Now that Wei WuXian mentioned it, many of the people began to grow suspicious—Sect Leader Su really did seem to be a bit too talkative today. But since nobody else said anything, they didn’t say anything either, and everyone chose silence out of caution. The other portion of the people began to think about the things that they did before and when they came up the mountain. Wei WuXian looked at the disciples of the MolingSu Sect, standing quite far from the GusuLan Sect’s disciples. Even more, the latter wasn’t even willing to spare the former a single glance. The more he looked, the odder he found it to be.
He whispered to Lan WangJi, “HanGuang-Jun, let me ask you—both the GusuLan Sect and the MolingSu Sect cultivate through music, and both Gusu and Moling are in the Jiangnan region, not far away from each other. Generally speaking, shouldn’t you be friendly with each other? Why do I feel like the sects don’t have a good relationship?”
Lan SiZhui and Lan JingYi wriggled their way over. As Lan JingYi heard this, he raised his voice, “Of course they do not have a good relationship!”
Lan WangJi, “The MolingSu Sect was a branch of the GusuLan Sect.”
Wei WuXian, “What?”
Lan SiZhui covered Lan JingYi’s mouth, whispering, “Senior Wei, you might not know this. The MolingSu Sect was the sect that a foreign disciple built after he broke away from the GusuLan Sect. But because of where he studied, his sect’s techniques tend to be similar to the those of the GusuLan Sect’s. They cultivate through music as well. Even the sect leader Su She’s first-class spiritual weapon is a seven-stringed guqin like HanGuang-Jun’s.”
Quite speechless, Wei WuXian turned around to look at the dark-faced Su She. Lan JingYi struggled his way out of Lan SiZhui and grumbled, “Not only that, it gets even more peculiar! Sect Leader Su… Fine, I know I have to be quiet! Sect Leader Su not only learns everything, but he is also quite annoyed by others saying that he is imitating our HanGuang-Jun—he gets angry at once. How could such a person exist in this world?!”
Hearing him become louder and louder, Lan SiZhui could only interrupt, “JingYi!”
Yet, Su She had already heard everything with clarity. With a darkening face and two fires as his eyes, he spat out a mouthful of blood and finally lifted the Silence spell by force. But as soon as he opened his mouth, his voice was so rasp that it sounded as if he was ten years older, “The GusuLan Sect, famed for righteousness, full of talents, top of the entire world of cultivation! So this is how you teach your disciples!”
Sect Leader OuYang, “Sect Leader Su, in front of such a great enemy, let’s not fall out with those who are our own.”
Su She laughed coldly, “Those who are our own? Look at the GusuLan Sect. Every one of them has hit it off with Wei WuXian. Do they really count as our own?”
With this, the GusuLan Sect was immediately displeased. Lan QiRen glanced at him, but didn’t say anything. One of the older, higher-level guest cultivators seemed to have been angered, “Su MinShan, even if you are not of the GusuLan Sect anymore, you should still watch your words!”
A disciple immediately stepped out from the MolingSu Sect, “Our sect leader has long since broken off from the GusuLan Sect. What right do you have to talk to him this way?”
Lan JingYi had been filled with complaints about the MolingSu Sect since a long time ago, speaking loudly, “The fact that your sect leader can be in such a position right now was because of the GusuLan Sect’s teachings back then anyways. So we cannot say anything, even as he bites the hand that fed him?”
Within the Demon-Slaughtering Cave, the two groups of people began to glare at each other, mocking at each other. Over on the MolingSu Sect’s side, someone else shouted, “There are so many disciples in the GusuLan Sect; don’t tell me that any one of them can establish their own sect? That’s a bit too contemptuous, isn’t it?”
Immediately, someone from the GusuLan Sect’s side returned the attack, “Who is the one being contemptuous here? I wonder which sect played their exorcism melodies all wrong, and still does not realize it!”
As soon as this was spoken, Wei WuXian felt everything clear up! He spoke, “It’s not the food or the environment!”
Everyone paused in surprise. Wei WuXian continued, “You all forgot that after you came up the mountain, there was one other thing that you all did.”
Lan SiZhui, “What is it?”
Wei WuXian, “Killing the corpses.”
OuYang ZiZhen exclaimed, “Oh, maybe it’s the same as back in Yi City, where there was something like a poisonous powder in the corpses’ mouths?! Dad, when you were killing those corpses, did strangely-colored powder come out of the corpses’ bodies?”
Sect Leader OuYang, “There wasn’t any powder, there wasn’t!”
OuYang ZiZhen refused to give up, “Then… Then what about liquids?”
Jiang Cheng’s voice was cold, “Enough. If strange powder or liquids were sent out the corpses’ bodies after they were killed, we wouldn’t be so weak as to not have noticed anything odd.”
OuYang ZiZhen, who thought that he uncovered the mystery, blushed and scratched his head. Sect Leader OuYang finally pulled his over-excited son down to sit properly. Wei WuXian, “It is indeed related to killing corpses. However, the problem isn’t the corpses, but the people who were killing the corpses.”
He turned to Lan QiRen, “Senior Lan, I’d like to ask you a question.”
Lan QiRen glanced at Lan WangJi, his voice indifferent, “If you had a question, why would you ask me instead of asking him?”
Lan QiRen was pedantic, but he wasn’t oblivious. He realized that something was strange as well, which was why he listened for so long despite his temper. His face, though, was still quite dark. But Wei WuXian was familiar with his temper ever since he was young, and after that, he’d seen the tempers of countless more people. He had long since stopped caring. Thinking that this was the uncle who brought Lan WangJi up all on his own, he was even more certain that there was nothing to fret over.
Touching his chin, he grinned, “Well I was worried that you’d get mad if I asked him too many things in front of you, wasn’t I? But since you’ve told me to ask him already, I’ll go ahead and ask. Lan Zhan?”
Lan WangJi, “Mn.”
Wei WuXian, “The MolingSu Sect was a sect that branched off from the GusuLan Sect, right?”
Lan WangJi, “Mn.”
Wei WuXian, “Although it branched off, the MolingSu Sect’s techniques still used the GusuLan Sect’s techniques ‘as reference’, right?”
Lan WangJi, “Yes.”
Wei WuXian, “One of the GusuLan Sect’s techniques, the Sound of Vanquish, has the effect of exorcising evil. Amongst them, the seven-stringed guqin was the most powerful, and so there is the greatest number of people who cultivate through the guqin. The MolingSu Sect did the same, and the guqin is the most common in their sect as well, is that correct?”
Lan WangJi, “That is correct.”
Wei WuXian, “Although the MolingSu Sect’s leader left the GusuLan Sect with knowledge of its techniques when he founded his own sect, is own guqin skills weren’t anything special, and the disciples he taught often make many mistakes too, right?”