A-Qing, “You piece of shit! Dream on! You don’t deserve to call Daozhang unclean. You’re just a pool of spittle! Daozhang must be the unluckiest man in the world to have met you! You’re the only one who’s dirty! It’s only a disgusting pool of spittle like you!”
Xue Yang’s expression finally darkened.
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?”
With a wave of his hand, some sort of powder came at her face and went into her eyes. Immediately, everything she could see became a bloody red, then turned into darkness.
Stung by the scorching pain on her eyes, A-Qing let out a blood-curdling screech. Xue Yang’s voice came again, “You’re too talkative. You won’t need your tongue anymore, either.”
The crisp rings of the silver bell sounded as though they were right beside Wei WuXian, yet he was still immersed in A-Qing’s emotions, unable to come back to his senses. His head spun as well.
Lan JingYi waved a hand in front of him, “There is not reaction? What if he lost his marbles?!”
Jin Ling, “I said already that Empathy is very dangerous!”
Lan JingYi, “Well it was because your head was up in the clouds and did not ring the bell in time.”
Jin Ling’s face froze, “I…”
Luckily, Wei WuXian had finally came to. He stood up against the coffin. A-Qing, having already left his body, leaned on the coffin as well. The boys swarmed around him as though they were a litter of piglets and all talk at the same time, “He’s up, he’s up!”
“Whew, he hasn’t lost his marbles.”
“Hasn’t he lost his marbles to begin with?”
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
With loud chatters surrounding his ears, Wei WuXian spoke up, “Don’t be so loud. My head feels awful.”
They quieted at once. Wei WuXian looked down, reached into the coffin, and slightly opened Xiao XingChen’s collars. As he had expected, at his neck, there was a thin yet fatal wound.
Wei WuXian sighed in silence and turned to A-Qing, “Thanks for all the trouble.”
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.
In these years, she hid alone within the fog of Yi City, stealthily going against Xue Yang by scaring away the humans who had entered the city and warning them, directing them outside. Just how much courage and dedication did she have to be able to do this?
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.
Wei WuXian replied, “Don’t worry.” He turned to the disciples, “Stay here, all of you. The walking corpses in the city won’t be able to come here. I’ll be back soon.”
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.”
Jin Ling, “Can’t you sum it up? Don’t leave us at a cliffhanger!”
Wei WuXian, “In summary: Xue Yang must die.”
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.
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.
Wei WuXian commanded, “Hold him down!”
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.
Suddenly, a furious roar came from where the other two fought, “Give it back!”
Chapter 42 Grasses—Part Ten
Lan WangJi’s sword had slashed across Xue Yang’s chest. Not only did he bleed, the Spirit-trapping Pouch that he hid in his lapels had been taken out by the Bichen’s tip as well. Wei WuXian, though, couldn’t see what was happening, “Xue Yang! What do you want him to give back to you? Shuanghua? It’s not like Shuanghua is your sword to begin with, so why do you say ‘give it back’? Do you know no shame?”
Xue Yang laughed loudly, “Senior Wei, you really don’t want to show me any mercy, do you?”
Wei WuXian, “Laugh. Go on. Even if you die laughing, you won’t be able to piece together Xiao XingChen’s soul. He was so disgusted by you, yet you still want to bring him back to play games.”
Abruptly, Xue Yang shouted, “Who wants to play games with him?!”
Wei WuXian, “Then why did you kneel and beg me so that I can help you mend his soul?”
Of course, someone as sharp as Xue Yang knew that Wei WuXian was purposely diverting him, first to distract him with anger, second to make him raise his voice so that Lan WangJi could tell where he was and attack. Even so, he replied in spite of himself. He spoke in a cruel voice, “Why did I do so? Hah! How can you not know? I want to make him into a fierce corpse, an evil spirit, so that I can control him! Didn’t he want to be a virtuous person? Then, I’ll make it so that he never stops killing, so that he’ll never be at peace!”
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!”
Whenever he talked, it was as though he was announcing his location. The sounds of a blade piercing through flesh kept coming, but Xue Yang’s tolerance for pain was much higher than those of normal people. Wei WuXian had seen during Empathy that even if he was pierced through the stomach, he could laugh as if nothing had happened.