Wei WuXian fought out of Lan WangJi hold and forced himself to chase after Wen Ning. Lan WangJi caught up again, “Where is your sword?”
Wei WuXian whipped out twelve talismans, “Don’t know where I put it!”
The twelve yellow talismans formed a line in midair and began to burn. When they landed on Wen Ning, like a chain of fire, they held him down at once. With a flip of his wrist, Lan WangJi strummed the strings of his zither. Wen Ning’s footsteps seemed to have been hindered by an invisible thread. He paused, but continued to struggle forward despite the difficulty. Wei WuXian put Chenqing to his lips. Due to the blow he received, some blood sprayed out from his lips. He frowned, but he endured the pain and the blood churning within his chest, playing without a single tremble.
Under the two’s collaboration, Wen Ning kneeled on the ground and let out a roar skyward. The leaves within the forest swayed back and forth. Wei WuXian finally couldn’t hold it any longer and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The notes of Wangji suddenly increased in their force. Wen Ning bellowed, arms wrapped around his head, curled up on the ground.
Wen Qing wailed, “A-Ning! A-Ning!”
She was about to rush over when Wei WuXian stopped her, “Be careful!”
Seeing how tormented her younger brother was, under the sounds of the zither, Wen Qing felt her heart ache. Although she knew that if extreme measures weren’t taken against his current state of being, he’d definitely bring about danger. Yet, she couldn’t help but felt bad for Wen Ning, “HanGuang-Jun, go easy on him!”
Wei WuXian, “Lan Zhan! A bit softe-…”
“… Young… Master…”
Wei WuXian suddenly froze, “Wait a second?”
He shouted, “Lan Zhan, could you stop first?!”
The voice came from Wen Ning.
Lan WangJi pressed his fingers onto the strings, stopping the vibrations. Wei WuXian, “Wen Ning?!”
Wen Ning struggled to lift up his head.
Within his eyes wasn’t the hideous white anymore, but a… a pair of black pupils!
Wen Ning opened his mouth, continuing, “… Young… Master Wei…?”
It seemed that he squeezed the words out one by one, almost biting down on his own tongue. But those were indeed human words, not meaningless roars.
Wen Qing had frozen. A second later, with a scream, she threw herself toward him, howling, “A-Ning!”
Both of the two fell back from the force. Wen Ning, “Sis… -ter…”
Wen Qing pulled her younger brother into an embrace. With both tears and laughter, she buried her head in his arms, “It’s me! It’s your sister, it’s your sister! A-Ning!”
She called Wen Ning’s name again and again. The other cultivators seemed as if they wanted to go throw themselves over too, but they didn’t dare do it. They hugged one another in the chaos, shouting and laughing among themselves.
Uncle Four leaped down the mountain as he cheered, “Everything’s fine! It’s done! It’s done! A-Ning woke up! …”
Wei WuXian walked over and squatted beside Wen Ning, “How do you feel right now?”
Wen Ning lay on the ground facing up, his neck and limbs still somewhat stiff, “I… I…” He stammered for some time before finally saying, “… I want to cry, but I can’t. What’s wrong…”
After a moment of silence, Wei WuXian patted his shoulder, “You remember, don’t you? You’re dead already.”
When he made sure that Wen Ning really was awake, in his heart, Wei WuXian let out a long breath of relief.
He did it.
Back then, because of his momentary impulse and rage, he made Wen Ning into a low level fierce corpse. Although he could get Wen Ning to point at whom the inspectors that killed him were and tear them apart, when Wen Qing woke up and had to face her younger brother who didn’t recognize her at all and could only bite and bark like a mad dog, being fed with blood and flesh, it was even more painful for her.
After he calmed down, Wei WuXian promised solemnly that he had a way for Wen Ning to return to consciousness. But, nobody knew that he was only talking big so that Wen Qing could relax first. In truth, he had close to no confidence and could only summon up whatever skills he had.
With the arduous days and the sleepless nights, he really did manage to keep his promise.
Wen Qing cupped Wen Ning’s pale face, tears streaming down her cheeks. In the end, she still couldn’t help herself from crying like she did the day she saw Wen Ning’s corpse.
Wen Ning stroked her back with his stiff arms. More and more of the Wen Sect’s people came up the mountain, either rushing over and joining the crying pile or gazed with respect and gratitude at Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi’s direction.
Wei WuXian knew that the siblings had a lot to say to each other. Wen Qing definitely wouldn’t want others to see her sobbing look either. He turned, “Lan Zhan.”
Lan WangJi looked at him. Wei WuXian, “You’re here anyways, so why not have a seat inside?”
The two walked up to a cave on the mountain, surrounded by chilly winds.
Lan WangJi, “The Demon-Slaughtering Cave?”
Wei WuXian, “That’s right. I came up with the name. How is it?”
Lan WangJi said nothing.
Wei WuXian, “I know. In your heart, you’re definitely saying ‘not very good.’ After the news got out, I picked up on some of the comments as well, saying that I’m someone who cultivates the demonic path to begin with—I’m the demon myself, so how could I be so shameless as to call my den the Demon-Slaughtering Cave?”
Lan WangJi didn’t comment. The two had already walked inside the cave. Wei WuXian’s laughter echoed throughout the empty walls, “But in reality, all of them are wrong. What I actually meant with this name is not at all what they interpreted it as.”
Lan WangJi, “How come?”
Wei WuXian, “Simple. I often sleep like I’m dead inside of this cave. A cave that kills a demon through slumber—wouldn’t it be the Demon-Slaughtering Cave?”
Lan WangJi, “…”
The two entered the main area. Lan WangJi, “What about the blood pool, then?”
Wei WuXian pointed at a pool of water within the cave, “The blood pool is this right here.”
It was dim inside the cave, making it difficult to tell whether the water was black or red. It gave an odor of blood, somewhere between light and heavy.
Originally, a line of restriction had surrounded the pool, though it had been destroyed by Wen Ning already. Wei WuXian put it up again and tied it together.
Lan WangJi, “The dark energy is dense.”
Wei WuXian, “That’s right. The dark energy is really heavy, fit to nurture dark creatures. This is where I use to ‘parent’ the fierce corpses that haven’t been completed yet. Guess how many are in the bottom?” He smiled, “To be honest, I don’t know just how many there are either. But the water in the pool is smelling more and more like blood.”
Whether it was because of the lighting or not, Wei WuXian’s complexion seemed unusually pale. His smile seemed to have some eeriness to it as well. Lan WangJi gazed at him quietly, “Wei Ying.”
Wei WuXian, “What?”