She went inside the house to take out the jar. Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng glanced at each other. A moment later, Jiang YanLi came out and gave them each a bowl. Then, she went inside again and brought out a third bowl, walked to the door, and turned to Wen Ning, “I’m sorry. There are only small bowls left. You can have this.”
Wen Ning had originally been guarding the door, looking at the ground. Seeing this, he was so flattered that he started stammering again, “Ah… Th-There’s some for me?”
Jiang Cheng wasn’t pleased, “Why does he get some too?”
Jiang YanLi, “I brought so much anyways. Anyone who sees it gets some.”
Wen Ning replied hesitantly, “Thank you, Maiden Jiang… Thank you.”
Cupping the small, filled up bowl in his hands, he was too embarrassed to say thank you, but he couldn’t drink it. It was a waste to give him some. Dead people didn’t eat. Jiang YanLi, however, noticed his awkwardness. She asked him a couple of things and began to chat with Wen Ning outside. Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng stood in the yard.
Jiang Cheng raised up his bowl, “To the YiLing Patriarch.”
Hearing this, Wei WuXian remembered the proudly fluttering banner again. All that was in his head was the ten golden words ‘‘all hail the supreme Lord of Evil Patriarch of YiLing’, “Shut up!”
After he drank a mouthful, Jiang Cheng spoke, “How’s your wound from last time?”
Wei WuXian, “It healed a long time ago.”
Jiang Cheng, “Mn.” With a pause, he continued, “How many days?”
Wei WuXian, “Less than seven. I told you before. With Wen Qing, it was nothing difficult. But you really did fucking stab me.”
Jiang Cheng ate a piece of lotus root, “You were the one who smashed my arm first. You took seven days, while I had to hang my arm up for an entire month.”
Wei WuXian grinned, “How could it seem realistic if it wasn’t hard enough? It was your left hand anyways. It didn’t hinder you from writing. It takes a hundred days to heal a wound to the bone. It wouldn’t be too much even if you hung it up for three months.”
Wen Ning’s stuttering answers swept in from outside. After a while of silence, Jiang Cheng asked, “You’ll stay like this from now on? Got any plans?”
Wei WuXian, “Not at the moment. None of the group dares go down the mountain. People don’t dare do anything anything to me when I go down the mountain either. It’ll be fine as long as I don’t stir up trouble on my own.”
“On your own?” Jiang Cheng sneered, “Wei WuXian, do you believe that even if you don’t stir up trouble on your own, trouble won’t come and find you? It’s often impossible to save someone, but there are more than thousands of ways to harm someone.”
Wei WuXian replied as he ate, “A man with strength can defeat ten with skill. I don’t care if they have thousands of ways. I’ll kill whoever comes.”
Jiang Cheng spoke in a cool voice, “You never listen to any of my opinions. One day, you’ll come to understand that I’m the one who’s right.”
He drank the leftover soup in one gulp and stood up, “Wow. I’m impressed. Round of applause for the YiLing Patriarch.”
Wei WuXian spat out a bone, “Are you done yet?”
Before they parted, Jiang Cheng spoke, “We won’t see you off. It wouldn’t be good if someone saw us.”
Wei WuXian nodded. He understood that it wasn’t easy for the Jiang siblings to have come out here. If someone else saw them, all those things they did for the public to believe would be wasted. He spoke, “We’ll go first.”
After they went out the alley, Wei WuXian was still walking in front and Wen Ning was still following in silence. Suddenly, Wei WuXian turned around, “Why are you still holding the soup?”
“Huh?” Wen Ning answered in reluctance, “To take it back… I can’t drink it, but I can give it to someone else…”
“…” Wei WuXian, “Your choice. Be careful not to spill it.”
He turned around, knowing that it’d be a long time before he’d get to see the people he was familiar with again.
But… right now, wasn’t he on his way to seeing people he was familiar with as well?
Chapter 76: Nightfall—Part One
Translated by K of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
(Reminder: Please do not post spoilers! Your comments will be deleted if it contains one. )
Inside of the largest Treasure Pavilion in Lanling City.
Within the well-arranged shelves of treasure rested countless pieces of spiritual jade and weapons of high quality. Many cultivators were choosing among the rows, comparing the pricing and craftsmanship of each. Those with the spare time would come chat for a while.
One of them asked, “Chief Cultivator? Seems like the big sects have been arguing over this for the past while. Have they come to a conclusion yet?”
“What is there to argue about? We can’t be a heap of loose sand, a group without a leader forever, can we? To set a cultivator who watches over all of the sects—I don’t see anything wrong with that.”
“It’s not that good, is it? What if another QishanWen Sect…”
“How could that be the same? The Chief Cultivator is elected by all the sects. They’re different, they’re different.”
“Hah, they say it’s an election, but everyone knows in their hearts. No matter what, it’s the same few people who’s competing, isn’t it? Is there any space for others?”
“ChiFeng-Zun is quite against it, isn’t he? He’s tried to stop Jin GuangShan so many times, implied or otherwise. In my opinion, there’s still a long time before they finish mulling over it.”
“And there can be only one person who sits in the position of Chief Cultivator. If it really passed, whom exactly the person should be would take another few years of arguing over, I suppose.”
“It’s the worry of those who sit at the top, anyways. None of our business. It’s not like little shrimps like us could have any control over it even if we wanted to.”
Someone suddenly changed the subject, “Did any of you attend the completion ceremony of the Cloud Recesses’ Library Pavilion? Well, I went. I stood there and looked, and it was the exact same as how it was before. A difficult undertaking indeed.”
“Yeah, very difficult. It was such a huge cultivational residence, an ethereal realm of hundreds of years old—how could it be rebuilt in a short amount of time?”
“Speaking of it, there’s been a lot of joyous occasions these days, hasn’t there?”
“You mean the seventh-day celebration of Jin ZiXuan’s son? There’s a whole pile of colorful things, and the kid didn’t like any of them. Cried so hard that the roof of Glamor Hall was almost screamed off. How amusing that he giggles like that whenever he sees his dad’s Suihua. His parents were so happy. They all said he’s going to be a wonderful swordsman when he grows up.”
Not far away, a person in white was holding a jade tassel pendant in his hand, examining it carefully. Hearing this, he smiled.
The voice of a female cultivator came over, “Madam Jin is so lucky… She must’ve given up on rising into immortality in her last life that she gained such good fortune in this life.”