Wei WuXian greeted it in silence, What an honor to meet you, ChiFeng-Zun.
Chapter 48 Guile—Part Three
Yet another rant:
There have been so many people asking about the raws that it’s getting a bit annoying. First of all, let me be clear—I am using the author’s raws and I am not “changing” it. The differences between “my version” and the “author’s version” happen because the author has written three versions: the original version, the edited version, and the published version. The original version is no longer obtainable through “legal” means and can only be found in txt files.
I do not mean to condemn anyone reading off txt raws (people have reasons and I understand), but in support of the author and in respect to her edits, I have personally chosen to translate the edited version. Since the author decided to edit her work despite knowing that it would overwrite her original version, I assume that she wants readers to read the current edited version.
If you are able to read some Chinese and want to have a taste of what the text is like in its original language, I would encourage you to buy the raws on jjwxc.net. If you cannot pay or really don’t want to pay, feel free to find the raws through means such as Baidu Cloud.
Anyways, this is just a clarification that I have absolutely not been changing anything just for my own sake. Translation is process that easily allows for certain degrees of deception. For example, a translator who doesn’t understand the original language to a full extent may end up accidentally robbing the readers of certain information. As a translator, I’m certain that all of us at ExR strive to translate as accurately to the original text as possible.
As Wei WuXian had expected, the final piece of Nie MingJue’s body, his head, was indeed being kept by Jin GuangYao.
Nie MingJue, the one who almost seemed to go into invincible rages during the Sunshot Campaign, was sealed under layers upon layers within such a cramped, dismal room, unable to ever see the light.
If Wei WuXian simply removed the seal on the head, ChiFeng-Zun’s corpse would be able to sense it and come for it on its own. As he was inspecting the restrictions of the helmet, deciding how exactly to deal with it, he suddenly felt a powerful force of attraction. His weightless paper body had been shoved forward so that he was stuck to Nie MingJue’s forehead.
On the other side of Carp Tower, Lan WangJi continued to stare at Wei WuXian’s face as he sat beside him. A while later, his fingers twitched. With downcast eyes, he touched his lips softly.
It was very soft indeed, as soft as how the paperman had bumped into them.
Suddenly, Wei WuXian’s hands jerked slightly, clenched into fists. Lan WangJi’s expression hardened and helped Wei WuXian into his arms. Holding his face, he saw that, although Wei WuXian’s eyes were still shut, his brows had knit closely together.
Over at the secret room, Wei WuXian didn’t have to time react at all. Those of the deceased who held extreme resentment radiated such hateful energies and projected them onto the living, mitigating their anger and spreading their emotions. This was the cause of most hauntings. In fact, this was also the mechanism behind Empathy. If Wei WuXian were using his corporal body, a defense line to his soul, resentful energy definitely couldn’t touch him if he didn’t want it to. At the moment, however, he was possessing a flimsy piece of paper, which significantly impaired his defense ability. Not only was he close to the head, Nie MingJue’s resentful energy was also unusually strong. Wei WuXian was affected within just a moment of inattention. One second ago he had been thinking “oh no”, and the next he could already smell the scent of blood.
He hadn’t come across such a thick odor in years. Something buried in his bones immediately awakened, starting to simmer and stir. As soon as he had opened his eyes, he saw before him the glare of a blade, the shadow of spilled blood, and the head of a man, soaring across the sky, along with its fallen body.
The beheaded man wore a robe with the clan motif of flames and the sun. Wei WuXian watched ‘himself’ sheath his saber, a low voice coming out of his mouth, “Go get the head. Hang it up for the Wen-dogs to see.”
Someone answered from behind him, “Yes!”
Wei WuXian realized who the beheaded man was.
He was the eldest son of the QishanWen Sect’s leader Wen RuoHan—Wen Xu. He was killed by Nie MingJue in Hejian. His head was cut off with a single strike and hung up in front of the troops, in demonstration to the Wen Sect’s cultivators. His corpse was cut into pieces by the enraged cultivators of the Nie Sect, then ground up and smeared below the earth.
Nie MingJue glanced at the corpse on the ground and kicked it to the side. Hand on the hilt of his saber, he looked calmly around.
ChiFeng-Zun was quite tall. When he Empathized with A-Qing last time, Wei WuXian’s field of vision was rather short, but this time it was even taller than his usual view. Looking down, he saw countless casualties. Some wore sun-and-flames robes; some had the QingheNie Sect’s beast-head crest on their backs; some didn’t dress in any uniforms; each consisting of around one-third. With such a dire scene, the scent of blood suffused the air. He scanned his surroundings as he strode forward, as though he still wanted to check if any of the Wen Sect’s cultivators still had a breath of air left in them. Suddenly, a clashing noise came from a tile-roof house on the side.
With a wave of his saber, a fierce blade of wind swept over. Hacking open the house’s crude door, it revealed a mother and her daughter, both panic-stricken. Such a shabby house held very little possessions, its lack of hiding places allowing the pair only to take cover under the table as they held their breaths. As the young woman’s round eyes caught reflection of Nie MingJue’s blood-drenched and murderous appearance, tears immediately poured out. The girl in her arms had already opened her mouth, scared speechless.
As Nie MingJue saw that it was only an ordinary mother-and-daughter pair, likely two commoners who had failed to escape before battle broke out, his furrowed brows softened slightly. A subordinate, not knowing what had happened, approached from behind him, “Sect leader?”
The mother-and-daughter only knew that a few gangs of cultivators crashed into their workaday lives and battled the hell out of one another. Neither knew which was the good side and which was the bad. Fearing whomever that held a blade, they thought that they’d die for sure, faces distorting with fright. Nie MingJue took a look at them and curbed his killing intent, “It’s alright.”
He let down the hand that he held his saber with and paced to the other side of the room. The young woman instantly collapsed onto the ground, still embracing her daughter. After a moment, she couldn’t help but begin to sob.
A few strides later, Nie MingJue suddenly stopped, questioning the subordinate behind him, “Who was the cultivator that kept guard at the end during the last battlefield clean-up?”
The subordinator hesitated for a second, “Kept guard at the end? I… don’t think I remember.”
Nie MingJue frowned, “Tell me when you remember.”
He continued to walk forward. The cultivator hurried to ask other people. Not long later, he caught back up, “Sect Leader! I’ve asked. The cultivator who kept guard at the end during the last battlefield clean-up is called Meng Yao.”