Wei WuXian knew the terrain of the cave like the back of his palm. He walked in the front. At some point, he gestured for them to stop.
The main area of the cave was just a wall away from them. Through the holes on the wall, they could see a large enough area that could contain a thousand people. In the center sat around a hundred. Both their hands and their feet were tightly bound by deity-binding ropes. The one hundred people were quite young as well. Judging from the color of their robes and their swords, they were either high level disciples or direct disciples from clans.
Wei WuXian exchanged a look with Lan WangJi. Before they began to discuss, a boy sitting on the ground suddenly spoke up, “In my opinion, I don’t think you should’ve stabbed him only once. Why didn’t you just slash his throat out?”
His voice wasn’t big, but the cave was rather empty. Echoes vibrated as soon he spoke. And so, even if they didn’t listen in, they could hear his words with clarity. As soon as the boy spoke, Wei WuXian thought that he both looked and sounded familiar. He only remembered after a while. Wasn’t this the one who fought with Jin Ling the other day, Jin Chan?
And he looked again—who was the cold-faced boy sitting beside this disciple, if not Jin Ling?
Jin Ling didn’t even look at him, remaining quiet. Loud rumbles came from the stomach of a boy beside him, “They have left for so many days already. Just what do they want? If they want to kill us, then let us off easy. I would rather be eaten by a monster on a night-hunt than starve to death here!”
The boy rambled on and on. It was Lan JingYi. Jin Chan spoke, “What could he do? He’d definitely do what he did with those Wen-dogs during the Sunshot Campaign, make us into his corpse puppets and then use us against our family, so that they can’t attack and his enemies can fight amongst themselves.” He clenched his teeth, “That dirty, inhuman Wei-dog!”
Suddenly, Jin Ling spoke, his voice icy, “Shut up.”
Jin Chan was shocked, “You want me to shut up? What do you mean?”
Jin Ling, “What do I mean? Are you deaf or are you dumb? You can’t understand human speech? Shut up, means for you to stop making so much noise!”
Having been tied-up for so long, Jin Chan had been grumpy for a long time. He fumed, “Why should you tell me to shut up?!”
Jin Ling, “What’s the use of talking so much garbage? If you go on would the ropes break because of you? It’s annoying.”
“You!!!”
Another young voice interjected, “Now, we are stuck here and none of us know when the walking corpses on the mountain will rush inside. Even in such circumstances, you two have to argue?”
The calmest voice was Lan SiZhui’s. Jin Chan protested, “He flipped out first! What, you can call him names but other people can’t?! Jin Ling, hah, who do you think you are? You think that because LianFang-Zun is the chief cultivator that you’ll also be? I’m not gonna shut up. I think you…”
With a thump, Jin Chan’s head was suddenly smacked. Jin Chan exclaimed in pain. He cursed, “You wanna fight? I’ll take you on! I’m in the mood for it anyways. You son of a nobody!”
Hearing this, Jin Ling was even more unstoppable. He was tied up and couldn’t move his arms, so he used his elbows and his knees, slamming them so hard that the other yelped in pain. Yet, he was alone, and Jin Chan had always had groups of people around him.
As the boys saw that he was at a disadvantage, they all shouted, “Let me help you!” All of them crowded over.
Lan SiZhui was sitting nearby. He couldn’t help but let himself be dragged into their fight. At first, he could manage to persuade ‘everyone calm down, calm down’, but after he had received a few elbows, he scrunched his eyebrows in pain, his face darkening. In the end, after a cry, he entered the brawl as well.
The three outside couldn’t watch this any longer. Wei WuXian leapt onto the stairs leading to the cave first, “Hey! Everybody look here!”
His shout echoed within the empty cave, almost thunderous. The tangled boys looked up. Lan SiZhui saw a familiar figure beside him and beamed, “HanGuang-Jun!”
Lan JingYi’s yelled even louder, “HanGuang-Jun ahhhhhhhh!”
Jin Chan was terrified, “What are you happy about? They’re… They’re on the same side!”
Wei WuXian stepped into the cave. He unsheathed Suibian and casually tossed it back. A shadow flashed out and caught the sword. It was Wen Ning. The disciples began to shriek again, “The G-G-G-Ghost General!”
Wen Ning raised Suibian and swung down in the direction of Jin Ling. Jin Ling clenched his teeth and shut his eyes. However, he felt himself loosened. The deity-binding ropes had been cut apart by Suibian’s sword glare. Following this, Wen Ning walked around the cave, cutting away at deity-binding ropes. The disciples that he had let free could neither run nor stay. On the inside there were the YiLing Patriarch, the Ghost General, and the traitor of the righteous side HanGuang-Jun, while on the outside there were countless walking corpses waiting to be fed. Yet, everything was bright on Lan SiZhui’s side, “Senior Mo… Senior Wei. Are you here to save us? You were not the one who got people to take us here, were you?”
Although it was a question, his face was full of complete trust and delight. Wei WuXian felt his heart warm up. He squatted down and rubbed Lan SiZhui’s head, messing up the hair that had somehow stayed neat throughout the past few days, “Me? It’s not like you don’t know how broke I am. How could I have gotten enough money to hire people?”
Lan SiZhui nodded in hurry, “Yes. I knew it! I knew that, Senior, you really are very broke!”
“…”
Wei WuXian, “Good boy. How many people do they have? Is there an ambush around here?”
Lan JingYi shook off the ropes on him and fought to answer, “They have quite a bunch of people! All of them had black mist on their faces so we could not see who they were. They did not do anything after they threw us here, like they did not care if we were dead or alive. Oh, oh, oh, and there are many walking corpses outside of here! They kept on howling!”
Bichen unsheathed and cut off the deity-binding ropes over them. Lan WangJi immediately returned his sword to its sheath and turned to Lan SiZhui, “Well done.”
It meant that Lan SiZhui did well, maintaining composure and believing in them. Lan SiZhui hurried up, standing with his back-straight at Lan WangJi. Before he had the chance to smile, Wei WuXian grinned, “Yeah, well done, SiZhui, you even know how to fight now.”
Lan SiZhui’s cheeks flushed red at once, “T-That was… I acted out of impulse…”
Suddenly, Wei WuXian felt someone approach. Turning around, he saw Jin Ling stand behind them, limbs frozen.
Lan WangJi immediately stood in front of Wei WuXian, while Lan SiZhui stood in front of Lan WangJi, speaking carefully, “Young Master Jin.”
Wei WuXian walked out from behind the two, “What are you doing? It’s like you’re making a human pyramid.”
Jin Ling’s face looked rather strange. His palms loosened and squeezed, squeezed and loosened. It was as though he wanted to say something, but couldn’t open his mouth. He could only use his eyes to look at the place on Wei WuXian’s stomach where he had stabbed him. Lan JingYi seemed deeply frightened, “Y-Y-You! You do not want to stab him again, do you?”