Wei WuXian cupped his hands over his mouth and raised his voice, “It really is alright, look! I’m talking in such a loud voice and it’s not coming over, is it? But over on your side it’s not a matter of being loud or not. It’s because there’s firelight! It’s hot! There’s a lot of live humans and they’re all male! The yang energy is too heavy! He can’t see or hear, but he can walk in the direction where he feels is the most crowded. Why aren’t you putting the fire out already? And scatter around!”
With a wave of Lan SiZhui’s hand, a gust of wind put out the fire. The boys immediately scattered all around the deserted garden.
Just as Wei WuXian said, after the bonfire died and the people had dispersed, the headless man lost his direction.
He stood still for a few moments. Just as the group was about to sigh in relief, he suddenly started to move again. And, without any hesitation, he walked straight toward one of the boys!
Lan JingYi started to wail again, “But you said that we would be fine as long as the fire was out and we were scattered!”
Wei WuXian couldn’t find the time to answer him. He shouted at the other boy, “Don’t move!”
He picked up a pebble beside his feet. With a flick of his wrist, he threw the pebble toward the headless man. The pebble landed at the center of the man’s back. He stopped in his tracks and turned around. After he pondered for a moment, as though deciding that this side was more suspicious, he started walking toward Wei WuXian.
Slowly, Wei WuXian shifted two steps to the side, only closely missing the trudging corpse. He continued, “I told you to scatter, not to run around. Don’t run too quickly. The ghoul has quite a high level of cultivation. If you move too fast and carry the air with you, he’ll also notice.”
Lan SiZhui, “It seems like he is searching for something… Maybe it is… his head?”
Wei WuXian, “That’s right. He’s searching for his head. There are quite a few heads here, so since he doesn’t know which one is his, he’ll pull off the head of each person and place it on top of his own neck to see if it fits or not. If it does, he’ll do with it for a period of time, and if it doesn’t, he’ll throw it away, so you should walk slowly. You must not get caught by him.”
Imagining their heads being pulled off by the headless corpse and gruesomely attached to his own neck, the boys shivered in horror. Raising their hands over their heads in unison, they started to slowly “flee” around the garden. It was as though they were playing a treacherous round of hide-and-seek with the ghoul. Whoever that the ghoul seized would have to hand over his head. As soon as he caught of a boy’s presence, Wei WuXian would toss out a pebble and draw his attention to himself.
Hands behind his back, Wei WuXian moved slowly, walking as he examined the corpse’s actions, Our dear friend’s posture seems a bit strange, doesn’t it? He keeps on waving his arm with his hand in a loose fist. This type of movement…
As he thought, Lan JingYi couldn’t stand it any longer, “Are we just going to continue walking like this? Just how long will we have to keep on walking!?”
Wei WuXian pondered for a moment before replying, “Of course not.”
Just as he finished, he started to shout, “HanGuang-Jun! Oh, HanGuang-Jun! HanGuang-Jun, are you back yet? Help us!”
Seeing this, the others joined in as well. Since the corpse lacked a head and couldn’t hear anything, each shout echoed more passionate, more miserable than the last. A few moments later, the soft, flowing note of a xiao sounded amid the night. Closely following it was the limpid reverberation of a string.
Hearing the xiao and the guqin, the juniors were so ecstatic that they almost teared up, “HanGuang-Jun! ZeWu-Jun!”
Two slender figures flashed before the garden’s worn-down doors. They were the same jade-like posture, the same snowy shade. One holding a xiao and the other carrying a guqin, the two of them walked shoulder to shoulder. As they saw the headless shadow, both paused shortly.
Lan XiChen’s expression was especially surprised, almost to the point of shocked. Liebing’s ceased to sound, yet Bichen had already unsheathed. Sensing that a cold, powerful sword glare came at him, the headless man raised his arm and waved again. Wei WuXian exclaimed in silence, It’s that move again!
The man was also quite agile. Dodging Bichen’s glare with a leap, he backhandedly snatched at it. With this, he managed to grab Bichen’s sword hilt!
He held Bichen in his hand and raised it up, as if he was trying to examine what he had just got hold of even though he had no eyes. After the juniors saw that the man somehow stopped Bichen in midair, all of their faces paled. Lan WangJi, though, seemed as calm as ever. Taking out his guqin, he looked down and curved his finger, plucking one string. As if it was a formless arrow, the sound whistled as it whipped toward the corpse. The headless corpse slashed with the sword and fractured the note into pieces. Lan WangJi strummed downward. All seven strings vibrated, singing with even greater power. At the same time, Wei WuXian pulled out his bamboo flute and accompanied with an abnormally shrill pitch. It was as though the sharp blades of swords and sabers rained down from the sky!
The headless corpse lunged again. Lan XiChen had finally returned to his senses. Raising Liebing to his lips, he started to play as well. Wei WuXian didn’t know if it was only his imagination, but as soon as the soft, serene tone of the xiao appeared, the corpse’s movement paused. For a moment, he seemed to have stood still and listened, then turned around, as though he wanted to see who was the one playing the music. Yet, without eyes or a head, he couldn’t see anything at all. Still under the forceful attacks of the flute and the guqin, he looked as if he finally lost all energy, succumbing to the three instruments. With a stagger, he fell to the ground.
To be more accurate, it wasn’t that he fell down, but that he fell apart. There were the arms, the legs, and the torso, broken and scattered over the carpet of dry leaves.
Lan WangJi put his guqin away and summoned his sword back. Together with Wei WuXian, he walked toward the limbs, looked down, and took out five new Qiankun Pouches. The juniors encircled them, still in a panicked state. First, they saluted ZeWu-Jun, but before they had the chance to start chirping and twittering, Lan WangJi stated, “Go rest.”
Lan JingYi was confused, “Huh? But HanGuang-Jun, it is not nine yet.”
Lan SiZhui, on the other hand, tugged him and answered respectfully, “Yes.”
With that, he didn’t ask anything else. Leading the rest of the juniors, he went to another area of the garden, preparing to restart the fire and sleep.
Only three people were left by the pile of corpse parts. Wei WuXian nodded at Lan XiChen in respect. He squatted down and began to seal the parts inside the Qiankun Pouches again. Just as he was in the middle of stuffing the left hand into a pouch, Lan XiChen spoke up, “Please wait a moment.”
Back then, when Wei WuXian had seen Lan XiChen’s expression, he knew that something was wrong. Sure enough, Lan XiChen’s complexion was ashen as he repeated his words, “Please… wait a moment. Let me see the corpse.”
Wei WuXian stopped, “ZeWu-Jun, do you know who this person is?”
Before Lan XiChen could reply, Lan WangJi already nodded slowly.