But it never happened.
The sky had been darkening, and so had Xue Yang’s expression. He tapped his fingers irritatedly on the table.
When dusk fell completely, he kicked the table and cursed. Standing up, he half-kneeled in front of Xiao XingChen’s corpse, checking over the array and incantations that he had painted. After repeated examinations, he felt that there was nothing wrong. However, after frowning for a moment, he still wiped away all of them and redrew the entire thing.
This time, Xue Yang directly sat on the ground, staring patiently at Xiao XingChen. He waited for another while. A-Qing’s legs had already went through three stages of numbness. Now, they both itched and hurt, as though thousands of ants were nibbling on them. Her eyes had been swollen as well from crying. Her sight was a bit blurry.
After another two hours, Xue Yang finally discovered that the situation had gotten out of control.
He put his hand onto Xiao XingChen’s forehead, closing his eyes for detection. A moment later, his eyes flew open.
Wei WuXian knew. What he could still detect was probably just a few strands of a fragmented soul.
And, a soul that was broken in such a way that it could never be used to create a fierce corpse.
It seemed that Xue Yang had never expected something like this to happen. On his face, which constantly grinned, an emptiness appeared for the first time.
Without thinking, although it was too late, he pressed his hands against the wound on Xiao XingChen’s neck. However, all of the blood had already drained away. Xiao XingChen’s face was whiter than paper. Large areas of dark-red blood dried up on his neck. Covering the wound now would do nothing.
Xiao XingChen had died. He had died completely.
Even his soul had shattered.
The child in Xue Yang’s story who cried because he couldn’t eat pastries was too different from the present him. It was almost impossible to link the two together. Yet, in the current moment, Wei WuXian could finally catch a few traces of that ignorant, confused child on Xue Yang’s face.
In an instant, red veins climbed over Xue Yang’s eyes. He stood up suddenly. Squeezing both of his hands into fists, he rampaged around the coffin home. He kicked and thrashed, noisily destroying the house that he had just cleaned a few seconds ago.
At this point, his expression, the sounds that he made were closer to the word “insane” than all of his past attitudes added together.
After he smashed everything the house, he calmed down again. He squatted where he had been and called out in a small voice, “Xiao XingChen.”
He continued, “If you don’t get up, I’ll make your dear friend Song Lan murder people.
“I’ll kill off everyone in the entire Yi City and make them into living corpses. You’ve been living here for such a long time. Is it really okay for you not to care?
“I’ll strangle that little blind A-Qing and leave her corpse in the fields for wild dogs to gobble her up.”
A-Qing shivered soundlessly.
Having received no reply, Xue Yang suddenly shouted out of rage, “Xiao XingChen!”
He yanked at Xiao XingChen’s collars, even though it did nothing, and shook it a couple of times as he stared at the lifeless face in his hands.
Suddenly, pulling Xiao XingChen’s arm, he lifted him onto his back.
Xue Yang carried the corpse toward the door. As if he had lost his mind, he ranted in a whisper, “Spirit-trapping Pouch, Spirit-trapping Pouch. Right, a Spirit-trapping Pouch. I need a Spirit-trapping Pouch, a Spirit-trapping Pouch, a Spirit-trapping Pouch…”
Only after he was far away did A-Qing dare to move slightly.
Unable to balance herself, she tumbled to the ground, and only crawled up again after writhing for a while. She managed to walk a few more steps forward. As her muscles stretched, she walked faster and faster and faster, and started to run.
After she ran so far that Yi City was far behind her, she finally let out the cries that she buried within herself, “Daozhang! Daozhang! Aaah, Daozhang!…”
The scenario suddenly changed and turned to somewhere else.
At this point, A-Qing had probably already been on the run for a couple of days. She was walking in an unfamiliar town, holding a bamboo pole and pretending to be blind again. She asked whoever came toward her, “Excuse me, are there any big sects around here?”
“Excuse me, are there any really powerful people around the area? Powerful people who cultivate.”
Wei WuXian thought to himself, She’s searching for people who can help her seek revenge for Xiao XingChen.
Unfortunately, nobody took her questions seriously. They’d often walk away after just a few half-hearted sentences. A-Qing wasn’t discouraged, either. She tirelessly asked, even if she had been shooed away all those times. Seeing that she couldn’t get any answers here, she left and went on a smaller path.
She had been walking and asking for an entire day. Exhausted, she dragged her heavy legs toward a brook. She cupped her hands and drank a few sips of the water, soothing her dry throat. Through the water, she saw a wooden hairpin in her hair, and reached for it.
Looking at the hairpin, A-Qing puckered her lips, wanting to cry again. Her stomach growled, and she took a small, white money pouch out of her lapel. This was the one she stole from Xiao XingChen. She then dug out a small candy from within it, and licked it carefully. After the tip of her tongue tasted the sweetness, she put the candy back again.
This was the last piece of candy Xiao XingChen gave her.
A-Qing looked down and packed the pouch away again. With a glance, she suddenly found that another person’s shadow appeared within the reflection of the water.
Standing in the reflection, Xue Yang was smiling at her.
With a startled scream, A-Qing immediately scrambled away.
Ever since sometime, Xue Yang had been standing behind her. With Shuanghua in his hand, he opened his arms and made the gesture of a hug. He spoke happily, “A-Qing, why are you running away? We haven’t seen each other in such a long time. Don’t you miss me?”
A-Qing shrieked, “Help me!”
Yet, this was already an obscure mountain path. Nobody would come to help her.
Xue Yang raised a brow, “I just happened to have ran into you when you were asking around in the city after I finished my business in Yueyang. What a wonderful turn of fate. Speaking of it, your acting is superb. You even fooled me for such a long time. Well done.”
A-Qing knew that there was no chance of escaping death this time. After the shock, thinking to herself that she’d die anyway, why couldn’t die after cursing all she wanted? Becoming bolder again, she jumped up and spat, “You animal! Thankless wretch! Lower than low bastard! Your parents must’ve made love in a pigpen for a son of a bitch like you to happen! You’re just a germ who grew up eating shit!”
Having used to roam the marketplaces, she had heard more than a great deal of curses and arguments. She spat out whatever profanities that came to her mind. Xue Yang only grinned and listened, “You’re quite good at this, aren’t you? Why haven’t I heard you act so rude in front of Xiao XingChen? You got more coming?”
A-Qing continued, “Fuck you shameless filth! And you still dare to mention Daozhang and hold Daozhang’s sword! Do you deserve to hold it? You’re dirtying his belonging!”
Xue Yang held up Shuanghua with his left hand, “Oh, you mean this? It’s mine now. Did you think your daozhang is any cleaner? After this, he’ll also be my…”