Chapter Text
The video had ended when Wei Wuxian escaped last time, and it has been an hour already that had passed.
Just how long were they going to wait again? It was seriously taking so long, even a woman who is pregnant had already given birth at this point!
Jiang Cheng just sat on the couch with a ton of different thoughts running around in his mind like a rollercoaster.
But for Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian— the two was just playing some imaginary game that Wei Wuxian had just come up with randomly when he was feeling crazily bored whilst waiting.
Apparently, this game that Wei Wuxian had come up with was what he called to name as ‘pick a flower’, and then when Nie Huaisang did pick a flower, Wei Wuxian would ask him a question that got harder each time.
Bickering and loud talking was heard to echo in the entire room, the peacock Jin Zixuan was busy trying to flatter his older sister up, whilst his mother and father as the usual, was fighting and all about the same thing; Wei Wuxian’s mother.
Until finally, after 4 minutes of absolutely doing nothing at all in his seat, the system was finally booting itself up after finally having charged with full power.
“Aghh!! Finally!! Your questions were absolute hell, Wei-Xiong, i am not playing this game with you ever again!!” Nie Huaisang stood up from the floor and finally returned back to the couch where he left his beloved fan.
Wei Wuxian followed and tagged along with Nie Huaisang with a laugh, and they both sat down together as Wei Wuxian cracked a joke.
Lan Wangji watched the two bestfriends interact with eachother.
Only a few days passed, and Wei WuXian realized that he might have made a wrong choice.
“If the wrong choice was about Wei-Xiong hurrily fleeing away from Second Master Lan, then it definitely was!” It was as if Nie Huaisang did not hear the words from the last hour of Lan Wangji in the future being one of the people Wei Wuxian fought with.
The donkey that he conveniently picked up was too hard to please.
Although it was only a donkey, it would exclusively eat fresh, young grass with dewdrops still hanging off them. If the tip of the grass had a streak of yellow, it wouldn’t eat it. Passing a farm, Wei WuXian stole some wheat straws to feed it, but after chewing them, it spit it out with a ptoo, even louder than that of its human counterparts. If it didn’t eat high-quality food, it wouldn’t budge, and it’d lose its temper and kick around. For multiple times, Wei WuXian was almost kicked by it. Aside from that, it’s brays also sounded extremely horrible to the ear.
“Why am i keeping it in the first place anyways?” Wei Wuxian sat himself up, looking at the words of his future self describing the donkey.
“‘Cause you’re an absolute idiot!”
“Hey!!!”
It was useless, no matter as a mount or a pet!
Wei WuXian couldn’t help but to think of his sword. The sword was probably collected by the leader of a prominent clan and would have hanged on a wall as a trophy that they could show other people.
“Uhm, Suibian? As a trophy?” Most of the people in the room that read that line in the video was also quite confused.
“maybe it’s because you were known as the ‘enemy of the cultivation world’.” Jiang Cheng pointed out, and the room chorused in ‘ah’ or ‘ohh’.
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 honoured buttocks, “You’re definitely destined for wealth, even harder to please than me.”
“You both are hard to please honestly.”
“Wei-Xiong found his secret twin!! A donkey!” Nie Huaisang laughed.
The donkey spat at him.
Jiang Yanli couldn’t help but laugh that the donkey was quite arrogant and even spat at her brother.
While they fooled around aimlessly, a group of people approached from within the fields.
The people carried handmade bamboo baskets, and wore cotton clothes and straw sandals, emitting the rustic airs of rural villagers. In the group, there was a young girl with a round face that could be considered delicate. Possibly because of walking for too long under the sun, they also wanted to come over to rest by the shade and have some water. However, seeing that there was a wild donkey tied to the tree and a lunatic with heavy makeup and dishevelled hair, they were reluctant to go over.
“I would be reluctant to go over if i saw some random person dressed up so strange like that too!” Nie Huaisang spoke with honesty, ignoring that Wei Wuxian was beside him.
Wei WuXian had always thought of himself as one who was courteous towards women, so he moved over, emptying some space, and went to struggle with the donkey. After realizing that he was harmless, the people were finally at ease to come over. All of them were drenched in sweat and had ruddy cheeks; some were fanning themselves and some fetching water. The girl sat by the well and smiled at Wei WuXian, as if she knew that he purposely moved away.
One of the people held a compass in his hand. He looked into the distance, and then lowered his head questioningly, “We’re already at the foot of Dafan Mountain, so why hasn’t the pointer started moving yet?”
The designs and pointer on the compass looked strange, indicating that it wasn’t a normal compass. It wasn’t one that showed the North, South, East, and West, but one that showed the directions malicious creatures, also known as a “Compass of Evil.” Wei WuXian realized that this was probably a poor cultivation clan from the countryside. Aside from highbrow, affluent clans, there were also smaller clans like this, who closed their doors and cultivated on their own. Wei WuXian thought that they might have left their village to either find a clan whom they were distant relatives to, or to go night-hunting.
“Compass of what now?” Jiang Cheng thought as he scratched his head, just what was Wei Wuxian doing in the future with his inventions??
“Compass of Evil…” Wen Ruohan muttered to himself, he was incredibly invested into learning more about Wei Wuxian, it seemed that his inventions in the future was quite useful for night-hunts and luring spirits out.
The middle-aged man leading the group called for people to take a drink and replied, “Your compass might be broken; I’ll get you a new one later. Dafan Mountain is less than ten miles ahead of us, which means that we cannot rest for too long. We have struggled through the whole journey, and if we relax now and fall behind, with other people beating us to it, it wouldn’t have been worth it.”
“Night hunting at Dafan Mountain?”
As expected, it was a night-hunt. A lot of refined cultivation clans called travelling to places and exorcising evil beings “hunting.” Because of how these creatures often appear at night, it was also called “night-hunting.” There were countless cultivation clans, but only a few were distinguished. Without the contributions from its ancestors, if an average clan wanted to become famous and receive respect in the cultivation world, it would have to show its abilities. Only if a clan captured a fierce monster or a terrorizing being, could it have then been treated seriously.
This was originally Wei WuXian’s specialty area. However, during the days of travelling, he destroyed a few graves, but only found small ghosts. He happened to need a ghost soldier to do evil for him, and decided to go to Rice Mountain to try his luck. If he found a good one, he’d capture it and put it to use.
Nie Huaisang slowly moved sideways away from Wei Wuxian silently whilst he was not looking as soon as he heard those lines.
Wei Wuxian noticed Nie Huaisang moving away from him, and quickly asked him, “Hey, Nie-Xiong, why’d you move away from me?”
“Totally nothing! I just needed a little bit more space, Wei-Xiong!” He laughed awkwardly, raising his fan to his face.
After the group of people finished resting, they prepared to move on. Before they left, the round-faced girl took a small, partly-ripened apple out of her basket and handed it to him, “Here you go.”
Lan Wangji just let out a small ‘hmph’ at the sight of seeing the round-faced girl giving Wei Wuxian a ripened apple out of her basket.
Lan Xichen, who heard the ‘hmph’ that his younger brother that he had let out, just smiled in silence, understanding what he was feeling, but did not tell their uncle about it.
Wei WuXian extended his hand to receive it, grinning broadly, but the donkey also opened its mouth and bit at it. Wei WuXian quickly took the apple away. Seeing that the donkey craved the apple so much, he thought of a good idea. He gathered a long stick and a fishing thread, hanged the apple on one end, and dangled it in front of the donkey. The donkey smelled the apple’s refreshing scent from in front of him and wanted to eat it, chasing the apple which was always a centimeter away from him. Its speed was faster than the best horses Wei WuXian had ever seen, leaving only dust behind it.
“Still the same Wei Wuxian with a brain full of bullshit.” Nie Huaisang tried his best not to laugh, but he eventually did, causing him to accidentally drop his handfan to the ground.
“My fannnn!” Nie Huaisang yelled, not intending to accidentally yell that out loud when he dropped his handfan to the ground on accident, he received looks and stares from people.
“…” The silence was louder than what noise Wei Wuxian could make.
Without stopping, Wei WuXian arrived at Dafan Shan before dark. Upon arriving at the foot of the mountain, he finally realized that the “fan” wasn’t the one he thought it was. It got its name because, looking from far away, the mountain looked like a kind, chubby buddha. There was a small town below the mountain, named Buddha’s Feet.
The number of cultivators who gathered here were far more than what he had expected. Everything was a jumble, with people from different sects and clans walking down the streets, all in uniforms of different colours, almost blinding to the eye. For some reason, all of them wore distressed expressions. Nobody bothered to laugh at him even though they saw his strange appearance.
In the center of the long street, a group of cultivators gathered, talking in serious tones. It seemed as if their opinions differed greatly. Even from afar, Wei WuXian could hear them talking. In the beginning, everything was fine, but they suddenly became agitated.
“... I think that there are no soul-consuming beasts or spirits in the area at all. It’s clear that none of the Compasses of Evil showed anything.”
“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!”
“Seven people? Lose their souls? How terrible!” Jiang Yanli thought, she frowned and had herself feeling bad for those seven people that had lost their souls.
“Even if the Compass of Evil is not showing anything, does it mean that there’s nothing in the area? It can only point out an approximate direction, without any specifics, so it shouldn’t be fully trusted. Maybe there’s something here that can interfere with the pointer’s direction.”
“Do you remember who created the Compass of Evil? I’ve never heard of anything that can interfere with its pointer’s direction.”
“What do you mean? Are you implying anything with that tone of yours? Of course, I know that Wei Ying created the Compass of Evil. But, it’s not as if his creations are flawless. Aren’t we allowed the option of doubt, at least?”
“I never said that you can’t doubt it, much less his creations are flawless, so why accuse me?”
“Are they seriously arguing about that?” Jiang Cheng thought, even though Wei Wuxian had been dead for many years, many people still have a shit ton of problems with him and his inventions.
And so, their argument had turned to another direction. Wei WuXian passed them on his donkey, giggling and laughing. He didn’t expect that, after so many years had passed, he was still alive in the cultivators’ conversations. This was the so-called “much ado about Wei.” If there was ever a poll to find out whose popularity was the most lasting in the cultivation world, the winner would be no other than Wei WuXian.
“Pfft, i’m the whole talk of the people in the future?” Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang both snickered beside eachother.
“You sure are, Wei-Xiong!” Nie Huaisang gleefully said in a tone of sarcasm to match Wei Wuxian’s, whilst Jiang Cheng just scoffed at the two.
To be honest, the cultivator wasn’t wrong. The Compasses of Evil in use today was the first version that he made, and were, indeed, not specific enough. He was in the middle of making improvements when his “den” was destroyed, so he had to put everyone through the inconvenience of using the imprecise version one.
Anyways, creatures that ate blood and flesh were usually low in level, such as walking corpses. Only the more refined high-level monsters or ghosts were capable of eating and digesting souls. This one ate seven at once—no wonder so many clans had gathered here. Since the prey was by no means a trivial matter, it was inevitable for the Compasses of Evil to make mistakes.
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.
“What the-“
Wei WuXian followed her gaze, and saw the dense mountain top of Dafan Mountain.
All of a sudden, the girl started dancing in front of him without saying anything.
“Excuse… me? Why the hell did she just start to dance all of the sudden? Is she crazy?” Jiang Cheng paid no mind to his words, and was just straightforward into saying them.
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!”
“What is up with her? Why did she just suddenly start dancing infront of me?” Wei Wuxian was absolutely confused and dumb-founded at the act of the girl, Jiang Cheng also had the same reaction as Wei Wuxian’s.
“Is she possessed or something?” Nie Huaisang said those words, earning a smack from his older brother, Nie Mingjue, at the back of his head.
“Mind your words, Huaisang!” He yelled at the boy.
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.”
“Hey Wei-Xiong, aren’t you the smart one? Do you have the slightest of a hint on what’s happening in this future of yours?” Nie Huaisang beside him asked, lowering his fan from his face slowly.
“How should i know Nie-Xiong? Do you think i’m from the future???” Right, Nie Huaisang thought, how dumb he was!! Why did he even ask that!!
“It must be horrible for her mom. A-Yan, A-Yan’s husband, and her husband... All of them were...”
“All of them were what? Someone set a petition up to forbid people from cutting their sentences off!” Jiang Cheng angrily said, he always found it annoying whenever people wanted to say something but then would cut themselves off mid-sentence.
Wei WuXian wandered around, piecing together the strange event that happened here from picking up on different people’s conversations.
“What happened? Did she really go crazy?” Wei Wuxian wondered in his thoughts, it did seem to be a possibility that the girl, A-Yan, had indeed went crazy, but the question was, why did she go crazy?
On Dafan Mountain, there was a burial ground. Most of the ancestors of the townspeople from Buddha’s Feet were buried here and, sometimes, unidentifiable corpses would also receive a spot and a wooden plaque here. A few months ago, in a dark and stormy night, the wind and the rain caused a piece of land on Dafan Mountain to slide and collapse, which happened to be the burial ground. Many older graves were destroyed, and a few coffins were exposed to the air and struck by lightning, causing both the corpses and the coffins to be charred black.
The townspeople of Buddha’s Feet were extremely uneasy. After a few rounds of prayers, they rebuilt the burial ground again, assuming that everything would be just fine. However, ever since then, people in the town started to lose their souls.
“How awful… ” Jiang Yanli murmured to herself, feeling extremely horrible for the townspeople that started to lose their souls all of the sudden.
The first one was a sluggard. He was a poor wretch, loafing about and doing no work at all. Because he loved to hike on the mountain and catch birds, he happened to be stuck in the mountain during the night of the landslide. He was frightened to death, but, luckily, he was safe. The peculiar thing was that, after a few days, he suddenly married someone. His wedding was quite large, and he said that he wanted to be charitable from now on and settle down.
On the night of the wedding, he was completely drunken, having never woken up ever since he lay on the bed. The bride didn’t receive an answer as she called him. Only when she pushed him over did she realize that the groom had dreary eyes and a cold body. Aside from being able to breathe, he was no different from a dead person. After a few days of lying on the bed, not eating or drinking anything, he was finally buried. Unfortunately, the bride had become a widow shortly after she married.
The second one was A-Yan, from Blacksmith Zheng’s family. The young girl had just received an engagement when her future husband was killed by a wolf on the second day, while he was hunting in the mountains. After she got the news, she also became like the sluggard. Luckily, after some time, her soul-losing disease was cured on its own. However, after this, she went crazy, cheerfully dancing to other people when she was outside.
Jiang Yanli and Madam Jin frowned and felt extremely bad at the fact that she went crazy after the girl was cured of her ‘soul-losing disease.’
The third one was A-Yan’s father, Blacksmith Zheng. Until now, this had happened to seven people.
Wei WuXian considered the situation, and figured that it was most likely a soul-consuming spirit, not a soul-consuming beast.
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.
To go up the mountain, one had to hike up trail that started in the town. Wei WuXian sat on his donkey and rode up the hill slowly. After a while, a few people walked down with ominous expressions on their faces.
Some of them had scars on their faces, and they were talking all at once. With the darkening sky, they all jumped as they saw a person who looked like a hanged ghost approaching them. After cursing, they walked around him quickly. Wei WuXian turned his head around and thought, maybe they were frustrated because it was a strong prey? He didn’t think too much about it and slapped the donkey’s buttocks, making it jog faster up the mountain.
Everybody just went absolutely silent after witnessing that.
Coincidentally, he missed the group’s whining, which happened shortly afterward.
“I haven’t seen anyone like this!”
“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.”
“Who’s appearing next now?” Jiang Cheng said.
“What can we do? He’s a sect leader. No matter which clan you choose to offend, you shouldn’t offend the Jiang clan, and no matter which person you choose to offend, you shouldn’t offend Jiang Cheng. Let’s just pack up, leave, and feel sorry for ourselves!”
“Last person to offend, me?” Jiang Cheng pointed to himself, confused. Did he get even more grumpier just as Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang always predicted for him? Did it really—?
“Err, Wei-Xiong, maybe we really shouldn’t anger Jiang-Xiong, look! Did you hear it the same as i did? It said that the last person we should offend was him!!” Nie Huaisang shake Wei Wuxian by the collar crazily, making him dizzy as hell.
“Hey-! I’m getting dizzy here, Nie-Xiong!” Nie Huaisang realized how crazy he was shaking Wei Wuxian by the collar, and quickly let him go.
“He-he, sorry Wei-Xiong…!” Jiang Cheng just rolled his eyes in annoyance from seeing Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian before getting back to his surfing thoughts again.
If it was darker, then one would need a torch to move freely about in the mountain’s forest. Wei WuXian walked for a while, but he didn’t meet many cultivators. He was quite surprised, is it possible that half of the clans who came were in Buddha’s Feet arguing and talking empty words, while the other half could only come back defeated, like the group of people who just passed by?
Suddenly, cries for help came from in front of him.
“Is anyone there?”
“Help us!”
Both male and female voices could be heard, and all sounded panicked, probably not faked. Cries for help from desolate mountains were usually the works of evil creatures, to lure ignorant people into traps. Yet, Wei WuXian was extremely happy.
The more evil the creature was, the better it was for him!
“Uhm… i don’t think that was an evil creature, rather, it sounded like a real person instead.” Nie Huaisang said.
He directed the donkey toward the direction of the voices, but couldn’t find anything around him. As he looked upward, instead of spirits or monsters, it was the rural clan that he met by the field earlier on, hanged on the trees by a huge, golden web.
The middle-aged man was originally patrolling and scouting in the forest with a few others. However, rather than meeting the prey that they had hoped for, they stepped into a net trap, probably set up by some wealthy clan, which was why they were hanging on the trees, complaining and calling for help.
After seeing that someone approached, they immediately brightened up, but the hope faded as they saw that it was a lunatic who came. Although the threads of the deity-binding net were thin, the material was fine in quality, making them difficult to break. No matter human, god, demon, spirit, or monster, it would take a long while for the intruder to struggle out, since it could only be broken by a superior magical tool. The lunatic probably didn’t even know what it was, much less how to get them outside of it.
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 boy had a vermilion mark in between his eyebrows, his features delicate yet sharp. He was quite young, around the same age as Lan SiZhui—still in his adolescence. He carried a bamboo canister of feathered arrows and a luminous sword on his back, holding a longbow in his hand. The embroidery on his clothes were extremely delicate, forming a magnificent white peony in front of his chest. The golden threads glistened against the dark nighttime shades surrounding him.
“Is he a Jin perhaps? Because this boy is being described like one.”
Wei WuXian silently exclaimed, “How wealthy!”
“THATS your first thought about him…??” Jin Zixuan asked in confusion, yes, they were indeed wealthy, but was that the first impression of Wei Wuxian on a Jin?
This must have been a young master studying in the LanlingJin Sect, since the sect was the only one with a white peony as the clan pattern, using the king of all flowers to suggest that they were the king of all cultivators. The vermilion mark implied the meaning of “opening the doors toward wisdom and aspiration; illuminating the world with the vermilion light.”
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!”
Wei WuXian thought, again, “How wealthy!”
“…is this seriously the only thought that you have about us Jin’s?” Jin Zixuan was absolutely dumbfounded at the fact that Wei Wuxian only thought about them as ‘wealthy’, and that was it.
“I can confirm that this is indeed the first and only thought he has about the Jin’s.” Nie Huaisang snickered at the words of Jiang Cheng, as he had always heard the word ‘wealthy’ when Wei Wuxian always described Jin Zixuan or any other Jin.
“I completely forgot this thing shows my inner THOUGHTS!” Wei Wuxian yelled.
A single deity-binding net was already expensive, yet he had set up four hundred all at once. A smaller clan would’ve became bankrupt after buying so many, but then, of course, this was the LanlingJin Sect. However, wasting deity-binding webs like this and not caring about what they caught shouldn’t be considered night-hunting at all. In fact, it was almost as if they were chasing people away, not allowing others the chance of contributing to the process. It seemed like that the cultivators who retreated earlier didn’t do it because the prey was difficult, but rather because this sect was one that shouldn’t be angered.
“Four hundred deity-binding nets?!” Nie Huaisang was shocked that the Jin Disciple even managed to set that much deity-binding nets up at Dafan Mountain all alone.
After a few days of travelling slowly and listening to the intriguing conversations at Buddha’s Feet, Wei WuXian gathered a lot of information about the changes to the cultivation world. As the final winner of the hundred-year-long cultivational disruption, the LanlingJin Sect was the head of all clans and sects—its leader was even referred to as the “commander” of all cultivators.
Even before this, the Jin Clan was arrogant, admirers of extravagant splendor. After the years of being at the top and while strengthening the sect, it had trained all of its disciples to do whatever they wanted to. Even a slightly weaker clan would have to submit to their humiliation, much less a small, rural clan such as this 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 of 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.”
“Wait, so he’s not freeing them? Seriously?” Jiang Cheng scoffed, crossing his arms at the sight of the LanlingJin Disciple being very immature and disrespectful towards people, letting them stay in the spirit net rather than just letting them go instead because he was annoyed by them always getting caught in it instead of the prey?
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 leaped 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 reign. 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.”
The tone was made of twenty percent surprise and eighty percent disgust, making Wei WuXian blink. The boy spoke again, “Did you lose your marbles after you were thrown back to your village? How could they let you outside when you looked as freaky as this?”
Did he really just hear something of such significance?
“He knows Mo Xuanyu?” Wei Wuxian confusingly said.
Might it be, Wei WuXian suddenly realized, that Mo XuanYu’s father isn’t the head of some small sect, but the famous Jin GuangShan?
“Another offspring of his? I’m not surprised that he has another one, i can’t even keep count with how many of those poor women he fooled…” Madame Jin muttered to herself, as she pitied the poor women that had fallen for her ‘husband’, knowing that they were just being played with their feelings.
Jin Guanghan stayed silent to the knowing stares directed at him.
Jin GuangShan was the last leader of the LanlingJin Sect, having already passed away. On the topic of this man, one sentence could not tell the whole story. He had a fierce wife from a prominent family and, in fact, he was known for being scared of her. However, even if he was scared, it never stopped him from going to other women. No matter how fierce Madame Jin was, it was impossible for her to follow him twenty-four hours a day. Therefore, from ladies of distinguished statuses, to prostitutes in rural areas, if he could get his hands on one, he wouldn’t miss the chance. And, although he enjoyed casual relationships and flirted everywhere, having an uncountable amount of illegitimate children, it was extremely easy for him to get bored.
“I see that he is interested in extramarital relationships, but it is no surprise from a person like him.” Madam Yu thought in her mind, sighing right after.
“He had another child outside of his sect? I’m not so surprised at all too, honestly. The peacock and his mother must be really used to this by now…” Wei Wuxian whispered the words to Nie Huaisang, and he just nodded his head in absolute agreement, Jin Guangshan was really a bastard no matter what.
“Right! I heard that after he gets those poor women pregnant, he just leaves them! Ugh, what a horrible person, i can’t believe people like him even exist! I can’t help but feel bad for Madame Jin… isn’t he just so awful, Wei-Xiong?” Wei Wuxian nodded back.
A lot seemed to notice the line ‘Jin Guangshan was the last leader of the LanlingJin Sect’, in which meant, that Jin Zixuan was then the Sect Leader of Lanling 13 years later?
After he grew tired from a woman, he would forget about her completely, without any responsibility or whatsoever. Among all of his illegitimate children, there was only one who proved to be exceptionally talented and ended up being taken back—the current leader of the LanlingJin Sect, Jin GuangYao. Moreover, Jin GuangShan didn’t die honorably either. He believed that he was old but vigorous, and wanted to challenge himself, fooling around with a group of women. However, unfortunately, he failed and passed away during the act. This was too humiliating, and so, the LanlingJin Sect told the public that the old leader died from overworking himself. All of the other clans decided to keep silent about the matter and pretended that they didn’t know anything. Anyways, those were the real reasons behind his “fame.”
People could not believe their ears, he died… like that? Not even Wen Ruohan dared to make a single sound, not even slightly, Jin Guangshan died… because he wanted to fool around a group of women??
“It is no surprise that you still fool around women and prostitutes even at such an age so old, disgusting.” Madame Jin spoke loudly on purpose during her scolding of Jin Guangshan, making him be humiliated by many people in the room hearing it.
“D-Daiyu..” Jin Guangshan said meekly.
“Wait- did that just say that the peacock wasn’t the current sect leader, but instead, some other Jin instead was the sect leader?” Wei Wuxian pointed it out, was it just a mere mistake with the name? But it couldn’t be, how could it even have been like that? How could they mistake the name… his name was Jin Zixuan, whilst the one in the video said Jin Guangyao.
“But how could that be? Aren’t i the one in line to be the next sect leader after father? Who even is Jin Guangyao and why is he the sect leader instead of me?” Something was odd, Jin Zixuan was definitely known to be as the heir to the LanlingJin sect, but in the video… it shows that somebody else is the sect leader instead of him. Did his father get bored of him and make one of his illegitimate sons from a different woman the new heir?
Madame Jin couldn’t believe it either, it didn’t seem as believable even if it was the future, just what did Jin Guangshan just do in the future that Jin Zixuan was no longer the heir of the sect? ‘This bastard, Jin Guangshan…!!’ Madame Jin thought in anger.
During the siege in Luanzang Hill, aside from Jiang Cheng, Jin GuangShan was the second-greatest contributor. And now, Wei WuXian had taken over the body of his own illegitimate son. He really didn’t know if they were even with each other.
“Wait- wait, then hypothetically, me and the peacock are half-siblings now that i’m in the body of his half-sibling in the future?!” He, Wei Wuxian, did not want to believe that he would be half-siblings hypothetically in the future with the peacock.
“I don’t think I want to siblings with you either…” grumbled the Jin heir, having Wei Wuxian as a sibling… it would probably drive Jin Zixuan insane.
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!”
“oh my…” said Jiang Yanli.
“Hmph, a disciple of the LanlingJin Sect but is very arrogant and does not think about their words twice before saying it out loud especially to a senior? Has he not learned any proper manners and respect from his sect?” Lan Qiren felt to be offended by the disciple’s attitude and behavior, first off, the disciple had set up spirit nets around the mountain and had caught a few people but did not release them as he was annoyed catching them instead of prey? How immature.
“I hate to agree though they belong to the rightful sect of LanlingJin, their behavior is quite different from the other Jin’s as we do teach them proper manners and respect for people, this one seems to beg to differ. I am curious as to why..” Madame Jin agreed with Lan Qiren, but they did not have enough context as to why such a disciple like the Jin shown in the video turned out to be like that way, so there was no reason to hate.
In terms of his generation, it was highly possible of Mo XuanYu to be an elder to the boy, maybe an uncle. After being humiliated by a junior like this, Wei WuXian thought that, even if not for his own sake, he needed to return the humiliation for Mo XuanYu’s body, “What an attitude! I suppose that you didn’t have a mother to teach you?”
Hearing his words, two raging flames sparked in the boy’s eyes. He unsheathed the sword on his back and threatened, “What... Did you say?”
“He seems to be sensitive when his parents are mentioned, i wonder who his parents are?” Jiang Yanli wondered, and continued to watch the video and waited to be shown as to who it was.
The blade of the sword shone a golden light. It was a rare sword of high quality—most clans probably couldn’t get a small piece of it even if they spent their whole lives saving for it. Wei WuXian examined it attentively, somehow thinking that the sword seemed familiar to him. Then again, he had seen his share of gold, top-notch swords. He didn’t think too much about it and began to spin a tiny cloth bag that he held in his hand.
It was a makeshift “spirit-locking bag” that he had created a few days ago, using the scraps and pieces of things. As the boy wielded the sword and came toward him, he fished a piece of human-shaped paper out of the spirit-locking bag. He shifted to the side, avoiding the attack, and slapped the paper onto his opponent’s back.
The boy’s movements were already fast, but Wei WuXian had done a lot of “tripping someone while slapping a talisman onto their back”, which meant that he was faster. The boy suddenly felt his torso become numb, his back weakening, and he unwillingly collapsed onto the ground, with his sword also falling to the side with a clunk. He couldn’t get up no matter how hard he tried, as if a mountain was on top of him. On his back, there was a ghost who had died from gluttony, crushing him to the point that he couldn’t even breathe.
Although the ghost was weak, it was completely capable of dealing with brats like this one. Wei WuXian picked up his sword, weighed it in his hands, and swung toward the direction of the deity-binding net, splitting it in half.
The family fell to the ground in an awkward way, but they sprinted off without saying anything. The round-faced girl seemed as if she wanted to thank him, but she was pulled away by an elder, who was scared that Young Master Jin would hate them even more. The boy on the ground was fuming, “You damn gay! Good for you, taking this sort of wrong path because you didn’t have enough spiritual powers to do anything! Watch out for your life! Do you know who came today? Today, I...”
Although the cultivation method that he used in the past was often criticized and, in the long term, it harmed the cultivator’s health, it could be mastered quickly. It was also especially attractive because there were no limitations as to the cultivator’s spiritual powers or talent, making it so that there were always people who secretly practiced it to find a shortcut. The boy presumed that, after being chased from the LanlingJin Sect, Mo XuanYu had chosen the dishonorable path, which was a reasonable conclusion to draw, saving Wei WuXian from a lot of unnecessary trouble.
The boy pushed on the ground, but couldn’t get up even after a few tries. His face was scarlet and he gritted his teeth, “If you don’t stop, I’m gonna tell my uncle, and you’re gonna wait for your death!”
Wei WuXian wondered, “Why is it your uncle, not your dad? Who’s your uncle, again?”
A voice suddenly came from behind him, a mixture of being bitter and cold.
“I am his uncle. Do you have any last words?”
“That voice is oddly familiar—!” Wei Wuxian said, Nie Huaisang nodded as he also felt that the voice was quite familiar to him too, but it seems that the person will be revealed the net second or so anyways.
Hearing the voice, all of the blood from Wei WuXian’s body traveled to his head, and drained away a moment later. The good thing was that his face was already a pile of white, so a shade whiter wouldn’t make too much of a difference.
A violet-clothed youth approached in confident steps, his jianxiu robe flowing smoothly and his hand pressing on the hilt of his sword. A silver bell hung by his waist, although it made no sound as he walked.
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.
He frowned, “Jin Ling, why did you linger for so long? Do you really need me to come and pick you up? Look at what a terrible situation you’re in right now, and get up!”
After the initial numbing of his head, Wei WuXian quickly realized what was going on. He curled a finger inside his 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!”
“this is… he has a similar personality to Jiang Cheng…. Who could this child be?” Wei Wuxian muttered.
With the pair of uncle and nephew standing beside each other, it was clear that they shared a close resemblance, probably able to pass for brothers. Jiang Cheng moved his finger, and the paper doll swiftly flew out of Wei WuXian’s hand and into his own. After taking one look at it, hostility came over his face. He pressured his fingers, and the paper was ignited, burning to dust with the screams of dark spirits.
“UNCLE AND NEPHEW???? DON’T TELL ME… THAT BOY IS SHIJIE’S SON???” Wei Wuxian shouted in realization, abruptly standing up from his seat. Startling Nie Huaisang, who sat beside him.
“I’ I’ts possible…. The boy looks an awful lot like a-Li..” Jiang Fengmian said, and Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan both froze in shock, could this boy be… their son??
Jiang Cheng spoke grimly, “Break his legs?
“what… what am I doing?” the younger Jiang Cheng said in horror.
“why are you so… I don’t know!!!” Nie Huaisang exclaimed.
Haven’t I told you? If you see this sort of evil and crooked practice, kill the cultivator and feed him to your dogs!”
“d-dog?” the Yunmeng Head disciple yelped is horror at the word ‘dog’, it was not well known that he is terrified of dogs, only a select few knowing.
“why would I give my nephew a dog?” Jiang Cheng raised his eyebrow at his future self’s words, he vowed to never get a dog again years ago..
“what’s wrong with dogs?” huffed Jin Zixuan, confused at why the two seemed to be against the idea of dogs. He has a lot of dogs back at LanLing, and their harmless!
Wei WuXian couldn’t even attempt to grab his donkey, backing away at rapid speed. He thought that, after so many years, no matter how much hatred Jiang Cheng had held for him, it would have disappeared long ago. He didn’t expect that, not only did it not disappear, it became richer, as if it was a jar of aged alcohol. At the present time, his hatred had grown to affect even people who cultivated like him!
“just… I know Wei Wuxian has a reason for using demonic cultivation, why would I hate and torture people who uses the same methos as he? Jiang Cheng said, and Wei Wuxian could feel his heart melt.
With someone backing him up, Jin Ling’s attacks became more aggressive. Wei WuXian slid two fingers into the spirit-locking bag, about to take something out, when suddenly, the blue glare of a sword slashed out like lightning. It collided with Jin Ling’s sword, breaking the powerful sword’s golden rays in an instant.
“wait a damn minute.”
“Zixuan! Sit down!” Madam Jin scolded, pulling on her son’s hand to sit him back down.
“whats got you in a twist?” the Nie heir asked.
“that boy is holding my sword! SuiHua!” he pointed at the screen accusingly, Madam Jin looked back at the paused screen and to see—it was indeed her son’s sword, how could she not have noticed her own son’s sword???!!
Lan Xichen widened his eyes in realization, his brother beside him seemed to understand as well.
“then….. Jin Ling seemed sensitive to the topic of his parents… and he has Jin-gongzi’s sword… does that mean—”
“he’s dead.” Jiang Cheng breathed out.
Just on cue, Jiang Yanli broke into tears, she fell on the ground weeping. She was choking on her own sobs, as her brothers tried desperately to comfort her and sit her back. But nothing worked, she could not bear the thought of her and Jin Zixuan dying—then leaving their own son behind.
“J-Jiang-guniang.. i-“ Jin Zixuan was holding back tears as well, he approached his crying fiancée and hugged her tightly.
Madam Jin was frozen in shock, was that why in the future, her husband brought in an illegitimate son?! Her a-Xuan has died in the future… and her lousy husband didn’t seem to give a damn! He was just fanning himself while looking as calm as ever, then, Madam Jin pounced on him.
“you little bitch! Our son will die, yet you don’t care?!” Madam Jin held the man up by his collar, seething in anger.
“D-Daiyu.. it’s not like that! I am upset—”
“stop lying!’ she sobbed, punching her husband.
“M-madam.. lets calm down… we still have a lot to watch..”
Madam Jin sat back down, with a face full of anger, and her husband sitting shamefully with a red spot on his cheek where Madam Jin punched him.
It wasn’t because of the quality of the swords, but rather the great disparity in the strengths of the persons using the swords. Wei WuXian had originally calculated the timing, but his movements were suddenly interrupted by the sword’s glare, causing him to trip. He fell toward the ground, right on top of a pair of snow-white boots. After pausing for a moment, he slowly lifted his head.
What first came into his sight was a long, slender blade, crystalline and translucent, as if it was made of ice.
In the cultivation world, this sword was one of the most famous ones. Wei WuXian had experienced its powers countless times, including both battles fought beside it and against it. The hilt of the sword was forged from pure silver that had been refined with secret techniques. The blade of the sword was extremely thin, almost transparent, sending forth the cold breaths of ice and snow. However, at the same time, it could cut through iron like cutting through mud. This was why, although the sword looked light, as if it could fly away any instant, it was actually quite heavy, unable to be wielded by the average person.
Its name was “Bichen.”
“My spiritual sword?” Lan Wangji tilted his head in confusion.
The blade turned, and the clank of the sword being inserted back inside 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.”
“Hey, Wei-Xiong, wherever you go in the future, Second Master Lan is always tagged along, it’s kind of strange, don’t you think?” Nie Huaisang quietly whispered to his friend beside him.
“Well, i think it’s just a coincidence, i mean, it’s not like he’ll be with me or will follow me around whenever i’m there!” He whispered back.
The pair of white boots passed around Wei WuXian and calmly walked three steps forward. Wei WuXian raised his head and got up. As he walked past the former, slightly brushing their shoulders, he made eye contact with him for a short moment, pretending that it was unintentional.
He had an aura of smooth moonlight. The seven-stringed zither that he carried on his back was narrower than most. Its body was black, made using wood of soft color.
The man wore a forehead ribbon with cloud patterns. His skin was fair, features both refined and elegant, as if he was a piece of polished jade. The color of his eyes was especially light, like they were made of colored glass, causing his gaze to be overly distant. His expression held the traces of frost and snow, stern to the degree of being stiff, unwavering even as he saw Wei WuXian’s ridiculous face.
There wasn’t a single spec of dust or wrinkled spot on him, from his head to his feet. It was impossible to find any fault with his appearance. Even so, two capitalized words jumped into Wei WuXian’s mind.
Mourning clothes!
“Mourning clothes?” he was curious, then remembering that Wei Ying thought of his sect’s robes as mourning clothes.
Mourning clothes, indeed. Although all of the clans in the cultivation world used extravagant words to describe the GusuLan Sect’s uniform as the best looking uniform, and Lan WangJi as a an incomparable beauty who only appeared once in a blue moon, nothing could help his bitter facial expression, as if his wife had passed away.
In an unlucky year, enemies would often find their paths to cross; good news always traveled alone, but one disaster always followed the next... Thus, the situation right now.
Lan WangJi was silent, staring straight ahead, standing motionlessly in front of Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng was already exceptionally handsome, but as they stood face to face with each other, he still seemed a few degrees inferior. He raised one brow and spoke, “HanGuang-Jun, you sure live up to your reputation of ‘being wherever the chaos is’. So, you had time to come to this remote area today?”
Powerful cultivators from prominent clans usually didn’t care to pay attention to lower level preys. However, Lan WangJi was an exception. He never cared for the prey of a night-hunt, and wouldn’t refuse to go just because the creature was not threatening enough to increase his fame. If anyone wanted help, he would be there. He had been like this ever since he was young.
“you’ve grown, Wangji..” his brother patted him lightly on the back, receiving a nod from Lan Wangji.
“Being wherever the chaos is” was the comment that the public gave him for his night-hunts and, also, praise for his moral character. Right now, Jiang Cheng really didn’t seem too polite as he said the words in such a tone. Even the juniors who came following Lan WangJi didn’t seem comfortable hearing it.
Wei Wuxian always knew his shidi didn’t particularly like Lan Zhan, but to be so blatantly rude to him like this… it felt wrong, it seems like their views of one another worsened as they grew up.
Lan JingYi spoke straightforwardly, “Isn’t Sect Leader Jiang here as well?”
“oh- it’s that disciple from Mo manor!” Nie Huaisang said proudly.
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 seemed as if he didn’t want to engage in conversation, throwing Lan SiZhui a look. The latter understood and told the juniors to speak among themselves.
Afterward, he spoke toward Jin Ling, “Young Master Jin, night-hunts have always been fair competitions amongst the different clans and sects. However, to set up nets all over Dafan Mountain is clearly hindering the cultivators, causing them to fall into the traps. Is this or is this not against the rules of night-hunting?”
Jin Ling’s grim expression was exactly the same as his uncle’s, “What can I do? It was their own fault for stepping into the traps. I’ll solve everything after I finish capturing the prey.”
“Their fault for stepping into the traps? He set up 400 deity binding nets, he should’ve expected that people would step on them without knowing it was even there.” Jiang Cheng scoffed.
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 upper and lower lips became inseparable, as if they were glued together, anger appeared on Jiang Cheng’s face. The sloppy manners that he upheld before this were all gotten rid of, “You, with the Lan surname! What do you mean by this? It’s not your turn to discipline Jin Ling yet, so release the spell, now!”
“wow, ChengCheng, your so bratty..” murmured Wei Wuxian, receiving a smack at the head by his brother.
The silence spell was used by the Lan Sect to reprimand its disciples. Wei WuXian had suffered a ton from this little trick.
“how so? Wei-gongzi?” Lan Xichen asked curiously.
“Second master Lan used it on me when I talk to much in the library pavilion!” he laughed.
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.”
Before Jiang Cheng opened his mouth to speak, a purple-clothed man in the Jiang Sect’s uniform ran toward them from within the forest.
He shouted, “Sect Leader!”
However, after seeing Lan WangJi’s presence, he hesitated. Jiang Cheng spoke satirically, “Talk. Is there more bad news?”
The man spoke in a low voice, “Not long ago, a blue sword flew over and destroyed the deity-binding nets that you had set up.”
“well, there goes a bunch of money wasted…”
Jiang Cheng glanced at Lan WangJi harshly, his displease plastered all over his face, “How many were broken?”
The man replied carefully, “... All of them...”
That’s more than four hundred!
Jiang Cheng seethed with anger.
He didn’t expect the journey to be this unlucky. Originally, he came to help Jin Ling out. Jin Ling would be turning fifteen this year, the age of which he should already be making his debut and starting to compete with the juniors of other clans. Jiang Cheng considered the decision carefully before choosing Dafan Mountain as the location of the hunt. He also set up nets everywhere and threatened the cultivators of other clans, showing them the consequences so that they would retreat, in order to let Jin Ling take the top prize without anyone fighting against him.
Although four hundred deity-binding nets were a whopping price, it wasn’t too much for the YunmengJiang Sect. Nonetheless, losing the nets were a small matter, but losing face was not. With Lan WangJi’s actions, Jiang Cheng felt a whirlpool of anger at the bottom of his heart, rising higher by every second. He narrowed his eyes, his left hand casually stroking the ring on his right hand’s index finger.
This was a dangerous sign.
Everyone knew that the ring was a menacing, strong magical weapon. Whenever Clan Leader Jiang started touching it, it meant that he had the intent to kill.
“Zidian? Why does a-Cheng have Zidian?” Yu Ziyuan asked, did she pass on Zidian to a-cheng?
“yea… why do I have mother’s Zidian?”
However, after stroking it for a while, Jiang Cheng compelled himself to restrain his hostility.
Although he was displeased, as the leader of a sect, he needed to take more things into consideration, which meant that he couldn’t be as impulsive as Jin Ling. After the fall of the QingheNie Sect,
“the fall of MY sect? what?!” bellowed Nie Mingjue, he found it impossible that QingheNie would fall under his leadership.
Lan Xichen hummed in agreement, “I agree, Mingjue is a strong leader, why would QingheNie fall?”
among the Three Great Sects, the LanlingJin Sect and the GusuLan Sect were quite close due to the personal relationship between the two leaders. By leading the YunmengJiang Sect alone, he was already in an isolated situation among the three. HanGuang-Jun, or Lan WangJi, was quite a prestigious cultivator, while his elder brother ZeWu-Jun, or Lan XiChen, was the leader of the GusuLan Sect. The two brothers had always been on good terms with each other. It was best to not openly dispute with Lan WangJi.
Also, Jiang Cheng’s sword, “Sandu,” had never made actual contact with Lan WangJi’s sword, “Bichen,” and it was not yet decidable whose hands would the deer die on. Although he owned the powerful ring, “Zidian,” a family heirloom of his, Lan WangJi’s zither, “Wangji“, was also known for its abilities. The thing that Jiang Cheng hated the most was to be disadvantageous during a fight. Without complete confidence in his success, he would not consider fighting with Lan WangJi.
Jiang Cheng slowly took away his left hand, ceasing to stroke his ring. It seemed as if Lan WangJi was determined to take part in this matter, so it wouldn’t help if he continued to play the antagonist. Jiang Cheng made the decision to, for the time being, owe him a 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.”
“wow, even Jiang Cheng knows not to mess with Lan Zhan, just how scary is he!” Wei Wuxian stated, and the others could not help but agree.
His tone was sarcastic, but it wasn’t clear who he was mocking. Lan WangJi never fought to win his way with words, and looked as if he didn’t hear anything. Jiang Cheng turned again, his words covered with thorns, “Why are you still standing there? Waiting for the prey to come and throw itself onto your sword? If, today, you don’t catch the creature hunting Dafan Mountain, don’t come to me ever again!”
“a-Cheng…. Don’t be too hard on Jin Ling.. he is only 14.” Jiang Yanli lightly scolded, wiping her tears away with a handkerchief.
“yes a-jie..”
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.”
Gosh, Lan Qiren feels like a huge weight got lifted off of him when this disciple comes on screen, the boy was like a mixture of Wangji and Xichen, quiet, respectful, and mature.
Jiang Cheng sneered, “No need.” He chose the opposite direction and walked down calmly. The man who had come from the forest followed behind him, pulling a long face because he knew that it’d be impossible to escape a lecture when he returned.
After their figures disappeared, Lan JingYi spoke, “How could the Sect Leader Jiang act like this?” Only afterward, did he remember the Lan Clan’s rule of not talking behind others’ backs.
“this child…” Lan Qiren sighed heavily.
He looked meekly at HanGuang-Jun and shut his mouth. Lan SiZhui smiled softly toward Wei WuXian, “Young Master Mo, we meet again.”
As Wei WuXian pulled the corners of his mouth, Lan WangJi spoke again, “Do your tasks.” The command was simplistic and clear, without any fancy vocabulary for decoration.
The juniors finally remembered the reason behind why they came to Dafan Mountain. They gathered their thoughts and respectfully waited for further instructions. After a moment, Lan WangJi spoke again, “Do what you can. Don’t force anything.”
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.
‘why is Wei Ying surprised I acknowledged him?’ he tilted his head in confusion, then remembering that he practically ignores Wei Ying’s existence when their together.
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.
After pausing for a second, he turned around to travel down the mountain.
No matter what prey haunted Dafan Mountain, he couldn’t take it. Wei WuXian could fight for it against anyone, except for Jin Ling.
Why did it turn out to be Jin Ling?
Jiang Yanli sighed, understanding her little brother’s pain, but she did blame him- a-Xian never knew, that’s all.
With so many disciples in the Jin Sect, he really didn’t expect that the person he met happened to be Jin Ling. If he knew, he definitely wouldn’t mock Jin Ling for “having no mother to teach him.” If someone else had said the same words to Jin Ling, he would teach them about what it means to bring misfortune upon oneself with careless talk. Yet, the person who had said so turned out to be himself.
“a-Xian, it’s not your fault…” she spoke softly, and her brother nodded sagely.
Yu Ziyuan huffed, “not his fault? He brought up how Jin Ling has no mother, quite disrespectful isn’t it?” she smirked in what seemed like victory, before Lan Qiren sighed heavily, and parted his lips.
“Yu Ziyuan, you berate Wei Wuxian for pointing out that Jin Ling has no mother, have you forgotten that you do the same? But worse?” after what Lan Qiren just said, the air felt tense, most knew what Lan Qiren was talking about.
Yu Ziyuan sputtered, “I have done no such thing-“
“have you forgotten about your rude words of Cangse Sanren?” Lan Qiren snapped, his two nephews beside him widened their eyes in shock, having not seen this side of their uncle in a long time. But they stayed silent, it was only once in a decade that their uncle lashes out, and when he does—it’s like multiple slaps on the face.
“That whore?” she huffed indignantly, rolling her eyes.
“see? You speak ill of her.” Lan Qiren said calmly.
“My Lady, please, calm down alr-“
“im not finished, Fengmian!” she screeched.
“Cangse Sanren leeched onto my husband, she deserves to be called a whore!” she slapped her hand on her chest, as her lips parted with an angry expression. But, Lan Qiren stayed perfectly calm.
“and, that brat Wei Ying! Is it my fault he was raised with no mother?! He’s just an illegitimate son of Fengmian!” and that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
“do you even know what YOU’RE saying about my mother?” growled Wei Wuxian, his lips were bleeding, turns out he’d been biting his lips to contain anger.
“who are you speak to me like th-“
“I am the son of a servant, the son of Wei Changze! but I am also the son of Cangse Sanren, the disciple of the immortal Baoshan Sanren. My parents loved each other, not like you and your husband! Are you so jealous of my mother because she ACTUALLY has someone to love her?!” he said in one breath, huffing and puffing when he stopped talking, clutching his chest In anger.
“you stupid bitch! How dare you? I am the madam of the renowned Jiang sect of Yunmeng! The wife of a sect leader-“ she raised her hand to slap Wei Wuxian, who was standing in front of her, merely a few steps away.
“mother don’t-“ Jiang Yanli called out in horror, she begged for someone to do something as she could not, she’s too slow- too weak- and she has no energy right now.
Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng stood up quickly and dashed to Wei Wuxian’s side, who was unmoving. Jiang Cheng shielded Wei Wuxian, while Lan Wangji grabbed Yu Ziyuan’s hand in the air.
Yu Ziyuan tried to break out of the grip, but the Lan sect was not known for their arm strength for no reason, afterall.
“Yu Ziyuan, Wei Wuxian is not the son of Jiang Fengmian, I know, because I witnessed Wei Wuxian’s birth myself.” Lan Qiren said, unmoving from his seat, as his eldest nephew sat beside him with worry printed on his fair face.
“i- what?” Wei Wuxian froze, old man Lan witnessed his birth?
“I was not necessarily friends with your parents, Wei Ying, but I knew your mother. I was with them on a nighthunt just minutes before Cangse went into labor, and guess what. You came out looking like your mother, but also like your father. You had the same eye color as him- the same nose- that!” Lan Qiren said, dismissing all the rumors of Wei Wuxian being a bastard child.
Wei Wuxian sighed in relief, and Madam Yu reluctantly put her hand back down, walking back to her assigned seat still with an angered face.
Lan Wangji let go of her hand and checked Wei Wuxian for any injuries for a moment, before returning to his seat.
After standing still for a moment, Wei WuXian raised his hand and gave himself a slap on the face.
Jiang Yanli can’t bear to watch her beloved younger brother hurt himself, it just breaks her heart.
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.”
The donkey whined, just as a wave of cultivators approached from the bottom of the hill. After the four-hundred-or-so spirit-binding nets were destroyed by Lan WangJi’s sword, the hesitant cultivators in Buddha’s Feet all rushed up again. Everyone here was probably Jin Ling’s opponent. Wei WuXian considered for a moment, about whether or not to make them retreat again with force. But, after thinking about it, he ended up silently walking out of the way, letting them pass.
The disciples from different sects, wearing differently colored uniforms, complained as they walked, “Both the Jin Sect and the Jiang Sect spoil Young Master Jin too much. He’s still so young, but he’s already this arrogant and rude. If they let him have the LanlingJin Sect, who knows what chaos would happen? I don’t think we’d even survive.”
Wei WuXian slowed his pace.
A soft-hearted female cultivator sighed, “How can they not spoil him? He lost both his parents at such a young age.”
Both said parents sucked in a sharp breath.
“Shimei, that’s not how it works. So what, if both his parents died? There are tons who lost both of their parents. If everyone acted like him, then what would happen?”
“I’m surprised that Wei WuXian was cruel enough to harm her. Jin Ling’s mother was Jiang Cheng’s elder sister from birth—the shijie who brought him up.”
“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.”
Jin Zixuan raised an eyebrow, “what do they mean by that?”
“Why does Wei WuXian have something to do with everyone...”
“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.”
“I do not hate Wei Ying.” Lan Wangji said after what the women on the screen said.
“i-what?”
“Speaking of it, today, if it wasn’t for HanGuang-Jun...”
After walking for a while, the gurgling sounds of a running stream came into Wei WuXian’s ears.
“ew, what the fuck! That sounds terrible!” exclaimed Jiang Cheng, and Nie HUaisang hummed in agreement
He didn’t hear this when he came up. Wei WuXian finally realized that he walked the wrong path down the mountain, and onto another one that forked off.
Holding the reign of the donkey, he stood beside the running water. The moon could be seen high in the sky. With no branches or leaves on the banks of the stream, fragments of white reflected over the surface. In the reflection, Wei WuXian saw a face, ever-changing from the flow of the water.
He slammed his palm into the water, dissolving the ridiculous features. He lifted his dripping wet palms and wiped away the powder on his face.
A handsome, graceful youth appeared in the reflections of the water. He looked as pure as if he had been cleansed by moonlight, with smooth brows, bright eyes, and lips curving slightly upward. Yet, as he lowered his head to stare at himself, the drops of water hanging from his lashes rolled off, as if they were drops of tears.
“oh- that’s how Mo-gongzi looks? He’s got quite the charming face.” Lan Xichen stated, mesmerized by Mo Xuanyu’s beauty.
It was a young and unfamiliar face, not the YiLing Patriarch who had overturned the world and killed thousands—Wei WuXian.
‘hmm it’s been mentioned many times he’s killed thousands, I wonder why..’ Wen Ruohan though, and Wen Ning felt another shiver.
After taking a few more looks at this face, Wei WuXian wiped his face again and rubbed his eyes. He sat beside the stream with a thud.
It wasn’t as if he couldn’t withstand the words of attack. After all, back when he made the decision, he fully understood the situations that he had to face. Ever since then, he had reminded himself of the YunmengJiang Sect’s motto—do it even if it was impossible.
However, although he thought that his heart was like a stone, in the end, he was still human, not some emotionless grass or plant.
The donkey seemed as if it knew that he wasn’t in a great mood, and for once, it wasn’t being loud out of impatience. A moment of silence passed, and it turned around to leave. Wei WuXian sat by the stream, not responding at all. It turned around to look, throwing its hooves onto the ground, but Wei WuXian still paid no attention to it. The donkey had to come back sulkily, biting and tugging on the corner of Wei WuXian’s collar.
“what’s wrong with the damn donkey?” Jiang said muttered.
“is it getting irritated by something?” replied Nie Huaisang.
He could choose to go, and he could choose to not go. Seeing that the donkey had went as far as to use his mouth, Wei WuXian decided to follow him. The donkey took him to a few trees and circled around an area of grass. In the grass, there lay a qiankun bag, with a ragged golden net hanging above it. It probably fell off as an unlucky cultivator struggled their way out. Wei WuXian picked up the bag and opened it. There were quite a few items in it, such as gourds of medicinal liquor, talismans, miniature demon-reflecting mirrors, and so on.
He fished around for some time and happened to pull out a talisman. Immediately, a ball of fire appeared in his hand.
“holy shi-“
“Huaisang, Languange.”
The burning item was an gloom-burning talisman, which, like its name, used dark energy as fuel. It would burn automatically if it made contact with dark energy. The more energy there was, the stronger the flame was. It lit up as soon as it was taken out, meaning that there was a spirit not far away from Wei WuXian.
“is that another of his creations?” asked Jiang Cheng.
“most likely.”
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.
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
“is this man like a-Yan? He lost his soul?”
Wei WuXian slowly approached. The words that the old man murmured became clear.
“It hurts, it hurts.”
Wei WuXian asked, “Where does it hurt?”
The old man answered, “Head. My head.”
Wei WuXian replied, “Let me take a look at it.”
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 en-coffined and buried properly. This wasn’t the soul that a living human had lost.
“OH MY GOD WHAT THE FUCK-“ Nie Huaisang screeched, before running to Wei Wuxian, hiding his face.
However, ghosts like this shouldn’t have appeared on Dafan Mountain.
Wei WuXian did not find an explanation to this implausible scenario. Feeling quite worried, he jumped onto the donkey’s back, slapped it with a shout, and rode toward the direction of where Jin Ling came up the mountain.
“what’s happening now?” Nie Mingjue muttered.
Around the area of the ancient tombs, there were a lot of cultivators who wandered around, in hope of a hare crashing into the tree trunk. Somebody dared to hold a spirit-attraction flag, but only attracted a bunch of dark spirits who wept despairingly. Wei WuXian pulled on the reign, scanned around, and asked in a loud, clear voice, “Excuse me and sorry for the interruption, but where did the young masters from the Jin Clan and the Lan Clan go?”
Sure enough, after washing his face, people actually acknowledged him. One cultivator answered, “They left here, for Goddess Temple.”
Wei WuXian spoke, “Goddess Temple?”
The rural clan from back then had sneaked up the mountain again and joined the group of night-hunters, 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.”
Wei WuXian inquired again, “Which deity is the temple built for?”
The round-faced girl spoke, “I, I think it’s a natural stone statue of a goddess.”
Wei WuXian nodded, “Thank you.”
“I’ve never heard of a temple like that……” Wen Ruohan muttered.
After the conversation, he immediately ran toward the direction of Goddess Temple.
The sluggard’s marriage, lightning that destroyed coffins, the fiance eaten by wolves, the father and daughter losing their souls, the extravagant burial clothes... It was as if a string was being pulled through all of the beads, tying everything into one perfect strand. No wonder the compasses of evil didn’t pick up anything, and the spirit-attraction flags didn’t work either. Everyone had underestimated the creature in Dafan Mountain.
“it ended? Aww…” Nie Huaisang sulked.
“let’s just wait for it appear again, a-sang.”