Wei WuXian immediately remembered. This was Jin ZiXuan’s cousin. He’d seen him a couple of times before.
His heart had been sinking for a long time. In the beginning, it was filled with the joy of being on his way to attend the full-month celebration of Jiang YanLi’s son. But right now, all of the joy dissipated, clouded over by a shadow. Still, though, he refused to think about it too much, unwilling to take a guess at why these people made an ambush here.
Jin ZiXun raised his voice, “Wei WuXian, I’m warning you—lift the evil curse that you put on me right now, and I can pretend like nothing happened and let you off the hook.”
Wei WuXian paused in surprise. Even though he knew it’d be taken as denial, he still had to clear things up, “What curse?”
As he expected, Jin ZiXun thought that he was asking even though he knew, “You’re still pretending like you don’t know anything?” He tore his lapels open, roaring, “Fine. I’ll let you see just what an evil curse it is!”
Jin ZiXun’s chest was covered entirely in holes of all sizes!
The smaller holes were the size of sesame seeds, while the larger ones were as large as soybeans. They were spread out on his body evenly, in a hair-rising sort of way.
Wei WuXian only took one glance at him, “Hundred Holes?”
Jin ZiXun, “That’s right! Hundred Holes indeed!”
‘Hundred Holes’ was a curse of utmost brutality.
Back when Wei WuXian explored the GusuLan Sect’s Library Pavilion when he should be copying scriptures, he once discovered an ancient book. At the part where this type of curse was explained, an illustration was added to the text. The person on the page was quite calm, as if he felt no pain, but many coin-sized holes had already grown on his body.
At first, the victim of the curse would feel nothing. At most, they’d think that their pores had become rougher. However, soon later, the holes would become the size of sesame seeds. The longer it went on, the larger and greater in number the holes would be. It’d proceed until their entire body was covered in holes of all sizes, almost like a grotesque human sieve. On top of that, after the surface of the skin was covered in holes, the curse would begin to extend toward the internal organs. It could either be a ceaseless stomachache, or the rotting of all the organs!
With Jin ZiXun having fallen victim to a curse so repulsive yet so hard to remove, Wei WuXian momentarily felt almost sympathetic toward him. However, even if he was sympathetic, he still thought that Jin ZiXun probably didn’t have a proper brain, “You were cursed with Hundred Holes, but why would you come block my path? What’s it got to do with me?”
Jin ZiXun glanced at his chest as if he himself felt disgusted as well. He folded his lapels back, “Apart from a criminal who’s as used to using crooked means as you, who else could put such a savage thing on me?”
Wei WuXian thought to himself that there were indeed many who’d do so. Might it be that Jin ZiXun actually thought he was popular with others?
But he didn’t want to say it straight out and provoke Jin ZiXun, worsening the situation, “Jin ZiXun, I don’t use such underhanded tricks. If I want to kill someone, I’d let everyone know that this person died in my hands. And, if I really wanted you to die, you’d be a thousand times worse than how you are right now.”
Jin ZiXun, “You’ve always been quite arrogant, haven’t you? And now you’re not bold enough to admit what you did?”
Wei WuXian, “I’m not the one who did it; why should I admit it?”
Killing intent flashed within Jin ZiXun’s eyes, “Courtesy before force—if you don’t take this chance to turn around, I won’t be letting you off easy either!”
Wei WuXian paused in his steps, “Oh, really?”
What was meant by ‘letting him off easy’ was really quite clear.
There were two ways to lift the curse of Hundred Holes. Apart from having the one who placed the curse cut down their own cultivation and lifted the curse on their own, there was one most absolute method:
To kill the one who placed the curse!
Wei WuXian scorned, “Not let me off easy? You? With just the couple hundreds of people you’ve got?”
Jin ZiXun waved his arm. All of the disciples placed their arrows on their bows, aiming at Wei WuXian and Wen Ning who were at the bottom of the valley. Wei WuXian lifted Chenqing to his lips as well. The shrill note of the flute ripped apart the silence of the valley.
However, a moment later, no reply had come. Jin ZiXun, “We cleaned the entire area out a long time ago, waiting for you to come. You won’t get any helpers no matter how much you play. This is the burial ground that we’ve prepared just for you!”
Wei WuXian laughed coldly, “You’re seeking your own death!”
As he finished, Wen Ning raised his hand and tore off the red string that hung a talisman at his neck.
After the string snapped, his body wavered, and the muscles on his face began to twist. Marks that resembled black cracks crawled up his neck to his cheeks. He suddenly lifted his head, letting out a long, inhuman roar!
Many cultivators adept at night-hunting were present among the three hundred people participating in the ambush. None of them had ever encountered a fierce corpse who could make such a terrifying noise. They all felt their knees buckle. Jin ZiXun could feel his scalp tingle as well. He raised his arm and ordered, “Release!”
The arrows rained down!
Wen Ning broke apart a boulder with his bare hands and lifted it high up in the air, blocking as many arrows as he could. After the rain of arrows had ended, around a hundred cultivators leaped down the walls and charged at the two standing in the terrain. Wei WuXian walked back a few steps. With a sidestep, he dodged the sneak attack of a sword blade.
While Wen Ning was dealing with the hundred people, Jin ZiXun used the chance to attack. Seeing that Wei WuXian didn’t carry a sword and only carried a flute that was temporarily useless, he laughed, “This is the price you’ll pay for your arrogance. Without a sword, let’s see how you resist.”
With a flick of his hand, Wei WuXian sent out a row of talismans burning in green flames, diminishing Jin ZiXun’s sword glare as they collided. With such an attack right after he laughed, Jin ZiXun immediately focused on the fight. The two had been fighting for some time when something suddenly flew out of Wei WuXian’s sleeve. His gaze froze as he realized what had happened.
It was the present that he prepared for Jin Ling. Since he cared about it too much, scared that he’d accidentally break it while at the same time wanting to take it out and admire it from time to time, he only placed it shallowly inside of his sleeve. During the fight now, however, it accidentally slipped out, flying toward Jin ZiXun. Jin ZiXun thought that it was something along the lines of a hidden weapon or some obscure poison. He was going to dodge when he saw the change in expression on Wei WuXian’s face. Changing his mind, he caught it at once. It was a delicate little wooden box with a row of small characters carved on it—Jin Ling’s name and date of his birth. Jin ZiXun paused in surprise before he came to a realization, laughing loudly.
Wei WuXian’s face darkened, speaking one word at a time, “Give it back.”
Jin ZiXun raised the wooden box, mocking, “A present for A-Ling?”