Wei WuXian looked over. The child had delicate features, the seedling of a charming, handsome man. A white rope wrapped around his smooth forehead, in place of a forehead ribbon. Wei WuXian asked, “Who is he?”
The “YiLing Patriarch” pouted in disdain, “Lan WangJi.”
… Fine. These children understood the essence. Someone acting as Lan WangJi should indeed shut his mouth and stay silent!
Out of the blue, Wei WuXian’s lips curled upward again.
The poisonous needle had been pulled out, tossed into some random corner. All of the pain had been instantly wiped away. Wei WuXian murmured to himself, “How strange. Why can someone as boring as him always make me so happy?”
When Lan WangJi came downstairs, he saw Wei WuXian sitting on the stairs. A group of children sat around him, eating steamed meat buns together. Wei WuXian ate his meat bun as he directed two children who stood back-to-back in front of him, “… Now, in front of you, there are thousands of the Wen Sect’s cultivators. All of them were heavily armed and surrounded you so closely that even a single drop of water wouldn’t have leaked in. Your eyes should be sharper. Yes, that’s it. Okay, Lan WangJi, pay attention here. You aren’t how you usually would be. You’re covered in blood! There’s a lot of killing intent! You look really scary! Wei WuXian, move closer to him. Do you know how to spin the flute? Let me see you spin it, with only one hand. Be cooler. Do you know how to look cool? Come, let me show you.” “Wei WuXian” responded and gave the small stick to him. Wei WuXian adeptly whirled “Chenqing” between his fingers, causing all of the children to crowd around him and gasp in awe.
Lan WangJi, “…”
He silently walked over. Seeing that he was here, Wei WuXian dusted off his trousers and said goodbye to the children. Finally managing to stand up, he laughed as he walked, almost as if he had taken some strange poison.
Lan WangJi, “…”
Wei WuXian, “Hahahahahaha I’m sorry, HanGuang-Jun. I gave them all of the breakfast I bought for you. Let’s buy some more later.”
Lan WangJi, “Mnn.”
Wei WuXian, “What do you think? Were those two kids cute? Guess who was the one with a rope tied around his forehead pretending to be, hahahaha…”
After a while of speechlessness, Lan WangJi finally couldn’t hold it any longer, “… What else did I really do, last night?”
It definitely wasn’t that simple. Or else, what could’ve made Wei WuXian laugh even until now???
Wei WuXian quickly waved his hands, “No, no, no. You didn’t do anything. I’m just being ridiculous, hahahahahaha… Okay. Ahem. HanGuang-Jun, I’m going to talk serious business now.”
Lan WangJi, “Speak.”
Wei WuXian pulled on a straight face, “The coffin-slamming noises of the Chang Clan’s cemetery had been silent for ten years. Suddenly starting again, it definitely wasn’t a coincidence. There must’ve been some other cause.”
Lan WangJi, “What do you think the cause is?”
Wei WuXian, “Good question. I think that the cause was the corpse being dug out.”
Lan WangJi, “Mnn.”
His expression was so attentive that it made Wei WuXian recall how sincere he looked as he held both of his fingers last night, when he had been drunk. Painfully holding back laughter, Wei WuXian continued in all seriousness, “I think that the dismemberment of the corpse probably wasn’t simply to seek revenge and vent hatred, but a malicious way of suppression. The person who cut up the corpse intentionally chose those places haunted by evil beings to place the body parts.”
Lan WangJi, “Combatting poison with poison. They balance out and keep each other in check.”
Wei WuXian, “That’s right. So, since the gravedigger dug out the torso yesterday, there wasn’t anything to suppress the Chang Clan’s resentful spirits anymore, so that coffin-slamming noises started again. It’s the same as how the QingheNie Sect’s Saber Hall suppressed the saber spirits and wall-corpses. Perhaps, this technique was derived from the Nie Sect’s Saber Hall in the first place. It looks like that this person is connected to both the QingheNie Sect and the GusuLan Sect. I’m afraid they aren’t some easy opponent.”
Lan WangJi, “There are only few people like this.”
Wei WuXian, “Yep. The truth is slowly being unveiled. And, since the opponent started to move the corpse parts already, it means that he or they are already starting to become anxious. They’ll definitely move again soon. Even if we don’t go find them, they’ll come and find us. As they search around, they’d leave behind more clues for sure. And, our dear friend’s hand will also tell us which direction to go. But we’ll probably need to move faster as well. Only the right hand and the head are left. After this, we must also arrive before they do.”
The two travelled in the direction of the Southwest. This time, the ghost hand pointed at Shudong, a place known for heavy fog.
It was a haunted city that nobody in the area dared to approach.
Chapter 33 Grasses—Part One
The Shudong area was abundant in rivers and valleys. With towering peaks and a rough terrain, only faint breezes passed the area, causing the majority of places to be enveloped in mist.
Walking straight toward where the left hand pointed, the two of them came upon quite a small village.
A few rails of fencing encircled thatched houses made from mud. A brood of colorful chicks scuttered in and out of the yards, pecking on the ground for rice. A large, bright-feathered rooster stood single-legged on a roof. With a twitching comb, it looked downward loftily, its neck turning left and right. It was fortunate that nobody had any dogs. It was likely that these villagers could only get their hands on a few chunks of meat a year, much less have any leftover bones to feed the dogs.
In front of the village, there was a fork road, leading to three different directions. Of these, two were rather bare. Covered with a great deal of footprints, it was clear that they were often walked upon. Yet, the last one have been overrun with weeds. A square sign made from a piece of rock was positioned slantingly at this road. Subject to age and weathering, the sign was split down the middle with a large crack. Even from within the crack, withered weeds peeked out.
Two large characters, which appeared to be the place that the road led to, had been carved onto the sign. One could manage to tell that the bottom character was the character for “city”. However, the top character was complex in both form and brushstrokes. The crack just so happened to have run through it, causing a few broken bits of rock to lay scattered on the ground. Wei WuXian bent down and pushed the weeds aside. Even after staring at it for a long time, he still couldn’t figure out what the character was.
Coincidentally, the direction that the left arm pointed at was indeed this path.
Wei WuXian, “Why don’t we ask the villagers?”
Lan WangJi nodded. Of course, Wei WuXian didn’t expect him to ask. With a large grin over his face, Wei WuXian walked toward the villager women who were feeding the chicken.
Among the group women, some were old and some were young. Noticing the approach of an unfamiliar man, all of them looked nervous, as if they wanted to throw their dustpans away and flee back inside. Only after Wei WuXian exchanged a few words with them, a cheerful smile on his face, did they finally begin to calm down and respond shyly.