows how long the rice has been here for?
Can you still eat it? This kitchen hasn’t been used in at least
a year. There’s dust everywhere and the meat’s even rotten.
Don’t tell me that the hag hasn’t eaten for an entire year. It’s
impossible that she has practiced inedia. How did she
survive?”
Wei WuXian, “It’s either that nobody has been living here
and that she really isn’t the shopkeeper at all, or that she
simply doesn’t need to eat.”
Lan SiZhui lowered his voice, “If she does not need to eat,
then she would be dead. But the old woman clearly
breathes.”
Ever since a few days ago, after Jin Ling lied to his uncle
and let Wei WuXian go, he had been worried that this time
394
Jin Ling leaped out the window along with Fairy. He circled
around and went upstairs from the first floor, intending to
see who exactly was messing with him in the middle of the
night. Despite his efforts, there was nobody there. He waited
silently for a while, but still didn’t see anyone in front of his
door.
Jin Ling, “It was the same after switching to a few different
inns, so I went on the offensive. If I heard that a cat’s corpse
happened to appear anywhere, I would go and see, since I
just had to find out who was messing around.”
The more Wei WuXian thought about it, the more solemn his
expression grew.
And, this wasn’t the most complicated part of it. Right now,
what Wei WuXian feared the most was that… the Stygian
Tiger Seal might be within Yi City at this very moment.
However, after it had been carried out, Lan JingYi only had
one mouthful before spitting it out,
“What is this? Poison?!”
Lan JingYi, “First of all, I don’t know know why glutinous rice
would be the cure, but I’ve never eaten such a spicy bowl of
congee before!”
The rest of the boys who had taste their servings nodded in
unison, all of their eyes wet with tears. Wei WuXian stroked
his chin. He grew up in Yunmeng. People from Yunmeng
were all quite spice-tolerant, but Wei WuXian’s penchant for
spice was beyond hardcore. Anytime he set about the
kitchen, the food would be so spicy that even Jiang Cheng
could only smash his bowl and curse. Yet, for some reason,
he just couldn’t hold back from adding spoonful after
spoonful of seasoning. It seemed that, this time, he wasn’t
able to control his hands either. Out of curiosity, Lan SiZhui
picked up the bowl and tried a mouthful. Even as his face
flushed red and his eyes teared up, he pursed his lips and
refrained from spitting it out, thinking to himself, The taste…
is so scary that it almost brings about a sense of deja vu.
The dim light of the oil lamp and candlesticks in the central
chamber leaked inside. The old woman sat with her head
hung low, as if she didn’t notice that someone had entered.
A cloth lay on her knees, tightly stretched with an
embroidery frame, suggesting that she was doing
needlework. Her two hands stiffly stuck to each other as
they tried to guide a thread through a needle.
Jin Ling, “When you were inside, did you see if the hag’s
actually alive or not?”
Wei WuXian, “Don’t call her a hag. That’s quite rude. The
old lady is a living corpse.”
Jin Ling was shocked, “You’re saying that she’s still alive?!”
“Yes.”
“Threading a needle.”
“Did it go in?”
“... No.”
Lan SiZhui, “B-but, the old lady is already quite elderly. A lot
of old ladies have poor eyesight and cannot thread needles
by themselves.”
Wei WuXian, “So I helped her. Did you notice the other
thing, though? From opening the door until now, she hasn’t
blinked even once.”
Jin Ling, “Her eyeballs didn’t move… but her head did!”
Jin Ling lowered his voice so that it was even quieter than
Wei WuXian’s, “Then what are you seeing? What’s the thing
outside the door?”
The expression that could be seen from the side of his face
was filled with delight, and both his praise and exclamation
sounded as though they were from the bottom of his heart.
The disciples’ curiosity immediately overrode their
nervousness. Lan SiZhui couldn’t help but ask, “... Senior
Mo, what is truly amazing?”
“Me too!”
“Yes!”
Jin Ling glared back at him. Knowing that he was making fun
of them on purpose, Jin Ling grit his teeth, “... Yes…”
406
Jin Ling spat, “The situation’s already like this and you’re still
playing tricks. Just what in the world were you thinking?”
suck out their yang energy. This is why ghosts are the most
afraid of those who are fearless, who aren’t scared of them.
There are no opportunities to seize, so there isn’t anything
that ghosts can do to them. Thus, as disciples of cultivation,
your number one goals are to become braver!”
One boy spoke up, “The girl is only around fifteen or sixteen.
She has an oval face, with a lively air about her delicate
features. She fastened her long hair with a wooden hairpin,
which had a small fox head carved onto the end. She’s not
only small—her figure is slender as well. Although she’s not
that tidy, she’s not grimy either. After some grooming, she’s
bound to be a lovely girl.”
The boy blushed and turned to face the wall, ignoring his
peers’ laughter. Another boy spoke, “It looks like that the
sounds of a bamboo pole knocking on the ground were from
when she was walking. If she had been blind before she
passed away, she would not have been able to see even
after she became a ghost, so she could only rely on the
white cane.”
Because they cannot use their eyes, they move and walk
slowly, in case they bump into anything. However, the ghost
outside the door has swift movements. I have never seen
such a nimble blind person before.”
The girl widened her eyes. If she were a living person, she
must have looked as adorable as can be. However, with no
pupils and only two streaks of blood pouring from her eyes,
it only made her look scarier than ever. Some more people
in the back had gasped. Wei WuXian comforted them, “What
are you scared of? You’re gonna get used to seeing people
bleeding from the seven qiao in the future. It’s only two of
the seven that are currently bleeding, and you can’t handle
it? This is why I tell you to experience more things and
toughen up.”
Blood gushed out from her empty mouth. Her tongue had
been pulled out from its root.
Side by side, the two mannequins swept outside and into the
circle of walking corpses. It was beyond belief how, although
they were mannequins made from pieces of paper, they had
such strong powers. With dainty shoes and drifting sleeves,
they severed the arm of a corpse with one swish of their
hands, then severed half of a head with another—it was as if
the paper sleeves had been turned into keen blades. The
flirtatious giggles continued to echo through the entire length
of the street, bringing about both horror and allure.
Lan SiZhui went over to help Wei WuXian with the stranger.
Wei WuXian spoke, “Nobody come near. Be careful not to
touch the corpse-poisoning powder. It’s possible that even
physical contact would poison you.”
Suddenly, Jin Ling called out, “Hey. We still don’t know who
he is, whether he’s friend or foe. Why should we save him
without taking any considerations? If he’s a bad guy, then
wouldn’t we be letting a snake in?”
Not expecting this sort of reaction at all, Jin Ling paused for
a second. With no idea what to say, he hastily snorted. Lan
SiZhui hurried to mediate between the two, “But it is also
possible that he is not a bad person. No matter what, not
helping a dying person is against our sect’s rules.”
The sword was forged with unequaled skill. The sheath was
in the color of bronze, with intricate patterns of frost
hollowed out. Through the patterns, the body of the sword
shone through as if it was made of silver stars, glistening
with snowflake-shaped flecks of luminescence. There was a
pure yet bright sense of beauty to it.
Jin Ling mouthed two characters at him, then used his hand
to write the two characters on the dust-covered table:
“Shuanghua”
The person raised his left hand, which wore a thin, black
glove. He wanted to cover his eyes, but was afraid to do so.
It was probably that even a light touch brought about
unbearable pain—a thin layer of sweat had already
appeared on his forehead. He managed with difficulty, “It’s
fine…”
Hearing how he didn’t care for his own life, the boys felt their
blood burn with indignation. Lan JingYi bursted out, “Who
said that you are long past hope? Stay here! He will cure
you!”
Wei WuXian, “Me? Sorry, but were you talking about me?”
He really couldn’t speak the truth— Xiao XingChen had
already breathed in too much of the corpse-poisoning
powder. With a dark red hue to his complexion, he was most
likely too ill for rice congee to work.
Wei WuXian, “Do you know why Yi City became this way?”
Wei WuXian spoke, “You can just sit back and relax. It’s
going to be over soon.”
A lady, wearing a tall bun and fine robes, slowly raised her
right hand. Her slender fingers twirled nimbly, as though she
was a languid noblewoman, insouciantly appreciating her
long, blood-red nails. By the lady’s side, there stood a
golden boy and a jade girl—a pair of child servants. The
boy playfully tugged at the girl’s braid, while the girl stuck out
her tongue at him. A tongue almost nine inches long rapidly
stretched out from within her mouth, stabbing a large hole in
the boy’s chest as if it were a snake. After the violent attack,
it shrunk back at once. The boy opened his mouth wide,
revealing two rows of ghastly, white teeth, and bit into her
arm. With this, the two paper children started a fight of their
own.
After his words, he moved away, leaving the path to the door
open. With a slight bow, he made a gesture of invitation.
The doors shut itself behind the last paper mannequin. Wei
WuXian asked, “Nobody breathed it in, right?”
Xiao XingChen took over the bowl with both hands, “Of
course I do. If I can live, there’s no reason not to.”
Wei WuXian turned around, “Did you see that? Did you see
that? What did he say? You guys are the only ones who
have such high standards, so full of complaints even after
eating my congee.”
Jin Ling, “Your congee? What else did you do, apart from
adding a bunch of weird things into the pot?”
426
Xiao XingChen, “But, now that I think about it, if I had to eat
this every single day, I’d rather die.”
Jin Ling laughed at him without holding back at all. Even Lan
SiZhui couldn’t stop himself from bursting with a “pfft”.
Speechless, Wei WuXian turned to look at them, and Lan
SiZhui put on a straight face at once. Lan JingYi spoke up,
his voice full of delight, “Finished. All of them have been
killed. We won!”
Xiao XingChen put his bowl down right away, “Don’t open
the door just yet. Be careful. More might still come…”
Wei WuXian, “Don’t put down the bowl. Pick it up and drink
everything.” With that, he approached the wooden doors and
peeked through the slit. After the inhuman battle, thin fog
and powder in the color of a purplish red pervaded the entire
street. The corpse-poisoning powder was beginning to
dissipate and the group of paper mannequins calmly
inspected the path. Among the corpse pieces that covered
the ground, when there was any that could still move, they
would step on it mercilessly, until pools of muddied flesh
were all that was left.
Yet, there were no pupils within his eyes, only deathly fields
of white.
He aimed his attack at Jin Ling, who was the closest to him.
Jin Ling defended with his sword. The power that came with
the attack was so strong that his arm almost numbed. If it
wasn’t for the immense spiritual powers of his own sword,
Suihua, it might have broken and he might have died on the
spot. With a failed first attack, the black-clothed corpse
attacked again. His movements were smooth and natural,
while his attacks were sharp and ruthless. This time, he
lunged at Jin Ling’s arm. Under desperation, using his
sword, Xiao XingChen defended the attack for Jin Ling.
428
Wei WuXian asked the disciples from the Lan Sect, “Have
any of you studied Inquiry?”
Seeing that the guqin was fairly new, Wei WuXian asked,
“How is your qin language? Have you had actual
experience? Will the spirit that you summon be able to lie?”
Lan SiZhui widened his eyes. Lan JingYi urged him, “What
did he say?”
432
Jin Ling also lowered his voice, “Probably not. He’s blind,
while Song Lan is mute, and even became a fierce corpse
who lost his senses… It’s best if he doesn’t know.”
This time, the silence was three times longer than the one
before.
Lan SiZhui, “But ‘who are you’ and ‘who killed you’ are the
two easiest and most common questions of Inquiry. When
someone first starts to learn Inquiry, these are the first and
second sentences that they learn. One would practice them
no less than a thousand times. I checked them before I
played. I definitely did not play them wrong.”
Lan JingYi murmured, “... Song Lan went to find the missing
Xiao XingChen, yet Xiao XingChen killed him. Why would he
kill a good friend? He does not seem like this sort of person.”
Wei WuXian, “Let’s not worry about this for now. SiZhui, ask
the third question: who is controlling him?”
Within the mere area of the shop, the situation had changed
drastically.
Jin Ling put his hand onto his sword. Catching the
movement with a sideway glance, Wei WuXian immediately
stopped him, “Don’t move. Don’t add to the trouble. In terms
of swordsmanship, even everybody together wouldn’t be a
worthy opponent to this… Song Lan.”
His body was low in spiritual power and his sword wasn’t by
his side. Moreover, there was also Xiao XingChen—it
remained undetermined what he intended on doing or
whether he was friend or foe.
Hearing “you won’t be much help here”, Jin Ling was both
unconvinced and upset. He didn’t want to accept the defeat,
yet he knew that he couldn’t do anything, so he stormed
outside. Before Lan SiZhui left, he looked as if he wanted to
say something. Wei WuXian turned to him, “SiZhui, you’re
the most sensible one here. Guide them a bit, won’t you?
Can you do that?”
“Really?”
Xiao XingChen took out a red elixir from somewhere and put
it into his mouth, “How touching.”
436
Xue Yang walked his old path. Since it was the same
practice, both using improper means, Wei
WuXian couldn’t fool him. Wei WuXian asked, “So, taking
the group of children as hostage, what do you want me to
do?”
Wei WuXian put his hand over the the pouch and felt it for a
while, as if he was feeling someone’s pulse, “Whose soul is
this? It’s already in shambles. Even glue won’t be able to
stick it together. There’s only one breath of life left.”
Xiao XingChen, “If this person’s soul was that easy to stick
together, why would I need your help?”
Wei WuXian took his hand away, “You want me to fix this
soul? No offense, but there really isn’t much left of it in here.
When they were still alive, the person probably suffered from
a lot of torture. It should’ve been rather painful. They
probably committed suicide, so they probably don’t want to
come back to this world. If a soul itself doesn’t have any
desire to live, then it’ll most likely be impossible to save. If
I’m not wrong, the soul was probably patched up by force.
As soon as it leaves the Spirit-Trapping Pouch, it’ll dissipate
at any moment. You understand this more than anyone.”
With a pause, “Xiao XingChen” raised his hand and took off
the bandages around his eyes.
And, during Inquiry, the answer that Song Lan gave for the
second question was “Xiao
XingChen”, while the answer for the third one was “the one
behind you”.
If “the one behind you” was also Xiao XingChen, Song Lan
wouldn’t have needed to express it in another way.
Unless, Xiao XingChen and “the one behind you” wasn’t the
same person at all. Song Lan wanted to warn them of how
dangerous the person behind them was, but if he simply
answered
Xue Yang, it was possible that they didn’t know who he was.
He could only answer as such.
Xue Yang grinned, “Well, it’s true that his reputation is better
than mine. Of course I pretended to be him. It’s easier to
gain the trust of others this way.”
Wei WuXian, “You’re the one who made the long nails that
controlled Song Lan and Wen Ning, aren’t you? You can
even restore half of the Stygian Tiger Seal, so why would
you need my help to restore a soul?”
Xue Yang, “They’re not the same. You’re the founder. If you
never made the first half of the seal, I wouldn’t have been
able to make the second half all on my own. There’s no
doubt that you’re better than me. So if there’s something I
can’t do, you must be able to do it.”
440
Xue Yang, “It’s not being humble. It’s the truth. I never like to
exaggerate when I’m talking. If I say I’m gonna kill
someone’s entire clan, I’ll actually kill their entire clan. I
won’t even leave a dog behind.”
Wei WuXian and Xue Yang stepped back in unison and left
the table. Xue Yang quickly snatched the Spirit-Trapping
Pouch. Lightly pressing his hand against the table, Song Lan
flipped as he was midair and landed on top of it. After he
steadied, he quickly turned to look at the door. Black streaks
of blood climbed over his cheeks.
While he was playing the the first tunes on the flute, Wei
WuXian had already given the commands for summoning
Wen Ning. He ordered, “Fight outside. Be careful not to beat
him up too badly. Watch the living people and don’t let any
other corpses approach them.”
Wen Ning raised his left hand, and one of the chains swung
over. As Song Lan faced the attack with his whisk, it collided
with the chain and the two twisted together. Wen Ning pulled
on the chain and backed away. Song Lan didn’t let go either,
441
Xue Yang, “It’s such a shame that even though I gave him
so many nails in his head, he was still unwilling to obey.
Things that are too loyal are also quite troublesome.”
Xue Yang laughed, “Don’t you see that what you said could
be interpreted in a different way?” As the “be” came out of
his mouth, he suddenly unsheathed his sword and attacked.
Xue Yang’s voice was filled with surprise, “Of course. I’m a
delinquent, aren’t I? I’m sure you know already. Anyways,
it’s not that I want to kill you. I just want to make it so that
you can’t move. Then I can take you back and you can take
your time repairing the soul for me.”
442
The glare of the sword that he pulled from his sleeve was
grim and dark. As it was wielded, it almost seemed to emit a
black aura, creating a stark contrast with Shuanghua’s silver
radiance.
Using both swords equally well, Xue Yang’s hands kept in
perfect time with each other. He gained the upper hand at
once. Lan WangJi questioned, “Jiangzai?”
“Yes!”
The chord was loud and clear. It resonated all the way to the
end of the street. What came back was the strange yet
familiar noises of the corpses’ heads bursting. Lan WangJi
continued to fight Xue Yang with one hand and play the
guqin with the other. He’d glance across the scene as if it
was only a simple matter, then nonchalantly curve his
fingers to strum again. Working with both of his hands, he
somehow still seemed calm and unhurried.
Lan JingYi was on the verge of being angered, “So you think
that HanGuang-Jun is not good?!”
leading you toward the city gates, where you ran into us.
She was chasing you out—she was trying to save you!”
“Uhh, I’ll explain that later. Anyways, the one fighting with
HanGuang-Jun inside isn’t Xiao XingChen, but Xue Yang,
who pretended to be him.”
After running for a while, Lan JingYi spoke up, “So we are
just going to run off like this?”
Lan JingYi, “Why did you two not say ‘I’m worried about you.
I’m staying!’, ‘Go!’, ‘No! I’m not going! If I’m going, you’re
going with me!’? Is it not a must?”
They followed the bamboo pole’s noises for less than fifteen
minutes. After a few twists and turns, in front of them, the
noises abruptly came to a halt. Wei WuXian extended his
arm, stopping the boys behind him, and walked a few steps
forward. A house stood alone in the fog that grew thicker
and thicker.
“Squeak…”
Wei WuXian, “It’s not a temple, but it’s somewhere that also
needs a high threshold.”
Jin Ling, “That goes without saying. You can’t even walk.
You can’t step forward, so you can only jump…” At this
point, he immediately understood.
Although Jin Ling had laughed at the scene as well, now that
he heard the explanation, he stifled his laughter at once,
“Why did she bring us to a coffin home? Don’t tell me that it
was because we won’t be surrounded by walking corpses if
we’re here. Where did she go herself?”
Wei WuXian, “It’s likely that we really won’t be. We’ve been
standing still for so long already. Has anyone heard any
walking corpses?”
As she sat on the coffin, she used her hand to tap on the lid.
She then hopped down and circled around the coffin a few
452
He opened the coffin alone and lay the lid onto the ground.
Looking down, he saw a corpse.
Having heard them open the coffin, the girl stumbled over.
She stuck her hands into the coffin and, after some
searching around, she finally felt the corpse’s face.
453
One could say that this was the most straightforward, most
convenient, and most effective method. Of course, it was
even more so the most dangerous method. Everyone feared
and avoided chances for ghosts to possess their body. On
another level, Empathy, though, was playing with fire. The
slightest mistake happened, and it would backfire. If the
ghost went back on their word and used the opportunity to
counter-attack, even the best result would be the seizure the
Empathizer’s body.
Wei WuXian broke him off, “Okay, okay. We’re running out
of time. Stand up properly. Quick. We still have to go back
and find HanGuang-Jun after we’re finished. Jin Ling, you’ll
be the supervisor.”
Lan SiZhui, “If Young Master Jin does not want to do it, I can
do it as well.”
Wei WuXian, “Jin Ling, did you bring the Jiang Sect’s silver
bell?”
455
Lan JingYi grumbled, “You did not want to do it, and now
you do want to do it. With such a hotand-cold temper, are
you a young mistress?”
The girl wiped her eyes and her face, and crashed into his
body. Her entire soul was slammed inside. Leaning against
the coffin, Wei WuXian slowly slid to the ground. The boys
hurried to drag over a pile of straw for him to sit on. Jin Ling
clutched the bell tightly, his thoughts unknown.
When the girl had just slammed into him, Wei WuXian
suddenly thought of a problem, The maiden is blind. If I
Empathize with her, wouldn’t I be blind as well and I won’t
unable to see a thing? The effects would plummet. Oh well,
only the ears should work as well.
456
After a few dizzying moments, the soul that had been light
felt as though it landed on firm ground. As the girl opened
her eyes, Wei WuXian opened his eyes as well. However,
the scene before his eyes wasn’t a field of pitch-black, but
instead a clear landscape with bright colors.
He could see!
After the girl fastened her hair, she dusted her clothes and
leaped up. Grabbing the bamboo pole by her feet, she
skipped along the road. She swung her pole as she walked,
ceaselessly swatting at the branches above her head,
knocking at the rocks that she passed, scaring the
grasshoppers within the bushes. As soon as somebody
approached from afar, she immediately stopped skipping.
Properly holding onto her pole, she knocked on the ground
as she slowly wandered forward, appearing quite wary. The
group that came was a few villager women. Seeing her
situation, they all moved out of her way and whispered to
one another. The girl nodded with hurry, “Thank you, thank
you.”
One of the women seemed as though she felt sorry for her.
Lifting the white cloth that covered her basket, she took out
a steamed bun and gave it to her, “Sister, be careful. Are
you hungry? Take this and eat it.”
The girl ah-ed and replied thankfully, “How can I take it? I-
I…”
The woman shoved the bun into her hand, “Take it!”
Despite this, A-Qing’s soul was truly blind, which meant that
she did lose her sight before she died. Then, how did she go
from pretending to be blind to being actually blind?
She couldn’t see? She clearly rushed right into the man!
his right hand. Since they felt the same things, it was as
though the squeeze landed on Wei WuXian’s body.
Instantaneously, Wei WuXian felt as if a blanket of
goosebumps climbed over his heart. He wanted no less than
to slam the man into the ground.
Both his words and his actions were gentle yet careful. A-
Qing reached out with hesitation, but in the end, she still
snatched away the money pouch that hung by his waist,
“Brother, A-Qing is very thankful of you!”
Xiao XingChen, “You really are too bold. How do you dare
steal things even when you’re blind?”
Xiao XingChen shook his head, “Such being the case, you
really should’ve known better than to provoke him. Today, if
nobody was here, the matter wouldn’t have been solved with
a mere slap. Maiden, take care.”
Holding the money pouch that she stole, A-Qing stood and
stared blankly for a few seconds.
Suddenly, she stuffed it into her lapel, chased over with her
pole, and crashed right onto Xiao
XingChen’s back. Xiao XingChen could only help steady her
again, “Is there anything else?”
A-Qing, “You’re tall and blind, and I’m small and blind. If we
travel together, we can care for each other. My parents are
gone and there’s nowhere I can stay. I’ll follow anyone to
anywhere.” Being as clever as she was, she was afraid that
Xiao XingChen would refuse her, so she took advantage of
his agreeable nature and threatened, “I spend money really
quickly. If you refuse to take me with you, the money will be
gone at once, and I’ll have to go steal and trick people
again. And then somebody will slap me hard and I’ll fall
down and I won’t even be able to find my way. Poor me!”
A-Qing could also smell a faint hint of blood. Amid the night
wind, it was indeed discernible at times. She bluffed,
“Really? Why can’t I smell it? Are any families around the
area killing livestock?”
467
“There is!”
Now that the person’s face had been cleaned, she could see
that his looks were actually quite decent.
Someone like Xue Yang who had done countless bad deeds
in their life would naturally be more alert than ordinary
people. Hearing this voice, his eyes sprang open and he sat
up at once. Tumbling to the corner of the room, he glared at
Xiao XingChen with a fierce expression and a careful
posture. His eyes resembled those of a beast who had been
trapped, not at all concealing the malice and cruelty within
them. Watching the scene, A-Qing’s scalp tingled. The
sensation also passed onto Wei WuXian’s head, who
shouted silently, Talk! Xiao XingChen definitely wouldn’t
have forgotten Xue Yang’s voice.
A-Qing interrupted, “If you have eyes can’t you see for
yourself? He’s a roaming cultivator. He went to such
lengths to carry you back and saved you and even gave
you magical elixirs, yet you’re so mean!”
The good thing was that A-Qing grew up lying. She replied
on the spot, “Do you discriminate against blind people? Well
a blind person saved you. Or else, nobody would care even
472
if you rotted on the side of the road! The first words you said
weren’t even to thank Daozhang. How rude! And you called
me blind in such a tone. Hmph… What’s wrong with being
blind…”
he was not only going to get Xiao XingChen to heal all his
wounds, after he recovered, he definitely wouldn’t let them
“go their separate ways” either.
A-Qing had been roaming in the streets ever since she was
young. Having lived alongside wind and hunger, there was
nowhere she hadn’t slept. She replied nonchalantly, “Not at
all. It’s good enough that I have somewhere to sleep. It won’t
be cold. Don’t take off your coat for me again.”
Xiao XingChen stroked the top of her head. With both his
sword and horsetail whisk on his back, he walked outside
again. To ensure safety, Xiao XingChen never let her follow
when he was on night-hunts. After crawling into the coffin
and lying for a while, she heard Xue Yang call her from the
other room, “Little Blind, come over.”
that I actually can’t move? That if you don’t come, I’m not
going to go over and find you?”
Xue Yang was testing A-Qing—if she was truly blind, she
wouldn’t be able to avoid it!
With A-Qing having passed the test, Xue Yang replied, “It’s
candy, for you. I forgot that you’re blind and can’t catch. It
landed by your feet.”
Xue Yang, “You didn’t tell me your name, so I could only call
you this.”
A-Qing had always told her name only to people who were
nice to her, but she didn’t like the way Xue Yang said it, so
she told him, “Listen up. My name is A-Qing. Don’t keep on
calling me Little Blind and Little Blind!” After she said it, she
felt that her voice was somewhat harsh. Afraid that she’d
anger the person, she immediately started another topic,
“You’re such a strange person. You’re covered in blood and
this injured, but you have candy with you.”
Xue Yang laughed, “Of course I do. I’ll give you more if you
come over here.”
It was Jiangzai.
A-Qing, “Oh really? The two are pretty much the same.
What’s the difference? It’s just helping other people fight
ghosts and beasts without receiving any money.”
Now that she passed all three of his tests, Xue Yang’s
expression finally relaxed. It was likely that he finally
believed that A-Qing was indeed blind.
This was indeed the truth. There was only a single bed
inside such a shack. It was lucky for them that there was no
479
Xue Yang, “It’ll heal faster if I walk around. And it’s not that
both of my legs are broken or anything. I’m used to injuries
like these. I grew up beaten by others.”
Xiao XingChen laughed and shook his head, “I’m sorry, but I
really haven’t tried to do such a thing before.”
And so, the two of them started to repair the roof together.
One of them worked, the other one gave directions. Xue
Yang was quite eloquent with words and was especially
good at making witty remarks. His humor was accompanied
by a presumptuous tone common to street markets. In the
past, Xiao XingChen most likely had very rare contact with
this type of people. Easily amused, he’d start laughing after
just a few sentences. Hearing how cheerful their
conversations were, A-Qing moved her lips in silence. After
careful scrutiny, it seemed to have sounded like
“let me kill you damn thing”.
Xue Yang’s severe injuries that had almost taken his life
were partly due to Xiao XingChen. The two had a
relationship of absolute hatred. In his heart, he was probably
hoping for Xiao XingChen to die in the most gruesome way
possible, yet he could still converse with him in such a
lighthearted manner. If the one hiding behind the window
right now was Wei WuXian himself, he would’ve killed Xue
Yang regardless of the consequences to avoid later trouble.
However, it wasn’t his own body. And, even if A-Qing
wanted to, she wasn’t capable of killing him.
A-Qing was indeed clever. She also figured that Xue Yang
probably didn’t have good intentions. After the two left, she
jumped out of the coffin and followed them from afar. The
distance between them was a bit too far, since she was
scared that she’d be discovered, and she ended up losing
sight of them. Luckily, when Xiao XingChen was washing
the vegetables earlier, he mentioned that a small village
nearby was plagued by walking corpses and told the two of
them to refrain from running around. A-Qing could still
remember the place. Rushing over, she arrived soon
afterward. She slipped into a dog hole on the bottom of the
482
With his hands folded in front of him, Xue Yang stood on the
side of the road, smiling with his head tilted. Xiao XingChen
stood on the opposite side. Calmly unsheathing his sword,
Shuanghua flashed its silver sword glare before it pierced
through a villager’s heart.
Even so, Wei WuXian could feel the numbing stiffness that
travelled upward from the bottom of her legs.
Xue Yang smiled, but the voice that came out of his mouth
sounded extremely confused, even somewhat pained,
“Yeah. Good thing that your sword points at corpse energy
on its own. Or else, with just the two of us, it would’ve been
very difficult to break through.”
During one night, the winter winds howled outside. The three
of them were crammed inside the smaller room, warming up
by the old furnace. Xiao XingChen was mending a basket
486
then there’s no need for you to come back. Don’t bring the
disputes of the outside world into the mountain.’”
Xiao XingChen, “You’re right. The first disciple who left was
very outstanding. When he first left the mountain, due to his
mastery over his skills, everyone praised and admired him,
and he became a famous cultivator of the righteous path.
But afterward, people don’t know what he went through, but
his personality changed drastically, and he suddenly
became a villain who killed people without blinking twice. In
the end, he died under thousands of swords.”
This got A-Qing interested, “Then who else were with you?”
Hearing this, Xue Yang rolled his eyes in contempt. His lips
moved faintly, as though he cursed at him. However, he
purposely pretended that he was confused, “Then,
Daozhang, where’s this friend of yours right now? Why
hasn’t he come to find you when you’re already like this?
Yet, Xue Yang suddenly spoke up, “Then how about I tell
one?”
“He didn’t know how to read, so he just took the paper and
went to the place. After he opened the door, a huge, brawny
man came out. He took over the paper and looked at it, and
he gave the child a slap so hard that his nose started
bleeding. The man pulled the child’s hair and asked,
‘Who told you to take such a thing over?’”
Xue Yang, “He felt scared and pointed the direction. The
man went to the liquor shop, carrying the child by pulling his
hair. The other man had long been gone. The leftover
pastries on the table had been taken away by the waiters as
well. The man was so angry that he threw over quite a few
tables before storming out.”
492
Xue Yang, “I’m not dwelling on the past. It’s just that the
Little Blind keeps on stealing my candy and even finished
them, so now I can’t help but remember the days when I
couldn’t have any.”
That night, Xue Yang didn’t follow him. Xiao XingChen went
out to night-hunt alone. A-Qing lay motionless inside the
coffin, but she couldn’t fall asleep.
She stuck her head out and looked into the bedroom. Xue
Yang wasn’t asleep either. He sat at the table, appearing as
if he was thinking about something.
However, she could never let down her guard for Xue Yang.
The short periods of peace were also often immediately
suppressed by multiple doubts and suspicions.
A-Qing tilted her head. Song Lan had already walked over.
Putting his whisk over A-Qing’s shoulder, he led her to the
side, “There are less people on the side of the road.”
Song Lan took his whisk back and held it in his arms again.
He glanced at her, “Don’t play around too much. The dark
496
A-Qing, “Okay!”
A-Qing, “If you answer a few questions for me, then maybe
I’ll remember that I have. Are you a friend of the daozhang?”
Song Lan had already been travelling in search for his close
friend for a few years, and had been disappointed countless
times. Now that he finally heard news of him, he couldn’t
even believe his ears. He managed with effort, “... Thank…
Thank you…”
A-Qing led him until they were near the coffin home, yet
Song Lan stopped in his tracks. A-Qing asked, “What’s
wrong? Aren’t you gonna go over?”
Xue Yang, “What if, from now on, we don’t take turns
anymore? Let’s change it up.”
Xue Yang, “Here. There are two sticks. If you pick the longer
one, you don’t have to go; if you pick the shorter one, then
you’ll have to go. What do you think?”
A-Qing, “No.”
500
Song Lan, “What has he done during his stay with the
daozhang?”
Song Lan was already far away from her. Wei WuXian
thought, Way more than beat him up.
He’s going chop Xue Yang into pieces!
Song Lan came out from behind a tree. His sword had
already been unsheathed. He held it in his hand, with the tip
pointing to the ground.
Song Lan raged, “Tell me! Why would a scum like you be so
nice as to help him night-hunt?!” The wind of the sword
brushed against his face. A cut appeared on Xue Yang’s
cheek, but he wasn’t surprised at all, “How does Daozhang
Song understand me so much?”
One of the two fought with skills learned from a proper sect,
while the other fought with experience from committing
crimes. It was obvious that Song Lan was more skilled than
Xue
Yang. His pierced through Xue Yang’s arm, “Tell me!”
If not for how the matter was so alarming that Song Lan
must know what was going on, the sword might have
pierced through the neck instead of the arm. Although Xue
Yang was injured, his expression didn’t change at all, “You
really wanna hear it? I’m afraid that you might go mad.
Some things shouldn’t be made known.”
The attack was both fast and fatal. Xue Yang managed to
dodge it, but it pierced his shoulder nonetheless. As if he
couldn’t feel anything, he didn’t even flinch, “His blindness?
Daozhang Song, have you forgotten who he dug out his own
eyes and became blind for?”
wanted to help you, what sort of expression did you face him
with? What sort of things did you say?”
Song Lan was in a terrible state of mind, “I! At the time, I…”
Xue Yang cut him short, “At the time, you were upset? You
were pained? You were grieving?
You didn’t know where to vent your anger? And that was
why you took it out on him? To be fair, the reason why I
wiped out your temple was precisely because of him. It’s
quite understandable why you took it out on him. In fact, it
was exactly what I wanted.”
With his tongue cut off by Xue Yang’s sudden attack, Song
Lan was under so much agony that he couldn’t even walk.
Yet, he still pulled his sword from the ground and staggered
toward Xue Yang. Xue Yang dodged the attack easily. A
bizarre smile was on his face.
This was precisely what Xue Yang was aiming for, thus he
had nothing to fear. He turned to
Xiao XingChen, “Let’s go. It’s time to cook dinner. I’m hungry
already.”
Xiao XingChen, “Have you bought the vegetables?”
Xue Yang, “Yep. I ran into this thing on my way back. What
a bad day.”
507
Xiao XingChen left first. Xue Yang patted the wounds on his
shoulder and arm. He picked up the basket again and, as he
passed Song Lan, he smiled and looked down, “No food for
you.”
After Xue Yang was long gone and had probably reached
the coffin home with Xiao XingChen already, A-Qing finally
stood up from behind the bush.
She sobbed on, “I’m going back. Please, let your deceased
spirit bless me so that I can get Daozhang Xiao XingChen
out of there, bless us so that we can escape the demon’s
control. I must not let that monster Xue Yang die in peace. I
must cut him into pieces so that he never enters
reincarnation again!”
508
From all the fuss, both of them naturally believed that some
children called her “ugly-pants” or
“white-eyed blind girl” when she was outside today, and was
feeling frustrated. Xue Yang dismissed, “You came back
crying just because they said you’re ugly? Where did your
usual unreasonable rudeness go?”
A-Qing, “Tonight!”
Xue Yang, “If you go tonight, all of the markets will have
closed. Where else could you possibly go?”
Xue Yang, “Didn’t you say yourself that you didn’t wanna be
called Little Blind?”
Xue Yang, “If someone calls you ugly, then make her even
uglier. Cut a few dozens of times on her face so that she’ll
never have the guts to go outside again. If someone calls
512
you blind, then carve one end of your pole sharp, and stab
once in both of her eyes so that she’ll also be blind.
Then, see if she dares to bad mouth you again.”
The next day, just as they got up, A-Qing pleaded Xiao
XingChen to shop for pretty clothes and makeup alongside
her. Xue Yang was annoyed, “If you two are gone, then I’d
have to buy today’s food again?”
A-Qing, “Why can’t you buy it? Think about how many times
Daozhang bought them! You’re the only one who bullies and
plays tricks on Daozhang all the time!”
Xue Yang, “Okay, okay. I’ll go buy it. I’ll go right now.”
A-Qing only came inside after she made sure that Xue Yang
was long gone. She closed the door and asked in a
trembling voice, “Daozhang, do you happen to know
someone called Xue Yang?”
513
514
The words “Xue Yang” were too big of a shock to him. His
complexion was quite pale to start with. After he heard the
name, all of the blood drained from his face. His lips were
almost a shade of pink-tinted white.
A-Qing, “Xue Yang is the person with us! He’s that bastard!”
Yet, the news was too hard for him to accept. And, it also
sounded rather absurd. Xiao XingChen couldn’t believe it at
all, “But his voice is different. And…”
Although A-Qing was afraid, she couldn’t hide the truth any
longer. She apologized and apologized, “I’m sorry,
Daozhang! I didn’t lie to you on purpose! I was scared that if
you knew that I’m not blind, you’d chase me away! But
please don’t blame me for now. Let’s run away together.
He’ll be back after he finishes shopping for food!”
Xiao XingChen shook his head, “I can’t go. I need to find out
what exactly he’s trying to do. He definitely has a goal, and
tried to reach this goal in the past few years by pretending to
somebody else and staying by my side. If I left him here
alone, I’m afraid that the people of Yi City would sink into his
hands. Xue Yang has always been this way.”
But she couldn’t open her mouth and speak the truth.
A-Qing was so scared that she could only nod, tears still
brimming in her eyes. Xue Yang kicked the door, “What are
you guys doing? I’m already back, and you haven’t left yet?
If you’re still in there then open the hatch and let me inside.
I’m so tired.”
Simply from the tone and the voice, one would think that he
was only a boy-next-door, a cheerful shidi. However, who’d
ever imagine that the person who stood outside was a villain
who had no sense of morality, a demon who wore the
facade of a human!
Although the door wasn’t locked, it had been bolted from the
inside. If they didn’t open the door anytime soon, Xue Yang
would definitely be suspicious. Then, when he entered, he’d
definitely be somewhat vigilant. A-Qing wiped her face,
“How are you tired?! It’s only such a small distance from
here to the market, and you’re already tired?! I’m just a bit
519
Xue Yang took another bite into the apple that was still in his
hand. He only replied after calmly chewing for a while and
swallowing the fruit, “Yes. Of course it was fun.”
“He climbed up the ox cart and told the cart driver to leave at
once. The child climbed up from the ground and kept on
chasing the cart. He really wanted to eat the plate of sugary
pastries. Having finally chased up to it, he waved his arms in
front of the cart for them to stop. The man was too irritated
by his crying. Snatching the driver’s whip, he lashed at his
head and threw him onto the ground.”
Xiao XingChen couldn’t see, but Xue Yang raised his left
hand at him anyway, “He was seven! The bones of his left
hand were crushed, while one finger was ground into
battered flesh on the spot! This man was Chang Ping’s
father.
Xiao XingChen’s face grew paler and paler from Xue Yang’s
confident tone. He shouted, “Then what about others?! Then
why did you wipe out Baixue Temple? Why did you blind
Daozhang Song ZiChen’s eyes?!”
Xue Yang asked in reply, “Then why did you stop me? Why
did you hinder what I wanted to do? Why did you stand up
for those dregs of the Chang Clan? You wanted to help
Chang CiAn? Or Chang Ping? Hahahaha, how did Chang
Ping first cry tears of gratitude? And how did he later beg
you not to help him? Daozhang Xiao XingChen, this matter
had been your fault, ever since the beginning. You shouldn’t
have meddled with the rights and wrongs of other people.
Who was right, who was wrong; would an outsider be able to
understand? Or, maybe you shouldn’t have even left the
mountain in the first place. Your teacher, BaoShan SanRen,
was indeed smart.
Why didn’t you listen to her and obediently cultivate in the
mountains? If you couldn’t understand the happenings of
this world, then you shouldn’t have come!”
It was more than Xiao XingChen could bear, “... Xue Yang,
you really are… too disgusting…”
Or, one could say that his entire body instantly became a
stone statue depicting a withered human.
The two of them had definitely often learnt from each other
by exchanging blows. Even if the two swords had just
clashed, Xiao XingChen should be able to tell who the other
was from only the strength of the attack. Yet, Xiao XingChen
525
A clang.
And, a soul that was broken in such a way that it could never
be used to create a fierce corpse.
He continued, “If you don’t get up, I’ll make your dear friend
Song Lan murder people.
“I’ll kill off everyone in the entire Yi City and make them into
living corpses. You’ve been living here for such a long time.
Is it really okay for you not to care?
531
“I’ll strangle that little blind A-Qing and leave her corpse in
the fields for wild dogs to gobble her up.”
Only after he was far away did A-Qing dare to move slightly.
Unable to balance herself, she tumbled to the ground, and
only crawled up again after writhing for a while. She
managed to walk a few more steps forward. As her muscles
stretched, she walked faster and faster and faster, and
started to run.
After she ran so far that Yi City was far behind her, she
finally let out the cries that she buried within herself,
“Daozhang! Daozhang! Aaah, Daozhang!...”
“Excuse me, are there any really powerful people around the
area? Powerful people who cultivate.”
This was the last piece of candy Xiao XingChen gave her.
Xue Yang held up Shuanghua with his left hand, “Oh, you
mean this? It’s mine now. Did you think your daozhang is
any cleaner? After this, he’ll also be my…”
Having been on the edge for such a long time, now that the
moment had finally arrived, A-Qing felt strangely relieved.
Xue Yang spoke in a cold tone, “Since you like pretending to
be blind so much, why don’t you become truly blind?”
The reason why A-Qing’s ghost was blind but she wasn’t as
slow or careful as other blind people was that she only
became truly blind the moment before she died. Before, she
had always been such a fast, lively maiden.
Beside the edge of the coffin, A-Qing put her palms together
and saluted Wei WuXian for a couple of times. Then, using
her bamboo pole as a sword, she made the “kill, kill, kill”
gestures that she had always played around with.
Lan JingYi couldn’t help but asked, “Just what did you see
during Empathy?”
Wei WuXian, “It’s too long of a story. I’ll tell you later.”
Amid the dense fog that stretched as far as the eye could
see, the knocks of A-Qing’s pole led the way for him. The
two moved rapidly and immediately returned to where the
fight happened.
537
Lan WangJi and Xue Yang had already went outside. The
sword glares of Bichen and Jiangzai clashed—the fight was
at a critical moment. Bichen was calm and unhurried,
gaining the upper hand, while Jiangzai lashed out as though
it was a rabid dog, somehow managing to keep up.
However, within the dreadful white fog, Lan WangJi had
difficulties with vision, yet since Xue Yang had lived so many
years in the city like A-Qing, he was able to know where he
was even if he closed his eyes. Thus, the fight was in a
deadlock. Notes of the guqin sometimes thundered through
the fog, preventing the groups of walking corpses that
wanted to approach. Just as Wei WuXian was about to take
out his flute, two black figures slammed in front of him as if
they were two iron pagodas. Wen Ning was pressing Song
Lan onto the ground. Both corpses held each other’s necks
with their hands, their knuckles cracking loudly.
He bent down and quickly found the ends of the two nails
that went through Song Lan’s head. He felt relieved at once.
The nails were a lot thinner than the ones inside Wen Ning’s
head and the material used was different as well. It shouldn’t
be too difficult to bring Song Lan back to consciousness. He
immediately pinched the two ends and started to slowly pull
the nails out. Feeling strange objects stirring within his head,
Song Lan widened his eyes and growled in a low voice. Wen
Ning only prevented him from breaking loose after he
exerted more strength on him. When the nails had been
pulled out, at once, as though he was a puppet whose
strings had been cut off, he collapsed on the ground and
ceased to move.
Xue Yang laughed loudly, “Senior Wei, you really don’t want
to show me any mercy, do you?”
Wei WuXian, “Then why did you kneel and beg me so that I
can help you mend his soul?”
Wei WuXian, “Hmm? You hate him that much? Then why
did you kill Chang Ping?”
Xue Yang sneered, “Why did I kill Chang Ping? Did you
really need to ask, Patriarch YiLing?! Haven’t I told you? I
said that I was going to wipe out the entire YueyangChang
Clan, so I won’t even leave a dog behind!”
Ever since she was killed by Xue Yang, A-Qing had always
been hiding so that he didn’t find her. However, for some
reason, Xue Yang didn’t really care about such a ghost
either, as though he felt that she was too weak to be
cautious of. Now, though, A-Qing followed behind Xue Yang
as if she was his shadow. Knocking her bamboo pole and
revealing his location, she pointed out to Lan WangJi where
he should attack!
Bichen’s blue light split through the air. Lan WangJi cleanly
severed off one of his arms.
Wei WuXian knew that the situation wasn’t bright. Not caring
for the dangers within the fog, he rushed over. Immediately
afterward, he had almost slipped on the ground. Where the
bloody scent was strongest, the ground was covered in wet,
still-fresh blood, all from Xue Yang’s severed arm.
hope that there’s a limit to the powers of the Tiger Seal that
Xue Yang restored.”
Standing by the coffin, Song Lan raised his head and turned
to them. Lifting up the hem of his robes, Lan WangJi
stepped over the high threshold in an elegant manner, then
nodded.
Lan JingYi, “Now you should tell us what you really saw
during Empathy, right? Why would the person be Xue Yang?
Why did he pretend to be Xiao XingChen?”
“And, also, was that the Ghost General? Where did the
Ghost General go? Why do we not see him anymore? Is he
still in Yi City? Why did he appear so suddenly?”
Lan JingYi was the first one to cry, “Why would something
like this exist?!”
The boy who had complimented A-Qing through the door slit
stomped his feet, “Maiden A-Qing, oh, Maiden A-Qing!”
Lan JingYi cried the loudest. He looked awful, but this time,
nobody reminded him to keep his voice low, since Lan
SiZhui’s eyes were red as well. It was fortunate that Lan
WangJi didn’t silence him. Lan JingYi suggested through
snot and tears, “We should go burn some paper money for
Daozhang Xiao XingChen and Maiden A-Qing. There is a
village in front of the road fork over there, right? Let us buy
some things and pray for them.”
Lan JingYi waved at him, “Shoo, shoo. You are blocking the
wind. It will not be able to burn anymore. And, it is not like
you have died, so how do you know that dead people do not
receive paper money?”
Of course he knew!
Lan JingYi stabbed another knife into his heart, “Even if you
could not receive them, it was probably because nobody
burned them for you.”
552
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that it was
impossible. He turned around and whispered to Lan WangJi,
“HanGuang-Jun, have you burnt paper money for me? At
least you’ve burnt paper money for me, right?”
These boys hadn’t done anything like this before and didn’t
know that it was ominous to burn paper money in front of
someone’s house. All of them apologized. Lan SiZhui
hurried to wipe his face, “Is that your house over there?”
Hearing his tone, Jin Ling grew unhappy at once and was
about to stand up, “How dare you talk to us like this?”
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Wei WuXian pressed his head and held him down again.
Lan SiZhui continued, “I understand now. Sorry, I did not
mean anything else with the question I asked. It was just
that, the last time we passed this house, we saw another
hunter, which was why we were confused.”
Wei WuXian, “We still don’t know. But, after this, please be
careful. If you run into such strange things again, don’t go
tracking them down alone. First contact your sects and work
together with a large group of people. If not for how
HanGuang-Jun also happened to be at Yi City, you might’ve
even died.”
Walking with the disciples, after a while, when the sky had
almost darkened, Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian finally
arrived at the city where the dog and donkey had been
placed.
The city was not only brightly lit, but also filled with the
chatter of people. The disciples all exclaimed that this finally
seemed like a place where humans lived.
555
Wei WuXian, “Yes, please do. Everyone likes to fight for the
preys and push around the responsibilities. Now, if your sect
is taken advantage of, even if it’s for the good of them, they
might not feel grateful or understand why you did it. If this
repeats too much, they’d take it as granted that your sect
always takes care of such things. That’s how things are in
this world.”
Not long later, both the food and the liquor arrived. Wei
WuXian glanced over the table, pretending as if he didn’t
558
mean it. Almost all of the dishes were covered in red. Paying
attention to Lan WangJi’s chopsticks, he notes that he ate
mostly from the milder dishes, rarely the brightred ones.
Even when he did, his expression remained the exact same.
Wei WuXian felt something tug at his heart.
The last time they drank together, Wei WuXian didn’t pay
much attention to Lan WangJi’s expression. This time,
however, he went out of his way to scrutinize it.
Lan WangJi was leaning his head on his right hand. His
breathing was calmer than ever.
Wei WuXian’s face was already less than an inch away from
Lan WangJi’s. The word “Brother” was at the tip of his
561
Wei WuXian finally noticed that his heart was beating a bit
too fast. He puzzled over it again, then regained his
composure. Walking over, he raised the window to see a
black-clothed figure dangling upside-down with legs hung at
the roof, preparing to knock once more. Wei WuXian quickly
opened the window, which bumped into the person’s head.
The figure exclaimed with a light ah. Holding the windows
back with both of his hands, he finally made eye contact with
Wei WuXian.
A cold breeze barged into the room. Wen Ning’s eyes were
opened, no longer an ashen white, but instead filled with a
pair of black, silent pupils.
The two stayed like this, one standing, one hanging, and
stared at each other for a few moments.
the people would also start to panic, which was why even
though Wen Ning ran away, they didn’t dare to pursue him
with any fanfare. After a mess of a journey, Wen Ning finally
reached Wei WuXian, who was playing the flute on top of
Dafan Mountain, and the two successfully met again.
Wei WuXian sighed, “You said that you ‘don’t know how
long had passed’. It’s already been more than ten years.” He
continued after a short pause, “Well, it’s fair to say that I
don’t know much more than you do. Do you want me to tell
you some of the things that happened?”
Wen Ning, “I heard that the Burial Mounds are gone, that
everyone… is gone.”
Truthfully, Wei WuXian had only wanted to tell him about the
more trivial gossip, such as how the rules of the Lan Sect
had increased from three thousand to four thousand. Not at
all expecting Wen Ning to bring up such a grave topic to
start with, he could only stay silent.
Wei WuXian, “I’ll have to clarify this one. He didn’t kill me. I
died from a backfire.”
“Yes.” Wen Ning gazed at him, “Young Master Wei, you died
such an awful death.”
Jin Ling, “We are talking about Xue Yang. Was what I said
wrong? What did Xue Yang do?
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He’s worse than scum, and Wei Ying was even more
disgusting than him! What do you mean
‘we shouldn’t generalize them’? These monsters are vermin
to our world! We should kill, murder, and slaughter every
single one of them!”
Jin Ling sneered, “Didn’t he also say that ‘the founder of this
path may not have intended harm with it’? Who was ‘the
founder of this path’? Go on, tell me, who else could it be
except for Wei Ying?! I just can’t seem to understand you.
Your GusuLan Sect is also a prominent sect, and back then
you also lost quite a number of people in Wei Ying’s hands,
didn’t you? Was it hard, killing all those corpses and whatnot
that were under his control? Lan Yuan, why are you
speaking from such a strange standpoint? From the way you
talk, don’t tell me that you’re making excuses for Wei Ying!”
Path and the Nightless Day! These are truths that everyone
accepts, that nobody can deny! And what else I’ll never
forget is that he ordered Wen Ning to kill my father and
mother!”
Wei WuXian used the time to ask Wen Ning, “How are you?”
Wei WuXian, “If you’re fine then stand up! What are you still
kneeling for?”
Wei WuXian, “It’s best if you don’t stand there. Lan Zhan,
uh, doesn’t really like seeing you.”
Wei WuXian, “Well, what can I do? I’m gonna carry him
inside and tuck him in.”
After he left, Wei WuXian took away the hands that Lan
WangJi blocked his ears with, “Alright. He’s gone. You can’t
hear or see him anymore.”
was rather long. Lan WangJi tied seven or eight knots on the
ribbon, forming a stack of small, ugly-looking lumps, and
finally felt pleased enough to stop.
If Lan WangJi not only tied his hands together but also
stripped him of his clothes, the scene would be scary
beyond belief!
The Lan Sect’s forehead ribbon was made from the same
material as its uniform. Although it looked flimsy, it was
actually quite sturdy. And, since Lan WangJi wrapped it
tightly around and tied a long strand of knots, Wei WuXian
couldn’t struggle out of it no matter how hard he tried. He
commented in silence, I really did shoot myself in the foot,
didn’t I? Good thing that it’s only a forehead ribbon, not
some weird magical ropes, or else he would’ve really tied
me up.
The juniors were still eating and fooling around. Even though
a minor disagreement happened, young people were always
quick to forget these matters. They were in the middle of
playing a drinking game. Some of the bolder juniors of the
Lan Sect wanted to sneak a few sips as well. There would
always be somebody watching the stairway that led to the
second floor, keeping an eye out for Lan WangJi. None of
them expected that Lan WangJi would suddenly drag Wei
WuXian through the main entrance, where they never paid
attention to. All of them were shocked after they turned
around.
Lan SiZhui stuffed the chicken wing back into his mouth,
“Oh, I see! I did not know that it can be used in such a way!”
Ignoring the strange looks that other people gave them, Lan
WangJi dragged Wei WuXian up the stairs.
578
How rude!
Wei WuXian thought to himself, Now that things are like this,
don’t blame anything on me.
… No.
Wei WuXian, This can’t be. After Lan Zhan is drunk, he not
only likes to play hide-and-seek, but also likes to be licked?
583
Lan WangJi hid behind the wooden screen once more and
peeked at him with only half of his face showing.
Wei WuXian, Am I just going to let Lan Zhan have fun all by
himself? Of course not. He wouldn’t remember anything that
I do to him now, anyways. Let me play something better with
him.
Lan WangJi wanted to take his hand away again, but Wei
WuXian held it tightly, not allowing him to do so.
Lan WangJi couldn’t pull his hand back no matter how hard
he tried. He could only clench his fingers together into a tight
fist.
After spacing out for a while, he used his teeth to bite at the
knots on the forehead ribbon. With effort, he finally managed
to open the stack of lumps.
Now that his hands had been loosened, to get over the
shock, he went to pour himself a cup of liquor. He held the
cup to his lips for a few moments, but not a single drop
entered his mouth.
Looking down, he finally saw that there wasn’t any
liquor in the cup at all. He had already downed the
entire pot. Even when he was pouring, he failed to
notice that nothing was being poured out.
Wei WuXian put the empty cup back onto the table, No
more alcohol for me. I’ve really had enough.
Lan WangJi didn’t even look up, “You reaped what you had
sown.”
589
Although the corners never lifted, his lips looked quite soft,
and did indeed feel quite soft.
The group left the city and was parting ways before the city’s
tower. Originally, the disciples weren’t as familiar with one
another. They had only visited the others during discussion
conferences at their respective sects. However, during these
past few days, they’d been through both the cat corpse’s
incidents and a thrilling day at a haunted city with the others.
They’d even burnt paper money, snuck liquor, argued, and
cursed other people together. In summary, they already
knew one another quite well. Before the departures, all of
them were reluctant to leave, taking their time in front of the
city gates to discuss when to visit one’s discussion
conference and when to night-hunt at another’s place. Lan
WangJi didn’t hurry them, either. He let them chatter on as
he himself stood silently under a tree. Under Lan WangJi’s
eyes, Fairy didn’t at all dare to bark or run around.
Crouching under the tree as well, it stared anxiously at Jin
Ling, wagging its tail at him.
Jin Ling added, “Even when the dog Wei Ying was around
fifteen when he killed the Tortoise of
Slaughter. If he could even do it, why can’t I?”
Hearing his name come right after the word before it, Wei
WuXian blood run cold. He somehow managed to shake off
the goosebumps on his back, “He was the one who killed it?
Wasn’t it killed by HanGuang-Jun?”
The “our sect” that he said included both the LanlingJin and
the YunmengJiang Sect. It seemed that his ability to tolerate
cut-sleeves had increased, that as long as it wasn’t anyone
from the two sects, he could turn a blind eye to it.
Jin Ling, “Come on! You know what it means. Stop getting
so carried away. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Are
you Wei Ying?”
Having been called by its owner, with its tongue sticking out,
Fairy sprinted over. Wei WuXian broke into a run at once,
“Be nice! What are you sending out the dog for?!”
The two walked in the front while the rest of the boys
followed some distance behind them. After walking for a
while, Lan WangJi spoke up, “Jiang Cheng knows who you
are.”
594
Wei WuXian, “So, I’m actually really curious. Just how did
you recognize me?”
Placing his hand over one of the pillars of the pavilion, Lan
SiZhui thought for a while, “If I remember correctly, it
probably is. This garden used to be rather famous. I read
about it on a book once, in the chapter The Blossoming
Spirit of the Florist Damsel. In Tanzhou there is a garden,
and in the garden there is a damsel. Under the moonlight, if
one should recite poetry, when she deems it fine, she grants
them an annual blossom, the fragrance of which persists for
three years; when she deems it poor or when the rhyming
does not pass, she casts a blossom at their face, then fades
away.”
Lan JingYi, “So if you recited the poetry wrong she would
throw a flower at your face? Hopefully the flowers did not
have thorns. Or else, if I were there to try, my face would
definitely start bleeding. What sort of fae was she?”
Lan SiZhui, “I would not call her a fae. She was more like a
spirit. The legends have it that the earliest owner of the
garden was a poet. He planted these flowers himself and
treated them as friends, reciting poetry here everyday.
Affected by the emotions of the poetry, a spirit crystallized
from the flora of the garden and became the Damsel of
596
Lan SiZhui, “Well, no. But, in order to see the Damsel’s face,
he went out of his way to come to Tanzhou all the way from
Yunmeng. Whenever he came to the garden, he would
recite the poetry wrong on purpose so that the Damsel
became angered, hit him with flowers, and threw him out.
When he woke up, he would crawl back inside and continue
to recite incorrectly. After this repeated for more than twenty
times, he finally saw the Damsel’s face. After this, he would
go about everywhere praising how beautiful she looked.
However, the Damsel was rather irritated as well. She did
not show up for quite a while. Whenever he came, she
would pound him with a rain of flowers. The scene was truly
more wondrous than any wonders.”
Wei WuXian felt almost half of the blood in his body rush to
his head.
The boy was in the middle of trying out his bow, carrying a
bundle of arrows with whitefeathered fletchings. Brushing
past the bowstring, his slender fingers made the it sound as
though it were a guqin string, strong yet beautiful.
Not far away, the boys from other sects all stared at them.
Some laughed, some exclaimed. Jiang Cheng clicked his
tongue impatiently. With arrows on his back, he walked
toward another entrance.
603
A faint smile by his lips, Wei WuXian raised his brows and
turned to the side. The arch door of the entrance was rather
narrow. Lan WangJi could only brush by him as he walked
in. After he entered, Wei WuXian shouted from behind him,
“Lan Zhan, your forehead ribbon is crooked.”
He squinted, “WangJi-xiong!”
604
The hand that Lan WangJi held the bow with immediately
gave out a shiver.
Wei WuXian was still holding the soft ribbon in his hand, “I’m
sorry. It wasn’t on purpose. Here, you can tie it up again.”
Jiang Cheng came over and asked, “What did you do, this
time? Didn’t I tell you not to tease him? Your day just won’t
be complete unless you dig your own grave at least once,
huh?”
The arrows behind him were almost all gone. Seeing this,
Wei WuXian got to work as well.