Everyone participating in this spirit summoning ritual had either ran away or passed out. Lan WangJi was the only one still seated properly, at the main position on the east side.
A guqin lay on his side. Although his hand wasn’t on the strings, they continued to vibrate on their own. He appeared to be lost in thought or listening to something, only raising his head as he sensed that someone came in.
Since Lan WangJi’s face was always placid, Wei WuXian had no idea what he was thinking about. Lan QiRen, who was originally responsible for one section of the mingshi, now lay collapsed and unconscious on the side, his qiqiao bleeding like the disciple who escaped the mingshi. Wei WuXian replaced into his position, turning around and stepping toward the far west, directly across of Lan WangJi. He pulled the bamboo flute from beside his waist, and lifted it to his lips.
During the night at Mo Village, Wei WuXian first used the whistling sound to distract it, then Lan WangJi attacked it from afar with notes of the zither. They only suppressed the arm while unintentionally collaborating like this. Lan WangJi met his gaze, a look of understanding on his face. As he raised his right hand, a melody poured out from the guqin. Wei WuXian quickly joined with the flute.
The song that they played was named “Evocation”. It used the corpse, part of the corpse, or loved objected of a deceased person as a medium for the spirit to follow the melody. Usually, only one section was needed for the spirit to appear within the array. Yet, the song had almost ended, but there was no spirit being summoned.
The arm seemed as if it was angered, with veins twitching visibly. The sense of suppression in the air felt heavier. If someone else was guarding the west side, they would have fallen long ago and ended up in the same way as Lan QiRen with their qiqiao bleeding. Wei WuXian was secretly shocked. It was almost impossible that the spirit couldn’t be summoned with Lan WangJi and him playing “Evocation” together, unless… Unless the dead person’s soul was cut apart alongside with his corpse!
It appeared that this good fellow’s death was a bit worse than his. Although his corpse was chomped into more pieces, at least his soul was complete.
Since “Evocation” didn’t work, Lan WangJi’s fingers shifted, and started playing another tune.
This song had a calm melody, different than the sinister, questioning one from before. Its name was “Rest”. Because both of these songs were quite well-known in the cultivation world, it wouldn’t be strange for anyone to know how to play them, and Wei WuXian naturally followed him.
The YiLing Patriarch’s ghost flute, “Chenqing”, was known far and wide. Yet, right now, with his bamboo flute, he purposely played it with many mistakes and short breaths of air, to a point where it was heartbreaking to hear. Lan WangJi had probably never played with someone with such terrible skills before. After a while, he finally couldn’t bear to continue as if nothing was wrong any longer, and raised his head to look at Wei WuXian with an expressionless face.
Wei WuXian thickened his face, pretending that he didn’t see anything, his tune venturing even more off. As he turned around to continue playing, something strange happened behind him. He turned around to look, and was shocked as he saw it. Lan QiRen, who had lost consciousness, actually sat upright again. He pointed at Wei WuXian with a trembling hand, his face covered in blood and rage, and shouted in a hoarse voice, “Stop playing! Get out! Get out now! Stop…”
Before he even finished saying what to stop doing, he spat out a mouthful of blood, and fell down in the same place, sinking into the deep coma yet again.
Lan WangJi, “…”
Wei WuXian gaped.
He knew what followed Lan QiRen’s “stop”— Stop playing! Stop duetting! Stop tainting his favorite disciple WangJi’s guqin notes!
Their guqin and flute duet actually angered Lan QiRen so much that he woke up and fainted again. This showed how horrible it sounded…
Yet, even so, the hand still drooped gradually, under the combined forces of the guqin and the flute. Wei WuXian thought shamelessly, Although it sounds bad, it doesn’t matter as long as it works.
Instantly, after the last echo of the guqin, the doors of the mingshi sprang open, pouring in a flood of sunlight. It was likely that the alarms of the watchtower stopped ringing. All of the disciples who surrounded the mingshi rushed inside, their voices calling “HanGuang-Jun”.
Lan WangJi pressed his hand on the guqin, suppressing the residual sound of the strings’ vibration, and walked over to Lan QiRen to check his pulse. With him leading, the rest of the people soon calmed down. The older seniors laid the bodies of the bleeding few flat on the ground and started to treat them. As they used needles and medicine, another group of disciples carried a large bell over, intending to cage the arm inside. Although it was a bustling scene, everything unfolded in an orderly fashion. Everyone whispered softly, with nobody making loud noises.
A few people worried, “HanGuang-Jun, neither elixirs nor acupuncture work. What should we do?”
With three fingers still set on Lan QiRen’s wrist, Lan WangJi remained silent. Lan QiRen had directed at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, spirit summoning ceremonies before. Of those, a lot included fierce spirits. Seeing even he was harmed by the energy of resentment, it was clear that the amount of resentful energy within this ghost hand was unprecedentedly strong.
Wei WuXian stuck the bamboo flute back beside his waist. He squatted down beside the bronze bell and gently stroked the inscriptions on it. As he was thinking, he suddenly saw a downcast expression on Lan SiZhui’s face, “What’s wrong?”
Lan SiZhui already knew that he wasn’t an ordinary person. After hesitation, he spoke in a low voice, “It is just that I feel slightly guilty.”
Wei WuXian asked, “Guilty for what?”
Lan SiZhui, “This hand was coming for us.”
Wei WuXian smiled, “How do you know?”
Lan SiZhui, “Spirit-attraction flags of different levels are drawn in different ways and have different amounts of power. The spirit-attraction flags we drew at Mo Village had a range of only twenty-five hundred meters in circumference. Yet, this ghost hand has a strong killing intent, feeding on human flesh and bone. If it had been within that range in the beginning, with its level of malice, Mo Village would have been a river of blood since long ago. However, it appeared after we arrived… This means that it must have been set there purposely at that time, by someone with ill intentions.”
Wei WuXian responded, “Your academics are quite strong. That was a great analyzation.”
Lan SiZhui lowered his head, “If so, for the lives lost at Mo Village, we should… we should also be responsible. And, now, we also involved Lan QiRen and the others in this matter…”
After a while of silence, Wei WuXian patted his shoulder, “The one responsible shouldn’t be you guys, but the person who sent out the ghost hand. In this world, there are some things impossible for one to control.”
On the other side, Lan WangJi removed his hand. The people of the Lan Sect hurried to ask, “HanGuang-Jun, how is it?”
Lan WangJi replied, “Trace to its source.”
Wei WuXian, “That’s right. If we trace to its source, find the full corpse of this ghost hand, understand who he really is, then there’d naturally be a way to save them.”