Lan WangJi, “Fifteen, from Lanling.”
Wei WuXian’s expression changed as well.
The soul that “Inquire” had found was Jin Ling?!
He listened intently. Amid the noise that seemed to have bombarded here, there really seemed to be a few weak shouts coming from Jin Ling. They were faint, however, and indistinct.
Lan WangJi continued to ask. Wei WuXian knew that he was asking for the precise location, so he stared fixedly at the strings of the guqin, waiting for Jin Ling’s answer.
This time, the answer came a bit slower. After he finished listening, Lan WangJi spoke to Wei WuXian, “‘Stand at where you are, face the southwest, and listen to the strings. After each note is played, walk forward one step. When the sound stops, it will be right in front of you.’”
Without saying a word, Wei WuXian turned toward the southwest. Behind him came seven notes of the guqin, so he walked seven steps forward. However, nothing had appeared in front of him.
The notes continued, but the pause between them grew longer and longer, and he also walked slower and slower. Another step, and another, and another…
After the sixth step, the guqin finally silenced. No more notes sounded.
And, before him, there was only a wall.
The wall was made of grey-white rock bricks, pieced together tightly. Wei WuXian turned around, “… He’s in the wall?!”
Bichen unsheathed. Four streaks of blue light swept past, and a neat pound sign had been carved onto the wall. The two went forward to take apart the bricks. After removing some of them, a large sheet of black dirt was exposed.
It seemed that the stone castle was made to be double-layered, filled with dirt between the two layers of hard rock. Using his bare hands, Wei WuXian dug out a large chunk of dirt. Surrounded by the coal-black dirt, there was a human’s face, eyes tightly shut.
It was the missing Jin Ling!
Having his face enveloped in dirt, as soon as it appeared, air poured into Jin Ling’s mouth and nose. He immediately started to cough and breathe. As Wei WuXian saw that he was still alive, his heart finally calmed. Jin Ling really did almost die. Or else, “Inquiry” wouldn’t have caught the still-alive soul that was about to leave his body. The good thing was that only a short while passed after he was buried into the wall. If it took them any longer, he would have suffocated to death.
The two hastened to dig him out of the wall. However, who knew that, as if dirt clung onto a carrot being pulled out of the ground, the moment Jin Ling’s upper body emerged from the dirt, the sword on his back caught on something else and dragged it out.
It was the ashen bone of a human arm!
Lan WangJi laid Jin Ling flat onto the ground and felt for his pulse. Wei WuXian, on the other hand, took up the sheath of Bichen, and skillfully started to poke around in the dirt, following the length of the bone. After a short while, a complete skeleton appeared before their eyes.
This skeleton was the same as how Jin Ling looked, buried inside the wall in a standing position. With ghastly pale bones and pitch-black dirt—the contrast was distinct yet glaring to the eye. Wei WuXian dug a bit more through the ground, and broke away a few pieces of bricks on the side. After some more rustling around, sure enough, he found another skeleton nearby.
This one hadn’t decayed completely yet. There were still some flesh on the bones, and long, messy hair on the skull. From the ragged clothing in the shade of a watered down red, he could tell that this was a woman. However, she wasn’t standing, with her skeleton bending down. The reason of this was that there was a third skeleton beside her, squatting down by her feet.
Wei WuXian stopped digging further.
He took a few steps back. The noise in his ears was as wild and turbulent as tidal waves.
He could almost be sure of it. The inside of this stone castle’s thick walls was packed with human corpses.
Above, below, southeast, northwest; standing, sitting, lying, squatting…
Just what on Earth was this place?!
Chapter 23 Malice—Part One
At this moment, the unconscious Jin Ling suddenly sat up.
In front of the two, he clumsily stood up with closed eyes. Wei WuXian wanted to see what he was going to do, so he didn’t do anything as Jin Ling slowly walked around him, took one stride, and stepped back into the wall where he stood just a while ago. He placed his arms flat beside his body. Even the position was the same as before.
Wei WuXian pulled him out of the wall again, feeling that the situation was both hilarious and strange. As he was about to tell Lan WangJi that it was best not to stay here for long, he suddenly quivered out of fright, hearing a few barks that came from afar. Ever since they went in, the black-haired spiritual dog behaved itself, wagging its tail as it sat before the entrance. It waited for them to bring back its master in an anxious yet pathetic way, without barking anymore. However, right now, its barks were fiercer than ever.
Lan WangJi spoke, “Something is wrong outside of the castle.”
As he reached out to help Jin Ling, Wei WuXian beat him to it and carried Jin Ling up on his back, “Let’s go out and see!”
The two quickly went back the same way they came. Bending down to exit, they saw the spiritual dog face them with its back, growling with the bottom of its throat at a certain direction. Although Wei WuXian managed to come over, he really couldn’t bear this type of sound, and involuntarily took a few steps backward. When the dog turned around and saw that he had Jin Ling on his back, it instantly dashed over, causing Wei WuXian to scream. Lan WangJi shifted in front of him just as he was about to throw Jin Ling down.
The spiritual dog immediately stopped, its tail between its legs again. The reason why it didn’t stick its tongue out was that it held something inside its mouth. Lan WangJi went forth, bent down, took out a scrap of cloth from between its teeth, and handed it over to Wei WuXian. It seemed like it was part of a piece of clothing. Before this, there must have been someone either roaming or spying around the area, and they must have appeared suspicious, or else the dog’s barks wouldn’t have been teeming with hostility. Wei WuXian declared, “They haven’t gone far yet. Let’s go after them!”
Yet, Lan WangJi responded, “That is not necessary. I know who they are.”
Wei WuXian, “I also know. It must have been the same group of people who spread rumors of the Xinglu Ridge, let out the walking corpses, set up the maze array, and built the stone castles. And those sabers. But, if we don’t catch them now, it’d be a bother to find them later.”
Lan WangJi, “I will go after them. What about you and Jin Ling?”
Wei WuXian, “I’ll take him down the Xinglu Ridge and settle down somewhere in Qinghe, around where we met that charlatan. Let’s meet up there.”
The pace of the conversation was extremely fast. Lan WangJi only paused for a moment, and Wei WuXian added, “Go. Any later and the person would have run away. I’ll be back!”
Hearing the ‘I’ll be back’, Lan WangJi took one deep look at him and walked off without any more words. The spiritual dog wanted to throw itself over again. Wei WuXian immediately shouted, “W-w-w-wait! Take the dog away! Take it!!!”
Lan WangJi had to come back again. He looked down at the black-haired spiritual dog. Too scared to put up any resistance, it yapped as it trailed behind Lan WangJi, turning around to look at Jin Ling once in awhile. Wei WuXian wiped a few drops of sweat from his forehead. After he looked at the group of white castles once more, he picked up Jin Ling again and went down the Xinglu Ridge.